作者：Russell, Thomas Herbert
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America's War for Humanity试读：
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Click on any of the images below to enlarge them.DEDICATION
To the soldiers and sailors of the United States and Canada; to the men of the armies and navies of nations allied with us; to the splendid courage and devotion of American, French, British and Belgian women, who have endured in silence the pain of losses worse than death, and never faltered in works of mercy for which no thanks can ever pay; to all the agencies of good that have helped save civilization and the world from the most dreadful menace of all time, this volume is dedicated.
To the honor of those nations upon whom the laurel of victory has descended. To those who have vouchsafed for us the permanence of the higher ideals of humanity and civilization.
To those who have sheltered posterity from the dominance of barbarity, brutality, serfdom, bigotry and degradation.
To those who have striven against the Teuton and the Turk that God-given and God-ordained freedom may triumph.
To those noble stoics of Belgium, of France, of Serbia, of Roumania, of Poland and all other peoples who have felt the mailed fist of the ruthless oppressor; who have looked upon their devastated fields, their dismantled cathedrals, their violated hearth-stones and the desecrated graves of their kindred, and that peace, tranquillity, contentment and prosperity may again be restored to them in bounteous meed.
To those heroes who by their valor, their vigor and their inspired devotion to right and patriotism have so nobly fought and conquered.
To those martyrs whom God in his immutable manifestations has chosen for the ultimate sacrifice of their lives upon the altar of freedom and humanity's cause.
In honor to these who have attained this glorious victory. In honor to the commingling flags of the allied nations reflecting in their rainbow hues a covenant of everlasting peace in this their hour of triumph, may we all consecrate our purposes and our lives to a brotherhood of mankind, a spirit of broadest humanity and universal peace on earth.
—L.J. Robinson.
PREFACE
With the signing of an armistice November 11, 1918, by the plenipotentiaries of the nations at war, active hostilities were halted while the sweeping terms of the truce were being complied with by Germany. The collapse of the Teutonic forces came with a suddenness that was surprising, and the collapse was complete. The German army and navy ceased to be a menace to the civilized world—and all civilization rejoiced with an exceeding great joy.
Remarkable events in the world's history followed with amazing rapidity, and are duly recorded in all their interesting details in these pages. The flight and abdication of the Kaiser; the abject surrender of the German high seas fleet and submarines to the British Grand Fleet and its American associates; the withdrawal of the defeated German armies from Belgium and France; the return of the French flag to Alsace and Lorraine; the occupation of Metz, Strassburg, Cologne, and Coblentz by Allied and American forces, and the memorable entry of Belgian troops as conquerors into Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen); the sailing of the President of the United States to take part in the Peace Conference—all these events and many others form part of the marvelous record of the recent past, furnishing material that has never been equaled for the use of the historian.
Now the eyes of all America are turned to the eastern horizon, and would fain scan the wide waters of the Atlantic, on the watch for the home-coming heroes of the great conflict. A million young Americans are coming home—but a million more will stay abroad awhile, to safeguard the fruits of victory and insure the safety of the world. Truly the story of their achievements, in permanent form, should find a place in every American home, for in the words of General Pershing, their great commander:
"Their deeds are immortal and they have earned the eternal gratitude of their country."
T.H.R. PRESIDENT WILSON'S WAR MESSAGE I WHY WE WENT TO WAR
Review of America's Good Reasons for Fighting—Memories of Beautiful France—Why I Was Not Accepted as Consul to Germany—Why We Went to War—Work or Fight—Rationing the Nations, by Hon James Martin Miller, Former US Consul to France—What the Yankee Dude'll Do
II UNITED STATES ENTERS THE WAR
The President Proclaims War—Interned Ships Are Siezed—Congress Votes $7,000,000,000 for War—Enthusiasm in the United States—Raising an American Army—War to Victory, Wilson Pledge—British and French Commission Reaches America—American Troops in France
III AMERICANS AT CHATEAU THIERRY
Personal Accounts of Battle—Gas and Shell Shock—Marines Under Fire—Americans Can Fight and Yell—Getting to the Front Under Difficulties—The Big Day Dawns—The Shells Come Fast—A Funeral at the Front—Impression of a French Lieutenant—Keeping the Germans on the Run
IV AMERICAN VICTORY AT ST MIHIEL
