Title : Raemaekers' Cartoon History of the War, Volume 2
Illustrator : Louis Raemaekers
Editor : James Murray Allison
Release date : October 25, 2011 [eBook #37846]
Language : English
Credits
: Produced by Chris Curnow, Martin Mayer and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was produced from images generously made available
by The Internet Archive)
RAEMAEKERS'
CARTOON
HISTORY OF THE WAR
compiled by
J. MURRAY ALLISON
Editor of
Raemaekers' Cartoons, Kultur
in Cartoons, The
Century Edition de Luxe Raemaekers' Cartoons, etc.
VOLUME TWO
THE SECOND TWELVE MONTHS OF WAR
NEW YORK
THE CENTURY CO.
1919
Copyright, 1919, by
The Century Co.
The second year of the war opened in the West with the enemy, although superior in man power and munitionment, pinned down to a defensive line from Belfort to the sea. The new armies of the British Empire were still being raised and trained, and neither England nor France had reached their zenith in the production of guns and munitions. The western front was to remain for a time comparatively inactive.
In the East the great Teutonic drive through Poland was still in progress, although the Russian armies had everywhere escaped envelopment, and their retreat was nearly at an end. Warsaw was occupied by the Germans early in August. It was a moment chosen by Germany to make an offer of separate peace to Russia. The enemy sought to gain by bribery what his armies had failed to accomplish in the field. The offer was rejected by Russia.
By October Germany's greatest military effort so far had failed and the Russian armies stood intact from the Bukovina to Riga.
The next great development in the history of the war was the entry of Bulgaria in October on the side of the Central Powers. Whilst great German and Austro-Hungarian forces crossed the Danube in the north the Bulgarians attacked Serbia on the flank. In a few weeks Serbia and Montenegro suffered the fate of Belgium and Luxemburg, the British and French troops not having arrived in time to render material aid to the Serbians. Greece, failing to live up to her treaty with Serbia, contributed to the defeat of that country and was for many months to form a menace to the allied troops who were making the port of Salonika their base in the Balkans.
In the meantime the western allies had taken the offensive in September, the French attacking in Champagne and the British in [Pg vii] Flanders. The attack was not driven home and no further offensive upon a large scale was to take place until July in the following year.
January saw Gallipoli evacuated by the Allies, releasing Turkish troops for service in Mesopotamia which was doubtless to have its effect in the fall of Kut and the capture of the garrison later on.
Late in February the great German offensive began at Verdun, an offensive which was to prove the most costly defeat of the German arms during the war. The Battle of Verdun continued for months and may be said to have been definitely lost by the Germans by the 1st of July.
Meanwhile the Russian armies in the Caucasus and Armenia had beaten the Turks in many engagements, taking amongst other towns the fortress of Erzerum with great numbers of prisoners and military stores. The other Russian armies in the north, reorganized and thoroughly equipped with munitionment, began in June their magnificent advance all along their line from Riga to the Carpathians.
The last month of the second year of the war witnessed the beginning of the "big push" in the west, the Russian advance in the east, the retreat of the Austrians in the Trentino, and the beginning of the Italians' successful thrust upon the Isonzo.
It is with these major military operations of the year with which Raemaekers' cartoons on the following pages deal.
He did not neglect to record, however, many of the minor happenings. The various and devious peace moves of the enemy did not escape his comment nor did the cold blooded murders of Nurse Cavell and Captain Fryatt. He has recorded also many examples of German Zeppelin Ruthlessness and German Piracy on the sea. Notable amongst the latter is the Sussex crime and its subsequent diplomatic developments, which were to play such an important part in America's entry into the war.
J. M. A.
Bernhardi: "Have we not surpassed your most sanguine expectations? "
Total losses amongst all belligerents during first year of war:
| Killed | Wounded | Missing and Prisoners | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3,026,713 | 5,768,994 | 2,673,188 | 11,528,895 |
Nineteenth Century and After.
" With him who broke his word, devastated my country, burned my villages, destroyed my towns, desecrated my churches, and murdered my people, I will not make peace before he is expelled from my country and punished for his crimes."
Today, on the sad anniversary of the terrible conflict, our heart gives forth the wish that the war will soon end. We raise again our voice to utter a fatherly cry for peace. May this cry, dominating the frightful noise of arms, reach the warring peoples and their chiefs and induce kindly and more serene intentions.
From the Papal Peace Appeal,
August 1, 1916.
The Kaiser: "And remember, if they do not accept it, I deny it altogether"
That the Dardanelles and Galicia had been offered by Berlin to Petrograd; that Egypt was asked for Turkey, and that the mediation of the Pope was desired on the basis of the restitution of Belgium, were some of the reports which gained currency between Aug. 5, the date of the fall of Warsaw, and Aug. 12, when the Novoe Vremya of Petrograd confirmed the rumors of German overtures for a separate peace with Russia.
Almost simultaneously from Petrograd and from Milan announcements that, after the capture of Warsaw, Germany was seriously engaged in preliminary negotiations for the establishment of a peace were published.
Besides Galicia and the Dardanelles, the Novoe Vremya said, Germany would guarantee the integrity of the Russian frontiers, at the same time stipulating for Egypt on the pretext of ceding that country to Turkey, and for a free hand to deal with Russia's allies. The report declared that these offers were rejected by the Czar's Government.
"Current History",
New York.
On August 5, 1915, Miss Cavell, an English woman, directress of a large nursing home at Brussels, was quietly arrested by the German authorities and confined in the prison of St. Gilles on the charge that she had aided stragglers from the Allied Armies to escape across the frontier from Belgium to Holland, furnishing them with money, clothing and information concerning the route to be followed.
We reminded him (Baron Von der Lancken) of the burning of Louvain and the sinking of the Lusitania , and told him that this murder would stir all civilized countries with horror and disgust. Count Harrach broke in at this with the rather irrelevant remark that he would rather see Miss Cavell shot than have harm come to one of the humblest German soldiers, and his only regret was that they had not "three or four English old women to shoot."
The day brought forth another loathsome fact in connection with the case. It seems the sentence of Miss Cavell was not pronounced in open court. Her executioners, apparently in hope of concealing their intentions from us, went into her cell and there behind locked doors pronounced sentence upon her. It is all a piece with the other things they have done.
Hugh Gibson
,
First Secretary of the American
Legation at Brussels.
William: "Now you can bring me the American protest"
Even when I was ready to abandon all hope, Leval was unable to believe that the German authorities would persist in their decision, and appealed most touchingly and feelingly to the sense of pity for which we looked in vain.
Hugh Gibson
,
First Secretary American
Legation at Brussels
.
To condemn any human being, even if he were the vilest criminal, at 5 o'clock in the afternoon and execute him at 2 A. M. was an act of barbarism for which no possible condemnation is adequate.
Under these circumstances, it would be incredible, if the facts were not beyond dispute, that the request of the United States for a little delay was not only brutally refused, but that our Legation was deliberately misled and deceived until the death sentence had been inflicted .
James M. Beck
In "New York Times"
.
" Unmasked "
The publication of the French Government Yellow Book in August dealing with the diplomatic events which led up to the war proved that whilst Germany was assuring the nations of her peaceful intentions she was secretly preparing for war.
His Majesty: "Well, Tirpitz, you've sunk a great many?"
Tirpitz: "Yes, sire, here is another U coming down."
On August 26, 1915, Squadron-Commander A. W. Bigsworth destroyed single-handed, a German submarine by bombs from his aeroplane off Ostend on the coast of Belgium.
The British Admiralty said in reference to this episode:
"It is not the practice of the Admiralty to publish statements regarding the losses of German submarines, important though they have been, in cases where the enemy have no other sources of information as to the time and place at which these losses have occurred. In the case referred to above, however, the brilliant feat of Squadron-Commander Bigsworth was performed in the immediate neighbourhood of the coast in occupation of the enemy, and the position of the sunken submarine has been located by a German destroyer."
