The Story of the Great War, Volume 7
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Title: The Story of the Great War, Volume 7
Editor: Francis J. Reynolds
Allen L. Churchill
Francis Trevelyan Miller
Release date: November 5, 2010 [eBook #34161]
Language: English
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/34161
Credits: Produced by Charlene Taylor, Christine P. Travers and the
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR, VOLUME 7 ***
Produced by Charlene Taylor, Christine P. Travers and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
(This file was produced from images generously made
available by The Internet Archive)
THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
History of the European War from Official Sources
Complete Historical Records of Events to Date,
Illustrated with Drawings, Maps, and Photographs
Prefaced by
What the War Means to America
Major General Leonard Wood, U.S.A.
Naval Lessons of the War
Rear Admiral Austin M. Knight, U.S.N.
The World's War
Frederick Palmer
Theatres of the War's Campaigns
Frank H. Simonds
The War Correspondent
Arthur Ruhl
Edited by
Francis J. Reynolds
Former Reference Librarian of Congress
Allen L. Churchill
Associate Editor, The New International Encyclopedia
Francis Trevelyan Miller
Editor in Chieft, Photographic History of the Civil War
P. F. Collier & Son Company
New York
[Illustration: Marechal Ferdinand Foch
_Generalissimo of the Armies of the Allies_.]
THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
AMERICAN FOOD AND SHIPS
PALESTINE · ITALY INVADED
GREAT GERMAN OFFENSIVE
AMERICANS IN PICARDY
AMERICANS ON THE MARNE
FOCH'S COUNTEROFFENSIVE
VOLUME VII
P · F · Collier & Son · New York
Copyright 1919
By P. F. Collier & Son
CONTENTS
PART I.--THE WESTERN FRONT
CHAPTER Page
I. Franco-British Forces Victorious at Ypres--Germans
Lose Ground at Lens 9
II. French Break the German Lines at Verdun--Canadians
Gain at Lens 22
III. Lens in Ruins--British Advance Near Ypres 33
IV. Haig Strikes Again at Ypres--The French Break the
German Lines on the Aisne 42
V. German Retreat from Chemin-des-Dames--British Advance
Toward Cambrai 54
VI. Germans Gain in the Cambrai Area--Cold Weather
Halts Important Operations 66
PART II.--THE UNITED STATES AS A BELLIGERENT
VII. The New Ally in Council 77
VIII. On the Lorraine Front 83
IX. Pope and President 97
X. America's War Aims 102
XI. Moving the Military Machine 111
XII. Fleets in the Making 119
XIII. Food as a War Factor 124
XIV. Transportation and Fuel 128
PART III.--REVOLUTIONARY RUSSIA
XV. The Last Days of Kerensky 134
XVI. The Bolshevist Revolution 142
XVII. The Siege of the Winter Palace 145
XVIII. The Bolsheviki and Their Leaders 147
XIX. First Bolsheviki Peace Move 153
XX. The Peace Parleys Begin 156
XXI. Publication of Secret Treaties 158
XXII. The Peace Negotiations 162
XXIII. An Attempted Counter-Revolution 165
XXIV. Legislation by Decrees 169
PART IV.--ITALIAN FRONT
XXV. The Capture of Monte Santo 186
XXVI. The Struggle on the Isonzo Front 193
XXVII. The Austro-German Offensive in Italy 200
XXVIII. The Italians at Bay on the Piave 208
PART V.--CAMPAIGNS IN PALESTINE, ARABIA MESOPOTAMIA, AND AFRICA
XXIX. The Palestine Campaign 214
XXX. The Fall of Jerusalem 223
XXXI. Palestine--Arabia--Mesopotamia 232
PART VI.--THE BALKANS
XXXII. The Balkans--Greece and Macedonia 245
XXXIII. Rumania 250
PART VII.--NAVAL AND AIR WARFARE
XXXIV. On the Sea 253
XXXV. The War in the Air 260
PART VIII.--THE WESTERN FRONT
XXXVI. Preparing for the Great Offensive--The Attack of March
21--First Phase of the Battle 269
XXXVII. The Second Phase of the Great Offensive 284
XXXVIII. The German Offensive Renewed--Ypres Threatened--The
Allies' Heavy Losses 298
XXXIX. Dark Days for the Allies--The German Offensive
Declines--French Gain in the Rheims Region--British
Victory at Hamel 310
XL. The New German Drive Around Rheims--The New
Battle of the Marne--The Allies Launch a New
Offensive Movement 325
PART IX.--THE UNITED STATES AS A BELLIGERENT
XLI. Force to the Utmost 389
XLII. The American Legions 343
XLIII. Raiding the Foe 347
XLIV. America Over the Top 351
XLV. At Seicheprey and Xivray 359
XLVI. On the Chemin-des-Dames 364
XLVII. Before Amiens 367
XLVIII. Cantigny 373
XLIX. Around Château-Thierry 376
L. A Drive by the Marines 381
LI. Belleau Wood 387
LII. Their Presence Felt 393
LIII. Vaux and Hamel 396
LIV. Across the Marne and Back 400
LV. Forward with Foch 406
LVI. Fighting Through Forests 409
LVII. Sergy and Seringes 413
PART X.--RUSSIA
LVIII. The Peace Without Treaty 417
LIX. The Germans Renew Hostilities with Russia 422
LX. The Peace Treaty That Was Signed 426
LXI. Continued German Aggression 429
LXII. Japanese Take Action in the East 432
LXIII. German Policy of Aggression 437
LXIV. Germany's Appeal to Class Hatred 439
LXV. Assassination of the German Ambassador 442
LXVI. The March of the Czecho-Slovaks Through Siberia 444
LXVII. Execution of ex-Czar Nicholas 447
PART XL--AUSTRO-ITALIAN CAMPAIGN
LXVIII. Italy Revives 450
PART XII.--THE WAR ON THE SEA
LXIX. Naval Warfare 460
PART XIII.--THE WAR IN THE AIR
LXX. Bombing and Reconnoissance 475
PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY 489
INDEX 501
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Marshal Ferdinand Foch, Generalissimo of the Armies of the
Allies _Colored Frontispiece_
Opposite Page
The French Victory at Fort Malmaison 46
General Diaz with French and Italian Officers 206
The Surrender of Jerusalem 222
Marshal Foch, King George, Field Marshal Haig, Generals
Pétain, Fayolle, Debeney, and Rawlinson 286
American Soldiers Storming Cantigny 366
Château-Thierry with American Soldiers on Guard 398
The Cruiser "Brooklyn" in the Harbor of Vladivostok 446
The Cruiser "Vindictive" After the Fight at Zeebrugge 462
LIST OF MAPS
Page
The Western Battle Field, Showing the International Frontiers,
the Important Railways, the Position of the Lines at the
Culmination of Important Campaigns, and the Battle Front
as it Existed in September, 1918 _Colored Insert_
The Battle Fronts of the Great War--as the Lines Were Drawn
in Belgium, France, the Balkans, Italy, Palestine, and
Mesopotamia, September, 1918. The Russian Front Had Completely
Disappeared _Colored Insert_
The Western Front from Nancy to Calais (_Colored Map_) _Front Insert_
The Western Front, 1917-1918 11
The Taking of Malmaison and Chemin-des-Dames 49
The Battle of Cambrai 68
American Front in France Where the First Clashes Between
Americans and Germans Occurred 87
The Italian Advance in Istria 190
Different Stages of the Italian Retreat 205
The Campaign in Palestine 219
The British Advance in Mesopotamia and Palestine 235
Five Zeppelins Destroyed After the Air Raid on London, October
19-20, 1917 263
German Offensive from Arras to the Oise, March-June, 1918 271
Range of the German 80-Mile Gun 279
German Advance Between Ypres and Arras, March-June, 1918 292
German Drive Toward Paris, Which Began May 27, 1918. This
Map Shows the Farthest Advance 309
German Thrust South of Ypres and Where It was Stopped 316
Where Foch Definitely Stopped the German Offensive, June
14, 1918 316
Line-up at the Great German Offensive, March-June, 1918 323
Allied Counteroffensive on the Marne 326
Military Establishments in the United States 345
Where American Marines Stopped the German Advance on the
Marne 383
Austrian Offensive and the Italian Counteroffensive, June-August,
1918 453
The "Montello," Where the Austrian Offensive Broke Down 457
Austro-Italian operations on the lower Piave river 457
Raids of German Submarines on United States Shipping on the
Atlantic Coast 465
Italian Naval Exploits 469
British Naval Attacks on the German Bases of Zeebrugge and
Ostend 472
PART I--WESTERN FRONT
CHAPTER I
THE FRANCO-BRITISH FORCES VICTORIOUS AT YPRES--GERMANS LOSE GROUND AT
LENS
On August 1, 1917, the second day of the Franco-British offensive in
Flanders, Field Marshal Haig's troops delivered a counterattack at a
late hour of the night against the Germans north of Frezenberg, and
close to the Ypres-Roulers railway. The assault, made through heavy rain
that transformed the battle field into a morass, was a complete success,
the British winning back lost ground on a front of 300 yards, which
Prince Rupprecht had captured in a dashing attack a few hours before. At
every point in this sector the British succeeded in driving out the
enemy and completely reestablished their former lines.
In the morning and again in the afternoon of August 2, 1917, persistent
and violent efforts were made by the Germans to win back lost territory
to the east of Ypres. In spite of heavy losses they continued to attack
at short intervals British positions from the Ypres-Roulers railway to
St. Julien. Every assault was shattered by the British artillery barrage
or the concentrated rifle fire of the British infantry.
Although the constant falling rain made observation difficult the
British aviators continued active. When not scouting for the infantry
they carried out daring attacks on the German aerodromes and on
transport and infantry bodies with bombs and machine-gun fire. Few
German machines ventured above the lines in the unfavorable weather. The
British airmen brought down six machines and lost three.
The number of German prisoners captured in this sector had now risen to
6,122, of whom 132 were officers. The captured material included eight
field guns, fifty-three machine guns and thirty-two mortars.
The territory about the Ypres salient showed the devastating character
of the British fire. In many places the German dead lay in piles, and
from their position it was evident that they were in the act of falling
back when struck down. Many had fallen victims to their own artillery,
when the German gunners in frenzied efforts to stem the onslaught of the
Entente troops dropped shells among their own men.
East and southeast of Rheims the Germans attempted two surprise attacks
on the French positions in the night of August 1, 1917, which were
crushed. On the left bank of the Meuse there was violent artillery
action, the Germans renewing their attacks at 9 o'clock in the evening
in the sector of Avocourt Wood. The assaults failed, and cost the
Germans heavy losses. In the same region in the Apremont Forest,
southeast of St. Mihiel, attempts made to surprise the French met with
disaster.
August 3, 1917, the British continued to regain ground lost to the
Germans earlier in the week. They established themselves again in St.
Julien. North of the Ypres-Roulers railway large bodies of Germans
massing for a fresh attack were scattered by the well-directed fire of
British guns and were unable to deliver the assault.
In the course of the day (August 3) the British drove out the Germans
from most of the positions they had gained during the previous night
east of Monchy-le-Preux, and in a determined push won considerable
ground south of Hollebeke.
[Illustration: The Western Front, 1917-1918.]
During the night of August 4, 1917, the Canadian troops to the southwest
of Lens made a spirited dash and drove enemy patrols back 200 yards over
a front of over 1,000 yards, sustaining very small losses in the
operation. The majority of the Germans scurried back to Lens, but many
were caught by the intense gunfire. The Canadians established themselves
in the buildings and ruins between the Lens-Grenay railway and the Cité
du Moulin.
This dashing advance further tightened the British lines around the
city. The new position gained by the Canadians was now less than 1,000
yards from the center of Lens on the western front. On the south, at
Avlon and Leauvitte, Canadian outposts were now about a mile from the
center, while opposite St. Laurent in the northwest sector their line
was about 1,500 yards from the heart of the city.
No attempt was made by the Germans to recapture their lost positions and
the Canadians were enabled to complete their work of consolidation. By
morning of August 5, 1917, they had linked up the new line with barbed
wire and were prepared for any emergency.
After five days of almost continuous rain that had hindered observation
and hampered military operations the sky cleared and the sun shone out.
The Germans were the first to take advantage of the favorable weather
and at 5 o'clock in the morning launched a heavy attack against
Hollebeke and the British post just north of the Ypres-Commines Canal,
hoping to regain the positions they had lost in the first day of the
Flanders battle. The onslaught was preceded by a tremendous fire from
the German batteries to which the British guns replied with equal vigor
and for miles around the ground was shaken by the continued thunder of
great guns.
After shelling British positions south and north of the Ypres-Commines
Canal the Germans attacked on both sides of the waterway and succeeded
in gaining temporary footing in Hollebeke. A spirited counterattack
launched by the British drove the enemy out and a number of prisoners
were taken. On the left front the British continued to make gains,
pushing their posts forward to the east side of the Steenbeek River
along a front of about a mile, beginning near St. Julien and running
northwest.
In the morning of August 5, 1917, the Germans made a heavy attack on the
French front to the northwest of Rheims south of Juvincourt. At only one
point they succeeded in penetrating the French trenches and from this
they were quickly ejected. North of the Aisne and at other points on the
French front the Germans attacked again and again, but were unable to
win a foot of ground.
The Canadians, who had been closing in on Lens, made a further advance
during the night of August 5, 1917, that carried their outposts to the
main line of the German defenses on the railway embankment to the left
of the city. Two battalions in a hotly pressed attack captured a crater
east of Cité du Moulin and another to the north on the Lens-Lieven road,
which runs through the former place. These craters had been held in
strong force by the Germans from which they could work great damage to
the Canadians by rifle and grenade fire during the night. The Canadians
bombed their way forward through the ruins of houses and fortified
points and the Germans after feeble attempts to hold fast retreated to
their main positions. Having incorporated the craters in their advanced
lines the Canadians rushed forward and bombed two tunnels that were
known to be occupied by the enemy.
On the same night the British beat off two new attacks made by Prince
Rupprecht at Hollebeke southeast of Ypres and north of Arleux.
The British lines around Lens were farther advanced on August 6, 1917,
when Canadian troops pushed forward 600 yards over a front of about the
same depth, a substantial addition to their defenses south and west on
the outskirts of the mining center.
That the Germans were worried over the continued advance made by the
British, fearing the loss of Lens, was evidenced by their practice of
throwing a curtain of fire on the British trenches at sunrise every
day. In the morning of August 7, 1917, they directed a heavy machine-gun
barrage and artillery fire on a crater recently captured by the
Canadians. Under the protection of this shower of shells the German
infantry pushed forward and the Canadians fighting stubbornly were
forced to withdraw, without, however, suffering any casualties.
On the Champagne front French troops during the night of August 6, 1917,
broke into the lines of the German Crown Prince at three points,
inflicting severe losses on the enemy and bringing back prisoners. In
the Verdun sector the Germans made futile attacks between Avocourt Wood
and Hill 304. In Caurières Wood they gained a foothold for a time in the
French first line, but were driven out by a counterattack on the
following day (August 7).
The British front in Belgium to the north and east of Ypres was actively
bombarded during the night of August 7, 1917. Near Lombaertzyde a
British raiding party penetrated the German trenches and brought back
prisoners and guns. In the early part of this same night the artillery
on both sides was active over the Aisne front. Troops of the German
Crown Prince attempted to reach the French lines to the east of
Vauxaillon and west of the Californie Plateau but were driven back,
their ranks shattered by the well-directed fire of the French guns.
Other attempts at surprise attacks made by the Germans north of St.
Mihiel and in upper Alsace were equally futile.
It was during the fighting at this time that the Germans introduced a
curious device which they employed when withdrawing their batteries, and
which would cause the opponents to believe that their guns were still in
action. This was a mechanism with capsules filled with explosives which
they placed on the site of the battery that had been, or was about to
be, withdrawn. These capsules exploded at intervals of about half a
minute, and heard at some distance would be mistaken for the reports of
a field gun. Even an old campaigner would have been deceived by this
device and led to believe that he was really facing artillery. By
employing the mechanism the Germans were able to get their guns away
unknown by their opponents, and it also prevented untimely attacks.
At an early hour in the morning of August 10, 1917, General Haig's
troops by a dashing drive penetrated the German lines to a depth of
several hundred yards, carrying completely the village of Westhoek and
the remaining positions held by the enemy on Westhoek Ridge. Haig's
successful stroke was delivered on a front of nearly two miles south of
the Ypres-Roulers railway. Every forward position held by the Germans
east of the town of Hooge on the fighting front between Frezenberg and
the Ypres-Menin road was won. This section had been the scene of some of
the fiercest fighting on the first day of the great Flanders battle. The
terrain offered many obstacles in the way of attack. The wooded sections
had been strongly fortified by the Germans, and south of Westhoek the
ground was broken by marshes that made military operations difficult.
Such was the spirit of the British troops on the morning of the 10th
that every objective was won in a short time despite the frenzied
efforts of the Germans to defend their positions. There was very heavy
fighting in Glencorse Wood, where the British established themselves
after inflicting heavy casualties on the Germans and taking 240
prisoners.
The British airmen during the day hovered over the scene of battle and
engaged the enemy machines whenever they appeared. In every aerial
engagement the British were victorious. Five German machines were
destroyed and five others driven out of control. In addition two German
observation balloons were brought down in flames and four others sent to
earth badly damaged.
Late in the day of August 10, 1917, the German troops made no less than
six desperate attacks on the British position on Westhoek Ridge, but in
each offensive were driven off, their ranks shattered, and with heavy
losses. The last futile attack was made at 10 o'clock at night, and
after it failed the Germans began a furious bombardment of the sector
above the village of Westhoek, which was continued throughout the night.
In spite of the repeated failure of their counterattacks the Germans
renewed their efforts to regain the lost positions on the morning of
August 11, 1917. The British, who had been exposed to heavy fire during
the night in Glencorse Wood, were forced to give ground, for their
position was a salient and presented an easy mark for the German guns
near Polygon Wood and east of it.
About noon the British, having established their positions on Westhoek
Ridge, sent a call for the guns to hold back the enemy while they
strengthened their defenses. British airmen above the German lines had
noted great gatherings of enemy troops in Nun's and Polygon Woods.
British guns, in groups stretching miles back into the country, began to
speak in thunderous tones. The Germans among the shell craters in and
about Nun's Wood were moving forward when the British bombardment began.
A storm of shells from the 15-inch "heavies" to the small but deadly
6-inch and 4.2s swept over them, around them, and through them. British
airmen observed that as a result of this withering fire the Germans lay
in heaps over the terrain and the shell craters which they had been
unable to leave were full of dead and wounded. Close fighting continued
during the day, but only at one point on the right could the Germans
make any progress.
About 6 o'clock word came to the British gunners that German troops were
gathered in the valley of Hannebeke. Two battalions had advanced some
distance toward the British lines before the British guns got the range.
In the storm of fire that swept through them the Germans tried to escape
by flinging themselves into shell craters, but very few found safety.
The failure of their counterattacks seemed to have completely unnerved
the German troops. Reserves that had been brought forward to relieve
shattered battalions lost their head completely and wandered aimlessly
about in the open, where they were shot down or surrendered.
The number of prisoners taken by the British since August 10, 1917, had
now risen to 454, including nine officers. In the same operations six
guns were captured.