First Major Action by All American Army—Stories to Folks Back Home—Huns Carry Off Captive Women—Hell Has Cut Loose—Major Tells His Story—Enormous Numbers of Guns and Tanks—Over the Top at 5: AM—Texas and Oklahoma Troops Fight in True Ranger Style—Our Colored Boys Win Credit
V THE WAR IN THE AIR
Air Craft—Liberty Motors and Air Service—The Danger of Aviation—Air Plane's Tail Shot Off—Champions of the Air—Lieut. Lehr's Personal Stories of Air Fighting at the Front—American Aviator Grabs Iron Cross as Souvenir—Eyes of the Army Always Open
VI CAUSES OF THE WORLD WAR AND HOW WAR WAS DECLARED VII INVASION OF BELGIUM
Belgians Rush to Defense of Their Frontier—Towns Bombarded and Burned —The Defense of Liège—Destruction of Louvain—Fall of Namur—German Proclamation to Inhabitants—Belgian Capital Occupied by the Germans Without Bloodshed—Important Part Played by American Minister Brand Whitlock—March of the Kaiser's Troops Through the City—Belgian Forces Retreat to Antwerp—Dinant and Termonde Fall
VIII BRITAIN RAISES AN ARMY
Earl Kitchener Appointed Secretary for War—A New Volunteer Army—Expeditionary Force Landed in France—Field Marshal Sir John French in Command—Colonies Rally to Britain's Aid—The Canadian Contingent—Indian Troops Called For—Native Princes Offer Aid
IX EARLY BATTLES OF THE WAR
Belgian Resistance to the German Advance—The Fighting at Vise, Haelen, Diest, Aerschot and Tirlemont—Mons and Charleroi the First Great Battles of the War—Allies Make a Gallant Stand, but Forced to Retire Across the French Border
X GERMAN ADVANCE ON PARIS
Allies Withdraw for Ten Days, Disputing Every Inch of Ground with the Kaiser's Troops—Germans Push Their Way Through France in Three Main Columns—Official Reports of the Withdrawing Engagements—Paris Almost in Sight
XII BATTLE OF THE MARNE
German Plans Suddenly Changed—Direction of Advance Swings to the Southeast When Close to the French Capital—Successful Resistance by the Allies—The Prolonged Encounter at the Marne—Germans Retreat, with Allies in Hot Pursuit for Many Miles
XII THE RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN
Slow Mobilization of Troops—Invasion of German and Austrian Territory—Cossacks Lead the Van—Early Successes in East Prussia—"On to Berlin"—Heavy Losses Inflicted on Austrians—German Troops Rushed to the Defense of the Eastern Territory
XIII THE AUSTRO-SERVIAN CAMPAIGN
Declaration of War by Austria—Bombardment of Belgrade—-Servian Capital Removed—Seasoned Soldiers of Servia Give a Good Account of Themselves—Many Indecisive Engagements—Servians in Austrian Territory
XIV STORIES FROM THE BATTLEFIELD
Thrilling Incidents of the Great War Told by Actual Combatants—Personal Experiences from the Lips of Survivors of the World's Bloodiest Battles—Tales of Prisoners of War, Wounded Soldiers, and Refugees Rendered Homeless in the Blighted Arena of Conflict—Hand-to-Hand Fighting—Frightful Mortality Among Officers—How It Feels to Be Wounded—In the "Valley of Death"—A Belgian Boy Hero—A British Cavalry Charge—Spirit of French Women—In the Paris Military Hospital—German Uhlans as Scouts—How a German Prince Died—Fearful State of Battlefields
XV THE MYSTERY OF THE FLEETS
Movements of British Battleships Veiled in Secrecy—German Dreadnoughts in North Sea and Baltic Ports—Activity of Smaller Craft—English Keep Trade Routes Open—Several Minor Battles at Sea
XVI SUBMARINES AND MINES
Battleships in Constant Danger from Submerged Craft—Opinions of Admiral Sir Percy Scott—Construction of Modern Torpedoes—How Mines Are Laid and Exploded on Contact
XVII AERO-MILITARY OPERATIONS
Aerial Attacks on Cities—Some of the Achievements of the Airmen in the Great War—Deeds of Heroism and Daring—Zeppelins in Action—Their Construction and Operation
XVIII BATTLE OF THE AISNE
Most Prolonged Encounter in History Between Gigantic Forces—A Far-Flung Battle Line—Germans Face French and British in the Aisne Valley and Fight for Weeks—Armies Deadlocked After a Desperate and Bloody Struggle
XIX FALL OF ANTWERP
Great Seaport of Belgium Besieged by a Large German Force—Forts Battered by Heavy Siege Guns—Final Surrender of the City—Belgian and British Defenders Escape—Exodus of Inhabitants—Germans Reach the Sea
XX THE WOUNDED AND PRISONERS
Typical Precautions Used by the German Army—The Soldier's First-Aid Outfit—System in Hospital Arrangements—How Prisoners of War Are Treated—Regulations Are Humane and Fair to All Concerned CHAPTER PAGE
XXI HORRORS OF THE WAR
Plan to Send Santa Claus Gifts From America to War-Stricken Children of Europe—A Widespread Response—-Movement Endorsed by Press, Pulpit and Leading Citizens—Approved by Governments of Contending Nations
XXII LATER EVENTS OF THE WAR
Results of the Battle of the Rivers—Fierce Fighting in Northern France—Developments on the Eastern Battle Front—The Campaign in the Pacific—Naval Activities of the Powers
XXIII SINKING OF THE LUSITANIA
Torpedoed by a Submarine—Crisis in German-American Relations—The Diplomatic Exchanges
XXIV A SUMMER OF SLAUGHTER
Submarine Activities—Horrors in Serbia—Bloody Battles East and West—Italy Declares War and Invades Austria—Russians Pushed Back in Galicia