When, on Sept. 21, after the Bulgarian mobilization had begun, M. Venizelos, who was then Prime Minister of Greece, asked France and ourselves for 150,000 men, it was on the express understanding that Greece would mobilize also. Greece did, in fact, mobilize under his direction on Sept. 24, but it was not until Oct. 2 that M. Venizelos found himself able to agree to the landing of British and French troops under the formal protest, a merely formal protest, which he had already made to the French Government. On Oct. 4—I wish these dates to be borne in mind—M. Venizelos announced what had happened to the Greek Chamber, and at the same time declared that Greece must abide by her treaty with Serbia. The next day the King repudiated the declaration and then M. Venizelos resigned. The new Government which succeeded declined to recognize that a casus foederis had arisen between Greece and Serbia, in spite of our constant insistence that Greece should make common cause with Serbia, and the new Greek Government, while declaring their desire to remain on friendly terms with the Allies, declined to depart from their attitude of neutrality.
H. H. Asquith
,
House of Commons,
November 2, 1915
.
Dumba's Master
By reason of the admitted purpose and intent of Mr. Dumba to conspire to cripple legitimate industries of the people of the United States and to interrupt their legitimate trade and by reason of the flagrant violation of diplomatic propriety in employing an American citizen protected by an American passport as a secret bearer of official dispatches through the lines of the enemy of Austria-Hungary, the President directs me to inform your Excellency that Mr. Dumba is no longer acceptable to the Government of the United States as the Ambassador of his Imperial Majesty at Washington.
Official American Note Requesting the Recall of
Mr. Dumba,
the Austro-Hungarian Ambassador.
September, 1916.
The Crown Prince, 1914: "Now the war begins as we
like it."
The Crown Prince, 1915: "But this is not as I wished it to continue."
Towards the end of September, 1916, the British and French Armies began an attack upon the German forces at Loos and in the Champagne. During five days' fighting, over 25,000 prisoners and 125 guns were captured by the Allies.
A daily smuggling scene on the Dutch frontier
Neutral countries whose frontiers march with those of Germany have rendered enormous aid to the Central Powers by the supply of materials and food. The general practice of evasion has been to smuggle home produce of all sorts for which high prices were forthcoming and use for local consumption similar products imported from other countries over seas. The imports of many lines of merchandise into Holland alone are known to have increased from fifty to one hundred per cent. compared with pre-war figures.
Michael: "For my 100 Marks I obtained a receipt. I gave this for second 100 Marks and I received a second receipt. For the third loan I gave the second receipt. Have I invested 300 Marks and has the Government got 300, or have both of us got nothing? "
If we desire the possibility of shaping a peace in accordance with our needs and our vital requirements, we must not forget the question of cost. We must see to it that the whole future livelihood of our people shall, so far as is in any way possible, be relieved of the burden. The leaden weight of thousands of millions is due to the people who got up this war. They, not we, shall drag it along with them. Of course, we know that this is a matter of peculiar difficulty, but everything that can be done in this direction shall be done.
We are paying the money almost exclusively to ourselves, whilst the enemy is paying its loans abroad, a guarantee that in the future we shall maintain the advantage.
Dr. Helfferich,
Reichstag, September, 1915.
(In Germany there is a game by which children passing a coin from one to another are supposed to, but do not, get richer.)
German statesmen and editors make a boast of the fact that so far they have not raised any war funds by taxation. That is true, but they are pursuing the far less commendable course of raising the money by loans and by "hanky-panky" manipulations of currency paper. Dr. Helfferich, the Imperial Minister of Finance, recently admitted that he dared not impose further taxation, and it is a fair inference that he knew any such proposals would be futile—that the burdens of the German taxpayers are already as heavy as they can bear.
The Nineteenth Century and After.
"Don't breathe on the bubble or the whole will collapse"
The German war loans have been subscribed mainly by the great companies of Germany; by the Savings Banks, the Banks, the Life and Fire Insurance and Accident Insurance Companies, etc.
Furthermore, these loans have been pyramided; that is to say, a man who subscribed and paid for one hundred thousand marks of loan number one could, when loan number two was called for, take the bonds he had bought of loan number one to his bank and on his agreement to spend the proceeds in subscribing to loan number two, borrow from the bank eighty thousand marks on the security of his first loan bonds, and so on.
James W. Gerard
in
"My Four Years in Germany."
The Allan Liner Hesperian was torpedoed by a German submarine in the English Channel on the 4th September, 1915; on board were a number of invalided Canadian troops. British admiralty patrol boats were quickly on the spot and succeeded in saving all the passengers and crew with the exception of eight souls.
The Press Bureau of the War Office announces that a fleet of hostile airships visited the eastern counties and a portion of the London area last night and dropped bombs.
The following military casualties, in addition to the one announced last night, have been reported: Fourteen killed and thirteen wounded.
The Home Office announces the following casualties other than the military casualties reported above: Killed—Men, 27; women, 9; children, 5; total, 41. Injured—Men, 64; women, 30; children, 7; total, 101.
Of these casualties 32 killed and 95 injured were in the London area, and these figures include those announced last night.
London, October, 1915.
" So long as you permit Zeppelins to cross our land you surely should cease to boast of our deeds.
(Whenever a Dutchman wishes to speak of the great past of his country he calls to mind the names of these heroes.)
Many of the Zeppelins that raided English towns and villages crossed over Holland leaving and returning to their bases in Germany. This was held to be a violation of the neutrality of Holland and "pro-Ally" Dutchmen endeavored to make the question an international one.
The Kaiser: "When the leaves fall you'll have peace."—They have.
The last of the great Austro-German strokes had failed, and before the beginning of October, 1915, the line of the enemy in the east was established precisely where it was to be found unchanged until the great offensive delivered upon its southern part by the Russians in the beginning of June, 1916. Lord Kitchener put the matter simply and in words the accuracy of which could be gauged by the exasperation they caused at Berlin, when he said that the enemy had now in the East "shot his bolt." It was a phrase exactly true. The expense in men, the difficulty of bringing up munitionment; the entry into territories with worse roads and less opportunities of supply; the fact that the line now reached was cut by the great belt of marshes in the centre—all these things between them brought the great adventure to a stand.
Hilaire Belloc.
in Land and Water.
Until October, 1915, the Austro-Hungarian forces entrusted with the invasion and subjection of Serbia had failed in their objectives.
After an initial success the armies of the Dual Empire met with several defeats and were finally driven across the Danube. At the beginning of the year the Serbian campaign was abandoned and Field Marshal Pottionek in command of the Austrian Armies was removed from his post.
" I was a Catholic, but needing Russian help, I became a Greek Orthodox. Now I need the Austrians I again become Catholic. Should things turn out badly I can again revert to Greek Orthodoxy. "
Bulgaria must fight at the victor's side. The Germans and Austro-Hungarians are victorious on all fronts. Russia soon will have collapsed entirely. Then will come the turn of France, Italy, and Serbia. Bulgaria would commit suicide if she did not fight on the side of the central powers, which offer the only possibility of realizing her desire for union of all Bulgarian peoples.
In the beginning none could foresee how events would develop and which side would be victorious. If the Government had resolved to participate in the great war it might have committed the fault of joining the side that would have been beaten, and thus jeopardize the existence of the present Bulgarian Empire.
From Bulgarian Manifesto.
October, 1915.
"Now we can make an end of him"
The Balkan campaign is the easiest task ever intrusted to an army leader. If the present plan is carried out it will be impossible for the Allies to escape capture or disaster, and the only real military task is to accomplish all this with the smallest possible loss to ourselves.
Even with the greatest force the Anglo-French Governments can muster the Germanic armies will outnumber them two to one, while the Austro-German artillery is in the proportion of five to one.
The Azest, Budapest,
October, 1915.
(October in Holland is called the "butcher's month," as the flocks are then killed preparatory to the winter.)
On October 7th, 1915, an army of 400,000 Austrians, Hungarians and Germans forced the Danube and commenced the great drive on Serbia; by the 10th the invaders had captured Belgrade. At the same moment the Bulgarians in great force attacked the Serbians on their right flank and by the 28th joined forces with the Teutonic troops.