During the night of August 11, 1917, French troops resumed their
counterattacks against the positions which the Germans had captured
during the night of August 9-10, 1917, north of St. Quentin. They were
successful in recovering all the trench elements lost in the previous
fighting, and also took a considerable number of prisoners. In the
sector of Noissy Farm and Laffaux Mill French scouting parties
penetrated the German lines at a number of points and returned with
prisoners. South of Ailles German troops made a determined effort to
recover trenches which the French had occupied a few days before. Two
attacks were made with strong forces, the Germans displaying a reckless
disregard of life, but their determined efforts came to naught and the
attackers were dispersed with heavy losses. The French not only
maintained their positions but in the course of the night made further
progress.
During the day there was violent cannonading in Belgium and along the
Aisne and in the Verdun region. The Germans also directed a scattered
artillery fire all over the city of Rheims, killing two civilians and
wounding another.
In the night of August 12, 1917, Lens became the center of activity on
the British front. The Germans were desperately anxious to maintain
their hold on this valuable city, because of its important position in
the Pas de Calais coal fields.
The Canadian troops occupying strong positions in the western outskirts
of the city received special attention from the German guns. They were
continuously harassed too by German snipers hidden among the ruined
houses to the north of the Lieven road, and early in the night of August
13, 1917, their advanced posts were pushed out over a front of 600 yards
and the ruins occupied, the enemy offering only a slight resistance.
This advance brought the Canadians within 800 yards of the center of the
city on the west. From houses on the other side of a belt of open ground
covered with the débris of shattered buildings the Germans directed a
heavy machine-gun fire on the Canadian positions. In the violent
artillery duel that raged through the night the Canadian gunners had far
the best of it, eight explosions being noted in German gun positions and
their gun pits entirely destroyed.
Throughout the night of August 14, 1917, the British big guns were
sending a stream of high-explosive shells into the German positions
east and south of Loos while preparations were going forward for a big
offensive movement. The attack began at 4.25 when the first light of
dawn was glimmering in the east. For a short space of time the British
guns were silent, but ten minutes before the Canadians, crouching in
their trenches, received the order to move forward every British gun
within range poured a steady stream of fire on the German positions. The
battle scene was wrapped in pink-tinted clouds, shot with streaks of
crimson fire. Just when the time arrived for the Canadians to strike,
and when a protecting barrage was dropped before their trenches, the
clouds parted and a pale-yellow moon poured its mild rays over the
scene. It was by this light that the Canadians advanced to attack. They
mounted the famous Hill 70, where so much blood had been spilled in days
gone by, expecting that heavy fighting awaited them on the crest, which
was well manned with machine guns. They were agreeably disappointed,
however, for the German resistance was not strong. It was only when the
Canadians gained the first houses in the outskirts that really strenuous
fighting began. There was one point where the enemy was strongly
intrenched in concreted cellars where a struggle of the deadliest
description developed.
Lens before the war had a population of 30,000, but was now a mass of
ruins. The Germans had constructed strong subterranean defenses,
undermining the whole place with tunnels and dugouts reenforced with
concrete. Such bits of ruined buildings that remained standing had been
used for gun emplacements. It was through this stronghold that the
Canadians had to force their way. The tremendous bombardment that
preceded the attack had quite unnerved the Germans, and numbers were
seen to desert their posts and flee to the rear, but in many parts of
the outer defenses north and west of the city the garrison fought
fiercely. In an hour and a half the Canadians had pushed forward 1,500
yards, having gained most of the outward bastion of Lens formed by the
separate colonies, or "cités," so called, consisting of blocks of
miners' cottages and works united in one big mining district.
The most important operation during the day, however, was the capture of
Hill 70, which the British had taken and lost two years before, for the
hill commanded a wide territory and was the last dominating position in
this section that had remained in German hands.
August 16, 1917, marked another important advance for the French and
British. Early in the morning the Allies, striking together on a
nine-mile front east and northeast of Flanders, carried all their
objectives excepting those on the right flank. French troops on the left
drove the Germans from the tongue of land between the Yser Canal and the
Martjevaart and won the bridgehead at Dreigrachten. Langemarck, which
had been strongly held by the Germans since the Allied attack early in
the month, was captured by Haig's troops, who swept forward half a mile
beyond. On the right the British tried to win the high ground almost
directly east of Ypres, lying north of the Menin road, but the Germans
in face of appalling losses attacked in such fury that the British were
forced to abandon the attempt.
More than 1,800 prisoners, including thirty-eight officers and a number
of guns, were captured by the Anglo-French forces in this advance.
On the Lens battle front there was continuous fighting, the Germans
making desperate efforts to recover their lost positions. The Canadians
still clung tenaciously to Hill 70, having beaten off ten furious
attacks directed by Prince Rupprecht. The Prussian Guard, so active in
the fighting, here lost heavily. A Canadian machine-gun officer stated
that his men had killed more Germans than they had ever seen together at
any one time since fighting began here, having had as a target for an
hour and a quarter enemy reenforcements coming up in columns of fours
for use in counterattacks. The Seventh Prussian Division was completely
annihilated. The fire of the Canadian guns was so intense that German
ration parties refused to go to the relief of their comrades on the
hill, and the hundreds of prisoners taken were in a half-famished
condition, all the fighting spirit gone out of them.
It was noted in the struggle here that many of the Germans were mere
children. A large number of boys, not over seventeen were in the thick
of the battle, and some were even younger, belonging evidently to the
1919 class.
The attitude of the civilians who had been living in the suburbs of Lens
would have puzzled a master psychologist. In the midst of terrors they
remained calm and undismayed. Some had lived there since the beginning
of the war, in houses that were repeatedly shelled and often wrecked.
Death stalked them day and night. Yet they continued their peaceful
vocations in cellars, their children being protected by gas masks going
to school. When the British soldiers appeared, and while the shells were
bursting a few yards away, young girls and women, for the most part
neatly dressed and generally in black, were there to greet with cheerful
faces the welcome visitors.
On August 17, 1917, the French completed their conquest of enemy
territory south of the St. Jansbeek River and the Breenbeek River by the
capture of two strong German redoubts which had held out against all
attacks since the beginning of the great offensive on the 16th. One
redoubt, Les Lilas, was a large concrete and steel structure strongly
armed with machine guns. It was impregnable against infantry attacks,
and it was only when the French brought heavy guns to bear on the
stronghold that the German garrison surrendered. Mondovi Farm, the other
redoubt, lay in an angle formed by the St. Jansbeek and the Breenbeek
Rivers. The French bombarded the redoubt during the night of the 17th,
and after the concrete walls were shattered and crumbling the enemy
surrendered. Attempts were made later by the Germans to shell the French
out of the captured stronghold, but were not successful.
On this date the Germans counterattacked in force against the Canadian
positions northwest of Lens. According to prisoners the German troops
had been ordered to retake Hill 70 at any cost. In the afternoon of the
17th the first great attack was made, a fierce and determined onslaught
accompanied by a storm of flaming projectiles and gas shells. The
Canadians met the attack with cold steel, and the Germans were driven
back in confusion with heavy losses. Another assault made in the evening
against the suburb of St. Emilie and at Hugo Wood to the north failed
with serious losses to the attackers.
At 1.30 in the morning of the 18th the Germans were again in action.
Along the entire line north of Lens their infantry attacked, supported
by a concentrated artillery fire. They fought with reckless bravery,
hurling themselves again and again upon the Canadians in hand-to-hand
conflicts of the fiercest description. The latter held their ground,
though sorely beset by superior numbers. The Germans were loath to give
ground, clinging to every foot, but were slowly forced back, their ranks
shattered, leaving many dead and wounded on the field. This was the most
sanguinary fighting in which the Canadians had engaged since the capture
of Hill 70. Never before had they used the bayonet so freely or met the
enemy in such a man-to-man grapple to the death.
During the day French and British aviators were engaged in many
successful combats in the air. The British downed thirty German
aeroplanes, twelve of which were known to have been destroyed. Twelve
British machines were missing, two having collided during the fighting
and fallen within the enemy lines. On this day, and during the night of
August 17-18, 1917, French aviators shot down seven German airplanes and
a captive balloon and forced down eight other machines, which, badly
damaged, fell in the German lines. A bombing raid in which 111 French
machines took part in various sorties dropped 13,000 kilograms (28,600
pounds) of projectiles on aviation grounds at Colmar, Friedrichshafen,
and Habsheim. Aviation camps and railway stations at other points were
showered with projectiles, producing fires and explosions.
British troops on the front northeast of Ypres made a further advance in
an attack made in the morning of August 18, 1917, in the vicinity of the
Ypres-Poelcappelle road east of Langemarck. By this operation the
British advanced their lines 500 yards on a like front, winning all
their objectives, including a series of strongly fortified farms.
Southeast of Epihy a successful local operation was carried out by the
British troops in the early morning of the following day, when German
trenches in the neighborhood of Guillemont Farm were captured and a
considerable number of prisoners.
It was in this the fourth year of the war that the Germans made some
radical changes in their methods of defense, owing principally to the
preponderance of British artillery, which reduced their front-line
trenches to mere furrows of earth and made mantraps of the carefully
constructed dugouts. The Germans now scattered their advanced forces
over a greater depth. There was no longer an unbroken line of defenses
for the British guns to shatter, but strongholds were constructed in
isolated shell holes along the front, cunningly concealed from aviators.
These stretched back from the first lines to a considerable depth. Along
the front strong outposts were established at some distance apart,
backed by fortified craters and connected by tunnels and often with
dugouts. Back of these shell-hole nests were gun emplacements commanding
the openings between the shell holes. Thus when enemy attackers had
forced their way through the fortified shell craters they were met with
torrents of machine-gun fire. Further back from these defenses there
would be found a line of more or less connected trenches, or a series of
connected fortified shell holes. The Germans also constructed strong
concrete redoubts in every farm house for their machine guns. They built
small forts of steel and concrete that were impervious to artillery
fire. Many of these strongholds were constructed underground with a
steel trapdoor as the only exit, by which the Germans came out to set up
their machine guns.
CHAPTER II
THE FRENCH BREAK THE GERMAN LINES AT VERDUN--CANADIANS GAIN AT LENS
North of Verdun, in a region that had witnessed many of the most
desperate struggles of the campaign in France during the previous year,
the French won a great victory on August 20, 1917. After three days of
almost continuous shelling of the German lines the French armies
attacked simultaneously on both banks of the Meuse and carried their
objectives at all points. On the west bank of the river they gained
Avocourt Wood, the summit of the famous Dead Man Hill, and the Corbeaux
and Cumières Woods. The French advance reached at some points a depth of
a mile and a quarter. Over 4,000 unwounded Germans were made prisoner.
At 4.40 in the morning the French artillery preparations reached the
final phase when vigorous attacks were made on Avocourt Wood and
Bezonvaux. The first objective was won by 6 o'clock and German prisoners
were on their way to the rear. The three days' artillery fire had so
devastated Hill 304, Dead Man Hill, and Talou Ridge that the Germans
were forced to abandon their first line. The French found less
opposition from the enemy than they had expected, for the well-served
French guns had taken much of the fighting spirit out of their
opponents. At some points, however, where the French fire had been less
felt there was hard fighting. The greatest advance made was on the right
bank of the river to the north of Vacherauville. They occupied Talou
Ridge, Mormont Farm, and Hills 240 and 344. To the east the Germans were
driven out of parts of the Fosses and Chaume Woods.
During the advance the French army was greatly aided in its operations
by the brilliant and daring work of its aviators. Hovering low they
showered machine-gun bullets on the enemy lines, dispersing assemblies
forming for counterattacks and bombing German gunners at close quarters.
In a series of combats in the air the French flyers brought down eleven
German machines on the Verdun front, while two others were destroyed by
antiaircraft guns.
An interesting phase of the fighting on the French front at this time
was the unusually large proportion of German officers captured, 201
being taken with about 6,700 men. This seemed to show that the German
officer class had deteriorated, that the best trained had been killed or
made prisoners, and that the new officers who replaced them were lacking
in spirit or had not become steeled to war work.
In the fighting on this front certain German army formations had been
badly smashed. Three regiments which formed the Sixth Reserve Division
of Brandenburgers and the kaiser's favorite troops were literally
annihilated as fighting units, losing sixty-nine officers and about
2,800 men as prisoners.
On the same day that the French were advancing in the Verdun sector the
Canadians around Lens were winning fresh laurels. Northwest of the city
they had by desperate fighting established strong posts among the
trenches and railway cuttings that formed the last line of German
defense in that quarter. This was the scene of much strenuous but
indecisive fighting two days before.
From their new positions the Canadians had now command of the last bit
of ground from which the defenders of the city could overlook the
advance from the west. They were now in a hollow all around the front
which swings about Lens in a semicircular form. As every eastern exit to
the city was now subjected to a continuous and harassing fire from
machine guns and artillery, the work of bringing up provisions and
supplies of ammunition had become extremely hazardous.
The Canadians in their continued struggle around Lens had displayed such
irresistible courage and resolution that their deeds will long be
remembered in the pages of history. No soldiers during the war faced
more difficulties or confronted more formidable defenses. They forced
their way through streets entangled with hedges of steel and houses
bristling with machine guns. They penetrated tunnels too strong to be
touched by shell fire. They threw themselves against fortress positions
amid a fiery hail of shells and explosives. They swept through the towns
of St. Laurent, St. Théodore, and St. Emilie to the north and west of
Lens where sunken roads and slag heaps were strongly fortified, and so
on through the apparently endless and formidable defenses to the western
streets of the inner city.
The Germans never let a day pass without at least one attack on the
Canadian positions, and once within twenty-four hours they launched no
less than seven strong assaults. Between the attacks the men of Canada
were subjected to a heavy gunfire from a wide semicircle of strong
batteries.
Between August 10 and August 20, 1917, they were attacked in turn by
six German divisions, each being shattered by the Canadians' dogged
courage and amazing fighting power. These were the Seventh, Eighth, the
Eleventh Reserve, the 220th and the First Guards Reserve Division.
Besides those five divisions it was known that portions at least of the
185th Division and of the Sixth Reserve Division had also been engaged.
It was conservatively estimated by military observers of the struggle
here that the German strength used at Lens was upwards of 50,000 men,
and their losses were estimated at between 12,000 and 15,000 men.
At an early hour in the morning of August 20, 1917, the Canadians made a
trench raid on the German front northwest of Avlon, where heavy fighting
ensued. This front was strongly fortified by the Germans as protection
for an important mining suburb southeast of Lens, and it was here that
they had set up the guns withdrawn after the Canadian advance two days
before. Here the hand-to-hand fighting was fierce and deadly, the
Germans fighting with desperate courage, but the Canadians got the upper
hand by slow degrees, and after inflicting heavy casualties took some
prisoners and retired to their positions.
Early in the morning of the following day the forces from Canada again
struck hard, attacking German trenches west and northwest of Lens. The
battle raged throughout the day and far into the night. The Canadians
advanced against strong opposition, using bomb and bayonet freely,
winning important enemy positions to the northwest and southwest of the
center of the city. It appears that the Germans had massed strong forces
for a counterattack at daybreak against the newly won Canadian
positions, and had already begun their forward push when they
encountered the Canadians rushing across no-man's-land. Owing to a dense
mist that prevailed at the time, the Germans did not see them until the
foe fell upon them with bomb and bayonet.
This dramatic surprise for the Germans seemed to have had a chilling
effect on their fighting spirit. They retreated in wild haste to the
trenches they had left, despite the frenzied attempts of their officers
to rally them. Close on their heels dashed the Canadians, and mounting
the parapets showered bombs among the other troops that had gathered for
the attack. As the Germans fled for the communication trenches the
Canadians leaped among them, and with bomb and bayonet killed a great
number.
In the Verdun region on this date the French continued to make important
gains. All day long the tide of battle ebbed and flowed in waves of
fire. On the left bank of the Meuse the French captured the famous Côte
de l'Oie and the village of Régneville. On the right bank of the river,
sweeping through Samogneux, they seized an entire system of trenches
between that village and Hill 344 which had been won on the previous
day. The Germans delivered a number of strong and determined attacks on
both sides of the river, but lost heavily in their attempts to check the
French advance. Some idea of the French gains on the left bank of the
Meuse may be gathered from the fact that when the Germans held the
village of Fleury and menaced Verdun they were two and a half miles from
the fortress. On August 21, 1917, when the French held the village of
Samogneux, the Germans were seven miles from the fortifications.
Throughout the day's fighting the German counterattacks failed
completely. The French maintained all their gains and organized captured
positions. Nearly 7,000 prisoners were taken during the advance, of whom
116 were officers.
The capture of Dead Man Hill by the French troops was an especially
notable achievement, for its system of underground defenses made it as
nearly impregnable as human ingenuity could devise. That it could be
captured in a single day was owing to the ceaseless activity of the
French gunners, who had ravaged the stronghold with explosives so
thoroughly that it seemed impossible that anything human could survive,
however hidden underground. There were a hundred deserters to the French
lines, and the Germans surrendered in squads with their noncommissioned
officers. The whole garrison of Dead Man Tunnel, which included two
battalion commanders, were also made prisoners. When it is considered
that the Germans had 400 batteries in action back of their front lines
during the two days' advance it will be understood that the French
fighting man was heartened up and could look with confidence to the
future.
The British resumed the offensive in the morning of August 22, 1917,
east and northeast of Ypres along the Ypres-Menin road, capturing a
series of fortified farms and strong points in front of their positions
and gaining in the advance a third of a mile of territory.
Further to the north the British carried forward their lines about half
a mile over a front of two and a half miles. Owing to the fierce
character of the fighting encountered in the forward push the number of
prisoners taken was out of all proportion to the total losses inflicted
on the enemy. Since the offensive began in the morning of August 15,
1917, the British had taken 1,378 men, including officers. In the same
period they captured thirty-one machine guns and twenty-one trench
mortars.
South and southwest of Lens the Canadians continued to fight hard and to
make important gains. They succeeded in getting a firm grip on a
stronghold only 300 yards south of the main railway station of the town.
This was a huge slag pile which had been tunneled by the Germans and was
known as "Green Crassier." The odd position constituted a barrier
between the Canadians and the defenses of the city proper. It was
connected by tunnels with dugouts and defenses underneath Lens, and the
Germans, appreciating its value, clung to it tenaciously. Preceded by a
heavy bombardment the Canadians attacked at early dawn and were atop of
the Germans before the latter had any warning of what was impending. The
long series of counterattacks in which they had been engaged during the
previous days had not entirely quenched the German fighting spirit, and
the slag pile was such a network of defenses that the Canadians were
from the start roughly handled, but they held on with dogged
determination, though they had never faced more formidable conditions,
and despite the desperate efforts of the Germans to oust them.
Surrounding the slag pile or "crassier" many of the ruined buildings had
been transformed into strong and most ingeniously constructed
fortifications. The Canadians systematically bombed their way through
these defenses and drove out the defenders, who sought refuge in the
numerous tunnels under the city. Lens was crowded with German troops of
the Fourth Guards Division and the First Guards Reserve. Forced to live
among the dead and wounded in underground caves, their lot was hideous
beyond description.
French troops operating in the Verdun sector gained an important victory
on August 24, 1917. In the early morning they began a powerful offensive
on the left bank of the Meuse between Avocourt Wood and Dead Man Hill.
