..> 't.-O^ , ^j^CSSN^X't^'S, ,-^'" . o V ,v V ^:^" ^'^^k^^ ^% J" %^' "U.^^' -rf.^:?^' ■^-'-^^ 'hm- \/ f^, %,^* :'Mk' \ / ^,.^,^v, *_. 4 o ,^ s^V -o.*" G^ ^ *^.T^ 'V ^. 'o.»>» .G^ "Ko .4 9. G" ^^-0^ .N ,40. ^o ,0' ;f :?, J* j^v: ^^ -<^ r-^^. ^' -^-^ ^v^ o'"^ •^, *A* ^,,.?' q\ c " " " * O I ^//Aw?.;.,x>. . ■'©.J* .'• O '. ' '" s$>' b> .^■; - '• Field Marshal Earl Kitchener. Late Secretary of State for War. EARL KITCHENER and the GREAT WAR The Heroic Career of One Whose Memory Will Live as Long as The British Empire Including A Comprehensive Story of the Battles and Great Events of the World War By CAPTAIN LOGAN HOWARD-SMITH with Special Chapters by THOMAS F. TRUSLER, Third Brigade Canadian Artillery and VISCOUNT JAMES BRYCE Profusely Illustrated with Photographs, Maps and Drawings 'HIS- Copyright, 1916, by L. T. Myers Printed and Boimd at THE INTERNATIONAL PRESS Pbiladblphia, Pa. •CI.A445Uuy INTRODUCTION THE DEFENSE of Home and Country has always called forth the noblest instincts in man. Patriotism is a magnet that draws men to planes of heroic en- deavor, of consummate devotion to principle, where the sacrifice of physical comfort is nothing, and the giving up of life itself a trifle. The moments of supreme courage, effort, and achieve- ment in the life of man have been when he has shouldered arms and faced the invader and persecutor. War is a horrible and hateful thing; at best it is a terrible, lamentable necessity. But it does not make cowards of brave and honest men; it does frequently inspire the timid and hesitating with the fire of valor and resolution to a degree undreamed of. So it is that in war we find stories of intrepidity, and deeds palpitating with heroism, such as only the crises of supreme danger and necessity could inspire; and we treasure these stories as part of the priceless heritage of humanity, that children and grandchildren may remember the valor of their sires; we tell and retell them, we preserve them in the volumes of the historian, on the canvas of the artist, we chisel them in stone, that men may remember the price paid for liberty and virtue. CONTENTS CHAPTKR PAOa Introduction 5 I. Earl Kitchener Dies a Hero's Death 11 II. Earl Kitchener: The Supreme Military Organizer 22 III. Earl Kitchener's Military Record 32 IV. Kitchener of Khartoum 42 V. Earl Kitchener's Human Side 57 VI. The World's Greatest Naval Battle 61 VII. Britain's Navy Saves Civilization 70 VIII. Verdun: The Greatest Battle in History. 81 IX. Fighting the Submarine 95 X. How THE Conquest of the Air Revolution- ized Warfare 106 XI. The Heroic Struggle on the Gallipoli Peninsula 122 XII. The Valiant Defense of Serbia and Mon- tenegro 136 XIII. The Terrible Mesopotamian Campaign .... 149 XIV. The French Attack in the Champagne District 164 XV. Italy's Part in the War 177 XVI. The Marvelous Work of the Red Cross. . 192 XVIL Patriotic Canada 203 7 CONTENTS CHAPTBB PAQE XVIII. A Crime Against Civilization: The Tragic Destruction of the Lusitania 214 XIX. A Canadian's Account of the Lusitania Horror 226 XX. The Heroes of the Lusitania and Their Heroism 230 XXI. Canadians' Glorious Feat at Langemarck. 247 XXII, Vivid Experiences of T. F. Trusler at Ypres 265 XXIII. Canadian Heroism in the War 281 XXIV. Woman's Part in the Great War 291 XXV. A Battle in the Air 303 XXVI. A March Through the Night 308 XXVII. Deliberate and Systematic Massacre 313 By Viscount James Bryce XXVIII. Pitiful Flight of a Million Women 329 By Philip Gibbs, English Author and Journalist. XXIX. Facing Death in the Trenches 341 XXX. A Vivid Picture of War 355 XXXI. Harrowing Scenes Along the Battle Lines 362 XXXII. What the Men in the Trenches Write Home 368 XXXIII. Bombarding Undefended Cities 374 XXXIV. Germany's Fatal War Zone 380 XXXV. Multitudinous Tragedies at Sea 385 XXXVI. The Terrible Distress of Poland 389 8 CONTENTS PAGE The Ghastly Havoc Wrought by the Air Demons 397 The Deadly Submarine and Its Stealthy Destruction 403 The Terrible Work of Artillery in War 408 Wholesale Death by Poisonous Gases .... 414 "Usages of War on Land": The Official German Manual 422 The Sacrifice of the Horse in Warfare . . 427 Scourges that Follow in the Wake of Battle 431 War's Repair Shop: Caring for the Wounded 436 CHAPTER XXXVII. XXXVIII. XXXIX. XL. XLI. XLII. XLIII. XLIV. EARL KITCHENER'S LADDER OF FAME Bom June 24, 1850. Woolwich Cadet, 1868-1871. Lieutenant, R. E., January 4, 1871. Commanded Egjrptian Cavalry, 1882-84. Captain, January 4, 1883. Brevet Major, October 8, 1884. Nile Expedition, 1884-85. Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel, June 15, 1885. Governor of Suakim, 1886. Brevet Colonel, April 11, 1888. Adjutant-General, Egyptian Army, 1888-92. Soudan Campaign, 1889. Sirdar, 1892. Major-General, September 25, 1896. Dongola Expeditionary Force, 1896. Omdurman and Khartoum, 1898. Baron, 1898, Lieutenant-General, December 23, 1899. Chief of Staff in South Africa, 1899-1900. Commander-in-Chief, 1900-02. Viscount, 1902. General, Jime 1, 1902. Commander-in-Chief, India, 1902-09. Field Marshal, September 10, 1909. British Agent and Consul-General in Egjrpt, 1911-14. Earl, 1914. Secretary of State for War, 1914-16. 10 Kitchener vSaves Lieut. Conder AT 8afed. Kitchener and Bennett Burleigh Meet at Debbeh. Kitchener Stoned by Natives while Surveying. The Khalifa's Flag Bearer at Omdurman. CHAPTER I EARL KITCHENER DIES A HERO'S DEATH Britain's greatest shock — admiral jellicoe's REPORT ON mission AT RUSSIA's REQUEST SPIES BLAMED FOR CALAMITY NEWS RECEIVED AMID INTENSE EXCITEMENT ARMY ORDERED INTO MOURNING HOW LORD KITCHENER DIED SUNK BY A MINE LOSS OF THE HAMPSHIRE kitchener's PLACE IN BRITAIN'S HISTORY. THE NEWS received by the world on June 6, 1916, that Lord Kitchener, Secretary of State for War, and his staff were lost off the Orkney Islands the previous night, was the most stunning blow delivered to Great Britain since the beginning of the war. It was the second great shock which the country had sustained within a week. The first was the announce- ment of the naval battle in the North Sea in the form of a list of the ships lost, with virtually no way of ascertaining the enemy losses. The bulletin telling of the intimation that there was any com- pensation in the death of Kitchener gave the country even a greater shock. Lord Kitchener was the one outstanding personality whom the people talked of and believed in as a great man, nothwithstanding the newspaper attacks, which, at a former period of the war, threatened to undermine his popularity and the public confidence in him. 11 DIES A HERO'S DEATH ADMIRAL JELLICOE S REPORT ON THE DISASTER A telegram from Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, com- mander of the fleet, giving the bare facts, was received at the Admiralty on the morning following the disaster. The first official announcement was issued at about A Where Britain Lost Her Great Soldier and War Minister At the time of his death Lord Kitchener was en route to Russia, intending to sail around the northern coast of Russia and land at Archangel, as indicated by the dotted line. The star shows where his ship was sunk. 1.30 in the afternoon. Such news, however, cannot be kept entirely secret even for an hour. Before noon rumors were spreading, and the telephones in the newspaper offices were busy with inquirers anxious to know whether this — one of the many reports circulating in those days of tension — had any foundation. 12 DIES A HERO'S DEATH Admiral Jellicoe's report to the Admiralty was as follows : I have to report with deep regret that His Majesty's ship Hampshire, Captain Herbert J. Savill, R. N., with Lord Kitchener and his staff on board, was sunk last night at about 8 p. m., to the west of the Orkneys, either by a mine or a torpedo. Four boats were seen by observers on shore to leave the ship. The wind was north-northwest and heavy seas were running. Patrol vessels and destroyers at once proceeded to the spot and a party was sent along the coast to search, but only some bodies and a capsized boat have been found up to the present. As the whole shore has been searched from the seaward, I greatly fear that there is little hope of there being any survivors. No report has yet been received from the search party on shore. H. M. S. Hampshire was on her way to Russia. ON MISSION AT RUSSIA'S REQUEST Earl Kitchener was on his way to Russia, at the request of the Russian Government, to discuss impor- tant military and financial questions with Emperor Nicholas, including chiefly the supply of munitions for Russia. He intended to land at Archangel, visit Petrograd, and probably go to the Russian front. Accompanying Earl Kitchener as his staff were Sir Frederick Donaldson, superintendent of the Royal Ordnance Factories at Woolwich and technical adviser to David Lloyd-George, Minister of Munitions; Hugh 13 DIES A HERO'S DEATH James O'Beirne, former councilor of the British Em- bassy at Petrograd and former Minister at Sofia; O. A. Fitzgerald, Earl Kitchener's private military secretary, and Brigadier-General Ellershaw. On board the Hampshire with the British War Secretary were also a number of minor officers. SPIES BLAMED FOR CALAMITY In connection with suggestion that information of Earl Kitchener's movements may have been conveyed to the Germans by spies, it is interesting to note that the Official Gazette, on the same night on which Lord Kitchener lost his life, contained an order placing new restrictions on passengers landing at ports in the Orkney Islands, and providing that thereafter no person might land at such ports without specific permission of the military authorities at Kirkwall. The Daily Mail gave prominence to the following statement : ''Earl Kitchener's intention to go to Russia was known to a great many persons in London on Thursday. It ought not to have been so known. The news of it may have reached the enemy. The public mind has been quick to associate his death with the work of spies. We have every sympathy with the demand which comes to us from many parts of the country that all alien enemies who are still at large, especially those in high places be interned at once." The Morning Post, discussing the sinking of the Ham^pshire, said: ''Circumstances point at espionage or treachery, and the country will suspect this the more owing to the 14 DIES A HERO'S DEATH singular freedom still allowed to enemy subjects in Great Britain." Naval officers expressed the opinion that the cruiser Hampshire must have struck a mine, as it would have to be an exceedingly lucky shot for a torpedo to get a ship with her speed and under the condition of the sea which was very rough. The Hampshire was an old boat and not fit for fleet action, but Vv^as fast enough for patrol and blockade work. When Admiral Jellicoe's report finally was issued the fact spread about London some time before the news- papers could get into the streets. There was a crowd about the Stock Exchange which required police re- serves to deal with. NEWS RECEIVED AMID INTENSE EXCITEMENT At the same time another mass of people was assembling about the Government offices in Whitehall. All the windows of the War Office had the cur- tains lowered. That confirmed the rumor beyond doubt. Other crowds gathered around the newspaper offices; when the boys came out with an armful of extras the people fell on them and fought for the papers. In the course of the afternoon the flags on all buildings were flown at half staff. There was an exciting scene at the close of the Stock Exchange session. ARMY ORDERED INTO MOURNING The King hurried from Windsor and sent for Premier Asquith when he heard the news. 10 DIES A HERO'S DEATH By the King's command the following order was issued to the army: The King has learned with profound regret of the disaster whereby the Secretary of State for War has lost his life while proceeding on a special mission to the Emperor of Russia. Field Marshal Lord Kitchener gave forty-eight years of distinguished service to the State, and it is largely due to his administrative genius and unwearying energy that the country has been able to create and place in the field the armies which today are upholding the traditional glories of our empire. Lord Kitchener will be mourned by the army as a great soldier who, under conditions of unexampled difficulty, rendered supreme and de- voted service both to the army and the State. His Majesty the King commands that the officers of the army shall wear mourning with their uniforms for the period of one week. Officers are to wear crepe on the left arm of uniform and of great-coats. HOW LORD KITCHENER DIED Leading Seaman Rogerson, one of the survivors of the Hampshire, has furnished the following account of Lord Kitchener's last moments: "Of those who left the ship and have survived it, I was the one who saw Lord Kitchener last," said Rogerson. ''He went down with the ship. He did not leave her. I saw Captain Savill help his boat's crew to clear away. At the same time the captain was calling to Lord Kitchener to come to the boat, but 16 DIES A HERO'S DEATH owing to the noise made by the wind and sea, Kitchener could not hear him, I think. When the explosion occurred, Lord Kitchener walked calmly from the captain's cabin, went up the ladder and on to the quarter-deck. "There I saw him walking quite collectedly and talking to two officers, all three wearing khaki. They had no overcoats on. Lord Kitchener calmly watched the preparations for abandoning the ship, which were going on in spite of the heavy sea. In a steady and orderly way the crew just went to stations, obeyed orders and did their best to get out the boats, but it was impossible. "Owing to the rough weather no boats could be lowered. Those that were got out were smashed up at once. No boats left the ship. What people on shore thought were boats leaving were rafts. Men did get into the boats as these lay in their cradles, thinking that as the ship went under them the boats would float, but the ship sank by the head and when she went down she turned a somersault forward, carry- ing down with her all the boats and those in them. "I do not think Lord Kitchener got into a boat. When I sprang to a raft he was still on the starboard side of the quarter-deck talking with officers. "Of the civilian members of his suite I saw nothing. I got away on one of the rafts and we had a terrible five hours in water so rough that the seas beat down on us and many men were killed by buffeting. Many others died from the piercing cold. I was quite numbed and an overpowering desire to sleep came upon us. To keep this away, we thumped each other on the back, a 17 DIES A HERO'S DEATH for the man who went to sleep never woke again. When men died, it was just as though they were falling asleep. One man stood upright for five hours on a raft with dead lying all around him; one man died in my arms. "As we got near the shore the situation grew worse. The wind was blowing on-shore, the fury of the sea dashed the rafts against the rocks with tremendous force. Many were killed in this way, and one raft thrice overturned. I don't quite know how I got ashore, for all the feeling had gone out of me. We were very kindly treated by the people who picked us up. They said it was the worst storm they had had for years." SUNK BY A MINE An official statement of the destruction of the Hamp- shire contains the following account: ''The Hampshire was proceeding along the west coast of the Orkneys. A heavy gale was blowing and seas were breaking over the ship, which necessitated her being partly battened down. Between 7.30 and 7.45 p. M. the vessel struck a mine and begun at once to settle by the bows, heeling over to starboard before she finally went down about fifteen minutes later. ''Orders were given by the captain for all hands to go to their established stations for abandoning ship. Some of the hatches were opened and the ship's com- pany went quickly to their stations. Efforts were made without success to lower some of the boats. One of them was broken in haK and its occupants were thrown into the water. 18 DIES A HERO'S DEATH ''Large numbers of the crew used life-saving belts and waist coats, which proved effective in keeping them afloat. Three rafts were safely launched, and, with about fifty to seventy men on each, got clear. It was daylight up to about 11. Though rafts with these large numbers of men got away, in one case out of over seventy men aboard only six survived. The survivors all report that the men gradually dropped off, even died aboard the rafts from exhaustion and exposure to cold. Some of the crew must have perished in trying to land on the rocky coast after such a long exposure. Some died after landing." On board the Hampshire were also a number of minor army officers, and the cruiser carried a crew of between 400 and 500 men. At the time of the attack by a German submarine on the cross-channel passenger boat Sussex, several months previous to Lord Kitchener's death, there was a report in London that the Germans sought to sink the vessel because they had heard Lord Kitchener was on board. This report never was confirmed, but sur- vivors of that attack admitted that a ''certain high official" actually was on the Sussex. The identity of this personage was not established, but it was generally accepted that Lord Kitchener was the man. LOSS OF THE HAMPSHIRE The Hampshire was an armored cruiser of 10,850 tons displacement, 450 feet long, 68}^ feet beam, 25 feet draught, and an indicated horse-power of 21,508. She was launched at Elswick in 1903 and completed in 1905 at an estimated cost of $4,332,635. She was 2 19 DIES A HERO'S DEATH protected amidships by 6-inch armor, over the vital parts, which thinned down to two inches in other parts. Her deck was protected by armor from J^ inch to 2 inches in thickness, and her bulkheads carried 5-inch armor. Her main batteries were protected by 5-inch armor. She carried four 7.5-inch, six 6-inch, twenty 3-pounders and two machine guns, with two torpedo tubes. kitchener's place in Britain's history No doubt Lord Kitchener, who was a soldier before all else, met death as he would have chosen to meet it, in the performance of his duty to his country; but the disaster to the cruiser Hampshire was no less a tragedy of compelling horror. The great commander's life is but one of many sacrificed during the war and from the human point of view it is possible to count it as no more than the rest. Yet, however impartially pallid death may knock, he finds the conspicuous victim at the towers of kings rather than at the cottages of the poor. The loss which England suffered by Lord Kitchener's taking-off cannot be measured in words. In a sense he had fulfilled his destiny. It might even be said that he had begun to outlive his reputation. Perhaps no other man could have done what he did. To him is due the greater share of the credit for organizing the largest volunteer army which the world has ever seen. England was wretchedly unprepared in a military way for the terrible conflict thrust upon her. It was a staggering burden that Lord Kitchener had to bear. Red tape at the War Office, lack of munitions and equipment, strikes 20 DIES A HERO'S DEATH among laborers, raw troops ignorant of the very ele- ments of military science, popular ignorance of or indifference to the titanic nature of the conflict — no wonder he made mistakes, no wonder he provoked criticism. Yet the faith of his countrymen as a whole never wavered; and it was justified. Such an admission does not diminish the substantial service he rendered or detract from his genius. He was undeniably one of the first commanders of his time; and if in this war his duties had taken him to the field there is every reason to believe that he would again have revealed the qualities which first won him fame. No English general in the fighting line has yet surpassed or even equaled him. He had that efficiency which we have come to associate with German officers rather than with English. It was shown in his administrative work in India and Egypt as well as in his campaigns. Having formed his plans, he carried them through relentlessly, not to say ruthlessly. He could not excuse negligence nor forgive failure. He worked hard himself and expected every one else to do so. Duty controlled him, not sentiment. Such a man is bound to do great things. 21 CHAPTER II EARL KITCHENER: THE SUPREME MILITARY ORGANIZER NOMINATED BY ACCLAMATION FOR WAR MINISTER RAISED AN ARMY OF FIVE MILLIONS GIVE HIM WHAT HE WANTS THE SPLENDID BRUTE HIS UNIVERSAL EXPERIENCE HIS SINGLENESS OF PURPOSE — TASKS FOR HERCULES HIS STUPEN- DOUS TASK THE TRUTH ABOUT GALLIPOLI PUBLIC CONFIDENCE ADVERTISING FOR RECRUITS kitchener's EYES. THE INTRODUCTION of scientific method into warfare has not impaired the power of personaHty. The bigger the machine the greater must be the man to manage it. In the peaceful days of 1914 an effort was made by the government to have Earl Kitchener shelved by a sinecure. But when the storm broke he was nominated by acclamation for War Minister. He alone saw what must be done. He alone had the power to do it. Britain had at that time little appreciation of the magnitude of the task before her. People said that the war would be over by Christmas. Kitchener said it would begin in May. People said that England would have done her duty when she fulfilled her promise of 1911 to send 160,000 men to France. Kitchener said millions of men would be needed and for three years. 22 a ■^: SUPREME MILITARY ORGANIZER RAISED AN ARMY OF FIVE MILLIONS And he got them. '^ Kitchener wants you" proved the most effective recruiting advertisement. Never before in the history of the world has a man raised and equipped a volunteer army of five million men. Probably no one will ever have to do it again, so both pacifists and militarists hope, though with different reasons in mind. The country called him and he called the country. Both responded nobly. What was at first sneered at as '^Kitchener's mob" soon came to be respected as '^ Kitchener's army." Troops can be extemporized. Generals have to be trained. Lord Kitchener was criticized — and justly — for failing to provide the quantity and kind of ammunition needed by modern warfare, and for neglecting to organize in the factory as well as in the field. But this came from attempting to do too much by himself, and can- not detract from his great achievements. He was later relieved of part of his multifarious duties and it was expected that the responsibility of his ofiSce would before many months have been divided or devolved upon another. But death came to him, as doubtless he would have wished to have it come, in the path of duty and in the height of his power and reputation. England suffered an irreparable loss, but Kitchener's life came to a noble and appropriate close. His grave is deeper than that any dug by man, and, like some ancient king, two hundred of his warriors are buried in his tomb. No coffin could be found for him more fitting than a British cruiser, for the enumeration of his manly qualities reads like the catalog of ships. ''Indefatigable," "Indomitable," "Inflexible," "Im- 23 SUPREME MILITARY ORGANIZER placable," ^'Invincible;" these are the adjectives his biographers use in describing his character. GIVE HIM WHAT HE WANTS ! England has always been a believer in the man idea. The Anglo-Saxons are individualists. It was the man idea that made the Empire: Drake against Spain; Clive in India; Nelson and Wellington in the Napo- leonic Wars. In the great crisis of the World War the man was Kitchener. He was not appointed Secretary of State for War; he was elected by the unanimous voice of a people. The Liberal Government had to take him, whether or no. Perhaps there was a feeling in Liberal councils that the British people had set an elephant, an immense old tusker, in a Cabinet chair. ''Give him what he wants! Do as he says!" cried the British pubHc. "We will go on with business as usual. He will win." Yet with every class of the population — ^from news- man to millionaire newspaper owner, stevedore to steamship capitalist, publican to bishop, day laborer to peer, chorus girl to duchess — for Kitchener, what strange things one heard about the man! He was vain; he was selfish; a brute: a heartless machine that ruthlessly broke anyone who got in the way of his ambitions. THE SPLENDID BRUTE He was the most advertised of Englishmen — without ever having played to the gallery; he had received more honors than any Englishman — without ever asking for one. If you inquired which was the bigger man, 24 SUPREME MILITARY ORGANIZER Roberts or Kitchener, an Englishman would tell you what a fine, lovable old soldier Roberts was; how he expressed the national ideal of a soldier; and then he would say: Kitchener! There were countless anec- dotes about Roberts; an atmosphere of characteristic sayings and incidents enveloped him; but when you tried to learn something about Kitchener you found only bare records of accomplishment. The corre- spondents who followed him on campaigns sounded his praises in the way of men who literally have to admire their subject. Work, work, w^ork — that made him the man; work, work, work for forty years, all spent away from Eng- land. He never finished a job for the Empire but another was waiting for him, and always he was ready to tackle it. For the last twenty years he invariably had the biggest one going, and all his life he had never failed. His choice was always for a task of such magnitude as to make all other tasks seem insignificant. He had first-hand knowledge of every part of the Empire. Each problem was a problem that he knew. On that day in August, 1914, when the nation called him to authority, he at least knew what England was up against. Only a few Englishmen partly recognized it — the general public not at all. For the German system had been among his studies. He understood the organized power and spirit of Germany. From the first he said that the war would be long; that it would tax all of England's strength. He must be allowed to lay his foundations with that end in view. Meanwhile, the optimistic British public hung out ''Business as Usual" signs in the shop wdndows and stuck flags on the 25 SUPREME MILITARY ORGANIZER map to show the progress of the ''Russian steam roller" toward Berlin. With that optimistic public on one side and Kitchener on the other, Asquith was in a difficult position, the people mistaking optimism for power and Kitchener being untrained in the ways of home politics. TASKS FOR HERCULES When he took office Kitchener found that England, by denuding her garrisons at home, could put 80,000 men on the Continent to assist France in stalling the onslaught of the German millions. As for South Africa, there was not a single regular soldier there when De Wet took the field in rebellion. The British army was an army for doing the police work of an empire. A French chief of staff once said that it had been demoralized by its successes in little wars. If the regulars were not equal to the task in any little war, then volunteers were called for. In Germany and France, where practically every able-bodied man of all classes serves his two and three years, there is plentiful material in the ranks to fill gaps caused by death among officers. But it is difficult to make an officer out of Tommy Atkins, the British regular private. He is a private by training and nature, with occasional exceptions. And all that Kitchener had to start with in making an army of millions was this nucleus, this regular army. HIS STUPENDOUS TASK When he knew that he would require two millions, perhaps three, Kitchener started in with a call for a 26 SUPREME MILITARY ORGANIZER hundred thousand. Then he asked for a second hun- dred thousand; and as soon as he was able to care for the recruits he set the mark at a milhon. Every recruit was a civilian who had to be trained and armed. Artillery, engineers, signal corps — all had to be created out of the raw. Rifle plants had to be built, officers and drill masters trained. The South African experience had not cleared away all the cobwebs of red tape in the War Office. Nowhere do these cobwebs gather so rapidly as in a small regular army which is under sharp civilian control, always asking for audits and explanations. The forms were tho^e for that kind of army. They did not contemplate a force of millions. Kitchener had to be the architect of a new house; he had to begin with its foundations, while the house of Germany was a completed edifice. Meanwhile, Sir John French did not want to spare any of his good officers to drill the new army. His was the pressing need of the mopient. He was hanging on tooth and nail and amazing the Germans with how he did it. His casualties among officers were appalling. New ones must be sent out to fill their places. The gaps in shattered regiments had to be filled with fresh recruits. Before rifles and guns could be furnished to the new army, the army in France must be supplied. The wastage in rifles, as in everything else, surpassed all calculations. That army in Flanders was a great mouth ever hungry for officers, men, munitions, and supplies: which had to be put on a train, then on a steamer, and again on a train, before they reached their destination. When spring came what had Kitchener accom- 27 SUPREME MILITARY ORGANIZER plished? From India he had brought the Indian troops and put these children of the sun through a winter in the trenches in a climate which alone ought to have finished them. He had garrisoned India with Terri- torials and brought the British Indian regulars to France. The threatened Turkish invasion of Egypt had been turned into a farce. The Persian Gulf expedition was holding its own. But the British public, which took the Empire for granted, had its eyes focused on the Continent. With the spring it had expected a turn of the tide, and instead the Germans developed a fever of fresh attacks. In place of the British taking the offengive, the Germans surprised the British and French with clouds of asphyx- iating gas and took a considerable sector of trenches. PUBLIC CONFIDENCE ''Business as Usual" signs disappeared from the windows. England might not yet be awake, but she had one eye open wide enough to see that nothing was as usual. A wave of pessimism and restlessness was sweeping through the public mind which no censorship could reach. In answer, all that we have tried to express of Kitchener's career flamed up out of British memory in a way which showed that the British are not too phlegmatic for a spasm of anger. You did not have to wait on the evening editions to learn how outraged public opinion was. You knew it before a single evening edition was out; you felt it in the very air. Kitchener must not go. If he needed help, then give him help. 28 SUPREME MILITARY ORGANIZER ADVERTISING FOR RECRUITS No one of the outside public can escape the results of his devotion to specialization along one hne which is fairly illustrative. The recruiting campaign was under his personal direction. Even his most violent press One op Lokd Kitchener's Many Posters That Covered Blank Wall Space — Public and Private — Which Had Never Been Used for Bill-Posting Before enemies admit that he knew how to advertise. As he had to advertise for recruits, he called in the best advertising experts in London and started the greatest advertising campaign in all history. On every blank space, on walls of public and private buildings never covered by an official notice before, 29 SUPREME MILITARY ORGANIZER around the base of the Nelson Monument in Trafalgar Square, under the windows of exclusive clubs, at the very doors of churches, and on every taxicab, in enormous red and blue letters across London bridges, in little posters and big; in short sentences of cajolery, shaming the ''slackers," arousing racial pride; in posters of the best lithographic art picturing lonely soldiers on the firing line calling for help, and pros- trate women and children under the Prussian heel — whether the eye looked to right or left, front or rear, it could not escape Kitchener's call for men for Kitchener's army. The public came to look for the new posters, and there seemed to be always room for one more. The last one was a message in facsimile as written by Kitchener calling for another hundred thousand men. Groups gathered around in the first day that it appeared on the boardings. His own handwriting! He wrote that himself. Lord Kitchener did! It was almost like getting a personal letter from him. The interest, even the awe, of these groups suggested that the name of Kitchener had become almost as much of a fetish with the English as with the Egyptian masses. Perhaps Kitchener, who has been the bugbear of so many journalists was something of a journalist himself! kitchener's eyes Few- worded as Kitchener seemed in his daily routine, when it pleased him he would talk at length — freely, affably, across a desk which was never littered with papers — as if he had all the time in the world to spare. Then the listener heard great plans unfolded. 30 p. -^ p SUPREME MILITARY ORGANIZER Kitchener might be rehearsing them in his own mind, for it was difficult to conceive of him as wasting time. It was his eyes that held attention: clear, blue, compelling eyes, capable of many changes of expression, but always with command in them, and he was supremely the one who knew how to command. Cer- tainly he was a phenomenal man — the strong man incarnate. If the world were full of Kitcheners, we should have no time to play; but, when so few of us go to the hospitals from overwork, that sort of a driver may be pretty useful in a time of national emergency. 31 CHAPTER III EARL KITCHENER'S MILITARY RECORD TO EGYPT AT HIS OWN REQUEST DERVISH BUL- LET PIERCED HIS JAW SIRDAR AT FORTY ESTAB- LISHED ORDER IN EGYPT CALLED TO BOER WAR RAISED TO A VISCOUNT COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF INDIA CONSUL-GENERAL TO EGYPT MADE AN EARL HIS CALL TO SERVICE IN THE GREAT WAR — HIS PLACE IN HISTORY. EARL KITCHENER was one of Britain's self-made men. Without any great family connections he rose slowly but steadily through the lesser grades until he reached the peerage and won the baton of a field marshal of England. Born June 24, 1850, he would have been sixty-six years old on the twenty-fourth of the month in which he died. He was a bachelor and, whether deserved or not, had the reputation of being a woman hater. Very little is known of the boyhood of Kitchener. He was just an ordinary British boy, very silent, very positive in his opinions and always the master of him- self. He was born to the army and in his late teens entered the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. He was commissioned a lieutenant of the Royal Engineers in January, 1871. His actual British service may be said to have begun with the Woolwich finals, but as a matter of fact his fighting career began in 1870, when he went to France and fought under the Tricolor 32 KITCHENER'S MILITARY RECORD against Germany, and as his career began so it ended, as a comrade in arms of the French. The first few years of his service were hard working years, but uneventful. He was sent to Palestine on behalf of the Palestine exploration fund, and sub- sequently the British Government sent him to Cyprus to make a map of that island and also for a time to serve as British Vice-Consul at Erzerum in Turkey. In 1882 Kitchener asked for an Egyptian detail, and the granting of that request sent him on his way to fame and power. One of his first services in Egypt was as intelligence officer attached to Sir Robert Stewart's desert column, organized for the relief of General Gordon, who was then practically a prisoner at Khartoum. This expedi- tion, known in military history as the Gordon Relief Expedition, proved a disastrous fiasco, and Kitchener took deeply to heart the costly lessons, due to a lack of transportation facihties and means of intelligence, and when, a few years later, he himself organized and led a similar expedition the mistakes of the Stewart venture were not to be repeated. DERVISH BULLET PIERCED HIS JAW In the next year Kitchener was engaged in innumer- able fights and raids against the dervishes or Mahdists of southern Egjrpt. He had now become known in the service as one of the most capable of the younger oflScers, a strict disciplinarian and a hard and stubborn fighter. In 1886 he was appointed Governor of the Red Sea territories, and the final overthrow of Osman Digna at Tamai occurred in his tenure of that oflftce. B 33 KITCHENER'S MILITARY RECORD In 1887 and 1888 Kitchener was in command at Suakim, and the most important enterprise he directed in these years was the attack on Osman Digna at Handud, an enterprise that was not a complete success, but from which he was able to extricate himself with credit and without loss of prestige. Before the end of 1888, however, he got his revenge for that half failure, when he led a brigade of Soudanese troops over the enemy trenches at Gemaizeh. In that campaign Kitch- ener was severely wounded, a bullet piercing his jaw. SIRDAR AT FORTY Kitchener returned to Egypt in 1888 and was made adjutant-general. The ten years of activity that followed, during which he conducted the Soudan Campaign of 1889, was made Sirdar (commander-in chief of the Anglo-Egyptian forces) in 1892, major- general in 1896, and led the Dongola Expeditionary force in 1896, culminating in the capture of Omdurman and Khartoum in 1898, are of such major importance, and added so greatly to Kitchener's laurels, that they will be treated at length in a separate chapter. MADE A BARON With the capture of Khartoum, which meant the re-establishment of British possession of the upper reaches of the Nile, Kitchener became a figure of world- wide interest and a great popular hero in England. ; Mahdism had had its origin in just discontent over the oppressive rule of Egypt in the Soudan. But having dominated the whole of that country, Mahdism degenerated in its turn into a cruel and bloody despotism 34 KITCHENER'S MILITARY RECORD and the rout of the Khahfa's forces by Kitchener with his Anglo-Egyptian army meant the dehverance of these inhabitants of that region who desired to go about their business in peace. CALLED TO BOER WAR On Kitchener's return to Egypt with the title of Governor-General of the Soudan, he set himself energet- ically to the work of civiHzing the conquered territory. But suddenly, owing to the exigencies of the situation in South Africa, he was called away from the land in which he had won his fame to join Lord Roberts as chief of the staff. Kitchener threw himself into his South African duties with his accustomed energy, and if he did not win the popular acclamation which greeted his work in Egypt, he performed magnificent work both in administration and in the field. RAISED TO A VISCOUNT It is noteworthy that after he had resigned the commission of Commander-in-Chief into Kitchener's hands in 1900, Lord Roberts publicly declared that he had implicit confidence in his successor's judgment and skill, and affirmed that no one could have labored more incessantly or in a more self-effacing manner than Lord Kitchener had done. COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF INDIA At the conclusion of peace in South Africa in 1902, Kitchener was rewarded by advancement to the dignity of Viscount, promotion to the rank of general, ''for 35 KITCHENER'S MILIT AR Y^RECORD distinguished service," the thanks of Parliament, and a grant of $250,000. Immediately after the establish- ment of peace Kitchener was ordered to India as supreme commander of the British and native troops in the Indian Empire. It had long been his desire to become commander-in-chief in India. The appoint- ment was destined to have important results. The new commander-in-chief examined the organization of the Indian army and found it wanting. "Our Indian military administration," he declared, ''has been framed mainly to meet peace requirements and the consideration that an army exists for war has been overlooked." He carried out not only many far-reaching military reforms during his seven years' service in India, but also a complete reorganization and strategical redis- tribution of the British and naval forces. CONSUL-GENERAL TO EGYPT In 1909 Kitchener was relieved of the Indian com- mand, promoted to field marshal, and assigned to duty as commander-in-chief and high commissioner in the Mediterranean, in succession to the Duke of Con- naught, who was sent to Canada as governor-general. This post was more of a sinecure than anything else, and Kitchener soon became disgusted with it, and was returned to Egypt in 1911 as agent and consul-general at Cairo, virtually the governor-generalship of Egypt. In the interval between his leaving India and his resumption of Egyptian service. Kitchener visited the United States, where he was the recipient of marked attention. He had many warm personal friends in the 36 KITCHENER'S MILITARY RECORD American army, among them Major-Generals Leonard Wood and Hugh L. Scott, the latter being the superin- tendent of the Military Academy at West Point at the time of the Kitchener visit. MADE AN EARL Lord Kitchener only chanced to be in England when the European war started August, 1914. He had just returned to London from Egypt, had been created an Earl by King George and was being talked of as Viceroy of India when the storm broke. When it became certain that England was to be drawn into the conflict, from all parts of the British Empire arose a demand that was practically unanimous that he be made War Minister. Probably no other war official in the history of the world ever faced so stupendous a task as that which confronted him. Grimly he began his work and within a year all England was a training camp, while in the Dominions beyond the seas other hundreds of thousands had been mobilized in training camps or sent over seas to duty in France and the near East. The task of recruiting the great armies that Kitchener knew England had to have if the war was to be won, proved the hardest fight of his career. He found the supply of ammunition woefully short and reluctantly came to realize that, if the armies he wanted to raise were to be, conscription would have to be resorted to. As the war progressed many who previously clamored loudest for his appointment to the war post became his severest critics. He was blamed for this and that failure of the forces in France, was held responsible for 37 KITCHENER'S MILITARY RECORD the shortage in munitions and for various other defects in the mihtary system which he was working so hard all the time to overcome. Among his severest critics were the newspapers controlled by Lord Northcliffe and Winston Churchill, the former First Lord of the Admiralty. But Kitchener paid not the slightest attention to those who criticised him. He went his way, cool and thorough, supported by the great mass of the British people, and when he set sail on what was to be his last voyage it was his satisfaction to know that ''out of the rawest of raw material," as a British army officer expressed it, he had created a fighting machine of nearly 5,000,000 men. Twice in his life Lord Kitchener was the object of attempted assassination, once in Egypt and another time in India. In both instances the plots were frus- trated and the plotters arrested. The bombs that were to have been used in the plot hatched in 1908 to kill him while on duty in India were said at the time to have been shipped from New York. It was in 1912 that the plot to kill Earl Kitchener in Cairo was dis- covered and frustrated. HIS PLACE IN HISTORY The British Empire mourns him as a great warrior. There was a Kitchener tradition, or superstition, which made him appear to his countrymen as the very em- bodiment of military genius, and not all the charges of war-office failures and blunderings could destroy the figure of idolization which they had set up. Despite their proverbial stoHdity, there are no people 38 KITCHENER'S MILITARY RECORD on earth more ardent in hero-worship than the British. They are slow to lift any man to a pedestal, but once they have done so his national fame is secure. Thus it was that, having no real acquaintance with their hero, they created in their own minds an idealized Kitchener. He was to them the highest exponent of military genius, a romantic and resplendent figure of the soldier, a transcendent figure whose very name must terrify the foe and command victory. He had subjugated the desert hordes; he had broken the resistance of the Boers; he had revolutionized the Indian army; he had pacified Egypt — who else could wield the forces of the Empire in its supreme struggle for existence? And the popular imagination clothed him with fasci- nating attributes of mind and person. To it he appeared a figure of inscrutable power, inexhaustible energy and implacable will; masterful, grim, remorse- lessly efficient — a very superman. To this conception the people clung through good report and evil. And to this, in great degree, was due what measure of success and preparedness the Empire's land forces achieved. The unwavering, unconquerable trust of the British people in Kitchener was one of the most effective factors in the nation's war progress. It is because of this fact that his loss was so serious to them. There are many abler soldiers and wiser states- men whom they could have spared better than this singularly powerful man. In forty years of service he had spent hardly as many months in England. He knew nothing — could Imow nothing — of the complex social and economic 39 KITCHENER'S MILITARY RECORD problems that had arisen during his prolonged absence, and that would be intensified when it was attempted suddenly to turn a peaceful country into a military camp and a nation into an army. He had no conception of the importance which labor had achieved in public affairs, or of the great social reforms which had created new conditions, or of the vital relationship of industry to modern warfare. Thus the workshops were stripped of men to fill the trenches, and the manufacture of munitions was neglected in order that armies might be built up. The result was the confusion that presaged disaster, and necessitated the division of the war secretary's power by appoint- ment of a minister of munitions and by reorganization of the system of recruiting. What, then, was the value of Kitchener? Just this — that because he held to a supreme degree the confidence of the people, he was enabled to convince them, against their own beliefs, that the war would be long and incredibly costly; and to perform the miracle of creat- ing an army of millions from a nation inveterately opposed to a large military establishment. Those who said that Kitchener was not right once during the whole war forgot that he had been con- spicuously right, and almost alone, in his judgment upon two vital matters. He declared in the first weeks of the war that the conflict, which experts were pre- dicting would be over in a few months, would probably last for three years; and he insisted, in the face of violent prejudice, that the nation must have soldiers, not by scores or hundreds of thousands, but by millions. Moreover, it was his summons, more powerful than 40 KITCHENER'S MILITARY RECORD the command of the king, the urgings of pubHcists or the frantic appeals of recruiting agencies, that brought 5,000,000 volunteers to the colors in fifteen months, and his genius for organization that fashioned from them the forces which the whole world justly called ''Kitchener's armies." These are the achievements that will make the name of Kitchener great. He came to be, in a peculiar sense, the spirit of Great Britain, and the nation will fight on the inspiration he put into it. If he was not the miracle-worker that his countrymen beheved, he was the best man available for the tremendous task com- mitted to him. His power was based upon the support and confidence of the democracy, and his legacy to it was a democratic army for the salvation of the nation whole. il CHAPTER IV KITCHENER OF KHARTOUM AGAIN IN COMMAND IN EGYPT — THE RESOURCEFUL INTELLIGENCE DEPARTMENT THE ATTACK ON FIRKET — THE FAMOUS DESERT MARCH RECAPTURE OF DONGOLA THE "IMPOSSIBLE" RAILWAY ACROSS THE SOUDAN THE VICTORY AT THE ATBARA — KITCHENER ENCOUNTERS THE KHALIFA — OMDURMAN FALLS — THE CAPTURE OF KHARTOUM. SO FAR BACK as 1883, as already recorded, Kitch- ener for the first time entered the Egyptian army. From that date until 1898, when he raised the British colors over the palace at Khartoum, and by his splendid victory over the Khalifa avenged the death of General Gordon, Kitchener was actively engaged in laying the foundations of the estabhshed order, peace and pros- perity now enjoyed by the Egyptians and Soudanese. The Dongola Expedition of 1896 proved the fighting value of the new Egyptian force organized by Kitchener and was the beginning of the movement that was to culminate in the reconquest of the Soudan. Kitchener, when he began the organization of this army, which was to win such glory at Omdurman and Khartoum, found it a m.otley and discontented horde of underfed and underpaid natives. Kitchener's task was to bring it up to date, one of the many "impossible" things that the Sirdar did in record-breaking time. 42 KITCHENER OF KHARTOUM It was on March 12, 1896, that the Dongola Expedi- tion was formally authorized. Sir Herbert Kitchener marched out of Wady Haifa, at the head of a mixed force of British and Egyptian troops to the number of 9,000. An Italian army had been severely defeated in Abyssinia, and the dervishes thought the moment opportune for the delivery of further attacks. The Sirdar advanced with caution, constructing a railway behind him to keep up com- munication and supplies, while the gunboats on the Nile kept pace with the advancing army. THE ATTACK ON FIRKET The advance was to be made by two routes, one by the river and the other along the old railroad track, now being relaid mile after mile. On June 6th the order was given for an attack on Firket to be made at daybreak. Through the black darkness of the night the forward march began, till the spot designed for the bivouac was reached just before midnight. At moon- rise, and in strict silence, the march was resumed. At daybreak came suddenly the distant sound of a drum- beat from the direction of the dervish camp. The camp was still a mile away, and quite hidden by the rising ground. The sound, it soon transpired, was not that of the alarm — it was the call to prayer. Then with machine-like precision the two halves of the advancing force came together; the enemy was taken by surprise, and utterly crushed. In the assault the dash of the British officers was only equaled by the ardor of the native troops ; the loopholed mud walls of Firket were swept clean, and the victory was complete. 