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THE UNIVERSITY
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SANTA BARBARA
PRESENTED BY
MRS.
ERIC SCHMIDT
THE VICTORIOUS GENERALS
General Foch, Commander-in-Chief of all Allied forces. General Pershing, Com-
mander-in-Chief of the American armies. Field Marshal Haig, head of the British
armies. General d'Esperey (French) to whom Bulgaria surrendered. General Diaz,
Commander-in-Chief o^ the Italian armies. General Marshall (British), head of the
Mesopotamian expedition General AUenby (British), who redeemed Palestine from
the Turks.
HISTORY OF THE
WORLD WAR
An Authentic Narrative of
The World's Greatest War
INCLUDING THE TREATY OF PEACE AND
THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS' COVENANT
By FRANCIS A. MARCH, Ph.D.
In Collaboration with
RICHARD J. BEAMISH
Special War Correspondent
and Military Analyst
With an Introduction
By GENERAL PEYTON C. MARCH
Chief of Staff of the United States Army
Illustrated with Reproductions 6*001
the Official Photographs of the United
States, British and French Governments
PUBLISHED FOR
THE UNITED PUBLISHERS OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA
PHILADELPHIA CHICAGO TORONTO
1919
Copyright, 1919
COPTRIGHT, 1918
Francis A. March
This history is an original work and is fully
protected by the copyright laws, including the
right of translation. All persons are warned
against reproducing the text in whole or in
part without the permission of the publiabers.
WAR DEPARTMENT,
OFFICE OF THE CHIEF OF STAFF,
WASHINGTON,
November 14. 1918.
With the signing of the Armistice on November 11, 1918, the
World War has been practically brought to an end. The events of
the past four years have been of such magnitude that the various
steps, the numberless battles, and the growth of Allied power which
led up to the final victory are not clearly defined even in the minds
of many military men. A history of this great period which will
state in an orderly fashion this series of events will be of the greatest
value to the future students of the war, and to everyone of the
present day who desires to refer in exact terms to matters which led
up to the final conclusion.
The war will be discussed and re-discussed from every angle and
the sooner such a compilation of facts is available, the more valuable
it will be. I understand that this History of the World War intends
to put at the disposal of all who are interested, such a compendium of
facts of the past period of over four years; and that the system
employed in safeguarding the accuracy of statements contained in it
will produce a document of great historical value without entering
upon any speculative conclusions as to cause and effect of the various
phases of the war or attempting to project into an historical document
individual opinions. With these ends in view, this History will be of
the greatest value.
CJS ^^f^^-^-^.
General,
Chief of Staff,
United States Army.
CONTENTS.
Chapter I. A War for International Freedom . p^o,
A Conflict that was Inevitable — The Flower of Manhood on the Fields of
France — Germany's Defiance to the World — Heroic Belgium — Four Auto-
cratic Nations against Twenty-four Committed to the Principles of Liberty —
America's Titanic Effort — Four Million Men Under Arms, Two Million
Overseas — France the Martyr Nation — The British Empire's Tremendous
Share in the Victory — A River of Blood Watering the Desert of Autocracy 19
Chapter II. The World Suddenly Turned Upside Down
The War Storm Breaks — Trade and Commerce Paralyzed — Homeward Rush
f Travelers — Harrowing Scenes as Ships Sail for America — Stock Markets
Closed — The Tide of Desolation Following in the Wake of War 33
Chapter III. Why the World Went to War
The Balkan Ferment — Russia, the Dying Giant Among Autocracies — Turkey
the "Sick Man" of Europe — Scars Left by the Balkan War — Germany's
Determination to Seize a Place in the Sun 44
Chapter IV. The Plotter Behind the Scenes
The Assassination at Sarajevo — The Slavic Ferment — Austria's Domineering
Note — The Plotters of Potsdam — The Mailed Fist of Militarism Beneath the
Velvet Glove of Diplomacy — Mobilization and Declarations of War ... 54
Chapter V. The Great War Begins
Germany Invades Belgimn and Luxemburg — ^French Invade Alsace — ^England's
"Contemptible Little Army" Lands in France and Belgium — The Murderous
Gray-Green Tide — Heroic Retreat of the British from Mons — Belgium Over-
run — Northern France Invaded — Marshal Joffre Makes Ready to Strike . . 73
Chapter VI. The Trail of the Beast in Belgium
Barbarities that Shocked Humanity — Planned as Part of the Teutonic Policy
oilSckrecklichkeit — How the German and the Htm Became Synonymous
Terms — ^The Unmatchable Crimes of a War-Mad Army — ^A Record of Infamy
Written in Blood and Tears — Official Reports 88
Chapter VII. The First Battle of the Marne
Joffre'g Masterly Plan — The Enemy Trapped Between Verdun and Paris —
Gallieni's "Army in Taxicabs" — Foch, the "Savior of Civilization," Appears
— His Mighty Thrust Routs the Army of Hansen — Jofifre Salutes Foch as
VFini StrateguBt in Europe"— Battle that Won the Baton of a Marshal 110
9
10 CONTENTS
Chapter VIII. Japan in the War p^^b
Tsing Tau Seized by the Mikado — German "Gibraltar" of the Far East
Surrendered After Short Siege — Japan's Aid to the Allies in Money, Ships,
Men and Nurses — German Propaganda in the Far East Fails 120
Chapter IX. Campaign in the East
Invasion of East Prussia — ^Von Hindenburg and Masurian Lakes — Battle of
Tannenberg — Augustovo — Russians Capture Lemberg — The Offer to Poland 126
Chapter X. Struggle for Supremacy on the Sea
The British Blockade — German Raiders and Their Fate — Story of the
Emden's Remarkable Voyage — Appearance of the Submarine — British Naral
Victory off Helgoland — U-9 Sinks Three British Cruifiers 143
vChapter XI. The Sublime Porte
Turkish Intrigues — ^The Holy War — Mesopotamia and Transcaucasia — ^The
Suez Canal — Turkey the Catspaw of Germany 164
Chapter XII. Rescue of the Starving
Famine in Belgiimi — Belgium Relief Commission Organized in London —
Herbert C. Hoover — American Aid — The Great Cardinal's Famous Challenge 181
Chapter XHI. Britannia Rules tbe Waves
German and British Squadrons Grapple off the Chilean Coast — Germany
Wins the First Round — England Comes Back with Terrific Force — Graphic
Picture of the Destruction of the German Squadron off Falkland Islands —
Enghsh Coast Towns Bombarded for the First Time in Many Years . . .201
Chapter XIV. New Methods and Horrors of Warfakji
Tanks — Poison Gas — Flame Projectors — ^Airplane Bombs — Trench Mortars —
Machine Gims — Modern Uses of Airplanes for Liaison and Attacks on Infantry
— Radio — Rifle and Hand Grenades — A War of Intensive Artillery Prepara-
tion — ^A Debacle of Insanities, Terrible Wounds and Horrible Deaths . . . 217
. X - ...'■.-
Chapter XV. German Plots and Propaganda in America
Trailing the German Plotters — Destruction of Ships — Pressure on Congress —
Attacks in Canada — Zimmerman's Foohsh Effort to Embroil America with
Mexico and Japan — Lies of the Propagandists After America Entered the
War— Dumba, Von Bemstorff, Von Papen and Boy-Ed, a quartet of Unacru-
pulous Destructionists 231
Chapter XVI. Sinking of the Lusitania
The Submarine Murderers at Work — Germany's Blackhand Warning — No
Chance for Life— The Ship Unarmed and Without Munitions— The Presi-
dent's Note — Germany's Lying Denials — Coroner's Inquest Charges Kaiser
with Wilful Murder— "Remember the Lusitania" One of America's Big
Reasons for Declaring War 247
CONTENTS 11
Chapter XVII. Neuve Chapelle and Was IN Blood-
Soaked Trenches
PAGD
War Amid Barbed-Wire Entanglements and the Desolation of No Man's
Land — Subterranean Tactics Continuing Over Four Years — Attacks that
Cost Thousands of Lives for Every Foot of Gain 265
Chapter XVIII. Steadfast South Africa
Botha and Smuts, Rocks of Loyalty Amid a Sea of Treachery — Civil War
that Ended with the Drowning of General Beyers and the Arrest of General
De Wet — Conquest of German Colonies — Trail of the Hun in the Jungle . 280
Chapter XIX. Italy Declares War on Austria
Her Great Decision — D'Aimimzio, Poet and Patriot — ItaUa Irredenta —
German Indignation — The Campaigns on the Isonzo and in the Tyrol . . . 287
Chapter XX. Glorious Gallipoli
a Titanic Enterprise — Its Objects — Disasters and Deeds of Deathless Glory —
The Heroic Anzacs — Bloody Dashes up Impregnable Slopes — Silently they
Stole Away — A Successful Failure , 302
Chapter XXI. The Greatest Naval Battle in History
The Battle of Jutland — Every Factor on Sea and in Sky Favorable to the
Germans — Low Visibihty a Great Factor — A Modern Sea Battle — Light
Cruisers Screening Battleship Squadron — Germans Run Away when British
Fleet Marshals Its FuU Strength — Death of Lord Kitchener 311
Chapter XXII. The Russian Campaign
The Advance on Cracow — Von Hindenburg Strikes at Warsaw — German
Barbarism — The War in Gahcia — The Fall of Przemysl — Russia's Ammuni-
tion Fails — The Russian Retreat — The Fall of Warsaw — Czernowitz . . 327
Chapter XXIII. How the Balkans Decided
Ferdinand of Bulgaria Insists Upon Joining Germany — Dramatic Scene in
the King's Palace — The Die is Cast — Bulgaria Succumbs to Seductions of
Potsdam Gang — Greece Mobilizes — French and British Troops at Saloniki —
Serbia Over-run — Roumania's Disastrous Venture in the Arena of Mars . . 347
Chapter XXIV. The Campaign in Mesopotamia
British Army Threatening Bagdad Besieged in Kut-el-Amara — After Heroic
Defense General Townshend Surrenders After 143 Days of Siege — New British
Expedition Recaptvires Kut — Troops Push on up the Tigris — Fall of Bagdad,
the Magnificent 370
U CONTENTS
Chapter XXV. Canada's Part in the Great War j.^„.
By Col. George G. Nasmith, C. M. G.
Enthusiastic Response to the Call to Action — Valcartier Camp a Splendid
Example of the Driving Power of Sir Sam Hughes — Thirty-three Liners Cross
the Atlantic with First Contingent of Men and Equipment — Largest Convoy
Ever Gathered Together — At the Front with the Princess Pat's — Red Cross —
Financial Aid — Half a MilUon Soldiers Overseas — Mons, the Last Stronghold
of the Enemy, Won by the Men from Canada — A Record of Glory .... 381
Chapter XXVI. Immortal Verdun
Grave of the MiUtary Reputations of Von Falkenhayn and the Crown Prince
— Hindenburg's Warning — Why the Germans Made the Disastrous Attempt
to Capture the Great Fortress — Heroic France Reveals Itself to the World —
"They Shall Not Pass"— Nivelle's Glorious Stand on Dead Man Hill— Lord
NorthcUffe's Description — A Defense Unsurpassed in the History of France 398
Chapter XXVII. Murders and Martyrs
The Case of Edith Cavell — Nurse Who Befriended the Helpless, Dies at the
Hands of the Germans — Captain Fryatt's Martyrdom — How Germany Sowed
the Seeds of Disaster 409
Chapter XXVIII. The Second Battle of Ypres
The Canadians in Action — Undismayed by the New Weapon of the Enemy —
Holding the Line Against Terrific Odds — Men from the Dominion Fight Like
Veterans 412
Chapter XXIX. Zeppelin Raids on France and England
First Zeppelin Attack KiUs Twenty-eight and Injures Forty-four — Part of
Germany's PoHcy of Frightfulness — Raids by German Airplanes on Unforti-
fied Towns — Killing of Non-Combatants — The British Lion Awakes — Anti-
Aircraft Precautions and Protections — Policy of Terrorism Fails .... 417
Chapter XXX. Red Revolution in Russia
Rasputin, the Mystic — The Cry for Bread — Rise of the Council of Workmen's
and Soldiers' Delegates — Rioting in Petrograd — The Threatening Cloud of
Disaster — Moderate Policy of the Duma Fails — The Fatal Easter Week of
1917 — ^Abdication of the Czar — Last Tragic Moments of the Autocrat of All
the Russias — Grand Duke Issues Declaration Ending Power of Romanovs in
Russia — Release of Siberian Revolutionists — Free Russia 425
Chapter XXXI. The Descent to Bolshevism
Russia Intoxicated with Freedom — Elihu Root and His Mission — Last
BriUiant Offensive in Galicia — The Great Mutiny in the Army — The Battalion
of Death — Kerensky's Skyrocket Career — Kornilov's Revolt — Loss of Riga —
Lenine, the Dictator — The Impossible "Peace" of Brest-Litovsk .... 438
CONTENTS IS
Chapter XXXII. Germany's Object Lesson to the p^,,.
United States
Two Voyages of the Deutschland — U-53 German Submarine Reaches Newport
and Sinks Five British and Neutral Steamers off Nantucket — Rescue of
Survivors by United States Warships — ^Anti-German Feeling in America
Reaching a Climax 459
Chapter XXXIII. America Transformed by War
The United States Enters the Conflict — The Efficiency of Democracy — Six
Months in an American Training Camp Equal to Sbc Years of German Com-
pulsory Service — ^American Soldiers and Their Resourcefulness on the Battle-
field—Methods of Training and Their Results— The S. A. T. C 464
Chapter XXXIV. How Food Won the War
The American Farmer a Potent Factor in Civilization's Victory — Scientific
Studies of Food Production, Distribution and Consimiption — Hoover Lays
Down the Law Regulating Wholesalers and Grocers — Getting the Food Across
— ^Feeding Armies in the Field 478
Chapter XXXV. The United States Navy in the War
Increase from 68,000 Men to Approximately 500,000 — Destroyer Fleet Arrives
in British Waters— "We Are Ready Now"— The Hunt of the U-Boats—
Gunnery that is Unrivalled — Depth Charges and Other New Inventions —
The U-Boat Menace Removed — Surrender of German Under-Sea Navy . . 483
Chapter XXXVI. China Joins the Fighting Democracies
How the Germans Behaved in China Seventeen Years Before — The Whirligig
of Time Brings Its Own Revenge — The Far Eastern Republic Joins Hands
with the Allies — German Propaganda at Work — Futile Attempt to Restore the
Monarchy — Fear of Japan — War — Thousands of Chinese Toil Behind the
Battle Lines in France — Siam with Its Eight IMillions Defies the Germans —
End of Teuton Influence in the Orient 498
Chapter XXXVII. The Defeat and Recovery of Italy
Subtle Socialist Gospel Preached by Enemy Plays Havoc with Guileless
Italians — Sudden Onslaught of Germans Drives Cadorna's Men from Heights
— The Spectacular Retreat that Dismayed the World — Glorious Stand of the
Italians on the Piave — Rise of Diaz 502
Chapter XXXVIII. Redemption or the Holy Land yC^
A Long Campaign Progressing Through Hardships to Glory — General ADenby V
Enters Jerusalem on Foot — Turkish Army Crushed in Palestine — Battle of
Armageddon 506
14 CONTENTS
Chapter XXXIX. America's Transportation Problems p^^.
Government Ownership of Railroads, Telegraphs, Telephones — Getting the
Men from Ti'aioing Camps to the Battle Fronts — From Texas to Toul — A
Gigantic System Working Without a Hitch 513
Chapter XL. Ships and the Men Who Made Them
The Emergency Fleet Corporation — Charles M. Schwab as Master Shipbuilder
— Hog Island the Wonder Shipyard of the World — An Unbeatable Record —
Concrete Ships — Wooden Ships — Standardising the Steel Ship — Attitude of
Labor ia the War — Samuel Gompers an Unofficial Member of the Cabinet —
Great Task of the United States Employment Service 520
Chapter XLI. ''Germany's Dying Desperate Effort
The High Tide of German Success — ^An Army of Six MiUion Men Flung Reck-
lessly on the Allies — Most Terrific Battles in all History — The Red Ruin of
War from Arras to St. Quentin — Amiens Within Arms' Reach of the Invaders
— Paris Bombarded by Long-Range Gims from Distance of Seventy-six Miles —
A Generalissimo at Last — Marshal Foch in Supreme Command . . . .531
Chapter XLII. Chateatj-Thibrry, Field of Glory
German Wave Stops with the Americans — ^Prussian Guard Flung Back — The
Beginning of Autocracy's End — America's Record of Valor and Victory —
Cantigny — Belleau Wood — Thierry — St. Mihiel — Shock Troops of the Enemy
Annihilated — Soldier's Remarkable Letter 545
Chapter XLIII. England and France Strike in the North
Second Terrific Blow of General Foch — Lens, the Storehouse of Minerals,
Captured — Bapaume Retaken — British Snap the Famous Hindenburg Line —
The Great Thrust Through Cambrai — Tanks to the Front — Cavalry in Action 563
Chapter XLIV. Belgium's Gallant Effort
The Little Army Under King Albert Thrusts Savagely at the Germans —
Ostend and Zeebrugge Freed from the Submarine Pirates — Pathetic Scenes as
Belgians are Restored to Their Honaes 573
Chapter XLV. Italy's Terrific Drive
Enemy Offensive Opens on Front of Ninety-Seven MUes — Repulse of the
Austrians — Italy Turns the Tables — Terrific Coimter-Thrusts from the Piave
to Trente — Forcing the Alpine Passages — Battles High in the Air — EngUsh,
French and Americans Back up the Itahans in Himabling the Might of Austria
— D'Anniinzio's Romantic Bombardment of Vienna — Diaz Leads his Men to
Victory , 582
Chapter XLVI. Bulgaria Deserts Germany-
Greece in the Throes of Revolution — Fall of Constantine — Serbians Begin
Advance on Bulgars — Thousands of Prisoners Taken — Surrender of Bulgaria —
CONTENTS 15
Tissm
Panic in Berlin — Passage Through the Country Granted for Armies of the
Allies — Ferdinand Abdicates — Germany's Imagined Mittel-Europa Dream
Forever Destroyed 591
Chapter XLVII. The Central Empires Whine for Peace
Austria-Hungary Makes the First Plea — President Wilson's Abrupt Answer —
Prince Max, Camouflaged as an Apostle of Peace, made Chancellor and Opens
Germany's Pathetic Plea for a Peace by Negotiation — The President Replies
on Behalf of all the Allied Powers — Foch Pushes on Regardless of Peace Notes. 603
Chapter XLVIII. Battles in the Air
Conquering the Pear of Death — From Individual Fights to Battles Between
Squadrons — Heroes of the Warring Nations — ^America's Wonderful Record —
From Nowhere to First Place in Eighteen Months — The Liberty Motor . .611
Chapter XLIX. Health and Happiness of the American
Forces
Record of the Red Cross on all Fronts — ^A Gigantic Work Well Executed—
Y. M. C. A. — ^Y. W. C. A. — ^Knights of Columbus — ^Jewish Welfare Associa»
tion — Salvation Army — American Library Association — Other Organizations —
Surgery and Sanitation 622
Chapter L. The Pirates of the Under-Seas
Germany's Ruthless Submarine Policy — ^A Boomerang Destroying the Hand
that Cast It — Terrorism that Failed — One Himdred and Fifty U-Boats Simk
or Captured — Shameless Surrender of the German Submarines and of the
Fleet They Protected 631
Chapter LI, Approaching the Final Stage
Cutting the Railroads to Cambrai — Americans Co-operate with British in
Furious Attack — Douai and St. Quentin Taken — The Battle Line Straightened
for the Last Mighty Assault — ^All Hope Abandoned by the Kaiser. . . . 640
Chapter LII. Last Days of the War
American Troops Join with the AUies in Colossal Drive on 71-mile Front —
Historic Sedan Taken by the Yanks — Stenay, the Last Battle of the War —
How the Opposing Forces Greeted the News of the Armistice 643
Chapter LIIL The Drastic Terms of Surrender
Handcuffs for Four Nations — Bulgaria First to Fly the White Flag — Allenby's
Great Victory Forces Turkey Out — ^Austria Signs Quickly — Germany's
Capitulation Complete and HumiHating 648
Chapter LIV. Peace at Last
An Unfounded Rinnor Starts Enormous Jubilation — Armistice Signed Four
Days Later — Kaiser Abdicates and Flees to HoUaud — Cowardly Ruler Seeks
16 CONTENTS
FAOa
Protection of Small Neutral Nation — Looking Into the Future — Cost of War
to the Nations — Liberty Loans — Reconstruction Problems — McAdoo Resigns
— American Ideals in the Old World 660
Chaptee LV. America's Position in Peace and War
President Wilson's Stirring Speech in Congress Which Brought the United
States into the War — His Great Speech Before Congress Ending the War —
The Fourteen Points Outlining America's Demands Before Peace Could be
Concluded — Later Peace Principles Enunciated by the President. . . . 669
Chapter LVI. The War by Years
Condensed Word-Picture of the Happenings of the Most Momentous Fifty-
two Months in AH History — Leading Up to the Eleventh Hour of the
Eleventh Day of the Eleventh Month of 1918 . 684
Chapter LVII. Behind America's Battle Line
General March's Story of the Work of the MiHtary Intelligence Division —
Of the War Plans Division — Of the Purchase and Traffic Divisions — How Men,
Munitions and Supplies Reached the Western Front 689
Chapter LVIII. General Pershing's Own Story
The Commander-in-Chief of the American Expeditionary Forces Tells the
Story of the Magnificent Combat Operations of his Troops that Defeated
Prussia's Legions — Official Account Discloses Full Details of the Fighting. . 701
Chapter LIX. President Wilson's Review of the War
A Year in the Life of the United States Crowded with Great Events— Tribute
to the Soldiers and Sailors, the Workers at Home Who Supphed the Sinewa
of the Great Undertaking, the Women of the Land Who Contributed to the
Great Result — The Future Safe in the Hands of American Businessmen. . 720
Summarized Chronology of the War 729
Treaty of Peace and League of Nations 737
FOREWORD
THIS is a popular narrative history of the world's greatest
war. Written frankly from the viewpoint of the United
States and the AUies, it visualizes the bloodiest and most
destructive conlflict of all the ages from its remote causes
to its glorious conclusion and beneficent results. The world-
shaking rise of new democracies is set forth, and the enormous
national and individual sacrifices producing that resurrection of
human equality are detailed.
Two ideals have been before us in the preparation of this
necessary work. These are simplicity and thoroughness. It is
of no avail to describe the greatest of human events if the descrip-
tion is so confused that the reader loses interest. Thoroughness
is an historical essential beyond price. So it is that official
documents prepared in many instances upon the field of battle,
and others taken from the files of the governments at war, are
the basis of this work. Maps and photographs of unusual clear-
ness and high authenticity illuminate the text. All that has
gone into war making, into the regeneration of the world, are
herein set forth with historical particularity. The stark horrors
of Belgiiun, the bHghting terrors of chemical warfare, the
governmental restrictions placed upon hundreds of millions of
civihans, the war sacrifices falUng upon all the civilized peoples
of earth, are in these pages.
It is a book that mankind can well read and treasure.
CHAPTER I
A War for International Freedom
Y FELLOW COUNTRYMEN: The armistice was
signed this morning. Everything for which America
fought has been accomplished. The war thus comes
to an end."
Speaking to the Congress and the people of the United
States, President Wilson made this declaration on November
11, 1918. A few hours before he made this statement, Germany,
the empire of blood and iron, had agreed to an armistice,
terms of which were the hardest and most humiliating ever
imposed upon a nation of the first class. It was the end of
a war for which Germany had prepared for generations, a war
bred of a philosophy that Might can take its toll of earth's
possessions, of human lives and liberties, when and where it
will. That philosophy involved the cession to imperial Germany
of the best years of young German manhood, the training of
German youths to be killers of men. It involved the creation
of a military caste, arrogant beyond all precedent, a caste that
set its strength and pride against the righteousness of democracy,
against the possession of wealth and bodily comforts, a caste that
visualized itself as part of a power-mad Kaiser's assumption that
he and God were to shape the destinies of earth.
When Marshal Foch, the foremost strategist in the world,
representing the governments of the Allies and the United States,
delivered to the emissaries of Germany terms upon which they
might surrender, he brought to an end the bloodiest, the most
destructive and the most beneficent war the world has known.
It is worthy of note in this connection that the three great wars
in which the United States of America engaged have been wars for
freedom. The Revolutionary War was for the liberty of the
colonies; the Civil War was waged for the freedom of manhood
and for the principle of the indissolubility of the Union; the World
War, beginning 1914, was fought for the right of small nations to
a 19
20 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
self-government and for the right of every country to the free
use of the high seas.
More than four million American men were under arms when
the conflict ended. Of these, more than two million were upon
the fields of France and Italy. These were thoroughly trained
in the military art. They had proved their right to be considered
among the most formidable soldiers the world has known.
Against the brown rock of that host in khaki, the flower of
German savagery and courage had broken at Chateau-Thierry.
There the high tide of Prussian militarism, after what had seemed
to be an irresistible dash for the destruction of France, spent
itself in the bloody froth and spume of bitter defeat. There the
Prussian Guard encountered the Marines, the Iron Division and
the other heroic organizations of America's new army. There
German soldiers who had been hardened and trained under
German conscription before the war, and who had learned new
arts in their bloody trade, through their service in the World War,
met their masters in young Americans taken from the shop,
the field, and the forge, youths who had been sent into battle
with a scant six months' intensive training in the art of war.
Not only did these American soldiers hold the German onslaught
where it was but, in a sudden, fierce, resistless counter-thrust
they drove back in defeat and confusion the Prussian Guard, the
Pommeranian Reserves, and smashed the morale of that German
division beyond hope of resurrection.
The news of that exploit sped from the Alps to the North
Sea Coast, through all the camps of the Allies, with incredible
rapidity. ^'The Americans have held the Germans. They can
fight," ran the message. New life came into the war-weary
ranks of heroic poilus and into the steel-hard armies of Great
Britain. "The Americans are as good as the best. There are
millions of them, and millions more are coming," was heard on
every side. The transfusion of American blood came as magic
tonic, and from that glorious day there w^as never a doubt as to
the speedy defeat of Germany. From that day the German
retreat dated. The armistice signed on November 11, 1918, was
merely the period finishing the death sentence of German mili-
tarism, the first word of which was uttered at Chdteau-Thierry.
Germany's defiance to the world, her determination to
A WAR FOR INTERNATIONAL FREEDOM 21
force her will and her "kultur" upon the democracies of earth J^j
produced the conflict. She called to her aid three sister autoc-'
racies: Turkey, a land ruled by the whims of a long line of
moody misanthropic monarchs; Bulgaria, the traitor nation cast
by its Teutonic king into a war in which its people had no choice
and little sympathy; Austria-Hungary, a congeries of races in
which a Teutonic minority ruled with an iron scepter.
Against this phalanx of autocracy, twenty-four nations
arrayed themselves. Populations of these twenty-eight warring
nations far exceeded the total population of all the remainder
of humanity. The conflagration of war literally belted the earth. '
It consumed the most civilized of capitals. ; It raged in the swamps
and forests of Africa. To its call came alien peoples speaking
words that none but themselves could translate, wearing gar-
ments of exotic cut and hue amid the smart garbs and sober hues
of modem civilization. A twentieth century Babel came to the
fields of France for freedom's sake, and there was born an
internationalism making for the future understanding and peace
of the world. The list of the twenty-eight nations entering the
World War and their populations follow:
Coimtnes. Population.
United States 110,000,000
Austria-Hungary 50,000,000
Belgium 8,000,000
Bulgaria • 5,000,000
Brazil 23,000,000
China 420,000,000
Costa Rica ' . . -^ 425,000
Cuba ....^2,500,000
France* .' ." . . 90,000,000
Gautemala 2,000,000
Germany 67,000,000
Great Britain* 440,000,000
Greece 5,000,000
Haiti 2,000,000
Honduras 600,000
* Including colonies.
Countries. Population,
Italy 37,000,000
Japan 54,000,000
Liberia 2,000,000
Montenegro 500,000
Nicaragua 700,000
Panama 400,000
Portugal* 15,000,000
Roumania 7,500,000
Russia 180,000,000
San Marino 10,000
Serbia 4,500,000
Siam 6,000,000
Turkey 42,000,000
Total 1,575,135,000;
The following nations took no part in the World War:
Countries. Population.
Abyssinia 8,000,000
Afghanistan 6,000,000
Argentina 8,000,000
BoUvia 2,500,000
Countries. Population.
Cliile 5,000,000
Colombia 5,000,000
Denmark 3,000,000
Dominican Republic 710,000
22
HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
Countries. Population.
Ecuador 1,500,000
Mexico 15,000,000
Nepal 4,000,000
Holland ( with colonies) 40,000,000
Norway 2,500,000
Paraguay 800,000
Peru 4,500,000
Persia 9,000,000
* Includiog colonies.
Countries. Population.
Salvador 1,250,000
Spain 20,000,000
Sweden 6,000,000
Switzerland 3,750,000
Uruguay 1,250,000
Venezuela 2,800,000
Total ,
, 150,560,000
Never before in the history of the world were so many races
and peoples mingled in a feuUtary effort as those that came together
under the command of Marshal Foch. ^ If we divide the human
races into white, yellow, red and black, all four were largely
represented. Among the white races there were Frenchmen,
Italians, Portuguese, !^nglish, Scottish, "Welsh, Irish, Canadians,
AustraHans, South Africans (of both British and Dutch descent)
New Zealanders; in the American army, probably every other
European nation was represented, with additional contingents from
those already named, so that every branch of the white race figured
in the ethnological total.
There were representatives of many Asiatic races, including
not only the volunteers from the native states of India, but elements
from the French colony in Cochin China, with Annam, Cambodia,
Tonkin, Laos, and Kwang Chau Wan. . England and France both
contributed many African tribes, including Arabs from Algeria
and Tunis, Senegalese, Saharans, and many of the South African
races. 'The red races of North America were represented in the
armies of both Canada and the United States, while the Maoris,
Samoans, and other Polynesian races were Hkewise represented.
And as, in the American Army, there were men of German, Austrian,
and Hungarian descent, and, in all probabihty, contingents also of
Bulgarian and Turkish blood, it may be said that Foch commanded
an army representing the whole human race, united in defense of
the ideals of the Allies.
It will be seen that more than ten times the number of neutral
persons were engulfed in the maelstrom of war. MilUons of these
suffered from it during the entire period of the conflict, four years
three months and fifteen days, a total of 1,567 days. For almost
four years Germany rolled up a record of victories on land and of
piracies on and under the seas.
^1 ■Mn i ia.t— ^i^ni g,,^ — I L i njm i M
\stni. »sie>^ jj„
TERRITORY OCCUPIED BY THE ALLIES UNDER THE ARMISTICE
OF NOVEMBER 11, 1918
Dotted area, invaded territory of Belgium, France, Luxembourg and Alsace-
Lorraine to be evacuated in fourteen days; area in email squares, part of Germany
west of the Rhine to be evacuated in twenty-five days and occupied by Allied and
U. S. troops; lightly shaded area to east of Rhine, neutral zone; black semi-circles,
bridge-heads of thirty kilometers radius in the neutral zone to be occupied by Allied
armies.
C23)
24 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
little by little, day after day, piracies dwindled as the murder-
ous submarine was mastered and its menace strangled. On the
land, the Allies, under the matchless leadership of Marshal Ferdi-
nand Foch and the generous co-operation of Americans, British,
French and Italians, under the great Generals Pershing, Haig,
Petain and Diaz, wrested the initiative from von Hindenbiu'g and
Ludendorf, late in July, 1918. Then, in one hundred and fifteen
days of wonderful strategy and the fiercest fighting the world
has ever witnessed, Foch and the Allies closed upon the Germanic
armies the jaws of a steel trap. A series of brilliant maneuvers
dating from the battle of Chateau-Thierry in which the Americans
checked the Teutonic rush, resulted in the defeat and rout on all
the fronts of the Teutonic commands.
In that titanic effort, America's share was that of the final
deciding factor. A nation unjustly titled the "Dollar Nation,"
believed by Germany and by other countries to be soft, selfish
and wasteful, became over night hard as tempered steel, self-
sacrificing with an altruism that inspired the world and thrifty
beyond all precedent in order that not only its own armies but the
armies of the Allies might be fed and munitioned.
Leading American thought and American action. President
Wilson stood out as the prophet of the democracies of the world.
Not only did he inspire America and the Allies to a mihtary and
naval effort beyond precedent, but he inspired the civiHan popula-
tions of the world to extraordinary effort, efforts that eventually
won the war. For the decision was gained quite as certainly on the
wheat fields of Western America, in the shops and the mines and
the homes of America as it was upon the battle-field.
This effort came in response to the following appeal by the
President:
These, then, are the things we must do, and do well, besides fighting
— the things without which mere fighting would be fruitless:
We must supply abimdant fcwjd for ourselves and for our armies
and our seamen not only, but also for a large part of the nations with whom
we have now made common cause, in whose support and by whose sides
we shall be fighting;
We must supply ships by the hundreds out of our shipyards to carry-
to the other side of the sea, submarines or no submarines, what will every
day be needed there; and —
Abundant materials out of our fields and our mines and our factories
A WAR FOR INTERNATIONAL FREEDOM 25
with which not only to clothe and equip our own forces on land and sea
but also to clothe and support our people for whom the gallant fellows under
arms can no longer work, to help clothe and equip the armies with which
we are co-operating in Europe, and to keep the looms and manufactories
there in raw material;
Coal to keep the fires going in ships at sea and in the furnaces of
hundreds of factories across the sea;
Steel out of which to make arms and ammunition both here and
there;
Rails for worn-out railways back of the fighting fronts;
Locomotives and rolling stock to take the place of those every day
going to pieces;
Everything with which the people of England and France and Italy
and Russia have usually supplied themselves, but cannot now afford the
men, the materials, or the machinery to make.
I particularly appeal to the farmers of the South to plant abundant
foodstuffs as well as cotton. They can show their patriotism in no better
or more convincing way than by resisting the great temptation of the
present price of cotton and helping, helping upon a large scale, to feed the
nation and the peoples everywhere who are fighting for their liberties and
for our own. The variety of their crops will be the visible measure of
their comprehension of their national duty.
The response was amazing in its enthusiastic and general
compliance. No autocracy issuing a ukase could have been obeyed
so explicitly. Not only did the various classes of workers and
individuals observe the President's suggestions to the letter, but
they yielded up individual right after right in order that the war
work of the government might be expedited. Extraordinary
powers and functions were granted by the people through Congress,
and it w^as not until peace was declared that these rights and powers
returned to the people.
These governmental activities ceased functioning after the war:
Food administration;
Fuel administration;
Espionage act;
War trade board;
Alien property custodian (with extension of time for cer-
tain duties);
Agricultural stimulation;
Housing construction (except for shipbuilders) ;
Control of telegraphs and telephones;
Export control.
-2G HISTORY OF THF /ORLD WAR
These functions were extended:
Control over railroads : to cease within twenty-one monthg
after the proclamation of peace.
The War Finance Corporation : to cease to function six
months after the war, with further time for liquidation.
The Capital Issues Committee: to terminate in six months
after the peace proclamation.
The Aircraft Board : to end in six months after peace was
proclaimed; and the government operation of ships,
within five years after the war was officially ended.
President Wilson, generally acclaimed as the leader of the
world's democracies, phrased for civilization the arguments against
autocracy in the great peace conf erenceaf ter the war. ThePresident
headed the American delegation to that conclave of world re-con-
struction. With him as delegates to the conference were Robert
Lansing, Secretary of State; Henry V/hite, former Ambassador to
France and Italy; Edward M. House and General Tasker H.
Bliss. ,
Representing American Labor at the International Labor
conference held in Paris simultaneously with the Peace Confer-
ence were Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation
of Labor; WilHam Green, secretary-treasurer of the United Mine
Workers of America; John R. Alpine, president of the Plumbers'
Union; James Dimcan, president of the International Association
of Granite Cutters; Frank Duffy, president of the United Broth-
erhood of Carpenters and Joiners,%nd Frank Morrison, secretary
of the American Federation of Labor. >
Estimating the share of each Allied nation in the great victory,
mankind will conclude that the heaviest cost in proportion to pre-
war population and treasure was paid by the nations that first
felt the shock of war, Belgium, Serbia, Poland and France. All
four were the battle-gi-ounds of huge armies, oscillating in a bloody
frenzy over once fertile fields and once prosperous towns.
Belgium, with a population of 8,000,000, had a casualty list
of more than 90,000; France, with its casualties of 4,506,500 out
of a population (including its colonies) of 90,000,000, is really the
martyr nation of the world. Her gallant poilus showed the world
how cheerfully men may die in defense of home and liberty. Huge
Russia, including hapless Poland, had a casualty list of 9,150,000
KINGS AND CHIEF EXECUTWIS OF THE PRINCIPAL
POWERS ASSOCIATED AGAINST THS GERMAN ALLIANCI
International Film Service.
THE "TIGER" OF FRANCE
George Benjamin Eugene Clemenceau, world-famous Premier of France, who by
his inspiring leadership maintained the magnificent morale of his countrymen in the
face of terrific assaults of the enemy.
THE RIGHT HONORABLE DAVID LLOYD GEORGE
British Premier, who headed the coaUtion cabinet which carried
England through the war to victory.
KING GEORGE V
King of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, who struggled
earnestly to prevent the war, but when Germany attacked Belgium sent the
mighty forces of the British Empire to atop th© Hub
A WAR FOR INTERNATIONAL FREEDOM 31
out of its entire population of 180,000,000. The United States
out of a population of 110,000,000 had a casualty Ust of 274,059 for
nineteen months of war; of these 67,813 were killed or died of
disease; 192,483 were wounded; and 14,303 prisoners or missing.
To the glory of Great Britain must be recorded the enormous
effort made by its people, showing through operations of its army
and navy. The British Empire, including the Colonies, had a
casualty list of 3,089,757 men out of a total population of 440,-
000,000. Of these 692,065 were killed; 2,037,325 were wounded,
and 360,367 were reported missing. It raised an army of 7,000,000,
and fought seven separate foreign campaigns, in France, Italy,
Dardanelles, Mesopotamia, Macedonia, East Africa and Egypt.
It raised its navy personnel from 115,000 to 450,000 men. Co-oper-
ating with its allies on the sea, it destroyed approximately one
hundred and fifty German and Austrian submarines. It aided
materially the American navy and transport service in sending
overseas the great American army whose coming decided the war.
The British navy and transport service during the war made the
following record of transportation and convoy :
Twenty milhon men, 2,000,000 horses, 130,000,000 tons of
food, 25,000,000 tons of explosives and suppHes, 51,000,000 tons
of oil and fuels, 500,000 vehicles. In 1917 alone 7,000,000 men,
500,000 animals, 200,000 vehicles and 9,500,000 tons of stores were
conveyed to the several war fronts.
The German losses were estimated at 1,611,104 killed or died
of disease; 3,683,143 wounded; and 772,522 prisoners and missing.
A tabulation of the estimates of casualties and the money cost
of the war reveals the enormous price paid by humanity to con-
vince a military-mad Germanic caste that Right and not Might
must hereafter rule the world. Following is the tabulation:
Nation. Mobilized.
United States 4,272,521
British Empire 7,500,000
France 7,500,000
Italy 5,500,000
Belgium 267,000
Russia 12,000,000
Japan 800,000
Roumania 750,000
Serbia 707,343
Prisoners or
Total
Dead.
Wounded.
Missicg.
Casualties.
67,813
192,483
14,363
274,659
692,065
2,037,325
360,367
3,089,757
1,385,300
2,675,000
446,300
4,506,600
460,000
947,000
1,393,000
2,800,000
20,000
60,000
10,000
90,000
1,700,000
4,950,000
2,500,000
9,150,000
300
907
3
1,210
200,000
120,000
80,000
400,000
322,000
28,000
100,000
450,000
32 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
Nation. Mobilized.
Montenegro 50,000
Greece 230,000
Portugal 100,000
Total 39,676,864
Ceni
Germany 11,000,000
Austria-Hungary 6,500,000
Bulgaria 400,000
Turkey 1,600,000
Prisoners or
Total
Dead.
Wounded.
Missing.
Casualties.
3,000
10,000
7,000
20,000
15,000
40,000
45,000
100,000
4,000
15,000
200
10,000
4,869,478
11,075,715
4,956,233
20,892,226
AL Powers
i
1,611,104
3,683,143
772,522
6,066,769
800,000
3,200,000
1,211,000
5,211,000
201,224
152,399
10,825
264,448
300,000
570,000
130,000
1,000,000
2,912,328
7,605,542
2,124,347
12,542,217
7,781,806
18,681,257
7,080,580
33,434,443
Total 19,500,000
Grand total 59,176,864
Canada sent approximately 800,000 men overseas and sus-
tained casualties amounting to 220,182. Of these 60,383 were
killed or died from disease, 155,790 were wounded and 4,000 were
missing or prisoners.
Australia's casualties out of a total overseas force of 336,000
were 290,191 which included 54,431 dead, 156,000 wounded and
3,401 prisoners and missing.
ESTIMATED COST IN MONEY
The Entente Allies The Central Powers
Russia $30,000,000,000 Germany $45,000,000,000
Britain 52,000,000,000 Austria-Hungary 25,000,000,000
France 32,000,000,000 Turkey 5,000,000,000
United States 40,000,000,000 Bulgaria 2,000,000,000
Italy 12,000,000,000
Roumania 3,000,000,000 Total $77,000,000,000
Serbia 3,000,000,000
Total $172,000,000,000
Grand total of estimated cost in money, $249,000,000,000.
Was the cost too heavy? Was the price of international
liberty paid in human lives and in sacrifices untold too great for
the peace that followed?
Even the most practical of money changers, the most senti-
mental pacifist, viewing the cost in connection with the liberation
of whole nations, with the spread of enlightened hberty through
oppressed and benighted lands, with the destruction of autocracy, of
the miUtary caste, and of Teutonic kultur in its materialistic aspect,
must agree that the blood was well shed, the treasure well spent.
CHAPTER II
The World Suddenly Turned Upside Down
DEMORALIZATION, like the black plague of the middle
ages, spread in every direction immediately following the
first overt acts of war. Men who were millionaires at
nightfall awoke the next morning to find themselves
bankrupt through depreciation of their stock-holdings. Prosperous
firms of importers were put out of business. International com-
merce was dislocated to an extent unprecedented in history.
The greatest of hardships immediately following the war,
however, were visited upon those who unhappily were caught on
their vacations or on their business trips within the area affected
by the war. Not only men, but women and children, were subjected
to privations of the severest character. Notes which had been
negotiable, paper money of every description, and even silver
currency suddenly became of little value. Americans living in
hotels and pensions facing this sudden shrinkage in their money,
were compelled to leave the roofs that had sheltered them. That
which was true of Americans was true of all other nationahties, so
that every embassy and the office of every consul became a miniature
Babel of excited, distressed humanity.
The sudden seizure of railroads for war purposes in Germany,
France, Austria and Russia, cut off thousands of travelers in
villages that were almost inaccessible. Europeans being com-
paratively close to their homes, were not in straits as severe as the
Americans whose only hope for aid lay in the speedy arrival of
American gold. Prices of food soared beyond all precedent and
many of these hapless strangers went under. Paris, the brightest
and gayest city in Europe, suddenly became the most, somber of
dwelling places. No traffic was permitted on the highways at
night. No lights were permitted and all the caf^s were closed at
eight o'clock. The gay capital was placed under iron military rule.
Seaports, and especially the pleasure resorts in France, Belgium
and England, were placed under a miUtary supervision. Visitors
33
S4 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
were ordered to return to their homes and every resort was shrouded
with darkness at night. The records of those early days are filled
with stories of dramatic happenings.
On the night of July 31st Jean Leon Jaurls, the famous leader
of French Socialists, was assassinated while dining in a small
restaurant near the Paris Bourse. His assassin was Raoul Villein.
Jaur^s had been endeavoring to accompHsh a union of French and
German SociaHsts with the aim of preventing the war. The object
of the assassination appeared to have been wholly poUtical.
On the same day stock exchanges throughout the United
States were closed, following the example of European stock
exchanges. Ship insurance soared to prohibitive figures. Reservists
of the French and German armies Hving outside of their native
land were called to the colors and their homeward rush still further
complicated transportation for civilians. All the countries of
Europe clamored for gold. North and South America complied
with the demand by sending cargoes of the precious metal overseas.
The German ship Kron Prinzessin with a cargo of gold, attempted
to make the voyage to Hamburg, but a wireless warning that
Allied cruisers were waiting for it off the Grand Banks of Newfound-
land, compelled the big ship to turn back to safety in America.
Channel boats bearing American refugees from the Continent
to London were described as floating hells. London was excited
over the war and hoHday spitit, and overrun with five thousand
citizens of the United States tearfully pleading with the American
Ambassador for money for 'transportation home or assurances of
personal safety.
The condition of the terror-stricken tourists fleeing to the
friendly shores of England from Continental countries crowded
with soldiers dragging in their wake heavy guns, resulted in an
extraordinary gathering of two thousand Americans at a hotel one
afternoon and the formation of a preliminary organization to
afford reUef . Some people who attended the meeting were already
beginning to feel the pinch of want with Httle prospects of imme-
diate succor. One man and wife, with four children, had six cents
when he appealed to Ambassador Page after an exciting escape from
German territory.
Oscar Straus, worth ten milUons, struck London with nine
dollars. Although he had letters of credit for five thousand, he
THE WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN 35
^ '^ e it l^R ^ y £ ^ ^'i" ^
WHERE THE WORLD WAR BEGAN.
36 SHISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
was unable to cash them in Vienna. Women hugging newspaper
bundles containing expensive Paris frocks and milHnery were herded
in third-class carriages and compelled to stand many hours. They
reached London utterly fatigued and unkempt, but mainly cheer-
ful, only to find the hotels choked with fellow countrymen fortunate
to reach there sooner.
The Ambassador was harassed by anxious women and children
who asked many absurd questions which he could not answer.
He said:
"The appeals of these people are most distressing. They
are very much excited, and no small wonder. I regret I have no
definite news of the prospects or plans of the government for
relief. I have communicated their condition to the Department of
State and expect a response and assurances of coming aid as soon
as possible. That the govei-nment will act I have not the sUghtest
doubt. I am confident that Washington will do everything in her
power for rehef. How soon, I cannot tell. I have heard many
distressing tales during the last forty-eight hours."
A crowd filled the Ambassador's office on the first floor of the
flat building, in Victoria Street, which was mainly composed of
women, school teachers, art students, and other persons doing
Europe on a shoestring. Many were entirely out of money and
with limited securities, which were not negotiable.
The action of the British Government extending the bank
holiday till Thursday of that week was discouraging news for the
new arrivals from the Continent, as it was uncertain whether the
express and steamship companies would open in the morning for the
cashing of checks and the deHvery of mail, as was announced the
previous Saturday.
Doctors J. Riddle Goffe, of New York; Frank F. Simpson, of
Pittsburgh; Arthur D. Ballon of Vistaburg, Mich., and B. F.
Martin, of Chicago, formed themselves into a committee, and
asked the co-operation of the press in America to bring about
adequate assistance for the marooned Americans, and to urge the
bankers of the United States to insist on their letters of credit
and travelers' checks being honored so far as possible by the agents
in Em-ope upon whom they were drawn.
Dr. Martin and Dr. Simpson, who left London on Saturday
for Switzerland to fetch back a young American girl, were unable
THE CATHEDRAL OF RHEIMS
In the first weeks of the war the Germans occupied Rheims, but were driven
out after von Kluck's retreat. On September 20, 1914, they were reported as
first sheUing the Cathedral of Rheims and the civihzed world stood aghast, for the
edifice, begun in 1212, is one of the chief glories of Gothic architecture in all Europe.
THE WORLD TURNEi) UPSIDE DOWN 39
to get beyond Paris, and they returned to London. Everywhere
they found trains packed with refugees whose only object in Hfe
apparently was to reach the channel boats, accepting cheerfully the
discomforts of those vessels if only able to get out of the war.
Rev. J. P. Garfield, of Claremore, N. H., gave the following
account of his experiences in Holland:
*' On sailing from the Hook of Holland near midnight we pulled
out just as the boat train from The Hague arrived. The steamer
paused, but as she was filled to her capacity she later continued on
her voyage, leaving fully two hundred persons marooned on the
wharf.
*'Oiir discomforts while crossing the North Sea were great.
Every seat was filled with sleepers, the cabins were given to women
and children. The crowd, as a rule, was helpful and kindly, the
single men carrying the babies and people lending money to those
without funds. Despite the refugee conditions prevailing it was
noticeable that many women on the Hook wharf clung tenaciously
to bandboxes containing Parisian hats."
Travelers from Cologne said that searchhghts were operated
from the tops of the hotels all night searching for airplanes, and
machine guns were mounted on the famous Cologne Cathedral.
They also reported that tourists were refused hotel acconomodations
at Frankfort because they were without cash.
Men, women and children sat in the streets all night. The
trains were stopped several miles from the German frontier and the
passengers, especially the women and children, suffered great
hardship being forced to continue their journey on foot.
Passengers arriving at London from Montreal on the Cunard
Line steamer Andania, bound for Southampton, reported the vessel
was met at sea by a British torpedo boat and ordered by wireless
to stop. The liner then was led into Plymouth as a matter of pre-
caution against mines. Plymouth was filled with soldiers, and
searchhghts were seen constantly flashing about the harbor.
Otis B. Kent, an attorney for the Interstate Commerce Com-
mission, of Washington, arrived in London after an exciting journey
from Petrograd. Unable to find accommodations at a hotel he slept
on the railway station floor. He said:
"I had been on a trip to Sweden to see the midnight sun. I
did not reaUze the gravity of the situation until I saw the Russian
40 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
fleet cleared for action. This was only July 2ffth, at Kronstadt,
where the shipyards were working overtime.
"I arrived at the Russian capital on the following day. Enor-
mous demonstrations were taking place. I was warned to get out
and left on the night of the 28th for Berlin. I saw Russian soldiers
drilling at the stations and artillery constantly on the move.
"At Berlin I was warned to keep off the streets for fear of
being mistaken for an Enghshmen. At Hamburg the number of
warnings was increased. Two Russians who refused to rise in a
caf6 when the German anthem was played were attacked and badly
beaten. I also saw two Enghshmen attacked in the street, but they
finally were rescued by the pohce,
"There was a harrowing scene when the Hamburg- American
Line steamer Imperator canceled its saihng. She left stranded
three thousand passengers, most of them short of money, and the
women wailing. About one hundred and fifty of us were given
passage in the second class of the American Line steamship Phila-
delphia, for which I was offered $400 by a speculator.
"The journey to Flushing was made in a packed train, its
occupants lacking sleep and food. No trouble was encountered
on the frontier."
Theodore Hetzler, of the Fifth Avenue Bank, was appointed
chairman of the meeting for preliminary rehef of the stranded
tourists, and committees were named to interview officials of the
steamship companies and of the hotels, to search for lost baggage,
to make arrangements for the honoriug of all proper checks and
notes, and to confer with the members of the American embassy.
Oscar Straus, who arrived from Paris, said that the United
States embassy there was working hard to get Americans out of
France. Great enthusiasm prevailed at the French capital, he
said, owing to the announcement that the United States Government
was considering a plan to send transports to take Americans home.
The following comanittees were appouited at the meeting:
Finance — ^Theodore Hetzler, Fred I. Kent and James G.
Cannon; Transportation — ^Joseph F. Day, Francis M. Weld and
George D. Smith, all of New York; Diplomatic — Oscar S. Straus,
Walter L. Fisher and James Byrne; Hotels — L. H. Armour, of
Chicago, and Thomas J. Shanley, New York.
The committee established headquarters where Americans
THE WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN 41
might register and obtain assistance. Chandler Anderson, a mem-
ber of the International Claims Commission, arrived in London
from Paris. He said he had been engaged with the work of the
commission at Versailles, when he was warned by the American
embassy that he had better leave France. He acted promptly
on this advice and the commission was adjourned until after the
war. Mr. Anderson had to leave his baggage behind him because
the railway company would not register it. He said the city of
Paris presented a strange contrast to the ordinary animation pre-
vailing there. Most of the shops were closed. [There were
no taxis in the streets, and only a few vehicles drawn by
horses.
