*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 16282 ***
[Illustration: THE THRILL OF OLD-TIME WAR
The stirrup charge of the Scots Greys at St. Quentin. Holding on to
the stirrup leathers of the cavalry the Highlanders crashed like an
avalanche upon the German lines, tearing great gaps in their massed
formations.]
COMPLETE EDITION
HISTORY OF THE
WORLD WAR
An Authentic Narrative of
The World’s Greatest War
BY FRANCIS A. MARCH, Ph.D.
In Collaboration with
RICHARD J. BEAMISH
Special War Correspondent
and Military Analyst
With an Introduction
BY GENERAL PEYTON C. MARCH
Chief of Staff of the United States Army
With Exclusive Photographs by
JAMES H. HARE and DONALD THOMPSON
World-Famed War Photographers
and with Reproductions from the Official Photographs
of the United States, Canadian, British,
French and Italian Governments
MCMXIX
LESLIE-JUDGE COMPANY
NEW YORK
Copyright, 1918
FRANCIS A. MARCH
This history is an original work and is fully protected by the
copyright laws, including the right of translation. All persons are
warned against reproducing the text in whole or in part without the
permission of the publishers.
CONTENTS
VOLUME III
PAGE
CHAPTER I. NEUVE CHAPELLE AND WAR IN BLOOD-SOAKED TRENCHES
War Amid Barbed-Wire Entanglements and the Desolation
of No Man’s Land--Subterranean Tactics Continuing Over
Four Years--Attacks that Cost Thousands of Lives for
Every Foot of Gain 1
CHAPTER II. ITALY DECLARES WAR ON AUSTRIA
Her Great Decision--D’Annunzio, Poet and Patriot--Italia
Irredenta--German Indignation--The Campaigns
on the Isonzo and in the Tyrol 29
CHAPTER III. GLORIOUS GALLIPOLI
A Titanic Enterprise--Its Objects--Disasters and Deeds
of Deathless Glory--The Heroic Anzacs--Bloody Dashes up
Impregnable Slopes--Silently they Stole Away--A Successful
Failure 58
CHAPTER IV. THE GREATEST NAVAL BATTLE IN HISTORY
The Battle of Jutland--Every Factor on Sea and in Sky
Favorable to the Germans--Low Visibility a Great Factor--A
Modern Sea Battle--Light Cruisers Screening Battleship
Squadron--Germans Run Away when British Fleet
Marshals Its Full Strength--Death of Lord Kitchener 78
CHAPTER V. THE RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN
The Advance on Cracow--Von Hindenburg Strikes at
Warsaw--German Barbarism--The War in Galicia--The
Fall of Przemysl--Russia’s Ammunition Fails--The Russian
Retreat--The Fall of Warsaw--The Last Stand--Czernowitz 104
CHAPTER VI. HOW THE BALKANS DECIDED
Ferdinand of Bulgaria Insists Upon Joining Germany--Dramatic
Scene in the King’s Palace--The Die is Cast--Bulgaria
Succumbs to Seductions of Potsdam Gang--Greece
Mobilizes--French and British Troops at Saloniki--Serbia
Over-run--Roumania’s Disastrous Venture in the Arena of Mars 145
CHAPTER VII. THE CAMPAIGN IN MESOPOTAMIA
British Army Threatening Bagdad Besieged in Kut-el-Amara--After
Heroic Defense General Townshend Surrenders
after 143 Days of Siege--New British Expedition
Recaptures Kut--Troops Push on Up the Tigris--Fall of
Bagdad the Magnificent 187
CHAPTER VIII. IMMORTAL VERDUN
Grave of the Military Reputations of von Falkenhayn and
the Crown Prince--Hindenburg’s Warning--Why the Germans
Made the Disastrous Attempt to Capture the Great
Fortress--Heroic France Reveals Itself to the World--“They
Shall Not Pass”--Nivelle’s Glorious Stand on
Dead Man Hill--Lord Northcliffe’s Description--A Defense
Unsurpassed in the History of France 209
ILLUSTRATIONS
VOLUME III
PAGE
THE THRILL OF OLD-TIME WAR _Frontispiece_
THE GLORIOUS CHARGE OF THE NINTH LANCERS 4
CHARGING THROUGH BARBED-WIRE ENTANGLEMENTS 6
BRITISH INDIAN TROOPS CHARGING THE GERMAN TRENCHES AT NEUVE
CHAPELLE 10
CHARGING ON GERMAN TRENCHES IN GAS MASKS 12
AN INCIDENT OF THE WAR IN FLANDERS 18
ITALY’S TITANIC LABOR TO CONQUER THE ALPS 30
WAITING THE ORDER TO ATTACK 38
TRANSPORTING WOUNDED AMID THE DIFFICULTIES OF THE ITALIAN
MOUNTAIN FRONT 42
THE LOSS OF THE “IRRESISTIBLE” 68
THE HISTORIC LANDING FROM THE “RIVER CLYDE” AT SEDDUL BAHR 76
ADMIRAL WILLIAM S. SIMS 98
ADMIRAL SIR DAVID BEATTY 98
GERMAN FRIGHTFULNESS FROM THE AIR 110
BAGDAD THE MAGNIFICENT FALLS TO THE BRITISH 208
AMMUNITION FOR THE GUNS 224
HOW VERDUN WAS SAVED 224
THE WORLD WAR
CHAPTER I
NEUVE CHAPELLE AND WAR IN BLOOD-SOAKED TRENCHES
After the immortal stand of Joffre at the first battle of the Marne
and the sudden savage thrust at the German center which sent von Kluck
and his men reeling back in retreat to the prepared defenses along the
line of the Aisne, the war in the western theater resolved itself into
a play for position from deep intrenchments. Occasionally would come a
sudden big push by one side or the other in which artillery was massed
until hub touched hub and infantry swept to glory and death in waves
of gray, or blue or khaki as the case might be. But these tremendous
efforts and consequent slaughters did not change the long battle line
from the Alps to the North Sea materially. Here and there a bulge
would be made by the terrific pressure of men and material in some
great assault like that first push of the British at Neuve Chapelle,
like the German attack at Verdun or like the tremendous efforts by both
sides on that bloodiest of all battlefields, the Somme.
Neuve Chapelle deserves particular mention as the test in which the
British soldiers demonstrated their might in equal contest against
the enemy. There had been a disposition in England as elsewhere up to
that time to rate the Germans as supermen, to exalt the potency of the
scientific equipment with which the German army had taken the field.
When the battle of Neuve Chapelle had been fought, although its losses
were heavy, there was no longer any doubt in the British nation that
victory was only a question of time.
The action came as a pendant to the attack by General de Langle de
Cary’s French army during February, 1915, at Perthes, that had been
a steady relentless pressure by artillery and infantry upon a strong
German position. To meet it heavy reinforcements had been shifted
by the Germans from the trenches between La Bassée and Lille. The
earthworks at Neuve Chapelle had been particularly depleted and only
a comparatively small body of Saxons and Bavarians defended them.
Opposite this body was the first British army. The German intrenchments
at Neuve Chapelle surrounded and defended the highlands upon which were
placed the German batteries and in their turn defended the road towards
Lille, Roubaix and Turcoing.
[Illustration: THE BATTLE-GROUND OF NEUVE CHAPELLE]
The task assigned to Sir John French was to make an assault with only
forty-eight thousand men on a comparatively narrow front. There was
only one practicable method for effective preparation, and this was
chosen by the British general. An artillery concentration absolutely
unprecedented up to that time was employed by him. Field pieces firing
at point-blank range were used to cut the barbed wire entanglements
defending the enemy intrenchments, while howitzers and bombing
airplanes were used to drop high explosives into the defenseless
earthworks.
Sir Douglas Haig, later to become the commander-in-chief of the British
forces, was in command of the first army. Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien
commanded the second army. It was the first army that bore the brunt of
the attack.
[Illustration: THE GLORIOUS CHARGE OF THE NINTH LANCERS
An incident of the retreat from Mons to Cambrai. A German battery of
eleven guns posted in a wood had caused havoc in the British ranks. The
Ninth Lancers rode straight at them, across the open, through a hail of
shell from the other German batteries, cut down all the gunners, and
put every gun out of action.]
No engagement during the years on the western front was more sudden
and surprising in its onset than that drive of the British against
Neuve Chapelle. At seven o’clock on the morning of Wednesday, March
10, 1915, the British artillery was lazily engaged in lobbing over
a desultory shell fire upon the German trenches. It was the usual
breakfast appetizer, and nobody on the German side took any unusual
notice of it. Really, however, the shelling was scientific “bracketing”
of the enemy’s important position. The gunners were making sure of
their ranges.
At 7.30 range finding ended, and with a roar that shook the earth the
most destructive and withering artillery action of the war up to that
time was on. Field pieces sending their shells hurtling only a few
feet above the earth tore the wire emplacements of the enemy to pieces
and made kindling wood of the supports. Howitzers sent high explosive
shells, containing lyddite, of 15-inch, 9.2-inch and 6-inch caliber
into the doomed trenches and later into the ruined village. It was
eight o’clock in the morning, one-half hour after the beginning of the
artillery action, that the village was bombarded. During this time
British soldiers were enabled to walk about in No Man’s Land behind
the curtain of fire with absolute immunity. No German rifleman or
machine gunner left cover. The scene on the German side of the line was
like that upon the blasted surface of the moon, pock-marked with shell
holes, and with no trace of human life to be seen above ground.
An eye-witness describing the scene said:
“The dawn, which broke reluctantly through a veil of clouds on the
morning of Wednesday, March 10, 1915, seemed as any other to the
Germans behind the white and blue sandbags in their long line of
trenches curving in a hemicycle about the battered village of Neuve
Chapelle. For five months they had remained undisputed masters of the
positions they had here wrested from the British in October. Ensconced
in their comfortably-arranged trenches with but a thin outpost in their
fire trenches, they had watched day succeed day and night succeed night
without the least variation from the monotony of trench warfare, the
intermittent bark of the machine guns--rat-tat-tat-tat-tat--and the
perpetual rattle of rifle fire, with here and there a bomb, and now
and then an exploded mine.
[Illustration: © _Illustrated London News_.
CHARGING THROUGH BARBED-WIRE ENTANGLEMENTS
In one sector at Givenchy, the wire had not been sufficiently smashed
by the artillery preparation and the infantry attack was held up in
the face of a murderous German fire.]
“For weeks past the German airmen had grown strangely shy. On this
Wednesday morning none were aloft to spy out the strange doings which,
as dawn broke, might have been descried on the desolate roads behind
the British lines.
“From ten o’clock of the preceding evening endless files of men marched
silently down the roads leading towards the German positions through
Laventie and Richebourg St. Vaast, poor shattered villages of the
dead where months of incessant bombardment have driven away the last
inhabitants and left roofless houses and rent roadways....
“Two days before, a quiet room, where Nelson’s Prayer stands on the
mantel-shelf, saw the ripening of the plans that sent these sturdy sons
of Britain’s four kingdoms marching all through the night. Sir John
French met the army corps commanders and unfolded to them his plans for
the offensive of the British army against the German line at Neuve
Chapelle.
“The onslaught was to be a surprise. That was its essence. The Germans
were to be battered with artillery, then rushed before they recovered
their wits. We had thirty-six clear hours before us. Thus long, it was
reckoned (with complete accuracy as afterwards appeared), must elapse
before the Germans, whose line before us had been weakened, could rush
up reinforcements. To ensure the enemy’s being pinned down right and
left of the ‘great push,’ an attack was to be delivered north and south
of the main thrust simultaneously with the assault on Neuve Chapelle.”
After describing the impatience of the British soldiers as they
awaited the signal to open the attack, and the actual beginning of the
engagement, the narrator continues:
“Then hell broke loose. With a mighty, hideous, screeching burst of
noise, hundreds of guns spoke. The men in the front trenches were
deafened by the sharp reports of the field-guns spitting out their
shells at close range to cut through the Germans’ barbed wire
entanglements. In some cases the trajectory of these vicious missiles
was so flat that they passed only a few feet above the British trenches.
“The din was continuous. An officer who had the curious idea of
putting his ear to the ground said it was as though the earth were
being smitten great blows with a Titan’s hammer. After the first few
shells had plunged screaming amid clouds of earth and dust into the
German trenches, a dense pall of smoke hung over the German lines.
The sickening fumes of lyddite blew back into the British trenches.
In some places the troops were smothered in earth and dust or even
spattered with blood from the hideous fragments of human bodies that
went hurtling through the air. At one point the upper half of a German
officer, his cap crammed on his head, was blown into one of our
trenches.
“Words will never convey any adequate idea of the horror of those five
and thirty minutes. When the hands of officers’ watches pointed to
five minutes past eight, whistles resounded along the British lines.
At the same moment the shells began to burst farther ahead, for, by
previous arrangement, the gunners, lengthening their fuses, were
‘lifting’ on to the village of Neuve Chapelle so as to leave the road
open for our infantry to rush in and finish what the guns had begun.
“The shells were now falling thick among the houses of Neuve Chapelle,
a confused mass of buildings seen reddish through the pillars of smoke
and flying earth and dust. At the sound of the whistle--alas for the
bugle, once the herald of victory, now banished from the fray!--our
men scrambled out of the trenches and hurried higgledy-piggledy into
the open. Their officers were in front. Many, wearing overcoats and
carrying rifles with fixed bayonets, closely resembled their men.
[Illustration: BRITISH INDIAN TROOPS CHARGING THE GERMAN TRENCHES AT
NEUVE CHAPELLE
Germany counted on a revolution in India, but the Indian troops proved
to be among the most loyal and brilliant fighters in the Imperial
forces.]
“It was from the center of our attacking line that the assault was
pressed home soonest. The guns had done their work well. The trenches
were blown to irrecognizable pits dotted with dead. The barbed wire
had been cut like so much twine. Starting from the Rue Tilleloy the
Lincolns and the Berkshires were off the mark first, with orders to
swerve to right and left respectively as soon as they had captured the
first line of trenches, in order to let the Royal Irish Rifles and the
Rifle Brigade through to the village. The Germans left alive in the
trenches, half demented with fright, surrounded by a welter of dead
and dying men, mostly surrendered. The Berkshires were opposed with
the utmost gallantry by two German officers who had remained alone
in a trench serving a machine gun. But the lads from Berkshire made
their way into that trench and bayoneted the Germans where they stood,
fighting to the last. The Lincolns, against desperate resistance,
eventually occupied their section of the trench and then waited for
the Irishmen and the Rifle Brigade to come and take the village ahead
of them. Meanwhile the second Thirty-ninth Garhwalis on the right had
taken their trenches with a rush and were away towards the village and
the Biez Wood.
“Things had moved so fast that by the time the troops were ready to
advance against the village the artillery had not finished its work.
So, while the Lincolns and the Berks assembled the prisoners who were
trooping out of the trenches in all directions, the infantry on whom
devolved the honor of capturing the village, waited. One saw them
standing out in the open, laughing and cracking jokes amid the terrific
din made by the huge howitzer shells screeching overhead and bursting
in the village, the rattle of machine guns all along the line, and
the popping of rifles. Over to the right where the Garhwalis had been
working with the bayonet, men were shouting hoarsely and wounded were
groaning as the stretcher-bearers, all heedless of bullets, moved
swiftly to and fro over the shell-torn ground.
[Illustration: CHARGING ON GERMAN TRENCHES IN GAS MASKS
Each British soldier carried two gas-proof helmets. At the first alarm
of gas the helmet was instantly adjusted, for breathing even a whiff
of the yellow cloud meant death or serious injury. This picture shows
the earlier type before the respirator mask was devised to keep up
with Germany’s development of gas warfare.]
“There was bloody work in the village of Neuve Chapelle. The capture
of a place at the bayonet point is generally a grim business, in which
instant, unconditional surrender is the only means by which bloodshed,
a deal of bloodshed, can be prevented. If there is individual
resistance here and there the attacking troops cannot discriminate.
They must go through, slaying as they go such as oppose them (the
Germans have a monopoly of the finishing-off of wounded men), otherwise
the enemy’s resistance would not be broken, and the assailants would be
sniped and enfiladed from hastily prepared strongholds at half a dozen
different points.
“The village was a sight that the men say they will never forget. It
looked as if an earthquake had struck it. The published photographs do
not give any idea of the indescribable mass of ruins to which our guns
reduced it. The chaos is so utter that the very line of the streets is
all but obliterated.
“It was indeed a scene of desolation into which the Rifle Brigade--the
first regiment to enter the village, I believe--raced headlong. Of the
church only the bare shell remained, the interior lost to view beneath
a gigantic mound of débris. The little churchyard was devastated,
the very dead plucked from their graves, broken coffins and ancient
bones scattered about amid the fresher dead, the slain of that
morning--gray-green forms asprawl athwart the tombs. Of all that once
fair village but two things remained intact--two great crucifixes
reared aloft, one in the churchyard, the other over against the
château. From the cross, that is the emblem of our faith, the figure of
Christ, yet intact though all pitted with bullet marks, looked down in
mute agony on the slain in the village.
“The din and confusion were indescribable. Through the thick pall
of shell smoke Germans were seen on all sides, some emerging half
dazed from cellars and dugouts, their hands above their heads, others
dodging round the shattered houses, others firing from the windows,
from behind carts, even from behind the overturned tombstones. Machine
guns were firing from the houses on the outskirts, rapping out their
nerve-racking note above the noise of the rifles.
“Just outside the village there was a scene of tremendous enthusiasm.
The Rifle Brigade, smeared with dust and blood, fell in with the Third
Gurkhas with whom they had been brigaded in India. The little brown men
were dirty but radiant. Kukri in hand they had very thoroughly gone
through some houses at the cross-roads on the Rue du Bois and silenced
a party of Germans who were making themselves a nuisance there with
some machine guns. Riflemen and Gurkhas cheered themselves hoarse.”
Unfortunately for the complete success of the brilliant attack a great
delay was caused by the failure of the artillery that was to have
cleared the barbed-wire entanglements for the Twenty-third Brigade, and
because of the unlooked for destruction of the British field telephone
system by shell and rifle fire. The check of the Twenty-third Brigade
banked other commands back of it, and the Twenty-fifth Brigade was
obliged to fight at right angles to the line of battle. The Germans
quickly rallied at these points, and took a terrific toll in British
lives. Particularly was this true at three specially strong German
positions. One called Port Arthur by the British, another at Pietre
Mill and the third was the fortified bridge over Des Layes Creek.
Because of the lack of telephone communication it was impossible to
send reinforcements to the troops that had been held up by barbed wire
and other emplacements and upon which German machine guns were pouring
a steady stream of death.
As the Twenty-third Brigade had been held up by unbroken barbed wire
northwest of Neuve Chapelle, so the Seventh Division of the Fourth
Corps was also checked in its action against the ridge of Aubers on
the left of Neuve Chapelle. Under the plan of Sir Douglas Haig the
Seventh Division was to have waited until the Eighth Division had
reached Neuve Chapelle, when it was to charge through Aubers. With
the tragic mistake that cost the Twenty-third Brigade so dearly, the
plan affecting the Seventh Division went awry. The German artillery,
observing the concentration of the Seventh Division opposite Aubers,
opened a vigorous fire upon that front. During the afternoon General
Haig ordered a charge upon the German positions. The advance was made
in short rushes in the face of a fire that seemed to blaze from an
inferno. Inch by inch the ground was drenched with British blood. At
5.30 in the afternoon the men dug themselves in under the relentless
German fire. Further advance became impossible.
The night was one of horror. Every minute the men were under heavy
bombardment. At dawn on March 11th the dauntless British infantry
rushed from the trenches in an effort to carry Aubers, but the enemy
artillery now greatly reinforced made that task an impossible one.
The trenches occupied by the British forces were consolidated and the
salient made by the push was held by the British with bulldog tenacity.
The number of men employed in the action on the British side was
forty-eight thousand. During the early surprise of the action the loss
was slight. Had the wire in front of the Twenty-third Brigade been cut
by the artillery assigned to such action, and had the telephone system
not been destroyed the success of the thrust would have been complete.
The delay of four and a half hours between the first and second
phases of the attack caused virtually all the losses sustained by the
attacking force. The total casualties were 12,811 men of the British
forces. Of these 1,751 officers and privates were taken prisoners and
10,000 officers and men were killed and wounded.
The action continued throughout Thursday, March 11th, with little
change in the general situation. The British still held Neuve Chapelle
and their intrenchments threatened Aubers. On Friday morning, March
12th, the Crown Prince of Bavaria made a desperate attempt under
cover of a heavy fog to recapture the village. The effort was made in
characteristic German dense formations. The Westphalian and Bavarian
troops came out of Biez Wood in waves of gray-green, only to be
blown to pieces by British guns already loaded and laid on the mark.
Elsewhere the British waited until the Germans were scarcely more than
fifty paces away when they opened with deadly rapid fire before
which the German waves melted like snow before steam. It was such
slaughter as the British had experienced when held up before Aubers.
Slaughter that staggered Germany.
[Illustration: AN INCIDENT OF THE WAR IN FLANDERS
A Bavarian battery caught in British gunfire while limbering up. Only
three guns escaped in the hail of bursting shells.]
So ended Neuve Chapelle, a battle in which the decision rested with the
British, a victory for which a fearful price had been paid but out of
which came a confidence that was to hearten the British nation and to
put sinews of steel into the British army for the dread days to come.
The story of Neuve Chapelle was repeated in large and in miniature many
times during the deadlock of trench warfare on the western front until
victory finally came to the Allies. During those years the western
battle-front lay like a wounded snake across France and Belgium. It
writhed and twisted, now this way, now that, as one side or the other
gambled with men and shells and airplanes for some brief advantage.
It bent back in a great bulge when von Hindenburg made his famous
retreat in the winter of 1916 after the Allies had pressed heavily
against the Teutonic front upon the ghastly field of the Somme. The
record is one of great value to military strategists, to the layman it
is only a succession of artillery barrages, of gas attacks, of aerial
reconnaissances and combats.
One day grew to be very much like another in that deadlock of pythons.
A play for position here was met by a counter-thrust in another place.
German inventions were outmatched and outnumbered by those coming from
the Allied side.
Trench warfare became the daily life of the men. They learned to
fight and live in the open. The power of human adaptation to abnormal
conditions was never better exemplified than in those weary, dreary
years on the western front.
[Illustration: SCENE OF THE BLOODY BATTLES OF THE SOMME
The tide of war swept over this terrain with terrific violence.
Peronne was taken by the British in their great offensive of 1916-17;
in the last desperate effort of the Germans in 1918 they plunged
through Peronne, advancing 35 miles, only to be hurled back with awful
losses by Marshal Foch.]
The fighting-lines consisted generally of one, two, or three lines
of shelter-trenches lying parallel, measuring twenty or twenty-five
inches in width, and varying in length according to the number they
hold; the trenches were joined together by zigzag approaches and by
a line of reinforced trenches (armed with machine guns), which were
almost completely proof against rifle, machine gun, or gun fire. The
ordinary German trenches were almost invisible from 350 yards away, a
distance which permitted a very deadly fire. It is easy to realize that
if the enemy occupied three successive lines and a line of reinforced
intrenchments, the attacking line was likely, at the lowest estimate,
to be decimated during an advance of 350 yards--by rifle fire at a
range of 350 yards’ distance, and by the extremely quick fire of the
machine guns, each of which delivered from 300 to 600 bullets a minute
with absolute precision. In the field-trench, a soldier enjoyed far
greater security than he would if merely prone behind his knapsack in
an excavation barely fifteen inches deep. He had merely to stoop down
a little to disappear below the level of the ground and be immune from
infantry fire; moreover, his machine guns fired without endangering
him. In addition, this stooping position brought the man’s knapsack on
a level with his helmet, thus forming some protection against shrapnel
and shell-splinters.
At the back of the German trenches shelters were dug for
non-commissioned officers and for the commander of the unit.
