Kelly Miller's History of the World War for Human Rights Part 61

Let the words of General Pers.h.i.+ng in an official order to his troops on August 27, stand as part of the record:

"It fills me with pride to record in General Orders a tribute to the service achievements of the First and Third Corps, comprising the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Twenty-sixth, Twenty-eighth, Thirty-second and Forty-second Divisions of the American Expeditionary Forces.

"You came to the battlefield at a crucial hour for the Allied cause. For almost four years the most formidable army the world has yet seen had pressed its invasion of France and stood threatening its capital. At no time has that army been more powerful and menacing than when, on July 15, it struck again to destroy in one great battle the brave men opposed to it and to enforce its brutal will upon the world and civilization.

"Three days later, in conjunction with our Allies, you counter-attacked.

The Allied armies gained a brilliant victory that marks the turning point of the war. You did more than to give the Allies the support to which as a nation our faith was pledged.

"You proved that our altruism, our pacific spirit and our sense of justice have not blunted our virility or our courage.

"You have shown that American initiative and energy are as fit for the tasks of war as for the pursuits of peace. You have justly won unstinted praise from our Allies and the eternal grat.i.tude of our countrymen.

"We have paid for successes with the lives of many of our brave comrades. We shall cherish their memory always and claim for our history and literature their bravery, achievement and sacrifice.

"This order will be read to all organizations at the first a.s.sembly formations following its receipt."

Aside from being largely responsible for stopping the Huns once again at the Marne, the exploits of the Americans filled the French and English with confidence, aroused their spirits and gave them renewed hope.

Incidentally their efforts and methods made apparent the value of surprise attacks and quick blows in dealing with the stolid Huns.

The Allied commanders, quick to take advantage of the situation, gave the enemy no chance to consolidate their positions. The unified forces of Allies attacked with renewed energy all along the line, and the Huns were forced back with a sweep that astonished the world.

By September 1, the Germans had lost practically all that they had gained in their drive from March 21, and in many places they had been driven back across the famous Hindenburg line, the furthest point of retreat of the Germans in 1914, when they were forced back by General Joffre from the Marne, and dug themselves into pit and trench. Dozens of towns were taken and more than 120,000 prisoners were bagged.

Almost as spectacular in its effect on the minds of the French and English, as was the demonstration of American fighting, was the work accomplished in France in providing for the transportation and care of the incoming troops. Here great docks, storage plants, training camps, aviation schools, motor a.s.sembling plants, base hospitals and reclamation establishments and railroads, built in less than a year and still growing, represented an investment of $35,000,000 on the part of the United States Government in August, 1918.

Early in May the number of Americans in France was about 500,000. That this number should have been sent across the ocean within the s.p.a.ce of one year after America entered the war was regarded as a distinct achievement, but by September it was officially announced that the number had increased to 1,500,000.

Some of these were sent to the Italian front to help in the drive against the Austrians, and about 15,000 troops from the Philippines were sent by the United States into Siberia to give moral support to the Czecho-Slovaks.

The decision to send troops to Siberia was by agreement with the j.a.panese, and followed a statement issued by the United States on August 4, in which it was stated that "military action was admissable in Russia only to render such protection and help as possible to the Czecho-Slovaks against armed Austrian and German prisoners who were attacking them, and to steady any efforts at self-government or self-defense in which the Russians themselves may be willing to accept a.s.sistance." It was stated that the troops were for guard duty, and under the agreement with j.a.pan, the only other country in a position to act in Siberia, each nation sent a small force to Vladivostok.

The British, French and United States Governments gave recognition to the Czecho-Slovaks as an Allied nation--a geographical, political and military ent.i.ty--with three armies, one in Siberia, one in Italy and one in France, where they had been fighting with the Allies to crush the Huns. The territory which the Czecho-Slovaks claim as their own to govern independently comprises Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia and Slavonika, which lie between and are part of Austria-Hungary and Germany.

With the facilities for handling the troops abroad thoroughly organized and the obvious necessity for furnis.h.i.+ng greater manpower to bring about an early defeat of Germany, the United States decided to increase the scope of its conscription and to raise an army of 3,000,000 for immediate service and adopted a new manpower bill which was pa.s.sed by Congress the last week in August and signed by President Wilson on August 30.

The measure provided for the registration and drafting of all male citizens between the ages of 18 and 45 years, allowing for deferred cla.s.sification of those engaged in essential work or having obligations which made it impossible for them to render active military service.

Not only the Allied successes on the western front, but also those on the Italian front and in the Balkans, where the French, Italians and Greeks in Albania, with a million troops, advanced against the Germans, Austrians and Turks, made apparent the necessity for further concentration of manpower.

