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America's War for Humanity

by Thomas Herbert Russell · English · Gutenberg #10147 · 1,216,598 chars · public domain (US)

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Title: America's War for Humanity

Author: Thomas Herbert Russell


        
Release date: November 1, 2003 [eBook #10147]
                Most recently updated: October 28, 2024

Language: English

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AMERICA'S WAR FOR HUMANITY ***

AMERICA'S WAR FOR HUMANITY


Pictorial History _of the_ World War _for_ Liberty

_By_ THOMAS H. RUSSELL, A.M. LL.D.

_Noted Historical and Military Writer. Member American Historical
Association_




[Illustration: Giants of Democracy]


[Illustration:
_Above_--Machine-gun team of an American balloon company at work on the
French front, trying to get an enemy airplane. These anti-aircraft guns
are known as "Archies"

_Below_--Men of the 313th U.S. Field Artillery cleaning and polishing
75-millimeter shells, to be sent over to the Hun at night. Dirty
or rusted shells are dangerous to use. (_U.S. Official Photos_.)]


[Illustration: _Above_--Scene in Chateau Thierry after the battle that
brought undying glory to American arms, and especially to the Marine
Corps. The effects of the heavy bombardment by the artillery of the
Third Division are plainly to be seen. (_Photo from I.F.S._)

_Below_--American and French soldiers looking over the town of Chateau
Thierry after the battle. This was the scene of America's first great
victory in the war. The town was stormed and the enemy routed by the
troops the Germans had chosen to belittle. (_Copyright by C.P.I.; Photo
from W.N.U._)]


[Illustration: _Above_--American automatic rifle team
making it hot for the Huns. Note the protective barricade of ammunition
boxes and sandbags.

_Below_--How hand grenades are thrown at the enemy in the trenches.
American soldiers soon became expert at this superlative kind of
baseball. (_U.S. Official Photos_.)]


[Illustration: _Above_--Surrender
of the German high-seas fleet. A British warship, which towed an
observation balloon, leading the line of seventy German vessels into the
Firth of Forth. _(Copyright, U. & U.)_

_Below_--Surrendering the German submarines at the port of Harwich,
England. Note the listless attitude of this particular German crew.
_(Copyright, I.F.S.)_]


[Illustration: Drafting the armistice terms by
the Allied plenipotentiaries at Versailles. On the left side of
the table from left to right are shown: Gen. du Robilant; next man
unidentified; Italian Foreign Minister Sonnino; Italian Premier Orlando;
Col. E.M. House; Gen. Tasker H. Bliss; next man unidentified; Greek
Premier Venizelos; Serbian Minister Vesnitch. On the right side of the
table from left to right: Admiral Wemyss, with back to camera; Gen.
Sir Henry Wilson; Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig; Gen. Sackville West;
Andrew Bonar Law; Premier David Lloyd-George; French Premier Georges
Clemenceau; and French Foreign Minister Stephen Pichon. (_French
Official Photo, from I.F.S._)]


[Illustration: The American delegates to
the Peace Conference at Versailles: _From left to right_--Colonel E.
M. House, Secretary of State Robert Lansing, President Woodrow Wilson,
Henry White, General Tasker H. Bliss. The photograph was taken in
the Murat Mansion, residence of the President while in Paris.]
[Illustration: The Human Flag--A wonderful triumph of artistic military
formation and photography, showing 10,000 Jackies at Great Lakes,
Illinois, the largest naval training station in the world, with nearly
60,000 sailors in the making, and a naval band of over 1,000 pieces.
_(Copyright,_ _U. & U_.)]


[Illustration: A typical aerial battle.
Destruction of a Boche plane by dauntless American aviators, swooping
like eagles upon their prey, regardless of the anti-aircraft shells that
burst all about them, and helping by their intrepidity and skill to
clear the air of the Hun and maintain the supremacy gained by the Allies
in aerial warfare. Thousands of American flyers were trained and ready
to carry the war into Germany when the Teuton forces collapsed and cried
"Enough!" _(Photo from I. F. S_.)] [Illustration: _Above_--An American
supply train in the town of Esnes, seen from the cemetery. In the
background Hill 300, which was held by the Germans since early in the
war and has been the scene of many attacks and great slaughter. Note the
utter ruin of the town as it was found by the Americans.

_Below_--An American patrol arriving at the ruins of the house used as
an observatory by the German Crown Prince during the famous battle of
Verdun. It is said that he watched the operations in comfort while
seated before the eyepiece of a periscope carried up through the roof.
(_U. S. Official Photos_.)]


[Illustration: Departure of President Wilson
from New York, December 3. 1918, on the steamship George Washington,
formerly a German liner, on his voyage to France to attend the Peace
Conference. This event made a new record in American history, it being
the first time a President has ever left the country for any length of
time. A destroyer is seen escorting the President's ship down the harbor
to Staten Island, where the battleship Pennsylvania assumed the chief
escort duty. _(Copyright, I. F. S_.)]


[Illustration:
_Above_--General Pershing decorating Private Nick Connors, Infantry,
42nd Division, with the Distinguished Service Cross, for bravery at
Chateau Thierry.

_Below_--Y. M. C. A. Secretary H. F. Butterfield, with a volunteer
detail of the 104th Infantry, 26th Division, loaded with cigarettes,
chewing gum, and tobacco for the boys of the 104th, who were chasing the
retreating foe in France. _(U. S. Official Photos.)_]


[Illustration: The
United States battleship Pennsylvania, showing an unusual view of some
of her heavy guns. This vessel is the pride of the Navy and was selected
to escort President Wilson on his voyage to Europe to attend the Peace
Conference. She led the way across the Atlantic, steaming ahead of the
George Washington, on which the President and his party of 200 were
passengers. She carries twelve 14-inch and twenty-two 5-inch guns.]


[Illustration: _Above_--American observation balloon being brought down
to its anchorage. One of many similar balloons used to direct the fire
of artillery and observe the movements of the enemy, a service of
considerable danger as the balloonists are constantly exposed to airplane
attack. Each observer is harnessed to a parachute and jumps when the
balloon is attacked and in danger of destruction. (_Copyright by C. P.
I., from W. N. U_.)

_Below_--Canadian officers of a Royal Air Squadron, lined up with their
machines behind the front in France. It was the splendid work of these
gallant fellows and thousands more like them--British, French, and
Americans--that kept the supremacy of the air in the hands of
the Allies. _(Canadian Official Photo, copyright by U. & U_.)]


[Illustration: _Above_--Remarkable photograph of a flame-throwing attack
by French troops. The "flammenwerfer" or flame-thrower was originated
by the Germans, like other diabolical methods of warfare. The Allies
perfected the machine and turned it on the enemy with great success, and
the Germans did not like their own medicine. Note the reservoir on the
soldier's back. _(Copyright. U. & U._)

_Below_--A Belgian scouting party in Flanders, making its way over a
pontoon bridge, and dressed in the new khaki uniform of the Belgian
army, which turned the tables on the Hun. _(Photo, U. & U._)]


[Illustration: Part of the American army of occupation on its way
to Germany. After celebrating for awhile the announcement that the
armistice had been signed, the American troops at the front realized
that there was still serious work, though of a different kind, ahead
of them, and started for the cities across the Rhine with a firm
determination to carry on till all the fruits of their victory
were obtained. An American dispatch rider is seen at the right,
fraternizing with a French soldier. _(French Official Photo, from U.
& U._)]


[Illustration: GENERAL JOHN J. PERSHING, Commander American
Expeditionary Forces in France, in August, 1918, had an army of
1,500,000 Americans in France, doing glorious service with their allies
against the common enemy. His selection for command was approved by
all Americans; he is the idol of his men. _(Copyright, U. & U._)]


[Illustration: A divisional headquarters on the British front in France
during the progress of a battle, showing troops in reserve, German
prisoners, and stretcher-bearers at work. (Australian official
photograph)]


[Illustration: Canadians entering a wood just evacuated by the Germans
and passing an enemy gun which has been rendered useless and abandoned
by the Huns in their retreat. The Canadians are advancing in the face
of machine-gun fire. (Canadian official photograph.)]


[Illustration: _Above_--Going over the top. Allied troops with full
equipment are seen leaving their trench and advancing to attack. This
is the moment that tried men's souls, and showed themselves and their
comrades the stuff that was in them. _(Photo from I. F. S._)

_Below_--Scene when Cambrai was captured by the British, showing large
numbers of British troops moving forward across the battlefield. In the
foreground the men are seen leaving a communication trench. _(British
Official Photo, from I. F. S._)]


[Illustration: Scene at Gen. Sir E. H. Allenby's historic entry on foot
into Jerusalem, December 11, 1917, after its capture by the British from
the Turks, who had held the Holy City under Moslem domination for
centuries. All Christendom hailed the event with rejoicing. Every sacred
building, shrine, and traditional holy spot will in future be
scrupulously maintained and protected. The Holy City was not bombarded
by the British, but was evacuated by the Turks and surrendered by the
leading inhabitants when Gen. Allenby's forces, after defeating the
Turkish troops repeatedly in the field, reached Gazara, three miles from
Jerusalem. Subsequently the entire Turkish army in Palestine was
captured or dispersed in disorder. _(Copyright, U. & U_.)]


[Illustration: _Above_--Easing the pain of the wounded in an evacuation
hospital in France. The Red Cross nurses in the photo (two girls from
Aberdeen, S. D.), are giving wounded Yank a newspaper from God's country
and some chocolate, and he evidently appreciates their work.

_Below_--The first batch of American troops to return.from France after
the armistice. The photo shows the camouflage of S. S. Mauretania as
she arrived in New York harbor, bearing 5,000 men, of whom 1,100 were
wounded. _(U. S. Official Photos_)]


[Illustration: Homecoming of
American soldiers from Europe. An upper deck of the steamship
Mauretania, sister ship of the ill-fated Lusitania, as she steamed into
New York harbor, bringing back the first batch of returning troops.
These men were all of the aviation service who had been in training
in England. Their faces show how glad they were to see the Goddess of
Liberty once more. _(Copyright, I. F. S._)]


[Illustration: War Map Showing Naval and Military Forces of Europe at a
Glance.]


[Illustration: and Naval Bases. (_Specially drawn by G.
F. Morrell for the London Graphic_.)]


[Illustration: _Above_--Company M and Company K, 336th U. S. Infantry,
82nd Division, advancing on the enemy's positions and driving out the
Huns, while the 307th Engineers of the 82nd Division clear the way by
blowing up wire entanglements. (_Official U.S. Photo_.)]


[Illustration: _Below_--Photo taken from the body of the German soldier
at the left (in gray sweater) near Chateau Thierry. The three women in
the picture were at the time operating a German machine-gun under
armed guard. (_Photo from U. & U_.)]


[Illustration: Resting after the
battle--a most unusual photo, reminiscent of the famous historical
painting, "The Bivouac." After a tremendous battle, in which these
Italian troops of the Florence regiment acquitted themselves with great
glory the men were so completely tired out that they threw themselves
on the ground to snatch a brief rest. This regiment was one of the
mainstays of the Italian defense when treachery aided the Teutons in
driving the Italians back across the Piave River _(Copyright, U. & U.)_]


[Illustration: Marshal Ferdinand Foch, the great strategist in supreme
command of the allied forces on the Western front, who wrested the
initiative from the Germans and sent them reeling back in 1918. (_French
Official Photo by U. & U._)]


[Illustration: Leaders of France and England
on the battle front. Left to right: M. Thomas of the French Cabinet;
Sir Douglas Haig, Marshal Joffre, and Premier Lloyd George. (_British
Official Photo from I.F.S._)]


[Illustration: _Top_--One of the fast
"Whippets," or small British tanks, that created havoc and terror in the
German ranks in 1918. They precede the Infantry and completely destroy
machine gun nests. (_British Official Photo from I.F.S_.)

_Bottom_--The first American-built tank, called the "America," biggest
of all, weighing 45 tons and propelled by steam. (_Copyright, U. & U._)]
[Illustration: Canadian and German wounded receiving first aid in a
village which only a few hours before was in the hands of the Germans
responsible for the scene of ruin and devastation which it presents.]


[Illustration: Canadian and Imperial troops helping themselves
to free coffee supplied by the Canadian Y.M.C.A. at a roadside
stand made of biscuit boxes. The Helpful work of the "Y" was highly
appreciated by the troops in France and Flanders. (Canadian official
photograph.)] [Illustration: How the news of the armistice of November
11, 1918, was received on the French front. The picture shows a scene
along the French lines immediately after hostilities ceased. Myriads of
men sprang into sight from the concealment of the trenches, exposing
themselves to the view of the enemy for the first time in more than four
years, without fear of consequences. Note the fleet of tanks ready
in the foreground, also the wire entanglements and No Man's Land.
(_Copyright, I.F.S._)]


[Illustration: _Top_--Close view of the first
Handley-Page bombing aeroplane built in America. It is proposed to fly
these planes across the Atlantic under their own power, driven by Twin
Liberty motors of 400 H.P. each.

_Bottom_--Submarines of United States Navy at base in an Atlantic
port awaiting orders for coast defense duty. (_Copyright, U. & U._)]
[Illustration: Wounded Canadians being carried to the rear by German
prisoners taken in the pursuit of the retreating Boche army in the fall
of 1918. (Canadian official photograph.)]


[Illustration: _Above_--Field
dressing station on captured ground near Cambrai, during the last great
drive on the British front. The wounded are being brought in by German
prisoners taken during the drive, as seen in the foreground. A typical
scene at a dressing station, where first aid is given the wounded.
(_British Official Photo, from I.F.S._)

_Below_--A dashing attack by French poilus, advancing with full packs,
bayonets fixed, and typical daring and courage. The spirit of the
poilu is admirably illustrated in this snapshot. (_Photo by I.F.S._)]
[Illustration: _Top_--How British fighting men advance to attack after
going over the top, spread out in thin columns. Very different from
mass formations of the enemy and less costly to human life. (_British
Official Photo, from I.F.S._)]


[Illustration: _Bottom_--A remarkable actual war photograph of British
machine gunners operating from German second line; captured in the great
Cambrai drive. The men are coolly preparing mess. (_Copyright, U. &
U._)]


[Illustration: _Above_--Red Cross men tenderly caring for the
wounded. The services of the American Red Cross were invaluable to the
army in France and won the admiration of all the Allies.

_Below_--Wounded man making his way painfully back to the rear, with
grim determination to keep going and all the grit of the typical
American soldier. (_Official Photos by Signal Corps, U.S.A_.)]


[Illustration: The longest-range field gun in the world, produced by
the Ordnance Department, U.S. Army, for service in France, though the
hostilities ceased before they reached General Pershing. More than a
hundred of these guns are said to have been prepared for shipping to
France, and their range and power would probably have astonished the
Germans, as did the great naval guns, mounted on railway cars and manned
by American seamen, that did such effective work in the closing days
of the conflict. (_U.S. Official Photo_.)]


[Illustration: _Above_--A
company of American infantry enjoying a well-earned rest after capturing
the German second-line trenches in the forest of Argonne, the scene of
desperate and protracted fighting in the fall of 1918. (_Copyright by
C.P.I., Photo from U. & U._)]


[Illustration: _Below_--A party of Serbian officers trying the effects
of gas while on a visit to the Western front. They entered a British
trench filled with gas for practice purposes, and are seen adjusting
their gas masks for protection. (_British Official Photo, Copyright by
U. & U._)]


[Illustration: _Top_--A great Australian howitzer in action
in France under a camouflage screen. Note the size of shells, which
require four men to handle. (_Australian Official Photo; copyright, U. &
U._)

_Bottom_--American Army Postoffice in France on Mothers' Day, 1918.
Letters and packages from the folks back home are the American soldiers'
greatest comfort on the battle front. (_Copyright, Committee on Public
Information_.)]


[Illustration: An American battery of howitzers ready to
fire upon the Huns from the ruins of a town in France. This was one of
the first United States official photographs of the American advance
in the Argonne, a district that is not all forest by any means, but
comprises much cultivated territory and many towns and villages that
have been wrecked by ruthless German fire. (_Photo by Signal Corps,
U.S.A_.)]


[Illustration: CHARGE OF THE BRITISH 9TH LANCERS ON A GERMAN
BATTERY DURING THE BATTLE OF MONS

The battery had inflicted heavy losses on the British troops. All the
gunners were cut down and the guns put out of action.--Drawn by Dudley
Tennant for The Graphic, from notes by a trooper.]


[Illustration: German prisoners captured by Canadians during a French
raid, with one of their captors. The Canadians became noted for the
success of their raids by day and night and seldom failed to bring back
prisoners. (Canadian official photograph.)]


[Illustration: _Above_--American negro infantrymen advancing toward the
front in the Argonne along a screened highway. It can truly be said of
these American soldiers and their ilk in the campaign in France that
"the colored troops fought nobly."

_Below_--Men of the 132nd U.S. Infantry, 33rd Division, in a front line
trench, looking toward the valley of the Meuse, where it is estimated
70,000 men lie buried. (_U.S. Official Photos_.)]


[Illustration: THE FIRST NAVAL RESERVE UNIT TO LEAVE FOR SERVICE IN
THE WAR.

The First Battalion of the Naval Militia of New York passing in review
of Mayor Mitchell and other officials on stand at Union League Club, 39th
Street and Fifth Avenue. (_Copyright by U. & U., N.Y._)]


[Illustration: Earl Kitchener of Khartoum, England's famous Field
Marshal and Secretary of State for War, who lost his life at sea while
on a mission to Russia, June 5, 1916.

Gen. Sir E.H. Allenby, British commander in Palestine and Syria, who
defeated the Turks and captured Jerusalem, the Holy City, in December,
1917.]


[Illustration: Copyright, Underwood & Underwood, N.Y.

Top: United States Warship North Dakota.

Bottom: New type of rapid-firing machine gun used by the United States
Army.]


[Illustration: _Top_--Inspection of Czecho-Slovaks at railroad
station, Vladivostok, before leaving for interior of Siberia in campaign
against the Bolsheviki; later aided by American troops. (_Copyright, U.
& U._)

_Bottom_--"Blue Devils of France"; battle-scarred veterans of the
fighting lines leaving the White House after their reception.
President Wilson shook hands with every one of these gallant soldiers.
(_Copyright, I.F.S._)]


[Illustration: British cavalry engaged against
German infantry driven out of shelter of the trees by fire and smoke
near Chantilly. The charge down the grassy glade of the flaming forest.
The woods had been set on fire by British infantry in order to smoke out
a large force of Germans who had secreted themselves in the forest. As
soon as they emerged they were charged with destructive effect by the
British and sustained heavy losses.--_Drawn by Frederic de Haenen from
a sketch by Frederic Villiers_. (_Sun Printing and Publishing Assn_.)]


[Illustration: _Above_--How a commanding general works while his troops
are fast asleep. A night scene in the tent headquarters of Maj.-Gen.
Adelbert Cronkhite, U.S.A., division commander on the front in France.
The general stands at the right and his chief of staff, Col. Wm. H.
Waldron, at the left.

_Below_--U.S. Secretary of War Newton D. Baker getting ready to try
on an American infantryman's pack at a rest camp in England. (_U.S.
Official Photos_.)] [Illustration: President Wilson and General Pershing
receiving American troops at Humas, near the front, on Christmas day,
1918. The President is seen wearing the fur coat made from trophies
of the hunt, presented by Southern friends. Mrs. Wilson stands at the
right.]


[Illustration: _Top_--American fighters in France, just out of
the trenches, are seen at a wayside station of the American Red Cross,
receiving welcome refreshments within gunfire of the battle front.
(_Photo from I.F.S._)]

[Illustration: _Bottom_--First aid given to a wounded German prisoner by
American soldiers near the front. An example of American fair play in
striking contrast to Boche methods. (_Copyright, Committee on Public
Information_.)]


[Illustration: King Albert I of Belgium, the beloved
sovereign who never lost the confidence of his stricken people during
the four years of their intense suffering.

Marshal Petain of France, the hero of Verdun, who led the victorious
French into Strassburg and heads the French army of occupation in
Germany.]


[Illustration: Canadian soldier examining the rifle and kit
of a German killed by Canadian cavalry a few minutes before, while
protecting the rear of the German retreat. (Canadian official
photograph.)]


[Illustration: Canadian troops resting in a trench on the
hard-won Wotan line of the Germans, which was captured on the previous
day after a desperate struggle that resulted in the rout of the enemy.
(Canadian official photograph.)]


