America's War for Humanity Part 54

"That one house was used as an outlying hospital or dressing-place nearest the firing line, and the wounded had to be led or carried only two or three hundred yards to reach it. They sat on the dining-room chairs or lay helpless on the floor. A few surgeons were at work upon them, cutting off loose fingers and throwing them into basins, plugging black holes that welled up instantly through the plug, straining bandages, which in a minute ceased to be white, round legs and heads.

The smell of fresh, warm blood was thick on the air. One man lay deep in his blood. You could not have supposed that anyone had so much in him.

Another's head had lost on one side all human semblance, and was a hideous pulp of eye and ear and jaw. Another, with chest torn open, lay gasping for the few minutes left of life. And as I waited for the ambulance more were brought in, and always more.

"In a complacent and comfortable account of hospital work I lately read that 'deaths from wounds are happily rare; one surgeon put the number as low as 2 per cent.' Happy hospital, far away in Paris or some Isle of the Blest! The further from the front the fewer the deaths, because so many have died already.

"In the nearest hospitals to the front, half the wounded, and on some days more than half, die where they are put. Often they die in the ambulance, and one's care in drawing them out is wasted, for they will never feel again. I found one always took the same care, though the greenish-yellow of the exposed hands or feet showed the truth. Laid on the floor of the main hospital itself, some screamed or moaned, some whimpered like sick children, especially in their sleep, some lay quiet, with glazed eyes out of which sight was pa.s.sing. Mere fragments of mankind were there extended, limbs pounded into mash, heads split open, intestines hanging out from gashes. Did those bones--did that exquisite network of living tissue and contrivances for life--cost no more in the breeding than to be hewed and smashed and pulped like this?

Shrapnel--shrapnel--it was nearly always the same. For this is, above all, an artillery war, and both sides are justly proud of their efficiency in guns."

GOVERNMENT RETURNS TO PARIS

Confidence of safety having been restored in the French capital, the Paris bourse reopened on December 7, after having been closed since September 3. President Poincare transferred his official residence back to Paris from Bordeaux on December 9 and a meeting of the French cabinet was held in Paris on December 11, for the first time since the capital was threatened by the German advance at the end of August.

BRITISH NAVAL VICTORY

In the second week of December the British navy avenged the defeat of Rear Admiral Cradock's squadron off the Chilean coast in November, when a powerful special fleet, under Vice-Admiral Sir Frederick St.u.r.dee, encountered the German cruiser fleet, under Admiral von Spee, off the Falkland Islands and practically destroyed it. Only one of the five German cruisers escaped. The flagship Scharnhorst, the Gneisenau, the Leipzig and the Nurnberg were sunk in the action, which lasted for five hours, and the German admiral with three of his sons and most of the officers and men of the German crews perished. The British losses were inconsiderable.

This sea fight in the South Atlantic was the most important engagement in which British men-of-war had partic.i.p.ated since the era of Napoleon.

The sailing of the British fleet in quest of Admiral von Spee's squadron had been kept secret and the news of the victory was therefore especially welcome to the people of England, who had been considerably worried by a succession of minor naval losses inflicted by German cruisers, submarines and mines. The action was gallantly fought on both sides. The advantage in weight of metal and range of guns lay on the side of the British, and the battle was decided at long range. Admiral von Spee, refusing to surrender, in spite of the odds against him, went down with his ship. The flagship of the victorious admiral, Sir Frederick St.u.r.dee, was the modern battle cruiser Invincible. A number of the German sailors were rescued by the British after the engagement and sent as prisoners of war to England. The total German loss was over 2,000 officers and men.

Fine strategy was shown by the British admiralty in sending Admiral St.u.r.dee to South American waters. He was ordered to sea from his desk as chief of the British naval board, after Von Spee's Chilean victory in November, and was placed in command of some of the fastest and most powerful cruisers of the British fleet. The entire affair, from the time the admiral left London until he succeeded in finding and sinking the German squadron in the South Atlantic, took about a month--a truly remarkable exploit.