On October 13, 1915, about 9:30 at night, fire opened from the skies on the centre of London. That same evening parts of the Eastern Counties were attacked. In London alone 32 were killed and 95 injured, and the total casualties for the whole area of the raid that night were 56 killed and 113 wounded. A number of houses were damaged, and several fires started. Most of the victims were ordinary working folk, doing their ordinary work. Motor omnibus conductors died in the street, a messenger boy was killed when delivering a message, a potman died at his work, a caterer was killed while returning from a Masonic lodge, a carman's daughter was injured in the legs and lingered until the next morning, a waitress was done to death while returning from a Young Women's Guild, and so on.
Times History of the War.
The Kaiser: "Who is this man?"
The German Emperor will spend Christmas in Constantinople at the head of his victorious troops.
The Pesti-Napols, Budapest.
October, 1915.
It must not be forgotten that Greece is an independent nation that disposes of its fate in full sovereignty. The Austro-German attack on Serbia releases Greece at least from the obligation of armed intervention, and independent of that attack it is materially impossible for Serbia to give Greece the support of 150,000 men stipulated in the treaty in case of war with Bulgaria, the Entente powers have not furnished a contingent equivalent.
Grecian Note of October 26, 1915.
I deplored the fact that Serbia is being left to be crushed by Bulgaria, Greece's hereditary enemy, who will not scruple later to fall on Greece herself.
From speech of
Venizelos
before dissolution of his Government.
November 3, 1915.
The extermination of Armenian Christians, Autumn of 1915
These atrocities had as their deliberate object the extermination of the Armenian race, and it is not difficult to assess the guilt. The guilt lay with the Young Turkish Government at Constantinople and with the local officials who acted in collusion with them. But there was a greater criminal even than the Young Turkish Government, for behind Turkey stood the country that was Turkey's ally and the dominant partner in the policy she pursued. There was a considerable variation in the conduct of individual Germans in Turkey. The German missionaries seem to have stood laudably by their principles, and the German Vice-Consul at Erzerum is said to have sent the exiles relief. But in the Aleppo province and Cilicia the German officials, both military and civil, threw themselves actively into the Young Turks' scheme; at Moush and Van German officers are believed to have participated directly in the slaughter, and at Erzerum they are reported to have taken their share of the Armenian girls.
Times History of the War.
If the Porte considers it necessary that Armenian insurrections can either go on or should be crushed so as to exclude all possibility of their repetition, then there is no murder and no atrocity, but simply measures of a justifiable and a necessary kind.
Count von Reventlow.
I was asked last night to define German militarism, and there is the definition (above) in the devilish spirit of such a judgment and excuse for the cowardly massacre of 800,000 human beings, not all men, but thousands of women and children.
T. P. O'Connor, M.P.
House of Commons,
London, November 16, 1915.
"Fighting with the Bulgarians against the Turk I lost my brothers, my sons fell fighting with the Greeks against Bulgaria, but only when the Germans came were my wife and children killed."
In the three districts of Polzerie, Matchva, and Yadar, the various kinds of death and torture inflicted were apportioned as follows:
| Males | Females | |
|---|---|---|
| Victims shot | 345 | 64 |
| Victims killed with knives | 113 | 27 |
| Victims hanged | 7 | 6 |
| Victims massacred and clubbed to death with sticks and butt-ends of rifles | 48 | 26 |
| Victims disemboweled | 2 | 4 |
| Victims burned alive | 35 | 96 |
| Victims pinioned and robbed | 52 | 12 |
| Victims whose arms were cut off, torn off, or broken | 5 | 1 |
| Victims whose legs were cut off or broken | 3 | 0 |
| Victims whose noses were cut off | 28 | 6 |
| Victims whose ears were cut off | 31 | 7 |
| Victims whose eyes were put out | 30 | 38 |
| Victims whose genital organs were mutilated | 3 | 3 |
| Victims whose skin was cut in strips, or portions of their face detached | 15 | 3 |
| Victims stoned | 12 | 1 |
| Victims whose breasts were cut off | 0 | 2 |
| Victims cut in pieces | 17 | 16 |
| Victims beheaded | 1 | 0 |
| Little girl thrown to the pigs | 0 | 1 |
| Victims killed without the manner of their deaths being specified | 240 | 5 |
Serbian Government Report,
Professor R. A. Reiss,
University of Lausanne,
Switzerland.
Von Bethmann-Hollweg: "The worst of it is, I must always deny having been there."
In reality none of our enemies has approached us with suggestions of peace. Our enemies have rather considered it to their interest to attribute to us falsely offers of peace. Both facts have the same explanation—self-deception beyond compare, which we would only make worse if we approached them with peace proposals, instead of waiting for them to come to us.
Von Bethmann-Hollweg.
Reichstag, December 5, 1915.
In true comradeship the glorious triumphal march of your Majesty's nation in arms began, which, under the guidance of its illustrious War Lord, has added one sublime leaf of glory to another in the history of Bulgaria. In order to give visible expression to my feelings for such deeds, and to the feelings of all Germany, I have begged your Majesty to accept the dignity of Prussian Field Marshal, and I am, with my army, happy that you, by accepting it, also in this sense have become one of us .
The
German Emperor
to
King Ferdinand
of Bulgaria
at Nish, Serbia, December, 1916.
The Kaiser: "Don't bother about your people, 'Tino. They must do what we say."
The Venizelist "Patris" took another view of the situation on the same date:
Only those who are unable to foresee things, or who are panic-stricken, would be unable to foretell the evolution of the events immediately following the Austro-German attack on Serbia. The Central Empires, not disposing enough troops for this campaign, needed the Bulgars, with whom they associated; but they also needed the neutrality of Greece, because without it Bulgaria would be unable to cooperate with them, as she would have to defend herself against Greece. In order to secure Bulgar help, the Austro-Germans used the method of compensation. The whole of Serbian Macedonia, a part of Old Serbia, an exit on the Adriatic Sea, concessions at the expense of Turkey—all this was a part of the national problem of the Bulgarian lust of conquest. It was in this way that the Bulgarians undertook the assassin's job of striking Serbia from behind. In order to secure the neutrality of Greece, the Austro-Germans resorted to the Prussian method of terrorism, inasmuch as no other concessions and compensations were at hand. Both methods have been equally successful.
The Athens "Patris" Current History.
Special Staff Correspondence. December, 1915.
As painted by the German Chancellor
It is well known that France granted loans to Russia only under the condition that it develop its Polish fortresses and railroads against us; also that England and France regarded Belgium as their route of advance against us. We must protect ourselves politically and militarily against this, and also insure our economic development.
As I said on Aug. 19, we are not the ones who are threatening the small nations. We are battling in this struggle, forced upon us, not to subjugate foreign nations, but to protect our life and freedom. This war remains for the German Government what it was in the beginning and what has been maintained in every pronunciamento—a defensive war of the German Nation for its future.
Von Bethmann-Hollweg.
Reichstag, December 9, 1915.
"What are you firing at? The British left twenty-four hours ago!"
"Sorry, Sir—and what a glorious victory."
The enemy were completely deceived. On the afternoon of December 20, 1915, a vigorous attack was begun in the Cape Helles area against some trenches at the head of the Krithia ravine. With the help of fire from warships, the trenches were taken with small loss, and held against counter-attacks delivered that night. This operation helped to divert the enemy's attention. At 3.30 A. M . on the morning of December 21 a huge mine was exploded by the Anzacs near Russell's Top. The Turks thought the Anzacs were about to attack, and for forty minutes they blazed away furiously with their rifles at the empty trenches. The Australians left many letters of farewell to the Turks, assuring them that they were clean fighters and that the Australians hoped to meet them again.
Times History of the War.
The retirement from Gallipoli was one of the finest operations in military or naval history. It will take an imperishable place in our national history.
H. H. Asquith
,
Prime Minister,
House of Commons, January 10, 1916
.
"The holy war is at the door"
The British Liner Persia was sunk by a German submarine on December 30, 1915, southeast of Crete, while on her way to the Orient. American Consul McNeeley, on his way to his post at Arden, was among the 335 persons who lost their lives, of which two or more were Americans.