By a single charge they carried Hill 304 and Camard Wood to the west of
it. All the German positions were captured and the defenders made
prisoners. To make doubly secure their possession of Hill 304, the
French pushed on beyond it for a distance of about a mile and a quarter.
The loss of Hill 304 and Dead Man Hill, which commanded all the
approaches and ravines as far as Douaumont, deprived the Germans of
every observation point from which they could watch the operations of
the French troops.
The Germans won some success against the British forces along the
Ypres-Menin road on this date, while the Canadians were forced to retire
from the crest of the "crassier," or slag-pile stronghold, and to take
up positions adjoining it. The Germans had succeeded in bringing forward
fresh troops against the Canadians, who were worn down but not
discouraged by almost continuous fighting day and night. The enemy had
the advantage of numberless underground retreats, tunnels, subterranean
chambers, and a network of cellars connected by passages from which they
could dash suddenly, and after striking a shrewd blow disappear
mysteriously from sight. The Germans were in a precarious situation and
showed a disposition to conserve their forces.
On the Verdun front the French continued their victorious progress,
capturing north of Hill 304 three strongly fortified works near
Bethincourt. Since the beginning of this offensive the French had taken
over 8,000 prisoners. If they cherished any belief in the superiority of
the Germans as fighters, they held it no longer. The German High Command
had issued orders that every position must be held regardless of the
cost, but except in isolated instances they had displayed no unusual
fighting qualities, while the German officers often perpetrated amazing
blunders.
The French renewed the offensive on August 25, 1917, when they delivered
a smashing blow on the right bank of the Meuse in the Verdun sector,
gaining two-thirds of a mile on a front of two and a half miles. This
gave them possession of the Fosses and Beaumont Woods and brought them
to the outskirts of Beaumont. Violent artillery fighting continued
around Hill 304 during the day. The French continued the drive, pushing
their advanced posts forward to the southern outskirts of the village of
Bethincourt and Forges Brook. A violent counterattack made by the
Germans from Wavrille Wood was caught by French artillery fire and
driven back shattered and in disorder.
On the British front during the night of August 25, 1917, the Germans
were driven out of a trench northeast of Guillemont Farm which they had
captured earlier in the day. In the morning of August 26, 1917, British
troops attacking east of Hargicourt on a front of over a mile won half a
mile of ground, and carried by assault strong enemy positions at Cologne
and Malakoff Farms. About the same hour of the morning when this advance
was made the Germans under cover of a heavy bombardment attacked in the
neighborhood of the Ypres-Menin road. In this assault flame projectors
were freely used and they succeeded for a brief time in recovering
positions in the northwest corner of Inverness Copse. Before they could
organize their defenses the British rallied and in a hotly pressed
counterattack drove them out and reestablished their positions.
The British did not undertake any infantry action on a large scale
during the next few days, but their guns, which far outmatched the
Germans', were not taking a rest. An eyewitness whose experience covered
many battle fields said he had never seen so many guns great and small
as on the wide stretch of country back of Ypres. For miles he walked
through concentric lines of batteries and estimated that the British
were able to fire a hundred shells to the Germans' one. It was probably
with the hope of saving man power that the Germans now built concrete
blockhouses in front-line positions capable of holding a score of men,
while keeping their main forces far back for counterattacks. But
notwithstanding their new methods of defense the Germans lost heavily,
for the British guns in forward positions kept the enemy support lines
under a constant and blasting fire.
Owing to the fine weather the German aviators were active. In the course
of a number of aerial engagements the British brought down four German
aeroplanes and drove three others out of control, losing two of their
own machines.
It had been circulated throughout the German press that the kaiser's
forces had abandoned Hill 304 to the French for strategical reasons.
This was disproved by the discovery of an order signed by the German
commander in this sector of the Verdun front addressed to his troops,
who were urged to hold the hill at any cost and emphasized the
importance of the position as a point of observation.
The new French line on the west of the Meuse, now supported by the
commanding positions on Hill 304 and Dead Man Hill, ran a mile beyond
these strongholds, facing Forges Brook. On the heights east of the Meuse
and along the river the line of the French left was now extended at
Samogneux and on Hill 344. From this point the front runs eastward down
hill past Mormont Farm to the Vacherauville-Beaumont highroad, then
along the ravine between the Louvemont and Beaumont Woods up to the
plateau, including what remained of the larger wood of Les Fosses, and
so across the north to the Chambrettes Farm.
A comparative calm reigned in the Verdun region during August 27-28,
1917. The Germans attempted a few feeble counterattacks, and there were
times when their guns became vociferous, but no important operation was
begun, and the French had ample time to consolidate their gains and
strengthen the newly won positions.
In the midst of a driving rain British troops in Flanders launched an
attack in the afternoon of August 27, 1917, along the St.
Julien-Poelcappelle road. They had set out to seize some of the concrete
fortifications, each of which held a score or so of Germans with
machine guns and heaps of ammunition, who could sweep a wide field with
fire and had caused the British many losses in men. The Steenbeke and
Hannebeke Rivers had overflowed and transformed the region round into
bogs. Into this marshland the men from Yorkshire and other English
counties, drenched to the skin from being out all night, struggled
forward to destroy the Germans' "pill boxes." There was violent fighting
near the Springfield and Vancouver Farms northeast of St. Julien, which
were strongly held by the Germans. The machine-gun fire was especially
heavy at these places, but the British pushed forward and the
Württembergers who had been sent up from Roulers to strengthen the
German advance posts, were driven back. The British succeeded in
capturing two of the concrete forts, making prisoners of the defenders.
On the Aisne front northwest of Hurtebise the Germans during the night
of September 1, 1917, tried by desperate assaults to recover lost
positions, but were driven off by gunfire. North of Hill 304, on the
same date there was intermittent artillery activity, and on the heights
above the river the French foiled two attempted surprise attacks.
Near Lens and La Bassée the Germans endeavored to raid British trenches,
but were repulsed. Southwest of Havrincourt they achieved a temporary
success, bombing their way into British advanced posts and forcing the
defenders to fall back. But the British quickly rallied, and by a
dashing counterattack forced out the invaders and reoccupied the posts,
taking prisoners and leaving a considerable number of dead Germans on
the field.
The reappearance of the sun and fair weather after days of rain made it
possible to resume military operations. The Germans were the first to
attack during the night of September 2, 1917, a British position
southwest of Havrincourt. The assault was preceded by a heavy
bombardment in which gas shells were freely used, but the British
artillery and machine-gun fire was so intense that the attackers were
driven back in disorder.
Southeast of Monchy on the same date the British carried out a
successful raid on the German trenches that proved a complete surprise
to the enemy. British troops were atop of the Germans before they could
make a strong defense, but finding they were inferior in numbers the
raiders, after destroying many of the enemy, withdrew with their
prisoners.
At Lens, where the Canadians had been holding on with grim determination
to portions of the famous "crassier," or slag pile, and among the ruins
adjoining, surrounded by nests of Germans and subjected to almost
continuous fire, there was renewed activity with the clearing weather.
During the night of September 3, 1917, the "Kanucks" struck in upon the
outer shell of Lens, gaining 250 yards on a 600-yard front. This was
really an advance of importance, considering the nature of the ground
fought over. For the neighborhood was packed with Germans, who had guns
everywhere. This forward push brought the Canadians in some places to
the north of Lens, where there was only an open space of about 300 yards
between their positions and the buildings of the city proper.
Fair weather brought renewed fighting on the Champagne and Verdun
fronts. No day passed without a German attack, but the French, occupying
commanding positions, were successful in holding their own and slightly
extended their gains.
In this first week of September the British air service carried on an
extensive campaign of bombing German bases back of the lines of Belgium
and northern France. Tons of bombs and explosives were dropped with good
results on railway tracks at Ghent, on aerodromes near Cambrai,
Courtrai, and Lille, and on billets around Douai. German air raids over
the British lines one night killed thirty-seven German prisoners and
wounded forty-eight.
Early in the morning of September 6, 1917, troops from British Columbia,
operating on the edge of the city of Lens, captured a row of houses 300
yards long occupied by four companies of German troops. This important
success served to further reduce the area within Lens that still
remained in German hands.
North of Frezenberg the British carried some strong positions and
dispersed a hostile counterattack launched against them later in the
day. In the evening the Germans returned in strength to the attack and
forced the British out.
The Canadians around Lens continued to be in the center of the storm.
In the morning of September 7, 1917, the Germans counterattacked all
along the front to the west of Lens. After repeated efforts of extreme
violence the Canadians were bombed out of part of their positions, but
in the area of the slag pile or "crassier" the men from overseas
extended their holdings and the new front they established now became a
serious menace to German positions along the north side of the Souchez
River. This latest advance so enraged the enemy that their entire front
was deluged with the heaviest shells that had ever been seen in this
area, while from time to time clouds of gas were released which blotted
out the scene of the battle, but not the intrepid Canadians, whose gas
masks afforded perfect protection.
On the French front there was continuous activity. Every time that the
German press gave notice to its public that the French military power
was waning and had become a negligible factor in the war the indomitable
Gauls by some dashing attack gave evidence that they were very much
alive and had no thought of surrender.
For some days the French in the Verdun sector had been busy every day in
beating off German attacks, but on September 8, 1917, they assumed the
offensive on the right bank of the Aisne and occupied important
positions on a front of a mile and a half, capturing during the advance
over 800 prisoners. Assaults on the French lines east of Rheims and on
the Aisne front resulted in crushing German defeats. At almost every
point the French wall of defense held firm, and against it the seasoned
troops of the kaiser, who lacked neither persistence nor bravery, dashed
themselves in vain.
CHAPTER III
LENS IN RUINS--BRITISH ADVANCE NEAR YPRES
French positions on the right bank of the Meuse north of Verdun were
attacked by strong German forces in the morning of September 9, 1917.
The assault was delivered over a front of about two miles on both sides
of Hill 344. In one section of the line the Germans succeeded in gaining
a temporary foothold. By a vigorous counterattack made a little later
the French drove them out and captured fifty prisoners. This smashing
blow had cost the Germans dearly, for they left over 1,000 dead on the
battle field.
On this date (September 9) the British forces carried out successful
local operations southeast of Hargicourt, when Northumberland troops
carried by storm 600 yards of German trenches and took fifty-two
prisoners. East of Malakoff Farm the British attacked and won after
heavy fighting a strip of hostile trenches which was much needed to
round out their lines in that sector.
German prisoners captured around Lens spoke of the awful havoc wrought
by the British gas cylinders and gas shells. The German First Guards
Reserve Regiment lost twenty men when a gas shell exploded in the cellar
where they lay asleep. Another company of this regiment had seventeen
casualties from the same cause in one day. The failure of Germany to get
a sufficient supply of rubber was a contributing cause of the gas
fatalities. German masks were of poor quality and tore easily. Masks of
soft leather were used by them at this time on some parts of the Lens
front. The objection to masks of leather was that they could not be put
on as easily as those made of rubber, a serious defect when a moment's
delay might prove fatal.
Northumberland troops operating in the neighborhood of Villaret extended
their gains southward 400 yards in an attack made on German trenches in
the morning of September 11, 1917. During the day the Germans attempted
three counterattacks with bombs on the new British positions but were
driven off.
The French continued active in the Verdun region, where they had to
defend themselves from frequent counterattacks. In the Champagne
territory French troops struck a shrewd blow on September 11, 1917, when
in successful raids they drove across the German trenches between St.
Hilaire and St. Souplet and penetrated the second line. Here there was
intense and deadly fighting. The German defenders were either killed or
made prisoners, and the French captured large quantities of supplies.
North of Caurières Wood, northeast of Verdun, the French advanced line
on a front of about 500 yards penetrated the German trenches and close
fighting developed. This was the scene of continuous attacks and
counterattacks for two days in which each side gained in turn a
temporary ascendancy, but the result was indecisive. It was not until
the night of September 14-15, 1917, that the French succeeded in
ejecting the Germans from the greater part of the trench system here and
took possession. In Champagne on September 14, 1917, a surprise attack
made by the French in the region of Mont Haut was successfully carried
out. A German observatory and a number of shelters and dugouts were
destroyed and much damage wrought to the enemy defenses.
No important operation was attempted by the British troops around Lens
for several days following, but bombardments were incessant. The
Canadians, though constantly under fire and subjected day and night to
strong attacks, firmly held their positions. The situation of the
Germans in the center of Lens with an active enemy occupying high ground
to the north and south was not a comfortable one. When they did fight it
was with rage and despair. Prisoners taken told of the deadly effects of
the British gas projectiles which wrought awful havoc among the troops
herded in tunnels and dugouts. The constant bombardment of Lens had
reduced the city to the same ruined condition as the suburbs. The
subterranean caverns which the Germans had built by the forced labor of
civilians two years and more before became death traps. Often they
collapsed under a heavy bombardment, burying alive whole companies in
the ruins. Again, as frequently happened, a shell would explode inside
the caves with fatal results to the occupants.
The Germans had every reason to wish that they had never introduced
poison gas in warfare, for as employed by the British it had become a
far deadlier destructive weapon than in their own hands. Many times
during these days the Canadians had flooded the city with gas which
soaked down into the tunnels and dugouts and stifled men in their
sleep, or they died with their masks on if they delayed a second too
long.
After days of raids and counterattacks insignificant when considered as
separate operations, but important in the aggregate, British troops
under Field Marshal Haig delivered a powerful attack against the German
lines east of Ypres on an eight-mile front on September 20, 1917.
According to an eyewitness, the barrage that preceded the advance was
the heaviest on record.
The British were successful in attaining all their objectives. The
German center along the Ypres-Menin road was penetrated to the depth of
a mile.
Rain had fallen steadily during the night preceding the assault, but the
assembling of the regiments assigned to the operation was carried
through without a mishap. North Country troops carried the Inverness
Copse. Australian troops stormed Glencorse Wood and Nonneboschen (Nun's
Wood); Scottish and South African brigades captured Potsdam, Vampire,
and Borey Farms; West Lancashire Territorials carried Iberian Farm and
the strong point known as Gallipoli. After making a swift "clean-up" of
these places and positions the British forces advanced on the final
objectives.
Troops from the counties who drove forward on the right encountered
fierce opposition in the woods north of the Ypres-Commines Canal, and in
the vicinity of the Tower Hamlets, but cut through with mighty thrusts
and gained the desired goal with light casualties. In the center North
Country and Australian battalions pierced German positions to a depth of
over a mile and won all their objectives, which included the village of
Veldhoek and the western part of Polygon Wood. Zevenkote, farther north,
was won and the London and Highland Territorials made a clean sweep of
the second line of farms, including Rose, Quebec, and Wurst Farms, all
on the line of their final objectives.
Though the Germans were prepared, the British advance worked smoothly.
Some of the hardest fighting was encountered south of Langemarck to the
Ypres-Roulers railway, where there were numerous strong concrete and
steel redoubts. Many positions like Rose and Quebec Farms were captured
by the British in the face of deadly machine-gun fire, and over a
terrain of heavy mud and through pools of water.
When the advance was begun and the Australians went over the top, a
heavy barrage was dropped by the Germans just back of them, but many
shells fell among the advancing men and caused a number of casualties.
The Australians were in an unpleasant situation, but pressed cheerfully
forward without pause and gained Anzac Farm, where their standard was
raised in honor of the victory.
In the course of the evening the British in local attacks northeast of
Langemarck drove the Germans out of the last strong points in that
region, and like operations were successfully carried out on the rest of
the front, the enemy offering only slight opposition.
The Germans lost heavily at every point, especially around the Anzac
Ridge, where they counterattacked six times. This ridge was one of the
key positions east of Ypres and the German command appreciated its
importance.
There was little change in the situation on the day following the
advance, though local fights occurred, where the Germans still held on
to some small defense, or redoubt, which the British needed to
consolidate with their new line.
The British captured during the push over 3,000 men of all ranks. German
officers paid an unwilling tribute to the British artillery and
machine-gun service, which had virtually shattered every attempted
counterattack.
The new German method of holding lines by small garrisons in concrete
blockhouses with large reserves behind for counterattacks had broken
down completely.
Massed attacks were made by the Germans on September 22, 1917, against
the positions captured by the British in the recent drive, but only at
one advanced point on the line did they meet with success. There was
every evidence that the Germans were making desperate efforts to stem
the advancing tide of British troops, regardless of the cost. In the
main their attacks broke down, and where they gained a little ground it
hardly compensated them for the frightful loss of life incurred. The
British were forced to yield ground south of the Ypres-Menin road, where
they had not as yet consolidated their positions. The Germans attacked
in waves from the height, and in the hand-to-hand fighting that
developed, both sides pounding away with their heaviest guns, there
ensued one of the fiercest struggles of the war.
East of St. Julien the Teutons pierced the British line, but were almost
immediately thrust out by a spirited counterattack. Three times the
Germans assaulted the front east of Langemarck, but after heavy losses
and having failed to gain the slightest advantage they drew off, greatly
reduced in numbers.
During these days of heavy fighting the British airmen were continually
active. The weather favored observation and scout aeroplanes and
balloons performed invaluable service in finding the range for Haig's
guns and in locating centers of attack where a shower of shells was
needed. Over the wide battle area British aircraft swept in flocks,
raining down death and destruction in their flight. Ten tons of bombs
were dropped, the stations at Roulers, Menin, and Ledeghem were squarely
hit, an aerodrome bombarded, while masses of German troops moving along
the Ypres-Menin road were showered with explosives. These offensive
operations from the air cost the British in all a dozen machines. Ten
German airships were brought down and eight others were driven out of
control.
Though the battle of Menin road had practically ended, the British
continued to add slightly to their gains, and to strengthen their
positions. North of Langemarck in Flanders they won additional German
defenses in the morning of September 23, 1917, and took a number of
prisoners. Since the offensive began on the 20th, the British had
captured 3,243 Germans, of whom eighty were officers.
It was in the course of the fighting in Flanders that the Germans
employed a new kind of frightfulness in some attacks. British troops
reported that they were fired on by "flaming bullets" that set the
clothing afire. It was related that men struck by these bullets had to
be rolled in the mud to extinguish the flames.
During these days of busy fighting on the British front in Flanders
French troops along the Aisne and the Meuse Rivers were constantly
engaged in local fights with the enemy, though no important operations
were attempted. The French command was exceedingly careful not to waste
men unless there was some highly important advantage to be gained,
contented to act on the defensive until a master stroke could be
delivered. The German troops were not spared in the same way, but were
constantly driven forward by their inexorable masters and lost heavily
in futile attacks.
On September 24, 1917, the Teutons took the offensive at an early hour
in the morning. On the right bank of the Meuse four German battalions,
supported by special assaulting troops, made a drive against French
trenches north of Bois le Chaume, along a front of about a mile and a
half. The French "75's" broke the front of the attack, but in the center
some trench elements were pierced by the Germans and violent fighting
ensued. It was a short, sharp struggle at close quarters, when the
French forced out the invaders and reoccupied the positions. Two other
German attacks on the same front were made in the afternoon in which
they gained nothing, while the French took fifty prisoners.