XXV SECOND WINTER OF THE WAR XXVI CLIMAX OF THE WAR XXVII WORLD'S GREATEST SEA FIGHT XXVIII BATTLES EAST AND WEST XXIX CONTINUATION OF WAR IN 1917 XXX GENERAL PERSHING'S OWN STOBY XXXI WHEN THE DAYS OF RECKONING DAWNED XXXII HOME FOLLOWS THE FLAG XXXIII TERMS OF THE ARMISTICE XXXIV HONOR TO THE VICTORS XXXV CHRONOLOGY OF THE WORLD WAR INTRODUCTION
PRESIDENT WILSON'S EPOCHAL ADDRESS
CALLING FOR ACTION AGAINST GERMANY, DELIVERED BY HIM TO THE CONGRESS IN EXTRAORDINARY SESSION, APRIL 3,
"Gentlemen of the Congress: I have called the congress into extraordinary session because there are serious, very serious, choices of policy to be made, and made immediately, which it was neither right nor constitutionally permissible that I should assume the responsibility of making.
"On the 3d of February last I officially laid before you the extraordinary announcement of the imperial German government that on and after the first day of February it was its purpose to put aside all restraints of law or of humanity and use its submarines to sink every vessel that sought to approach either the ports of Great Britain and Ireland or the western coast of Europe or any of the ports controlled by the enemies of Germany within the Mediterranean.
HOPED FOR MODIFIED WARFARE
"That had seemed to be the object of the German submarine warfare earlier in the war, but since April of last year the imperial government had somewhat restrained the commanders of its undersea craft in conformity with its promise then given to us that passenger boats should not be sunk and that due warning would be given to all other vessels which its submarines might seek to destroy, when no resistance was offered or escape attempted, and care taken that their crews were given at least a fair chance to save their lives in their open boats.
"The precautions taken were meager and haphazard enough, as was proved in distressing instance after instance in the progress of the cruel and unmanly business, but a certain degree of restraint was observed.
"The new policy has swept every restriction aside. Vessels of every kind, whatever their flag, their character, their cargo, their destination, their errand, have been ruthlessly sent to the bottom without warning and without thought of help or mercy for those on board, the vessels of friendly neutrals along with those of belligerents.
"Even hospital ships and ships carrying relief to the sorely bereaved and stricken people of Belgium, though the latter were provided with safe conduct through the proscribed area by the German government itself and were distinguished by unmistakable marks of identity, have been sunk with the same reckless lack of compassion or of principle.
RELIED ON LAW OF NATIONS
"I was for a little while unable to believe that such things would be in fact done by any government that had hitherto subscribed to the humane practices of civilized nations.
"International law had its origin in the attempt to set up some law which would be respected and observed upon the seas, where no nation had right of dominion and where lay the free highways of the world. By painful stage after stage has that law been built up, with meager enough results, indeed, after all was accomplished that could be accomplished, but always with a clear view, at least, of what the heart and conscience of mankind demanded.
"This minimum of right the German government has swept aside under the plea of retaliation and necessity and because it had no weapons which it could use at sea except these which it is impossible to employ as it is employing them without throwing to the winds all scruples of humanity or of respect for the understandings that were supposed to underlie the intercourse of the world.
PRESIDENT WILSON'S WAR ADDRESS
CHALLENGE TO ALL MANKIND
"I am not now thinking of the loss of property involved, immense and serious as that is, but only of the wanton and wholesale destruction of the lives of noncombatants, men, women and children, engaged in pursuits which have always, even in the darkest periods of modern history, been deemed innocent and legitimate. Property can be paid for; the lives of peaceful and innocent people cannot be. The present German submarine warfare against commerce is a warfare against mankind.
"It is a war against all nations. American ships have been sunk, American lives taken, in ways which it has stirred us very deeply to learn of, but the ships and people of other neutral and friendly nations have been sunk and overwhelmed in the waters in the same way.
"There has been no discrimination. The challenge is to all mankind. Each nation must decide for itself how it will meet it. The choice we make for ourselves must be made with a moderation of counsel and a temperateness of judgment befitting our character and our motives as a nation. We must put excited feelings away. Our motive will not be revenge or the victorious assertion of the physical might of the nation, but only the vindication of right—of human right—of which we are only a single champion.
