America's War for Humanity Part 78

The Americans had 390,000,000 rations of beans alone, 183,000, rations of flour and flour subst.i.tutes, 267,000,000 rations of milk; 161,000,000 rations of b.u.t.ter or subst.i.tutes; 143,000,000 rations of sugar; 89,000,000 rations of meat; 57,000,000 rations of coffee and 113,000,000 rations of rice, hominy and other foods, with requisites such as flavorings, fruits, candy and potatoes in proportion, while for smokers, there were 761,000,000 rations of cigarettes and tobacco in other forms.

It is difficult to describe in exact figures what the American expeditionary forces have done in the construction and improvement of dockage and warehouses since the first troops landed. This work has been proportionate to the whole effort in other directions. Ten steamer berths have been built at Bordeaux, having a total length of 4,100 feet.

At Montoir, near St. Nazaire, eight berths were under construction with a total length of over 3,200 feet.

Great labor had been expended in dredging operations, repairing French docks and increasing railway terminal facilities. Warehouses having an aggregate floor area of almost 23,000,000 square feet had been constructed. This development of French ports increased facilities to such an extent that even if the Germans had captured Calais and other channel ports, as they had planned, the allies' loss would have been strategically unimportant.

So largely were facilities increased that the English armies could have had their bases at the lower French ports, if necessary. In other words, American work in port construction lessened to a material degree the value to the Germans of their proposed capture of the channel ports.

These figures serve in a measure to show the magnitude of American accomplishments, and the great machine is in operation today as the American Third army moves forward into German territory.

During the second stage of the Argonne operation a captured German major, while in casual conversation with an American officer said: "We know defeat is inevitable. We know your First and Second armies are operating and that your Third army is nearly ready to function. We know there are more and more armies to follow. We can measure your effort.

The end must come soon."

AMERICAN FORCES AND CASUALTIES

At the opening of November, 1918, the United States armies on all fronts numbered about 2,200,000 men, and was being increased at an average rate of 250,000 a month. In transit from home ports to ports in Europe and Siberia, only one transport s.h.i.+p was lost, and of its complement of troops 126 men were drowned. The sinking was caused by collision with another s.h.i.+p in the same convoy, not by an enemy submarine. The United States has not lost one man in transport, by an act of a hostile s.h.i.+p or submarine.

Army and marine casualties reported by the commanders of overseas forces to the government at Was.h.i.+ngton up to November 27th, 1918 (after the seventeenth month of our partic.i.p.ation in the war), were as follows:

Killed in action, 28,363; died of wounds, 12,101; died of disease, 16,034; died of other causes, 1,980; wounded, 189,995 (of this number 92,036 only slightly wounded); missing in action and prisoners, 14,250; making a total numbering 262,723.

War Department reports show that over-seas Air Service Casualties to October 24th, 1918, were 128 battle fatalities and 224 killed in accidents.

TOTAL OF CIVIL WAR CASUALTIES COMPARED ARE AS FOLLOWS

Federal troops killed in action, 67,058; died of wounds, 43,012; died of disease, 224,586; making total Federal fatalities 334,656.

Confederates killed and died of wounds, 95,000; died of disease, 164,000; making the total Confederate fatalities 259,000.

According to the War Department records, total dead of the Civil War is 618,524.

BRITISH, FRENCH AND ITALIAN LOSSES

British losses are estimated at 1,000,000 killed and 2,049,991 wounded, missing and prisoners.

The French losses are over 1,500,000 in killed and over 3,000,000 in wounded and prisoners.

The Italian losses, including casualties and prisoners, are estimated at a total of 2,000,000, including 500,000 dead.

7,589 CASUALTIES IN ROYAL AIR FORCES

Casualties in the royal air forces from April, 1918, when the air forces were amalgamated, to Nov. 11, were: Killed, 2,680; wounded, missing and prisoners, 4,909, according to an official statement by the air ministry.

CANADA'S CASUALTIES

Canada's casualty list up to November 1, 1918 (eleven days before the armistice), totaled 211,358, cla.s.sified as follows: Killed in action, 34,877; died of wounds or disease, 15,457; wounded, 152,779; presumed dead, missing in action and known prisoners of war, 8,245. Canada's total land forces numbered nearly a half million men; that is, over eighty per cent of the men of the Dominion of military age, who were physically fit. They const.i.tuted over forty per cent of the male population. It is a strange coincidence of figures that the losses above enumerated const.i.tute just about the same per cent (forty) of the armed forces, that those forces bore to the young nation's total manhood.

