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Title: The Note-Book of an Attache
Seven Months in the War Zone
Author: Eric Fisher Wood
Release Date: October 5, 2009 [EBook #30179]
Language: English
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The Note Book
Of An Attaché
Seven Months in the War Zone
By ERIC FISHER WOOD
With Illustrations from Photographs
A. L. BURT COMPANY
Publishers New York
Published by Arrangements with THE CENTURY COMPANY
COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY
THE CENTURY CO.
_Published, June, 1915_
[Illustration: MR. MYRON T. HERRICK]
FOREWORD
When the war-storm suddenly loomed over Europe at the end of July,
1914, I was quietly studying architecture in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts
at Paris. When Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia on July 24th,
the atmosphere of the city became so surcharged with excitement that
to persist in study was difficult. Within a week I myself had been
swept into the vortex of rushing events, from which I did not emerge
until seven months later.
I became Attaché at the American Embassy in Paris under the regime of
Mr. Herrick, and as such lived through the first exciting months of
the great war. During the months of September, October, and November,
I made four different trips to the front, covering territory which
extended along the battle-line from Vitry-le-François in the east to a
point near Dunkirk in the west. I saw parts of the battles of the
Marne and the Aisne, and the struggle for Calais.
The months of December and January I spent as a bearer of special
dispatches between the American Embassies and went several times to
France, England, Switzerland, Holland, Germany, Austria, and Hungary.
I have seen French, British, Belgian, and German troops in action. I
have seen French, Swiss, Dutch, German, Austrian, and Hungarian troops
in manoeuvres. I spent the first week of February in Paris, leaving
there for America on February 10th.
The following account of what I saw and heard is compiled from letters
and diaries which I wrote day by day on the spot. Some of my
experiences have had to be omitted for diplomatic reasons, and it has
been necessary, in some cases, to give information without mentioning
my authority. The higher the rank and the greater the reputation of my
informant, the less right have I to mention his name.
Although my personal sympathies are with the French, I tried to
observe dispassionately and accurately, and have scrupulously aimed to
present my facts uncolored by preference or prejudice. In war,
exaggeration and misrepresentation play an accepted part in the
tactics of belligerents, but it should be the aim of a neutral to
observe with an unbiased mind, no matter what the state of his
emotions may be. Otherwise, the data he collects can have no value as
historical material.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I.--AT THE AMERICAN EMBASSY 3
II.--THE GERMANS NEARING PARIS 42
III.--WITH THE BRITISH ARMY. THE NIGHT BEFORE THE BATTLE
OF THE MARNE 68
IV.--THE BATTLE OF THE MARNE 82
V.--ANALYSIS OF THE BATTLE OF THE MARNE 126
VI.--THE BATTLE OF THE AISNE 153
VII.--THE AMERICAN AMBULANCE 174
VIII.--GERMANY AND BERLIN 203
IX.--CARRYING DISPATCHES FROM BERLIN TO LONDON 234
X.--VIENNA 247
XI.--HUNGARY 256
XII.--A GERMAN PRISON CAMP 288
APPENDIX 303
THE NOTE-BOOK OF AN ATTACHÉ
CHAPTER I
AT THE AMERICAN EMBASSY
_Paris, Tuesday, August 4th._ I presented myself at the American
Embassy today and offered my services to Mr. Herrick. They were
promptly accepted. I was put to work with such suddenness that no time
was spent in determining my official status. I cannot say whether I am
a doorman or an Attaché. At present the duties of the two seem to be
identical.
Now, as in 1870, the German Embassy in leaving France turned over its
affairs and the interests of German subjects remaining in France to
the American Ambassador. When I arrived today the _Chancellerie_
presented an astounding sight. Around the outer door were huddled a
compact crowd of Germans, men and women; they pressed about the
entrance; they glanced furtively over their shoulders and their blue
eyes were filled with dumb apprehension. Inside the _Chancellerie_ was
chaos. Hundreds of Americans and Germans crowded together seeking
audience and counsel. German women sank down in corners of the halls
or on the stairs, weeping for joy to have found a haven of refuge.
Scores of Sovereign American Citizens stood in the busiest spots and
protested with American vehemence against fate and chance. Each S.A.C.
was remonstrating about a separate grievance. Most of them reiterated
from time to time their sovereignty, and announced to no one in
particular that it was their right to see "their Ambassador" in
person. They demanded information! They needed money! They wished to
know what to do with letters of credit! What was "the government"
going to do about sending them home? Was Paris safe? Would there be
immediate attacks by Zeppelins? Could they deposit their jewels in
the Embassy vaults? Were passports necessary? WHY were passports
necessary? They asked the same questions over and over, and never
listened to the answers.
Inspired by Mr. Herrick, the staff of the Embassy struggled bravely
and coolly through this maelstrom, and accomplished as many things as
possible each minute. No fifty men could have gone through with all
the work that suddenly demanded attention. Without warning, virtually
within one day, this great flood of humanity had rolled in upon the
normally tranquil life of the Embassy, and yet its chief and his
assistants took up the vast responsibility as quietly and acted as
coolly as though it were all an everyday occurrence and not the
emergency of a lifetime.
I was first assigned to work with the American problems. William
Iselin, who had been one of my fellow-students in the Ecole des Beaux
Arts, is Attaché at the Embassy and he gave me a rapid summary of
necessary information. I plunged into work with eagerness, but while
attending to my own countrymen, my deepest personal sympathies went
out to the mob of panic-stricken Germans. Poor creatures, they are in
no way personally responsible for the war, and yet they bear no mean
part in the suffering it is causing. It was decreed by the French
government that all Germans who had not left Paris within twenty-four
hours after the order of mobilization would on no condition be
permitted to leave thereafter. Many of them had found it absolutely
impossible to depart in time owing to the difficulty of obtaining
money and to the disarrangement of the railway service caused by the
mobilization of troops. The second day of mobilization, August 3d,
caught them like rats in a trap and exposed them to the doubtful fate
of being lost in an enemy's country during war time. Many of them were
travelers who had been vacationing in the château country, visiting
the cathedrals of Normandy, or enjoying the picturesque country of
Brittany. Last week they were everywhere treated with respect and
politeness, today they are looked upon with suspicion and hostility.
They are hungry and they have no money. They are surrounded by looks
of hatred and they are terror-stricken. No Frenchman but fears to be
seen speaking to them. They have no place to sleep as no hotel or
lodging-house dares harbor them. Many of them have lost all their
worldly goods and possess nothing except the clothes in which they
stand. Nearly all of them carried their funds in letters of credit on
German banks and these are now worthless in France.
There are refined women who have slept in the streets and parks, nay,
who have not been allowed to sleep, but have walked all night in their
patent leather pumps. There are rich men who literally have not an
available copper and whose eyes have taken on the nervous look of
hunted animals. They realize that neither their sound reputation nor
abundant wealth will alter their present condition by even one "petit
pain de cinq centimes." One man who carried bank-books and deeds
showing that he owned property to the amount of several hundred
thousand francs had walked twelve miles to reach the Embassy, because
he did not possess the coppers necessary to pay his carfare in a
public conveyance.
Yesterday war was declared between France and Germany. One realizes
how quickly it has come when in the American mail yesterday morning a
copy of the _New York Times_ dated only ten days ago devoted just a
column and a quarter to the subject of possible friction between
Austria and Serbia. When that newspaper left New York the whole world
was at peace, but while it was crossing the ocean war has overwhelmed
all Europe, and now when it reaches Paris twenty million men are
rushing to arms.
Today peace-loving France realizes that she is attacked by a powerful
and ambitious enemy. Today no man in all _la Patrie_ regrets the
sacrifices which he has made to maintain an army capable of defending
his country; no man but gives fervent thanks to Heaven that he has
been forced to pay taxes to support that army; no man regrets those
three years of his life which he and each of his fellow-countrymen
offered up in order that its number might not diminish, for now that
army stands READY to prevent the ruin of his property, of his nation,
of his women. It is Ready! At this moment--what a wonderful word! In
modern wars little is of use which has not been prepared beforehand.
Weeks only are necessary to ruin untrained and ill-armed forces, while
years are needed to train an army and to manufacture arms. The
victories of today are not won by Bravery armed with a rifle, but by
Science supplemented by many complicated instruments.
Every hour of every day presents new sights or experiences unique in
kind and all speaking dramatically of war. Each such sight is a
surprise more vivid than the preceding one. Every day is a succession
of startling novelties, each of which gives one a tingling shock. We
are living so rapidly that some are benumbed, others intoxicated by
the rush of events.
In the shops the prices of food staples have nearly doubled. The
people are all anxious to lay in a little supply of provisions against
sudden famine conditions, and the merchants are holding them up for
all the traffic will bear. Articles that will keep indefinitely, such
as flour, chocolate, dried fruits, potatoes, coffee, and preserved
meats, are most in demand. Owing to the hand-to-mouth buying methods
of the French, Paris is never more than three days ahead of famine. No
one realizes this better than the French themselves, and therefore
each and every one desires to lay in at least a small supply of
provisions. A temporary shortage has consequently already occurred.
The newspapers have been emphatic in the denunciation of the merchants
who, taking advantage of the national crisis, and making capital of
the fear and need of the populace, have raised the prices of the
necessaries of life, and have advised the people not to submit to the
imposition. Today the poorer classes have adopted the policy of
smashing anything for which an unreasonable price is demanded. I heard
a big, broad "femme du peuple" ask the corner grocer the price of some
prunes, several bushels of which were exhibited in front of the store.
The reply indicating a rise of some fifty per cent. in the price, the
woman suddenly picked up the basket in her strong arms, and before the
astonished grocer could interfere, threw the whole lot into the
gutter. Instantly a crowd collected which cheered the woman and jeered
the grocer in so ugly a manner that he was thoroughly frightened. His
confusion was made quite complete when a policeman arrived and
declared that what the woman had done was well done. The results of
this policy were immediately salutary and by this evening the
shopkeepers of Paris are a very chastened lot, and prices are quite
normal again.
The eagerness with which newspapers are bought and read is noteworthy.
Each succeeding "extra" is snapped up with unfailing alacrity. The
usual procedure is now reversed, for the newsboy is no longer seen
racing at the beck of some haughty customer, but continues on his
lordly way and allows the would-be purchaser to rush to him, or even
run down the streets after him. The great journals seem unable to turn
out enough editions or to get them out fast enough to meet the demand.
The authorities, however, evidently consider this continual hawking of
sensational news unnecessarily disturbing to the populace, and an
ordinance is to be framed forbidding the crying of newspapers in the
streets.
The Tour Eiffel, that plaything of a decade ago, has in this war
become of supreme importance. It is the highest "wireless mast" in the
world and from it messages have been exchanged with Washington, D.C.
Its value as a sending station cannot be over-estimated. Russia may
become isolated; indeed she is already virtually shut off by the
curtain of hostile Germany and Austria-Hungary, stretching from the
North Sea and the Baltic to the Adriatic. It is probable that wireless
messages sent and received by the Tour Eiffel will soon be the only
means of rapid communication between France and Russia. Fears for the
safety of the tower have led to the most extraordinary precautions for
its protection. It is assiduously guarded against the attack of spies
by numerous sentries. Anti-aircraft guns are mounted upon its various
stages to protect it against aëroplanes and Zeppelins, and heavy
barbed-wire entanglements are to be built all around it.
A curfew regulation is now in force in Paris. No one is allowed in the
streets after eight o'clock. Whoever is found out later than that hour
is promptly conducted to his domicile by the first policeman he meets.
I received a cablegram tonight explaining that there is at the moment
no means of forwarding money from New York to Paris. This makes my
financial situation awkward, as I now have only three hundred francs.
The worst of it is that one cannot even resort to the expedient of
borrowing, because all one's friends are suffering a like stringency.
Today is, officially, the "third day of mobilization." From now on
France will live not by calendar, but by mobilization, days. One
speaks not of "Sunday, August 2d," but of the "first day of
mobilization." Neither days of the week nor of the month exist any
longer. All government decrees, railroad schedules, and military
orders are dated by the new era. Events follow a schedule which has
long since been prepared. When mobilization is announced the nation
turns away from its everyday life and from the world's calendar, and
starts a carefully rehearsed set of operations executed according to
an arbitrary schedule. One dimly remembers that if it were "peace
time" today would be Tuesday.
One sees everywhere on the sidewalk little knots of people talking in
low, troubled voices, and each time just as their conversation is well
started they are interrupted by a policeman who reminds them that it
is not permitted to _s'attrouper_ in the streets and that they must
move on.
Everywhere one sees speeding taxicabs, each containing a young
soldier, his family, and two or three bundles. The young man usually
wears a brand new uniform. The women of the family are invariably
weeping quietly as if to say: "I cannot help crying, because I am a
woman, but everything is all right and just as it should be!" When the
father is of the party, he has a calm face and sits beside his son
with his arm around the son's shoulders, and always the taxi speeds
madly, so that each time one gets only the most fleeting glimpse of
the family within.
There are very few soldiers left in Paris,--not a fifth as many as
usual; those that one does see are most of them driving heavily-loaded
army wagons and appear most disgusted with the unheroic service.
Auto-busses have completely disappeared from the streets, and this is
a great inconvenience; they are all at Versailles being converted into
meat wagons or ambulances. All the fast private automobiles are
requisitioned for the army, and one sees them tearing along vying in
speed with the flying taxis, each one driven by a sapper with another
sapper in the footman's place, while one or two officers sit calmly
behind, trying to smoke cigarettes in spite of the wind.
There are persistent rumors throughout Paris of battles "near Metz" or
"on the borders of Luxembourg," of "two hundred and thirty thousand
French troops already in Alsace," "ten thousand French killed at
Belfort," or "forty thousand German prisoners taken."
The papers already announce a series of German depredations across the
border into the ten kilometer strip of country between it and the
French armies. It is reported that German foragers are infesting this
strip, carrying off everything of value. Yesterday morning the papers
printed the first "war story," which recounts how a patrol of Uhlans
penetrating some ten kilometers into French territory were halted by a
French sentinel, a soldier nineteen years old. The German in command,
thinking the sentinel was alone, shot him through the head and was
himself in turn immediately shot dead by the boy's comrades, who had
been hidden near by in an improvised guard-house. The papers also
announced that the president of the League of French Patriots in
Alsace had been arrested and shot. These stories and others like them,
coupled with the official report of the violation of Luxembourg and of
the sending of a German ultimatum to Belgium, have intensely excited
the French.
Until yesterday the people of Paris have been forbearing with such
German subjects as are in the city. When these stories began to
circulate certain elements of the population took prompt and drastic
action against the German-owned shops of the city. During the day many
such shops have been wrecked. The milk trust of Paris which sells "le
Bon Lait Maggi" is popularly supposed to be owned by German capital.
Its shops are in every quarter of the city, one might almost say on
every street. They have today been the first objects of attack. One of
these shops is in the Rue ----, not far from my apartment. I saw it
wrecked this afternoon. There was no excitement, no hurry, no
shouting. A crowd collected, apparently without concerted action, but
as if by common impulse. There was no prearrangement or system about
it and no "French" excitement. Most of the raiders were women. There
was some jesting, and some dry wit, but mostly it was serious
business.
The work of wrecking was carried forward painstakingly and thoroughly.
The iron screen over the show-window was torn off and broken up and
the window itself was smashed to bits, the door was broken open, every
bit of glass or crockery was shivered to fragments against the
sidewalk and the pieces were ground into powder under the heels of the
raiders. Account books and bill-heads were torn sheet by sheet into
the tiniest bits and strewn up and down the street for a block, and
all woodwork was smashed into kindling. During the operations a
patrol of policemen on bicycles went tearing by. They must have been
on business of great and immediate importance since they had no time
to stop nor to look either to the right or left. When the wrecking
operations were quite completed another patrol came by. The sergeant
in command dismounted. He wore a tremendous frown and with an
authoritative sweep of his arm cried: "Qu'est ce que vous faites?
Allez! Allez vous en! vous savez bien que nous sommes maintenant sous
la loi militaire, et que c'est défendu de s'attrouper dans les rues!
Allez! Allez!" ("What are you doing? Move along, get out of here! You
know that we are now under martial law and that it is forbidden to
collect in crowds in the streets. Move on, move on!").
The crowd instantly dispersed, wearing faces of great solemnity. It is
evident that he could not possibly have arrested the wreckers, for he
had himself seen nothing and it is not to be supposed that they would
have been witnesses against one another.
By night time there were many shops, factories, and cafés of German
ownership which had thus been raided. The crowds did not always
take time to make careful investigation before breaking up an
establishment. I shall never forget the plight of the French
proprietor of a café on the Place de l'Opéra who was standing in
front of his completely wrecked shop using all the most eloquent
French gestures, as he repeated over and over in helpless rage:
"Sacré nom d'un nom, je suis caporal du cent-dixième de réserve et
je pars au front après demain!" ("Sacred Name, I am Corporal of
the 110th Reserve and I leave for the front the day after tomorrow.")
Last evening I repeatedly heard the following conversation between
Frenchmen, wherever they met:
1st Frenchman: "Est-ce qu'on va boire du 'Bon Lait Maggi,'
ce soir?"
2d Frenchman (with the solemnity of an owl): "Non,
Monsieur!"
This formula of question and reply had travelled all over the city and
was repeated time after time with always the same internal relish.
On all sides of Paris speedy aëroplanes and daring aviators hold
themselves ready to dash upon any enemy who may approach by way of
the air and, if necessary, fall with him to mutual destruction. All
night the beams of searchlights comb the sky for invaders and cast a
tragic reflected glow upon the city beneath.
* * * * *
_Wednesday, August 5th._ Yesterday an all too enterprising individual
chartered one of the fast little Seine boats, always so beplastered
with "Dubonnet" advertisements, which ply along the river between the
Quai du Louvre and St. Cloud. He announced that since it was now no
longer possible to reach London via the train to Havre, he would
transport Americans on his little boat to England, going down the
Seine past Rouen and across the Channel. For such service each person
was to be charged an extravagant amount, payment strictly in advance.
The scheme was widely advertised to have the approval of the American
Ambassador, although no one at the Embassy knew anything about the
matter until Americans came to the _Chancellerie_ yesterday to ask for
further information. Mr. Herrick sent me out to investigate. The
promoter had evidently calculated that the Ambassador would not hear
about it until too late to interfere.
I found the whole proposition most impractical. The boat was far too
small for so dangerous a trip, there were no accommodations for so
long a voyage, and the question of food supplies was a very serious
one. Moreover, numerous and incalculable difficulties were involved in
passing through a country in a state of war.
Upon receiving the detailed report on the objections to the scheme,
Mr. Herrick promptly sent to the Paris papers a statement that his
alleged connection with or approval of the plan was a mistake. Notices
to the same effect were also posted in the halls of the Embassy.
This morning the crowd of Germans who thronged to the Embassy was
greatly increased, while the number of Americans was approximately the
same as yesterday; consequently several of the staff were transferred
from work with Americans to work with Germans, I being among them. It
is strenuous business handling these panic-stricken people.
Heretofore, the offices for the naval and military Attachés have been
located on the ground floor of the _Chancellerie_, but in the present
emergency this space is converted into an impromptu German Embassy,
all German affairs being concentrated here, while the Americans are
taken care of on the floor above. We are stationed two by two at desks
ranged along the walls of the entrance hall and we dispose of each
case as rapidly as possible as they are passed to us by the doorman.
All these Germans require four things: food, lodgings, protection, and
proper police papers. We began by doling out to them from one to three
francs each to be used to buy food. Our miserliness was due to the
fact that, under existing economic conditions, even the Embassy could
obtain only a limited amount of change, and it was essential that we
make that go as far as possible. In order to obtain at one and the
same time lodging and protection for our wards, Mr. Herrick arranged
with the French government that the Lycée Condorcet in the Rue du
Havre be set aside for the lodgment of German subjects. This building
is guarded by a squad of police who allow no one to enter who is not
the bearer of a certificate issued by the American Embassy. The Lycée
Condorcet is a great barn of a place, from which nearly all the
furniture has been removed, but it provides for the moment the two
essentials, a roof and safety. No owner of an hotel or apartment will
in these dangerous days harbor Germans, in each of whom he sees a
possible spy, and the government, suddenly called upon to house
thousands of aliens, responds to the appeal of the American Embassy
as best it can. Hundreds of Germans will tonight sleep on the bare
floor of the Lycée Condorcet, and be more thankful for that safe
resting-place than ever they have been for the most comfortable bed or
luxurious apartment.
No attempt was today made to provide Germans with the necessary police
papers. We had indeed no time to consider anything but food, shelter,
and safety. Tomorrow we shall attack that problem.
By three o'clock we had so systematized the work of handling the
Germans that I found I could, with the aid of two assistants, attend
to all the routine cases myself. This released the men at the other
tables to reinforce the American office on the floor above, whose
business had during the afternoon greatly increased. There was no
means or time for estimating in advance just how many people could be
crowded into the Lycée Condorcet, so I continued during the afternoon
to issue certificates of admission to all the Germans whom I examined.
On receiving their certificates most of them went at once to the
Lycée to get off the streets. By six o'clock the place was so crowded
that not another person could find room even to sit on the floor;
therefore the late arrivals, after having wearily trudged two long
miles from the Embassy to the Lycée, had to trudge back again from the
Lycée to the Embassy. By eight o'clock there were nearly a hundred of
these refugees huddled around the _Chancellerie_ and it was late in
the evening before I, by most desperate efforts, succeeded in making
arrangements for them for the night.
The French police have promulgated a regulation that all Germans now
in Paris are to be shut up in detention camps. They are ordered to
report immediately to the nearest police station, where they will
receive written notifications of the camps to which they have been
assigned, and of the date of their departure. The detention camps are
twelve in number and are located at Limoges, Gueret, Cahors, Libourne,
Périgueux, Saintes, Le Blanc, La Roche-sur-Yon, Chateauroux, Saumur,
Anger, and Flers. Several large trainloads will be shipped away from
Paris each day for the next two weeks. Exceptions to this edict are to
be made only in the case of Alsatians, and of those sick Germans who
are possessors of a certificate from some French physician stating
that they are too ill to endure transportation.
The frightened Germans find it difficult to understand the numerous
details involved in this order, and are hopelessly confused by the
various official papers they are required to obtain to safeguard them
against the accusation of being spies. The Embassy endeavors to keep
itself informed as to the latest police enactments, and these are
clearly and courteously explained to all the Germans who apply to the
Embassy for counsel or assistance.
* * * * *
_Sunday, August 9th._ During the past few days I have been absolutely
absorbed with the affairs of the Germans. I am at present in charge of
them and report results to the Second Secretary. I enter the Embassy
before nine in the morning and it is after midnight before I leave its
doors. None of the staff, not even Mr. Herrick himself, departs before
that hour. If some of the peacefully sleeping Sovereign American
Citizens who are so free with their criticisms during the daytime
could see the members of the Embassy in the early hours of the morning
at the end of our sixteen-hour day, they would perhaps pity
themselves less. We work always at high pressure; meals are hurriedly
swallowed at odd moments and at irregular hours. Each night I walk
home across Paris, down the Rue Freycinet, over the Pont de l'Alma,
through the Avenue Bosquet, Avenue Duquesne, Rue Oudinot to the Rue
d'Olivet--and sleep. It is a long walk when one is dead tired, but
there are no public conveyances at night and, indeed, few in the
daytime. The walk takes nearly an hour, even at a fast gait, for at
short intervals one is halted by policemen demanding explanations of
this midnight journey. Few experiences have been more weird than this
nightly trip through the familiar Paris streets, strangely dark and
absolutely deserted.
Each day is now a haze of Germans and their troubles; of policemen,
detectives, and soldiers, of tears and laughter, bits of the sublime
and the ridiculous; of women who have been robbed and men who have
been arrested as spies; of constant struggles to secure papers for
poor hounded creatures, which one policeman demands and another
refuses to grant; of beaten faces and tear-stained cheeks; of French
women endlessly begging unobtainable news of sons lost in Germany,
and of petty crookednesses on the part of those we are trying to help
and protect.
Affairs are, however, running more smoothly. We have found means to
get small change in large quantities, and I now know personally most
of the police officials who are concerned in German affairs.
* * * * *
I have heard the Marseillaise sung upon hundreds of peaceful
occasions; have risen when it was played in French theaters; have
enthusiastically joined in singing it at students' dinners, and have
been impressed by it in an unemotional and academic way. In peace
times one feels that it is easily the greatest of national anthems,
but fails to realize that it is primarily a battle song. This morning
for the first time I heard it sung as such, and as such shall forever
remember it. I was walking down the Rue de Sèvres toward the Boulevard
Montparnasse, hoping to pick up a stray taxicab which would carry me
to the Embassy. Suddenly, and with startling abruptness, I was brought
to a full stop by a wave of sharp, staccato vocal sound. Wave beat
upon wave,--a great volume of male voices shouting in unison. There
was something so strange, so startling, and so appalling in their
quality that, without comprehending what was coming, a shiver ran up
my spine. The sound swelled and came nearer, and suddenly the head of
a column of infantry swung into view past a street corner just ahead
and the dull "smash--smash--smash" of a thousand feet falling in
unison could be heard through the volume of sound. It was the
Marseillaise of war! The troops were marching to the Gare Montparnasse
to entrain for the front, and in a few days would be in the
battle-line. Their bayonets sloped backward, a waving thicket bent
toward the morning sun. There was no music in their words, which were
sharp and incisive. Each word was a threat, an imprecation, intense
with ferocious meaning. Their intonation carried conviction that the
men meant literally every impressive line they uttered. The words
visualized for me the picture in their own minds. I could sense their
desire to charge the Germans, to close in, to strike, to stab. Perhaps
the deliberate, vengeful premeditation to destroy is more terrible
than the act itself. I doubt if any battle could ever affect me as
did the song of those men. The result was so disintegrating to one's
psychology that for the rest of the day I completely lost balance of
judgment. I felt exultantly certain that the French were going to
smash Germany into tiny bits, and was equally sure that they could, if
need be, demolish all creation.
* * * * *
_Monday, August 10th._ Today Austria and France are officially at war.
The affairs of the Austro-Hungarian Embassy were turned over to us
this evening. This probably means that a flood of Austrians and
Hungarians will be tomorrow added to the Americans and Germans who
already keep us so busy.
Today for the first time we were able to complete all the business
brought to the Embassy. Previously we had to be content with
accomplishing as much as could be done in a sixteen-hour day.
* * * * *
_Wednesday, August 12th._ I have witnessed so much suffering during
the last week that to see people weep now no longer produces any
emotional effect upon me. One's sympathies get numbed by the
over-strain put upon them; the more keenly one feels, the more numb
one ultimately becomes. Today during the long day about five hundred
Austrians and Hungarians poured in upon the Embassy. I examined one
hundred and sixty-four cases between two o'clock and half-past four,
and gave monetary assistance to one hundred and twenty-one.
* * * * *
_Friday, August 14th._ During the past week six ten-dollar gold pieces
which have been sent me in letters arrived safely. Snugly held in
their pasteboard frames, they could not be detected by feeling the
letters. When the first one arrived I had spent virtually all the
money which I had on hand at the beginning of the war, and this good
American gold will tide me over until drafts can be sent through to
Paris. In New York in peace time sixty dollars seems a small amount,
but in France in war three hundred francs in gold looks a small
fortune. At least, it insures plenty of good food.
* * * * *
_Sunday, August 16th._ Until today I have had at the Embassy no
definite status. I have laughingly been dubbed the "German
Ambassador." Everyone has been much too busy to give thought to
anything so personal as position or titles. This morning, however,
time was found to send my name to the Minister of Foreign Affairs
as "Attaché Civil à l'Ambassade Américaine," and to request the
customary "coup fil."
* * * * *
_Monday, August 17th._ I have at last received money from America. It
came through Morgan, Harjes & Company. This firm has been the
salvation of our countrymen in Paris. They announced that "until
further notice" they would cash all American paper. They even take
personal checks on American banks. The "further notice," fortunately,
shows no signs of appearing.
* * * * *
_Thursday, August 20th._ The statue of Strasbourg on the Place de la
Concorde has been constantly hung with mourning wreaths and crêpe ever
since the capture and annexation of the city of Strasbourg by the
Germans forty-four years ago. Now it is piled with gay flowers and
bedecked with streamers and the arms of the lady are filled with
flags, conspicuous among which are those of Great Britain and Russia.
* * * * *
_Friday, August 21st._ Nearly all the Germans, Hungarians, and
Austrians have by this time been interned in the detention camps; all
ages and both sexes have been shipped away to a fate of which we as
yet have no knowledge.
I have been arranging the details of an automobile tour of inspection
to the various camps, in order to investigate the prisons and to
disburse to the prisoners the funds which have been received for their
benefit from their various governments. Such a trip will necessitate
nearly twelve hundred miles of travel and will require at least two
weeks' time.
Mr. Herrick sent for me today and questioned me as to the state of the
preparations. He told me that he intended to select me to make the
trip, and that I was to start as soon as the necessary permissions had
been received from the French Government. Attaché Herbert Hazeltine,
who has been a fellow-worker in behalf of the Germans, is to take
charge of the Paris office during my absence.
* * * * *
_Saturday, August 22d._ German affairs are now reduced to a system.
The Embassy each day opens to Americans at ten o'clock. I begin with
my Germans and Austrians at nine in order to get clear of the least
desirable element before the Americans appear. In that first hour we
dispose of about fifty per cent.; the half that need only routine
assistance. At present I receive them in the entrance hall of the
Embassy at the far end. I sit at the desk facing the door and have the
money sent by the German Government for destitute cases on my left
hand in a drawer against the wall. An Austrian, long resident in
Paris, and president of the Austro-Hungarian Relief Society, is placed
on my right to give me the benefit of his long experience in charity
work. He already knows many of those who apply for aid and can judge
whether or not they are really destitute. Beyond him is another
assistant who fills out receipts for each sum distributed and obtains
the signature of the recipient. Special appointments for the afternoon
hours are made with those applicants who want information or help
which cannot immediately be decided upon.
The crowd outside the door, often several hundred in number, is kept
in order by two policemen. Assistants hand out numbers like those used
for the Paris auto-busses, not given however for priority, but for
undesirability; the least desirable getting in first so that we may be
the sooner rid of them. These assistants also see that each applicant
has the correct papers in his hand, and that three of them are waiting
in line to facilitate the steady flow of the human current. The
receipts and my entries form a double record and check to be used in
the official accounts which are balanced every day and in the end will
be transmitted in reports to the German and Austrian Governments. A
stenographer keeps an indexed, alphabetical list of all the
applicants, which enables me to find the past record of any case which
reappears. In addition to this, I have a system of hieroglyphics which
I write in on the lower right-hand corner of the police papers which
every foreigner must at all times carry with him for identification.
There is also an interpreter for those rare comers who speak neither
French nor English. By this system I have managed to examine as many
as one hundred and thirty-five cases in an hour, and once as high a
number as seven hundred in a single day.
At the beginning of the war there were probably at least thirty
thousand Germans and Austrians in or near Paris who became wards of
the American Embassy when the affairs of the German and Austrian
Embassies were turned over to us, all of them needing to be furnished
with proper police papers and to be provided with a refuge until such
time as they are shipped to detention camps in the south of France.
* * * * *
_Sunday, August 23d._ Here in Paris, extraordinary as it may seem, we
have had no real news of the progress of the war. The Official
Communiqués carry to a fine point the art of saying nothing of any
importance. The newspapers are so strictly censored that they are
permitted to publish little except these _communiqués_ or editorials
based upon them. Letters and papers from America really give us the
first accounts of events which are happening at our very gates. We
know by rumor that there has been heavy fighting somewhere and
somewhen. Many German prisoners are being taken around Paris southward
to the detention camps which I hope soon to visit, and the flags of
three German regiments have been brought to Paris and exhibited with
considerable ceremony. This should indicate that battles favorable to
the French have been fought, since a German regiment numbers three
thousand men and would defend its flag to the last.
Of late one sees everywhere numbers of women in mourning, increasing
so rapidly as to attract the attention of even the least observing.
Paris still maintains a strange calm. The stillness of the city is
positively oppressive. Even the newsboys drag slowly along calling in
a disheartened voice their wares which no longer contain any news and
which, in consequence, find few buyers.
The people seem to realize from the very lack of news that this is to
be a long and terrible war and that any decisive result cannot be at
present expected.
Letters are constantly arriving at the Embassy, forwarded to us with
great care by French soldiers who have found them on the bodies of
dead Germans, or received them from the hands of the dying. They are
sent to us in the hope that we may eventually find means to transmit
them to Germany to the relatives of the dead for whom they were
intended. Today came such a note written by a German airman who had
been shot down out of the sky. He had evidently realized that his
time was short and had hurriedly scribbled on the back of a sheet of
instructions printed in German script the few words he could summon
strength to write. The scrap of paper was torn and smudgy and a
thumb-print in blood was impressed on one corner. Each word was more
shaky and labored than the preceding one, as if each had been traced
only by a supreme effort. On it was written in German, "Good-bye,
Mother and Father. My leg is crushed. The French are very kind
and...." A foot-note had been added by some French soldier explaining
that the man had died while he was writing, and giving the means of
identification which had been found on the body.
* * * * *
_Monday, August 24th._ Yesterday and this morning I have observed a
very singular psychological phenomenon. Neither yesterday nor today
have the authorities given out any military news of importance and the
papers have been as non-committal as usual, yet all Paris believes
that the Allies have suffered a great and terrible defeat at a place
in Belgium called Charleroi. The whole city is as if it were under a
pall. Every face wears a fatalistic expression terrible to behold. I
have read of such mysterious spreading of evil tidings, but have never
before witnessed anything of the kind. It is a very curious
manifestation, whether or not it proves to have any foundation in
fact.[1]
[Footnote 1: The French and British armies suffered a crushing defeat
at Charleroi on August 22d-23d. As a result they were driven back a
distance of 150 miles and only succeeded in making a stand after they
had reached a point southeast of Paris.]
* * * * *
The French find a superstitious encouragement in an acrostic which
some ingenious journalist has constructed out of the names of the
Commanders-in-Chief of the French and British armies. Here it is:
JOF | FRE
____|_____
|
FRE | NCH
* * * * *
With Paris unlighted at night, it is an uncanny experience to walk
through a great city which is absolutely dark. The Champs-Elysées is
probably at present the darkest avenue on earth. All those monumental
lamp-posts which used to stand like beacons in the midst of the
stream of traffic now shine no more. The sun seldom rises without
revealing the ruins of one of these lamps and of an automobile, the
two having mutually destroyed each other in the darkness. We do not
know why the city is left in gloom. The common interpretation is a
necessity to save gas and coal.
I do such a variety of things each day! This morning I managed to get
away from the Embassy for an hour in one of the several automobiles
which have been loaned to Attachés and which are driven by their
American owners. During that time I arranged for the delivery of
twenty thousand francs in small change which I shall take with me on
my trip to the detention camps, ordered a lot of printing, and
obtained fifteen hundred francs in change for tomorrow's crowd of
German and Austrian indigents. I visited the editor of a newspaper and
arranged for the correction of an article giving some misinformation
about Embassy affairs, and then ended up by making a verbal report of
the morning's work to Mr. Frazier.
* * * * *
_Tuesday, August 25th._ The Military Governor of Paris is now invested
with absolute and autocratic powers. He makes what regulations he
chooses and is authorized to punish any infraction of his rule with
the death penalty. He has taken advantage of his position to institute
various reforms which have for years been much needed but which have
hitherto been persistently blocked by "politics." He is no longer
required to argue with bureaucracies or to convince legislatures. He
acts without hindrance. He has thus, out of hand, settled some of the
great problems with which Paris has been struggling for years. With a
stroke of the pen, for instance, he has made it illegal to buy, sell,
or possess absinthe. He is said to have destroyed the long menace of
the Apache gangs by summarily shooting down all that could be found in
Paris. He has by drastic measures suppressed gambling, and has even
done away with the slot machines of chance which have so long stood in
all the cafés to catch the hard-earned sous of the workmen. It is
probable that these reforms will be permanent and will stand even when
martial law in Paris is abolished. It is always difficult to
accomplish a great reform, but it is often impossible to undo it once
it is an accepted fact. If we had real prohibition in America and
Woman Suffrage, I hardly think that we should vote to have "whiskey"
brought back or ever disfranchise our women.
* * * * *
_Friday, August 28th._ Public vehicles are now almost unobtainable.
Taxicabs are to be secured only after much delay and at exorbitant
prices. It has become more and more a waste of time for me to cross
Paris on foot each morning and evening and to do much of my Embassy
work at the same disadvantage. I have attempted to solve the
difficulty by engaging by the week one of those archaic old horse
chaises called fiacres. London has placed a hansom in the British
Museum with the other obsolete and historic styles of equipages, but
frugal Paris has kept her out-of-date vehicles on exhibition in active
use on the boulevards. These conveyances, so recently looked down upon
for their slow pace as compared with the speed of taxis, are now
restored to something of their former prestige.
The fiacre I have acquired is navigated by Paul, who has been a Paris
_cocher_ for thirty-five years, and its one-horse power is furnished
by his faithful old horse Grisette. True to type, Paul is stout and
jovial. He considers it a great honor to drive for a member of an
Embassy and always sits up very straight on his box, for to come and
go on missions concerning "les affaires des Etats-Unis" has imbued him
with a great sense of dignity and importance. When waiting in front of
the Embassy among the limousines he maintains a rigid and dignified
position and insists that Grisette, for her part, shall hold up her
head and stand on all four feet.
Each noon Paul drives Hazeltine and myself down the nearly deserted
Champs-Elysées for lunch at the Café Royal. We must make an absurd
spectacle with so much dignity on the box and a total lack of it
behind, for Hazeltine and I, relaxing from the strenuous work of the
morning, lounge in the seat with our feet far out in front, as we
discuss with great vehemence affairs connected with our Embassy work.
The pleasure and pride which Paul experiences in his present
"position" he shares with Grisette, with whom and of whom he speaks as
if she were human. He perorates upon her manifold good qualities,
usually ending with the statement that she is "bonne comme du bon
pain," while Grisette modestly pretends that she does not hear herself
thus praised.
CHAPTER II
THE GERMANS NEARING PARIS
_Saturday, August 29th._ Paris feels the oppression of war more and
more each day. There have been so many "morts pour la patrie" that
everywhere there are families who have been stricken by the loss of a
member. This leaven of sorrow gives to the population as a whole a
somber tone.
Perfectly frightful stories of German barbarities are circulating.
They are almost unbelievable, but seem to have some confirmation.
Many of the wounded Frenchmen when returning from the front bring
trophies of battle, such as German swords, bayonets, and buttons. The
most prized possession of all is the German spiked helmet. Barring
only the scalp of the American Indian, a more significant trophy could
not be imagined. It is not only significant but gorgeously handsome.
Moreover, it is everywhere on earth accepted as the symbol of the
Prussian militarism.
Today Mr. Herrick sent an Attaché with a fast automobile out toward
Compiègne, which is thirty-eight miles from the Porte St. Denis. The
man was not permitted to approach the town, but from hills on this
side he could hear the constant rumble of heavy guns. He returned to
Paris giving it as his opinion that a battle was being fought at
Compiègne. This, however, is so improbable that he can find no one to
credit his report. The idea is really too preposterous! The truth
might be that manoeuvres of the French army were in progress, or
that the forts around Paris were practising. We have been warned that
this might occur. The war was not declared four weeks ago; how then
would it be possible for the Germans already to be at Compiègne?
Before they could reach a point so near Paris they must first reduce
the triple line of the French frontier fortifications, which are the
product of more than forty years of study and labor and form a greater
barrier than any ocean. Even were these reduced, the Germans would
have to beat back the French active army numbering one and a half
million men. Compiègne is no farther from Paris than Peekskill is from
New York.
* * * * *
_Sunday, August 30th._ The rumors of evil which yesterday all refused
to believe as absolutely incredible are today accepted as facts. No
bad news has yet appeared in print, the censor having suppressed even
the slightest hint of misfortune. This lack of any definite
information has had a disintegrating effect upon the public morale.
Since all official news is denied them, the people add to their
previous personal anxiety a ghastly terror of the unknown, multiplied
and intensified as it manifests itself in the masses, already in a
high state of excitement.[2]
[Footnote 2: I have been informed by American officials on duty in
Berlin that they have never observed any misstatement of fact, or any
essential omission in the _communiqués_ of the German Government.
This, during my brief visits within the borders of the Empire, was
certainly borne out by my own experience. Defeats are announced as
automatically as victories. An illustration of the advantageous effect
of this procedure upon public morale and of the disadvantageous effect
of the opposite occurred after the Battle of the Marne. The French,
who should logically have gained the greatest encouragement, had so
learned to distrust their official _communiqués_, that they gained no
advantage of this kind whatsoever, while the Germans, who ought to
have received no moral stimulus from so material a disaster, underwent
a fresh _accroissement_ of their patriotic determination as a result
of the frank announcement that the war was no longer going "according
to specifications."]
Paris knows with a conviction that nothing can alter that the French
armies have met defeat at all points along the line. They do not need
dates, or names, or numbers; the one terrible fact that the Germans
are again nearing the gates of Paris stands out with greater intensity
because all details are withheld.