Ever since the outbreak of the war, the French troops in Lorraine,
after severe experiences, realized rapidly the advantages of the German
trenches, and began to study those they had taken gloriously. Officers,
non-commissioned officers, and men of the engineers were straightway
detached in every unit to teach the infantry how to construct similar
shelters. The education was quick, and very soon they had completed
the work necessary for the protection of all. The tools of the enemy
“casualties,” the spades and picks left behind in deserted villages,
were all gladly piled on to the French soldiers’ knapsacks, to be
carried willingly by the very men who used to grumble at being loaded
with even the smallest regulation tool. As soon as night had set in on
the occasion of a lull in the fighting, the digging of the trenches
was begun. Sometimes, in the darkness, the men of each fighting
nation--less than 500 yards away from their enemy--would hear the noise
of the workers of the foe: the sounds of picks and axes; the officers’
words of encouragement; and tacitly they would agree to an armistice
during which to dig shelters from which, in the morning, they would
dash out, to fight once more.
Commodious, indeed, were some of the trench barracks. One French
soldier wrote:
“In really up-to-date intrenchments you may find kitchens,
dining-rooms, bedrooms, and even stables. One regiment has first class
cow-sheds. One day a whimsical ‘piou-piou,’ finding a cow wandering
about in the danger zone, had the bright idea of finding shelter for it
in the trenches. The example was quickly followed, and at this moment
the --th Infantry possess an underground farm, in which fat kine, well
cared for, give such quantities of milk that regular distributions of
butter are being made--and very good butter, too.”
But this is not all. An officer writes home a tale of yet another one
of the comforts of home added to the equipment of the trenches:
“We are clean people here. Thanks to the ingenuity of ----, we are able
to take a warm bath every day from ten to twelve. We call this teasing
the ‘boches,’ for this bathing-establishment of the latest type is
fitted up--would you believe it?--in the trenches!”
Describing trenches occupied by the British in their protracted
“siege-warfare” in Northern France along and to the north of the Aisne
Valley, a British officer wrote: “In the firing-line the men sleep
and obtain shelter in the dugouts they have hollowed or ‘undercut’ in
the side of the trenches. These refuges are lightly raised above the
bottom of the trench, so as to remain dry in wet weather. The floor
of the trench is also sloped for purposes of draining. Some trenches
are provided with head-cover, and others with overhead cover, the
latter, of course, giving protection from the weather as well as from
shrapnel balls and splinters of shells.... At all points subject
to shell-fire access to the firing-line from behind is provided by
communication-trenches. These are now so good that it is possible to
cross in safety the fire-swept zone to the advanced trenches from the
billets in villages, the bivouacs in quarries, or the other places
where the headquarters of units happen to be.”
A cavalry subaltern gave the following account of life in the trenches:
“Picnicking in the open air, day and night (you never see a roof now),
is the only real method of existence. There are loads of straw to bed
down on, and everyone sleeps like a log, in turn, even with shrapnel
bursting within fifty yards.”
One English officer described the ravages of modern artillery fire, not
only upon all men, animals and buildings within its zone, but upon the
very face of nature itself: “In the trenches crouch lines of men, in
brown or gray or blue, coated with mud, unshaven, hollow-eyed with the
continual strain.”
“The fighting is now taking place over ground where both sides have for
weeks past been excavating in all directions,” said another letter
from the front, “until it has become a perfect labyrinth. A trench
runs straight for a considerable distance, then it suddenly forks in
three or four directions. One branch merely leads into a ditch full of
water, used in drier weather as a means of communication; another ends
abruptly in a cul-de-sac, probably an abandoned sap-head; the third
winds on, leading into galleries and passages further forward.
“Sometimes where new ground is broken the spade turns up the
long-buried dead, ghastly relics of former fights, and on all sides the
surface of the earth is ploughed and furrowed by fragments of shell and
bombs and distorted by mines. Seen from a distance, this apparently
confused mass of passages, crossing and re-crossing one another,
resembles an irregular gridiron.
“The life led by the infantry on both sides at close quarters is a
strange, cramped existence, with death always near, either by means
of some missile from above or some mine explosion from beneath--a
life which has one dull, monotonous background of mud and water.
Even when there is but little fighting the troops are kept hard at
work strengthening the existing defenses, constructing others, and
improvising the shelter imperative in such weather.”
CHAPTER II
ITALY DECLARES WAR ON AUSTRIA
For many years before the great war began the great powers of Europe
were divided into two great alliances, the Triple Entente, composed
of Russia, France and England, and the Triple Alliance, composed of
Germany, Austria and Italy. When the war began Italy refused to join
with Germany and Austria. Why? The answer to this question throws a
vivid light on the origin of the war.
Italy was a member of the Triple Alliance; she knew the facts, not
only what was given to the public, but the inside facts. According to
the terms of the alliance each member was bound to stand by each other
only in case of attack. Italy refused to join with Austria and Germany
because they were the aggressors. The constant assertions of the
German statesmen, and of the Kaiser himself, that war had been forced
upon them were declared untrue by their associate Italy in the very
beginning, and the verdict of Italy was the verdict of the world. Not
much was said in the beginning about Italy’s abstention from war. The
Germans, indeed, sneered a little and hinted that some day Italy would
be made to regret her course, but now that the Teuton snake is scotched
the importance of Italy’s action has been perceived and appraised at
its true value.
The Germans from the very beginning understood the real danger that
might come to the Central Powers through Italian action. Every effort
was made by the foreign office to keep her neutral. First threats were
used, later promises were held out of addition to Italian territory if
she would send her troops to Germany’s assistance. When this failed the
most strenuous efforts were made to keep Italy neutral, and a former
German premier, Prince von Bülow, was sent to Italy for this purpose.
Socialist leaders, too, were sent from Germany to urge the Italian
Socialists to insist upon neutrality.
[Illustration: ITALY’S TITANIC LABOR TO CONQUER THE ALPS
When the Italians were making their first mighty advance against
Austria descriptions came through of the almost unbelievable natural
obstacles they were conquering. Getting one of the monster guns into
position in the mountains, as shown above, over the track that had to
be built for every foot of its progress, was one such handicap.]
In July, 1914, the Italian Government was not taken by surprise. They
had observed the increase year by year of the German army and of
the German fleet. At the end of the Balkan wars they had been asked
whether they would agree to an Austrian attack upon Serbia. They had
consequently long been deliberating as to what their course should
be in case of war, and they had made up their minds that under no
circumstances would they aid Germany against England.
Quite independently of her long-standing friendship with England it
would be suicide to Italy in her geographical position to enter a war
which should permit her coast to be attacked by the English and French
navies, and her participation in the Triple Alliance always carried the
proviso that it did not bind her to fight England. This was well known
in the German foreign office, and, indeed, in France where the writers
upon war were reckoning confidently on the withdrawing of Italy from
the Triple Alliance, and planning to use the entire forces of France
against Germany.
A better understanding of the Italian position will result from a
consideration of the origin of the Triple Alliance.
After the war of 1870, Bismarck, perceiving the quick recovery of
France, considered the advisability of attacking her again, and, to use
his own words, “bleeding her white.” He found, however, that if this
were attempted France would be joined by Russia and England and he gave
up this plan. In order, however, to render France powerless he planned
an alliance which should be able to control Europe. A league between
Germany, Austria and Russia was his desire, and for some time every
opportunity was taken to develop friendship with the Czar. Russia,
however, remained cool. Her Pan-Slavonic sympathies were opposed to the
interests of Germany. Bismarck, therefore, determined, without losing
the friendship of Russia, to persuade Italy to join in the continental
combination. Italy, at the time, was the least formidable of the six
great powers, but Bismarck foresaw that she could be made good use of
in such a combination.
At that time Italy, just after the completion of Italian unity, found
herself in great perplexity. Her treatment of the Pope had brought
about the hostility of Roman Catholics throughout the world. She feared
both France and Austria, who were strong Catholic countries, and hardly
knew where to look for friends. The great Italian leader at the time
was Francesco Crispi, who, beginning as a Radical and a conspirator,
had become a constitutional statesman. Bismarck professed the greatest
friendship for Crispi, and gave Crispi to understand that he approved
of Italy’s aspirations on the Adriatic and in Tunis.
The next year, however, at the Berlin Congress, Italy’s interests
were ignored, and finally, in 1882, France seized Tunis, to the great
indignation of the Italians. It has been shown in more recent times
that the French seizure of Tunis was directly due to Bismarck’s
instigation.
The Italians having been roused to wrath, Bismarck proceeded to offer
them a place in the councils of the Triple Alliance. It was an easy
argument that such an alliance would protect them against France,
and no doubt it was promised that it would free them from the danger
of attack by Austria. England, at the time, was isolated, and Italy
continued on the best understanding with her.
The immediate result of the alliance was a growth of Italian hostility
toward France, which led, in 1889, to a tariff war on France. Meanwhile
German commercial and financial enterprises were pushed throughout
the Italian peninsula. What did Italy gain by this? Her commerce was
weakened, and Austria permitted herself every possible unfriendly act
except open war.
As time went on Germany and Austria became more and more arrogant.
Italy’s ambitions on the Balkan peninsula were absolutely ignored.
In 1908 Austria appropriated Bosnia and Herzegovina, another blow to
Italy. By this time Italy understood the situation well, and that
same year, seeing no future for herself in Europe, she swooped down on
Tripoli. In doing this she forestalled Germany herself, for Germany had
determined to seize Tripoli.
[Illustration: HOW THE POWERS DIVIDED NORTHERN AFRICA]
Both Germany and Austria were opposed to this action of Italy, but
Italy’s eyes were now open. Thirty years of political alliance had
created no sympathy among the Italians for the Germans. Moreover, it
was not entirely a question of policy. The lordly arrogance of the
Prussians caused sharp antagonism. The Italians were lovers of liberty;
the Germans pledged toward autocracy. They found greater sympathy in
England and in France.
“I am a son of liberty,” said Cavour, “to her I owe all that I am.”
That, too, is Italy’s motto. When the war broke out popular sympathy
in Italy was therefore strongly in favor of the Allies. The party in
power, the Liberals, adopted the policy of neutrality for the time
being, but thousands of Italians volunteered for the French and British
service, and the anti-German feeling grew greater as time went on.
Finally, on the 23rd of May, 1915, the Italian Government withdrew
its ambassador to Austria and declared war. A complete statement of
the negotiations between Italy and Austria-Hungary, which led to this
declaration, was delivered to the Government of the United States
by the Italian Ambassador on May 25th. This statement, of which the
following is an extract, lucidly presented the Italian position:
“The Triple Alliance was essentially defensive, and designed solely to
preserve the _status quo_, or in other words equilibrium, in Europe.
That these were its only objects and purposes is established by the
letter and spirit of the treaty, as well as by the intentions clearly
described and set forth in official acts of the ministers who created
the alliance and confirmed and renewed it in the interests of peace,
which always has inspired Italian policy. The treaty, as long as its
intents and purposes had been loyally interpreted and regarded, and
as long as it had not been used as a pretext for aggression against
others, greatly contributed to the elimination and settlement of causes
of conflict, and for many years assured to Europe the inestimable
benefits of peace. But Austria-Hungary severed the treaty by her own
hands. She rejected the response of Serbia which gave to her all the
satisfaction she could legitimately claim. She refused to listen to the
conciliatory proposals presented by Italy in conjunction with other
powers in the effort to spare Europe from a vast conflict, certain to
drench the Continent with blood and to reduce it to ruin beyond the
conception of human imagination, and finally she provoked that conflict.
“Article first of the treaty embodied the usual and necessary
obligation of such pacts--the pledge to exchange views upon any fact
and economic questions of a general nature that might arise pursuant to
its terms. None of the contracting parties had the right to undertake
without a previous agreement any step the consequence of which might
impose a duty upon the other signatories arising under the alliance, or
which would in any way whatsoever encroach upon their vital interests.
This article was violated by Austria-Hungary, when she sent to Serbia
her note dated July 23, 1914, an action taken without the previous
assent of Italy. Thus, Austria-Hungary violated beyond doubt one of the
fundamental provisions of the treaty. The obligation of Austria-Hungary
to come to a previous understanding with Italy was the greater because
her obstinate policy against Serbia gave rise to a situation which
directly tended toward the provocation of a European war.
[Illustration: _Photo by James H. Hare._
WAITING THE ORDER TO ATTACK
Italian shock troops, young picked soldiers, resting before the order
came to hurl themselves against the Austrians.]
“As far back as the beginning of July, 1914, the Italian Government,
preoccupied by the prevailing feeling in Vienna, caused to be laid
before the Austro-Hungarian Government a number of suggestions
advising moderation, and warning it of the impending danger of a
European outbreak. The course adopted by Austria-Hungary against
Serbia constituted, moreover, a direct encroachment upon the general
interests of Italy both political and economical in the Balkan
peninsula. Austria-Hungary could not for a moment imagine that Italy
could remain indifferent while Serbian independence was being trodden
upon. On a number of occasions theretofore, Italy gave Austria to
understand, in friendly but clear terms, that the independence of
Serbia was considered by Italy as essential to the Balkan equilibrium.
Austria-Hungary was further advised that Italy could never permit that
equilibrium to be disturbed through a prejudice. This warning had been
conveyed not only by her diplomats in private conversations with
responsible Austro-Hungarian officials, but was proclaimed publicly by
Italian statesmen on the floors of Parliament.
“Therefore, when Austria-Hungary ignored the usual practices and
menaced Serbia by sending her ultimatum, without in any way notifying
the Italian Government of what she proposed to do, indeed leaving
that government to learn of her action through the press, rather than
through the usual channels of diplomacy, when Austria-Hungary took this
unprecedented course she not only severed her alliance with Italy but
committed an act inimical to Italy’s interests....
“After the European war broke out Italy sought to come to an
understanding with Austria-Hungary with a view to a settlement
satisfactory to both parties which might avert existing and future
trouble. Her efforts were in vain, notwithstanding the efforts of
Germany, which for months endeavored to induce Austria-Hungary to
comply with Italy’s suggestion thereby recognizing the propriety and
legitimacy of the Italian attitude. Therefore Italy found herself
compelled by the force of events to seek other solutions.
“Inasmuch as the treaty of alliance with Austria-Hungary had ceased
virtually to exist and served only to prolong a state of continual
friction and mutual suspicion, the Italian Ambassador at Vienna was
instructed to declare to the Austro-Hungarian Government that the
Italian Government considered itself free from the ties arising out
of the treaty of the Triple Alliance in so far as Austria-Hungary was
concerned. This communication was delivered in Vienna on May 4th.
“Subsequently to this declaration, and after we had been obliged to
take steps for the protection of our interests, the Austro-Hungarian
Government submitted new concessions, which, however, were deemed
insufficient and by no means met our minimum demands. These offers
could not be considered under the circumstances. The Italian Government
taking into consideration what has been stated above, and supported by
the vote of Parliament and the solemn manifestation of the country
came to the decision that any further delay would be inadvisable.
Therefore, on May 23d, it was declared, in the name of the King, to
the Austro-Hungarian Ambassador at Rome, that, beginning the following
day, May 24th, it would consider itself in a state of war with
Austria-Hungary.”
It was a closely reasoned argument that the Italian statesmen
presented, but there was something more than reasoned argument in
Italy’s course. She had been waiting for years for the opportunity to
bring under her flag the men of her own race still held in subjection
by hated Austria. Now was the time or never. Her people had become
roused. Mobs filled the streets. Great orators, even the great poet,
D’Annunzio, proclaimed a holy war. The sinking of the Lusitania poured
oil on the flames, and the treatment of Belgium and eastern France
added to the fury.
[Illustration: _Photo by International Film Service._
TRANSPORTING WOUNDED AMID THE DIFFICULTIES OF THE ITALIAN MOUNTAIN
FRONT
The isolated mountain positions were only accessible to the bases of
operations by these aerial cable cars. This picture, taken during the
Austrian retreat, shows a wounded soldier being taken down the
mountain by this means.]
Italian statesmen, even if they had so desired, could not have
withstood the pressure. It was a crusade for Italia Irredenta, for
civilization, for humanity. The country had been flooded by
representatives of German propaganda, papers had been hired and, by all
report, money in large amounts distributed. But every German effort was
swept away in the flood of feeling. It was the people’s war.
Amid tremendous enthusiasm the Chamber of Deputies adopted by vote of
407 to 74 the bill conferring upon the government full power to make
war. All members of the Cabinet maintained absolute silence regarding
what step should follow the action of the chamber. When the chamber
reassembled on May 20th, after its long recess, there were present
482 Deputies out of 500, the absentees remaining away on account of
illness. The Deputies especially applauded were those who wore military
uniforms and who had asked permission for leave from their military
duties to be present at the sitting. All the tribunes were filled to
overflowing. No representatives of Germany, Austria or Turkey were
to be seen in the diplomatic tribune. The first envoy to arrive was
Thomas Nelson Page, the American Ambassador, who was accompanied by
his staff. M. Barrere, Sir J. Bennell Rodd, and Michel de Giers, the
French, British and Russian Ambassadors, respectively, appeared a few
minutes later and all were greeted with applause, which was shared
by the Belgian, Greek and Roumanian ministers. George B. McClellan,
one-time mayor of New York, occupied a seat in the President’s tribune.
A few minutes before the session began the poet, Gabrielle D’Annunzio,
one of the strongest advocates of war, appeared in the rear of the
public tribune which was so crowded that it seemed impossible to
squeeze in anybody else. But the moment the people saw him they lifted
him shoulder high and passed him over their heads to the first row.
The entire chamber, and all those occupying the other tribunes, rose
and applauded for five minutes, crying “Viva D’Annunzio!” Later
thousands sent him their cards and in return received his autograph
bearing the date of this eventful day. Señor Marcora, President of
the Chamber, took his place at three o’clock. All the members of the
House, and everybody in the galleries, stood up to acclaim the old
follower of Garibaldi. Premier Salandra, followed by all the members of
the Cabinet, entered shortly afterward. It was a solemn moment. Then a
delirium of cries broke out.
“Viva Salandra!” roared the Deputies, and the cheering lasted for a
long time. After the formalities of the opening, Premier Salandra,
deeply moved by the demonstration, arose and said:
“Gentlemen, I have the honor to present to you a bill to meet the
eventual expenditures of a national war.”
The announcement was greeted by further prolonged applause. The
Premier’s speech was continually interrupted by enthusiasm, and at
times he could hardly continue on account of the wild cheering. The
climax was reached when he made a reference to the army and navy. Then
the cries seemed interminable, and those on the floor of the House
and in the galleries turned to the military tribune from which the
officers answered by waving their hands and handkerchiefs.
At the end of the Premier’s speech there were deafening vivas for the
King, war and Italy. Thirty-four Socialists refused to join the cheers,
even in the cry “Viva Italia!” and they were hooted and hissed.
The action of the Italian Government created intense feeling. A
newspaper man in Vienna, describing the Austrian indignation, said:
“The exasperation and contempt which Italy’s treacherous surprise
attack and her hypocritical justification aroused here, are quite
indescribable. Neither Serbia nor Russia, despite a long and costly
war, is hated. Italy, however, or rather those Italian would-be
politicians and business men who offer violence to the majority of
peaceful Italian people, are unutterably hated.” On the other hand
German papers spoke with much more moderation and recognized that Italy
was acting in an entirely natural manner.
On the very day on which war was declared active operations were
begun. Both sides had been making elaborate preparations. Austria
had prepared herself by building strong fortifications in which were
employed the latest technical improvements in defensive warfare. Upon
the Carso and around Gorizia the Austrians had placed innumerable
batteries of powerful guns mounted on rails and protected by armor
plates. They also had a great number of medium and smaller guns. A net
of trenches had been excavated and constructed in cement all along the
edge of the hills which dominated the course of the Isonzo River.
These trenches, occupying a position nearly impregnable because so
mountainous, were defended by every modern device. They were protected
with numerous machine guns, surrounded by wire entanglements through
which ran a strong electric current. These lines of trenches followed
without interruption from the banks of the Isonzo to the summit of the
mountains which dominate it; they formed a kind of formidable staircase
which had to be conquered step by step with enormous sacrifice.
During this same period General Cadorna, then head of the Italian army,
had been bringing that army up to date, working for high efficiency and
piling up munitions.
The Army of Italy was a formidable one. Every man in Italy is liable to
military service for a period of nineteen years from the age of twenty
to thirty-nine.
At the time of the war the approximate war strength of the army was
as follows: Officers, 41,692; active army with the colors, 289,910;
reserve, 638,979; mobile militia, 299,956; territorial militia,
1,889,659; total strength, 3,159,836. The above number of total men
available included upward of 1,200,000 fully trained soldiers, with
perhaps another 800,000 partially trained men, the remaining million
being completely untrained men. This army was splendidly armed, its
officers well educated, and the men brave and disciplined.
The Italian plan of campaign apparently consisted first, in
neutralizing the Trentino by capturing or covering the defenses and
cutting the two lines of communication with Austria proper, the railway
which ran south from Insbruck, and that which ran southwest from Vienna
and joined the former at Fransensfets; and second, in a movement in
force on the eastern frontier, with Trieste captured or covered on the
right flank in the direction of the Austrian fortress at Klagenfurt and
Vienna.
The first blow was struck by Austria on the day that war was declared.
On that day bombs were dropped on Venice, and five other Adriatic ports
were shelled from air, and some from sea. The Italian armies invaded
Austria on the east with great rapidity, and by May 27th a part of the
Italian forces had moved across the Isonzo River to Monfalcone, sixteen
miles northwest of Trieste. Another force penetrated further to the
north in the Crown land of Gorizia, and Gradisca. Reports from Italy
were that encounters with the enemy had thus far been merely outpost
skirmishes, but had allowed Italy to occupy advantageous positions on
Austrian territory. By June 1st, the Italians had occupied the greater
part of the west bank of the Isonzo, with little opposition. The left
wing was beyond the Isonzo, at Caporetto, fighting among the boulders
of Monte Nero, where the Austrian artillery had strong positions.
Monfalcone was kept under constant bombardment.
A general Italian advance took place on June 7th across the Isonzo
River from Caporetto to the sea, a distance of about forty miles.
Monfalcone was taken by the Italians on June the 10th, the first
serious blow against Trieste, as Monfalcone was a railway junction, and
its electrical works operated the light and power of Trieste.
Next day the center made a great blow against Gradisca and Sagrado, but
the river line proved too strong. The only success was won that night
at Plava, north of Borrigia, which was carried by a surprise attack.
The Isonzo was in flood, and presented a serious obstacle to the onrush
of the Italians. By June 14th the Italian eastern army had pushed
forward along the gulf of Trieste toward the town of Nebrosina, nine
miles from Trieste.
Meanwhile, the Austrian armies were being constantly strengthened. The
initial weakness of the Austrian defensive was due to the fact that the
armies normally assigned to the invaded region had been sent to defend
the Austrian line in Galicia against the Russians. When Italy began
her invasion the defenses of the country were chiefly in the hands
of hastily mobilized youths below the military age of nineteen, and
men above the military age of forty-two. From now on Austrian troops
began to arrive from the Galician front, some of these representing
the finest fighting material in the Austrian ranks. The chance of an
easy victory was slipping from Italy’s hands. The Italian advance was
checked.
On the 15th of June the Italians carried an important position on Monte
Nero, climbing the rocks by night and attacking by dawn. But this
conquest did not help much. No guns of great caliber could be carried
on the mountain, and Tolmino, which had been heavily fortified, and
contained a garrison of some thirty thousand men, was entirely safe.
The following week there were repeated counter-attacks at Plava and on
Monte Nero, but the Italians held what they had won.
The position was now that Cadorna’s left wing was in a strong position,
but could not do much against Tolmino. His center was facing the great
camp of Gorizia, while his right was on the edge of the Carso, and
had advanced as far as Dueno, on the Monfalcone-Trieste Railroad. The
army was in position to make an attack upon Gorizia. On the 2d of July
an attack on a broad front was aimed directly at Gorizia. The left
was to swing around against the defenses of Gorizia to the north; the
center was directed against the Gorizia bridge head, and the right was
to swing around to the northeast through the Doberdo plateau. If it
succeeded the Trieste railway would be cut and Gorizia must fall.
