Produced by Charlene Taylor, Christine P. Travers and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
(This file was produced from images generously made
available by The Internet Archive)
THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
History of the European War from Official Sources
Complete Historical Records of Events to Date,
Illustrated with Drawings, Maps, and Photographs
Prefaced by
What the War Means to America
Major General Leonard Wood, U.S.A.
Naval Lessons of the War
Rear Admiral Austin M. Knight, U.S.N.
The World's War
Frederick Palmer
Theatres of the War's Campaigns
Frank H. Simonds
The War Correspondent
Arthur Ruhl
Edited by
Francis J. Reynolds
Former Reference Librarian of Congress
Allen L. Churchill
Associate Editor, The New International Encyclopedia
Francis Trevelyan Miller
Editor in Chieft, Photographic History of the Civil War
P. F. Collier & Son Company
New York
[Illustration: _Signing the Peace Treaty in the Hall of Mirrors,
Palace of Versailles, on June 28, 1919. Georges Clemenceau, French
Premier, is standing and inviting the German delegates to affix their
signatures to the document._]
THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
VICTORY WITH THE ALLIES
ARMISTICE . PEACE CONGRESS
CANADA'S WAR ORGANIZATIONS
AND VAST WAR INDUSTRIES
CANADIAN BATTLES OVERSEAS
VOLUME VIII
CANADIAN EDITION
THE STORY OF CANADA IN THE GREAT WAR
EDITED AND COMPILED BY
LIEUTENANT-COLONEL JOHN A. COOPER LATE COMMANDER OF THE 198TH
BATTALION, CANADIAN BUFFS
P . F . Collier & Son . New York
Copyright 1920
By P. F. Collier & Son
CONTENTS
PART I.--THE WESTERN FRONT
CHAPTER Page
I. Destruction Marks the Great Retreat--The French
Capture Soissons, Fismes, and Important Positions--The
British Win Great Victories Near Albert 9
II. The German Retreat Continues--The French Victorious
Between the Oise and the Aisne--The British
Win Miles of Territory Daily 23
III. The French Take Noyon--The British Bapaume and
Peronne--The Allies Conquer on Every Front 36
IV. The British Close in on Cambrai--French Occupy St.
Quentin--The Germans Fire Cambrai and Retreat--The
Allies' Great Victory in Flanders 49
V. The Germans Retreat on All Fronts--British Capture
Valenciennes--The Armistice--The War Over 63
PART II.--RUSSIA
VI. Countering the Germans in Fallen Russia 80
VII. Allied Intervention in the North of Russia 88
VIII. The Bolsheviki Resent Allied Intervention 90
IX. The Baltic Provinces 95
PART III.--THE ITALIAN CAMPAIGN
X. The Austro-Italian Front 96
PART IV.--THE GREAT WAR'S END
XI. The Internal Collapse of Germany 106
XII. The Liberation of the Holy Land--Mesopotamian Campaign 113
XIII. Collapse of Austria 123
XIV. The Surrender of Turkey 135
XV. Austria-Hungary and Germany surrender--"The War
Thus Comes to an End," President Wilson to
Congress--The President Sails for France 137
PART V.--VICTORY ON THE SEA
XVI. Naval Exploits of the Allies--Submarines 142
XVII. Surrender of the German Fleet 147
PART VI.--THE AMERICAN ARMY IN FRANCE
XVIII. American Achievements on the Western Front, by Frederick
Palmer (Late Lieutenant Colonel, U. S. R.) 151
PART VII.--THE PEACE CONFERENCE AT PARIS
XIX. First Session of Peace Congress--Clemenceau, Permanent
Chairman--President Wilson's Address--The
League of Nations Covenant Completed 198
XX. The Covenant and Draft of the Constitution of the
League of Nations--President Wilson's Speech in Support;
He Returns to America--The United States Senate
Criticizes League Document 208
XXI. Revised Covenant of the League of Nations--The Treaty
of Peace 221
THE STORY OF CANADA IN THE GREAT WAR
Introduction by Lieutenant Colonel John A. Cooper (Late Commander
of the 198th Battalion, Canadian Buffs) 249
PART I.--PREPARATION FOR WAR
I. Canada Before the War 259
II. Building a War Machine 264
III. Departure of First Contingent 267
IV. The Steady Stream of Recruits 270
V. The Conscription Act 272
VI. The "Princess Pat" Regiment 285
VII. Canada's Huge Forestry Corps 287
VIII. The Canadian Railway Corps 291
IX. Other Branches of the Service 295
X. Administration of Canada's War Establishment 302
PART II.--CANADA AT THE FRONT
XI. The Canadians in Flanders--Neuve Chapelle--Their
Brave Part in the Second Battle of Ypres--The Princess
Patricias 303
XII. Battle of Festubert--The Canadians Fight for the
Orchard--Valor of the Second Brigade and Fourth
Battalion--Givenchy 322
XIII. The Second and Third Canadian Divisions--Battles of St.
Eloi and Sanctuary Wood--Victory After Defeat 339
XIV. Vimy Ridge and Passchendaele 357
XV. Holding the Vimy Sector 367
XVI. Holding Lens and Arras 372
XVII. The Amiens Battle of August, 1918 383
XVIII. The Attack Against the Hindenburg Line 389
XIX. Capture of Bourlon Wood and Cambrai 396
XX. Capture of Valenciennes and Mons 406
PART III.--CANADA AT HOME
XXI. Shoulder to Shoulder with the Empire 423
PART IV.--CANADIAN WAR INDUSTRIES
XXII. Behind the Guns at Home 430
XXIII. From Trenches to Farms 438
XXIV. Keeping Their Home Fires Burning 443
XXV. Remaking Men 448
XXVI. Service to the Troops 456
XXVII. Succor and Solace 463
Chronology of the World War 469
INDEX 481
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Signing the Peace Treaty in the Hall of Mirrors, June 28, 1919
_Colored Frontispiece_
Opposite Page
Prince of Wales, General Currie, and General Watson at Denain 62
A Canadian Brigade Serving as Guard of Honor in the Occupation of
Mons 78
General Sir Arthur William Currie 254
Lieutenant General Sir William Turner, V. C. 302
Major General Sir Henry Edward Burstall 366
Major General Sir Archibald Cameron Macdonell 366
Major General Louis James Lipsett 382
Major General Sir David Watson 382
Brigadier General Raymond Brutinel 414
Major General Sir Frederick Oscar Warren Loomis 414
Major General Hon. Sydney Chilton Mewburn 462
Major General Sir Edward Whipple Bancroft Morrison 462
LIST OF MAPS
Page
The Rhine Valley, Showing Neutral Zones and Bridgeheads
(_Colored Map_) _Front Insert_
The New Map of Europe, Showing Approximate Boundaries
_Colored Insert_
The Western Front _Colored Insert_
Advance of the Allies on the Amiens Front, August 8, 1918 14
Battle Lines and Operations on the Western Front in 1918,
Including German Territory Held by the Allied Armies
of Occupation 61
The "Hindenburg Line," the Line of Farthest German Advance,
and the Battle Line When the Armistice Began, November
11, 1918 64
The German Territory Occupied Under the Armistice Terms 77
Italy's Successful Offensive, October, 1918 101
The Conquest of Palestine, Syria, and Mesopotamia by the British
Armies 115
The Surrender of the German Fleet 148
PART I--THE WESTERN FRONT
CHAPTER I
DESTRUCTION MARKS THE GERMAN RETREAT--THE FRENCH CAPTURE SOISSONS,
FISMES, AND IMPORTANT POSITIONS--THE BRITISH WIN GREAT VICTORIES NEAR
ALBERT
The continued advance of the Allies in the first days of August, 1918,
along the front from Soissons to Rheims was a decisive blow to the
German hopes of gaining Paris; the capital was no longer threatened.
The hard-pressed foe was now forced to retreat hurriedly on all sides
of the Marne salient, which was rapidly being flattened out by the
irresistible pressure of French and British armies.
On August 2, 1918, the forces under General Mangin took Soissons.
Southwest of Rheims General Berthelot occupied Ville-en-Tardenois,
marking an advance for the day of over three miles. Supported by a
French contingent, British troops crossed the Crise River, which joins
the Aisne at Soissons, and regained a considerable strip of territory
southeast of that city. The German retreat was orderly and in no sense
a rout. Their hurried retirement was marked by pillage and
incendiarism and the usual devastations according to their settled
program.
North of Fere-en-Tardenois French and American forces advanced
simultaneously in the early morning of August 2, 1918, the French
occupying Cramaille and Cramoiselle and later Saponay, where forty
railroad cars and a number of locomotives fell into their hands. The
advance of the Allies was made under heavy barrage; the German
artillery replied at times, but it was feeble and ineffective. Their
retreat was in a northward direction through the valley from Saponay
and was marked by great fires behind the lines as they destroyed many
ammunition dumps before retiring. At a few points there was some sharp
fighting, but the Germans made no serious attempt to stem the advance
of the Allies and seemed only eager to get away and avoid trouble as
far as possible.
French cavalry, with American infantry supporting, operated near
Dravegny about two and a half miles to the north of Coulanges. This
forward movement was of importance as it brought the Allies within
eight miles of Fismes to the southeast, on the railroad between
Soissons and Rheims.
It was learned through prisoners that the Germans would make a stand
on the line of the Vesle River, where determined resistance might be
expected. It was not believed, however, that this effort would prove
formidable; for the Allies had only to make a slight advance when
their heavy guns would be in a position to shell Fismes and render any
other place in the neighborhood untenable.
The Germans had succeeded in extricating the greater portion of their
armies from the salient, but it was evident that there was confusion
in their ranks and a lack of order. Their retreat was marked by clouds
of smoke and many fires and explosions that denoted hurried flight.
Though the Germans were hurrying to escape, they took time to destroy
practically everything that was of any value in the towns evacuated.
Before leaving Fere-en-Tardenois there was not one house that had not
been shelled or dynamited. When the French entered Villeneuve they
found twenty-three villagers who had been virtually German prisoners
for nearly two months. They all slept in a cellar for mutual
protection, subsisting on a stock of flour and canned goods, and
vegetables which they had raised themselves. During the day they
avoided the Germans, declining to associate with them or to accept the
food they offered. In this place the French found twenty-five wounded
or dead Germans in the church. Several had died of starvation as
result of the hurried retreat.
In another town occupied by the French they found the church was used
by the Germans as a storehouse for loot. There were piles of
mattresses and boxes containing copper and brass articles, also church
vestments ready for shipment to Germany.
The roadways through which the Germans retreated from
Fere-en-Tardenois were obstructed by wagons, dead horses and men, and
piles of ammunition. Some of the wagons had been abandoned in hurried
flight and in some cases drivers and horses were killed by French and
American gunners.
Allied forces continued their victorious sweep northward on August 3,
1918, capturing practically the entire Aisne-Vesle front between
Soissons and Rheims, which marked an advance of six miles at some
points, while more than fifty villages recently held by the enemy were
recovered.
The Allies' advance was on a front of thirty miles, and before the
close of the day they held the southern banks of the Aisne and the
Vesle from Soissons to the important town of Fismes, where American
troops occupied positions on the outskirts.
East of Fismes the Allies were on a line north of Courville,
Brancourt, Courcelles, and Champigny, towns in close proximity to the
Vesle River, while cavalry patrols were operating along the
Soissons-Rheims railroad which follows the course of the stream.
To the north British forces operating in the Albert sector were making
substantial gains, forcing the Germans to retreat to the east bank of
the Ancre River on a frontage of between seven and eight miles and at
some places over a mile in depth. This was followed by the capture of
Dernancourt by the British, while their patrols entered the outskirts
of Albert.
The capture of Fismes, the great ammunition and supply depot, on
August 4, 1918, was the most important victory won by the Allies on
that date. The brilliant performance of the American troops on this
occasion received high praise.
Northwest of Rheims the Allies had pushed forward to the village of La
Neuvillette, about two miles north of the Vesle. East of Fismes at
several points in the neighborhood of Champigny bodies of French
troops had crossed the Vesle River, and the result of these advances
was the retreat of the Germans from the southern bank.
The inability of the enemy to make a determined stand on an
established line was due to the constant pounding which Foch
maintained and a constant pressure that never relaxed. The big salient
that had loomed so formidable a fortnight before was now almost wiped
out. With British and French troops in one corner of it, Americans in
the center, and British, French, and Italians in the other corner, the
Germans never had an opportunity, harassed as they were on all sides,
to establish themselves in positions to check the Allies' advance. So
they chose the better part of valor and retreated, leaving a trail of
burning villages behind them. But their flight was too hurried for
them to destroy all their stores, and goods to the value of millions
of dollars fell into the hands of the Allies.
The Vesle River, flooded by recent rains, hampered the retreat of the
German rear guards, who, unable to cross the stream, were forced to
fight for their lives. Most of them were killed and the rest were made
prisoners.
On August 5, 1918, the Germans attempted to make some kind of stand on
the Vesle, where their heavy guns were busy shelling the Allies'
lines. In spite of this resistance French patrols succeeded in
crossing the river at several points between Sermoise, east of
Soissons and Fismes, and between Fismes and Muizon. The Germans on the
north bank were well supplied with machine guns and bomb throwers,
while their aviators, using machine guns, wrought considerable
destruction among the French troops. Between Muizon and Rheims, where
the French were firmly established on the south bank of the river,
there was hard fighting, but the Germans were unable to dislodge the
French from their positions.
In the morning of August 7, 1918, Field Marshal Haig delivered a heavy
blow at the armies of Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria on the southern side
of the Lys salient. The British attack was launched on the front of
about five miles, advancing their whole line to a depth of a thousand
yards. To the south on the front east of Amiens on the Bray-Corbie
road British troops recaptured positions which the Germans had
occupied on the previous day.
Along the Vesle between Braisne and Fismes, where French and American
troops held the highway which runs parallel with the river, the
Germans made furious counterattacks, but failed to dislodge the
Allies. Nor were they able to hinder more than temporarily the French
and Americans from crossing the river on hastily constructed bridges
which their engineers had thrown over the stream protected by a heavy
barrage.
At daybreak, August 8, 1918, Field Marshal Haig attacked the German
lines from near Albert south to Braches, on the Avre above Montdidier,
with forces that included not only British, French, and Australian
troops but also Canadians who had been brought up suddenly from the
vicinity of Lens. The enemy, taken by surprise, were thrust back along
almost the entire front of twenty-five miles, and this resulted in the
capture by the Allies of over a hundred guns and more than 10,000
prisoners. The advance was between four and five miles, and at one
point seven miles.
The British launched their attack in a mist, after only a few minutes
of artillery preparation, and the Germans were overwhelmed in the
first onrush. The British won their objectives with only nominal
losses. Of an entire army corps only two officers and fifteen men of
the ranks were reported as casualties. The heavy mist in the early
morning when the Allies advanced favored their plans, for not until 8
o'clock did a German aeroplane appear over the line and by that time
the Allies had already made important progress. In the advance, tanks
and armored cars accomplished wonders, striking dismay in the ranks of
the enemy as they plunged through the mists, spouting fire and
destruction, sweeping on heedless of obstacles and of the concentrated
attack of German guns. By noon the Germans were making desperate
efforts to escape with their transports.
The quick and complete victory of the Allies on this day, August 8,
1918, proved that Foch's counteroffensive had turned the scale in
their favor. From this time on, the Allies attacked and the Germans
retreated.
[Illustration: Advance of the Allies on the Amiens Front, August 8,
1918.]
Moreuil and the territory adjoining Villers-aux-Erables were taken by
the French while the British captured the Dodo and Hamel Woods and
Marcelcave after hard fighting and occupied territory to a
considerable distance beyond. Four German divisions were badly cut up
in course of the struggle, while the Allies' casualties were
unimportant. It was only around Morlancourt that the Germans made a
determined stand. Here fighting continued throughout the day, and
though the enemy launched a number of counterattacks they failed to
gain or recover any ground.
Along the French front after an artillery preparation of forty-five
minutes the troops made a dashing advance, and by 8 o'clock in the
morning had gained their first objectives. Their advance was in the
direction of Demuin and Aubercourt, while at the same time the British
were thrusting forward toward Cerisy-Gailly on the south side of the
Somme.
After the capture of Moreuil, where the French met with stout
resistance, they crossed the Avre, a difficult operation, as they were
constantly under the fierce fire of enemy guns. Once across the river
their difficulties increased, for they had to advance up steep slopes
from the river edge in the face of heavy German fire. They had had no
help from the tanks to lead the way and break down the enemy's
resistance.
Somewhat later when bridges were thrown across the stream the tanks
got over, but by that time the French had succeeded in winning the top
of the slopes and the enemy had fallen back.
After the Germans had been forced out of the Moreuil region their
resistance became steadily weaker. The French captured all the heights
together with the villages of Braches and La Neuville on the eastern
bank of the Avre. On the northern portion of the battle area, where
the German opposition was feebler, the advance was more rapid.
While the French and British were engaged in smashing the German
forces in the west, the American and the French (as described
elsewhere in these pages) were keeping up an irresistible pressure
along the Vesle River.
The Allied advance east of Amiens continued on August 9, 1918, with
the Anglo-French forces in possession of a line running through
Pierrepont, Arvillers, Rozieres, and Morcourt, marking an advance
since the previous night of about five miles. Beyond this newly
established line Allied cavalry and tanks had succeeded in penetrating
within a mile of the important Chaulnes railway junction. In this
advance the Allies captured over 17,000 prisoners and 300 guns,
including railway guns of the heaviest caliber. In the Lys sector of
the Flanders front the British were also successful in carrying their
line forward between the Bourre and the Lawe Rivers to a maximum depth
of 2,000 yards and taking possession of Locon and four other villages.
It was evident everywhere in the battle areas that the Germans were
retiring in great haste, for as the Allies drove forward they found on
the battle ground abandoned guns, stores, and even artillery maps and
military documents. Allied observers reported streams of enemy
transports and men hurrying eastward in full retreat.
A joyous spirit pervaded the ranks of the Allies as they moved
victoriously forward, their cavalry rounding up villages, while tanks
and armored cars overran the country clearing a way for the advance of
the troops, or destroying the enemy transports. The performance of one
tank is especially worthy of record, since it shot up a German corps
headquarters.
Running into an enemy-held town, where the German corps headquarters
staff stationed there was having luncheon, the tank opened fire
through the windows, killing a number of Germans and wounding others,
while a few managed to make a hurried escape. Inside the German lines
a group of armored cars halted a German supply column and destroyed
it. At Framerville a train loaded with Germans was attacked by a group
of cars and finally set on fire.
All along the line enemy snipers were active, and isolated gun billets
were a source of trouble, but these were silenced one by one as the
Allies swept on. The Germans tried to destroy all their ammunition
dumps and stores in their hasty flight, but had not time to make a
complete job of it, and consequently were forced to abandon vast
quantities of military supplies, most of which the French and British
found immediate use for. The towns captured from the Germans were
inhospitable places for the most part.
The enemy had tried to destroy everything before the retirement, but
the Allies' advance was so rapid that all the houses could not be
dynamited. In and around most of the towns were found small holes
covered with curved iron slabs where the German gunners had lived
before they were killed or forced to run for their lives.
The result of the Allied advance had an important effect on the
strategical situation, for the Germans were now in an uncomfortable
salient with only one line of railway to supply them, and that was
under fire of the Allied guns. The advance had also freed for the use
of the Allies the main Paris-Amiens railway. Previous to the German
retirement this line was under easy range of their guns and the Allies
were unable to use it freely.
August 10, 1918, was a notable day for the French forces when Marshal
Foch threw his First Army against the apex of the German salient
southeast of Amiens. Montdidier was captured, and the salient was
smashed in to an average depth of six miles on a thirteen-mile front,
reaching a line extending from Andechy to the northeast of Montdidier
to Elincourt, ten miles to the southeast. From Albert to the southern
side of the Montdidier salient the whole Allied line was pushed
eastward, reaching a maximum distance in the direction of Chaulnes,
the principal railroad center of the Germans west of the Somme River.
The French launched their attack without any artillery preparation in
the sector east of Montdidier between Courcelles-Epayelles and the
Matz River. The Germans were on the alert, but the dash and suddenness
of the French attack overcame their most determined efforts. In one
hour after the French went forward their first objective,
Ressons-sur-Matz, was won, and in the succeeding two hours they had
captured Mortemer, Cuvilly, and Marqueglise. At some points the
advance was five miles. By noon on August 10, 1918, the Germans in
Montdidier found that they had been caught in the jaws of a trap.
Converging French attacks from the north and south had succeeded in
practically encircling the town. The French drive had also deprived
the Germans from using the Montdidier-Chaulnes railway, which was the
only line that supplied food and material to their fighting front at
the bottom of the Montdidier pocket.
By the capture of Faverolles, which was stormed by the French in the
morning of August 10, 1918, the Germans were hampered in their
withdrawal of troops from Montdidier. The day closed with Von Hutier's
forces in hurried retreat from the Montdidier-Noyon line.
The Allies had made their great advance with only moderate losses. The
casualties, including killed, wounded, and missing, numbered less than
6,000, or not more than a fourth of the number of prisoners taken. In
the course of the fighting eleven German divisions had been defeated
and so badly cut up that a long time must elapse before they would be
in a condition to be re-formed and ready for serious work.
North of the Ancre River the British had firmly established their
positions and were pushing out patrols in the direction of Bray. In
their advance south of the Somme they captured Warvillers, Vrely,
Folies, Rozieres, and Vauvillers. To the north of the Somme, where
they were aided by the brilliant fighting of the Americans, Chipilly
Spur was the scene of a determined struggle. After winning the Spur
the Allies pressed on, driving the Germans before them. An interesting
feature of the day's advance was the capture at Lihons of a complete
German divisional headquarters and staff.
The Germans showed more than common ingenuity in devising traps to
hinder the advance of the Allies. In many instances a large number of
shells would be placed in pockets under the roads so arranged that the
weight of a passing wagon or motor lorry would explode them. They also
arranged barbed-wire entanglements so that attacking troops would
explode mines, but the Allies had learned through bitter experience
the gentle ways of the enemy, and took effective means to render the
German traps ineffective. Poisoned food and poisoned water marked the
enemy's backward trail, but the Allies had long before concerted
measures to protect the troops from such Teutonic pleasantries.
The Allies continued to fight their way forward during the night of
August 10, 1918, and on the following day the armies of Von Hutier and
Von der Marwitz were in full retreat in the direction of Peronne,
Nesle, and Ham. Important rear guards were sacrificed by the Germans
to secure the safety of their main armies, and it became increasingly
evident that they were running out of reserves.
The Allied line on the front from Albert south to the Oise was carried
forward, especially to the south, where the French were operating by
themselves. During the night Haig's troops advanced their line on the
high ground between Etinehem and Dernancourt. Farther south on the
other side of the Somme the Germans, having received reenforcements,
delivered powerful attacks against the British positions at Lihons and
succeeded in making a temporary breach in the British line. In a
fierce counterattack the British drove them back with heavy losses and
the line was completely restored.
The capture of the Massif of Lassigny by the French on August 12,
1918, was of first importance to the Allies, for the heights command a
broad sweep of difficult country and when in German hands were a
formidable obstacle to the Allied advance.
German positions at Roye were now threatened on three sides--north,
west, and south--as the Allies pushed their lines forward. The British
gained ground to the east of Fouquescourt, while the French captured
the village of Armancourt, and Tilleloy and the Bois des Loges.
The heavy guns of the Allies continued to shell the Somme bridges in
the Chaulnes region which the Germans would have to cross if they were
forced to evacuate this territory. South of the Somme Haig's troops
captured the village of Proyart and linked up their positions east of
Mericourt with those to the east of Etinehem, which is on the northern
bank.
While the Allies' advance had slowed down owing to the increasing
number of reserves which the Germans threw into the battle line the
enemy was gradually being thrust out of the strongest positions which
he had held so long.
Since the beginning of the Allied counteroffensive which began on July
18, 1918, they had captured over 70,000 prisoners, about 1,000 guns
and over 10,000 machine guns.
On August 12-18, 1918, French forces under General Humbert resumed the
offensive between the Matz and Oise Rivers and a drive forward was
made into the German lines. East and north of Gury good progress was
recorded, increasing the menace to Lassigny two miles to the
northeast. The French also advanced two kilometers north of Cambronne,
and eastward in the valley of the Oise, owing to continued pressure,
the Germans were forced out of their trenches to the west of Bailly.
The Allied artillery had now fall control of the converging roads in
and out of Noyon, near the southern end of the line, notably that
running northward to Ham. Under these conditions any attempt of the
enemy to carry out a retrograde movement was greatly hampered.
August 13-14, 1918, the Germans began the evacuation of a five-mile
front north of Albert, extending from Beaumont-Hamel northward through
the villages of Serre and Puisieux-au-Mont to Bucquoy. On the French
front the town of Ribecourt, six miles from Noyon and on the road to
that city, was wrested from the Germans as the result of a further
thrust between the Matz and Oise Rivers.
General Humbert's advance had made the French position on the southern
part of the Thiescourt plateau secure. The Germans now occupied
Plemont, which they captured early in the June fighting, and
reoccupied their old trenches, which were still organized with wire
entanglements. Here as elsewhere the Germans had the advantage that
they were falling back on their supplies while the French were forced
to bring theirs up through a very difficult country. General Humbert
and his men had been fighting now continuously for four days, a great
part of the time in gas-drenched sectors and against strongly held
positions which the Germans had deemed impregnable. The French now
held possession of two important crests, Claude Farm and Ecouvillon,
and were within a hundred yards of Le Monolithe, another high plateau
commanding a wide sweep of territory to the north and east.
All the German positions between the western outskirts of Bray and
Etineham were captured by the Australians, giving the British control
of the river banks southwest of Bray. The Australians after a hard and
brilliant fight drove the enemy from the Cateau Wood.
On the southern end of the Picardy battle line General Humbert's army
continued to press the advance toward Noyon. The desperate defense
maintained by the Germans on the Chaulnes-Roye road for a time delayed
French storming operations which were impending. General Rawlinson's
army, which held the line to the north of the French positions, was
subjected to fierce German attacks on the whole front. The enemy
seemed determined to maintain his hold on the Chaulnes heights
regardless of the cost. The French advance was made against a line
that was thinly held, but which bristled with machine guns so numerous
that there was one to every two men, it was reported. Moreover, the
battle area traversed by the French troops was deluged with mustard
gas, so that there were days in which they were forced to wear their
masks even when snatching a few hours of repose. Yet the French
continued to win dominating positions and forced the Germans back in
spite of all attempts to hinder their progress.
On August 15, 1918, Australian troops under Marshal Haig made a drive
against the German defenses on the center of the Somme battle front
between Chaulnes and Roye and captured the villages of Parvillers and
Demery. Progress was also made south of the Somme, southeast of
Proyart, and to the northwest of Chaulnes. North of Albert, in the
sector where the Germans were forced to evacuate their positions
which projected into the British line between Beaumont-Hamel and
Bucquoy, Haig's troops continued to push forward. On General Humbert's
front east of Montdidier his tireless fighters conquered two strongly
fortified farms to the northwest of Ribecourt.
Albert was still strongly held by the Germans, and British patrols
entering the town were fired upon from the cathedral. The steady
advance of the Allies, however, so seriously menaced the German
positions in and around the town that it was only a question of time
when they would be forced to retire from every point of defense.
On August 16, 1918, British and French troops, operating together,
made a drive against the strongly held German positions between
Chaulnes and Roye. Advancing on an eight-mile front from a point west
of Fransart to the neighborhood of Laucourt, they made substantial
progress and reduced a number of important German strongholds. Forward
movements were also made by the British in the Ancre sector in which
the Germans were forced to withdraw their first-line positions, and
Haig's men pushed ahead on the three-mile front between Beaucourt on
the Ancre and Puisieux-au-Mont.
The capture of Ecouvillon, which made easy the capture of Ribecourt,
by General Humbert's indefatigable troops, was followed by the
occupation of Monolithe Farm. This gave the Third French Army a strong
position from which to threaten the German line of retreat along the
road to Noyon. Hardly less important was the capture by the French of
"Z" Wood and Demery Wood, two heavily timbered tracts where the
Germans had been holding out for days with grim determination, because
of the great value of these strong positions. They commanded a wide
stretch of ground, and the Allied positions for some miles on either
side of the two woods were considerably strengthened by their capture.
They were indeed the last of the more important positions on the new
front held by the enemy. The Germans made an ineffectual attempt to
recover Demery, but were driven back in disorder with heavy losses.
The Allies' plans had now made such favorable progress that a German
retreat on a large scale was anticipated. The appointment of General
Von Boehm to the command of the German army group in the center of the
present battle front strengthened this belief. For this officer was
known as a "retreat specialist" who had won a deserved reputation in
the art of concealing the movements of great masses of troops. It was
he who had concentrated a great army and in absolute secrecy in the
forests of the Laon region where he launched the surprise attack over
the Chemin-des-Dames. To Von Boehm also belonged the credit of
extricating the battered armies of the Crown Prince from the
Aisne-Marne salient after Foch's mighty blow of July 18, 1918. Von
Boehm's appearance on the Somme-Oise front was almost proof that a
great German retirement was soon to begin.
CHAPTER II
THE GERMAN RETREAT CONTINUES--THE FRENCH VICTORIOUS BETWEEN THE OISE
AND THE AISNE--THE BRITISH WIN MILES OF TERRITORY DAILY
With almost monotonous regularity the daily record was now of
continued Allied advancements and enemy defeats. The Germans at times
offered stout resistance and launched desperate counterattacks, but
they were unable to delay more than temporarily the mighty forward
sweep of the Allies, while their losses in men and material reached
enormous figures.
The French forces continued to fight with a dash and ardor that
carried everything before them. Day and night with few chances for
repose they fought on over the most difficult ground that was
constantly flooded with poisonous gases.
On April 16-17, 1918, Foch's men carried out a successful attack
northwest of Soissons in the Autreches region, and operating on a
three-mile front smashed through enemy positions to the depth of a
mile. They won in this advance the important plateau to the north of
the village of Autreches, which gave them command of the country
extending northward, south of the Oise River. Further local actions at
other points on the front greatly strengthened the grip of the Allies
on the approaches to Roye to the west, north, and south. The Germans
in that region maintained an incessant artillery fire, but the only
effect it had was to delay for a time the Allies' advance. The French
were now within a mile of Roye on two sides. British troops under
Marshal Haig meanwhile were not idle. Good progress was made on the
17th to the north of Proyart, just south of the Somme. Farther to the
south, troops operating north of Lihons, which lies about two miles to
the west of Chaulnes, pushed their line forward to the depth of a
mile. More progress was also made in the Amiens-Roye road region and
to the north of the Ancre River.
West of Armentieres British troops drove the Germans back on a front
of four miles between Bailleul and Vieux Berquin in the Lys sector.
They also captured the village of Outersteene, a mile east of Merris
and took 400 prisoners. The German positions around Roye continued to
be threatened by the British pressure, and on August 18, 1918, Marshal
Haig's men pushed their line forward to the north of that place
between Chilly and Fransart.
To the south of the Avre River the French, as they fought their way
forward, captured over 400 Germans, overcoming some important enemy
strongholds.
From the positions captured by the French north of the Aisne River the
Allies could now dominate the German batteries of big guns at Chavigny
and Juvigny, north of Soissons. These batteries were formidable,
commanding not only the city of Soissons, but a wide region around.
The Allies were now able to exert such pressure on the Germans here
that they must soon be forced to retire and the city of Soissons would
be relieved of the danger of bombardment.
Allied operations on two widely separated fronts--the British on the
north of the Lys salient, and the French between the Aisne and the
Oise--had increased the difficulties of the Germans in these areas.
Lassigny was seriously threatened by the capture of Fresmieres (on the
Roye highroad two and a half miles to the north) by the advance of
Foch's troops to the western outskirts of the town, and the occupation
of the Thiescourt Wood.
On the night of August 18, 1918, the French launched an attack on a
front of about fifteen miles east of Ribecourt and across the Oise to
Fontenoy, six miles west of Soissons. The fighting, vigorously pushed
on the following day, resulted in notable gains for the Allied arms.
The capture of the village of Rimprez, on the west bank of the Oise on
the Noyon-Compiegne road, was followed by an advance of two miles
northward to the southern edge of Dressincourt. Equally important
gains were made at other points in the line of attack. The plateau
west of Nampcel and Morsain and several other villages were carried by
storm. In the course of the fighting the French captured over 2,000
prisoners, including several battalion commanders.
In the Lys salient the British continued the irresistible drive
forward. Marshal Haig's advance was on a front of nearly six miles.
His line was carried up to the town of Merville and to the
north-and-south road through the town from Les Purebecques on the
north to Paradis to the south.
The victories of the French troops between the Oise and the Aisne gave
them possession of the Oise Valley as far as Mont Renaud. General
Mangin, who carried out these successful operations, was now in a
position to force the enemy to resort to desperate measures to escape
a serious defeat. His artillery now commanded all roads of importance,
and the only exit available for the Germans from the region of Noyon
and Lassigny was a narrow-gauge line running north to Ham by way of
Guiscard and the highroad running in the same direction. Von Hutier
had either to check Mangin's advance, or choose this narrow outlet for
extricating his troops and material. Rather than face this
alternative, the Germans were offering a desperate resistance in an
endeavor to hold on to their present lines, hoping against hope that
something might occur that would enable them to shake off the Allies'
strangle hold.
General Debeney's advance on Lassigny and Roye had slackened up owing
to the stout opposition offered by the enemy, but he continued to make
steady progress.
In the early morning of August 20, 1918, General Mangin began an
operation between the Aisne and the Oise southeast of Noyon and
northwest of Soissons that achieved a splendid success. Striking on a
fifteen-and-a-half-mile front he smashed into the German line to an
average depth of two and a half miles, capturing seven towns and over
8,000 prisoners.
By these operations General Mangin wrested from the Germans at Cuts
and Mont de Choissy all the heights remaining south of the Oise in
that region. The French batteries now commanded a wide sweep of
territory and most of the important roads. General Mangin's right,
firmly established on the heights around Fontenoy, now began to drive
the enemy from the elevated ground south of the Oise, leaving them no
option but to cross the river, or retreat toward the east. The Germans
fought desperately to hold their ground, relying principally on their
vast number of machine guns. During the night, in anticipation of
General Mangin's attacks, they had received reenforcements brought up
from the Soissons front in motor lorries to help meet the shock of the
French troops. They fought with dogged determination, but from the
start their position was hopeless. Their artillery fire was of the
feeblest and they had practically no help from airplanes.
Continuing their attacks in the region northwest of Soissons, General
Mangin's troops captured Lassigny. The advance, made over a front of
fifteen miles, smashed the German lines at some points to the depth of
five miles. To the southeast of Lassigny, by winning a foothold in
Plemont, the French menaced the Germans' grip on the valley of
Divette. Across the Oise and farther east, Mangin's men had reached
the river from the south between Sempigny and Pontoise. In the
conquered territory, won in less than twenty-four hours, the Germans
were driven from twenty villages.
While the French were driving the Germans before them and winning
wide stretches of territory, the Third British Army under General Sir
Julian Byng was adding to the glory of British arms. Under cover of a
heavy fog, General Byng attacked on a ten-mile front from the Ancre
River to the neighborhood of Moyenville, driving back the enemy along
the whole line and gaining at some points ground to the depth of two
miles. General von Below's Seventeenth Army, which the British fought
against, was badly cut up; their losses in guns and men were so heavy
as to suggest that the German morale was crumbling, and that their
fighting power was rapidly disintegrating.
It was just at daybreak that the British big guns began the overture
that preceded the attack. The fog was so dense that the men in the
tanks could not see more than a hundred feet ahead, but it was
favorable to the assaulting formations as it served to shield their
movements from the enemy observers. The German guns replied only
feebly, showing that they were short of heavy cannon, a fact that had
been noted before in recent fighting in this region. Their chief
dependence on this occasion was in machine guns, with which they
seemed to be exceedingly supplied. Situated in isolated posts, these
did effective work, and there was sharp fighting at various points.
The German garrison occupying the shell-shattered ruins of what had
been the village of Courcelles, near the center of the battle front,
made a stubborn resistance, and for a time the advance of the British
infantry was held up at this point. With the arrival on the scene of a
drove of tanks, German resistance broke down. The machine-gun nests
were quickly smashed, and the gunners killed or made prisoners; and
wherever there was resistance the tanks quickly crushed out all desire
of the enemy to continue the fight.
Engaged in this advance were tanks of various types, and all found
their work cut out for them. The big tanks smashed in the enemy
defenses, dipped in and out of shell holes and performed all the heavy
work, while the small whippet tanks and armored cars dashed around at
high speed attacking gun nests from the rear and clearing the way for
the advance of the infantry. Despite the vigorous resistance offered
by the Germans at some points, the British losses in casualties were
comparatively small, and some formations met with none at all. The
village of Beaucourt was won with only three casualties.
When the fog lifted about noon, and the sun shone out, the Germans
attempted several counterattacks, but were unable to force the British
to relinquish a foot of the territory they had gained.
In the morning of August 22, 1918, the British delivered a new attack
on a six-mile front between Albert and Bray on the Somme, which was
entirely successful, all objectives being won and an advance made of
two miles. The important town of Albert was captured and 1,400
prisoners and a large number of cannon. North of the Ancre the battle
raged throughout the day, and the Germans were forced to fall back all
along the line. Isolated counterattacks were attempted, but they
crumbled beneath the hammer blows of the British armies. There was
hard fighting along the Arras-Albert railway embankment for the
valuable positions that overlook the flat country around. To the south
from Achiet-le-Grand to the Ancre the opposing armies swept back and
forth in attacks and counterattacks again and again renewed. At
Achiet-le-Grand and Miraumont, where the Germans launched their most
ambitious counterattacks, they employed fresh troops that had been
rushed forward from other sectors to relieve Von Below's hard-pressed
Seventeenth Army.
During August 21-22, 1918, the French Third and Fourth Armies under
General Mangin continued to press their advance night and day along
the front from Lassigny to the north of Soissons. At some points an
advance of seven miles was made, and there was evidence that the
Germans were so badly mauled that their retreat amounted practically
to a rout.
The French push toward the roads leading to Chauny menaced the enemy's
line of retirement and explained his hurried retreat. By the capture
of Bouguignon, St. Paul-aux-Bois, and Quincy the French had won
command of the valley of the Ailette from the region of
Coucy-le-Chateau to the Oise. General Humbert's troops also made
notable gains and wrested important positions from the enemy. By the
occupation of the height of Plemont and the capture of Thiescourt the
French now held all the hills known as the Thiescourt Massif, thus
giving them the strongest points overlooking the region around.
It was evident in different parts of the fighting area that the
Germans were in a confused and even panic-stricken state of mind. The
French advance guard was so close to them when they crossed the Oise
that they had not time to destroy the bridges over the river. Allied
observers noted streams of enemy transports in wild confusion back of
the fighting front, and all discipline and order seemed to have been
lost. Upon the Ailette front the sudden attack of the French caused
the hasty retreat of a division of German reserves which had been
brought forward to launch a counterattack. Falling back, this division
precipitated a panic in the ranks of another division which had
intended to support the first division's attack, and the result was a
confused and disorderly retreat.
Marshal Foch's plan to give the enemy no rest day or night, and to
follow up each blow by another, a plan which had resulted in great
victories for the Allies and constant demoralization of the forces of
the enemy, continued to be the order of the day. The British,
operating on a thirty-mile front, unceasingly hammered Crown Prince
Rupprecht's armies, striking suddenly at different points, and always
advancing in spite of the most determined opposition. The Third and
Fourth British Armies under Generals Byng and Rawlinson made important
gains on August 22-23, 1918. It was a day of disaster for the Germans,
whose desperate attempts to check the British advance resulted only in
frightful losses of men and accomplished nothing. Prince Rupprecht
sacrificed his troops recklessly in an effort to stave off the
inevitable. The British guns swept the Germans from the field, or
crushed them as they tried to force their way forward. One entire
German battalion was annihilated during the fighting. General Byng
made an advance of two miles to the neighborhood of Grandcourt, east
of the Ancre. Gomiecourt and four other villages were carried by
storm. To the north the British captured Achiet-le-Grand, which is on
the Arras-Albert railroad, and for the possession of which Germans and
British had been fighting for some days past.
Field Marshal Haig's armies continued to deal the German forces
staggering blows as they drove forward. Bray, on the northern bank of
the Somme, was captured on August 23, 1918. Thiepval, a strong
position on high ground and which dominated miles of territory, was
occupied by British forces after a hard struggle and against the
concentrated fire of countless machine guns. Miraumont, in the center
of the battle front and to which the Germans clung with desperate
energy, was now surrounded on all sides and its fall was only a
question of a few hours. The British were now driving ahead in the
direction of Bapaume, and on the 23d occupied a small town on the
outskirts. Croisilles, north of Mory, some miles east of the
Arras-Bapaume road, was also won, marking the extreme point of the
British advance for the day in the northern battle zone.
North of the river Scarpe the fighting was intense. The British,
despite stiff opposition, penetrated the old German line and made
important gains when they attacked Givenchy. The Germans fought
bravely, contesting every yard of ground, but it was a losing battle,
and the field was littered thickly with their dead. They had brought
up new divisions that were thrown into the fight, but the
reenforcements were unable to check, except temporarily, the Allies'
continuous push forward.
On the French front General Mangin's troops had crossed the Oise and
reached the outskirts of the village of Morlincourt, a mile and a
quarter from the railway station of Noyon. The fall of that place
within a short time was inevitable.
The French advance on the Soissons end of the battle front proceeded
more slowly, but the forward movement was not arrested. Their
operations in this region threatened the turning of both the
Chemin-des-Dames and the German positions on the Vesle. On August 23,
1918, General Mangin's troops had won the greater part of the Juvigny
Plateau, which brought them to the edge of the battle field of 1917.
To the north lay the Ailette Valley. Eight miles eastward was Laffaux
Mill and the beginning of the Chemin-des-Dames, familiar landmarks and
the scene of intense fighting in the previous year.
On the battle front north of the Somme the British armies continued to
advance in the face of heavy resistance from the Germans, who had been
strongly reenforced in the course of the past twenty-four hours
(August 24-25, 1918). Haig's troops had captured a dozen villages and
carried their new front within a thousand yards of the old Hindenburg
Line. From Albert to Bapaume, the whole length of the highroad was now
in British hands. East of Bray Australian troops carried important
heights in possession of the enemy. North of Bapaume the villages of
Sapignies and Behagnies, which formed part of the defenses of the
town, were taken by British troops. The Germans, as they retired, left
great quantities of stores, equipment and military supplies on the
field. They destroyed what they could, but a vast amount fell to the
victors.
Since August 21, 1918, the British had captured over 17,000 prisoners
and a great number of cannon and machine guns.
The British advance owed much of its success to the wonderful service
performed by the motor cars, which did scout work far in advance of
the infantry. They continued throughout the fighting to harass the
enemy and strike confusion in his ranks, falling upon transport
columns and inflicting terrible damage. They attacked retreating
bodies of Germans and mowed them down with machine guns, and were
everywhere active factors in the demoralization of the enemy. The
tanks cooperating with the armored cars were no less effective.
Breaking the way for the advancing troops they rolled into the towns
and cleaned out the strong points under floods of fire. The Germans
never lost their fear of the tanks and it was not unusual during the
British advance for large bodies to surrender as soon as one of the
grim-looking monsters lumbered into view.
An interesting incident in connection with the capture of Thiepval
Ridge is related, when a British detachment was saved by an aeroplane.
This detachment, pressing forward too fast, found itself out of touch
with the main body and was suddenly surrounded by Germans. An observer
in the air noted their predicament and dropped a message "Stick it
out." He then notified the British command and troops were rushed to
the rescue, and the Germans were driven off.
German prisoners captured when Miraumont fell said that they had been
three days without food. All seemed happy that they were out of the
war, especially the Alsatians who had been placed in German regiments.
"If any of us are caught deserting," said an Alsatian prisoner, "his
family is punished, and even his female relatives are sent to dig in
the front-line and other trenches."
In the course of this British drive forty-two German divisions had
suffered heavy losses; 40,000 soldiers and several hundred officers in
prisoners alone.
On August 25, 1918, the troops of the Third French Army, fighting in
water up to their waists in the marshes along the Avre, captured two
of the strongest defenses of Roye. The first attack was made on the
village of Fresnoy, two and a half miles to the north of Roye, where
the Germans had restored their old fortifications of 1914-17, and had
filled the neighborhood with machine-gun nests. After a brief
artillery preparation the French stormed the concrete blockhouses and
killed the gunners serving their pieces. Fresnoy was a notable
stronghold and one of the centers of German resistance around Roye
from which they had launched their counterattacks in attempts to check
the advance. The Germans had orders to hold the place at any cost, but
the French attacking from the north and south simultaneously bore down
all resistance. Four hundred prisoners, including sixteen officers,
were captured in the town. Another strong outpost of Roye, the village
of St. Mard in the marshes of the Avre, was won by General Debeney's
men in the afternoon after a violent struggle. The Germans had
surrounded their concrete blockhouses with water let in from the Avre
and through the floods in the face of intense machine-gun fire the
French had to force their way to capture the position.
Roye was now invested from the north, west and south, and the German
hold on the place was slowly weakened. North of Soissons, on the far
right of the French line, the Germans renewed their efforts against
the line from Pont-St. Mard to Juvigny. They were thrown back
everywhere, the French making new gains and occupying Domaine Wood.