The Bank of Paris has begun to move. I felt it was an historically
memorable day when I stood this morning before its great doors and
watched the nervous, hurrying messengers endlessly streaming in and
out as they loaded a row of trucks with France's money bags. The
bearers looked for all the world like a stream of ants carrying their
larvæ to safety when an ant-hill is broken open.
It is commonly reported that the French Government is planning to flee
from Paris. If that actually occurs the papers will doubtless announce
it as a "strategic retreat." The members of the various Embassies are
becoming frightfully nervous and most of them will probably leave at
the same time.
At the American _Chancellerie_ all goes on quite as usual, partly
because we are so busy that there is no time to worry, but principally
because Mr. Herrick is so calm and confident that he sets all the
other members a compelling example.
Early this afternoon it was reported at the Embassy that a German
aëroplane had flown over Paris and had dropped several bombs, one of
which had fallen near the St. Lazare Hospital. Mr. Herrick sent me out
to investigate. I found that there had really been an aëroplane and
that it had thrown three bombs, all of which had exploded. Many
windows had been broken and one old woman had been killed. Few people,
however, had actually seen the aëroplane.
The censor allowed details of the affair to be published in the
evening papers, including what purported to be a translation of a note
dropped by the German, saying: "The German army is at the gates of
Paris. Nothing remains for you but to surrender.--Lieutenant von
Heidssen." This is an example of the inexplicable working of the
censorship. The people tonight all seemed to believe that the German's
note is authentic.
The papers recently published an account of the arrival at a Paris
hospital of a wounded Turco who had brought as trophy a German spiked
helmet. The peculiar element reported was that the head was still in
the helmet. I doubt the truth of this story. It is, however, another
example of the extraordinary workings of the censor's mind. He
suppresses every vestige of harmless war news on the plea that it
might "assist the enemy," and then permits the publication of such a
hate-breeding tale as this.
* * * * *
_Monday, August 31st._ Another German aëroplane flew over the city
today and again threw bombs. It arrived at six in the evening. The
psychological effect on Paris has been incalculable. Yesterday's Taube
went virtually unobserved; it did not seem to need explanation, and
its visit could be interpreted as a freakish exploit--the solitary one
of its kind. The attack of another Taube today put an entirely
different face upon the matter. Nothing better could have been
calculated to disquiet the French. They have always considered
themselves kings of the air and have felt that, whatever else might be
found wanting, at least the French aviators would always rule that
element. Today every soul in Paris saw the Taube. Until now anything
about the Germans' approach has been rumor and hearsay, but now comes
this plain fact for all the world to see; and what more convincing or
spectacular evidence of their nearness could be set before the
Parisians than a German aëroplane flying over their heads? I think it
will prove the spark to light one of the historical explosions of the
French people, and that this will probably show itself in extreme
panic conditions.
* * * * *
_Tuesday, September 1st._ Panic conditions of the most pronounced
order exist today. Everyone seems possessed with the single idea of
escaping from Paris. A million people must be madly trying to leave at
the present moment. There are runs on all the banks. The streets are
crowded with hurrying people whose faces wear expressions of nervous
fright. The railroad stations are packed with tightly jammed mobs in
which people and luggage form one inextricable, suffocating, hopeless
jumble.
Cabs are nearly unobtainable. When anyone is seen to alight from a
vehicle, a flock of men and women instantly gather round it like
vultures and there stand poised to see if the cabby is to be paid off.
If the "fare" makes a motion toward his pocket, the mob piles into the
carriage, swearing and scrambling. The matter is then arbitrated by
the driver who accepts as client the one who offers the largest
_pourboire_. In the Rue Condorcet today I saw such a dispute settled
with a twenty-franc tip. One of the defeated candidates was a poor
dejected woman who had fought like a tigress for the cab and had been
ejected with considerable force. She now wept copiously and
hopelessly. She explained that she had her baggage and three children
to take to the station and that she had been endlessly trying to get a
vehicle since the night before, and announced that this was the nine
hundredth vehicle "qu'on m'a volé." For one in her emergency I
considered this an excusable exaggeration, so I lent her my _cocher_,
Paul, and hurriedly went on foot to the Embassy. My faithful Paul does
not desert me, even now when the streets run gold for _cochers_. Last
evening an auto carried a family to Tours, returning this morning. For
this it received 1500 francs. Thousands upon thousands of refugees
from the north are fleeing across Paris by any and every means of
transportation left in the city.
* * * * *
Three days ago we doubted the possibility of a battle as near as
Compiègne. Today already we feel it quite possible that the Germans
will capture Paris, and that within a few days. It is almost certain
that our Embassy will have a tremendous part to play in the capture,
for Mr. Herrick will stay in Paris, come what may, unless Washington
orders him to leave. It is probable that France will turn over to him
her interests in Paris--one might almost say, the city itself.
Another Taube came today and left the usual consignment of three
bombs. The aviator arrived promptly at six, just as he did yesterday.
I was amused to see two French policemen rush out of a café and fire
their revolvers at the so-far-away speck.
* * * * *
_Wednesday, September 2d._ The German bomb-dropping aëroplane arrives
each day as regularly as sunset. It is considerate of him to come
always at the same hour--six o'clock. One knows when to expect him and
is thus able to be promptly on hand to watch the show. It was
especially thrilling today. We all stood in the Rue Chaillot in front
of the _Chancellerie_, and being on the side of the Trocadéro Hill we
enjoyed a good view off over the city. The Taube passed almost
directly over our heads on its way to attack the Tour Eiffel; it flew
at an altitude of about 5000 feet and looked very like a bug crawling
across the sky. With our glasses we could see the German aviator
looking down at us, and could distinguish on the under side of each
wing the black Maltese cross which all German aëroplanes carry as
"uniform."
Off to the east a French machine was slowly mounting above the
housetops to give battle. The German sailed over the Tour Eiffel and
dropped a bomb. We caught sight of it, a tiny speck floating
downwards. After waiting what seemed an unreasonably long time, we
heard the faint, muffled "boom" of its explosion. All this time, guns
in various parts of the city were shooting at the aëroplane; it
sounded like firecrackers on the Fourth of July. There are
anti-aircraft guns on the different platforms of the Tour Eiffel.
These seemed to be rapid-fire guns which spouted ten shots in about
five seconds, and then, after taking a long breath, spouted another
ten shots, and so on. The din was extraordinary, but the German
aëroplane went serenely on as if utterly unconscious of the thousands
of shots of which it was the target.
After throwing his first bomb near the Tour Eiffel, the German
described a graceful, sweeping curve off over the Ecole Militaire, and
threw another bomb which struck the roof of a house in the Avenue
Bosquet. He then turned northward and sailed off in triumph over
Montmartre, apparently unscathed. The French machine had meanwhile
reached about half the altitude at which the German was flying. The
whole affair was extremely dramatic. All Paris stood open-mouthed in
the streets, utterly oblivious to everything but the machine which was
creeping across the sky.
The French already take their daily Taube as much as a matter of
course as their daily café. They cannot help exclaiming in admiration
"quel aplomb!" It is now the fourth day that a German aëroplane has
passed over the French armies, eluded the French machines, and braved
a murderous fire from the waiting guns of Paris.
The incidents have been marked by singularly ineffective shooting on
both sides. The aëroplanes have thrown a dozen bombs; they have broken
windows and roof slates and have killed one old woman. But this has
been, as far as I know, the only casualty. On the other hand, the
Taubes likewise have escaped unwrecked, in spite of the fact that
enough ammunition has been expended against them to have smashed all
the aëroplanes in the world. The psychological effect on the Parisians
has been immense.
For two weeks now, I have been entirely ready to start on my first
tour of the detention camps. The need has seemed so pressing that I
have been prepared to start immediately on the receipt of permission
from the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Mr. Herrick rightly refuses to
allow me to start without this permission. The reason for the delay
seems to be that France insists that she will accord us only those
privileges with regard to her German prisoners that the German
government gives to the Spanish Embassy in Berlin with regard to the
French prisoners in Germany. The hitch is that each takes exactly the
same ground, so neither side does anything definite.
Such is European "diplomacy." The onus of the prisoners' condition
cannot be said to rest upon our shoulders. Mr. Herrick or Mr. Bliss
has made _démarches_ in the matter almost every day.
Diplomacy is a trade which I find extremely hard to learn. Its
principal rule seems to be never to do anything that you can possibly
avoid. Such principles naturally give rise to a great deal of futile
routine. When a diplomat must act, he methodically follows a
well-trodden and known-to-be-safe path; when he is forced to
take a new direction he invariably makes some superior take the
responsibility. I know that on one occasion a trivial question was
asked of a Jäger at the door of a European _Chancellerie_; it was
passed through eight people of increasing rank and finally reached the
ruler of a great nation. I wonder if the applicant was kept waiting at
the door by the Jäger during the months necessary for the working out
of the process.
The Government of France has announced, officially, that it will
depart from Paris tonight and that Bordeaux is to be the new capital.
In point of fact, many officials have already gone, while those who
still remain are to leave tonight on a series of diplomatic trains.
The Embassies of England and Russia and the Legation of Belgium will
go also. There is a rumor that several of the neutral ambassadors and
consuls will flee, but this I cannot credit. They could have no
sufficient excuse for deserting Paris so precipitately, and if they
did they would appear arrant cowards. Mr. Herrick is sending Captain
Pope, one of the military Attachés, and Mr. Sussdorf, the third
secretary, to Bordeaux, in order that we may have some official
representation with the French Government in its temporary exile, but
feels that the Embassy as a whole should stay in Paris. Bordeaux is in
the midst of the districts which contain the detention camps for
German and Austrian prisoners, and I therefore rather expected to be
sent with Captain Pope and Mr. Sussdorf when I heard at noon that they
were to leave for Bordeaux. Mr. Frazier, however, told me that I was
to stay in Paris, work here being so pressing that the German
prisoners will have to get on without me. I hurriedly turned over to
Captain Pope much data I had collected concerning the camps and a
satchel containing twenty thousand francs in small change which I had
in hand for distribution among the internes.
* * * * *
_Thursday, September 3d._ Now that part of the Embassy corps has
departed for Bordeaux, the following remain at the _Chancellerie_ to
face the exciting events of an impending German invasion. Besides Mr.
Herrick and the secretaries, Messrs. Bliss and Frazier, there are
Majors Cosby, Hedekind, and Henry; Captains Parker, Brinton, and
Barker; Lieutenants Donait, Hunnicutt, Boyd, and Greble, all of the
United States Army; Major Roosevelt of the Marine Corps; Commander
Bricker and Lieutenants Smith and Wilkinson of the Navy. Herbert
Hazeltine, William Iselin, and myself are civil Attachés, and Harry
Dodge and Lawrence Norton private secretaries to the Ambassador. The
Treasurer, Mr. Beazle, was at the Embassy as long ago as the
Franco-Prussian war and the Commune, and has already lived through one
siege and capture of Paris. There are, of course, innumerable
stenographers, bookkeepers, and the like.
The other embassies and most of the consulates have fled. Their
members have left Paris more precipitately and with less dignity than
has been shown even by the civil population. They all seemed to lose
their wits when the Germans drew near Paris; they made their
preparations to depart in the most frantic haste; they were white of
face and perspiring with nervousness. It is not a pleasant sight to
see strong men palsied with fright, but we have seen many such these
days. Not a soul remains in the British Embassy or consulate to take
care of England's manifold interests. It seems strange that when
thousands of British heroes of the army are dying brave deaths on the
fields of battle, not a single British hero was to be found in the
diplomatic corps with nerve enough to risk the inconveniences of a
siege. The Ambassador of another country, who fled with the crowd,
left in spite of orders from his king absolutely directing him to
remain. Apparently he has sacrificed his career to his fright, for
this king was so determined that his embassy at least should remain in
Paris that he has replaced this ambassador by another who has more
courage,--the new one is a soldier.
These fleeing diplomats insult France by assuming that she is already
conquered, and insult the Germans by assuming that the lives of the
accredited plenipotentiaries of foreign nations would not be safe in
the hands of German soldiers. They also leave their own subjects in
Paris without a soul to represent them at a moment when they really
need a representative for the first time in decades. When these
magnates have recomposed their minds in Bordeaux and have time to
formulate excuses, they will probably say that they left Paris because
it was their solemn duty to accompany the French Government; but
yesterday, when they were asked why they were departing so swiftly,
they could only cry: "The Germans are coming."
Mr. Herrick looks on with calm amazement. Three days ago he
telegraphed Washington to ask for authorization to stay in Paris. The
reply left the matter to his own discretion. Thirty minutes later he
was in the cabinet of M. Delcassé to say that he would stay in Paris
no matter what might come. It must have been a wonderful tableau when
those two men faced each other across M. Delcassé's big desk. As Mr.
Herrick stated that the American Embassy was positively to remain in
Paris, M. Delcassé's expression of calm dignity vanished in a flash.
He stepped around his desk and shook Mr. Herrick eagerly by the hand.
He said there were many precious memorials and many rare objects which
might have their habitation in one spot like Paris, but which
nevertheless belonged to all civilized humanity, and that no diplomat
could perform a greater service to France and to mankind than to stay
in Paris and do what could be done to protect these precious memorials
and objects from destruction--a destruction which might be avoided if
an authorized spokesman of that humanity were present to protest.
* * * * *
The stampede out of Paris grows hour by hour. It is a contagion and
seizes all classes. A week ago it was a short street indeed which did
not boast at least one Red Cross Hospital; now most of them are
deserted, for the fashionable women who followed the fashion in
joining hospitals have now again followed the fashion and fled,
pell-mell.
The newspaper men and the "war correspondents" have been particularly
concerned for their own safety. By supreme efforts, I today managed
to obtain conveyances to transport several of them out of the
city--men with sweat on their brows and hands that trembled. There is
an element of humor in it all, despite the sadness. One of the staff
remarked, "Do you notice how all the newspaper men, who for weeks have
been pestering us with requests to be sent to the front, now demand as
insistently to be sent away, when the front is at last coming to
them?" In time of peace diplomats and war correspondents are easily
the most pugnacious people in the world. If one has taken them at
their own estimation the resulting contrast is painful.
Today we took over the interests of Great Britain, Japan, and
Guatemala. We have represented Germany, Austria, and Hungary since the
beginning of August, so that, including the United States, we are now
seven embassies in one.
* * * * *
_Friday, September 4th._ Last evening all Paris awaited the "six
o'clock Taube" which has become for the French a regular and almost
welcome feature of each day's happenings. At four o'clock a French
aviator in a monoplane took the air and mounted up, up, up, in slow
wide circles whose center was the Tour Eiffel, until he finally
reached an altitude of some 10,000 feet. Then, a mere speck in the
cold, thin air, he circled slowly around and around, waiting for the
German--who never came. Even without this climax the situation was
thrilling enough. The Frenchman descended sadly from his lofty beat
just as night fell, while waiting Paris was distinctly disappointed.
That night in the restaurants one heard Frenchmen express the
extraordinary hope that nothing _too_ terrible had happened to brave
Lieutenant von Heidssen.
[Illustration: M. DELCASSÉ, FRANCE'S MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
[He is the most capable of France's statesmen, and was the prime
mover in the formation of the Triple Entente. He has been three
times Minister of Marine, once Minister of the Colonies, and five
times Minister of Foreign Affairs]]
This morning Paris is informed that the Lieutenant had been punctually
on his way to his daily appointment when, in flying over the Bois de
Vincennes, a rifle bullet had passed through his heart. Strange to
say, he planed down on a long steep slant, this man-bird, just as game
birds do when similarly stricken, and landed without serious damage to
his machine. He was found sitting stone dead, strapped up in his seat.
Such is the quick generosity of the French temperament that today he
is mourned by all Paris, this Lieutenant von Heidssen, who died on his
lonely way to keep his fifth punctual appointment with the city of
his enemies. Paris actually regrets that he no longer comes at six
each evening to throw bombs at her.
* * * * *
Mr. Herrick's remaining in Paris has been greeted with wonderful
appreciation and enthusiasm by the whole French nation. His picture is
in all the newspapers and shop windows, and even the most humble
member of the Embassy shines by reflected glory.
The diplomatic responsibilities resting on our Embassy become more
and more important, but everyone acknowledges that in each emergency
Mr. Herrick shows himself equal to the situation. When the first
German aëroplane threw bombs at Paris, a wave of indignation and
protestation swept over the city. It was one of those waves of
excitement which carry judgment before it. Citizens and officials,
newspapers and posters, Frenchmen and Americans, all besought and
begged Mr. Herrick, "the courageous, the noble Mr. Herrick," to
make formal protest to Washington. Everywhere one heard in angry
tones the phrases: "brutality," "contrary to the Hague Convention,"
"killing non-combatants," "barbarians." Mr. Herrick decided that
there was more danger in protesting too soon than of protesting too
late. He delayed long enough to consult his books and to confer with
his legal and military advisers. I was fortunate enough to be present
when he read the final summing-up of his conclusions. He had
discovered that neither Germany nor France had signed the clause
of the Hague Convention forbidding aircraft to drop bombs on cities.
Therefore, the law that non-combatants of a city must be warned
before any bombardment is begun did not, in the case of these
two nations, technically apply, whatever the considerations of
humanity might dictate.
Mr. Herrick did not protest, for there was legally nothing to protest
about. He forwarded verbatim to Washington the protests of the French
Government.
One now sees many British and Belgian soldiers about Paris. They have
come in on the edges of the great retreat. Their morale is exactly the
reverse of what one would expect in troops who have been badly beaten.
They express great contempt for the German soldier. They describe him
as a stupid, brutal, big-footed creature, who does not know how to
shoot and who has a distaste for the bayonet. They seem unable to
understand why they have been beaten by the Germans and try to explain
it by saying, "There are so many of them."
The Belgians, nearly all of whom have come from Liège and Namur, speak
in the most awe-stricken terms of the effects of the big German siege
guns, which fire a shell 11.2 inches in diameter. These guns were
placed in distant valleys and could not be located by the Belgians.
Moreover, they outranged the guns of the forts and could not have been
injured even if they had been located. The forts thus lay hopeless and
awaited their doom, which came suddenly enough in the shape of great
shells dropping out of the sky upon their cupolas. The explosions
might have been approximated by combining an earthquake, a volcanic
eruption, and a cyclone.
Namur was surrounded by twelve forts. The bombardment began on a
Wednesday night and three of the forts were reduced to scrap in two
days. The Germans marched through the gap thus made and took the other
forts in the rear, so that in less than three days Namur was
completely in their possession. This will undoubtedly be the system
used against Paris, and apparently there is no antidote. The forts
cannot reply, for they cannot determine where the big guns are
located; but meanwhile the big guns know the exact position of the
forts, and they, moreover, outrange the forts.
* * * * *
Today I had an opportunity to talk with three British officers
recently arrived in Paris from that part of the front just this side
of Chantilly. They were incredibly grimy, dirty, and sweaty and were
greatly embarrassed thereby. They were of the first body of British
troops landed in France; they had met the Germans at Charleroi and had
been through the whole retreat of nearly one hundred and fifty miles,
having been constantly in action for some two weeks. They summed up
their experiences by saying that they had received "a hell of a
licking." This statement is rather over-modest since within a day or
so we have learned that the British, numbering about sixty thousand,
were opposed by four or five German army corps, amounting to two
hundred thousand men, and that in spite of this the British had
retreated stubbornly, contesting every mile.
A most extraordinary thing which these officers told me was that,
during their whole retreat from Charleroi to Compiègne, they had never
seen a single French soldier nor received any assistance from the
French army. One is tempted to wonder what would have happened if
there had been no British army to help check the retreat toward Paris.
British soldiers agree that they have received most extraordinary
hospitality from the civilians and peasantry of Belgium and France.
Whole villages, themselves facing starvation, gave their last crumb of
bread and their last drop of wine to the British troops and cheerfully
slept in the fields in order that the soldiers might snatch a bit of
rest in their houses.
All the officers with whom I have had the opportunity to talk agree
that the German losses have been enormous. I do not think that this is
entirely patriotic exaggeration, since British officers are not
particularly prone to flights of fancy. One of them prefaced his
remarks on the retreat from Charleroi by saying, "The truth of the
matter is, we got damn well licked," and went on to say that his men
shot and shot and shot until they became sick of killing, and that
the Germans kept coming, always coming, their ranks riddled and
smashed by bullets and shells. The British all agree that the German
troops have an unflinching, dogged, brutal courage, which nothing
seems to daunt. They come on and on, climbing over the bodies of the
regiments which have gone before. The German tactics are those of
Napoleon. They attack a position and they keep on attacking it until
they take it, no matter what it costs; regiments and brigades are
wiped out without any wavering in the commander's resolve or in the
dogged persistence of his troops.
In spite of the fact that they have been constantly beaten by German
tactics, the officers of the Allies persist in considering them
antiquated and barbarous. They ascribe the German successes to their
big guns and to the wonderfully efficient way in which their bad
tactics are carried out. They all agree that the German skill in
concentrating troops before an attack is wonderful. So far they have
never failed to have overwhelming numbers at any point of offense.
CHAPTER III
WITH THE BRITISH ARMY. THE NIGHT BEFORE THE BATTLE OF THE MARNE
_Paris, Sunday, September 6th._ Since the French Government left Paris
we have been totally ignorant of all that is going on outside of the
city walls. For the past few days everything has been hazy rumor.
During all last week we expected the Germans to march into Paris any
day; for their headquarters were at Compiègne, their heavy advance at
Senlis and Coulomiers, and their cavalry at Pontoise and Chantilly.
With the Germans only fifteen miles from the gates of Paris, the
newspapers make no definite mention of the fact, but fill their space
with accounts of the great victories which the Russians think to win
in Silicia. Rumor has it that the Germans have even encircled Paris
and are at Fontainebleau to the south-southeast. This is highly
improbable, but we have already seen that the wildest improbability
of one day becomes an actuality the next. Everyone at the Embassy, and
indeed all Paris, is desperately anxious for news. Even unfavorable
news would be better than this prolonged suspense. Everyone inquires
and wonders and queries, but no one knows what the real situation
is--where the German army is stationed, what its next move may be, or
if any of the Allied army is between it and Paris.
After several days of great tension, desperately trying to the active
American temperament, I decided that the easiest way to find out what
was happening outside the city was to go and see. It was first
absolutely necessary to obtain permission from the authorities of
Paris to pass out of the gates--as without proper papers I would
certainly be arrested. I, by this time, knew personally many of the
police officials in the city, having interviewed them hundreds of
times in regard to German and Austrian internes. Finally I found one
who thought he knew me well enough to trust me with a pass. He
explained that the garrison of Paris occupied a zone which extended
out from the walls ten miles in all directions. Outside this were the
moving armies, and once beyond the defensive zone we could, at our
own risk, go where we chose. My permit stated that we were bound for
Lagny, which is about twelve miles from the gates and well outside the
circle of defense. I took one of the Embassy automobiles driven by a
skillful American amateur, Melvin Hall. He drove his own six-cylinder
high-power car, carrying a light touring body.
We left the city about four o'clock in the afternoon by the Porte de
Vincennes. Immediately we left the walls behind us, we found all the
roads guarded by French troops and barred by elaborate obstructions.
Every two or three minutes we were brought to a stop by little gated
forts built across the highway, which were loopholed for rifles and
commanded the road in both directions. These were designed to retard
German scouting parties or halt German mitrailleuse automobiles. The
barriers were built of an extraordinary variety of material: trees,
paving-stones, barrels, carts, hen-coops, sandbags, boxes, and
fence-rails. At each barrier were stationed a score or more of
soldiers, and as one approached, one saw the gleam of bayonets and
heard a sharp, imperative "Halte-là!" When we came to a full stop, two
or three of the sentinels would step out cautiously and suspiciously,
their rifles all ready for action, while in a gingerly way they
examined our papers.
The barriers were usually placed in positions of strategic importance,
on hills or ridges, and always one was found at each end of the main
thoroughfare of every village. All the side streets of the villages
were closed and fortified, and any opening between the outermost
houses was piled high with obstructions. Each little town within the
fortified zone thus became itself a small fort, a complete circle of
defense. We travelled along slowly for some ten miles, being halted
and examined about every half mile. Finally we came to a great trench
which ran across the fields on either side of the road. Facing away
from Paris, one looked over a valley, and in the distance could
distinctly hear the boom of guns in action.
We were now at the outer line of the defense zone, within which all
the roads, bridges, and valleys were held by infantry working in
conjunction with the large forts placed at intervals in the great
circle. Outside of this zone is open country in which battles are
being fought; where and when, it was our aim to discover.
At the trench where we halted, the men on guard were very much on the
qui vive and the officers were busy with their field-glasses, for they
had just received warning that German cavalry were in front of them in
the valley over which we looked. We stopped to talk for a few minutes
with the commanding officer, and then, releasing our brakes, slid
quietly out in front of the trench, down the hill.
It was silent and lonely in the valley; the whole countryside was
desolate. We saw neither soldier nor civilian. The very air seemed
charged with disaster. In a few minutes we ran into Lagny, which was
absolutely deserted. A curious sensation it is to enter a town having
all the marks of being inhabited and yet to sense the utter absence of
human beings. On the village square, however, we found the Mayor, who,
like so many brave French officials throughout the country, had felt
it his first duty to stand by his community, come what might to him
personally. He told us that the Germans were spread all over the
country between Lagny and the Meaux, ten miles away, and added that
their cavalry had been through the town recently and might return any
minute. He then warned us that we could not cross the Marne, which
ran through the village, because the bridges were all down. We,
therefore, turned south toward Ferrières, at right angles to our
original course, and parallel to the walls of Paris.
Before reaching Ferrières, we again touched the outer lines of the
fortified camp. Here a big standing trench was occupied by French
infantry which had been in action with some German cavalry only a few
minutes before. The captain in command asked us to take a soldier who
had been wounded back to the brigade hospital some two or three miles
to the rear. This we did gladly and found the hospital located in the
schoolhouse of a small village. Here we also encountered a wounded
English private who was manifestly grateful to hear the sound of his
own language. The village was occupied by a large body of French
Hussars who were there encamped. Some of them were rubbing down their
horses, others were cooking supper. The gray smoke of the fires
ascending through the poplar trees, the bare-armed soldiers laboring
over their mounts, the deserted houses, the litter of saddles and
equipment, made a picture not soon to be forgotten.
We returned to the entrenchments again, crossed them, and proceeded to
Ferrières, where we at last found a road which turned off to the east.
We followed this for two miles, passing through the grounds of a large
château only to find the road barred by an impassable combination of
ditches, barriers, and barbed wire. We went back again to Ferrières,
which we learned had been the seat of the British General Staff only
that morning, and from there continued southward for several miles to
another village called Pontcarré. Here at last we found a straight and
open road to the east. We turned down it at top speed, not having the
faintest idea of what was ahead, and ran for ten miles through
deserted farming country in which the only signs of life were two
French cavalry patrols scouting through the woods.
Just as night was falling, we approached Villeneuve-le-Comte. Watchful
sentries in khaki surrounded the village, and the fields around it on
all sides were packed with British troops, who had just arrived and
were in the act of bivouacking for the night. From them we learned
that the German army was less than three miles away at Crécy and that
on the morrow at dawn a great battle was to be staged. All the Allies
had been force-marching to get there in time.
On every side camp fires gleamed out through the gray of the gloaming
and their smoke mounted upward to mingle with the gray of the evening
sky above. Everywhere one saw men and horses blissfully resting after
the long, hot, and dusty march. The men lay upon the ground with every
muscle relaxed, while the horses, with drooped heads, stood first on
one tired hind foot and then upon the other. Long lines of motor
trucks loaded with ammunition were parked along the gutters of all the
roads and byways. Along the crowded highway a lane was, however,
sacredly kept open, and men looked twice before they ventured to cross
it. From time to time an orderly on a motor-cycle, carrying
instructions to subordinate commanders, would zip at a dizzy speed
down this narrow path which was flanked by almost unbroken walls of
men, wagons, and lorries.
The streets of the little French village were crowded full with
khaki-clad soldiers. A battalion of Highlanders were going through
inspection in the dusk. They now numbered only three hundred odd, but
two weeks ago in Belgium they had been eleven hundred strong. An
officer of another regiment informed us that he knew of no British
battalion in all history which had sustained such heavy losses and yet
been able to maintain its formation and fight on. We watched with
interest the Scotchmen of that regiment file by after dismissal. They
were incredibly tattered and torn, their kilts dirty and frayed; many
of them wore big, battered straw hats. The only things about them
which were neat were their rifles, their bayonets, and their
clean-shaven faces. One could certainly have no doubts as to the
excellent state of their morale; we were, indeed, much impressed by
the morale of all these British troops who, notwithstanding the fact
that they had been beaten back during two long weeks across a hundred
and fifty miles of country and had been retreating until that very
morning, in no sense felt themselves defeated but eagerly awaited the
word to advance and attack.
We spent a profitable and long-to-be-remembered hour and a half
talking with the British officers and watching the troops. We had
brought with us a supply of the two things they most craved--matches
and newspapers, and whenever any of these were distributed it nearly
produced a riot. When a box of matches was handed out, two matches
would, as long as they lasted, be given to each man of a company.
Word was passed around that we were to return to Paris that evening,
and first and last we were given some fifty notes written hurriedly by
the men who wished to send a last word to their homes before the
battle which was to begin on the morrow. We, of course, accepted these
notes only with the permission of the officers.
It was long after dark before we started back toward Paris. Mist and
fog hung close to the ground, and it was a weird ride as we felt our
way through lonely woods and deserted villages, being continually
stopped by ditches or barbed wire or a barrier across the road. Often
ahead of us we would suddenly see bayonets flickering through the mist
as our head-lights shone out upon them, and immediately the terse cry
of "Halte-là!" followed; a sergeant would come forward, lantern in
hand, to examine our papers and suspiciously look us over. All the
time we felt that a dozen unseen rifles were leveled at us from
somewhere out in the dark.
We re-entered Paris through the Porte de Vincennes at half-past eight.
After dinner I made a report of our trip to Mr. Herrick, saying that a
great battle was about to begin; that the German armies formed a right
angle, the apex of which was near Meaux, while one side extended north
through Senlis and the other ran almost due east; that between this
German army and Paris were stationed the British and French troops who
would retreat no farther but expected themselves to open the attack in
the morning. After the suspense of the past few days it is a
tremendous relief to have definite news.
* * * * *
_Monday, September 7th._ For me all the world was this morning
electric with excitement. That Paris should go calmly about her daily
routine, unconscious and unconcerned, seemed monstrous. I wanted to
grasp everyone I met and cry: "The Germans are only twenty miles away!
A great battle is even now being fought just outside the gates!--a
battle on the issue of which hangs the fate of France--and much more
than France. If the thin line which stands between Paris and her
enemies does not hold, this day sees France reduced to a second-rate
Power and Paris will again hear the tramp of German armies marching
down the Champs-Elysées!" My feet walked the familiar streets, but
every pulse-beat, every conscious thought was with the Allied armies
of defense with which I had so recently been in touch. The sense of
their near presence and of their great conflict was much more vivid to
me than the objects passing before my physical eyes.
* * * * *
_Tuesday, September 8th._ I spent yesterday and today at the Embassy
superintending the card-indexing of the German internes. Think of card
catalogues! and the battle, perhaps the world's greatest battle,
raging no farther away than one might reach in an hour by automobile!
* * * * *
_Wednesday, September 9th._ Mr. Breckenridge, the American Assistant
Secretary of War, has arrived in Paris, and with him came also Colonel
Allen of the General Staff of the United States Army. Just as I
reached the limit of endurance in card-indexing, release came.
Through the energy and activity of Mr. Breckenridge, a permit has
been obtained allowing Colonel Allen, Captain Parker, and myself to
leave the city and view the battle which is raging outside. We are to
observe and study as much of the operations as possible, in order to
gather information useful to our army in America.
We are allowed to take our own chauffeur, and Melvin Hall, at my
suggestion, has been chosen for this position. We hope to stay a week
and shall leave tomorrow, if the machine can be made ready for so long
a trip in so short a time.
* * * * *
_Thursday, September 10th._ I had this morning a long talk with
Richard Harding Davis. He has just arrived from Belgium and is at
present striving to get permits to see the war in France. He said that
never in his previous war experiences had he seen such unspeakable
atrocities as the Germans have committed in Belgium. He speaks nearly
as vehemently about it as does Dr. Louis Seaman. He is the first
person with whom I have had opportunity to talk who has actually been
in Belgium and saw the details of the violation of that country by
Germany.
Hall was today unable to complete the preparations on his automobile.
On this trip, running through a region devastated by war, we dare not
count on finding gasoline, tires, or food, but must start well stocked
with all these essentials. We wish to keep going at least five or six
days and probably shall find during that time no opportunity to refit.
Hall is, therefore, loading up every spare corner of his automobile
with food, tires, and gasoline cans.
The great cry of the troops at the front is for matches, cigarettes,
and newspapers. I have purchased one hundred boxes of matches, one
hundred and sixty newspapers, and six hundred cigarettes to distribute
among them as chance offers.
It has been raining almost constantly this week. One cannot help
wondering what effect it has had upon the great battle out yonder, the
battle about which we still know so little, and of which we think so
anxiously.
CHAPTER IV
THE BATTLE OF THE MARNE
_Friday, September 11th._ It still continues to rain much of the time.
Today it developed into a drenching, pelting, soaking downpour, which
continued all day long.
Colonel Allen, Captain Parker, and I had luncheon at the Grand Hotel.
Hall arrived with the machine at two o'clock. He had packed into it,
or tied to it, an immense stock of canned goods, biscuits, and bread,
an incredible amount of gasoline, with a heavy overcoat and small
satchel for each one of us, until the car looked more like a
commissariat wagon than a touring car. We were bidden God-speed by
Major Henry, Captain Barker, and Lieut. Hunnicutt and by Frederick
Palmer and Richard Harding Davis, when just before half-past two we
shot out from the porte-cochère into the rain, prepared if necessary
to stay away a week.
We ran rapidly to Lagny along an unobstructed route, where only a few
days ago Hall and I had continually been held up by the barriers and
troops of the defensive zone. We had then not been permitted to travel
half a mile without being halted. Today what a change! We saw no
troops at all in this defensive zone and with a thrill we thus
realized that the battle must be going favorably for the Allies.
Between the Porte de Vincennes and Lagny our papers were examined only
once, by a solitary sentry on the bridge at Bry-sur-Marne. It is
evident that the Germans have either been beaten back or have chosen
to retire from the neighborhood. From Lagny we passed rapidly to
Villeneuve-le-Comte, which was now totally devoid of troops. At Crécy
we came upon the first signs of war. Here we saw a big park of British
reserve ammunition. All along the roads were the remains of a German
field telephone line, which had doubtless been constructed about the
time Hall and I had been in Villeneuve on Sunday.
* * * * *
All day the rain continued to pour in torrents.
* * * * *
Our machine rolled over the brow of a hilltop and below us in a hollow
we saw the little village of Rebais. The road straight before us
gently sloped down to the hamlet, passing through it as its principal
street. Yesterday there had been heavy fighting in and around the
town; French troops had entered it and advanced through it under heavy
fire. There were great black holes in the roofs and walls and the
ground was littered with bits of glass and slate. The village lay very
still and motionless in the pelting rain. We glanced up each of its
lanes as we glided by, and in each the bodies of numerous dead French
soldiers lay sodden in the mud, with their red legs sticking out in
attitudes of ludicrous ghastliness. A line of ammunition wagons half a
mile long was parked at the side of the village street and the horses
were picketed in long lines in the adjacent gardens and fields.
On the right there was a level mowed field along the edge of which the
teamsters were huddled over campfires, cooking. Beginning a few yards
behind them the field was strewn with dead soldiers lying monstrously
conspicuous on the bare ground. On the far side of the field half a
mile away was a jumble of houses, trees, and fences, and here German
infantry supported by two batteries had the day before taken up a
position. A battalion of the 17th French Line Regiment had charged
across the flat field into their teeth. We were told that in this
charge they had lost fifty per cent. of their men but had gone on
undaunted, and had "got home" _à la bayonette_, capturing the position
and a number of prisoners.
We walked silently among the dead. Where the casualties had been
heaviest, we counted seventeen bodies within a circle thirty paces in
diameter. Every man of the group had fallen forward with his bayonet
pointing straight out in front of him. Some had been running with such
_élan_ that in falling their shoulders had fairly plowed into the soft
ground. They had nearly all been killed by shrapnel fire, which in
most cases had killed cleanly. We found one, however, who had been
badly mashed by a shell which had burst in the ground at his feet,
making a deep, oblong hole six feet long into which his shattered body
had fallen. The metal identification tags, one of which every soldier
wears, had not been collected. These are removed by the burying squad,
and sent home as announcers of the decease. This group had all been
so recently killed that their faces were very lifelike. One found
oneself repeating "How natural they look!" and one could pretty well
judge what sort of men they had been in life. Here was a slight
smooth-faced blond-haired boy, who must have been dearly beloved by
the women of his family. Here again a serious, kindly, middle-aged man
whose face bore a curious expression of preoccupation. I caught myself
thinking, "I should like to have known him." We found one who in his
dying agony had evidently taken from his pocket a letter which now lay
a sodden mass in his dead hand. We could not resist that mute appeal,
but picked the letter carefully from his stiff fingers to be dried out
later and delivered, if possible, to the woman to whom it was
addressed.
As one looked at all these useless, cumbersome bits of carrion which
no one in the rush of war had had time to remove, one could not but
remember how each one had been suddenly wrenched from a useful life
and in death had somewhere left a broken family. The dead do not have
the tragic expressions with which painters credit them. Those who
have been instantly killed generally wear grotesque expressions. Some
look bored--others have a silly look of surprise, as if a practical
joke had just been played upon them. These grotesque expressions are
much more frightful than could be any indicative of suffering. Those
who have died slowly are usually propped up against something in a
sitting posture, and their faces express happiness or perfect peace.
* * * * *
We passed beyond the position which the Germans had recently held.
Here beside the road was a farmer's house with a great hole in its
roof. In the door stood a very old man gazing stupidly at the
landscape. In front of his house lay side by side three dead Germans.
They lay on their backs; the coat and shirt of each had been torn open
at the neck and their bare breasts were marred by a clotted mass of
closely grouped bullet marks. Further inspection showed that their
arms were tied behind them and we knew that we were witnessing the
results of a military execution. The old man against whose house they
had been shot explained that they had been among the prisoners taken
in the charge of the French infantry the day before and that their
fate had been the penalty for what was revealed when their pockets had
been searched.
* * * * *
We cross-questioned several inhabitants of the little village of
Boissy, who told us that the Germans had held the place for five days
and had left only two days ago, on Wednesday evening. Fleeing at the
approach of a heavy force of the British, they had retired in a
northeasterly direction. We judged from the description given by the
peasants that the force which had occupied the neighborhood consisted
of a division of cavalry with a strong force of artillery. In entering
Boissy the Germans had cornered a patrol of about twenty British
cavalrymen and had killed them all, the last three having defended
themselves in a little brick house where they had been shot down one
by one. The Germans had burned this house and the two adjoining ones
in order to make sure that no more troopers were in hiding. We saw
only one other building in the village which had been damaged. The
inhabitants explained that it was a jewelry shop and that the invaders
had wrecked it hoping to find hidden valuables. We did not have time
to investigate this statement. There had been no fighting in the
streets other than the battle with the British patrol and we
considered the condition of the place a credit to the force which had
occupied it. The inhabitants, indeed, protested that all food supplies
had been confiscated but agreed that no civilians had been injured and
that no women had been molested.
As we approached Montmirail, we passed a beautiful monument, dedicated
to Napoleon, who had directed a battle from that spot in 1814, one
hundred years ago. A golden eagle surmounted a column which stood upon
a stepped base. The fields about were plowed by shells and yesterday
one shell had knocked a big chunk off the side of the column about
half-way up. Leaning against the base, in an attitude of infinite
weariness, sat a dead French soldier.
* * * * *
Much of the dismal aftermath of battle seems to be concentrated along
the highways, which are punctuated by dead men and dead horses thrown
into the gutters to be out of the way. Long trains of horse-drawn
wagons plod wearily along toward the front; the towns through which
they pass are battered and nearly deserted; the poplars which line
the roads are broken and gashed by shells, and the fields on either
side are marred by shell craters and by the trenches of the burying
squads.
We entered the shattered town of Montmirail at nightfall. Long lines
of ammunition wagons were encamped for the night just outside and the
town itself was packed with troops. The place had been for eighteen
consecutive hours under a heavy artillery bombardment. The houses were
battered, the streets were pitted by shells, and there remained in the
whole village not a single unbroken window. There had been much
fighting in the streets and the place had been alternately taken and
retaken by Germans and French.
All accommodation in the town had by one blanket order been
requisitioned for the military. We plowed our way through rain and mud
to the office of the Mayor who kindly assigned us to rooms, giving us
written orders on the owners, who turned out to be a quaint old French
shirtmaker and his wife. Hall and I went scouting around through the
place and managed to get hold of a fourteen-sou loaf of bread and two
bottles of wine which served as supper, thus saving our own precious
supplies for future emergencies. Before returning, we visited two
cafés which were jammed with soldiery, from whom we managed to glean a
lot of very interesting information. They all spoke with the greatest
respect, admiration, and affection of their field artillery, "le
soixante-quinze."
* * * * *
Provisions were very scarce. We saw a Turco, who had apparently lost
his regiment and who spoke scarcely any French, vainly trying to find
some food. He walked about through the cafés waving a one hundred
franc note in each hand and ceaselessly demanding something to eat.
