American soldiers near a barricade in the Rue du Pont, Château-Thierry. The Germans were driven from the town in the First Battle of the Marne, 1914, and again in the Second Battle of the Marne, 1918.
American soldiers near a barricade in the Rue du Pont, Château-Thierry. The Germans were driven from the town in the First Battle of the Marne, 1914, and again in the Second Battle of the Marne, 1918.
A group of thirty Americans joined the French; they were pitted against hidden machine guns, camouflaged rapid-fire nests,gas shells, and the deafening roar of a heavy barrage. They were shot at by snipers hiding in trees, they were shot at by big and little cannon with a roar that deafened them; but they went ahead with the French veterans. They took machine-gun posts, they took trench positions. But the German resistance was too strong, due in part to their new device of fighting in ambush from the tops of high trees, where they escaped shells exploding on the ground, and obtained a good vantage point for pouring shot downward on the attackers below.
Elsewhere on the western front American forces, linked with the British lines, aided a body of Australians to attack Hamel. It was an early morning advance, extending one and a half miles on a four-mile front, including the village of Hamel and the trench system beyond it, south of the Somme.
It was the first time Americans had fought with the British. They comprised only a few companies fighting as platoons among the Australians; but upon them rested the honor of the United States in the adventure. The date, moreover, was July 4, 1918.
"You are going in with the Australians," their officers told them, "and these lads always deliver the goods. We expect you to do the same. We shall be very disappointed if you do not fulfill the hopes and belief we have in you."
The Americans listened with a light in their eyes. They went in, with "Lusitania!" as their battle cry, celebrating the Fourth of July with "astonishing ardor, discipline and strength," the Australian officers said. If the Americans had any fault at all, the Australians commented, it was overeagerness to advance; they could hardly be restrained from going too rapidly behind the wide belt of the British shell fire as the barrage rolled forward.
The Hamel episode projected as a reminder that American forces were clinching with the foe on other parts of the front as well as on the Marne. But it was on the latter battle ground that the eyes of the world were presently drawn. There the American army swung into its greatest stride at this stage of the war.
ACROSS THE MARNE AND BACK
Officially Germany had refused to recognize the growing weight of American belligerency. If she could evade alluding to American forces specifically in reporting events on the battle field, she did so. "The enemy," to be sure, covered a multitude of enemies—more than half the world—so why designate which one, and why designate the one now most feared, of whose mounting strength it was not expedient to enlighten the beguiled people at home?
The pretense could no longer be sustained after her abortive drive against the eastern and southern flanks of the Soissons-Rheims salient on July 14, 1918. There was a reason. Germany might ignore the presence of American detachments operating with the French or British and be airily blind to the activities of American patrols along the Lorraine or Alsace fronts. They were merely "the enemy." But in making this plunge to widen the salient by way of encircling Rheims and cutting another way to Paris she crashed into an obstacle that compelled recognition. It was the First American Army Corps, numbering some 250,000 men, under the command of Major General Hunter Liggett. If Americans, in her self-deceiving view, had before been as needles in a haystack, here they had become the haystack itself, and it was all needles!
The American army skirted the southern arc of the salient, eastward along the Marne somewhere beyond Jaulgonne, westward through Château-Thierry to Torcy, where it joined the French. Germany's first operation was to make a feint of attacking the American lines northwest of Château-Thierry by way of screening her major operation, which was to break through the American barrier guarding the Marne. The assault was especially violent in the Vaux area, which was enveloped in a heavy barrage following the usual bombardment of high explosives and gas. Under the barrage storming parties attacked the village.The system of infiltration by groups was followed and some of the groups succeeded in penetrating one of the American outposts on the northeast. The Americans swarmed out and poured a withering rifle and machine-gun fire on the assailants, and counterattacked on the latter's right, where the penetration had taken place. It was a direct and flanking fire, held in reserve until the foe had approached the American front-line trenches, from which the troops had withdrawn. Its effect was to demoralize the attackers, who retired in disorder.
The counterattack brought the American lines 750 yards ahead and yielded a number of prisoners, whose capture was due to a barrage laid by the American artillery, which cut off the enemy's retreat.
The attack had an immediate sequel in the evacuation by the Germans of Hill 204, upon an advance by the Americans up its west side. The Germans had paid much to hold this hill, resisting many assaults, notably the one described in the last chapter, and now they chose to vacate it rather than defend the hill further. Their tenure of all this area was to be very brief, and perhaps they knew it.
Soon after the Vaux demonstration, the Germans attacked the American and French positions all along the Marne. Ordered to break through the Americans holding the line south of the Marne, and reach a line running eleven kilometers south of Jaulgonne, running through Montigny, they crossed the Marne under the protection of a severe bombardment, and pushed ahead three kilometers to a line through Crezancy.
The grand advance was signalized by a long-distance bombardment of towns in the rear of the American lines. Heavy shells from German naval guns fell in regions far behind the actual battle area, some reaching points twenty to thirty miles distant. It was mainly a night display, marked by a constant hurtling of projectiles from ten-and fifteen-inch naval guns, and canopied the whole countryside with a blaze of light. The German purpose was to batter towns and communication lines beyond the defense line and to harass the movement of supplies and reenforcements.
The Marne curls to a salient northward at Jaulgonne, and the peak of this bend provided the first crossing for the Germans. Descending upon this point in great force, they succeeded in crossing the river in the face of a destructive fire from American machine gunners and infantry, who fought and died where they stood. The salient could not be held, being exposed to fire from three sides. Westward of it toward Château-Thierry, and eastward toward and beyond Dormans, the German advance likewise could not be stayed, and there was a general withdrawal of American forces along the river bank.
The Germans succeeded in crossing at ten points between Château-Thierry and Dormans. They threw many pontoon bridges over to bear their troops. Shoals of canvas boats were also brought into requisition. These proved more serviceable than the bridges, the laying of which was repeatedly thwarted by American fire. Protected by the heavy bombardment, the boats managed to carry the members of the kaiser's famed Tenth Guard Division, twenty to each boat; but very few of them got back.