A more ambitious attempt was made on the same day to force the French
from their positions that extended from the northwest corner of Fosses
Wood to the eastern fringe of Chaume Wood, in the Verdun area. The
Germans began the assault with sprays of liquid flame, which was
followed by a furious grenade attack and bombardment. The intrepid
French troops dashed out to meet their assailants and with bayonet and
hand grenade drove them in disorder back to their trenches. There were
numerous hand-to-hand struggles between the lines. The Germans made
extraordinary efforts to regain lost ground around Hill 352, which
offered every advantage for observation, but they were unable to break
through the steel wall of French resistance. At Bezonvaux, and to the
south of Beaumont, attacks were made in the hope of distracting
attention from the real objective, but here the French Colonial
battalions were on guard, veterans known for their dash and daring, who
hurled the enemy back to his own lines, leaving heaps of dead on the
field.
While the French troops, fighting against overwhelming odds, continued
to hold their lines inviolate, came the painful news that their most
famous aviator, Captain George Guynemer, had been killed by the enemy.
Guynemer had won world-wide fame by his daring exploits. At the time he
was reported missing he had a record of having destroyed fifty-two
German machines. Two years before he was a simple soldier. He entered
the army as a volunteer after having been rejected five times by the
medical inspectors. One of his most striking achievements was the
shooting down of three German aeroplanes in less than three minutes in
September, 1916. Captain Guynemer operated his aeroplane alone, serving
both as pilot and gunner. He was twenty-one years old.
At daybreak on September 26, 1917, Field Marshal Haig's troops made a
heavy attack against the German positions east of Ypres on a six-mile
front in which they won an advance ranging from half a mile to a mile in
depth. The offensive was started along the major portion of the lines
reached by the British on September 20, 1917, extending from east of St.
Julien to southwest of Gheluvelt. The most important points involved in
the new offensive were east of the city of Ypres, between the
Ypres-Roulers railway and the Ypres-Menin highway, as was the case in
the previous week. Here the Germans held elevated positions on ridges
and in forests, the vital points of their defenses in Belgium.
The Australian, Scotch, and English troops engaged in this new offensive
had a desperately hard road to travel, forcing their way over sodden and
flooded ground among steel and concrete redoubts heavily manned with
machine guns. On every elevated point and in every scrap of woods the
Germans had established a vast number of rapid-firing guns.
The main British attack was directed against the German front in the
Zonnebeke region. The village was stormed and the Germans were thrust
back nearly a mile.
To the right of this sector and north of the Menin road, there was
fierce fighting throughout the day when the British drove the enemy from
all positions and made secure the flank of their principal advance.
Australian troops fighting farther south swept the Germans from Polygon
Wood and won a trench position to the east of it. Near Tower Hamlets an
important height that had been much fought over was won by British
forces, who also occupied strong field works on the eastern slope. On
the left of the main attack there was an advance of about half a mile
along the road to Gravenstafel.
For days the Germans had been bringing up reenforcements in anticipation
of the British offensive. The German command, appreciating the
importance of the elevated positions, had given orders to their troops
to hold fast at whatever loss of life. The British consequently
encountered everywhere a desperate resistance, especially on the right
of the offensive around Tower Hamlets Ridge west of Gheluvelt.
In the course of the afternoon and evening the Germans projected seven
powerful counterattacks against positions the British had captured east
of Ypres, but were unable to shake the victors' bulldog grip. Here and
there the Germans were successful in capturing a redoubt, but were only
able to hold it for a short time before being thrust out by a
well-directed counterattack. In this offensive the British captured
1,614 Germans, of whom forty-eight were officers.
The result of this British drive was to remove almost the last cover for
the Germans between their advanced line in Flanders and the Ostend-Lille
railway, their principal means of communication and of supplies in this
part of Belgium. Parts of this line could be clearly seen from Zonnebeke
Heights and within easy reach of the British guns, six miles away.
While the British were gaining ground their naval aeroplanes were
attacking this line from the sky, dropping tons of explosives on the
Thourout and Roulers junctions and on the German base at Ostend. The
last British advance of a mile had brought this important objective
almost within reach. Its capture would result in the evacuation of
Belgium as far as the Scheldt and free the French cities of Lille,
Roubaix, and Tourcoing.
The Germans continued to counterattack and bombard British positions
that had been won during the advance, but they were unable to score any
permanent successes. The net result of the fighting in the Ypres area
was the capture by the British of 5,296 prisoners, including 146
officers. They had also taken during the month eleven guns, including
heavy pieces, 377 machine guns, and fifty-seven trench mortars.
On the French front during these days, particularly in the Aisne sector,
there was almost continuous fighting in which the Germans displayed
dogged determination and reckless bravery, but every attack broke down.
On the right bank of the Meuse they were partly successful in an assault
on French outposts. Here they penetrated the French center, where they
held on for a time, but the French returned in force, and after a
struggle of the most sanguinary description in which the opponents
fought murderously at close quarters the Germans were forced out and
driven back to their lines.
North of Verdun the German attacks were especially violent. Here they
employed "flame throwers" freely, but were unable to overcome the French
resistance or to gain any marked advantage.
Wastage of German man power was an outstanding feature of recent
engagements on the French front. The combat front of Verdun was held by
twelve German divisions, that along the Aisne in 1917 was held by
fourteen divisions. During the same period of time from May to
September, 1916 and 1917, respectively the Germans engaged along the
Verdun front, twenty-five new divisions in 1916; along the Aisne
thirty-five new divisions in 1917. The Allied armies had so improved
their mechanical means and fighting methods that the Germans were forced
to maintain a reserve of at least forty divisions for the safety of
their battle line in the west.
CHAPTER IV
HAIG STRIKES AGAIN AT YPRES--THE FRENCH BREAK THE GERMAN LINES ON THE
AISNE
The greatest gun duel of the war continued to rage in the region around
Ypres in the last days of September, 1917. East of the city the Germans
launched six attacks during the day and night on October 1, 1917,
against the British lines. Every assault was smashed by the British
artillery, rifle, and machine-gun fire. Not since fighting began in this
area had such hurricanes of shells and explosives been seen. The Germans
gambled against great odds and lost heavily. It was only in Polygon Wood
that they obtained the slightest success. Here two small posts were won,
but otherwise the British line remained intact.
On October 4, 1917, Field Marshal Haig delivered another mighty blow
against the German lines east of the Ypres, gaining territory at the
most advanced point to a depth of about a mile and a half on a front of
more than eight miles.
The ground covered by the British assault was from north of Langemarck
on the Ypres-Staden railway to a point south of Tower Hamlets, a height
south of the Ypres-Menin highroad. The very important system of defenses
along the Passchendaele-Gheluvelt road, which the Germans had held so
long, was swept over by the victorious British troops.
On the northern wing they pushed on to within a short distance of
Poelcappelle and gained a footing on Gravenstafel Ridge which projects
from Passchendaele Ridge on the west, and broke through
Zonnebeke-Broodseinde Ridge of bloody memory. The crest of the ridge was
held against counterattacks which the Germans launched again and again
with desperate daring and at the cost of frightful losses.
The British had begun the attack at 6 o'clock in the morning. The day
was cloudy and promised rain. A mist hung over the battle field. The
advance made into the enemy country was preceded by a heavy barrage,
which, breaking in a fiery flood over the German lines, created such
terror that in many places the enemy rushed out in groups with raised
hands in sign of surrender.
The drive forward had forestalled a German attack which was in
preparation near Zonnebeke on the same morning. Three German divisions
here were ordered to take the line the British had captured the previous
week. As they were pushing forward they were caught in the British
barrage and met with appalling disaster.
The loss of the Passchendaele-Gheluvelt Ridge was a serious one for the
Germans, as it constituted a barrier between the British and occupied
Belgium. Many important positions had been torn from them during recent
thrusts, and on the 4th the British by a dashing advance penetrated
German lines to a depth of 2,500 yards, carrying important defenses.
South of the Ypres-Roulers railway the British troops could now overlook
the slopes of the main ridge, and in some places had pushed their way
into the valley below. Along the Strombeek River, on the left, the
advance was slow owing to the marshy condition of the ground. The troops
were aided in the advance by a number of tanks which performed immense
service in reducing strong redoubts and concrete "pill boxes."
Poelcappelle, which the British reached by 10.30, though heavily
garrisoned, did not offer very strong resistance.
Abraham Heights, near Gravenstafel, was the scene of brief cellar
fighting, but a sharp struggle developed near the fort where the Germans
had eight strong concrete redoubts. The fighting here was close and
heavy, but in the end the German resistance broke down under rifle fire
and bomb. In the course of the day's fighting the British took 4,446
prisoners, including 114 officers.
It was estimated by correspondents who visited the battle area after the
fight that the Germans had lost more killed than the number of their
wounded and prisoners combined. On one section of the Australian front a
thousand bodies were counted. A little farther south there was another
lot of over seven hundred.
The manner in which the German defense was conducted showed many flaws,
and indicated faulty organization. In the attempts made to stem the
advance there was a lack of cohesion among the various units that were
thrown out promiscuously along the whole battle front. The German
artillery work, too, was weak and showed imperfect planning. A great
number of Germans were caught in British barrages, and their officers
spoke of the terrifying effect of the British fire, which surpassed
anything known on that front and so dazed their troops that it was
difficult to get them to follow out orders.
The Germans had been punished so severely that no infantry attack was
attempted by them on the following day, and the British were free to
consolidate their gains and strengthen their new positions.
In the evening of October 7, 1917, a German attack in force was made
east of Polygon Wood in the vicinity of Reutel on a front of about 500
yards. For all they had made great preparations and preceded the assault
by a heavy barrage, it was quickly beaten off by British artillery and
machine-gun fire. During the day a heavy rainfall had turned the battle
ground into a morass; every shell hole became filled to the brim, and
for the time any military operation of importance must be abandoned.
After the hard fighting they had been through the British troops
welcomed a rest, though soaked to the skin, but it was a difficult and
painful task bringing in the wounded through the deep, clinging mud.
In the early morning of October 9, 1917, British and French forces in
the Ypres area launched an attack north and northwest of that city and
were successful in gaining all their objectives.
The French troops, driving forward on the left of the British line north
of Ypres, cut through the German positions to a depth of a mile and a
quarter on a front of more than a mile and a half. The villages of St.
Jean de Mangelaer and Veldhoek and a system of blockhouses were
captured, and the advance reached the southern edge of Houthulst Wood,
seven miles to the north of Ypres. From the south the British pushed
northeast from Gravenstafel Ridge to a point about 1,000 yards southwest
of the village of Passchendaele to the heights of that name. Between the
Ypres-Roulers railway and the village of Broodseinde, which they
occupied, the British forced the Germans down the slopes of Broodseinde
Ridge on the eastern side. In these notable advances the Allied troops
gained possession of most of the observation points that commanded a
view of the great plain of Flanders.
A heavy rain on the day preceding the attack had transformed the battle
ground into a quagmire, and many formations of the Allied troops having
been without shelter during the night were drenched to the skin when the
order came to attack.
The French advance was fortunately timed. The Germans in the first line
were in the act of changing troops. A division newly arrived from the
Russian front was about to take possession. Before they could realize
the situation the French had dashed in among them, and, killing a great
many, dispersed the others in every direction. After a brief pause, to
allow the British on the right to advance, the French proceeded to their
next objective, the village of Mangelaer, which was quickly won.
The British had gained in the forward movement to the depth of half a
mile on a front of about a mile, stretching from Draeibank to
Wyndendreeft.
Every point was won which they had fixed on as their objective, and more
than a thousand prisoners were captured during the push. The French had
gained about 1,200 yards in the two stages of their advance, taking over
300 prisoners and a large number of guns.
On the day following the British were forced to relinquish a few of
their advanced posts, but in the main the positions gained in the
advance were securely held.
Recent rains had transformed the battle field into a vast swamp, in
which men sank to their knees, and even waists. Despite the unfavorable
conditions of the terrain, Field Marshal Haig began another offensive
early in the morning of October 12, 1917, along the entire front in
Flanders. In less than three hours his assaulting troops had gained
ground to an average depth of 800 yards, which brought them within 500
yards of the village of Passchendaele. Further operations were brought
to a standstill by a heavy fall of rain, and the British command decided
to make no further attempts to attain their objectives that day.
The storm did not abate until the following morning, when the
appearance of the sun cheered the much-bedraggled troops. But days of
fair weather must pass before the boglands that constituted the battle
area could dry up and admit of any important infantry operations. The
Germans indeed ventured a few counterattacks in the hope of wresting
from the British positions won in the last advance, but these were
smashed by artillery fire.
[Illustration: French soldiers are bringing German prisoners from
Malmaison Fort, the dominating position on the Craonne Plateau, which
was taken by the French October 26, 1917. The Germans overran the
position again in their drive of May, 1918.]
The British carried out night raids on enemy trenches in the Flanders
front on October 15, 1917, and near Roeux, east of Arras. On the Aisne
front the French were successful in repulsing German assaults and
carried out daring attacks on enemy trenches in the Champagne and
Argonne.
For a week quiet reigned on the western front. "Quiet" meaning in a
military sense that no important infantry actions were attempted. But
each day, and often through the night, the guns on both sides were
seldom silent, and raids, counterattacks, and patrol encounters served
to keep warm the fighting spirit of the German, French, and British
forces.
October 22, 1917, was a day of intense activity on the Flanders front,
when, operating in conjunction with the French troops, British forces in
the neighborhood of Poelcappelle carried out a successful advance in the
southern part of Houthulst Forest, north of Ypres. Southeast of
Poelcappelle the British stormed and occupied valuable positions, and
further north, aided by French troops, a series of fortified farms and
defenses south of Houthulst Farm were won. The Germans in a spirited
counterattack checked the advance in the vicinity of the Ypres-Staden
railway, but at other points were unable to prevent the British from
pushing forward.
For more than a week the French forces in the Verdun and Champagne areas
had been inactive save for sporadic raids and gun duels, but early in
the morning of October 23, 1917, operating over a six-mile front, they
smashed the German lines north of the Aisne and seven miles northeast of
Soissons. This swift and dashing attack, one of the most brilliant of
the war, resulted in a gain of ground for the French of more than two
miles at one point. Over 8,000 German prisoners, of whom 160 were
officers, were captured, and seventy heavy field and eighty machine
guns.
The morning of the attack was misty and rainy, and it was barely light
when the French sprang out of their trenches, and, with a terrific
barrage fire preceding them, swept over the first German positions,
driving out or destroying the defenders. The front of the French attack
was from the northeast of Laffaux, in the neighborhood of Vauxaillon, to
La Royère Farm.
Six German infantry divisions tried to bar their way, but these were
unable to check the spirited onslaught. The various stages of the French
advance, which were carried out with precision and dispatch, were as
follows: In the first dash the French captured the line indicated by the
quarries of Fruty and Bohéry, and somewhat later Malmaison Fort was
stormed and occupied. Montparnasse quarries, which had been previously
damaged by big shells, was the scene of intensely hot fighting before
the Germans were finally driven out.
The French center in its advance was opposed by fresh German reserves,
and the fighting became bitter around the village of Chavignon, which
the Germans only yielded after a violent struggle. It was in this area
that the greatest advance of the day, two and a fifth miles, was made.
On the right the French took the villages of Allemant and Vaudesson, and
carried their line to the heights commanding Pargny-Filain.
Squadrons of tanks were active during the advance, while the French
aviators distinguished themselves aloft by showering machine-gun bullets
upon the German infantry from an altitude of not more than 100 yards.
The capture of the Malmaison plateau by the French was of the first
importance, for it was the key of the ridge between the Aisne and
Ailette Valleys; an unrivaled observation point commanding the Laon
plain. In gaining it the French really "turned" the Chemin-des-Dames
Ridge, to the northern slopes of which the Germans had clung so long.
[Illustration: The taking of Malmaison and Chemin-des-Dames.]
On October 25, 1917, the French forces on the Aisne resumed the
offensive, a general push being made beyond the positions reached in the
last advance, extending to the Oise-Aisne Canal. The village and forest
of Pinon were captured, and the hamlet of Pargny-Filain. South of Filain
the fortified farms of St. Martin and La Chapelle Ste. Berthe were
occupied. On the front between Mont des Singes (Monkey Mountain) and
Chavignon French troops made further progress and reached Rohay Farm.
The Germans counterattacked at various points on the fighting front, but
were unable to make any progress. The French held securely all the new
positions gained during the advance, and the number of German prisoners
had now increased to over 12,000, of whom 200 were officers. Among the
spoils captured were 120 guns, many of the heaviest description.
On the British fronts in France and Flanders there were no important
actions. During the night of October 24, 1917, British aviators made a
successful raid on Saarbrücken. West of this place naval machines
dropped three and one-half tons of explosives on the Burbach works, and
other factories as well as railway communications were attacked with
good results, many explosions being noted. A train proceeding from
Saarbrücken received a direct hit from a big bomb and was destroyed.
On October 26, 1917, the British and French armies north, northeast, and
east of Ypres renewed the offensive. The attacks began in a cold rain
that had been falling for several hours. Haig's troops first advanced
from a point near St. Janshoek westward through the southern fringe of
Houthulst Forest to the neighborhood of Nieuemolen. The other assault
was on both sides of the Ypres-Menin highway along the Gheluvelt Ridge
toward the town of that name. Bellevue Spur, west of Passchendaele, was
crowded with machine guns, but the British entered it an hour after the
attack began. The Germans concentrated a heavy artillery fire on
Bellevue, while the British were fighting arduously with rifle, bomb,
and bayonet among the concrete fortifications. Through Wolf Copse, near
Bellevue, that had been the scene of many sanguinary struggles, the
British swept on, gaining Polderhoek Château, north of Gheluvelt, where
there was close, intense fighting before the Germans were forced to
yield.
On the same date the French continued their drive against the German
positions along the Aisne. On the right of their attacking front they
captured the village of Filain and pushed their lines forward north of
Chevregny. In the Champagne area French trenches at Maisons de Champagne
were heavily bombarded. Two surprise attacks attempted by the Germans
were crushed. On the Flanders front, this day, the French captured the
village of Draeibank, Papagoed Wood, and a number of fortified farms.
Several hundred German prisoners were gathered in during these
operations.
According to the reports made by French aviators scouting on the front,
the Germans were preparing a retreat, for beyond the Ailette Valley
fruit trees had been cut down and farms destroyed, just such destructive
measures as the Germans had employed when they retired on the Somme in
the spring of the year.
The French line now ran along the southern side of the Aisne-Oise Canal
without a break, from westward of Vauxaillon to the town of Filain.
French guns could now enfilade the German positions in three directions:
northwestward of Anizey-le-Château, along the valley of Laon, and
through the Ailette Valley, threatening the German lines on the
Chemin-des-Dames Ridge.
German prisoners from the Empress Elizabeth's Guards Regiment captured
during the recent French advance had been without food for three days
and complained bitterly of their officers, who had slipped away and left
them without commanders during the struggle.
The Germans had seven divisions in action during the first day's
fighting here, and when it was evident that the tide of battle was
running against them, fresh divisions were rushed up which had recently
arrived from Galicia. The reenforcements reached the battle field only
to fall under the murderous fire of French guns, or were taken prisoner,
catastrophes which only added to the general confusion that seems to
have reigned among the Teutonic forces.
French troops on the Flanders front began another dashing drive on
October 27, 1917, capturing all the German positions on a front of two
and a half miles. The advance was made on both sides of the road between
Dixmude and Ypres. On the right the French gained the western outskirts
of Houthulst Wood, capturing the villages of Verbrandesmis, Aschoop,
Merckem, and Kippe, and also a system of strongly fortified farms. Again
the French had to wade through morasses into which they sank waist deep,
but there was no holding the brave "poilus" back. Soaked with mud and
water they had to attack heavily defended hamlets and innumerable
concrete blockhouses bristling with machine guns, but every objective
was won.
