America's War for Humanity Part 4

The French war commission soon followed the British envoys, arriving in Washington on Wednesday, April 25, on board the presidential yacht Mayflower from Hampton Roads. Headed by M. Rene Viviani, minister of justice and former premier of France, the commission included the famous hero of the Marne and idol of the French army and people, Marshal Joffre; also Admiral Chocheprat, representing the French navy; the Marquis de Chambrun (Lafayette's grandson), and other distinguished Frenchmen. The fame of Marshal Joffre and the traditional friendship for France secured for the party an enthusiastic popular greeting.

Its members were accorded similar official receptions to those of the British commissioners, and they similarly expressed their desire to be of service to the American people by giving the Washington government the benefit of their costly experience in three years of war. ALLIES CONTINUE THEIR WESTERN DRIVE

Following the spring drive of the Allies on the western front and the retirement of the Germans to the so-called Hindenburg line, the British and French continued their offensive during the months of May, June and July, 1917, which concluded the third year of the great struggle. Great battles in the Champagne and along the Aisne were fought by the French, who in April had captured Auberive, and they advanced their forces from one to five miles along a fifty-mile front, inflicting great and continual losses on the enemy. At the end of the third year, the French line ran from northwest of Soissons, through Rheims, to Auberive. French troops also appeared in Flanders during this period and co-operated with the British on the left of Field Marshal Haig's forces. The chief command of the French armies was in the hands of General Petain, the gallant defender of Verdun, who was appointed chief of staff after the battle of Craonne.

The continuation of the British offensive northeast of Arras, following the b.l.o.o.d.y battle of Vimy Ridge, which was firmly held by the Canadians against desperate counter-attacks, placed the British astride the Hindenburg line, and the Germans retired to positions a mile or two west of the Drocourt-Queant line. These they held as the third year closed at the end of July.

In June, 1917, the British began an attack on Messines and Wytschaete, in an effort to straighten out the Ypres salient. By this time their flyers dominated the air, and they had gained the immense advantage of artillery superiority. By way of preparation, the British sappers and miners had spent an entire year in mining the earth beneath the German positions, and the offensive was begun with an explosion so terrific, when the mines were sprung, that it was heard in London. Following immediately with the attack, the British won and consolidated the objective ground, capturing more than 7,500 German prisoners and great stores of artillery. This victory placed them astride the Ypres-Commines ca.n.a.l, having advanced three miles on an eight-mile front. Portuguese and Belgian troops a.s.sisted in this offensive, which resulted in the greatest gain the Allies had made in Belgium since the German invasion.

Fighting in this terrain had been confined for many months to trench-raiding operations.

GERMAN LOSSES TO JULY

It is estimated that during April, May, and June the Germans suffered 350,000 casualties on the western front. The totals of the German official lists of losses for the entire war to July 19, 1917, were as follows: Killed or died of wounds, 1,032,800; died of sickness, 72,960; prisoners and missing, 591,966; wounded, 2,825,581; making a grand total of casualties of 4,523,307. The German naval and colonial casualties were not included in this total.

FURTHER GAINS IN FLANDERS

Fighting continued almost steadily in Flanders during the month of August, although the Allies were greatly hampered in their operations by heavy rains and mud. On a nine-mile front east and north of Ypres, a long drawn-out battle carried the advancing French and British troops more than a mile into the intricate hostile trench system on August 16, after successive advances on previous days. From Dreigrachten southward the French surged across the River Steenbeke, capturing all objectives, while at the same time the British occupied considerable territory in the region of St. Julien and Langemarck, captured the latter town, and carried the fighting beyond Langemarck. The main difficulty encountered was the mud in the approaches to the town, the infantry plunging deep into the bog at every step. Not infrequently the soldiers had to rescue a comrade who had sunk to the waist in the mora.s.s, but they continued to push forward steadily, facing machine-gun fire from hidden redoubts and battling their way past with bombs and rifle fire. There were concrete gunpits about the positions in front of the town, which was flooded from the Steenbeke River, but the infantry divided and bombed their way about on either side until they had encircled the town and pa.s.sed beyond, where the Germans could be seen running away. Little resistance was offered in the town itself, but the Germans suffered severely from the preliminary bombardment, which worked havoc in their ranks, according to the prisoners taken in the Langemarck region. The contact between the French and British forces was excellent throughout the fight; in fact, the perfect co-operation of the two armies continued to be one of the minor wonders of the war.