We are not going to grow weary. France has confidence because you are there. How often have I heard your officers say: "Never, in any age, have we had a finer army. Never have men been better trained, braver, more heroic than ours!" Everywhere that I have seen you I have felt myself tremble with admiration and hope. You will conquer. The year now opening will bring you, my friends, the pride of finishing the defeat of the enemy, the joy of returning to your homes, and the sweetness of celebrating the victory there amid those you love.
The President of France
to French Troops, January, 1916.
"I commenced this as the entry into Paris, but I must finish it as the entry into Nish"
Hail Emperor, Cæsar and King! Thou art victor and glorious. In ancient Nish all the peoples of the East salute thee, the redeemer, bringing to the oppressed prosperity and salvation.
King Ferdinand of Bulgaria
to the German Emperor
On the occasion of the
triumphal entry of the two
Monarchs into Nish. January, 1916.
In January, 1916, Field Marshal Baron von der Goltz was appointed commander in chief of the Turkish Armies in the Caucasus. The serious nature of the Turkish situation in the Caucasus seems to have been realised in Berlin but the veteran German general was unable to stem the advance of the victorious Russians who were shortly afterwards to capture the great fortress of Erzerum with its entire garrison, guns and supplies.
On September 9, 1914, Joseph Walker enlisted for the duration of the war; on January 11, 1916, the sea bore his dead body to the dyke at West Capelle. This afternoon, at 1 P.M. , while the northwest wind whistled over Walcheren, the English soldier was buried in the churchyard of West Capelle.
First the vice-consul in the name of England spread the British flag over him who for England had sacrificed his young life. Four men of West Capelle carried the coffin outside and placed it at the foot of the tower, that old gray giant, which has witnessed so much world's woe, here opposite the sea. It was a simple, but touching ceremony.
"Man that is born of a woman hath but a short time to live.... He cometh forth like a flower and is cut down." Thus spoke the voice of the minister and the wind carried his words, and the wind played with the flag of England, the flag that flies over all seas, in Flanders, in France, in the Balkans, in Egypt, as the symbol of threatened freedom—the flag whose folds here covered a fallen warrior.
And in the roaring storm we went our way. There was he carried, the soldier come to rest, and the flag fluttered in the wind and wrapped itself round that son of England. Then the coffin sank into the ground and the hearts of us, the departing witnesses, were sore. Earth fell on it, and the preacher said: "Earth to earth, dust to dust."
From the Amsterdam Telegraaf,
January, 1916.
The little Kingdom of Montenegro was conquered by the Austrians in January, 1916. Although the Austrians were present in overwhelming force, a substantial part of the Montenegrin Army were able to escape and join the Serbs who were in Albania.
Upon the fall of Montenegro, the Kaiser invited the King to accept German hospitality in Berlin. The King refused and escaped to France, taking up his residence at Lyon.
"Come and save me, you know I am fond of children"
On February 1, 1916, the small fishing trawler King Stephen from Grimsby found the German Zeppelin L 19 floating in the North Sea with her crew clinging to her. The captain of the trawler refused to take the crew of the Zeppelin on board his boat, fearing he would be overpowered and captured. His action caused a great outcry in Germany, notwithstanding the fact that the Zeppelin was doubtless responsible for the death of many women and children in England and had actually dropped a bomb on a steamer during the previous night and left the crew to perish.
"Halt"
The assault on the forts (Erzerum) and the principal position lasted from February 11 till February 15 inclusive. After we had taken the forts on the left flank of the principal Turkish line of defense, extending about 27 miles, the fate of the forts in the centre and on the right flank, and, after them, of the second line forts and the principal defensive position, was decided on February 16 after short attacks. These fortifications, which were full of Turkish dead, remained in our possession.
During the assault on the fortress several Turkish regiments were annihilated or made prisoners with all their officers. On the line of forts alone we took 197 pieces of artillery of various calibres in good condition. In the defence works of the central fortress we took another 126 pieces of artillery. In the fortified region of Erzerum we took a large number of depôts of various kinds, which have already been mentioned by the Headquarter Staff. The exact number of Turkish prisoners is 235 officers and 12,753 men.
Russian Official Report on
the Capture of Erzerum.
The Turk: "But he is so great."
William: "No one is great save Allah and I am his Prophet."
About the time Turkey became involved in the war a telegram was published as having been sent from Kaiser Wilhelm to the Crown Prince announcing with evident satisfaction that the supreme Moslem authorities at Constantinople had given their sanction to the declaration of a Holy War against Russia, England, and France "as oppressors of the Moslems." At one time it looked as though the aspirations implied by this message might be carried out. There was a mutiny at Singapore in which Moslem troops were implicated; there were outbreaks in the Italian Tripolitana and among the Senoussi tribesmen on the western border of Egypt; there was at least a threat against the Suez Canal, from the direction of Beersheba, and there was, or seemed to be, the possibility of a pro-German uprising in Persia. The advance of the Russians from the Caspian has dissipated this last possibility; the Suez Canal is no longer even threatened; the Senoussi have given their submission. Finally, from India, from Sultan Mohammed Aga Khan, who is the spiritual head of the many million Moslems in India, comes a declaration which shows that the hopes of a holy war, as it seems to have been expected in Germany, were never anything more than a myth.
"Current History," New York.
The ruthless submarine policy introduced by von Tirpitz earlier in the war and which was guaranteed to "bring proud Albion to her knees" had completely failed in its object by Spring, 1916. After a bitter fight between von Tirpitz and his opponents of whom the chief was the Chancellor himself, the Admiral on March 16, 1916, resigned his office of Secretary of State for the Imperial Navy.
"Father says I must do the same with France"
We have seen that corps were specially called back to the interior of Germany for reposing, training and even feeding calculated towards the end in view. Light railways were built upon every side. Heavy artillery was concentrated to the number of over one thousand pieces—all that could be spared—and slowly massed in the woods by Spincourt, and an immense head of shell accumulated during the four winter months. The unfit were thoroughly combed out and every possible man taken to swell the German effectives. Class 1916 after some four months' training was sent forward to the local depots behind the front with the object of throwing it into the fighting the moment the losses should become serious. Class 1917 began to be called out (in the month of December). On the 19th of February, 1916, the first shots of the intensive bombardment against the Verdun sector were fired, and on Monday the 21st of February the great German offensive was launched.
Hilaire Belloc.
in Land and Water.
Of the German Corps known to have been engaged the 3rd and 18th Corps have been entirely used up, or "spent," as the military phrase goes. The 7th Reserve Corps has lost half, and the 15th Corps three-quarters, of its available strengths. The German forces had by the evening of March 3 "used up," in addition to those already mentioned, a part of the 113th Division, the 5th Reserve Corps, and the Bavarian Ersatz Division, without taking into account the losses of other reinforcements, whose presence on the battlefield has not yet been definitely ascertained.
None of the prisoners questioned estimated the losses suffered by their companies at less than one-third of the total effectives. Taking into account all available indications, it may safely be assumed that, during the fighting of the last 13 days, the Germans have lost in killed, wounded, and prisoners at least 100,000 men.
Lord Northcliffe's
Despatch
from Verdun, March 4, 1916
In March, 1916, a great neutral passenger ship, the Dutch Liner Tubantia , was sunk in the North Sea. All the passengers and crew were saved with one exception. The Dutch Government protested to the German Government which disclaimed all responsibility, stating that the explosion which sunk the vessel must have been due to a British mine. During the Dutch Government's investigation members of the crew testified to having seen the wake of a torpedo although no submarine was observed. Evidence was produced which indicated that the Tubantia was the victim of a submarine attack.
The Dove: "They say they do not want peace as they have time enough."
The Eagle: "Alas! That is just what we haven't got."
Gentlemen, I have spoken candidly. I have been able to say openly that we desire peace, because the German Nation is sufficiently strong, and because it is resolved to continue the fight in defense of home and country should its enemies not wish for peace.
The Imperial Chancellor knows that the whole world is waiting in breathless expectation his reply to our interpellation. I trust that he will find the redeeming words, and that he will express his readiness to enter into peace negotiations.