* * * * *
After supper a council of war was held in order to decide upon our
course of action for the morrow. Captain Parker was eager to hunt for
a vortex of the battle where, he held, the primary decision must have
been lost and won and the fighting would have been most intense; while
the action on all the other parts of the line must have been
contingent upon the results at this "tactical center." This "focus"
could not have been to the north or west of Paris, because the great
bodies of French troops are to the east; nor was it on the battle
line nearest Paris, for everything we saw today in and behind the zone
of operations testified to the contrary. In all the actions we have so
far observed, the Germans were retiring deliberately in a retreat
evidently determined by some ulterior cause. We noted many places
where severe fighting had taken place, but in every case it bore the
unmistakable signs of being merely a hotly contested rearguard action.
We so far have neither seen nor heard of any great German defeat such
as must somewhere have occurred in order to start a general retreat,
and to force such numerous rearguard actions. A victorious German army
does not suddenly begin to retire unless compelled to do so by a
gigantic and crushing defeat at some one point; such a defeat must
mean days of losses so frightful that the beaten army is physically
exhausted and its morale shaken.
From a military point of view it was of vital importance to discover
this spot and to study the battlefield for lessons in tactics. Captain
Parker maintained that it would be more profitable to find this center
than to give way to our inclination to go forward into the actual
fighting; that if we could locate it, it would be best to stay upon
the abandoned field of the German defeat to study how the battle had
been fought. He pointed out that the opportunity would be equivalent
to being upon the field of Waterloo or Gettysburg the day after action
ceased. As a result of the conference, it was finally decided to
accept Captain Parker's contention and hunt for the battlefield of the
great and decisive French victory, rather than to turn north toward
the constant booming of cannon. We shall, therefore, continue to work
our way to the eastward toward Chalons-sur-Marne, beating back and
forth across the country and carefully covering all the ground.
* * * * *
_At the Front, Saturday, September 12th._ We slept last night in beds
which had recently been occupied by German officers and spent a very
chilly night therein on account of the cold, wet wind which blew in
through the many shattered windows. We woke to the rumbling of distant
cannon, which might more correctly be called a trembling of the air
rather than a true sound. Still hoarding our provisions, we ate a
frugal breakfast of stale bread and of tea made from the dried leaves
of linden trees. We started off at half-past seven, receiving a very
friendly God-speed from our aged host and hostess.
All morning we made our way in an easterly direction, beating back and
forth across the country in order to cover as much ground as possible.
When we turned to the north the sound of cannon became louder and when
we swung to the south it grew fainter. We studied the country
carefully and, when possible, talked with any of the Allied officers
we chanced to meet. They usually knew thoroughly the events which had
taken place in the particular neighborhood in which they had operated,
but were astonishingly ignorant of what had gone on at any distance.
What they told us was always very valuable, because it assisted us to
piece together the fabric of the campaign as a whole.
* * * * *
Beyond Vauchamps we came upon a scene where there had been heavy
artillery fighting. The fields were plowed up by innumerable shells
and many dead horses were strewn along the gutters, with here and
there a dead soldier who had fallen in the road and been hurriedly
thrown aside so that he should not hinder traffic.
The highway was elevated a bit above the level country which stretched
on either side, and at one spot we saw where two German guns had
fought from behind this slight protection. They had been placed in
holes sunk a few inches into the ground, and the loose earth had been
piled up to form a little mound in front, preventing bullets from
flying under the gun shield. Empty cartridge cases were strewn about
and a pile of unused ammunition was stacked up like cordwood. The
German guns had been in sight of a French battery across the fields
and a direct-fire artillery duel had taken place between the two. The
craters of thirty-two French shells were within twenty paces of the
emplacements and the ground was strewn with splinters and shrapnel
cases. There were several very dead German artillerymen who had
evidently been working the guns when direct hits had been made upon
the material of the battery. No limbers or caissons had been with the
guns, but a caisson had been placed in a field about two hundred yards
behind, and men ran up and down across the field carrying ammunition
in wicker baskets, each of which holds three shells. We picked up four
of these shell baskets as curiosities and managed to find room for
them in our machine.
* * * * *
As we advanced we became more and more convinced of the correctness of
Capt. Parker's theory that there had been a big focal center of the
battle somewhere still to the east of us, and that the actions along
the rest of the line of contact from Paris to Lorraine had occurred
with reference to this vortex.
It is characteristic of the limited knowledge which troops in battle
have of what goes on outside of their immediate geographical vicinity,
that we ran almost into the great battle area for which we were
searching before anyone gave us a hint of its location. It was at
Vertus that we were told by a French officer that terrific fighting
had taken place in the upland plateau to the south of us, around a
place called Fère Champenoise; that the Germans had there made their
main attack with close to a quarter of a million men; that a frightful
battle had raged, a battle in which the Germans were at first, during
some thirty-six hours, victorious, but that, with the arrival of
reinforcements, the Ninth French Army under General Foch had turned
the tide and finally routed them. The officers said that the fighting
and slaughter had been frightful; that the combined casualties of the
two sides were close to two hundred thousand on a front of something
over twenty miles and a depth of about fifteen miles. They said that
the battle area was contained roughly within a circumference drawn
through the villages of Champaubert, Coligny, Pierre-Morains,
Clamanges, Sommesous, Gourgançon, Corroy, and Sézanne.
[Illustration: "THE DEAD WERE SCATTERED FAR AND WIDE"
[Our automobile on one of the battlefields of the Marne]]
As we conferred with the officers a constant stream of reinforcements
for the French army was passing, coming from Fère Champenoise and
marching toward Ay and Epernay; regiments of infantry, ammunition
trains, caissons, transports, and cavalry, all marching endlessly
toward the booming guns to the northward.
We turned our machine to the south with a feeling of the greatest awe
at the thought of what two hundred thousand casualties must mean. We
were silent for some minutes as the machine sped along, and then
Captain Parker remarked: "At Gettysburg or at Waterloo the total
forces engaged amounted to only about one hundred and sixty thousand!"
We ran toward the slope of the plateau, passing slowly an endless,
unbroken line of transports. Beyond Bergères-Les-Vertus an infantry
brigade was resting beside the road and the tired men were cooking and
eating.
* * * * *
We tried to comprehend the battle as a whole by studying a great many
fields, any one of which would a few years ago have been considered an
entire battle in itself. The dead were scattered far and wide; and in
the fields and among the grain-stacks the wounded cried out their
piteous faint appeals. Little groups of German stragglers were hiding
in the forests, and squads of alert French soldiers hunted them down,
beating through the cover as eager setter dogs search for grouse. In
one field of about six acres lay nine hundred German dead and wounded;
across another, where a close-action fight had raged, two hundred
French and Germans lay mixed together, all mashed and ripped. Here was
the curious sight of a German and Frenchman lying face to face, both
dead, and each one transfixed by the other's bayonet.
The very birds of the air and the beasts of the field lay dead and
rotting amid the general destruction. We saw feathers and bits of
chickens and halves of cows. On one occasion Hall maintained that "it"
had been a cow, while I thought "it" was a horse, and no piece large
enough for a certain identification could be found. Of some of the
villages which had been peaceful and beautiful a week ago, there
remained now only chimneys, ashes, and bits of walls rising from
smouldering gray débris. A French village wrecked by battle looks very
much wrecked indeed, in contrast with its habitual orderly and
toy-like appearance.
I was not so horrified in viewing these ghastly sights as I had
expected, because I could not put from me a sense of their unreality.
The human mind is incapable of comprehending to the full such terrible
happenings. One kept endlessly saying to oneself: "Can all this which
we are seeing really have taken place in this once quiet French
countryside, almost within the suburbs of Paris? It seems
impossible--unbelievable!"
* * * * *
In the little upland village of Clamanges was a field hospital which
had been established by the Germans when they first occupied the place
on the night of September 7th. They had held it until their retreat
on the 10th, when their retirement was so precipitate that they had
been unable to take with them their wounded.
In this war it is the custom to convert the village churches into
hospitals. The chairs and benches are thrown out into the graveyard
and the floor is covered with straw upon which the wounded are laid in
long rows extending the length of the nave. The altar is converted
into the pharmacist's headquarters and bottles and medicaments are
piled thereon, while bandages, for want of room, are sometimes hung
upon the statue of the Virgin, who has, in this unique service, an air
of sublime and compassionate contentment. An operating room is usually
established in the vestry or in the Parish House and a Red Cross flag
is hung from the steeple. Any shell holes in the roofs and walls are
stopped with sections of tenting. As we approached Clamanges, we
detected a sickening, subtle, sweetish odor which crept stealthily to
us through the air and filled us with an insinuating disgust. The
Colonel said simply, "That is gangrene."
The streets of the village were muddy and littered, and there were
innumerable ominous flies everywhere. The town was crammed with
German wounded. In the church long rows of them, touching feet to head
and arm to arm, so that the attendants had to step gingerly between as
they made their slow way about. The neighboring peasant houses were
packed full with the overflow. In the halls lay the bodies of men who
had died of gangrene, and as no one had time to attend to the dead,
the piles of them grew and increased. We were told that there were
thirteen hundred wounded in the village, among whom labored sixty
attendants. They were all severely wounded, since the Germans had
dragged with them all their slightly wounded, these being good assets.
What had once been a little rose garden was piled high with a gigantic
heap of bloody accoutrements which had been taken from wounded men as
they were brought in. Under a tree in a corner of the churchyard a
surgeon had set up a big kitchen table which he used for operations;
the ground underneath was black and caked. In a near by corner of the
church walls was a great pile of boots and stained clothes which had
been cut from shattered limbs, and I expect one might have discovered
even more ghastly objects had one ventured to turn over the rags. The
attendants were nearly all French, although two German doctors and
several German orderlies had stayed behind with their wounded. All
worked heroically to cope with their great task.
In the rush of battle it had been impossible to obtain food for the
wounded, so that for days these men had gone hungry, and one heard the
agonizing sound of dying men crying piteously for bread. The French
attendants themselves went hungry in order to give their charges such
small pittances of food as were obtainable. We watched an orderly who
entered the church with a single loaf of bread which had just been
secured and which was to be divided among several hundred wounded. He
used a great knife as if he hoped to make up for the smallness of the
supply by the largeness of the implement. Slowly and with sober care
he cut slice after slice, each one so thin that the light shone
through it. Every head was turned toward him and each burning pair of
eyes was fixed upon the precious bread with an expression of animal
dumbness, which reminded one of the intent eyes of a hungry dog as it
watches a hoped-for morsel. As he advanced step by step, the wounded
stretched up shriveled hands, or propped themselves on one elbow to
make more appealing gestures, their faces all contorted by the pains
the movement caused them. They made no sound, for their attention was
too intently fixed upon that bread. One, however, who had been
overlooked, burst into screams and wailings until the mistake had been
properly remedied. We Americans held a Council of War and unanimously
decided to contribute our jealously hoarded supply of provisions; we
thereby became as angels in the eyes of those poor creatures. A French
attendant remarked as he handed a sliver of our only loaf of bread to
a shattered man: "Il va mourir tout à l'heure, mais cela lui fera
grand plaisir en mourant!"
The dying are frightful sights, and parts of them are often already
mortified, as they lie in the straw, entirely occupied with breathing.
They breathe eternally little short breaths, a hundred or a hundred
and ten to the minute, like some sort of pump. They wish passionately
not to die, and yet they know with desperate certainty that they are
going to die. They lie down there in a tiny, little black hell of
their own and fight with all their might and main, feeling that they
will die instantly if they skip one little short breath. (I was going
to say they fight with all their soul and body, but they no longer
really possess either of these). They have no time to speak, or
listen, or move, or be helped, as every particle of energy must be
used for the next respiration. A jumbled heap lies in the straw
covered with a blanket to keep off the flies. An attendant looks at
its side in search of the fluttering little pulsation of breath. If it
is there, "he" is living; if all is still, "it" is dead, and they
carry it out and dump it in the hall with the other bodies.
* * * * *
The little village of Ecury-le-Repos had been deserted by every one
but its Mayor, who mistook us for Germans, and as such faced us
bravely and with dignity. He very correctly refused to believe that we
were not of the enemy until he had examined our papers. His village
was not a pleasant sight. He said that it had been taken and retaken
many times and that there had been fighting in its streets as recently
as yesterday; its houses were battered and rent by shells and many
had burned down and still smouldered; no earthquake could have ruined
them more thoroughly. The narrow village streets were littered ankle
deep with a muddy, rotting pot-pourri in which one detected broken
glass, bits of brick, cartridges, roof slates, broken bottles, shreds
of clothing, shells, fragments, shrapnel cases, and kepis. Dead men
lay in the gutters, covered with filth to such an extent that one
almost failed to recognize what they were.
In their last retreat the Germans had dragged their desperately
wounded into halls and doorways in order that they might be out from
under foot, and there they still lay. Half of them were mercifully
already dead. We looked into one hallway only. Here amidst a stifling
stench, five Germans were propped up; three were dead and the other
two barely alive; all were covered black with flies and the living and
the dead were eaten by white, weaving masses of maggots.
Ecury-le-Repos is situated in a little circular hollow, with elevated
table-lands all around. Here where the table-lands begin to dip down,
the Germans had defended themselves against the advancing French. As
they faced southward toward the oncoming enemy, they had the village
in its cup-like hollow at their backs. At one point German infantry to
the number of about two hundred had been placed on the crest facing
across the bare level plateau, while in front of them some two hundred
and fifty paces distant was a pine wood through which the French were
advancing. The Germans had evidently had no time to entrench but had
quickly lain down in skirmish order in the outer edge of a potato
field; each soldier had then pushed up in front of him, as protection,
a little heap of potatoes and loose earth. A hundred paces to the
right of this German skirmish line, two mitrailleuses had been
skillfully thrust forward some fifty yards in advance, and concealed
in small trenches hurriedly dug. They could thus fire across the front
of their own infantry and take in the flank any French who advanced.
This action was one of a series which had taken place along this line
of hills. The German flanks were not unprotected, but owing to the
fact that the country was much broken and obscured by woods, such a
force would be partly hidden from its neighbors to the right and left,
and largely independent in repelling any attack made against it.
A body of French infantry three to four hundred strong had advanced to
the edge of the woods, facing the Germans, and had there taken up a
skirmish position. The opposing bodies had then fired at each other a
collective total of about twenty-five thousand rounds across a
perfectly flat field. We were able to estimate the number of men
engaged on either side from the impressions which their feet, elbows,
and bodies had made in the soft earth, and we could judge how many
rounds per man had been fired by counting the little piles of empty
cartridges which had accumulated beside each rifleman. When we arrived
upon the scene the wounded had nearly all been removed, but the dead
were still untouched, and we were able to see that, as a result of
this fusillade of twenty-five thousand rounds, only three Germans and
six Frenchmen had been killed outright.
After this rifle contest, the French had made a bayonet charge across
the open. The Germans had fired until the French had advanced about
half way and had hit a score, after which they temporarily ceased
firing and the French then promptly "charged home." The two German
mitrailleuses were unperceived by the advancing French, and as the
French passed them in flank, the mitrailleuses opened fire; at the
same moment the Germans suddenly fired a scattering rifle volley.
Attacked in front and on the flank, every Frenchman but one was hit,
and sixty dead still lay in a row across the field as if cut down by a
mowing machine. The sole survivor of the fatal cross-fire was a boy
with a tiny black moustache. Undaunted, he had charged alone in among
the Germans and had received many bayonets in his heroic body. He lay
on his back among the German cartridges fifty yards ahead of the row
of his dead comrades.
Behind the crest of the plateau we could see the emplacements of four
guns at intervals of about forty yards, but they had not been used in
this engagement and may have been shelling some more distant
objective.
Before leaving this field we gathered a quantity of potatoes and put
them in the German shell baskets which we had picked up earlier in the
day, in order that our gift to the field hospital might not leave us
totally without food. We felt rather unhappy at not being able to pay
for them, but "à la guerre comme à la guerre."
* * * * *
Just outside of Fère Champenoise on the road running west toward
Broussy-le-Grand, we came upon the scene of an action in which the
casualties had been exceedingly heavy. The neighborhood was absolutely
deserted and as the wounded had been removed and there were no
peasants about we could find no one to elucidate for us what had taken
place. The action was not easy to unravel and the following
conclusions were unverified by any eyewitnesses.
We, however, judged by the condition of the dead and other
circumstantial evidence that the fight had taken place at the very
beginning of the great battle--that is, on the morning of Tuesday, the
8th, when the French were slowly pushed back from the vicinity of Fère
Champenoise. The road ran through the middle of an open field, with
heavy forests on either side, some three hundred yards away to the
north and south. A French regiment had evidently taken up a defensive
position to the left of the road and parallel with it, thus facing
the woods to the north and some four hundred yards away. These woods
were held by a regiment of Imperial Guard and a battery of artillery
had been placed some three hundred yards behind them. The Guards had
advanced one hundred and fifty yards into the open and then formed a
firing-line. In some inexplicable manner they had accomplished this
manoeuvre without casualties.
The two firing-lines were thus facing one another across two hundred
and fifty yards of open field; the men lying shoulder to shoulder were
plainly visible to their opponents. The German firing-line was marked
by nine dead. The shooting of the Guard was excellent and thus in
marked contrast to the poor shooting of other German organizations
which we had observed. The French position was marked by more than
three hundred dead, and the roots and lower branches of some pine
saplings near by were riddled with bullets; indeed, some of these had
actually been cut down by rifle fire, and I estimated that there was
on an average at least one bullet for every two square inches of bark.
Nearly all the French must have been put out of action before the
Germans finally charged, for the latter had only some twenty men
killed in crossing the open to the French position. This is such a
small loss to suffer when pushing home a bayonet charge, that the only
explanation would be that few French were left to resist this final
dash. In one place there was a pile of eleven dead Frenchmen who had
evidently been killed in a desperate last stand.
Throughout this action the French had manifestly stood their ground
very stubbornly, despite desperate losses, and had at no time broken
or retreated. There were only ten dead behind their firing-line and
these had been killed with the bayonet while fighting in the open.
Another French regiment adjacent to them, in some woods farther west,
had suffered no less heavily, and the woods were here literally dotted
with the bodies of the dead. Our conclusion was that all the Frenchmen
had been put out of action. It should be remembered that the ratio of
wounded to killed is at least four to one. Colonel Allen said that he
could not imagine worse destruction than these two regiments suffered.
Evidently it was part of the price the French army so willingly paid
for their great victory.
* * * * *
We followed along the Petit Morin and the marshes of St. Gond. Here
not far from Soizy-aux-Bois had been a furious bayonet fight in which
a French colonial brigade had carried the German positions. At one
point a regiment of Turcos had advanced across the Petit Morin and
charged to the bare hill toward a long well-made trench held by a
battalion of German infantry whose fire had not deterred them. As the
Turcos closed in, the Germans jumped out of their trench and re-formed
in a line behind it, but broke at the first shock of the Africans, who
came on screaming, their knives and bayonets much in evidence. A scene
of frightful carnage ensued as the rout spread along the hill. The
Turcos chased the Germans over the fields and through neighboring
woods, killing them right and left. The total casualties in the
neighborhood must have been more than three thousand, the Germans
being much the heavier losers.
I have read of such bayonet fights, but have always doubted their
possibility in modern war. I have supposed that in close-range
fighting a few men might be bayoneted, but that the majority of the
casualties would be from gunshot wounds. In this mêlée, however,
most of the wounds were inflicted with the bayonet, and frightful
wounds they were. Many on both sides had been pierced through the
face, neck, and skull. The head of one German officer who had not
fled with his men, but had bravely fought on single-handed, had
been completely transfixed by a bayonet, which had entered through
the eagle on the front of his helmet and passed through his skull
and out behind.
[Illustration: THE COMMON GRAVE OF NINE HUNDRED DEAD NEAR
SOIZY-AUX-BOIS]
* * * * *
After passing through many scenes of horror, we arrived at the castle
of Mondemont which is near Allemant, and caps the summit of a steep
wooded hill overlooking the marshes of St. Gond. It was a Louis XV.
château, but is now a mass of shattered ruins. Around it had been
elaborate gardens with many paths, alleys, carp ponds, flower-beds,
hedges, and walls. From its elevated position it commanded the valleys
beneath. It had without much difficulty been captured by the Germans
as they advanced southward, and when they later retreated to the north
again they had left here a rearguard to hold back the victorious
French.
All through the disastrous afternoon of Wednesday the 9th, these
Germans had defended Mondemont against a furious cannonade and in the
face of infantry assaults which, in some cases, had to be repulsed
with the bayonet. Meanwhile, the main German armies retreated many
miles until on Thursday morning this heroic rearguard found itself
hopelessly surrounded on all sides. The French commanders summoned the
place to surrender, explaining that further resistance was madness,
but were met by a firm refusal, whereupon the Germans were subjected
to a most terrific bombardment by cannon, large and small. In all at
least ten thousand shells were fired at the château until it was
reduced to a pile of rubbish. Even the garden walls remained standing
only in isolated spots, and the surrounding forest was so completely
wrecked that great boughs and whole trees lay criss-crossed in an
inextricable tangle.
Near the château there was a field several acres in extent and in it
alone we counted about a thousand craters which had been made by big
shells. The road which passed in front of the château was full of
great holes twenty feet in circumference blown out of the solid
macadam. After this bombardment, a desperate infantry assault rolled
up the hill and captured it, but only after a frightful mêlée in
which the defenders fought and died to the last man. I noticed a
shutter remaining upon one window of the château which had been
pierced by fifty-two bullets. By a singular chance there was one room
which had been little damaged. In it as we entered there stood a table
at which the German officers had been eating when interrupted by the
final attack; their knives and forks lay on the plates, which still
held meat and carrots, partly eaten, and wine half filled the glasses;
two of the chairs had been hurriedly pushed back from the table, while
a third, overturned, lay upon its side.
* * * * *
_Sunday, September 13th._ We spent the night at Bar-sur-Seine,
sleeping in the hallway of a little hotel, and next morning went to
the headquarters of General Joffre which, during the battle, were at
Châtillon-sur-Seine.
* * * * *
We returned to the battlefields in the neighborhood of Fère
Champenoise early in the afternoon.
* * * * *
We entered Fère Champenoise for the second time after dark, meaning to
spend the night there. The town was packed with transport wagons and
troops. All the houses were dark, the only illumination being from
lamps on wagons and automobiles which stood in the market-place and
along the main highway through the town.
It had rained nearly all day and was still raining, and although we
were loath to sleep outdoors or in the automobile, we at first saw no
possibility of finding lodgings elsewhere. Captain Parker and I left
the machine and started to reconnoitre through the side streets. The
rain, the low-hanging clouds, and the high walls of the houses, all
combined to make the bottom of the deep narrow streets blacker than
any blackness I have ever experienced. The darkness was so dense that
it seemed to have body and solidity, and one walked as if totally
blind. The streets were alive with invisible soldiers, whom one heard
breathing in the damp darkness and with whom one continually collided.
High above the roofs of the houses a distant glow was reflected upon
the falling rain by fires where they were burning the dead.
Few of the inhabitants had yet returned to the town and we were unable
to find anyone who could tell us where to locate the Mayor. All the
houses were tightly shuttered and nearly all were empty, though
occasionally a faint suggestion of light showed through the crack
under the door. When we beat a summons on such an entrance we never
gained anything more satisfactory in the way of a response than a
gruff and muffled statement that "la maison est déjà toute pleine de
soldats." We persevered, however, and our efforts were finally
rewarded, for we at last met an old woman to whom we could explain our
dilemma. She seemed interested in our plight and, pointing to a man
who was approaching and whom we discerned by the faint light of a
dingy lantern which he was carrying, said: "Voila mon patron. Je lui
expliquerai ce que c'est!" A whispered conversation followed, and then
we were introduced to M. Achille Guyot, one of the leading citizens of
the town, a champagne manufacturer of prominence and a man who proved
to be a splendid example of French fortitude and chivalry.
In the darkness we groped for each other's hands, and M. Guyot, with
the greatest politeness, said that he would be charmed to have us
sleep beneath his roof. He apologized because he had little but the
roof to offer since "Les Allemands ont tout bouleversé." He suggested
hesitatingly that we should also sup with him before retiring, and
again apologized, saying: "Les Allemands ont tout pris." We remarked
that we possessed a great many potatoes and would gladly contribute
them to increase the bulk of the repast. This greatly relieved his
mind, as he confessed that he had almost nothing to offer, but since
we had so many potatoes they would be gratefully accepted.
We followed him to his residence, which proved to be a very large
mansion with a great garden in front and a larger one behind.
As we entered the house the rays of the lantern revealed a most
extraordinary sight. All the villagers who had remained in town agreed
that this house had been occupied by German officers and that in
leaving they had carried out much loot. The Teuton taste has been
chiefly for enamels and lingerie. The interior of the house looked
more like a pig-sty than a human dwelling. The Germans had broken all
locks and emptied the contents of all bureaus, closets, and desks upon
the floor, the more easily to pick and choose what they wanted. The
floors were covered ankle-deep in the resulting litter which was
composed of everything from lace to daguerreotypes, from bric-à-brac
to hosiery. The relics and treasures of past generations of the
owner's family carpeted the house, until each room seemed in a worse
state than the last, and the whole was altogether a most superlative
mess. M. Guyot had shoveled paths through the different rooms as one
shovels through several inches of newly fallen snow.
We stood in amazement that anyone could so completely have turned
upside down an orderly house. As an example of absolute disorder, the
dining-room was a veritable work of art. The German orderlies had
evidently prepared and served four or five meals to their officers.
Each time they had set the table with fine linen and old china and
then as soon as the repast was over had taken up the tablecloth by its
edges and corners and had thrown it with the china, bottles, linen,
tableware, dirty dishes, and remnants of food, into a corner of the
room. At each succeeding meal the process had been repeated with a new
setting of china and fresh linen from the nearly inexhaustible
supplies with which the house was furnished. This was housekeeping
reduced by German "efficiency" to its simplest terms. The same
"efficiency" had been employed in the kitchen where each meal had been
prepared with a fresh set of cooking utensils which, after use, had
been piled up under the tables and sinks, together with such débris as
potato peels and coffee grounds. Perhaps a good housekeeper would have
been most disgusted by the condition of the kitchen; to me the
dining-room, where the post-mortems of meals were added to the results
of pillaging, seemed the more shocking.
The house contained a dozen large bedrooms and all the beds had been
slept in by Germans, some of whom had not taken pains to remove their
boots. M. Guyot told us we might sleep where we chose and showed us
where the fresh linen was kept, apologizing for the fact that we would
be obliged to make up our own beds.
He introduced us to three French aviators who were already quartered
in the house and who came in as we were preparing to depart for
supper. They were Captain B----, Chevalier de la Legion, Lieutenant
the Vicomte de B----, and their orderly. The officers immediately took
possession of the lantern and conducted us out into the gardens to
behold the piles of broken bottles which the Germans had strewn
about. They informed us that these were some of the remains of fifteen
thousand bottles of champagne which had been taken by the invaders
from the warehouse cellars of our host alone. M. Guyot had not
volunteered this information, but now confirmed that fact and added
with simplicity that his champagne business and the prosperity of his
house would be much curtailed for some time to come.
Our host's residence was in such disorder that he suggested that the
supper table should be laid at the house of one of his employees who
lived near-by in the village, and we all started together through the
darkness, taking stock of our provisions as we walked. The French
officers had tea and two loaves of bread which they had obtained from
the Commissariat; M. Guyot, in the expectation of having guests, had
managed to amass three pigeons, five eggs, and several tomatoes, and
we Americans excavated such endless quarts of potatoes from our
automobile that the Frenchmen amidst roars of laughter had cried
"Assez! Assez!"
Our host and his friends decided that the repast should be called a
dinner and should be given in honor of the new France and of the
glorious victory just won, the first to rest upon the French arms in
more than sixty years. What more fitting, they asked, than that we
neutrals should witness this celebration? The Vicomte de B---- busied
himself with reciting the menu: entrée, omelette parmentier; game,
pigeon rôti; plat de résistance--pommes de terre Marseillaise; Salade,
tomate--not to speak of toast and tea. M. Guyot hinted darkly and
mysteriously that he would attend to the wine list; we should have
laughed at this had we not realized that a wine merchant who has lost
his entire store of wine is not a fit subject for jest.
When we took our places at dinner, our host sat at one end of the
table and Colonel Allen at the other. The former then explained that a
little cellar where he kept his most precious wines had been
undiscovered by the invaders and that the wine list would include the
precious champagne of '93 and a very old Bordeaux. His aged employee,
who had served the meal, then entered amid loud acclamations, her arms
full of bottles, and we drank to "La France" in Bordeaux of the color
of a ruby.
The table was set with wooden-handled knives and forks, as no others
remained, and was lighted by candles set in bottles and broken
candlesticks; no gas, electricity, or kerosene having survived the
invasion. The French aviators had in their possession five spiked
helmets which they had taken as trophies from the heads of dead
Germans. It was suggested that since all ordinary means of lighting
had been destroyed by these same Germans, their casques might
fittingly be used as candlesticks, and each bear a taper upon its
point. This suggestion was about to be put into effect when M. Guyot,
whose business had been so recently ruined and whose house had been
ruthlessly pillaged by these invaders, quietly made objection and said
that it was not fitting or proper that the headgear of fallen soldiers
should be used as candelabra.
* * * * *
_Monday, September 14th._ One's respect and affection for horses is
greatly increased after seeing them in war. They are there so
essentially necessary. They share so patiently and faithfully on
almost equal terms the good and ill fortune of the men; they work with
their masters, go into battle with them, and the two die side by
side, killed by the same shell. It is a stirring example of unity to
see men and horses straining and striving and pulling together to get
a gun out of difficulties. The horses do not understand what it is all
about and going to war was not of their choice, but the same things
may usually be said of the men beside whom they live and die.
The feeling which the French soldiers on the firing-line have for the
Germans is very different from the bitterness one finds in the
civilian population of France. We have heard more than one French
soldier say in a voice tinged with admiration, "Ah, ce sont de bons
soldats!" At the front and in the trenches one gets down to basic
principles and realizes that "the other man" is a fellow human being
and not something with horns and a forked tail. The French soldier is
grimly determined to go through the war to the bitter end and to
accept nothing short of a complete victory, but at the same time he
realizes that this mutual slaughter is indeed a sorry business. I
shall never forget the face of a serious French Territorial soldier of
forty with whom I spoke today. He was one of a burying squad on the
scene of the charge of the African brigade near Soizy-aux-Bois. Nine
hundred dead were being buried in one big trench and as I came to
inspect it, my Territorial and a comrade were about to pick up a dead
German who lay face down in a muddy field, with arms outstretched. A
hundred others lay close about us. I offered the Territorial
cigarettes and, as he took one, he indicated the field about us with a
sweep of his arm and said sadly: "If Guillaume could have foreseen all
this, do you think that he, one man, would have begun this war?" And
he looked down with an expression full of sorrow and brotherly
compassion at the dead German who lay at his feet.
* * * * *
In the four days of our trip we have had innumerable punctures and six
blow-outs, in consequence of which we were finally forced to return to
Paris today. The Germans raided all the wine cellars throughout this
whole region and when they retreated left broken bottles along all the
streets and roads.
CHAPTER V
ANALYSIS OF THE BATTLE OF THE MARNE
_Monday, September 14th._ The equipment of the German soldier is in
every detail a marvel of perfection. This impresses me more than any
other single element of the war excepting only the bravery of the
French, and the imperturbable _sang froid_ of the English. A striking
example of this perfection is the spiked helmet. Contrary to
appearance, it is not heavy, weighing indeed scarcely more than a
derby hat. Everyone who picks one up for the first time exclaims in
astonishment, "How light it is!" These helmets are made of lacquered
leather, are nearly indestructible, shed water perfectly, and give
excellent ventilation to the head by means of a clever arrangement of
holes under the flange of the spike. They also shield the eyes and the
back of the head from the sun, and are strong enough to break a heavy
blow.
The German uniforms are of a light gray with a slight green tinge,
and are virtually invisible against the greenish mist-gray fields of
Europe, excepting only when the sun is behind to project a deep
shadow.
The German bayonet is a formidable weapon with a heavy double-edged
blade twenty inches long. Both edges are extremely sharp. I easily
sharpened pencils with one which I picked up.
The German knapsacks are made of cowhide with the hair left on, the
grain of the hair pointing downward to shed rain. The hair may get
wet, but the leather seldom and the contents never.
The German military boot comes half-way up the calf of the leg and the
trouser is tucked into its top. They are without laces and pull on to
the foot like the American "rubber boot." They are made of heavy,
undyed leather, singularly soft and pliable, and thoroughly
waterproof. The soles are shod with hobnails, but the boot is not very
heavy. We often noted dead Germans who were bootless, their footgear
having been appropriated by some victorious Frenchman, who had left
near-by his own less desirable shoes.
The three-compartment wicker shell-containers in which field-gun
shells are carried from caisson to gun are as carefully and neatly
made as an expensive tea-basket. We saw thousands of them lying about
the battlefields and carefully examined scores, sliding shells in and
out of them as a test. Invariably we found that the shells went in and
out smoothly and without effort, and yet always fitted snugly. There
was never either the slightest friction or the least loose-play. This
nicety meant that the variation in an interior diameter of three
inches was certainly less than one thirty-second of an inch.
Wicker-work constructed with such unvarying accuracy is truly
marvelous.
* * * * *
_Paris, Tuesday, September 15th._ Back in Paris, we are trying to
piece bits of evidence together into a clear picture and to draw sound
conclusions from what we have seen. We do not yet know what the battle
which we have studied will be named, but we ourselves call it the
Battle of Fère Champenoise. This is, however, an unsatisfactory title,
as it is too cumbersome and not comprehensive enough, for Fère
Champenoise was only the most intense and critical point in a series
of actions extending from Chantilly to Verdun, over a varied and
winding front of about one hundred and ninety miles. We have no
means of knowing how far the Germans have been driven back, but they
are across the Aisne and other Attachés tell us that frightful
fighting is going on at Soissons where the pursuing Allies are
attempting to throw large forces across the river. On our way home
yesterday, moreover, we ourselves heard much shooting in the direction
of Rheims.
[Illustration: "THE WOODS WERE ... DOTTED WITH THE BODIES OF THE
DEAD"]
My personal conclusions about the battle are based upon a thousand
bits of information carefully pieced together into a mosaic. First of
all we ourselves examined the territory included between the Marne,
the Seine, and a line from Méry-sur-Seine through Arcis to
Vitry-le-François, and made certain digressions across the Marne to
the northeast of Paris. We examined the battlefields while they were
comparatively fresh, and supplemented our observations by innumerable
conversations with the French troops and civilians, and with German
prisoners. At the Embassy we obtained from other Attachés many bits of
reliable information about the fighting directly north of Paris and
about the rearguard actions between the Marne and the Aisne.
Up to the time of this battle the German plan of campaign had worked
out almost perfectly. The Franco-German border is due east of Paris,
and the French mobilization took place there behind the fortresses of
Verdun, Toul, Epinal, and Belfort.
The Belgian frontier is north of Paris and the unexpected and
treacherous advance of the German armies through that neutral country
brought them immediately behind the French line of mobilization. The
violation of Belgium permitted the Germans to advance into France
before the Allies could reorganize into an effective resistance
against this unexpected attack. It is to be remembered that a
mobilization which it has taken years to plan out and which involves
millions of men and their equipment cannot be changed at a moment's
notice. Had the Germans attacked across the Franco-German border, they
would have found the French army awaiting them behind the fortresses
of Verdun, Toul, and Epinal, and it is almost certain that they would
never have arrived within two hundred marching miles of Paris. No one
knew this better than the German General Staff.
Had it not been for the unexpected and heroic resistance of Belgium,
and the masterly retreat of the small British army, Germany's foul
blow might have resulted in the capture of Paris toward the end of
August. These two things, combined with a desperate retarding action
executed along the Aisne by several French corps, delayed the Germans
long enough to enable General Joffre to organize and fight a single
battle upon which everything was staked. To lose it would have meant
utter ruin, for France has faced no such crisis since Charles Martel
repelled the Saracens at Tours in 732. To win would mean that
the Teutons' blow-below-the-belt had been survived and that a
recommencement of the war upon something like even terms would be
possible.
In preparing for the battle the French placed powerful forces in the
great fortress of Verdun, and also in and around the entrenched camp
of Paris. Their field army extended between the two from Paris through
La Ferté, Esternay, Sézanne, and Sommesous to Vitry-le-François, and
from thence bent northeastward to Verdun. Thus their two flanks were
strong and menacing and their center, about one hundred and eighty
miles in length, bent southward and was slightly concave.
It is evident that in this battle the Germans could gain nothing by
making their main attack against Paris or Verdun, but that if they
could rout the field army between the two, they might as an aftermath
sweep round behind each city and attack it from all sides, using for
the purpose the heavy artillery which had under similar circumstances
and with such celerity battered down Liège, Namur, Longwy, and
Maubeuge. Therefore, the logical thing was for the Germans to attempt
to break the French center. This operation was somewhat hazardous as
there was danger that the French might launch a powerful flank attack
from either Verdun or Paris. To attack the center was, in effect,
something like thrusting a dagger into a lion's mouth in the effort to
cut his throat. It was necessary to hold back the jaws Verdun and
Paris, whilst attacking the vulnerable throat at Fère Champenoise.
To accomplish this, Verdun was kept so busy by violent attacks made
upon three sides that its army had no time to think of any offensive
movement. The German defense against the French right thus in reality
took the form of an active attack, a feasible method because Verdun is
near the Franco-German frontier, being in fact less than forty miles
from the German fortress and mobilization center of Metz.
To protect their right from any flank attacks which might be hurled
against it from Paris, the Germans placed a strong army under von
Kluck in front of that city to hold the French left in check, as a
boxer in a clinch holds back his opponent's left arm. Von Kluck fought
his way to a position approximately defined by a line through Creil,
Senlis, Nanteuil-le-Haudouin, and Lizy-sur-Ourg. His cavalry advanced
even to Chantilly and Crécy. His army was not intended to have any
part in the main German offensive, its sole duty being to protect the
German right from any attack in flank which might be prepared and
launched from the entrenched camp of Paris. Von Kluck was not to
attack Paris, but to protect the Germans from Paris, and this he
successfully did.
No greater mistake can be made than to suppose that the German retreat
to Soissons and Rheims was precipitated by any victory over von Kluck.
A violent and heavy attack was, it is true, launched against him on or
about the evening of September 6th and was steadily maintained from
that time forward. At first he was pushed back for a number of miles
by the violence of this assault, but his counter attacks soon regained
most of the ground lost. Thus he advanced on the 5th, was pushed back
a little on the 7th, but advanced again on the 8th, driving the Allies
before him. On the 9th his left flank was threatened by the British
and he again retreated a little to consolidate his position. While so
doing he received news that the German army assigned to carry out the
main offensive in the neighborhood of Fère Champenoise had been
repulsed and was already beginning the retreat which later at many
points turned into a rout, and he then continued his own retreat until
he reached the Aisne.
Von Kluck advanced or retreated short distances as the fortunes of the
battle varied, but on the whole successfully maintained his ground and
only retreated for good when the Germans' principal attack had thus
been defeated at another and distant point. After the 6th he was at
all times heavily engaged and his losses and those of his opponents
were excessively heavy.
Since the battle of the Marne there has been an almost universal
tendency to declare that von Kluck was defeated and that Paris was
thereby saved. This verdict, though erroneous, is easily explained.
Von Kluck was nearest Paris, "everyone" was in Paris, and in an action
extending over hundreds of miles "everyone" saw only what was nearest
to him and drew his conclusions from that alone. The losses in von
Kluck's army and in the armies opposed to it were so heavy that it is
small wonder people concluded that they waged the main battle. In
truth, these losses were probably heavier than those of any previous
battle since ancient times. I wish to emphasize again that von Kluck
did not attack Paris and had no intention of so doing, but that Paris
attacked him and that he held this attack in check until it was no
longer necessary to do so, since the German strategy had failed at
other points.
* * * * *
Let us now consider the main German offensive and its repulse. The
French center had taken a position on a plateau of rolling hills in
many places covered with pine forests, while several large swamps lay
in front of them. This country was for several weeks defended by
Napoleon in his despairing campaign of 1814. He had appreciated its
strategic value and somewhat developed its defensive possibilities. In
recent years the French had often held manoeuvres in this area and
had a permanent manoeuvre camp at Mailly, which was actually within
the battlefield of Fère Champenoise.
The German troops which were to make the great offensive movement
against the French center crossed the Marne in the section from
Epernay to Chalons without serious opposition. Their main attack was
launched against the Ninth Army of the French under General Foch along
a front of about fifteen miles, and probably close to a quarter of a
million Teutons were engaged. We saw dead Germans belonging to the
10th, 12th, 19th, 10th Reserve, and a Guard Corps.
The first contact took place at Fère Champenoise at three o'clock on
the morning of the 8th, when heavy forces advancing through the night
along the roads from Vertus and Chalons fell upon the French who were
encamped in the town and drove them out. The Germans continued
victorious throughout the day of the 8th, driving the stubbornly
resisting French back from the line through Sommesous, Fère
Champenoise, and Sézanne until, when the battle lulled late at night
after eighteen hours of combat, the French held a line through the
villages of Mailly, Gourgançon, Corroy, and Linthelles.
