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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/18497-8.txt b/18497-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..146e440 --- /dev/null +++ b/18497-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9454 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of My Second Year of the War, by Frederick Palmer + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: My Second Year of the War + +Author: Frederick Palmer + +Release Date: June 4, 2006 [EBook #18497] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MY SECOND YEAR OF THE WAR *** + + + + +Produced by Rick Niles, Graeme Mackreth and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +[Illustration: Front Cover] + + + +MY SECOND YEAR +OF THE WAR + +BY +FREDERICK PALMER +Author of "The Last Shot," "The Old Blood," "My Year +of the Great War," etc. + + +NEW YORK +DODD, MEAD & COMPANY +1917 + +COPYRIGHT, 1917 + +BY DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY, Inc. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER PAGE + + I BACK TO THE FRONT 1 + + II VERDUN AND ITS SEQUEL 18 + + III A CANADIAN INNOVATION 35 + + IV READY FOR THE BLOW 50 + + V THE BLOW 67 + + VI FIRST RESULTS OF THE SOMME 81 + + VII OUT OF THE HOPPER OF BATTLE 94 + + VIII FORWARD THE GUNS! 108 + + IX WHEN THE FRENCH WON 119 + + X ALONG THE ROAD TO VICTORY 130 + + XI THE BRIGADE THAT WENT THROUGH 142 + + XII THE STORMING OF CONTALMAISON 153 + + XIII A GREAT NIGHT ATTACK 167 + + XIV THE CAVALRY GOES IN 180 + + XV ENTER THE ANZACS 190 + + XVI THE AUSTRALIANS AND A WINDMILL 201 + + XVII THE HATEFUL RIDGE 213 + +XVIII A TRULY FRENCH AFFAIR 236 + + XIX ON THE AERIAL FERRY 244 + + XX THE EVER MIGHTY GUNS 255 + + XXI BY THE WAY 269 + + XXII THE MASTERY OF THE AIR 282 + +XXIII A PATENT CURTAIN OF FIRE 292 + + XXIV WATCHING A CHARGE 304 + + XXV CANADA IS STUBBORN 319 + + XXVI THE TANKS ARRIVE 332 + +XXVII THE TANKS IN ACTION 348 + +XXVIII CANADA IS QUICK 360 + + XXIX THE HARVEST OF VILLAGES 374 + + XXX FIVE GENERALS AND VERDUN 385 + + XXXI _Au Revoir_, SOMME! 400 + + + + +MY SECOND YEAR OF THE WAR + + + + +I + +BACK TO THE FRONT + + How America fails to realize the war--Difficulties of + realization--Uncle Sam is sound at heart--In London again--A Chief of + Staff who has risen from the ranks--Sir William Robertson takes time + to think--At the front--Kitchener's mob the new army--A quiet + headquarters--Sir Douglas Haig--His office a clearing house of + ideas--His business to deal in blows--"The Spirit that quickeneth." + + +"I've never kept up my interest so long in anything as in this war," +said a woman who sat beside me at dinner when I was home from the front +in the winter of 1915-16. Since then I have wondered if my reply, +"Admirable mental concentration!" was not ironic at the expense of +manners and philosophy. In view of the thousands who were dying in +battle every day, her remark seemed as heartless as it was superficial +and in keeping with the riotous joy of living and prosperity which +strikes every returned American with its contrast to Europe's +self-denial, emphasized by such details gained by glimpses in the shop +windows of Fifth Avenue as the exhibit of a pair of ladies' silk hose +inset with lace, price one hundred dollars. + +Meanwhile, she was knitting socks or mufflers, I forget which, for the +Allies. Her confusion about war news was common to the whole country, +which heard the special pleading of both sides without any +cross-questioning by an attorney. She remarked how the Allies' bulletins +said that the Allies were winning and the German bulletins that the +Germans were winning; but so far as she could see on the map the armies +remained in much the same positions and the wholesale killing continued. +Her interest, I learned on further inquiry, was limited and partisan. +When the Germans had won a victory, she refused to read about it and +threw down her paper in disgust. + +There was something human in her attitude, as human as the war itself. +It was a reminder of how far away from the Mississippi is the Somme; how +broad is the Atlantic; how impossible it is to project yourself into the +distance even in the days of the wireless. She was moving in the orbit +of her affairs, with its limitations, just as the soldiers were in +theirs. Before the war luxury was as common in Paris as in New York; but +with so ghastly a struggle proceeding in Europe it seemed out of keeping +that the joy of living should endure anywhere in the world. Yet Europe +was tranquilly going its way when the Southern States were suffering +pain and hardship worse than any that France and England have known. +Paris and London were dining and smiling when Richmond was in flames. + +War can be brought home to no community until its own sons are dying and +risking death. In nothing are we so much the creatures of our +surroundings as in war. For the first few weeks when I was at home, a +nation going its way in an era of prosperity had an aspect of vulgarity; +peace itself was vulgar by contrast with the atmosphere of heroic +sacrifice in which I had lived for over a year. I asked myself if my +country could ever rise to the state of exaltation of France and +England. Though first thought, judging by superficial appearances alone, +might have said "No," I knew that we could if there ever came a call to +defend our soil--a call that could be brought home to the valleys of the +Hudson and the Mississippi as a call was brought home to the valleys of +the Somme, the Meuse and the Marne. + +Many Americans had returned from Europe with reports of humiliation +endured as a result of their country's attitude. Shopkeepers had made +insulting remarks, they said, and in some instances had refused to sell +goods. They had been conscious of hostility under the politeness of +their French and English friends. A superficial confirmation of their +contention might be taken from the poster I noticed on my way from +Paddington Station to my hotel upon my arrival in England. It advertised +an article in a cheap weekly under the title of "Uncle Sham." + +I took this just as seriously as I took a cartoon in a New York evening +paper of pro-German tendencies on the day that I had sailed from New +York, which showed John Bull standing idly by and urging France on to +sacrifices in the defense of Verdun. It was as easy for an American to +be indignant at one as for an Englishman at the other, but a little +unworthy of the intelligence of either. I was too convinced that Uncle +Sam, who does not always follow my advice, is sound at heart and a +respectable member of the family of nations to be in the least disturbed +in my sense of international good will. If I had been irritated I should +have contributed to the petty backbiting by the mischievous uninformed +which makes bad blood between peoples. + +I knew, too, from experience, as I had kept repeating at home, that when +the chosen time arrived for the British to strike, they would prove with +deeds the shamelessness of this splash of printer's ink and confound, as +they have on the Somme, the witticism of a celebrated Frenchman who has +since made his apology for saying that the British would fight on till +the last drop of French blood was shed. Besides, on the same day that I +saw the poster I saw in a British publication a reproduction of a German +cartoon--exemplifying the same kind of vulgar facility--picturing Uncle +Sam being led by the nose by John Bull. + +Thinking Englishmen and Frenchmen, when they pause in their +preoccupation of giving life and fortune for their cause to consider +this extraneous subject, realize the widespread sympathy of the United +States for the Allied cause and how a large proportion of our people +were prepared to go to war after the sinking of the _Lusitania_ for an +object which could bring them no territorial reward. If we will fight +only for money and aggrandizement, as the "Uncle Sham" style of +reasoners hold, we should long ago have taken Mexico and Central +America. Personally, I have never had anyone say to me that I was "too +proud to fight," though if I went about saying that I was ashamed of my +country I might; for when I think of my country I think of no group of +politicians, financiers, or propagandists, no bureaucracy or particular +section of opinion, but of our people as a whole. But unquestionably we +were unpopular with the masses of Europeans. A sentence taken out of its +context was misconstrued into a catch-phrase indicating the cravenness +of a nation wedded to its flesh-pots, which pretended a moral +superiority to others whose passionate sacrifice made them +supersensitive when they looked across the Atlantic to the United +States, which they saw profiting from others' misfortunes. + +By living at home I had gained perspective about the war and by living +with the war I have gained perspective about my own country. At the +front I was concerned day after day with the winning of trenches and the +storming of villages whose names meant as little in the Middle West as a +bitter fight for good government in a Western city meant to the men at +the front. After some months of peace upon my return to England I +resented passport regulations which had previously been a commonplace; +but soon I was back in the old groove, the groove of war, with war +seeming as normal in England as peace seemed in the United States. + +In London, recruiting posters with their hectic urgings to the manhood +of England to volunteer no longer blanketed the hoardings and the walls +of private buildings. Conscription had come. Every able-bodied man must +now serve at the command of the government. England seemed to have +greater dignity. The war was wholly master of her proud individualism, +which had stubbornly held to its faith that the man who fought best was +he who chose to fight rather than he who was ordered to fight. + +There was a new Chief of Staff at the War Office, Sir William +Robertson, who had served for seven years as a private before he +received his commission as an officer, singularly expressing in his +career the character of the British system, which leaves open to merit +the door at the head of a long stairway which calls for hard climbing. +England believes in men and he had earned his way to the direction of +the most enormous plant with the largest personnel which the British +Empire had ever created. + +It was somewhat difficult for the caller to comprehend the full extent +of the power and responsibility of this self-made leader at his desk in +a great room overlooking Whitehall Place, for he had so simplified an +organization that had been brought into being in two years that it +seemed to run without any apparent effort on his part. The methods of +men who have great authority interest us all. I had first seen Sir +William at a desk in a little room of a house in a French town when his +business was that of transport and supply for the British Expeditionary +Force. Then he moved to a larger room in the same town, as Chief of +Staff of the army in France. Now he had a still larger one and in +London. + +I had heard much of his power of application, which had enabled him to +master languages while he was gaining promotion step by step; but I +found that the new Chief of Staff of the British Army was not "such a +fool as ever to overwork," as one of his subordinates said, and no +slave to long hours of drudgery at his desk. + +"Besides his routine," said another subordinate, speaking of Sir +William's method, "he has to do a great deal of thinking." This passing +remark was most illuminating. Sir William had to think for the whole. He +had trained others to carry out his plans, and as former head of the +Staff College who had had experience in every branch, he was supposed to +know how each branch should be run. + +When I returned to the front, my first motor trip which took me along +the lines of communication revealed the transformation, the more +appreciable because of my absence, which the winter had wrought. The New +Army had come into its own. And I had seen this New Army in the making. +I had seen Kitchener's first hundred thousand at work on Salisbury Plain +under old, retired drillmasters who, however eager, were hazy about +modern tactics. The men under them had the spirit which will endure the +drudgery of training. With time they must learn to be soldiers. More raw +material, month after month, went into the hopper. The urgent call of +the recruiting posters and the press had, in the earlier stages of the +war, supplied all the volunteers which could be utilized. It took much +longer to prepare equipment and facilities than to get men to enlist. +New Army battalions which reached the front in August, 1915, had had +their rifles only for a month. Before rifles could be manufactured rifle +plants had to be constructed. As late as December, 1915, the United +States were shipping only five thousand rifles a week to the British. +Soldiers fully drilled in the manual of arms were waiting for the arms +with which to fight; but once the supply of munitions from the new +plants was started it soon became a flood. + +All winter the New Army battalions had been arriving in France. With +them had come the complicated machinery which modern war requires. The +staggering quantity of it was better proof than figures on the shipping +list of the immense tonnage which goes to sea under the British flag. +The old life at the front, as we knew it, was no more. When I first saw +the British Army in France it held seventeen miles of line. Only +seventeen, but seventeen in the mire of Flanders, including the bulge of +the Ypres salient. + +By the first of January, 1915, a large proportion of the officers and +men of the original Expeditionary Force had perished. Reservists had +come to take the vacant places. Officers and non-commissioned officers +who survived had to direct a fighting army in the field and to train a +new army at home. An offensive was out of the question. All that the +force in the trenches could do was to hold. When the world wondered why +it could not do more, those who knew the true state of affairs wondered +how it could do so much. With flesh and blood infantry held against +double its own numbers supported by guns firing five times the number of +British shells. The British could not confess their situation without +giving encouragement to the Germans to press harder such attacks as +those of the first and second battle of Ypres, which came perilously +near succeeding. + +This little army would not admit the truth even in its own mind. With +that casualness by which the Englishman conceals his emotions the +surviving officers of battalions which had been battered for months in +the trenches would speak of being "top dog, now." While the world was +thinking that the New Army would soon arrive to their assistance, they +knew as only trained soldiers can know how long it takes to make an army +out of raw material. So persistent was their pose of winning that it +hypnotized them into conviction. As it had never occurred to them that +they could be beaten, so they were not. + +If sometimes the logic of fact got the better of simulation, they would +speak of the handicap of fighting an enemy who could deliver blows with +the long reach of his guns to which they could not respond. But this did +not happen often. It was a part of the game for the German to marshal +more guns than they if he could. They accepted the situation and fought +on. They, too, looked forward to "the day," as the Germans had before +the war; and their day was the one when the New Army should be ready to +strike its first blow. + +There was also a new leader in France, king of the British world there. +Sir William sent him the new battalions and the guns and the food for +men and guns and his business was to make them into an army. They +arrived thinking that they were already one, as they were against any +ordinary foe, though not yet in homogeneity of organization against a +foe that had prepared for war for forty years and on top of this had had +two years' experience in actual battle. + +On a quiet byroad near headquarters town, where all the staff business +of General Headquarters was conducted, a wisp of a flag hung at the +entrance to the grounds of a small modern chateau. There seemed no place +in all France more isolated and tranquil, its size forbidding many +guests. It was such a house as some quiet, studious man might have +chosen to rest in during his summer holiday. The sound of the guns never +reached it; the rumble of army transport was unheard. + +Should you go there to luncheon you would be received by a young aide +who, in army jargon, was known as a "crock"; that is, he had been +invalided as the result of wounds or exposure in the trenches and, +though unfit for active service, could still serve as aide to the +Commander-in-Chief. At the appointed minute of the hour, in keeping with +military punctuality, whether of generals or of curtains of fire, a man +with iron-gray hair, clear, kindly eyes, and an unmistakably strong +chin, came out of his office and welcomed the guests with simple +informality. He seemed to have left business entirely behind when he +left his desk. You knew him at once for the type of well-preserved +British officer who never neglects to keep himself physically fit. It +amounts to a talent with British officers to have gone through campaigns +in India and South Africa and yet always to appear as fresh as if they +had never known anything more strenuous than the leisurely life of an +English country gentleman. + +I had always heard how hard Sir Douglas Haig worked, just as I had heard +how hard Sir William Robertson worked. Sir Douglas, too, showed no signs +of pressure, and naturally the masterful control of surroundings without +any seeming effort is a part of the equipment of military leaders. The +power of the modern general is not evident in any of the old symbols. + +It was really the army that chose Sir Douglas to be Commander-in-Chief. +Whenever the possibility of the retirement of Sir John French was +mentioned and you asked an officer who should take his place, the answer +was always either Robertson or Haig. In any profession the members +should be the best judges of excellence in that profession, and through +eighteen months of organizing and fighting these two men had earned the +universal praise of their comrades in arms. Robertson went to London and +Haig remained in France. England looked to them for victory. + +Birth was kind to Sir Douglas. He came of an old Scotch family with fine +traditions. Oxford followed almost as a matter of course for him and +afterward he went into the army. From that day there is something in +common between his career and Sir William's, simple professional zeal +and industry. They set out to master their chosen calling. Long before +the public had ever heard of either one their ability was known to their +fellow soldiers. No two officers were more averse to any form of public +advertisement, which was contrary to their instincts no less than to the +ethics of soldiering. In South Africa, which was the practical school +where the commanders of the British Army of to-day first learned how to +command, their efficient staff work singled them out as coming men. Both +had vision. They studied the continental systems of war and when the +great war came they had the records which were the undeniable +recommendation that singled them out from their fellows. Sir John French +and Sir Ian Hamilton belonged to the generation ahead of them, the +difference being that between the '50s and the '60s. + +It was the test of command of a corps and afterward of an army in +Flanders and Northern France which made Sir Douglas Commander-in-Chief, +a test of more than the academic ability which directs chessmen on the +board: that of the physical capacity to endure the strain of month after +month of campaigning, to keep a calm perspective, never to let the +mastery of the force under you get out of hand and never to be burdened +with any details except those which are vital. + +The subordinate who went in an uncertain mood to see either Sir Douglas +or Sir William left with a sense of stalwart conviction. Both had the +gift of simplifying any situation, however complex. When a certain +general became unstrung during the retreat from Mons, Sir Douglas seemed +to consider that his first duty was to assist this man to recover +composure, and he slipped his arm through the general's and walked him +up and down until composure had returned. Again, on the retreat from +Mons Sir Douglas said, "We must stay here for the present, if we all die +for it," stating this military necessity as coolly as if it merely meant +waiting another quarter-hour for the arrival of a guest to dinner. + +No less than General Joffre, Sir Douglas lived by rule. He, too, +insisted on sleeping well at night and rising fresh for his day's work. +During the period of preparation for the offensive his routine began +with a stroll in the garden before breakfast. Then the heads of the +different branches of his staff in headquarters town came in turn to +make their reports and receive instructions. At luncheon very likely he +might not talk of war. A man of his education and experience does not +lack topics to take his mind off his duties. Every day at half-past two +he went for a ride and with him an escort of his own regiment of +Lancers. The rest of the afternoon was given over to conferences with +subordinates whom he had summoned. On Sunday morning he always went into +headquarters town and in a small, temporary wooden chapel listened to a +sermon from a Scotch dominie who did not spare its length in awe of the +eminent member of his congregation. Otherwise, he left the chateau only +when he went to see with his own eyes some section of the front or of +the developing organization. + +Of course, the room in the chateau which was his office was hung with +maps as the offices of all the great leaders are, according to report. +It seems the most obvious decoration. Whether it was the latest +photograph from an aeroplane or the most recent diagram of plans of +attack, it came to him if his subordinates thought it worth while. All +rivers of information flowed to the little chateau. He and the Chief of +Staff alone might be said to know all that was going on. Talking with +him in the office, which had been the study of a French country +gentleman, one gained an idea of the things which interested him; of the +processes by which he was building up his organization. He was the +clearing house of all ideas and through them he was setting the +criterion of efficiency. He spoke of the cause for which he was fighting +as if this were the great thing of all to him and to every man under +him, but without allowing his feelings to interfere with his judgment of +the enemy. His opponent was seen without illusion, as soldier sees +soldier. To him his problem was not one of sentiment, but of military +power. He dealt in blows; and blows alone could win the war. + +Simplicity and directness of thought, decision and readiness to accept +responsibility, seemed second nature to the man secluded in that little +chateau, free from any confusion of detail, who had a task--the greatest +ever fallen to the lot of a British commander--of making a raw army into +a force which could undertake an offensive against frontal positions +considered impregnable by many experts and occupied by the skilful +German Army. He had, in common with Sir William Robertson, "a good deal +of thinking to do"; and what better place could he have chosen than this +retreat out of the sound of the guns, where through his subordinates he +felt the pulse of the whole army day by day? + +His favorite expression was "the spirit that quickeneth"; the spirit of +effort, of discipline, of the fellowship of cohesion of +organization--spreading out from the personality at the desk in this +room down through all the units to the men themselves. Though officers +and soldiers rarely saw him they had felt the impulse of his spirit soon +after he had taken command. A new era had come in France. That old +organization called the British Empire, loose and decentrated--and +holding together because it was so--had taken another step forward in +the gathering of its strength into a compact force. + + + + +II + +VERDUN AND ITS SEQUEL + + German grand strategy and Verdun--Why the British did not go to + Verdun--What they did to help--Racial characteristics in + armies--Father Joffre a miser of divisions--The Somme + country--Age-old tactics--If the flank cannot be turned can the front + be broken?--Theory of the Somme offensive. + + +In order properly to set the stage for the battle of the Somme, which +was the corollary of that of Verdun, we must, at the risk of appearing +to thresh old straw, consider the German plan of campaign in 1916 when +the German staff had turned its eyes from the East to the West. During +the summer of 1915 it had attempted no offensive on the Western front, +but had been content to hold its solid trench lines in the confidence +that neither the British nor the French were prepared for an offensive +on a large scale. + +Blue days they were for us with the British Army in France during July +and early August, while the official bulletins revealed on the map how +von Hindenburg's and von Mackensen's legions were driving through +Poland. More critical still the subsequent period when inside +information indicated that German intrigue in Petrograd, behind the +Russian lines which the German guns were pounding, might succeed in +making a separate peace. Using her interior lines for rapid movement of +troops, enclosed by a steel ring and fighting against nations speaking +different languages with their capitals widely separated and their +armies not in touch, each having its own sentimental and territorial +objects in the war, the obvious object of Germany's policy from the +outset would be to break this ring, forcing one of the Allies to +capitulate under German blows. + +In August, 1914, she had hoped to win a decisive battle against France +before she turned her legions against Russia for a decision. Now she +aimed to accomplish at Verdun what she had failed to accomplish on the +Marne, confident in her information that France was exhausted. It was +von Hindenburg's turn to hold the thin line while the Germans +concentrated on the Western front twenty-six hundred thousand men, with +every gun that they could spare and all the munitions that had +accumulated after the Russian drive was over. The fall of Paris was +unnecessary to their purpose. Capitals, whether Paris, Brussels, or +Bucharest, are only the trophies of military victory. Primarily the +German object, which naturally included the taking of Verdun, was to +hammer at the heart of French defense until France, staggering under the +blows, her _morale_ broken by the loss of the fortress, her supposedly +mercurial nature in the depths of depression, would surrender to +impulse and ask for terms. + +After the German attacks began at Verdun all the world was asking why +the British, who were holding only sixty-odd miles of line at the time +and must have large reserves, did not rush to the relief of the French. +The French people themselves were a little restive under what was +supposed to be British inaction. Army leaders could not reveal their +plans by giving reasons--the reasons which are now obvious--for their +action or inaction. To some unmilitary minds the situation seemed as +simple as if Jones were attacked on the street by Smith and Robinson, +while Miller, Jones' friend who was a block away, would not go to his +rescue. To others, perhaps a trifle more knowing, it seemed only a +matter of marching some British divisions across country or putting them +on board a train. + +Of course the British were only too ready to assist the French. Any +other attitude would have been unintelligent; for, with the French Army +broken, the British Army would find itself having to bear unassisted the +weight of German blows in the West. There were three courses which the +British Army might take. + +_First._ It could send troops to Verdun. But the mixture of units +speaking different languages in the intricate web of communications +required for directing modern operations, and the mixture of transport +in the course of heavy concentrations in the midst of a critical action +where absolute cohesion of all units was necessary, must result in +confusion which would make any such plan impracticable. Only the +desperate situation of the French being without reserve could have +compelled its second consideration, as it represented the extreme of +that military inefficiency which makes wasteful use of lives and +material. + +_Second._ The British could attack along their front as a diversion to +relieve pressure on Verdun. For this the Germans were fully prepared. It +fell in exactly with their plan. Knowing that the British New Army was +as yet undeveloped as an instrument for the offensive and that it was +still short of guns and shells, the Germans had struck in the inclement +weather of February at Verdun, thinking, and wrongly to my mind, that +the handicap to the vitality of their men of sleet, frost and cold, +soaking rains would be offset by the time gained. Not only had the +Germans sufficient men to carry on the Verdun offensive, but facing the +British their numbers were the largest mile for mile since the first +battle of Ypres. Familiar with British valor as the result of actual +contact in battle from Mons to the Marne and back to Ypres, and +particularly in the Loos offensive (which was the New Army's first +"eye-opener" to the German staff), the Germans reasoned that, with what +one German called "the courage of their stupidity, or the stupidity of +their courage," the British, driven by public demand to the assistance +of the French, would send their fresh infantry with inadequate artillery +support against German machine guns and curtains of fire, and pile up +their dead until their losses would reduce the whole army to inertia for +the rest of the year. + +Of course, the German hypothesis--the one which cost von Falkenhayn his +place as Chief of Staff--was based on such a state of exhaustion by the +French that a British attack would be mandatory. The initial stage of +the German attack was up to expectations in ground gained, but not in +prisoners or material taken. The French fell back skilfully before the +German onslaught against positions lightly held by the defenders in +anticipation of the attack, and turned their curtains of fire upon the +enemy in possession of captured trenches. Then France gave to the +outside world another surprise. Her spirit, ever brilliant in the +offensive, became cold steel in a stubborn and thrifty defensive. She +was not "groggy," as the Germans supposed. For every yard of earth +gained they had to pay a ghastly price; and their own admiration of +French shell and valor is sufficient professional glory for either +Pétain, Nivelle, or Mangin, or the private in the ranks. + +_Third._ The British could take over more trench line, thus releasing +French forces for Verdun, which was the plan adopted at the conference +of the French and British commands. One morning in place of a French +army in Artois a British army was in occupation. The round helmets of +the British took the place of the oblong helmets of the French along the +parapet; British soldiers were in billets in place of the French in the +villages at the rear and British guns moved into French gun-emplacements +with the orderly precision which army training with its discipline alone +secures; while the French Army was on board railway trains moving at +given intervals of headway over rails restricted to their use on their +way to Verdun where, under that simple French staff system which is the +product of inheritance and previous training and this war's experience, +they fell into place as a part of the wall of men and cannon. + +Outside criticism, which drew from this arrangement the conclusion that +it left the British to the methodical occupation of quiet trenches while +their allies were sent to the sacrifice, had its effect for a time on +the outside public and even on the French, but did not disturb the +equanimity of the British staff in the course of its preparations or of +the French staff, which knew well enough that when the time came the +British Army would not be fastidious about paying the red cost of +victory. Four months later when British battalions were throwing +themselves against frontal positions with an abandon that their staff +had to restrain, the same sources of outside criticism, including +superficial gossip in Paris, were complaining that the British were too +brave in their waste of life. It has been fashionable with some people +to criticize the British, evidently under the impression that the +British New Army would be better than a continental army instantly its +battalions were landed in France. + +Every army's methods, every staff's way of thinking, are characteristic +in the long run of the people who supply it with soldiers. The German +Army is what it is not through the application of any academic theory of +military perfection, but through the application of organization to +German character. Naturally phlegmatic, naturally disinclined to +initiative, the Germans before the era of modern Germany had far less of +the martial instinct than the French. German army makers, including the +master one of all, von Moltke, set out to use German docility and +obedience in the creation of a machine of singular industry and rigidity +and ruthless discipline. Similar methods would mean revolt in democratic +France and individualistic England where every man carries Magna Charta, +talisman of his own "rights," in his waistcoat pocket. + +The French peasant, tilling his fields within range of the guns, the +market gardener bringing his products down the Somme in the morning to +Amiens, or the Parisian clerk, business man and workman--they are France +and the French Army. But the heart-strength and character-strength of +France, I think, is her stubborn, conservative, smiling peasant. It is +repeating a commonplace to say that he always has a few gold pieces in +his stocking. He yields one only on a critical occasion and then a +little grumblingly, with the thrift of the bargainer who means that it +shall be well spent. + +The Anglo-Saxon, whose inheritance is particularly evident in Americans +in this respect, when he gives in a crisis turns extravagant whether of +money or life, as England has in this war. The sea is his and new lands +are his, as they are ours. Australians with their dollar and a half a +day, buying out the shops of a village when they were not in the +trenches, were astounding to the natives though not in the least to +themselves. They were acting like normal Anglo-Saxons bred in a rich +island continent. Anglo-Saxons have money to spend and spend it in the +confidence that they will make more. + +General Joffre, grounded in the France of the people and the soil, was a +thrifty general. Indeed, from the lips of Frenchmen in high places the +Germans might have learned that the French Army was running short of +men. Joffre seemed never to have any more divisions to spare; yet never +came a crisis that he did not find another division in the toe of his +stocking, which he gave up as grumblingly as the peasant parts with his +gold piece. + +A miser of divisions, Father Joffre. He had enough for Verdun as we +know--and more. While he was holding on the defensive there, he was able +to prepare for an offensive elsewhere. He spared the material and the +guns to coöperate with the British on the Somme and later he sent to +General Foch, commander of the northern group of French Armies, the +unsurpassed Iron Corps from Nancy and the famous Colonial Corps. + +It was in March, 1916, when suspense about Verdun was at its height, +that Sir Douglas Haig, Commander-in-Chief of the group of British +Armies, and Sir Henry Rawlinson, who was to be his right-hand man +through the offensive as commander of the Fourth Army, went over the +ground opposite the British front on the Somme and laid the plans for +their attack, and Sir Henry received instructions to begin the elaborate +preparations for what was to become the greatest battle of all time. It +included, as the first step, the building of many miles of railway and +highway for the transport of the enormous requisite quantities of guns +and materials. + +The Somme winds through rich alluvial lands at this point and around a +number of verdant islands in its leisurely course. Southward, along the +old front line, the land is more level, where the river makes its bend +in front of Péronne. Northward, generically, it rises into a region of +rolling country, with an irregularly marked ridge line which the Germans +held. + +No part of the British front had been so quiet in the summer of 1915 as +the region of Picardy. From the hill where later I watched the attack of +July 1st, on one day in August of the previous year I had such a broad +view that if a shell were to explode anywhere along the front of five +miles it would have been visible to me, and I saw not a single burst of +smoke from high explosive or shrapnel. Apparently the Germans never +expected to undertake any offensive here. All their energy was devoted +to defensive preparations, without even an occasional attack over a few +hundred yards to keep in their hand. Tranquillity, which amounted to the +simulation of a truce, was the result. At different points you might see +Germans walking about in the open and the observer could stand exposed +within easy range of the guns without being sniped at by artillery, as +he would have been in the Ypres salient. + +When the British took over this section of line, so short were they of +guns that they had to depend partly on French artillery; and their +troops were raw New Army battalions or regulars stiffened by a small +percentage of veterans of Mons and Ypres. The want of guns and shells +required correspondingly more troops to the mile, which left them still +relying on flesh and blood rather than on machinery for defense. The +British Army was in that middle stage of a few highly trained troops and +the first arrival of the immense forces to come; while the Germans +occupied on the Eastern front were not of a mind to force the issue. +There is a story of how one day a German battery, to vary the monotony, +began shelling a British trench somewhat heavily. The British, in reply, +put up a sign, "If you don't stop we will fire our only rifle grenade at +you!" to which the Germans replied in the same vein, "Sorry! We will +stop"--as they did. + +The subsoil of the hills is chalk, which yields to the pick rather +easily and makes firm walls for trenches. Having chosen their position, +which they were able to do in the operations after the Marne as the two +armies, swaying back and forth in the battle for positions northward, +came to rest, the Germans had set out, as the result of experience, to +build impregnable works in the days when forts had become less important +and the trench had become supreme. As holding the line required little +fighting, the industrious Germans under the stiff bonds of discipline +had plenty of time for sinking deep dugouts and connecting galleries +under their first line and for elaborating their communication trenches +and second line, until what had once been peaceful farming land now +consisted of irregular welts of white chalk crossing fields without +hedges or fences, whose sweep had been broken only by an occasional +group of farm buildings of a large proprietor, a plot of woods, or the +village communities where the farmers lived and went to and from their +farms which were demarked to the eye only by the crop lines. + +One can never make the mistake of too much simplification in the +complicated detail of modern tactics where the difficulty is always to +see the forest for the trees. Strategy has not changed since prehistoric +days. It must always remain the same: feint and surprise. The first +primitive man who looked at the breast of his opponent and struck +suddenly at his face was a strategist; so, too, the anthropoid at the +Zoo who leads another to make a leap for a trapeze and draws it out from +under him; so, too, the thug who waits to catch his victim coming +unawares out of an alley. Anybody facing more than one opponent will try +to protect his back by a wall, which is also strategy--strategy being +the veritable instinct of self-preservation which aims at an advantage +in the disposition of forces. + +Place two lines of fifty men facing each other in the open without +officers, and some fellow with initiative on the right or the left end +will instinctively give the word and lead a rush for cover somewhere on +the flank which will permit an enfilade of the enemy's ranks. +Practically all of the great battles of the world have been won by +turning an enemy's flank, which compelled him to retreat if it did not +result in rout or capture. + +The swift march of a division or a brigade from reserve to the flank at +the critical moment has often turned the fortune of a day. All +manoeuvering has this object in view. Superior numbers facilitate the +operation, and victory has most often resolved itself into superior +numbers pressing a flank and nothing more; though subsequently his +admiring countrymen acclaimed the victor as the inventor of a strategic +plan which was old before Alexander took the field, when the victor's +genius consisted in the use of opportunities that enabled him to strike +at the critical point with more men than his adversary. In flank of the +Southern Confederacy Sherman swung through the South; in flank the +Confederates aimed to bend back the Federal line at Kulp's Hill and +Little Round Top. By the flank Grant pressed Lee back to Appomattox. +Yalu, Liao Yang and Mukden were won in the Russo-Japanese war by +flanking movements which forced Kuropatkin to retire, though never +disastrously. + +Pickett's charge at Gettysburg remains to the American the most futile +and glorious illustration of a charge against a frontal position, with +its endeavor to break the center. The center may waver, but it is the +flanks that go; though, of course, in all consistent operations of big +armies a necessary incident of any effort to press back the wings is +sufficient pressure on the front, simultaneously delivered, to hold all +the troops there in position and keep the enemy command in apprehension +of the disaster that must follow if the center were to break badly at +the same time that his flanks were being doubled back. The foregoing is +only the repetition of principles which cannot be changed by the length +of line and masses of troops and incredible volumes of artillery fire; +which makes the European war