Philip Scheidemann
,
Chairman German Socialist Party,
Reichstag, March, 1916.
The Germans left no stones unturned to influence the Dutch in their favor. They deluged the newspaper offices with free propaganda, telegraphed at great expense from Berlin, and supplied free copies of the Berlin Journals. Everything possible was to spread distrust of the English, who were constantly accused of having designs on the integrity of Holland and of desiring to take possession of the Scheldt. This was carried so far that a panic was created on March 31, 1916, by the report of landing of the Entente forces in Zeeland. The report, which was without any foundation, was circulated by the Germans and spread like wild fire around the country.
The Times History of the War.
The storming of Dead Man's Hill
We figure that the attempt to rush this important position (their object was to capture Le Mort Homme, in order to render untenable the key sector of Pepper Hill and Douaumont) cost the Germans fully 30,000 men, of whom an unusually high proportion were killed, owing to their inability to succor and save the slightly wounded.
Perhaps now the enemy will realize that he has reached a stalemate, for the abrupt breakdown of yesterday's attempt against Vaux and Douaumont proves once more it is impossible to advance there while we hold Le Mort Homme, and the latter must seem to be impregnable.
French Official Eyewitness.
March 26, 1916.
Soldiers of the Army of Verdun! For three weeks you have been exposed to the most formidable assaults yet attempted against us by the enemy. Germany counted upon the success of this effort, which she believed to be irresistible, and to which she has devoted her best troops and her most powerful artillery. She hoped that the capture of Verdun would revive the courage of her allies and would convince neutral countries of German superiority. She had reckoned without you. Night and day, despite a bombardment without precedent, you have resisted all attacks and maintained our positions. The struggle is not yet at an end, for the Germans require a victory. You will succeed in wresting it from them. We have munitions and reserves in abundance; but, above all, you have indomitable courage and faith in the destinies of the Republic. The eyes of the country are upon you. You will be among those of whom it will be said: they barred the road to Verdun to the Germans.
General Joffre
to
the French Army at Verdun,
March, 1916.
The British Submarine E13 ran aground on the Danish Island of Saltholm within the three mile limit. Whilst in this helpless position, unable to attack or to defend herself she was shelled by a large German destroyer. Of her crew of thirty, fifteen were killed.
The British Official Press Bureau reports the German casualties during February, 1916, at 35,198, of whom 10,211 were killed or died either of wounds or sickness; 2,017 missing, 5,217 severely wounded, 1,340 prisoners, 11,865 slightly wounded. The German casualties during March, including the slaughter at Verdun and the sanguinary struggles in the eastern theatre, are estimated at 175,000. This estimate, added to the previous reports, swell the German losses since the beginning of the war—including all German nationalities: Prussians, Bavarians, Saxons, and Württembergers, but excluding naval and colonial casualties—to the grand total of 2,842,372, of which number about 660,000 were killed and died of wounds, 40,000 died of sickness, 120,000 are prisoners, 220,000 are missing, 365,000 are severely wounded, 265,000 wounded, about 1,050,000 slightly wounded, 140,000 wounded remaining with units. The number killed in action, estimating one-half the missing as killed, is over 25 per cent. of the total.
This new Europe in many respects cannot resemble the past. The blood which has been shed will never be repaid, and the wealth which has been destroyed can only slowly be replaced. But, whatever else this Europe may be, it must be for the nations that inhabit it a land of peaceful labor. The peace which shall end this war shall be a lasting peace. It must not bear the germ of new wars, but must provide for a peaceful arrangement of European questions.
Von Bethmann-Hollweg.
Reichstag, April 5, 1916.
The capture of Trebizond, the most important Turkish city on the Black Sea, marks another important step in Russia's historic campaign in Asia Minor. After a sanguinary battle at Kara Dera on April 14 the Grand Duke's troops broke through the fierce resistance of the Turks and, with the cooperation of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, fought their way three days later into the fortified city of Trebizond. With this strongest point on the Anatolian coast in Russian hands, the menace to the back door of Constantinople becomes imminent.
Current History, New York.
The latest estimate of German losses at Verdun is 200,000! Does the Kaiser, at safe distance, still "look on"? What blessing has this monarch of a great and productive realm brought upon his people? Mourning, desolation, and irremediable misery! No triumph, no victory can atone for such a deluge of blood and tears! That capricious Personage "somewhere in Heaven," whom Wilhelm calls "Unser Gott," may possibly resent the deliberate casting away of golden opportunities on the part of his crowned earthly "familiar," to whom a peaceful world was offered, only to be kicked aside for a battered helmet and broken sword!
"Thrust in thy sickle and reap!" O Emperor of a brief and bitter day! The harvest of death, not life!—the harvest of curses, not blessings! The thousands of dead men—dead in the very strength of manhood—sacrificed in a holocaust on the flaming altar of the wickedest war the world has ever seen, may have their own story to tell to "Unser Gott"; so may the bereaved and wretched women whose husbands and sons have been torn from their arms forever.
Marie Corelli
in
The Sunday Times, London,
April, 1916.
The attitude of England renders it increasingly difficult to feed the population.
To lessen misery, the German authority has recently asked volunteers to work in the country. This offer has not had the success which was expected. Consequently the inhabitants will be removed by compulsion and transported to the country. Those removed will be sent in the interior of French occupied territory far behind the front, where they will be employed in agriculture and in no way in military work.
German Proclamation.
Lille, April, 1916.
Upon the order of General von Graevenitz and with the assistance of Infantry Regiment 64, sent by the German General Headquarters, about 25,000 French, young girls from 16 to 20 years old, young women and men up to the age of 55 years, without distinction of social condition, were torn from their homes at Roubaix, Tourcoing, and Lille, pitilessly separated from their families, and forced to do agricultural work in the Departments of the Aisne and Ardennes.
French Official Report.
These are not, as our enemies are pretending to believe, the last exertions of an exhausted nation, but the hammer blows of a strong, invincible people which commands sufficient reserves in men and all other means for the continuation of the hammer blows.
The Prussian War Minister
,
General Wild von Hohenborn
,
the Reichstag, April 11, 1916.
On the 20th of April, 1916, a number of transports arrived at Marseilles carrying a large number of Russian troops for the support of France. The troops had come by water through the East. Russian troops continued to arrive in France for some time afterwards.
In short, with ever-ebbing vigor, the German Army is smashing its head against the walls of Verdun. The weight and vigor of the blows decrease, but the suicidal mania continues. Two months have passed since the early success of the German attack ended with the capture of Vaux village. Each resumption of the attempt to take Verdun since that time has been a cause for increasing wonder. What is there about this enterprise that has turned it into a fatal obsession, from which the German high command cannot escape, however great the cost of continuance?
From the Paris Figaro.
April, 1915.
On April 24 Sir Roger Casement, a former Consul General, was captured in the act of trying to land German arms on the west coast of Ireland. He had been conveyed thither in a German submarine, with two Irish soldiers from German prisons. A German auxiliary cruiser loaded with 20,000 rifles and ammunition was taken and sunk at the same time. The vessel was sunk by its own men, and the twenty-two German bluejackets on board were made prisoners....
Casement had last been heard of in Germany, where he had attempted to induce Irish prisoners of war to join an anti-British expedition to Ireland. Testimony at his preliminary trial in London subsequently showed that on Good Friday he had landed near Tralee from the German submarine U-19 with a soldier named Bailey and another named Monteith. In "McKinna's Fort" he was seen to drop a paper containing a code and the words: "Await further instructions. Have decided to stay. Further ammunition and rifles are needed. Send another ship." The small collapsible boat in which he and his companions had landed also helped to betray them, and Casement and Bailey were arrested before they could get away in the automobile which was waiting for them.
Current History, New York.
The manifesto of the Provisional Government of the Irish Republic did not secure the support or signature of a single elected representative of any section of the Irish people, or of any man who had won influence by public services for Ireland. Its signatories were a convicted dynamiter, a handful of minor poets, journalists and schoolmasters, a junior corporation official, and a Syndicalist leader. The movement, wrote Mr. Redmond, was insane and anti-patriotic: "Germany plotted it, Germany organized it, Germany paid for it. So far as Germany's share in it is concerned, it is a German invasion of Ireland, as brutal, as selfish, as cynical as Germany's invasion of Belgium."