The fighting was very fierce, and terrible losses were sustained by
both sides as the possession of every foot of territory was hotly
contested. The French showed steadiness, determination, and efficiency
under the most trying conditions and under the most violent and
overwhelming attacks. We saw few signs or indications of any disorder
or weakness on their part. The Germans experienced particularly heavy
losses in driving the French from positions near the villages of Oeuvy
and Montépreux, while the French suffered most heavily in the
neighborhoods of Gourgançon and Corroy. Very little entrenching was
done by either side, as both armies were constantly shifting, and the
few trenches which were constructed had evidently been hurriedly built
at night.
On the 9th the Germans began the day with further successes and
apparently had forced a marked French retreat. At noon they considered
the battle as good as won. They had, however, apparently had no time
to entrench or to consolidate their forces, when, early in the
afternoon, General Foch suddenly ordered an attack by all his forces.
For six weeks the French had labored through a losing campaign and had
just fought through thirty-six hours of steady defeat, and yet they
turned about on the instant and attacked the astonished Germans with a
dash which could not have been surpassed by the troops of the First
Empire at the height of a victory. They would not be denied, but
attacked and attacked until the Germans were overwhelmed. We saw
fields where charging battalions had apparently been put out of action
up to the last man without deterring that last man from advancing.
By evening the French had retaken all the ground which they had lost
in the previous thirty-six hours, and on the morning of the 10th
their offensive was resumed with unabated fury and unfaltering
self-sacrifice. No number of casualties could stop them and in places
the retreat of the Germans became a rout. They left their wounded upon
the battlefields and abandoned their hospitals, caissons, and
supplies. Especially furious rearguard actions were fought in the
neighborhood of Pierre-Morains and Coizard and at Mondemont.
On the night of the 10th the German army pulled itself together, and
on the 11th, under the protection of magnificently executed rearguard
actions which held up the determined pursuit of the French, retreated
in good order to the Marne and across it. On the 12th they reached the
Aisne and have since been endeavoring to make a stand on the farther
side of Rheims.
The most conservative French officers with whom we talked estimated
that the total casualties of both sides in the fighting near Fère
Champenoise amounted to at least one hundred and fifty thousand. Some
thought it was as high as two hundred thousand, and I am inclined to
this latter figure. Perhaps we saw the field in its entirety more
thoroughly than did they. Certainly they were busy with many other
affairs, whereas we had nothing other to do than study and estimate.
Had the German attack succeeded in breaking the French center, the
French army would have been cut in two and both remnants would have
been compelled to retreat in order to save themselves from ruinous
flank attacks. In retreating they would have been obliged to leave
Verdun and Paris each to take care of itself, and the German armies
could have swung about to surround and lay siege to either or both of
them.
As far as we could observe, the German attack at Fère Champenoise had
been unsupported by any heavy artillery. This was probably a
contributing cause of their defeat, as was also their arrogant
over-confidence in themselves and their under-estimation of their
enemy. The French won the battle because their field artillery was
superior and because, man for man, they outfought the Germans. Having
staked the fate of their families and of their beloved _patrie_ upon a
single throw, the French gained one of the most desperate battles in
the world's history by the coolness and dogged determination of their
chiefs and by the sublime tenacity and self-sacrifice of their
soldiers. These outdid the best traditions of their race. At command
they threw their lives away as a man throws away a trifle, and to meet
new conditions they developed new qualities with which they have not
previously been credited, qualities of stubborn scientific stolidity.
They out-Germaned the Germans in the way their organization withstood
the shock and wrack of battle. It was the German machine which broke
down first. On that field a new France was born. Let no German ever
again say that she is effete. It was purely a French victory. This is
no aspersion upon the Belgians and the British; the slight part which
they played in this battle is explained by their small numbers. At
Liège and Namur, at Mons and St. Quentin they helped win for France a
fighting chance behind the Marne. All hail to them for that!
During our trip we found no evidence of German acts deserving to be
called "atrocities." The word "atrocity" has been so carelessly used
that it will be useful to re-define what that word means in relation
to war. It should be limited to instances where unnecessary violence
is used toward the enemy's soldiers and civilians. It has a meaning
distinct from the inevitable destruction and vandalism which seem to
be necessary integral parts of all wars. The burning and destroying of
buildings by shell-fire or for reasons of military expediency and the
confiscation of food supplies for military purposes are allowed by all
rules of war. The use of the word "atrocity" should be limited to such
acts as the killing of prisoners, the mutilation of civilians, and
the violation of women. Of such deeds we personally found no instance,
although we carefully cross-questioned the inhabitants of many towns
which had been occupied by Germans.
Food and wine had been pretty generally confiscated, a thing to be
expected; also we found several instances of pillaging in which
especially desirable articles had been carried off. Wanton breakage
was rare and not extensive, and in most cases appeared to have been
more mischievous than malicious. It was probably due to a somewhat too
liberal use of pillaged wine. In general, the worst charges against
the Germans in France were that they had been exceedingly rude and
boorish. There were, however, some instances which came to my notice
where German officers had shown consideration for the civilians, had
politely apologized for their unwelcome but "necessary" intrusion into
French families, and had carefully paid for their board and lodging.
We talked with several French surgeons who were captured early in the
war and had since, according to The Hague rules, been returned to
France. These all acknowledged the consideration and good care which
their captured wounded had received from the Germans.
* * * * *
When the Germans were retreating northward towards Rheims after their
defeat in the Battle of the Marne, notices (about twenty by thirty
inches) printed on green paper were posted in the streets of the city,
of which the following is a literal translation:
"PROCLAMATION.
"In case a combat should take place today or in the
immediate future in the environs of Rheims or within the
city itself, the inhabitants are forewarned that they must
remain absolutely inactive and must not attempt in any way
to take part in the battle. They must not attempt to attack
either isolated German soldiers or detachments of the German
army. It is hereby officially forbidden to construct
barricades, or to tear up the streets in such a manner as to
hamper the movements of our troops. In a word, it is
forbidden to undertake any act whatsoever which might be in
any manner a hindrance to the German army.
"In order thoroughly to insure the security of the German
troops and to act as sureties for the inactivity of the
population of Rheims, the personages named below have been
seized as hostages by the General commanding the German
army. At the least sign of disorder these hostages will be
hanged. Also the city will be entirely or partly burned and
its inhabitants hanged if any infractions whatsoever of the
above orders are committed.
"On the other hand, if the city remains absolutely quiet,
the hostages and inhabitants will be protected by the German
army.
"By order of the German Authorities,
"The Mayor, DR. LAUGHT.
"Rheims, September 12, 1914."
Below was appended a list of names and addresses of ninety-one leading
citizens, officials, and ecclesiastics, and, as if that were not
enough, this list was finished by the words "and others."
* * * * *
_Paris, Thursday, September 17th._ During my absence at the Battle of
the Marne last week, the powers-that-be at the Embassy decided that I
was too much needed in Paris for the German-Austrian affairs to be
allowed to go to the front again.
[Illustration: THE CHÂTEAU OF MONDEMONT]
Therefore, when another expedition departed today, I was not permitted
to be one of the party.
On our trip I took rough field notes during the daytime and sat up at
night into the early morning hours in order to expand these jottings
into an accurate and comprehensive diary. I am now arranging this
material into a report to be forwarded to Washington.
* * * * *
The whole "deuxième étage" of the _Chancellerie_ is now given over to
the Austrian, German, and Hungarian affairs. The arrangement of rooms
is the same as in the American _Chancellerie_ on the floor below. Mr.
Percival Dodge, ex-first-assistant Secretary of State, is now head of
the department and occupies the room over Ambassador Herrick. I have
the room over the First Secretary, and Mr. Hazeltine the room over the
Second Secretary. Lieutenant Donait is to be chief of the office
staff, which consists of three stenographers and two messengers. We
have, in addition, three personal stenographers. This arrangement will
be a great improvement, as our rooms on the ground floor were much too
cramped for the volume of business.
* * * * *
_Monday, September 21st._ The immense amount of effective work
accomplished under Mr. Herrick would have been impossible had he not
been so ably supported by the two Secretaries of the Embassy, Mr.
Bliss and Mr. Frazier, past-masters of the intricate technique of
their profession. In the emergency of the war crisis the usefulness of
the numerous subordinate members of the Embassy staff absolutely
depended upon the skill and patience with which these two Secretaries
trained them for the work of the various departments to which they
were assigned, and prevented any divergence from correct diplomatic
methods. It is most fortunate that our foolish American habit of
replacing Ambassadors whenever some one else has a stronger political
"pull" does not extend to our first and second secretaries.
Five of the younger men of the Embassy have formed a little luncheon
club for the purpose of exchanging news and discussing and studying
the military situation. They are Lieut. Boyd of the Cavalry, Lieut.
Hunnicutt of the Artillery, Harry Dodge, the Ambassador's private
Secretary, Lieut. Donait of the Infantry and Ordnance Departments, and
myself. We meet each noon at a little pension near the Embassy and
there we argue and debate for an hour or more. These daily conferences
give us a much better comprehension of the war as a whole and a more
exact knowledge of its important details. We have all been more or
less at the front and usually some one of us has just returned with
first-hand data as to what is going on at the moment. Whenever any
outsider is discovered who has recent war news of value, we invite him
to luncheon and proceed to cross-question him in general and in
particular.
* * * * *
_Wednesday, September 23d._ A little sadly I took supper this evening
at the Café du Commerce where the members of the atelier used to meet
in the days of student life. As I was eating, who should walk in and
sit down beside me but my friend Daumal, _sous-massier_ of the atelier
when war broke out, whom I had not seen since he departed for the
front as a private.
He is now Sergeant Daumal of the First Line Regiment, wounded at
Longwy and just out of the hospital, homeward bound on a two weeks'
convalescent leave. As he described it, "une de ces marmites à
28-centimètres" had exploded a little distance from him. Although he
had not been struck by any fragments, the shock had rendered him so
thoroughly unconscious that for a day he had been passed over by the
ambulance orderlies as dead and had finally been discovered by a
burying squad to be not in need of a grave but of a hospital.
* * * * *
The bombardment of Rheims Cathedral has stirred France to indignation,
but apparently not nearly as much as it has stirred the outside world.
The capacity of the French for being "stirred to indignation" has lost
some of its elasticity by this time. It is an action so vivid, so
neat, so concise, that it turns the sympathies of neutrals more than a
thousand "routine" accounts of burnings and killings. _They bombarded
Rheims Cathedral!_ These four words need no elaboration. I myself find
it difficult to keep that neutral equilibrium which is necessary in an
Attaché who wishes to observe as much and as correctly as possible.
Whitney Warren, the architect, and several Attachés are to be sent to
Rheims in a day or two to make an investigation.
* * * * *
_Sunday, September 27th._ I examine indigent Germans, Austrians, and
Hungarians every morning, and during the afternoon take special cases
to the police, and write up accounts.
Today Paris had another visit from a German aëroplane which threw the
usual three bombs. One of them fell in the Avenue du Trocadéro near
the Embassy. It just missed demolishing the Ambassador and Mr. Frazier
who were in an automobile on their way to inspect the buildings and
grounds of the German Embassy. They had driven over the spot only two
minutes before the bomb struck. I was at the same time on my way to
the Embassy, having met them near the Pont d'Alma. I passed along the
avenue a minute later and had just turned the corner when the bomb
fell, killing an old man and tearing a leg off a little girl. The day
was very cloudy and the aviator was above the clouds; for this reason
no one seems to have discovered him and he must have thrown his bomb
at random.
* * * * *
_Monday, September 28th._ At lunch today in the Café Royal I overheard
a Frenchman remark that although he and all his compatriots greatly
esteemed Mr. Herrick, it would nevertheless have been an excellent
service against the enemy had he tactfully allowed himself to be
annihilated by the German bomb which missed him yesterday. Later in
the afternoon I took tea with Mr. Herrick at the _Chancellerie_, and
he was much amused when I recounted to him this example of a somewhat
equivocal good-will.
* * * * *
_Tuesday, September 29th._ The damage to Rheims Cathedral was largely
the result of fire. The Germans had, during the time they held the
city, converted it into a hospital; they had stacked the chairs
against the walls and covered the floor deep with straw upon which to
lay their wounded. During the spring and summer the front façade had
been undergoing repairs and was covered with heavy wooden scaffolding
similar to that which has for several years disfigured St. Sulpice in
Paris. The Cathedral was very famous for its choir-stalls and other
wood-carving, of which there was a great quantity, and the roof which
covered the vaulting was held up by a forest of great timbers many
centuries old.
After the Germans had been driven out of the city they bombarded it
from the hills outside, and their shells lit the straw on the
Cathedral floor. Over it the fire ran swiftly, ignited the chairs
piled against the walls, and then spread to the great masses of carved
woodwork; finally the scaffolding and roof caught fire and the famous
old Cathedral burned in one great conflagration. It has been
particularly famous for three things: its woodwork, its front façade,
and its stained-glass windows. The woodwork went up in smoke, the
front façade was all scorched and disintegrated by the intense heat so
that the surface of the stone detail is blowing off in fine dust,
while the glass to the last particle was shattered by the concussions
of bursting shells. The Cathedral stands like a great skeleton of its
former self. Its flesh, as it were, is gone although few of its bones
are broken.
* * * * *
_Saturday, October 3d._ This is the first war in modern times in which
whole nations have gone to battle; in this conflict every man in a
nation is a soldier. In Napoleon's day France had about the same
population--forty millions--that she now has, but Napoleon's
professional armies numbered, at most, only two hundred thousand men,
while today France has put fifteen or twenty times as many in the
field. In the present war, when an army sustains a 10 per cent. loss
it is not merely 10 per cent. of the army, but actually of the
able-bodied men of the nation.
* * * * *
_Wednesday, October 7th._ A German aëroplane again threw bombs on
Paris today.
* * * * *
_Thursday, October 8th._ Another Taube came today and threw bombs in
the neighborhood of the Gare du Nord. These machines in flight look
very much like sparrow-hawks and have a singularly sinister
appearance.
* * * * *
_Sunday, October 11th._ We had a record-breaking flock of Taubes today
when a number came together and dropped about twenty bombs. Their
combined score was twenty-two people killed and wounded; as usual, all
women, children, and old men.
CHAPTER VI
THE BATTLE OF THE AISNE
_Paris, Monday, October 12th._ In writing about the German, Austrian,
and Hungarian subjects of whom we have had charge, I have spoken of
them _en masse_. In reality there have been many cases in whom I have
been personally interested and to whose safety I have given much time.
Their history alone would fill a book. One of these is the case of the
Countess X., member of an old and powerful Hungarian family.
The Count, her husband, was desperately ill in Paris when the war
broke out and he was kept alive only through the devoted care of his
wife. We arranged with the French authorities that the Countess might
remain in Paris with her husband, although all other Hungarian people
were, without exception, being shipped off to detention camps. Later
the Countess twice received notice from the Prefecture that she was to
be immediately imprisoned, and each time by enlisting the personal
assistance of Ambassador Herrick I managed to have the decree delayed.
The children of the family, of whom there were seven under ten years
of age, were living at a château on the French coast, at Paris-Plage,
near Boulogne. When the German army began to sweep towards the coast
in a seemingly irresistible flood, the Countess came to me to say how
fearful she felt for the safety of her children, left in the care of
servants and governesses. Yesterday, when the fall of Antwerp was
confirmed and when even the official announcements went so far as to
talk of fighting in the neighborhood of Arras, she came again. I went
to Mr. Herrick and asked if I might be allowed to go to the coast and
bring the children back to Paris. The permission was the more readily
granted because there were several other errands to be done in the
same direction, notably to carry communications to our Consular Agent
in Amiens, who had remained in that city during the German occupation
and from whom little had since been heard.
The necessary permits have been obtained and these will incidentally
allow me to see something of the front on my way north. I expect to
leave this evening.
Two machines will be needed to bring back the children and their
attendants. There are several young Americans who have given their
services and the use of their private automobiles for Embassy service.
On all previous expeditions I have been conducted by Melvin Hall. He
is at present assigned to other business, but I have secured the
services of another volunteer chauffeur, Francis Colby. I shall travel
in his touring-car and bring back in it the older children and their
English governess. The second machine, a large limousine, will be
driven by the French chauffeur of Countess X., and into it I shall
pack the smaller children and their two nurses.
* * * * *
The condition of the front along which we must pass for eighty miles
is as follows: the battle of the Aisne has now turned into a race for
the coast; each army is trying to outflank the other, the Germans,
according to present indications, getting much the better of the
contest. Everyone's attention seems to be concentrated for the moment
on Calais, and the Allies evidently feel that the chief danger point
is there. I notice with special concern, however, that farther south
the German army is at Bethune thrusting out a wedge toward Abbeville,
on the coast, only thirty-eight miles away. If they can advance these
thirty-eight miles they will win not only all the triangle containing
Nieuport, Calais, and Boulogne, but will cut off such of the Allied
armies as are now concentrated in this area, and also radically
shorten their own lines. Their front, as it now extends from Compiègne
to Holland, measures nearly two hundred miles. If reorganized from
Compiègne to the coast at Abbeville, it would be less than sixty-five
miles. Of course the Allies fully appreciate this danger and are
guarding against it as best they can, but I agree with Countess X.
that the sooner we snatch her children out of the threatened area the
better.
* * * * *
_At the Front, Tuesday, October 13th._ We left Paris last
evening at half-past six and at first made only slow progress owing
to heavy traffic, worn-out roads, and destroyed bridges. We stopped
for supper in poor, wrecked Senlis. This town is no farther from
the gates of Paris than Van Cortlandt Park in New York is from the
Battery, and yet the German armies were in Senlis in September,
battles raged in its streets, shells burst in its houses and
destroyed whole blocks. Indeed, one of the fiercest fights of the war
took place at night in its streets when, during the attack made by the
garrison of Paris upon von Kluck's army, troops were hurriedly rushed
out of Paris in trams, wagons, and taxicabs to fall pell-mell upon the
Germans who occupied Senlis. French colonial infantry played a large
part in this conflict. A weird and awful sight it must have been:
taxicabs and automobiles from Paris charging up the streets vomiting
bullets in all directions, houses catching fire from the bursting
shells, and by the light of their flames the men of both armies
fighting hand to hand, chasing one another through the doors and
windows of burning and collapsing houses, or making desperate stands
behind dead horses, street-barricades, or wrecked taxicabs. It is
said that in every such mêlée Turcos were to be seen exulting in
their favorite sport, close-range fighting.
* * * * *
After supper we passed through Fleurines, Pont Ste. Maxence, and
Blincourt to Estrées-St. Denis, where we spent the night. Along this
road had recently passed a great German army, and their engineers had
constructed new roads to the right and left of the original one, so
that their regiments had been able to march steadily three abreast,
probably no small factor in their successful retreat.
* * * * *
This morning we got under way at half-past six. The day was hazy,
threatening rain; mists rising from the ground made it impossible to
see clearly for any great distance. The heavy atmosphere muffled the
sound of guns so that it was difficult to judge their location even
when we were fairly close upon them. The day was, however, a most
advantageous one on which to move about near the front, provided one
were careful to ascertain where, off in the mist, the enemy's
batteries lay.
We first reached the front at Roye-sur-Matz, which we found was
occupied by a French colonial brigade. This place is about three miles
from Lassigny, which is far within the German lines, and from which
they have recently organized heavy attacks against the French forces.
In Roye-sur-Matz the German shells were bursting, punctuated by the
muffled slump of falling walls. The place had been deserted by its
inhabitants, but Turcos and black Senegalese wandered about the ruined
streets indifferent to the shell fire. For a week past there has been
heavy fighting in the vicinity of Roye and Lassigny, probably the
heaviest that has taken place in the Battle of the Aisne since the
latter part of September. We drove slowly down the main street of the
village looking for an officer who could tell us about the local
geography. We finally met the acting brigadier, a French colonel, who
informed us that it was not safe for us to continue more than a block
farther in the direction in which we were going, as the far end of the
village was "between the lines" and we would there come under the
observation of the German sharpshooters. This officer said that the
best way to follow the battle-line would be to turn back through the
village and take the first road to the right.
We stayed in the village for half an hour longer, and then, faithfully
following directions, went back and took the "first turn to the
right," which proved to be a narrow road whose existence the officer
had forgotten and which was not at all the one he meant to recommend.
We, ignorant of any mistake, went blindly on, down a little hill,
across a small brook, and up a knoll opposite. In doing so we had
actually passed out through the French lines and reached an elevation
squarely between the two armies. The French positions were, as usual,
concealed, and for the moment they were not firing, so that we
remained blissfully unconscious of our dangerous position. Fortunately
for us, the German lines were at this point half a mile away from the
French, and owing to the mist and distance we were apparently
unobserved, since we received no especial attention. As we reached the
top of the knoll it began to rain, making us still less conspicuous
and forcing us to stop and put up the top. We pulled up behind an
isolated barn in order to be somewhat sheltered from stray shrapnel.
As we stood behind the barn, the bombarded village which we had just
left lay below and behind us, and in front featureless fields sloped
away toward some low wooded hills half a mile distant. Suddenly the
constant rumbling of guns was interrupted by four quick, sharp
explosions, and we perceived little wisps of smoke bluer than the
mist trailing up through the tree tops of these hills. These
explosions were French shells bursting over the German trenches, but
we, naturally supposing ourselves to be within the French lines, at
the moment thought it was a French battery firing a salvo.
While we were putting up the top, two French soldiers on picket duty
came by and, lured by the unfailing bait of cigarettes, stopped to
talk to us. Taking it for granted that we knew where we were, they did
not mention our being between the lines, but told us of a great fight
which had last Sunday taken place about two miles to the right of
where we stood. They said that the German and French trenches there
faced one another across a low field and were so near together that at
night the French could hear the Germans singing. Some peculiarity in
the contour of the land had led the enemy to think that here was a
promising point to break through the French lines; consequently a
series of violent attacks had been launched from Lassigny against this
position. These attacks had repeatedly been repulsed with heavy losses
and thousands of dead Germans lay in the field between the two sets
of trenches.
I decided to ask permission to go over this recently contested area,
and therefore turned back to Brigade headquarters in the village of
Roye-sur-Matz, which we had just left. There, in a second talk with
the officer who had previously directed us, I learned for the first
time that we had taken the wrong road and been for a considerable time
between the French and German armies, and only a few hundred yards
from the German trenches. That we had there seen no signs of armies,
guns, or entrenchments, indicates the curious characteristics of
modern warfare, and the invisibility of all combatants even when
actively engaged. The permission which I had desired to obtain to
inspect the ground of the recent battle was refused as being too
dangerous.
* * * * *
We later passed through the village of Guerbigny. Here, as at all
times during our trip, the guns could be heard booming in the
distance. At the farther end of the place a family of peasants, led by
the grandfather, were packing their humble worldly goods into a big
cart to which was hitched an exceedingly old white horse. They were
very sad and explained simply, "C'est dur de partir." They pointed
across a field to a little church tower about a mile away, only dimly
visible through the haze, which still hung low over the landscape,
saying pathetically: "On bombarde ce hameau; c'est là les avant-postes
des Français." Our maps showed that the church tower was in the
village of Erches. A straight road ran down to it from where we stood.
The mist seemed to favor the possibility of our reaching this village
without being too quickly observed by the Germans. We therefore
promptly put on all speed and in a few seconds drew up under the lee
of a battered house, which was on the advance line of the French army,
and were in the midst of the battle. A French officer, who appeared
out of the house, informed us that we were then actually within two
hundred yards of the German trenches, so near, he said, that his men
"knew the Germans in the opposing trenches by their first names."
Seeing a modern battle demolishes all one's preconceived ideas derived
from descriptions of previous wars. One at least expects some sort of
rapid and exciting action. In reality, as we stood in the very midst
of the Battle of the Aisne, there was, in our immediate neighborhood,
only a dead silence. At intervals an angry rumbling would break out
somewhere in the distance, but in the trenches close to our elbows
there was no sound or movement. No birds, no beasts, no men were
anywhere to be seen. This uncanny silence would continue for twenty or
thirty interminable seconds and then a shrapnel would burst close by,
with a sharp, ugly, threatening bang which had no echo; then all
lapsed into silence again. Each shrapnel only made the subsequent
silence more intense, just as a man's footsteps crunching through the
snow-crust of a winter wilderness seem like a brutal intrusion on the
absolute stillness.
We looked behind us and could see no signs of French troops; we peeped
around the house corner and could perceive no indications of the
enemy. It was a monotonous landscape which faded away through the mist
to nothingness, and its only noticeable features were a few shell
craters and two French soldiers sitting close by in the end of a
trench. These men remained motionless so long before one of them moved
that we began to think they were dead. Their comrades were all hidden
in a bomb-proof trench which from any angle was invisible at a
distance of a few yards. Several more officers came out of the house
and chatted with us, or unconcernedly read newspapers which we
distributed and made not the slightest break in their conversation
when a shrapnel burst directly over our heads with ear-splitting
nearness.
The shrapnel arrived without any forewarning scream. This is a sign
that the guns are less than two thousand yards away. For the first one
or two thousand yards of its flight a 3-inch shell travels faster than
sound, but after that distance it so rapidly loses velocity that the
sound of its screech travels faster than the shell and arrives ahead
of it.
* * * * *
We visited the field headquarters of a General, commanding a division
of twenty thousand men, whom we had the pleasure of meeting. Under a
great haystack which stood alone in the center of an open field had
been excavated several rooms used as the General's Headquarters. Some
yards away from the haystack a stove-pipe projected out of the sod in
a foolish unrelated manner; under it was the kitchen in which was
cooking the evening meal for the staff officers. A clump of trees
close by might be called the General's ante-room, for here hidden
among the branches were several officers receiving and sending
messengers and dispatches. Several telephone wires ran to the haystack
and one of them connected the trees with the General's underground
office. In a neighboring wood a troop of cavalry were encamped and
numerous automobiles and motor-cycles were parked, all hidden from
distant outlooks or from aëroplanes overhead.
* * * * *
The area immediately in the rear of the battle-lines is most
interesting, for it is here that one really learns how a battle is
fought. One sees the reserves of men and munitions all hidden
carefully from the view of aëroplanes. Occasionally one catches a
glimpse of the guns, which are usually a mile or so behind the
infantry and are hidden and protected in the woods and valleys. The
artillery seldom sees its enemy or even its own front battle-line, but
fires across woods, hills, and valleys and over the heads of its own
infantry at the enemy beyond. The guns are aimed from mathematical
calculations and the results are checked and corrected by
observations telephoned back from the front.
* * * * *
We arrived in Amiens in the middle of the afternoon and I went
immediately to see the American Consular Agent, M. Tassancourt, for
whom I had messages. I found him in splendid shape and very glad to
welcome me. I discovered later in the day that he had done exceedingly
effective work during the German occupation of the city, and was at
least partly responsible for the fact that there had been no friction
between the German invaders and the population. When our official
business was finished he took me for an inspection of the military
hospitals, which occupied several hours. The city is only fifteen
miles distant from the present battle-line and contains base hospitals
for some forty miles of battle front.
I took special pains to learn the details of the German occupation and
to search for any damage they might have done. There had been no
fighting within the city and it had not been shelled by either side.
The German armies had entered it unopposed and had retired from it
unpursued, both as the result of decisive actions fought at distant
points.
On entering the city the Germans had posted notices warning the
inhabitants to refrain from hostile actions and threatening them with
dire consequences if they did not obey orders. A considerable number
of the leading citizens were taken as hostages for the good behavior
of the populace and an exorbitant indemnity was demanded of the city.
As a result of bargaining and protest this was finally cut down until
the conquerors contented themselves with something like one hundred
and fifty thousand francs in gold, and supplies to the value of about
eight hundred thousand. All this levy was turned over within four
days, after which the hostages were released, the populace having
behaved in a manner satisfactory to the invaders.
* * * * *
The headquarters of the British Red Cross Field Ambulance train of the
Section Beauvais-Lille were temporarily in Amiens. The Consul
presented me to Mr. Fabian Ware, the Commissioner in command, who very
kindly invited me to dine with him and his staff.
* * * * *
_At the Front, Wednesday, October 14th._ We spent last night in Amiens
and after a day near the front returned again to Amiens in the
afternoon. On the way from Pas to Amiens the machine was running
rapidly down the slope of a hill toward a little village in the
valley, when an old white-haired woman detached herself from a knot of
peasants beside the road and suddenly threw herself in front of the
wheels. By putting on the brakes the driver managed to stop just in
time to prevent her being crushed. She then tried to crawl under the
car and was dragged screaming away by the villagers. It seems that
some twenty years ago this woman had been left a widow with one child,
a boy. With endless labor she had brought him to manhood and given him
more than an average education. When the war broke out her son was
immediately called to the colors, while she remained caring for her
tiny house, her chickens, and her cow. When the Germans came a battle
took place in her village, her house was knocked down, her cow blown
up by a shell, and finally her chickens disappeared down German
throats. The poor old woman, refusing to leave the locality in which
her life had been passed, had wandered about for days in the rain and
mud, until cold, hunger, and sorrow had made her light-witted. Then
while roaming aimlessly over the fields she had come upon the body of
her dead son.
* * * * *
On this trip I have travelled along the front from Lassigny to a point
near Arras, or about fifty-five miles of battle-line.
* * * * *
We left Amiens at six o'clock in the evening and passed through
Abbeville on the coast, this being the point before mentioned from
which the Germans were at the time only thirty-eight miles distant and
which they might have reached in two days had they advanced as rapidly
as they did at times during August, or as rapidly as they now seem to
be doing farther north in Belgium. I continued up the coast some forty
miles through Etaples to Paris-Plage, which I reached at ten o'clock.
I went immediately to the residence of the Countess X. and found to my
great satisfaction that the French chauffeur whom I had sent on ahead
to prepare the family for the trip to Paris had arrived safely with
the limousine the day previous and that the children and nurses were
all ready to leave at daybreak tomorrow.
Before going to bed I called on the Mayor and after a long conference
arranged for proper passes to get my charges out of the town the next
morning.
* * * * *
_Thursday, October 15th._ We all got started this morning at half-past
six. I had told the chauffeur to warn the nurses to provide milk,
food, and everything the children would need for the long day's run,
as I planned to make Paris in one day and did not wish to stop except
for emergencies. I put the five youngest "kids" and the two nurses
inside the limousine and took the English governess and the two older
children in the back seat of my own car.
Despite my papers from the Mayor of Paris-Plage, my personal passes,
and a large sign across the front of the automobile reading, "In the
Service of the Ambassador of the United States," I had an exciting
time getting past the gendarmes of the town and the Prefecture of
Montreuil. The difficulty lay in the nationality of the children and
of one of the nurses, all of whom were Hungarians and therefore
officially enemies of France. As such they were not supposed to travel
about, especially not behind the French battle-line. The details of my
struggles are too numerous to relate, but finally we got through
successfully and at good speed ran towards Paris. The day throughout
proved a strenuous one with many detentions caused by suspicious
sentries and over cautious prefects, together with four blow-outs and
one breakdown. Each self-important petty official could see no reason
why I should not spend several hours explaining things for his special
benefit. It was manifestly impossible to keep the babies out
over-night, and therefore I overrode objections, answered innumerable
questions, and freely used the magic name of the American Ambassador.
The frequent tire trouble, which gave the rest of us much anxiety,
filled the heart of little Count Paul, aged seven, with unalloyed
delight, for when the machine stopped to shift tires, he could get out
in the road and listen to the thrilling sound of guns booming off to
the left.
In the end, what had to be done was done. We made Paris and "Mother"
at eight o'clock after a fourteen-hour run--all dead tired, but no
one the worse for the trip.
I obtained a very telling idea of the immensity of the Battle of the
Aisne on this rapid run, for today the atmosphere had cleared and was
in a sound-transmitting mood, so that all day long we could hear the
cannon on our left booming, booming, without cessation--eighty miles
of cannon, or fourteen hours of booming, a big measure. Our route lay
through Etaples, Montreuil, Abbeville, Pont Remy, Aviames, Poix, where
we stopped for luncheon, Grandvilliers, Pontoise, and through the
Porte Maillot into Paris.
CHAPTER VII
THE AMERICAN AMBULANCE
_Paris, Thursday, October 15th._ For the present the jottings in my
diary grow farther and farther apart, as events worth recording have
during the past weeks occurred with less and less frequency. The
volume of Embassy work in the department of Germans, Austrians, and
Hungarians has of late been steadily decreasing. Since the end of
September our work has chiefly consisted of routine diplomatic
correspondence relating to prisoners of war. Mr. Herrick's efforts
have recently been successful in obtaining from the French government
an order permitting interned civilians to return by way of Switzerland
to their homes in Germany and Austria-Hungary. This achieves the last
vital aim for which he has struggled and now that everything has been
reduced to calm and routine it is probable that he will soon return to
America. The volunteer Attachés, whose duty does not keep them
permanently in the diplomatic service, begin to feel that since there
is no longer pressing need of their assistance they must soon return
to their several professions and to the peaceful occupations of civil
life. They have worked under the inspiring leadership of a man with
whom familiarity breeds respect, and have had the honor of knowing him
as one knows those only with whom one has passed through dark days.
Mr. Herrick has proved himself one of those rare men who are possessed
of high ideals and far vision and who at the same time refuse to be
impractical.
* * * * *
Lieutenant Donait and I are hoping that we may sometime in the near
future have an opportunity to make a trip to Berlin with dispatches.
We should greatly like to see the other side of the war. Lieutenant
Donait is one of the military Attachés at the Embassy with whom I have
become particularly friendly.
* * * * *
_Tuesday, October 27th._ I have finished my work with the Germans and
Austro-Hungarians and turned over all my affairs in good order. Of the
money sent by the German and Austro-Hungarian Governments for their
indigent interned subjects, the Embassy has distributed more than a
quarter of a million francs, all of which has passed through my hands.
It is a relief to get the accounts balanced and into the charge of the
professional bookkeeper whom the secretaries have at last succeeded in
engaging.
Lieutenant Donait awaits orders from Washington releasing him from his
work at the Embassy. It has been arranged that as soon as these arrive
he and I are to go together to Germany as bearers of official
dispatches.
For the interim I have offered my services to the Motor Ambulance
Corps of the American Hospital. The existence of this hospital and of
its ambulance trains is due to Mr. Herrick's efforts and its creation
is one of his greatest diplomatic achievements. Its efficiency, size,
and rapid growth have done more to promote friendly relations between
France and the United States than any other single factor, excepting
only the never-to-be-forgotten fact that the American Embassy remained
in Paris when the Germans were approaching the city. The Ambulance
Corps is under the guidance of the Ambassador and it was his energy
which pushed it through the political and economic difficulties
incidental to its inception.
Both the hospital and its Ambulance Corps are under the immediate
direction of a committee of prominent Americans, the executive
head of which is Dr. Winchester Dubouchet, who bears the title of
Surgeon-in-chief. He is a man possessing the rare combination of tact
and efficiency. He is thoroughly conversant with the technique of his
profession and has in previous wars had large experience with field
ambulance service. His ability and skill have proved as important in
the organization and running of these institutions as were those of
Mr. Herrick in their conception.
Under the wise leadership of Dr. Dubouchet, three other men, Mr.
Laurence Benét, Dr. Edmond Gros, and Mr. A. Wellesley Kipling, have
been powerful in promoting the phenomenal growth of the Ambulance
Corps. Their titles are, respectively, Chairman of the Transportation
Committee, Chief Ambulance Surgeon, and Captain of Ambulances. These
gentlemen have worked together unselfishly and indefatigably, and the
rapidity with which the manifold difficulties incidental to the
construction and organization of automobile ambulance trains have
been overcome is due to their untiring efforts.
* * * * *
The corps is now being greatly enlarged and I, as a staff officer, am
to assist in its reorganization. Some twenty-five automobile
ambulances are already in service and this number is soon to be
increased to sixty or more cars.
* * * * *
There is in general such a lack of adequate service for the wounded
that to work with the Ambulance Corps and thus contribute one's mite
of helpfulness is almost a duty for any American who can spare even a
few weeks of time. When one has seen thousands of wounded, as I saw
them at the Battle of the Marne, lying for three and four days in the
rain without food, drink, or any medical aid, one is irresistibly
driven to do something to diminish such terrible suffering. Many young
Americans are feeling the same impulse and volunteers for ambulance
service are numerous. Appeals for additional ambulance cars, moreover,
have received generous response from America. It is estimated that an
ambulance costing $1500 will, before it wears out, carry two thousand
wounded to hospitals and help the surgeons to save four hundred lives
which otherwise must die from lack of prompt attention.
* * * * *
_Sunday, November 1st._ The last four days have been spent in
accomplishing as many as possible of the necessary preliminaries
incidental to joining the American Ambulance. They include being
vaccinated, certifying whether one has had typhoid, getting measured
and fitted for a uniform, being presented to the various officers,
going through a lot of formalities leading to the possession of a
French chauffeur's license, filling out parentage and enlistment
blanks, and getting proper written introductions and identifications.
All these steps have entailed a good deal of rather necessary "red
tape," for in war time it is essential to prove every step in order to
avoid "mistakes."
The equipment of the members of the corps consists of a khaki uniform
of very heavy woolen cloth, a khaki overcoat, a fatigue cap, heavy
flannel shirts, a khaki necktie, tan puttees, tan shoes, and a tan
slicker. The members of the Ambulance obtain this outfit for the
surprisingly small sum of forty-seven dollars, each paying for his own
equipment.
At odd moments I have been put through stretcher-drill and given
rudimentary first-aid instruction. This afternoon and evening I was
sent as an orderly on an ambulance running to the suburban station of
Aubervilliers at which trains of wounded make a brief stop on their
way from the front to the home hospitals in the south of France. It is
from this station that the American Hospital receives its patients,
invariably cases whose condition is so grave that they are thought to
be incapable of enduring further travel without fatal results.
Upon entering the service of the Ambulance all volunteers, no matter
what their ultimate position is to be, are required to attain a
certain efficiency and practical knowledge in the actual handling of
wounded. I am now taking my turn at this service. One train of
ambulances is always stationed in Paris and carries wounded from the
Aubervilliers station to the various city hospitals. This train is
manned by the latest recruits, who there undergo training, being
meanwhile carefully observed by the staff officers. The majority of
them prove to be good material, and in from two to six weeks are sent
to the front, while those who are not judged to be reliable are
replaced by new volunteers. Candidates are not required to agree to
any definite length of enlistment but are at liberty to leave whenever
they so elect. On the other hand, the chiefs of the Ambulance Corps
make no promises to send any volunteer to the front but reserve the
right to select only those men who have first proved themselves fit
for such great responsibility.
Field ambulances are virtually all alike and as a rule hold four
stretchers in two tiers. In front are seats for the driver and his
orderly, and behind is a boxlike body eight feet long with wooden roof
and floor and canvas sides. From the back of the ambulance a wounded
man on his stretcher is slid into place as a bread pan is slid into an
oven, the feet of the stretcher running on wooden rails. In starting
out to collect the wounded an ambulance carries its full quota of
stretchers. When a man is picked up from the field of battle one of
these is taken out and he is carefully lifted on it; if he is already
lying on a stretcher he is not changed but, in order to save
unnecessary suffering, put into the ambulance with the one on which he
is already resting,--an empty one being left behind in exchange. In
order that this process may always be feasible it is necessary that
all stretchers should be interchangeable; the Minister of War has,
therefore, decreed that a standard stretcher called "Branquard
réglementaire," and no other, must be used throughout the French
armies.
As the number of casualties has been overwhelmingly and unexpectedly
large, the French have not up to date been able to give proper care to
their wounded. It is not uncommon for wounded men _en route_ from the
front to be on trains for three and four days, virtually uncared for,
and usually without anything to eat. Such trains finally arrive in
Paris freighted with death and madness, with gangrene and lockjaw. I
today saw two men who had been wounded a month ago and were still in
the clothes in which they had fought.
The American Corps keeps ambulances at the Aubervilliers station day
and night in relays, so that at any moment not less than two cars are
there to receive wounded. Today I was assigned as orderly to an
ambulance on the afternoon shift which begins at one o'clock and ends
at nine. The receiving station for wounded is a huge express shed
about three hundred feet long and sixty feet wide. A railway siding
enters through a big door and within runs longitudinally along one
wall. A large storage platform occupies the rest of the interior, on
which are arranged four parallel benches running nearly the whole
length of the shed. Each bench is about seven feet wide and has a
slight slope for "drainage." When we arrived all the benches were
crowded with wounded, who were packed side by side in four long
ghastly rows. They were wrapped up in their clothes--the same old
clothes in which they had fought. The French are, apparently, not sure
that the Germans may not yet take Paris, for as a rule they do not
permit wounded to be sent to that city. Only those who are slightly
wounded in the hand or arm and able to walk, or, on the other hand,
those too desperately wounded to survive being moved farther, are
allowed to remain in Paris. All the others, although they have already
taken two or three days to arrive from the front, are allowed only
twelve hours "repose" before they are sent on to the south of France.
This "repose" is taken on the benches described above or in similar
situations. If the shed is already full and additional trains of
wounded arrive, the late comers are left in their cars. Why anyone
should consider a train which is standing still more reposeful than
one which is moving I cannot imagine. In Paris the wounded at least
get something to eat, usually coarse bread with meat and cheese. They
arrive in those silly little freight cars marked "eight horses," each
of which carries about eighteen wounded, twelve on stretchers in two
tiers in each end and some six more standing or sitting in the aisle,
which extends from door to door between the stretchers.