On the same day, while the French were making progress against heavy
odds, British troops were in battle on a thirty-mile front, from the
river Scarpe at a point east of Arras to Lihons south of the Somme,
crossing the Hindenburg line on the northern sector of their attack.
Canadians captured the villages of Wancourt and Monchy-le-Preux which
formed part of the famous German defense, and they continued to make
progress in an easterly direction. Scottish troops, driving forward on
the north bank of the Scarpe, reached the outskirts of Roeux, north of
Monchy-le-Preux.
General Debeney's First Army, after crushing the Germans in their
battle positions around Roye, captured the town and continued pursuing
the enemy who were retreating on a line from Hallu to the region south
of Roye. The French advance was made on a twelve-mile front, and
territory was gained to a depth of two and a half miles, the Germans
being forced back on both sides of the Avre River.
By encircling tactics the French smashed the numerous machine-gun
nests that were the backbone of the defense. One after another heavily
fortified positions were turned and the Germans were forced to
surrender the first and then the second line of defenses of 1914, to
which they had retreated after being driven out of Montdidier.
The second German line was broken in the morning of August 26, 1918,
when the French infantry, after repulsing a counterattack at St. Mard,
encircled Roye and drove the enemy back some miles east of the town.
The British continued their attacks eastward along the southern bank
of the Scarpe, occupying a considerable portion of the Hindenburg line
and Cherisy, Vis-en-Artois, and the Bois du Sart, an advance of nearly
four miles. In the night Canadians and Scottish troops carried Roeux
and Fontaine-les-Croisilles, and the slopes around. North of the
Scarpe, Gavrelle was occupied, and farther south between Croisilles
and Bapaume New Zealanders and English, crushing heavy attacks by
German reenforcements, continued to make good progress.
Bapaume was now farther threatened by this extension of the British
attack to the north. The Germans had been forced back to the north of
the city and their counterattacks on the south had utterly broken
down. The capture of Montauban by the British marked an advance of two
miles in twenty-four hours. Bazentin-le-Grand, southwest of Bapaume,
was also occupied by Marshal Haig's men. This place lies a little to
the west of the highroad from Bapaume to the Somme and its capture
made the German hold in the region increasingly difficult. Bapaume was
now being gradually surrounded by the Allies, and its fall was only a
question of time.
During August 27-28, 1918, the French continued to drive the Germans
before them on the whole front from Chaulnes to the Oise. In less than
twenty-four hours General Humbert's troops made an advance of eight
miles through a difficult country of woods, hills, and ravines west of
Noyon. Mont Renaud, a famous stronghold commanding the Oise Valley,
was carried by storm. Pushing on to the gates of Noyon the French
surrounded the last bastion, Poqueri-Court Hill.
The capture of Chaulnes further precipitated the German retreat north
of the Avre River. The French engaged in close pursuit of the foe,
whom they continued to harass with mustard-gas shells the Germans left
behind, and which were being fired from German guns by French gunners.
In the course of the night General Debeney's troops advanced four and
a half miles, and by morning were on the outskirts of Nesle, close on
the heels of the retreating foe.
After the fall of Chaulnes, Gomiecourt to the north and Sept Fours and
a score of other villages were captured.
The territory abandoned by the Germans in the retreat presented scenes
of desolation and ruin unsurpassed since the war began. The names of
towns had no longer any significance but as geographical
designations. As places of habitation they had ceased to exist, and
even their sites were difficult to recognize. The cemeteries were
blown up and ruined and the contents of the graves scattered. At Roye
and other towns the Germans had carefully filled the ruins with
mustard gas which for a time prevented the Allies from occupying these
places.
Croisilles, the strong German position to the north of Bapaume, which
had long held out against British attacks, was captured by a flanking
movement by Haig's men on August 27, 1918. Further gains were made at
all points on the battle line between Bapaume and the river Scarpe.
North of the Arras-Cambrai road the Canadians captured the villages of
Boiry and Pelves. On the north bank of the Somme British troops
occupied Curly and Hardecourt, and drove forward in the direction of
Maurepas. South of the river, Australians in an advance of between
four and five miles were on their way to the crossings of the Somme at
Peronne and Brie, encountering hard resistance from the Germans as
they pushed on.
A large German force was brought up to attack the British positions
east of Monchy. According to the statements of prisoners, some of the
German companies at the last moment refused to fight, and the others
were forced to go ahead without them. For tactical reasons the British
withdrew a few hundred yards and then organized an attack that drove
the Germans from the field, and they were seen no more that day.
According to an eyewitness the ground in this region was in parts
literally carpeted with bodies in field gray.
The total captures of the Allies on the western front since July 18,
1918, were now over 120,000 prisoners and over 2,000 guns. The British
captured between August 21, 1918, and August 26, 1918, more than
21,000 prisoners of all ranks, and their own losses in killed,
wounded, and missing during this period was only slightly in excess of
this number. Since August 8, 1918, the British captures exceeded
47,000 officers and men, and over 600 guns.
It was evidently the purpose of the Germans at this stage to retire to
a shorter line on the western front where they could obtain better
defensive positions against the Allies' blows, and so economize their
forces. The rapid advance of the British on both sides of the Scarpe,
which threatened to flank the entire Hindenburg position, was a
serious obstacle in the way of the Germans carrying out their plan.
CHAPTER III
THE FRENCH TAKE NOYON--THE BRITISH BAPAUME AND PERONNE--THE ALLIES
CONQUER ON EVERY FRONT
Noyon, the important German stronghold at the peak of the Oise Canal
du Nord salient, was captured by General Humbert's troops after heavy
fighting on August 29, 1918. Continuing to drive forward, French
forces obtained a grip on the southern slopes of Mont St. Simeon to
the east, the strongest German position remaining in that sector.
About the same time another French army under General Mangin had
forced a crossing of the Oise at Morlincourt and captured Landrimont.
North of Noyon a third French army under General Debeney took Quesnoy
Wood, which narrowed the pocket from the western side and brought the
French within shelling distance of the main road leading out of it in
the direction of Ham.
The attempt of the Germans to stem the French pursuit by fighting
rear-guard actions with machine-gun sections was only locally
successful. On favorable ground it succeeded in delaying the advance,
but the fast drive of the French advance guard forced the enemy to
risk an engagement with strong forces, or hasten his retreat. The
Germans chose the latter alternative and fled along the road leading
to St. Quentin, La Fere, and the Hindenburg line.
The continued pressure of Humbert's army from the west, and Mangin's
troops which crossed the Oise from the south and took Morlincourt
while another French contingent was entering Noyon, further added to
the difficulties of the enemy, and threatened General von Hutier's
army with disaster.
Bapaume, which for several days had been surrounded by British forces,
was occupied on August 29, 1918, and the Germans were in full retreat,
trying to get away behind their rear guards before they were caught
and annihilated. North of the Scarpe River, beyond Arras, and across
the old Somme battle fields by Ginchy, Guillemont, and Morval, British
troops were pushing on, and in the Australian fighting zone by
Feuillieres and Belloy above the Somme the enemy was fleeing in wild
haste, leaving vast stores of guns and ammunition behind. The German
rear guards maintained at times a fierce resistance to gain time for
an orderly retreat and delay the capture of Peronne until the enormous
stores there could be removed. From Bapaume and Bullecourt to the
north of the Arras-Cambrai road the German army was swiftly
disappearing from all the country west of the Somme and from the
battle fields beyond Delville Wood. The same British soldiers now
driving forward on the heels of the retreating foe were in March
falling back over the same ground when the Germans had overwhelming
numbers in their favor.
The French armies during August 29-30, 1918, continued to make
important strategic gains. Among the most notable was the occupation
of Mont St. Simeon, a height which protected the German flank, a great
natural rampart on which the enemy relied for protection during his
retreat before the attacks of Generals Debeney and Rawlinson.
East, and northeast of Bapaume, the British forces continued to go
forward and gain ground. At Bullecourt on the Hindenburg Line and at
Hendecourt to the east of the line the advance was held up by the
strong German counterattacks. These places, which had been captured by
the British on August 29, 1918, became untenable under the enemy
assaults and Marshal Haig's troops were forced to withdraw to the west
of them.
At other points good progress was made, the British capturing several
villages on the Arras-Bapaume front while they advanced their line
both on the Arras-Cambrai and the Bapaume-Cambrai roads. Farther to
the south the British to the north of the Somme went forward in the
direction of Peronne, taking Combles and Clery. By these operations
they had completely freed the country south and west of the Somme of
the Germans. The last of the enemy were driven behind the river in the
morning of August 30, 1918.
On the last day of the month Australian troops in a valorous charge
stormed Mont St. Quentin and Feuilleucourt to the north of Peronne,
capturing 1,500 Germans by the operation. The seizure of an important
height near St. Quentin village gave the British a commanding position
to threaten Peronne, and it was inevitable that the fall of that place
could not be long delayed.
While the Australians were closely engaged near Peronne a contingent
of English troops on the left captured Marrieres Wood and high ground
farther north of the Peronne-Bapaume road. At various points between
Kemmel and Bethune the Germans were in retreat, and the British gained
considerable ground. Bailleul was now in British hands, and their
patrols had gained a foothold on Mont de Lille. Advances were also
made to the east of La Couture and Vieille Chapelle, and on the
Scherpenberg from southwest of Ypres the British crossed old enemy
trenches without meeting any opposition.
Peronne, the German stronghold on the great bend of the Somme River,
was captured in a brilliant attack made by the Australians on
September 1, 1918. It was inevitable after the occupation of Mont St.
Quentin on the day before by these same valorous troops that the town
must soon be abandoned by the Germans, but it was owing to the quick
action of the Australians that they were forced out so soon. Owing to
the admirable work performed by English engineers at the river
crossings the Australians were able to move their guns forward over
the Somme and fire at close range on the enemy. Cooperating with the
Australians, London troops captured Bouchavesnes, four miles to the
north of Peronne, and Rancourt, both villages on the road to Bapaume.
Over 2,000 prisoners were taken in these operations. Farther to the
north the Germans fled before the British approach, evacuating several
villages to the south of Bapaume.
To the northeast of this place, astride the Hindenburg line, the enemy
offered strong opposition, but the British crushed every attack and
won the much-fought-over ruins of Bullecourt and Hendecourt.
In the Lys salient it was much the same story, the Germans continuing
to retreat and the British to pursue. In the course of twenty-four
hours' fighting Haig's troops gained about two miles on a front of
twenty miles. The British had now reached the outskirts of Lens, where
large fires were seen burning, an indication of further German
retirement.
The British had every reason to feel proud of their achievements in
August, 1918, for in addition to the large territory won from the
enemy they captured in that month 57,318 prisoners, 657 guns, more
than 5,790 machine guns, and over 1,000 trench mortars, besides a vast
quantity of stores and war material of every description.
North and south of the Aillette River, General Mangin's troops made
further advances, on the first day of the month capturing
Crecy-au-Mont on the southern bank, and gaining a firm hold west of
Coucy-le-Chateau. A few miles to the south the French stormed the town
of Leury and took more than 1,000 prisoners. Two miles northeast of
Nesle, Rouy-le-Petit was occupied, and other French forces crossed the
Somme Canal at Epenancourt seven miles south of Peronne.
One of the most notable achievements of the British advance was
carrying the famous Queant-Drocourt "switch line" on September 1-2,
1918. This strongly fortified stretch of trenches was won by English,
Scottish, and Canadian troops on a front of about six miles. The
Germans considered this one of their strongest positions and made
desperate efforts to hold it, but were unable to hold back the
impetuous drive of the British forces, which were in high spirits over
their almost continuous victories. The fighting became fast and
furious, and the Germans rushed forward reenforcements, but it was a
losing game for them from the first and their losses were appalling.
The British captured thousands of prisoners; the roads to the rear of
the fighting front were jammed with them. In parts of the battle field
bodies in field-gray lay in piles.
The Canadians, whose attack was made astride the road from Arras to
Cambrai, captured the villages of Dury, Cagnicourt, and
Villers-les-Cagnicourt, the last place being four miles beyond the
point from which the attack was launched.
The left wing of the attacking forces, composed of English troops,
drove a wedge in the German defenses northeast of Eterpigny, while the
right composed of English and Scottish troops driving forward in the
direction of Queant captured a string of strongly fortified positions
including the village of Noreuil. Southward to a point beyond Peronne
the tide of battle swept, the British capturing towns and villages and
always advancing. On the Lys front it was the same story, the Germans
in retreat, the British in close pursuit. They took Neuve Eglise, a
place not forgotten in former fights, and pushed their line forward to
the east of Estaires.
American troops after the capture of Voormezeele in Flanders advanced
from that village and linked up with the British in close pursuit of
the German rear guards. The French, pushing forward north of Soissons,
noted great fires in the direction of Vauxaillon, indicating that the
enemy was burning his supplies previous to retirement. They had now
completed the conquest of the Soissons Plateau and the Germans were
forced to retire to the Chemin-des-Dames, which was already threatened
by the French advance toward Vauxaillon.
Field Marshal Haig's troops continued their victorious advance on
September 3, 1918, gaining Baralle, eight miles from Cambrai, crossing
the Drocourt-Queant line and forcing the Germans to retire in haste to
the Canal du Nord. They carried by storm Queant, and thirteen other
villages were taken on a twenty-mile front, which attained a maximum
depth of six miles. In the course of these operations the British took
over 10,000 prisoners. Their outposts had now been pushed forward to
the outskirts of Lens.
On the following day the eastward sweep of British troops north of
Peronne continued. On a front of about fifteen miles northward from
Moislains they forced a crossing of the Canal du Nord and made
substantial progress eastward.
Meanwhile north of the Vesle on a front of nearly twenty miles the
German armies were in full retreat before the advance of
Franco-American armies.
Simultaneously the French were making important gains northeast of
Noyon, and were driving the Germans before them in the territory
between the Canal du Nord and the Oise.
French armies continued to drive the Germans before them in southern
Picardy, cooperating with the Americans in the territory between the
Vesle and Aisne Rivers. At some points the French advanced their line
seven miles and captured on the way some thirty villages. They crossed
the Somme Canal and pressed forward in the direction of Ham with its
roads leading to St. Quentin and La Fere. By the capture of
Coucy-le-Chateau to the south and neighboring towns they threatened
the German defenses of the Chemin-des-Dames. North of the Vesle, where
the Americans were taking part in the advance, the Allied line was
pushed to the southern bank of the Aisne on a front of more than eight
miles.
On September 5-6, 1918, the French, with the Americans cooperating,
continued to press on at the heels of the retreating Germans. From the
posts of the Americans on the Aisne to the breaches in the Hindenburg
line north of Cambrai, on a front of more than ninety miles, the
Allies pushed the advance. The drive southeast from the Somme resulted
in the capture of the important juncture point of Ham and Chauny.
North of the Aisne they occupied all the old trenches along the front
and threatened the German hold on the Chemin-des-Dames.
The British armies, linking up with the French advancing on Ham, and
into the territory to the south, continued their forward movement
eastward from the Somme. From this river, south of Peronne, the troops
of Field Marshal Haig had penetrated German positions about seven
miles on a twelve-mile front and occupied six important villages.
Vast supplies of coal and road-building material were captured during
this advance, which offered conclusive proof that the Germans had
planned to hold all winter the line from which they had been driven.
Sporadic attempts were made by the enemy to hold up the British drive,
but their troops developed no staying power and their attacks
generally broke down after the failure of the first fierce onslaught.
Haig's warriors had now entered the old defense system which they had
held before the beginning of the great German offensive in March,
1918.
The French continued to make good progress in their advance along the
banks of the St. Quentin Canal north of the Somme, capturing Hamel and
three other villages to the west of it. South of the Somme they
encountered heavy resistance. The village of Avesnes which they had
won was retaken by the Germans, but after a hard struggle it remained
in French hands.
Progress was also made on both sides of the Oise, the French advancing
within two miles of La Fere to the northern edge of the forest of St.
Gobain, which forms the western defense of the Laon region. The Massif
of St. Gobain formed the pivot of the German system, whose importance
was only comparable to that of Cambrai for British operations.
One great factor which aided materially in the advance of the Allies
was the great increase in their engines of offense, whether in armored
cars, tanks, Stokes guns, or great cannon, that could smash whole
blocks of defense at one shot. The French were now supplied with
howitzers of twenty-one inch caliber whose shell, over six feet long,
could wreck a dozen batteries in a protected ravine, or wipe out an
entire regiment hidden in an apparently impenetrable cave.
So far the first part of Marshal Foch's program had been accomplished.
The Germans had been driven back along the whole line from Arras to
Rheims, and had practically lost all ground won in their four great
drives which began on March 21, 1918, and ended on July 18, 1918, when
Foch dealt a smashing blow on their flank between the Marne and the
Aisne.
During September 9-10, 1918, in spite of heavy rainstorms which halted
Haig's men to provide shelters on recovered ground, the British
advanced their line nearer Cambrai, fighting off strong German attacks
in that region. Meanwhile the French gained three and a half miles,
and occupied positions near St. Quentin on three sides. This new dash
brought them nearer the flanking of La Fere on the north and south.
September 12, 1918, was a memorable day in the history of the American
Army in France when under command of General Pershing they launched an
attack from all sides of the St. Mihiel salient that resulted in the
capture of the town of that name and over 13,000 prisoners. The
American army was now operating under its own command instead of
fighting as part of a British or French army. All day and far into the
night the fight was continuous on the British front, when the heights
of Avrincourt were stormed and positions won that overlooked the
German defenses for many miles. Further progress was made in the
Havrincourt region during September 13-14, 1918, where to the
southeast of Cambrai the British established posts east and north of
the village of Havrincourt. General Petain meanwhile had launched an
attack on an eleven-mile front on both sides of the Ailette River
between the Aisne and the Vesle, advancing his line to a distance of
two miles at the farthest point and capturing over 1,000 prisoners.
This French drive was of special importance, for it threatened to turn
the flank of the German defensive positions on the Chemin-des-Dames,
and weakened the enemy's hold on Laon. South of the Ailette the French
won the famous Mont des Singes, and the villages of Allemant and
Sanoy.
In the morning of September 14, 1918, General Mangin's troops struck a
new blow at the German salient north of Soissons. The French advance
was so rapid that at one point a German colonel and his entire staff
were captured. The taking of Laffaux Mill, a point of vital importance
to the enemy, meant the gain of a valuable portion of the Hindenburg
line. The Germans made a desperate effort to maintain their hold on
this position, but in spite of their employment of strong reserves
they were unable to delay more than a short time the French advance.
On General Mangin's right, the Mennejean Farm was the scene of the
most stubborn fighting during the day. The Germans had transformed
every shell crater into miniature forts and machine-gun nests which
had to be overcome one by one by grenade fighting of the fiercest
description. But the Germans failed everywhere to check the French,
who by noon had carried the entire position and bagged over 2,500
prisoners.
After the capture of Havrincourt and neighboring towns by the British,
followed by counterattacks which were everywhere repulsed, there was
no important infantry action attempted and the Germans settled down to
shelling the line.
British and French troops in coordinated operations on a
twenty-two-mile front advanced their lines on the outlying defenses of
St. Quentin on September 18, 1918. The British attack was made by
English, Irish, Scottish, and Australian troops on a sixteen-mile
front to the northwest of the city and resulted in the capture of over
6,000 prisoners and the occupation of ten villages and outer defenses
of the Hindenburg line in wide sectors. The push was made in the midst
of a pouring rain and the Germans offered strong resistance, but the
British, elated with victory, drove forward and crushed all
opposition.
While the British were driving ahead, the French on their immediate
right attacked and advanced their lines a mile and a quarter on a
six-mile front, reaching the western outskirts of Francilly-Silency,
three miles west of St. Quentin, and the southern edge of Contescourt,
four miles southwest of that city, marking their nearest approaches to
the German base. During the night of September 18, 1918, the British
continued to drive forward into the Hindenburg outposts northwest of
St. Quentin, capturing the village of Lempire and Gauche Wood. In the
course of two days' fighting in this region the British captured
10,000 prisoners and over sixty guns.
Late in the day of September 18, 1918, the Germans counterattacked on
a wide front west of Cambrai between Gouzeaucourt and the
Arras-Cambrai road. Starting off with a bombardment of great
intensity they launched an infantry attack northward from Trescault,
but were repulsed at all points with heavy losses. North of Moeuvres,
the Sixth German Division, under cover of a heavy barrage, and while
forty German batteries were at work, made a determined attack on the
British positions. Though their lines were torn and formations
shattered by the British field batteries and the steady machine-gun
and rifle fire, they still pressed forward, climbing over the bodies
of their dead. At a tragic cost of life a few of the advanced British
positions were penetrated, but before the end of the day after a
stubborn struggle they were expelled and the British reoccupied the
positions.
The fighting here had been costly for the British as well as for the
foe. The Germans displayed complete disregard for life and
demonstrated a spirit of initiative that was quite unusual. German
machine gunners established themselves in some derelict British tanks
which they transformed into forts, sweeping the area around with
machine-gun bullets that wrought considerable destruction. Groups of
German machine gunners in other parts of the field, and aided by some
infantry, established themselves in wrecked villages, in woods, and
earth-works, and in old trench systems, where the British line of
advance passed just beyond them. Other British troops following the
first waves suffered considerably from the attacks of these
independent fighters. It was necessary to mop up each isolated post
before the advance could be continued.
The French meanwhile had been pushing their lines closer to St.
Quentin from the south and the southwest. During the night of
September 18-19, 1918, they fought their way into Contescourt, which
lies four miles to the southwest of St. Quentin, and in the morning
occupied Castres, about half a mile to the northeast. Farther east and
south they advanced to the outskirts of Benay, a town six miles south
of the city.
The strongly fortified village of Moeuvres, seven miles west of
Cambrai, which had been the scene of intense fighting for some days,
was captured by the British in the morning of September 20, 1918. The
Germans fought stubbornly to hold the village, which with its
covering positions consisted of a solid mass of trenches and dugouts
covering a square mile of ground. It was the junction of the main and
support Hindenburg line and the most formidable obstacle that the
British encountered anywhere in that defensive system.
The occupation by the British of a series of redoubts around the
Malassise Farm brought their line nearer to the St. Quentin Canal at
Vendhuile. Only three fortified villages now remained in German hands
on the battle front between Villers-Guislain and the defenses of St.
Quentin. With the capture of Ronssoy by English County troops,
Lempire, a village one mile to the north, was completely cleared of
the enemy. The Germans were now clinging to strong positions in
ravines, quarries, and ditches between Lempire and Villers-Guislain,
but they had suffered so severely in recent counterattacks that they
attempted no more.
In the course of operations on September 21 and 22, 1918, advances
were made by English troops east of Epihy, and the Australians near
Hargicourt made new inroads into the outer defenses of the Hindenburg
line northwest of St. Quentin. The most extensive gain was made north
of the Scarpe River, where the Germans were thrown back on a two-mile
front.
South of Villers-Guislain, and to the right of this sector, the
Germans launched a powerful counterattack which was crushed by the
British, who flung the enemy back and took advantage of the
opportunity to carry forward their line.
On the French front in spite of increased enemy resistance substantial
gains were made daily. By the capture of the woods north of
Lys-Fontaine the Germans were forced to evacuate Vendhuile to escape
being cornered there with their backs to the river Oise. General
Debeney's troops now held all the west bank of the Oise for more than
half the distance from La Fere to Moy. The French had now reached the
heavy, marshy country south of the valley of the Oise, which offered
great difficulties to any troops that might attempt a crossing north
of La Fere.
Debeney's men continued to advance all day September 22, 1918, toward
the La Fere road south of St. Quentin, and as they approached nearer
the Hindenburg line around that place the Germans made determined
efforts to keep them from it. North of the Somme they were hurriedly
organizing a defensive system on a line of heights running parallel to
the Hindenburg positions from east of Holnon to Hill 23, and thence
through Hill 138 east of Savy Wood to Dallon Height on the road from
Ham to St. Quentin.
South of the Somme the French advanced into a defense line parallel to
the Hindenburg positions, by winning a height northeast of Castres,
the line of ridges connecting Urvillers and Cerizy and the spur that
dominates Mayot from the west.
British and French troops on September 24, 1918, attacking on adjacent
fronts totaling about seven miles, made advances that tightened their
grip on St. Quentin from the northwest, west, and southwest.
By the capture of Pontruet, Marshal Haig's troops had now advanced
within three-quarters of a mile of important defenses of the
Hindenburg line at the bend of St. Quentin Canal. On the right wing of
the British, the French took Francilly-Silency, Dallon, and other
villages which, with the British occupation of the high ground west of
Fayot, gave the Allies a line of positions lying in a five-mile arc of
a circle with a radius of less than three miles from the center at St.
Quentin.
General Gouraud's troops attacking the German positions in the
Champagne on September 26, 1918, won their first objectives within a
few hours, and took Serven which had been in the hands of the enemy
since 1914. Gouraud's troops also occupied the high ground positions
of the Butte de Mesnil and the Navarin Farm. The abandonment by the
Germans of strong positions which they had held for a long time, and
had made as impregnable as human ingenuity could devise, demonstrated
that they were in a panicky and nervous state of mind.
The Third and Fourth British Armies under General Sir Henry Horne and
Sir Julian Byng made an attack before daybreak on September 27, 1918,
on a wide front toward Cambrai, and were successful in carrying all
their objectives. The principal attack was on a front of fourteen
miles, and resulted in the winning of German positions of great
strength. On the north of the main attack the British captured
Beaucamp, and drove the enemy from the ridge toward Marcoing.
Arleux-en-Gohelle on the extreme left was occupied, and in operations
north and south of the Sensee and Scarpe Rivers the towns of
Sauchy-Lestrees and Sauchy-Cauchy were captured.
The troops of General Haldane on the right center carried out a
successful operation, breaking through the German defenses east of
Havrincourt, capturing Flesquieres and a long spur running eastward
from that village toward Marcoing. In the direction of Fontaine Notre
Dame the British in this region had pushed forward to within three
miles of Cambrai. In the course of these operations over 6,000
prisoners were captured. The Germans had engaged on this battle front
nine divisions, or about 122,000 men.
The British were now in a good position to capture Cambrai. Even at
this stage of the struggle the Germans could not use the town, for the
roads, railway, and junction were all under the fire of the British
guns.
French troops on the battle line east of Rheims continued their
advance on September 27, 1918. In the two days' fighting on this front
they took over 10,000 prisoners, enormous quantities of war material,
and had moved their line ahead at some points a distance of five
miles.
On the first day of the battle Gouraud's men recaptured all the
positions abandoned July 15, 1918, and then stormed the Hindenburg
line on a length of nineteen miles. They were now on the front of the
second Hindenburg line along the Py River, marking the successful
termination of the first phase of the attack which the French
continued to press with irresistible valor despite the frantic efforts
of the enemy to check their advance.
CHAPTER IV
THE BRITISH CLOSE IN ON CAMBRAI--FRENCH OCCUPY ST. QUENTIN--THE
GERMANS FIRE CAMBRAI AND RETIRE--THE ALLIES' GREAT VICTORY IN FLANDERS
The Allies continued to strike on every front on September 27-28,
1918. Between the sea and St. Quentin, Champagne, and Verdun the whole
German military machine was tottering and nearing the breaking point.
Belgian and British troops attacking on a front of about ten miles
between Dixmude to a point north of Ypres made an advance of three and
a half miles, the Belgians alone capturing over 4,000 prisoners. The
occupied territory included the first and the second line of the
German defenses.
Field Marshal Haig's troops operating in the Cambrai region continued
their advance on the town whose fall was imminent. With the capture of
Sailly the British were now within two miles of Cambrai, and still
forging forward. To the northwest a number of villages including
Epinoy and Oisy-le-Verger were occupied and to the north of the Sensee
Canal the village of Arleux.
During the night of September 27, 1918, the Germans made a desperate
counterattack southwest of Marcoing, and near Beaucamp, but they were
thrown back with heavy losses and the British pressed on two miles
beyond Beaucamp Ridge, where they occupied high ground known as the
Highland and Welsh Ridges.
Between the Ailette and the Aisne General Mangin's troops continued
their irresistible advance, penetrating the ravine between Jouy and
Aizy and capturing these villages. The principal victory of the day
was the winning of Fort Malmaison, one of the strongholds southeast of
Laon. Here the Germans had prepared a deadly trap for the French
troops, but owing to the precautions taken the explosion did no
damage.
In the Champagne General Gouraud's forces continued to operate with
the accuracy of a finely adjusted piece of mechanism. At Somme-Py,
where the German defensive works were of the most elaborate
description and included a system of trenches and underground works to
an extent of five miles, after hot fighting in the streets with
grenade and bayonet the French took the entire system and advanced
their line to the north of the town.
There was no harder struggle on any Allied front at this time than the
French were engaged in north of Grateuil and Fontaine-en-Dormois. The
Germans in this region displayed intense energy in the defense of the
valleys, bringing up reserves and employing countless machine guns in
their determination to stem the tide of the French advance which was
constantly hurling them backward. Again and again the Germans
counterattacked, only to be crushed by Gouraud's troops, who
immediately proceeded to press onward. The German infantry fought well
at times, but there was something lacking; they displayed nervousness
and had no staying powers. And their gunners too showed that their
nerves were shaken, wasting ammunition without reason and laying down
barrages where they could serve no possible purpose.
September 29, 1918, was a big day for the British and American troops
when Field Marshal Haig launched a new offensive movement on the
thirty-mile front from St. Quentin to the Sensee River. The Americans
attacking the Hindenburg line on a front of nearly three miles
captured Bellicourt and Nauroy.
On the extreme British right the Twentieth Corps struck across the
Scheldt Canal from Bellenglise northward. The Forty-sixth Midland
Division, equipped with mats, life belts, rafts, and bridging
material, stormed the main Hindenburg defenses running along the
eastern bank of the canal. In spite of the depth of the water, and the
width of the canal, and the strong German defenses, consisting of
numerous tunnels and concrete works, this division captured the entire
enemy position opposed to them. After this master stroke the division
with great bravery drove ahead up the slopes beyond the canal,
capturing many prisoners on the way. Bellenglise, Lehaucourt, and
Magny-la-Fosse were now in British hands.
In the center of the attack English troops captured Villers-Guislain
while New Zealand troops broke up a hostile attack, and pressing on
took La Vacquerie and high ground in the neighborhood.
Meanwhile the Sixty-ninth Division, having forced the crossing of the
Scheldt at several points, continued to advance. After stiff fighting
in the western outskirts of Masnieres and Les Rues Vertes they took
both of these villages and carried the defensive system covering
Rumilly, driving on to the western outskirts of the village. North of
the Bapaume-Cambrai road Canadian troops gained possession of the
defense system known as the Marcoing-Masnieres line as far north as
Sailly.
On the French front as the result of General Mangin's advance on this
date the entire Malmaison Plateau and the western end of the
Chemin-des-Dames were won. For weeks the Germans had been fighting to
hold the approaches to the massif of St. Gobain and Laon which they
were now forced to abandon. For four years this group of heights
formed the central pillar of the German line in France. Marshal Foch's
strategy forced the enemy, as on the Marne, to withdraw his center
before the Allied attack to the north and the east and compelled him
to move back on the wings. This retreat was one of the first direct
results of the French, American, and British offensive of the past
three days.
On the last day of September, 1918, the British continued to drive
forward into the outskirts of Cambrai, capturing the suburbs on three
sides of the city. Toward St. Quentin the villages of Thorigny and Le
Tronquoy to the north and east of that town were won. In the course of
the fighting north of St. Quentin the British captured over 4,000
prisoners and forty guns.
In Flanders the Belgian and British advance was pushed to an average
depth of five and a maximum depth of eight miles. The British had won
the famous Messines Ridge and Cheluwe, while the Belgians had advanced
beyond Dixmude and taken Roulers.
Fighting of the fiercest description continued throughout October 1,
1918, all along the Cambrai-St. Quentin front, the British winning
positions on the greater part of the line. The Germans, anticipating
the speedy capture of Cambrai, had fired the city at different points.
The British, continuing to close in, stormed in the night Proville to
the west and Tilloy on the north. Farther south toward St. Quentin
they captured the villages of Vendhuile and Lavergies. To the north of
Cambrai they made notable progress in spite of the presence in the
enemy fighting line of fresh German reserves thrown in between the
city and the Sensee River.
During the month of September, 1918, the British had captured on the
western front 66,000 prisoners and 700 guns. In four days' fighting up
to October 1, 1918, General Haig's troops had engaged and defeated
thirty-six German divisions, or approximately 432,000 men.
French troops entered St. Quentin in the afternoon of October 1, 1918.
Heavy fighting continued along the whole Franco-American front from
St. Quentin to the Meuse. The British on the north and the French on
the south drew an arc around St. Quentin well to the rear of the city.
Toward the Aisne the French had pushed on beyond Revillon. In the
center the Germans continued to cling stubbornly to the wooded height
of St. Thierry, where they had established a line of positions
stretching from Cormicy to the Vesle, flanking Rheims on the northwest
and enabling them to maintain their hold on a semicircle of strong
points around Rheims.
Cambrai having been mined by the Germans, the occupation of the city
was delayed by the British, but their patrols penetrated the burning
city. Canadian troops held the suburbs of Neuville St. Remy on the
north and Crevecoeur and Rumilly on the south.
The rapid advance of the Allies in Belgium on the north and the
British thrust past Cambrai on the south forced the Germans to begin a
retreat on a wide front on both sides of the La Bassee Canal.
In the night of October 1-2, 1918, General Berthelot's forces on the
French front completed their conquest of the St. Thierry Massif, the
important height west of Rheims, occupying Pouillon and the fort of
St. Thierry.
These great gains enabled the French to dominate the plain from the
east and threaten all the German positions along the Aisne-Marne Canal
from Bethany to the north, including the fort of Brimont, where the
guns were posted that wrought most of the destruction to Rheims.
General Gouraud and Berthelot by their advances threatened to make of
the Rheims salient another pocket from which the Germans would have
great difficulty in extricating themselves.
In the Champagne desperate efforts were made by the enemy to hold back
Gouraud's forces on the line of Monthers-Orfeuil-Liry. Steep cliffs
and deep ravines furnished the Germans with excellent positions for
defense, but the French crushed every counterattack and drove ahead.
South of Orfeuil and Liry General Gouraud broke through heavy wire
defenses, and won a powerful position by assault.
East of Liry in the wooded valley of the Aisne there was hard fighting
which ended in the occupation of the most important positions by
General Gouraud's men. Farther east where the Germans had flooded the
region of Challerange the French displayed the same intrepidity as at
other points on the battle front, gaining ground and occupying the
railroad at Autry.
On October 3, 1918, Field Marshal Haig's forces shattered vital German
defenses between St. Quentin and Cambrai. Attacking with infantry and
tanks on the eight-mile front from Sequehart to the Scheldt Canal the
British broke through the strong Beaurevoir-Fonsomme line west and
southwest of Beaurevoir.
On the left of the attack English and Irish troops forced the passage
of the Scheldt Canal at Gouy and Le Catelet and captured both
villages. At the farthest point of this advance the British penetrated
German positions to a depth of about five miles. Over 5,000 prisoners
were taken by the British during the drive.
In Flanders the Germans were in retreat on the twenty-mile front
between Armentieres and Lens, which the British now occupied. Between
these strongholds the British had advanced their line three miles
eastward through Avion, Vendin, Wieres, and Herlies.
St. Quentin was completely cleared of German troops by October 2,
1918. Not one of its original 56,000 inhabitants remained. All were
carried away by the Germans. As it was believed the enemy had mined
the town with time fuses the French did not occupy the town, but
remained outside waiting for developments.
From St. Quentin to the Argonne the French armies continued to gain
ground all along the line. They were closing the only avenue of escape
for the Germans on the west side of the Argonne Forest, and clearing
the region north and west of Rheims.
General Gouraud on the eastern side of the line by the occupation of
the important railway town of Challerange now controlled the western
exit from the Grand Pre Gap through the forest. Southeast of Orfeuil
the French held a wooded area, their guns dominating the only railway
which was available to the Germans north of that position. The French
also enlarged their gains north of Somme-Py in the Champagne,
capturing Mont Blanc with the Americans and the Medeah Farm.
Around Rheims the Germans had been forced back so far that the city
must soon be freed from the menace of bombardment. Cormicy, northwest
of the city, was captured by the French and Loivre to the north, while
the Aisne Canal was reached between Concevreux and La Neuvillette.
Debeney's indomitable troops north and east of St. Quentin continued
to drive forward. He broke the Hindenburg line from Le Tronquoy to
Lesdins and gained a hold on the railway east of St. Quentin. Progress
was also made at Neuville St. Armand and Itancourt. Continuing their
pressure on the Germans seeking to repair the gap torn in the
Hindenburg defenses northeast of St. Quentin, British troops on
October 4-5, 1918, pushed on toward Fresnoy-le-Grand in the face of
determined and powerful enemy counterattacks.
The Germans continued to retreat on the Lens-Armentieres front. The
British lines were advanced over two miles to Erquinghem and Wavrin
west and southwest of Lille.
In the Champagne the entire enemy front was crumbling before the
hammer blows of the French army under Berthelot and the
Franco-American legions under Gouraud. North of Rheims the capture of
Fort Brimont and strong mountain positions to the east gave the French
enormous advantage over the enemy, of which they were not slow to
avail themselves. The entire massif of Moronvilliers was conquered; by
the afternoon of October 5, 1918, the French had reached Bethenville,
three miles to the north. In the course of the advance the Germans
were forced to evacuate many positions which they had held since 1914.
Threatened by the British thrust toward Lille the enemy began the
evacuation of the city. Farther south, in the crucial area north of
St. Quentin, British forces again broke through the Hindenburg system
of defenses. They crossed the Scheldt Canal on the eight-mile front
between Crevecoeur and Le Catelet and won a section of the famous line
on the plateau of La Terriere in this sector, the Germans hurriedly
retiring from the high ground east of the canal.
French victories in the Champagne continued with clockwork regularity
every day, and it might be said with truth every few hours of the day.
German resistance was broken on a front of about twenty-eight miles in
the Rheims salient, where as the result of pressure east and west the
enemy was compelled to surrender his strongest positions.
The French continued in pursuit through the night of October 5-6,
1918, the whole front along the river Suippe. Other French troops
having crossed the Aisne Canal had advanced to the outskirts of
Aiguilcourt and pressing on north of Rheims captured a number of
villages to the northeast of the city, reaching the Suippe River at
Pont Faverger, which was conquered and occupied.
In the fighting on the British front on October 6, 1918, the village
of Fresnoy, ten miles west of Douai, was won. Between Cambrai and St.
Quentin after the capture of Abencheul-au-Bois the British established
themselves in strong positions on the high ground toward Lesdain.
Montbregain and Beaurevoir, villages to the northeast of St. Quentin
which had changed hands several times in the recent fighting, were won
by the British at a late hour in the day.
During the night Marshal Haig's troops established a post at the
crossing of the Scheldt Canal, five miles northwest of Cambrai, and
advanced their lines south on the west and southwest. By the advance
north of Wez Maquart the British were now within about five miles west
of the city.
At times during the British pursuit the enemy's rear guards attempted
to make a stand, but in every instance they were annihilated. The
Germans seemed to have become panic-stricken, for, while they could
maintain a stubborn defense, there was no method in their fighting; it
was the desperate struggle of men who know they are playing a losing
game.
The continued French pressure in the Champagne yielded daily results.
On October 7, 1918, Berry-au-Bac at the junction of the river Aisne
and the Aisne Canal on the left wing of the offensive was captured. On
the rest of the Champagne front the French held their gains, and
pushed on to the north and east of the Arnes River.
Early in the morning of October 8, 1918, British and American troops
with the French cooperating on the right launched an attack on a
twenty-mile front from Cambrai southward, shattering the remains of
the Hindenburg system to a large extent, and advancing along the whole
fighting line a distance of three miles.
The British artillery fire, which began to shell the enemy through the
night and in the morning, was of the most unprecedented violence, the
guns being massed wheel to wheel. Such a destructive fire was poured
into the enemy lines that when the attack was made the Germans were
generally too panic-stricken to fight with either courage or method.
Americans on the British front were concerned at this time in the
brilliant operations northeast of St. Quentin.
South of the American fighting line the French, starting from Rouvroy,
captured the hills to the eastward and the villages of Essigny and
Fontaine. South of Cambrai, where the Germans counterattacked heavily
with reserves, they made temporary gains of ground from which they
were afterward driven out. Large numbers of German gunners who
attempted to check the Allied onslaught were killed.
On the following day the Allies struck again on a front of more than
thirty miles from north of Cambrai to the south of St. Quentin and
completed the breaking through of the entire Hindenburg defensive
system from Arras to St. Quentin. The German retreat now became almost
a rout, involving thirty divisions.
At 4 o'clock in the morning with only the light of the stars and
flares to guide them Canadian and English troops pressing forward from
the north and south joined up in the chief square of Cambrai. The
Germans were in retreat behind their rear guards, and the whole city
was in Allied hands, but the enemy had mined it, and there were
constant explosions that reduced many fine buildings to ruins. It was
a great day for the Allies, and especially for the British, for in
exactly two months they had fought their way back to their old front
lines and were now far into the country beyond, which they had never
penetrated before. Cambrai, a prize, was won, and the Germans,
defeated and broken, were scuttling away with all the speed they could
muster.
During October 8-9, 1918, the battle in Champagne continued with
increasing violence from the Aisne in the region of Vaux-le-Mouron,
which the French captured, to the Suippe River at Bazancourt, which
was also won. North of St. Etienne on the Arnes River the Germans made
powerful attacks on the positions won by General Gouraud's men, but
were unable to regain a foot of ground, while their casualties were
enormous. The determined fighting here and on the Suippe River by the
Germans was evidently for the purpose of gaining time for a wide
retreat. For the persistence and vigor of the Allied pressure had
evidently disarranged all their plans, as up to this time they had
been unable to prepare a stable position to which their shattered
formations could retire in security.
In the Cambrai-St. Quentin sector the Anglo-American forces continued
to advance during October 9-10, 1918, the greatest progress being made
east and southeast of Cambrai, where Marshal Haig had pushed his lines
to the banks of the Selle River, capturing the important German base
of Le Cateau. This marked an advance of about ten miles east and
fifteen miles southeast of Cambrai in the face of determined
resistance by the enemy's rear guards. During this forward sweep many
French civilians were found in the captured villages, 2,500 being
liberated in Caudry alone.
Farther to the north several villages southeast of Lens were occupied.
The French, on the south of the British and Americans, continued to
carry out dashing attacks and wrested from the enemy a number of
villages northeast of St. Quentin. North of the Aisne they gained
possession of the Croix-sans-Tete plateau. In Champagne Liry was
occupied.
The Germans began on October 10-11, 1918, the withdrawal from their
strong positions north of the Sensee River before the far-reaching
advance of the British south of that stream. North of the Scarpe the
British pressed on in the direction of Douai, which the Germans were
preparing to abandon. From every front came the same story of German
retirement, though here and there they continued to hold on to a
strong position to hinder the advance of the Allies and secure the
safety of their fleeing forces. On the whole front from the
Soissons-Laon road to Grand Pre north of the Argonne Forest their
hosts were on the backward move. In Champagne, where General Gouraud's
army captured Machault after a four-mile advance, they were retreating
toward Vouziers, and under pressure of the converging attack west and
south of the Chemin-des-Dames were gradually forced off of that
famous height, relinquishing some of their strongest positions. In the
Laon area the Germans were facing the utmost difficulties, where the
Hunding line between the rivers Serre and Sissonne had been turned by
the French.
In the night of October 11, 1918, French advance guards occupied
Vouziers, which the Germans had burned and looted before retiring. The
highroad running west from Vouziers to Pauvres was now entirely in
French hands, and German resistance seemed weakening through this
sector. West of Pauvres the French held the slopes above the marshy
wooded valley of the Retourne.
On the left, General Berthelot's army captured the dominating height
of Caesar's Camp and advanced beyond Mauchamp Farm to the north. Still
more important progress was made in the loop of the Aisne River, where
French cavalry aided by armored cars took Asfeld-La-Ville, thus
creating a new salient between them and the advance to the westward
which occupied the greater part of the Chemin-des-Dames.
General Mangin's troops meanwhile were encountering strong opposition
as they forced their way forward into the wooded heights that
constituted the outer bastion of the St. Gobain Forest. This
operation, taken in conjunction with the advance of Generals Debeney
and Gouraud on the flanks, rendered the position of the German forces
holding the Laon salient increasingly dangerous.
On October 12, 1918, General Mangin seized the greater part of the St.
Gobain Massif. La Fere, the outpost to the north on the Oise, was also
won. Laon, the last of the great natural obstacles forming the
keystone of the German defenses in France, yielded without a fight.
The British had now invested Douai, and the fall of that place was
only a question of hours.
All these important achievements were less spectacular than the great
battle in Flanders which began on October 14, 1918, and was fought by
the combined Belgian, French, and British troops under the command of
King Albert. The whole Allied line advanced on an irregular front of
about twenty-five miles from the region of Courtemarck to that of
Courtrai, penetrating enemy positions six and seven miles.
The British Second Army under General Sir Herbert Plumer captured the
villages of Gulleghem and Heule and advanced as far as the outskirts
of Courtrai, having taken nearly 4,000 prisoners and fifty guns. The
Belgians and French bagged over 7,000 and eighty guns.
In French Flanders the British carried their lines forward in the
neighborhood of Haubourdin about three miles west of Lille, and
farther south crossed the Haute Deule Canal and took a number of
villages northeast of Lens.
