America's War for Humanity Part 59

"It was the Munsters that charged first, with a sprig of shamrock on their caps; then the Dublins, the Worcesters, the Hamps.h.i.+res. Lying on the beach, on the rocks, on the lighters, they cried on the Mother of G.o.d. There, now, was Mids.h.i.+pman Drury swimming to a lighter which had broken loose, with a line in his mouth and a wound in his head. If ever a boy deserved his Victoria Cross, that lad did. And there was the captain of the River Clyde, now no longer a s.h.i.+p to be stuck to but a part forever of Gallipoli, alone with a boat by the spit of rock, trying to lift in the wounded under fire.

"All these things I saw as in a dream. Columns of smoke rose from the castle and town of Seddul-Bahr as the great sh.e.l.ls from the fleet pa.s.sed over our heads and burst, and in every lull we heard the wounded.

"At 1 o'clock the Lancas.h.i.+res were appearing over the ridge to the left from 'Lancas.h.i.+re landing.' "We saw fifteen men in a window in the castle on the right by the water. They signaled that they were all that remained of the Dublins who had landed at the Camber at Seddul-Bahr. At 3 o'clock we got 150 men alive to sh.o.r.e. We watched our men working to the right and up into the castle ruins--at each corner the officer crouching in front with revolver in rest.

"When night came a house in Seddul-Bahr was burning brightly and there was a full moon. We disembarked men at once. All around the wounded cried for help and shelter against the bullets, but there was no room on boats or gang-way for anything but the men to come to sh.o.r.e.

"For two nights no one had slept and then another day dawned. We were firmly ash.o.r.e at Lancas.h.i.+re landing, and at Du Toit's battery to the northeast, and the Australians were dug in at Anzac. An end had to be made of V beach. The whole fleet collected and all morning blew the ridge and castle and town to pieces.

"And all the time that wonderful infantry went forward up the hill and through the ruined town. The troops that went in that attack had already lost half their strength; the officers that led up those narrow streets were nearly all killed. Dead beat, at 1 o'clock, before the final rush, they hesitated. Then our last colonel, a staff man, Col. Doughty Wylie, ran ash.o.r.e with a cane, ran right up the hill, ran through the last handful of men sheltering under the crest, took them with a rush into the Turkish trench, and fell with a bullet through his head. But the Turks ran and the ridge was ours."

Many weeks of b.l.o.o.d.y fighting followed and while there was talk early in November of a possible abandonment of the Dardanelles campaign, the end of the month found the struggle still in progress, with no end in sight.

Official figures made public October 15, show that the British casualties at the Dardanelles up to October 9 were 96,899, of whom 1,185 were officers. The casualties among the Australian troops on the Gallipoli peninsula up to the same date amounted to 29,121 officers and men.

THE ATt.i.tUDE OF GREECE.

On September 23, acting upon the advice of Premier Venizelos, King Constantine of Greece ordered a general mobilization of the Greek army, "as a measure of elementary prudence in view of the mobilization of Bulgaria." Ten days later Premier Venizelos resigned upon official notice that the King could not support his war policy, which was believed to reflect the sentiments of the Greek people and to support the Allies. King Constantine then endeavored to form a coalition ministry. The great point at issue was whether Greece should support or oppose the pa.s.sage of the Allies through Greek territory to the aid of Serbia. British and French troops to the number of 70,000 had meanwhile been landed at Saloniki, the great Greek seaport, and were being hurried to the support of the Serbians in their central territory, to oppose the incursion of the Austro-Germans and the Bulgarians. In November King Constantine and his military chiefs were visited by Field-Marshal Earl Kitchener, the British Secretary of War, who made such demands upon them in the interest of the Allies, backed by a temporary blockade of the Greek coasts by the British and French fleets, that on November 25 it was announced that cordial relations between Greece and the entente powers had been established. The Greek government gave a.s.surances that no attempt would be made to interfere with the Allies' troops should they under any contingency be forced to cross the Greek frontier, but that railway and other facilities would be afforded them. It was understood that the Allies also promised Greece a monetary indemnity after the war for any damage that might be done through the occupation of Greek territory.

With the question of Grecian intervention out of the way, the Allies then occupied themselves with the att.i.tude of Rumania and the intervention of Russia in behalf of Serbia, in order that the latter country might be saved from the fate of Belgium. It was generally understood that Rumania could not afford to incur the enmity of Germany by active interference in behalf of Serbia, even though the Serbians and Rumanians were natural allies against Bulgaria.