The Times History of the War.
"You need cooling, my friend"
I have deemed it my duty, therefore, to say to the Imperial German Government that if it is still its purpose to prosecute relentless and indiscriminate warfare against vessels of commerce by the use of submarines, notwithstanding the now demonstrated impossibility of conducting that warfare in accordance with what the Government of the United States must consider the sacred and undisputable rules of International Law and the universally recognized dictates of humanity, the Government of the United States is at last forced to the conclusion that there is but one course it can pursue and that unless the German Imperial Government should now declare and effect the abandonment of its present methods of warfare against passenger and freight-carrying vessels, this Government can have no choice but to sever diplomatic relations with the Government of the German Empire altogether.
President Wilson's
Address to Congress,
April 19, 1916.
This decision I have arrived at, to break off diplomatic relations with Germany unless her methods of submarine warfare were abandoned, with the keenest regret; the possibility of the action contemplated I am sure all thoughtful Americans will look forward to with unaffected reluctance. But we cannot forget that we are in some sort and by the force of circumstances the responsible spokesmen of the rights of humanity, and that we cannot remain silent while those rights seem in process of being swept utterly away in the maelstrom of this terrible war. We owe it to a due regard for our own rights as a nation, to our sense of duty as a representative of the rights of neutrals the world over, and to a just conception of the rights of mankind to take this stand now with the utmost solemnity and firmness.
President Wilson's
Address to Congress.
April 19th, 1916.
The German Government attaches no less importance to the sacred principles of humanity than the Government of the United States. It again fully takes into account that both Governments for many years cooperated in developing international law in conformity with these principles, the ultimate object of which has always been to confine warfare on sea and land to armed forces of belligerents and safeguard as far as possible noncombatants against the horrors of war.
German Gov't. reply to
U. S. Government in Sussex Case.
May, 1916.
The German Government notifies the Government of the United States that German naval forces have received the following order:
In accordance with the general principles of visit and search and the destruction of merchant vessels, recognized by international law, such vessels, both within and without the area declared a naval war zone, shall not be sunk without warning and without saving human lives unless the ship attempt to escape or offer resistance.
Imperial German Government
to United States Government.
May 4, 1916.
In view of the circumstances the German Government frankly admits that the assurance given to the American Government, in accordance with which passenger vessels were not to be attacked without warning, has not been adhered to in the present case. As was intimated by the undersigned in the note of the 4th instant, the German Government does not hesitate to draw from this resultant consequences. It therefore expresses to the American Government its sincere regret regarding the deplorable incident and declares its readiness to pay an adequate indemnity to the injured American citizens. It also disapproved of the conduct of the commander, who has been appropriately punished.
Von Jagow
,
German Foreign Secretary
to United States Government,
8th May, 1916.
"I wish I knew whether it is wiser to retreat or to advance"
For more than two months the battle of Verdun has raged almost ceaselessly day and night. It is conceded that Germany has concentrated picked troops and heavy guns in quantities never before seen in war. Yet, apart from the first withdrawal of General Petain's army from outlying positions to definite lines of defense, the two months fighting has not given the attacking forces a gain of two miles.
Current History, New York.
" For the sake of the world's future we must first use the knife "
The Germans have come with floating mines in the open seas, threatening belligerents and neutrals equally. They have come with the undiscriminating and murderous Zeppelin, which does military damage only by accident. They have come with the submarine, which destroys neutral and belligerent ships and crews, in scorn alike of law and mercy. They have come upon blameless nations with invasion, incendiarism, and confiscation. They have come with poisonous gases and liquid fire. All their scientific genius has been dedicated to wiping out human life. They have forced these things into general use in the war.
The Prussian authorities apparently have but one idea of peace—an iron peace imposed on other nations by German supremacy. They do not understand that free men and free nations will rather die than submit to that ambition, and that there can be no end to the war till that aim is defeated and renounced.
From an interview with
Sir Edward Grey
,
in the Chicago News,
May, 1916.
When Germany challenged us nearly two years ago to uphold with our lives the ideals by which we professed to live, we accepted the challenge, not out of madness, nor for glory or for gain, but to make good those professions. Since then the Allies and our empire have fought that they may be free and all earth may be free from the intolerable domination of German ideals. We did not foresee the size of the task when it opened. We do not flinch from it now that the long months have schooled us to full knowledge and have tempered us nationally and individually to meet it. The nations within the empire have created, maintained, and reinforced from their best the great armies they devote without question to this issue. They have emerged, one by one, as powers clothed with power through discipline and sacrifice, strong for good by their bitter knowledge of the evil they are meeting, and wise in the unpurchasable wisdom of actual achievement. Knowing as nations what it is we fight for, realizing as men and women the resolve that has been added to us by what each has endured, we go forward now under the proud banner of our griefs and losses to greater effort, greater endurance, and, if need be, heavier sacrifice, equal sponsors for the deliverance of mankind.
Rudyard Kipling
,
on Empire Day, May 24, 1916.
"If you will let me keep what I have I will let you go"
I have twice publicly stated that Germany has been and is prepared to discuss the termination of the war upon a basis that offers guarantee against further attack from a coalition of her enemies and insures peace to Europe. You have read President Poincaré's answer to that.
One thing I do know—only when statesmen of the warring nations come down to a basis of real facts, when they take the war situation as every war map shows it to be, when, with honest and sincere will they are prepared to terminate this terrible bloodshed and are ready to discuss the war and peace problems with one another in a practical manner, only then will we be nearing peace.
Whoever is not prepared to do that has the responsibility for it if Europe continues to bleed and tear itself to pieces. I cast that responsibility far from myself.
Von Bethmann-Hollweg
to
Berlin Correspondent of
New York World.
May 22, 1916.
"Once I turned the Christ from my door; now I must wander from the Northern to the Southern seas—from Eastern to the Western shores ... asking for Peace, but never finding it."
The soul of the royal work for the discovery of the missing is Don Emilio-Maria de Torres, Minister Plenipotentiary and private secretary to his Majesty. It is in the offices of his Secretariat, in the Palacio Real, that this work is installed; it was soon so crowded there that it became necessary to give up to it four halls, and then eight, in order that the collaborators, becoming more and more numerous, might work comfortably. In May, 1916, the work of the King, already a year old, occupied at Madrid twenty-eight persons, who began their day at eight in the morning and sometimes worked far into the night.
Mme. Gabrielle Reval
in La Revue des Deux Mondes.
It is proved that from May 20 to May 25 (1916) seven different divisions were flung into the battle on both sides of the Meuse. Four of these were brought from other points of the Western front—two from Flanders, two from the Somme.
On the left bank alone four divisions were employed in the last week-end fighting. Without a thought of the enormous losses caused by our curtain fire and machine guns, the German Command threw them one after the other into the boiling pot east and west of Mort Homme. On May 22 alone, before the capture of Cumières village, which has now been retaken, the enemy made no fewer than 16 attacks upon the front from the Avocourt Wood to the Meuse. Over 50,000 men sought that day to climb the slopes of Mort Homme and the plateau of Hill 304. The great charnel heap had 15,000 fresh corpses flung upon it without the French lines having yielded.
Official Despatch from Verdun front.
During an enterprise directed to the northward our high sea fleet on May 31 encountered the main part of the English fighting fleet, which was considerably superior to our forces.
During the afternoon, between Skagerrak and Horn Reef, a heavy engagement developed, which was successful to us, and which continued during the whole night....
The High Sea Fleet returned today (Thursday) into our port.
German Admiralty Report.
Berlin, June 1, 1916.
On the afternoon of Wednesday, the 31st of May, a naval engagement took place off the coast of Jutland.
The British ships on which the brunt of the fighting fell were the battle cruiser fleet and some cruisers and light cruisers, supported by four fast battleships. Among these the losses were heavy.
