Kelly Miller's History of the World War for Human Rights Part 60

The work of the British airmen during the battle was one of the brightest pages. Bitter battles in the air were fought by scores of aviators and the service proved fully its ability to smother the German airmen at a crucial time.

Within a few days it was stated that at least 130 German airplanes were brought down. This compilation of losses has reference to only one section of the battle front, comprising perhaps two-thirds of the line affected.

An official statement regarding British aerial operations said their airplanes were employed in bombing the enemy's troops and transport ma.s.sed in the areas behind the battlefront, and in attacking them with machine-gun fire from low heights. Twenty-two tons of bombs were dropped in this work, and more than 100,000 rounds were fired from the machine guns.

By March 28 the German losses were estimated at 400,000. The forces of the Germans were almost overwhelming, the Kaiser sacrificing the manpower of his nation in a last desperate attack.

In consequence no greater stories of heroism have ever been told than are related of the English, French and American troops. The Germans were set for a drive against the English and French channel points with Amiens as an objective, with the idea of breaking through the British lines where they join the French.

AMERICAN FORCES OFFERED TO FRANCE.

The earnestness of the Americans in the situation was proclaimed to the world by the English and French, and General Pers.h.i.+ng placed his name and that of his country and men high on the wall of fame by unselfishly offering to France at the most critical period the use of his entire force, to be disposed of and a.s.signed wherever General Foch and his staff decided to use them. Within a few days thereafter the American troops which had been in training were marched in to relieve the stressed English and French.

Everywhere the raging battle was marked by spectacular features not the least of which were provided by a corps of thirty tanks, which waded into the German hordes near Ephey and other points, recovering positions which had been lost by the British.

Canadian armored motorcars also played an important part in checking the Huns, the cars armed with rapid-fire guns being rushed up to support weakening troops.

The progress of the Germans was halted on April 3, and in the following days the British regained several lost positions and the French made gains. But after a pause, during which several hundred thousand new troops were brought in, the Huns renewed the offensive, delivering an attack against the French near Montdidier on a front about 15 miles long. An attack along a front of similar length was made against the British on the Somme.

The first battalion of American troops answering to the call of the French for support reached the British front-line in France, on April 10, on the very anniversary of the entrance of the United States into the war, and within a few days the Americans began to bear the brunt of battle, holding the Germans like veterans.

The first big attack of the Germans launched directly against an American line occurred on April 30, in the vicinity of Villers-Bretonneaux, below the Somme, where the Huns were repulsed with heavy losses. The German preliminary bombardment lasted two hours and then the infantry rushed forward, only to be driven back, leaving large numbers of dead on the ground in front of the American lines.

AMERICANS BOMBARDED.

The German bombardment opened at 5 o'clock in the afternoon and was directed especially against the Americans, who were supported on the north and south by the French. The fire was intense and at the end of two hours the German commander sent forward three battalions of infantry. There was hand-to-hand fighting all along the line, as a result of which the enemy was thrust back, his dead and wounded lying on the ground in all directions. Five prisoners remained in American hands.

"Tell them back home that we are just beginning," said an American lad who was in the thick of the fight and severely wounded with shrapnel.

"It was fine to see our men go at the Huns. All of us, who thought baseball was the great American game, have changed our minds. There is only one game to keep the American flag flying--that is, kill the Huns.

I got several before they got me."

Details of the engagement show the Americans stuck to their guns while the Germans were placing liquid fire, gas and almost every other conceivable device of frightfulness on them. One of them, who lay wounded in an American hospital, had kept his machine gun going after the chief gunners had been killed two feet away and he himself had been wounded, thus protecting a turn in the road known as Dead Man's curve, over which some of the American couriers pa.s.sed in the face of a concentrated enemy fire.

As indicating the violence of the offensive, French ambulance men who went through the famous battle of Verdun declared today that, comparatively speaking, the German artillery fire against the Americans was heavier than in any single engagement on the Verdun front at any time.

The German barrage began just before sunrise. In an attempt to put the American batteries out of action the Germans used an unusually large number of gas sh.e.l.ls, but the American artillery replied vigorously, hurling hundreds of sh.e.l.ls across the Teuton lines. Though successful in resisting the German attack, the Americans lost 183 men captured by the Huns, according to the British report.

Nothing in the history of naval warfare is more picturesque than the story of the raid made by English s.h.i.+ps on the German submarine bases at Ostend and Zeebrugge, on the Belgian coast, on April 22. Obsolete cruisers filled with concrete were run aground and blown up in the harbors. An old submarine filled with explosives was used to blow up the piling beside the Mole at Zeebrugge.

One German destroyer was torpedoed, and the British lost a destroyer, two coastal motorboats and two launches.

A fortnight later the old cruiser Vindictive was taken into the submarine base at Ostend and sent to the bottom, blocking the channel, making the attack thoroughly effective.

CHAPTER XXIX.

AMERICANS TURN WAR'S TIDE

BRILLIANT AMERICAN FIGHTING STOPS HUN ADVANCE--FRENCH AND BRITISH INSPIRED--FAMOUS MARINES LEAD IN PICTURESQUE ATTACK--HALT GERMANS AT CHATEAU-THIERRY--USED OPEN STYLE FIGHTING--THOUSANDS OF GERMANS SLAIN--UNITED STATES TROOPS IN SIBERIA--NEW CONSCRIPTION BILL Pa.s.sED--ALLIED SUCCESSES ON ALL FRONTS.

All history contains no greater story of bravery and heroism than that which echoed around the world concerning the exploits of the American soldiery in France as the war entered its fifth year.

