THE NAVY FIGHTING ON THE LAND
Besides transporting American troops, the Navy, in one detail of its
work, actually participated in warfare on the Western Front. Though this
feature of our effort has nothing to do with the main subject, the
defeat of the submarine, yet any account of the American navy in the war
which overlooks the achievements of our naval batteries on land would
certainly be incomplete. The use of naval guns in war operations was not
unprecedented; the British used such guns in the Boer War, particularly
at Ladysmith and Spion Kop; and there were occasions in which such
armament rendered excellent service in the Boxer Rebellion. All through
the Great War, British, French, and Germans frequently reinforced their
army artillery with naval batteries. But, compared with the American
naval guns which under the command of Rear-Admiral Charles P. Plunkett
performed such telling deeds against the retreating Germans in the final
phases of the conflict, all previous equipment of naval guns on shore
had been less efficient in one highly important respect.
For the larger part of the war, the Germans had had a great gun
stationed in Belgium bombarding Dunkirk. The original purpose in sending
American naval batteries to France was to silence this gun. The proposal
was made in November, 1917; but, rapidly as the preparations progressed,
the situation had entirely changed before our five fourteen-inch guns
were ready to leave for France. In the spring of 1918 the Germans began
the great drive which nearly took them to the Channel ports; and under
the conditions which prevailed in that area it was impossible to send
our guns to the Belgian coast. Meanwhile, the enemy had stationed a gun,
having a range of nearly seventy-five miles, in the forest of Compiegne;
the shells from this weapon, constantly falling upon Paris, were having
a more demoralizing effect upon the French populace than was officially
admitted. The demand for the silencing of this gun came from all sides;
and it was a happy coincidence that, at just about the time when this
new peril appeared, the American naval guns were nearly ready to be
transported to France. Encouraged by the success of this long-range gun
on Paris, the Germans were preparing long-range bombardments on several
sections of the front. They had taken huge guns from the new
battle-cruiser _Hindenburg_ and mounted them at convenient points for
bombarding Dunkirk, Chalons-sur-Marne, and Nancy. In all, the Allied
intelligence departments reported that sixteen guns of great calibre had
left Kiel in May, 1918, and that they would soon be trained upon
important objectives in France. For this reason it was welcome news to
the Allies, who were deficient in this type of artillery, that five
naval fourteen-inch guns, with mountings and ammunition and supply
trains, were ready to embark for the European field. The Navy received
an urgent request from General Pershing that these guns should be landed
at St. Nazaire; it was to be their main mission to destroy the "Big
Bertha" which was raining shells on Paris, and to attack specific
points, especially railroad communications and the bridges across the
Rhine.
The initiative in the design of these mobile railway batteries was taken
by the Bureau of Ordnance of the Navy Department, under Rear-Admiral
Ralph Earle, and the details of the design were worked out by the
officers of that bureau and Admiral Plunkett. The actual construction of
the great gun mounts on the cars from which the guns were to be fired,
and of the specially designed cars of the supply trains for each gun,
was an engineering feat which reflects great credit upon the Baldwin
Locomotive Works and particularly upon its president, Mr. Samuel M.
Vauclain, who undertook the task with the greatest enthusiasm. The
reason why our naval guns represented a greater achievement than
anything of a similar nature accomplished by the Germans was that they
were mobile. Careful observations taken of the bombardment of Dunkirk
revealed the fact that the gun with which it was being done was steadily
losing range. This indicated that the weapon was not a movable one, but
that it was firmly implanted in a fixed position. The seventy-five mile
gun which was bombarding Paris was similarly emplaced. The answering
weapon which our ordnance department now proposed to build was to have
the ability to travel from place to place--to go to any position to
which the railroad system of France could take it. To do this it would
be necessary to build a mounting on a railroad car and to supply cars
which could carry the crews, their sleeping quarters, their food and
ammunition; to construct, indeed, a whole train for each separate gun.
This equipment must be built in the United States, shipped over three
thousand miles of ocean, landed at a French port, assembled there, and
started on French railroads to the several destinations at the front.