[Illustration: ONE OF THE GREAT GERMAN 16-INCH SIEGE GUNS USED AT ANTWERP

The above photograph shows the gun train complete, ready for
transportation. The motive power is furnished by the powerful motor
truck at the right, which also carries most of the artillerymen forming
the gun crew. About thirty men are needed to manipulate the gun in
action. The huge shells and ammunition are conveyed in separate trucks
or caissons. As a fort-wrecker this powerful piece of ordnance is most
effective. Its total weight is nearly 100 tons. The gun proper is at the
left and its Krupp sliding breech can be plainly seen at the side. In
the center is the gun carriage, with its very powerful recoil apparatus.
When the gun is in action these two sections are joined, being so
constructed as to fit together readily. The bursting projectiles were
called by the British soldiers "Jack Johnsons," "Black Marias" and
"Coal-boxes," from the thick black smoke they produced. These epithets
ignored their awful death-dealing qualities. (_Copyright, U. & U._).]



[Illustration: _Above_--African troops of the French army en route to
the Riviera to enjoy a well-earned rest after the battle of Douaumont,
in which their ranks were considerably depleted. These colored fighters
of France are commanded entirely by white officers and have done
splendid service. (_Copyright, U. & U_).]


[Illustration: _Below_--Colored Canadians imitating the Germans that
they captured in this dugout near the Canal du Nord, as they put up
their hands and shouted "Kamerad!" (_Canadian Official Photo, from
U.S_).]


[Illustration: ONE OF THE HUGE KRUPP SIEGE MORTARS, GERMANY'S
MOST POWERFUL WEAPON AGAINST FORTS.] [Illustration: French Artillery on
the Firing Line--The Modern Field Guns of the French and the Krupp Guns
of the Germans Have Proved to be Terrible Weapons of Destruction.]


[Illustration: This French soldier, tempted by the payment to him of
a hundred francs, signaled a message to the Germans, giving them the
position of the French batteries near Rheims. He was the first French
traitor of the war, and being caught in the act, met an ignominious
death by the roadside. (_Copyright, U. & U._).]


[Illustration: 1. French
Cuirassier being fed by Belgian woman. 2. Major Richardson of the
British Army and two of his bloodhounds used to find wounded soldiers on
Belgian battlefields. (_International News Service_.)] [Illustration:
Canada's Premier on a visit to the Western front in Europe, with a
notable group of Canadian officers. Sir Robert Borden is the central
figure of the seated row, and the other civilian in the picture is Mr.
Calder. Between them is seen General Currie, in command of the Canadian
forces in Europe, who have earned undying fame for the great
Dominion during the war. (_Canadian Official Photo, from W.N.U._).]


[Illustration: French Cavalrymen Bivouacked in the Streets of Paris,
Sleeping on the Fodder of Their Mounts, Standing in the Background.]


[Illustration: FOUNDERING OF THE BRITISH CRUISER ABOUKIR

A few minutes after the Aboukir was struck by a torpedo from the German
submarine U-9 early on September 22, 1914, she listed to port at an
angle of 45 degrees and the captain sang out from the bridge: "Every man
for himself!" The drawing depicts the scene that followed, as described
by a survivor. Two-thirds of the crew of 650 were drowned or killed by
the explosion. The boats of the cruisers Hogue and Cressy, which were
soon after also torpedoed and sunk, are seen coming to the rescue. The
total loss was over 1,400 lives.--_Drawn by Charles Dixon, R.I., for The
Graphic_.]




"_LaFayette, we are here_"--_General Pershing_




THE OFFICIAL STORY OF AMERICAN OPERATIONS IN FRANCE

_By_ GENERAL JOHN J. PERSHING _Commander-in-Chief_


WILLIAM DUNSEATH EATON CONTRIBUTING EDITOR _Author "The War in Verse and
Prose" "A Soldier of Navarre" etc._


SPECIAL CHAPTERS BY HON. JAMES MARTIN MILLER _Former United States
Consul to France Author "Spanish-American War" "Prussian-Japanese War"
etc._




DEDICATION

To the soldiers and sailors of the United States and Canada; to the men
of the armies and navies of nations allied with us; to the splendid
courage and devotion of American, French, British and Belgian women, who
have endured in silence the pain of losses worse than death, and never
faltered in works of mercy for which no thanks can ever pay; to all the
agencies of good that have helped save civilization and the world from
the most dreadful menace of all time, this volume is dedicated.

To the honor of those nations upon whom the laurel of victory has
descended. To those who have vouchsafed for us the permanence of the
higher ideals of humanity and civilization.

To those who have sheltered posterity from the dominance of barbarity,
brutality, serfdom, bigotry and degradation.

To those who have striven against the Teuton and the Turk that God-given
and God-ordained freedom may triumph.

To those noble stoics of Belgium, of France, of Serbia, of Roumania,
of Poland and all other peoples who have felt the mailed fist of the
ruthless oppressor; who have looked upon their devastated fields, their
dismantled cathedrals, their violated hearth-stones and the desecrated
graves of their kindred, and that peace, tranquillity, contentment and
prosperity may again be restored to them in bounteous meed.

To those heroes who by their valor, their vigor and their inspired
devotion to right and patriotism have so nobly fought and conquered.

To those martyrs whom God in his immutable manifestations has chosen
for the ultimate sacrifice of their lives upon the altar of freedom and
humanity's cause.

In honor to these who have attained this glorious victory. In honor to
the commingling flags of the allied nations reflecting in their rainbow
hues a covenant of everlasting peace in this their hour of triumph,
may we all consecrate our purposes and our lives to a brotherhood of
mankind, a spirit of broadest humanity and universal peace on earth.

--_L.J. Robinson_.




PREFACE


With the signing of an armistice November 11, 1918, by the
plenipotentiaries of the nations at war, active hostilities were halted
while the sweeping terms of the truce were being complied with by
Germany. The collapse of the Teutonic forces came with a suddenness that
was surprising, and the collapse was complete. The German army and navy
ceased to be a menace to the civilized world--and all civilization
rejoiced with an exceeding great joy.

Remarkable events in the world's history followed with amazing rapidity,
and are duly recorded in all their interesting details in these pages.
The flight and abdication of the Kaiser; the abject surrender of the
German high seas fleet and submarines to the British Grand Fleet and its
American associates; the withdrawal of the defeated German armies
from Belgium and France; the return of the French flag to Alsace and
Lorraine; the occupation of Metz, Strassburg, Cologne, and Coblentz by
Allied and American forces, and the memorable entry of Belgian troops as
conquerors into Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen); the sailing of the President
of the United States to take part in the Peace Conference--all these
events and many others form part of the marvelous record of the recent
past, furnishing material that has never been equaled for the use of the
historian.

Now the eyes of all America are turned to the eastern horizon, and
would fain scan the wide waters of the Atlantic, on the watch for the
home-coming heroes of the great conflict. A million young Americans are
coming home--but a million more will stay abroad awhile, to safeguard
the fruits of victory and insure the safety of the world. Truly the
story of their achievements, in permanent form, should find a place in
every American home, for in the words of General Pershing, their great
commander:

"Their deeds are immortal and they have earned the eternal gratitude of
their country."

T.H.R.


CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

PRESIDENT WILSON'S WAR MESSAGE

I WHY WE WENT TO WAR

Review of America's Good Reasons for Fighting--Memories of Beautiful
France--Why I Was Not Accepted as Consul to Germany--Why We Went to
War--Work or Fight--Rationing the Nations, by Hon James Martin Miller,
Former US Consul to France--What the Yankee Dude'll Do

II UNITED STATES ENTERS THE WAR

The President Proclaims War--Interned Ships Are Siezed--Congress Votes
$7,000,000,000 for War--Enthusiasm in the United States--Raising an
American Army--War to Victory, Wilson Pledge--British and French
Commission Reaches America--American Troops in France

III AMERICANS AT CHATEAU THIERRY

Personal Accounts of Battle--Gas and Shell Shock--Marines Under
Fire--Americans Can Fight and Yell--Getting to the Front Under
Difficulties--The Big Day Dawns--The Shells Come Fast--A Funeral at the
Front--Impression of a French Lieutenant--Keeping the Germans on the
Run

IV AMERICAN VICTORY AT ST MIHIEL

First Major Action by All American Army--Stories to Folks Back
Home--Huns Carry Off Captive Women--Hell Has Cut Loose--Major Tells
His Story--Enormous Numbers of Guns and Tanks--Over the Top at 5:
AM--Texas and Oklahoma Troops Fight in True Ranger Style--Our Colored
Boys Win Credit

V THE WAR IN THE AIR

Air Craft--Liberty Motors and Air Service--The Danger of Aviation--Air
Plane's Tail Shot Off--Champions of the Air--Lieut. Lehr's Personal
Stories of Air Fighting at the Front--American Aviator Grabs Iron Cross
as Souvenir--Eyes of the Army Always Open

VI CAUSES OF THE WORLD WAR AND HOW WAR WAS DECLARED

VII INVASION OF BELGIUM

Belgians Rush to Defense of Their Frontier--Towns Bombarded and Burned
--The Defense of Liège--Destruction of Louvain--Fall of Namur--German
Proclamation to Inhabitants--Belgian Capital Occupied by the Germans
Without Bloodshed--Important Part Played by American Minister Brand
Whitlock--March of the Kaiser's Troops Through the City--Belgian Forces
Retreat to Antwerp--Dinant and Termonde Fall

VIII BRITAIN RAISES AN ARMY

Earl Kitchener Appointed Secretary for War--A New Volunteer
Army--Expeditionary Force Landed in France--Field Marshal Sir John
French in Command--Colonies Rally to Britain's Aid--The Canadian
Contingent--Indian Troops Called For--Native Princes Offer Aid

IX EARLY BATTLES OF THE WAR

Belgian Resistance to the German Advance--The Fighting at Vise, Haelen,
Diest, Aerschot and Tirlemont--Mons and Charleroi the First Great
Battles of the War--Allies Make a Gallant Stand, but Forced to Retire
Across the French Border

X GERMAN ADVANCE ON PARIS

Allies Withdraw for Ten Days, Disputing Every Inch of Ground with the
Kaiser's Troops--Germans Push Their Way Through France in Three Main
Columns--Official Reports of the Withdrawing Engagements--Paris Almost
in Sight

XII BATTLE OF THE MARNE

German Plans Suddenly Changed--Direction of Advance Swings to the
Southeast When Close to the French Capital--Successful Resistance by
the Allies--The Prolonged Encounter at the Marne--Germans Retreat, with
Allies in Hot Pursuit for Many Miles

XII THE RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN

Slow Mobilization of Troops--Invasion of German and Austrian
Territory--Cossacks Lead the Van--Early Successes in East Prussia--"On
to Berlin"--Heavy Losses Inflicted on Austrians--German Troops Rushed to
the Defense of the Eastern Territory

XIII THE AUSTRO-SERVIAN CAMPAIGN

Declaration of War by Austria--Bombardment of Belgrade---Servian
Capital Removed--Seasoned Soldiers of Servia Give a Good Account of
Themselves--Many Indecisive Engagements--Servians in Austrian Territory

XIV STORIES FROM THE BATTLEFIELD

Thrilling Incidents of the Great War Told by Actual Combatants--Personal
Experiences from the Lips of Survivors of the World's Bloodiest
Battles--Tales of Prisoners of War, Wounded Soldiers, and Refugees
Rendered Homeless in the Blighted Arena of Conflict--Hand-to-Hand
Fighting--Frightful Mortality Among Officers--How It Feels to Be
Wounded--In the "Valley of Death"--A Belgian Boy Hero--A British Cavalry
Charge--Spirit of French Women--In the Paris Military Hospital--German
Uhlans as Scouts--How a German Prince Died--Fearful State of
Battlefields

XV THE MYSTERY OF THE FLEETS

Movements of British Battleships Veiled in Secrecy--German Dreadnoughts
in North Sea and Baltic Ports--Activity of Smaller Craft--English Keep
Trade Routes Open--Several Minor Battles at Sea

XVI SUBMARINES AND MINES

Battleships in Constant Danger from Submerged Craft--Opinions of Admiral
Sir Percy Scott--Construction of Modern Torpedoes--How Mines Are Laid
and Exploded on Contact

XVII AERO-MILITARY OPERATIONS

Aerial Attacks on Cities--Some of the Achievements of the Airmen in the
Great War--Deeds of Heroism and Daring--Zeppelins in Action--Their
Construction and Operation

XVIII BATTLE OF THE AISNE

Most Prolonged Encounter in History Between Gigantic Forces--A Far-Flung
Battle Line--Germans Face French and British in the Aisne Valley
and Fight for Weeks--Armies Deadlocked After a Desperate and Bloody
Struggle

XIX FALL OF ANTWERP

Great Seaport of Belgium Besieged by a Large German Force--Forts
Battered by Heavy Siege Guns--Final Surrender of the City--Belgian and
British Defenders Escape--Exodus of Inhabitants--Germans Reach the Sea

XX THE WOUNDED AND PRISONERS

Typical Precautions Used by the German Army--The Soldier's First-Aid
Outfit--System in Hospital Arrangements--How Prisoners of War Are
Treated--Regulations Are Humane and Fair to All Concerned CHAPTER PAGE

XXI HORRORS OF THE WAR

Plan to Send Santa Claus Gifts From America to War-Stricken Children of
Europe--A Widespread Response---Movement Endorsed by Press, Pulpit and
Leading Citizens--Approved by Governments of Contending Nations

XXII LATER EVENTS OF THE WAR

Results of the Battle of the Rivers--Fierce Fighting in Northern
France--Developments on the Eastern Battle Front--The Campaign in the
Pacific--Naval Activities of the Powers

XXIII SINKING OF THE LUSITANIA

Torpedoed by a Submarine--Crisis in German-American Relations--The
Diplomatic Exchanges

XXIV A SUMMER OF SLAUGHTER

Submarine Activities--Horrors in Serbia--Bloody Battles East and
West--Italy Declares War and Invades Austria--Russians Pushed Back in
Galicia

XXV SECOND WINTER OF THE WAR

XXVI CLIMAX OF THE WAR

XXVII WORLD'S GREATEST SEA FIGHT

XXVIII BATTLES EAST AND WEST

XXIX CONTINUATION OF WAR IN 1917

XXX GENERAL PERSHING'S OWN STOBY

XXXI WHEN THE DAYS OF RECKONING DAWNED

XXXII HOME FOLLOWS THE FLAG

XXXIII TERMS OF THE ARMISTICE

XXXIV HONOR TO THE VICTORS

XXXV CHRONOLOGY OF THE WORLD WAR
INTRODUCTION




PRESIDENT WILSON'S EPOCHAL ADDRESS

CALLING FOR ACTION AGAINST GERMANY, DELIVERED BY HIM TO THE CONGRESS IN
EXTRAORDINARY SESSION, APRIL 3,

"Gentlemen of the Congress: I have called the congress into
extraordinary session because there are serious, very serious, choices
of policy to be made, and made immediately, which it was neither right
nor constitutionally permissible that I should assume the responsibility
of making.

"On the 3d of February last I officially laid before you the
extraordinary announcement of the imperial German government that on
and after the first day of February it was its purpose to put aside all
restraints of law or of humanity and use its submarines to sink every
vessel that sought to approach either the ports of Great Britain and
Ireland or the western coast of Europe or any of the ports controlled by
the enemies of Germany within the Mediterranean.

HOPED FOR MODIFIED WARFARE

"That had seemed to be the object of the German submarine warfare
earlier in the war, but since April of last year the imperial government
had somewhat restrained the commanders of its undersea craft in
conformity with its promise then given to us that passenger boats should
not be sunk and that due warning would be given to all other vessels
which its submarines might seek to destroy, when no resistance was
offered or escape attempted, and care taken that their crews were given
at least a fair chance to save their lives in their open boats.

"The precautions taken were meager and haphazard enough, as was proved
in distressing instance after instance in the progress of the cruel and
unmanly business, but a certain degree of restraint was observed.

"The new policy has swept every restriction aside. Vessels of every
kind, whatever their flag, their character, their cargo, their
destination, their errand, have been ruthlessly sent to the bottom
without warning and without thought of help or mercy for those on board,
the vessels of friendly neutrals along with those of belligerents.

"Even hospital ships and ships carrying relief to the sorely bereaved
and stricken people of Belgium, though the latter were provided with
safe conduct through the proscribed area by the German government itself
and were distinguished by unmistakable marks of identity, have been sunk
with the same reckless lack of compassion or of principle.

RELIED ON LAW OF NATIONS

"I was for a little while unable to believe that such things would be in
fact done by any government that had hitherto subscribed to the humane
practices of civilized nations.

"International law had its origin in the attempt to set up some law
which would be respected and observed upon the seas, where no nation
had right of dominion and where lay the free highways of the world. By
painful stage after stage has that law been built up, with meager enough
results, indeed, after all was accomplished that could be accomplished,
but always with a clear view, at least, of what the heart and conscience
of mankind demanded.

"This minimum of right the German government has swept aside under the
plea of retaliation and necessity and because it had no weapons which it
could use at sea except these which it is impossible to employ as it is
employing them without throwing to the winds all scruples of humanity
or of respect for the understandings that were supposed to underlie the
intercourse of the world.




_PRESIDENT WILSON'S WAR ADDRESS_

CHALLENGE TO ALL MANKIND

"I am not now thinking of the loss of property involved, immense and
serious as that is, but only of the wanton and wholesale destruction of
the lives of noncombatants, men, women and children, engaged in pursuits
which have always, even in the darkest periods of modern history, been
deemed innocent and legitimate. Property can be paid for; the lives of
peaceful and innocent people cannot be. The present German submarine
warfare against commerce is a warfare against mankind.

"It is a war against all nations. American ships have been sunk,
American lives taken, in ways which it has stirred us very deeply to
learn of, but the ships and people of other neutral and friendly nations
have been sunk and overwhelmed in the waters in the same way.

"There has been no discrimination. The challenge is to all mankind. Each
nation must decide for itself how it will meet it. The choice we
make for ourselves must be made with a moderation of counsel and a
temperateness of judgment befitting our character and our motives as
a nation. We must put excited feelings away. Our motive will not be
revenge or the victorious assertion of the physical might of the nation,
but only the vindication of right--of human right--of which we are only
a single champion.

"When I addressed the congress on the 26th of February last I thought
that it would suffice to assert our neutral rights with arms, our right
to use the seas against unlawful interference, our right to keep our
people safe against unlawful violence.

"But armed neutrality, it now appears, is impracticable. Because
submarines are in effect outlaws when used as the German submarines have
been used against merchant shipping, it is impossible to defend
ships against their attacks, as the law of nations has assumed that
merchantmen would defend themselves against privateers or cruisers,
visible craft giving chase upon the open sea.

"It is common prudence in such circumstances, grim necessity, indeed, to
endeavor to destroy them before they have shown their own intentions.
They must be dealt with upon sight if dealt with at all.

"The German government denies the right of neutrals to use arms at all
within the areas of the sea which it has proscribed, even in the defense
of rights which no modern publicist has ever before questioned their
right to defend.

"The intimation is conveyed that the armed guards which we have placed
on our merchant ships will be treated as beyond the pale of law and
subject to be dealt with as pirates would be. Armed neutrality is
ineffectual enough at best. In such circumstances and in the face of
such pretensions it is worse than ineffectual; it is likely only to
produce what it was meant to prevent; it is practically certain to
draw us into the war without either the rights or the effectiveness of
belligerents.

"There is one choice we cannot make, we are incapable of making: We will
not choose the path of submission and suffer the most sacred rights of
our nation and our people to be ignored or violated. The wrongs against
which we now array ourselves are no common wrongs. They cut to the very
roots of human life.

MUST ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY

"With a profound sense of the solemn and even tragical character of the
step I am taking and of the grave responsibilities which it involves,
but in unhesitating obedience to what I deem my constitutional duty,
I advise that the congress declare the recent course of the imperial
German government to be in fact nothing less than war against the
government and people of the United States; that it formally accept the
status of belligerent which has thus been thrust upon it; and that it
take immediate steps not only to put the country in a more thorough
state of defense but also to exert all its power and employ all its
resources to bring the government of the German empire to terms and end
the war.

COURSE WE MUST PURSUE

"What this will involve is clear. It will involve the utmost practicable
co-operation in counsel and action with the governments now at war with
Germany and, as incident to that, the extension to those governments of
the most liberal financial credits, in order that our resources may so
far as possible be added to theirs.

