CHAPTER XXX

GEN. PERSHING'S OWN STORY

American Operations in France Described by the Commander-in- Chief—Glowing Tribute to His Men.

A remarkable summary of the operations of the American Expeditionary Force in France from the date of its organization, May 26, 1917, to the signing of the armistice November 11, 1918, was cabled to the Secretary of War by General Pershing on November 20, 1918. His account of the active military operations was as follows:

COMBAT OPERATIONS

During our period of training in the trenches some of our divisions had engaged the enemy in local combats, the most important of which was Seicheprey by the 26th on April 20, 1918, in the Toul sector, but none had participated in action as a unit. The 1st Division, which had passed through the preliminary stages of training, had gone to the trenches for its first period of instruction at the end of October, and by March 21, when the German offensive in Picardy began, we had four divisions with experience in the trenches, all of which were equal to any demands of battle action. The crisis which this offensive developed was such that our occupation of an American sector must be postponed.

On March 28 I placed at the disposal of Marshal Foch, who had been agreed upon as Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Armies, all of our forces to be used as he might decide. At his request the 1st Division was transferred from the Toul sector to a position in reserve at Chaumont en Vexin. As German superiority in numbers required prompt action, an agreement was reached at the Abbeville conference of the allied Premiers and commanders and myself on May 2 by which British shipping was to transport ten American divisions to the British Army area, where they were to be trained and equipped and additional British shipping was to be provided for as many divisions as possible for use elsewhere.

On April 26 the 1st Division had gone into the line in the Montdidier salient on the Picardy battle-front. Tactics had been suddenly revolutionized to those of open warfare, and our men, confident of the results of their training, were eager for the test. On the morning of May 28 this division attacked the commanding German position in its front, taking with splendid dash the town of Cantigny and all other objectives, which were organized and held steadfastly against vicious counterattacks and galling artillery fire. Although local, this brilliant action had an electrical effect, as it demonstrated our fighting qualities under extreme battle conditions, and also that the enemy's troops were not altogether invincible.

The German Aisne offensive, which began on May 27, had advanced rapidly toward the River Marne and Paris, and the Allies faced a crisis equally as grave as that of the Picardy offensive in March. Again every available man was placed at Marshal Foch's disposal, and the 3d Division, which had just come from its preliminary training: in the trenches, was hurried to the Marne. Its motorized machine-gun battalion preceded the other units and successfully held the bridgehead at the Marne, opposite Chateau-Thierry. The 2d Division, in reserve near Montdidier, was sent by motor trucks and other available transport to check the progress of the enemy toward Paris. The division attacked and retook the town and railroad station at Bouresches and sturdily held its ground against the enemy's best guard divisions. In the battle of Belleau Wood, which followed, our men proved their superiority and gained a strong tactical position, with far greater loss to the enemy than to ourselves. On July 1, before the Second was relieved, it captured the village of Vaux with most splendid precision.

Meanwhile our 2d Corps, under Major-General George W. Read, had been organized for the command of our divisions with the British, which were held back in training areas or assigned to second-line defences. Five of the ten divisions were withdrawn from the British area in June, three to relieve divisions in Lorraine and in the Vosges and two to the Paris area to join the group of American divisions which stood between the city and any further advance of the enemy in that direction.

AMERICAN DIVISIONS IN THE FIGHTING

The great June, July troop movement from the States was well under way, and, although these troops were to be given some preliminary training before being put into action, their very presence warranted the use of all the older divisions in the confidence that we did not lack reserves. Elements of the 42d Division were in the line east of Rheims against the German offensive of July 15, and held their ground unflinchingly. On the right flank of this offensive four companies of the 28th Division were in position in face of the advancing waves of the German infantry. The 3d Division was holding the bank of the Marne from the bend east of the mouth of the Surmelin to the west of Mezy, opposite Chateau-Thierry, where a large force of German infantry sought to force a passage under support of powerful artillery concentrations and under cover of smoke screens. A single regiment of the 3d wrote one of the most brilliant pages in our military annals on this occasion. It prevented the crossing at certain points on its front while, on either flank, the Germans, who had gained a footing, pressed forward. Our men, firing in three directions, met the German attacks with counterattacks at critical points and succeeded in throwing two German divisions into complete confusion, capturing 600 prisoners.

The great force of the German Chateau-Thierry offensive established the deep Marne salient, but the enemy was taking chances, and the vulnerability of this pocket to attack might be turned to his disadvantage. Seizing this opportunity to support my conviction, every division with any sort of training was made available for use in a counteroffensive. The place of honor in the thrust toward Soissons on July 18 was given to our 1st and 2d Divisions in company with chosen French divisions. Without the usual brief warning of a preliminary bombardment, the massed French and American artillery, firing by the map, laid down its rolling barrage at dawn while the infantry began its charge. The tactical handling of our troops under these trying conditions was excellent throughout the action. The enemy brought up large numbers of reserves and made a stubborn defense, both with machine guns and artillery, but through five days' fighting the 1st Division continued to advance until it had gained the heights above Soissons and captured the village of Berzy-le-Sec. The 2d Division took Beau Repaire farm and Vierzy in a very rapid advance and reached a position in front of Tigny at the end of its second day. These two divisions captured 7,000 prisoners and over 100 pieces of artillery.

The 26th Division, which, with a French division, was under command of our 1st Corps, acted as a pivot of the movement toward Soissons. On the 18th it took the village of Torcy while the 3d Division was crossing the Marne in pursuit of the retiring enemy. The 26th attacked again on the 21st, and the enemy withdrew past the Chateau-Thierry-Soissons road. The 3d Division, continuing its progress, took the heights of Mont St. Pere and the villages of Charteves and Jaulgonne in the face of both machine gun and artillery fire.

On the 24th, after the Germans had fallen back from Trugny and Epieds, our 42d Division, which had been brought over from the Champagne, relieved the Twenty-sixth, and fighting its way through the Foret de Fere, overwhelmed the nest of machine guns in its path. By the 27th it had reached the Ourcq, whence the 3d and 4th Divisions were already advancing, while the French divisions with which we were cooperating were moving forward at other points.

The 3d Division had made its advance into Roncheres Wood on the 29th and was relieved for rest by a brigade of the Thirty-second. The Forty-second and Thirty-second undertook the task of conquering the heights beyond Cierges, the Forty-second capturing Sergy and the Thirty-second capturing Hill 230, both American divisions joining in the pursuit of the enemy to the Vesle, and thus the operation of reducing the salient was finished. Meanwhile the Forty-second was relieved by the Fourth at Chery-Chartreuve, and the Thirty-second by the Twenty-eighth, while the 77th Division took up a position on the Vesle. The operations of these divisions on the Vesle were under the 3d Corps, Maj.-Gen. Robert L. Bullard commanding.

BATTLE OF ST. MIHIEL

With the reduction of the Marne salient, we could look forward to the concentration of our divisions in our own zone. In view of the forth-coming operation against the St. Mihiel salient, which had long been planned as our first offensive action on a large scale, the First Army was organized on August 10 under my personal command. While American units had held different divisional and corps sectors along the western front, there had not been up to this time, for obvious reasons, a distinct American sector; but, in view of the important parts the American forces were now to play, it was necessary to take over a permanent portion of the line. Accordingly, on August 30, the line beginning at Port sur Seille, east of the Moselle and extending to the west through St. Mihiel, thence north to a point opposite Verdun, was placed under my command. The American sector was afterward extended across the Meuse to the western edge of the Argonne Forest, and included the 2d Colonial French, which held the point of the salient, and the 17th French Corps, which occupied the heights above Verdun.

The preparation for a complicated operation against the formidable defenses in front of us included the assembling of divisions and of corps and army artillery, transport, aircraft, tanks, ambulances, the location of hospitals, and the molding together of all of the elements of a great modern army with its own railroads, supplied directly by our own Service of Supply, The concentration for this operation, which was to be a surprise, involved the movement, mostly at night, of approximately 600,000 troops, and required for its success the most careful attention to every detail.

The French were generous in giving us assistance in corps and army artillery, with its personnel, and we were confident from the start of our superiority over the enemy in guns of all calibers. Our heavy guns were able to reach Metz and to interfere seriously with German rail movements. The French Independent Air Force was placed under my command which, together with the British bombing squadrons and our air forces, gave us the largest assembly of aviation that had ever been engaged in one operation on the Western front.