The armored cruiser Tennessee, converted for the time being
into a treasure ship, left New York on the night of August 6th,
1914, to carry $7,500,000 in gold to the many thousand Americans
who were in want in Eiu-opean countries. Included in the
17,500,000 was $2,500,000 appropriated by the government.
Private consignments in gold in sums from $1,000 to $5,000 were
accepted by Colonel Smith, of the army quartermaster's depart-
ment, who undertook their delivery to Americans in Paris and other
European ports.
The cruiser canied as passengers Ambassador Wiflard, who
returned to his post at Madrid, and army and naval officers assigned
as miUtary observers in Europe. On the return trip accommoda-
tions for 200 Americans were available.
The dreadnaught Florida, after being hastily coaled and
provisioned, left the Brooklyn Navy Yard under sealed orders at
9.30 o'clock the morning of August 6th and proceeded to Tompkins-
ville, where she dropped anchor near the Tennessee.
The Florida was sent to protect the neutrality of American
ports and prohibit supplies to belligerent ships. Secretary
Daniels ordered her to watch the port of New York and sent the
Mayflower to Hampton Roads. Destroyers guarded ports along
the New England coast and those at Lewes, Del., to prevent viola-
tions of neutrality at Philadelphia and in that territory. Any
vessel that attempted to sail for a belHgerent port without clear-
ance papers was boarded by American officials.
The Texas and Louisiana, at Vera Cruz, and the Minnesota,
at Tampico, were ordered to New York, and Secretary Daniels
42 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
announced that other American vessels would be ordered north
as fast as room could be found for them in navy yard docks.
At wireless stations, under the censorship ordered by the
President, no code messages were allowed in any circumstances.
Messages which might help any of the beUigerents in any way
were barred.
The torpedo-boat destroyer Warrington and the revenue
cutter Androscoggin arrived at Bar Harbor on August 6th, to
enforce neutrality regulations and allowed no foreign ships to leave
Frenchman's Bay without clearance papers. The United States
cruiser Milwaukee sailed the same day from the Puget Sound Navy-
Yard to form part of the coast patrol to enforce neutraUty
regulations.
• Arrangements were made in Paris by Myron T. Herrick, the
American Ambassador, acting under instructions from Washington,
to take over the affairs of the German embassy, while Alexander
H. Thackara, the American Consul General, looked after the affairs
of the German consulate.
President Poincare and the members of the French cabinet
later issued a joint proclamation to the French nation in which
was the phrase ''mobiUzation is not war."
The marching of the soldiers in the streets with the English,
Russian and French flags flying, the singing of patriotic songs and
the shouting of "On to Berlin !" vf ere much less remarkable than
the general demeanor and cold resolution of most of the people.
The response to the order of mobilization was instant, and the
stations of all the railways, particularly those leading to the east-
ward, were crowded with reservists. Many women accompanied
the men until close to the stations, where, softly crjdng, farewells
were said. The troop trains left at frequent intervals. All the
automobile busses disappeared, having been requisitioned by the
army to carry meat, the coachwork of the vehicles being removed
and replaced ^dth specially designed bodies. A large number of
taxicabs, private automobiles and horses and carts also were taken
over by the military for transport purposes.
The wildest enthusiasm was manifested on the boulevards
when the news of the ordering of the mobihzation became known.
Bodies of men formed into regular companies in ranks ten deep,
paraded the streets waving the tricolor and other national emblems
THE WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN 43
and cheering and singing the ''Marseillaise" and the ''Interna-
tionale," at the same time throwing their hats in the air. On the
sidewalks were many weeping women and children. All the
stores and cafes were deserted.
' All foreigners were compelled to leave Paris or France before
the end of the first day of mobihzation by train but not by auto-
mobile. Time tables were posted on the walls of Paris giving the
times of certain trains on which these people might leave the city.
• American citizens or British subjects were allowed to remain
in France, except in the regions on the eastern frontier and near
certain fortresses, provided they made declaration to the police
and obtained a special permit.
As to Italy's situation, Rome v/as quite calm and the normal
aspect made tourists decide that Italy was the safest place. Aus-
tria's note to Serbia was issued without consulting Italy. One
point of the Triple Alliance provided that no member should take
action in the Balkans before an agreement -^dth the other allies.
Such an agreement did not take place. The alliance was of defen-
sive, not aggressive, character and could not force an aUy to follow
any enterprise taken on the sole account and without a notice, as
Buch action taken by Austria against Serbia. It was felt even then
that Italy would eventually cast its lot Vvdth the Entente Allies.
Secretary of the Treasury WilHam G. McAdoo; John Skelton
Williams, Comptroller of the Currency; Charles S. Hamblin and
Wilham P. G. Harding, members of the Federal Reserve Board,
went to New York early in August, 1914, where they discussed
relief measures with a group of leading bankers at what was
regarded as the most momentous conference of the kind held in
the country in recent years.
The New York Clearing House Committee, on August 2d,
called a meeting of the Clearing House Association, to arrange for
the immediate issuance of clearing house certificates. Among
those at the conference were J. P. Morgan and his partner, Henry
P. Davison; Frank A. Vanderlip, president of the National City
Bank, and A. Barton Hepburn, chairman of the Chase National
Bank.
CHAPTER III
Why the World Went to Wae
WHILE it is true that the war was conceived in Berlin,
it is none the less true that it was bom in the Balkans.
It is necessary in order that we may view with correct
perspective the background of the World War, that
we gain some notion of the Balkan States and the compUcations
entering into their relations. These coimtries have been the
adopted children of the great European powers during generations
of rulers. Russia assmned guardianship of the nations having a pre-
ponderance of Slavic blood; Roumania with its Latin consan-
guinities was close to France and Italy; Bulgaria, Greece, and
Balkan Turkey were debatable regions wherein the diplomats of the
rival nations secm-ed temporary victories by devious methods.
The Balkans have fierce hatreds and have been the site of
sudden historic wars. At the time of the declaration of the World
War, the Balkan nations were living under the provisions of the
Treaty of Bucharest, dated August 10, 1913. Greece, Roumania,
Bulgaria, Serbia and Montenegro were signers, and Turkey
acquiesced in its provisions.
The assassination at Sarajevo had sent a convulsive shudder
throughout the Balkans. The reason lay in the century-old
antagonism between the Slav and the Teuton. Serbia, Montenegro
and Russia had never forgiven Austria for seizing Bosnia and
Herzegovina and making these Slavic people subjects of the
Austrian crown. Bulgaria, Roumania and Turkey remained cold
at the news of the assassination. German diplomacy was in the
ascendant at these courts and the prospect of war with Germany as
their great ally presented no terrors for them. The sympathies of
the people of Greece were with Serbia, but the Grecian Court,
because the Queen of Greece was the only sister of the German
Kaiser, was whole heartedly with Austria. Perhaps at the first
the Roumanians were most nearly neutral. They believed strongly
that each of the small nations of the Balkan region as well as all
44
WHY THE WORLD WENT TO WAR
45
of the small nations that had been absorbed but had not been
digested by Austria, should cut itself from the leading strings held
by the large European powers. There was a distinct undercurrent
for a federation resembling that of the United States of America
(RUSSIA
Provisions op thb Treaty op Buchabest, 1913
between these peoples. This was expressed most clearly by M.
Jonesco, leader of the Liberal party of Roumania and generally
recognized as the ablest statesman of middle Europe. He declared:
"I always believed, and stiM believe, that the Balkan States
46 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
cannot secure their future otherwise than by a close understanding
among themselves, whether this understanding shall or shall not
take the form of a federation. No one of the Balkan States is
strong enough to resist the pressure from one or another of the
European powers.
*'For this reason I am deeply grieved to see in the Balkan
coalition of 1912 Roumania not invited. If Roumania had taken
part in the first one, we should not have had the second. I did all
that was in my power and succeeded in preventing the war betweexi
Roumania and the Balkan League in the winter of 1912-13.
"I risked my popularity, and I do not feel sorry for it. I
employed all my efforts to prevent the second Balkan war, which, as
is well known, was profitable to us. I repeatedly told the Bul-
garians that they ought not to enter it because in that case we
would enter it too. But I was not successful in my efforts.
"Dming the second Balkan war I did all in my power to end
it as quickly as possible. At the conference at Bucharest I made
efforts, as Mr. Pashich and Mr. Venizelos know very well, to secure
for beaten Bulgaria the best terms. My object was to obtain a new
coalition of all the Balkan States, including Roumania. Had I
succeeded in this the situation would be much better. No rea-
sonable man will deny that the Balkan States are neutralizing each
other at the present time, which in itself makes the whole situation
all the more miserable.
*'In October, 1913, when I succeeded in faciUtating the con-
clusion of peace between Greece and Turkey, I was pursuing the
same object of the Balkan coalition. On my return from Athens
I endeavored, though without success, to put the Greco-Turkish
relations on a basis of friendship, being convinced that the well-
understood interest of both countries lies not only in friendly
relations, but even in an alUance between them.
*'The dissensions that exist between the Balkan States can
be settled in a friendly way without war. The best moment for
this would be after the general war, when the map of Europe will
be remade. The Balkan country which would start war against
another Balkan country would commit, not only a crime against
her own future, but an act of folly as well.
"The destiny and future of the Balkan States, and of all the
small European peoples as well, will not be regulated by fratricidal
WHY THE WORLD WENT TO WAR 47
wars, but, with this great European struggle, the real object of
which is to settle the question whether Europe shall enter an era
of justice, and therefore happiness for the small peoples, or whether
we will face a period of oppression more or less gilt-edged. And
as I always beUeved that wisdom and truth will triiunph in the
end, I want to beUeve, too, that, in spite of the pessimistic news
reaching me from the different sides of the Balkan countries, there
will be no war among them in order to justify those who do not
beUeve in the vitahty of the small peoples.'*
The conference at Rome, April 10, 1918, to settle outstanding
questions between the ItaUans and the Slavs of the Adriatic, drew
attention to those Slavonic peoples in Europe who were under non-
Slavonic rule. At the beginning of the war there were three great
Slavonic groups in Europe: First, the Russians with the Little
Russians, speaking languages not more different than the dialect
of Yorkshire is from the dialect of Devonshire; second, a central
group, including the Poles, the Czechs or Bohemians, the Mora-
vians, and Slovaks, this group thus being separated under the four
crowns of Russia, Germany, Austria and Hungary; the third, the
southern group, included the Sclavonians, the Croatians, the
Dalmatians, Bosnians, Herzegovinians, the Slavs, generally called
Slovenes, in the western part of Austria, down to Goritzia, and also
the two independent kingdoms of Montenegro and Serbia.
Like the central group, this southern group of Slavs was
divided under four crowns, Hungary, Austria, Montenegro, and
Serbia; but, in spite of the fact that half belong to the Western
and half to the Eastern Church, they are all essentially the same
people, though with considerable infusion of non-Slavonic blood,
there being a good deal of Turkish blood in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The languages, however, are practically identical, formed largely
of pure Slavonic materials, and, curiously, much more closely con-
nected with the eastern Slav group — Russia and Little Russia —
than with the central group, Polish and Bohemian. A Russian
of Moscow will find it much easier to imderstand a Slovene from
Goritzia than a Pole from Warsaw. The Ruthenians, in southern
GaUcia and Bukowina, are identical in race and speech with the
Little Russians of Ukrainia.
Of the central group, the Poles have generally inclined to
Austria, which has always supported the Prlish landlords of GaUcia
48
HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
against the Ruthenian peasantry; while the Czechs have been not
so much anti-Austrian as anti-German. Indeed, the Hapsburg
rulers have again and again played these Slavs off against their
German subjects. It was the Southern Slav question as affecting
Serbia and Austria, that gave the pretext for the present war.
The central Slav question affecting the destiny of the Poles — was a
bone of contention between Austria and Germany. It is the custom
to call the Southern Slavs "Jugoslavs" from the Slav word Yugo,
"south," but as this is a concession to' German transUteration,
The Mixture op Races in South CentsaIi Eueopb
many prefer to write the word "Yugoslav," which represents
its pronunciation. The South Slav question was created by
the incursions of three Asiatic peoples — Hims, Magyars, Turks
— who broke up the originally continuous Slav territory that
ran from the White Sea to the confines of Greece and the
Adriatic.
This was the complex of nationalities, the ferment of races
existing in 1914. Out of the hatreds engendered by the domination
over the liberty-loving Slavic peoples by an arrogant Teutonic
minority grew the assassinations at Sarajevo. These crimes were
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WHY THE WORLD WENT TO WAR 51
the expression of hatred not for the heir apparent of Austria but
for the Hapsburg and their Germanic associates.
By a twist of the wheel of fate, the same Slavic peoples whose
determination to rid themselves of the Teutonic yoke, started
the war, also bore rather more than their share in the swift-moving
events that decided and closed the war.
Russia, the dying giant among the great nations, championed
the Slavic peoples at the beginning of the war. It entered the
conflict in aid of Httle Serbia, but at the end Russia bowed to
Germany in the infamous peace treaty at Brest-Litovsk. There-
after during the last months of the war Russia Y*^as virtually an
ally of its ancient enemy, Turkey, the "Sick Man of Europe," and
the central German empires. With these allies the Bolshevik
government of Russia attempted to head off the Czecho-Slovak
regiments that had been captured by Russia during its drive into
Austria and had been imprisoned in Siberia. After the peace con-
summated at Brest-Litovsk, these regiments determined to fight
on the side of the Allies and endeavored to make their way to the
western front.
No war problems were more difficult than those of the Czecho-
slovaks. Few have been handled so masterfully. Surrounded by
powerful enemies which for centuries have been bent on destroying
every trace of Slavic culture, they had learned how to defend them-
selves against every trick or scheme of the brutal Germans.
The Czecho-Slovak plan in Russia vms of great value to the
Alhes all over the world, and was put at their service by Professor
Thomas G. Masaryk. He went to Russia when everything was
adrift and got hold of Bohemian prisoners here and there and
organized them into a compact little army of 50,000 to 60,000 men.
Equipped and fed, he moved them to whatever point had most
power to thoroughly disrupt the German plans. They did much to
check the German army for months. They resolutely refused to
take any part in Russian political affairs, and when it seemed no
longer possible to work effectively in Russia, this remarkable fittle
band started on a journey all round the world to get to the western
front. They loyally gave up most of their arms under agreement
with Lenine and Trotzky that they might peacefully proceed out
of Russia via Vladivostok.
While they were carrying out their part of the agreement, and
52 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
well on the way, they were surprised by telegrams from Lenine
and Trotzky to the Soviets in Siberia ordering them to take away
their arms and intern them.
The story of what occmred then was told by two American
engineers, Emerson and Hawkins, v/ho, on the way to Ambassador
Francis, and not being able to reach Vologda, joined a band of
four or five thousand. The engineers were with them three months,
while they were making it safe along the lines of the railroad for the
rest of the Czecho-Slovaks to get out, and incidentally for Siberians
to resume peaceful occupations. They were also supported by old
railway organizations which had stuck bravely to them with-
out wages and which every little while were "shot up" by the
Bolsheviki.
Distress in Russia would have been much more intense had
it not been for the loyalty of the railway men in sticking to their
tasks. Some American engineers at Irkutsk, on a peaceful journey
out of Russia, on descending from the cars were met with a demand
to surrender, and shots from machine guns. Some, fortunately,
had kept hand grenades, and with these and a few rifles went
straight at the machine guns. Although outnumbered, the attackers
took the gims and soon afterward took the town. The Czecho-
slovaks, in the beginning almost imarmed, went against great odds
and won for themselves the right to be considered a nation.
Seeing the treachery of Lenine and Trotzky, they went back
toward the west and made things secure for their men left behind.
They took town after town with the arms they first took away from
the Bolsheviki and Germans; but in every town they immediately
set up a government, with all the elements of normal Hfe. They
established police and sanitary systems, opened hospitals, and had
roads repaired, leaving a handful of men in the midst of enemies
to carry on the plans of their leaders. American engineers speaking
of the cleanliness of the Czecho-Slovak army, said that they
lived hke Spartans.
The whole story is a remarkable evidence of the struggle of
these Httle people for self-government.
The emergence of the Czecho-Slovak nation has been one of the
most remarkable and noteworthy features of the war. Out of the
confusion of the situation, with the possibility of the resurrection
of oppressed peoples, something of the dignity of old Bohemia was
WHY .THE WORLD WENT TO WAR 53
comprehended, and it was recognised that the Czechs were to be
rescued from Austria and the Slovaks from Hungary, and united in
one coimtry with entire independence. This was undoubtedly due,
in large measure, to the activities of Professor Masaryk, the presi-
dent of the National Executive Council of the Czecho-Slovaks.
His four-year exile in the United States had the establishment of
the new nation as its fruit.
Professor Masaryk called attention to the fact that there is a
pecuhar discrepancy between the number of states in Europe and
the number of nationaUties — twenty-seven states to seventy
nationalities. He explained, also, that almost all the states are
mixed, from the point of nationality. From the west of Europe to
the east, this is found to be true, and the farther east one goes the
more mixed do the states become. Austria is the most mixed of all
the states. ••: There is no Austrian language, but there are nine
languages, and six smaller nations or remnants of nations. In all
of Germany there are eight nationalities besides the Germans, who
have been independent, and who have their own literature. Turkey
is an anomaly, a combination of various nations overthrown and
kept down.
Since the eighteenth century there has been a continuing
strong movement from each nation to have its own state. Because
of the mixed peoples, there is much confusion. There are Rouma-
nians in Austria, but there is a kingdom of Roumania. There are
Southern Slavs, but there are also Serbia and Montenegro. It is
natural that the Southern Slavs should want to be united as one
state. So it is with Italy.
There was no justice in Poland being separated in three parts
to serve the dynasties of Prussia, Russia and Austria. The Czecho-
slovaks of Austria and Hungary claimed a union The national
union consists in an endeavor to make the suppressed nations free,
to unite them in their own states, and to readjust the states that
east; to force Austj^a and Prussia to give up the states that should
be free.
In the future, said Doctor Masaryk, there are to be sharp
ethnological boundaries. The Czecho-Slovaks will guarantee the
minorities absolute equality, but they will keep the German part
of their country, because there are many Bohemians in it, and
they do not trust the Germans.
CHAPTER IV
The Plotter Behind the Scenes
ONE factor alone caused the great war. It was not the
I assassination at Sarajevo, not the Slavic ferment of
anti-Teutonism in Austria and the Balkans. The only
cause of the world's greatest war was the determination
of the German High Conmiand and the powerful circle surrounding
it that ^^Der Tag" had arrived. The assassination at Sarajevo
was only the peg for the pendant of war. Another peg would
have been found inevitably had not the projection of that assas-
sination presented itself as the excuse.
Germany's military machine was ready. A gray-green uniform
that at a distance would fade into misty obscurity had been devised
after exhaustive experiments by optical, dye and cloth experts
co-operating with the military high command. These uniforms
had been standardized and fitted for the millions of men enrolled
in Germany's regular and reserve armies. Rifles, great pyramids
of munitions, field kitchens, traveling post-offices, motor lorries, a
network of military railways leading to the French and Belgian
border, all these and more had been made ready. German soldiers
had received instructions which enabled each man at a signal to go
to an appointed place where he found everything in readiness for
his long forced marches into the territory of Germany's neighbors.
More than all this, Germany's spy system, the most elaborate
and unscrupulous in the history of mankind, had enabled the Ger-
man High Command to construct in advance of the declaration of
war concrete gun emplacements in Belgium and other invaded
territory. The cellars of dwellings and shops rented or owned by
German spies were camouflaged concrete foundations for the great
guns of Austria and Germany. These emplacements were in
exactly the right position for use against the fortresses of Ger-
many's foes. Advertisements and shop-signs were used by spies
as guides for the marching German armies of invasion.
In brief, Germany had planned for war. She was approxi-
54
Press Illustrating Service.
KAISER WILLIAM II OF GERMANY
Posterity will regard him as more responsible than any other hunian being
for the sacrifice of millions of lives in the great war, as a ruler who might have
been beneficent and wise, but attempted to destroy the liberties of mankind
and to raise on their ruins an odious despotism. To forgive him and to forget his
terrible transgressions would be to condone them.
THE PLOTTER BEHIND THE SCENES 57
mately ready for it. Under the shelter of such high-sounding
phrases as "We demand our place in the sun," and *'The seas
must be free," the German people were educated into the belief
that the hour of Germany's destiny was at hand.
Germai^y's Possessions in Africa Pkior to 1914
J German psychologists, like other German scientists, had
co-operated with~ the imperial militaristic government for many
years to bring the Germanic mind into a condition of docility.
So well did they understand the mentality and the trends of
character of the German people that it was comparatively easy to
impose upon them a miUtaristic system and philosophy by which
the individual yielded countless personal liberties for the alleged
good of the state. Rigorous and compulsory military service,
unquestioning adherence to the doctrine that might makes right
58 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
and a cession to "the All-Highest," as the Emperor was styled, of
supreme powers in the state, are some of the siijEferances to which
the German people submitted.
German propaganda abroad was quite as vigorous as at home,
but infinitely less successful. The German High Command did
not expect England to enter the war. It counted upon America's
neutrality with a leaning toward Germany. It believed that
German colonization in South Africa and South America would
incline these vast domains toward friendship for the Central
empires. How mistaken the propagandists and psychologists were
events have demonstrated.
It was this dream of world-domination by Teutonic kultur
that suppUed the motive leading to the world's greatest war.
Bosnia, an imwilling province of Austria-Hungary, at one time a
province of Serbia and overwhelmingly Slavic in its population,
had been seething for years with an anti-Teutonic ferment. The
* Teutonic court at Vienna, leading the minority Germanic party
in Austria-Hungary, had been endeavoring to allay the agitation
among the Bosnian Slavs. In pursuance of that policy. Archduke
Francis Ferdinand, heir-presumptive to the thrones of Austria and
Hungary, and his morganatic wife, Sophia Chotek, Duchess of
Hohenberg, on June 28, 1914, visited Sarajevo, the capital of
Bosnia. On the morning of that day, while they were being
driven through the narrow streets of the ancient town, a bomb
was thrown at them, but they were iminjured. They were
driven through the streets again in the afternoon, for purpose of
pubUc display. A student, just out of his 'teens, one Gavrilo
Prinzep, attacked the royal party with a magazine pistol and
killed both the Archduke and his wife.
Here was the excuse for which Germany had waited. Here
was the dawn of ''The Day." The Germanic court of Austria
asserted that the crime was the result of a conspiracy, leading
directly to the Slavic court of Serbia. The Serbians in their turn
declared that they knew nothing of the assassination. They
pointed out the fact that Sophia Chotek was a Slav, and that
Francis Ferdinand was more Hberal than any other member of the
Austrian royal household, and finally, that he, more than any
other member of the Austrian court, imderstood and respected
the Slavic character and aspirations.
THE PLOTTER BEHIND THE SCENES i9
At six o'clock on the evening of July 23d, Austria sent an
ultimatum to Serbia, presenting eleven demands and stipulating
that categorical replies must be delivered before six o'clock on the
evening of July 25th. Although the language in which the ulti-
matum was couched was humiliating to Serbia, the answer was
duly delivered within the stipulated time.
The demands of the Austrian note in brief were as follows:
1. The Serbian Government to give formal assurance of its con-
demnation of Serb propaganda against Austria.
2. The next issue of the Serbian "Official Journal" was to contain
a declaration to that effect.
3. This declaration to express regret that Serbian officers had taken
part in the propaganda.
4. The Serbian Government to promise that it would proceed rigor-
ously against all guilty of such activity.
5. This declaration to be at once communicated by the King of
Serbia to his army, and to be published in the official bulletin as an order
of the day.
6. AU anti- Austrian publications in Serbia to be suppressed.
• 7. The Serbian political party known as the "National Union" to
be suppressed, and its means of propaganda to be confiscated.
8. All anti-Austrian teaching in the schools of Serbia to be suppressed.
9. All officers, civil and military, who might be designated by Austria
as guilty of anti-Austrian propaganda to be dismissed by the Serbian
Government.
10. Austrian agents to co-operate with the Serbian Govermnent in
suppressing all anti-Austrian propaganda, and to take part in the judicial
proceedings conducted in Serbia against those charged with complicity
in the crime at Sarajevo.
11. Serbia to explain to Austria the meaning of anti- Austrian utter-
ances of Serbian officials at home and abroad, since the assassination.
To the fii'st and second demands Serbia unhesitatingly assented.
To the third demand, Serbia assented, although no evidence
was given to show that Serbian officers had taken part in the
propaganda.
The Serbian Government assented to the fourth, fifth, sixth,
seventh and eighth demands also.
Extraordinary as was the ninth demand, which would allow
the Austrian Government to proscribe Serbian officials, so eager
for peace and friendship was the Serbian Government that it
60 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
assented to it, with the stipulation that the Austrian Government
should offer some proof of the guilt of the proscribed officers.
The tenth demand, which in effect allowed Austrian agents to
control the police and courts of Serbia, it was not possible for
Serbia to accept without abrogating her sovereignty. However,
it was not unconditionally rejected, but the Serbian Government
asked that it be made the subject of further discussion, or be
referred to arbitration.
The Serbian Government assented to the eleventh demand,
on the condition that if the explanations which would be given
concerning the alleged anti- Austrian utterances of Serbian officials
would not prove satisfactory to the Austrian Government, the
matter should be submitted to mediation or arbitration.
Behind the threat conveyed in the Austrian ultimatum was
the menacing figure of militant Germany. The veil that had
hitherto concealed the hands that worked the string, was removed
when Germany, under the pretense of localizing the quarrel to
Serbian and Austrian soil, interrogated France and England,
asking them to prevent Russia from defending Serbia in the event
of an attack by Austria upon the Serbs. England and France
promptly refused to participate in a tragedy which would deliver
Serbia to Austria as Bosnia had been delivered. Russia, bound by
race and creed to Serbia, read into the ultimatum of Teutonic
kultur a determination for warfare. MobiUzation of the Russian
forces along the Austrian frontier was arranged, when it was seen
that Serbia's pacific reply to Austria's demands would be con-
temptuously disregarded by Germany and Austria.
During the days that intervened between the issuance of the
ultimatum and the actual declaration of war by Germany against
Russia on Saturday, August 1st, various sincere efforts were made
to stave off the world-shaking catastrophe. Arranged chronologic-
ally, these events may thus be summarized: Russia, on July 24th,
formally asked Austria if she intended to annex Serbian territory by
way of reprisal for the assassination at Sarajevo. On the same day
Austria replied that it had no present intention to make such
annexation. Russia then requested an extension of the forty-
e ght-hour time-limit named in the ultimatum.
Austria, on the morning of Saturday, July 25th, refused Russia's
request for an extension of the period named in the ultimatum.
THE PLOTTER BEHIND THE SCENES 61
On the same day, the newspapers published in Petrograd printed
an official note issued by the Russian Government warning Europe
generally that Russia would not remain indifferent to the fate of
Serbia. These newspapers also printed the appeal of the Serbian
Crown Prince to the Czar dated on the preceding day, urging that
Russia come to the rescue of the menaced Serbs. Serbia's peaceful
reply surrendering on all points except one, and agreeing to submit
that to arbitration, was sent late in the afternoon of the same day,
and that night Austria declared the reply to be unsatisfactory and
withdrew its minister from Belgrade.
England commenced its attempts at pacification on the follow-
ing day, Sunday, July 26th. Sir Edward Grey spent the entire
Sabbath in the Foreign Office and personally conducted the corre-
spondence that was calculated to bring the dispute to a peaceful
conclusion. He did not reckon, however, with a Germany deter-
mined upon war, a Germany whose manufacturers, ship-owners
and Junkers had combined with its mihtarists to achieve
"Germany's place in the sun" even though the world would be
stained in the blood of the most frightful war this earth has ever
known. Realization of this fact did not come to Sir Edward Grey
until his negotiations with Germany and with Austria-Hungary
had proceeded for some time. His fii'st suggestion was that the
dispute between Russia and Austria be committed to the arbitration
of Great Britain, France, Italy and Germany. Russia accepted
this but Germany and Austria rejected it. Russia had previously
suggested that the dispute be settled by a conference between the
diplomatic heads at Vienna and Petrograd. This also was refused
by Austria.
Sir Edward Grey renewed his efforts on Monday, July 27th,
with an invitation to Germany to present suggestions of its own,
looking toward a settlement. This note was never answered.
Germany took the position that its proposition to compel Russia
to stand aside while Austria punished Serbia had been rejected
by England and France and it had nothing further to propose.
During all this period of negotiation the German Foreign
Office, to all outward appearances at least, had been acting inde-
pendently of the Kaiser, who was in Norway on a vacation trip.
He returned to Potsdam on the night of Sunday, July 26th. On
Monday morning the Czar of Russia received a personal message
62
HISTORY OF* THE WORLD. WAR
from the Kaiser, urgmg Russia to stand aside that Serbia might be
punished. The Czar immediately replied vsdfch the suggestion that
the whole matter be submitted to The Hague. No reply of any
kind was ever made to this proposal by Germany.
AH suggestions and negotiations looking forward to peace
were brought to a tragic end on the following day, Tuesday, July
«a A a,
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%JC O VN F'^E^D ERATION /
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MeU
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ihoivn thus-
Other Bounabriei thus
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Stdtes hat/e been omit
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The German Confederation in 1815
28th, when Austria declared war on Serbia, having speedily mobilized
troops at strategic points on the Serbian border. Russian mobiliza-
tion, which had been proceeding only in a tentative way, on the
Austrian border, now became general, and on July 30th, mobilization
of the entire Russian army was proclaimed.
; Germany's effort to exclude England from the war began on
Thursday, July 29th. _ Ajiote, sounding Sir Edward Grey on the
THE PLOTTER BEHIND THE SCENES 63
question of British neutrality in the event of war was received,
and a curt refusal to commit the British Empire to such a proposal
was the reply. Sir Edward Grey, in a last determined effort to
avoid a world-war, suggested to Germany, Austria, Serbia and
Russia that the military operations commenced by Austria should
be recognized as merely a pimitive expedition. He fiuiher sug-
gested that when a point in Serbian territory previously fixed upon
should have been reached, Austria would halt and would submit
her fmther action to arbitration in the conference of the Powers.
Russia and Serbia agreed unreservedly to this proposition. Austria
gave a half-hearted assent to the principle involved. Germany
made no reply.
The die was cast for war on the following day, July 31st, when
Germany made a dictatorial and arrogant demand upon Russia
that mobiUzation of that nation's military forces be stopped within
twelve hours. Russia made no reply, and on Saturday, August 1st,
Germany set the world aflame with the dread of war's horror by
her declaration of war upon Russia.
Germany's responsibility for this monumental crime against
the peace of the world is eternally fixed upon her, not only by these
outward and visible acts and negotiations, not only by her years of
patient preparation for the war into which she plunged the world.
The responsibility is fastened upon her forever by the revelations
of her own ambassador to England during this fateful period.
Prince Lichnowsky, in a remarkable communication which was
given to the world, laid bare the machinations of the German
High Command and its advisers. He was a guest of the Kaiser
at Kiel on board the Imperial yacht Meteor when the message
was received informing the Kaiser of the assassination at Sarajevo.
His story continues:
Being unacquainted with the Vienna yiewpoint and what was going
on there, I attached no very far-reaching significance to the event; but,
looking back, I could feel sure that in the Austrian aristocracy a feeling
of relief outweighed all others. His Majesty regretted that his efforts
to win over the Archduke to his ideas had thus been frustrated by the
Archduke's assassination. . . .
I went on to Berhn and saw the Chancellor, von Bethmann-Hollweg.
I told him that I regarded our foreign situation as very satisfactory as it
was a long time indeed since we had stood so well with England. And in
France there was a pacifist cabinet. Herr von Bethmann-Hollweg did
64 HISTOEY OF THE WORLD Y\^AE
not seem to share my optimism. He complained of the Russian arma-
ments. I tried to tranquilize him with the argument that it was not to
Russia's interest to attack us, and that such an attack would never have
English or French support, as both countries wanted peace.
I went from him to Dr. Zimmermann (the under Secretary) who was
acting for Herr von Jagow (the Foreign Secretary), and learned from him
that Russia was about to call up nine hundred thousand new troops.
His words unmistakably denoted ill-humor against Russia, who, he said,
stood everywhere in our way. In addition, there were questions of com-
mercial pohcy that had to be settled. That General von Moltke was
urging war was, of course, not told to me. I learned, however, that Herr
von Tschirschky (the German Ambassador in Vienna) had been reproved
because he said that be had advised Vienna to show moderation toward
Serbia.
Prince Lichnowsky went to his summer home in Silesia, quite
unaware of the impending crisis. He continues:
When I returned from Silesia on my way to London, I stopped only
a few hours in BerKn, where I heard that Austria intended to proceed
against Serbia so as to bring to an end an imbearable state of affairs.
Unfortimately, I failed at the moment to gauge the significance of the
news. I thought that once more it would come to nothing; that even if
Russia acted threateningly, the matter could soon be settled. I now
regret that I did not stay in Berlin and declare there and then that I
would have no hand in such a policy.
There was a meeting in Potsdam, as early as July 5th, between
the German and Austrian authorities, at which meeting war was
decided en. Prince Lichnowsky says:
I learned afterwards that at the decisive discussion at Potsdam on
July 6th the Austrian demand had met with the unconditional approval
of all the personages in authority; it was even added that no harm would
be done if war with Russia did come out of it. It was so stated at least
in the Austrian report received at London by Count Mensdorff (the
Austrian Ambassador to England).
At this point I received instructions to endeavor to bring the English
press to a friendly attitude in case Austria should deal the death-blow to
"Greater-Serbian" hopes. I was to use all my influence to prevent
public opinion in England from taking a stand against Austria. I remem-
bered England's attitude during the Bosnian annexation crisis, when
public opinion showed itseK in sympathy with the Serbian claims to Bos-
nia; I recalled also the benevolent promotion of nationalist hopes that
went on in the days of Lord Byron and Garibaldi; and on these and other
grounds I thought it extremely unHkely that English public opinion would
support a pimitive expedition against the Archduke's murderers. I thus
felt it my duty to enter an urgent warning against the whole project,
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THE PLOTTER BEHIND THE SCENES 67
which I characterized as venturesome and dangerous, I recommended
that counsels of moderation be given Austria, as 1 did not believe that the
conflict could be locaKzed (that is to say, it could not be limited to a war
between Austria and Serbia).
Herr von Jagow answered me that Russia was not prepared; that
there would be more or less of a rumpus; but that the more firmly we
stood by Austria, the more surely would Russia give way. Austria was
already blaming us for flabbiness and we could not flinch. On the other
hand, Russian sentiment was growing more unfriendly all the time, and
we must simply take the risk. I subsequently learned that this attitude
was based on advices from Count Pourtales (the German Ambassador in
Petrograd), that Russia would not stir under any circumstances; informa-
tion which prompted us to spur Count Berchtold on in his course. On
learning the attitude of the German Government I looked for salvation
through English mediation, knowing that Sir Edward Grey's influence in
Petrograd could be used in the cause of peace. I, therefore, availed my-
self of my friendly relations with the Minister to ask him confidentially to
advise moderation in Russia in case Austria demanded satisfaction from
the Serbians, as it seemed likely she would.
The English press was quiet at first, and friendly to Austria, the
assassination being generally condemned. By degrees, however, more and
more voices made themselves heard, in the sense that, however necessary
it might be to take cognizance of the crime, any exploitation of it for
political ends was unjustifiable. Moderation was enjoined upon Austria.
When the ultimatmn came out, all the papers, wdth the exception of the
Standard, were unanimous in condemning it. The whole world, outside
of BerHn and Vienna, realized that it meant war, and a world war too.
The English fleet, which happened to have been holding a naval review,
was not demobilized, f
The British Government labored to make the Serbian reply
conciliatory, and "the Serbian answer was in keeping with the
British efforts." Sir Edward Grey then proposed his plan of
mediation upon the two points which Serbia had not wholly con-
ceded. Prince Lichnowsky writes:
M. Cambon (for France), Marquis Imperiali (for Italy), and I
were to meet, with Sir Edward in the chair, and it would have been easy
to work out a formula for the debated points, which had to do with the
co-operation of imperial and royal officials in the inquiries to be con-
ducted at Belgrade. By the exercise of good will everything could have
been settled in one or two sittings, and the mere acceptance of the British
proposal would have relieved the strain and further improved our rela-
tions with England. I seconded this plan with all my energies. In vain.
I was told (by Berhn) that it would be against the dignity of Austria.
Of course, all that was needed was one hint from Berhn to Count Berch-
68 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
told (the Austrian Foreign Minister); he would have satisfied himself
with a diplomatic triumph and rested on the Serbian answer. That hint
was never given. On the contrary, pressure was brought in favor of
war. ...
After our refusal Sir Edward asked us to come forward with our
proposal. We insisted on war. No other answer could I get (from Berlin)
than that it was a colossal condescension on the part of Austria not to
contemplate any acquisition of territory. Sir Edward justly pointed
out that one could reduce a country to vassalage without acquiring terri-
tory; that Russia would see this, and regard it as a humiliation not to
be put up with. The impression grew stronger and stronger that we were
bent on war. Otherwise our attitude toward a question in which we
were not directly concerned was incomprehensible. The insistent requests
and well-defined declarations of M. Sasanof, the Czar's positively humble
telegrams, Sir Edward's repeated proposals, the warnings of Marquis
San Guiliano and of Bollati, my own pressing admonitions were all of no
avail. Berlin remained inflexible — Serbia must be slaughtered.
Then, on the 29th, Sir Edward decided upon his well-known warn-
ing. I told him I had always reported (to Berlin) that we should have to
reckon with English opposition if it came to a war with France. Time
and again the Minister said to me, "If war breaks out it will be the great-
est catastrophe the world has ever seen." And now events moved rapidly.
Count Berchtold at last decided to come around, having up to that point
played the role of "Strong man" imder guidance of Berlin. Thereupon
we (in answer to Russia's mobilization) sent our ultimatum and declara-
tion of war — after Russia had spent a whole week in fruitless negotiation
and waiting.
Thus ended my mission in London. It had suffered shipwreck, not
on the wUes of the Briton but on the wiles of om* own policy. Were not
those right who saw that the German people was pervaded with the
spirit of Treitschke and Bernhardi, which glorifies war as an end instead
of holding it in abhorrence as an evil thing? Properly speaking militarism
is a school for the people and an instrument to further political ends. But
in the patriarchal absolutism of a military monarchy, militarism exploits
pohtics to further its own ends, and can create a situation which a democ-
racy freed from junkerdom would not tolerate.
That is what our enemies think; that is what they are bound to
think when they see that in spitfe of capitalistic industrialism, and in spite
of socia-Ustic organizations, the living, as Nietzsche said, are still ruled
by the dead. The democratization of Germany, the first war ^im pro-
posed by our enemies, will become a reality.
Ttis is the frank statement of a great German statesman made
long before Germany received its knock-out blow. It was written
when Germany was sweeping all before it on land, and when the
U-boat was at the height of its murderous powers on the high seas.
THE PLOTTER BEHIND THE SCENES 69
No one in nor out of Germany has controverted any of its statements
and it will forever remain as one of the comits in the indictment
against Germany and the sole cause of the world's greatest misery,
the war.
America's outstanding authority on matters of international
conduct, former Secretary of State Elihu Root declared that the
World War was a mighty and all-embracing struggle between two
conflicting principles of human right and hmnan duty; it was a
conflict between the divine right of kings to govern mankind through
armies and nobles, and the right of the peoples of the earth who toil
and endure and aspire to govern themselves by law under justice,
and in the freedom of individual manhood.
After the declaration of war against Russia by Germany,
events marched rapidly and inevitably toward the general con-
flagration. Germany's most strenuous efforts were directed
toward keeping England out of the conflict. We have seen in the
revelations of Prince Lichnowsky how eager was England to divert
Germany's murderous purpose. There are some details, however,
required to fill in the diplomatic picture.
President Poincard, of the French RepubHc, on July 30th,
asked the British Ambassador in Paris for an assurance of British
support. On the following day he addressed a similar letter to
King George of England. Both requests were qualifiedly refused
on the ground that England wished to be free to continue negotia-
tions with Germany for the piupose of averting the war. In the
meantime, the German Government addressed a note to England
offering guarantees for Belgian integrity, providing Belgium did
not side with France, offering to respect the neutrality of Holland
and giving assurance that no French territory in Europe would be
annexed if Germay won the war. Sir Edward Grey described this
as a " shameful proposal, " and rejected it on July 30th.
On July 31st England sent a note to France and Germany
asking for a statement of purpose concerning Belgian neutraUty.
France immediately announced that it would respect the treaty
of 1839 and its reaflarmation in 1870, guaranteeing Belgium's
neutrality. This treaty was entered into by Germany, England,
France, Austria and Russia. Germany's reply on August 1st was
a proposal that she would respect the neutrahty of Belgiima if
England would stay out of the war. This was promptly declined.
70 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
On August 2d the British cabinet agreed that if the German fleet
attempted to attack the coast of France the British fleet would
intervene. Germany, the next day, sent a note agreeing to refrain
from naval attacks on France provided England would remain
neutral, but declined to commit herself as to the neutraUty of
Belgium. Before this, however, on August 2d, Germany had
announced to Belgium its intention to enter Belgium for the purpose
of attacking France. The Belgian Minister in London made an
appeal to the British Foreign Office and was informed that invasion
of Belgium by Germany would be followed by England's declaration
of war. Monday, August 3d, was signalized by Belgium's dec-
laration of its neutrahty and its firm purpose to defend its soil
against invasion by France, England, Germany or any other nation.
The actual invasion of Belgium commenced on the morning of
August 4th, when twelve regiments of Uhlans crossed the frontier
near Vise, and came in contact Vvdth a Belgian force driving it back
upon Li6ge. King Albert of Belgium promptly appealed to England,
Russia and France for aid in repelling the invader. England sent
an ultimatum to Germany fixing midnight of August 4th as the
time for expiration of the ultimatum. This demanded that satis-
factory assurances be furnished immediately that Germany would
respect the neutraUty of Belgium. No reply was made by Germany
and England's declaration of war followed.
Chancellor von Bethmann-HoUweg, of the German Empire,
wrote Germany's infamy into history when, in a formal statement,
he acknowledged that the invasion of Belgium was "a wrong that
we will try to make good again as soon as our miUtary ends have
been reached." To Sir Edward Vochen, British Ambassador to
Germany, he addressed the inquiry: "Is it the purpose of your
country to make war upon Germany for the sake of a scrap
of paper?" The treaty of 1839-1870 guaranteeing Belgium's
neutrality was the scrap of paper.
With the entrance of England into the war, the issue between
autocracy and democracy was made plain before the people of the
world. Austria, and later Turkey, joined with Germany; France,
and Japan, by reason of their respective treaty obhgations joined
England and Russia. Italy for the time preferred to remain neu-
tral, ignoring her implied alhance with the Teutonic empires.
How other nations lined up on the one side and the other is indicated
'^=^^^;^^-^^'-'i^^^
THE PLOTTER BEHIND THE SCENES 73
by the State Department's list of war declarations, and diplomatic
severances, which follows:
Austria against Belgium, Aug. 28, 1914.
Austria against Japan, Aug. 27, 1914.
Austria against Montenegro, Aug. 9, 1914.
Austria against Russia, Aug. 6, 1914.
Austria against Serbia, July 28, 1914.
Belgium against Germany, Aug. 4, 1914.
Brazil against Germany, Oct. 26, 1917.
Bulgaria against Serbia, Oct. 14, 1915.
China against Austria, Aug. 14, 1917.
China against Germany, Aug. 14, 1917.
Costa Rica against Germany, May 23, 1918.
Cuba against Germany, April 7, 1917.
Cuba against Austria-Hungary, Dec. 16, 1917.
France against Austria, Aug. 13, 1914.
France against Bulgaria, Oct. 16, 1915.
France against Germany, Aug. 3, 1914.
France against Turkey, Nov. 5, 1914.
Germany against Belgium, Aug. 4, 1914.
Germany against France, Aug. 3, 1914.
Germany against Portugal, March 9, 1916.
Germany against Roumania, Sept. 14, 1916.
Germany against Russia, Aug. 1, 1914.
Great Britain against Austria, Aug. 13, 1914.
Great Britain against Bulgaria, Oct. 15, 1915.
Great Britain against Germany, Aug. 4, 1914.
Great Britain against Turkey, Nov. 5, 1914.
Greece against Bulgaria, Nov. 28, 1916. (Provisional Government.)
Greece against Bulgaria, July \ 1917. (Government of Alexander.)
Greece against Germany, Nov. 28, 1916. (Provisional Government.)
Greece against Germany, July 2, 1917. (Government of Alexander.)
Guatemala against Germany and Austria-Hungary, April 22, 1918.
Haiti against Germany, July 15, 1918.
Honduras against Germany, July 19, 1918.
Italy against Austria, May 24, 1915.
Italy against Bulgaria, Oct. 19, 1915.
Italy against Germany, Aug. 28, 1916.
Italy against Turkey, Aug. 21, 1915.
Japan against Germany, Aug. 23, 1914.
Liberia against Germany, Aug. 4, 1917.
Montenegro against Austria, Aug. 8, 1914.
Montenegro against Germany, Aug. 9, 1914.
Nicaragua against Germany, May 24, 1918.
Panama against Germany, April 7, 1917.
74 HISTORY OF.THE WORLD WAR
Panama against Austria, Dec. 10, 1917.
Portugal against Germany, Nov. 23, 1914. (Resolution passed
authorizing military intervention as ally of England.)
Portugal against Germany, May 19, 1915. (Military aid granted.)
Roumania against Austria, Aug. 27, 1916. (Allies of Austria also
consider it a declaration.)
Russia against Germany, Aug. 7, 1914.
Russia against Bulgaria, Oct. 19, 1915.
Russia against Turkey, Nov. 3, 1914.
San Marino against Austria, May 24, 1915.
Serbia against Bulgaria, Oct. 16, 1915.
Serbia against Germany, Aug. 6, 1914.
Serbia against Turkey, Dec. 2, 1914.
Siam against Austria, July 22, 1917.
Siam against Germany, July 22, 1917.
Turkey against Allies, Nov. 23, 1914.
Turkey against Roumania, Aug. 29, 1916.
United States against Germany, April 6, 1917.
United States against Austria-Hungary, Dec. 7, 1917.
SEVERANCE OF DIPLOaiATIC RELATIONS
The Nations that formally severed relations whether afterward
declaring war or not, are as follows:
Austria against Japan, Aug. 26, 1914.
Austria against Portugal, March 16, 1916.
Austria against Serbia, July 26, 1914.
Austria against United States, April 8, 1917.
Bolivia against Germany, April 14, 1917.
Brazil against Germany, April 11, 1917.
China against Germany, March 14, 1917.
Costa Rica against Germany, Sept. 21, 1917.
Ecuador against Germany, Dec. 7, 1917.
Egypt against Germany, Aug. 13, 1914.
France against Austria, Aug. 10, 1914.
Greece against Turkey, July 2, 1917. (Government of Alexander.)
Greece against Austria, July 2, 1917. (Government of Alexander.)
Guatemala against Germany, April 27, 1917.
Haiti against Germany, June 17, 1917.
Honduras against Germany, May 17, 1917.
Nicaragua against Germany, May 18, 1917.
Peru against Germany, Oct. 6, 1917.
Santo Domingo against Germany, June 8, 1917,
Turkey against United States, April 20, 1917. ^
United States against Germany, Feb. 3, 1917.
Uruguay against Germany, Oct. 7, 1917.
CHAPTER V
The Great Wab Begins
YEARS before 1914, when Germany declared war against
civilization, it was decided by the German General Staff
to strike at France through Belgium. The records of the
German Foreign Office prove that fact. The reason for
this lay in the long line of powerful fortresses along the Hne that
divides France from Germany and the sparsely spaced and com-
paratively out-of-date forts on the border between Germany and
Belgium. True, there was a treaty guaranteeing the inviolability
of Belgian territory to which Germany was a signatory party.
Some of the clauses of that treaty were:
Article 9. Belgium, within the limits traced in conformity with the
principles laid down in the present preliminaries, shall form a perpetually
neutral state. The five powers (England, France, Austria, Prussia and
Russia), without wishing to intervene in the internal affairs of Belgium,
guarantee her that perpetual neutrality as well as the integrity and
inviolability of her territory in the limits mentioned in the present article.
Article 10. By just reciprocity Belgium shall be held to observe this
eame neutrality toward all the other states and to make no attack on their
internal or external tranquillity while always preserving the right to
defend herself against any foreign aggression.
This agreement was followed on January 23, 1839, by a defini-
tive treaty, accepted by Belgium and by the Netherlands, which
treaty regulates Belgium's neutrality as follows:
Article 7. Belgiiun, within the limits defined in Articles 1, 2 and 4,
shall form an independent and perpetually neutral state. She is obligated
to preserve this neutrality against all the other states.
To convert this solemn covenant into a '* scrap of paper" it
waa necessary that Germany should find an excuse for tearing it
to pieces. There was absolutely no provocation in sight, but that
did not deter the German High Command. That august body with
no information whatever to afford an excuse, alleged in a formal
note to the Belgian Government that the French army intended
75
76 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
to invade Germany through Belgian territory. This hypocritical
and mendacious note and Belgium's vigorous reply follow:
Note handed in on August 2, 1914, at 7 o'clock p. m., by Herr von
Below-Saleske, German Minister, to M. Davignon, Belgian Minister for
Foreign Affairs.
Brussels, 2d August, 1914.
Imperial German Legation in Belgium
(Highly confidential)
The German Government has received reliable information according
to which the French forces intend to march on the Meuse, by way of
Givet and Namur. This information leaves no doubt as to the intention
of France of marching on Germany through Belgian territory. The Impe-
rial Government cannot avoid the fear that Belgium, in spite of its best
will, will be in no position to repulse such a largely developed French
march without aid. In this fact there is sufficient certainty of a threat
directed against Germany.
It is an imperative duty for the preservation of Germany to forestall
this attack of the enemy.
The German Government would feel keen regret if Belgium should
regard as an act of hostihty against hereelf the fact that the measures of
the enemies of Germany oblige her on her part to violate Belgian territory.
In order to dissipate any misunderstanding the German Government
declares as follows:
1. Germany does not contemplate any act of hostihty against Bel-
gium. If Belgium consents in the war about to commence to take up an
attitude of friendly neutrality toward Germany, the German Government
on its part undertakes, on the declaration of peace, to guarantee the
kingdom and its possessions in their whole extent.
2. Germany undertakes under the conditions laid down to evacuate
Belgian territory as soon as peace is concluded.
3. If Belgium preserves a friendly attitude, Germany is prepared, in
agreement with the authorities of the Belgian Government, to buy against
cash all that is required by her troops, and to give indemnity for the
damages caused in Belgium.
4. If Belgium behaves in a hostile manner toward the German troops,
and in particular raises difiiculties against their advance by the opposi-
tion of the fortifications of the Meuse, or by destroying roads, railways,
tunnels, or other engineering works, Germany wiU be compelled to con-
sider Belgium as an enemy.
In this case Germany will take no engagements toward Belgium, but
she will leave the later settlement of relations of the two states toward
one another to the decision of arms. The German Government has a
justified hope that this contingency wiU not arise and that the Belgian
THE GREAT WAR BEGINS 77
Government will know how to take suitable measures to hinder its taking
place. In this case the friendly relations which unite the two neighbor-
ing states w^ill become closer and more lasting.
The Reply by Belgium
Note handed in by M. Davignon, Minister for Foreign Affairs, to
Herr von Below-Saleske, German Minister.
Brussels, 3d August, 1914.
(7 o'clock in the morning.)
By the note of the 2d August, 1914, the German Government has
made known that according to certain intelligence the French forces
intend to march on the Meuse via Givet and Namur and that Belgium,
in spite of her good-will, would not be able without help to beat off an
advance of the French troops.
The German Government felt it to be its duty to forestall this
attack and to violate Belgian territory. Under these conditions Germany
proposes to the King's Government to take up a friendly attitude, and
undertakes at the moment of peace to guarantee the integrity of the king-
dom and of her possessions in their whole extent. The note adds that if
Belgium! raises difficulties to the forward march of the German troops
Germany will be compelled to consider her as an enemy and to leave the
later settlement of the two states toward one another to the decision of
arms.