American guns foiled their passage three times. Machine gunners clung to their posts on the river bank here and there till the last moment. They poured deadly streams of bullets into the enemy, and only withdrew when their guns were so hot that they could not be fired. One group happened to be in a place where the Germans were anxious to erect a bridge, but their efforts were fruitless. The American bullets piled up the German dead on the opposite side of the river every time the enemy started to cross.
South of Jaulgonne the enemy crossed the Marne on six pontoon bridges, hurriedly thrown over the stream, and masses of infantry swarmed forward. The artillery constantly had the bridges under the heaviest fire, and at least two direct hits were made, two of the bridges being blown up. The task of preventing German swarm, despite these checks, proved too great, and the Americans fell back to the base of the salient made by the river.
Once on the southern bank of the Marne, the German masses, augmented by numbers of machine gunners, proceeded to forcethe Americans farther back toward Condé. They had succeeded in landing a force estimated at 15,000 men in the river sector abandoned by the Americans. This force promptly started to fight its way south, having a point about nine miles distant as its objective. The Americans and French held up this advance to such an extent that two hours after the time set by the enemy for reaching his objective, he was still far away from it. The Germans specially suffered heavy losses in the woods forming the triangle from Fossoy to Mézy and Crezancy. There the Americans were overwhelmed by such large numbers that the line could not hold; but nevertheless they refused to retreat where they could possibly hold a place in the woods. This sent the German advance sweeping over large numbers of nests which sheltered ten, five, or two Americans, and sometimes one, who held on while the Germans passed by and then opened fire on them.
It was manifest that the advance could not be allowed to continue. The enemy by noon had driven forward over two miles on a front of about three and a half miles south of the Marne through the American positions; but he got no farther. Even while fighting in the open continued, the Americans organized a counterattack in the region of Condé, below Fossoy, about the time the German advance had apparently eliminated the salient. There, because of their heavy losses, they seemed content to stand, and there they remained for four hours. Meantime American reenforcements came up. Light artillery was hurried into position. It concentrated a heavy fire at short range, and when this fire ceased, the augmented American infantry dashed from cover. Machine gunners moved forward, and, lying on the ground, poured a stream of bullets into the enemy. The fierceness of the fire brought the Germans up short. They would not face the steel, and, retiring, hesitatingly at first, finally broke and fell back.
Points that had fallen to the Germans—Fossoy, La Chapelle, St. Agnan, Bois de Condé, Crezancy, and Mézy—were recovered with French aid. By 4 o'clock in the afternoon the Germans had been driven to the railroad track skirting the south bank of the Marne. There they took up positions; but there was nopause for them. The American gunners got the range of the landing places, where the Germans had stretched cables by which they hauled boats across the swollen stream, and there was no retreat in the way they had come. The Americans pursued them behind the railroad embankment. Slowly the graycoats were forced back. Some of them swam the Marne to safety, but their number was few. Many of them were drowned in the river. The Americans in front were on open ground, making the best use of whatever shelter offered. German forces were on the hills on the opposite side of the river, showering high explosives and gas shells upon them, but the Americans went forward, nevertheless, with gas masks adjusted, and crawling at times for a considerable distance on all fours. In this way they advanced bit by bit, and when they came within range close enough they drove the enemy back.
The Germans retained some precarious positions south of the Marne; but they were completely swept back across the river between Château-Thierry and Jaulgonne. They were driven where they were before the advance began. They vented their wrath the next morning by sending thousands of high explosive and noxious gas shells into the American lines. They had set out to swing their line northeast of Château-Thierry; but it still swung northwest, and presently it was to swing much farther back.
The American losses were serious, as was to be expected in the most important action in which the Americans had yet engaged. In return, however, they exacted a toll from the Germans that made their losses seem light. It was estimated that they killed, wounded, or captured 20,000 of the enemy. Hundreds of the latter were slain while retreating across the Marne. One battalion of the 6th German Grenadiers, according to prisoners, was annihilated in the woods, and of the other battalion only one company survived. The south bank of the Marne was lined with German dead, while in the woods south of Mézy, through which the Germans advanced and retreated, 5,000 enemy dead lay, some bodies three and four deep where they had dared, in close formation, the American machine guns.
There were sporadic counterattacks, which were readily repulsed by the Americans and French. The lines wavered back and forth, and then came a sudden shift of the pivot of the entire German action in the Soissons-Rheims salient. The Marne was no longer an object to be gained, but rather a danger to flee from.
FORWARD WITH FOCH
American forces mingled with French troops on all sides of the German salient when General Foch struck its western side. In proportion to the combined number of French, British and Italian troops, they were not many. For that reason their achievements stood out with greater distinction; inferiority of numbers made their exploits conspicuous. They were with the French south of Soissons, on the southwest corner of the salient, west of Château-Thierry, along the Marne east of that town, and east of Rheims, the latter outside the salient proper. They were thus in the full swing of the Foch counteroffensive which finally was to crumble the salient to extinction and bring them along its top at the Vesle River.
No clearly defined picture can be drawn of their share in this advance. Their operations blended too intimately with the French movements. Here and there the situation in certain areas disclosed Americans to be acting on their own initiative. But in the main it was a Franco-American operation. The movements of each were interdependent. The advance of both progressed with the uniformity of a curved chain dragged from each end along a highway. There were dents and wrigglings in the chain at times; but it moved on.
The advance lent a significance to the earlier operations of the Americans northwest of Château-Thierry, when they straightened their line by extending it to the outskirts of Torcy, capturing Belleau Wood, Bouresches and Vaux. From this line,along a front of forty kilometers to Soissons, the attack was made at 4.45 on the morning of July 18, 1918. The perspective is too long for its development to be described with clearness. Only glimpses can be obtained of the American participation at points where there were eyewitnesses.
What was clear was that in their initial effort the Americans carried all before them. By the late afternoon they had proceeded so fast that cavalry was thrown into action. By night American headquarters—a movable fixture that day—were well inside territory held by the Germans in the morning. The line, in short, before the day was over, had advanced at varying depths, the most being ten kilometers, or a little over six miles, and the day's captures by the Americans embraced a number of towns, over 4,000 prisoners, fifty cannon, thousands of machine guns, vast quantities of munitions and stores, and airplanes.