West of Passchendaele the Canadians were improving the positions in this
sector which they had captured in the first stages of the battle, across
the neck of the Bellevue Spur. The Germans had endeavored by repeated
counterattacks to force them out of this dominating height, and there
were anxious moments for the Canadians, when, as the result of a
struggle at close quarters, they were forced to yield ground. But they
quickly rallied, and in a fierce onslaught drove out the Germans and
recovered the position.
Northwest of Verdun, near Chaume Wood, the German Crown Prince's army
made a strong assault on French positions on October 29, 1917. The
attack was preceded by a bombardment of intense violence. The German
infantry pressed forward impetuously in the face of a blasting fire from
rifles and machine guns and penetrated French positions north of
Courrières Wood. But they were only able to hold the ground for a short
time, when the French struck back and forced them out, dispersing the
invaders, who fled to their own lines.
On the Flanders front the Canadians continued to forge their way forward
toward Passchendaele. In the morning of October 30, 1917, they attacked
the outer defenses of that place. At Meetscheede village, a mass of
ruins, there stood a number of concrete blockhouses, strongly manned,
and the struggle that developed here was fierce and bloody. The place
was only won by the individual cunning of the Canadians, who hid among
the shell craters, dashing forward separately and in groups whenever
there was a slight pause in the enemy's fire. It was slow, hard work,
and costly, but they slogged away until the German guns were silent.
Beyond Meetscheede stood another row of blockhouses, and more intense
fighting ensued, but at length the Germans gave up and started to run,
but very few were said to have escaped.
Another Canadian unit on the right, where the Passchendaele Ridge
stands, was fighting its way up toward Crest Farm in the face of a heavy
machine-gun fire. By dogged persistence they won the position, and
quickly turning the captured German guns were enabled to smash up the
counterattacks which followed quickly after the positions were occupied.
After these assaults that cost the Germans heavily the Canadians passed
a quiet night in their newly won trenches only 400 yards from
Passchendaele.
October 31, 1917, was warm and sunny and brought cheer to the Canadians,
who had been lying out all night in the chilly air in their wet
uniforms. The work of consolidating the newly won positions went forward
rapidly. German gunfire, which continued during the day, was especially
intense in the territory between Schaopbaillie and Poelcappelle north of
the scene of the previous day's fighting. Here the Germans gained a
small advantage: the British were shelled from two outposts in fortified
farms.
On the French front artillery battles and local engagements were
continued during October 30-31, 1917. North of the Aisne the guns
thundered on the whole sector between Vauxaillon and Pinon, and along
the new French positions in the region of Froidmont. German detachments,
which attempted to storm French posts north of the Loivre and to the
northwest of Rheims, were driven off with heavy losses. A surprise
attack in the Argonne, in the region of Boureuilles, was defeated by the
French after a sharp engagement in which the Germans were severely
punished.
Since assuming the offensive on October 23, 1917, the French had
captured over 12,000 prisoners, of whom 237 were officers. Large
quantities of war material were also taken, including 180 cannon.
CHAPTER V
GERMAN RETREAT FROM CHEMIN-DES-DAMES--THE BRITISH ADVANCE TOWARD CAMBRAI
French victories resulted in the retreat of the Germans from the
Chemin-des-Dames. It began during the night of November 1, 1917, and
continued the day following. The stupendous efforts made by them to hold
this important rampart had cost thousands of lives and had been in vain.
They were forced to retire along a fifteen-mile front to the Ailette
River, the prelude, perhaps, to the fall of Laon and La Fère.
The Germans had been in control of the Chemin-des-Dames since September,
1914, when Joffre turned back the Teuton armies in the Battle of the
Marne. Since then they had clung desperately to this ridge, which
dominates the valley of the Aisne and the Ailette Valley. The German
Crown Prince lost the best elements of his armies and the best part of
their effectives in the fighting here in October, 1917. Enfiladed day
and night by French guns it was impossible for the Germans to keep their
front lines supplied with food and ammunition, for the carriers had to
pass through a storm of fire in crossing the valley of Ailette, where
they were constantly under observation from the French positions. It was
in anticipation of a new offensive that the Germans decided to retire
from a position that had become untenable.
Possession of the Chemin-des-Dames greatly strengthened the French lines
in the Aisne sector, giving them control of the St. Gobain region
northwest of the highway. St. Gobain is between Laon and La Fère and
dominates both those points.
On November 2, 1917, the French forces organized the new ground
conquered from the Oise Canal to Corbeny. Lively artillery actions were
continued in the different sectors of the Chemin-des-Dames. In the
course of the night the French made progress between these two points
and reached the south bank of the Ailette River, over the entire front.
The Germans retired to the north bank of the stream, destroying bridges
and footbridges on the way.
The French had received timely warning of the retreat, and an hour after
it began swarmed down along the whole front in pursuit. It was evident
that the Germans had determined hurriedly to abandon the ridge, for the
first French troops to reach the positions found tins containing soup
that was still hot. The advance was made slowly and cautiously, for it
was well known that the Germans left dangerous traps behind them when
forced to retire. In Cerny village a German helmet was found fixed to a
pole so arranged that when it was lifted off it would cause the
explosion of a mine. The Germans had passed out of sight, but they were
still heard from, their guns being constantly active shelling the
abandoned positions.
The French discovered trenches and dugouts and two large tunnels almost
intact owing perhaps to the fact that the Germans feared to destroy them
lest the explosions would give the alarm. The result was that the
victors had little work to do in preparing defenses, and began their
tenancy under good cover.
No important actions were fought on the British front in France during
the first days of November, 1917. There was fierce shelling day and
night on both sides across Passchendaele Ridge.
On November 6, 1917, the indomitable Canadians began a daring drive that
resulted in the capture of Passchendaele village northeast of Ypres, a
key position dominating the plain of Roulers. After taking the place
they pushed forward and occupied positions 800 yards farther on. The
German defense was far weaker than the men from overseas anticipated,
nor did the enemy launch a counterattack immediately after the town was
captured. This failure to counterattack was afterward explained by one
of the two German battalion commanders, who were made prisoners with
their staffs when Passchendaele fell. This officer commanded a reserve
battalion brought up for the express purpose of counterattacking. He had
gone with his staff to consult with the battalion chief commanding in
the village, and when both commanders were captured their troops were
left without a responsible head. The reserve battalion waited in a state
of indecision for the officer's return and never ventured forward, thus
giving the Canadians time to consolidate their gains. From the village
it was possible to look far over occupied Belgium, and the possibilities
for artillery work from this position were wide. Its loss threatened the
retention by the Germans of their defenses for many miles.
In the course of the drive the Canadians took 400 prisoners, of whom
twenty-one were officers. The total would have been much higher, but a
number of the enemy were killed by the fire of their own guns when they
were being brought back after the taking of Passchendaele, whether by
accident or design was not learned.
Two days passed, and yet the Germans made no attempt to capture the lost
village, thus giving the Canadians ample time to organize their defenses
and secure a firm grip on the position. The enemy's heavy gunfire had
slackened too, because the Canadians had observation of his old battery
positions, so he relied mainly on lighter guns.
For months little activity had been reported on the upper Alsace sector
of the western front, but on November 7, 1917, the French made an attack
on the German positions at Schoenholz, capturing 121 prisoners including
officers, and large quantities of war material and stores.
Haig's troops began a new push early in the morning of November 10,
1917, northward along Passchendaele Ridge, on a front of one and a half
miles and piercing the German lines for half a mile. It had been raining
most of the night and the storm still continued when the British forces
went forward at 6.05 o'clock in the morning. The Germans immediately
threw a heavy barrage along the front involved, and the advance was
raked by machine-gun fire from numerous strong points. The fighting was
especially intense at several fortified farms strongly held by the
Germans. North of Goeberg there were several concreted positions whose
defenders fought with daring and tenacity. Repeatedly the British
stormed and penetrated these strongholds only to be driven out a little
later by counterattacks, but "dogged does it!" and by 10 o'clock they
had virtually gained all their objectives.
During the morning hours of November 11, 1917, the Germans bombarded
heavily the new British positions, but no counterattack was attempted.
Along the crest of Passchendaele Ridge, north of the village, the
Canadians held their advanced line strongly. On the lower ground, to the
west, the scene of bitter fighting on the previous day, the Germans
counterattacked, and at a few points the British were forced back,
though holding on to some of the newly won positions.
There were many local actions at various points on the French front,
November 10-11, 1917. Surprise attacks were attempted by the Germans
northwest of Rheims and north of Samogneux, which were shattered by the
well-directed French artillery fire. On the front of Chaume Wood, in the
Verdun sector, gun duels continued intermittently day and night.
In the Vosges the Germans after heavy artillery preparation made an
attack on the French trenches at Hartmannsweilerkopf. A violent
engagement developed in which the opponents fought at close quarters and
the bayonet was used freely. It was a short, sharp struggle in which
neither side was disposed to yield, but ultimately the Germans after
gaining a foothold in the French observation line were driven off. On
November 10-11, 1917, the Germans bombarded French advanced posts in the
region of Ramscappelle and Pervyse as well as their trenches at Dixmude.
The French guns replied with so destructive a fire that the enemy
batteries were silenced. Then their "heavies" began a bombardment of
German works at Woumen and positions on the outskirts of Dixmude.
After several days' intense shelling of British positions around
Passchendaele the Germans made a determined effort on November 13, 1917,
to recover the lost ground. They massed strong bodies of troops in the
neighborhood of Westroosebeke, advancing from the cross roads north of
Passchendaele under the protection of a violent barrage. The British
were not caught napping and their gunners concentrated a destructive
fire on the German assembly places and approaches. The first waves of
the German advance were shattered by streams of bullets, and only small
bodies struggled through the devastating fire to the British trenches,
where after sharp fighting they were driven back.
Another section of the dominating Passchendaele Ridge was wrested by
Haig's troops from the Germans during the night of November 16-17, 1917.
The credit for this advance was due to the Highland, Berkshire, and
Lancashire troops, who in the darkness left their shell holes and pushed
forward over ground that was swept by machine-gun fire. The Germans were
evidently taken by surprise, or were cowed by the impetuous dash of the
British troops, for they did not attempt a strong defense. The struggle
developed to the north of the ruins of Passchendaele village, and the
British were easy winners. A heavily fortified redoubt known as Vocation
Farm gave the attackers some trouble, but it was captured along with
other strong points in the neighborhood. The Germans did not attempt an
immediate counterattack, but increased their artillery fire on the
sector.
On the following day the Germans made a strong raid on British lines in
Flanders in the neighborhood of Guillemont Farm. At some points they
were successful in piercing defenses, but the British counterattacked
across the open, and after a short, sharp struggle, repulsed the
invaders and took a number of prisoners. In the night of November 17-18,
1917, Lancashire and Highland troops made a successful raid on enemy
trenches in the neighborhood of Monchy-le-Preux, where they killed or
captured many Germans and escaped with light casualties before reserves
could arrive.
These minor local actions were the prelude to a powerful offensive which
Field Marshal Haig was preparing, one of the greatest operations of the
war, and which broke the famous Hindenburg line. The attack was launched
on November 20, 1917, and was a complete surprise to the Germans as it
had not been preceded by any artillery preparations. The operation was
carried out by the third army under General Sir Julian Byng, the advance
being made along a thirty-two-mile front between St. Quentin and the
Scarpe River. German defenses were penetrated for a distance of five
miles at the deepest point, extending to the village of Cantaing, which
lies less than three miles to the southwest of Cambrai.
As a substitute for the usual artillery preparation the British had
secretly assembled a large number of tanks, which were sent forward
under a screen of smoke, and broke down the German barbed-wire
entanglements, opening the way for the infantry to make their forward
rushes. The British troops were in high spirits, shouting and cheering
as they pushed forward in the wake of the lumbering machines.
As the tanks rolled on, showering machine-gun bullets before them, the
British guns in the rear sent hurricanes of shells screaming over the
Hindenburg line. The surprise of the attack seemed to have dazed and
bewildered the Germans; many of them hid in their dugouts and tunnels
and then surrendered. The braver element got their machine guns in
action or used their rifles to snipe the British.
The German artillery fire was feeble, their gun positions being
smothered beneath the deluge of British shells. There were comparatively
few batteries, and their infantry gained little help from them. It was
well known to the British that they had removed many of their guns from
this sector in the past few days, as this part of the battle line was
considered "quiet."
During the night preceding the attack the British had massed large
bodies of cavalry very close to the enemy lines, ready for a sweeping
drive when the tanks had broken down the wire defenses. In hollows near
the German lines were thousands of cavalry horses with their horse
artillery limbered up ready for the dash forward. After the tanks had
made clear the way to advance the cavalry sprang forward through the
rain and mist. One squadron rode down a battery of German guns, and
other bodies swept around machine-gun emplacements and through villages
and captured many prisoners.
It was 6.20 in the morning when the tanks first pushed forward to break
down the wire entanglements and clear the way for the advance of the
British infantry. An hour later the troops were rushing through the gaps
made in the German defenses. At 7.47 British troops operating west of
Havrincourt had forced their way up and over the elevation known as
Mount Vesuvius. It was fortunate that the movement was carried out with
dispatch, for a few minutes later the knoll, which had been mined, was
blown up by the Germans. Havrincourt was captured in less than an hour,
the Germans evacuating the place in such haste that they had not time to
inflict any serious damage. The West Riding Territorials, who captured
Havrincourt, also occupied enemy trench systems to the north of the
village, while Ulster battalions, covering their left flank, pressed on
northward up the west bank of the Canal du Nord. La Vacquerie and the
strong defenses known as Welsh Ridge were won by English rifle regiments
and light infantry. In the course of the advance east, County troops
took the hamlet of Bonavis and Laffaux Wood after a bitter struggle that
resulted in heavy casualties to the Germans.
Later in the morning the British troops extended the advance at all
points. Crossings were effected of the canal at Masnières and English,
Scottish, Irish, and Welsh battalions fought together in the capture of
Marcoing and Neuf Wood. East of the Canal du Nord the West Riding troops
that took Havrincourt made important progress. They stormed and captured
the villages of Graincourt and Anneux. In conjunction with Ulster men
operating west of the canal they carried the whole German line northward
to the Bapaume-Cambrai road.
Important points of the Hindenburg line were penetrated east of Epihy by
the West Lancashire Territorials, while Irish troops won important
sections of the line between Bullecourt and Fontaine-les-Croisilles.
In the morning of the second day of the advance the British were within
three miles of Cambrai. After breaking through the German's last defense
line at Anneux and Cantaing, British tanks, cavalry, and infantry were
operating along a line running from west of Cambrai to the south of that
town. On the left, in the region of Bullecourt, the German line had been
pushed back, widening the salient which the British drove into enemy
territory south and southwest of Cambrai. In the attack around
Bullecourt the British took 700 prisoners.
The Germans had now recovered their fighting spirit, which suffered a
decline during the first stages of the British advance, and everywhere
opposed a stiff resistance. At Noyelles, Rumilly, and Bullecourt they
made desperate counterattacks during the night, but were unable to
overcome British resistance.
In the two days' fighting the British had captured more than 9,000
prisoners.
There was heavy fighting during the morning of November 22, 1917, near
Bourlon Wood, Fontaine Wood, and the village of Fontaine Notre Dame east
of it, less than three miles from Cambrai. When the British captured the
last place named, they were able to release more than a hundred civilian
prisoners, who hailed their rescuers with cheers and many wept for joy.
At Masnières the same scene was enacted, where some hundreds of
civilians were freed from the odious rule of their German oppressors.
They had been kept from starving almost entirely by the American Relief
Committee, and after America entered the war by the Spanish-Dutch
Committee. The men had been forced by the Germans to work long hours in
the fields and workshops, and the women had to sweep the roads, wash the
soldiers' dirty linen, and scrub their quarters.
"For three years we lived in a nightmare," said the Mayor of Masnières,
"and now we seem to be in a dream too good to be true!" One man had been
living for three years in the cellar of his own house, where German
officers were billeted, being fed by his wife out of the extra ration
given to the baby born since the war began. Every week the house was
searched and husband and wife would have been punished with death if the
man had been found.
In the morning of November 23, 1917, the British drove back the Germans
from an elevation known as Tadpole Copse west of Moeuvres, commanding a
large section of the Canal du Nord, which runs east of that place and
the village itself, still in German hands. At Fontaine Notre Dame, west
of Cambrai, where the British had been pushed back, the fighting was
renewed. In the eastern part of Crevecoeur village the Germans had
concentrated an intense machine-gun fire against the British in the
western outskirts.
Heavy fighting continued throughout the day of November 23, 1917, at
Bourlon Wood, and around Fontaine. The British held a line on the low
ground about the southern edge of the wood, and from these positions had
to charge up the slopes under the fire of many machine guns.
Assisted by the tanks the British infantry made a strong forward push,
and hand-to-hand fighting ensued as soon as they had entered the forest.
Every foot of the advance was fiercely contested, but the "men of the
bulldog breed" were out to win, and by early afternoon had driven their
way through half the wood. Later in the day they gained more ground,
occupying a line through the center of the wood to the northwest of
Fontaine. In hand-to-hand combats the Germans were slowly forced back
toward the northern edge of the forest. A determined counterattack from
the north was made by the Germans in an effort to oust the British, but
they held firm. While this bloody struggle was going on in and around
the wood Fontaine village, which the Germans held strongly, was the
scene of fierce fighting. The place was heavily fortified, and the
Germans with rifles and machine guns fired from the roofs and windows of
the houses. Later in the afternoon the British tanks took a hand in the
fighting here, but at the close of the day (November 23) the Germans
were still in possession of the place, though sorely depleted in
numbers.
The fighting was continued in the neighborhood of Bourlon during
November 24-25, 1917, with varying fortunes to those engaged. The
Germans about noon on the 25th succeeded in driving the British from
the greater part of the village. In Bourlon Wood, where the British held
strong points on the high ground, the Germans, though repeatedly
attacking, failed to make any progress.
In the five days that had passed since the British began the offensive
on November 20, 1917, they had captured 9,774 prisoners, including 182
officers.
The Hindenburg support line west of Moeuvres was attacked by British
troops, some from London, during the night of November 25, 1917. The
fighting that developed was close and sanguinary, the losses on both
sides being considerable, but the British believed they had not paid too
dearly for the 2,000 yards of support trenches which they won on this
bitterly contested field.
At Bourlon Wood and Bourlon village the fighting still continued in one
of the most bitterly contested and sanguinary struggles that had been
fought up to that time on the British front in France. Bourlon Wood, to
which the British clung so tenaciously, was of special value to the
Germans if they were to hold their positions farther north, and for that
reason they were making extraordinary efforts to regain that elevation.
The British had established many guns in good working positions and were
prepared to defend it.
Fighting was continued on the southern edge of Bourlon village in the
night of November 26, 1917. The British broke the German line at one
point and brought back a body of English troops that had been isolated
for some time in the southern part of the hamlet. Having rescued their
fellow soldiers they made no attempt to remain in the village, but
dashed back through the gap they had made in the German lines.