From Les Eparges around the nose of the salient at St. Mihiel to the Moselle River the line was roughly forty miles long and situated on commanding ground greatly strengthened by artificial defenses. Our 1st Corps (82d, 90th, 5th and 2d Divisions), under command of Major-Gen. Hunter Liggett, restrung its right on Pont-a-Mousson, with its left joining our 3d Corps (the 89th, 42d and 1st Divisions), under Major-Gen. Joseph T. Dickman, in line to Xivray, were to swing toward Vigneulles on the pivot of the Moselle River for the initial assault. From Xivray to Mouilly the 2d Colonial French Corps was in line in the center, and our 5th Corps, under command of Major-Gen. George H. Cameron, with our 26th Division and a French division at the western base of the salient, were to attack three different hills—Les Eparges, Combres and Amaramthe. Our 1st Corps had in reserve the 78th Division, our 4th Corps the 3d Division, and our First Army the 35th and 91st Divisions, with the 80th and 33d available. It should be understood that our corps organizations are very elastic, and that we have at no time had permanent assignments of divisions to corps.

After four hours' artillery preparations, the seven American divisions in the front line advanced at 5 a.m. on September 12, assisted by a limited number of tanks manned partly by Americans and partly by French. These divisions, accompanied by groups of wire cutters and others armed with bangalore torpedoes, went through the successive bands of barbed wire that protected the enemy's front line and support trenches, in irresistible waves on schedule time, breaking down all defense of an enemy demoralized by the great volume of our artillery fire and our sudden approach out of the fog.

Our 1st Corps advanced to Thiaucourt, while our 4th Corps curved back to the southwest through Nonsard. The 2d Colonial French Corps made the slight advance required of it on very difficult ground, and the 5th Corps took its three ridges and repulsed a counterattack. A rapid march brought reserve regiments of a division of the 5th Corps into Vigneulles in the early morning, where it linked up with patrols of our 4th Corps, closing the salient and forming a new line west of Thiaucourt to Vigneulles and beyond Fresnes-en-Woevre. At the cost of only 7, casualties, mostly light, we had taken 16,000 prisoners and 443 guns, a great quantity of material, released the inhabitants of many villages from enemy domination, and established our lines in a position to threaten Metz. This signal success of the American First Army in its first offensive was of prime importance. The Allies found they had a formidable army to aid them, and the enemy learned finally that he had one to reckon with.

MEUSE-ARGONNE OFFENSIVE, FIRST PHASE

On the day after we had taken the St. Mihiel salient, much of our corps and army artillery which had operated at St. Mihiel, and our divisions in reserve at other points, were already on the move toward the area back of the line between the Meuse River and the western edge of the forest of Argonne. With the exception of St. Mihiel, the old German front line from Switzerland to the east of Rheims was still intact. In the general attack all along the line, the operation assigned the American Army as the hinge of this allied offensive was directed toward the important railroad communications of the German armies through Mezieres and Sedan. The enemy must hold fast to this part of his lines or the withdrawal of his forces with four years' accumulation of plants and material would be dangerously imperiled.

The German Army had as yet shown no demoralization, and, while the mass of its troops had suffered in morale, its first-class divisions, and notably its machine-gun defense, were exhibiting remarkable tactical efficiency as well as courage. The German General Staff was fully aware of the consequences of a success on the Meuse-Argonne line. Certain that he would do everything in his power to oppose us, the action was planned with as much secrecy as possible and was undertaken with the determination to use all our divisions in forcing decision. We expected to draw the best German divisions to our front and to consume them while the enemy was held under grave apprehension lest our attack should break his line, which it was our firm purpose to do.

Our right flank was protected by the Meuse, while our left embraced the Argonne Forest, whose ravines, hills, and elaborate defense, screened by dense thickets, had been generally considered impregnable. Our order of battle from right to left was the 3d Corps from the Meuse to Malancourt, with the 33d, 80th and 4th Divisions in line, and the 3d Division as corps reserve; the 5th Corps from Malancourt to Vauquois, with 79th, 87th and 91st Divisions in line, and the 32d in corps reserve, and the 1st Corps, from Vauquois to Vienne le Chateau, with 35th, 28th and 77th Divisions in line, and the 92d in corps reserve. The army reserve consisted of the 1st, 29th and 82d Divisions.

On the night of September 25 our troops quietly took the place of the French, who thinly held the line of this sector, which had long been inactive. In the attack which began on the 26th we drove through the barbed wire entanglements and the sea of shell craters across No Man's Land, mastering all the first-line defences. Continuing on the 27th and 28th, against machine guns and artillery of an increasing number of enemy reserve divisions, we penetrated to a depth of from three to seven miles and took the village of Montfaucon and its commanding hill and Exermont, Gercourt, Cuisy, Septsarges, Malancourt, Ivoiry, Epinonville, Charpentry, Very and other villages. East of the Meuse one of our divisions, which was with the 2d Colonial French Corps, captured Marcheville and Rieville, giving further protection to the flank of our main body. We had taken 10,000 prisoners, we had gained our point of forcing th$ battle into the open, and were prepared for the enemy's reaction, which was bound to come, as he had good roads and ample railroad facilities for bringing up his artillery and reserves.

In the chill rain of dark nights our engineers had to build new roads across spongy shell-torn areas, repair broken roads beyond No Man's Land, and build bridges. Our gunners, with no thought of sleep, put their shoulders to wheels and drag-ropes to bring their guns through the mire in support of the infantry, now under the increasing fire of the enemy's artillery. Our attack had taken the enemy by surprise, but quickly recovering himself, he began to fire counterattacks in strong force, supported by heavy bombardments, with large quantities of gas. From September 28 until October 4 we maintained the offensive against patches of woods defended by snipers and continuous lines of machine guns, and pushed forward our guns and transport, seizing strategical points in preparation for further attacks.

OTHER UNITS WITH ALLIES

Other divisions attached to the allied armies were doing their part. It was the fortune of our 2d Corps, composed of the 27th and 30th Divisions, which had remained with the British, to have a place of honor in cooperation with the Australian Corps on September 29 and October in the assault on the Hindenburg Line where the St. Quentin Canal passes through a tunnel under a ridge. The 30th Division speedily broke through the main line of defense for all its objectives, while the 27th pushed on impetuously through the main line until some of its elements reached Gouy. In the midst of the maze of trenches and shell craters and under crossfire from machine guns the other elements fought desperately against odds. In this and in later actions, from October 6 to October 19, our 2d Corps captured over 6,000 prisoners and advanced over thirteen miles. The spirit and aggressiveness of these divisions have been highly praised by the British Army commander under whom they served.

On October 2-9 our 2d and 36th Divisions were sent to assist the French in an important attack against the old German positions before Rheims. The 2d conquered the complicated defense works on their front against a persistent defense worthy of the grimmest period of trench warfare and attacked the strongly held wooded hill of Blanc Mont, which they captured in a second assault, sweeping over it with consummate dash and skill. This division then repulsed strong counterattacks before the village and cemetery of Ste. Etienne and took the town, forcing the Germans to fall back from before Rheims and yield positions they had held since September, 1914. On October 9 the 36th Division relieved the 2d, and in its first experience under fire withstood very severe artillery bombardment and rapidly took up the pursuit of the enemy, now retiring behind the Aisne.

MEUSE-ARGONNE OFFENSIVE, SECOND PHASE

The allied progress elsewhere cheered the efforts of our men in this crucial contest, as the German command threw in more and more first-class troops to stop our advance. We made steady headway in the almost impenetrable and strongly held Argonne Forest, for, despite this reinforcement, it was our army that was doing the driving. Our aircraft was increasing in skill and numbers and forcing the issue, and our infantry and artillery were improving rapidly with each new experience. The replacements fresh from home were put into exhausted divisions with little time for training, but they had the advantage of serving beside men who knew their business and who had almost become veterans overnight. The enemy had taken every advantage of the terrain, which especially favored the defense by a prodigal use of machine guns manned by highly trained veterans and by using his artillery at short ranges. In the face of such strong frontal positions we should have been unable to accomplish and progress according to previously accepted standards, but I had every confidence in our aggressive tactics and the courage of our troops.

On October 4 the attack was renewed all along our front. The 3d Corps, tilting to the left, followed the Brieulles-Cunel Road; our 5th Corps took Gesnes, while the 1st Corps advanced for over two miles along the irregular valley of the Aire River and in the wooded hills of the Argonne that bordered the river, used by the enemy with all his art and weapons of defense. This sort of fighting continued against an enemy striving to hold every foot of ground and whose very strong counterattacks challenged us at every point. On the 7th the 1st Corps captured Chatel-Chenery and continued along the river to Cornay. On the east of the Meuse sector one of the two divisions cooeperating with the French, captured Consenvoye and the Haumont Woods. On the 9th the 5th Corps, in its progress up the Aire, took Fleville, and the 3d Corps, which had continuous fighting against odds, was working its way through Briueulles and Cunel. On the 10th we had cleared the Argonne Forest of the enemy.