[Illustration: AREA OF CADORNA’S OPERATIONS
Showing the Isonzo Valley and the town of Gorizia which fell to the
Italians August 9, 1916.]
Long and confused fighting followed. The center and the right
of the Italian army slowly advanced their line, taking over one
thousand prisoners. For days there was continuous bombardment and
counter-bombardment. The fighting on the left was terrific. In the
neighborhood of Plava the Italian forces found themselves opposed by
Hungarian troops, unaccustomed to mountain warfare, who at first fell
back. Austrian reserves came to their aid, and flung back three times
the Italian charge.
Three new Italian brigades were brought up, and King Victor Emanuel
himself came to encourage his troops. The final assault carried the
heights. On the 22d of July the Italian right captured the crest of San
Michele, which dominates the Doberdo plateau.
Meanwhile the Austrian armies were being heavily reinforced, and
General Cadorna found himself unable to make progress. Much ground
had been won but Gorizia was still unredeemed. Many important vantage
points were in Italian hands, but it was difficult to advance. The
result of the three months’ campaign was a stalemate. In the high
mountains to the north Italy’s campaign was a war of defense. To
undertake her offensive on the Isonzo it was necessary that she guard
her flanks and rear. The Tyrolese battle-ground contained three
distinct points where it was necessary to operate; the Trentino
Salient, the passes of the Dolomites, and the passes of the Carnic Alps.
Early in June Italy had won control of the ridges of the mountains
in the two latter points, but the problem in the Trentino was more
difficult. It was necessary, because of the converging valleys, to push
her front well inland. On the Carnic Alps the fighting consisted of
unimportant skirmishes. The main struggle centered around the pass of
Monte Croce Carnico.
In two weeks the Alpini had seized dominating positions to the west
of the pass, but the Austrians clung to the farther slopes. A great
deal of picturesque fighting went on, but not much progress was made.
Further west in the Dolomite region there was more fighting. On the
30th of May Cartina had been captured, and the Italians moved north
toward the Pusterthal Railway. Progress was slow, as the main routes to
the railway were difficult.
By the middle of August they were only a few miles from the railway,
but all the routes led through defiles, and the neighboring heights
were in the possession of the Austrians. To capture these heights
was a most difficult feat, which the Italians performed in the most
brilliant way; but even after they had passed these defiles success was
not yet won. Each Italian column was in its own grove, with no lateral
communication. The Austrians could mass themselves where they pleased.
As a result the Italian forces were compelled to halt.
In the Trentino campaign the Italians soon captured the passes, and
moved against Trente and Roverito. These towns were heavily fortified,
as were their surrounding heights. The campaign became a series of
small fights on mountain peaks and mountain ridges. Only small bodies
of troops could maneuver, and the raising of guns up steep precipices
was extremely difficult. The Italians slowly succeeded in gaining
ground, and established a chain of posts around the heights so that
often one would see guns and barbed wire entrenchments at a height of
more than ten thousand feet among the crevasses of the glaciers. The
Alpini performed wonderful feats of physical endurance, but the plains
of Lombardy were still safe.
CHAPTER III
GLORIOUS GALLIPOLI
If ever the true mettle and temper of a people were tried and
exemplified in the crucible of battle, that battle was the naval and
land engagement embracing Gallipoli and the Dardanelles and the people
so tested, the British race. Separated in point of time but united in
its general plan, the engagements present a picture of heroism founded
upon strategic mistakes; of such perseverance and dogged determination
against overwhelming natural and artificial odds as even the pages of
supreme British bravery cannot parallel. The immortal charge of the
Light Brigade was of a piece with Gallipoli, but it was merely a battle
fragment and its glorious record was written in blood within the scope
of a comparatively few inspired minutes. In the mine-strewn Dardanelles
and upon the sun-baked, blood-drenched rocky slopes of Gallipoli,
death always partnered every sailor and soldier. As at Balaklava,
virtually everyone knew that some one had blundered, but the army and
the navy as one man fought to the bitter end to make the best of a bad
bargain, to tear triumph out of impossibilities.
France co-operated with the British in the naval engagement, but the
greater sacrifice, the supreme charnel house of the war, the British
race reserved for itself. There, the yeomanry of England, the unsung
county regiments whose sacrifices and achievements have been neglected
in England’s generous desire to honor the men from “down under,” the
Australians and New Zealanders grouped under the imperishable title
of the Anzacs--there the Scotch, Welsh and Irish knit in one devoted
British Army with the great fighters from the self-governing colonies
waged a battle so hopeless and so gallant that the word Gallipoli shall
always remind the world how man may triumph over the fear of death; how
with nothing but defeat and disaster before them, men may go to their
deaths as unconcernedly as in other days they go to their nightly sleep.
On November 5, 1914, Great Britain declared war upon Turkey.
Hostilities, however, had preceded the declaration. On November 3d the
combined French and British squadrons had bombarded the entrance forts.
This was merely intended to draw the fire of the forts and make an
estimate of their power. From that time on a blockade was maintained,
and on the 13th of December a submarine, commanded by Lieutenant
Holbrook, entered the straits and torpedoed the Turkish warship
Messoudieh, which was guarding the mine fields.
By the end of January the blockading fleet, through constant
reinforcement, had become very strong, and had seized the Island of
Tenedos and taken possession of Lemnos, which nominally belonged to
Greece, as bases for naval operations. On the 19th of February began
the great attack upon the forts at the entrance to the Dardanelles,
which attracted the attention of the world for nearly a year.
The expedition against the Dardanelles had been considered with the
greatest care, and approved by the naval authorities. That their
judgment was correct, however, is another question. The history of
naval warfare seems to make very plain that a ship, however powerful,
is at a tremendous disadvantage when attacking forts on land. The badly
served cannon of Alexandria fell, indeed, before a British fleet, but
Gallipoli had been fortified by German engineers, and its guns were the
Krupp cannon. The British fleet found itself opposed by unsurmountable
obstacles. Looking backward it seems possible, that if at the very
start Lord Kitchener had permitted a detachment of troops to accompany
the fleet, success might have been attained, but without the army the
navy was powerless.
The Peninsula of Gallipoli is a tongue of land about fifty miles long,
varying in width from twelve to two or three miles. It is a mass of
rocky hills so steep that in many places it is a matter of difficulty
to reach their tops. On it are a few villages, but there are no
decent roads and little cultivated land. On the southern shore of the
Dardanelles conditions are nearly the same. Here, the entrance is a
flat and marshy plain, but east of this plain are hills three thousand
feet high. The high ground overhangs the sea passage on both sides,
and with the exception of narrow bits of beach at their base, presents
almost no opportunity for landing.
A strong current continually sifts down the straits from the Sea of
Marmora.
[Illustration: MAP OF THE GALLIPOLI PENINSULA
Showing the various landing places, with inset of the Sari-Bair
Region.]
Forts were placed at the entrance on both the north and south side, but
they were not heavily armed and were merely outposts. Fourteen miles
from the mouth the straits become quite narrow, making a sharp turn
directly north and then resuming their original direction. The channel
thus makes a sharp double bend. At the entrance to the strait, known as
the Narrows, were powerful fortresses, and the slopes were studded with
batteries. Along both sides of the channel the low ground was lined
with batteries. It was possible to attack the forts at fairly long
range, but there was no room to bring any large number of ships into
action at the same time.
At the time of the Gallipoli adventure there were probably nearly
half a million of men available for a defense of the straits, men
well armed and well trained under German leadership. The first step
was comparatively easy. The operations against the other forts began
at 8 A. M. on Friday, the 19th of February. The ships engaged were
the Inflexible, the Agamemnon, the Cornwallis, the Vengeance and
the Triumph from the British fleet, and the Bouvet, Suffren, and
the Gaulois from the French, all under the command of Vice-Admiral
Sackville Carden. The French squadron was under Rear-Admiral Gueprette.
A flotilla of destroyers accompanied the fleet, and airplanes were sent
up to guide the fire of the battleships.
At first the fleet was arranged in a semicircle some miles out to sea
from the entrance to the strait. It afforded an inspiring spectacle as
the ships came along and took up position, and the picture became most
awe-inspiring when the guns began to boom. The bombardment at first
was slow. Shells from the various ships screaming through the air at
the rate of about one every two minutes.
The Turkish batteries, however, were not to be drawn, and, seeing this,
the British Admiral sent one British ship and one French ship close in
shore toward the Sedd-el-Bahr forts. As they went in they sped right
under the guns of the shore batteries, which could no longer resist
the temptation to see what they could do. Puffs of white smoke dotted
the landscape on the far shore, and dull booms echoed over the placid
water. Around the ships fountains of water sprang up into the air. The
enemy had been drawn, but his marksmanship was obviously very bad. Not
a single shot directed against the ships went within a hundred yards of
either.
At sundown on account of the failing light Admiral Carden withdrew the
fleet. On account of the bad weather the attack was not renewed until
February 25th. It appeared that the outer forts had not been seriously
damaged on the 19th, and that what injury had been done had been
repaired. In an hour and a half the Cape Helles fort was silenced.
The Agamemnon was hit by a shell fired at a range of six miles, which
killed three men and wounded five. Early in the afternoon Sedd-el-Bahr
was attacked at close range, but not silenced till after 5 P. M. At
this time British trawlers began sweeping the entrance for mines, and
during the next day the mine field was cleared for a distance of four
miles up the straits.
As soon as this clearance was made the Albion, Vengeance and Majestic
steamed into the strait and attacked Fort Dardanos, a fortification
some distance below the Narrows. The Turks replied vigorously, not only
from Dardanos but from batteries scattered along the shore. Believing
that the Turks had abandoned the forts at the entrance, landing parties
of marines were sent to shore. In a short time, however, they met a
detachment of the enemy and were compelled to retreat to their boats.
The outer forts, however, were destroyed, and their destruction was
extremely encouraging to the Allies.
For a time a series of minor operations was carried on, meeting with
much success. Besides attacks on forts inside of the strait, Smyrna was
bombarded on March the 5th, and on March the 6th the Queen Elizabeth,
the Agamemnon and the Ocean bombarded the forts at Chanak on the
Asiatic side of the Narrows, from a position in the gulf of Saros on
the outer side of the Gallipoli Peninsula. To all of these attacks
the Turks replied vigorously and the attacking ships were repeatedly
struck, but with no loss of life. On the 7th of March Fort Dardanos was
silenced, and Fort Chanak ceased firing, but, as it turned out, only
temporarily.
Preparations were now being made for a serious effort against the
Narrows. The date of the attack was fixed for March 17th, weather
permitting. On the 16th Admiral Carden was stricken down with illness
and was invalided by medical authority. Admiral de Roebeck, second in
command, who had been very active in the operations, was appointed
to succeed him. Admiral de Roebeck was in cordial sympathy with the
purposes of the expedition and determined to attack on the 18th of
March. At a quarter to eleven that morning, the Queen Elizabeth,
Inflexible, Agamemnon, Lord Nelson, the Triumph and Prince George
steamed up the straits towards the Narrows, and bombarded the forts
of Chanak. At 12.22 the French squadron, consisting of the Suffren,
Gaulois, Charlemagne, and Bouvet, advanced up the Dardanelles to aid
their English associates.
Under the combined fire of the two squadrons the Turkish forts, which
at first replied strongly, were finally silenced. All of the ships,
however, were hit several times during this part of the action.
A third squadron, including the Vengeance, Irresistible, Albion,
Ocean, Swiftshore and Majestic, then advanced to relieve the six old
battleships inside the strait.
[Illustration: THE LOSS OF THE “IRRESISTIBLE”
During an attack on the Dardanelles the British battleship
“Irresistible” struck a Turkish mine and sank in a few minutes. Severe
losses of similar character demonstrated that it would be impossible
to force the strait by naval attack.]
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
and sank in less than three minutes, carrying with her most of her
crew. At 2.36 P. M. the relief battleships renewed the attack on the
forts, which again opened fire. The Turks were now sending mines down
with the current. At 4.09 the Irresistible quitted the line, listing
heavily, and at 5.50 she sank, having probably struck a drifting mine.
At 6.05 the Ocean, also having struck a mine, sank in deep water.
Practically the whole of the crews were removed safely. The Gaulois was
damaged by gunfire; the Inflexible had her forward control position hit
by a heavy shell, which killed and wounded the majority of the men and
officers at that station and set her on fire. At sunset the forts were
still in action, and during the twilight the Allied fleet slipped out
of the Dardanelles.
Meantime, an expeditionary force was being gathered. The largest
portion of this force came from Great Britain, but France also provided
a considerable number from her marines and from her Colonial army. Both
nations avoided, as far as possible, drawing upon the armies destined
for service in France.
In the English army there were divisions from Australia and New Zealand
and there were a number of Indian troops and Territorials. The whole
force was put under the command of General Sir Ian Hamilton. The
commander-in-chief on the Turkish side was the German General Liman von
Sanders, the former chief of the military mission at Constantinople.
The bulk of the expeditionary force, which numbered altogether about a
hundred and twenty thousand men, were, therefore, men whose presence in
the east did not weaken the Allied strength in the west.
The great difficulty of the new plan was that it was impossible to
surprise the enemy. The whole Gallipoli Peninsula was so small that
a landing at any point would be promptly observed, and the nature of
the ground was of such a character that progress from any point must
necessarily be slow. The problem was therefore a simple one.
The expeditionary force gathered in Egypt during the first half of
April, and about the middle of the month was being sent to Lemnos.
Germany was well aware of the English plans, and was doing all that it
could to provide a defense.
On April 23d the movement began, and about five o’clock in the
afternoon the first of the transports slowly made its way through the
maze of shipping toward the entrance of Mudros Bay.
Immediately the patent apathy, which had gradually overwhelmed
everyone, changed to the utmost enthusiasm, and as the huge liners
steamed through the fleet, their decks yellow with khaki, the crews of
the warships cheered them on to victory while the bands played them
out with an unending variety of popular airs. The soldiers in the
transports answered this last salutation from the navy with deafening
cheers, and no more inspiring spectacle has ever been seen than this
great expedition.
The whole of the fleet from the transports had been divided up into
five divisions and there were three main landings. The 29th Division
disembarked off the point of the Gallipoli Peninsula near Sedd-el-Bahr,
where its operations were covered both from the gulf of Saros and from
the Dardanelles by the fire of the covering warships. The Australian
and New Zealand contingent disembarked north of Gaba Tepe. Further
north a naval division made a demonstration.
Awaiting the Australians was a party of Turks who had been intrenched
almost on the shore and had opened up a terrific fusillade. The
Australian volunteers rose, as a man, to the occasion. They waited
neither for orders nor for the boats to reach the beach, but springing
out into the sea they went in to the shore, and forming some sort of
a rough line rushed straight on the flashes of the enemy’s rifles. In
less than a quarter of an hour the Turks were in full flight.
While the Australians and New Zealanders, or Anzacs as they are now
generally known from the initials of the words Australian-New Zealand
Army Corps, were fighting so gallantly at Gaba Tepe, the British troops
were landing at the southern end of the Gallipoli Peninsula. The
advance was slow and difficult. The Turk was pushed back, little by
little, and the ground gained organized. The details of this progress,
though full of incidents of the greatest courage and daring, need not
be recounted.
On June the 4th a general attack was made, preceded by heavy
bombardments by all guns, but after terrific fighting, in which many
prisoners were captured and great losses suffered, the net result was
an advance of about five hundred yards. As time went on the general
impression throughout the Allied countries was that the expedition had
failed. On June 30th the losses of the Turks were estimated at not
less than seventy thousand, and the British naval and military losses
up to June 1st, aggregated 38,635 officers and men. At that time the
British and French allies held but a small corner of the area to be
conquered. In all of these attacks the part played by the Australian
and New Zealand army corps was especially notable. Reinforcements were
repeatedly sent to the Allies, who worked more and more feverishly as
time went on with the hope of aiding Russia, which was then desperately
struggling against the great German advance.
On August 17th it was reported that a landing had been made at Suvla
Bay, the extreme western point of the Peninsula. From this point it
was hoped to threaten the Turkish communications with their troops at
the lower end of the Peninsula. This new enterprise, however, failed
to make any impression, and in the first part of September, vigorous
Turkish counter offensives gained territory from the Franco-British
troops. According to the English reports the Turks paid a terrible
price for their success.
It had now become evident that the expedition was a failure. The
Germans were already gloating over what they called the “failure of
British sea power,” and English publicists were attempting to show
that, though the enterprise had failed, the very presence of a strong
Allied force at Saloniki had been an enormous gain. The first official
announcement of failure was made December 20, 1916, when it was
announced that the British forces at Anzac and Suvla Bay had been
withdrawn, and that only the minor positions near Sedd-el-Bahr were
occupied. Great Britain’s loss of officers and men at the Dardanelles
up to December 11th was 112,921, according to an announcement made in
the House of Commons by the Parliamentary Under Secretary for War.
Besides these casualties the number of sick admitted to hospitals was
96,683. The decision to evacuate Gallipoli was made in the course of
November by the British Government as the result of the early expressed
opinion of General Monro, who had succeeded General Hamilton on October
28, 1915.
General Monro found himself confronted with a serious problem in the
attempt to withdraw an army of such a size from positions not more than
three hundred yards from the enemy’s trenches, and to embark on open
beaches every part of which was within effective range of Turkish guns.
Moreover, the evacuation must be done gradually, as it was impossible
to move the whole army at once with such means of transportation as
existed. The plan was to remove the munitions, supplies and heavy guns
by instalments, working only at night, carrying off at the same time a
large portion of the troops, but leaving certain picked battalions to
guard the trenches. Every endeavor had to be made for concealment. The
plan was splendidly successful, and the Turks apparently completely
deceived. On December 20th the embarkation of the last troops at
Suvla was accomplished. The operations at Anzac were conducted in the
same way. Only picked battalions were left to the end, and these were
carried safely off.
[Illustration: THE HISTORIC LANDING FROM THE “RIVER CLYDE” AT SEDDUL
BAHR
An incident of the Dardanelles Expedition. Terrible losses were
sustained by the Allied troops from the concentrated fire of the
Turkish machine guns on shore.]
The success of the Suvla and Anzac evacuation made the position at Cape
Helles more dangerous. The Turks were on the lookout, and it seemed
almost impossible that they could be again deceived. On January 7th an
attack was made by the Turks upon the trenches, which was beaten back.
That night more than half the troops had left the Peninsula. The
next day there was a heavy storm which made embarkation difficult, but
it was nevertheless accomplished. The whole evacuation was a clever and
successful bit of work.
CHAPTER IV
THE GREATEST NAVAL BATTLE IN HISTORY
Germany’s ambition for conquest at sea had been nursed and carefully
fostered for twenty years. During the decade immediately preceding the
declaration of war, it had embarked upon a policy of naval up-building
that brought it into direct conflict with England’s sea policy.
Thereafter it became a race in naval construction, England piling up a
huge debt in its determination to construct two tons of naval shipping
to every one ton built by Germany.
Notwithstanding Great Britain’s efforts in this direction, Germany’s
naval experts, with the ruthless von Tirpitz at their head, maintained
that, given a fair seaway with ideal weather conditions favoring the
low visibility tactics of the German sea command, a victory for the
Teutonic ships would follow. It was this belief that drew the ships
of the German cruiser squadron and High Seas Fleet off the coast of
Jutland and Horn Reef into the great battle that decided the supremacy
of the sea.
The 31st of May, 1916, will go down in history as the date of this
titanic conflict. The British light cruiser Galatea on patrol duty
near Horn Reef reported at 2.20 o’clock on the afternoon of that
day, that it had sighted smoke plumes denoting the advance of enemy
vessels from the direction of Helgoland Bight. Fifteen minutes later
the smoke plumes were in such number and volume that the advance of
a considerable force to the northward and eastward was indicated. It
was reasoned by Vice-Admiral Beatty, to whom the Galatea had sent the
news by radio, that the enemy in rounding Horn Reef would inevitably
be brought into action. The first ships of the enemy were sighted at
3.31 o’clock. These were the battle screen of fast light cruisers. Back
of these were five modern battle cruisers of the highest power and
armament.
The report of the battle, by an eye-witness, that was issued upon
semiofficial authority of the British Government, follows:
First Phase, 3.30 P. M. May 31st. Beatty’s battle cruisers, consisting
of the Lion, Princess Royal, Queen Mary, Tiger, Inflexible,
Indomitable, Invincible, Indefatigable, and New Zealand, were on a
southeasterly course, followed at about two miles distance by the four
battleships of the class known as Queen Elizabeths.
Enemy light cruisers were sighted and shortly afterward the head of
the German battle cruiser squadron, consisting of the new cruiser
Hindenburg, the Seydlitz, Derfflinger, Lützow, Moltke, and possibly the
Salamis.
Beatty at once began firing at a range of about 20,000 yards (twelve
miles) which shortened to 16,000 yards (nine miles) as the fleets
closed. The Germans could see the British distinctly outlined against
the light yellow sky. The Germans, covered by a haze, could be very
indistinctly made out by the British gunners.
The Queen Elizabeths opened fire on one after another as they came
within range. The German battle cruisers turned to port and drew away
to about 20,000 yards.
Second Phase, 4.40 P. M. A destroyer screen then appeared beyond the
German battle cruisers. The whole German High Seas Fleet could be seen
approaching on the northeastern horizon in three divisions, coming to
the support of their battle cruisers.
The German battle cruisers now turned right around 16 points and took
station in front of the battleships of the High Fleet.
Beatty, with his battle cruisers and supporting battleships, therefore,
had before him the whole of the German battle fleet, and Jellicoe was
still some distance away.
The opposing fleets were now moving parallel to one another in opposite
directions, and but for a master maneuver on the part of Beatty the
British advance ships would have been cut off from Jellicoe’s Grand
Fleet. In order to avoid this and at the same time prepare the way so
that Jellicoe might envelop his adversary, Beatty immediately also
turned right around 16 points, so as to bring his ships parallel to
the German battle cruisers and facing the same direction.
As soon as he was around he increased to full speed to get ahead of the
Germans and take up a tactical position in advance of their line. He
was able to do this owing to the superior speed of the British battle
cruisers.
Just before the turning point was reached, the Indefatigable sank, and
the Queen Mary and the Invincible also were lost at the turning point,
where, of course, the High Seas Fleet concentrated their fire.
A little earlier, as the German battle cruisers were turning, the Queen
Elizabeths had in similar manner concentrated their fire on the turning
point and destroyed a new German battle cruiser, believed to be the
Hindenburg.
Beatty had now got around and headed away with the loss of three ships,
racing parallel to the German battle cruisers. The Queen Elizabeths
followed behind engaging the main High Seas Fleet.
Third Phase, 5 P. M. The Queen Elizabeths now turned short to port 16
points in order to follow Beatty. The Warspite jammed her steering
gear, failed to get around, and drew the fire of six of the enemy, who
closed in upon her.
The Germans claimed her as a loss, since on paper she ought to have
been lost, but, as a matter of act, though repeatedly straddled by
shell fire with the water boiling up all around her, she was not
seriously hit, and was able to sink one of her opponents. Her captain
recovered control of the vessel, brought her around, and followed her
consorts.
In the meantime the Barham, Valiant and Malaya turned short so as to
avoid the danger spot where the Queen Mary and the Invincible had been
lost, and for an hour, until Jellicoe arrived, fought a delaying action
against the High Seas Fleet.
The Warspite joined them at about 5.15 o’clock, and all four ships were
so successfully maneuvered in order to upset the spotting corrections
of their opponents that no hits of a seriously disabling character
were suffered. They had the speed over their opponents by fully four
knots, and were able to draw away from part of the long line of German
battleships, which almost filled up the horizon.
At this time the Queen Elizabeths were steadily firing on at the
flashes of German guns at a range which varied between 12,000 and
15,000 yards, especially against those ships which were nearest them.
The Germans were enveloped in a mist and only smoke and flashes were
visible.
By 5.45 half of the High Seas Fleet had been left out of range, and the
Queen Elizabeths were steaming fast to join hands with Jellicoe.