the more confusing to the average reader as +he receives his information in technical terms. + +The same object that leads one line of men to try to flank another sent +the German Army through Belgium in order to strike the French Army in +flank. It succeeded in this purpose, but not in turning the French +flank; though by this operation, in violation of the territory of a +neutral nation, it made enemy territory the scene of future action. One +may discuss until he is blue in the face what would have happened if the +Germans had thrown their legions directly against the old French +frontier. Personally, in keeping with the idea that I expressed in "The +Last Shot," I think that they would never have gone through the Trouée +de Miracourt or past Verdun. + +With a solid line of trenches from Switzerland to the North Sea, any +offensive must "break the center," as it were, in order to have room for +a flanking operation. It must go against frontal positions, +incorporating in its strategy every defensive lesson learned and the +defensive tactics and weapons developed in eighteen months of trench +warfare. If, as was generally supposed, the precision of modern arms, +with rifles and machine guns sending their bullets three thousand yards +and curtains of fire delivered from hidden guns anywhere from two to +fifteen miles away, was all in favor of the defensive, then how, when in +the days of muzzle-loading rifles and smooth-bore guns frontal attacks +had failed, could one possibly succeed in 1916? + +Again and again in our mess and in all of the messes at the front, and +wherever men gathered the world over, the question, Can the line be +broken? has been discussed. As discussed it is an academic question. The +practical answer depends upon the strength of the attacking force +compared to that of the defending force. If the Germans could keep only +five hundred thousand men on the Western front they would have to +withdraw from a part of the line, concentrate on chosen positions and +depend on tactics to defend their exposed flanks in pitched battle. +Three million men, with ten thousand guns, could not break the line +against an equally skilful army of three millions with ten thousand +guns; but five millions with fifteen thousand guns might break the line +held by an equally skilful army of a million with five thousand guns. +Thus, you are brought to a question of numbers, of skill and of +material. If the object be attrition, then the offensive, if it can +carry on its attacks with less loss of men than the defensive, must win. +With the losses about equal, the offensive must also eventually win if +it has sufficient reserves. + +There could be no restraining the public, with the wish father to the +thought, from believing that the attack of July 1st on the Somme was an +effort at immediate decision, though the responsible staff officer was +very careful to state that there was no expectation of breaking the line +and that the object was to gain a victory in _morale_, train the army in +actual conditions for future offensives, and, when the ledger was +balanced, to prove that, with superior gunfire, the offensive could be +conducted with less loss than the defensive under modern conditions. +This, I think, may best be stated now. The results we shall consider +later. + +One thing was certain, with the accruing strength of the British and the +French Armies, they could not rest idle. They must attack. They must +take the initiative away from the Germans. The greater the masses of +Germans which were held on the Western front under the Allied pounding, +the better the situation for the Russians and the Italians; and, +accordingly, the plan for the summer of 1916 for the first time +permitted all the Allies, thanks to increased though not adequate +munitions--there never can be that--to conduct something like a common +offensive. That of the Russians, starting earlier than the others, was +the first to pause, which meant that the Anglo-French and the Italian +offensives were in full blast, while the Russians, for the time being, +had settled into new positions. + +Preparation for this attack on the Somme, an operation without parallel +in character and magnitude unless it be the German offensive at Verdun +which had failed, could not be too complete. There must be a continuous +flow of munitions which would allow the continuation of the battle with +blow upon blow once it had begun. Adequate realization of his task would +not hasten a general to undertake it until he was fully ready, and +military preference, if other considerations had permitted, would have +postponed the offensive till the spring of 1917. + + + + +III + +A CANADIAN INNOVATION + + Gathering of the clans from Australia, New Zealand and + Canada--England sends Sir Douglas Haig men but not an army--Methods + of converting men into an army--The trench raid a Canadian + invention--Development of trench raiding--The correspondents' + quarters--Getting ready for the "big push"--A well-kept secret. + + +"Some tough!" remarked a Canadian when he saw the Australians for the +first time marching along a French road. They and the New Zealanders +were conspicuous in France, owing to their felt hats with the brim +looped up on the side, their stalwart physique and their smooth-shaven, +clean-cut faces. Those who had been in Gallipoli formed the stiffening +of veteran experience and comradeship for those fresh from home or from +camps in Egypt. + +Canadian battalions, which had been training in Canada and then in +England, increased the Canadian numbers until they had an army equal in +size to that of Meade or Lee at Gettysburg. English, Scotch, Welsh, +Irish, South Africans and Newfoundlanders foregathering in Picardy, +Artois and Flanders left one wondering about English as "she is spoke." +On the British front I have heard every variety, including that of +different parts of the United States. One day I received a letter from a +fellow countryman which read like this: + +"I'm out here in the R.F.A. with 'krumps' bursting on my cocoanut and am +going to see it through. If you've got any American newspapers or +magazines lying loose please send them to me, as I am far from +California." + +The clans kept arriving. Every day saw new battalions and new guns +disembark. England was sending to Sir Douglas Haig men and material, but +not an army in the modern sense. He had to weld the consignments into a +whole there in the field in face of the enemy. Munitions were a matter +of resource and manufacturing, but the great factory of all was the +factory of men. It was not enough that the gunners should know how to +shoot fairly accurately back in England, or Canada, or Australia. They +must learn to coöperate with scores of batteries of different calibers +in curtains of fire and, in turn, with the infantry, whose attacks they +must support with the finesse of scientific calculation plus the +instinctive _liaison_ which comes only with experience under trained +officers, against the German Army which had no lack of material in its +conscript ranks for promotion to fill vacancies in the officers' lists. + +From seventeen miles of front to twenty-seven, and then to sixty and +finally to nearly one hundred, the British had broadened their +responsibility, which meant only practice in the defensive, while the +Germans had had two years' practice in the offensive. The two British +offensives at Neuve Chapelle had included a small proportion of the +battalions which were to fight on the Somme; and the third, incomparably +more ambitious, faced heavier concentration of troops and guns than its +predecessors. + +What had not been gained in battle practice must be approximated in +drill. Every battalion commander, every staff officer and every general +who had had any experience, must be instructor as well as director. They +must assemble their machine and tune it up before they put it on a +stiffer road than had been tried before. + +The British Army zone in France became a school ground for the Grand +Offensive; and while the people at home were thinking, "We've sent you +the men and the guns--now for action!" the time of preparation was +altogether too short for the industrious learners. Every possible kind +of curriculum which would simulate actual conditions of attack had been +devised. In moving about the rear the rattle of a machine gun ten miles +back of the line told of the machine gun school; a series of explosions +drew attention to bombers working their way through practice trenches in +a field; a heavier explosion was from the academy for trench mortars; a +mighty cloud of smoke and earth rising two or three hundred feet was a +new experiment in mining. Sir Douglas went on the theory that no soldier +can know his work too well. He meant to allow no man in his command to +grow dull from idleness. + +Trench warfare had become systematized, and inevitably the holding of +the same line for month after month was not favorable to the development +of initiative. A man used to a sedentary life is not given to physical +action. One who is always digging dugouts is loath to leave the +habitation which has cost him much labor in order to live in the open. + +Battalions were in position for a given number of days, varying with the +character of the position held, when they were relieved for a rest in +billets. While in occupation they endured an amount of shell fire +varying immensely between different sectors. A few men were on the watch +with rifles and machine guns for any demonstration by the enemy, while +the rest were idle when not digging. They sent out patrols at night into +No Man's Land for information; exchanged rifle grenades, mortars and +bombs with the enemy. Each week brought its toll of casualties, light in +the tranquil places, heavy in the wickedly hot corner of the Ypres +salient, where attacks and counter-attacks never ceased and the +apprehension of having your parapet smashed in by an artillery +"preparation," which might be the forerunner of an attack, was +unremittingly on the nerves. + +It was a commonplace that any time you desired you could take a front of +a thousand or two yards simply by concentrating your gunfire, cutting +the enemy's barbed wire and tearing the sandbags of his parapet into +ribbons, with resulting fearful casualties to him; and then a swift +charge under cover of the artillery hurricane would gain possession of +the débris, the enemy's wounded and those still alive in his dugouts. +Losses in operations of this kind usually were much lighter in taking +the enemy's position than in the attempt to hold it, as he, in answer to +your offensive, turned the full force of his guns upon his former trench +which your men were trying to organize into one of their own. Later, +under cover of his own guns, his charge recovered the ruins, forcing the +party of the first part who had started the "show" back to his own +former first line trench, which left the situation as it was before with +both sides a loser of lives without gaining any ground and with the +prospect of drudgery in building anew their traverses and burrows and +filling new sandbags. + +It was the repetition of this sort of "incident," as reported in the +daily _communiqués_, which led the outside world to wonder at the +fatuousness and the satire of the thing, without understanding that its +object was entirely for the purpose of _morale_. An attack was made to +keep the men up to the mark; a counter-attack in order not to allow the +enemy ever to develop a sense of superiority. Every soldier who +participated in a charge learned something in method and gained +something in the quality considered requisite by his commanders. He had +met face to face in mortal hand-to-hand combat in the trench traverses +the enemy who had been some invisible force behind a gray line of +parapet sniping at him every time he showed his head. + +Attack and counter-attack without adding another square yard to the +territory in your possession--these had cost hundreds of thousands of +casualties on the Western front. The next step was to obtain the +_morale_ of attack without wasting lives in trying to hold new ground. + +Credit for the trench raid, which was developed through the winter of +1915, belongs to the Canadian. His plan was as simple as that of the +American Indian who rushed a white settlement and fled after he was +through scalping; or the cowboys who shot up a town; or the Mexican +insurgents who descend upon a village for a brief visit of killing and +looting. The Canadian proposed to enter the German trenches by surprise, +remain long enough to make the most of the resulting confusion, and then +to return to his own trenches without trying to hold and organize the +enemy's position and thus draw upon his head while busy with the spade a +murderous volume of shell fire. + +The first raids were in small parties over a narrow front and the +tactics those of the frontiersman, who never wants in individual +initiative and groundcraft. Behind their lines the Canadians rehearsed +in careful detail again and again till each man was letter perfect in +the part that he was to play in the "little surprise being planned in +Canada for Brother Boche." The time chosen for the exploit was a dark, +stormy night, when the drumbeat of rain and the wind blowing in their +direction would muffle the movements of the men as they cut paths +through the barbed wires for their panther-like rush. It was the kind of +experiment whose success depends upon every single participant keeping +silence and performing the task set for him with fastidious exactitude. + +The Germans, confident in the integrity of their barbed wire, with all +except the sentries whose ears and eyes failed to detect danger asleep +in their dugouts, found that the men of the Maple Leaf had sprung over +the parapet and were at the door demanding surrender. It was an affair +to rejoice the heart of Israel Putnam or Colonel Mosby, and its success +was a new contribution in tactics to stalemate warfare which seemed to +have exhausted every possible invention and novelty. Trench raids were +made over broader and broader fronts until they became considerable +operations, where the wire was cut by artillery which gave the same kind +of support to the men that it was to give later on in the Grand +Offensive. + +There was a new terror to trench holding and dwelling. Now the man who +lay down in a dugout for the night was not only in danger of being blown +heavenward by a mine, or buried by the explosion of a heavy shell, or +compelled to spring up in answer to the ring of the gong which announced +a gas attack, but he might be awakened at two a.m. (a favorite hour for +raids) by the outcry of sentries who had been overpowered by the +stealthy rush of shadowy figures in the night, and while he got to his +feet be killed by the burst of a bomb thrown by men whom he supposed +were also fast asleep in their own quarters two or three hundred yards +away. + +Trench-raid rivalry between battalions, which commanders liked to +instil, inevitably developed. Battalions grew as proud of their trench +raids as battleships of their target practice. A battalion which had not +had a successful trench raid had something to explain. What pride for +the Bantams--the little fellows below regulation height who had enlisted +in a division of their own on Lord Kitchener's suggestion--when in one +of their trench raids they brought back some hulking, big Germans and a +man's size German machine gun across No Man's Land! + +Raiders never attempted to remain long in the enemy's trenches. They +killed the obdurate Germans, took others prisoners and, aside from the +damage that they did, always returned with identifications of the +battalions which occupied the position, while the prisoners brought in +yielded valuable information. + +The German, more adaptive than creative, more organizing than +pioneering, was not above learning from the British, and soon they, too, +were undertaking surprise parties in the night. Although they tightened +the discipline for the defensive of both sides, trench raids were of far +more service to the British than to the Germans; for the British staff +found in them an invaluable method of preparation for the offensive. Not +only had the artillery practice in supporting actual rather than +theoretical attacks, but when the men went over the parapet it was in +face of the enemy, who might turn on his machine guns if not silenced by +accurate gunfire. They learned how to coördinate their efforts, whether +individually or as units, both in the charge and in cleaning out the +German dugouts. Their sense of observation, adaptability and team play +was quickened in the life-and-death contact with the foe. + +Through the spring months the trench raids continued in their process +of "blooding" the new army for the "big push." Meanwhile, the +correspondents, who were there to report the operations of the army, +were having as quiet a time as a country gentleman on his estate without +any of the cares of his superintendent. + +Our homing place from our peregrinations about the army was not too far +away from headquarters town to be in touch with it or too near to feel +the awe of proximity to the directing authority of hundreds of thousands +of men. Trench raids had lost their novelty for the public which the +correspondents served. A description of a visit to a trench was as +commonplace to readers as the experience itself to one of our seasoned +group of six men. We had seen all the schools of war and the +Conscientious Objectors' battalion, too--those extreme pacifists who +refuse to kill their fellow man. Their opinions being respected by +English freedom and individualism, they were set to repairing roads and +like tasks. + +The war had become completely static. Unless some new way of killing +developed, even the English public did not care to read about its own +army. When my English comrades saw that a petty scandal received more +space in the London papers than their accounts of a gallant air raid, +they had moments of cynical depression. + +Between journeys we took long walks, went birds'-nesting and chatted +with the peasants. What had we to do with war? Yet we never went afield +to trench or headquarters, to hospital or gun position, without finding +something new and wonderful to us if not to the public in that vast hive +of military industry. + +"But if we ever start the push they'll read every detail," said our +wisest man. "It's the push that is in everybody's mind. The man in the +street is tired of hearing about rehearsals. He wants the curtain to go +up." + +Each of us knew that the offensive was coming and where, without ever +speaking of it in our mess or being supposed to know. Nobody was +supposed to know, except a few "brass hats" in headquarters town. One of +the prime requisites of the gold braid which denotes a general or of the +red band around the cap and the red tab on the coat lapel which denote +staff is ability to keep a secret; but long association with an army +makes it a sort of second nature, even with a group of civilians. When +you met a Brass Hat you pretended to believe that the monotony of those +official army reports about shelling a new German redoubt or a violent +artillery duel, or four enemy planes brought down, which read the same +on Friday as on Thursday, was to continue forever. The Brass Hats +pretended to believe the same among themselves. For all time the +British and the French Armies were to keep on hurling explosives at the +German Army from the same positions. + +Occasionally a Brass Hat did intimate that the offensive would probably +come in the spring of 1917, if not later, and you accepted the +information as strictly confidential and indefinite, as you should +accept any received from a Brass Hat. It never occurred to anybody to +inquire if "1917" meant June or July of 1916. This would be as bad form +as to ask a man whose head was gray last year and is black this year if +he dyed his hair. + +Those heavy howitzers, fresh from the foundry, drawn by big caterpillar +tractors, were all proceeding in one direction--toward the Somme. +Villages along their route were filling with troops. The nearer the +front you went, the greater the concentration of men and material. +Shells, the size of the milk cans at suburban stations, stood in close +order on the platforms beside the sidings of new light railways; shells +of all calibers were piled at new ammunition dumps; fields were cut by +the tracks of guns moving into position; steam rollers were road-making +in the midst of the long processions of motor trucks, heavy laden when +bound toward the trenches and empty when returning; barbed-wire +enclosures were ready as collecting stations for prisoners; clusters of +hospital tents at other points seemed out of proportion to the trickle +of wounded from customary trench warfare. + +All this preparation, stretching over weeks and months, unemotional and +methodical, infinite in detail, prodigious in effort, suggested the work +of engineers and contractors and subcontractors in the building of some +great bridge or canal, with the workmen all in the same kind of uniform +and with managers, superintendents and foremen each having some insignia +of rank and the Brass Hats and Red Tabs the inspectors and auditors. + +The officer installing a new casualty clearing station, or emplacing a +gun, or starting another ammunition dump, had not heard of any +offensive. He was only doing what he was told. It was not his business +to ask why of any Red Tab, any more than it was the business of a Red +Tab to ask why of a Brass Hat, or his business to know that the same +sort of thing was going on over a front of sixteen miles. Each one saw +only his little section of the hive. Orders strictly limited workers to +their sections at the same time that their lips were sealed. Contractors +were in no danger of strikes; employees received no extra pay for +overtime. It was as evident that the offensive was to be on the Somme as +that the circus has come to town, when you see tents rising at dawn in a +vacant lot while the elephants are standing in line. + +Toward the end of June I asked the Red Tab who sat at the head of our +table if I might go to London on leave. He was surprised, I think, but +did not appear surprised. It is one of the requisites of a Red Tab that +he should not. He said that he was uncertain if leave were being granted +at present. This was unusual, as an intimation of refusal had never been +made on any previous occasion. When I said that it would be for only two +or three days, he thought that it could be arranged all right. What this +considerate Red Tab meant was that I should return "in time." Yet he had +not mentioned that there was to be any offensive and I had not. We had +kept the faith of military secrecy. Besides, I really did not know, +unless I opened a pigeonhole in my brain. It was also my business not to +know--the only business I had with the "big push" except to look on. + +Over in London my friends surprised me by exclaiming, "What are you +doing here?" and, "Won't you miss the offensive which is about to +begin?" Now, what would a Brass Hat say in such an awkward emergency? +Would he look wise or unwise when he said it? Trying to look unwise, I +replied: "They have the men now and can strike any time that they +please. It's not my place to know where or when. I asked for leave and +they gave it." I was quite relieved and felt that I was almost worthy +of a secretive Brass Hat myself, when one man remarked: "They don't let +you know much, do they?" + +To keep such immense preparations wholly a secret among any +English-speaking people would be out of the question. Only the Japanese +are mentally equipped for security of information. With other races it +is a struggling effort. Can you imagine Washington keeping a military +secret? You could hear the confidential whispers all the way from the +War Department to the Capitol. In such a great movement as that of the +Somme one weak link in a chain of tens of thousands of officers is +enough to break it, not to mention a million or so of privates. + + + + +IV + +READY FOR THE BLOW + + French national spirit--Our gardeners--Tuning up for the + attack--Policing the sky--Sausage balloons--Matter-of-fact, + systematic war--A fury of trench raids--Reserves marching + forward--Organized human will--Sons of the old country ready to + strike--The greatest struggle of the war about to begin. + + +Our headquarters during my first summer at the front had been in the +flat border region of the Pas de Calais, which seemed neither Flanders +nor France. Our second summer required that we should be nearer the +middle of the British line, as it extended southward, in order to keep +in touch with the whole. In the hilly country of Artois a less +comfortable chateau was compensated for by the smiling companionship of +neighbors in the fields and villages of the real France. + +The quality of this sympathetic appeal was that of the thoroughbred +racial and national spirit of a great people, in the politeness which +gave to a thickset peasant woman a certain grace, in the smiles of the +land and its inhabitants, in that inbred patriotism which through the +centuries has created a distinctive civilization called French by the +same ready sacrifices for its continuity as those which were made on +the Marne and at Verdun. Flanders is not France, and France is +increasingly French as you proceed from Ypres to Amiens, the capital of +Picardy. I was glad that Picardy had been chosen as the scene of the +offensive. It made the blow seem more truly a blow for France. I was to +learn to love Picardy and its people under the test of battle. + +In order that we might be near the field of the Somme we were again to +move our quarters, and we had the pang of saying good-by to another +garden and another gardener. All the gardeners of our different chateaux +had been philosophers. It was Louis who said that he would like to make +all the politicians who caused wars into a salad, accompanying his +threat with appropriate gestures; Charles who thought that once the +"Boches" were properly pruned they might be acceptable second-rate +members of international society; and Leon who wanted the Kaiser put to +the plow in a coat of corduroy as the best cure for his conceit. That +afternoon, when _au revoirs_ were spoken and our cars wound in and out +over the byroads of the remote countryside, not a soldier was visible +until we came to the great main road, where we had the signal that +peaceful surroundings were finally left behind in the distant, ceaseless +roar of the guns, like some gigantic drumbeat calling the armies to +combat. + +A giant with nerves of telephone wires and muscles of steel and a human +heart seemed to be snarling his defiance before he sprang into action. +We knew the meaning of the set thunders of the preliminary bombardment. +That night to the eastward the sky was an aurora borealis of flashes; +and the next day we sought the source of the lightnings. + +Seamed and tracked and gashed were the slopes behind the British line +and densely peopled with busy men in khaki. Every separate scene was +familiar to us out of our experience, but every one had taken on a new +meaning. The whole exerted a majestic spell. Graded like the British +social scale were the different calibers of guns. Those with the largest +reach were set farthest back. Fifteen-inch howitzer dukes or nine-inch +howitzer earls, with their big, ugly mouths and their deliberate and +powerful fire, fought alone, each in his own lair, whether under a tree +or in the midst of the ruins of a village. The long naval guns, though +of smaller caliber, had a still greater reach and were sending their +shells five to ten miles beyond the German trenches. + +The eight-inch and six-inch howitzers were more gregarious. They worked +in groups of four and sometimes a number of batteries were in line. +Beyond them were those alert commoners, the field guns, rapid of fire +with their eighteen-pound shells. These seemed more tractable and +companionable, better suited for human association, less mechanically +brutal. They were not monstrous enough to require motor tractors to draw +them at a stately gait, but behind their teams could be up and away +across the fields on short notice, their caissons of ammunitions +creaking behind them. Along the communication trenches perspiring +soldiers carried "plum puddings" or the trench-mortar shells which were +to be fired from the front line and boxes of egg-shaped bombs which +fitted nicely in the palm of the hand for throwing. + +It seemed that all the guns in the world must be firing as you listened +from a distance, although when you came into the area where the guns +were in tiers behind the cover of a favorable slope you found that many +were silent. The men of one battery might be asleep while its neighbor +was sending shells with a one-two-three deliberation. Any sleep or rest +that the men got must be there in the midst of this crashing babel from +steel throats. Again, the covers were being put over the muzzles for the +night, or, out of what had seemed blank hillside, a concealed battery +which had not been firing before sent out its vicious puffs of smoke +before its reports reached your ears. Every battery was doing as it was +told from some nerve-center; every one had its registered target on the +map--a trench, or a road, or a German battery, or where it was thought +that a German battery ought to be. + +The flow of ammunition for all came up steadily, its expenditure +regulated on charts by officers who kept watch for extravagance and +aimed to make every shell count. A fortune was being fired away every +hour; a sum which would send a youth for a year to college or bring up a +child went into a single large shell which might not have the luck to +kill one human being as excuse for its existence; an endowment for a +maternity hospital was represented in a day's belch of destruction from +a single acre of trodden wheat land. One trench mortar would consume in +an hour plum puddings for an orphan school. For you might pause to think +of it in this way if you chose. Thousands do at the front. + +Down on the banks of the Somme the blue uniforms of the French in place +of the British khaki hovered around the gun-emplacements; the +_soixante-quinze_ with its virtuoso artistic precision was neighbor to +the British eighteen-pounder. Guns, guns, guns--French and English! The +same nests of them opposite Gommecourt and at Estrées thundered across +at one another from either bank of the Somme through summer haze over +the green spaces of the islands edged with the silver of its tranquil +flow in the moonlight or its glare in the sunlight. + +Not the least of the calculations in this activity was to screen every +detail from aerial observation. New hangars had risen at the edge of +level fields, whence the swift fighting machines of an aircraft +concentration in keeping with the concentration of guns and all other +material rose to reconnaissance, or to lie in wait as a falcon to pounce +upon an invading German plane. Thus the sky was policed by flight +against prying aerial eyes. If one German plane could descend to an +altitude of a thousand feet, its photographs would reveal the location +of a hundred batteries to German gunners and show the plan of +concentration clearly enough to leave no doubt of the line of attack; +but the anti-aircraft guns, plentiful now as other British material, +would have caught it going, if not coming, provided it escaped being +jockeyed to death by half a dozen British planes with their machine guns +rattling. + +To "camouflet" became a new English verb British planes tested out a +battery's visibility from the air. Landscape painters were called in to +assist in the deceit. One was set to "camouflet" the automobile van for +the pigeons which, carried in baskets on the men's backs in charges, +were released as another means of sending word of the progress of an +attack obscured in the shell-smoke. This conscientious artist +"camoufleted" the pigeon-van so successfully that the pigeons could not +find their way home. + +Night was the hour of movement. At night the planes, if they went forth, +saw only a vague and shadowy earth. The sausage balloons, German and +Allied, those monitors of the sky, a line of opaque, weird question +marks against the blue, stared across at each other out of range of the +enemy's guns, "spotting" the fall of shells for their own side from +their suspended basket observation posts from early morning until they +were drawn in by their gasoline engines with the coming of dusk. Clumsy +and helpless they seemed; but in common with the rest of the army they +had learned to reach their dugouts swiftly at the first sign of shell +fire, and descended then with a ridiculous alacrity which suggested the +possession of the animal intelligence of self-preservation. Occasionally +one broke loose and, buffeted like an umbrella down the street by the +wind, started for the Rhine. And the day before the great attack the +British aviation corps sprang a surprise on the German sausages, six of +which disappeared in balls of flame. + +A one-armed man of middle age from India, who offered to do his "bit," +refused a post at home in keeping with his physical limitations. His +eyes were all right, he said, when he nominated himself as a balloon +observer, and he never suffered from sea-sickness which sausage balloons +most wickedly induce. Many a man who has ascended in one not only could +see nothing, but wanted to see nothing, and turning spinach lopping over +the basket rail prayed only that the engine would begin drawing in +immediately. + +One day the one-armed pilot was up with a "joy-rider"; that is, an +officer who was not a regular aerial observer but was sight-seeing. The +balloon suddenly broke loose with the wind blowing strong toward Berlin, +which was a bit awkward, as he remarked, considering that he had an +inexperienced passenger. + +"We mustn't let the Boches get us!" he said. "Look sharp and do as I +say." + +First, he got the joy-rider into the parachute harness for such +emergencies and over the side, then himself, both descending safely on +the right side of the British trenches--which was rather "smart work," +as the British would say, but all to the taste of the one-armed pilot +who was looking for adventures. I have counted thirty-three British +sausage balloons within my range of vision from a hill. The previous +year the British had not a baker's dozen. + +What is lacking? Have we enough of everything? These questions were +haunting to organizers in those last days of preparation. + +After dark the scene from a hill, as you rode toward the horizon of +flashes, was one of incredible grandeur. Behind you, as you looked +toward the German lines, was the blanket of night pierced and slashed by +the flashes of gun blasts; overhead the bloodcurdling, hoarse sweep of +their projectiles; and beyond the darkness had been turned into a +chaotic, uncanny day by the jumping, leaping, spreading blaze of +explosives which made all objects on the landscape stand out in +flickering silhouette. Spurts of flame from the great shells rose out of +the bowels of the earth, softening with their glow the sharp, +concentrated, vicious snaps of light from shrapnel. Little flashes +played among big flashes and flashes laid over flashes shingle fashion +in a riot of lurid competition, while along the line of the German +trenches at some places lay a haze of shimmering flame from the rapid +fire of the trench mortars. + +The most resourceful of descriptive writers is warranted in saying that +the scene was indescribable. Correspondents did their best, and after +they had squeezed the rhetorical sponge of its last drop of ink +distilled to frenzy of adjectives in inadequate effort, they gaspingly +laid their copy on the table of the censor, who minded not "word +pictures" which contained no military secrets. + +Vision exalted and numbed by the display, one's mind sought the meaning +and the purpose of this unprecedented bombardment, with its precision +of the devil's own particular brand of "kultur," which was to cut the +Germans' barbed wire, smash in their trenches, penetrate their dugouts, +close up their communication trenches, do unto their second line the +same as to their first line, bury their machine guns in débris, crush +each rallying strong point in that maze of warrens, burst in the roofs +of village billets over their heads, lay a barrier of death across all +roads and, in the midst of the process of killing and wounding, imprison +the men of the front line beyond relief by fresh troops and shut them +off from food and munitions. Theatric, horrible and more than +that--matter-of-fact, systematic war! There was relatively little +response from the German batteries, whose silence had a sinister +suggestion. They waited on the attack as the target of their revenge for +the losses which they were suffering. + +By now they knew from the bombardment, if not from other sources, that a +British attack was coming at some point of the line. Their flares were +playing steadily over No Man's Land to reveal any movement by the +British or the French. From their trenches rose signal rockets--the only +real fireworks, leisurely and innocent, without any sting of death in +their sparks--which seemed to be saying "No movement yet" to commanders +who could not be reached by any other means through the curtains of fire +and to artillerists who wanted to turn on their own curtains of fire +instantly the charge started. Then there were other little flashes and +darts of light and flame which insisted on adding their moiety to the +garish whole. And under the German trenches at several points were vast +charges of explosives which had been patiently borne under ground +through arduously made tunnels. + +So much for the machinery of material. Thus far we have mentioned only +guns and explosions, things built of steel to fire missiles of steel and +things on wheels, and little about the machine of human beings now to +come abreast of the tape for the charge, the men who had been "blooded," +the "cannon fodder." Every shell was meant for killing men; every German +battery and machine gun was a monster frothing red at the lips in +anticipation of slaughter. + +A fury of trench raids broke out from the Somme to Ypres further to +confuse the enemy as to the real front of attack. Men rushed the +trenches which they were to take and hold later, and by their brief +visit learned whether or not the barbed wire had been properly cut to +give the great charge a clear pathway and whether or not the German +trenches were properly mashed. They brought in prisoners whose +identification and questioning were invaluable to the intelligence +branch, where the big map on the wall was filled in with the location +of German divisions, thus building up the order of battle, so vital to +all plans, with its revelation of the disposition and strength of the +enemy's forces. It was known that the Germans were rapidly bringing up +new batteries north of the Ancre while low visibility postponed the day +of the attack. + +The men that worked on the new roads keeping them in condition for the +passage of the heavy transport, whether columns of motor trucks, or +caissons, or the great tractors drawing guns, were no less a part of the +scheme than the daring raiders. Every soldier who was going over the +parapet in the attack must have his food and drink and bombs to throw +and cartridges to fire after he had reached his objective. + +Most telling of all the innumerably suggestive features to me were the +streets of empty white tents at the casualty clearing stations, and the +empty hospital cars on the railway sidings, and the new enclosures for +prisoners--for these spoke the human note. These told that man was to be +the target. + +The staff might plan, gunners might direct their fire accurately against +unseen targets by the magic of their calculations, generals might +prepare their orders, the intricate web of telephone and telegraph wires +might hum with directions, but the final test lay with him who, rifle +and bomb ready in hand, was going to cross No Man's Land and take +possession of the German trenches. A thousand pictures cloud the memory +and make a whole intense in one's mind, which holds all proudly in +admiration of human stoicism, discipline and spirit and sadly, too, with +a conscious awe in the possession as of some treasure intrusted to him +which he cheapens by his clumsy effort at expression. + +Stage by stage the human part had moved forward. Khaki figures were +swarming the village streets while the people watched them with a sort +of worshipful admiration of their stalwart, trained bodies and a +sympathetic appreciation of what was coming. These men with their fair +complexion and strange tongue were to strike against the Germans. Two +things the French had learned about the English: they were generous and +they were just, though phlegmatic. Now they were to prove that with +their methodical deliberation they were brave. Some would soon die in +battle--and for France. + +By day they loitered in the villages waiting on the coming of darkness, +their training over--nothing to do now but wait. If they went forward it +was by platoons or companies, lest they make a visible line on the +chalky background of the road to the aviator's eye. A battalion drawn up +in a field around a battalion commander, sitting his horse sturdily as +he gave them final advice, struck home the military affection of loyalty +of officer to man and man to officer. A soldier parting at a doorway +from a French girl in whose eyes he had found favor during a brief +residence in her village struck another chord. That elderly woman with +her good-by to a youth was speaking as she would to her own son who was +at the front and unconsciously in behalf of some English mother. Up near +the trenches at dusk, in the last billet before the assembly for attack, +company officers were recalling the essentials of instructions to a line +standing at ease at one side of the street while caissons of shells had +the right of way. + +With the coming of night battalions of reserves formed and set forth on +the march, going toward the flashes in the heavens which illumined the +men in their steady tramp, the warmth of their bodies and their breaths +pressing close to your car as you turned aside to let them pass. "East +Surreys," or "West Ridings," or "Manchesters" might come the answer to +inquiries. All had the emblems of their units in squares of cloth on +their shoulders, and on the backs of some of the divisions were bright +yellow or white patches to distinguish them from Germans to the gunners +in the shell-smoke. + +Nothing in their action at first glance indicated the stress of their +thoughts. Officers and men, their