The Baldwin Locomotive Works accepted the contract for constructing
these mountings and attendant cars; it began work February 13, 1918; two
months afterward the first mount had been finished and the gun was being
proved at Sandy Hook, New Jersey; and by July all five guns had arrived
at St. Nazaire and were being prepared to be sent forward to the scene
of hostilities. The rapidity with which this work was completed
furnished an illustration of American manufacturing genius at its best.
Meanwhile, Admiral Plunkett had collected and trained his crews; it
speaks well for the _moral_ of the Navy that, when news of this great
operation was first noised about, more than 20,000 officers and men
volunteered for the service.
At first the French, great as was their admiration for these guns and
the astonishingly accurate marksmanship which they had displayed on
their trials, believed that their railroad beds and their bridges could
not sustain such a weight; the French engineers, indeed, declined at the
beginning to approve our request for the use of their rails. The
constant rain of German shells on Paris, however, modified this
attitude; the situation was so urgent that such assistance as these
American guns promised was welcome. One August morning, therefore, the
first train started for Helles Mouchy, the point from which it was
expected to silence the "Big Bertha." The progress of this train through
France was a triumphant march. Our own confidence in the French road bed
and bridges was not much greater than that of the French themselves; the
train therefore went along slowly, climbed the grades at a snail's pace,
and took the curves with the utmost caution. As they crossed certain of
the bridges, the crews held their breath and sat tight, expecting almost
every moment to crash through. All along the route the French populace
greeted the great battery train with one long cheer, and at the towns
and villages the girls decorated the long muzzle of the gun with
flowers. But there were other spectators than the French. Expertly as
this unusual train had been camouflaged, the German airplane observers
had detected its approach. As it neared the objective the shells that
had been falling on Paris ceased; before the Americans could get to
work, the Germans had removed their mighty weapon, leaving nothing but
an emplacement as a target for our shells. Though our men were therefore
deprived of the privilege of destroying this famous long-range gun, it
is apparent that their arrival saved Paris from further bombardment, for
nothing was heard of the gun for the rest of the war.
The guns proved exceedingly effective in attacking German railroad
centres, bridges, and other essential positions; and as they could be
fired from any point of the railroad tracks behind the Western Front,
and as they could be shifted from one position to another, with all
their personnel and equipment, as fast as the locomotives could haul
them, it was apparent that the more guns of this design that could be
supplied the better. These qualities were at once recognized by the
Army, which called upon the Navy for assistance in building a large
number of railway batteries; and if the war had continued these great
guns would soon have been thundering all along the Western Front.
From the time the naval guns were mounted until the armistice Admiral
Plunkett's men were busy on several points of the Allied lines. In this
time the five naval guns fired 782 shells at distances ranging from 18
to 23 miles. They played great havoc in the railroad yards at Laon,
destroying large stretches of track that were indispensable to the
Germans, and in general making this place practically useless as a
railroad centre. Probably the greatest service which they rendered to
the cause of the Allies was in the region north of Verdun. In late
October three naval batteries were brought up to Charny and Thierville
and began bombarding the railroad which ran through Montmedy, Longuyon,
and Conflans. This was the most important line of communication on the
Western Front; it was the road over which the German army in the east
was supplied, and there was practically no other line by which the great
German armies engaging the Americans could escape. From October 23rd to
the hour when the armistice was signed our fourteen-inch guns were
raining shells upon this road. So successful was this bombardment that
the German traffic was stopped, not only while the firing was taking
place, but for several hours each day after it had ceased. What this
meant to the success of the Allied armies the world now knows. The
result is perfectly summed up in General Pershing's report:
"Our large calibre guns," he says, "had advanced and were skilfully
brought into position to fire upon the important lines at Montmedy,
Longuyon, and Conflans; the strategical goal which was our highest hope
was gained. We had cut the enemy's main line of communications and
nothing but surrender or an armistice could save his army from complete
disaster."
These guns were, of course, only one of many contributing factors, but
that the Navy had its part in this great achievement is another example
of the success with which our two services co-operated with each other
throughout the war--a co-operation which, for efficient and harmonious
devotion to a common cause, has seldom, if ever, been equalled.