At about 10 o'clock at night on the same date the Germans in a
counterattack struck hard against British positions on the northeast
corner of Bourlon Wood, but were driven back so decisively that they
made no further attempts to recover the lost ground. The British
artillery continued to pound the German lines effectively during the
night, but no other infantry action was attempted by either side.
The villages of Fontaine Notre Dame and Bourlon continued to be the
storm centers on the battle front. They were constantly deluged with
shells by both sides, and attacks were made from time to time in which
now the British and now the Germans gained some slight advantage. From
their positions in Bourlon Wood the British were shelling Cambrai three
and a half miles away.
On November 28, 1917, the British won a section of the ridge between
Bourlon Wood and Moeuvres in the face of a heavy barrage and intense
machine-gun fire from the direction of Bourlon village.
In the morning of the following day, under cover of a furious artillery
fire, the Germans delivered an attack in force on the British positions
between Bourlon Wood and Moeuvres on the west. In the first dash the
Germans swept over the crest of the ridge west of the wood and as far as
the vicinity of the Bapaume-Cambrai road north of Graincourt.
After the first shock of the assault the British organized a
counterattack and fell upon the advancing Germans with such fury that
the advance was checked. Fighting still continued, however, throughout
the day in this region with varying fortunes to the combatants.
The Germans had been concentrating their heaviest guns in this area to
replace those that had been captured by General Byng, and were using gas
shells on a lavish scale.
In the morning of November 30, 1917, the Germans started an important
offensive movement with the fixed purpose of driving the British from
the territory they had won in the previous week. Two great attacks were
made early in the day, one extending from Moeuvres to Bourlon Wood, the
other along a 1,200 yard front southwest of Cambrai, between Vendhuile
and Crevecoeur.
The Germans employed strong forces, and were efficiently supported by
newly concentrated guns that had been brought forward for the purpose.
Over the ridge between Moeuvres and Bourlon Wood the Germans poured in
dense masses, coming under fire of the British artillery as they swept
down the slope toward the Bapaume-Cambrai road. The Germans advanced in
such close formation that they fell by the score under the intense fire
from British rifles and machine guns. But where one fell a dozen seemed
to rise up and take his place, and the hordes moved resistlessly forward
like a tidal wave. British infantrymen were thrown into the battle line
for a counterattack and a murderous struggle developed, but the Germans
were too strong, nothing could hold them back as they pushed
relentlessly on, and the rush was only checked when they reached a point
in the vicinity of the Bapaume-Cambrai highway northwest of Graincourt.
Regardless of their heavy losses the Germans continued to pour over the
ridge all day long in waves of massed formation, offering a splendid
target for the British guns. Their ranks were torn and shattered in that
storm of fiery hail, but there was hardly a pause in the advance and
their numbers never seemed to diminish. Late in the day the British in
counterattacks gained ground at some points, but the honors rested with
the Germans, who by costly sacrifice of men won important defenses and
advanced their lines. Around Bourlon Wood the British held firmly and
the Germans, wearied at last of the slaughter that had decimated their
ranks, gave up attacking for the day.
In the south the Germans began the attack with a force of ten divisions;
six of them were on the front line. It was planned to make two turning
movements on either side of the line, which were to converge toward a
common point. German infantry supported by cavalry at the northern end
of the line delivered an assault across the canal from Crevecoeur toward
Masnières. They succeeded in forcing their way into the suburbs of the
last-named place, but were driven out before they could establish
positions.
Farther to the south the Germans won important victories, when they
broke through the British front, south of Villers-Guislain, and by an
adroit turning movement to the north, surrounded Gauche Wood,
Gouzeaucourt, Gonnelieu and La Vacquerie. In this operation the Germans
advanced their lines at one point about 4,000 yards. This was at
Gouzeaucourt, which they entered about 10 o'clock in the morning, and
where fighting of the most violent description continued until the
middle of the afternoon. The British had received reenforcements, but
they were still heavily outnumbered. The fighting was at close quarters,
a merciless hand-to-hand struggle that continued for hours without
pause. The British troops, fearing the loss of their dearly bought
ground, fought with desperation and about 3 in the afternoon succeeded
in pushing the Germans out of the village and reoccupied it.
East of Gouzeaucourt the Germans occupied a ridge with strong forces.
During the day the British repeatedly attacked, and finally forced them
to withdraw from the height to the lower ground, and occupying the
position, and also Gauche Wood, pushed on to the western edge of
Gonnelieu.
The German line in the morning of December 1, 1917, was just west of
Villers-Guislain, marking an advance of about 3,000 yards at the
greatest depth. Other less important advances were won in the north and
at Gonnelieu, and while the British regretted the loss of valuable
territory, there was nothing in the situation to cause them uneasiness.
There had been crucial periods in the fighting of the previous day, when
it seemed that the Germans would win an overwhelming victory, and all
the territory gained during General Byng's advance would be recovered,
but British determination and dogged perseverance and unconquerable
spirit prevailed, and the most ambitious plans of the enemy were
frustrated.
Heavy losses had been sustained by both sides. The German attacks, made
in massed formation, had caused a formidable death roll. They claimed to
have taken 400 British prisoners.
CHAPTER VI
GERMANS GAIN IN THE CAMBRAI AREA--COLD WEATHER HALTS IMPORTANT
OPERATIONS
All day long the waves of battle rolled around Masnières on December 1,
1917. The Germans made nine strong attacks, all of which were repulsed.
It was declared by eyewitnesses that the British destroyed more Germans
during the fight here between dawn and dark than in any similar period
since the beginning of the war. From the first German assault there was
no pause in the struggle.
Late in the day south and east of Masnières the German guns heavily
bombarded the town. The British line formed a sharp salient around the
place, which made the position difficult to hold, as it was dominated by
the high ground held by the Germans. It was therefore decided by the
British command to withdraw to the southeastern outskirts of the town
and there establish the line to the great benefit of the entire front.
Gonnelieu, which the British captured during the day, though the Germans
still clung to portions of the ruins, was completely "cleaned up" during
the night, about 300 prisoners being taken here. After the recapture of
Gauche Wood the British continued to push on up to the higher ground
southwest of the wood. During the assault on Gauche Wood one British
tank captured fifteen machine guns from the enemy.
December 2, 1917, the Germans continued their terrific attacks on the
British front south and southwest of Cambrai. With a mighty
concentration of artillery, and employing great forces of infantry, they
tried to pierce the British defenses in the Gonnelieu sector, but
General Byng's army had been strongly reenforced and held fast.
The battle began along a front that extended from La Vacquerie southward
to Vendhuile. The Germans attacked British positions at La Vacquerie at
8:45 in the morning, and penetrated the village, but only won temporary
foothold, when they were forced out. As the day wore on the fighting
spread northward toward Masnières, which the British had evacuated on
the previous day. During the night the town was an uncomfortable place
to hold, as the British continued to deluge it with shells and the
Germans were forced to find refuge in tunnels and dugouts. Southwest of
Bourlon village General Byng's troops won back a trench system that the
Germans had captured during the push of November 30, 1917. Bourlon Wood
was again in possession of the British, though a few Germans still clung
to some points on the outskirts. South of Marcoing the Germans
continued their powerful attacks on the British lines, but were unable
to cut through the defenses.
[Illustration: The battle of Cambrai.]
Under cover of the darkness the British withdrew from the salient about
Bourlon Wood during the night of December 4-5, 1917, to a prepared line
which would be stronger and easier to hold. Not until some hours had
passed did the Germans discover the retirement, when they swarmed into
the vacant territory and dug themselves in. Bourlon Wood had been
generally stripped of troops; only a rear guard being left when the
British retired, and they were later withdrawn. The Germans continued,
however, to bombard the wood, showing that they were all in the dark
concerning British movements.
The devastated area which the British had abandoned, and which included
the mined towns of Graincourt, Anneux, Cantaing, Noyelles, Marcoing, and
Masnières, was gradually occupied by the Germans. They had no easy task
before them, for the British guns dominated this desert with tons of
explosives, and hundreds of shells were hurled into their advanced ranks
as they went forward to prospect for desirable positions for defense.
Meanwhile the British army had found exceptional quarters in the
captured Hindenburg trenches with their wonderful dugouts and network of
front-line and communication trenches, all ready for occupancy.
There was continued fighting during the 6th between advanced patrols of
British and Germans. North of La Vacquerie Ulster troops won some
important defenses that strengthened the British line.
Artillery duels and sporadic raids were the only military events in this
fighting area during the several succeeding days. The British
anticipated that this lull would be followed by renewed fighting, for it
was known that the Germans had been bringing forward strong
reenforcements, probably from the Russian front.
The German offensive began on December 12, 1917, but was far from being
as formidable as the British feared. The first attack was made at dawn
against an elbow in the bend of the British line between Bullecourt and
Queant, about ten miles west of Cambrai. The Germans were in strong
force, the troops, principally from Bavaria, advancing in waves and
close formation, and by sheer weight of numbers won about 500 yards of
front-line trenches before they could be checked. Other attacks were
made from the east, and the third south of Riencourt, both of which were
shattered by British rifle and machine-gun fire.
The Germans were evidently trying to discover weak spots in the British
lines by a process of testing, for on December 14, 1917, they made an
assault on the Ypres front in Flanders. The stroke was delivered on a
front of about 300 yards southeast of Polygon Wood, against British
positions near Polderhoek Château. They won a section of front-line
trench, but were repulsed at all other points of attack.
East of Bullecourt, in the Cambrai area, German gunfire had increased in
violence. During the night the British engaged in bomb fighting that was
highly successful, and enabled them to improve their lines. North of
Bullecourt in the afternoon of December 15, 1917, the British carried
out a successful raid in which a number of prisoners were captured and
enemy dugouts and defenses were destroyed.
Snow began to fall during the night on this date, and by morning the
countryside was deeply covered, and the ugly scars of battle hidden from
sight. The snow lay in heavy drifts on the roads and fields. No military
operation was possible, and even the sinister-looking guns were silent.
This white truce was appreciated by the British as it must have been by
the soldiers of the kaiser, for both armies had been under a severe
strain since General Byng's advance on Cambrai, November 20, 1917.
It was estimated by conservative military observers that the German
strength on the Franco-British front at this time was 154 divisions, one
less than the great force amassed here in the previous July, when the
German military effort against France was at its maximum.
During these momentous days on the British battle front the French had
been nibbling away at the German positions around Verdun and along the
Aisne and Meuse Rivers. The capture of the entire line of lights through
which runs the famous Chemin-des-Dames had given them command of the
strongest positions in that region. The Germans, forced to retire across
the Ailette and to abandon the whole valley to the French, were so
situated that it would be taking a gambler's chance to attempt an
offensive on a large scale. Nor was a direct attack on Verdun probable,
for they had lost all their gains on both sides of the Meuse, while
every point of vantage in this sector was in possession of the soldiers
of the Republic.
The Champagne front between Rheims and Verdun offered the most favorable
field for the Germans to deliver a hard blow. By a strong offensive the
French positions to the east, in the Argonne Forest, might be turned,
compelling the French to draw their lines back; converting into a
narrow-necked wedge the Verdun lines, which would be hemmed in on nearly
every side.
On the Alsace and Lorraine fronts there was little to fear of any strong
action on the part of the Germans, as every movement must be made
through narrow passes, conditions that rendered large operations
impossible.
Meanwhile the Germans were evidently testing the French fronts for a
weak spot where they might strike a shrewd blow. Around Verdun and
farther east the German guns thundered unceasingly, and German trench
raids were of daily and nightly occurrence throughout the month of
December. For "a worn-out army," as the French troops had been called by
their enemies, they fought with astonishing spirit. The Germans made
slight gains from time to time, but they were unable to retain them.
On the Cambrai front the fighting was confined to raids and minor
actions of slight importance. On December 30, 1917, the Germans made
strong local attacks on a front of over two miles against the British
position on the spur known as Welsh Ridge south of Cambrai. The
attackers were forced back in the center, but on the right, toward the
north of La Vacquerie, and on the left to the south of Marcoing, they
penetrated and occupied two small salients in the British lines. In the
morning of the following day, after a short but heavy bombardment, the
Germans renewed their attack against Welsh Ridge on a front of about
1,200 yards south of Marcoing. The southern portion was assaulted by
strong forces, and assisted by liquid fire they succeeded in gaining a
foothold in one of the British trenches. The gain was only temporary,
for the British quickly rallied, and in a fierce counterattack drove out
the invaders and reoccupied the entire trench system.
German artillery thundered unceasingly throughout the day on January 1,
1918, near La Vacquerie on the Cambrai front, and in the Lens,
Armentières and Ypres sectors. In the evening, under cover of a heavy
bombardment, three bodies of German troops attempted to raid British
positions in the vicinity of Méricourt southeast of Lens. The assaulting
troops came under the concentrated fire of the British artillery and
were hurled back with heavy losses before they could reach their
objectives. In no-man's-land these disorganized Germans ran into a
British patrol, and again lost heavily, very few escaping from the
field.
The British front was now in the icy grip of winter. Snow-drifts made
the roads impassable for motor cars. The Germans, however, were not
deterred by unfavorable weather conditions from making sporadic raids on
British positions. On January 5, 1918, they had some success at
Bullecourt, where they captured a British advance post--a dearly bought
operation that cost them a heavy toll in casualties. In the afternoon
the British came back in force, and, after a tense, close struggle,
drove out the Germans and reoccupied the position.
On the French front, where a blizzard had been raging and the heaviest
snowstorm in years made military operations on any large scale
impossible, the Germans continued to be active, and the French were kept
busy defending their costly won positions.
On January 8, 1918, French troops carried out an extensive and
successful raid which was intrusted to foreign legionaries and
sharpshooters. The attack was delivered along a front of a mile and to a
depth of half a mile in front of Flirey and westward toward St. Mihiel.
The French completely cleaned out the German defenses, capturing 178
men and officers and numbers of machine guns and trench mortars. The
Germans were so completely taken by surprise that their artillery did
not get into action until the French had finished the job. The attack
was carried out with such dispatch and in so thorough a manner that the
French suffered not more than a dozen casualties, while the German dead
lay thick about the field and the snow was streaked with ominous stains.
On the same date (January 8) the spell of silence which had brooded for
some days on the British front was broken by a hostile attack made by
the Germans east of Bullecourt.
In the early dawn the British lines were bombarded with high explosives
and gas, and about 6.35 three parties of Bavarian troops, who had been
lying concealed during the night in no-man's-land, made a quick rush for
the British defenses. The front line attacked had been weakened by the
recent withdrawal of troops, as an enemy attack was not expected in a
sector considered "quiet."
Two of the parties of Bavarians carried flame throwers of the most
approved type, which darted a jet of fire thirty feet, and literally
wiped out with a touch a man's life. This engine of destruction had a
terrifying effect on troops who saw it in operation for the first time,
but the British soldiers defending the trenches at Bullecourt were
seasoned fighters and well acquainted with every type of German
frightfulness.
The Bavarians in this attack succeeded in penetrating the British line
and proceeded to make themselves at home in the position and to
strengthen the defenses. A swift counterattack delivered by the British
killed a number of them, but the others continued to hold on through the
early morning hours. Shortly before noon the snow began to fall heavily,
making observation difficult. Through the storm swept a body of British
troops to assault for a second time. The Bavarians were taken by
surprise and driven out of the position, leaving a score of prisoners
and a number of wounded in British hands. Such minor operations and
small raids made on both sides were the only interruptions of the quiet
that prevailed on the entire front where General Winter ruled. The
troops, who were enduring every discomfort in their snow-bound trenches,
longed eagerly for clearing weather, when they might find release from
deadly inaction.
The British were better off than the Germans, since they had won the
ridges on the front. They could keep dry, while the kaiser's troops
occupied trenches that were often in a fearful condition owing to lack
of natural drainage, which in bad weather transformed them into bogs.
The British took prisoners in dugouts that were filled with water. The
miserable occupants of these holes seemed to be glad enough to fall into
the hands of their enemy.
In these days there was considerable relaxation in the iron discipline
of the German army--on the British front at least. It was learned that
their officers were cautious about punishing the troops too severely
even for grave offenses against discipline. Deserters were not shot, but
sent back to Germany, where it was said the prisons were full of such
offenders. To escape service in the front-line trenches the soldiers
shammed gas-poisoning and resorted to other devices to avoid duty.
On the French front during these dreary winter days the Germans
continued their raiding attacks in Chaume Wood in the Verdun sector, and
at other points, in which every weapon of "frightfulness," including
lavish use of liquid fire, was employed. But the French troops defeated
every effort made by the enemy to oust them from the important positions
that had been won by costly sacrifices. These futile assaults served to
keep up their fighting spirit, which otherwise might have gone down with
the mercury.
During the night of January 13, 1918, Canadian troops attacked the
German trenches to the north of Lens. The Germans offered only a feeble
resistance, and after damaging the defenses the Canadians withdrew,
bringing with them a number of prisoners. The adventure was a success,
and almost unique in its way, because the raiders had not lost a man or
suffered a single casualty.
On January 13-14, 1918, during the night and the day following, the guns
of the French and Germans were active at various points along the
Champagne front and on the right bank of the Meuse. In the region north
of Louvemont the Germans had concentrated for attack, when they came
under fire of the French guns and were dispersed. This discouraged any
further attempts of the enemy to launch an infantry action that day.
On the Alsatian front, between the Thur and Doller Rivers, an artillery
duel was fought all day on January 15, 1918. In the region of
Badonviller the French carried out a successful raid that led to the
capture of forty prisoners including some officers.
During these days peace reigned in a military sense on the British front
in France and Flanders. There was generally, however, enough going on to
keep up interest among the soldiers, even if they were not called on to
do any hard fighting.
German batteries in a fitful way continued to rain a deadly fire around
the outer edge of the Ypres salient from Passchendaele downward, and
scattered shells lavishly among the back areas across the Menin road and
the old fighting grounds of Monchy and Fampoux. The British troops
holding defenses in the suburbs of Lens, Bullecourt, and Havrincourt
were not spared by these destructive visitants.
The British certainly did their part in keeping the Germans at
attention, doing counterbattery work with the aid of aeroplanes whenever
there was an hour or two of visibility, showering tons of bombs and
explosives on German working parties, trenches, and roads.
Notwithstanding the boggy condition of the ground, when it was not deep
with snow, a rumor arose, though it was impossible to trace the source,
that the Germans contemplated a great offensive. They possessed
inventive skill and perhaps they would find means to get their cannon
through the swamps of no-man's-land and the roads where heavy guns would
sink wheel deep.
During the night of January 21, 1918, British aviators raided towns in
the occupied parts of Belgium and German Lorraine. Two tons of bombs
were dropped on the steelworks at Thionville, on railway sidings at
Bernstorf, thirty miles south of Metz, and on the Arneville railway
junction.
There was considerable activity on the French front on this date when
German lines west of the Navrain Farm in the Champagne were successfully
raided. The French cut through the enemy defense as far as the third
parallel, and after destroying a trench brought away a goodly number of
dispirited and bedraggled prisoners.
In Belgium during the day there was violent gunfire in the Nieuport
sector. To the east of that place the Germans after a heavy bombardment
made a dashing attack and succeeded in penetrating the French first-line
trenches. They had hardly gained a foothold when the French rushed a
counterattack and drove out the intruders, who fled to their own lines
after losing a considerable number in wounded and prisoners.