To return to Beatty’s battle cruisers. They had succeeded in
outflanking the German battle cruisers, which were, therefore, obliged
to turn a full right angle to starboard to avoid being headed.
Heavy fighting was renewed between the opposing battle cruiser
squadrons, during which the Derfflinger was sunk; but toward 6 o’clock
the German fire slackened very considerably, showing that Beatty’s
battle cruisers and the Queen Elizabeths had inflicted serious damage
on their immediate opponents.
Fourth Phase, 6 P. M. The Grand Fleet was now in sight, and, coming up
fast in three directions, the Queen Elizabeths altered their course
four points to the starboard and drew in toward the enemy to allow
Jellicoe room to deploy into line.
The Grand Fleet was perfectly maneuvered and the very difficult
operation of deploying between the battle cruisers and the Queen
Elizabeths was perfectly timed.
Jellicoe came up, fell in behind Beatty’s cruisers, and followed by the
damaged but still serviceable Queen Elizabeths, steamed right across
the head of the German fleet.
The first of the ships to come into action were the Revenue and the
Royal Oak with their fifteen-inch guns, and the Agincourt which fired
from her seven turrets with the speed almost of a Maxim gun.
The whole British fleet had now become concentrated. They had been
perfectly maneuvered, so as to “cross the T” of the High Seas Fleet,
and, indeed, only decent light was necessary to complete their work
of destroying the Germans in detail. The light did improve for a few
minutes, and the conditions were favorable to the British fleet, which
was now in line approximately north and south across the head of the
Germans.
During the few minutes of good light Jellicoe smashed up the first
three German ships, but the mist came down, visibility suddenly failed,
and the defeated High Seas Fleet was able to draw off in ragged
divisions.
Fifth Phase, Night. The Germans were followed by the British, who still
had them enveloped between Jellicoe on the west, Beatty on the north,
and Evan-Thomas with his three Queen Elizabeths on the south. The
Warspite had been sent back to her base.
During the night the torpedo-boat destroyers heavily attacked the
German ships, and, although they lost seriously themselves, succeeded
in sinking two of the enemy.
[Illustration: HOW THE GREAT NAVAL BATTLE OF JUTLAND WAS FOUGHT
This chart must be taken only as a general indication of the courses
of the opposing German and British battle fleets.]
Co-ordination of the units of the fleet was practically impossible to
keep up, and the Germans discovered by the rays of their search-lights
the three Queen Elizabeths, not more than 4,000 yards away.
Unfortunately they were then able to escape between the battleships
and Jellicoe, since the British gunners were not able to fire, as the
destroyers were in the way.
So ended the Jutland battle, which was fought as had been planned and
very nearly a great success. It was spoiled by the unfavorable weather
conditions, especially at the critical moment, when the whole British
fleet was concentrated and engaged in crushing the head of the German
line.
Commenting on the engagement, Admiral Jellicoe said: “The battle
cruiser fleet, gallantly led by Vice-Admiral Beatty, and admirably
supported by the ships of the fifth battle squadron under Rear-Admiral
Evan-Thomas, fought the action under, at times, disadvantageous
conditions, especially in regard to light, in a manner that was in
keeping with the best traditions of the service.”
His estimate of the German losses was: two battleships of the
dreadnought type, one of the Deutschland type, which was seen to sink;
the battle cruiser Lützow, admitted by the Germans; one battle cruiser
of the dreadnought type, one battle cruiser seen to be so severely
damaged that its return was extremely doubtful; five light cruisers,
seen to sink--one of them possibly a battleship; six destroyers seen to
sink, three destroyers so damaged that it was doubtful if they would be
able to reach port, and a submarine sunk. The official German report
admitted only eleven ships sunk; the first British report placed the
total at eighteen, but Admiral Jellicoe enumerated twenty-one German
vessels as probably lost.
The Admiral paid a fine tribute to the German naval men: “The enemy,”
he said, “fought with the gallantry that was expected of him. We
particularly admired the conduct of those on board a disabled German
light cruiser which passed down the British line shortly after the
deployment under a heavy fire, which was returned by the only gun left
in action. The conduct of the officers and men was entirely beyond
praise. On all sides it is reported that the glorious traditions of the
past were most worthily upheld; whether in the heavy ships, cruisers,
light cruisers, or destroyers, the same admirable spirit prevailed. The
officers and men were cool and determined, with a cheeriness that would
have carried them through anything. The heroism of the wounded was the
admiration of all. I cannot adequately express the pride with which the
spirit of the fleet filled me.”
At daylight on the 1st of June the British battle fleet, being
southward of Horn Reef, turned northward in search of the enemy
vessels. The visibility early on the first of June was three to four
miles less than on May 31st, and the torpedo-boat destroyers, being out
of visual touch, did not rejoin the fleet until 9 A. M. The British
fleet remained in the proximity of the battlefield and near the line
of approach to the German ports until 11 A. M., in spite of the
disadvantage of long distances from fleet bases and the danger incurred
in waters adjacent to the enemy’s coasts from submarines and torpedo
craft.
The enemy, however, made no sign, and the admiral was reluctantly
compelled to the conclusion that the High Sea Fleet had returned into
port. Subsequent events proved this assumption to have been correct.
The British position must have been known to the enemy, as at 4 A. M.
the fleet engaged a Zeppelin about five minutes, during which time she
had ample opportunity to note and subsequently report the position and
course of the British fleet.
The Germans at first claimed a victory for their fleet. The test, of
course, was the outcome of the battle. The fact that the German fleet
retreated and nevermore ventured forth from beneath the protecting guns
and mine fields around Helgoland, demonstrates beyond dispute that the
British were entitled to the triumph. The German official report makes
the best presentation of the German case. It follows in full:
The High Sea Fleet, consisting of three battleship squadrons, five
battle cruisers, and a large number of small cruisers, with several
destroyer flotillas, was cruising in the Skagerrak on May 31 for the
purpose, as on earlier occasions, of offering battle to the British
fleet. The vanguard of the small cruisers at 4.30 o’clock in the
afternoon (German time) suddenly encountered ninety miles west of
Hanstholm, (a cape on the northwest coast of Jutland), a group of
eight of the newest cruisers of the Calliope class and fifteen or
twenty of the most modern destroyers.
While the German light forces and the first cruiser squadron under
Vice-Admiral Hipper were following the British, who were retiring
northwestward, the German battle cruisers sighted to the westward
Vice-Admiral Beatty’s battle squadron of six ships, including four of
the Lion type and two of the Indefatigable type. Beatty’s squadron
developed a battle line on a southeasterly course and Vice-Admiral
Hipper formed his line ahead on the same general course and
approached for a running fight. He opened fire at 5.49 o’clock in the
afternoon with heavy artillery at a range of 13,000 meters against
the superior enemy. The weather was clear and light, and the sea was
light with a northwest wind.
After about a quarter of an hour a violent explosion occurred on the
last cruiser of the Indefatigable type. It was caused by a heavy
shell, and destroyed the vessel.
About 6.20 o’clock in the afternoon five warships of the Queen
Elizabeth type came from the west and joined the British battle
cruiser line, powerfully reinforcing with their fifteen-inch guns
the five British battle cruisers remaining after 6.20 o’clock. To
equalize this superiority Vice-Admiral Hipper ordered the destroyers
to attack the enemy. The British destroyers and small cruisers
interposed, and a bitter engagement at close range ensued, in the
course of which a light cruiser participated.
The Germans lost two torpedo boats, the crews of which were rescued
by sister ships under a heavy fire. Two British destroyers were sunk
by artillery, and two others--the Nestor and Nomad--remained on the
scene in a crippled condition. These later were destroyed by the main
fleet after German torpedo boats had rescued all the survivors.
While this engagement was in progress, a mighty explosion, caused by
a big shell, broke the Queen Mary, the third ship in line, asunder,
at 6.30 o’clock.
Soon thereafter the German main battleship fleet was sighted to the
southward, steering north. The hostile fast squadrons thereupon
turned northward, closing the first part of the fight, which lasted
about an hour.
The British retired at high speed before the German fleet, which
followed closely. The German battle cruisers continued the artillery
combat with increasing intensity, particularly with the division of
the vessels of the Queen Elizabeth type, and in this the leading
German battleship division participated intermittently. The hostile
ships showed a desire to run in a flat curve ahead of the point of
our line and to cross it.
At 7.45 o’clock in the evening British small cruisers and destroyers
launched an attack against our battle cruisers, who avoided the
torpedoes by manoeuvring, while the British battle cruisers retired
from the engagement, in which they did not participate further as
far as can be established. Shortly thereafter a German reconnoitring
group, which was parrying the destroyer attack, received an attack
from the northeast. The cruiser Wiesbaden was soon put out of action
in this attack. The German torpedo flotillas immediately attacked the
heavy ships.
Appearing shadow-like from the haze bank to the northeast was made
out a long line of at least twenty-five battleships, which at first
sought a junction with the British battle cruisers and those of the
Queen Elizabeth type on a northwesterly to westerly course, and then
turned on an easterly to southeasterly course.
With the advent of the British main fleet, whose centre consisted of
three squadrons of eight battleships each, with a fast division of
three battle cruisers of the Invincible type on the northern end, and
three of the newest vessels of the Royal Sovereign class, armed with
fifteen-inch guns, at the southern end, there began about 8 o’clock
in the evening the third section of the engagement, embracing the
combat between the main fleets.
Vice-Admiral Scheer determined to attack the British main fleet,
which he now recognized was completely assembled and about doubly
superior. The German battleship squadron, headed by battle cruisers,
steered first toward the extensive haze bank to the northeast,
where the crippled cruiser Wiesbaden was still receiving a heavy
fire. Around the Wiesbaden stubborn individual fights under quickly
changing conditions now occurred.
The light enemy forces, supported by an armored cruiser squadron of
five ships of the Minotaur, Achilles, and Duke of Edinburgh classes
coming from the northeast, were encountered and apparently surprised
on account of the decreasing visibility of our battle cruisers and
leading battleship division. The squadron came under a violent and
heavy fire, by which the small cruisers Defense and Black Prince were
sunk. The cruiser Warrior regained its own line a wreck and later
sank. Another small cruiser was damaged severely.
Two destroyers already had fallen victims to the attack of German
torpedo boats against the leading British battleships and a small
cruiser and two destroyers were damaged. The German battle cruisers
and leading battleship division had in these engagements come under
increased fire of the enemy’s battleship squadron, which, shortly
after 8 o’clock, could be made out in the haze turning to the
northeastward and finally to the east. Germans observed, amid the
artillery combat and shelling of great intensity, signs of the effect
of good shooting between 8.20 and 8.30 o’clock particularly. Several
officers on German ships observed that a battleship of the Queen
Elizabeth class blew up under conditions similar to that of the Queen
Mary. The Invincible sank after being hit severely. A ship of the
Iron Duke class had earlier received a torpedo hit, and one of the
Queen Elizabeth class was running around in a circle, its steering
apparatus apparently having been hit.
The Lützow was hit by at least fifteen heavy shells and was unable
to maintain its place in line. Vice-Admiral Hipper, therefore,
transshipped to the Moltke on a torpedo boat and under a heavy fire.
The Derfflinger meantime took the lead temporarily. Parts of the
German torpedo flotilla attacked the enemy’s main fleet and heard
detonations. In the action the Germans lost a torpedo boat. An enemy
destroyer was seen in a sinking condition, having been hit by a
torpedo.
After the first violent onslaught into the mass of the superior
enemy the opponents lost sight of each other in the smoke by powder
clouds. After a short cessation in the artillery combat Vice-Admiral
Scheer ordered a new attack by all the available forces.
German battle cruisers, which with several light cruisers and torpedo
boats again headed the line, encountered the enemy soon after 9
o’clock and renewed the heavy fire, which was answered by them from
the mist, and then by the leading division of the main fleet. Armored
cruisers now flung themselves in a reckless onset at extreme speed
against the enemy line in order to cover the attack of the torpedo
boats. They approached the enemy line, although covered with shot
from 6,000 meters distances. Several German torpedo flotillas dashed
forward to attack, delivered torpedoes, and returned, despite the
most severe counterfire, with the loss of only one boat. The bitter
artillery fire was again interrupted, after this second violent
onslaught, by the smoke from guns and funnels.
Several torpedo flotillas, which were ordered to attack somewhat
later, found, after penetrating the smoke cloud, that the enemy
fleet was no longer before them; nor, when the fleet commander again
brought the German squadrons upon the southerly and southwesterly
course where the enemy was last seen, could our opponents be found.
Only once more--shortly before 10.30 o’clock--did the battle
flare up. For a short time in the late twilight German battle
cruisers sighted four enemy capital ships to seaward and opened
fire immediately. As the two German battleship squadrons attacked,
the enemy turned and vanished in the darkness. Older German light
cruisers of the fourth reconnaissance group also were engaged with
the older enemy armored cruisers in a short fight.
This ended the day battle.
The German divisions, which, after losing sight of the enemy, began
a night cruise in a southerly direction, were attacked until dawn by
enemy light force in rapid succession.
The attacks were favored by the general strategic situation and the
particularly dark night.
The cruiser Frauenlob was injured severely during the engagement of
the fourth reconnaissance group with a superior cruiser force, and
was lost from sight.
One armored cruiser of the Cressy class suddenly appeared close to
a German battleship and was shot into fire after forty seconds, and
sank in four minutes.
The Florent (?) Destroyer 60, (the names were hard to decipher in
the darkness and therefore were uncertainly established) and four
destroyers--3, 78, 06, and 27--were destroyed by our fire. One
destroyer was cut in two by the ram of a German battleship. Seven
destroyers, including the G-30, were hit and severely damaged. These,
including the Tipperary and Turbulent, which after saving survivors,
were left behind in a sinking condition, drifted past our line, some
of them burning at the bow or stern.
The tracks of countless torpedoes were sighted by the German ships,
but only the Pommern (a battleship) fell an immediate victim to
a torpedo. The cruiser Rostock was hit, but remained afloat.
The cruiser Elbing was damaged by a German battleship during an
unavoidable maneuver. After vain endeavors to keep the ship afloat
the Elbing was blown up, but only after her crew had embarked on
torpedo boats. A post torpedo boat was struck by a mine laid by the
enemy.
ADMITTED LOSSES--BRITISH
NAME TONNAGE PERSONNEL
Queen Mary (battle cruiser) 27,000 1,000
Indefatigable (battle cruiser) 18,750 800
Invincible (battle cruiser) 17,250 750
Defense (armored cruiser) 14,600 755
Warrior (armored cruiser) 13,550 704
Black Prince (armored cruiser) 13,550 704
Tipperary (destroyer) 1,850 150
Turbulent (destroyer) 1,850 150
Shark (destroyer) 950 100
Sparrowhawk (destroyer) 950 100
Ardent (destroyer) 950 100
Fortune (destroyer) 950 100
Nomad (destroyer) 950 100
Nestor (destroyer) 950 100
BRITISH TOTALS
Battle cruisers 63,000 2,550
Armored cruisers 41,700 2,163
Destroyers 9,400 900
-------- ------
Fourteen ships 114,100 5,613
ADMITTED LOSSES--GERMAN[A]
NAME TONNAGE PERSONNEL
Lützow (battle cruiser) 26,600 1,200
Pommern (battleship) 13,200 729
Wiesbaden (cruiser) 5,600 450
Frauenlob (cruiser) 2,715 264
Elbing (cruiser) 5,000 450
Rostock (cruiser) 4,900 373
Five destroyers 5,000 500
GERMAN TOTALS
Battle cruisers 39,800 1,929
Cruisers 18,215 1,537
Destroyers 5,000 500
------ ------
Eleven ships 63,015 3,966
[A] These figures are given for what they are worth, but no one
outside of Germany doubted but that their losses were very much
greater than admitted in the official report.
[Illustration: ADMIRAL WILLIAM S. SIMS
Commander-in-Chief of United States Naval Forces in European waters.]
[Illustration: ADMIRAL SIR DAVID BEATTY
Commander-in-Chief of the British Grand Fleet.]
TOTAL LOSSES OF MEN
BRITISH
Dead or missing 6,104
Wounded 513
------
Total 6,617
GERMAN
Dead or missing 2,414
Wounded 449
------
Total 2,863
LOSS IN MONEY VALUE (Rough Estimate)
British $115,000,000
German 63,000,000
------------
Total $178,000,000
While the world was still puzzling over the conflicting reports of
the Battle of Jutland came the shocking news that Field Marshal Lord
Horatio Herbert Kitchener, the British Secretary of State for War, had
perished off the West Orkney Islands on June 5th, through the sinking
of the British cruiser Hampshire. The entire crew was also lost, except
twelve men, a warrant officer and eleven seamen, who escaped on a raft.
Earl Kitchener was on his way to Russia, at the request of the Russian
Government, for a consultation regarding munitions to be furnished the
Russian army. He was intending to go to Archangel and visit Petrograd,
and expected to be back in London by June 20th. He was accompanied
by Hugh James O’Beirne, former Councillor of the British Embassy at
Petrograd, O. A. Fitz-Gerald, his military secretary, Brigadier-General
Ellarshaw, and Sir Frederick Donaldson, all of whom were lost.
The cause of the sinking of the Hampshire is not known. It is supposed
that it struck a mine, but the tragedy very naturally brought into
existence many stories which ascribe his death to more direct German
action.
[Illustration: WHERE EARL KITCHENER MET HIS DEATH]
Seaman Rogerson, one of the survivors, describes Lord Kitchener’s last
moments as follows: “Of those who left the ship, and have survived, I
was the one who saw Lord Kitchener last. He went down with the ship,
he did not leave her. I saw Captain Seville help his boat’s crew to
clear away his galley. At the same time the Captain was calling to
Lord Kitchener to come to the boat, but owing to the noise made by the
wind and sea, Lord Kitchener could not hear him, I think. When the
explosion occurred, Kitchener walked calmly from the Captain’s cabin,
went up the ladder and on to the quarter deck. There I saw him walking
quite collectedly, talking to two of the officers. All three were
wearing khaki and had no overcoats on. Kitchener calmly watched the
preparations for abandoning the ship, which were going on in a steady
and orderly way. The crew just went to their stations, obeyed orders,
and did their best to get out the boats. But it was impossible. Owing
to the rough weather, no boats could be lowered. Those that were got
out were smashed up at once. No boats left the ship. What people on
the shore thought to be boats leaving, were rafts. Men did get into
the boats as these lay in their cradles, thinking that as the ship
went under the boats would float, but the ship sank by the head, and
when she went she turned a somersault forward, carrying down with her
all the boats and those in them. I do not think Kitchener got into a
boat. When I sprang to a raft he was still on the starboard side of
the quarter deck, talking with the officers. From the little time that
elapsed between my leaving the ship and her sinking I feel certain
Kitchener went down with her, and was on deck at the time she sank.”
The British Admiralty, after investigation, gave out a statement
declaring that the vessel struck a mine, and sank about fifteen minutes
after.
The news of Lord Kitchener’s death shocked the whole Allied world. He
was the most important personality in the British Empire. He had built
up the British army, and his name was one to conjure by. His efficiency
was a proverb, and he had an air of mystery about him that made him
a sort of a popular hero. He was great before the World War began;
he was the conqueror of the Soudan; the winner of the South African
campaign; the reorganizer of Egypt. In his work as Secretary of War he
had met with some criticism, but he possessed, more than any other man,
the public confidence. At the beginning of the war he was appointed
Secretary of War at the demand of an overwhelming public opinion. He
realized more than any one else what such a war would mean. When others
thought of it as an adventure to be soon concluded, he recognized that
there would be years of bitter conflict. He asked England to give up
its cherished tradition of a volunteer army; to go through arduous
military training; he saw the danger to the Empire, and he alone,
perhaps, had the authority to inspire his countrymen with the will to
sacrifice. But his work was done. The great British army was in the
field.
CHAPTER V
THE RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN
In the very beginning Russia had marked out one point for attack. This
was the city of Cracow. No doubt the Grand Duke Nicholas had not hoped
to be able to invest that city early. The slowness of the mobilization
of the Russian army made a certain prudence advisable at the beginning
of the campaign. But the great success of his armies in Lemberg
encouraged more daring aims. He had invested Przemysl, and Galicia lay
before him. Accordingly, he set his face toward Cracow.
Cracow, from a military point of view, is the gate both of Vienna
and Berlin. A hundred miles west of it is the famous gap of Moravia,
between the Carpathian and the Bohemian mountains, which leads down
into Austria. Through this gap runs the great railway connecting
Silesia with Vienna, and the Grand Duke knew that if he could capture
Cracow he would have an easy road before him to the Austrian capital.
Cracow also is the key of Germany.
Seventy miles from the city lies the Oder River. An army might
enter Germany by this gate and turn the line of Germany’s frontier
fortresses. The Oder had been well fortified, but an invader coming
from Cracow might move upon the western bank. The Russian plan no doubt
was to threaten both enemy capitals. Moreover, an advance of Russia
from Cracow would take its armies into Silesia, full of coal and iron
mines, and one of the greatest manufacturing districts in the German
Empire. This would be a real success, and all Germany would feel the
blow.
Another reason for the Russian advance in Galicia was her desire to
control the Galician oil wells. To Germany petrol had become one of
the foremost munitions of war. Since she could not obtain it from
either America or Russia she must get it from Austria, and the Austrian
oil fields were all in Galicia. This, in itself, would explain the
Galician campaign. Moreover, through the Carpathian Mountains it was
possible to make frequent raids into Hungary, and Russia understood
well the feeling of Hungary toward her German allies. She hoped that
when Hungary perceived her regiments sacrificed and her plains overrun
by Russian troops, she would regret that she had allowed herself to
be sacrificed to Prussian ambition. The Russians, therefore, suddenly
moved toward Cracow.
Then von Hindenburg came to the rescue. The supreme command of
the Austrian forces was given to him. The defenses of Cracow were
strengthened under the direction of the Germans, and a German army
advanced from the Posen frontier toward the northern bank of the
Vistula. The advance threatened the Russian right, and, accordingly,
within ten days’ march of Cracow, the Russians stopped. The German
offensive in Poland had begun. The news of the German advance came
about the fifth of October. Von Hindenburg, who had been fighting in
East Prussia, had at last perceived that nothing could be gained
there. The vulnerable part of Russia was the city of Warsaw. This was
the capital of Poland, with a population of about three-quarters of
a million. If he could take Warsaw, he would not only have pleasant
quarters for the winter but Russia would be so badly injured that no
further offensive from her need be anticipated for a long period. Von
Hindenburg had with him a large army. In his center he probably had
three-quarters of a million men, and on his right the Austrian army in
Cracow, which must have reached a million.
Counting the troops operating in East Prussia and along the
Carpathians, and the garrison of Przemysl, the Teuton army must have
had two and a half million soldiers. Russia, on the other hand, though
her mobilization was still continuing, at this time could not have
had as many as two million men in the whole nine hundred miles of her
battle-front.
The fight for Warsaw began Friday, October 16th, and continued for
three days, von Hindenburg being personally in command. On Monday
the Germans found themselves in trouble. A Russian attack on their
left wing had come with crushing force. Von Hindenburg found his left
wing thrown back, and the whole German movement thrown into disorder.
Meanwhile an attempt to cross the Vistula at Josefov had also been
a failure. The Russians allowed the Germans to pass with slight
resistance, waited until they arrived at the village Kazimirjev, a
district of low hills and swampy flats, and then suddenly overwhelmed
them.
Next day the Russians crossed the river themselves, and advanced along
the whole line, driving the enemy before them, through great woods of
spruce out into the plains on the west. This forest region was well
known to the Russian guides, and the Germans suffered much as the
Russians had suffered in East Prussia. Ruzsky, the Russian commander,
pursued persistently; the Germans retreating first to Kielce, whence
they were driven, on the 3d of November, with great losses, and then
being broken into two pieces, with the north retiring westward and the
south wing southwest toward Cracow.
Rennenkampf’s attack on the German left wing was equally successful,
and von Hindenburg was driven into full retreat. The only success
won during this campaign was that in the far south where Austrian
troops were sweeping eastward toward the San. This army drove back
the Russians under Ivanov, reoccupied Jaroslav and relieved Przemysl.