Foch's counterattack apparently did not at first contemplate an assault on the southern arc of the salient formed by the Marne. But his success in breaking into the western flank evidently encouraged him to extend his operations to the south. Here American energies came into full play. Early in the day on July 19, 1918, the Germans had premonitions of what was to happen, and hastily prepared to withdraw from the positions they had retained on the south bank. The previous day they had been clinging in small numbers to the crook of the river near Jaulgonne, but southeast of that place, on to Oeuilly, thousands held positions won in their advance across the river, as already described. Hereabout, along the Dormans line, they were eight kilometers south of the Marne. Between Château-Thierry and Jaulgonne they had failed to hold the southern bank and had to retreat. So from these points the ground was in the hands of the Americans and French for offensive purposes, and they set about attacking the German positions early on July 19, 1918, on the west, south, and also east of Dormans. They signalized the attack with short but intense artillery work, putting down a barrage along the river bank, to prevent the Germans from retreating without paying a heavy price for having ventured so far south.
"The advance proceeded well from the start," wrote one onlooker. "By 4 o'clock the Germans were as far east as six kilometers west of Dormans. South of Dormans the enemy, with his retreat cut off, made a determined but vain stand.
"By 6 o'clock detachments of Americans and French reached the river bank in one place, and soon after a message was flashed to all the armies that the Germans had been put back across the Marne.
"The German artillery gave the men very poor support, and the chief fighting on their part was done with machine guns. The reason of the lack of German artillery work is explained in a report of American aviators that the Germans were busy all yesterday afternoon drawing back their guns from the heights north of the river.
"While we were pushing north from Château-Thierry to Dormans the French, with the Americans on their left, attacked the region of Oeuilly, gaining that place and pushing the enemy back on Chatillon, north of the river."
A further clearance was made by the Americans northwest of Château-Thierry. One of their lines ran round Hill 204, which the Germans had just evacuated, after holding it for five weeks. In Franco-American hands the hill swung the line more to the east in the track of the general advance. The movement in this direction caused the withdrawal of German forces holding the northern part of Château-Thierry. On July 21, 1918, the whole city was occupied by the French and Americans. Strong positions were established on the north of the river, bridges were thrown across, guns were brought up, and heavy firing was directed over the river to prevent German bombers from interfering with Franco-American troops crossing over. Jaulgonne was presently occupied by American troops.
When the Americans crossed the Marne they discovered that the Germans sought to deceive the Allied air bombers, who were seeking out bridges and boats along the river and otherwise preventing the Germans from crossing the stream.
The Americans found submerged boats and floats, held down by rocks, but so arranged that they could be made accessiblefor use by the Germans in short order for crossing. In some instances these floats spanned the river and were held by cables, and it required only a short time to float them.
The Germans did not get a chance to use their impromptu bridges, but the French and Americans made use of the floats when they came in pursuit of the enemy.
There was now a general advance from the north of the Marne, hitherto securely held by the Germans. Some fifteen kilometers north of Château-Thierry, behind a series of hills forming an almost continuous ridge, the Germans had established artillery positions, and on the hill itself their infantry waited, prepared for a stand, with machine guns. The French and Americans advanced, their backs at last to the Marne, despite the artillery fire from the hill to cover the slow retreat of the Germans. The latter continued their backward movement with sullen and stubborn rear-guard actions, leaving numbers of machine-gun nests in the path of the Franco-American movement. At times the Americans encountered the stiffest resistance, which took the form of counterattacks rather than defensive retreats. A village in this sector being reduced by the American guns, as its occupation by the Germans was imminent, the enemy was thus forced into the open, where heavy punishment was inflicted. The fighting was so fierce as almost to rob it of the suggestion that it was a rear-guard action. Nevertheless, during the intense struggle the work of moving stores was under way. With a minimum artillery fire on both sides the Americans advanced their skirmish line over yellow wheat fields, dotted with poppies, and through clumps of wood. It was Indian fighting, modernized by machine-gun work. Fighting in open order in this way brought the American line by July 22, 1918, to more than ten kilometers north of Château-Thierry, and beyond Bezu-St. Germain.
FIGHTING THROUGH FORESTS
Now came a bitter struggle for the possession of Epieds and Trugny, to the east and southeast of Bezu-St. Germain. Below Trugny lay Barbillon Wood, also an objective of the attackers. The Germans viciously defended these points. A give-and-take battle raged round the two towns all day on July 23, 1918; but in the region of Barbillon Wood the Germans fell back, burning depots and ammunition and supply dumps, and evacuating many farms which had been strongly fortified for defense. The fighting extended still farther east in front of Jaulgonne and Charteves. The American progress here was made in the face of most obstinate resistance by the Germans, who fought every foot. Even when making steps backward, they endeavored to render the American progress costly by leaving behind German machine gunners cleverly concealed in nests. These gunners were not told that the main body was withdrawing, and were left at the mercy of the advance. Several of them when captured expressed unfeigned surprise when told that their comrades had withdrawn.
Châtelet Forest was another stumblingblock. Several sallies into these woods having proved abortive, the French swung round to the north, and the Americans to the south. Machine guns and American light artillery played on the woods, and the Germans were finally uprooted from their main ambushes there. It was one of the positions the Germans had chosen for the stand after their withdrawal from the Marne.
The terrain was mostly woody in the area above the Marne where the Franco-American line had reached. The fighting was therefore pursued in the midst of concealed antagonists. In the forest of Barbillon the Germans had a machine gun screened every ten yards of their front. Their hidden artillery impeded American reenforcements. The attackers had to beat their way into the woods, encountering rocky ledges that formed excellentnests for enemy machine guns. The German positions were excellent for defensive fighting; but with the slow but sure closing in of their western flank, and a like movement proceeding east of them, the woods would become traps if they retained them. They did not retain them. They merely fought spitefully to impede the Franco-American progress and safeguard the retreat of their main forces out of the dangerous Marne pocket.
They desperately clung to the region of Epieds and Trugny. At this point German infantry, which had been pushed back, were thrust forward again to check the Franco-American advance from the southwest toward Fère-en-Tardenois.