Canada's efforts and sacrifices in the war have not been fully understood. When they are, they will evoke the admiration of the world, and of history.

GERMAN LOSSES

Exact figures covering, German losses since August 1st, 1914, when the war began with the German invasion of Belgium, cannot be had. The records are kept at Berlin and their figures have been withheld from even the people of Germany.

The only estimates available are those made by commanders opposing the German forces, and these were confessedly cautious, the allied policy being to minimize estimates of enemy reverses, so that no false encouragement might reach the public in any of the allied countries. On this basis, the estimates approximate a German loss of over 1,580, killed and 4,490,000 disabled, prisoners, and missing, a total of 6,070,000.

The Austrian losses in killed are estimated at 800,000 and 3,200, prisoners, wounded and missing.

TOTAL LOSSES

The world's actual loss of men in the war is estimated at not less than 10,000,000, counting those killed in action, died of wounds, or dead from other causes in prison camps or in the field.

These estimates do not include 800,000 Armenian Christians ma.s.sacred by the Turks at the order of the German general staff, nor the Belgian and French civilians starved to death, infected with typhus and tuberculosis by hypodermic injection, or murdered outright by German soldiery under orders, nor the German wholesale slaughter of Serbians, of Greeks in Asia Minor, nor similar victims in Poland, Lithuania and southwest Russia, outnumbering no doubt the total loss of fighting men in all the armies. It is not likely these murders of noncombatants can ever be counted up.

GERMANY'S NAVAL SURRENDER

Surrender of the German navy and delivery of its s.h.i.+ps to the Grand Fleet (consisting of the British and United States navies), began November 21, 1918, just ten days after the armistice was signed Ninety German s.h.i.+ps of all grades const.i.tuted the first delivery. Admiral Sims, of the American Navy, King George and the Prince of Wales, were aboard the Queen Elizabeth, the flags.h.i.+p of Admiral Beatty, commanding the Grand Fleet. Five hundred British and American war vessels were in the receiving lines, and convoyed the surrendered German s.h.i.+ps to the Firth of Forth, just below Edinburgh, Scotland, where they will lie until their disposal is determined. Among the German vessels surrendered that day were sixty submarines.

Other deliveries of German war vessels were continued. On November 29th it was discovered that of the 360 submarines of all types built by the Germans, the Grand Fleet had destroyed or captured 200. Of the remaining 160 nearly all had been surrendered by that date. This being the exact number called to surrender by the terms of the armistice, it would appear the allied conference was fully informed to that effect, and thereby was enabled to strip Germany of the last of these vessels, whose record of murder and piracy at sea is without any precedent whatever in history.

FORMER KAISERIN WEEPS

The meeting of former Emperor William and the former empress at Amerongen is described by a Dutch correspondent as follows:

"The gates were thrown open, the drawbridge was lowered with a noise of chains and iron bars that sounded very medieval, and in the courtyard before the castle an elderly man in a gray military cloak was seen at a distance, walking slowly and leaning on his stick. It was the ex-kaiser.

The ex-kaiserin's car was driven into the courtyard, the ex-kaiser threw down his stick and, before the valet was able, opened the door and handed out his wife.

"They shook hands and then threw themselves into each other's arms, the ex-kaiserin falling upon her husband's shoulder and crying like a child."

FORMER KAISER'S ACT OF RENUNCIATION

The text of the former German emperor's act of renunciation, which was issued by the New German government, "in order to reply to certain misunderstandings which have arisen with regard to the abdication,"

follows:

_By the present doc.u.ment I renounce forever my rights to the crown of Prussia and the rights to the German imperial crown. I release, at the same time, all the officials of the German empire and Prussia, and also all officers, non-commissioned officers and soldiers of the Prussian navy and army and of contingents from confederate states from the oath of fidelity they have taken to me._

_As their emperor, king and supreme chief, I expect from them, until a new organization of the German empire exists, that they will aid those who effectively hold the power in Germany to protect the German people against the menacing dangers of anarchy, famine and foreign domination._

_Made and executed and signed by our own hand with the imperial seal at Amerongen Nov. 28._

_WILLIAM_.

PERs.h.i.+NG PAYS TRIBUTE TO HIS MEN

In closing his preliminary report to the Secretary of War, made public on December 4, 1918, General Pers.h.i.+ng expresses his feeling for the men who served with him, as follows:

"I pay the supreme tribute to our officers and soldiers of the line.

When I think of their heroism, their patience under hards.h.i.+ps, their unflinching spirit of offensive action, I am filled with emotion which I am unable to express. Their deeds are immortal, and they have earned the eternal grat.i.tude of our country."