America's War for Humanity Part 60

By the middle of January German engineers had succeeded in repairing the railroad bridges and roadbed destroyed during the Serbian campaign and thus reopened direct communication between Berlin and Constantinople.

CANADIAN PARLIAMENT BUILDING BURNED

On the night of February 3 the beautiful Gothic structure which housed the Canadian Parliament at Ottawa--the architectural pride of the Dominion--was wrecked by a fire which started in a reading room adjacent to the chamber of the House of Commons. Six persons, two of them women friends of the Speaker's family, lost their lives. The House was in session when the fire broke out, and many members and other occupants of the building escaped narrowly and with great difficulty. The money loss from the fire was enormous, and priceless paintings, books and national doc.u.ments were destroyed.

Opinions differed as to the causes of the fire, but the occurrence about the same time of several highly suspicious fires in Canadian munition factories and the unexplained rapidity with which the Parliament Building fire spread with mysterious volumes of suffocating smoke, caused widespread suspicion that the disaster was of incendiary and enemy origin. A tidal wave of resentment flooded the Dominion and deep feeling was aroused against men of German birth or extraction remaining in Canada, some of them occupying public positions of responsibility. A Commission was appointed by the Government to investigate the causes of the fire, and, pending its report, official denials were made that German spies had anything to do with the burning of the Houses of Parliament. These denials, however, failed to convince the Canadian people that German sympathizers were entirely innocent of any partic.i.p.ation in the origin of the conflagration.

The ruined building was the central structure of the magnificent group of Government buildings at Ottawa, and one of the finest examples of Gothic architecture on the Continent. The Library of Parliament, occupying a separate structure in the rear of the building wrecked, was fortunately spared by the fire. It was announced by the Premier, Sir Robert Borden, that steps would be taken to replace the Parliament Building with a still finer structure, and the Houses of Parliament continued their sessions in temporary quarters. One immediate result of the fire and of the suspicions attached to its origin was to stimulate recruiting in the Dominion and stiffen the resolve of the Canadian people to do their utmost to aid the success of British arms at the European front. Canada became more than ever an armed camp of determined patriots. The general sentiment was expressed by the Toronto Globe, which said: "If German agents see a way to injure Canada, they will stop at nothing to compa.s.s their ends. Arson to them is a commonplace and murder an incident in the day's work. The destruction of the Parliament Building may have been the result of an accident, but the general belief at Ottawa is that it was the work of an incendiary."

RUSSIAN SUCCESSES IN ASIA MINOR

On February 15, following a five days' siege, Erzerum, the great Armenian fortress, where the main Turkish army of the Caucasus had taken refuge, fell into the hands of the Russians. The Turkish army numbered 160,000 men and was under the chief command of the German general, Field Marshal von der Goltz, formerly military governor of Belgium. The main body of the Turks managed to avoid capture at Erzerum, but the Russians took 15,000 prisoners there, besides hundreds of guns and immense quant.i.ties of munitions and supplies. Then began a determined and deadly pursuit of the Turkish army, with the object of driving it out of Armenia, and the efforts of the Russians met with continued successes.

Turkish opposition in Asia Minor was swiftly broken down, and steps were taken by the Russians to relieve the British force which had been beleagured by the Turks at Kut-el-Amara, in Mesopatamia, 150 miles from Erzerum.

On February 27-28 the Turks hastily evacuated the important Black Sea port of Trebizond and neighboring cities before the victorious Russian advance. On March 1 two Russian armies were moving rapidly on Trebizond, one along the sh.o.r.es of the Black Sea through Rizeh, and the other in a northwesterly direction from Erzerum. The capture of Erzerum was effected in bitter wintry weather. During the a.s.sault on the fortress several Turkish regiments were annihilated or taken prisoners with all their officers. Many Turks perished from the cold.