It was now necessary to constitute a second army, and on October 9 the immediate command of the First Army was turned over to Lieut.-Gen. Hunter Liggett. The command of the Second Army, whose divisions occupied a sector in the Woevre, was given to Lieut.-Gen. Robert L. Bullard, who had been commander of the 1st Division and then of the 3d Corps. Major-Gen. Dickman was transferred to the command of the 1st Corps, while the 5th Corps was placed under Major-Gen. Charles P. Summerall, who had recently commanded the 1st Division. Major-Gen. John L. Hines, who had gone rapidly up from regimental to division commander, was assigned to the 3d Corps. These four officers had been in France from the early days of the expedition and had learned their lessons in the school of practical warfare.

Our constant pressure against the enemy brought day by day more prisoners, mostly survivors from machine-gun nests captured in fighting at close quarters. On October 18 there was very fierce fighting in the Caures Woods east of the Meuse and in the Ormont Woods. On the 14th 1st Corps took St. Juvin, and the 5th Corps, in hand-to-hand encounters, entered the formidable Kriemhilde line, where the enemy had hoped to check us indefinitely. Later the 5th Corps penetrated further the Kriemhilde line, and the 1st Corps took Champignuelles and the important town of Grandpre. Our dogged offensive was wearing down the enemy, who continued desperately to throw his best troops against us, thus weakening his line in front of our Allies and making their advance less difficult.

DIVISIONS IN BELGIUM

Meanwhile we were not only able to continue the battle, but our 37th and 31st Divisions were hastily withdrawn from our front and dispatched to help the French Army in Belgium. Detraining in the neighborhood of Ypres, these divisions advanced by rapid stages to the fighting line and were assigned to adjacent French corps. On October 31, in continuation of the Flanders offensive, they attacked and methodically broke down all enemy resistance. On Nov. 3 the 37th had completed its mission in dividing the enemy across the Escaut River and firmly established itself along the east bank included in the division zone of action. By a clever flanking movement troops of the 91st Division captured Spitaals Bosschen, a difficult wood extending across the central part of the division sector, reached the Escaut, and penetrated into the town of Audenarde. These divisions received high commendation from their corps commanders for their dash and energy.

MEUSE-ARGONNE—LAST PHASE

On the 23d the 3d and 5th Corps pushed northward to the level of Bantheville. While we continued to press forward and throw back the enemy's violent counterattacks with great loss to him, a regrouping of our forces was under way for the final assault. Evidences of loss of morale by the enemy gave our men more confidence in attack and more fortitude in enduring the fatigue of incessant effort and the hardships of very inclement weather.

With comparatively well-rested divisions, the final advance in the Meuse-Argonne front was begun on November 1. Our increased artillery force acquitted itself magnificently in support of the advance, and the enemy broke before the determined infantry, which, by its persistent fighting of the past weeks and the dash of this attack, had overcome his will to resist. The 3d Corps took Ancrevlle, Doulcon and Andevanne, and the 5th Corps took Landres et St. Georges and passed through successive lines of resistance to Bayonville and Chennery. On the 2d the 1st Corps joined in the movement, which now became an impetuous onslaught that could not be stayed.

On the 3d advance troops surged forward in pursuit, some by motor trucks, while the artillery pressed along the country roads close behind. The 1st Corps reached Authe and Chatillon-Sur-Bar, the 5th Corps, Fosse and Nouart, and the 3d Corps, Halles, penetrating the enemy's lines to a depth of twelve miles. Our large-caliber guns had advanced and were skilfully brought into position to fire upon the important lines at Montmedy, Longuyon and Conflans. Our 3d Corps crossed the Meuse on the 5th and the other corps, in the full confidence that the day was theirs, eagerly cleared the way of machine guns as they swept northward, maintaining complete coordination throughout. On the 6th, a division of the 1st Corps reached a point on the Meuse opposite Sedan, twenty-five miles from our line of departure. The strategical goal which was our highest hope was gained. We had cut the enemy's main line of communications, and nothing but surrender or an armistice could save his army from complete disaster.

In all forty enemy divisions had been used against us in the Meuse-Argonne battle. Between September 26 and November 6 we took 26, prisoners and 468 guns on this front. Our divisions engaged were the 1st, 2d, 3d, 4th, 5th, 26th, 28th, 29th, 32d, 33d, 35th, 37th, 42d, 77th, 78th, 79th, 80th, 82d, 89th, 90th and 91st. Many of our divisions remained in line for a length of time that requires nerves of steel, while others were sent in again after only a few days of rest. The 1st, 5th, 26th, 77th, 80th, 89th, and 90th were in the line twice. Although some of the divisions were fighting their first battle, they soon became equal to the best.

OPERATIONS EAST OF THE MEUSE

On the three days preceding November 10, the 3d, the 2d Colonial and the 17th French Corps fought a difficult struggle through the Meuse Hills south of Stenay and forced the enemy into the plain. Meanwhile my plans for further use of the American forces contemplated an advance between the Meuse and the Moselle in the direction of Longwy by the First Army, while, at the same time, the Second Army should assure the offensive toward the rich coal fields of Briey. These operations were to be followed by an offensive toward Chateau-Salins east of the Moselle, thus isolating Metz. Accordingly, attacks on the American front had been ordered, and that of the Second Army was in progress on the morning of November 11, when instructions were received that hostilities should cease at 11 o'clock A.M.

At this moment the line of the American sector, from right to left, began at Port-sur-Seille, thence across the Moselle to Vandieres and through the Woevre to Bezonvaux, in the foothills of the Meuse, thence along to the foothills and through the northern edge of the Woevre forests to the Meuse at Mouzay, thence along the Meuse connecting with the French under Sedan.

RELATIONS WITH THE ALLIES

Cooeperation among the Allies has at all times been most cordial. A far greater effort has been put forth by the allied armies and staffs to assist us than could have been expected. The French Government and Army have always stood ready to furnish us with supplies, equipment and transportation and to aid us in every way. In the towns and hamlets wherever our troops have been stationed or billeted the French people have everywhere received them more as relatives and intimate friends than as soldiers of a foreign army. For these things words are quite inadequate to express our gratitude. There can be no doubt that the relations growing out of our associations here assure a permanent friendship between the two peoples. Although we have not been so intimately associated with the people of Great Britain, yet their troops and ours when thrown together have always warmly fraternized. The reception of those of our forces who have passed through England and of those who have been stationed there has always been enthusiastic. Altogether it has been deeply impressed upon us that the ties of language and blood bring the British and ourselves together completely and inseparably.

STRENGTH

There are in Europe altogether, including a regiment and some sanitary units with the Italian Army and the organizations at Murmansk, also including those en route from the States, approximately 2,053,347 men, less our losses. Of this total there are in France 1,338,169 combatant troops. Forty divisions have arrived of which the infantry personnel of ten have been used as replacements, leaving thirty divisions now in France organized into three armies of three corps each.

The losses of the Americans up to November 18 are: Killed and wounded, 36,145; died of disease, 14,811; deaths unclassified, 2,204; wounded, 179,625; prisoners, 2,163; missing, 1,160. We have captured about 44, prisoners and 1,400 guns, howitzers and trench mortars.

[General Pershing then highly praised the work of the General Staff, the Service of Supply, Medical Corps, Quartermaster Department, Ordnance Department, Signal Corps, Engineer Corps, and continued:]

Our aviators have no equals in daring or in fighting ability, and have left a record of courageous deeds that will ever remain a brilliant page in the annals of our army. While the Tank Corps has had limited opportunities, its personnel has responded gallantly on every possible occasion, and has shown courage of the highest order.

The navy in European waters has at all times most cordially aided the army, and it is most gratifying to report that there has never before been such perfect cooeperation between these two branches of the service.

Finally, I pay supreme tribute to our officers and soldiers of the line. When I think of their heroism, their patience under hardships, their unflinching spirit of offensive action, I am filled with emotion which I am unable to express. Their deeds are immortal, and they have earned the eternal gratitude of our country.

I am, Mr. Secretary, very respectfully,

JOHN J. PERSHING,

General, Commander-in-Chief,

American Expeditionary Forces.

To the Secretary of War.