On arriving at the Aubervilliers station we were on duty all the
afternoon, and as no trains happened to arrive this meant standing in
the rain and doing nothing at all. After dark, however, three train
loads of wounded, each of some fifty cars, came in at intervals of
about an hour. The wounded are so many that one counts them by trains
and the trains come so often that one loses count even of them. No one
who has not seen them can possibly comprehend the human misery
contained in one such unit. The first train arrived at five o'clock
and brought five hundred cases. They had been two days on the way and
had had nothing at all to eat for the last nineteen hours.
Seventy-five of their number were unwounded, but had reached such a
state of nervous collapse that they could not endure life in the
trenches a minute longer, and had therefore, perforce, been sent to
the rear. I could not ascertain just how such cases were handled at
the front for the French were reluctant to discuss the matter. Certain
it is that the instances must have been numerous, for the punishment
usually prescribed in war for such delinquency in the face of the
enemy is death before a firing squad. The cases must have been so
numerous and the ordeal withstood at the front so terrible that
punishment became impracticable. In extenuation it may be pointed out
that the French army, like any conscript army, contains every
able-bodied man of the nation, a certain proportion of whom are
inevitably mentally below par and have been sent to war against their
will or inclination. The British are the only ones who have fought
night and day from the beginning without relays and seem to thrive on
it, a fact chiefly due to their being picked volunteers all of whom
are soldiers by choice.
After the first train arrived a number of very desperate cases were
immediately sorted out and given to our ambulances. The ambulance
upon which I served was the last to leave. We departed at seven
o'clock, carrying a lieutenant of Chasseurs Alpins who had had his
hand shot off and who showed symptoms of lockjaw, and a little private
of infantry, a boy with a delicate refined face, who had a bad
gangrenous shell wound in the right thigh. His leg was rotting away in
a most frightful manner. He was delirious and as weak as a kitten. He
imagined he was a little child again and that his mother was causing
him all the pain he suffered. He moaned to her reproachfully. We
picked our way as slowly and carefully as possible, never making more
than four miles an hour and actually avoiding every projecting stone
and cobble. In spite of our efforts, our charges suffered frightfully
and the delirious boy made this evident in a way which cast a silent
spell upon the streets through which we passed. We went up over
Montmartre and along the Boulevard Clichy, famous "wicked" street of
Paris, because the road surfaces happened to be somewhat smoother. As
we went we left behind us a trail of the intangible, all-permeating,
sickly-sweetish odor of gangrene.
It is very curious to see how virtually all fatally wounded men know
that they are going to die and how they grasp it with a certainty
which exceeds the certainty of anything else in life. They often
realize it sooner than the surgeons. It is most uncanny. Perhaps it is
because their nervous system senses that its foundation has suddenly
crumbled. It is very impressive to see the quiet, optimistic calm with
which they face the end, and the bigness of it. It makes one feel
confident that there is an after-life, or that it is at least right to
die for an ideal.
* * * * *
_Monday, November 2d._ Francis Colby, who drove me when I went to get
the children of the Countess X., has recently enlisted in the American
Ambulance. He is at present organizing one of the new trains of
ambulances of which he will probably have charge when it is complete.
These new trains are to be made up of large cars, each carrying six
sitting or four lying cases. They will be able to travel five hundred
kilometers without taking on gasoline, oil, or other supplies and are
to carry repair outfits and food supplies. Every man in service with
these trains, no matter what his position, must have a French
chauffeur's license, thus providing not only greater elasticity in
action but enabling the men to drive in relays. The amount of detail
connected with the preparation of such units is immense.
* * * * *
_Saturday, November 7th._ Two ambulances are being shipped from
England to Boulogne, and Colby and myself with two other men are to be
sent out to get them. The necessary permits from the General Staff
have been applied for.
* * * * *
_Monday, November 9th._ We received this morning the permits for the
trip to Boulogne. Dr. Walker and William Iselin are to accompany Colby
and myself; we expect to leave early tomorrow morning. We are to drive
an ambulance--a twenty horse-power (English rating) Daimler--and on
our way shall follow close to the battle line in order to hunt
suitable locations for the new ambulance trains. We go by way of
Montdidier, Amiens, and Doullens, all of which contain base hospitals.
* * * * *
_Tuesday, November 10th._ We left Paris at ten this morning by the
Porte St. Denis and proceeded through Aubervilliers and Ecuen to
Chantilly, where we stopped for lunch. The motor had been running very
badly, and as no one else seemed willing to try conclusions with it I
undertook the task. The trouble proved to be in the carbureter. After
I had taken this to pieces and put it together again everything went
smoothly. While I was at work, the other members of the party wandered
about the town and talked with the inhabitants, whose village had been
occupied by the Germans for several days during their dash toward
Paris. It was well that the most valuable articles in the museum of
the château had been hidden away before the Germans arrived, as they
carried off pretty much everything that was in sight.
The first Germans who had entered the town had not worn the
characteristic spiked helmet and many of the inhabitants had mistaken
them for English troops. Early in the war this error was frequently
made by French peasants, to whom the British and Germans were equally
unknown. The townspeople were still laughing at one old innkeeper who
had freely given of his choicest supplies to the supposed Englishmen,
and had spent the better part of an afternoon enthusiastically and
vigorously grooming their horses, meanwhile keeping up a stream of
frightfully abusive remarks "à propos de ces cochons des _Boches_,"
much to the amusement of his Teutonic audience.
* * * * *
We arrived in Amiens after dark and there encountered an old friend in
Mr. Richard Norton, the American archeologist, who is at present
commanding a British Red Cross unit in the field. We had dinner with
him and obtained from him much valuable information.
* * * * *
Mr. Norton's train has its base at Doullens. He is tonight in Amiens
on official business and has with him only his scout car and its
driver. His train has received orders to report early tomorrow morning
at a field hospital near the village of Bouzincourt which is only a
little more than two miles from the "German" town of Albert. His train
is to assist in the evacuation of some two hundred gravely wounded
French soldiers who are threatened by heavy German infantry attacks
and are even now under shell fire. At dawn he is to go direct to
Bouzincourt in his scout car and there meet his ambulances. We have
decided to accompany him to aid, if possible, in removing the
wounded.
* * * * *
_Wednesday, November 11th._ After an early breakfast, we followed Mr.
Norton's scout car through a deluge of rain as it proceeded at a dizzy
pace toward the sound of battle. We passed through the villages of
Querrieux, Laviéville, and Millencourt, getting into a "hot"
neighborhood near the latter place.
* * * * *
On arriving at Bouzincourt we found that the German attacks had been
decisively repulsed at sunrise this morning and the French surgeons in
charge of the field hospital had reconsidered their decision to move
the wounded, nearly all of whom were in a precarious condition. The
ambulance train therefore returned empty to its base at Doullens,
travelling by protected roads, while Mr. Norton's car, with our own,
followed along the battle-line, his purpose being to scout for
possible wounded in order better to direct the afternoon operations of
his train.
* * * * *
Not far from Colincamps we stood upon the crest of a hill beside a
group of nine French field guns. They were cleverly concealed in an
artificial fence line carefully constructed in all its details along
the hilltop. Fence posts had been erected and the artillerymen had
also set up the trees, vines, and underbrush which normally follow and
accentuate the boundaries between fields. The day was so windy and
rainy that we had no fear of being observed by German aëroplanes, and
therefore stood tranquilly behind the guns and talked with the
commanding officer.
A mile below us in the valley we could through our field-glasses
define the position of the French trenches and beyond them locate the
German trenches. Between the two stretched that No Man's Land, called
"between the lines," which runs from Ostend through Bethune, Albert,
and Lassigny to Soissons and Rheims and from thence to the Swiss
frontier. Following its twistings and turnings this strip of land is
four hundred and fifty miles in length. It lies wrapt in uncanny
solitude for in all its length there moves no living creature. It
changes from beet-fields to plowed land, to pastures and back to the
eternal beet-fields again. It runs across farms and over hills,
through cities and under forest trees. It varies in width, here
narrowing to a few feet, there widening to several hundred yards. Five
minutes would be ample time to walk across it anywhere, and yet it is
the most impassable frontier ever marked out by man anywhere on the
surface of mother earth. No person may cross it, no matter how exalted
his position nor how mighty his influence, for throughout its length
hosts of trained men lie ever ready to let loose upon any intruder a
thousand shells and a million bullets.
What sights one might behold if one could, himself invisible, follow
this ribbon of scarred earth as it winds its way across Europe from
the North Sea to the Alps! Its length is mazed with barbed wire and
electric death, and menaced by pits and mines. Heaps of dead men lie
in the sun or rain, and the wounded cry faintly and more faintly until
they too are dead. The plants and trees are blasted and even the earth
has been torn and tortured by explosions.
At some point along this line a moment comes when thousands of men
start suddenly out of the bare earth like Sons of the Dragon's Teeth
and as promptly charge forward. For a brief moment their shouts are
heard through the stillness and then their voices are drowned by one
great hellish din, made up of the roar of guns, the crash of cannon,
the scream of shells, and the shock of ear-splitting explosions. The
ground under their feet heaves and shakes and the air about them is
filled with a confusion of flying dust and débris.
* * * * *
As we stood on the hill-crest and talked to the French officer a
furious cannonade was going on around us. In our rear, hidden behind
hills, three different French batteries were in intermittent action,
and somewhere off beyond the valley in front lay the hidden German
batteries which were returning their fire. Shells from both sides
passed back and forth over our heads and the German shells banged and
burst a thousand yards behind our backs.
The guns beside us were silent. They had, undetected, held their
present position for a whole day. They watched the two lines in the
valley as intently as these lines watched each other, for in front of
us was one of those crucial points against which attacks are
frequently launched by the enemy. The batteries beside which we stood
waited hour after hour for that sudden critical moment when the
Germans should attempt to launch any attack between the lines. These
nine guns could together fire two hundred rounds a minute, which means
seventy thousand shrapnel bullets. These batteries were connected by
telephone with the trenches a mile in front, and also with various
observation points from which the results of their fire could be
accurately judged and cross-checked.
A few hundred yards to our right in plain view across the open fields
was the little village of Auchonvillers. Suddenly a great German shell
burst with an earth-shaking shock in the open fields about three
hundred yards behind it, throwing up a great cloud of inky black smoke
nearly as large as a city block. It made a crater more than a hundred
feet in circumference. The French officers said that it was either a
twelve-inch or an "eleven-point-two" and prophesied that a second and
more accurate shot would soon follow and strike the village itself. We
watched intently and some minutes later a great shell did fall
squarely into the little hamlet. Again a great cloud of jet black
smoke shot up into the air, but this time it was mixed with bits of
houses and fragments of earth. The smoke drifted off slowly, and
reluctantly floated away on the wind until some minutes later we were
able to discern the town as it emerged from the cloud of dust, showing
a great gap in its sky-line.
* * * * *
We had lunch in Doullens with the officers of Mr. Norton's train.
* * * * *
At one point in the front line we heard this story relative to
barbed-wire entanglements. A week ago a lieutenant and several of his
men ventured forth at night and succeeded in crawling unobserved under
the entanglements. Reaching the German trenches they leapt in among
their enemies and did much execution; but becoming too enthusiastic,
they overstayed their leave, so that none of them ever returned. The
Germans, not wishing to be again surprised in such a disagreeable
manner, on the next dark night slipped out of their trenches and hung
a great quantity of cowbells upon the lower strands of their wire
entanglements. Before many nights had passed another party of daring
Frenchmen again essayed to crawl to the German trenches but, ringing
up the cowbells, were all killed in the resulting fusillade.
Not content to leave the matter as it stood, an intrepid Frenchman
crept out on the following night, unwinding a ball of twine as he
advanced. He succeeded in attaching the end of this to a cowbell
without making any noise to betray his presence. He then made his way
safely back to his own trenches and from their shelter vigorously
pulled the string. A most ungodly clank and clatter resulted, wrecking
the stillness of the night. This aroused the Teutons and led them into
a solid hour of furious but futile shooting. The string was similarly
pulled on several succeeding occasions and always produced the desired
result of uproar and shooting, until it was finally severed by a
bullet.
* * * * *
Our party arrived in Hesdin at half-past six this evening. It was
raining furiously and the condition of the roads and the obscurity of
the night made it extremely hazardous to proceed farther. The village
was packed with British transports and we could find only one vacant
bed in the whole place. Two of us slept in that and the other two on
stretchers in the ambulance.
* * * * *
_Thursday, November 12th._ At eleven o'clock this morning we reached
Boulogne, which is at present a British army base and almost deserves
to be called an English city. It is filled with troops, with Red Cross
and Royal Army Medical Corps, and with transport wagons, all British.
English is heard on all sides and the London Times is by noon on sale
in the streets. Bits of the front freshly arrived are much in
evidence; one sees everywhere English Tommies on leave, wounded
Ghurkas, and convoys of sullen German prisoners.
At present British wounded are being shipped to England at the rate of
more than two thousand a day, which is probably one reason why their
forces on the Continent have not, in spite of their strenuous
recruiting and of the use of Colonial and Indian troops, exceeded two
hundred thousand men.
* * * * *
The basins of the harbor at Boulogne are crammed with a heterogeneous
mass of shipping--transports, warships, submarines, torpedo boats,
Red Cross steamers, and great rafts of small sailing vessels which
were tied up because of the war. The docks and wharves are piled
mountain-high with great masses of supplies, and parks of ambulances
and war automobiles await call to service.
Ambulances run hither and thither carrying wounded to the half dozen
Red Cross boats which are tied up to the wharves. Each of these ships
is painted white with a great red cross displayed upon either side.
* * * * *
_Friday, November 13th._ We did not succeed in finding the two
ambulances for which we had come. Iselin left for London yesterday
afternoon to try to trace them in England.
* * * * *
_Saturday, November 14th._ On our return trip to Paris we left
Boulogne at half-past two yesterday afternoon and made a "forced
march" of sixteen hours straight through to Paris, where we arrived
this morning at six. It rained in torrents all day yesterday, all
night long, and is still pouring today. We three worked in relays, one
sleeping in the ambulance while another drove and the third read maps
and showed passports to sentries. Dr. Walker and I slept while Colby
drove alone over well-known roads as far as Abbeville, where we
arrived at half-past seven. We left at eight after a hasty supper, and
I drove the car straight through to Paris while Dr. Walker managed the
maps.
I reported to the Ambulance Headquarters this morning and found that I
had been assigned to duty in assisting Captain Kipling with the
executive details of the organization of the new ambulance trains. In
future every train is to be composed of five ambulances, one repair
car, and one scout car, and is to be manned by an officer and thirteen
men. Each such unit is to be complete in itself and is called a
"squad." As such it will be assigned to duty with the Paris Hospital,
with field hospitals, or with the French, British, or Belgian armies.
The field work is to be controlled from Paris by Captain Kipling and a
board of three staff officers. O. W. Budd is to be Chief of Staff, E.
W. McKey, Adjutant, and during the remainder of my short time of
service with the Corps I am to have charge of equipment and material.
The Corps has recently been recognized by the French army, and from
now on will virtually be a part of that army. It will receive orders
direct from the Minister of War and from the General Staffs.
* * * * *
_Friday, November 27th._ Mr. Herrick leaves for America tomorrow.
Today he was busy at his desk in the Embassy until late in the
afternoon, during which time he dictated a personal letter to me
thanking me for my services under his administration, a document that
will ever be one of my most prized possessions.
* * * * *
Donait's leave of absence has arrived from Washington and I am leaving
with him tomorrow via Switzerland with special dispatches for Berlin.
I received an indefinite "leave of absence" from the American
Ambulance, nominally retaining my position as staff officer in hopes
of rendering indirect service to the Corps after my return to America.
* * * * *
_Saturday, November 28th._ It is impossible for the French people to
understand why the United States should remove Mr. Herrick from his
post just when he has so valiantly proved himself equal to the great
demands which have been made upon him in the present crisis. In the
diplomacy of other countries a plenipotentiary is never replaced in
times of great stress, except as a rebuke to him or as an intimation
that the policies he has expressed are to be reversed by his
government. That a valuable diplomat should at a critical time be
replaced for reasons of mere party politics seems incomprehensible to
European nations.
_Note._--The French Government sent a representative to America on the
same boat with Mr. Herrick. As the ship was approaching land and Mr.
Herrick was again virtually a private citizen within the bounds of his
native country, this representative of the French Republic conferred
upon him the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor, the highest order in
the gift of France and one usually reserved for her rulers and her
victorious marshals. As far as I have been able to ascertain, this is
the only time that such an honor has ever been conferred upon an
American.
CHAPTER VIII
GERMANY AND BERLIN
_Berne, Saturday, November 28th._ Donait and I left Paris at nine last
evening for Lyons, Culoz, and Geneva with dispatches for Berlin. For
many reasons we are particularly anxious to see Germany and Austria in
war time, and look forward keenly to the experience which we face.
We arrived in Geneva at noon. We were very tired, for our train and
compartment were overcrowded and we had to sit up all night. The
responsibility of the sack of official papers which we carried, and on
which one of us had constantly to keep his mind, hand, and eyes, was
an additional element of fatigue.
* * * * *
We were forced to wait in Geneva until five o'clock for a train to
Berne, where we finally arrived at nine this evening.
* * * * *
_Sunday, November 29th._ This morning Donait and I presented ourselves
at the American Legation and delivered our dispatches. It is the
custom to send all mail for the American Embassy in Berlin to the
Legation in Berne, where it is opened, checked over, and re-forwarded.
In the afternoon we paid our respects to the Military Attaché, Major
Lawton.
German newspapers are accessible to us this morning for the first time
since July. It is most interesting to view the reverse of the shield.
* * * * *
_Monday, November 30th._ Berne is almost as much in a state of war as
Paris. The whole Swiss army of 500,000 is mobilized and has been on
the frontiers since the end of July. The nation is on a war footing
and seems to be about equally suspicious of all the nations concerned
in the "present unpleasantness." A certain quiet confidence, however,
pervades Switzerland, a confidence which even a small nation may feel
when it has an effective army. Every normal Swiss citizen is a trained
soldier, for in his twentieth year he undergoes from sixty to ninety
days of intensive military instruction.
I speak of the efficiency of the Swiss army. I might add that the
Germans would undoubtedly have preferred to invade France through
Switzerland rather than through Belgium. Their flank would then not
have been exposed to the disastrous pressure of the British army and
navy. The fact of the matter is that they feared the British and the
Belgians combined less than the Swiss. So great are the advantages of
reasonable military preparedness.
_Preparedness and military system_ are not synonymous with a large
standing army. A small, well-prepared army may be the nucleus around
which an efficient military system can be built. The Swiss
organization is at present most interesting, for it has saved that
country from becoming involved in the present war. Had Belgium been as
well prepared as was Switzerland, Germany would have observed sacred
treaties and invaded France _across the Franco-German border_.
The efficient Swiss military system, which can put 500,000 trained and
organized men into the field, costs less than ten million dollars a
year. Our ineffective American standing army of 85,000 men costs us
one hundred millions a year, on a peace footing. The difference is due
to the fact that the frugal, thrifty Swiss, like most other nations,
do not consider civilians competent to meddle with military
matters--or that national defense should be subject to the vagaries of
party politics--or that an army is a fit subject for the experiments
of amateur social scientists.
In spite of the cruel calamities which have in the past overtaken the
United States because of her perpetual unpreparedness, we still insist
that because we do not believe in war we therefore need no military
system. It is as if we held that since we do not wish to be ill we
will abolish physicians--or as if we believed that because we do not
desire to have our homes burn down we will do away with the fire
department and with insurance. No matter how pacific a nation may be
it cannot avoid war by signing peace treaties, either singly or by the
bushel. Reasonable military preparedness is the _only_ valid insurance
against disastrous and ruinous war.
We did without this war insurance in the decade from 1850 to 1860,
when we at that time needed insurance only to the amount of 100,000
trained soldiers. This would have cost about seventy-five millions.
Had we possessed this insurance the Civil War would never have been
fought. For the lack of it our country missed disintegration by a
hair's breadth, and escaped disaster only because we happened to have
one of the great men of history as President. The ultimate victory was
won at a cost of which the following items were only a part:
750,000 lives.
10,000 million dollars in national debt and pensions.
25,000 million dollars in property damage.
All this would have been prevented by a protective expenditure of 75
millions a year.
No more fatal delusion was ever cherished than the belief that "it
takes two to make a quarrel." In world history it has seldom needed
two to make a quarrel. Did Belgium quarrel with Germany?
Our legation in Berne has always been the most isolated, humdrum spot
on earth. People stationed here nearly died of ennui; nothing ever
happened, until all Europe suddenly was plunged into the conflagration
of war, and then Berne became, of necessity, the clearing house for
the continent for dispatches, mail, telegrams, money, prisoners, and
refugees. Every telegram which the American Embassy in Paris sends to
the Embassies in Germany, Austria, or Italy is directed: "American
Legation, Berne. Repeat to Gerard"--or Penfield or Page, as the case
may be.
German prisoners in France are numbered in tens of thousands and for a
long time the only means of communication from them and to them was by
means of the two American Embassies through the American Legation in
Berne. The little three-room Berne Legation with its small staff was
simply overwhelmed with work.
Donait and I were sent by Minister Stovall to make a verbal report on
the situation of the Germans in France to Baron Romberg, the German
Minister to Switzerland. I was much impressed in this my first touch
with a German official. He is rather small, slim of body, but keen of
mind, with excellent repose and control. Like all German diplomats, he
speaks faultless English. A startling evidence of the efficiency of
the German Information Bureau was furnished by the fact that he
already knew to the minutest details nearly as much about my work in
Paris in caring for German subjects as did I myself.
He spoke quite unreservedly about many matters but did not attempt to
draw us into indiscretions as do so many foreign diplomats when
dealing with younger men.
This evening I walked out along the embankment in front of the
Parliament Houses and watched a gorgeous sunset and Alpine glow upon
the snow mountains of the Bernese Oberland.
* * * * *
One is not permitted to telephone in English or in any language except
German or French (the native languages of Switzerland), and even then
the telephone girls listen closely to one's conversation.
* * * * *
Donait and I have made all our preparations to depart for Berlin early
tomorrow morning, our dispatches having been sorted out, checked, and
re-pouched.
* * * * *
_Tuesday, December 1st._ We reached the Swiss-German frontier at noon
today. We descended from the train at Basle and drove three miles to
the frontier. Here there were two barriers straight across the road,
the nearer one guarded by numerous Swiss soldiers; the farther, some
twenty yards behind, by soldiers wearing the spiked helmet. Before we
were allowed to pass the first barrier our papers and luggage were
minutely examined by Swiss military and customs officers. We then
walked across the twenty yards to the second, or German, barrier,
where we were conducted into a little guard-house. Here some dozen
soldiers were sleeping or playing cards on cots in the background
along the walls. An efficient sergeant examined our papers and then
allowed us to pass the second barrier into Germany, showing marked
respect for the Herr Lieutenant and the Herr Attaché.
We loaded our suit-cases in a second vehicle, a German one this time,
and proceeded some two miles to the railroad station of Leopoldshöhe.
While we stood on the station platform at Leopoldshöhe, heavy guns in
battle could be heard off toward Mülhausen and once there came the
typical crash of a big shell exploding much nearer, probably not more
than three or four kilometers away. As near as that to a battle in
France one sees a disorganized, deserted, wrecked countryside, with
wagon trains going back and forth and wounded soldiers straggling
toward the safety zone. Here in Germany everything was in the most
perfect order, with no excitement or confusion, and passenger trains
left on the minute by schedule time. It was difficult to realize that
there was a battle within a thousand miles.
The moment one enters Germany one feels efficiency as if one had
passed under a spell. The way the feeling immediately impresses itself
upon one is a curious psychological phenomenon. One senses at once the
wonderful civic consciousness of the nation and respects it. One does
not throw waste paper out of a carriage window, nor take trivial short
cuts, nor walk on the grass, nor attempt to pass through ticket gates
before the proper time. Everything is regulated, all is done in order.
I was momentarily embarrassed and self-conscious when first I found
myself rubbing shoulders with gentlemen in spiked helmets. During the
past four months I had seen them only as prisoners or dead men, and
their only greetings had been by way of their shells and bombs.
After an all-day trip from Leopoldshöhe down the Rhine Valley I
arrived in Mannheim, where I am to remain over-night, as I have
letters which I am instructed to leave with our Consul in this town.
Donait stopped off en route for a day to visit the old family
homestead from which his ancestors emigrated to America. I arrived
safely in Mannheim about ten o'clock, went to the Park Hotel, which I
selected from Baedeker, got an excellent room, and went immediately to
bed.
* * * * *
_Mannheim, Wednesday, December 2d._ At half-past seven this
morning I was awakened from a sound sleep by a pounding at my door. I
climbed sleepily out of bed and, in pajamas, opened the door to two
extremely polite and suave Secret Service men who, nevertheless,
examined my papers with the greatest thoroughness and as carefully
cross-questioned me as to my race, color, and previous condition. They
asked to see my dispatches, whose seals they studied in order to be
certain that I was really carrying some sort of official messages.
Having listened with close attention to my story, they asked me out of
a clear sky where Donait was and why he had left me. They capped the
climax by reminding me that at Leopoldshöhe I had told the sergeant we
were bound for Berlin, which was exactly what I had told him, not
having considered the brief stop at Mannheim of sufficient importance
to be mentioned. When they had received a satisfactory explanation of
the discrepancy (the conversation having staggered along in German, of
which my knowledge is limited) they thanked me politely and withdrew.
I dressed, had breakfast, and presented myself at the Consulate just
before the opening hour at ten.
I was received by the Vice-Consul, Mr. Cochrane, and had not been in
the Consulate five minutes when the police office called him up by
telephone and asked politely if I was "all right." It was my first
lesson with the German Secret Service, but the only one I needed to
prove that while I was in Germany my every move was noted and that I
was to be constantly under police surveillance.
After delivering my packages to the Consulate I waited until after
dinner for Donait, with whom I am to leave for Berlin at nine o'clock.
I took luncheon with Vice-Consul Cochrane, spent the afternoon
sightseeing in the streets of the city, and dined with Consul Leishman
and his wife.
* * * * *
_Berlin, Thursday, December 3d._ Donait and I had a whole compartment
to ourselves last night, which shows how normally German railroads
are running. We arrived in Berlin at eight o'clock this morning,
bathed, dressed, and had breakfast, at eleven o'clock presented
ourselves at the American Embassy and delivered our precious dispatch
pouch to Mr. Grew, the First Secretary.
I was surprised and much pleased to find that an old playmate, Charles
Russell, was Private Secretary to Ambassador Gerard, a position in
which he has achieved a great success.
Our duty discharged, we hastened to take our first walk along the
famous Unter den Linden. The city of Berlin is well laid out, with
wide avenues and numerous and ample park spaces, some of them very
large, but the architecture of the city is a jumble of heavy, clumsy,
gloomy buildings, fussed up with most extraordinarily crude and
grotesque details. For an architect to be in Berlin is next door to
being in hell.
Our Military Attaché, Major Langhorne, has been at the front almost
continuously since the beginning of operations. In his absence, we
called upon the Naval Attaché. I also called at the American Consulate
to leave dispatches and found that the Vice-Consul had been one of my
classmates at Yale. He remembered me as "Fish Wood" the runner, and
probably in true Yale spirit considered my occupation of Attaché much
less important.
The present conditions in Berlin are as unknown to the outside world
as are the domestic affairs of China. In order not to make too many
diplomatic _faux pas_, I spent the first day talking with the men whom
I knew and in accumulating useful data as to danger points. As one in
Germany senses efficiency, one as quickly becomes conscious of the
all-seeing eye and the all-guiding hand of the Government. We have
nothing like that in America, and for an American in France there is
no such supervision. Life in Prussia is at present, for the diplomat
of a neutral country, much like skating on thin ice. Several of the
younger diplomats in Berlin have unconsciously committed acts
considered indiscreet by the German Government, and so ended their
usefulness in Germany.
* * * * *
It is a mistake to suppose that there are dissensions or differences
of opinion in the German nation, or that the Kaiser or the military
party has imposed war on the people. In modern times it would not be
possible for even an absolute monarch to force an unwilling people
into such a momentous step. The German Government is the product and
expression of the German people. They have made it and, having created
it, they are proud of their work. The Emperor is in popular estimation
not much lower than God Almighty, and the two seem inextricably
mingled in the public mind. The world-wide amusement created by "Me
und Gott," or by the Emperor's firm conviction that he and he alone is
worthy of divine aid and approval, is an amusement not shared by any
Germans. If you say to them, "the Emperor seems to think the German
people are the one race chosen of God and that He works only for them
and their advancement," the Germans will promptly and emphatically
reply: "why, of course; all our past history proves that." The God
they appeal to, however, is the God of Battles of the Old Testament
and of the ancient Hebrews, who slew His enemies, destroyed nations,
and annihilated races, who was cruel and vindictive.
* * * * *
The German nation is, up to this date, but little cramped by the war.
The people and the army lack for nothing. All the shops, hotels,
restaurants, theaters, and dance halls in Berlin are open and well
patronized. Several million men fit for military service have not yet
been called out, because they are not needed. At the front they have
such a great body of infantry that a certain proportion of them are by
turns given a vacation and allowed to return to their homes. The
German officers say that Germany did not count on a speedy termination
of the war; they even believe that it may last four years and face
this possibility with courage and with confidence of final victory. As
for the famine conditions, I did not accept German opinion about the
abundance or price of food supplies, but myself asked prices in shops
and public markets and in various restaurants and hotels--all sure
thermometers of any rise in the price of food.
If Germany ever pleads famine it will be for some purpose of
diplomacy. In times of peace she raises each year more than she can
herself consume and is an exporter of food-stuffs. This year she had a
good crop, and, needless to say, it was, with characteristic
efficiency, entirely harvested. She has retained for her own use the
surplus usually exported. Every possible lack that war might bring
had been anticipated and provided for, or a substitute suggested. The
country does not produce as much wheat as she consumes, but German
scientists have produced a potato flour which, when mixed with wheat,
makes excellent bread, as I myself can testify. Potatoes are
plentiful, as Germany usually exports large quantities.
The army appears to lack nothing. Military necessities like wool,
lead, gasoline, nitrates, ammunition, accoutrements, and hospital
supplies they seem to have in superabundance.
* * * * *
_Berlin, Friday, December 4th._ William Iselin left Paris with
dispatches for London and Berlin at the same time that we started via
Berne.
In Berlin, restaurants, cafés, theaters, and concerts are going at
full blast. Donait, Iselin, and I, who have for months been working
like dogs in Paris, which is as dull as a country village and where
cafés close at eight and restaurants at nine and no places of
amusement are open other than a few poor cinemas, are thoroughly
enjoying the contrast. We three dined together at a splendid
establishment where we ate many elaborate courses while listening to
a good band and watching an excellent variety show, which lasted until
eleven. From then until two we wandered about to various dance and
supper establishments.
* * * * *
All the banks in Berlin are open and will pay out gold in certain
limited quantities to anyone who wishes to go to a foreign country.
Gold brings par and no more. Auto-busses are running everywhere and
many private automobiles are seen on the street which have not been
requisitioned by the government. Trams and subways also run at all
hours. In short, the life of the city seems to be pretty nearly
normal. The only signs of war disasters are the convalescent wounded
soldiers who walk about the streets.
* * * * *
One is impressed by the virility and vigor of the Germans as a race.
Their national spirit also is wonderful, exceeded only perhaps by that
of the Japanese. People who one day read the announcement of the death
of a son, a father, or a brother, are seen the next day in the streets
or cafés going about quietly, expressing or betraying neither sorrow
nor regret. The loved one has died "für Gott, für König, und für
Vaterland." That is glory enough, and neither the Emperor nor the
people feel that it is appropriate to mourn for one who has died for
his country.
* * * * *
_Saturday, December 5th._ I went this morning with Donait to inspect
the prison camp at Zossen, which is about forty kilometers from Berlin
and holds at present twenty thousand French soldiers, guarded by
fifteen hundred of the Landsturm. Their camp was surrounded by three
lines of very high and effective barbed-wire fences. In each of the
alleys between these fences German sentinels paced back and forth. The
prisoners seemed to me to be excellently cared for and were healthy,
well-fed, and fairly contented. They were physically better off than
they would be in muddy trenches at the front. They have all been given
some kind of work to do, such as caring for their own prison camps,
cooking, and building sheds for themselves or barracks for the German
army. We saw a procession of about two thousand who came in from a
near-by forest carrying tremendous bundles of faggots for firewood. As
they marched they were singing, with a good deal of spontaneous
gusto, a ribald French song. We considered their condition a great
credit to their captors.
* * * * *
We were shown the famous great parade ground of Berlin. It is an
immense field, quite flat, beautifully turfed, and about one and a
half miles square. In one corner is about one-third of a square mile
of pine woods with little rolling hills and an imitation forest
country where troops can be drilled in skirmish formation. Young
soldiers were being trained thereon in advancing in echelons and in
taking up well-hidden firing-line positions.
The regular army of Germany as it has been recruited each year has
absorbed just over half of the eligible men of the nation. Military
service therefore has by no means been universal, and there are
several million men of military age who have never been utilized. Over
two million of the latter have volunteered since August, only two
hundred and thirty thousand of whom have as yet been accepted for
training. In addition not all of the regular army has yet been brought
into service.
The German officers have, since the opening of the war, adapted
themselves to changed conditions with unexpected flexibility. They
immediately relaxed their ordinary overbearing manner and assumed a
closer relationship with the private soldiers. They do not, as their
enemies report, drive their men but they themselves lead to battle.
They are idolized by the nation as a whole and by the army in
particular. They do not address the soldiers of the rank and file in
the second person singular, but in the more respectful second person
plural.
The Kaiser has already awarded thirty-eight thousand iron crosses. He
takes the ground that he is nevertheless maintaining the standard of
1870. He says that the numbers now involved are so much larger and the
demands in courage and endurance so much greater that thousands
deserve to be decorated in the present conflict where hundreds won the
honor in the Franco-Prussian war.
I lunched today with Commander Gherardi, the Naval Attaché, in order
to discuss with him what we had each seen of the war on the western
front. He is making an important study of operations on the eastern
battle-lines and has several times been to the front.
Today I was told that although it was impossible to go into Belgium to
observe operations, it was probable that I would soon be sent to
Brussels with dispatches to the American Minister, Brand Whitlock.
I have recently been introduced to many very interesting Germans, both
diplomats and officers, and have obtained many valuable ideas. The
reply I receive whenever I ask Germans what they want and expect to
gain in this war, and what terms of peace they, at present, hope to
secure, is almost invariably the same. They all say: "we will never
give up Belgium; we mean to keep Poland; we would like to have Calais
and hope eventually to get it, but...." They point out that they have
so far constantly taken the offensive rôle, which must often fail in
modern war, being by far the more difficult part to play. They declare
with conviction that when once they take the defensive they can never
be beaten back. They cite the fact that for the last three months they
have on the Aisne in temporary positions maintained an unbroken front,
despite the persistent efforts of the Allies to drive them back. They
add that except Calais and Warsaw they now hold virtually everything
they want, and to keep it permanently they need only to stand on the
defensive.
A few weeks of victory or defeat will naturally modify their present
ambitions. From a material standpoint it is difficult to refute their
argument, but moral and sentimental reasons have before now turned the
tide against the "strongest battalions," despite Napoleon's verdict.
Germany herself begins to suspect that her brutal invasion of Belgium
has turned the moral sentiment of the world against her, and that her
defeat would grieve few people not of German birth.
* * * * *
_Berlin, Sunday, December 6th._ About the atrocities in Belgium there
is, apparently, no question, but considering the way the Germans
controlled themselves in France, some explanation of their brutality
farther north in Belgian Flanders is necessary. The Germans say that
the cruelties were not all on one side; that the Belgians practised
sniping, impeded the German army, and mutilated German wounded. The
only one of these charges that seems to have been proved is that of
sniping, but even if other cruelties were committed it must be
remembered that the moral status of the Belgians was entirely
different from that of the Germans. The Belgians were aroused to blind
fury by the disregard of their neutrality rights and the unwarranted
invasion of their peaceful country. Even from Germans I have heard no
excuses for the violation of Belgium which might not have been equally
well put forward by a needy burglar who breaks into an unprotected
house and plunders it after bludgeoning its helpless inmates. Is it
remarkable that the liberty-loving Belgian peasant who saw his home
destroyed or his family abused, knew no sufficient reason why he
should stand supinely by and welcome the destroyer? More brave than
wise, too furious to reason calmly, he did what he could to retaliate,
which is against the rules of war. Consequently a merciless foe
inflicted the uttermost penalty upon him, his family, and the whole
region in which he lived. The world has never witnessed more frightful
and disproportionate punishments.
The Germans on the other hand were morally in quite a different case.
They were the aggressors, the treaty breakers, and the invaders of a
peaceful country of neighbors and friends. Their part was to be
tolerant and to make allowance for individual violations of the rules
of war. The world at large will never concede that occasional
instances of sniping can justify the destruction of whole villages,
the execution of thousands of men, and the violation of thousands of
women. When our American marines occupied Vera Cruz similar instances
of sniping were frequent. Our men did not, however, burn, kill, rape,
and pillage. They were forced to fire at the custom-house because it
was occupied by snipers and in so doing they incidentally damaged the
tower of the building. After the fighting was over, the Americans felt
such regret for even this necessary bit of destruction that they
rebuilt what their shells had damaged. Their only retaliatory action
was to shoot snipers when they were caught red-handed.
* * * * *
_Monday, December 7th._ The German infantry, after spending a
certain length of time at the front, are given a vacation and sent
home. I could not ascertain the exact length of their stay in the
trenches although it seems to be about a month. The artillery stay
continuously on the battle-line as their work is less arduous and
nerve-racking, since they are always somewhat toward the rear and
usually well housed. Moreover, they fire only occasionally and have
long periods of inactivity. The cavalry spends one week in action and
then one week in the rear, some ten or fifteen miles behind the
firing-line.
Recently I had a long conversation with a German statesman of
ambassadorial rank, who spoke with intense feeling of the plight of
the thousands of German subjects, men, women, and children, who had
been caught in France at the opening of the war and interned in
detention camps. He said: "It is ridiculous for the French to suspect
any of these people of being spies, for German spies are not weak or
unprotected, but strong, picked men and women, highly trained to make
technical observations. In the present scientific age untechnical
observations are valueless. When I was Minister Plenipotentiary at
---- there were many thousands of German subjects in that city and
not one of them could have given me information of any possible
value to our great General Staff. German spies in France are neutral
or French in nationality, or pretend to be such, and they all carry
unimpeachable papers. For a man to admit frankly and openly that he is
a German is proof enough that he is not a spy. We in Germany recognize
this and do not shut up alien enemies who frankly announce their
nationality."
It was not fitting that I should enter into diplomatic discussion with
a high German official, but if I had been talking as man to man, I
could have reminded him that the spy panic which seized Paris at the
outbreak of the war was entirely the fault of Germany herself, for it
is an open secret that her spy system is her pet weapon of offense;
her enemies therefore, naturally, see a spy in every Teuton. It is
also well understood that, spy or no spy, every German man, woman, and
child is admonished, when traveling in foreign countries, to "watch,
record, and report anything of interest to the German Government."
All the accusations that have been brought against France, that she
did not properly provide for her interned prisoners, that she did not
adequately care for her own wounded or the wounded of her enemy, that
she did not give efficient support to her English allies on the
retreat from Mons to Compiègne, resolve themselves into one
conclusion, that she did not want or expect instant war and was not
prepared for all the emergencies which the German attack precipitated.
But all the world knows that she speedily supplied deficiencies and
remedied defects with great ability and indomitable courage.
In saying that alien civilians in Germany were not interned in prison
camps the German diplomat evidently thought I knew nothing about the
vile detention camps at Ruhleben and of the English men and women who
are there incarcerated to suffer beyond anything that the Germans ever
endured in France.
* * * * *
_Tuesday, December 8th._ I went to the American Embassy this morning
to obtain the necessary paper for my departure tomorrow for Vienna.
Mr. Grew called me into his private office and said that Ambassador
Gerard was particularly anxious that I should go to London instead as
he had dispatches of the utmost importance to send and would feel
indebted to me if I could take them. He warned me that the undertaking
would not be pleasant or altogether safe. I promptly accepted the
mission,--indeed such requests are, in the Army, the Navy, and the
Diplomatic Service, made only to be accepted. I am to leave Berlin
Thursday morning at 8:59 and go through Germany and Holland to
Flushing, where I shall take a boat across the North Sea to Folkestone
and thence to our Embassy in London.
* * * * *
This evening I looked over the casualty lists posted on the walls of
an official building. These lists are published on numerous very large
sheets of white paper. Each sheet has three columns in fine print. The
names are grouped by regiments and companies, so that all the
casualties of one company appear together; each name is given in full,
is prefixed by the rank, and followed by the nature of the casualty,
which is one of five things: Gefallen (fallen, killed); schwer
verwundet (badly wounded); verwundet (wounded); leicht verwundet
(lightly wounded); vermisst (missing). A casualty list is published
every day, comprising from forty to fifty of the above-mentioned
sheets, each sheet containing nearly three hundred names.