"It will involve the organization and mobilization of all the material
resources of the country to supply the materials of war and serve the
incidental needs of the nation in the most abundant and yet the most
economical and efficient way possible.

"It will involve the immediate full equipment of the navy in all
respects, but particularly in supplying it with the best means of
dealing with the enemy's submarines.

ARMY OF 500,000 MEN

"It will involve the immediate addition to the armed force of the United
States already provided for by law in case of war at least 500,000 men,
who should, in my opinion, be chosen upon the principal of universal
liability to service, and also the authorization of subsequent
additional increments of equal force so soon as they may be needed and
can be handled in training.

"It will involve also, of course, the granting of adequate credits to
the government, sustained, I hope, so far as they can equitably be
sustained by the present generation, by well conceived taxation.

"I say sustained so far as may be equitable by taxation because it seems
to me that it would be most unwise to base the credits which will now
be necessary entirely on money borrowed. It is our duty, I most
respectfully urge, to protect our people, so far as we may, against the
very serious hardships and evils which would be likely to arise out of
the inflation which would be produced by vast loans.

MUST SUPPLY THE ALLIES

"In carrying out the measures by which these things are to be
accomplished we should keep constantly in mind the wisdom of interfering
as little as possible in our own preparation and in the equipment of
our own military forces with the duty--for it will be a very practical
duty--of supplying the nations already at war with Germany with the
materials which they can obtain only from us or by our assistance. They
are in the field, and we should help them in every way to be effective
there.

"I shall take the liberty of suggesting, through the several executive
departments of the government, for the consideration of your committees,
measures for the accomplishment of the several objects I have mentioned.
I hope that it will be your pleasure to deal with them, as having been
framed after very careful thought by the branch of the government upon
which the responsibility of conducting the war and safeguarding the
nation will most directly fall.

SEEKS FREEDOM OF WORLD

"While we do these things, these deeply momentous things, let us be very
clear, and make very clear to all the world, what our motives and our
objects are. My own thought has not been driven from its habitual and
normal course by the unhappy events of the last months, and I do not
believe that the thought of the nation has been altered or clouded by
them.

"I have exactly the same things in mind now that I had in mind when I
addressed the senate on the twenty-second of January last; the same that
I had in mind when I addressed the congress on the third of February
and on the twenty-sixth of February. "Our object now, as then, is to
vindicate the principles of peace and justice in the life of the world
as against selfish and autocratic power and to set up amongst the really
free and self-governed peoples of the world such a concert of purpose
and of action as will henceforth insure the observance of those
principles.

"Neutrality is no longer feasible or desirable where the peace of the
world is involved and the freedom of its peoples, and the menace to that
peace and freedom lies in the existence of autocratic governments backed
by organized force which is controlled wholly by their will--not by the
will of their people.

"We have seen the last of neutrality in such circumstances. We are at
the beginning of an age in which it will be insisted that the same
standards of conduct and of responsibility for wrong done shall be
observed among nations and their governments that are observed among the
individual citizens of civilized states.

NO QUARREL WITH GERMANS

"We have no quarrel with the German people. We have no feeling towards
them but one of sympathy and friendship. It was not upon their impulse
that their government acted in entering this war. It was not with their
previous knowledge or approval. It was a war determined upon as wars
used to be determined upon in the old, unhappy days when peoples were
nowhere consulted by their rulers and wars were provoked and waged in
the interest of dynasties or of little groups of ambitious men who were
accustomed to use their fellow-men as pawns and tools.

"Self-governed nations do not fill their neighbor states with spies
or set the course of intrigue to bring about some critical posture of
affairs which will give them an opportunity to strike and make conquest.

"Such designs can be successfully worked out only under cover and where
no one has the right to ask questions. Cunningly contrived plans
of deception or aggression, carried, it may be, from generation to
generation, can be worked out and kept from the light only within the
privacy of courts or behind the carefully guarded confidences of a
narrow and privileged class. They are happily impossible where public
opinion commands and insists upon full information concerning all the
nation's affairs.

MENACE OF INTRIGUES

"A steadfast concert for peace can never be maintained except by a
partnership of democratic nations. No autocratic government could be
trusted to keep faith within or observe its covenants. It must be a
league of honor, a partnership of opinion.

"Intrigue would eat its vitals away; the plottings of inner circles
who could plan what they would and give account to no one, would be a
corruption seated at its very heart.

"Only free peoples can hold their purpose and their honor steady to a
common end and prefer the interest of mankind to any narrow interest of
their own.

WELCOME TO FREE RUSSIA

"Does not every American feel that assurance has been added to our hope
for the future peace of the world by the wonderful and heartening things
that have been happening within the last few weeks in Russia?

"Russia was known by those who knew it best to have been always in fact
democratic at heart in all the vital habits of her thought, in all the
intimate relationships of her people that spoke their natural instinct,
their habitual attitude toward life. The autocracy that crowned the
summit of her political structure, as long as it had stood and terrible
as was the reality of its power, was not in fact Russian in origin,
character or purpose; and now it has been shaken off and the great,
generous Russian people have added in all their native majesty and might
to the forces that are fighting for freedom in the world, for justice,
and for peace. Here is a fit partner for a league of honor.

"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 unsuspecting 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
industries of the country 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.

SOUGHT TO IGNORE PLOTS

"Even in checking these things and trying to extirpate them we have
sought to put the most generous interpretation possible upon them
because we knew that their source lay not in any hostile feeling or
purpose of the German people towards us (who were, no doubt, as ignorant
of them as we ourselves were) but only in the selfish designs of a
government that did what it pleased and told its people nothing.

"But they played their part in serving to convince us at last that that
government entertains no real friendship for us and means to act against
our peace and security at its convenience. That it means to stir up
enemies against us at our very doors the intercepted note to the German
minister at Mexico City is eloquent evidence.

FIGHT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

"We are accepting this challenge of hostile purpose because we know
that in such a government, following such methods, we can never have a
friend, and that in the presence of its organized power, always lying
in wait to accomplish we know not what purpose, there can be no assured
security for the democratic governments of the world.

"We are now about to accept gage of battle with this natural foe to
liberty and shall, if necessary, spend the whole force of the nation to
check and nullify its pretensions and its power. We are glad, now that
we see the facts with no veil of false pretense about them, to fight
thus for the ultimate peace of the world and for the liberation of its
people, the German people included; for the rights of nations, great and
small; the privilege of men everywhere to choose their way of life and
of obedience.

SEEK NO SELFISH ENDS

"The world must be made safe for democracy. Its peace must be planted
upon the tested foundations of political liberty. We have no selfish
ends to serve. We desire no conquest, no dominion. We seek no
indemnities for ourselves, no material compensation for the sacrifices
we shall freely make. We are but one of the champions of the right of
mankind. We shall be satisfied when those rights have been made as
secure as the faith and the freedom of nations can make them.

"Just because we fight without rancor and without selfish object,
seeking nothing for ourselves but what we shall wish to share with all
free peoples, we shall, I feel confident, conduct our operations as
belligerents without passion and ourselves observe with proud punctilio
the principles of right and of fair play we profess to be fighting for.
SILENT AS TO AUSTRIA

"I have said nothing of the governments allied with the imperial German
government because they have not made war upon us or challenged us to
defend our right and our honor.

"The Austro-Hungarian government has, indeed, avowed its unqualified
endorsement and acceptance of the reckless and lawless submarine warfare
adopted now without disguise by the imperial German government, and it
has therefore not been possible for this government to receive Count
Tarnowski, the ambassador recently accredited to this government by the
imperial and royal government of Austria-Hungary; but that government
has not actually engaged in warfare against citizens of the United
States on the seas.

"On these premises I take the liberty, for the present at least, of
postponing a discussion of our relations with the authorities at Vienna.
We enter this war only where we are clearly forced into it because there
are no other means of defending our rights.

"It will be all the easier for us to conduct ourselves as belligerents
in a high spirit of right and fairness because we act without animus,
not in enmity towards a people or with the desire to bring any injury or
disadvantage upon them, but only in armed opposition to an irresponsible
government which has thrown aside all considerations of humanity and of
right and is running amuck.

GERMANS IN AMERICA

"We are, let me say again, the sincere friends of the German people, and
shall desire nothing so much as the early reëstablishment of intimate
relations of mutual advantage between us, however hard it may be for
them, for the time being, to believe that this is spoken from our
hearts.

"We have borne with their present government through all these bitter
months because of that friendship, exercising a patience and forbearance
which would otherwise have been impossible.

"We shall, happily, still have an opportunity to prove that friendship
in our daily attitude and actions towards the millions of men and women
of German birth and native sympathy who live amongst us and share our
life, and we shall be proud to prove it towards all who are in fact
loyal to their neighbors and to the government in the hour of test. They
are, most of them, as true and loyal Americans as if they had never
known any other fealty or allegiance. They will be prompt to stand with
us in rebuking and restraining the few who may be of a different mind
and purpose. If there should be disloyalty it will be dealt with with a
firm hand of stern repression; but if it lifts its head at all it will
lift it only here and there and without countenance except from a
lawless and malignant few.

CIVILIZATION IN BALANCE

"It is a distressing and oppressive duty, gentlemen of the congress,
which I have performed in thus addressing you. There are, it may be,
many months of fiery trial and sacrifice ahead of us. It is a fearful
thing to lead this great peaceful people into war, into the most
terrible and disastrous of all wars, civilization itself seeming to be
in the balance.

"But the right is more precious than peace, and we shall fight for the
things which we have always carried nearest our hearts--for democracy,
for the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their
own governments, for the rights and liberties of small nations, for a
universal dominion of right by such a concert of free peoples as shall
bring peace and safety to all nations and make the world itself at last
free.

"To such a task we can dedicate our lives and our fortunes, everything
that we are and everything that we have, with the pride of those who
know that the day has come when America is privileged to spend her blood
and her might for the principles that gave her birth and happiness
and the peace which she has treasured. God helping her, she can do no
other."




CHAPTER I

WHY WE WENT TO WAR

MEMORIES OF BEAUTIFUL FRANCE--WHY I WAS NOT ACCEPTED AS CONSUL TO
GERMANY

BY HON. JAMES MARTIN MILLER

FORMER UNITED STATES CONSUL IN FRANCE


To have lived on the principal battle ground of the world war was a
privilege the author did not appreciate at the time. As representative
of the United States Government in the Consular district of France that
includes the departments of the Aisne, Ardennes, Marne, Aube, Meuse,
Vosges, Haute-Marne and Meurthe-et-Moselle, he lived and had his
headquarters at Reims, some years before the war. Reims is (or rather
was) a beautiful city of 112,000 people. The story of the city goes
back to the days of the Roman empire, and bears the mark of many Gallic
insurrections. In comparatively later times Joan of Arc caused Charles
VII to be crowned in the great Cathedral there--one of the most
glorious and stately in all Europe, now a ruin. A history of the eight
departments (or small states) mentioned above would include a history
of the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71, and of the greatest and most
desperate of all wars, the one just brought to a close.

My Consular district bordered on Belgium, Luxemburg and Alsace-Lorraine.
The Marne, the Aisne, the Vesle, and other streams whose names adorn
with sad pride so many of America's battle-flags, flow through it. After
1914 Belgium saw very little fighting; but this district saw almost four
years of continuous and enormous battle. It was overrun time and again.
Neither Belgium nor any other country suffered such devastation, nor
such material destruction. Today it is a vast graveyard. Hundreds of
thousands of men dyed its soil with their lifeblood. All America and all
the world knows about Chateau Thierry and St. Mihiel, and the gallantry
of American troops in those two brilliant and significant actions. It is
difficult to realize the stupendous tragedy that through all those years
hung over that beautiful country, whose fields were once as familiar to
me as any fields of home. I look back to that time with affection, in
the glow of happy memories.

Americans before this war had held the Monroe Doctrine in high
reverence. Presidents had strengthened it in their messages. Candidates
for office for more than half a century had argued as a campaign issue
that the United States must never be drawn into foreign entanglements;
that no European nation ever would be allowed to interfere in the
affairs of the American continents. This doctrine was so deeply
rooted that objectors everywhere rose up when we began to talk of
"preparedness" against the ultimate day when we could no longer keep
out of the fight. Many declared it would be "unconstitutional" for the
United States to send troops to Europe. The war lords of Germany took
advantage of this traditional sentiment among our people and felt sure
that the United States never would come in, no matter how many American
lives nor how much American property Germany might destroy, nor how many
of our ships German pirates might sink at sea, without warning. The
German government had built up a propaganda in this country that at one
time threatened to poison the minds of all our people. There were some
among us who hated England, and wanted to see Germany win for no other
reason than that. Others hated Russia, and so desired Germany to win.
Germany's secret intrigues in Mexico came near to getting us into a war
with that country. In the face of all these things there was a strong
sentiment among our people and even in Congress favorable to Germany. It
is easy now to say that we should have gone to war when the Lusitania
was sunk, but pro-German feeling was so noisy and so strong, even though
it was held by a minority, that the Congress itself was affected and
withheld its hand.

Public sentiment had to be crystalized so that it would stand back of
the administration. With our lack of a secret service capable of coping
with the German agents who were busy everywhere and all the time, we
were at a disadvantage in gathering evidence to convince our people that
the Germans were menacing our very existence. Even after the secret
service was built up it took many months of hard work and several
thousand government men to uncover and stamp out their organizations
and their ruthless plots. The slimy tracks of the German ambassador at
Washington had to be followed through devious underground channels that
no one had suspected. The embassy had filled the country with German
poison gas, and backed the German campaign of wholesale arson. Germans
living here, many of them American born, were busily counteracting
public opinion as the evidences accumulated.

Democracies are always at a disadvantage in dealing with monarchies; in
the initial stages of war at least. We have seen it demonstrated that
a democracy must become autocratic if it is to carry on a war
successfully. But an American autocracy takes the shape of a temporary
delegation of unusual power in conditions that cannot wait for the slow
action of ordinary times; and those who exercise it are put in power
by the people themselves, to do the people's will. It was necessary to
consolidate not only the direction of the nation itself, but of our
military affairs abroad. We soon got the home situation in hand, and
then the President of the United States threw his influence, backed by
all the American people, toward bringing the allied armies and those of
the United States under one head in the person of General Foch as
Field Marshal. This was not accomplished until after the great Italian
disaster, when it looked as though the Austro-Hungarian armies would
crush Italy. The same may be said of the threatened disaster to the
British army early in 1918, when von Hindenburg began his great drive
toward Calais and Paris. Here were Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey and
Bulgaria, four monarchies dominated by the German government, fighting
nearly all the democracies of the world, not considering Russia, which
dropped out shortly before the United States effectively entered the
war.

We will not consider Japan's position as a nominal member of the
entente, except for her action at the beginning of the war in capturing
Kiauchau, China, the German fortified port and naval base in the Orient,
and sweeping Germany out of the Pacific by taking the Marshall islands.
Beyond this, Japan sent soldiers to Eastern Siberia to help in police
duty, and in guarding the great stores of supplies accumulated by the
Russians at Vladivostok. These stores had been bought largely upon the
credit extended to Russia by the United States.

With Russia, Germany and Austria-Hungary gone as monarchies, Japan is
the greatest of the remaining imperial states. We have seen more than a
dozen kings, emperors, princes and grand dukes pass into the discard as
a result of a war which they themselves brought on.

France tried to discard kings and princes in 1798. The sovereignty of
the people was proclaimed in that war, but the governments which have
ruled France since have been many, and presented wide differences. In
this present age, no doubt it will be much easier to establish a stable
democracy upon the wreck of a monarchy than it could have been a century
ago. Still, the construction of a democracy is a difficult ordeal for
people who have always been imperialists. The several monarchies, big
and little, that have fallen in this war, present most perplexing
problems. There are boundary and racial disputes of the most bitter kind
between some of their peoples. But the great democracies of the world
that won this war are taking the part of "big brothers" to these, and
are seeing to it that their petty quarrels and internal differences
are held in check. Each of these countries, even though they establish
democracies, will have strong royalist parties that will constitute
a standing threat. France even to this day has a royalist group of
considerable strength. Their persistent claim is that France will again
be a monarchy. The United States is really the only democracy without
such a party. It is the only republic that was not founded on the ruin
of a monarchy.

WHY I WAS NOT ACCEPTED AS CONSUL TO GERMANY

I have had some personal experience with the late German Imperial
Government. As a war correspondent it was my duty to give to the world
an account of the forcible deportation of King Mataafa from Samoa to the
Marshall Islands, where he was kept in exile six years. The Germans had
shoved him aside to make room for Malieto, an imbecile and a German
figurehead. I was there again when Mataafa, at the end of those six
years, returned to Samoa, to the great joy of his people.

A few years later I discovered that Germany's policy was to "mark" any
individual who wrote or spoke in criticism of anything German.

I was appointed United States Consul to Aix la Chapelle, Germany, four
years after those articles appeared. My appointment came from President
Roosevelt, and was confirmed by the United States Senate. When I arrived
in Germany I found I was United States Consul so far as the United
States Government was concerned, but I was put off in the matter of my
exequatur (certificate of authority) from the government to which I
was accredited; and without an exequatur, I could not act. I was kept
cooling my heels in the consulate several months before I found out what
was the matter. My newspaper articles describing what the Germans had
done in Samoa, published four years earlier, were being held against me.
My presence in Germany was not desired.

I had crossed the Atlantic with Prince Henry, the Kaiser's brother and
Admiral of the German Navy, in February, 1901, when the Prince brought
his party of a dozen or so militarists to this country to "further
cement the amity and good will" existing between the great republic
and the great empire. It later developed that this was a well planned
operation in German propaganda. As a representative of the Associated
Press, I had written of it. That was just after I had written the Samoan
articles.

Speck von Sternberg was the German Ambassador to Washington. He was
in Paris. I went there to see him and ascertain, if I could, why my
exequatur was withheld. The Government at Washington could get no
information on the subject. The whole affair was clothed in mystery.

After some conversation I suggested to Ambassador von Sternberg that
perhaps the foreign office at Berlin was withholding the document
because of my writings on German colonial matters. Then it came out--my
guess was true. Some underlings in the foreign office had the case in
charge. The Ambassador suggested that as I knew Prince Henry, I would
better write him at Kiel. I did this, with the result that the obstacle
was removed and the exequatur issued.




WHY WE WENT TO WAR

_German Propaganda in the United States and Mexico_--_Sinking of the
Lusitania_--_Unrestricted Submarine Warfare_.

WHY WE WENT TO WAR

During two years preceding our entrance upon war, Germany had been
carrying on open warfare against us, within our own borders. For more
than thirty years Germany's policy of preparatory penetration had been
in course. As we know now, every country, all round the globe, but
especially the United States in North America and Brazil and Venezuela
in South America, had been filled with Germans, ostensibly settlers,
business men and followers of the higher professions, but for the
greater part agents of Germany, in continuous contact with Potsdam and
under Potsdam direction. It was the business of these imported Germans
to foster the German idea, exalt Germany's leadership in military power
and in science and the arts, impress their language, their literature,
music and customs upon our people, and to do all those things which
might work for the day when Germany, having faked a partnership with
Almighty God, should reach out for world dominion.

The processes were pressed with that strange blend of industry,
stupidity, mendacity and cunning which characterize the Prussian and all
his acts. Under our noses a German solidarity was attempted here, and in
part achieved. Organizations having Prussian ends in view were numerous,
large, popular and unsuspected. Threading them through and through was
a spy system unbelievably thorough and amazingly adroit. Potsdam had
us marked as a nation of easy going money getters, to be bled white,
crammed with her muddy kultur and taught the goose-step, at her imperial
leisure, after France and England had fallen to her guns.

But her blend of qualities, no matter how strong in itself, was
nullified by just one lack: the total inability of the Prussian mind to
understand the mind of the world exterior to Germany. In the day of test
it failed.

Because of that inability, and knowing full well how readily the German
mind could be terrorized, the outbreak of war in Europe brought an
outbreak of blind German violence in the United States. We were to be
impressed by the German power to strike. Our soil was chosen as a garden
of domestic sedition, and of foreign conspiracy against powers with
which we were at peace. To keep us busy with troubles of our own, German
propaganda and German money in Mexico raised on our southern border a
threatening spectre of war. We were to have been rushed into conflict
with Mexico and kept employed there while being terrorized by wholesale
arson and sabotage at home, so that by no chance could any friendly
European power look to us for help. The scheme came near to succeeding,
for our people were aroused by Mexican aggression, and the flaunting
insults of Mexican authority, prompted by German agents. The policy of
our Government saved us from falling into a trap that might have held us
fast while Germany overran the whole of Europe and made ready to come
a-plundering here at her own time and convenience.