RULERS AT THE FRONT

During December all the armies in the field were visited by the rulers of their respective countries. The Czar spent some time with his troops near the firing lines in Poland; King George of England visited the British forces in Belgium and Northern France and conferred the Victoria Cross ("For Valor") on a number of officers and men; and President Poincare made several trips to the front, conferring decorations upon General Joffre, commander-in-chief, and other French officers, for distinguished service. The gallant and devoted soldier-king, Albert of Belgium, remained steadfastly at the front with his troops, sharing all their privations and dangers during the fierce fighting in Flanders.

Kaiser Wilhelm was also at the front, both east and west, but was forced to return to Berlin early in the month by an attack of illness. On his recovery after two weeks he again visited the western field headquarters in Belgium, but in the first week of January, 1915, he was again compelled by his ailment to make a hurried return to Berlin for medical treatment and rest. British and German naval losses in the world war to January 1, 1915, are shown in the following, compiled from admiralty reports, and, where these are missing, from other authoritative sources.

The figures are approximately correct.

BRITISH LOSSES

Date Name and Type How Sunk Tonnage Lives Lost Aug. 7--Amphion, protected cruiser Mined 3,440 136 Sept. 4--Speedy, torpedo gunboat Mined 810 ...

Sept. 5--Pathfinder, protected cruiser Mined 2,940 250 Sept. 7--Warrior, protected cruiser Stranded 13,500 ...

Sept. 9--Oceanic, auxiliary cruiser Wrecked 17,000 ...

Sept. 18--Fishguard II, training ship Foundered ...... 21 Sept. 19--AE-1, submarine Lost 800 25 Sept. 20--Pegasus, protected cruiser Sh.e.l.led 2,200 25 Sept. 22--Aboukir, protected cruiser Torpedoed 12,000 510 Sept. 22--Cressy, protected cruiser Torpedoed 12,000 561 Sept. 22--Hogue, protected cruiser Torpedoed 12,000 362 Oct. 16--Hawke, protected cruiser Torpedoed 7,350 350 Oct. 18--E-3, submarine Sh.e.l.led 800 25 Oct. 27--Audacious, dreadnought Torpedoed 25,000 2 Oct. 31--Hermes, protected cruiser Torpedoed 5,600 ...

Nov. 1--Monmouth, armored cruiser Sh.e.l.led 3,800 540 Nov. 1--Good Hope, armored cruiser Sh.e.l.led 14,100 875 Nov. 5--D-5, submarine Mined 550 21 Nov. 11--Niger, torpedo gunboat Torpedoed 819 ...

Nov. 20--Bulwark, battleship Explosion 15,000 800 Jan. 1--Formidable, battleship Torpedoed 17,000 579 Number of vessels lost, 21. -------------- Totals 172,700 5,082

GERMAN LOSSES

Date Name and Type How Sunk Tonnage Lives Lost Aug. 5--Panther, gunboat Sh.e.l.led 900 75 Aug. 6--Koenigin Luise, mine layer Torpedoed 1,800 70 Aug. 7--Augsburg, protected cruiser Sh.e.l.led 4,280 158 Aug. 9--U-15, submarine Sh.e.l.led 400 12 Aug. 27--Kaiser Wm.

der Grosse, aux. cruiser Sh.e.l.led 14,849 30 Aug. 27--Magdeburg, protected cruiser Sh.e.l.led 4,478 200 Aug. 28--Ariadne, protected cruiser Sh.e.l.led 2,620 200 Aug. 28--V-186, V-187, destroyers Sh.e.l.led 1,290 100 Sept. 14--Cap Trafalgar,auxiliary cruiser Sh.e.l.led 26,000 14 Sept. 15--Hela, small cruiser Torpedoed 2,000 10 Oct. 17--S-115, 117, 118, 119, 4 destroyers 1,660 193 Oct. 20--S-30, destroyer Ran Ash.o.r.e 400 ...

