America's War for Humanity · Chapter 8Chapter II. (2)
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GERMAN SUBMARINE CAMPAIGN FAILS
The campaign of unrestricted submarine warfare, which was relied upon by Germany to win the war by the extinction of the British mercantile marine and the stoppage of transatlantic supplies, had proved a failure by August, 1917, after six months' duration. While the tonnage destroyed by the undersea instruments of frightfulness was sufficiently serious to cause grave alarm on both sides of the Atlantic, it formed but a small percentage of the ships actively and continually engaged in the transportation of munitions and supplies, while it was practically counterbalanced by the activities of Allied shipbuilders and by the seizure for Allied service of interned German ships in the countries that entered the war subsequent to February 1, 1917, when the campaign of unrestricted destruction began. Determined efforts were made by the British, French and United States navies to cope with the undersea enemy, and these were increasingly successful. Many merchant ships and transports were convoyed to safety by the destroyers of the three great naval Allies, and by August the fear that Britain could be starved out by means of German submarines had practically disappeared. The record of sinkings of British vessels for the first twenty-four weeks after the "unrestricted" warfare began was as follows:
KING OF GREECE DEPOSED
King Constantine I of Greece was forced by the Allies to abdicate his throne on June 12, 1917, in favor of his second son, Prince Alexander. The kingdom remained, but not a pro-German one as before. In order to block the designs of the King and court, who were doing their best to deliver Greece to the Germans, the Entente powers were obliged to make a succession of demands upon the Greek government, including the demobilization of most of the army, the surrender of the fleet, and the withdrawal of Greek troops from Thessaly. In an effort to enforce their demands the Entente allies landed marines in Athens—who were fired upon—and finally declared an embargo on imports into Greece. Turmoil and intrigue continued, and pressure was brought to bear upon Constantine which compelled him to abdicate the throne. Venizelos returned as premier and Greece was announced as a belligerent on the side of the Entente.
THE ITALIAN CAMPAIGN
In the Trentino the Italians took the offensive in June and after terrible fighting captured the Austrian positions on Monte Ortigara and Agnello Pass. These they were forced to relinquish, however, in the face of Austrian counter-attacks.
The Italian campaign on the Isonzo and in the Trentino, continued throughout the summer, was perhaps the most scientific of all the campaigns, involving tremendous technical difficulties, which were solved with amazing ingenuity and skill. The campaign was largely an engineers' and an artilleryman's war, waged in the mountains, much of it in regions of perpetual snow—highly picturesque and spectacular. Finally, it was as little destructive as war well can be, because the Italians were fighting in territories which they hoped to hold after the conflict, and they spared the towns and villages to the greatest extent possible.
BRITISH CAMPAIGN IN THE EAST
The capture of Bagdad by the British in March, 1917, after a brilliant campaign in Mesopotamia, had a deep moral effect in the Orient, particularly in Arabia, where the natives revolted against Turkish rule and established an independent government in Mecca.
In the Holy Land the British in 1917 opened a new era in the history of the East. Their advance by August 1 had carried them nearly to Gaza. Their objective was Jerusalem, which the Turks partly evacuated at their approach, after doing untold damage in the holy city and inflicting many atrocities upon the inhabitants.
WAR MISSIONS OF THE ALLIES
In cementing America's association with the nations which had become her allies, numerous exchanges of missions were arranged. France, Great Britain, Italy, Belgium, Russia, Japan and other entente belligerents sent delegations to the United States as a step toward unification, military, financial and otherwise. The United States sent missions to Russia and other countries.
AERIAL ATTACKS ON LONDON
Cities from Bagdad to London were subject to aerial raids by the Germans during the summer, notable attacks being those by Zeppelins and aeroplanes on London and the eastern coast cities of England. In five attacks on England in May, June and July, 298 persons were killed and 863 injured. Insistent demands were then made by the English people for reprisals in kind.
AN ESTIMATE OP CASUALTIES
An estimate of the total war losses, made near the close of the third year of the war and voiced by Arthur Henderson of the British War Council, placed the number of men killed at 7,000,000 since August, 1914. French general headquarters on August 1 estimated that 1,500, Germans had been killed up to March 1. Mr. Henderson estimated the total casualties of the war at more than 45,000,000.