"The Germans," reported Reuter's correspondent with the American troops, "fought well and checked the advance for some thirty-six hours, and three times wrested the village of Epieds from their determined American opponents. In the meantime the village grew constantly smaller under the ceaseless bombardment from both sides and finally disappeared, not even a large pile of bricks being left behind.
"When the village disappeared the Germans were in possession. The Americans, tired of the ceaseless ebb and flow of the fighting there, had taken the slopes on either flank and forced the Germans to make their final massed attack into the ruins of the village.
"Meanwhile the Allied guns had been brought up beyond the crest of the hill, and as soon as the Germans took possession of the village they concentrated a terrific fire upon it until the place smoked with its own red dust as though on fire. When the guns ceased firing there were no Germans left to capture, or even to bury.
"At the edge of the wood beyond Trugny the German machine guns, stationed ten yards apart, held up the advance a little longer. Making a feint frontal attack, however, the Americans crept, Indian fashion, around the flanks and captured all the guns.
"Afterward the pace of the advance quickened. All the high ground north of Epieds was taken and the line carried beyond Courpoil."
A series of like local actions brought the Franco-American line by July 25, 1918, well beyond the foregoing points and into the region of the Fère and Riz forests, where the Germans had retreated from Epieds. They were dense woods of poplar and oak rising amid thick underbrush. Hidden among the clustered foliage, German machine gunners desperately contended for every inch of ground before surrendering it. They vainly tried to hold the French and Americans in the southern part of the Riz forest with the object of saving huge supplies gathered there. An examination of the woods afterward showed hundreds of tons of ammunition for big German guns, piled six feet high in rows a hundred yards long for some distances. This ammunition had been stored there to be used in the advance on Paris.
By a flanking movement above the forest of Fère the Americans carried the village of Beuvardes, making their line run from that point through the northern part of Fère forest to Le Charmel and through the Riz forest southeast to above Dormans. Le Charmel, which lies on the Jaulgonne road, with a wooded hill on each side, changed hands twice before taken by the Americans. The Germans had strong machine gun positions both in the village and on the hills. Their fire raked the Americans when they charged the village and compelled them to retire. Later, assisted by comrades from the two forests, the Americans overcame the Germans, who withdrew from Le Charmel slowly and stubbornly.
By July 27, 1918, the Franco-American forces had driven the Germans almost entirely out of the wooded area they had been so obstinately defending. The pressure was constantly maintained toward the road junction of Fère-en-Tardenois, the Franco-American objective, and thither the pursuers progressed through the remainder of the dense woods and over rain-soaked fields and hills on their outskirts.
In the course of this forest fighting the troops were warned to watch for Germans wearing American or French uniforms, a device they had successfully practiced. Rushing across an open place in the forest when German nests had been discovered,a German, speaking perfect English, called to American machine gunners:
"Don't shoot. There are Americans in that thicket."
The Americans were at the edge of the forest, firing into a wood opposite. They ceased when the detachment appeared. The detachment entered a forest to the right of the Americans, and in a few minutes a hail of machine-gun bullets came from that direction. The Americans realized that they had been duped, and turned their machine guns upon the impostors.
On July 28, 1918, the Americans were on the south bank of the Ourcq. This river, intended by the Germans to be a halting line, but which they could not hold, marked a notable point in the American progress from the banks of the Marne. Foch's forward movement from the west and southwest had been proceeding simultaneously and now became merged along this river into the movement up from the south.
American participation from the west had been less conspicuous; but American troops left their mark, whatever their zone of operations, and in this area they made their presence painfully felt south of Soissons. At the beginning of the western advance, east of Vierzy and northeast of Chaudon, they encountered the pick of the German shock troops after fighting for thirty hours. The result was that the youthful Americans, meeting the kaiser's best, who were fresh and in the pink of condition, themselves essayed the task of becoming shock troops. They had reached their objectives, a varying number of miles eastward, and were consolidating their positions when the shock came. Against one American unit two German shock divisions were hurled; against another came the famous Prussian Guards. The Germans had machine guns mounted on wheels and rolled them to the edge of the woods where the fighting occurred. These guns shot explosive bullets at the Americans. Shock troops came to close grips with shock troops—and the Franco-American advance was not only sustained but extended.
SERGY AND SERINGES
The next striking feature of American participation in the squeezing of the Germans out of the Soissons-Marne-Rheims salient was the crossing of the Ourcq and the taking of Sergy and Seringes just beyond that river. The Germans had meant to make a stand on the north bank of the Ourcq and hold the Americans on the south bank while their main withdrawal was effected to the Vesle; but the charge of the Americans over the river balked this plan. The fighting thus shifted to the north side, where the Germans, reenforced by two divisions of Bavarian Guards, settled down to resist the Americans to the utmost. Although heavily assailed, the Americans replied in kind, especially in and out of Sergy, three miles southeast of Fère-en-Tardenois. The Germans bent all their strength toward forcing a recrossing of the Ourcq. The Americans held their ground, and it was the Germans who finally had to yield, but only after vicious and bitter fighting.
The Americans began their attack on Sergy early on the morning of Saturday, July 27, 1918. By night they had been driven back some distance, but on Sunday morning, when they resumed their advance under cover of their artillery—a few pieces going forward with their advanced line—they proceeded almost unchecked to the river, crossed the river and entered the town. The Germans used gas; but the Americans had long ago had their baptism of gas fumes and knew how to utilize their masks and avoid the ravines through which the gas filtered. When the town was occupied there was some street fighting, which the Germans abandoned by retiring to higher ground beyond. On Monday morning, July 29, 1918, came a counterattack by the Fourth Prussian Guard Division, which had arrived only a few hours before from their training ground in Lorraine. A conflict then ensued which ebbed and flowed constantly, the town changing hands nine times before it was won.
The Americans immediately advanced two miles, again defeating the Prussian Guards and Bavarians, though the latter succeeded in winning Cierges, southeast of Sergy, and holding it for a spell. By the night of July 30, 1918, the Americans were well to the north of Sergy, on long slopes approaching heavy woods beyond Nesle, a town directly east of Seringes-et-Nesle, for which the Germans fought bitterly.