physical movements set by the mold of +discipline, were in gesture, in voice, in manner the same as when they +were on an English road in training. This was a part of the drill, a +part of man's mastery of his emotions. None were under any illusions as +soldiers of other days had been. Few nursed the old idea of being the +lucky man who would escape. They knew the chances they were taking, the +meaning of frontal attacks and of the murderous and wholesale quickness +of machine gun methods. + +Will, organized human will, was in their steps and shining out of their +eyes. It occurred to me that they might have escaped this if England had +kept out of the war at the price of something with which Englishmen +refused to part. "The day" was coming, "the day" they had foreseen, "the +day" for which their people waited. + +When they were closing in with death, the clans which make up the +British Empire kept faith with their character as do all men. These +battalions sang the songs and whistled the tunes of drill grounds at +home, though in low notes lest the enemy should hear, and lapsed into +silence when they drew near the front and filed through the +communication trenches. + +Quiet the English, that great body of the army which sees itself as the +skirt for the Celtic fringe, ploddingly undemonstrative with memories of +the phlegm of their history holding emotions unexpressed; the Scotch in +their kilts, deep-chested, with their trunk-like legs and broad hips, +braw of face under their mushroom helmets, seemed like mediæval men of +arms ready in spirit as well as looks for fierce hand-to-hand +encounters; the Welsh, more emotional than the English, had songs which +were pleasant to the ear if the words were unrecognizable; and the +ruddy-faced Irish, with their soft voices, had a beam in their eyes of +inward anticipation of the sort of thing to come which no Irishman ever +meets in a hesitating mood. No overseas troops were there except the +Newfoundland battalion; for only sons of the old country were to strike +on July 1st. + +Returning from a tour at night I had absorbed what seemed at one moment +the unrealness and at another the stern, unyielding reality of the +scenes. The old French territorial, with wrinkled face and an effort at +a military mustache, who came out of his sentry box at a control post +squinting by the light of a lantern held close to his nose at the bit of +paper which gave the bearer freedom of the army and nodding with his +polite word of concurrence, was a type who might have stopped a traveler +in Louis XIV.'s time. All the farmers sleeping in the villages who would +be up at dawn at their work, all the people in Amiens, knew that the +hour was near. The fact was in the air no less than in men's minds. +Nobody mentioned that the greatest struggle of the war was about to +begin. We all knew that it was in hearts, souls, fiber. + +There were moments when imagination gave to that army in its integrity +of organization only one heart in one body. Again, it was a million +hearts in a million bodies, deaf except to the voice of command. Most +amazing was the absence of fuss whether with the French or the British. +Everybody seemed to be doing what he was told to do and to know how to +do it. With much to be left to improvisation after the attack began, +nothing might be neglected in the course of preparation. + +In other days where infantry on the march deployed and brought up +suddenly against the enemy in open conflict the anticipatory suspense +was not long and was forgotten in the brief space of conflict. Here this +suspense really had been cumulative for months. It built itself up, +little by little, as the material and preparations increased, as the +battalions assembled, until sometimes, despite the roar of the +artillery, there seemed a great silence while you waited for a string, +drawn taut, to crack. + +On the night of June 30th the word was passed behind a closed door in +the hotel that seven-thirty the next morning was the hour and the +spectators should be called at five--which seemed the final word in +staff prevision. + + + + +V + +THE BLOW + + Plans at headquarters--A battle by inches--In the observation + post--The débris of a ruined village--"Softening" by shell fire--A + slice out of the front--The task of the infantryman--The dawn before + the attack--Five minutes more--A wave of men twenty-five miles + long--Mist and shell-smoke--Duty of the war-correspondent. + + +I was glad to have had glimpses of every aspect of the preparation from +battalion headquarters in the front line trenches to General +Headquarters, which had now been moved to a smaller town near the +battlefield where the intelligence branch occupied part of a +schoolhouse. In place of exercises in geography and lithographs of +natural history objects, on the schoolroom walls hung charts of the +German Order of Battle, as built up through many sources of information, +which the British had to face. There was no British Order of Battle in +sight. This, as the Germans knew it, you might find in a German +intelligence office; but the British were not going to aid the Germans +in ascertaining it by giving it any publicity. + +By means of a map spread out on a table an officer explained the plan of +attack with reference to broad colored lines which denoted the +objectives. The whole was as explicit as if Bonaparte had said: + +"We shall engage heavily on our left, pound the center with our +artillery, and flank on our right." + +The higher you go in the command the simpler seem the plans which by +direct and comprehensive strokes conceal the detail which is delegated +down through the different units. At Gommecourt there was a salient, an +angle of the German trench line into the British which seemed to invite +"pinching," and this was to be the pivot of the British movement. The +French who were on both sides of the Somme were to swing in from their +southern flank of attack near Soyecourt in the same fashion as the +British from the northern, thus bringing the deepest objective along the +river in the direction of Péronne, which would fall when eventually the +tactical positions commanding it were gained. + +Not with the first rush, for the lines of the objective were drawn well +short of it, but with later rushes the British meant to gain the +irregular ridge formation from Thiepval to Longueval, which would start +them on the way to the consummation of their siege hammering. It was to +be a battle by inches; the beginning of a long task. German _morale_ was +still high on the Western front; their numbers immense. _Morale_ could +be broken, numbers worn down, only by pounding. + +Granted that the attack of July 1st should succeed all along the line, +it would gain little ground; but it would everywhere break through the +first line fortifications over a front of more than twenty-five miles, +the British for about fifteen and the French for about ten. The +soldierly informant at "Intelligence" reminded the listener, too, that +battalions which might be squeezed or might run into unexpected +obstacles would suffer fearfully as in all great battles and one must be +careful not to be over-depressed by the accounts of the survivors or +over-elated by the roseate narratives of battalions which had swept all +before them with slight loss. + +The day before I saw the map of the whole I had seen the map of a part +at an Observation Post at Auchonvillers. The two were alike in a +standardized system, only one dealt with corps and the other with +battalions. A trip to Auchonvillers at any time during the previous year +or up to the end of June, 1916, had not been fraught with any particular +risk. It was on the "joy-riders'" route, as they say. + +When I said that the German batteries were making relatively little +reply to the preliminary British bombardment I did not mean to imply +that they were missing any opportunities. At the dead line for +automobiles on the road the burst of a shrapnel overhead had a +suggestiveness that it would not have had at other times. Perhaps the +Germans were about to put a barrage on the road. Perhaps they were +going to start their guns in earnest. Happily, they have always been +most considerate where I was concerned and they were only throwing in a +few shells in the course of artillery routine, which happened also on +our return from the Observation Post. But they were steadily attentive +with "krumps" to a grove where some British howitzers sought the screen +of summer foliage. If they could put any batteries out of action while +they waited for the attack this was good business, as it meant fewer +guns at work in support of the British charge. + +An artilleryman, perspiring and mud-spattered from shell-bursts, who +came across the fields, said: "They knocked off the corner of our +gun-pit and got two men. That's all." His eyes were shining; he was in +the elation of battle. Casualties were an incident in the preoccupation +of his work and of the thought: "At last we have the shells! At last it +is our turn!" + +On our way forward we passed more batteries and wisely kept to the open +away from them, as they are dangerous companions in an artillery duel. +Then we stepped into the winding communication trench with its system of +wires fast to the walls, and kept on till we passed under a lifted +curtain into a familiar chamber roofed with heavy cement blocks and +earth. + +"Safe from a direct hit by five-point-nines," said the observation +officer, a regular promoted from the ranks who had been "spotting" +shells since the war began. "A nine-inch would break the blocks, but I +don't think that it would do us in." + +Even if it did "do us in," why, we were only two or three men. All this +protection was less perhaps to insure safety than to insure security of +observation for these eyes of the guns. The officer was as proud of his +O.P. as any battalion commander of his trench or a battery commander of +his gun-position, which is the same kind of human pride that a man has +in the improvements on his new country estate. + +There was a bench to sit on facing the narrow observation slit, similar +to that of a battleship's conning tower, which gave a wide sweep of +vision. A commonplace enough _mise-en-scène_ on average days, now +significant because of the stretch of dead world of the trench systems +and No Man's Land which was soon to be seething with the tumult of +death. + +Directly in front of us was Beaumont-Hamel. Before the war it had been +like hundreds of other villages. Since the war its ruins were like +scores of others in the front line. Parts of a few walls were standing. +It was difficult to tell where the débris of Beaumont-Hamel began and +that of the German trench ended. Dust was mixed with the black bursts +of smoke rising from the conglomerate mass of buildings and streets +thrown together by previous explosions. The effect suggested the regular +spout of geysers from a desert rock crushed by charges of dynamite. + +Could anybody be alive in Beaumont-Hamel? Wasn't this bombardment +threshing straw which had long since yielded its last kernel of grain? +Wasn't it merely pounding the graves of a garrison? Other villages, +equally passive and derelict, were being submitted to the same +systematic pounding, which was like timed hammer-beats. + +"We keep on softening them," said the observer. + +Soldiers have a gift for apt words to describe their work, as have all +professional experts. Softening! It personified the enemy as something +hard and tough which would grow pulpy under enough well-mapped blows +striking at every vital part from dugouts to billets. + +All the barbed-wire entanglements in front of the first-line trenches +appeared to be cut, mangled, twisted into balls, beaten back into the +earth and exhumed again, leaving only a welt of crater-spotted ground in +front of the chalky contour of the first-line trenches which had been +mashed and crushed out of shape. + +"Yes, the Boche's first line looks rather messy," said the officer. +"We've been giving him an awful doing these last few days. Turning our +attention mostly to the second line, now. That's our lot, there," he +added, indicating a cluster of bursts over a nest of burrows farther up +on the hillside. + +"Any attempts to repair their wire at night?" I asked. + +"No. They have to do it under our machine gun fire. Any Boches who have +survived are lying doggo." + +How many dugouts were still intact and secure refuges for the waiting +Germans? Only trench raids could ascertain. As well might the observer +with his glasses or an aeroplane looking down try to take a census of +the number of inhabitants of a prairie dog village who were all in their +holes. + +The officer spread out his map marked "Secret and confidential," +delimiting the boundaries of a narrow sector. He had nothing to do with +what lay to the right and left--other sectors, other men's business--of +the area inclosed in the clear, heavy lines crosswise of British and +German trenches--a slice out of the front, as it were. Speaking over the +telephone to the blind guns, he was interested only in the control of +gunfire in this sector. The charge to him was lines on the map parallel +with the trenches which would be at given points at given moments--lines +which he must support when their soldier counterparts were invisible +through the shell-smoke in the nice calculation of time and range which +should put the shells into the enemy and never into the charging man. + +To infantry commanders with similar maps those lines were breathing +human lines of men whom they had trained, and the gunfire a kind of +spray which the gunners were to adjust for the protection of the +battalions when they should cross that dead space. Once the British were +in the German front trenches, details which had been told off for the +purpose were to take possession of the dugouts and "breach" them of +prisoners and disarm all other Germans, lest they fire into the backs of +those who carried the charge farther on to the final stage of the +objective. What awaited them they would know only when they climbed over +the parapet and became silhouettes of vulnerable flesh in the open. Yes, +one had the system in the large and the small, by the army, the corps, +the division, the brigade, the battalion, and the man, the individual +infantryman who was to suffer that hazard of marching in the open toward +the trenches which not guns, or motor trucks, or trench-mortar shells +could take, but only he could take and hold. + +The advantage of watching the attack from this O.P. in comparison with +that of other points was mooted; for the spectator had to choose his +seat for the panorama. This time we sought a place where we hoped to +see something of the battle as a whole. + +"_C'est arrivé!_" said the old porter to me at the door when I left the +hotel before dawn. The great day had arrived! + +Amiens was in darkness, with the lightnings of the guns which had never +ceased their labors through the night flashing in the heavens their +magnetic summons to battle. When a dip into a valley shut out their roar +a divine hush lay over the world. On either side of the main road was +the peace of the hour before the dawn which would send the peasants from +their beds to the fields. There were no lights yet in the villages. It +had not occurred to the inhabitants to try to see the battle. They knew +that they would be in the way; sentries or gunners would halt them. + +The traffic was light and all vehicles, except a flying staff officer's +car, were going their methodical way. Vaguely, as an aviation station +was passed, planes were visible being pushed out of their sheds; the hum +of propellers being tried out was faintly heard. The birds of battle +were testing their wings before flight and every one out of the hundreds +which would take part that day had his task set, no less than had a +corps, a regiment of artillery, or the bombers in a charge. + +"This is the place," was the word to the chauffeur as we swept up a +grade in the misty darkness. + +Stretched from trunk to trunk of the trees beside the road were canvas +screens to hide the transport from enemy observation. Passing between +them had the effect of going through the curtains into a parterre box. +Light was just breaking and we were in a field of young beets on the +crest of a rise, with no higher ground beyond us all the way to +Thiepval, which was in the day's objective, and to Pozières, which was +beyond it. Ordinarily, on a clear day we should have had from here a +view over five or six miles of front and through our glasses the action +should have been visible in detail. + +This morning the sun was not showing his head and the early mist lay +opaque over all the positions, holding in place the mighty volume of +smoke from bursting shells. As it was not seven o'clock the sun might +yet realize its duty in July and dissipate this shroud, which was so +thick that it partially obscured the flashes of the guns and the +shell-bursts. + +Seven-ten came and seven-twenty and still no more light. It was too late +now to seek another hill and, if we had sought one, we should have had +no better view. At least, we were seeing as much as the Commander of the +Fourth Army in his dugout near by. The artillery fire increased. Every +gun was now firing, all stretching their powers to the maximum. The +mist and smoke over the positions seemed to tremble with the blasts. +Near-by shells, especially German, broke brilliantly against a +background so thick that it swallowed up the flashes of more distant +shells in its garishly illumined density. Thousands of officers were +studying their wrist watches for the tick of "zero" as the minute-hands +moved on with merciless fatalism; and hundreds of thousands of men who +had come into position overnight were in line in the trenches looking to +their officers for the word. + +Our little group in the beet field was restless and silent; or if we +spoke it was not of what was oppressing our minds and stilling our +heartbeats. Our glasses gave no aid; they only made the fog thicker. Had +we been in the first-line British trenches we could hardly have seen the +men who left them through this wall of smoke and mist as they entered +the German first line and the answering German "krumps" would have +driven us to the dugouts and German curtains of fire held us prisoner. + +One of us called attention to a lark that had risen and was singing with +all the power in his little throat. Another mentioned a squadron of +aeroplanes against the background of a soft and domeless sky, flying +with the precision of wild geese. We knew that the German guns were +responding now, for the final blasts of British concentration had been +a sufficient signal of attack if some British prisoner taken in a trench +raid had not revealed the hour. + +Seven-twenty-five! someone said, but not one of us needed any reminder. +Five minutes more and the great experiment would begin. Had Sir Douglas +Haig made an army equal to the task? What would be the answer to +skeptics who said that the London cockneys and the Manchester factory +hands and all the others without military training could not be made +into a force skilful enough to take those trenches? Was the feat of +conquering those fortifications within the bounds of human courage, +skill and resource? + +Not what one saw but what one felt and knew counted. A crowd is +spellbound in watching a steeplejack at work, or an aviator doing a +"loop-the-loop," or an acrobat swinging from one bar to another above +the sawdust ring, or the "leap of death" of the movies; and here we were +in the presence of a multitude who were running a far greater risk in an +untried effort, with their inspiration not a breathless audience but +duty. For none wanted to die. All were human in this. None had any sense +of the glorious sport of war, only that of grim routine. + +Our group was not particularly religious, but I think that we were all +uttering a prayer for England and France. At seven-thirty something +seemed to crack in our brains. There was no visible sign that a wave of +men twenty-five miles long, reaching from Gommecourt to Soyecourt, +wherever the trenches ran across fields, through villages and along +slopes to the banks of the Somme and beyond, had left their parapets. I +knew the men who were going into that charge too well to have any +apprehension that any battalion would falter. The thing was to be done +and they were to do it. Now they were out in No Man's Land; now they +were facing the reception prepared for them. Thousands might already be +down. We could discern that the German guns, long waiting for their +prey, were seeking it in eager ferocity as they laid their curtains of +fire on the appointed places which they had registered. The hell of the +poets and the priests must have some emotion, some temperamental +variation. This was sheer mechanical hell, its pulse that of the dynamo +and the engine. + +Seven-forty-five! Helplessly we stared at the blanket. If the charge had +gone home it was already in the German trenches. For all we knew it +might have been repulsed and its remnants be struggling back through the +curtains of artillery fire and the sweep of machine gun fire. As the sun +came out without clearing away the mist and shell-smoke over the field +we had glimpses of some reserves who had looked like a yellow patch +behind a hill deploying to go forward, suggestive of yellow-backed +beetles who were the organized servitors of a higher mind on some other +planet. + +This was all we saw; and to make more of it would not be fair to other +occasions when views of attacks were more intimate. Yet I would not +change the impression now. It has its place in the spectator's history +of the battle. + + + + +VI + +FIRST RESULTS OF THE SOMME + + At the little schoolhouse--Twenty miles of German fortifications + taken--Doubtful situation north of Thiepval--Prisoners and + wounded--Defeat and victory--The topography of Thiepval--Sprays of + bullets and blasts of artillery fire--"The day" of the New Army--The + courage of civilized man--Fighting with a kind of divine + stubbornness--Braver than the "Light Brigade"--Died fighting as final + proof of the New Army's spirit--Crawling back through No Man's + Land--Not beaten but roughly handled. + + +In the room at the head of the narrow stairs in the schoolhouse of the +quiet headquarters town we should have the answer to the question, Has +the British attack succeeded? which was throbbing in our pulsebeats. By +the same map on the table in the center of the room showing the plan of +attack with its lines indicating the objectives we should learn how many +of them had been gained. The officer who had outlined the plan of battle +with fine candor was equally candid about its results, so far as they +were known. Not only did he avoid mincing words, but he avoided wasting +them. + +From Thiepval northward the situation was obscure. The German artillery +response had been heavy and the action almost completely blanketed from +observation. Some detachments must have reached their objective, as +their signals had been seen. From La Boisselle southward the British had +taken every objective. They were in Mametz and Montauban and around +Fricourt. For the French it had been a clean sweep, without a single +repulse. Twenty miles of those formidable German fortifications were in +the possession of the Allies. + +On the ledge of the schoolroom window, with the shrill voices of the +children at recess playing in the yard below rising to my ears, I wrote +my dispatch for the press at home, less conscious then than now of the +wonder of the situation. Downstairs the curé of the church next door was +standing on the steps, an expectant look in his eyes. When I told him +the news his smile and the flash of his eye, which lacked the meekness +usually associated with the Church, were good to see. + +"And the French?" he asked. + +"All of their objectives!" + +"Ah!" He drew a deep breath and rubbed his hands together softly. "And +prisoners?" + +"A great many." + +"Ah! And guns?" + +"Yes." + +Thus he ran up the scale of happiness. I left him on the steps of the +church with a proud, glad, abstracted look. + +Beyond the town peaceful fields stretched away to the battle area, where +figures packed together inside the new prisoners' inclosures made a +green blot. Litters were thick in the streets of the casualty clearing +stations which had been empty yesterday. There were no idle ambulances +now. They had passengers in green as well as in khaki. The first +hospital trains were pulling out from the rail-head across from a +clearing station. Thus promptly, as foreseen, the processes of battle +had worked themselves out. + +From "light" cases and from "bad" cases, from officers and men, you had +the account of an individual's supreme experience, infinitesimal +compared to the whole but when taken together making up the whole. The +wounded in the Thiepval-Gommecourt sector spoke of having "crawled" back +across No Man's Land. South of Thiepval they had "walked" back. This, +too, told the story of the difference between repulse and victory. + +As the fight went for each man in the fray, so the battle went to his +conception. The spectator going here and there could hear accounts at +one headquarters of battalions that were beyond the first-line trenches +and at another of battalions whose survivors were back in their own +trenches. He could hear one wounded man say: "It was too stiff, sir. +There was no getting through their curtains of fire against their +machine guns, sir;" and another: "We went into their first line without +a break and right on, gathering in Boches on the way." + +Victory is sweet. It writes itself. Perhaps because failure is harder to +write, though in this case it is equally glorious, we shall have this +first. To make the picture of that day clearer, imagine a movement of +the whole arm, with the shoulder at Gommecourt and the fist swinging in +at Montauban, crushing its way against those fortifications. It broke +through for a distance of more than from the elbow to the fingers' ends +twenty miles southward from Thiepval--a name to bear in mind. Men +crossing the open under protecting waves of shell fire had proved that +men in dugouts with machine guns were not invincible. + +From a certain artillery observation post in a tree you had a good view +of Thiepval, already a blackened spot with the ruins of the chateau +showing white in its midst and pricked by the toothpick-like trunks of +trees denuded of their limbs, which were to become such a familiar sight +on the battlefield. It was uphill all the way to Thiepval for the +British. A river so-called, really a brook, the Ancre, runs at the foot +of the slope and turns eastward beyond Thiepval, where a ridge called +Crucifix Ridge north-east of the village takes its name from a Christ +with outstretched arms visible for many miles around. Then on past the +bend of the Ancre the British and the German positions continued to the +Gommecourt salient. + +Along these five miles the odds of terrain were all against the British. +The high ground which they sought to gain was of supreme tactical value. +Nature was an ally of soldierly industry in constructing defenses. The +German staff expected the brunt of the offensive in this sector and +every hour's delay in the attack was invaluable for their final +preparations. Thiepval, Beaumont-Hamel and Gommecourt would not be +yielded if there were any power of men or material at German command to +keep them. Indeed, the Germans said that Thiepval was impregnable. Their +boast was good on July 1st but not in the end, as we shall see, for, +before the summer was over, Thiepval was to be taken with less loss to +the British than to the defenders. + +At Beaumont-Hamel and Thiepval, particularly, and in all villages house +cellars had been enlarged and connected by new galleries, the débris +from the buildings forming a thicker roof against penetration by shells. +Where there had seemed no life in Beaumont-Hamel battalions were snug in +their refuges as the earth around trembled from the explosions. Those +shell-threshed parapets of the first-line German trenches which appeared +to represent complete destruction had not filled in all the doorways of +dugouts which big shells had failed to reach. The cut and twisted +fragments of barbed wire which were the remains of the maze of +entanglements fringing the parapets no longer protected them from a +charge; but the garrisons depended upon another kind of defense which +sent its deadly storms against the advancing infantry. + +The British battalions that went over the parapet from Thiepval +northward were of the same mettle as those that took Montauban and +Mametz; their training and preparation the same. Where battalions to the +southward swept forward according to plan and the guns' pioneering was +successful, those on this front in many cases started from trenches +already battered in by German shell fire. A few steps across that dead +space and officers knew that the supporting artillery, working no less +thoroughly in its preliminary bombardment here than elsewhere, had not +the situation in hand. + +All the guns which the Germans had brought up during the time that +weather delayed the British attack added their weight to the artillery +concentration. Down the valley of the Ancre at its bend they had more or +less of an enfilade. Machine guns had survived in their positions in the +débris of the trenches or had been mounted overnight and others appeared +from manholes in front of the trenches. Sprays of bullets cut crosswise +of the blasts of the German curtains of artillery fire. How any men +could go the breadth of No Man's Land and survive would have been called +miraculous in other days; in these days we know that it was due to the +law of chance which will wound one man a dozen times and never bark the +skin of another. + +Any troops might have been warranted in giving up the task before they +reached the first German trench. Veterans could have retired without +criticism. This is the privilege of tried soldiers who have won +victories and are secured by such an expression as, "If the Old Guard +saw that it could not be done, why, then, it could not." But these were +New Army men in their first offensive. Their victories were yet to be +won. This was "the day." + +Each officer and each man had given himself up as a hostage to death for +his cause, his pride of battalion and his manhood when he went over the +parapet. The business of the officers was to lead their men to certain +goals; that of the men was to go with the officers. All very simple +reasoning, this, yet hardly reason: the second nature of training and +spirit. How officers had studied the details of their objectives on the +map in order to recognize them when they were reached! How like drill it +was the way that those human waves moved forward! But they were not +waves for long in some instances, only survivors still advancing as if +they were parts of a wave, unseen by their commanders in the +shell-smoke, buffeted by bursts of high explosives, with every man +simply keeping on toward the goal till he arrived or fell. Foolhardy, +you say. Perhaps. It is an easy word to utter over a map after the +event. You would think of finer words if you had been at the front. + +Would England have wanted her New Army to act otherwise?--the first +great army that she had put into the field on trial on the continent of +Europe against an army which had, by virtue of its own experience, the +right to consider the newcomers as amateurs? They became more skilful +later; but in war all skill is based on such courage as these men showed +that day. Those who sit in offices in times of peace and think otherwise +had better be relieved. It is the precept that the German Army itself +taught and practiced at Ypres and Verdun. On July 1st a question was +answered for anyone who had been in the Manchurian war. He learned that +those bred in sight of cathedrals in the civilization of the epic poem +can surpass without any inspiration of oriental fatalism or religious +fanaticism the courage of the land of Shintoism and Bushido. + +In most places the charge reached the German trenches. There, frequently +outnumbered by the garrison, the men stabbed and bombed, fought to put +out machine guns that were turned on them and so stay the tide coming +out of the mouths of dugouts--simply fought and kept on fighting with a +kind of divine stubbornness. + +Tennyson's "Light Brigade" seems bombast and gallery play after July +1st. In that case some men on horses who had received an order rode out +and rode back, and verse made ever memorable this wild gallop of +exhilaration with horses bearing the men. The battalions of July 1st +went on their own feet driven by their own will toward their goals, +without turning back. Surviving officers with objectives burned in their +brains led the surviving men past the first-line trenches if the +directions required this. "Theirs not to reason why--theirs but to do +and die--cannon to right of them volleyed and thundered,"--old-fashioned, +smoke-powder cannon firing round shot for the Light Brigade; for these +later-day battalions every kind of modern shell and machine guns, showers +of death and sheets of death! + +The goal--the goal! Ten men out of a hundred reached it in a few cases +and when they arrived they sent up rocket signals to say that they were +there! there! there! Two or three battalions literally disappeared into +the blue. I thought that the Germans might have taken a considerable +number of prisoners, but not so. Those isolated lots who went on to +their objectives regardless of every other thought died fighting, as +final proof of the New Army's spirit, against the Germans enraged by +their heavy losses from the preliminary British bombardment. + +It was where gaps existed and gallantry went blindly forward, unable in +the fog of shell-smoke to see whether the units on the right or the left +were up, that these sacrifices of heroism were made; but where command +was held over the line and the opposition was not of a variable kind +counsel was taken of the impossible and retreat was ordered. That is, +the units turned back toward their own trenches under direction. They +had to pass through the same curtain of shell fire in returning as in +charging, and ahead of them through the blasts they drove their +prisoners. + +"Never mind. It's from your own side!" said one Briton to a German who +had been knocked over by a German "krump" when he picked himself up; and +the German answered that this did not make him like it any better. + +Scattered with British wounded taking cover in new and old shell-craters +was No Man's Land as the living passed. A Briton and his prisoner would +take cover together. An explosion and the prisoner might be blown to +bits, or if the captor were, another Briton took charge of the prisoner. +Persistently stubborn were the captors in holding on to prisoners who +were trophies out of that inferno, and when a Briton was back in the +first-line trench with his German his delight was greater in delivering +his man alive than in his own safety. Out in No Man's Land the wounded +hugged their shell-craters until the fire slackened or night fell, when +they crawled back. + +Where early in the morning it had appeared as if the attack were +succeeding reserve battalions were sent in to the support of those in +front, and as unhesitatingly and steadily as at drill they entered the +blanket of shell-smoke with its vivid flashes and hissing of shrapnel +bullets and shell-fragments. Commanders, I found, stood in awe of the +steadfast courage of their troops. Whether officers or men, those who +came out of hell were still true to their heritage of English phlegm. + +Covered with chalk dust from crawling, their bandages blood-soaked, +bespattered with the blood of comrades as they lay on litters or hobbled +down a communication trench, they looked blank when they mentioned the +scenes that they had witnessed; but they gave no impression of despair. +It did not occur to them that they had been beaten; they had been +roughly handled in one round of a many-round fight. Had a German +counter-attack developed they would have settled down, rifle in hand, to +stall through the next round. And that young officer barely twenty, +smiling though weak from loss of blood from two wounds, refusing +assistance as he pulled himself along among the "walking wounded," +showed a bravery in his stoicism equal to any on the field when he said, +"It did not go well this time," in a way that indicated that, of course, +it would in the end. + +It was over one of those large scale, raised maps showing in facsimile +all the elevations that a certain corps commander told the story of the +whole attack with a simplicity and frankness which was a victory of +character even if he had not won a victory in battle. He rehearsed the +details of preparation, which were the same in their elaborate care as +those of corps which had succeeded; and he did not say that luck had +been against him--indeed, he never once used the word--but merely that +the German fortifications had been too strong and the gunfire too heavy. +He bore himself in the same manner that he would in his house in +England; but his eyes told of suffering and when he spoke of his men his +voice quavered. + +Where the young officer had said that it had not gone well this time and +a private had said, "We must try again, sir!" the general had said that +repulse was an incident of a prolonged operation in the initial stage, +which sounded more professional but was no more illuminating. All spoke +of lessons learned for the future. Thus they had stood the supreme test +which repulse alone can give. + +What could an observer say or do that was not banal in the eyes of men +who had been through such experiences? Only listen and look on with the +awe of one who feels that he is in the presence of immortal heroism. And +an hour's motor ride away were troops in the glow of that success which +is without comparison in its physical elation--the success of arms. + + + + +VII + +OUT OF THE HOPPER OF BATTLE + + An army of movement--Taking over the captured space--At Minden Post, + a crossroads of battle--German prisoners--Their desire to live--Their + variety--The ambulance line--The refuse from the hopper of + battle--Resting in the battle line--Reminiscences of the fighters--A + mighty crater--The dugouts around Fricourt--Method of taking a + dugout--The litter over the field. + + +When I went southward through that world of triumph back of Mametz and +Montauban I kept thinking of a strong man who had broken free of his +bonds and was taking a deep breath before another effort. Where from +Thiepval to Gommecourt the men who had expected to be organizing new +trenches were back in their old ones and the gunners who had hoped to +move their guns forward were in the same positions and all the plans for +supplying an army in advance were still on paper, to the southward +anticipation had become realization and the system devised to carry on +after success was being applied. + +A mighty, eager industry pervaded the rear. Here, at last, was an army +of movement. New roads must be made in order that the transport could +move farther forward; medical corps men were establishing more advanced +clearing stations; new ammunition dumps were being located; military +police were adapting traffic regulations to the new situation. Old +trenches had been filled up to give trucks and guns passageway. In every +face was the shining desire which overcomes fatigue. An army long +trench-tied was stretching its limbs as it found itself in the open. At +corps headquarters lines were drawn on the maps of positions gained and +beyond them the lines of new objectives. + +Could it be possible that our car was running along that road back of +the first-line trenches where it would have been death to show your head +two days ago? And could battalions in reserve be lying in the open on +fields where forty-eight hours previously a company would have drawn the +fire of half a dozen German batteries? Was it dream or reality that you +were walking about in the first-line German trenches? So long had you +been used to stationary warfare, with your side and the other side +always in the same places hedged in by walls of shell fire, that the +transformation seemed as amazing as if by some magic overnight lower +Broadway with all its high buildings had been moved across the North +River. + +Among certain scenes which memory still holds dissociated from others by +their outstanding characterization, that of Minden Post remains vivid +as illustrating the crossroads man-traffic of battle. A series of big +dugouts, of houses and caves with walls of sandbags, back of the first +British line near Carnoy was a focus of communication trenches and the +magnet to the men hastening from bullet-swept, shell-swept spaces to +security. The hot breath of the firing-line had scorched them and cast +them out and they came together in congestion at this clearing station +like a crowd at a gate. Eyes were bloodshot and set in deep hollows from +fatigue, those of the British having the gleam of triumph and those of +the Germans a dazed inquiry as they awaited directions. + +Only a half-hour before, perhaps, the Germans had been fighting with the +ferocity of racial hate and the method of iron discipline. Now they were +simply helpless, disheveled human beings, their short boots and green +uniforms whitened by chalk dust. Hunger had weakened the stamina of many +of them in the days when the preliminary British bombardment had shut +them off from supplies; but none looked as if he were really underfed. I +never saw a German prisoner who was except for the intervals when battle +kept the food waiting at the rear away from his mouth, though some who +were under-sized and ill-proportioned looked incapable of absorbing +nutrition. + +In order to make them fight better they had been told that the British +gave no quarter. Out of hell, with shells no longer bursting overhead or +bullets whimpering and hissing past, they were conscious only that they +were alive, and being alive, though they had risked life as if death +were an incident, now freed of discipline and of the exhilaration of +battle, their desire to live was very human in the way that hands shot +up if a sharp word were spoken to them by an officer. They were wholly +lacking in military dignity as they filed by; but it returned as by a +magic touch when a non-commissioned officer was bidden to take charge of +a batch and march them to an inclosure. Then, in answer to the command +shoulders squared, heels rapped together, and the instinct of long +training put a ramrod to their backbones which stiffened mere tired +human beings into soldiers. Distinct gratitude was evident when their +papers were taken for examination