So fast were the Germans retreating that the British, French, and
Belgian infantry in the center of the battle front had lost sight of
them. The victory was especially memorable because it was a triumph
for the gallant little Belgian army, which with the assistance of
French and British had driven the despoilers of their country from a
large territory which the Germans had occupied since the first days of
the war. Moreover, they had gained in this battle such strong
positions that the Germans must soon be forced to abandon the entire
coast of Belgium.
The sweeping advance of the Allied infantry, preceded by French
cavalry which performed wonderful work in carrying out charges, left
Lille and the mining and manufacturing districts of Tourcoing,
Roubaix, and Tournai in a salient that was growing deeper every hour
and which the Germans could not possibly hold for long. In the region
of Thourout the Allies encountered intense opposition. The struggle
was here from house to house and street to street, and the casualties
were heavy on both sides. The Germans had posted machine guns in the
windows of the dwellings and in the cellars, firing streams of bullets
into the advancing Belgians, but were unable to force them back. The
troops of King Albert fought with a fierce determination to wreak
revenge on the despoilers of their country, and nothing could
withstand the cold fury of their onslaught. To the northeast of
Courtrai they stormed and captured Bavichove and on the north Andoye
and Cachten.
[Illustration: Battle lines and operations on the Western Front in
1918, including German territory held by the Allied armies of
occupation.]
The capture by the British of Linselles along the Lys placed the
Germans in the salient in a highly precarious position as the Allies
pressed forward, and it was inevitable that they must soon retire to
save themselves.
Outside Courtrai the infantry made an advance of about three miles.
Here they were forced to crush stubborn enemy attacks, the Germans
having received orders to hold on to the last. Very few of their
machine gunners who tried to hold up the Allied advance managed to
escape.
From the Thielt positions, where the French cavalry, owing to the
hardness of the ground and roads, were able to operate freely and
consequently worry the Germans, the Holland border was less than
twenty miles. It was through this gap that the Germans throughout the
whole Belgian coast system must retire if they were to save
themselves, provided that the Allies continued to advance. Every yard
of ground gained by the Allies in this area lessened the Germans'
chances of escape by narrowing the gap through which they must go.
The Allied offensive in Flanders did not spend itself for nearly three
days, the German retreat becoming more and more disorderly so that at
some points it was a veritable rout. The entire Belgian front from the
south was in constant movement. From Ostend and that section of the
Belgian coast the Germans fled precipitately. British naval forces and
Belgian aviators entered Ostend on October 17, 1918, where they were
received with cheers and tears of joy by the inhabitants.
The Allied infantry made rapid progress on October 17-18, 1918, while
the Germans were hurrying eastward through the passage between Bruges
and the Holland border. There was only one good road that they could
take and consequently this was crowded with transports and by troops
in flight continually harassed by the Belgian guns. The whole of the
German army under General von Arnim, comprising seventeen divisions,
was in retreat from the north to the region of Lille. King Albert of
Belgium and Queen Elizabeth entered Ostend in the afternoon of
October 17, 1918.
[Illustration: The Prince of Wales with General Currie and General
Watson, on a street in Denain, France, shortly after its capture by
the Canadian troops. Denain is near the border of Belgium and the
Belgian town of Valenciennes, which was taken on November 4, 1918.]
CHAPTER V
THE GERMANS RETREAT ON ALL FRONTS--BRITISH CAPTURE VALENCIENNES--THE
ARMISTICE--THE WAR OVER
The Allies continued to be masters of the situation on the Flanders
front. October 17-18, 1918, Zeebrugge, the only submarine base on the
coast remaining to the Germans after they were driven out of Ostend,
and Blankenberghe, a port four miles to the southwest, were occupied.
The French gained possession of Thielt and advanced a mile east of the
town. Southeast of Douai the British occupied a number of villages.
Roubaix and Tourcoing were entered in the afternoon of October 18,
1918. Southeast of Cambrai, on the Bohain-Le Cateau front, where
Anglo-American forces were operating, over 4,000 prisoners were taken
in the space of twenty-four hours. From the Oise River eastward to the
Argonne Forest French troops made important advances and gained
fifteen villages, many of which had been heavily fortified by the
enemy.
All that remained now of the important German conquests in France was
the somewhat narrow frontier tract between Valenciennes and Metz. Here
were two small salients around which there was intense fighting that
continued almost without cessation October 17-18, 1918.
The Americans and General Gouraud's troops on the east were hammering
at the strong German positions on the Grand Pre heights, a northern
extension of the Argonne Forest. Here the Germans had some of their
best troops stationed, who held on with grim determination, for a
break through between the Aisne and the Meuse would cut off their
retreat into Luxemburg and force them back to the forest of the
Ardennes. The other salient between Le Cateau and Rethel was so
fraught with danger to the troops holding it that early in the morning
of October 18, 1918, the Germans began to abandon their positions
under pressure of the advancing French troops.
[Illustration: The "Hindenburg line," the line of farthest German
advance and the battle line when the armistice began, November 11,
1918.]
On the west of the Oise General von Hutier was fighting desperately to
hold back the advance of General Debeney toward Guise. The French
stormed Petit Verey and Marchavenne, and continuing to push on
captured Mennevret in the morning of October 18, 1918.
The Germans were favored by two important obstacles, the group of
hills east of Berneville and the mass of Andigny Forest lying before
Wassigny. They might attempt to make a stand on the Oise near Guise
and along the Oise-Sambre Canal, but their forces had been so badly
cut up by the French that their plight had become increasingly
desperate. In less than a day they had lost more than 5,500 men and a
vast amount of military supplies.
The British army, operating in conjunction with the Belgians, attacked
on October 20, 1918, to the north and advanced past Courtrai. The
recovery of Ghent had now become inevitable if the push could be
maintained. For the Allied guns were pounding the Germans on all
sides, while their cavalry patrols, leading the infantry, pressed on
closer and closer to the city.
Meanwhile the British Third Army pushed its way eastward to the south
of Valenciennes, endangering all the German forces northward to
Flanders and southward to the Oise Canal behind which the enemy had
begun to retreat before British and Americans. This thrust upset the
German plan of trying to hold the line east of the Scheldt.
The British Third Army encountered the heaviest fighting in carrying
out this operation, for the Germans realized the importance of
delaying here their advance. Smashing all resistance the British
gained the high ground to the east of the line from which they were
advancing in the face of a torrential hail of machine-gun bullets. The
destructive gun nests were rapidly cleaned up, and the German losses
were very heavy. Fighting was especially bloody in the region of St.
Python, where the enemy fought behind barricades. South of Le Cateau
the British and Americans continued to make steady progress. American
patrols pushing out from the Mazinghien area had now reached the
banks of the Oise Canal. In this region German guns were constantly
active and all villages around were heavily shelled. It was necessary
to remove the civilians from some of these towns to places of safety.
The Germans entirely disregarded their presence.
Every hour now France and Belgium were recovering precious soil and
cities, and thousands of their people were being liberated from German
bondage. Especially grateful to the Belgians was the recovery of the
ancient city of Bruges which Belgians and British won on October 20,
1918, though German rear guards were in the neighborhood. War had not
changed greatly the grand old city built in the middle ages, or
injured the beauty of its quaint architecture. The inhabitants massed
before the Hotel de Ville were celebrating their liberation from the
Germans' yoke. Everyone had a flag or banner--British, Belgian, or
French--and the British troops were received with the wildest
enthusiasm and hailed as saviors.
Throughout the night of October 20-21, 1918, and during the day the
Allied troops were everywhere driving the Germans eastward. In Belgium
they were now within three miles of Eecloo and along the whole
forty-mile stretch between Courtrai and the Dutch border British,
French, and Belgians were hustling the enemy backward and closing in
around Ghent. In the center the British were on the west bank of the
Scheldt, north of Tournai, before which the Germans were making a
determined stand with countless machine guns. Frontally the British
held positions near Valenciennes, and to the northwest had penetrated
the great Viccigne-Raismes Forest. Northwest of Lille they were
driving on toward Le Quesnoy and fighting every foot of the way.
The great battle had now entered into the second phase. The first was
the wiping out of the Lille salient, when the Germans were driven out
of western Belgium. This accomplished, the Allies on the north started
a sweeping movement on October 20-21, 1918, pivoting on a point east
of Courtrai, the purpose of which was to clear the Germans from their
front in northern Belgium and at the same time threaten their right
flank.
In the center of the fighting area the British were pushing forward
toward the west bank of the Scheldt. The Germans took advantage of the
width of the stream and its marshy borders, where they found some
protection from the Allied pressure. They were hiding in shallow
trenches; their artillery in the rear, sadly depleted in numbers,
afforded them very little help. In their hurried flight the Germans
had little time in which to remove their artillery and vast stores of
ammunition. They destroyed some material, but a great deal fell into
the hands of the Allies, especially guns. These were promptly turned
toward the east, and shells made in Germany were hurled at their
former owners as they fled in panicky retreat.
October 21-22, 1918, on the twenty-five-mile front from Pont-a-Chin
northwest of Tournai to Thiant, southwest of Valenciennes, British
troops engaged along the western bank of the Scheldt won ground at
many points. South of Tournai they captured the villages of Hollain
and Bruyelle and drove into the western suburbs of Valenciennes.
In northern Belgium troops under King Albert gained the Lys Canal on
the whole of their front and had pushed across the stream. The Second
British Army, advancing on a front of about a mile between the Lys and
the Scheldt under heavy artillery and machine-gun fire established a
bridgehead on the river to the east of Pecq.
The Third and Fourth British Armies began a new drive on October 23,
1918, to the south of Valenciennes, smashing through strong German
defenses to a depth of three miles and capturing many important
villages, several thousand prisoners and numerous guns. This attack
resulted in the driving of a wedge into German positions at a point
considered the most vital of the lines which the Germans were holding.
The enemy fought courageously, the gunners holding out to the last.
The British First Army to the north continued to harass the foe by
continued attacks, and gained positions well to the northeast of
Valenciennes whose fall was imminent. The British were now only three
miles from Le Quesnoy and still forging ahead toward the town.
Catillon was carried early in the fighting, and later the British
occupied Ors. Before retreating, the Germans destroyed all the bridges
over the canal between these places.
The heaviest fighting in this battle was in Leveque Wood, where the
Germans had cunningly hidden machine-gun nests that were difficult to
overcome. But the wood was cleared after a time and the British
pressed on to the great Mormal Forest on the edge of which the Germans
were concentrating troops to make a stand.
The British continued to make gains on the following day south of
Valenciennes, capturing several villages and strong points. On the
north the Germans were cleared from the Raismes Forest. Advances were
made along the whole front between the Sambre Canal and the Scheldt
(about seventeen miles), and the forward pressure continued without
relaxation, though the Germans attempted by counterattacks to gain
time. Since the fighting began on the previous day over 7,000
prisoners and 100 guns were captured by the British.
In order to check the advance on Valenciennes the Germans broke down
the banks and opened the sluice gates northeast and southwest of the
city and flooded vast stretches of country. The British, however,
continued to drive ahead, and fighting their way into the city from
the west, there were spirited fights in the streets between patrols.
During the night of October 23-24, 1918, artillery duels increased on
the battle front south of the city.
The British gunners wrought fearful damage in the traffic-crowded
roads to the rear of the German line. The advance of the British in
the moonlight, protected by flocks of night bombing airplanes, offered
a strange and moving dramatic spectacle. At Pomereuil they were held
up for a time by a heavy concentration of machine guns. Waiting until
the advance had made progress north and south of them, they swept
around on both sides of the gun nests. They found the German machine
gunners occupying positions around a triangular space that had been
cleared. The British, ignoring the invitation to enter the clearing,
passed the gunners and captured Pomereuil Wood behind the triangle,
and thus surrounded the enemy. Then they stormed and carried the
position.
Continuing their attacks upon the German lines south of Valenciennes,
the British on October 25, 1918, advancing on a front of between six
and seven miles, reached the Le Quesnoy-Valenciennes railway,
capturing several villages on the way. Simultaneously with this
operation the French armies, striking on the Serre and Aisne Rivers
over a front of about forty miles, advanced their lines at all points,
capturing villages and positions and taking over 3,000 prisoners. East
of Courtrai, in the direction of the Scheldt, the British and French
troops made further progress, wresting a number of villages and
positions from the enemy.
The climax of the French attack was General Guillemat's drive east of
Laon against the Hunding position, the elaborately prepared line
protecting the German center. Here was a quadruple trench system
backed by concrete shelters, five lines of barbed wire each twenty
feet deep, and the ground between planted with antitank mines, yet the
indomitable French soldiers broke through it on a ten-mile front
between St. Quentin-le-Petit and Herpy, and held their ground against
deluges of gas and high-explosive shells.
On the center of the great offensive General Mangin's army took
Mortiers, on the south bank of the Serre, and gained a bridgehead
north of the river.
Farther north the British continued to press forward toward
Valenciennes, and on their right General Plumer's troops under command
of King Albert continued to cooperate in the drive against the German
line on the Scheldt.
On the whole forty-mile front of the offensive which the French began
on October 25, 1918, great gains of territory were made. The Germans
lost Crecy-sur-Serre in the center, and were forced to abandon a good
part of the Hunding position. In two days Generals Debeney and
Guillemat captured more than 6,000 prisoners, twenty cannon, and
hundreds of machine guns. On October 27, 1918, General Debeney had
pushed on to the outskirts of Guise. The Germans on this date
launched three fierce attacks against three different points on the
British front southeast of Valenciennes, all of which ended for them
in disaster and heavy losses.
The British forward movement south of Valenciennes slowed down on
October 28, 1918, but the French between the Oise and the Serre drove
the Germans back two miles at the apex of their attack in the region
of Bois-les-Pargny. On the Aisne front west of Chateau Porcien they
drove forward to the north of Herpy.
In Belgium the Allies' positions became daily more favorable, while
the difficulties of the Germans increased proportionately. The Allies
were now within five miles of Ghent, and it was only owing to the
delay in bringing up artillery that the city had not already fallen.
In the hope of destroying the Allies' lines of communication with
Bruges the Germans kept Stroobrigge under continuous fire. Maideghem
and Aldeghem were also subjected to incessant artillery attacks.
The retirement of General Ludendorff, formerly chief of staff and
really generalissimo of the German armies at this time, was an event
of the highest importance. As the persistent advocate of war to the
bitter end, and which he had never failed to assert would result in
the defeat of Germany's enemies, his throwing up the sponge at a time
of crisis in his country's destiny could only mean one of two things:
he had all the effective power of the empire against him, or he
foresaw the triumph of the Allies and was eager to seek cover before
the German armies were forced to surrender.
On the last day of the month the Allies wrested from the Germans a big
slice of territory in Belgium between Deynze on the north and Avelghem
on the south on a battle front of about fifteen miles. The attack in
which Belgian, French, British, and American troops were engaged, was
launched before 6 o'clock in the morning, and by noon the British had
broken their way through to a depth of 400 yards while on their left
their allies were encountering strong opposition, but winning high
ground between the Lys and Scheldt Rivers. Many towns and hamlets
were liberated during this drive, including Pergwyk, Tierghein,
Anseghem and Winterken. The front of this attack was about twelve
miles, and German positions were penetrated to a depth of three and
four miles.
The Allies resumed the offensive on this battle front on the following
day and won an advance of more than five miles, which brought them to
the Scheldt from Berchem to Gavere, ten miles south of Ghent. South of
Valenciennes an advance of two miles resulted in the capture of Alnoy
and Preseau. This forward drive carried the British to the southern
edge of the flooded territory around Valenciennes. They captured
during the advance between 3,000 and 4,000 prisoners.
The city of Valenciennes which the Germans had held so long and so
tenaciously was captured by the British in the morning of November 2,
1918. The Canadian troops under General Currie encountered strong
resistance from the enemy in the outskirts, and after a hard struggle
crushed all resistance and entered the city. Other British contingents
pressing on beyond Valenciennes occupied St. Saulve to the northeast
on the road to Mons. West of Landrecies in the Mormal Forest region
the British advanced their lines and took a number of prisoners.
The Germans by opening the Scheldt sluice gates had flooded the
northern side of the city, and their only way of escape was to the
southeast, where they had concentrated all their available forces.
These fought with stubborn energy, but they failed to more than delay
for a time the advance of the Canadians and English, who were
supported by an immense concentration of artillery. The enemy's
counterattacks were made with the help of tanks, but they all broke
down, and the British captured the tanks and thousands of prisoners.
Valenciennes, though in British hands on November 2, 1918, was still
an uncomfortable place for the inhabitants, who were in a confused
state of mind twixt joy and fear. There was joy that they had been
liberated and fear because of the shells that were falling around them
and passing over the houses. The way from Douai to Valenciennes was a
scene of ruin and desolation as the British and Canadians had fought
their way through the villages along these roads, and most of the
houses were smashed by German shells.
An interesting souvenir left by the Germans in Valenciennes was a
poster on the walls which the inhabitants of the city could now afford
to laugh at. This was an order for the mobilization of all the men
between the ages of 15 and 35, who must present themselves to the
German commandant in order to be evacuated through the German lines.
In case any disregarded this order severe penalties were to be
exacted. This order was dated October 31, 1918, and the day of
mobilization was to take place on November 1, 1918, the day before the
British entered the city. Twenty thousand people were expelled by
force on October 3, 1918, and driven in the direction of Mons. Only
about 5,000 remained in the city and these were employed by the
Germans in city work, such as maintaining the fire and water supplies,
cleaning the streets, washing, and in various menial offices. Among
those in the city when the British took possession were many who after
the expulsion on October 3, 1918, were too feeble to continue the
march and had dropped out, encumbering the German line of retreat.
There were others who had escaped from their German captors, and also
a number of young men who had hidden themselves and lived in cellars
for days.
During the last week of the German occupation only one regiment was
allowed in the city and this was chiefly to pillage, as the troops
defending the place were holding positions outside. Many houses were
looted, especially on the night before the British stormed the
outskirts.
The German officers were especially eager for souvenirs which took the
form of valuable paintings cut from the frames, and which they found
in houses of the better class. The German Government had been hard,
and there were fines for the slightest infraction of rules, which
increased in severity as the enemy needed money. Trivial offenses at
first were punished by a hundred marks fine, but in the last days of
German occupation it was raised to two thousand marks.
While the British were driving forward on the Valenciennes front the
American army was winning laurels north of Verdun, where they smashed
the Freya Line and put the Germans to rout. The advance on this
difficult front was intended to cut the German line of communications.
This was achieved.
On the left of the Americans the French Fourth Army was in hot pursuit
of the Germans who were fleeing across the Argonne Forest. The French
smashed the enemy's rear guards, who attempted to delay the advance,
and made important progress along the whole line of attack. On the
left Semuy was taken and the French lines were carried as far as the
southern bank of the Ardennes Canal. To the south Bois Vandy and the
village of Balay were cleared of Germans, who fought desperately but
were unable to delay for more than a few hours the irresistible
advance of the French troops. On the right Longwe and Primat were
occupied. North of the last-named place the French pushed on past
Chene Pate and despite that formidable obstacle, the Argonne Forest,
continued to pursue the Germans, whose retreat was so hurried that
they left large quantities of material on the field which they had not
found time to destroy. In the course of this advance the French
captured over 1,400 prisoners.
South and east of Valenciennes, where the Germans had established
positions, the British on November 2-3, 1918, were fighting their way
forward, driving back the enemy rear guards and taking prisoners.
Field Marshal Haig's troops won another notable victory on November 4,
1918, when attacking on a thirty-mile front between the Scheldt and
the Oise-Sambre Canal, with the French cooperating on the right, a
drive was made into enemy positions and over 10,000 Germans and 200
guns were captured. The British drive, in which troops of the First,
Third, and Fourth Armies participated, resulted in the capture of
Landrecies south of the Mormal Forest, Catillon, and a considerable
number of smaller towns, and advanced the British lines more than
three miles to the east of the Oise-Sambre Canal. North of this
stream, in the great Mormal Forest, the British won strongly fortified
positions and advanced to the center of the wood.
To the south the Fifth French Army under General Debeney, linking up
with the British, forced the passage of the canal and made an advance
to a depth of two miles beyond it, driving the Germans from a number
of villages of great strategic importance. In this advance the French
bagged 30,000 prisoners and a large number of cannon.
King Albert's army in Belgium continued to gain victories and to press
the German retreat. He had completed the work of forcing the enemy
across the Terneuzen Canal, which runs northward from Ghent and is
close to the suburbs of the city on two sides. South of Ghent the west
bank of the Scheldt was now in the hands of the Allies.
British and French armies in Belgium continued to crush and overrun
the German positions. In the morning of November 5, 1918, the British
forced their way through the greater part of the Mormal Forest, the
infantry being east of a line through Locquignol and Les Grandes
Patures. They had overcome the formidable defenses on the western
fringe of the forest and had now confronting them only hastily
improvised machine-gun posts. The French continued to drive the
Germans before them between the Sambre Canal and the Argonne Forest,
clearing the enemy out of wide stretches of territory and carrying
their line forward more than six miles. The towns of Guise and Marie
were captured during this advance and 4,000 Germans and 60 guns.
On November 6, 1918, a German delegation left Berlin for the western
front to conclude an armistice with Marshal Foch, representing the
Allied armies. The negotiations led to a cessation of hostilities on
November 11, 1918.
The victorious sweep of the Allies continued undiminished from the
Scheldt to the Meuse, where the Germans were being driven back along
the whole front. On November 6, 1918, the British, advancing east of
the Mormal Forest, occupied a number of villages and the important
railway junction at Aulnoye. The French armies made a bound of from
five to seven miles along the whole front. Vervins, Rethel, and
Montcornet, all important places, were occupied and the advance
continued.
Crossing the Belgian border north and east of Hirson, French cavalry
occupied a number of villages and the important fortress of Hirson,
advancing their line nine miles at some points. Along the entire
thirty-mile front from the junction of the French and British armies
to the Meuse east of Mezieres, now strongly invested, the French
pushed on with irresistible ardor. The water barriers of the Thon and
the Aure were forced, and the plateaus to the north occupied. On the
British front the same story of victory was repeated. Field Marshal
Haig's troops completed the capture of Tournai, and Antoing, to the
south of that Belgian city, was occupied. On November 9, 1918, the
British had driven forward to the outskirts of Renaix, twelve miles
northeast of Tournai. The Second and Fifth Armies meanwhile had gained
the east bank of the Scheldt throughout their entire front. These
operations took place north of the Mons-Conde Canal, along the line of
which the British were advancing on Mons. South of the Belgian
frontier they took the important town of Maubeuge, and pressed on
toward the Belgian frontier on both sides of the Sambre, meeting with
only feeble resistance from the disorganized enemy.
The remaining inhabitants of Tournai, which the British entered on
November 8, 1918, received their liberators with wild demonstrations
of joy such as only a people were capable of who had lived for years
under the tyrannic rule of the Germans. For three weeks before the
British captured the town the inhabitants had been living in cellars
in hourly fear that the furious gunfire would smash the buildings
above their heads and that they would be buried in the ruins. There
was also the dread that asphyxiating gas would creep into their hiding
places and destroy them with its fumes. A month before British
occupation the Germans had carried away all the able-bodied men in the
place, numbering more than 10,000, leaving their women-folk to weep
for them. For a week previous to the British entry Tournai was under
bombardment day and night. Then forty-eight hours before the Germans
were driven out more terrible sounds were heard by the frightened
people hiding in the cellars, explosions that shook every building as
by an earthquake. The Germans were blowing up the bridges over the
Scheldt Canal, and their retreat from Tournai had begun.
Though German delegates were on their way to the French front to
arrange for an armistice, the Allies continued to fight and advance
with the same irresistible ardor as if there had been no question of a
cessation of hostilities. In southern Belgium the British continued to
carry their lines forward, reaching on November 10, 1918, the
Franco-Belgian frontier south of the Sambre. North of the Mons-Conde
Canal they pressed on beyond the Scheldt, capturing Leuze, while
British cavalry advanced to Ath, which lies sixteen miles east of
Tournai.
Farther to the north the British captured Renaix and carried their
line to a point four miles to the east of that place.
While the British were sweeping on in southern Belgium the French were
engaged in repulsing strong attacks launched against them as they
crossed the Meuse. Numerous villages along the whole line were freed
from the enemy. Here, as at other places, the haste of the German
retreat was emphasized by the abandonment of vast stores of war
material, cannon, and even railroad trains, which fell into the hands
of the French.
At 2 o'clock in the afternoon of November 10, 1918, General Gouraud
made his official entry into Sedan; a thrilling hour for the French as
they recalled the German triumph here in the war of 1870.
Slowly, but surely, French territory occupied by the enemy along the
Belgian frontier was diminishing in size. The French troops everywhere
were now within a short day's march of the border line, and but for
the congested roads encumbered with traffic, and by the booty which
the Germans left behind, the liberation of French soil could have been
completed in less than a day's advance.
[Illustration: The German territory occupied under the armistice
terms.]
Though it was known among the troops of the Allies as well as by the
Germans that an armistice might be declared at any moment, there were
no changes in the attitude of the combatants. The Germans fought when
they had to, sullenly and determinedly, but most of their efforts were
concentrated in making all haste they could to reach the border. To
the last they showed a savage spirit, and nowhere more so than at
Mezieres, where throughout the morning of November 10, 1918, their
batteries deluged the city with high explosives and poison gas. There
20,000 civilians--men, women, and children--were shut in, with no hope
of escape. Incendiary shells fired a hospital, and it was necessary to
evacuate the wounded to the cellars near by, where the panic-stricken
inhabitants were crouching. There was some protection from shells in
the cellars, but none against the heavy fumes of poison gas with which
the Germans proceeded to flood the city. There were no gas masks and
no chemicals that would enable the people to improvise protective head
coverings.
The British captured Mons during the night of November 10-11, 1918,
after a stiff fight outside the town. For the British the war ended at
Mons as it had begun there. Since early morning their troops knew that
the armistice had been signed, and that hostilities would cease at 11
o'clock. All the way to Mons British forces were on the march with
bands playing, and nearly every man carried on his rifle a little flag
of France or Belgium.
Ghent was the last Belgian town which was rescued from the Germans
before the armistice. They held the canal in front of it by
machine-gun fire until 2 o'clock in the morning of November 11, 1918,
when they made a hurried retreat.
A dozen Belgian soldiers, led by a young lieutenant, were the first to
enter the city, and a few minutes later the streets were thronged with
people wild with joy, who embraced the troops and each other, shouting
and cheering. After four years of oppressive German rule Ghent of
historic memories was free.
[Illustration: A Canadian brigade, serving as Guard of Honor, in the
occupation of Mons, Belgium, taken by Canadian forces on November 11,
1918. The fighting of British troops thus ended with a victorious
entry into the town where their first terrible battle was fought in
1914.]
Hostilities ceased on all the battle fronts at 11 a. m. on November
11, 1918. The machine guns and great cannon that had rattled and
thundered for fifty months were silent. On the front lines, when the
last shot was fired, the British, Americans, and Belgians gave free
vent to their feelings of joy that the war was over, the victory won.
The soldiers of France were less demonstrative and seemed unable at
first to realize that the long-drawn agony was ended; but though they
did not express themselves in wild cheering, every face was aglow with
pride and happiness. Back of the lines, among the ruined villages,
there were more evidences of the gladness that filled every
war-weary heart, and while church bells rung out a joyous peal the
songs of victory, which had cheered the poilus through the long
conflict, resounded again with a deeper feeling and more triumphant
note.
According to the terms of the armistice the Germans yielded over to
Allied occupation "the countries on the left bank of the Rhine,"
together with surrender to Allied control of the crossings of the
Rhine at Mayence, Coblenz, and Cologne, including bridgeheads of
thirty-kilometer radius on the eastern bank of the river and the
establishment of a neutral zone on that bank from thirty to forty
kilometers in breadth and running from the frontier of Holland to the
Swiss frontier.
On November 17, 1918, the Allied armies of occupation began the march
to the Rhine. The American army, consisting of six divisions under
General Dickman, was the first to start, moving in a northeasterly
direction on a front of fifty miles from Mouzon on the Meuse to beyond
Fresnes. At Montmedy, the first important place reached by the
Americans, they were received with wild acclamation by the inhabitants
and the Stars and Stripes waved from the Hotel de Ville. At Longwy and
Briey, the great industrial centers, it was the same story. Lorraine
and Luxemburg were crossed and Coblenz was reached on December 12,
1918, where headquarters of the army of occupation were established.
On the same date the British Second and Fourth Army under Generals
Plumer and Rawlinson began their advance to Cologne. In conjunction
with their allies, a French army under General Mangin set out for
Mayence, while General Petain, now a marshal of France, entered Metz.
Throughout Belgium and France the armies of the Allies received the
most enthusiastic reception in which there was no discordant note. It
was only when they crossed the border and entered Germany that they
met with veiled hostility. There were crowds and bands, but no
enthusiasm. But, if this was lacking, there were no aggressive
manifestations of hatred toward the invaders of the Fatherland. A
sense of joy and relief that the war was over vanquished for the time
at least every other feeling.
PART II--RUSSIA
[Illustration: Map of the Western front.
MAP OF WESTERN FRONT
Although many important campaigns, some of them of dazzling
brilliancy, were carried on during the World War in various parts of
Europe and Asia in Russia, Palestine, Bulgaria, and on the Italo
Austrian frontier, the result of the struggle was decided on the
western front. Here the great armies of Germany and the Entente were
locked for four years in death grapple. The map shows the theater of
operations. The white line marks the farthest limit of the German
advance, when in September, 1914, their armies were turned back when
Von Kluck was within twenty two miles of Paris. Within that line and
the black line with white dots which marks the position of the
contending armies when the armistice was signed, November 11, 1918,
the heaviest fighting of the war took place. In this area are shown
the Marne River, which the Germans reached in 1914 and 1918, the
Aisne, to which they retreated after their first repulse before Paris,
and the Somme, where the Allies were victorious in the campaign of
1918. The heavy red lines include the territory of Germany occupied by
the victorious Allies after the armistice. Of this, Alsace and
Lorraine have been definitely ceded to France by the Peace Treaty. At
three great crossings of the Rhine--Cologne, Coblenz and
Mayence--bridgeheads were established, each with a radius of eighteen
miles to be occupied respectively by British, American, and French
armies. The oblique red lines on the right bank of the Rhine mark a
strip six miles wide and parallel with the river that constitutes a
neutral zone. The occupied territory is to be held for fifteen years,
the period in which it is estimated Germany will have paid the
indemnity demanded by the Treaty.
ST. MIHIEL BATTLE GROUND
The battle of St. Mihiel was fought September 12th, 1918. It was
notable not only for the completeness of the victory, but also because
it was the first great battle planned and fought wholly under American
direction. The St. Mihiel salient had been formed during the first
invasion by the Germans in 1914 and had been held by them for four
years. In two days the American First Army wiped it out of existence.
The red dots indicate the line of the contending armies when the
battle was joined. The broad red line shows the position three days
later. The salient was crushed by the irristible onset of the
Americans, and 152 square miles of territory, including seventy-two
villages, were taken. In twenty-seven hours after the attack was
launched 15,000 prisoners and hundreds of guns were captured, together
with vast stores of munitions and supplies, while a force of Germans,
estimated from 90,000 to 100,000 men, was in headlong retreat. The
battle was of immense strategic importance, as it freed Verdun from
menace on its right flank and placed the dominating heights of the
Meuse in Allied hands.
MEUSE-ARGONNE OFFENSIVE
The battle of the Argonne Forest has been described as the greatest of
the war. It was certainly the most difficult. The story of its taking
is an epic and reflects imperishable glory on American arms. The
forest had been held by the Germans for four years. Its natural
difficulties were so great that Napoleon himself had refused to attack
it, believing it impregnable. To these natural obstacles the Germans
had brought all the aids of military science. Every foot of it had
been ranged for their artillery. Thousands of miles of barbed wire had
been wound from bush to bush and tree to tree. Myriads of machine-gun
nests commanded all strategic points. The ground had to be won foot by
foot. It was believed even by many of the Allied commanders that
success was impossible. The Germans realized the tremendous importance
of the position, and had brought up their best divisions for its
defense. But the power and fury of the American attack could not be
denied. The American First Army began the battle September 26, 1918,
between the Meuse and Aisne Rivers, directly east of Rheims, on a
front of twenty miles. They took 5,000 prisoners on the first day, and
3,000 more on the second, besides obtaining all their objectives. Day
by day the struggle continued, the Americans always advancing, until
by October 16 Grand Pre was taken and the forest was practically
cleared. From that point the First Army under General Liggett, and the
Second under General Bullard fought their way to the Meuse. The red
dotted line shows where the offensive began, and the broad red line
indicates the position when the armistice was signed, November 11,
1918.]
[Illustration: New Map of Europe.
NEW MAP OF EUROPE
The arbitrament of war has changed the face of Europe. In the central
and eastern portions of the Continent all national boundary lines have
been recast. Some of the changes made are definite and final. Others
are tentative and still await final definition. A multitude of
conflicting claims have had to be adjusted, and the task is so
colossal that months or years may elapse before the work of the
various boundary commissions is completed. In cases where doubt
existed as to the propriety of certain proposed changes, arrangements
were made for a plebiscite whereby the people of the territory in
question could determine by vote to what nation they wished to belong.
In still other cases, cities, districts, and waterways were
internationalized and placed under the control of the League of
Nations. The general principle sought to be followed was that of
self-determination of peoples and an opportunity for every nation to
develop economic prosperity. The principle was of necessity modified
in judging the Central Powers, where the question of reparation was a
factor. Territorially, France and Poland have gained most heavily,
while Germany and Austria-Hungary have been the greatest losers.
The one decision concerning which there was no question in the Peace
Conference was the restoration of Alsace-Lorraine (1) to France, from
whom it had been wrested by Germany forty-eight years before. The coal
mines of the Saar Valley (2) region were given to France outright in
compensation for the wrecking of French coal mines at Lens, and
whether the region itself should be restored to Germany or remain
attached to France was to be determined by vote of the inhabitants
after fifteen years. The district covers 738 square miles. The
sovereignty of Germany over Moresnet and the circles of Eupen and
Malmedy (3) was relinquished to Belgium. The people of these circles
could, if they chose, protest within six months this change of
nationality. The territory in question covers 382 square miles. Parts
of Schleswig (4) representing 2,787 square miles, formerly taken from
Denmark by Prussia, are to determine their nationality by popular
vote. The district is divided into three zones for this purpose.
Poland (5) receives outright parts of Silesia, Posen, and West
Prussia, with a total of 27,683 square miles. The city of Danzig (6)
on the Baltic is made a free port under the supervision of the League
of Nations. An area about the city aggregating 729 square miles is
internationalized. Parts of East Prussia (7) and Upper Silesia (8)
will have their destiny determined by vote of the inhabitants. By far
the greatest sufferer in the new territorial adjustment is the former
empire of Austria-Hungary (9), which from an area of 240,000 square
miles was reduced to about 25,000 square miles. Part of this had been
lost when Hungary (10) seceded from the Dual Empire shortly after the
armistice was declared. Apart from the cessions to Italy, the new
state of Czecho-Slovakia (11), four times as large as Belgium, and
covering 48,000 square miles, has been carved out of the former
territory of the Hapsburg Monarchy. The greater part of Jugoslavia
(12), officially known as the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and
Slovenes, has also been formed from former Austro-Hungarian territory.
The fate of the city of Fiume (13) is still undetermined, as is the
final disposition of the Dalmation coast (14), the greater part of
which, however, is certain to be assigned to Italy. The Trentino (15)
and Istria (16), formerly part of the "Italian Irredenta," have been
made definitely Italian. Thrace (17) has been taken from Bulgarian
control and placed at the disposition of the Allies, and Bulgaria (18)
has been compelled to rectify her frontiers at several points in favor
of Serbia. Rumania receives Transylvania (19) and the richest part of
the Banat of Temesvar (20). Bessarabia (21) was united with Rumania
before the conclusion of the war. The Ukraine (22), one of the richest
sections of the old Russian Empire, has seceded from the parent state.
Finland's independence (23) has been recognized by the Powers. The
group of what was known as the Russian Baltic Provinces, and whose
problems are largely identical, Esthonia (24), Latvia (25), and
Lithuania (26), have declared themselves independent republics. The
truncated territory of the former Russian Empire is now under Soviet
government with Moscow as capital. In the Near East, Georgia (28) and
Armenia have set up a republican form of government, but their
boundaries are as yet ill-defined.
[Transcriber's note: the numbering in the text skips from (26) to
(28)--there is no (27)! Also, there are no footnotes on the page to
match the numbers.]]
CHAPTER VI
COUNTERING THE GERMANS IN FALLEN RUSSIA
With the complete surrender of Bolshevist Russia to the Germans,
through the notorious Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, there was presented to
the Allies the problem of supporting those elements in the country
still disposed to resist the Teutonic invasion. Military intervention,
by way of Siberia, with the active assistance of the Japanese, was
proposed, but met with the determined opposition of President Wilson,
whose strong democratic principles deterred him from interfering with
the internal affairs of Russia under any pretext whatever.
Subsequently he modified his views on this point, being largely
influenced by the Czecho-Slovak movement, one of the most remarkable
and picturesque features of the entire war.
As already stated in previous installments of this work, the
Czecho-Slovaks were Slavic soldiers of the Austrian armies who had
been taken prisoners by the Russians, and who, after the fall of the
Czar, volunteered to fight against the Central Powers with the Allies
because of their desire to obtain independence for Bohemia and
Slovakia, parts of the dominions of the Austrian empire. They look a
leading part in the offensive which Kerensky attempted against the
Teutons, and which failed so disastrously on account of the broken
morale of the Russians. When the Bolsheviki seized the reins of
government, the Czecho-Slovaks refused to lay down their arms and
asked that they might be permitted to retire from Russia by way of
Vladivostok, whence they hoped to be transported to France and allowed
to take their place with the Allies on the western front. To this
arrangement the Bolsheviki agreed, and the Czecho-Slovaks began at
once embarking on trains over the Trans-Siberian Railroad. But before
even the first contingents had safely reached Vladivostok, friction
broke out between them and the Bolsheviki, which presently took on the
aspect of an armed conflict, with remarkably successful results for
the Czecho-Slovaks, who gained almost complete possession of the
railroad and large areas of Siberia.
The Bolsheviki maintained that Allied intrigues had caused the
Czecho-Slovaks to turn on them, while the Allied representatives laid
the blame to German pressure applied to the Soviet Government. Captain
Vladimir Hurban, an officer of the Czecho-Slovak Army, who came to
Washington to report to Prof. Masaryk, President of the National
Council of the Czecho-Slovaks, supplies details which are not only of
vivid interest in themselves, but assist in fixing the responsibility
for the bloodshed which resulted in such advantages to the Allied
cause.
"When the Bolshevist Soviet Government signed the peace treaty in the
beginning of March, 1918," says Captain Hurban, in his personal
narrative, "our army of about 50,000 was in Ukrainia, near Kiev....
The Germans advanced against us in overwhelming numbers and there was
danger that we would be surrounded.... The Bolshevist Red Guards had
seized the locomotives and were fleeing east in panic. Under these
circumstances Emperor Charles sent us a special envoy with the promise
that if we would disarm we should be amnestied and our land should
receive autonomy. We refused to negotiate with the Austrian emperor.
"As we could not hold a front, we began to retreat to the eastward....
When we arrived at Bachmac the Germans were there waiting for us.
There began a battle lasting four days, in which they were badly
defeated and which enabled us to get our trains through. The commander
of the German detachment offered us a forty-eight hour truce, which
we accepted, for our duty was to leave Ukrainia. The truce was
canceled by the German chief commander, Linsingen, but too late; our
trains had already got away. We lost altogether about 600 men in dead,
wounded, and missing, while we buried 2,000 Germans in one day.
"In this manner we escaped from Ukrainia. Our relations with the
Bolsheviki were still good. We refrained from meddling in Russian
internal affairs, and we tried to come to an agreement with the
Bolshevist Government with respect to our departure, or passage
through Russia. But already signs were visible that the Bolsheviki,
either under German influence or because we then represented the only
real power in Russia, would try to put obstacles in our way. It would
have sufficed to order one of our regiments--our army was then, in
March, near Moscow--to take Moscow, and in half a day there would have
been no Bolshevist Government; for then we were well armed, having
taken from the front everything we could carry, to prevent it from
falling into the hands of the Germans.... To prove indisputably our
loyalty we turned over to the Bolsheviki everything, all our arms,
with the exception of a few rifles (ten rifles to each 100 men). The
equipment we turned over to the Bolsheviki, including arms, horses,
automobiles, aeroplanes, etc., was worth more than a million rubles,
and it was legally in our possession, for we took it away from the
Germans, to whom it had been abandoned by the fleeing Bolsheviki. This
transfer of the equipment was, of course, preceded by an agreement
made between us and the Moscow Government by which we were guaranteed
unmolested passage through Siberia, to which the Government pledged to
give its unconditional support....
"Under such circumstances we began our pilgrimage east. I was in the
first train--there were then eighty trains of us--which was to prepare
the way. We were determined to leave Russia without a conflict.
Notwithstanding that we kept our word, that we surrendered all arms
except the few necessary, our progress was hindered, and unending
negotiations had to be repeated in every seat of a local soviet. We
were threatened by machine guns, cannon, but we patiently stood it
all, though the Bolsheviki Red Guard could have been disbanded by a
few of our volunteers. After fifty-seven days of such tiresome travel
our first train arrived at Vladivostok, where we were enthusiastically
received by the Allied units stationed there.
"When the Germans saw that we, notwithstanding all their intrigues,
were nearing Vladivostok, they exercised a direct pressure on Lenine
and Trotzky; for the things that were committed by the Soviets cannot
any further be explained away on the grounds of ignorance. The trains
were stopped at different stations, so that they were finally stopped
at a distance of fifty miles from each other. Provoking incidents of
all kinds were the order of the day. The arming of the German and
Magyar prisoners was begun on a large scale. One of the orders of
Tchitcherin, Bolshevist foreign minister, reads: 'Dispatch all German
and Magyar prisoners out of Siberia; stop the Czecho-Slovaks.' Three
members of our National Council, who were sent to Moscow for an
explanation of the stopping of our trains, were arrested. At the same
time our trains were attacked at different stations by Soviet troops,
formed mostly of German and Magyar prisoners.
"I will recall the Irkutsk incident. Our train, with about 400 men,
armed with ten rifles and twenty hand grenades, was surrounded by a
few thousand Red Guards, armed with machine guns and cannon. Their
commander gave our men ten minutes in which to surrender their arms,
or be shot. According to their habit, our leaders began negotiations:
Suddenly there was heard the German command, 'schiessen!' and the Red
Guards began firing at the train. Our men jumped off the train, and in
five minutes all the machine guns were in their possession, the
Russian Bolsheviki disarmed, and all the Magyars and Germans done away
with. The Siberian Government, which resides in Irkutsk and which, as
it appeared later, ordered this attack, can thank only the
intervention of the American and French consuls that it was not
destroyed by our embittered volunteers.
"To what extreme our loyalty was carried is shown by the fact that,
although perfidiously attacked, and although we disarmed the Red
Guard in Irkutsk, we still began new negotiations, with the result
that we surrendered all our arms, on the condition that all German and
Magyar prisoners would be disarmed and disbanded, and that we would be
allowed to proceed unmolested."
As narrated in a previous volume of this work, the Czecho-Slovaks were
thus compelled to engage in military operations against the
Bolsheviki, and in doing so obtained possession of large areas in
Siberia, including large cities, where they were welcomed by the
populations and dissolved the Soviets. On the other hand, however,
many large units of them found themselves isolated and unable to
proceed on their way to Vladivostok. It was to assist them to
extricate themselves from these positions that the United States
finally agreed to dispatch a limited military force to Russian
territory. Late in July, 1918, an arrangement to this effect was made
with Japan. And on August 3, 1918, an official announcement was issued
at Washington, in part as follows:
"In the judgment of the Government of the United States--a judgment
arrived at after repeated and very searching consideration of the
whole situation--military intervention in Russia would be more likely
to add to the present sad confusion there than to cure it, and would
injure Russia, rather than help her out of her distress. Such military
intervention as has been most frequently proposed, even supposing it
to be efficacious in its immediate object of delivering an attack upon
Germany from the east, would, in its judgment, be more likely to turn
out to be merely a method of making use of Russia than to be a method
of saving her. Her people, if they profited by it at all, would not
profit by it in time to deliver them from their present desperate
difficulties, and their substance would meantime be used to maintain
foreign armies, not to reconstitute their own, or to feed their own
men, women, and children. We are bending all our energies now to the
purpose of winning on the western front, and it would, in the judgment
of the Government of the United States, be most unwise to divide or
dissipate our forces.
"As the Government of the United States sees the present
circumstances, therefore, military action is admissible in Russia now
only to render such protection and help as is possible to the
Czecho-Slovaks against the armed Austrian and German prisoners who are
attacking them, and to steady any efforts at self-government or
self-defense in which the Russians themselves may be willing to accept
assistance. Whether from Vladivostok or from Murmansk and Archangel,
the only present object for which American troops will be employed
will be to guard military stores which may subsequently be needed by
Russian forces and to render such aid as may be acceptable to the
Russians in the organization of their own self-defense.
