America's War for Humanity · Chapter 32Chapter XXII (2)
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"Listen! Over the valley, rising louder and still louder, comes a song which the Germans have heard before. A crash of brass, a hoarse roar fills the air, echoing across the valley, drowning the shouts and curses of the human wave fighting below.
"The 'Marseillaise'—the English and Scots have heard it. 'Hold tight, the French are coming,' we scream. They cannot hear us, but we must shout—the strain is too intense.
"Past our batteries a company of Spahis rushes like a cyclone. Two more follow, then the Zouaves. Rifles close to their hips, bayonets low, throwing out over the valley its glorious anthem, the human flood crashes against the Guard.
"The lines waver in an indescribable jumble of gray, yellow, blue, and red uniforms, then seem to bounce back from the very force of the shock. Men appear, raised from their feet, and raised high in the air.
"Caught in a vise between the British and the French, the Guard alone remains. Ten times the shattered remnants of the Kaiser's proud regiment charged, and ten times was thrown back, first against the French, then against the British. Crying, 'Comrades, comrades!' hundreds began throwing their guns aside.
"At 2 o'clock it was over. The Allies had lost 1,200 men. Only prisoners remained of the Second Prussian regiment of the Guard.
PROGRESS OF THE EASTERN CAMPAIGN
The campaign in the eastern theater of war attracted the attention of the whole world in December, when the German operations begun in November under Field Marshal Von Hindenburg, the victor of Tannenberg earlier in the war, were continued with varying successes. Early in the month the Germans captured Lodz, the second city and chief manufacturing center of Russian Poland, with a population of about 500,000, after a bombardment of a week's duration, the city being set on fire in many places. The Russians made a desperate resistance, and the fighting around Lodz constituted the most bitter struggle of the entire war on this front. A general Russian retirement in the direction of Warsaw followed, but the Germans failed in their subsequent efforts to envelop the flanks of the Russian army to the north and south. Russian reinforcements from Warsaw coming up promptly, the Germans were in their turn compelled to retire. Two German army corps were then practically cut off by the Russians, but made a successful retreat, fighting their way back to safety with the bayonet in one of the most brilliant exploits of the war. Thus the net result of the German campaign in Poland in December left the general situation there practically unchanged and the Russian front unbroken, while in East Prussia, too, the Russian invasion continued despite German efforts to roll it back across the frontier.
The losses on both sides in the eastern campaign in December were appalling, the fighting being of the fiercest possible nature. A typical struggle occurred a few miles west of Lodz in the little churchyard of Beschici, where the Russians, in one of the final phases of the struggle for the Polish city, showed that in spite of their defeats and discouragements they knew how to fight and die. This churchyard lies on a small eminence which formed a salient into the German lines. The Germans were able to make an attack from three sides with infantry and artillery. All the Russian trenches were enfiladed by shrapnel from one direction or another, but the Russians clung to their positions obstinately. When the Germans finally captured the trenches 878 Russian corpses were found in a space about eighty yards square.
It was resistance of this nature which the Germans had to overcome in order to capture Lodz. Later in December it became clear that Russia was getting her millions into the field and that the strategy of the commander-in-chief, the Grand Duke Nicholas, would soon be aided by the weight of overwhelming numbers.
BELGIUM THANKS AMERICA
During November and December Madame Vandervelde, wife of a member of the Belgian cabinet, toured the United States soliciting aid for her suffering fellow-countrymen. The response everywhere was extremely generous and in appreciation of the aid given the war victims of her country Madame Vandervelde penned the following poem, entitled "Belgium Thanks America:"
GRIM REALITIES OF THE WAR
A vivid picture of the horrible realities of the war, as seen in a field hospital near the firing line, was given in "The New Republic" of November 28 by Mr. Henry W. Nevinson, who described his experiences at Dixmude in Belgium as follows:
"When I entered Dixmude one night in the middle of October the first bombardment was over, but from both sides the heavy shells flew across the town. From the end of the main street came an incessant noise of rifles and machine guns. Unaimed bullets wailed through the air, and pattered as they struck the walls. Flaming houses shed a light upon the ruined streets, but only one house looked inhabited, and all the others which were not burning stood silent and empty, expecting destruction.