This was a welcome relief to Przemysl, for the garrison was nearly
starved, and it was well for the garrison that the relief came, for in
a few days the Russians returned, recaptured Jaroslav and reinvested
Przemysl. As von Hindenburg retreated he left complete destruction
in his wake, roads, bridges, railroad tracks, water towers, railway
stations, all were destroyed; even telegraph posts, broken or sawn
through, and insulators broken to bits.
It was now the turn of Russia to make a premature advance, and to pay
for it. Doubtless the Grand Duke Nicholas, whose strategy up to this
point had been so admirable, knew very well the danger of a new advance
in Galicia, but he realized the immense political as well as military
advantages which were to be obtained by the capture of Cracow. He
therefore attempted to move an army through Poland as well as through
Galicia, hoping that the army in Poland would keep von Hindenburg busy,
while the Galician army would deal with Cracow.
The advance was slow on account of the damaged Polish roads. It was
preceded by a cavalry screen which moved with more speed. On November
10th, the vanguard crossed the Posen frontier and cut the railway
on the Cracow-Posen line. This reconnaissance convinced the Russian
general that the German army did not propose to make a general stand,
and it seemed to him that if he struck strongly with his center along
the Warta, he might destroy the left flank of the German southern army,
while his own left flank was assaulting Cracow. He believed that even
if his attack upon the Warta failed, the Russian center could at any
rate prevent the enemy from interfering with the attack further south
upon Cracow.
[Illustration: GERMAN FRIGHTFULNESS FROM THE AIR
A gas attack on the eastern front photographed by a Russian airman.]
The movement therefore began, and by November 12th, the Russian cavalry
had taken Miechow on the German frontier, about twenty miles north of
Cracow. Its main forces were still eighty miles to the east. About this
time Grand Duke Nicholas perceived that von Hindenburg was preparing
a counter stroke. He had retreated north, and then, by means of his
railways, was gathering a large army at Thorn. Large reinforcements
were sent him, some from the western front, giving him a total of
about eight hundred thousand men. In his retreat from Warsaw, while
he had destroyed all roads and railways in the south and west, he had
carefully preserved those of the north already planning to use them in
another movement. He now was beginning an advance, once again, against
Warsaw. On account of the roads he perceived that it would be difficult
for the Russians to obtain reinforcements. Von Hindenburg had with him
as Chief of Staff General von Ludendorff, one of the cleverest staff
officers in the German army, and General von Mackensen, a commander of
almost equal repute.
The Russian army in the north had been pretty well scattered. The
Russian forces were now holding a front of nearly a thousand miles,
with about two million men. The Russian right center, which now
protected Warsaw from the new attack could hardly number more than two
hundred thousand men. Von Hindenburg’s aim was Warsaw only, and did
not affect directly the Russian advance to Cracow, which was still
going on. Indeed, by the end of the first week in December, General
Dmitrieff had cavalry in the suburbs of Cracow, and his main force was
on the line of the River Rava about twelve miles away. Cracow had been
strongly fortified, and much entrenching had been done in a wide circle
around the city.
The German plan was to use its field army in Cracow’s defense rather
than a garrison. Two separate forces were used; one moving southwest
of Cracow along the Carpathian hills, struck directly at Ivanov’s
left; the other, operating from Hungary, threatened the Russian rear.
These two divisions struck at the same time and the Russians found it
necessary to fight rear actions as they moved forward. They were doing
this with reasonable success and working their way toward Cracow, when,
on the 12th of December, the Austrian forces working from Hungary
carried the Dukla Pass. This meant that the Austrians would be able to
pour troops down into the rear of the Russian advance, and the Russian
army would be cut off. Dmitrieff, therefore, fell rapidly back, until
the opening of the Dukla Pass was in front of his line, and the Russian
army was once more safe.
Meanwhile the renewed siege of Przemysl was going on with great
vigor, and attracting the general attention of the Allied world. The
Austrians attempted to follow up their successes at the Dukla Pass by
attempting to seize the Lupkow Pass, and the Uzzok Pass, still further
to the east, but the Russians were tired of retreating. New troops had
arrived, and about the 20th of December a new advance was begun.
With the right of the army swinging up along the river Nida, northeast
of Cracow, the Russian left attacked the Dukla Pass in great force,
driving Austrians back and capturing over ten thousand men. On
Christmas Day all three great western passes were in Russian hands. The
Austrian fighting, during this period, was the best they had so far
shown, the brunt of it being upon the Hungarian troops, who, at this
time, were saving Germany.
Meantime von Hindenburg was pursuing his movement in the direction of
Warsaw. The Russian generals found it difficult to obtain information.
Each day came the chronicle of contests, some victories, some defeats,
and it soon appeared that a strong force was crushing in the Russian
outposts from the direction of Thorn and moving toward Warsaw. Ruzsky
found himself faced by a superior German force, and was compelled to
retreat. The Russian aim was to fall back behind the river Bzura, which
lies between the Thorn and Warsaw. Bzura is a strong line of defense,
with many fords but no bridges. The Russian right wing passed by the
city of Lowicz, moved southwest to Strykov and then on past Lodz. West
of Lowicz is a great belt of marshes impossible for the movement of
armies.
The first German objective was the city of Lodz. Von Hindenburg knew
that he must move quickly before the Russians should get up reserves.
His campaign of destruction had made it impossible for aid to be sent
to the Russian armies from Ivanov, far in the south, but every moment
counted. His right pushed forward and won the western crossings of the
marshes. His extreme left moved towards Plock, but the main effort was
against Piontek, where there is a famous causeway engineered for heavy
transport through the marshes.
At first the Russians repelled the attack on the causeway, but on
November 19th the Russians broke and were compelled to fall back.
Over the causeway, then, the German troops were rushed in great
numbers, splitting the Russian army into two parts; one on the south
surrounding Lodz, and the other running east of Brezin on to the
Vistula. The Russian army around Lodz was assailed on the front flank
and rear. It looked like an overwhelming defeat for the Russian army.
At the very last moment possible, Russian reinforcements appeared--a
body of Siberians from the direction of Warsaw. They were thrown at
once into the battle and succeeded in re-establishing the Russian line.
This left about ninety thousand Germans almost entirely surrounded, as
if they were in a huge sack. Ruzsky tried his best to close the mouth
of the sack, but he was unsuccessful. The fighting was terrific, but by
the 26th the Germans in the sack had escaped.
The Germans were continually receiving reinforcements and still largely
outnumbered the Russians. Von Hindenburg therefore determined on a new
assault. The German left wing was now far in front of the Russian city
of Lodz, one of the most important of the Polish cities. The population
was about half a million. Such a place was a constant danger, for it
was the foundation of a Russian salient. When the German movement
began the Russian general, perceiving how difficult it would have
been to hold the city, deliberately withdrew, and on December 6th the
Germans entered Lodz without opposition.
The retreat relieved the Russians of a great embarrassment. Its capture
was considered in Germany as a great German victory, and at this time
von Hindenburg seems to have felt that he had control of the situation.
His movement, to be sure, had not interfered with the Russian advance
on Cracow, but Warsaw must have seemed to him almost in his power.
He therefore concentrated his forces for a blow at Warsaw. His first
new movement was directed at the Russian right wing, which was then
north of the Bzura River and east of Lowicz. He also directed the
German forces in East Prussia to advance and attempted to cut the main
railway line between Warsaw and Petrograd. If this attempt had been
successful it would have been a highly serious matter for the Russians.
The Russians, however, defeated it, and drove the enemy back to the
East Prussian border. The movement against the Russian right wing
was more successful, and the Russians fell back slowly. This was not
because they were defeated in battle, but because the difficult weather
interfered with communications. There had been a thaw, and the whole
country was waterlogged. The Grand Duke was willing that the Germans
should fight in the mud.
This slow retreat continued from the 7th of December to Christmas Eve,
and involved the surrender of a number of Polish towns, but it left the
Russians in a strong position. They were able to entrench themselves so
that every attack of the enemy was broken. The Germans tried hard. Von
Hindenburg would have liked to enter Warsaw on Christmas. The citizens
heard day and night the sound of the cannon, but they were entirely
safe.
The German attack was a failure. On the whole, the Grand Duke Nicholas
had shown better strategy than the best of the German generals.
Outnumbered from the very start, his tactics had been admirable. Twice
he had saved Warsaw, and he was still threatening Cracow. The Russian
armies were fighting with courage and efficiency, and were continually
growing in numbers as the days went by.
During the first weeks of 1915 while there were a number of attacks and
counter-attacks both armies had come to the trench warfare, so familiar
in France. The Germans in particular had constructed a most elaborate
trench system, with underground rooms containing many of the ordinary
comforts of life. Toward the end of the month the Russians began to
move in East Prussia in the north and also far south in the Bukovina.
The object of these movements was probably to prevent von Hindenburg
from releasing forces on the west. Russia was still terribly weak in
equipment and was not ready for a serious advance. An attack on sacred
East Prussia would stir up the Germans, while Hungary would be likewise
disturbed by the advance on Bukovina. Von Hindenburg, however, was
still full of the idea of capturing Warsaw. He had failed twice but
the old Field Marshal was stubborn and moreover he knew well what the
capture of Warsaw would mean to Russia, and so he tried again.
The Russian front now followed the west bank of the Bzura for a few
miles, changed to the eastern bank following the river until it met
with the Rawka, from there a line of trenches passed south and east
of Balinov and from there to Skiernievice. Von Mackensen concentrated
a considerable army at Balinov and had on the 1st of February about
a hundred and forty thousand men there. That night, with the usual
artillery preparation, he moved from Balinov against the Russian
position at the Borzymov Crest. The Germans lost heavily but drove
forward into the enemy’s line, and by the 3d of February had almost
made a breach in it. This point, however, could be readily reinforced
and troops were hurried there from Warsaw in such force that on
February 4th the German advance was checked. Von Mackensen had lost
heavily, and by the time it was checked he had become so weak that his
forces yielded quickly to the counter-attack and were flung back.
This was the last frontal attack upon Warsaw. Von Hindenburg then
determined to attack Warsaw by indirection. Austria was instructed to
move forward along the whole Carpathian front, while he himself, with
strong forces, undertook to move from East Prussia behind the Polish
capital, and cut the communications between Warsaw and Petrograd. If
Austria could succeed, Przemysl might be relieved, Lemberg recaptured,
and Russia forced back so far on the south that Warsaw would have
to be abandoned. On the other hand if the East Prussia effort were
successful, the Polish capital would certainly fall. These plans, if
they had developed successfully, would have crippled the power of
Russia for at least six months. Meantime, troops could be sent to the
west front, and perhaps enable Germany to overwhelm France. By this
time almost all of Poland west of the Vistula was in the power of the
Germans, while three-fourths of Galicia was controlled by Russia.
Von Hindenburg now returned to his old battle-ground near the Masurian
Lakes. The Russian forces, which, at the end of January, had made a
forward movement in East Prussia, had been quite successful. Their
right was close upon Tilsit, and their left rested upon the town of
Johannisburg. Further south was the Russian army of the Narev. Von
Hindenburg determined to surprise the invaders, and he gathered an army
of about three hundred thousand men to face the Russian forces which
did not number more than a hundred and twenty thousand, and which were
under the command of General Baron Sievers. The Russian army soon found
itself in a desperate position. A series of bitter fights ensued at
some of which the Kaiser himself was present. The Russians were driven
steadily back for a week, but the German stories of their tremendous
losses are obviously unfounded. They retreated steadily until February
20th, fighting courageously, and by that date the Germans began to find
themselves exhausted.
Russian reinforcements came up, and a counter-attack was begun. The
German aim had evidently been to reach Grodno and cut the main line
from Warsaw to Petrograd, which passes through that city. They had now
reached Suwalki, a little north of Grodno, but were unable to advance
further, though the Warsaw-Petrograd railway was barely ten miles away.
The southern portion of von Hindenburg’s army was moving against the
railway further west, in the direction of Ossowietz. But Ossowietz put
up a determined resistance, and the attack was unsuccessful. By the
beginning of March, von Hindenburg ordered a gradual retreat to the
East Prussian frontier.
While this movement to drive the Russians from East Prussia was under
way, von Hindenburg had also launched an attack against the Russian
army on the Narev. If he could force the lower Narev from that point,
too, he could cut the railroad running east from the Polish capital. He
had hoped that the attacks just described further east would distract
the Russian attention so that he would find the Narev ill guarded.
The advance began on February 22d, and after numerous battles captured
Przasnysz, and found itself with only one division to oppose its
progress to the railroad. On the 23d this force was attacked by the
German right, but resisted with the utmost courage. It held out for
more than thirty-six hours, until, on the evening of the 24th, Russian
reinforcements began to come up, and drove the invaders north through
Przasnysz in retreat.
It was an extraordinary fight. The Russians were unable to supply all
their troops with munitions and arms. At Przasnysz men fought without
rifles, armed only with a bayonet. All they could do was to charge
with cold steel, and they did it so desperately that, though they were
outnumbered, they drove the Germans before them. By all the laws of war
the Russians should have been defeated with ease. As it was, the German
attempt to capture Warsaw by a flank movement was defeated. While the
struggle was going on in the north, the Austrian armies in Galicia
were also moving. Russia was still holding the three great passes in
the Carpathian Mountains, but had not been able to begin an offensive
in Hungary.
The Austrians had been largely reinforced by German troops, and were
moving forward to the relief of Przemysl, and also to drive Brussilov
from the Galician mountains. Brussilov’s movements had been partly
military and partly political. From the passes in those mountains
Hungary could be attacked, and unless he could be driven away there was
no security for the Hungarian cornfields, to which Germany was looking
for food supplies. Moreover, from the beginning of the Russian movement
in Galicia, northern Bukovina had been in Russian hands. Bukovina was
not only a great supply ground for petrol and grain, but she adjoined
Roumania which, while still neutral, had a strong sympathy with the
Allies, especially Italy. The presence of a Russian army on her border
might encourage her to join the Allies. Austria naturally desired to
free Roumania from this pressure. The leading Austrian statesmen, at
this time, were especially interested in Hungary. The Austrian Minister
of Foreign Affairs was Baron Stephen Burian, the Hungarian diplomatist,
belonging to the party of the Hungarian Premier, Count Tisza. It
was his own country that was threatened. The prizes of a victorious
campaign were therefore great.
The campaign began in January amid the deepest snow, and continued
during February in the midst of blizzards. The Austrians were divided
into three separate armies. The first was charged with the relief of
Przemysl. The second advanced in the direction of Lemberg, and the
third moved upon Bukovina. The first made very little progress, after a
number of lively battles. It was held pretty safely by Brussilov. The
second army was checked by Dmitrieff. Further east, however, the army
of the Bukovina crossed the Carpathian range, and made considerable
advances. This campaign was fought out in a great number of battles,
the most serious of which, perhaps, was the battle of Koziowa. At that
point Brussilov’s center withstood for several days the Austrian second
army which was commanded by the German General von Linsingen. The
Russian success here saved Lemberg, prevented the relief of Przemysl
and gave time to send reinforcements into Bukovina.
The Austrian third army, moving on Bukovina, had the greatest Austrian
success. They captured in succession Czernowitz, Kolomea, and
Stanislau. They did not succeed, however, in driving the Russians from
the province. The Russians retired slowly, waiting for reinforcements.
These reinforcements came, whereupon the Austrians were pushed steadily
back. The passes in the Carpathians still remained in Austrian hands,
but Przemysl was not relieved or Lemberg recaptured. On March 22d
Przemysl fell.
The capture of Przemysl was the greatest success that Russia had so far
attained. It had been besieged for about four months, and the taking of
the fortress was hailed as the first spectacular success of the war.
Its capture altered the whole situation. It released a large Russian
army, which was sent to reinforce the armies of Ivanov, where the
Austrians were vigorously attacked.
By the end of March the Russians had captured the last Austrian
position on the Lupkow pass and were attacking vigorously the pass of
Uzzok, which maintained a stubborn defense. Brussilov tried to push
his way to the rear of the Uzzok position, and though the Austrians
delivered a vigorous counter-attack they were ultimately defeated. In
five weeks of fighting Ivanov captured over seventy thousand prisoners.
During this period there was considerable activity in East Prussia, and
the Courland coast was bombarded by the German Baltic squadron. There
was every indication that Austria was near collapse, but all the time
the Germans were preparing for a mighty effort, and the secret was kept
with extraordinary success. The little conflicts in the Carpathians
and in East Prussia were meant to deceive, while a great army, with an
enormous number of guns of every caliber, and masses of ammunition
were being gathered. The Russian commanders were completely deceived.
There had been no change in the generals in command except that General
Ruzsky, on account of illness, was succeeded by General Alexeiev. The
new German army was put under the charge of von Hindenburg’s former
lieutenant, General von Mackensen. This was probably the strongest army
that Germany ever gathered, and could not have numbered less than two
millions of men, with nearly two thousand pieces in its heavy batteries.
On April 28th, the action began. The Austro-German army lay along the
left bank of the Donajetz River to its junction with the Biala, and
along the Biala to the Carpathian Mountains. Von Mackensen’s right
moved in the direction of Gorlice. General Dmitrieff was compelled to
weaken his front to protect Gorlice and then, on Saturday, the 1st
of May, the great attack began. Under cover of artillery fire such
as had never been seen before bridges were pushed across the Biala
and Ciezkowice was taken. The Russian positions were blown out of
existence. The Russian armies did what they could but their defense
collapsed and they were soon in full retreat.
The German armies advanced steadily, and though the Russians made a
brave stand at many places they could do nothing. On the Wisloka they
hung on for five days, but they were attempting an impossibility. From
that time on each day marked a new German victory, and in spite of the
most desperate fighting the Russians were forced back until, on the
11th, the bulk of their line lay just west of the lower San as far
as Przemysl and then south to the upper Dniester. The armies were in
retreat, but were not routed. In a fortnight the army of Dmitrieff had
fallen back eighty-five miles.
The Grand Duke Nicholas by this time understood the situation. He
perceived that it was impossible to make a stand. The only thing to do
was to retreat steadily until Germany’s mass of war material should
be used up, even though miles of territory should be sacrificed.
It should be a retreat in close contact with the enemy, so that the
Austro-German troops would have to fight for every mile. This meant a
retreat not for days, but perhaps for weeks. It meant that Przemysl
must be given up, and Lemberg, and even Warsaw, but the safety of the
Russian army was of more importance than a province or a city.
On May 13th the German War Office announced their successes in the
following terms: “The army under General von Mackensen in the course
of its pursuit of the Russians reached yesterday the neighborhood of
Subiecko, on the lower Wisloka, and Kolbuezowa, northeast of Debica.
Under the pressure of this advance the Russians also retreated from
their positions north of the Vistula. In this section the troops under
General von Woyrach, closely following the enemy, penetrated as far as
the region northwest of Kielce. In the Carpathians Austro-Hungarian and
German troops under General von Linsingen conquered the hills east of
the Upper Stryi, and took 3,660 men prisoners, as well as capturing
six machine guns. At the present moment, while the armies under General
von Mackensen are approaching the Przemysl fortresses and the lower
San, it is possible to form an approximate idea of the booty taken. In
the battles of Tarno and Gorlika, and in the battles during the pursuit
of these armies, we have so far taken 103,500 Russian prisoners, 69
cannon, and 255 machine guns. In these figures the booty taken by the
Allied troops fighting in the Carpathians, and north of the Vistula,
is not included. This amounts to a further 40,000 prisoners. Przemysl
surrendered to the Germans on June 3, 1915, only ten weeks after the
Russian capture of the fortress, which had caused such exultation.”
General von Mackensen continued toward Lemberg, the capital of Galicia.
On June 18th, when the victorious German armies were approaching the
gates of Lemberg, the Russian losses were estimated at 400,000 dead and
wounded, and 300,000 prisoners, besides 100,000 lost before Marshal
von Hindenburg’s forces in Poland and Courland. On June 23d Lemberg
fell. The weakness of Russia in this campaign arose from the exhaustion
of her ammunition supplies, but great shipments of such supplies were
being constantly forwarded from Vladivostock.
When the German army crossed the San, Wilhelm II, then German Emperor,
was present. It is interesting to look back on the scene. Here is
a paragraph from the account of the Wolff Telegraphic Bureau: “The
Emperor had hurried forward to his troops by automobile. On the way he
was greeted with loud hurrahs by the wounded, riding back in wagons.
On the heights of Jaroslav the Emperor met Prince Eitel Friedrich, and
then, from several points of observation, for hours followed with keen
attention the progress of the battle for the crossing.”
While the great offensive in Galicia was well under way, the Germans
were pushing forward in East Prussia. Finding little resistance they
ultimately invaded Courland, captured Libau, and established themselves
firmly in that province. The sweep of the victorious German armies
through Galicia was continued into Poland. On July 19th William the War
Lord bombastically telegraphed his sister, the Queen of Greece, to the
effect that he had “paralyzed Russia for at least six months to come,”
and was on the eve of “delivering a coup on the western front that will
make all Europe tremble.”
It would be futile to recount the details of the various German
victories which followed the advance into Poland. On July 24th, the
German line ran from Novogard in the north, south of Przasnysz, thence
to Novogeorgievsk, then swinging to the southeast below Warsaw it
passed close to the west of Ivangorad, Lublin, Chelm, and then south to
a point just east of Lemberg. Warsaw at that time was in the jaws of
the German nutcracker.
On July 21st, the bells in all the churches throughout Russia clanged a
call to prayer for twenty-four hours’ continual service of intercession
for victory. In spite of the heat the churches were packed. Hour after
hour the people stood wedged together, while the priests and choirs
chanted their litanies. Outside the Kamian Cathedral an open-air mass
was celebrated in the presence of an enormous crowd. But the German
victories continued.
On August 5th Warsaw was abandoned. Up to July 29th hope was
entertained in military quarters in London and Paris that the Germans
would stand a siege in their fortresses along the Warsaw salient,
but on that date advices came from Petrograd that in order to save
the Russian armies a retreat must be made, and the Warsaw fortresses
abandoned. For some time before this the Russian resistance had
perceptibly stiffened, and many vigorous counter-attacks had been made
against the German advance, but it was the same old story, the lack of
ammunition. The armies were compelled to retire and await the munitions
necessary for a new offensive.
The last days of Russian rule in Warsaw were days of extraordinary
interest. The inhabitants, to the number of nearly half a millions,
sought refuge in Russia. All goods that could be useful to the Germans
were either removed or burned. Crops were destroyed in the surrounding
fields. When the Germans entered they found an empty and deserted
city, with only a few Poles and the lowest classes of Jews still left.
Warsaw is a famous city, full of ancient palaces, tastefully adorned
shops, finely built streets, and fourscore church towers where the
bells are accustomed to ring melodiously for matins and vespers. In
the Ujazdowske Avenue one comes to the most charming building in all
Warsaw, the Lazienki Palace, with its delicious gardens mirrored in a
lovely lake. It is a beautiful city.
The fall of Warsaw meant the fall of Russian Poland, but Russia was
not yet defeated. Von Hindenburg was to be treated as Napoleon was in
1812. The strategy of the Grand Duke was sound; so long as he could
save the army the victories of Germany would be futile. It is true that
the German armies were not compelled, like those of Napoleon, to live
on the land. They could bring their supplies from Berlin day by day,
but every mile they advanced into hostile territory made their task
harder. The German line of communication, as it grew longer, became
weaker, and the troops needed for garrison duty in the captured towns,
seriously diminished the strength of the fighting army. The Russian
retreat was good strategy and it was carried on with most extraordinary
cleverness.
It is unnecessary to describe the events which succeeded the fall of
Warsaw in great detail. There was a constant succession of German
victories and Russian defeats, but never was one of the Russian armies
enveloped or destroyed. Back they went, day after day, always fighting;
each great Russian fortress resisted until it saw itself in danger, and
then safely withdrew its troops. Kovno fell and Novogeorgievsk, and
Ivangorad, then Ossowietz was abandoned, and Brest-Litovsk and Grodno.