If the truth had been known by the people then as clearly as it was
known at Washington, nothing could have held us back: We would not have
bothered with Mexico at all. We would have joined the free nations of
Europe, and nobody may guess what would have happened. Certainly we
could not have assembled the men and the resources we actually and
swiftly did assemble later, when the real hour sounded. We would have
cut a sorry figure and gone into the mess confusedly. Washington knew.
The President knew so well that through 1915 and 1916 he and others in
high places never ceased crying a warning to "prepare." The President
himself toured the country and told the people everywhere that with a
world on fire we could not hope to escape unsinged.

He said openly as much as he dared. Under the surface the Government
did much more. The rapid movement of events once we were declared
a combatant would have been impossible otherwise. That rapidity of
effective action surprised the world only because it had all been
planned before a word was said.

In the years of our neutrality our course as a nation was surely shaping
itself for war, without an outward sign or act. Ruthless destruction of
property and of life became too open, too frequent, too outrageous, for
the patience of even a long-suffering, tolerant people such as we. The
first impulse of genuine resentment was given when the Lusitania went
down with its neutral passengers, a defenseless ship on a peaceful
errand, drowning more than a hundred Americans of both sexes and all
ages without the slightest notice, or the faintest chance of escape.

Any nation other than ours would have gone to war in a moment over
such a blow in the face. We did not. Farther, we endured a sudden and
flagrant increase of German propaganda in high quarters and low, and of
German insolence openly and defiantly parading itself. The catalogue of
provocations grew daily, and daily bred anger, but our temper held until
in February of 1917, when Germany proclaimed unrestricted piracy by
submarines, and under the thin pretext of starving out the British
Isles, American and other ships were destroyed with all on board,
wholesale.

Even then our hand was withheld until Germany advised us that we might
send just one ship a week to Europe, one ship and no more, provided that
solitary ship were painted in a manner prescribed in the permission,
and then held strictly to a course laid down by the German admiralty.
Germany, a third rate naval power, had arbitrarily forbidden us the
freedom of the seas.

Then our patience broke. For this and all the other causes Germany had
given us, and for our own safety and the rescue of a world that without
us would have perished, the United States went to war.

WORK OR FIGHT

Back of every American soldier about fifty men and women were needed
in order that he be supplied with everything his physical, moral and
military well being might require. They were put there. The result was
a sweeping change, an immense expansion of energy in the United States
itself. The draft took care of the army. No time or trouble had to be
given to filling the ranks and keeping them full. The enormous sums of
money necessary to finance our allies as well as ourselves were promptly
oversubscribed in a series of loans, the first and least of which ran
into three billion dollars, the fourth into six billions, a sum larger
than any single loan ever floated by any other nation. Idleness was
abolished. The order to "work or fight" was strictly enforced upon all
the people, rich and poor alike, for any attempt to except any one or
any class would have been blown away in a gale of laughter. In a space
incredibly brief the United States became a nation of actual workers, in
which every individual did his or her share, submitting meanwhile, with
good grace and no murmuring, to being rationed. Interstate utilities
were taken over and operated by the government, including the railway,
telegraph and telephone lines; and government fixed prices on the
necessaries of life. Everything was subordinated to the one and only
purpose of winning the war. All that we were and all that we had was
thoroughly mobilized behind the fighting arms, the army and the navy.

RATIONING THE NATIONS

Almost immediately after the first military and naval preparations had
been set in operation the United States Government, taking no chance as
against the future, began to regulate the lives and living of Americans
at home. A policy of conservation, so well devised that it went into
effect without the slightest disturbance of daily living and daily
routine, was at once adopted.

England, France and Belgium had to be fed. Belgium had to be clothed and
housed as well as fed. Out of our abundance had to come the means to
those ends, as well as to equip and maintain vast armies of our own,
from bases three thousand miles away in Europe and twice as far in Asia.
The whole nation was mobilized for war.

Britain and France had come through more than three years of
close-lipped but bone-cracking effort, in which every aspect of domestic
life was changed, the final ounce of strength exerted, privations
unheard of endured in grim silence. America saved them, and not alone by
force of arms against the common enemy.

  WHAT THE YANKEE DUDE'LL DO

  BY TOM H. DEVEREAUX.

  Uncle Samuel blew the bugle call,
  For his boys to fall in line,
  And they came, yes, by the million,
  On the march at double time,
  With muskets on their shoulders
  They answered to the call
  To defend our nation's honor,
  And for Liberty of all.
  They buckled on their knapsacks,
  And they loaded up their guns,
  To the tune of Yankee Doodle,
  They whipped those Turks and Huns;
  For their hearts were with the colors
  Of the red, the white and blue,
  And they've shown those fiendish Prussians
  What the Yankee Dude'll Do.

  REFRAIN

  Singing rally round Old Glory, boys,
  And fight for freedom true,
  Rally to the Stars and Stripes
  As your fathers did for you.
  Oh! we sailed across the ocean deep,
  With the red, the white and blue,
  And we've shown that devilish Kaiser
  What the Yankee Dude'll Do.

  From our north land, and our east land,
  To our far-off Golden Gate,
  From our south way down in Dixie
  And the old Palmetto State,
  Bravest sons of all the nation came
  To fight our country's foe,
  Who would follow our Old Glory,
  Where her stars and stripes might go;
  To the battle cry of Freedom,
  All our men would surely come,
  And fight for world-wide Victory
  At the call of fife and drum.
  We have proved to all creation
  That our boys are real true blue,
  And we've shown those fiendish Prussians,
  What the Yankee Dude'll Do.




CHAPTER II.

UNITED STATES ENTERS THE WAR

_The President Proclaims War_--_Interned Ships Are Seized_--_Congress
Votes $7,000,000,000 for War_--_Raising an American Army_--_War to
Victory Wilson Pledge_--_British and French Commission Reaches America_.

On April 2, 1917, Congress having been called in special session,
President Wilson appeared before a joint session of both houses and
in an address worthy of its historical importance asked for a formal
declaration that a state of war existed with Germany, owing to the
ruthless and unrestricted submarine campaign. He recommended the utmost
practical co-operation with the Entente Allies in counsel and action;
the extension of liberal financial credit to them, the mobilization
of all the material resources of the United States for the purpose of
providing adequate munitions of war, the full equipment of the Navy,
especially in supplying it with means for dealing with submarines, and
the immediate enrollment of an army of 500,000 men, preferably by a
system of universal service, to be increased later by an additional army
of equal size. The President took pains to point out that in taking
these measures against the German government, the United States had
no quarrel with the German people, who were innocent, because kept in
ignorance of the lawless acts of their autocratic government, which had
become a menace not only to the peace of the world, but to the cause of
fundamental human liberty. The object of the United States, said the
President, was to vindicate the principles of peace and justice
as against selfish and autocratic power, and to insure the future
observance of these principles.

After due debate the following joint resolution, declaring war with
Germany was adopted by the Senate and House of Representatives and
signed by the President on April 6, 1917:

"Whereas, the imperial German government has committed repeated acts
of war against the government and the people of the United States of
America; therefore, be it

"Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
States of America in Congress assembled, That the state of war between
the United States and the imperial German government which has thus been
thrust upon the United States is hereby formally declared; and that the
President be, and he is, hereby authorized and directed to employ the
entire naval and military forces of the United States and the resources
of the government to carry on war against the imperial German
government; and to bring the conflict to a successful termination, all
of the resources of the country are hereby pledged by the Congress of
the United States."

THE PRESIDENT PROCLAIMS WAR.

Immediately after signing the resolution of Congress, President Wilson
issued a formal proclamation of war, embodying in it an earnest appeal
to all American citizens "that they, in loyal devotion to their country,
dedicated from its foundation to the principles of liberty and justice,
uphold the laws of the land and give undivided and willing support to
those measures which may be adopted by the constitutional authorities in
prosecuting the war to a successful issue and in obtaining a secure and
just peace."

The President further enjoined all alien enemies within the United
States to preserve the peace and refrain from crime against the public
safety, and from giving information, aid, or comfort to the enemy,
assuring them of protection so long as they conducted themselves in
accordance with law and with regulations which might be promulgated
from time to time for their guidance. The great mass of German-American
citizens promptly avowed the utmost loyalty to the United States, but
numerous arrests of suspected spies followed all over the country.

INTERNED SHIPS ARE SEIZED.

Following the declaration of war all the German merchant vessels
interned in ports of the United States were seized by representatives of
the Federal authority, their crews removed and interned, and guardians
placed aboard. These ships in American waters numbered 99, of an
aggregate value of about $100,000,000, and included some of the finest
vessels of the German merchant marine; for instance, the Vaterland, of
54,283 tons, valued at $8,000,000, and numerous other Atlantic liners.
The disposition to be made of the German ships was left to the future
for decision, with great probability, however, that they would be used
to transport munitions and supplies to the Allies in Europe through the
German submarine blockade.

CONGRESS VOTES $7,000,000,000 FOR WAR.

Prompt action was taken by Congress to furnish the sinews of war.
By April 14 a bond and certificate issue of $7,000,000,000 had been
unanimously voted by both houses, and preparations were made to float
a popular subscription for the bonds. Three billions of the amount
was intended for loans to the Allies, and the remainder for active
prosecution of the war by the United States. The debates in Congress
indicated that the country stood solidly behind the President in a
determination to bring the military autocracy of Germany to a realizing
sense of its responsibility to civilization. RAISING AN AMERICAN ARMY.

Legislation was immediately presented by the War Department to the
military committees of the Senate and House of Representatives, to
provide for raising an army for active participation in the war. This
legislation was described by President Wilson as follows:

"It proposes to raise the forces necessary to meet the present emergency
by bringing the regular army and the National Guard to war strength and
by adding the additional forces which will now be needed, so that the
national army will comprise three elements--the regular army, the
National Guard and the so-called additional forces, of which at first
500,000 are to be authorized immediately and later increments of the
same size as they may be needed.

"In order that all these forces may comprise a single army, the term of
enlistment in the three is equalized and will be for the period of the
emergency.

"The necessary men will be secured for the regular army and the National
Guard by volunteering, as at present, until, in the judgment of the
President, a resort to a selective draft is desirable. The additional
forces, however, are to be raised by selective draft from men ranging
in age from 19 to 25 years. The quotas of the several states in all of
these forces will be in proportion to their population."

Recruiting for the army and navy became active as soon as war was
declared. On April 15 President Wilson issued an address to the nation,
calling on all citizens to enroll themselves in a vast "army of
service," military or industrial, and stating that the hour of supreme
test for the nation had come. The United States prepared to rise to its
full measure of duty, confident in the patent justice of its cause, and
echoing the sentiment of its President when he said:

"The hope of the world is that when the European war is over
arrangements will have been made composing many of the questions which
have hitherto seemed to require the arming of the nations, and that in
some ordered and just way the peace of the world may be maintained by
such co-operations of force among the great nations as may be necessary
to maintain peace and freedom throughout the world."

ENGLAND WELCOMES U.S. AS AN ALLY.

The news of the President's proclamation of war, following the action
of Congress, was received in England and France, Russia and Italy, with
enthusiasm. A great service of thanksgiving was held in St. Paul's
Cathedral, London, attended by the King and Queen, ministers of state,
and an enormous congregation that joined in singing "The Star-Spangled
Banner" and the national anthem, while the Stars and Stripes by official
order was flown for the first time in history from the tower of the
Parliament buildings at Westminster and on public buildings throughout
the British empire. A high commission was appointed to visit the United
States for a series of war conferences, and Premier Lloyd George
expressed the national satisfaction in glowing terms of welcome to the
United States as an ally against Germany, paying at the same time
an eloquent tribute to the masterly address of President Wilson to
Congress, which stated the case for humanity against military autocracy
in such an unanswerable manner, the British premier said, that it placed
the seal of humanity's approval on the Allied cause and furnished final
justification of the British attitude toward Germany in the war.

POPULAR DEMONSTRATION IN PARIS.

In France, the Stars and Stripes were flung to the breeze from the
Eiffel Tower on April 22, and saluted by twenty-one guns. This marked
the opening of the ceremonies of "United States day" in Paris.

The French tricolor and the star-spangled banner were at the same hour
unfurled together from the residence of William G. Sharp, the American
ambassador, in the Avenue d'Eylau, from the American Embassy, from the
city hall, and from other municipal government buildings.

It was a great day for the red, white and blue, 40,000 American flags
being handed out gratis by the committee and waved by the people
who thronged the vicinity of the manifestations, which included the
decoration of the statues of Washington and Lafayette.

Members of the American Lafayette flying corps, a delegation from the
American Ambulance at Neuilly and the American Field Ambulances were the
guard of honor before the Lafayette statue.

Ambassador Sharp and his escort were received at the city hall by the
members of the municipal council and other distinguished persons. Adrien
Mithouard, president of the municipal council, welcomed Ambassador
Sharp, who was greeted with great applause when addressing the people of
Paris. He said:

"Citizens of Paris: May I say to you, on this day you have with such
fine sentiment set apart to honor my country, that America remains no
longer content to express to France merely her sympathy. In a cause
which she believes as verily as you believe to be a sacred one, she
will consecrate all her power and the blood of her patriotic sons, if
necessary, to achieve a victory that shall for all time to come insure
the domination of right over wrong, freedom over oppression, and the
blessings of peace over the brutality of war."

The French Government also appointed a war commission to visit the
United States forthwith for conference.

Resolutions expressing the great satisfaction of the Allied nations at
the action of the United States were adopted by the British House of
Commons, the French Chamber of Deputies, the Russian Duma, and the
Italian Parliament. ENTHUSIASM IN THE UNITED STATES.

War being declared, the people of the United States were not slow in
letting the President know that they stood solidly behind him. From all
parts of the country came assurances that the action of the Government
was approved. Organizations of every conceivable kind passed resolutions
pledging their support to all war measures decided to be necessary to
carry the war to a successful issue. Recruiting was at once started for
both the Army and the Navy. The recruiting depots were thronged daily
and thousands were enrolled for active service while Congress was
debating the respective merits of the volunteer system and the
"selective draft" advocated by the general staff of the Army and
approved by the President and his cabinet.

The full quota of men desired for the Navy, to place the ships already
in commission in a high state of efficiency, was soon secured. More men
offered themselves for naval service, indeed, than could be accepted
pending the action of Congress. Volunteers for the aviation corps, the
marines, the field artillery, the engineer corps, and all the various
branches of the military establishments came forward freely, and a
general desire was expressed to send an American force to the trenches
in Europe at the earliest possible moment consistent with proper
training for the field.

As the reports of American diplomats from the war zone, freed from
German censorship, were given to the public, the martial spirit of
America grew apace. Ambassador Gerard's corroboration of German
atrocities in the occupied territory of France, and Minister Brand
Whitlock's report on the situation in Belgium and the illegal and
atrocious deportation of Belgian citizens for hard labor, ill treatment,
and starvation in Germany, added fuel to the flame of national
indignation, already running high as the result of continued destruction
of American merchant vessels and the loss of American lives by submarine
piracy and murder, continued almost without cessation since the infamous
sinking of the Lusitania, one of the never-to-be-forgotten crimes of
German ruthlessness.

One hundred million free-born people were at length aroused to action.
The Navy was ready for immediate service where it could do most good,
and promptly took over patrol duty in the western Atlantic, relieving
British and French men-of-war for service elsewhere. The raising of an
army of a million or more men for active participation in the war waited
only on the action of Congress.

American women responded nobly to the President's call for universal
service, flocking to the Red Cross headquarters in every city and
setting to work immediately in the preparation of comforts for the great
army gathering on the horizon. They were promptly organized, so that
their efforts might count to the best advantage. In August, 1916, the
United States Navy included 356 war craft of all kinds, as against
credited to Great Britain, 404 to France, and 309 to Germany, The latter
figure does not include an unknown number of submarines of recent
construction.

THE BRITISH COMMISSION ARRIVES.

On Sunday, April 22, the British war commission reached Washington,
headed by the Right Hon. Arthur James Balfour, secretary of state for
foreign affairs and former premier. The commission included Rear
Admiral Sir Dudley R.S. De Chair, naval adviser to the foreign office;
Major-General G.T.M. Bridges, representing the British army; Lord
Cunliffe of Headley, governor of the Bank of England; and a number of
other distinguished officials and naval and military officers, with
clerical assistants. The party met with an enthusiastic welcome in
Washington. Mr. Balfour was received by the President in private
conference next day, and after a round of receptions and social
functions of various kinds, arrangements were made for the business
meetings affecting war policies, which were the object of the visit.

Mr. Balfour informed the President that the British commission had come
to Washington not to ask favors, concessions, or agreements from the
United States, but to offer their services for the organization of the
stupendous undertaking of fighting Germany. He said that if the United
States was confronted by the same problems that confronted England at
the outset of the war, the British commission could be of service in
pointing out many grievous mistakes of policy and organization that
proved costly to the British cause. He was, in turn, assured by the
President that the United States would fight in conjunction with the
Allied until the Prussian autocracy was crushed and Americans at home
and abroad were safe from the ruthlessness of the Berlin government.

MARSHAL JOFFRE IN WASHINGTON

The French war commission soon followed the British envoys, arriving
in Washington on Wednesday, April 25, on board the presidential yacht
Mayflower from Hampton Roads. Headed by M. Rene Viviani, minister of
justice and former premier of France, the commission included the famous
hero of the Marne and idol of the French army and people, Marshal
Joffre; also Admiral Chocheprat, representing the French navy; the
Marquis de Chambrun (Lafayette's grandson), and other distinguished
Frenchmen. The fame of Marshal Joffre and the traditional friendship
for France secured for the party an enthusiastic popular greeting.
Its members were accorded similar official receptions to those of the
British commissioners, and they similarly expressed their desire to be
of service to the American people by giving the Washington government
the benefit of their costly experience in three years of war. ALLIES
CONTINUE THEIR WESTERN DRIVE

Following the spring drive of the Allies on the western front and the
retirement of the Germans to the so-called Hindenburg line, the British
and French continued their offensive during the months of May, June and
July, 1917, which concluded the third year of the great struggle. Great
battles in the Champagne and along the Aisne were fought by the French,
who in April had captured Auberive, and they advanced their forces
from one to five miles along a fifty-mile front, inflicting great and
continual losses on the enemy. At the end of the third year, the French
line ran from northwest of Soissons, through Rheims, to Auberive. French
troops also appeared in Flanders during this period and co-operated
with the British on the left of Field Marshal Haig's forces. The chief
command of the French armies was in the hands of General Petain, the
gallant defender of Verdun, who was appointed chief of staff after the
battle of Craonne.

The continuation of the British offensive northeast of Arras, following
the bloody battle of Vimy Ridge, which was firmly held by the Canadians
against desperate counter-attacks, placed the British astride the
Hindenburg line, and the Germans retired to positions a mile or two west
of the Drocourt-Queant line. These they held as the third year closed at
the end of July.

In June, 1917, the British began an attack on Messines and Wytschaete,
in an effort to straighten out the Ypres salient. By this time their
flyers dominated the air, and they had gained the immense advantage of
artillery superiority. By way of preparation, the British sappers and
miners had spent an entire year in mining the earth beneath the German
positions, and the offensive was begun with an explosion so terrific,
when the mines were sprung, that it was heard in London. Following
immediately with the attack, the British won and consolidated the
objective ground, capturing more than 7,500 German prisoners and great
stores of artillery. This victory placed them astride the Ypres-Commines
canal, having advanced three miles on an eight-mile front. Portuguese
and Belgian troops assisted in this offensive, which resulted in the
greatest gain the Allies had made in Belgium since the German invasion.
Fighting in this terrain had been confined for many months to
trench-raiding operations.

GERMAN LOSSES TO JULY

It is estimated that during April, May, and June the Germans suffered
350,000 casualties on the western front. The totals of the German
official lists of losses for the entire war to July 19, 1917, were as
follows: Killed or died of wounds, 1,032,800; died of sickness, 72,960;
prisoners and missing, 591,966; wounded, 2,825,581; making a grand total
of casualties of 4,523,307. The German naval and colonial casualties were
not included in this total.