over the return of their +identification books, which left them still docketed and numbered +members of "system" and not mere lost souls as they would otherwise have +considered themselves. + +"All kinds of Boches in our exhibit!" said a British soldier. + +As there were, in truth: big, hulking, awkward fellows, beardless +youths, men of forty with stoops formed in civil life, professional men +with spectacles fastened to their ears by cords and fat men with the +cranial formation and physiognomy in keeping with French comic pictures +of the "type Boche." + +Mixed with the British wounded they came, tall and short, thin and +portly, the whole a motley procession of friend and foe in a strange +companionship which was singularly without rancor. I saw only one +incident of any harshness of captor to prisoner. A big German ran +against the wounded arm of a Briton, who winced with pain and turned and +gave the German a punch in very human fashion with his free arm. Another +German with his slit trousers' leg flapping around a bandage was leaning +on the arm of a Briton whose other arm was in a sling. A giant Prussian +bore a spectacled comrade pickaback. Germans impressed as litter-bearers +brought in still forms in khaki. Water and tobacco, these are the +bounties which no man refuses to another at such a time as this. The +gurgle of a canteen at a parched mouth on that warm July day was the +first gift to wounded Briton or German and the next a cigarette. + +Every returning Briton was wounded, of course, but many of the Germans +were unwounded. Long rows of litters awaited the busy doctors' visit for +further examination. First dressings put on by the man himself or by a +comrade in the firing-line were removed and fresh dressings substituted. +Ambulance after ambulance ran up, the litters of those who were "next" +were slipped in behind the green curtains, and on soft springs over +spinning rubber tires the burdens were sped on their way to England. + +Officers were bringing order out of the tide which flowed in across the +fields and the communication trenches as if they were used to such +situations, with the firing-line only two thousand yards away. The +seriously wounded were separated from the lightly wounded, who must not +expect to ride but must go farther on foot. The shell-mauled German +borne pickaback by a comrade found himself in an ambulance across from a +Briton and his bearer was to know sleep after a square meal in the +prisoners' inclosure. + +And all this was the refuse from the hopper of battle, which has no +service for prisoners unless to carry litters and no use at all for +wounded; and it was only a by-product of the proof of success compared +to a trip over the field itself--a field still fresh. + +Artillery caissons and ambulances and signal wire carts and other +specially favored transport--favored by risk of being in range of +hundreds of guns--now ran along the road in the former No Man's Land +which for nearly two years had had no life except the patrols at night. +The bodies of those who fell on such nocturnal scouting expeditions +could not be recovered and their bones lay there in the midst of rotting +green and khaki in the company of the fresh dead of the charge who were +yet to be buried. + +There was the battalion which took the trenches resting yonder on a +hillside, while another battalion took its place in the firing-line. The +men had stripped off their coats; they were washing and making tea and +sprawling in the sunshine, these victors, looking across at curtains of +fire where the battle was raging. Thus reserves might have waited at +Gettysburg or at Waterloo. + +"They may put some shells into you," I suggested to their colonel. + +"Perhaps," he said. The prospect did not seem to disturb him or the men. +It was a possibility hazy to minds which asked only sleep or relaxation +after two sleepless nights under fire. "The Germans haven't any +aeroplanes up to enable them to see us and no sausage balloons, either. +Since our planes brought down those six in flames the day before the +attack the others have been very coy." + +His young officers were all New Army products; he, the commander, being +the only regular. There were still enough regulars left to provide one +for each of the New Army battalions, in some cases even two. + +"The men were splendid," he said, "just as good as regulars. They went +in without any faltering and we had a stiffish bit of trench in front of +us, you know. It's jolly out here, isn't it?" + +He was tired and perhaps he would be killed to-morrow, but nothing could +prevent him from going some distance to show us the way to the trenches +that his men had taken. They were heroes to him and he was one to them; +and they had won. That was the thing, victory, though they regarded it +as a matter of course, which gave them a glow warmer than the sunlight +as they lay at ease on the grass. They had "been in;" they had seen the +day for which they had long waited. A quality of mastery was in their +bearing, but their elation was tempered by the thought of the missing +comrades, the dead. + +"I wish as long as Bill had to go that he hadn't fallen before we got to +the trench," said one soldier. "He had set his heart on seeing what a +Boche dugout was like." + +"George was beside me when a Boche got him with a bomb. I did for the +Boche with a bayonet," said another. + +"When the machine gun began I thought that it would get us all, but we +had to go on." + +They were matter-of-fact, dwelling on the simple essentials. Men had +died; men had been wounded; men had survived. This was all according to +expectation. Mostly, they did not rehearse their experiences. Their +brains had had emotion enough; their bodies asked for rest. They lay +silently enjoying the fact of life and sunlight. Details which were lost +in the haze of action would develop in the memory in later years like +the fine points of a photographic plate. + +The former German trench on a commanding knoll had little resemblance to +a trench. Here artillerists had fulfilled infantry requirements to the +letter. Areas of shell-craters lay on either side of the tumbled walls +and dugout entrances were nearly all closed. The infantry which took the +position met no fire in front, but had an enfilade at one point from a +machine gun. Where the dead lay told exactly the breadth of its sweep +through which the charge had unfalteringly passed; and this was only a +first objective. As you could see, the charge had gone on to its second +with slight loss. A young officer after being wounded had crawled into a +shell-crater, drawn his rubber sheet over him and so had died +peacefully, the clot of his life's blood on the earth beside him. + +In the field of ruins around Fricourt a mighty crater of one of the +mines exploded on July 1st at the hour of attack was large enough to +hold a battalion. Germans had gone aloft in a spatter with its vast +plume of smoke and dust scooped from the bowels of the earth. Famous +since to sightseers of war were the dugouts around Fricourt which were +the last word in German provision against attack. The making of dugouts +is standardized like everything else in this war. There is the same +angle of entrance, the same flight of steps to that underground refuge, +in keeping with the established pattern. Depth, capacity and comfort are +the result of local initiative and industry. There may be beds and +tables and tiers of bunks. Many such chambers were as undisturbed as if +never a shell had burst in the neighborhood. The Germans in occupation +had been told to hold on; a counter-attack would relieve them. The faith +of some of them endured so well that they had to be blasted out by +explosives before they would surrender. + +There was reassurance in the proximity of such good dugouts when +habitable to a correspondent if shells began to fall, as well as +protection for the British in reserve. Some whence came foul odors were +closed by the British as the simplest form of burial for the dead within +who had waited for bombs to be thrown before surrendering. For the +method of taking a dugout had long since become as standardized as its +construction. The men inside could have their choice from the Briton at +the entrance. + +"Either file out or take what we send," as a soldier put it. "We can't +leave you there to come out and fire into our backs, as the Kaiser told +you to do, when we've started on ahead." + +You could follow for miles the ruins of the first line, picking your way +among German dead in all attitudes, while a hand or a head or a foot +stuck out of the shell-hammered chalk mixed with flesh and fragments of +clothing, the thing growing nauseatingly horrible and your wonder +increasing as to how gunfire had accomplished the destruction and how +men had been able to conquer the remains that the shells had left. It +was a prodigious feat, emphasizing again the importance of the months of +preparation. + +And the litter over the whole field! This, in turn, expressed how varied +and immense is the material required for such operations. One had in +mind the cleaning up after some ghastly debauch. Shell-fragments were +mixed with the earth; piles of cartridge cases lay beside pools of +blood. Trench mortars poked their half-filled muzzles out of the toppled +trench walls. Bundles of rocket flares, empty ammunition boxes, steel +helmets crushed in by shell-fragments, gasbags, eye-protectors against +lachrymatory shells, spades, water bottles, unused rifle grenades, egg +bombs, long stick-handled German bombs, map cases, bits of German "K.K." +bread, rifles, the steel jackets of shells and unexploded shells of all +calibers were scattered about the field between the irregular welts of +chalky soil where shell fire had threshed them to bits. + +The rifles and accoutrements of the fallen were being gathered in piles, +this being, too, a part of a prearranged system, as was the gathering of +the wounded and later of the dead who had worn them. Big, barelegged +forms of the sturdy Highland regiment which would not halt for a machine +gun were being brought in and laid in a German communication trench +which had only to be closed to make a common grave, each identification +disk being kept as a record of where the body lay. Another communication +trench near by was reserved for German dead who were being gathered at +the same time as the British. In life the foes had faced each other +across No Man's Land. In death they were also separated. + +Up to the first-line German trenches, of course, there were only British +dead, those who had fallen in the charge. It was this that made it seem +as if the losses had been all on one side. In the German trenches the +entries on the other side of the ledger appeared; and on the fields and +in the communication trenches lay green figures. Over that open space +they were scattered green dots; again, where they had run for cover to a +wood's edge, they lay thick as they had dropped under the fire of a +machine gun which the British had brought into action. A fierce game of +hare and hounds had been played. Both German and British dead lay facing +in the same direction when they were in the open, the Germans in +retreat, the British in pursuit. An officer called attention to this +grim proof that the initiative was with the British. + +By the number of British dead lying in No Man's Land or by the blood +clots when the bodies had been removed, it was possible to tell what +price battalions had paid for success. Nothing could bring back the +lives of comrades who had fallen in front of Thiepval to the survivors +of that action; but could they have seen the broad belts of No Man's +Land with only an occasional prostrate figure it would have had the +reassurance that another time they might have easier going. Wherever the +Germans had brought a machine gun into action the results of its work +lay a stark warning of the necessity of silencing these automatic +killers before a charge. Yet from Mametz to Montauban the losses had +been light, leaving no doubt that the Germans, convinced that the weight +of the attack would be to the north, had been caught napping. + +The Allies could not conceal the fact and general location of their +offensive, but they did conceal its plan as a whole. The small number of +shell-craters attested that no such artillery curtains of fire had been +concentrated here as from Thiepval to Gommecourt. Probably the Germans +had not the artillery to spare or had drawn it off to the north. + +All branches of the winning army making themselves at home in the +conquered area among the dead and the litter behind the old German first +line--this was the fringe of the action. Beyond was the battle itself, +with the firing-line still advancing under curtains of shell-bursts. + + + + +VIII + +FORWARD THE GUNS! + + An audacious battery--"An unusual occasion"--Guns to the front at + night--Close to the firing-line--Not so dangerous for observers--The + German lines near by--Advantages of even a gentle slope--Skilfully + chosen German positions--A game of hide and seek with + death--Business-like progress--Haze, shell-smoke and moving + figures--Each figure part of the "system." + + +Hadn't that battery commander mistaken his directions when he emplaced +his howitzers behind a bluff in the old No Man's Land? Didn't he know +that the German infantry was only the other side of the knoll and that +two or three score German batteries were in range? I looked for a +tornado to descend forthwith upon the gunners' heads. I liked their +audacity, but did not court their company when I could not break a habit +of mind bred in the rules of trench-tied warfare where the other fellow +was on the lookout for just such fair targets as they. + +For the moment these "hows" were not firing and the gunners were in a +little circumscribed world of their own, dissociated from the movement +around them as they busily dug pits for their ammunition. In due course +someone might tell them to begin registering on a certain point or to +turn loose on one which they had already registered. Meanwhile, very +workmanlike in their shirt-sleeves, they had no concern with the traffic +in the rear, except as it related to their own supply of shells, or with +the litter of the field, or the dead, or the burial parties and the +scattered wounded passing back from the firing-line. Their business +relations were exclusively with the battle area hidden by the bluff. I +thought that they were "rather fond of themselves" (as the British say) +that morning, though not so much so, perhaps, as the crew of the +eighteen pounders still farther forward within about a thousand yards of +the Germans whom they were pelting with shrapnel. + +Ordinarily, the eighteen pounders were expected to keep a distance of +four or five thousand yards; but this was "rather an unusual occasion" +as an officer explained. It would never do for the eighteen pounders to +be wall-flowers; they must be on the ballroom floor. Had these men who +were mechanically slipping shells into the gun-breeches slept last night +or the previous night? Oh, yes, for two or three hours when they were +not firing. + +What did fatigue matter to an eighteen-pounder spirit released from the +eternal grind of trench warfare and pushing across the open in the way +that eighteen pounders were meant to do? Weren't they horse artillery? +What use had they had for their horses in the immovable Ypres salient +except when they drew back their guns to the billets after their tour of +duty?--they who had drilled and drilled in evolutions in England under +the impression that field guns were a mobile arm! + +When orders came on the afternoon of July 1st to go ahead "right into +it" it was like a summons to a holiday for a desk-ridden man brought up +in the Rockies. Out into the night with creaking wheels and caissons +following with sharp words of urging from the sergeant, "Now, wheelers, +as I taught you at Aldershot," as they went across old trenches or up a +stiff slope and into the darkness, with transport giving them the right +of way, and on to a front that was in motion, with officers studying +their maps and directions by the pocket flashlight--this was something +like. And a young lieutenant hurried forward to where the rifles were +talking to signal back the results of the guns firing from the midst of +the battle. Something like, indeed! The fellows training their pieces in +keeping with his instructions might be in for a sudden concentration of +blasts from the enemy, of course. Wasn't that part of the experience? +Wasn't it their place to take their share of the pounding, and didn't +they belong to the guns? + +These were examples close at hand, but sprinkled about the well-won area +I saw the puffs from other British batteries which, after a nocturnal +journey, morning found close to the firing-line. While I was moving +about in the neighborhood I cast glances in the direction of that +particular battery of eighteen pounders which was still serenely firing +without being disturbed by the German guns. There was something unreal +about it after nearly two years of the Ypres salient. + +But the worst shock to a trench-tied habit of mind was when I stood upon +the parapet of a German trench and saw ahead the British firing-line and +the German, too. I ducked as instinctively, according to past training, +as if I had seen a large, black, murderous thing coming straight for my +head. In the stalemate days a dozen sharpshooters waiting for such +opportunities would have had a try at you; a machine gun might have +loosened up, and even batteries of artillery in their search for game to +show itself from cover did not hesitate to snipe with shells at an +individual. + +I must be dead; at least, I ought to be according to previous formulæ; +but realizing that I was still alive and that nothing had cracked or +whistled overhead, I took another look and then remained standing. I had +been considering myself altogether too important a mortal. German guns +and snipers were not going to waste ammunition on a non-combatant on the +skyline when they had an overwhelming number of belligerent targets. A +few shrapnel breaking remotely were all that we had to bother us, and +these were sparingly sent with the palpable message, "We'll let you +fellows in the rear know what we would do to you if we were not so +preoccupied with other business." + +I was near enough to see the operations; to have gone nearer would have +been to face in the open the sweep of bullets over the heads of the +British front line hugging the earth, which is not wise in these days of +the machine gun. A correspondent likes to see without being shot at and +his lot is sometimes to be shot at without being able to see anything +except the entrance of a dugout, which on some occasions is more +inviting than the portals of a palace. + +In the distance was the main German second trench line on the crest of +Longueval and High Wood Ridge, which the British were later to win after +a struggle which left nothing of woods or villages or ridges except +shell-craters. Naturally, the Germans had not restricted their original +defenses to the ridge itself, any more than the French had theirs to the +hills immediately in front of Verdun. They had placed their original +first-line trenches along the series of advantageous positions on the +slope and turned every bit of woods and every eminence into a strong +point on the way back to the second line, whose barbed-wire +entanglements rusted by long exposure were distinct under the glasses. +A German officer stood on the parapet looking out in our direction, +probably trying to locate the British infantry advance which was hugging +a fold in the ground and resting there for the time being. I imagined +how beaver-like were the Germans in the second line strengthening their +defenses. I scanned all the slopes facing us in the hope of seeing a +German battery. There must be one under those balls of black smoke from +high explosives from British guns and another a half mile away under the +same kind of shower. + +"They withdrew most of their guns behind the ridge overnight," said an +officer, "in order to avoid capture in case we made another rush." + +On the other side of this natural wall they would be safe from any +except aerial observation, and the advanced British batteries, though +all in the open, were in folds in the ground, or behind bluffs, or just +below the skyline of a rise where they had found their assigned position +by the map. How much a few feet of depression in a field, a slightly +sunken road, the grade of a gentle slope, which hid man or gun from view +counted for I did not realize that day as I was to realize in the fierce +fight for position which was to come in succeeding weeks. + +It was easy to understand why the Germans had made a strong point in the +first line where I was standing, for it was a position which, in +relation to both the British and the German trenches, would instantly +appeal to the tactical eye. Here they had emplaced machine guns manned +by chosen desperate men which had given the British charge its worst +experience over a mile front. I could see all the movement over a broad +area to the rear which, however, the rise under my feet hid from the +ridge where the German officer stood. The advantage which the Germans +had after their retreat from the Marne was brought home afresh once you +were on conquered ground. A mile more or less of depth had no +sentimental interest to them, for they were on foreign soil. They had +chosen their positions by armies, by corps, by battalions, by hundreds +of miles and tens of miles and tens of yards with the view to a command +of observation and ground. This was a simple application of the formula +as old as man; but it was their numbers and preparedness that permitted +its application and wherever the Allies were to undertake the offensive +they must face this military fact, which made the test of their skill +against frontal positions all the stiffer and added tribute to success. + +The scene in front reminded one of a great carpet which did not lie flat +on the floor but was in undulations, with the whole on an incline toward +Longueval and High Wood Ridge. The Ridge I shall call it after this, +for so it was in capital letters to millions of French, British and +German soldiers in the summer of 1916. And this carpet was peopled with +men in a game of hide and seek with death among its folds. + +No vehicle, no horse was anywhere visible. Yet it was a poignantly live +world where the old trench lines had been a dead world--a world alive in +the dots of men strung along the crest, in others digging new trenches, +in messengers and officers on the move, in clumps of reserves behind a +hillock or in a valley. Though bursting shrapnel jackets whipped out the +same kind of puffs as always from a flashing center which spread into +nimbus radiant in the sunlight and the high explosives sent up the same +spouts of black smoke as if a stick of dynamite had burst in a coal box, +the shell fire seemed different; it had a quality of action and +adventure in comparison with the monotonous exhibition which we had +watched in stalemate warfare. Death now had some element of glory and +sport. It was less like set fate in a stationary shambles. + +Directly ahead was a bare sweep of field of waste wild grass between the +German communication trenches where wheat had grown before the war, and +the British firing-line seemed like heads fastened to a greenish +blanket. Holding the ground that they had gained, they were waiting on +something to happen elsewhere. Others must advance before they could go +farther. + +The battle was not general; it raged at certain points where the Germans +had anchored themselves after some recovery from the staggering blow of +the first day. Beyond Fricourt the British artillery was making a +crushing concentration on a clump of woods. This seemed to be the +hottest place of all. I would watch it. Nothing except the blanket of +shell-smoke hanging over the trees was visible for a time, unless you +counted figures some distance away moving about in a sort of detached +pantomime. + +Then a line of British infantry seemed to rise out of the pile of the +carpet and I could see them moving with a drill-ground steadiness toward +the edge of the woods, only to be lost to the eye in a fold of the +carpet or in a changed background. There had been something workmanlike +and bold about their rigid, matter-of-fact progress, reflective of +man-power in battle as seen very distinctly for a space in that field of +baffling and shimmering haze. I thought that I had glimpses of some of +them just before they entered the woods and that they were mixing with +figures coming out of the woods. At any rate, what was undoubtedly a +half company of German prisoners were soon coming down the slope in a +body, only to disappear as if they, too, were playing their part in the +hide and seek of that irregular landscape with its variation from white +chalk to dark green foliage. + +Khaki figures stood out against the chalk and melted into the fields or +the undergrowth, or came up to the skyline only to be swallowed into the +earth probably by the German trench which they were entering. I wondered +if one group had been killed, or knocked over, or had merely taken cover +in a shell-crater when a German "krump" seemed to burst right among +them, though at a distance of even a few hundred yards nothing is so +deceiving as the location of a shell-burst in relation to objects in +line with it. The black cloud drew a curtain over them. When it lifted +they were not on the stage. This was all that one could tell. + +What seemed only a platoon became a company for an instant under +favorable light refraction. The object of British khaki, French blue and +German green is invisibility, but nothing can be designed that will not +be visible under certain conditions. A motley such as the "tanks" were +painted would be best, but the most utilitarian of generals has not yet +dared to suggest motley as a uniform for an army. It occurred to me how +distinct the action would have been if the participants had worn the +blue coats and red trousers in which the French fought their early +battles of the war. + +All was confused in that mixture of haze and shell-smoke and maze of +trenches, with the appearing and disappearing soldiers living patterns +of the carpet which at times itself seemed to move to one's tiring, +intensified gaze. Each one was working out his part of a plan; each was +a responsive unit of the system of training for such affairs. + +The whole would have seemed fantastic if it had not been for the sound +of the machine guns and the rifles and the deeper-throated chorus of the +heavy guns, which proved that this was no mesmeric, fantastic spectacle +but a game with death, precise and ordered, with nothing that could be +rehearsed left to chance any more than there was in the regulation of +the traffic which was pressing forward, column after column, to supply +the food which fed the artillery-power and man-power that should crush +through frontal positions. + + + + +IX + +WHEN THE FRENCH WON + + A big man's small quarters--General Foch--French capacity for + enjoying a victory--Winning quality of French as victors--When the + heart of France stood still--The bravery of the race--Germany's + mistaken estimate of France--Why the French will fight this war to a + finish--French and Germans as different breeds as ever lived + neighbor--The democracy of the French--_Élan_--"War of movement." + + +The farther south the better the news. There was another world of +victory on the other side of a certain dividing road where French and +British transport mingled. That world I was to see next on a day of +days--a holiday of elation. + +A brief note, with its permission to "circulate within the lines," +written in a bold hand in the chateau where General Foch directed the +Northern Group of French Armies, placed no limitation on freedom of +movement for my French friend and myself. + +Of course, General Foch's chateau was small. All chateaux occupied by +big commanders are small, and as a matter of method I am inclined to +think. If they have limited quarters there is no room for the intrusion +of anyone except their personal staff and they can live with the +simplicity which is a soldier's barrack training. + +Joffre, Castelnau and Foch were the three great names in the French Army +which the public knew after the Marne, and of the three Foch has, +perhaps, more of the dash which the world associates with the French +military type. He simplified victory, which was the result of the same +arduous preparation as on the British side, with a single gesture as he +swept his pencil across the map from Dompierre to Flaucourt. Thus his +army had gone forward and that was all there was to it, which was enough +for the French and also for the Germans on this particular front. + +"It went well! It goes well!" he said, with dramatic brevity. He had +made the plans which were so definite in the bold outline to which he +held all subordinates in a coördinated execution; and I should meet the +men who had carried out his plans, from artillerists who had blazed the +way to infantry who had stormed the enemy trenches. There was no +mistaking his happiness. It was not that of a general, but the common +happiness of all France. + +Victory in France for France could never mean to an Englishman what it +meant to a Frenchman. The Englishman would have to be on his own soil +before he could understand what was in the heart of the French after +their drive on the Somme. I imagined that day that I was a Frenchman. +By proxy I shared their joy of winning, which in a way seemed to be +taking an unfair advantage of my position, considering that I had not +been fighting. + +There is no race, it seems to me, who know quite so well how to enjoy +victory as the French. They make it glow with a rare quality which +absorbs you into their own exhilaration. I had the feeling that the +pulse of every citizen in France had quickened a few beats. All the +peasant women as they walked along the road stood a little straighter +and the old men and old women were renewing their youth in quiet +triumph; for now they had learned the first result of the offensive and +might permit themselves to exult. + +Once before in this war at the Marne I had followed the French legions +in an advance. Then victory meant that France was safe. The people had +found salvation through their sacrifice, and their relief was so +profound that to the outsider they seemed hardly like the French in +their stoic gratitude. This time they were articulate, more like the +French of our conception. They could fondle victory and take it apart +and play with it and make the most of it. + +If I had no more interest in the success of one European people than +another, then as a spectator I should choose that it should be to the +French, provided that I was permitted to be present. They make victory +no raucous-voiced, fleshy woman, shrilly gloating, no superwoman, cold +and efficient, who considers it her right as a superior being, but a +gracious person, smiling, laughing, singing in a human fashion, whether +she is greeting winning generals or privates or is looking in at the +door of a chateau or a peasant's cottage. + +An old race, the French, tried out through many victories and defeats +until a vital, indescribable quality which may be called the art of +living governs all emotions. Victory to the Germans could not mean half +what it would to the French. The Germans had expected victory and had +organized for it for years as a definite goal in their ambitions. To the +French it was a visitation, a reward of courage and kindly fortune and +the right to be the French in their own world and in their own way, +which to man or to State is the most justifiable of all rights. + +Twice the heart of France had stood still in suspense, first on the +Marne and then at the opening onslaught on Verdun; and between the Marne +and Verdun had been sixteen months when, on the soil of their France and +looking out on the ruins of their villages, they had striven to hold +what remained to them. They had been the great martial people of Europe +and because Napoleon III. tripped them by the fetish of the Bonaparte +name in '70, people thought that they were no longer martial. This puts +the world in the wrong, as it implies that success in war is the test of +greatness. When the world expressed its surprise and admiration at +French courage France smiled politely, which is the way of France, and +in the midst of the shambles, as she strained every nerve, was a little +amused, not to say irritated, to think that Frenchmen had to prove again +to the world that they were brave. + +Whether the son came from the little shops of Paris, from stubborn +Brittany, the valley of the Meuse, or the vineyards, war made him the +same kind of Frenchman that he was in the time of Louis XIV. and +Napoleon, fighting now for France rather than for glory as he did in +Napoleon's time; a man cured of the idea of conquest, advanced a step +farther than the stage of the conqueror, and his courage, though slower +to respond to wrath, the finer. He had proven that the more highly +civilized a people, the more content and the more they had to lose by +war, the less likely they were to be drawn into war, the more +resourceful and the more stubborn in defense they might +become--especially that younger generation of Frenchmen with their +exemplary habits and their fondness for the open air. + +If France had been beaten at the Marne, notice would have been served on +humanity that thrift and refinement mean enervation. We should have +believed in the alarmists who talk of oriental hordes and of the vigor +of primitive manhood overcoming art and education. + +The Germans could not give up their idea that both the French and the +English must be dying races. The German staff had been well enough +informed to realize that they must first destroy the French Army as the +continental army most worthy of their steel and, at the same time, they +could not convince themselves that France was other than weak. She loved +her flesh-pots too well; her families would yield and pay rather than +sacrifice only sons. + +At any time since October, 1914, the French could have had a separate +peace; but the answer of the Frenchman, aside from his bounden faith to +the other Allies, was that he would have no peace that was given--only a +peace that was yielded. France would win by the strength of her manhood +or she would die. When the war was over a Frenchman could look a German +in the face and say, "I have won this peace by the force of my blows;" +or else the war would go on to extermination. + +At intervals in the long, long months of sacrifice France was very +depressed; for the French are more inclined than the English to be up +and down in their emotions. They have their bad and their good days. +Yet, when they were bluest over reports of the retreat from the Marne or +losses at Verdun they had no thought of making terms. Depression merely +meant that they would all have to succumb without winning. Thus, after +the weary stalling and resistance of the blows at Verdun, never making +any real progress in driving the enemy out of France, ever dreaming of +the day when they should see the Germans' backs, France had waited for +the movement that came on the Somme. + +The people were always talking of this offensive. They had heard that it +was under way. Yet, how were they to know the truth? The newspapers gave +vague hints; gossip carried others, more concrete, sometimes correct but +usually incorrect; and all that the women and the old men and the +children at home could do was to keep on with the work. And this they +did; it is instinct. Then one morning news was flashed over France that +the British and the French had taken over twenty thousand prisoners. The +tables were turned at last! France was on the march! + +"Do you see why we love France?" said my friend T----, who was with me +that day, as with a turn of the road we had a glimpse of the valley of +the Somme. He swung his hand toward the waving fields of grain, the +villages and plots of woods, as the train flew along the metals between +rows of stately shade trees. "It is France. It is bred in our bones. We +are fighting for that--just what you see!" + +"But wouldn't you take some of Germany if you could?" I asked. + +"No. We want none of Germany and we want no Germans. Let them do as they +please with what is their own. They are brave; they fight well; but we +will not let them stay in France." + +Look into the faces of the French soldiers and look into the faces of +Germans and you have two breeds as different as ever lived neighbor in +the world. It would seem impossible that there could be anything but a +truce between them and either preserve its own characteristics of +civilization. The privilege of each to survive through all the centuries +has been by force of arms and, after the Marne and Verdun, the Somme put +the seal on the French privilege to survive. If there be any hope of +true internationalism among the continental peoples I think that it can +rely on the Frenchman, who only wants to make the most of his own +without encroaching on anybody's else property and is disinterested in +human incubation for the purpose of overwhelming his neighbors. True +internationalism will spring from the provincialism that holds fast to +its own home and does not interfere with the worship by other countries +of their gods. + +All this may seem rambling, but to a spectator of war indulging in a +little philosophy it goes to the kernel of the meaning of victory to the +French and to my own happiness in seeing the French win. Sometimes the +Frenchman seems the most soldierly of men; again, a superficial observer +might wonder if the French Army had any real discipline. And there, +again, you have French temperament; the old civilization that has +defined itself in democracy. For the French are the most democratic of +all peoples, not excluding ourselves. That is not saying that they are +the freest of all peoples, because no people on earth are freer than the +English or the American. + +An Englishman is always on the lookout lest someone should interfere +with his individual rights as he conceives them. He is the least +gregarious of all Europeans in one sense and the French the most +gregarious, which is a factor contributing to French democracy. It is +his gregariousness that makes the Frenchman polite and his politeness +which permits of democracy. An officer may talk with a private soldier +and the private may talk back because of French politeness and equality, +which yield fellowship at one moment and the next slip back into the +bonds of discipline which, by consent of public opinion, have tightened +until they are as strict as in Napoleon's day. Gregariousness was +supreme on this day of victory; democracy triumphant. Democracy had +proved itself again as had English freedom against Prussian system. +Vitality is another French possession and this means industry. The +German also is industrious, but more from discipline and training than +from a philosophy of life. French vitality is inborn, electrically +installed by the sunshine of France. + +When a battery of French artillery moves along the road it is +democratic, but when it swings its guns into action it is military. Then +its vitality is something that is not the product of training, something +that training cannot produce. A French battalion moving up to the +trenches seems not to have any particular order, but when it goes over +the parapet in an attack it has the essence of military spirit which is +coördination of action. No two French soldiers seem quite alike on the +march or when moving about a village on leave. Each seems three beings: +one a Frenchman, one a soldier, a third himself. German psychology left +out the result of the combination, just as it never considered that the +British could in two years submerge their individualism sufficiently to +become a military nation. + +There is a French word, _élan_, which has been much overworked in +describing French character. Other nations have no equivalent word; +other races lack the quality which it expresses, a quality which you +get in the wave of a hand from a peasant girl to a passing car, in the +woman who keeps a shop, in French art, habits, literature. To-day old +Monsieur Élan was director-general of the pageant. + +This people of apt phrases have one for the operations before the trench +system was established; it is the "war of movement." That was the word, +movement, for the blue river of men and transport along the roads to the +front. We were back to the "war of movement" for the time being, at any +rate; for the French had broken through the German fortifications for a +depth of four to five miles in a single day. + + + + +X + +ALONG THE ROAD TO VICTORY + + A thrifty victory--Seventeen-inch guns asleep--A procession of guns + that gorged the roads--French rules of the road--Absence of system + conceals an excellent system--Spoils of war--The Colonial Corps--The + "chocolates"--"Boches"--Dramatic victors--The German line in front of + the French attack--Galloping _soixante-quinzes_. + + +Anyone with experience of armies cannot be deceived about losses when he +is close to the front. Even if he does not go over the field while the +dead of both sides are still lying there, infallible signs without a +word being spoken reflect the truth. It was shining in panoplies of +smiles with the French after the attack of July 1st. Victory was sweet +because it came at slight cost. Staff officers could congratulate +themselves on having driven a thrifty bargain. Casualty clearing +stations were doing a small business; prisoners' inclosures a driving +one. + +"We've nothing to fire at," said an officer of heavy artillery. "Our +targets are out of reach. The Germans went too fast for us; they left us +without occupation." + +Where with the British I had watched the preparations for the offensive +develop, the curtain was now raised on the French preparations, which +were equally elaborate, after the offensive had gone home. General +Joffre had spared more guns from Verdun for the Somme than optimism had +supposed possible. Those immense fellows of caliber from twelve to +seventeen-inch, mounted on railway trucks, were lions asleep under their +covers on the sidings which had been built for them. Their tracks would +have to be carried farther forward before they roared at the Germans +again. + +Five miles are not far for a battalion to march, though an immense +distance to a modern army with its extensive and complicated plant. Even +the aviators wanted to be nearer the enemy and were looking for a new +park. Sheds where artillery horses had been sheltered for more