America's War for Humanity Part 24

About the same time the French reoccupied Muelhausen, after three days'

fighting around the city. Another French army was reported to be within nineteen miles of Metz, But before the end of the month the French had been compelled to evacuate both their former provinces. They continued during September, however, to make frequent a.s.saults on the German frontier positions, but without regaining a sure foothold on German soil, the bulk of their efforts being devoted to the defense of their own frontier strongholds.

FIGHTING AROUND NANCY

An official dispatch from the foreign office in Paris, dated August 28, said:

"Yesterday the French troops took the offensive in the Vosges mountains and in the region between the Vosges and Nancy, and their offensive has been interrupted, but the German loss has been considerable.

"Our forces found, near Nancy, on a front of three kilometers, 2,500 dead Germans, and near Vitrimont, on a front of four kilometers, 4,500 dead. Longwy, where the garrison consisted of only one battalion, has capitulated to the Crown Prince of Germany after a siege of twenty-four days."

FRENCH TRAPPED IN ALSACE

The German view of early operations in Alsace-Lorraine was given in the following dispatch September 2 from the headquarters of the general staff at Aix-la-Chapelle:

"The French forces were trapped in Alsace-Lorraine.

Realizing that the French temperament was more likely to be swayed by sentiment than by stern adherence to the rules of actual warfare, the German staff selected its own battle line and waited. The French did not disappoint. They rushed across the border. They took Altkirch with little opposition.

Then they rushed on to Muelhausen. Through the pa.s.ses in the Vosges mountains they poured, horse, artillery, foot--all branches of the service. Strasburg was to fall and so swift was the French movement that lines of communication were not guarded.

"Then the German general staff struck. Their troops from Saarburg, from Strasburg and from Metz, under the command of General von Heeringen, attacked the French all along the line. They were utterly crushed. The Germans took 10,000 Frenchmen prisoners and more than one hundred guns of every description. Alsace-Lorraine is now reported absolutely cleared of French troops.

"The armies of Crown Prince Frederick Wilhelm and of Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria are moving in an irresistible manner into France. In a 3-day battle below Metz the French were terribly cut up and forced to retreat in almost a rout. It is declared that in this engagement the French lost 151 guns and were unable to make a stand against the victorious Germans until they had pa.s.sed inside of their secondary line of defense."

THE GERMAN "SPY POSTERS"

Just prior to the declaration of war, cable dispatches from Paris told of a remarkable series of posters dotting the countryside of France.

These posters, innocently advertising "Bouillon Kub," a German soup preparation, were so cleverly printed by the German concern advertising the soup, that they would act as signals to German army officers leading their troops through France.

In one of our photographic ill.u.s.trations, one of these "spy posters" is seen posted on the left of an archway past which the French soldiers are marching en route to meet the Germans near the Alsace frontier.

The ingenuity of the signs was remarkable. Thus a square yellow poster would carry the information, "Food in abundance found here," while a round red sign would advertise, "This ground is mined." Many geometrical figures and most of the colors were utilized, and animal forms, flowers and even the American Stars and Stripes were employed to convey their messages of information.

The French Minister of the Interior got wind of the system, and orders were telegraphed throughout France to destroy these posters. Bouillon Kub, therefore, is no longer advertised in France.

A SOLDIER'S EXPERIENCE UNDER FIRE

A wounded French soldier described his experiences under fire during the Alsace campaign. He said in part: "There! A blow in the breast, a tearing in the body, a fall with a loud cry and a terrible pain; there I lay one of the victims of this terrible day. My first sensation was anger at the blow, my second an expectation of seeing myself explode, for, judging by the sound of the ball, I believed I had a grenade in my body; then came the pain, and with it helplessness and falling.

"Oh, how frightful are those first moments! Where I was. .h.i.t, how I was wounded, I could form no idea; I only felt that I could not stir, saw the battalion disappear from sight and myself alone on the ground, amid the fearful howling and whistling of the b.a.l.l.s which were incessantly striking the ground around me.