While losing ground on the western front and rapidly being forced to the wall, Germany gave another spectacular twist to her military program by carrying the war to America's doors. With her submarines she sank nearly two score of s.h.i.+ps, schooners, barges, tugs, and even a lights.h.i.+p, within a few miles of New York, Boston, Norfolk, Charleston and the Delaware Capes.

But while the U-boats were hara.s.sing, no effective a.s.saults were made against the s.h.i.+ps which carried American troops abroad. In this connection it should never be forgotten in the glamour of war that while America performed wonders in getting her soldiers overseas, England provided most of the s.h.i.+ps, and that it was England's Navy which kept the German Navy in check while America's war vessels and destroyers convoyed the troops.h.i.+ps and protected them from the submarines.

CHAPTER x.x.x.

VICTORY--PEACE.

THE GERMAN EMPIRE COLLAPSES--FOCH'S STRATEGY WINS--AMERICAN INSPIRATION A BIG FACTOR--BULGARIA, TURKEY AND AUSTRIA QUIT WAR--MONARCHS FALL--- KAISER ABDICATES AND FLEES GERMANY--ARMISTICE SIGNED--NOVEMBER 11, PEACE.

Then came the fall of autocracy--

Victory! Peace!

With a crash that echoed around the world the autocratic governmental structure builded by the Kaiser and his forebears gave way and came tumbling to the earth in ruins on Monday, November 11, 1918.

The most momentous event in ages had come to pa.s.s and victory was perched upon the banner of democracy.

Out of the sacrifice of millions of lives, the desolation of homes and countries, the expenditure of untold energy and incomprehensible billions of dollars in money, there came everlasting, glorious peace.

The great German Empire lay a wreck, given into the hands of the people for remaking, and the arrogant Emperor William Hohenzollern had fled into Holland, and his example was imitated by the Crown Prince.

THE COMING OF THE END.

The end came swiftly and with dramatic action. Beaten back by the Allied forces, which gathered strength and inspiration from the irresistible American troops, the German army weakened all along the line from Holland to the Swiss border. The press of power exerted against the German strongholds on every side was felt within the domains and produced internal strife and dissension which undermined and weakened the military organization. Taking full advantage of this situation, the Allied forces on every side quickened and intensified their blows.

The brilliant strategy of Marshal Foch, generalissimo of the Allied armies, brought defeat to the Germans in less than four months. After bringing to an end the German advance of March 21 to July 18 with the second battle of the Marne, he compelled a hurried retirement to the Hindenburg line with the evacuation of practically all the territory conquered by the Huns.

Finally, in what may be termed the last phase of the war, he absolutely demoralized the German forces. The thrust in this phase was started by the Anglo-Belgian forces in Flanders and the Franco-American armies in Lorraine on September 26.

The British also made a gigantic and brilliant drive between Cambrai and St. Quentin. The whole colossal defense system of the Germans was shattered and in less than three months more than 100,000 German prisoners and 5,000 guns were taken and 8,000 square miles of French and Belgian territory liberated.

VICTORIES ON OTHER FRONTS.

Not only was there great victory on the west, but in Syria the British army broke the power of Turkey and liberated Syria, Mesopotamia and Arabia. In Macedonia, too, an army made up of soldiers of many nations under a French command compelled the surrender of Bulgaria and her withdrawal, and swept the last vestige of German control from the Balkans.

On the Austrian front likewise the Italian army, strengthened and heartened by the presence of American and Allied forces, swept the Austrians before them in one of the most picturesque offensives of the war, capturing more than 300,000 prisoners and great quant.i.ties of guns and supplies.

This in brief is the way the German command was driven to a point of seeking peace to prevent the invasion of their territory.

The brilliant a.s.saults of the various units and commands of the Allies at points along the entire 200 miles of western front will go down in history a wonderful military achievement.

AMERICAN VICTORIES ON THE EAST FRONT.

One of the wonderful attacks was that of the American First Army under General Pers.h.i.+ng, when St. Mihiel salient was annihilated. This salient for four years resisted all efforts to penetrate it and stood a guardian to great iron fields running through the Basin de Briey to the Belgian-Luxemburg frontier. It formed a strong outpost to the fortified city of Metz, with its twenty-eight forts, and made impossible the invasion of German Lorraine from the west.

The offensive of General Pers.h.i.+ng was one of the most carefully planned of the war. More than 1,000 tanks were operated to open the way for the infantry and cavalry. A greater force of airplanes than were ever concentrated in a single attack menaced the Germans overhead and in a week the Americans encompa.s.sed a territory of 200 square miles and threatened the mining center and the forts of Metz, capturing 20,000 prisoners and hundreds of guns and great quant.i.ties of ammunition.

Moreover, the Verdun-Nancy railway was released.

Support was brought to the Germans and they stubbornly resisted, but many points were gained and held by the Americans.

AMERICAN VICTORIES ALONG THE MEUSE-AISNE RIVERS.