Thirty million soldiers, each living a great human story--this is the
real drama of the Great War as it is being written into the hearts and
memories of the men at the front. If these soldiers could be gathered
around one camp-fire, and each soldier could relate the most thrilling
moment of his experience--what stories we would hear! "Don Quixote,"
the "Arabian Nights," Dante's "Inferno," Milton's "Paradise Lost, and
Regained"--all the legends and tales of the world's literature out-told
by the soldiers themselves.
It is from the lips of these soldiers, and those who have passed
through the tragedy of the war--the women and children whose eyes have
beheld the inferno and whose souls have been uplifted by suffering
and self-sacrifice--the generations will hear the epic of the days
when millions of men gave their lives to "make the world safe for
Democracy." The magnitude of this gigantic struggle against autocracy
is such that human imagination cannot visualize it--it requires one to
stand face to face with death itself.
A member of the British War Staff estimates that more than a million
letters a day are passing from the trenches and bases of the various
armies "to the folk back home." Another observer at the General
Headquarters of one of the armies estimates that more than a million
and a half diaries are being kept by the soldiers. It is in these
words, inscribed by bleeding bodies and suffering hearts, that
posterity is to hear _True Stories of the Great War_.
It is the purpose of these volumes, therefore, to begin the
preservation of these soldiers' stories. This is the first collection
that has been made; it is in itself an historic event. The manner in
which this service has been performed may be of interest to the reader.
It was my privilege to appoint a committee, or board of editors, to
collect stories from soldiers in the various armies--personal letters,
records of personal experiences, reminiscences, and all other available
material. An exhaustive investigation has been made into the files of
European and American periodicals to find the various narratives that
have "crept into print."
More than eight thousand stories were considered. The vast amount of
human material would require innumerable volumes to preserve it. It
was the judgment of the committee that this documentary evidence could
be brought into practical limitations by selecting a sufficient number
of narratives to cover every human phase of the Great War and preserve
them in six volumes.
This first collection of "True Stories" forms what might be termed a
"story-history" of the Great War, although all chronological plan is
purposely avoided in order to preserve the story-teller's "reality"
rather than the historian's record.
These volumes are in the nature of a "Round Table" in which soldiers,
refugees, nurses, eye-witnesses--all gather about the pages and relate
the most thrilling episodes of their war experiences. We hear the tales
of the soldiers who invaded Belgium, through the campaigns and battles
on all the fronts, to the landing of the American troops in France.
Diplomats tell of the scenes at the outbreak of the war; despatch
bearers relate their missions of danger from Paris to Berlin, London,
Vienna, Petrograd; refugees describe the flight of the Belgians, the
exodus of the Serbians, the invasion of Poland. Emissaries at General
Headquarters tell of their dinners with the Kaiser and the Crown
Prince, with Hindenburg and Zimmerman, and describe the scenes inside
the German empire. Soldiers from the Marne, the Aisne, Verdun--relate
their experiences. We listen to passengers tossed into the sea from
the _Lusitania_; revolutionists who overthrew the Czar in Russia;
exiles returning from Siberia. We hear the tales of the fighters from
South Africa, Egypt, Turkey; stories from the Far East along the seas
of China. The lieutenant of the _Emden_ relates his adventures. There
are stories told by Kitchener's "mob"; the "fighting Irish," Scottish
Highlanders, the Canadians, the Australians, the Hindus. The French
hussars and poilus tell of their experiences; the Italians in the Alps,
the Austrians in the Carpathians--the stories cover the whole world and
every race and nation.
These personal narratives reveal the psychology of war in all its
horrible reality--modern warfare on its gigantic scale--the genius
of invention and organization applied to destruction. They reveal,
moreover, the psychology of human nature and human emotions in all
their moods and passions. The first impression is of the physical
horror of the war, but this is soon overcome by the higher spirituality
that impels men to sacrifice their lives for civilization and humanity.
The stories sink at times into grossest brutality only to rise to the
heights of nobility on the part of the sufferers. Officers tell of
the charges of their battalions; the men in the trenches tell of the
"nights of terror"; spies tell of their secret missions; nurses deliver
the death-messages of the dying; priests tell how they carry the Cross
of Christ to the bloody fields; the prisoners tell the "inside story of
the prisons"; aviators relate their death-duels in the air; submarine
officers tell how they torpedo and capture the enemies' ships. There is
testimony from the lips of women who were ravaged; children who were
brutally mutilated; witnesses who saw soldiers crucified; soldiers
lashed to their guns; babies torn from their mothers' arms; homes in
flames and ruins, cathedrals desecrated.
And yet there is an undercurrent of humanity in these human documents.
In their physical aspect they are almost beyond human belief--but there
is a certain spiritual force running through them. There is a nobility
in them that rises above all the physical anguish.
These stories (and this war) reveal the souls of men as has nothing
before in modern times. The war has taught men "how to die." These
men have lost all fear of death. They have traveled the road of the
crucifixion and stood before Calvary; they have caught a glimpse of
something finer, nobler, truer than their own individual existence.
Through suffering and self-sacrifice they have risen to the noblest
heights. They have found something that we who have not faced death in
the trenches may never find--they have felt an exaltation in mind and
body that we may never know. There is the fire of the Old Crusaders
about them; they have caught the realization of the glory of humanity
as they march into the face of death. It is interesting to observe
that wherever the story-teller is fighting for a principle, he sees no
horror in war or death. It is only where he thinks of his individual
suffering, where his thoughts are of his own physical self, that he
complains.
And there is even humor in these stories; we see men laughing at
death; we see the wounded smiling and telling humorous tales of their
suffering; there is irony, cajolery, good-natured satire, and loud
outbursts of laughter. And there is tenderness in them--kindness,
gentleness, devotion, affection, and love. We find in them every
human passion--and every divine emotion. They form a new insight into
character and manhood--they inspire us with a new and deeper faith in
humanity.
The committee in making these selections found that many of the human
documents of the Great War are being preserved by the British, French,
and German publishing houses, but it is the American publishers who are
performing the greatest service in the preservation of war literature.
We have given consideration wherever possible to the notable work that
is being done by our American colleagues. While we have selected from
all sources what we consider to be _the best stories of the war_,
giving full recognition in every instance to the original sources, it
is a pleasure to state that our American periodicals have been given
the preference. They cordially co-operated with us in this undertaking
and we trust the public will show their due appreciation. We would
especially call attention to the list of books and publishers recorded
in the contents pages of the several volumes; also to the periodicals
which are preserving many of the human stories of the war. These will
form the basis for much of the literature of the future.
As editor-in-chief of these volumes, I desire further to give full
recognition to my associates: Mr. M. M. Lourens, of the University of
Leyden; Mr. Egbert Gilliss Handy, founder of The Search-Light Library;
Mr. Walter R. Bickford, former managing editor of The Journal of
American History; and the staff of investigators at The Search-Light
Library who made the extensive researches and comprehensive
bibliographies--covering the whole range of literature on The Great
War--required as a basis for the production of these books.