As a preliminary to the attack on Seringes, a strongly fortified position, Meury Farm, had to be taken, as from the farm the Seringes defenses could be outflanked and approached by a less steep ascent than by a direct attack. In this group of farm buildings the Germans had, on their withdrawal, left behind a strong force of machine gunners and infantry, which set up a strong defense.
"The Americans," ran one account, "moved forward through the yellow wheat fields, which were sprayed and torn by bullets. But they advanced as though on a drill ground.
"The American guns laid down a heavy artillery fire, but notwithstanding this many Germans remained when it came to hand-to-hand fighting. The Germans stuck to their guns, and the Americans rushed them and killed the gunners at their post.
"It was a little battle, without mercy, and typical of similar engagements along the whole line. The Prussian Guards and Bavarians everywhere fought in accordance with their training, discipline, and traditions, but were outwitted and outfought.
"To the north of the farm, up the long slopes leading to the woods, the Americans encountered the fiercest exhibition of Germany's war science. The Germans laid down a barrage which, it was said, was as heavy as had ever been employed. The American guns replied as heavily.
"On through the barrage the Americans went into the German positions, attacking fiercely the machine-gun and infantry detachments. The barrage died away, the Germans leaving the work of resistance to the men they had failed to protect with their heavy guns.
"The Germans were decimated and the Americans held their new line, just east of the forest. Not many prisoners weretaken, but here and there a few were rounded up and brought in. One sergeant contributed fourteen. He attacked eighteen Germans who had become separated from their command, killing four of them and capturing the others. Heavy execution was done by the Americans. Eight captured Guards said that they were all that remained of a company of eighty-six."
The way was now open for the assault on Seringes, which the enemy held in great strength. The village was also protected by machine-gun nests on either side. "The attack," wrote Reuter's correspondent, "was an almost incredible affair for the coolness with which it was carried out and for the mere fact that it could be done under such conditions." The village changed hands five times. After its first capture by the Americans on Monday, July 29, 1918, the Germans forbore returning with the usual infantry counterattack, but kept up a constant artillery and machine-gun fire. This attempt to drive the Americans out continued all the next day. Toward evening the Germans, evidently thinking that the spirit of the defenders was weakening under such withering fire, emerged from the Nesle forest to retake the village.
"The Americans," said Reuter's correspondent, "after three days of to-and-fro fighting through villages, had learned subtlety and were determined to have a real fight to a finish. They consequently pretended to withdraw as though retiring from Seringes. Some of them did withdraw, but others remained in the houses and other points of vantage, and the Germans crept down from the high ground convinced they had their opponents beaten. Additional German troops came pouring in until the town was occupied as it never had been before.
"But as the new occupants began to organize their defenses they found that bullets appeared to be coming in from three sides of the village, and it was not long before they discovered that the Americans, while withdrawing from the front of the town, had commenced an encircling movement on both sides, thus forming a ring almost completely around it.
"The Americans used machine guns, rifles, and pistols, and employed both the bayonet and the rifle butt with great effectiveness.The fighting in the streets was savage, but of comparatively brief duration.
"The Prussian Guard had voted not to surrender, and their opponents were just as anxious to see the thing through. It became an affair of small arms, but the Americans proved to be better shots, and slowly picked off men here and there.
"Then the Americans began to advance, and slowly their encircling ring closed about the village. As the ring drew closer and the defenders saw their doom approaching, they redoubled their fire; but still the Americans came on unfalteringly, like a storm, or the unavoidable stroke of fate.
"When the Americans reached the precincts of the village their fire ceased, and with one wild yell they closed with the foe. The fierce uproar suddenly gave place to a strange silence as man grappled with man. Only the clash of steel on steel and the groans of the stricken could be heard.
"The issue was never in doubt for an instant. At this kind of fighting the American is more than equal to any Prussian Guardsman, and in a little more than ten minutes all was over. Except for a few German prisoners, every German in the village had breathed his last. Such was the final capture of Seringes."
The Americans awaited the coming of other Germans, but they came not. So the French and Americans moved on beyond the village, straightening out the line from that point to Cierges by bringing their heavy artillery to bear on mile after mile of barbed wire which the Germans had placed through the hills, forests, and other open places.
The Americans reached Fismes, on the Vesle River, on August 2, 1918, the Germans retreating before them. They had advanced about forty kilometers in fifteen days, fourteen kilometers having been gained in the last two days of their pursuit. On July 18, 1918, they were intrenched only about Château-Thierry to Belleau; now they were in the heart of the German salient, which, thanks largely to American aid, was a salient no more.
THE PEACE WITHOUT TREATY
Throughout the first ten days of February, 1918, the world waited impatiently and anxiously for a final conclusion to the peace conference between the representatives of Russia and the Central Powers, at Brest-Litovsk. Trotzky was still the central figure. Meanwhile the Bolsheviki leaders were straining every effort to spread their propaganda throughout the civilian populations of the Central Powers, as well as among the soldiers on the eastern front. Rumors of strikes in Germany inclined even those who had previously been skeptical to believe that the Bolsheviki method might yet gain a great victory for the cause of the democratic nations.
Ukrainia, as already noted, had declared itself an independent nation, with a republican form of government, professedly socialistic in tendency, with Vinitchenko as President. As a matter of fact, however, the Rada, or Ukrainian legislative assembly, was almost completely in the hands of the landowners who, naturally, were bitterly opposed to Bolshevikism and its program of land nationalization. Against them had risen the Bolsheviki elements of Ukrainia, supported by the Petrograd Bolsheviki. The conflict between the two factions had created a state of civil war. The landowners' Rada had sent delegates to the peace conference, and at first the Petrograd delegation, under the chairmanship of Trotzky, had raised no objection against the Teutons recognizing them as the proper representatives of Ukrainia. But during the last days of January, 1918, came reports of the militarysuccess of the Ukrainian Bolsheviki, even that they had captured Odessa and Kiev, and then Trotzky contended that the Ukrainians at Brest-Litovsk no longer truly represented their constituency. The Germans, however, had forestalled him by quickly recognizing Ukrainian independence under the Rada.