43 KITCHENER OF KHARTOUM Large stores of grain and war material fell into the conquerors' hands. The desert march to Dongola was a prodigious piece of work, but it was felt by those who accompanied it in the capacity of correspondents and critics, that it took too much energy out of the troops — so much so that had they at the end of it encountered an active enemy the result might have been somewhat doubtful. RECAPTURE OF DONGOLA Then came the most important event in the war, the recapture of Dongola with its large stores of grain and war material. By the end of September General Kitchener, after another fight, had dealt his first decisive blow, and was absolute master of Dongola. THE ''impossible" RAILWAY ACROSS THE DESERT The first thing Sir Herbert Kitchener had to decide was the route to be taken. Of the old route by Korti and across the Bayuda Desert to Metemmeh, he already knew something; another feasible route from Suakin on the Red Sea to Berber was tempting by reason of its shortness; but both were discarded in favor of one of his own conception. Little wonder therefore, all things considered, that Kitchener formed the bold plan of constructing a rail- way as he went along. PICKING THE RIGHT MAN Happily he got hold of the right man to carry out his idea. This was Lieutenant Girouard, a subaltern in the Royal Engineers, a modest young Canadian, who 44 pG o KITCHENER OF KHARTOUM had had experience in track-laying on the Canadian- Pacific line, and had come out to Egypt for the Dongola campaign. The first spadeful of sand of the Desert Railway was turned on the first day of 1897. New workshops were commenced at Haifa, and experienced mechanics were procured to direct them. Fifteen hundred additional men were enUsted in the Railway Battalion and trained to the work. The difficulties to be overcome were not of the ordinary railway-building type. Each engine employed had first to haul enough water to carry it to railhead and back, besides a reserve against acci- dents — for the surveys had disclosed only two spots where water was likely to be found in the desert. Then the feeding of the two thousand plate-layers in a barren desert was in itself no easy problem. But it was solved, for the work had to be completed before the winter; and, above all, the money voted was not to be outrun. The Sirdar attended strictly to every condition, not omitting the last. COMPLETE TO ABU HAMED As Abu Hamed grew near, the element of danger began to make itself felt — what if the dervishes by a circuitous march should cut the line behind them? The problem no sooner presented itself for consideration than it was dealt with. A flying column, under General Hunter, was sent from Merawi along the river bank, and Abu Hamed was promptly stormed and captured. The work of construction was neither delayed nor interrupted. On November 1st the Soudan Military Railway arrived at Abu Hamed, and General Kitchener 45 KITCHENER OF KHARTOUM was again in unbroken communication with Cairo, both by rail and river. ON TO BERBER Then came the consideration of the advisabihty of extending the railway beyond Abu Hamed. Almost without hesitation it was decided to continue the line to Berber, and perhaps beyond that point to the junc- tion of the Atbara with the Nile. The work of con- struction was therefore resumed, and for the first sixty miles the line ran beside the Nile at the edge of the riparian belt; on the right a cultivable though mostly uncultivated strip, dotted with palms and prickly mimosa bushes, beyond which the river gleamed refreshingly; on the left, nothing but desert broken by frequent rocks and dry water-courses. The iron road was deemed necessary, because it would have been far from wise to depend on water communications, which at times were rendered unsafe by cataracts. Mahmoud having withdrawn from Berber and some- what mysteriously disappeared southward, a reconnais- sance was made by way of the river to locate his position and discover his strength. The Sirdar sent his boats up to Metemmeh, the mud walls of which were well pounded by the guns. This having drawn a brisk rifle fire, and disclosed all it was necessary to learn, the boats withdrew, easily dropping down stream again, having lost only one man. At last, while the Sirdar happened to be away north at Wady Haifa, came the long-expected news that the dervishes were on the move. An advance in force to Berber was ordered, and a telegram sent to Cairo 46 KITCHENER OF KHARTOUM asking for a brigade of British soldiers to be sent to the front. Then the immense advantage of the Soudan Mihtary Railway became apparent. While the Egyp- tian cavalry crossed the Bayuda Desert from Merawi, in the old slow way, battalion after battalion converged swiftly on the place of concentration by rail, among them four from the home army — Cameron's, Seaforth's, Warwick's, and Lincoln's, the whole brigade being under Major-General Gatacre. On the day the first troop train steamed into the fortified camp at the confluence of the Nile and Atbara rivers, the doom of the dervishes was sealed. THE VICTORY AT THE ATBARA When Mahmoud marched to the Atbara, Kitchener struck camp, and placing himself between Mahmoud and the Nile, settled himself down twenty miles from his foe, and waited. No matter which line of advance the dervishes selected, they were bound to be met, bound to be fought. And while his officers were consumed with the dread that Mahmoud would escape up the Atbara or across the desert, the way he had come, their chief had no fear. On April 7th General Kitchener moved still nearer the foe to Umdabia, where everything was put into immediate readiness for the dash on to the Arab zareba, seven miles away. The location, size, and strength of the zareba had been carefully ascertained by a daring reconnaissance made by four British officers a few days previously; and it was generally understood through- out the attacking force that the defense presented by the zareba, a thick barrier strongly constructed of 47 KITCHENER OF KHARTOUM desert thorns, was far more formidable than any earth- work known to modern warfare. A WELL-PLANNED VICTORY The undertaking began with a night march, in order that the engagement might be opened early in the morning and fought to its conclusion before the scorch- ing African sun reached the midday sky. The army was drawn out at sunset, and moved forward in the darkness, making a brief halt at midnight. Soon after the march wa§ resumed the enemy's camp-fires came into view; it was then about three o'clock, and the Sirdar watched the Arab's fortified enclosure from the edge of a plateau. There was apparently no stir there, though the presence of the attackers must have been known. On neither side was there anything in the shape of confusion; cei'tainly no suspicion of panic, though the suspense was intense; and scarcely a sound broke the stillness till at half-past six the guns spoke out, and the bombardment began. For considerably more than an hour Mahmoud's doomed stronghold beside the dry bed of the Atbara was searched with shot and shell; and then, the batteries having accomplished all that v/as demanded of them, the advance was sounded, and thirteen thousand infantry moved forward with con- fidence and military precision. Steadily and irresistibly the discipHned soldiery swept into the entrenched dervish enclosure, and got at once to close quarters with rifle fire and bayonet work. With such grim determination was the assault made, so strenuously was the fighting maintained, that the day was won with a rapidity almost incredible — three- 48 KITCHENER OF KHARTOUM quarters of an hour after the bugles had sounded the advance, they sounded the cease fire! THE MASTER SPIRIT When it was all over, and the significance of the result fully realized, the troops cheered long, loud, and lustily. Then, observes an eye-witness of the scene, Herbert Kitchener was ''quite human for one-quarter of an hour," relaxing that inscrutable countenance of his, just for one brief space, into something that bore the faint semblance of a smile. A victorious general in the first flush of triumph may be excused for allowing himself the luxury of appearing human. KITCHENER ENCOUNTERS THE KHALIFA The scattered dervishes retired on Omdurman. As nothing could be successfully attempted during the hot season, the Expeditionary Force went into summer quarters; the Egyptian army was distributed into three garrisons — the Atbara camp, Berber, and Abadia. The British brigade encamped at DarmaH and Selim, two small villages. Kitchener's method of dealing with his chief prisoner, the Khalifa's lieutenant, presents a curious episode. As soon as he reached Berber after the victory, he held a parade of all the troops. A platform was erected a^d adorned with flags; on this, surrounded by his staff, the General took his stand. The Emir Mahmoud, his hands bound behind his back, was then compelled to march past at the head of the army, preceded by an enormous flag, on which was inscribed, "This is Mah- moud, who said he would take Berber." i 49 KITCHENER OF KHARTOUM Mahmoud's master, with those who had fallen back upon Omdurman, had now at his command a force calculated at upwards of fifty thousand fighting men. Having learned from Osman Digna the terrible nature of the foe marching against him, he resolved to remain where he was and await his oncoming. And so, in mihtary inactivity and gross sensual indulgence, he wore the time away in the palace of his new capital. PREPARING THE FINAL ATTACK In numbers, the enemy were more than twice as strong as the EngHsh. The Khalifa was supposed to have a large bodyguard of some nine thousand blacks, fairly seasoned Soudanese troops officered by the sons of sheiks and emirs, whose allegiance was assured by the hostages thus given to the Khalifa. Then came a mass of Baggara spearmen and irregular cavalry, well proved in the past as rehable fighting stuff. Omdurman is on the western bank of the Nile, and Khartoum on the eastern, facing it. When the Expe- dition moved forward, the main force marched along the western bank of the river; on the eastern marched a miscellaneous horde of friendlies under the charge of Major Stuart Wortley; while between the two forces, up the great waterway, went the flotilla, comprising ten gunboats, five steamers, and a long string of laden barges and sailing boats in tow. STRIKING THE BLOW As the Shabluka Gorge was approached there was some little anxiety as to the possibility of attack there; 50 KITCHENER OF KHARTOUM but the Khalifa failed to take advantage of his oppor- tunity, and the little fleet made the passage safely and without interruption. As the distance lessened, the view became clearer; stir and movement among the enemy became discern- ible, and the zareba was found to be one of men, not of bushes. At eleven o'clock the gunboats engaged the enemy's batteries. The forts, mounting nearly fifty guns, rephed vigorously; but the British aim was too good; the great wall of Omdurman was breached in numerous places, and presently the Mahdi's tomb, which the dervishes believed to be indestructible, was hit, its dome and cupolas being smashed to dust. When the lower forts were silenced, the Jaalin — the only really trustworthy men in Major Wortley's force — were ordered to clear out the villages there. A MEMORABLE BATTLE It was midday, September 1st; the results of many years of preparation, and of three years of actual war, were about to be put to the test. But at a quarter to two the dervish army halted. Their drill had been excellent, and they all stopped at a single command. Then suddenly their riflemen discharged their pieces in the air — it was just a barbaric feu de joie. After this every man lay down on the ground, and it became evident the matter was not to be settled that day. An hour or so later the enemy had encamped, and no attack was to be looked for until daybreak. When that morning, at half -past nine, the Sirdar had ridden to the summit of '^ Signal Hill," he saw before 51 KITCHENER OF KHARTOUM him, for the first time, not more than three miles off, the whole army of fifty thousand dervishes, with all their banners, lances, and standards displayed, moving forward. It was a critical moment, for the Anglo- Egyptian army had only just taken up its camp, and was in no fighting formation. That, however, was a comparatively trifling matter. The lines were rapidly formed, and in a short time a fair zareba had been made. When that was finished, if the enemy had attacked by daylight, there was no reason to be anxious; if they intended a night attack, th? General doubtless knew it, and was equally prepared for it. By six o'clock the whole dervish mass was in motion; the full power of Mahdism was advancing swiftly to the attack. Then above the distant noise of their shouting came a tremendous roar — their guns had opened the engagement. The British and Egyptian force wa^ arranged in line, with its back to the river, and its flank secured by the gunboats. The tide of battle now began to rise fast. The Khalifa and his flag, surrounded by at least ten thousand men, advanced, and the engagement became general. THE TWENTY-FIRST LANCERS The Arab army, fierce, reckless and fanatical, in- spired with deadly hatred of their unbelieving enemies, charged again and again with a determined impetuosity that would have been trying to the most seasoned troops. But the Sirdar's men, drawn up in solid formation, and armed with rifles and Maxim guns, met every assault with admirable coolness, inflicting heavy losses upon the attackers. 52 1 h. ,r-» $:* «. t ^^ 1 J J >< KITCHENER OF KHARTOUM Events were moving rapidly, and the stage upon which they were being enacted was a large one. Many scenes of heroism, of devotion, of reckless courage, happened that day, but none more dramatic, more tragic, than that of the Holy Ensign. After the charge of the dervish horsemen, who were annihilated, the Khalifa's infantry advanced. Not disheartened, but incited by the fate of the horsemen, they came on, sweeping along the side of the valley like a seething torrent. It was the last assault, and the Khalifa's banner was borne in the center of the line. Shot and shell rattled and hissed from the Maxims and guns on the ridge commanding the valley, making great gaps in the white jebba-clad ranks. OMDURMAN FALLS When the fighting was over, the cost came to be counted. The dervishes had ten thousand eight hundred killed and sixteen thousand wounded; while the losses of the British and Egyptian forces amounted only to forty-seven killed and three hundred and forty- two wounded. The wide margin of difference is significant, and offefs much food for reflection. The Arab army had had enough of fighting against an enemy fully equipped with all the weapons and resources of modern warfare. After a halt, and the watering of the troops, the march towards the Khalifa's new capital was resumed. It was a bold decision to march right away into Omdurman, when the town was full of fighting men, the day more than half spent, and no reconnaissance possible, owing to mirage. But had the entry been 53 KITCHENER OF KHARTOUM delayed till twenty-four hours later, serious resistance might have been offered, and a house-to-house, street- to-street, fight would undoubtedly have resulted in very heavy losses. To Major Wingate, the ablest of InteUigence Officers, fell the happy duty of sending to England the tele- graphic despatch announcing the great victory at Omdurman; no message of the kind ever electrified a nation more, or gave more widespread satisfac- tion. The city of Omdurman was formally surrendered to the Sirdar as he rode up at the close of the battle on September 2d. Three men advanced slowly to meet the victorious general. They knelt in the roadway, and presented him with the keys of the city, of the arsenal, of the prison, and the various public buildings. He accepted their surrender and spoke words of peace. Rising swiftly, the men shouted out the good news, and thereupon from every house men, women, and children appeared, joyfully relieved from fear. THE OCCUPATION OF OMDURMAN Inside the city, which was occupied that night, many awful and ghastly sights met the eye; on every hand were destruction, confusion, filth, and the all- pervading stench of putrefaction. In a number of places lay heaps of surrendered weapons, some thrown down by sullen warriors, many delivered up by willing deserters. The open space in front of the Mahdi's tomb — the destruction of which was calculated as much as anything to impress the superstitious townsfolk — was filled with troops. Order was gradually being 54 KITCHENER OF KHARTOUM restored, to replace the disorders, excesses, and iniqui- ties of the deposed Khalifa. THE CAPTURE OF KHARTOUM Omdui'man was disappointing. It had been hoped to find decent dwellings of stone or other material, but the town was not very different, except in size, from the mud villages passed all along the river. There was really nothing to see in Omdurman, and on Sunday, the fourth of September, most of the English officers took steamer up to Khartoum. A landing was effected opposite the remains of Gordon's house, where a service was held. Khartoum, as a town, had ceased to exist; it was one mass of ruins. Gordon's house still stood, but minus its roof; the orange-gardens with which it was surrounded made the scene, sad as it was, a refreshing change from Omdurman, where there was not even a bush. Two expeditions were forthwith despatched, up the White and the Blue Niles respectively, to establish garrisons. These expeditions and operations also were successful. General Kitchener went with that up the White Nile, in personal command, starting on Sep- tember 8th, towards Fashoda, with five steamers. The expedition proceeded as far as the mouth of the Sobat, sixty-two miles from Fashoda, which was reached next day. Here also the twin flags of Egypt and Britain were hoisted, another post formed, and a garrison left to hold the place. The expedition then turned back; and on the return two gunboats were left at the disposal of Colonel Jackson, as commandant of the Fashoda district. 55 KITCHENER OF KHARTOUM By the signal triumph achieved at Omdurman, and not a httle by the aid of the Desert Railway, the situa- tion in the whole Nile Valley had been revolutionized. The reconquered territor}^, after having suffered all the tortures of war, was put in the way of achieving that for which so long it had thirsted — peace and plenty, and the blessings of civilization. Thus had Great Britain and Egypt moved hand in hand up the mighty river, sharing, though unequally, the cost of a regenerative war in men and money. The allied conquerors became joint possessors; the Soudan did not become precisely Eg^'ptian again — ^Egypt itself not possessing an independent administration — but an entirely new pohtical status was found for it, both countries retaining an equal interest in the territory and sharing the responsibihty of it — a result which cer- tainly strengthened the grasp of England upon Egypt. The campaign having been brought to a satisfactory conclusion. Kitchener was called upon to exercise some of the qualities of statesmanship, and again he showed conspicuous ability. It is everywhere acknowledged that he proceeded in a masterly manner in the estab- lishment of a new order of things, which rescued that devastated region from the long spell of primitive barbarism into which it had lapsed 56 jq Q infaniry of thu first Canadian Contingent passing Htonohengo on tlieir \va}- irom Salisbury Plain to London. Caiiauiaii t'/ansport and li -I 1 arTillcry enibarkini^ at (^iu'i)i'c inv I'.n'fland. I'arade of Canadian Highlanders on Salisbury Plain. CHAPTER V EARL KITCHENER'S HUMAN SIDE A MAN WHO SELDOM SMILED — THE OFFICER'S MONOCLE HIS SENSE OF JUSTICE HIS GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT AS AN ORGANIZER DISGUISED AS AN ARAB, LIVED IN THE DESERT — HOW HE PLAYED SOLOMON A woman's PICTURE OF THE SILENT SOLDIER — FACED DEATH OFTEN. EARL KITCHENER was known as a man of iron blood, and those who knew him remarked that he seldom smiled. He seemed pre-eminently a machine in his hard, relentless work. Yet he had his human side. THE officer's MONOCLE At Pretoria one day Lord Kitchener saw a young lieutenant sporting a monocle. ''Does your eyesight require you to wear that?" he asked. "It does," replied the lieutenant. *'Then report tomorrow morning to the line of communication," ordered the General. "I do not require men with poor eyesight at headquarters." HIS GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT AS AN ORGANIZER The raising of Kitchener's army, an army of five million men, mostly volunteers, is the last and greatest 57 KITCHENER'S HUMAN SIDE debt which the Empire and civilization owe to this great soldier. When the end came he stood in the track of duty and died on active service. In death as in life he was found at his post. DISGUISED AS ARAB, LIVED IN DESERT In the early days in Egypt Kitchener was daring almost to rashness. He thought nothing of disguising himself as an Arab and living among the sons of the desert for months at a time, in o^-der to acquire a knowledge of the Mahdi's movements and conspiracies. And so clever was he in disguising himself that even his own comrades did not know him. Indeed, one day a soldier flung a brickbat at Kitchener, whom he mistook for "a bloomin' nigger," inflicting rather a nasty scalp wound. HOW HE PLAYED SOLOMON Kitchener's cleverness in disguising himself, coupled with a knowledge of Arabic, which he had picked up in his wanderings in Syria, made him invaluable to the authorities. He was appointed chief of the Secret Service, and the following incident, the truth of which is vouched for by one of Lord Kitchener's relatives, strikingly illustrates his personal courage and cleverness. Two Arab spies had been caught, but they feigned deafness, and Kitchener could get nothing from them. They were detained in a tent. In half an hour another spy was caught and bundled into the tent with the other two. They were left for an hour, talking briskly all the time, and then the door was thrown open and 58 KITCHENER'S HUMAN SIDE the third spy demanded to be taken to headquarters. It was Kitchener himself, who had, of course, found out all he wanted to know. A woman's picture of the silent soldier Mrs. J. S. Erskine, widow of a former captain of the Tenth Royal Hussars, who was for a time attached to the staff of Lord Kitchener, relates the following characteristic story: ''I played England in a war with Germany," said Mrs. Erskine, "and accidentally planted my flag on Belgian soil. Cries that this wag neutral territory were immediately raised, but Lord Kitchener backed me up. 'That's just what she ought to do,' he said. ' If ever there is a war with Germany that is what the English will do unless the Germans do it first.' 'You forget the treaty of London,' someone said. 'No,' he shot back. 'Bismarck was a statesman. He signed to something that would be for the future good of his country. War knows nothing about the future good. It is only the present that appeals to the warrior, and any clever commander knows that the best way to get from Germany to France is through Belgium.' " 'Then what will happen?' I asked. I meant what would happen should Germany invade Belgium. " ' That is in the lap of the gods,' was his reply. ' But I'll tell you what I think would happen. Germany would win the first round. After that she would be out-maneuvered. ' "Picking up one of the Httle flags he said he thought Ostend would be a good place to land troops, but reconsidered and decided on a point south of Dunkirk." 59 KITCHENER'S HUMAN SIDE HIS SENSE OF JUSTICE "A soldier was digging a ditch near Pretoria," said Mrs. Erskine, ''and the General observed him for a long while. Finally he sent for him. He asked him if he wasn't ill. The soldier replied that he was: that he felt quite badly. ' Then why don't you report sick?' demanded the General. 'I did/ replied the soldier; 'but the doctor said I was fit for duty.' Lord Kitch- ener sent for the young surgeon, ordered him to make an examination, found the soldier was suffering from typhoid fever and sent him to the hospital. Then he said to the doctor, 'You can apply for your leave home. I have no use here for the sort of a doctor you are.' " FACED DEATH OFTEN For two years Kitchener practically lived among the Arabs, carrying his life in his hands, never knowing when he might be brought face to face with a violent death, and all the while communicating to the heads of the Egyptian Intelligence Department information of the utmost importance. 60 CHAPTER VI THE WORLD'S GREATEST NAVAL BATTLE ARMAGEDDON ON THE SEA — ^ADMIRAL BEATTY SIGHTS THE ENEMY DESTROYERS OPEN ACTION AN OLD ENEMY ENCOUNTERED SUPERDREADNAUGHTS COME UP NOTABLE DEED OF BRAVERY FLIGHT OF THE GERMANS DARKNESS SAVED THE GER- MANS PLAYED GALLANTLY FOR HIGH STAKES. IN THE ten years since the first " Dreadnaught " was launched hundreds of miUions of dollars have been put into this new type of battleship, which was tried out for the first time between the Skagerak and Kiel. Here, on the last day of Ma-y, 1916, the greatest naval battle in all history was fought. The battle was fought along virtually the entire west coast of Denmark, reaching the maximum inten- sity off the Horn Reef, near the southwestern extremity of Denmark. The German fleet, commanded by Vice Admiral Reinhard Scheer and including at least five dread- naughts, eight cruisers and twenty torpedo-boats and destroyers, left the Skagerak Wednesday morning. May 31st. Vice Admiral Sir David Beatty, who commanded the British cruiser squadron, had cruised many times in the vicinity of the battlefield without succeeding in luring the Germans from their mined waters, but on 61 THE GREATEST NAVAL BATTLE this occasion the British seamen had an inkhng that something important was about to happen. ADMIRAL BEATTY SIGHTS THE ENEMY Just before the conflict the battle-cruiser squadron was shoving through the water at a good twenty-five Shetl Isla Map Showing the Scene of the World's Greatest Naval Battle. knots, the destroyers and hght cruisers in their ap- pointed places. The sea was smooth as a millpond. The day was warm and a slight haze hung over the 62 THE GREATEST NAVAL BATTLE water. As the official announcement put it, the visibihty was low. For nearly sixteen hours the squadron steamed steadily on. Then the destroyer screen reported the presence of enemy craft, small craft, but significant perhaps of the presence of bigger ones. DESTROYERS OPEN ACTION A smart little destroyer action was begun, a light cruiser dashed up to assist, and soon the first phase of the battle was in full swing. Having succeeded at length in drawing the whole German fleet out of its safe quarters. Vice Admiral Beatty, although greatly outnumbered and running heavy risks, determined to hang on grimly in order to detain the Germans in full strength. It was a daring maneuver, but the British fought dog- gedly and with great pertinacity, despite all dis- advantages, confident that reinforcements were on the way. For the first time since the war began the Germans stood up to Beatty and his indomitable ships, and from impressions gathered from Beatty's men who came through the fight the Germans suffered heavily during that phase. Their gunnery was good, but it was not so good as the British. It was a running fight, fought at a speed which gave the advantage to the British ships. The Lion, as on the memorable day of the Dogger Bank battle, led the line, followed by the mighty Tiger. Both performed marvels of speed, and there should be further honors for the engine-room staffs. 63 THE GREATEST NAVAL BATTLE AN OLD ENEMY ENCOUNTERED Opposite them at long range was, among others, an old enemy in the Derfflinger. In the Dogger Bank fight the Derfflinger sent a shell into the wardroom of the Tiger, and no report has been more industriously circulated among neutrals by the Germans than that the Tiger had been sent to the bottom. It was there- fore with peculiar relish that the crew of the Tiger proceeded to demonstrate to their old enemy that they were very much alive. From the Tiger there went a shell which got one of the Derfflinger's turrets and wiped out a whole gun crew. Others were planted with equally deadly effect. The battle raged with tremendous violence. The air was filled with white-hot steel, dust and slivers, and ears were deafened with the tremendous crash and clatter of it all. Had the opposing forces remained as they were, the result was inevitable. Beatty's squad- ron was adding to its battle honors. Smart maneu- vering, seamanship and fine gunnery were telling their tale, when another factor intervened which would have sealed the fate of the German squadrons. SUPERDREADNAUGHTS COME UP With the battle-cruiser squadron there had gone out from a Scottish port what in the official announcements are called fast battleships. The Warspite was one. Sister ships of the Queen Elizabeth class, the Barham Malaya and Valiant, were the others. The battle-cruiser action was fought with the enemy lying close to neutral Danish waters, off Jutland. 64 o ^ o > S^S-ii'=-H t- P O 2.0 M crp -^ c_. ^ w,~f» e-H ^ ^ o tr. ^2 R :=3 o ^ s^ o w 2^ /I O fO >B t?d :;2 tta.- ^ » 3 3^ 5 s= n d X Z- -i"^ ■^^ •^ ^ ■^ 2 ^ "^ fS^5- b -2 2 Ws ^. c» ' P "^ 5 =-1 t^ 2 rcrg'o a ~ P- D^ - fo CTrjj r O--^ 3 H ■* o g S i-s P o a, 3 g P !K d ?rp p. 3 3- C« < ^ 3 ro 2 S C w O P § h: P o_ & "«■ m -3 3 2^ p.G.^ ^ > ^ ;: o ti 5^S- •42 G C 03 C q; o3 ^ CO nj S i; ^ (D tC OJ ^ -^ «^ &s- H ■" Q^ g'g ■) H £ ^^^ -C in r- G -^■5 c3 Ph '^S =5 — aj -0 CO w Q ID 5 03 ^ M „ Q 03 ^ ^S 2; \D Cj C 53 Oj o K '^ g r- S « ^ n rf> w «3 03 W CU 03 tH Clj N ?" ^, q; w cS i^ ^ !> Kl"i ^t4_( "^ *" ~ .B ~ o ^ 'Sij S bjj ^_ 03 OJ bij Qj S cs 'p bi) ^ a> — 03 o^^ o a a 03' ^ 0; O ci T3 ^ S s THE GREATEST NAVAL BATTLE Everything was going well with Admiral Beatty when the four superdreadnaughts came up, and rushed in to cut off the enemy from his southern base. Beatty was then to drive in from the northeast, and either force the Germans to shelter in neutral waters or compel them to accept the challenge of the heavy battleships. The strategy was excellent, but it was applied too late. From the south came reinforcements which provided an explanation of the reason for the Germans accepting Beatty's challenge. From the south came the major portion of the German Grand Fleet. The Warspite got the brunt of the first attack. It is said she became isolated from her consorts, became surrounded by a half dozen ships, made a brilliant fight against impossible odds, disposed of more than one of them and by clever maneuvering showed a clean pair of heels. NOTABLE DEED OF BRAVERY It is this phase of the fight which will go down as one of the most gallant deeds in British naval history. Beatty knew the risks he had to run, but he had to hold the enemy at all costs. He knew the Grand Fleet was not far behind, and he knew what it meant if he could hold on until Jellicoe arrived. What Beatty and his men went through during those hours of inferno no one but themselves can ever realize. Strong men, physically strong and strong of nerves, men who had looked death in the face in naval actions before, shuddered as they thought of it. 'It was like forty thunderstorms rolled into one," said one of them. "It was as if aU the ammunition in Britain and Germany 1 66 THE GREATEST NAVAL BATTLE had been let off in one-half an hour," said another. *'It was hell," was the commonest description. The Queen Mary was the first to go under. A great shell punched through her over her thinner armor plate. Her magazine exploded and the gallant ship, almost the latest British battle- cruiser, buckled up and sank like a stone. The Indefatigable went next. It was not war, it was murder. German sheUs with poisonous gas exploded, fiUing the ships with their fumes and doing great havoc among the crews at their stations. Annihi- lating blasts from twelve-inch guns took the vessels like a tornado, wiping away men like flies. The Lion and the Tiger, maneuvering with marvelous skill and speed, kept their heads up and their face to the enemy. Then Admiral Hood, with the Invincible, Inflexible and Indomitable, arrived from another sta- tion. With them came armored cruisers of the second cruiser squadron, including the Warrior, Defence and Black Prince, three gallant ships resting from their labors. The gallant and brilliant admiral put up a great fight against heavy odds, but fate was against him, and the Invincible, with a deadly torpedo in her hull, followed her sister ships to the bottom. FLIGHT OF THE GERMANS From four o'clock in the afternoon for something like four or five hours the battle-cruisers, with the four battleships, had engaged and held the enemy. Their part was finished, and never was more welcome the aid which came in the shape of the Grand Fleet. With its arrival the balance of strength passed from the Germans. For a time they fought a running-away 66 THE GREATEST NAVAL BATTLE fight. They turned heel and made the shortest possible road for home. After them went the whole might of the British fleet and chased them home in the darkness to their lair, and adding in the process to the already heavy losses they incurred in the earlier phase of the battle. DARKNESS SAVED THE GERMANS The difficulties of the pursuers were increased by the growing darkness, and only eleven of all the British battleships managed to get a shot at the enemy before he had reached a place where Admiral Jelhcoe deemed it would be foolhardy to attempt to dig him out. Admiral Jellicoe remained in the immediate neighbor- hood for twenty-four hours afterwards, waiting to give the Germans an opportunity of renewing the action on a grand scale, but nothing of the kind was attempted. Under cover of night the German torpedo flotilla made an attack on the British fleet, but only succeeded in increasing their total of torpedo-boat losses. The loss of life was very heavy, as dreadnaughts of the Warspite, Queen Mary, Kaiser and Lutzow classes have each a complement of upward of one thousand men, and most of the other warships, excluding de- stroyers, reported sunk carried each about seven hun- dred men. On the cruisers and destroyers whose loss was admitted in London there were all together about six thousand men. On the German vessels admitted lost there were probably two thousand two hundred men. Parts of the crews of the British ships were rescued by the Germans but, according to Berhn, of the seven hundred and ninety men aboard the Inde- 67 THE GREATEST NAVAL BATTLE fatigable all but two lost their lives. Fishing craft made their way into Dutch ports laden with dead and wounded. A British official statement showed that with a few exceptions all the officers on the Invincible, Queen Mary, Indefatigable, Defense and Black Prince were lost. AU officers of the Warrior except one were saved. On the German side the only definite statements as to loss of life were that three hundred and forty-two of the three hundred and sixty-one men in the crew of the cruiser Frauenlob perished; and that ninety-nine out of one hundred and two lost their lives on the torpedo-boat V-28. There were no estimates of the number of wounded, although these soon began to pour into London and were to be found on practically every vessel putting into Dutch and Danish ports. The outstanding impression gained from a visit to east coast ports, to which some of the ships engaged in the Jutland battle returned, was that the result was much more satisfactory than the first official announce- ment led one to expect. It was an interesting experi- ence to get into touch with men who had been through the fight. There was no pessimism there. They were firmly "convinced the British warships gave as good and better than they got. They said that if the full tale of the German losses were told by Berlin the battle would be hailed as one of the finest actions of the British fleet. Whatever the German mission in the daring enter- prise directed northward^ — whether to break out into the Atlantic or to carry out another raid on the British coast — it failed. The British battle-cruisers met them, 68 THE GREATEST NAVAL BATTLE encountered the first of their battle-cruiser squadrons, gave them a merciless pounding and then when enemy reinforcements came held up the German battle fleet in a gallant but hopeless fight until the Grand Fleet arrived. Then the Germans, having bravely engaged a weaker force, bolted for home. PLAYED GALLANTLY FOR HIGH STAKES Vice Admiral Beatty could have avoided the fight, but it is not the British way. He knew the Grand Fleet was speeding to his aid. He knew that to engage the whole might of the German fleet was to sacrifice ships and men; but he knew also the high stakes he played for, and right gallantly did he do his part. Three of his battle-cruisers went to the bottom with their intrepid crews. Others came in bearing their battle scars, but Beatty's reputation stands un- tarnished. 69 CHAPTER VII BRITAIN'S NAVY SAVES CIVILIZATION TASKS OF THE NAVY SUBSIDIARY DUTIES COM- MERCE PROTECTION SAFEGUARDING THE FOOD SUPPLY PATROLS CLOSING THE ENEMY's PORTS TRANSPORT OF AN EXPEDITIONARY FORCE MAIN OBJECT DESTRUCTION OF THE ENEMY's FLEETS GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS CONDITIONS OF A GER- MAN INITIATIVE. THE THREE principal duties that the British Navy was called upon to perform at the outbreak of the war were, first, the securing of the seas for the passage of British ships, especially the safeguarding of the food supply and the transport of troops; secondly, the destruction by capture of hostile shipping with the object of depriving the enemy of his supplies and rendering futile all projects of invasion; thirdly, the destruction of the hostile fleets and naval bases. It was obvious that the last, for practical purposes, would comprehend the other two; but it was not so certain that opportunities would offer for its accom- plishment. In the meantime it was to be hoped that the British fleet, by reason of its superior battle strength, would be able either to force the enemy to fight or to retire to his ports, and so afford an oppor- tunity for its numerous cruisers to carry out the all-important work of safeguarding their own and destroying the enemy's commerce. 70 NAVY SAVES CIVILIZATION SUBSIDIARY DUTIES The wide development of the closely-knit system of commercial protection, and the effect of the offensive action of British cruisers upon the enemy's shipping, were perhaps not quite adequately realized by the British public at the commencement of the war. A few days after the beginning of hostilities nearly every street corner in London displayed a placard bearing the legend, ''Olympic saved by British cruiser." The suggestion was that this was an isolated occurrence deserving of special and emphatic notice. As a matter of fact, this was merely one of many such accidents; or, to speak more correctly, it was an incident of the general situation at sea that the Olympic should have come under the direct convoy of the particular cruiser which saved her. What really saved her, what ren- dered her practically safe from one end of the voyage to the other, was the fact that the British and French cruisers guarding that particular line of communication were numerous, vigilant, and well-nigh ubiquitous; whereas, the enemy's cruisers seeking to assail that line were few and for the most part fugitive. COMMERCE PROTECTION This incident has been used to illustrate the true nature and the immense significance of what our fore- fathers called "the sea affair." From the moment when war became imminent the main British Fleet melted into space. Nothing was seen of any part of it, except of the flotillas patrolling British coasts. Never- theless, although it was invisible, there was never in the world's history a more sudden, overwhelming, and 71 NAVY SAVES CIVILIZATION all-pervading manifestation of the power of the sea than that given by the British Fleet, admirably seconded by that of France, in the first fortnight of the war. The rarity of properly-called naval incidents might have left a different impression. It might well have seemed that the Fleets of France and England had done nothing. As a matter of fact, they had done all in their power, and that all was stupendous. Those weeks saw German maritime commerce para- lyzed; British maritime commerce fast returning to normal conditions in all 'the outer seas of the world, and not even wholly suspended in the area of immediate conflict. Nay, more, it was already seeking new realms to conquer — realms left derelict by the collapse of the maritime commerce of the enemy. That is, in a few words, the long and short of it. Prize Court notices of German and Austrian merchantmen captured on the seas or seized in British ports appeared daily in increasing numbers. Side by side with them appeared the familiar notices of the regular sailings of British liners for nearly all the ports of the outer seas. The newspapers published daily accounts of the new avenues of trade, manufacture, and transport opened up by the collapse of the enemy's commerce, and of the enterprise with which British merchants and manufacturers were preparing to exploit them. CLOSING THE ENEMY's PORTS How it stood with Germany on the other hand there is unimpeachable German authority to show. At the outbreak of the war the Vorwdrts, the German Socialist organ, said: 72 C5 t-H 2 PJ:nlo from l^ndmrotul and I'liderirood, A'. Y. CKRMANf Battleship "Pommern" Sunk Off Jutland in the Great 8ea Fi(;ht. Fhold fnini J'udcrirood iind Underwood N. Y. Hhitish Battle Cruiser "Queen Mary" Sunk in the Naval Battle Off Ji'tland. NAVY SAVES CIVILIZATION ''If the British blockade took place, imports into Germany of roughly six thousand million marks ($1,500,000,000) and exports of about eight thousand miUion marks ($2,000,000,000) would be interrupted- together, an oversea trade of 14,000 millions of marks ($3,500,000,000). This is assuming that Germany's trade relations with Austria-Hungary, Switzerland,' Italy, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, remained entirely uninfluenced by the war — an assumption the optimism of which is self-evident. A glance at the figures of the imports shows the fright- ful seriousness of the situation. What is the position, for example, of the German textile industry if it must forego the imports of oversea cotton, jute, and wool? If it must forego the 462 miUions ($115,000,000) of cotton from the United States, the seventy-three millions ($18,250,000) of cotton from Egypt, the fifty- eight millions ($14,500,000) of cotton from British India, the one hundred millions ($25,000,000) of jute from the same countries, and further, the 121 millions ($30,250,000) of merino wool from Australia, and the twenty-three miUions ($5,750,000) of the same mate- rial from the Argentine? What could she do in the event of a war of longer duration without these raw materials which in one year amount in value to 839 miUions ($207,500,000)? ''It may also be mentioned that Germany received in 1913 alone from the United States about 300 miUions ($75,000,000) of copper, and further that the petroleum import would be as good as completely shut down. The German leather industry is largely dependent on imports of hides from oversea. The Argentine alone 73 NAVY SAVES CIVILIZATION sent seventy-one millions ($17,750,000) worth of hides. Agriculture would be sensibly injured by the interrup- tion of the exports of saltpetre from Chile, which in 1913 were of the value of not less than 131 millions ($32,750,000). ''The significance of an effective blockade of German foodstuffs is to be seen in the few following figures: The value in marks of wheat from the United States is 165 millions ($41,250,000), from Russia eighty-one millions ($20,250,000), from Canada fifty-one millions ($12,750,000), from the Argentine seventy-five millions ($18,750,000)— 372 millions ($93,000,000) from these four countries. There will also be a discontinuance of the importation from Russia of the following food- stuffs: eggs worth eighty millions ($20,000,000), milk and butter sixty-three millions ($15,750,000), hay thirty-two millions ($8,000,000), lard from the United States worth one hundred and twelve millions ($28,- 000,000) , rice from British India worth forty-six millions ($21,500,000), and coffee from Brazil worth one hundred and fifty-one millions ($37,750,000) should be added to the foregoing. No one who contemplates without prejudice these few facts, to which many others could be added, will be able lightly to estimate the economic consequences of a war of long duration. ''If the British blockade took place," said the Vorwdrts, and it dwelt on the consequences of a war of long duration. The British blockade was actually taking place at the moment these words were written, though it was not called by that name for reasons which need not here be examined. Acting together with the hostility of Russia, which closed the whole of the 74 NAVY SAVES CIVILIZATION Russian frontier of Germany to the transit of mer- chandise either way, the control of sea communication established by the fleets of Britain and France had already secured the first fruits of those consequences of a war of long duration on which the Vorwdrts dwelt with such pathetic significance. Those consequences were bound to be continuous and cumulative so long as the control of sea communications remained unre- laxed. The menace of the few German cruisers which were still at large was already abated. Already its bite had been found to be far less formidable than its bark. War premiums on British ships at sea were falling fast. German maritime commerce was unin- surable, and in fact there was none to insure. Its remains were stranded and derelict in many a neutral port. One of the greatest dangers, in the opinion of some eminent authorities the most serious danger, that Britain had to guard against in war was already averted, or would remain so as long as the control Britain had established over her sea communications continued to be effective. This was the first result of British naval preparations, the first great manifesta- tion of sea power. TRANSPORT OF AN EXPEDITIONARY FORCE But there was a second result far more dramatic than the first, and not less significant in its implica- tions, nor in its concrete manifestation of the over- whelming power of the sea. The whole of the Expeditionary Force, with all its manifold equipment for taking and keeping the field, had been silently, secretly, swiftly, and safely transported to the conti- 75 NAVY SAVES CIVILIZATION nent without the shghtest show of opposition from the Power which thought itself strong enough to challenge the unaggressive mistress of the seas. ''Germany," says the Preamble to the Navy Law of 1900, ''must possess a battle fleet of such strength that even for the most powerful naval adversary a war would involve such risks as to make that Power's own supremacy doubtful." Such a war had now been forced upon Britain, and one of its first accomplished results had been the entirely successful completion of an operation which, if the enemy had deemed British naval suprem- acy even so much as doubtful, he might have been expected to put forth his uttermost efforts to impeach. That Germany declined the challenge was a proof even more striking of the power of superior force at sea than the action of the British Navy upon the trade routes of the world. MAIN OBJECT DESTRUCTION OF ENEMy's FLEET The third task of the Navy was the destruction of the hostile fleet. However great might be the imme- diate consequences of command of the sea, these advantages did not constitute the final and paramount end at which Britain should aim. That end was the overthrow of the enemy's fleets at sea. Britain could only wait until the enemy gave her the opportunity, but then Britain must make the best of it. The essential thing is always that if and when the enemy comes out in force he may be encountered as soon as may be in superior force, and forthwith brought to decisive action in a life-and-death struggle for the supreme prize of all naval warfare. Nothing can be 76 NAVY SAVES CIVILIZATION further from the purpose of a superior navy than to keep the enemy's fleet penned up in his ports. '^I beg to inform your Lordship," wrote Nelson in 1804, ''that the port of Toulon has never been blockaded by me; quite the reverse — every opportunity has been offered to the enemy to put to sea, for it is there that we hope to realize the hopes and expectations of our country and I trust they will not be disappointed." But how if the enemy will not put to sea with his battle fleet? Then Britain could only wait, and in the meanwhile use her best endeavors to parry his sporadic acts of aggression and to give him as much more than he gets as she could manage. The rationale of this type of naval warfare — the type most likely to prevail between two belligerents, one of whom is appreciably stronger in all the elements of naval force than the other — is expounded as follows in Thursfield's book on ''Naval Warfare": "The weaker belligerent will at the outset keep his battle fleet in his fortified ports. The stronger may do the same, but he will be under no such paramount inducement to do so. Both sides will, however, send out their torpedo craft and supporting cruisers with intent to do as much harm as they can to the armed forces of the enemy. If one belligerent can get his torpedo craft to sea before the enemy is ready, he will, if he is the stronger of the two, forthwith attempt to establish as close and sustained a watch of the ports sheltering the enemy's armed forces as may be prac- ticable; if he is the weaker he will attempt sporadic attacks on the ports of his adversary and on such of his warships as may be found m the open. . . . Such 77 NAVY SAVES CIVILIZATION attacks may be very effective and may even go so far to redress the balance of naval strength as to encourage the originally weaker belligerent to seek a decision in the open. But the forces of the stronger belligerent must be very badly handled and disposed for anything of the kind to take place. The advantage of superior force is a tremendous one. If it is associated with energy, determination, initiative, and skill of disposition no more than equal to those of the assailant, it is over- whelming. The sea-keeping capacity, or what has been called the enduring mobility, of torpedo craft is comparatively small. Their coal supply is limited, especially when they are steaming at full speed, and they carry no very large reserve of torpedoes. They must, therefore, very frequently return to a base to replenish their supplies. The superior enemy is, it is true, subject to the same disabilities, but being superior he has more torpedo craft to spare and more cruisers to attack the torpedo craft of the enemy and their own escort of cruisers. When the raiding torpedo craft return to their base, he will make it very difficult for them to get in and just as difficult for them to get out again. He will suffer losses, of course, for there is no superiority of force that will confer immunity in that respect in war. But even between equal forces, equally well led and handled, there is no reason to suppose that the losses of one side will be more than equal to those of the other; whereas if one side is superior to the other it is reasonable to suppose that it will inflict greater losses on the enemy than it suffers itself, while even if the losses are equal the residue of the stronger force will still be greater than that of the weaker." 