The German battle fleet, aided by low visibility, avoided a prolonged action with our main forces. As soon as these appeared on the scene the enemy returned to port , though not before receiving severe damage from our battleships.
British Admiralty Report.
London, June 2, 1916.
William Falstaff: "I know not what you call all, but if I fought not with the whole British fleet, then I am a bunch of radish. "
Our High Sea Fleet on May 31 encountered the main part of the English fleet .
On our side the small cruiser Wiesbaden , by hostile gunfire during the day engagement, and his Majesty's ship Pommern , during the night, as the result of a torpedo, were sunk.
The fate of his Majesty's ship Frauenlob , which is missing, and of some torpedo boats, which have not returned yet, is unknown.
German Admiralty Report. June 1, 1916.
In order to prevent fabulous reports, it is again stated that in the battle off Skagerrak on May 31 the German high sea forces were in battle with the entire modern English fleet .
We were obliged to blow up the small cruiser Elbing , which, on the night of May 31-June 1, owing to a collision with other German war vessels, was heavily damaged.
German Admiralty Report. June 3, 1916.
We state that the total loss of the German high sea forces during the battle of May 31-June 1 and the following time are: One battle cruiser, one ship of the line of older construction, four small cruisers, and five torpedo boats. Of these losses, the Pommern , launched in 1905; the Wiesbaden , Elbing , Frauenlob , and five torpedo boats already have been reported in official statements. For military reasons, we refrained until now from making public the losses of the vessels Lützow and Rostock .
German Admiralty Report. June 8, 1916.
After visiting my fleet, which returned victoriously from a heavy battle, I feel I must again declare to you my imperial thanks for what you have performed in my service in the technical domain and the domain of organization. Our ships and weapons upheld themselves brilliantly in the battle in the North Sea. It is also for you a day of glory.
The German Emperor
to
Grand Admiral Von Tirpitz.
June, 1916.
Before the Battle of Jutland Von Tirpitz retired from his post as Minister of the Navy on the ground of ill health. He is credited with being responsible for the submarine policy of ruthlessness which the German Government were forced to moderate on account of President Wilson's firm attitude in the Sussex episode.
The Germans were driven back into their ports without so much as making an effort to grapple with the main body of our Grand Fleet, and had the temerity to claim what really was a rout as a complete victory. A couple more such victories and there will be nothing left of the German Navy worth speaking about. The truth is slowly leaking out, and its full extent is not yet realized or appreciated. Our command of the seas, so far from being impaired, has been more firmly and unshakably established.
H. H. Asquith
,
British Prime Minister.
Thank God, "the Day" is over
First—It was admitted that "the small cruiser Wiesbaden was sunk" and that the Pommern —the character of that ship not being mentioned—had also been destroyed; the light cruiser Frauenlob was "missing," with "some torpedo boats." The rest of the High Seas Fleet, it was declared, "had returned to our harbors."
Second—It had to be confessed that the light cruiser Elbing had been sunk.
Third—A statement was issued to the effect that "one battle cruiser, (the Lützow ,) one ship of the line of older construction, (the Pommern ,) four smaller cruisers," (the Wiesbaden , Elbing , Frauenlob , and Rostock ,) and "five torpedo boats" (really destroyers) represented "the total loss."
Fourth—It is now known that the battle cruiser Seydlitz was run ashore to save her from sinking. It is asserted by travelers who have returned to Amsterdam that the battle cruiser Derfflinger sank "on being towed into Wilhelmshaven," and it is reported from Copenhagen that the Pommern was not the battleship which was torpedoed in the Baltic by a British submarine in July last, but a new battle cruiser which was named after the German State, thus perpetuating its association with the navy. The story of the sinking of the dreadnought battleship Ostfriesland awaits confirmation.
Archibald Hurd
in the London Daily Telegraph.
Field Marshal Lord Horatio Herbert Kitchener, the British Secretary of State for War, perished with his staff off the West Orkney Islands on June 5 by the sinking of the British cruiser Hampshire , which struck a mine and went down fifteen minutes later. "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" Formerly they had sounded in our ears as chords of solemn music, breathing consolation; now that we see them clearly to be triumphant verities, living and everlasting truths, they ring out like a trumpet call, summoning and inspiring the living to stronger action. The work continues though the hand that moulded it perishes; the body dies, but the soul lives on. There is no sting in the grave when on either side men press forward to one immortal goal and when living and dead battle together for incorruptible principles. Whether individually we live or die signifies nothing, if that high cause for which we fight wins. Lord Kitchener's death will not interfere with the work he had undertaken, nor shall his passing delay, but rather shall it hasten the victory to which he looked forward.
Land and Water, London, June 8, 1916.
The Crown Prince, after the gigantic effort of his armies, was confronted with problems more vast, with a resistance more confident and more efficient, than those which he had had to face in the opening days of the Verdun offensive. In three days the French had been driven off their first positions along a large portion of the Verdun front; over a month later they were still defending with increasing vigour their second line. Behind that line lay yet another, and the prospect of the fall of Verdun was but faint upon the German horizon. The French could already count upon victory, the price of Verdun having already been exacted in the enemy's blood, without the position having been captured. That price, it was said, had been fixed by the Imperial General Staff at 200,000 casualties.
The Times History of the War.
Signor Baltisti, before the war, was Deputy for Trent in the Austrian Parliament, and in that position was a strong advocate of irredentist claims in the Trentino. When war broke out he joined a Trentino regiment under the Italian flag.
He was captured by the Austrians in June, 1916, and executed, although he wore an Italian uniform. His corpse was publicly hanged on a gibbet in the city of Trent.
The Summer of 1916 saw the Germans defeated at Verdun on the Somme and at Riga. The Austrians were defeated in the Trentino and the Bukovina. The Turks continued their retreat in Asia Minor and the Caucasus, while the Entente Allies advanced upon the Bulgarians from Saloniki.
The Government has carried on the war in accordance with methods which are even incompatible with everything which has been done hitherto—the violation of Belgium and Luxemburg; the use of poison gases, which were subsequently used by the other belligerents; there were Zeppelin bombs which killed both combatants and noncombatants, a submarine war on commerce, the torpedoing of the Lusitania , etc.; pillage and extortion of tribute, beginning with Belgium; the internment and imprisonment of the population of the eastern provinces; various devices for forcing prisoners to work against their own country, by spying for the Central Powers, thereby committing an act of high treason; contracts arranged between Zimmermann and Sir Roger Casement in December, 1915, for the formation of armed units of English prisoners of war, for the purpose of forming the Irish brigade. Besides these, other attempts must be mentioned, which were made among the foreigners in concentration camps in Germany, threatening them with internment unless they betrayed their own countries and placed themselves at Germany's disposal.
Karl Liebknecht.
June, 1916
.
War and Hunger: "Now you must accompany us to the end. "
The Kaiser: "Yes, to my end."
"Did they believe that peace story in the Reichstag, Bethmann?"
"Yes, but the Allies didn't."
Germany, using in turn force when she believes herself strongest and craft when she feels herself growing feebler, is today resorting to craft. She is spreading abroad the illusive word "peace." Where does this word come from? To whom has it been spoken? And on what conditions? And to what end? By her ambiguous manœuvres Germany reckons on dividing the allied countries. No one among us will fall into such a trap. I have said, and I repeat, that when blood flows in streams, when our troops with so much self-sacrifice are giving up their lives, the word "peace" is a sacrilege if it means that the aggressor will not be punished and if tomorrow Europe runs the risk of again being delivered up to the despotism, fantasy, and caprice of a military caste athirst for pride and domination. It would be the dishonor of the Allies! What should our reply be if tomorrow, after having concluded such a peace, our countries were dragged anew into the frenzy of armaments? What would future generations say if we committed such an act of folly and if we missed the opportunity which is offered us of establishing on solid foundations a lasting peace?
Aristide Briand
,
Premier of France.
June, 1916.
It is one of the greatest sources of pride for the Verdun Army to have earned the testimony of the great assembly which incarnates and immortalizes the genius of the French tongue and the French race. The Army of Verdun has had the good fortune to answer to the appeal addressed to it by the country. Thanks to its heroic tenacity the offensive of the Allies has already made brilliant progress ... and the Germans are not at Verdun.