than a +year were empty; camps were being vacated; vast piles of shells must +follow the guns which the tractors were taking forward. The nests of +spacious dugouts in a hillside nicely walled in by sandbags had served +their purpose. They were beyond the range of any German guns. + +For the first time you realized what the procession which gorged the +roads would be like if the Western front were actually broken. Guns of +every caliber from the 75's to the 120's and 240's, ammunition pack +trains, ambulances horse-drawn and motor-drawn, big and little motor +trucks, staff officers' cars, cycle riders and motor cycle riders, small +two-wheeled carts, all were mixed with the flow of infantry going and +coming and crowding the road-menders off the road. + +There was none of the stateliness of the columns of British motor trucks +and none of the rigidity of British marching. It all seemed a great +family affair. When one wondered what part any item of the variegated +transport played it was always promptly explained. + +Officers and men exchanged calls of greeting as they passed. Eyes were +flashing to the accompaniment of gestures. There were arguments about +right of way in which the fellow with the two-wheeled cart held his own +with the chauffeur of the three-ton motor truck. But the argument was +accompanied by action. In some cases it was over, a decision made and +the block of traffic broken before a phlegmatic man could have had +discussion fairly under way. For Frenchmen are nothing if not quick of +mind and body and whether a Frenchman is pulling or pushing or driving +he likes to express the emotions of the moment. If a piece of transport +were stalled there would be a chorus of exclamations and running +disputes as to the method of getting it out of the rut, with the result +that at the juncture when an outsider might think that utter confusion +was to ensue, every Frenchman in sight had swarmed to the task under the +direction of somebody who seemed to have made the suggestion which won +the favor of the majority. + +Much has been written about the grimness of the French in this war. +Naturally they were grim in the early days; but what impresses me most +about the French Army whenever I see it is that it is entirely French. +Some people had the idea that when the French went to war they would +lose their heads, run to and fro and dance about and shout. They have +not acted so in this war and they never have acted so in any other war. +They still talk with eyes, hands and shoulders and fight with them, too. + +The tide never halted for long. It flowed on with marvelous alacrity and +a seeming absence of system which soon convinced you as concealing a +very excellent system. Every man really knew where he was going; he +could think for himself, French fashion. Near the front I witnessed a +typical scene when an officer ran out and halted a soldier who was +walking across the fields by himself and demanded to know who he was and +what he was doing there. + +"I am wounded, sir," was the reply, as he opened his coat and showed a +bandage. "I am going to the casualty clearing station and this is the +shortest way"--not to mention that it was a much easier way than to hug +the edge of the road in the midst of the traffic. + +The battalions and transport which made up this tide of an army's rear +trying to catch up with its extreme front had a view, as the road dipped +into a valley, of the trophies which are the proof of victory. Here were +both guns and prisoners. Among the guns nicely parked you might have +your choice between the latest 77's out of Krupps' and pieces of the +vintage of the '80's. One 77 had not a blemish; another had its muzzle +broken off by the burst of a shell, its spokes slashed by +shell-fragments, and its armored shield, opened by a jagged hole, was as +crumpled as if made of tin. + +Four of the old fortress type had a history. They bore the mark of their +French maker. They had fired at the Germans from Maubeuge and after +having been taken by the Germans were set to fire at the French. One +could imagine how the German staff had scattered such pieces along the +line when in stalemate warfare any kind of gun that had a barrel and +could discharge a shell would add to the volume of gunfire. + +Such a ponderous piece with its heavy, old-fashioned trail and no recoil +cylinder was never meant to play any part in an army of movement. You +could picture how it had been dragged up into position back of the +German trenches and how a crew of old Landsturm gunners had been +allowed a certain number of shells a day and told off to fire them at +certain villages and crossroads, with that systematic regularity of the +German artillery system which often defeats its own purpose, as we on +the Allies' side well know. + +Very likely, as often happened, the crew fired six rounds before +breakfast and eight at four o'clock in the afternoon, and the rest of +the time they might sit about playing cards. Of course, retreat was out +of the question with a gun of this sort. Yet through the twenty months +that the opposing armies had sniped at each other from the same +positions the relic had done faithful auxiliary service. The French +could move it on to some other part of the line now where no offensive +was expected and some old territorials could use it as the old +Landsturmers had used it. + +All the guns in this park had been taken by the Colonial Corps, which +thinks itself a little better than the Nancy (or Iron) Corps, a view +with which the Iron Corps entirely disagreed. Scattered among the +Colonial Corps, whether on the march or in billets, were the black men. +There is no prejudice against the "chocolates," as they are called, who +provide variation and amusement, not to mention color. Most adaptable of +human beings is the negro, whom you find in all lands and engaged in all +kinds of pursuits, reflecting always the character of his surroundings. +If his French comrades charged he would charge and just as far; if they +fell back he would fall back and just as far. No Frenchman could +approach the pride of the blacks over those captured guns, which brought +grins that left only half of their ebony countenances as a background +for the whites of their eyes and teeth. + +The tide of infantry, vehicles and horses flowing past must have been a +strange world to the German prisoners brought past it to the inclosures, +when they had not yet recovered from their astonishment at the +suddenness of the French whirlwind attack. The day was warm and the +ground dry, and those prisoners who were not munching French bread were +lying sardine fashion pillowing their heads on one another, a confused +mass of arms and legs, dead to the world in sleep--a green patch of +humanity with all the fight out of them, without weapons or power of +resistance, guarded by a single French soldier, while the belligerent +energy of war was on that road a hundred yards away. + +"They are good Boches, now," said the French sentry; "we sha'n't have to +take that lot again." + +Boches! They are rarely called anything else at the front. With both +French and English this has become the universal word for the Germans +which will last as long as the men who fought in this war survive. +Though the Germans dislike it that makes no difference. They will have +to accept it even when peace comes, for it is established. One day they +may come to take a certain pride in it as a distinction which stands for +German military efficiency and racial isolation. The professional +soldier expressing his admiration of the way the German charges, handles +his artillery, or the desperate courage of his machine gun crews may +speak of him as "Brother Boche" or the "old Boche" in a sort of amiable +recognition of the fact of how worthy he is of an enemy's steel if only +he would refrain from certain unsportsmanlike habits. + +At length the blue river on the way to the front divided at a crossroad +and we were out on the plain which swept away to the bend of the Somme +in front of Péronne. Officers returning from the front when asked how +the battle was going were never too preoccupied to reply. It was +anybody's privilege to ask a question and everybody seemed to delight to +answer it. I talked with a group of men who were washing down their +bread with draughts of red wine, their first meal after they had been +through two lines of trenches. Their brigade had taken more prisoners +than it had had casualties. Their dead were few and less mourned because +they had fallen in such a glorious victory. Rattling talk gave gusto to +every mouthful. + +Unlike the English, these victors were articulate; they rejoiced in +their experiences and were glad to tell about them. If one had fought it +out at close quarters with a German and got his man, he made the +incident into a dramatic episode for your edification. It was war; he +had been in a charge; he had escaped alive; he had won. He liked the +thrill of his exploit and enjoyed the telling, not allowing it to drag, +perhaps, for want of a leg. Every Frenchman is more or less of a +general, as Napoleon said, and every one knew the meaning of this +victory. He liked to make the most of it and relive it. + +After having seen the trenches that the British had taken on the high +ground around Fricourt, I was the more interested to see those that the +French had taken on July 1st. The British had charged uphill against the +strongest fortifications that the Germans could devise in that chalky +subsoil so admirably suited for the purpose. Those before the French +were not so strong and were in alluvial soil on the plain. Many of the +German dugouts in front of Dompierre were in relatively as good +condition as those at Fricourt, though not so numerous or so strong; +which meant that the artillery of neither army had been able completely +to destroy them. The ground on the plain permitted of no such +advantageous tactical points for machine guns as those which had +confronted the British, in front of whom the Germans had massed immense +reserves of artillery, particularly in the Thiepval-Gommecourt sector +where the British attack had failed, besides having the valuable ridge +of Bapaume at their backs. In front of the French the Germans had +smaller forces of artillery on the plain where the bend of the Somme was +at their backs. + +This is not detracting from the French success, which was complete and +masterful. The coördination of artillery and infantry must have been +perfect, as you could see when you went over the field where there were +surprisingly few French dead and the German dead, though more plentiful +than the French, were not very numerous. It seemed that the French +artillery had absolutely pinioned the Germans to their trenches and +communication trenches in the Dompierre sector and the French appearing +close under their own shells in a swift and eager wave gathered in all +the German garrison as prisoners. The ruins of the villages might have +been made either by French, British or German artillery. There is true +internationalism in artillery destruction. + +It was something to see the way that French transport and reserves were +going right across the plain in splendid disregard of any German +artillery concentration. But, as usual, they knew what they were doing. +No shells fell among them while I was at the front, and out on the +plain where the battle still raged the _soixante-quinze_ batteries were +as busy as knitting-machines working some kind of magic which protected +that column from tornadoes of the same kind that they themselves were +sending. The German artillery, indeed, seemed a little demoralized. +Krump-krump-krump, they put a number of shells into a group of trees +beside the road where they mistakenly thought that there was a battery. +Swish-swish-swish came another salvo which I thought was meant for us, +but it passed by and struck where there was no target. + +I have had glimpses of nearly every feature of war, but there was one in +this advance which was not included in my experiences. The French +infantry was hardly in the first-line German trench when the ditch had +been filled in and the way was open for the _soixante-quinze_ to go +forward. For the guns galloped into action just as they might have done +at manoeuvers. Some dead artillery horses near the old trench line told +the story of how a German shell must have stopped one of the guns, which +was small price to pay for so great a privilege as--let us +repeat--galloping the guns into action across the trenches in broad +daylight and keeping close to the infantry as it advanced from position +to position on the plain. + +Here was a surviving bit of the glory and the sport of war, whose +passing may be one of the great influences in preventing future wars; +but there being war and the French having to win that war, why, the +spectacle of this marvelous field gun, so beloved of its alert and +skilful gunners, playing the part that was intended for it on the heels +of the enemy made a thrilling incident in the history of modern France. +The French had shown on that day that they had lost none of their +initiative of Napoleon's time, just as the British had shown that they +could be as stubborn and determined as in Wellington's. + + + + +XI + +THE BRIGADE THAT WENT THROUGH + + A young brigadier--A regular soldier--No heroics--How his brigade + charged--Systematically cleaning up the dugouts--"It was orders. We + did it."--The second advance--Holding on for two sleepless days and + nights--Soda water and cigars--Yorkshiremen, and a stubborn + lot--British phlegm--Five officers out of twenty who had "gone + through"--Stereotyped phrases and inexpressible emotions. + + +No sound of the guns was audible in this quiet French village where a +brigade out of the battle line was in rest. The few soldiers moving +about were looking in the shop windows, trying their French with the +inhabitants, or standing in small groups. Their faces were tired and +drawn as the only visible sign of the torment of fire that they had +undergone. They had met everything the German had to offer in the way of +projectiles and explosives; but before we have their story we shall have +that of the young brigadier-general who had his headquarters in one of +the houses. His was the brigade that went "through," and he was the kind +of brigadier who would send a brigade "through." + +With its position in the attack of July 1st in the joint, as it were, +between the northern sector where the German line was not broken and +the southern where it was, this brigade had suffered what the charges +which failed had suffered and it had known the triumph of those which +had succeeded, at a cost in keeping with the experience. + +The brigadier was a regular soldier and nothing but a soldier from head +to foot, in thought, in manner and in his decisive phrases. Nowadays, +when we seem to be drawing further and further away from versatility, +perhaps more than ever we like the soldier to be a soldier, the poet to +be a poet, the surgeon to be a surgeon; and I can even imagine this +brigadier preferring that if another man was to be a pacifist he should +be a real out and out pacifist. You knew at a glance without asking that +he had been in India and South Africa, that he was fond of sport and +probably fond of fighting. He had rubbed up against all kinds of men, as +the British officer who has the inclination may do in the course of his +career, and his straight eye--an eye which you would say had never been +accustomed to indefiniteness about anything--must have impressed the men +under his command with the confidence that he knew his business and that +they must follow him. Yet it could twinkle on occasion with a pungent +humor as he told his story, which did not take him long but left you +long a-thinking. A writer who was as good a writer as he was a soldier +if he had had the same experience could have made a book out of it; but +then he could not have been a man of action at the same time. + +He made it clear at once that he had not led his brigade in person over +the parapet, or helped in person to bomb the enemy's dugouts, or +indulged in any other kind of gallery play. I do not think that all the +drawing-rooms in London or all the reception committees which receive +gallant sons in their home towns could betray him into the faintest +simulation of the pose of a hero. He was not a hero and he did not +believe in heroics. His occupation was commanding men and taking +trenches. + +Not once did he utter anything approaching a boast over a feat which his +friends and superiors had expected of him. This would be "swank," as +they call it, only he would characterize it by even a stronger word. He +is the kind of officer, the working, clear-thinking type, who would earn +promotion by success at arms in a long war, while the gallery-play crowd +whose promotion and favors come by political gift and academic reports +in time of peace would be swept into the dustbin. He was simply a +capable fighter; and war is fighting. + +His men had gone over the "lid" in excellent fashion, quite on time. He +had seen at once what they were in for, but he had no doubt that they +would keep on, for he had warned them to expect machine gun fire and +told them what to do in case it came. They applied the system in which +he had trained them with a coolness that won his approbation as a +directing expert--his matter-of-fact approbation in the searching +analysis of every detail, with no ecstasies about their unparalleled +gallantry. He expected them to be gallant. However, I could imagine that +if you said a word against them his eyes would flash indignation. They +were his men and he might criticize them, but no one else might except a +superior officer. The first wave reached the first-line German trench on +time, that is, half of them did; the rest, including more than half of +the officers, were down, dead or wounded, in No Man's Land in the swift +crossing of two hundred yards of open space. + +He had watched their advance from the first-line British trench. Later, +when the situation demanded it, I learned that he went up to the +captured German line and on to the final objective, but this fact was +drawn out of him. It might lead to a misunderstanding; you might think +that he had been taking as much risk as his officers and men, and risk +of any kind for him was an incident of the business of managing a +brigade. + +"How about the dugouts?" I asked. + +This was an obvious question. The trouble on July 1st had been, as we +know, that the Germans hiding in their dugouts had rushed forth as soon +as the British curtain of fire lifted and sometimes fought the British +in the trench traverses with numbers superior. Again, they had +surrendered, only to overpower their guards, pick up rifles and man +their machine guns after the first wave had passed on, instead of filing +back across No Man's Land in the regular fashion of prisoners. + +"I was looking out for that," said the brigadier, like a lawyer who has +stated his opponent's case; but other commanders had taken the same +precautions with less fortunate results. When he said that he was +"looking out for that" it meant, in his case, that he had so thoroughly +organized his men--and he was not the only brigadier who had, he was a +type--in view of every emergency in "cleaning up" that the Germans did +not outwit them. The half which reached the German trench had the +situation fully in hand and details for the dugouts assigned before they +went on. And they did go on. This was the wonderful thing. + +"With your numbers so depleted, wasn't it a question whether or not it +was wise for you to attempt to carry out the full plan?" + +He gave me a short look of surprise. I realized that if I had been one +of the colonels and made such a suggestion I should have drawn a curtain +of fire upon myself. + +"It was orders," he said, and added: "We did it." + +Yes, they did it--when commanding officers, majors and senior captains +were down, when companies without any officers were led by sergeants and +even by corporals who knew what to do, thanks to their training. + +In order to reach the final objective the survivors of the first charge +which had gone two hundred yards to the first line must cover another +thousand, which must have seemed a thousand miles; but that was not for +them to consider. The spirit of the resolute man who had drilled them, +if not his presence, was urging them forward. They reached the point +where the landmarks compared with their map indicated their stopping +place--about one-quarter of the number that had left the British trench. + +They had enough military sense to realize that if they tried to go back +over the same ground which they had crossed there might be less than +one-quarter of the fourth remaining. They preferred to die with their +faces rather than their backs to the enemy. No, they did not mean to +die. They meant to hold on and "beat the Boche," according to their +teaching. + +As things had been going none too well with the brigade on their left +their flank was exposed. They met this condition by fortifying +themselves against enfilade in an old German communication trench and +rushing other points of advantage to secure their position. When a +German machine gun was able to sweep them, a corporal slipped up another +communication trench and bombed it out of business. Running out of bombs +of their own, they began gathering German bombs which were lying about +plentifully and threw these at the Germans. Short of rifle ammunition +they found that there was ammunition for the German rifles which had +been captured. They were not choice about their methods and neither were +the Germans in that cheek-by-jowl affair with both sides so exhausted +that a little more grit on one side struck the balance in its favor. + +This medley of British and Germans in a world of personal combat shared +shell fire, heat and misery. The British sent their rocket signals up to +say that they had arrived. In two or three other instances the signals +had meant that a dozen men only had reached their objective, a force +unable to hold until reinforcements could come. Not so this time. The +little group held; they held even when the Germans got some fresh men +and attempted a counter-attack; they held until assistance came. For two +sleepless days and nights under continual fire they remained in their +dearly won position until, under cover of darkness, they were relieved. + +In the most tranquil of villages the survivors looking in shop windows +and trying out their French might wonder how it was that they were +alive, though they were certain that their brigadier thought well of +them. Ask them or their officers what they thought of their brigadier +and they were equally certain of that, too. Theirs was the best +brigadier in the army. Think what this kind of confidence means to men +in such an action when their lives are the pawns of his direction! + +I felt a kind of awe in the presence of one of the battalions in billet +in a warehouse, more than in the presence of prime ministers or +potentates. Most of them were blinking and mind-stiff after having slept +the clock around. They were Yorkshiremen, chiefly workers in worsted +mills and a stubborn lot. + +"What did you most want to do when you got out of the fight?" I asked. + +They spoke with one voice which left no question of their desires in a +one-two-three order. They wanted a wash, a shave, a good meal, and then +sleep. And personal experiences? Tom called on Jim and Jim had bayoneted +two Germans, he said; then Jim called on Bill, who had had a wonderful +experience according to Jim, though all that Bill made of it was that he +got there first with his bombs. Told among themselves the stories might +have been thrilling. Before a stranger they were mere official reports. +It had been quick work, too quick for anything but to dodge for cover +and act promptly in your effort to get the other fellow before he got +you. + +Generically, they had a job to do and they did it just as they would +have done one in the factories at home. They were not so interested in +any exhibition of courage as in an encounter which had the element of +sport. Each narrator invariably returned to the subject of soda water. +The outstanding novelty of the charge to these men was the quantity of +soda water in bottles which they had found in the German dugouts. They +went on to their second objective with bottles of soda water in their +pockets and German light cigars in the corners of their mouths and +stopped to drink soda water between bombing rushes after they had +arrived. It was a hot, thirsty day. + +Through the curtains of artillery fire which were continually maintained +back of their new positions supplies could not be brought up, but Boche +provisions saved the day. In fact, I think this was one of the reasons +why they felt almost kindly toward the Germans. They found the canned +meat excellent, but did not care for the "K.K." bread. + +Thus in the dim light of the warehouse they talked on, making their task +appear as a half-holiday of sport. It seemed to me that this was in +keeping with their training; the fashionable attitude of the British +soldier toward a horrible business. If this helps him to endure what +these men had endured without flinching, with comrades being blown to +bits around them by shell-bursts, why, then, it is the attitude best +suited to develop the fighting quality of the British. They had it from +their officers who, in turn, perhaps, had it in part from such British +regulars as the brigadier, though mostly I think that it was inborn +racial phlegm. + +I met the five officers who were the survivors of the twenty in one +battalion, the five who had "carried through." One was a barrister, +another just out of Oxford, a third, as I remember, a real estate broker +in a small town. They told their stories without a gesture, quite as if +they were giving an account of a game of golf. It might have seemed +callous, but you knew better. + +You knew when they said that it was "a bit stiff," or "a bit thick," or +"it looked as if they had us," what inexpressible emotion lay behind the +accepted army phrases. The truth was they would not permit themselves to +think of the void in their lines made by the death of their comrades. +They had drawn the curtain on all incidents which had not the appeal of +action and finality as a part of the business of "going through." One +officer with a twitch of the lips remarked almost casually that new +officers and drafts were arriving and that it would seem strange to see +so many new faces in the mess. + +Those of their old comrades who were not dead were already in hospital +in England. When an officer who had been absent joined the group he +brought the news that one of their number who had been badly hit would +live. The others' quiet ejaculation of "Good!" had a thrill back of it +which communicated its joy to me. Eight of the wounded had not been +seriously hit, which meant that these would return and that, after all, +only four were dead. This was the first intimate indication I had of how +the offensive exposing the whole bodies of men in a charge against the +low-velocity shrapnel bullets and high-velocity bullets from rifles and +machine guns must result in the old ratio of only one mortal wound for +every five men hit. + +There was consolation in that fact. It was another advantage of the war +of movement as compared with the war of shambles in trenches. And none, +from the general down to the privates, had really any idea of how +glorious a part they had played. They had merely "done their bit" and +taken what came their way--and they had "gone through." + + + + +XII + +THE STORMING OF CONTALMAISON + + The mighty animal of war makes ready for another effort--New charts + at headquarters--The battle of the Somme the battle of woods and + villages--A terrible school of war in session--Mametz--A wood not + "thinned"--The Quadrangle--Marooned Scots--"Softening" a + village--Light German cigars--Going after Contalmaison--Aeroplanes in + the blue sky--Midsummer fruitfulness and war's destruction--Making + chaos of a village--Attack under cover of a wall of smoke--A + melodrama under the passing shells. + + +If the British and the French could have gone on day after day as they +had on July 1st they would have put the Germans out of France and +Belgium by autumn. Arrival at the banks of the Rhine and even the taking +of Essen would have been only a matter of calculation by a schedule of +time and distance. After the shock of the first great drive in which the +mighty animal of war lunged forward, it had to stretch out its steel +claws to gain further foothold and draw its bulky body into position for +another huge effort. Wherever the claws moved there were Germans, who +were too wise soldiers to fall back supinely on new lines of +fortifications and await the next general attack. They would parry every +attempt at footholds of approach for launching it; pound the claws as +if they were the hands of an invader grasping at a window ledge. + +At headquarters there was a new chart with different colored patches +numbered by the days of the month beginning July 1st, each patch +indicating the ground that had been won on that day. Compare their order +with a relief map and in one-two-three fashion you were able to grasp +the natural tactical sequence; how one position was taken in order to +command another. Sometimes, though, they represented the lines of least +resistance. Often the real generals were the battalions on the battle +front who found the weak points and asked permission to press on. The +principle was the same as water finding its level as it spreads from a +reservoir. + +I have often thought that a better name for the battle of the Somme +would be the battle of woods and villages. Their importance never really +dawned on the observer until after July 1st. Or, it might be called the +battle of the spade. Give a man an hour with a spade in that chalky +subsoil and a few sandbags and he will make a fortress for himself which +only a direct hit by a shell can destroy. He ducks under the sweep of +bullets when he is not firing and with his steel helmet is fairly safe +from shrapnel while he waits in his lair until the other fellow comes. + +Thus the German depended on the machine gun and the rifle to stop any +charge which was not supported by artillery fire sufficient to crush in +the trenches and silence his armament. When it was, he had his own +artillery to turn a curtain of fire onto the charge in progress and to +hammer the enemy if he got possession. This was obviously the right +system--in theory. But the theory did not always work out, as we shall +see. Its development through the four months that I watched the Somme +battle was only less interesting than the development of offensive +tactics by the British and the French. Every day this terrible school of +war was in session, with a British battalion more skilful and cunning +every time that it went into the firing-line. + +Rising out of the slopes toward the Ridge in green patches were three +large woods, not to mention small ones, under a canopy of shell-smoke, +Mametz, Bernafay and Trônes, with their orgies of combat hidden under +their screens of foliage. They recall the Wilderness--a Wilderness +lasting for days, with only one feature of the Wilderness lacking which +was a conflagration, but with lachrymatory and gas shells and a few +other features that were lacking in Virginia. In the next war we may +have still more innovations. Ours is the ingenious human race. + +It is Mametz with an area of something over two hundred acres that +concerns us now. The Germans thought highly of Mametz. They were +willing to lose thousands of lives in order to keep it in their +possession. For two years it had not been thinned according to French +custom; now shells and bullets were to undertake the task which had been +neglected. So thick was the undergrowth that a man had to squeeze his +way through and an enemy was as well ambushed as a field mouse in high +grass. + +The Germans had run barriers of barbed wire through the undergrowth. +They had their artillery registered to fringe the woods with curtains of +fire and machine guns nestling in unseen barricades and trenches. +Through the heart of it they had a light railway for bringing up +supplies. All these details had been arranged in odd hours when they +were not working on the main first- and second-line fortifications during +their twenty months of preparation. I think they must have become weary +at times of so much "choring," judging by a German general's order after +his inspection of the second line, in which he said that the battalions +in occupation were a lazy lot who were a disgrace to the Fatherland. +After the battle began they could add to the defenses improvements +adapted to the needs of the moment. Of course, large numbers of Germans +were killed and wounded by British shell fire in the process of +"thinning" out the woods; but that was to be expected, as the Germans +learned during the battle of the Somme. + +How the British ever took Mametz Wood I do not understand; or how they +took Trônes Wood later, for that matter. A visit to the woods only +heightened perplexity. I have seen men walk over broken bottles with +bare feet, swallow swords and eat fire and knew that there was some +trick about it, as there was about the taking of Mametz. + +The German had not enough barbed wire to go all the way around the +woods, or, at least, British artillery would not let him string any more +and he thought that the British would attack where they ought to +according to rule; that is, by the south. Instead, they went in by the +west, where the machine guns were not waiting and the heavy guns were +not registered, as I understand it. A piece of strategy of that kind +might have won a decisive battle in an old-time war, but I confess that +it did not occur to me to ask who planned it when I heard the story. +Strategists became so common on the Somme that everybody took them as +much for granted as that every battalion had a commander. + +Mametz was not taken with the first attack. The British were in the +woods once and had to come out; but they had learned that before they +could get a proper _point d'appui_ they must methodically "clean up" a +small grove, a neighboring cemetery, an intricate maze of trenches +called the Quadrangle, and a few other outlying obstacles. In the first +rush a lot of Tyneside Scots were marooned from joining in the retreat. +They fortified themselves in German dugouts and waited in siege, these +dour men of the North. When the British returned eighty of the Scots +were still full of fight if short of food and "verra well" otherwise, +thank you. At times they had been under blasts of shells from both +sides, and again they had been in an oasis of peace, with neither +British nor German gunners certain whether they would kill friend or +foe. + +Going in from the west while the Germans had their curtains of fire +registered elsewhere, the British grubbed their way in one charge +through most of Mametz and when night fell in the midst of the +undergrowth, with a Briton not knowing whether it was Briton or German +lying on the other side of a tree-trunk, they had the satisfaction of +possessing four big guns which the Germans had been unable to withdraw, +and had ascertained also that the Germans had a strong position +protected by barbed wire at the northern end of the woods. + +"This will require a little thinking," as one English officer said, "but +of course we shall take it." + +The purchase on Mametz and the occupation of Bailiff's Wood, the +Quadrangle, La Boisselle and Ovillers-la-Boisselle brought the circle +of advancing British nearer to Contalmaison, which sat up on the hills +in a sea of chalk seams. Contalmaison was being gradually "softened" by +the artillery. The chateau was not yet all down, but after each bite by +a big shell less of the white walls was visible when the clouds of smoke +from the explosion lifted. Bit by bit the guns would get the chateau, +just as bit by bit a stonemason chips a block down to the proper +dimensions to fit it into place in a foundation. + +A visit to La Boisselle on the way to Contalmaison justified the +expectation as to what was in store for Contalmaison. I saw the +blackened and shell-whittled trunks of two trees standing in La +Boisselle. Once with many others they had given shade in the gardens of +houses; but there were no traces of houses now except as they were mixed +with the earth. The village had been hammered into dust. Yet some +dugouts still survived. Keeping at it, the British working around these +had eventually forced the surrender of the garrison, who could not raise +their heads to fire without being met by a bullet or a bomb-burst from +the watchful besiegers. + +"Slow work, but they had to come out," was the graphic phrase of one of +the captors, "and they looked fed up, too. They had even run out of +cigars"--which settled it. + +Oh, those light German cigars! Sometimes I believe that they were the +real mainstay of the German organization. Cigars gone, spirit gone! I +have seen an utterly weary German prisoner as he delivered his papers to +his captor bring out his last cigar and thrust it into his mouth to +forestall its being taken as tribute, with his captor saying with +characteristic British cheerfulness, "Keep it, Bochy! It smells too much +like a disinfectant for me, but let's have your steel helmet"--the +invariable prize demanded by the victor. + +The British had already been in Contalmaison, but did not stay. "Too +many German machine guns and too much artillery fire and not enough +men," to put it with colloquial army brevity. It often happened that a +village was entered and parts of it held during a day, then evacuated at +night, leaving the British guns full play for the final "softening." +These initial efforts had the result of reconnaissances in force. They +permitted a thorough look around the enemy's machine gun positions so as +to know how to avoid their fire and "do them in," revealed the cover +that would be available for the next advance, and brought invaluable +information to the gunners for the accurate distribution of their fire. +Always some points important for future operations were held. + +"We are going after Contalmaison this afternoon," said a staff officer +at headquarters, "and if you hurry you may see it." + +As a result, I witnessed the most brilliant scene of battle of any on +the Somme, unless it was the taking of Combles. There was bright +sunshine, with the air luminously clear and no heat waves. From my +vantage point I could see clear to the neighborhood of Péronne. The +French also were attacking; the drumhead fire of their _soixante-quinze_ +made a continuous roll, and the puffs of shrapnel smoke hung in a long, +gossamery cloud fringing the horizon and the canopy of the green ridges. + +Every aeroplane of the Allies seemed to be aloft, each one distinct +against the blue with shimmering wings and the soft, burnished aureole +of the propellers. They were flying at all heights. Some seemed almost +motionless two or three miles above the earth, while others shot up from +their aerodromes. + +Planes circling, planes climbing, planes slipping down aerial toboggan +slides with propellers still, planes going as straight as crows toward +the German line to be lost to sight in space while others developed out +of space as swift messengers bound for home with news of observations, +planes touring a sector of the front, swooping low over a corps +headquarters to drop a message and returning to their duty; planes of +all types, from the monsters with vast stretch of wing and crews of +three or more men, stately as swans, to those gulls, the saucy little +Nieuports, shooting up and down and turning with incredible swiftness, +their tails in the air; planes and planes in a fantastic aerial minuet, +flitting around the great sausage balloons stationary in the still air. + +With ripening grain and sweet-smelling harvests of clover and hay in the +background and weeds and wild grass in the foreground, the area of +vegetation in the opulence of midsummer was demarked from the area of +shell-craters, trenches and explosions. You had the majesty of battle +and the desolation of war; nature's eternal seeding and fruiting +alongside the most ruthless forms of destruction. In the clear air the +black bursts of the German high explosives hammering Mametz Wood, as if +in revenge for its loss, seemed uglier and more murderous than usual; +the light smoke of shrapnel had a softer, more lingering quality; +soldiers were visible distinctly at a great distance in their comings +and goings; the water carts carrying water up to the first line were a +kind of pilgrim circuit riders of that thirsty world of deadly strife; a +file of infantry winding up the slope at regular intervals were +silhouettes as like as beads on a string. The whole suggested a hill of +ants which had turned their habits of industry against an invader of +their homes in the earth, and the columns of motor trucks and caissons +ever flowing from all directions were as a tide, which halted at the +foot of the slope and then flowed back. + +There were shell-bursts wherever you looked, with your attention drawn +to Contalmaison as it would be to a gathering crowd in the thick of city +traffic. All the steel throats in clumps of woods, under cover of road +embankments, in gullies and on the reverse side of slopes, were +speaking. The guns were giving to Contalmaison all they had to give and +the remaining walls of the chateau disappeared in a fog like a fishing +smack off the Grand Banks. Super-refined, man-directed hell was making +sportive chaos in the village which it hid with its steaming breath cut +by columns of black smoke from the H.E.'s and crowned with flashes of +shrapnel; and under the sun's rays the gases from the powder made +prismatic splendor in flurries and billows shot with the tints of the +rainbow. + +Submerging a simple farming hamlet in this kind of a tempest was only +part of the plan of the gunners, who cut a pattern of fire elsewhere in +keeping with the patterns of the German trenches, placing a curtain of +fire behind the town and another on the edge, and at other points not a +curtain but steady hose-streams of fire. Answering German shells +revealed which of the chalky scars on the slope was the British +first-line trench, and from this, as steam from a locomotive runs in a +flying plume along the crest of a railway cutting, rose a billowing wall +of smoke which was harmless, not even asphyxiating, its only purpose +being to screen the infantry attack, with a gentle breeze sweeping it on +into the mantle over Contalmaison as the wind carries the smoke of a +prairie fire. Lookout Mountain was known as the battle in the clouds, +where generals could not see what their troops were doing. Now all +battles are in a cloud. + +From the first-line British trench the first wave of the British attack +moved under cover of the smoke-screen and directly you saw that the +shells had ceased to fall in Contalmaison. Its smoke mantle slowly +lifting revealed fragmentary walls of that sturdy, defiant chateau still +standing. Another wave of British infantry was on its way. Four waves in +all were to go in, each succeeding one with its set part in supporting +the one in front and in mastering the dugouts and machine gun positions +that might have survived. + +With no shells falling in Contalmaison, the bomb and the bayonet had the +stage to themselves, a stage more or less hemmed in by explosions and +with a sweep of projectiles from both sides passing over the heads of +the cast in a melodrama which had "blessed little comedy relief," as one +soldier put it. The Germans were already shelling the former British +first line and their supports, while the British maintained a curtain of +fire on the far side of the village to protect their infantry as it +worked its way through the débris, and any fire which they had to spare +after lifting it from Contalmaison they were distributing on different +strong points, not in curtains but in a repetition of punches. It was +the best artillery work that I had seen and its purpose seemed that of a +man with a stick knocking in any head that appeared from any hole. + +Act III. now. The British curtain of fire was lifted from the far edge +of the village, which meant that the infantry according to schedule +should be in possession of all of the village. But they might not stay. +They might be forced out soon after they sent up their signals. When the +Germans turned on a curtain of fire succeeding the British fire this was +further evidence of British success sufficient to convince any skeptic. +The British curtain was placed beyond it to hold off any counter-attack +and prevent sniping till the new occupants of the premises had "dug +themselves in." + +The Germans had not forgotten that it was their turn now to hammer +Contalmaison, through which they thought that British reserves and fresh +supplies of bombs must come; and I saw one of the first "krumps" of this +concentration take another bite out of the walls of the chateau. + +By watching the switching of the curtains of fire I had learned that +this time Contalmaison was definitely held; and though they say that I +don't know anything about news, I beat the _communiqué_ on the fact as +the result of my observation, which ought at least to classify me as a +"cub" reporter. + + + + +XIII + +A GREAT NIGHT ATTACK + + Following hard blows with blows--Trônes Woods--Attack and + counter-attack--A heavy price to pay--"The spirit that quickeneth" + knew no faltering--Second-line German fortifications--A daringly + planned attack--"Up and at them!"