78 NAVY SAVES CIVILIZATION GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS One must not assume, when the enemy does not come out, that the menace and display of superior force in every direction have acted as a deterrent and quelled initiative to the point of paralysis. No such hypothesis can be entertained on the merely negative evidence of a situation still obscure and undeveloped. It is far more likely that the enemy is preparing some great coup requiring him to keep all his available forces in hand and to use them when the time comes with the utmost vigor and determination. At any rate, that is what the British Fleet had to be prepared for. It must stand at all times in full readiness to parry the blow, whensoever and wheresoever it is delivered; to antici- pate it, if it may be, and in any case to meet the enemy with a vigor, determination, and skill not inferior to his own, and with a force so superior as to crown the British arms with victory. No nation which wages war on the seas can hope for anything more or better than a decision sought and obtained on terms such as these. CONDITIONS OF A GERMAN INITIATIVE In the circumstances which prevailed in the war in 1914, it was peculiarly probable that the German Navy would, at the outset, show an apparent feebleness of initiative. In connection with the first great German Navy Bill of 1900 it was laid down that the German Navy need not be as strong as that of the greatest naval Power "for, as a rule, a great naval power will not be in a position to concentrate all its forces against us." Actually it was the German Navy that was at 79 NAVY SAVES CIVILIZATION the outset least able "to concentrate all its forces" against 'Hhe greatest naval Power." The German Fleet was compelled at first to be a two-fold containing force — against a formidable military adversary in the Baltic and against an overwhelmingly superior naval adversary in the North Sea. To go out to fight in the North Sea might be to uncover the Baltic coasts of Germany to the assaults of Russia from the sea and thereby greatly to"^facilitate the military operations of Russia in that region. 80 CHAPTER VIII VEKDUN: THE GREATEST BATTLE IN HISTORY STRATEGIC SITUATION OF VERDUN AN UNEX- AMPLED HUMAN FLOOD A HALF-MILLION MEN IN HIDING A GLIMPSE OF THE GERMAN FRONT GATHERING FOR THE DEFENSE A BURIED FORT- RESS A FRENCH CHARGE DESPERATE HAND-TO- HAND FIGHTING BUILDING FORTIFICATIONS UNDER FIRE THE HEROIC BLASTING CORPS ADVANCING LIKE MOLES FIGHTING WITH UNFIXED BAYONETS A BATTLE OF MADMEN IN A VOLCANO INSANE FROM WOUNDS. THE CITY OF VERDUN itself, in spite of its high, encircHng walls and citadel covering an immense sub- terranean town, has no longer any miUtary significance; it owes its importance to the belt of detached forts which, spreading over a circuit of forty-eight kilo- meters (thirty miles) , was intended to render stationary an entire army, to insure the investment of the city in view of a regular siege. General Sere de Rivieres, the creator of the intrenched camp, estimated that it would take four army corps (160,000 men) to besiege it. But the attack had forces of a very different character and means of action which Sere de Rivieres could not have guessed at, and was made at first on a sector of about seven kilometers (four and a half 6 81 VERDUN: GREATEST BATTLE miles), that is to say, on one-seventh of the hne of forts. Sere de Rivieres held that an offensive against Verdun must of necessity be directed against the works on the left (west) bank of the Meuse, which makes a curve from Dugny, down stream, to Charny, up stream; he thought that the line of the ridges of the Meuse was too strong to be the object of an attack, and considered hazardous any operations on the central sector. Yet this sector was the one attacked. AN UNEXAMPLED HUMAN FLOOD The enormous human flood, rushing upon a narrow stream, is without example in history. It explains the successive withdrawals of the Allies' troops up to the limits fixed by Sere de Rivieres for the advanced defenses toward Douaumont, limits which the enemy did not quite reach. It is still too early to attempt even a general his- torical sketch of the conflict. It will be more useful at this juncture to place on record some of the most vivid and stirring descriptions by eye witnesses. And first it may be well to get a panoramic view of the whole battleground as seen by a British correspondent with the French Army. "Throughout the vast amphitheater,'' he writes, 'Hwenty miles wide and ten miles deep, not a single human being was visible aside from the little group of officers around me. Over there to the northwest hes the broad dark bank of Malancourt Woods, which we know to be a busy hive of Bavarian and Wtirttemberg grenadiers, sharprshooters, flame-squirters and gunners. 82 VERDUN: GREATEST BATTLE Beyond them on the horizon the queer cone of Mont- faucon, long the Crown Prince's headquarters, is plainly visible. Passing eastward the two French bulwarks of Hill 304 and Dead Man's Hill block the view northward. Then across the wide and still fldbded valley of the Meuse we scan a higher and more deeply indented plateau directly north of Verdun. ''Through field-glasses we can follow every rise and fall of these forever famous slopes — the long shoulder of Talou in the bend of the river and behind in the Caures Woods, where the first avalanche fell, the Poivre-Louvemont block, which runs back north- eastward, and then to our right the Haudromont Woods, Douaumont Plateau, and Vaux Woods of bloody memories, and in the whole panorama there is not visible a single human being. In the hollow behind us lies the ancient City of Verdun under a cloud of purple smoke that tells the old tale of Teutonic vengeance. A HALF-MILLION MEN IN HIDING ''Overhead several aeroplanes are soaring, and west- ward I can count five of the anchored observation balloons called sausages. Before us a network of communication trenches climbs up the open slopes, and, although invisible, we know it continues through coppices and forest patches toward the summits where geyser-like eruptions of earth mark the main stress of the artillery duel. The crest of Douaumont, in par- ticular, is continually shattered into a crown of cloud and around it the succession of gun flashes might be mis- 83 VERDUN: GREATEST BATTLE taken for heliograph signals were it not for the accom- panying muffled roar of explosions. ''It is what they call a calm day on the front, but the sunshine deceives us when it gilds this scene into a semblance of peace. Before and around and behind us, hidden away underground and in less elaborate cover, half a million men armed with every deadly device modern science can suggest lie in wait, each host watching for any sign of weakness on the part of the other. The preparations for a tomorrow, wrapped in mystery save to a few chiefs themselves, never for a moment cease. ''Under its empty and smiling surface the bastion of Verdun is a vast human ant-hill seething with multi- farious labor. The war has gone underground again in this sector, and that is the mark that the French \ictory is definitive." A GLIMPSE OF THE GERMAN FRONT A glimpse from the German front is given by an American : "The important village of Esnes, lying south of Hill 304, is already suffering under the hail of German shells. There is something awe-inspiring, even stupe- fying, about this battle, raging from Fort de Belleville to Hill 304, particularly when one remembers that this is only one of three sectors of the battle for Verdun. "The unequivocal emptiness and loneliness of vast battlefields give you a creepy sensation as of phantom armies fighting. Their presence, as I gazed today, was betrayed only by frequent fitful flashes of flame like fireflies on a summer night. One could see miles of 84 VERDUN: GREATEST BATTLE these fireflies, despite the bright sunlight, each marking the mouth of a gun. They made one realize more vividly than figures possibly could how thickly the iron girdle tightening about Verdun is studded with German batteries. Not a man, horse, wagon, or motor could be seen moving about that fire-swept zone bounded by the rival artilleries. "The only human touch was a giant yellow Cy clop's eye, blinking at us — a German heliograph in action. Turning about, we saw its mate winking back, but the theme of its luminous dialogue was not for pubHcation. ''Even more fascinating than the unique bird's-eye view of the Verdun panorama was the grandeur of the battle symphony, surpassing anything ever heard before on any front. A deep, low, and unchanging basic leitmotif was played by the distant guns from as far away as the Argonne at the right and from Douaumont and the east and south fronts of Verdun to the left. Varying melodies, rising and falling in pitch, intensity and volume, were played by the nearby guns." GATHERING FOR THE DEFENSE That same night a writer on the French side wit- nessed the silent gathering of forces to defend Avocourt Wood, and between dawn and noon the fierce engage- ment in which the German attack was defeated. Mark how his words bring the stirring picture before the mind's eye: ''At midnight the concentration is completed and the reserves are in their appointed places. Is the cannonade fiercer or less fierce? I cannot say. The noise is so deafening that I have lost the power of 85- VERDUN: GREATEST BATTLE judging its intensity. I cannot even distinguish the explosion of the shells that fall near the listening post where we are sheltered. Only when they burst, the post and the earth around it shudder like a ship at full speed. Their explosion is but a minor note in the hurricane of sound. The French artillery is ' preparing ' Avocourt Wood, where the German infantry is massed in force. '^The searchlights throw patch after patch of trees into bright relief, like the swiftly changing scenes of a cinematograph. Through binoculars one has a fright- ful vision. Not a yard of ground fails to receive the shock of a projectile. The solid earth bubbles before my eyes. Trees split and spring into the air. It is a surface earthquake with nothing spared, nothing stable. The Germans have abandoned the outlying brushwood and are huddled in the inmost recesses of the woods, but the French artillery pursues them pitilessly. A BURIED FORTRESS " Nearly three hundred yards from the rim of brush- wood the defenders — Prussians and Bavarians — have constructed a kind of redoubt which they expect to be the rock on which all attacks will break. The search- lights reveal their fortress; it is a wall of earth and tree trunks and seems half buried in the ground. Now and again in the patches of brightness one sees tiny shadows running, falhng, rolling over or flitting from trunk to trunk, like frightened night creatures surprised by sudden dayhght. It is the soldiers of the Kaiser trying vainly to escape from the rain of death, 86 VERDUN: GREATEST BATTLE "Dawn breaks, and the searchlight beams vanish as the first grayness of morning rolls away night's curtain from the battlefield. We shiver in our blockhouse; is it cold, or nervousness? The officers around me say the moment has come. It is an agony of expectation; the attack is about to break. ''A shrill ringing startles every one. The Captain springs to the telephone, listens for an instant, and then cries: 'All goes well!' in a firm voice. He hangs up the receiver, murmuring, ' They're off. ' "Our guns still thunder, but they have lengthened their range, and the line of smoke-blobs opposite leaps forward toward the horizon. Suddenly the mitrail- leuses set up a rattle right in front of us. They are firing from our front-line trenches in a concave around the eastern corner of A vo court Wood. A FRENCH CHARGE "Some one grabs my arms and points northward. Down the slopes of Hill 304 a multitude of nimble figures are rushing westward. Their numbers increase; armed warriors spring from the ground, as in the old Greek legend. 'Our men,' says the officer beside me. It is the soldiers of France at the charge. "For a while they are sheltered from the German fire by a swelling billow of ground. They mount its crest and pour headlong downward. Now the pace is slower; they advance singly or in scattered groups — crawling, leaping, running, each man taking advantage of every atom of cover. The leaders have reached the first trench that lies across the path; but, see! they pass it without hesitating, as though it were a tiny brook. 87 VERDUN: GREATEST BATTLE "I learned afterward that a hundred tree trunks had been arranged Hke bridges all along the trench. ''Now the whole mass is across and we can see what cunning brain has planned the attack. For the charging men go straight forward like runners between strings, leaving open lanes along which their comrades can still fire upon the defenders. DESPERATE HAND-TO-HAND FIGHTING "At last the edge of the woods is reached, and the rattle of the mitrailleuses ceases. It is hand-to-hand now in that chaos of storm-tossed earth and tortured trees. Rifles are useless there; it is work for bayonet or revolver, for butt and club, or even for fists and teeth. Corpses are everywhere; the men fall over them at each step — some to rise no more— until the bodies form veritable heaps, among which the living fight and wrestle." The fiercest struggle on the sector between Douaumont and Vaux was that which raged around Caillctte Wood. Eye witnesses describe it as one of the most thrilling episodes in the whole great series of battles. The importance of the position lay in the fact that if the Germans could keep it they could force the French to abandon the entire ridge. The heroic deeds on both sides in the French recapture of this ground are narrated by a staff correspondent in the following remarkable story: ''The Germans had taken Caillette after twelve hours' bombardment, which seemed even to beat the Verdun record for intensity. The French curtain fire had checked their further advance^ and a savage 88 The "Stirrup-charge" op the Scots Grays and HighlaxXders at St. Quentin. The Scots Grays and the Highlanders together took part in Flanders not in one charge but m a series of charges as at Waterloo, bursting into the thick of the enemy, the Highlanders holding on to the stirrup leathers of the Grays as the horsemen galloped^ ancl attacking hand to hand. The Germans had the surprise of their lives and broke and fled before the sudden and unexpected onslaught, suffering severe losses alike from the swords of the cavalry and the bayonets of the Highland infantrymen. VERDUN: GREATEST BATTLE countercharge in the early afternoon had gained for the defenders a corpse-strewn welter of splintered trees and shell-shattered ground that had been the southern corner of the wood. Further charges had broken against a massive barricade, the value of which as a defense paid good interest on the expenditure of Ger- man lives which its construction demanded. ''A wonderful work had been accompHshed that Sunday forenoon in the livid, London-like fog and twilight produced by the lowering clouds and battle smoke. While the German assault columns in the van fought the French hand to hand, picked corps of workers behind them formed an amazing human chain from the woods to the east over the shoulder of the center of the Douaumont slope to the crossroads of a network of communication trenches, six hundred yards in the rear. BUILDING FORTIFICATIONS UNDER FIRE "Four deep was this chain, and along its line of nearly three thousand men passed an unending stream of wooden billets, sandbags, chevaux-de-frise, steel shelters, and light mitrailleuses, in a word, all the mate- rial for defensive fortifications, like buckets at a country fire. ''Despite the hurricane of French artillery fire, the German commander had adopted the only possible means of rapid transport over the shell-torn ground, covered with debris, over which neither horse nor cart could go. Every moment counted. Unless barriers rose swiftly the French counter-attacks, already mass- ing, would sweep the assailants back into the wood. 89 VERDUN: GREATEST BATTLE ''Cover was disdained. The workers stood at full height, and the chain stretched openly across the hollows and hillocks, a fair target for the French gunners. The latter missed no chance. Again and again great rents were torn in the line by the bursting melinite, but as coolly as at maneuvers the iron- disciplined soldiers of Germany sprang forward from shelters to take the places of the fallen, and the work went apace. ''Gradually another line doubled the chain of the workers, as the upheaved corpses formed a continuous embankment, each additional dead man giving greater protection to his comrades, until the barrier began to form shape along the diameter of the wood. There others were digging and burying logs deep into the earth, instalHng shelters and mitrailleuses, or feverishly building fortifications. "At last the work was ended at fearful cost, but as the vanguard sullenly withdrew behind it, from the whole length burst a havoc of flame upon the advance- ing Frenchmen. Vainly the latter dashed forward. They could not pass, and as the evening fell the barrier still held, covering the German working parties, burrowing like moles in the maze of trenches and boyaux. THE HEROIC BLASTING CORPS "So solid was the barricade, padded with sand bags and earthworks, that the artillery fire fell practically unavailing, and the French General realized that the barrier must be breached by explosives as in Napoleon's battles. 90 VERDUN: GREATEST BATTLE "It was eight o'clock, and already pitch dark in that bhghted atmosphere, as a special blasting corps, as devoted as the German chain workers, crept forward toward the German position. The rest of the French waited, sheltered in the ravine east of Douaumont, until an explosion should signal the assault. "In Indian file, to give the least possible sign of their presence to the hostile sentinels, the blasting corps advanced in a long line, at first with comparative rapidity, only stiffening into the grotesque rigidity of simulated death when the searchlights played upon them, and resuming progress when the beam shifted; then as they approached the barrier they moved slowly and more slowly. "When they arrived within fifty yards the movement of the crawling men became imperceptible; the Ger- man starshells and sentinels surpassed the searchlights in vigilance. "The blasting corps lay at full length, just hke hundreds of other motionless forms about them, but all were working busily. With a short trowel each file leader scuffled the earth from under the body, taking care not to raise his arms, and gradually making a shallow trench deep enough to hide him. The others followed his example until the whole line had sunk below the surface. Then the leader began scoop- ing gently forward while his followers deepened the furrow already made. ADVANCING LIKE MOLES "Thus literally, inch by inch, the files stole forward, sheltered in a narrow ditch from the gusts of German 91 VERDUN: GREATEST BATTLE mitrailleuse fire that constantly swept the terrain. Here and there the sentinel's eye caught a suspicious movement and an incautiously raised head sank down, pierced by a bullet. But the stealthy mole-like advance continued. ''Hours passed. It was nearly dawn when the remnant of the blasting corps reached the barricade at last, and hurriedly put their explosives in position. Back they wriggled breathlessly. An over-hasty movement meant death, yet they must needs hurry lest the imminent explosions overwhelm them. ''Suddenly there comes a roar that dwarfs the cannonade, and along the barrier fountains of fire rise skyward, hurling a rain of fragments upon what was left of the blasting party. "The barricade was breached, but seventy-five per cent of the devoted corps had given their lives to do it. "As the survivors lay exhausted, the attackers charged over them, cheering. In the melee that followed there was no room to shoot or wield the rifle. FIGHTING WITH UNFIXED BAYONETS "Some of the French fought with unfixed bayonets Hke the stabbing swords of the Roman legions. Others had knives or clubs. All were battle-frenzied, as only Frenchmen can be. "The Germans broke, and as the first rays of dawn streaked the sky, only a small northern section of the wood was still in their hands. There a similar barrier stopped progress, and it was evident that the night's work must be repeated. But the hearts of the French 92 VERDUN: GREATEST BATTLE soldiers were leaping with victory as they dug furiously to consolidate the ground they had gained, strewn with German bodies as thick as leaves. '^Over six thousand Germans were counted in a section a quarter of a mile square, and the conquerors saw why their cannonade had been so ineffective. The enemy had piled a second barrier of corpses close behind the first, so that the soft human flesh would act as a buffer to neutralize the force of the shells." These sketchy descriptions give a vivid idea of the raging torrent of death around Verdun. Only one more needs to the added — that of a French staff captain : A BATTLE OF MADMEN IN A VOLCANO ''Verdun has become a battle of madmen in the midst of a volcano. Whole regiments melt in a few minutes, and others take their places only to perish in the same way. Between Saturday morning (May 20) and noon Tuesday (May 23) we estimate that the Germans used up 100,000 men on the west Meuse front alone. That is the price they paid for the recapture of our recent gains and the seizure of our outlying positions. The valley separating Le Mort Homme from Hill 287 is choked with bodies. A full brigade was mowed down in a quarter hour's holocaust by our machine- guns. Le Mort Homme itself passed from our posses- sion, but the crescent Bourrus position to the south prevents the enemy from utilizing it. ''The scene there is appalling, but is dwarfed in com- parison with fighting around Douaumont. West of the Meuse, at least, one dies in the open air, but at 93 VERDUN: GREATEST BATTLE Douaumont is the horror of darkness, where the men fight in tunnels, screaming with the hist of butchery, deafened by shells and grenades, stifled by smoke. INSANE FROM WOUNDS "Even the wounded refuse to abandon the struggle. As though possessed by devils, they fight on until they fall senseless from loss of blood. A surgeon in a front- line post told me that, in a redoubt at the south part of the fort, of 200 French dead fully half had more than two wounds. Those he was able to treat seemed utterly insane. They kept shouting war cries and their eyes blazed, and, strangest of all, they appeared indifferent to pain. At one moment anesthetics ran out owing to the impossibility of bringing forward fresh supplies through the bombardment. Arms, even legs, were amputated without a groan, and even after- ward the men seemed not to have felt the shock. They asked for a cigarette or inquired how the battle was going. ''The dogged tenacity needed to continue the resis- tance far surpasses the furious elan of the attack. We know, too, the Germans cannot long maintain their present sacrifices. Since Saturday the enemy has lost two, if not three, for each one of us. Every bombardment withstood, every rush checked, brings nearer the moment of inevitable exhaustion. Then will come our recompense for these days of horror. 94 CHAPTER IX FIGHTING THE SUBMARINE SECRET METHODS OF DESTROYING SUBMARINES — • THE fishermen's IMPORTANT PART SPOTTING THE SUBMARINE WAVE USING THE MICROPHONE LIEUTENANT WENNINGER's ADVENTURES CAUGHT IN A STEEL NET EXPLOITS OF BRITISH SUBMA- RINES — HUNTING SUBMARINES WITH SEAPLANES A BOUT WITH A ZEPPELIN. IT IS DOUBTFUL whether the principal secret means used by the British for combating submarines will ever be revealed. What they purchased by long, arduous, and terrible experience will not be discussed for the enlightenment of foes, but wiU remain rather a hidden fund of working knowledge to be handed down in training with other valuable tradi- tions of the Senior Service. The new art of submarine hunting was developed with deadly passion after the sinking of the Lusitania. With their wide experience in delivering submarine attacks in the Heligoland Bight, the Dardanelles, and the Baltic, the British officers knew so fully what the submarine could do, that they were able to devise ways of combating the class of vessels they used so well . These Sea Lords also called men of science to their aid, with the result that strange devices of many kinds were con- structed. Many hundreds of small, fast, handy vessels 95 FIGHTING THE SUBMARINE were added to the Grand Fleet in order to extend and accelerate the operations against U-boats. It was during this great increase in the number of British warships that one grand and happy discovery was made. The long-trained officers and men could be relied on to carry out their varied tasks with fine skill and flexibility of mind. But long-service naval men were not sufficient in number to man the immense number of small craft added to the Home Fleet. Even the Royal Naval Reserve was not large enough to supplement the ordinary ratings; for ships were increasing in number, with swarms of new light cruisers, destroyers, and little motor-vessels of terrific speed. Many fishermen, therefore, were called up for service. THE fishermen's IMPORTANT PART The fishermen were the least experienced of all the British fighting seamen. They began on the humble but dangerous job of trawling for mines and keeping clear the fairways to England's ports. The noble courage of these men was displayed in the Dardanelles and on the Belgian coast, where they coolly fished up enemy mines under heavy fire from hostile land- batteries. This is only what one would expect from the best deep-sea fishermen in the world. After years of perilous endurance, by which they won food for the nation at the risk of their lives, they were not the men to ffinch from the work of saving the Fleet. At first, however, their labor was rather of a passive kind. Few of them could take part in the active work of sink- ing enemy ships. Yet by an extraordinary vicissitude of circumstances, these quiet, steady drudges of the 96 FIGHTING THE SUBMARINE Grand Fleet became the most deadly active fighters of the modern scientific school. They it was who developed submarine killing into a science that stag- gered and daunted the most adventurous spirits of the German Navy. SPOTTING THE SUBMARINE WAVE The most important beat along the English shores was held by a band of fishermen, with a naval officer partly directing them and partly learning from them. Manning a small squadron of fishing boats, they watched for German submarines as they used to watch for a school of mackerel. There was a certain wave for which the look-outs always searched. No matter at what depth an 800-ton submarine traveled, it produced a curious wave on the surface of the water, and the trained eyes of the fishermen were able to discern this wave with exceptional quickness. Men with a naval rating knew how to handle guns, and intricate machinery, but deep-sea fishermen, who had searched the waters since boyhood for schools of fish, had a quicker knack of spotting a submarine wave. This disturbance was often very small, especially when the water was broken or choppy; but the fisher- men on Beat 1 did not let many underwater craft go unperceived and unattacked. There was that in their hearts that quickened their eyesight. One of them said that almost every time when he was watching the water he seemed to see the floating hands and drifting hair of the women and children who were drowned in the Lusitania, A cold, sustained Berserker rage against the assassins of the sea nerved the fishermen J 97 FIGHTING THE SUBMARINE to their unending, weary, deadly task. Men of slow minds, patient and quiet in trouble, and hammered by a hard seafaring life into a sort of mild endurance, it took much to rouse them into lasting passion; but their ordinary quahty of patience became terrible when it was bent by the hands of dead women and children to the work of retribution. But it may be said that any U-boat they perceived far under the water seldom rose again. It was trapped — the great, steel-built, mechanical fish — before it could rise and use its weapons; and as the trap closed round it, some- thing came down through the waves and cut the great steel fish in two. There was no fight, though the German Marine Office often complained that British fighting vessels caught their unsuspecting submarines on the surface and shattered them with quick-firing guns. This was not how the work was carried out, though there may have been some artillery duels in the opening phase of the campaign. The main work of destruction was done by "fishing," with fishermen in fishing boats matched against an unseen submarine that did not even show its periscope. USING THE MICROPHONE One of the methods by which the U-boats were hunted down was devised by Mr. WiUiam Dudilier, who invented a mechanism for the Allies by means of which a submarine traveling fuUy submerged could be located within a radius of twenty miles. The mechanism consisted of a microphone which picked up the hum of the electric motors used in a submerged submarine. There was a sound-sieve which kept out 98 7 FIGHTING THE SUBMARINE all other noises coming through the water — the vibra- tion of engines, and beating of propellers in passing vessels — so that only the whine of electric motors used in submarines was picked up. Two detectors were submerged at a considerable distance apart, and made so that they could be tm'ned to get in direct line with the submarine. An increase in the volume of sound received told when the detector was being turned in the right direction; and when both detectors were fully responding, a rapid and simple trigonometrical calculation gave the position of the submarine. The tract of water covered by the detector had been mapped out beforehand in numbered squares, known to all the guardships. At the signal, they steamed to the square the submarine was approaching, and there began their trapping and killing operation, while the detectors and the detecting officers kept them informed of all further movements by the hidden German war-shark. There is no special information concerning the methods by which the enormous transport of troops and war material across the Channel was protected against the German submarines. All that we know is that this protection became stronger as the war went on, the mining of the hospital-ship Anglia being a disaster of a rare kind. According to an enemy source, the '^Vossische Zeitung," the French and British naval authorities closed the narrow seas by huge steel nets, sometimes forty miles long, in which hostile submarines were entangled until their crews were suffocated. The enemy's account, which we give for what it is worth, is as follows: 99 FIGHTING THE SUBMARINE A net has been drawn from Dover to the French coast opposite, and another from Portland Bill, near Weymouth, to Cape La Hague. Between these two nets there is a space of over one hundred and fifty miles, sufficient for all transport service. Further, a net extends from the Mull of Kintyre in Scotland to Ireland, and another from Carnsore Point in Ireland to St. David's Head in South Wales, in order to protect the Irish Sea. To allow the passage of trading vessels and the warships of the Allies, these nets have been fitted with gates which can be shut and opened, like pontoons. These passages are known only to the British Admiralty, and are often changed. Since submarines can descend to three hundred feet under water, these nets reach to sea-bottom, as the Channel is never deeper than two hmidred and sixty-five feet. The upper edge of the net is fastened to buoys, and both upper and lower edges are anchored so that storms and ebb and flood tides cannot c' .ange the position of the net or damage it in any way. The anchor chains are also so shortened that the buoys are a few feet below the level of the water, consequently the submarines cannot see the nets either above or below the water. If one of them plunges into the net, it becomes entangled and so damaged that it is an easy prey to the enemy. LIEUTENANT WENNINGER' S ADVENTURES Small nets were largely employed by both British and German surface vessels engaged in hunting under- water craft. From Lieutenant Wenninger, commander of the German submarine U17, we have a lively account of his escape from the British net throwers off the East Coast. He left his base early one morning, and passed into the North Sea with hull submerged and periscope awash. On looking through the periscope he could see a red buoy behind his boat. He looked again ten minutes later, and saw the buoy still at the same distance behind him. He steered to the right, 100 FIGHTING THE SUBMARINE he steered to the left, but the buoy followed him. He descended deep into the water, and then rose until his periscope was again awash, but still saw the buoy floating on the surface above him. He had caught the chain of the buoy and was dragging it along with him, and a small British patrol-boat had observed the strange voyage of the buoy, and was intently following it, and calling with her wireless. [^Wenninger then revealed the fact that the German submarines hunted down British ships by means of microphone detectors, which have a longer range than the periscopes; for he said that his sounding apparatus indicated that two steamers were approaching, and soon afterwards he saw five British torpedo-boats coming from the north. The German officer first increased the speed of his vessel with the intention of attacking the foremost torpedo craft. But he noticed that they were ranging themselves around him in a menacing semicircle; and, giving up the idea of an attack, he dived as deep as possible, and began to crawl away. Suddenly it seemed that an accident had happened to his boat. It rolled in a most alarming manner, and rose and sank uncontrollably, as though the steering-gear was out of order. CAUGHT IN A STEEL NET But Wenninger discovered that it was not his steering-gear which was wrong, but his boat. One of the hunting torpedo-boats had steamed in front of him and had dropped a steel net. The U-boat had driven into it, and had got entangled in an almost hopeless manner. For an hour and a half the netting carried 101 FIGHTING THE SUBMARINE the submarine with it, and though Wenninger made every effort to get clear, pumping up and down, and trying to work under the net, it was all in vain. His boat was always dragged back. He then resolved to increase the weight of the submarine as much as possible, and attempt to tear through the netting. He was fortunate in having pumped in about six tons of water when he started. He now filled all the tanks to their limit, and drove clear of the netting. He then descended as low as he could; and with his menom- eter marking thirty meters, he stayed under for eighteen hours, but when at last he rose, his menom- eter still showed thirty meters, and his compass and rudder also refused to work. Moreover, the torpedo- boats were still watching close above him. Down he went again to the bottom of the sea for another six hours, by the end of which time he had repaired his steering-gear, and had got his compass to work. Once more he lifted his periscope, only to bring a vigilant torpedo-boat charging straight at him. So he went again to the bottom for two hours, and at night managed to crawl away unobserved. Lieutenant von Hersing had a somewhat similar adventure in a British net on his way to the Mediter- ranean and his victories over the Triumph and the Majestic. EXPLOITS OF BRITISH SUBMARINES British submarine boats also had some horrible escapes from German nets. The Germans used aircraft to spot submerged boats. One of these was seen from above when she was lying in the mouth of a German 102 FIGHTING THE SUBMARINE river. There was only five feet of water over her conning-tower, so that even a torpedo-boat would strike her while steaming over. The British commander thought that all was lost, for he heard the rasp of a wire trawl sweeping over his hull. But to save the nerves of his men he turned on a gramophone, which made a noise covering the deadly outside sound. Happily the wire trawl did not catch on the boat, and after conducting the search in a most thorough but fruitless manner, the Germans went away, and in due course the submarine got home. In another case a British submarine ran her nose into a German net, and rose to the surface so that the entanglement could be cut away. But as soon as she rose, down fell an aerial bomb. A Zeppelin was waiting above the net, while calling with her wireless for destroyers to come and finish the British vessel. Escaping the bombs, the entangled submarine descended very carefully and slowly, in order that the net should not get more closely wrapped around her. The British commander wriggled and maneuvered his vessel, listening for the scrape of the steel links on his hull, and guessing blindly at the results of all his workings. At last he drew quite clear of the web of death, and sat his boat on the bottom of the sea and thought out the next move. His problem was to decide whether it would be better to push away under water and warn other British submarines of the snare, or wait until the German destroyers arrived in answer to the call of the Zeppelin, and attack them when they thought they had an easy victim still tangled up in the net. He resolved to try for the double event. When his sound 103 FIGHTING THE SUBMARINE detectors told him that there were four destroyers searching above him, he rose, and going towards the sound of the nearest screw, got a torpedo home on one of his enemies and crumbled her up. He then dived and waited, following the sound of the next destroyer that came to take the damaged vessel in tow. Again the British submarine rose, and with her last torpedo she smashed up the second destroyer. Then she went on to the rendezvous, and reached it in time to warn other British underwater craft. HUNTING SUBMARINES WITH SEAPLANES A good deal of the submarine hunting was done by British seaplanes and German Zeppelins. British naval airmen who flew above the water seeking for U-boats running awash or partly submerged, had two striking successes. On August 26th, 1915, Squadron-Commander Bigs- worth, who had previously distinguished himself by bombing a Zeppelin that raided Ramsgate, swooped down on a German submarine which he had spotted off Ostend. The U-boat turned her gun on him while he was maneuvering for position, and the German shore batteries tried to bring him down by a tempest of shrapnel. But with great coolness and skill, Squadron- Commander Bigsworth descended to 500 feet, and after several attempts to get a good line over the zigzagging enemy boat, he mastered her movements and dropped his bombs with shattering effects. Then, on November 28th, 1915, Flight-Lieutenant Viney, accompanied by a brilliant French lieutenant, 104 Psli , Lk The German Submabine and How it Wokks. Upper left picture shows a section at center of the vessel. Upper right view shows the submarine at the surface with two torpedo ■ tubes visible at the stern. The large picture illustrates how this monster attacks a vessel like the Lusitania by launching a torpedo beneath the water while securing its observation through the periscope, just above the waves. V, FIGHTING THE SUBMARINE the Comte de Singay, attacked another enemy sub- marine off the Belgian coast. I Lieutenant Viney, as pilot, maneuvered the machine and got it in line over the U-boat, and the Comte de Singay, as bomb-dropper, launched the missiles which destroyed the hostile vessel. A BOUT WITH A ZEPPELIN On the other hand, a British submarine submerged near the German coast, came up for air and found a Zeppelin waiting for her. The monster airship was hovering so low down that her immense shining belly shut out the sky when the astonished British officer looked up. She launched her bombs at high speed, but by happy chance the E-boat had come to the surface beneath the harmless end of the aerial leviathan. Moreover, the airship had to work against a strong wind, and could not therefore quickly get her stinging end over the British submarine, which was widely dancing about on a rough sea. Meanwhile, the gun was manned by a sailor, who, though half-drowned in the breaking seas and washed about like a rag, clung on to his gun and got in a few shots between the walls of water that broke over him. He ripped a large patch out of the Zeppelin, and she made away with a list on her; but turned up a fort- night later with a new bright piece of covering on her port side. The shells supplied at that time to British submarines were apparently not powerful enough to smash a Zeppelin. 