General Nivelle
to the French Army
at Verdun, June, 1916.
" Wait a moment "
The blow which the Russians have delivered to the Teutons has been one of the hardest given to any belligerent during the entire war. Not even the great German drive of last year has had the effect of the Russian offense of the past six weeks. In this case it is much more than a loss of territory; it is almost the destruction of an army. Russia had vast reserves on which to fall back.
Austria apparently has none. Austria alone of all the belligerents is practically exhausted. Only a week ago the Austrian Department of War endeavored to get the consent of the Government to call into the military service all men between the ages of 56 and 60. Nothing could show more eloquently the very dire straits into which the Austrian Army has fallen.
J. B. W. Gardiner.
Current History.
The Petrograd official communiqué of June 27, 1916, stated that the prisoners and trophies captured by the armies of General Brusiloff between June 4-23 amounted to 4,031 officers, 194,041 men, 219 guns, besides 644 machine-guns, 196 bomb mortars, 146 artillery ammunition wagons and 38 searchlights.
The enormous importance of the Russian victories of June, 1916, as a step in the attrition of the enemy forces was patent; the losses suffered by the enemy on the Eastern front during those three weeks were about equal to those he had suffered at Verdun in 130 days of fighting.
Times History of the War.
Captain Charles Fryatt, master of the Great Eastern Railway's steamer Brussels , which was captured by German warships on June 23, 1916, and taken to Zeebrugge, was tried by German courtmartial at Bruges, July 27, condemned to death by shooting, and executed immediately. The charge against him was that of attempting to ram the German submarine U-33.
His Majesty's Government find it difficult to believe that a master of a merchant vessel who, after German submarines adopted the practice of sinking merchant vessels without warning and without regard for the lives of passengers or crew, took a step which appeared to afford the only chance of saving not only his vessel, but the lives of all on board, can have been deliberately shot in cold blood for this action.
British Foreign Office.
William: "Why are you so heavily bombarding the remains of that 'contemptible little British army'?"
Prince of Bavaria: "I am afraid the remains are bombarding us."
The German view of the situation at the end of June was well shown in a typical article by the military correspondent of the "Berliner Tageblatt," Major Moraht, actually published on July 1.
The writer began by declaring that "all the belligerent armies were now at a critical stage." The Allies had undoubtedly increased the energy and the uniformity of their conduct of war, and their great resources in money and men and their command of the sea would enable them to do everything possible "to hamper Germany's final victory."
The British offensive was about to begin, and "without a serious settlement of accounts with England on the battlefields in the west the Germans would not come a step nearer to peace." Major Moraht and the other German writers betrayed no sense of the immensity of the coming events, and it was clear that the Germans had not begun to dream of the defeats that were about to be inflicted upon them.
The Times History of the War.
"From East to West, and West to East, I dance with thee"
During the early days of July, 1916, a general offensive on the part of the Allies began.
The French and British armies attacked on the Somme, taking many towns and villages and thousands of prisoners.
The Russians continued their victorious advance in the Bukowina and began a tremendous offensive far north on the Riga front.
The Italian troops attacked in the Trentino and captured important fortified Austrian positions.
"Never mind, Mr. Wilson; it is only a little Lusitania blood on the envelope"
On July 9th the German Merchant Submarine Deutschland arrived at Baltimore carrying a cargo of 1,000 tons of merchandise, principally dye stuffs. According to a statement by Captain Koenig, commander of the Deutschland , she was the first of a number of similar vessels which were being built for the purpose of breaking the British blockade of Germany.
It was stated at the time that the captain of the submarine brought a personal letter from the German Emperor to President Wilson.
What, German people, is your duty in this hour? The army wants no exhortations. It has fought superhumanly. It will fight until final victory. But the people at home—this is their duty: To suffer in silence, to bear their renunciations with dignity.
The Kaiser , July, 1916 .
The great armies recruited and trained by Lord Kitchener, with the mountains of munitions piled up by Lloyd George, have become a tremendous weapon in the skilled hands of General Sir Douglas Haig; and they are supported on the right by a French army under General Foch that has shown itself more than able to keep pace with them. It must not be forgotten that the battle of the Somme is a joint enterprise of close teamwork under the supreme direction of General Joffre.
Thus far we have heard less of the French than of the English wing, but its achievement has been equally brilliant. The Germans caught between these Frenchmen and Peronne, like those caught between the British and Bapaume, have resisted to the limit of human endurance, but nothing human could survive the awful blasting of high explosives to which their first and second trench lines were subjected; and the Allies now have the shells and the men to keep up the pressure indefinitely.
Current History, New York, July, 1916.
The battle is raging, huge beyond all previous imagination. Rejuvenated, perfectly equipped with all they want, Russia's armies again have broken against our bulwarks in the east. France has experienced a regeneration in this war of which she hardly believed herself capable. She has dragged her dilatory English Ally into joining the offensive on the Somme, and whatever inward worth the British army has it now has an abundance of artillery.
The Kaiser , July, 1916 .
( In 1915 a gigantic statue of wood was erected in Berlin to Hindenburg )
The problem implied in the second phase of the great Russian offensive of 1916 had been solved completely in favour of our Allies. The enemy had abandoned his entire front south of the Marshes, having lost in ten weeks' fighting (May, June, July) in prisoners alone well over 300,000 men. The total casualties suffered by him in that campaign almost equalled the original strength of his armies between the Pripet Marshes and the Carpathian Mountains.
The Times History of the War.
The freedom of the sea means to Germany that the German Navy is to behave at sea as the German Army behaves on land. It means that neither enemy civilians nor neutrals may possess rights against militant Germany; that those who do not resist will be drowned, and those who do will be shot.
Already 244 neutral merchantmen have been sunk in defiance of law and humanity, and the number daily grows. Mankind, with the experience of two years of war behind it, has made up its mind about German culture. It is not, I think, without material for forming a judgment about German freedom.
A. J. Balfour
,
First Lord of the Admiralty.
July, 1916.
As the second year of the war drew to its close important gains were made by the Allied Armies on all fronts. On the Somme the British occupied Mameton Wood, Trones Wood, and the villages of Ovillers-la-Boiselle, Longueval, Podières. The French advanced on a front of 10½ miles and captured the German positions from Estrées to Vermando-Villers. On the Eastern Front, the Russians crossed the Carpathians in the south and pierced Hindenburg's Riga line at several points.
On the Isonzo the Italians began a great drive towards Gorizia.
"France is dying."—Hindenburg
This year has been so full of a glory so pure that it will forever illumine the human race. It has been a year in which France, the France of Joan of Arc and Valmy, has risen, if possible, to even greater heights.
Be the war of short or long duration, France accepts it. The country is summoning its genius and changing its methods. Each French soldier before the enemy repeats the words of Joan of Arc, "You can enchain me, but you cannot enchain the fortunes of France."
Paul Deschanel
,
President of French
Chamber of Deputies.
Direct Losses of Human Life During Two Years of War
| Dead | Wounded | Dead and Wounded | Invalids | |
| Austria-H'gry | 718,000 | 1,777,000 | 2,495,000 | 533,000 |
| Belgium | 50,000 | 110,000 | 160,000 | 33,000 |
| Bulgaria | 25,000 | 60,000 | 85,000 | 18,000 |
| England | 205,000 | 512,000 | 717,000 | 154,300 |
| France | 885,000 | 2,115,000 | 3,000,000 | 634,000 |
| Germany | 885,500 | 2,116,300 | 3,001,800 | 634,900 |
| Italy | 105,000 | 245,000 | 350,000 | 73,500 |
| Russia | 1,498,000 | 3,820,000 | 5,318,000 | 1,146,000 |
| Serbia | 110,000 | 140,000 | 250,000 | 42,000 |
| Turkey | 150,000 | 350,000 | 500,000 | 105,000 |
| Total | 4,631,500 | 11,245,300 | 15,876,800 | 3,373,700 |
From a Danish Estimate
published by the War Study Society
of Copenhagen.