"That one house was used as an outlying hospital or dressing-place nearest the firing line, and the wounded had to be led or carried only two or three hundred yards to reach it. They sat on the dining-room chairs or lay helpless on the floor. A few surgeons were at work upon them, cutting off loose fingers and throwing them into basins, plugging black holes that welled up instantly through the plug, straining bandages, which in a minute ceased to be white, round legs and heads. The smell of fresh, warm blood was thick on the air. One man lay deep in his blood. You could not have supposed that anyone had so much in him. Another's head had lost on one side all human semblance, and was a hideous pulp of eye and ear and jaw. Another, with chest torn open, lay gasping for the few minutes left of life. And as I waited for the ambulance more were brought in, and always more.
"In a complacent and comfortable account of hospital work I lately read that 'deaths from wounds are happily rare; one surgeon put the number as low as 2 per cent.' Happy hospital, far away in Paris or some Isle of the Blest! The further from the front the fewer the deaths, because so many have died already.
"In the nearest hospitals to the front, half the wounded, and on some days more than half, die where they are put. Often they die in the ambulance, and one's care in drawing them out is wasted, for they will never feel again. I found one always took the same care, though the greenish-yellow of the exposed hands or feet showed the truth. Laid on the floor of the main hospital itself, some screamed or moaned, some whimpered like sick children, especially in their sleep, some lay quiet, with glazed eyes out of which sight was passing. Mere fragments of mankind were there extended, limbs pounded into mash, heads split open, intestines hanging out from gashes. Did those bones—did that exquisite network of living tissue and contrivances for life—cost no more in the breeding than to be hewed and smashed and pulped like this? Shrapnel—shrapnel—it was nearly always the same. For this is, above all, an artillery war, and both sides are justly proud of their efficiency in guns."
GOVERNMENT RETURNS TO PARIS
Confidence of safety having been restored in the French capital, the Paris bourse reopened on December 7, after having been closed since September 3. President Poincaré transferred his official residence back to Paris from Bordeaux on December 9 and a meeting of the French cabinet was held in Paris on December 11, for the first time since the capital was threatened by the German advance at the end of August.
BRITISH NAVAL VICTORY
In the second week of December the British navy avenged the defeat of Rear Admiral Cradock's squadron off the Chilean coast in November, when a powerful special fleet, under Vice-Admiral Sir Frederick Sturdee, encountered the German cruiser fleet, under Admiral von Spee, off the Falkland Islands and practically destroyed it. Only one of the five German cruisers escaped. The flagship Scharnhorst, the Gneisenau, the Leipzig and the Nurnberg were sunk in the action, which lasted for five hours, and the German admiral with three of his sons and most of the officers and men of the German crews perished. The British losses were inconsiderable.
This sea fight in the South Atlantic was the most important engagement in which British men-of-war had participated since the era of Napoleon. The sailing of the British fleet in quest of Admiral von Spee's squadron had been kept secret and the news of the victory was therefore especially welcome to the people of England, who had been considerably worried by a succession of minor naval losses inflicted by German cruisers, submarines and mines. The action was gallantly fought on both sides. The advantage in weight of metal and range of guns lay on the side of the British, and the battle was decided at long range. Admiral von Spee, refusing to surrender, in spite of the odds against him, went down with his ship. The flagship of the victorious admiral, Sir Frederick Sturdee, was the modern battle cruiser Invincible. A number of the German sailors were rescued by the British after the engagement and sent as prisoners of war to England. The total German loss was over 2,000 officers and men.
Fine strategy was shown by the British admiralty in sending Admiral Sturdee to South American waters. He was ordered to sea from his desk as chief of the British naval board, after Von Spee's Chilean victory in November, and was placed in command of some of the fastest and most powerful cruisers of the British fleet. The entire affair, from the time the admiral left London until he succeeded in finding and sinking the German squadron in the South Atlantic, took about a month—a truly remarkable exploit.