The last seven sheets were as follows:
No. 90 published Dec. 1--40 sheets
91 " " 2--50 "
92 " " 3--52 "
93 " " 4--44 "
94 " " 5--52 "
95 " " 6--48 "
96 " " 8--48 "
This gives a rate of more than 12,000 casualties a day. The lists are
complete up to October 30th. Only the last ten lists are kept posted
and thus tonight there were numbers 87-96. The sheets of these ten
lists were posted in a double row on the outside wall of the building
along the sidewalk. They extended the length of a block and then
around the corner another block. As the columns of one regiment
finished, those of the next commenced. I copied the record of a
battalion chosen at random.
Eighty-second Bavarian Casualty List
11th Infantry Regiment of Regensburg
Third Battalion
(Here followed a list of places and dates of actions in which the
Regiment had taken part):
Faxe, August 20th; Manhouè, August 23d; Maize and Drouville,
August 25th; Tourbeffeaus, Sept. 7th to 9th; Spada, Sept.
24th; St. Mihiel, Sept. 28th and Oct. 7th to 24th; Ailly,
Oct. 1st and 2d; Han-sur-Meuse (date illegible).
(Then followed a detailed list of casualties suffered by the four
companies of the battalion):
Company 9 had a list of 148 casualties, of which 18 were
killed, 35 missing, 42 wounded, and badly wounded, and 43
slightly wounded;
Company 10 followed with a list of 146 names, of which 19
were killed, 51 missing, 66 wounded and badly wounded, and 46
slightly wounded;
The Eleventh Company with a list of 188 names.
The Twelfth Company with a list of 143 names;
A German battalion is composed of four companies of 250 men each. Thus
among one thousand men there were more than six hundred casualties in
the first three months of the war, and this seemed to be about an
average list. These lists take no account of those who "died of
wounds," and "missing" is usually a polite way of saying "dead." It
means that the man was too badly hurt to escape, to be helped by his
comrades, or to crawl back, and probably was left "between the lines"
to die. This explains what at first appears to be a singularly small
percentage of killed.
* * * * *
_Berlin, Wednesday, December 9th._ This afternoon I made my final
arrangements for the trip to London. Whenever a special messenger
departs with dispatches from the Embassy a Jäger accompanies him to
the train, carries the mail-bags and pouch, and sees him safely
settled in his compartment. When he arrives at his final destination
another Jäger from the Embassy to which he is going meets him at the
station.
CHAPTER IX
CARRYING DISPATCHES FROM BERLIN TO LONDON
_Thursday, December 10th._ Soon after the train left Berlin this
morning I judged that I was being shadowed. When it pulled out of the
station there were four people, including myself, in the six-place
compartment, the two middle seats being vacant, one on my left as I
sat next the window and the other diagonally facing me. Soon after the
train was well started two men came in and occupied these seats. This
in itself was suspicious, since people do not seek seats while a train
is in motion. Both moreover had the air of being detectives. I, by
this time, know the type well, for I have been constantly shadowed
ever since my arrival in Germany and am perfectly certain that my
rooms have several times been searched while I was absent. I simply
continued to behave with the greatest possible circumspection, the
two detectives meanwhile staring at me constantly with fixed
intensity.
It was a bit unpleasant because I did not certainly know the nature of
the dispatches I carried, but realized that they were extremely
important. They were in a small leather mail pouch, padlocked and
sealed, which I had set on the floor between my feet and knees.
Everything went quietly for some two hours. I could not look out of
the window in towns and yards because I might have seen troop-trains,
factories, etc., and that would have been "indiscreet." The part of
Germany from Berlin to Holland is utterly flat and uninteresting, so
that there was no pleasure in looking at the countryside between
stations. I pretended to doze, or read three German weeklies which I
had bought. One of these finally precipitated matters. It was the
_Fliegende Blätter_, a comic paper of about the class of _Life_ or
_Punch_. There was in it a joke in German argot which had been too
much for my scant knowledge of the language and the courier who had
escorted me from the Embassy had by the merest hazard translated it
for me. In my desperate efforts to amuse myself I was looking through
this sheet again and encountering this joke thought, "If I don't
write down the English I shall forget it." Whereupon I took out a
pencil and wrote the translation interlinearly.
Soon afterwards one of the detectives got up, went out into the
corridor, and came back with three conductors who, in Germany, of
course, are military officials. The three civilians who had shared the
compartment left us as if they had been rehearsed. One of the
detectives then suddenly burst into a perfect berserker rage, getting
quite purple in the face, and snatching up the _Fliegende Blätter_
proceeded carefully to turn over the pages again and again, holding
each page against the light. It was altogether melodramatically
ridiculous. Taking the paper from me in this way, although offensive,
was perhaps within his rights since it concerned me only in a personal
and not in an official way, and so I sat quite calmly in my seat and,
biding my time, made no move of any kind. I paid no attention to the
conductors, judging the detective to be the kingpin and the conductors
merely dragged in as a matter of routine. None of them could read
English and they chose to regard the interlineation (one line of
about ten words) as extraordinarily suspicious.
The detective asked me for my passports and did so without going
through the customary formality of showing his police card. I demanded
as a matter of routine that he do this and began to draw out of my
pocket the large envelope in which I keep all my documents in order to
take out my Eagle-stamped German courier's paper. Without complying
with my request he grabbed for this envelope, while at the same moment
someone jerked at the bag which was between my knees. All this was an
affair totally different from that of the _Fliegende Blätter_. I had
thoroughly thought out what I would do in an emergency if German
officials should attempt to take my pouch from me, and had decided
that I should make enough of a resistance so that there should be no
possibility of disputing the fact that physical force had been used
and an assault committed. This would "let me out," since a
dispatch-bearer cannot be expected successfully to defend himself
against the whole Germany army. Incidentally I might add that
interference in any way with the dispatch-bearer of a neutral country
is a very heinous international and diplomatic sin. I therefore
jerked my envelope of papers rudely out of the detective's hand and
gave him a vigorous shove, resisting an almost overwhelming temptation
to hit him with all my might on his fat, unprotected jaw. I had half
risen to my feet, meanwhile keeping a grip on the dispatch bag with my
knees, and at the same time I vigorously swung my hips and freed
myself from the man below. The detective struck the opposite wall of
the compartment and bounced off toward the doorway, where he and the
conductors stood jabbering and waving their arms and ever getting more
and more purple in the face.
Finally the detective showed his police card, and I then extended to
them my Eagle-stamped courier passport, following it with my Embassy
credential and my certificate of identity or personal passport. These
three made a complete case and I refused to show anything more,
insisting that my status had been adequately established. The
officials continued to jabber and argue, having been continuously
impolite during the entire episode, a mode of behavior which was a
notable divergence from my previous experiences with agents of the
Imperial Secret Service. The chief detective, whose name was Werther,
continued to hang around, trying to talk with me, evidently determined
to get further information about my plans.
I do not pretend to judge whether all this was mere accidental
clumsiness and rudeness on the part of stupid detectives or if it was
something very much deeper, prompted by someone higher up. One is,
however, inclined to doubt inefficiency in the Prussian Secret Service
and there may have been reasons why German authorities would count it
of great importance to know the contents of my pouch.
At the Embassy in Berlin I had been told to change trains at a place
called Löhne where I was to arrive at two o'clock. Just before
reaching this point, the conductor came through and told me that it
would be much more convenient for me to stay on the train until Essen,
that this would give me one less change in my journey to Flushing, and
that it was altogether a better route. (I must remark that, besides
the bag in hand, I had in the baggage car all the routine mail for the
State Department in Washington, amounting to some two hundred and
fifty pounds in two big leather mail-sacks.) Although I replied that I
thought it better to change at Löhne anyway, the conductor insisted
upon my following his plan. He was backed up by the detective, who,
except for various goings out and in, had remained facing me. They
informed me that in any event my mail-bags in the baggage car would go
through to Essen. As by this time the train was already slowing up for
the station at Löhne, I accepted the inevitable.
Essen is not on the most direct route to Goch where one crosses the
German border into Holland, and in consequence I arrived in Goch via
Essen much too late to catch the last train from there to Flushing.
Since boats leave Flushing only once a day, early in the morning, I
had to lose one whole day and was compelled to remain another night on
German soil.
I do not pretend to offer any explanation for these strange
happenings. I was followed constantly thereafter, as previously, the
men being cleverly changed at every opportunity. My every step was
dogged. At Wesel a detective sat at the same table in the station
restaurant while I ate dinner. Such being the case I was, to say the
least, a bit annoyed.
At Essen during a fifteen-minute wait for a change of trains, I
withdrew to one end of the platform after having rechecked the two big
mail-sacks. I was standing alone, with a detective, as usual, off in
the background, when a man who looked a typical raw-boned Englishman
drew near and hung around, staring at me. I looked him up and down and
then turned my back thinking, "Another detective!" It was impossible
to believe that an Englishman could be, of all places, in Essen. He
finally approached me, saying in English of a most perfect and
pronounced British accent, "Are you an American?" I replied, "Yes, are
you a police officer? If so, please show me your card." He replied,
"No, I am in a delicate position. I am trying to go to England this
evening. I have American papers. You must see me through. I am ----."
I cut him short by saying that I regretted, etc., and deliberately
walked away. From that time on this man dogged me everywhere, trying
to pass through gates with me and to get into the same compartments,
even following me to the same hotels and restaurants, and trying to
make anything he could out of my presence. I never lost sight of him
for long until we finally set foot in England, where he did finally
arrive, in spite of some very close shaves. I last saw him giving me a
very ugly look as I landed at Folkestone. Whatever his nationality, he
certainly was a spy in the German service.
An uneventful journey of some four hours across Holland brought me to
Vlissingen, as the Dutch call Flushing, and there I spent the
afternoon, wandering about in boredom, trying to pass away the slow
hours until the boat arrived and I could climb into my berth.
* * * * *
_London, Saturday, December 12th._ We had an exciting trip across the
North Sea, taking zigzag courses to avoid mine-fields and sighting
numerous destroyers and one sunken ship. We successfully avoided
either hitting a mine or running into a torpedo. The boat was packed
down with Belgian and French refugees. One Luxembourger had been a
whole month getting to Flushing from his home in Belgium. I was much
relieved when I arrived at Victoria Station with my pouch and found a
clerk from the Embassy waiting for me, and still more relieved when we
had deposited all the bags safely at their destination.
* * * * *
_Sunday, December 13th._ I went to the Embassy this morning for a
conference with the American Military Attachés; and later took
luncheon with one of the Secretaries. I had cabled to Paris to have my
mail sent on to meet me in London, but it did not arrive; I have,
therefore, had no letters from home in some weeks. I cannot telegraph
to America details of my future plans. Imagine the face of any British
telegraph operator if I were to hand him a cable saying: "I am leaving
again for Berlin and Vienna," which is exactly what I am to do. I
return immediately with dispatches from England to our Embassies in
Germany and Austria. My plans are subject to modification by official
orders, but I shall probably remain in Berlin only one day and then go
to Vienna and Budapest. The bag I am to take to Berlin contains not
only official dispatches, but a large sum of money.
England has well prepared herself for a Zeppelin raid. Every skylight
and the top of every street lamp in London is painted black.
* * * * *
_Tuesday, December 15th._ An officer of the staff has given me an
interesting theory as to the disconcerting effect produced by the
bursting of the big German shells on the morale of the troops--how
disconcerted no one can imagine who has not himself experienced it. He
was himself near such a shell when it exploded. It rendered him
unconscious. He was blind for some time, deaf for two weeks, and
suffered from loss of memory for over a month,--and all this without
any surgical wound. He thinks the nervous effect produced by the
explosions at a distance is due in a lesser degree to the same sort of
shock. On one occasion a number of big shells exploded in succession a
hundred yards from a trench; and although no one was wounded or
suffered any physical injury, such was the demoralizing effect of the
nervous shock that all the men in the trench fled and did not recover
balance until they had run a quarter of a mile. Meeting a staff
officer and receiving from him a stiff reprimand they all returned to
their posts. The whole episode took place without any casualties.
[Illustration: THE BRITISH DESTROYER ON THE NORTH SEA
[Just after she "brought us to" with a blank shot]]
I leave for Folkestone this evening, where I spend the night on board
ship. The boat sails for Flushing after daybreak.
* * * * *
_On the North Sea, December 16th._ It has been a wonderful stormy day
today; as an officer said: "a typical North Sea winter day"--a leaden
sky, roaring wind, smothers of rain, great black-green waves all
flecked and blotched in white, big sea birds and little gulls dipping
down the wave valleys and soaring up the wave mountains, and the ship
taking the most foolish and impossible angles. It was an odd thing to
see the gulls which followed the ship, all pointing the other way, in
order to maintain their position relatively to the boat and against
the heavy wind coming up from astern. At lunch the dishes jumped the
racks and smashed along the floor; on the return heave all the
fragments rushed back the entire width of the dining saloon. Eating
was difficult.
Two hours out a British destroyer came dashing up in our wake, making
two feet to our one. She was a most picturesque sight, long, low, and
speedy, painted black; her towering knife-prow thrust out in front
and the long, low hull strung out behind. She "brought us to" with a
shot across the bows, and as we wallowed in the trough of the sea, she
went by to starboard fairly shaving our side. The officer on her
bridge, over which great waves of spray and water broke at every
moment, "looked us over" and then bellowed orders to our Captain
through a megaphone. My unpractised ear could not through the roar of
the wind and the slap of the waves catch all he had to say, but it was
something about submarines and a naval battle to the northward and
orders to change and take a different course through the mine
fields.[3] Whereupon we pursued a very zigzag course. In a moment we
would turn 120 degrees and proceed for miles on the new tack. We took
at one time or another nearly all directions of the compass. Sometimes
the smoke from the funnels went off straight at right angles to our
course; at others it preceded us.
[Footnote 3: It was on this morning that the German fleet bombarded
the towns on the east coast of England.]
CHAPTER X
VIENNA
_Vienna, Saturday, December 19th._ I remained in Berlin only one day
and started this morning for Vienna with dispatches, arriving late in
the evening after an uneventful fourteen-hour journey.
* * * * *
_Sunday, December 20th._ I presented myself at the American Embassy
this morning, delivered my dispatches, and had a conference with Mr.
Grant-Smith, the First Secretary. At luncheon I met Colonel Biddle, an
officer in the Engineer Corps of the United States Army, who has
recently arrived in Austria in order to go to the front as a military
observer. The afternoon and evening I spent with Captain Briggs,
Military Attaché at the Embassy, studying and comparing the military
methods of the eastern and western fronts. Captain Briggs has
collected, with an energy and intelligence that can fairly be called
amazing, an immense quantity of valuable military information
relative to the operations and practices of the Russian, German,
Austro-Hungarian, and Serbian armies.
* * * * *
The Austrian army officers and privates suffer by comparison with the
Germans. The soldiers one sees in the streets of Berlin are big,
husky, strong, healthy creatures, with jowls hanging over their
collars. The officers are clean-cut, keen-eyed, and in splendid health
and training. Austria seems distraught and unready for emergencies,
the people are not as keen for the war as the Germans and appear to be
more indifferent as to its results. I am predicting that the end of
the war will see Japan, Italy, and Roumania gainers, and Belgium,
Turkey, and Austria losers, while Germany and England will be
approximately in the same positions as before the war. Russia has
relatively little to gain or lose.
* * * * *
_Monday, December 21st._ I had a walk and talk with Ambassador
Penfield this morning; took luncheon with Mr. Grant-Smith and went
afterward to the Embassy. Later in the afternoon I went with Count
Colloredo von Mansfeld to the Austro-Hungarian Foreign Office and then
called on the Countess Potatka to whom I had brought letters of
introduction.
* * * * *
_Tuesday, December 22d._ After luncheon today Mr. Grant-Smith
presented me to Wilhelm Prince zu Stollberg Wering Rode, Conseiller of
the German Embassy in Vienna, who made an appointment with me for
Thursday.
I am meeting many officials, American, German, and Austrian, but at
present I cannot, without indiscretion, state just what they discuss.
I went today to the Wiener Bank Verein with Mr. Grant-Smith who wished
to arrange some safe deposit boxes for the Embassy. The building is
said to be the most beautiful bank building in the world, and I can
easily believe it. Knowing my professional interest in architecture,
Mr. Grant-Smith asked the Director to show me the building, which he
most kindly did, taking me from top to bottom--a privilege I am told
seldom granted to anyone, and for which I was very grateful.
Austria-Hungary is an extraordinary country. I doubt if anything like
it exists in this our day and generation. The Emperor-King is
everything. He could well say without exaggeration "L'État c'est Moi!"
The common people really look upon the king as divine. Socialism and
democracy do not exist,--the words seem to have no real meaning for
his subjects; and Parliaments are but his dutiful servants.
Lese-majesty is almost unheard of because the idea of questioning the
Emperor-King or anything he does would no more occur to his subjects
than to doubt the Immaculate Conception would occur to a devout
Catholic.
And what an extraordinary old man--what a relic of past ages this
Emperor-King Franz Josef is! He ascended the throne at the epoch of
our war with Mexico, he had reigned nearly two decades at the
termination of our Civil War. He refutes and blights the theories of
Dr. Osler. Two successive heirs to the throne have died or been killed
off, but he "goes on forever." He is personally a very devout
Catholic, but apparently has seldom or never allowed himself to be
politically dictated to by the Vatican. When he learned of the recent
ignominious defeat of his armies by the Serbians and of the retaking
of Belgrade, the old man first burst into a furious rage and then sat
down with elbows on the table, his head in his hands, and prayed for
forgiveness and future successes.
In Austria's history one discovers no victories. She is an unusual and
pliant State to survive so many defeats. One finds her the easy prey
of Frederick the Great, the pet victim of Louis XIV., the foe against
whom Napoleon made his first youthful efforts and the vanquished of
his prime, the defeated foe of Napoleon III., the vanquished tyrant of
Italy united, the loser in Prussia's Thirty Days' War of 1867, and now
the gradual loser against Russia's wild, numberless hordes. She has
already lost all of Galicia and stands with her back to the
Carpathians and has been held off on equal terms by Serbia these four
months past. A supine State, she is always defeated, and yet always
remains and ever grows.
Austrian money is now greatly depreciated. In ordinary times one gets
about 487 crowns for $100, while today one obtains 575. American money
has at present the highest rate of exchange.
* * * * *
_Wednesday, December 23d._ This morning I had a most interesting
interview with Count Szecsen, the Austrian ex-Ambassador to France,
and spent the afternoon in conference with Captain Briggs.
* * * * *
_Thursday, December 24th._ I made a verbal report to Prince zu
Stollberg this morning on the situation of German subjects in France.
After luncheon I had a most interesting talk with Mr. Nelson
O'Shaughnessy, of Mexican fame, who is Conseiller at the Embassy.
Later I went for a most delightful automobile ride with Ambassador
Penfield, who showed me the Prater, the Danube, the Basin, the
Exposition Building, and the Ring. Afterward Mr. Thomas Hinckley, the
second secretary, took me to see the Christmas tree in the American
Hospital, all ready for tomorrow's fête for the wounded soldiers.
* * * * *
_Friday, December 25th._ It seems very triste to be way off next to
Asia on Christmas Day, on the day when one most wants to be at home.
However, I had two Christmas feasts and a warm welcome into two
American homes. I took luncheon with Mr. and Mrs. Nelson O'Shaughnessy
and dinner with Captain and Mrs. Briggs, enjoyable visits that made a
happy day out of what would otherwise have been a very sad one.
In Vienna, as in Berlin, the fashionable hours are very late and one
is more or less forced to follow them. Nothing happens before noon and
evening entertainments end somewhere in the early morning hours.
* * * * *
_Sunday, December 27th._ This morning I was allowed by special
permission to visit the Imperial Museum, which is closed to the public
on account of the war. I took luncheon with Mr. Cardeza, Attaché to
the Embassy, and dined with Mr. O'Shaughnessy. The American diplomats
in Vienna and Berlin generally have been very much isolated since the
war began, and in each place the corps has become much like a big
family whose members see a great deal of one another.
* * * * *
Count Berchtold, whom I have seen on several occasions, is a wiry man
of medium height, always grave, intent and all-observing under a mask
of stolidity. He never "talks" and seldom speaks. When he does he is
terse and speaks out of one corner of his mouth as if reluctant to let
the words escape. He is, however, noted for the most unfailing and
perfect manners. It is said he can hear perfectly every separate
conversation that may be carried on in any room where he happens to be
present, and not only hears what is spoken but catches every little
motion or hint of important matters. Such is the man whose hand struck
the match that lit the long-prepared conflagration in which the total
military casualties alone already far exceed five million.
* * * * *
_Monday, December 28th._ I went again to the Imperial Museum this
morning and later took luncheon with the Count Colloredo von Mansfeld,
to meet Conseiller Black Pasha of the Turkish Embassy. Conferences at
the Embassy with Captain Briggs, Mr. Grant-Smith, and Mr. Hinckley.
* * * * *
The man who did as much to bring about this war as any single agency
was the German Ambassador to Vienna, Heinrich von Tschirski und
Bögendorff.
I sent home today by cable our code-word "greetings" as a New Year's
message. It goes through the Embassy here in Vienna and the State
Department at Washington. It cost me eighteen crowns, but I know it
will be worth many times that to my family, as it must be some weeks
now since they have had news from me.
CHAPTER XI
HUNGARY
_Budapest, Tuesday, December 29th._ I left Vienna at nine o'clock this
morning and reached Budapest at two. I had tea with Mrs. Gerard, who
is in Budapest visiting her sister, Countess Sigray. I called at the
home of Count Albert Apponyi to leave my card and letters of
introduction. I dined with Mrs. Gerard and the Count and Countess
Sigray.
* * * * *
The great Hungarian plain, bounded by the Carpathians on the east and
by the Danube and the Save on the south has been inhabited by the
Hungarian people for more than a thousand years. The inhabitants of
this plain number about sixteen millions at the present time. They
pride themselves upon the fact that they have maintained their
national entity since the Ninth Century, although they have stood
alone and exposed in the middle of Europe, without any of the
geographical advantages which accrue from a situation of insular
isolation such as has been enjoyed by the English.
The world in general insists in thinking of Hungary as an Austrian
province and in counting Austria-Hungary one country, whose name has
been hyphenated with the sole purpose of inconveniencing conversation
in foreign countries. As a matter of fact, Hungary and Austria are two
distinct nations, inhabited by antagonistic races who speak different
languages and hold different ideals. The Hungarians are of Magyar
descent and speak a beautiful, musical language, while the Austrians
are a mixture of many races whose common tongue is a borrowed,
unclassical German. Each country has its own government, its own
parliament, and its own cabinet officers. The Hungarian nobility
regard the Austrian nobles as mere upstarts. Nothing is so displeasing
to a Hungarian as to be called an Austrian, or to be told that
Austrians and Hungarians are one and the same people.
Surrounded by three powerful enemies, the Turks, the Austrians, and
the Slavs, they have not succeeded in continuously maintaining their
liberty during the ten centuries of their existence as a nation. They
came under the domination of the Turks during the sixteenth century,
but under the leadership of Prince Eugene they with the assistance of
Austria succeeded in liberating themselves in 1716. In 1848 they were
subjugated by Austria assisted by Russia and ever since that time have
looked forward with confident anticipation to the day when they may be
strong enough to become again an independent nation. The diplomats,
statesmen, and scholars of their noble families have labored so
astutely and successfully towards this end, that the state of bondage
which succeeded the conquest of 1848 has gradually and by successive
moves been lightened, until today their relations with Austria may be
approximated by the statement that Franz Josef, King of Hungary,
happens to be at the same time Emperor of Austria, and that the two
nations have a close defensive and offensive military alliance. In
order to promote the efficiency of this alliance, their War and
Foreign Relations ministries are united into single organizations.
There is one Austro-Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs, but there
are separate Ministers of Education, Agriculture, etc. History shows
that the salvation of Hungary has often depended upon the ability of
her leaders to play their three powerful neighbors against one
another.
In the present war they are making use of alliances with Austria and
Turkey, the two most decadent of their three historic enemies, in
order to stem the onrush of Russia, their third and most powerful
antagonist. They are a people ever faithful to their alliances even to
the point of unselfishness.
* * * * *
_Thursday, December 31st._ Budapest is one of the most beautiful
cities I have seen. The great Danube, deep, magnificent, and
rapid--500 yards wide--flows by, with Buda on its right bank and Pest
on its left. Great hills sheer out of the water and on them are the
government buildings and the Royal Palace. The humbler structures
cluster in the valleys between the hills. Most of the architecture of
the town is very good and the worst of it is better than the average
elsewhere. The river, spanned by four handsome bridges, is skirted on
either side by drives and official buildings; museums and expensive
hotels face these drives. The city is in every way very modern, with
broad avenues, excellent street-car systems, and clean, well-lit
streets.
* * * * *
_Friday, January 1, 1915._ I spent today in sightseeing,--the first
day in several weeks that I have been free from social engagements. I
took a guide from the hotel in order to waste no time and miss no
sights that one ought to enjoy. We went to the public market, the
Industrial Museum, the Art Museum, the public park, and the Cathedral.
My guide was a most convulsing person. He was supposed to speak
"perfect English," but achieved some extraordinary effects. Would you
know what "sinkim pork" might mean? He said, "everyone eats it on New
Year's Day," and so I perceived it to be "sucking pig."
Some provisions have gone up in price; flour is doubled in value and
the government has had to fix a maximum legal price. Meat and game are
cheaper than usual, perhaps because many people are killing and
selling their animals to save the grain which would otherwise have to
be used to feed them.
The utter ignorance of the people concerning everything that is
happening outside of Vienna and Budapest is amazing. The government
has somehow convinced the people that everything in the war is going
wonderfully well, and this in the face of the unsuppressible facts
that there are at present no Austrians in Serbia and that the Russians
hold all Galicia and have been through the Carpathians.
* * * * *
_Saturday, January 2d._ The German comic paper Simplicissimus recently
made a cartoon comment on the Austro-Hungarian army and the whole
issue was suppressed by the censor in Austria and Hungary. The drawing
showed a group of three Austrians, a general, an officer, and a
private. The soldier had a lion's head, the officer an ass's head, and
the general had no head at all.
Austria and Germany have not as yet produced one "great man." The
Allies have two--Joffre and Kitchener and possibly a third in
Delcassé.
The Austrian Emperor is a little man, slightly stooped, rather
shriveled-up and possessed of a pair of keen, shrewd eyes. He is an
able follower of the Emperor Ferdinand who once replied to the
statement that a certain one of his subjects was a patriot by saying:
"I don't care if he's patriotic for the country, but is he patriotic
for me?" Franz Josef is cold, pitiless, and does not hesitate to ruin
in a moment his most faithful servitor if he is at any time guilty of
failure, or commits a blunder. Even when a minister or general is
forced to carry out an order in spite of strong protests, he has
relentlessly broken him if any catastrophe has resulted. A notable
case is that of the general who commanded the Austrian armies in the
battle of Sadowa.
* * * * *
_Sunday, January 3d._ I have managed to get in a good deal of reading
on boats, trains, and at odd moments since I left Paris, and it has
enlarged my comprehension of this war. I have carefully studied every
book on the war and subjects related to it. I have read several times
each the books of Bernhardi, Nietzsche, and Steed's "Hapsburg
Monarchy."
* * * * *
_Monday, January 4th._ In Hungary there are few princes or dukes; the
highest nobles are counts, whose titles retain something of the old
significance of hereditary rulers of a "county." The serfs have only
recently been liberated and to all intents and purposes the feudal
system still exists, in spirit if not in form. Among the counts in
Hungary, several stand out conspicuously above the rest; among them
are the Karolyis, the Apponyis, the Hunyadis, and the Wenkheims, all
of whom are interconnected by marriage and close social relations.
These people maintain themselves on their vast estates like rulers of
small principalities.
At the request of the Countess X. I had written to her mother, the
Countess W., before leaving Vienna, and found her answer awaiting me
at the Consul's office when I arrived in Budapest. I learn that she
also communicated with Count Berchtold, the Prime Minister of the
Empire, with Count Szecsen, ex-Ambassador to France, and with the
Hungarian Premier, so that in case I missed her letters (she sent me
one to Vienna and one to Budapest) these gentlemen would see to it
that I went to visit her, as she wished to thank me personally for
what I had been able to do for her daughter, and also to hear direct
news of her grandchildren.
I left Budapest early this afternoon and arrived after dark at
Békéscsaba, which is about half-way to Belgrade. I was met by a
majordomo who appropriated my luggage and led me to a private car on a
private railroad belonging to the Countess. We started immediately and
ran in about twenty minutes to the gate of the estate where she
usually resides. Here I was carefully transferred into a waiting
carriage and was tenderly tucked into numerous fur rugs by two or
three strong men. The two splendid horses turned through the gates for
a ten-minute drive across a beautiful park to the castle--and such a
castle! It is equal in size and charm to some of the famous French
châteaux along the Loire which I studied last spring.
I was carefully unpacked again under a splendid porte-cochère and
ushered by numerous flunkies into the presence of the Countess. She
received me in a tremendous room with a lofty ceiling, and in a
preliminary talk of an hour she took off the first keen edge of her
appetite for news.
My bedroom is perfectly huge and has two ante-rooms--for the personal
servants whom I do not possess. We dined at eight, there being at the
table, besides the Countess, a daughter and her companion, a
Frenchwoman. During dinner the Countess mentioned that the war
necessitated frequent readjustments in the management of her estates;
that the military authorities had recently taken another five hundred
of her men for service in the army. She asked me if I enjoyed hunting
and, upon receiving an affirmative answer, said that she would send me
for an hour or two with the pheasants in the morning. She warned me
that the shooting would be poor because no care had been taken of the
preserves since her sons departed for the war.
* * * * *
_Békéscsaba, Tuesday, January 5th._ I was awakened at nine by a valet
who came in, opened the blinds, shut the windows, brought the
breakfast specified by me last night, and assisted me to bathe and
dress.
At ten I paid my regards to the Countess and then the chasseur-en-chef
who was to take me for the morning's sport was presented to me. I
climbed into a shooting wagon, which then drove across fields some
twenty minutes to a woody country. I was provided with two beautiful
little English "16-bore," one of which was carried by a loader who
walked always behind my right elbow. The game was pheasants,
partridges, and hares, the latter perfectly enormous, being thirty
inches long when held up by the feet. While hunting I was followed at
a respectful distance by the shooting wagon in which I was expected to
ride when going farther than fifty yards, and by another wagon which
was to carry the game I was expected to kill. The game was all natural
wild game, not the domesticated kind of the English system. The
chasseur had with him a dozen peasant boys as beaters. I "walked up"
and "flushed" game myself, except when there was a particularly good
bit of cover; then I was conducted ahead with many bows to a
well-selected spot, whereupon the beaters in a line began at a
distance of a hundred yards and "worked through," knocking their
sticks together, a process that several times resulted in my being
absolutely overrun by a burst of pheasants flushing from all
directions, flying at all heights and angles and traveling like
bullets. In two hours I killed seventy-three pheasants and partridges
and twenty-three hares, and this in spite of the fact that my shooting
was erratic. Thus at one spot I killed eight pheasants with as many
shells without changing my feet (it was there that the loader was
useful) and then a few minutes later missed five running.
At noon the young Countess drove out with her French companion to join
me. She watched the shooting until half after twelve and then drove me
home for luncheon. It is the custom for the men who start shooting
early to be sought out and brought home to luncheon by the ladies, or
to be joined by them for lunch in the woods in case of an all-day
shoot. The game is shot only by the nobles and their guests and there
seem to be no Robin Hoods among the devoted peasantry.
If this shooting to which I had been treated was considered by the
Countess to need an apology, I was curious to ascertain what she
called really good hunting, and so I propounded the question. She
replied quite seriously that the best shooting to be had upon her
estates was hare shooting and that on a good day five guns were
usually expected to kill four thousand between the hours of ten and
three.
* * * * *
To an American it is very extraordinary to see feudalism in full
swing; to have every person whom one meets anywhere, stop, raise his
hat, and make a deep obeisance; to have even the slightest word or
request to anyone answered with a low bow and an instantly bared head.
It is still more surprising to realize how sincere and devoted is all
this homage. Everyone for miles around acts in this same way to the
Countess, to her daughter, and, of course, to any of their guests. To
an American it all seems several hundred years out of date.
* * * * *
_Wednesday, January 6th._ There were guests for dinner tonight, nobles
from neighboring estates. One of the men is about to start on an
automobile trip to the Serbian and Carpathian fronts. He is to be away
some four or five days, leaving on Monday. He begged me to go with him
but I resisted the temptation, for I am now forty-nine hours' travel
from London and must soon be turning my face westward.
I went to mass this morning in the little plaster church of a village
near the castle. The acolytes were small peasant boys, and whenever
they knelt down they turned toward the congregation prodigious
boot-soles studded with a surprising array of shiny hobnails.
* * * * *
_Thursday, January 7th._ In bidding me good-bye last night, the
Countess took my hand in both of hers and before the assembled dinner
party thanked me for my services to her daughter and said she
appreciated my having given her two days of my valuable time;--all of
which she did in so gracious and charming a manner that I not only was
not embarrassed, but felt it was reward enough for any _two_ trips to
the front.
Nearly all my conversations since entering Austria-Hungary have been
carried on in French, since it is spoken by virtually everyone with
whom I have come in contact. In Hungary all the people of consequence
speak four languages, Hungarian, German, French, and English, but
French is generally preferred to English by all except those to whom
English is the native tongue.
I left Békéscsaba at nine this morning and arrived in Budapest early
in the afternoon.
* * * * *
_Budapest, Friday, January 8th._ I lunched today with Consul-General
Coffin and dined with Countess Sigray.
* * * * *
_Saturday, January 9th._ Yesterday on my arrival in Budapest I found
awaiting me an invitation from Count Albert Apponyi to visit him at
his castle at Eberhard, near Pozsony. I left Budapest at eight,
reached Pozsony about eleven, and drove to Eberhard, where I was
received by the Count.
I was extremely impressed on meeting Count Apponyi. I had anticipated
something unusual, but he was quite beyond my expectations. He is
about six feet three inches tall, has a splendidly erect carriage, and
is a most impressively handsome man. He has a broad well-shaped
forehead sloping back steeply, splendid blue-gray eyes, the biggest
thinnest nose in the world, enormous nostrils, a strong sensitive
mouth, and a grayish square-cut beard. The "grand old man of Hungary"
looked up to his title.
He has been a member of the Hungarian Parliament for forty-two years
and has several times held ministerial portfolios. His progressive
ideas have usually landed him in the position of leader of the
opposition. He has invariably been Hungary's representative at all
international meetings, peace conferences, and inter-parliamentary
unions. He is a decade ahead of his day and generation, being probably
the most progressive man in all Hungary. This, coupled with his
blood, his magnificent appearance, and his wonderful education, make
him an extraordinary power in the affairs of the kingdom. He has twice
been in America. He has several times visited ex-President Roosevelt
at the White House and at Sagamore Hill, and the Colonel has been a
guest here at Eberhard. The Count also knows intimately such men as
Lowell, Untermyer, Butler, and Taft, and appreciates their
ideas,--"the American idea" as he calls it. It is no wonder that the
other less advanced Hungarian nobles criticize his ideas and methods.
The Count's French is exquisite, and he speaks English as I have
seldom heard it spoken,--as the cultivated Frenchman speaks
French,--with purpose, with science, as an art. His enunciation is
wonderful and he instinctively picks out words to aid rhythm and
enunciation. Of his native language, Hungarian, and of his German, I
am not capable of judging.
I admired the Count's library. Three sides of the big room were
covered with filled shelves, which lapped over into the rooms on
either side. Such a conglomeration of books;--leather bindings,
cloth, paper, stacks of pamphlets, all jumbled together and yet in
order. The books were indiscriminately in French, German, Hungarian,
Latin, Italian, English, and Greek, all languages which the Count
knows with great thoroughness. In reply to my admiring comment, he
looked around the library a bit sadly, I thought, and said slowly:
"Yes, it means much to me. It has grown out of my life."
The Apponyi castle has stood in its present shape for over two hundred
years. Like all contemporaneous residences of feudal chiefs, it was
built primarily for defense and this determines its general structure.
It is square with a great court in the center, in the middle of which
is a well-house. The castle walls are of stone nearly three feet
thick, plastered over with cement and painted white. It is two stories
high with a steep ungabled roof and is virtually guiltless of
architecture. The only entrance to the building is through an archway
leading under the front face into the interior court. No outside
windows existed in the original structure but many have since been cut
into it. The castle reveals many signs of age. The floors in all the
halls and rooms, except those of the salons, are of stone, and little
uneven hollows on their surfaces show where the feet of many
generations have left their mark. The libraries and salons, six or
seven in number, were remodeled some time during the last century and
are remarkably fine.
At present one side of the castle has been converted into a hospital
and here some twenty-five wounded Hungarian soldiers are cared for.
At luncheon there were as guests the Count and Countess Karolyi
Hunyadi and two of their sons, and the Countess Herberstein, whose
husband is a general in the army.
* * * * *
_Sunday, January 10th._ I had the honor of a very interesting walk and
talk with Count Apponyi this morning. Among other things he said: "I
sometimes let my younger daughter (aged 12) play with the children of
the peasants on the place. It gives her an understanding of life, and
besides, there is no one of her own age and rank in this part of the
country." This for a Hungarian nobleman is an extremely democratic
remark.
The mass in Count Albert's private chapel was most interesting. The
chapel is built into the castle as a part of it. The family assembled
in a little oratory or balcony giving off the second-floor hall. From
this oratory one looked down upon the service and upon the peasants
crowded together below. It was glassed in so that one viewed the
spectacle through windows, so to speak. These had two panes which
could be opened if one desired to hear more clearly the service or
sermon.
* * * * *
In a long conversation, Count Apponyi, in answer to my questions, made
the following statements as to Hungary's attitude in the war, which he
defined as being a conflict between Orientalism and Occidentalism:
"You who live in America do not have to consider or define the
differences between Occidentalism and Orientalism. You are
geographically isolated from Orientalism and are so axiomatically
Occidental that the issue is not yet a vital one for you. You do not
have to search for concepts and definitions in this regard. The same
would be true of the Chinese who are so extremely Oriental--who are so
near the South Pole, so to speak--as to find thinking about the matter
unnecessary. They take their Orientalism as a matter of course, as do
you your Occidentalism.
"But we of Hungary who are on the geographical frontier of
Occidentalism, who are, in these present centuries, Occidentalism's
contenders in the everlasting battle between East and West, and who
find ourselves at death-grips with Russia, the present-day aggressive
representative of Orientalism, we, I say, have need to consider such
matters and to find concepts upon which to build.
"Thus I, as a Hungarian, have my definitions, my lines of demarcation
between the two. My definitions of Occidentalism are four in number.
Any nation which fails in one or more of them is on the Oriental side
of the line. The four items are:
"(1) _The distinction between spiritual and temporal
power--the mutual independence of Religion and Government._
The form of religion or the form of government does not and
cannot decide the question. Thus in Russia the Greek
Christian Church is Oriental because it makes itself one
with the State and is used by the State as a club to keep
the subjects of the State in political subjugation.
"(2) _The recognition of the equal value of woman and man._
Occidentalism feels that woman and man are different but
does not feel that man is superior to woman. Discussions of
the _differences_ between man and woman sometimes occur in
Occidental countries as was the case in the late disputes in
England as to woman's fitness for politics. There was no
implication that man was an animal superior to woman. In
Occidentalism woman and man are considered equal before the
law and in the eyes of God, while in Orientalism women are
often little better than slaves and in some eastern
religions are not supposed after death to go to heaven.
"(3) _The recognition of the rights of the individual._ All
individuals are considered equal before the law. The
individual is not a means to some end--he is an end in
himself. This is laid down in its spiritual aspect in
Christianity and in every form of Christianity. The
difference consists in this: that in Occidental Christianity
it acted as a germ--as the principle of an evolution which
led through a painful ascension of numberless steps to the
idea of juridical and social equality. In Oriental
Christianity the germ remained secluded in the spiritual
sphere, without taking effect in the secular order.
"(4) _The recognition of the dignity of labor._ In
Occidentalism there is none of the feeling that to labor is
unworthy; there is none of the feeling that to labor is the
part of slaves and lower creatures. Christ was a carpenter
and the son of a carpenter; he chose his disciples from
amongst fishermen and laborers and laid down the rule that
labor enhances the dignity of man.
"These four items contain the elements of all progress and that is why
Occidentalism alone is really progressive. Whatever progress is
achieved by Orientals consists in adopting certain technical results
of Occidental evolution. This does not mean that Oriental nations
cannot be strong and powerful, for many of them have at times been
powerful. While they _are_ powerful, their policy is necessarily one
of aggression, because their energy is not able to assert itself in
internal progress and must, therefore, find an outlet in foreign
aggression. Note Russia. In history you will find that the cessation
of aggressiveness in an Oriental nation has always meant either the
beginning of decay or, as was the case of Hungarians in the 11th
century, of an evolution toward Occidentalism. In the 11th century the
Hungarians were Oriental--now they are Occidental. That may follow in
Russia too if she is defeated in the present war. Paradoxical as the
statement seems, defeat contains brighter prospects for her than
victory. For nations at large the victory of Russia would mean the
advance of the inferior Eastern type of civilization at the expense of
the superior Western one, a calamity not to be considered without
shuddering."