"With difficulty could I turn my head a little, and saw behind me two soldiers attending on a third, who was lying on the ground. Of what happened I can give no account except that I cried for help several times as well as I could, for the pain and burning thirst had the upper hand. At last both of them ran to me, and with joy I recognized the doctor and hospital attendant of my company.

"'Where are you wounded?' was the first question. I could only point.

My blouse was quickly opened, and in the middle of the breast a b.l.o.o.d.y wound was found. The b.a.l.l.s still constantly whizzed around us; one struck the doctor's helmet, and immediately I felt a violent blow on the left arm. Another wound! With difficulty I was turned round, to look for the outlet of the bullet; but it was still in my body, near the spine.

At last it was cut out. They were going away--'The wound in the arm, doctor.' This, fortunately, was looked for in vain; the ball had merely caused a blue spot and had sunk harmlessly into the ground.

"I extended my hand to the doctor and thanked him, as also the attendant, whom I commissioned to ask the sergeant to send word to my family. The doctor had carefully placed my cloak over me, with my helmet firmly on my head, in order in some measure to protect me from the leaden hail.

"Thus I lay alone with my own thoughts amid the most terrible fire for perhaps an hour and a half. All my thoughts, as far as pain and increasing weakness allowed, were fixed on my family. Gradually I got accustomed to the danger which surrounded me, and only when too much sand from the striking bullets was thrown on my body did I remember my little enviable position. At last, after long, long waiting, the sanitary detachment came for me."

THE REAL TRAGEDY OF WAR

It is not a pleasant picture--this story of the French soldier. It has little in it of the grandeur, the beat of drums, the sound of martial music, which is supposed to accompany war. The tread of marching feet has died away, the excitement is gone, and man the demon is supplanted by man the everyday human creature of suffering and home folks and fear.

It is only a personal account of an individual experience, yet in it may be found the real significance and the real tragedy of war; for, after the fighting is over, after the intoxication of legalized murder has gone, after nations turn their attention from victories to men, it is the aggregate of individual experiences which counts the costs of war.

Thousands of German, French, Belgian, Austrian, Russian, and British men in the prime of life have been miserably slain and lie in obscure graves of which the enemy now is the guardian, while others writhe in the agony of lingering wounds or sullenly brood over their fate in the dull routine of military prisons. In every part of the warring countries mothers weep over the sons they shall see no more, and wives over the husbands s.n.a.t.c.hed from them forever. In many a mansion, in many a comfortable home, in many a peasant's cottage, the empty chair is eloquent of the absent father, brother, husband or son who shall be absent forever.

CHAPTER X

GERMAN ADVANCE ON PARIS

_Allies Withdraw for Ten Days, Disputing Every Inch of Ground With the Kaiser's Troops--Germans Push Their Way Through France in Three Main Columns-- Reports of the Withdrawing Engagements-- Paris Almost in Sight_.

Flushed with their successes over the Allies at Mons and Charleroi, the Germans pushed their advance toward the French capital with great celerity and vigor. During the last week of August and the first few days of September, it appeared inevitable that the experience of Paris in 1870-71 was to be repeated and that a siege of the city by the German forces would follow immediately.

It was conceded that the armies of the Allies had been forced back and that Paris was endangered. The German advance was general, all along the line. The flower of the Kaiser's army had marched through Belgium and pushed back the lines of the Allies to the formidable rows of fortifications that surround Paris. The Germans advanced in three main columns, constantly in touch with one another, from the right, pa.s.sing through Mons, Cambrai and Amiens, to the extreme left in Lorraine. The center threatened Verdun, and from that point the right advance swept through Northern France like an opening fan, with the fortress of Verdun as the pivot.