This note caused profound and painful surprise to the King's
Government.
The intentions which it attributed to France are in contradiction
with the express declarations which were made to us on the 1st of August,
in the name of the government of the republic.
Moreover, if, contrary to our expectation, a violation of Belgian
neutrality were to be committed by France, Belgium would fulfil all her
international duties and her army would offer the most vigorous opposition
to the invader.
The treaties of 1839, confirmed by the treaties of 1870, establish
the independence and the neutrality of Belgium under the guarantee of
the powers, and particularly of the Government of his Majesty the King
of Prussia.
Belgium has always been faithful to her international obligations;
she has fulfilled her duties in a spirit of loyal impartiafity; she has neglected
no effort to maintain her neutrality or to make it respected. .
The attempt against her independence with which the German
Government threatens her would constitute a flagrant violation of
international law. No strategic interest justifies the violation of that law.
The Belgian Government would, by accepting the propositions
which are notified to her, sacrifice the honor of the nation while at the
same time betraying her duties toward Europe.
78 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
Conscious of the part Belgium has played for more than eighty years
in the civilization of the world, she refuses to believe that the independence
of Belgium can be preserved only at the expense of the violation of her
neutrahty. . ...
If this hope were disappointed the Belgian Government has firmly
resolved to repulse by every means in her power any attack upon her
rights.
The German attack upon Belgium and France came with
terrible force and suddenness. Twenty-four army corps, divided
into three armies clad in a specially designed and colored gray-
green uniform, swept in three mighty streams over the German
borders with their objective the heart of France. The Army of
the Meuse was given the route through Liege, Namur and Mau-
beuge. The Army of the Moselle violated the Duchy of Luxem-
burg, which, under a treaty guaranteeing its independence and
neutrality, was not permitted to maintain an army. Germany
was a signatory party to this treaty also. The Army of the Rhine
cut through the Vosges Mountains and its route lay between the
French cities of Nancy and Toul.
The heroic defense of the Belgian army at Li^ge against the
Army of the Meuse delayed the operation of Germany's plans and
in all probability saved Paris. It was the first of many similar
disappointments and checks that Germany encountered during
the war.
The defense of Li^ge continued for ten heroic days. Within
that interval the first British Expeditionary Forces were landed in
France and Belgium, the French army was mobilized to full
strength. The little Belgian army falling back northward on
Antwerp, Louvain and Brussels, threatened the German flank and
approximately 200,000 German soldiers were compelled to remain
in the conquered section of Belgium to garrison it effectively.
Liege fortifications were the design of the celebrated strategic
Brialmont. They consisted of twelve isolated fortresses which had
been permitted to become out of repair. No field works of any
kind connected them and they were without provision for defense
against encircling tactics and against modem artillery.
The huge 42-centuneter guns, the first of Germany^s terrible
surprises, were brought into action against these forts, and their
concrete and armored steel turrets were cracked as walnuts are
THE GREAT WAR BEGINS 79
cracked between the jaws of a nut-cracker. The Army of the
Meuse then made its way like a gray-green cloud of poison gas
through Belgium. A cavalry screen of crack Uhlan regiments
preceded it, and it made no halt worthy of note until it confronted
the Belgian army on the line running from Louvain to Namur.
The Belgians were forced back before Louvain on August 20th,
the Belgian Government removed the capital from Brussels to
Antwerp, and the German hosts entered evacuated Brussels.
During this advance of the Army of the Meuse, strong French
detachments invaded German soil, pouring into Alsace through
the Belfort G^p. Brief successes attended the bold stroke. Mill-
hausen was captured and the Metz-Strassburg Railroad was cut
in several places. The French suffered a defeat almost immediately
following this first flush of victory, both in Alsace and in Lorraine,
where a French detachment had engaged with the Army of the
Moselle. The French army thereupon retreated to the strong line
of forts and earthworks defending the border between France and
Germany. ~
England's first expeditionary force landed at Ostend, Calais
and Dunkirk on August 7th. It was dubbed England's "con-
temptible little army" by the German General Staff. That name
was seized upon gladly by England as a spur to volunteering. It
brought to the surface national pride and a fierce determination
to compel Germany to recognize and to reckon with the "con-
temptible little army."
The contact between the French, Belgian and British forces
was speedily estabHshed and something like concerted resistance
to the advance of the enemy was made possible. The German
army, however, followed by a huge equipment of motor kitchens,
munition trains, and other motor transport evidencing great care
in preparation for the movement, swept resistlessly forward until it
encountered the French and British on a fine running from Mona
to Charleroi.
The British army wag assigned to a position between two
French armies. By some miscalculation, the French army that
was to have taken its position on the British left, never appeared.
The French army on the right was attacked and defeated at
Charleroi, falling back in some confuson. The German Army of
the Moselle co-operating with the Army of the Meuse then attacked
80 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
the British and French, and a great flanking movement by the
German joint commands developed.
This was directed mainly at the British under command of
Sir John French. There followed a retreat that for sheer heroism
and dogged determination has become one of the great battles of
all time. The British, outflanked and outnumbered three to one,
fought and marched without cessation for six days and nights.
Time after time envelopment and disaster threatened them, but
with a determination that would not be beaten they fought oflf
the best that Germany could send against them, maintained
contact with the French army on their right, and delayed the
German advance so effectively that a complete disarrangement of
all the German plans ensued. This was the second great disap-
pointment to Germany. It made possible the victory of the
Marne and the victorious peace of 1918. The story of that
immortal retreat is best told in the words of Sir John French,
transmitting the report of this encounter to the British War Office:
''The transport of the troops from England both by sea and
by rail was effected in the best order and v/ithout a check. Each
unit arrived at its destination well within the scheduled time.
"The concentration was practically complete on the evening
of Friday, the 21st ultimo, and I was able to make dispositions to
move the force during Saturday, the 22d, to positions I considered
most favorable from which to commence operations which the
French commander-in-chief, General Joffre, requested me to under-
take in pursuance of his plans in prosecution of the campaign.
"The hne taken up extended along the line of the canal from
Cond^ on the west, through Mons and Binche on the east. This
line was taken up as follows:
"Froon Cond6 to Mons, inclusive, was assigned to the Second
Corps, and to the right of the Second Corps from Mons the First
Corps was posted. The Fifth Cavalry Brigade was placed at
Binche.
"In the absence of my Third Army Corps I desired to keep the
cavalry divisions as much as possible as a reserve to act on my
outer flank, or move in support of any threatened part of the line.
The forward reconnoissance was intrusted to Brig.-Gen. Sir Philip
Chetwode, with the Fifth Cavalry Brigade, but I directed General
AUenby to send forward a few squadrons to assist in this work.
THE GREAT WAR BEGINS 81
«■
'During the 22d and 23d these advanced squadrons did
some excellent work, some of them penetrating as far as Soignies,
and several encounters took place in which our troops showed to
great advantage.
"2. At 6 A. M., on August 23d, I assembled the commanders of
the First and Second Corps and cavalry division at a point close
to the position and explained the general situation of the Allies,
and what I understood to be General Joffre's plan. I discussed
with them at some length the inmiediate situation in front of us.
*'From information I received from French headquarters I
understood that little more than one, or at most two, of the enemy's
army corps, with perhaps one cavalry division, were in front of
my position; and I was aware cf no attempted outflanking move-
ment by the enemy. I was confirmed in this opinion by the fact
that my patrols encountered no undue opposition in their recon-
noitering operations. The observations of my airplanes seemed
to bear out this estimate.
^" About 3 p. M. on Sunday, the 23d, reports began coming in
to the effect that the enemy was commencing an attack on the
Mons line, apparently in some strength, but that the right of the
position from Mons and Bray was being particularly threatened.
"The commander of the First Corps had pushed his flank
back to some high ground south of Bray, and the Fifth Cavalry
Brigade evacuated Binche, moving slightly south; the enemy
thereupon occupied Binche.
**The right of the Third Division, under General Hamilton, was
at Mons, which formed a somewhat dangerous salient; and I
directed the commander of the Second Corps to be careful not to
keep the troops on this salient too long, but, if threatened seriously,
to di'aw back the center behind Mons. This was done before dark.
In the meantime, about 5 p. m., I received a most unexpected
message from General Joffre by telegraph, telling me that at least
three German corps, viz., a reserve corps, the Fourth Corps and
the Ninth Corps, were moving on my position in front, and that
the Second Corps was engaged in a turning movement from the
direction of Toumay. He also informed me that the two reserve
French divisions and the Fifth French army on my right were
retiring, the Germans having on the previous day gained possession
of the passages of the Sambre, betvc'oen Charieroi and Namur.
82 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
"3. In view of the possibility of my being driven from the
Mons position, I had previously ordered a position in rear to be
reconnoitered. This position rested on the fortress of Maubeuge
on the right and extended west to Jenlain, southest to Valenciennes,
on the left. The position was reported difficult to hold, because
standing crops and buildings made the placing of trenches very
difficult and limited the field of fire in many important localities.
It nevertheless afforded a few good artillery positions.
''When the news of the retirement of the French and the
heavy German threatening on my front reached me, I endeavored
to confirm it by airplane reconnoissance; and as a result of this I
determined to effect a retirement to the Maubeuge position at
daybreak on the 24th.
"A certain amount of fighting continued along the whole
line throughout the night and at daybreak on the 24th the Second
Division from the neighborhood of Harmignies made a powerful
demonstration as if to retake Binche. This was supported by the
artillery of both the First and Second Divisions, while the First
Division took up a supporting position in the neighborhood of
Peissant. Under cover of this demonstration the Second Corps
retired on the line Dour-Quarouble-Fram6ries. The Third Division
on the right of the corps suffered considerable loss in this operation
from the enemy, who had retaken Mons.
''The Second Corps halted on this line, where they partially
intrenched themselves, enabUng Sir Douglas Haig with the First
Corps gradually to withdraw to the new position; and he effected
this without much further loss, reaching the line Bavai-Maubeuge
about 7 p. M. Toward midday the enemy appeared to be directing
his principal effort against our left.
"I had previously ordered General Allenby with the cavalry to
act vigorously in advance of my left front and endeavor to take
the pressure off.
*' About 7.30 A. M. General Allenby received a message from Sir
Charles Ferguson, commanding the Fifth Division, saying that he
was very hard pressed and in urgent need of support. On receipt
of this message General Allenby drew in the cavalry and endeav-
ored to bring direct support to the Fifth Division.
" During the course of this operation General De Lisle, of the
Second Cavalry Brigade, thought he saw a good opportunity to
THE GREAT WAR BEGINS 83
paralyze the further advance of the enemy's infantry by making a
mounted attack on his flank. He formed up and advanced for
this purpose, but was held up by wire about five hundred yards
from his objective, and the Ninth Lancers and the Eighteenth
Hussars suffered severely in the retirement of the brigade.
*'The Nineteenth Infantry Brigade, which had been guarding
the line of communications, was brought up by rail to Valenciennes
on the 22d and 23d. On the morning of the 24th they were
moved out to a position south of Quarouble to support the left
flank of the Second Corps.
''With the assistance of the cavalry Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien
was enabled to effect his retreat to a new position; although,
having two corps of the enemy on his front and one threatening
his flank, he suffered great losses in doing so.
*'At nightfall the position was occupied by the Second Corps
to the west of Bavai, the First Corps to the right. The right was
protected by the Fortress of Maubeuge, the left by the Nineteenth
Brigade in position between Jenlain and Bry, and the cavalry on
the outer flank.
"4. The French were still retiring, and I had no support
except such as was afforded by the Fortress of Maubeuge; and the
determined attempts of the enemy to get round my left flank
assured me that it was his intention to hem me against that place
and surround me. I felt that not a moment must be lost in retiring
to another position.
"I had every reason to believe that the enemy's forces were
somewhat exhausted and I knew that they had sufl"ered heavy
losses. I hoped, therefore, that his pursuit would not be too
vigorous to prevent me effecting my object.
"The operation, however, was full of danger and difficulty,
not only owing to the very superior force in my front, but also to
the exhaustion of the troops.
"The retirement was recommenced in the early morning of
the 26th to a position in the neighborhood of Le Cateau, and
rearguards were ordered to be clear of the Maubeuge-Bavai-Eih
Road by 6.30 a. m.
"Two cavalry brigades, with the divisional cavalry of the
Second Corps, covered the movement of the Second Corps. The
remainder of the cavalry division, with the Nineteenth Brigade,
84 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
the whole under the command of General AUenby, covered the
west flank.
*'The Fourth Division commenced its detrainment atLeCateau
on Sunday, the 23d, and by the morning of the 25th eleven bat-
talions and a brigade of artillery with divisional staff were available
for service.
*'I ordered General Snow to move out to take up a position
with his right south of Solesmes, his left resting on the Cambrai-
LeCateau Road south of La Chaprie. In this position the division
rendered great help to the effective retirement of the Second and
First Corps to the new position.
"Although the troops had been ordered to occupy the Cambrai-
Le Cateau-Landrecies position, and the ground had, during the
25th, been partially prepared and intrenched, I had grave doubts,
owing to the information I had received as to the accumulating
strength of the enemy against me — as to the wisdom of standing
there to fight.
"Having regard to the continued retirement of the French on
my right, my exposed left flank, the tendency of the enemy's
western corps (II) to envelop me, and, more than all, the exhausted
condition of the troops, I determined to make a great effort to
continue the retreat until I could put some substantial obstacle,
such as the Somme or the Oise, between my troops and the enemy,
and afford the former some opportunity of rest and reorganization.
Orders were, therefore, sent to the corps commanders to continue
their retreat as soon as they possibly could toward the general
line Vermand-St. Quentin-Ribemont.
"The cavalry under General AUenby, were ordered to cover
the retirement.
"Throughout the 25th and far into the evening, the First
Corps continued its march on Landrecies, following the road
along the eastern border of the Foret de Mormal, and arrived at
Landrecies about 10 o'clock. I had intended that the corps should
come further west so as to fill up the gap between Le Cateau and
Landrecies, but the men were exhausted and could not get further
in without rest.
"The enemy, however, would not allow them this rest, and
about 9.30 p. m. a report was received that the Fourth Guards
Brigade in Landrecies was heavily attacked by troops of the Ninth
THE GREAT WAR BEGINS 85
German Army Corps, who were coming through the forest on the
north of the town. This brigade fought most gallantly, and
caused the enemy to suffer tremendous loss in issuing from the
forest into the narrow streets of the town. This loss has been
estimated from rehable sources at from 700 to 1,000. At the same
time information reached me from Sir Douglas Haig that his
First Division was also heavily engaged south and east of Maroilles.
I sent urgent messages to the commander of the two French reserve
divisions on my right to come up to the assistance of the First
Corps, which they eventually did. Partly owing to this assistance,
but mainly to the skilful manner in which Sir Douglas Haig extri-
cated his corps from an exceptionally difficult position in the
darkness of the night, they were able at dawn to resume their
march south toward Wassigny on Guise.
"By about 6 p. m. the Second Corps had got into position with
their right on Le Cateau, their left in the neighborhood of Caudry,
and the Une of defense was continued thence by the Fourth Division
toward Seranvillers, the left being thrown back.
"During the fighting on the 24th and 25th the cavahy became
a good deal scattered, but by the early morning of the 26th, General
AUenby had succeeded in concentrating two brigades to the south
of Cambrai.
"The Fourth Division was placed under the orders of the
general officer commanding the Second Army Corps.
"On the 24th the French Cavalry Corps, consisting of three
divisions under General Sordet, had been in billets north of Avesnes.
On my way back from Bavai, which was my 'Poste de Commande-
ment' during the fighting of the 23d and 24th, I visited General
Sordet, and earnestly requested his co-operation and support.
He promised to obtain sanction from his army commander to act
on my left flank, but said that his horses were too tired to move
before the next day. Although he rendered me valuable assistance
later on in the course of the retirement, he was unable, for the reasons
given, to afford me any support on the most critical day of all,
viz., the 26th.
"At daybreak it became apparent that the enemy was throw-
ing the bulk of his strength against the left of the position occupied
by the Second Corps and the Fourth Division.
'At this time the guns of four German army corps were in
{(
86 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
position a^inet them, and Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien reported to
me that he Judged it impossible to continue his retirement at day^
break (as OTdered) in face of such an attack.
*'I sent Mm orders to use his utmost endeavors to break off
the action and retire at the earliest possible moment, as it was
impossible for me to send him any support, the First Corps being
at the moment incapable of movement.
"The French Cavalry Corps, under General Sord^t, was coming
up on our left rear early in the morning, and I sent an urgent mes-
sage to him to do his utmost to come up and support the retire-
ment of my left flank; but owing to the fatigue of his horses he
found himself unable to intervene in any way.
"There had been no time to intrench the position properly,
but the troops showed a magnificent front to the terrible fire which
confronted them.
"The artillery, although outmatched by at least four to one,
made a splendid fight, and inflicted heavy losses on their opponents.
"At length it became apparent that, if complete annihilation
was to be avoided, a retirement must be attempted; and the order
was given to commence it about 3.30 p. m. The movement was
covered with the most devoted intrepidity and determination by the
artillery, which had itself suffered heavily, and the fine work done
by the cavalry in the further retreat from the position assisted
materially in the final completion of this most difficult and dan-
gerous operation.
"Fortunately the enemy had himself suffered too heavily to
engage in an energetic pursuit.
"I canno* close the brief account of this glorious stand of the
British troops without putting on record my deep appreciation of
the^valuable services rendered by Gen. Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien.
"I say without hesitation that the saving of the left wing
of the army under my command on the morning of the 26th of
August, could never have been accomplished unless a commander
of rare and unusual coolness, intrepidity, and determination had
been present to personally conduct the operation.
"The retreat was continued far into the night of the 26th and
through the 27th and 28th, on which date the troops halted on the
line Noyon-Chauny-LaFdre, having then thrown off the weight of
the enemy's pursuit.
THE GREAT WAR BEGINS 87
"On the 27th and 28th I was much indebted to General Sordet
and the French Cavahy Division which he commands for mateiially
assisting my retirement and successfully driving back some of the
enemy on Cambrai.
"This closes the period covering the heavy fighting which
commenced at Mons on Sunday afternoon, 23d August, and which
really constituted a four days' battle.
"It is impossible for me to speak too highly of the skill
evinced by the two general officers commanding army corps; the
self-sacrificing and devoted exertions of their staffs; the direction
of the troops by divisional, brigade, and regimental leaders; the
conunand of the smaller units by their officers; and the magnifi-
cent fighting spirit displayed by non-conmaissioned officers and men.
"I wish particularly to bring to your Lordship's notice the
admirable work done by the Royal Flying Corps under Sir David
Henderson. Their skill, energy, and perseverence have been
beyond all praise. They have furnished me with the most com-
plete and accurate information, which has been of incalculable
value in the conduct of the operations. Fired at constantly both
by friend and foe, and not hesitating to fly in every kind of weather,
they have remained undaunted throughout.
"Further, by actually fighting in the air, they have suc-
ceeded in destroying five of the enemy's machines."
The combined French and British armies, including the
forces that had retreated from Alsace and Lorraine, gave way
with increasing stubborness before von Kluck. That German
general disregarding the fortresses surrounding Paris, swung
southward to make a junction with the Army of the Crown Prince
of Germany advancing through the Vosges Mountains. General
Manoury's army opposed the German advance on the entrenched
line of Paris. General GaUieni commanding the garrison of Paris,
was ready Tvdth a novel mobile transport consisting of taxicabs
and fast trucks. The total number of soldiers in the French and
British armies now outnumbered those in the German armies
opposed to them.
General Joffre, in supreme command of the French, had
chosen the battleground. He had set the trap with consummate
skill. The word was given; the trap was sprung; and the first
battle of the Mame came as a crashing surprise to G^many.
CHAPTER VI
The Trail of the Beast in Belgium
GERMANY'S onrush into heroic Belgium speedily re-
solved itself into a saturnalia that drenched the land
with blood and roused the civiUzed world into resentful
horror. As the tide of barbarity swept forward into
Northern France, stories of the horrors filtered through the close
web of German censorship. There were denials at first by German
propagandists. In the face of truth furnished by thousands of
witnesses, the denials faded away.
What caused these atrocities? Were they the spontaneous
expression of dormant brutishness in German soldiers? Were
they a sudden reversion of an entire nation to bestiality?
The answer is that the private soldier as an individual was
not responsible. The carnage, the rapine, the wholesale desola-
tion was an integral part of the German policy of schrecklichkeit
or frightfulness. This policy was laid down by Germany as part
of its imperial war code. In 1902 Germany issued a new war
manual entitled ''Kriegsbrauch im Landkriege." In it is written
this cold-blooded declaration:
All measures which conduce to the attainment of the object of war
are permissible and these may be summarized in the two ideas of violence
and cunning. What is permissible includes every means of war without
which the object of the war cannot be attained. All means which
modern invention affords, including the fullest, most dangerous, and most
massive means of destruction, may be utilized.
Brand Whitlock, United States Minister to Belgium, in a
formal report to the State Department, made this statement
concerning Germany's policy in permitting these outrages:
"All these deliberate organized massacres of civilians, all
these murders and outrages, the violation of women, the killing of
children, wanton destruction, burning, looting and pillage, and
whole towns destroyed, were acts for which no possible military
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THE TRAIL OF THE BEAST IN BELGIUM 91
necessity can be pleaded. They were wilfully committed as part
of a deliberately prepared and scientifically organized policy of
terrorism."
And now, having considered these outrages as part of the Ger-
man policy of terrorism, let us turn to the facts presented by those
who made investigations at first hand in devastated Belgium and
Northern France.
Let us first turn to the tragic story of the destruction of
Louvain. The first document comes in the form of a cable sent
from the Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs under date of
Augusts, 1914:
" On Tuesday evening a body of German troops who had
been driven back retired in disorder upon the town of Louvain.
Germans who were guarding the town thought that the retiring
troops were Belgians and fired upon them. In order to excuse
this mistake the Germans, in spite of the most energetic denials
on the part of the authorities, pretended that Belgians had fired on
the Germans, although all the inhabitants, including policemen,
had been disarmed for more than a week. Without any examina-
tion and without listening to any protest the commanding officer
announced that the town would be immediately destroyed. All
inhabitants had to leave their homes at once; some were made
prisoners; women and children were put into a train of which the
destination was unknown; soldiers with fire bombs set fire to the
different quarters of the town; the splendid Church of St. Pierre,
the markets, the university and its scientific establishments, were
given to the flames, and it is probable that the Hotel de Ville,
this celebrated jewel of Gothic art, will also have disappeared in
the disaster. Several notabilities were shot at sight. Thus a
town of 40,000 inhabitants, which, since the fifteenth century, has
been the intellectual and scientific capital of the Low Countries
is a heap of ashes. Americans, many of whom have followed the
course at this illustrious alma mater and have there received such
cordial hospitality, cannot remain insensible to this outrage on
the rights of humanity and civilization which is unprecedented
in history."
Minister Whitlock made the following report on the same
outrage :
A violent fusillade broke out simultaneously at various
t(
92 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
points in the city (Louvain), notably at the Porte de Bruxelles,
Porte de Tirlemont, Rue Leopold, Rue Marie-Th^rese, Rue des
Joyeuses Entries. German soldiers were firing at random in
every street and in every direction. Later fires broke out every-
where, notably in the University building, the Library, in the old
Church of St. Peter, in the Place du Peuple, in the Rue de la Station,
in the Boulevard de Tirlemont, and in the Chauss6e de Tirlemont.
On the orders of their chiefs, the German soldiers would break
open the houses and set fire to them, shooting on the inhabitants
who tried to leave their dwellings. Many persons who took refuge
in their cellars were burned to death. The German soldiers were
equipped with apparatus for the purpose of firing dwellings, incen-
diary pastils, machines for spraying petroleum, etc. , . .
"Major von Manteuffel (of the German forces) sent for
Alderman Schmidt. Upon the latter's arrival, the major declared
that hostages were to be held, as sedition had just broken out.
He asked Father Parijs, Mr. Schmidt, and Mgr. Coenraedts,
First Vice-Rector of the University, who was being held as a
hostage, to m^ake proclamations to the inhabitants exhorting them
to be calm and menacing them with a fine of twenty million francs,
the destruction of the city and the hanging of the hostages, if
they created disturbance. Surrounded by about thirty soldiers
and a few officers. Major Manteuffel, Father Parijs, Mr. Schmidt
and Mgr. Coenraedts left in the direction of the station, and the
alderman, in French, and the priest, in Flemish, made proclama-
tions at the street comers. . . .
"Near the statue of Juste-Lipse, a Dr. Berghausen, a German
surgeon, in a highly excited condition, ran to meet the delegation.
He shouted that a German soldier had just been killed by a shot
fired from the house of Mr. David Fishbach. Addressing the
soldiers. Dr. Berghausen said: *The blood of the entire population
of Louvain is not worth a drop of the blood of a German soldier!'
Then one of the soldiers threw into the interior of the house of
Mr. Fishbach one of the pastils which the German soldiers car-
ried and immediately the house flared up. It contained paintings
of a high value. The old coachman, Joseph Vandermosten, who
had re-entered the house to try to save the life of his master,
did not return. His body was found the next day amidst the
ruins. . , •
THE TRAIL OF THE BEAST IN BELGIUM 93
tti
'The Germans made the usual claim that the civil popula-
tion had fired upon them and that it was necessary to take these
measures, i. e., burn the churches, the library and other public
monuments, burn and pillage houses, driving out and murdering
the inhabitants, sacking the city in order to punish and to spread
terror among the people, and General von Luttwitz had told me
that it was reported that the son of the burgomaster had shot
one of their generals. But the burgomaster of Louvain had no
son, and no officer was shot at Louvain. The story of a general
shot by the son of a burgomaster was a repetition of a tragedy that
had occurred at Aerschot, on the 19th, where the fifteen-year-old
son of the burgomaster had been killed by a firing squad, not
because he had shot a general, but because an officer had been
shot, probably by Belgian soldiers retreating through the town.
The story of this tragedy is told by the boy's mother, under oath,
before the Belgian Commission, and is so simple, so touching, so
convincing in its verisimilitude, that I attach a copy of it in
extenso to this report. It seems to afford an altogether typical
example of what went on all over the stricken land during those
days of terror. (In other places it was the daughter of the burgo-
master who was said to have shot a general.)
*'The following facts may be noted: From the avowal of
Prussian officers themselves, there was not one single victim,
among their men at the barracks of St. Martin, Louvain, where
it was claimed that the first shot had been fired from a house
situated in front of the Caserne. This would appear to be impossi-
ble had the civilians fired upon them point blank from across the
street. It was said that when certain houses near the barracks
were burning, numerous explosions occurred, revealing the presence
of cartridges; but these houses were drinking houses much fre-
quented by German soldiers. It was said that Spanish students
shot from the schools in the Rue de la Station, but Father Catala,
rector of the school, affirms that the schools were empty. ....
"If it was necessary, for whatever reason, to do what was
done at Vise, at Dinant, at Aerschot, at Louvain, and in a hundred
other towns that were sacked, pillaged and burned, where masses
were shot down because civilians had fired on German troops,
and if it was necessary to do this on a scale never before witnessed
in history, one might not unreasonably assume that the alleged
94 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
jBring by civilians was done on a scale, if not so thoroughly organized,
at least somewhat in proportion to the rage of destruction that
punished it. And hence it would seem to be a simple matter to
produce at least convincing evidence that civilians had fired on
the soldiers; but there is no testimony to that effect beyond that
of the soldiers who merely assert it: Man hat geschossen. If
there were no more firing on soldiers by civilians in Belgium than
is proved by the German testimony, it was not enough to justify
the burning of the smallest of the towns that was overtaken by
that fate. And there is not a scintilla of evidence of organized
bands of francs-tireurs, such as were found in the war of 1870."
Under date of September 12, 1917, Minister Whitlock, in a
report to the State Department of the United States, made the
following summary: "As one studies the evidence at hand, one is
struck at the outset by the fact so general that it must exclude the
hypothesis of coincidence, and that is that these wholesale massacres
followed immediately upon some check, some reverse, that the
German army had sustained. The German army was checked
by the guns of the forts to the east of Liege, and the horrors of
Vise, Verviers, Bligny, Battice, Hervy and twenty villages follow.
When they entered Li^ge, they burned the houses along two streets
and killed many persons, five or six Spaniards among them.
Checked before Namur they sacked Andenne, Bouvignies, and
Champignon, and when they took Namur they burned one hundred
and fifty houses. Compelled to give battle to the French army
in the Belgian Ardennes they ravaged the beautiful valley of the
Semois; the complete destruction of the village of Rossignlo and
the extermination of its entire male population took place there.
Checked again by the French on the Meuse, the awful carnage of
Dinant results. Held on the Sambre by the French, they burn
one hundred houses at Charleroi and enact the appalling tragedy
of Tamines. At Mons, the English hold them, and after that all
over the Borinage there is a systematic destruction, pillage and
murder. The Belgian army drive them back from MaHnes and
Louvain is doomed. The Belgian army falling back and fighting
in retreat took refuge in the forts of Antwerp, and the burning
and sack of Hougaerde, Wavre, Ottignies, Grimde, Neerhnter,
Weert, St. George, Shaffen and Aerschot follow.
"The Belgian troops inflicted serious losses on the Germans
AN OBSERVATION POST
Watching the effect of gun fire from a sand-bagged ruin near the German Unes.
Photo by Trans-Atlantic News Service
KING ALBERT AT THE HEAD OF THE HEROIC SOLDIERS
OF BELGIUM
It is universally agreed that the Belgian monarch was no figurehead general
but a real leader of his troops. It was these men, facing annihilation, who
astonished the world by opjiosing the German military machine successfully
enough to allow France to get her armies into shape and prevent the immediate
taking of Paris that was planned by Germany.
THE TRAIL OF THE BEAST IN BELGIUM 97
in the South of the Province of Limbourg, and the towns of Lummen,
Bilsen, and Lanaeken are partially destroyed. Antwerp held out
for two months, and all about its outer line of fortifications there
was blood and fire, numerous villages were sacked and burned and
the whole town of Termonde was destroyed. During the battles
of September the village of Boortmeerbeek near MaHnes, occupied
by the Germans, was retaken by the Belgians, and when the Ger-
mans entered it again they burned forty houses. Three times
occupied by the Belgians and retaken by the Germans Boortmeer-
beek was three times punished in the same way. That is to say,
everywhere the German army met with a defeat it took it out,
as we say in America, on the civil population. And that is the
explanation of the German atrocities in Belgimn."
A committee of the highest honor and responsibility was
appointed by the British Government to investigate the whole
subject of atrocities in Belgium and Northern France. Its chair-
man was the Rt. Hon. Viscount James Bryce, formerly British
Ambassador to the United States. Its other members were the
Rt. Hon. Sir Frederick Pollock, the Rt. Hon. Sir Edward Clark,
Sir Alfred Hopkinson, Mr. H. A. L. Fisher, Vice-Chancellor of the
University of Sheffield, Mr. Harold Cox and Sir Kenelm E. Digby.
The report of the commission bears upon its face the stamp
of painstaking search for truth, substantiates every statement
made by Minister Whitlock and makes kno^n many horrible
instances of cruelty and barbarity. It makes the following deduc-
tions as having been proved beyond question:
1. That there were in many parts of Belgium deliberate and
systematically organized massacres of the civil population, accom-
panied by many isolated murders and other outrages.
2. That in the conduct of the war generally innocent civiHans,
both men and women, were murdered in large numbers, women
violated, and children murdered.
3. That looting, house burning, and the wanton destruction
of property were ordered and countenanced by the ofiicers of the
German army, that elaborate provision had been made for system-
atic incendiarism at the very outbreak of the war, and that the
burnings and destruction were frequent where no mihtary necessity
could be alleged, being, indeed, part of a system of general terrori-
zation.
98 HISTORY OF THEi WORLD WAR
4. That the rules and usages of war were frequently broken,
particularly by the using of civilians, including women and children,
as a shield for advancing forces exposed to fire, to a less degree by
killing the wounded and prisoners and in the frequent abuse of the
Red Cross and the white flag.
The Bryce Commission's report on the destruction of Dinant
is an example of testimony laid before them. It follows:
"A clear statement of the outrages at Dinant, which many
travelers will recall as a singularly picturesque town on the Meuse,
is given by one witness, who says that the Germans began burning
houses in the Rue St. Jacques on the 21st of August, and that
every house in the street was burned. On the following day an
engagement took place between the French and the Germans,
and the witness spent the whole day in the cellar of a bank with
his wife and children. On the morning of the 23d, about 5 o'clock,
firing ceased, and almost immediately afterward a party of Germans
came to the house. They rang the bell and began to batter at
the door and windows. The witness' wife went to the door and
two or three Germans came in. The family were ordered out into
the street. There they foimd another family, and the two families
were driven with their hands above their heads along the Rue
Grande. All the houses in the street were burning.
*'The party was eventually put into a forge where there were
a number of other prisoners, about a hundred in all, and were
kept there from 11 a. m. till 2 p. m. They were then taken to the
prison. There they were assembled in a courtyard and searched.
No arms were found. They were then passed through into the
prison itself and put into cells. The witness and his wife were
separated from each other. During the next hour the witness
heard rifle shots continually and noticed in the comer of a court-
yard leading off the row of cells the body of a young man with a
mantle thrown over it. He recognized the mantle as having
belonged to his wife. The witness' daughter was allowed to go
out to see what had happened to her mother, and the witness him-
self was allowed to go across the courtyard half an hour afterward
for the same purpose. He found his wife Ijdng on the floor in a
roonL She had bullet wounds in four places but was alive and
told her husband to return to the children and he did so.
"About 6 o'clock in the evening, he saw the Germans bringing
THE TRAIL OF THE BEAST IN BELGIUM 99
out all the young and middle-aged men from the cells, and rangmg
then- prisoners, to the number of forty, in three rows in the middle
of the courtyard. About twenty Germans were drawn up opposite,
but before anything was done there was a tremendous fusillade
from some point near the prison and the civiUans were hurried
back to their cells. Half an hour later the same forty men were
brought back into the courtyard. Almost immediately there was
,a second fusillade and they were driven back to the cells again.
"About 7 o'clock the witness and other prisoners were brought
out of their cells and marched out of the prison. They went between
two lines of troops to Roche Bayard, about a kilometer away.
An hour later the women and children were separated and the
prisoners were brought back to Dinant passing the prison on their
way. Just outside the prison, the witness saw three lines of bodies
which he recognized as being those of his neighbors. They were
nearly all dead, but he noticed movement in some of tnem. There
were about one hundred and twenty bodies. The prisoners were
then taken up to the top of a hill outside Dinant and compelled to
stay there till 8 o'clock in the morning. On the following day they
were put into cattle trucks and taken thence to Coblenz. For
three months they remained prisoners in Germany.
"Unarmed civilians were killed in masses at other places near
the prison. About ninety bodies were seen lying on the top of one
another in a grass square opposite the convent. A witness asked
a German officer why her husband had been shot, and he told her
that it was because two of her sons had been in the civil guard and
had shot at the Germans. As a matter of fact, one of her sons
was at that time in Li^ge and the other in Brussels. It is stated
that besides the ninety corpses referred to above, sixty corpses of
civiHans were recovered from a hole in the brewery yard and that
forty-eight bodies of women and children were found in a garden.
The town was systematically set on fire by hand grenades. Another
witness saw a httle girl of seven, one of whose legs was broken
and the other injured by a bayonet. We have no reason to believe
that the civilian population of Dinant gave any provocation, or
that any other defense can be put forward to justify the treatment
inflicted upon its citizens."
The Bryce Commission reports the outrages in a nimaber of
Belg^n villages in this terse fashion:
100 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
''In Hofstade a number of houses had been set on fire and
many corpses were seen, some in houses, some in back yards, and
some in the streets. Two witnesses speak of having seen the body
of a young man pierced by bayonet thrusts with the wrists cut
also. On a side road the corpse of a civiUan was seen on his door-
step with a bayonet wound in his stomach and by his side the
dead body of a boy of five or six with his hands nearly severed.
The corpses of a woman and boy were seen at the blacksmith's..
They had been killed with the bayonet. In a caf^, a young man,
also killed with the bayonet, was holding his hands together as if
in the attitude of suppHcation.
"In the garden of a house iu the main street, bodies of two
women were observed, and in another house, the body of a boy
of sixteen with two bayonet wounds in the chest. In Sempst a
similar condition of affairs existed. Houses were burning and in
some of them were the charred remains of civiHans. In a bicycle
shop a witness saw the burned corpse of a man. Other witnesses
speak of this incident. Another civiUan, unarmed, was shot as
he was running away. As will be remembered, aU the arms had
been ^ven up some time before by the order of the burgomaster.
"At Y/eerde fom* corpses of civilians were lying in the road.
It was said that these men had fired upon the German soldiers;
but this is denied. The arms had been given up long before.
Two children were killed in the village of Weerde, quite wantonly
as they were standing in the road with their mother. They were
three or four years old and were killed with the bayonet. A small
barn burning close by formed a convenient means of getting rid
of bodies. They were thrown into the flames from the bayonets.
It is right to add that no commissioned officer was present at the
time. At Eppeghem, on August 25th, a pregnant woman who had
been wounded with a bayonet was discovered in the convent.
She was dying. On the road six dead bodies of laborers were seen.
"At Boortmeerbeek a German soldier was seen to fire three
times at a httle girl five years old. Having failed to hit her, he
subsequently bayoneted her. He was killed with the butt end
of a rifle by a Belgian soldier who had seen him commit this murder
from a distance. At Herent the charred body of a ci\aHan was
found in a butcher's shop, and in a handcart twenty yards away
was the dead body of a laborer. Two eye witnesses relate that a
THE TRAIL OF THE BEAST IN BELGIUM 101
German soldier shot a civilian and stabbed him with a bayonet
as he lay. He then made one of these witnesses, a civilian prisoner,
smell the blood on the bayonet. At Haecht the bodies of ten
civilians were seen lying in a row by a brewery wall. In a laborer's
house, which had been broken up, the mutilated corpse of a woman
of thirty to thirty-five was discovered."
Concerning the treatment of women and children in general,
the report continues: *'The evidence shows that the German
authorities, when carrying out a poHcy of systematic arson and
plunder in selected districts, usually drew some distinction between
the adult male population on the one hand and the women and
children on the other. It was a frequent practice to set apart the
adult males of the condemned district with a view to the execution
of a suitable number — preferably of the younger and more vigorous
—and to reserve the women and children for milder treatment.
The depositions, however, present many instances of calculated,
cruelty, often going the length of murder, toward the women and
children of the condenmed area.
"At Dinant sixty women and children were confined in the
cellar of a convent from Sunday morning till the following Friday,
August 28th, sleeping on the ground, for there were no beds, with
nothing to drink during the whole period, and given no food until
Wednesday, w^hen somebody threw into the cellar two sticks of
macaroni and a carrot for each prisoner. In other cases the women
and children were marched for long distances along roads, as, for
instance, the march of the women from Louvain to Tirlemont,
August 28th, the laggards pricked on by the attendant Uhlans.
A lady complains of having been brutally kicked by privates.
Others were struck at with the butt end of rifles. At Louvain,
at Liege, at Aerschot, at Malines, at Montigny, at Andenne, and
elsewhere, there is evidence that the troops were not restrained
from drunkenness, and drunken soldiers cannot be trusted to
observe the rules or decencies of war, least of all when they are
called upon to execute a preordained plan of arson and pillage.
From the very first women were not safe. At Lidge women and
children were chased about the streets by soldiers.
''Witnesses recount how a great crowd of i?ien, women and
children from Aerschot were marched to Louvain, and then sud-
denly exposed to a fire from a mitrailleuse and rifles. 'We were
102 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
all placed/ recounts a sufferer, 'in Station Street, Louvain, and
the German soldiers fired on us. I saw the corpses of some women
in the street. I fell down, and a woman who had been shot fell
on top of me.' Women and children suddenly turned out into
the streets, and, compelled to witness the destruction of their
homes by fire, provided a sad spectacle to such as were sober enough
to see.
"A humane German officer, witnessing the ruin of Aerschot,
exclaimed in disgust : ' I am a father myseK, and I cannot bear this.
It is not w^ar but butchery.* Officers as well as men succumbed
to the temptation of drink, with results which may be illustrated
by an incident which occurred at Campenhout. In this village
there was a certain well-to-do merchant (name given) who had a
cellar of good champagne. On the afternoon of the 14th or 15th
of August three German cavalry officers entered the house and
demanded champagne. Having drunk ten bottles and invited
five or six officers and three or four private soldiers to join them^
they continued their carouse, and then called for the master and
mistress of the house.
" 'Immediately my mistress came in,' says the valet de cham-
bre, 'one of the officers who was sitting on the floor got up, and, put-
ting a revolver to my mistress' temple, shot her dead. The officer
was obviously drunk. The other officers continued to drink and
sing, and they did not pay any great attention to the killing of my
mistress. The officer who shot my mistress then told my master
to dig a grave and bury my mistress. My master and the officer
went into the garden, the officer threatening my master with a
pistol. My master was then forced to dig the grave and to bury
my mistress in it. I cannot say for what reason they killed my
mistress. The officer who did it was singing all the time.'
"In the evidence before us there are cases tending to show
that aggravated crimes against women were sometimes severely
pimished. One witness reports that a young girl who was being
pursued by a drunken soldier at Louvain appealed to a German
officer, and that the offender was then and there shot. Another
describes how an officer of the Thirty-second Regiment of the Line
was led out to execution for the violation of two young girls, but
reprieved at the request or with the consent of the girls' mother.
These instances are sufficient to show that the maltreatment of
THE TRAIL OF THE BEAST IN BELGIUM 103
women was no part of the military scheme of the invaders, however
much it may appear to have been the inevitable result of the
system of terror dehberately adopted in certain regions. Indeed,
so much is avowed. 'I asked the commander why we had been
spared,' says a lady in Louvain, who deposes to having suffered
much brutal treatment during the sack. He said: 'We will not
hurt you any more. Stay in Louvain. All is finished.' It was
Saturday, August 29th, and the reign of terror was over.
*'The Germans used men, women and children of Belgium as
screens for advancing infantry, as is shown in the following: Out-
side Fort Fleron, near Li^ge, men and children were marched in
front of the Germans to prevent the Belgian soldiers from firing.
The progress of the Germans through Mons was marked by many
incidents of this character. Thus, on August 22d, haK a dozen
Belgian colHers retiuning from work were marching in front of
some German troops who were pursuing the English, and in the
opinion of the witnesses, they must have been placed there inten-
tionally. An English officer describes how he caused a barricade
to be erected in a main thoroughfare leading out of Mons, when
the Germans, in order to reach a crossroad in the rear, fetched
civifians out of the houses on each side of the main road and com-
pelled them to hold up white flags and act as cover.
"Another British officer who saw this incident is convinced
that the Germans were acting dehberately for the purpose of
protecting themselves from the fire of the British troops. Apart
from this protection, the Germans could not have advanced, as
the street was straight and commanded by the British rifle fire
at a range of 700 or 800 yards. Several British soldiers also speak
of this incident, and their story is confirmed by a Flemish witness
in a side street."
The French Government also appointed a commission, headed
by M. Georges Payelle. This body made an investigation of
outrages committed by German officers and soldiers in Northern
France. Its report showed conditions that outstripped in horror
the war tactics of savages. It makes the following accusations:
"In Rebais, two EngUsh cavalrymen who were smprised and
wounded in this commune were finished off with gunshots by the
Germans when they were dismounted and when one of them had
thrown up his hands, showing thus that he was unarmed.
104 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
"In the department of the Maxne, as everywhere else, the
German troops gave themselves up to general pillage, which was
carried out always under similar conditions and with the complicity
of their leaders. The Communes of Heiltz-le-Maurupt, Suippes,
Marfaux, Fromentieres and Estemay suffered especially in this
way. Everything which the invader could carry off from the
houses was placed on motor lorries and vehicles. At Suippes, in
particular, they carried off in this way a quantity of different
objects, among these sewing machines and toys. A great many
villages, as well as important country towns, were burned without
any reason whatever. Without doubt, these crimes were com-
mitted by order, as German detachments arrived in the neighborhood
with their torches, their grenades, and their usual outfit for arson.
"At Marfaux nineteen private houses were burned. Of the
Commime of Glannes practically nothing remains. At Somme-
Tourbe the entire village has been destroyed, with the exception
of the Mairie, the church and two private buildings. At Auve
nearly the whole town has been destroyed. At Etrepy sixty-
three families out of seventy are homeless. At Huiron all of the
houses, with the exception of five have been burned. At Sermaize-
les-Bains only about forty houses out of 900 remain. At Bignicourt-
sur-Saultz thirty houses out of thirty-three are in ruins.
"At Suippes, the big market towTi which has been practically
burned out, German soldiers carrying straw and cans of petrol
have been seen in the streets. While the mayor's house was burn-
ing, six sentinels with fixed bayonets were under orders to forbid
anyone to approach and to prevent any help being given.
"All this destruction by arson, which only represents a small
proportion of the acts of the same kind in the Department of
Seine-et-Marne, was accomplished without the least tendency to
rebelHon or the smallest act of resistance being recorded against
the inhabitants of the locaUties which are today more or less com-
pletely destroyed. In some villages the Germans, before setting
fire to them made one of their soldiers fire a shot from his rifle so
as to be able to pretend afterward that the civilian population had
attacked them, an allegation which is all the more absurd since
at the time when the enemy arrived, the only inhabitants left
were old men, sick persons, or people absolutely without any means
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THE TRAIL OF THE BEAST IN BELGIUM 107
"Numerous crimes against the person have also been com-
mitted. In the majority of the communes hostages have been
taken away; many of them have not returned. At Sermaize-
les-Bains, the Germans carried off about one hundred and fifty
people, some of whom were decked out with helmets and coats and
compelled, thus equipped, to mount guard over the bridges.
"At Bignicourt-sur-Saultz thirty men and forty-five women
and children were obliged to leave with a detachment. One of
the men — a certain Emile Pierre — has not returned nor sent any
news of himself. At Corfelix, M. Jacqet, who was carried off on
the 7th of September with eleven of his fellow-citizens, was found
five hundred meters from the village with a bullet in his head.
"At Champuis, the cure, his maid-servant, and four other
inhabitants who were taken away on the same day as the hostages
of Corfelix had not returned at the time of our visit to the place.
"At the same place an old man of seventy, named Jacquemin,
was tied down in his bed by an officer and left in this state without
food for three days. He died a little time after. At Vert-la-
Gravelle a farm hand was killed. He was struck' on the head with
a bottle and his chest was run through with a lance. The garde
champetre Brulefer of le Gault-la-Foret was murdered at Maclau-
nay, where he had been taken by the Germans. His body was
found with his head shattered and a wound on his chest.
"At Champguyon, a commune which has been fired, a certain
Verdier was killed in his father-in-law's house. The latter was
not present at the execution, but he heard a shot and next day
an officer said to him, 'Son shot. He is under the ruins.' In
spite of the search made the body has not been found among them.
It must have been consumed in the fire.
"At Sermaize, the roadmaker, Brocard, was placed among a
number of hostages. Just at the moment when he was being
arrested with his son, his wife and his daughter-in-law in a state
of panic rushed to throw themselves into the Saulx. The old man
was able to free himself for a moment and ran in all haste after
them and made several attempts to save them, but the Germans
dragged him away pitilessly, leaving the two wretched women
struggling in the river. When Brocard and his son were restored to
Uberty, four days afterward, and found the bodies, they discovered
that their wives had both received bullet wounds in the head.
108 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
"At Triaucourt the Germans gave themselves up to the worst
excesses. Angered doubtless by the remark which an officer had
addressed to a soldier, against whom a young girl of nineteen, Mile.
Helene Proces, had made complaint of on account of the indecent
treatment to which she had been subjected, they burned the village
and made a systematic massacre of the inhabitants. They began
by setting fire to the house of an inoffensive householder, M.
Jules Gand, and by shooting this unfortunate man as he was leaving
his house to escape the flames. Then they dispersed among the
houses in the streets, firing off their rifles on every side. A young
man, seventeen years, Georges Lecourtier, who tried to escape, was
shot. M. Alfred Lallemand suffered the same fate. He was pursued
into the kitchen of his fellow-citizen TauteHer, and murdered
there, while Tautelier received three bullets in his hand.
"Fearing, not without reason, for their lives, Mile. Proces,
her mother and her grandmother of seventy-one and her old aunt
of eighty-one, tried to cross the trellis which separates their garden
from a neighboring property with the help of a ladder. The young
girl alone was able to reach the other side and to avoid death by
hiding in the cabbages. As for the other women, they were struck
down by rifle shots. The village cui6 collected the brains of the
aunt on the ground on which they were strewn and had the bodies
carried into Proces* house, i^. During the following night, the
Germans played the piano near the bodies.
"While the carnage raged, the fire rapidly spread and devoured
thirty-five houses. An old man of seventy and a child of two
months perished in the flames. M. Igier, who was trying to save
his cattle, was pursued for 300 meters by soldiers, who fired at him
ceaselessly. By a miracle this man had the good fortune not to
be wounded, but five bullets went through his clothing."
This summary merely hints at the atrocities that were per-
petrated. And these are the crimes that France and Belgium will
remember after indemnities have been paid, after borders have been
re-established and after generations shall have past. The horrors
of blazing villages, of violated womanhood, of mutilated childhood,
of stark and senseless butcheries, will flash before the minds of
French and Belgian men and women when Germany's name shall
be mentioned long after the declaration of peace.
Schrecklichkeit had its day. It took its bloody toll of the
THE TRAIL OF THE BEAST IN BELGIUM 109
fairest and bravest of two gallant nations. It ravaged Poland
as well and wreaked its fiendish will on wounded soldiers on the
battle-fields.
But SchrecklichkeU is dead. Belgium and France have
shown that murder and rape and arson can not destroy Uberty
nor check the indomitable ambitions of the free peoples of earth.
The lesson to Germany was taught at a terrible cost to
humanity, but it was taught in a fashion that nations hereafter
who shall dream of emulating the Hun will know in advance that
frightfulness serves no end except to feed the lust for destruction
that exists only in the most debased and brutish of men.
CHAPTER VII
The FmsT Battle of the Makne
FRANCE and civilization were saved by Joffre and Foch
at the first battle of the Marne, in September, 1914.
Autocracy was destroyed by Foch at the second battle
of the Marne, in July, 1918.
This in a nutshell embraces the dramatic opening and closing
episodes of the World War on the soil of France. Bracketed
between these two glorious victories were the agonies of martyred
France, the deaths and life-long cripplings of milUons of men, the
up-rooting of arrogant militarism, the hberation of captive nations.
The first battle of the Marne was wholly a French operation.
The British were close at hand, but had no share in the victory.
Generals GalHeni and Manoury, acting under instructions from
Marshal Joffre, were driven by automobile to the headquarters
of the British commander. Sir John French, in the village of
Melun. They explained in detail General Joffre's plan of attack
upon the advancing German army. An urgent request was made
that the British army halt its retreat, face about, and attack the
two corps of von Kluck's army then confronting the British.
Simultaneously with this attack General Manoury's forces were
to fall upon the flank and the rear guard of von Kluck along the
River Ourcq. This operation was planned for the next day, Sep-
tember 5th. Sir John French repHed that he could not get his tired
army in readiness for battle within forty-eight hours. This would
delay the British attack in all probabihty until September 7th.
Joffre's plan of battle, however, would admit of no delay.
The case was urgent; there was grave danger of a union between
the great forces headed by the Crown Prince and those under
von Kluck. He resolved to go ahead without the British, and
ordered Manoury to strike as had been planned.
He fixed as an extreme limit for the movement of retreat, which
was still going on, the line of Bray-sur-Seine, Nogent-sur-Seine,
Arcis-sur-Aube, Vitry-le-Frangois, and the region to the north of
no
Underwood and Vnderwood, N . Y.
GENERAL PERSHING AND MARSHAL JOFFRE
The Commander-in-Chief of the American Expeditionary Forces chatting with the
veteran Marshal of France, the hero of the first battle of the Marne.
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MARSHAL FERDINAND FOCH, GENERALISSIMO OF THE ALLIED
ARMIES
No leader could command greater confidence than the brilliant strategist to
whom was mainly due the great victory of the Marne in the first autumn of the war.