WHEN THE THIRD YEAR CLOSED
The third year of the world war closed in July, 1917, with the fortunes of conflict favoring the Entente, except for uncertainty as to the outcome of the Russian situation. On the western front in Europe the Teutons found themselves on the defensive at the advent of the fourth year. They were fighting on lines newly established after forced retirement from terrain which they had won in earlier days at a tremendous sacrifice.
Following the declaration of war by the United States, Cuba and Liberia declared themselves on the side of the Allies. Panama pledged the United States her aid in defending the Panama Canal. Costa Rica put her naval bases at its disposal. China, Bolivia, Guatemala and Brazil severed diplomatic relations with Germany. Uruguay expressed her sympathy with the United States. Late in July Siam entered the war against the central powers, and on August 14 China formally declared war against Germany and Austria. This made a total of seventeen nations arrayed against the central powers.
As to the prospects for the fourth year of the war, which opened in August, 1917, American sentiment was expressed by the New York Sun, which said editorially: "We expect today as at first that the end will be catastrophic overthrow for the Kaiser and the military party of Germany, and a dreary expiation by the German people of their sin in allowing themselves to be dragooned into the most immoral enterprise of the ages."
UNITED STATES WAR ACTIVITIES
The Army bill providing for raising a new national army by selective draft duly passed the House of Representatives and the United States Senate and was signed by President Wilson on May 18, 1917. The President forthwith issued a proclamation calling on all male inhabitants of the United States between the ages of 21 and 30 to register for the draft on the following June 5. At the same time he formally declined the offer of Col. Roosevelt to raise a volunteer army for immediate service in France.
On June 5, the day of registration, 9,700,000 young men of all classes registered in their home districts throughout the country. It was then decided to call approximately 650,000 men to the colors as the first national army. The formal drawing of the serial numbers allotted to registrants occurred in Washington late in July. District boards were appointed to examine the men drafted and receive applications for exemption, also appeal boards in every State. The month of August was largely occupied in preparing the quotas from each district and meanwhile cantonments were made ready for the training of the new army, while thousands of prospective officers received intensive training in special camps at various points, east and west, and were commissioned in due course. Orders were then issued for the men selected to report at the cantonments in three divisions of 200,000 men each, at intervals of fifteen days, beginning September 5. The National Guards of the various States were also mobilized August 9, mustered into the Federal service, and ordered to special training camps, mostly situated in the South. The work of assembling equipment and supplies for the new army was rushed and the whole country hummed with the task of preparation.
AMERICAN TROOPS IN FRANCE
France and Great Britain having joined in a request for the dispatch of an American expeditionary force to France at the earliest possible moment, the United States government on May 18 ordered 25,000 troops to France under the command of Major-General John J. Pershing. A large force of marines was subsequently ordered to join them, bringing the strength of the expedition up to approximately 40,000 men. General Pershing and his staff preceded the troops to Europe, reaching London June 8 and Paris June 13, and being enthusiastically welcomed in both the Allied capitals.
Convoyed by American warships, the first and second contingents of American troops crossed the Atlantic in safety, despite two submarine attacks on the transports in which at least one U-boat was sunk. Without the loss of a ship or a man the troops were landed in France on June and 27, to be received with outbursts of joy by the French populace, who saw in their coming the assurance of final delivery from the German invaders. Training camps awaited their coming and there, behind the French lines they spent the months of July and August in active preparation for service under the Stars and Stripes against the German enemy on the western front.
U.S. WARSHIPS BUSY
America's destroyer flotilla arrived in British waters in May and immediately co-operated with the British fleet in the patrol of its home waters and the hunt for German submarines. The flotilla was commanded by Vice-Admiral Sims and did effective work from the very start.
On August 11 it was announced in Washington that Admiral Sims had sent to the Navy Department a series of reports detailing the work of the American ships and men under his command. These were said to present a thrilling story of accomplishment, telling of many encounters with U-boats and also of the rescue of numerous crews of ships which had been destroyed by submarines off the coasts of England and Ireland.