"With such objects in view, the Government of the United States is now
cooperating with the Governments of France and Great Britain in the
neighborhood of Murmansk and Archangel. The United States and Japan
are the only powers which are just now in a position to act in Siberia
in sufficient force to accomplish even such modest objects as those
that have been outlined. The Government of the United States has,
therefore, proposed to the Government of Japan that each of the two
governments send a force of a few thousand men to Vladivostok, with
the purpose of cooperating as a single force in the occupation of
Vladivostok and in safeguarding, as far as it may be, the country to
the rear of the westward-moving Czecho-Slovaks, and the Japanese
Government has consented.
"In taking this action the Government of the United States wishes to
announce to the people of Russia, in the most public and solemn
manner, that it contemplates no interference with the political
sovereignty of Russia, no intervention in her internal affairs--not
even in the local affairs of the limited areas which her military
force may be obliged to occupy--and no impairment of her territorial
integrity, either now or hereafter, but that what we are about to do
has as its single and only object the rendering of such aid as shall
be acceptable to the Russian people themselves in their endeavors to
regain control of their own affairs, their own territory, and their
own destiny."
The Japanese issued a similar declaration a few days later, also
disclaiming any desire for territorial aggrandizement at the cost of
Russia.
During the first week of August, 1918, about 7,000 American soldiers,
most of them regulars from the Philippines, were landed at
Vladivostok, the United States Government announcing, on August 7,
1918, that Major General William S. Graves, former assistant chief of
the Army General Staff, would have command of the American expedition.
The Japanese landed a similar force, under General Kikuzo Otani,
president of the famous military technical school of Toyama Gakko, and
who, on account of his senior rank, would assume command of the entire
Allied force. The French and British landed smaller forces each, the
former being native troops from Tonkin and the British being local
garrisons from India.
Meanwhile the Czecho-Slovak Army in the interior of Russia continued
its operations. On July 26, 1918, they reported the capture of
Simbirsk, 600 miles east of Moscow; on the last day of the month they
gained possession of a large railroad bridge at Syzram, in the Volga
region, and on the following day they took the city of Ekaterinburg,
where the czar had been executed by order of the Ural regional soviet.
In western Siberia they ordered the mobilization of the classes from
1912 to 1920, at Omsk. It was also reported that they were being
joined by thousands of Rumanians and Italians who had formerly been
soldiers in the Austrian armies and had later been taken prisoners by
the imperial Russian armies. By this time it was generally recognized
that the original plan of the Czecho-Slovaks, to withdraw from Russia
by way of Vladivostok, had been changed to one whereby they were to
remain and form the nucleus about which the anti-Bolshevist elements
in Russia and the Allies might reconstruct an eastern front against
the German forces.
The Japanese, being the first to land at Vladivostok, were the first
to advance into the interior, and they immediately took up their
position along the Ussuri River, which forms the eastern boundary of
Manchuria with Siberia. The Americans, as soon as they arrived,
occupied the railway toward Nikolsk.
At this time, in the middle of August, 1918, the main forces of the
enemy, Russian Bolsheviki and German and Magyar ex-prisoners, were
located near Chita, in Transbaikalia, numbering about 50,000. Others
occupied positions along the Amur and Ussuri Rivers, north of
Vladivostok.
On August 24, 1918, the first serious fighting took place, when the
Japanese, supported by their allies, drove the Red Guards fifteen
miles north from the Ussuri. Here the enemy numbered about 8,000,
consisting of infantry and some artillery. Four days later the
Japanese occupied Krasnoyarsk and Blagovyeshchensk. On September 7,
1918, the Bolshevist naval base at Khabarovsk was taken by Japanese
cavalry, the booty including seventeen gunboats, four other vessels,
and 120 guns.
One of the objects of the expedition was to establish communications
with the Czecho-Slovaks far in the interior of the country, and this
was quickly accomplished by an unexpected success on the part of the
Allied forces. The isolated Czecho-Slovak army near Lake Baikal, under
Colonel Gaida, had been endeavoring to advance toward Chita. General
Semenov, the Russian anti-Bolshevist leader, with a force of Cossacks
supported by Japanese, had been coming out of China and was also
advancing toward Chita. A delayed dispatch from the American Consul at
Irkutsk, dated August 13, 1918, brought word that the Bolsheviki army
east of Lake Baikal had been destroyed and on September 4, 1918,
telegraphic communication between Irkutsk and Vladivostok was
reopened. On the same day it was announced that the Czecho-Slovaks and
the Cossacks and Japanese under Semenov had joined hands at Chita and
that that main stronghold was taken. This gave the Allied forces
entire control of the railways in Siberia as far west as Samara, on
the Volga River, a few hundred miles from Moscow.
During this period the anti-Bolshevist elements in Russia were
cooperating with these efforts in their behalf. On August 5, 1918, the
Russian embassy in Washington announced the formation of a new
government in Siberia, whose chief purpose was to oust the Soviets and
bring Russia back in line with the Allies against Germany.
"The United Siberian Government," said the statement in part, "states
that it was elected on January 26, 1916, by the members of a regional
Siberian Duma--representative assembly. The point where this
government has temporarily transferred its center is Vladivostok, the
other members of it remaining at Omsk. A message from those at Omsk
has just been received, stating that, owing to the combined efforts of
the Czecho-Slovaks and the military organizations of the Siberian
Government itself, the following cities have been liberated from the
Bolsheviki: Mariinsk, Novo Nicolayevsk, Tomsk, Narim, Tobolsk,
Barnaul, Semipalatinsk, Karkarlinski, Atchinsk, and Krasnoyarsk....
The 'Temporary Government of Siberia' adds a public statement of its
political aims, which are: the creation of a Russian army, well
disciplined, in order to reestablish, in cooperation with the Allies,
a battle front against Germany. Siberia, being an inseparable part of
United Russia, the Temporary Government of Siberia believes it to be
its first duty to safeguard, in the territory of Siberia, the
interests of the whole of Russia, to recognize all the international
treaties and agreements of Russia with friendly nations which were in
force until October 25, 1917, the moment of the Bolshevist
uprising...."
CHAPTER VII
ALLIED INTERVENTION IN THE NORTH OF RUSSIA
As recounted in the previous installment of this work, the Allies and
the United States had already, in July, 1918, landed troops in the
Murmansk Peninsula, in northern Russia, primarily to ward off a German
invasion through Finland, secondly to guard those military supplies
and stores which the imperialist Government had purchased in Great
Britain and America, though they were still not paid for. These
supplies were largely stored in Kola, and there was fear that the
Germans, either directly, or through pressure applied to the Soviet
Government in Moscow, might obtain possession of them.
The first Allied forces had been landed on July 15, 1918, and included
some American marines. On the following day, in declaring the object
of this act of intervention, Rear Admiral Kemp, of the British Navy,
had announced that the Allied forces would advance southward "in
accord with the local soviet authorities, and at the request of the
local population for help."
On August 4, 1918, another force was landed at Archangel, on the south
shore of the White Sea, and had taken control of the coast northward
to Murmansk. Included in this force were some American troops and
members of the Russian Officers League. An anti-Bolshevist revolution
had already taken place in Archangel, and when the Allies landed they
were greeted with much enthusiasm by the population.
Under the protection of the Allied forces in this region a Provisional
Government of the Country of the North was at once organized, largely
made up of Socialistic elements: Social Revolutionists and the
Mensheviki, the minority party of the Social Democrats. The leaders
were members of the Constituent Assembly which the Bolsheviki had
dispersed in Petrograd on its attempt to hold its first session. The
president of the new republic was Nicholas Tchaikovsky, the noted
Russian revolutionist of early days and colleague of "Grandmother"
Breshkovskaya. On August 7, 1918, Tchaikovsky's Government issued a
proclamation of its purposes, in which, after denouncing the
Bolsheviki as traitors to Russia, it was declared that the Government
of the North Country desired to defend the country against German
invasion, to reestablish the All-Russian Constituent Assembly, and to
maintain law and order in the interests of all the people.
"The Government," continued the manifesto, "counts on the Russian,
American, and British peoples, as well as those of other nations, for
aid in combating famine and relieving the financial situation. It
recognizes that intervention by the Allies in Russia's internal
affairs is not directed against the interests of the people, and that
the people will welcome the Allied troops who have come to fight
against the common enemy...."
The Allied forces landed in Archangel, in cooperation with those
already established on the Murmansk coast, and Russian White Guards
and volunteers began to advance toward the south, in the direction of
Vologda, with the purpose of joining hands with the extreme western
wing of the Czecho-Slovaks, and thus establish a complete chain
through Russia from the White Sea to the Pacific. On August 31, 1918,
an attack was made on Obozerskaya, seventy-five miles south of
Archangel, and taken.
On September 8, 1918, Tchaikovsky's Government was overthrown by
elements opposed to it, though still in favor of Allied intervention,
but four days later these counter-revolutionary forces were persuaded
to retire from the field and permit Tchaikovsky to reestablish
himself. On September 11, 1918, more American troops were landed to
augment the Allied forces, these Americans being men picked for their
special fitness for standing the rigors of a northern Russian winter.
In the middle of September, 1918, the first really serious contact
with the enemy took place and, as admitted by Pravda, the official
organ of the Bolsheviki in Moscow, the Soviet forces were seriously
defeated and driven southward. Many Bolshevist officers, said Pravda,
had deserted to the enemy.
CHAPTER VIII
THE BOLSHEVIKI RESENT ALLIED INTERVENTION
The first landing of Allied soldiers, on the Murmansk Coast, had
brought forth a strong protest from the Soviet Government in Moscow,
and though the Allied Governments, and especially the United States,
were still inclined to hold friendly relations with the Bolshevist
Government, these relations now began undergoing a decided change. On
July 29, 1918, Lenine, at a closed meeting of the executive committee
of his Government, had declared that Russia was in a state of war with
the Entente nations, but when the Entente diplomats sought further
details regarding this statement, the Foreign Minister, Tchitcherin,
replied that this was merely a private utterance on the part of the
Bolshevist premier and had not been made in his official capacity;
that, at any rate, it was meant only to imply that Russia was
defending herself against foreign invasion. At the time he urged the
American ambassador and the other Allied representatives, who were
then in Vologda, to return to Moscow. But instead of complying with
this request Mr. Francis and his colleagues removed to Archangel,
where they would be under the protection of the Allied forces of
occupation. In a final message to the Russian foreign minister, Mr.
Francis stated that he had no intention of quitting Russia, and that
at any rate he would only be absent temporarily. The Allied consuls,
he added, would remain. Tchitcherin, on the other hand, said that,
even if they did depart, the absence of the Allied diplomats would not
affect the situation, and that there was no reason why the consuls and
citizens of the Allied nations should not remain in Russia.
On August 10, 1918, the Bolshevist authorities arrested the British
acting consul general in Moscow, together with six of his staff and
several French diplomatic agents. The reason given was that the
Bolshevist forces had been fired upon by the Allies on landing in
Archangel. Great Britain immediately responded by arresting the
Bolshevist representative in London, M. Litvinov. A few days later the
Britishers arrested in Moscow were released. Nevertheless, De Witt C.
Poole, American consul in Moscow, fearing that he might be arrested
next, destroyed his private codes, turned over the archives of the
consulate to the Swedish consul, then applied for a passport to leave
the country.
Hitherto the Soviet Government had shown some discrimination in favor
of the United States in dealing with foreign diplomats, its members
recognizing the disinterestedness of the United States Government and
showing appreciation of President Wilson's reluctance to interfere in
the internal affairs of Russia. But after Washington's announcement of
its decision to participate in the Siberian expedition together with
Japan, this attitude underwent a change. After that announcement had
been made, the Soviet Government at Moscow issued a reply to the
Japanese and American statements (of August 3, 1918), which was
published in the "Tageblatt" of Berlin on August 20, 1918. The
following is a translation of this German version:
"The American and Japanese Governments have addressed a message
to the Russian people in connection with the landing of their
forces on Russian territory. Both Governments declare their armed
intervention was dictated by the desire to come to the aid of the
Czecho-Slovaks who, it is alleged, are menaced by Germans and
Austrians.
"The Russian Federal Republic feels compelled to make this
declaration:
"'The statement made by the American and Japanese Governments is
not based on accurate information. The Czecho-Slovak detachments
are not menaced by either Germans or Austrians. On the soil of
the Soviet Republic the battle continues between the Red Soviet
Army, created by peasants and workers, on the one hand, and
Czecho-Slovak detachments, in concert with landowners, the
bourgeoisie, and counter-revolutionaries, on the other.
"'In this battle the workmen and peasants are defending the
revolution, which is endangered by the counter-revolution, aided
and abetted by the Czecho-Slovaks. The Soviet Government is
convinced that its enemies are only attempting to blind
proletarian elements of the population and they seek to deceive
them by fostering in them the belief that Germans and Austrians
are menacing the Czecho-Slovaks.
"'Should, however, the grounds of this attack on the Soviet
Republic be really those stated in the Japanese-American message,
the Soviet Government suggests that the Governments exactly
formulate their wishes in the matter.
"'TCHITCHERIN.'"
Of this and similar protests the Allied Governments took no notice
beyond a communication which Minister Francis addressed to Foreign
Minister Tchitcherin, in which he said that the pro-German activities
of the Soviet Government were the cause of the animosity shown to the
Bolsheviki by the Allies.
Toward the end of August, 1918, the British Government had released
Litvinov, the Bolshevist representative in London, and the Soviet
Government had freed the British subjects under arrest in Moscow, by
mutual agreement; relations seemed about to improve. But on August 31,
1918, occurred an incident in Moscow which rendered the situation
worse than ever, rousing very strong feeling against the Bolsheviki in
Great Britain.
On the evening of August 30, 1918, Premier Lenine, while returning
from a public meeting at which he had been a speaker, was shot by a
woman and severely wounded. Lenine's place was immediately taken by
Leo Kamenev, vice president of the Petrograd Soviet. The would-be
assassin, a girl student by the name of Dora Kaplan, was a member of
the Social Revolutionary Party, which had long since declared war
against the Bolsheviki, but the Soviet officials apparently believed
that the initiative for the attempt on Lenine's life came from outside
sources.
On the following day, August 31, 1918, a search was ordered of the
British embassy in Petrograd. One of the Bolshevist commissioners was
instructed to conduct the search, it being reported that the Socialist
Revolutionists, Savinkov and Filonenko, were hiding on the premises of
the embassy. Accompanied by a detachment of Red Guards, the
commissioner, Hillier, went to the embassy and, proceeding to the
first floor, was met by shots which killed one of his escort and
wounded another. A fight ensued in the corridor, in which Captain
Francis Cromie, the British military attache, was killed. The police
then entered the embassy and arrested forty persons. As soon as the
news of the attack reached London the British Government sent the
following protest to the Soviet Government:
"An outrageous attack has been made on the British embassy in
Petrograd, its contents have been sacked and destroyed, Captain
Cromie, who tried to defend it, was murdered, and his body barbarously
mutilated. We demand immediate reparation and the prompt punishment of
anyone responsible for or concerned in this abominable outrage.
"Should the Russian Soviet Government fail to give complete
satisfaction, or should any further acts of violence be committed
against a British subject, His Majesty's Government will hold the
members of the Soviet Government individually responsible and will
make every endeavor to secure that they shall be treated as outlaws by
the governments of all civilized nations, and that no place of refuge
shall be left them. You have already been informed through M. Litvinov
that His Majesty's Government was prepared to do everything possible
to secure the immediate return of the official representatives of
Great Britain and of the Russian Soviet Government to their respective
countries. A guarantee was given by His Majesty's Government that as
soon as the British officials were allowed to pass the Russo-Finnish
frontier, M. Litvinov and all the members of his staff would have
permission to proceed immediately to Russia.
"We have now learned that a decree was published on August 29, 1918,
ordering the arrest of all British and French subjects between the
ages of eighteen and forty, and that British officials have been
arrested on trumped-up charges of conspiring against the Soviet
Government.
"His Majesty's Government has therefore found it necessary to place M.
Litvinov and the members of his staff under preventive arrest until
such time as all British representatives are set at liberty and
allowed to proceed to the Finnish frontier, free from molestation."
The protest had its effect, in so far that the subjects of the Allied
Governments were gradually released and allowed to leave Russia, and
late in September, 1918, the British Government allowed the
Bolshevist representative, held under arrest in London, to proceed to
Russia.
CHAPTER IX
THE BALTIC PROVINCES
On September 10, 1918, a consular report received in Washington stated
that the German Government had finally completed a plan for dividing
the Baltic provinces of the former Russian empire into administrative
districts, all to constitute a single military administration of the
Baltic provinces, with headquarters in Riga. They were to be placed
under the authority of the commanding officer of the town and of Von
Goesler, the administration chief, who had been at the head of the
German administration in Courland. The administration of the provinces
included a provincial administration for Courland, with its seat at
Mitau; an administration for Livonia, with a seat at Riga; and another
for Esthonia, with a seat at Reval. The town of Riga constituted in
itself a special administration district, placed under the authority
of the captain of the town. Lithuania constituted the military
administration of Lithuania, the seat being at Vilna.
Since the defeat of the German armies the peoples of all these
provinces have been looking anxiously toward the Allies for some
indication of the policy to be pursued regarding disposition of their
territories. Early in November, 1918, Esthonia declared itself an
independent republic. The Government consists of President Constantine
Paets, former mayor of Reval, and a cabinet of eight ministers, the
capital being at Reval. The proclamation declared that Esthonia wished
to preserve absolute neutrality, and that the Esthonian soldiers in
the Russian Army would be recalled and demobilized.
In the middle of October, 1918, the Lithuanians addressed to Prince
Maximilian, German chancellor, a note demanding the immediate
evacuation of Lithuanian territory. The National Assembly decided to
set up a national government and to create an army and a police
force. Plans were also announced for the convocation of a permanent
national assembly.
PART III--THE ITALIAN CAMPAIGN
CHAPTER X
THE AUSTRO-ITALIAN FRONT
The disastrous, abortive attempt of the Austro-Hungarian armies, made
at the behest of the German high command as a blind to cover the
operations planned for midsummer 1918 on the western front, has been
described in detail in the last volume. It will be recalled that it
consisted of two distinct phases: The Austrian offensive, begun on
June 15, 1918, and resulting during the week following in considerable
gains along the Piave; and the Italian counteroffensive, setting in on
June 22, 1918, and resulting in the loss to the Austrians of all the
newly gained ground, as well as of positions which they had held for
quite some time. This counteroffensive had reached its end practically
on July 6, 1918. From then on, for some three and one-half months,
General Diaz employed his Italian armies, ably supported by various
Allied detachments, carefully but continuously for the purpose of
securing certain well-defined positions from which to land a powerful
offensive movement against the Austro-Hungarians, a movement that had
been planned months earlier by the now combined Supreme Command of the
Allies at the head of which had been placed General Foch.
How far the new pooling of all Allied military resources had
progressed by August, 1918, is, perhaps, most typically illustrated by
the appearance on the Italian front of a regiment of United States
infantry. Its reception and its review by King Victor Emmanuel of
Italy on August 1, 1918, is graphically described by the London
"Times" correspondent attached to Italian Headquarters.
"The American infantry," he says, "that have arrived on the Italian
front marched past King Victor Emmanuel to-day. Signor Orlando, the
prime minister, and Mr. Nelson Page, the American ambassador to Italy,
were with the king. A cardinal-archbishop in his scarlet robes was a
brilliant figure among the group of gray-clad generals and drab
civilians who were waiting to pay their respects to the king.
"The unusual height and bigness of frame of the individual man was
what struck one most as the long khaki column moved by. These
Americans are comparatively young soldiers, but their review
discipline was thoroughly steady. Looking them over, one had the
feeling that in the American army the individual as such counts for
more than in most European armies. The highly trained amateur, brought
to the climax of personal perfection--that is the aim of American
training, rather than the production of the machine-made professional
soldier.
"The Italian peasants watched the Americans with admiration and
delight. 'What a life I have had!' said an old dame, who served me
with coffee in a wayside inn. 'I was here as a girl when the French
and Piedmontese defeated the Austrians at Solferino. I remember the
battle in 1866, when the Italians beat the Austrians again. Then in
this war I have seen Italian, British, and French troops pass by, and
at last here I am watching the Americans.'"
A stirring manifesto was issued to the Italian army recalling the
close relations existing between the United States and Italy before
the war and the important part Italians in recent years had been
playing in the development of the New World.
Military operations on the Italian front on August 1, 1918, were of
minor importance and, in this respect, were quite typical of what was
to take place during August, September, and the first three weeks of
October, 1918. There was moderate artillery activity along the whole
front. At Alano Italian patrols forced advanced Austrian posts to
withdraw, inflicting losses and taking some prisoners. A captive
balloon and six hostile aeroplanes were brought down.
The Austrian activity moderated somewhat on August 2, 1918. Italian
and Allied artillery effectively bombarded Austrian lines of
communication at Asiago. Along the whole front Italian patrols were
extremely active.
South of Nago, on August 3, 1918, an Italian assault detachment
captured by a surprise attack Hill 173 on Dosso Alto, which the
Austrians had taken on June 15, 1918. In spite of determined
resistance four officers and 172 men were taken prisoners after many
had been killed or wounded. During the preceding night French
detachments in a series of brilliant surprise attacks had penetrated
deeply into the Austrian lines at Zocchi, east of Asiago, capturing
some 125 men and considerable material. West of Asiago British troops
broke into Gaiga, making some prisoners. In the Tasson region and in
the Alano Basin Italian reconnoitering patrols gathered in
considerable booty and took some prisoners.
Between Asiago and the Brenta Italian patrols on August 6, 1918,
effectively harassed the enemy's advanced lines, inflicting losses and
capturing prisoners.
The largest operation that the British, fighting in Italy, had yet
carried out was put through between midnight and 4 a. m., August 8,
1918. It was not an attack so much as a simultaneous series of about a
dozen raids along the whole of our front. To blow up dugouts, destroy
machine-gun emplacements, and take prisoners were the objectives and
in realizing them the British troops reached the southern fringe of
Asiago town, the first Allied troops to touch its outskirts since
1916.
Like a stroke of noisy magic the British barrage burst out in the
silence of the mountain night exactly at 12 o'clock. The Asiago
Plateau, a natural stage for warfare, five miles or so across, with
barriers of black pine-grown hills to north and south, was for the
next three hours ablaze with red, bursting shells, dazzling Verey
flares of different colors, solo searchlights, and the dull glow of
fires. One could imagine the commotion in the Austrian lines at that
sudden interruption of the peace of the summer night. Hungarians,
Croats, Bosniaks, tumbling pell-mell from their dugouts; staff
officers behind the front, two hours abed, rushing half-dressed to the
telephones. For three hours, while the British were about their work,
the din went on, until at 3 o'clock they came back, bringing at a
small cost 360 prisoners with them, and leaving many enemy dead in
their ruined works.
On the same day in the Giudicaris region Italian parties forced the
Chiese River. In the Daone Valley other Italian troops surprised a
party of the enemy on the southern slope of Dosso del Morti and took
twenty-one prisoners. This was a period of raids on a large scale. For
several nights Italian or Allied guns spread their fire over the plain
of northern Italy. Following on the successful British invasion of the
enemy's front line, the French during the night of August 9, 1918,
took five officers and 238 men in a surprise attack. On the Sisemol
sector, and between there and the Brenta, the Italians brought in
sixty prisoners from the enemy front lines.
Again on August 10, 1918, French troops penetrated deeply into the
enemy's strong points in Monte Sisemol, destroying part of the
garrison and forcing the remainder to surrender. Two hundred and fifty
prisoners and eight machine guns were taken.
From their positions on Monte di Valbella, Col del Rosso, and Col di
Chele Italian troops succeeded at various points in passing the enemy
lines and inflicting heavy losses. They took fifty-nine prisoners,
suffering only slight losses themselves.
During August 10 and 11, 1918, the fighting activity along the whole
front was very moderate. North of Col del Rosso Italian patrols forced
back an advanced Austrian outpost. Five hostile aeroplanes were
brought down.
Fighting occurred during the next few days in the Tonale region and in
the Lagarina Valley. On the Piave an Italian detachment crossed the
western branch of the river, made a surprise landing on an islet west
of Grave di Papadopoli and occupied it. Thirty-six prisoners and four
machine guns were captured.
In the Tonale region Austrian reactions against advanced Italian
positions were repulsed on August 15, 1918. On the Piave, southwest of
Grave di Papadopoli, three hostile attacks against the Italian
garrison were driven back with heavy losses. Four hostile aeroplanes
and a captive balloon were brought down.
There was lively activity by both artilleries during August 16, 1918,
on the Asiago Plateau, northwest of the region of Monte Grappa, and on
the middle Piave. In the upper Zebru Valley one of the Italian patrols
attacked an enemy advance post at an altitude of over 11,000 feet and
drove it back. Two hostile aeroplanes were downed.
On August 17, 1918, there were isolated artillery actions from Stalvio
to Asiago, in the Grappa region, and on the lower Piave. After violent
artillery preparation the enemy attempted, by strong encircling
attacks, to retake the Piave Islet, captured by the Italians a few
days earlier. After suffering heavy losses, abandoning machine guns
and material, and leaving twenty-nine prisoners in Italian hands, the
Austrians were forced to retire.
Still another Austrian attack, made the next day, August 18, 1918,
against the same position broke down under Italian fire. On the whole
front there were artillery duels and considerable activity by
reconnoitering patrols.
Early in the morning of August 19, 1918, after violent artillery
bombardments, numerous enemy troops attacked from west and from north
the Italian lines on the Cornone, forming southern slopes of the Sasso
Rosso, on the Asiago front. The Italian garrison stopped the enemy
after a brisk hand-to-hand struggle. Reenforcements quickly arrived,
counterattacked the enemy, repulsed him with heavy losses, and
captured prisoners. Austrian attempts to attack Italian advanced lines
north of the Ledro Lake and to surprise protection patrols north of
the Col del Rosso were hindered by Italian fire. British
reconnoitering parties captured a few prisoners on the Asiago Plateau.
Allied batteries had been very active from the Lagarina Valley to
Astico Valley. An unusual enemy artillery activity in the Asalone
area provoked effective concentrations of fire on the part of the
Italian batteries.
[Illustration: Italy's successful offensive, October, 1918.]
These local minor engagements and artillery actions were typical of
the fighting on the Austro-Italian front during the next ten days,
indeed, with few exceptions one might say, almost during the next two
months. Day by day fights between advanced posts were reported. Thus
Italian reconnoitering patrols captured prisoners on August 27, 1918,
as they did, indeed, on almost every day, in the Posina Valley, in the
Val di Assa, and in the Grappa region. An Austrian motor boat,
maneuvering on Lake Garda in the Grentino sector, was sunk by Italian
artillery.
In the Concei Valley enemy attacks were averted on August 28, 1918, by
Italian fire. Advanced posts were driven back with losses. Prisoners
were taken on the northern slopes of Altissimo, and north of Col del
Rosso hostile reconnoitering parties were dispersed.
On the following day, August 29, 1918, in the Brenta Valley, Italian
infantry parties, in a successful surprise operation, captured the
village of Rivalta. Successively other detachments, with the
cooperation of the artillery, occupied the village of Sasso Stefani,
after having overcome in a lively fight the stubborn resistance of the
enemy. Thirty-eight prisoners, including one officer, were captured.
In the region to the north of Col del Rosso, on the Asiago Plateau,
two enemy thrusts were again completely arrested by Italian fire.
Italian artillery carried out concentrations in the mountain area on
September 1, 1918. On the Piave some boats, containing Austrian troops
attempting a surprise attack, were upset. At Stelvio and on the Asiago
Plateau Austrian patrols were repulsed with heavy losses to them.
Along the mountainous front Italian artillery on September 6, 1918,
effectively shelled the enemy's front lines and rear areas. In the
Concalaghi, Pesina, and the Assa Valley Italian patrols engaged enemy
exploring and drove them back. North of Monfenera an attempt to raid
the advanced lines was arrested by the garrison, which afterward, by a
counterattack, put the Austrians to flight with losses. On the lower
Piave Austrian scouts attempting to cross the river in small boats
were driven back by rifle fire.
During the night following the French carried out a raid which was
typical of the work the Allied troops accomplished on the plateau of
Asiago. The two companies that made the attack had a mile and a half
of no-man's-land to cross. The ground was most difficult--cut up into
ravines, pitted with flooded shell holes, densely overgrown with tall
grass, and littered not only with old trenches, ruined dugouts and
tangles of torn barbed wire, but also with Austrian dead, who still
lay there unburied since the big attack in June.
It was at night and in a dense fog that the French started out. It
took three hours for the half battalion to grope its way toward the
Austrian line, but shortly before 5 o'clock they were ready to attack,
and at 9 minutes to 5 a fierce French box barrage--in front and behind
the enemy trenches and from the flanks--was opened on the enemy
trenches, and the Italian and British artillery on either side started
a distracting bombardment. At 5 o'clock precisely the barrage lifted
and the French infantry rushed forward to find a smashed trench in
front of them, fuming with smoke and dust and strewn with dead and
wounded men. Some of the stouter redoubts and machine-gun posts held
out for a little while, but with bombs and fire boxes their garrisons
were smoked or blasted into silence, and then with fifty prisoners the
two French companies came back, having to pass, indeed, through the
Austrian barrage, but losing only a few men on the way.
Austro-Hungarian patrols which attempted on September 13, 1918, to
approach the Italian lines on Monte Corno, in the Grappa region of the
mountain front, were repulsed by the Italian fire.
Italian infantry and ardoti parties after a short but effective
artillery bombardment, and assisted by low-flying aeroplanes, in the
morning of September 14, 1918, attacked and captured the whole of an
Austrian defensive system on the Grovella, south of Corte. Three
hundred and fifty prisoners, a number of machine guns, some hundreds
of rifles, and much other war material fell into Italian hands.
In the region north and northwest of Grappa, on the northern Italian
front, Italian detachments in the morning of September 15, 1918,
raided the enemy lines and improved at some points the positions
already occupied. The Italians took 321 prisoners and captured
numerous machine guns. On the remainder of the front there were
artillery duels and patrol activity.
On either side of the narrow and precipitous gorge of the Brenta
River, at the point where it leaves the Austrian lines and enters the
Vallian, an eyewitness of some of these attacks says, there has
existed since last winter a formidable barricade of wire and a complex
system of enemy trenches. Wire fills the whole valley with an
impassable tangle. It lies half under water in the rushing stream
itself and writhes up each wall of the steeply sloping rock on either
side. Moreover, on the ledges and in the caves and crannies of those
high cliffs were hidden Austrian machine guns to sweep the narrow
gorge below.
Yet with a sudden attack at dawn of September 16, 1918, Italian
infantry rushed the whole of this barrier system and captured nearly
350 prisoners. The fighting was severe, but short, in the dark ravine,
and the Italians' victory was aided by their aeroplanes, which dived
one after another into that gap between the high mountains, dropping
bombs and emptying drums of machine-gun bullets upon the Austrian
garrison below. Shortly afterward another sector close at hand, to the
north of Mount Grappa broke into activity. A series of little raids
and rushes were carried out there to improve the line in several
places. At once, here too, the Italians made good their intentions,
and took over 300 prisoners and a number of machine guns.
Along the whole front there were artillery actions of a harassing
nature during September 10, 1918. Italian batteries caused fires at
Melette, in the Asiago Plateau region and blew up an ammunition dump
near Grisolera, on the lower Piave River. Attempts of hostile assault
parties failed in front of the Italian lines south of Mori, at Mont
Corno, and Val Arsa, to the north of Grappa and east of Salettuol.
On the other hand, Italian reconnoitering parties attacked and drove
back in the Ledro Valley a small observation post of the enemy, who
left dead and prisoners. Ammunition and various material were brought
back from reconnoissances at Tonaleselle and on the islets in the
Piave in the Montello region. One hostile aeroplane was brought down.
West of Feeri, and in the valley of Jenioa, there were patrol
encounters with the capture of some prisoners by the Italians.
Among the Allied troops fighting with the Italians was a Czecho-Slovak
unit. On September 21, 1918, an action occurred between these troops
and German and Hungarian forces on the Trentino front. It was the
first in Italy in which the Czecho-Slovaks operated as a unit in their
regular formation. The enemy launched the attack, prepared with
greatest secrecy, east of Lake Garda. It appeared from the dispatches
that the Germans and Magyars had no definite territorial objective,
but planned the stroke in the hope of gaining support for the Austrian
claim that the Czecho-Slovaks would give way voluntarily when faced by
the army of the country that so long had held them in subjugation.
It was believed in Rome and by officials of the Czecho-Slovak
Headquarters in Washington that if the Austrians had achieved even a
local success they would, after executing as traitors any
Czecho-Slovaks taken prisoners, have again affirmed that the
Czecho-Slovaks did not wish to fight against Austria.
The assault was begun at daybreak by picked detachments composed
exclusively of Magyars and Germans under General Schiesser. It
followed a destructive artillery fire in which thousands of gas shells
were used. The Czecho-Slovaks went over the top to meet the foe, and
the first column was forced to retire. The second column, after
desperate hand-to-hand fighting, succeeded in occupying a part of the
Czecho-Slovak position, but was driven out after a bloody battle. No
prisoners were taken by either side.
Premier Orlando of Italy paid homage to the valor of the
Czecho-Slovaks by a telegram of congratulation to the Czecho-Slovak
National Council in Paris.
For the next few weeks this continuous struggle on the part of the
Italians to secure the positions necessary for their men was
maintained without change.
PART IV--THE GREAT WAR'S END
CHAPTER XI
THE INTERNAL COLLAPSE OF GERMANY
In spite of the decisive and continuous defeats which the Allies
administered to the German armies on the western front in midsummer
1918, the German Government maintained in its public utterances its
usual confidence in a victorious outcome of the war. Apropos of the
fourth anniversary of the war the German emperor issued one of his
typical, high-sounding addresses to the army and navy in which he
said:
"Serious years of war lie behind you. The German people, convinced of
its just cause, resting on its hard sword, and trusting in God's
gracious help, has, with its faithful allies, confronted a world of
enemies. Your vigorous fighting spirit carried war in the first year
into the enemy's country and preserved the homeland from the horrors
and devastations of war. In the second and third years of war you, by
destructive blows, broke the strength of the enemy in the east.
Meanwhile your comrades in the west offered a brave and victorious
front to enormously superior forces.
"As the fruit of these victories the fourth year of war brought us
peace in the east. In the west the enemy was heavily hit by the force
of your assault. The battles won in recent months count among the
highest deeds of fame of German history. You are in the midst of the
hardest struggle. Desperate efforts of the enemy will, as hitherto, be
foiled by your bravery. Of that I am certain, and with me the entire
Fatherland.
"American armies and numerical superiority do not frighten us. It is
spirit which brings a decision. Prussian and German history teaches
that, as well as the course which the campaign has hitherto taken.
"In comradeship with the army stands my navy. In the unshakable will
to victory, in the struggle with opponents who are often superior, and
despite the united efforts of the greatest naval powers of the world,
my submarines, sure of success, are tenaciously attacking and fighting
the vital forces which are streaming across the sea to the enemy. Ever
ready for battle, the high-sea forces in untiring work guard the road
for the submarines to the open sea and, in union with the defenders of
the coast, safeguard for them the sources of their strength.
"Far from home, a small heroic band of our colonial troops is offering
a brave resistance to a crushingly superior force.
"We remember with reverence all who have given their lives for the
Fatherland. Filled with care for its brothers in the field, the people
at home is in its self-sacrificing devotion placing its entire
strength at the service of our great cause. We must and we shall
continue the fight until the enemy's will to destruction is broken. We
will make every sacrifice and put forth every effort to that end. In
this spirit the army and the homeland are inseparably bound together.
Their united stand and their unbending will will bring victory in the
struggle for Germany's right and Germany's freedom. God grant it!"
It was not long, however, before signs appeared that this spirit of
confidence was gradually, but surely waning. During the latter part of
August and the early part of September, 1918, no opportunity was
permitted to pass by the leading men of the German Government that
they did not use to indicate to the Allies that German demands had
been extensively pared down. The emperor, the crown prince, Von
Hindenburg, the chancellor (Von Hertling), Dr. Solf, the foreign
minister, and a large number of minor lights continuously expressed in
their speeches at every possible occasion how eager they were for
peace and how willing they were to come to an understanding.
Early in September, 1918, it became known that General von Linsingen
had placed the city of Berlin and the province of Brandenburg in a
state of siege and had announced that heavy penalties would be imposed
on persons inventing or circulating untrue rumors calculated to
disquiet the populace. About the same time a proclamation of
considerable length was issued by Field Marshal von Hindenburg warning
the German people to resist the "poisonous" propaganda by which the
Allies were attempting to undermine their morale. A few days later the
emperor made a remarkable speech to the workers of the Krupp works at
Essen, remarkable for its unusual moderation as well as for the plea
it contained to support the army. Never before in the history of the
German emperor had he addressed an assembly of workers in a similar
tone of appeal and with as little of the spirit of command.
Momentous events now began to happen in Germany in quick succession.
On September 29, 1918, Chancellor von Hertling, Vice Chancellor von
Payer, and Foreign Minister von Hintze tendered their resignations,
which the emperor accepted. They were succeeded respectively by Prince
Max of Baden, Mathias Erzberger, and Dr. W. S. Solf. The first of
these was the heir presumptive to the grand ducal throne of Baden, a
man about fifty years old and with comparatively moderate and
progressive views. The second was a leader of the Centrist (Catholic)
party and had frequently expressed his opposition to indemnities and
annexations. The third, the former Colonial Secretary, also could be
considered as a man of moderate political views. At the same time a
number of Socialists entered the Cabinet. Dr. Eduard David became
Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs, Herr Bauer, Secretary of State of
the Labor Office, and Philipp Scheidemann, Majority Socialist leader,
Secretary of State without Portfolio.
No time was lost by the new chancellor in starting a new drive for a
peace by negotiation. On October 4, 1918, he sent through the Swiss
Government his famous note appealing to President Wilson for immediate
institution of peace negotiations, based on the President's message to
Congress on January 8, 1918, and on his speech of September 27, 1918,
involving the "Fourteen Points." This was followed by an exchange of
notes between the German Government and the President, in which Mr.
Wilson stated the views of the Allies with firmness. These notes may
be considered the beginning of the end.
The day after Prince Max had sent his first note he made a speech in
the Reichstag which perhaps was the most moderate utterance made by
any member of the German Government since the start of the war. In it
he declares his agreement with the program of the majority parties in
the Reichstag which, according to the "Berliner Tageblatt," involved:
"(1) Adherence to the Imperial Government's reply to the papal note of
August 1, 1917.
"(2) Declaration of readiness to join the League of Nations in
accordance with the following principles--namely, that the league
shall comprise all states, and be based on the idea of equality for
all peoples, its aim is to safeguard a lasting peace, independent
existence and free economic development for all peoples; the League of
Nations, with all its resources, protects the states which join it in
the rights guaranteed to them by the league, which recognizes their
possessions and excludes all special treaties opposed to the aims of
the league; the foundations of the league are comprehensive, and
comprise the extension of international law, reciprocal obligation of
states to submit to peaceful treatment every conflict which is not
solvable by diplomatic means, the carrying out of the principle of
freedom of the seas, the understanding regarding all-round
simultaneous disarmament on land and water, the guaranteeing of an
open door for economic, civil, and legal intercourse between nations,
and international extension of social legislation and protection for
workers.
"(3) An unequivocal declaration regarding the restoration of Belgium
and an agreement regarding indemnification.
"(4) The peace treaties hitherto concluded must form no hindrance to
the general conclusion of peace. In the Baltic provinces of Lithuania
and Poland, popular assemblies are to be created at the earliest
possible moment on a broad basis. These states, where civil
administration is to be introduced at the earliest possible moment,
are to settle their own constitutions and their relations to
neighboring peoples.
"(5) Provides for the establishment of an independent federal state of
Alsace-Lorraine, with full autonomy corresponding to the demand of
Alsace-Lorraine for a popular assembly.
"(6) The carrying out without delay of electoral reform in Prussia;
likewise the endeavor to bring about such reform in those federal
states which are still without it.
"(7) Aims at coordination of the Imperial Government and the summoning
of Government representatives from Parliament to carry out a uniform
Imperial policy. The strict observance of all constitutional
responsibility. The abolition of all military institutions that serve
for the exercise of political influence.
"(8) Says that with a view to the protection of personal liberty,
right of meeting, and the freedom of the press, prescriptions
regarding the state of siege shall immediately be amended and the
censorship restricted to questions of relations to foreign
governments, war, strategy, and tactics, troop movements, and the
manufacture of war material. The establishment of a political control
department for all measures taken on the ground of the state of siege
is also demanded."
During the next two weeks a number of constitutional reforms were
instituted. The Prussian Diet passed an equal franchise law. The
emperor's prerogative to make war and peace and to make treaties with
foreign nations was abridged and required the consent of the Federal
Council and the Reichstag.
Day by day now the signs of internal collapse became more evident. On
October 24, 1918, Dr. Karl Liebknecht was released from prison. Three
days later the emperor accepted the resignation of General von
Ludendorff, considered generally the head and leader of the
militarists and junkers. On the same day a meeting of the Crown
Council and of many dignitaries of the entire empire took place.
Abdication of the emperor and crown prince became one of the principal
topics of discussion, even though the emperor on November 3, 1918, in
a manifesto expressed his full support of all reforms.
On November 7, 1918, the German fleet revolted. Kiel was seized by
the Soldiers' Council. The emperor's brother, Prince Henry of Prussia,
was reported to have fled. On November 8, 1918, the chancellor
resigned, but his resignation was not accepted. On the same day
Bavaria was declared a republic. The revolution broke out in many
other parts of the empire. On November 9, 1918, the chancellor
published the following decree:
"The kaiser and king has decided to renounce the throne.
"The Imperial Chancellor will remain in office until the
questions connected with the abdication of the kaiser, the
renouncing by the crown prince of the throne of the German Empire
and of Prussia, and the setting up of a regency have been
settled.
"For the regency he intends to appoint Deputy Ebert as Imperial
Chancellor, and he proposes that a bill shall be brought in for
the establishment of a law providing for the immediate
promulgation of general suffrage and for a constitutional German
National Assembly, which will settle finally the future form of
government of the German nation and of those peoples which might
be desirous of coming within the empire.
THE IMPERIAL CHANCELLOR."
The new German chancellor, the Socialist Deputy Friedrich Ebert,
announced these momentous events in the following manifesto, dated
November 10, 1918:
"Citizens: The ex-Chancellor, Prince Max of Baden, in agreement with
all the secretaries of state, has handed over to me the task of
liquidating his affairs as chancellor. I am on the point of forming a
new Government in accord with the various parties, and will keep
public opinion freely informed of the course of events.
"The new Government will be a Government of the people. It must make
every effort to secure in the quickest possible time peace for the
German people and consolidate the liberty which they have won.
"The new Government has taken charge of the administration, to
preserve the German people from civil war and famine and to accomplish
their legitimate claim to autonomy. The Government can solve this
problem only if all the officials in town and country will help.
"I know it will be difficult for some to work with the new men who
have taken charge of the empire, but I appeal to their love of the
people. Lack of organization would in this heavy time mean anarchy in
Germany and the surrender of the country to tremendous misery.
Therefore, help your native country with fearless, indefatigable work
for the future, everyone at his post.
"I demand everyone's support in the hard task awaiting us. You know
how seriously the war has menaced the provisioning of the people,
which is the first condition of the people's existence. The political
transformation should not trouble the people. The food supply is the
first duty of all, whether in town or country, and they should not
embarrass, but rather aid, the production of food supplies and their
transport to the towns.
"Food shortage signifies pillage and robbery, with great misery. The
poorest will suffer the most, and the industrial worker will be
affected hardest. All who illicitly lay hands on food supplies or
other supplies of prime necessity or the means of transport necessary
for their distribution will be guilty in the highest degree toward the
community.
"I ask you immediately to leave the streets and remain orderly and
calm."
On the same day the emperor and the crown prince fled to Holland,
where they were promptly interned. Not until some time later did the
actual text of their abdications become known; that of the emperor was
published on November 30, 1918, and that of his eldest son on December
6, 1918. The former read:
"I hereby for all the future renounce my rights to the Crown of
Prussia and my rights to the German Imperial Crown. At the same
time I release all officials of the German Empire and Prussia, as
well as all the noncommissioned officers and men of the Navy, of
the Prussian Army, and of the Federal contingents, from the oath
of fealty which they have made to me as their Kaiser, King, and
Supreme Commander. I expect of them that until the reorganization
of the German people they will assist those who have been
entrusted with the duty of protecting the nation against the
threatening danger of anarchy, famine, and foreign rule.
"Given under our own hand and our Imperial Seal, Amerongen,
November 28, 1918.
"(Signed) WILHELM."
One by one the kings, grand dukes, dukes, and princes of the various
German states abdicated and, finally, the last autocratic monarchies
of the western world had disappeared.
CHAPTER XII
THE LIBERATION OF THE HOLY LAND--MESOPOTAMIAN CAMPAIGN
Jerusalem surrendered, it will be recalled, to General Allenby,
commander in chief of the British Egyptian Expeditionary Force, on
December 9, 1917. Two days later he entered, at the head of his
victorious army, the Holy City, at last again in the hands of
Christendom. From then on the British advance continued steadily, even
if slowly, toward the north across the whole breadth of Palestine.
Jericho fell on February 21, 1918. There was much fighting during
March and April, 1918, but after that a period of comparative
inactivity set in which was utilized by the British to repair the
damages which war had wrought in the Holy Land and to carry through
sanitary and administrative reforms which laid a sound foundation for
bringing back some of the glory of past centuries. Not until
September, 1918, did any military operations of importance occur.