He also directed the French offensive on the Somme in 1916 and in November, 1917,
he was chosen as the French representative and subsequently chairman of the
Central Military Committee appointed to assist the Supreme Allied War Council.
Marshal Foch was formerly for five years lecturer on strategy and tactics at the
Ecole de Guerre. At the close of the "war he said to the Allied' armies : "You have
won the greatest battle in history and saved the most sacred cause — the liberty of
the world."
THE FIRST BATTLE OF THE MARNE 113
Bar-le-Duc. This line might be reached if the troops were compelled
to go back so far. They would attack before reaching it, as soon
as there was a possibility of bringing about an offensive disposition,
permitting the co-operation of the whole of the French forces.
On September 5 it appeared that this desired situation existed.
The First German army, carrying audacity to temerity, had
continued its endeavor to envelop the French left, had crossed the
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Grand Morin, and reached the region of Chauffry, to the south
of Rebais and of Esternay. It aimed then at cutting Joffre
off from Paris, in order to begin the investment of the capital.
The Second army had its head on the line Champaubert,
Etoges, Berg^res, and Vertus.
The Third and Fourth armies reached to Ch^lons-sur-Marne
and Bussy-le-Repos. The Fifth army was advancing on one side
and the other from the Argonne as far as Triacourt-les-Isiettes and
Juivecourt. The Sixth and Seventh armies were attacking more
to the east.
114 inSTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
The French left army had been able to occupy the line Sezanne,
Villers-St. Georges and Courchamps. This was precisely the dis-
position which the General-in-Chief had wished to see achieved.
On the 4th he decided to take advantage of it, and ordered all the
armies to hold themselves ready. He had taken from his right
two new army corps, two divisions of infantry, and two divisions
of cavalry, which were distributed between his left and his center.
On the evening of the 5th he addressed to all the commanders
of armies a message ordering them to attack.
"The hour has come," he wrote, 'Ho advance at all costs,
and to die where you stand rather than give way."
If one examines the map, it will be seen that by his inflection
toward Meaux and Coulommiers General von Kluck was exposing
his right to the offensive action of the French left. This is the
starting point of the victory of the Mame.
On the evening of September 5th the French left army had
reached the front Penchard-Saint-Souflet-Ver. On the 6th and
7th it continued its attacks vigorously with the Ourcq as objective.
On the evening of the 7th it was some kilometers from the Ourcq,
on the front Chambry-Marcilly-Lisieux-Acy-en-Multien. On the
8th, the Germans, who had in great haste reinforced their right
by bringing their Second and Fourth army corps back to the
north, obtained some successes by attacks of extreme violence.
But in spite of this pressiu*e the French held their ground. In a
briUiant action they took three standards, and being reinforced
prepared a new attack for the 10th. At the moment that this
attack was about to begin the enemy was already in retreat toward
the north. The attack became a pursuit, and on the 12th the
French estabUshed themselves on the Aisne.
Why did the German forces which were confronting the French,
and on the evening before attacking so furiously, retreat on the
morning of the 10th? Because in bringing back on the 6th several
army corps from the south to the north to face the French left,
the enemy had exposed his left to the attacks of the now rested
British, who had immediately faced around toward the north,
and to those of the French armies which were prolonging the English
lines to the right. This is what the French command had sought
to bring about. This is what happened on September 8th and
allowed the development and rehabiUtation which it was to effect.
THE FIRST BATTLE OF THE MARNE 115
On the 6th the British army set out from the line Rozcy-Lagny
and that evening reached the southward bank of the Grand Morin,
On the 7th and 8th it continued its march, and on the 9th had
debouched to the north of the Mame below Chdteau-Thierry —
the town that was to become famous for the American stand in 1018
— taking in flank the German forces which on that day were oppos-
ing, on the Ourcq, the French left army. Then it was that these
forces began to retreat, while the British army, going in pursuit
and capturing seven guns and many prisoners^ reached the Aisne
between Soissons and Longueval.
The r61e of the French army, which was operating to^the right
of the British army, was threefold. It had to support the British
attacking on its left. It had on its right to support the center,
which, from September 7th, had been subjected to a German attack
of great violence. Finally, its mission was to throw back the
three active army corps and the reserve corps which faced it.
On the 7th, it made a leap forward, and on the following days
reached and crossed the Mame, seizing, after desperate fighting,
guns, howitzers, mitrailleuses, and a million cartridges. On the
12th it estabHshed itself on the north edge of the Montagne-de-
Reime in contact with the French center, which. for its part had
just forced the enemy to retreat in haste.
The French center consisted of a new army created on
August 29th and of one of those which at the beginning of the cam-
paign had been engaged in Belgian Luxemburg. The first had
retreated, on August 29th to September 5th, from the Aisne to the
north of the Mame and occupied the general front Sezanne-Mailly.
The second, more to the east, had drawn back to the south
of the line Humbauville-Chateau-Beauchamp-Bignicourt-Blesmes-
Maumpt-le-Montoy.
The enemy, in view of his right being arrested and the defeat
of his enveloping movement, made a desperate effort from the 7th
to the 19th to pierce the French center to the west and to the east
of Fere-Champenoise. On the 8th he succeeded in forcing back
the right of the new French army, which retired as far as Gouragan-
9on. On the 9th, at 6 o'clock in the morning, there was a further
retreat to the south of that village, while on the left the other
army corps also had to go back to the line Allemant-Connantre.
Despite this retreat General Foch, commanding the army of
116 HISTORY OF THE VvORLD WAR
the center, ordered a general offensive for the same day. With the
Morocco division, whose behavior was heroic, he met a furious
assault of the Germans on his left toward the marshes of Saint
Gond. Then, with the divisions which had just victoriously over-
come the attacks of the enemy to the north of Sezanne, and with
the whole of his left army corps, he made a flanking attack in the
evening of the 9th upon the German forces, and notably the guard,
which had thrown back his right army corps. The enemy, taken
by surprise by this bold maneuver, did not resist, and beat a hasty
retreat. This marked Foch as the most daring and brilliant
strategist of the war.
On the 11th the French crossed the Mame between Tours-sur-
Marne and Sarry, driving the Germans in front of them in dis-
order. On the 12th they were in contact with the enemy to the
north of the Camp de Chalons. The reserve army of the center,
acting on the right of the one just referred to, had been intrusted
with the mission during the 7th, 8th, and 9th of disengaging its
neighbor, and it was only on the 10th that being reinforced by an
army corps from the east, it was able to make its action effectively
felt. On the 11th the Germans retired. But, perceiving their
danger, they fought desperately, with enormous expenditure of
projectiles, behind strong intrenchments. On the 12th the result
had none the less been attained, and the two French center armies
were solidly established on the ground gained.
To the right of these two armies were three others. They
had orders to cover themselves to the north and to debouch toward
the west on the flank of the enemy, which was operating to the
west of the Argonne. But a wide interval in which the Germans
were in force separated them from the French center. The attack
took place, nevertheless, with very brilliant success for the French
artillery, which destroyed eleven batteries of the Sixteenth German
army corps.
On the 10th inst., the Eighth and Fifteenth German army
corps counter-attacked, but were repulsed. On the 11th French
progress continued with new successes, and on the 12th the French
were able to face round toward the north in expectation of the
near and inevitable retreat of the enemy, which, in fact, took
place from the 13th.
The withdrawal of the mass of the German force involved
THE FIRST BATTLE OF THE MARNE 117
also that of the left. From the 12th onward the forces of the
enemy operating between Nancy and the Vosges retreated m a
hurry before the two French armies of the East, which immediately
occupied the positions that the enemy had evacuated. The
offensive of the French right had thus prepared and consolidated
in the most useful way the result secured by the left and center.
Such was this seven days' battle, in which more than two
millions of men were engaged. Each army gained ground step by
step, opening the road to its neighbor, supported at once by it,
taking in flank the adversary which the day before it had attacked
in front, the efforts of one articulating closely with those of the
other, a perfect unity of intention and method animating the
supreme command.
To give this victory all its meaning it is necessary to add that
it was gained by troops which for two weeks had been retreating,
and which, when the order for the offensive was given, were found
to be as ardent as on the first day. It has also to be said that these
troops had to meet the whole Germany army. Under their pres-
sure the German retreat at certain times had the appearance of a
rout.
In spite of the fatigue of the poilus, in spite of the power of
the German heavy artillery, the French took colors, guns, mitrail-
leuses, shells, and thousands of prisoners. One German corps
lost almost the whole of its artillery.
In that great battle the spectacular rush of General Gallieni's
army defending Paris, was one of the dramatic surprises that decided
the issue. In that stroke Gallieni sent his entire force forty miles
to attack the right wing of the German army. In this gigantic
maneuver every motor car in Paris was utiHzed, and the flying
force of Gallieni became the "Army in Taxicabs," a name that will
Uve as long as France exists.
General Clergerie, Chief of Staff to Gallieni told the story for
posterity. He said:
"From August 26, 1914, the German armies had been descend-
ing upon Paris by forced marches. On September 1st they were
only three days' march from the advanced line of the intrenched
camp, which the garrison were laboring desperately to put into
condition for defense. It was necessary to cover with trenches a
circuit of 110 miles, install siege guns, assure the coming of sup-
118 raSTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
plies for them over narrow-gauge railways, assemble the food and
provisions of all kinds necessary for a city of 4,000,000 inhabitants.
"But on September 3d, the intelligence service, which was
working perfectly, stated, about the middle of the day, that the
German columns, after heading straight for Paris, were swerving
toward the southeast and seemed to wish to avoid the fortified
camp.
*' General Gallieni and I then had one of those long conferences
which denoted grave events; they usually lasted from two to five
minutes at most. The fact is that the military government of
Paris did Uttle talking — it acted. The conference reached this
conclusion: 'If they do not come to us, we will go to them with all
the force we can muster.' Nothing remained but to make the
necessary preparations. The first thing to do was not to give the
alarm to the enemy. General Manoury's army immediately
received orders to He low and avoid any engagement that was not
absolutely necessary." Then care was taken to reinforce it by
every means. All was ready at the designated time.
In the night of September 3d, knowing that the enemy would
have to leave only a rear guard on one bank of the Ourcq, General
GaUieni and General Clergerie decided to march against that
rear guard, to drive it back with all the weight of the Manoury
army, to cut the enemy's communications, and take full advantage
of his hazardous situation. Immediately the following order was
addressed to General Manoury:
Because of the movement of the German armies, which seem to be
slipping in before our front to the southeast, I intend to send your army
to attack them in the flank, that is to say, in an easterly direction. I will
indicate your line of march as soon as I learn that of the British army.
But make your arrangements now so that your troops shall be ready to
march this afternoon and to begin a general movement east of the
intrenched camp tomorrow.
At ten in the morning a consultation was held by Generals
Gallieni, Clergerie, and Manoury, and the details of the plan of
operations were immediately decided. General Joffre gave per-
mission to attack and announced that he would himself take the
offensive on the 6th. On the 5th, at noon, the army from Paris
fired the first shot; the battle of the Ourcq, a preface to the Mame,
had begun.
THE FIRST BATTLE OF THE MARNE 119
General Clergerie then told what a precious purveyor of infor-
mation he had found in General von der Marwitz, cavalry com-
mander of the German first army, who made intemperate use
of the wireless telegraph and did not even take the trouble to put
into cipher his dispatches, of which the Eiffel Tower made a careful
collection. "In the evening of September 9th," he said, "an
officer of the inteUigence corps brought me a dispatch from thi^.
same Marwitz couched in something like these terms: 'Tell me
exactly where you are and what you are doing. Hurry up, because
XXX.' The officer was greatly embarrassed to interpret those
three X's. Adopting the language of the poilu, I said to him,
^Translate it, 'T am going to bolt." ' True enough, next day we
found on the site of the German batteries, which had been pre-
cipitately evacuated, stacks of munitions; while by the roadside
we came upon motors abandoned for the slightest breakdown, and
near Betz almost the entire outfit of a field bakery, with a great
store of flour and dough half-kneaded. Paris and France were
saved.
"Von Kluck could not get over his astonishment. He has
tried to explain it by saying he was unlucky, for out of a hundred
governors not one would have acted as Gallieni did, throwing his
whole available force nearly forty miles from his stronghold. It
was downright imprudence.''
CHAPTER VIII
Japan in the War
N AUGUST 15, 1914, the Empire of Japan issued an
ultimatum to Germany. She demanded the evacuation
of Tsing-tau, the disarming of the warships there and
the handing over of the territory to Japan for ultimate
reversion to China. The time limit for her reply was set at
12 o'clock, August 24th. To this ultimatum Germany made no
reply, and at 2.30 p. m., August 23d, the German Ambassador
was handed his passports and war was declared.
The reason for the action of Japan was simple. She was bound
by treaty to Great Britain to come to her aid in any war in which
Great Britain might be involved. On August 4th a note was
received from Great Britain requesting Japan to safeguard British
shipping in the Far East. Japan replied that she could not guarantee
the safety of British shipping so long as Germany was in occupation
of the Chinese province of Tsing-tau. She suggested in turn that
England agree to allow her to remove this German menace. The
British Government agreed, on the condition that Tsing-tau be
subsequently returned to China.
The Japanese Government in taking this stand was acting
with courage and with loyalty. Toward individual Germans she
entertained no animosity. She had the highest respect for German
scholarship and German military science. She had been sending
her young men to Geiman seats of learning, and had based the
reorganization of her army upon the German mihtary system. But
she did not believe that a treaty was a mere ''scrap of paper,"
and was determined to fulfil her obhgations in the treaty with
England.
It seems to have been the opinion of the highest Japanese
military authorities that Germany would win the war. Japan's
statesmen, however, believed that Germany was a menace to both
China and Japan and had lively recollections of her unfriendly
attitude in connection with the Chino-Japanese war and in the period
120
JAPAN IN THE WAR 121
that followed. Germany had been playing the same game in China
that she had played in the Mediterranean and which had ultimately
brought about the war.
The Chino-Japanese war had been a great Japanese triumph.
One of Japan's greatest victories had been the capture of Port
Arthur, but the joy caused in Japan had not ended before it was
turned into mourning because of German interference. Germany
had then compelled Japan to quit Port Arthur, and to hand over
that great fort to Russia so that she herself might take Kiao-chau
without Russia's objection.
Japan had never forgotten or for^ven. The German seizure
of Kiao-chau had led to the Russian occupation of Port Arthur,
the British occupation of Wei-hai-wei and French occupation of
Kwan-chow Bay. The vultures were swooping down on defenseless
China. This had led to the Boxer disturbance of 1910, where
again the Kaiser had interfered.
Japan, who recognized that her interests and safety were
closely allied with the preservation of the territorial integrity of
China, had proposed to the powers that she be permitted to send
her troops to the rescue of the beleaguered foreigners, but this
proposition was refused on account of German suspicion of Japan's
motives. Later on, during the Russo-Japanese war, Russia was
assisted in many ways by the German Government.
Furthermore, the popular sympathy with the Japanese was
strongly with the Allies. It was the Kaiser who started the cry
of the ''yellow peril," which had deeply hurt Japanese pride. Yet,
even with this strong feeling, it was remarkable that Japan was
willing to ally herself with Russia. She knew very well that after
all the greatest danger to her liberties lay across the Japan Sea.
Russian autocracy, with its militarism, its rehgious intolerance, its
discriminating policy against foreign interests in commerce and
trade, was the natural opponent of liberal Japan.
The immediate object of Japan in joining hands with England
was to destroy the German menace in the Pacific. Before she
delivered her ultimatum the Germans had been active; ignoring
the rights of Japan while she was still neutral they had captured
a Russian steamer witliin Japanese jiudsdiction, as: well as a number
of British merchant vessels, and even a few Japanese ships had
been intercepted by German cruisers. This was the disturbance
122 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
to general peace in the Far East, which had prompted England to
request Japan's assistance.
Japan, when she entered the war, was at least twice as strong
as when she began the war with Russia. She had an army of one
miUion men, and a navy double the size of that which she had
possessed when the Treaty of Portsmouth was signed. As soon as
war was declared she proceeded to act. A portion of her fleet was
directed against the German forces in the Pacific, one squadron
occupying Jaluit, the seat of government of the Marshall Islands,
on October 3d, but her main forces were directed against the fortress
of Tsing-tau.
The Germans had taken great pride in Tsing-tau, and had
made every effort to make it a model colony as well as an impregna-
ble fortress. They had built costly water works, fine streets and
fine public buildings. They had been making great preparations
for a state of siege, although it was not expected that they would be
able to hold out for a long time. There were hardly more than
five thousand soldiers in the fortress, and in the harbor but four
small gunboats and an Austrian cruiser, the Kaiserin Elizabeth.
As Austria was not at war with Japan the authorization of Japan
was asked for the removal of the Kaiserin Elizabeth to Shanghai,
where she could be interned. The Japanese were favorable to this
proposition, but at the last moment instructions arrived from Vienna
directing the Austro-Hungarian Ambassador to ask for his pass-
ports at Tokio and the commander of the Kaiserin Elizabeth to
assist the Germans in the defense of Tsing-tau. The Germans also
received orders to defend their fortress to the very last. A portion of
the German squadron, under Admu'al von Spee, had sailed away
before the Japanese attack, one of these being the famous commerce
raider, the Emden.
On the 27th of August the Japanese made their first move by
taking possession of some of the small islands at the mouth of the
harbor of Kiao-chau. From these points as bases they swept the
surrounding waters for mines, with such success that during the
whole siege but one vessel of their fleet was injured by a mine-
On the 2d of September they landed troops at the northern base of
the peninsula upon which Tsing-tau was situated, with the object
of cutting off the fortress from the mainland.
The heavy rains which were customary at that season prevented
JAPAN IN THR WAR
123
much action, but airplanes were sent which dropped bombs upon
the wireless station, electric power station and railway station of
Kiao-chau, and upon the ships in the harbor. On September 13th
General Kamio captured the railway station of Kiao-chau which
stands at the head of the bay. This placed him twenty-two miles
from Tsmg-tau itseK. On September 27th he captured Prince
Heinrich Hill giving him a gun position from which he could attack
the inner forts. On the 23d a small British force anived from
Wei-hai-wei to co-operate with the Japanese.
The German Gibraltar in the Far East Which Fell to the Japanese
The combined forces then advanced until they were only five
miles from Tsing-tau. The German warships were bombarding
the Japanese troops fiercely, and were being replied to by the
Japanese squadron in the mouth of the harbor. The great waste
of German ammunition led General Kamio to the opinion that the
124 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
Germans did not contemplate a long siege. He then determined
on a vigorous assault.
Before the attack was made he gave the non-combatants an
opportunity of leaving, and on the 15th of October a number of
women and children and Chinese were allowed to pass through the
Japanese Unes. On October 31st the bombardment began, and the
German forts were gradually silenced. On November 2d the
Kaiserin Elizabeth was sunk in the harbor.
The Allied armies were pushing their way steadily down, until,
on November 6th, their trenches were along the edge of the last
German redoubts. At 6 o'clock on that day white flags were
floating over the central forts and by 7.30 Admiral Waldeck^ the
German Governor, had signed the terms of capitulation.
Germany's prize colony on the continent of Asia had dis-
appeared. The survivors, numbering about three thousand, were
sent to Japan as prisoners of war. Japanese losses were but two
hundred and thirty-six men killed. They had, however, lost one
third-class cruiser, the Takachiho, and several smaller crafts.
The whole expedition was a notable success. It had occupied much
less time than either Japan or Germany had expected, and the news
was received in Germany with a universal feeling of bitterness and
chagrin.
After the Japanese capture of Kiao-chau Japan's assistance to
the AUies, while not spectacular, was extremely important, and its
importance increased during the last two years of the war. Her
cruiser squadrons did continuous patrol duty in the Pacific and in
the China Sea and even in the Indian Ocean. She occupied three
groups of German Islands in the South Sea, assisted in driving
German raiders from the Pacific, and by her efficiency permitted
a withdrawal of British warships to points where they could be
useful nearer home. She patroUed the Pacific coast of North and,
South America, landed marines to quell riots at Singapore,
and finally entered into active service in Em-opean waters by send-
ing a destroyer squadron to the assistance of the Allies in the
Mediterranean.
But while the aid of Japan's navy was important to the Allies,
her greatest assistance to the Allied cause was what she did in
supplying Russia with military supplies. The tremendous struggle
carried on by Russia's forces during the first years prevented an
JAPAN IN THE WAR 125
easy German victory, and was only made possible through the
assistance of Japan. Enormous quantities of guns, ammunition,
military stores, hospital and Red Cross supplies, were sent into
Russia, with skilled officers and experts to accompany them.
In the last year of the war Japan once more came prominently
in the pubUc eye in connection with the effort made by the Allies
to protect from the Russian Bolsheviki vast stores of ammunition
which had been landed in ports of Eastern Siberia. She was com-
pelled to land troops to do this and to preserve order in locaUties
where her citizens were in danger. Upon the development of the
Czecho-Slovak movement in Eastern Siberia a Japanese force, in
association with troops from the United States and Great Britain,
was landed to protect the Czecho-Slovaks from Bolsheviki treachery.
These troops succeeded in their object, and throughout the latter
period of the war kept Eastern Siberia friendly to the AUied cause.
In this campaign there was but httle blood shed. The expedition
was followed by the strong sympathy of the allied world which w^as
full of admiration for the loyalty and courage of the Czecho-
slovaks and their heroic leaders.
CHAPTER IX
Campaign in the East
LONG before the declaration of war the German military experts
had made their plans. They recognized that in case of
. war with Russia, France would come to the rescue of its
ally. They hoped that Italy, and felt sure that England,
would remain neutral, but, no doubt, had provided for the possi-
bihty that these two nations would join the ranks of their foes.
They recognized that they would be compelled to fight against
greatly superior numbers, but they had this advantage, that they
were prepared to move at once, while England was unprepared,
and Russia, with enormous numbers, was so unprovided with rail-
road faciUties that it would take weeks before her armies would be
dangerous.
Their plan of campaign, then, was obvious. Leaving in the
east only such forces as were necessary for a strong defense, they
would throw the bulk of their strength against the French. They
anticipated an easy march to Paris, and then with France at their
mercy they would gather together all their powers and deal with
Russia. But they had underestimated both the French power of
resistance, and the Russian weakness, and in particular they had
not counted upon the check that they were to meet with in gallant
Belgium.
The Russian mobilization was quicker by far than had been
anticipated. Her armies were soon engaged with the compara-
tively small German forces, and met with great success.
To understand the Russian campaign one must have some
knowledge of the geography of western Russia. Russian Poland
projects as a great quadrilateral into eastern Germany. It is
bounded on the north by East Prussia, on the south by Galicia,
and the western part reaches deep into Germany itself. The
land is a broad, level plain, through which from south to north
runs the River Vistula. In the center lies the capital, Warsaw,
protected by a group of fortresses. The Russian army, therefore,
126
CAMPAIGN IN THE EAST 127
could not make a direct western advance until it had protected
its flanks by the conquest of East Prussia on the north, and Galicia
on the south.
By the beginning of the third week in August the first Russian
armies were ready. Her forces were arranged as follows: Facing
East Prussia was the Army of the Niemen, four corps strong; the
Army of Poland, consisting of fifteen army corps, occupied a wide
front from Narev on the north to the Bug Valley; a third army,
the Army of Galicia, directed its line of advance southward into
the country between Lemberg and the Piver Sareth. The fortresses
protecting Warsaw, still further to the east, were well garrisoned,
and in front of them to the west were troops intended to delay any
German advance from Posen. The Russian commander-in-chief
was the Grand Duke Nicholas, uncle of the late Czar, and one of
the most admirable representatives of the Russian at his best;
a splendid soldier, honest, straightforward, and patriotic, he was
the idol of his men. He had with him a brilliant staff, but the
strength of his army lay in its experience. They had learned war
in the bitter school of the Manchurian campaign.
The German force on the frontier was not less than five hundred
thousand men, and they were arranged for defense. Austria, in
GaHcia, had gathered nearly one million men under the auspices of
Frederick. The first movement of these armies took place in East
Prussia. The Army of the Niemen had completed its mobilization
early in August, and was under the command of General Rennen-
kampf, one of the Russian leaders in Manchuria. In command of
the German forces was General von Frangois, an officer of Huguenot
descent.
The first clash of these armies took place on the German
frontier near Libau, on August 8d. Two days later, the Russians
crossed the frontier, drove in the German advance posts, and seized
the railway which runs south and east of the Masurian Lakes.
The German force fell back, burning villages and destroying roads,
according to their usual plan. On the 7th of August the main
army of Rennenkampf crossed the border at Suwalki, advancing
in two main bodies : the Army of the Niemen moving north from
Suwalki, the Army of the Narev marching through the region of the
Masurian Lakes. In the lake district they advanced toward Boyen,
and then directed their march toward Insterburg.
128 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
To protect insterburg, General von Frangois made his first
stand at Gumbinnen, where, on the 16th of August, the first impor'-
tant battle of this campaign took place. The result was the defeat
and retirement of the Germans, and von Frangois was forced to
fall back on Koenigsberg.
Meantime, the Army of the Narev, under General Samsonov,
was advancing through the country west of the Masurian Lakes.
On the 20th his vanguard came upon a German army corps, strongly
entrenched at the northwest end of the lakes. The Germans were
defeated, and fled in great disorder toward Koenigsberg, abandoning
their guns and wagons. Many prisoners were taken, and the
Russians found themselves masters of all of East Prussia except
that inside the Koenigsberg line. They then marched on Koenigs-
berg, and East Prussia was for a moment at the mercy of the
conqueror.
Troops were left to invest Koenigsberg, and East Prussia was
overrun with the enemy. The report as to the behavior of these
troops met with great indignation in Germany; but better informa-
tion insists that they behaved with decorum and discretion. The
peasantry of East Prussia, remembering wild tales of the Cossacks
of a hundred years before, fled in confusion with stories of burning
and slaughter and outrage.
Germany became aroused. To thoroughly understand the
effect of the Russian invasion of East Prussia, one must know some-
thing of the relations of that district with the German Empire.
Historically, this was the cradle of the Prussian aristocracy, whose
dangerous policies had alarmed Europe for so many decades.
The Prussian aristocracy originated in a mixture of certain west
German and Christian knights, with a pagan population of the
eastern Baltic plain. The district was separate from Poland and
never fell under the PoUsh influence. It was held by the Teutonic
knights who conquered it in a sort of savage independence. The
Christian faith, which the Teutonic knights professed to inculcate,
took little root, but such civilization as Germany itself had absorbed
did filter in. The chief noble of Borussia, the governing Duke,
acquired in time the title of King, and it was here, not in Berlin,
nor in Brandenburg, that the HohenzoUem power originated.
East Prussia, therefore, had a sentimental importance in
the eyes of the Prussian nobility. The Prussian Royal House,
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132 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
in particular, had toward this country an especial regard. More-
over, it was regarded by the Germans as a whole as their rampart
against the Slav, a proof of the German power to withstand the
dreaded Russian. That this sacred soil should now be in the hands
of a Cossack army was not to be borne. The Kaiser acted at once.
Large forces were detached from the west and sent to the aid
of the eastern army. A new commander was appointed. He was
General von Hindenburg, a veteran of the Franco-Prussian War
who had been for some years retired. After his retirement he
devoted his time to the study of East Prussia, especially the ground
around the Masurian Lakes. He became more familiar with its
roads, its fields, its marshes, its bogs than any of the peasants who
spent their lives in the neighborhood of the lakes. Before his
retirement, in the annual maneuvers, he had often rehearsed his
defense against Russian invaders. Indeed report, perhaps
unfounded, described his retirement to the displeasure of the
Emperor William at being badly worsted in one of these mimic
combats. He had prevented the country from being cleared and
the swamps from being drained, arguing that they were worth
more to Germany than a dozen fortresses. A man of rugged
strength, his face suggesting power and tenacity, he was to become
the idol of the German people.
His chance had come. His army consisted of remnants of the
forces of von Francois and large reinforcements sent him from the
west. In all, perhaps, he had with him 150,000 men, and he had
behind him an admirable system of strategic railways.
The Russian High Command was fuU of confidence. Rennen-
kampf had advanced with the Army of the Niemen toward
Koenigsberg, whose fall was reported from time to time, without
foundation. Koenigsberg was in fact impregnable to armies no
stronger than those under Rennenkampf's command. Samsonov
with the Army of the Narev, had pushed on to the northeastern
point of the lakes, and defeated the German army corps at
Frankenau. Misled by his success, he decided to continue his
advance through the lake region toward Allenstein. He marched
first toward Osterode, in the wilderness of forest, lake and marsh,
between Allenstein and the Lower Vistula. His force numbered
200,000 men, but the swamps made it^impossible to proceed in mass,
His column had to be temporarily divided, nor was he well informed
CAMPAIGN IN THE EAST 133
as to the strength of his enemy. On Wednesday, the 26th of
August, his advance guards were everywhere driven in. As he
pushed on he discovered the enemy in great numbers, and late
in the day reaUzed that he was facing a great army.
Von Hindenburg had taken a position astride the railway from
Allenstein to Soldau, and all access to his front was barred by
lakes and swamps. He was safe from frontal attack, and could
reinforce each wing at pleasure. From his right ran the only two
good roads in the region, and at his left was the Osterode railway.
On the first day he stood on the defensive, while the Russians,
confident of victory, attacked again and again. Some ground was
won and prisoners captured, and the news of a second victory was
sent to western Europe.
The battle continued, however, until the last day of August
and is known as the battle of Tannenberg, from a village of that
name near the marshes. Having worn down his enemy, von
Hindenbm"g counter-attacked. His first movement was on his
right. This rot only deceived Samsonov and led him to reinforce
his left, but also enabled von Hindenburg to seize the only good
road that would give the Russian army a chance of retreat. Mean-
while the German general was hurrying masses of troops north-
eastward to outflank the Russian right. While the Russians were
reinforcing one flank, he was concentrating every man he could
upon the other. Then his left swept southward, dri\ing in and
enveloping the Russian right, and Samsonov was driven into a
country full of swamps and almost without roads.
To thoroughly understand the plight of the Russian army
one must have some idea of the character of the Masurian Lake
district. It was probably molded by the work of ice in the past.
Great glaciers, in their progress toward the sea, have ground out
hundreds of hollows, where are found small pools and consider-
able lakes. From these glaciers have been dropped patches of
clay which hold the waters in wide extents of marsh and bog.
The country presents a monotonous picture of low, rounded swells
and flats, interspersed with stunted pine and birch woods. The
marshes and the lakes form a* labyrinth, difficult to pass even to
those familiar with the country. The Masurian region is a great
trap for any commander who has not had unlimited acquaintance
with the place. Causeways, filled with great care, and railroads
134 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
permit an orderly advance, but in a confused retreat disaster at
once threatens.
This was the ground that von Hindenburg knew so well.
The Russians resisted desperately, but their position could not
be held. Disaster awaited them. They found their guns sinking
to the axle-trees in mire. Whole regiments were driven into the
lakes and drowned. On the last day of battle, August 31st, Sam-
sonov himself was killed, and his army completely destroyed.
Fifty thousand prisoners were taken with hundreds of guns and
quantities of supplies. Von Hindenburg had attained the triumph
of which he had so long dreamed.
It was an immensely successful example of that enveloping
movement characteristic of German warfare, a victory recalling
the battle of Sedan, and it was upon a scale not inferior to that
battle.
The news of this great triumph reached Berlin upon the anniver-
sary of the battle of Sedan, and on the same day that the news came
from the west that von Kluck had reached the gates of Paris and it
had a profound effect upon the German mind. They had grown to
beheve that the Germans were a sort of superman; these wonderful
successes confirmed them in this belief.
No longer did they talk of a mere defense in the east; an
advance on Warsaw was demanded and von Hindenburg was
acclaimed the greatest soldier of his day. The Emperor made him
Field Marshal, and placed him in command of the Teutonic armies
in the east.
But von Hindenburg was not satisfied. The remnant of the
defeated army had fled toward Narev, and without losing a moment
von Hindenburg set off in piu-suit. Rennenkampf, all this time,
strange to say, had made no move, and at the news of Samsonov's
disaster he abandoned the siege of Koenigsberg and retreated toward
the Niemen. At Gumbinnen he fought a rear-guard action with
the German left, but had made up his mind that the Niemen must
be the Russian line of defense. Von Hindenburg, following, crossed
the Russian frontier and in the wide forests near Augustovo there
was much fighting.
This action, described as the first battle of Augustovo, was only
a rear-guard action, the Russians desiring merely to delay the
enemy for a day or two. German reports, however, described it as
LEADING GERMAN GENERALS
Von Hindenburo;, Chief of the German General Staff; von Ludendorff,
Strategist of the General Staff; von Moltke, dismissed by the Kaiser for incom-
petency; von Mackensen, Commander in the East; Crown Prince Hupprecht of
Bavaria, Army Commander in the West.
CAMPAIGN IN THE EAST 137
a victory only second in importance to Tannenberg. Von Hinden-
burg then occupied Suwalki. He apparently had become over
confident, and hardly realized that Rennenkampf was continually
being reinforced by the Russian mobilization.
The Russian High Command understood the situation very
well. Their aim was to keep von Hindenburg busy on the Niemen,
while their armies in the south were overwhelming the fleeing
Austrians. Von Hindenburg was deceived, and continued his
advance until he got into serious trouble. His movement had begun
on September 7th; his army consisted of the four corps with which
he had won Tannenberg, and large reinforcements from Germany,
including at least one guards battalion, and a number of Saxons
and Bavarians. The country is one vast mixture of marsh and lake
and bog. The roads are few, and advance must therefore be slow
and difiicult. Rennenkampf made no attempt to delay him beyond
a little rear-guard fighting. The German army reached the Niemen
on September 21st, and found behind it the Russian army in pre-
pared positions, with large reinforcements from Vilna.
The river at this point was wide and deep, and hard to cross.
The battle of the Niemen Crossings was an artillery duel. The
Russians quietly waited in their trenches to watch the Germans
build their pontoon bridges. Then their guns blew the bridges to
pieces. Thereupon von Hindenburg bombarded the Russian lines
hoping to destroy the Russian guns. On Friday, the 26th, his guns
boomed all day; the Russians made no reply. So on the morning
of the 27th he built bridges again, and again the Russians blew them
to pieces. On the 28th he gave the order for retreat.
He realized that the game wasn't worth the candle; he might
easily be kept fighting on the Niemen for months, while the main
armies of the Russians were crossing Austria. Von Hindenburg
conducted the retreat with a skill which came to him naturally
from his knowledge of the marshes.
Rennenkampf followed him closely, keeping up persistent
attacks through the woods and marshes. The path of the retreating
army lay through the forest of Augustovo, a country much hke that
around the Masiuian Lakes, and there the Germans suffered heavy
losses. Von Hindenburg managed, however, to get the bulk of his
forces back across the frontier and continued his retreat to the
intrenchments on the IVIasurian Lakes.
138 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
The Germans lost 60,000 men in killed, woimded and prisoners,
and von Hindenburg handed over the command of the German
armies in East Prussia to General von Schubert, and hastened
south to direct the movement to reUeve the Austrians at Cracow.
But quite as important as the campaign in East Prussia was
the struggle in GaUcia. When the war began the Germans con-
templated merely defense in their own domain; such offense as
was planned was left to the Austrians farther south.
Galicia is a long, level country lying north *of the Carpathian
Mountains, and in this country Austria-Hungary had gathered
together a force of hardly less than one million men. A quarter of
these lay in reserve near the mountains; the remaining three-
quarters was divided into two armies; the first, the northern army,
being under the command of General Dankl, the second was that
of von Offenberg. The base of the first army was Przemysl; that
of the second was Lemberg.
The first army, it was planned, was to advance into Russian
territory in the direction of Lublin. The second army, stationed
eoutheast of the first army, was to protect it from any Russians
who might strike in upon the south. The first army, therefore,
contained more picked material than the second, which included
many troops from the southern parts of the empire, including certain
disaffected contingents. The first army made its advance as soon
as possible, and entered Russian territory on the 11th of August.
It went forward vdth. very little, loss and against very little resist-
ance. The Russian forces which were against it were inferior in
number, and fell back towards the Bug. The Austrians followed,
turning somewhat toward the east, when their advance was checked
by news of catastrophe in their rear. On the 14th of August the
Russian army under General Ruzsky crossed the frontier, and
advanced toward the Austrian second army.
The Russian army was in far greater strength than had been
expected, and when its advance was followed by the appearance
upon the right flank of von Offenberg's command, of yet another
Russian army, under Brussilov, the Austrian second army found
itself in great danger. Ruzsky advanced steadily from August 14th
until, on the 21st, it was not more than one day's advance from
the outer works of Lemberg, and the third Russian army under
Brussilov was threatening von Offenberg's right flank.
CAMPAIGN IN THE EAST 139
Von Offenberg, imderestimatiiig the strength of the enemy,
undertook to give battle. The first outpost axjtions were successful
for the Austrians, and helped them in their blunder. On the 24th
of August the two Russian armies effected a junction, and their
Austrian opponents found themselves threatened with disaster.
An endeavor was made to retreat, but the retreat turned into a
rout. On the 28th Tarnopol was captured by the Russians, and
the Austrian army found itself compelled to fall back upon defense
positions to the south and east of Lemberg itself.
The attack of the Russian armies was completely successful.
The Austrian army was driven from its positions, and on September
4th the Austrians evacuated Lemberg and the Russian forces took
possession of the town. The Austrians fled. The population wel- "
comed the conquerors with the greatest enthusiasm. An immense
quantity of stores of every kind were captured by the Russians
together with at least 100,000 prisoners. There was no looting,
nor any kind of outrage. The Russian policy was to make friends
of the inhabitants of Galicia.
But there was no halt after Lemberg. Brussilov divided his
army, and sent his left wing into the Carpathian passes; his center
and right moved west toward Przemysl; while Ruzsky moved
northwest to reinforce the Russian army on the Bug. Meanwhile
the position of Dankl's army was perilous in the extreme. There
were two possible courses, one to fall back and join the remnants of
von Offenberg's army, the other to attack at once, before the first
Russian army could be reinforced, and if victorious to turn on
Ruzsky.
Dankl's army was now very siJrong. He had received rein-
forcements, not only from Austria but from Germany. On the
4th of September he attacked the Russian center; his attack was a
failure, although he outnumbered the Russians. The battle con-
tinued until the tenth.
Everywhere the Austrians were beaten, and driven off in
ignominious retreat. The whole Austrian force fled southward in
great disorder; a part directed its flight toward Przemysl, others
still farther west toward Cracow. Austria had been completely
defeated. Poland was clear of the enemy. The Russian flag flew
over Lemberg, while the Russian army was marching toward Cra-
cow. The Russian star was in the ascendant.
140 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
But the Austrian armies had not been annihilated. An army
of nearly a milHon men cannot be destroyed in so short a time.
The Austrian failure was due in part to the disaffection of some of
the elements of the army, and in part to the poor Austrian general-
ship. They had underestimated their foe, and ventured on a most
perilous plan of campaign.
Russian generalship had been most admirable, and the Russian
generals were men of ability and experience. Brussilov had seen
service in the Turkish War of 1877. Ruzsky was a professor in the
Russian War Academy. In the Japanese war he had been chief
of staff to General Kaulbars, the commander of the Second Man-
churian army. Associated with him was General Radko Dmitrieff,
an able officer with a most interesting career. General Dmitrieff
was born in Bulgaria, when it was a Turkish province. He grad-
uated at the MiUtary School at Sofia, and afterwards at the War
Academy at Petrograd. On his return to Bulgaria he commanded
a regiment in the Serbian-Bulgarian war. Later he became mixed
up in the conspiracy against Prince Alexander, and was forced to
leave Bulgaria. For ten years he served in the Russian army,
returning to Bulgaria on the accession of Prince Ferdinand. Later
on he became Chief of the General Staff, and when the Balkan
war broke out he commanded one of the Bulgarian armies, won
several important victories, and became a popular hero of the war.
Disgusted with the political squabbles which followed the war,
he returned to Russia as a general in the Russian army. With mea
Uke these in command, the Russian Empire was well served.
After the decisive defeat of the Austrian army under General
Dankl, certain changes were made in the Russian High Command.
General Ruzsky was made commander of the center, which was
largely reinforced. General Ivanov was put in command of the
aimies operating in Galicia with Dmitrieff and Brussilov as his
chief lieutenants. Brussilov's business was to seize the deep passes
in the Carpathians and to threaten Hungary. Dmitrieff 's duty was
to press the Austrian retreat, and capture the main fortresses of
central Galicia.
There are two great fortresses on the River San, Jaroslav and
Przemysl, both of them controlling important railroad routes.
Jaroslav on the main line from Lemberg to Cracow, Przemysl with
a line which skirts the Carpathians, and connects with hues going
CAMPAIGN IN THE EAST 141
south to Hungary. Jaroslav was fortified by a strong circle of
intrenchments and was looked to by Austria for stout resistance.
The Austrians were disappointed, for Ivanov captured it in three
days, on the 23d of September. Dmitrieff found Przemysl a harder
nut to crack. It held out for many months, while operations of
greater importance were being carried on by the Russian armies.
The plans of the Russian generals in some respects were not unlike
the plan previously suggested as that of the German High Conunand.
At the beginning of the war they had no desire to carry on a power-
ful offensive against Germany. The expedition into East Prussia
was conducted more for pohtical than for military purposes. The
real offensive at the start was to be against Austria. The Russian
movements were cautious at first, but the easy capture of Lem-
berg, the fall of Jaroslav, and the demoralization of the Austrian
armies, encouraged more daring strategy. With the Germans
stopped on the north, little aid to the Austrians could come from
that source. The Grand Duke Nicholas was eager to strike a great
blow before the winter struck in, so his armies swept to the great
Polish city of Cracow. The campaign against Austria also had a
political side.
Russia had determined upon a new attitude toward Poland.
On August 15th the Grand Duke Nicholas, on behalf of the Czar,
had issued a proclamation offering self-government to Russian
Poland. Home rule for Poland had long been a favorite plan with
the Czar. Now he promised, not only to give Russian Poland
home rule, but to add to it the Polish peoples in Austria and Ger-
many. This meant that Austria and Germany would have to
give up Galicia on the one hand, aftd Prussian Poland on the
other, if they should lose the war. In the old days Poland had
been one of the greatest kingdoms in Europe, with a proud nobility
and high civihzation. She was one of the first of the great Slav
peoples to penetrate the west. Later she had protected Europe
against Tartar invasion, but internal differences had weakened
her, and, surrounded by enemies, she had first been plundered, and
later on divided between Austria, Russia and Prussia. Never had
the Poles consented to this destruction of their independence.
Galicia had constantly struggled against Austria; Pmssian Poland
was equally disturbing to the Prussian peace, and Russia was only
able to maintain the control of her Pohsh province by the sword.
142 fflSTORY OF THE WORLD Yv^AR
Of the three the Pole was probably more inclined to keep on friendly
terms with Russia, also a Slav people. The policy of the Czar
encouraged this inclination and produced disaffection among the
Poles in GaHcia and in Posen. Moreover, it gave Russia the
sympathy of the world which had long regarded the partition of
Poland as a political crime. It encouraged the Czecho-Slavs and
other dissatisfied portions of the Austrian Empire.
The results were seen immediately in the demoralization of
the Austrian armies where considerable numbers of Czecho-Slovak
troops deserted to the Russian army, and later in the loyalty to
Russia of the Poles, and their refusal, even under the greatest
German pressure, to give the German Empire aid.
CHAPTER X
The Struggle for Supremacy on the Sea
CAPTAIN MAHAN'S thesis that in any great war the
nation possessing the greater sea power is Ukely to win.
was splendidly illustrated during the World War.
The great EngHsh fleets proved the insuperable
obstacle to the ambitious German plans of world dominion. The
millions of soldiers landed in France from Great Britain, and its
provinces, the millions of Americans transported in safety across
the water, and the enormous quantities of supplies put at the dis-
posal of the Allies depended, absolutely, upon the Allied control
of the sea routes of the world. With a superior navy a German
blockade of England would have brought her to terms in a short
period, and France, left to fight alone> would have been an easy
victim. The British navy saved the world.
Germany had for many years well understood the necessity
of power upon the sea. When the v/ar broke out it was the second
greatest of the sea powers. Its ships were mostly modern, for its
navy was a creation of the past fifteen years, and its development
was obviously for the purpose of attacking the British supremacy.
The father of this new navy was a naval officer by the name of
von Tirpitz, who, in 1897, had become the German Naval Minister.
With the aid of the Emperor he had aroused among the Germans a
great enthusiasm for maritime power, and had built up a navy in
fifteen years, which was second only to the English navy.
Von Tirpitz was an interesting character. In appearance
he looked like an old sea-wolf who had passed his life on the wave,
but such a thought would be a mistake. The great admiral's work
was done on land; he was an organizer, a diplomatist, and a poli-
tician. He created nothing new; in all its details he merely
copied the English fleet. He is tall, heavily built, with a great
white beard, forked in the middle. He is a man of much dignity^
with a smile which has won him renown. He might have been
Chancellop of the Empire but he preferred to devote himself to
143
144 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
the navy, to prove that the future of Germany is on the seas.
His glories are the Lusitania, the fleet safely anchored at Kiel,
and the long rows of innocent victims of the submarine.
He was born in 1850 at Kustrion on the Ildor, when the German
navy was only a little group of worthless boats. In 1865 he entered
the School of Cadets, in 1869 he was gazetted lieutenant, in 1875
he was lieutenant-commander with a reputation as an able
organizer. In 1891 he was appointed Chief of Staff at Kiel. This
was his opportunity, and he set himself at the task of creating
and protecting the submarine division of the navy. As time went
on he grew in importance. In 1898 he became Assistant Secretary
of State at the Admiralty in Berlin. Two years later he became
vice-admiral. His admirers recognized his powers, and he was
called the master. In 1899 a patent of nobihty was conferred
upon him. In 1902 he gained permission to build 13,000-ton war
ships, and the following year he was made admiral. In 1907
enormous appropriations were made at his desire for the enlarge-
ment of the fleet. In 1908 Emperor William conferred on him the
Order of the Black Eagle. In 1914 the Kiel Canal was com-
pleted under his direction, and he informed the Emperor that the
fleet was ready. It is only fair to add that in all his plans he had
the active support of his Imperial Master. The Kaiser, too, had
dreamed a dream. Von Tirpitz admired the English. His
children had been brought up in England, as was also his wife.
He imitated the English, but on the day of the declaration of
war he absolutely forbade his family to talk English, and he made a
bonfire of his fine scientific library of English books. The Kaiser
treated Von Tirpitz as his friend, asked his advice, and followed
his counsel. His son, Sub-Lieutenant Wolf Von Tirpitz, studied
at Oxford, and is on the most friendly terms with many English
gentlemen of importance. He was on board the Mainz, which
was sunk off Helgoland in August, 1916. In full uniform he swam
for twenty minutes, before being picked up by one of the boats of
the cruiser Liverpool. He was a lucky prisoner of war. The
German battleships and cruisers which represent the toil of von
Tirpitz for more than half a century, lay hidden away in the shelter
of the Kiel Canal during the war to be ingloriously surrendered
at its end. His name will remain linked with that of the Lusitania.
The German High Sea Fleet, at the beginning of the war,
THE STRUGGLE FOR SUPREMACY 147
consisted of forty-one battleships, seven battle cruisers, nine
armored cruisers, forty-nine light cruisers, one hundred and forty-
five destroyers, eighty torpedo boats, and thirty-eight submarines.
Under the direction of Von Tirpitz the navy had become demo-
cratic and had drawn to it many able men of the middle class.
Its training was highly specialized and the officers were enthusi-
asts in their profession. The navy of Austria-Hungary had also
expanded in recent years imder the inspiration of Admiral
Montecuculi. At the outbreak of the war the fleet comprised
sixteen battleships, two armored and twelve light cruisers, eighteen
destroyers, eighty-five torpedo boats and eleven submarines.
The Allies were much more powerful. The French navy had in
the matter of invention given the lead to the world, but its size
had not kept pace with its quafity. At the beginning of the war
France had thirty-one battleships, twenty-four armored cruisers,
eight Hght cruisers, eighty-seven destroyers, one hundred and
fifty-three torpedo boats and seventy-six submarines. Rusfeia,
after the war with Japan, had begun the creation of a powerful
battle fleet, which had nq^ been completed when war was declared.
At that time she had on the Baltic four dreadnaughts, ten armored
cruisers, two light cruisers, eighty destroyers and twenty-four sub-
marines, aiid a fleet of about half the strength in the Black Sea.
The English fleet had reached a point of efficiency which
was unprecedented in its history. The progress of the German sea
power had stimulated the spirit of the fleet, and led to a steady
advance in training and equipment. : The development of arma-
ment, and of battleship designing, the improvement in gunnery-
practice, the revision of the rate of pay, the opening up of careers
from the lower deck, and the provision of a naval air service are
landmarks in the advance. In the navy estimates of March, 1914,
ParUament sanctioned over £51,000,000 for a naval defense, the
largest appropriation for the purpose ever made. The home fleet
was arranged in three units, the first fleet was divided into four
battle squadrons, together with the flagship of the commander-in-
chief. The first squadron was made up of eight battleships, the
second squadron contained eight, the third eight and the fourth
four. Attached to each fleet was a battle cruiser squadron, con-
sisting of four ships in the first fleet, four in the second, four in the
third and five in the fourth. The fourth also contained a light
148 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
cruiser squadron, a squadron of six gunboats for mine sweeping,
and four flotillas of destroyers, each with a flotilla cruiser attached.
The second fleet was composed of two battle squadrons, the first
containing eight pre-dreadnaughts, and the second six. Attached
to this fleet were also two cruiser squadrons, a mine layer squadron of
seven vessels, four patrol flotillas, consisting of destroyers and
torpedo boats, and seven flotillas of submarines. A third fleet
contained two battle squadrons, mainly composed of old ships,
with six cruiser squadrons. The English strength, outside home
waters, consisted of the Mediterranean fleet, containing three
battle cruisers, four armored cruisers, four ordinary cruisers and
a flotilla of seventeen destroyers, together with submarines and
torpedo boats. In eastern waters there were a battleship, two
cruisers, and four sloops. In the China squadron there were one
battleship, two armored cruisers, two ordinary cruisers, and a
number of gunboats, destroyers, submarines, and torpedo boats.
In New Zealand there were four cruisers. The Australian fleet
contained a battle cruiser, three ordinary cruisers, three destroyers
and two submarines. Other cruisers and gunboats were stationed
at the Cape, the west coast of Africa, and along the western Atlan-
tic. At the outbreak of the war two destroyers were purchased
from Chile, and two Turkish battleships, building in England,,
were commandeered by the government.
It is evident that the union of France and Britain made the
Allies easily superior in the Mediterranean Sea, so that France
was able to transport her African troops in safety, and the British
commerce with India and the East could safely continue. The
main field of the naval war, therefore, was the North Sea and the
Baltic, where Germany had all her fleet, except a few naval
raiders. The entrance to the Baltic was closed to the enemy by
Denmark, which, as a neutral, was bound to prevent an enemy
fleet from passing. Germany, however, by means of the Kiel
Canal, could permit the largest battle fleet to pass from the Baltic
to the North Sea. The German High Sea Fleet was weaker than
the British home fleet by more than forty per cent, and the German
policy, therefore, was to avoid a battle, until, through mine layers
and submarines, the British power should have been sufficiently
weakened. The form of the German coast made this plan easily
possible. The various bays and river mouths provided safe retreat
THE STRUGGLE FOR SUPREMACY 149
for the German ships, and the German fleet were made secure by
the fortifications along the coast. On July the 29th, 1914, at
the conclusion of the annual maneuvers, instead of being demo-
biUzed as would have been usual, the Grand Fleet of Great Britain
sailed from Portland along the coast into the mists, and from
that moment dominated the whole course of the war.
From the 4th of August, the date of the declaration of war,
the oceans of the world were practically rid of enemy war ships,
and were closed to enemy mercantile marine. Although diplo-
macy had not yet failed, the masters of the Enghsh navy were not
caught napping. The credit for this readiness has been given to
Mr. Winston Churchill, one of the first Lords of the Admiralty,
who had divined the coming danger. When the grand fleet sailed
it seemed to disappear from EngUsh view. Occasionally some
dweUer along the coast might see an occasional cruiser or destroyer
sweeping by in the distance, but the great battleships had gone.