Oct. 25--Submarine Sh.e.l.led 400 12 Oct. 30--Submarine Sh.e.l.led 400 12 Nov. 4--Yorck, armored cruiser Mined 9,350 226 Nov. 7--Jaguar, gunboat Sh.e.l.led 330 50 Nov. 7--Luchs, gunboat Sh.e.l.led 880 50 Nov. 7--Iltis, gunboat Sh.e.l.led 880 50 Nov. 7--Cormoran, gunboat Sh.e.l.led 1,600 100 Nov. 7--Tiger, gunboat Sh.e.l.led 880 50 Nov 7--Taku, destroyer Sh.e.l.led 280 26 Nov. 7--Ruchin, mine layer Sh.e.l.led ... ...

Nov. 9--Emden, protected cruiser Sh.e.l.led 3,540 200 Nov. . .--Wilhelm der Grosse, battleship Mined 10,790 400 Nov. . .--Hertha, cruiser Mined 5,569 200 Dec. 8--Scharnhorst, armored cruiser Sh.e.l.led 11,420 764 Dec. 8--Gneisenau, armored cruiser Sh.e.l.led 11,420 700 Dec. 8--Leipzig, cruiser Sh.e.l.led 3,200 280 Dec 8--Nurnberg, cruiser Sh.e.l.led 3,200 256 Dec. 10--Three submarines Sh.e.l.led 1,200 36 Number of vessels lost, 38. ---------------- Totals 134,026 5,005

CANADIANS AT THE FRONT

Late in December the first of the Canadian troops to leave their English training camp on Salisbury Plain were sent to the front in Northern France. The Princess Patricia regiment had the military honor of leading the Canadians to the firing line. It was made up largely of men who had seen previous service and promptly proceeded to give a good account of itself. A British guardsman returning wounded from the front on December 28 paid a characteristic tribute to the efficiency and daring of the Canadian troops, when he said: "They are all old soldiers. They knew as much about the game as we did and a blooming sight more than the enemy's infantry."

The Canadians first went into action at one of those ticklish spots where yards count. The trench of the British ended at a village which was vigorously sh.e.l.led by the Germans, and was practically in ruins.

Another trench on the right of a little town held by unmounted French cavalry made it impossible for the Germans to reach the village, but their "snipers" had ensconced themselves in some farm buildings to the northeast, making it extremely hazardous for supplies to reach the advanced British posts.

"About twenty of the Canadians," said the wounded guardsman, "managed to gain the ruins at the extreme end of the village during Christmas night and when daylight came they accounted for practically all the German 'snipers' and dashed back into safety before the German artillery fire was directed to the stronghold."

SERVIANS REOCCUPY BELGRADE

Just when it appeared likely that Servia might share the fate of Belgium, a turn in the fortunes of war changed the entire situation of affairs in the little Slav kingdom. Aided by a fresh advance of Russian troops across the Carpathians, which caused the hurried withdrawal of three Austrian army corps from Servian territory to defend the threatened cities of Hungary, the Serbs again took the offensive and, inspired by the presence in the field of old King Peter, a gallant soldier of France in 1870, they reoccupied Belgrade and drove the Austrians before them in a disorderly rout, so that by December Servia was free of the Austrian enemy. Budapest, capital of Hungary, became panic-stricken at the Russian advance and the Servian victory, and the year 1914 closed with every evidence that the people of Austria, at any rate, were tired of the war, discontented at the prospect, and desirous of peace.