Soon after war was declared by the United States, American warships took over from British and French vessels the patrol of American coasts, while Brazil added her navy to that of the United States for the protection of South American waters against the common enemy.
THE FIRST "LIBERTY LOAN"
On May 2, a few weeks after the United States entered the war, subscriptions were opened for the first block of $2,000,000,000 of the "Liberty loan" of $7,000,000,000 authorized by Congress in April. Great popular interest was evinced and all classes of the American people hastened to subscribe for the 3-1/2 per cent bonds, so that when the books were closed on June 15 it was found that the loan had been oversubscribed by $1,035,226,850 and the list of subscribers contained no fewer than 4,000,000 names. Most of the amount raised was used for loans to the Allies, to be expended in the United States for war munitions and supplies.
A war budget appropriating $3,340,000,000 for current expenses of the war was passed by Congress and signed by the President June 15; also an Espionage bill which among other important provisions gave the President power to place an embargo on all exports. On July 14 the House of Representatives passed an Aviation bill appropriating the sum of $640,000,000 for the construction and maintenance of an aerial fleet for home and foreign service.
FOOD CONTROL BILL PASSED
On August 10 President Wilson signed the Food Control bill adopted by Congress after prolonged debate, and he at once announced the formal appointment of Mr. Herbert C. Hoover as United States food administrator. Mr. Hoover, whose work as chief of the Belgian Relief Commission had made him world famous, stated the threefold objects of the food administration under the bill as follows:
"First, to so guide the trade in the fundamental food commodities as to eliminate vicious speculation, extortion, and wasteful practices, and to stabilize prices in the essential staples. Second, to guard our exports so that against the world's shortage we retain sufficient supplies for our own people, and to coöperate with the Allies to prevent inflation of prices; and, third, that we stimulate in every manner within our power the saving of our food in order that we may increase exports to our Allies to a point which will enable them to properly provision their armies and to feed their peoples during the coming winter."
INTERNAL HANDICAPS IN AMERICA
While the United States was busily engaged in raising its new national army, innumerable difficulties arose to be contended with by the Federal and State governments and local authorities. Not the least of these was caused by enemy propaganda of various kinds, designed to interfere with the success of the selective draft. Active opposition to the draft developed in many districts, especially in the Western states where the organization calling itself the "Industrial Workers of the World," notorious as the "I.W.W.," had a considerable following, including many aliens, and gave the State and municipal authorities much trouble. Attacks on munition plants, strikes, and incipient riots were frequent, until the Federal government declared its determination to meet all such demonstrations with the strong arm of the law. Pacifists and pro-Germans of various stripes did their utmost to retard war preparations, and caused much annoyance, without, however, preventing the steady march of the selected men to the training cantonments, where the first divisions of the national army gradually assembled. The presence in the country of so many aliens of enemy birth constituted a difficulty, but this had been foreseen and partly provided against, and the true American spirit of patriotism steadily prevailed over all obstacles to the successful prosecution of the war for humanity. Uncle Sam prepared to strike—and strike hard.
INTERNAL TROUBLES IN GERMANY
Meanwhile, internal troubles developed in the German empire. Weary of the war, with hopes of final victory dwindling month by month, a strong peace party arose in the Reichstag, committing itself to the policy of a peace without annexations or indemnities, and for a brief time the Reichstag refused to vote a war credit. This brought the Kaiser, Von Hindenburg, and Von Ludendorff in hot haste to Berlin, to exert the utmost possible pressure of the military party on the recalcitrants. For the time being their power prevailed, but the German Chancellor, Von Bethmann Hollweg, was sacrificed, together with the Foreign Minister and other leading officials of the empire. The Chancellor was succeeded by Dr. Georg Michaelis, a statesman of colorless and practically unknown quality, suspected of being a mere mouthpiece of the Kaiser, appointed to register his decrees and continue the policy of the autocracy in the conduct of the war. But many peace proposals came out of Germany during the summer and every possible German effort was made to break the solidarity of the Allies.