"When I addressed the congress on the 26th of February last I thought that it would suffice to assert our neutral rights with arms, our right to use the seas against unlawful interference, our right to keep our people safe against unlawful violence.
"But armed neutrality, it now appears, is impracticable. Because submarines are in effect outlaws when used as the German submarines have been used against merchant shipping, it is impossible to defend ships against their attacks, as the law of nations has assumed that merchantmen would defend themselves against privateers or cruisers, visible craft giving chase upon the open sea.
"It is common prudence in such circumstances, grim necessity, indeed, to endeavor to destroy them before they have shown their own intentions. They must be dealt with upon sight if dealt with at all.
"The German government denies the right of neutrals to use arms at all within the areas of the sea which it has proscribed, even in the defense of rights which no modern publicist has ever before questioned their right to defend.
"The intimation is conveyed that the armed guards which we have placed on our merchant ships will be treated as beyond the pale of law and subject to be dealt with as pirates would be. Armed neutrality is ineffectual enough at best. In such circumstances and in the face of such pretensions it is worse than ineffectual; it is likely only to produce what it was meant to prevent; it is practically certain to draw us into the war without either the rights or the effectiveness of belligerents.
"There is one choice we cannot make, we are incapable of making: We will not choose the path of submission and suffer the most sacred rights of our nation and our people to be ignored or violated. The wrongs against which we now array ourselves are no common wrongs. They cut to the very roots of human life.
MUST ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY
"With a profound sense of the solemn and even tragical character of the step I am taking and of the grave responsibilities which it involves, but in unhesitating obedience to what I deem my constitutional duty, I advise that the congress declare the recent course of the imperial German government to be in fact nothing less than war against the government and people of the United States; that it formally accept the status of belligerent which has thus been thrust upon it; and that it take immediate steps not only to put the country in a more thorough state of defense but also to exert all its power and employ all its resources to bring the government of the German empire to terms and end the war.
COURSE WE MUST PURSUE
"What this will involve is clear. It will involve the utmost practicable co-operation in counsel and action with the governments now at war with Germany and, as incident to that, the extension to those governments of the most liberal financial credits, in order that our resources may so far as possible be added to theirs.
"It will involve the organization and mobilization of all the material resources of the country to supply the materials of war and serve the incidental needs of the nation in the most abundant and yet the most economical and efficient way possible.
"It will involve the immediate full equipment of the navy in all respects, but particularly in supplying it with the best means of dealing with the enemy's submarines.
ARMY OF 500,000 MEN
"It will involve the immediate addition to the armed force of the United States already provided for by law in case of war at least 500,000 men, who should, in my opinion, be chosen upon the principal of universal liability to service, and also the authorization of subsequent additional increments of equal force so soon as they may be needed and can be handled in training.
"It will involve also, of course, the granting of adequate credits to the government, sustained, I hope, so far as they can equitably be sustained by the present generation, by well conceived taxation.
"I say sustained so far as may be equitable by taxation because it seems to me that it would be most unwise to base the credits which will now be necessary entirely on money borrowed. It is our duty, I most respectfully urge, to protect our people, so far as we may, against the very serious hardships and evils which would be likely to arise out of the inflation which would be produced by vast loans.
MUST SUPPLY THE ALLIES
"In carrying out the measures by which these things are to be accomplished we should keep constantly in mind the wisdom of interfering as little as possible in our own preparation and in the equipment of our own military forces with the duty—for it will be a very practical duty—of supplying the nations already at war with Germany with the materials which they can obtain only from us or by our assistance. They are in the field, and we should help them in every way to be effective there.
"I shall take the liberty of suggesting, through the several executive departments of the government, for the consideration of your committees, measures for the accomplishment of the several objects I have mentioned. I hope that it will be your pleasure to deal with them, as having been framed after very careful thought by the branch of the government upon which the responsibility of conducting the war and safeguarding the nation will most directly fall.
SEEKS FREEDOM OF WORLD
"While we do these things, these deeply momentous things, let us be very clear, and make very clear to all the world, what our motives and our objects are. My own thought has not been driven from its habitual and normal course by the unhappy events of the last months, and I do not believe that the thought of the nation has been altered or clouded by them.
"I have exactly the same things in mind now that I had in mind when I addressed the senate on the twenty-second of January last; the same that I had in mind when I addressed the congress on the third of February and on the twenty-sixth of February. "Our object now, as then, is to vindicate the principles of peace and justice in the life of the world as against selfish and autocratic power and to set up amongst the really free and self-governed peoples of the world such a concert of purpose and of action as will henceforth insure the observance of those principles.
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