--An attack not according to the + scientific factory system--The splendid and terrible hazard--Gun + flashes in the dark numerous as fireflies--Majestic, diabolical, + beautiful--A planet bombarding with aerolites--Signal flares in the + distance--How far had the British gone?--Sunrise on the attack--Good + news that day. + + +Of all the wonderful nights at the front that of July 13th-14th was +distinctive for its incomparable suspense. A great experiment was to be +tried; at least, so it seemed to the observer, though the staff did not +take that attitude. It never does once it has decided upon any daring +enterprise. When you send fifty thousand men into a charge that may fail +with a loss of half of their number or may brilliantly succeed with a +loss of only five per cent., none from the corps commanders and division +commanders, who await results after the plans are made, down to the +privates must have any thought except that the plan is right and that it +will go through. + +There is no older military maxim than to follow up any hard blow with +other blows, in order that the enemy may have no time to recuperate; +but in moving against a frontal line under modern conditions the +congestion of transport and ammunition which must wait on new roads and +the filling in of captured trenches makes a difficult problem in +organization. Never had there been and never were there necessary such +numbers of men and such quantities of material as on the Somme front. + +The twelve days succeeding July 1st had seen the taking of minor +position after position by local concentrations of troops and artillery +fire, while the army as a whole had been preparing for another big +attack at the propitious moment when these preliminary gains should +justify it. + +Half a tactical eye could see that the woods of Mametz, Bernafay and +Trônes must be held in order to allow of elbow room for a mass movement +over a broad front. The German realized this and after he had lost +Mametz and Bernafay he held all the more desperately to Trônes, which, +for the time being, was the superlative horror in woods fighting, though +we were yet to know that it could be surpassed by Delville and High +Woods. + +In Trônes the Germans met attack with counter-attack again and again. +The British got through to the east side of the woods, and in reply the +Germans sent in a wave forcing the British back to the west, but no +farther. Then the British, reinforced again, reached the east side. +Showers of leaves and splinters descended from shell-bursts and machine +guns were always rattling. The artillery of both sides hammered the +approaches of the woods to prevent reinforcements from coming up. + +In the cellars of Guillemont village beyond Trônes the Germans had +refuges for concentrating their reserves to feed in more troops, whose +orders, as all the prisoners taken said, were to hold to the last man. +Trônes Wood was never to be yielded to the British. Its importance was +too vital. Grim national and racial pride and battalion pride and +soldierly pride grappled in unyielding effort and enmity. The middle of +the woods became a neutral ground where the wounded of the different +sallies lay groaning from pain and thirst. Small groups of British had +dug themselves in among the Germans and, waterless, foodless, held out, +conserving their ammunition or, when it was gone, waiting for the last +effort with the bayonet. + +For several days the spare British artillery had been cutting the barbed +wire of the second line and smashing in the trenches; and the big guns +which had been advanced since July 1st were sending their shells far +beyond the Ridge into villages and crossroads and other vital points, in +order to interfere with German communications. + +The Thiepval-Gommecourt line where the British had been repulsed on +July 1st had reverted to something approaching stalemate conditions, +with the usual exchange of artillery fire, and it was along the broader +front where the old German first line had been broken through that the +main concentrations of men and guns were being made in order to continue +the advance for the present through the opening won on July 1st. The +price paid for the taking of the woods and for repeated attacks where +initial attacks had failed might seem to the observer--unless he knew +that the German losses had been equally heavy if not heavier since July +1st--disproportionate not only to the ground gained but also to general +results up to this time which, and this was most important, had +demonstrated, as a promise for the future, that the British New Army +could attack unremittingly and successfully against seasoned German +troops in positions which the Germans had considered impregnable. + +"The spirit that quickeneth" knew no faltering. Battle police were +without occupation. There were no stragglers. With methodical, +phlegmatic steadiness the infantry moved up to the firing-line when its +turn came. + +The second-line German fortifications, if not as elaborate, were even +better situated than the first; not on the crest of the Ridge, of +course, where they would be easily swept by artillery blasts, but where +the latest experience demonstrated that they could make the most of the +commanding high ground with the least exposure. Looking through my +glasses I could see the portion of the open knoll stretching from +Longueval to High Wood which was to be the object of the most extensive +effort since July 1st. + +As yet, except in trench raids over narrow fronts, there had been no +attempt to rush a long line under cover of darkness because of the +difficulty of the different groups keeping touch and identifying their +objectives. + +The charge of July 1st had been at seven-thirty in the morning. +Contalmaison had been stormed in the afternoon. Fricourt was taken at +midday. When the bold suggestion was made that over a three-mile front +the infantry should rush the second-line trenches in the darkness, +hoping to take the enemy by surprise, it was as daring a conception +considering the ground and the circumstances as ever came to the mind of +a British commander and might be said to be characteristic of the dash +and so-called "foolhardiness" of the British soldier, accustomed to +"looking smart" and rushing his enemy from colonial experiences. Nelson +had the "spirit that quickeneth" when he turned his blind eye to the +enemy. The French, too, are for the attack. It won Marengo and +Austerlitz. No general ever dared more than Frederick the Great, not +even Cæsar. Thus the great races of history have won military dominion. + +"Up and at them!" is still the shibboleth in which the British believe, +no less than our pioneers and Grant and Stonewall Jackson believed in +it, and nothing throughout the Somme battle was so characteristically +British as not only the stubbornness of their defense when small parties +were surrounded, but the way in which they would keep on attacking and +the difficulty which generals had not in encouraging initiative but in +keeping battalions and brigades from putting into practice their +conviction that they could take a position on their own account if they +could have a chance instead of waiting on a systematic advance. + +Thus, an attack on that second line on the Ridge after the Germans had +had two weeks of further preparation was an adventure of an order, in +the days of mechanical transport, aeroplanes and indirect artillery fire +when all military science is supposed to be reduced to a factory system, +worthy of the days of the sea-rovers and of Clive, of Washington's +crossing of the Delaware or of the storming of Quebec, when a bold +confidence made gamble for a mighty stake. + +So, at least, it seemed to the observer, though, as I said, the staff +insisted that it was a perfectly normal operation. The Japanese had +made many successful night attacks early in the Russo-Japanese war, but +these had been against positions undefended by machine gun fire and +curtains of artillery fire. When the Japanese reached their objective +they were not in danger of being blasted out by high explosives and +incidentally they were not fighting what has been called the most highly +trained army on earth on the most concentrated front that has ever been +known in military history. + +But "Up and at them!" Sir Douglas Haig, who had "all his nerve with +him," said to go ahead. At three-thirty a.m., a good hour before dawn, +that wave of men three miles long was to rush into the night toward an +invisible objective, with the darkness so thick that they could hardly +recognize a figure ten yards away. Yet as one English soldier said, "You +could see the German as soon as he saw you and you ought to be able to +throw a bomb as quickly as he and a bayonet would have just as much +penetration at three-thirty in the morning as at midday." + +When I saw the battalions who were to take part in the attack marching +up I realized, as they did not, the splendid and terrible hazard of +success or failure, of life or death, which was to be theirs. Along the +new roads they passed and then across the conquered ground, its uneven +slopes made more uneven by continued digging and shell fire, and +disappeared, and Night dropped her curtain on the field with no one +knowing what morning would reveal. + +The troops were in position; all was ready; all the lessons learned from +the attack of July 1st were to be applied. At midnight there was no +movement except of artillery caissons; gunners whose pieces two hours +later were to speak with a fury of blasts were sound asleep beside their +ammunition. The absolute order in this amazing network of all kinds of +supplies and transport contributed to the suspense. Night bombardments +we had already seen, and I would not dwell on this except that it had +the same splendor by night that the storming of Contalmaison had by day. + +The artillery observer for a fifteen-inch gun was a good-humored host. +He was putting his "bit," as the British say, into Bazentin-le-Petit +village and the only way we knew where Bazentin was in the darkness was +through great flashes of light which announced the bursting of a +fifteen-hundred-pound shell that had gone hurtling through the air with +its hoarse, ponderous scream. All the slope up to the Ridge was merged +in the blanket of night. Out of it came the regular flashes of guns for +a while as the prelude to the unloosing of the tornado before the +attack. + +Now that we saw them all firing, for the first time we had some idea of +the number that had been advanced into the conquered territory since +July 1st. The ruins and the sticks of trees of Fricourt and Mametz with +their few remaining walls stood out spectral in the flashes of batteries +that had found nesting places among the débris. The whole slope had +become a volcanic uproar. One might as well have tried to count the +number of fireflies over a swamp as the flashes. The limitation of +reckoning had been reached. Guns ahead of us and around us and behind us +as usual, in a battle of competitive crashes among themselves, and near +by we saw the figures of the gunners outlined in instants of weird +lightning glow, which might include the horses of a caisson in a flicker +of distinct silhouette flashed out of the night and then lost in the +night, with the riders sitting as straight as if at drill. Every voice +had one message, "This for the Ridge!" which was crowned by hell's +tempest of shell-bursts to prepare the way for the rush by the infantry +at "zero." + +The thing was majestic, diabolical, beautiful, absurd--anything you +wished to call it. Look away from the near-by guns where the faces of +the gunners were illumined and you could not conceive of the scene as +being of human origin; but mixing awed humility with colossal egoism in +varying compounds of imagination and fact, you might think of your +little group of observers as occupying a point of view in space where +one planet hidden in darkness was throwing aerolites at another hidden +in darkness striking it with mighty explosions, and the crashes and +screams were the sound of the missiles on their unlighted way. + +It was still dark when three-thirty came and pyrotechnics were added to +the display, which I could not think of as being in any sense +pyrotechnical, when out of the blanket as signals from the planet's +surface in the direction of some new manoeuver appeared showers of +glowing red sparks, which rose to a height of a hundred feet with a +breadth of thirty or forty feet, it seemed at that distance. One shower +was in the neighborhood of Ovillers, one at La Boisselle and one this +side of Longueval. Then in the distance beyond Longueval the sky was +illumined by a great conflagration not on the fireworks program, which +must have been a German ammunition dump exploded by British shells. + +It was our planet, now, and a particular portion of it in Picardy. No +imaginative translation to space could hold any longer. With the charge +going in, the intimate human element was supreme. The thought of those +advancing waves of men in the darkness made the fiery display a +dissociated objective spectacle. On the Ridge more signal flares rose +and those illumining the dark masses of foliage must be Bazentin Wood +gained, and those beyond must be in the Bazentin villages, Little +Bazentin and Big Bazentin, though neither of them, like most of the +villages, numbering a dozen to fifty houses could be much smaller and be +called villages. + +This was all the objective. Yes, but though the British had arrived, as +the signals showed, could they remain? It seemed almost too good to be +true. And that hateful Trônes Wood? Had we taken that, too, as a part of +the tidal wave of a broad attack instead of trying to take it piecemeal? + +Our suspense was intensified by the thought that this action might be +the turning-point in the first stage of the great Somme battle. We +strained our eyes into the darkness studying, as a mariner studies the +sky, the signs with which we had grown familiar as indicative of +results. There was a good augury in the comparatively slight German +shell fire in response, though we were reminded that it might at any +minute develop with sudden ferocity. + +Now the flashes of the guns grew dim. A transformation more wonderful +than artillery could produce, that of night into day, was in process. +Not a curtain but the sun's ball of fire, undisturbed by any efforts of +the human beings on a few square miles of earth, was holding to his +schedule in as kindly a fashion as ever toward planets which kept at a +respectful distance from his molten artillery concentration. + +Out of the blanket which hid the field appeared the great welts of chalk +of the main line trenches, then the lesser connecting ones; the woods +became black patches and the remaining tree-trunks gaunt, still and +dismal sentinels of the gray ruins of the villages, until finally all +the conformations of the scarred and tortured slope were distinct in the +first fresh light of a brilliant summer's day. Where the blazes had been +was the burst of black smoke from shells and we saw that it was still +German fire along the visible line of the British objective, assuring us +that the British had won the ground which they had set out to take and +were holding it. + +"Up and at them!" had done the trick this time, and trick it was; a +trick or stratagem, to use the higher sounding word; a trick in not +waiting on the general attack for the taking of Trônes according to +obvious tactics, but including Trônes in the sweep; a trick in the +daring way that the infantry was sent in ahead of the answering German +curtain of fire. + +All the news was good that day. The British had swept through Bazentin +Wood and taken the Bazentin villages. They held Trônes Wood and were in +Delville and High Woods. A footing was established on the Ridge where +the British could fight for final mastery on even terms with the enemy. +"Slight losses" came the reports from corps and divisions and +confirmation of official reports was seen in the paucity of the wounded +arriving at the casualty clearing stations and in the faces of officers +and men everywhere. Even British phlegm yielded to exhilaration. + + + + +XIV + +THE CAVALRY GOES IN + + The "dodo" band--Cavalry a luxury--Cavalry, however, may not be + discarded--What ten thousand horse might do--A taste of action for the + cavalry--An "incident"--Horses that had the luck to "go in"--Cavalrymen + who showed signs of action--The novelty of a cavalry action--A camp + group--Germans caught unawares--Horsemen and an aeroplane--Retiring in + good order--Just enough casualties to give the fillip of danger to + recollection. + + +Sometimes a squadron of cavalry, British or Indian, survivors of the +ardent past, intruded in a mechanical world of motor trucks and tractors +drawing guns. With outward pride these lean riders of burnished, sleek +horses, whose broad backs bore gallantly the heavy equipment, concealed +their irritation at idleness while others fought. They brought +picturesqueness and warm-blooded life to the scene. Such a merciless war +of steel contrivances needed some ornament. An old sergeant one day, +when the cavalry halted beside his battalion which was resting, in an +exhibit of affectionate recollection exclaimed: + +"It's good to stroke a horse's muzzle again! I was in the Dragoon Guards +once, myself." + +Sometimes the cavalry facetiously referred to itself as the "Dodo" +band, with a galling sense of helplessness under its humor; and others +had thought of it as being like the bison preserved in the Yellowstone +Park lest the species die out. + +A cynical general said that a small force of cavalry was a luxury which +such a vast army of infantry and guns might afford. In his opinion, even +if we went to the Rhine, the cavalry would melt in its first charge +under the curtains of fire and machine gun sprays of the rearguard +actions of the retreating enemy. He had never been in the cavalry, and +any squadron knew well what he and all of those who shared his views +were thinking whenever it passed over the brow of a hill that afforded a +view of the welter of shell fire over a field cut with shell-craters and +trenches which are pitfalls for horses. Yet it returned gamely and with +fastidious application to its practice in crossing such obstacles in +case the command to "go in" should ever come. Such preparations were +suggestive to extreme skeptics of the purchase of robes and the +selection of a suitable hilltop of a religious cult which has appointed +the day for ascension. + +Excepting a dash in Champagne, not since trench warfare began had the +cavalry had any chance. The thought of action was an hypothesis +developed from memory of charges in the past. Aeroplanes took the +cavalry's place as scouts, machine guns and rifles emplaced behind a +first-line trench which had succumbed to an attack took its place as +rearguard, and aeroplane patrols its place as screen. + +Yet any army, be it British, French, or German, which expected to carry +through an offensive would not turn all its cavalry into infantry. This +was parting with one of the old three branches of horse, foot and gun +and closing the door to a possible opportunity. If the Japanese had had +cavalry ready at the critical moment after Mukden, its mobility would +have hampered the Russian retreat, if not turned it into a rout. When +you need cavalry you need it "badly," as the cowboy said about his +six-shooter. + +Should the German line ever be broken and all that earth-tied, enormous, +complicated organization, with guns emplaced and its array of congested +ammunition dumps and supply depots, try to move on sudden demand, what +added confusion ten thousand cavalry would bring! What rich prizes would +await it as it galloped through the breach and in units, separating each +to its objective according to evolutions suited to the new conditions, +dismounted machine guns to cover roads and from chosen points sweep +their bullets into wholesale targets! The prospect of those few wild +hours, when any price in casualties might be paid for results, was the +inspiration of dreams when hoofs stamped in camps at night or bits +champed as lances glistened in line above khaki-colored steel helmets on +morning parade. + +A taste, just a taste, of action the cavalry was to have, owing to the +success of the attack of July 14th, which manifestly took the Germans by +surprise between High and Delville Woods and left them staggering with +second-line trenches lost and confusion ensuing, while guns and +scattered battalions were being hurried up by train in an indiscriminate +haste wholly out of keeping with German methods of prevision and +precision. The breach was narrow, the field of action for horses +limited; but word came back that over the plateau which looked away to +Bapaume between Delville and High Woods there were few shell-craters and +no German trenches or many Germans in sight as day dawned. + +Gunners rubbed their eyes at the vision as they saw the horsemen pass +and infantry stood amazed to see them crossing trenches, Briton and +Indian on their way up the slope to the Ridge. How they passed the crest +without being decimated by a curtain of fire would be a mystery if there +were any mysteries in this war, where everything seems to be worked out +like geometry or chemical formulæ. The German artillery being busy +withdrawing heavy guns and the other guns preoccupied after the +startling results of an attack not down on the calendar for that day +did not have time to "get on" the cavalry when they were registered on +different targets--which is suggestive of what might come if the line +were cleft over a broad front. A steel band is strong until it breaks, +which may be in many pieces. + +"Did you see the charge?" you ask. No, nor even the ride up the slope, +being busy elsewhere and not knowing that the charge was going to take +place. I could only seek out the two squadrons who participated in the +"incident," as the staff called it, after it was over. Incident is the +right word for a military sense of proportion. When the public in +England and abroad heard that the cavalry were "in" they might expect to +hear next day that the Anglo-French Armies were in full pursuit of the +broken German Armies to the Rhine, when no such outcome could be in the +immediate program unless German numbers were cut in two or the Prussian +turned Quaker. + +An incident! Yes, but something to give a gallop to the pen of the +writer after the monotony of gunfire and bombing. I was never more eager +to hear an account of any action than of this charge--a cavalry charge, +a charge of cavalry, if you please, on the Western front in July, 1916. + +In one of the valleys back of the front out of sight of the battle there +were tired, tethered horses with a knowing look in their eyes, it +seemed to me, and a kind of superior manner toward the sleek, fresh +horses which had not had the luck to "go in"; and cavalrymen were lying +under their shelters fast asleep, their clothing and accoutrements +showing the unmistakable signs of action. We heard from their officers +the story of both the Dragoon Guards and the Deccan Horse (Indian) who +had known what it was to ride down a German in the open. + +The shade of Phil Sheridan might ponder on what the world was coming to +that we make much of such a small affair; but he would have felt all the +glowing satisfaction of these men if he had waited as long as they for +any kind of a cavalry action. The accounts of the two squadrons may go +together. Officers were shaving and aiming for enough water to serve as +a substitute for a bath. The commander with his map could give you every +detail with a fond, lingering emphasis on each one, as a battalion +commander might of a first experience in a trench raid when later the +same battalion would make an account of a charge in battle which was +rich with incidents of hand-to-hand encounters and prisoners breached +from dugouts into an "I-came-I-saw" narrative, and not understand why +further interest should be shown by the inquirer in what was the +everyday routine of the business of war. For the trite saying that +everything is relative does not forfeit any truth by repetition. + +The cavalry had done everything quite according to tactics, which would +only confuse the layman. The wonder was that any of it had come back +alive. On that narrow front it had ridden out toward the Germany Army +with nothing between the cavalry and the artillery and machine guns +which had men on horses for targets. In respect to days when to show a +head above a trench meant death the thing was stupefying, incredible. +These narrators forming a camp group, with lean, black-bearded, +olive-skinned Indians in attendance bringing water in horse-buckets for +the baths, and the sight of kindly horses' faces smiling at you, and the +officers themselves horsewise and with the talk and manner of +horsemen--only they made it credible. How real it was to them! How real +it became to me! + +There had been some Germans in hiding in the grass who were taken +unawares by this rush of gallopers with lances. Every participant agreed +as to the complete astonishment of the enemy. It was equivalent to a +football player coming into the field in ancient armor and the more of a +surprise considering that those Germans had been sent out after a +morning full of surprises to make contact with the British and +reëstablish the broken line. + +Not dummies of straw this time for the lance's sharp point, but +startled men in green uniform--the vision which had been in mind when +every thrust was made at the dummies! This was what cavalry was for, the +object of all the training. It rode through quite as it would have +ridden fifty or a hundred years ago. A man on the ground, a man on a +horse! This feature had not changed. + +"You actually got some?" + +"Oh, yes!" + +"On the lances?" + +"Yes." + +From the distance came the infernal sound of guns in their threshing +contest of explosions which made this incident more impressive than any +account of a man buried by shells, of isolated groups holding out in +dugouts, or of venturesome soldiers catching and tossing back German +bombs at the man who threw them, because it was unique on the Somme. +Both British and Indians had had the same kind of an opportunity. After +riding through they wheeled and rode back in the accepted fashion of +cavalry. + +By this time some of the systematic Germans had recollected that a part +of their drill was how to receive a cavalry charge, and when those who +had not run or been impaled began firing and others stood ready with +their bayonets but with something of the manner of men who were not +certain whether they were in a trance or not, according to the account, +a German machine gun began its wicked staccato as another feature of +German awakening to the situation. + +This brings us to the most picturesque incident of the "incident." Most +envied of all observers of the tournament was an aviator who looked down +on a show bizarre even in the annals of aviation. The German planes had +been driven to cover, which gave the Briton a fair field. A knightly +admiration, perhaps a sense of fellowship not to say sympathy with the +old arm of scouting from the new, possessed him; or let it be that he +could not resist a part in such a rare spectacle which was so tempting +to sporting instinct. He swooped toward that miserable, earth-tied +turtle of a machine gun and emptied his drum into it. He was not over +three hundred feet, all agree, above the earth, when not less than ten +thousand feet was the rule. + +"It was jolly fine of him!" as the cavalry put it. To have a charge and +then to have that happen--well, it was not so bad to be in the cavalry. +The plane drew fire by setting all the Germans to firing at it without +hitting it, and the machine gun, whether silenced or not, ceased to +bother the cavalry, which brought back prisoners to complete a +well-rounded adventure before withdrawing lest the German guns, also +entering into the spirit of the situation, should blow men and horses +off the Ridge instead of leaving them to retire in good order. + +Casualties: about the same number of horses as men. Riders who had lost +their horses mounted riderless horses. A percentage of one in six or +seven had been hit, which was the most amazing part of it; indeed, the +most joyful part, completing the likeness to the days when war still had +the element of sport. There had been killed and wounded or it would not +have been a battle, but not enough to cast a spell of gloom; just enough +to be a part of the gambling hazard of war and give the fillip of danger +to recollection. + + + + +XV + +ENTER THE ANZACS + + Newfoundland sets the pace--Australia and New Zealand lands that + breed men--Australians "very proud, individual men"--Geographical + isolation a cause of independence--The "Anzacs'" idea of + fighting--Sir Charles Birdwood--How he taught his troops + discipline--Bean and Ross--Difference between Australians and New + Zealanders--The Australian uniform and physique--A dollar and a half + a day--General Birdwood and his men--Australian humor. + + +It was British troops exclusively which started the Grand Offensive if +we except the Newfoundland battalion which alone had the honor of +representing the heroism of North America on July 1st; for people in +passing the Grand Banks which makes them think of Newfoundland are wont +to regard it as a part of Canada, when it is a separate colony whose +fishermen and frontiersmen were attached to a British division that went +to Gallipoli with a British brigade and later shared the fate of British +battalions in the attack on the Thiepval-Gommecourt sector. + +On that famous day in Picardy the Newfoundlanders advanced into the +smoke of the curtains of fire unflinchingly and kept on charging the +machine guns. Survivors and the wounded who crept back at night across +No Man's Land had no need to trumpet their heroism. All the army knew +it. Newfoundland had set the pace for the other clans from oversea. + +It was British troops, too, which took Contalmaison and Mametz, Bernafay +and Trônes Woods and who carried out all the attack of July 15th, with +the exception of the South African brigade which stormed Delville Wood +with the tearing enthusiasm of a rush for a new diamond mine. + +Whenever the troops from oversea are not mentioned you may be sure that +it is the British, the home troops, who are doing the fighting, their +number being about ten to one of the others with the one out of ten +representing double the number of those who fought on either side in any +great pitched battle in our Civil War. After the Newfoundlanders and +South Africans, who were few but precious, the Australians, an army of +themselves, came to take their part in the Somme battle. + +I have never been in Australia or New Zealand, but this I know that when +the war is over I am going. I want to see the land that breeds such men. +They are free men if ever there were such; free whether they come from +town or from bush. I had heard of their commonwealth ideas, their +State-owned utilities, their socialistic inclinations, which might +incline you to think that they were all of the same State-cut pattern of +manhood; but I had heard, too, how they had restricted immigration of +Orientals and limited other immigration by method if not by law, which +was suggestive of a tendency to keep the breed to itself, as I +understood from my reading. + +Whenever I saw an Australian I thought: "Here is a very proud, +individual man," but also an Australian, particularly an Australian. +Some people thought that there was a touch of insolence in his bearing +when he looked you straight in the eye as much as to say: "The best +thing in the world is to be an upstanding member of the human race who +is ready to prove that he is as good as any other. If you don't think +so, well--" There was no doubt about the Australian being brave. This +was as self-evident as that the pine is straight and the beech is hard +wood. + +The Australians came from a great distance. This you knew without +geographical reference. Far away in their island continent they have +been working out their own destiny, not caring for interference from the +outside. To put it in strong language, there is a touch of the "I don't +care a rap for anybody who does not care a rap for me" in their extreme +moments of independence. It is refreshing that a whole population may +have an island continent to themselves and carry on in this fashion. + +They had had an introduction to universal service which was also +characteristic of their democracy and helpful in time of war. The +"Anzac" had caught the sense of its idea (before other English-speaking +people) not to let others do your fighting for you but all "join in the +scrum." Orientals might crave the broad spaces of a new land, in which +event if they ever took Australia and New Zealand they would not be +bothered by many survivors of the white population, because most of the +Anzacs would be dead--this being particularly the kind of people the +Anzacs are as I knew them in France, which was not a poor trial ground +of their quality. + +When they went to Gallipoli it was said that they had no discipline; and +certainly at first discipline did irritate them as a snaffle bit +irritates a high-spirited horse. "Little Kitch," as the stalwart Anzacs +called the New Army Englishman, thought that they broke all the military +commandments of the drill-grounds in a way that would be their undoing. +I rather think that it might have been the undoing of Little Kitch, with +his stubborn, methodical, phlegmatic, "stick-it" courage; but after the +Australians had fought the Turk a while it was evident that they knew +how to fight, and their general, Sir Charles Birdwood, supplied the +discipline which is necessary if fighting power is not to be wasted in +misplaced emotion. + +Lucky Birdwood to command the Australians and lucky Australians to have +him as commander! It was he who in choosing a telegraph code word made +up "Anzac" for the Australian-New Zealand corps, which at once became +the collective term for the combination. What a test he put them to and +they put him to! He had to prove himself to them before he could develop +the Anzacs into a war unit worthy of their fighting quality. Such is +democracy where man judges man by standards, set, in this case, by +Australian customs. + +When he understood them he knew why he was fortunate. He was one of them +and at the same time a stiff disciplinarian. They objected to saluting, +but he taught them to salute in a way that did not make saluting seem +the whole thing--this was what they resented--but a part of the routine. +It was said that he knew every man in the corps by name, which shows how +stories will grow around a commander who rises at five and retires at +midnight and has a dynamic ubiquity in keeping in touch with his men. +Such a force included some "rough customers" who might mistake war for a +brawler's opportunity; but Sir Charles had a way with them that worked +out for their good and the good of the corps. + +Though they were of a free type of democracy, the Australian government, +either from inherent sense or as the result of distance, as critics +might say, or owing to General Birdwood's gift of having his way, did +not handicap the Australians as heavily as they might have been +handicapped under the circumstances by officers who were skilful in +politics without being skilful in war. + +As publicist the Australians had Bean, a trained journalist, a +red-headed blade of a man who was an officer among officers and a man +among men and held the respect of all by Australian qualities. If there +could be only one chronicler allowed, then Bean's choice had the +applause of a corps, though Bean says that Australia is full of just as +good journalists who did not have his luck. The New Zealanders had Ross +to play the same part for them with equal loyalty and he was as much of +a New Zealander as Bean was an Australian. + +For, make no mistake, though the Australians and the New Zealanders +might seem alike to the observer as they marched along a road, they are +not, as you will find if you talk with them. The New Zealanders have +islands of their own, not to mention that the Tasmanians have one, too. +Besides, the New Zealanders include a Maori battalion and of all +aborigines of lands where the white races have settled in permanence to +build new nations, the Maoris have best accustomed themselves to +civilization and are the highest type--a fact which every New Zealander +takes as another contributing factor to New Zealand's excellence. Quiet +men the New Zealanders, bearing themselves with the pride of Guardsmen +whose privates all belong to superior old families, and New Zealanders +every minute of every hour of the day, though you might think that civil +war was imminent if you started them on a discussion about home +politics. + +Give any unit of an army some particular, readily distinguishable +symbol, be it only a feather in the cap or a different headgear, and +that lot becomes set apart from the others in a fashion that gives them +_esprit de corps_. With the Scots it is the kilt and the different +plaids. All the varied uniforms of regiments of the armies of olden days +had this object. Modern war requires neutral tones and its necessary +machinelike homogeneity may look askance at too much rivalry among units +as tending toward each one acting by itself rather than in co-operation +with the rest. + +All the forces at the front except the Anzacs were in khaki and wore +caps when not wearing steel helmets in the trenches or on the +firing-line. The Australians were in slate-colored uniform and they +wore looped-up soft hats. The hats accentuated the manner, the height +and the sturdiness of the men whose physique was unsurpassed at the +British front, and practically all were smooth-shaven. For generations +they had had adequate nutrition and they had the capacity to absorb it, +which generations from the slums may lack even if the food is +forthcoming. + +There was no reason why every man in Australia should not have enough to +eat and, whether bush or city dweller, he was fond of the open air where +he might exercise the year around. He had blown his lungs; he had fed +well and came of a daring pioneer stock. When an Anzac battalion under +those hats went swinging along the road it seemed as if the men were +taking the road along with them, such was their vigorous tread. On leave +in London they were equally conspicuous. Sometimes they used a little +vermilion with the generosity of men who received a dollar and a half a +day as their wage. It was the first time, in many instances, that they +had seen the "old town" and they had come far and to-morrow might go +back to France for the last time. + +My first view of them in the trenches after they came from Gallipoli was +in the flat country near Ypres whose mushiness is so detested by all +soldiers. They had been used to digging trenches in dry hillsides, +where they might excavate caves with solid walls. Here they had to fill +sandbags with mud and make breastworks, which were frequently breached +by shell fire. At first, they had been poor diggers; but when democracy +learns its lesson by individual experience it is incorporated in every +man and no longer is a question of orders. Now they were deepening +communication trenches and thickening parapet walls and were +mud-plastered by their labor. + +Having risen at General Birdwood's hour of five to go with him on +inspection I might watch his methods, and it means something to men to +have their corps commander thus early among them when a drizzly rain is +softening the morass under foot. He stopped and asked the privates how +they were in a friendly way and they answered with straight-away +candor. Then he gave some directions about improvements with a +we-are-all-working-together suggestiveness, but all the time he was the +general. These privates were not without their Australian sense of +humor, which is dry; and in answer to the inquiry about how he was one +said: + +"All right, except we'd like a little rum, sir." + +In cold weather the distribution of a rum ration was at the disposition +of a commander, who in most instances did not give it. This stalwart +Australian evidently had not been a teetotaler. + +"We'll give you some rum when you have made a trench raid and taken some +prisoners," the general replied. + +"It might be an incentive, sir!" said the soldier very respectfully. + +"No Australian should need such an incentive!" answered the general, and +passed on. + +"Yes, sir!" was the answer of another soldier to the question if he had +been in Gallipoli. + +"Wounded?