On November 26, M. Pachitch, the Serbian premier, received a personal telegram from the Russian emperor, in which the latter promised the early appearance in Bulgaria of Russian troops and the Italian government also promised the Serbians to send to their aid an expeditionary force of 40,000 men. It was believed possible that the Russian forces might seek to advance through Rumania, instead of forcing a landing on the Black Sea coast of Bulgaria--in which case the crossing of Rumanian territory by Russian troops would bring Rumania into a serious situation both economically and politically, and render it difficult if not impossible for her to preserve her neutrality. At this time Russia had concentrated a great army near the Rumanian frontier, and it was understood that a large number of heavy guns had arrived at Odessa for its use. The direction in which this Russian army would move depended entirely upon the policy adopted by the Rumanian government.

AMERICAN LOAN TO THE ALLIES.

On September 28, formal announcement was made in New York of the terms of an American loan to Great Britain and France, arranged by a commission of British and French financial authorities after conferences with American bankers; a bond issue of $500,000,000 was soon floated, drawing 5 per cent interest and issued to the syndicate at 96; the money to remain in the United States and to be used only in payment for commodities.

Late in November the French people were called upon to subscribe to a "loan of victory." The response from the people of Paris alone in one day amounted to $5,000,000,000, thus exceeding the records of all former popular war loans, including British and German issues, and typifying the patriotic ardor of the French people and their determination to continue the war to an issue successful to allied arms.

THE WESTERN CAMPAIGN.

After a week's heavy bombardment of the German lines, an important offensive movement was undertaken on September 25 by the French and British against the German lines on the western front. The forward movement occurred simultaneously in the Champagne district, between Rheims and Verdun, by the French and in the Artois district, between Ypres and Arras, by combined British and French forces. While the Allies did not succeed in gaining much ground, and both sides suffered heavy losses, it was claimed by the French war office on September 29 that as a result of the four days' a.s.saults of the Anglo-French forces the Germans suffered losses amounting to the effective strength of 120, men, while 23,000 men and 120 cannon were captured from the Teutonic enemy. This const.i.tuted the result of what was described as the great Anglo-French drive of the autumn, and the situation on the western front then settled down once more into a state of siege. The first-line trenches of the opposing forces along a wide-flung front were within a short distance of each other. A new method of warfare had been developed and the world began to realize that all historic conditions of war had been revolutionized by the use of scientific weapons of destruction like the machine gun, which mowed down men like hay, and the high explosive sh.e.l.l that destroyed protective works as if they were made of cardboard and filled the trenches with dead and dying bodies. Such was the situation on the western front in the beginning of December. No let-up in the determination of either side; no advance seemingly possible, no attack that was not followed by a counter-attack; no gain of any consequence anywhere; no possibility seemingly of any decisive battle; nothing in sight but an absolute deadlock.

ON THE EASTERN FRONT.

Late in September the German campaign against Russia appeared to lose most of its force. Continued attempts were made by Field Marshal von Hindenburg to fight his way to Riga, but without avail, and Russian successes at various points along the eastern battle front were numerous in October and November. The Russians declared on November 15 that they deemed the city of Riga safe, and by November 26 it was apparent that the Germans were engaged in a general retirement all along the River Dvina. The Allies then became interested in the Kaiser's probable choice of a line of defense for the winter on the northern section of his Russian front. The breakdown of the German offensive was attributed by the Allies to three things--the increase in the Russian ammunition supply, a German shortage of munitions, and the weakening of the German line for the Balkan campaign.

BULGARIA ENTERS THE WAR.

On October 1, 1915, it was evident that Bulgarian forces would shortly be employed on the side of the central powers. Bulgarian troops from Sofia were moving on to the Serbian frontier. King Ferdinand had ordered the mobilization of all men under sixty-five years of age and martial law was proclaimed, no citizen under forty-five being allowed to leave the country. On October 4 Russia sent an ultimatum to Bulgaria and the Russian minister was ordered to leave Sofia if by 4 p.m., October 5, Bulgaria did not definitely break with Germany, Austria and Turkey. All the allied powers supported Russia in this demand. Bulgaria did not reply within the time specified and the Russian minister was reported too ill to move from Sofia, thus indicating that the diplomats of the great contending powers were still at work in an effort to secure the important support of Bulgaria in the Balkan campaign which was imminent.