Then, however, a new British offensive set in, described in the
following pages, which was to drive the Turks forever out of
Palestine, Syria, and Arabia.
Much the same story is to be told about the British operations in
Mesopotamia, along the Tigris and Euphrates. There, it will be
remembered, General Maude had captured Bagdad, the ancient capital of
the Caliphs, on March 11, 1917, and had then followed up his success
by a steady advance in a northwesterly direction until he fell a
victim to cholera on November 19, 1917. He had been succeeded in the
command in chief of the Indian Expeditionary Force by General
Marshall, who, with the same tenacity as his lamented predecessor and
as his companion in arms in Palestine, continued to push the British
advance during the balance of 1917 and the first half of 1918. The
ancient city of Hit was captured in March, 1918, and from then on the
Turks were driven back without let-up.
A considerable share of the victory in Palestine was due to the Arabs
who had rebelled against the Turk and, under the king of the Hedjaz,
had allied themselves with the British. As early as February, 1918,
the Arab and British fronts had been joined at the Dead Sea, and from
then on had cooperated in the closest possible manner against the
common enemy whom even German support was to avail nothing.
During the early summer of 1918, comparative inactivity ruled along
the Palestine front. In August, 1918, only a few minor operations were
reported. Thus, on the morning of August 8, 1918, an extensive bombing
raid was carried out by Royal Air Force and Australian units against
the Turkish camps and establishments in the vicinity of Amman railway
station, on the Hedjaz Railway, twenty-five miles east of the Jericho
bridgehead.
On the same day Imperial Camel troops, cooperating with the Arab
forces of the king of the Hedjaz, seized Mudawara railway station on
the Hedjaz Railway, sixty-five miles south of Maan, killing
thirty-five and capturing 120 of the enemy, with two guns and three
machine guns.
During the night of August 12, 1918, British troops carried out a
series of successful raids at various points on a frontage of ten
miles astride the Jerusalem-Nablus (Shechem) road, killing some 200 of
the enemy and capturing seventeen Turkish officers and 230 of other
ranks, with fifteen machine guns.
[Illustration: The conquest of Palestine, Syria, and Mesopotamia by
the British armies.]
Then again there was a month of inactivity, ominous by its very
quietness. And, indeed, before long the storm broke. Soon after the
middle of September, 1918, a carefully planned offensive was started
by General Allenby, an offensive which was destined to free the Holy
Land from Turkish domination.
During the night of September 18, 1918, British troops commenced a
general attack on the front between the Jordan and the sea. To the
east of the Jerusalem-Shechem road British and Indian troops advanced
and successfully intercepted the Turkish road communications leading
southeast from Shechem.
Early in the morning of September 19, 1918, the main attack, in which
French troops participated, was launched, after a short bombardment,
between Rafat and the coast.
The Allied infantry made rapid progress, overrunning the entire
hostile defensive system on this frontage by 8 a. m., and penetrating
to a maximum depth of five miles before swinging eastward. Tul Keram
railway junction was occupied in the course of the afternoon, while a
brigade of Australian Light Horse had reached the main Tul
Keram-Messudieh railway and road in the vicinity of Anebta, cutting
off large bodies of the retreating enemy, with guns and transport.
Meantime a strong cavalry force of British, Indian, and Australian
troops, moving northward in the coastal plain, seized the road
junction of Hudeira, nineteen miles from the point of departure, and
twenty-eight miles north of Joppe, by midday.
East of the Jordan, a strong detachment of the Arab troops of the king
of the Hedjaz, descending on the Turkish railway junction of Deraa,
severed the rail communications leading north, south, and west from
that center. Naval units cooperated with the advance of the land
troops, clearing the coastal roads with gunfire.
By 8 p. m. on September 19, 1918, over 3,000 prisoners had passed
through corps cages, many more being reported, but not yet counted.
Large quantities of material had also been taken.
By 8 p. m. on September 20, 1918, the enemy resistance had collapsed
everywhere, save on the Turkish left in the Jordan Valley. The British
left wing, having swung round to the east, had reached the line
Bidieh-Baka-Messudieh Junction, astride the rail and roads converging
on Shechem from the west. The right wing, advancing through difficult
country against considerable resistance, had reached the line Khan
Jibeit-Es Sawieh, facing north astride the Jerusalem-Shechem road. On
the north, cavalry, traversing the Field of Armageddon, had occupied
Nazareth, Afuleh, and Beisan, and were collecting the disorganized
masses of enemy troops and transport as they arrived from the south.
All avenues of escape open to the enemy, except the fords across the
Jordan between Beisan and Jisr-ed-Damieh, a distance of twenty-seven
miles, were thus closed. East of the Jordan, the Arab forces of the
king of the Hedjaz had effected numerous demolitions on the railways
radiating from Deraa, several important bridges, including one in the
Yarmuk Valley, having been destroyed.
By 9 p. m. on September 21, 1918, the infantry of the British left
wing, pivoting on their left about Bir Asur, five miles east by north
from Tul Keram, had reached the line Beit Dejan-Semaria-Bir Asur,
shepherding the enemy on and west of the Jerusalem-Shechem road into
the arms of the cavalry operating southward from Jenin and Beisan.
Other enemy columns vainly attempted to escape into the Jordan Valley,
in the direction of Jisr-ed Damieh, southeast of Shechem, which was
still held by enemy troops. These columns suffered severely from
British aircraft, which constantly harassed them with bombs and
machine-gun fire from low altitudes.
In the vicinity of Lake Galilee British cavalry detachments held
Nazareth and the rail and road passages over the Jordan at Jisr el
Mujamia.
Having seized the passages off the Jordan at Jisr-ed Damieh,
twenty-three miles north of the Dead Sea, on the morning of September
22, 1918, the last avenue of escape open to the enemy west of the
river was closed. The Seventh and Eighth Turkish Armies virtually
ceased to exist. Their entire transport was in British hands.
By September 22, 1918, 25,000 prisoners and 260 guns had been counted,
but many prisoners and much material remained to be enumerated.
East of the Jordan the enemy was reported on September 24, 1918,
withdrawing toward Amman, on the Hedjaz Railway, twenty-four miles
east of the Jordan, pursued by Australian, New Zealand, East Indian,
and Jewish troops, which had reached Es Salt, eleven miles east of the
Jordan, capturing guns and prisoners. In the north cavalry had
occupied Jaifa and Acre, after slight opposition.
The Arab forces of King Hussein had occupied Maan, about seventy miles
south of the Dead Sea and were harassing the bodies of the enemy
retreating northward toward Amman along the Hedjaz Railway.
Operations against Amman were begun at dawn of September 26, 1918, by
the Anzacs. By 2 o'clock that afternoon this ancient stronghold of the
Turks, in the defense of which they were assisted by German forces,
had been rushed by New Zealand troops.
On the north affairs were progressing equally favorable to the British
forces. During the night of September 27, 1918, the cavalry of General
Allenby's Army swam and forded the Jordan north of Lake Tiberias, and
on the day following captured the high ground to the east. Early that
morning they were astride the Damascus road at Dar Ezaras and later
that day they had advanced to El Kuneitrah, forty miles southwest of
Damascus.
On the same day other cavalry detachments of General Allenby's Army
joined hands with the Arab Army at Deraa, in Gilead. From then on,
both from the Jordan crossing and from Deraa, British cavalry and
armored cars pushed forward to Damascus, either route being about
fifty miles in length. The Arabs were cooperating on the
Deraa-Damascus line, which is that of the Hedjaz Railway. In their
pursuit the advancing columns crossed both the Pharpar and the Albana,
"the rivers of Damascus." By the evening of September 30, 1918,
British cavalry had established themselves on the north, west, and
south of Damascus. From the enemy rear guards, which disputed the
advance throughout the day, 1,000 prisoners and five guns were taken.
Finally, troops of the Australian Mounted Division entered Damascus
during the night of September 30, 1918. At 6 a. m. on October 1, 1918,
the city was occupied by a British force and and by a portion of the
Arab Army of King Hussein. Over 7,000 prisoners were taken. After the
surrender, with the exception of necessary guards, all the Allied
troops were withdrawn from the city, and for the time being the local
authorities remained responsible for its administration.
Damascus has a population of from 230,000 to 300,000. It is the
starting point of the Hedjaz Railway, built by Abdul Hamid, nominally
for the benefit of pilgrims to Mecca and Medina, but in reality to
increase the Ottoman hold on western Arabia. This line connects
southward with the railways to Palestine, while westward a railway
runs to the important seaport of Beirut. Northward a railway runs to
Homs and Aleppo, fifty miles distant, where it connects with the
Bagdad Railway.
During the next few days there was no change in the general situation.
To the north and west of Damascus, on the Aleppo and Beirut roads
respectively, British cavalry were clearing the country, and took over
15,000 prisoners in that area.
Since the commencement of operations on the night of September 18,
1918, over 71,000 prisoners and 350 guns had been captured, besides
some 8,000 prisoners claimed by the Arab Army of King Hussein.
Included in these figures are the Turkish commanders of the Sixteenth,
Nineteenth, Twenty-fourth, Fifty-third, and composite divisions, the
commander of the Maan garrison, and German and Austrian troops
numbering over 200 officers and 3,000 of other ranks.
In the afternoon of October 6, 1918, Zahleh, at the foot of Mount
Lebanon, and Raysk, respectively thirty-three and thirty miles
northwest of Damascus, were occupied by British cavalry. Raysk is the
point at which the enemy broad-gauge railway from the north joins the
1.05-meter gauge system of Palestine. The latter system was now,
therefore, entirely in British hands. A considerable quantity of
rolling stock, ammunition, and engineer stores were captured. The
railway station and aerodrome had been burned by the retreating enemy
prior to evacuation.
In the coastal area the enemy evacuated Beirut and retired northward.
Saida (Sidon) was occupied by British troops on October 7, 1918,
without opposition. French and British warships entered the port of
Beirut on October 6, 1918, finding the town evacuated by the enemy.
On October 7, 1918, British armored cars, preceding cavalry and
infantry columns, arrived, and on October 8, 1918, advanced
detachments of British and Indian infantry occupied the place, being
received enthusiastically by the inhabitants.
The number of prisoners taken by the Egyptian Expeditionary Force,
exclusive of those taken by the Arab Armies, had risen to over 75,000,
and it was estimated that of the entire strength of the Turkish
Fourth, Seventh, and Eighth Armies not more than 17,000 in all had
escaped, this figure including about 4,000 effective rifles. Many of
the prisoners captured were in a lamentable state of exhaustion. The
prisoners taken by the Arab forces numbered 8,000, so that the total
captures by the Allies in Palestine and Syria since September 18,
1918, amounted to over 83,000. Of these over 3,200 were Germans or
Austrians.
In occupying Beirut the British captured sixty Turkish officers and
600 men. Baalbek was entered by armored car batteries on October 9,
1918, after a force of some 500 Turks had surrendered to the
inhabitants. Advanced British cavalry and armored cars occupied
Tripoli thirty-five miles north of Beirut, on October 13, 1918, and
Homs, on the Damascus-Aleppo Railroad, about eighty miles distant from
either of these two cities, on October 15, 1918.
In Mesopotamia British troops continued to pursue the Turks on both
banks of the Tigris. On October 25, 1918, British columns moving up
the eastern bank forced the passage of the Lesser Zab near its mouth
in conjunction with cavalry, which had crossed this river on the
previous evening seven miles farther upstream. The latter movement
turned the left flank of a Turkish force holding the angle formed by
the junction of the Lesser Zab with the Tigris, and assisted the main
body to drive the enemy across the Tigris to the western bank.
Meanwhile other British troops advancing up the right on western bank
of the Tigris over a difficult country, much cut up by ravines, forced
the Turks from a hill position which they were holding in prolongation
of their forces on the left bank. The enemy, after burning their
stores, retired about four miles farther up the river.
On the Kirkuk road, the main Bagdad-Mosul highway, lying east of the
Tigris, British patrols entered the southern outskirts of Kirkuk. The
Turks appear to be occupying in strength the high ground to the north
of the town, which is about 100 miles southeast of Mosul.
On October 26, 1918, the Turks still held a strong position on the
Jebel Hamrin, west of the mouth of the Lesser Zab. But on the previous
day British armored cars, moving by the desert track farther to the
west, had struck in on the Turkish line of communications in the
neighborhood of Kalet Shergat, where they attacked the enemy's
convoys.
At the same time British cavalry, moving up the left bank of the
Tigris, threatened the enemy's line of communication from the east.
The pressure of British troops in front, combined with attacks on
their communications, compelled the Turks to retreat twelve miles to
the north during the night of October 26, 1918, to a position three
miles south of Kalet Shergat.
By October 27, 1918, the British main body was in touch with Turkish
troops covering the crossing of the Lesser Zab.
All that day Turkish reserves tried to break through the Eleventh
Indian Cavalry Brigade, who barred the road to Mosul, but without
success, though the arrival of Turkish reenforcements from Mosul
forced that brigade to draw back its right in order to cover its rear.
On the night of October 27-28, 1918, the Seventh Indian Cavalry
Brigade joined the Eleventh, and the Fifty-third Indian Infantry
Brigade, moving up the east bank after a march of thirty-three miles,
was able to support the cavalry in preventing any Turks from breaking
through northward. On October 28, 1918, the Seventeenth Indian
Division successfully assaulted the Turkish Shergat position, and on
the 29th, though exhausted by their continuous fighting and marching
through the rugged hills, pushed forward and attacked till nightfall
the Turks who were now hemmed in.
On the morning of October 30, 1918, the Turkish commander surrendered
his entire force, consisting of the whole of the Fourteenth Division,
the bulk of the Second Division, and portions of two regiments of the
Fifth Division, with all their artillery trains and administrative
services, amounting to some 8,000 men.
In the meantime, British advanced cavalry and armored cars had
occupied Aleppo on the morning of October 26, 1918, after overcoming
slight opposition.
British cavalry immediately renewed their advance and by October 28,
1918, they were fifteen miles north of Aleppo, having occupied
Muslimie station, the junction of the Bagdad and Damascus-Aleppo
Railways.
That evening British cavalry, moving up the east bank of the Tigris,
forded the river north of Kalat Shergat, joined the armored cars which
approached from the west, and established themselves astride the
Turkish communications with Mosul.
There they were heavily attacked by the Turks on October 29, 1918,
and, though the right flank had to withdraw, they succeeded in
defeating all attempts to drive them off the road. In the evening they
were reenforced by troops from the eastern bank, which enabled them to
restore the situation completely.
The same day other British troops advanced up the western bank of the
Tigris after a long and difficult march, attacked and drove the Turks
from their positions three miles south of Kalat Shergat, and captured
the village.
On October 30, 1918, the pursuit continued. The Turks were heavily
engaged five miles north of Kalat Shergat, where they put up a
stubborn defense in broken ground and ravines. By nightfall the
British had penetrated deeply into the enemy positions, and a portion
of his force, which attempted to escape to the northwest, was cut off
by cavalry from the north, who captured 1,000 prisoners and much
material.
CHAPTER XIII
COLLAPSE OF AUSTRIA
On October 24, 1918, indications that a new Allied offensive was about
to be started on the Italian front were officially confirmed. An
intense artillery fire broke out that morning at dawn along the
Italian line. The fire was especially violent in the region of Monte
Grappa. Brisk infantry actions occurred on the highlands of the Seven
Communes, the Italian troops obtaining considerable success.
At the same time French sections attacked the enemy positions at Monte
Sisomel, forcing the defenders to give way and capturing three
officers and about 800 men. British troops attacked the Austrian
positions south of Asiago and captured six officers and about 300 men.
Violent actions were being carried on by the Italian troops south of
Assa and north of Monte Val Bella. A considerable number of enemy
troops were captured during this operation.
It soon became evident that this was to be an offensive, carefully
prepared and planned on a large scale, but no one then dreamed of the
final results it was destined to have, though military officials in
Washington apparently had high hopes from the very beginning. They
were quoted in newspapers as early as the second day of the offensive
as stating that the place selected for the attack indicated that the
present operations might be preliminary steps to a major offensive. If
the high ground between the Brenta and Piave Rivers were carried in
sufficient force, it was believed that it might be possible for the
Italian army, supported by French and British units and artillery, and
possibly by American troops, to reach the valley of the upper Piave
and outflank the whole Austrian position on the lower stretches of the
river, running from the Monte Grappa Plateau to the sea. Immediate
withdrawal of the Austrian forces on this line would appear to be the
certain result of any striking Italian success on the lines under
assault.
The Piave forms a great loop, flowing down toward the plateau from the
northeast, then swinging sharply southeast to reach the sea. West of
the Monte Grappa Heights, that deflect the river's course, the Brenta
flows down from the northwest and bends sharply south about the
eastern face of the rugged plateau. It was in the territory between
the two rivers that the new attack had been launched.
Aside from its military significance, the operation in Italy was being
watched closely by officials as a test of the spirit of the Austrian
army. Reports of disorders and disaffections in the Dual Monarchy had
been persistent for months, and it was regarded as quite within the
range of possibility that the war weariness at home would show itself
decisively at the front. In that case, it was felt, the early
capitulation of Germany's chief ally might be expected.
The second day's news, indeed, supported these high hopes.
Bitter fighting occurred during the morning of October 25, 1918, in
the Monte Grappa region. Parties of Italian troops resolutely attacked
some portions of the formidable enemy positions and succeeded in
wresting from him and maintaining possession of the important
supporting points in the western and southern area of the massif. They
established themselves on the northern bank of the Ornic Torrent in
the Alano Basin. The enemy, who offered stubborn resistance, suffered
considerable losses.
A few small islands were occupied at Grave di Papodopoli, in the Piave
River. The hostile garrisons were captured. In the Posina-Altico
sector and in the Assa Valley enemy advanced posts were destroyed. On
the Asiago Plateau, Italian and Allied patrols carried out a small
surprise attack with success. The total number of prisoners captured
from midnight of October 23 to midnight of October 24, 1918, was four
officers and 2,791 men of other ranks.
Again on October 26, 1918, in the region northwest of the Monte Grappa
massif, fighting began at dawn and continued the whole day on the
terrain carried by the Italians on the preceding day. The struggle was
fierce and with varying fortune, but finally the stubbornness of the
Fourth Italian Army overcame the desperate attacks of the enemy and
the Italian positions were maintained and extended at some points. The
Aosta Brigade, with remarkable elan, took Monte Valderoa, to the
northwest of Monte Spinoncia.
Aeroplanes bombed and dispersed columns of troops and transports in
the Augana Valley, the Cismon Valley, and the Arten Basin. During that
day forty-seven officers and 2,002 of other ranks were captured.
The Pesaro Brigade and the Eighteenth and Twenty-third Assault
Detachments carried out the difficult conquest of Monte Pertica, which
had been formidably fortified by the enemy.
The attack of the Tenth Italian Army across the Piave in the area of
the island of Grave di Papodopoli commenced at 6.40 a. m., October 7,
1918. The Italian troops on the right met with strong resistance.
After heavy fighting, this resistance was overcome and the advance
successfully commenced. On the right of the Eleventh Italian Corps,
commanded by General Paolino, British troops advanced east of the
river and reached the line from the neighborhood of Roncadelle to a
point halfway to Cimadolino and St. Pelo di Piave, where they came in
touch with the Fourteenth British Corps, under Lieutenant General Sir
U. Babington, who had captured Tezze and Borgo Malamotte. Later in the
day the Italians, in conjunction with Allied contingents, crossed the
Piave River by force of arms, engaging in bitter battles the enemy,
who strove desperately to bar the way.
Between the slopes and heights of Valdobbiadene and the mouth of the
Soligo Torrent Italian infantry assault troops had passed, during the
night, under violent fire to the left bank of the river, broken into
the enemy's front lines, and carried them. Supported by the fire of
the artillery on the right bank, they gained ground and repulsed enemy
counterattacks throughout the day.
To the south the Tenth Army, taking advantage of the successes of the
British at Grave di Papodopoli, compelled the enemy to retire, and
repulsed two counterattacks in the direction of Borgo Malanotte and
Roncadelle. The prisoners taken during the day aggregated more than
9,000. Fifty-one guns were captured. Allied aircraft, with extreme
daring, again attacked the enemy troops from low altitudes.
In local fighting on Monte Grappa 150 prisoners were taken. The enemy
heavily attacked on Monte Pertica and obtained a foothold in the
Italian positions, although at great sacrifices. Later the Italian
infantry, in severe fighting, drove out the enemy and regained the
lost positions. By the end of the day the line of the Tenth Army was
reported to run south of Stabinzzos, Polo di Piaveborgo, Zanettiborgo,
Malanotte, Lasegac, and Tonon.
The next day the battle was continued with equal success by the
Italians and their allies. The Twelfth Army took the heights of
Valdobbiadene. French infantry captured in assault Mont Pionar. The
plain of Sernaglia was occupied. Italian troops carried the heights of
Colfosco and had entered Susegana. Advance guards pushed to the left
of the Monticono. On the left bank of the Ornic River the Italians had
occupied the village of Alano di Piave, taking several hundred
prisoners. Aeroplanes daringly carried supplies to advanced troops on
the left bank of the Piave.
On the same day it also became officially known that Americans were
standing on reserve behind the British and Italian forces now driving
across the Piave.
The news, according to a Washington dispatch to the New York "Times,"
was considered significant not because of the size of the American
contingent in Italy or the direct effect it might have on the battle,
but because it indicated that the Italian drive was a definite part
of the great offensive that was rapidly bringing complete defeat to
the Central Powers.
So far as official announcements showed there were but two regiments
of infantry and necessary auxiliary troops in the American force in
Italy. These units and any others that may have been sent probably
were expected to operate as a part of one of the Italian or British
organizations when the time had come to throw them into the line. The
same practice was followed in France, where two Italian divisions had
been employed at various times on the front as units of a French army
corps.
The sending of American troops to Italy was not with the idea of
adding military strength but to demonstrate the unity of command and
purpose on all fronts. For that reason the force detached by General
Pershing for this purpose was believed not to have exceeded a brigade
of infantry at most. The artillery support contributed by the Allies
to the Italian front was largely British. Some American air units were
in Italy and had participated in the work at the front.
It became known on October 28, 1918, that American troops were
fighting in Italy. On that day the offensive extended southward from
the middle Piave. A third army had entered the struggle. On the front
from the Brenta to the sea three-quarters of the Italian army were
fighting in union with a French division and the 332d American
Infantry Regiment.
Between the Brenta and Piave Rivers the bitterness of the resistance
and the aggressiveness of the enemy, supported by fresh reserves had,
for six days, given the struggle particular fierceness. East of the
Piave the enemy was yielding to Italian troops' pressure and the
Italian troops were overcoming successive lines.
In the Grappa region the Italian Fourth Army gained advantages. In the
region of Pertice and Col del Orso, the Twelfth Army had reached the
outskirts of the village of Quero, taken Sequisine, and earned Monte
Cesen.
The Eighth Army occupied the defile of Follina and reached Vittorio.
There was fighting north of Conegliano. The Italian Tenth Army was
beyond the Conegliano-Oderzo road. The Third Army had crossed the
Piave to San Dona Piave and east of Zenson. The prisoners captured so
far numbered 802 officers and 32,198 men. Of guns several hundred had
been taken.
On October 30, 1918, the Italian and Allied armies were continuing to
rapidly advance after the retreating enemy, who attempted in vain to
retard them. Heads of columns had reached Serravalle, Orsago,
Gajarine, and Oderzo. Cavalry divisions were advancing in the plains
and some squadrons entered Sacile.
In overcoming strong resistance between the Piave and the Monticano,
the Third Army fought brilliantly. The river crossing at Ponti di
Piave was carried in a fierce action. The enemy was obliged to
evacuate Asiago, which was promptly occupied.
During the rush of the advance it had been impossible to keep count of
the thousands of prisoners and many guns. Besides the populations of
towns and villages, there had been liberated numbers of Italian
prisoners who had been in Austrian hands.
The success of the Italian forces was rapidly assuming great
proportions. The routed enemy was retreating east of the Piave, unable
to withstand the close pressure of Allied troops on the mountain
front. In the Venetian plains and the Alpine foothills the Italian
armies were irresistibly directed on the objectives assigned to them.
Hostile masses were thronging into the mountain valleys or attempting
to reach the crossings on the Tagliamento. Prisoners, guns, material,
stores, and depots almost intact, were being left in Italian hands.
The Twelfth Army had completed its possession of the massif of Cison
and was now fighting to carry the gorge of Quero. The Eighth Army had
captured the spur between the Follina Basin and the Piave Valley.
Other forces had occupied the defile of Serravalle and were advancing
toward the high plain of Cansiglio and toward Pordenone.
Czecho-Slovaks had been in the action throughout the entire week.
In the Grappa region the attack was renewed in the morning. Col
Caprile, Col Bonatto, Asolone, Monte Prassaolan, the Solarolo salient,
and Monte Spinocia had been carried. On the Asiago Plateau the
harassed enemy maintained an aggressive fire.
By then it had been ascertained that the prisoners taken exceeded
50,000. More than 300 guns had been counted.
The advance of the Tenth Army, with which British and American troops
were fighting, continued without check throughout the day. British
cavalry detachments, in close touch with Italian cavalry, had reached
the western outskirts of Sacile. Troops of the Fourteenth British
Corps had reached the Livenza River at Francenigo. Farther south the
Eleventh Italian Corps had occupied Oderzo. This advance had been
gained throughout practically the entire length of the objective
assigned to the Earl of Cavan, British Commander on the Piave, by
General Diaz when plans were first formed early in October, 1918. The
energy and determination of the infantry had been beyond all praise.
The difficulties of bridging the Piave led at first to an inevitable
shortness of supplies. In spite of lack of food and sleep and in the
face of constant fighting the Thirty-seventh Italian Division and the
Seventh and Twenty-third British Divisions had advanced without relief
to their final objective. British and Italian troops operating on the
Asiago Plateau entered Camporovere (northeast of Asiago) and captured
the heights of Mocatz. The number of prisoners taken by the Tenth Army
alone had increased to more than 12,000.
The battle continued to expand. The enemy maintained intact his
resistance from Stelvio to the Astico, but he was vacillating on the
Asiago Plateau and in full retreat along the remainder of the front.
He was protected more by interruptions in the roads than by his rear
guards, who were irresistibly overwhelmed. Italian batteries, brought
forward quickly with captured enemy artillery, were intensely shelling
the adversary, firing to the extreme extent of their range. Cavalry
divisions, having destroyed the enemy resistance on the Livenza and
reestablished crossings, were marching toward the Tagliamento.
The Sixth Army, on October 31, 1918, entered into action with a
brilliant advance by the Ancona Brigade at the end of the Brenta
Valley, and in the morning it attacked the adversary along the whole
front.
On the Grappa, under the impetus of the Fourth Army's thrust, the
enemy front had collapsed. It was impossible to estimate the prisoners
coming down the mountain in flocks. All the hostile artillery here was
captured. The Italians forced the gorge of Quero, passed beyond the
spur east of Monteresen, and were advancing in the Piave Valley.
Overcoming the enemy rear guards at the Passo di St. Buldo, Italian
troops were descending into the Piave Valley toward Belluno. Other
parties were engaged in fighting in the hollow of Fadalto, which was
still occupied by the enemy. Cavalry and cyclists, following the road
to the foothills, were opening the way to Aviano.
By the end of the day the Fourth Army was master of the Fonzaso
Valley. The Bologna Brigade entered Feltre that night.
The Twelfth Army, having gone through the Quero defile from the
mountains, was joining up on the Piave course with the Eighth Army.
The latter had descended the valley of the Piave to the south of
Belluno, and had detachments engaged in the Fadalto Valley, which
light columns were encircling by way of Farra d'Alpago.
The right wing of the front of the Third Army had been prolonged
toward the coast by a marine regiment, which had occupied all the
intricate coastal zone, which the enemy in part flooded. A patrol of
sailors had reached Caorile. The Third Army by nightfall had reached
the Livenza. Advanced guards entered Motta di Livenza and Torre di
Mosto. British infantry and mounted troops occupied Sacile. The troops
of the Tenth Army reached the line of the Livenza from that place as
far south as Brugnera. The number of prisoners was continually
increasing, and the various armies captured more than 700 guns. The
booty taken was immense, its value being estimated in billions of
lire.
As the Italian army prosecuted its victorious advance, most deplorable
evidence was coming to light of atrocities by the enemy during the
period of invasion. In Italy, as in France, the fury of the barbarians
was intense against things and persons. Such fury was witnessed not
only by Italian soldiers, but by representatives of the Italian and
Allied press accompanying advancing columns. Everywhere there were
tokens of willful, useless destruction and brutal robberies. Terrified
eyewitnesses narrated horrible scenes. The Italian Government, the
military authorities, and the Allies stated that they would not fail
to carry out rigorous inquiry regarding abominations committed, of
which the enemy must give an account. Italians found in freed zones
were in a terrible state. They lacked everything because the enemy
during a year of occupation had destroyed, burned, sacked, and carried
off everything.
The utter collapse of the Austrian forces and the fierceness of the
fighting are well illustrated by a special dispatch sent under date of
October 31, 1918, from Italian headquarters east of the Piave and
published in the New York "Times" the following day. It said:
"At many points east of the Piave there are so many Austrian prisoners
that they block the roads over which they are being marched to the
rear. The Venetian plain immediately east of the Piave is a scene of
desolation. Houses and villages have been ruined by shell fire. When
the advancing Italians reached Sacile they were received as saviors,
and the women and children of the town fell on their knees before
them. During a recent influenza epidemic in the town the Austrians are
said to have brutally rejected appeals from mothers for food for their
sick children.
"Every bridge in the path of the advancing Allies has been the scene
of fighting. One railroad bridge near Conegliano was lost and retaken
thirty times. In the storming of Monte Cismon, which gives to the
Allies command of the valleys of the Brenta and Cismon--and the
domination of the Brenta virtually means possession of the
Trentino--an Austrian battery of six guns which had been shelling the
city of Bassano was captured. The morning before it was taken fifty
persons were killed in Bassano."
By November 1, 1918, more than 1,000 square miles of Italy's invaded
provinces had been reconquered, but the greatest importance of the
daring movement conceived by General Diaz was his success in
separating the Austrian army occupying the Monte Grappa and Trentino
regions from that on the Venetian plains. At the same time he was
threatening the Austrian contingents holding the section southeast of
the Piave, which, it was expected, would be enveloped or cut off by
the Italians advancing toward Pordenone.
Allied troops had reached the Gringo, five miles north of Monte
Lisser. They had cut off the retreat of the Austrians in Trentino,
except over mule paths in the mountains. On the Asiago Plateau the
Sixth Army and two Allied divisions carried formidable positions which
the Austrians had held for many months. Monte Mosciavi, Monte Baldo,
Monte Longara, La Meletia di Gallio, Sasso Rosso, Monte Spitz, and
Lambara were taken. Three thousand prisoners and 232 guns were
captured on the Asiago Plateau alone.
Enemy resistance at Fidalto defile was overcome by Italian troops who
entered Belluno. The Third Cavalry Division reached the plains north
of Pordenone. The Second Cavalry was fighting hostile rear guards in
Meduna. The infantry of the Tenth and Third Armies passed the Livenza
River between Sacile and San Stino.
East of the Brenta the pursuit continued. On the Asiago Plateau the
enemy was resisting to gain time for the masses in the rear to retire,
but the troops of the Sixth Army crossed by force of arms the pass
between Rotzo and Roana, carrying in a bitter struggle Monte Cimone
and Monte Lisser, and were advancing in the valley of the Nos.
The Fourth Army occupied the heights north of the hollow of Fonzaso,
and pushed forward columns into the Sugana Valley. The old frontier
was passed in the evening. Alpine groups, having crossed the Piave
with improvised means in the neighborhood of Busche, spread out in the
area between Feltre and San Giustina. Italian troops who the day
before won in heavy fighting at the Passo di Boldo the hollow of
Fadalto were going up the Cordevole Valley. They had passed beyond
Ponte nelle Alpi and were marching toward Longarone.
On the plains an Italian cavalry division under the Count of Turin,
having overcome the resistance of the enemy at Castello d'Aviano,
Roveredo-in-Piano, San Martino, and San Quirino, occupied Pordenone
and passed the Cellima-Meduna. Italian and Allied aviators were
complete masters of the air and continued without pause their daring
activities. An Italian airship bombarded the railway stations in the
Sugana Valley at night.
It was not possible to calculate the number of guns abandoned on the
lines of battle, now distant from the fighting fronts, and on the
roads. More than 1,600 had been counted so far. More than 80,000
prisoners had been counted. Italian soldiers had liberated also
several thousand prisoners from captivity.
British troops of the Tenth Army crossed the Livenza River between
Motta and Sacile and established a bridgehead east of that stream. The
Northamptonshire Yeomanry Regiment captured twelve mountain guns and
fifteen machine guns. The Forty-eighth Division, operating on the
Asiago Plateau, was reported to have advanced its line two kilometers
northward, but was meeting with machine-gun resistance in the
neighborhood of Monte Interrotto.
The First Army on November 2, 1918, captured Monte Majo and attacked
Passo della Borcola. In the Posina sector Italian troops took Monte
Cimone, on the Tonezzo Plateau, and, after ascending the Assa Valley,
occupied Lastebasse.
On the Asiago Plateau the Allies captured a great number of prisoners
and guns. Still the advance continued. There were lively rear-guard
combats west of Castelnuovo, in the Sugana Valley, and at Ponte della
Serra, in the Cismon Valley. In the Cordevole Valley Italian advance
guards reached Mis. Italian cavalry occupied Spilimbergo and
Pordenone, and the fighting reached the east bank of the Tagliamento,
across which patrols had been thrown.
In the plains the heads of the Italian columns reached the line of
Azzanodecimo, Portogruaro, Concordia, and Sagittaria.
On the same day Allied troops broke through the enemy's
fortifications at Celadel. The Tonale Pass was forced and the Val
Arsa taken from Col Santa to the north of Pasubio.
The advance was continuing irresistibly on the Tonezza, the Asiago
Plateau, in the Sugana Valley, the valleys of Cismon and Cordevole,
and along the Piave and on the plains.
On the Tagliamento, cavalry, supported by mounted batteries,
Bersaglieri, and cyclists, was winning bitter combats against the
adversary, who, surprised on his side of the river, was fighting with
great stubbornness. The Second Brigade, with the regiments from Genoa
and Italian and Allied airmen, brilliantly maintained exceptional
activity. The total of prisoners had reached 100,000 and the guns
captured more than 2,000.
The bridging of the Livenza River was being rapidly carried out by
British troops, some of whom were well east of that river. The number
of prisoners captured by the Tenth Army alone could not at that time
be accurately given, but it was known to be considerably over 15,000,
with 150 guns. Of these more than 10,000 prisoners and more than 100
guns had been captured by the Fourteenth British Corps. The booty
taken at Sacile included among the vast amount of other material an
ordnance workshop complete and a pontoon park. In their operations on
the Asiago Plateau the Forty-eighth British Division captured nearly
200 prisoners. The British air force continued throughout the day to
bomb the dense masses of retiring Austrians with visibly good results.
In the meantime Austria-Hungary had appealed for an armistice on
October 29, 1918. After careful deliberations on the part of the
Allies, during the process of which the Italian forces had continued
their victorious advance without abatement, the terms on which the
Allies had agreed were submitted to the Austrians, who accepted them
on November 3, 1918, and hostilities were suspended on November 4,
1918, at 3 p. m. Germany had now lost her route to the East, and if
she continued the war must fight single-handed on the western front.
Before the armistice became operative the Italian columns, having
passed every obstacle and overcome every resistance, had advanced with
great impetus and had firmly established themselves behind the enemy
in the Adige Valley, closing the openings of all the roads convergent
to it. The Seventh Army, by rapidly taking the region to the west of
the Adige, became master of the Passo della Mendola, and had pushed
patrols on the river in the direction of Bolzani, The First Army,
which, with the advance made on November 3, 1918, by its Twenty-ninth
Corps, had crowned its brilliant maneuver for the taking of Trento,
occupied Monticelli, dominating the confluence of the Adige Noce.
Early in the afternoon of November 4, 1918, the headquarters of this
army were established at Trento.
The landing at Trieste began at 11 o'clock a. m., November 3, 1918.
The first to land was a battalion of the Royal Italian Marines, which
was received by the population assembled on the embankments with great
jubilation. The city was bedecked with Italian flags, and in a short
time Bersaglieri were marching through its streets, enthusiastically
acclaimed by the population.
From then on the Italians extended their successes toward the south
along the Dalmatian coast. Within a few days Austria-Hungary lost all
her ports and her end as a maritime power seemed assured.
Lissa was occupied by naval forces on the same day. On November 4,
1918, Italian vessels occupied Abbazia, Rovigno, and Parenzo on the
Istrian coast, the neighboring island of Lussin, and, in the middle
Adriatic, Lagosta, Meleda, and Curzola. Other ships entered the port
of Fiume. Small parties of sailors landed at Riva.
Thus the liberation of "Italia Irredenta" was practically completed.
CHAPTER XIV
THE SURRENDER OF TURKEY
After the overwhelming defeats which the Turkish armies had
suffered--as described in other chapters of this volume--in
Mesopotamia and Palestine in the fall of 1918, it became clear that
the hour for surrender had struck for Turkey.
As soon as the Turkish authorities had decided that their cause was
lost, they sent General Townshend, the hero of Kut-el-Amara, who since
the British debacle on the Tigris in 1916 had been their prisoner, to
inform the British Admiral in command in the AEgean Sea that they
desired to open immediately negotiations for an armistice. Vice
Admiral Calthorp, the British commander, replied that, if Turkey sent
fully accredited plenipotentiaries, they would be informed of the
conditions which the Allies had decided to impose upon Turkey before
hostilities could cease.
The Turkish plenipotentiaries arrived at Mudros, on the island of
Lemnos, in the AEgean Sea, on October 27, 1918. Three days were
consumed in parleys, at the end of which the armistice was signed in
the evening of October 30, 1918. It was to take effect at noon of the
next day, and involved, among others, the following terms: The opening
of the Dardanelles and the Bosporus, with Allied occupation of the
Dardanelles and the Bosporus forts; immediate demobilization of the
Turkish army; surrender of war vessels in Turkish waters; right of the
Allies to occupy strategic points; withdrawal of Turkish troops from
Persia; surrender of garrisons in Hedjaz, Syria, Mesopotamia, etc., to
the nearest Allied commander; Turkey to cease all relations with the
Central Powers.
Hard on the heels of the surrender of Germany's second ally came the
total collapse of its principal supporter, Austria-Hungary.
CHAPTER XV
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND GERMANY SURRENDER--"THE WAR THUS COMES TO AN END,"
PRESIDENT WILSON TO CONGRESS--PRESIDENT SAILS FOR FRANCE
The sustained success of the Allied armies in France and Belgium in
August and September of 1918 strengthened the determination of the
Allies not to relax any efforts to prosecute the war to a victorious
conclusion. The Central Powers were no less impressed with the trend
of events, and throughout September and October repeated efforts were
made by Austria-Hungary and by Germany to induce President Wilson to
take the first steps toward an armistice and peace. The President made
it clear that the United States would urge no course upon the Allies
that might in any way sacrifice the military advantage their armies
had gained. It became more and more evident that the terms of
armistice and peace would be dictated by the Allies.
That Germany was quite as anxious to bring about a speedy armistice as
Austria-Hungary was expressed in a note which the Washington
Government received on October 30, 1918, and which the State
Department declined to make public because it was evident that the
document had been prepared mainly for propaganda purposes. The note
described the various steps that had been taken to democratize the
German Government with the view to impressing the United States that
they had complied with President Wilson's stand not to discuss an
armistice with a nation that was still dominated by an autocracy. The
note endeavored to prove that the German people were now in complete
control of the Government, but it failed to impress the
Administration, since it did not show any change in the situation
created by other German proposals to suspend hostilities. The evident
purpose of the appeal was to influence sentiment in foreign countries
and gain sympathy in the United States. It was well understood at
Washington and in the capitals of the Allies that the Central Powers
realized that they faced complete disaster and that their only hope of
saving anything from the wreck was to bring about a speedy cessation
of hostilities.
On October 31, 1918, the representatives of the Entente Powers
assembled at Versailles to consider the terms of the armistice after
an informal meeting at the home of Colonel E. M. House, President
Wilson's personal representative. On this date Turkey capitulated. The
United States had no part in arranging the Turkish armistice, which
was chiefly the work of the British and French representatives. The
principal terms of the armistice granted by the Allies to Turkey were:
The opening of the Dardanelles and the Bosporus and access to the
Black Sea, and occupation of all forts along these waters by the
Allies. All Allied prisoners of war and Armenian interned persons and
prisoners to be collected in Constantinople and handed over
unconditionally to the Allies. Immediate demobilization of the Turkish
army except such as were required to guard frontiers and maintain
internal order. The surrender of all war vessels in Turkish waters, or
waters occupied by Turkey. Free use by Allied ships of all ports and
anchorages now in Turkish occupation and denial of their use by the
enemy. Wireless, cable, and telegraph stations to be controlled by the
Allies. The surrender of all garrisons in Hedjaz, Yemen, Mesopotamia,
etc. All Germans and Austrians--naval, military, or civilians--to be
evacuated within one month from Turkish dominions.
The capitulation of Turkey, though anticipated for some days by the
Entente and the United States, was important inasmuch as it was
expected to hasten the collapse of the Central Powers. Austria, aflame
with anarchy, and with revolutionary mobs parading the capital, had no
choice but to submit to the Allies' terms. In Washington the complete
collapse and unconditional surrender of Germany was hourly expected.
All interest was now centered in the Supreme War Council in session at
Versailles, where the terms to be offered to the Central Powers were
under discussion. There were present during the deliberations General
Tasker H. Bliss, representing the United States, Premier Clemenceau,
Marshal Foch, Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, Colonel E. M. House,
President Wilson's personal representative, and David Lloyd-George,
the British prime minister. It was decided that the terms to be
submitted to Germany should be confined strictly to military
requirements conditioned generally upon President Wilson's principles.
During the discussion of Austrian questions Serbian and Greek
representatives were present because of their special interest in
Austrian affairs.
At Washington President Wilson kept in touch with the United States
representatives at the Versailles Council. Colonel House advised the
President of the progress of the deliberations, and there were
frequent exchanges of communications. It was known in Washington that
political and economic conditions in the Central Powers had reached
such a pass that Austria could not, and Germany would not, refuse to
sign any terms which the Entente was prepared to offer.
The complete destruction of the Austrian armies by the Italians, which
resulted in the capture of over 300,000 prisoners and 5,000 guns, left
the dual monarchy no alternative but complete surrender. On November
3, 1918, an armistice with Austria was signed by General Diaz, the
Italian commander in chief, which went into operation at 3 o'clock in
the afternoon of the following day. The principal terms in the
armistice may be briefly outlined:
Demobilization of the Austro-Hungarian army and withdrawal of all
forces operating on the front from the North Sea to Switzerland. Half
the divisional corps and army artillery and equipment to be collected
at points indicated by the Allies and the United States for delivery
to them. Evacuation of all territories invaded by Austria-Hungary
since the beginning of the war. The Allies to have the right of free
movement over all roads, railroads, and waterways in Austro-Hungarian
territory. The armies of the Allies to occupy such strategic points as
they deemed necessary to conduct military operations, or to maintain
order. Complete evacuation of all German troops within fifteen days
from Italian and Balkan fronts and all Austro-Hungarian territory.
Evacuated territories to be governed by local authorities under
control of the Allied armies of occupation. Immediate repatriation
without reciprocity of all Allied prisoners of war and civil
populations evacuated from their homes.
The naval conditions included surrender to the Allies and the United
States of fifteen submarines and all German submarines in Austrian
waters, three battleships, three light cruisers, nine destroyers, six
Danube monitors, etc. Freedom of navigation for the Allies in the
Adriatic and all waterways, with occupation of forts and defenses on
the Danube. The existing blockade conditions to remain unchanged, and
all naval aircraft to be concentrated and impactionized in
Austro-Hungarian bases to be designated by the Allies and the United
States of America.
The drastic character of the armistice terms were calculated to please
even the "Bitter Enders" in America and Europe. President Wilson's
diplomacy was now triumphantly vindicated, and those members of
Congress who had found fault with his note writing were ready to
concede that to him belonged a great deal of the credit of bringing
about a situation that must lead to the ending of the war on the
Allies' own terms.
On November 6, 1918, the German Government sent a wireless message to
Marshal Foch asking him to receive German plenipotentiaries who would
arrive at the French outposts on the following day (November 7) to
arrange for the armistice. The mission was headed by Mathias
Erzberger, secretary of state, and included General von Winterfeld,
Count Alfred von Oberndorf, General von Grunnel, and Naval Captain von
Sallow.
As previously noted in the last chapter devoted to military
operations, the armistice was signed by the German representatives and
all hostilities ceased on November 11, 1918, at 11 a. m. On the same
date President Wilson announced the terms of the armistice in his
address to Congress. Briefly summarized, Germany agreed to the
immediate evacuation of all invaded countries, including
Alsace-Lorraine, and yielded over to Allied occupation "the countries
on the left bank of the Rhine," including control of the crossings of
that river at Mayence, Coblenz, and Cologne; bridgeheads of thirty
kilometer radius on the eastern bank and the establishment of a
neutral zone from thirty to forty kilometers in breadth and running
from the frontier of Holland to the Swiss frontier. Germany
surrendered about half her navy, including 160 submarines, which
passed at once under control of the Allies to be disarmed and interned
in Allied or neutral ports. All other German warships were to be
disarmed and concentrated in German naval bases and held under control
of the Allies and the United States. All the railways of Belgium,
Luxemburg, and of Alsace-Lorraine with their equipment were to be
given up.