CHAPTER XXXI

WHEN THE DAYS OF RECKONING DAWNED

American Troops on All Fronts—Changes Come Fast and Furious—First Hun Cry for Peace—Virtue, Vice and Violence—Austria Surrenders—Opens Up the Dardanelles—Closing Days of Hohenzollern Reign—Killing of Tisza—Terms Prepared for Germany— Armistice Signed by Germany.

AMERICAN TROOPS ON ALL FRONTS

The collapse of Russia in 1917 had released vast bodies of German troops for service in France, but the calamities that overtook them on the French front were so destructive that insufficient man power was left to take care of the southeastern fronts, so that Serbia was enabled to institute a new offensive, and with the aid of Greece, in a few days cut Bulgaria out of the German horde, pressed forward in Serbia, and pushed ahead through the Balkan regions. Meanwhile American strength was greatly augumented in the west and at the same time American troops appeared on the Murman coast in the north and Siberia on the Pacific east, on the Piave front in Italy, and at every other point where hostile strength was greatest or strategic advantage was to be gained by their presence.

Concurrently, the United States navy swept the western seas of Europe free of German submarines. Our naval forces were combined with those of Great Britain as the sea arm of a united command, under the joint name of the Grand Fleet; and American troop ships landed newly trained American soldiers in France at the average number of about 250,000 a month—over 2,200,000 in little more than a year; at the same time helping to reopen in safety the lanes of ocean commerce by which the trade of our European allies was fully restored, German ports corked tight, and Germany thereby thrown back absolutely upon her own interior resources. Out of this vigorous and abundant American action emerged the conditions that insured a "Peace of Justice."

These things were the quick work of the latter part of 1917 and the campaigns of 1918. The achievement was gigantic, but it had no effect in taking attention or diverting action from those movements that offered at once an advantage to our common cause, while disintegrating the hoary tyrannies of Central and Eastern Europe.

CHANGES COME FAST AND FURIOUS

Events in the field reacted with powerful effect upon autocratic Austria. The Austrian throne was built upon the backs of vassal states, all of which had yielded thousands of emigrants to this country; and these transplanted peoples, having found freedom, proceeded to incite the countries of their origin to throw off their burdens and like Americans, be free to govern themselves.

The moment had come for Bohemia, Poland, and all Czecho-Slav and Jugo-Slav peoples to rise. The United States Government, in full sympathy with their yearnings, had received their representatives at Washington, had furnished funds as well as moral support to their provisional governments, had supported an independent Czecho-Slav army in Russia with American reinforcements, with clothing, arms, munitions, and supplies, and now, at exactly the right juncture, in August, 1918, recognized the Czecho-Slav as a cobelligerent power lawfully at war against the central empires.

FERDINAND FALLS FROM THE WAR WAGON

This was the push that brought the break. Germany still had her armies intact on the soil of other countries, and was a consolidated force, tired though not beaten. But the fat and filthy "Czar" Ferdinand of Bulgaria sat in voluntary exile, eating like bread the ashes of repentance, and mingling his drink with weeping; so that his country, yellow at best, and frightened by the fear of being done to as it had done by Serbia, quit abruptly, without shame, almost without firing a shot. With that defection the last wisp of Germany's long cherished dream of a boche Middle-Europe and a boche empire stretching from Berlin to Bagdad, faded forever. In October, 1918, Austria consented to a reconstituted independent Bohemian state, and with apparent readiness granted self-government to Hungary.

Meantime, in September and October, 1918, the American and allied armies chased the Germans from the coast and far into the interior of Belgium, the Belgian army, financed by the United States, taking part in that operation. Town after town, city after city in Belgium and France fell to the American and allied forces, so that the German government (October 27) addressed a note to the President of the United States asking him to intercede with our allies for an armistice and a conference for discussion of terms of peace. This led to four exchanges of notes, in which Germany's expressions were specious, and assumed a right to negotiate. The last of these notes was submitted by President Wilson to the allied council at Paris; and the council answered by referring the whole question of armistice to Marshal Foch and the allied military chiefs.

THE "CROOKED KAMERAD"

In those same months of September and October, 1918, Austria and Turkey made proffers of separate surrender. This was the logical sequence of a "crooked kamerad" peace-offensive inaugurated by Germany as soon as she found herself being rolled, helplessly, toward the Rhine. It was at once the most vicious game that her genius for the vicious had ever prompted, and it was put forward at the very time when the fourth liberty loan was in course of being floated.

Our soldiers on all fronts had often suffered through a trick of false surrender by German soldiers. It is best described by one of our boys who was lying on a table in a base hospital, waiting his turn to be operated upon, when he heard another who was being wheeled out from the operating room and was muttering through the ether fumes:

"Fired at me ten feet away, he did, point blank, and then he dropped his rifle and stuck up his hands and called me 'Kamerad'! Kamerad, the dirty crook! Didn't I stick 'im pritty, Bill"!

It had been a common thing on the western front for a group of boches to come running toward the American lines unarmed, with their hands in the air, crying "Kamerad! Kamerad!" And then, when our men went out to receive them, fall flat, to make way for a force of armed boches immediately behind them, who opened fire—plain murder as ever was done.

So it was a crooked Kamerad cry, a peace offensive intended to sing us to sleep, that Germany launched in September, 1918. Of a sudden, our newspapers were filled with what appeared to be straight news dispatches dated at Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Stockholm, London, Paris, Geneva, and even Berlin, telling tales (that were not so) of starvation and disaffection in Germany, or broken morale in the German armies, and riotous demonstrations demanding peace. The impression was immediate and came near to being disastrous.

Many urgent requests were being made just then for public help from America. The gigantic fourth loan, the needs of the Red Cross, the thousand and one things, big and little, that had to be taken care of, and the very earnest and pressing call for a sharper realization of war's awful facts, were being driven with might and main, all over the land; and all was going well.

Within three days, before even the Associated Press discovered the fraud, these outrageous German lies had taken effect. Subscriptions to the loan began to slacken, alarmingly. Interest in the battle news began to fade. People were telling each other the war was over.

PRINCE MAX WRITES A NOTE

Then on October 6th, 1918, came the note of the German Chancellor, Prince Maximilian of Baden, asking an armistice and a peace conference—in essence, an astounding request for time to reconsolidate the German armies and bring up fresh guns and munitions. America might have been fooled into a frightful error if the great war-organizations had not come forward with a roaring counterblast. The peace offensive failed. More than that, the people resented it in a prompt and highly practical way. They oversubscribed the six billion loan. Most of them, especially the smaller subscribers, doubled their subscriptions in the last two days of the time allotted for the flotation. October 7th, President Wilson answered Prince Max's request with a refusal.

But it was a fortunate thing for the allied cause that the peace offensive was made, for its one effect was to create a profound distrust of all war news coming out of Amsterdam or Copenhagen. It revealed the fact that Berlin had been closely censoring all news dispatches that assumed to disclose the state of affairs in the central empires; censoring them rigorously, and inventing most of them. Germany had not yet learned that lies would not win the war; but the rest of the world had learned that Germany, as a liar, was so supernally endowed that her feeblest efforts in that domain would have made Ananias, Baron Munchausen, and Joe Mulhatton look like a trio of supersaints, choking with truth.

FIRST HUN CRY FOR PEACE

Germany's definite turn toward peace came in October, 1918, in the form of further and very awkward notes written by Prince Maximilian of Baden, the German Chancellor, and Doctor Solf, German Minister of foreign affairs. While the first of these notes was coming along, the Leinster was sunk by a German submarine on the Irish coast. The Leinster was a passenger ship, employed in regular service on a long ferriage. She had a full passenger list, nearly 400 people, peaceable folk all, just about such as may be found any day aboard a Staten Island ferry boat. It was not in any sense an act of war, but mere and open piracy, killing for the love of killing. It was one of the most horrible acts in a long, long list of horrors for which Germany has learned she must account in the long reckoning she has been forced to face.

VIRTUE, VICE AND VIOLENCE

At the same time, strangely contrasting with the virtuous attitude assumed in the notes, towns and cities in France and Belgium were being blown up before evacuation by the Germans, their men were being marched away to slavery in Germany, their women and young girls assigned as "orderlies" in the service of German officers—such "orderlies" as Turkey buys and sells for its harems. The contrast between German professions of virtue and German bestiality of act was ghastly. It is hard to believe that such things could happen between earth and sky, and they who did them still live; yet the things, hypocritical on one side and sickeningly horrible on the other, were actually done.

RESULTS OF A FEW BUSY MONTHS

Between the day when that little group of Americans stopped the hordes of hell at Chateau Thierry, and Germany's acceptance of the American and allied armistice terms, these other and happier things had come to pass.