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"How?" + +"I was examining a bomb, sir, to find out how it was made and it went +off to my surprise, sir!" + +There was not even a twinkle of the eye accompanying the response, yet I +was not certain that this big fellow from the bush had been wounded in +that way. I suspected him of a quiet joke. + +"Throw them at the Germans next time," said the general. + +"Yes, sir. It's safer!" + +Returning after that long morning of characteristic routine, as we +passed through a village where Australians were billeted one soldier +failed to salute. When the general stopped him his hand shot up in +approved fashion as he recognized his commander and he said contritely, +with the touch of respect of a man to the leader in whom he believes: + +"I did not see that it was you, sir!" + +The general had on a mackintosh with the collar turned up, which +concealed his rank. + +"But you might see that it was an officer." + +"Yes, sir." + +"And you salute officers." + +"Yes, sir." + +Which he would hereafter now that it was General Birdwood's order, +though this everlasting raising of your hand, as one Australian said, +made you into a kind of human windmill when the world was so full of +officers. Gradually all came to salute, and when an Australian salutes +he does it in a way that is a credit to Australia. + +After a period of fighting a tired division retired from the battle +front and a fresh one took the place. Thus, following the custom of the +circulation of troops by the armies of both sides, whether at Verdun or +on the Somme, the day arrived when along the road toward the front came +the Australian battalions, hardened and disciplined by trench warfare, +keen-edged in spirit, and ready for the bold task which awaited them at +Pozières. This time the New Zealanders were not along. + + + + +XVI + +THE AUSTRALIANS AND A WINDMILL + + The windmill upon the hill--Pozières--Its topography--Warlike + intensity of the Australians--A "stiff job"--An Australian + chronicler--Incentives to Australian efficiency--German complaint + that the Australians came too fast--Clockwork efficiency--Man-to-man + business--Sunburned, gaunt battalions from the vortex--The fighting + on the Ridge--Mouquet Farm--A contest of individuality against + discipline--"Advance, Australia!"--New Zealanders--South Africans. + + +When I think of the Australians in France I always think of a windmill. +This is not implying that they were in any sense Quixotic or that they +tilted at a windmill, there being nothing left of the windmill to tilt +at when their capture of its ruins became the crowning labor of their +first tour on the Somme front. + +In their progress up that sector of the Ridge the windmill came after +Pozières, as the ascent of the bare mountain peak comes after the +reaches below the timber line. Pozières was beyond La Boisselle and +Ovillers-la-Boisselle, from which the battle movement swung forward at +the hinge of the point where the old first-line German fortifications +had been broken on July 1st. + +To think of Pozières will be to think of the Australians as long as the +history of the Somme battle endures. I read an interview in a New York +paper with the Chief of Staff of the German Army opposite the British in +which he must have been correctly quoted, as his remarks passed the +censorship. He said that the loss of Pozières was a blunder. I liked his +frankness in laying the blame on a subordinate who, if he also had +spoken, might have mentioned the presence of the Australians as an +excuse, which, personally, I think is an excellent one. + +Difficult as it now becomes to keep any sequence in the operations when, +at best, chronology ceases to be illuminative of phases, it is well here +to explain that the attack of July 15th had not gained the whole Ridge +on the front ahead of the broad stretch of ruptured first line. Besides, +the Ridge is not like the roof of a house, but a most illusive series of +irregular knolls with small plateaus or valleys between, a sort of +miniature broken tableland. The foothold gained on July 15th meant no +broad command of vision down the slope to the main valley on the other +side. Even a shoulder five or ten feet higher than the neighboring +ground meant a barrier to artillery observation which shells would not +blast away; and the struggle for such positions was to go on for weeks. + +Pozières, then, was on the way to the Ridge and its possession would +put the formidable defenses of Thiepval in a salient, thus enabling the +British to strike it from the side as well as in front, which is the aim +of all strategy whether it works in mobile divisions in an open field or +is biting and tearing its way against field fortifications. Therefore, +the Germans had good reason to hold Pozières, which protected first-line +trenches that had required twenty months of preparation. Wherever they +could keep the Briton or the Frenchman from forcing the fight into the +open which made the contest an even one in digging, they were saving +life and ammunition by nests of redoubts and dugouts. + +The reason that the Australians wanted to take Pozières was not so +tactical as human in their minds. It was the village assigned to them +and they wished to investigate it immediately and get established in the +property that was to be theirs, once they took it, to hold in trust for +the inhabitants. I had a fondness for watching them as they marched up +to the front looking unreal in their steel helmets which they wore in +place of the broad-brimmed hats. There was a sort of warlike intensity +about them which may come from the sunlight of an island continent +reflecting the histrionic adaptability of appearances to the task in +hand. + +Their first objective was to be the main street. They had a "stiff job" +ahead, as everybody agreed, and so had the British troops operating on +their right. + +"This objective business has a highly educated sound, which might limit +martial enthusiasm," said one Australian. "As I understand it, that's +the line where we stop no matter how good the going and which we must +reach no matter how hard the going." + +Precisely. An Australian battalion needed a warning in the first +instance lest it might keep on advancing, which meant that commanders +would not know where it was in the shell-smoke and it might get +"squeezed" for want of support on the right and left, as I have +explained elsewhere. Certainly, warning was unnecessary in the second +instance about the hard going. + +Bean has all the details of the taking of Pozières; he knows what every +battalion did, and I was going to say what every soldier did. When the +Australians were in he was in making notes and when they were out he was +out writing up his notes. His was intimate war correspondence about the +fellows who came from all the districts of his continent, his home +folks. I am only expressing the impressions of one who had glimpses of +the Australians while the battle was raging elsewhere. + +Of course, skeptics had said that Gallipoli was one thing and the Somme +another and the Australian man-to-man method might receive a shock from +Prussian system; but, then, skeptics had said that the British could not +make an army in two years. The Australians knew what was in the +skeptics' minds, which was further incentive. They had a general whom +they believed in and they did not admit that any man on earth was a +better man than an Australian. And their staff? Of course, when it takes +forty years to make a staff how could the Australians have one that +could hold its own with the Germans? And this was what the Australians +had to do, staff and man: beat the Germans. + +When with clockwork promptness came the report that they had taken all +of their objectives it showed that they were up to the standard of their +looks and their staff signals were working well. They had a lot of +prisoners, too, who complained that the Australians came on too fast. +Meanwhile, they were on one side of the street and the Germans on the +other, hugging débris and sniping at one another. Now the man-to-man +business began to count. The Australian got across the street; he went +after the other fellow; he made a still hunt of it. This battle had +become a personal matter which pleased their sense of individualism; for +it is not bred into Australians to be afraid if they are out alone after +dark. + +Having worked beyond their first objective, when they were given as +their second the rest of the village they took it; and they were not +"biffed" out of it, either. What was the use of yielding ground when you +would have to make another charge in order to regain what had been lost? +They were not that kind of arithmeticians, they said. They believed in +addition not subtraction in an offensive campaign. + +So they stuck, though the Germans made repeated daring counter-attacks +and poured in shell fire from the guns up Thiepval way and off Bapaume +way with hellish prodigality. For the German staff was evidently much +out of temper about the "blunder" and for many weeks to come were to +continue pounding Pozières. If they could not shake the Australian out +of the village they meant to make him pay heavy taxes and to try to kill +his reliefs and stop his supplies. How the Australians managed to get +food and men up through the communication trenches under the unceasing +inferno over that bare slope is tribute to their skill in slipping out +and in between its blasts. + +Not only were they able to hold, but they kept on attacking. Every day +we heard that they had taken more ground and whenever we went out to +have a look the German lines were always a little farther back. One day +we were asking if the Australians were in the cemetery yet; the next +day they were and the next they had more of it as they worked their way +uphill, fighting from grave to grave; and the next day they had mastered +all of it, thanks to a grim persistence which some had said would not +comport with their highstrung temperament. + +The windmill was a landmark crowning the Ridge; as fair a target as ever +artillery ranged on--a gunner's delight. After having been knocked into +splinters the splinters were spread about by high explosives which +reduced the stone base to fragments. + +Sunburned, gaunt battalions came out of the vortex for a turn of rest. +With helmets battered by shrapnel bullets, after nights in the rain and +broiling hot days, their faces grimy and unshaven, their clothes torn +and spotted, they were still Australians who looked you in the eye with +a sense of having proved their birthright as free men. Sometimes the old +spirit incited by the situation got out of bonds. One night when a +company rose up to the charge the company next in line called out, +"Where are you going?" and on the reply, "We've orders to take that +trench in front," the company that had no orders to advance exclaimed, +"Here, we're going to join in the scrum!" and they did, taking more +trench than the plan required. + +The fierce period of the battle was approaching when fighting on the +Ridge was to be a bloody, wrestling series of clinches. Now trenches +could not be dug on that bold, treeless summit. As soon as an aeroplane +spotted a line developing out of the field of shell-craters the guns +filled the trench and then proceeded to pound it into the fashionable +style for farming land on the Ridge. + +Trenches out of the question, it became a war among shell-craters. Here +a soldier ensconced himself with rifle and bombs or a machine gunner +deepened the hole with his spade for the gun. This was "scrapping" to +the Australians' taste. It called for individual nerve and daring on +that shell-swept, pestled earth, creeping up to new positions or back +for water and food by night, lying "doggo" by day and waiting for a +counter-attack by the Germans, who were always the losers in this grim, +stealthy advance. + +In Mouquet Farm the Germans had dugouts whose elaborateness was realized +only after they were taken. A battalion could find absolute security in +them. Long galleries ran back to entrances in areas safe from shell +fire. Overhead no semblance of farm buildings was left by British and +Australian guns. When I visited the ruins later I could not tell how +many buildings there had been; and Mouquet Farm was not the only strong +point that the Germans had to fall back on, let it be said. In the +underground tunnels and chambers the Germans gathered for their +counter-attacks, which they attempted with something of their old +precision and courage. + +This was the opportunity of the machine gunners in shell-craters and the +snipers and the curtain of artillery fire. Sometimes the Australians +allowed the attack to get good headway. They even left gaps in their +lines for the game to enter the net before they began firing; and again, +when a broken German charge sought flight its remnants faced an +impassable curtain of fire which fenced them in and they dropped into +shell-craters and held up their hands, which was the only thing to do. + +Soon the Germans learned, too, how to make the most of shell-craters. +The harder the Australians fought the greater the spur to German pride +not to be beaten by these supposedly undisciplined, untrained men. The +Germans called for more guns and got them. Mouquet Farm became a +fortress of machine guns. It was not taken by the Australians--their +successors took what was left of it. The nearer they came to the crest +which was their supreme goal the ghastlier and more concentrated grew +the shell fire, as the German guns had only to range on the skyline. But +this equally applied to Australian gunners as the Germans were crowded +toward the summit where the débris of the windmill remained, till +finally they had to fall back to the other side. + +Then they tried sweeping over the Ridge from the cover of the reverse +slope in counter-attacks, only to be whipped by machine gun fire, lashed +by shrapnel and crushed by high explosives--themselves mixed with the +ruins of the windmill. At last they gave up the effort. It was not in +German discipline to make any more attempts. + +The Australians had the windmill as much as anyone had it as, for a +time, it was in No Man's Land where blasts of shells would permit of no +occupation. But the symbol for which it stood was there in readiness as +a jumping-off place for the sweep-down into the valley later on when the +Canadians should take the place of the Australians; and before they +retired they could look in triumph across at Thiepval and down on +Courcelette and Martinpuich and past the valley to Bapaume. + +The development of the campaign had given the Australians work suited to +their bent when this war of machinery, attaining its supreme complexity +on the Somme, left the human machine between walls of shell fire to +fight it out individually against the human machine, in a contest of +will, courage, audacity, alertness and resource, man to man. "Advance, +Australia!" is the Australian motto; and the Australians advanced. + +The New Zealanders had their part elsewhere and played it in the New +Zealand way. + +"They have never failed to take an objective set them," said a general +after the taking of Flers, "and they have always gained their positions +with slight losses." + +Could there be higher praise? Success and thrift, courage and skill in +taking cover! For the business of a soldier is to do his enemy the +maximum of damage with the minimum to himself, as anyone may go on +repeating. Probably the remark of the New Zealanders in answer to the +commander's praise would be, "Thank you. Why not?" as if this were what +the New Zealanders expected of themselves. They take much for granted +about New Zealand, without being boastful. + +"A blooming quiet lot that keeps to themselves," said a British soldier, +"but likable when you get to know them." + +You might depend upon the average New Zealand private for an interesting +talk about social organization, municipal improvements, and human +welfare under government direction. The standard of individual +intelligence and education was high and it seemed to make good fighting +men. + +The Australians had had to grub their way foot by foot, and the South +Africans on July 15th with veldt gallantry had swept into Delville Wood, +which was to be a shambles for two months, and stood off with a thin +line the immense forces of hastily gathered reserves which the Germans +threw at this vital point which had been lost in a surprise attack. + +All this on the way up to the Ridge. The New Zealanders were to play a +part in the same movement as the Canadians after the Ridge was taken. +They were in the big sweep down from the Ridge over a broad front. +Across the open for about two miles they had to go, fair targets for +shell fire; and they went, keeping their order as if on parade, working +out each evolution with soldierly precision including coöperation with +the "tanks." They were at their final objective on schedule time, +accomplishing the task with amazingly few casualties and so little fuss +that it seemed a kind of skilful field-day manoeuver. All that they took +they held and still held it when the mists of autumn obscured artillery +observation and they were relieved from the quagmire for their turn of +rest. + + + + +XVII + +THE HATEFUL RIDGE + + Grinding of courage of three powerful races--A ridge that will be + famous--Germans on the defensive--Efforts to maintain their + _morale_--Gas shells--Summer heat, dust and fatigue--Prussian hatred + of the British--Dead bodies strapped to guns--Guillemont a + granulation of bricks and mortar and earth--"We've only to keep at + them, sir"--Stalking machine guns--Machine guns in craters--British + cheerfulness--The war will be over when it is won--Soldiers talk + shop--An incident of brutal militarism--Simple rules for surviving + shell fire--A "happy home" with a shell arriving every + minute--Business-like monotony of the battle--Insignificance of one + man among millions--A victory of position, of will, of _morale_! + + +Sometimes it occurred to one to consider what history might say about +the Ridge and also to wonder how much history, which pretends to know +all, would really know. Thus, one sought perspective of the colossal +significance of the uninterrupted battle whose processes numbed the mind +and to distinguish the meaning of different stages of the struggle. +Nothing had so well reflected the character of the war or of its +protagonists, French, British and German, as this grinding of resources, +of courage, and of will of three powerful races. + +We are always talking of phases as the result of natural human +speculation and tendency to set events in groups. Observers also may +gratify this inclination as well as the contemporaneous military expert +writing from his maps. It is historically accepted, I think, that the +first decisive phase was the battle of the Marne when Paris was saved. +The second was Verdun, when the Germans again sought a decision on the +Western front by an offensive of sledgehammer blows against frontal +positions; and, perhaps, the third came when on the Ridge the British +and the French kept up their grim, insistent, piecemeal attacks, holding +the enemy week in and week out on the defensive, aiming at mastery as +the scales trembled in the new turn of the balance and initiative passed +from one side to the other in the beginning of that new era. + +This scarred slope with its gentle ascent, this section of farming land +with its woods growing more ragged every day from shell fire, with its +daily and nightly thunders, its trickling procession of wounded and +prisoners down the communication trenches speaking the last word in +human bravery, industry, determination and endurance--this might one day +be not only the monument to the positions of all the battalions that had +fought, its copses, its villages, its knolls famous to future +generations as is Little Round Top with us, but in its monstrous realism +be an immortal expression, unrealized by those who fought, of a +commander's iron will and foresight in gaining that supremacy in arms, +men and material which was the genesis of the great decision. + +The German had not yielded his offensive at Verdun after the attack of +July 1st. At least, he still showed the face of initiative there while +he rested content that at the same time he could maintain his front +intact on the Somme. The succeeding attack of July 15th broke his +confidence with its suggestion that the confusion in his lines would be +too dangerous if it happened over a broader front for him to consider +anything but the defensive. Thus, the Allied offensive had broken his +offensive. + +Now he began drawing away his divisions from the Verdun sector, bringing +guns to answer the British and French fire and men whose prodigal use +alone could enforce his determination to maintain _morale_ and prevent +any further bold strokes such as that of July 15th. + +His sausage balloons began to reappear in the sky as the summer wore on; +he increased the number of his aeroplanes; more of his five-point-nine +howitzers were sending their compliments; he stretched out his shell +fire over communication trenches and strong points; mustered great +quantities of lachrymatory shells and for the first time used gas shells +with a generosity which spoke his faith in their efficacy. The +lachrymatory shell makes your eyes smart, and the Germans apparently +considered this a great auxiliary to high explosives and shrapnel. Was +it because of the success of the first gas attack at Ypres that they now +placed such reliance in gas shells? The shell when it lands seems a +"dud," which is a shell that has failed to explode; then it blows out a +volume of gas. + +"If one hit right under your nose," said a soldier, "and you hadn't your +gas mask on, it might kill you. But when you see one fall you don't run +to get a sniff in order to accommodate the Boche by asphyxiating +yourself." + +Another soldier suggested that the Germans had a big supply on hand and +were working off the stock for want of other kinds. The British who by +this time were settled in the offensive joked about the deluge of gas +shells with a gallant, amazing humor. Going up to the Ridge was going to +their regular duty. They did not shirk it or hail it with delight. They +simply went, that was all, when it was a battalion's turn to go. + +July heat became August heat as the grinding proceeded. The gunners +worked in their shirts or stripped to the waist. Sweat streaks mapped +the faces of the men who came out of the trenches. Stifling clouds of +dust hung over the roads, with the trucks phantom-like as they emerged +from the gritty mist and their drivers' eyes peered out of masks of +gray which clung to their faces. A fall of rain came as a blessing to +Briton and German alike. German prisoners worn with exhaustion had +complexions the tint of their uniforms. If the British seemed weary +sometimes, one had only to see the prisoners to realize that the +defensive was suffering more than the offensive. The fatigue of some of +the men was of the kind that one week's sleep or a month's rest will not +cure; something fixed in their beings. + +It was a new kind of fighting for the Germans. They smarted under it, +they who had been used to the upper hand. In the early stages of the war +their artillery had covered their well-ordered charges; they had been +killing the enemy with gunfire. Now the Allies were returning the +compliment; the shoe was on the other foot. A striking change, indeed, +from "On to Paris!" the old battle-cry of leaders who had now come to +urge these men to the utmost of endurance and sacrifice by telling them +that if they did not hold against the relentless hammering of British +and French guns what had been done to French villages would be done to +their own. + +Prisoners spoke of peace as having been promised as close at hand by +their officers. In July the date had been set as Sept. 1st. Later, it +was set as Nov. 1st. The German was as a swimmer trying to reach shore, +in this case peace, with the assurance of those who urged him on that a +few more strokes would bring him there. Thus have armies been urged on +for years. + +Those fighting did not have, as had the prisoners, their eyes opened to +the vast preparations behind the British lines to carry on the +offensive. Mostly the prisoners were amiable, peculiarly unlike the +proud men taken in the early days of the war when confidence in their +"system" as infallible was at its height. Yet there were exceptions. I +saw an officer marching at the head of the survivors of his battalion +along the road from Montauban one day with his head up, a cigar stuck in +the corner of his mouth at an aggressive angle, his unshaven chin and +dusty clothes heightening his attitude of "You go to ----, you English!" + +The hatred of the British was a strengthening factor in the defense. +Should they, the Prussians, be beaten by New Army men? No! Die first! +said Prussian officers. The German staff might be as good as ever, but +among the mixed troops--the old and the young, the hollow-chested and +the square-shouldered, mouth-breathers with spectacles and bent fathers +of families, vigorous boys in their late 'teens with the down still on +their cheeks and hardened veterans survivors of many battles east and +west--they were reverting appreciably to natural human tendencies +despite the iron discipline. + +It was Skobeloff, if I recollect rightly, who said that out of every +hundred men twenty were natural fighters, sixty were average men who +would fight under impulse or when well led, and twenty were timid; and +armies were organized on the basis of the sixty average to make them +into a whole of even efficiency in action. The German staff had supplied +supreme finesse to this end. They had an army that was a machine; yet +its units were flesh and blood and the pounding of shell fire and the +dogged fighting on the Ridge must have an effect. + +It became apparent through those two months of piecemeal advance that +the sixty average men were not as good as they had been. The twenty +"funk-sticks," in army phrase, were given to yielding themselves if they +were without an officer, but the twenty natural fighters--well, human +psychology does not change. They were the type that made the +professional armies of other days, the brigands, too, and also those of +every class of society to whom patriotic duty had become an exaltation +approaching fanaticism. More fighting made them fight harder. + +Such became members of the machine gun corps, which took an oath never +to surrender, and led bombing parties and posted themselves in +shell-craters to face the charges while shells fell thick around them, +or remained up in the trench taking their chances against curtains of +fire that covered an infantry charge, in the hope of being able to turn +on their own bullet spray for a moment before being killed. Sometimes +their dead bodies were found strapped to their guns, more often probably +by their own request, as an insurance against deserting their posts, +than by command. + +Shell fire was the theatricalism of the struggle, the roar of guns its +thunder; but night or day the sound of the staccato of that little arch +devil of killing, the machine gun, coming from the Ridge seemed as true +an expression of what was always going on there as a rattlesnake's +rattle is of its character. Delville and High Woods and Guillemont and +Longueval and the Switch Trench--these are symbolic names of that +attrition, of the heroism of British persistence which would not take No +for answer. + +You might think that you had seen ruins until you saw those of +Guillemont after it was taken. They were the granulation of bricks and +mortar and earth mixed by the blasts of shell fire which crushed solids +into dust and splintered splinters. Guillemont lay beyond Trônes Wood +across an open space where the German guns had full play. There was a +stone quarry on the outskirts, and a quarry no less than a farm like +Waterlot, which was to the northward, and Falfemont, to the southward +and flanking the village, formed shelter. It was not much of a quarry, +but it was a hole which would be refuge for reserves and machine guns. +The two farms, clear targets for British guns, had their deep dugouts +whose roofs were reinforced by the ruins that fell upon them against +penetration even by shells of large caliber. How the Germans fought to +keep Falfemont! Once they sent out a charge with the bayonet to meet a +British charge between walls of shell fire and there through the mist +the steel was seen flashing and vague figures wrestling. + +Guillemont and the farms won and Ginchy which lay beyond won and the +British had their flank on high ground. Twice they were in Guillemont +but could not remain, though as usual they kept some of their gains. It +was a battle from dugout to dugout, from shelter to shelter of any kind +burrowed in débris or in fields, with the British never ceasing here or +elsewhere to continue their pressure. And the débris of a village had +particular appeal; it yielded to the spade; its piles gave natural +cover. + +A British soldier returning from one of the attacks as he hobbled +through Trônes Wood expressed to me the essential generalship of the +battle. He was outwardly as unemotional as if he were coming home from +his day's work, respectful and good-humored, though he had a hole in +both arms from machine gun fire, a shrapnel wound in the heel, and +seemed a trifle resentful of the added tribute of another shrapnel wound +in his shoulder after he had left the firing-line and was on his way to +the casualty clearing station. Insisting that he could lift the +cigarette I offered him to his lips and light it, too, he said: + +"We've only to keep at them, sir. They'll go." + +So the British kept at them and so did the French at every point. Was +Delville Wood worse than High Wood? This is too nice a distinction in +torments to be drawn. Possess either of them completely and command of +the Ridge in that section was won. The edge of a wood on the side away +from your enemy was the easiest part to hold. It is difficult to range +artillery on it because of restricted vision, and the enemy's shells +aimed at it strike the trees and burst prematurely among his own men. +Other easy, relatively easy, places to hold are the dead spaces of +gullies and ravines. There you were out of fire and there you were not; +there you could hold and there you could not. Machine gun fire and shell +fire were the arbiters of topography more dependable than maps. + +Why all the trees were not cut down by the continual bombardments of +both sides was past understanding. There was one lone tree on the +skyline near Longueval which I had watched for weeks. It still had a +limb, yes, the luxury of a limb, the last time that I saw it, pointing +with a kind of defiance in its immunity. Of course it had been struck +many times. Bits of steel were imbedded in its trunk; but only a direct +hit on the trunk will bring down a tree. Trees may be slashed and +whittled and nicked and gashed and still stand; and when villages have +been pulverized except for the timbering of the houses, a scarred shade +tree will remain. + +Thus, trees in Delville Wood survived, naked sticks among fallen and +splintered trunks and upturned roots. How any man could have survived +was the puzzling thing. None could if he had remained there continuously +and exposed himself; but man is the most cunning of animals. With gas +mask and eye-protectors ready, steel helmet on his head and his faithful +spade to make himself a new hole whenever he moved, he managed the +incredible in self-protection. Earth piled back of a tree-trunk would +stop bullets and protect his body from shrapnel. There he lay and there +a German lay opposite him, except when attacks were being made. + +Not getting the northern edge of the woods the British began sapping out +in trenches to the east toward Ginchy, where the map contours showed the +highest ground in that neighborhood. New lines of trenches kept +appearing on the map, often with group names such as Coffee Alley, Tea +Lane and Beer Street, perhaps. Out in the open along the irregular +plateau the shells were no more kindly, the bombing and the sapping no +less diligent all the way to the windmill, where the Australians were +playing the same kind of a game. With the actual summit gained at +certain points, these had to be held pending the taking of the whole, or +of enough to permit a wave of men to move forward in a general attack +without its line being broken by the resistance of strong points, which +meant confusion. + +Before any charge the machine guns must be "killed." No initiative of +pioneer or Indian scout surpassed that exhibited in conquering machine +gun positions. When a big game hunter tells you about having stalked +tigers, ask him if he has ever stalked a machine gun to its lair. + +As for the nature of the lair, here is one where a Briton "dug himself +in" to be ready to repulse any counter-attack to recover ground that the +British had just won. Some layers of sandbags are sunk level with the +earth with an excavation back of them large enough for a machine gun +standard and to give the barrel swing and for the gunner, who back of +this had dug himself a well four or five feet deep of sufficient +diameter to enable him to huddle at the bottom in "stormy weather." He +was general and army, too, of his little establishment. In the midst of +shells and trench mortars, with bullets whizzing around his head, he had +to keep a cool aim and make every pellet which he poured out of his gun +muzzle count against the wave of men coming toward him who were at his +mercy if he could remain alive for a few minutes and keep his head. + +He must not reveal his position before his opportunity came. All around +where this Briton had held the fort there were shell-craters like the +dots of close shooting around a bull's-eye; no tell-tale blood spots +this time, but a pile of two or three hundred cartridge cases lying +where they had fallen as they were emptied of their cones of lead. Luck +was with the occupant, but not with another man playing the same game +not far away. Broken bits of gun and fragments of cloth mixed with earth +explained the fate of a German machine gunner who had emplaced his piece +in the same manner. + +Before a charge, crawl up at night from shell-crater to shell-crater and +locate the enemy's machine guns. Then, if your own guns and the trench +mortars do not get them, go stalking with supplies of bombs and remember +to throw yours before the machine gunner, who also has a stock for such +emergencies, throws his. When a machine gun begins rattling into a +company front in a charge the men drop for cover, while officers +consider how to draw the devil's tusks. Arnold von Winkelried, who +gathered the spears to his breast to make a path for his comrades, won +his glory because the fighting forces were small in his day. But with +such enormous forces as are now engaged and with heroism so common, we +make only an incident of the officer who went out to silence a machine +gun and was found lying dead across the gun with the gunner dead beside +him. + +Those whose business it was to observe, the six correspondents, +Robinson, Thomas, Gibbs, Philips, Russell and myself, went and came +always with a sense of incapacity and sometimes with a feeling that +writing was a worthless business when others were fighting. The line of +advance on the big map at our quarters extended as the brief army +reports were read into the squares every morning by the key of figures +and numerals with a detail that included every little trench, every +copse, every landmark, and then we chose where we would go that day. At +corps headquarters there were maps with still more details and officers +would explain the previous day's work to us. Every wood and village, +every viewpoint, we knew, and every casualty clearing station and +prisoners' inclosure. At battalion camps within sight of the Ridge and +within range of the guns, where their blankets helped to make shelter +from the sun, you might talk with the men out of the fight and lunch and +chat with the officers who awaited the word to go in again or perhaps to +hear that their tour was over and they could go to rest in Ypres sector, +which had become relatively quiet. + +They had their letters and packages from home before they slept and had +written letters in return after waking; and there was nothing to do now +except to relax and breathe, to renew the vitality that had been +expended in the fierce work where shells were still threshing the earth, +which rose in clouds of dust to settle back again in enduring passive +resistance. + +There was much talk early in the war about British cheerfulness; so much +that officers and men began to resent it as expressing the idea that +they took such a war as this as a kind of holiday, when it was the last +thing outside of Hades that any sane man would choose. It was a question +in my own mind at times if Hades would not have been a pleasant change. +Yet the characterization is true, peculiarly true, even in the midst of +the fighting on the Ridge. Cheerfulness takes the place of emotionalism +as the armor against hardship and death; a good-humored balance between +exhilaration and depression which meets smile with smile and creates an +atmosphere superior to all vicissitudes. Why should we be downhearted? +Why, indeed, when it does no good. Not "Merrie England!" War is not a +merry business; but an Englishman may be cheerful for the sake of self +and comrades. + +Of course, these battalions, officers and men, would talk about when the +war would be over. Even the Esquimaux must have an opinion on the +subject by this time. That of the men who make the war, whose lives are +the lives risked, was worth more, perhaps, than that of people living +thousands of miles away; for it is they who are doing the fighting, who +will stop fighting. To them it would be over when it was won. The time +this would require varied with different men--one year, two years; and +again they would turn satirical and argue whether the sixth or the +seventh year would be the worst. And they talked shop about the latest +wrinkles in fighting; how best to avoid having men buried by +shell-bursts; the value of gas and lachrymatory shells; the ratio of +high explosives to shrapnel; methods of "cleaning out" dugouts or "doing +in" machine guns, all in a routine that had become an accepted part of +life like the details of the stock carried and methods of selling in a +department store. + +Indelible the memories of these talks, which often brought out +illustrations of racial temperament. One company was more horrified over +having found a German tied to a trench _parados_ to be killed by +British shell fire as a field punishment than by the horrors of other +men equally mashed and torn, or at having crawled over the moist bodies +of the dead, or slept among them, or been covered with spatters of blood +and flesh--for that incident struck home with a sense of brutal +militarism which was the thing in their minds against which they were +fighting. + +With steel helmets on and gas masks over our shoulders, we would leave +our car at the dead line and set off to "see something," when now the +fighting was all hidden in the folds of the ground, or in the woods, or +lost on the horizon where the front line of either of these two great +armies, with their immense concentration of men and material and roads +gorged with transport and thousands of belching guns, was held by a few +men with machine guns in shell-craters, their positions sometimes +interwoven. Old hands in the Somme battle become shell-wise. They are +the ones whom the French call "varnished," which is a way of saying that +projectiles glance off their anatomy. They keep away from points where +the enemy will direct his fire as a matter of habit or scientific +gunnery, and always recollect that the German has not enough shells to +sow them broadcast over the whole battle area. + +It is not an uncommon thing for one to feel quite safe within a couple +of hundred yards of an artillery concentration. That corner of a +village, that edge of a shattered grove, that turn in the highway, that +sunken road--keep away from them! Any kind of trench for shrapnel; lie +down flat unless a satisfactory dugout is near for protection from high +explosives which burst in the earth. If you are at the front and a +curtain of fire is put behind you, wait until it is over or go around +it. If there is one ahead, wait until another day--provided that you are +a spectator. Always bear in mind how unimportant you are, how small a +figure on the great field, and that if every shell fired had killed one +soldier there would not be an able-bodied man in uniform left alive on +the continent of Europe. By observing these simple rules you may see a +surprising amount with a chance of surviving. + +One day I wanted to go into the old German dugouts under a formless pile +of ruins which a British colonel had made his battalion headquarters; +but I did not want to go enough to persist when I understood the +situation. Formerly, my idea of a good dugout--and I always like to be +within striking distance of one--was a cave twenty feet deep with a roof +of four or five layers of granite, rubble and timber; but now I feel +more safe if the fragments of a town hall are piled on top of this. + +The Germans were putting a shell every minute with clockwork regularity +into the colonel's "happy home" and at intervals four shells in a salvo. +You had to make a run for it between the shells, and if you did not know +the exact location of the dugout you might have been hunting for it some +time. Runners bearing messages took their chances both going and coming +and two men were hit. The colonel was quite safe twenty feet underground +with the matting of débris including that of a fallen chimney overhead, +but he was a most unpopular host. The next day he moved his headquarters +and not having been considerate enough