In the east Germany abandoned the treaties of Bucharest and
Brest-Litovsk. All German troops in Russia, Rumania, or Turkey were to
be withdrawn and the agents of German propaganda recalled. The Baltic
was opened to the warships of the Allies, and provision was made that
through Danzig or the Vistula supplies might be sent to the starving
peoples of Poland and Russia.
The Black Sea ports were also to be evacuated by Germany and she must
give up the Russian fleet. While the blockade was to be maintained as
respected Germany, all German restriction upon the trade of neutrals
was removed. Germany must give up all the prisoners she had taken, all
the ships she had seized, but this was not reciprocal. German
prisoners of war and German ships remained in the custody of the
Allies.
While President Wilson was reading to the assembled Congress the
drastic terms which Germany had been forced to accept in order to
obtain peace there was a tense silence on the part of the great
audience. It was only when they realized, as paragraph after paragraph
was read, how complete the victory of the Allies was that faint
handclapping was heard, then cheers and presently everyone in the
gallery and on the floor was on his feet cheering madly. After reading
the terms of the armistice President Wilson continued:
"The war thus comes to an end; for, having accepted these terms of
armistice, it will be impossible for the German command to renew it."
PART V--VICTORY ON THE SEA
CHAPTER XVI
NAVAL EXPLOITS OF THE ALLIES--SUBMARINES
The fleets of the Allies, and the American fleet, had comparatively
few opportunities for direct action after August 1, 1918, yet they had
a great share in winning the war.
A British destroyer which had been seriously damaged by collision was
torpedoed and sunk by an enemy submarine in the Mediterranean on
August 6, 1918. Two officers and five men lost their lives as a result
of the collision.
On the next day, August 7, 1918, the old French cruiser _Dupetit
Thouars_, which was cooperating with the American navy in the
protection of shipping in the Atlantic, was torpedoed by a submarine.
American destroyers rescued the crew, of which, however, thirteen were
reported missing. The _Dupetit Thouars_, 9,367 tons, was launched in
1901. She carried two 6-inch and eight 6.4-inch guns.
Two British destroyers struck mines and sank on August 15, 1918.
Twenty-six men were reported missing--presumed killed by explosion or
drowned. One man died of wounds.
In the latter part of August, 1918, a notable feat was performed by an
Italian submarine. On August 20, 1918, it was officially reported
that, a few days before in the upper Adriatic, the Italian submarine
_F7_, after crossing certain mined areas, boldly entered the Gulf of
Quarnerolo, and seeing near the island of Pago a large Austrian
steamer going south, the _F7_ succeeded in hitting the vessel
amidships with a torpedo, which sank her. The submarine returned
unharmed to her base.
Although the Germans gave no opportunity to the British and Allied
fleets to enter into a real naval battle, the British were active in
the Helgoland Bight, and were carrying out operations with various
kinds of light forces in the North Sea, the average number of such
operations being no less than five daily. The number of German surface
crafts destroyed in the Bight during the year ran into three figures.
A British torpedo-boat destroyer was sunk on September 8, 1918, as the
result of a collision during a fog. There were no casualties.
Eight days later, on September 16, 1918, a British monitor was sunk as
she was lying in a harbor. One officer and nineteen men were killed
and fifty-seven men were missing and were presumed to have been
killed.
In the latter part of September, 1918, a part of the British fleet
again, as it had done many times before, bombarded successfully the
German defenses and points of communication on the Belgian coast. This
operation was carried out in cooperation with extensive military
operations on the part of the Allied forces on the Flanders front.
Still another British torpedo gunboat was sunk on September 30, 1918,
as the result of a collision with a merchant vessel. One officer and
fifty-two men were reported missing, presumed to have been drowned.
That the Swedish navy suffered the loss of one of its boats during the
month of September, 1918, became known when it was announced on
September 25, 1918, that the Swedish gunboat _Gunhild_ had been sunk
by striking a German mine in the Skagerrak, with the loss of the chief
officer and eighteen men.
On October 17, 1918, the British navy at last came into its own. It
will be recalled that by that time the Germans had been forced by the
unceasing attacks along the western front, described in another part
of this volume, to withdraw from the Belgian coast. Shortly after noon
of the 17th, Vice Admiral Sir Roger Keyes, commanding the British
Dover Patrol Force, landed at Ostend after Royal Air Force
contingents working with the navy had landed at Ostend and had
reported it clear of the enemy.
However, it was soon ascertained that the enemy at the time was not
clear of the town and a light battery at Le Coq opened fire on the
ships. Two shells, falling on the beach close to a crowd, excited the
inhabitants. A heavy battery of four guns in the direction of
Zeebrugge opened fire on the destroyers, and, as it seemed possible
the presence of the naval force might lead to the bombardment of
Ostend or to more shells falling in the town, where they would
endanger the lives of civilians, the British decided to withdraw the
naval force, and thus give the enemy no excuse for firing toward the
town. They, therefore, reembarked and the destroyers withdrew, being
heavily shelled, to just east of Middelkerke. Four motor launches were
left at Ostend as an inshore patrol, the inhabitants being nervous of
the Germans returning. The King and Queen of the Belgians expressed
the wish to visit Ostend, either from the sea or the air. In view of
the difficulty of landing and the uncertainty of the situation, they
proceeded in the destroyer _Termagant_, flying the Belgian flag at the
main, to the vicinity of Ostend. The senior officer of the British
motor-launch patrol off Ostend, which had been reenforced by French
motor launches, reported that all had been quiet for some hours. Their
majesties therefore landed and proceeded to the Hotel de Ville. They
were received everywhere with indescribable enthusiasm. They returned
to Dunkirk about 10 o'clock at night. The British naval forces
suffered no damage and no casualties.
In the morning of November 1, 1918, after the Austrian fleet had been
surrendered to the Jugoslav National Committee, Commander Rossetti and
Lieutenant Paolucci of the Italian navy succeeded in entering the
inner harbor of Pola and sank the large battleship _Viribus Unitis_,
flagship of the Austro-Hungarian fleet. This daring enterprise was
accomplished by the use of a so-called "navy tank" which succeeded in
penetrating the mine field at the entrance to the harbor. This was
described by naval officials as a small vessel, similar to the "Eagle
boats" being built for the United States navy.
During this period the Italian navy also was active in the occupation
of Austro-Hungarian ports on the Adriatic. Thus Italian battleships
entered the ports of Zara and Lussinpiccolo and raised the Italian
flag there. Zara is a seaport of Austria-Hungary and is the capital of
Dalmatia. It is situated on a promontory on the eastern coast of the
Adriatic, 170 miles southeast of Venice. Lussinpiccolo is a town on an
island belonging to the Crownland of Istria. It is the principal
seaport of the Quarnero Islands, between Istria and the Croatian
Coast.
A few days before the cessation of hostilities the British battleship
_Britannia_ was torpedoed near the west entrance to the Strait of
Gibraltar on November 9, 1918, and sank three and a half hours later.
Thirty-nine officers and 673 men were saved. The _Britannia_, which
had a displacement of 16,350 tons, was launched at Portsmouth December
10, 1904. She was 453.7 feet in length, had a speed of approximately
nineteen knots, and carried a peace-time complement of 777 men. Her
main armament consisted of four 12-inch guns.
The end was rapidly approaching now, and on November 12, 1918, the
Allied fleets passed through the Dardanelles in fine weather. British
and Indian troops occupying the forts were paraded as the ships
passed. The fleet arrived off Constantinople at 8 a. m. on November
13, 1918. This was the fourth time in a century that British
battleships passed through the Dardanelles and arrived before
Constantinople on a mission of war.
It was 7.30 in the morning, according to the special correspondent of
the London "Times," that the flagship _Superb_ was sighted in the Sea
of Marmora, steaming slowly toward the entrance of the Bosporus,
Behind her came the _Temeraire_, bearing General Sir Henry Wilson, who
was to command the garrisons of Allied troops in the forts of the
Dardanelles and Bosporus. The _Lord Nelson_ and the _Agamemnon_ were
next, and then followed, in an imposing procession of line ahead, the
cruisers, destroyers, and other craft making up the British squadron.
Half an hour's steaming behind them, a distance that was diminished
toward the end, came the French squadron in similar formation. Then
followed the Italian and Greek warships.
At the entrance to the Bosporus the fleet divided into two parts. The
_Superb_ and _Temeraire_, followed by two French battleships, came on
as a silent line of great gray ships and anchored close to the
European shore of the Straits, within near view of the Sultan's palace
and the Turkish Chamber of Deputies. The two French battleships
dropped anchor astern of them, and then followed the battleships of
Italy and Greece. The rest of the Allied fleet was placed round the
corner of the Bosporus in the Sea of Marmora, and at noon the whole
fleet was to weigh anchor again and go to its prepared base in the
Gulf of Ismid.
General Sir Henry Wilson soon afterward landed on the quay. He was
received by Djevad Pasha, Turkish Chief of Staff, and on the quay were
drawn up a guard of honor of several hundred British and Indian
prisoners of war in their light-colored clothes of blanket cloth.
Massed everywhere, as near as the Turkish police would let them come,
were dense crowds of the population of Constantinople.
We now come to one of the most dramatic incidents of the war, as far
as it affected the naval forces. Early in November, 1918, the mighty
German fleet at Kiel had revolted. Soon after that came the cessation
of hostilities, following on the signing of the armistice. Included in
the terms of the latter were, it will be recalled, certain severe
provisions concerning the surrender of a large part of the German
naval forces. The time for carrying out these provisions had now been
reached.
At sunrise of November 20, 1918, twenty German submarines were
surrendered to Rear Admiral Reginald W. Tyrwhitt of the British navy
thirty miles off Harwich. These were the first U-boats to be turned
over to the Allies by Germany. Admiral Tyrwhitt received the surrender
of the German craft on board his flagship, the _Curacao_. The
submarines proceeded to Harwich in charge of their own crews. They
were then boarded by British crews and interpreters, and proceeded to
Parkston Quay, near by. Twenty additional submarines were to be
surrendered on the following day. Other U-boats were handed over
later in accordance with the armistice terms.
CHAPTER XVII
SURRENDER OF THE GERMAN FLEET
A most dramatic event was the surrender of the German High Seas Fleet.
The British Grand Fleet, accompanied by an American battle squadron
and French cruisers, steamed out before dawn in the morning of
November 21, 1918, from its Scottish base to accept the surrender of
the German battleships, battle cruisers, and destroyers. The point of
rendezvous for the Allied and German sea forces was between thirty and
forty miles east of May Island, opposite the Firth of Forth. The fleet
which witnessed the surrender consisted of some 400 ships, including
sixty dreadnoughts, fifty light cruisers, and nearly 200 destroyers.
Admiral Sir David Beatty, commander of the Grand Fleet, was on the
_Queen Elizabeth_. The German warships, strung out in a single column
almost twenty miles long, were led into the Firth of Forth between
twin columns of Allied ships which overlapped the Germans at each end.
The main Allied fleet, extending over a line fourteen miles long in
the Firth of Forth, began to weigh anchor at 1 o'clock in the morning.
The Scotch mist which for days had obscured the harbor was swept away
by a stiff breeze, and the moon shone brilliantly out of a clear sky.
The ships quickly took their stations in the long double line they
held throughout the day. British battle cruisers led the way, followed
by dreadnoughts. Admiral Beatty's flagship, the _Queen Elizabeth_, led
the squadron in the northern column. Five American battleships, the
_New York_, _Texas_, _Arkansas_, _Wyoming_, and _Florida_, commanded
by Rear Admiral Hugh Rodman, fell into line behind Admiral Beatty's
craft, balancing a British squadron similar in power in the opposite
file. All the battleships of the Allies were ready for instant action
in case of treachery on the part of the Germans.
[Illustration: The surrender of the German fleet.]
The rendezvous was approximately fifty miles distant and the ships
gauged their speed to arrive at the appointed place at 8 o'clock. At 5
o'clock a signal summoned the men to battle stations, and, except the
officers on the bridges, the ships' companies were hidden behind
bulwarks of steel. When dawn broke, the sea was again covered with
mist, which reduced the visibility to less than 8,000 yards.
Eyes straining through the murky haze finally were rewarded. Off the
starboard bow, the _Cardiff_, trailing an observation kite balloon,
came steaming in. Close behind her came the first of the German ships,
the great battle cruiser _Seydlitz_, which was flying the flag of
Commodore Togert. After her came four others of the same type, the
_Derfflinger_, _Von der Tann_, _Hindenburg_, and _Moltke_. They moved
along three cable lengths apart.
Immediately following them were nine dreadnoughts, the _Friedrich der
Grosse_, flagship of Rear Admiral von Reuter; the _Koenig Albert_,
_Kaiser_, _Kronprinz Wilhelm_, _Kaiserin_, _Bayern_, _Markgraf_,
_Prinzregent Luitpold_, and the _Grosser Kurfuerst_. Three miles astern
of the battleships came seven light cruisers, the _Karlsruhe_, bearing
the ensign of Commodore Harder; the _Frankfort_, _Emden_, _Nuernberg_,
_Brummer_, _Coeln_, and _Bremen_. Then came another gap of three miles
and German destroyers came steaming in, five columns abreast, with ten
destroyers to a column.
Every vessel steaming out to meet them flew battle ensigns and was
ready for instant action, with its men at battle stations and guns in
position.
Six miles separated the Allied columns, and squarely between them the
_Cardiff_ brought her charges, all steaming at the stipulated speed of
ten knots. As ordered, their guns were in regular fore-and-aft
positions, and, as far as powerful glasses could determine, there was
no sign to provoke suspicion. Until all the major ships had been
swallowed up in the enveloping Allied columns, the latter never for a
moment relaxed their alert watch. Over the Germans circled a British
dirigible, which acted as eyes for the Allied ships, which, although
the fog had lifted, were still too distant for accurate observation.
When the leading German ship had reached the western end of the
flanking columns the Allied ships put about in squadrons. Quickly
re-forming their lines, they proceeded to escort the enemy into the
Firth of Forth. By noon the last wisp of fog had dispersed and a
splendid view of the vast array of war craft could be obtained.
Holding steadily to its course, the great fleet reached May Island at
2 o'clock. The captive Germans were piloted to anchorages assigned to
them and British ships from the northern column steamed on to the
regular anchorages higher up the Firth.
Inspection parties from the Grand Fleet boarded the Germans to make
sure that all conditions of the armistice were observed. The enemy
vessels were to be interned in Scapa Flow. Part of the crews were to
remain for maintenance work and the remainder were to be returned to
Germany soon.
The total tonnage surrendered, exclusive of submarines, amounted to
approximately 420,000, divided as follows: Battle cruisers, 121,000
tons; dreadnoughts, 225,000 tons; light cruisers, 43,000 tons, and
destroyers, 30,000.
Even after the cessation of hostilities there was still plenty of work
to do for the naval forces of the Allies. After the occupation of
Constantinople, already described, Allied ships occupied Odessa on
November 26, 1918, and on the same day anchored off Sebastopol, the
Russian naval base in the Crimea. There they took over the Russian
ships, then in the hands of the Germans, as well as some German
submarines.
In the Baltic, too, British and other Allied ships made their
appearance. On December 3, 1918, a British squadron, consisting of
twenty-two ships and including destroyers, cruisers, mine sweepers,
and transport steamers, were reported to have arrived in the port of
Libau in Courland. At midnight on December 4, 1918, one of these
ships, the British light cruiser _Cassandra_, of 6,000 tons, struck a
mine and sank within an hour with a loss of eleven men. A few days
later, on December 6, 1918, it was announced that some of these ships
had successfully bombarded, from the Gulf of Finland, front and rear
positions held by the Bolsheviki forces in Esthonia, stopping their
advance.
PART VI--THE AMERICAN ARMY IN FRANCE
CHAPTER XVIII
AMERICAN ACHIEVEMENTS ON THE WESTERN FRONT
By FREDERICK PALMER (LATE LT. COLONEL U.S.R.)
The glory of our accomplishment in France lies in the titanic energy
and natural resourcefulness of our people which were applied with a
unity of purpose which surprised even ourselves. It is possible for us
to exaggerate our part in assisting the Allies to final victory, and
it is also possible for us to underestimate our part.
If England had not entered the war in 1914, and if Italy and Rumania
had not entered later, and if Canada and Australia and the British
dominions had not put forth all their strength, and if the United
States had not sent an army to France, the Germans would have won. The
balance of victory and failure at times hung by a thread. While
Americans must always realize that comparatively we suffered slightly
beside Britain and France and Italy, and that the Canadians were the
veterans of cruel and wicked fighting in holding the western front
against the enemy in the height of his confidence, numbers, and
efficiency, no one will gainsay that at the end of the conflict we
were giving our lives as freely as our neighbors and Allies.
Any consideration of our accomplishment must include the fact that we
were as unprepared in April, 1917, for any immense military effort as
we had been in August, 1914. While the world witnessed the British
making citizen armies out of raw material by slow and costly
processes, our governmental policy, to the regret of many of our
people, had not been to profit by the application of their experience
in view of the emergency which seemed inevitable to many observers,
but, as neutrals, to keep ourselves free from any imputation of
militaristic aims.
Once we were in the war, the policy of our Government was to put all
our preparations in the hands of the regular army and to assist the
Allies in every way that was in our power. Our people had learned from
observation of the European war that modern warfare required expert
direction, and with a unanimity that was startling in a democracy
which had always resisted any efforts to form a large army in our
country we welcomed the national draft and a centralization of
authority in the hands of the President and army chiefs which was out
of keeping with all our precedents.
Our training camps were to repeat under the draft the slow and
wearisome business of training not only men but officers to command
them at the same time that we were building new factories and plants
to supply the army with ordnance and with ships to transport men and
material to France. As the Allies had waited on England to become
prepared, they must now wait on the United States; and in the crisis
of their fortunes, when the Germans had had repeated successes, they
faced the question of whether or not the resources of the United
States in men and material could be transformed into a force that
could be exerted by sea against the submarine or on the western front
in time to prevent a German victory.
The sending of Major General John J. Pershing to France with a pioneer
staff in May, 1917, had for its military purpose the huge and
time-consuming task of preparing the way for the troops that were to
arrive as soon as we had them trained, and the immediate object of
assuring the people of the Allies that we meant to make active warfare
on the western front. Although we had relieved the financial stress of
the Allies by our loans, and with the removal of our interference with
the British blockade we had strengthened the wall around Germany, we
were incapable for the first eight months of striking any blow of
account against the enemy except through the flotilla of destroyers
which we had sent to cooperate with the British navy in combating the
submarine. Considering that the French and British had over three
million troops on the western front, the total of our regular army of
one hundred thousand men, if all had been immediately dispatched to
France, would hardly have been an important military factor. In a war
where such enormous numbers were engaged, though we might have ten
million able-bodied men in the United States, they were of no combat
service against the enemy until they were in France, armed and
trained.
The French offensive, in the early spring of 1917, had failed with the
result that France was depressed and that all observers agreed that it
was not in the power of the exhausted French army to undertake another
offensive. The Germans, after their retreat across the old Somme
battle fields, had stood firm on the Hindenburg line. Despite their
losses they had sufficient force on the western front to assure,
unless there was some unexpected break in their morale, their
retention of their positions in face of the determined attacks of the
British in their summer offensives, culminating in the bloody ridge of
Passchendaele, which were made not in the expectation of any decision,
but to hold German divisions off from the Italian front, from an
effort to crush Rumania, an effort against Saloniki and from
exploitation of their successes in Russia.
With Russia out of the war, Rumania crippled, the Servian army reduced
to a small body of veterans and the Italian offensive making no
decisive progress, it was evident that unless Germany could be starved
into submission by the blockade, which seemed out of the question from
the information in possession of Allied councils, we must have a
fighting force in France which should be as strong as either that of
the British or the French while its transport across the Atlantic
through the submarine zone was by no means assured. Trusting to no
adventitious event to make so large an army unnecessary, General
Pershing and his staff, after they had studied the situation and
conferred with the Allied command, decided that their duty as pioneers
was to prepare for the operations in France of an army of at least one
million men with the communications and plant for their support
capable of expansion for the care of two million men.
As the Allies throughout the war had depended very largely for war
material upon America and overseas countries, it was essential that we
should be capable of largely providing for our army from the resources
of our own country. With the French railway system strained to
capacity, and France suffering from a shortage of labor behind the
lines, owing to all her able-bodied males being in active service, we
must furnish transportation as well as labor from home. Despite the
strong influences brought to bear to have our soldiers introduced by
regiments and battalions into the French and British armies, it was
our duty, not only to our national spirit but to our conception of our
duty to the Allies, to form an integral American army which should
fight as a unit in the same manner that the British and French armies
were fighting.
A glance at the map of the whole western front, in reference to the
coast line and the harbors of France and its railway systems, will
readily indicate to any observer the strategic character of the
conception of General Pershing in 1917, which had its climax of
success in November, 1918. The British army was on the left of the
long battle line from Switzerland to Flanders, with its bases close to
the Channel and home bases. The French army was to hold the center of
the line, fighting for the heart of France, and on the right the
American army, drawing its supplies three thousand miles across the
sea and across southern and central France, was to face the Rhine.
For any great final Allied offensive, unless some unforeseen
circumstance favored, the Allies must wait upon the formation of an
army of American citizens who would be made approximately as capable
in all the complicated technique of modern warfare as the French and
British armies. That this achievement was possible we knew because of
the success of the British new army, and particularly that of the
Canadians, who had not even had as much military preparation as the
Australians, but had learned at the cannon's mouth the lessons of
experience which no amount of theory or practice can approximate.
As the early introduction of small American forces into the Allied
armies must be of relatively small effect in their relation to the
immense whole, ample time must be taken for the training and
preparation in order to assure the exertion of a maximum of pressure
when we should begin to fight in earnest. It was equally important
both for the effect upon Allied and German sentiment that when we did
begin active campaigning there should be no setbacks for our army.
According to the promise which we had made to the French Government we
were due to have by July 1, 1918, some five hundred thousand troops in
France. Even that number, when you include all the men who were
required along the lines of communication, seemed a small force on the
continent of Europe, and, at the time that this program was arranged,
the suggestion of a million men in France was probably considered
seriously only by the officers who were on the ground.
The first American troops to arrive in France was the 1st Division of
regulars (then under command of Sibert), including the brigade of
Marines. They were very largely raw recruits, in no sense a highly
trained regular division; they were to be followed by regular
divisions and National Guard divisions, which were to be established
in their drill grounds for periods of training before entering the
trenches.
Indeed the history of our operations may be divided into three phases:
The first was the period of preparation and training and of trench
experience of the earlier divisions and of the organization of our
general staff, the instruction of our reserve officers in the various
schools and in the actual work at the front, and inaugurating the
immense constructive work required for our lines of communication.
Through the winter of 1917-18, whether drilling in the muddy fields of
Lorraine or holding trenches, our men, in the penetrating, moist, and
cold climate, knew as great hardships as any veteran of the Civil War
or of the Revolution, Lorraine was aptly called our "Valley Forge" in
France. It was a winter of discouragement including the disaster to
the Italian army, the increasing submarine ravages, the want of
shipping to keep up the program of troop transport, the failure of
supplies to arrive, the final collapse of Russia and Rumania, the
depression among the French and Italian people, the severe food
restrictions in England, and the gathering of the German armies with
their superior numbers for the great offensives for the spring of
1918.
So serious did the Allies consider the situation that they were
willing to offer Germany a very favorable peace, but Germany,
confident that the Americans could not exert their pressure in time
and that Allied spirits were depressed to a point when at any moment
Allied disagreement might lead to an Allied collapse, refused to
consider the offers. History offers nothing in the record of great
wars in affording more contrast than the pessimism in the inner
councils of the Allies in the winter of 1917-18, and the spring of
1918, in comparison with the complete victory which was achieved in
the fall of 1918.
Our second phase came with the first of the German offensives on March
21, 1918, against the British army. The success of this offensive
startled the people of the Allied world to a full realization of the
perilous situation of their cause. It was an innovation in tactics in
that the Germans had swept through the front lines and support lines
of the trench system, capturing the guns whose answering artillery
fire had hitherto been the main reliance of the defense in stopping
the enemy's charges, and carrying the warfare into the open. We had
then only four divisions which had been in the trenches, Bullard's 1st
Regulars and Bundy's 2d Regulars and Marines and Edwards's 26th, or
New England, and Menoher's 42d, or Rainbow, National Guard Divisions.
The plan had been to put them into a permanent American sector in
Lorraine, but in face of this new emergency they were to be turned
over to the French for such use as Marshal Foch, the new commander in
chief of the Allied forces, might decide to make of them.
Up to this time the phrase "Too proud to fight" had haunted the minds
of the Allied peoples when they thought of American troops. They
considered that we had been very slow in beginning active warfare. Our
losses in the quiet trenches that we had occupied had been thus far
normally slight compared with those in an active battle sector. There
was a disposition to think that probably America was not sufficiently
in earnest to make any great sacrifice of lives. We were willing to
loan the Allies money, to supply them with materials of war and to
make some show of military force; but the contemplation of a nation
three thousand miles away from Europe fighting with all the heroic
disregard of life of the Allies on their own soil seemed a little out
of keeping with the accepted traditions of military history to
Europeans.
Never were soldiers watched with more critical interest or deeper
appreciation of the influence of the result than our divisions when
they were first engaged in violent action at Cantigny and in the
Chateau-Thierry operations in the course of the trying months of the
German offensives and the subsequent Allied counteroffensives. Not
only had the Europeans wondered if we would fight, but they had grave
doubts of our battle skill. The seriousness of the situation deepened
their concern. Anyone who really knew America had no doubt that we
would fight. At the same time thoughtful Americans, familiar with the
increasingly difficult technique which was the accumulation of more
than three years' experience, when they thought of how relatively
little experience our citizen soldiers had had, saw them go into
action beside veteran French and British divisions with misgivings
lest their skill might not be in keeping with their valor. Their
initiative and furious application led to more rapid learning than the
most optimistic of their teachers had imagined.
The American army had been trained for the offensive. We had, at the
start, the natural initiative which the Canadians had so abundantly
shown, and which in the introduction of the trench raid they applied
in the only innovation of tactics with the exception of the tanks
which the British army developed. The Canadians, coming from a more
sparsely settled country than ours, with a larger percentage of its
citizens of English-speaking origin than we have, if we except the
French Canadian population, had the advantage, in the views of many,
over American forces which must include a large number of draft men
unfamiliar with the English language who had had only a brief
residence in the United States.
If the American army was to be the decisive army owing to its youth
and its numbers, then there must never enter any thought into our
minds other than that once we were prepared for action that action
should be continuously one of attack. If the old German trench line
were to be broken and the war of movement were again to lead to an
Appomattox for the German army that could only be won by tactics
which, with unwavering determination, would eventually capitalize
German exhaustion after four years of war in the conviction on the
part of German soldiers that resistance against the immense forces of
American reserves that were coming was hopeless. In brief, America
must show the Germans that millions of Americans, who had the spirit
of the Canadians, were to follow the Canadians across the Atlantic.
The greatest difficulty that Allied commanders had had was keeping
soldiers from falling into the habit of trench defensive, which was
the result of the early days of murderous fighting, when all attempts
either by the Germans or the Allies to "break through" had failed. Our
hope was that our soldiers would have the good fortune to escape the
fearful attrition of trench fighting and that our offensive spirit
would suffer no setbacks in actual experience.
Where we had been in the trenches we had insistently kept the upper
hand over the enemy, meeting his trench raids with better than he
gave, answering his artillery fire with heavier artillery fire and
pressing him at every point. No feature of war is more underestimated
than psychology. The psychology of conviction that you are going to
win, confirmed by actual victory in the first shock of arms, is one of
the best guaranties of continued victory.
Happily, our divisions, which were transferred to the active battle
front in western France, were able to apply their offensive spirit
with immediate offensive results. At Cantigny, on the eve of the third
German offensive, in our first attack we took all of our objectives
skillfully, and when the 2d Division was thrown across the Paris road
to resist the advance of the Germans which was then slowing down, our
men, who were in the pink of youthful vigor, immediately attacked.
They were on a comparatively short front, but their conduct thrilled
all the Allied soldiers and people with the rallying conviction that
the Americans had brought to France a telling new energy into an old
war. The British who had stood out stubbornly against the mighty
German thrusts felt more than ever confidence due to the presence of
American divisions with their army. More important than generals or
staff, the American individual soldier stood in no awe of his enemy,
but, on the contrary, was confident of his personal superiority. It
needed no urging from his officers for him to attack. When in doubt
his idea was to charge. Again, the 3d Division in the defense of the
Marne bridgeheads at Chateau-Thierry, though it had had no trench
experience and had never been under fire before, simply confirmed the
quality which the old divisions had exemplified as something that was
a common trait.
Against the great fifth German offensive the 42d, or Rainbow Division,
which was represented with the National Guard of our twenty-six States
and was conscious of holding the honor of the National Guard and of
the honor of America in its keeping, showed that if stubborn
resistance was requisite as well as attack they could be depended
upon. Dickman's 3d Division, against that same offensive, broke the
German crossing of the Marne and then, when the front line battalions
had lost one-third to one-half of its men, counterattacked with a
dexterity and a viciousness that thrilled the most veteran and
phlegmatic of military critics.
For the Allied counteroffensive, which was the turning of the tide
against the German offensives, the French High Command chose that the
1st (now under command of Summerall) and 2d (now under command of
Harbord) Divisions, should cooperate with the best of French divisions
in the drive toward Soissons which was to force the gradual evacuation
of the Germans of the Marne salient.
This operation and the operations that preceded it in resisting the
German offensives were all known to the general public as
Chateau-Thierry, which is the name of the town lying in the lap of the
hills on the bank of the Marne. No American soldiers ever fought in
Chateau-Thierry with the exception of the machine-gun battalion of the
3d Division, which was in the town very briefly in a rear-guard action
before retiring with its French associates to the other side of the
Marne to prevent the Germans from crossing. In the counteroffensive it
was the French who retook the town without any fighting as it was no
longer defensible once the surrounding hills had been taken, and in
their taking we assisted. But for all the splendid work of our
divisions in the second battle of the Marne, as it is sometimes
called, Chateau-Thierry has become the accepted name. Any one of the
eight divisions engaged in the operations which began with the defense
of Paris and ended with driving the Germans back to their old line was
at Chateau-Thierry in the accepted sense of the term.
General Pershing had been convinced that the Marne salient, which
extended into the Allied line in an immense pocket, not only from its
configuration invited attack, but that the Germans had so far extended
themselves in their giant efforts that the tables could be easily
turned. If he had been slow to enter his divisions into active sectors
until they had been trained, he was now, in face of this opportunity,
not only prepared to send in his trained divisions, but to send in
divisions which had only recently arrived. By this time we were
beginning to feel the accumulated results of the work of our training
camps at home in forming our untrained citizens into battalions and
regiments and divisions, and we were having the actual results in
France of the full awakening of the American people and the Allies to
the danger of defeat which the German offensives had brought, and the
shipping which had been provided for at the Abbeville Conference of
the Allied statesmen and commanders was rushing the men from our
training camps to Europe with a speed that surpassed the transport
program by two to one by midsummer.
Instead of five hundred thousand in July, 1918, we had a million; and
the two million would soon follow.
The indefatigable industry of our workers, in preparation for the
reception of vast hosts which at the inception of the great plan
seemed visionary, now appeared as the most practical kind of
prevision, a prevision which was to play an important part in winning
the war. By results we had answered the fears of all skeptics. All the
way from the North Sea, over four hundred miles to Switzerland, the
traveler saw American soldiers behind the line; and they were
scattered through all the villages of France. We had ten divisions who
had been assigned to the British, we had soldiers in training in the
Ypres salient on the old Somme battle field, in Champagne, in the
Woevre, in Lorraine, and in the forests of the Vosges Mountains in
sight of the Alps. The transports were disembarking men by the
thousands every day and railroad trains were dispatching our divisions
here and there with a frequency that left it out of the question that
any man or woman in France should not now realize by their own
observation that America was in the war in earnest and she was
bringing her man power to bear on the battle front.
Our project for an army of our own had been abandoned for the time
being in order to meet the emergency due to the German offensives. The
American effort in France had been that of many scattered divisions
called to fill breaches and then sent into the attack in order to make
the most of the turn of the tide. We could not have an American army
in our own sector until these detached divisions had assisted in
making sure that Paris was forever out of danger, and that there was
not enough spirit or force left in the German armies to undertake an
offensive of any kind.
The situation of our forces meanwhile was unique and amazingly
difficult. The British had their line from thirty to seventy-five
miles from the coast which was only an hour's ride away from England
itself, and the French were in their own country wherever they went.
But the nearest homes of our soldiers were three thousand miles away
and the homes of some of them were five and six thousand miles. When
they received "leaves" they could not go to visit their families as
the British and French might. While the British were in their
permanent sector with all the system of supplies regularly
established, our soldiers might be one day serving with the British
army and the next day with the French; they knew the weariness of long
rides on railway trains, billets in barns and haylofts, and no home
associations except that of their own companionship and that supplied
by the Red Cross, the Y. M. C. A., the Knights of Columbus, and the
Salvation Army. They were under the strictest kind of censorship,
their mail took weeks to reach France and then followed them about
from place to place in trying to overtake them.
The rapidity with which they were being brought across the seas in
unexpected numbers into a land which had suffered the strain of war
for four years led to confusion and discomfort under the fearful
pressure of the forthcoming tremendous effort which was to use all the
will power, energy, and brains of every man that America had in
France.
For we were now to know no rest until the armistice was signed. After
the 1st and 2d Divisions had fought themselves to utter exhaustion in
the drive to Soissons with a loss of nearly 50 per cent of their
infantry, the work of reducing the salient fell upon the "Yankee" 26th
Division, which had been hurried from a long tour in the mud and
misery of the Toul sector, upon Muir's "Iron" 28th Division of
Pennsylvania National Guard, coming fresh from the drill grounds back
of the British front to the drive toward the Ourcq, upon the
redoubtable 3d Division, which, despite its losses in resisting the
German crossing of the Marne, took up the counteroffensive with a
fiery zeal.
Then the 42d Division swung around to take the place of the "Yankee"
26th, after it had fought heroically to exhaustion in attacking
through more forests and against more machine-gun nests, and Haans
32d Division of National Guard from Michigan and Wisconsin, "the
Arrows," who always broke the line which came down the apron of the
hills toward Cierges under artillery fire with the jauntiness of
parade, conquered the wicked woods and heights of the ravines on the
other side of the Ourcq in its first great action. Hersey's 4th
Regular Division with but little experience lived up to the record of
the other divisions by promptly becoming veteran and Duncan's 77th
"Liberty" Division, of New York City, the first of the National Army
divisions to arrive in France and the first to know active battle,
pressed on to the Vesle. All these gave all the strength they had, all
fought until in weariness they must accept relief, in that wonderful
revelation of citizen America turned soldier.
There was not one of these divisions that did not regret that instead
of being associated with French divisions they were not associated
with American divisions. All were ambitious to be a part of our own
army. They had finished their Chateau-Thierry job; they had done all
that was expected of them; they had met the emergency. Chateau-Thierry
had been an introduction, a preparation, a proof of quality for other
and greater tasks which commanders had now learned that we could
perform.
Now began the Hegira of our divisions toward our own American sector
in Lorraine, where all but two, who were with the British, were to
join them. With the assurance that by the first of December we should
have more than two million Americans in France while the number of
German reserve divisions were dwindling and the Germans could hope for
no further reenforcements, the offensive of Chateau-Thierry was to be
followed by the succeeding offensives with which, as opportunity
offered, Marshal Foch was to conduct his final campaign. Germany had
no hope now of winning the war. The question was how soon it might be
won by the Allies.
With the attack on the Saint Mihiel salient our army entered upon its
third and greatest phase, which was the cumulation of all the plans
made in June, 1917. At that time it was considered that we should be
ready for our first offensive operation as an integral force by the
autumn of 1918, and the salient was considered as its objective; but,
as I have said, we had not calculated upon a million men by midsummer
of 1918, which our lines of communication would have to supply, let
alone two million by November 1, 1918. The requirements laid upon
transport and supply were more than doubled, while the emergency of
scattering our divisions to resist the German offensives had
introduced an unexpected feature, and the strain upon France and
England, as the result of these offensives, had interfered with our
receiving as much assistance from them as we might have originally
expected.
As officers in France had foreseen, the promises of our ambitious
program in the manufacture of aeroplanes, ordnance, and material of
war at home, could not be fulfilled even by the most diligent
application of energy and enterprise as soon as the War Department had
hoped. We were still equipping all our divisions with British gas
masks and helmets. Only in the last days of the Chateau-Thierry
operations had a plane driven by a Liberty motor flown over our lines.
All our artillery and machine guns were still French. The Browning
machine guns were only just beginning to arrive; and we waited upon
the American tanks and gas outfits and other weapons.
These handicaps made the successes which were to follow all the more
remarkable. The increasing forces must all have their daily rations,
and in the pressure of battle the artillery must not lack ammunition,
and there must be at all times sufficient transport, whether railroad,
motor, or horse, in order that the supplies should be delivered at the
front. Therefore the development of the Service of Supply as a part of
the whole project must keep pace in capacity and efficiency with the
demands of the fighting forces.
Our army's activities were divided into three zones: the base, the
intermediate, and advance, with that of the base and the intermediate
in charge of the commanding general of the Service of Supply at Tours.
Every harbor of western France not occupied by the British was teeming
with American effort, while Marseilles, in the Mediterranean, was
caring for our increasing business which the Atlantic ports could not
accommodate. The recruits for the army of the Service of Supply must
keep pace with those for the army at the front. Battalions of negroes
had been brought from the Southern States to act as laborers and
stevedores. We were using German prisoners for labor as fast as they
were captured.
At Bordeaux and Saint Nazaire, particularly, among the ports, we had
built long expanses of wharves and the spur tracks which connected
them with systems of warehouses. The plan had been always to have
reserve supplies for forty-five days at the base ports; with thirty
days' at the great intermediate depot of Gievres, where another vast
system of spur tracks and warehouses had been built in open fields,
and fifteen days' supplies at the regulating stations with their
systems of spur tracks and warehouses where the trains were made up to
meet the immediate requisitions from the front. Without any prevision
as to when the war would end, with nothing certain except that we must
go on preparing as if it were to last for years in order the sooner to
force the end, new construction, while requirements of the present
were met, must keep pace with growth. We had car and locomotive
assembling shops; motor repair shops; salvage depots, remount depots,
and immense areas of hospitals, with as many as eighteen thousand beds
in a single area, which had been building in grim expectation of the
flow of wounded from the front when we began operations on a large
scale. Nurses and doctors must be in sufficient numbers for the
emergency.
Never had America had such a test of its organizing capacity as in its
formation of the Service of Supply. Its problems, both in number and
complexity as well as in the size of the task, the amount of material
and personnel required, were far greater than those of the Panama
Canal. The leisure which any undertaking permits in carrying out plans
and the dependence which may be placed upon the receipt of tools and
material in time of peace were both wanting under the pressure of war.
Personnel for this enterprise was summoned from our engineers, our
business men and experts, and from the ranks of skilled labor in
every civil branch who were for the first time brought together in a
national organization in foreign surroundings where they faced many
difficulties with which they were unfamiliar, under the direction of
the regular army, which had to reconcile all policies with the
requirements of the front line, and which had to expand its
imagination and its powers of organization from a quartermaster's
business of a little regular army to the mastery of unparalleled
forces in the direction of reserve officers who had been used to
handling great business enterprises.
Next to the position of General Pershing that of the commanding
general of the Service of Supply was the most important in France. It
was proposed at one time from Washington that he should have authority
coordinate with General Pershing's direct from Washington; but this
was strongly opposed on the ground that the commander in chief of the
fighting army must be supreme over every branch if he were to be
responsible for the success of a campaign. Major General James G.
Harbord, who had been the first chief of staff of the American
Expeditionary Force and later commanded the marine brigade of the 2d
Division and afterward the division itself in the Chateau-Thierry
operations, was summoned from the front late in July, 1918, at a time
when the rapid arrival of troops from America and the prospects of the
terrific demands of the campaigns which would ensue made it vital that
there should be administrative reform in the Service of Supply by some
man not only of high organizing ability but with the personal quality
that inspires coordination among his adjutants, if the Service of
Supply were to be equal to the enormous demands which would be placed
upon it in the next few months.
Whether it was the officers drawn from civil life without military
training, or the laborers or the privates, every man in the Service of
Supply wished that he were at the front. Hundreds of officers with
combat training and thousands of soldiers who had been in the training
camps found themselves, because of their particular efficiency in
business organization, immured in some particular Service of Supply
branch, doing long hours of prosaic work in the different camps and
shops of the base ports and central France without hope, so far as
they could see, of ever hearing a shot fired. It seemed to them
frequently that the staff organization of the Service of Supply lacked
the characteristics of energetic direction and team play with which
they had been familiar in civil life. They had everything to make them
discouraged. General Harbord, with the reputation he had won as a
fighter, his magnetism, his understanding of human nature and his
capability of promptly grasping the essentials of any problem, soon
showed that he had the talent for transforming the spirit of the
personnel by applying the indefatigable industry and the patriotic
spirit of this vast force in a homogeneous corps, without which the
victory of the American forces in France would not have been possible.
While General Harbord was reorganizing the Service of Supply, General
Pershing was preparing in haste and under great handicaps for the
direction of hundreds of thousands of men in battle. The division was
the fighting unit of our army. It went into the trenches and into
battle as a division; was transferred from one part of the line to the
other as a unit which was complete in all its branches, with a
personnel of twenty-seven thousand men, or about double the size of a
British or French division. The command of many divisions in battle
brought us to the question of higher tactics. We had to train officers
for this high responsibility as well as for leading the battalions in
the front line.
According to the original plan we were to have six divisions to a
corps. Major General Hunter Liggett, as soon as we had four divisions
in training, had been set the task of organizing our first corps. He
had a high reputation in the regular army as a student and tactician,
and he was a man of great poise and a most thorough student. The
withdrawal of our divisions from our Lorraine sector, in order to
assist in the defense of Paris and later in the counteroffensive of
July, had allowed General Liggett little practical experience. With
the rapid arrival of our troops other corps staffs were rapidly
formed. Major General Robert L. Bullard, who had commanded the 1st
Division in the Toul sector and in the attack on Cantigny, was given
the command of the 3d Corps. For a brief period both General Liggett
and General Bullard and their staff had some experience acting as
corps commanders in the Chateau-Thierry operations. Not until the
Saint Mihiel operations, however, had we ever had more than two
divisions operating together under American command. Meanwhile we had
organized our First Army, which was under the personal command of
General Pershing.
With our new corps and army organization, we were now to undertake an
attack against the fortifications of one of the most formidable
positions on the western front with a shorter period of preparation
than had been generally accepted as necessary by the veteran French
and British armies whose staffs had had four years' training under
actual battle conditions. The experts, whether in the gaining of
intelligence, in the handling of traffic, or in the highly complex
technique of the arrangements for the liaison of artillery and
infantry and aviation and all the other branches of uniformity of
operations between the divisions, were to apply in practice what they
had learned in theory and by observation of the Allied armies. Their
theory had been learned at the staff school of Langres, solving
problems of combat organization and listening to lectures by staff
officers of other armies; but theory is not practice.
Since 1915 there had been no important action from Verdun to the Swiss
border. The wedge of the Saint Mihiel salient, which the Germans had
won in 1914 with its commanding hills and ridges, had remained an
eyesore on the map of the western front. Aside from its strong natural
positions it was defended by the most elaborate of modern
fortifications. By the criterion of precedents of previous offensives
against front-line positions we should succeed in our undertaking only
at an immense cost of life, should the Germans decide to make a
determined defense. Until a few days before the attack we had every
expectation that they would. The original plan was that we should go
through to Mars-la-Tour and Etain until we were before the great
German fortress of Metz. Marshal Foch changed this plan, as we shall
see.
By the time we had finished the Saint Mihiel operations the chilling
fall rains would have begun in earnest. These would not only expose
the men, but would impede transport. We should use the winter months
for applying the lessons learned in our first offensive in the forming
of our organization for the greater offensive which was to begin in
the spring of 1919 and continue until we had won a decision. For in
1919 it was the American army with its inexhaustible reserves and the
vigor of its youth which was due to do the leading and to endure
accordingly heavy losses. The artillery, the machine guns, the tanks,
and all the other material which we had been manufacturing at home as
it arrived through the winter of 1918 we should incorporate into our
organization.
Marshal Foch, who desired the complete success of the Saint Mihiel
offensive as a part of his plan, had assigned to the American army,
under General Pershing's command, ample forces in addition to our own
artillery and aviation. While French divisions were to mark time at
the apex of the salient before following up our attack, the American
divisions from right to left, the 90th, 5th, 2d, 89th, 42d, and 1st
were to swing in on the eastern side of the salient, with the 82d as a
pivot and the 26th Division, cooperating with French troops, was to
swing in on the western side. For the first time our army corps and
divisional artillery were to cooperate in a preliminary bombardment in
cutting the barbed wire, encountering the enemy's artillery fire, and
to prepare the way for the charge of a long line of American infantry
in the first attack of an American army as an army on the continent of
Europe. For the first time the responsibility for command all the way
from the front line through all the headquarters up to that other
commander in chief was ours. The French staff officers were at hand
with their advice and information, but ours was the decision and the
battle was ours.