FURTHER GAINS IN FLANDERS

Fighting continued almost steadily in Flanders during the month of
August, although the Allies were greatly hampered in their operations
by heavy rains and mud. On a nine-mile front east and north of Ypres, a
long drawn-out battle carried the advancing French and British troops
more than a mile into the intricate hostile trench system on August 16,
after successive advances on previous days. From Dreigrachten southward
the French surged across the River Steenbeke, capturing all objectives,
while at the same time the British occupied considerable territory in
the region of St. Julien and Langemarck, captured the latter town, and
carried the fighting beyond Langemarck. The main difficulty encountered
was the mud in the approaches to the town, the infantry plunging deep
into the bog at every step. Not infrequently the soldiers had to rescue
a comrade who had sunk to the waist in the morass, but they continued to
push forward steadily, facing machine-gun fire from hidden redoubts and
battling their way past with bombs and rifle fire. There were concrete
gunpits about the positions in front of the town, which was flooded from
the Steenbeke River, but the infantry divided and bombed their way about
on either side until they had encircled the town and passed beyond,
where the Germans could be seen running away. Little resistance was
offered in the town itself, but the Germans suffered severely from the
preliminary bombardment, which worked havoc in their ranks, according to
the prisoners taken in the Langemarck region. The contact between the
French and British forces was excellent throughout the fight; in fact,
the perfect co-operation of the two armies continued to be one of the
minor wonders of the war.

CANADIAN VICTORIES AT LENS

Canadian troops added to their laurels by the storming and capture of
Hill 70, dominating the important mining center of Lens, in northern
France, August 15, following up their victory by the occupation of the
fortified suburbs of the city and apparently insuring its redemption
from German hands, after a struggle that had lasted for two years.

The men of the Dominion swept the Germans from the famous hill, defeated
all counter-attacks, and thus gained command of the entire Loos salient.
It was on this hill that the British forces under Sir John French were
badly broken in their efforts to reach Lens in the first battle of Loos,
in September, 1915. Hill 70 was the last high ground held by the Germans
in the region of the Artois, and its fall menaced their whole line south
to Queant and north to La Bassee.

The Canadian attack began at 4:25 o'clock, just as the first hint of
dawn was appearing. All night the British big guns had been pouring a
steady stream of high explosive shells into the German positions,
great detonations overlapping one another like the rapid crackling of
machine-gun fire and swelling into a mighty volume of thunder that shook
the earth and stunned the senses. Then, a short time before the hour set
for the attack arrived, the batteries ceased abruptly and a strange,
almost oppressive stillness crept over the terrain which until then had
been an inferno of crashing noise and death. It had been raining and
gray clouds still hung over the trenches where crouched the Canadian
infantrymen, waiting eagerly for the arrival of the moment which would
summon them to attack.

Suddenly, ten minutes before the time set for the advance, every British
gun within range broke out with a hurricane of shelling, and solid lines
of crimson lightning belched from the German trenches as the explosives
broke about them. To this lurid picture was added the spectacle of
burning oil, which the British threw on the enemy lines. Great clouds of
pinkish colored smoke rolled across the country from the flaming liquid
and the murky sky threw back myriad colors from the conflagration below.

The moment of attack arrived, and as the British guns dropped their
protecting barrage fire in front of the Canadian trenches, the clouds
parted and the yellow crescent moon appeared. Under the light of this
beacon the Canadians leaped over the parapets and began their methodical
advance behind their barrage fire.

The British barrage was without a flaw, says an eyewitness. Behind it
the Canadians mounted Hill 70 and swept along the rest of the line. On
the crest of the hill, where so much blood had been, spilled before,
heavy fighting might have been expected, for the position was well
manned with machine guns. The resistance here, however, was not strong,
and it was not until the dwellings in the outskirts of the suburbs were
reached that vigorous fighting occurred. The ground over which the
infantry advanced was honeycombed with British shell holes and the
barbed wire defenses had been leveled, so that they gave little trouble.

FIGHT IN CELLARS AND DUGOUTS

The first serious resistance from the Germans was met at a point where
the enemy was strongly intrenched in connecting cellars and there
sanguinary fighting occurred. The place was a sample of many other
suburbs about Lens. The city is surrounded by colliery communities which
are so close together and so near the city proper that they really form
part of the town. Lens, before the war, had a population of 30,000, but
had become a mass of ruins.

Following their usual tactics, the Germans had carried out systematic
destruction of the houses and had constructed strong underground
defenses. The whole city was undermined with tunnels and dugouts, which
had been reinforced with concrete, and most of the ruined buildings had
been turned into machine-gun emplacements.

The effect of the preliminary British bombardment was most demoralizing
to the enemy. The first German prisoners taken were in a completely
dazed state as a result of the terrific bombardment they had undergone,
and other Germans were seen to flee to the rear, deserting their posts
as the attack began.

The result of this preliminary fire was shown in the speed of the
Canadian infantry's advance. The extreme depth reached in the first
stage was 1,500 yards, and this was achieved in ninety-three minutes.
This new front, taken into conjunction with positions secured previously
in the southwestern outskirts of Lens, established an angular line like
a pair of shears whose points reached out to the north and south of the
city.

As the Canadians pushed in on the northwest, a simultaneous advance
was started by the troops on the lower blade of the shears, and close
fighting began, with the Germans intrenched in their concreted cellars,
which were linked up with barbed wire and filled with hundreds of
machine guns. The capture of the entire city of Lens was then only a
matter of time, as Hill 70 insured the holding of the ground won by
the Canadians, German reinforcements being placed under the range of
irresistible fire from that dominating height. Among the prisoners taken
in the attack were many German lads apparently not more than 17 years of
age.

The German commander, Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria, made frantic efforts
to recapture the lost positions around Lens. The taking of Hill
stirred the German high command as nothing else had done on the western
front for many months, and a grim battle was waged for several days.
On August 16 the enemy came on ten separate times, but they seldom got
close enough to the Canadians for fighting with bayonet or bomb. The
Prussian Guards participated in the counter-attacks and were subjected
to a terrible concentrated fire from the British artillery and Canadian
machine guns. Their losses were frightful and all German efforts to
retake Hill 70 came to naught, while their hold on the central portion
of the mining city became most precarious, as the Canadians consolidated
the advantageous positions their valor had finally won.

RUSSIAN VICTORIES AND COLLAPSE

After the Russian revolution in March, 1917, the military affairs of the
new nation entered upon a curious phase. At first the Russian army made
a feint to advance on Pinsk, to cover the actual operations resumed
in the month of July against Lemberg. This latter front extended for
eighteen and a half miles and was held by troops known as "Regiments
July First." These troops, reinvigorated by the consciousness of
political liberty, confounded German military prophets by the magnitude
and extent of the offensive which they began. Led by Alexander Kerensky,
the revolutionary minister of war, and observed by American army
officers, they forced the Teutons to evacuate Brzezany, and then
captured many important positions, including terrain west and south of
Halicz and strongly-defended positions northwest of Stanislau. On July
11 Halicz was taken, thus smashing the Austro-German front between
Brzezany and the Carpathians.

This Russian operation broadened by mid-July, so that it extended from
the Gulf of Riga to the Roumanian front, a distance of 800 miles. The
Germans were reported to be rushing troops from the Italian and French
fronts. Widespread enthusiasm was created throughout Russia, and the
moral effect on the other entente powers was tremendous.

Before the third year closed, at the end of July, however, Russia's
offensive suffered a collapse. German spies, anarchists, peace fanatics,
and other agitators succeeded in destroying the morale of some of the
Russian troops in Galicia, where a retreat became necessary when unit
after unit refused to obey orders. Brzezany, Halicz, Tarnopol, Stanislau
and Kaloma were lost, together with all the remaining ground gained
during the offensive. The Russians surrendered many prisoners, heavy
guns, and an abundance of supplies and ammunition.

The death penalty was invoked as a check to further insubordinations and
the provisional government introduced a policy of "blood and iron" in an
effort to avert disaster.

South of the Carpathians and in the Vilna region there was little
disaffection among the Russian troops, and Russia had not yet thrown up
her hands, although the situation on the eastern front was disappointing
to the Allies. Alexander Kerensky, a popular hero, became the strong man
of Russia. A counter-revolution was promptly and forcibly crushed in
Petrograd and an "extraordinary national council," meeting at
Moscow, August 25, took steps to end the crisis. All loyal Russians,
conservative and radical, were called to the aid of Kerensky, who
ignored factional and party lines and succeeded in bringing something
like order out of the political chaos in the new republic. Every effort
was made to restore the power as well as the will of Russia to gain
ultimate victory, and Elihu Root, head of a United States commission to
Russia, assured the American people on his return from Petrograd that
the ill effects of the revolution would soon pass away, leaving Russia
once more united for action against the Teuton foe.

On August 15, Nicholas Romanoff, the deposed czar of Russia, and his
entire family were removed from the palace at Tsarskoe-Selo, near
Petrograd, and transported to Tobolsk in Siberia. Fifty servants who
were devoted to him accompanied the ex-emperor into exile. Instead of
the gorgeous imperial train in which he was wont to travel, an ordinary
train composed of three sleeping cars, a dining car, and several
third-class coaches was used for the transportation of Nicholas and his
party, which included the former Empress Alexandra, whose pro-German
attitude was a prime cause of his downfall. On arrival at Tobolsk the
ex-czar and his entourage were received as political prisoners.

GERMAN SUBMARINE CAMPAIGN FAILS

The campaign of unrestricted submarine warfare, which was relied upon
by Germany to win the war by the extinction of the British mercantile
marine and the stoppage of transatlantic supplies, had proved a failure
by August, 1917, after six months' duration. While the tonnage destroyed
by the undersea instruments of frightfulness was sufficiently serious to
cause grave alarm on both sides of the Atlantic, it formed but a
small percentage of the ships actively and continually engaged in the
transportation of munitions and supplies, while it was practically
counterbalanced by the activities of Allied shipbuilders and by the
seizure for Allied service of interned German ships in the countries
that entered the war subsequent to February 1, 1917, when the campaign
of unrestricted destruction began. Determined efforts were made by the
British, French and United States navies to cope with the undersea
enemy, and these were increasingly successful. Many merchant ships and
transports were convoyed to safety by the destroyers of the three great
naval Allies, and by August the fear that Britain could be starved out
by means of German submarines had practically disappeared. The record of
sinkings of British vessels for the first twenty-four weeks after the
"unrestricted" warfare began was as follows:

  Over           Under
  1,600          1,600          Smaller
  Week                          tons.          tons.

  First............               14             9
  Second...........               13             4
  Third............               16             8
  Fourth ..........               19             7
  Fifth............               18            13
  Sixth ...........               17             2
  Seventh..........               19             9
  Eighth ..........               40            15
  Ninth............               38            13
  Tenth............               24            22
  Eleventh ........               18             5
  Twelfth..........               18             5
  Thirteenth ......               18             1
  Fourteenth ......               15             3
  Fifteenth........               22            10
  Sixteenth........               27             5
  Seventeenth .....               21             7
  Eighteenth ......               15             5
  Nineteenth ......               14             3
  Twentieth........               14             4
  Twenty-first.....               21             3
  Twenty-second ...               18             3
  Twenty-third.....               21             2
  Twenty-fourth ...               14             2

  Total............              474           164

  Grand total of ships sunk......



KING OF GREECE DEPOSED

King Constantine I of Greece was forced by the Allies to abdicate his
throne on June 12, 1917, in favor of his second son, Prince Alexander.
The kingdom remained, but not a pro-German one as before. In order to
block the designs of the King and court, who were doing their best to
deliver Greece to the Germans, the Entente powers were obliged to make
a succession of demands upon the Greek government, including the
demobilization of most of the army, the surrender of the fleet, and the
withdrawal of Greek troops from Thessaly. In an effort to enforce their
demands the Entente allies landed marines in Athens--who were fired
upon--and finally declared an embargo on imports into Greece. Turmoil
and intrigue continued, and pressure was brought to bear upon
Constantine which compelled him to abdicate the throne. Venizelos
returned as premier and Greece was announced as a belligerent on the
side of the Entente.

THE ITALIAN CAMPAIGN

In the Trentino the Italians took the offensive in June and after
terrible fighting captured the Austrian positions on Monte Ortigara and
Agnello Pass. These they were forced to relinquish, however, in the face
of Austrian counter-attacks.

The Italian campaign on the Isonzo and in the Trentino, continued
throughout the summer, was perhaps the most scientific of all the
campaigns, involving tremendous technical difficulties, which were
solved with amazing ingenuity and skill. The campaign was largely an
engineers' and an artilleryman's war, waged in the mountains, much of
it in regions of perpetual snow--highly picturesque and spectacular.
Finally, it was as little destructive as war well can be, because the
Italians were fighting in territories which they hoped to hold after the
conflict, and they spared the towns and villages to the greatest extent
possible.

BRITISH CAMPAIGN IN THE EAST

The capture of Bagdad by the British in March, 1917, after a brilliant
campaign in Mesopotamia, had a deep moral effect in the Orient,
particularly in Arabia, where the natives revolted against Turkish rule
and established an independent government in Mecca.

In the Holy Land the British in 1917 opened a new era in the history of
the East. Their advance by August 1 had carried them nearly to Gaza.
Their objective was Jerusalem, which the Turks partly evacuated at their
approach, after doing untold damage in the holy city and inflicting many
atrocities upon the inhabitants.

WAR MISSIONS OF THE ALLIES

In cementing America's association with the nations which had become
her allies, numerous exchanges of missions were arranged. France, Great
Britain, Italy, Belgium, Russia, Japan and other entente belligerents
sent delegations to the United States as a step toward unification,
military, financial and otherwise. The United States sent missions to
Russia and other countries.

AERIAL ATTACKS ON LONDON

Cities from Bagdad to London were subject to aerial raids by the
Germans during the summer, notable attacks being those by Zeppelins and
aeroplanes on London and the eastern coast cities of England. In five
attacks on England in May, June and July, 298 persons were killed and
863 injured. Insistent demands were then made by the English people for
reprisals in kind.

AN ESTIMATE OP CASUALTIES

An estimate of the total war losses, made near the close of the third
year of the war and voiced by Arthur Henderson of the British War
Council, placed the number of men killed at 7,000,000 since August,
1914. French general headquarters on August 1 estimated that 1,500,
Germans had been killed up to March 1. Mr. Henderson estimated the total
casualties of the war at more than 45,000,000.

WHEN THE THIRD YEAR CLOSED

The third year of the world war closed in July, 1917, with the fortunes
of conflict favoring the Entente, except for uncertainty as to the
outcome of the Russian situation. On the western front in Europe the
Teutons found themselves on the defensive at the advent of the fourth
year. They were fighting on lines newly established after forced
retirement from terrain which they had won in earlier days at a
tremendous sacrifice.

Following the declaration of war by the United States, Cuba and Liberia
declared themselves on the side of the Allies. Panama pledged the United
States her aid in defending the Panama Canal. Costa Rica put her naval
bases at its disposal. China, Bolivia, Guatemala and Brazil severed
diplomatic relations with Germany. Uruguay expressed her sympathy with
the United States. Late in July Siam entered the war against the central
powers, and on August 14 China formally declared war against Germany
and Austria. This made a total of seventeen nations arrayed against the
central powers.

As to the prospects for the fourth year of the war, which opened in
August, 1917, American sentiment was expressed by the _New York Sun_,
which said editorially: "We expect today as at first that the end will
be catastrophic overthrow for the Kaiser and the military party of
Germany, and a dreary expiation by the German people of their sin in
allowing themselves to be dragooned into the most immoral enterprise of
the ages."

UNITED STATES WAR ACTIVITIES

The Army bill providing for raising a new national army by selective
draft duly passed the House of Representatives and the United States
Senate and was signed by President Wilson on May 18, 1917. The President
forthwith issued a proclamation calling on all male inhabitants of the
United States between the ages of 21 and 30 to register for the draft on
the following June 5. At the same time he formally declined the offer
of Col. Roosevelt to raise a volunteer army for immediate service in
France.

On June 5, the day of registration, 9,700,000 young men of all classes
registered in their home districts throughout the country. It was then
decided to call approximately 650,000 men to the colors as the first
national army. The formal drawing of the serial numbers allotted to
registrants occurred in Washington late in July. District boards were
appointed to examine the men drafted and receive applications for
exemption, also appeal boards in every State. The month of August
was largely occupied in preparing the quotas from each district and
meanwhile cantonments were made ready for the training of the new army,
while thousands of prospective officers received intensive training in
special camps at various points, east and west, and were commissioned in
due course. Orders were then issued for the men selected to report at
the cantonments in three divisions of 200,000 men each, at intervals of
fifteen days, beginning September 5. The National Guards of the various
States were also mobilized August 9, mustered into the Federal service,
and ordered to special training camps, mostly situated in the South. The
work of assembling equipment and supplies for the new army was rushed
and the whole country hummed with the task of preparation.

AMERICAN TROOPS IN FRANCE

France and Great Britain having joined in a request for the dispatch
of an American expeditionary force to France at the earliest possible
moment, the United States government on May 18 ordered 25,000 troops
to France under the command of Major-General John J. Pershing. A large
force of marines was subsequently ordered to join them, bringing the
strength of the expedition up to approximately 40,000 men. General
Pershing and his staff preceded the troops to Europe, reaching London
June 8 and Paris June 13, and being enthusiastically welcomed in both
the Allied capitals.

Convoyed by American warships, the first and second contingents of
American troops crossed the Atlantic in safety, despite two submarine
attacks on the transports in which at least one U-boat was sunk. Without
the loss of a ship or a man the troops were landed in France on June
and 27, to be received with outbursts of joy by the French populace,
who saw in their coming the assurance of final delivery from the German
invaders. Training camps awaited their coming and there, behind the
French lines they spent the months of July and August in active
preparation for service under the Stars and Stripes against the German
enemy on the western front.

U.S. WARSHIPS BUSY

America's destroyer flotilla arrived in British waters in May and
immediately co-operated with the British fleet in the patrol of its home
waters and the hunt for German submarines. The flotilla was commanded by
Vice-Admiral Sims and did effective work from the very start.

On August 11 it was announced in Washington that Admiral Sims had sent
to the Navy Department a series of reports detailing the work of the
American ships and men under his command. These were said to present
a thrilling story of accomplishment, telling of many encounters with
U-boats and also of the rescue of numerous crews of ships which had been
destroyed by submarines off the coasts of England and Ireland.

Soon after war was declared by the United States, American warships took
over from British and French vessels the patrol of American coasts,
while Brazil added her navy to that of the United States for the
protection of South American waters against the common enemy.

THE FIRST "LIBERTY LOAN"

On May 2, a few weeks after the United States entered the war,
subscriptions were opened for the first block of $2,000,000,000 of the
"Liberty loan" of $7,000,000,000 authorized by Congress in April. Great
popular interest was evinced and all classes of the American people
hastened to subscribe for the 3-1/2 per cent bonds, so that when the
books were closed on June 15 it was found that the loan had been
oversubscribed by $1,035,226,850 and the list of subscribers contained
no fewer than 4,000,000 names. Most of the amount raised was used
for loans to the Allies, to be expended in the United States for war
munitions and supplies.

A war budget appropriating $3,340,000,000 for current expenses of the
war was passed by Congress and signed by the President June 15; also an
Espionage bill which among other important provisions gave the President
power to place an embargo on all exports. On July 14 the House of
Representatives passed an Aviation bill appropriating the sum of
$640,000,000 for the construction and maintenance of an aerial fleet for
home and foreign service.

FOOD CONTROL BILL PASSED

On August 10 President Wilson signed the Food Control bill adopted by
Congress after prolonged debate, and he at once announced the
formal appointment of Mr. Herbert C. Hoover as United States food
administrator. Mr. Hoover, whose work as chief of the Belgian Relief
Commission had made him world famous, stated the threefold objects of
the food administration under the bill as follows:

"First, to so guide the trade in the fundamental food commodities as to
eliminate vicious speculation, extortion, and wasteful practices, and to
stabilize prices in the essential staples. Second, to guard our exports
so that against the world's shortage we retain sufficient supplies for
our own people, and to coöperate with the Allies to prevent inflation of
prices; and, third, that we stimulate in every manner within our power
the saving of our food in order that we may increase exports to our
Allies to a point which will enable them to properly provision their
armies and to feed their peoples during the coming winter."