The German policy was obvious. By recognizing the conservative Rada, they created a split among the Russian delegates as a whole. Furthermore, they realized that the Ukrainian landowners feared the Bolsheviki domestic program far more than they feared German domination, and in whatever treaty they entered into would offer large concessions in return for German military aid against Bolsheviki domination. Thus the Central Powers suddenly found an ally in the Ukrainian Republic. It also gave them a moral pretext for their attitude toward the provinces under dispute: Courland and Lithuania, and parts of Livonia and Esthonia and what had formerly been Russian Poland, whose populations, the Germans contended, had already declared themselves for German suzerainty.
The session of the Brest-Litovsk peace conference which was held on February 9, 1918, was the one at which both sides concluded their arguments and worked up to the climax of the following day. That same day the Teutonic delegates had signed a treaty of peace with the Ukrainian delegates.
"We have officially informed you," said Trotzky, "that the Ukrainian Rada was deposed, yet the negotiations with a non-existent government have been continued. We proposed to the Austro-Hungarian delegation that a special committee should be sent to Kiev, in order to verify our contention that the Kiev Rada no longer exists and that further negotiations with its delegation would have no value. We were told that this would be done and that the delegates of the Central Powers would not sign a peace treaty until the return of the investigating commission. Now we are told that the signing of the peace treaty could no longer be postponed.... Such conduct arouses doubts of the sincerity of the Central Powers.... The conduct of the other side, so far as this question is concerned, gives us the impression that they are endeavoring to make the situation impossible for us. Wecannot consider any treaty binding to the Russian Federal Republic which is not signed by our delegation."
The main point of difference, however, remained the same as before: the refusal of the Central Powers to withdraw from what had been Russian territory, in order to allow the populations to decide for themselves what their governments should be. This was the ultimatum of the Germans, as worded by Von Kühlmann: "Russia must agree to the following territorial changes which will enter into force after the ratification of the peace treaty. The regions between the frontiers of Germany and Austria-Hungary and the indicated line will not be in the future a dependency of Russia. As a result of their former adhesion to the Russian Empire no obligations will bind them to Russia. The future destiny of these regions will be settled in agreement with the peoples concerned, namely, on the basis of those agreements which have been concluded between them and Germany and Austria-Hungary."
In the afternoon the conference was adjourned that the delegates might consult among themselves. The last and climaxial session was held on the following day, the 10th, when Trotzky, after a hot denunciation of German imperialism, declared that Russia would never agree to the German terms and would refuse to sign any treaty on such a basis. At the same time he declared that Russia would not fight any longer and would withdraw from the war. This decision was approved at Petrograd and an order for the demobilization of the Russian armies had been sent out.
This unprecedented conclusion rather nonplused the German delegates and deeply displeased them. Kühlmann was of the opinion, however, that Russia could not end her participation in the war in this fashion; that peace could only be brought about by a special treaty, in the absence of which the state of war would automatically be resumed at the termination of the armistice, which had only been arranged for the purpose of arranging a peace by understanding. The fact that one of the parties concerned was demobilizing its forces would not change the situation. The Russian version of the session, as given out officially from Petrograd, was as follows:
"Yesterday, at the session of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the Councils, the president of the peace delegation, Trotzky, reported on the course and results of the negotiations at Brest-Litovsk. Not only the representatives of those political parties constituting the Government majority, but the representatives of the opposition groups as well, recognized the fact that the decision taken by the Council of the People's Commissaries was the only correct one and the course which could be taken with dignity. The speakers of the majority and the opposition put forward the question as to whether there was the possibility of a resumption of German hostilities against Russia. Nearly all were of the opinion that such an offensive was extremely unlikely, but all uttered warning against too optimistic an attitude in this regard, because the war party elements in Germany might force the German Government to such a course. In the opinion of all the speakers it would be the duty of all Russian citizens, in such a case, to defend the interests of the revolution. All were of the opinion, however, that the masses of Germany and Austria-Hungary would not allow a resumption of hostilities against the Russian socialists, because such a course would be too obviously a raid for plunder. The People's Commissary for Foreign Affairs concluded this report with the statement that Russia is withdrawing from the war not only in appearance, but in reality. It is canceling all agreements with its former allies, and reserves perfect freedom of action for itself in the future. At the conclusion of the session a resolution was passed approving the action of the delegation to the Brest-Litovsk Conference."
The first general news of peace with Russia caused public rejoicing in Germany and Austria-Hungary, but when the details became known the German and Austrian papers showed the bitter disappointment which prevailed.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainians were further playing into the hands of the Central Powers, spurred on by the domestic situation. Said the "Cologne Gazette," for February 17, 1918:
"Our bread peace with the Ukraine is threatened. Fighting between the Bolsheviki and the Rada already has brought the Rada government into such peril that it has been transferredfrom Kiev to Zhitomir, and the suburbs of Kiev are already in the hands of the Bolsheviki.... The Bolsheviki are rushing troops to reenforce the anti-Rada forces.... Further fighting is to be expected, of serious significance to us."
The true significance of the pact between the Ukrainian landlords and the Germans became still more obvious on February 17, 1918, when an appeal "to the German people" was published. In this document the bourgeois character of the Rada Government was indignantly denied and socialistic principles were proclaimed. The Bolsheviki were bitterly denounced and accused of possessing nothing more than a desire for conquest and pillage. Having thus prepared the German mind for its reception, the appeal is delivered in the final paragraph, in the following words:
"In this hard struggle for existence we look around for help. We are firmly convinced that the peaceful and order-loving German people will not remain indifferent when it learns of our distress. The German Army, standing on the flank of our northern enemy, has the power to help us and, by its intervention, to protect the northern frontiers against further invasion by the enemy. This is what we have to say in this dark hour, and we feel confident that our voice will be heard."
Such was the moral pretext of the Central Powers for a further invasion of Russia. In return for the protection of their private property, the landowners constituting the Rada Government were willing to accept German domination and to send all surplus foodstuffs across the frontier.