CANADIAN VICTORIES AT LENS

Canadian troops added to their laurels by the storming and capture of Hill 70, dominating the important mining center of Lens, in northern France, August 15, following up their victory by the occupation of the fortified suburbs of the city and apparently insuring its redemption from German hands, after a struggle that had lasted for two years.

The men of the Dominion swept the Germans from the famous hill, defeated all counter-attacks, and thus gained command of the entire Loos salient.

It was on this hill that the British forces under Sir John French were badly broken in their efforts to reach Lens in the first battle of Loos, in September, 1915. Hill 70 was the last high ground held by the Germans in the region of the Artois, and its fall menaced their whole line south to Queant and north to La Ba.s.see.

The Canadian attack began at 4:25 o'clock, just as the first hint of dawn was appearing. All night the British big guns had been pouring a steady stream of high explosive sh.e.l.ls into the German positions, great detonations overlapping one another like the rapid crackling of machine-gun fire and swelling into a mighty volume of thunder that shook the earth and stunned the senses. Then, a short time before the hour set for the attack arrived, the batteries ceased abruptly and a strange, almost oppressive stillness crept over the terrain which until then had been an inferno of crashing noise and death. It had been raining and gray clouds still hung over the trenches where crouched the Canadian infantrymen, waiting eagerly for the arrival of the moment which would summon them to attack.

Suddenly, ten minutes before the time set for the advance, every British gun within range broke out with a hurricane of sh.e.l.ling, and solid lines of crimson lightning belched from the German trenches as the explosives broke about them. To this lurid picture was added the spectacle of burning oil, which the British threw on the enemy lines. Great clouds of pinkish colored smoke rolled across the country from the flaming liquid and the murky sky threw back myriad colors from the conflagration below.

The moment of attack arrived, and as the British guns dropped their protecting barrage fire in front of the Canadian trenches, the clouds parted and the yellow crescent moon appeared. Under the light of this beacon the Canadians leaped over the parapets and began their methodical advance behind their barrage fire.

The British barrage was without a flaw, says an eyewitness. Behind it the Canadians mounted Hill 70 and swept along the rest of the line. On the crest of the hill, where so much blood had been, spilled before, heavy fighting might have been expected, for the position was well manned with machine guns. The resistance here, however, was not strong, and it was not until the dwellings in the outskirts of the suburbs were reached that vigorous fighting occurred. The ground over which the infantry advanced was honeycombed with British sh.e.l.l holes and the barbed wire defenses had been leveled, so that they gave little trouble.

FIGHT IN CELLARS AND DUGOUTS

The first serious resistance from the Germans was met at a point where the enemy was strongly intrenched in connecting cellars and there sanguinary fighting occurred. The place was a sample of many other suburbs about Lens. The city is surrounded by colliery communities which are so close together and so near the city proper that they really form part of the town. Lens, before the war, had a population of 30,000, but had become a ma.s.s of ruins.

Following their usual tactics, the Germans had carried out systematic destruction of the houses and had constructed strong underground defenses. The whole city was undermined with tunnels and dugouts, which had been reinforced with concrete, and most of the ruined buildings had been turned into machine-gun emplacements.

The effect of the preliminary British bombardment was most demoralizing to the enemy. The first German prisoners taken were in a completely dazed state as a result of the terrific bombardment they had undergone, and other Germans were seen to flee to the rear, deserting their posts as the attack began.

The result of this preliminary fire was shown in the speed of the Canadian infantry's advance. The extreme depth reached in the first stage was 1,500 yards, and this was achieved in ninety-three minutes.

This new front, taken into conjunction with positions secured previously in the southwestern outskirts of Lens, established an angular line like a pair of shears whose points reached out to the north and south of the city.