INTERNAL HANDICAPS IN AMERICA

While the United States was busily engaged in raising its new national
army, innumerable difficulties arose to be contended with by the Federal
and State governments and local authorities. Not the least of these was
caused by enemy propaganda of various kinds, designed to interfere with
the success of the selective draft. Active opposition to the draft
developed in many districts, especially in the Western states where
the organization calling itself the "Industrial Workers of the World,"
notorious as the "I.W.W.," had a considerable following, including many
aliens, and gave the State and municipal authorities much trouble.
Attacks on munition plants, strikes, and incipient riots were frequent,
until the Federal government declared its determination to meet all such
demonstrations with the strong arm of the law. Pacifists and pro-Germans
of various stripes did their utmost to retard war preparations, and
caused much annoyance, without, however, preventing the steady march of
the selected men to the training cantonments, where the first divisions
of the national army gradually assembled. The presence in the country
of so many aliens of enemy birth constituted a difficulty, but this had
been foreseen and partly provided against, and the true American spirit
of patriotism steadily prevailed over all obstacles to the successful
prosecution of the war for humanity. Uncle Sam prepared to strike--and
strike hard.

INTERNAL TROUBLES IN GERMANY

Meanwhile, internal troubles developed in the German empire. Weary of
the war, with hopes of final victory dwindling month by month, a strong
peace party arose in the Reichstag, committing itself to the policy of
a peace without annexations or indemnities, and for a brief time the
Reichstag refused to vote a war credit. This brought the Kaiser, Von
Hindenburg, and Von Ludendorff in hot haste to Berlin, to exert the
utmost possible pressure of the military party on the recalcitrants. For
the time being their power prevailed, but the German Chancellor, Von
Bethmann Hollweg, was sacrificed, together with the Foreign Minister and
other leading officials of the empire. The Chancellor was succeeded by
Dr. Georg Michaelis, a statesman of colorless and practically unknown
quality, suspected of being a mere mouthpiece of the Kaiser, appointed
to register his decrees and continue the policy of the autocracy in the
conduct of the war. But many peace proposals came out of Germany during
the summer and every possible German effort was made to break the
solidarity of the Allies.

THE POPE PROPOSES PEACE

On August 14 Pope Benedict addressed to all the belligerent nations
a proposal for a peace agreement, stating the general terms which he
believed might be found acceptable as a basis for the cessation
of hostilities. These included disarmament of the nations, mutual
condonation of damages, the establishment of the principle of
arbitration for the future, the evacuation of Belgian and French
territory by the Germans, reciprocal restoration of the German colonies,
and a peace-table agreement as to Alsace-Lorraine, Poland, the Trentino,
Armenia and the Balkan states.

Nothing being said as to the causes of the war and the criminal
responsibility attaching to the authors of the great conflict, and all
the nations at issue being classed as equally entitled to the benefits
of the condonation proposed, the message from the Vatican met with a
cool reception from the Allied nations, including the United States,
especially as they entertained grave suspicions that it was inspired
from Berlin, by way of Vienna. The answers of President Wilson and
the British and French governments were therefore awaited with little
expectation that the hour for peace had struck.

The British attitude toward peace proposals was expressed July 20 by Sir
Edward Carson, member of the war cabinet, who said:

"If the Germans want peace we are prepared tomorrow to treat not
with Prussianism, but with the best of the German nation, and as a
preliminary to such a treaty and as an earnest of their sincerity that
they don't want to acquire any territory or show violence towards
others, we tell them to come forward and offer to enter negotiations. We
make as the first condition of such a parley that they shall withdraw
their troops behind the Rhine.

"When they have shown something like contrition for the wrongs and
outrages against humanity which they have committed on poor little
Belgium, in northern France, in Serbia, and in those other regions which
they needlessly drenched with blood, we will be willing to enter into
negotiations to see what can be done for release of the world from the
terror of arms."

CANADIANS HOLD THEIR GAINS

On August 21 Canadian troops smashed their way with bombs and cold steel
farther into the German defenses of the ruins of Lens, and defeated a
desperate simultaneous attack by the enemy, which developed into one of
the most sanguinary hand-to-hand conflicts on this battle-scarred front.
The attack began at dawn with the capture of 2,000 yards of German
positions on the outskirts of the shell-torn mining center, the
Canadians driving their lines closer about the heart of the city and
gaining possession of many railway embankments and colliery sidings in
the northwest and southwest suburbs which had been strongly fortified
for defense with a series of shell-hole nests of machine guns. The
battle raged fiercely for twenty-four hours.

When the Canadians went "over the top" in the thick haze of early dawn
of the 21st, they saw masses of shadowy gray figures advancing toward
them. The Germans had planned an attack to be delivered at the same
moment, and sent in wave after wave of infantry in desperate efforts to
regain their lost positions. In the words of an eyewitness, the Germans
fought like cornered rats among the shell holes and wire incumbrances of
"No man's Land," where the struggle raged, bomb and bayonet being the
principal weapons. As the Canadian bayonet did its deadly work, in some
of the bitterest fighting of the war, the German officers tried in vain
to rally their men and the enemy infantry gradually fell back to the
trenches they had left. The Canadians followed closely and, leaping on
the parapets, hurled masses of bombs down among great numbers of troops
which had been collected for the attack. The Germans tried to flee
through the communication trenches, but the Canadians leaped among them
with bayonets and bombs, killing many and sparing few as prisoners.
Throughout the day the entire line was a seething caldron, but the new
Canadian positions were firmly held as night fell.

Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig after the battle sent a message of
congratulation to Lieutenant-General Sir Arthur Currie, commanding the
Canadian forces, and refuted the German claim that the Canadians had
attacked with four instead of two divisions when Hill 70 was captured by
the gallant fellows from the Dominion. The commander-in-chief also gave
the Canadians credit for having reached all their objectives in the
battles of the previous week.

Eight heavy assaults were delivered against the Canadians at Lens by the
Germans during the night of the 21st, but in each case the enemy was
thrown back at the point of the bayonet and by afternoon of August
the Canadians had consolidated all the new positions gained. During the
battle of Lens up to this time (from August 15 to 22) the Canadians took
1,378 prisoners, 34 machine guns and 21 trench mortars. The number of
prisoners taken bore only a small ratio to the losses inflicted on the
Germans, who appeared exhausted when the assaults ceased.

On August 22 the British launched another fierce attack on the enemy
in the Langemarck sector of the front and forced their way to a
considerable depth in the neighborhood of the ridge known as Hill 35,
strongly defended by Irish troops against Prince Rupprecht's Bavarians.
At the same time a new battle at Verdun was in progress, but the
French held all their gains against reserves massed by the Germans for
desperate counter-attacks.

ITALIANS IN A GREAT OFFENSIVE

On the Isonzo front the Italian commander, General Cadorna, launched a
great offensive while the British were active in Flanders and by August
23 had broken through the whole Austrian line, capturing the town of
Selo, which was the pivot of the Austrian defense, and considered
impregnable, and inflicting upon the enemy, in this eleventh battle of
the Isonzo, the greatest losses he had sustained since the capture of
Goritz. More than 13,000 Austro-Hungarian prisoners were captured during
the battle, with thirty guns, and all counter-attacks were repulsed with
heavy losses. The whole Selo line fell before the heroic onslaught of
the Italians, and the loss of this important position was a serious blow
to the Austrians. On August 22 Italian warships were showering shells on
Trieste, the big Austrian port on the Adriatic which was the objective
of the Italian campaign.

HOW ARE THE MIGHTY FALLEN!

"In the welter of the conflict an emperor of Austria-Hungary has died,
full of years and of sorrow, a czar of Russia has stepped from his
throne, and a king of Greece has lost his crown," said a well-known
publicist, reviewing the war up to this time.

"Not one of the prime ministers or ministers of foreign affairs who
conducted the diplomatic maneuvers preceding of immediately following
the beginning of the war in the six most important countries of Europe
is still in power. In Russia, Goremykin and Sazonoff are forgotten
behind a line of successors, equally unstable. In France, Delcassé left
the foreign office and Viviani ceased to head the cabinet, following the
collapse of Serbia in the second autumn of the war.

"The tragedy of Roumania a year later contributed to the overthrow of
Asquith and his foreign secretary, Sir Edward Grey, in Great Britain.
San Giuliano of the Italian foreign office and Salandra, the
prime minister, have passed. Count Berchtold, foreign minister of
Austria-Hungary in 1914 (the empire has no prime minister), has passed
into oblivion, while Von Jagow gave up the management of Germany's
foreign affairs last autumn. Von Bethmann-Hollweg, the last of the group
to lose his grip, has just gone down, despite the fact that he was not
responsible to any elective body.

"Ministers of war in the belligerent countries have not been more
stable. Kerensky follows a long procession in Russia. France has had
four war ministers from Millerand to Painlevé, inclusive, while Lord
Kitchener, organizer of Great Britain's most marvelous war achievement,
a volunteer army of some 4,000,000 men, sleeps below the waters of the
North Sea.

"History has as ruthlessly brushed aside most of the army commanders of
the early days. Von Kluck, who led the Germans on Paris, is retired.
Rennenkampf, with whom the Russians meanwhile swarmed into East Prussia,
is a memory only. Sir John French has been recalled to England. That
little group of generals who saved France and Europe at the Marne is
decimated. Foch and Castelnau, and Manoury are no longer in command,
while Galliéni, worn out in the service of his country, was borne on his
last journey through the streets of Paris on a sunny spring day in 1916.

"Even Joffre has been superseded in a military sense, though not as an
idol of the nation. France still holds him as close to her heart as
Germany possibly could hold Von Hindenburg--almost the only one of the
war's early commanders to retain his military power."

RUSSIAN CAPITAL IN PERIL

On August 23, Riga, the Russian seaport which is the gateway to
Petrograd, was reported in peril from the Germans, who were conducting a
determined advance on the north of the eastern front under the immediate
direction of Field Marshal Von Hindenburg. With a Japanese mission in
Washington, headed by Viscount Ishii, it was expected that steps might
be taken to send Japanese troops to the aid of the Russians.

Russia's critical internal situation, aggravated by the new German drive
against Riga, was watched by officials in Washington with the gravest
concern. While the taking of Riga would not necessarily be a decisive
blow, it would make the Baltic more than ever a German lake, leaving the
Russian fleet in the position of the mouse in the rathole to the German
cat, just as the Kaiser's fleet was the mouse to the English fleet
outside.

The outcome of the forthcoming extraordinary national council to be held
at Moscow was therefore awaited in Washington with the keenest interest,
scarcely less keen than in Russia itself. The immediate fate of Russia,
it was felt, depended upon the action of the council in its efforts to
throw off the demoralizing socialistic control of the Russian army and
workmen. German intrigues in Russia were known to be exerting powerful
influence to bring about anarchy within the new democracy.

CLOSING IN ON LENS

An advance by the Canadians in the neighborhood of the Green Grassier on
the southern edge of Lens added greatly to the strength of the British
line, which continued to tighten steadily about the heart of the city.

The Grassier is a great slag heap, and lies only about 300 yards south
of the central railway station of Lens, and overlooks it.

The Canadians made their assault before dawn this time, and the attack
was preceded by a protracted and exceedingly intense bombardment of the
German positions. The Germans, exhausted by the long strain of constant
counter-attacks, found the Canadians in their midst with little warning.
But the defenders did not give up without a struggle, and there was
fierce bayonet fighting.

The Grassier was an important buffer between the Canadians and the
defenses of the city proper, and the Germans reached it through tunnels
connected with the network of passages and dugouts beneath Lens.

Part of the ground about the Grassier was inundated, due to the waterway
near by having broken its banks, and this, in conjunction with the
great number of machine-gun emplacements on the elevation, made it a
particularly difficult position for attack.

An advance upon two German colliery positions adjoining the Grassier to
the northwest, earlier in the night, also involved stiff hand-to-hand
fighting. About the Grassier were numerous shell-shattered buildings,
many of which had been strongly fortified by the Germans. The Canadians
bombed their way systematically through these defenses, silencing the
machine guns and clearing out the defenders.

The fighting on August 23 was on the edge of the city proper, rather
than in the suburbs. Notwithstanding the tremendous strain upon the
Canadians during the previous week, there was no diminution in the
strength of their attacks. They worked steadily and methodically,
gradually weaving a net about the Germans, who were living miserably in
their underground positions within the great coal center.

MANY GERMANS CAPTURED

In the three days' fighting on the western front from August 21 to 23,
the Entente Allies captured 25,000 German prisoners and by September
1 the total for August had reached more than 40,000, according to
Major-General Frederick B. Maurice, chief director of the British war
intelligence office. This topped the figure of prisoners which the
Germans claimed to have taken in a single month on the Russian front,
although their total undoubtedly was composed by at least half of mere
stragglers from the mutinous and disorganized Russian units.

On September 1, 1917, the positions recaptured by the French around
Verdun were safely consolidated in their possession, every German effort
being thrown back in disorder. The fighting had developed into a big-gun
duel, in which the French continued to maintain undoubted mastery, and
they were firmly established once more on the left bank of the Meuse,
which the Germans had intended to hold at all costs. Thus ended the last
hope of the Crown Prince of Germany, who apparently was obsessed with
the desire to conquer Verdun, in the neighborhood of which thousands of
the flower of the German army found only a burial place, without any
laurels of victory.

ALLIED GAINS IN THE WEST

The early autumn of 1917 witnessed steady gains by the British and
French forces co-operating in Flanders and to the South of the Belgian
border along the western front. The artillery on both sides was
constantly active, but with evident superiority on the part of the
Allies. Repeated German attacks were repulsed in the Champagne and along
the Meuse, while in the Ypres region the Allied troops made frequent
gains in spite of the concrete defenses established by the enemy to
strengthen their entrenched positions.

Repeated successes of the Allies along the Chemin des Dames finally
forced a German retreat along a fifteen-mile front which the Crown
Prince had made strenuous efforts to hold. The Germans were compelled to
retire because French victories on October 21-23 enabled French guns to
enfilade the Ailette Valley behind the German positions, exposing the
enemy to a series of disastrous flanking attacks and hampering the
German communications. On October 30-31 the French bombarded the German
lines vigorously. The enemy had already moved their artillery across the
Ailette to a ridge north of the river. On the night of November 1 they
completed their preparations for retreat and withdrew their infantry.
French patrols approaching the German lines on the morning of November
2 were fired upon at first, but on renewing their reconnoissance soon
after dawn found the German trenches empty.

It was impossible for the Germans to keep their front line supplied with
ammunition or food, the carriers of which were obliged to pass through a
tornado of shells and machine gun bullets while crossing the Valley of
the Ailette, where their every movement could be observed by the French.
Eventually the position became untenable and the Germans retired during
the night to the Northern side of the Ailette Valley. The best elements
of the Crown Prince's army had sustained severe losses and were
compelled to go to the rear to reconstitute their diminished ranks. The
evacuated territory North of the crest of Chemin des Dames included
several towns that had been pulverized by bombardment, and the retreat
brought the important city of Laon within range of the French guns.

The captures by the French in this sector from September 23 to November
1 included 12,000 prisoners, 200 heavy field guns, 220 trench mortars,
and 720 machine guns. In ten days, from September 21 to 30, twenty-three
German airplanes were destroyed and twenty-eight forced to descend badly
damaged.

THE FIRST AMERICAN CASUALTIES

The first list of Americans killed and wounded in combat with the enemy
reached Washington on October 17, in an official report from Rear
Admiral Sims of an encounter between a German submarine and an American
destroyer. One American sailor was killed and five sailors were wounded
when the submarine torpedoed the destroyer Cassin on patrol duty in
European waters. The destroyer was not sunk and after making a gallant
fight reached a British port.

Two days later Rear Admiral Sims reported that the American troop
transport Antilles, homeward bound from France, was torpedoed and sunk
by a German submarine on October 17. Seventy men of the 237 aboard lost
their lives, including four naval enlisted men, sixteen army enlisted
men, three ship's officers, and 47 members of the ship's crew. The
Antilles was under convoy of American patrol vessels at the time it was
sunk.

FRENCH TRIBUTE TO U.S. DEAD

At the burial on November 7 of the first three American soldiers killed
in the trenches in France by a raiding party of Germans, a guard of
French infantrymen, in their picturesque uniforms of red and horizon
blue, stood on one side and a detachment of American soldiers on the
other while the flag-wrapped coffins were lowered into the grave, as a
bugler blew taps and the batteries nearby fired minute guns. The French
officer commanding in the sector paid an eloquent tribute to the fallen
Americans, his words being punctuated by the roar of the guns and the
whistle of shells. In conclusion he said:

"In the name of the French army and in the name of France, I bid
farewell to Private Enright, Private Gresham and Private Hay of the
American army.

"Of their own free will they had left a prosperous and happy country to
come over here. They knew war was continuing in Europe; they knew that
the forces fighting for honor, love of justice and civilization were
still checked by the long-prepared forces serving the powers of brutal
domination, oppression and barbarity. They knew that efforts were still
necessary. They wished to give up their generous hearts and they had not
forgotten old historical memories while others forgot more recent ones.

"They ignored nothing of the circumstances and nothing had been
concealed from them--neither the length and hardships of war nor the
violence of battle, nor the dreadfulness of new weapons, nor the perfidy
of the foe. Nothing stopped them. They accepted the hard and strenuous
life; they crossed the ocean at great peril; they took their places on
the front by our side and they have fallen facing the foe in a hard and
desperate hand-to-hand fight. Honor to them! Their families, friends and
fellow-citizens will be proud when they learn of their deaths.

"Men! These graves, the first to be dug in our national soil and only a
short distance from the enemy, are as a mark of the mighty land we and
our Allies firmly cling to in the common task, confirming the will of
the people and the army of the United States to fight with us to a
finish, ready to sacrifice as long as is necessary until final victory
for the most noble of causes, that of the liberty of nations, the weak
as well as the mighty. Thus the deaths of these humble soldiers appeal
to us with extraordinary grandeur.

"We will therefore ask that the mortal remains of these young men be
left here, left with us forever. We inscribe on the tombs, 'Here lie the
first soldiers of the republic of the United States to fall on the soil
of France for liberty and justice.' The passer-by will stop and uncover
his head. Travelers and men of heart will go out of their way to come
here to pay their respective tributes.

"Private Enright! Private Gresham! Private Hay! In the name of France, I
thank you. God receive your souls! Farewell!"

ITALY INVADED BY TEUTONS

In the first week of October Austrian forces, heavily reinforced by
Germans, opened a gigantic drive in an effort to crush Italy. It soon
resulted in wiping out all the gains made by the Italians under General
Cadorna on the Isonzo and in the Trentino, and in a determined invasion
of Northern Italy by the enemy, with the city of Venice as its immediate
objective.

The Teuton attack began on the morning of October 24, after an intensive
artillery fire in which specially constructed gas shells were thrown at
various places. The offensive covered a 23-mile front, from Monte Rombon
Southeast through Flitsch and Tolmino and thence Southward to the
Bainsizza Plateau, about ten miles Northeast of Goritz, the scene of
desperate fighting in the drive by the Italians which wrested important
mountain positions from the Austrians.

The greatest shock came from the North, where the Isonzo was first
crossed by the enemy. At this point there occurred a weakening of
certain troops of the second Italian army, which gave the overwhelming
German contingents an opportunity to pass forward between a portion of
the army on the North and that on a line farther South. Then began the
double exposure of the Southern force to fire in the front and on the
flank which required a steady falling back until the entire Italian
army was moving towards newly-established positions farther West. The
commanding height of Monte Nero, which the Italians had occupied after
deeds of great valor, was defended against onslaughts from three
sides which gradually resulted in envelopment and the capture of many
thousands of Italian troops and hundreds of guns.

A general retreat of the Italian forces was then carried out, with
shielding operations by rear guards, and the main body of General
Cadorna's army retired to the Tagliamento. The Germans encountered
stubborn resistance on the Bainsizza Plateau and heaps of enemy dead
marked the lines of their advance. In one of the mountain passes a small
village, commanding the pass, was taken and retaken eight times during
desperate artillery, infantry and hand-to-hand fighting.

Goritz was shelled heavily and what remained of the city was further
reduced to a mass of debris. One of the main bridges from Goritz across
the Isonzo was blown up by the Italians and the enemy movement thus was
further impeded.

West of Goritz the town of Cormons also was shelled heavily. The great
German guns opened enormous craters and literally tore the towns to
pieces.