RULERS AT THE FRONT
During December all the armies in the field were visited by the rulers of their respective countries. The Czar spent some time with his troops near the firing lines in Poland; King George of England visited the British forces in Belgium and Northern France and conferred the Victoria Cross ("For Valor") on a number of officers and men; and President Poincaré made several trips to the front, conferring decorations upon General Joffre, commander-in-chief, and other French officers, for distinguished service. The gallant and devoted soldier-king, Albert of Belgium, remained steadfastly at the front with his troops, sharing all their privations and dangers during the fierce fighting in Flanders. Kaiser Wilhelm was also at the front, both east and west, but was forced to return to Berlin early in the month by an attack of illness. On his recovery after two weeks he again visited the western field headquarters in Belgium, but in the first week of January, 1915, he was again compelled by his ailment to make a hurried return to Berlin for medical treatment and rest. British and German naval losses in the world war to January 1, 1915, are shown in the following, compiled from admiralty reports, and, where these are missing, from other authoritative sources. The figures are approximately correct.
CANADIANS AT THE FRONT
Late in December the first of the Canadian troops to leave their English training camp on Salisbury Plain were sent to the front in Northern France. The Princess Patricia regiment had the military honor of leading the Canadians to the firing line. It was made up largely of men who had seen previous service and promptly proceeded to give a good account of itself. A British guardsman returning wounded from the front on December 28 paid a characteristic tribute to the efficiency and daring of the Canadian troops, when he said: "They are all old soldiers. They knew as much about the game as we did and a blooming sight more than the enemy's infantry."
The Canadians first went into action at one of those ticklish spots where yards count. The trench of the British ended at a village which was vigorously shelled by the Germans, and was practically in ruins. Another trench on the right of a little town held by unmounted French cavalry made it impossible for the Germans to reach the village, but their "snipers" had ensconced themselves in some farm buildings to the northeast, making it extremely hazardous for supplies to reach the advanced British posts.
"About twenty of the Canadians," said the wounded guardsman, "managed to gain the ruins at the extreme end of the village during Christmas night and when daylight came they accounted for practically all the German 'snipers' and dashed back into safety before the German artillery fire was directed to the stronghold."
SERVIANS REOCCUPY BELGRADE
Just when it appeared likely that Servia might share the fate of Belgium, a turn in the fortunes of war changed the entire situation of affairs in the little Slav kingdom. Aided by a fresh advance of Russian troops across the Carpathians, which caused the hurried withdrawal of three Austrian army corps from Servian territory to defend the threatened cities of Hungary, the Serbs again took the offensive and, inspired by the presence in the field of old King Peter, a gallant soldier of France in 1870, they reoccupied Belgrade and drove the Austrians before them in a disorderly rout, so that by December Servia was free of the Austrian enemy. Budapest, capital of Hungary, became panic-stricken at the Russian advance and the Servian victory, and the year 1914 closed with every evidence that the people of Austria, at any rate, were tired of the war, discontented at the prospect, and desirous of peace.
GERMAN ATTACK ON BRITISH COAST
For the first time in history since the days of the American commander, Paul Jones, British coast towns were bombarded on December 16, when a squadron of German cruisers, slipping across the North Sea in a fog, from their Heligoland base, appeared off Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby, on the eastern coast of England, and shelled each of them in turn. The loss of life in the three towns was about 100 men, women and children, and a considerable number of buildings were partially wrecked by the German shells. Comparatively speaking, of course the damage inflicted was trifling and from a military point of view the incident was unimportant, the German ships disappearing in the fog after a half-hour's bombardment But the moral effect upon the British public was tremendous. The event came as a distinct shock to their over-confidence and as a reminder that the German navy was still to be reckoned with. The warships of the Kaiser brought home to the people of the United Kingdom the meaning of the war, as no previous incident had done, and fear of further attacks took possession of them. This fear, however, soon turned to rage, and then to a fierce determination to prosecute the war to a bitter end. The attack stimulated recruiting for Lord Kitchener's new army, and this was its chief result, though Germany had proved that her ships could reach British shores and bombard their defenseless towns, in spite of all the vigilance of the British fleet.