GREAT BATTLE BEFORE VERDUN

One of the greatest and most sanguinary battles of the war began before Verdun on February 20, when the army of the Crown Prince of Germany, in the presence of the Kaiser, started a determined and desperate drive against the great French fortress. Ever since the battle of the Marne halted the German advance on Paris early in September, 1914, the forces of the Crown Prince had been striving unsuccessfully to break through the French lines north and east of Verdun, but the fortress had well maintained its reputation for impregnability and continued to bar the high road to Paris.

For ten days the battle raged on the plains, in the forests and on the hills before Verdun, and the loss of life was appalling on both sides.

By February 26, after six days of continuous fighting, the Germans had penetrated the French lines along several miles of front, had occupied several villages a few miles north of Verdun, driven the French from the peninsula of the Meuse formed by a bend of the river about six miles from the city, and carried by storm the outlying fort of Douaumont, at the northeast corner of the Verdun fortifications. But their advance was then halted by the French in a series of the most brilliant counter-attacks, and the German offensive appeared to die down by March 1, when their losses in the ten days' battle were estimated at 175,000, including between 40,000 and 50,000 killed. The French losses were heavy, but the nature of the German attacks, in which huge ma.s.ses of men were hurled against the French entrenchments, exposed the Teuton forces "to the most withering and destructive fire from the French 75-centimeters and machine guns. The battle exceeded in violence and losses even the great battle of the Yser earlier in the war. Heavy reinforcements had been brought to the Verdun front by the Germans, and it was estimated that their forces engaged in the attack numbered at least 500,000 men, supported by numerous 15-inch and 17-inch Austrian mortars, with all the heavy German artillery used in the Serbian campaign and part of that formerly employed on the Russian front.

While the battle of Verdun was in progress, the Germans also made determined attacks in the Champagne region, graining some ground; but on March 1 the Allied lines were holding fast all along the western front.

Wounded soldiers returning from the front during the b.l.o.o.d.y struggle before Verdun told tragic tales of the fighting. "I watched the a.s.sault of the Germans upon the village of Milancourt, near the Meuse," said a wounded Frenchman. "They came in solid ranks, without a word, loading and reloading their rifles without cessation. Our seventy-fives fell among them, and then the mitrailleuses entered into action. It was no longer a battalion. It was a few scattered groups of men that one saw, torn by a rain of sh.e.l.ls and bullets, squeezing close against each other as though for mutual protection.

"On the border of Montfaucon I saw one of these groups disappear at one blow, as if they had been swallowed into a marsh. Our sh.e.l.ls! What frightful work they did. Never will I forget those fragments of human beings that fell just at my feet. Never can I forget that terrible picture.

"I followed the attack on Haumont and Samogneux. The field of battle was lighted as if in full day by star sh.e.l.ls. Black ma.s.ses of Germans advanced, protected by their artillery, while ours remained silent.

Finally our artillery began, and then the enemy ranks wavered, halted and disappeared.

"Our guns had waited until the Germans were in a little hollow all arranged for the ma.s.sacre. In a little while there lay the bodies of some 2,000 or 3,000 Germans. They occupied some villages, but their attack on Verdun has failed after terrible losses."

GERMAN SUBMARINE ACTIVITIES

The sinking of British and French s.h.i.+ps, and sometimes neutral vessels, by German and Austrian submarines continued during the month of February. On February 27 the Peninsular & Oriental Line steams.h.i.+p Maloja, of 12,431 tons, was sunk by a torpedo or mine only two miles off the Admiralty pier at Dover, with a loss of 155 lives, including many pa.s.sengers, men, women and children, en route to India. Dozens of craft went at once to the rescue, and one of them, the Empress of Fort William, a vessel of 2,181 tons, was also torpedoed or struck a mine and sank nearby. Of the Maloja's pa.s.sengers and crew, 260 were rescued.

On February 28 the great French liner La Provence was sunk in the Mediterranean with a loss estimated at 900 lives. It had a displacement of 19,200 tons, length 602 feet, beam 65 feet, and had been in the service of the French Government as a troop transport.