The heaviest pressure began to be felt on the Carso front on Friday,
October 26. The Teutons then increased their bombardment to deafening
intensity and supplemented this with huge volumes of poison gas and
tear-shells. The humid air and light winds permitted great waves of the
deadly gases to creep low toward the Italian lines, the rear guards
protecting themselves with gas masks and by hiding in caverns.

Amid the onslaught of overwhelming masses of the enemy, the Italians
fell back slowly. The retreat, as in other instances of the war, was
the most terrible for the civilian inhabitants. There was an enormous
movement Westward. All the roads were packed with dense traffic, with
four or five lines abreast of teams, automobiles, motor trucks, pack
mules, artillery wagons, and ox carts. The soldiers marched or rode,
singly, in groups, in regiments, in brigades, or in divisions.

"It was such a time as the world has seldom witnessed," said a Red Cross
spectator. "Even fields and by-roads were utilized for the colossal
migration. The only wonder was that the great army was able to withdraw
at all and establish itself along the new line of defense.

"Many heartrending scenes were witnessed along the route, as the
torrential rain and the vast zone of mud increased the misery of the
moving multitude. Food was scarce and many went without it for days,
while sleep was impossible as the throng trudged westward. The military
hospitals were evacuated, with all other establishments, and pale and
wounded patients obliged to join in the rearguard march or fall into the
hands of the enemy. The roads were strewn with dead horses.

"Families with eight or ten children, the youngest clinging tightly to
the grandfather, trudged amid ranks of soldiers of many descriptions."
The safe retirement of the Tagliamento was due to the unexampled heroism
of large bodies of Italians, of such spirit as the Alpine troops on
Monte Nero, who refused to surrender, and the regiments of Bersaglieri
at Monte Maggiore, the members of which perished to the last man rather
than yield ground. It was by such resistance in the face of overwhelming
forces of the enemy that the civil population was able to retire. And it
was owing to the valor of Italian aviators, combating the Austro-German
army of the air, that the fleeing women, children and old men, who
crowded the roads, were not struck down by bursting bombs.

By November 1 General Cadorna's forces had effected their retirement
behind the Tagliamento River line, but at the cost of tremendous losses,
aggregating 180,000 prisoners and 1,500 guns. It was soon seen, however,
that the Tagliamento line could not be successfully held against the
enemy and a further retirement was carried out, Southward through the
mountainous country to a shorter line along the Piave River East of
Venice and Northwesterly to the Trentino boundary. This gave French and
British reinforcements the opportunity to arrive in sufficient numbers
to aid in checking the invaders.

As one result of the Italian reverses, General Cadorna was relieved of
the chief command, though he was credited with a masterly retreat. He
was succeeded by General Diaz.

The Austro-German offensive continued steadily for three weeks and on
November 21 was being pressed on three main fronts: First, along the
Piave River; second, from the Piave to the Brenta; third, from the
Brenta across the Asiago Plateau. The Italian troops were holding firm
and inflicting heavy losses on the enemy. The spirit of the Italian
people was calm and public opinion strongly supported the most stubborn
resistance to the invader. Although all the fruits of Italy's two years
of strife had been swept away in a single month and a dread enemy was
reaching ever forward, seeking her most treasured possessions of art and
industry, the internal dissensions which Germany probably hoped to start
had not appeared. The population of Venice, however, had been reduced
from 160,000 to 20,000.

ANARCHY RAMPANT IN RUSSIA

The Imperial government of Russia, headed by Premier Kerensky, was
ousted on November 7, when a period of practical anarchy set in. On the
evening of that day a congress of workmen's and soldiers' delegates
assembled in Petrograd, with 560 delegates in attendance. Without
preliminary discussion the congress elected officers pledged to make
"a democratic peace." They included fourteen so-called Maximalists
or members of the Bolsheviki (majority), the radical Socialist party
suspected of pro-German tendencies, headed by Nikolai Lenine and Leon
Trotzky; also seven revolutionary Socialists. These leaders at once
sent an ultimatum to the Kerensky government, demanding their surrender
within 20 minutes. The government replied indirectly, refusing to
recognize the Bolsheviki committee. Rioting then broke out and the
Winter Palace, headquarters of the provisional government, was besieged
by troops favorable to the rebels. The cruiser Aurora, firing from
the Neva River, and the guns of the St. Peter and St. Paul fortress
bombarded the palace and early next morning compelled the surrender of
the government forces defending it. Women of the "Battalion of Death,"
armed with machine guns and rifles, were among the defenders, who held
out for four hours. Soon the Bolsheviki were in complete control of
the city, Kerensky was in flight, several members of his cabinet were
arrested by the rebels, and the provisional government was no more.

Several weeks of political and industrial chaos in Russia followed
the Lenine coup d' etat, which was a triumph, probably temporary,
of extremists. A number of the commissioners appointed by the
Lenine-Trotzky faction to carry on the government, gave up their posts
within a few days, characterizing the Bolsheviki regime as "impossible"
and as inevitably involving "the destruction of the revolution and the
country."

On November 23, Leon Trotzky, styling himself "National Commissioner for
foreign affairs," addressed to the embassies of the Allies in Petrograd
a note proposing "an immediate armistice on all fronts and the immediate
opening of peace negotiations." An official announcement was also made
that the Bolsheviki government had decided to undertake without delay
the reduction of the Russian armies, beginning with the release from
their military duties of all citizen soldiers conscripted in 1899.

SECOND "LIBERTY LOAN" OVERSUBSCRIBED

The second "Liberty Loan" of the United States war bond issues was
largely oversubscribed by the patriotic citizens of the country. When
the books closed on October 27 it was announced that the subscriptions
received from approximately 9,000,000 persons amounted to over
$5,000,000,000, the amount of the bond issue being $3,000,000,000.

BRITISH SMASH HINDENBURG LINE

By a series of attacks on the morning of November 21 that took the
German enemy completely by surprise, the British Third army, under
command of Lieut.-Gen. Sir Julian Byng, broke through the Hindenburg
line on a front of 32 miles between St Quentin and the Scarpe. The
following day, when they consolidated the new positions gained, 10,
German prisoners were sent to the rear, with a large number of guns and
quantities of material abandoned by the astonished enemy, while at one
point the victorious troops were 6-1/2 miles in advance of their former
positions and the city of Cambrai was brought within easy range of their
guns.

It was the greatest and most successful surprise of the war. There was
no preliminary bombardment to warn the enemy, and the advance continued
steadily for two days, when the towns of Masnieres, Marcoing, Ribecourt,
Havrincourt, Graincourt, and Flesquieres, long occupied by the enemy,
all were behind the British lines.

Just before dawn on the 20th there was absolute quiet along the whole
line. A few minutes later British tanks were rumbling along over "No
Man's Land" flanked and followed by the infantry. The tanks smashed down
the barbed wire entanglements and were atop the trenches and, dugouts
before their German defenders were aware of their peril.

The German artillery could lay down no barrage, and line after line of
trenches had been captured before they got into action. Then the British
guns opened, but not for barrage purposes. They were shelling and
silencing the enemy artillery.

Following through the gaps made by the tanks, English, Scottish, and
Irish regiments swept over the enemy's outposts and stormed the first
defensive system of the Hindenburg line on the whole front.

The infantry and tanks then swept on in accordance with the program and
captured the German second system of defense, more than a mile beyond.
This latter was known as the Hindenburg support line.

English rifle regiments and light infantry captured La Vacquerie and
the formidable defense on the spur known as Welsh ridge. Other English
county troops stormed the village of Ribecourt and fought their way
through Coillet wood.

In severe hand-to-hand fighting at Flesquieres near Cambrai, on the
21st, British troops, preceded by tanks, stormed the town. The Germans
fired on the tanks with seven big guns at short range. The British
infantry charged the guns, captured them, and killed the crews. Three
other big guns were captured in a similar manner at Premy Chapelle.
British cavalry captured a battery at Rumilly, sabering the crews.

Highland territorial battalions crossed the Grand ravine and entered
Flesquieres, where fighting took place. West Biding terriorials captured
Havrincourt and the German trench, systems north of the village, while
the Ulster battalions, covering the latter's left flank, moved Northward
up the West bank of the Canal du Nord.

Later in the day the advance was continued and rapid progress was made
at all points, English, Scottish, Irish, and Welsh battalions secured
the crossings on the canal at Masnieres and captured Marcoing and Neuf
Wood. On the following day, Wednesday, November 21, reinforcements which
the enemy hurried up to the battlefield to oppose the British advance
were driven out of a further series of villages and other fortified
positions.

Thousands of cavalry co-operated with the great army of tanks and
infantry in continuing the successful assault begun on November 20. Open
fighting went on at many places and the mounted troops, who long had
waited for a chance to vindicate their existence in this war, rendered
invaluable services in "mopping up".

AMERICAN COMMISSION IN EUROPE

A special American Commission, headed by Colonel Edward M. House,
personal friend and trusted adviser of President Wilson, arrived in
London on November 8, on its way to attend the Allies' conference which
met in Paris November 22, to perfect a system of co-ordination among the
nations at war with Germany and secure a better understanding of their
respective needs.

BRITISH NEAR JERUSALEM

On November 24 the British forces contending against the Turks in
Palestine had advanced to the suburbs of Jerusalem, after inflicting
a severe defeat upon the enemy at Askelon, with Turkish casualties of
10,000. More than seventy guns were captured at Askelon, and the British
subsequently occupied the ancient port of Jaffa (Poppa). The fall of
Jerusalem was then considered imminent and the end of Turkish dominion
in the Holy Land was plainly in sight.

[Illustration: ITALIAN BATTLE FRONT, MAY 4, 1918.

The Heavy Line Shows the Position of the Hostile Armies, When the
Austrians Threatened A New Drive in 1918. The Shaded Line Shows the
Italian Positions Before the Austro-German Offensive, in the Fall of
1917.]

WIN AND LOSE AT CAMBRAI

For the first time since the war began England celebrated on November
the victory of Field Marshal Haig and General Byng at Cambrai, in the
old-fashioned way, by the ringing of bells in London and other cities.
Heavy fighting continued for several days at the apex of the wedge
driven into the German line, especially at Bourlon Wood and the village
of Fontaine, where attacks and counter-attacks followed in rapid
succession.

Up to November 30 the British held their gains near Cambrai and that
city lay under their guns. Then the Germans in a determined attack
surprised the British in their turn, and forced them, back from
their new positions for a distance of about two miles, nearly to the
Bapaume-Cambrai road.

Next day, by fierce fighting, the British recaptured Gouzeau-court. The
battle then raged over a fifteen-mile front, desperate efforts being
made by the Germans to regain all the ground taken by the British west
and south of Cambrai. The British had had no chance to dig themselves in
and consolidate their positions in the ground won, and on December 1 and
2 the struggle was in the open, a fierce hand-to-hand conflict unlike
anything previously seen in the war. The British lost guns, for the
first time in more than thirty months. They also lost many men,
taken prisoner by the enemy, but soon succeeded in checking the
counter-offensive.

In their attempt to deliver a great simultaneous encircling attack,
to surround the victorious British in their new Cambrai salient, the
Germans sent forward great forces of infantry, supported by a terrific
bombardment. The British met the shock brilliantly, finally held their
own, and the German drive was declared to have missed its end, at
enormous sacrifice of life.

On the night of December 5 the British strengthened their line by
abandoning certain untenable positions near Cambrai, falling back
deliberately and successfully, unknown to the enemy, upon a well-chosen
line which ruled out the dangerous salient made by Bourlon Wood. Here
they prepared to maintain their hold upon the captured length of the
Hindenburg line against any pressure.

The German casualties in the battle of Cambrai were estimated at 100,
men, greatly exceeding those of the British in consequence of the nature
of the massed attacks made by infantry in the counteroffensive.

As the year 1917 closed there was a succession of German attacks and
counter-attacks by the British in the Cambrai sector, the British lines
holding firmly at all points and continuing to hold during the winter.
SOME RESULTS OP THE YEAR

The British War Office issued the following statement of captures and
losses during 1917: Captures--prisoners on all fronts, 114,544; guns,
781. Losses--prisoners, 28,379; guns, 166.

The following figures, obtained from reliable sources, tell the real
story of Germany's "ruthless" submarine campaign against British
shipping. Tonnage of British, ships of more than 1,600 tons in August,
1914--16,841,519; loss by enemy action in 3-1/2 years, less new
construction, purchase, and captures, 2,750,000; remaining tonnage
January I,1918--14,091,519.

On December 3, 1917, it was announced officially in London that East
Africa had been completely cleared of the enemy. Every German-colony was
then occupied by Allied forces.

DISASTER AT HALIFAX

As the result of a collision in the harbor of Halifax, Nova Scotia,
between the French munition ship "Mont Blanc" and the Belgian relief
ship "Imo" on December 6, thousands of tons of high explosives blew up,
killing more than 1,260 persons, injuring thousands, and destroying
millions of dollars in property in the city.

JERUSALEM CAPTURED BY BRITISH

Advancing steadily upon Jerusalem in the Palestine campaign against the
Turks, the British forces under General Allenby finally, on December 10,
captured the Holy City and restored it to Christendom. The Turks were
driven to the north, with heavy losses, the port of Joppa was occupied,
and Palestine was slowly but surely freed from Mussulman dominion.
General Allenby formally entered and took possession of Jerusalem on
December 11 with a small representative force of British and colonial
troops, being received and welcomed with impressive ceremonies by the
inhabitants.

WAR DECLARED AGAINST AUSTRIA

The United Stages Congress on December 7, 1917, passed a resolution
declaring a state of war to exist with Austria-Hungary. Austrian aliens,
however, were permitted free movement in the United States, only Germans
being classed as alien enemies and subjected to restrictions as such.

It was announced by the Secretary of War during the winter that 500,
American troops would be on the fighting line in France in the spring of
1918 and that a total of 1,500,000 men would be available for the front
during the year.

A portion of the French front was taken over by the United States troops
under General Pershing early in 1918 and in a number of trench raids and
patrol engagements in the last weeks of winter they gave a good account
of themselves, receiving their baptism of enemy fire and gas with the
utmost gallantry and winning several minor engagements. A small number
of Americans were captured in German raids up to March 10, but the
losses inflicted upon the enemy more than counterbalanced those
sustained.

RUSSIA FORCED INTO "PEACE"

On November 28, a few days after German emissaries had been sent to
Petrograd to parley with the peace faction in disorganized Russia, the
Bolshevik _de facto_ government under Nicolai Lenine and Leon Trotzky
began negotiations for an armistice with Germany; and on December 3 an
armistice was arranged. The Cossacks under General Kaledines and General
Korniloff began a revolt against the Bolsheviki, who organized their
forces as Red Guards, and a virtual reign of terror was inaugurated in
Russia while negotiations for a separate peace with Germany proceeded
with numerous interruptions. The administration of Lenine and Trotzky
became an absolutely despotic regime, all forms of opposition, being
summarily dealt with, while crime was rampant and blood flowed freely in
Petrograd and Moscow. The Ukrainian provinces formed a separate republic
and proceeded to make peace with Germany and Austria.

Formal announcement of the armistice with the Petrograd government was
made at Berlin December 16, with the statement that peace negotiations
would begin immediately at Brest-Litovsk on the Eastern front. Russia
thus violated her pledge to the Allies not to make a separate peace.

The peace delegates of Russia and Germany began their sessions December
23. On Christmas Day Ensign Krylenko, the Bolshevik commander-in-chief,
reported that the Germans were transferring large numbers of troops to
the Western front against the Allies, contrary to one of the Russian
conditions of the armistice. Early in the new year, January 2. 1918, the
negotiations at Brest-Litovsk were suspended for several days, owing
to the nature of the German terms of peace, which demanded that Russia
surrender to Germany the territory including Poland, Courland, Esthonia
and Lithuania. Foreign Minister Trotzky declared that the Russian
workers would not accept the German terms.

Germany, however, stood pat and on January 10 negotiations were resumed,
continuing at intervals for several weeks. In the middle of February the
Bolshevik government announced that it had withdrawn Russia from the
war with the Central Empires and had ordered the demobilization of
the Russian armies, but refused to sign a formal treaty of peace with
Germany. Premature rejoicing ensued in Germany, and on February
Berlin announced a resumption of war with Russia. Two days later the
German armies began an advance into Russia along the whole front from
Riga south to Lutsk; occupying the latter city without fighting.

A complete surrender to Germany followed. Lenine and Trotzky stating
that they would sign the peace treaty on the German terms, which
included all the territory claimed by Germany along the eastern coast of
the Baltic Sea, comprising the western part of Esthonia, Courland with
the Moon Islands in the Gulf of Riga, most of the provinces of Kovno
and Grodno, and nearly all of Vilna, with a huge indemnity. Despite the
surrender, the Germans continued their invasion of Russia, with an
eye to booty, and captured without organized resistance of any kind
thousands of guns and vast quantities of rolling stock, motor trucks,
automobiles, and munitions of war. The invasion continued well into the
month of March in the general direction of Petrograd, while to the south
Austria, at first seemingly reluctant to join the German incursion
into helpless territory, also invaded the Ukraine on the pretense of
"restoring order."

SINKING OF THE "TUSCANIA."

The first serious disaster to American troops on the voyage to France
occurred on February 5, when the steamship "Tuscania," a British
transport with 2,179 United States troops on board, was torpedoed and
sunk by a German submarine off the north coast of Ireland. The close
proximity of British convoy and patrol boats enabled most of those on
board to be rescued, 1912 survivors being landed within a few hours at
Buncrana and Larne in Ireland. The lives lost included 267 American
soldiers besides a number of the crew. The attacking submarine is
believed to have been destroyed by the British patrol before the
"Tuscania" sank.

LONG-DISTANCE PEACE TALK

Early in 1918, while the Russian debacle complicated the war situation
in Europe and the United States hummed with war activities, a series of
speeches by statesmen of the powers at war resulted in demonstrating the
futility of all hopes of a general peace.

In an address to Congress on January 8 President Wilson, following and
indorsing a notable speech by the English premier, Mr. Lloyd-George,
laid down fourteen definite peace and war aims of the United States,
closely agreeing with the expressed aims of the European Allies; "and
for these," said Mr. Wilson, "we will fight to the death." Subsequently,
in February, Mr. Wilson stated four general principles on which the
nations at war should agree in seeking a satisfactory peace. The German
chancellor, Von Hertling, addressing the Reichstag, declared that
Germany could agree to Mr. Wilson's basic principles of peace, but
British and French statesmen promptly pointed out that the German
practices in Russia, and elsewhere as opportunity offered, failed to
agree with Von Hertling's profession of the Wilson principles. German
suggestions of an informal discussion of peace terms were therefore
declined by the allied powers, and in March, 1918, all eyes were turned
toward the Western front in anticipation of a long-threatened German
drive.

THE WORLD'S GREATEST BATTLE

All previous battles of the Great War paled into comparative
insignificance when the German offensive of 1918 opened on the Western
front, March 21, with a desperate and partially successful attempt of a
million men to break through the British line, attacking fiercely from
the Ailette to the Scarpe, along a front of sixty miles. For weeks the
battle raged over the territory of the Somme, and when a second German
drive occurred farther north, from Givenchy to Ypres, fully 3,000,
men were engaged on both sides, and all records of human combat were
broken.

The loss of life was appalling, but in the absence of official reports
while the fighting was in progress, could only be guessed at, though the
world knew that the rivers of France and Flanders ran with blood. The
Germans attacked in masses and successive waves, and paid the penalty of
their desperate strategy. For though the British, and later the French,
lines were bent backward for miles, and gaps were occasionally torn in
them by the foe's furious attack, the Allied defensive withstood the
onslaught and after a month of the most terrific struggle the world has
ever seen, both British and French forces presented an unbroken front to
the disappointed enemy.

The city of Amiens, one of the keys to Paris, had been a chief objective
of the German drive, but all efforts to capture that important railroad
center failed. True, Noyon, Peronne, Bapaume, Albert and Montdidier,
on the south, and Festubert, Neuve Chappelle, Armentieres, and
Paaschendaele, to the north, were successively captured from the Allies,
in spite of the most gallant and heroic resistance. But then the lines
held firmly, and all the Germans had to show for an awful sacrifice
of life and morale was a few miles of advance into territory already
devastated by war.

On April 21, when the Hun offensive had lasted a full month, not only
were the armies of the Allies intact, and better still, their spirit and
morale unbroken, but the utmost confidence prevailed among them. All the
Allied forces, British, French, Canadian, and American, on the Western
front, had been by this time placed under the supreme command of the
eminent French strategist, General Ferdinand Foch, an important step in
the co-ordination of effort that met with universal approval among the
Allied nations.