Casting aside all precedent, ignoring the practices which had been developed by the English, French and German commands during four years of stubborn fighting, a little force of Americans--barely a handful, led by the picturesque Marines--brought the Huns to a standstill in their drive upon Paris and turned the tide of war.

Once again history repeated itself, for the Germans were turned back at the beautiful river Marne, where the brave Americans and heroic French smashed their lines. The spectacular event in which the Americans partic.i.p.ated was a mere incident of the great conflict raging across France, but the story must ever be one of the outstanding features of the war because of the effect it produced upon the whole situation.

In the struggle against the Huns the Belgian army had been reduced to its lowest ebb; the manpower of France and England had been sapped by constant call for reserves, and the Allied forces, while resisting and fighting heroically, were without reserves to draw upon to effect a decisive blow when the opportunity presented.

The German hordes had swept forward with hammer-like blows toward Paris in what was a continuation of the giant offensive started in March. The second movement was launched under the personal command of the German Crown Prince on May 27, and was directed against four divisions of the British troops and the Sixth French Army. Concentration was on a front stretching from Soissons to Rheims, a distance of about 30 miles.

The Huns were driving on the entire front, but the Crown Prince with crack troops was to have the honor for which he had long been striving--that of crossing the famous Marne and taking Paris. His troops had reached the river between Dormans and Chateau-Thierry at the very spot where the Third German Army had swept across the stream on August 25, 1914. Paris was less than 50 miles away.

Here and there at other points the Germans had been held by the French and English, but as part of the strategy of the French command the enemy had been permitted to advance at this point through lines which would cost him a terrible toll of lives. The French meantime were concentrating on the enemy's flank with the hope of breaking through and pocketing part of the Crown Prince's advancing forces.

Whatever the intent, the Germans were resisting the efforts to stop them. The question was, where would the advance end? The answer was furnished by America.

The enemy had attempted to broaden his Marne salient and had stretched as far south as Chateau-Thierry. It is supposed his purpose was to compel General Foch to meet shock with shock by throwing in his reserve forces, since the German advance had then almost reached sh.e.l.ling distance of Paris.

But the German command had not taken the Americans into their calculations, for here the Prussians met Uncle Sam's fighting men and their French supports and were smashed and thrown back.

Fighting in their own way, in the open, against superior forces, the Marines and troops of the National American Army fought their way to victory, routing the enemy and wresting from them positions absolutely necessary to their further advance.

Immense forces of Germans had been thrown into the fray when the American division, to which the Marines were attached, was ordered into the breach. The bulk of the forces, called to help halt the Huns, were hours away from the fighting front and were being brought up for the purpose of holding a secondary position where they would take up the fighting when the French fell back.

They had captured Cantigny after elaborate preparations under the direction of the French, but here there were no preparations. The American commanders wanted to attack the advancing enemy. The Allied leaders doubted the ability of the Americans to stop the Boche in open combat.

The American commanders pleaded to make war in their own way. Doubting, yet hopeful, the Allied commanders gave consent. The Americans were moved into position. There was no time for rest and they came forward under forced draft, so to speak. Infantry, machine gun companies and artillery swung into position and faced the enemy which aimed a blow at the line where it was supported by the French on the left.

The Boche hordes swarmed across fields. The American gunners raked them with h.e.l.l's fire. The reputation of the Americans as sharpshooters and marksmen was sustained. Under the most stressful circ.u.mstances and while the French observers stood amazed, the Americans took careful aim and shot as though at rifle practice. Every possible shot was made to tell.

The Germans wavered, then halted under the withering fire of machine guns and rifle. On again they came, only to again be repulsed. The ground was strewn with their dead and wounded. Then they began to break and to crawl back to safer positions.

The enemy had been stopped but not driven. They had fallen back to strong positions, the names of which must go down in history as scenes of terrific fighting--Bouresches and Bois de Belleau--the latter a wooded, rocky parcel of land on which German machine guns were hidden--hundreds of them--while more than a thousand of the enemy's best men were concealed in the thicket and underbrush and in the rocky fissures.

The Americans drove into the wood and charged the stronghold. Sacrifice!

Yes, hundreds of brave young Americans died fighting, but not in vain.

American artillery swept the woods; little companies of men charged the enemy machine-gun nests, silencing the guns and killing the operators or taking them prisoners. There was no going forward in ma.s.s formation under barrage or protecting curtain of fire, but out in the open the Marines and infantrymen rushed on facing terrific fire.

Bois de Belleau was cleared of the Boche. Bouresches fell to the Americans. The capture of the town was a repet.i.tion of the taking of the first position. Machine guns protected the town everywhere. In cellar windows, doorways and on roofs the Germans had set up their weapons. But it was the old story--no hail of shot could stop the Americans. Almost without sleep, unable to bring up supplies, the Americans had fought four days with only canned foodstuffs to sustain them.

Stories of the fights are reminiscent of those in which American troops engaged the Indians on the plains in the frontier days. Indeed American Indians--children of the famous old Sioux and Chippewa tribes of Red Men--acted as scouts for Uncle Sam in many of his troops' activities in France, and the methods of the old Indian fighters proved too much for the Germans.

It is estimated that 7000 were killed or wounded by the Americans in this action, and that their prisoners numbered more than 1000. How privates took command of squads and continued to outbattle the enemy when officers were killed; how lone Americans or small groups of them captured squads of Huns or annihilated them, are common stories of heroism written into the official war records of the American Expeditionary Forces in France, and sealed by medals of honor presented to young Americans or confirmed by official words of commendation.