On October 6, when Bulgaria was said to have sent an ultimatum to Serbia demanding the territory ceded after the recent Balkan wars, the envoys of the Allies at Sofia requested their pa.s.sports, and Bulgaria became an active partic.i.p.ant in the war. The Bulgarian minister at Nish, the Serbian capital, received his pa.s.sports on October 8, and on the same day the Bulgarian minister at Paris was handed his pa.s.sports. On the following day, October 9, Belgrade, the former Serbian capital, was occupied by Austro-German forces and the invasion of Serbia by Austria and Germany from the north and by Bulgaria from the east began in earnest. The Serbian capital was removed the same day to Ishtib, in the south.

THE SERBIAN CAMPAIGN.

When the great army of Germans and Austrians entered Serbia at Belgrade and other points along the Danube and began to drive the Serbian forces to the south, they met with immediate and continued successes. Bulgarian troops meanwhile pressed the Serbians on the west and by the end of November it seemed as if the entire territory of Serbia was doomed to the fate of Belgium. But on the south, allied troops, including a great body of French who had been landed at Saloniki in Greece and made their way northward, disputed the advance of the invaders and at several points drove back the Bulgarians, thus holding the southern territory of Serbia for their ally in the same manner that Flanders was being held by the Allies for Belgium.

CHAPTER XXV

SECOND WINTER OF WAR

In all the arenas of the great struggle, the winter campaign of 1915-16, the second winter of the war, was accompanied by unparalleled hards.h.i.+ps and sufferings. It was, in fact, described by Major Moraht, military expert of the Berliner Tageblatt and the best known German military critic, as "the most terrific campaign in the world's history." Hundreds of thousands of men of all cla.s.ses, in all the armies stretched along the battle fronts east and west, struggled against wind, weather, and winter amid conditions of the most extreme self-denial. Speaking for the Teutonic forces in January, Major Moraht said: "On our western and eastern fronts and along the lines held by our Austro-Hungarian allies, the conditions under which we must stubbornly hold out are such as never in the history of the world's most terrible campaign had to be endured before." The winter was exceptionally severe and men were invalided by the thousands, owing to frost-bites, despite ingenious precautions and the fact that their spells in the trenches were reduced considerably.

The conditions faced by the Austrians and Italians in the Alps and on the Isonzo were especially appalling. Thus a detachment of Austrian and Alpine troops, engaged in patrol duty, met its doom in an avalanche in southern Tyrol. Only one out of twelve was rescued alive, and he lay buried under snow for fourteen hours before he was rescued.

Added to the sufferings of the fighting men during the winter the sum total of human misery in Europe when 1916 dawned was vastly increased by the awful conditions prevailing in Poland and in Serbia. Poland, a land long recognized as given over to sorrows, had been crossed and recrossed by hostile armies. It had been harried, almost destroyed. Towns and food supplies, fields and granaries, were obliterated. The cattle had been driven off by the invaders and the people were left starving. The misery of Belgium a year before was as nothing compared with the misery of Poland amid the rigors of winter, and the unhappy country clamored for the help of happier peoples. It had become a land of graves and trenches, of ruin and destruction on a scale that had been wrought nowhere else by the war. Many of the abandoned trenches were the temporary "homes" of countless refugees, mostly women and children, who had been driven from their homes in the burned and ruined villages that dotted the land. And there was little or no relief in sight for the stricken Poles, innocent victims of a ruthless war and pitiful playthings of Fate.

ON THE WESTERN FRONT

Artillery fighting with mortars and long-range cannon was a continuous performance during December and January in nearly every section of the western battle line. Every day tens of thousands of sh.e.l.ls, both high explosive and shrapnel, were hurled at the trenches and men were killed or wounded by the score at a time. To the war-hardened men behind the guns on both sides this business of slaying and running the risk of being slain or crippled became so prolonged and monotonous that they thought no more of it than of cutting down a forest or building a pontoon bridge.

Early in January the city of Nancy, just behind the French lines, was bombarded for three days by German 15-inch guns. Much damage was done and a number of the inhabitants were killed and wounded. As a consequence there was an exodus from the city, safe conducts being issued to more than 30,000 persons.

Estimates made in Vienna of the total booty of the Teutonic allies during the first seventeen months of the war, up to January 1, 1916, were as follows: Nearly 3,000,000 prisoners, 10,000 guns, and 40, machine guns, while 470,000 square kilometers of enemy territory had been occupied.

About the same time the German losses, as compiled from official lists, were estimated at 2,588,000, including over 500,000 killed and 350, taken by the Allies as prisoners of war.