On September 5th the Emperor of Russia signed the following order:
Today I have taken supreme command of all the forces of the sea and
land armies operating in the theater of war. With firm faith in the
clemency of God, with unshakable assurance in final victory, we
shall fulfil our sacred duty to defend our country to the last. We
will not dishonor the Russian land.
The Grand Duke Nicholas was made Viceroy of the Caucasus, a post which
took him out of the main theater of fighting but gave him a great field
for fresh military activity. He had been bearing a heavy burden, and
had shown himself to be a great commander. He had outmaneuvered von
Hindenburg again and again, and though finally the Russian armies under
his command had been driven back, the retreat itself was a proof of his
military ability, not only in its conception, but in the way in which
it was done.
The Emperor chose General Alexeiev as his Chief of General Staff. He
was the ablest of the great generals who had been leading the Russian
army. With this change in command a new spirit seemed to come over
Russia. The German advance, however, was not yet completely checked. It
was approaching Vilna.
The fighting around Vilna was the bitterest in the whole long retreat.
On the 18th of September it fell, but the Russian troops were safely
removed and the Russian resistance had become strong. Munitions were
pouring into the new Russian army. The news from the battle-front began
to show improvement. On September 8th General Brussilov, further in the
south, had attacked the Germans in front of Tarnopol, and defeated them
with heavy loss. More than seventeen thousand men were captured with
much artillery. Soon the news came of other advances. Dubno was retaken
and Lutsk.
The end of September saw the German advance definitely checked. The
Russian forces were now extended in a line from Riga on the north,
along the river Dvina, down to Dvinsk. Then turning to the east along
the river, it again turned south and so on down east of the Pripet
Marshes, it followed an almost straight line to the southern frontier.
Its two strongest points were Riga, on the Gulf of Riga, which lay
under the protection of the guns of the fleet, and Dvinsk, through
which ran the great Petrograd Railway line. Against these two points
von Hindenburg directed his attack. And now, for the first time in many
months, he met with complete failure. The German fleet attempted to
assist him on the Gulf of Riga, but was defeated by the Russian Baltic
fleet with heavy losses. A bombardment turned out a failure and the
German armies were compelled to retire.
A more serious effort was made against Dvinsk but was equally
unsuccessful and the German losses were immense. Again and again the
attempt was made to cross the Dvina River, but without success; the
German invasion was definitely stopped. By the end of October there
was complete stagnation in the northern sector of the battle line, and
though in November there were a number of battles, nothing happened of
great importance.
[Illustration: THE GERMAN ATTACK ON THE ROAD TO PETROGRAD]
Further south, however, Russia had become active. An army had been
organized at her Black Sea bases, and for political reasons it was
necessary that that army should move. At this time the great question
was, what was Roumania about to do? To prevent her from being
forced to join the Central Powers she must have encouragement. It was
determined therefore that an offensive should be made in the direction
of Czernowitz. This town was the railway center of a wide region, and
lay close to Roumania’s northern frontier.
The Russian aggressive met with great success. It is true that it
never approached the defenses of Czernowitz, but Brussilov, on the
north, had been able to make great gains of ground, and the very fact
that such a powerful movement could be made so soon after the Russian
retreat was an encouragement to every friend of the Allied cause. This
offensive continued till up to the fourth week of January when it came
to an abrupt stop. A despatch from Petrograd explained the movement as
follows: “The recent Russian offensive in Bessarabia and Galicia was
carried out in accordance with the plan prepared by the Entente Allies’
War Council to relieve the pressure on the Entente forces while they
were fortifying Saloniki and during the evacuation of the Gallipoli
Peninsula.” Russia had sacrificed more than seventy thousand soldiers
for her Allies.
During the year 1916 the Russian armies seemed to have had a new
birth. At last they were supplied with guns and munitions. They waited
until they were ready. In March a series of battles was fought in
the neighborhood of Lake Narotch, and eight successive attacks were
made against the German army, intrenched between Lake Narotch and
Lake Vischenebski. The Germans at first were driven back and badly
defeated. Later on, however, the Russian artillery was sent to another
section, and the Germans were able to recover their position. During
June the Russians attacked all along the southern part of their line.
In three weeks they had regained a whole province. Lutsk and Dubno had
been retaken; two hundred thousand men and hundreds of guns, had been
captured, and the Austrian line had been pierced and shattered. Further
south the German army had been compelled to retreat, and the Russian
armies were in Bukovina and Galicia. On the 10th of August Stanislau
fell.
By this time two Austrian armies had been shattered, over three hundred
and fifty thousand prisoners taken, and nearly a million men put out
of action. Germany, however, was sending reinforcements as fast as
possible, and putting up a desperate defense. Nevertheless everything
was encouraging for Russia and she entered upon the winter in a very
different condition from her condition in the previous year. Then she
had just ended her great retreat. Now she had behind her a series of
successes. But a new difficulty had arisen in the loss of the political
harmony at home which had marked the first years of the war. Dark days
were ahead.
CHAPTER VI
HOW THE BALKANS DECIDED
For more than half a century the Balkans have presented a problem which
has disturbed the minds of the statesmen of Europe. Again and again,
during that period, it has seemed that in the Balkan mountains might
be kindled a blaze which might set the world afire. Balkan politics
is a labyrinth in which one might easily be lost. The inhabitants of
the Balkans represent many races, each with its own ambition, and, for
the most part, military. There were Serbs, and Bulgarians, and Turks,
and Roumanians, and Greeks, and their territorial divisions did not
correspond to their nationalities. The land was largely mountainous,
with great gaps that make it, in a sense, the highway of the world.
From 1466 to 1878 the Balkans was in the dominion of the Turks. In the
early days while the Turks were warring against Hungary, their armies
marched through the Balkan hills. The natives kept apart, and preserved
their language, religion and customs.
In the nineteenth century, as the Turks grew weaker, their subject
people began to seek independence. Greece came first, and, in 1829,
aided by France, Russia and Great Britain, she became an independent
kingdom. Serbia revolted in 1804, and by 1820 was an autonomous state,
though still tributary to Turkey. In 1859, Roumania became autonomous.
The rising of Bulgaria in 1876, however, was really the beginning of
the succession of events which ultimately led to the World War of
1914-18. The Bulgarian insurrection was crushed by the Turks in such
a way as to stir the indignation of the whole world. What are known
as the “Bulgarian Atrocities” seem mild today, but they led to the
Russo-Turkish War in 1877.
The treaty of Berlin, by which that war was settled in 1878, was
one of those treaties which could only lead to trouble. It deprived
Russia of much of the benefit of her victory, and left nearly every
racial question unsettled. Roumania lost Bessarabia, which was mainly
inhabited by Roumanians. Bosnia and Herzegovina were handed over to
the administration of Austria. Turkey was allowed to retain Macedonia,
Albania and Thrace. Serbia was given Nish, but had no outlet to the
sea. Greece obtained Thessaly, and a new province was made of the
country south of the Balkans called Eastern Rumelia. From that time
on, quarrel after quarrel made up the history of the Balkan peoples,
each of whom sought the assistance and support of some one of the great
powers. Russia and Austria were constantly intriguing with the new
states, in the hope of extending their own domains in the direction of
Constantinople.
The history of Bulgaria shows that that nation has been continually
the center of these intrigues. In 1879 they elected as their sovereign
Prince Alexander of Battenburg, whose career might almost be called
romantic. A splendid soldier and an accomplished gentleman, he stands
out as an interesting figure in the sordid politics of the Balkans.
He identified himself with his new country. In 1885 he brought about a
union with Eastern Rumelia, which led to a disagreement with Russia.
Serbia, doubtless at Russian instigation, suddenly declared war,
but was overwhelmed by Prince Alexander in short order. Russia then
abducted Prince Alexander, but later was forced to restore him.
However, Russian intrigues, and his failure to obtain support from one
of the great powers, forced his abdication in 1886.
In 1887 Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha became the Prince of
Bulgaria. He, also, was a remarkable man, but not the romantic figure
of his predecessor. He seems to have been a sort of a parody of a king.
He was fond of ostentation, and full of ambition. He was a personal
coward, but extremely cunning. During his long reign he built up
Bulgaria into a powerful, independent kingdom, and even assumed the
title of Czar of Bulgaria. During the first days of his reign he was
kept safely on the throne by his mother, the Princess Clementine,
a daughter of Louis Phillippe, who, according to Gladstone, was the
cleverest woman in Europe, and for a few years Bulgaria was at peace.
In 1908 he declared Bulgaria independent, and its independence was
recognized by Turkey on the payment of an indemnity. During this period
Russia was the protector of Bulgaria, but the Bulgarian fox was looking
also for the aid of Austria. Serbia more and more relied upon Russia.
The Austrian treatment of the Slavs was a source of constant irritation
to Serbia. Roumania had a divided feeling. Her loss of Bessarabia
to Russia had caused ill feeling, but in Austria’s province of
Transylvania there were millions of Roumanians, whom Roumania desired
to bring under her rule. Greece was fearful of Russia, because of
Russia’s desire for the control of Constantinople. All of these
nations, too, were deeply conscious of the Austro-German ambitions
for extension of their power through to the East. Each of these
principalities was also jealous of the other. Bulgaria and Serbia had
been at war; many Bulgarians were in the Roumanian territory, many
Serbians, Bulgarians and Greeks in Macedonia. There was only one tie in
common, that was their hatred of Turkey. In 1912 a league was formed,
under the direction of the Greek statesman, Venizelos, having for its
object an attack on Turkey. By secret treaties arrangements were made
for the division of the land, which they hoped to obtain from Turkey.
War was declared, and Turkey was decisively defeated, and then the
trouble began. Serbia and Bulgaria had been particularly anxious for an
outlet to the sea, and in the treaty between them it had been arranged
that Serbia should have an outlet on the Adriatic, while Bulgaria
was to obtain an outlet on the Ægean. The Triple Alliance positively
refused Serbia its share of the Adriatic coast. Serbia insisted,
therefore, on a revision of the treaty, which would enable her to have
a seaport on the Ægean.
An attempt was made to settle the question by arbitration, but King
Ferdinand refused, whereupon, in July, 1913, the Second Balkan War
began. Bulgaria was attacked by Greece and Serbia, and Turkey took
a chance and regained Adrianople, and even Roumania, which had been
neutral in the First Baltic War, mobilized her armies and marched
toward Sofia. Bulgaria surrendered, and on the 10th of August the
Treaty of Bucharest was signed by the Balkan States.
As a result of this Bulgaria was left in a thoroughly dissatisfied
state of mind. She had been the leader in the war against Turkey, she
had suffered heavy losses, and she had gained almost nothing. Moreover
she had lost to Roumania, a territory containing a quarter of a million
Bulgarians, and a splendid harbor on the Black Sea. Serbia and Greece
were the big winners. Such a treaty could not be a final settlement.
The Balkans were left seething with unrest. Serbia, though she had
gained much, was still dissatisfied. Her ambitions, however, now turned
in the direction of the Jugoslavs under the rule of Austria, and it
was her agitation in this matter which directly brought on the Great
War. But Bulgaria was sullen and ready for revenge. When the Great
War began, therefore, Roumania, Serbia, Montenegro and Greece were
strongly in sympathy with Russia, who had been their backer and friend.
Bulgaria, in spite of all she owed to Russia in the early days, was
now ready to find protection from an alliance with the Central Powers.
Her feeling was well known to the Allies, and every effort was made to
obtain her friendship and, if possible, her aid.
Viviani, then Premier of France, in an address before the French
Chamber of Deputies, said:
The Balkan question was raised at the outset of the war, even before
it came to the attention of the world. The Bucharest Treaty had left
in Bulgaria profound heartburnings. Neither King nor people were
resigned to the loss of the fruits of their efforts and sacrifices,
and to the consequences of the unjustifiable war they had waged upon
their former allies. From the first day, the Allied governments
took into account the dangers of such a situation, and sought a
means to remedy it. Their policy has proceeded in a spirit of
justice and generosity which has characterized the attitude of Great
Britain, Russia and Italy as well as France. We have attempted to
re-establish the union of the Baltic peoples, and in accord with them
seek the realization of their principal national aspirations. The
equilibrium thus obtained by mutual sacrifices really made by each
would have been the best guarantee of future peace. Despite constant
efforts in which Roumania, Greece and Serbia lent their assistance,
we have been unable to obtain the sincere collaboration of the
Bulgarian Government. The difficulties respecting the negotiations
were always at Sofia.
At the beginning of the war it appears, therefore, that Bulgaria was
entering into negotiations with the Allies, hoping to regain in this
way, some of the territory she had lost in the Second Baltic War. Many
of her leading statesmen and most distinguished generals favored the
cause of Russia, but in May came the great German advance in Galicia,
and the Allies’ stalemate in the Dardanelles, and the king, and his
supporters, found the way clear for a movement in favor of Germany.
Still protesting neutrality they signed a secret treaty with Berlin,
Vienna and Constantinople on July 17th. The Central Powers had promised
them not only what they had been asking, in Macedonia, but also the
Greek territory of Epirus. This treaty was concealed from those
Bulgarian leaders who still held to Russia, and on the 5th of October
Bulgaria formally entered into war on the side of Germany, and began an
attack on Serbia.
The full account of the intrigue which led to this action has never
been told. It is not improbable that King Ferdinand himself never had
any other idea than to act as he did, but he dissembled for a long
time. He set forth his claims in detail to the Allies, who used every
effort to induce Roumania, Greece and Serbia to make the concessions
that would be necessary. Such concessions were made, but not until it
was too late. In a telegram from Milan dated September 24th, an account
is given of an interview between Czar Ferdinand and a committee from
those Bulgarians who were opposed to the King’s policy.
“Mind your own head. I shall mind mine!” are the words which the King
spoke to M. Stambulivski when he received the five opposition members
who had come to warn him of the danger to which he was exposing
himself and the nation.
The five members were received by the King in the red room at the Royal
Palace and chairs had been placed for them around a big table. The King
entered the room, accompanied by Prince Boris, the heir apparent, and
his secretary, M. Boocovitch.
“Be seated, gentlemen,” said the King, as he sat down himself, as if
for a very quiet talk. His secretary took a seat at the table, a little
apart to take notes, but the conversation immediately became so heated
and rapid that he was unable to write it down.
The first to speak was M. Malinoff, leader of the Democratic party,
who said: “The policy adopted by the Government is one of adventure,
tending to throw Bulgaria into the arms of Germany, and driving her to
attack Serbia. This policy is contrary to the aspirations, feeling and
interests of the country, and if the Government obstinately continues
in this way it will provoke disturbances of the greatest gravity.”
It was the first allusion to the possibility of a revolution, but the
King listened without flinching. M. Malinoff concluded: “For these
reasons we beg your Majesty, after having vainly asked the Government,
to convoke the Chamber immediately, and we ask this convocation for the
precise object of saving the country from dangerous adventures by the
formation of a coalition Ministry.”
The King remained silent, and, with a nod, invited M. Stambulivski to
speak. M. Stambulivski was a leader of the Agrarian party, a man of
sturdy, rustic appearance, accustomed to speak out his mind boldly, and
exceedingly popular among the peasant population. He grew up himself
as a peasant, and wore the laborer’s blouse up till very recently. He
stood up and looking the King straight in the face said in resolute
tones: “In the name of every farmer in Bulgaria I add to what M.
Malinoff has just said, that the Bulgarian people hold you personally
responsible more than your Government, for the disastrous adventure of
1913. If a similar adventure were to be repeated now its gravity this
time would be irreparable. The responsibility would once more fall on
your policy, which is contrary to the welfare of our country, and the
nation would not hesitate to call you personally to account. That there
may be no mistake as to the real wishes of the country I present to
your Majesty my country’s demand in writing.”
He handed the King a letter containing the resolution voted by the
Agrarians. The King read it and then turned to M. Zanoff, leader of the
Radical Democrats, and asked him to speak. M. Zanoff did so, speaking
very slowly and impressively, and also looking the King straight in the
face: “Sire, I had sworn never again to set foot inside your palace,
and if I come today it is because the interests of my country are above
personal questions, and have compelled me. Your Majesty may read what
I have to say in this letter, which I submit to you in behalf of our
party.”
He handed the letter and the King read it and still remained silent.
Then he said, turning to his former Prime Minister and ablest
politician: “Gueshoff, it is now your turn to speak.”
M. Gueshoff got up and said: “I also am fully in accord with what M.
Stambulivski has just said. No matter how severe his words may have
been in their simple unpolished frankness, which ignores the ordinary
formalities of etiquette, they entirely express our unanimous opinion.
We all, as representing the opposition, consider the present policy of
the Government contrary to the sentiments and interests of the country,
because by driving it to make common cause with Germany it makes us
the enemies of Russia, which was our deliverer, and the adventure
into which we are thus thrown compromises our future. We disapprove
most absolutely of such a policy, and we also ask that the Chamber be
convoked, and a Ministry formed with the co-operation of all parties.”
After M. Gueshoff, the former Premier, M. Daneff also spoke, and
associated himself with what had already been said.
The King remained still silent for a while, then he, also, stood up
and said: “Gentlemen, I have listened to your threats, and will refer
them to the President of the Council of Ministers, that he may know and
decide what to do.”
All present bowed, and a chilly silence followed. The King had
evidently taken the frank warning given him as a threat to him
personally, and he walked up and down nervously for a while. Prince
Boris turned aside to talk with the Secretary, who had resumed taking
notes. The King continued pacing to and fro, evidently very nettled.
Then, approaching M. Zanoff, and as if to change the conversation, he
asked him for news about this season’s harvest.
M. Zanoff abruptly replied: “Your Majesty knows that we have not come
here to talk about the harvest, but of something far more important at
present, namely, the policy of your Government, which is on the point
of ruining our country. We can on no account approve the policy that
is anti-Russian. If the Crown and M. Radoslavoff persist in their
policy we shall not answer for the consequences. We have not desired
to seek out those responsible for the disaster of 1913, because other
grave events have been precipitated. But it was a disaster due to
criminal folly. It must not be repeated by an attack on Serbia by
Bulgaria, as seems contemplated by M. Radoslavoff, and which according
to all appearances, has the approval of your Majesty. It would be a
premeditated crime, and deserve to be punished.”
The King hesitated a moment, and then held out his hand to M. Zanoff,
saying: “All right. At all events I thank you for your frankness.”
Then, approaching M. Stambulivski, he repeated to him his question
about the harvest.
M. Stambulivski, as a simple peasant, at first allowed himself to be
led into a discussion of this secondary matter, and had expressed the
hope that the prohibition on the export of cereals would be removed,
when he suddenly remembered, and said: “But this is not the moment to
speak of these things. I again repeat to your Majesty that the country
does not want a policy of adventure which cost it so dear in 1913.
It was your own policy too. Before 1913 we thought you were a great
diplomatist, but since then we have seen what fruits your diplomacy
bears. You took advantage of all the loopholes in the Constitution to
direct the country according to your own views. Your Ministers are
nothing. You alone are the author of this policy and you will have to
bear the responsibility.”
The King replied frigidly, “The policy which I have decided to follow
is that which I consider the best for the welfare of the country.”
“It is a policy which will only bring misfortune,” replied the sturdy
Agrarian. “It will lead to fresh catastrophes, and compromise not only
the future of our country, but that of your dynasty, and may cost you
your head.”
It was as bold a saying as ever was uttered before a King, and
Ferdinand looked astonished at the peasant who was thus speaking to
him. He said, “Do not mind my head; it is already old. Rather mind
your own!” he added with a disdainful smile, and turned away.
M. Stambulivski retorted: “My head matters little, Sire. What matters
more is the good of our country.”
The King paid no more attention to him, and took M. Gueshoff and M.
Daneff apart, who again insisted on convoking the Chamber, and assured
him that M. Radoslavoff’s government would be in a minority. They also
referred to the Premier’s oracular utterances.
“Ah!” said the King. “Has Radoslavoff spoken to you, and what has he
said?”
“He has said--” replied the leaders, “that Bulgaria would march with
Germany and attack Serbia.”
The King made a vague gesture, and then said: “Oh, I did not know.”
This incident throws a strong light upon the conflict which was going
on in the Balkan states, between those Kings who were of German
origin, and who believed in the German power, and their people who
loved Russia. King Ferdinand got his warning. He did not listen,
and he lost his throne. All this, however, took place before the
Bulgarian declaration of war. Yet much had already shown what King
Ferdinand was about to do. The Allies, to be sure, were incredulous,
and were doing their best to cultivate the good will of the treacherous
King. On September 23rd the official order was given for Bulgaria’s
mobilization. She, however, officially declared that her position was
that of armed neutrality and that she had no aggressive intentions. As
it has developed, she was acting under the direction of the German High
Command.
It was at this period that Germany had failed to crush Russia in the
struggle on the Vilna, and, in accordance with her usual strategy when
one plan failed, another was undertaken. It seemed to her, therefore,
that the punishment of Serbia would make up for other failures, and
moreover would enable her to assist Turkey, which needed munitions,
besides releasing for Germany supplies of food and other material
which might come from Turkey. They therefore entrusted an expedition
against Serbia to Field Marshal von Mackensen, and had begun to gather
an army for that purpose, north of the Danube.
This army of course was mainly composed of Austrian troops, but was
stiffened throughout by some of the best regiments from the German
army. To assist this new army they counted upon Bulgaria, with whom
they had already a secret treaty, and in spite of the falsehoods issued
from Sofia, the Bulgarian mobilization was meant for an attack on
Serbia. The condition of affairs was well understood in Russia.
On October 2, 1915, M. Sazonov, Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs,
issued the following statement: “The situation in the Balkans is very
grave. The whole Russian nation is aroused by the unthinkable treachery
of Ferdinand and his Government to the Slavic cause. Bulgaria owes her
independence to Russia, and yet seems willing now to become a vassal
of Russia’s enemies. In her attitude towards Serbia, when Serbia is
fighting for her very existence, Bulgaria puts herself in the class
with Turkey. We do not believe that the Bulgarian people sympathize
with the action of their ruler therefore, the Allies are disposed
to give them time for reflection. If they persist in their present
treacherous course they must answer to Russia.” The next day the
following ultimatum from Russia was handed the Bulgarian Prime Minister:
Events which are taking place in Bulgaria at this moment give
evidence of the definite decision of King Ferdinand’s Government to
place the fate of its country in the hands of Germany. The presence
of German and Austrian officers at the Ministry of War and on the
staffs of the army, the concentration of troops in the zone bordering
on Serbia, and the extensive financial support accepted from her
enemies by the Sofia Cabinet, no longer leave any doubt as to the
object of the present military preparations of Bulgaria. The powers
of the Entente, who have at heart the realization of the aspirations
of the Bulgarian people, have on many occasions warned M. Radoslavoff
that any hostile act against Serbia would be considered as directed
against themselves. The assurances given by the head of the Bulgarian
Cabinet in reply to these warnings are contradicted by facts. The
representative of Russia, bound to Bulgaria by the imperishable
memory of her liberation from the Turkish yoke, cannot sanction by
his presence preparations for fratricidal aggression against a Slav
and allied people. The Russian Minister has, therefore, received
orders to leave Bulgaria with all the staffs of the Legation and the
Consulates if the Bulgarian Government does not within twenty-four
hours openly break with the enemies of the Slav cause and of Russia,
and does not at once proceed to send away the officers belonging to
the armies of states who are at war with the powers of the Entente.
Similar ultimatums were presented by representatives of France and
Great Britain. Bulgaria’s reply to these ultimatums was described as
bold to the verge of insolence. In substance she denied that German
officers were on the staffs of Bulgarian armies, but said that if they
were present that fact concerned only Bulgaria, which reserved the
right to invite whomsoever she liked. The Bulgarian Government then
issued a manifesto to the nation, announcing its decision to enter the
war on the side of the Central Powers. The manifesto reads as follows:
The Central Powers have promised us parts of Serbia, creating an
Austro-Hungarian border line, which is absolutely necessary for
Bulgaria’s independence of the Serbians. We do not believe in the
promises of the Quadruple Entente. Italy, one of the Allies,
treacherously broke her treaty of thirty-three years. We believe in
Germany, which is fighting the whole world to fulfill her treaty
with Austria. Bulgaria must fight at the victor’s side. The Germans
and Austro-Hungarians are victorious on all fronts. Russia soon will
have collapsed entirely. Then will come the turn of France, Italy
and Serbia. Bulgaria would commit suicide if she did not fight on
the side of the Central Powers, which offer the only possibility of
realizing her desire for a union of all Bulgarian peoples.