105 CHAPTER X HOW THE CONQUEST OF THE AIR REVOLUTIONIZED WARFARE DISPELLED "the FOG OF WAR " BEFORE A GREAT ATTACK MASTERY FROM THE BEGINNING A THRILLING AERIAL COMBAT FRIGHTFULNESS PRE- FERRED BY GERMANS THREE WEEKS OF SUCCESS ^AIR ATTACKS NEAR LILLE TWENTY-SIX BRITISH WINS MODESTY OF THE BRAVE NAPPLEBECK's MEMORABLE EXPLOIT EFFECTS OF BRITISH ASCEN- DANCY WORK OF THE NAVAL WING. THOSE WHO less than half a dozen years ago, crowded to the flying meetings and watched with fascination those gallant pioneers of aviation — the Wrights, Bleroit, Hubert Latham, Bertram Dickson, Colonel Cody, and the rest — disporting themselves in space, little guessed that they were assisting at the development of a science which was calculated to affect war more deeply than any invention since the magazine rifle. For the aeroplane has revolutionized warfare. Its effect has been more far-reaching than even the most sanguine supporter of the new arm ever dared to prophesy. Future wars can never be carried on without aeroplanes. Curiously enough, however, its usefulness has not laid along the lines foretold by its disciples in the past. The areoplane has not taken the place of troops as a 106 CONQUEST OF THE AIR weapon of attack. Its enormous importance lies in its functions as a scout. It has done away forever with 'Hhe fog of war." It has become the eyes of the army. By means of it the commanders, working undisturbed with their maps and telephones and wireless at the headquarters far in the rear, are able to spy out the enemy's movements, to see deep back into the enemy's country BEFORE A GREAT ATTACK When military operations are in progress, the activity in the air increases. At such a time it is essential for the army command to be kept exactly and promptly informed of the precise strength of the enemy at given points, and of the location and disposition of his reserves. Every move is preceded by days of incessant flying on the part of the airmen reconnoitring or raiding strategic points in the enemy lines. Once the move has started, in addition to the aeroplanes which are out from dawn to dusk ''spotting" for the guns, others are despatched on bombing expeditions against the enemy lines of communication, to destroy the rail- way, to blow up trains and bridges — in short, to do everything possible to delay the bringing up of reinforcements. Finally, the aeroplane has come to be regarded as the most efficient defense against hostile aircraft. Therefore, aeroplanes are employed day after day to chase off the enemy airmen who sally forth over the lines on reconnaissances or bombing raids. In 1915, London awakened to the fact that the aeroplane, properly utilized, is a more effective source of protection 107 CONQUEST OF THE AIR against Zeppelin raiders than any number of anti-air- craft guns, and on the rare occasions that hostile airships ventured forth over the towns and villages in the British zone of operations in France and Belgium, the British aeroplanes drove the invader off before he had time to inflict any great damage. It was the British military airmen who discovered Von Kluck's famous swing-round from his march on Paris to the southeast, and by their timely intimation of this change of direction enabled the Allies to make in season those dispositions which inflicted on the Germans the great decisive defeat of the war. MASTERY FROM THE BEGINNING These were the early days of the war, but, though the British airmen were almost in the learning stage, they showed themselves the possessors of all that infinite resource and glorious courage which still dis- tinguish them now that they have perfected and mastered the whole theory of aviation in war. Thus in September, 1914, a pilot and observer of the Royal Flying Corps were forced by engine trouble to land in the enemy lines. They sprang out of their machine and bolted for cover to a small wood. The Germans lost no time in possessing themselves Jof the British aeroplane, but failed to find the prisoners, who even- tually managed to creep away under cover of darkness to the steep banks of the Aisne. Here they cast away their Flying Corps field-boots, and, descending to the water, swam across in the dark, and reached their aerodrome in safety, but barefoot. A little later one of the most successful British airmen 108 CONQUEST OF THE AIR was out scouting in a single-seater monoplane when he came across a German machine. Being alone he had no rifle, so promptly maneuvered his monoplane so as to get in a revolver shot at the enemy. As he was mounting above the German, the German observer winged him with a well-aimed rifle shot. The Briton never lost his presence of mind, but turned and flew for home, landing in the British lines, close to a motor- ambulance, which carried him off to the nearest dressing station. A THRILLING AERIAL COMBAT The importance of the position of the propeller in an enemy machine is seen in the following account of a thrilling aerial combat which took place between a British and a German airman on the Aisne. A British airman, who was flying a speedy scout, caught up with a German biplane of the ''pusher" type (i. e. with the propeller behind the driving seat), which he recognized to be an Otto machine. At first sight, therefore, he was able to make two important observations — namely, that he had the advantage of speed, and that his adversary, owing to the position of his propeller, could not fire from behind. The Briton had two rifles clamped down one on either side of his engine, and at once started out after the enemy, taking good care to keep well in the latter's wake. At sixty yards' range he opened fire without any apparent result; then, as his speed was bearing him past his opponent, he turned and came back and gave the Boche the contents of the other rifle. The German wavered and began to descend. The British airman's rifles were empty. 109 CONQUEST OF THE AIR He was alone. He had no one to reload. Depressing the elevating plane, he planed down at a dizzy angle, and was thus able to take his hands off his steering wheel for a moment and recharge his weapons. The rifles jammed, but the airman managed to cram four cartridges home, and loosed them off at the stern of his adversary, who a minute later disappeared in a swelling cloud-bank. The Briton instantly dropped speedily down through the sky after him, but in tha clear azure below could see no trace of his enemy, who must have come to earth in the French lines over which they had been maneuvering. FRIGHTFULNESS PREFERRED BY GERMANS At Bailleul on October 21st, 1914, a German airman dropped a bomb on the hospital. The projectile had a so-called ''sensitive" fuse — that is to say, a fuse that would make it explode on impact. The shell burst accordingly as it went through the roof, and the greater part of the force was expanded in mid-air in one of the wards which forty patients had just left. A solitary patient remained, and he was wounded. On the same day two German airmen who were brought down with their aeroplanes in the British lines were made to cut a very sorry figure. Their machine fell into a part of the line held by the Indian troops. On searching the machine the British officers found large numbers of circulars, written in very faulty Hindi, inciting the Indians to mutiny, and announcing that the Caliph had proclaimed the Jehad, or Holy war. The German airmen watched with amazement the British oflicers distributing these circulars to the Indian troops 110 CONQUEST OF THE AIR who, to the further stupefaction of the discomfited Boches, laughed with childish glee at the clumsy grammatical mistakes of the German Orientalist who had composed the proclamation. For a time the Germans were extremely uncomfortable, for they were apprehensive as to the penalty for their violation of The Hague Convention by inciting belligerent troops to mutiny. However they suffered no harm, but they undoubtedly received an unforgetable lesson on Great Britain's method of Imperial administration. On November 1st the German Emperor was given an ocular demonstration of the prowess of the British airman, which he is not likely to forget to the end of his days. The Emperor had been visiting Thielt, in Belgium, where the German General Headquarters were then established. There is every reason to believe that his Majesty was in the General Staff building, when a British airman created something like a panic by suddenly appearing from the clouds and dropping bombs into the middle of a knot of motor-cars assembled outside. By way of retaliation the Germans bombarded Furnes from the air on the following day, in the belief that President Poincare was in the place on a visit to the Belgian lines. The British success at Neuve Chapelle was largely due to the invaluable co-operation of the military air service with the Staff. It was the British airmen who were in the main responsible for the selection of the slope running from the village of Neuve Chapelle to the Aubers-Fromelles ridge as the most suitable spot for a thrust at the enemy line. They ascertained the weakness of the Germans at that point and were able 111 CONQUEST OF THE AIR moreover, to undertake that a series of carefully- prepared and daringly-executed air raids on important places on the German lines of communication would give the British sixty-six hours in which to make good any advantage they might gain before the enemy could bring up reinforcements. THREE WEEKS OF SUCCESS During the fighting that took place in the spring and summer, the Second Battle of Ypres, the British offensive on May 9th against the Fromelles ridge, the operations in the Festubert region and about the ruined Chateau of Hooge, the aeroplanes continued to play their part quietly, modestly, usefully. But it was in the great Franco-British advance on September 25th that the airmen on the British front again had a great opportunity for showing what they had learned in thirteen months' active service. They availed them- selves of the opportunity to the full, and once more earned the admiration of their enemy and the warm eulogy of their commanders. Probably all records for air mileage per day were eclipsed by the Royal Flying Corps in the three weeks or so preceding the advance against Loos on September 25th, 1915. The weather was by no means invariably favorable, but, notwithstanding this, the British air- men were out daily on reconnaissances of the enemy trenches, watching for any indication of the Boches being aware of the great events taking place, or of taking measures to meet the ''big push." On more than one occasion British aeroplanes remained for two hours at a stretch over the German lineS; sometimes U2 CONQUEST OF THE AIR hovering at no greater altitude than seven thousand feet, the low-lying clouds preventing reconnaissance from anything like a safe distance above the enemy anti-aircraft batteries. AIR ATTACKS NEAR LILLE The great offensive was preceded by air attacks on the German railway communications south of Lille, the routes by which they would naturally bring reinforcements from Belgium. Events subsequently showed that these systematic air raids materially delayed the arrival of reinforcements to stem the col- lapse of the German front line under the sledge-hammer blows struck by the British First and Fourth Corps. On September 23d, two days before the day fixed for the attack, a German goods train was wrecked on the railway near Lille, and the line torn up in several places by bombs dropped from our aeroplanes. On the following day the railway was damaged in three places, while on the morning of the attack, despite hazy weather, the British airmen sallied forth once more and bombed a train rushing up troops to the Loos region, damaging three coaches, and afterwards derailing a goods train and tearing up the railway line at three points. On the day after the attack, when the British troops were well through the German front line, and looked as though they would get to Lens, one of the British airmen appeared over the station of Loffre, east of Douai, two most important German military centers, and dropped a bomb on a troop train there. As the airman sped away he noticed that the German soldiers 8 113 CONQUEST OF THE AIR were swarming out of the train, and were gathering with a number of railway officials about the wrecked carriages. This airman must have remembered the feat of his comrade-in-arms at Courtrai during the Neuve Chapelle affair, for he turned back, and, glid- ing down to only about five hundred feet above the ground, unloosed a 110-pound bomb, which he carried slung beneath his machine, into the midst of the group. TWENTY-SIX BRITISH WINS On the same day the engine and six coaches of a troop train were derailed by aerial bombs dropped on the railway at Rosult, near St. Amand, on the line from Valenciennes to Orchies. Probably the most destruc- tive raid of the British flying men, however, was the air attack on the new railway station at Valenciennes, a railway junction of vital military importance to the enemy, as here the lines from Brussels and Maubeuge meet with the lines going out to Lille, Cambria, Toumai, and Douai, the great military supply depots in the northern part of the German western front. That the Britons were not permitted to accomplish these fine feats unopposed is shown by the circumstance that in the single week preceding the British offensive there were no less than twenty-seven fights in the air between British and German machines, all of which save one, terminated in favor of the British. One German machine was definitely known to have been wrecked. Every time an aeroplane went out on duty over the British lines on the western front its occupants braved death in half a dozen forms. The one thought 114 CONQUEST OF THE AIR inspiring every member of the Royal Flying Corps was to make his report — that is to say, to accomplish his mission successfully and return home to submit the results to headquarters. As the aeroplane hovered out over the German lines the German anti-aircraft batteries spat out their pear-shaped globes of pure white smoke with the characteristic ''pom — pom — pom," a sound which will haunt forever the memory of every man who has served in the trenches on the western front. The German firing-line machine-guns and rifles poured their stream of lead upwards against the invader in the sky, but the pilot kept his aeroplane steadily on its course with one thought uppermost — to make that report. MODESTY OF THE BRAVE There are dangers in flying quite remote from war, those defects of the engine or in construction which no amount of care can guard against with absolute certainty. To these must be added the ever-present risk that a rifle bullet or the merest splinter of shell may, all unknown to the pilot, inflict irreparable injury on a vital part of the machine which will reveal itself at a critical moment in his flight, perhaps when he is assailed in the air by two or three hostile aeroplanes. Death from machine-gun, rifle, or shell fire in the air, death on the cruel earth many thousand feet below, wounds, capture — these are the risks which confront every member of the Royal Flying Corps as he fares forth on his frail bark of canvas, wood, and metal over the tortuous scars in the earth's surface marking the belligerent trench lines. But such was the spirit of 115 CONQUEST OF THE AIR the Royal Flying Corps — part and parcel, be it said, of the spirit of the British Army in the field — that the British airmen counted these risks as nought, so be it they might ''make their report." Thus it is that the annals of the Royal Flying Corps in this war may be said to be the most amazing record of thrilling adventures which the world has ever known. The rules of the corps prevent the names of the heroes of some of the most fantastic of these experiences from being given, but this rule may be relaxed in the case of three gallant airmen who made the supreme sacrifice of their lives in the country's service. They are Rhodes-Moorehouse, V.C; Mapplebeck, D.S.O.; and J. Aidan Liddell, V.C; all of whom were killed flying. "Eye-Witness" made Briton ring with the heroism of Rhodes-Moorehouse. While on reconnaissance work he sustained a terrible wound from a shrapnel which burst close beside his machine and maimed him in an appalling way. Nevertheless, he fulfilled his mission, and then turned his machine for home, and landed at his point of departure with a grim jest on his lips at the expense of himself for the horrifying nature of his injuries. Before he would consent to be attended by the doctor, he insisted that he must "make his report." That was his honorable epitaph : " He made his report," for when the doctors came to him he was past human aid. Captain Aidan Liddell, a comparative newcomer to flying, came from a famous Highland regiment. At the beginning of August, 1915, he was piloting his machine on a strategical reconnaissance in Belgium in the heart of the enemy's country when a high-explosive 116 CONQUEST OF THE AIR shrapnel from a German anti-aircraft gun burst right over his machine. His leg was simply riddled with bullets, and all but severed. The pilot lost conscious- ness on the spot and collapsed over his steering-wheel, while, to the horror of the observer, the machine dived nose foremost earthwards. The jerk jammed Liddell hard between the steering-wheel and the sides of the driving-seat, while it flung the observer between the machine-gun and the struts, fortunately enough, as it proved, for the aeroplane proceeded to turn a complete somersault. Luckily it was at a great height when the mishap occurred, and it thus had time to right itself. Liddell regained consciousness as the machine re- gained a horizontal position. Faint as he was with the loss of blood — he had some fifty separate wounds in his leg — he turned the machine round and made off straight across country for a Belgian aerodrome which he knew to be his nearest haven. He knew that he could not last very long, so would not waste time by climbing out of range of the enemy guns, but headed straight for the Belgian lines. He made a good landing at the flying ground, and said to those who ran forward to greet him: ''You must lift me out. If I move I am afraid that my leg will drop off." This brave man died in hospital a week or so after- wards without living to receive the Victoria Cross which was laid on his bier in recompense for his deathless endurance. mapplebeck's memorable exploit Lieutenant Mapplebeck, who was killed while flying a new machine in England, was the hero of one of the 117 CONQUEST OF THE AIR most remarkable adventures of the war. He was shot down on a reconnaissance flight one day in the neigh- borhood of a large town in the German lines. He was able to make a landing, but as his engine was so badly damaged he could not hope to get away, he concealed himself, abandoning his aeroplane to the enemy. Presently German troops arrived, and started with loud hallo to search for the enemy airman, whom they knew must be somewhere in the vicinity. They searched in vain. This remarkable young man, who spoke English, French, Flemish, German, and Dutch with equal fluency, managed to procure civilian clothing, and for about a week actually mixed with the German soldiers in the town, and even went so far as to attend their sports. The town was covered with placards announcing the flight of a British airman, and threatening dire penalties on whomsoever should ven- ture to harbor him. Mapplebeck eventually succeeded in making his way through Belgium into Holland, doing thirty miles a day, a noteworthy performance, seeing that, as the result of an accident, one of his legs was shorter than the other. In a month he was flying at the front again. EFFECTS OF BRITISH ASCENDANCY The tenacity and fearlessness wherewith British air- men engaged and pursued any hostile machine they encountered gave the Germans a very healthy respect for their aerial prowess. For many months the ascend- ancy established by British fliers over the enemy was so complete that the German airman seldom waited to engage battle in the air, but made for home as soon 118 CONQUEST OF THE AIR as it appeared that the advantage was not immediately and obviously on his side. The British airman on the contrary, was not only always ready for a fight, but looking for a chance to close with the enemy, and destroy him in the air or drive him to a forced landing. One day in October, 1915, a British aeroplane with pilot and observer sighted on patrol duty two German machines approaching from the eastward — that is to say, from the enemy's country. They let the first German machine come within fifteen yards, and then opened with their machine-gun. The German did not wait to reply. He hurriedly dived for the earth at a very steep angle. The Briton did the same, the pilot firing at the enemy as long as he had a clear field of vision, and then passing the light automatic gun, with which British aeroplanes were fitted, to the observer, who gave the Boche the rest of the ''drum" (or charger containing forty-seven cartridges). The German machine, which was obviously quite out of hand, crashed heavily to earth in the British lines. The British troops found the pilot stone dead in his seat, with a bullet through his heart, and the observer wounded. The British airman characteris- tically disdained to do any gloating over his prize, but without even troubling to look at it, clambered aloft again, without landing, and went after the second German machine. Unfortunately the engine of the British aeroplane began to miss fire, so the chase had to be abandoned, and the airmen were compelled to content themselves with a single prize. A few days after this a British machine, while patrolling — i.e. looking out for German machines on ai9 CONQUEST OF THE AIR reconnaissances — saw a British aeroplane hotly pursued by a German. The British patroUer, who was at a very great height, dipped downwards to attack the Boche. The latter seemed to lose his head for the moment, for he turned and flew directly beneath his two assailants, who ''let him have it" from their machine-guns as he passed. The British machine which the German had been pursuing went away, leaving the field to the patroller and the foe, who circled round each other, firing rapidly, drawing ever nearer to the earth. Suddenly the German dived for his lines under a steady stream of fire from the British machine, turned, "banked" steeply, lost his equilibrium, and flopped up-side-down to earth. Pilot and observer were killed. No modern battle picture would be complete without the aeroplane, glittering up very high aloft, ringed about with tiny white balls of shrapnel smoke gleaming dead white against the background of clouds or clear sky. The airmen were highly popular figures with the men in the firing-line. The man in the trenches knew that the aeroplane was, so to speak, the periscope of the Army. Every aeroplane he saw he knew to be out guarding against any form of ''f rightfulness" that the ingenious German might be preparing for him — the man in the fire-trench — the man who was first to get the knocks. If a well-concealed battery made itself a nuisance by shelling the British trenches, smashing up the dug-outs, and knocking down the parapet, word was sent back post-haste by telephone for an aeroplane to locate the hidden nuisance and reveal its emplace- ment to British guns. If the British patrols ascertained that undue activity was going on in the trenches 120 2 CD 3 A«S;:^^»»:";';;V,. :, ■■ apHMS3!^?ffl» < t; O ,(U CONQUEST OF THE AIR opposite them, if they heard the clink of entrenching tools night after night, and by day caught glimpses of fresh earth accumulating behind the enemy trenches, an aeroplane was despatched for a '^ look-see." WORK OF THE NAVAL WING A word should be said of the splendid work accom- plished by the Naval Wing of the Royal Flying Corps, which for long had its headquarters at Dunkirk, and distinguished itself by a number of daring and successful raids into Belgium and Germany, principally against the sheds in which the Germans harbored their Zep- pelins with a view to air raids on England. On September 22d, 1914, Flight-Lieutenant Collet flew to Diisseldorf — a distance of some two hundred miles from his point of departure — and, descending to a height of only four hundred feet, dropped his bombs upon the Zeppelin shed there. Though the airman had his machine hit, he managed to return in safety. About the same time a similar raid was executed on Cologne, but the aeroplanes returned without dropping their bombs, having been prevented by the haze from locating the airship sheds. In the following month — on October 8th — two parties of aeroplanes repeated these performances. At Diisseldorf, Lieutenant Marix literally flattened out the Zeppelin shed and the Zep- pelin harbored there, and though the raiders' machines were damaged, they all managed to get back safely. At Cologne the great military railway-station was badly damaged. m CHAPTER XI THE HEROIC STRUGGLE ON THE GALLI- POLI PENINSULA LEADERS WORTHY OF THEIR MEN EVERYTHING AGAINST THE ALLIES COMBINED OPERATION HELD UP GREAT CHARGE AT KRITHIA FOOTING GAINED BELOW ACHI BABA GERMAN SUBIVL^RINES INTER- VENE — MEETING THE NEW MENACE HUNTER- WESTON's ruse NAVAL DIVISION'S BRILLIANT WORK TURKS' DEADLY COUNTER-ATTACK MAN- CHESTER'S GREAT EXPLOIT. APPARENTLY we have to go back to the Walcheren Expedition to find a parallel to the circumstances in which the Dardanelles campaign was conceived. For, though the Crimean War was sadly muddled, the mistakes there do not seem to have been so serious as were those which the British, Australasian, and Indian troops were asked to retrieve along the gateway between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. Sir Ian Hamilton was a commander of experience, and he was admirably served by subordinate officers like Generals Sir W. R. Birdwood and Hunter- Weston, of whom it is sufficient to say that they were worthy of the men they led into action. The heroism of the troops was marvelous, and solely by their indomitable tenacity they won a narrow footing along the cliffs below the mountain fortresses, from which the Germans 122 THE HEROIC STRUGGLE and Turks continued to sweep every landing-place with shell fire. But after a footing had been won below Krithia and north of Gaba Tepe, the attacking forces could make no further progress of importance. There mustered at first scarcely two army corps of them, including the 29th Divi- sion, the Australian and New Zealand Expeditionary Force, the Naval Division, an Indian Brigade, and a French division composed of Zouaves, African troops, and some white battalions. After the losses of the landing battles, Sir Ian Hamilton must have had less than 35,000 bayonets immediately at hand for the desperate work of a thrusting attack at the seat of power of the Ottoman Em- pire, which could draw upon half a million or more men for the defense of the road to Constantinople. As a matter of fact, the Turco-German commanders concentrated all their principal armies on the defense of the Dar- danelles. The campaign against Egypt was discon- tinued, and the attack on Russia across the Caucasus was reduced to an unimportant defensive battle. Even the comparatively small Indo-British army advancing along the Euphrates up towards Bagdad was only opposed by a single weak Turkish army corps. All the main military resources of one of the greatest warrior races in the world were organized by capable German officers and set in a series of almost impregnable mountain defenses, in order to safeguard the channel forts, which prevented the allied fleet from forcing the waterway to victory. EVERYTHING AGAINST THE ALLIES There were never less than 150,000 Turkish soldiers, with thousands of German engineers and artillerymen, 123 THE HEROIC STRUGGLE holding the entrenched heights between Achi Baba and Sari Bair. It mattered Httle if the Allies put more than their number of foes out of action. New Turkish armies poured down the mainland track to Gallipoli, or were carried across the Sea of Marmora in trans- ports. No wonder the AlHes' advance was slow and their casualty lists terribly heavy. Everything was against them. The enemy was deeply entrenched on one of the finest lines of natural fortifications in the world, with guns and howitzers commanding every site occupied by the allied troops. The enemy could bring most of his provisions and supplies up by road at night, with little or no interference from the fire of the Allies' ships, and a flotilla of small sailing vessels, plying across the Sea of Marmora greatly assisted in the provisioning of the defending army. There was scarcely any water in that part of the mountainous Peninsula occupied by the attacking troops. Even their machine-guns at times became unworkable through want of water in the jackets to keep the barrels cool. Everything necessary for existence had also to brought to the bombarded beaches, and thence carried laboriously by hand through narrow com- munication trenches to the men in the firing-line. As summer came on, the white troops were almost pros- trated by the tropical heat, and plagued by a monstrous number of flies. It became at last a feat of great ingenuity to swallow food without eating live flies also. The Anzacs, as the men of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps were called, reverted to a state of picturesque savagery. They left off all their clothes, except for one garment around their loins, and 124 THE HEROIC STRUGGLE their bare bodies were baked to a Red Indian color, so that they looked at last, by reason of their state of nature and their magnificent physique, more terrifying barbarians than the Turks opposed to them. At the end of April, 1915, the allied troops in the southern end of the Peninsula had forced their way forward for some five hundred yards from their land- ing-places. By this time both sides showed signs of exhaustion, but Sir Ian Hamilton resolutely judged that the troops who could first summon up spirit to make another attack would win some hundreds of yards of ground. And as his own force was crowded together under gun fire in a very narrow space, he determined to be the first to strike out. He therefore brought the 2d Australian and New Zealand Infantry Brigades down from the Sari Bair region, and re- arranged the 29th Division into four brigades, com- posed of the 87th and 88th Brigades, the Lancashire Territorial Brigade, and the 29th Indian Infantry Brigade. Then with the remnant of his forces he formed a new composite division, which he used as a general reserve, after reinforcing the French division with the 2d Naval Brigade. GREAT CHARGE AT KRITHIA — COMBINED OPERATION HELD UP The 29th Division went into action at 11 a. m. on May 6th, when it moved out leftward, on the south- east side of Krithia. Half an hour afterwards the French force on the right also advanced along the lower slopes of the river ridge of the Kereves Dere. The combined operation, however, made little progress. 125 THE HEROIC STRUGGLE The British troops were held up outside a pine wood, which the enemy had transformed into a machine-gun redoubt; and the French also were checked by a terrible fire from a strong fieldwork after reaching the crest of the ridge. The following morning the Lancashire Territorials charged gallantly up the slope towards Krithia. They were caught by the German machine- guns; but as they retired, another Territorial force, the Queen's Edinburgh Rifles, took the pine wood by a magnificent rush. Besides dislodging the machine- gun parties, they brought down Turkish snipers work- ing from wooden platforms on the trees, and thus cleared the way for the general advance. But just as all seemed to be going well, and the Inniskilling Fusiliers came up to maintain the hold on the pine wood, the Turks, by a gallant charge, won back this clump of trees in the center. Nevertheless, the Inniskillings went on and captured three enemy trenches, till in the afternoon all the advance was again held up by an enfilading fire from hostile machine-guns hidden on a ridge between the gully running towards Krithia and the sea. The operation looked like ending in a stalemate; but neither General Hunter- Weston, one of the greatest thrusters in the army, nor Sir Ian Hamilton, a man with all the fighting temperament of the Highlander, would submit to the check. The commander threw in all his reserves, and ordered a general advance; and despite their weariness and their heavy losses, the men rose with a will, and in a great bayonet charge recaptured the pine wood and advanced nearly all their line some three hundred yards. The troops were quite worn out, but Sir Ian 126 THE HEROIC STRUGGLE Hamilton kept most of them working when darkness fell at the task of consolidating their new position. His airmen had told him that the enemy were receiving reinforcements, and he was resolved to make one more push before the new hostile forces got into position. At half -past ten the next morning (May 7th) he flung out the New Zealand Brigade, and won another two hundred yards in front of the pine trees. Then, at half -past four in the afternoon, he threw the 2d Aus- tralian Brigade into his front, and sent his whole line forward against Krithia. The sparkle of the bayonets could be seen through the smoke of shells from the ships' guns and heavy artillery, as the attacking troops went forward in a long line stretching right across the Peninsula. The Senegalese sharpshooters were broken by the storm of heavy shells from the ridge by Kereves Dere. But the black troops were rallied by their officers, and sent forward in another rush, supported by a small column of French soldiers. Their figures were seen outlined against the sky on the crest of their ridge just as darkness fell and veiled all the battlefield. FOOTING GAINED BELOW ACHI BABA When morning came. Sir Ian Hamilton found that the French had captured the machine-gun redoubt on the ridge, and had entrenched in front of Zimmerman Farm. On the right of the British line the 87th Brigade, fighting in the darkness, had taken another two hundred yards of ground; while the Australian Brigade, though swept by shrapnel, machine-gun, and rifle fire, extended the Allies' front for another four hundred yards. 127 THE HEROIC STRUGGLE The gain of ground in the three days' battle was only six hundred yards on the right, and four hundred yards on the left-center. It does not look much on the map, but in practice it meant life instead of death, for it gave the allied troops just living room on the tip of the Peninsula, enabling them to scatter sufficiently in bivouacs in a network of narrow ditches, to avoid annihilation from the high-placed enemy batteries. Sir Ian Hamilton confessed that it was only on May 10, 1915, that he felt that his footing below Achi Baba was fairly secure. Meanwhile the officer commanding the 6th Gurkhas had begun on his own initiative the new method of advancing by local efforts. Between Krithia and the open sea there was a deep, picturesque river bed, known on the map as the Saghir Dere, and known in the camp as Gully Ravine, and crowned seaward by a steep bluff. Below the bluff was Y Beach, where some of the troops had fought their first landing battle. Since then the enemy had transformed the bluff into a powerful fortress, from which a number of machine- guns had continually broken up the left wing of our attacks. To assail the fortified cliff across the gully was madness, but the mountaineers of Nepal worked their way along the shore, and then started in the darkness to crawl up the steep height on their hands and knees. They reached the top, but failed to sur- prise the enemy, who beat them back with a sweeping fire. The enterprising Gurkhas, however, had shown the way in which the bluff could be captured, and the next day Major-General H. V. Fox, commanding the 29th Indian Infantry Brigade, devised plans for a 128 THE HEROIC STRUGGLE concerted attack. This was carried out in the evening of May 12th, when the Manchester Brigade made a feint of a storming attack on the right of the enemy's position. The guns of H.M.S. Dublin and H.M.S. Talbot opened fire seaward on the Turkish trenches, while the guns and howitzers of one of the British divisions kept up a heavy shell fire from the land. Evening deepened into night, and the great bluff flamed with bursting shells that kept the Turks below their parapets. Then again in the darkness a double com- pany of Gurkhas crept along the shore, and, scaling the cliff, carried the position with a rush. They were followed by their machine-gun section, and another double company of their battalion, and when dawn broke the conquered position had been connected with our main line, advancing our left flank by nearly five hundred yards. GERMAN SUBMARINES INTERVENE — MEETING THE NEW MENACE Nothing of much importance was done for another fortnight. During this time the hardest work fell on the sappers, who tried to work up within rushing dis- tance of the enemy's second line by means of winding saps from which the troops could debouch. On May 25th the Royal Naval Division and the 42d Division were able to entrench a hundred yards nearer the Turks, and four days afterwards the entire British line Avas helped onward by means of engineers' work. At the same time the French force also progressed and captured a machine-gun redoubt on the ridge going down to the Kereves Ravine. But all this slow 9 129 THE HEROIC STRUGGLE movement of approach against the hostile mountain fortress was suddenly complicated by a series of terrifying naval disasters. Some German submarines worked down to the Dardanelles in the third week in May, and all our naval dispositions and transport work were abruptly checked. We had already lost the Goliath, a useful old battle- ship, by a destroyer attack delivered by a very enter- prising German naval officer. This disaster only entailed greater watchfulness on the part of our scouts; but the torpedoing of H.M.S. Triumph on May 26th, and the torpedoing of H.M.S. Majestic on May 27th, were blows so serious that even some of the British thought that the Dardanelles campaign was sud- denly about to end in collapse. The outlook was indeed very serious. The large steamers which had been supplying the troops with food and ammunition could no longer be safely used, and it seemed at first as if the Germans and Austrians had only to send half a dozen more large underwater craft to the Dardanelles in order to maroon the troops that had landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula. It was a situation to test to the uttermost the ability of the British sailor; but by fine ingenuity and inventiveness he saved the army which he had put ashore with such remarkable skill. All the transports were sent into Mudros Bay, where there was only a narrow channel to guard. Men, stores, guns, and horses were henceforth conveyed across forty miles of water from Mudros to the Peninsula in mine- sweepers and other smaU, shallow vessels, which did not lie deep enough in the water for a torpedo to strike them at the ordinary depth. Then the large warships, 130 THE HEROIC STRUGGLE whose guns were very useful and sometimes of vital value in the military operations, were sheltered near the shore by means of submarine defenses, while the destroyers and patrol boats tracked the hostile under- water craft and assailed them in various ways. hunter-weston's ruse Almost every night the Turks assailed the Allied line, hoping, no doubt, to find that the attacking troops were weakening under the submarine menace. But the Allies' positions remained intact, and Sir Ian Hamilton, on June 3d, made his first deliberate assault on the Achi Baba fortifications. For his line of battle he deployed the 29th Division on his left, the42d (East Lancashire) Division in his center, with the Naval Division linking on with the French Army Corps. General Hunter- Weston, directing the British troops on a front of four thousand yards, had about 17,000 men on the firing-line, with 7,000 men in reserve. The action began on the morning of June 4th with a pre- liminary bombardment which lasted for more than three hours, after which the allied troops moved to attack, and then scurried back to their trenches. This was a little stratagem on the part of General Hunter- Weston to draw the fire of the enemy's artillery and machine-guns. The device was successful, and amid a heavy fire from the enemy's batteries and trenches, the Allies renewed their bombardment with increasing intensity, being able to mark more exactly the hostile targets. Precisely at noon the Allies lengthened their fire, and the entire British line charged with fixed bayonets. Both the French divisions stormed 131 THE HEROIC STRUGGLE forward at the same time, so that the glittering line of bayonets sparkled right across the Peninsula from the open sea to the closed Strait. NAVAL division's BRILLIANT WORK The Lancashire Territorials and the new recruits of the Anson, Howe, and Hood Battalions of the Naval Division did extremely well. They captured the first Turkish line in front of them in from five to fifteen minutes, and then burst through the second Turkish line in another fierce, swift spurt. In less than half an hour from the time when they leaped from the trenches, the men of the East Lancashire Division and the Naval Division had penetrated a third of a mile in the enemy's front, and were consolidating the conquered ground in a cool, workmanlike way. The 29th Division was less fortunate, as its left wing w^asheld up by a wire entangle- ment, so placed as to have escaped damage from our shells. It was an Indian brigade that was checked in this manner, and though a company of the 6th Gurkhas, the heroes of Gurkha Bluff, battered their way into the Turkish works, they had to be withdrawn with the rest of the brigade in order to avoid being cut off. Turks' deadly counter-attack While a fresh attack was being organized the French corps on the right got also into difficulties. The 1st French Division carried the opposing enemy trench, while the 2d Division stormed in a magnificent charge the strong Turkish redoubt on the Kereves Ridge, knowTi as the Haricot. But the French left wing, acting on the right flank of the Royal Naval 132 THE HEROIC STRUGGLE Division, was unable to gain any ground, and this led to a disaster. In the afternoon the Turks, pouring out through the series of communication trenches, delivered a massed counter-attack on the Haricot Redoubt, while their guns prepared the way for them with a storm of shrapnel and high-explosive shells. The French lost the redoubt and fell back, and in so doing completely uncovered the right flank of the Naval Division. The men of the 2d Naval Brigade were enfiladed and forced to retire with heavy losses from the postion they had captured, and the CoUing- wood Battalion, which had gone forward in support, was almost completely destroyed. It looked as though the Turks were about to roll up the whole allied line, for when the Naval Brigade was compelled to retreat across the open, sloping fields under a terrible fire, the exposed flank of the Man- chester Brigade was in turn caught by Turkish and German machine-guns, and swept by volleys of rifle fire, and then hammered by hostile bombing-parties. But the Manchester men — ^nearly all of them Terri- torials — fought with bulldog courage to hold what they had won. There were places in which one Lancashire man resisted every force that the enemy could bring to bear upon him. Company-Sergeant-Major Hay, having captured single-handed a redoubt near Krithia, held it for ten hours with four men until he was relieved. Company-Sergeant-Major Alister killed eight Turks and cleared a trench. But probably the best fighter of aU was Private Richardson, who fought on alone in a trench south of lO-ithia for nearly twenty- four hourS; and beat back every hostile assault. 133 THE HEROIC STRUGGLE Manchester's great exploit The fighting around Krithia in the afternoon of June 4, 1915, was a matter upon which every Terri- torial can look back with deep pride. The Manchester Brigade equaled the finest exploits of the old Regular Army. They answered the attack on their flank by throwing back their right wing; and such was their desperate courage that Sir Ian Hamilton could not bear to let them retire. Their position was one of extreme peril, for they were surrounded on two sides, and the Turks were making a sustained and furious effort to drive across the salient and cut off the brigade. So the British Commander-in-Chief formed up the Naval Division, and asked General Gouraud to co-operate in making an attack that should advance the right of the line, and connect and protect the flank of the Manchester men. But the French corps itself was still in great difficulties. Twice the attack was postponed at the request of General Gouraud, and at haff-past sLx in the evening he reported that the pressure of the Turkish masses against him was so heavy that he could not advance. Nothing remained but to withdraw the Manchester men from the second Turkish line which they were holding to the first Turkish line. The troops were very angry, and some of them desired to stay on and die rather than give up any of the ground they had won. But after much persuasion all the East Lan- cashire Division was extricated from the second line of captured trenches, and placed back in the Turkish first line, which they had won in five minutes at the beginning of their attack. The net result of the day's 134 THE HEROIC STRUGGLE operations was an advance on a depth of two hundred to four hundred yards, along a front of nearly three miles. It was less than had been hoped for, but it was still a very considerable gain. Not only was there a substantial and very useful extension of ground, but the Turks were so severely punished that, though flushed with the victory of regaining their second Hne, they had not enough spirit left to attempt a counter- attack to recover their firing-trenches and forward machine-gun redoubts. Four hundred prisoners were taken, including five German officers, who were the remnant of a machine-gun party from the Goeben. Most of the captures v/ere made by the Lancashire Territorials, whose capable divisional commander was Major-General W. Douglas. 