As the Canadians pushed in on the northwest, a simultaneous advance was started by the troops on the lower blade of the shears, and close fighting began, with the Germans intrenched in their concreted cellars, which were linked up with barbed wire and filled with hundreds of machine guns. The capture of the entire city of Lens was then only a matter of time, as Hill 70 insured the holding of the ground won by the Canadians, German reinforcements being placed under the range of irresistible fire from that dominating height. Among the prisoners taken in the attack were many German lads apparently not more than 17 years of age.

The German commander, Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria, made frantic efforts to recapture the lost positions around Lens. The taking of Hill stirred the German high command as nothing else had done on the western front for many months, and a grim battle was waged for several days.

On August 16 the enemy came on ten separate times, but they seldom got close enough to the Canadians for fighting with bayonet or bomb. The Prussian Guards partic.i.p.ated in the counter-attacks and were subjected to a terrible concentrated fire from the British artillery and Canadian machine guns. Their losses were frightful and all German efforts to retake Hill 70 came to naught, while their hold on the central portion of the mining city became most precarious, as the Canadians consolidated the advantageous positions their valor had finally won.

RUSSIAN VICTORIES AND COLLAPSE

After the Russian revolution in March, 1917, the military affairs of the new nation entered upon a curious phase. At first the Russian army made a feint to advance on Pinsk, to cover the actual operations resumed in the month of July against Lemberg. This latter front extended for eighteen and a half miles and was held by troops known as "Regiments July First." These troops, reinvigorated by the consciousness of political liberty, confounded German military prophets by the magnitude and extent of the offensive which they began. Led by Alexander Kerensky, the revolutionary minister of war, and observed by American army officers, they forced the Teutons to evacuate Brzezany, and then captured many important positions, including terrain west and south of Halicz and strongly-defended positions northwest of Stanislau. On July 11 Halicz was taken, thus smashing the Austro-German front between Brzezany and the Carpathians.

This Russian operation broadened by mid-July, so that it extended from the Gulf of Riga to the Roumanian front, a distance of 800 miles. The Germans were reported to be rushing troops from the Italian and French fronts. Widespread enthusiasm was created throughout Russia, and the moral effect on the other entente powers was tremendous.

Before the third year closed, at the end of July, however, Russia's offensive suffered a collapse. German spies, anarchists, peace fanatics, and other agitators succeeded in destroying the morale of some of the Russian troops in Galicia, where a retreat became necessary when unit after unit refused to obey orders. Brzezany, Halicz, Tarnopol, Stanislau and Kaloma were lost, together with all the remaining ground gained during the offensive. The Russians surrendered many prisoners, heavy guns, and an abundance of supplies and ammunition.

The death penalty was invoked as a check to further insubordinations and the provisional government introduced a policy of "blood and iron" in an effort to avert disaster.

South of the Carpathians and in the Vilna region there was little disaffection among the Russian troops, and Russia had not yet thrown up her hands, although the situation on the eastern front was disappointing to the Allies. Alexander Kerensky, a popular hero, became the strong man of Russia. A counter-revolution was promptly and forcibly crushed in Petrograd and an "extraordinary national council," meeting at Moscow, August 25, took steps to end the crisis. All loyal Russians, conservative and radical, were called to the aid of Kerensky, who ignored factional and party lines and succeeded in bringing something like order out of the political chaos in the new republic. Every effort was made to restore the power as well as the will of Russia to gain ultimate victory, and Elihu Root, head of a United States commission to Russia, a.s.sured the American people on his return from Petrograd that the ill effects of the revolution would soon pa.s.s away, leaving Russia once more united for action against the Teuton foe.

On August 15, Nicholas Romanoff, the deposed czar of Russia, and his entire family were removed from the palace at Tsarskoe-Selo, near Petrograd, and transported to Tobolsk in Siberia. Fifty servants who were devoted to him accompanied the ex-emperor into exile. Instead of the gorgeous imperial train in which he was wont to travel, an ordinary train composed of three sleeping cars, a dining car, and several third-cla.s.s coaches was used for the transportation of Nicholas and his party, which included the former Empress Alexandra, whose pro-German att.i.tude was a prime cause of his downfall. On arrival at Tobolsk the ex-czar and his entourage were received as political prisoners.