GERMAN ATTACK ON BRITISH COAST

For the first time in history since the days of the American commander, Paul Jones, British coast towns were bombarded on December 16, when a squadron of German cruisers, slipping across the North Sea in a fog, from their Heligoland base, appeared off Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby, on the eastern coast of England, and sh.e.l.led each of them in turn. The loss of life in the three towns was about 100 men, women and children, and a considerable number of buildings were partially wrecked by the German sh.e.l.ls. Comparatively speaking, of course the damage inflicted was trifling and from a military point of view the incident was unimportant, the German ships disappearing in the fog after a half-hour's bombardment But the moral effect upon the British public was tremendous. The event came as a distinct shock to their over-confidence and as a reminder that the German navy was still to be reckoned with.

The warships of the Kaiser brought home to the people of the United Kingdom the meaning of the war, as no previous incident had done, and fear of further attacks took possession of them. This fear, however, soon turned to rage, and then to a fierce determination to prosecute the war to a bitter end. The attack stimulated recruiting for Lord Kitchener's new army, and this was its chief result, though Germany had proved that her ships could reach British sh.o.r.es and bombard their defenseless towns, in spite of all the vigilance of the British fleet.

BRITISH RAID GERMAN PORT

By way of answer to the German attack on Scarborough and Hartlepool, a daring raid was made Christmas Day by the British navy on the German naval base at Cuxhaven, at the mouth of the Elbe. The chief partic.i.p.ants were seven British naval airmen. They were a.s.sisted in the attack by several light cruisers, destroyers and submarines. The airmen piloted seaplanes and succeeded in dropping a number of bombs in the vicinity of Cuxhaven, in an attempt to bring out into the open a portion of the German fleet lying there. The affair resulted in a contest between the most modern of war machines. No surface warships were sent out by the Germans, but the attack was repelled by means of Zeppelins, sea-planes and submarines. No great damage was done on either side and the British airmen all escaped without injury, though four of them lost their machines. One, Flight Commander Hewlett, fell with his plane into the North Sea at a considerable distance from Cuxhaven and was picked up by a Dutch trawler, which landed him in Holland several days afterward.

The British vessels remained off Cuxhaven for three hours, engaged in the most novel combat in naval history.

A short time previous to the attack on Cuxhaven, the British submarine B-11 accomplished one of the most remarkable exploits of the war when it penetrated into the Dardanelles and torpedoed the Turkish battleship Messudieh. In doing so the submarine successfully pa.s.sed and repa.s.sed five lines of submerged mines and returned to its base in safety after being under water for many hours at a stretch.

U.S. PROTEST ON MARINE CONDITIONS

On December 31, by mutual agreement between the State Department at Washington and the British Foreign Office, the text of a note sent by the United States to England, requesting an early improvement in the treatment of American shipping by the British fleet, was made public.

The note of protest had been presented on December 29. It dealt with the manner in which American ships suspected of carrying contraband of war had been held up on the high seas and sent into British ports for examination. Sir Edward Grey, the British foreign secretary, and Walter Hines Page, United States amba.s.sador, conferred on the subject in London, and it was announced on January 1, 1915, that an answer to the American note would be drawn up as soon as possible and that it would be in the same friendly spirit in which the American note was written.

ON THE WESTERN BATTLE FRONT

The battle lines in the western theater of war held firm and fast during the first two months of 1915. Along the entire front, from Flanders to the Swiss frontier, there were few changes in the relative positions of the German forces and the Allies up to March 1, at which time both sides were occupied with preparations for the spring campaign. British reinforcements, forming part of Lord Kitchener's new army, were being transported to the front, while the far-flung lines of trenches were filled with battle-weary veterans of the winter campaign. In many places the entrenchments of the opposing forces were only a few yards apart and trenches were frequently destroyed by mines, resulting in losses to both sides, but without materially changing the general aspect of the conflict.

NAVAL BATTLE IN THE NORTH SEA

One of the most important naval battles of the war took place on January 24 in the North Sea between a British battle cruiser squadron under Vice-Admiral Sir David Beatty, comprising the battle cruisers Tiger, Lion, Princess Royal, New Zealand and Indomitable, a.s.sisted by a few light cruisers and destroyers, on the one hand, and on the other a German squadron, consisting of the battle cruisers Derflinger, Seydlitz and Moltke, the armored cruiser Bluecher, one of the finest in the Kaiser's navy, and several light cruisers.