He continued: "Turkey is no longer an aggressive representative of
Orientalism. She is even trying under the 'Young Turks' to become
Occidental. Her 'Young Turks' are laboring for results which would
include all my four definitions of Occidentalism. Her participation in
the present war does not fall under the head of East versus West, but
is inspired simply by consideration for her own safety as an Asiatic
power and as the guardian of Constantinople. In a general sort of way,
there is no formula that covers the whole ground of all the phenomena
of any great action. There is always an intersection of motives. As
between Russia and Austria-Hungary, the present war is a struggle of
the East in its Russian form against the West, but two other forces
are at work which, although they do not concern us in the least,
combine with this one. These are the Anglo-German trade rivalry and
the Franco-German race antipathy."
Since I have been in the countries of the Dual Alliance I have been
anxious to secure a clear and reasonable declaration of the motives
which actuate the leading men in the nations comprising it. It was not
possible to obtain such an explanation in Germany, because people
either frankly admitted that Germany's purpose was to become through
military aggression the dominant power of the world, or they flew into
such a rage at the mere question that nothing they said was either
reasonable or consecutive. Even the carefully prepared literature of
the Imperial Foreign Office failed to impress me as logical or
sincere. It was, therefore, a pleasure to obtain from the Count a
statement of what may be called the Hungarian point of view.
Somewhat later in the day I asked the Count what his answer was to the
statement so often repeated by the Allies, that the sovereigns of the
Dual Alliance forced war upon their people. He replied:
"The German, Austrian, and Hungarian people were not driven into the
war by their sovereigns, and could not have been so driven. They
approve the war because they realize its necessity as a defense. They
wished to avoid it as did their sovereigns. They were all compelled to
accept it as the only means of defense against an aggression cynically
planned and carefully prepared."
* * * * *
_Monday, January 11th._ I had intended to leave on an early train this
morning, but when I broached the subject the Count would not permit it
and insisted that I stay until tomorrow afternoon, when he is called
to Budapest by government duties.
* * * * *
_Tuesday, January 12th._ After breakfast it snowed a few minutes. A
little later it commenced to snow in earnest,--great, fat, lazy flakes
falling out of a leaden sky. From one of the castle windows the Count
and I watched them against the background of some fir trees in the
garden below. "That is good," said Count Apponyi. "That will be good
for my wheat-fields just sprouting. It will cover them and keep them
warm. I have now long been hoping for the snow, which is overdue."
Some moments later I said, "The falling snow is for me one of the most
beautiful motions in nature." He replied: "To me falling snow always
suggests Patience. A flake of snow? _Ce n'est rien!_ (with a gesture).
But it falls and falls, never hurrying, each little flake a distinct
entity, and at last it makes the world beautiful--and it also covers
my wheat-fields."
* * * * *
The Hungarian nobles receive an education very different from ours. If
anything, it leads to greater individuality. From infancy they learn
four languages--their native one, and German, French, and English. To
this is added an elaborate knowledge of courtesy, custom, precedence,
and manners which is taught them from childhood. The boys are also
trained to ride and shoot. They are sent to school between the ages of
thirteen and seventeen, where they learn Latin very thoroughly and get
a smattering of other things. They almost unconsciously absorb the
knowledge of managing the great estates which constitute their
wealth. They have a taste for reading and prefer rather serious
literature. With a perfect knowledge of Latin, English, German, and
French, nearly all masters are open to them in the original. They miss
only a few: Dante, Cervantes, and the ancient Greeks, although the
more scholarly ones like Apponyi know Greek. Since they have much
leisure, they often possess by the time they are thirty an
extraordinarily interesting amount of knowledge. In Hungary everyone
from peasants to counts is musical.
We took lunch today in the perfectly splendid old castle of the
Karolyi Hunyadis at Ivanka. The other guests were the Countess
Herberstein and an Austro-Hungarian General of Division, whose name I
did not catch. Count Apponyi and I drove over together from Eberhard
and after luncheon took the train from the neighboring station of
Pozsony Ivanka. I was received with the most extravagant cordiality by
the Hunyadis on account of services which I had been able to render to
members of their family in the course of my work at the Embassy in
Paris.
The Hunyadi castle was really as fine or finer than some of the
smaller ones which I visited along the Loire last spring, and it was
the more impressive because it was "alive"--inhabited--and furnished
with the most magnificent appointments. The stair-hall particularly
recalled some of those splendid old French ones, being in the same
sort of yellow Caen stone.
While we were waiting for a train today, Count Apponyi informed me
quite seriously that Hungary was not the least feudal, either in
theory or practice.
The Hungarians harbor no animosity against Britain and France and
really deserve the chivalrous friendship of these two nations. They
are the only people in the present conflict who, in the heat and
excitement of war, have on all occasions behaved like good sportsmen.
When trains of Russian prisoners arrive at Hungarian stations, the
people manifest no hostility, but greet them with kindness and
sympathy and offer them food and flowers. The populace has not
molested alien enemies, and their government has not indulged in
wholesale internments of enemies' subjects. In Hungary I found British
horse trainers, English tutors, and French governesses going
tranquilly about their peaceful occupations. English tailors
advertised their business in the Hungarian newspapers, and their
clients went to them as readily as they would have gone in peace
time. French chefs and servants were, as a matter of course, retained
in the employ of noble families, and were treated with unvarying
consideration and sympathy by their Hungarian fellow-servants. This
attitude has been steadfastly maintained in spite of the wholesale
imprisonment by the Allies of such Hungarian subjects as were left
within their territory at the opening of hostilities. Of the nations
which I have studied Hungary is the only one involved in the present
conflict which has not stooped to reprisal and retaliation.
It was a curious demonstration of the difference in the national
temperament of the Teutonic and Magyar races to mark how diametrically
opposed was the manner in which the two peoples regarded the efforts
of the American Embassy in Paris to safeguard their respective
subjects. As I, during the earlier weeks of the war, had been closely
associated with these efforts, everyone I met had something to say to
me upon the matter.
[Illustration: EBERHARD--ONE OF COUNT APPONYI'S VILLAGES]
Throughout Germany there was universal complaint and criticism of the
methods of treating the German subjects who, at the beginning of the
war, had been interned in France. I was constantly obliged to hear
accounts of how many people had been crowded into one building, how at
first only straw was provided for bedding, and how scarce and poor was
the food which was furnished. The censure was primarily for the French
nation, but the comments conveyed no sense of obligation to our
Embassy staff, who had worked so untiringly to alleviate these
conditions, which, moreover, resulted from no mal-intent on the part
of the French, but were simply the inevitable consequences of the
sudden oncoming of war. Every national resource of the French Republic
was devoted to quick mobilization, upon which the fate of the nation
hung, and until that operation had been accomplished, little time or
thought could be devoted to alien citizens.
On entering Hungary I braced myself to endure the same hostile
attitude. To my intense surprise I was everywhere welcomed with great
cordiality and received as a sincere friend and protector of the
Hungarian people who had been interned in France. The great families
of Hungary sent me invitations to visit them on their estates, they
threw open their most exclusive clubs, offered me opportunities to
view the fighting on the Russian front, and treated me like one of
themselves. Of expressions of appreciation and gratitude there was no
limit, and they greatly over-emphasized my services. Not only were the
nobles thus demonstratively grateful, but in nearly every village and
town to which I went I found inhabitants who had returned from
internment in France to relate how helpful Monsieur Wood at the
American Embassy had been to them. Often I remembered neither the
individuals nor the incidents they so gratefully dwelt upon, but the
general atmosphere of friendliness thus created was like springtime
after frost.
In Germany, even after establishing my identity, I have by citizens or
German Secret Service men been the object of grossly insulting
remarks. In Hungary no one even asked what was my personal bias on the
present war, but everyone remembered only the services which the
Embassy of neutral America had in France rendered to any Hungarian
subject who needed assistance. If the other nations of the Dual
Alliance possessed the generosity and courtesy of the Hungarians,
people outside the war would find it easier to be neutral in sentiment
as well as in deed.
CHAPTER XII
A GERMAN PRISON-CAMP
_Vienna, Tuesday, January 12th._ Last night and today twenty-three
long trains of German regular troops have passed through the Ivanka
station on their way east. They were apparently going to the Roumanian
frontier. A train will hold two battalions of infantry, two thousand
men, or a battery of artillery with full equipment. These trains
would, therefore, represent something like thirty thousand men, and
more were all the time coming. My car, in which I was _en route_ from
Budapest to Vienna, stopped at one station just opposite one of these
military trains, which I thus had time to study. It contained a
battery of German artillery and was a very long one, consisting of
flat cars, freight cars, and one or more passenger coaches for the
officers. The guns of the battery, with all the limbers and caissons,
were placed on flat-cars, while some of the freight cars were used for
equipment and ammunition and others for the soldiers. The doors of
these latter were open and were boarded up to a height of eighteen
inches to keep floor draughts off the men lying within. The cars were
filled with clean straw, sprigs of which trailed out of the doorways.
The soldiers, like all German soldiers that I have seen, were fat,
healthy, happy, and cheerful, singing, waving hands and handkerchiefs
to the responsive crowds on the platforms, and laughing and joking.
They looked for all the world like big puppies hanging out of a box
filled with straw. They were young men of Germany's best troops and
had that certain bearing of confidence and efficiency which marks
veterans. Their faces, albeit smooth and healthy, were not the faces
of boys, although some of them were still boys in years.
The guns and caissons at the first uncritical glance looked like junk,
but a second look revealed the error. Their metal work was battered
and their paint chipped off, but the wheels and running-gear and the
long gray barrels were clean and spick and span.
The efficiency, rapidity of fire, and elasticity of cannon have so
improved in the past decade that a battery of four guns now requires
one hundred and eighty men, six or seven officers, and two hundred
horses to manage it. What with mathematical instruments to direct
fire, instrument wagons, field forges, spare parts, and twelve or
sixteen caissons, every horse and man belonging to the battery is
necessary when a stiff action is going on. The guns shoot six thousand
yards and the four can between them fire eighty shots a minute. Each
of the shells weighs about eighteen pounds, costs up to twenty
dollars to manufacture, and is freighted with almost unbelievable
possibilities of death and destruction. When using shrapnel a single
battery can during any sixty seconds fire thirty-five thousand
well-directed bullets against advancing infantry. A battalion
of infantry in charging will average about two hundred yards a
minute--and during that minute a single battery can fire against
it thirty-five bullets for every man in the battalion.
The field guns of all nations shoot approximately the same shell,
three inches in diameter. These guns are so small and light in
appearance that it is difficult to realize their power until one has
seen its effects. Their barrels are perhaps six feet long and from
five to seven inches in exterior diameter. A light but very
complicated running-gear supports them. This rests upon two
wagon-wheels quite ordinary in appearance. The whole is painted
smoke-gray and looks quite toy-like and harmless.
* * * * *
I had lunch with Mr. Penfield today at his official residence and it
was an extremely interesting event. The building is said to be the
finest ambassadorial residence in the world of any nationality. I can
easily believe it. In the very heart of Vienna the house has behind it
a garden of some two acres with many fine hothouses. Seven gardeners
are required. On the other side, the Embassy faces on a large public
garden and thus every one of the sixty big windows which the mansion
possesses faces on one garden or the other. The house is adorned with
Meissoniers, Van Dykes, Chinese rugs, and other things of a like
value. The house was shown to me from top to bottom by Mr. Penfield.
* * * * *
At present there is great excitement in Vienna over the fall of Count
Berchtold, the Prime Minister, announced publicly this morning.
* * * * *
I am to leave for Berlin, London, and Paris, and then home as soon as
possible.
* * * * *
_Vienna, Friday, January 15th._ I am doing my best to see Vienna so
thoroughly in an architectural and artistic way that I shall not find
it necessary to return for purposes of study.
* * * * *
At the Jockey Club last night I played bridge with Mr. O'Shaughnessy,
Attaché Cardeza, and His Serene Highness, Prince Lichtenstein, the
fortunate possessor of the Lichtenstein Galleries in Vienna. I am to
visit his collection on Sunday morning with the Countess Colloredo.
Captain Briggs is at the front with Colonel Biddle but is expected to
return soon and I am awaiting his arrival before departing for Berlin.
* * * * *
_Sunday, January 17th._ I suppose it is useless to say that all the
reports in the Allied press about revolutions, despair, and cholera in
Austria-Hungary are absolutely false.
* * * * *
_Monday, January 18th._ I now plan to leave for Berlin on Wednesday
and hope, unless I strike something of very great importance in
Belgium, to reach London about January 31st.
* * * * *
_Wednesday, January 20th._ A party of neutral diplomats who last week
went by train into the country for a picnic were arrested on their
return to the railroad station at Vienna, beaten up, and insulted by
police and soldiers in spite of their identification papers. The
affair went to such lengths that several of the diplomats came out of
the fracas with bruised faces and torn clothes. The whole party were
detained for nearly an hour before they were finally set at liberty.
Among the distinguished members of the party were: M. Chafford, the
Swiss Minister, M. Bekfris, the Swedish Minister, M. Lelerche, the
Norwegian Chargé d'Affaires, M. Carpion, the Roumanian Chargé
d'Affaires, MM. Guignous and Segesser, Swiss Secretaries.
Several ladies were with the party, which numbered a dozen in all. The
affair was started and led by a colonel in the army who resented the
fact that the diplomats were conversing in French, a language they
were forced to employ since they were of many different nationalities.
The crowd at the railroad station where the "incident" took place was
not hostile and did nothing except stand by in idle curiosity. Up to
the present time the only action taken by the Austrian Government has
been to send regrets, not apologies, to the various diplomats. The
colonel who was responsible for the assault offered his resignation,
which was promptly refused. I know of no such disgraceful incident
ever having taken place in France or Great Britain.
* * * * *
Captain Briggs returned from the front this morning.
* * * * *
_Berlin, Thursday, January 21st._ I arrived in Berlin last night after
an uneventful journey. I went to the theatre this evening with Charles
Russell. We walked around through the lobby during the intermission
and among other things saw a young man, perhaps nineteen, very blond,
with the nicest, simplest, most straightforward face, the face of a
quiet, retiring boy, who would grow up into a thinking man. He was
with his mother. He was in civilian clothes, but in his lapel he wore
the broad ribbon--black with two white bars--of the Iron Cross.
Somewhere, sometime in these recent months, this quiet lad had
performed coolly some feat of great personal valor. The look of
unsuppressible pride upon his mother's face, as she walked on his arm,
was wonderful to behold.
* * * * *
_Sunday, January 24th._ I am to leave early Wednesday morning for
London or The Hague, I do not yet know which. From either one it is
probable that I shall be sent to Brussels.
* * * * *
_Tuesday, January 26th._ I visited the prison camp at Döberitz today.
In a military automobile I was conducted there with much ceremony by
Captain Freiherr von G----, Iron Cross and Red Eagle, of the Imperial
Guard. He is on leave convalescing from a wound in the knee which he
received at Ypres. I was expressly told that I might describe what I
saw and repeat what I heard as many times and as much in detail as I
chose, so that I have no hesitation in giving my impressions without
reserve, even though it was by courtesy of the German Government that
I made the trip.
The camp was distant one hour's fast run from Berlin and was situated
on a flat plain which had very little natural or artificial drainage.
The cold mud was everywhere from three to four inches deep. On this
plain and closely surrounded by heavy barbed-wire entanglements were
some seventy or eighty rude wooden sheds arranged in four rows with a
broad avenue down the center. Here were kept some nine thousand
prisoners of war, of whom four thousand were British and four thousand
Russian. By careful and repeated pacing I estimated that the sheds
were about one hundred by thirty feet. Each one had six unopenable
windows on a side. In each such house were quartered one hundred and
twenty-five men. When certain partitioned areas have been subtracted
this means a space of about six by three feet per man. Each house was
heated by one stove and was very hot and stuffy, being, except for the
door, hermetically sealed.
None of the prisoners had overcoats, personal belongings, or blankets.
They slept on straw ticks measuring approximately seven feet by
thirty inches. That they all suffered from lice and other vermin was
perfectly evident. The whole camp was closely surrounded by barbed
wire, and the main avenue was commanded by three field-guns placed
outside at one end in a little barbed-wire fort. The whole was
apparently under the charge of a Captain of Landsturm and the guards
were men of the Landsturm. The prisoners looked thin, peaked, unhappy
and sickly, and many had boils. They have absolutely nothing to
do--they exist. They are fed three times a day--6 A.M., 12 noon, and 4
P.M. For "lunch" and "dinner" and also Sunday breakfast, they receive
about one pint of a thick soup. I tasted some of this and thought it
was concocted chiefly of barley and potatoes. I was told that there
was meat in it but could find no evidence of any. For breakfast the
prisoners receive black bread with a slice of either cheese or sausage
and either tea or coffee. The diet is evidently insufficient. I should
say that it was calculated with German accuracy to just keep body and
soul together. I was taken through many of the houses and although no
actual prohibition to talk was given it was virtually impossible to
speak with the prisoners, as I was always hurriedly rushed along from
one place to another. In order to make a pretence of conversation, one
of the two captains who escorted me would sometimes say to a prisoner,
"What nationality are you?" "Scotch, sir." "What regiment?"
"Argyle-Highlanders, sir." "Ah, so!" and we would then hurry along
again. We were in the camp an hour and a half, and during that time I
succeeded in asking three short well-chosen questions of
intelligent-looking British non-commissioned officers.
First question: "Do you get enough to eat?"
Answer: "My Gawd, no!"
Second question: "How do present conditions
compare with the past?"
Answer: "Wonderfully improved, sir,
in comparison."
Third question: "How often do you write
home?"
Answer: "One letter every two months,
but they _say_ they
are going to improve that."
* * * * *
I saw the four o'clock feeding. It reminded me of nothing except
seeing animals fed at the Zoo. In the kitchen I saw the British
soldiers receive their afternoon meal. A line of five great cauldrons
of hot soup extended down the room, each one being about four feet
high and four feet in diameter. The prisoners entered through a
vestibule at one end of the building, where they passed between two
German sentinels to whom each delivered up a metal check before being
allowed to pass inside. There is a roll-call in the sheds before every
meal and each man is then handed a check which later entitles him to
receive his ration. Each prisoner possesses and keeps constantly with
him one iron bowl and one large spoon. When they are permitted to
enter the kitchen the prisoners rush to whatever cauldron is least
busy. There a cook, armed with a long-handled measure holding about a
pint, ladles out one measureful of soup into each man's bowl and this
constitutes the entire repast. The Captain of Landsturm in explaining
to me about the metal checks said indignantly, "Why, if we did not
have this system of checks, they would all come back three and four
times!" by which remark he showed the typical German lack of anything
approaching tact or diplomacy.
There were some British sailors and numerous marines among the
prisoners. These, according to the Germans, came from Antwerp. They
had reached that city just as the Germans entered and had been
captured without ever having left their train. They were sent on in
the same train to German prisons and their total war experience
consisted in one continued non-change journey from Ostend to the
Döberitz prison-camp. The Germans said that there was at times ill
feeling between English and Russians.
The method of punishment in the camp was called "tying up" for one or
two hours. I was unable to get details but gathered that this
consisted in suspension by some part of the hands. This, however, may
have been a wrong conclusion. I was told that the men received letters
from home, about fifty a day arriving at the camp, and are also
allowed to receive money. Yesterday was a record day, a big mail
arriving with some 7000 marks. They may spend the money at the camp
store, which I examined; tobacco, sausages, and insecticide seemed to
be the chief articles in stock.
A bath-house has recently been provided in which it is possible to
take cold showers. The English shave with potato knives borrowed from
the kitchen. The men wash in the open, apparently in the same bowls
from which they eat. Water is very sparingly served out to them.
The two German officers who acted as my guides tried to impress upon
me that the camp was a model one and that everything was done for the
prisoners which they had a right to expect. It seemed to me very much
less desirable than the prison for French soldiers which I had
previously inspected at Zossen. Some specific things which the French
possessed and the British lacked were overcoats, bunks, ample food,
work, recreation, blankets, and the opportunity for exercise, and it
should be remembered in extenuation of German prison camps in
general--if extenuation is deemed necessary--that besides interned
civilians, Germany has now nearly seven hundred thousand prisoners of
war to house and feed.
_February 14th._ After brief visits to Holland, France, and England I
last night boarded the steamship Lusitania at Liverpool and sailed for
that land of skyscrapers, electric signs, and telephones--the land
which has been called "opulent, aggressive, and unprepared."
CONCLUSION
It would be a sin of omission for me to neglect to sound again that
oft-repeated warning against the dangers of military unpreparedness,
which has been so vainly sounded since the birth of our nation by
every American, great or small, who has known or seen anything of
actual war conditions.
Is it idle to hope that the warnings to be deduced from the current
histories of other nations will be heeded by a nation which has ever
disregarded the lessons of its own history?
APPENDIX
MISCELLANEOUS MILITARY OBSERVATIONS MADE BY THE AUTHOR DURING THE
SEVEN MONTHS RECORDED IN THIS BOOK
The best maps with which to follow and study the war in France,
Flanders, and Belgium are those of the French Automobile Club, called
"Cartes Routières pour Automobiles," published by A. Taride, 18
Boulevard Saint-Denis, Paris. The war has been largely fought and
directed by the use of these maps, which are on the scale prescribed
by the French General Staff--about three and one-half miles to the
inch. They show every road and lane, every town and village in France.
The war areas are contained in numbers 1, ibis, 2, 3, 6, and 7. Those
most referred to in this book are 3 and 7.
CASUALTIES
The total losses of the various belligerents in killed, wounded, and
captured for the first six months of the war, from August 1st to
February 1st, are as follows:
British 140,000
French 1,450,000
Russians 2,050,000
Austro-Hungarians 950,000
Germans 1,500,000
* * * * *
The approximate ratio of deaths to total casualties is as follows:
German, 2 deaths to 9 casualties.
French, 2 deaths to 7 casualties.
(The large proportion of French deaths was due:
First, to the fact that in the early part of the war most actions were
German victories, and the Germans could not care for French wounded as
well as they did for their own;
Secondly to lack of sanitary skill on the part of the French in taking
care of their wounded.)
Austrian, 2 deaths to 7 casualties.
British, 2 deaths to 11 casualties.
(The low rate of mortality among the British is due to the great
number of motor ambulances which they possess, to the smallness of
their army, to the efficiency with which they care for their wounded,
and to the short distance which separates their forces from their home
country.)
* * * * *
The numbers of prisoners held on February 1st:
IN GERMANY: British 18,000
Belgian 39,000
Russian 350,000
French 245,000
IN AUSTRIA: Russian 250,000
IN ENGLAND: German 15,000
IN FRANCE: German, approximately 50,000
MEDICAL CORPS
The battle practice in the French army in handling wounded is as
follows:
When a man is wounded he is carried to a dressing station in some
partly protected neighborhood within the battle area. He is generally
taken there by the stretcher-bearers attached to his company. After
field dressing, he is removed to a field hospital one to three miles
toward the rear. The means of transportation are varied, and made to
suit the particular battle conditions, the principal means being
stretcher-bearers, motor ambulances, and horse ambulances. In case of
heavy casualties, all the men who can possibly stagger are obliged to
go to the rear by themselves and are sent in small parties so that
they may assist one another _en route_.
The field hospitals are nearly always established in village churches
with overflow into neighboring houses in case of heavy casualties. All
the furniture is removed from the church and the floor is covered
thick with straw, upon which the wounded are laid out in long rows.
The altar is made the pharmacist's headquarters, the vestry is
converted into an operating room, and a Red Cross flag is hung from
the tower or steeple. These field hospitals are generally well within
the zone of artillery fire, and are frequently struck by shells.
The men are evacuated from the field hospital to a base hospital in
motor ambulances or by a combination of motor ambulances and railway
trains. Theoretically, this should be done within a day or two with
all cases except the very gravest. In practice, the men frequently lie
in field hospitals for weeks before the opportunity of evacuation is
found. The base hospitals are in cities or large towns, and serve as
clearing-houses. They are well out of the military zone, being from
five to fifteen miles behind the zone of artillery fire. I will give a
definite example. In October, I saw the front at Albert. There were
dressing stations just behind the battle-line. There was a field
hospital at Hénencourt. From Hénencourt the wounded were evacuated
upon Amiens, which contained the base hospitals for a front extending
from a point north of Sus St. Léger to the neighborhood of Guerbigny.
Here the railway station had been converted into a receiving center to
which all the wounded were brought for examination and classification.
Those who could bear travel were immediately placed upon trains and
shipped to the south of France. There were four other hospitals in
Amiens, and all cases considered too grave for transportation to the
south were sent to one of these. They were divided and classified so
that cases of a kind were grouped together, each hospital and the
various floors of each hospital having a different class of patient.
Some of the classifications were: head cases, amputation cases,
gangrene cases, cases in which the patient could not refrain from
screaming, either because of delirium or for other reasons. It is on
leaving the base hospital that wounded are first classified as to
nationality.
For the railway transportation of the wounded, luggage vans are used.
I estimate the interior length of a French luggage-van or freight-car
to be about twenty-five feet, the doors being placed, as in America,
in the middle of each side. Wooden racks are built to the right and
left of the door in the ends of the car. These racks are arranged to
hold two layers of three stretchers each, so that each end of the
freight car contains six lying cases. The men who are able to sit or
stand and the orderlies in charge are placed in the aisle between the
doors, a space about six feet wide between the stretcher handles. On
their way to the south of France these trains stop about every
twenty-four hours, the first stop being Aubervilliers, a station some
two miles outside the gates of Paris. Here a large storage warehouse
has been converted into a hospital. Food and water are distributed to
the train on its arrival, the dead taken out, and the delirious or
very grave cases are removed to the Paris hospitals. The others are
allowed twelve hours' rest before continuing on the next stage of
their journey.
The trains are usually made up of from 30 to 50 vans, and each train
carries from 500 to 800 wounded. No particular effort seems to be made
to isolate gangrene cases from the others, and the wounded invariably
remain in the uniforms in which they fought until they reach the home
hospital in the south of France. Their dressings, until they reach
these home hospitals, are superficial ones. I have seen numerous cases
with grave wounds, such as shattered thighs, which have remained in
this condition for four and five weeks before finally being undressed
and washed at the home hospital.
The whole system of handling the wounded seems to be theoretically
well conceived. In practice among the French it worked thus poorly
during the early months of the war. The wounded suffered from lack of
food, water, attention, and bathing, and the resulting number of
mortalities and amputations was exceedingly high. The effect on the
morale of those who recovered is very serious, and is in singular
contrast to the eagerness to return to the front often shown by
British and German convalescents. The care given to the wounded by
these two nations is very excellent indeed.
The same stretcher is used throughout the French army, and its
universal use is compulsory on all organizations, whether volunteer or
regular. It is not unusual for a grave case to be picked up on the
battlefield and placed upon a stretcher and to travel on it all the
way to the south of France without once being removed. The company
stretcher-bearers turn him over to the dressing station with the
stretcher upon which they have borne him. Since these stretchers are
identical in size and construction they fit all ambulances and all
railway equipments. They may be said to be current, like money, and
whenever one organization turns over a grave case to the succeeding
organization, the stretcher goes with the case, and an empty one is
received in return. The number at any one point is thus maintained at
a constant figure, and there is a general tendency for battered and
infected stretchers to gravitate toward the south of France, and for
new stretchers to gravitate toward the front.
* * * * *
There has been much typhoid in the armies in France, and it is on the
increase. The wounded men develop it more often than any other class.
Inoculation against typhoid is theoretically compulsory in the French
army. I have no personal knowledge as to the thoroughness or
effectiveness of inoculation in practice.
Lockjaw seems to develop late. Most of the cases occur after the men
have reached the south of France. The new French anti-lockjaw
inoculation of Doctor Doyen has produced most remarkable results. I
have heard, on reliable authority, that with it 80% of the cases
treated make a complete recovery. Three of my personal friends have
had lockjaw and recovered. This is, in part, due to the fact that in
all the hospitals the diagnosis is quick and sure, and the serum
always in stock. The injection is made into the spinal cord at the
small of the back. The patient is kept on his back on a slightly
sloping table, his feet being at the higher end, while his head is
allowed to hang unsupported over the end of the table.
A considerable proportion of the French and British troops in France,
the Russian, Austrian, and Hungarian troops in the eastern fields, and
the prisoners in Germany suffer from lice. Fleas seem to be a
comparative rarity in the zones of operation.
* * * * *
The physique and condition of the French troops have greatly improved
since the beginning of the war. War conditions seem to have caused a
marked change. Many of the men have gained twenty and even thirty
pounds, and the younger men have grown inches in height.
The French have well-defined regulations in the matter of sanitation,
but these rules are not generally well-observed or strictly enforced.
In the French trenches, however, where discipline is best, this matter
is very well regulated. The Germans are particularly orderly in this
regard. I have never observed that the French mark wells or water
supplies in any manner.
I have no observations to offer on the subject of cremation of refuse,
but have seen several attempts at cremation of bodies in the French
army, all of which were glaring failures.
AËROPLANES
The German aëroplanes are generally conceded to be the most effective
in the war, and the Germans seem to possess more of them than any
other nation. None of their machines are slow and their fastest ones
are faster than any in the other armies. Aëroplanes have been
singularly ineffective in attacking as their shooting is extremely
bad. They usually miss their target by at least two hundred yards,
and, so far as my personal knowledge goes, the only damage that they
have ever done has been when they have had a whole city to shoot at.
Something like forty bombs were thrown on Paris while I was in that
city, and although some thirty or forty non-combatants were killed or
wounded, a target of any military importance was hit on only one
occasion, when a bomb was dropped through the roof of the Gare St.
Lazare. In the field, the principal targets aimed at by the aëroplanes
are supply and ammunition convoys. The method is for the aëroplane to
fly above the road and to drop a bomb as it passes over the convoy. It
then makes a circle and repeats the operation. I know personally of
some fifty bombs thus dropped, not one of which struck anywhere near
the target. The effect of the bombs is of small consequence and damage
is seldom done except to the people who happen to be standing in the
immediate neighborhood.
The crater of the bombs thrown by German aëroplanes, when striking
macadam or similar surfaces, is about fifteen inches in diameter and
four inches deep. I have seen three such craters. The shrapnel bullets
from the exploding bombs fly with a killing force to a distance of
about fifty yards, and at the latter range the lowest bullets fly at a
height of about twelve or fifteen feet. These bombs weigh about
fourteen pounds.
Aëroplanes have proved to be almost invulnerable in war. They are
extremely difficult to hit, because one must calculate for three
dimensions and for the speed of the aëroplane; when hit they seldom
suffer serious damage. I know of a case where first and last nearly
200 bullets passed through a machine without its ever being put out of
action. Indeed, it seems impossible to bring down an aëroplane except
by a freak shot. The gasoline tank is high and narrow and is protected
by a thin metal plate underneath, while struts and steering wires are
usually double. Wounding the aviator does not usually bring down a
machine, because he is sitting and is strapped in, and on calm days
needs to employ only a slight muscular effort to steer. Moreover,
there are usually two officers in an aëroplane and the systems of
double control enable the aëroplane to return to its base even if one
of them is killed outright.
Anti-aircraft guns are not greatly feared by aviators, and they
consider it merely an extraordinary piece of bad luck to be hit by
one. The aviators fear most of all the fire of large bodies of
infantry, and in flying over a regiment at an altitude of 1000 yards
they realize that they run serious risk of being brought down.
Rifle bullets are effective against aëroplanes up to a height of
about 5000 feet. Observers fly just above this altitude, at about 5500
feet, since they wish to fly as low as possible and yet be reasonably
safe. Aviators have told me that this height is so well recognized
that they nearly always encounter other observers in the same plane.
Aëroplanes, flying at a height of 5500 feet, can observe the movement
or presence of large bodies of troops and the flashes of artillery.
They cannot observe very much else at that height. They seem to be
able to descend suddenly for a short time to a very low altitude when
it is necessary and, in a large percentage of cases, to escape.
British aëroplanes have made reconnoissances at an altitude of only
one hundred yards.
Aëroplanes have made surprises in war nearly impossible, since in
modern warfare it would be necessary to shift at least a division to
produce any effect, and the movement of such a number of men would
certainly be visible to aëroplanes during the daytime. If such a
movement were performed at night, the presence of the division in a
new spot would almost certainly be detected by the aëroplanes in the
morning. The possession of a large and efficient aëroplane corps
reduces the surprises of war very nearly to nil, and proportionately
increases the importance of preparedness and of tactics.
The German aviators (and in fact all German observers, such as
infantry and cavalry patrols) make it a principle to avoid, if
possible, any combat; this is, of course, interpreted as cowardice by
the Allies, who seem eager for a fight on any terms. There is a
distinct reluctance among aviators for engaging in aërial duels. As
one French aviator said to me: "You are both killed and that does no
one any good." This reluctance is fairly universal, except with
British flyers.
The German aëroplanes signal their observations by means of a code
expressed in smoke balls. I never was able to obtain any theory as to
how this code works. This method of communication seems to be very
effective, as German shells sometimes arrive with singular accuracy
and immediateness. It is commonly reported that Germans also signal
with a suspended disc, but I have no personal knowledge of this
system. The French had no definite means of signaling from the air in
the early months of the war, and I believe this is still the case.
They make their observation and return to their base to report,
usually taking notes while aloft on maps and in note-books. I have no
personal knowledge of the British methods. The Austrian system of
signaling is by means of evolutions of the aëroplanes themselves. When
they observe a target they fly over it, and when directly above make
a sudden dip. They are observed during their evolutions with
instruments, so that the exact angle and hypothenuse at the moment of
this dip is known. They then make a circuit and come up from the rear
and again fly over the objective. As they reach a point where they can
see the target or objective their artillery opens fire and is
corrected by the graphic evolutions of the aëroplane. If the shells
drop too far to the left, the aëroplane turns to the right and the
distance in profile that it travels before straightening out is the
correction. They say, "Shoot short" by dipping and "Shoot farther" by
rising.
I have no knowledge of aëroplanes being used at night, although they
sometimes return from daylight operations after night has fallen and
make their landing with the assistance of beacons. It is commonly
reported both by Germans and French that the steel darts used by the
French aviators are the most effective offensive weapon so far used by
aëroplanes. I have no personal knowledge on this subject. I have been
several times informed upon reliable authority that the French have no
particular instruments of precision for use in the dropping of bombs.
At the commencement of hostilities the French aviators feared their
own armies much more than they did the Germans, because the French had
neglected to familiarize their troops with the designs of hostile
aircraft.
It was proved to be nearly impossible to force a fight with your
enemy's aëroplane, even if he is far within your own territory. If
your own aëroplanes are on the ground it takes them entirely too long
to get to his altitude, and if he wishes to stay in the same
neighborhood he himself keeps going higher as your aëroplanes mount
toward him. There seems to be no difficulty encountered in avoiding
aëroplanes already in the air, since they are usually visible at great
distances.
Anti-aircraft guns are generally mounted on automobile trucks, and are
usually of small calibre. I have never seen any German aëroplanes
other than monoplanes; these I have seen on ten or more occasions.
I saw no aëroplanes which carried other arms than rifles and automatic
pistols.
In practice I have nowhere observed machine-guns mounted on
aëroplanes, although they are much advertised and talked about.
I have frequently heard, upon what I consider reliable authority, that
the Germans use captive balloons for observations.
ARTILLERY
I have at all times been tremendously impressed with the dominant
importance in this war of artillery. My personal observations lead me
to estimate that the percentage of casualties from artillery wounds
has been nearly 50% of the total.
There are very distinct differences in the methods of the French and
German field artilleries. The _French field artillery_ is always used
in indirect fire and the positions are usually a long distance behind
the infantry--from fifteen to twenty-five hundred yards. The
emplacements are often in deep wooded valleys. Too close proximity to
the infantry is avoided.
In contrast to this, the _German field artillery_ is nearly always
very close to the infantry and is frequently in position for direct
fire. In the most typical German arrangement the infantry trenches are
on the front face of a hill along the "military crest" with the
artillery two or three hundred yards behind over the natural crest.
One often sees German field guns in such a position that it is
difficult to say whether they are in "direct" or "indirect" fire.
In battles where there are no rapid retreats and rapid advances it
seems to be the custom for batteries to be silent for one or two days
while the battery commander, by means of observers, aëroplanes, and
spies, endeavors to locate an objective. The point to be made is that
the main forces of artillery do not seem to fire very continuously.
Oftentimes in the middle of a very tense battle where heavy forces
are opposed to each other there will be periods of half an hour or
even longer when no firing whatsoever is to be heard. The importance
of observers has become tremendous. On some occasions it seems as
though the main object of an army were to get a single man into a
location from which he can accurately observe the enemy's position,
and as if until this is accomplished the whole battle is at a
standstill. Both sides try continuously in all sorts of original ways
to get information. The German tendency is toward the use of spies,
while the French more often employ daring volunteer observers who
sacrifice their lives in order successfully to direct fire for even
five or ten minutes. Aëroplanes are used for the same purpose by all
nations, but with less and less success as the war progresses, because
hostile infantry and artillery are better and better hidden. It has
now become almost impossible for an aëroplane to locate hostile
artillery except by the flashes. Battery positions are either placed
in forests, or artificial woods are built around them. It is almost
axiomatic that artillery shall give no signs of life while an enemy's
aëroplane is above, and as the result of this, one well-recognized
method of temporarily silencing an enemy's battery is to keep an
aëroplane flying over its neighborhood. Volunteer observers are
frequently disguised and sent forward to hunt for a place from which
they can observe the hostile trenches of artillery and thus direct and
correct the fire of their own batteries. Observers who thus volunteer
to go forward are virtually always decorated and made officers, if, by
some fortunate chance, they both succeed and survive. The French
artillery officers take advantage of every "assist"; for instance, I
saw a case where a shell made a groove on the reverse side of a hill
and glanced off. The shell exploded, but its fuse was recovered by the
French, the setting of the fuse determined, and by means of this and
the direction of the groove made in the hill the German battery was
located. The French reported that they had destroyed the battery. One
of their aëroplanes was sent up before firing was begun and later
observed the battery's efforts to escape.
The French batteries are usually so far behind the infantry that when
they have come under heavy artillery fire there is no danger of
capture. The custom with the French seems to be, in a case like this,
for the personnel to run and take cover during the bombardment. I saw
this happen twice, and I learned of numerous other cases. Cover
underground is constructed for all the personnel of the batteries. One
enters these subterranean quarters through entrances which look very
much like enlarged woodchuck holes. With no artillery of any
nationality did I see any gun entrenchment other than a slight mound
of earth coming up to the bottom of the shield. All guns that I have
seen were in a line, except in cases where there was some peculiar
rising of terrain. I have several times seen a "group" together in one
line, at intervals of about twenty yards. In practice, the French tend
to extend the intervals to about twenty-five yards, while the Germans
either decrease them to about fifteen yards, or have the guns quite
isolated, seventy-five or one hundred yards apart.
Telephones are the only instruments of which I have observed the use
in the immediate neighborhood of French batteries. The battery
commander controls the fire by word of mouth.
The French 75-mm. gun is the only field-piece which under practical
field conditions does not "jump." This gives a tremendous advantage to
the French artillery in such duels as frequently take place in battles
where there is rapid movement. I have been on battlefields after
action had finished and observed positions where two batteries had
shot at each other, both being in "direct fire" position. The French
pieces can fire at a rate of twenty-five shots a minute and in such
duels seem to be able to fire accurately with nearly twice the
rapidity of the Germans.
The most unpleasant experience that I ever underwent occurred one day
when I was directly in front of and under a French battery and it
suddenly and unexpectedly fired about forty rounds in thirty seconds
over my head. These discharges produced a great psychological effect
and were much more disconcerting than any arrival of enemy's shells.
I have never observed any "short burst," or shells bursting in guns. I
should judge that this accident happens very rarely, with the French,
at least.
At the beginning of the war, the French carried shells and shrapnel in
about equal numbers. The shells explode with the time-fuse exactly as
do shrapnel. From several sources I was told that they were loaded
with the new explosive which had been introduced only about three
months before the beginning of hostilities. As the war progresses the
French tend to use more and more of these explosive shells, which are
used against infantry in the same way as are shrapnel. The only
difference seems to be that they are made to burst a little lower.
Their effect is very terrible. A heavy bursting charge is employed,
and although the fragments are small they fly with such force that
they make fatal wounds and even cut into the wood of rifle stocks. I
observed the body of one German whose back had been pierced with about
forty small particles of a shell which had burst close to him. These
particles were as evenly spread as the charge of a shotgun. German
wounded and captured Germans have told me that this French shell-fire
was so hellish that no man escaped except by a miracle. The French
infantry have a great affection for their "75," and their confidence
is always very greatly increased by its presence. Their spirits
immediately rise when they hear it behind them. The French field
artillery seem to have no favorite range but readily fire at any
range. On the one hand a gun is sometimes taken into the trenches, and
on the other hand I once observed a battery begin firing at 5300
meters and go to 5600 meters. One frequently sees French batteries of
two and three guns and groups of eight or nine guns, lost guns not
having been promptly replaced. I once saw a battery of two guns, the
other two having been completely destroyed by direct fire the previous
week. The heaviest piece that I saw at the front with the French was a
6-in. howitzer. The Germans use all sizes up to 12-in. in field
operations, the latter being of Austrian construction. I have never
discovered any conclusive evidence that Germany possesses
42-centimeter guns.