BRITISH RAID GERMAN PORT
By way of answer to the German attack on Scarborough and Hartlepool, a daring raid was made Christmas Day by the British navy on the German naval base at Cuxhaven, at the mouth of the Elbe. The chief participants were seven British naval airmen. They were assisted in the attack by several light cruisers, destroyers and submarines. The airmen piloted seaplanes and succeeded in dropping a number of bombs in the vicinity of Cuxhaven, in an attempt to bring out into the open a portion of the German fleet lying there. The affair resulted in a contest between the most modern of war machines. No surface warships were sent out by the Germans, but the attack was repelled by means of Zeppelins, sea-planes and submarines. No great damage was done on either side and the British airmen all escaped without injury, though four of them lost their machines. One, Flight Commander Hewlett, fell with his plane into the North Sea at a considerable distance from Cuxhaven and was picked up by a Dutch trawler, which landed him in Holland several days afterward. The British vessels remained off Cuxhaven for three hours, engaged in the most novel combat in naval history.
A short time previous to the attack on Cuxhaven, the British submarine B-11 accomplished one of the most remarkable exploits of the war when it penetrated into the Dardanelles and torpedoed the Turkish battleship Messudieh. In doing so the submarine successfully passed and repassed five lines of submerged mines and returned to its base in safety after being under water for many hours at a stretch.
U.S. PROTEST ON MARINE CONDITIONS
On December 31, by mutual agreement between the State Department at Washington and the British Foreign Office, the text of a note sent by the United States to England, requesting an early improvement in the treatment of American shipping by the British fleet, was made public. The note of protest had been presented on December 29. It dealt with the manner in which American ships suspected of carrying contraband of war had been held up on the high seas and sent into British ports for examination. Sir Edward Grey, the British foreign secretary, and Walter Hines Page, United States ambassador, conferred on the subject in London, and it was announced on January 1, 1915, that an answer to the American note would be drawn up as soon as possible and that it would be in the same friendly spirit in which the American note was written.
ON THE WESTERN BATTLE FRONT
The battle lines in the western theater of war held firm and fast during the first two months of 1915. Along the entire front, from Flanders to the Swiss frontier, there were few changes in the relative positions of the German forces and the Allies up to March 1, at which time both sides were occupied with preparations for the spring campaign. British reinforcements, forming part of Lord Kitchener's new army, were being transported to the front, while the far-flung lines of trenches were filled with battle-weary veterans of the winter campaign. In many places the entrenchments of the opposing forces were only a few yards apart and trenches were frequently destroyed by mines, resulting in losses to both sides, but without materially changing the general aspect of the conflict.
NAVAL BATTLE IN THE NORTH SEA
One of the most important naval battles of the war took place on January 24 in the North Sea between a British battle cruiser squadron under Vice-Admiral Sir David Beatty, comprising the battle cruisers Tiger, Lion, Princess Royal, New Zealand and Indomitable, assisted by a few light cruisers and destroyers, on the one hand, and on the other a German squadron, consisting of the battle cruisers Derflinger, Seydlitz and Moltke, the armored cruiser Bluecher, one of the finest in the Kaiser's navy, and several light cruisers.
It was a running fight, covering over one hundred miles and lasting four hours. At the end of this time the German armored cruiser Bluecher was at the bottom of the sea and two of the German battle cruisers had been damaged. Two of Vice-Admiral Beatty's ships were seriously damaged, namely, the giant battle cruiser Lion, which was Sir David's flagship, and the torpedo boat destroyer Meteor, one of the largest and fastest of this class afloat. However, both of these vessels were safely towed into port. The loss in men on the British side was fourteen killed and twenty-nine wounded, while on the side of the Germans only 125 of the crew of 850 men on the Bluecher were saved; the other 725 went down with the ship. The loss of the Bluecher was the hardest blow the German navy had sustained up to this time, as she was one of the newest and best vessels of her class. She was built at a cost of $6,750,000. Her speed was slower than that of the other vessels in the German squadron, which doubtless accounted for her loss. The battle began about 150 miles from Heligoland and ended within about fifty miles of this German naval base.