Under new orders to their submarine commanders, in spite of protests by the United States Government, Germany and Austria inaugurated on March 1 the policy of sinking without warning all Allied merchant vessels believed to carry any armament for defensive purposes, and the world waited with bated breath for fresh developments of the Teutonic campaign of frightfulness.

CHAPTER. XXVI

CLIMAX OF THE WAR.

_Prolonged Battle of Verdun the Most Terrible in History-- Enormous Losses on Both Sides--_Submarine Activity Imperils Relations of America and Germany_.

Beginning with the first infantry attack by the Germans on Monday, February 21, after twenty-four hours of continuous bombardment, the battles incident to the siege of Verdun were fought at brief intervals during the next two months, down to the middle of April, and marked the climax of the War. The losses on both sides were enormous and extraordinary, and taken as a whole the struggle on the semicircular front north and east of the great French stronghold fully justified its description as "the most terrible battle in the world's history."

When spring of 1916 arrived, the struggle seemed to be a pretty even draw, but the end was not in sight. Both sides showed the greatest confidence in the outcome. In France the confidence of the nation found expression in the voice of M. Alexandre Ribot, the veteran minister of finance, who, having Verdun before his eyes, told the Chamber of Deputies: "We have reached the decisive hour. We can say without exaggeration, without illusion, and without vain optimism, that we now see the end of this horrible war."

But while the French were certain that victory would ultimately be theirs, the German papers and people were just as fully persuaded that this finest of the fortresses of France would finally fall before the determined a.s.saults of the Kaiser's army, which no fort had, as yet, stopped.

Both sides recognized that this was the supreme moment of the War. The Germans had gained by April 15 from three to five miles along a front of about 15 miles, but had taken only two of the ring of minor forts around Verdun. The French claimed that the configuration of the ground occupied by the contending forces at that time made their line impregnable.

Although Verdun was said by the German military experts to be only an incident in the German offensive which was planned to secure the final "decision," they realized the importance of Verdun to their whole line on the Western front, and knew its value too well not to make the most desperate and exhaustive efforts for its conquest.

A TERRIFIC ARTILLERY DUEL.

For many weeks the battle for Verdun was signalized by the most terrific artillery fire in history. No words can tell of the ear-stunning roar of the guns, or depict the horror of the tons of steel daily cras.h.i.+ng and splintering amid ma.s.sed bodies of men, while the softly-falling snows of late winter covered, but could not conceal, the ensanguined landscape.

Modern warfare was seen at Verdun in all its panoply of terror. Amid fire and fury, the rich and fertile countryside was transformed into a vast scene of ruin and desolation, while heroism and self-sacrifice abounded on both sides, men were maddened by the frenzy of the fight and the ghastly horrors of night and day, and Death stalked gloatingly and glutted, but never surfeited, over the b.l.o.o.d.y field.

The German attacks followed one another so fast and so furiously that the weeks of fighting became one prolonged battle, and a description of one attack will almost serve for all. Thus, a wounded French officer said of the seven days of continuous fighting which opened the German offensive against Verdun: "The first symptom of the battle favorable to the French was the inability of the Germans to silence the French artillery. The attack opened with strong reconnoitering parties advancing, wherein was noted an unusually large proportion of officers.

For the first time the German officers were seen to be leading their men into battle, instead of driving them, as had been the rule--and this was said to be at the behest of the watching Kaiser. Then came the infantry in great numbers. During the next two days the fighting waxed fiercer and fiercer.

"At first fourteen German divisions were engaged, then sixteen, and finally seventeen divisions (340,000 men). The French command at this point carried out a maneuver which will be recorded as a masterpiece in military history.