Three million men were engaged in the main struggle. When the Germans first reached the Franco-Belgian frontier near Charleroi they were opposed by 700,000 French and 150,000 British troops. After being driven back the Allies began a.s.sembling 1,000,000 men between the frontier and Paris, The Allies hoped to hold the whole German army in check while the Russians pursued their successes in eastern Germany. French troops guarded the entire frontier, battling to check the other German invading columns. The holding of the Germans, once they broke through the fortifications that formed the chief reliance of the French, would be impossible. The next stand would be around Paris, which was well fortified. The invaders were, of course, attempting to get through where there were no forts.

ALLIES MAKE STRENUOUS RESISTANCE

Strenuous resistance to the onward movement of the German enemy was made by the Allies from day to day, but for a period of ten days there was an almost continual retirement of the French and British upon Paris. It was in fact a masterly retreat, but a retreat nevertheless. From the line of La Fere and Mezieres, occupied by the Allies after the battles at Mons and Charleroi, they fell back 70 miles in seven days, disputing every step of the way, but withdrawing gradually to the line of defenses around the French capital. From Cambrai the Germans pushed through Amiens to Beauvais; from Peronne to Roye, Montdidier, Creil, and on to the forest of Chantilly. From the region of Le Cateau and St. Quentin the German advance was by Noyon to Compiegne (famous for its memories of Joan of Arc's famous sortie), at which point the Allies made a desperate stand and the Germans had to fight for every inch of ground. They then pa.s.sed through Senlis, which was first bombarded, down to Meaux, almost within sight of Paris, the head of the German army resting on a line between Beaumont, Meaux and La Ferte, at which point the resistance of the Allies finally forced a change in German plans.

Other German forces pa.s.sed through Laon, Soissons and Chateau Thierry.

Farther to the east, the road from Mezieres led the Germans to Rheims, Mourmelon, and opposite Chalons on the River Marne.

Another German army from the direction of Longwy, under the command of the Crown Prince, was operating through Suippes and on the wooded Argonne plateau, with its five pa.s.ses, famous in the action of which preceded the battle of Valmy. At the entrance to this hilly country stands the little town of Sainte Menehould, where there was severe fighting with the French. Here the German Crown Prince made his headquarters.

The great plain of the Argonne is full of most wonderful ecclesiastical buildings and many magnificent cathedrals, townhalls and ancient fortresses were pa.s.sed by the warring armies in their advance and withdrawal, some of these historic structures sustaining irreparable damage.

The German advance continued southward toward Paris until September 4.

RELENTLESS PURSUIT OF THE BRITISH

All reports agree that during the retirement of the Allies, the Germans pursued the British headquarters staff with uncanny precision throughout the ten days from Mons back to Compiegne. After fierce street fighting in Denain and Landrecies Sir John French withdrew his headquarters to Le Cateau, which was at once made the target of a terrific bombardment.

The town caught fire, burning throughout one night, and the British headquarters had to be evacuated, this time in favor of St. Quentin, in the local college. Here the same thing happened and Field Marshal French was compelled once more to retire, to the neighborhood of Compiegne.

In an official report issued on Sunday, September 6, it is stated that, "The 5th French army on August 29 advanced from the line of the Oise River to meet and counter the German forward movement and a considerable battle developed to the south of Guise. In this the 5th French army gained a marked and solid success, driving back with heavy loss and in disorder three German army corps, the 10th, the Guard, and a reserve corps. In spite of this success, however, and all the benefits which flowed from it, the general retirement to the south continued and the German armies, seeking persistently after the British troops, remained in practically continuous contact with the rearguards.

"On August 30 and 31 the British covering and delaying troops were frequently engaged, and on September 1 a very vigorous effort was made by the Germans, which brought about a sharp action in the neighborhood of Compiegne. This action was fought princ.i.p.ally by the 1st British Cavalry Brigade and the 4th Guards Brigade and was entirely satisfactory to the British. The German attack, which was most strongly pressed, was not brought to a standstill until much slaughter had been inflicted upon them and until ten German guns had been captured. The brunt of this affair fell upon the Guards Brigade, which lost in killed and wounded about 300 men."

This affair was typical of the numerous rearguard engagements fought by both the British and the French forces during their retirement.

MASTERLY TACTICS IN RETIRING