Germany gave ample warning of her intention to continue active hostilities at the expiration of the armistice at noon on February 18, 1918. It was officially announced that this decision had been taken at a conference of all the German war chiefs and political leaders, attended also by the emperor. Austria-Hungary, however, took a very much more moderate stand and showed strong disinclination to renew the war. The Vienna papers were practically unanimous in their opinion that Austria had no further business in Russia, since there was no longer a common frontier, and with Ukrainia there was a definite peacetreaty. On February 18, 1918, it was officially announced from Vienna that "an agreement has been reached between Germany and Austria-Hungary whereby, in the event of military action being necessary, the German troops will be confined to the frontier of Great Russia, and the Austrians to the Ukraine only."
THE GERMANS RENEW HOSTILITIES WITH RUSSIA
At 2 o'clock in the afternoon of the 18th, just two hours after the armistice had expired, German troops began pouring across the Dvina Bridge. The disorganized Russians fled before them, allowing the Germans to occupy Dvinsk unopposed. Up and down the whole eastern front the German lines began a simultaneous movement eastward, the immediate object being the occupation of the territory coveted by Germany, the moral pretext being that Germany desired to rescue the oppressed population from the anarchy of Bolsheviki rule. Farther south an advance was also made into Ukrainia, but there it was on the invitation of the Ukrainians themselves, according to the Germans.
The news of the German advance acted on the Petrograd authorities like an electric shock, awakening them from their delusions. There was something of panic in the haste with which the Council of People's Commissaries, the body corresponding to the Cabinet of other governments, assembled for conference the moment the news reached the capital. Throughout the whole night they remained in session, in hot argument over the question of capitulation or resistance.
On this vital issue the two leading figures of the Bolsheviki Government split; Lenine was in favor of unconditional surrender to the German demands, while Trotzky declared himself for continued resistance. Had he remained of this mind he might have changed the course of events, but before the questionwas put to vote, he swung over to Lenine, and the Council decided in favor of surrender, but only by one vote.
Early next morning the Council issued a proclamation, to the effect that "under the present circumstances the Council of the People's Commissaries regards itself as forced formally to declare its willingness to sign a peace upon the conditions which had been dictated by the delegations of the Quadruple Alliance at Brest-Litovsk." Later in the day Ensign Krylenko, the commander in chief, issued a general order to his armed forces in which they were enjoined to attempt to parley with all forces of armed Germans they might encounter and persuade them to desist from advancing farther into Russian territory, but in case these attempts failed, then a determined resistance should be made.
The decision of Petrograd to capitulate had been communicated to German headquarters by wireless. Late in the afternoon the German commander, General Hoffmann, replied to the effect that the message had been received, but since a wireless message could not bear signatures, without which no communication could be regarded as official, he requested the Petrograd authorities to forward the same message in written form, properly signed, to German headquarters at Dvinsk. A courier was immediately sent with an authentic copy of the Russian capitulation to Dvinsk.
The Germans, however, were in no hurry to respond. The German soldiers continued their eastward advance day by day, practically unopposed, gathering in some 10,000 prisoners and vast quantities of arms, heavy guns, ammunition and other war material. By February 21 German forces had arrived seventy miles northeast of Riga, and Esthonia was completely occupied.
By this time it began to dawn on the Bolsheviki leaders in Petrograd that the Germans meant to occupy all the territory they desired before they would reopen negotiations. On February 22, 1918, a proclamation was promulgated, in the following terms:
"We agreed to sign peace terms at the cost of enormous concessions in order to save the country from final exhaustion and the ruin of the revolution. Once more the German working class, in this threatening hour, has shown itself insufficiently determinedto stay the strong criminal hand of its own militarism. We had no other choice than to accept the conditions of German imperialism until a revolution changes or cancels them. The German Government is not in a hurry to reply to us, evidently aiming to seize as many important positions in our territory as possible. The enemy has occupied Dvinsk, Werder, and Lutsk, and is continuing to strangle by hunger the most important centers of the revolution. Even now we are firmly convinced that the German working class will rise against the attempts of the ruling class to stifle the revolution, but we cannot predict with certainty when this will occur.... The Commissaries call on all loyal councils and army organizations to use all efforts to recreate the army. Perverted elements of hooligans, marauders and cowards should be expelled from the ranks, and, in the event of resistance, be wiped out of existence. The bourgeoisie, who under Kerensky and the Czar evaded the burden of war and profited from its misfortunes, must be made to fulfill their duties by the most decisive and merciless measures.... The German generals desire to establish their own order in Petrograd and Kiev. The republic is in the gravest danger. The duty of Russian workingmen and peasants is defense to the death of the republic against the masses of bourgeoisie and imperialists of Germany. German militarism wishes to smother the working classes and the Ukrainian masses, to give back the land to the landowners, factories and workshops to the bankers, and power to a monarchy."
Finally the Germans condescended to open negotiations with the Russians once more. On February 23, 1918, Foreign Secretary von Kühlmann opened up communication with Petrograd, offering to arrange a new peace conference. The terms could not now, of course, be so generous as were those offered at Brest-Litovsk, the negotiations must be concluded within forty-eight hours and ratified within two weeks.
As outlined by Von Kühlmann, the new conditions were: Livonia and Esthonia immediately to be cleared of Russian troops; this territory to be policed by the Germans until such a time as these countries should establish governments of theirown. An immediate peace between northern Russia and the Ukrainians. Ukrainia and Finland to be evacuated by all Russian forces. A complete demobilization of the Russian armies, including the newly organized Red Guards. Russian warships in the Black Sea, the Baltic and the Arctic to be interned in Russian harbors, warships of the Entente Powers to undergo similar treatment. Merchant navigation of the Black Sea to be renewed. The Russo-German commercial treaty of 1914 to be enforced again. And all revolutionary propaganda among German soldiers and civilians to be stopped immediately and absolutely.
During the entire night of the day on which this communication was received the Council was in conference, adjourning now and then to allow party caucuses. At first there was a strong feeling in favor of resistance, especially among the members of the opposition. Premier Lenine's influence was thrown strongly in favor of peace and an unconditional acceptance of the terms which the enemy offered.