Bulgaria had been forced to quit. Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey sued for peace. Turkey's military power was broken in Asia Minor, Germany undertook the greatest retreat in history, and these countries and Austria-Hungary were suffering from serious internal dissensions.

The allies took about half a million prisoners and some 4,000 cannon. They destroyed more than 300 airplanes and 100 balloons. They recovered more than 7,000 square miles of territory in France and Belgium, 20, square miles in Serbia, Albania and Montenegro, and 15,000 square miles in Asia Minor.

In France, the cities of Lille, Turcoing, Roubaix, Douai, Lens, Cambrai, St. Quentin, Peronne, Laon, Soissons, Noyon, La Bassee, Bapaume, St. Mihiel, Chateau Thierry, Grand Pre, Soissons, Vouziers, LaFere, LeCateau, Juniville, Craonne, and Machault were reoccupied. Valenciennes fell to the British. Reims and Verdun were freed, after four years' artillery domination.

The St. Mihiel salient was wiped out by Pershing's American army, the great St. Gobain massif recovered, the Hindenburg line and lesser defensive systems shattered, and the Argonne massif won.

The Belgian Coast was cleared of the enemy and the Belgian cities of Bruges, Ostend, Zeebrugge, Roulers, Courtrai, Ghent, Audenarde, and Tournai were recaptured.

The allied advance in France was about fifty miles eastward from Villers-Bretonneaux, near Amiens, and nearly the same distance northward from Chateau Thierry. In Belgium, the allies had progressed about forty miles eastward from Nieuport.

Three-fourths of Serbia, four-fifths of Albania, and a large slice of Montenegro were repatriated.

The allied advance covered more than 200 miles northward to Negotin, on the Danube, within twenty-two miles of Hungarian Territory.

The British in Asia Minor advanced over 350 miles and took Aleppo, possession of which gave them the key to Constantinople from the south.

The British expedition in Mesopotamia began an operation designed to capture Mosul and open the way to the eastern terminus of the proposed Berlin-to-Bagdad railway, which ends at Nesibin.

In Russia the allies advanced 275 miles up the Dwina river and penetrated about 350 miles southward from the Murman coast. They also pushed 600 miles inland from Vladivostok.

OPENS UP THE DARDANELLES

On the very last day of October, 1918, Turkey surrendered to the British, opening the Dardanelles and through those waters giving the allied fleets access to the German-dominated Black Sea and the coast of southern Russia, and putting at the mercy of the allies the only active units of the German navy. The surrender included Palestine and the Mesopotamian fronts. General Allenby's farther drive at Constantinople became unnecessary, having served the purpose of hastening Turkey's decision; and Allenby himself was assigned to the occupancy of the Turk Capital.

The same day, October 31, 1918, the Austrian government ordered demobilization of the Austrian armies, and the Austrian forces began a hasty retreat from Italy. The retreat became a rout before evening of that day, the Italians pursuing and capturing over 50,000 men and cannon, and cutting off some 200,000 Austrians in a trap between the Brenta and Piave rivers. General Diaz, the Italian commander, after considerable entreaty, consented to receive General Weber of the Austrian command, who brought a plea for armistice.

The result of their conference was an agreement for an armistice that should go into effect at 3 o'clock in the afternoon of November 4th—an allowance of time sufficient to get the acceptance signed at Vienna. Meanwhile there would be no cessation of fighting.

AUSTRIA SURRENDERS

The terms were thorough and severe. They amounted to Austria's unconditional surrender, disarmament, demobilization of armies, delivery of the major fleet and all submarines to the United States and allies, restoration to Italy of all the Italian provinces that Austria had taken in older wars, free passage to American and allied forces through Austrian territory, abandonment of land, sea and island fortifications to the Americans and allies, immediate release (without reciprocation) of all American and allied soldiers and sailors held prisoner in Austria, return of all allied merchant ships held at Austrian ports, freedom of navigation on the Danube by American and allied war and merchant ships, internment of all German troops remaining in Austria by November 18th, 1918, and immediate withdrawal of all Austrian troops serving with the German armies anywhere between the Swiss border and the North sea.

The terms were accepted in full by the Vienna government, but between the time it was delivered by General Diaz to General Weber and 3 o'clock of November 4th, the Austrian armies on Italian soil stampeded in a panic so complete that the pursuing Italians had taken 200,000 of them prisoner, making altogether nearly half a million taken since October 24th. In the same time about 7,000 guns, 12,000 auto cars and over 200,000 horses were captured, and Austrian fatalities ran into numbers almost equal to the largest army Napoleon ever had under command in any one of his great campaigns.

Austria had begun to yield during the last week of October, when Hungary abandoned the empire, released its civil and military officials from their oath of allegiance to the imperial crown, and formed arrangements for an independent government of its own. Count Tisza, formerly premier of Hungary, and the most reactionary of Hungarian statesmen, was assassinated toward the close of that week.

THE KILLING OF TISZA

An Amsterdam report dated November 3d quoted from the Vossische Zeitung of Berlin an account of that event, from which it appears that about o'clock in the evening three soldiers invaded Count Tisza's residence and presented themselves in the drawing room. Count Tisza, with his wife and the Countess Almassy, advanced to meet the intruders, asking what they wanted. "What have you in your hand?" a soldier demanded of Tisza. Tisza replied that he held a revolver. The soldier told him to put it away, but Tisza replied: "I shall not, because you have not laid aside your rifles." The soldiers then requested the women to leave the room, but they declined to do so. A soldier then addressed Tisza as follows: "You are responsible for the destruction of millions of people, because you caused the war." Then raising their rifles, the soldiers shouted: "The hour of reckoning has come." The soldiers fired three shots and Tisza fell. His last words were: "I am dying. It had to be." The soldiers quitted the house, accompanied by gendarmes, who previously were employed to guard the door.

It was the removal of Count Tisza that really cleared the way for the new Hungarian state. Bohemia and the other Slavic vassal states of Austria had already broken away. President Wilson had recognized Poland as an independent and belligerent state. Austria's remaining dependence, after Hungary's defection, was upon the German population of its north and northwestern provinces, and the provinces wrenched from Italy forty years before. Austrian armies numbering more than half a million men had driven the Italians back from the territory they had won in 1917 under General Cadorna, and had been brought to a stand on the river Piave, where a deadlock somewhat resembling that in front of Verdun had been maintained many months. These armies were affected by the movement that was dissolving the empire, and gave way, with the result above stated.

The terms of the Austrian armistice were furnished to General Diaz through Marshal Foch, by the American and allied council sitting at Versailles.

During the interim between the delivery and the acceptance of the Austrian Armistice and the surrender of Austria, the Versailles Council prepared terms of an armistice that had been sued for by the German government.

TERMS PREPARDED FOR GERMANY

On November 4th, 1918, Berlin was notified by the Versailles council that Marshal Foch had in his hands the terms on which armistice would be granted. November 8th, a German commission of five were admitted to audience with Marshal Foch, who read and delivered the document, with notice that it must be accepted and signed within seventy-two hours. A request by Herr Erzberger, one of the German commissioners, that fighting be suspended during that time, was curtly refused; and the armistice terms were communicated by the commissioners to the German revolutionary government, which had come into power by voluntary transfer of the chancelorship from Prince Maximilian of Baden to Friedrich Ebert, Vice-president of the social democratic party.

The revolution began in the German fleet at Kiel, where the sailors mutinied and hoisted the red flag. It spread with great rapidity and very little disorder throughout all the German states.

November 9th the Kaiser was compelled by the revolutionists to abdicate, and the crown prince signed a renunciation of his right to the succession. The abdication of the Kings of Bavaria and Wurtemburg occurred at the same time. The ex-emperor and the crown prince, in an attempt to reach the British line and surrender themselves, were headed off by the revolutionary forces and took refuge in Holland.

ARMISTICE SIGNED BY GERMANY

November 11th, 1918, the armistice was signed by the German commissioners, upon orders from Berlin. On the morning of that day, at 11 o'clock Paris time, fighting ceased on all fronts.

The terms of the armistice were in substance as follows. They demanded:

Evacuation within thirty-one days of Belgium, France, Alsace-Lorraine, Luxemburg, Russia, Roumania and Turkey, all territory that had belonged to Austria-Hungary, and all territory held by German troops on the west bank of the Rhine.

Renunciation of the treaties of Brest-Litovsk and Bucharest.

Delivery to and occupation by American and allied troops within nineteen days, of Mayence, Coblenz and Cologne, together with their bridgeheads. The bridgeheads include all German territory within a radius of eighteen miles on the east (German) bank of the Rhine, at each of these points.