Somewhere, in some hidden harbor, lay the vigilant fleets of
England.
Sea fighting had changed since the days of Admiral Nelson.
The old wooden ship belonged to a past generation. The guns
of a battleship would have sunk the Spanish Armada with one
broadside. In this modem day the battleship was protected by
aircraft, which dropped bombs from the clouds. Unseen sub-
marines circled about her. Beneath her might be mines, which
could destroy her at the sHghtest touch. Eveiything had changed
but the daring of the English sailor.
In conmiand of the Home fleet was Admiral Sir John Jellicoe.
He had had a distinguished career. Beginning as a lieutenant
in the Egyptian War of 1882, he had become a commander in
1891. In 1897 he became a captain, and served in China, com-
manding the Naval Brigade m the Pekin Expedition of 1900,
where he was severely wounded. Later he became naval assistant
to the ControUer of the Navy, Director of Naval Ordnance and
Torpedoes, Rear-Admiral in the United Fleet, Lord Commissioner
of the Admiralty and Controller of the Navy, Vice-Admiral com-
manding the Atlantic fleet, Vice-Admiral commanding the second
division of the Home fleet, and second Sea Lord of the Admiralty.
He had distinguished himself in the naval maneuvers of 1913,
and was one of the officers mamly responsible for the development
150 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
of the modern English navy. He had the confidence of his col-
leagues, and a peculiar popularity among the British seamen.
On the day after the declaration of war, the first shots were
fired. German mine layers, it is now beUeved, in disguise, had
been dropping mines during the preceding week over a wide area
of the North Sea. On the 6th of August the mine layer, Koenigen
Luise, was sunk by the destroyer Lance, and on August 6th the
British light cruiser Amphion struck one of the mines laid by the
Koenigen Luise and was sunk with great loss of life. On August
9th, German submarines attacked a cruiser squadron without
causing any damage, and one submarine was sunk.
It was in the Mediterranean, however, that the greatest
interest was felt during the first week of the war. Two German
war ships, the Goeben and the Breslau, were off the Algerian coast
when war broke out. It is probable that when these ships received
their sailing orders, Germany depended on the assistance of Italy,
and had sent these ships to its assistance. ? They were admirably
suited for commerce destroyers. ; They began by bombarding
the Algerian coast towns of Bona and Phillipe, doing Httle damage.
They then turned toward the coast of Gibraltar, but found before
them the British fleet. Eluding the British they next appeared
at Messina. There the captains and officers made their wills and
deposited their valuables, including signed portraits of the Kaiser,
with the German consul. The decks were cleared for action,
and mth the bands playing they sailed out under a blood-red
sunset.
However, they seem to have been intent only on escape, and
they went at full speed eastward toward the Dardanelles, meeting
in their way only with the British cruiser Gloucester, which,
though much inferior in size, attacked them boldly but was unable
to prevent their escape. On entering Constantinople they were
reported as being sold to the Turkish Government, the Turks
thus begiiming the line of conduct which was ultimately to bring
them into the war.
Picturesque as this incident was it was of no importance as
compared with the great British blockade of Germany which began
on the 4th of August. German merchantmen in every country
of the empire were seized, and hundreds of ships were captured
on the high seas. Those who escaped to neutral ports were at
>
H
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W
H
TORPEDOING OF THE BRITISH BATTLESHIP, " ABOUKIR »
In the first few weeks of the war, when the navies of tlie vorld were still at
open warfare, during a sharp engagement off the Hook of Holland in the North
Sea the British warships "Aboukrr", "Cressy" and "Hogue" fell victims to the
enemy. This sketch shows the "Aboukir" after a German torpedo had found
its mark in her hull.
THE STRUGGLE FOR SUPREMACY 153
once interned. In a week German commerce had ceased to exist.
A few German cruisers were still at large but it was not long before
they had been captured, or driven into neutral ports. Among the
most picturesque of these raiders were the Emdeu and the Koenigs-
berg. The Emden, in particular, interested the world with her
romantic adventures. Her story is best told in the words of Lieu-
tenant-Captain von Mticke, and Lieutenant Gyssing, whose return
to Germany with forty-four men, foior officers and one siu-geon,
after the destruction of the ship, was a veritable Odyssey.
*'We on the Emden had no idea where we were going, as, on
August 11, 1914, we separated from the cruiser squadron, escorted
only by the coaler Markomannia. Under way the Emden picked
up three officers from German steamers. That was a piece of
luck, for afterward we needed many officers for the capturing and
sinking of steamers, or manning them when we took them with
us. On September 10th, the first boat came in sight. We stopped
her; she proved to be a Greek tramp returning from England.
On the next day we met the Indus, bound for Bombay, all fitted
up as a troop transport, but still without troops. That was the
first one we sunk. The crew we took aboard the Markomannia.
Then we sank the Lovat, a troop transport ship, and took the
Kambinga along with us. One gets used quickly to new forms of
activity. After a few days, capturing ships became a habit. Of
the twenty-three which we captured most of them stopped after
our first signal; when they didn't, we fired a blank shot. Then
they all stopped. Only one, the Clan Matteson, waited for a
real shot across the bow before giving up its many automobiles
and locomotives to the seas.
*'The ofiicers were mostly very polite, and let down rope ladders
for us. After a few hours they would be on board with us. We
ourselves never set foot in their cabins, nor took charge of them.
The ofiicers often acted on their own initiative, and signaled to
us the nature of their cargo. Then the commandant decided as
to whether to sink the ship or take it with us. Of the cargo we
always took every thing we could use, particularly provisions.
Many of the English officers and sailors made good use of the
hours of transfer to drink up the supply of whisky instead of sacri-
ficing it to the waves. I heard that one captain was lying in tears
at the enforced separation from his beloved ship, but on investiga-
154 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
tion found that he was merely dead drunk. The captain on one
ship once called out cheerily 'Thank God, I've been captured.'
He had received expense money for the trip to AustraHa, and was
now saved half the journey."
Parenthetically it may be remarked, that the Emden's cap-
tain, Karl von Mueller, conducted himself at all times with
chivalrous bravery, according to the accounts of the EngUsh them-
selves, who in their reports say of him, admiringly, "He played
the game." Captain von Miicke's account continues:
*'We had mostly quiet weather, so that communication with
captured ships was easy. They were mostly dynamited, or else
shot close to the water Hne. At Calcutta we made one of our
richest hauls, the Diplomat, chock full of tea, we sunk $2,500,000
worth. On the same day the Trabbotch, too, which steered right
straight towards us, was captured. By now we wanted to beat
it out of the Bay of Bengal, because we had learned from the papers
that the Emden was being keenly searched for. By Rangoon we
encountered a Norwegian tramp, which, for a cash consideration,
took over all the rest of oiu* prisoners of war.
''On September 23d we reached Madras, and steered straight
for the harbor. We stopped still 3,000 yards before the city.
Then we shot up the oil tanks; three or fom* of them burned up
and illuminated the city. Two days l:iter we navigated around
Ceylon, and could see the hghts of Colombo. On the same evening
we gathered in two more steamers, the King Lund, and Tywerse.
The next evening we got the Burresk, a nice steamer with 500 tons
of nice Cardiff coal. Then followed in order, the Ryberia, Foyle,
Grand Ponrabbel, Benmore, Troiens, Exfort, Graycefale, Sankt
Eckbert, Chilkana. Most of them were sunk. The coal ships
were kept. All this happened before October 20th. .; Then we
sailed southward to Deogazia, southwest of Colombo."
The captain then tells with much gusto a story of a visit paid
to the Emden by some English farmer^, at Deogazia, who were
entertained royally by the Emden officers. They knew nothing
about the war, and the Emden officers told them nothing. His
narrative continues:
"Now we went toward Miniko, where we sank two ships more.
On the next day we found three steamers to the north, one of them
with much desired Cardiff coal. From English papers on the
THE STRUGGLE FOR SUPREMACY 155
captured ships we learned that we were being hotly pursued.
One night we started for Penang. On October 28th we raised a
very practicable fourth smokestack (for disguise). The harbor of
Penang lies in a channel difficult of access. There was nothing
doing by night. We had to do it at daybreak. At high speed,
without smoke, with lights out, we steered into the mouth of the
channel. A torpedo boat on guard slept well. We steamed past
its small light. Inside lay a dark silhouette. That must be a
warship. We recognized the silhouette dead sure. That was the
Russian cruiser Jemtchud. There it lay, there it slept like a rat,
no watch to be seen. They made it easy for us. Because of the
narrowness of the harbor we had to keep close; we fired the first
torpedo at fom* hundred yards.
^'Then, to be sure, things livened up a bit on the sleeping
warship. At the same time we took the crew quarters under fire
five shells at a time. There was a flash of flame on board, then
a kind of burning aureole. After the fomi:h shell the flame burned
high. The first torpedo had struck the ship too deep, because we
were too close to it. A second torpedo which we fired off from the
other side didn't make the same mistake. After twenty seconds
there was absolutely not a trace of the ship to be seen.
"But now another ship which we couldn't see was firing. That
was the French D'lvrebreville, toward which we now turned at
once. A few minutes later an incoming torpedo destroyer was
reported. It proved to be the French torpedo boat Mousquet.
It came straight toward us. That's always remained a mystery
to me, for it must have heard the shooting. An officer whom we
fished up afterward explained to me that they had only recognized
we were a German warship w^hen they were quite close to us.
The Frenchman behaved well, accepted battle and fought on,
but was polished off by us with three broadsides. The whole
fight with those ships lasted half an hour. The commander of the
torpedo boat lost both legs by the first broadside. When he saw
that part of his crew were leaping overboard he cried out 'Tie
me fast. I will not survive after seemg Frenchmen desert their
ship.' As a matter of fact he went down with his ship, as a brave
captain, lashed fast to the mast. That was my only sea-fight.
"On November 9th I left the Emden in order to destroy the
wireless plant on the Cocos Island. I had fifty men, four machine
156 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
guns and about thirty rifles. Just as we were about to destroy
the apparatus it reported 'Careful. Emden near.' The work of
destruction went smoothly. Presently the Emden signaled to us
'Hurry Up.' I pack up, but simultaneously wails the Emden 's
siren. I hurry up to the bridge, see the flag 'Anna' go up. That
means weigh anchor. We ran like mad into our boat, but already
the Emden's pennant goes up, the battle flag is raised, they fire
from starboard. The enemy is concealed by the island, and there-
fore not to be seen, but I see the shell strike the water. To follow
and catch the Emden is out of question. She is going twenty
knots, I only four with my steam pinnace. Therefore I turn back
to land, raise the flag, declare German laws of war in force, seize
ah arms, set out my machine guns on shore in order to guard against
a hostile landing. Then I run again in order to observe the fight."
The cable operator at Cocos Island gives the following account
of what happened from this point. After describing the sudden
flight of the Emden, he goes on:
*' Looking to the eastward we coidd see the reason for this
sudden departure, for a warship, which we afterwards learned was
the Austrahan cruiser Sydney, v/as coming up at full speed in
pursuit. The Emden did not wait to discuss matters, but, firing
her first shot at a range of about 3,700 yards, steamed north as
hard as she could go. At first the firing of the Emden seemed
excellent, while that of the Sydney was somewhat erratic. This,
as I afterward learned, was due to the fact that the Australian
cruiser's range finder was put out of action by one of the only
two shots the Germans got home. However, the British gunners
soon overcame any difficulties that this may have caused, and
settled down to their work, so that before long two of the Emden's
funnels had been shot away. She also lost one of her masts quite
early in the fight. Both blazing away with their big guns the two
cruisers disappeared below the horizon, the Emden being on fire.
"Early the next morning, Tuesday, November 10th, we
saw the Sydney retimiing, and at 8.45 A. m. she anchored off the
island. From various members of the crew I gathered some details
of the running fight with the Emden. The Sydney, having an
advantage in speed, was able to keep out of range of the Emden's
guns, and to bombard with her own heavier metal. The engage-
ment lasted eighty minutes, the Emden finally running ashore
THE STRUGGLE FOR SUPREMACY 157
on North Keeling Island, and becoming an utter wreck. Only
two German shots proved effective, one of these failed to explode,
but smashed the main range finder and killed one man, the other
killed three men and wounded fourteen.
"Each of the cruisers attempted to torpedo the other, but
both were unsuccessful, and the duel proved a contest in hard
pounding at long range. The Sydney's speed during the fighting
was twenty-six knots, and the Emden's twenty-four knots. The
British ship's superiority of two knots enabled her to choose the
range at which the battle should be fought and to make the most
of her superior guns. Finally, with a number of wounded prisoners
on board, the Sydney left here yesterday, and our few hours of
war excitement were over."
Captain Miicke's return home from the Cocos Island was
filled with the most extraordinary adventures, and when he finally
arrived in country controlled by his AUies he was greeted as a hero.
While the story of the Emden especially interested the w^orld,
the Koenigsberg also caused much trouble to EngUsh commerce.
Her chief exploit occurred on the 20th of September, when she
caught the British cruiser Pegasus in Zanzibar harbor undergoing
repairs. The Pegasus had no chance, and was destroyed by the
Koenigsberg's long-range fire. Nothing much was heard later
of the Koenigsberg, which was finally destroyed by an English
cruiser, July 11, 1915.
The exploits of these two German commerce raiders attracted
general attention, because they were the exceptions to the rule.
The British, on the other hand, were able to capture such German
merchantmen as ventured on the sea without great difficulty, and
as they did not destroy their cscpture, but brought them before
prize courts, the incidents attracted no great attention. The
Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse, which had been fitted up as a com-
merce destroyer by the Germans at the beginning of the war, as
was the Spreewald of the Hamburg-Amierican Line, and the Cap
Trafalgar, were caught and simk during the month of September.
On the whole, EngHsh foreign trade was unimpaired.
But though the German fleet had been bottled up in her
harbors, Germany was not yet impotent. There remained the
submarine.
Up to 1905 Germany had not a single submarine. The
158 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
first German submarine was launched on August 30, 1905. Even
then it was considered merely an experiment. In February, 1907,
it was added to the register of the fleet. On January 1, 1901, there
were only four nations that possessed submarines, France, with
fourteen; the United States, with eight; England, with six, of which
not one was completed, and finally Italy, with two. In 1910,
Germany appropriated 18,750,000 marks for submarines, and
in 1913, 25,000,000 marks. On January 1, 1914, the total number
of submarines of all nations was approximately four hundred.
Early in the war the submarine became a grave menace to
the Enghsh navy and to English commerce. On the 5th of Septem-
ber the Pathfinder, a Hght cruiser, was torpedoed and sunk with
great loss of life. On September 22d, three cruisers, the Cressy,
Hogue, and Aboukir were engaged in patrolling the coast of Holland.
A great storm had been raging and the cruisers were not protected
by the usual screen of destroyers. At half -past six in the morning
the seas had fallen and the cruisers proceeded to their posts. The
report of Commander Nicholson, of the Cressy, of what followed
gives a good idea of the effectiveness of the submarine.
"The Aboukir," says this report, "was struck at about 6.25
A. M. on the starboard beam. The Hogue and Cressy closed, and
took up a position, the Hogue ahead of the Aboukir, and the Cressy
about four hundred yards on her port beam. As soon as it was seen
that the Aboukir was in danger of sinking, all the boats were sent
away from the Cressy, and a picket boat was hoisted out without
steam up. When cutters full of the Aboukir's men were returning
to the Cressy, the Hogue was struck, apparently under the aft 9.2
magazine, as a very heavy explosion took place inmiediately.
Almost directly after the Hogue was hit we observed a periscope
on our port bow about three hundred yards off. Fire was immedi-
ately opened, and the engines were put full speed ahead with the
intention of running her down. . .
"CaptaiQ Johnson then maneuvered the ship so as to render
assistance to the crews of the Hogue and Aboukir. About five
minutes later another periscope was seen on our starboard quarter,
and fire was opened. The track of the torpedo she fired at a range
of from 500 to 600 yards was plainly visible, and it struck us on
the starboard side just before the after bridge. The ship listed
about ten degrees to the starboard and remained steady. The
THE STRUGGLE FOR SUPREMACY 159
time was 7.15 a. m. All the water-tight doors, dead lights and
scuttles had been securely closed before the torpedoes left the ship.
All mess stools and table shores and all available timber below and
on deck had been previously got up and thrown overside for the
saving of life. A second torpedo fired by the same submarine
missed and passed about ten feet astern.
"About a quarter of an hour after the first torpedo had hit,
a third torpedo fired from the submarine just before the star-
board beam, hit us under the No. 5 boiler room. The time was
7.30 A. M. The ship then began to heel rapidly, and finally turned
keel up remaining so for about twenty minutes before she finally
sank. It is possible that the same submarine fired all three tor-
pedoes at the Cressy."
Of the total crews of 1,459 officers and men only 779 were
saved. The survivors beheved that they had seen at least three
submarines, but the German official account mentions only one,
the U-9, under Captain-Lieutenant Otto Weddigen whose account
of this battle confirms the report of Commander Nicholson. Refer-
ring to the reports that a flotilla cf German submarines had attacked
the cruisers, he says:
"These reports were absolutely untrue. U-9 was the only
submarine on deck." He adds: "I reached the home port on the
afternoon of the 23d and on the 24th went to Wilhelmshaven to
find that news of my effort had become public. My wife, dry-
eyed when I went away, met me with tears. Then I learned that
my little vessel and her brave crew had won the plaudit of the
Kaiser who conferred upon each of my co-workers the Iron Cross
cf the second class and upon me the Iron Crosses of the first and
second classes."
Weddigen was the hero of the hour in Germany. He had with
him twenty-five men. He seems to have acted with courage and
skill, but it is also evident that the English staff work was to blame.
Three such vessels should never have been sent out without a
screen of destroyers, nor should the Hogue and the Cressy have
gone to the rescue of the Aboukir. A few days after the disaster
the English Admiralty issued the following statement:
The sinking of the Aboukir was of course an ordinary hazard of
patrolling duty. The Hogue and Cressy, however, were sunk because
they proceeded to the assistance of their consort, and remained with
160 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
engines stopped, endeavoring to save life, thus presenting an easy target
to further submarine attacks. The natural promptings of humanity have
in this case led to heavy losses, which would have been avoided by a
strict adhesion to military consideration. Modern naval war is pre-
senting us with so many new and strange situations that an error of
judgment of this character is pardonable. But it has become necessary
to point out for the future guidance of His Majesty's ships that the con-
ditions which prevail when one vessel of a squadron is injured in the mine
field, or is exposed to submarine attack, are analogous to those which
occur in action, and that the rule of leaving ships to their own resources
is appHcable, so far, at any rate, as large vessels are concerned.
On the 28tli of August occurred the first important naval
action of the war, the battle of Helgoland. From the 9th of August
German cruisers had sho\\Ti activity in the seas around Helgoland
and had sunk a number of British trawlers. The English sub-
marines, E-6 and E-8, and the light cruiser Fearless, had patrolled
the seas, and on the 21st of August the Fearless had come under
the enemy's shell fire. On August 26th the submarine flotilla,
under Commodore Keyes, sailed from Harwich for the Bight of
Helgoland, and all the next day the Lurcher and the Firedrake,
destroyers, scouted for submarines. On that same day sailed the
first and third destroyer flotillas, the battle cruiser squadron,
first Hght cruiser squadron, and the seventh cruiser squadron,
having a rendezvous at this point on the morning of the 28th.
The morning was beautiful and clear, so that the submarines
could be easily seen. Close to Helgoland were Commodore Keyes'
eight submarines, and his two small destroyers. Approaching
rapidly from the northwest were Commodore Tyrwhitt's two
destroyer flotillas, a Httle to the east was Commodore Goodenough's
first light cruiser squadron. Behind this squadron were Sir David
Beatty's battle cruisers with four destroyers. To the south and
west of Helgoland lay Admiral Christian's seventh cruiser squadron.
Presently from behind Helgoland came a munber of German
destroyers, followed by two cruisers; and the English submarines,
with the two small destroyers, fled westwards, acting as a decoy.
As the Germans followed, the British destroyer flotillas on the
northwest came rapidly down. At the sight of these destroyers
the German destroyers fled, and the British attempted to head
them off.
According to the official report the principle of the movement
THE STRUGGLE FOR SUPREMACY 161
was to cut the German light craft from home, and engage it at
leisure on the open sea.
But between the two German cruisers and the English cruisers
a fierce battle took place. The Arethusa was engaged with the
German Ariadne, and the Fearless with the Strasburg. A shot
from the Ai-ethusa shattered the fore bridge of the Ariadne and
killed the captain, and both German cruisers drew off toward
Helgoland.
Meanwhile the destroyers were engaged in a hot fight. They
sunk the leading boat of the German flotilla and damaged a dozen
more. Between nine and ten o'clock there was a lull in the fight;
the submarines, with some of the destroyers, remained in the
neighborhood of Helgoland, and the Germans, believing that these
boats were the only hostile vessels in the neighborhood, determined
to attack them.
The Mainz, the Koln, and the Strasburg came again on the
scene, and opened a heavy fire on some of the boats of the first
flotilla which were busy saving life. The small destroyers were
driven away, but the seamen in the boats were rescued by an
English submarine. The Arethusa and the Fearless, with the
destroyers in their company, engaged with thi-ee enemy cruisers.
The Strasburg, seriously injured, was compelled to flee. The
boilers of the Mainz blew up, and she became a wreck. The Koln
only remaining and carrying on the fight. ^
The English destroyers were much crippled, and as the battle
had now lasted for five hours any moment the German great battle-
ships might come on the scene. A wireless signal had been sent to
Sir David Beatty, asking for help, and about twelve o'clock the
Falmouth and the Nottingham arrived on the scene of action. By
this time the first destroyer flotilla was out of action and the third
flotilla and the Arethusa had their hands full with the Koln. The
light cruisers were followed at 12.15 by the English battle cruisers,
the Lion came fii'st, and she alone among the battle cruisers seems
to have used her gims. Her gxm power beat down all opposition.
The Koln made for home, but the Lion's guns set her on fire.
The luckless Ariadne hove in sight, but the terrible 13.5-inch guns
sufficed for her. The battle cruisers circled around, and in ten
minutes the Koln went to the bottom.
At twenty minutes to two, Admiral Beatty turned home-
162 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
ward. The German cruisers Mainz, Koln, and the Ariadne had
been sunk; the Strasburg was seriously damaged. One destroyer
was sunk, and at least seven seriously injured. About seven hundred
of the German crew perished and there were three hundred prisoners.
The British force returned without the loss of a single ship. The
Arethusa had been badly damaged, but was easily repaired. The
casualty list was thirty-two killed and fifty-two wounded. The
battle was fought on both sides with great gallantry, the chief
glory belonging to the Arethusa and the Fearless who bore the brunt
of the battle. The strategy and tactical skill employed were ad-
mirable, and the German admiral, von Ingenohl from that tune
on, with one exception, kept his battleships in harbor, and confined
his activities to mine laying and the use of submarines.
In the first days of the war the German mine layers had been
busy. By means cf trawlers disguised as neutrals, mines were
dropped off the north coast of Ireland, and a large mine field was
laid off the eastern coast of England. One of the most important
duties of the Royal Naval Reserve was the task of mine sweeping.
Over seven hundred mine-sweeping vessels were constantly em-
ployed in keeping an area of 7,200 square miles clear for shipping.
These ships swept 15,000 square miles monthly, and steamed over
1,100,000 miles in carrying out their duties.
It would be hard to overestimate the effect of the British
blockade of the German ports upon the fortunes of the war. The
Germans for a long time attempted, by the use of neutral ships,
to obtain the necessary supplies through Holland, Sweden, Norway
and Switzerland. Milhons of dollars' worth of food and munitions
ultimately reached German hands. The imports of all these
nations were multiplied many times, but as the time went on the
blockade grew stricter and stricter until the Germans felt the
pinch. To conduct efficiently this blockade meant the use of over
3,600 vessels which were added to the auxihary patrol service.
Over 13,000 vessels were intercepted and examined by units of
the British navy employed on blockade channels.
The Germans protested with great vigor against this blockade,
and ultimately endeavored to counteract it by declaring unre-
stricted submarine warfare. In fact, Great Britain had gone too
far, and vigorous protests from America followed her attempt to
seize contraband goods in American vessels.
THE STRUGGLE FOR SUPREMACY 163
The code of maritime law, adopted in the Declaration at Paris
of 1856, as well as the Declaration in London of 1909, had been
framed in the interests of immaritime nations. The British
plenipotentiaries had agreed to these laws on the theory that in
any war of the future Britain would be neutral. The rights of
neutrals had been greatly increased. A blockade was difficult to
enforce, for the right of a blockading power to capture a blockade
runner did not cover the whole period of her voyage, and was
confined to ships of the blockading force. A ship carrying contra-
band could only be condemned if the contraband formed more
than half its cargo. A beUigerent warship could destroy a neutral
vessel without taking it into a port for a judgment. The transfer
of an enemy vessel to a neutral flag was presumed to be vahd, if
effected more than thirty days before the outbreak of war. Bel-
hgerents in neutral vessels on the high seas were exempt from
capture. The Emden could justify its sinking of British ships,
but the Enghsh were handicapped in their endeavor to prevent
neutral ships from carrying suppHes to Germany.
But Germany had become a law unto itseK. And England
found it necessary in retaliation to issue orders in council which
made nugatory many of the provisions of the maritime code. The
protests of the American Government and those of other neutrals
were treated with the greatest consideration, and every endeavor
was made that no real injustice should be done. When America
itself later entered the war these differences of opinion disappeared
from public; view.
CHAPTER XI
The Sublime Porte
S SOON as the diplomatic relations between Austria and
Serbia had been broken, the Turkish Grand Vizier
informed the diplomatic corps in Constantinople that
Turkey would remain neutral in the conflict. The declara-
tion was not formal, for war had not yet been declared. The
policy of Tui'key, as represented in the ministerial paper, Tasfiri-
Efkiar, was as follows:
'^ Turkey has never asked for war, as she always has worked
toward avoiding it, but neutrality does not mean indifference.
The present Austro-Serbian conflict is to a supreme degree inter-
esting to us. In the first place, one of our erstwhile opponents is
fighting against a much stronger enemy. In the natural com'se
of things Serbia, which till lately was expressing, in a rather open
way, her sohdarity as a nation, still provoking us, and Greece,
Tvdll be materially weakened. In the second place, the results of
this war may surpass the limits of the conflict between two coun-
tries, and in that case om* interests will be just as materially
affected. We must, therefore, keep our eyes open, as the circum-
stances are momentarily changing, and do not permit us to let
escape certain advantages which we can secure by active, and
rightly acting, diplomacy. The policy of neutrahty will impose
on us the obhgation of avoiding to side with either of the bellig-
erents. But the same poHcy will force us to take all the necessary
measiu-es for safeguarding our interests and our frontiers."
Whereupon a Turkish mobilization was at once ordered. The
war had hardly begun when Turkey received the news that her
two battleships, building in British yards, had been taken over
by England. A bitter feeling against England was at once aroused,
Turkish mobs proceeded to attack the British stores and British
subjects, and attempts were even made against the British embassy
in Constantinople, and the British consulate at Smyrna.
At this time Turkey w^as in a peculiar position. For a cen-
164
THE SUBLIME PORTE
165
tury she had been on the best of terms with France and Great
Britain. On the other hand Russia had been her hereditary enemy.
She was still suffering from her defeat by the Balkan powers, and
her statesmen saw in this war great possibilities, dhe desired to
recover her lost provinces in Europe, and saw at once that she
could hope for little from the Allies in this direction.
For some years, too, German intrigues, and, according to
report, German money, had enabled the German Govermnent to
control the leading Turkish statesmen. German generals, under
Sketch op Territory Controlled by Turkey in 1914
General Liman von Sanders, were practically in control of the
Turkish army. The commander-in-chief was Enver Bey, who had
been educated in Germany and was more German than the Germans.
A new system of organization for the Turkish army had been
estabHshed by the Germans, which had substituted the mechanical
German system for the rough and inefficient Turkish methods.
Universal conscription provided men, and the Turkish soldier has
always been kno^vn as a good soldier. Yet as it turned out the
German training did Httle for him. Under his own officers he
could fight well, but under German officers, fighting for a cause
which he neither liked nor understood, he was bound to fail.
166 HISTORY OF THE WOKLD WAR
At first the Turkish mobilization was conducted in such a
way as to be ready to act in common with Bulgaria in an attack
against Greek and Serbian Macedonia, as soon as the Austrians
had obtained a decisive victory over the Serbians. The entry
of Great Britain into the war interfered with this scheme. Mean-
time, though not at war, the Tm-ks were suffering almost as much
as if war had been declared. Greedy speculators took advantage
of the situation, and the government itself requisitioned every-
thing it could lay its hands on.
A Constantinople correspondent, writing on the 6th of August,
Bays as follows :
'^ Policemen and sheriffs followed by military officers are
taking by force everything in the way of foodstuffs, entering the
bakeries and other shops selling victuals, boarding ships with
cargoes of flour, potatoes, wheat and rice, and taking over vir-
tually everything, gi\'ing in lieu of payment a receipt which is
not worth even the paper on which it is written. In this way
many shops are forced to close, bread has entirely disappeared
from the bakeries, and Constantinople, the capital of a neutral
country, is already feeling all the tr®ubles and privations of a
besieged city. Prices for foodstuffs have soared to inaccessible
heights, as provisions are becoming scarce. Actual hand-to-hand
combats are taking place in the streets outside the bakeries for
the possession of a loaf of bread, and hungry women with children
in their arms are seen crying and weeping with despair. Many
merchants, afraid lest the govermnent requisition their goods,
hasten to have their orders canceled, the result being that no
merchandise of any kind is coming to Constantinople either from
Europe or from Anatolia. Both on account of the recruiting of
their employees, and of shortage of coal, the companies operating
electric tramways of the city have reduced their service to the
minimum, as no power is available for the running of the cars.
Heartrending scenes are witnessed in front of the closed doors
of the various banking estabhshments, where large posters are to
be seen bearing the inscription ^Closed temporarily by order of
the government.' "
Immediately after war was declared between Germany and
Russia the Porte ordered the Bosporus and Dardanelles closed to
every kind of shipping, at the same time barring the entrances of
THE SUBLIME PORTE 167
these channels with rows of mines. The first boat to suffer from
this measure was a British merchantman which was sunk outside
the Bosporus, while another had a narrow escape in the Darda-
nelles. A large number of steamers of every nationality waited
outside the straits for the special pilot boats of the Turkish Govern-
ment, in order to pass in safety through the dangerous mine field.
This measure of closing the straits was suggested to Turkey by
Austria and Germany, and was primarily intended against Russia,
as it was feared that her Black Sea fleet might force its way into
the Sea of Marmora and the iEgean.
On August 2d the Turkish Parliament was prorogued, so
that all political power might center around the Imperial throne.
A vigorous endeavor M-as made to strengthen the Turkish navy.
Djemal Pasha w^as placed at its head with Arif Bey as chief of the
naval staff. Talaat Bey and Halil Bey were sent to Bucharest to
exchange views with Roumanian statesmen, and representatives
of the Greek Government, in regard to the outstanding Greco-
Turkish difficulties.
On September 10th an official annoimcement from the Sublime
Porte was issued defining in the first place many constitutional
reforms, and in particular abolishing the capitulation, that is,
the concessions made by law to foreigners, allowing them partici-
pation in the administration of justice, exemption from taxation,
and special protection in their business transactions. In abolish-
ing these capitulations the Ottoman Government declared that it
would treat foreign countries in accordance with the rules of
international law, and that it was acting without any hostile
feeUng against any of the foreign states.
The Allied governments formally protested against this
action of the Turkish Government. Meantime Constantinople
was the center of most elaborate intrigues. The Turkish Govern-
ment grew more and more warlike, and began to threaten, not
only Greece, but Russia and the Triple Entente as well. During
this period the Turkish press maintained an active campaign
against England and the Alhes. Every endeavor was made by
the Subhme Porte to secure Roumanian or Bulgarian co-operation
in a mihtant policy. The Alhes, seeing the situation, made many
promises to Bulgaria, Greece and Roumania. Bulgaria was
offered Adrianople and Thrace; Greece w^as to have Smyrna, and
168 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
Roumania the Roumanian provinces in Austria. The jealousy of
these powers of each other prevented an agreement. The influ-
ence of Germany became more and more preponderant mth the
Ottoman Empire; indeed, it is probable that an understanding
had existed between the two powers from the begiiming. The
action of the Turkish Government in regard to the Goeben and
Breslau could hardly have been possible unless with a previous
understanding. At last the rupture came. The following was the
official Turkish version of the events which led to the Turkish
declaration of war:
*' While on the 27th of October a small part of the Turkish
fieet was maneuvering on the Black Sea, the Russian fleet, which
at first confined its activities to following and hindering every
one of our movements, finally, on the 29th, unexpectedly began
hostilities by attacking the Ottoman fleet. During the naval
battle which ensued the Turkish fleet, with the help of the
Almighty, sank the mine layer Pruth, inflicted severe damage on
one of the Russian torpedo boats, and captured a coUier. A
torpedo from the Turkish torpedo boat Gairet-i-Millet sank the
Russian destroyer Koubanietz, and another from the Turkish
torpedo boat Mouavenet-i-Millet inflicted serious damage on a
Russian coast guard sliip. Three ofiicers and seventy-two sailors
rescued by our men and belonging to the crews of the damaged
and sunken vessels of the Russian fleet have been made prisoners.
The Ottoman Imperial fleet, glory be given to the Almighty,
escaped injury, and the battle is progressing favorably for us.
Information received from our fleet, now in the Black Sea, is as
follows:
"From accounts of Russian sailors taken prisoners, and from
the presence of a mine layer among the Russian fleet, evidence
is gathered that the Russian fleet intended closing the entrance to
the Bosporus with mines, and destroying entirely the Imperial
Ottoman fleet, after having spht it in two. Our fleet, beUeving
that it had to face an unexpected attack, and supposing that the
Russians had begun hostihties without a formal declaration of war,
pursued the scattered Russian fleet, bombarded the port of Sebas-
topol, destroyed in the city of Novorossisk fifty petroleum depots,
fourteen military transports, some granaries, and the wireless
telegraph station. In addition to the above our fleet has sunk in
FAMOUS BRITISH GENERALS
General Smith-Dorrien, British Corps Commander in the famous retreat from
Mons; Generals Pkm.er, Rawlinson and Byng, Commanders on the Western Front;
General Birdwood, Commander of the Australian-New Zealand troops at Gallipoli.
FAMOUS FRENCH GENERALS
Marshal Petain, Commander-in-Chief of the French armies in the West;
Generals Mangin, Gouraud and Humbert, Army Commanders in the West;
General Gallieni, Commander of Paris, whc sent forward an army in taxicabs to
save the day at the First Battle of the Marne,
THE SUBLIME PORTE 171
Odessa a Russian cruiser, and damaged severely another. It is
believed that this second boat was likewise sunk. Five other
steamers full of cargoes lying in the same port were seriously
damaged. A steamship belonging to the Russian volunteer fleet
was also sunk, and five petroleum depots were destroyed. In
Odessa and Sebastopol the Russians from the shore opened fire
against our fleet."
The Sultan at once declared war against Russia, England and
France, and issued a proclamation to his troops, declaring that he
had called them to arms to resist aggression and that "the very
existence of our Empire and of three hundred milUon Moslems
whom I have suimnoned by sacred Fetwa to a supreme struggle,
depend on your victory. Do not forget that you are brothers
in arms of the strongest and bravest armies of the world, with
whom we are now fighting shoulder to shoulder."
The Fetwa, or proclamation announcing a holy war, called
upon all Mussulmans capable of carrying arms, and even upon
Mussulman women to fight against the powers with whom the
Sultan was at war. In this manner the holy war became a duty,
not only for all Ottoman subjects, but for the three hundred million
Moslems of the earth. On November 5th Great Britain declared
war against Turkey, ordered the seizure in British ports of Turkish
vessels, and, by an order in Council, annexed the Island of Cyprus.
On the 17th of December, the Khedive Abbas II, having thi-own
in his lot with Turkey and fled to Constantinople, Egypt was form-
ally proclaimed a British Protectorate. The title of Khedive was
aboHshed, and the throne of Egypt, with the title of Sultan, was
offered to Prince Hussein Kamel Pasha, the eldest Uving prince of
the house of Mahomet Ali, an able and enlightened man. This
meant that Britain was now wholly responsible for the defense of
Egypt. The new Sultan of Egypt made his state entry on Decem-
ber 20th into the Abdin Palace in Cairo. The progress of the
new ruler was received with great enthusiasm by thousands of
spectators.
The King of England sent a telegram of congratulation with
his promise of support:
On the occasion when your Highness enters upon your high office I
desire to convey to your Highness the expression of my most sincere
friendship, and the assurance of my unfailing support in safeguarding the
172 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
integrity of Egypt, and in securing her future well being and prosperity.
Your Highness has been called upon to undertake the responsibilities of
your high office at a grave crisis in the national Ufe of Egypt, and I feel
convinced that you will be able, with the co-operation of your Ministers,
and the Protectorate of Great Britain, successfully to overcome all the
influences which are seeking to destroy the independence of Egypt and
the wealth, liberty and happiness of its people.
This was Britain's answer to the Turkish proclamation of
war. The Turks had not taken this warlil^e course wdth entire
unanimity. The Sultan, the Grand Vizier, and Djavid Bey were
in favor of peace, but Enver Pasha and his colleagues overruled
them. The Odessa incident w^as unjustified aggression, deliberately
planned to provoke hostilities. The tricky and corrupt German
diplomacy had won its point.
It is interesting to observe that the proclamation of the holy
war, a favorite German scheme, fell flat. The Ilaiser, and his
advisers, had counted much upon this raising of the sacred flag.
The Kaiser had visited Constantinople and permitted himself
to be exploited as a sympathizer with Mohammedanism. Photo-
graphs of him had been taken representing him in Mohammedan
garb, accompanied by Moslem priests, and a report had been
dehberately circulated throughout Turkey that he had become a
Moslem. The object of this camouflage was to stir up the
Mohannnedans in the countries controlled by England, risings
w^ere hoped for in Egypt and India, and German spies had been
distributed through those countries to encourage religious revolts.
But there was almost no response. The Sultan, it is true, was the
head of the Church, but who was the Sultan? The old Sultan,
now dethroned, and imprisoned, or this new and insignificant
creature placed on the throne by the young Turk party? The
Mohammedan did not feel himself greatly moved.
At the beginning of the war Turkey found herseK unable to
make any move to recover her provinces in Thrace. Greece and
Bulgaria were neutral, and could not be attacked. Placing herself,
therefore, in the liands of her German advisers, she moved her new
army to those frontiers where it could meet the powers with whom
she was at war. In particular Germany and Austria desired her
aid in Transcaucasia against the Russian armies. An attack
upon Russia from that quarter would mean that many troops which
THE SUBLIME PORTE 173
otherwise would have been used against the Central Powers must
be sent to the Caucasus. The Suez Canal, too, must be attacked.
An expedition there would compel Great Britain to send out troops,
and perhaps would encourage the hoped-for rebelUon in Egypt
and give an opportunity for religious insurrection in India, where
the D jehad was being preached among the Mohammedan tribes
in the northwest. The Dardanelles, to be sure, might be threat-
ened, but the Germans had sent there many heavy guns and forti-
fications had been built which, in expert opinion, made Constanti-
nople safe.
The Turkish offensive along her eastern frontier in Trans-
caucasia and in Persia was first undertaken. The Persian Gulf
had long been controlled by Great Britain; even in the days of
Ehzabeth the East India Company had fought with Dutch and
Portuguese rivals for control of its commerce. The English had
protected Persia, suppressed piracy and slavery, and introduced
sanitary measures in the marshes along the coast. They regarded
a control of the Persian Gulf as necessary for the prosperity of
India and the Empire. The Turkish Government had never had
great power along the Persian Gulf. Bagdad, indeed, had been
captured by Suleiman the Magnificent in the sixteenth century,
but in eastern Arabia lived many independent Arabian chieftains
who had no idea of subjecting themselves to Turkish rule.
For years Germany had been looking with jealous eyes in this
direction. Her elaborate intrigues with Turkey were mainly
designed to open up the way to the Persian Gulf. She had planned
a great railway to open up trade, and her endeavor to build the
Bagdad Railway is a story in itself. Her efforts had lasted for
many years, but she found herself constantly blocked by the agents
of Great Britain.
Before the Ottoman troops were ready, the British in the
Gulf had made a start. On November 7th a British force under
Brigadier-General Delamain bombarded the Turkish fort at Falon,
landed troops and occupied the village. Sailing north from this
point they disembarked at Sard j ah, where they intrenched them-
selves and waited for reinforcements. On November 13 th rein-
forcements arrived, and on November 17th the British army
advanced toward Sahain. From there they moved on Sahil, where
they encountered a Turkish force. Some lively fighting ensued and
174 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
the Turks broke and fled. Turkish casualties were about one
thousand five hundred men, the English killed numbered thirty-eight.
The British then moved on Basra, moving by steamer along the
Shat-el-Arab River. On November 22d Basra was reached and
it was found that the Turks had evacuated the place. A base
camp w^as then prepared, for it was certain that there would be
further fighting. Bagdad was only about three hundred miles
distant; and fifty miles above Basra, at the junction of the Tigris
and the Euphrates, lies the to"RTi of Kurna where the Tiu-ks were
gathering an army. On December 4th an attack was made on
Kurna but, Without success. The British obtained reinforcements,
but on December 9th the Turkish garrison surrendered uncondi-
tionally. The British troops then intrenched themselves, having
estabhshed a barricade against a hostile advance upon India.
Farther north the war was between Turkey and Russia. Since
Persia had no miHtary power, each combatant was able to occupy
that country whenever they desu-ed. The Turks advanced into
Persia south of Lake Urmia, and, meeting with no resistance from
Persia, moved northward toward the Russian frontier. On the
30th of January, 1915, Russian troops heavily defeated the invaders
and followed them south as far as Tabriz, which they occupied and
held. The Russian armies had also undertaken movements in
this section. In the extreme northwest of Persia a Russian column
had crossed the frontier, and occupied, on the 3d of November, the
town of Bayazid close to Mt. Ai-arat. Other columns entered
Kurdestan, and an expedition against Van was begun. Further
north another Russian column crossed the frontier and captured
the town of Karakilissa, but was held there by the Turks.
These were minor expeditions. The real struggle was in Trans-
caucasia, where the main body of the Tm-kish army under Enver
Pasha himself was in action. At this point the boundaries of
Turkey touch upon the Russian Empire. To the north is the
Great Russian fortress of Kars, to the south and west the Turkish
stronghold of Erzerum. The whole district is a great mountain
tangle, the towns standing at an altitude of 5,000 and 6,000 feet,
surrounded by lofty hills. None of the roads are good, and in
winter the passes are almost impassable. In all the wars between
Russia and Turkey, these mountain regions have been the scenes
of desperate battles.
THE SUBLIINIE PORTE 175
The Turkish plan of battle was to entice the Russians from
Sarakamish across the frontier, leading them on to some distance
from their base, then, while holding their front, a second force was
to swing around and attack them on the left flank. The plan was
simple, the difficulty was the swing of the left flank, which had to
be made through mountain paths, deeply covered with snow. The
Turkish army was composed of about 150,000 men under the
command of Hassan Izzet Pasha, but Enver, with a large German
staff, was the true commander. The Russian army, under General
Woronzov was about 100,000 men.
Early in November the Russians crossed the frontier and
reached Koprikeui, which they occupied on the 20th of November.
The Tiu-kish Eleventh corps was entrusted with the duty of holding
the Russian forces; the remainder of the army was to advance
over the passes and take then* stations behind the Russian right.
On December 25th the Turkish attack began. The Eleventh corps
forced back the Russians from Koprikeui to IChorasan, while the
extreme Turkish left was endeavoring to outflank them. But the
weather was desperate. A blizzard was sweeping down the steeps.
The Turkish forces were indeed able to carry out the plan, for they
obtained the position desu-ed. But by this time they were worn out,
and half starved, and their attack on New Year's Day resulted in
their defeat and retreat. The Ninth corps was utterly wiped out,
and the remainder of the Turkish forces diiven off in confusion.
Only the strenuous efforts of the Turkish Eleventh corps prevented
a debacle. After a three days' battle it, too, was broken, and with
heavy losses it retreated toward Erzerum. The snowdrifts and
bUzzards must have accounted for not less than 50,000 of the
Turkish troops. The result of the battle made Russia safe in the
Caucasus.
But the Germans had another use for the Turkish forces.
England was in control of Egypt and the Suez Canal. The German
view of England's position has been well stated by Dr. Paul
Rohi'bach:
"As soon as England acquired Egypt it was incumbent upon her
to guard against any menace from Asia. Such a danger apparently
arose when Turkey, weakened by her last war with Russia and by
difficult conditions at home, began to turn to Germany for support.
And now war has come, and England is reaping the crops which she
176 HISTORY OF THE VVORLD WAR
has sown. England, not we, desired this war. She knows this,
despite all her hypocritical talk, and she fears that, as soon
as connection is estabUshed along the BerUn-Vienna-Budapest-
Sofia-Constantinople Line, the fate of Egypt may be decided
Through the Suez Canal goes the route to all the lands surround-
ing the Indian Ocean, and by way of Singapore to the western
shores of the Pacific. These two worlds together have about
nine hundred milHon inhabitants, more than half the popu-
lation of the universe, and India Hes in a controlling position in
their midst. Should England lose the Suez Canal she will be
obliged, unhke the powers in control of that waterway, to use the
long route around the Cape of Good Hope, and depend on the
good will of the South African Boers. The majority among the
latter have not the same views as Botha. However, it is too early
to prophesy, and it is not according to German ideas to imitate
our opponents by singing premature paeans of victory. But any-
how we are well aware why anxious England already sees us on
the road to India."
Following out this view a Turkish force was directed toward
the Suez Canal, while the Gennan intriguers did their best to stir
up revolt in Egypt itself. The story of Egypt is one of the most
interesting parts of the world's history. In the early days of the
world it led mankind. Its peculiar geographical position at first
gave it strength, and afterward made it the prize for which all
nations were ready to contend. In 1517 the Sultan SeHm con-
quered Egypt and made it part of the Turkish realm, and in spite
of many changes the sovereignty of Constantinople had continued.
In recent years the misgovemment of the Khedive Ismael had
brought uito its control France and Britain; then came the deposi-
tion of Ismael, the revolt under Arabi, the bombardment of
Alexandria and the battle of Tel-el-Kebu\ Since then Egypt has
been occupied by Great Britain, who restored order, defeated the
armies of the Mahdi, and turned Egyptian banlo-uptcy into
prosperity. Lord Kitchener was the English hero of the wars with
the Mahdi, and Lord Cromer the administrator who gave the
Egyptian peasant a comfort unknown since the days of the Pharaohs.
With prosperity came political agitation, and Germany, as has been
seen, looked upon Egypt as fertile territory for German propaganda.
Intrigue having failed in Egypt, a Turkish force was directed
THE SUBLIME PORTE 177
against the Suez Canal. If that could be captured Great Britain
could be cut off from India. An expeditionary army of about
65,000 men was gathered under the command of Djemal Pasha,
the former Turkish Minister of Marine. He had been bitterly
indignant at the seizure of the two Turkish dreadnaughts building
in England, and was burning for revenge. But he found great
difficulties before him. To reach the Canal it was necessary to
cross a trackless desert, varying from 120 to 150 miles in width.
Over this desert there were three routes. The first touched the
Mediterranean coast at El-Arish and then went across the desert
to El-Kantara on the Canal, twenty-five miles south of Port Said.
On this route there were only a few wells, quite insufficient for an
army. A second route ran from Akaba, on the Red Sea, across
the Peninsula of Sinai to a point a little north of Suez. This was
also badly supplied with wells. Between the two was the central
route. Leaving the Mediterranean at El-Arish it ran up the valley
called the Wady El-Arish to where that valley touched the second
road. There was no railway, nor were these roads suitable for
motor transports; for an army to move it would be necessary
either to build a railway or to improve the roads. The best route
for railway was the Wady El-Arish. The Suez Canal, moreover, can
be easily defended. It is over two hundred feet wide, with banks
rising to a height of forty feet. A railway runs along the whole
Canal, and most of the ground to the east is flat, offering a good
field of fire either to troops on the banks or to ships on the Canal.
A considerable force of British troops, under the command
of Major-General Sir John Maxwell, were assigned for the pro-
tection of the Canal. About the end of October it was reported
that 2,000 Bedouins were marching on the Canal, and on November
21st a skirmish took place between this force and some of the
Enghsh troops in which the Bedouins were repelled. Nothing
more was heard for more than two months, but on January 28, 1915,
a small advance party from the Turkish army was beaten back
east of El-Kantara. British airmen watched the desert well, and
kept the British army well informed of the Turkish movements.
The Turks had found it impossible to convey then full force across
the desert, and the forces which finally arrived seemed to have
numbered only about twelve thousand men. The main attack
was not developed until February 2d.
178 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
According to an account in the London Times, on that date,
the enemy began to move toward the Ismaiha FeiTy. They met
a reconnoitering party of Indian troops of all arms, and a desultory
engagement ensued to which a violent sandstorm put a sudden end
about three o'clock in the afternoon. The main attacking force
pushed forward toward its destination after nightfall. From
twenty-five to thirty galvanized iron pontoon boats, seven and a
half meters in length, which had been dragged in carts across the
desert, were hauled by hand toward the water. With one or two
rafts made of kerosene tins in a wooden frame, all was ready for
the attack. The first warning of the enemy's approach was given
by a sentry of a mountain battery who heard, to him, an unknown
tongue across the water. The noise soon increased. It would seem
that Mudjah Ideem — "Holy Warriors" — said to be mostly old
Tripoli fighters, accompanied the pontoon section, and regulars
of the Seventy-fifth regiment, for loud exultations, often in
Arabic, of ''Brothers, die for the faith; we can die but once,"
betrayed the enthusiastic irregular.
The Egyptians waited until the Turks were pushing their
boats into the water, then the Maxims attached to the battery
suddenly spoke, and the guns opened at point-blank range at the
men and boats crowded under the steep bank opposite them.
Immediately a violent fire broke out on both sides of the Canal.
A Httle torpedo boat with a crew of thirteen, patrolluig the
Canal, dashed up and landed a party of four ofiicers and men to the
south of Tussum, who climbed up the eastern bank and found
themselves in a Turkish trench, and escaped by a miracle with the
news. Promptly the midget dashed in between the fires and
enfiladed the eastern bank amid a hail of bullets, and destroyed
several pontoon boats lying unlaunched on the bank. It continued
to harass the enemy, though two ojfficers and two men were
wounded.
As the dark, cloudy night lightened toward dawn fresh forcea
went into action. The Turks, who occupied the outer, or day, line
of the Tussum post, advanced, covered by artillery, against the
Indian troops, holding the inner or night position, while an Arab
regiment advanced against the Indian troop at the Serapeum post.
The warships on the Canal and lake joined in the fray. The enemy
brought some six batteries of field guns into action from the slopes
THE SUBLIME PORTE 179
west of Kataiba-el-kaeli. Shells admirably fused made fine practice
at all the visible targets, but failed to find the battery above men-
tioned, which, with some help from a detachment of infantry, beat
down the fire of the riflemen on the opposite bank and inflicted
heavy losses on the hostile supports advancing tov/ard the Canal.
Supported by land and naval artillery the Indian troops took
the offensive, the Serapeum garrison, which had stopped the enemy
three-quarters of a mile from the position, cleared its front, and the
Tussum garrison, by a brilHant counter-attack, drove the enemy
back. Two battahons of Anatolians of the Twenty-eighth regi-
ment were thrown into the fight, but the artillery gave them no
chance, and by 3.30 in the afternoon a third of the enemy, with the
exception of a force that lay hid in bushy hollows on the east bank
between the two posts, were in full retreat, leaving many dead, a
large proportion of whom had been killed by shrapnel. Meanwhile
the warships on the lake had been in action, a salvo from a battleship
woke up IsmaiHa early, and crowds of soldiers and some civilians
climbed every available sand hill to see what was doing, till the
Turkish guns sent shells sufficiently near to convince them that it
was safer to watch from cover.