On the right bank of the Meuse the artillery on both sides was active
during January 23, 1918, around that much-fought-over sector, Hill 344,
and the front of Chaume Wood. Following up an intense bombardment, the
Germans tried to penetrate the wood, but were scattered by the French
artillery fire.
On the 25th a strong assault was delivered on the French positions west
of St. Gobain Forest. The enemy struck in at the western edge, and at
one time seemed to be in a fair way to succeed, for the attack lacked
neither daring nor persistence, but the French guns, whose fire had been
withheld for a time that the Germans might advance near enough to
present a better target, now poured out such death-dealing volleys that
the attackers were halted and then fled back to their lines in disorder,
leaving many dead on the field.
French aviators were busy on this date as long as there was visibility.
Four German machines were brought down in aerial combats. Enemy defenses
were successfully bombed, and tons of explosives were dropped on German
establishments. Much damage was wrought to the railway stations at
Thionville, and on Freiburg in Breisgau, the aniline works at
Ludwigshafen and the cantonments in the Longuyon region.
Owing to the military collapse of Russia Germany was enabled to transfer
thirty-eight or forty divisions from east to west, which meant that the
French and British had now facing them at least 3,000,000 enemy troops.
A great German offensive was in preparation on a vaster scale than any
before attempted, having for its main object the capture of Paris or
Calais. The Allied command expected the threatened drive might begin
early in February, and had made their plans accordingly. Confident in
their strength, they waited eagerly the great battle that might end the
war.
PART II--THE UNITED STATES AS A BELLIGERENT
CHAPTER VII
THE NEW ALLY IN COUNCIL
The weight of America's participation in the war did not begin to be
felt until the autumn of 1917, when the aftermath of the Russian
collapse, followed by the Italian disasters, made the Allies turn with
more and more reliance to the new belligerent. Not alone in men, money,
ships, and munitions did the Allies look for American aid, but for
business counsel and administrative efficiency. The war had not been
well conducted. Lloyd George frankly said so. The American mind was
needed at the Allied conferences to contribute its share in remedying
the defects of a division of command, from which had flowed a succession
of costly errors. Hence the United States, being in the war to join
hands with a unified Allied command, not to act independently, became an
influential factor at the war parleys.
The presence of American representatives for the first time at an Allied
war conference in Paris, which took place in November, 1917, was greeted
in belligerent Europe as an event of deep significance. The United
States since its belligerency had not shared in the Allied
deliberations; but the need of unity--a single front, a single army, a
single nation, as the French Premier, M. Painlevé, defined it--made its
representation imperative. The delegation, which was headed by Colonel
Edward M. House, and included Admiral Benson and General Bliss, set out
on an avowed war mission while peace balloons floated in the air. As the
President's reputed bosom confidant, who had been to Europe before on
supposed peace missions, Colonel House was credited with bearing
instructions to look over the ground for practicable peace formulas. His
presence among the American representatives made this impression so
general that the State Department had to deny that he was a Wilson peace
envoy. He was heading a war mission pure and simple whose aim was to
weld the United States firmly as a member of the Allied powers.
The purpose of the Allied conference was to form a more complete
coordination of the activities of the various nations warring against
Germany. A more comprehensive understanding of their respective needs,
in order that their joint efforts attained the highest war efficiency,
was also sought. A prime factor to this end was to avoid any conflict of
interests among the participants.
"The United States," Secretary Lansing explained, "in the employment of
its man power and material resources desires to use them to the greatest
advantage against Germany. It has been no easy problem to determine how
they can be used most effectively, since the independent presentation of
requirements by the Allied Governments have been more or less
conflicting on account of each Government's appreciation of its own
wants, which are naturally given greater importance than the wants of
other governments.
"Though the resources of this country are vast and though there is every
purpose to devote them all, if need be, to winning the war, they are not
without limit. But even if they were greater they should be used to the
highest advantage in attaining the supreme object for which we are
fighting.
"It is the earnest wish of this Government to employ its military and
naval forces and its resources and energies where they will give the
greatest returns in advancing the common cause."
The American Government accordingly was represented at the conference to
determine how this object could be achieved. Primarily the conferees met
to create in effect a great general staff to direct the energies of the
cobelligerents and so motivate military strategy that entire nations
would act merely as units in the operations. They endeavored to make the
whole fighting forces of the Allies into one mighty war-making machine.
The United States projected as an indispensable bulwark in this scheme
by being practically the treasury and storehouse of the Allies. It had
already poured out money and supplies at their call with lavish hand.
Each had sent a mission to the United States to present its case and
needs. The Government heard them, and the resources of the United States
were freely drawn upon to meet their necessities. Each mission, however,
had confined its requests largely or solely to its own requirements.
Each clamored for men, ships, money, food, munitions, or whatever other
war essential it wanted. A lack of coordinated plans and predetermined
objectives weakened the scope of America's assistance on account of the
scattered and piecemeal methods by which it was obtained. Consequently
the United States, while providing for its own war necessities,
determined that it must have a voice in arbitrating on the further needs
of the Allied nations by weighing them side by side at the war
conference, so that its resources could be distributed among them in
pursuance of a coordinated plan aiming at achieving collective, not
individual, advantage. Germany had pointed the way in showing the
success to be obtained by combined effort. Germany and her three
partners were one. The Allies were many and, so far, had been
disjointed. The entry of the United States became the occasion for
making an endeavor to coalesce the Allies to a closely knit _bloc_ on
the Teutonic method.
Great Britain, momentarily disheartened by the checks the Allied cause
had sustained owing to a division of command and organization, was
braced by the appearance of the American mission at the Allied
conference. Said the London "Times":
"In several points, of late, things have not been going too well for the
Allies, but none of their reverses or disappointments matters if only
the great war power of the United States, military and economic, is
rightly directed to the common end."
"The gain to the Allied cause of the alert American intellect and
American freedom from convention," the "Daily Graphic" said, "should be
of priceless value. Seeing that the guiding principle of the American
delegates is to discover how the resources of their country can give the
greatest results in bringing about the defeat of Germany, the unanimity
of the conference is assured."
"Americans," remarked J. L. Garvin in the London "Observer," "have less
jaded brain cells and more open minds. They are not involved in any past
mistakes or shortcomings. They are uncommitted to any set theory and are
relatively free from local European feelings. Their moral compass, so to
speak, is less exposed to magnetic aberrations and is more likely to
point true. They are in Europe only to win the war in Europe. They want
to get to the bottom of the problem. They will have all conceivable data
for getting to the bottom of it."
The conference found it easier to enunciate a formula than work it out
practically; but at least a beginning was made in forming an
organization to prevent duplication. Leaks of energy were stopped as
well as waste of material. The relations of the Allies one with another
were humanized by personal contact and a good feeling established which
promised a guaranty against future misunderstanding. The envoys of every
nation concerned met with great expectations from America. On that one
subject there was a remarkable unity. All their needs were generously
met, the American resources available being allocated on the basis of
war needs as a whole. But the calls upon the American barrel were so
great that it was tilted at an angle which revealed that it was not like
the purse of Fortunatus.
As to the results of the conference, Colonel House thus reported on his
return to the United States:
"Our mission was a great success. When we left Paris the efforts of all
the Allies were focused. Up to the time of the Allied conferences they
were not focused. They were not working together. They are working
together now, and the promises are that they will continue to do so."
The principal recommendations made by the American delegation were:
"That the United States exert all their influence to secure the entire
unity of effort, military, naval, and economic, between themselves and
the countries associated with them in the war.
"Inasmuch as the successful termination of the war by the United States
and the Allies can be greatly hastened by the extension of the United
States shipping program, that the Government and the people of the
United States bend every effort toward accomplishing this result by
systematic coordination of resources of men and materials.
"That the fighting forces of the United States be dispatched to Europe
with the least possible delay incident to training and equipment."
Much foundation work was accomplished, covering the entire field of the
war organization, diplomatic, naval, military, finance, shipping, war
trade, war industries and food.
An Interallied Naval Council was formed to coordinate the naval forces
of the United States and those of its associates as one. Embraced in
this scheme were plans for a combined prosecution of the naval war
against the German submarines and keeping the American fleet informed of
the operations and policy of the British Admiralty.
In the military field the extent of the operations of the American army
in Europe was determined, after lengthy conference with the chiefs of
the Allied armies on the western front. All military resources of the
Allied belligerents were to be pooled, the contribution of each,
including the United States, being specified. The pooling arrangement,
according to the State Department, guaranteed that full equipment would
be available to all American troops sent to Europe during the year 1918.
The United States was also to participate in the deliberations of a
Supreme War Council which was created. The problem of effecting the
expeditious debarkation of American troops and their transport, with the
needful equipment, to the military bases, called for careful survey, and
new arrangements to that end, as well as for the production of military
instruments and supplies, were made.
Consideration of a vital question, that of shipping tonnage, covered a
study of the loss of vessels since the war began, the estimated output
of new tonnage in 1918, and the framing of a program whereby the
importations of all the Allies were to be restricted in order to release
a maximum amount of tonnage for the transportation of American troops.
The United States plainly was not to be a silent partner in the war. In
every sphere of joint action it was to have a voice and a vote. America
was to be represented at a Supreme War Council to determine the conduct
of military operations, at an Interallied Naval Council, at financial,
shipping, and food councils. All that was to be known of the Allied war
situation the American delegates ascertained. They consulted with the
British Cabinet, the British Admiralty, and with all the Allied
Governments; they interviewed chiefs of staff and commanders in chief,
they inspected the fronts. War preparations in the United States now
proceeded with the fullest cognizance of the conditions they were
designed to meet.
The need of American troops in Europe was more than hinted by the
agreement of the Allies to sacrifice importations so that tonnage could
be available to bring the troops across the Atlantic. "Hurry your men
across," Lord Derby urged. Admiral Sir David Beatty and Sir Auckland
Geddes were convinced that the growing American army was destined to
strike the deciding blow of the war. Germany watched the American
preparations with mingled feelings, which could only find expression in
simulated doubt, derision, and scorn. The projects for raising a huge
army, an armada of transport and freight ships, and a fleet of airships
were ridiculed by her press writers as examples of American bluff and
bluster. Americans thought in exaggerations and talked in superlatives.
The United States could not conduct a war in Europe on any such
unexampled scale. Neither troops nor transports--supposing the latter
could be built, which was doubtful--would reach their destination.
German submarines would interpose. Besides, the United States never
really intended to make more than a demonstration. It was merely making
a flourish. The American army was weak any way and that assured its
futility as a factor in the war. It was no better than Rumania's army
when that country entered the war. "The more noise the Americans make,"
the Cologne "Gazette" concluded, "the less they accomplish." That
journal actually informed its readers that the Liberty Loan was a
failure. Field Marshal von Hindenburg saw no importance in the raising
of an American army, because if it were sent abroad Japan might "show a
sudden inclination to square old accounts with America." The American
call to arms suggested "advertising methods" to him. "The transport
question would offer difficulties not less than supplies," and, of
course, "the German U-boats would be a further obstacle."
The gradual on-coming of the American hosts was otherwise seen by John
St. Loe Strachey, editor of the London "Spectator," who drew this
picture:
"I see America entering upon the field of war as does the shadow in an
eclipse. At first the orb of the moon seems barely touched. There is
only a slight irregularity perceptible on the outline of the sphere, but
gradually the inexorable shadow spreads and spreads till the crisis of
totality is reached; in the words of the Chinese astrologers, the dragon
has eaten the moon.
"What could be more soul-shaking or could bring home the sense of a
force that cannot be denied than the advance of the shadow! Nothing can
hurry it, nothing can delay it, nothing can avert it. The process is
begun; the doom will be accomplished.
"So be it, so it must be, so it will be with America and Germany in
1918."
CHAPTER VIII
ON THE LORRAINE FRONT
The American expeditionary force in France were still in process of
being "broken in" when the war entered upon its fourth year. They
remained well behind the firing lines in their training camp, continuing
their education in trench warfare. The manipulation of the hand grenade,
rifle, bayonet, trench mortar, and machine gun under conditions to which
the British and French had long been inured, and, most irksome and
unpopular task of all, trench digging, formed the order of the day.
Contingents gradually progressed toward the stage closely approximating
real warfare by undergoing the ordeal of "gassing" in order to be equal
to the quick adjustment of masks when gas shells were fired in action.
Other companies found their way behind the British lines to drill their
nerves to withstand scenes of ruin and desolation, the whine of
high-explosive shells, and the rattle of shrapnel. All these
preliminaries were directed toward a modest aim--storming a trench line.
Formerly troops were trained for undertaking rapid marches and
complicated maneuvers. In this war their endurance and fighting spirit
became restricted to a narrow field--that of penetrating enemy lines on
a front of ten kilometers, whose depth did not extend beyond one
kilometer.
The American troops did not take kindly to "digging in." Their officers
found great difficulty in impressing them with the importance of taking
cover. They were like their Canadian brothers-in-arms, of whom it was
said that they would die in the last ditch but never dig it. They were
averse to submitting to the unheroic obligation of learning to fight in
ambush; they clung to primitive ideas of warfare and wanted to spring
upon and charge the enemy in the open. Only bitter losses finally
persuaded the Canadians, French, and Australians that fighting the
Germans from a hole in the ground was the only way of fighting them at
all; but the Americans had yet to pay their toll for yielding to their
natural antipathy to fighting underground. Their zeal for the pick and
shovel, despite the war's terrible object lessons, remained lukewarm.
"It seems a shame to curb the fine fighting spirits of our troops," an
American training officer said; "but they must be made to understand as
far as possible that impetuosity must be subordinated to steadiness.
This has become a time-clock war. The men must advance in given time and
go no further. Every step of infantry advance must first be worked out
with the artillery, and when the plan is arranged it must be strictly
adhered to.
"We realize that it will be difficult to hold our men to this plan. If
they see a battle going on, their favorite impulse will be to push on as
fast as they can, and some are bound to do so, just as the Canadians did
in the earlier stages. We will undoubtedly have big losses in this way,
but the men who come through our first battles will be worth their
weight in gold thereafter. They will learn quickly the value of
steadiness and absolute discipline under fire, and they will be the
steadying influence we can distribute through the newer units of our
great army as they get their final preparation for trial by fire."
More to their taste was the training practice of charging dummy Germans
in specially prepared trenches under the direction of an English
sergeant major. At one camp three short lines of such trenches were
constructed in a dip in the ground, ending at a rise some hundred yards
off, with tin cans on sticks dotting them. The charge was thus
undertaken:
"'Ready, gentlemen,' said the drill sergeant. 'Prepare for trench
bayonet practice by half sections. You're to take these three line of
trenches, lay out every boche in the lot, and then get to cover and fire
six rounds at them 'ere tin 'ats. Don't waste a shot, gentlemen; every
bullet a boche. Now, then, ready! Over the top and give 'em 'ell right
in the stomach! Fritz likes his victuals, but not that sort. Get at
'em!'"
The men ran some ten yards and dug their bayonets savagely into dummy
Germans made of sacks, which swung in the wind, and disappeared in the
first trench. Their rifle butts rose and fell as they lunged desperately
at the supposed foe. Then they reappeared and advanced farther, taking
cover and lying spread-eagled behind a shallow trench, blazing at the
cans, which fell rattling.
After some four months' training in camp, the long-looked-for tidings
that American troops had taken their place beside the fighting forces of
the Allies at length came from General Pershing's headquarters. On
October 27, 1917, the first official announcement of war news from that
source was issued in this form:
"In continuation of their training as a nucleus for instruction later, a
contingent of some battalions of our first contingents, in association
with veteran French battalions, are in the first-line trenches of a
quiet sector on the French front. They are supported by some batteries
of our artillery, in association with veteran French batteries.
"The sector remains normal. Our men have adapted themselves to actual
trench conditions in the most satisfactory manner."
The "quiet sector" was occupied by helmeted infantry of the United
States, without the knowledge of the enemy, by arriving at night through
pouring rain and seas of mud. At six o'clock on the morning of that day,
American artillery, already installed, fired the first American shot of
the war at the German working party and shelled the German positions.
The Germans gave shell for shell. The fusillades continued all day.
During the lull in the firing at dusk the first American machine guns
appeared in a little deserted, shell-wrecked village well within hostile
gun range and a few kilometers from the American trenches. The guns were
hauled by Missouri mules, whose drivers were swathed in ponchos and
helmeted to their eyes. The cavalcade moved in a long, silent line along
a road margining a dark canal, followed by infantry rolling camp
kitchens.
Other infantry followed through the cobble-paved streets. The darkness
hid lines of men with packs on their backs, rifles slung on their
shoulders, rain glistening on their helmets and coats, the wind whipping
their coat skirts round limbs moving with machinelike precision. Only
the tramp of many hobnailed boots disclosed their march through the
village. They safely entered their trenches, unit by unit, and passed
quickly to the places assigned them. The French welcomed them with
ardor. Every American was shaken by the hand, some were hugged, and even
kissed on both cheeks in the French custom. Quietness was essential,
since the German trenches were not far away; but the fervor of the
French troops overcame their precaution. It was too great a day for mute
welcomes. The Americans had arrived!
[Illustration: The American front in France where the first clashes
between Americans and Germans occurred.]
The trenches were found to be muddy but well constructed. The troops
settled down in them, and at daylight, under low-hanging, dripping
clouds, they obtained their first view of the German lines, stretching
away in the rolling terrain. They were in contact with the enemy at
last.
They received their baptism of fire mingled with showers of mud, their
clothes soaked to the skin. American shells fell and exploded in German
territory, and German projectiles broke near the American positions,
sprinkling fragments, but doing no serious damage. They were merely
establishing contact as a prelude to more serious operations. Gunners
and infantrymen alike, the latter in first-line trenches, over which
both American and German shells whizzed, were satisfied, though wet,
feeling that the distinction of being the first Americans to be in
action more than recompensed for weather discomforts.
Their first quarry was a stray German mail carrier who had lost his way
in the dark and was taken prisoner near the American trenches. He
encountered an American patrol in no-man's-land in company with another
German, and was shot while running away after refusing to halt.
While waiting for a real attack sniping engaged the troops' attention,
especially on clear days, when German snipers sought targets. Many
bullets passed singing harmlessly overhead. Their frequency called for
retorts, and a number of infantrymen were detailed to single out the
snipers. Sniping the sniper became part of the preliminaries of settling
down to trench warfare.
The troops realized by these activities, trifling though they were,
that mimic charges and class-room demonstrations of the training camp
were things of the past and that they faced the real foe. The Germans in
fact, were not tardy in impressing them with their new situation. They
discovered that Americans were facing them and set about making a raid.
Berlin announced the result in a brief bulletin on November 3.
"At the Rhine-Marne Canal, as the result of a reconnoitering thrust,
North American soldiers were brought in as prisoners."