By the morning of September 12, 1918, the Germans, in view of the
strength of our forces and of the pressure on other parts of their
line, had decided not to make strong resistance in the Saint Mihiel
salient. Indeed, they contemplated a rear-guard action in withdrawal,
but not expecting that we would attack on the 12th, owing to rainy
weather, we practically caught them before their withdrawal had begun,
with the result that the impetuosity of the attack of our men, who
forced their way through stretches of barbed wire which the artillery
fire had not cut, cleared both the first and second lines of defense
on schedule time and gathered in prisoners and guns out of all keeping
to their losses. On the morning of the 13th, troops of the 26th
Division and the 1st Division, swinging in from the east and west, had
come together and the Saint Mihiel salient was no more. Our success
had been complete and inexpensive. It thrilled the Allied armies with
fresh confidence in our arms when they saw that the angle on the old
line of the map had been straightened and the German people, to whom
the Saint Mihiel salient had become equally a symbol, were accordingly
depressed.
Already, instead of looking forward to months of preparation for the
next offensive, our army had begun preparations for another offensive
which was to begin only thirteen days after that of Saint Mihiel.
Marshal Foch had decided before the Saint Mihiel attack to change his
plan, and instead of going through to Mars-la-Tour and Etain, only to
cut the salient, withdrawing surplus troops for action elsewhere. In
conjunction with the Fourth French Army, which was to attack from the
left, we were to attack from the Argonne Forest to the Meuse River in
the greatest battle in which Americans had ever been engaged.
Following the success of the Chateau-Thierry offensive in which our
troops had played a part, the British Canadians and the French had had
continuing success in their offensives beginning on August 8, 1918.
Our 32d Division had increased the reputation which it had won in the
fighting on the Ourcq by assisting the French in breaking the old
front-line positions northeast of Soissons.
The Allies had now regained practically all the ground that the
Germans had won in their spring and summer offensives. In places they
had penetrated the Hindenburg line. The Belgian as well as the British
and French armies were about to take the offensive. The German losses
in prisoners and material in the last month indicated a decline in
German morale. Information confirmed the idea that Hindenburg, with
his rapidly weakening reserves, was contemplating a withdrawal to the
line of the Meuse. Every consideration called upon the Allied armies
to stretch their resources in men and material to the utmost in order
to take advantage of the situation. For the first time since the war
had begun on the western front they completely had the initiative.
The next step was to broaden the front of the Allied attacks, further
confusing Ludendorff in his dispositions, and breaking through the
Hindenburg line and all the old front-line positions which the Germans
had held for four years, to force the offensive in the open, where
rapid maneuvers could harass the effort of the Germans in withdrawing
their forces and the material which they had accumulated through four
years, and by repeated blows continue to weaken their morale until a
positive decision was won.
If Ludendorff were given leisure for a deliberate retreat to a shorter
line which he could fortify during the winter while his army recovered
its spirit, this shorter line would give him all the advantage which
serves the defense in deeper concentrations of troops to the mile with
less room for the offensive to maneuver for surprises.
All the Allied offensives--Champagne, Loos, the Somme, Arras, and
Passchendaele--had been made to the west of the Argonne Forest,
because of the advantage of ground. To the east, facing the Rhine, the
Germans had their great fortress of Metz, and the positions in
Lorraine and the Vosges Mountains and the wedge of Saint Mihiel, which
had seemed unconquerable. The Meuse River winds past Saint Mihiel
through the town of Verdun, then northward where it turns westward
toward Sedan. All the way from Saint Mihiel, including the hills of
the forts of Verdun, which look out on the plain of the Woevre with
the fortress of Metz in the distance, runs a rampart of heights clear
to the great bastion of the Forest of Argonne, where the country
becomes more rolling, and therefore better ground for military
operations.
The line of our second offensive was to be from the Meuse River just
west of Verdun to the western edge of the Argonne Forest. Anyone who
looks at the map of the old line of the western front and of the
enemy's railroad communications would say at once that this was the
obvious line for an offensive. The Metz-Lille railway line, two-track
all the way, and in places four-track, runs through Sedan and
Mezieres, following the Meuse Valley where it turns westward. This was
the most important southern transversal line that the Germans had for
supplying their armies in eastern France and connecting them with the
coal fields of northern France. Northeast of the Meuse-Argonne
positions were the famous Briey iron fields on which the Germans were
dependent for their supplies of ore for the Krupp works. A blow toward
Mezieres and toward Briey was a blow at the heart of German military
power.
The Germans fully realized the danger in this direction and knew, as
our generals knew, how thoroughly it was protected. They had all the
advantage of rail connections in hastening their reserves to this
point if the Allies had made an advance in this direction. In 1916 or
1917 the Germans would have welcomed the Meuse-Argonne offensive, in
the confidence that the Allied attacks would have suffered as bloody
repulses as the Germans suffered at Verdun against the same kind of
positions. The front German line was in the southern part of the
Forest of Argonne with its ravines and hills covered with dense
undergrowth. And back of this was still another great forest, that of
Bourgogne. Offensives against even small patches of woods had proved
the hopelessness of any frontal attack against forests.
East of the Argonne Forest is the little river Aire, its valley
forming a trough between the hills, and between that and the Meuse for
a distance of about ten miles the German line, which had been placed
in the retreat from the Marne, had at its rear a whaleback of rising
heights which reached their summit in the neighborhood of Buzancy.
From this summit it was downhill all the way to the Meuse River. It
was this summit which the American army must gain in advancing over
ground in which nature seemed to have had in mind the possibilities of
modern warfare in defense. The heights would give observation for the
enemy guns which were hidden on the reverse slopes. Numerous patches
of woods and tricky ravines made ideal positions for machine-gun
nests. One position gained, the victor still looked ahead to higher
ground. The enemy could always bring his reserves up under cover while
those of the attacking force would be in full view.
The soldiers of our new army had shown that they had the spirit of
attack. Marshal Foch was to give them the opportunity to display it to
the utmost, and in the conference which he and General Pershing held
before the battle of Saint Mihiel one of the great decisions of the
war was made. We were to send partly trained divisions into a conflict
in winter rains and under incalculable hardships in the faith that our
courage, exerted to its utmost in the fall of 1918, might break the
weakening German army before it could recover its spirit, while the
losses which this effort entailed would save us from far greater
losses in the spring and the prolongation of the war. Though we should
never reach the summit of those heights, the threat which we should
make against the German line of communications must withdraw more and
more German troops from other parts of the line, and keep on
increasing the confusion of Ludendorff's dispositions.
The only American comparison for the Meuse-Argonne Battle was the
Appomattox campaign which lasted much longer and consisted of a series
of separate actions with nothing like the concentration and continuous
fighting which the Americans of another generation were to endure.
Grant had no lack of supplies, he had more guns than he could use and
was fighting on his own soil with ample resources in reserve within
easy reach. Pershing's army was not relatively as ready for the task
that it was to undertake as McClellan had been for his Peninsula
campaign.
From the time of the attack of Saint Mihiel on September 12, 1918,
until September 25, 1918, we had thirteen days to prepare for an
offensive which, as it was made by a new army, could be likened to the
great Somme offensive of the British in 1916. Then the British had
taken five months in which to build roads, dig assembly trenches,
prepare ammunition dumps, and bring up necessary engineering material.
But it must be borne in mind that at this time the enemy was in the
prime of his numbers and confidence. Moreover, such elaborate
arrangements were then considered necessary in order to take
powerfully intrenched lines. They had the fault of warning the enemy
in ample time of any concentration which enabled him to mass men and
material for defense. Later, the French had developed a system of
limited objectives of brief artillery preparations, followed by the
rolling barrage which preceded the advance of the infantry, while the
enemy's strong points and gun positions were smothered with shells.
The Germans, however, in their great offensive against the British in
March, 1918, had taken ample time for preparation while they made the
innovation of driving through for sufficiently great depth to become
masters of all the trench defenses and of the opposing artillery.
In the counteroffensive toward Soissons on July 18, 1918, and again in
the Anglo-French-Canadian offensive of August 8, 1918, and the
succeeding offensives, the Allies had depended on either a very brief
artillery preparation or upon not opening fire until the moment of the
infantry's advance while they followed through in the German fashion.
In our Meuse-Argonne offensive, we had all these precedents and the
experience of the officers in directing them for our guidance. But
very veteran and skilled armies had carried out the later style of
offensive, and they had the advantage which comes from long experience
that the units, used to keeping their uniformity in battle action, did
not become dispersed after they had made a certain advance as was
supposed to be the case in any extensive offensive where new divisions
were engaged.
The most disastrous example in throwing an untrained division into a
violent attack was that of the British 21st Division in the fall of
1915 at Loos, which in trying to apply its drill-ground training under
fire, became disorganized and failed to take its objectives. Later,
after it had had more experience, this same division, though no more
courageous than in its first battle, proved itself masterful in the
complicated technique of modern attack which it had learned in
diligent application in smaller actions after Loos, and by applying
the lessons learned at Loos by thorough drilling.
Practically all our pioneer divisions which had had long experience in
France were either engaged at Saint Mihiel or else they were occupied
elsewhere. For the new offensive we must therefore depend upon new
divisions which had been a shorter time in France than the 1st or 2d
or 26th or 42d Divisions.
Following the attack by the American army on the Meuse-Argonne line
and the 4th French Army on its left with their threat toward the lines
of communications, the British and French were to strike the
Hindenburg line in the St. Quentin-Cambrai region on September 29,
1918, and on October 2, 1918, the French were to attack to the east of
Rheims. Thus a succession of offensives were to broaden the whole
front of operations in an effort to break through the old trench line,
all the way from the Meuse to the North Sea, and bring the Allied
armies into the open where they would be forever free of trench
shackles. This was a most audacious enterprise which was warranted by
the information which the Allies had of the state of the German army.
The Bulgarian army was beginning to disintegrate and the Italians had
turned the Austrian offensive on the Piave into a disaster from which
the Austro-Hungarian armies could not recover. Throughout the months
of August and September, 1918, the Germans had been yielding large
numbers of prisoners and an immense quantity of material, while the
Allied losses had been comparatively light.
The German cards were now on the table; the number of German divisions
in reserve were known; and in the arrival of American divisions the
Allies had a vast store of man power. We had become the dependable
quantity of a mighty growing reserve force.
Marshal Foch chose to put us in the very hinge of the whole movement
and he set for our objective in a swift series of advances nothing
less than the heights of Buzancy--the heights of the whaleback itself.
Had we gained that within three or four days, we would have threatened
the retreat of the whole German army, indeed, the capture of a hundred
thousand or more Germans would have been fairly certain. No one
considered such a success except in the category of a military miracle
until German reserves were more depleted than they were at the end of
September.
Ludendorff, on his side, knew that he must hold the hinge of the door.
He might yield toward the west, if necessary, but must not yield in
front of Mezieres and Sedan. The neck of the bottle must not be
closed. The measure of our initial success, whatever the intrepidity
of our attack, must depend largely upon how far we were able to take
the Germans by surprise, and the depth of our advance must depend upon
our ability to bring up our artillery and ammunition and food for our
men. To the rear of the line from the Meuse to the Argonne Forest
there are literally only two roads of approach. If we attempted to
build more, they would immediately be visible to the aeroplane
observers of the enemy. We could not build more when our engineers and
our laborers were occupied at Saint Mihiel.
If we arranged elaborate dumps of ammunition, these would inevitably
be seen by the enemy or their presence would be communicated in some
way as past experience had proved. To move long columns of troops and
transport by day was equally an advertisement of our plan for an
enormous attack which was the thing that we wished to conceal when the
success of the attack was to depend upon secret mobilization and a
swift blow. If we were to repair the old roads across the broad area
of the shell-crushed no-man's-land and through the trench systems
after our attack, this also required the assembling of a great deal of
material in view of the enemy.
No part of a modern army's arrangements is more difficult than the
handling of the necessarily dense vehicular traffic behind the
immediate front, even if ample supplies are brought to the railheads.
The numbers of motor trucks and ambulances required were incredible.
Our Service of Supply, which had been concentrating all its energies
and material toward Saint Mihiel, now had to prepare for another
equally great offensive. New railheads, new railways, new hospitals,
new headquarters, and new routes of transport had to be established.
With the certainty that the Saint Mihiel sector, if it became violent,
would consume large quantities of ammunition we had to provide for the
immense consumption of ammunition which would undoubtedly be required
in the Meuse-Argonne.
The continued fighting throughout the summer, with additional and
unexpected requirements for the new offensive campaign, had made
increasingly heavy drafts upon transport and animals. It was no use to
say that more horses were coming from Spain and from America; they
were needed now. All the tanks and aeroplanes and the light and heavy
artillery which were in the making at home or on the docks at New York
would be of no service unless they were in the battle. The lack of
sufficient railway lines and shortage of rolling stock required
accordingly more travel on the limited roads approaching the area of
concentration east and west of Verdun.
When artillery, in course of being withdrawn from the Saint Mihiel
front to go to the Argonne front, had their horses killed, the weary
survivors who were now to draw the guns could not be forced through
according to the usual schedule. They had to cross the streams of
traffic running to the Saint Mihiel front. At night all the roads were
solid columns of men and vehicles that had to keep at the uniform pace
of the slowest of its units lest motor transport, which could go
fifteen miles an hour, in trying to pass tractor-drawn heavy artillery
that could go three or four, should become imbedded in the mud and
thus stall the whole column for hours.
Thus the unprecedented strain of the Meuse-Argonne Battle, which was
to endure for six weeks, began with the difficulties of mobilization.
During the Chateau-Thierry operations we had had summer weather, when
men could sleep in the open with comfort, when it was easy to repair
broken roads and when motor trucks which got off the road did not sink
into the mud. Now we had already entered the period of chill fall
rains which made the ground porous and wet marching soldiers to the
skin. Instead of time for reflection and reorganization, in applying
the lesions of the Saint Mihiel salient, every officer and man was
straining his utmost to make sure by improvisation, when organization
failed and by sheer sleepless industry, of meeting with forced smiles
each new contingency as it developed.
Our three corps in line were, the first under General Liggett on the
left, the fifth under General Cameron in the center, and the third
under General Bullard on the right. The corps headquarters were
established only four days before the attack. Unfamiliar except in
theory, and from what they had learned at Saint Mihiel, with the
problems of directing an army in a prolonged battle, they had not a
quarter of the time for preparations which they ordinarily should have
received even if they had had long experience. They did not know the
division commanders or the divisions which were to serve under them,
and the divisions did not arrive until the last moment.
Artillery brigades, fresh from the training grounds where they had
only received their guns, marched up to be assigned to divisions with
which they had never cooperated in action. Batteries that had no
horses depended upon batteries that had horses to be drawn into
position. The coordination of infantry units for the attack was
dependent upon coordination by paper directions rather than previous
association.
We had an enormous concentration of artillery and of aviation, thanks
to assistance from the French, but our aviation and much of that of
the French sent us was new. Our aviators lacked experience as
observers in keeping their liaison in directing artillery fire and in
informing the infantry of the movements of their units and of the
enemy's. Infantry and artillery commanders who had had little previous
battle experience, were not always fortunate in their efforts to keep
liaison with one another and with the aviation in view of the
aviation's inexperience. To say that the American army was ready for
such an offensive as that of the Meuse-Argonne would be unfair to the
men who began the battle and detracting from the glory of their
achievement. Her courage, eagerness, adaptability, and industry were
merits which were to overcome the handicaps in a way that made results
even more glorious in the greatest battle of our history.
Aside from the fact that two of the divisions in line were going under
fire for the first time there was not one of the divisions which was
not handicapped in some way for their effort, either for want of
artillery or because they had had no time to rest after hard marches
or previous battles. In the space of this brief review it is
impossible to tell of their actions in detail which reflected credit
on each one of the Regular, National Guard, or National Army
divisions, and which, taken together, reflected credit upon the army
as a whole.
On the right was Bell's 33d Division of Illinois National Guard. At
its back was the famous _Mort Homme_, or Dead Man's Hill, where
Frenchmen and Germans had struggled in the battle of Verdun, with its
shell craters now fringed with weeds. The 33d had to cross the Forges
Brook and swing in toward the Meuse River protecting the right flank
of the whole movement which rested on the river. On the left of the
33d was the 80th, Cronkhite's Blue Ridge Division, trained at the
British front and come from Saint Mihiel. Next in line was the 4th
Regular Division, which, coming fresh from the British front, had
fought magnificently in the Chateau-Thierry operations. On its left
was Kuhn's 79th, the National Army Division from Camp Meade, which had
never heard a shot fired until it marched up amidst the roar of guns
and artillery preparation. Then we had Farnsworth's 37th, National
Guard of Ohio, which with unconquerable persistence was to take the
wicked Malancourt Woods; and then the 91st Division of the National
Army from the Pacific slope which was to give such a remarkable
exhibition of continued and determined advance. Next we had Traub's
85th Division, National Guard from Kansas and Missouri, which was set
the dreadful task of taking the heights on the west of the Aire river
and of crossing the Exermont ravine. Next was Muir's 28th, or "Iron"
Division, National Guard of Pennsylvania, which was in the valley of
the Aire and faced the wooded heights of the Argonne which were thrust
out Gibraltarlike into the valley. Finally, on the extreme left was
the 77th, National Army from New York (now under command of
Alexander), facing the heart of the formidable Argonne Forest.
Some of these divisions had more difficult obstacles than others to
overcome. Their relative position in line was due less to a strategic
arrangement, with any view to their experience or to their exhaustion
in relation to their objectives, than to the relation of their
positions to the roads by which they had had to travel in reaching the
front. Up to this time the 4th, the 77th, and the 28th had probably
seen the most fighting. They had just come from the Chateau-Thierry
operations and in common with all the other divisions, were short of
transport and had to make forced marches.
All the men of all the divisions had either been sleeping in box cars
on railroad trains or they had been in the miserable crowded billets
of small villages, getting what rest, after marching at night, they
could during the day, in the midst of the rumble of traffic. No corps,
divisional, regimental, or battalion commander, no chief of one of the
staff sections who had anything to do with the direction of traffic,
could say quite how this was accomplished, except by sleepless vigil
and grim, sweating effort, but the fact was that the miracle had
happened; for on the night of September 24, 1918, every division was
in position, with a thin fringe of the French remaining in the front
line in order to prevent the Germans, if they took any prisoners, from
identifying the number of American divisions which were present.
Marshal Foch had now postponed the attack until the 26th; this gave
the men a day in which to rest as much as they could, and a little
more time for the artillery and staff to make its preparation.
General Pershing, who was to direct the battle in person, had taken
up his headquarters in the city hall of the village of Souilly on the
"sacred road" from Bar-le-Duc to Verdun where the French commanders
had planned the defense against the great German offensive of 1916.
On the morning of the 26th, after six hours of artillery preparation,
the waves of infantry of these nine divisions which had now assembled
in the front-line trenches, relieving the French, went over the top in
beginning the greatest battle in American history. The fortifications
which they attacked represented the result of all the experience which
the Germans, in their antlike industry, had applied in preparing their
defenses. No-man's-land had been pummeled by four years of shell fire
until the rims of shell craters joined. The weeds which had grown up
hid the rims, slippery in the morning mist, and made footing more
uncertain on the soft turf. The barbed-wire entanglements were deep,
in keeping with the formidability of the German trench system. When
they built these works, the Germans rightly considered them
impregnable. The story of every battalion that attacked that morning,
as well as every battalion that participated in the Argonne Battle, is
worthy of a lengthier description than I am giving to the whole
operations of the American Expeditionary Force.
It is usual in such attacks that, at many points of the line where the
enemy's barbed wire has not been cut by the artillery fire, or where
machine-gun nests are strategically placed, portions of the advancing
wave of infantry are held up with the result that succeeding portions
push on until they are caught in salients in enfilade fire. This leads
to confusion and frequently to arresting the whole attack, or at least
to interfering with the plan, thus giving the enemy time to bring up
his reserves and profit by his opportunity. This had happened in the
Somme offensive, at Loos, at Passchendaele and in the fifth and last
German offensive and, indeed, in every big offensive on the western
front. There was every reason why it should happen this time to the
eye of any experienced observer who had not the youthful enthusiasm of
our soldiers, who in their ingrained American offensive spirit,
attacked in a manner as confident as if they were used to breaking
first-line trench systems as a part of their routine of drill.
It was this spirit, on that memorable morning, that carried the
fortifications at every point. By every rule, by every precedent,
after they had gone through the barbed-wire and in and out of the maze
of trenches and then over the shell craters of No-man's-land they
ought, even if they had not been under fire, to have lost their
uniformity of line and formed into irregular groups. But instead of
this they kept on going, overcoming the enemy's machine-gun nests and
gathering in prisoners, when sheer fatigue ought to have stopped them.
By night some of them had reached objectives five and six miles beyond
the front line.
The daring stroke of throwing our army against the Meuse-Argonne line
straight at the enemy's communications had already had its reward;
although the Germans had been warned of the attack, they had no idea
that it would be in such force. They recognized at once that the
threat against the Lille-Metz railroad was serious. They must bring up
good divisions and enough of them, and sufficient artillery, to make
sure that it was arrested.
Our task, now, was the thankless one of continuing to draw more and
more divisions against us in the consciousness that every German whom
we held or whom we killed or wounded was one more removed from the
British or French fronts. We were to have the stiffest fighting of any
part of the line, and the value in what we did was not to be reckoned
in ground gained, but in damage done the enemy. During the following
days we continued to advance while the Germans settled down in
strength in front of us and established themselves in the strong
trench line of the Kriemhilde Stellung across a series of commanding
heights. Our divisions, exhausted after a week or more of fighting,
had to be relieved by rested divisions which were called to the front
including the 3d and the 5th and 1st Divisions of Regulars. We had to
weaken our line a little owing to the necessities of transport.
The embargo on building roads before the attack, and our inability to
bring up engineering material, and our lack of labor and sufficient
experience in handling traffic, which can only be learned in battle,
led to inevitable congestion. The area of shell craters, extending for
half a mile or more as well as across no-man's-land, which consisted
simply of earth pulverized by four years of shell fire, seemed to have
no bottom to the engineers who worked night and day in order to make
the passage of the artillery and the heavy motor trucks possible. In
the dripping rain and penetrating cold, taking what sleep they might
steal in wet clothes, all hands kept ceaselessly at their task while
the men in the front line were digging "fox holes" in the seeping
slopes of hills among the roots of trees of gassed woods and in
ravines. The issue was joined in stubborn and bitter fighting in which
it was the American plan always to keep the initiative and the upper
hand over the enemy and to force him to put in more and more of his
decreasing reserves.
We still had our Second Corps with the British under the command of
Major General George W. Read, consisting of O'Ryan's 27th National
Guard Division from New York and Lewis's 30th National Guard Division
from the Southern mountain States. They had assisted in driving the
Germans out of the positions they had won in the Ypres salient in
April, 1918. After that they were swung around across the old Somme
battle field, and in keeping with the policy of the Allied command,
which recognized the confident valor of our men in the attack, they
were to be sent against one of the strongest portions of the old
Hindenburg line, that of the region over the St. Quentin Canal tunnel.
Allied commanders said that the sheer presence of our troops in the
offensive inspirited their own. The homesickness of our men who knew
that they could not return until they had won the war was an impelling
influence to force the issue now that their quick intelligence assured
them that victory depended upon pressing the enemy hard.
Though the 27th and 30th Divisions were never to be associated with
their own army, on the 28th, 29th, and 30th of September, 1918, they
were to know in the company of the British the same kind of fighting
that we had in breaking the line in the Argonne, as they charged
through the enemy's barrages and against his machine-gun nests for the
conquest of the famous positions which had taken the name of
Hindenburg, who had given them his especial attention and who had
declared that they never could be taken. The 30th made a clean sweep,
but it was not in human power for the 27th Division to reach all of
its objectives. The gallant men of the 27th had, however, in two days'
fighting, immortalized their division before the Australians, coming
fresh into the line, took their place according to schedule and
completed the task.
Throughout the offensives of August and September, 1918, the German
positions in front of Rheims had remained where they were established
in September of 1914. On October 2, 1918, in an offensive in this
sector, Le Jeune's 2d Division with its brigades of Regulars and
Marines, which led all our divisions in the number of its casualties
in this war, was joined with the French in an attack to disengage
Rheims; and when, after fighting its way through the deep trenches cut
in the chalky soil of Champagne, the 2d stormed Blanc Mont, the German
guns had fired their last shot at the cathedral and were in retreat.
Smith's 36th Division of National Guard, from Texas, which was without
its artillery and which had never been under fire, took the place of
the 2d, and, after enduring with an amazing equanimity a terrific
bombardment from the German guns before they withdrew, pursued the
enemy to the Aisne at a rate of travel worthy of Texans and most
discomforting to German veterans.
We now return to the Meuse-Argonne Battle, where as I have said, the
issue was joined in "hammering it out on this line" tactics, and
divisions which had fought with lion-hearted determination until they
were staggering with exhaustion and their ranks depleted by
casualties, were withdrawn in order that fresh divisions might take
their place. Some divisions either for one reason or another were able
to remain in longer than others. The harder a division's experience
the more it suffered from what is known as "dispersion"; its units,
either in their continued advances or in resisting attacks and
counterattacks in the midst of continued shell fire, lost their
cohesion. How they kept cohesion even for a day was a marvel past
understanding. A division which had only a portion of its troops at a
time in the front line could last longer than a division that had put
all its reserves into action and had worn out the personnel of the
whole division.
Much depended upon the division commander and his staff. If he were
capable and his division well-trained, he could accomplish results
through prompt tactical adaptability to the situation on his front
without unnecessary sacrifice of his men. In holding ground against
machine-gun fire the fewer men on the front the better. The object was
always to gain, of course, the maximum of advantage at the minimum of
cost. When our lines settled down in a position it was not to intrench
according to the old system, but simply to bide their time for another
attack.
There was no thought but the offensive. The days of trench warfare
were entirely over. The contact with the enemy was through outpost
lines in fox holes and machine-gun positions chosen carefully with a
view to interlocking fire that covered every possible path or avenue
of approach. With the Germans bringing up fresh artillery and
countless machine guns in full realization of the situation it became
evident that further advance by piecemeal was impracticable and that
another general attack should be made along the old battle front.
Across the Meuse River on our right flank were a series of heights
ideal for artillery positions, overlooking not only the valley, but
all the ravines, the roads, and open places. Thus our 3d Corps,
swinging toward the whaleback, was literally in a trough of fire from
the heights of the whaleback in front and in flank and from the
heights across the Meuse in flank. On our left flank our 1st Corps was
in the same hateful position as our 3d on our right. The 28th Division
was fighting against the wooded escarpments which extended from the
bastion of the Argonne Forest into the river valley. In the forest
itself, the 77th was meeting with stubborn resistance in the thick
underbrush, and the French army on its left was as unable as the 28th
Division on its right to relieve its situation.
Summerall's 1st Division of Regulars, the oldest of our divisions in
France, with its rank full and its spirit high, which had been brought
from Saint Mihiel and attached to the 5th Corps, was swung over to the
1st Corps for its part in the general attack set for October 4, 1918.
It was evident that no further progress could be made until we had
mastered the commanding heights on the eastern wall of the Aire, and
for this task the 1st Division was chosen. Fighting with all the
experienced skill and courage which was its characteristic, it
succeeded in its undertaking in a series of continuing attacks and
with a loss of over nine thousand men, which included about half its
infantry. In order to spread the wedge which it started, Duncan's 82d,
or All-American Division of the National Army, swung in on its left
between it and Muir's 28th across the river bottoms against the
heights on the other side. With this aid the 28th was able to continue
its advance and complete its task before it was relieved, and the 77th
Division, the French army now coming up on its left, was able to make
a thrilling advance to the northern edge of the forest.
On the right of the 1st, Haan's 32d Division of Michigan and Wisconsin
National Guard, with a heroism in keeping with its brilliant record on
the Ourcq and at Juvigny, extended the wedge in that direction by
repeated assaults upon the stubbornly defended positions which were a
part of the Germans' powerful Romagne system. Later Menoher's Rainbow
Division, the 42d, relieved the 1st Division, and with a tenacity of
purpose in keeping with its veteran reputation continued attacking
until its magnificent persistence had its reward. To the east the 3d
Division (now commanded by Buck and later by Preston Brown), which had
been the stone wall on the banks of the Marne against the fifth German
offensive, was fighting against terrific odds. It was to pay for the
ground which it gained in the ensuing days with over eight thousand
casualties.
Meanwhile, with every advance that its divisions made, the position of
Bullard's 3d Corps became more wickedly exposed to the fire from
across the Meuse where the German artillery from its heights looked
down upon our men as upon the arena of an amphitheater. But here, as
elsewhere, there was no cessation of the offensive. Hershey's 4th
Regular Division, schooled in the Chateau-Thierry fighting, showed an
endurance in keeping with its skill by remaining in line for over
three weeks; the 5th Regulars, first commanded by MacMahon and then by
Ely, which had learned their first lesson in attack by its taking of
Frappelle in the Vosges Mountains, and which had again at Saint Mihiel
shown a mettle which promised to make it dependable for any kind of an
emergency, had now come in to take the place of Cronkhite's 80th in
that trough of hell where it was to begin its long and thrilling
career of accomplishment in the great battle. On its right, Allen's
90th National Army from Texas had come in on the left and immediately,
though it had not been long in France, proved that it was worthy of
the best traditions of its home State by its stoicism under gas and
shells and the attacking fervor which were to give it a place of honor
until the armistice was signed--after its crossing of the Meuse.
The Germans were now bringing in their best veteran shock divisions
and countless machine guns manned by chosen "no quarter" gunners. It
is significant that on September 29, 1918, three days after we had
begun our Argonne attacks, Hindenburg had informed the German
Government that it ought to sue for peace, and on October 3, 1918,
after the British assault, which included our 2d Corps, had broken the
Hindenburg line and the ferocious attacks against the positions in the
Rheims sector had developed, that he informed the German Government
that the situation of the German army was hopeless. Therefore the
Germans on the Meuse-Argonne front were fighting with the desperation
of men with their backs against the wall to save the line of
communications for their retreat. Our lack of sufficient fresh
divisions in reserve and of sufficient artillery in the second week of
October, 1918, for extensive operations may have given them hope of
success; but we were gathering our forces for another general attack.
Meanwhile it became increasingly evident that something must be done
to stop the flanking fire into our 3d Corps from across the Meuse
where the 17th French Corps was calling for American divisions to
assist in mastering the heights where the plentiful German artillery
was in position. Bell's redoubtable 33d Division of Illinois National
Guard had crossed the river from the left bank, after a most
remarkable feat of bridge building under heavy fire, and had swung
north as a part of a general attack against these heights. Here the
fighting was to be equally as fierce and quite as thankless as on the
main battle front; for here the Germans were in the area of their old
Verdun offensive, and they were perfectly familiar with the ground and
had at their backs all the roads and barracks which they had used in
1916. The main line of hills and ridges, and the covering positions of
the lesser heights and slopes which they held, were already prepared
with dugouts and cement pill boxes, while in place of Wuerttembergers
they brought in their best Prussian troops, with ample machine guns,
to assist an artillery defense which had the sweep of a half-mile
circle east and west of the Meuse, thus enabling them not only to
concentrate at any point on our 3d Corps on the west bank of the
Meuse, but upon the 17th French Corps on the east bank.
Our approach to these defenses was through the ruined villages of the
Verdun battle fields and along the roads which led us into the bottom
of a cup, with its rim occupied by the enemy, through a ravine which
was truly called "Death Valley." Morton's 29th, National Guard of New
Jersey, which was to have its first important battle experience in
conquering positions which would have baffled the skill of the most
veteran of divisions, advanced on the right of the 33d. Later
Edwards's 26th "Yankee" Division, which had known all the kinds of
fighting which the American army had to offer, arrived from its drive
in closing the Saint Mihiel salient for a period of a remorseless,
grinding fighting which was in keeping with its experience. Against
pill boxes, woods, and twisting ravines, across open spaces swept by
machine-gun fire, repulsed by counterattacks and attacking again, the
33d (until it was relieved), the 29th for a long period, and the 26th
had a battle of their own under the 17th French Corps.
The Germans had even stronger reasons for not yielding the heights on
the east of the Meuse than they had on the west of the Meuse. Once we
had Belleu Wood and Pylon Observatory we looked down on a broad valley
and were approaching the last of the hills which separated us from the
plain of the Woevre and German soil. Indeed, this portion of the east
bank of the Meuse was the very key to the positions where the Germans
would have made their stand on a shorter line if they succeeded in
withdrawing their army.
October 11, 1918, was memorable in the history of the organization of
the American Expeditionary Force, as, on that day, General Pershing
appointed Major General Hunter Liggett our pioneer corps commander, to
command the 1st American Army, and appointed Major General Robert L.
Bullard to the command of the 2d Army which was operating on the Saint
Mihiel salient. Both were veterans who had won the additional star of
a lieutenant general which they now received for long service in
France. General Bullard had commanded the 1st Division; and two other
men who had been trained in that veteran school also received
promotions. Major General John L. Hines, who had come to France as a
major, succeeded General Bullard in command of the 3d Corps and Major
General Charles F. Summerall was given command of the 5th Corps in
place of General Cameron. Major General Dickman, who had commanded the
3d Division in the Chateau-Thierry operations, succeeded General
Liggett in command of the First Corps.
On October 14, 1918, another general attack for the length of the main
battle front took place. The Germans could not afford to lose any
great depth of ground or their main positions defending the crest of
the whaleback would be in danger. All their skill was applied in their
maze of machine-gun positions, to utilize every detail of advantage of
that monstrously favorable ground of slopes, woods, and ravines. The
American divisions, steeled now to this ruthless fighting against a
hidden enemy, took machine guns only to find that there were machine
guns behind them; they took woods, ravines, and crests only to find
that there were more woods, ravines, and crests yet to be conquered.
They made vital gains and fought off fierce counterattacks to hold
them. And the Germans brought in still more divisions and still more
artillery and machine guns in their desperate determination which they
set against that unremitting offensive spirit and unyielding will of
the Americans. Under cold rain and mist in the soaked earth the
grinding continued.
After the 77th Division had come out victorious from its long fight in
the Argonne Forest, McCrea's 78th "Lightning" National Army Division
had relieved it in that inconceivably hard and thankless task of
cleaning up the town of Grand Pre and the positions north of the gap
of Grand Pre. Day after day it kept on attacking even when there was a
lull in other parts of the line. When Wright's 89th Division came into
the line we had in these men of the Middle West, well drilled and in
fine fettle, another new force in the battle which was to bring honor
to the National Army and the nation. The 89th and the 90th and 5th
Divisions and other divisions improved their opportunities in the
final week of October, 1918, by taking positions which were valuable
for the general attack, now in preparation, which was to take place on
November 1, 1918.
With ample artillery and fresh reserves at our command we were
determined to gain the summit of the whaleback in a final drive. This
was the third phase of the battle, the second having been the long
merciless hammering throughout the month of October, 1918, in which
the endurance, the nerves and the aggressive spirit of American
soldiers were tested as they never were before. Every day we were
becoming more skillful in combat and our traffic arrangements were
improving in their organization. The line from left to right on the
morning of November 1, 1918, was: the 78th, 77th, 80th, 2d, 89th,
90th, and 5th Divisions. Our infantry, protected by the best artillery
service which it had ever had, with the exception of some delay at
certain points, irresistible in its sweep everywhere, gained its
objectives, mastering the heights for which it had fought for six
weeks. On November 2, 1918, the German communique made its confession
to the German people that the American army had broken the German
line.
The battle now became one of skillful maneuvers and rapid pursuit down
the apron of lesser heights and slopes toward the Meuse. Behind the
1st Corps in reserve was the 42d Division; behind the 5th Corps in the
center the 1st; and behind the 3d Corps on the right the 32d. These
three veteran divisions, after their rest from the fearful fighting of
the second phase of the battle, now had the opportunity finally, as
the movement spread, to join in the glorious final phase which saw
that army of regulars, guardsmen, and draftmen, the strongest force
America had ever had under arms, as citizens victorious in the cause
of democracy.
On November 11, 1918, when the armistice was signed, the 5th and 90th
Divisions of the 3d Corps had swung well across the Meuse, taking the
heights on the other side. The 89th and 2d Divisions were also across,
while the 42d Division had reached the suburbs of Sedan, and the 77th
Division was on the left bank. Kuhn's 79th Division from Camp Meade,
which had relieved the worn and gallant 29th Division, which had done
such lion's work across the Meuse, moving in unison with the
operations beginning November 1, 1918, had conquered the heights which
had poured their fire down into the trough where the Third Corps had
fought. The 26th Division, which had stubbornly kept in line despite
its losses and the misery of its position, was able to appreciate, as
only such veterans could, the privilege of operating on the 79th's
right, in mastering the positions on its front which had so long
defied it. These two divisions were both attacking on the morning of
the 11th. Before nightfall they had gained the last of the hills
separating them from the plain of the Woevre. Thus the rapid daily
advances of the American forces toward and across the Meuse, in their
capture of the positions upon which the Germans depended for their
winter defense line, had been not the least of the arguments which
Marshal Foch was offering the Germans for signing the armistice.
We had only two divisions in reserve when hostilities finished. If we
had come late into the war, once our legions were prepared, we had
not been hesitant in giving them for service. All the resources of our
army from the base ports to the front line had been stretched to their
limit. Our hospitals were full and our surgeons exhausted. We had
broken up freshly arriving divisions when the Service of Supply
demanded more labor in order that the demands of the front should be
filled at this juncture When the hope had risen in every heart that by
a supreme effort we might bring the orgy of the great war to a close.
We had fought for six weeks in chill winter rains and in face of fire
and of hardships; and in the test of nerves, courage, and devotion we
had come out triumphant. And through it all there had been no finer
heroism than that of the trained army nurses who kept cheerful when
staggering with fatigue in caring for the wounded in our hospitals. Be
it aviator or motor truck driver, soldier in the fox hole or stevedore
on the docks, all had given their strength and zeal in keeping with
the spirit of their errand in France. There remained the task of the
organization of the 3d Army, under General Dickman from the veteran
divisions, which had the fortune to be in the front line on November
11, 1918, to march through Luxemburg and across the German frontier to
the Rhine, where they did their duty as policemen during the peace
negotiations; and the further task of reversing the great machinery of
the army, in sending the soldiers home in good health after their
wonderful experience and splendid service.
PART VII-THE PEACE CONFERENCE AT PARIS
CHAPTER XIX
FIRST SESSION OF PEACE CONGRESS--CLEMENCEAU, PERMANENT
CHAIRMAN--PRESIDENT WILSON'S ADDRESS--THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS COVENANT
COMPLETED
The Peace Congress held its first session at 3 o'clock in the
afternoon on January 18, 1919, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
Paris. The scene of this historic event upon which the interest of the
world centered was the former Salle d'Horloge, renamed for the
occasion Salle de la Paix, one of the most magnificent reception rooms
in all Europe.
The French Government had made careful preparation of the chamber for
every need of the assembly, and in a manner worthy of such a
gathering.
For the opening session seventy-two seats were provided, the Japanese,
the British and Colonial delegates, and the fifth British delegate
were on the outer side of the great horseshoe. To the right of the
table of honor a seat was reserved for the fifth American delegate.
The delegates representing Italy, Belgium, Brazil, Cuba, Haiti, Peru,
Portugal, Serbia, Czecho-Slovakia, and Uruguay were seated in the
order named.
At the left wing of the table sat the delegates of Siam, Rumania,
Poland, Liberia, Hedjaz, Ecuador, China, and Bolivia.
A striking object among the decorations of the splendid chamber was a
heroic marble statue of Peace holding aloft the torch of Civilization
which stood behind the chair of Premier Clemenceau.
A council table of horseshoe form, covered with green baize, stood
directly before the statue. Nine seats of honor had been prepared at
the upper end of the table for the presiding officer, the vice
presidents and the premiers. On each side of the wings of the great
horseshoe there were fifteen seats, making sixty in all, in addition
to the nine seats of honor at the head of the table.
The seats, upholstered in leather of a vivid crimson, served to
emphasize and throw into relief the figures of the representatives in
somewhat somber attire. The walls of the chamber were decorated in
white and gold and from the ceiling, whose borders were frescoed with
dancing Cupids in pastel shades, hung four great crystal chandeliers.
An abundance of light from five large windows overlooking the Seine
made it possible for the delegates to read and write in any part of
the hall. From the council room there opened another sumptuous
apartment overlooking the gardens where the delegates could retire for
consultations. Adjoining was a superbly furnished dining room, where
meals could be served when protracted meetings were held.
Long before the Peace Congress began its session the Quai d'Orsay was
thronged with people, their eyes fixed on the windows of the Salle de
la Paix. The Palais Bourbon and the Foreign Office were protected by a
line of troops, and a special guard of honor was drawn up near the
entrance to the Foreign Office, the delegates passing through a double
file of soldiers. Each arrival was the signal for a fanfare of
trumpets and full military honors from the troops on guard. President
Wilson's appearance a few minutes before the time fixed for the
opening of the session was the occasion for a remarkable demonstration
of good will on the part of the crowd. The President joined M. Pichon,
the French foreign minister, in the anteroom and was conducted to the
council chamber. At the table of honor Mr. Wilson was joined by
Secretary Lansing, Mr. White, and General Bliss, and exchanged
greeting with other delegates.
President Poincare entered the chamber at 3 o'clock, and the entire
assembly stood up as he delivered his address, which was in French.
After he had concluded, an interpreter read the speech in English.
In the course of his remarks, which were delivered with calm
earnestness, M. Poincare, after greeting the delegates in the name of
the French Republic, reviewed the course of the war, placing on
Germany the guilt of premeditation in plunging the world into
frightful disaster for the purpose of spoils and conquest. He praised
the Allies for the mighty efforts they had made to crush the German
menace, and dwelt on America's unselfishness in entering the world war
in defense of free ideals.
In conclusion he spoke warmly in favor of the League of Nations, which
would be a supreme guaranty against any fresh assault upon the rights
of peoples. M. Poincare then declared the congress open and retired.
Georges Clemenceau, the French premier, was elected permanent chairman
of the conference. Speeches by President Wilson, Premier Lloyd-George,
and Baron Sonnino expressed the desire of the representatives of the
different nations to reach a friendly understanding with respect to
the problems that were to be decided at the conference.
President Wilson, in proposing Premier Clemenceau for the permanent
chairmanship, said:
"It gives me great pleasure to propose as permanent chairman of the
conference Mr. Clemenceau, the president of the council.
"I would do this as a matter of custom. I would do this as a tribute
to the French Republic. But I wish to do it as something more than
that. I wish to do it as the tribute to the man.
"France deserves the precedence, not only because we are meeting at
her capital, and because she has undergone some of the most tragical
suffering of the war, but also because her capital, her ancient and
beautiful capital, has so often been the center of conferences of
this sort, on which the fortunes of large parts of the world turned.
"It is a very delightful thought that the history of the world, which
has so often been centered here, will now be crowned by the
achievements of this conference--because there is a sense in which
this is the supreme conference of the history of mankind.
"More nations are represented here than were ever represented in such
a conference before. The fortunes of all peoples are involved. A great
war is ended which seemed about to bring a universal cataclysm. The
danger is past. A victory has been won for mankind, and it is
delightful that we should be able to record these results in this
place.
"But it is more delightful to honor France, because we can honor her
in the person of so distinguished a servant. We have all felt in our
participation in the struggles of this war the fine steadfastness
which characterized the leadership of the French in the hands of Mr.
Clemenceau. We have learned to admire him, and those of us who have
been associated with him have acquired a genuine affection for him.
"Moreover, those of us who have been in these recent days in constant
consultation with him know how warmly his purpose is set toward the
goal of achievement to which all our faces are turned. He feels as we
feel, as I have no doubt everyone in this room feels, that we are
trusted to do a great thing, to do it in the highest spirit of
friendship and accommodation, and to do it as promptly as possible in
order that the hearts of men may have fear lifted from them, and that
they may return to those purposes of life which will bring them
happiness and contentment and prosperity.
"Knowing his brotherhood of heart in these great matters, it affords
me a personal pleasure to propose that Mr. Clemenceau shall be the
permanent chairman of this conference."
In accepting the presidency of the congress M. Clemenceau expressed
his gratification for the honor paid him and outlined the principal
questions which the conference must decide. The three principal
subjects of these were, he said, responsibility of the authors of the
war, responsibility for the crimes committed during the war, and
international labor legislation. The League of Nations would lead the
program at the next full session.
Mr. Lloyd-George, who seconded Mr. Wilson's motion, and Baron Sonnino,
the Italian foreign minister, paid tribute to M. Clemenceau's courage,
energy, and inspiration which had helped the Allies to bring the war
to a triumphant conclusion.
At this session the regulations governing the conference proceedings
were adopted. The following were the regulations regarding the
composition of the congress:
The belligerent Powers with general interests--the United States of
America, the British Empire, France, Italy, and Japan--shall take part
in all meetings and commissions.
The belligerent Powers with particular interests--Belgium, Brazil, the
British Dominions, and India, China, Cuba, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti,
Hedjaz, Honduras, Liberia, Nicaragua, Panama, Poland, Portugal,
Rumania, Serbia, Siam and the Czecho-Slovak Republic--shall take part
in these sittings at which questions concerning them are discussed.
The Powers in a state of diplomatic rupture with the enemy
powers--Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, and Uruguay--shall take part; in the
sittings at which questions concerning them are discussed.