The manifesto also stated that Russia was fighting for Constantinople
and the Dardanelles; Great Britain to destroy Germany’s competition;
France for Alsace and Lorraine, and the other allies to rob foreign
countries; the Central Powers were declared to be fighting to defend
property and assure peaceful progress. The manifesto filled seven
columns in the newspapers, and discussed at some length Bulgaria’s
trade interests. It attacked Serbia most bitterly, declaring that
Serbia had oppressed the Bulgarian population of Macedonia in a most
barbarous manner; that she had attacked Bulgarian territory and that
the Bulgarian troops had been forced to fight for the defense of their
own soil. In fact it was written in quite the usual German manner.
Long before this M. Venizelos, the Greek Premier, had perceived what
was coming. Greece was bound by treaty to assist Serbia if she were
attacked by Bulgaria. On September 21st, Venizelos asked France and
Britain for a hundred and fifty thousand troops. On the 24th, the
Allies agreed to this and Greece at once began to mobilize. His policy
was received with great enthusiasm in the Greek Chamber, and former
Premier Gounaris, amid great applause, expressed his support of the
government.
On October 6th an announcement from Athens stated that Premier
Venizelos had resigned, the King having informed him that he was
unable to support the policy of his Minister. King Constantine was
a brother-in-law of the German Emperor, and although professing
neutrality he had steadily opposed M. Venizelos’ policy. He had once
before forced M. Venizelos’ resignation, but at the general elections
which followed, the Greek statesman was returned to power by a
decisive majority.
[Illustration: SCENE OF GREAT ALLIED OFFENSIVE THAT DEFEATED BULGARIA
IN SEPTEMBER, 1918]
Intense indignation was caused by the King’s action, though the King
was able to procure the support of a considerable party. Venizelos’
resignation was precipitated by the landing of the Allied troops
in Saloniki. They had come at the invitation of Venizelos, but the
opposition protested against the occupation of Greek territory by
foreign troops. After a disorderly session in which Venizelos explained
to the Chamber of Deputies the circumstances connected with the
landing, the Chamber passed a vote of confidence in the Government
by 142 to 102. The substance of his argument may be found in his
conclusion:
“We have a treaty with Serbia. If we are honest we will leave nothing
undone to insure its fulfillment in letter and spirit. Only if we are
rogues may we find excuses to avoid our obligations.”
Upon his first resignation M. Zaimis was appointed Premier, and
declared for a policy of armed neutrality. This position was sharply
criticised by Venizelos, but for a time became the policy of the Greek
Government. Meantime the Allied troops were arriving at Saloniki. On
October 3d, seventy thousand French troops arrived. A formal protest
was made by the Greek commandant, who then directed the harbor
officials to assist in arranging the landing. In a short time the
Allied forces amounted to a hundred and fifty thousand men, but the
German campaign was moving rapidly.
The German Balkan army captured Belgrade on the 9th of October, and by
that date two Bulgarian armies were on the Serbian frontier. Serbia
found herself opposed by two hundred thousand Austro-Germans and a
quarter of a million Bulgarians. Greece and Roumania fully mobilized
and were watching the conflict, and the small allied contingent at
Saloniki was preparing to march inland to the aid of Serbia.
The conduct of Greece on this occasion has led to universal criticism.
The King himself, no doubt, was mainly moved by his German wife and the
influence of his Imperial brother-in-law. Those that were associated
with him were probably moved by fear. They had been much impressed by
the strength of the German armies. They had seen the success of the
great German offensive in Russia, while the French and British were
being held in the West. They knew, too, the strength of Bulgaria. The
national characteristic of the Greeks is prudence, and it cannot be
denied that there was great reason to suppose that the armies of Greece
would not be able to resist the new attack. With these views Venizelos,
the greatest statesman that Greece had produced for many years, did not
agree, and the election seemed to show that he was supported by the
majority of the Greek people.
This was another case where the Allies, faced by a dangerous situation,
were acting with too great caution. In Gallipoli they had failed,
because at the very beginning they had not used their full strength.
Now, again, knowing as they did all that depended upon it, bound as
they were to the most loyal support of Serbia, the aid they sent was
too small to be more than a drop in the bucket. It must be remembered,
however, that the greatest leaders among the Allies were at all
times opposed to in any way scattering their strength. They believed
that the war was to be won in France. Military leaders in particular
yielded under protest to the political leaders when expeditions of this
character were undertaken.
Certainly this is true, that the world believed that Serbia had a right
to Allied assistance. The gallant little nation was fighting for her
life, and public honor demanded that she should be aided. It was this
strong feeling that led to the action that was taken, in spite of the
military opinions. It was, however, too late.
In the second week of October Serbia found herself faced by an enemy
which was attacking her on three sides. She herself had been greatly
weakened. Her losses in 1914, when she had driven Austria from her
border, must have been at least two hundred thousand men. She had
suffered from pestilence and famine. Her strength now could not have
been more than two hundred thousand, and though she was fairly well
supplied with munitions, she was so much outnumbered that she could
hardly hope for success. On her west she was facing the Austro-German
armies; on her east Bulgaria; on the south Albania. Her source of
supplies was Saloniki and this was really her only hope. If the Allies
at Saloniki could stop the Bulgarian movement, the Serbians might face
again the Austro-Germans. They expected this help from the Allies.
At Nish the town was decorated and the school children waited outside
the station with bouquets to present to the coming reinforcements. But
the Allies did not come.
Von Mackensen’s plan was simple enough. His object was to win a way
to Constantinople. This could be done either by the control of the
Danube or the Ottoman Railroad. To control the Danube he had to seize
northeastern Serbia for the length of the river. This was comparatively
easy and would give him a clear water way to the Bulgarian railways
connected with Constantinople. The Ottoman railway was a harder route
to win. It meant an advance to the southeast, which would clear the
Moravo valley up to Nish, and then the Nishava valley up to Bulgaria.
The movements involved were somewhat complex, but easily carried out
on account of the very great numerical superiority of von Mackensen’s
forces.
On September 19th Belgrade was bombarded. The Serbian positions were
gradually destroyed. On the 7th of October the German armies crossed
the Danube, and on the 8th the Serbians began to retreat. There was
great destruction in Belgrade and the Bulgarian General, Mishitch, was
forced slowly back to the foothills of the Tser range.
For a time von Mackensen moved slowly. He did not wish to drive the
Serbians too far south. On the 12th of October the Bulgarian army began
its attack. At first it was held, but by October 17th was pushing
forward all along the line. On the 20th they entered Uskub, a central
point of all the routes of southern Serbia. This practically separated
the Allied forces at Saloniki from the Serbian armies further north.
Disaster followed disaster. On Tuesday, October 26th, a junction of
Bulgarian and Austro-German patrols was completed in the Dobravodo
mountains. General von Gallwitz announced that a moment of world
significance has come, that the “Orient and Occident had been united,
and on the basis of this firm and indissoluble union a new and mighty
vierbund comes into being, created by the victory of our arms.”
[Illustration: GERMANY’S DREAM: “THE
BREMEN-BERLIN-BOSPORUS-BAGDAD-BAHN”]
The road from Germany, through Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria to Turkey
lay open. On October 31st, Milanovac was lost, and on November 2nd,
Kraguyevac surrendered, the decisive battle of the war. On November
7th, Nish was captured. General Jecoff announced: “After fierce and
sanguinary fighting the fortress of Nish has been conquered by our
brave victorious troops and the Bulgarian flag has been hoisted to
remain forever.”
The Serbian army continued steadily to retreat, until on November 8th,
advancing Franco-British troops almost joined with them, presenting a
line from Prilep to Dorolovo on the Bulgarian frontier. At this time
the Bulgarian army suffered a defeat at Izvor and also at Strumitza.
The Allied armies were now reported to number three hundred thousand
men. The Austro-Germans by this time had reached the mountainous region
of Serbia, and were meeting with strong resistance.
On November 13th, German despatches from the front claimed the capture
of 54,000 Serbian prisoners. The aged King Peter of Serbia was in full
flight, followed by the Crown Prince. The Serbians, however, were still
fighting and on November 15th, made a stand on the western bank of the
Morava River, and recaptured the town of Tatova.
At this time the Allied world was watching the Serbian struggle
with interest and sympathy. In the House of Lords, Lord Lansdowne
in a discussion of the English effort to give them aid said: “It
is impossible to think or speak of Serbia without a tribute to the
wondrous gallantry with which that little country withstood two
separate invasions, and has lately been struggling against a third. She
repelled the first two invasions by an effort which I venture to think
formed one of the most glorious chapters in the history of this Great
War.”
Serbia, however, was compelled once more to retreat, and their retreat
soon became a rout. Their guns were abandoned and the roads were strewn
with fainting, starving men. The sufferings of the Serbian people
during this time are indescribable. Men, women, and children struggled
along in the wake of the armies without food or shelter. King Peter
himself was able to escape, with the greatest difficulty. By traveling
on horseback and mule back in disguise he finally reached Scutari and
crossed to Brindisi and finally arrived at Saloniki on New Year’s Day,
crippled and almost blind, but still full of fight.
“I believe,” he said, “in the liberty of Serbia, as I believe in God.
It was the dream of my youth. It was for that I fought throughout
manhood. It has become the faith of the twilight of my life. I live
only to see Serbia free. I pray that God may let me live until the day
of redemption of my people. On that day I am ready to die, if the Lord
wills. I have struggled a great deal in my life, and am tired, bruised
and broken from it, but I will see, I shall see, this triumph. I shall
not die before the victory of my country.”
The Serbian army had been driven out of Serbia. But the Allies who
had come up from Saloniki were still unbeaten. On October 12th, the
French General Serrail arrived and moved with the French forces, as
has already been said, to the Serbian aid. They met with a number
of successes. On October 19th they seized the Bulgarian town of
Struminitza, and occupied strong positions on the left bank of the
Vardar. On October 27th they occupied Krivolak, with the British Tenth
Division, which had joined them on their right. They then occupied the
summit of Karahodjali, which commanded the whole section of the valley.
This the Bulgarians attacked in force on the 5th of November, but
were badly repulsed. They then attempted to move toward Babuna Pass,
twenty-five miles west of Krivolak, where they hoped to join hands with
the Serbian column at that point.
They were being faced by a Bulgarian army numbering one hundred and
twenty-five thousand men, and found themselves in serious danger. They
were compelled to fall back into what is called the “Entrenched Camp
of Kavodar” without bringing the aid to the Serbian army that they had
hoped. The Allied expedition to aid Serbia had failed. It was hopeless
from the start, and, if anything, had injured Serbia by raising false
expectations which had interfered with their plans.
During the whole of this disastrous campaign a desperate political
struggle was going on in Greece. On November 3rd, the Zaimis Cabinet
tendered its resignation to King Constantine. The trouble was over
a bill for extra pay to army officers, but it led to an elaborate
discussion of the Greek war policy. M. Venizelos made two long speeches
defending his policy, and condemning the policy of his opponents in
regard to the Balkan situation. He said that he deplored the fact that
Serbia was being left to be crushed by Bulgaria, Greece’s hereditary
enemy, who would not scruple later to fall on Greece herself. He spoke
of the King in a friendly way, criticizing, however, his position. He
had been twice removed from the Premiership, although he had a majority
behind him in the Greek Chamber.
“Our State,” he said, “is a democracy, presided over by the King, and
the whole responsibility rests with the Cabinet. I admit that the Crown
has a right to disagree with the responsible Government if he thinks
the latter is not in agreement with the national will. But after the
recent election, non-agreement is out of the question, and now the
Crown has not the right to disagree again on the same question. It is
not a question of patriotism but of constitutional liberty.”
When the vote was taken the Government was defeated by 147 to 114.
Instead of appointing Venizelos Premier, King Constantine gave the
position to M. Skouloudis, and then dissolved the Greek Chamber by
royal decree. Premier Skouloudis declared his policy to be neutrality
with the character of sincerest benevolence toward the Entente Powers.
The general conditions at Athens during this whole time were causing
great anxiety in the Allied capitals, and the Allied expedition were
in continual fear of an attack in the rear in case of reverse. They
endeavored to obtain satisfactory assurances on this point, and while
assurances were given, during the whole period of King Constantine’s
reign aggressive action was prevented because of the doubt as to what
course King Constantine would take.
In the end Constantine was compelled to abdicate. Venizelos became
Premier, and Greece formally declared war on the Central Powers.
It was not till August 27th, 1916, that Roumania cast aside her rôle
of neutral and entered the war with a declaration of hostilities on
Austria-Hungary. Great expectations were founded upon the supposedly
well-trained Roumanian army and upon the nation which, because of its
alertness and discipline, was known as “the policeman of Europe.” The
belief was general in Paris and London that the weight of men and
material thrown into the scale by Roumania would bring the war to a
speedy, victorious end.
Germany, however, was confident. A spy system excelling in its detailed
reports anything that had heretofore been attempted, made smooth the
path of the German army. Scarcely had the Roumanian army launched a
drive in force into Transylvania on August 30th, when the message
spread from Bucharest “von Mackensen is coming. Recall the army. Draft
all males of military age. Prepare for the worst.”
And the worst fell upon hapless Roumania. A vast force of military
engineers moving like a human screen in front of von Mackensen’s
army, followed routes carefully mapped out by German spies during the
period of Roumania’s neutrality. Military bridges, measured to the
inch, had been prepared to carry cannon, material and men over streams
and ravines. Every Roumanian oil well, mine and store-house had been
located and mapped. German scientists had studied Roumanian weather
conditions and von Mackensen attacked while the roads were at their
best and the weather most favorable. As the Germans swept forward,
spies met them giving them military information of the utmost value.
A swarm of airplanes spied out the movements of the Roumanians and no
Roumanian airplanes rose to meet them.
General von Falkenhayn, co-operating with von Mackensen, smashed his
way through Vulkan Pass, and cut the main line running to Bucharest
at Craiova. The Dobrudja region was overrun and the central Roumanian
plain was swept clear of all Roumanian opposition to the German
advance. The seat of government was transferred from Bucharest to Jassy
on November 28, 1916, and on December 6th Bucharest was entered by von
Mackensen, definitely putting an end to Roumania as a factor in the war.
The immediate result of the fall of Roumania was to release immense
stores of petroleum for German use. British and Roumanian engineers
had done their utmost by the use of explosives to make useless the
great Roumanian oil wells, but German engineers soon had the precious
fluid in full flow. This furnished the fuel which Germany had long and
ardently desired. The oil-burning submarine now came into its own. It
was possible to plan a great fleet of submersibles to attempt execution
of von Tirpitz’s plan for unrestricted submarine warfare. This was
decided upon by the German High Command the day Bucharest fell. It was
realized that such a policy would bring the United States into the
war, but the Kaiser and his advisers hoped the submarine on sea and a
great western front offensive on land would force a decision in favor
of Germany before America could get ready. How that hope failed was
revealed at Château-Thierry and in the humiliation of Germany.
CHAPTER VII
CAMPAIGN IN MESOPOTAMIA
In our previous discussion of the British campaign in Mesopotamia we
left the British forces intrenched at Kurna, and also occupying Basra,
the port of Bagdad. The object of the Mesopotamia Expedition was
primarily to keep the enemy from the shores of the Gulf of Persia. If
the English had been satisfied with that, the misfortune which was to
come to them might never have occurred, but the whole expedition was
essentially political rather than military in its nature.
The British were defending India. The Germans, unable to attack the
British Empire by sea, were hoping to attack her by land. They had
already attempted to stir up a Holy War with the full expectation that
it would lead to an Indian revolution. In this they had failed, for the
millions of Mohammedans in India cared little for the Turkish Sultan
or his proclamations. Through Bagdad, however, they hoped to strike
a blow at the English influence on the Persian Gulf. The English,
therefore, felt strongly that it was not enough to sit safely astride
the Tigris, but that a blow at Bagdad would produce a tremendous
political effect. It would practically prevent German communication
with Persia, and the Indian frontier.
As a matter of fact the Persian Gulf and the oil fields were safe so
long as the English held Kurna and Basra, and the Arabs were of no
special consequence. The real reason for the expedition was probably
that about this time matters were moving badly for the Allies. Serbia
was in trouble in the Balkans, Gallipoli was a failure, something it
seemed ought to be done to restore the British prestige. Up to this
time the Mesopotamia Expedition had been a great success, but it had
made no great impression on the world. The little villages in the hands
of the British had unknown names, but if Bagdad should be captured
Great Britain would have something to boast of; something that would
keep up its prestige among its Mohammedan subjects.
Before the expedition to Bagdad was determined on, there had been
several lively fights between the English forces and the Turks. On
March 3d a Turkish force numbering about twelve thousand appeared at
Ahwaz where the British had placed a small garrison to protect the pipe
line of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. The British retirement led to
heavy fighting, with severe losses.
A number of lively skirmishes followed, and then came the serious
attack against Shaiba. The Turkish army numbered about eighteen
thousand men, of whom eleven thousand were regulars. The fighting
lasted for several days, the Turks being reinforced. On the 14th of
April, however, the English attacked in turn and put the whole enemy
force to flight. The British lost about seven hundred officers and men,
and reported a Turkish loss of about six thousand. In their retreat
the Turks were attacked by their Arab allies, and suffered additional
losses. From that time till summer there were no serious contests,
although there were occasional skirmishes which turned out favorably to
the British.
By this time the Turks had collected a considerable army north of
Kurna, and on May 31st an expedition was made to disperse it. On
June 3d the British captured Amara, seventy-five miles above Kurna,
scattering the Turkish army. Early in July a similar expedition was
sent against Nasiriyeh, which led to serious fighting, the Turks being
badly defeated with a loss of over two thousand five hundred men.
Kut-el-Amara still remained, and early in August an expedition was
directed against that point. The Turks were found in great force, well
intrenched, and directed by German officers. The battle lasted for four
days. The English suffered great hardship on account of the scarcity of
water and the blinding heat, but on September 29th they drove the enemy
from the city and took possession. More than two thousand prisoners
were taken. The town was found thoroughly fortified, with an elaborate
system of trenches extending for miles, built in the true German
fashion. Its capture was the end of the summer campaign.
[Illustration: THE MESOPOTAMIAN SECTOR, WHERE THE BRITISH ROUTED THE
TURKISH ARMY]
The British now had at last made up their minds to push on to Bagdad.
General Townshend, whose work so far had been admirable, protested,
but Sir John Nixon, and the Indian military authorities, were strongly
in favor of the expedition. By October, Turkey was able to gather a
large army. She was fighting in Transcaucasia, Egypt, Gallipoli and
Mesopotamia. Little was going on in the first three of these fronts,
and she was able therefore to send to Mesopotamia almost a quarter of a
million men.
To meet these, General Townshend had barely fifteen thousand men, of
whom only one-third were white soldiers. He was backed by a flotilla
of boats of almost every kind,--river boats, motor launches, paddle
steamers, native punts. The British army was almost worn out by the
fighting during the intense heat of the previous summer. But their
success had given them confidence.
In the early days of October the advance began. For some days it
proceeded with no serious fighting. On the 23d of October it reached
Azizie, and was halted by a Turkish force numbering about four
thousand. These were soon routed, and the advance continued until
General Townshend arrived at Lajj, about seven miles from Ctesiphon,
where the Turks were found heavily intrenched and in great numbers.
Ctesiphon was a famous old city which had been the battle-ground of
Romans and Parthians, but was now mainly ruins. In these ruins,
however, the Turks found admirable shelter for nests of machine guns.
On the 21st of November General Townshend made his attack.
The Turks occupied two lines of intrenchments, and had about twenty
thousand men, the English about twelve thousand. General Townshend’s
plan was to divide his army into three columns. The first was to attack
the center of the first Turkish position. A second was directed at the
left of that position, and a third was to swing widely around and come
in on the rear of the Turkish force. This plan was entirely successful,
but the Turkish army was not routed, and retreated fighting desperately
to its second line. There it was reinforced and counter-attacked with
such vigor that it drove the British back to its old first trenches.
The next day the Turks were further reinforced and attacked again. The
British drove them back over and over, but found themselves unable to
advance. The Turks had lost enormously but the English had lost about
one-third of their strength, and were compelled to fall back. They
therefore returned on the 26th to Lajj, and ultimately, after continual
rear guard actions, to Kut. There they found themselves surrounded, and
there was nothing to do but to wait for help.
By this time the eyes of the world were upon the beleaguered British
army. Help was being hurried to them from India, but Germany also was
awake and Marshal von Der Goltz, who had been military instructor in
the Turkish army, was sent down to take command of the Turkish forces.
The town of Kut lies in the loop of the Tigris, making it almost an
island. There was an intrenched line across the neck of land on the
north, and the place could resist any ordinary assault. The great
difficulty was one of supplies. However, as the relieving force was on
the way, no great anxiety was felt. For some days there was constant
bombardment, which did no great damage. On the 23d an attempt was made
to carry the place by assault, but this too failed. The relieving
force, however, was having its troubles. These were the days of
floods, and progress was slow and at times almost impossible. Moreover,
the Turks were constantly resisting.
The relief expedition was composed of thirty thousand Indian troops,
two Anglo-Indian divisions, and the remnants of Townshend’s expedition,
a total of about ninety thousand men. General Sir Percy Lake was in
command of the entire force. The march began on January 6th. By January
8th the British had reached Sheikh Saad, where the Turks were defeated
in two pitched battles. On January 22d he had arrived at Umm-el-Hanna,
where the Turks had intrenched themselves.
After artillery bombardment the Turkish positions were attacked, but
heavy rains had converted the ground into a sea of mud, rendering
rapid movement impossible. The enemy’s fire was heavy and effective,
inflicting severe losses, and though every effort was made, the assault
failed.
For days the British troops bivouacked in driving rain on soaked and
sodden ground. Three times they were called upon to advance over a
perfectly flat country, deep in mud, and absolutely devoid of cover
against well-constructed and well-planned trenches, manned by a brave
and stubborn enemy, approximately their equal in numbers. They showed a
spirit of endurance and self-sacrifice of which their country may well
be proud.
But the repulse at Hanna did not discourage the British army. It was
decided to move up the left bank of the Tigris and attack the Turkish
position at the Dujailah redoubt. This meant a night march across the
desert with great danger that there would be no water supply and that,
unless the enemy was routed, the army would be in great danger.
General Lake says: “On the afternoon of March 7th, General Aylmer
assembled his subordinate commanders and gave his final instructions,
laying particular stress on the fact that the operation was designed to
effect a surprise, and that to prevent the enemy forestalling us, it
was essential that the first phase of the operation should be pushed
through with the utmost vigor. His dispositions were, briefly, as
follows: The greater part of a division under General Younghusband,
assisted by naval gunboats, controlled the enemy on the left bank. The
remaining troops were formed into two columns, under General Kemball
and General Keary respectively, a reserve of infantry, and the cavalry
brigade, being held at the Corps Commander’s own disposal. Kemball’s
column covered on the outer flank by the cavalry brigade was to make
a turning movement to attack the Dujailah redoubt from the south,
supported by the remainder of the force, operating from a position to
the east of the redoubt. The night march by this large force, which
led across the enemy’s front to a position on his right flank, was
a difficult operation, entailing movement over unknown ground, and
requiring most careful arrangement to attain success.”
Thanks to excellent staff work and good march discipline the troops
reached their allotted position apparently undiscovered by the enemy,
but while Keary’s column was in position at daybreak, ready to support
Kemball’s attack, the latter’s command did not reach the point selected
for its deployment in the Dujailah depression until more than an
hour later. This delay was highly prejudicial to the success of the
operation.