The surrender of 5,000 cannon, 25,000 machine guns, 5,000 motor lorries, 8,000 flame throwers, 1,700 airplanes, 5,000 locomotives, 150,000 wagons (railway cars) and all the railways of Alsace-Lorraine.

Establishment of a neutral strip twenty-four miles wide on the east (German) side of the Rhine, paralleling that river from the Holland border to the border of Switzerland.

The return within fifteen days, of all inhabitants removed from invaded countries, including hostages and persons under trial or convicted.

Release of American and allied prisoners of war held by Germany—the American and allied powers to retain all Germans held by them as prisoners of war.

Surrender of half of the German fleet to America and the allies, together with all submarines, other miscellaneous German ships, and all American and allied merchant ships held by Germany. The other half of the German fleet to be disarmed and dismantled.

Notification to neutral countries by Germany that they are free to trade on the seas with America and the allied countries.

Access by way of Dantzig or the Vistula river, to all territory in the East evacuated by Germany.

Evacuation by all German forces in East Africa within a time to be fixed by the allies.

Restitution for all damage done by German forces.

Return of the funds taken by the Germans from the National Bank of Belgium, and the gold taken from Russia and Roumania.

These terms, which not only constitute Germany's unconditional surrender, but reduce Germany to a condition that absolutely prevents her resumption of war, form the base of the final treaty of peace.

CLOSING DAYS OF HOHENZOLLERN REIGN

Into the four months preceding November 11, 1918, were crammed events that drove the Germans back, deprived them of their allies, brought the utter collapse of Imperial government, drove the emperor into exile, saw a socialist republic set up with Berlin as its capital, brought the whole of what had been the empire to a state of seething unrest and change touched with the poison of bolshevism. November 4, a memorable date, found Germany alone and unsupported against a world triumphant in arms. All the laboriously built up structure of her military state was brought to a futile struggle for life, the whole vast fabric of her underground diplomacy, her intricate, world-penetrating spy system, her marvelously elaborate and totally unscrupulous propaganda, crumbled away; nothing remained of the earlier vigor but a memory—that shall be a stench forever.

November 11, 1918, will go down in history as the memorable day in which the last surviving medieval tyranny in Europe disappeared in blood and smoke; for its final act was filled with characteristic hate and brutality.

In the very last hours before armistice took effect, German batteries poured a deluge of high explosives and poison gas on Mezieres, where there were no allied soldiers at all, but only civilians, men, women and children, twenty thousand of them, penned like rats in a trap, without possibility of escape. Says one correspondent, describing that horror: "Words cannot depict the plight of the unhappy victims of this crowning German atrocity. Incendiary shells fired the hospital, and by the glare of a hundred fires the wounded were carried to a shelter of cellars where the whole population was crouching.

"That was not enough to appease the bitter blood lust of the Germans in defeat. Cellars may give protection from fire or melinite; but they are worse than death traps against the heavy fumes of poisonous gas. So the murderous order was given, and faithfully the boche gunners carried it out. There were no gas masks for the civilians and no chemicals that might permit them to save lives. Many succumbed."

FINAL ACT OF THE HUN AT SEA

The final act at sea was almost concurrent with this tragedy. The 16,000-ton battleship Britannia was torpedoed off the entrance to the straits of Gibraltar, November 9, and sank in three and one-half hours.

FOLLOWING THE DAYS OF RECKONING

And so, spewing murder in its last writhing, the monster died. It had begun by furiously ravaging Belgium in August, 1914; it ended with the awful, wanton murder of noncombatants at Mezieres in November, 1918. Throughout four years, three months and ten days, it had ramped and raged over the land, under the sea and in the air, slaughtering, poisoning, ravaging, without cessation, killing wherever it could, robbing with colossal greed, defiling what it could neither kill nor carry away, leaving across the pages of history a trail of blood and filth and slime that all the tears of all the angels cannot ever wash away.

But it left a world of nations free to work out their several destinies, self-determining, not subject any more to the threat of causeless war at the hands of a government steeled to barbarity. A world cemented by the blood the monster itself had caused to be shed; by the memory of brave sons fallen that others might live; by the tears of countless women and children made widows and orphans; by a new understanding between all the nations of men that dwell upon the face of the earth, because of mutual sacrifices in a common cause; by a knowledge that the long night of medieval tyranny had faded out and a new day had come, in which power shall arise from and be wielded by the peoples, never again by kings or emperors. And so our planet shall be ruled as long as man inhabits it. Out of bitter darkness, in the splendor of this new day the spirit of liberty has risen, with healing on its wings.

We who have lived through the struggle may say with gratitude, each of us, "I saw the light! I saw the morning break!"

AMONG THE LAST SHOTS FIRED

While Berlin was trying to get into touch with Marshal Foch, and the end was coming into sight, the Americans along the Meuse put forth all the energy that was in them, in their eager desire to hand the enemy a final series of wallops. It was here one of the most brilliant exploits of the war occurred.

On the night of November 4, American troops, though under very heavy artillery and machine gun fire, succeeded in building four pontoon bridges across the Meuse, a little more than a mile east of Brieulles. Early in the morning one of these was destroyed, but a strong force crossed over the other three, and swept forward with such rapidity, though in the face of superior numbers, that by noon the enemy was in disorderly retreat northward. By nightfall the Americans on that side of the river had captured Liny-Devant-Dun and Mille-Devant-Dun, on the east bank of the river, while a large American and French force pushed back the Germans on the west bank, capturing Beaumont, Pouilly and several less important places, and taking positions on three sides of Stenay, the pivot on which the whole German retirement had turned. American troops the 5th and 6th of November had advanced to within five miles of the main communication line of the Germans between Metz, Mezieres, Hirson and the north.

After destroying the bridge connecting Stenay with Laneuville, the Germans had opened the locks of the Ardennes canal and flooded the river to a width of about two-thirds of a mile.

It was here the Americans undertook and accomplished the impossible. They picked out the best of their swimmers, who crossed the stream carrying light lines attached to heavy cables, which were drawn after them, and by a hasty pontoon construction got the whole force across. Then, in the face of heavy firing, they pounded their way over a mud flat nearly a mile wide, and hit the canal, which by then, had been drained, forming a deep ditch that would have stopped any other soldiers. But the Americans rustled up some grappling irons and hooks, which they tied to the ends of ropes, and throwing them to the coping, then swarmed up and chased the disconcerted Germans out of their last position in that sector.

On November 7th American troops entered Sedan and cut the German line of communication between Metz and the north.

The same day, troops from Ohio, under command of General Farnsworth, took the Ecke salient sixteen miles southwest of Ghent in Belgium, and were advancing on the city when the Germans suddenly evacuated it, departing in haste toward the German frontier.

Stenay was the last town to fall into American hands. It was occupied without resistance, an hour before the armistice went into effect. While preparations for attack were in course, paroles came in reporting that the Germans had cleared out. The American troops at once poured in, and established occupation at 10:45 in the forenoon, just a quarter of an hour before word came that the armistice had taken effect.

In a few minutes flags of the allies were flying from housetops, and the church bells were ringing out the war. It was over.

AT THE ELEVENTH HOUR

The last morning on the fighting lines was busy wherever American troops were placed, from the Moselle to Sedan. All the batteries kept their guns going, and the Germans replied in kind. The American heavy guns fired their parting salvo at 11:00 o'clock, less two or three seconds. To this final crack the Germans tossed a few over, just after 11:00. There was a strong American infantry advance, northeast of Verdun, in the direction of Ornes, beginning at nine o'clock, after lively artillery preparation. The German artillery responded feebly, but the machine gun resistance was stubborn. Nevertheless, the Americans made progress. The Americans had received orders to hold the positions reached by 11:00 o'clock, and at those points they began to dig in, marking the advance positions of the American line when hostilities ceased.

Then the individual groups unfurled the Stars and Stripes, shook hands and cheered. Soon afterwards they were preparing for luncheon. All the boys were hungry, as they had breakfasted early in anticipation of what they considered the greatest day in American history.

THE ALL PULL TOGETHER SHOT

There was a regular celebration at Pepper hill, north of Verdun, where a battery of Rhode Island artillery rigged a twenty-foot rope to the lanyard of a .155 cannon, and every man in the company, from the captain to the cook, laid hold of it and waited. At the tick of eleven o'clock they gave that rope one mighty yank, all together, and the gun roared out the last shot of the war.

—The Last Yank of the Yanks.