135 CHAPTER XII THE VALIANT DEFENSE OF SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO BRIGHT SPOTS IN SERBIA's DARK SKY VASSITCH ROBBED OF SUCCESS SARRAIL ASSAULTS MOUNT ARKJINGEL BULGARIANS TAKE THE OFFENSIVE — SARRAIL's lack of men BATTLE OF KATSHANIK PASS SERBIAN ROUT AT PRISREND HORRORS OF THE FLIGHT SARRAIL's FIGHTING RETREAT TENTH division's memorable stand FATE DECIDES AGAINST MONTENEGRO. THE DISASTROUS week which saw the faU of Nish on November 5, 1915, and the enemy in occupation of the greater part of Serbia, did not, however, close without witnessing a splendid vindication of the fighting qualities of the Serbians. If by this time the general situation of the little kingdom was becoming gloomy, the dark sky was not entirely destitute of gleams of light. The soldiers of Bojovitch and of Vassitch respec- tively had repelled all assaults of the Bulgarians on the Katshanik Pass, northwest of Uskub, and the Ba- buna Pass, southwest of Veles, two places of extreme strategic importance, as subsequent events clearl}" showed. The heroic Vassitch did far better than merely hold the Babuna Pass against repeated attacks, for he was victorious there in a battle which, had circum- stances been more propitious, might have favorably 136 ^ -h b " (/J ri ^r, O ro ■"i c^CR ?r '-' 2 o VALIANT DEFENSE OF SERBIA influenced the whole course of the later phases of the struggle for his country's existence. During that first week of November, 1915, Vassitch, in and around the Babuna Pass, had only 5,000 men to pit against over 20,000 Bulgarians, who besides had much heavier artillery. Day after day, night after night, his small force of Serbians, often without food, always under fire, but cheered by their commander, and singing their plaintive national airs, fought daunt- lessly on, repulsing with serious loss to the invader all his most stubborn and persistent efforts to force the pass. They did more. From November 4th to No- vember 6th an incessant and sanguinary hand-to-hand fight, in which the combatants made free use of their knives, raged in the deep and narrow gorges of the defile, ending in the complete rout of the Bulgarians, who were driven through Izvor pell-mell into Veles. And on the other side of the hills the French, under General Sarrail, were only a few miles away — almost in touch. It looked as if the Allies might effect a junction, and telegrams were despatched from Greece which actually asserted that not only French but also British troops had united with the Serbians. The truth, unfortunately, was altogether otherwise. A thoroughly capable soldier, who had already proved his merit in France, General Sarrail did wonders considering the shortness of the time at his disposal and the inferiority of the facilities at his command, but the numbers of his men were utterly insufficient for their task, and he could not achieve the impossible. He made a great, an even desperate, attempt to j®in up with Vassitch, and so nearly accomplished it that 137 VALIANT DEFENSE OF SERBIA nothing but the absence of reinforcements at a critical moment robbed him of success. In this effort his troops were entirely French, the British, lying around LakeDoi- ran, being well to the south and east on his right flank. As soon as possible after his arrival at Salonika, he railed aU his available forces up the Valley of the Vardar, towards Veles. He had only a single-tracked and indifferent railway for the transportation of both men and supphes, yet he pressed on with surprising speed. The line followed the snaky twistings of the river, and parts of it, built on shelves cut out of the soUd rock, passed through deep gorges, the longest of which, known as the Demir Kapu Ravine, extended for ten miles. As possession of this defile by the enemy would have been a fatal bar to his advance, his first business was to get it into his own hands, and after some fighting at Strumnitza station, a few miles to the south, he secured it without further opposition. Then he pushed on north of it to Krivolak, about 110 miles from Salonika. He reached Krivolak on October 19th, but at first he had only a handful of troops, and could do little tiU more had come up. VASSITCH ROBBED OF SUCCESS By a magnificent thrust Vassitch recaptured Veles from the Bulgarians on October 22d, and managed to hold it for a week. This town lay along the railway some thirty-five miles northwest of Krivolak, but the French were not sufficiently strong to push their way up the line to it, and they had to fight hard, as it was, to maintain themselves. It was not till after they had gained possession of a steep and forbidding height, 138 VALIANT DEFENSE OF SERBIA called Kara Hodjali, three miles north of Krivolak on the road to Ishtip, that they established their position, and, defeating furious assaults of the enemy on October 30th and November 4th and 5th, made an effective bridge-head on the east side of the Vardar. In the meantime Vassitch, far outnumbered and out- gunned, had been compelled to evacuate Veles again and withdraw to the Babuna Pass. SARRAIL ASSAULTS MOUNT ARKANGEL Krivolak was twenty-five miles almost due east of the pass, and Sarrail's problem now was to bridge the distance which intervened between himself and Vas- sitch. The first part of the way was easy, fifteen miles across an undulating plain to the Tserna, a tributary of the Vardar; but the remaining ten miles, on the west side of the former river, were over very difficult country, consisting of rugged hills and moun- tains, interspersed with water-courses, the whole of this terrain, on which the Bulgarians had erected fortifi- cations, lending itself readily to a powerful defense. Having secured Kara Hodjali, which the French soldiers renamed Kara Rosalie, after the pet word of their bayonets, Sarrail, for whom reinforcements had all the while been arriving at Krivolak, marched south- west across the plain through Negotin and Kavarda to the Tserna, an unfordable stream of considerable width, with but one bridge over it, and that of wood at a place called Vozartzi. On November 5th the French moved over the bridge, and occupied the adjacent crests of the precipitous slopes which, often rising above 1,000 feet in height, line for miles that 139 VALIANT DEFENSE OF SERBIA side of the river. Here they were so near the Babuna Pass that they could hear the thundrous rumble of the artillery taking part in the fierce battle in which Vassitch was victorious. Advancing northwards along the west bank of the Tserna, Sarrail next day began an assault of Mount Arkangel, ten miles down stream from Vozartzi, and the center of the Bulgarian position, which had to be stormed if a junction was to be made with the Serbians. Mount Arkangel, however, was an extremely hard nut to crack. The Bulgarians had strongly fortified it, were numerically much superior to the French, and, moreover, were constantly being reinforced by Teodo- roff from his main army. In war, ^'L'audace!" typified the spirit of the French, and on this occasion, with their precarious communications and relatively small num- bers, it needed all their boldness and courage to make the attempt. After skirmishes with outposts at the base of the mountain, they drove the Bulgarians out of the villages of Sirkovo and Krushevitza, and on November the 10th they carried, by an encircling move- ment, with great dash, the village of Sirkovo, situated some distance up the side of the eminence. But they did not get far above this point. By the close of the second week of November the Bulgarians concentrated upwards of 60,000 men, with a corresponding strength in guns, on ]\Iount Arkangel and along the west bank of the Tserna, and on the 12th they took the offensive. BULGARIANS TAKE THE OFFENSIVE Their obviously best course was to cut the French off from the Vozartzi bridge, the latter's sole line of 140 VALIANT DEFENSE OF SERBIA supply and retreat, and then hem them in against the impassable river in the rear. For three days, in fighting of the most violent description, they made the most determined efforts to carry out this purpose, but the French, combining higher skill with equal determina- tion, held their ground, and in a grim conflict, which took place on Mount Arkangel itself, inflicted a severe defeat on the enemy, who was forced to retire in great disorder, leaving 3,500 dead on the field. In this battle the Bulgarians charged to within twenty yards of the French trenches, but, faltering under a withering fire and then counter-charged by the French with the bayonet, broke, turned, and ran. Mr. G. Ward Price, the authorized representative of the London Press with the allies in the Balkins, reported that if only there had been enough French troops to throw into the struggle at the moment, the retreat of the Bulgars would have been made a rout. sarrail's lack of men Vassitch held out in the Babuna Pass, ten miles away all the next day, November 15th, but the French could not get across the hiUs, and as he was compelled to retire, in order to escape envelopment, on Prilep on November 16th, the opportunity passed. The French, still hoping to assist the Serbians in some way, retained their positions. It was November 20th, nearly a week after the battle of Mount Arkangel, before the Bulgarians, freshly strengthened, renewed the attack, and they were again heavily checked, but Sarrail was unable to advance, the plain fact being that he neither had nor could get men in adequate force. 141 VALIANT DEFENSE OF SERBIA^ And, meanwhile, in other parts of the country the progress of events, moving from disaster to disaster for the brave but unfortunate Serbians, had rendered it evident that the enemy's overrunning of the rest of Serbia was a question of but a very short time, on which the venture of the Allies would exercise little or no influence. BATTLE OF KATSHANIK PASS About November 10th Bojovitch's slender army of 5,000 men was reinforced by three regiments, including one from the Shumadia and one from the Morava Divisions, which were sent by the railway — the only bit remaining to Serbia — from Pristina to Ferizovitch, some ten miles from the Katshanik Pass. The weather was intensely cold, and the roads were indescribably bad. The Serbians, though exhausted by much march- ing, and weak from want of food, pressed on to the pass, and Bojovitch began the attack without a moment's delay. According to one account he had a hundred guns, mostly of the French 75 and 155 type (3-in. and 6-in.), which rained thousands of shrapnel and high- explosive shells on the trenches of the Bulgarians, who, under this terrible fire, retreated south for four miles. Then the Serbian infantry drove on, falling wave after wave on the reeling Bulgarian ranks, which, however, ralHed as their supports came up. One Serbian regiment charged desperately seven times, each time capturing and then losing six Bulgarian guns. In several parts of the field there was a savage hand-to- hand mel^e, in which the combatants, throwing down their rifles, fought with daggers, knives, fists, and even 142 VALIANT DEFENSE OF SERBIA teeth, the wildest, fiercest scenes in the envenomed fight- ing on the Timok being far outdone. For some time the Serbians on the whole made progress, the enemy's center being pierced by a prodigious effort of the Shumadia and Morava troops, and it seemed as if Serbian valor would prevail. But here, once more, the Serbians had no reserves to ensure success. The Bulgarians were all the time being strengthened by large numbers of fresh men railed up from Uskub, and in the end this superiority was the deciding factor. On the 15th the battle was lost, and the Serbians were forced out of the pass, retiring by the passes of the Jatzovitza Hills on Prisrend. SERBIAN ROUT AT PRISREND From Mitrovitza a part of the Serbian Army, accom- panied by multitudes of civilian fugitives, retreated to Ipek in Montenegro, and some proportion of them eventually arrived at Scutari, by way of Podgoritza, after suffering the cruelest hardships and privations — the rest perished miserably from cold and starvation. Retiring from the same town, another part of the force which had opposed Kovess stood and fought him again at Vutshitrin, but was beaten and pursued across the Sitnitza. But the main line of retreat of the Serbians was along the high road from Pristina to Prisrend, and the Bulgarians pressed on quickly behind in this direction, took the heights west of Ferizovitch, and also advanced northerly towards Ipek, against which town Kovess had sent a detachment. The retreat to Prisrend was covered by the Shumadia Division. On November 27th upwards of 80,000 U3 VALIANT DEFENSE OF SERBIA' Serbians stood at bay in front of this town, but next day, after a most sanguinary conflict, and having fired their last shell, they spiked their guns, and fled across the frontier into Albania, making along the White Drin for Kula Liuma, sometimes called Lum Kulus, while several thousand prisoners fell into the hands of the enemy. HORRORS OF THE FLIGHT Marked by horrors unspeakable, the retreat of the Serbian Army will remain one of the most terrible in history. Day by day thousands of men, ill-clad, ill-shod, or with bare and bleeding feet, and, crazed with famine, eating raw horse-flesh with avidity, stumbled painfully and wretchedly along the two available roads, and these no better than mule-tracks, from Kula Liuma, one going west to Scutari, and the other south through Dibra to Elbasan. Saddest of all, with these wearied and war-worn soldiers there traveled long, mournful processions of the aged of both sexes, of the women and children, of Serbia, exhausted and starving, but preferring to face anything than to fall into the hands of the Austro-German and Bulgarian conquerors. Each via dolorosa was strewn thickly with bodies of these unfortunate people. It was estimated that out of half a million civilians, who sought refuge in flight into the Albanian mountains, more than 200,000 died. sarrail's flying retreat The French bore the brunt of the struggle on the Tserna — perhaps because they were more numerous 144 VALIANT DEFENSE OF SERBIA than the British, who were not actively engaged in force until the first week of December. Their trenches lay north and west of Lake Doiran, among bleak hills covered with snow, spreading out fanwise in the direc- tion of Strumnitza, and they had taken them over from the French when the latter had gone up the Vardar to Krivolak. One of the difficulties of Sarrail's retreat was that while it was going on he was unable, owing to the nature of the country, to maintain close com- munication with the British prior to the 10th. On the east side of the Vardar Teodoroff had massed four divisions — or roughly 100,000 men — and he made his first great assault on the British in the grey of early morning, and under cover of a fog, which permitted him to get close up to the British trenches, without being clearly perceived, on December 6th. The British force opposed to this Bulgarian army — for it was nothing less — consisted of the 10th Division, which had come from Suvla Bay, and could hardly have been in anything like full strength, and supports drawn from the Salonika base. The enemy first of all poured a rain of high-explosive shells on the British trenches, which were held mainly by the Inniskillings, the Connaughts, the Munsters, and the Dublin Fusi- liers — the pick of Ireland — and the Hampshires. After very heavy fighting, often hand-to-hand, with the advantage now on the one side and now on the other, the overwhelming strength of the Bulgarians told, and the British were driven out of their first line. The battle had raged all day, with hardly a pause, and it was renewed next morning with equal or even fiercer intensity. 10 145 VALIANT DEFENSE OF SERBIA TENTH division's MEMORABLE STAND As on the 6th, the conflict commanced with a tremen- dous bombardment by the Bulgarians of the British lines, and then the enemy came on, hurrahing and cheering, and threw himself in successive waves on the 10th Division, which, resisting stoutly, gave ground slowly, its rate of retirement being about two miles a day, which was wonderfully little considering the enormous pressure exerted by Teodoroff's four divi- sions. More than once the British looked as though they would be annihilated, but a free use of the bayonet, added to Irish and English pluck, succeeded in extricating them from the most dangerous sit- uations. Without much further fighting, the Franco-British troops on December 12th gained the other side of the frontier, having torn up the railway behind them, and fired Gevgheli and other points on the Macedonian side, so as to delay the Bulgarian advance. By a fortunate coincidence Greece had on the previous day agreed to accept the proposals of the Allies by which their forces were to have free and unimpeded liberty of action. Considering the difficulty of the operations in face of the immense strength of the enemy, the whole retirement, which reflected the greatest credit on General Sarrail, had been carried out most success- fully. Although his men had at their disposal only one line of railway and no roads, their retreat was executed in such an orderly manner that they were able to save and withdraw all their stores, while the total of their casualties did not exceed 3,500, a very moderate figure in the circumstances, 146 VALIANT DEFENSE OF SERBIA FATE DECIDES AGAINST MONTENEGRO When Serbia was overrun, Mackensen redistributed his forces, various German and Austrian divisions being sent north to watch the Russians who, at that juncture, were rumored to be about to make a diver- sion in the Balkans, either through Rumania or by a descent on the Bulgar shore of the Black Sea. German troops were transferred to Bulgaria, and even to Turkey, both of which countries were now openly "run" from Berlin. But troops were not withdrawn from the Montenegrin front; on the contrary, they were greatly increased. Just as Austria hated Serbia with a deadly hatred, so she hated this stiU smaller Slav State which, with a population of less than half a million, had been long independent of her as of Turkey. Austria deter- mined to destroy it. The undertaking was difficult, because of the almost inaccessibly mountainous charac- ter of the country and the bravery of its inhabitants, who were inured to war and every kind of hardship, like the Serbians; but it was not impossible, if men and guns were provided in adequate strength. What could be done in Serbia could be done in Montenegro. Although the Austrians advanced during December some distance on the east side, or Sanjak front, captur- ing Plevlie, Ipek and Bielopolie, their great offensive did not start till January, 1916. In the interval the Montenegrins had at least one considerable victory, at Lepenatz, but in general they were driven steadily back. In the last days of the year Mount Lovtchen was heavily shelled, and then attacked in some force, but the Montenegrins were successful in repelling this assault on their stronghold. It was not till January 147 VALIANT DEFENSE OF SERBIA 6th that Kovess -began decisive operations by a series of concerted violent attacks on the Montenegrin east front, on the Tara, the Lim and the Ibar, while at the same time warships in the Gulf of Cattaro opened a terrible fire on Mount Lovtchen. Desperate fighting continued for four days. Berane, on the Lim, was captured by the Austrians on the 10th; and, far more important, Lovtchen succumbed on the same day to infantry assaults prepared by the fire from the warships. Some surprise was expressed among the other Allies that the fortress should have fallen in such a short time, but the feeling changed when it became known that the place was defended by less than 6,000 men — starving, with insufficient clothing^ and lament- ably short of guns and munitions. With Lovtchen gone, Cetinje could not be held by the Montenegrins, and it was occupied by the Austrians on the 13th. Four days later the announcement was made in the Hungarian Parliament that Montenegro had '^ surren- dered unconditionally." 148 CHAPTER XIII THE TERRIBLE MESOPOTAMIAN CAMPAIGN WHY NEITHER BRITON NOR TURK VENTURED FAR INTO BABYLONIA— INSECTS VS. MAN— BATTLE OF NORFOLK HILL— FIGHTING THE HEAT— AN AWFUL MARCH— THE ADVANCE ON BAGDAD— BATTLE OF NASIRIYEH MAGNIFICENT WEST KENTS— ROUT OF THE TURKS— NUREDIN PASHA OUT-MANEUVERED— RETIREMENT ON KUT-EL-AMARA. THERE IS nothing of the romantic atmosphere of the "Arabian Nights' Entertainments" remaining in the region between Bagdad and the Persian Gulf. In ancient times, it is said, a cock could hop from house to house from Basra, the city of Sindbad, past Babylon and Seleucia, to the capital of Haroun Al-Raschid. But since the Mongol, the Turk, and the nomads of Arabia swept over the most fertile country on earth, the tract between the Tigris and the Euphrates has lapsed into desert sand and riverside jungles of cane- brakes, where the Mesopotamian Hon ranges. Instead of being a land of vines, orange groves, and rose gardens. Babylonia has become one of the most desolate wastes in Asia, and the reason why neither the Turk at Mosul nor the Briton at Koweit succeeded ^ m occupying the wilderness was apparent in the spring of 1915. In April the commander of the Indian Expeditionary Force, Sir Arthur Barrett, fell so seriously ill that Sir John Eccles Nixon had to take 149 THE MESOPOTAMIAN CAMPAIGN over his command. The following month many men of the British regiments began to feel unwell, and when the full heat of the summer smote the Indo-British force the sufferings of the white men were extreme. The heat was not much worse than that of the Punjab, yet the Indian troops suffered almost as much as the British troops. This was due to the fact that the steaming marshlands of the great rivers not only gave a trying, humid quality to the burning tropical sunlight, but also the vast stretches of stagnant water, full of rotting refuse, formed the breeding places of an absolutely incomparable swarm of mosquitoes, biting flies, and vermin. These biting and blood- sucking insects were the main defenders of the legend- ary site of Eden, of the river-lands of Ur, where Abraham pastured his cattle, and the desolate yellow mounds representing all that remained of the hangmg gardens by the Euphrates, where Alexander the Great died. Alexander had been able to conquer all emperors, kings, and chieftains between the Mediter- ranean and the Indian Ocean, but at the height of his power and glory he had been stung by a gnat, and infected with a deadly fever. INSECTS VS. MAN Many of the troops at last went through the cam- paign in a state of absolute nudity, protected by mosquito-nets, with mats of woven reeds over their heads, as a slight shade against the flame-like sunshine. But they could not get away from the flies; a man could not eat his food without eating flies. A piece of white bread became black before it reached one's 150 THE MESOPOTAMIAN CAMPAIGN mouth, and the inevitable result was some kind of dysentery. And such was the effect of the heat that a body of vigorous troops in the prime of life, march- ing at the top of their powers, seldom did more than eight miles a day. By this time they lost so much of the fluid of their blood that, though they emptied their water-flasks, they were tortured by thirst, and suffered like men in the last stages of kidney disease. Sir John Nixon began his part of the campaign by turning his soldiers into sailors. For some weeks in the spring the whole brigade stationed at Kurna was engaged in learning the art of navigation in bellums. This type of boat has a length of about thirty-five feet and a beam of two and a half feet; it is propelled in shallow water by poles, and in deep water by paddles. Two men were required to work it, and as it was likely they would both be shot down when the action opened, all the men in the flat-bottomed craft had to learn how to punt and paddle, so as to be able to look after themselves if their boatmen fell. It was also at this time that a considerable part of our field artillery was put on the water, and, by great feats of carpentry and smith work, mounted on rafts, sailing-boats, tugs, and launches. Machine-guns were also mounted in large numbers, and at dawn on May 31st the extraor- dinary new Indo-British navy moved out to attack BATTLE OF NORFOLK HILL In front of hundreds of river-boats were the three sloops Cho, Odin, and Espiegel, each with six four- inch guns, and the Royal Indian Marine steamer Lawrence, with rafts and boats containing field- 151 THE MESOPOTAMIAN CAMPAIGN guns. This remarkable squadron had to steam through something that was neither land nor water, but a tract of mud thinning into a liquid form, while retain- ing the appearance of land by reason of the reeds growing out of it. The progress of the boats was much impeded by the reeds, and the Turks, A'^ith their Kurdish levies and German officers, entrenched on the low hills to the north, had a magnificent target. But their 6-in. field-guns used only the old segment shells, sold by the English government to the Ottoman Empire soon after the South African War. These shells made a noise, but did very little damage. What was more important, the Turks had no machine-guns, and their musketry fire was not good. After the steamer squadron had bombarded the enemy trenches, the newly-made sailor-soldiers of the bellum brigade — ■ 2d Norfolks, 110th Mahratta Light Infantry, and 120th Rajputana Infantry — beached their boats among the reeds, then squelched through the marsh and charged with the bayonet up the high, dry ground. The entrenched Turks, on the hill now known as Nor- folk HiU, put up a good fight, but they were rushed and shattered, and the enemy troops in the other six positions fled in disorder up the Tigris to Amara. FIGHTING THE HEAT The garrison work, though unexciting, was almost a relief after a skirmish in the desert. In the desert at times the temperature was up to 130 degrees in the small tents, and on very sultry days the sandstorms came. A dense khaki-colored cloud rose on the horizon, and then rolled towards the encampment. 152 .;>* -■'*%;■ :ft-3^ '--.-.•^ w Q; Cj o3 OJ o3 n a wo( aving pi batteri< the cha -^ C" 73 ro S O oste gun erm aise CUojO tH =) bC^ tS bliC -^^■^• even ilenci rom o ang \^ i^ ' ^ "■' tS ^H -< J <4_( W ^ OJ H ttery o :empts 1 of she ed fore ^ -^2i^ ^H i=!— o3 a; Eh S*^^ ^-^ a^ r« 5 o O O A G rank; thrc hole Oi'^ ^j 03 sh ,r "2 03 •+= 03 bC 03 3 r^ 03 'T: CI, ^ t. O "t; t^ c3 -p O 03 fl M " 03'" 03 03 C !h 7- ■ -^ 03 0) •^•-l-:] CI 3: -^ a '" 03 -I-; !3C C 3 c ^^^^ ^ +^ THE MESOPOTAMIAN CAMPAIGN The men rushed about strengthening their tent-pegs and ropes, and collecting all the loose kit; but often no preparation was adequate to meet the storm. The tents were blown down like packs of cards, and all had to hide their heads under tent-flaps, bedding, or boxes, as it was impossible to face the blasts of cutting sand. In violent tempests the sand made a black darkness which lasted for hours. When the storm passed, and the troops emerged, shaking themselves like dogs coming out of water, their eyes were bloodshot, their mouths and nostrils coated thick and black with sand and mud, and all their bodies were a mass of sand. It was in these circumstances that the work of chasing down hostile Arab tribes and burning their camps had to be carried out. The actual conflicts with mounted bands of Bedouin guerrillas were not much of a trial. As the Bedouins usually had no guns, they scattered among the dunes when our men offered battle, and our reconnoitring aeroplanes were hard put to it to trace the lines along which they were going to again concentrate. The Indian cavalry, with a section of horse artillery concealed behind them, managed at first by feigning a flight and leading the unsuspecting Bedouins towards the British guns, to ambush some of the more daring Bedouin parties. But the Bedouin, being a born guerrilla fighter, mounted on a fine desert horse, soon learned all the tricks of the British cavalry, and had to be hunted down by converging columns of infantry. Infantry, however, had been hunting down the Bedouin for some ten thousand years; and when the Indo-British troops took up the work which Turk, Mongol, Persian, Assyrian, Babylonian and Sumerian 153 THE MESOPOTAMIAN CAMPAIGN had been unable to accomplish, the son of the desert resorted to his ancient tacties. He retired deep into the sandy waste, where he could water by springs known only to himself. There he tried to outfight his foes by his last and most terrible weapon of defense — thirst. The British pursuers had some narrow escapes from the most awful of deaths. On one occasion a strong column of their troops was set the apparently easy task of rounding up some Bedouins whom the British airmen had discovered camping only ten miles away. The men marched all night through the hot desert, charged the Arabs early in the morning, burned their tents, and hunted them over the sand-ridges for miles, and then returned to the captured camp for food and water. By this time the sun was terribly fierce, and the men, having emptied their water-bottles while marching in the hot night, v/ere exhausted. And no water had been brought for them. It had apparently been thought that, as the river was only ten miles away the column was in no danger of dying from thirst. AN AWFUL MABCH At seven o'clock in the morning the troops began their march back to the river. But after covering only two miles the situation became desperate. The men began to stagger out and drop with exhaustion, and every hundred yards they went things looked blacker and blacker. At the end of four miles, when the sun was high and all the air was aflame, the column had to stop. The men — mostly Indians, and accus- tomed to tropical heat — could not get any farther. 154 THE MESOPOTAMIAN CAMPAIGN Some of the British officers, who had been very careful with their water-bottles, gave their last drop to Indian officers and other bad cases. Then the general ordered tents to be pitched, and sent his Staff and cavalry to bring water from the river. Meanwhile, the column was in an awful condition, the agony of many of the men being dreadful to witness. One British infantry officer, feeling he was about to die, thought he would make a struggle for it. He strung water-bottles round his neck and around the camp mules, mounted one of the chargers, and made for the river. He could not afterwards tell how he reached it. He was half uncon- scious. But the animals found the water, and the officer rolled in it on his charger, drank up something that was more mud than water, and filled the bottles. With his refreshed pack of mules he regained the camp before the cavalry arrived, and saved many lives. THE ADVANCE ON BAGDAD About the beginning of July, 1915, the Mesopotamian campaign against the Turkish forces guarding Bagdad was undertaken. At the Dardanelles the British had first thrown at the Ottoman Empire— which had six hundred thou- sand men under arms — a single army corps, shipped in disorder, and unprovided with the heavy howitzers needed in the siege battles of modern times. When this operation had failed, and the Ottoman Govern- ment was reported to be waiting only for equipment in order to arm a million men, the British Cabinet sent General Townshend to operate on the other 155 THE MESOPOTAMIAN CAMPAIGN side of the Ottoman Empire and capture Bagdad, in a zone where the Turks were believed to have large forces. THE BATTLE OF NASIRIYEH After fighting through the enemy's advanced position below Hamar Lake, the wonderfully-mixed British flotilla arrived, at the end of the third week in July, at a distance of about seven miles from Nasiriyeh. The division was then split up. Two brigades were landed on the right or westerly bank, while to the other brigade was assigned the task of working through the groves of date-palms on the left bank. As a reserve, a fourth brigade was brought down from Amara, and held ready for action in river-boats. Each of these boats had four guns, and pushing slowly up the river it covered with its fire the British troops on either bank, and silenced some of the enemy's guns that tried to shell the flotilla. The reserve brigade did not come into action, so complete and rapid was the success of the division. The battle began about half-past four on the morn- ing of July 24, 1915. For half an hour the brigades had been moving forward; but before the infantry charged, all the British howitzers, field and mountain guns bombarded the enemy's foremost trenches with high-explosive shells. For a full hour the batteries continued to smash up the enemy's entrenchments and gun positions; and then the 2d West Kents advanced through the date groves, while eight machine-guns, with the supporting battalions, covered the advance by rapid fire on the opposing trenches. Despite this 156 THE MESOPOTAMIAN CAMPAIGN covering fire, however, the West Kents were met by a terrible fusillade that swept their front lines. An officer in one of the regiments that was maintaining a covering musketry fire said the most magnificent sight he had ever seen was the West Kents going on under the enemy's terrific fusillade, and maneuvering as if they were on parade. As soon as they got up to the Turkish trenches, they wheeled round to the right, and, while their comrades stopped firing for fear of hitting them, they leapt into the trenches and were lost to view. As they disappeared they get to work with the bayo- net, and in a short time the spectators watching the game of life and death saw the Turks running as if the devil himself were after them. So the brigade opened fire again at the fugitives. Sergeant W. Wannell and Company-Sergeant-Major A. G. Elliott, both of the 2d West Kents, were the first to reach the enemy's trenches. They each led several bayonet charges in the close fighting which followed the attack, clearing trench after trench with steel and bullet. Sergeant Wannell also showed himself a remarkable bomb- thrower, and Company-Sergeant-Major Elliott, after heading charge after charge, helped to rescue a wounded comrade under fire. When Lieutenant Hill was wounded, yet still fighting with his sword against a throng of enemies. Private Howe leaped to his help and, by shooting one Turk and bayoneting four others, saved his officer's life. Two others of the West Kents — Private E. T. Bye and Private W. Bridger — distin- guished themselves in tending the wounded and searching for them under the enemy's fusillade. 157 THE MESOPOTAMIAN CAMPAIGN Company-Sergeant-Major E. J. Newbrook was a fine fighter. Badly wounded during the first attack, he remained directing his party till the close of the day's operations. Many soldiers have done this sort of thing in France and Flanders; but the cUmate in Mesopo- tamia in the fourth week of July was a trying one for a severely wounded man to keep fighting in until evening fell. In the Ypres battles the 1st West Kents — the regiment that never lost a trench — won the highest honors in the Army; and at Nasiriyeh, in Babylonia, the men of the 2d Battafion showed themselves of the same splendid character. After the West Kents wheeled and jumped into the Turkish trenches, the rest of the brigade advanced to support the attack, carrying all the ammunition they could collect. The brigade wheeled in the direction taken by its leading battalion, and picking their way through mounds of dead Turks, the men emerged into an open space where the Kentish heroes were taking cover by a low bank, and firing at the enemy in the date groves all around them. By this time the West Kents were using their last cartridges; but a battalion of Sikhs gave them some ammuni- tion, and reinforced the firing-line by the low bank. Soon afterwards the order came to take two loopholed towers from which the enemy was maintaining a heavy fire. A double company of Sikhs and some twelve of the West Kents cleared the Turks out of the trenches on their right, and then shouting out ''Hurrah !" like boys at a picnic, they stabbed their way along a communication sap, and took both towers in fifteen minutes. 158 THE MESOPOTAMIAN CAMPAIGN ROUT OF THE TURKS The Turks lost many men, for they fought with matting over their trenches to keep the sun out, and the Kents and the Sikhs stuck them with the bayonet through the matting while they were firing up rather wildly, without being able to see clearly what was happening over their covering. After capturing the towers and a considerable number of prisoners, the Sikhs and the handful of white men had ten minutes' rest, which they spent in binding up their wounded and putting them in the shade of the towers. Then the small force fought the Turks out of another long line of trench, running down to the edge of a creek which formed the extreme left of the Turkish position. Here there was a village with another couple of towers, and these were also stormed after long, terrible bayonet work above the last mat-covered trench. By this time the division had won the battle. The Turks could be seen running away on the left, and the Sikhs and the West Kents were signaled to hold the ground they had won, and not to advance any farther. So, posting guards, they slept by the last two captured towers that night. General Townshend continued to perform miracles with a force that never consisted of more than four brigades. Towards the end of October the Turks were so strongly estabhshed in their new fortifications near Bagdad that they left only a single brigade in their advanced position near Azizie. This rear-guard had a large number of guns, by means of which it held the river against the British gunboats, and pestered the British camp with occasional shells. The British 159 THE MESOPOTAMIAiN CAMPAIGN force preserved a grim silence, with the object of luUing the Turk, and making him forget his danger. On one very dark night two British brigades made a long roundabout march in Kut-el-Amara fashion, with a view to getting on the enemy's rear and encircling him, while a third Indo-British brigade undertook a frontal attack at dawn. But the Turk showed him- self capable of learning by experience. On this occa- sion his outposts were flung far into the desert, appar- ently with a portable wireless instrument well out on their flank. Long before the wdde British turning movement threatened their main position, the Turks were in full retreat, taking with them all their guns and most of their stores. Their movement looked like a headlong flight, but it was really a well-executed retirement in face of superior forces, which had carried out so well-planned a maneuver that instant retreat was the only answer to it. The Indo-British division at once embarked in pursuit upon its picturesque flotilla of bellums, launches, paddle-steamers, horse-barges and gunboats. An unending series of uncharted mud-banks continually interrupted the progress of the extraordinary river armada, boats sticking sometimes for a day on a shoal, and having to wait till the large steamers arrived and dragged them off. A couple of gun-launches scouted ahead for possible ambushes which British aviators might have missed, and airmen in seaplanes and aeroplanes circled over Bagdad, and watched the enemy's lines of communication running across the desert towards Syria, and up the river towards the Caucasus heights. By November 9th General Towti- 160 The Sinking of^ 'iiu. '1 i kkish Battleship Messudiyeh. A thrilling incident of the Dardanelles campaign was the exploit of the British submarine B-11, under command of Lieut.-Commander Norman D Holbrook R N which entered the strait and in spite of the current, dived under five rows of mines and torpedoed the Turkish battleship Messudiyeh, which was guarding the mine field Although pursued by gun fire and torpedo boats, B-11 returned safely after being submerged on one occasion for nine hours. Lieutenant-Commander Holbrook was awarded the \. C. on December 21, just a year after he had been appointed to the command of the B-11 at Malta. r I s H r ^ ^^ ~ BRITISH FLEET burger, ■^^scnPA FLOW • "■ "' Orkney I !rt',t''ne5o^4 -I ^VrSy„ARrvr,RTM lie GERMAN i • "* ' CRUISERS 115 FUEET 9^ , (T3o_ op oT" ^ > SATTUE-SHIPS 48 6^CRU\SVRS^ *^ ' -GREAT ' '6 00.000],- - _.^«r„wf, l» DREADNOUGHTS 29 45PM ni H'hs.4^^'^ N O F T H 'ti- • .LANr LX3 NpON ,,^:^*AFi* u 1; o Q; o mffk ^H'-'^y ,^ f.«f >tf LORIf.N LA fiiTHLLl F i^s^.otricrowT .ViB E U^^sVj^^-.fkT^^n rttA^r ^ 5.30( tivfrs^ >22,20(iOj ^/''►'» tjjLL.in' .nil . ^y h RUSSIA '/iKV't- R A N C 2 000 000 4 000 DC 'J .' SWITZERLAND -•;- _^ -.; 4'; N*^ / -^■%j^\^. 'l^;;:',, '.\ i 1.400 Da ^ "i-c ri »c V'^ C O R St C/A AjaLCri f L FRENCH FLEET CRUISERS 31 BATTLeSHlPS42 A H O t N^ A ITALIAN FLEET IS BATTLESHIPS 20 CRUISERS A ff £ A CO/V TROLL E . D I I r GREAT £-£) e y / A / RELIEF MAP OF EUROPE AT THE BINNEGING OF THE WAR, SH( \N e N ; t ■ (- 1 N L >ri .- 'STOCKHOLM 5^^ ^-7 ^'^'^oX' N D ST PETERSBURG .tfciiand LISA ^'£- -iOs- N i^Or^-not r. ro' ^ ) A , . ^. J^^S-^^^- • i^1e.,,,^.,.,L,^,e 2.0007000 I U . V "^--fv^r ^.,.J l'<^' --I • f r, „r„ ,) MLN 5.500.00 ^'•^■^^■"'> -, ll.tJk >_V ROVMtJ. ^,,_.,^ . _._^^ , 5 5 O O 0^0' '^'^ ^^ ^"' '*"'-' KBeCoRAtwSfime'nGlna**'""""''/,--^ t rjiov? \J ,000.'-, ' - ^^-^ AREA CONTROLLED ;^,„„ BY ^gopboojjf- ^ RUSSIAN FLEELT \ i7e.ATTLE5HIPS -^ «- r»^MK 14- CRU ISERS r - S>5'*S.Sn ■r L -^ r^--^--. ^ c E.^^2:;^^ J700.000F ^-^ %•"> -v*^' J-^. , , - - ■-^iii rj2Zg roRTRCSSES, FOFiTIFIED DOCKYARDS &. NAVAL HARBOURS shown fhao iS^ EMENDOUS FORCES ENGAGED IN LAND AND SEA OPERATIONS THE MESOPOTAMIAN CAMPAIGN shend's officers knew that the great adventure was about to be undertaken. The small British force was set the task of breaking through to Bagdad with a view to linking on with the advanced columns of the Russian army in the Caucasus. One of these columns was rapidly working down the Persian border by Lake Urmia, and another was advancing much farther south towards the city of Hamadan. From Bagdad to Hamadan the distance was 250 miles, across difficult and mountainous country. But it seems to have been thought that, with the Turks beaten at Bagdad, and the German-Persian force routed at Hamadan, the task of connecting the troops of Sir John Nixon and the army of the Grand Duke Nicholas would be fairly easy. On November 19th General Townshend's division having captured the village of Zeur marched against Nuredin Pasha's main system of defences. These works had been constructed eighteen miles from Bagdad, near the gaunt and imposing ruins of Ctesiphon, which loomed against the sky, at the edge of a reed-grown marsh, half a mile from the Tigris. NUKEDIN PASHA OUT-MANEUVERED Nuredin Pasha's army was greatly increased. He had four divisions strongly entrenched against four British brigades at Ctesiphon, with a large reserve of good troops encamped a little farther up the river near Bagdad, and composed probably of forces detached from the Caucasian front during midwinter. Yet, in spite of his overwhelming number of troops, his strong and well-planned lines, and his increased batteries of both hea\y and light artilieiy, the Turkish 11 161 THE MESOPOTAMIAN CAMPAIGN pasha entered the battle a half -beat en man. He had been so continually outmaneuvered by British com- manders with inferior forces that he could not trust his own judgment, and the truth is that the British needed only one division of the new armies that had been training for ten months in India in order to conquer Mesopotamia and capture Bagdad and Mosul. On the mihtary authority, or on the politician, who did not send General Townshend — a man of proved genius — the twelve thousand more bayonets he needed, rests the responsibility for all that afterwards happened. On the morning of November 22d the single Indo- British division attacked the four Turkish divisions, stormed their fortress lines, wiped out an entire army division, taking eight hundred prisoners and a large quantity of arms, and bivouacked victoriously in the captured works of defense. The Turkish report of the battle, spread through the world from the German wire- less stations, estimated the number of British troops at 170,000. As a matter of fact, General Townshend, at an extreme estimate, could not have had more than 25,000 men all told, and his striking force could not have exceeded 16,000 Indian and British infantrymen. In spite of heavy counter-attacks by the reinforced Turkish army, the British troops held on to the Turkish position at Ctesiphon till the night of November 24th, when want of water again robbed them of their full victory, and they had to retire four miles to the Tigris. Their position by the river, however, was too weak to be held, and as their small force had incurred heavy losses, many battalions being reduced to less than half their strength, a withdrawal was necessary. They 162 THE MESOPOTAMIAN CAMPAIGN removed their wounded to the boats, and embarked their prisoners, numbering 1,600, and then, after a rearguard action near Azizie, on the night of Novem- ber 30th, their troops retired in perfect order on Kut- el-Amara. Two of the river-boats, which had been disabled by the enemy's shell fire, had to be abandoned after their guns and engines had been made useless, and the pursuing Turkish army arrived within two hours' march of Kut on December 3d. Our losses around Ctesiphon were 643 killed, 3,330 wounded, and 594 men not accounted for, bringing the total to 4,567. Having regard to the fine achieve- ment of the British, the list of their casualties was light, and if the British Government had given General Townshend and Sir John Nixon the comparatively small reinforcement of another division, Bagdad would certainly have been won at Ctesiphon. 1^3 CHAPTER XIV THE FRENCH ATTACK IN THE CHAMPAGNE DISTRICT EXTRAORDINARY GERMAN FORTRESS — KETTLE- DRUMS OF DEATH OPENING OF THE ASSAULT — GENERAL DE CASTELNAU's SCHEME MIRACULOUS ADVANCES — FRENCH TROOPS ROUND MASSIGES — AWFUL SLAUGHTER AT TROU BRICOT — CHECK AT BOIS SABOT. THERE IS an ancient Roman road running from Rheims to the Argonne Forest. About twenty miles cast of Rheims this Roman way crosses the Suippes River near the small town of Auberive; thence it runs for about fifteen miles to the outskirts of the forest, some distance south of the hamlet of Massiges. The country through which the old road runs is a barren table-land of chalk that continually swells into low, rounded hills, many of which have been planted with pine-trees. The land is part of the Champagne dis- trict, but to mark it from the fertile region of famous vineyards the French themselves call the unfruitful waste of chalk Lousy Champagne. This coarse term is indeed quite an official geographical expression among the French. Immediately south of the Roman road is a vast circle of earthworks, known as the Camp de Chalons. Old tradition has it that the earthworks were made 164 THE FRENCH ATTACK by Attila, king of the Huns, whose forces were for the first time broken in a great battle on the plateau, whereby Paris was saved and the Huns chased from France. A few miles due west of Attila's camp is the hamlet of Valmy, where the Army of the French Revo- lution won its first victory over the Royal forces of Prussia and Austria, and thereby founded the demo- cratic movement in modern Europe. For these reasons all the poor, mean country was holy ground to the French soldier, and despite the previous checks to the Army of Champagne, the general opinion in France was that over the stretch of chalk between the Argonne and Rheims the decisive advance against the German host would at last take place; for it was at this position that the breaking of the German front would be most disastrous to the enemy. All the invaders' lines, from Zeebrugge and the Yser to the northern heights of the Aisne, and the hills round Rheims would be taken in flank and the rear, and menaced by a cutting of all the lines of communica- tion if a French army crossed the Dormoise and Py streams. But the Germans proudly boasted that their lines in Champagne were absolutely impregnable, and General von Kluck remarked to a German-American war correspondent that the position was that, if he could not take Paris, neither could the French capture Vouziers. Between Vouziers and the French front there were four fortified lines, each a mile or more apart. All the downs, on and between these lines, were deeply exca- vated and transformed into underground fortresses, armed with quick-firing batteries, mortars for aerial 165 THE FRENCH ATTACK torpedoes, piping for the emission of poison-gas clouds, and thousands of machine-guns. Of all their military engineering works the Germans most prided them- selves upon their Champagne defenses. These defenses had been greatly strengthened and extended since the French made their first great thrust in February, 1915. The French had then captured the first German line, running close to the Roman road by the hamlet of Perthes. But the loss of this line had put the German engineers on their mettle, and in the intervening months they had brought up hundreds more guns and thousands more Maxims; they had fitted many of the sunken invisible forts with domes of armored steel, and had driven a series of tunnels through the chalk to allow of supports being moved to the fire trenches safely through the heaviest storm of shrapnel and melinite shell. KETTLE-DRUMS OF DEATH Despite the confused haste with which this large medley of forces was assembled, the German com- mander on the Champagne front, General von Einem, had so absolute an assurance of victory that on the eve of the struggle he invited German war corre- spondents to come and watch the spectacle of his triumph. It was from one of these correspondents, Dr. Max Osborn, of the ''Vossische Zeitung," that we obtained the best description of the French bombard- ment. After telling how the French heavy artillery swept the German rear, seeking to explode hand- bomb depots and other magazines of ammunition, the German with the English name said : " The violence 166 THE FRENCH ATTACK of the bombardment then reached its zenith. At first it had been a raging, searching fire; now it became a mad drumming, beyond all power of imagination. It is impossible to give any idea of the savagery of this hurricane of shells. Never has this old planet heard such an uproar. An officer who had witnessed in the summer the horrors of the Souchez and the Lorette heights, told me they could not in any way be com- pared with this inconceivably appalling artillery on- slaught. Night and day for fifty hours, and in some places for seventy hours, the French guns vomited death and destruction against the German troops and the German batteries. Our strongly-built trenches were filled in, and ground to powder; their parapets and fire platforms were razed and turned into dust- heaps; and the men in them were buried, crushed, and suffocated. One of our privates, a high-school young man who survived, amused himself by counting the shells that fell in his limited field of vision. He calculated that nearly a hundred thousand projectiles fell around him in fifty hours." By September 24th the bombardment reached its sustained level of intensity, and a trifling event that happened in the evening told the soldiers that the advance was about to be made. They were given an extra ration of wine. They tried to sleep, with the kettle-drums of death roaring close behind them, and when reveille sounded at half-past five on Saturday morning, September 25th, the men drank their coffee, and as the guns made talk impossible, they squatted in their shelters, as far out of the rain as they could get, and smoked their pipes. 