When, nearly three hours later, Kemball’s troops advanced to the
attack, they were strongly opposed by the enemy from trenches cleverly
concealed in the brushwood, and were unable to make further ground for
some time, though assisted by Keary’s attack upon the redoubt from the
east. The southern attack was now reinforced, and by 1 P. M. had pushed
forward to within five hundred yards of the redoubt, but concealed
trenches again stopped further progress and the Turks made several
counter-attacks with reinforcements which had by now arrived from the
direction of Magasis.
It was about this time that the Corps Commander received from his
engineer officers the unwelcome news that the water supply contained
in rain-water pools and in Dujailah depression, upon which he had
reckoned, was insufficient and could not be increased by digging. It
was clear, therefore, that unless the Dujailah redoubt could be carried
that day the scarcity of water would, of itself, compel the troops to
fall back. Preparations were accordingly made for a further assault on
the redoubt, and attacks were launched from the south and east under
cover of a heavy bombardment.
The attacking forces succeeded in gaining a foothold in the
redoubt. But here they were heavily counter-attacked by large enemy
reinforcements, and being subjected to an extremely rapid and accurate
shrapnel fire from concealed guns in the vicinity of Sinn After, they
were forced to fall back to the position from which they started. The
troops who had been under arms for some thirty hours, including a long
night march, were now much exhausted, and General Aylmer considered
that a renewal of the assault during the night could not be made with
any prospect of success. Next morning the enemy’s position was found
to be unchanged and General Aylmer, finding himself faced with the
deficiency of order already referred to, decided upon the immediate
withdrawal of his troops to Wadi, which was reached the same night.
For the next month the English were held in their positions by the
Tigris floods. On April 4th the floods had sufficiently receded to
permit of another attack upon Umm-el-Hanna, which this time was
successful. On April 8th the Turkish position at Sanna-i-yat was
attacked, but the English were repulsed. They then determined to
make another attempt to capture the Sinn After redoubt. On April
17th the fort of Beit-Aiessa, four miles from Es Sinn, on the left
bank, was captured after heavy bombardment, and held against serious
counter-attacks. On the 20th and 21st the Sanna-i-yat position was
bombarded and a vigorous assault was made, which met with some success.
The Turks, however, delivered a strong counter-attack, and succeeded in
forcing the British troops back.
General Lake says: “Persistent and repeated attempts on both banks
have thus failed, and it was known that at the outside not more than
six days’ supplies remained to the Kut garrison. The British troops
were nearly worn out. The same troops had advanced time and again
to assault positions strong by art and held by a determined enemy.
For eighteen consecutive days they had done all that men could do
to overcome, not only the enemy, but also exceptional climatic and
physical obstacles, and this on a scale of rations which was far from
being sufficient in view of the exertions they had undergone, but which
the shortage of river transports, had made it impossible to augment.
The need for rest was imperative.”
On April 28th the British garrison at Kut-el-Amara surrendered
unconditionally, after a heroic resistance of a hundred and forty-three
days. According to British figures the surrendered army was composed of
2,970 English and 6,000 Indian troops. The Turkish figures are 13,300.
The Turks also captured a large amount of booty, although General
Townshend destroyed most of his guns and munitions.
During the period in which Kut-el-Amara was besieged by the Turks, the
British troops had suffered much. The enemy bombarded the town almost
every day, but did little damage. The real foe was starvation. At first
the British were confident that a relief expedition would soon reach
them, and they amused themselves by cricket and hockey and fishing
in the river. By early February, however, it was found necessary
to reduce the rations, and a month later they were suffering from
hunger. Some little help was given them by airplanes, which brought
tobacco and some small quantities of supplies. Soon the horses and
the mules were slaughtered and eaten. As time went on the situation
grew desperate; till almost the end, however, they did not lose hope.
Through the wireless they were informed about the progress of the
relief expeditions and had even heard their guns in the distance. They
gradually grew, however, weaker and weaker, so that on the surrender
the troops in the first lines were too weak to march back with their
kits.
The Turks treated the prisoners in a chivalric manner; food and tobacco
was at once distributed, and all were interned in Anatolia, except
General Townshend and his staff, who were taken to Constantinople.
Later on it was General Townshend who was to have the honor of carrying
the Turkish plea for an armistice in the closing days of the war.
The surrender of Kut created a world-wide sensation. The loss of eight
thousand troops was, of course, not a serious matter, and the road to
India was still barred, but the moral effect was most unfortunate.
That the great British nation, whose power had been so respected in
the Orient, should now be forced to yield, was a great blow to its
prestige. In England, of course, there was a flood of criticism. It was
very plain that a mistake had been made. A commission was appointed to
inquire into the whole business. This committee reported to Parliament
on June 26, 1917, and the report created a great sensation. The
substance of the report was, that while the expedition was justifiable
from a political point of view, it was undertaken with insufficient
forces and inadequate preparation, and it sharply criticized those that
were responsible.
It seems plain that the military authorities in India under-estimated
their opponent. The report especially criticized General Sir
John Eccles Nixon, the former commander of the British forces in
Mesopotamia, who had urged the expedition, in spite of the objection of
General Townshend. Others sharing the blame were the Viceroy of India,
Baron Hardinge, General Sir Beauchamp Duff, Commander-in-Chief of the
British forces in India, and, in England, Major-General Sir Edmund
Barrow, Military Secretary of the India office, J. Austin Chamberlain,
Secretary for India, and the War Committee of the Cabinet. According
to the report, beside the losses incurred by the surrender more than
twenty-three thousand men were lost in the relieving expedition.
The general armament and equipment were declared to be not only
insufficient, but not up to the standard.
In consequence of this report Mr. Chamberlain resigned as secretary
for India. In the House of Commons, Mr. Balfour, Secretary of Foreign
Affairs, supported Lord Hardinge, who, at the time of the report,
was Under Secretary of Foreign Affairs. He declared the criticism of
Baron Hardinge to be grossly unjust. After some discussion the House
of Commons supported Mr. Balfour’s refusal to accept Baron Hardinge’s
resignation, by a vote of 176 to 81. It seems to be agreed that the
civil administration of India were not responsible for the blunders
of the expedition. Ten years before, Lord Kitchener, after a bitter
controversy with Lord Curzon, had made the military side of the Indian
Government free of all civilian criticism and control. The blunders
here were military blunders.
The English, of course, were not satisfied to leave the situation in
such a condition, and at once began their plans for a new attempt to
capture Bagdad. The summer campaign, however, was uneventful, though on
May 18th a band of Cossacks from the Russian armies in Persia joined
the British camp. A few days afterwards the British army went up the
Tigris and captured the Dujailah redoubt, where they had been so badly
defeated on the 8th of March. They then approached close to Kut, but
the weather was unsuitable, and there was now no object in capturing
the city.
In August Sir Percy Lake was succeeded by Lieutenant-General Sir
Frederick Stanley Maude, who carefully and thoroughly proceeded to
prepare for an expedition which should capture Bagdad. A dispatch
from General Maude dated July 10, 1917, gives a full account of this
expedition. It was thoroughly successful. This time with a sufficient
army and a thorough equipment the British found no difficulties, and
on February 26th they captured Kut-el-Amara, not after a hard-fought
battle, but as the result of a successful series of small engagements.
The Turks kept up a steady resistance, but the British blood was up.
They were remembering General Townshend’s surrender, and the Turks were
driven before them in great confusion.
The capture of Kut, however, was not an object in itself, and the
British pushed steadily on up the Tigris. The Turks occasionally made
a stand, but without effect. On the 28th of February the English had
arrived at Azizie, half way to Bagdad, where a halt was made. On the
5th of March the advance was renewed. The Ctesiphon position, which
had defied General Townshend, was found to be strongly intrenched,
but empty. On March 7th the enemy made a stand on the River Diala,
which enters the Tigris eight miles below Bagdad. Some lively fighting
followed, the enemy resisting four attempts to cross the Diala.
However, on March 10th the British forces crossed, and were now close
to Bagdad. The enemy suddenly retired and the British troops found that
their main opponent was a dust storm. The enemy retired beyond Bagdad,
and on March 11th the city was occupied by the English.
The fall of Bagdad was an important event. It cheered the Allies, and
proved, especially to the Oriental world, the power of the British
army. Those who originally planned its capture had been right, but
those who were to carry out the plan had not done their duty. Under
General Maude it was a comparatively simple operation, though full of
admirable details, and it produced all the good effects expected. The
British, of course, did not stop at Bagdad. The city itself is not
of strategic importance. The surrounding towns were occupied and an
endeavor was made to conciliate the inhabitants. The real object of the
expedition was attained.
[Illustration: BAGDAD THE MAGNIFICENT FALLS TO THE BRITISH
Lieutenant-General Sir Frederick Stanley Maude, Commander-in-Chief of
the British Mesopotamian Army, making his triumphal entry into the
ancient city at the head of his victorious army on March 11, 1917.]
CHAPTER VIII
IMMORTAL VERDUN
France was revealed to herself, to Germany and to the world as the
heroic defender of civilization, as a defender defying death in the
victory of Verdun. There, with the gateway to Paris lying open at its
back, the French army, in the longest pitched battle in all history,
held like a cold blue rock against the uttermost man-power and
resources of the German army.
General von Falkenhayn, Chief of the German General Staff and military
dictator of the Teutonic allies, there met disaster and disgrace. There
the mettle of the Crown Prince was tested and he was found to be merely
a thing of straw, a weak creature whose mind was under the domination
of von Falkenhayn.
For the tremendous offensive which was planned to end the war by one
terrific thrust, von Falkenhayn had robbed all the other fronts of
effective men and munitions. Field Marshal von Hindenburg and his
crafty Chief of Staff, General Ludendorff, had planned a campaign
against Russia designed to put that tottering military Colossus out
of the war. The plans were upon a scale that might well have proved
successful. The Kaiser, influenced by the Crown Prince and by von
Falkenhayn, decreed that the Russian campaign must be postponed and
that von Hindenburg must send his crack troops to join the army of the
Crown Prince fronting Verdun. Ludendorff promptly resigned as Chief
of Staff to von Hindenburg and suggested that the Field Marshal also
resign. That grim old warrior declined to take this action, preferring
to remain idle in East Prussia and watch what he predicted would be a
useless effort on the western front. His warning to the General Staff
was explicit, but von Falkenhayn coolly ignored the message.
[Illustration: IMMORTAL VERDUN, WHERE THE FRENCH HELD THE GERMANS WITH
THE INSPIRING SLOGAN, “THEY SHALL NOT PASS”]
Why did Germany select this particular point for its grand offensive?
The answer is to be found in a demand made by the great Junker
associations of Germany in May, 1915, nine months before the attack
was undertaken. That demand was to the effect that Verdun should be
attacked and captured. They declared that the Verdun fortifications
made a menacing salient thrust into the rich iron fields of the Briey
basin. From this metalliferous field of Lorraine came the ore that
supplied eighty per cent of the steel required for German and Austrian
guns and munitions. These fields of Briey were only twenty miles from
the great guns of Verdun. They were French territory at the beginning
of the war and had been seized by the army of the Crown Prince,
co-operating with the Army of Metz because of their immense value to
the Germans in war making.
As a preliminary to the battle, von Falkenhayn placed a semicircle of
huge howitzers and rifles around the field of Briey. Then assembling
the vast forces drained from all the fronts and having erected
ammunition dumps covering many acres, the great battle commenced with
a surprise attack upon the village of Haumont on February 21, 1916.
The first victory of the Germans at that point was an easy one. The
great fort of Douaumont was the next objective. This was taken on
February 25th after a concentrated bombardment that for intensity
surpassed anything that heretofore had been shown in the war.
Von Falkenhayn, personally superintending the disposition of guns and
men, had now penetrated the outer defenses of Verdun. The tide was
running against the French, and shells, more shells for the guns of all
caliber; men, more men for the earthworks surrounding the devoted city
were needed. The narrow-gauge railway connecting Verdun with the great
French depots of supplies was totally inadequate for the transportation
burdens suddenly cast upon it. In this desperate emergency a transport
system was born of necessity, a system that saved Verdun. It was fleet
upon fleet of motor trucks, all sizes, all styles; anything that could
pack a few shells or a handful of men was utilized. The backbone of
the system was a great fleet of trucks driven by men whose average
daily rest was four hours, and upon whose horizon-blue uniforms the
stains of snow and sleet, of dust and mud, were indelibly fixed
through the winter, spring, summer and fall of 1916, for the glorious
engagement continued from February 21st until November 2d, when the
Germans were forced into full retreat from the field of honor, the
evacuation of Fort Vaux putting a period to Germany’s disastrous plan
and to von Falkenhayn’s military career.
Lord Northcliffe, describing the early days of the immortal battle,
wrote:
“Verdun is, in many ways, the most extraordinary of battles. The
mass of metal used on both sides is far beyond all parallel; the
transformation on the Douaumont Ridge was more suddenly dramatic than
even the battle of the Marne; and, above all, the duration of the
conflict already looks as if it would surpass anything in history. More
than a month has elapsed since, by the kindness of General Joffre and
General Pétain, I was able to watch the struggle from various vital
viewpoints. The battle had then been raging with great intensity for
a fortnight, and, as I write, four to five thousand guns are still
thundering round Verdun. Impossible, therefore, any man to describe the
entire battle. The most one can do is to set down one’s impressions of
the first phases of a terrible conflict, the end of which cannot be
foreseen.
“My chief impression is one of admiration for the subtle powers of
mind of the French High Command. General Joffre and General Castelnau
are men with especially fine intellects tempered to terrible keenness.
Always they have had to contend against superior numbers. In 1870,
when they were subalterns, their country lost the advantage of its
numerous population by abandoning general military service at a time
when Prussia was completely realizing the idea of a nation in arms. In
1914, when they were commanders, France was inferior to a still greater
degree in point of numbers to Prussianized Germany. In armament, also,
France was inferior at first to her enemy. The French High Command
has thus been trained by adversity to do all that human intellect can
against almost overwhelming hostile material forces. General Joffre,
General Castelnau--and, later, General Pétain, who at a moment’s notice
displaced General Herr--had to display genius where the Germans were
exhibiting talent, and the result is to be seen at Verdun. They there
caught the enemy in a series of traps of a kind hitherto unknown in
modern warfare--something elemental, and yet subtle, neo-primitive, and
befitting the atavistic character of the Teuton. They caught him in a
web of his own unfulfilled boasts.
“The enemy began by massing a surprising force on the western front.
Tremendous energy and organizing power were the marks of his supreme
efforts to obtain a decision. It was usually reckoned that the Germans
maintain on all fronts a field army of about seventy-four and a half
army corps, which at full strength number three million men. Yet, while
holding the Russians from Riga to the south of the Pripet Marshes,
and maintaining a show of force in the Balkans, Germany seems to have
succeeded in bringing up nearly two millions and a half of men for her
grand spring offensive in the west. At one time her forces in France
and Flanders were only ninety divisions. But troops and guns were
withdrawn in increasing numbers from Russia and Serbia in December,
1915, until there were, it is estimated, a hundred and eighteen
divisions on the Franco-British-Belgian front. A large number of
six-inch and twelve-inch Austrian howitzers were added to the enormous
Krupp batteries. Then a large proportion of new recruits of the 1916
class were moved into Rhineland depots to serve as drafts for the
fifty-nine army corps, and it is thought that nearly all the huge shell
output that had accumulated during the winter was transported westward.
“The French Staff reckoned that Verdun would be attacked when the
ground had dried somewhat in the March winds. It was thought that the
enemy movement would take place against the British front in some of
the sectors of which there were chalk undulations, through which the
rains of winter quickly drained. The Germans skilfully encouraged this
idea by making an apparent preliminary attack at Lions, on a five-mile
front with rolling gas-clouds and successive waves of infantry. During
this feint the veritable offensive movement softly began on Saturday,
February 19, 1916, when the enormous masses of hostile artillery west,
east, and north of the Verdun salient started registering on the French
positions. Only in small numbers did the German guns fire, in order not
to alarm their opponents. But even this trial bombardment by shifts
was a terrible display of power, calling forth all the energies of
the outnumbered French gunners to maintain the artillery duels that
continued day and night until Monday morning, February 21st.
“The enemy seems to have maintained a bombardment all round General
Herr’s lines on February 21, 1916, but this general battering was
done with a thousand pieces of field artillery. The grand masses of
heavy howitzers were used in a different way. At a quarter past seven
in the morning they concentrated on the small sector of advanced
intrenchments near Brabant and the Meuse; twelve-inch shells fell
with terrible precision every few yards, according to the statements
made by the French troops. I afterwards saw a big German shell, from
at least six miles distant from my place of observation, hit quite a
small target. So I can well believe that, in the first bombardment of
French positions, which had been photographed from the air and minutely
measured and registered by the enemy gunners in the trial firing, the
great, destructive shots went home with extraordinary effect. The
trenches were not bombarded--they were obliterated. In each small
sector of the six-mile northward bulge of the Verdun salient the work
of destruction was done with surprising quickness.
“After the line from Brabant to Haumont was smashed, the main fire
power was directed against the other end of the bow at Herbebois,
Ornes, and Maucourt. Then when both ends of the bow were severely
hammered, the central point of the Verdun salient, Caures Woods, was
smothered in shells of all sizes, poured in from east, north and west.
In this manner almost the whole enormous force of heavy artillery was
centered upon mile after mile of the French front. When the great guns
lifted over the lines of craters, the lighter field artillery, placed
row after row in front of the wreckage, maintained an unending fire
curtain over the communicating saps and support intrenchments.
“Then came the second surprising feature in the new German system of
attack. No waves of storming infantry swept into the battered works.
Only strong patrols at first came cautiously forward, to discover if
it were safe for the main body of troops to advance and reorganize the
French line so as to allow the artillery to move onward. There was thus
a large element of truth in the marvelous tales afterwards told by
German prisoners. Their commanders thought it would be possible to do
all the fighting with long-range artillery, leaving the infantry to
act as squatters to the great guns and occupy and rebuild line after
line of the French defenses without any serious hand-to-hand struggles.
All they had to do was to protect the gunners from surprise attack,
while the guns made an easy path for them and also beat back any
counter-attack in force.
“But, ingenious as was this scheme for saving the man-power of
Germany by an unparalleled expenditure of shell, it required for full
success the co-operation of the French troops. But the French did not
co-operate. Their High Command had continually improved their system
of trench defense in accordance with the experiences of their own
hurricane bombardments in Champagne and the Carency sector. General
Castelnau, the acting Commander-in-Chief on the French front, was
indeed the inventor of hurricane fire tactics, which he had used for
the first time in February, 1915, in Champagne. When General Joffre
took over the conduct of all French operations, leaving to General
Castelnau the immediate control of the front in France, the victor of
the battle of Nancy weakened his advance lines and then his support
lines, until his troops actually engaged in fighting were very little
more than a thin covering body, such as is thrown out towards the
frontier while the main forces connect well behind.
“We shall see the strategical effect of this extraordinary measure in
the second phase of the Verdun battle, but its tactical effect was to
leave remarkably few French troops exposed to the appalling tempest
of German and Austrian shells. The fire-trench was almost empty, and
in many cases the real defenders of the French line were men with
machine guns, hidden in dugouts at some distance from the photographed
positions at which the German gunners aimed. The batteries of light
guns, which the French handled with the flexibility and continuity of
fire of Maxims, were also concealed in widely scattered positions. The
main damage caused by the first intense bombardment was the destruction
of all the telephone wires along the French front. In one hour the
German guns plowed up every yard of ground behind the observing
posts and behind the fire-trench. Communications could only be slowly
re-established by messengers, so that many parties of men had to fight
on their own initiative, with little or no combination of effort with
their comrades.
“Yet, desperate as were their circumstances, they broke down the German
plan for capturing trenches without an infantry attack. They caught the
patrols and annihilated them, and then swept back the disillusioned
and reluctant main bodies of German troops. First, the bombing parties
were felled, then the sappers as they came forward to repair the line
for their infantry, and at last the infantry itself in wave after wave
of field-gray. The small French garrison of every center of resistance
fought with cool, deadly courage, and often to the death.
“Artillery fire was practically useless against them, for though
their tunnel shelters were sometimes blown in by the twelve-inch
shells, which they regarded as their special terror by reason of their
penetrative power and wide blast, even the Germans had not sufficient
shells to search out all their underground chambers, every one of which
have two or three exits.
“The new organization of the French Machine-gun Corps was a fine factor
in the eventual success. One gun fired ten thousand rounds daily for
a week, most of the positions selected being spots from which each
German infantry advance would be enfiladed and shattered. Then the
French 75’s which had been masked during the overwhelming fire of the
enemy howitzers, came unexpectedly into action when the German infantry
attacks increased in strength. Near Haumont, for example, eight
successive furious assaults were repulsed by three batteries of 75’s.
One battery was then spotted by the Austrian twelve-inch guns, but it
remained in action until all its ammunition was exhausted. The gunners
then blew up their guns and retired, with the loss of only one man.
[Illustration: AMMUNITION FOR THE GUNS
Canadian narrow-gauge line taking ammunition up the line through a
shattered village.]
[Illustration: HOW VERDUN WAS SAVED
The motor transport never faltered when the railroads were put out of
action.]
“Von Falkenhayn had increased the Crown Prince’s army from the fourteen
divisions--that battled at Douaumont Fort--to twenty-five divisions.
In April he added five more divisions to the forces around Verdun by
weakening the effectives in other sectors and drawing more troops from
the Russian front. It was rumored that von Hindenburg was growing
restive and complaining that the wastage at Verdun would tell against
the success of the campaign on the Riga-Dvinsk front, which was to open
when the Baltic ice melted.
“Great as was the wastage of life, it was in no way immediately
decisive. But when the expenditure of shells almost outran the highest
speed of production of the German munition factories, and the wear
on the guns was more than Krupp and Skoda could make good, there was
danger to the enemy in beginning another great offensive likely to
overtax his shellmakers and gunmakers.”
Immortal and indomitable France had won over her foe more power than
she had possessed even after the battle of the Marne. If her Allies,
with the help of Japan and the United States, could soon overtake
the production of the German and Austrian munition factories, it
was possible that Verdun, so close to Sedan, might become one of the
turning points of the war.
Throughout the entire summer Verdun, with the whole population of
France roused to the supreme heights of heroism behind it, held like a
rock. Wave after wave of Germans in gray-green lines were sent against
the twenty-five miles of earthworks, while the French guns took their
toll of the crack German regiments. German dead lay upon the field
until exposed flesh became the same ghastly hue of their uniforms. No
Man’s Land around Verdun was a waste and a stench.
General Joffre’s plan was very simple. It was to hold out. As was
afterwards revealed, much to the satisfaction of the French people, Sir
Douglas Haig had placed himself completely at the service of the French
Commander-in-Chief, and had suggested that he should use the British
army to weaken the thrust at Verdun. But General Joffre had refused the
proffered help. No man knew better than he what his country, with its
exceedingly low birthrate, was suffering on the Meuse. He had but to
send a telegram to British Headquarters, and a million Britons, with
thousands of heavy guns, would fling themselves upon the German lines
and compel Falkenhayn to divide his shell output, his heavy artillery,
and his millions of men between Verdun and the Somme. But General
Joffre, instead of sending the telegram in question, merely dispatched
officers to British Headquarters to assure and calm the chafing
Scotsman commanding the military forces of the British Empire.
Throughout that long summer the battle cry of Verdun, “_Ne passeront
pas!_” (“They shall not pass!”), was an inspiration to the French army
and to the world. Then as autumn drifted its red foliage over the
heights surrounding the bloody field, the French struck back. General
Nivelle, who had taken command at Verdun under Joffre, commenced a
series of attacks and a persistent pressure against the German forces
on both sides of the Meuse. These thrusts culminated in a sudden
sweeping attack which on October 24th, resulted in the recapture by
Nivelle’s forces of Fort Douaumont and on November 2d, in the recapture
of Fort Vaux.
Thus ended in glory the most inspiring battle in the long and honorable
history of France.
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:
Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.
Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.
Archaic or variant spelling has been retained.
New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the
public domain.
*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 16282 ***