In the early morning of Sunday, the 24th, the Central Executive Committee decided to accept the German terms, by a vote of 112 against 84. The German Government was then informed that a Russian representative would leave immediately for Dvinsk, carrying with him the official acceptance of the German terms. A new peace delegation was elected to attend the coming conference, for both Trotzky and Joffe, who had been the leaders of the first commission, refused to serve again. Meanwhile a request had been made to the German military commander that another armistice be declared, to last until the conclusion of the peace negotiations. But this request the Germans flatly refused, and the German armies continued their advance eastward.
This policy on the part of the Germans, to continue military aggression to the last moment, finally roused a fighting spirit among the Bolsheviki organizations. Under the supervision of the Petrograd Soviet extensive preparations were made to renew armed resistance. Recruits to the Red Guard regiments were enlisted and armed with feverish haste and hurried out to the front, to take the place of the fleeing regulars, who were completely useless and demoralized. Fully 100,000 joined the RedGuard detachments, among them being many officers of the old army who, without sympathizing with Bolsheviki principles, joined them from pure patriotism.
The results of these exertions were soon made manifest on the fighting front, for now came reports indicating that the Germans were obliged to fight desperately to make any headway. On February 26, 1918, the Russians made so determined a resistance at and near Pskov that the Germans were temporarily driven back and halted for several days, until they could bring up their heavy ordnance.
On March 3, 1918, the Germans announced that they had ceased hostilities, the Russian delegation to Brest-Litovsk, where the second conference was held, having signed the peace treaty. They then reported the capture of 6,800 officers, 57,000 men, 2,400 cannon, 5,000 machine guns, 800 locomotives, and large quantities of other war material. The territory overrun was all that part of Russia lying west of a line drawn from Narva, on the Gulf of Finland, due south to Kiev, including Russian Poland, Lithuania, Esthonia, Livonia, and the outlying islands in the Gulf of Finland. By refusing to sign a treaty of peace at the first conference the Russians lost territories amounting to almost one-quarter of Russia in Europe, inhabited by about a third of the total population. By the new treaty the Russians lost Finland, Poland, Ukrainia, Lithuania, Esthonia, Livonia, Courland, and a portion of Transcaucasia, southeast of the Black Sea.
THE PEACE TREATY THAT WAS SIGNED
The Russian delegates at the second peace conference had signed practically blindfolded. Gradually the German terms were given out to the world. Probably nothing during the war, except the sinking of theLusitania, had so contributed to turning sympathy in neutral countries away from Germany as the conditionswhich were forced on Russia. The following summary gives the outstanding features of the treaty of peace which still exists between Russia and the Central Powers:
An end to all propaganda among the soldiers and civil populations of the Central Powers. Russia to relinquish all claims to the territory occupied and held by the Germans, the fate of these countries to be decided by Germany. Russia must evacuate the Anatolian provinces taken from Turkey, as well as the districts of Kars, Erivan and Batum. Russia must demobilize all her armies. All Russian warships to be interned in Russian harbors until a general peace has been declared. Russia must conclude an immediate peace with the Ukrainian Republic and recognize the treaty of peace between Ukrainia and the Central Powers. All revolutionary propaganda in Ukrainia must cease. Finland and the Aland Islands must be evacuated by all Russian armed forces, both military and naval. A general exchange of prisoners of war is to be begun at once.
The document presenting these terms had yet to be ratified by the highest ruling powers in Russia, and, according to the German demands, within two weeks. Trotzky, hitherto the dominating figure of the Bolsheviki party, was apparently opposed to the acceptance of the treaty and refused to be a delegate to the final peace conference, as already noted. For this reason he also resigned as Foreign Minister, declaring that he could not agree with the point of view of Lenine, and was succeeded by Tchitcherin. Trotzky was now made chairman of the newly created government of Petrograd, known as the Petrograd Labor Commune, which was responsible "for the safeguarding of revolutionary order and defending the city from the enemy."
The treaty was presented for ratification to a Pan-Soviet Congress, held in Moscow on March 14-16, 1918, the Soviet Government being by this time established in Moscow. The Congress consisted of 1,164 delegates, the majority being soldiers, sailors, and workingmen, with Bolshevist constituencies in the industrial centers, the peasants being represented in a much smaller proportion. Of the total number 732 delegates weredeclared partisans of Lenine; thirty-eight were Socialist Revolutionists, with more moderate tendencies than the Bolsheviki.
Again Lenine strongly advocated for peace at any price, contending, as before, that it would be only a matter of time until the working classes of the whole world would overthrow their capitalist and imperial masters and come to the rescue of the Russian proletariat. The treaty was finally ratified by a vote of 704 against 261. Two Bolshevist commissaries, Debenko and Kolantai, and four Socialist Revolutionaries, Steinberg, Kalagaiev, Karelin and Broshian, resigned their posts in the cabinet when the result was announced.
At the congress the following telegram from President Wilson was read, at the opening session:
"May I not take advantage of the meeting of the Congress of the Soviets to express the sincere sympathy which the people of the United States feel for the Russian people at this moment when the German power has been thrust in to interrupt and turn back the whole struggle for freedom and substitute the wishes of Germany for the purpose of the people of Russia? Although the Government of the United States is, unhappily, not now in a position to render the direct and effective aid it would wish to render, I beg to assure the people of Russia through the Congress that it will avail itself of every opportunity to secure for Russia once more complete sovereignty and independence in her own affairs and full restoration to her great rôle in the life of Europe and the modern world.
"The whole heart of the people of the United States is with the people of Russia in the attempt to free themselves forever from autocratic government and become the masters of their own life."
The following day the Congress adopted the following reply to President Wilson's message of sympathy:
"The Congress expresses its gratitude to the American people, above all to the laboring and exploited classes of the United States, for the sympathy expressed to the Russian people by President Wilson through the Congress of Soviets in the days of severe trials. The Russian Socialistic Federative Republic ofSoviets takes advantage of President Wilson's communication to express to all peoples perishing and suffering from the horrors of imperialistic war its warm sympathy and firm belief that the happy time is not far distant when the laboring classes of all countries will throw off the yoke of capitalism and will establish a socialistic state of society, which alone is capable of securing just and lasting peace as well as the culture and well-being of all laboring people."