Early in the month of February, England threatened to put all foodstuffs destined for German ports on the contraband list. In retaliation, Germany, on February 4, through Admiral von Pohl, chief of the admiralty staff, issued a proclamation designating the waters around Great Britain and Ireland as a war area, to become effective February 18 and to be enforced by a formidable fleet of submarines, the object being to conduct war operations in this area for the purpose of destroying commercial ships of the enemy.
Just at this time the great passenger steamship Lusitania, in her passage from New York to Liverpool, hoisted the American flag while sailing through the Irish Sea, and Germany charged that the British Admiralty had issued confidential orders to captains of all British ships to sail under the stars and stripes or other neutral flags when necessary to use this means of protection against destruction by the warships of the enemy. This situation seriously menaced the commerce of the United States as well as that of all other neutral nations, and the American Government, therefore, promptly issued a note of warning to both belligerents and demanded in strong terms the protection of American neutral rights on the high seas. Germany responded promptly and promised to use every precaution to protect neutral shipping, but pointed out that the use of the American flag by British ships would make it difficult to distinguish neutral vessels from those of the enemy; hence neutral shipping was urged to avoid the indicated war area. Great Britain, on the other hand, claimed the right to use neutral flags when necessary to protect human life and ships, when endangered by the war vessels of the enemy; and under the laws of warfare and customs of the nations this contention was correct.
It can readily be seen that this situation placed the sea commerce of the United States, as well as that of all other neutral countries, in a most dangerous position. Up to March 1, 1915, about twenty merchant vessels of various nationalities were destroyed or damaged in the war zone established by Germany, including Dutch, Norwegian, Danish, American and British ships.
GREAT GERMAN VICTORY IN EAST PRUSSIA
After a difficult campaign against the Russian invaders in East Prussia, the German army, by the masterly strategy of Field Marshal von Hindenburg, practically annihilated the Russian Tenth Army of 150, men, completing the task February 20. It was the most spectacular campaign in the history of modern warfare.
The object of the German commander was not only to free East Prussia from the Russian invasion, but to completely capture the Russian Tenth Army. He sent one column in from the south to drive back the Russians who occupied the Mazurian lake gateway to East Prussia, and another column from the north was swung around in wide circles to the east and south, aiming to join hands with the southern German column, thus cutting off the Russian retreat. This movement would have succeeded absolutely except for delay in passing through the swamps, caused by mild weather which broke up the ice. A commander of one of the German corps said: "Nature has always helped Russia. Two days of hard frost and we should have had every man."
In the south also nature aided the Russians. There the German hosts attacked the enemy in the face of a driving snowstorm from the north, which hindered their operations but did not prevent them from gaining a victory which resulted in freeing Prussian territory from the invader.
ALLIES FORCE THE DARDANELLES
On March 1 a great allied fleet of forty British and French warships, having reduced the forts at the entrance to the Dardanelles, was on its way through the straits and the Sea of Marmora to Constantinople, with the object of capturing the city. Panic prevailed in the Turkish capital at the approach of the fleet, while for the first time in history hostile flags flew over the forts at the mouth of the Dardanelles. The naval operations of the Allies in the Dardanelles, which began on February 17, proceeded without any serious check for a month. Mine sweepers were in daily use, to clear the channel of submerged and floating mines, and the forts at the Narrows, several miles inside the entrance of the straits, were subject to bombardment every fine day. High winds and fog hampered the operations to a considerable extent, but the purpose of the Allies under Vice-Admiral Carden was adamant and would not be denied. They were determined to hammer their way through to the Turkish capital. The greatest battle of all history between warships and shore forts was the result. Soon after the bombardment began it became known that the allied fleets were led by the great new British superdreadnaught Queen Elizabeth, launched after the war began and armed with 15-inch guns of immense range which proved most effective in reducing the forts at the mouth of the straits.