It was a running fight, covering over one hundred miles and lasting four hours. At the end of this time the German armored cruiser Bluecher was at the bottom of the sea and two of the German battle cruisers had been damaged. Two of Vice-Admiral Beatty's ships were seriously damaged, namely, the giant battle cruiser Lion, which was Sir David's flagship, and the torpedo boat destroyer Meteor, one of the largest and fastest of this cla.s.s afloat. However, both of these vessels were safely towed into port. The loss in men on the British side was fourteen killed and twenty-nine wounded, while on the side of the Germans only 125 of the crew of 850 men on the Bluecher were saved; the other 725 went down with the ship. The loss of the Bluecher was the hardest blow the German navy had sustained up to this time, as she was one of the newest and best vessels of her cla.s.s. She was built at a cost of $6,750,000. Her speed was slower than that of the other vessels in the German squadron, which doubtless accounted for her loss. The battle began about 150 miles from Heligoland and ended within about fifty miles of this German naval base.

Early in the month of February, England threatened to put all foodstuffs destined for German ports on the contraband list. In retaliation, Germany, on February 4, through Admiral von Pohl, chief of the admiralty staff, issued a proclamation designating the waters around Great Britain and Ireland as a war area, to become effective February 18 and to be enforced by a formidable fleet of submarines, the object being to conduct war operations in this area for the purpose of destroying commercial ships of the enemy.

Just at this time the great pa.s.senger steamship Lusitania, in her pa.s.sage from New York to Liverpool, hoisted the American flag while sailing through the Irish Sea, and Germany charged that the British Admiralty had issued confidential orders to captains of all British ships to sail under the stars and stripes or other neutral flags when necessary to use this means of protection against destruction by the warships of the enemy. This situation seriously menaced the commerce of the United States as well as that of all other neutral nations, and the American Government, therefore, promptly issued a note of warning to both belligerents and demanded in strong terms the protection of American neutral rights on the high seas. Germany responded promptly and promised to use every precaution to protect neutral shipping, but pointed out that the use of the American flag by British ships would make it difficult to distinguish neutral vessels from those of the enemy; hence neutral shipping was urged to avoid the indicated war area.

Great Britain, on the other hand, claimed the right to use neutral flags when necessary to protect human life and ships, when endangered by the war vessels of the enemy; and under the laws of warfare and customs of the nations this contention was correct.

It can readily be seen that this situation placed the sea commerce of the United States, as well as that of all other neutral countries, in a most dangerous position. Up to March 1, 1915, about twenty merchant vessels of various nationalities were destroyed or damaged in the war zone established by Germany, including Dutch, Norwegian, Danish, American and British ships.

GREAT GERMAN VICTORY IN EAST PRUSSIA

After a difficult campaign against the Russian invaders in East Prussia, the German army, by the masterly strategy of Field Marshal von Hindenburg, practically annihilated the Russian Tenth Army of 150, men, completing the task February 20. It was the most spectacular campaign in the history of modern warfare.

The object of the German commander was not only to free East Prussia from the Russian invasion, but to completely capture the Russian Tenth Army. He sent one column in from the south to drive back the Russians who occupied the Mazurian lake gateway to East Prussia, and another column from the north was swung around in wide circles to the east and south, aiming to join hands with the southern German column, thus cutting off the Russian retreat. This movement would have succeeded absolutely except for delay in pa.s.sing through the swamps, caused by mild weather which broke up the ice. A commander of one of the German corps said: "Nature has always helped Russia. Two days of hard frost and we should have had every man."

In the south also nature aided the Russians. There the German hosts attacked the enemy in the face of a driving snowstorm from the north, which hindered their operations but did not prevent them from gaining a victory which resulted in freeing Prussian territory from the invader.