167 THE FRENCH ATTACK At a quarter past nine, as the rain was falling more heavily, a long line of strange figures leaped from the fire-trenches, and charged across the grassy slopes, over which the gas cloud had rolled. Clad in their new invisible blue uniforms with steel helmets to pro- tect them from shrapnel, the infantry looked more like medieval warriors than like modern soldiers. Their bayoneted rifles resembled the ancient spears, and the most novel w^eapon they carried, the hand- bomb, was but a deadlier form of the old-fashioned grenade. Most of the battalions seem to have been divided into two sections, bombers and bayoneters. On reaching the first German trenches, the men with the bayonets crossed them and charged farther into the German lines, while the men with the bombs stayed in the captured position until they had smashed the Germans out of it. OPENING OF THE ASSAULT The first waves of the assault broke over the entire German front, from Auberive to the Argonne Forest, for a length of fifteen miles. But this was only meant to test the general strength of the enemy and pin his men down to every yard of the Champagne position. The main series of thrusts were then delivered at four points, the men advancing in narrow but very long and loose masses which spread out behind the first hostile line of do\^^ls. On the extreme left, at the village of Auberive, where the Germans held most of the fortified houses and the French were deeply entrenched along the southern outskirts, little progress could be made. Here the force of the French attac!: 168 THE FRENCH ATTACK was skilfully directed northwestward up the long slopes leading to the hamlet of L'Epine de Vedegrange. Another strong attacking force was directed from Souain through the Punch-bowl northward and against a line of fortified heights known as Hill 185, on which Navarin Farm lay, the Butte of Souain, and Tree Hill. Eastward of Tree Hill Vv^as the formidable height of Tahure Butte, with the village of Tahure south of it, and in the triangle of Tahure, Souain, and Perthes villages was the immense German fortress called the Trou Bricot, and nicknamed the Hollow of Death. East of this hollow was the fortressed escarpment of the Butte of Mesnil. Eastward of Mesnil was Bastion Crest, with the group of houses called Maisons de Champagne behind it, and still farther eastward, near the edge of the Argonne Forest, was a large hand- shaped down, known as the Hand of Massiges, with south of it a quarried hill, called from its curious appearance the Earhole. GENERAL DE CASTELNAU's SCHEME General de Castelnau's main scheme was to penetrate between each principal German hill position, and then turn and encircle it with two flanking columns. But before this could be done, the first German line had to be captured, the strength of each hostile fortress tested, and then the columns had to advance along the valleys and the slopes with terrible enfilading fires sweeping them on both sides. It was afterwards calculated by observers of the conquered ground that along this front of fifteen miles, with a depth of two and a half miles, the German engineers had constructed nearly 169 THE FRENCH ATTACK four hundred miles of trenches. And, despite the extraordinary duration and intensity of the French bombardment, in which miUions of shells were used, this enormous system of human warrens was only damaged badly on the front slopes and in the southern- most hollows between the downs. The high ramparts of chalk protected from destruction far the greater part of the vast earthworks. The new French howitzers threw to a height of 12,000 feet a very heavy shell that descended almost vertically. Yet this wonderful projectile could not destroy the sheltered caverns and trenches in the downs on which the Ger- man sappers had been laboring for twelve months. MIRACULOUS ADVANCES Both the French and British leading divisions had made advances of a miraculous kind. In particular, the position of the Colonial troops at Maisons de Champagne resembled that of the Highland Brigade at the Cite St. Auguste at Lens. Pouring with sweat, the men had stormed through machine-gun fire, wire entanglements, rows of trenches, and gun positions, and after a rush of three miles they reached the last crest of chalk from which the valley of the Dormoise and the village of Ripont were dominated. Had sup- ports quickly arrived, the road to Vouziers, Namur, and Liege would have been won. But, apparently, the single battalion that reached the Maisons, having lost all its officers and being commanded by a sergeant, had moved too quickly. The French Staff could not get more men up in time, and the half-shattered battalion, caught between two flanking fires from 170 THE FRENCH ATTACK Massiges and Beausejour, and attacked in front from Ripont, had to leave the heavy German and Austrian batteries it had captured on the crest, and fall back at two o'clock on Saturday afternoon. The French mountain-gun, first issued in small numbers to the Chasseurs in the mountains had become the supreme weapon for nearly all battlefields. It was a variation of the "75," lighter and shorter of range, but with a higher angle of fire. It was used close behind the troops, almost like a machine-gun, but while a machine-gun could not hit men behind a hill, the mountain-gun could shell or shrapnel enemy troops sheltering in a hollow or on the reverse slopes of a down. Under the cover of a bombardment of this kind the French bombers rushed to the German hill trenches, and flung in grenades, forcing the Germans to retreat. FRENCH TROOPS ROUND MASSIGES From September 25th to the 30th, the Germans round Massiges continually counter-attacked, with a view to winning back their lost line. It was then that they suffered quite as heavy losses as the French had done in their attacks. The last of the German counter- attacks came from Cernay, in the northeast. The troops deployed at the foot of the slopes of the little rounded down known as La Justice. But the French light guns shattered this counter-attack before it got under way, and the troops round La Justice broke and fled in a panic. This was quite an extraordinary feature of the conflict, for hitherto the German soldiers had fought with remarkable tenacity, and when defeated had either surrendered or been killed. The 171 THE FRENCH ATTACK spectacle of a large body of veteran enemy troops breaking and fleeing in panic under shell fire was regarded by the French command as highly significant. AWFUL SLAUGHTER AT TROU BRICOT Trou Bricot, seen first on the photographs taken by the reconnoitring French airmen, formed three round, pale blots, connected by a long white streak — the communication trench. Then there were six more whitish rounds, strung along the white line like balls on a string. It was on the white line that the French gunners began their work, and their heaviest shells fell in hundreds, at a range of five miles, on the main communication trench, cutting the telephone wires, destroying the shrapnel-proof passages, and choking the outlet. Then, at a signal from the watching air- men, a hurricane of shells fell on Trou Bricot and on the great Elberfeldt Camp behind it, and turned the gigantic fortress into a slaughter-house. The German divisions that garrisoned the extraordinary fortress were so staggered and dazed by the bombardment that a single division of French-African troops sweep- ing up the road from Souain to Tahure cut them off in the rear from Tree Hill and the position of Baraque, where the Breton Division, advancing from the other side of the work, connected and formed a great net with the Savoy troops working forward from the Pocket in front. CHECK AT BOIS SABOT The Bois Sabot was a horse-shoe-shaped fortress, surrounding a pine-wood on the right of Navarin 172 THE FRENCH ATTACK Farm. The work spread along the foot and sides of a gently-sloping hill, and it was laid out with such skill by the German engineers that they regarded it as one of the strongest points in their entire line of defense. The heavy bombardment had done little damage to its network of v/ire entanglements and deep subterranean lines ; and in the evening of Septem- ber 25th the French troops could only lie flat on their stomachs near this work, with the rain pouring on them and asphyxiating shells from the German batteries along the Py River blinding and strangling them. It w^as then that the Foreign Legion advanced through a curtain of shrapnel and flung themselves down by the Colonials. The Colonials were relieved in the night by the Zouaves and Moroccan troops, and the Legion crawled the following day into a stretch of woods to prepare for an attack. But the weather was so foggy that the French guns on September 26th and September 27th could not do any useful w^ork, and, much to the disadvantage of the Allies, the fighting had to be temporarily suspended, so that the enemy won forty-eight hours in which to bring down reinforce- ments, guns, and ammunition to the Champagne front. At last, at half-past three in the afternoon of Sep- tember 28th, the air cleared sufficiently for the attack to be launched. The Legion had lost more than half its force in the great drive on the Vimy Heights in Artois in the spring, when it penetrated farther than any French troops. But two thousand more foreign lovers of France had since joined the Legion, and brought it up to full strength. 173 THE FRENCH ATTACK In the advance from Souain, in the pine-wood near Navarin Farm, the Legionaries had again lost nearly a quarter of their men from shell and shrapnel before firing a shot. This made them very angry. They always disliked being in reserve when a charge was made, and they asked their colonel, in the evening of September 27th, to beg the general at Souain to let the Legion, as a special favor, lead the grand charge against the enemy's last line. The request was allowed, and the famous corps, which has figured in so many romantic novels since Ouida wrote ^^ Under Two Flags," went out to die. Every Legionary knew that he was doomed; for the plan of attack was that the Legion should fling itself straight on the front of the fortress of Bois Sabot, and there engage the enemy with such fury that 12,000 other men — Zouaves, Moors, and Colonials — could make a surprise attack on both flanks. The Legion gathered in the woods in two columns, and then, amid the cheers of the French troops occupying the trenches in front of them, they leapt across these trenches, over the heads of their comrades, and charged across the zone of death into the mouth of the Horse-shoe. First a rain of shrapnel smote them: then the stream of bullets from machine-guns and rifles caught them in the front and raked them on both sides. With a dense curtain of shrapnel behind it and torrents of lead pouring on its front and flanks, the Legion was mowed dowTi as by a gigantic scythe. Platoons fell to a man, but the regiment went forward. At some points in the line the stream of lead was so thick that falling men were turned over and over, the dead bodies being 174 THE FRENCH ATTACK rolled along the ground by more bullets, as withered leaves roll in the winds of autumn. Yet some men of the leading battalion lived through it, and, reaching the wire entanglements, pounded them aside with the butts of their rifles. But of that battalion only one man got through the wires, and he fell headlong into the first German trench with a bullet through his knee. Then the second battalion followed, and a few men lived to get into the first trench and began to clear it out. But the last battalions of the Legion came forward in a tiger-spring and bombed and bayo- neted their way into the fortress. There, in the maze of trenches, and the shattered pine-wood, the Legion fought to the last man, and when the other troops closed on the flanks there were very few Germans alive in Bois Sabot. The Foreign Legion had also perished; only a small handful of its men remained. But in its great death-struggle the regiment had done one of the most amazing things in war. And when the noise of its achievement spread through France and echoed over the earth, thousands of volunteers from neutral countries came to Paris to enlist. Thus out of its glorious ashes the most famous of all corps in the modern world was born again from the inspiration given by the men who died on Vimy Ridge in Artois and the slopes of Bois Sabot in Champagne. Such is the power of the heroism of the dead upon the minds of living men who have scarcely any call to fight; for it was the Swiss, the American, the Scandinavian, and the Spaniard and Portuguese who traveled at their own expense to France to join the new Foreign Legion. The heroism of the Legion 175 THE FRENCH ATTACK firmly established the Army of Champagne in the region of Navarin Farm. In all some 26,000 German prisoners were taken in Champagne, besides three hundred and fifty officers and one hundred and fifty cannon. And as the enemy sufiered terribly in counter-attacks, the total French losses were at least balanced by those of Einem's, Ileeringen's and the Crown Prince's troops. It is calculated that the killed, wounded and captured among the Germans were equivalent to the infantry of ■ six army corps, or about 150,000 men. Fully twelve German army corps were shattered, and had to with- draw for large drafts. The general result of the French thrust in Champagne and the British thrust in Artois was that the enemy's entire strength was so dimin- ished that the pressure against the Russian armies was g^^eatly relaxed. This was the principal achieve- ment of the western Allies. They obtained breathing space for Russia. 176 CHAPTER XV ITALY'S PART IN THE WAR HOW TEUTONIC CONSPIRACY DELAYED THE ATTACK AGAINST AUSTRIA ITALY's BOLD INITIAL STROKE BATTLE OF MONTE CROCE — • WESTERN TYROL THREATENED GALLANT ITALIAN SAPPERS BATTLE OF PLAVA MALBORGHETTO FORTS OBLITERATED FREIKOFEL, CRESTA VERDA AND ZELLENKOFEL THE ATTACK ON PREGASINA INCREDIBLE ENGI- NEERING FEATS FIGHTING NATURE. IT WOULD be necessary to go back fifty years into history to explain why it was that Bismarck's treachery placed in Austrian hands every mountain pass through which an ItaUan army could move against Austria. Yet this was the condition which Italy faced upon her entrance into the Great War. Even this fearful handicap would have been less onerous if General Cadorna had been able to make the surprise attack against Austria which he had planned. By the cunningness of plutocratic German interests in Italy, Signor GioHtti, the chief representative of Teutonism in Italy, intervened and overthrew the War Cabinet, delaying hostilities for nineteen days. But against these tremendous odds the Italian troops started their campaign with a series of brilliant successes, because the enemy reckoned them too lightly, w 177 ITALY'S PART IN THE WAR Italy's bold initial stroke Thus it befeU that the Archduke Eugene, with General von Hofer as his Chief of Staff, and Dankl as army commander in the Tyrol, made the mistake of holding the first line on the Austrian frontier with a ridiculously small number of troops. The Alpini and the Bersagheri, with some battalions of the line and some gendarm^es, crossed the frontier soon after mid- night of May 21, 1915, at all the strategical points, and by a hundred swift, fierce little skirmishes, began to reverse the positions of Austria and Italy. Meanwhile the Alpine troops were climbing the mountain, by ways only known to themselves through many mountaineering excursions undertaken by their leaders in summer holidays. The officers led the men over the trackless screes and rocky falls, over glaciers and snowdrifts, and then descended the oppo- site slopes at some distance behind the enemy van- guards skirmishing near the entrance to the path. By the evening of May 25th, all the passes of the Dolomite Alps were won, and good breaches were made at Tonale Pass along the northwest and in the Carnic and Julian Alps along the northeast front. The gun trains began to move more rapidly towards the holes made in the great mountain rampart, and tens of thousands of Italian engineers went up by train and motor-vehicles, and started building trenches and maldng gun emplacements. Meanwhile, the main Italian Infantry force, consisting of the Third Army, moved with great speed across the Friuli Plain through Udinc, Palmanova, and St. Georgio, where two railway Unes ran into the Isonzo Valley and the Torre VaUey. 178 ITALY'S PART IN THE WAR Here the covering troops had moved forward over the frontier at midnight on May 24th, and in a single day they captured nearly all the towns and villages between the frontier and the Isonzo River, from Caporetto, nesthng in the north below the precipices of Monte Nero, to the hamlet of Belvedere southward on the Gulf of Trieste. The Italian Commander-in-Chief, having conquered practically all the enemy's first line along a front of three hundred miles, waited to see in what sector the Austrian pressure would be most strongly felt. The answering counter-thrust of the enemy came at Monte Croce Pass, in the Carnic Alps, on May 29th. It was a foggy day, and under cover of the mist the enemy massed a strong force through the railway from Villach and brought them to Mauthen, from which they made five stubborn attempts to regain the pass. The Alpini and Bersaglieri swept away each wave of assault by musketry and machine-gun fire at almost point-blank range; then, leaping up after the last attack, they drove the enemy down the valley at the point of the bayonet. BATTLE OF MONTE CROCE This was only the beginning of the Battle of Monte Croce. Each side had large forces within caU, and fed the troops up the valleys as the fighting-hnes wasted. So the struggle continued day and night, while the Italian commander pushed over the neigh- boring passes and strengthened himself for the great counter-attack. The height known as Freikofel, com- manding the Plocken Plateau, near Monte Croce Pass, 179 ITALY'S PART IN THE WAR was stormed on June 8th, and the Pass of Valentina and the Pass of Oregione, 7,590 feet high, overlooking the thicldy- wooded Gail Valley, were taken. The last pass was won by the Alpini climbing over the white mass of Paralba and fighting their way down to the high saddle. When war broke out, sand-bags, machine-gims, and quick-firers were hauled up to the eyrie, and in a few hours a governmentally-subsidized hotel on the road to Falzarego became a splendid fort, with quarters for a large garrison, and guns dominating the far-famed ravine. But the Alpini were led by men with ingenious minds and minute knowledge of the ground. ]Most of the fighting took place on the great northern mountain height, crowned by the glaciers and snow- fields of Tofana, and around the Cinque Torri, a line of apparently inaccessible peaks. WESTERN TYROL THREATENED At Falzarego and Sasso d'Istria the Italian troops were approaching the rear of the Col di Lana, and its neighboring mountain masses on which the fortress defending Cordevole Valley were constructed. General Cadorna, having both the gift of strategy and ample fighting troops of fine quality, was able to impose his will on his adversary. The Austrians had only to advance some twenty miles across their Trentino frontier to reach Verona, that city of old romance still fragrant wdth the memories of Romeo and Juliet. All the first striking successes by General Cadorna, between the last week in May, 1915, and the third 180 ITALY'S PART IN THE WAR week in August, 1915, were accomplished with a total casualty Hst of less than 30,000 names. The Austro- Hungarian losses in the same period on the same front were 18,000 dead, 54,000 wounded, and 18,000 prisoners. GALLANT ITALIAN SAPPERS Along the Isonzo the retreating Austrians had broken down the high embankment used to carry off the snow- water, and had thereby inundated the plain in the manner of the Belgain Yser defenses. The gallant Italian sappers, working under a plunging fire from the enemy's batteries on the mountains, foothills, and Carso table-land, had rapidly thrown some light pon- toon bridges over the flood. Along these frail tem- porary structures the first Itahan contingents crossed in the darkness, took the first line of Austrian trenches near the waterside, and broke up the light artillery positions close to the river. The Isonzo was forced by a smashing bayonet attack, and the Italian troops headed by motor-cyclists with machine-guns, cycling scouts, and aeroplane observers, flowed in two arms around every position at which the Austrians tried to make a stand. By this continual threat of an encircling movement they forced the Austrians into Monfalcone. The enemy then for the first time displayed a telling ingenuity in warfare. Like the Turk in the Suvla Bay battles, he set fire to some of the slopes which the ItaHans were attacking. But while the pine-wood near Monfalcone flared to the skies, the quick-maneuvering Italians, headed by a grenadier battalion, broke into the open town and occupied it, after storming the Rocca promontory. 181 ITALY'S PART IN THE WAR All went well during the week following the capture of Monfalcone. General Cadorna had the keen joy of recapturing the Isonzo town of Gradisca, which his father had won from the same foe forty-nine years before. This capture completed the Italian control of the Lower Isonzo, and the general attack on all the fortresses guarding Trieste was then prepared. THE BATTLE OF PLAVA In the center of this long fortress-hne was the railway town of Plava, lying on the eastern bank of the Isonzo, beneath the wooded heights of Ternovane Forest. It was a key position, and the general Italian offensive began by a night attack on Plava, from Mount Korada on the other side of the river. The Italian sappers, with great coolness and skill, built a pontoon bridge in the darkness; and the infantry crossed the water on June 17th, and by a violent bayonet attack carried the town and the surrounding heights. The Italian general, having breached the enemy's second line in this place, poured strong forces into the gap, and a great battle took place on the edge of the forested highland. The Itahan heavy artillery across the river on Mount Korada was able to send a plunging fire on the lower table-land, and with this help the dashing Italian troops won the battle and drove the enemy back. The first grand open-field battle began on June 22d, and it was not until the last days of July that the battle drew to a close. In this long and terrible conflict in the open field, the theatre of which included all the Carso front, the Vipacco River valJey, and the 182 ITALY'S PART IN THE WAR southern part of the Ternovane Forest, the enemy suffered such heavy losses that his army was half shattered. Yet his position had been found impregnable by the forces of the Itahan commander, for the five hundred guns which the Italian general employed were quite inadequate. The ground was unassailable. There are innumerable caves from which quick-firing guns could be worked, and labyrinths of crags and scat- tered rocks, and fohage-hung cliffs behind which large reserves could safely be sheltered. But General Boroevics lost all the tremendous natural advantages of this immense natural fortress when he sent his divisions charging across the open ground against the fines to which the Itafians were cfinging; for though the Itafians only held on to the rim of the table-land, with a flooded river a third of a mile broad beneath them, yet their weU-built sand-bag trenches gave them exceUent cover against theenemy's artifiery. The first phase of the Battle of Gorizia ended in the repulse of the Austrian counter-attack in the middle of July. General Cadorna then defivered a fiercer assault, based on the knowledge he had obtained by his first reconnaissance in force. For three days and nights- July 18th, 19th and 20th— the troops of the Itafian Second and Third Armies leaped forward with heroic energy aU along the zone of the Isonzo, and broke through the wire entanglements and the armored trenches, taking 3,500 prisoners. As a rule, the Itafians attacked by day, and then resisted in their newly-won positions the nocturnal counter-attacks by the enemy. 183 ITALY'S PART IN THE WAR Owing to the fine work of their engineers, they retained all the ground they had won, and began to deHver night attacks on July 20th. BOTH SIDES REINFORCED But the next morning General Cadorna stayed the forward movement of the Duke of Aosta, and bringing reinforcements, ordered every man to help the engineers in strengthening and extending the trenches; for the commander, either through his aerial observers or his secret agents, had obtained knowledge that the enemy was about to make his supreme effort. July 21st passed quietly; then, on July 22d, a mightier concen- tration of heavy Austrian artillery opened a hurricane fire on the Italian lines. SUPREME AUSTRIAN EFFORT The main infantry attack was delivered towards Gradisca, where the ItaUans had built their chief bridges across the Isonzo. The first line of Italian troops could not kill the closely packed lines quickly enough, and it seemed as though the position would be lost. But the Italian gunnery officers, watching tha operation from their observing-posts, had the situation v/ell in hand, and at the critical moment a storm of shrapnel from five hundred guns and howitzers fell on the large target in front of the first ItaHan line, and made such holes in it that the garrison of the fire-trench beat back the remnant of the attacking masses with little difficulty. The next day General Boroevics launched another strong attack on the Itafian positions near the sea-edge 184 ITALY'S PART IN THE WAR of the Carso table-land, but it failed completely, though the rough ground did not permit the Italians to make another fierce pursuit. Finally two Austrian divisions, which advanced from the heights of San Michele and San Martino to storm Sagrado, were so smashed up that, on July 25th, the Italian troops were able to carry some of the entrenched slopes of San Martino, and to storm the hill of Sei Busi. The crest of San Michele was very important, as it dominated a large part of the table-land, and the main tide of battle surged around and over it for many days. At last the ItaHan infantry, on July 27th, tearing for- ward with passionate ardor, bombed and bayoneted their way to the summit, along which they then tried to estabhsh themselves. They also sand-bagged part of the lower slope facing the enemy; but under the torrent of high-explosive and asphyxiating shell the crest and the exposed slopes beneath it could not be garrisoned. Like the grand drive of the Franco-British forces at Massiges and Loos, the Italian offensive on the Gorizia fortress chain failed to break the enemy's resistance. Yet, as in Artois and Champagne, so on the Isonzo, the heroism, endurance, and violence of effort of the attacking forces were tremendous. When it is remembered that Gibraltar, with only a hundred guns, held out against the attacking forces of two kingdoms for more than three and a half years, it cannot be wondered that the ItaUan army found the great, peaked, rocky mass of the Carso a very difficult thing to conquer; for most of the advantages derived from the developments in modern artillery m ITALY'S PART IN THE WAR rested with the defending forces. In particular the Austrians had heavy mobile batteries, moving on newly-made railway tracks, and lighter motor-batteries working along many new branching roads. These could seldom be put out of action, and they came rapidly into the battlefield when a movement of the Italian infantry was signaled on the observation heights. AH night the table-land was swept by search- lights, which quickly picked out any body of troops trying to steal an advance, and lighted them up for destruction by the artillery. All the wire entangle- ments were charged with deadly currents of electricity; and more formidable than all the guns, howitzers, poison-gas cylinders, aerial torpedoes and flame-pro- jectors which the enemy employed, was his ubiquitous and skilfully used secondary armament of machine- guns. The sea-mists, floating in from the Adriatic, often tempted the Italian sand-bag brigades to make a dash for the enemy trench, when the hostile artillery was blanketed with the fog. But even in these circum- stances the remarkably complete organization of the enemy enabled him to parry a stab through the fog. As soon as a trench was lost telephone reports reached the German and Austrian gunners, and these, knowing to an inch the range of the lost, invisible position, battered it with asphyxiating sheU, by way of prepara- tion for a strong counter-attack by their bombing parties Such were the conditions under which the Third Itahan Army wore down the opposing eft^ectives, and very gradually yet continually worked forward to the Doberdo Plateau. The heroism displayed in this work will never be fully known. 186 ITALY'S PART IN THE WAR A SEEMING STALEMATE By the middle of November, 1915, the situation on the Carso table-land resembled that in Champagne. The enemy had been driven back to his last line, and Iiad been compelled to bring up half a milUon more troops. Having, however, won time to recover from the blow VN^hich he had received. General Boroevics constructed another system of lines behind the Doberdo Plateau, so that his position was practically as strong as it had been before. To all appearance the Italian army, like the Franco-British forces on the western front, was in a position of stalemate. Meanwhile, the still more exciting, difficult, and wildly picturesque work of Alpine warfare went on in the Julian, Carnic, Dolomite, Trentino, and Tyrolean mountains. In the Julian Alps the fighting moun- taineers of Italy had a starthng stroke of luck in the first phase of the struggle. From an order issued by the Austrian commander, General Rohr, it appears that two of his companies were set to guard a formi- dable rampart of rock between Tohnino and Monte Nero. Leaving a few men at the post of observation, both companies used to sleep at night. The Alpinists clambered over the mountain in the darkness, killed the watchmen silently with the knife, and then dropped in the rear of the two sleeping companies and captured them. This is a good instance of those happy-go-lucky methods of the Austrian officer. MALBORGHETTO FORTS OBLITERATED Then at the western end of the great ring of fortified heights, barring the Predil Pass and the highway and 187 ITALY'S PART IN THE WAR railway running into the heart of Austria, was Malbor- ghetto. The Italians quicldy brought their heaviest howitzers against the Malborghetto forts, and reduced Fort Hensel and other permanent works to the same condition as that to which the Skoda guns had reduced the Li^ge Forts. FREIKOFEL, CRESTA VERDE AND ZELLENKOFEL Freikofel was one of the smaller peaks that stood out continually in the hmelight of war. The Alpini cap- tured it by a surprise attack with scarcely any loss, and then for months the Austrian commander sacrificed battalions and regiments, and even brigades, in vain attempts to recover the key-height in the central pass of the Carnic Alps. But the loss of Freikofel, though followed by the loss of Cresta Verde, near the Zellenkofcl, on June 24th, did not quicken the minds of the Austrian officers; for in the first week in July the extremely important observation peak of Zellenkofel was lost by them. The enemy had a squad of forty men and some observation officers entrenched on the crest. Below them, on the reverse slope, was a battery of their mountain guns, with indirect fire to sweep the southern slopes of the heights. The battery was in telephonic communication with the observation station, and the station could also speak by wire to more distant batteries of heavy howitzers, and to the large infantry reserves collected in the wooded valley. But both the men and the officers on the peak were lulled into a blind sense of security by their extraor- dinary position; for, on the side on which they faced the Itahans, there was not a slope, but an almost 188 ITALY'S PART IN THE WAR perpendicular precipice, with a fall of thousands of feet. In the darkness, twenty-nine Alpini, with an officer, crept up to the foot of the precipice with ropes and a machine-gun. The finest climbers — men who had made a special study of the Zellenkofel — pulled them- selves up by jutting rocks, and then let down ropes by which the other men ascended with a machine-gun. A clatter of falling stones would have alarmed the enemy but the footholds and the ropeholds were so skilfully chosen that no detached pieces of rock were toppled over. Just at moonrise the Alpini squad reached the crest, shot down the sentries, and then killed the garrison of the observation station by a bayonet charge. There then followed a long and desperate fight with the mountain battery on the reverse slope. But by means of the machine-gun the Austrians were shattered in trying to make a charge, and their guns were captured just as day was breaking. THE ATTACK ON PREGASINA A striking victory, which had decisive consequence, was the attack on Pregasina, by the edge of Lake Garda, which was undertaken in bad weather in the second week in October, 1915. On the opposite side of the lovely waters the Itahans had won Monte Altissimo early in the campaign. They now demon- strated against the town of Riva from this height, and drew the enemy's fire, while across the lake, in difficult mountain country, the western attacking force reached the enemy's entrenchments and cut the wires at Pregasina. Then, screened by a dense fog, the Italian troops charged and took the hill, and though the Riva 189 ITALY'S PART IN THE WAR guns massed their fire on the victors, and poured asphyxiating shells on them, the Italians took the town, and swept through it and conquered the northern hills dominating the Ledro Valley. INCREDIBLE ENGINEERING FEATS The Austrians, it is said, tried to do the same thing; but after getting a twelve-inch Skoda gun halfway up a mountain they had to let it down again. Their engineers had not arranged the roping properly, or chosen the best scene of operations. Probably not since the Pyramids were built have human hands successfully tugged at such gigantic weights as the hardy peasantry of Italy, Sardinia, and Sicily lifted at need a mile above sea-level. The small guns were raised two miles above the sea by means of ropes, and by the same primitive method large stores of shells and provisions were hoisted above the clouds into the region of everlasting snow. Fuel was hauled up, and tools and dynamite for making caves in which to live in Eskimo fashion, when the valleys far below were still sweltering in almost semi-tropical heat. FIGHTING NATURE But towards the middle of September all this extraor- dinary Alpine warfare began to slacken, for winter was setting in, and veins of snow appeared on the bare rocks and broadened into white fields. Preparations for an arctic campaign had been going on for months. Wire railways ran from the valley and caves on the summits; strong lowland torrents, that were known not to freeze, were harnessed to dynamos, and the 190 ITALY'S PART IN THE WAR currents were wired up to the heights to warm, light, and do cooking for the fur-clad garrisons of the peaks. Great stores of ordinary fuel and food were also hoisted up to the detachments Hkely to be cut off for weeks, or even for months, by the snow. Then in many places it was possible to arrange for snow-clearers to fight each fall of snow, and keep a practicable white ravine running to the mountain-top, by which frequent reliefs could be sent to the troops that lived and watched above the clouds. As on most mountains used for observation purposes the snow feU thickest on or near the summit, the garrison had to work incessantly to prevent themselves from being buried in snowfalls; for no matter how well the direction of the prevaihng winds was studied, practically nothing was known about the way in which the snow would drift and pile up. So the men had to be prepared to dig themselves out every morning, and maintain a sort of crater to the great snow-field. By November, 1915, the Alpine troops on both sides were more busy fighting against the terrible powers of Nature in her sombre moods than in trying to steal little tactical positions from each other. And so a halt was called until the spring. 191 CHAPTER XVI THE MARVELOUS WORK OF THE RED CROSS vital need of voluntary aid a famous foun- dation red cross hospitals in england tracing wounded and missing canadian red cross work the great hospital at cliveden work in belgium — ^american helpers in france — Serbia's pitiful plight. IN TIMES of peace comparatively little is heard of the great voluntary organizations whose business it is to keep the machinery always going for dealing with the wounded when war breaks out. Best known of these is the Red Cross Society, taking its name from the familiar symbol — the reversal of the colors of the Swiss national flag — denoting everywhere throughout the Christian world work for the sick and wounded. Working with the Red Cross Society in the war was another body, the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, more generally known as the St. John's Ambulance Brigade. This order claims descent from a famous foundation which arose in the earliest days of the twelfth century, with the object of giving shelter and assistance to pilgrims to the Holy Land, who were at that time suffering under the heel of the Turk. Its task today is very different. From its home at St. John's Gate, in Clerkenwell, it organized ambulance 192 WORK OF THE RED CROSS brigades which soon became a famihar feature in most parts of England. It had, in the days before the war, some 30,000 members who had secured their certificates in first-aid, who worked under discipHne, and many of whom had been given a certain amount of training each year in War Office and Admiralty hospitals on the understanding that they would offer themselves should war break out. At the start of the war the authorities appealed to the St. John's Ambulance Brigade for volunteers. There was an immediate response. The Ambulance volunteers enabled the members of the Royal Army Medical Corps to be released from home work and to go out with the Expeditionary Force. In addition, some six hundred and fifty St. John's Ambulance men were mobihzed and sent out with the force. The services of these St. John's Ambulance workers and of other voluntary workers secured by the Order of St. John were of unquestioned value. It became evident at the beginning of the war that these voluntary bodies would have to expand their activities to a degree undreamed of before, and would further have to raise money on a previously unknown scale. A joint War Committee was formed of the British Red Cross and the Order of St. John, and the task of raising the money was undertaken, at the request of Lord Rothschild, the President of the Joint Committee, by The London Times. The first great task that fell to the Red Cross was the sudden improvisation of a fleet of motor-transports. Old horse-ambulances were still being used. Their slowness, jolting, and inadequacy were responsible for w 193 WORK OF THE RED CROSS much needless suffering among the wounded. If it were possible, wounded men were taken down from the front in the motor-wagons which had brought up stores. These motor-wagons were almost springless, accentuating every jolt in the road, particularly on the paved roads of Northern France. They were trying enough for hardy and able-bodied men to travel in, but hideous for the wounded. Money was asked for motor-ambulances. Within three weeks funds were raised to purchase over five hundred. Motor manufacturers went to work day and night, and by the end of January, 1915, over a thou- sand motor-ambulances and other motor-vehicles were at work. An army of trained drivers had been enlisted to handle them, and over 100,000 patients had been carried in them. Then the societies established a number of hospitals of their own. In France six were opened immediately around Boulogne, and three in or near Calais. The voluntary hospitals offered by British donors to the French and Belgian Governments were inspected and supervised. The Red Cross established several hos- pitals in England itself. The largest of these was the King George's Hospital in Stamford Street, London KED CROSS HOSPITALS IN ENGLAND The British Red Cross had 2,300 Voluntary Aid Detachments, with a membership exceeding 67,000. With the aid of these some six hundred auxiliary hospitals were equipped, and rest stations were formed for attending to the wounded on the way to hospital. Convalescent homes were established. One depart- 194 WORK OF THE RED CROSS ment of the Red Cross which constituted a romance — often enough, alas! a very painful romance — ^was for tracing the wounded and missing. Its agents traveled throughout the battle-stricken regions of Northern France, searching everyT\'here for news which could relieve the anxiety of those at home. TRACING WOUNDED AND MISSING Another great department of the Red Cross work was the provision of supplies for the hospitals at the front. Immense stores were wanted that could not possibly be had from the Government, from X-ray outfits to tooth-brushes. The societies provided them. Garments and comforts for the wounded were sent out by the hundred thousand, not only to British armies on the Continent, but to wounded in almost every center of the war. The British Red Cross did not stand alone. Allied organizations from the Dominions did their share splendidly. The Australasian societies liberally sub- scribed to the British funds, and looked well after their own men. The Australasians opened a hospital at Wimereux, staffed and maintained by Australasians, and their contingent was accompanied by an ample and adequate medical and nursing organization, which aroused great admiration. In Canada the work of the Red Cross was taken up at the very beginning with immense enthusiasm. When the Canadian Contingent arrived in England, the ships that bore the troops carried, not merely a fuU medical and nursing staff, but every kind of medical comfort likel}^ to be required. 195 WORK OF THE RED CROSS OVERSEAS RED CROSS WORK About the same time as the contingent reached Plym- outh, Colonel Hodgetts, the Chief Commissioner of the Canadian Red Cross, arrived in London and established himself in an office in Cockspur Street. This office became a center through which a constant stream of gifts poured into the United Kingdom and into France. Large donations of money were given by the Canadians to the British Red Cross. Many motor-ambulances were pur- chased. Comforts of all kinds, foodstuffs and supplies, were gathered and distributed with the most lavish hand. These gifts were by no means confined to the Canadian troops. In addition to the large gifts of money, a number of motor-ambulances were presented to the British Red Cross. A coach was provided for a hospital train which Princess Christian was procuring, and a Canadian Ward was built in a hospital which the St. John Ambulance Society was constructing at the front. The Canadian Red Cross came to England to help, and it did so. It did great and much-needed work. In addition to the establishment at Le Touquet, the Canadian Red Cross made itself responsible for the construction, maintenance and administration of a great hospital at CHveden, Mr. and Mrs. Waldorf Astor's well kno\Mi Thames-side estate. Mr. Astor offered the Canadians the use of Taplow Lodge, Cliveden, and the grounds around it, and undertook sweeping structural alterations and additions to make the place suitable. THE GREAT HOSPITAL AT CLIVEDEN Early in 1915 the Duchess of Connaught's Canadian Red Cross Hospital, as the new establishment was 196 WORK OF THE RED CROSS called, was opened with one hundred and eight beds. It was complete in every detail. The main building was a transformed tennis-court, which made as cheerful looking a hospital as could be devised. Its white walls, and its roof of green painted glass, its floors covered with green linoleum, and its abundant flowers, com- bined to produce a very pleasant effect. The lofty roof and the fresh country air largely robbed the place of the familiar hospital atmosphere of iodoform and antiseptics. The operating theater was one that the finest London hospitals might well have envied on account of its size, light, and perfect aseptic conditions. The accommodation was surprisingly excellent when it is remembered that it was created in a short time, out of what had been an adjunct to a big country house. BELGIANS AT BEACHBOROUGH PARK Beachborough Park opened in October, 1914, with close on fifty beds. Its first consignment of patients was over fifty Belgians fresh from the front, with wounds that had received little or nothing beyond first-aid. Some of the men had lain four or five days in the field before being brought in. The staff toiled over them for thirty-six hours, two nights and a day, without rest. When the Canadian troops reached the front, Beachborough Park became, as it con- tinued from then on, a reflection of the great battles in which the Dominion troops took part. The estab- lishment was so successful that after a few months it was determined to enlarge it, and wards were built in the grounds, enlarging the accommodation to 197 WORK OF THE RED CROSS about one hundred and fifty patients. It would be impossible to detail all the places that were opened in England for the accommodation of the wounded. The Royal Army Medical Department took over numerous old buildings, schools, factories and the like, and in addition built temporary hospitals in parks and gardens on a wholesale scale. It absorbed race- tracks and transformed lunatic asylums; voluntary hospitals aU over the country opened their doors to the wounded, the London Hospital alone placing three hundred beds at the disposal of the authorities. A number of private houses and nursing homes, par- ticularly in London, were turned into special hospitals for doctors. Among the best known of these were the hospital at 27, Grosvenor Square, and Queen Alexandra's Hospital for officers at Highgate. Special sections of the community provided hospitals. The American community established and maintained a fine hospital at Paignton, Devon, in one of the most beautiful country houses of Southern England. The claims of the Belgian people made a special appeal to the British nation, and numerous parties of surgeons and nurses went out more or less indepen- dently to help the wounded during the early fighting. The best known of these was Dr. Hector Munro, and his experiences may be taken as a notable example of others. Dr. Munro, at the beginning of the war, abandoned for a time his practice in London and volunteered for service in Belgium. His first experiences showed him the great need of motor-ambulances for the Belgian Army, and returning to London on September 22, 1914, 198 WORK OF THE RED CROSS he issued an appeal which was to have widespread results. He stated that he proposed to raise a small ambu- lance corps, with two surgeons, a staff of twenty helpers, and four cars. ''I have just returned from Belgium, where I visited Ostend, Bruges, Ghent, and Antwerp, to inquire as to the need for Red Cross work there. The difficulty is to get the wounded from ten to thirty miles around Ghent into the town. There are admirable hospitals around Ghent. One large hotel has been converted by the Belgian Red Cross into Hopital Militaire No. 2, and is splendidly manned with surgeons, doctors, and nurses. But it is impossible to get the wounded in there quickly enough. There are about 2,000 Uhlans wandering in the district, and there are occasional small skirmishes, ending in one or two men being killed and a dozen or so wounded. The wounded crawl away into cottages, or lie about in the open fields, where they remain unattended. Last Sunday there were 3,000 wounded to take into the toT\Ti of Antwerp." His party was quickly organized. Miss May Sinclair, the well-known novelist, acted as his secre- tary. Lady Dorothie Feilding, daughter of Lord Denbigh, acted as his chief of staff, and a group of men and women volunteers were enlisted. Unlike most doctors. Dr. Munro did not seek for professional nurses, but enlisted the aid of a number of eager women who had received some training in first-aid and were keen to serve. The ambulance corps was first stationed at Ghent, and after a few days of waiting it quickly found itself 199 WORK OF THE RED CROSS in the thick of service. It soon won a high reputation for the daring of its members in penetrating into the firing-line, bringing their light cars up as near to the front as possible, and rescuing men from where danger was greatest. Their conduct during the great battle of the sea-coast in October, 1914, attracted wide notice. The story of the work of the Munro Ambulance at Dixmude attracted widespread attention and much public support, and by December the volunteer corps had thirteen cars. It was engaged all along the line of the Belgian retreat. Eventually it settled down at Furnes, making its headquarters there, and its work extending along the line of thirty miles from Nieuport to Ypres. One of the members of the corps was wounded in the leg at Nieuport, and received the Legion of Honor. Another was poisoned from the fumes of a shell that burst near to him, and was ill for some weeks. Soup-kitchens were established for feeding starving and exhausted men, and warm woolen underclothes and gloves were supplied for Belgian troops in the trenches. Mr. Ramsay Macdonald, M.P., worked for a time with the party. AMERICAN HELPERS IN FRANCE Early in the war it became evident that the French Army medical authorities would be greatly aided by some outside help. In France, where almost every able-bodied man was called to the front, it was not possible to draw to the same extent on volunteers from the country itself, as could be done in England. 