AT THE END OF THE WORLD WAR

The great drama is ended. For the first time in four years the sound of giant cannon cannot be heard anywhere along the long line from the channel to the Adriatic; the deadly rattle of machine guns is stilled. No gas fumes poison the winter air. No clouds of burning cities darken the sun. Better than all, no life blood flows; the fighting men rest in their lines, the bayonet is sheathed, the bullet sleeps harmless in its clip.

This at last is peace. In the great cities, the towns and hamlets of Europe and America, a vast wave of emotion inundates the hearts of men; in the allied lands there is exultation; in Germany there is at least relief, and perhaps the dawning of a new hope.

We have had our day of glorification. It is now time for our best thought, and the first of this thought will be for the men who have given their lives for our cause and for the men more fortunate, but not less willing to give all, who in France and Flanders have covered our flag once more with undying glory, the soldiers of the Marne, of Cantigny, of the great German repulse east of Reims, of Chateau Thierry, of St. Mihiel, the Argonne, and Sedan. The graves of our men have consecrated these immortal battlefields and our sacred dead will live on in the memory of the republic forever. As for those who return, crowned with victory, they shall now be first and foremost under the roof tree of the great motherland, who sent them forth with aching yet uplifted heart, confident that they would honor her even as they have done.

In this hour we salute our army and our navy, which have not failed us at any point, in any test, however arduous or fiery. Under commanders devoted, efficient, indefatigable, our regiments have met the most famous troops of the enemy and crushed their resistance, have set new records of sanguinary valor under punishment, and driven always and irresistibly on to victory. They have written a page in the annals of the republic and in the history of war which will shine down the ages with unsurpassed magnificence.

It has been terrible, yet glorious, to live through such a time, even for us who have not passed through the great experience of battle, who have not watched and taken part in the heroic charge of our infantry across death-swept meadows, or heard with our ears the thunder of the great guns or felt the earth shake under the tread of marching legions. We at home have had our own experiences, our deep anxieties, our doubts, our griefs, and always we have been conscious of the might of forces in grapple and the high issues that hung upon the fate of the armies. In the background of all our thoughts at all times has been the solemn consciousness that the destiny of mankind was at work in mighty throes toward an end hidden to our knowledge if not to our faith and hope. We have none of us passed through this experience without receiving its mark. Life can never be altogether what it was before for any of us. New generations will spring forth innocent of the memories which are ours and the unexpressible lessons of our day. But for us it has been, with all its tragedy and vast destruction, a day of illumination and inspiration.

Standing on the threshold of a peace restored, we must pray that out of the epic experience of the great conflict something more than the stern negative of our victory shall be preserved for the time to come, something positive of good, something of that divine light of men's heroic sacrifice which shone out in the darkest hour, something of new strength and understanding of life and of human potentialities.

We have before us now a tremendous task of restoration. America is in a more fortunate situation than the nations of Europe; yet to return our resources to the channels of peace, to free our institutions from the hasty improvisations of war emergency, and to protect them from the effects of forced and abnormal application, is a task which will test the wisdom and character of our leaders and our people.

If our war experience has proved anything of America, it has been the soundness and beneficence of American institutions and the life they make possible. Let us realize that truth, and resolve that these institutions shall be strengthened in peace and not weakened, and that the life which has grown up and flowered under their influence shall be jealously preserved for our children and our children's children, and for the sake of our heroic dead."

THE CROWNING HUMILIATION

The Crowning Humiliation, or Before and After Seeing Foch, might be the appropriate title for the latest story now added to the pages of world history.

Four years and four months ago the German leadership, fully confident of its strength, assured of its weapons, arrogant beyond anything in recorded history, challenged the organized and unorganized forces of the civilized world to mortal combat. They thrust the Imperial German sword through all the covenants and commands of civilization and of justice. Bursting out upon an unprepared and unsuspecting world, they were, despite their incredible strength, checked by France on the battlefield of the Marne, encircled by the British fleets, and like Napoleon after Leipzig, condemned to ultimate defeat. At the hour when the white flag was brought to the French lines, British armies were approaching the field of Waterloo, American armies stood victorious in Sedan, and French armies were sweeping forward from the Oise to the Meuse. The crowning humiliation came with the admission of defeat. Germany sought armistice at the hands of a Marshal of France!

FOCH—"THE GRAY MAN OF CHRIST"

In the closing days of the great war a striking contrast was drawn by the Los Angeles Times between William Hohenzollern and Marshal Foch, from the religious standpoint. The former German monarch coupled Gott with himself as an equal, while Ferdinand Foch was called, with apparent reason, "the gray man of Christ."

"This has been Christ's war," said the Times. "Christ on one side, and all that stood opposed to Christ on the other side. And the generalissimo, in supreme command of all the armies that fought on the side of Christ, is Christ's man. * * * It seems to be beyond all shadow of doubt that when the hour came in which all that Christ stood for was to either stand or fall, Christ raised up a man to lead the hosts that battled for him." And the Times continues:

"If you will look for Foch in some quiet church, it is there that he will be found, humbly giving God the glory and absolutely declining to attribute it to himself. Can that kind of a man win a war? Can a man who is a practical soldier be also a practical Christian? And is Foch that kind of a man? Let us see.

"A California boy, serving as a soldier in the American Expeditionary Forces in France, wrote a letter to his parents in San Bernardino recently, in which he gives, as well as anyone else could give, the answer to the question we ask. This American boy, Evans by name, tells of meeting Marshal Foch at close range in France.

"Evans had gone into an old church to have a look at it, and as he stood there with bared head satisfying his respectful curiosity, a gray man with the eagles of a general on the collar of his shabby uniform entered the church. Only one orderly accompanied the quiet, gray man. No glittering staff of officers, no entourage of gold-laced aides were with him; nobody but just the orderly.

"Evans paid small attention at first to the gray man, but was curious to see him kneel in the church, praying. The minutes passed until full three-quarters of an hour had gone by before the gray man arose from his knees.

"Then Evans followed him down the street and was surprised to see soldiers salute this man in great excitement, and women and children stopping in their tracks with awe-struck faces as he passed.

"It was Foch! And now Evans, of San Bernardino, counts the experience as the greatest in his life. During that three-quarters of an hour that the generalissimo of all the Allied armies was on his knees in humble supplication in that quiet church, 10,000 guns were roaring at his word on a hundred hills that rocked with death.

"Moreover, it is not a new thing with him. He has done it his whole life long."



CHAPTER XXXII

HOME FOLLOWS THE FLAG

Nearly 28,000,000 Red Cross Relief Workers Distributing Aid in Ten Countries—Two War Fund Drives in 1918 Raise $291,000,000—Other Organizations Active—3,000 Buildings Necessary—Caring for the Boys—Boy Scouts Play Their Part Well.

From the hour of enlistment to the hour of return, the United States soldiers and sailors have had with them, throughout the war, the advantage of intelligent, sympathetic help from various civilian organizations, co-ordinating with the military.

First of all is the Red Cross, but that organization really is a non-combatant arm of the national service; and its work, generously financed by public subscription, is the greatest of its kind ever done in field or hospital, in any war.

Red Cross history would fill a big volume, no matter how meagrely told. There are 3,854 chapters of the organization. At the annual meeting of their war council, October 23, 1918, the chairman, Henry P. Davison, submitted a report that is literally astonishing, because the facts related had developed without, publicity and were quite unknown to the people of the country at large. Here are a few of them, taken from Mr. Davison's official statement:

NEARLY 28,000,000 WORKERS

The Red Cross in America has a membership of 20,648,103, and in addition, 8,000,000 members in the Junior Red Cross—a total enrollment of more than one-fourth the population of the United States.

American Red Cross workers produced up to July 1st, 1918, a total of 221,282,838 articles of an estimated value of $44,000,000. About 8,000,000 women are engaged in canteen work and the production of relief supplies.

The American Red Cross is distributing aid in ten countries—the United States, England, France, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, Palestine, Greece, Russia and Siberia. Besides it has sent representatives to Serbia, Denmark and Madeira.

Two war fund "drives" in 1918 brought money contributions to the amount of $291,000,000. Membership dues of $24,500,000 brought the total up to $315,500,000 for the fiscal year. All this money was expended for purposes of pure mercy.

It has been because of the spirit which has pervaded all American Red Cross effort in this war that the aged governor of one of the stricken and battered provinces of France stated not long since that, though France had long known of American's greatness, strength and enterprise, it remained for the American Red Cross in this war to reveal America's heart.

The home service of the Red Cross, with its now more than 40, workers, is extending its ministrations of sympathy and counsel each month to upward of 100,000 families left behind by soldiers at the front.