The neutral Powers, and states in process of formation, may be heard
either orally or in writing, when summoned by the Powers with general
interests at sittings devoted especially to the examination of
questions directly concerning them, but only so far as these questions
are concerned.
The representation of the different Powers was fixed as follows:
Five for the United States of America, the British Empire, France,
Italy, and Japan; three for Belgium, Brazil, and Serbia; two for
China, Greece, the king of the Hedjaz, Poland, Portugal, Rumania,
Siam, and the Czecho-Slovak Republic; one for Cuba, Guatemala, Haiti,
Honduras, Liberia, Nicaragua, and Panama; one for Bolivia, Ecuador,
Peru, and Uruguay.
The British Dominions and India were to be represented as follows:
Two delegates each for Australia, Canada, South Africa, and India,
including the native states; one delegate for New Zealand.
Although the number of delegates must not exceed the above figures,
each delegate had the right to avail himself of the panel system, by
which the representatives of the Dominions, New Zealand, and India
might be included in the representation of the British Empire.
Montenegro would be represented by one delegate as soon as the
political situation of the country was cleared up. The conference
would fix the representation of Russia at the moment when the matters
concerning Russia were examined.
It was further decided that the secretariat should be appointed from
outside the plenipotentiaries, composed of one representative of the
United States of America, one of the British Empire, one of France,
one of Italy, and one of Japan.
It was decided that the publicity of the proceedings should be assured
by official communiques prepared by the secretariat and made public.
In case of a disagreement as to the drafting of these communiques the
matter should be referred to the principal plenipotentiaries or their
representatives.
A provision was made that all questions to be decided upon should be
subject to two readings. The program regarding resolutions which was
agreed upon was, in brief, that a committee should be formed for
drafting the resolutions adopted, composed of five members not forming
part of the plenipotentiary delegates, and composed of one
representative of the United States of America, one of the British
Empire, one of France, one of Italy, and one of Japan. This committee
should concern itself only with questions that have been decided. Its
sole duty should be to draw up the text of the decision adopted and to
present it for the approval of the conference.
The supreme council, consisting of two ranking delegates from each of
the five chief Powers, held its first session on January 20, 1919,
when the Russian situation was considered and was further discussed on
the following day. At the session of the council of January 22, 1919,
the decision was announced by which all Russian factions were invited
to a conference at Princes' Island, Sea of Marmora. (The proposed
conference was subsequently abandoned, as certain Russian factions
refused to negotiate with representatives of the Soviet Government of
Lenine and Trotzky.)
At the meeting of the supreme council on January 23, 1919, an order of
business was announced for a plenary meeting of the conference on
January 25, 1919, when the following questions were considered for
this purpose.
First.--International legislation on labor.
Second.--Responsibility and punishments in connection with the war.
Third.--Reparation for war damage.
Four.--International regime of ports, waterways, and railways.
On January 24, 1919, the supreme council met for the first time as the
supreme war council. Besides President Wilson and the premiers and
foreign ministers of the Allied Powers, there were present also
Marshal Foch, Field Marshal Haig, General Pershing, General Diaz, and
the generals of the Versailles war council, including Generals Wilson,
Bliss, Bolling, and Robilant.
The council conferred with Marshal Foch and other military authorities
as to the strength of the forces to be allowed to the various Allied
Powers on the western front during the period of the armistice.
The President of the United States and the prime ministers and foreign
ministers of the Allied and Associated Governments addressed a
communication to the world in which reference was made regarding the
use of armed force in many parts of Europe and the East to gain
possession of territory "the rightful claim to which the Peace
Conference is to be asked to determine." Those employing armed force
for such purposes were warned that they were prejudicing their claims
by so doing, and that "if they expect justice, they must refrain from
force and place their claims in unclouded good faith in the hands of
the Conference of Peace."
On the same day the mission of the Allies and Associated Great Powers
to Poland was discussed. It was agreed that M. Pichon, the French
foreign minister, should prepare the instructions to the mission, and
that one press representative for each of the five great Powers should
be allowed to accompany the mission. The question of territorial
adjustment concerning the German colonies was then discussed by Sir
Robert Borden, prime minister of Canada; Mr. Hughes, prime minister of
Australia; General Smuts, representing General Botha, the prime
minister of South Africa, and Mr. Massey, prime minister of New
Zealand.
At the second plenary session of the Peace Conference on January 25,
1919, with M. Clemenceau in the chair, the plan for a League of
Nations was unanimously adopted. The resolution on the creation of a
committee on the League of Nations was as follows:
It is essential to the maintenance of the world settlement which the
associated nations are now met to establish that a League of Nations
be created to promote international obligations and to provide
safeguards against war.
This league should be created as an integral part of the general
treaty of peace, and should be open to every civilized nation which
can be relied on to promote its objects.
The members of the league should periodically meet in international
conference, and should have a permanent organization and secretaries
to carry on the business of the league in the intervals between the
conference.
The conference therefore appoints a committee, representative of the
Associated Governments, to work out the constitution and the functions
of the league, and the draft of resolutions in regard to breaches of
the laws of war for presentation to the Peace Congress.
That a commission, composed of two representatives apiece from the
five great Powers and five representatives to be elected by the other
Power's, be appointed to inquire upon the following:
First.--The responsibility of the authors of the war.
Second.--The facts as to the breaches of the laws and customs of war
committed by the forces of the German Empire and their allies on land,
on sea, and in the air during the present war.
Third.--The degree of responsibility for these offenses attaching to
particular members of the enemy's forces, including members of the
General Staffs and other individuals however highly placed.
Fourth.--The constitution and procedure of a tribunal appropriate to
the trial of these offenses.
After the reading of the resolutions by M. Clemenceau President Wilson
addressed the assembly. He said that they had met together for two
purposes: to make the present settlements rendered necessary by the
war and to secure the lasting peace of the world not only by the
present settlements, but by the arrangements which they should make
for its maintenance.
The League of Nations Mr. Wilson believed to be necessary for both of
these purposes. Some complicated questions could not be worked out to
an ultimate issue at the time, but would need subsequent
consideration, they were not susceptible of confident judgments at
present. It would be necessary to set up some machinery to render the
work of the conference complete.
"We have assembled here for the purpose of doing very much more than
making the present settlements that are necessary.... We are not the
representative of governments, but representatives of the peoples. It
will not suffice to satisfy governmental circles anywhere. It is
necessary that we should satisfy the opinion of mankind.
"The burdens of the war have fallen in an unusual degree upon the
whole population of the countries involved." Here, Mr. Wilson spoke of
the burden thrown upon the older men, women, and children, upon the
homes of the civilized world.
These people looked to this assembly to make a peace which would make
them secure. "It is a solemn obligation on our part, therefore, to
make permanent arrangements that justice shall be rendered and peace
maintained.... Central settlements may be temporary, but the actions
of the nations in the interest of peace and justice must be permanent.
We can set up permanent processes. We may not be able to set up a
permanent decision."
In a sense, said President Wilson, the United States was less
interested in this subject than the other nations here assembled. Her
great territory and extensive sea borders made her less likely to
suffer from enemy attacks than other nations. The deep ardor of the
United States for the society of nations did not spring from
apprehension, but out of the ideals begotten of the war.
"In coming into this war the United States never for a moment thought
that she was intervening in the politics of Europe, or the politics of
Asia, or the politics of any part of the world. Her thought was that
all the world had now become conscious that there was a single cause
of justice and liberty for men of every kind and place.
"Therefore the United States would feel that its part in this war
should be played in vain if there ensued upon it abortive European
settlements. It would feel that it could not take part in guaranteeing
those European settlements unless that guaranty involved the
continuous superintendence of the peace of the world by the associated
nations of the world."
To make the League of Nations a vital thing, said Mr. Wilson, it must
continue to function, there must be no intermission of its
watchfulness and of its labor; it should be the eye of the nations to
keep watch upon the common interest.
The select classes of mankind, said President Wilson, were no longer
governors of mankind. The fortunes of mankind were now in the hands of
the plain people of the whole world. "Satisfy them and you have
justified their confidence not only, but have established peace. Fail
to satisfy them and no arrangement that you can make will either set
up or steady the peace of the world." In the United States the great
project of a League of Nations was regarded as the keynote of the
whole. "If we returned to the United States without having made every
effort in our power to realize this program, we should return to meet
the merited scorn of our fellow citizens.... We have no choice but to
observe their mandate. But it is with the greatest pleasure and
enthusiasm that we accept that mandate. And because this is the
keynote of the whole fabric, we have pledged our every purpose to it,
as we have to every item of the fabric. We would not dare abate a
single item of the program which constitutes our instructions; we
would not dare to compromise upon any matter as the champions of this
thing--the peace of the world, this attitude of justice, this
principle, that we are the masters of no peoples, but are here to see
that every people in the world shall choose its own masters and govern
its own destinies, not as we wish, but as they wish.
"We are here to see, in short, that the very foundations of this war
are swept away. Those foundations were the private choice of a small
coterie of civil rulers, of military staffs. Those foundations were
the aggression of great Powers upon the small. Those foundations were
the holding together of empires of unwilling subjects by the duress of
arms. Those foundations were the power of small bodies of men to wield
their will and use mankind as pawns in the game. And nothing less than
the emancipation of the world from these things will accomplish
peace...."
Mr. Lloyd-George, the British premier, and Signor Orlando, premier of
Italy, followed President Wilson, and made eloquent speeches in
support of the resolution. After Leon Bourgeois, a French delegate,
and representatives of China, Poland, and Belgium had expressed their
adherence to the plan for a League of Nations the resolution was
unanimously adopted.
It was decided at the conference to appoint a commission in regard to
reparation for war damage to consist of representatives from Belgium,
Greece, Poland, Rumania, and Serbia who would report on the amount of
reparation which the enemy countries ought to pay, on what they are
capable of paying, and on the method, form, and time within which
payment should be made.
A resolution in regard to international legislation on industrial and
labor questions was also passed. This provided for the appointment of
two representatives apiece from the five great Powers and five
representatives to be elected by the other Powers represented at the
Peace Conference to inquire into the conditions of employment from the
international aspect and to recommend the form of a permanent agency,
to continue such inquiry in cooperation with and under the direction
of the League of Nations. The conference also adopted a resolution to
appoint a commission to inquire and report upon the international
regime of ports, waterways, and railways.
The supreme council at its session on January 27, 1919, prepared a
program of work and the constitution of new committees for economic
and financial questions and those relating to private and maritime
laws. The question of the former German colonies was discussed on the
following day. At the two sessions of the supreme council on January
29, 1919, reports were heard from delegates on the Polish situation
and Polish claims, and the Czecho-Slovak delegates gave their views.
The question of Kiauchau and the Pacific Islands created sharp
differences between the delegates of China and Japan. China finally
agreed that Kiauchau should be left to the disposal of Japan, to be
restored to China on condition that it was opened as a commercial
port.
At the meeting of the supreme council on January 30, 1919, the
question of the German colonies in the Pacific and in Africa and the
occupied territory in Turkey was discussed. Provisional arrangements
were made to incorporate in the constitution of the League of Nation a
plan for administering the German colonies by which the league should
assign them to various powers for administration. This was opposed by
the representative of Australia, who insisted on the annexation of New
Guinea to Australia.
President Wilson was firmly opposed to a division of Germany's
colonial possessions among the Powers which then held them. He
believed that to divide the colonies among the Entente nations would
be in direct contravention of the "Fourteen Points" which had been
accepted as a basis of peace, and would violate the principles of the
League of Nations.
The famous "Fourteen Points," it will be remembered, were formulated
by President Wilson, and in January, 1918, were offered to the
belligerent nations as the foundation for peace negotiations:
I. Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at, after which there
shall be no private international understandings of any kind, but
diplomacy shall proceed always frankly and in the public view.
II. Absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas, outside territorial
waters, alike in peace and in war, except as seas may be closed in
whole, or in part by international action for the enforcement of
international covenants.
III. The removal as far as possible of all economic barriers and the
establishment of an equality of trade conditions among all the nations
consenting to the peace and associated for its maintenance.
IV. Adequate guarantees given and taken that national armaments will
be reduced to the lowest point consistent with domestic safety.
V. A free, open-minded, and also impartial adjustment of all colonial
claims, based upon the strict observance of principles that in
determining all such questions of sovereignty the interests of the
populations concerned must have equal weight with the equitable claims
of the government whose title is to be determined.
VI. The evacuation of all Russian territory and such settlement of all
questions affecting Russia as will secure the best and freest
cooperation of the other nations of the world in obtaining for her an
unhampered and unembarrassed opportunity for the desired determination
of her own political development and national policy, and assure her
of a sincere welcome into the society of free nations under the
institutions of her own choosing; and, more than a welcome, assistance
also of every kind that she may need and herself desire. The treatment
accorded Russia by her sister nations in the months to some will be
the acid test of their good will, of the comprehension of her needs as
distinguished from their own interests and of their intelligent and
unselfish sympathy.
VII. Belgium, the whole world will agree, must be evacuated and
restored without any attempt to limit the sovereignty which she enjoys
in common with all other free nations. No other single act will serve
to restore confidence among the nations in the laws which they
themselves have set and determined for the government of their
relations with one another. Without this healing act the whole
structure and validity of international law is forever impaired.
VIII. All French territory should be freed and the invaded portions
restored, and the wrongs done to France by Prussia in 1871 in the
matter of Alsace and Lorraine, which has unsettled the peace of the
world for nearly fifty years, should be righted, in order that peace
may once more be made secure in the interest of all.
IX. A readjustment of the frontiers of Italy should be effected along
clearly recognizable lines of nationality.
X. The peoples of Austria-Hungary, whose place among nations we wish
to see safeguarded and assured, should be accorded the freest
opportunity for autonomous development.
XI. Russia, Serbia, and Montenegro should be evacuated; occupied
territories restored, Serbia accorded free and secure access to the
sea, and the relations of the several Balkan states to one another
determined by friendly counsel along historically established lines of
allegiance and nationality; and international guarantees of the
political and economic independence and territorial integrity of the
several Balkan states should be entered into.
XII. The Turkish portions of the present Ottoman Empire should be
assured a secure sovereignty, but the other nations which are now
under Turkish rule should be assured an undoubted security of life and
an absolutely unmolested opportunity for autonomous development, and
the Dardanelles should be permanently opened as a free passage to the
ships and commerce of all nations under international guarantees.
XIII. An independent Polish state should be erected which should
include the territories inhabited by indisputably Polish populations,
which should be assured a free and secure access to the sea, and whose
political and economic independence and territorial integrity should
be guaranteed by international covenants.
XIV. A genuine association of nations must be formed under specific
covenants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political
independence and territorial integrity of great and small states
alike.
At the session of the supreme council on February 1, 1919, a decision
was reached concerning the German colonies and the conditions were
later confirmed by the covenant of the League of Nations.
President Wilson presided at the opening meeting of the League of
Nations Commission on February 3, 1919, held at the residence of
Colonel Edward House in Paris. The United States was represented by
Mr. Wilson, Colonel House, and Mr. Miller, technical expert. Lord
Robert Cecil and General Christian Smuts represented Great Britain;
for France, Leon Bourgeois and Ferdinand Larnaude; for Italy Premier
Orlando, and for Japan Baron Chinda; also delegates from Belgium,
Serbia, Brazil, Portugal, and China.
The discussion in which Mr. Wilson took a leading part was not general
but specific, as the printed text of the agreed plan for the formation
of the League of Nations was before the meeting.
On the same date important committees on reparation, ports, waterways
and railways held their first formal meetings. The French and British
presented a program recognizing the right of nations to control
international waterways and international railways, which was accepted
by the commission.
The commission of the Allied Nations held daily sessions beginning
February 4, 1919, and made continued progress. The delegates were
unanimous in believing that a League of Nations was desirable, but
some doubted its immediate efficiency and favored maintaining the old
order of balance of power until the new plan had demonstrated its
capacity and workability, to meet the needs of nations loving peace.
Much time was spent in winning over these dissenters, and it was only
accomplished after long and patient endeavors.
The final session of the League of Nations Commission was held on
February 13, 1919, when a French delegate offered a clause for an
interallied military force to compel peace, and the Japanese presented
an amendment providing that racial discrimination should not be
tolerated. Both proposals were defeated.
At this meeting the constitution of the League of Nations as finally
drafted was unanimously adopted by the committee and President Wilson
was designated to present the completed plan to the plenary council at
their next session.
CHAPTER XX
THE COVENANT AND DRAFT OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE LEAGUE OF
NATIONS--PRESIDENT WILSON'S SPEECH IN SUPPORT; HE RETURNS TO
AMERICA--THE UNITED STATES SENATE CRITICISES LEAGUE DOCUMENT
On February 14, 1919, President Wilson read the draft of the
constitution of the League of Nations before the plenary council of
the Peace Conference and afterward delivered an earnest and spirited
address in support of the plan. Lord Robert Cecil, head of the British
delegation, expressed his approval of the League and constitution in
an eloquent speech, and the Italian Premier Signor Orlando, described
his satisfaction at having collaborated in one of the greatest
documents in all history.
Leon Bourgeois, for France, said that the French delegation reserved
the right to present their views on certain details of the plan which
made no distinction between great and small States. France and
Belgium, said M. Bourgeois, were especially exposed to danger, and
required additional guarantees. He urged a system of permanent
inspection of existing armaments and forces as a means to avoid the
renewal of wars.
The text of the document read by President Wilson at the plenary
session, opening with a preamble, is here given in full.
"In order to promote international cooperation and to secure
international peace and security by the acceptance of obligations not
to resort to war, by the prescription of open, just, and honorable
relations between nations, by the firm establishment of the
understandings of international law as the actual rule of conduct
among governments, and by the maintenance of justice and a scrupulous
respect for all treaty obligations in the dealings of organized
peoples with one another, the Powers signatory to this covenant adopt
this constitution of the League of Nations."
Of the twenty-six articles which comprise the constitution of the
League of Nations some were afterward amended, and such changes will
be noted later in their place.
The first seven articles of the constitution which are the least
important to the general reader may be thus summarized:
The action of the high contracting parties under the terms of the
covenant shall be effected through the meeting of a body of delegates
representing them, and the meetings of an executive council, and of a
permanent international secretariat to be established at the seat of
the League. Each of the high contracting parties shall have one vote,
but not more than three representatives.
The executive council shall consist of representatives of the United
States of America, British Empire, France, Italy, and Japan, and
representatives of four other states members of the League. Meetings
shall be held as occasion requires and at least once a year. Any Power
shall be invited to attend a meeting of the council when matters
concerning its interests are to be discussed. The first meeting of the
body of delegates shall be summoned by the President of the United
States.
Admission to the League of states not signatories to the covenant
requires the assent of not less than two-thirds of the states
represented in the body of delegates. Only full self-governing
countries or dominions shall be admitted.
Article VIII. Provides that the executive council shall determine for
the consideration of the several governments what military equipment
and armament is fair in proportion to the scale of forces, laid down
in the program of disarmament. The high contracting parties agree to
examine the manufacture by private enterprise of war material and
direct the executive council to advise how to prevent the evil effects
attendant on such manufacture, respecting the need of those countries
that cannot manufacture munitions and war implements necessary for
their safety.
Article IX. Permanent commission shall be constituted to advise the
council on the execution of the provisions of articles I and VIII and
on military and, naval questions generally.
Article X. This and the two following, as among the most important
articles in the constitution, and which became the subject of heated
controversy, must be given in full:
"The high contracting parties shall undertake to respect and preserve
against external aggression the territorial integrity and existing
political independence of all the states members of the League. In
case of any such aggression, or in case of any threat of danger of
such aggression, the executive council shall advise upon the means by
which the obligation shall be fulfilled."
Article XI. States that any war, or threat of war, is a matter of
concern to the League, and the high contracting parties reserve the
right to take such action as will conserve the peace of nations.
Article XII. States in effect that if disputes arise that cannot be
adjusted by the ordinary processes of diplomacy no resort to war will
be made until the questions involved are submitted for arbitration of
the executive council. Until three months after the award by the
arbitrators war will not even then be resorted to against a member of
the League which complies with the award of the arbitrators, or the
recommendation of the executive council.
Article XIII. The high contracting parties agree that disputes or
difficulties arising between them which cannot be settled by diplomacy
they will submit the whole matter to arbitration. They agree to carry
out in good faith any award that may be rendered.
Article XIV. Provides for the establishment of an international court
of justice to hear and determine any matters suitable for submission
to it for arbitration.
Article XV. Disputes between members of the League not submitted to
arbitration shall be referred to the executive council. If the dispute
has not been settled, a report by the council shall be published and
recommendation made by the council for the settlement of the
difficulty. If the report is unanimously agreed to by the council
other than the parties to the dispute, the high contracting parties
agree that they will not go to war with any party which complies with
the recommendations.
Article XVI. "Should any of the high contracting parties break or
disregard its covenants under Article XII, it shall thereby ipso facto
be deemed to have committed an act of war against all the other
members of the League, which hereby immediately undertakes to subject
it to the severance of all intercourse between their nationals, trade
or financial relations, the prohibition of all intercourse between
their nationals and the nationals of the covenant-breaking state, and
the prevention of all financial, commercial, or personal intercourse
between the nationals of the convenant-breaking state and the
nationals of any other state, whether a member of the League or not.
"It shall be the duty of the executive committee council in such a
case to recommend what effective military or naval force the members
of the League shall severally contribute to the armed forces to be
used to protect the covenant of the League." This article further
states that the high contracting parties agree to mutually support
each other financially and economically, and in resisting any special
measures aimed at one of their number by the convenant-breaking state.
Article XVII. Considers disputes between one state member of the
League and another state which is not a member of the League, or
between states not members of the League. In such event the high
contracting parties invite the state, or states, not members of the
League to become members and accept the obligations of the League
membership for the dispute in such conditions as the executive council
shall deem just. The executive council will immediately inquire into
the merits of the dispute and recommend such action as may be deemed
just and equitable. Any Power refusing to accept the obligations of
membership in the League for the purposes of the League would
constitute a breach of Article XII. The provisions of Article XVI
shall be applicable too against a state taking such action.
Article XVIII. In this article the League is empowered with general
supervision of the trade in arms and ammunition with countries where
control of the traffic is necessary.
Article XIX. Deals with the question of colonies and territories which
through the war have ceased to be under the old sovereignty.
"Inhabited by peoples not yet able to stand by themselves ... there
should be applied the principle that the well-being and development of
such peoples form a sacred trust of civilization, and that securities
for the performance of this trust should be embodied in the
constitution of the League." The tutelage of such peoples, it was
advised, should be intrusted to the advanced nations, and should be
exercised by them as mandatories on behalf of the League. Communities
that have reached a stage of development as in Turkey could be
provisionally recognized as independent nations, subject to
administrative advice and assistance by mandatory power until they
were strong enough to stand alone.
Article XX. In this the League promises to endeavor to secure and
maintain fair conditions of labor for men, women, and children in all
countries where their commercial and industrial relations extend, and
agree to establish a permanent bureau of labor.
Article XXI. Provision through the instrumentality of the League to
secure and maintain freedom of transit and equitable treatment for the
commerce of all states members of the League. Special arrangements
with regard to the necessities of the regions devastated during the
war.
Article XXII. The high contracting parties agree to place under
control of the League all international bureaus already established if
the parties to such treaties consent. All such international bureaus
in the future shall be placed under the League.
Article XXIII. Every treaty or international engagement entered into
by any member of the League shall be registered with the secretary
general and published by him. No treaty or international engagement
shall be binding until so registered.
Article XXIV. The body of delegates shall have the right to advise the
reconsideration by states members of the League of treaties which have
become inapplicable, and of international conditions of which the
continuance may endanger world peace.
Article XXV. The high contracting parties agree to abrogate all
obligations inconsistent with the terms of the covenant, and will not
hereafter enter into any engagements inconsistent with those terms.
Powers signatory hereto, or subsequently admitted to the League, who
have undertaken any obligations inconsistent with the terms of this
convenant shall take steps to secure release from such obligations.
Article XXVI is concerned with amendments to the covenant. These are
to take effect when ratified by the states whose representatives
compose the executive council, and by three-fourths of the states
whose representatives compose the body of delegates.
At the conclusion of his reading of the draft of the constitution of
the League, President Wilson said in part:
"It is not a vehicle of power, but a vehicle in which power may be
varied at the discretion of those who exercise it, and in accordance
with the changing circumstances of the time. And yet, while it is
elastic, while it is general in its terms, it is definite in the one
thing that we were called upon to make definite. It is a definite
guaranty of peace. It is a definite guaranty by word against
aggression. It is a definite guaranty against the things which have
just come near bringing the whole structure of civilization into ruin.
"Its purposes do not for a moment lie vague. Its purposes are declared
and its powers are unmistakable. It is not in contemplation that this
should be merely a league to secure the peace of the world. It is a
league which can be used for cooperation in any international matter.
That is the significance of the provision introduced concerning labor.
There are many ameliorations of labor conditions which can be effected
by conference and discussion. I anticipate that there will be a very
great usefulness in the bureau of labor which it is contemplated shall
be set up by the League. Men, women, and children who work have been
in the background through long ages, and sometimes seemed to be
forgotten.... Now these people will be drawn into the field of
international consultation and help and will be the wards of the
combined governments of the world.
"As you will notice there is an imperative article concerning the
publicity of all international agreements. Henceforth no member of the
League can claim any agreement valid which it has not registered with
the secretary general.... And the duty is laid upon the secretary
general to publish every document of that sort, at the earliest
possible time....
"Then there is a feature about this covenant which to my mind is one
of the greatest and most satisfactory advances that have been made. We
are done with annexations of helpless peoples, meant in some instances
by some Powers to be used merely for exploitation. We recognize in the
most solemn manner that the helpless and undeveloped peoples of the
world ... put an obligation upon us to look after their interests
primarily before we use them for our interests and that in all cases
of this sort hereafter it shall be the duty of the League to see that
the nations who are assigned as the tutors and advisers and directors
of these peoples shall look to their interests and their development
before they look to the interests and desires of the mandatory nation
itself....
"It has been one of the many distressing revelations of recent years
that the great Power which has just been happily defeated put
intolerable burdens and injustice upon the helpless peoples of some of
the colonies which it annexed to itself, that its interest was rather
their extermination than their development, that the desire was to
possess their land for European purposes and not to enjoy their
confidence in order that mankind might be lifted in these places to
the next higher level.
"Now the world, expressing its conscience in law, says there is an
end of that, that our consciences shall be settled to this thing.
States will be picked out which have shown that they can exercise a
conscience in this matter and under their tutelage the helpless
peoples of the world will come into a new light and into a new hope.
"So I think that I can say of this document that it is at one and the
same time a practical document, a human document. There is a pulse of
sympathy in it. There is a compulsion of conscience throughout it. It
is practical, and yet it is intended to purify, to rectify, to
elevate.
"It was in one sense, said Mr. Wilson, a belated document, for he
believed the conscience of the world had long been prepared to express
itself in some such way.
"We are not just now discovering our sympathy for these peoples and
our interest in them. We are simply expressing it, for it has long
been felt and in the administration of the affairs of more than one of
the great states represented here--so far as I know all of the great
states that are represented here--that humane impulse has already
expressed itself in their dealings with their colonies whose peoples
were yet at a low stage of civilization.
... "Many terrible things have come out of this war, gentlemen, but
some very beautiful things have come out of it. Wrong has been
defeated, but the rest of the world has been more conscious than it
ever was before of the majority of right. People that were suspicious
of each other can now live as friends and comrades in a single family,
and desire to do so. The miasma of distrust, of intrigue is cleared
away. Men are looking eye to eye and saying: 'We are brothers, and
have a common purpose. We did not realize it before, but now we do
realize it, and this is our covenant of friendship.'"
After notifying by cable the Congressional Committee on Foreign
Affairs at Washington, that he would return to America and confer with
them at the White House, President Wilson sailed from Brest for home
on February 15, 1919. Greeted at Boston by a great multitude of
enthusiastic citizens, he delivered an address in the afternoon to
7,000 people assembled in Mechanic Hall on the subject of the League
of Nations. Traversing much of the ground he had covered in his speech
on the draft of the League in Paris, Mr. Wilson said he had been
impressed with the wonderful fact during his work at the Peace
Conference that there was no nation in Europe that suspected the
motives of the United States....
"Before this war, Europe did not believe in us as she does now. She
did not believe in us during the first three years of the war. She
seems to have believed that we were holding off because we thought we
could make more by staying out than by going in. And, all of a sudden,
in a short eighteen months, the whole verdict is reversed.... They saw
what we did--that, without making a single claim, we put all our men
and all our means at the disposal of those who were fighting for their
homes, in the first instance, but for a cause, the cause of human
rights and justice, and that we went in, not to support their national
claims, but to support the great cause which they held in common. And
when they saw that not only America held ideas, but acted ideals, they
were converted to America and became firm partisans of those
ideals....
"And now do you realize that this confidence which we have established
throughout the world imposes a burden upon us, if you choose to call
it a burden? It is one of those burdens which any nation should be
proud to carry."
President Wilson said that all the peoples of Europe were buoyed up
with a new hope, that they believed a new age was dawning, when
nations would understand each other and support each other in every
just cause and unite every moral and physical strength to see that
right should prevail. "If America were at this juncture to fail the
world, what would become of it?" He dwelt on the despair and
bitterness that would follow if America failed to justify the world's
hope; on the return to the old bad conditions that had prevailed
before the war when all European nations were hostile camps.
Yet the most satisfactory treaty of peace, said Mr. Wilson, would have
little value unless it were backed by the united nations to defend
it, with great forces combined to make it good, and the assurance
given to oppressed peoples of the world that they should be safe.
America would not disappoint the hopes of the world, and would make
men free. "If we did not do that, the fame of America would be gone
and all her power would be dissipated. She then would have to keep her
power for those narrow, selfish, provincial purposes which seem so
dear to some minds that have no sweep beyond the nearest horizon." He
spoke of the claims of Poland, and the wrongs of Armenia, and of the
aspirations of the Czecho-Slovaks and Jugoslavs, and how certain
powers would pounce upon them if there were not the guarantees of the
world behind their liberty.
President Wilson said he had returned to report progress which would
not stop short of the goal. The people were in the saddle and they
would see to it that if their own present governments did not do their
will some other governments shall. "And the secret is out and the
present governments know it."
Before President Wilson returned to America the League of Nations
covenant had already been discussed in the United States Senate. The
Republican members in particular were vehement and even bitter in
denouncing the project as set forth in the original draft. Senator
Poindexter declared in the course of a three-hour speech that the
charter of the League meant surrender of American sovereignty to
European nations. Article X bound the United States as one of the
contracting parties, he said, to preserve against aggressions the
territory and political independence in all states members of the
League. This, argued the Senator, would compel the United States to
tax its people and sacrifice its soldiers to make war on behalf of a
foreign country. In mixing in the affairs of small European nations,
these small nations would intrude into the affairs of the United
States. To place into the hands of the council of the League of
Nations--all but one foreigners with different ideals and
interests--such control over the sovereign action of the American
people for which so many heroes had labored "would be as though it
were a pitiful murder of the very souls of our fathers in their own
house, builded by their hands...."
Senator Borah, Republican, attacked the League as a radical departure
from the policy laid down in Washington's Farewell Address and the
Monroe Doctrine. Article X, which provided for the preservation of the
territorial integrity of the nations of the League, the Senator said,
would first obligate America to protect the territorial integrity of
Great Britain. If the British Empire was threatened in any part, not
the United States Congress, or the people, or the Government would
determine what should be done, but the executive council, of which the
American people had one member, would determine what should be done.
The British Empire, united in interest with Italy and Japan, would
outvote America in the League. The whole project, he believed, would
sterilize the principle of nationalism and abrogate the American
Constitution.
The League found a sturdy and eloquent champion in Senator Hitchcock,
Democrat, of Nebraska, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. In
the course of a speech delivered on February 27, 1919, Senator
Hitchcock expressed his belief that the League was a positive guaranty
against future world wars. The attitude Japan might take regarding her
nationals was not a cause for worry. Japan had already recognized the
exclusion laws of the United States. There was no question about
Mexico, which could not give guaranties of international obligations
and therefore would not be admitted to the League.
Senator Hitchcock declared that those who opposed the League were
thinking in the terms of the past. The fear expressed that the League
would open the way to European despotism was without foundation, for
the spirit of despotism had vanished. Democracy was the mastering
spirit in all the nine nations represented in the executive council,
yes, even in Japan. Such a league, he argued, with its provision of
arbitration and delay for calm consideration, would make war
improbable. The restrictions on armaments would save the great nations
billions and eliminate oppressive tax burdens.
One of the principal arguments against the League was that in joining
it America would have to renounce the Monroe Doctrine and relinquish
the right to attack any nation that attempted to establish itself in
the Western Hemisphere. Senator Hitchcock argued that the League of
Nations included the very purposes of the Monroe Doctrine in that it
prevented the aggression of nations upon each other. An unfriendly
act, or attack, upon any American republic, or upon the United States,
would at once be the subject of inquiry and action by the League of
Nations. America also would no longer be compelled to defend alone the
Western Hemisphere, but would be backed by the sympathy and help of
the League of Nations.
"We have been told that this is one of those entangling alliances
against which Washington warned us. I deny it. In Washington's day the
world was full of alliances, the nations of the world were seeking to
maintain, through the theories of the balance of power, their rival
interest. Alliances were for the very purpose of waging war, whereas
the League of Nations is a great covenant among the democracies of the
world for the purposes of preserving peace."
Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts, Republican leader in the Senate,
expressed the definite opposition of his party to the League as
proposed in a speech before the Senate on February 28, 1919.
Senator Knox, Republican, of Pennsylvania, ex-Secretary of State and a
member of the Foreign Relations Committee, speaking on March 1, 1919,
before the Senate, expressed himself in favor of a modified League
that would preserve our sovereignty. The chief points in his argument
may be summarized.
The Central Powers must not be left out of the League, or it would
force them for mutual protection to form a second League of Nations,
which the neutral states would almost certainly join. The result would
be two great camps, each preparing for a new and greater
life-and-death struggle.
Even the term League of Nations was a misnomer, for according to the
proposed plan the nations of the world were divided into three
classes.
First.--Signatories to the covenant confined perhaps to the five great
Entente Powers--British Empire, France, Italy, Japan, and United
States.
Second.--States not signatory, but named in the protocol, including
possibly such Entente Powers, if any, as were not signatories, as well
as other states neutral in the war.
Third.--Those states which are neither signatories nor protocol states
which must furnish guaranties as to their intention to be bound by
their international obligations, to be admitted to the League.
Thus the League of Nations, said Senator Knox, in the sense of all the
nations was not created by the document, nor were the states members
of the League treated as equals. He pointed out the difficulties in
withdrawing from the League. "Once in this union we remain there no
matter how onerous its gigantic burdens may become."
The climax to the senatorial discussion came when Senator Lodge
circulated a proposal to reject the League of Nations constitution as
then drafted. Thirty-nine members of the next Senate, said Senator
Lodge, approved of the proposal, and read out their names. The
thirty-nine members of the next Senate, if they stood fast for
rejecting the League's constitution, would represent more than
one-third of the body which must ratify any treaty by a two-thirds
vote before it became effective.
Immediately after Congress adjourned on March 4, 1919, President
Wilson left Washington for New York, where he delivered an address on
the League in the evening of that date at the Metropolitan Opera
House.
President Wilson in his address covered much the same ground he had
traversed in his Boston speech, and paid his respects to the critics
of the covenant in somewhat scathing terms. He was amazed that there
should be in some quarters such ignorance of the state of the world.
"These gentlemen do not know what the mind of men is just now.
Everybody else does. I do not know where they have been closeted. I do
not know by what influences they have been blinded; but I do know that
they have been separated from the general currents of the thought of
mankind.... I have heard no counsel of generosity in their criticism.
I have heard no constructive suggestions. I have heard nothing except
'will it not be dangerous to us to help the world?' It will be fatal
to us not to help it."
After concluding his address President Wilson and party boarded the
_George Washington_ and sailed again for France.
The attacks on the League of Nations in the United States affected the
attitude of the French press and of the delegates in Paris, who had
been critical of the project. But as soon as it became apparent that
the Wilson program was in danger of defeat at home the press rallied
to its support and the delegates, fearing failure of the whole
project, became advocates of the covenant as it stood. Only Germany
denounced it as unjust to the German people. Italy gave unqualified
support, and England's attitude, as expressed through Mr. Balfour, was
that an immense responsibility rested on the American people. "They
have come into the war. Their action has had profound importance.
Their service to mankind in this crisis will make a great page in
their history. But that service is only half accomplished if they do
not take a share in the even more responsible labors of peace."
The effect of the assaults upon the League was to speed up the
preliminary work on the Peace Treaty.
CHAPTER XXI
REVISED COVENANT OF THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS--THE TREATY OF PEACE
On April 28, 1919, the revised covenant of the League of Nations was
adopted by the plenary session of the Peace Conference without
divisions and without amendment. Sir Eric Drummond of Great Britain
was nominated the first secretary general of the League.
The covenant as drafted may be briefly summed up.
"The original members of the League of Nations shall be those of the
signatories which are named in the annex to this covenant, and also
such of those other states named in the annex as shall accede without
reservation to this covenant."
(In the annex to the covenant the original members of the League of
Nations signatory to the treaty of peace are given as follows: the
United States of America, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, British Empire,
Canada, Australia, South Africa, New South Wales, India, China, Cuba,
Czecho-Slovakia, Ecuador, France, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Hedjaz,
Honduras, Italy, Japan, Liberia, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Poland,
Portugal, Rumania, Serbia, Siam, and Uruguay. States invited to accede
to the covenant: Argentine Republic, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica,
Denmark, Netherlands, Norway, Paraguay, Persia, Salvador, Spain,
Sweden, Switzerland, and Venezuela.) It is interesting to note that
Mexico was not included among the states invited to join the League.
Article I, as revised, provides that "Any self-governing state,
dominion, or colony, not named in the annex may become a member of the
League if its admission is agreed to by two-thirds of the assembly,
provided it shall give effective guaranties of its sincere intention
to observe its international obligations and shall accept such
regulations as may be prescribed by the League in regard to its
military and naval forces and armaments.
"Any member of the League may, after two years' notice of its
intention, withdraw from the League, provided that all its
international obligations and all its obligations under this covenant
shall have been fulfilled at the time of its withdrawal."
Article IV, as revised, reads: "The council shall consist of
representatives of the United States of America, of the British
Empire, of France, of Italy, and of Japan, together with four other
members of the League. These four members of the League shall be
selected by the assembly from time to time in its discretion. Until
the appointment of the representatives of the four members of the
League first selected by the assembly, representatives of (blank)
shall be members of the council."
Two new paragraphs in this article provide specifically for one vote
for each member of the League in the council, which was understood
before, and providing also for one representative of each member of
the League.
[Illustration: The signers of the treaty for the United States:
President Woodrow Wilson, Robert Lansing, Henry White, Edward M.
House, Tasker H. Bliss; for the British Empire: David Lloyd-George,
Andrew Bonar Law, Viscount Milner, Arthur James Balfour, George N.
Barnes.]
[Illustration: Signature of Ch. J. Doherty and A. L. Sifton, Canada;
W. N. Hughes and Joseph Cook, Australia; Louis Botha and J. C. Smuts,
South Africa; W. F. Massey, New Zealand; Ed. S. Montagu and Sir Ganga
Singh, India; for France: Georges Clemenceau, S. Pichon, L. L. Klotz,
A. Tardieu, Jules Cambon.]
[Illustration: Signatures of delegates from Peru, Portugal, Rumania,
Jugoslavia, Siam, Czecho-Slovakia, Uruguay. Pages preceding were
delegates from Italy, Japan, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Cuba, Ecuador,
Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Hedjaz, Honduras, Liberia, Nicaragua,
Panama.]
[Illustration: Signatures and seals of the German delegates, Dr.
Hermann Muller and Dr. Bell.
Names of delegates, not previously given, who signed on behalf of the
Allied and Associated Powers, are: ITALY, Baron Sonnino, Marquis
Imperiali, S. Crespi; BELGIUM, Paul Hymans, Van den Heuvel, E.
Vandervelde; BOLIVIA, Ismael Montes; BRAZIL, P. Calogeras, Rodrigo
Octavio; CUBA, Antonio Sanchez de Bustamente; ECUADOR, Enrique Dorn y
de Alsua; GREECE, E. Venizelos, N. Politis; GUATEMALA, Joaquin Mendez;
HAITI, Terulien Guilbaud; HEDJAZ, Rustem Haidar, Abdul Hadi Anuni;
HONDURAS, Policarpo Bonilla; LIBERIA, C. D. B. King; NICARAGUA,
Salvador Chamorro; PANAMA, Antonio Burgos; PERU, Candamo; POLAND,
Paderewski, Dmowski; PORTUGAL, Costa, Soares; RUMANIA, Bratiano,
Coanda; JUGOSLAVIA, Pachitch, Trumbitch, Vesnitch; SIAM, Prince
Charoon, Prince Traislos Probandhu; CZECHO-SLOVAKIA, Kramarez, Benes;
URUGUAY, Buero.]
A new paragraph in Article V expressly incorporates the provision as
to the unanimity of voting, which was at first taken for granted. The
second paragraph of Article VI has added to it that a majority of the
assembly must approve the appointment of the secretary general.
In Article VII Geneva is named as the seat of the League, as before,
but the council are given power to establish it elsewhere if
subsequently desired.
A new paragraph in Article VII establishes equality of employment of
men and women by the League.
An added paragraph in Article XIII gives instances of disputes which
are generally suitable to arbitration, such disputes as to the
interpretation of a treaty, as to any question of international law,
as to the existence of any fact, which if established would constitute
a breach of any international obligation, or as to the extent and
nature of the reparation to be made for any such breach.
A new paragraph added to Article XV is an amendment regarding domestic
jurisdiction, that where the council finds that a question arising out
of an international dispute affects matters which are clearly under
the domestic jurisdiction of one or other of the parties, it is to
report to that effect and make no recommendation.
A new paragraph in Article XVI provides for expulsion from the League
when a member violates any covenant "by a vote of the council
concurred in by the representatives of all the other members of the
League represented thereon."
Article XXI was not in the first draft of the League covenant and
reads: "Nothing in this covenant shall be deemed to affect the
validity of international engagements, such as treaties of
arbitration, or regional understandings, such as the Monroe Doctrine,
for securing the maintenance of peace."
This amendment recognizing the validity of the Monroe Doctrine meets
the "inequality of voting power" criticism, and its inclusion in the
covenant was regarded as a personal triumph for President Wilson.
Article XXII provides that all agreements shall be unanimous and that
a nation must decide whether it is to be a mandatory for any other
nation.
Article XXIII contains a new clause providing for just treatment of
the aborigines, a clause looking toward prevention of the white slave
traffic and opium traffic, and a clause looking toward progress in
international prevention of disease.
Article XXV specifically mentions the Red Cross as one of the
international organizations which are to connect their work with the
work of the League.
Article XXVI permits the amendment of the covenant by a majority of
the states composing the assembly, instead of three-fourths of the
states, though it does not change the requirement in that matter with
regard to the vote of the council. A new paragraph was added to this
Article at the request of the Brazilian delegates in order to avoid
constitutional difficulties. It permits any member of the League to
dissent from an amendment, the effect of such dissent being withdrawal
from the League.
On May 7, 1919 (the anniversary of the sinking of the _Lusitania_),
the Treaty of Peace between the Allied and Associated Powers on the
one hand and Germany on the other was delivered to the German
plenipotentiaries at Versailles. Fifteen days were allowed for reply.
The treaty represents the work of more than a thousand experts who
were continuously engaged on the task for three and a half months. It
is the longest treaty ever drawn, totaling about 80,000 words. The
treaty does not deal with questions affecting Austria, Bulgaria, and
Turkey except to the extent of binding Germany to accept any agreement
reached with her old allies.
The covenant of the League of Nations is contained in the first
section of the treaty and in addition to its general duties others are
specified.
The League may question Germany at any time for a violation of the
neutralized zone east of the Rhine as a threat against the world's
peace. A high commissioner of Danzig will be appointed to guarantee
the independence of the free city, and arrange treaties between
Danzig, Germany, and Poland. It will appoint three out of five members
of the Sarre commission, oversee its regime and carry out the
plebiscite. The mandatory system will be applied to the former German
colonies and the League will act as a final court in the matter of the
plebiscites of the Belgian-German frontier and Kiel Canal disputes.
SECTION II.
BOUNDARIES OF GERMANY.
Germany cedes to France Alsace-Lorraine, 5,600 square miles to the
southwest, and to Belgium two small districts between Luxemburg and
Holland, totaling 382 square miles. To Poland she cedes the
southeastern point of Silesia beyond and including Oppeln, most of
Posen and West Prussia, 27,686 square miles. East Prussia is thus
isolated from the main body by a portion of Poland. Germany loses
dominion over the northeastern tip of East Prussia, forty square miles
north of the River Memel and the internationalized areas around
Danzig, 729 square miles, and the basin of the Sarre, 738 square
miles, between the western border of the Rhenish Palatinate of Bavaria
and the southeast corner of Luxemburg. The Danzig area consists of a V
between the Nogat and Vistula Rivers, made a W by the addition of a
similar V on the west including the city of Danzig. The southeastern
third of East Prussia and the area between East Prussia and the
Vistula north of latitude 53 degrees 3 minutes is to have its
nationality determined by popular vote, 5,785 square miles, and the
same with Schleswig, 2,787 square miles.