THREE WARSHIPS SUNK
On March 18 three of the allied warships were sunk inside the Dardanelles and two crippled by the Turks during a bombardment in which ten vessels of the combined fleet participated. The official report of the battle was as follows:
"Mine-sweeping having been in progress during the last ten days inside the straits, a general attack was delivered by the British and French fleets on Thursday morning upon the fortresses at the Narrows. At 10:45 A.M. the Queen Elizabeth, Inflexible, Agamemnon, and Lord Nelson bombarded forts J, L, T, U and V, while the Triumph and Prince George fired at batteries F, E and H. A heavy fire was opened on the ships from howitzers and field guns.
"At 12:22 o'clock the French squadron, consisting of the Suffren, Gaulois, Charlemagne and Bouvet, advanced up the Dardanelles and engaged the forts at closer range. Forts I, U, F and E replied strongly. Their fire was silenced by the ten battleships inside the straits, all the ships being hit several times during this part of the action.
"By 1:25 P.M. all the forts had ceased firing. The Vengeance, Irresistible, Albion, Ocean, Swiftsure and Majestic then advanced to relieve the six old battleships inside the straits. As the French squadron, which had engaged the forts in a most brilliant fashion, was passing out, the Bouvet was blown up by a drifting mine. She sank in fathoms north of Arenkeuf village in less than three minutes.
"At 2:23 P.M. the relief battleships renewed the attack on the forts, which again opened fire. The attack on the forts was maintained while the operations of the mine-sweepers continued.
"At 4:09 P.M. the Irresistible quitted the line, listing heavily, and at 5:50 o'clock sank, having probably struck a drifting mine. At 6: o'clock the Ocean, also having struck a mine, sank. Both vessels sank in deep water, practically the whole of their crews having been removed safely under a hot fire. The loss of the ships was caused by mines drifting with the current, which were encountered in areas hitherto swept clear.
"The British casualties in personnel were not heavy considering the scale of the operations, but practically the whole of the crew of the Bouvet were lost with the ship, an internal explosion having apparently supervened on the explosion of the mine." [About 500 lives were lost on the Bouvet.]
On March 16 Vice-Admiral Carden, who had been incapacitated by illness, was succeeded in the chief command by Rear-Admiral John Michael De Robeck, with the acting rank of vice-admiral.
ADMIRAL DE ROBECK'S TRIBUTE TO THE FRENCH
After the engagement of March 18 Admiral De Robeck telegraphed to the British Admiralty the following tribute to the gallantry of the French in action:
"I desire to bring to the notice of your Lordships the splendid behavior of the French squadron. Their heavy loss leaves them quite undaunted. They were led into close action by Rear-Admiral Guepratte with the greatest gallantry."
About this time it was noted by the press and generally commented upon, in both England and America, that the Admiralty had not made public a single word of commendation for the work of the British navy since the war began. This unusual fact was interpreted as evidence of the inflexible purpose of the British to ignore minor losses and even defeats until the main battleship fleets of the belligerents should come to grips in the open sea. English newspapers began to taunt the Germans with permitting their navy to "rust in the Kiel Canal."
The sinking of the battle cruisers Irresistible, Ocean and Bouvet was the heaviest loss sustained by the Allies since the war began. The British crews were rescued, almost to a man, and the loss of the French crew was due mainly to the internal explosion following that of the mine. All the ships sunk were of the earlier pre-dreadnought type. On the same day, March 18, the British battle cruiser Inflexible and the French battleship Gaulois were put out of commission temporarily by the fire of the Turkish forts.
The Irresistible, the Ocean and the Bouvet were all sunk in portions of the straits which had been swept clear of anchored mines, and the drifting mines which proved so deadly were undoubtedly set afloat by the Turks, probably under the direction of German officers, on the swift current of the Dardanelles at points near the allied ships after the action began. On March 24 the allied fleets renewed with vigor their attack upon the forts at the Narrows of the Dardanelles. A large body of troops was also landed upon the peninsula of Gallipoli, commanding the approach to Constantinople, and the Russian Black Sea fleet co-operated by a bombardment of the Turkish naval base, which left the Turkish fleet without supplies and practically paralyzed its movements.