OTHER ORGANIZATIONS ACTIVE

Next to the Red Cross in importance comes the Young Men's Christian Association, affectionately known to the army as "the Y." Then the Young Women's Christian Association; the National Catholic War Council; the Salvation Army; the Knights of Columbus; The Jewish Welfare Board: the War Camp Community Service; and The American Library Association.

What might be called the field army of these seven great agencies comprises more than 15,000 uniformed workers on both sides of the Atlantic and in Siberia; and General Pershing, late in October of 1918, asked that additional workers be sent over at the rate of at least a thousand a month.

They represent every type of activity—secretaries, athletic directors, librarians, preachers, lecturers, entertainers, motion picture operators, truck drivers, hotel managers and caterers. Many of them pay their own expenses. Those who cannot do that are paid their actual living expenses if they are single; and if they have families, are allowed approximately the pay of a second lieutenant.

3,000 BUILDINGS NECESSARY

More than 3,000 separate buildings have been erected (or rented) to make possible this huge work. These are of various sorts, from the great resorts at Aix les Bains, where our soldiers can spend their furloughs, to the hostess houses at the cantonments on this side. In addition, there are scores of warehouses and garages, and hundreds of "huts" which consist of nothing more than ruined cellars and dugouts in war-demolished towns or old-line trenches.

These figures do not include the buildings occupied by the organizations in times of peace, though all such buildings and quarters are at the disposal of soldiers and sailors. All are supported by their regular funds, supplemented by contributions entirely apart from those funds.

ALL PULL TOGETHER

The spirit of these seven organizations is uplifting in the broadest sense of the word. They depend upon people of ideals for support. Their purpose is to surround each boy, so far as possible, with the influences that were best in his life at home. Differences of creed or dogma are unknown. The W.M.C.A. and The Jewish Welfare Board work side by side with no thought of divergence in faith. They are as one, and their working creed is service, in the spirit of brotherhood to all men.

These are 842 libraries, with 1,547 branches, containing more than 3,600,000 books and 5,000,000 copies of periodicals. In the navy-branches are maintained 250 additional libraries aboard our war and mercantile ships.

Almost every family in the United States having a son in the service has received letters written on the stationery of one or other of the organizations, for together they supply abundant writing materials. They supply 125,000,000 sheets of writing paper a month, and keep on hand all the time about $500,000 worth of postage stamps.

A soldier boy finds himself located in a little French village that before the war sheltered 500 people and now must accommodate as many soldiers besides. His sleeping place is a barn, which he must share with forty other boys. There is no store in the town, no theatre, no library, no place to write a letter or be warm and dry—until the hut comes.

ALL MODERN IDEAS

With it come books and writing paper and baseballs and bats and boxing gloves and chocolate and cigarettes and motion pictures and lectures and theatrical entertainments. Home comes with the hut, bringing all the love and care and cheer of the folks who have stayed behind.

The boy is called into the front line trenches. He is there through the long cold night, his feet wet, his whole body chilled to the bone. As the first rays of the sun announce the new day, a shout of welcome runs through the trench. He looks to see a secretary—Y, or K. of C., or Jewish Welfare Board or Salvation Army—it matters not. Down the trench comes this secretary with chocolates and cigarettes, doughnuts and hot coffee or cocoa—a reminder that even here, in front, the love and care of the folks back home still follow him.

CARING FOR THE BOYS

Is he wounded? Aiding the stretcher bearers, the secretaries work side by side, taking the wounded back to the dressing stations.

Is he taken prisoner? Even in the prison camp the long arm of these friendly organizations reaches out to aid him. In Switzerland both the Y and the K. of C. have established headquarters, and through such neutral agencies as the Danish Red Cross they carry on their program of help even in the enemy prison camps.

Does he wish to send money back to the folks at home? The Y.M.C.A. and the K. of C., the Jewish Welfare Board and the Salvation Army transmit hundreds of thousands of dollars a month from the front to mothers and sisters and wives over here.

If the Boy is allowed to visit the armies of our Allies he will find that they too have asked for the hut, and received it. More than a thousand Y huts under the name of "Foyers du Soldat" are helping to maintain morale in the French army—erected at the special request of the French Ministry of War. The King of Italy made a personal request for the extension of the "Y" work to his armies. The men who were charged with the task of winning this war believed that America could do nothing better to hasten victory than to extend the influence of these great creators and conservers of morale to the brave soldiers of our Allies.

The cheer, the comfort, the recuperative influence of these united services to our soldiers cannot be overestimated. They are incalculably valuable—and they are purely and originally American.

WOUNDED YANKS ARE CHEERFUL

A Paris correspondent just from the front says—The spirit of American soldiers passing through casualty stations is admirable. One "doughboy" from Kansas, hobbling up to an American Red Cross canteen on one leg and crutches, shouted, "Here I come. I'm only hitting on three cylinders, but still able to get about."

Another boasted of his luck because he had only three shrapnel wounds, one in his hand, one in his shoulder and one in the back.

An American Red Cross canteen at a receiving station often offers men their first chance to talk over their experiences. They stand round with a cup of chocolate in one hand, a doughnut in the other, and fight their fights over again until officers drive them to the dressing rooms.

BOY SCOUTS PLAY THEIR PART WELL

"Boys will be men" is a new version of an old saying. It is justified by the record of the Boy Scouts of America, for a better formation of upright, manly character never was achieved by any other means. That Scout training makes good men and fine soldiers has been amply proven on a broad scale.

November 1, 1918, The Boy Scouts of America had a registered membership of over 350,000, and applications for membership were coming in at the rate of a thousand a day. April 9, 1917, three days after this country entered the war, the National Council of the organization formally resolved "To co-operate with the Red Cross through its local chapters in meeting their responsibilities occasioned by the state of war." The members have nobly followed out that resolution.

BOYS HELP MOST WONDERFUL

They have sold liberty bonds in the amount of $206,179,150, to 1,349, individual subscribers. As "dispatch bearers of the government" they have distributed over 15,000,000 war pamphlets. They have been sedulous and invaluable in checking enemy propaganda. They have served on innumerable public occasions as police aids and as ushers at great meetings. They performed one feat that might to many have appeared impossible, in searching out for the war department enough black walnut trees to furnish 14,038,560 feet of board lumber that was urgently needed for gunstocks and plane propellors. They have been tireless in supplementing the service of other organizations. And they never make any display of their work—they just do it, and keep on doing it, without any talk. They are useful; and every man who was a boy scout is a better man for having been one.

THIRTY-THREE Y.M.C.A. WORKERS GIVE LIVES IN WAR

From the time the United States entered the war up to the signing of the armistice, thirty-three Y.M.C.A. workers, twenty-nine men and four women, have given up their lives in the service abroad.

British air forces kept pace with the German armies across the Rhine. In the last five months, in which occurred some of the heaviest air fighting in the war, Germany lost in aerial combats with the British alone 1,837 machines. It is estimated that something like 2,700 machines were accounted for by the British since June 1, and to this total may be added the heavy destruction wrought by French and American aviators.

GREATEST MAIL SERVICE IN THE WORLD

The mail service of the American armies in France and Belgium was one of the most remarkably original features of the war. Mail was handled by postal experts from home in such manner as sent millions of letters by the straightest course to every point in the United States, from the great cities down to the smallest hamlet.

"SAG" RELIEVED POISON GAS VICTIMS

American soldiers in the fighting lines were furnished with tubes of medicinal paste to cure mustard gas burns. It was simply smeared over the burned patches, or rubbed on the skin to prevent burning. It was called "sag," which is the reverse spelling of "gas."

GERMANS ABANDONED MUCH EQUIPMENT

While they were chasing the Germans after they had broken the Hindenburg line, American soldiers salvaged enormous quantities of equipment thrown away or abandoned by the boches in their haste to get out of the Americans' way.



CHAPTER XXXIII.

TERMS OF THE ARMISTICE

On the memorable afternoon of Monday, November 11, 1918. President Wilson convened the Senate and the House of Representatives in the capitol at Washington, and there read out the terms of the armistice which Germany had accepted, and to the observance of which Germany was pledged with guaranties so strict that evasion was made impossible. The President is an unemotional man, but in that hour he must have felt deep satisfaction in the fact that the document in his hand had been made possible by the will and the action of the great nation whose chief magistrate he was, and is—the nation that with generous hand and prompt compliance had backed him at every step of the difficult road to triumph over the dark forces of evil that had plagued the whole earth and imperilled the very life of civilization.