At about eleven in the morning two six-inch shells hit the
Hardinge near the southern entrance of the lake. They first damaged
the funnel, and the second burst inboard. Pilot Carew, a gallant
old merchant seaman, refused to go below when the filing opened
and lost a leg. Niae others were wounded, one or two merchant-
men were hit but no lives were lost. % A British gimboat was
struck. Then came a dramatic duel between the Turkish big
gun, or guns, and a warship. The Tm-ks fired just over, and then
just short, at 9,000 yards. , The warship sent in a salvo of more
six-inch shells than had been fired that day.
Late in the afternoon of the 3d there was sniping from the
east bank between Tussum and Serapeum, and a man was killed
on the tops of a British battleship. ^ Next morning the sniping was
renewed and the Indian troops, moving out to search the ground,
found several himdred of the enemy in the hollow previously men-
tioned. During the fighting some of the enemy, either by accident
or design, held up their hands, while others fii'ed on the Punjabis,
who were advancing to take the surrender, and killed a British
officer. A sharp fight with the cold steel followed, and a British
180 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
officer killed a Turkish officer with a sword thrust in single combat.
A body of a German officer with a white flag was afterward found
here, but there is no proof that the white flag was used. Finally all
the enemy were killed, captured or put to ffight. With this the
fighting ended, and the subsequent operations were confined to the
rounding up of prisoners, and the capture of a considerable amount
of military material left behind. The Turks, who departed with
their guns and baggage during the night of the 3d, still seemed
to be moving eastward.
So ended the battle of the Suez Canal.
Two more incidents in the Turkish campaign remain to be
noticed. Report having come that the town of Akaba on the
Red Sea was being used as a mine-laying station, H. M. S. Minerva
visited the place, and found it occupied by soldiers under a German
officer. The Minerva destroyed the fort and the barracks and the
government buildings. Another British cruiser, with a detachment
of Indian troops, captured the Turkish fort at Sheik Said, at the
southern end of the Red Sea. And so for the time ended all Turkish
movements against Great Britain. That such movements should
have been possible seems hard to believe. For a century the
British had been the friends and allies of the Turkish Government.
In the Crimean War their armies had fought side by side with the
Turkish troops against Russia. In the Russo-Turkish War Lord
Beaconsfield, in the negotiations which preceded the treaty of
Berlin, had saved for Turkey much of its territory. It was only the
British influence and the fear of the British power which had pre-
vented Russia from taking possession of Constantinople a half a
century before. The English had always been popular in Tiu"key
and there was every reason at the beginning of the w^ar to beheve
that their popularity had not waned. There is reason to believe
that the average Turk had Uttle sympathy with the course of his
government, and if a free expression of the popular will had been
possible the Turkish army would never have been sent against
either the Englishmen or the Frenchmen. But long years of
German propaganda had done their work. The power of Enver
Pasha was greater than that of the weakling Sultan and the war
was forced upon the Turkish people by German tools and German
bribes.
CHAPTER XII
Rescue of the Starving
THE sufferings of Belgium during the German occupation
were terrible, and attracted the attention and the sym-
pathy of the whole world. To understand conditions it m
necessary to know something of the economic situation.
Since it had come under the protection of the Great Powers, Bel-
gium had developed into one of the greatest manufacturing coun-
tries in the world. Nearly two milhon of her citizens were employed
in the great industries, and one milUon two hundred thousand on
the farms. She was peaceful, industrious and happy. But on
account of the fact that more than one-half of her citizenship
earned their living by daily labor she found it impossible to pro-
duce foodstuff enough for her own needs. Seventy-eight per
cent of her breadstuffs had to be imported. From her own fields
she could hardly supply her population for more than four months.
The war, and the German occupation, almost destroyed busi-
ness. Mines, workshops^ factories and mills were closed. Labor
found itself without employment and consequently without wages.
The banks would extend no credit. - But even if there had been
money enough it soon became apparent that the food supply was
rapidly going. The German invasion had come when the crops
were standing ripe upon the field. Those crops had not been
reaped, but had been trampled under foot by the hated German.
One feature of Belgian industrial life should be understood.
Hundreds of thousands of her workmen were employed each day
in workshops at considerable distances from their own homes.
In times of peace the morning and evening trains were always
crowded with laborers going to and returning from their daily
toil. One of the first things seized upon by the German ofiicials
was the railroads, and it was with great difficulty that anyone,
not belonging to the German army, could obtain an opportunity
to travel at all, and it was with still greater difficulty that supplies
of food of any kind could be transported from place to place.
181
18^ HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
Every village was cut off from its neighbor, every town from the
next town. People were unable even to obtain news of the great
political events which were occurring from day to day, and the
food supply was automatically cut off.
But this was not the worst. One of the first moves of the Ger-
man occupation was to quarter hundreds of thousands of troops
upon their Belgian victims, and these troops must be fed even
though the Belgian and his family were near starvation. Then
followed the German seizure of what they called materials for war.
General von Beseler in a despatch to the Kaiser, after the fall of
Antwerp, speaks very plainly:
The war booty taken at Antwerp is enormous — at least five hundred
cannon and huge quantities of ammunition, sanitation materials, high-
power motor cars, locomotives, wagons, four million kilograms of wheat,
large quantities of flom*, coal and flax wool, the value of which is estimated
at ten million marks, copper, silver, one armored train, several hospital
trains, and quantities of fish.
The Germans proceeded to commandeer foodstuffs and raw
materials of industry. Linseed oil, oil cakes, nitrates, animal and
vegetable oils, petroleum and mineral oils, wool, copper, rubber,
ivory, cocoa, rice, wine, beer, all were seized and sent home to the
Fatherland. [Moreover, cities and provinces were biu-dened with
formidable war contributions. Brussels was obliged to pay ten
million dollars, Antwerp ten million dollars, the province of- Bra-
bant, ninety miUions of dollars, Namur and seventeen surroimding
communes six million four hundred thousand dollars. Finally
Governor von Bissing, on the 10th of December, 1914, issued the
following decree :
A war contribution of the amount of eight million dollars to be paid
monthly for one year is imposed upon the population of Belgium. The
pajTnent of these amounts is im nosed upon the nine provinces which
are regarded as joint debtors. The two first monthly pajinents are to
be made by the 15th of January, 1915, at latest, and the following monthly
pajTnents by the tenth of each follov^'ing month to the military chest of
the Field Army of tne General Imperial Government in Brussels. If the
provinces are obliged to resort to the iissue of stock vnth. a view to pro-
curing the necessary funds, the form and terms of these shares will be
determined by the Conmiissary General for the banks in Belgium.
At a meeting of the Provincial Councils the vice-president
declared: ''The Gennans demand these $96,000,000 of the
RESCUE OF THE STARVING 183
country without right and without reason. Are we to sanction
this enormous war tax? If we listened only to our hearts, we
should reply *No! ninety-six million times no!' because our hearts
would tell us we were a small, honest nation living happily by its
free labor; we were a small, honest nation having faith in treaties
and believing in honor; we were a nation unarmed, but full of
confidence, when Germany suddenly hurled two million men
upon our frontiers, the most brutal army that the world has ever
seen, and said to us, * Betray the promise you have given. Let my
armies go by, that I may crush France, and I will give you gold.'
Belgium repHed, *Keep your gold. I prefer to die, rather than
Hve without honor.' The German army has, therefore, crushed
om* country in contempt of solemn treaties. *It is an injustice,'
said the Chancellor of the German Empire. 'The position of
Germany has forced us to commit it, but we will repair the wrong
we have done to Belgium by the passage of our armies.' They
want to repair the injustice as follows: Belgium will pay Germany
$96,000,000! Give this proposal your vote. T^Tien GaUleo had
discovered the fact that the earth moved around the sun, he was
forced at the foot of the stake to abjure his error, but he murmured,
* Nevertheless it moves.' Well, gentlemen, as I fear a still greater
misfortune for my country I consent to the payment of the
$96,000,000 and I cry 'Nevertheless it moves.' Long live our
country in spite of all."
At the end of a year von Bissing renewed this assessment,
inserting in his decree the statement that the decree was based
upon article forty-nine of The Hague Convention, relating to the
laws and usages of war on land. This article reads as follows:
''If in addition to the taxes mentioned in the above article the
occupant levies other moneyed contributions in the occupied terri-
tory, they shall only be apphed to the needs of the army, or of the
administration, of the territory in question." In the preceding
article it says: "If in the territory occupied the occupant collects
the taxes, dues and tolls payable to the state, he shall do so as
far as possible in accordance with the legal basis and assessment
in force at the time, and shall in consequence be bound to defray
the expenses of the administration of the occupied territories to
the same extent as the National Government had been so
bound."
184
HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
The $96,000,000 per annum was more than six times the amount
of the direct taxes formerly collected by the Belgian state, taxes
which the German administration, moreover, collected in addition
to the war assessment. It was five times as great as the ordinary
expenditure of the Belgian War Department.
^^^^^Danish£ FrancoCefman
f Inciters since ISoSilllTl,
........ Other Frontiers
'^^^.la/ia above 3000f^
f •• 1200 ft
SCHLBSWIG-HOLSTEIN AND AlSACE-LoRRAINB ACQUISITIONS
But this was not all. In addition to the more or less legitimate
German methods of plunder the whole country had been pillaged.
In many towns systematic pillage began as soon as the Germans
took possession. At Louvain the pillage began on the 27th of
August, 1914, and lasted a week. In small bands the soldiers
went from house to house, ransacked drawers and cupboards,
broke open safes, and stole money, pictures, curios, silver, linen,
clothing, wines, and food. Great loads of such plunder were
RESCUE 0¥ THE STARVING 185
packed on military baggage wagons and sent to Germany. The
same conditions were reported from town after town. In many
cases the houses were burnt to destroy the proof of extensive thefts.
Nor were these offenses committed only by the common sol-
diers. In many cases the officers themselves sent home great
collections of plunder. Even the Royal Family were concerned in
this disgraceful performance. After stajdng for a week in a
chdteau in the Liege District, His Imperial Highness, Prince Eitel
Fritz, and the Duke of Brunswick, had all the dresses which were
found in a wardrobe sent back to Germany. This is said to be
susceptible of absolute proof.
In addition to this form of plunder special pretexts were made
use of to obtain money. At Arlon a telephone wire was broken,
whereupon the town was given four hours to pay a fine of $20,000
in gold, in default of which one hundred houses would be sacked.
When the payment was made forty-seven houses had already
been plundered. Instance after instance could be given of similar
unjustifiable and exorbitant fines.
Under treatment Uke this Belgium was brought in a short
time into immediate sight of starvation. They made frantic
appeals for help. First they appealed to the Germans, but the
German authorities did nothing, though in individual cases German
soldiers shared their army rations with the people. Then an
appeal was made to Holland, but Holland was a nation much like
Belgium. It did not raise food enough for itself, and was not sure
that it could import enough for its own needs.
From all over Belgium appeals were sent from the various
towns and villages to Brussels. But Brussels, too, was face to
face with famine. To cope with famine there were many reUef
organizations in Belgium. Every little town had its relief com-
mittee, and in the larger cities strong branches of the Red Cross
did what they could. Besides such secular organizations, there
were many religious organizations, generally under the direction
of the Roman Catholic Church.
In Brussels a strong volunteer relief organization was formed
on September 5th under the patronage of the American and
Spanish Ministers, Mr. Brand Whit-lock and the Marquis of Villa-
lobar. This committee, known as the Central Relief Committee,
or more exactly La Comit6 Central de Secours et dAlimentation
186 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
pour r Agglomeration bruxelloise, did wonderful work until the
end of the war. But though there was plenty of organization
there were great difficulties ahead.
In order to import food, credit had to be estabHshed abroad,
permission had to be obtained to transport food stuffs into Belgium
through the British blockade. Permission to use the railroads
and canals of Belgium had to be obtained from Germany, and,
most important of all, it had to be made certain that no food thus
imported should be seized by the German troops.
Through the American and Spanish ministers permission was
obtained from Governor-General Kolmar von der Goltz to import
food, and the Governor-General also gave assurance that, '^Food-
stuffs of all sorts imported by the committee to assist the civil
population shall be reserved exclusively for the nourishment of the
ci\il population of Belgium, and that consequently these foodstuffs
shall be exempt from requisition on the part of the miUtary author-
ities, and shall rest exclusively at the disposition of the committee."
With this assurance the Central ReUef Committee sent Emil
Francqui and Baron Lambert, membei*s of their committee, together
with Mr. Hugh Gibson, secretary of the ^imerican Legation, whose
activities in behalf of Belgium attracted much favorable notice,
to the city of London, to explain to the British Government the
suffering that existed in Belgium, and to obtain penrdssion to
transport food thi'ough the British blockade. In the course of this
work they appealed to the American Ambassador in England, Mr.
Walter Hines Page, and were introduced by him to an American
mining engineer named Herbert Clark Hoover, who had just become
prominent as the chairman of a committee to assist Americans
who had found themselves in Europe v/hen the war broke out, and
had been unable to secure funds.
INIr. Hoover took up the matter with great vigor, and organized
an American committee under the patronage of the ministers of
the United States and of Spain in London, Berhn, The Hague and
Brussels, which committee obtained permission from the British
Government to purchase and transport through the British blockade,
to Rotterdam, Holland, cargoes of foodstuffs, to be ultimately
transferred mto Belgium and distributed by the Belgian Central
Relief Committee under the direction of American citizens headed
by Mr. Brand Wliitlock.
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RESCUE OF THE STARVING 189
The following brief notices, in connection with this committee
appeared in the London Times:
October ,24 1914. — A commission has been set up in London, under
the title of The American Commission for Relief in Belgium. The
Brussels committee reports feeding 300,000 daily.
November 4. — The Commission for ReKef in Belgium yesterday-
issued their first weekly report, 3 London Wall Buildings. A cargo was
received yesterday at Brussels just in time. Estimated monthly require-
ments, 60,000 tons grain, 15,000 tons maize, 3,000 tons rice and peas.
Approved by the Spanish and American ministers, Brussels./
The personality of the various gentlemen who devoted them-
selves to Belgian relief is interesting, not only because of what
they did, but because they are unusual men. The Spanish Minister,
who bore the peculiar name of Marquis of Villalobar y O'Neill,
had the appearance of an Irishman, as he w^as on the maternal side,
and was a trained diplomat, with delightful manners and extraor-
dinary strength of chai*acter. Another important aid in the
Belgian relief work was the Mexican Charge d'Affaires Senor
don German Bulle. Hugh Gibson, secretary of the American
Legation, wittily described this gentleman as the "representative of
a country without a government to a government without a coun-
try." The businessman in the American Legation was this secre-
tary. Mr. Gibson had the appearance of a typical Yankee, though
he came from Indiana. He was about thirty years old, with dark
eyes, crisp hair, and a keen face. He was noted for his wit as well
as his courage. Many interesting stories are told of him. He had
been often under foe, and he was full of stories of his exploits
told in a witty and modest way.
The following incident shows something of his humor. Like
most of the Americans in Belgium he was followed by spies. With
one of these Gibson became on the most familiar terms, much to
the spy's disgust. One very rainy day, when Gibson was at the
Legation, he discovered liis pet spy standing under the drippmg
eaves of a neighboring house. Gibson picked up a raincoat and
hurried over to the man.
''Look here, old fellow," said he, "I'm going to be in the
Legation for three hours. You put on this coat and go home.
Come back in three hours and I'll let you watch me for the rest of
the day."
190 HISTORY OF THE \YORLD WAR
Mr. Brand Wliitlock, the American Minister, was a remarkable
man. Before coming to Belgium he had become a distinguished man
of letters. Beginning as a newspaper reporter in Chicago, he had
studied law and been admitted to the Illinois Bar in 1894, and to
the Bar of the State of Oliio in 1897. He had entered into politics,
and been elected mayor of Toledo, Ohio, in 1905, again in 1907,
1909 and 1911. Meanwhile he had been writing novels, "The
Thirteenth District," "The Turn of the Balance," "The Fall Guy,"
and "Forty Yeai's of It." He had accepted the appointment of
American Minister to Belgium with the idea that he would find
leisure for other literary work, but the outbreak of the war affected
him deeply. A man of a sympathetic character who had lived ail
his life in an amiable atmosphere, had been a member of prison
reform associations and charitable societies, he now found him-
self surrounded by a storm of horrors. Day by day he had to see
the distress and suffering of thousands of people. He threw him-
self at once into the work of relief. His health was not strong and
he alw^ays looked tired and worn. He was the scholarly type of
man, the kind who would be happy in a library, or in the atmosphere
of a college, but he rose to the emergency.
The American Legation became the one staple point around
w^hich the starving and suffering population could rally. Belgians
will never forget what he did in those days. On Washington's
Birthday they filed before the door of the American Legation at
Number 74 Rue de Treves, men, women and children of all classes;
some in furs, some in the garments of the poor; noblemen, scholars,
workmen, artists, shopkeepers and peasants to leave their visiting
cards, some engraved, some printed and some written on pieces of
paper, in tribute to Mr. Whitlock and the nation which he
represented.
But the man whose name stands out above all others as one
of the biggest figm'es in connection with the work of relief was
Mr. Herbert C. Hoover. Mr. Hoover came of Quaker stock.
He w^as bom at West Branch, Iowa, in 1874, graduated from
Leland Stanford University in 1895, specialized in mining engineer-
ing, and spent several years in mining in the United States and
in Australia. He married Miss Lou Henry, of Monterey, California,
in 1899, and with his bride went to China as chief engineer of
the Chinese Imperial Bureau of Mines. He aided in the defense
RESCUE OF THE STARVING 191
of Tientsin dui'ing the Boxer Rebellion. After that he continued
engineering work in China until 1902, when he became a partner
of the firm of Bewick, Moreing & Co., mine operators, of London,
and was consulting engineer for more than fifty mining companies.
He looked extremely youthful; smooth shaven, with a straight
nose, and a strong mouth and chin. To him, more than any one
else, was due the creation and the success of the Commission for
Relief in Belgium. The splendid organization which saved from
so much suffermg more than seven million non-combatants in
Belgium and two million in Northern France, was his achievement.
A good story is told in the Outlook of September 8, 1915, which
illustrates his methods. It seems that before the commission was
fairly on its feet, there came a day when it was a case of snarling
things in red tape and letting Belgium starve, or getting food shipped
and letting governments howl. Hoover naturally chose the latter.
When the last bag had been stowed and the hatches were
battened down (writes Mr. Lewis R. Freeman, who tells the story),
Hoover went in person to the one Cabinet Minister able to arrange
for the only things he could not provide for himself — clearance
papers.
"If I do not get fotu* cargoes of food to Belgium by the end
of the week," he said bluntly, "thousands are going to die from
starvation, and many more may be shot in food riots."
"Out of the question," said the distinguished Minister; "there
is no time, in the first place, and if there was, there are no good
wagons to be spared by the railways, no dock hands, and no
Bteamers. Moreover, the Channel is closed for a week to merchant
vessels, while troops are being transferred to the Continent."
"I have managed to get all these things," Hoover replied
quietly, "and am now through with them all, except the steamers.
This wire tells me that these are now loaded and ready to sail,
and I have come to have you arrange for their clearance."
The great man gasped. "There have been — there are even
now — men in the Tower for less than you have done!" he ejaculated.
"If it was for any tiling but Belgium Relief — if it was anybody
but you, yoimg man — I should hate to think of what might happen.
As it is — er — I suppose there is nothing to do but congi-atulate
you on a jolly clever coup. I'll see about the clearance at once."
Mr. Lloyd George tells the following story: It seems that the
192 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
Commission on Belgian Relief was attempting to simplify its work
by arranging for an extension of exchange facilities on Brussels.
Mr. Lloyd George, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, sent for
Hoover. What happened is told in Mr. George's words:
*^*Mr. Hoover,' I said, 'I find I am quite unable to grant your
request in the matter of Belgian exchange, and I have asked you
to come here that I might explain why.'
"Without waiting for me to go on, my boyish-looking caller
began speaking. For fifteen minutes he spoke without a break —
just about the clearest expository utterance I have ever heard
on any subject. He used not a word too much, nor yet a word
too few. By the time he had finished I had come to realize, not
only the importance of his contentions, but, what was more to the
point, the practicability of granting his request. So I did the only
thing possible under the circumstance, told him I had never under-
stood the question before, thanked him for helping me to under-
stand, and saw to it that things were aiTanged as he wanted them."
On April 10, 1915, a submariae torpedoed one of the food
ships chartered by the commission. A week later a German hydro-
airplane tried to drop bombs on the deck of another commission
ship. So Hoover paid a flying visit to Berlin. He was at once
assured that no more incidents of the sort v/ould occur.
"Thanks," said Hoover. "Your Excellency, have you heard
the story of the man who was nipped by a bad-tempered dog?
He went to the owner to have the dog muzzled. 'But the dog
won't bite you,' insisted the owner. 'You laiow he won't bite
me, and I know he won't bite me,' said the injured party doubt-
fully, 'but the question is, does the dog know?' "
"Herr Hoover," said the high official, "pardon me if I leave
you for a moment. I am going at once to 'let the dog know.' "
This story, which is told by Mr. Edward Eyre Hunt in his
delightful book about Belgium, "War Bread," may be apocryphal,
but it illustrates well Hoover's habit of getting exactly what he
wants.
When Mr. Hoover accepted the chairmanship of the Commis-
sion for Relief in Belgium he established his headquarters at 3
London Wall Buildings, London, England, and marshaled a small
legion of fellow Americans, business men, sanitary experts, doctors
and social workers, who, as unpaid volunteers, set about the great
RESCUE OF THE STARVING 193
task of feeding the people of Belgium and Northern France. The
commission soon became a great institution, recognized by all
governments, receiving contributions from all parts of the earth,
with its own ships in every big port, and in the eyes of the Belgians
and French, who received their daily bread through its agency,
a monument cf what Americans could do in social organization
and business efficiency, for Americans furnished the entire per-
sonnel of the commission from the beginning.
The commission was a distinct organization from the Belgian
National Committee, through and with which it worked in Belgium
itself. Its functions were those of direction, and supervision of all
matters that had to be dealt v*dth outside Belgium. In the occupied
territories it had the help cf thousands of Belgian and French
workers, many of them women.
The commission did not depend, according to Mr. Hoover,
on any one of its American members for leadersliip. Any one of
them could at any time take charge and carry on the work.
'^Honold, Poland, Gregory, Brown, Kellogg, Lucey, White, Hun-
siker, Connet, and many others who, at various periods, have given
of their great ability and experience in administration could do it."
At the same time it was admitted that the commission would
never have been so successful if Belgium had not already had in
existence a well-developed communal system. The base of the
commission's organization was a committee in every commune
or municipaUty.
"You can have no idea what a great blessing it was in Belgium
and Northern France to have the small and intimate divisions
which exist under the communal system," said Mr. Hoover. "It
is the whole unit of life, and a political entity much more developed
than in America. It has been not only the basis of our rehef
organization, but the salvation cf the people."
Altogether there were four thousand communal committees,
linked up in larger groups under district and provincial committees,
which in turn came under the Belgian National Committee. Con-
tributions were received from all over the world, but the greater
part from the British and French governments.
V/hen ]\Ir. Hoover began his work he appealed to the people
of the United States, but the American response to the appeal
was sadly disappointing. During his stay in America, in the early
194 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
part of 1917, Mr. Hoover expressed himself on the subject of his
own country's niggardliness, pointing out at the same time that
the chief profits made out of pro\dding food for Belgium had gone
into American pockets. Out of the two hundred and fifty millions
of dollars spent by the commission at that time, one hundred and
fifty millions had been used in the United States to pm-chase supplies
and on these orders America had made a war profit of at least
thirty million dollars. Yet in those two years the American people
had contributed only nine million dollars!
Mr. Hoover declared: '^ Thousands of contributions have
come to us from devoted people all over the United States, but
the truth is that, with the exception of a few large gifts, American
contributions have been little rills of charity of the poor toward
the poor. Everywhere abroad America has been getting the
credit for keeping alight the lamp of humanity, but what are the
facts? America's contributions have been pitifully inadequate
and, do not forget it, other peoples have begun to take stock of
us. We have been getting all the credit. Have we deserved it?
We lay claim to ideaUsm, to devotion to duty and to great benevo-
lence, but now the acid test is being applied to us. This has a
wider import than mere figures. Time and time again, when the
door to Belgium threatened to close, we have defended its portals
by the assertion that tliis was an American enterprise; that the
sensibiHties of the American people would be wounded beyond
measure, would be outraged, if this work were interfered with.
Our moral strength has been based upon this assertion. I believe
it is true, but it is difficult in the face of the figures to carry con-
viction. And in the last six or eight months time and again we
have felt our influence slip from under us."
The statement that Germans had taken food intended for
the Belgians was disposed of by INIr. Hoover in a speech in New
York City. ''We are satisfied," he said, ''that the German army
has never eaten one-tenth of one per cent of the food provided.
The Allied governments never would have supplied us with two
hundred million dollars if we were supplying the German army.
If the Germans had absorbed any considerable quantity of this
food the population of Belgium would not be alive today."
The plan of operation of the Belgian Commission needs some
description. Besides the headquarters in London there was an
RESCUE OF THE STARVING 195
ofRce in Brussels, and, as Rotterdam was the port of entry for all
Belgian supplies, a transshipping office for commission goods
was opened in that city. The office building was at 98 Haring-
vliet, formerly the residence of a Dutch merchant prince.
Captain J. F. Lucey, the first Rotterdam dii'ector, sat in a
roomy office on the second floor overlooking the Meuse. From
his windows he could see the comimission barges as they left for
Belgium, their huge canvas flags bearing the inscription "Belgian
Relief Committee." He was a nervous, big, beardless American,
a volunteer who had left his business to organize and direct a
great transshipping office in an alien land for an alien people.
Out of nothing he created a large staff of clerks, wrung from
the Dutch Government special permits, loaded the immense cargoes
received from England into canal boats, obtained passports for
cargoes and crews, and shipped the foodstuffs consigned personally
to Mr. Brand Whitlock.
Something of what was done at this point may be understood
from a reference in the first annual report of the commission pub-
lished October 31, 1915:
The chartering and management of an entire fleet of vessels, together
with agency control practically throughout the world, has been carried
out for the commission quite free of the usual charges by large trans-
portation firms who offered these concessions in the cause of humanity.
Banks generally have given their exchange services and have paid the
fuU rate of interest on deposits. Insurance has been facilitated by the
British Government Insurance Commissioners, and the firms who fixed
the insurance have subscribed the equivalent of their fees. Harbor dues
and port charges have been remitted at many points and stevedoring
firms have made important concessions in rates and have afforded other
generous services. In Holland, exemption from harbor dues and tele-
graph tolls has been granted and rail transport into Belgium provided
free of charge. The total value of these Dutch concessions is estimated
at 147,824 guilders. The German military authorities in Belgium have
abolished custom and canal dues on all commission imports, have reduced
railway rates one-half and on canals and railways they give right of way
to commission foodstuffs wherever there is need.
By mid-November gift ships from the United States were
on their way to Rotterdam, but the Canadian province of Nova
Scotia was first in the transatlantic race.
One of the most thrilling experiences of the first year's work
was the coming of the Christmas ship, a steamer full of Christmas
196 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
gifts presented by the children of America to the children of war-
ridden Beigium. The children knew all about it long before the
ship arrived in Rotterdam. St. Nicholas' day had brought them
few presents. They were hungry for friendliness, and the thought
of getting gifts from children across the sea filled them with joy.
Many difficulties arose, which delayed the distribution of
these gifts. The Germans insisted that every package should be
opened and eveiy scrap of writing taken out before the gifts were
sent into Belgium. This was a tremendous task, for notes written
by American children were tucked away into all sorts of impos-
sible places.
Three motor boats made an attempt to carry these gifts into
Belgium by Chiistmas day. They carried boxes of clothing, out-
fits for babies, blankets, caps, bonnets, cloaks, shoes of every
description, babies' boots, candy, fish, striped candy canes, choco-
lates and mountains of nuts, nuts such as the Belgians had never
seen in their lives before: pecans, hickory nuts, American walnuts,
and peanuts galore. There were scores of dolls, French bisques,
smiling pleasantly, pop-eyed rag dolls, old darky mammy dolls,
and Santa Clauses, teddy bears, pictm*e books, fairy books and
story books.
One child had wiitten on the cover of her book: "Father
says I ought to send you my best picture book, but I think that
this one will do."
These gifts made the American aid to Belgiiun a thousand
times more intimate and real, and never after that was American
help thought of in other terms than those of burning gratitude.
Among these gifts were hundreds of American flags, which soon
became familiar to all Belgium.
The commission automobiles bore the flag, and the children
would recognize the Stars and Stripes and wave and cheer as it
went by. Thousands upon thousands of gifts to the Belgian people
followed the Christmas ship. All, or a great part, of the cargoes
of one hundred and two ships consisted of gift goods from America
and indeed from all parts of the world, and the Belgians sent back
a flood of acknowledgments and thousands of beautiful souvenirs.
Some of the most touching remembrances came from the children.
Every child in the to'vvn of Tamise, for example, wrote a letter to
America.
RESCUE OF THE STARVING 197
One addressed to the President of the United States reads as
follows:
Highly Honored Mr. President: Although I am still very young I
feel already that feeling of thankfulness which we, as Belgians, owe to
you, Highly Honored Mr. President, because you have come to our help
in these dreary times. Without your help there would certainly have
been thousands of war victims, and so. Noble Sir, I pray that God will
bless you and all the noble American people. That is the wish of all the
Belgian folk.
On New Year's day Cardinal JMercier, Archbishop of Malines,
issued his famous pastoral:
Belgium gave her word of honor to defend her independence. She
has kept her word. The other powers had agreed to protect and to
respect Belgium's neutrahty. Germany has broken her word, England
has been faithful to it. These are the facts. I consider it an obligation
of my pastoral charge to define to you your conscientious duties toward
the power which has invaded our soil, and which for the moment occupies
the greater part of it. This power has no authority, and, therefore, in the
depth of your heart, you should render it neither esteem, nor attachment,
nor respect. The only legitimate power in Belgium is that which belongs
to our King, to his government, to the representatives of the nation;
that alone is authority for us; that alone has a right to our heart's
affection and to our submission.
Cardinal ISIercier was called the bravest man in Belgium.
Six feet five in height, a thin, scholarly face, with grayish white
hair, and a forehead so white that one feels one looks on the naked
bone, he j^resented the appearance of some medieval ascetic. But
there was a humorous look about his mouth, and an expression of
sympathy and comprehension which gave the effect of a keenly
intelligent, as well as gentle, leader of the nation.
At the beginning of the war the Roman Catholic party w^as
divided. Some of its leaders w^ere opposed to resistance to the
invaders. Many priests fled before the German armies. But the
pastoral letter of Cardinal Mercier restored to the Church its old
leadership. In him conquered Belgium had found a voice.
On New Year's Sunday, 1915, every priest at the Mass read
out the Cardinal's ringmg challenge. There w^ere German soldiers
in the churches, but no word of the letter had been allowed to
reach the ears of the authorities, and the Germans were taken com-
pletely by surprise. Immediately orders came from headquarters
n
198 IIISTOKY OF THE WORLD WAR
prohibiting further circulation of the letter, and ordering that
every copy should be smrendei-ed to the authorities. Soldiers
at the bayonet's point extorted the letter from the priests, and
those who had read it were put under arrest. Yet, somehow, copies
of the letter were circulated throughout Belgium, and every Belgian
took new heart.
As far as the Cardinal was concerned German action was a
very delicate matter. They could not arrest and imprison so great
a dignitary of the Church for fear of the effect, not only upon the
Catholics of the outer world, but on the Catholics in their own
empire. An officer was sent to the Cardinal to demand that the
letter be recalled. The Cardinal refused. He was then notified
that it was desired that he remain in his palace for the present.
His confinement lasted only for a day.
The Americans w^ho were in Belgium as representatives of the
Relief Conmnssion had two duties. First, to see that the Germans
did not seize any of the food supplies, and second, to see that every
Belgian who was in need should receive his daily bread. The
ration assigned to each Belgian was 250 grams of bread per day.
This seems ratlier small, but the figure was estabfished by Horace
Fletcher, the American food expert, who was one of the members
of the commission.
Mr. Fletcher also prepared a pamphlet on food values, which
gave recipes for American dishes which were up to that time un-
known to the Belgians. He soon got not only the American but the
Blegian committeemen talking of calories mth great familiarity.
Some of the foods sent from America were at first almost
useless to the Belgians. They did not know how to cook corn-
meal and oatmeal, and some of the famished peasants used them
as feed for chickens. Teachers had to be sent out through the
villages to give instructions.
A great deal of difficulty developed in connection with the
bread. The supply of white flour was limited; wheat had to be
imported, and milled in Belgium. It was milled so as to contain all
the bran except ten per cent, but in some places ten or fifteen per
cent of commeal was added to the flour, not only to enable the
commission to pro\ade the necessary ration, but also to keep do\\T3
the price. As a result the price of bread was always lower in
Belgium than in London, Paris or New York.
RESCUE OF THE STARVING' 199
Much less trouble occurred in coimection with the distribu-
tion of bread and soup from the soup kitchens. In Antwerp
thirty-five thousand men were fed daily at these places. At first
it often occun-ed that soup could be had, but no bread. The
ration of soup and bread given in the kitchens cost about ten cents
a day. There were four varieties of soup, pea, bean, vegetable
and bouillon, and it was of excellent quaUty. Every person carried
a card with blank spaces for the date of the dehveries of soup.
There were several milk kitchens maintained for the children,
and several restaurants where persons with money might obtain
their food.
It was necessary not only to fight starvation in Belgium but also
disease. There were epidemics of typhoid and black measles.
The Rockefeller Foundation estabUshed a station in Rotterdam
called the Rockefeller Foundation War ReHef Comnaission, and
some of the women among its workers acted as volunteer health
officers. People were inoculated against typhoid, and the sources
of infection traced and destroyed. Another foim of relief work
was providing labor for the unemployed. A plan of rehef was
drawn up and it was arranged that a large portion of them should
be employed by the communal organizations, in public works,
such as draining, ditching, constructing embankments and build-
ing sewers. The National Committee paid nine-tenths of the
wages, the commune paying the other tenth. The first enrol-
ment of unemployed amounted to more than 760,000 names, and
nearly as many persons were dependent upon these workers.
Providing employment for these led to certain complications.
The Germans had been able up to this time to secure a certain
amount of labor from the Belgians, Now the Belgian could refuse
to work for the German, and a great deal of tact was necessary
to prevent trouble. As time went on the reHef work of the com-
mission was extended into the north of France, where a population
of more than 2,000,000 was within the Geraian zone. The work
was handled in the same way, \^ith the same guarantees from
Germany.
In conclusion a word may be said of the effect of all this suffer-
ing upon the Belgian people, and let a Belgian speak, who knew
his country well and had traveled it over, going on foot, as he
Bays, or by tram, from town to town, from village to village:
200 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
"I have seen and spoken with hundreds of men of all classes
and all parts of the country, and all these people, taken singly or
united in groups, display a very definite frame of mind. To
describe this new psychology we must record the incontestably
closer union which has been formed between the poHtical sections
of the country. There are no longer any political parties, there
are Belgians in Belgium, and that is all; Belgians better acquainted
with their country, feeling for it an impulse of passionate tender-
ness such as a child might feel who saw his mother suffering for
the first time, and on his account. Walloons and Flemings,
CathoUcs and Liberals or SociaUsts, all are more and more frankly
united in all that concerns the national Hfe and decisions for the
future.
"By uniting the whole nation and its army, by shedding the
blood of all our Belgians in every corner of the coimtry, by forcing
all hearts, all families, to follow with anguish the movement of
those soldiers, who fought from Li^ge to Namur, from Wavre to
Antwerp or the Oise, the war has suddenly imposed wider horizons
upon all, has inspired all minds with noble and ardent passions,
has compelled the good will of all to combine and act in concert
in order to defend the common interests.
"Of these profoundly tried minds, of these wonderful energies
now employed for the first time, of these atrocious sufferings which
have brought all hearts into closer contact, a. new Belgium is bom,
a greater, more generous, more ideal Belgium.",
CHAPTER Xlir
Britannia Rules the Waves
THE month of October, 1914, contained no important naval
contests. On the 15th, the old British cruiser Hawke was
torpedoed in the North Sea and nearly five hundred men
were lost. On the other hand, on the 17th of October, the
light cruiser Undaunted, accompanied by the destroyers. Lance,
Legion and Loyal, sank four German destroyers off the Dutch coast.
But the opening of November turned the interest of the navy to
the Southern Pacific. When the war began Admiral von Spee,
with the German Pacific squadron, was at Kiaochau in command of
seven vessels. Among these was the Emden, whose adventurous
career has been already described. Another, the Karlsruhe, be-
came a privateer in the South Atlantic.
Early in August von Spee set sail from Kiaochau with two
armored cruisers, the Gneisenau and the Scharnhorst and three
light cruisers, the Dresden, Leipzig and Nurmberg. These ships
were comparatively new, well armed, and of considerable speed.
They set off for the great trade highways to destroy, as far as
possible, British commerce. Their route led them to the western
coast of South America, and arrangements were made so that they
were coaled and provisioned from bases in some of the South
American states which permitted a slack observance of the laws
respecting the duties of neutrals.
A small British squadron had been detailed to protect British
commerce in this part of the world. It was commanded by Rear-
Admiral Sir Christopher Cradock, a distinguished and popular
sailor, who had under his command one twelve-year-old battleship,
the Canopus, two armored cruisers, the Good Hope and the
Monmouth, the light cruiser Glasgow, and an armed liner, the
Otranto. None of these vessels had either great speed or heavy
armament. The equipment of the Canopus, indeed, was obsolete.
Admiral Cradock's squadron arrived at Hahfax on August 14th,
thence sailed to Bermuda, then on past Venezuela and Brazil
201
202 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAK
around the Horn. It visited the Falkland Islands, and by the
third week of October was on the coast of Chile. The Canopus had
dropped behind for repairs, and though reinforcements were
expected, they had not yet arrived.
One officer wrote, on the 12th of October, *' From now till the
end of the month is the critical time, as it vn\\ decide whether we
shall have to fight a superior German force from the Pacific before
we can get reinforcements from home or the Mediterranean. We
feel that the admiralty ought to have a better force here, but we
shall fight cheerfully whatever odds we have to face.'*
Admiral Cradock knew well that his enemy was superior in
force. From Coronel, where he sent off some cables, he went
north on the first of November, and about four o'clock in the
afternoon the Glasgow sighted the enemy. The two big German
armored cruisers were leading the way, and two light cruisers were
following close* The German cruiser Leipzig does not seem to
have been in company. The British squadron was led by the
Good Hope, with the Monmouth, Glasgow and Otranto following
in order. It was a beautiful spectacle. The sun was setting in the
wonderful glory which one sees in the Pacific, and the British ships,
west of the German, must have appeared to them in brilliant colors.
On the east were the snowy peaks of the Andes. Half a gale was
blowing and the two squadrons moved south at great speed. About
seven o'clock they were about seven miles apart and the Scharnhorst,
which was leaduig the German fleet, opened fire. At this time the
Germans were shaded by the inshore twiHght, but the British ships
must have showed up plainly in the afterglow. The enemy fired
with great accuracy. Shell after shell hit the Good Hope and the
Monmouth, but the bad Hght and inferior guns saved the German
ships from much damage. The Good Hope was set on fire and at
7.50 exploded and sank. The Monmouth was also on fire,
and turned away to the western sea. The Glasgow had escaped so
far, but the whole German squadron bore down upon her. She
turned and fled and by nine o'clock was out of sight of the enemy.
I'he Otranto, only an armed liner, had disappeared early in the
fight. On the following day the Glasgow worked around to the
south, and joined the Canopus, and the two proceeded to the
Straits of the IMagellan. The account of this battle by the German
Admiral von Spee is of especial interest:
BRITANNIA RULES THE WAVES 203
*'Wind and swell were head on, and the vessels had heavy
gomg, especially the small cruisers on both sides. Observation and
distance estimation were under a severe handicap because of the
seas which washed over the bridges. The swell was so great that
it obscured the aim of the gunners at the six-inch guns on the
middle deck, who could not see the stems of the enemy ships at all,
and the bows but seldom. At 6.20 p. m., at a distance of 13,400
yards, I turned one point toward the enemy, and at 6.34 opened
fire at a distance of 11,260 yards. The guns of both our armored
cruisers were effective, and at 6.39 already w^e could note the fu-st hifc
on the Good Hope. I at once resumed a parallel course, instead
of bearing slightly toward the enemy. The English opened their
fire at this time. I assmne that the heavy sea made more trouble
for them than it did for us. Their two armored cruisers remained
covered by our fire, while they, so far as could be determined, hit
the Scharnhorst but twice, and the Gneisenau only four times.
At 6.53, when 6,500 yards apart, I ordered a course one point away
from the enemy. They were firing more slowly at this time, while
we were able to count numerous hits. "We could see, among other
things, that the top of the Monmouth's forward turret had been
shot away, and that a violent fire was binning in the turret. The
Scharnhorst, it is thought, hit the Good Hope about thirty-five
times. In spite of our altered course the English changed theirs
sufficiently so that the distance between us shrunk to 5,300 yards.
There was reason to suspect that the enemy despaired of using his
artillery effectively, and was maneuvering for a torpedo attack.
"The position of the moon, which had risen at six o'clock, was
favorable to this move. Accordingly I gradually opened up further
distances between the squadrons by another deflection of the
leading ship, at 7.45. In the meantime it had grown dark. The
range finders on the Scharnhorst used the fire on the Monmouth as
a guide for a time, though eventually all range finding, aiming and
observations became so inexact that fii-e was stopped at 7.26. At
7.23 a column of fire from an explosion was noticed between the
stacks of the Good Hope. The Monmouth apparently stopped
firing at 7.20. The small cruisers, including the Nuremburg,
received by wireless at 7.30 the order to follow the enemy and to
attack his ships with torpedoes. Vision was somewhat obscured
at this time by a rain squall. The light cruisers were not able to
g04 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
find the Good Hope, but the Nuremburg encountered the Monmouth
and at 8.58 was able, by shots at closest range, to capsize her,
without a single shot being jfired in return. Rescue work in the
heavy sea was not to be thought of, especially as the Nuremburg
immediately afterward believed she had sighted the smoke of
another ship and had to prepare for another attack. The small
cruisers had neither losses nor damage in the battle. On the
Gneisenau there were two men sUghtly wounded. The crews of
the ships went into the fight with enthusiasm, every one did his
duty, and played his part in the \ictory."
Little criticism can be made of the tactics used by Vice-
Admiral Spee. He appears to have maneuvered so as to secure the
advantage of light, wind and sea. He also seems to have suited
himself as regards the range.
Admiral Cradock was much criticised for joining battle with
his little fleet against such odds, but he followed the glorious tradi-
tions of the English navy. He, and 1 ,650 officers and men, v/ere lost,
and the news was hailed as a great German victory. But the
British admiralty were thoroughly roused. Rear-Admiral Sir
Frederick Doveton Sturdee, chief of the war staff, proceeded at
once with a squadron to the South Atlantic. With him were two
battle cruisers, the Invincible and the Inflexible^ three armored
cruisers, the Camovan, the Kent and the Cornwall. His fleet was
joined by the light cruiser Bristol and the armed liner Macedonia.
The Glasgow, fresh from her rough experience, was found in the
South Atlantic, Admiral Stm'dee then laid his plans to come in
touch with the victorious German squadron. A wireless message
was sent to the Canopus, bidding her proceed to Port Stanley in
the Falkland Islands. This message was intercepted by the
Germans, as was intended.
Admiral von Spee, fearing the Japanese fleet, was already
headed for Cape Horn. He thought that the Canopus could be
easily captured at Port Stanley, and he started at once to that
port. Admiral Sturdee's expedition had been kept profoundly
secret. On December 7th the British squadron arrived at Port
Stanley, and spent the day coaling. The Canopus, the Glasgow
and the Bristol were in the inner harbor, while the remaining
vessels lay outside. On December 8th, Admiral von Spee arrived
from the direction of Cape Horn. The battle that followed is
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GERMANY BRINGS THE WAR TO EAST COAST TOWNS OF ENGLAND
By raids with light cruisers on the coast towns, and Zeppehns and airplanes
further inland, Germany sought to frighten the British populace. At Hartle-
]iool, where this scene was enacted, several civihans, some of them women and
children, were killed by bursting shells of the raiders.
BRITANNIA RULES THE WAVES 207
thoroughly described in the report of Vice-Admiral Sturdee from
which the following extracts have been made:
"At 8 A. M., Tuesday, December 8th, a signal was received
from the signal station on shore. *A four-funnel and two-funnel
man-of-war in sight from Sapper Hill steering north.' The Kent
was at once ordered to weigh anchor, and a general signal was
made to raise steam for full speed. At 8.20 the signal service
station reported another column of smoke in sight, and at 8.47 the
Canopus reported that the first two ships were eight miles off,
and that the smoke reported at 8.20 appeared to be the smoke
of two ships about twenty miles off. At 9.20 A. M. the two leading
ships of the enemy, the Gneisenau and Nuremburg, with guns trained
on the wireless station, came within range of the Canopus, which
opened fire at them across the lowland at a range of 11,000 yards.
The enemy at once hoisted their colors, and turned away. A few
minutes later the two cruisers altered course to port, as though
to close the Kent at the entrance to the harbor. But at about
this time it seems that the Invincible and Inflexible were seen over
the land, and the enemy at once altered course, and increased speed
to join their consorts. At 9.45 A. M. the squadron weighed anchor
and proceeded out of the harbor, the Carnovan leading. On
passing Cape Pembroke light, the five ships of the enemy appeared
clearly in sight to the southeast, hull down. The visibility was
at its maximum, the sea was calm, with a bright sun, a clear sky,
and a light breeze from the northwest. At 10.20 the signal for a
general chase was made. At this time the enemy's funnels and
bridges showed just above the horizon. Information was received
from the Bristol at 11.27 that three enemy ships had appeared
off Port Pleasant, probably colliers or transports. The Bristol
was therefore directed to take the Macedonia under orders, and
destroy transports.
"The enemy were still maintaining their distance, and I
decided at 12.20 p. m. to attack, with the two battle cruisers and
the Glasgow. At 12.47 p. m. the signal to 'Open fire and engage
the enemy' was made. The Inflexible opened fire at 12.55 p. m.
at the right-hand ship of the enemy, and a few minutes later the
Invincible opened fire at the same ship. The deliberate fire became
too threatening, and when a shell fell close alongside her at 1.20 p. m.
she, the Leipsig, turned away, with the Nuremburg and Dresden,
208 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
to the southwest. These light crusiers were at once followed by
the Kent, Glasgow and Cornwall.
"The action finally developed into tliree separate encounters.
First, the action with the armored cruisers. The fire of the battle
cruisers was directed on the Schanihorst and Gneisenau. The
effect of this was quickly seen, when, with the Scharnhorst leading,
they turned about seven points to port, and opened fire. Shortly
afterwards the battle cruisers were ordered to turn together with
the Invincible leading. The enemy then turned about ten points
to starboard, and a second chase ensued until, at 2.45, the battle
cruisers again opened fire. This caused the enemy to turn into
line ahead to port and open fire. The Scharnhorst caught fire
forward, but not seriously, and her fire slackened perceptibly. The
Gneisenau w^as badly hit by the Inflexible.
"At 3.30 p. M. the Scharnhorst turned about ten points to
starboard, her fire had slackened perceptibly, and one shell had
shot away her third funnel. Some guns were not firing, and it
would appear that the turn was dictated by a desire to bring her
starboard guns into action. The effect of the fire on the Scharn-
horst became more and more apparent in consequence of smoke
from fires and also escaping steam. At times a shell would cause a
large hole to appear in her side, through which could be seen a dull,
red glow of flame.
"At 4.04 p. M. the Scharnhorst, whose flag remained flying to
the last, suddenly listed heavily to port, and within a minute it
became clear that she was a doomed ship, for the Ust increased
very rapidly until she lay on her beam ends. At 4.17 p. m. she
disappeared. The Gneisenau passed on the far side of her late
flagship, and continued a determined, but ineffectual, effort to
fight the two battle cruisers. At 5.08 p. m. the forward funnel
was knocked over, and remained resting against the second funnel.
She was evidently in serious straits, and her fire slackened very
much.
"At 5 15 p. M. one of the Gneisenau's shells struck the Invinci-
ble. This was her last effective effort. At 5.30 p. m. she turned
toward the flagship with a heavy Hst to starboard, and appeared to
stop, the steam pouring from her escape pipes, and smoke from shell
and fires rising everyT\^here. About this time I ordered the signal
'Cease fire,' but before it was hoisted, the Gneisenau opened fire
BRITANNIA RULES THE WAVES 209
again, and continued to fire ivom time to time with a single gun.
At 5.40 p. M. the three sliips closed in on the Gneisenau, and at
this time the flag flying at her fore truck, was apparently hauled
down, but the flag at the peak continued flying. At 5.50 'Cease
Aire' was made. At 6 p. m. the Gneisenau keeled over very sud-
denly, showing the men gathered on her decks, and then walking
on her side as she lay for a minute on her beam ends before sinking.
*'The prisoners of war from the Gneisenau report that by the
time the ammunition was expended some six hundred men had
been killed and wounded. When the ship capsized and sank there
were probably some two hundred unwounded survivors in the
water, but, owdng to the shock of the cold water, many were drowned
within sight of the boats and ships. Every effort was made to
save life as quickly as possible, both by boats and from the ships.
Life buoys were thrown and ropes lowered, but only a portion
could be rescued. The Invincible alone rescued a hundred and
eight men, fourteen of whom were found to be dead after being
brought on board. These men were buried at sea the following
day, with full ixiilitary honors.
"Second, action with the light cruisers. About one p. m.
when the Schamliorst and the Gneisenau turned to port to engage
the Invincible and the Inflexible, the enemy's light cruisers turned
to starboard to escape. The Dresden was leading, and the Nurem-
burg and Leipzig followed on each quarter. In accordance with
my instructions, the Glasgow, Kent and Cornwall at once went in
chase of these ships. The Glasgow drew well ahead of the Corn-
wall and Kent, and at 3 p. m. shots were exchanged with the
Leipzig at 12,000 yards. The Glasgow's object was to endeavor
to outrange the Leipzig, and thus cause her to alter course and give
the Cornwall and Kent a chance of coming into action. At
4.17 p. M. the Cornwall opened fire also on the Leipzig; at 7.17 p. M.
the Leipzig was on fire fore and aft, and the Cornwall and Glasgow
ceased fire. The Leipzig turned over on her port side and dis-
appeared at 9 p. M. Seven officers and eleven men were saved. At
3.36 p. M. the Cornwall ordered the Kent to engage the Nurem-
burg, the nearest cruiser to her. At 6.35 p. m. the Nuremburg was
on fire forward, and ceased firing. The Kent also ceased firing,
then, as the colors were still observed to be flying on the Nurem-
burg, the Kent opened fire again. Fire was finally stopped five
210 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
minutes later, on the colors being hauled down, and every prepara-
tion was made to save life. The Nuremburg sank at 7.27, and as
she sank a group of men were waving the German ensign attached
to a staff.
"Twelve men were rescued, but only seven survived. The
Kent had four killed and twelve wounded, mostly caused by one
shell. During the time the three cruisers w^re engaged with the
Nuremburg and Leipzig, the Dresden, which was beyond her con-
sorts, effected her escape, owing to her superior speed. The Glas-
gow was the only cruiser with sufficient speed to have had any
chance of success, however she was fully employed in engaging the
Leipzig for over an hour before either the Cornwall or Kent could
come up and get within range. During this time the Dresden was
able to increase her distance and get out of sight. Three, Action
with the enemy's transports. H.M.S. Macedonia reports that only
two ships, the steamships Baden and Santa Isabel, were present.
Both ships were sunk after removal of the crews."
Thus was annihilated the last squadron belonging to Germany
outside the North Sea. _, The defeat of Cradock had been avenged.
The British losses were very small, considering the length of the
fight and the desperate efforts of the German fleet. Only one ship
of the German squadron was able to escape, and this on accoimt of
her great speed. The German sailors went down with colors
flying. They died as Cradock's men had died.