GENERAL PERSHING OFFERS AID

A magnanimous offer by General Pershing, approved by President Wilson,
to brigade the United States troops in France with the British and
French forces, was gratefully accepted by General Foch. While the
Americans bore only a minor part in the big battles, or rather the
continuous battle of March and April on the Somme, and had no part at
all in the fighting in Flanders, they held splendidly to their section
of the front-line trenches in the vicinity of Toul, and gave the enemy a
taste of their quality in many a trench raid. Several attacks by German
storm troops were also beaten off, the most important of these occurring
late in April, when the Americans defeated a force of some 1,200 picked
Hun troops, driving them back to their own lines with a loss of 400,
while the total losses of the Americans was about 200.

GERMANY PREPARES TO STRIKE

The great German drive had been in course of preparation for months
before it began. The Russian situation had been settled, and large
bodies of troops were thereby released for service on the Western front.
The Kaiser and his general staff then determined upon a final effort
to win a decisive victory in the west. Their plan was to vanquish
the British and French, if possible, before the United States could
transport a sufficient number of men to France to turn the tide of
numbers in favor of the Allies, and enable them to take the offensive
with good prospects of success.

German troops were therefore concentrated near the points chosen for
attack, and this was done with the utmost secrecy, the troop trains
running unlighted at night, so as to escape the observation of Allied
aviators. Two hundred divisions in all were gathered for the German
drive, and fully half of them were assembled near the British front
on the Somme. March 21 was set as the date for the attack and every
precaution was taken to render it a surprise to the British. The German
troops were led to believe that they would be irresistible, and that
Paris, their long-looked-for goal, would soon be won.

Meanwhile the Allies had not been idle. Expecting the drive, but not
knowing where it would strike first, preparations had been made all
along the line, not merely for strenuous defense of the positions held,
but also for eventualities in case of enforced retreat. New positions
back of the lines were prepared, reserves were distributed at strategic
points, and full co-operation between the Allied armies was arranged
for. The British took over the section of the French front between St.
Quentin and Chauny, in addition to their former front, and by so doing
relieved the strain on the far-flung French line.

The Germans counted for victory upon their concentration of vast bodies
of troops and the element of surprise, hoping to break through between
the British and French armies before Allied reserves could be brought up
in sufficient numbers to halt them.

OPENING DATS OF THE BATTLE

On the day set, Thursday, March 21, the great battle opened, after a
six-hour bombardment, the British 3rd and 5th armies being attacked
simultaneously. The German infantry advanced in waves, of which there
seemed no end, and these were followed by batteries of trench mortars,
until the front line of German trenches had been reached. Then, wave
after wave, the advance was continued, in the face of a furious British
fire, until the defenders were compelled to draw back through sheer
force and weight of numbers. The German waves moved forward at the
calculated rate of 200 yards every four minutes, wherever it was found
possible to do so. Each wave, on reaching its objective point, dropped
to the ground and opened fire with rifles and machine guns, placing a
barrage 2,000 yards ahead of them, under cover of which the succeeding
wave advanced. Thus each wave passed over the one ahead of it, and fresh
troops were constantly coming to the front. With such tactics, against a
spirited and determined foe, the losses of the attackers were naturally
enormous. In fact, it was estimated that the casualties suffered by the
Germans during the first few days of such fighting amounted to 250,
men. But, driven on by ruthless commanders, they continued to advance in
masses, though mowed down by the British at every successive step.

"All the German storm troops, including the guards, were in brand-new
uniforms," said the correspondent of the New York Times. "They advanced
in dense masses and never faltered until shattered by the machine-gun
fire. The supporting waves advanced over the bodies of the dead and
wounded. The German commanders were ruthless in the sacrifice of life,
in the hope of overwhelming the defense by the sheer weight of numbers.
* * * Still they came on, with most fanatical courage of sacrifice.
When the first lines fell, their places were filled by others, and the
British guns and machine-guns could not kill them fast enough." Two
batteries of field artillery at Epehy, it is said, "fired steadily with
open sights (that is, pointblank) at four hundred yards for four hours,
into the German masses swarming over No Man's Land."

On the first day, some field batteries aided the Germans, but these were
soon left behind in the advance over difficult and shell-torn ground,
and the battle became one of rifle and machine-gun fire and hand-to-hand
combat.

On the north the British 3rd army made a splendid resistance and
held its ground well, but the 5th army farther south, which bore the
principal brunt of the attack, under General Gough, was gradually forced
to retreat, though in good order, in a northwesterly direction, towards
Amiens. French troops were ordered from the southwest to reinforce the
British in the vicinity of Noyon. There the French stemmed the tide of
Germans, and the drive was soon turned northward, with Amiens as its
evident objective.

ALLIED LINES BEGIN TO HOLD FIRM

The battle continued along these lines, with the British still slowly
retiring, with their faces to the foe, until the 26th of March, the
French stretching their lines farther and farther to the left to keep in
touch with the British, and never failing to maintain connection between
the two armies. The Germans' fond hope of cutting them apart was doomed
to disappointment. French and British cavalry aided in keeping the line
intact, and for the second time since the early days of the war the
horsemen came into their own, doing valiant service in covering the
retreat of the British and impeding the enemy's advance at many points
where their aid proved invaluable.

On March 27 and 28, the situation began to improve. British
reinforcements arrived at the points of greatest danger, and the defense
stiffened, then held the lines firmly before Amiens, and at a distance
from that threatened city sufficiently great to prevent its successful
bombardment by all but the heaviest artillery of the enemy. The
devastated and shell-torn condition of the terrain taken over by the
Germans was unfavorable for bringing up the great guns to within
striking distance. From that time on, the Allies were supremely
confident of their ability to cope with any forces.

While the Allied armies, especially the British, lost heavily in men and
guns during the Hun advance, many of the German divisions engaged in the
drive were literally cut to pieces. The 88th division was reported by
prisoners to be practically annihilated. The same prisoners, taken in
counter-attacks, expressed the utmost surprise at the relatively small
number of dead whom they had found in the British and French trenches
as they advanced. They had been informed by their officers that the
offensive would be over in eight days, and that a complete victory over
the Allies would be won within three or four weeks.

GERMAN DRIVE IS HALTED

The eighth day of the German offensive, far from finding the Huns
victorious, resulted in tremendous attacks by the Germans being stopped
by the unbeatable British, while the French won a brilliant victory at
the south of the line. Meanwhile the Germans had begun another attack in
the Flanders sector, with the object of wresting from the British the
control of Messines Ridge, which dominated the lowlands of Flanders and
had been so gallantly won by the Canadians in the previous year. They
gained a partial footing on the ridge, but the greater part of it was
grimly held, and all efforts of the enemy to advance through Ypres
towards the Channel ports were frustrated.

Another sector was added to the north end of the battle line on the
eighth day, March 28, when the Germans attacked heavily on both sides of
the River Scarpe toward Arras. Here some of the fiercest fighting of
the offensive soon developed, but the ground gained by the Germans was
insignificant. Daily, however, they claimed to have captured thousands
of Allied troops and hundreds of guns; while, on the other hand,
enormously long ambulance trains were reported passing through Belgium
with the German wounded, the hospitals in northern France not having
sufficient accommodation for the sufferers. On every battlefield of the
100-mile front--for the fighting now covered that enormous stretch of
territory, in two sections, north of La Bassee and south of Arras--the
German dead lay literally in heaps.

On March 29, the ninth day of the great battle in France, the German
drive was practically halted, and both British and French reports noted
a decrease of the fighting, enemy activity being manifested only by
local attacks all along the front, which was being strengthened each day
by the arrival of Allied reinforcements.

PARIS BOMBARDED AT LONG RANGE

Soon after the great offensive opened, the city of Paris was surprised
by being bombarded from a distance of approximately 70 miles by a new
German long-range gun, which was discovered by French airmen to be
concealed in a concrete tunnel in a wood behind the German lines, A
number of persons were killed and wounded by the nine-inch shells from
this new weapon, 54 women being killed when a shell struck a church in
the suburbs of the city on Good Friday. The Allied commanders refused to
regard the long-range gun as of any great military importance except
as a means of spreading terror among the civilian population,--and
the population of Paris refused to be terrorized by such a method,
exhibiting the same spirit as that of the people of England with regard
to the futile aerial raids.

French estimates of the German losses for the first eleven days of the
offensive placed them at between 275,000 and 300,000 men. The Germans
claimed that during the same period they had captured 70,000 prisoners
and 1,000 field guns.

ANOTHER ATTACK ON AMIENS

Having been foiled in an attempt on March 31 to break through the valley
of the Oise, Paris ceased to be the German objective, and another
offensive against Amiens was undertaken on April 4. By this time a
French army had repaired the ragged line between the French on the south
and the remainder of the British army of General Gough, whose enforced
retirement had been conducted in good order. Though outnumbered two to
one, the British and French repulsed the attack on Amiens with heavy
losses to the Germans, who were effectually stopped at a distance of
fifteen kilometers (nine miles) from that city. This ended the first
phase of the great battle.

BATTLE RENEWED IN THE NORTH

The second phase of the battle which was expected to prove decisive
began April 9 with an attack on the British, aided by Portuguese troops,
on a front of fifteen miles, from La Bassee to Ypres. The center, held
by three Portuguese divisions, was broken through, and on April 12 the
situation seemed critical. Determined counterattacks by the British,
however, and reinforcements by the French, stopped the Germans in the
next few days, and this offensive, like that farther south in the valley
of the Somme, gradually died out, leaving the Germans with gains of only
a few square miles of devastated territory to show for their continued
heavy losses. And the reserve forces of the Allies were still intact,
the strategy of General Foch in this respect being universally applauded
as correct under the circumstances.

SHELLS FIRED BY THE MILLION

In the beginning of the offensive which thus failed to accomplish its
object, the most desperate means were employed by the Germans to break
down resistance; In the first six hours of bombardment on March 21, when
three great German armies were massed for the attack, under Generals Von
Bulow, Von Marwitz, and Von Hutier, commanding from the north to south
in the order named, it is estimated that at least 1,500,000 shells were
fired by one single army--that opposed to General Gough's forces on the
south, while the British 3rd army, under General Byng, to the north, was
similarly assailed. Most of the shells contained gas and were designed
to destroy the occupants of the trenches about to be stormed. Only the
utmost individual valor and persistency of the thin British line, as it
retired still fighting, prevented the desperate and over-confident foe
from turning the gradual retreat into a decisive defeat. As it was,
the Germans paid dearly for every yard of ground they gained, as their
successive waves of troops swept over the zone of trenches and then
engaged the groups of Allied forces in the open beyond.

All the German units were under orders to advance as far and as fast as
possible, being provided with three days' rations and two days' water.
After the first few days, the difficulty of bringing up supplies, with
the expected objectives far from being gained, aided in slowing up and
then halting their advance. Behind the German storm troops great numbers
of reserves were assembled, to fill up the gaps torn in the ranks and
restore the divisions to their normal strength as fast as they were
depleted by the defense. The German tactics took no account of human
life, but expended it in the most reckless manner, with appalling
results throughout the drive. The Allies, on the other hand, sought at
all times to conserve their forces by intrenching as fast as possible at
every point during the period of their retirement. Their artillery was
constantly in action, and aided greatly in checking the German. advance.

ALLIES CONTROL IN THE AIR

German aeroplanes played no great part in the advance, although they
bombed the British and French rear nightly, and the air service of the
Allies proved superior throughout the battle. For the first time in a
great battle British and French airmen attacked the enemy infantry from
low altitudes with their machine guns and bombs, and rendered invaluable
assistance in damming the swelling tide of the Hun hordes. Having gained
the mastery of the air, as they did prior to the British drive on
the Somme in 1916, they retained it until the foe was halted. To a
considerable extent they replaced the heavy guns of the Allies by their
constant bombing and gun fire.

Between March 21 and March 31, the French and British pilots shot down
more than 100 German planes, losing about one-third of that number in
the air battles. After the first few clays there were practically no
German machines in the air over the fighting front, as was the case
on the Somme in 1916, but at the end of March the Hun planes began to
reappear in mass formation patrols, sometimes consisting of as many as
fifty planes in a group of patrols. Then followed a period of intense
air fighting, of which a single day's record of the French may be cited
as an example. On April 12, the Allied aviation report shows that French
fighting scouts made 250 flights, fought 120 combats in the sky, shot
down eight Germans and damaged 23 others, burned five enemy balloons,
damaged five more, and bombarded German troops with 45 tons of
explosives.

GERMANS FAIL IN THEIR OBJECT

The last part of the month of April was marked by a succession of minor
attacks by the Germans along the entire front of the halted offensive,
and by the development of counter-attacks by the Allies at various
points where it was deemed necessary or advisable to strengthen their
defensive positions, but up to May 1 the Germans were as far as ever
from their main objectives in the west. Judged from the standpoint of
their confident expectations, and the promises of success held out as
an encouragement to their troops, the long-heralded and long-prepared
spring offensive of 1918 was a failure. Their much-vaunted strength of
numbers and of organization failed as completely to gain a decisive
result as their initial drive on Paris in 1914. Though they threw into
the fighting in March and April about 125 divisions, they failed to
separate the French and British armies, which was a prime object of
their strategy, and they sustained losses which, while not irreparable,
must have greatly affected the morale of their men. "Remember Verdun!"
said a famous French commander, commenting on the drive. "The Boche is
making this tremendous effort and sustaining these losses to effect
a complete rupture of our front, and if he does not do that he has
failed."

BRITISH LOSSES MADE GOOD

On April 25 the British minister of munitions announced in the House
of Commons that the losses of guns and ammunition sustained by Field
Marshal Haig's forces in France and Flanders during the big German drive
had been more than replaced. The losses were placed by Mr. Winston
Spencer Churchill at nearly 1,000 guns, between 4,000 and 5,000 machine
guns, and a quantity of ammunition "requiring from one to three weeks to
manufacture." More than twice the number of guns lost or destroyed had
been placed at the disposal of the British air and ground services, said
the minister.

GERMANS START ANOTHER ATTACK

Another determined attack in the Somme region was begun by the Germans
on April 24, after three weeks' further preparation. The enemy evidently
had not abandoned hope of capturing Amiens, and, he again began
hammering at the gateway to that city. The first onslaught was repulsed
by the British, but on the following day, April 25, the enemy succeeded
in gaining about a mile of ground. The combined British and French
armies were covering the roads to Amiens, with reserves close at hand,
and part of General Pershing's American forces were co-operating with
the French. The utmost confidence prevailed that the united forces under
General Foch, who was called by Marshal Joffre "the greatest strategist
in Europe," would not only meet and defeat this renewed drive by the
enemy, but that before long the tide of battle would turn strongly in
favor of the Allies, whose reserve armies were held in leash by their
supreme commander, awaiting the strategic hour to strike.

BOTTLING UP U-BOAT BASES

One of the most thrilling exploits of the war occurred on the night of
April 22, 1918, when British naval forces performed an almost incredible
feat, by entering the harbors of Ostend and Zeebrugge, German submarine
bases, and practically bottling them up. French destroyers co-operated
with the British in the daring undertaking.

At midnight, under cover of a remarkably developed smoke screen,
furnished by the raiders themselves, five old British cruisers were run
aground in the harbor channels, blown up, and abandoned by their crews.
The ships were loaded with concrete. An old submarine, loaded with
explosives, was also run under a bridge connecting the mole, or
breakwater, at Zeebrugge with the shore, and there blown up, so as to
prevent interruption of the raiders while they were doing their work
alongside the mole.

Facing dangerous and unknown conditions of navigation, the harbor was
rushed by British monitors and destroyers, under heavy fire from the
shore batteries. A storming party of volunteers, sailors and marines,
was landed under extreme difficulties from the cruiser Vindictive. This
party boarded a German destroyer lying alongside the mole, defeated her
crew, and sank the ship. The concrete-laden vessels were duly sunk with
a view to blocking both harbors, and every gun on the mole at Zeebrugge
was destroyed. The effects of the raid were not easily ascertainable. It
was soon learned that the submarine base at Zeebrugge at least had been
put out of business for a while. The gallantry and daring of the deed
were generally recognized as fully in keeping with the best traditions
of the British navy. The loss of life was quite heavy, but the British
lost only one destroyer and two coastal motor boats, many of the raiders
returning safely to the other side of the Channel. Even the men on the
exploded submarine succeeded in escaping. The officer who planned the
raid, however, was among the killed.

GERMAN ATTACK ON YPRES FAILS

On Monday, April 29, the German 4th army under General von Arnim, having
gained possession of Mount Kemmel, a dominating position, began a
general assault on the British hill positions on the Kemmel front,
southwest of Ypres. The intention was to capture Ypres forthwith, by the
overwhelming power of numbers, and the day's fighting was a crucial test
of the holding power of the Allies in the Ypres salient. The result of
the attack was a stunning defeat for the enemy, who was repulsed all
along the line and suffered frightful losses.

In the words of a French general, "It was a great day for the Allies!"
The repulse of the German attack was a real defeat, for it upset all the
confident calculations of the enemy, who from the height of Mount Kemmel
had seen, first Ypres, and then channel ports, within his grasp. It
brought disappointment and disillusion to his troops, who had been urged
on to their disastrous massed attacks by flamboyant promises of success.
The effect was seen in a renewal of German peace propaganda, which all
the Allies had learned by this time to disregard as unworthy of the
slightest serious attention.

"Extraordinary nervousness and depression prevail in Germany, owing to
the losses in the western offensive," said Reuter's correspondent at
Amsterdam on April 29, quoting a German military writer, Capt. von
Salzmann, who said: "Our losses have been enormous. The offensive in
the west has arrived at a deadlock. The enemy is much stronger than our
supreme command assumed. The region before Ypres is a great lake, and
therefore impassable. The whole country between our Amiens front and
Paris is mined and will be blown up should we attempt to pass."

The preliminary bombardment southwest of Ypres April 29 started in the
early morning and took in the ten-mile front from Meteren, west of
Bailleul, to Voormezeele, two miles south of Ypres. Infantry attacks in
this area followed with great fury, and sanguinary fighting continued
all day. The Germans at the outset advanced with fixed bayonets, but
they came under such an intense machine-gun fire that most of them were
never able to employ the steel. The French at Locre and the British at
Voormezeele repulsed every attack, thrusting the enemy back whenever he
gained a footing in advanced positions, and firmly holding every point
around Ypres at the end of the day.

General von Arnim's losses were particularly staggering at Locre, where
he used battalion after battalion in a vain attempt to hold the village,
a key to Mount Rouge. The previous German capture of Mount Kemmel did
the enemy little good, for the Allied artillery kept the crest of the
hill so smothered with shell fire that it was impossible for the Huns to
occupy it in force.

The attack, which was the fourth great battle of Ypres, was the biggest
effort the Germans had made in the Flanders offensive, the enemy
employing thirty fresh battalions of reserves, in addition to the large
number of divisions in position at the beginning of the battle. The
net result was a tremendous setback for the Germans, who paid an awful
price. Next morning the battlefield in front of the defenders' positions
was covered with the bodies of gray-uniformed men.

AMERICAN TROOPS IN ACTION

American units were in action in Picardy, east of Amiens, on April 28,
having reinforced the British and French in that sector, to aid in
keeping the foe from Amiens and Paris. Their baptism of fire in the
direct line of the German offensive made their previous experiences pale
into the insignificance of skirmishes. During the various engagements in
which they participated in the last days of April and the first week of
May they acquitted themselves with great credit.

After a preliminary bombardment of two hours, a heavy German attack
was launched against the Americans in the afternoon of April 30 in the
vicinity of Villers-Bretonneux, and was repulsed with heavy losses to
the enemy, who left dead and wounded on the field, while the American
losses were reported as "rather severe." There was hand-to-hand fighting
all along the line, and the violent struggle lasted for a considerable
time before the enemy was finally thrust back, leaving prisoners in the
American hands. Their French comrades were full of praise for the marked
bravery displayed throughout by the American troops, who were fighting
at one of the most difficult points on the whole battle front.

U.S. TROOPS BUSHED TO PRANCE

As a result of the great German offensive movements and territorial
gains in the spring of 1918, there was a tremendous increase in the
military activities of the United States, particularly in rushing troops
to Europe. After the selection of General Foch as generalissimo of the
Allied forces, the American troops in the war zone were brigaded with
t

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