GERMAN SUBMARINE CAMPAIGN FAILS

The campaign of unrestricted submarine warfare, which was relied upon by Germany to win the war by the extinction of the British mercantile marine and the stoppage of transatlantic supplies, had proved a failure by August, 1917, after six months' duration. While the tonnage destroyed by the undersea instruments of frightfulness was sufficiently serious to cause grave alarm on both sides of the Atlantic, it formed but a small percentage of the ships actively and continually engaged in the transportation of munitions and supplies, while it was practically counterbalanced by the activities of Allied shipbuilders and by the seizure for Allied service of interned German ships in the countries that entered the war subsequent to February 1, 1917, when the campaign of unrestricted destruction began. Determined efforts were made by the British, French and United States navies to cope with the undersea enemy, and these were increasingly successful. Many merchant ships and transports were convoyed to safety by the destroyers of the three great naval Allies, and by August the fear that Britain could be starved out by means of German submarines had practically disappeared. The record of sinkings of British vessels for the first twenty-four weeks after the "unrestricted" warfare began was as follows:

Over Under 1,600 1,600 Smaller Week tons. tons.

First............ 14 9 Second........... 13 4 Third............ 16 8 Fourth .......... 19 7 Fifth............ 18 13 Sixth ........... 17 2 Seventh.......... 19 9 Eighth .......... 40 15 Ninth............ 38 13 Tenth............ 24 22 Eleventh ........ 18 5 Twelfth.......... 18 5 Thirteenth ...... 18 1 Fourteenth ...... 15 3 Fifteenth........ 22 10 Sixteenth........ 27 5 Seventeenth ..... 21 7 Eighteenth ...... 15 5 Nineteenth ...... 14 3 Twentieth........ 14 4 Twenty-first..... 21 3 Twenty-second ... 18 3 Twenty-third..... 21 2 Twenty-fourth ... 14 2

Total............ 474 164

Grand total of ships sunk......

KING OF GREECE DEPOSED

King Constantine I of Greece was forced by the Allies to abdicate his throne on June 12, 1917, in favor of his second son, Prince Alexander.

The kingdom remained, but not a pro-German one as before. In order to block the designs of the King and court, who were doing their best to deliver Greece to the Germans, the Entente powers were obliged to make a succession of demands upon the Greek government, including the demobilization of most of the army, the surrender of the fleet, and the withdrawal of Greek troops from Thessaly. In an effort to enforce their demands the Entente allies landed marines in Athens--who were fired upon--and finally declared an embargo on imports into Greece. Turmoil and intrigue continued, and pressure was brought to bear upon Constantine which compelled him to abdicate the throne. Venizelos returned as premier and Greece was announced as a belligerent on the side of the Entente.

THE ITALIAN CAMPAIGN

In the Trentino the Italians took the offensive in June and after terrible fighting captured the Austrian positions on Monte Ortigara and Agnello Pa.s.s. These they were forced to relinquish, however, in the face of Austrian counter-attacks.

The Italian campaign on the Isonzo and in the Trentino, continued throughout the summer, was perhaps the most scientific of all the campaigns, involving tremendous technical difficulties, which were solved with amazing ingenuity and skill. The campaign was largely an engineers' and an artilleryman's war, waged in the mountains, much of it in regions of perpetual snow--highly picturesque and spectacular.

Finally, it was as little destructive as war well can be, because the Italians were fighting in territories which they hoped to hold after the conflict, and they spared the towns and villages to the greatest extent possible.

BRITISH CAMPAIGN IN THE EAST

The capture of Bagdad by the British in March, 1917, after a brilliant campaign in Mesopotamia, had a deep moral effect in the Orient, particularly in Arabia, where the natives revolted against Turkish rule and established an independent government in Mecca.

In the Holy Land the British in 1917 opened a new era in the history of the East. Their advance by August 1 had carried them nearly to Gaza.

Their objective was Jerusalem, which the Turks partly evacuated at their approach, after doing untold damage in the holy city and inflicting many atrocities upon the inhabitants.

WAR MISSIONS OF THE ALLIES

In cementing America's a.s.sociation with the nations which had become her allies, numerous exchanges of missions were arranged. France, Great Britain, Italy, Belgium, Russia, j.a.pan and other entente belligerents sent delegations to the United States as a step toward unification, military, financial and otherwise. The United States sent missions to Russia and other countries.