The naval w^ar now entered upon a new phase. The shores of
Great Britain had for many years been so thoroughly protected
by the British navy that few coast fortifications had been built,
except at important naval stations. Invasion on a grand scale
was plainly impossible, so long as the British fleets held control
of the sea. With German guns across the Channel almost within
hearing it was evident that a raiding party might easily reach the
EngUsh shore on some foggy night. The English people were
much disturbed. They had read the accounts of the horrible
brutaHties of the German troops in Belgium and eastern France,
and they imagined their feelings if a band of such ferocious brutes
were to land in England and pillage their peaceful homes. There
was a humorous side to the way in which the yeomanry and
territorials entrenched themselves along the eastern coast line,
but the Germans, angry at the failure of their fleets, determined
BRITANNIA RULES THE WAVES
211
to disturb the British peace by raids, slight as the mihtary advan-
tage of such raids might be.
On November 2d a fleet of German warships sailed from the
Elbe. They were three battle cruisers, the Seydlitz, the Moltke,
and the Von Ber Tann; two armored cruisers, the Bliicher and
the York, and tln-ee light cruisers, the Kolberg, the Graudenz,
and the Strasburg. They were mainly fast vessels and the battle
cruisers carried eleven-inch guns. Early in the morning they ran
through the nets of a British fishing fleet. Later an old coast
police boat, the Halcyon, was shot at a few times. About eight
o'clock they were opposite Yarmouth, and proceeded to bombard
English Coast Towns that were Raided
that naval station from a distance of about ten miles. Then*
range was poor and their shells did no damage. They then turned
swiftly for home, but on the road back the York struck a mine, and
was sunk. •
On the 16th of December they came again, full of revenge
because of the destruction of von Spee and his squadron. Early
in the morning early risers in Scarborough saw in the north four
strange ships. Scarborough was absolutely mthout defense. It
had once been an artillery depot but in recent years had been a
cavalry station, and some few troops of this service were quartered
there. Otherwise it was an open seaside resort. The German
ships poured shells into the defenseless town, aiming at every
large object they could see, the Grand Hotel, the gas works, the
1^12 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
water works and the wireless station. Churches, public buildings,
and hospitals were hit, as well as private houses. Over five hundred
shells were fired. Then the ships turned around and moved away.
The streets w^ere crowded with puzzled and scared inhabitants,
many of whom, as is customary in watering places, were women,
children and invalids.
At nine o'clock Whitby, a coast town near Scarborough, saw-
two great ships steaming up from the south. Ten minutes later
the ships were firing. The old Abbey of Hilda and Cedman was
struck, but on the whole little damage was done. Another division
of the invaders visited the Hartlepools. There there was a small
fort, with a battery of old-fashioned guns, and off the shore was a
small British flotilla, a gunboat and two destroyers. The three
battle cruisers among the German raiders opened fire. The little
British fleet did what they could but were quickly driven off.
The German ships then approached the shore and fired on the Eng-
lish battery, the first fight with a foreign foe in England since 1690.
The British battery consisted of some territorials who stood with-
out wavering to their guns and kept up for half an hour a furious
cannonading. A great deal of damage was done; churches, hos-
pitals, workhouses and schools were all hit. The total death roll
was 119, and the wounded over 300. Six hundred houses were
damaged or destroyed, but there was a great deal of heroism, not
only among the territorials, but among the inhabitants of the
town, and when the last shots were fired all turned to the work of
relief.
Somewhere between nine and ten o'clock the bold German
fleet started for home. The British Grand Fleet had been notified
of the raid and two battle cruiser squadrons were hurrying to
intercept them. But the weather had thickened and the waters
of the North Sea were covered with fog belts stretching for hun-
dreds of miles. And so the raiders returned safe to receive their
Iron Crosses. The German aim in such raids was probably to
create a panic, and so interfere with the English military plans.
If the English had not looked at the matter with common sense
they might easily have been tempted to spend millions of pounds
on seaboard fortifications, and keep millions of men at home who
were more necessary in the armies in France. But the English
people kept their heads.
BRITANNIA RULES THE WAVES 2U
Germany, perceiving the indignation of the world at these
bombardments of defenseless watering places, endeavored to
appease criticism by describmg them as fortified towns. But the
well-known excellence of the German system of espionage makes it
plain that they knew the true condition of affairs. These to\^Tis
were not selected as fortified towns, but because they were not, and
destruction in unfortified towns it was thought would have a
greater effect than in a fortified town where it would be regarded
as among the natural risks of war.
During the rest of the year of 1914 no further sea fight took
place in the North Sea nor was there any serious loss to the navy
from torpedo or submarine. But on the first of Januaiy, 1915, the
British ship Formidable, 15,000 tons, was struck by two torpedoes
and sunk. The previous day she had left Sheerness with eight
vessels of the Channel fleet and with no protection from destroyers.
The night was a bright moonlight and for such vessels to be mo\'ing
in line on such a night without destroyers shows gross carelessness.
Out of a crew of 800 men only 201 were saved, and the rescue of
this part of the crew was due to the seamanship of Captain Pillar
of the trawler Providence, who managed to, take most of those
rescued on board his vessel.
On January 24th the German battle cruiser squadron under
Rear-Admiral Hipper set sail from Wilhelmshaven. "Wliat his
object was is not known. He had enlarged the mine field north of
Helgoland and north of the mine field had stationed a submarine
flotilla. It is likely that he was planning to induce the British
fleet to follow him into the mine field, or witliin reach of his sub-
marines. That same morning the British battle cruiser squadron
under Vice-Admiral Sir David Beatty put to sea.
According to the official report of the English Admiral he was
in command of the following vessels: battle cruisers, the Lion,
Princess Royal, the Tiger, the New Zealand, and the Indomitable;
light cruisers, the Southampton, the Nottingham, the Birming-
ham, the Lowestoft, the Arethusa, the Aurora and the Undaunted,
with destroyer flotillas under Commodore TjTwhitt. The German
Admiral had wdth him the Seydlitz, the Moltke, the Derfflinger, the
Bliicher, six light cruisers and a destroyer flotilla. The English
Admiral apparently had some hint of the plans of the Gennan
squadron. The night of the 23d had been foggy; in the morning,
214 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
however, the wind came from the northeast and cleared off the
mists. An abridgment of the official report gives a good account
of the battle, sometimes called the battle of Dogger Bank:
"At 7.25 A. M. the flash of guns was observedsouth-south-
east; shortly afterwards the report reached me from the Aurora
that she was engaged with enemy ships. I immediately altered
course to south-southeast, increased speed, and ordered the Hght
ciiiisers and flotillas to get in touch and report movements of enemy.
This order was acted upon with great promptitude, indeed my
wishes had already been forestalled by the respective senior officers,
and reports almost immediately followed from the Southampton,
Arethusa, and Aurora as to the position and composition of the
enemy. The enemy had altered their course to southeast; from
now onward the Hght cruisers maintained touch with the enemj'-
and kept me fully informed as to their movements. The battle
cruisers worked up to full speed, steering to the southward; the
v/ind at the time was northeast, Hght, with extreme visibility.
"At 7.30 A. M. the enemy were sighted on the port bow, steam-
ing fast, steering approximately southeast, distance fourteen miles.
Owing to the prom.pt reports received we had attained our posi-
tion on the quarter of the enemy, and altered course to run parallel
to them. We then settled down to a long stern chase, gradually
increasing our speed until we reached 28.5 knots.
"Great credit is due to the engineer staffs of the New Zealand
and Indomitable. These ships greatly exceeded their speed. At
8.52 A. M., as we had closed within 20,000 yards of the rear ship,
the battle cruisers maneuvered so that guns would bear and the
Lion fired a single shot wliich fell ^hort. The enemy at this time
were in single Hne ahead, with Hght cruisers ahead and a large
number of destroyers on their starboard beam. Single shots
were fired at intervals to test the range, and at 9.09 the Lion made
her first hit on the Eliicher, the rear ship of the German line.
At 9.20 the Tiger opened fire on the Bliicher, and the Lion shifted
to the third in the line, this ship being hit by several salvos. The
enemy returned our fire at 9.14 a. m., the Princess Royal, on coming
into range, opened fire on the Bliicher. The New Zealand was
also within range of the Bliicher which had dropped somewhat
astern, and opened fire on her. The Princess Royal then shifted
to the third ship in the line (Derfflinger) inflicting considerable
BRITANNIA RULES THE WAVES 215
damage on her. Our flotilla cruisers and destroyers had gradually
dropped from a position, broad en our beam, to our port quarter,
so as not to foul our range with their smoke. But the enemy's
destroyers threatening attackj the Meteor and M division passed
ahead of us.
"About 9.45 the situation was about as follows: The Bliicher,
the foiurth in their Ime, showed signs of having suffered severely
from gun fire, their leading ship and number three were also on fii-e.
The enemy's destroyers emitted vast columns of smoke to screen
their battle cruisers, and imdcr cover of this the latter now
appeared to have altered course to the northward to increase their
distance. The battle cruisers therefore were ordered to form a
line of bearing north-northwest, and proceeded at the utmost
speed. Their destroyers then showed evident signs of an attempt
to attack. The Lion and the Tiger opened fire upon them, and
caused them to retire and resinne their original course.
''At 10.48 A. M. the Bliicher, v/hich had dropped considerably
astern of the enemy's line, hauled out to port, steering north with
a heavy list, on fire, and apparently in a defeated condition. I
consequently ordered the Indomitable to attack the enemy break-
ing northward. At 10.54 submarines were reported en the star-
board bow, and I personally observed the wash of a periscope. I
inmiediately turned to port. At 10.C3 an injury to the Lion being
reported as being incapable of immedate repair, I directed the Lion
to shape coiurse northwest.
"At 11.20 I called the Attack alongside, shifting my flag to
her, and proceeded at utmost speed to rejoin the squadron. I met
them at noon, retiring north-northwest. I boarded and hoisted
my flag on the Princess Royal, when Captain Brock acquainted
me with what had occurred since the Lion fell out of line, namely,
that the Bliicher had been sunk and that the enemy battle cruisers
had continued their course to the eastward in a ccndderably dam^
aged condition. He also informed me that a ZepiDclin and a sea-
plane had endeavored to drop bombs on the vessels which went to
the rescue of the survivors of the Bliicher."
It appears from this report that as soon as the Germans sighted
the British fleet they promptly turned aromid and fled to the
southeast. This flight, before they could have known the full
British strength, suggests that the German Admiral was hoping
216 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
to lure the British vessels into the Helgoland trap. The British
gunnery was remarkably good, shot after shot taking eHect at a
distance of ten miles, and that too when moving at over thirty
miles an hour. Over 120 of the crew of the Bliicher were rescued
and more would have been rescued if it had not been for the attack
upon the rescue parties by the German aircraft. The injury to
the Lion was very unfortunate. Admiral Beatty handed over
charge of the battle cruisers to Rear-Admiral Moore, and when he
was able to overtake the squadron he found, that under Admiral
Moore's orders the British fleet were retiring. The British squad-
ron at the moment of turning was seventy miles from Helgoland,
and in no danger from its mine fields. What might have been a
crushing victory became therefore only a partial one: the Germans
lost the Bliicher; the Derffinger and the Seydnt23 were badly
injured, but it seems that with a little more persistence the whole
German squadron might have been destroyed.
The result was a serious blow to Germany. This engagement
was the first between modem big-gun ships. Particular interest
is also attached to it because each squadron was accompanied by
scouting and screening light cruisers and destroyers. It was fear
of submarines and mines, moreover, that influenced the British
to break off the engagement. A Zeppelin airship and a seaplane
also took part, and perhaps assisted m the fire control of tlie
Germans. The conditions surroimding this battle were ideal for
illustrating the functions of battle cruisers. The German warsliip
raid on the British coast of the previous month was still fresh in
mind, and when this situation off the Dogger Bank arose the
timely interposing of Admiral Beatty's superior force, the fast
chase, the long-range fighting, the loss of the Bliicher and the
hasty retreat of the enemy, were all particularly pleasing to the
British people. As a result the battle cruiRier type of ship attained
great popularity.
CHAPTER XIV
New Methods and Horrors of Warfare
WHEN Germany embarked upon its policy of fright-
fulness, it held in reserve murderous inventions that
had been contributed to the German General Staff by
chemists and other scientists working in conjunction
with the war. Never since the dawn of time had there been such
a perversion of knowledge to criminal purposes; never had science
contributed such a deadly toll to the fanatic and criminal inten-
tions of a war-crazed class.
As the war uncoiled its weary length, and month after month
of embargo and privation saw the morale of the German nation
groVing steadily lower, these murderous inventions were suc-
cessively called into play against the AlHes, but as each horror
was put into play on the battle-field, its principles were solved by
the scientists of the Allied nations, and the deadly engine of
destruction was tiuned with trebled force against the Huns.
This happened with the various varieties of poison gas, with
liquid fire, with trench knives, ^\dth nail-studded clubs, with
armor used by shock troops, with airplane bombs, with cannon
thi'owing projectiles weighing thousands of pounds great dis-
tances beliind the battle lines. Not only did America and the
Allies improve upon Germany's pattern in these respects, but
they added a few inventions that went far toward turning the
ecale against Germany. An example of these is the "tank."
Originall}'- this was a caterpillar tractor invented in America and
adopted in England. At first these were of two varieties, the
male, carrying heavy guns only, and the females, equipped with
machine guns. To these was later added the whippet tank,
named after the racing dog developed in England. These whippet
tanks averaged eighteen miles an hour, carrying death and terror
into the ranks of the enemy. All the tanks were heavily ai*mored
and had as their motto the significant words ''Treat 'Em Rough."
The Germans designed a heavy anti-tank rifle about three feet
217
218 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
longer than the ordinary rifle and carrying a charge calculated to
pierce tank armor. These were issued to the German first line
trenches at the rate of three to a company. That they were not
particularly effective was proved by the ease with which the tanks
of all varieties tore through the barbed wire entanglements and
passed over the Hindenburg and ICriemhild Hnes, supposed by
the Germans to be impregnable.
The tanks in effect were mobile artillery and were used as
such by all the Allied troops. Germany frantically endeavored to
manufacture tanks to meet the Allied monsters, but their efforts
were feeble when compared with the great output opposed to them.
Before considering other inventions used for the fii'st time in
this war, it is well to understand the tremendous changes in
methods and tactics made necessary by these discoveries.
Put into a sentence, the changed warfare amounts to this:
it is a mobilization of material, of railroads, great guns, machine
guns, food, airplanes and other engines of destruction quite aa
much as it is a mobilization of men.
The Germans won battle after battle at the beginning of the
war because of their system of strategic railways that made it
possible to transport huge armies to selected points in the shortest
possible time both on the eastern and the western fronts. Lacking
a system of transportation to match this, Russia lost the gi'eat
battles that decided her fate, Belgium was over-run, and France,
once the border was passed, became a battle-field upon which the
Germans might extend their trench systems over the face of the
land.
Lacking strategic railways to match those of Germany,
France evolved an effective substitute in the modern system of
automobile transportation. When von Kluck swung aside from
Paris in his first great rush, Gallieni sent out from Paris an army
in taxicabs that struck the exposed flank and went far toward
winning the first battle of the Marne. It was the truck trans-
portation system of the French along the famous "Sacred Road"
back of the battle line at Verdun that kept inviolate the motto
of the heroic town, **They Shall Not Pass." Motor trucks that
brought American reserves in a khaki flood won the second battle
of the Marne. It was automobile transportation that enabled
Haig to send the British Canadians and Australians in full cry
NEW METHODS OF WARFARE 219
after the retreating Germans when the backbone of the German
resistance was broken before Lens, Cambrai, and Ostend,
America's railway transportation system in France was one
of the marvels of the war. Stretching from the sector of sea-
coast set apart for America by the French Government, it radiated
far into the interior, deUvering men, munitions and food in a
steady stream. American engineers worked with their brothers-
in-arms with the Allies to construct an inter-weaving system of
w^de-gauge and narrow-gauge roads that served to victual and muni-
tion the entire front and further serve to dehver at top speed
■whole army corps. It was this network of strategic railways
that enabled the French to send an avalanche clad in horizon-
blue to the relief of Amiens when Hindenburg made his final
tremendous effort of 1918.
In its essentials, military effort in the great conflict may be
roughly divided into
Open warfare,
Trench warfare,
Crater warfare.
The first battle of the Mame was almost wholly open war-
fare; so also were the battles of the Masurian Lakes, Allenstein,
and Dunajec in the eastern theater of war, and most of the war-
fare on the Italian front between the Piave River and Gorizia.
In this variety of battle, airplanes and observation balloons
play a prominent part. Once the enemy is driven out of its
trenches, the message is flashed by wireless to the artillery and
slaughter at long range begins. If there have been no intrench-
ments, as was the case in the first battle of the Marne, massed
artillery send a plunging fire into the columns mo\dng in open
order and prepare the way for machine gunners and infantry to
finish the rout.
In previous wars, cavalry played a heroic r61e in open v/arfare;
only rarely has it been possible to use cavalry in the Great War.
The Germans sent a screen of Uhlans before its advancing hordes
into Belguim and Northern France in 1914. The Uhlans also
were in the van in the Russian invasion, but with these exceptions,
German cavalry was a negligible factor.
British and French cavalry were active in pursuit of the
fleeing Teutons when the Hindenburg line was smashed in
220 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
September of 1918. Outside of that brief episode, the cavalry
did comparatively nothing so far as the Allies were concerned.
It was the practice on both sides to dismount cavalry and convert
it into some form of trench service. Trench mortar companies,
bombing squads, and other specialty groups were organized from
among the cavalrymen. Of course the fighting in the open
stretches of Mesopotamia, South Africa and Russia involved the
use of great bodies of cavalry. The trend of modem warfare,
however, is to equip the cavalryman with grenades and bayonets,
in addition to his ordinary gear, and to make of him practically a
mounted infantryman.
Trench warfare occupied most of the time and made nine-
tenths of the discomforts of the soldiers of both armies. If proof
of the adaptive capacity of the human animal were needed, it is
afforded by the manner in which the men burrowed in vermin-
infested earth and lived there under conditions of Arctic cold,
frequently enduring long deprivations of food, fuel, and suitable
clothing. During the eai'ly stages of the war, before men became
accustomed to the rigors of the trenches, many thousands died as
a direct result of the exposure. Many thousand of others were
incapacitated for Ufe by 'Hrench feet," a group of maladies cover-
ing the consequences of exposure to cold and water which in those
early days flowed in rivulets through most of the trenches. The
trenches at Gallipoli had their owti special brand of maladies.
Heatstroke and a malarial infection were among these disabling
agencies. Trench fever, a malady begimiing with a headache and
sometimes ending in partial paralysis and death, was another
common factor in the mortaUty records.
But in spite of all these and other discomforts, in spite of the
disgusting vermin that crawled upon the men both in winter and
in summer, both sides mastered the trenches and in the end learned
to live in them with some degree of comfort.
At first the trenches were comparatively straight, shallow
affairs; then as the artillery searched them out, as the machine
gunners learned the art of looping their fire so that the bullets
would drop into the hiding places of the enemy, the trench systems
gradually became more scientifically involved. After the Germans
had been beaten at the Marne and had retired to their prepared
positions along the Aisne, there commenced a series of flanking
NEW IVIETHODS OF WARl AilE
^21
FORTS, FLYING AND NAVAL BASES ON THE NORIH SEA
22P- HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
attempts by one side and the other which speedily resolved itself
into the famous "race to the sea." This was a competition between
the opposing armies in rapid trench digging. The effort on either
side was made to prevent the enemy from executing a flank move-
ment. In an amazingly short time the opposing trenches extended
from the Belgian coast to the Swiss border, making fm-ther out-
flanking attempts impossible of achievement.
This was not the first time in history that intrenched armies
opposed each other. The Civil War in this country set the
fashion in that respect. The contending sides in the Great War,
however, improved vastly upon the American example. Com-
municating trenches were constructed, leading back to the com-
pany kitchens, and finally to the open road leading back to the
rest billets of the armies.
When night raiding commenced, it was speedily seen that
straight trenches exposed w^hole companies of men to enfilading
fire. Thereupon bastions were made and new defenses presented
by zig-zagging the front-hne trenches and the communicating
ditches as well.
To the formidable obstacles presented by the trenches,
equipped as they were with sand-bag parapets' and firing steps,
were added barbed-T\dre entanglements and pitfalls of various
sorts. The greatest improvement was made by the Germans,
and they added "pill boxes." These were really miniature fortresses
of concrete and armor plate with a dome-sjiaped roof and loop-
holes for machine gunners. Only a direct hit by a projectile from a
big gun served to demolish a "pill box." The AlUes leai'ned after
many costly experiments that the best method to overcome these
obstacles was to pass over and beyond them, leaving them isolated
in Allied territory, where they were captured at the leismre of the
attackers.
Trench warfare brings with it new instruments. There are
the flame projectors, which throw fi^re to a distance of approximately
a hundred feet. The Germans were the first to use these, but
they were excelled in this respect by the inventive genius of the
nations opposing them.
The use of poison gas, the word being used in its broad sense,
is now general. It was first used by the Germans, but as in the
case of flame throwers, the Allies soon gained the ascendency.
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The first use of asphyxiating gas was by the Germans during
the first battle of Ypres. There the deadly compound was mixed
in huge reservoirs back of the German fines. From these extended
a system of pipes with vents pointed toward the British and
Canadian fines. Waiting until air current were moving steadily
westward, the Germans opened the stop-cocks shortly after mid-
night and the poisonous fumes swept slowly, relentlessly forward in a
greenish cloud that moved close to the earth. The result of that
fiendish and cowardly act was that thousands of men died in
horrible agony without a chance for their lives.
Besides that first asphyxiating gas, there soon developed
others even more deadly. The base of most of these was chlorine.
Then came the lachrymatory or 'Hear-compelfing" gases, cal-
culated to produce temporary or permanent blindness. Another
German ^Hriumph" was mustard gas. This is spread in gas sheUs,
as are aU the modern gases. The Germans abandoned the cumber-
some gas-distributing system after the invention of the gas shell.
These make a pecufiar gobbling sound as they rush overhead.
They explode with a very sHght noise and scatter their contents
broadcast. The liquids carried by them are usually of the sort
that decompose rapidly when exposed to the air and give off the
acrid gases dreaded by the soldiers. They are directed against
the artillery as well as against intrenched troops. Every command,
no matter how small, has its warning signal in the shape of a gong
or a siren warning of approaching gas.
Gas masks were speedily discovered to offset the dangers
of poison gases of all kinds. These were worn not only by troops
in the field, but by artillery horses, pack mules, liaison dogs, and
by the civifian inhabitants in back of the battle fines. Where
used quickly and in accordance with instructions, these masks
were a complete protection against attacks by gas.
The perfected gas masks used by both sides contained a
chamber filled with a speciaUy prepared charcoal. Peach pits
were collected by the miUions in all the belfigerent countries to make
this charcoal, and other vegetable substances of similar density
were also used. Anti-gas chemicals were mixed ^vith the charcoal.
The wearer of the mask breathed entu-ely through the mouth,
gripping a rubber mouthpiece while his nose was pinched shut
by a clamp attached to the mask.
mo HISTORY OF THE WORLD Wx\R
In training, soldiers were required to hold their breath for
six seconds while the mask was being adjust^. It was explained
to them that fom' breaths of the deadly chlorine gas was sufficient
to kill; the first breath produced a spasm of the glottis; the second
brought mental confusion and delirium; the third produced uncon-
sciousness; and the fourth, death. The bag containing the gas
mask and respirator was carried always by the soldier.
The soldier during the winter season in the front line trenches
was a grotesque figure. His head was crowned with a helmet
covered with khaki because the glint of steel would advertise his
whereabouts. Beneath the helmet he wore a close fitting woolen
cap pulled down tightly around his ears and sometimes tied or
buttoned beneath his chin. Suspended upon his chest was the
khaki bag containing gas mask and respirator. Over his outer
garments were his belt, brace straps, bayonet and ammunition
pouches. His rifle was slimg upon his shoulder with the foot of a
woolen sock covering the muzzle and the leg of the same sock
wrapped around the breech. A large jerkin made of leather,
without sleeves, was worn over the short coat. Long rubber boots
reaching to the hips and strapped at ankle and hip completely
covered his legs. When anticipating trench raids, or on a raiding
party, a handy trench knife and carefully slung grenades were
added to his equipment.
Airplane bombing ultimately changed the whole character of
the war. It extended the fighting lines miles behind the battle
front. It brought the hoiTors of night attacks upon troops resting
in billets. It visited destruction and death upon the civilian popu-
lation of cities scores of miles back of the actual front.
Germany transgressed repeatedly the laws of humanity by
bombing hospitals far behind the battle front. Describing one of
these atrocious attacks, which took place May 29, 1918, Colonel
G. H. Andrews, chaplain of a Canadian regiment, said:
"The building bombed was one of three large Red Cross
hospitals at Boulenes and was filled with AUied woimded. A
hospital in which were a number of wounded German prisoners
stood not very far away.
"Tlie Germans could not possibly have mistaken the building
they bombed for am^hing else but a hospital. There were flags
with a red cross flying, and lights were tiuned on them so that
NEW METHODS OF WARFARE 227
they would show prominently. And the windows were brilliantly
Hghted. Those inside heard the buzz of the <idvancing airplanes^
but did not give them a thought .
"The machines came ri^t on, ignoring the hospital with the
Gennan wounded, indicating they had full knowledge of their
objective, until they were over a wing of the Red Cross hospital
that contained the operating room on the ground floor. In the
operating room a man was on the table for a most difficult surgical
feat. Around him were gathered the staff of the hospital and its
brilliant surgeons. Lieutenant Sage of New York had just given
him the anesthetic when one of the airplanes let the bomb drop.
It was a big fellow. It must have been aU of 250 pounds of high
explosive.
"It hurtled downward, carrying the two floors before it.
Through the gap thus made wounded men, the beds in which they
lay, convalescents, and all on the floors came crashing down to the
ground. The bomb's force extended itself to wreck the operating
room, where the man on the table. Lieutenant Sage, and all in the
room were killed. In all there were thirty-«'^ven lives lost, includ-
ing three Red Cross nurses.
"The building caught fire. TTie concussion had blown the
stairs down, so that escape from the upper floors seemed impossi-
ble. But the convalescents and the soldiers, who had iim to the
scene of the bombing, let the very ill ones out of the windows, and
escape was made in that way.
"And then, to cap the climax, the German airplanes returned
over the spot of their ghastly triumph and fired on the rescuers
with machine guns. God will never forgive the Huns for that act
alone. Nor will our comrades ever forget it.''
The statement of Colonel Andrews was corroborated by a
number of other officers.
To protect artillery against coxmter-fire of all kinds, both sides
from the beginning used the ail of camouflage. This w^as resorted
to particularly against scouting airplanes. At first the branches
of trees and similar natural cover were used to deceive the airmen.
Later the guns themselves were painted with protective colora-
tions, and screens of biu-lap were used instead of branches. The
camoufleur, as the camouflage ai-tist was called, speedily extended
hiR activities to ecreens over highways, preventing airmen from
228 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
seeing troops in motion, to the protective coloration of lookout
posts, and of other necessary factors along the fighting front.
Camouflage also found great usefulness in the protective colora-
tion of battleships and merchant vessels. Scientific study went
hand in hand with the art, the object being to confuse the enemy
and to offer targets as small as possible to the enemy gunners.
Crater warfare came as a development of intensified artillery
attacks upon trench systems. It was at Dunajec on the eastern
front that for the first time in modem war the wheels of artillery
were placed hub to hub in intensified hurricane fire upon enemy
positions. The result there under von Mackensen's direction was
the rout of the Russians. When later the same tactics were
employed on the western front, the result was to destroy whole
trench systems with the exception of deep dugouts, and to send
the occupants of the trenches into the craters, made by shell
explosions, for protection.
It was observed that these craters made excellent cover and
when linked by vigorous use of the intrenching tools carried by
every soldier, they made a fair substitute for the trenches. This
observation gave root to an idea which was followed by both
armies; this was the deliberate creation of crater systems by the
artillery of the attacking force. Into these lines of craters the
attacking infantry threw itself in wave after wave as it rushed toward
the enemy trenches. The ground is so riddled by this intensive
artillery fire that there is created what is known as ''moon terrain, "
fields resembling the surface of the moon as seen through a powerful
telescope. Troops on both sides were trained to utilize these
shell holes to the utmost, each little group occupying a crater,
keeping in touch with its nearest group and moving steadily in
unison toward the enemy.
One detail in which this war surpassed all otheres was in the
use of machine guns and grenades. The Germans were first to
make extensive use of the machine gun as a weapon with which
to produce an effective barrage. They established machine-gun
nests at frequent intervals commanding the zone over which
infantry was to advance and by skilful crossfire kept that terrain
free from every Uving thing. The Germans preferred a machine
gim, water cooled and of the barrel-recoil type. The English
used a Vickers-Maxim and a Lewis gun, the latter the invention of
NEW METHODS OF WARFARE 2^9
an officer in the American army. The French preferred the
Hotchkiss and the Saint-Etienne. The Americans standardized
the Browning Ught and heavy machine guns, and these did effective
service. It was asserted by American gimnery experts that the
Browning excels all other weapons of its type.
Two general types of grenades were used on both sides. One
a defensive bomb about the size of an orange, containing a bursting
charge weighing twenty-two ounces. Then there was a grenade
used for offensive work carrying about thirty-two ounces of high
explosives. The defensive grenades were of cast iron and so made
that they burst into more than a hundred jagged pieces when they
exploded. These wounded or killed within a radius of one hundred
and fifty yards. In exceptional instances, the range was higher.
The function of artillery in a modern battle is constantly
extending. Both the big guns and the howitzers were the deciding
factors in most of the miUtary decisions reached during the war.
Artillery is divided first between the big guns having a compara-
tively flat trajectory and the howitzers whose trajectory is curved.
Then there is a further division into these four classes:
Field artillery,
Heavy artillery,
Railroad artillery.
Trench artillery.
The type of field artillery is the famous 75-millimeter gun
used interchangeably by the French and Americans. It is a quick-
firing weapon and is used against attacking masses and for the
various kind of barrages, including an anti-aircraft barrage.
Included in the heavy artillery are guns and howitzers of
larger caliber than the 75-millimeter. Three distinct and terrify-
ing noises accompany explosions of these gims. First, there is the
explosion when the shell leaves the gun; then there is the peculiar
rattling noise like the passing of a railway train when the shells
pass overhead; then there is the explosion at point of contact, a
terrific concussion which produces the human condition called
"shell-shock," a derangement of body and brain, paralyzing nerve
and muscle centers and frequently producing insanity.
The railroad artillery comprises huge gims pulled on railways
by locomotives, each gun having a number of cars as part of its
equipment. These are slow-firing guns of great power and hurling
230 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
the largest projectiles kno"WTi to warfare. The largest guns of
this class were produced by American inventive genius as a reply
to the German gun of St. Gobain Forest. This was a weapon which
hurled a nine-inch shell from a distance of sLxty-two miles into the
heart of Paris. The damage done by it was comparatively slight,
and it had no appreciable effect upon the morale of the Parisians.
Its greatest damage was when it struck the Roman CathoUc
Chm-ch of St. Gervais on Good Friday, March 29, 1918, killing
seventy-five persons and wounding ninety. Fifty-fom* of those
killed were women, five being Americans. The total effect of the
bombardment by this big gun was to arouse France, England and
America to a fiercer fighting pitch. The late Cardinal Farley,
Archbishop of New York, expressed this sentiment, when he sent
the following message to the Archbishop of Paris r-
Shocked by the brutal killing of innocent victims gathered at religious
services to commemorate the passing of our blessed Saviour on Good
Friday, the Catholics of New York join your noble protest against this
outrage of the sanctuary on such a day and at such an hovir and, express-
ing their sympathy to the bereaved relatives of the dead and injured,
pledge their unfaltering allegiance in support of the common cause that
unites our two great republics. May God bless the brave officers and men
of the Allied armies in their splendid defense of liberty and justice!
Trench artillery are Stokes guns and other mortars hurling
aerial torpedoes containing great quantities of high explosives.
These have curved trajectories and are effective not only against
trenches but also against deep dugouts, wire entanglements and
listening posts.
One of the most important details of modem warfare is that of
communication or Uaison on the battlefield. This is accomplished
by runners recruited from the trenches, by dogs, pigeons, telephone,
radio.
As has been heretofore stated, the airplane considered in all
its developments, is the newest and most important of factors in
modern warfare. It photographs the enemy positions, it detects
concentrations and other movements of the enemy, it makes
surprise impossible^ it is a deadly engine of destruction when
used in spraying machine-gun fire upon troops in the open. As
a bombing ' device, it surpasses the best an«i most acciu^te
artillery.
I I
CHAPTER XY
German Plots and Propaganda in America
THE pages of Germany's militaristic history are black with
many shameful deeds and plots. Those pages upon which
are written the intrigues against the peace of America and
against the lives and properties of American citizens
during the period betw^een the declaration of war in 1914 and the
armistice ending the war, while not so bloody as those relating to
the atrocities in Belgium and Northern France are still revolting
to civilized mankind.
Germany not only paid for the mm-der of passengers on ships
where its infernal macliines were placed, not only conspired for
the destruction of munition plants and factories of many kinds,
not only sought to embroil the United States, then neutral, in a
war with Mexico and Japan, but it committed also the crime of
murderous hypocrisy by conspiring to do these wrongs under the
cloak of friendship for this countiy.
It was in December of 1915 that the German Government
sent to the United States for general publication in American news-
papers this statement:
The German Government nas natm-ally never knowinglj^ accepted
the support of any person, group of persons, society or organization seek-
ing to promote the cause of Germany in the United States by illegal acts,
by counsel of violence, by contravention of law, or by any means what-
ever that could offend the American people in the pride of their own
authority.
The answer to this imperial He came from the President of
the United States, when, in his address to Congress, April 2, 1917,
urgmg a declaration of war on Germany, he clixiracterized the Ger-
man spy system and its frightful fruits in the following language:
"One of the things that has served to convince us that the
Prussian autocracy was not and could never be our friend is that
from the very outset of the present war it has filled our unsus-
231
232 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
pecting communities, and even our offices of government, with
spies, and set criminal intrigues everywhere afoot against our
national unity of counsel, our peace within and without, our
industries and our commerce. Indeed it is now evident that its
spies were here even before the war began; and it is unhappily
not a matter of conjecture, but a fact proved in our courts of
justice, that the intrigues which have more than once come
perilously near to disturbing the peace and dislocating the indus-
tries of the countrj^ have been carried on at the instigation, with
the support, and even under the personal direction of official
agents of the Imperial Government accredited to the Government
of the United States."
Austria co-operated with Germany in a feeble way in these
plots and propaganda, but the master plotter was Count Johann
von Bernstorff, Germany's Ambassador. The Austro-Hungarian
Ambassador, Constantin Theodor Dumba, Captain Franz von
Papen, Captain Karl Boy-Ed, Dr. Heinrich F. Albert, and Wolf
von Igel, all of whom were attached to the German Embassy,
were associates in the intrigues. Franz von Rintelen operated
independently and received his funds and instructions directly
from Berlin.
One of the earUest methods of creating disorder in American
munition plants and other industrial establishments engaged in
war work was through labor disturbances. With that end in
view a general German employment bureau was estabUshed in
August, 1915, in New York City. It had branches in Philadelphia,
Bridgeport, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Chicago and Cincinnati. These
cities at that time were the centers of industries engaged in furnish-
ing munitions and war supplies to the Entente allies. Concerning
this enterprise Ambassador Dumba, writing to Baron Burian,
Foreign Minister of Austria-Hungary, said :
A private German employment office has been established which
provides employment for persons who have voluntarily given up their
places, and it is already working well. We shall also join in and the
widest support is assured us.
The duties of men sent from the German employment offices
into munition plants may be gathered from the following frank
circular issued on November 2, 1914, by the German General
Headquarters and reprinted in the Frew Zeitwig, of Berne.
i
PLOTS AND PROPAGANDA ^33
General Headquarters to the Military Representativb
ON THE Russian and French Fronts, as Well as in
Italy and Norway.
In all branch establishments of German banking houses in Sweden^
Norway, Switzerland, China and the United States, special military
accounts have been opened for special war necessities. Main headquarters
authorizes you to use these credits to an unlimited extent for the purpose
of destroying factories, workshops, camps, and the most important centers
of military and civil supply belonging to the enemy. In addition to the
incitement of labor troubles, measures must be taken for the damaging
of engines and machinery plants, the destruction of vessels carrying war
material to enemy countries, the burning of stocks of raw materials and
finished goods, and the depriving of large industrial centers of electric
power, fuel and food. Special agents, who will be placed at your disposal,
will supply you with the necessary means for effecting explosions and fires,
as well as with a list of people in the country under your supervision who
are willing to undertake the task of destruction.
(Signed) Dr. E. Fischer.
Shortly after the establishment of the German employment
bureau, Ambassador Dumba sent the following communication to
the Austrian Foreign Office:
It is my impression that we can disorganize and hold up for months,
if not entirely prevent, the manufacture of munitions in Bethlehem and
the Middle West, which, in the opinion of the German mihtary attach^,
is of importance and amply outweighs the comparatively small expenditure
of money involved.
Concerning the operations of the arSon and murder squad
organized by von Bemstorff, Dumba and their associates, it is
only necessary to turn to the records of the criminal courts of the
United States and Canada. Take for example the case against
Albert Kaltschmidt, living in Detroit, Michigan. The United
States grand jury sitting in Detroit indicted Kaltschmidt and his
fellow conspirators upon the following counts:
*'To blow up the factory of the Peabody's Company, Limited,
at Walkerville, Ontario, . . . engaged in manufacturing uniforms,
clothing and military supplies. . . .
"To blow up the building known as the Windsor Armories
of the City of Windsor. . . .
"To blow up and destroy other plants and buildings in said
Dominion of Canada, which were used for the manufacture of
munitions of war, clothing and uniforms.
»
234 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
"To blow up and destroy the great railroad bridges of the
Canadian Pacific Railroad at Nipigon. . . .
"To employ and send into said Dominion of Canada spies to
obtain military information."
Besides the acts enumerated in the indictment it was proved
upon trial that Kaltschmidt and his gang planned to blow up
the Detroit Screw Works where shrapnel was being manufactured,
and to destroy the St. Clair tunnel, connecting Canada with the
United States. Both of these plans failed. Associated with
Kaltschmidt in these plots were Captain von Papen, Baron Kurt
von Reiswitz, German consul-general in Chicago; Charles F.
Respa, Richard Herman, and William M. Jarasch, the latter
two German reservists. Testifying in the case Jarasch, a bartender,
said: "Jacobsen (an aide) told me that munition factories in
Canada were to be blown up. Before I left for Detroit, Jacobsen
and I went to the consulate. We saw the consul. and he shook
bands with me and wished me success."
Charles F. Respa, in his testimony made the following revela-
tions in response to questions by the government's representatives:
Q. How long had you been employed before he (Kaltschmidt)
told you that he wanted you to blow up some of these factories?
A, About three weeks.
Q. Did Kaltschmidt at the time speak of any particular
place that he wanted you to blow up? A. The particular place
was the Armory.
Q. Did he mention the Peabody Building at that time?
A. Not particularly — he was more after the bridges and the
armories and wanted those places blown up that made ammuni-
tion and miUtary clothing.
Q. The explosion at the armories was to be timed so that it
would occur when the soldiers were asleep there? A. Yes — he
did not mention that he wanted to kill soldiers.
Q. Did he say that if the dynamite in the suitcase exploded
it would kill the soldiers? ^. I do not remember that he said so,
but he must have known it.
Q. Did you take both grips? A. Yes.
Q. Where did you set the first grip? A. By the Peabody
plant (blown up on June 20, 1915).
Q. Where did you put the other suitcase? A. Then I
PLOTS AND PROPAGANDA 235
walked down the Walkerville road to the Armories at Windsor,
and carried the suitcase.
Q. When you got to the Armories did you know where to
place it? A. 1 had my instructions.
Q. From Kaltschmidt? A. Yes.
Q. Did you place this suitcase containing the dynamite
bomb at the armory in a proper place to explode and do any
damage? A. Yes.
Q. Was it properly connected so that the cap would explode
and strike the dynamite? A. I fixed it so that it would not.
Q. Did you deliberately fix this bomb that you took to the
Armories so that it would not explode? A. Yes.
Q. Why did you do that? A. I knew that the suitcase
contained thirty sticks of dynamite and if exploded would blow
up the Armories and all the ammunition and kill every man in it.
It is interesting to note in this connection that Kaltschmidt
was sentenced to four years in the federal prison at Leavenworth,
Kansas, and to pay a fine of $20,000. Horn's sentence was eighteen
months in the Atlanta penitentiary and a fine of $1,000.
Attempts were also made to close by explosions the tunnels
through which the Canadian Pacific Kailroad passes under the
Selkirk Mountains in British Columbia. " The German General
Staff in this instance operated through Franz Bopp, the German
consul-general in San Francisco, and Lieutenant von Brincken.
J. H. van Koolbergen was hired to do this work. Concerning the
negotiations, van Koolbergen made this statement:
*'Not knowing what he wanted I went to see him. He was
very pleasant and told me that he was an officer in the German
army and at present working in the secret service of the German
Empire under Mr. Franz Bopp, the Imperial German consul.
"I went to the consulate and met Franz Bopp and then saw
von Brincken in another room. He asked me if I would do some-
thing for him in Canada and I answered him, ' Sure, I will do some-
thing, even blow up bridges, if there is money in it.' And he said,
'You are the man; if that is so, you can make good money.'
"Von Brincken told me that they were willing to send me up
to Canada to blow up one of the bridges on the Canadian Pacific
Railroad or one of the tunnels. I asked him what was in it and he
said he would talk it over with the German consul, Bopp.
236 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
((
I had accepted von Brincken's proposition to go to Canada
and he offered me S500 to defray my expenses. On different
occasions, in his room, von Brincken showed me maps and informa-
tion about Canada, and pointed out to me where he wanted the
act to be done. This was to be between Revelstake and Vancouver
on the Canadian Pacific Raikoad, and I was to get $3,000 in case
of a successful blowing up of a military bridge or tunnel."
Van Koolbergen only made a pretended effort to blow up the
tunnel. He did furnish the evidence, hov/ever, which served to
Bend Bopp and his associates to the penitentiary.
Even more sensational was the plot against the international
bridge upon which the Grand Trunk Railway crosses the border
between the United States and Canada at Vanceboro, Me.
Werner Horn was a German reserve Heutenant. Von Papen
delivered to him a flat order to blow up the bridge and he gave
him $700 for the purpose of perpetrating the outrage. Horn was
partially successful. At his trial in Boston in June, 1917, he made
the following confession:
"I admit and state that the facts set forth in the indictments
as to the conveyance of explosives on certain passenger trains
from New York to Boston and from Boston to Vanceboro, in the
State of Maine, are true. I did, as therein alleged, receive an explo-
sive and conveyed the same from the city of New York to Boston,
thence by common carrier from Boston to Vanceboro, Maine.
On or about the night of February 1, 1915, I took said explosive
in a suitcase in which I was conveying it and carried the same
across the bridge at Vanceboro to the Canadian side, and there,
about 1.10 in the morning of February 2, 1915, 1 caused said explo-
sive to be exploded near or against the abutments of the bridge
on the Canadian side, with intent to destroy the abutment and
cripple the bridge so that the same could not be used for the passage
of trains."
Bribery of Congressmen was intended by Franz von Rintelen,
operating directly in touch with the German Foreign Office in
Berlin. Count von Bernstorff sent the following telegram to
Berlin in connection with his plan:
I request authority to pay out up to $50,000 in order, as on former
occasions, to influence Congress through the organization you know of,
which can perhaps prevent war. I am beginning in the meantime to act
PLOTS AND PROPAGANDA 237
accordingly. In the above circumstances, a public official German
declaration in favor of Ireland is highly desirable, in order to gain the
support of the Irish influence here
That it was Rintelen's purpose to use large sums of money
for the purpose of bribing Congressmen was stated positively by
George Plochman, treasurer of the Transatlantic Trust Company,
where Rintelen kept his deposits.
Rintelen was the main figure on this side of the water in the
fantastic plot to have Mexico and Japan declare war upon the
United States. During the trial of Rintelen in New York City
in May, 1917, it was testified "that he came to the United States
in order to embroil it with Mexico and Japan if necessary; that
he was doing all he could and was going to do all he could to embroil
this coimtry with Mexico; that he believed that if the United
States had a war v/ith Mexico it would stop the shipment of ammu-
nition to Europe; that he believed it would be only a matter of
time until we were involved with Japan."
Rintelen also said that ''General Huerta was going to return
to Mexico and start a revolution there which would cause the
United States to intervene and so make it impossible to ship muni-
tions to Europe. Intervention," he said, "was one of his trump
cards."
Mexico was the happy hunting-ground for pro-German plotters,
and the German Ambassador in Mexico, Heinrich von Eckhardt,
was the leader in all the intrigues. The culmination of Germany's
effort against America on this continent came on January 19,
1917, when Dr. Alfred Zimmerman, head of the German Foreign
Office, sent the following cable to Ambassador von Eckhardt:
On the first of February we intend to begin submarine warfare
unrestricted. In spite of this, it is our intention to endeavor to keep
neutral the United States of America.
If this attempt is not successful, we propose an alliance on the follow-
ing basis with Mexico: That we shall make war together and together
make peace. We shall give general financial support, and it is under-
stood that Mexico is to reconquer the lost territory in New Mexico, Texas
and Arizona. The details are left to you for settlement. You are
instructed to inform the President of Mexico of the above in the greatest
confidence as soon as it is certain that there will be an outbreak of war
with the United States, and suggest that the President of Mexico, on hia
238 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
own initiative, should communicate with Japan suggesting adherence
at once to this plan; at the same time, offer to mediate between Germany
and Japan.
Please call to the attention of the President of Mexico that the
emplojnnent of ruthless submarine warfare now promises to compel
England to make peace in a few months.
Zimmerman.
This was almost three months before the United States entered
the war. As an example of German blindness and diplomatic
folly it stands unrivaled in the annals of the German Foreign
Office.
Plots against shipping were the deadliest in which the German
conspirators engaged. Death and destruction followed in their
wake. In direct connection of von Bemstorff and his tools with
these outrages the following testimony by an American secret
service man employed by Wolf von Igel is interesting. It refers
to an appointment with Captain von Kleist, superintendent of
Scheele's bomb factory in Hoboken, N. J.
"We sat down and we spoke for about three hours. I asked
him the different things that he did, and said if he wanted an inter-
view with Mr. von Igel, my boss, he would have to tell everything.
So he told me that von Papen gave Dr. Scheele, the partner of
von Kleist in this factory, a check for $10,000 to start this bomb
factory. He told me that he, Mr. von Kleist, and Dr. Scheele
and a man by the name of Becker on the Friedrich der Grosse were
making the bombs, and that Captain Wolpert, Captain Bode and
Captain Steinberg, had charge of putting these bombs on the ships;
they put these bombs in cases and shipped them as merchandise
on these steamers, and they would go away on the trip and the
bombs would go off after the ship was out f oiu* or five days, causing
a fire and causing the cargo to go up in flames. He also told me
that they have made quite a number of these bombs; that thirty
of them were given to a party by the name of O'Leary, and that
he took them down to New Orleans where he had charge of putting
them on ships down there, this fellow O'Leary."
About four hundred bombs were made under von Igel's direc-
tion; explosions and fires were caused by them on thirty-three
ships sailing from New York harbor alone.
Four of the bombs were found at Marseilles on a vessel which
PLOTS AND PROPAGANDA 239
sailed from Brooklyn in May, 1915. The evidence collected in
the case led to the indictment of the following men for feloniously
transporting on the steamship Kirk Oswald a bomb or bombs
filled with chemicals designed to cause incendiary fires: Rintelen,
Wolpert, Bode, Schmidt, Becker, Garbade, Praedel, Paradies,
von Kleist, Schimmel, Scheele, Steinberg and others. The last
three named fled from justice, Scheele being suppUed with $1,000
for that purpose by Wolf von Igel. He eluded the Federal author-
ities until April, 1918, when he was found hiding in Cuba under
the protection of German secret service agents. All the others
except Schmidt were found guilty and sentenced, on February 5,
1918, to imprisonment for eighteen months and payment of a fine
of $2,000 each. It was proved during the trial that Rintelen had
hired Schimmel, a German lawyer, to see that bombs were placed
on ships.
Schmidt, von Kleist, Becker, Garbade, Praedel and Paradies
had already been tried for conspiracy to make bombs for conceal-
ment on ocean-going vessels, with the purpose of setting the same
on fire. All were found guilty, and on April 6, 1917, von Kleist
and Schmidt were sentenced to two years' imprisonment and a
fine of $500 each.
Robert Fay, a former officer in the German army, who came to
the United States in April, 1915, endeavored to prevent the traffic
in munitions hy sinking the laden ships at sea. In recounting the
circumstances of his arrival here to the chief of the United States
secret service. Fay said:
". . . I had in the neighborhood of $4,000. . . . This
money came from a man who sent me over . . . (named)
Jonnersen. The understanding was that it might be worth while
to stop the shipment of artillery munitions from this country.
. . . I imagined Jonnersen to be in the (German) secret service."
After stating that he saw von Papen and Boy-Ed, and that
neither would have anything to do with, him, apparently because
suspicious of his identity. Fay continued:
"I did not want to return (to Germany) without having
carried out my intention, that is, the destruction of ships carrying
munitions. I proceeded with my experiments and tried to get hold
of as much explosive matter as in any way possible. . . ."
Fay and two confederates were arrested in a lonely spot near
240
HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
Grantwood, New Jersey, while testing an explosive. During his
examination at police headquarters in Weehawken immediately
after the arrest he was questioned as follows:
Q. That large machine you have downstairs, what is that?
A. That is a patent of mine. It is a new way of getting a
time fuse. . . .
Q. Did you know where Scholz (Fay's brother-in-law) had
this machine made?
A. In different machine shops. . . .
Q. What material is it you wanted (from Daeche, an accom-
plice) ?
A. Trinitrotoluol (T. N. T.). . . .
Q. How much did the machinery cost?
A. Roughly speakuig, $150 or $200. . . .
Q. What would be the cost of making one and filling it with
explosives?
A. About $250 each. ... If they had given me money
enough I should simply have been able to block the shipping entirely.
Q. Do you mean you could have destroyed every ship that
left the harbor by means of those bombs?
A. I would have been able to stop so many that the authorities
would not have dared (to send out any ships).
It was proved during Fay's trial that his bomb was a practical
device, and that its forty pounds of explosive would sink any ship
to which it was attached.
Fay and his accompUces, Scholz and Daeche, were convicted
of conspiracy to attach explosive bombs to the rudders of vessels,
with the intention of wrecking the same when at sea, and were
sentenced, on May 9, 1916, to terms of eight, four and two years
respectively, in the federal penitentiary at Atlanta. Dr. Herbert
Kienzle and Max Breitung, who assisted Fay in procuring explo-
sives, were indicted on the same charge. Both were interned.
Another plan for disabling ships was suggested by a man who
remained for some time unknown. He called one day at the German
Military Information Bureau, maintained at 60 Wall Street by
Captaiij von Papen, of the German embassy, and there gave the
following outline of his plan:
"I intend to cause serious damage to vessels of the AlUes
leaving ports of the United States by placing bombs, which I am
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PLOTS AND PROPAGANDA 243
making myself, on board. These bombs resemble ordinary lumps
of coal and I am planning to have them concealed in the coal to be
laden on steamers of the Allies. I have already discussed this
plan with . . . at . . . and he thinks favorably of my
idea. I have been engaged on similar work in . . . after the
outbreak of the war, together with Mr. von . . . ."
The German secret service report from which the above
excerpt is taken states that the maker of the bomb was paid by
check No. 146 for $150 drawn on the Riggs National Bank of
Washington. A photographic copy of this check shows that it
was payable to Paul Koenig, of the Hamburg-American Line, and
was signed by Captain von Papen. On the counterfoil is wiitten
this memorandum, "For F. J. Busse." Busse confessed later
that he had discussed with Captain von Papen at the German
Club in New York City the plan of damaging the boilers of munition
ships with bombs which resembled lumps of coal.