In my observations, when infantry charge infantry in battle movement,
the majority of the casualties are caused by artillery. I have several
times observed fields of dead infantrymen killed in an advance against
infantry, where 90% of the dead had been killed by shrapnel. In my
experience the Germans never use anything except shrapnel against
infantry in the open. Shrapnel wounds are very ugly, being big ragged
holes which usually become infected.
On the battlefields I have observed, very few German shrapnel have
failed to burst in the air. In one field about a half mile square,
where shrapnel cases were strewn about [I counted about forty or
fifty], I observed only four craters. The French often say that the
German shrapnel burst too high.
The German field artillery frequently place their caissons at a
distance of two hundred yards behind the guns, there being no limbers
or caissons with the guns. The ammunition is brought up by hand, each
man carrying six shells in baskets holding three each. The caissons
are usually in less numbers than the guns, there being two caissons
behind four guns, or one caisson behind two guns.
In examining abandoned German ammunition, I have found shells bearing
all dates from 1903 to 1914.
On no occasion have I seen observation ladders used by the French
field artillery. This is probably due to the fact that, in general,
their artillery is at so great a distance behind the scene of
operations.
Shells bigger than 3-in. when used in field operations seldom do any
damage, but have a tremendous moral effect even on veteran troops. The
disconcerting effect of heavy shells exploding in the ground is very
widely recognized at the front. The fire of big howitzers is, as a
rule, very inaccurate. When one of these shells hits a building or a
paved street its effect is considerable; when they burst in soft
ground they are not dangerous. Most of the battlefields of France are
on muddy fields, in which the 6-in. shells make a crater about forty
feet in circumference and five or six feet deep. Their effect is
chiefly upward and casualties are so rare as to be considered freaks.
Mud is, however, thrown over the whole neighborhood. The bursting of
the 12-in. shells is a very impressive sight--I saw two burst. (My
authority for their caliber was a major of French artillery with whom
I was standing at the time.) They burst at a distance of about 600
yards from us, one in an open field and the other in a small French
village. The concussion was very heavy and even at 600 yards was felt
in the feet. In the first case the air was filled with flying mud to a
height of several hundred feet and there was a cloud of greasy black
smoke about as large as a city block. The resultant crater was about
one hundred feet in circumference, the ground being particularly soft.
The second shell produced the same sensations, made the same sort of
crater, and destroyed four or five small French brick and stone
houses.
The largest German howitzers which are in the field were, in my
personal experience, used only to bombard towns and villages.
INFANTRY
My observations lead me to think that the most important
qualifications for the infantry soldier are three, viz: to be able to
dig, to be able to hide, and to be able to shoot. At the beginning of
the war the French had paid very little attention to any of these
things. Their men were dressed in a uniform so conspicuous that hiding
was impossible. The only shooting that they had ever done was gallery
shooting at a range of about forty yards and they were singularly poor
even at this. Judging by practical results, they had very few theories
and no practice in the matter of digging trenches. The trenches which
they made in the early weeks of the war were straight grooves in the
ground with the earth thrown up in a haphazard manner on either or
both sides. Their early defeats were due to the unexpected invasion
through Belgium, and to their unpreparedness in the three essentials
mentioned above.
The German infantry also shoot poorly from an American standpoint, but
do better than the French. Their uniform is the most nearly perfect of
any of the armies in the war, and the Germans are virtually invisible
at short range if they are not moving. Their helmet is easily the best
headgear in the matter of invisibility. It sets tightly on the head,
and owing to its shape virtually never casts a shadow. The Germans
have been from the beginning very accomplished trench diggers and have
had elaborate theories as to the construction of trenches and much
practice in making them.
The British are the only troops in the war who shoot with any degree
of excellence. Their shooting does not approach in accuracy that of
our own army, but is so superior to the Germans that a British
battalion of 1100 men usually has a firing effect equal to that of a
German regiment of nearly 3000. On the gray-green backgrounds of
Europe the British khaki is not conspicuous, but at the same time it
is certainly visible. The British hat is the most conspicuous headgear
in the war, since its rim casts a heavy black shadow, and its flat top
shows white in sunlight. The heads of the British in the trenches
stand out very distinctly.
In my experience the machine-gun is the most effective infantry
weapon. Personally, I should interpret this not as praise for
machine-guns, but as a criticism of the poor shooting of all the
infantry engaged. The French have comparatively few machine-guns.
Since November, the French have had troops of all categories on the
firing-line, and I should judge by this that since November, if not
earlier, the French have had all their available men in service. Among
my personal acquaintances in France, I know no man liable for service
who has not been in the army from that date onward. The men who for
physical reasons were earlier refused are now being quite generally
accepted as volunteers and are put to office work or similar
occupations. I have seen great numbers of wounded Territorials in
France, and many Territorial prisoners in the prison camps in Germany.
When I visited the prison camp at Zossen (near Berlin) where there are
said to be 20,000 French prisoners, a large percentage (perhaps as
much as 50 per cent.) of the prisoners I saw were Territorials.
The Germans have very well-developed and well-organized systems of
relays for their men at the front. The infantry stay in the trenches
for about a month at a time and are then given a vacation, usually
being sent home to their garrison town. Their cavalry serve ten days
at the front and are then sent a day's march to the rear for a
ten-days' rest. Their artillerymen get no vacation, their lives being
considered easy enough.
I saw no evidence of any well-organized system of vacations among
either the French or British and I knew many isolated cases where
personal friends of mine, both officers and enlisted men, have been at
the front continuously since the beginning of the war. I am fairly
certain that the British enlisted man has had no vacation since the
beginning of the war, other than relaying near the front.
I would mention again, in order to emphasize the statement, that all
my observations have led me to believe that the essentials of military
preparedness are, first of all, a rapid mobilization, without this
everything else is useless. By "rapid" I mean a mobilization of at
least half a million men or upward in not more than ten days. After
this in importance comes the ability to hide, to dig, and to shoot. To
hide is impossible when wearing a uniform as conspicuous as the
French, which might be called maximum, and has, I should estimate,
been the cause of from three to four hundred thousand extra
casualties.
The bayonet has been much used in this war and I have viewed
personally a number of battlefields on which the action was decided
with cold steel. It is my impression that European officers have
maintained their faith in the bayonet as a weapon and some of them may
even have become more than ever convinced of its worth. This is very
distinctly the case with the French and the Austrians. The Germans are
the only people whom I have observed to show any preference for
shooting as against cutting when in close action. There is no doubt
that the French commander's idea is to win the ultimate decision with
the bayonet. Europeans in general seem to prefer cutting and stabbing
to shooting. For them, "fight" seems to mean stabbing somebody. Their
psychology is directly opposed to ours, for I think most American
soldiers prefer shooting to cutting. The Europeans do not seem to have
the taste for shooting, or the ability or wish to shoot well. It is
difficult or even impossible to teach many of them to shoot with any
degree of effectiveness.
In spite of the degree to which the bayonet has been used in Europe
and the number of actions which I have seen won by its use, I am
strongly convinced that the bayonet is not a practical weapon, and
that the only just grounds for its employment are to be found in
psychological reasons. I have not actually seen bayonet combats but
have studied the battlefields soon after the conflicts and have talked
with troops who had taken part in them, both French wounded and German
prisoners. I remember particularly the scenes of three bayonet fights
on a considerable scale. The first took place near Fère Champenoise on
September 8th; the second near Sézanne on September 9th; the third
near Lassigny about October 15th. In each case the men had thrown all
science to the wind and fought wildly and savagely hand to hand. They
were probably less effective than a Philippine boloman. Most of the
casualties had been bayoneted through the neck, face, and skull, the
men having lunged savagely for the face just like a boxer who has lost
his temper. In the first-mentioned place I saw a Frenchman and a
German lying side by side, both dead, and each transfixed by the
other's bayonet, showing that they had rushed upon each other madly
without the least thought of science or defense. It would seem to me
that an infantryman with a short and handy rifle like our new
Springfield could fill his magazine just before the enemy's charge
arrived and "stop" four or five men armed with bayonets or any other
edged weapon. I see no more reason for opposing bayonet with bayonet
than for opposing a bolo with a bolo. The same reasoning would apply
to lances and sabers, which are universally carried and certainly have
been used to some extent. It is an interesting fact that in fights
between cavalry patrols, every such affair which came to my personal
knowledge had been decided by shooting and by nothing else, although
the teaching of the men is to close in and use the lance and saber.
The Germans alone when in close action have shown a tendency to do
more or less shooting. In the first mentioned of the above fights, the
Germans were virtually all killed by bayonet wounds, whereas perhaps
50 per cent. of the French dead whom I examined showed gunshot wounds.
The French tactical unit is the battalion of 1000 men, divided into
four companies, nominally of 250 men each but with an effective battle
strength of slightly over 200. These companies are commanded by a
captain with four or five lieutenants under him. Two of these
lieutenants are regular officers and the other two or three are
reserve officers. Each platoon is commanded by a lieutenant and a
sergeant. An infantry brigade in the French army is made up of six
battalions. In case of heavy casualties the number of battalions is
reduced, the idea being to keep battalions as near normal strength as
possible. Thus if the regiment loses 30 per cent. it is reduced from a
regiment of three battalions to a regiment of two battalions, and if
it loses 60 or 70 per cent. it is reduced to a regiment of one
battalion.
The French, German, Russian, Austrian, and Hungarian infantry are all
armed with long, heavy, and ill-balanced rifles carrying detachable
bayonets. These rifles are very poorly sighted in comparison with our
new Springfield. It would be very difficult or impossible to do good
shooting with them, as measured from an American standpoint. In my
personal experience there have been numberless cases where dispatch
bearers, automobiles, scouts, pickets, and patrols were exposed at
very short range to the fire of bodies of French or German troops
without any casualties whatsoever occurring.
The one idea of the German infantry seems to be to shoot as much and
as rapidly as possible. I have several times observed where German
infantry have taken up a position in the open, and fired 120 rounds a
man, more or less, as a matter of course.
I have nowhere observed the use of any semi-automatic rifles, nor of
either silencers or special sights for sharpshooters.
TRENCHES AND CONCEALMENT
In October I was in the neighborhood of Lassigny and Roye where heavy
fighting was and had been going on. There was a little village called
Erches to the northwest of these places. Here were the French advance
trenches. I was in this village during the height of operations and
was told that we were then only 150 or 200 yards from the German
trenches. Standing behind a house corner in this village of Erches, I
could see nothing unusual in any direction. I could see no signs of
French or German activity nor of life of any kind, although the French
infantry trenches extended to our right and left and the Germans were
directly in front of us. The landscape which spread away in all
directions looked perfectly normal and unbroken except for a few shell
craters. The only manifestations of activity were the distant rumbling
of guns, and the shrapnel bursting over our heads. Although I stayed
there for more than an hour, the only Frenchmen I saw were a few who
joined me behind the house; they came from trenches hidden within it,
or from an underground trench, the opening of which was behind the
house. I recount this to accent the concealment of all troops in this
war. Trenches are made to resemble the landscape in which they are
placed. If they are in a brown mowed field, hay is scattered over all
fresh earth, and if they are made in pasture land all the earth is
carefully carried away or is spread out and sodded over.
CAVALRY
The Austrian cavalry unit is the division, which is accompanied by the
horse artillery in considerable strength. They are not accompanied by
cyclists or armored automobiles.
During the first six months of the war, at least, in the Austrian,
Hungarian, British, and French armies no newspaper or war
correspondents were allowed to view the actual operations on any
condition whatsoever. No press representative saw any battle with the
Austrian, Hungarian, British, or French armies, with one single
exception which took place in France, when one day during September
certain press representatives managed to see the bombardment along the
Aisne. I make this statement with the full knowledge that many
correspondents state they have seen battle actions. I have been able
to investigate such statements on numerous occasions, and invariably
found them to be fabrications, usually without even a foundation of
truth. Reporters frequently left the intrenched camp at Paris, were
arrested before traveling any great distance, and confined for days
and weeks. They then returned to the city and told hair-raising
stories of their experiences at the front.
The only war news published in France, England, Austria, and Hungary,
is that of the official _communiqués_, which usually suppress all
essentials, minimize or omit all reverses, and convert all drawn
actions or slight gains into victories.
The Austrian and Hungarian horse artillery were in such close relation
with the cavalry that their support was very good. In fact, the
artillery get into position as quickly as the cavalry. The chief
function which cavalry have performed successfully in this war has
been that of reconnoissance. The French and German armies use
aëroplanes and cavalry patrols as their principal means of
reconnoissance; the latter scout in parties of from six to fifteen men
commanded by an officer. The British do the same work with two
motor-cycle riders. The transmission of dispatches by cavalry has
become virtually nil in France because of the extensive use for this
purpose of telephones, automobiles, and motor-cycles. It is very
doubtful, however, if automobiles and motor-cycles could successfully
be used for dispatch-bearing and reconnoissance in any country except
France. On the Russian frontier the poorness and scarcity of roads
make the use of automobiles difficult and the use of wheels and
motor-cycles impossible. It would, therefore, seem that for
reconnoissance and dispatch-bearing, cavalry will usually be the means
employed.
Cavalry have to a certain extent been used as reserves. They were thus
first used by the British. In recent months I have often seen large
French cavalry reserves. At such times they are, in effect, mounted
infantry, so that reinforcements may be transferred a greater distance
in a shorter time. My personal observations have led me to believe
that aside from their uses in reconnoissance, the principal value of
cavalry is as mounted infantry held in reserve. When fighting, cavalry
must dismount. Early in the war there were occasions when cavalry
fought while mounted, and whether against artillery, infantry, or
other cavalry, the chief result was the killing of nearly all the
horses.
In the Austrian, Hungarian, and French armies many cavalry regiments
have been converted into infantry. I do not think that this is chiefly
due to lack of horses but to the fact that the opportunity for
fighting while mounted no longer exists.
ENGINEERING
The only work which I observed to be done entirely and solely by
engineers was the construction of bridges, of which they have had to
build a great number. I was impressed by the fact that many of these
bridges were quite original in conception. They are nearly always
intelligent makeshifts which might truly be called inventions.
At Pont-Ste.-Maxence, a bridge capable of supporting the heaviest
traffic was constructed in a few hours. Big canal boats which were
lying idle in the neighborhood were requisitioned and anchored side by
side, touching each other. Their decks were made flush, each with the
other, by the shifting of ballast, and when this had been accomplished
a roadway was laid across them. This bridge was so satisfactory that
it has not yet been replaced by a permanent structure. Road building
was largely carried on among the French by infantry, and it was my
experience that trench building was exclusively done by the infantry
as it was found necessary. The positions and traces of trenches were
laid out by infantry officers. This latter conclusion is, however,
based on three or four observations only.
SUPPLIES
In the French army the reserve small arms ammunition is kept behind
the battle-line just out of reach of shell-fire. There are ammunition
train regiments just as there are infantry or cavalry regiments. Each
such regiment is composed of eighty odd ammunition wagons and some
forage wagons. Two regiments generally move together, thus forming an
ammunition brigade. These wagons are parked parallel to the line of
battle. Supply columns are always parked vertically to the line of
battle. In the Battle of the Marne I observed an ammunition brigade
about every twenty kilometers. Thus on September 11th, there were
brigades at Rebais (7th and 10th Regiments), at Montmirail (17th and
29th), and at Champaubert. The supplies, chiefly beef and bread, are
brought up from the rear and advance directly toward the battle-line
in long horse-drawn wagon trains, or in Paris auto-busses. When near
the front, small numbers of wagons go up as far as they dare and
supplies are distributed directly to the troops, often while they are
under long-range shell-fire.
MOTOR TRANSPORT
In the matter of motor transport, the practice with the French and
British has become well defined. The best type of truck is one of
medium weight, and of the best construction obtainable. It should be
emphasized that medium-priced or inexpensive trucks are undesirable.
It is very distinctly the opinion of French and British transport
officers that it is better to have too few trucks, all of which are
reliable, than to take "any old truck" and have it break down at
critical moments during operation. Inferior trucks break down
frequently, and break down at critical moments with singular
regularity.
In the British army, trucks work in units of about ten, each such unit
being commanded by an officer who travels in a fast automobile.
Protection, when necessary, is temporarily assigned to the unit,
nearly always in the shape of armored motor cars. The trucks are
heavily manned, having from three to six men per truck. Every man is
armed with a rifle, but no other arms are carried as an integral part
of the unit. Such motor transport units are not often captured or
destroyed since they seldom come in touch with anything but the
enemy's cavalry which, as a rule, prefers to leave them strictly
alone, as a train of motor trucks has good defensive ability and none
of the vulnerability of horse-drawn wagons. In the rare cases when
actions have taken place, motor trucks have become moving forts, which
continue on their way at a rate of twenty or twenty-five miles an
hour, while from each one three or four well-protected riflemen keep
up a steady fire.
The type of automobile most desirable for army use has become
well-defined. The practice in this regard is the same in the French,
British, German, Austrian, and Hungarian armies. On a powerful
chassis, with an engine of at least 50-horse-power, is mounted a very
light body, of the "pony tonneau" type, with room for two men in front
and two behind. The equipment consists of a folding top, leather or
isinglass wind-shield, powerful head-lights, the noisiest horn
obtainable, and racks to carry as much extra gasoline as possible. In
service these automobiles have big racks full of gasoline-cans carried
on the running boards and at the rear and, in addition, there are
often necklaces of two-gallon cans strung wherever possible. In
virtually all the armies gasoline is served out in small cans
containing about two gallons each, which are easily handled and
quickly stored. One or two may be put in any odd space which is not
otherwise in use. This method is very effective and is one of the most
important developments in military automobile practice. In none of the
armies are cars used which vary greatly from the type above mentioned,
except through necessity. In general, heavy cars and runabouts give
very inferior service. It is the general custom for the chauffeur and
an orderly to ride on the front seat, and one or two officers behind.
The more speed the machine develops the better. It is not uncommon to
see staff officers or generals traveling over the French roads at a
speed of one hundred kilometers an hour. There is quite a well-defined
tendency to have as drivers men who are well above the average. In the
French army these men are usually sergeants or lieutenants; in the
Austrian army many of them are lieutenants.
Corps and army commanders usually have big, heavy limousines, with
electric lighting, which they can, when necessary, use as offices, or
as headquarters.
SIGNAL CORPS
The Germans use telephones very extensively and apparently in
connection with all arms of the service. Their wires are very thin
and are similar to small piano wires. I saw no copper wire used by
them. The wire is strung on poles about nine feet high. These poles
are very carefully made of wood and are only about an inch in
diameter. Every second pole is guyed with a wire and braced with a
pole. The poles are painted in black and white stripes to make them
conspicuous and to prevent people from running over them. The German
practice is to lay these wires and abandon them when they are no
longer needed. The British, on the contrary, make it a point of honor
to recover all their poles and wire. In the retreat from Mons their
signal corps had such heavy losses in attempting to do this that they
were seriously hampered by lack of personnel.
PHYSIQUE
The German soldiers and officers have a physique unapproached by any
troops which I saw, except the Swiss. Their average height and weight
is very much above all the others, except the Russians. The Russians
are as large as the Germans but do not approach them in activity and
quality. The French, although small and light, are wiry and have very
good stamina, especially in the matter of marching. The Austrians are
of medium size, most of them being stockily built. The Hungarians are
of medium height, well-knit, possessed of good stamina, and are in
every way physically fitted to be fine soldiers. Their infantry have
very high physical qualities, probably being as effective in modern
warfare as the heavy Germans.
MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS
I found intelligent people in Germany very broad-minded about military
matters. They were pretty well agreed that General Joffre is the only
general produced so far by the war who would rank in history as a
great captain, and while they maintained that the German officers as a
class were superior to all others, they conceded that the best troops
which have so far taken part in the war were the British regulars who
represented England in the early weeks of the war and retreated from
Charleroi through Mons, St. Quentin, and Compiègne to the southeast of
Paris.
On many different occasions I saw Russian prisoners in Germany and
Austria-Hungary. They impressed me as being of a low order of
intelligence. They fight well on the defense. When they are put in a
position and told to stay there, they are very difficult to drive back
and show the highest order of courage. When they move or advance they
become less reliable.
The Hungarians have a very keen fighting instinct and are excellent
infantrymen.
The Germans have a dogged courage and expose themselves with bravery
and enthusiasm in any undertaking. When they are once started, they
are difficult to stop. On an advance, I should say that a 50 per cent.
loss is necessary to make them hesitate, and on the defense I saw at
least one case where they were put out of action to the last man
without giving ground.
The French are brave in a more spectacular way. They are better
winners than the Germans and worse losers. Their temperament leads
them to push home a success with more enthusiasm than the Germans;
whereas, in defeat, they are less reliable.
The fighting qualities of the British are much higher than those of
any other nation, when, as in the case of the British regulars, they
have had sufficient training to teach them the technique of war. They
are calm and usually cheerful under the most adverse circumstances.
They do not lose control of themselves either in victory or defeat.
The Germans say they fight best of all when they are hopelessly
defeated or surrounded.
I have seen no body of officers which can compare in quality with
those of our army who are graduates of West Point. However, we have
fewer of these than Germany has generals.
It is just as strongly my opinion that the American infantryman as a
type is correspondingly superior. I believe he can undoubtedly
out-shoot, out-think, out-"hike," and out-game the line soldier of any
other country I have seen. Here again, we have so few of him that,
whereas there are more than six hundred well-trained army-corps
engaged in this war, we have less than one.
AUTHOR'S NOTE
I have received a letter from Mr. Herrick in which he expresses the
opinion that I was too severe on the diplomatic corps for leaving
Paris when the Germans threatened the city and the French government
moved to Bordeaux. He states that it was the duty of the diplomatic
corps to go with the government and that it was according to
diplomatic precedent. His own decision to remain in Paris was the
result of a special permission from the United States government,
authorizing him to use his own discretion. Under the circumstances he
thought it best to remain in Paris, and to be represented at Bordeaux
by Mr. Garret, with whom he was able to communicate daily. With Mr.
Garret he sent a number of army officers and secretaries.
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Adventures of Sherlock Holmes _A. Conan Doyle_
After House, The _Mary Roberts Rinehart_
Ailsa Paige _Robert W. Chambers_
Alternative, The _George Barr McCutcheon_
Alton of Somasco _Harold Bindloss_
Amateur Gentleman, The _Jeffery Farnol_
Andrew The Glad _Maria Thompson Daviess_
Ann Boyd _Will N. Harben_
Annals of Ann, The _Kate T. Sharber_
Anna the Adventuress _E. Phillips Oppenheim_
Armchair at the Inn, The _F. Hopkinson Smith_
Ariadne of Allan Water _Sidney McCall_
At the Age of Eve _Kate T. Sharber_
At the Mercy of Tiberius _Augusta Evans Wilson_
Auction Block, The _Rex Beach_
Aunt Jane of Kentucky _Eliza C. Hall_
Awakening of Helena Ritchie _Margaret Deland_
Bambi _Marjorie Benton Cooke_
Bandbox, The _Louis Joseph Vance_
Barbara of the Snows _Harry Irving Green_
Bar 20 _Clarence E. Mulford_
Bar 20 Days _Clarence E. Mulford_
Barrier, The _Rex Beach_
Beasts of Tarzan, The _Edgar Rice Burroughs_
Beechy _Bettina Von Hutten_
Bella Donna _Robert Hichens_
Beloved Vagabond, The _Wm. J. Locke_
Ben Blair _Will Lillibridge_
Beth Norvell _Randall Parrish_
Betrayal, The _E. Phillips Oppenheim_
Better Man, The _Cyrus Townsend Brady_
Beulah (Ill. Ed) _Augusta J. Evans_
Black Is White _George Barr McCutcheon_
Blaze Derringer _Eugene P. Lyle, Jr._
Bob Hampton of Placer _Randall Parrish_
Bob, Son of Battle _Alfred Ollivant_
Brass Bowl, The _Louis Joseph Vance_
Britton of the Seventh _Cyrus Townsend Brady_
Broad Highway, The _Jeffery Farnol_
Bronze Bell, The _Louis Joseph Vance_
Buck Peters, Ranchman _Clarence E. Mulford_
Business of Life, The _Robert W. Chambers_
Butterfly Man, The _George Barr McCutcheon_
By Right of Purchase _Harold Bindloss_
Cabbages and Kings _O. Henry_
Cab No. 44 _R. F. Foster_
Calling of Dan Matthews, The _Harold Bell Wright_
Cape Cod Stories _Joseph C. Lincoln_
Cap'n Eri _Joseph C. Lincoln_
Cap'n Warren's Wards _Joseph C. Lincoln_
Caravaners _Author of Elizabeth and Her German Garden_
Cardigan _Robert W. Chambers_
Carmen _(Geraldine Farrar Edition)_
Carpet From Bagdad, The _Harold MacGrath_
Cash Intrigue, The _George Randolph Chester_
Castle by the Sea, The _H. B. M. Watson_
Claw, The _Cynthia Stockley_
C. O. D. _Natalie Sumner Lincoln_
Colonial Free Lance, A _Chauncey O. Hotchkiss_
Coming of the Law, The _Chas. A. Seltzer_
Conquest of Canaan, The _Booth Tarkington_
Conspirators, The _Robert W. Chambers_
Counsel for the Defense _Leroy Scott_
Crime Doctor, The _E. W. Hornung_
Cry in the Wilderness, A _Mary E. Waller_
Cynthia of the Minute _Louis Joseph Vance_
Dark Hollow, The _Anna Katharine Green_
Dave's Daughter _Patience Bevier Cole_
Day of Days, The _Louis Joseph Vance_
Day of the Dog, The _George Barr McCutcheon_
Depot Master, The _Joseph C. Lincoln_
Desired Woman, The _Will N. Harben_
Destroying Angel, The _Louis Joseph Vance_
Diamond Master, The _Jacques Futrelle_
Dixie Hart _Will N. Harben_
El Dorado _Baroness Orczy_
Elusive Isabel _Jacques Futrelle_
Empty Pockets _Rupert Hughes_
Enchanted Hat, The _Harold MacGrath_
Eye of Dread, The _Payne Erskine_
Eyes of the World, The _Harold Bell Wright_
Far Horizon, The _Lucas Malet_
54-40 or Fight _Emerson Hough_
Fighting Chance, The _Robert W. Chambers_
Financier, The _Theodore Dreiser_
Flamsted Quarries _Mary E. Waller_
Flying Mercury, The _Eleanor M. Ingram_
For a Maiden Brave _Chauncey C. Hotchkiss_
Four Million, The _O. Henry_
Four Pool's Mystery, The _Jean Webster_
Fruitful Vine, The _Robert Hichens_
Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford _G. R. Chester_
Gilbert Neal _Will N. Harben_
Girl From His Town, The _Marie Van Vorst_
Girl of the Blue Ridge, A _Payne Erskine_
Girl Who Lived in the Woods, The _M. B. Cooke_
Girl Who Won, The _Beth Ellis_
Glory of Clementina, The _Wm. J. Locke_
Glory of the Conquered, The _Susan Glaspell_
God's Country and the Woman _J. O. Curwood_
God's Good Man _Marie Corelli_
Going Some _Rex Beach_
Gold Bag, The _Carolyn Wells_
Golden Web, The _Anthony Partridge_
Gordon Craig _Randall Parrish_
Greyfriars Bobby _Eleanor Atkinson_
Guests of Hercules _C. N. and A. M. Williamson_
Halcyone _Elinor Glyn_
Happy Island (Sequel to Uncle William) _J. Lee_
Havoc _E. Phillips Oppenheim_
Heart of the Desert, The _Honore Willsie_
Heart of the Hills, The _John Fox, Jr._
Heart of Philura _Florence Morse Kingsley_
Heather-Moon, The _C. N. and A. M. Williamson_
Her Infinite Variety _Brand Whitlock_
Her Weight in Gold _George Barr McCutcheon_
Herb of Grace _Rosa Nouchette Carey_
Hidden Children, The _Robert W. Chambers_
Highway of Fate, The _Rosa N. Carey_
Homesteaders, The _Kate and Virgil D. Boyles_
Hoosier Volunteer, The _Kate and Virgil D. Boyles_
Hopalong Cassidy _Clarence E. Mulford_
House of Happiness, The _Kate Langley Bosher_
House of the Whispering Pines _A. K. Green_
Hugh Wynne, Free Quaker _S. W. Mitchell, M.D._
Husbands of Edith, The _George Barr McCutcheon_
Illustrious Prince, The _E. Phillips Oppenheim_
Imposter, The _John Reed Scott_
In Defiance of the King _Chauncey C. Hotchkiss_
Indifference of Juliet, The _Grace S. Richmond_
Inez (Ill. Ed.) _Augusta J. Evans_
Infelice _Augusta Evans Wilson_
Initials Only _Anna Katharine Green_
Innocent _Marie Corelli_
Intriguers, The _Harold Bindloss_
Iron Trail, The _Rex Beach_
Iron Woman, The _Margaret Deland_
Ishmael (Ill.) _Mrs. Southworth_
Island of Regeneration, The _Cyrus Townsend Brady_
Island of the Stairs, The _Cyrus Townsend Brady_
Japonette _Robert W. Chambers_
Jane Cable _George Barr McCutcheon_
Jeanne of the Marshes _E. Phillips Oppenheim_
Jennie Gerhardt _Theodore Dreiser_
Joyful Heatherby _Payne Erskine_
Jude the Obscure _Thomas Hardy_
Judgment House, The _Gilbert Parker_
Keith of the Border _Randall Parrish_
Kent Knowles: "Quahaug" _Joseph C. Lincoln_
Kingsmead _Bettina Von Hutten_
Knave of Diamonds, The _Ethel M. Dell_
Ladder of Swords, A _Gilbert Parker_
Lady and the Pirate, The _Emerson Hough_
Lady Betty Across the Water _C. N. and A. M. Williamson_
Lady Merton, Colonist _Mrs. Humphry Ward_
Land of Long Ago, The _Eliza Calvert Hall_
Last Shot, The _Frederick N. Palmer_
Last Trail, The (new edition) _Zane Grey_
Last Voyage of the Donna Isabel _Randall Parrish_
Laughing Cavalier, The _Baroness Orczy_
Life Mask, The _Author of "To M. L. G."_
Lighted Way, The _E. Phillips Oppenheim_
Lin McLean _Owen Wister_
Little Brown Jug at Kildare _Meredith Nicholson_
Lone Wolf, The _Louis Joseph Vance_
Lonesome Land _B. M. Bower_
Lord Loveland Discovers America _C. N. and A. M. Williamson_
Lorraine _Robert W. Chambers_
Lost Ambassador _E. Phillips Oppenheim_
Lost Road, The _Richard Harding Davis_
Lost World, The _A. Conan Doyle_
Loves of Lady Arabella _Mollie Elliott Seawell_
Loves of Miss Anne, The _S. R. Crockett_
Love Under Fire _Randall Parrish_
Macaria (Ill. Ed.) _Augusta J. Evans_
Mademoiselle Celeste _Adele F. Knight_
Maids of Paradise, The _Robert W. Chambers_
Maid of the Forest, The _Randall Parrish_
Maid of the Whispering Hills _Vingie E. Roe_
Mam' Linda _Will N. Harben_
Man Outside, The _Wyndham Martyn_
Marriage _H. G. Wells_
Marriage a la Mode _Mrs. Humphry Ward_
Marriage of Theodora, The _Mollie Elliott Seawell_
Mary Moreland _Marie Van Vorst_
Master Mummer, The _E. Phillips Oppenheim_
Max _Katherine Cecil Thurston_
Maxwell Mystery, The _Carolyn Wells_
Mediator, The _Roy Norton_
Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes _A. Conan Doyle_
Mischief Maker, The _E. Phillips Oppenheim_
Miss Gibbie Gault _Kate Langley Bosher_
Miss Philura's Wedding Gown _F. M. Kingsley_
Miss Selina Lue _Maria Thompson Daviess_
Molly McDonald _Randall Parrish_
Money Moon, The _Jeffery Farnol_
Motor Maid, The _C. N. and A. M. Williamson_
Moth, The _William Dana Orcutt_
Mountain Girl, The _Payne Erskine_
Mr. Bingle _George Barr McCutcheon_
Mr. Grex of Monte Carlo _E. Phillips Oppenheim_
Mr. Pratt _Joseph C. Lincoln_
Mr. Pratt's Patients _Joseph C. Lincoln_
Mrs. Red Pepper _Grace S. Richmond_
My Demon Motor Boat _George Fitch_
My Friend the Chauffeur _C. N. and A. M. Williamson_
My Lady Caprice _Jeffrey Farnol_
My Lady of Doubt _Randall Parrish_
My Lady of the North _Randall Parrish_
My Lady of the South _Randall Parrish_
Mystery Tales _Edgar Allan Poe_
Ne'er-Do-Well, The _Rex Beach_
Net, The _Rex Beach_
New Clarion, The _Will N. Harben_
Night Riders, The _Ridgwell Cullum_
Night Watches _W. W. Jacobs_
Officer 666 _B. W. Currie and A. McHugh_
Once Upon a Time _Richard Harding Davis_
One Braver Thing _Richard Dehan_
One Way Trail, The _Ridgwell Cullum_
Otherwise Phyllis _Meredith Nicholson_
Out of the Primitive _Robert Ames Bennet_
Pair of Silk Stockings _Cyril Harcourt_
Palace of Darkened Windows _M. H. Bradley_
Pardners _Rex Beach_
Parrot & Co. _Harold MacGrath_
Partners of the Tide _Joseph C. Lincoln_
Passionate Friends, The _H. G. Wells_
Patience of John Moreland, The _Mary Dillon_
Patrol of the Sun Dance Trail _Ralph Connor_
Paul Anthony, Christian _Hiram W. Hayes_
People's Man, A _E. Phillips Oppenheim_
Perch of the Devil _Gertrude Atherton_
Peter Ruff _E. Phillips Oppenheim_
Phillip Steele _James Oliver Curwood_
Phra the Phoenician _Edwin L. Arnold_
Pidgin Island _Harold MacGrath_
Place of Honeymoons, The _Harold MacGrath_
Plunderer, The _Roy Norton_
Pole Baker _Will N. Harben_
Pool of Flame, The _Louis Joseph Vance_
Polly of the Circus _Margaret Mayo_
Poppy _Cynthia Stockley_
Port of Adventure _C. N. and A. M. Williamson_
Postmaster, The _Joseph C. Lincoln_
Power and the Glory, The _Grace McGowan Cooke_
Price of Love, The _Arnold Bennett_
Price of the Prairie, The _Margaret Hill McCarter_
Prince of Sinners, A _E. Phillips Oppenheim_
Princess Dehra, The _John Reed Scott_
Princess Passes, The _C. N. and A. M. Williamson_
Princess Virginia, The _C. N. and A. M. Williamson_
Prisoners of Chance _Randall Parrish_
Purple Parasol, The _George Barr McCutcheon_
Ranch at the Wolverine, The _B. M. Bower_
Ranching for Sylvia _Harold Bindloss_
Reason Why, The _Elinor Glyn_
Red Cross Girl, The _Richard Harding Davis_
Redemption of Kenneth Galt _Will N. Harben_
Red Lane, The _Holman Day_
Red Mist, The _Randall Parrish_
Red Mouse, The _Wm. Hamilton Osborne_
Red Pepper Burns _Grace S. Richmond_
Red Republic, The _Robert W. Chambers_
Return of Tarzan, The _Edgar Rice Burroughs_
Rejuvenation of Aunt Mary, The _Anne Warner_
Rim of the Desert, The _Ada Woodruff Anderson_
Rise of Roscoe Paine, The _Joseph C. Lincoln_
Road to Providence _Maria Thompson Daviess_
Robinetta _Kate Douglas Wiggin_
Romance of a Plain Man, The _Ellen Glasgow_
Rocks of Valpré, The _Ethel M. Dell_
Rose in the Ring, The _George Barr McCutcheon_
Rose of the World _Agnes and Egerton Castle_
Rose of Old Harpeth _Maria Thompson Daviess_
Round the Corner in Gay Street _G. S. Richmond_
Routledge Rides Alone _Will L. Comfort_
St. Elmo (Ill. Ed.) _Augusta J. Evans_
Salamander, The _Owen Johnson_
Second Violin, The _Grace S. Richmond_
Secret of the Reef _Harold Bindloss_
Secrets of the German War Office _Dr. A. K. Graves_
Seffy _John Luther Long_
Self-Raised (Ill.) _Mrs. Southworth_
Septimus _William J. Locke_
Set in Silver _C. N. and A. M. Williamson_
Sharrow _Bettina Von Hutten_
Shea of the Irish Brigade _Randall Parrish_
Shepherd of the Hills, The _Harold Bell Wright_
Sheriff of Dyke Hole, The _Ridgwell Cullum_
Ship's Company _W. W Jacobs_
Silver Horde, The _Rex Beach_
Simon the Jester _William J. Locke_
Siren of the Snows, A _Stanley Shaw_
Sir Richard Calmady _Lucas Malet_
Sixty-First Second, The _Owen Johnson_
Speckled Bird, A _Augusta Evans Wilson_
Slim Princess, The _George Ade_
Spirit in Prison, A _Robert Hichens_
Spirit of the Border, The (new edition) _Zane Grey_
Spoilers, The _Rex Beach_
Still Jim _Honore Willsie_
Stolen Singer, The _Martha Bellinger_
Stooping Lady, The _Maurice Hewlitt_
Story of Marco, The _Eleanor H. Porter_
Strange Disappearance, A _Anna Katharine Green_
Strawberry Acres _Grace S. Richmond_
Strawberry Handkerchief, The _Amelia E. Barr_
Streets of Ascalon, The _Robert W. Chambers_
Sunshine Jane _Anne Warner_
Susan Clegg and Her Friend Mrs. Lathrop _A. Warner_
Sword of the Old Frontier, A _Randall Parrish_
Tales of Sherlock Holmes _A. Conan Doyle_
Tarzan of the Apes _Edgar R. Burroughs_
Taste of Apples, The _Jennette Lee_
Tempting of Tavernake, The _E. P. Oppenheim_
Tess of the D'Urbervilles _Thos. Hardy_
That Affair Next Door _Anna Katharine Green_
That Printer of Udell's _Harold Bell Wright_
Their Yesterdays _Harold Bell Wright_
Three Brothers, The _Eden Phillpots_
Throwback, The _Alfred Henry Lewis_
Thurston of Orchard Valley _Harold Bindloss_
Title Market, The _Emily Post_
To M. L. G.; or, He Who Passed _Anon._
Torn Sails: A Tale of a Welsh Village _Allen Raine_
Trail of the Axe, The _Ridgwell Cullum_
Trail to Yesterday, The _Chas. A. Seltzer_
Treasure of Heaven, The _Marie Corelli_
Trevor Case, The _Natalie Sumner Lincoln_
Truth Dexter _Sidney McCall_
T. Tembarom _Frances Hodgson Burnett_
Turbulent Duchess _Percy J. Brebner_
Twenty-fourth of June, The _Grace S. Richmond_
Twins of Suffering Creek, The _Ridgwell Cullum_
Two-Gun Man, The _Chas. A. Seltzer_
Uncle William _Jennette Lee_
"Unto Caesar" _Baroness Orczy_
Up From Slavery _Booker T. Washington_
Valiants of Virginia, The _Hallie Erminie Rives_
Valley of Fear, The _Sir A. Conan Doyle_
Vanished Messenger, The _E. Phillips Oppenheim_
Vane of the Timberlands _Harold Bindloss_
Vashti _Augusta Evans Wilson_
Village of Vagabonds, A _F. Berkeley Smith_
Visioning, The _Susan Glaspell_
Wall of Men, A _Margaret H. McCarter_
Wallingford in His Prime _Geo. Randolph Chester_
Wanted--A Chaperon _Paul Leicester Ford_
Wanted--A Matchmaker _Paul Leicester Ford_
Watchers of the Plains, The _Ridgwell Cullum_
Way Home, The _Basil King_
Way of an Eagle, The _E. M. Dell_
Way of a Man, The _Emerson Hough_
Way of the Strong, The _Ridgwell Cullum_
Wayfarers, The _Mary Stewart Cutting_
Weavers, The _Gilbert Parker_
West Wind, The _Cyrus T. Brady_
When Wilderness Was King _Randall Parrish_
Where the Trail Divides _Will Lillibridge_
Where There's a Will _Mary Roberts Rinehart_
White Sister, The _Marion Crawford_
Who Goes There _Robert W. Chambers_
Window at the White Cat _Mary Roberts Rinehart_
Winning of Barbara Worth _Harold Bell Wright_
Winning the Wilderness _Margaret Hill McCarter_
With Juliet in England _Grace S. Richmond_
Witness for the Defense, The _A. E. W. Mason_
Woman in Question, The _John Reed Scott_
Woman Haters, The _Joseph C. Lincoln_
Woman Thou Gavest Me, The _Hall Caine_
Woodcarver of 'Lympus, The _Mary E. Waller_
Woodfire in No. 3, The _F. Hopkinson Smith_
Wooing of Rosamond Fayre _Berta Ruck_
Wrecker, The _Robert Louis Stevenson_
Yellow Letter, The _William Johnston_
You Never Know Your Luck _Gilbert Parker_
Younger Set, The _Robert W. Chambers_
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE:
Minor changes have been made to corret typesetters' errors; otherwise,
every effort has been made to remain true to the author's words and
intent.
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