THE POPE PROPOSES PEACE
On August 14 Pope Benedict addressed to all the belligerent nations a proposal for a peace agreement, stating the general terms which he believed might be found acceptable as a basis for the cessation of hostilities. These included disarmament of the nations, mutual condonation of damages, the establishment of the principle of arbitration for the future, the evacuation of Belgian and French territory by the Germans, reciprocal restoration of the German colonies, and a peace-table agreement as to Alsace-Lorraine, Poland, the Trentino, Armenia and the Balkan states.
Nothing being said as to the causes of the war and the criminal responsibility attaching to the authors of the great conflict, and all the nations at issue being classed as equally entitled to the benefits of the condonation proposed, the message from the Vatican met with a cool reception from the Allied nations, including the United States, especially as they entertained grave suspicions that it was inspired from Berlin, by way of Vienna. The answers of President Wilson and the British and French governments were therefore awaited with little expectation that the hour for peace had struck.
The British attitude toward peace proposals was expressed July 20 by Sir Edward Carson, member of the war cabinet, who said:
"If the Germans want peace we are prepared tomorrow to treat not with Prussianism, but with the best of the German nation, and as a preliminary to such a treaty and as an earnest of their sincerity that they don't want to acquire any territory or show violence towards others, we tell them to come forward and offer to enter negotiations. We make as the first condition of such a parley that they shall withdraw their troops behind the Rhine.
"When they have shown something like contrition for the wrongs and outrages against humanity which they have committed on poor little Belgium, in northern France, in Serbia, and in those other regions which they needlessly drenched with blood, we will be willing to enter into negotiations to see what can be done for release of the world from the terror of arms."
CANADIANS HOLD THEIR GAINS
On August 21 Canadian troops smashed their way with bombs and cold steel farther into the German defenses of the ruins of Lens, and defeated a desperate simultaneous attack by the enemy, which developed into one of the most sanguinary hand-to-hand conflicts on this battle-scarred front. The attack began at dawn with the capture of 2,000 yards of German positions on the outskirts of the shell-torn mining center, the Canadians driving their lines closer about the heart of the city and gaining possession of many railway embankments and colliery sidings in the northwest and southwest suburbs which had been strongly fortified for defense with a series of shell-hole nests of machine guns. The battle raged fiercely for twenty-four hours.
When the Canadians went "over the top" in the thick haze of early dawn of the 21st, they saw masses of shadowy gray figures advancing toward them. The Germans had planned an attack to be delivered at the same moment, and sent in wave after wave of infantry in desperate efforts to regain their lost positions. In the words of an eyewitness, the Germans fought like cornered rats among the shell holes and wire incumbrances of "No man's Land," where the struggle raged, bomb and bayonet being the principal weapons. As the Canadian bayonet did its deadly work, in some of the bitterest fighting of the war, the German officers tried in vain to rally their men and the enemy infantry gradually fell back to the trenches they had left. The Canadians followed closely and, leaping on the parapets, hurled masses of bombs down among great numbers of troops which had been collected for the attack. The Germans tried to flee through the communication trenches, but the Canadians leaped among them with bayonets and bombs, killing many and sparing few as prisoners. Throughout the day the entire line was a seething caldron, but the new Canadian positions were firmly held as night fell.
Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig after the battle sent a message of congratulation to Lieutenant-General Sir Arthur Currie, commanding the Canadian forces, and refuted the German claim that the Canadians had attacked with four instead of two divisions when Hill 70 was captured by the gallant fellows from the Dominion. The commander-in-chief also gave the Canadians credit for having reached all their objectives in the battles of the previous week.
Eight heavy assaults were delivered against the Canadians at Lens by the Germans during the night of the 21st, but in each case the enemy was thrown back at the point of the bayonet and by afternoon of August the Canadians had consolidated all the new positions gained. During the battle of Lens up to this time (from August 15 to 22) the Canadians took 1,378 prisoners, 34 machine guns and 21 trench mortars. The number of prisoners taken bore only a small ratio to the losses inflicted on the Germans, who appeared exhausted when the assaults ceased.