200 hi ^ a; c WORK OF THE RED CROSS Consequently, volunteers were obtained from England and America, and a number of ambulance units got to work. One of the most notable of these was the Anglo- American Volunteer Motor-Ambulance Corps, organ- ized by Mr. Richard Norton and placed under the command of Colonel Barry. It was formally attached to one of the northern divisions of the French Army, and it did services which, in the opinion of the French authorities themselves, it would be difficult to over- estimate. The majority of the workers in this convoy were well- to-do young Americans, who could drive, and who in some cases provided their own cars. They largely maintained themselves. This volunteer corps was representative of the great American philanthropic activity in aiding the sick, feeding the hungry, and checking disease all along the different fronts. Nowhere was the need of Red Cross work greater than in Serbia. This country, poor and devastated by previous wars, found itself, when it had driven the Austrian armies out of its borders, in a most pitiable state. There were thousands of sick and thousands of wounded waiting attention. Great numbers of Aus- trian prisoners had been taken, an epidemic of typhus started among them, and among the refugees, and spread over the country with amazing virulence. Serbia's pitiable plight There were no Serbian trained nurses, although a certain number of Serbian ladies had begun to learn the elements of training, and there were fevv doctors left. Famine threatened the country. The ha'penny 201 WORK OF THE RED CROSS roll in some parts fetched a shilling. British doctors who had come to the country to help did their utmost. They were swallowed up in the magnitude of the task before them. The sick died all over the country, in many cases with none to attend them. Wounded men, carried for days on bullock-wagons from the front — journeys every moment of which must have been exquisite agony — found no doctors to attend to them when they arrived at their stations. The country seemed to reach the very depth of possible misery. When the cry of Serbia went out to the world, expedi- tions were quickly organized in Britain. The Serbian Relief Fund made renewed efforts, and was able to initiate and support many activities. Hospital parties were formed. Mrs. St. Clair Stobart, who had already done great work in Belgium and in Northern France, took a large party of doctors and trained nurses to Krajeuvitch. American doctors and philanthropists helped also. The Red Cross parties that arrived at the front paid heavy toll among their members in deaths from typhus and typhoid as the price of their aid. But the tjT^hus was stamped out and the worst was overcome. 202 CHAPTER XVII PATRIOTIC CANADA THE PATRIOTISM OF CANADA A REMARKABLE RESPONSE TO THE CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS CAN- ADA'S GENEROUS CONTRIBUTION WHAT CANA- DIANS HAVE ACCOMPLISHED. VALCARTIER ! It was significant and fitting, though indeed it was but the accident of geographical position, that the first great training camp of Canadian soldiers for this war should be in Old Quebec, where France and England settled the fate of half a continent a hundred and fifty years ago. Men from Alaska, 4000 miles away, from British Columbia, 3000 miles away, from the Great West and Far North — native-born Canadians, Scots, Irish, English, naturalized Ameri- cans — gathered in French Canada to make ready for the prodigious enterprise to which they were to consecrate their lives and all that they were. In the province where a conquered people secured such rights and freedom that they never sought to free themselves from British dominion; where twice they fought back the American invader from British territory; there the first contingent of eager Canadians met to complete their equipment and make ready for an infinitely more dramatic and crucial business than the most heated imagination could conceive. -203 PATRIOTIC CANADA THE PATRIOTISM OF CANADA It was not love of adventure which roused the Canadians. They have been first among Imperialists from the beginning of their career as a confederation, but they have never been Jingo Imperialists. A democratic people has no mind for the tinkling cymbals of aggression; but there had grown into their sensitive and alert minds the deep conviction that, as Sir Wilfrid Laurier said on an historic occasion, if we did not come closer together we must drift further apart. The declaration of war between Britain and Germany produced a greater vibration in the Dominion than in England. The standard of education among the lowest people in Canada is higher; individual respon- sibility is greater. There is no dependence of class upon class, and, therefore, every man knows he must hustle for himself, so that the war became a personal thing to every Canadian from the start. A REMARKABLE RESPONSE TO THE CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS What happened? Just as wonderful things as the rashest, most daring minds could conceive. Young men filled the streets leading to the recruiting offices. They were not rough-riders, cow-boys and hunters alone — far from it; from college, from university, from lawyers' offices, from the merchants' and the bankers' counters, from the railway and the mine, from the schoolhouse and the farmyard, from the doctors' offices, the backwoods and the river they came offering them- selves for the "Old Flag," as they called it. The Government aimed at what seemed at first a large 204 PATRIOTIC CANADA army; that is, 30,000 men. By the time, however, that Princess Patricia's Light Infantry retired from their place of renown at Ypres with 150 men, their colors and a glory which time cannot dim, the determi- nation came to provide an army of 150,000 men. But Canadians have always responded to their Country's call, and always will. Canadian patriotism guarantees that there will be no necessity for con- scription. Canadians wiU come, as many as are needed, as~many as can be equipped, as many in proportion as Great Britain can draw from these islands, proud to seal the bond of union in their blood. Canada's first enthusiasm was not the mere thrill of adventure, was not a Hp-service to history and the long ties of time, but the devotion of a nation, not to the people of the Mother Land, but that which the Mother Land had been, for what it had stood, and for a flag representing tradition of liberty and freedom which have_been the foundation of their own health and wealth and progress. Canada's generous contribution From August until December of 1914 what a multitude of gifts to the Mother Land poured in from Canada! There were bags of flour by the million, thousands of tons of cheese, hundreds of thousands of bushels of potatoes, horses, all kinds of grain, fruit and vegetables, and gifts of money. Pohtical differences were composed. Sir WiKrid Laurier, the French- Canadian ex-Prime Minister, took to the platform to encourage recruiting, to explain the causes of the 205 PATRIOTIC CANADA war, to guide his fellow-countrymen into the paths of duty, while his political foe, Prime Minister Borden, was in England in conference with its Gov- ernment. A burning faith and enthusiasm inspired the Canadian people. So wonderful was the outburst it might have seemed that the glow, the determination, could not last. It not only lasted, it grew greater as the months went by. In the dark days of August, 1914, when Great Britain suddenly found herself confronted with her armed and well-prepared antagonist, the silver lining to the black clouds that hung over the Dominion was the splendid consistency of the people. Every- one in Great Britain who knew anything of Greater Britain knew that the Dominions would be loyal and true. But even the seers who had visions, and the dreamers of dreams, had failed to imagine anything so great as what actually took place. From August 4th it was no longer a case of the people of Greater Britain helping Great Britain in her war. It was the people of Greater Britain taking their share in their own war, making common purpose and finding common strength in their unity. Valcartier was a marvel of its kind, a camp built up from nothing in a very few weeks, with permanent shower baths, electric Hght, a good water supply throughout the lines, and conveniences lacking in many camps that have been established for years. The Dominion Government resolved that the Canadian troops were to be completely equipped in a way sur- passed by no other army in the world. No money was to be spared. Accordingly, the personal equip- 206 PATRIOTIC CANADA ment of the men was brought to a point of excellence that excited general admiration on their arrival in Europe. WHAT CANADIANS HAVE ACCOMPLISHED ' From Valcartier the Canadian troops were trans- ferred to SaUsbury Plains, in England, for an exceed- ingly thorough course of training. Then came inspec- tion by the King and Lord Kitchener; then suddenly they were marched away, not knowing where they were going, and then almost as suddenly — Ypres, Neuve Chapelle, the second battle of Ypres, Festubert, Givenchy, Langemark, and the mihtary capacity of the Canadians was estabUshed at once and for evermore! The world came to know that a Canadian division had saved the situation at Ypres; had heard of an initiative, a resolution and an almost fanatical courage which was as great as any veteran troops the oldest mihtary nation had ever shown. The world heard with what splendid fury lost guns were recovered in the face of terrific fire; how points were held under punishment of German artillery such as no troops had ever been obHged to face before; what the Princess Patricia's Light Infantry did at St. Eloi. All this was done by other Canadian troops as a matter of course, but as a matter of honor also. When Lieutenant Camp- bell and Private Vincent, with a httle company, fought in a German trench until only the two were left, and Campbell fought his machine-gun resting on Vincent's back until he could fight no longer, and crawled away in a dying condition, while Vincent dragged the gun to safety, no surprise was felt, because the quaHty of 207 PATRIOTIC CANADA the Canadian had become an asset of the whole Empire. The quahty of the Austrahan and the New Zealander is no less — not by the tiniest fraction; but the Cana- dians were the first to get their chance to receive the baptism of fire; were the first to prove that the men of the oversea Dominions have the root of the matter in them, and are good enough to fight with the best men that are fighting anywhere. Said one of the Second Contingent in London to one of the first who had come back from the field of battle: ''We've had a hell of a time living down your reputation in England!" The reply was: ''You'll have a hell of a time Hving up to it in France!" That sense of humor is part of the Canadian equip- ment; it belongs to his elemental shrewdness, com- radeship and common sense, and that is why he gets along with the British soldier so well. They respect each other; they swear at each other now and then, but they swear hy each other all the time. They recognize that they have drawn life and character from the same spring. The Canadians are a hardy race — sober, industrious, tenacious. They have gripped this problem with both hands; they will stay. The admiration of^the British Army for the Canadian troops has frequently been remarked during the war. It is no surface thing — it is deep and sincere, and no words can give adequate expression to the splendid, magnificent work they have been doing. > PREMIER BORDEn's PATRIOTIC SPEECH Premier Borden"of Canada well expressed the spirit of the Dominion in a notable speech dehvered at the 208 PATRIOTIC CANADA Canada Club of London in August, 1915. There was a large and distinguished gathering, including the High Commissioners of sister Dominions. The toast to the Premier was received with great enthusiasm, and cheers were given for Sir Robert and also Lady Borden. Replying, the Premier said he was grateful for the reception and for the way they received the name of Lady Borden. She would have crossed the Atlantic and been present if she had not been occupied in duties at home which she thought more useful to the work of the Red Cross and other associations. Canada's high aim The work done by the Canada Club, as well as that of other Canadians not members of the club, through- out the British Isles in providing comforts for the m.en in the field, and in other ways, was one for which the Premier said he was profoundly grateful, and was in- tensely appreciated by the people themselves in Can- ada, who in that regard had done not a little since the outbreak of the war. The constant aim and purpose of the Canadian Government had been to co-operate with the Government of the United Kingdom and overseas Dominions in an endeavor to bring the war to an honorable and triumphant conclusion. In that purpose the work of Sir George Perley in London had been of the highest possible advantage to the Dominion. The object of Canada at the commence- ment of the war, said the Premier, was, of course, to throw as great a force as possible into the field at the earliest possible moment, and there they were unpre- 14 209 PATRIOTIC CANADA pared for war even to a greater degree than the British Isles themselves. A CAUSE FOR PRIDE He confessed some pride in the fact that within six weeks after the commencement of hostilities they were able to place at Valcartier 33,000 of the best that Can- ada could produce, fully armed and equipped. Many of these had since gone to the front, and he believed had done their duty to the fullest possible extent. There were present in the Premier's audience distin- tinguished representatives from Australia, South Africa and New Zealand, and he asked that he might be per- mitted to extend, as had aheady been extended, this Government's congratulations and the congratulations of Canada on what their soldiers, in all their triumphs, had accomplished. Later in the war, he said, troops from those Dominions would fight side by side on the continent of Europe with British troops and troops from Canada. He knew the men from Canada wel- comed the comradeship of the men from those three Dominions. THE EAGER CANADIANS The Premier proceeded to allude to the numbers despatched from Canada. Dwelling on the eagerness of the men to go to the front, he said that when he was in Boulogne, after a certain number of reinforcements had been sent from Shorncliffe, there were found dozens of men who had not been included, but who had stolen away to get to Boulogne. He might also allude to an incident which occurred in western Canada, 210 PATRIOTIC CANADA when some men, not included in a detachment for Val- cartier, forcibly took possession of a railway car and were not discovered until well on the journey. The Premier dwelt on his trip to the front, also the hospitals, remarking that it was satisfactory to find in those institutions that the arrangements were all that could be desired. He had met a mian Vv^ho threw aside all business activities, leaving his affairs to take care of themselves, and enlisted at the opening of the war. He passed through the second battle of Ypres untouched, but was severely wounded at Festubert, where he re- ceived four bullets in his right arm, from which he had not yet recovered, four in his left shoulder and three in his left leg. The Premier was astonished to see he had recovered to the degree he had. ''When I met him I asked him," continued Premier Borden, ''whether the surgeon had succeeded in ex- tracting all the bullets at one operation? He replied: 'Well, he missed a few the first time.' Then he went on to tell me how the second operation became neces- sary. The spirit of the wounded was splendid." PROOF OF IMPERIAL UNITY Continuing, the Premier remarked he was persuaded of the unity of the^Empire by what he had seen dur- ing the past twelve months and in what he thought the should see in the future it would be more strikingly manifest than ever before. He did not think anyone could gainsay that, and, considering the lack of organi- zation in the ties which bound the Empire together, and the remarkable powers of self-government with which all the overseas nations of the Empire had been 211 PATRIOTIC CANADA entrusted, and which they held as alright and not as grace, he did feel that, in the co-operation between the overseas Dominions and the Government, these Islands had been^successful beyond what they could have anti- cipated, and he was sure that condition would con- tinue to the end. A CLOSER ORGANIZATION There might come a time in the future, he predicted, when they would have to consider matters of better organization between these Islands and the Dominions. To those who thought such a task was impossible he would commend the example of the men who founded the Dominion of Canada, because if ever a task seemed impossible that which they undertook must have so seemed, yet it has been a remarkable success. His hearers would agree with him, he was confident, that the- Canadian national spirit was asserted, and in the past had asserted itself in a manner which would satisfy all. Those difficulties were overcome at the in- ception of the Dominion, and surely difficulties which seemed to stand in the way of better organization of the affairs of the British Empire can be overcome by the wise counsel and co-operation of the statesmen of these Islands and Dominions. The Premier said he held the profound conviction, that regiment for regiment and man for man the allied forces could more than hold their own with the most efficient troops of the enemy. In this war, in which all the uses of applied science were being turned to destruc- tion, the first duty of this Empire was to place them- selves on an equaoooting. 212 PATRIOTIC CANADA A COURAGEOUS COUNTRY In this most important regard, Premier Borden as- serted, Britons were taking the necessary steps. If they were incHned to be discouraged by the fall of some fortress, he hoped they would remember the great work accomplished for them by the navy in securing the pathways of the seas. ''If I should bring today a message from the people of Canada it would be that not for one single moment will they be discouraged by any reverse; not for one single moment will they relax their determination or efforts to bring this war to a triumphant and honorable conclusion, which is our due." After that he beheved the Empire would march forward to a nobler and greater future. He ventured to believe the work of the Empire was not yet done, but that the future opened up an opportunity for use- fulness and influence which perhaps none now could see. 213 CHAPTER XVIII A CRIME AGAINST CIVILIZATION: THE TRAGIC DESTRUCTION OF THE LUSITANIA AN UNPRECEDENTED CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY — • THE LUSITANIA: BUILT FOR SAFETY GERMANY'S announced intention to sink the vessel liner's speed increased as danger NEARED submarine's periscope dips under surface — passengers overcome by poisonous fumes boat capsizes with women and children hundreds jump into the sea the lusitania goes to her doom interview with captain TURNER. NO THINKING man — whether he beheves or disbe- lieves in war — expects to have war without the horrors and atrocities which accompany it. That ''war is hell" is as true now as when General Sherman so pronounced it. It seems, indeed, to be truer today. And yet we have always thought — perhaps because we hoped — that there was a limit at which even war, with all its lust of blood, with all its passion of hatred, with all its devilish zest for efficiency in the destruction of human life, would stop. Now we know that there is no hmit at which the makers of war, in their frenzy to pile horror on horror, and atrocity on atrocity, will stop. We have seen a nation despoiled and raped because it resisted an 214 CRIME AGAINST CIVILIZATION invader, and we said that was war. But now out of the sun-lit waves has come a venomous instrument of destruction, and without warning, without respite for escape, has sent headlong to the bottom of the everlasting sea more than a thousand unarmed, unre- sisting, peace-bent men, women and children — even babes in arms. So the Lusitania was sunk. It may be war, but it is something incalculably more sobering than merely that. It is the difference between assas- sination and massacre. It is war's supreme crime against civiHzation. AN UNPRECEDENTED CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY The horror of the deadly assault on the Lusitania does not lessen as the first shock of the disaster recedes into the past. The world is aghast. It had not taken the German threat at full value; it did not believe that any civilized nation would be so wanton in its lust and passion of war as to count a thousand non- combatant lives a mere unfortunate incidental of the carnage. Nothing that can be said in mitigation of the destruc- tion of the Lusitania can alter the fact that an outrage unknown heretofore in the warfare of civilized nations has been committed. Regardless of the technicaUties which may be offered as a defense in international law, there are rights which must be asserted, must be defended and maintained. If international law can be torn to shreds and converted into scrap paper to serve the necessities of war, its obstructive letter can be disregarded when it is necessary to serve the rights of humanity. 215 CRIME AGAINST CIVILIZATION THE lusitania: built for ''safety" The irony of the situation Hes in the fact that from the ghastly experience of great marine disasters the Lusitania was evolved as a vessel that was ''safe." No such calamity as the attack of a torpedo was fore- seen by the builders of the giant ship, and yet, even after the outbreak of the European war, and when upon the eve of her last voyage the warning came that an attempt would be made to torpedo the Lusi- tania, her owners confidently assured the world that the ship v/as safe because her great speed would enable her to outstrip any submarine ever built. Limitation of language makes adequate word descrip- tion of this mammoth Cunarder impossible. The following figures show its immense dimensions : Length, 790 feet; breadth, 88 feet; depth, to boat deck, 80 feet; draught, fully loaded, 37 feet, 6 inches; displacement on load line, 45,000 tons; height to top of funnels, 155 feet; height to mastheads, 216 feet. The hull below draught line was divided into 175 water-tight compart- ments, which made it — so the owners claimed — ■ "unsinkable." With complete safety device equip- ment, including wireless telegraph, Mundy-Gray improved method of submarine signaling, and with officers and crew all trained and reliable men, the Lusitania was acclaimed as being unexcelled from a standpoint of safety, as in all other respects. Size, however, was its least remarkable feature. The ship was propelled by four screws rotated by turbine engines of 68,000 horse-power, capable of developing a sea speed of more than twenty-five knots per hour regardless of weather conditions; and of 216 orq'S. W o -^ O B B H CRIME AGAINST CIVILIZATION maintaining without driving a schedule with the regularity of a railroad train, and thus establishing its right to the title of ''the fastest ocean greyhound." Germany's announced intention to sink the VESSEL On Saturday May 1, 1915, the day on which the Cunard liner Lusitania, carrying 2,000 passengers and crew, sailed from New York for Liverpool, the following advertisement, over the name of the Imperial German Embassy, was published in the leading newspapers of the United States: NOTICE! TRAVELERS intending to embark on the Atlantic voyage are reminded that a state of war exists between Germany and her allies and Great Britain and her allies; that the zone of war includes the waters adjacent to the British Isles; that, in accordance with formal notice given by the Imperial German Government, vessels flying the flag of Great Britain, or of any of her allies, are liable to destruction in those waters and that travelers sailing in the war zone on ships of Great Britain or her allies do so at their own risk. IMPERIAL GERMAN EMBASSY. Washington, D. C, April 22, 1915. The advertisement was commented upon by the passengers of the Lusitania, but it did not cause any of them to cancel their bookings. No one took the 217 CRIME AGAINST CIVILIZATION matter seriously. It was not conceivable that even the German military lords could seriously plot so dastardly an attack on non-combatants. When the attention of Captain W. T. Turner, commander of the Lusitania, was called to the warning, he laughed and said: "It doesn't seem as if they had scared many people from going on the ship by the looks of the passenger list." Agents of the Cunard Line said there was no truth in reports that several prominent passengers had received anonymous telegrams warning them not to sail on the Lusitania. Charles T. Bowring, president of the St. George's Society, who was a passenger, said that it was a silly performance for the German Embassy to do. Charles Klein, the American playwright, said he was going to devote his time on the voyage to thinking of his new play, "Potash and Perlmutter in Society," and would not have time to worry about trifles. Alfred G. Vanderbilt was one of the last to go on board. Elbert Hubbard, publisher of the Pliilistine, who sailed with his wife, said he beUeved the German Emperor had ordered the advertisement to be placed in the newspapers, and added jokingly that if he was on board the liner when she was torpedoed, he would be able to do the Kaiser justice in the Philistine. The early days of the voyage were unmarked by incidents other than those which have interested ocean passengers on countless previous trips, and little apprehension was felt by those on the Lusitania of the fate which lay ahead of the vessel. 218 CRIME AGAINST CIVILIZATION The ship was proceeding at a moderate speed, on Friday, May 7, when she passed Fastnet Light, off Cape Clear, the extreme southwesterly point of Ireland that is first sighted by east-bound liners. Captain Turner was on the bridge, with his staff captain and other officers, maintaining a close lookout. Fastnet left behind, the Lusitania's course was brought closer to shore, probably within twelve miles of the rock- bound coast. liner's speed increased as danger neared Her speed was also increased to twenty knots or more, according to the more observant passengers, and some declare that she worked a sort of zigzag course, plainly ready to shift her helm whenever danger should appear. Captain Turner, it is known, was watching closely for any evidence of submarines. One of the passengers. Dr. Daniel Moore, of Yankton, S. D., declared that before he went downstairs to luncheon shortly after one o'clock he and others with him noticed, through a pair of marine glasses, a curious object in the sea, possibly two miles or more away. What it was he could not determine, but he jokingly referred to it later at luncheon as a submarine. While the first cabin passengers were chatting over their coffee cups they felt the ship give a great leap forward. Full speed ahead had suddenly been signaled from the bridge. This was a few minutes after two o'clock, and just about the time that Ellison Myers, of Stratford, Ontario, a boy on his way to join the British Navy, noticed the periscope of a submarine about a mile away to starboard. Myers and his 219 CRIME AGAINST CIVILIZATION companions saw Captain Turner hurriedly give orders to the helmsman and ring for full speed to the engine room. The Lusitania began to swerve to starboard, heading for the submarine, but before she could really answer her helm a torpedo was flashing through the water toward her at express speed. Myers and his compan- ions, like many others of the passengers, saw the white wake of the torpedo and its metal casing gleaming in the bright sunlight. The weather was ideal, light winds and a clear sky maldng the surface of the ocean as calm and smooth as could be wished by any traveler. submarine's periscope dips under surface The torpedo came on, aimed apparently at the bow of the ship, but nicely calculated to hit her amidships. Before its wake was seen the periscope of the submarine had vanished beneath the surface. In far less time than it takes to tell, the torpedo had crashed into the Lusitania's starboard side, just abaft the first funnel, and exploded with a dull boom in the forward stoke-hole. Captain Turner at once ordered the helm put over and the prow of the ship headed for land, in the hope that she might strike shallow water while still under way. The boats were ordered out, and the signals calling the boat crews to their stations were flashed everywhere through the vessel. Several of the life-boats were already swung out, according to some survivors, there having been a life- saving drill earlier in the day before the ship spoke Fastnet Light. 220 CRIME AGAINST CIVILIZATION Down in the dining saloon the passengers felt the ship reel from the shock of the explosion and many were hurled from their chairs. Before they could recover themselves, another explosion occurred. There is a difference of opinion as to the number of torpedoes fired. Some say there were two; others say only one torpedo struck the vessel, and that the second ex- plosion was internal. PASSENGERS OVERCOME BY POISONOUS FUMES In any event, the passengers now realized their danger. The ship, torn almost apart, was filled with fumes and smoke, the decks were covered with debris that fell from the sky, and the great Lusitania began to list quickly to starboard. Before the passengers below decks could make their way above, the decks were beginning to slant ominously, and the air was filled with the cries of terrified men and women, some of them aheady injured by being hurled against the sides of the saloons. Many passengers were stricken unconscious by the smoke and fumes from the exploding torpedoes. The stewards and stewardesses, recognizing the too evident signs of a sinking ship, rushed about urging and helping the passengers to put on life-belts, of which more than 3,000 were aboard. On the boat deck attempts were being made to lower the life-boats, but several causes combined to impede the efforts of the crew in this direction. The port side of the vessel was already so far up that the boats on that side were quite useless, and as the star- board boats were lowered the plunging vessel — she was 221 CRIME AGAINST CIVILIZATION stiU under headway, for all efforts to reverse the engines proved useless — swung back and forth, and when they struck the water were dragged along through the sea, making it almost impossible to get them away. BOAT CAPSIZES WITH WOMEN AND CHILDREN The first life-boat that struck the water capsized with some sixty women and children aboard her, and all of these must have been drowned almost instantly. Ten more boats were lowered, the desperate expedient of cutting away the ropes being resorted to to prevent them from being dragged along by the now halting steamer. The great ship was sinking by the bow, foot by foot, and in ten minutes after the first explosion she was already preparing to founder. Her stern rose high in the air, so that those in the boats that got away could see the whirring propellers, and even the boat deck was awash. Captain Turner urged the men to be calm, to take care of the women and children, and megaphoned the passengers to seize life-belts, chairs — anything they could lay hands on to save themselves from drowning. There was never any question in the captain's mind that the ship was about to sink, and if, as reported, some of the stewards ran about advising the passengers not to take to the boats, that there was no danger of the vessel going down till she reached shore, it was done without his orders. But many of the survivors have denied this, and declared that all the crew, officers, stewards and sailors, even the stokers, who dashed up from their flaming quarters below, showed the utmost 222 CRIME AGAINST CIVILIZATION bravery and calmness in the face of the disaster, and sought in every way to aid the panic-stricken passen- gers to get off the ship. HUNDREDS JUMP INTO THE SEA When it was seen that most of the boats would be useless, hundreds of passengers donned Hfe-belts and jumped into the sea. Others seized deck chairs, tubs, kegs, anything available, and hurled themselves into the water, clinging to these articles. The first-cabin passengers fared worst, for the second and third-cabin travelers had long before finished their midday meal and were on deck when the torpedo struck. But the first-cabin people on the D deck and in the balcony, at luncheon, were at a terrible disad- vantage, and those who had already finished were in their staterooms resting or cleaning up preparatory to the after luncheon day. The confusion on the stairways became terrible, and the great number of little children, more than 150 of them under two years, a great many of them infants in arms, made the plight of the women still more desperate. LUSITANIA GOES TO HER DOOM After the life-boats had cut adrift it was plain that a few seconds would see the end of the great ship. With a great shiver she bent her bow down below the surface, and then her stern uprose, and with a horrible sough the liner that had been the pride of the Cunard Line, plunged down in sixty fathoms of water. In the last few seconds the hundreds of women and men, 223 CRIME AGAINST CIVILIZATION a great many of them carrying children in their arms, leaped overboard, but hundreds of others, delaying the' jump too long, were carried down in the suction that left a huge whirlpool swirling about the spot where the last of the vessel was seen. Among these were Elbert Hubbard and his wife, Charles Frohman, who was crippled with rheumatism and unable to move quickly; Justus Miles Forman, i Charles Klein, Alfred G. Vanderbilt and many others of the best-known Americans and Englishmen aboard. Captain Turner stayed on the bridge as the ship went down, but before 'the last plunge he bade his staff officer and the helmsman, who were still with him, to save themselves. The helmsman leaped into the sea and was saved, but the staff officer would not desert his superior, and went down with the ship. He did not come to the surface again. Captain Turner, however, a strong swimmer, rose after the eddying whirlpool had calmed down, and, seizing a couple of deck chairs, kept himself afloat for three hours. The master-at-arms of the Lusitania, named Williams, who was looking for survivors in a boat after he had been picked up, saw the flash of the captain's gold-braided uniform, and rescued him, more dead than alive. INTERVIEW WITH CAPTAIN TURNER Despite the doubt as to whether two torpedoes exploded, or whether the first detonation caused the big liner's boilers to let go, Captain Turner stated that there was no doubt that at least two torpedoes reached the ship. 224 CRIME AGAINST CIVILIZATION "I am not certain whether the two explosions — and there were two — resulted from torpedoes, or whether one was a boiler explosion. I am sure, however, that I saw the first torpedo strike the vessel on her starboard side. I also saw a second torpedo apparently headed straight for the steamship's hull, directly below the suite occupied by Alfred G. Vanderbilt." When asked if the second explosion had been caused by the blowing up of ammunition stored in the liner's hull. Captain Turner said: ''No; if ammunition had exploded that would probably have torn the ship apart and the loss of life would have been much heavier than it was." Captain Turner declared that, from the bridge, he saw the torpedo streaking toward the Lusitania and tried to change the ship's course to avoid the missile, but was unable to do so in time. The only thing left for him to do was to rush the liner ashore and beach her, and she was headed for the Irish coast when she foundered. According to Captain Turner, the German submarine did not flee at once after torpedoing the liner. "While I was swimming about after the ship had disappeared I saw the periscope of the submarine rise amidst the debris," said he. "Instead of offering any help the submarine immediately submerged herself and I saw nothing more of her. I did everything possible for my passengers. That was all I could do." »5 225 CHAPTER XIX A CANADIAN'S ACCOUNT OF THE LUSITANIA HORROR PERCY ROGERS, OF CANADIAN NATIONAL EXHIBI- TION, TELLS GRAPHIC STORY PASSENGERS WERE AGHAST OCCUPANTS OF LIFE-BOATS THROWN INTO SEA — ^A HEART-BREAKING SCENE. PERCY ROGERS, assistant manager and secretary of the Canadian National Exhibition, who went to England in connection with the Toronto Fair, told a graphic story of his experiences after the Lusitania was struck. He undoubtedly owed his hfe to the fact that he was a good swimmer. ''It had been a splendid crossing," he said, ''with a calm sea and fine weather contributing to a delightful trip. The Lusitania made nothing like her maximum pace. Her speed probably was about five hundred miles daily, which, as travelers know, is below her average. "Early Friday morning we sighted the Irish coast. Then we entered a shght fog, and speed was reduced, but we soon came into a clear atmosphere again, and the pace of the boat increased. The morning passed and we went as usual down to lunch, although some were a httle later than others in taking the meal. I should think it would be about ten minutes past two when I came from lunch. I immediately proceeded to 226 A CANADIAN'S ACCOUNT my stateroom, close to the dining-room, to get a letter which I had written. While in there I heard a tremen- dous thud, and I came out immediately. PASSENGERS WERE AGHAST "There was no panic where I was, but the people were aghast. It was realized that the boat had been struck, apparently on the side nearest the land. The passen- gers hastened to the boat deck above. The hfe-boats were hanging out, having been put into that position on the previous day. The Lusitania soon began to list badly with the result that the side on which I and several others were standing went up as the other side dropped. This seemed to cause difficulty in launch- ing the boats, which seemed to get bound against the side of the Uner. ''It was impossible, of course, for me to see what was happening in other places, but among the group where I was stationed there was no panic. The order was given, 'Women and children first,' and was followed implicitly. The first life-boat lowered with people at the spot where I stood smacked upon the water, and as it did so the stern of this life-boat seemed to part and the people were thrown into the sea. The other boats were lowered more successfully. "We heard somebody say, 'Get out of the boats; there is no danger,' and some people actually did get out, but the direction was not generally acted upon. I entered a boat in which there were men, women and children, I should say between twenty and twenty-five. There were no other women or children standing on the liner where we were, our position, I should think, 227 A CANADIAN'S ACCOUNT being about the last boat but one from the stern of the ship. OCCUPANTS OF LIFE-BOATS THROWN INTO SEA ''Our boat dropped into the water, and for a few minutes we were all right. Then the liner went over. We were not far from her. Whatever the cause may have been — perhaps the effect of suction — I don't know, but we were thrown into the sea. Some of the occu- pants were wearing life-belts, but I was not. The only life-belts I knew about were in the cabins, and it had not appeared to me that there was time to risk going there. It must have been about 2.30 when I was thrown into the water. The watch I was wearing stopped at that time. ''Wliat a terrible scene there was around me! It is harrowing to think about the men, women and chil- dren struggling in the water. I had the presence of mind to swim away from the boat and made towards a collapsible boat, upon which was the captain and a number of others. For this purpose I had to swim quite a distance. "I noticed three children among the group. Our collapsible boat began rocking. Every moment it seemed we should be thrown again into the sea. The captain appealed to the people in it to be careful, but the boat continued to rock, and I came to the conclusion that it would be dangerous to remain in it if all were to have a chance. I said, 'Good-by, Captain; I'm going to swim,' and jumped into the water. I believe the captain did the same thing after me, although I did not see him, but I understand he was picked up. 228 A CANADIAN*S ACCOUNT A HEART-BREAKING SCENE "The scene was now terrible. Particularly do I remember a young child with a life-belt around her calling, 'Mamma!' She was not saved. I had seen her on the liner, and her sister was on the collapsible boat, but I could not reach her. I saw a cold-storage box or cupboard. I swam towards it and clung to it. This supported me for a long time. At last I saw a boat coming towards me and shouted. I was heard and taken in. From this I was transferred to what I think was a trawler, which also picked up three or four others. Eventually I was placed upon a ferry boat known as the Flying Fish, in which, with others, I was taken to Queenstown. ''It was quite possible that some people went down while in their cabins, because after lunch it was the custom with some to go for a rest. A friend of mine on the liner has told me he saw Alfred G. Vanderbilt on deck with a life-belt and observed him give it to a lady. It seemed to me the seriousness of the situation scarcely was realized when the boat was torpedoed. It was aU so sudden and so unexpected, and the recol- lection of it all is terrible." 229 CHAPTER XX THE HEROES OF THE LUSITANIA AND THEIR HEROISM ALFBED G. VANDERBILT GAVE LIFE FOR A WOMAN CHARLES FROHMAN DIED WITHOUT FEAR SAVING THE BABIES TORONTO GIRL OF FOURTEEN PROVES HEROINE HEROISM OF CAPTAIN TURNER AND HIS CREW ^WOMAN RESCUED WITH DEAD BABY AT HER BREAST HEROIC WIRELESS OPERATORS SAVED HIS WIFE AND HELPED IN RESCUE WORK "saved all the women AND CHILDREN WE COULD." EVERY great calamity produces its great heroes. Particularly is this true of marine disasters, where the opportunities of escape are limited, and where the heroism of the strong often impels them to stand back and give place to the weak. One cannot think of the Titanic disaster without remembering Major Archibald Butt, Colonel John Jacob Astor, Henry B. Harris, William T. Stead and others, nor of the sinking of the Empress of Ireland without calling to mind Dr. James F. Grant, the ship's surgeon; Sir Henry Seton-Karr, Lawrence Irving, H. R. O'Hara of Toronto, and the rest of the noble company of heroes. So the destruc- tion of the Lusitania brought uppermost in the breasts of many those qualities of fortitude and self-sacrifice which will forever mark them in the calendar of the world's martyrs. 