The news brought the American people a step nearer to a realization of
the actualities of the great struggle. It also disclosed that the
Americans were established on a section of the front defended by the
German Crown Prince's army and facing Lorraine. The so-called "quiet
sector" stood revealed as the only front through which war could be
carried into the heart of Germany. It lay before the gap in the French
barrier forts, Verdun-Toul and Epinal-Belfort, flanked by the
invulnerable Verdun on the northeast and the French positions in the
Alsatian Vosges on the southeast. A quiet sector it might be, but more
than 40,000 German dead lie buried there, the flower of the army of the
Crown Prince of Bavaria. They fell in a twenty-eight day battle in
August and September, 1914, when five French army corps under General
Castelnau fought seven under the Crown Prince The Germans finally
retired into Lorraine after vainly attempting to cross the Moselle. Both
General Pétain--who attempted an offensive there in 1916, but was
checked from proceeding with it by political high commands--and General
Castelnau were convinced of the vulnerability of this sector as a
roadway into Germany, and prophets were not wanting who saw in the
presence of the Americans there a foretoken that an American army might
essay what the two French Generals had not accomplished. At any rate,
after an unbroken calm of three years, the sector was no longer quiet.
The Germans had scored by drawing first blood. The Berlin press was
riotously gleeful over the event, one journal, the "Lokal-Anzeiger,"
gloating over it in these terms:
"Three cheers for the Americans! Clever chaps they are, it cannot be
denied. Scarcely have they touched the soil of this putrefied Europe
when they already are forcing their way into Germany.
"It is our good fortune that we are equipped to receive and entertain
numerous guests and that we shall be able to provide quarters for these
gentlemen. They will find comfort in the thought that they are rendering
their almighty President, Mr. Wilson, valuable services, inasmuch as it
is asserted he is anxious to obtain reliable information concerning
conditions and sentiments in belligerent countries.
"As Americans are accustomed to travel in luxury and comfort, we assume
that these advance arrivals merely represent couriers for larger numbers
to come. We are sure the latter will come and be gathered in by us. At
home they believe they possess the biggest and most colossal everything,
but such establishments as we have here they have not seen.
"Look here, my boy, here is the big firm of Hindenburg & Co., with which
you want to compete. Look at its accomplishments and consider whether it
would not be better to haul down your sign and engage in some other
line. Perhaps your boss, Wilson, will reconsider his newest line of
business before we grab off more of his young people."
A salient of the American position occupied by a small detachment had
been successfully raided by the Germans before daybreak, resulting in
three Americans killed, several wounded, and a dozen captured or
missing. The Teutons started a heavy barrage fire, which isolated the
salient, so that help could not reach the troops, nor could they retire,
and thus had the besieged men at the mercy of their superior force. The
Americans fought obstinately until they were overwhelmed. They had only
been in the trenches a few days and were part of the second contingent
who had entered them for training under actual war conditions. They
succeeded in capturing a German prisoner, and inflicting casualties; but
the latter did not become known as the enemy, in fleeing the trench,
took their dead and wounded with them.
After shelling the barbed-wire front of the trenches, dropping many
high-explosive missiles of large caliber, the Germans directed a heavy
artillery fire to cover all the adjacent territory, including the
passage leading to the trenches, thereby effecting a complete barrage of
the salient front and rear. Soon after the enemy, exceeding two hundred
in number, rushed the breaches and wire entanglements on each side of
the salient, lifting the barrage in the forefield to permit their
passage.
It was an elaborate encircling bombardment to achieve a trifling object.
An American platoon, numbering only nineteen men, were corraled by a
heavy fire from 77's and 115's, which searched the whole line of
trenches communicating with the salient where they were isolated. The
French, who had only recently vacated the position to make way for the
Americans, estimated that the German shells expended exceeded eight
thousand.
With the raising of the frontal barrage, the German raiders advanced.
They were composed of storm troops, volunteers, machine gunners,
artillerymen, pioneers to destroy the wire entanglements, and stretcher
bearers to carry off their casualties. They had gathered round a group
of ruined farm buildings some seven hundred yards from the American
trenches, armed with grenades, revolvers, trench knives, and rifles.
They followed, in columns of fours, a tape across no-man's-land laid out
by leaders who had previously been over the ground. Advancing across a
swampy ravine toward the salient, they penetrated the gaps in the
American wire entanglements, and a number reached the trenches at the
rear of their barrage. The Americans were thus cut off from behind.
Other raiders stayed outside the trenches to protect those who entered
them and to shoot any Americans who appeared above the parapet. The
trenches were stormed right and left of the salient, one party clearing
them as they proceeded, the other invading the dugouts for prisoners.
The darkness of the trenches veiled what next happened. After the
Germans had completed their work and retired, an American trooper,
private Enright, was found with his throat cut from ear to ear on the
top of the parapet. While fighting a German in front of him he appeared
to have been attacked from behind by another armed with a trench knife.
A second trooper, private Hay, lay dead in the trench, and outside a
dugout was the body of Corporal Gresham.
In the confusion some of the American troops mistook the Germans for
their own comrades, and paid for their error. Corporal Gresham, for
example, was the sentry at a dugout door when three men advanced toward
him. Supposing them to be Americans he shouted:
"Don't shoot! I'm an American."
"It's Americans we're looking for," answered one of the three, and shot
him dead with a revolver.
It was a brief, ordinary affray, in nowise different from other
happenings occurring nightly all along the front. But nineteen Americans
were set upon by over 200 Germans, and it was the Americans' first taste
of Teutonic warfare. They fought stoutly with pistols, knives, and
bayonets until overcome, whereupon the Germans went off with an American
sergeant, a corporal, and ten privates, all of whom were trapped in a
dugout near the tip of the besieged salient.
The raid scarcely lasted five minutes and outside the salient no one in
the American lines knew it was proceeding. The German communiqué
dismissed it in three lines. From Berlin's viewpoint it was
inconsequential; but to Americans it was of moment in being their first
clash with the enemy. Young, inexperienced soldiers, cooped in a
position they were not familiar with, encountering their baptism of fire
under circumstances of surprise, uncertainty, and darkness, had
acquitted themselves well against heavy odds, and prevented the enemy
from penetrating beyond the first line of trenches.
The American dead were buried with due honors on French soil. The
general commanding the French division in the section delivered an
oration at their graves in the presence of French and American troops
amid the roaring of guns and whistle of shells. His words belong to the
record of America's part in the war:
"Men! These graves, first to be dug in our national soil, and but 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 appear
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!"
After this foray shelling became of daily occurrence. The troops
continued their training under fire, the first contingent giving place
to the second contingent, and the second to the third in occupying the
trenches, after each had undergone a spell of patrol work,
sharpshooting, and accustoming their nerves to falling shrapnel. Trench
conditions enabled them to acquire a better insight of the science of
war than they could learn in months of instruction in training camps.
While the infantry were thus engaged in their underground finishing
school, the gunners, in addition to making progress in actual firing,
acquired greater facility in observation work and in locating enemy
batteries by the sound method. The heavy guns on both sides engaged in
duels at long range, with the lighter pieces working at targets nearer
the lines. This gun activity was not without its toll. German casualties
due to American marksmanship, of course, could not be ascertained, but
they were probably equal to the American killed and wounded.
The troops were eager for an opportunity to retaliate on the foe for
trapping their comrades in the salient, and on November 14, 1917, a
patrol succeeded in exacting a partial revenge. Assisted by some French
troops they planned a night ambuscade near the German lines on a
shell-ruined farm. It was a dreary vigil in the mud, where they lay
throughout the small hours, until their patience was rewarded by the
appearance of a large German patrol, in number more than double those of
the Franco-Americans. They permitted the Germans to pass, and then
attacked them on their flank. The fusillade of French and American
bullets from shell craters and other shelters where the sharpshooters
lay concealed took the Germans by surprise. They precipitately fled,
taking their fallen with them. No French or American trooper was hit by
the shots the Germans fired in their hurried retreat.
More notable than such skirmishes on the American front before Lorraine
was the part a number of unarmed American engineers, in company with
Canadians, took in the encircling movement the Germans made on the
British positions before Cambrai on November 30, 1917. For some time
past American engineers had not only been of yeoman service behind the
French lines in hauling tons of ammunition and other equipment to supply
the French forces, but had been engaged on the railroad in the rear of
the British front. They did not belong to the fighting units, and no
achievements were looked for from men whose sole arms were picks and
shovels. But the ramifications of the German assault on Gouzeaucourt
brought these workers in the rear to the forefront of the attack, and
they distinguished themselves in a manner which drew tributes from both
the French and British high commands. A staid official account of the
rôle they played thus describes the situation:
"Two and one-half companies of railway engineers, with a strength of
eight officers and 365 men, were encamped at Fins on November 30, 1917,
having completed their work in the neighborhood. At 6.30 four officers
and 280 men went to Gouzeaucourt, arriving at 7 and starting to work
with Canadian engineers. The entire contingent was under a Canadian
major and an American captain. The area was three miles in the rear of
the line and none of the troops was armed.
"At 7.15 German barrage fire moved on Gouzeaucourt after heavy shelling
to the east. At 7.30 a general retirement was ordered, and it was
effected with some difficulty, due to the artillery, machine-gun and
airplane fire.
"A number of losses were sustained at this time, and also among the men
who, cut off by the German advance, had taken refuge in dugouts. Some of
these men who had been cut off succeeded in joining British combatant
units and fought with them during the day."
A story of American grit and pluck lay concealed in the last sentence.
The American and Canadian engineers, cut off as described, were taken
prisoners by the Germans. They were fifty in number, and accompanied by
a German escort marched along the road leading from Gouzeaucourt to
Cambrai. As they proceeded disconsolately toward the zone of the German
prison cages, they encountered a small body of British troops who had
been separated from their comrades and were wandering about aimlessly.
The appearance of the Germans with the prisoners produced an immediate
charge toward them by the British. The Germans sought to drive their
captives toward La Vacquerie before the advancing British reached them.
But the prisoners, seeing rescue at hand, turned upon their guards and
fought them barehanded until the British troops interposed and
vanquished the Germans. The American engineers and their comrades
thereupon took possession of the German rifles and with their rescuers
found their way back to the British lines.
A number of American engineers were killed and injured, presumably
during the German attack on Gouzeaucourt, since no mention was made of
casualties in the adventure on the highroad. Their losses were largely
due to their being unarmed when the Germans came, a predicament which
forced them to seize the guns of dead and wounded soldiers to protect
themselves. The army commands afterward ordered that all engineers be
armed to enable them to take their place with the troops in any future
emergency which brought them again face to face with the foe. The French
Government was so impressed with their performance that it sent the
following communication to Washington:
"We must remark upon the conduct of certain American soldiers, pioneers
and workmen on the military railroad in the sector of the German attack
west of Cambrai on November 30, 1917. They exchanged their picks and
shovels for rifles and cartridges and fought with the English. Many died
thus bravely, arms in hand, before the invader. All helped to repulse
the enemy. There is not a single person who saw them at work who does
not render warm praise to the coolness, discipline, and courage of these
improvised combatants."
Their exploit stirred the American camp to enthusiasm mingled with envy.
The British front at Cambrai was a long step from the American trenches
in the Lorraine sector, and tidings of the happenings at Gouzeaucourt
impressed the troops with the fact that not on them only was the glory
of the Stars and Stripes being upheld on the soil of France. An infantry
sergeant voiced the general feeling of his comrades thus:
"We stay in the trenches for a spell and let Fritz shoot his artillery
at us and have never really had a chance to use our rifles except to
snipe and pot Fritz out in no-man's-land on dark nights. These
railroaders managed to run their trains right into a good, thick scrap,
and if this isn't luck, I don't know what it is."
Casualties continued to grow with the constant shelling. Sporadic raids
over no-man's-land and visitations of German airships added to them.
Bombs were dropped on a party of engineers, killing one of them, and two
privates were victims of a German aviator's explosive over a wood in
which they were camped.
Winter set in with a snowfall that impeded the training of the troops
and communications. Roads became impassable by drifts, and many motor
trucks, after crawling at a snail's pace over the hilly roads, became
stranded in the snow. A thaw in January turned icy roads into river
beds. Torrential streams flowed from melting snows in the hills, and
together with a downpour of fine rain combined to make weather
conditions on the American front the worst the troops had encountered
since their arrival in France. The roads were cluttered in places with
ditched motor trucks. Here and there mule-drawn vehicles were mired.
Transport trains drawn by mules suffered most before the thaw, the
animals slipping and falling on the icy roadbeds, and were unable to
rise except by the aid of thick layers of branches and twigs placed
under their hoofs. The beginning of 1918, in short, found the American
army in France, like their allied comrades on the rest of the front,
stalled by the weather, and little tidings came of their accustomed
activities.
CHAPTER IX
POPE AND PRESIDENT
Peace efforts, assiduously pursued in Berlin, and culminating in the
Reichstag resolution recorded in the previous volume, had meantime taken
a new turn; but they encountered a new element in the United States as a
resolute belligerent.
The Vatican interposed with an olive branch. The Pope tread cautiously,
sensible of the delicacy of his task in seeking to effect world peace;
but his proposals were hopelessly futile and died in the borning. Their
only welcome came from the Central Powers, and even there dissentient
voices were heard. The Allies' reception of his note was cold,
unresponsive, suspicious, and resentful. "As you were," the Pope
virtually proposed to the two groups of belligerents, running directly
counter to the chief aim of the Allies, which was to overturn the
_status quo ante_, and establish a European concert of nations on a new,
safer, and enduring foundation.
The Papal note, communicated to the various belligerent powers on August
1, 1917, invited their governments to agree on the following points,
which seemed to his Holiness, "to offer the basis of a just and lasting
peace":
"First, the fundamental point must be that the material force of arms
shall give way to the moral force of right, whence shall proceed a just
agreement of all upon the simultaneous and reciprocal decrease of
armaments, according to rules and guarantees to be established, in the
necessary and sufficient measure for the maintenance of public order in
every State; then, taking the place of arms, the institution of
arbitration, with its high pacifying function, according to rules to be
drawn in concert and under sanctions to be determined against any State
which would decline either to refer international questions to
arbitration or to accept its awards.
"When supremacy of right is thus established, let every obstacle to ways
of communication of the peoples be removed by insuring, through rules to
be also determined, the true freedom and community of the seas, which,
on the one hand, would eliminate any causes of conflict, and on the
other hand, would open to all new sources of prosperity and progress.
"As for the damages to be repaid and the cost of the war, we see no
other way of solving the question than by setting up the general
principle of entire and reciprocal conditions, which would be justified
by the immense benefit to be derived from disarmament, all the more as
one could not understand that such carnage could go on for mere economic
reasons. If certain particular reasons stand against this in certain
cases, let them be weighed in justice and equity.
"But these specific agreements, with the immense advantages that flow
from them, are not possible unless territory now occupied is
reciprocally restituted. Therefore, on the part of Germany, there should
be total evacuation of Belgium, with guaranties of its entire political,
military, and economic independence toward any power whatever;
evacuation also of the French territory; on the part of the other
belligerents, a similar restitution of the German colonies.
"As regards territorial questions, as, for instance, those that are
disputed by Italy and Austria, by Germany and France, there is reason to
hope that, in consideration of the immense advantages of durable peace
with disarmament, the contending parties will examine them in a
conciliatory spirit, taking into account, as far as is just and
possible, as we have said formerly, the aspirations of the population,
and, if occasion arises, adjusting private interests to the general good
of the great human society.
"The same spirit of equity and justice must guide the examination of the
other territorial and political questions, notably those relative to
Armenia, the Balkan States, and the territories forming part of the old
Kingdom of Poland, for which, in particular, its noble historical
traditions and suffering, particularly undergone in the present war,
must win with justice, the sympathies of the nations."
The deep esteem in which the Allies and the rest of the nations held the
Pontiff assured an attentive and respectful hearing of his appeal. But
his intervention was nevertheless denounced as an espousal of a German
peace, in that it would enable Germany to take her place at the peace
council table with all her lost colonies restored, exempt from every
demand for reparation for the ruin she had wrought, secure in the
possession of all her territory, and with the future of Alsace-Lorraine,
Trent, Trieste, Poland, Rumania, and Serbia left for settlement by
negotiation by the parties in conflict. The Papal proposals were also
objected to in making no distinction between the combatants, but placed
them all on the same footing as apparently "stricken by a universal
madness."
It soon became apparent that the Allied Powers, including the United
States, were a unit in agreeing that the Papal note, because it
overlooked the issues for which the Entente was fighting, must be
respectfully rejected. President Wilson became their spokesman in a note
he addressed to the Pontiff on August 27, 1917. While recognizing the
Pope's "moving appeal" and the "dignity and force of the humane motives
which prompted it," the President considered it would be folly to take
the path of peace the Pope pointed out if that path did not in fact lead
to the goal proposed. As to the Pope's proposals generally, he said:
"It is manifest that no part of this program can be successfully carried
out unless the restitution of the _status quo ante_ furnishes a firm and
satisfactory basis for it. The object of this war is to deliver the
free peoples of the world from the menace and the actual power of a vast
military establishment, controlled by an irresponsible Government,
which, having secretly planned to dominate the world, proceeded to carry
the plan out without regard either to the sacred obligations of treaty
or the long-established practices and long-cherished principles of
international action and honor; which chose its own time for the war;
delivered its blow fiercely and suddenly; stopped at no barrier, either
of law or of mercy; swept a whole continent within the tide of
blood--not the blood of soldiers only, but the blood of innocent women
and children also and of the helpless poor; and now stands balked, but
not defeated, the enemy of four-fifths of the world.
"This power is not the German people. It is the ruthless master of the
German people. It is no business of ours how that great people came
under its control or submitted with temporary zest to the domination of
its purpose; but it is our business to see to it that the history of the
rest of the world is no longer left to its handling.
"To deal with such a power by way of peace upon the plan proposed by his
Holiness, the Pope, would, so far as we can see, involve a recuperation
of its strength and a renewal of its policy; would make it necessary to
create a permanent hostile combination of nations against the German
people, who are its instruments; and would result in abandoning the
newborn Russia to the intrigue, the manifold subtle interference, and
the certain counter-revolution which would be attempted by all the
malign influences to which the German Government has of late accustomed
the world.
"We cannot take the word of the present rulers of Germany as a guaranty
of anything that is to endure unless explicitly supported by such
conclusive evidence of the will and purpose of the German people
themselves as the other peoples of the world would be justified in
accepting. Without such guaranties treaties of settlement, agreements
for disarmament, covenants to set up arbitration in the place of force,
territorial adjustments, reconstitutions of small nations, if made with
the German Government, no man, no nation, could now depend on.
"We must await some new evidence of the purposes of the great peoples
of the Central Powers."
In other words, the Pope's proposals were regarded as untenable because
the Allies could not trust the kaiser and his government to respect any
covenants that might flow from them. There was no responsible person to
negotiate with. The Vatican was disappointed, the German press greeted
the President's answer with abuse, and the Allies found the American
note so comprehensive and satisfying in expressing their views that they
paid no further attention to the proposal.
Germany and Austria were more responsive; but the Allies' rejection
through President Wilson of the papal suggestions imparted something of
an anticlimax to the Teutonic replies when they were forthcoming a month
later. Both reflected an earnest desire for peace; both gave
whole-hearted support to the Vatican's efforts. Austria was especially
eager to enter into negotiations on the basis the Pope proposed. But
neither was specific. The Austrian emperor favored disarmament and
arbitration in a cloud of platitudes. The kaiser accepted the Pope's
general aims, but was mute on particularizing the German aims. Both
suppressed whatever terms of peace they longed to offer. Sifted down to
essentials, and extricating their meaning from a welter of unctuous
verbiage, the Teutonic answers merely conveyed an eager desire to reach
a peace conference, withholding terms for submission until such parleys
could begin. As each evaded any suggestion of definite concessions on
vital points, the abse
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