On August 22 the British launched another fierce attack on the enemy in the Langemarck sector of the front and forced their way to a considerable depth in the neighborhood of the ridge known as Hill 35, strongly defended by Irish troops against Prince Rupprecht's Bavarians. At the same time a new battle at Verdun was in progress, but the French held all their gains against reserves massed by the Germans for desperate counter-attacks.
ITALIANS IN A GREAT OFFENSIVE
On the Isonzo front the Italian commander, General Cadorna, launched a great offensive while the British were active in Flanders and by August 23 had broken through the whole Austrian line, capturing the town of Selo, which was the pivot of the Austrian defense, and considered impregnable, and inflicting upon the enemy, in this eleventh battle of the Isonzo, the greatest losses he had sustained since the capture of Goritz. More than 13,000 Austro-Hungarian prisoners were captured during the battle, with thirty guns, and all counter-attacks were repulsed with heavy losses. The whole Selo line fell before the heroic onslaught of the Italians, and the loss of this important position was a serious blow to the Austrians. On August 22 Italian warships were showering shells on Trieste, the big Austrian port on the Adriatic which was the objective of the Italian campaign.
HOW ARE THE MIGHTY FALLEN!
"In the welter of the conflict an emperor of Austria-Hungary has died, full of years and of sorrow, a czar of Russia has stepped from his throne, and a king of Greece has lost his crown," said a well-known publicist, reviewing the war up to this time.
"Not one of the prime ministers or ministers of foreign affairs who conducted the diplomatic maneuvers preceding of immediately following the beginning of the war in the six most important countries of Europe is still in power. In Russia, Goremykin and Sazonoff are forgotten behind a line of successors, equally unstable. In France, Delcassé left the foreign office and Viviani ceased to head the cabinet, following the collapse of Serbia in the second autumn of the war.
"The tragedy of Roumania a year later contributed to the overthrow of Asquith and his foreign secretary, Sir Edward Grey, in Great Britain. San Giuliano of the Italian foreign office and Salandra, the prime minister, have passed. Count Berchtold, foreign minister of Austria-Hungary in 1914 (the empire has no prime minister), has passed into oblivion, while Von Jagow gave up the management of Germany's foreign affairs last autumn. Von Bethmann-Hollweg, the last of the group to lose his grip, has just gone down, despite the fact that he was not responsible to any elective body.
"Ministers of war in the belligerent countries have not been more stable. Kerensky follows a long procession in Russia. France has had four war ministers from Millerand to Painlevé, inclusive, while Lord Kitchener, organizer of Great Britain's most marvelous war achievement, a volunteer army of some 4,000,000 men, sleeps below the waters of the North Sea.
"History has as ruthlessly brushed aside most of the army commanders of the early days. Von Kluck, who led the Germans on Paris, is retired. Rennenkampf, with whom the Russians meanwhile swarmed into East Prussia, is a memory only. Sir John French has been recalled to England. That little group of generals who saved France and Europe at the Marne is decimated. Foch and Castelnau, and Manoury are no longer in command, while Galliéni, worn out in the service of his country, was borne on his last journey through the streets of Paris on a sunny spring day in 1916.
"Even Joffre has been superseded in a military sense, though not as an idol of the nation. France still holds him as close to her heart as Germany possibly could hold Von Hindenburg—almost the only one of the war's early commanders to retain his military power."
RUSSIAN CAPITAL IN PERIL
On August 23, Riga, the Russian seaport which is the gateway to Petrograd, was reported in peril from the Germans, who were conducting a determined advance on the north of the eastern front under the immediate direction of Field Marshal Von Hindenburg. With a Japanese mission in Washington, headed by Viscount Ishii, it was expected that steps might be taken to send Japanese troops to the aid of the Russians.
Russia's critical internal situation, aggravated by the new German drive against Riga, was watched by officials in Washington with the gravest concern. While the taking of Riga would not necessarily be a decisive blow, it would make the Baltic more than ever a German lake, leaving the Russian fleet in the position of the mouse in the rathole to the German cat, just as the Kaiser's fleet was the mouse to the English fleet outside.