Free access to AlHed ships laden with supplies for Vladivostok
would have been invaluable to the conspirators, and in order to
obtain it Charles C. Crowley, a detective employed by Consul-
General Bopp, resorted to the extraordinary scheme revealed in the
following letter to Madam Bakhmeteff, wife of the Russian
Ambassador to the United States:
Mme J. Bakhmeteff, care Imperial Russian Embassy, Newport, R. L:
Dear Madam: — By direction of the Imperial Russian Consul-General
of San Francisco, I beg to submit the following on behalf of several fruit-
growers of the State of California. As it is the wish of certain growers
to contribute several tons of dried fruit to the Russian Red Cross they
desire to have arrangements made to facilitate the transportation of this
fruit from Tacoma, Washington, to Vladivostok, and as we are advised
that steamships are regularly plying between Tacoma and Vladivostok
upon which goverrmient suppKes are shipped we would like to have
arrangements made that these fruits as they might arrive would be regu-
larly consigned to these steamers and forwarded. It would be necessary,
therefore, that an understanding be had with the agents of these steam-
ship hnes at Tacoma that immediate shipments be made via whatever
steamers might be saiUng.
It is the desire of the donors that there be no delay in the shipments
as delays would lessen the benefits intended to those for whom the fruit
was provided. . . .
Respectfully yours,
C. C. Crowley.
244 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
The statements of Louis J. Smith and van Koolbergen, com-
bined with a mass of other evidence consisting in part of letters
and telegrams, caused the grand jury to indict Consul-General
Bopp, his staff and his hired agents, for conspiracy to undertake
a miUtary enterprise against Canada. Among the purposes of this
enterprise specified in the indictment was the following:
"To blow up and destroy with their cargoes and crews any
and all vessels belonging to Great Britain, France, Japan or Russia
found within the limits of Canada, which were laden with horses,
munitions of war, or articles of connnerce in course of transporta-
tion to the above countries. . . ."
The following descriptions have been made by the United
States Government of the tools of von Bemstorff in German plots:
Paul Koenig, the head of the Hamburg- American secret serv-
ice, who was active in passport frauds, who induced Gustave Stahl
to perjure himself and declare the Lusitania armed, and who plotted
the destruction of the Welland Canal. In his work as a spy he
passed under thirteen aliases in this country and Canada.
Captains Boy-Ed, von Papen, von Rintelen, Tauscher, and von
Igel were all directly connected with the German Government itself.
There is now in the possession of the United States Government
a check made out to Koenig and signed by von Papen, identified
by number in a secret report of the German Bureau of Investiga-
tion as being used to procure $150 for the payment of a bomb-
maker, who was to plant explosives disguised as coal in the bunkers
of the merchant vessels clearing from the port of New York.
Boy-Ed, Dr. Bunz, the German ex-minister to Mexico, the German
consul at San Francisco, and officials of the Hamburg-American
and North German Lloyd steamship lines evaded customs regula-
tions and coaled and victualed German raiders at sea. Von Papen
and von Igel supervised the making of the incendiary bombs on
the Friedrich der Grosse, then in New York Harbor, and stowed
them away on outgoing ships. Von Rintelen financed Labor's
National Peace Coimcil, which tried to corrupt legislators and
labor leaders.
A lesser light of this galaxy was Robert Fay, who invented an
explosive contrivance which he tied to the rudder posts of vessels.
According to his confession and that of his partner in murder,
the money came from the German secret pohce.
PLOTS AND PROPAGANDA U5
Among the other tools of the German plotters were David
Lamar and Henry Martin, who, in the pay of Captain von Rintelen,
organized and managed the so-called Labor's National Peace
Coimcil, which sought to bring about strikes, an embargo on
munitions^ and a boycott of the banks which subscribed to the
Anglo-French loan. A check for $5,000 to J. F. J. Archibald for
propaganda work, and a receipt from Edwin Emerson, the war
correspondent, for $1,000 traveling expenses were among the docu-
ments found in Wolf von Igel's possession.
Others who bore English names were persuaded to take
leading places in similar organizations which concealed their origin
and real purpose. The American Embargo Conference arose out
of the aslies of Labor's Peace Council, and its president was
American, though the funds were not. Others tampered with
were journalists who lent themselves to the German propaganda
and who went so far as to serve as couriers between the Teutonic
embassies in Washington and the governments in Berlin and
Vienna. A check of $5,000 was discovered which Count von
Bernstorff had sent to Marcus Braun, editor of Fair Play. And a
letter was discovered which George Sylvester Viereck, editor of the
Fatherland, sent to Privy Councilor Albert, the German agent,
arranging for a monthly subsidy of $1,750, to be delivered to him
through the hands of intermediaries — women whose names he
abbreviates "to prevent any possible inquiry." There is a record
of $3,000 paid through the German embassy to finance the lecture
tour of Miss Ray Beveridge, an American artist, who was further
to be suppUed with German war pictures.
The German propagandists also directed their efforts to poison-
ing the minds of the people through the circulation of lies con-
cerning affairs in France and at home. Here are some of the
rumors circulated throughout the country that were nailed as
falsehoods:
It was said that the national registration of women by the
Food Administration was to find out how much money each had
in the bank, how much of this was owed, and everything about
each registrant's personal affairs.
That the millions collected from the pubUc for the Red Cross
went into the pockets of thieves, and that the soldiers and sailors
got none of it, nor any of its benefits.
246 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
That base hospital units had been annihilated while en route
overseas.
That leading members of other hospital units had been executed
as spies by the American Government.
That canned goods put up by the housewives were to be
seized by the government and appropriated to the use of the army
and navy.
That soldiers in training were being instructed to put out the
eyes of every German captured.
That all of the ''plums" at the officers' training camps fell
to Roman Catholics. The plums went to Protestants when the
propagandist talked to a Catholic.
That the registration of women was held so that girls would
be enticed into the cities where white slaves were made of them.
That the battleship Pennsylvania had been destroyed with
everyone on board by a German submarine.
That more than seventy-five per cent of the American soldiers
in France had been infected with venereal diseases.
That intoxicants were given freely to American soldiers in
Y. M. C. A. and Knights of Columbus huts in France.
But the lies and the plots failed to make any impression on
the morale of American citizenry. In fact, America from the
moment war was declared against Germany until the time an
armistice was declared, seemed to care for nothing but results.
Charges of graft made with bitter invective in Congress created
scarcely more than a ripple. The harder the pro-German plotters
worked for the destruction of property and the incitement to labor
disturbances, the closer became the protective network of Ameri-
canism against these anti-war influences. After half a dozen German
lies had been casually passed from mouth to mouth as rumors,
the American people came to look upon other mischievous propa-
ganda in its true light. Patriotic newspapers in every community
exposed the false reports and citizens everywhere were on their
guard against the misstatements. It was noticeable that the
propaganda was intensified just previous to and during the several
Liberty Loan campaigns. Proof that the American spirit rises
superior to anti-American influences is furnished by the glorious
records of these Liberty Loans. Every one was over-subscribed
despite the severest handicaps confronted by any nation.
CHAPTER XVI
Sinking of the Lusitania
THE United States was brought face to face with the Great
War and with what it meant in ruthless destruction of Ufe
when, on May 7, 1915, the crack Cunard Liner Lusitania,
bound from New York to Liverpool, with 1,959 persons
aboard, was torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine off
Old Head of Kinsale, Southwestern Ireland. Two torpedoes
reached their mark. The total number of lives lost when the ship
sunk was 1,198. Of these 755 were passengers and the remainder
were members of the crew. Of the drowned passengers, 124 were
Americans and 35 were infants.
" Remember the Lusitania!" later became a battlecry just as
" Remember the Maine !" acted as a spur to Americans during
the war with Spain. It was first used by the famous " Black
Watch" and later American troops shouted it as they went
into battle.
The sinking of the Lusitania, with its attendant destruction
of life, sent a thrill of horror through the neutral peoples of the
world. General opposition to the use of submarines in attacking
peaceful shipping, especially passenger vessels, crystalUzed as the
result of the tragedy, and a critical diplomatic controversy between
the United States and Germany developed. The American Govern-
ment signified its determination to break off friendly relations with
the German Empire unless the ruthless practices of the submarine
commanders were terminated. Germany temporarily agreed to
discontinue these practices.
Among the victims of the Cunarder's destruction were some
of the best known personages of the Western Hemisphere. Alfred
Gwynne Vanderbilt, multimillionaire; Charles Frohman, noted
theatrical manager; Charles Klein, dramatist, who wrote "The
Lion and the Mouse;" Justus Miles Forman, author, and Elbert
Hubbard, known as Fra Elbertus, widely read iconoclastic writer,
were drowned.
247
248 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
The ocean off the pleasant southern coast of Ireland was
dotted with bodies for days after the sinking of the liner. The
remains of many of the victims, however, never were recovered.
When the Lusitania prepared to sail from New York on her
last trip, fifty anonymous telegrams addressed to prominent
persons aboard the vessel warned the recipients not to sail with the
liner. In addition to these warnings was an advertisement
inserted in the leading metropoUtan newspapers by the German
embassy, advising neutral persons that British steamships were
in danger of destruction in the war zone about the British Isles.
This notice appeared the day the Lusitania sailed. May 1st, and
was placed next the advertisement of the Cunard Line. Following
is the advertisement:
NOTICE!
^Travelers intending to embark on the Atlantic voyage are reminded
that a state of war exists between Germany and her allies and Great
Britain and her allies; that the zone of war includes the waters adjacent to
the British Isles; that, in accordance with formal notice given by the
Imperial German Government, vessels flying the flag of Great Britain,
or of any of her allies, are liable to destruction in those waters and that
travelers sailing in the war zone on ships of Great Britain or her allies
do so at their own risk.
Imperial German Embassy,
Washington, D. C., April 22, 1915.
Little or no attention was paid to the warnings, only the
usual niunber of persons canceling their reservations. The gen-
eral agent of the Cunard Line at New York assured the passengers
that the Lusitania's voyage would be attended by no risk what-
ever, referring to the liner's speed and water-tight compartments.
As the great Cunarder drew near the scene of her disaster,
traveUng at moderate speed along her accustomed route, there
was news of freight steamers falUng victims to Germany's undersea
campaign. It was not definitely estabhshed, however, whether
the liner was warned of danger.
At two o'clock on the fine afternoon of May 7th, some ten miles
off the Old Head of Kinsale, the Lusitania was sighted by a sub-
marine 1,000 yards away. A second later the track of a tor-
pedo, soon followed by another, was seen and each missile crashed
into the Lusitania's hull with rending detonations.
SINKING OF THE LUSITANIA 249
Many were killed or injured immediately by the explosions.
Before the liner's headway was lost, some boats were lowered,
and capsized as a result. The immediate listing of the steamship
added to the difficulties of rescue and increased the tragical toll
of dead.
Much heroism and calmness were displayed by many in the
few minutes the liner remained afloat. The bearing of Frohman,
Vanderbilt, Hubbard and other Americans was declared to have
been particularly inspiring.
Rescue ships and naval vessels rushed to the aid of the sur-
\dvors from all nearby ports of Ireland.
It has been said that the sinking of the Lusitania was carefully
planned by the chiefs of the German admiralty. They expected,
it was believed, to demoralize British shipping and strike terror
into the minds of the British people by showing that the largest
and swiftest of liners could easily be destroyed by submarines.
According to the Paris paper, La Guerre Sociale, published
by Gustavo Herve, the submarine responsible was the U-21, com-
manded by Lieutenant Hersing. Hersing was said to have been
decorated for his deed. The U-21 afterwards was destroyed and
the story of its participation in the sinking of the great Cunarder
never was confirmed.
Inmiediately upon the news of the Lusitania disaster, President
Wilson took steps to hold Germany to that *' strict accountabiUty "
of which he had notified Berlin when the war-zone operations were
begun earher in the year. His first conamunication, protesting
against the sinking of the Uner in the name of humanity and
demanding disavowal, indemnity and assurance that the crime
would not be repeated, was despatched on May 13th. On May
30th the German reply argued that the liner carried munitions of
war and probably was armed.
The following official German version of the incident by the
German Admiralty Staff over the signature of Admiral Behncke
was given:
*'The submarine sighted the steamer, which showed no flag,
May 7th, at 2.20 o'clock. Central European time, afternoon, on the
southeast coast of Ireland, in fine, clear weather.
"At 3.10 o'clock one torpedo was fired at the Lusitania,
which hit her starboard side below the captain's bridge. The
250 HISTORY OF THE YvORLD WAR
detonation of the torpedo was followed immediately by a further
explosion of extremely strong effect. The ship quickly listed to
starboard and began to sink.
"The second explosion must be traced back to the ignition
of quantities of ammunition inside the ship."
These extenuations were all rejected by the United States,
and the next note prepared by President Wilson was of such char-
acter that Secretary of State Bryan resigned. This second com-
munication was sent on June 11th, and on June 22d another was
cabled. September 1st Germany accepted the contentions of the
United States in regard to submarine warfare upon peaceful
shipping. There were continued negotiations concerning the
specific settlement to be made in the case of the Lusitania.
On February 4th, 1916, arrived a German proposition which,
coupled with personal parleys carried on between German Ambassa-
dor von Bernstorff and United States Secretary of State Lansing,
seemed in a fair way to conclude the whole controversy. It was
announced on February 8th that the two nations were in substantial
accord and Germany was declared to have admitted the sinking
of the liner was wrong and unjustified and promised that repara-
tion would be made.
However, a week later, when Germany took advantage of
tentative American proposals concerning the disarming of merchant
ships, by announcing that all armed hostile merchantmen would be
treated as warships and attacked without warning, the almost
completed agreement was overthrown. The renewed negotiations
were continuing when the torpedoing of the cross-channel passenger
ship Sussex, without warning, on March 24th, impelled the United
States to issue a virtual ultimatum, demanding that the Germans
immediately cease their present methods of naval warfare on pain
of the rupture of diplomatic relations with the most powerful
existing neutral nation.
The Lusitania, previous to her sinking, had figured in the
war news, first at the conflict, when it was feared she had been
captured by a German cruiser while she was dashing across the
Atlantic toward Liverpool, and again in February of 1915, when
she flew the American flag as a ruse to deceive submarines while
crossing the Irish Sea. This latter incident called forth a protest
from the United States.
SINKING OF THE LUSITANIA 251
On her fatal trip the cargo of the Lusitania was worth S735,000.
As a great transatlantic Uner, the Lusitania was a product of
the race for speed, which was carried on for years among larger
steamship companies, particularly of England and Germany.
When the Lusitania was launched, it was the wonder of the mari-
time world. Its mastery of the sea, from the standpoint of speed,
was undisputed.
Progress of the Lusitania on its first voyage to New York,
September 7, 1907, was watched by the world. The vessel made
the voyage in five days and fifty-four minutes, at that time a
record. Its fastest trip, made on the western voyage, was four
days eleven hours forty-two minutes. This record, however,
was wrested from it subsequently by the Mauretania, a sister ship,
which set the mark of four days ten hours forty-one minutes, that
still stands.
Although the Lusitania was surpassed in size by several other
liners built subsequently, it never lost the reputation acquired
at the outset of its career. Its speed and luxurious accommoda-
tions made it a favorite, and its passenger lists bore the names of
many of the most prominent Atlantic wayfarers. The vessel was
pronounced by its builders to be as nearly unsinkable as any ship
could be.
Everything about the Lusitania was of colossal dimensions.
Her rudder weighed sixty-five tons. She carried three anchors of
ten tons each. The main frames and beams, placed end to end,
would extend thirty miles. The Lusitania was 785 feet long,
88 feet beam, and 60 feet deep. Her gross tonnage was 32,500
and her net tonnage, 9,145.
Charges were made that one or more guardian submarines
dehberately drove off ships nearby which might have saved hundreds
of lives lost when the Lusitania went down. Captain W. F. Wood,
of the Leyland Line steamer Etonian, said his ship was prevented
from going to the rescue of the passengers of the sinking Lusitania
by a warning that an attack might be made upon his own vessel.
The Etonian left Liverpool, May 6th. When Captain Wood
was forty-two miles from Kinsale he received a wireless call from
the Lusitania for immediate assistance.
The call was also picked up by the steamers City of Exeter
and Narragansett. The Narragansett, Captain Wood said, was
252 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
made a target for submarine attack, a torpedo missing her by a
few feet, and her commander then warned Captain Wood not to
attempt to reach the Lusitania.
"It was two o'clock in the afternoon. May 7th, that we received
the wireless S S," said Captain Wood. "I was then forty-two
miles distant from the position he gave me. The Narragansett
and the City of Exeter were nearer the Lusitania and she answered
the SOS.
"At five o'clock I observed the City of Exeter cross our bows
and she signaled, 'Have you heard anything of the disaster?'
"At that moment I saw a periscope of a submarine between
the Tonina and the City of Exeter, about a quarter of a mile directly
ahead of us. She dived as soon as she saw us.
"I signaled to the engine room for every available inch of
speed. Then we saw the submarine come up astern of us. I
now ordered full speed ahead and we left the submarine behind.
The periscope remamed in sight about twenty minutes.
"No sooner had we lost sight of the submarine astern, than
another appeared on the starboard bow. This one was directly
ahead and on the surface, not submerged.
"I starboarded hard away from him, he swinging as we did.
About eight minutes later he submerged. I continued at top
speed for four hours and saw no more of the submarines. It was
the ship's speed that saved her, that's all.
"The Narragansett, as soon as she heard the SOS call, went
to the assistance of the Lusitania. One of the submarines dis-
charged a torpedo at her and missed her by not more than eight
feet. The Narragansett then warned us not to attempt to go to
the rescue, and I got her wireless call while I was dodging the two
submarines. You can see that three ships would have gone to the
assistance of the Lusitania had they not been attacked by the two
submarines."
The German Government defended the brutal destruction of
non-combatants by the false assertions that the Lusitania was
an armed vessel and that it was carrying a great store of munitions.
Both of these accusations were proved to be mere fabrications.
The Lusitania was absolutely unarmed and the nearest approach to
munitions was a consignment of 1,250 empty shell cases and 4,200
cases of cartridges for small arms.
SINKING OF THE LUSITANIA ^53
Intense indignation swept over the neutral world, the tide
rising highest in America. It well may be said that the destruc-
tion of the Lusitania was one of the greatest factors in driving
America into the war with Germany.
Concerning the charge that the Lusitania carried munitions,
Dudley Field Malone, Collector of the port of New York, testified
that he made personal and close inspection of the ship's cargo and
saw that it carried no guns and that there were no munitions in
its cargo.
His statement follows;
"This report is not correct. The Lusitania was inspected
before saihng, as is customary. No guns were found, mounted
or unmounted, and the vessel sailed without any armament. No
merchant ship would be allowed to arm in this port and leave the
harbor."
Captain W. T. Turner, of the Lusitania, testifying before the
coroner's inquest at Kinsale, Ireland, was interrogated as follows:
"You were aware threats had been made that the ship would
be torpedoed?"
"We were," the Captain replied.
"Was she armed?"
"No, sir."
"What precautions did you take?"
"We had all the boats swung when we came within the danger
zone, between the passing of Fastnet and the time of the accident."
The coroner asked him whether he had received a message
concerning the sinking of a ship off Kinsale by a submarine. Cap-
tain Turner replied that he had not.
"Did you receive any special instructions as to the voyage?"
"Yes, SU-."
'Are you at liberty to tell us what they were?"
No, sk."
^Did you carry them out?"
"Yes, to the best of my ability."
"Tell us in your own words what happened after passing
Fastnet."
"The weather was clear," Captain Turner answered. "We
were going at a speed of eighteen knots. I was on the port side
and heard Second Officer Hefford call out;
If
254 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
" 'Kerens a torpedo!'
"I ran to the other side and saw clearly the wake of a torpedo.
Smoke and steam came up between the last two funnels. There
was a slight shock. Immediately after the first explosion there
was another report, but that may possibly have been internal.
*'I at once gave the order to lower the boats down to the
rails, and I directed that women and children should get into them.
I also had all the bulkheads closed.
"Between the time of passing Fastnet, about 11 o'clock, and
of the torpedoing I saw no sign whatever of any submarines. There
was some haze along the Irish coast, and when we were near Fastnet
I slowed down to fifteen knots. I was in wireless commimication
with shore all the way across."
Captain Turner was asked whether he had received any
message in regard to the presence of submarines off the Irish coast.
He repHed in the affirmative. Questioned regarding the nature of
the message, he replied:
"I respectfully refer you to the admiralty for an answer."
*'I also gave orders to stop the ship," Captain Turner con-
tinued, "but we could not stop. We found that the engines were
out of cormnission. It was not safe to lower boats until the speed
was off the vessel. As a matter of fact, there was a perceptible
headway on her up to the time she went down.
"When she was struck she fisted to starboard. I stood on
the bridge when she sank, and the Lusitania went down under me.
She floated about eighteen minutes after the torpedo struck her.
My watch stopped at 2.36. I was picked up from among the
wreckage and afterward was brought aboard a trawler.
"No warship was convoying us. I saw no warship, and none
was reported to me as having been seen. At the time I was picked
up I noticed bodies floating on the surface, but saw no fiving
persons."
"Eighteen knots was not the normal speed of the Lusitania,
was it?"
"At ordinary times," answered Captain Timier, "she could
make twenty-five knots, but in war times her speed was reduced to
twenty-one knots. My reason for going eighteen knots was that I
wanted to arrive at Liverpool bar without stopping, and within two
or three hours of high water."
SINKING OF THE LUSIPANIA ^55
*'Was there a lookout kept for submarines, having regard to
previous warnings?"
"Yes, we had double lookouts,"
"Were you going a zigzag course at the moment the torpedo-
ing took place?"
"No. It was bright weather, and land was clearly visible."
**Was it possible for a submarine to approach without being
seen?"
"Oh, yes; quite possible."
"Something has been said regarding the impessibility of
launching the boats on the port side?"
"Yes," said Captain Turner, "owing to the listing of the
ship."
"How many boats were launched safely?"
'I cannot say."
'Were any launched safely?"
"Yes, and one or two on the port side." ,
*'Were your orders promptly carried out?"^
"Yes."
"Was there any panic on board?"
"No, there was no panic at all. It was almost calm."
"How many persons were on board?"
"There were 1,500 passengers and about 600 crew."
By the Foreman of the Jury — "In the face of the warnings
at New York that the Lusitania would be torpedoed, did you make
any application to the admiralty for an escort?"
"No, I left that to them. It is their business, not mine.
I simply had to carry out my orders to go, and I would do it again."
Captain Turner uttered the last words of this reply with
great emphasis.
By the Coroner — "I am glad to hear you say so, Captain."
By the Juryman — "Did you get a wireless to steer your vessel
in a northern direction?"
"No," replied Captain Turner.
"Was the course of the vessel altered after the torpedoes
struck her?"
"I headed straight for land, but it was useless. Previous
to this the watertight bulkheads were closed. I suppose the explo-
256 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
sion forced them open. I don't know the exact extent to which
the Lusitania was damaged."
"There must have been serious damage done to the water-
tight bulkheads?"
"There certainly was, without doubt."
"Were the passengers suppUed with lifebelts?"
"Yes."
"Were any special orders given that morning that lifebelts
be put on?"
"No."
"Was any warning given before you were torpedoed?"
"None whatever. It was suddenly done and finished."
"If there had been a patrol boat about, might it have been of
assistance?"
"It might, but it is one of those things one never knows."
With regard to the threats against his ship, Captain Turner
said he saw nothing except what appeared in the New York papers
the day before the Lusitania sailed. He had never heard the
passengers talking about the threats, he said.
"Was a warning given to the lower decks after the ship had
been struck?" Captain Turner was asked.
"All the passengers must have heard the explosion," Captain
Turner replied.
Captain Turner, in answer to another question, said he
received no report from the lookout before the torpedo struck the
Lusitania.
Ship's Bugler Livermore testified that the watertight com-
partments were closed, but that the explosion and the force of
the water must have burst them open. He said that all the officers
were at their posts and that earher arrivals of the rescue craft
would not have saved the situation.
After physicians had testified that the victims had met death
through prolonged immersion and exhaustion the coroner summed
up the case.
He said that the first torpedo fired by the German submarine
did serious damage to the Lusitania, but that, not satisfied with
this, the Germans had discharged another torpedo. The second
torpedo, he said, must have been more deadly, because it went
right through the ship, hastening the work of destruction.
SINKING OF THE LUSITANIA 257
The characteristic courage of the Irish and British people
was manifested at the time of this terrible disaster, the coroner
continued, and there was no panic. He charged that the respon-
sibility "lay on the German Government and the whole people
of Germany, who collaborated in the terrible crime."
"I propose to ask the jury," he continued, "to return the
only verdict possible for a self-respecting jury, that the men in
charge of the German submarine were guilty of wilful murder."
The jury then retired and after due deliberation prepared this
verdict:
We find that the deceased met death from prolonged immersion and
exhaustion in the sea eight miles south-southeast of Old Head of Kinsale,
Friday, May 7, 1915, owing to the sinking of the Lusitania by torpedoes
fired by a German submarine.
We find that the appalling crime was committed contrary to inter-
national law and the conventions of all civilized nations.
We also charge the ofiicers of said submarine and the Emperor and
the Government of Germany, under whose orders they acted, with the
crime of wholesale murder before the tribunal of the civilized world.
We desire to express sincere condolences and S3anpathy with the
relatives of the deceased, the Cunard Company, and the United States,
many of v/hose citizens perished in this murderous attack on an unarmed
liner.
President Wilson's note to Germany, written consequent on
the torpedoing of the Lusitania, was dated six days later, showing
that time for careful deliberation was duly taken. The President's
Secretary, Joseph P. Tumulty, on May 8th, the day following
the tragedy, made this statement:
Of course the President feels the distress and the gravity of the
situation to the utmost, and is considering very earnestly but very
calmly, the right course of action to pursue. He knows that the people
of the country wish and expect him to act with deliberation as well as
with firmness.
Although signed by Mr. Bryan, as Secretary of State, the note
was written by the President in shorthand — a favorite method of
Mr. Wilson in making memoranda — and transcribed by him on his
own typewriter. The document was presented to the members
of the President's Cabinet, a draft of it was sent to Counselor
Lansing of the State Department, and after a few minor changes,
it was transmitted by oable to Ambassador Gerard in Berlin.
258 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
Department of State,
Washington, Mat 13, 1915.
The Secretary of State to the American Ambassador at Berlin:
Please call on the Minister of Foreign Affairs and after reading to
him this communication leave with him a copy.
In view of recent acts of the German authorities in violation of
American rights on the high seas, which culminated in the torpedoing
and sinking of the British steamship Lusitania on May 7, 1915, by which
over 100 American citizens lost their lives, it is clearly wise and desirable
that the Government of the United States and the Imperial German
Government should come to a clear and full understanding as to the
grave situation which has resulted.
The sinking of the British passenger^steamer Falaba by a German
submarine on March 28th, through which Leon C. Thrasher, an American
citizen, was drowned; the attack on April 28th, on the American vessel
Gushing by a German aeroplane; the torpedoing on May 1st of the Ameri-
can vessel Gulflight by a German submarine, as a result of which two or
more American citizens met their death; and, finally, the torpedoing and
sinking of the steamship Lusitania, constitute a series of events which
the Government of the United States has observed with growing con-
ccn, distress, and amazement.
Recalling the humane and enlightened attitude hitherto assumed by
the Imperial German Government in matters of international right,
and particularly with regard to the freedom of the seas; having learned
to recognize the German views and the German influence in the field of
international obligation as always engaged upon the side of justice and
humanity; and having understood the instructions of the Imperial
German Government to its naval commanders to be upon the same plane
of hmnane action prescribed by the naval codes of the other nations, the
Government of the United States was loath to believe — ^it cannot now
bring itself to believe — that these acts, so absolutely contrary to the
rules, the practices, and the spirit of modern warfare, could have the
countenance, or sanction of that great government. It feels it to be its
duty, therefore, to address the Imperial German Government concerning
them with the utmost frankness and in the earnest hope that it is not
mistaken in expecting action on the part of the Imperial German Govern-
ment, which will correct the unfortunate impressions which have been
created, and vindicate once more the position of that government with
regard to the sacred freedom of the seas.
The Government of the United States has been apprised that the
Imperial German Government considered themselves to be obliged bj^
the extraordinary circumstances of the present war and the measure
adopted by their adversaries in seeking to cut Germany off from all
commerce, to adopt methods of retaUation which go much beyond the
ordinary methods of warfare at sea, in the proclamation of a war zone
SUBMARINE HUNTING
A small naval dirigible used for scouting by the British Navj'. Under the cigar-
shaped balloon is swaing an airplane chassis equipped with powerful motors and
steering apparatus, together with a light gun.
SINKING OF THE LUSITANIA 261
from which they have warned neutral ships to keep away. This govern-
ment has already taken occasion to inform the Imperial German Govern-
ment that it cannot admit the adoption of such measures or such a warn-
ing of danger to operate as in any degree an abbreviation of the rights of
American shipmasters or of American citizens bound on lawful errands
as passengers on merchant ships of belligerent nationality, and that it
must hold the Imperial German Government to a strict accountability
for any infringement of those rights, intentional or incidental. It does
not understand the Imperial German Government to question these
rights. It assumes, on the contrary, that the Imperial Government
accept, as of course, the rule that the lives of noncombatants. whether
they be of neutral citizenship or citizens of one of the nations at war,
cannot lawfully or rightfully be put in jeopardy by the capture or destruc-
tion of an imarmed merchantman, and recognize also, as aU other nations
do, the obligation to take the usual precaution of visit and search to
ascertain whether a suspected merchantman is in fact of belligerent
nationality or is in fact carrying contraband of war under a neutral flag.
The Government of the United States, therefore, desires to call the
attention of the Imperial German Government with the utmost earnest-
ness to the fact that the objection to their present method of attack against
the trade of their enemies lies in the practical impossibility of employing
submarines in the destruction of commerce without disregarding those
rules of fairness, reason, justice, and humanity which aU modern opinion
regards as imperative. It is practically impossible for the ofl&cers of. a
submarine to visit a merchantman at sea and examine her papers and
cargo. It is practically impossible for them to make a prize of her; and,
if they cannot put a prize crew on board of her, they cannot sink her
without leaving her crew and all on board of her to the mercy of the sea
in her small boats. These facts, it is understood, the Imperial German
Government frankly admit. We are informed that in the instances of
which we have spoken time enough for even that poor measure of safety
was not given, and in at least two of the cases cited not so much as a
warning was received. Manifestly, submarines cannot be used against
merchantmen, as the last few weeks have shown, without an inevitable
violation of many sacred principles of justice and humanity.
American citizens act witliin their indisputable rights in taking
their ships and in traveling wherever their legitimate business calls them
upon the high seas, and exercise those rights in what should be the well-
justified confidence that their lives will not be endangered by acts done
in clear violation of universally acknowledged international obligations,
and certainly in the confidence that their own government wiU sustain
them in the exercise of their rights.
There was recently published in the newspapers of the United States,
I regret to inform the Imperial German Government, a formal warning,
purporting to come from the Imperial German Embassy at Washington,
addressed to the people of the United States, and stating, in effect, that
262 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
any citizen of the United States who exercised his right of free travel upon
the seas would do so at his peril if his journey should take him within the
zone of waters within which the Imperial German Navy was using sub-
marines against the commerce of Great Britain and France, notwithstand-
ing the respectful but very earnest protest of the Government of the
United States. I do not refer to this for the purpose of calling the atten-
tion of the Imperial German Government at this time to the surprising
irregularity of a communication from the Imperial German Embassy
at Washington addressed to the people of the United States through
the newspapers, but only for the purpose of pointing out that no warning
that an unlawful and inhumane act will be committed can possibly be
accepted as an excuse or palliation for that act or as an abatement of the
responsibility for its commission.
Long acquainted as this government has been with the character
of the Imperial Government, and with the high principles of equity by
which they have in the past been actuated and guided, the Government
of the United States cannot beheve that the commanders of the vessels
which committed these acts of lawlessness did so except under a mis-
apprehension of the orders issued by the Imperial German naval auuhori-
ties. It takes for granted that, at least within the practical possibilities
of every such case, the commanders even of submarines were expected
to do nothing that would involve the lives of noncombatants or the
safety of neutral ships, even at the cost of failing of their object of capture
or destruction. It confidently expects, therefore, that the Imperial Ger-
man Government will disavow the acts of which the Government of the
United States complains; that they will make reparation so far as repara-
tion is possible for injuries which are without measure, and that they will
take immediate steps to prevent the recurrence of anything so obviously
subversive of the principles of warfare for which the Imperial German
Government have in the past so wisely and so firmly contended.
The government and people of the United States look to the Imperial
German Government for just, prompt, and enlightened action in this
vital matter with the greater confidence, because the United States and
Germany are bound together not only by ties of friendship, but also by
the explicit stipulations of the Treaty of 1828, between the United States
and the Kingdom of Prussia.
Expressions of regret and offers of repamtion in case of the destruc-
tion of neutral ships sunk by mistake, while they may satisfy inter-
national obligations, if no loss of life results, cannot justify or excuse a
practice the natural and necessary effect of which is to subject neutral
nations and neutral persons to new and immeasurable risks.
The Imperial German Government will not expect the Government
of the United States to omit any word or any act necessary to the per-
formance of its sacred duty of maintaining the rights of the United States
and its citizens and of safeguarding their free exercise and enjoyment.
Bryan.
SINKING OF THE LUSITANIA 263
Ex-President Roosevelt, after learning details of the sinking
of the Lusitania, made these statements:
"This represents not naerely piracy, but piracy on a vaster
scale of murder than old-time pirate ever practiced. This is the
warfare which destroyed Louvain and Dinant and hundreds of
men, women and children in Belgium. It is a warfare against
innocent men, women, and children traveling on the ocean, and
our o\^Ti fellowcoimtrymen and countrywomen, who were among
the sufferers.
*'It seems inconceivable that we can refrain from taking
action in this matter, for we owe it not only to humanity, but to
our own national self-respect."
Former President Taf t made this statement :
"I do not wish to embarrass the President of the Administra-
tion by a discussion of the subject at this stage of the information,
except to express confidence that the President will follow a wise
and patriotic course. We must bear in mind that if we have a w^ar
it is the people, the men and women, fathers and mothers, brothers
and sisters, who must pay wdth Hves and money the cost of it,
and therefore they should not be hurried into the sacrifices until
it is made clear that they wish it and know what^they are doing
when they wish it.
*'l agree that the inhumanity of the circumstances in the
case now presses us on, but in the heat of even just indignation
is this the best time to act, when action involves such momentous
consequences and means untold loss of life and treasure? There
are things worse than war, but delay, due to calm dehberation,
cannot change the situation or minimize the effect of what we
finally conclude to do.
"With the present condition of the war in Europe, om* action,
if it is to be extreme, will not lose efficiency by giving time to the
people, w^hose war it will be, to know what they are facing.
"A demand for war that cannot survive the passion of the
first days of public indignation and will not endure the test of delay
and dehberation by all the people is not one that should be yielded
to."
President Wilson was criticised later by many persons for
not insisting upon a declaration of war immediately after the sink-
ing of the Lusitania. Undoubtedly the advice of former President
264 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
Taft and of others high in statesmanship, prevailed with the Presi-
dent. This in substance was that America should prepare resolutely
and thoroughly, giving Germany in the meantime no excuse for
charges that America's entrance into the conflict was for aggression
or for selfish purposes.
It was seen even as early as the sinking of the Lusitania that
Germany's only hope for final success lay m the submarine. It
was reasoned that unrestricted submarine warfare against the
shipping of the world, so far as tended toward the provisioning and
munitioning of the Allies, would be the inevitable outcome. It was
further seen that when that declaration would be made by Germany,
America's decision for war must be made. The President and his
Cabinet thereupon made all their plans looking toward that
eventuality.
The resignation of Mr. Bryan from the Cabinet was followed
by the appointment of Robert Lansing as Secretary of State.
It was recognized on both sides of the Atlantic that President
Wilson in all essential matters affecting the war was active in the
preparation of all state papers and in the direction of that depart-
ment. Another Cabinet vacancy was created when Lindley M.
Garrison, of New Jersej^ resigned the portfolio of Secretary of War
because of a clash upon his miHtant views for preparedness.
Newton D. Baker, of Cleveland, Ohio, a close friend and suppor-
ter of President Wilson, was appointed in his stead.
CHAPTER XVn
Neuve Chapelle and War in Blood-Soaked Trenches
A FTER the immortal stand of Joffre at the first battle of the
/ \ Mame and the sudden savage thrust at the German center
/ % which sent von Kluck and his men reeling back in retreat
to the prepared defenses along the line of the Aisne, the
war in the western theater resolved itself into a play for position
from deep intrenchments. Occasionally would come a sudden big
push by one side or the other in which artillery was massed until
hub touched hub and infantry swept to glory and death in waves
of gray, or blue or khaki as the case might be. But these tremendous
efforts and consequent slaughters did not change the long battle
line from the Alps to the North Sea materially. Here and there a
bulge would be made by the terrific pressure of men and material
in some great assault like that first push of the British at Neuve
Chapelle, like the German attack at Verdun or like the tremendous
efforts by both sides on that bloodiest of all battle-fields, the Somme.
Neuve Chapelle deserves particular mention as the test in
which the British soldiers demonstrated their might in equal con-
test against the enemy. There had been a disposition in England
as elsewhere up to that time to rate the Germans as supermen,
to exalt the potency of the scientific equipment with which the
German army had taken the field. When the battle of Neuve
Chapelle had been fought, although its losses were heavy, there
was no longer any doubt in the British nation that victory was
only a question of time.
The action came as a pendant to the attack by General de
de Langle de Gary's French army during February, 1915, at Perthes,
that had been a steady relentless pressure by artillery and infantry
upon a strong German position. To meet it heavy reinforcements
had been shifted by the Germans from the trenches between La
Bass^e and Lille. The earthworks at Neuve Chapelle had been
particularly depleted and only a comparatively small body of
Saxons and Bavarians defended them. Opposite this body was
266
me HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
the first British army. The German intrenchments at Neu^e
Chapelle surroimded and defended the highlands upon which were
placed the German batteries and in their turn defended the road
towards Lille, Roubaix and Turcoing.
The task assigned to Sir John French was to make an assault
with only forty-eight thousand men on a comparatively narrow
front. There was only one practicable method for effective prep-
aration, and this was chosen by the British general. An artillery
concentration absolutely unprecedented up to that time was
employed by him. Field pieces firing at point-blank range were
used to cut the barbed wire entanglements defending the enemy
intrenchments, while howitzers and bombing airplanes were used
to drop high explosives into the defenseless earthworks.
Sir Douglas Haig, later to become the commander-in-chief
of the British forces, was in command of the first army. Sir
Horace Smith-Dorrien commanded the second army. It was the
first army that bore the brunt of the attack.
No engagement during the years on the western front was
more sudden and siu"prising in its onset than that drive of the
British against Neuve Chapelle. At seven o'clock on the morning
of Wednesday, March 10, 1915, the British artillery was lazily
engaged in lobbing over a desultory shell fire upon the German
trenches. It was the usual breakfast appetizer, and nobody on
the German side took any unusual notice of it. Really, however,
the shelling was scientific "bracketing" of the enemy's important
position. The gunners were making sure of their ranges.
At 7.30 range finding ended, and with a roar that shook the
earth the most destructive and withering artillery action of the
war up to that time was on. Field pieces sending their shells
hurtling only a few feet above the earth tore the wire emplacements
of the enemy to pieces and made kindling wood of the supports.
Howitzers sent high explosive shells, containing lyddite, of 15-inch,
9.2-inch and 6-inch caUber into the doomed trenches and later
into the ruined village. It was eight o'clock in the morning, one-
half hour after the beginning of the artillery action, that the village
was bombarded. During this time British soldiers were enabled to
walk about in No Man's Land behind the curtain of fire with
absolute immunity. No German rifleman or machine gunner left
cover. The scene on the German side of the line was like that
NEUVE CHAPELLE AND WAR
267
268 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
upon the blasted surface of the moon, pock-marked with shell
holes, and with no trace of human life to be seen above ground.
An eye witness describing the scene said:
"The dawn, which broke reluctantly through a veil of clouds
on the morning of Wednesday, March 10, 1915, seemed as any
other to the Germans behind the white and blue sandbags in their
long line of trenches curving in a hemicycle about the battered
village of Neuve Chapelle. For five months they had remained
undisputed masters of the positions they had here wrested from the
British in October. Ensconced in their comfortably-arranged
trenches with but a thin outpost in their fire trenches, they had
watched day succeed day and night succeed night without the least
variation from the monotony of trench warfare, the intermittent
bark of the machine guns — rat-tat-tat-tat-tat — and the perpetual
rattle of rifle fire, with here and there a bomb, and now and then
an exploded mine.
"For weeks past the German airmen had grown strangely shy.
On this Wednesday morning none were aloft to spy out the strange
doings which, as dawn broke, might have been descried on the
desolate roads behind the British lines.
"From ten o'clock of the preceding evening endless files of
men marched silently do^Ti the roads leading towards the German
positions through Laventie and Richebourg St. Vaast, poor shattered
villages of the dead where months of incessant bombardment have
driven away the last inhabitants and left roofless houses and rent
roadways. . . .
Two days before, a quiet room, where Nelson's TTayev
stands on the mantel-shelf, saw the ripening of the plans that sent
these sturdy sons of Britain's four kingdoms marching all through
the night. Sir John French met the army corps commanders and
Unfolded to them his plans for the offensive of the British army
against the German line at Neuve Chapelle.
"The onslaught was to be a surprise. That was its essence.
The Germans were to be battered with artillery, then rushed before
they recovered their wits. We had thirty-six clear hours before
us. Thus long, it was reckoned (with complete accuracy as after-
wards appeared), must elapse before the Germans, whose line
before us had been weakened, could rush up reinforcements. To
ensure the enemy's being pinned down right and left of the 'great
NEUVE CHAPELLE AND WAR
269
MAP OF THE BATTLE FRONT BETWEEN ARMENTJERES
AND LA BASSEE
On the left, half way up the map, may be seen Neuve Chapelle; a little to
the right of it is Aubers, where some of the sternest fighting occurred.
u
270 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
push,' an attack was to be delivered north and south of the main
thrust simultaneously with the assault on Neuve Chapelle."
After describing the impatience of the British soldiers as they
awaited the signal to open the attack, and the actual beginning of
the engagement, the narrator continues:
"Then hell broke loose. With a mighty, hideous, screeching
burst of noise, hundreds of guns spoke. The men in the front
trenches were deafened by the sharp reports of the field-guns spitting
out then shells at close range to cut through the Germans' barbed
wire entanglements. In some cases the trajectory of these vicious
missiles was so flat that they passed only a few feet above the
British trenches.
"The din was continuous. An officer who had the curious
idea of putting his ear to the ground said it was as though the
earth were being smitten great blows with a Titan's hammer.
After the first few shells had plunged screaming amid clouds of
earth and dust into the German trenches, a dense pall of smoke
hung over the German lines. The sickening fumes of lyddite
blew back into the British trenches. In some places the troops
were smothered in earth and dust or even spattered with blood from
the hideous fragments of human bodies that went hurtling through
the air. At one point the upper half of a German officer, his cap
crammed on his head, was blown into one of our trenches.
"Words will never convoy any adequate idea of the horror of
those five and thirty minutes. When the hands of officers' watches
pointed to five minutes past eight, whistles resounded along the
British lines. At the same moment the shells began to burst
farther ahead, for, by previous arrangement, the gunners, lengthen-
ing their fuses, were 'lifting' on to the \dllage of Neuve Chapelle so
as to leave the road open for our infantry to rush in and finish
•what the guns had begun.
"The shells were now falling thick among the houses of Neuve
Chapelle, a confused mass of buildings seen reddish through the
pillars of smoke and flying earth and dust. At the sound of the
whistle — alas for the bugle, once the herald of victory, now banished
from the fray! — our men scrambled out of the trenches and hurried
higgledy-piggledy into the open. Their officers were in front.
Many, wearing overcoats and carrying rifles with fixed bayonets,
closely resembled their men.
I
NEUVE CHAPELLE AND WAR 271
"It was from the center of our attacking line that the assault
was pressed home soonest. The guns had done their work well.
The trenches were blown to irrecognizable pits dotted with dead.
The barbed wire had been cut like so much twine. Starting from
the Rue Tilleloy the Lincolns and the Berkshires were off the mark
first, with orders to swerve to right and left respectively as soon as
they had captured the first line of trenches, in order to let the Royal
Irish Rifles and the Rifle Brigade through to the village. The
Geimans left alive in the trenches, half demented with fright,
surrounded by a welter of dead and dying men, mostly surrendered
The Berkshires were opposed with the utmost gallantly by two
German ofiicers who had remained alone in a trench serving a
machine gun. But the lads from Berkshire made their way into
that trench and bayoneted the Germans where they stood, fighting
to the last. The Lincolns, against desperate resistance, eventually
occupied their section of the trench and then waited for the Irish-
men and the Rifle Brigade to come and take the village ahead of
them. Meanwhile the second Thirty-ninth Garhwalis on the
right had taken their trenches with a rush and were away towards
the village and the Biez Wood.
"Things had moved so fast that by the time the troops were
ready to advance against the village the artillery had not finished
its work. So, while the Lincolns and the Berks assembled the
prisoners who were trooping out of the trenches in all directions,
the infantry on whom devolved the honor of capturing the village,
waited. One saw them standing out in the open, laughing and
cracking jokes amid the terrific din made by the huge howitzer
shells screeching overhead and bursting in the village, the rattle of
machine guns all along the line, and the popping of rifles. Over
to the right where the Garhwalis had been working with the bayonet,
men were shouting hoarsely and wounded were groaning as the
Btretcher-bearers, all heedless of bullets, moved swiftly to and fro
over the shell-torn ground.
"There was bloody work in the village of Neuve Chapelie.
The capture of a place at the bayonet point is generally a grim
business, in which instant, unconditional surrender is the only
means by which bloodshed, a deal of bloodshed, can be prevented.
If there is individual resistance here and there the attacking troops
cannot discriminate. They must go through, slaying as they go
272 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
such as oppose them (the Germans have a monopoly of tne finish-
ing-off of wounded men), otherwise the enemy's resistance would not
be broken, and the assailants would be sniped and enfiladed from
hastily prepared strongholds at half a dozen different points.
"The village was a sight that the men say they will never
forget. It looked as if an earthquake had struck it. The pub-
lished photographs do not give any idea of the indescribable mass
of ruins to which our guns reduced it. The chaos is so utter that
the very line of the streets is all but obliterated.
"It was indeed a scene of desolation into which the Rifle
Brigade — the first regiment to enter the village, I believe — traced
headlong. Of the church only the bare shell remained, the interior
lost to view beneath a gigantic mound of debris. The little church-
yard was devastated, the very dead plucked from their graves,
broken coffins and ancient bones scattered about amid the fresher
dead, the slain of that morning — grey-green forms asprawl athwart
the tombs. Of all that once fair village but two things remained
intact — two great crucifixes reared aloft, one in the churchyard,
the other over against the chateau. From the cross that is the
emblem of our faith, the figure of Christ, yet intact though all
pitted with bullet marks, looked down in mute agony on the slain
in the village.
"The din and confusion were indescribable. Through the
thick pall of shell smoke Germans were seen on all sides, some
emerging half dazed from cellars and dugouts, their hands above
their heads, others dodging round the shattered houses, others
firing from the windows, from behind carts, even from behind the
overturned tombstones. Machine guns were firing from the houses
on the outskirts, rapping out their nerve-racking note above the
noise of the rifles.
"Just outside the village there was a scene of tremendous
enthusiasm. The Rifle Brigade, smeared with dust and blood, fell
in with the Third Gurkhas with whom they had been brigaded in
India. The little brown men were dirty but radiant. Kukri in
hand they had very thoroughly gone through some houses at the
cross-roads on the Rue du Bois and silenced a party of Germans
who were making themselves a nuisance there with some machine
guns. Riflemen and Gurkhas cheered themselves hoarse."
Unfortunately for the complete success of' the brilliant attack
NEUVE CHAPELLE AND WAR
273
SCENE OF THE BLOODY BATTLES OF. THE SOMME
The tide of war swept over this terrain with terrific violence. Peronne
was taken by the British in their great offensives of 1916-17; in the last
desperate effort of the Germans in 1918 they plunged through Peronne,
advancing 35 miles, only to be hurled back with awful losses by Marshal
Foch. The town of Albert waa taken and retaken several times.
S74 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
a great delay was caused by the failure of the artillery that was to
have cleared the barbed wire entanglements for the Twenty-third
Brigade, and because of the unlocked for destruction of the British
field telephone system by shell and rifle fire. The check of the
Twenty-third Brigade banked other commands back of it, and the
Twenty-fifth Brigade was obliged to fight at right angles to the
line of battle. The Germans quickly rallied at these points, and
took a terrific toll in British lives. Particularly was this true at
three specially strong German positions. One called Port Arthur
by the British, another at Pietre Mill and the third was the fortified
bridge over Des Layes Creek.
Because of the lack of telephone communication it was impos-
sible to send reinforcements to the troops that had been held up by
barbed wire and other emplacements and upon which German
machine guns were pouring a steady stream of death.
As the Twenty-third Brigade had been held up by imbroken
barbed wire northwest of Neuve Chapelle, so the Seventh Division
of the Fourth Corps was also checked in its action against the
ridge of Aubers on the left of Neuve Chapelle. Under the plan
of Sir Douglas Haig the Seventh Division was to have waited until
the Eighth Division had reached Neuve Chapelle, when it was to
charge through Aubers. With the tragic mistake that cost the
Twenty-third Brigade so dearly, the plan affecting the Seventh
Division went awry. The German artillery, observing the con-
centration of the Seventh Division opposite Aubers, opened a
vigorous fire upon that front. During the afternoon General Haig
ordered a charge upon the German positions. The advance was
made in short rushes in the face of a fire that seemed to blaze from
an inferno. Inch by inch the ground was drenched with British
blood. At 5.30 in the afternoon the men dug themselves in under
the relentless German fiire. Further advance became impossible.
The night was one of horror. Every minute the men were under
lieavy bombardment. At dawn on March 11th the dauntless
British infantry rushed from the trenches in an effort to carry
Aubers, but the enemy artillery now greatly reinforced made that
task an impossible one. The trenches occupied by the British
forces were consohdated and the salient made by the push was
held by the British with bulldog tenacity.
The number of men employed in the action on the British side
NEUVE CHAPELLE AND WAR 275
was forty-eight thousand. During the early surprise of the action
the loss was slight. Had the wire in front of the Twenty-third
Brigade been cut by the artillery assigned to such action, and had
the telephone system not been destroyed the success of the thrust
would have been complete. The delay of four and a half hours
between the first and second phases of the attack caused virtually
all the losses sustained by the attacking force. The total casualties
were 12,811 men of the British forces. Of these 1,751 officers and
privates were taken prisoners and 10,000 officers and men were
killed and wounded.
The action continued throughout Thursday, March 11th, with
little change in the general situation. The British still held Neuve
Chapelle and then* intrenchments threatened Aubers. On Friday
morning, March 12th, the Crown Prince of Bavaria made a desperate
attempt under cover of a heavy fog to recapture the village. The
effort was made in characteristic German dense formations. The
Westphalian and Bavarian troops came out of Biez Wood in waves
of gray-green, only to be blown to pieces by British guns alreadj''
loaded and laid on the mark. Elsewhere the British waited until
the Germans were scarcely more than fifty paces away when they
opened with deadly rapid fire before which the German waves
melted like snow before steam. It was such slaughter as the
British had experienced when held up before Aubers. Slaughter
that staggered Germany.
So ended Neuve Chapelle, a battle in which the decision rested
with the British, a victory for which a fearful price had been paid
but out of which came a confidence that was to hearten the British
nation and to put sinews of steel into the British army for the dread
days to come.
The story of Neuve Chapelle was repeated in large and in
miniature many times during the deadlock of trench warfare on the
western front until victory finally came to the Allies. During
those years the western battle front lay like a wounded snake
across France and Belgium. It writhed and twisted, now this
way, now that, as one side or the other gambled with men and
shells and a 