"If the Germans had been only fifteen yards away, the French could have been submerged by the attack, providing the attacking forces were prepared to make any sacrifice, but the distance being 1,500 yards there was little chance for the Germans against the opposing artillery. The French troops were accordingly swung back to positions from which they could see the Germans approaching over exposed ground. The effect was that the immediate front of the attack, which was originally twenty-five miles in extent, was reduced to nine miles, but even this soon proved too wide. The German losses were so great that the attack could not be kept up at all points; and at the end of the seventh day the offensive dwindled to fragmentary attacks,--but only to be renewed with added vigor after a brief period of rest for the infantry on both sides, while the artillery kept up its daily and nightly duel without ceasing, until the entire terrain became an earthly inferno, thickly scattered over with the dead and the dying."

THE DEADLY MINE IN CAURES WOOD.

Frightful in result, too, was the tragic stratagem played on the Germans in Caures Wood, near the village of Beaumont. The whole wood had been mined by the French, and was connected electrically with a station in the village. When the Germans had advanced, fully a division strong, to attack the wood, the French regiment holding it ran, as if seized with panic, back toward the village. The Germans pursued them with shouts of victory. Soon the last Frenchman had emerged from the trees, but the French commander waited until the Germans were all in the mined area.

They were just beginning to debouch on the other side when he pressed the b.u.t.ton. There was a tremendous roar, drowning for a moment even the boom of the cannon. The wood was covered with a cloud of smoke, and even on the French trenches in Beaumont "there rained a ghastly dew." When the French re-entered the wood, unopposed, they found not a single German unwounded, and hardly a score alive.

GERMAN LOSSES AT VERDUN.

The German successes during the weeks of fighting in the vicinity of Verdun, consisting of a series of advances along the front, without any decisive result so far as the strength of the defense of the main fortress was concerned, were gained at the cost of enormous losses in killed and wounded. These losses were estimated on April 7 to have reached the huge total of 200,000--one of the greatest battle losses in the whole range of warfare. During the period from February 21, when the battle of Verdun began, to April 1, it was said that two German army corps had been withdrawn from the front, having lost in the first attacks at least one-third of their force. They subsequently reappeared and again suffered like losses, the German reinforcements being practically used up as fast as they were put in line.

Declarations gathered from prisoners and the observations of the French staff led the latter to estimate that at least one-third of the total number of men engaged were the minimum losses of the German infantry during the first forty days of the battle, or 150,000 men of the first fighting line alone.

Concerning the German losses before Verdun, Col. Feyler, a Swiss military expert, wrote on April 10 as follows: "It is certain that the first great attacks in February and March caused the German a.s.sailants very exceptional losses. The 18th army corps lost 17,000 men and the 3d corps lost 22,000. These are figures which in the history of wars will form a magnificent eulogy on the heroism of these troops. It will become a cla.s.sic example, like that of the Prussian Guard at St. Privat, France, August 18, 1870. It is probable that before Verdun, as at St.

Privat, the leaders underestimated the defenders' strength, especially in cannon and machine guns.

"There are other examples. In the unfruitful attack on Fort Vaux, the 7th reserve regiment was literally mowed down by machine guns, while the 60th regiment lost 60 per cent of its effectives. In the attack on the Malancourt and Avocourt woods, March 20, three regiments of the 11th Bavarian division, whose record in this war seems to have been particularly praiseworthy, lost about 50 per cent of their men."

LOSSES OF THE FRENCH.

While the greater bulk of the total losses in killed and wounded before Verdun was sustained by the Germans, however, it must not be imagined for an instant that the French defenders of the fortress escaped lightly. On the contrary, their losses were likewise enormous, being estimated by the German general staff at a total of not less than 110,000 from February 20 to April 1. A considerable number of French troops, officers and men, were also captured by the Germans during the numerous attacks in February, March and April upon the French trenches and other positions before Verdun.

A MILLION MEN ENGAGED.

Some idea of the tremendous forces engaged on both sides in what will probably be called in history "the Siege of Verdun," may be gained from the brief summary made on April 1 by an observer present with the army of the Crown Prince of Germany on the north front of the Verdun battlefield, from which point of vantage he telegraphed as follows:

"Probably not far from a million men are battling on both sides around Verdun. Never in the history of the world have such enormous ma.s.ses of military been engaged in battle at one point.