CONSCRIPTION IN ENGLAND

After every effort had been exhausted in the British Isles to raise troops by voluntary enlistment, first under Lord Kitchener and then under Lord Derby, the British government was finally compelled to resort to conscription, although nearly 3,000,000 men had voluntarily responded to the call to the colors. A bill was presented in the House of Commons by Premier Asquith on January 5, 1916, providing for compulsory service by "all men between the ages of 18 and 41 who are bachelors or widowers without children dependent on them." Ireland was excluded from the terms of the measure, which finally pa.s.sed the Commons on January 20, the opposition having dwindled to a meager handful of votes. Four members of the Cabinet, however, resigned as a protest against conscription.

BRITISH BATTLEs.h.i.+PS SUNK

On January 9 the British battles.h.i.+p King Edward VII foundered at sea as the result of striking a mine. Owing to a heavy sea it had to be abandoned and sank shortly afterward. The entire crew of nearly 800 men were saved. The vessel was a predreadnaught of 16,350 tons and cost nearly $8,000,000. A week previously the British battles.h.i.+p Natal, a vessel of similar character, was sunk by an internal explosion.

The main battle fleets of both Britain and Germany remained "in statuo quo" up to March 1, 1916. British cruisers and patrol s.h.i.+ps maintained a constant watch upon the waters of the North Sea, and visitors permitted to see the battle fleet at its secret rendezvous reported efficiency and eternal vigilance as its watchwords. The German fleet lay in safety in the Kiel Ca.n.a.l, still awaiting orders to put to sea and enjoy "der Tag,"

after nineteen months of inactivity.

RUSSIA'S WINTER CAMPAIGN

After several months of comparative inactivity Russia launched a forward movement against the Austro-German forces late in December. This winter drive was not unexpected, as the Russian armies had had time to recover from their reverses of the summer and autumn of 1915 and had received much-needed supplies of guns and ammunition.

The fact that Russia was vigorously on the offensive again was soon demonstrated. The first week of 1916 was marked by a progressive development of a forward Russian movement extending along the Stye and Strypa rivers from the Pripet marshes to Bessarabia. The main attack seemed to be directed against Bukowina and Eastern Galicia, and for some time the pressure of the Russian attacks forced back the lines of the Austro-German right along the eastern front.

During January the Russians were also actively engaged against the Turks in the Caucasus, where the battle front was over 100 miles long, and against the Turks, aided by Germans in Persia, They began a general offensive in the Caucasus on January 11 and made steady gains over the Turks, while similar successes attended their efforts in Persia, where revolutionists had entered the field against the Russians and British.

THE BALKAN CAMPAIGN

The month of December saw the end of the Austro-German and Bulgarian drives through Serbia. By the end of the year the remnants of the Serbian army had been driven across the frontiers and some 50,000 of them found refuge in January on the Greek island of Corfu, which was seized by the Allies for that purpose. King Peter found an asylum in Italy; Belgrade and Nish were occupied by Austrians and Germans, and the Bulgarians halted at the Greek border. The small British and French forces in Serbia, greatly outnumbered, retired before the enemy's advance from north and east, but saved the Serbian army from total annihilation by protecting its retreat to the southern frontier. Then the British and French retreated across the Greek border to Saloniki, where they were largely reinforced and proceeded to fortify themselves against possible German or Bulgarian attacks. King Constantine of Greece, brother-in-law of the Kaiser, feebly protested against the proceedings of the Allies on Greek soil, saying that he wished his country to remain neutral--but his protest was offset by the facts that the great majority of the people of Greece were favorable to the Allies and that their landing at Saloniki was for the purpose of aiding Serbia, Greece's friend and ally, which Greece had notably failed to do.

Frequent threats of the bombardment of Saloniki by the Germans or by the Bulgars were made during January, but up to February 10 the threatened attack had failed to materialize and the Allies were strongly intrenched in a 30-mile arc around the town, while the guns of a powerful fleet of British and French wars.h.i.+ps commanded the approaches and protected transports and landings.

SINKING OF THE PERSIA

On December 30 the Peninsular & Oriental liner Persia was torpedoed by a submarine, probably Austrian, in the Mediterranean about 300 miles northwest of Alexandria, and sank in five minutes. One hundred and fifty-five out of the 400 pa.s.sengers and crew were landed at Alexandria on January 1, and eleven others were subsequently reported safe. Among those lost was Robert N. McNeely, who was on his way to take up his duties as American consul at Aden.

FROM BERLIN TO CONSTANTINOPLE