The outcome of the forthcoming extraordinary national council to be held at Moscow was therefore awaited in Washington with the keenest interest, scarcely less keen than in Russia itself. The immediate fate of Russia, it was felt, depended upon the action of the council in its efforts to throw off the demoralizing socialistic control of the Russian army and workmen. German intrigues in Russia were known to be exerting powerful influence to bring about anarchy within the new democracy.
CLOSING IN ON LENS
An advance by the Canadians in the neighborhood of the Green Grassier on the southern edge of Lens added greatly to the strength of the British line, which continued to tighten steadily about the heart of the city.
The Grassier is a great slag heap, and lies only about 300 yards south of the central railway station of Lens, and overlooks it.
The Canadians made their assault before dawn this time, and the attack was preceded by a protracted and exceedingly intense bombardment of the German positions. The Germans, exhausted by the long strain of constant counter-attacks, found the Canadians in their midst with little warning. But the defenders did not give up without a struggle, and there was fierce bayonet fighting.
The Grassier was an important buffer between the Canadians and the defenses of the city proper, and the Germans reached it through tunnels connected with the network of passages and dugouts beneath Lens.
Part of the ground about the Grassier was inundated, due to the waterway near by having broken its banks, and this, in conjunction with the great number of machine-gun emplacements on the elevation, made it a particularly difficult position for attack.
An advance upon two German colliery positions adjoining the Grassier to the northwest, earlier in the night, also involved stiff hand-to-hand fighting. About the Grassier were numerous shell-shattered buildings, many of which had been strongly fortified by the Germans. The Canadians bombed their way systematically through these defenses, silencing the machine guns and clearing out the defenders.
The fighting on August 23 was on the edge of the city proper, rather than in the suburbs. Notwithstanding the tremendous strain upon the Canadians during the previous week, there was no diminution in the strength of their attacks. They worked steadily and methodically, gradually weaving a net about the Germans, who were living miserably in their underground positions within the great coal center.
MANY GERMANS CAPTURED
In the three days' fighting on the western front from August 21 to 23, the Entente Allies captured 25,000 German prisoners and by September 1 the total for August had reached more than 40,000, according to Major-General Frederick B. Maurice, chief director of the British war intelligence office. This topped the figure of prisoners which the Germans claimed to have taken in a single month on the Russian front, although their total undoubtedly was composed by at least half of mere stragglers from the mutinous and disorganized Russian units.
On September 1, 1917, the positions recaptured by the French around Verdun were safely consolidated in their possession, every German effort being thrown back in disorder. The fighting had developed into a big-gun duel, in which the French continued to maintain undoubted mastery, and they were firmly established once more on the left bank of the Meuse, which the Germans had intended to hold at all costs. Thus ended the last hope of the Crown Prince of Germany, who apparently was obsessed with the desire to conquer Verdun, in the neighborhood of which thousands of the flower of the German army found only a burial place, without any laurels of victory.
ALLIED GAINS IN THE WEST
The early autumn of 1917 witnessed steady gains by the British and French forces co-operating in Flanders and to the South of the Belgian border along the western front. The artillery on both sides was constantly active, but with evident superiority on the part of the Allies. Repeated German attacks were repulsed in the Champagne and along the Meuse, while in the Ypres region the Allied troops made frequent gains in spite of the concrete defenses established by the enemy to strengthen their entrenched positions.
Repeated successes of the Allies along the Chemin des Dames finally forced a German retreat along a fifteen-mile front which the Crown Prince had made strenuous efforts to hold. The Germans were compelled to retire because French victories on October 21-23 enabled French guns to enfilade the Ailette Valley behind the German positions, exposing the enemy to a series of disastrous flanking attacks and hampering the German communications. On October 30-31 the French bombarded the German lines vigorously. The enemy had already moved their artillery across the Ailette to a ridge north of the river. On the night of November 1 they completed their preparations for retreat and withdrew their infantry. French patrols approaching the German lines on the morning of November 2 were fired upon at first, but on renewing their reconnoissance soon after dawn found the German trenches empty.