230 / THE HEROES OF THE LUSITANIA ALFRED G. VANDERBILT GAVE LIFE FOR A WOMAN Among the Lusitania's heroes, one of the foremost was Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, one of America's wealthiest men. With everything to hve for, Mr. Vanderbilt sacrificed his one chance for escape from the doomed Lusitania, in order that a woman might live. Details of the chivalry he displayed in those last moments when he tore off a hfe-belt as he was about to leap into the sea, and strapped it aromid a yomig woman, were told by three of the survivors. Mr. Vanderbilt could not swim, and when he gave up his life-belt it was with the virtual certainty that he was surrendering his only chance for life. Thomas Slidell, of New York, said he saw Mr. Vanderbilt on the deck as the Lusitania was sinking. He was equipped with a life-belt and was climbing over the rail, when a young woman rushed onto the deck. Mr. Vanderbilt saw her as he stood poised to leap into the sea. Without hesitating a moment he jumped back to the deck, tore off the life-belt, strapped it around the young woman and dropped her overboard. The Lusitania plunged under the waves a few minutes later and Mr. Vanderbilt was seen to be drawn into the vortex. Norman RatcUffe, of Gillingham, Kent, and Wallace B. Phillips, a newspaper man, also saw Mr. Vanderbilt sink with the Lusitania. The coolness and heroism he showed were marvelous, they said. Oliver P. Bernard, scenic artist at Covent Garden, saw Mr. Vanderbilt standing near the entrance to the grand saloon soon after the vessel was torpedoed. "He was the personification of sportsmanlike cool- 231 THE HEROES OF THE LUSITANIA ness," Mr. Bernard said. ''In his right hand was grasped what looked to me hke a large purple leather jewel case. It may have belonged to Lady Mack- worth, as Mr. Vanderbilt had been much in the company of the Thomas party during the trip and evidently hadVolunteered to do Lady Mackworth the service of saving her gems for her." Another touching incident was told of Mr. Vanderbilt by Mrs. Stanley L. B. Lines, a Canadian, who said: ''Mr. Vanderbilt wiU in the future be remembered as the 'children's hero.' I saw him standing outside the palm saloon on the starboard side, with Ronald Denit. He looked upon the scene before him, and then, turning to his valet, said: " 'Find all the kiddies you can and bring them here.' The servant rushed off and soon reappeared, herding a flock of little ones. Mr. Vanderbilt, catching a child under each arm, ran with them to a life-boat and dumped them in. He then threw in two more, and continued at his task until all the young ones were in the boat. Then he turned his attention to aiding the women into boats." CHARLES FROHMAN DIED WITHOUT FEAR "Why fear death? It is the most beautiful adventure in life," were the last words of Charles Frohman before he went down with the Lusitania, according to Miss Rita Jolivet, an American actress, with whom he talked calmly just before the end came. Miss Jolivet, who was among the survivors taken to Queenstown, said she and Mr. Frohman were standing on deck as the Lusitania heeled over. They 232 3 Pi »5 P-^-'^ ^ Cfi _ M S. w T3 <; fu (/I o ^ ^ 0.0 CTQ pS 2. t r o 3 ni H^.f^B "S^^ a 3 > 3 3 ° ^ 3 o tJ"d ff 3 „ P g 0. o ' "^ fD i^ S >-! '-I C P tC O^ ro 3 O iL o ., a i_i SI ►§ -ir.g c/5 c'ot re S ^ I-. ■-• - <: re a, g „ ^_ re o P 3 '-O'r^ re J?^g- re ^ 1/1 re jj^ re re < 3 1-1 re re — »- ^ r+ I— c« f^ ^ 58 •-tore re cr* S.3 re re ^W p Mip ►.. CT fj- f^ -. » o re « o - ^ £.p 2 f? ^p ca m S O -P re re » g- fi ►j* ft) ►I j+ - p -^ 2 o W ^ (K! Cl.'^ o trig ct.^ ■-^re^ 3,(^ re B- - "^ re £^ n re -K-^5re re 5 o P 1^ 3 w t2 org P p ^2 s'a K*S ,— &reOrq ."i" THE CHARGE OF THE 9th BRITISH LANCERS ON THE GERMAN GUNS One of the most notable exploits of this famous cavalry regiment was their charge on a German battery, which had given much trouble, and their cutting down all the gunners and putting the guns out of action. THE HEROES OE THE LUSITANIA decided not to trust themselves to life-boats, although Mr. Frohman believed the ship was doomed. It was after reaching this decision that he declared he had no fear of death. Dr. F. Warren Pearl, of New York, who was saved, Germa^tt's Official Paid Advertisement Forewarning Americans Against Disaster; Map Showing Where It Took Place. This advertisement was wired to forty American newspapers by Count von Bernstorff, German Ambassador at Washington. It was ordered inserted on the morning of the day the Lusitania sailed. with his wife and two of their four children, corrobo- rated Miss Joli vet's statement, saying: "After the first shock, as I made my way to the deck, I saw Charles Frohman distributing life-belts. Mr. Frohman evidently did not expect to escape, as he 233 THE HEROES OF THE LUSITANIA said to a woman passenger, 'Why should we fear death? It is the greatest adventure man can have.' " Sir James M. Barrie, in a tribute to Charles Frohman, published in the London Daily Mail, describes him as "the man who never broke his word. ''His companies were as children to him. He chided them as children, soothed them as children and forgave them and certainly loved them as children. He exulted in those who became great in that world, and gave them beautiful toys to play with; but great as was their devotion to him, it is not they who will miss him most, but rather the far greater number who never made a hit, but set off like all the rest, and fell by the way. He was of so sympathetic a nature; he understood so well the dismalness to them of being failures, that he saw them as children, with their knuckles to their eyes, and then he sat back cross-legged on his chair, with his knuckles, as it were, to his eyes, and life had lost its flavor for him until he invented a scheme for giving them another chance. "Perhaps it is fitting that all those who only made for honest mirth and happiness should now go out of the world; because it is too wicked for them. It is strange to think that in America, Dernburg and Bernstorff, who we must believe were once good men, too, have an extra smile with their breakfast roll because they and theirs have drowned Charles Froh- man." SAVING THE BABIES The presence of so many babies on board the Lusi- tania was due to the influx from Canada of the English- 234 THE HEROES OF T HE LUSITANIA born wives of Canadians at the battle front, who were coming to England to Hve with their own or their husband's parents during the war. No more pathetic loss has been recorded than that of F. G. Webster, a Toronto contractor, who was traveling second class with his wife, their six-year-old son Frederick and year-old twin sons William and Henry. They reached the deck with others who were in the dining saloon when the torpedo struck. Webster took his son by the hand and darted away to bring life-belts. When he returned his wife and babies were not to be seen, nor have they been since. W. Harkless, an assistant purser, busied himself helping others until the Lusitania was about to founder. Then, seeing a life-boat striking the water that was not overcrowded, he made a rush for it. The only person he encountered was little Barbara Anderson, of Bridge- port, Conn., who was standing alone, clinging to the rail. Gathering her up in his arms he leaped over the rail and into the boat, doing this without iniurins: the child. Francis J. Luker, a British subject, who had worked six years in the United States as a postal clerk, and was going home to enhst, saved two babies. He found the little passengers, bereft of their mother, in the shelter of a deck-house. The Lusitania was nearing her last plunge. A Hfe-boat was swaying to the water below. Grabbing the babies he ran to the rail and made a flying leap into the craft, and those babies did not leave his arms until they were set safely ashore hours later. ^ One woman, a passenger on the Lusitania, lost all 23S THE HEROES OF THE LUSITANIA three of her children in the disaster, and gave the bodies of two of them to the sea herself. When the ship went down she held up the three children in the water, shrieking for help. When rescued two were dead. Their room was required and the mother was brave enough to realize it. ''Give them to me!" she shrieked. ''Give them to me, my bonnie wee things. I will bury them. They are mine to bury as they were mine to keep." With her form shaking with sorrow she took hold of each little one from the rescuers and reverently placed it in the water again, and the people in the boat wept with her as she murmured a little sobbing prayer. Just as the rescuers were landing her third and only remaining child died. TORONTO GIRL OF FOURTEEN PROVES HEROINE Even the young girls and women on the Lusitania proved themselves heroines during the last few moments and met their fate calmly or rose to emergencies which called for great bravery and presence of mind. Fourteen-year-old Kathleen Kaye was returning from Toronto, where she had been visiting relatives. With a merry smile on her lips and with a steady patter of reassurance, she aided the stewards who were filling one of the life-boats. Soon after the girl took her own place in the boat one of the sailors fainted under the strain of the efforts to get the boat clear of the maelstrom that marked where the liner went down. Miss Kaye took the abandoned oar and rowed until the boat was out of danger. None among the survivors bore fewer signs 236 THE HEROES OE THE LUSITANIA of their terrible experiences than Miss Kaye, who spent most of her time comforting and assisting her sisters in misfortune. HEROISM OF CAPTAIN TURNER AND HIS CREW Ernest Cov/per, a Toronto newspaper man, praised the work of the Lusitania's crew in their efforts to get the passengers into the boats. Mr. Cowper told of having observed the ship watches keeping a strict lookout for submarines as soon as the ship began to near the coast. ''The crew proceeded to get the passengers into boats in an orderly, prompt and efficient manner. Helen Smith, a child, begged me to save her. I placed her in a boat and saw her safely away. I got into one of the last boats to leave. ''Some of the boats could not be launched, as the vessel was sinking. There was a large number of women and children in the second cabin. Forty of the children v/ere less than a year old." WOMAN RESCUED WITH DEAD BABY AT HER BREAST R. J. Timmis, of Gainesville, Tex., a cotton buyer, who was saved after he had given his life-belt to a woman steerage passenger who carried a baby, told of the loss of his friend, R. T. Moodie, also of Gaines- ville. Moodie could not swim, but he took off his life-belt also and put it on a woman who had a six- months-old child in her arms. Timmis tried to help Moodie, and they both cluQg to some wreckage for a while, but presently Moodie could hold out no longer and sank. When Timmis was dragged into a boat 237 THE HEROES OF THE LESITANIA which he helped to right — it had been overturned in the suction of the sinking vessel — one of the first persons he assisted into the boat was the steerage woman to whom he had given his belt. She still carried her baby at her breast, but it was dead from exposure. HEROIC WIRELESS OPERATORS Oliver P. Brainard told of the bravery of the wireless operators who stuck to their work of summoning help even after it was evident that only a few minutes could elapse before the vessel must go down. He said: '^The wireless operators were working the emergency outfit, the main installation having been put out of gear instantaneously after the torpedo exploded. They were still awaiting a reply and were sending out the S. 0. S. call. ''I looked out to sea and saw a man, undressed, floating quietly on his back in the water, evidently waiting to be picked up rather than to take the chance of getting away in a boat. He gave me an idea and I took off my jacket and waistcoat, put my money in my trousers pocket, unlaced my boots and then returned to the Marconi men. ''The assistant operator said, 'Hush! we are still hoping for an answer. We don't know yet whether the S. O. S. calls have been picked up or not.' "At that moment the chief operator turned around, saying, 'They've got it!' "At that very second the emergency apparatus also broke down. The operator had left the room, but he dashed back and brought out a kodak. He 238 THE HEROES OF THE LUSITANIA knelt on the deck, now listing at an angle of thirty- five degrees, and took a photograph looking for- ward. ''The assistant, a big, cheerful chap, lugged out the operator's swivel chair and offered it to me with a laugh, saying: 'Take a seat and make yourself com- fortable.' He let go the chair and it careened down the deck and over into the sea." F. J. Gauntlet, of New York and Washington, traveling in company with A. L. Hopkins, president of the Newport News Shipbuilding Company, and S. M. Knox, president of the New York Shipbuilding Company, of Philadelphia, unconsciously told the story of his own heroism. He said: "I was lingering in the dining saloon chatting with friends when the first explosion occurred. Some of us went to our staterooms and put on life-belts. Going on deck we were informed that there was no danger, but the bow of the vessel was gradually sinking. The work of launching the boats was done in a few min- utes. Fifty or sixty people entered the first boat. As it swung from the davits it fell suddenly and I think most of the occupants perished. The other boats were launched with the greatest difficulty. "Swinging free from one of these as it descended, I grabbed what I supposed was a piece of wreckage. I found it to be a collapsible boat, however. I had great difficulty in getting it open, finally having to rip the canvas with my knife. Soon another passenger came alongside and entered the collapsible with me. We paddled around and between us we rescued thirty people from the water." 239 THE HEROES OF THE LUSITANIA SAVED HIS WIFE AND HELPED IN RESCUE WORK George A. Kessler, of New York, said. ^'A list to starboard had set in as we were climbing the stairs and it had so rapidly increased by the time we reached the deck, that we were falling against the taffrail. I managed to get my wife onto the first-class deck and there three boats were being got out. ^'I placed her in the third, kissed her good-by and saw the boat lowered safely. Then I turned to look for a life-belt for myself. The ship now started to go down. I fell into the water, some Idnd soul throwing me a life-belt at the same time. Ten minutes later I found myself beside a raft on which were some sur- vivors, who pulled me onto it. We cruised around look- ing for others and m^anaged to pick up a few, making in all perhaps sixteen or seventeen persons who were on the raft. In all directions were scattered persons struggling for their lives and the boats gave what help they could." ''saved all the WOMEN AND CHILDREN WE COULD " W. G. E. Meyers, of Stratford, Ont., a lad of sixteen years, who was on his way to join the British navy as a cadet, told this story: ''I went below to get a life-belt and met a woman who was frenzied with fear. I tried to calm her and helped her into a boat. Then I saw a boat which was nearly swamped. I got into it with other men and baled it out. Then a crowd of men clambered into it and nearly swamped it ''We had got only two hundred yards away when the Lusitania sank, bow first. Many persons sank with 240 THE HEROES OF THE LUSITANIA her, drawn down by the suction. Their shrieks were appaUing. We had to pull hard to get away, and, as it was, we were almost dragged down. We saved all the women and children we could, but a great many of them went down." H. Smethhurst, a steerage passenger, put his wife into a life-boat, and in spite of her urging refused to accompany her, saying the women and children must go first. After the boat with his wife in it had pulled away Smethhurst put on a life-belt, slipped down a rope into the water and floated until he was picked up. From the lips of Captain Turner, of the Lusitania, and from several of the survivors the world has heard the story of the sudden appearance among the debris and the dead of the sunken liner, of the German submarine that had fired the torpedo which sent almost 1,200 non-combatants, hundreds of them helpless women and children, and among them more than a hundred American citizens, to their deaths. But it remained for the captain of the steamship Etonian, arriving at Boston on May 18, to add the crowning touch to the tragedy. Captain Wilham F. Wood, of the Etonian, specifically charged that two German submarines deliberately prevented him from going to the rescue of the Lusi- tania's passengers after he had received the liner's wireless S. 0. S. call, and when he was but forty miles or so away, and might have rendered great assistance to the hundreds of victims. Captain Wood charged further that two other ships, both within the same distance of the Lusitania when she sank, were warned off by submarines, and that 16 241 THE HEROES OF THE LUSITANIA when the nearest one, the Narragansett, bound for New York, persisted in the attempt to proceed to the rescue of the Lusitania's passengers, a submarine fired a torpedo at her, which missed the Narragansett by only' a few feet. STORY OF Etonian's captain The Etonian is a freight-carrjdng steamship, owned by the Wilson-Furness-Leyland Hnes, and under charter to the Cunard Line. She sailed from Liverpool on May 6. Captain Wood's story, as he told it without embel- lishment and in the most positive terms, was as follows : ''We had left Liverpool without unusual incident, and it was two o'clock on the afternoon of Friday, May 7, that we received the S. 0. S. call from the Lusitania. Her wireless operator sent this message: 'We are ten miles south of Kinsale. Come at once.' "I was then about forty-two miles from the position he gave me. Two other steamships were ahead of me, going in the same direction. They were the Narra- gansett and the City of Exeter. The Narragansett was closer to the Lusitania, and she answered the S. 0. S. call. "At 5 p. M. I observed the City of Exeter across our bow and she signaled, 'Have you heard anything of the disaster?' "At that very moment I saw the periscope of a submarine between the Etonian and the City of Exeter. The submarine was about a quarter of a mile directly ahead of us. She immediately dived as soon as she saw us coming for her. I distinctly saw the gplash in the water caused by her submerging. 242 THE HEROES OF THE LUSITANIA DODGED TWO SUBMARINES '^I signaled to the engine room for every available inch of speed, and there was a prompt response. Then we saw the submarine come up astern of us with the periscope in line afterward. I now ordered full speed ahead, and we left the submarine slowly behind. The periscope remained in sight about twenty minutes. Our speed was perhaps two miles an hour better than the submarine could do. ''No sooner had we lost sight of the submarine astern than I made out another on the starboard bow. This one was directly ahead and on the surface, not submerged. I starboarded hard away from him, he swinging as we did. About eight minutes later he submerged. I continued at top speed for four hours, and saw no more of the submarines. It was the ship's speed that saved her. That's all. ''Both these submarines were long craft, and the second one had wireless masts. There is no question in my mind that these two submarines were acting in concert and were so placed as to torpedo any ship that might attempt to go to the rescue of the passengers of the Lusitania. "As a matter of fact, the Narragansett, as soon as she heard the S. 0. S. call, went to the assistance of the Lusitania. One of the submarines discharged a torpedo at her and missed her by a few feet. The Narragansett then warned us not to attempt to go to the rescue of the Lusitania, and I got her wireless call while I was dodging the two submarines. You can see that three ships would have gone to the assistance of the Lusitania had it not been for the two submarines. 243 THE HEROES OF THE LUSITANIA "These German craft were, it seems to me, deliber- ately stationed off Old Head of Kinsale, at a point where all ships have got to pass, for the express pur- pose of preventing any assistance being given to the passengers of the Lusitania." NARRAGANSETT DRIVEN OFF That the British tank steamer Narragansett, one of the vessels that caught the distress signal of the Lusitania, was also driven off her rescue course by a torpedo from a submarine when she arrived within seven miles of the spot where the Lusitania went down, an hour and three-quarters after she caught the wireless call for help, was alleged by the officers of the tanker, which arrived at Bayonne, N. J., on the same day that the Etonian reached Boston. The story told by the officers of the Narragansett corroborated the statements made by officers of the Etonian. They said that submarines were apparently scouting the sea to drive back rescue vessels when the Lusitania fell a victim to another undersea craft. The Lusitania's call for help was received by the Narragansett at two o'clock on the afternoon of May 7, according to wireless operator Talbot Smith, who said the message read: ''Strong list. Come quick." When the Narragansett received the message she was thirty-five miles southeast of the Lusitania, having sailed from Liverpool the preceding afternoon at five o'clock for Bayonne. The message was delivered quiclvly to Captain Charles Harwood, and he ordered the vessel to put on full steam and increase her speed from eleven to fourteen knots. The Narragansett 244 THE HEROES OF THE LUSITANIA changed her course and started in the direction of the sinking ship. TORPEDO FIRED AT NARRAGANSETT Second Officer John Letts, who was on the bridge, said he sighted the periscope of a submarine at 3.35 o'clock, and almost at the same instant he saw a torpedo shooting through the water. The torpedo, according to the second officer, was traveling at great speed. It shot past the Narragansett, missing the stern by hardly thirty feet, and disappeared. The periscope of the submarine went out of sight at the same time, but the captain of the Narragansett decided not to take any chance, changed the course of his vessel so that the stern pointed directly toward the spot where the periscope was last sighted, and, after steering straight ahead for some distance, followed a somewhat zigzag course until he v/as out of the immediate sub- marine territories. Captain Harwood abandoned all thought of the Lusitania's call for help, because he thought it was a decoy message sent out to trap the Narragansett into the submarine's path. ''My opinion," said Second Officer Letts, ''is that submarines were scattered around that territory to prevent any vessel that received the S. 0. S. call of the Lusitania from going to her assistance." When attacked by the submarine the Narragansett had out her log, according to Second Officer Letts, and the torpedo passed under the line to which it was attached. The torpedo was fired from the submarine 245 THE HEROES OF THE LUSITANIA when the undersea boat was within two hundred yards of the tanker. The Narragansett when turned back had not sighted the wreck of the Lusitania, and her officers, who were ledjo beheve the S. 0. S. was a decoy, did not learn of the sinking of the Cunarder until the following morning at two o'clock. The Narragansett, under charter to the Standard Oil Company, is one of the largest tank steamships afloat. She is 540 feet long, has a sixty-foot beam, and 12,500 tons displacement. 246 CHAPTER XXI THE CANADIANS' GLORIOUS FEAT AT LANGEMARCK THE CRUCIAL TEST OF CANADa's MEN WONDERFUL STORY OF HEROISM AS TOLD BY SIR MAX AITKEN A REMARKABLE PERFORMANCE QUIET PRECEDING STORM SECOND BATTLE OF YPRES LINE NEVER WAVERED OFFICER FELL AT HEAD OF TROOPS FORTUNES OF THIRD BRIGADE IN DIRE PERIL OVERWHELMING NUMBERS PUT TO TEST CAPTURE OF ST. JULIEN ^A HERO LEADING HEROES. THE FIGHT of the Canadians at Langemarck and St. Julien in April, 1915, makes such a battle story as has sufficed, in other nations, to inspire song and tradition for centuries. In the words of Sir John French, the Canadians, by holding their ground when it did not seem humanly possible to hold it, ''saved the situation," kept the enemy out of Ypres, kept closed the road to Calais, and made a failure of German plans that otherwise were about to be successful. The Canadian soldiers have indeed shown that they are second to none. They were put to as supreme a test as it would be possible for any army to meet with, for they fought overwhelming numbers under condi- tions that seemed to ensure annihilation. They fought on, and failed neither in courage, discipline, nor tenacity, although thousands of them fell. 247 CANADIANS* GLOHIOUS FEAT J The story of their unflinching heroism was told by Sir Max Aitken, the record officer serving with the Canadian division in France: I "The recent fighting in Flanders, in which the Canadians played so glorious a part, cannot of course .be described with precision of military detail until [time has made possible the co-ordination of relevant facts, and the piecing together in a narrative both lucid and exact of much which, so near the event, is eonfused and blurred. But it is considered right that the mourning in Canada for husbands, sons or brothers who have given their lives for the Empire should have with as little reserve as military considerations allow the rare and precious consolation which, in the agony of bereavement, the record of the valor of their dead must bring, and indeed the mourning in Canada will be very widely spread, for the battle which raged for so many days in the neighborhood of Ypres was bloody, even as men appraise battles in this callous and life- engulfing war. But as long as brave deeds retain the power to fire the blood of Anglo-Saxons, the stand made by the Canadians in those desperate days will be told by fathers to their sons. A REMARKABLE PERFORMANCE ''The Canadians have wrested the trenches over the bodies of the dead and earned the right to stand side by side with the superb troops who, in the first battle of Ypres, broke and drove before them the flower of the Prussian Guards. Looked at from any point the performance would be remarkable. It is amazing to soldiers when the genesis and composition of the 248 CANADIANS' GLORIOUS FEAT Canadian division are considered. It contained no doubt a sprinkling of South African veterans, but it consisted in the main of men who were admirable raw material, but who, at the outbreak of war, were neither disciplined nor trained as men count discipline and training in these days of scientific warfare. It was, it is true, commanded by a distinguished English general. Its staff was supplemented, without being replaced, by some brilliant British staff officers. But in its higher and regimental commands were to be found lawyers, college professors, business men and real estate agents, ready with cool self-confidence to do battle against an organization in which the study of military science is the exclusive pursuit of laborious fives. "With what devotion, with a valor how desperate, with resourcefulness how cool and how frightful, the amateur soldier of Canada confronted overwhelming odds, may perhaps be made clear, even by a narrative so incomplete as the present. ''The salient of Ypres has become famifiar to all students of the campaign in Flanders. Like aU salients it was, and was known to be, a source of weakness to the forces holding it, but the reasons which have led to its retention are apparent, and need not be explained. "On Thursday, April 22, 1915, the Canadian division held a line of roughly five thousand yards, extending in a northwesterly direction from the Ypres-Roulers railway, to the Ypres-PoekappeUe road, and connecting at its terminus with the French troops. The division consisted of three infantry brigades in addition to the artiUery brigades. Of the infantry brigades the first was in reserve, the second was on the right, and the third 249 CANADIANS' GLORIOUS FEAT established contact with the alhes at the point indicated above. QUIET PRECEDING STORM ''The day was a peaceful one, warm and sunny, and except that the previous day had witnessed a further bombardment of the stricken town of Ypres, every- thing seemed quiet in front of the Canadian line. At five o'clock in the afternoon a plan carefully prepared was put into execution against our French allies on the left. Asphyxiating gas of great intensity was pro- jected into their trenches, probably by means of force pumps and pipes laid out under the parapets. The fumes, aided by a favorable wind, floated backwards, poisoning and disabling over an extended area those who fell under their effect. The result was that the French were compelled to give ground for a considerable distance. The glory which the French army has won in this war would make it impertinent to labor on the compelling nature of the poisonous discharges under which the trenches were lost. The French did, as every- one knew they would do, all that stout soldiers could do, and the Canadian division, officers and men, look forward to many occasions in the future in which they will stand side by side with the brave armies of France. "The immediate consequence of this enforced with- drawal was, of course, extremely grave. The third brigade of the Canadian division was without any left, or, in other words, its left was in the air. It became imperatively necessary greatly to extend the Canadian lines to the left rear. It was not, of course, practicable to move the first brigade from reserve at a moment's 250 CANADIANS' GLORIOUS FEAT Map Illustrating the Battle op Langemarck. Shaded Portion Indicates German Gain. notice, and the line, extended from five to nine thousand yards, was not naturally the line that had been held by the allies at five o'clock, and a gap still existed on its left. 261 ' CANADIANS' GLORIOUS FEAT ''The new line, of which our recent point of contact with the French formed the apex, ran quite roughly to the south and west. As shown above, it became necessary for Brigadier-General Turner, commanding the third brigade, to throw back his left flank south- ward to protect his rear. In the course of the confusion which followed upon the readjustment of position, the enemy, who had advanced rapidly after his initial successes, took four British 4.7 guns in a small wood to the west_of the village of St. Julien, two miles in the rear of the original French trenches. SECOND BATTLE OF YPRES ''The story of the second battle of Ypres is the story of how the Canadian division, enormously outnum- bered, for they had in front of them at least four divisions, supported by immensely heavy artillery, with a gap still existing, though reduced, in their lines, and with dispositions made hurriedly under the stimu- lus of critical danger, fought through the day and through the night, and then through another day and night; fought under their officers until, as happened to so many, these perished gloriously, and then fought from the impulsion of sheer valor because they came from fighting stock. "The enemy, of course, was aware, whether fully or not may perhaps be doubted, of the advantage his breach in the line had given him, and immediately began to push a formidable series of attacks upon the whole of the newly-formed Canadian salient. "If it is possible to distinguish when the attack was everywhere so fierce, it developed with particular 252 CANADIANS' GLORIOUS FEAT ' intensity at this moment upon the apex of the newly- formed line running in the direction of St. Julien. It has already been stated that four British guns were taken in a wood comparatively early in the evening of the 22d. In the course of that night, and under the heaviest machine-gun fire, this wood was assaulted by the Canadian Scottish, sixteenth battalion, of the third brigade, and the tenth battalion of the second brigade, which was intercepted for this purpose on its way to a reserve trench. The battalions were respec- tively commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Leckie, and Lieutenant-Colonel Boyle, and after a most fierce struggle in the light of a misty moon they took the position at the point of the bayonet. At midnight the second battalion, under Lieutenant-Colonel Watson and the Toronto regiment. Queen's Own (third bat- talion), under Lieutenant-Colonel Rennie, both of the first brigade, brought up much-needed reinforcements, and though not actually engaged in the assault, were in reserve. LINE NEVER WAVERED "All through the following days and nights these battalions shared the fortunes and misfortunes of the third brigade. An officer, who took part in the attack, describes how the men about him fell under the fire of the machine guns, which, in his phrase, played upon them 'like a watering pot.' He added quite simply, 'I wrote my own life off,' but the line never wavered. When one man fell another took his place, and with a final shout the survivors of the two battalions flung themselves into the wood. 253 CANADIANS* GLORIOUS FEAT "The German garrison was completely demoralized, and the impetuous advance of the Canadians did not cease until they reached the far side of the wood and entrenched themselves there in the position so dearly gained. They had, however, the disappointment of finding that the guns had been blown up by the enemy, and later on the same night, a most formidable con- centration of artillery fire, sweeping the wood as a tropical storm sweeps the leaves from a forest, made it impossible for them to hold the position for which they had sacrified so much. "The fighting continued without intermission all through the night and to those who observed the indications that the attack was being pushed with ever-growing strength, it hardly seemed possible that the Canadians, fighting in positions so difficult to defend, and so little the subject of deliberate choice, could maintain their resistance for any long period. At 6 A. M. on Friday it became apparent that the left was becoming more and more involved and a powerful German attempt to outflank it developed rapidly. The consequences if it had been broken or outflanked need not be insisted upon. They were not merely local. "It was therefore decided, formidable as the attempt undoubtedly was, to try and give relief by a counter- attack upon the first line of German trenches, now far, far advanced from those originally occupied by the French. This was carried out by the Ontario first and fourth battalions of the first brigade, under Briga- dier-General Mercer, acting in combination with a British brigade. It is safe to say that the youngest 254 CANADIANS' GLORIOUS FEAT private in the rank, as he set his teeth for the advance, knew the task in front of him, and the youngest subal' tern knew all that rested upon its success. OFFICER FELL AT HEAD OF TROOPS ''It did not seem that any human being could live in the shower of shot and shell which began to play upon the advancing troops. They suffered terrible casualties. For a short time every man seemed to fall, but the attack was pressed even closer and closer. The fourth Canadian battalion at one moment came under a particularly withering fire. For a moment, not more, it wavered. Its most gallant commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Birchall, carrying, after an old fashion, a light cane, coolly and cheerfuUy rallied his men, and at the very moment when his example had infected them fell dead at the head of his bat- talion. ''With a hoarse cry of anger they sprang forward (for, indeed, they loved him) as if to avenge his death. The astonishing attack which followed, pushed home in the face of direct frontal fire, made in broad dayHght by battalions whose names should live forever in the memories of soldiers, was carried to the first line of German trenches. After a hand-to-hand struggle the last German who resisted was bayoneted, and the trench was won. "The measure of this success may be taken when it is pointed out that this trench represented in the German advance the apex in the breach which the enemy had made in the original fine of the allies, and that it was two and a half miles south of that line. 2S5 CANADIANS* GLORIOUS FEAT This charge, made by men who looked death indiffer- ently in the face, for no man who took part in it could think that he was likely to live, saved the Canadian left. But it did more; up to the point where the assail- ants conquered or died, it secured and maintained during the most critical moment of all the integrity of the allied line. For the trench was not only taken, it was thereafter held against all comers, and in the teeth of every conceivable projectile, until the night of Sunday, the 25th, when all that remained of the war- broken but victorious battalions was relieved by fresh troops. FORTUNES OF THIRD BRIGADE ''It is necessary now to return to the fortunes of the third brigade, commanded by Brigadier-General Turner, which, as we have seen, at five o'clock on Thurs- day was holding the Canadian left and after the first attack assumed the defense of the new Canadian salient, at the same time sparing all the men it could to form an extemporized line between the wood and St. Julien. This brigade also was, at the first moment of the German offensive, made the object of an attack by the discharge of poisonous gas. The discharge was followed by two enemy assaults. Although the fumes were extremely poisonous, they were not, perhaps, having regard to the wind, so disabling as on the French lines (which ran almost east to west), and the brigade, though affected by the fumes, stoutly beat back the two, German assaults. ''Encouraged by this success, it rose to the supreme effort required by the assault of the wood, which has 256 CANADIANS' GLORIOUS FEAT already been described. At 4 a. m. on the morning of Friday, the 23d, a fresh emission of gas was made both upon the second brigade, which held the line running northeast, and upon the third brigade, which, as has been fully explained, had continued the line up to the pivotal point, as defined above, and had then spread down in a southeasterly direction. It is perhaps worth mentioning, that two privates of the forty-eighth Highlanders, who found their way into the trenches commanded by Colonel Lipsett, ninetieth Winnipeg Rifles, eighth battalion, perished of the fumes, and it was noticed that their faces became blue immediately after dissolution. "The Royal Highlanders of Montreal, thirteenth battalion, and the forty-eighth Highlanders, fifteenth battalion, were more especially affected by the dis- charge. The Royal Highlanders, though considerably shaken, remained immovable upon their ground. The forty-eighth Highlanders, who no doubt received a more poisonous discharge, were for the moment dis- mayed and indeed their trench, according to the testimony of very hardened soldiers, became intoler- able. The battalion retired from the trench, but for a very short distance, and for an equally short time. In a few moments they were again their own. They advanced upon and occupied the trenches which they had momentarily abandoned. IN DIRE PERIL ''In the course of the same night the third brigade, which had already displayed a resource, a gallantry, and a tenacity, for which no eulogy could be excessive, 257 CANADIANS* GLORIOUS FEAT was exposed (and with it the whole allied cause) to a peril still more formidable. ''It has been explained, and indeed the fundamental situation made the peril clear, that several German divisions were attempting to crush, or drive back this devoted brigade, and in any event to use their enor- mous numerical superiority to sweep around and over- whelm our left wing at a point in the line which cannot be precisely determined. The last attempt partially succeeded, and in the course of this critical struggle, German troops in considerable, though not in over- whelming, numbers swung past the unsupported left to the brigade and, slipping in between the wood and St. Julien, added to the torturing anxieties of the long- drawn-out struggle by the appearance, and indeed for the moment the reality, of isolation from the brigade base. "In the exertions made by the third brigade during this supreme crisis, it is almost impossible to single out one battalion without injustice to others, but though the efforts of the Royal Highlanders of Mon- treal, thirteenth battalion, were only equal to those of the other battalions who did such heroic service, it so happened by chance that the fate of some of its officers attracted special attention. ''Major Norsworthy, already almost disabled by a bullet wound, was bayoneted and killed while he was rallying his men with easy cheerfulness. The case of Captain McCuaig, of the same battalion, was not less glorious, although his death can claim no witness. This most gallant officer was seriously wounded in a hurriedly constructed trench. At a moment when it 258 CANADIANS' GLORIOUS FEAT would have been possible to remove him to safety, he absolutely refused to move, and continued in the discharge of his duty. But the situation grew in- stantly worse, and peremptory orders were received for an immediate withdrawal. Those who were com- pelled to obey them were most insistent to carry with them, at whatever risk to their own mobility and safety, an officer to whom they were devotedly attached. But he, knoYrir^g, it may be, better than they, the exertions which still lay in front of them, and unwilling to inflict upon them the disabilities of a maimed man, very resolutely refused, and asked of them one thing only, that there should be given to him as he lay alone in the trench, two loaded Colt revolvers to add to his own, which lay in his right hand as he made his last request. And so, with three revolvers ready to his hand for use, a very brave officer waited to sell his life, wounded and racked with pain, in an abandoned trench. ''On Friday afternoon the left of the Canadian line was strengthened by important reinforcements of British troops, amounting to seven battalions. From this time forward the Canadians also continued to receive further assistance on the left from a series of French counter-attacks pushed in a northeasterly direction from the canal bank. OVERWHELMING NUMBERS "But the artillery fire of the enemy continually grew in intensity, and it became more and more evident that the Canadian salient could no longer be main- tained against the overwhelming superiority of 259 CANADIANS' GLORIOUS FEAT numbers by which it was assailed. Slowly, stub- bornly, and contesting every yard, the defenders gave ground until the salient gradually receded from the apex near the point where it had orig- inally aligned with the French, and fell back upon St. John. ''Soon it became evident that even St. Julien, exposed from right and left, was no longer tenable in the face of overwhelming numerical superiority. The third brigade was therefore ordered to retreat further south, selling every yard of ground as dearly as it had done since five o'clock on Thursday. But it was found impossible, without hazarding far larger forces- to disentangle the detachment of the Royal High- landers of Montreal, thirteenth battalion, and of the Royal Montreal Regiment, fourteenth battalion. The brigade was ordered, and not a moment too soon, to move back. It left these units with hearts as heavy as those of his comrades who had said farewell to Captain McCuaig. ''The German line rolled, indeed, over the deserted village, but for several hours after the enemy had become master of the village the sullen and persistent rifle fire which survived showed that they were not yet master of the Canadian rear guard. If they died, they died worthy of Canada. The enforced retirement of the third brigade (and to have stayed longer would have been madness) reproduced for the second brigade, commanded by Brigadier-General Curry, in a singu- larly exact fashion the position of the third brigade itself at the moment of the withdrawal of the French. 260 CANADIANS' GLORIOUS FEAT SECOND BRIGADE PUT TO TEST "The second brigade, it must be remembered, had retained the whole line of trenches, roughly five hundred yards, which it was holding at five o'clock on Thursday afternoon, supported by the incomparable exertions of the third brigade, and by the highly hazardous deployment in which necessity had involved that brigade. The second brigade had maintained its lines. It now devolved upon General Curry, commanding this brigade, to reproduce the tactical maneuvers by which earlier in the fight the third brigade had adapted itself to the flank movement of overwhelming numerical superiority. He flung his left flank round and his record is that in the very crisis of this immense struggle he held his line of trenches from Thursday at five o'clock until Sunday afternoon, and on Sunday after- noon he had not abandoned his trenches. There were none left. They had been obliterated by artillery. He withdrew his undefeated troops from the fragments of his field fortifications, and the hearts of his men were as completely unbroken as the parapets of his trenches were completely broken. Such a brigade! ''It is invidious to single out any battalion for special praise, but it is perhaps necessary to the story to point out that Lieutenant-Colonel Lipsett, com- manding the ninetieth Winnipeg Rifles, eighth bat- talion, of the second brigade, held the extreme left of the brigade position at the most critical moment. "The battahon was expelled from the trenches early on Friday morning by an emission of poisonous gas, but recovering in three-quarters of an hour, it ^JOunter-attacked; retook the trenches it had abandoned 261 CANADIANS' GLORIOUS FEAT and bayoneted the enemy, and after the third brigade had been forced to retire, Lieutenant-Colonel Lipsett held his position, though his left was in the air, until two British regiments filled up the gap on Saturday night. CAPTURE OF ST. JULIEN '•'The individual fortunes of those two brigades have brought us to the events of Sunday afternoon, but it is necessary, to make the story complete, to recur for a moment to the events of the morning. "After a very formidable attack the enemy suc- ceeded in capturing the village of St. Julien, which has so often been referred to in describing the fortunes of the Canadian left. This success opened up a new and formidable line of advance, but by this time further reinforcements had arrived. Here again it became evident that the tactical necessities of the situation dictated an offensive movement, as the surest method of arresting further progress. "General Alderson, who was in conmiand of the reinforcements, accordingly directed that an advance should be made by a British brigade which had been brought up in support. The attack was thrust through the Canadian left and center, and as the troops making it swept on, many of them going to certain death, they paused an instant, and with deep-throated cheers for Canada gave the first indication to the division of the warm admiration which their exertions had excited in the British army. "The advance was indeed costly, but it could not 262 ' CANADIANS' GLORIOUS FEAT be gainsaid. The story is one of which the brigade may be proud, but it does not belong to the special account of the fortunes of the Canadian contingent. It is sufficient for our purpose to notice that the attack succeeded in its object, and the German advance along the line, which was mom^entarily threatened, was arrested. "We had reached, in describing the events of the afternoon, the points at which the trenches of the second brigade had been completely destroyed. This brigade and the third brigade, and the considerable reinforcements which by this time filled the gap between the two brigades, were gradually driven, fighting every yard, upon a line running, roughly, from Fortuin, south of St. Julien, in a northeasterly direction towards Passchendale. Here the two brigades were relieved by two British brigades, after exertions as gloriou», as fruitful, and, alas! as costly, as soldiers have ever been called upon to make. '^Monday morning broke bright and clear, and found the Canadians behind the firing line. This day, too, was to bring its anxieties. The attack was still pressed, and it became necessary to ask Brigadier-General Curry whether he could once more call upon his shrunken brigade. A HERO LEADING HEROES '''The men are tired,' this indomitable soldier rephed, 'but they are ready and glad to go again to the trenches.' And so once more, a hero leading heroes, the general marched back the men of the second brigade, reduced to a quarter of its original 263 CANADIANS' GLORIOUS FEAT strength, to the apex of the hne as it existed at that moment. ''This position he held all day Monday. On Tuesday he was still occupying reserve trenches, and on Wednes- day was relieved and retired to billets in the rear. "Such, in the most general outline, is the story of a great and glorious feat of arms. A story told so soon after the event, while tendering bare justice to units whose doings fell under the eyes of particular observers, must do less than justice to others who played their part — and all did — as gloriously as those whose special activities it is possible, even at this stage, to describe. But the friends of men who fought in other battalions may be content in the knowledge that they, too, shall learn, when time allows, the exact part which each unit played in these unforgettable days." 2G4 g S B Pod T3 B P* II - '4S o &■ 6 M ffi 2.2 ^ § § M a !2 rti fB J >. c p p q B o ri- H »-^§ § 5» ^ S O r.^ ^ I-" Q . . ~ 21 Es' to W o .. . _