to inform the Germans of the fact +they kept on methodically pounding the roof of the untenanted premises. + +After every battlefield "promenade" I was glad to step into the car +waiting at the "dead line," where the chauffeurs frequently had had +harder luck in being shelled than we had farther forward. Yet I know of +no worse place to be in than a car when you hear the first growing +scream which indicates that yours is the neighborhood selected by a +German battery or two for expending some of its ammunition. When you are +in danger you like to be on your feet and to possess every one of your +faculties. I used to put cotton in my ears when I walked through the +area of the gun positions as some protection to the eardrums from the +blasts, but always took it out once I was beyond the big calibers, as +an acute hearing after some experience gave you instant warning of any +"krump" or five-point-nine coming in your direction, advising you which +way to dodge and also saving you from unnecessarily running for a dugout +if the shell were passing well overhead or short. + +I was glad, too, when the car left the field quite behind and was over +the hills in peaceful country. But one never knew. Fifteen miles from +the front line was not always safe. Once when a sudden outburst of +fifteen-inch naval shells sent the people of a town to cover and +scattered fragments over the square, one cut open the back of the +chauffeur's head just as we were getting into our car. + +"Are you going out to be strafed at?" became an inquiry in the mess on +the order of "Are you going to take an afternoon off for golf to-day?" +The only time I felt that I could claim any advantage in phlegm over my +comrades was when I slept through two hours of aerial bombing with +anti-aircraft guns busy in the neighborhood, which, as I explained, was +no more remarkable than sleeping in a hotel at home with flat-wheeled +surface cars and motor horns screeching under your window. A subway +employee or a traffic policeman in New York ought never to suffer from +shell-shock if he goes to war. + +The account of personal risk which in other wars might make a magazine +article or a book chapter, once you sat down to write it, melted away as +your ego was reduced to its proper place in cosmos. Individuals had +never been so obscurely atomic. With hundreds of thousands fighting, +personal experience was valuable only as it expressed that of the whole. +Each story brought back to the mess was much like others, thrilling for +the narrator and repetition for the polite listener, except it was some +officer fresh from the communication trench who brought news of what was +going on in that day's work. + +Thus, the battle had become static; its incidents of a kind like the +product of some mighty mill. The public, falsely expecting that the line +would be broken, wanted symbols of victory in fronts changing on the map +and began to weary of the accounts. It was the late Charles A. Dana who +is credited with saying: "If a dog bites a man it is not news, but if a +man bites a dog it is." + +Let the men attack with hatchets and in evening dress and this would win +all the headlines in the land because people at their breakfast tables +would say: "Here is something new in the war!" Men killing men was not +news, but a battalion of trained bloodhounds sent out to bite the +Germans would have been. I used to try to hunt down some of the +"novelties" which received the favor of publication, but though they +were well known abroad the man in the trenches had heard nothing about +them. + +Bullets, shells, bayonets and bombs remained the tried and practical +methods there on the Ridge with its overpowering drama, any act of which +almost any day was greater than Spionkop or Magersfontein which thrilled +a world that was not then war-stale; and ever its supreme feature was +that determination which was like a kind of fate in its progress of +chipping, chipping at a stone foundation that must yield. + +The Ridge seeped in one's very existence. You could see it as clearly in +imagination as in reality, with its horizon under shell-bursts and the +slope with its maze of burrows and its battered trenches. Into those +calm army reports association could read many indications: the telling +fact that the German losses in being pressed off the Ridge were as great +if not greater than the British, their sufferings worse under a heavier +deluge of shell fire, the increased skill of the offensive and the +failure of German counter-attacks after each advance. + +No one doubted that the Ridge would be taken and taken it was, or all of +it that was needed for the drive that was to clean up any outstanding +points, with its sweep down into the valley. A victory this, not to be +measured by territory; for in one day's rush more ground was gained +than in two months of siege. A victory of position, of will, of +_morale_! Sharpening its steel and wits on enemy steel and wits in every +kind of fighting, the New Army had proved itself in the supreme test of +all qualities. + + + + +XVIII + +A TRULY FRENCH AFFAIR + + A French lieutenant arm-in-arm with two privates--A luncheon at the + front--French regimental officers--Three and four stripes on the + sleeves for the number of wounds--Over the parapet twenty-three + times--Comradeship of soldiers--Monsieur Élan again--Baby + _soixante-quinze_--An incident truly French. + + +This was another French day, an ultra French day, with Monsieur Élan +playfully inciting human nature to make holiday in the sight of bursting +shells. There had been many other luncheons with generals and staffs in +their chateaux which were delightful and illuminating occasions, but +this had a distinction of its own not only in its companionship but in +its surroundings. + +_Mon lieutenant_ who invited me warned me to eat a light breakfast in +order to leave room for adequate material appreciation of the +hospitality of his own battalion, in which he had fought in the ranks +earning promotion and his _croix de guerre_ in a way that was more +gratifying to him than the possession of a fortune, chateaux and +high-powered cars. I have seen him in the streets of our town "hiking" +along with the French marching step arm-in-arm with two French +privates, though he was an officer. He introduced them as from "my +battalion!" with as much pride as if they were Generals Joffre and +Castelnau. + +What a setting for a "swell repast," as he jokingly called it! A table +made of boxes with boxes for seats and plates of tin, under apple trees +looking down into a valley where the transport and blue-clad regiments +were winding their way past the eddies of men of the battalion in a rest +camp, with the _soixante-quinze_ firing from the slopes beyond at +intervals and a German battery trying to reach a British sausage balloon +hanging lazily in the still air against the blue sky and never getting +it. A flurry of figures after some "krumps" had burst at another point +meant that some men had been killed and wounded. + +As the colonel and the second in command were not present there was no +restraint of seniority on the festivity, though I think that seniority +knowing what was going on might have felt lonely in its isolation. We +had many courses, soup, fish, entrée and roast, salad and cheese which +was cheese in a land where they eat cheese, and luscious grapes and +pears; everything that the market afforded served in sight of the front +line. Why not? France thinks that nothing is too good for her fighters. +If ever man ought to have the best it is when to-morrow he returns to +the firing-line and hard rations--when to-morrow he may die for France. + +The senior captain presided. He was a man of other wars, burned by the +suns of Morocco, with a military moustache that gave effect to his +spirited manner. When my friend, the lieutenant, joined the regiment as +a private he was smooth-shaven and his colonel asked him whether he was +a priest or a bookmaker, or meant to be a soldier. Next morning he +allowed nature to have her way on his upper lip, the colonel's hint +being law in all things to those who served under him. + +Every officer had his _croix de guerre_ in this colonial battalion with +its ranks open to all comers of all degrees and promotion for those who +could earn it in face of the machine guns where the New Army privates +were earning theirs. One officer with the chest of Hercules, who looked +equal to the fiercest Prussian or the tallest Pomeranian and at least +one additional small Teuton for good measure, mentioned that he had been +in Peking. I asked him if he knew some officer friends of mine who had +been there at the same time. He replied that he had been a private then, +and he liked the American Y.M.C.A. + +His breast was a panoply of medals. Among them was the Legion of Honor, +while his _croix de guerre_ had all the stars, bronze, silver and gold, +and two palms, as I remember, which meant that twice some deed of his +out in the inferno had won official mention for him all the way up from +the battalion through brigade, division and corps to the supreme +command. The American Y.M.C.A. in Peking ought to be proud of his good +opinion. + +The architect, tall, well built, smiling and fair-haired, with an +intellectual face, sat opposite the little dealer in precious stones who +had traveled the world around in his occupation. There was an artist, +too, who held an argument with the architect on art which _mon +capitaine_ considered meretricious and hair-splitting, his conviction +being that they were only airing a wordy pretentiousness and really knew +little more of what they were talking about than he. In politics we had +a Republican, a Socialist and a Royalist, who also were babbling without +capturing any dugouts, according to _mon capitaine_ who was simply a +soldier. It was clear that the Socialist and the Royalist were both +popular, as well as my friend, though he had been promoted to the staff. + +Another present was the "Admiral," a naval officer, commanding the +monstrous guns of twelve to seventeen inches mounted on railway trucks, +who wrote sonnets between directing two-thousand-pound projectiles on +their errands of mashing German dugouts. He did not like gunnery where +he did not see his target naval fashion, but he had done so well that +he was kept at it. His latest sonnet was to an abstract girl somewhere +in France which the Socialist, who was a man of critical judgment in +everything and of a rollicking disposition, praised very highly and read +aloud with the elocution of a Coquelin. + +While others had as many as three and four gold stripes on their sleeves +to indicate the number of their wounds, the Socialist had been over the +parapet twenty-three times in charges without being hit, which he took +as a sure sign that his was the right kind of politics, the Royalist and +the Republican disagreeing and _mon capitaine_ saying that politics were +a mere matter of taste and being wounded a matter of luck. Thereupon, +the Socialist undertook a brief oration rich with humor, relieving it of +too much of the seriousness of the tribune in the Chamber of Deputies, +where he will probably thunder out his periods one of these days if he +contrives to keep on going over the parapet without being hit. + +A man was what he was as a man and nothing more in that distinguished +company which had gained its distinction by extinguishing Germans. +Comradeship made all differences of opinion, birth and wealth only the +excuse for banter in this variation of type from the tall architect with +his charming manner to the matter-of-fact expert in diamonds and opals, +from the big private of colonial regulars who had won his shoulder +straps to the fellow with the blue blood of aristocratic France in his +veins. The architect I particularly remember, for he was killed in the +next charge, and the dealer in precious stones, for a shell-burst in the +face would never allow his eyes to see the flash of a diamond again. + +But let youth eat, drink and be merry in the shadow of the fortunes of +war which might claim some of them to-morrow, making vacancies for +promotion of privates down in the camp. Where Cheeriness was the +handmaiden of _morale_ with the British, Monsieur Élan was with the +French. Everybody talked not only with his lips but with his hands and +shoulders, in that absence of self-consciousness which gives grace to +free expression. They spoke of their homes at one juncture with a sober +and lingering desire and a catch in the throat and they touched on the +problems after the war, which they would win or fight on forever, +concluding that the men from the trenches who would have the say would +make a new and better France and sweep aside any interference with the +march of their numbers and patriotism. + +We ate until capacity was reached and loitered over the black coffee, +with the private who had produced all the courses out of the dugout with +the magic of the rabbit out of a hat sharing in the conversation at +times without breaking the bonds of discipline. Finally, the cook was +brought forth, too, to receive his meed of praise as the real magician. +Then we went to pay our respects to the colonel and the second in +command. A sturdy little man the colonel, a regular from his neat +fatigue cap to the soles of his polished boots, but with a human twinkle +through his eyeglasses reflecting much wisdom in the handling of men of +all kinds, which, no doubt, was why he was in command of this battalion. + +Afterward, we visited the men lounging in their quarters or forming a +smiling group, each one ready with quick responses when spoken to, men +of all kinds from Apaches of Paris to the sons of princes, perhaps, +while the Washington Post March was played for the American. Later, +across the road we saw the then new baby _soixante-quinze_ guns for +trench work, which were being wheeled about with a merry appreciation of +the fact that a battery of father _soixante-quinze_ was passing by at +the time. + +Finally, came an incident truly French and delightful in its boyishness, +as _mon capitaine_ hinted that I should ask _mon colonel_ if he would +permit _mon capitaine_ to go into town and have dinner with my friend +and the admiral and myself, returning in my friend's car in time to +proceed to the firing-line with the battalion to-morrow. Accordingly I +spoke to the colonel and the twinkle of his eye as he gave consent +indicated, perhaps, that he knew who had put me up to it. _Mon +capitaine_ had his dinner and a good one, too, and was back at dawn +ready for battle. + +It is not that France has changed; only that some people who ought to +have known better have changed their opinions formed about her after '70 +when, in the company of other foreigners, they went to see the sights of +Paris. + + + + +XIX + +ON THE AERIAL FERRY + + The "Ferry-Pilot's" office--Everybody is young in the Royal Flying + Corps--Any kind of aeroplane to choose from--A flying machine new + from the factory--"A good old 'bus"--Twenty planes a day from England + to France--England seen from the clouds--An aerial + guide-post--Stopping places--The channel from 4,000 feet aloft--Out + of sight in the clouds midway between England and France--Tobogganing + from the clouds--France from the air--A good flight. + + +Personal experience now intrudes in answer to the question whence come +all the aeroplanes that take the place of those lost or worn out, which +was made clear when I was in London for a few days' change from the +fighting on the Ridge through a request to a general at the War Office +for permission to fly back to the front. + +"Why not?" he said. "When are you going?" + +"Monday." + +He called up another general on the telephone and in a few words the +arrangements were made. + +"And my baggage?" I suggested. + +"How much of it?" + +"A suit case." + +"The machine ought to manage that considering that it carries one +hundred and fifty pounds in bombs." + +On Monday morning at the appointed hour I was walking past a soldierly +line of planes flanking an aerodrome field scattered with others that +had just alighted or were about to rise and inquiring my way to the +"Ferry-Pilot's" office. I found it, identified by a white-lettered sign +on a blackboard, down the main street of temporary buildings occupied by +the aviators as quarters. + +"Yes, all right," said the young officer sitting at the desk, "but we +are making no crossings this morning. There is a storm over the +channel." + +Weather forecasts, which had long ago disappeared from the English +newspapers lest they give information to Zeppelins, had become the +privilege of those who travel by air or repulsed aerial raids. + +"It may clear up this afternoon," he added. "Why not go up to the mess +and make yourself comfortable, and return about three? Perhaps you may +go then." + +At three I was back in his office, where five or six young aviators were +waiting for their orders as jockeys might wait their turn to take out +horses. Everybody is young in the Royal Flying Corps and everybody +thinks and talks in the terms of youth. + +"You can push off at once!" said the officer at the desk. + +Of course I must have a pass, which was a duplicate in mimeograph with +my name as passenger in place of "machine gunner;" or, to put it another +way, I was one joy-rider who must be officially delivered from an +aerodrome in England to an aerodrome in France. Youth laughed when I +took that view. Had I ever flown before? Oh, yes, a fact that put the +situation still more at ease. + +"What kind of a 'bus would you like?" asked the master pilot. "We have +all kinds going over to-day. Take your choice." + +I went out into the field to choose my steed and decided upon a big +"pusher," where both aviator and passenger sit forward with the +propeller and the roar of the motor behind them. She had been flown down +across England from the factory the day before and, tried out, was ready +for the channel passage. + +"You'll take her over," said the master pilot to one of the group +waiting their turn. + +Then it occurred to somebody that another official detail had been +overlooked, and I had to give my name and address and next of kin to +complete formalities which should impress novices, while youth looked on +smilingly at forty-three which was wise if not reckless. They put me in +an aviator's rig with the addition of a life-belt in case we should get +a ducking in the channel and I climbed up into my position for the long +run, a roomy place in the semi-circular bow of the beast which was +ordinarily occupied by a machine gun and gunner. + +"She's a good old 'bus, very steady. You'll like her," said one of the +group of youngsters looking on. + +There were no straps, these being quite unnecessary, but also there was +no seat. + +"What is _à la mode_?" I asked. + +"Stand up if you like!" + +"Or sit on the edge and let your feet hang over!" + +We were all laughing, for the aviation corps is never gloomy. It rises +and alights and fights and dies smilingly. + +"I like your hospitality, but not having been trained to trapeze work +I'll play the Turk," I replied, squatting with legs crossed; and in this +position I was able to look over the railing right and left and forward. +The world was mine. + +Flight being no new thing in the year 1916, I shall not indulge in any +rhetoric. The pertinence of the experience was entirely in the fact that +I was taking the aerial ferry which sent twenty planes a day to France +on an average and perhaps fifty when the weather had held up traffic the +previous day. I was to buffet the clouds instead of the waves on a +crowded steamer and have a glimpse behind the curtains of military +secrecy of the wonders of resource and organization, which are a +commonplace to the wonder-workers themselves. + +It was to be a straight, business flight, a matter of routine, a flight +without any loitering on the way or covering unnecessary distance to +reach the destination. There would be risks enough for the plane when it +crossed into the enemy's area with its machine gun in position. The +gleam of two lines of steel of a railroad set our course. After we had +risen to a height of three or four thousand feet an occasional dash of +rain whipped your face, and again the soft mist of a cloud. + +It was real English weather, overcast; and England plotted under your +eye, a vast garden with its hedges, fields and quiet villages, had never +been so fully realized in its rich greens. We overtook trains going in +our direction and passed trains going in the opposite direction under +their trailing spouts of steam. Only an occasional encampment of tents +suggested that the land was at war. The soft light melted the different +tones of the landscape together in a dreamy whole and always the +impression was of a land loved for its hedges, its pastures and its +island seclusion, loved as a garden. In order to hold it secure this +plane was flying and the great army in France was fighting. + +After forty minutes of the exhilaration of flight which never grows +stale, the pilot thumped one of the wings which gave out the sound of a +drumhead to attract my attention and indicated an immense white arrow on +a pasture pointing toward the bank of mist that hid the channel. This +was the guide-post of the aerial ferry. He wheeled around it in order to +give me a better view, which was his only departure from routine before, +on the line of the arrow's pointing, he took his course, leaving the +railroad behind, while ahead the green carpet seemed to end in a +vaporish horizon. + +Usually as they rose for the channel crossing pilots ascended to a +height of ten thousand feet, in order that they should have range in +case of engine trouble for a long glide which might permit them to reach +shore, or, if they must alight in the sea, to descend close to a vessel. +In both England and France along the established aerial pathway are +certain way stations fit to give rubber tires a soft welcome, with +gasoline in store if a fresh supply is required. It was the pride of my +pilot, who had formerly been in the navy and had come from South Africa +to "do his bit," that in twenty crossings he had never had to make a +stop. To-day the clouds kept us down to an altitude of only four +thousand feet. + +Hills and valleys do not exist, all landscape being flat to the +aviator's eye, as we know; but against reason some mental kink made me +feel that this optical law should not apply to the chalk cliffs when we +came to the coast, where only the green sward which crowns them was +visible and beyond this a line of gray, the beach, which had an edge of +white lace that was moving--the surf. + +Soldiers who were returning from leave in the regular way were having a +jumpy passage, as one knew by the whitecaps that looked like tiny white +flowers on a pewter cloth; only if you looked steadily at one it +disappeared and others appeared in its place. Otherwise, the channel in +a heavy sea was as still as a painted ocean with painted ships which, +however fast they were moving, were making no headway to us traveling as +smoothly in our 'bus as a motor boat on a glassy lake. + +I looked at my watch as we crossed the lace edging on the English side +and again as we crossed it on the French side. The time elapsed was +seventeen and a half minutes, which is not rapid going, even for the +broader part of the channel which we chose. The fastest plane, I am +told, has made it at the narrowest point in eight and a half minutes. +Not going as high as usual, the pilot did not speed his motor, as the +lower the altitude the more uncomfortable might be the result of engine +trouble to his passenger. + +Now, however, we were rising midway of the crossing into the gray bank +overhead; one second the channel floor was there and the next it was +not. Underneath us was mist and ahead and behind and above us only mist, +soft and cool against the face. We were wholly out of sight of land and +water, above the clouds, detached from earth, lost in the sky between +England and France. + +This was the great moment to me. I was away from the sound of the guns; +from the headlines of newspapers announcing the latest official +bulletins; from prisoners' camps and casualty clearing stations; from +dugouts and trenches and the Ridge. Here was real peace, the peace of +the infinite--and no one could ask you when you thought the war would be +over. You were nobody, yet again you were the whole population of the +world, you and the aviator and the plane, perfectly helpless in one +sense and in another gloriously secure. Even he seemed a part of the +machine carrying you swiftly on, without any sense of speed except the +driving freshness of the air in your face. I felt that I should not mind +going on forever. Time was unlimited. There was only space and the +humming of the motor and the faintly gleaming circle of light of the +propeller and those two rigid wings with their tracery of braces. + +We were not long out of sight of land and water, but long enough to make +one wish to fly over the channel again, the next time at ten thousand +feet, when it was a gleaming swath hidden at times by patches of +luminous nimbus. + +The engine stopped. There was the silence of the clouds, cushioned +silence, cushioned by the mist. Next, we were on a noiseless toboggan +and when we came to the end of a glide of a thousand feet or more, +France loomed ahead with its lacework of surf and an expanse of chalk +cliffs at an angle and landscape rising out of the haze. A few minutes +more and the salt thread that kept Napoleon out of England and has kept +Germany out of England was behind us. We were over the Continent of +Europe. + +I had never before understood the character of both England and France +so well. England was many little gardens correlated by roads and lanes; +France was one great garden. Majestic in their suggestion of +spaciousness were those broad stretches of hedgeless, fenceless fields, +their crop lines sharply drawn as are all lines from a plane, fields +between the plots of woodland and the villages and towns, revealing a +land where all the soil is tilled. + +Soon we were over camps that I knew and long, straight highways that I +had often traveled in my comings and goings. But how empty seemed the +roads where you were always passing motor trucks and guns! Long, gray +streaks with occasional specks which, as you rose to a greater height, +were lost like scattered beads melting into a ribbon! Reserve trenches +that I had known, too, were white tracings on a flat surface in their +standard contour of traverses. There was the chateau where I had lived +for months. Yes, I could identify that, and there the town where we went +to market. + +We flew around the tower of a cathedral low enough to see the people +moving in the streets, and then, in a final long glide, after an hour +and fifty minutes in the air, the rubber wheels touched earth, rose and +touched it again before the steady old 'bus slowed down not far from +another plane that had arrived only a few minutes previously. When a day +of good weather follows a day of bad and the arrivals are frequent, +planes are flopping about this aerodrome like so many penguins before +they are marshaled by the busy attendants in line along the edge of the +field or under the shelter of hangars. + +We had had none of those thrilling experiences which are supposed to +happen to aerial joy-riders, but had made a perfectly safe, normal trip, +which, I repeat, was the real point of this wonderful business of the +aerial ferry. I went into the office and officially reported my arrival +at the same time that the pilot reported delivery of his plane. + +"Good-night," he said. "I'm off to catch the steamer to bring over +another 'bus to-morrow." + +Waiting near by was my car and soldier chauffeur, who asked, in his +quiet English way, if I had had "a good flight, sir;" and soon I was +back in the atmosphere of the army as the car sped along the road, past +camps, villages and motor trucks, until in the moonlight, as we came +over a hill, the cathedral tower of Amiens appeared above the dark mass +of the town against the dim horizon. + + + + +XX + +THE EVER MIGHTY GUNS + + A thousand guns at the master's call--Schoolmaster of the guns--More + and more guns but never too many--The gunner's skill which has life + and death at stake--"Grandmother" first of the fifteen-inch + howitzers--Soldier-mechanics--War still a matter of + missiles--Improvements in gunnery--Third rail of the battlefield--The + game of guns checkmating guns--A Niagara of death--A giant tube of + steel painted in frog patches. + + +How reconcile that urbane gunner-general, a genius among experts you +were told, as the master of a thunderous magic which shot its deadly +lightnings over the German area! Let him move a red pin on the map and a +tractor was towing a nine-inch gun to a new position; a black pin and a +battery of eighteen pounders took the road. A thousand guns answered his +call with a hundred thousand shells when it pleased him. I stood in awe +of him, for chaos seemed to be doing his bidding at the end of a +pushbutton. + +Whirlwind curtains of fire and creeping and leaping curtains were his +familiar servants, and he set the latest fashion by his improvements. +Had the French or the Germans something new? This he applied. Had he +something new? He passed on the method to the French and gave the +Germans the benefit of its results. + +Observers seated in the baskets of observation balloons, aeroplanes +circling low in risk of anti-aircraft fire, men sitting in tree-tops and +others in front-line trenches spotting the fall of shells were the eyes +for the science he was working out on his map. Those nests and lines of +guns that seemed to be simply sending shells into the blue from their +hiding-places played fortissimo and pianissimo under his baton. He +correlated their efforts, gave them purpose and system in their roaring +traffic of projectiles. + +Where Sir Douglas Haig was schoolmaster of the whole, he was +schoolmaster of the guns. After the grim days of the salient, when he +worked with relics from fortresses and anything that could be improvised +against the German artillery, came the latest word in black-throated, +fiery-tongued monsters from England where the new gunners had learned +their ABC's and he and his assistants were to teach them solid geometry +and calculus and give them a toilsome experience, which was still more +useful. + +His host kept increasing as more and more guns arrived, but never too +many. There cannot be too many. Plant them as thick as trees in a forest +for a depth of six or eight miles and there would not be enough by the +criterion of the infantry, to whom the fortunes of war increasingly +related to the nature of the artillery support. He must have smiled with +the satisfaction of a farmer over a big harvest yield that filled the +granary as the stack of shells at an ammunition depot spread over the +field, and he could go among his guns with the pride of a landowner +among his flocks. He knew all the diseases that guns were heir to and +their weaknesses of temperament. A gun doctor was part of the +establishment. This specialist went among the guns and felt of their +pulses and listened to accounts of their symptoms and decided whether +they could be cared for at a field hospital or would have to go back to +the base. + +Temperament? An old eight-inch howitzer which has helped in a dozen +curtains of fire and blown in numerous dugouts may be a virtuoso for +temperament. Many things enter into mastery of the magic of the +thunders, from clear eyesight of observers who see accurately to +precision of gunner's skill, of powder, of fuse, of a hundred trifles +which can never be too meticulously watched. The erring inspector of +munitions far away oversea by an oversight may cost the lives of many +soldiers or change the fate of a charge. + +Comparable only with the surgeon's skill in the skill which has life and +death as the stake of its result is the gunner's. The surgeon is trying +to save one life which a slip of the knife may destroy; the gunner is +trying both to save and to take life. In the gunner's skill life that is +young and sturdy, muscles that are hardened by exercise and drill, +manhood in its pink, must place its trust. A little carelessness or the +slightest error and monsters with their long, fiery reach may strike you +in the back instead of the enemy in front, and instead of dead and +wounded and capitulation among smashed dugouts and machine gun positions +you may be received by showers of bombs. No wonder that gunners work +hard! No wonder that discipline is tightened by the screw of fearful +responsibility! + +At the front we had a sort of reverence for Grandmother, the first of +the fifteen-inch howitzers to arrive as the belated answer of "prepared +England" who "forced the war" on "unprepared Germany" to the famous +forty-two centimeters that pounded Liège and Maubeuge. Gently +Grandmother with her ugly mouth and short neck and mammoth supporting +ribs of steel was moved and nursed; for she, too, was temperamental. +Afterward, Grandfather came and Uncle and Cousin and Aunt and many grown +sons and daughters, until the British could have turned the city of +Lille into ruins had they chosen; but they kept their destruction for +the villages on the Somme, which represent a property loss remarkably +small, as the average village could be rebuilt for not over two hundred +thousand dollars. + +Other children of smaller caliber also arrived in surprising numbers. +Make no mistake about that nine-inch howitzer, which appears to be only +a monstrous tube of steel firing a monstrous shell, not being a +delicately adjusted piece of mechanism. The gunner, his clothes +oil-soaked, who has her breech apart pays no attention to the field of +guns around him or the burst of a shell a hundred yards away, no more +than the man with a motor breakdown pays to passing traffic. Is he a +soldier? Yes, by his uniform, but primarily a mechanic, this man from +Birmingham, who is polishing that heavy piece of steel which, when it +locks in the breech, holds the shell fast in place and allows all the +force of the explosion to pass through the muzzle, while the recoil +cylinder takes up the shock as nicely as on a battleship, with no +tremble of the base set in the débris of a village. He shakes his head, +this preoccupied mechanician. It may be necessary to call in the gun +doctor. His "how" has been in service a long time, but is not yet +showing the signs of general debility of the eight-inch battery near by. +They have fired three times their allowance and are still good for +sundry purposes in the gunner-general's play of red and black pins on +his map. The life of guns has surpassed all expectations; but the +smaller calibers forward and the _soixante-quinze_ must not suffer from +general debility when they lay on a curtain of fire to cover a charge. + +War is still a matter of projectiles, of missiles thrown by powder, +whether cannon or rifle, as it was in Napoleon's time, the change being +in range, precision and destructive power. The only new departure is the +aeroplane, for the gas attack is another form of the Chinese stink-pot +and our old mystery friend Greek fire may claim antecedence to the +_Flammenwerfer_. The tank with its machine guns applied the principle of +projectiles from guns behind armor. Steel helmets would hardly be +considered an innovation by mediæval knights. Bombs and hand grenades +and mortars are also old forms of warfare, and close-quarter fighting +with the bayonet, as was evident to all practical observers before the +war, will endure as long as the only way to occupy a position is by the +presence of men on the spot and as long as the defenders fight to hold +it in an arena free of interference by guns which must hold their fire +in fear of injury to your own soldiers as well as to the enemy. + +With all the inventive genius of Europe applied in this war, the heat +ray or any other revolutionary means of killing which would make guns +and rifles powerless has not been developed. It is still a question of +throwing or shooting projectiles accurately at your opponent, only where +once it was javelin, or spear, or arrow, now it is a matter of shells +for anywhere from one mile to twenty miles; and the more hits that you +could make with javelins or arrows and can make with shells the more +likely it is that victory will incline to your side. Where flights of +arrows hid the sun, barrages now blanket the earth. + +The improvement in shell fire is revolutionary enough of itself. +Steadily the power of the guns has increased. What they may accomplish +is well illustrated by the account of a German battalion on the Somme. +When it was ten miles from the front a fifteen-inch shell struck in its +billets just before it was ordered forward. On the way luck was against +it at every stage of progress and it suffered in turn from nine-inch, +eight-inch and six-inch shells, not to mention bombs from an aviator +flying low, and afterward from eighteen pounders. When it reached the +trenches a preliminary bombardment was the stroke of fate that led to +the prompt capitulation of some two hundred survivors to a British +charge. The remainder of the thousand men was practically all casualties +from shell-bursts, which, granting some exaggeration in a prisoner's +tale, illustrates what killing the guns may wreak if the target is under +their projectiles. + +The gunnery of 1915 seems almost amateurish to that of 1916, a fact +hardly revealed to the public by its reading of bulletins and of such a +quantity of miscellaneous information that the significance of it +becomes obscure. At the start of the war the Germans had the advantage +of many mobile howitzers and immense stores of high explosive shells, +while the French were dependent on their _soixante-quinze_ and shrapnel; +and at this disadvantage the brilliancy of their work with this +wonderful field gun on the Marne and in Lorraine was the most important +contributory factor in saving France next to the vital one of French +courage and organization. The Allies had to follow the German suit with +howitzers and high explosive shells and the cry for more and more guns +and more and more munitions for the business of blasting your enemy and +his positions to bits became universal. + +The first barrage, or curtain of fire, ever used to my knowledge was a +feeble German effort in the Ypres salient in the autumn of 1914, though +the French drum fire distributed over a certain area had, in a sense, a +like effect. To make certain of clearness about fundamentals familiar to +those at the front but to the general public only a symbol for something +not understood, a curtain of fire is a swath of fragments and bullets +from bursting projectiles which may stop a charge or prevent reserves +from coming to the support of the front line. It is a barrier of death, +the third rail of the battlefield. From the sky shrapnel descend with +their showers of bullets, while the high explosives heave up the earth +under foot. Shrapnel largely went out of fashion in the period when high +explosives smashed in trenches and dugouts; but the answer was deeper +dugouts too stoutly roofed to permit of penetration and shrapnel +returned to play a leading part again, as we shall see in the +description of a charge under an up-to-date curtain of fire in another +chapter. + +Counter-battery work is another one of the gunner-general's cares, which +requires, as it were, the assistance of the detective branch. Before you +can fight you must find the enemy's guns in their hiding-places or take +a chance on the probable location of his batteries, which will +ordinarily seek every copse, every sunken road and every reverse slope. +The interesting captured essay on British fighting methods, by General +von Arnim, the general in command of the Germans opposite the British on +the Somme, with its minutiæ of directions indicative of how seriously he +regarded the New Army, mentioned the superior means of reporting +observations to the guns used by British aeroplanes and warned German +gunners against taking what had formerly been obvious cover, because +British artillery never failed to concentrate on those spots with +disastrous results. + +Where aeroplanes easily detect lines, be they roads or a column of +infantry, as I have said, a battery in the open with guns and gunners +the tint of the landscape is not readily distinguishable at the high +altitude to which anti-aircraft gunfire restricts aviators. When a +concentration begins on a battery, either the gunners must go to their +dugouts or run beyond the range of the shells until the "strafe" is +over. If A could locate all of B's guns and had two thousand guns of his +own to keep B's two thousand silenced by counter-battery work and two +thousand additional to turn on B's infantry positions, it would be only +a matter of continued charges under cover of curtains of fire until the +survivors, under the gusts of shells with no support from their own +guns, would yield against such ghastly, hopeless odds. + +Such is the power of the guns--and such the game of guns checkmating +guns--in their effort to stop the enemy's curtains of fire while +maintaining their own that the genius who finds a divining rod which, +from a sausage balloon, will point out the position of every enemy +battery has fame awaiting him second only to that of the inventor of a +system of distilling a death-dealing heat ray from the sun. + +And the captured gun! It is a prize no less dear to the infantry's +heart to-day than it was a hundred years ago. Our battalion took a +battery! There is a thrill for every officer and man and all the friends +at home. Muzzle cracked by a direct hit, recoil cylinder broken, wheels +in kindling wood, shield fractured--there you have a trophy which is +proof of accuracy to all gunners and an everlasting memorial in the town +square to the heroism of the men of that locality. + +In the gunners' branch of the corps or division staff (which may be next +door to the telephone exchange where "Hello!" soldiers are busy all day +keeping guns, infantry, transport, staff and units, large and small, in +touch) the visitor will linger as he listens to the talk of shop by +these experts in mechanical destruction. Generic discussions about which +caliber of gun is most efficient for this and that purpose have the +floor when the result of a recent action does not furnish a fresher +topic. There are faddists and old fogies of course, as in every other +band of experts. The reports of the infantry out of its experience under +shell-bursts, which should be the gospel, may vary; for the infantry +think well of the guns when the charge goes home with casualties light +and ill when the going is bad. + +Every day charts go up to the commanders showing the expenditure of +ammunition and the stock of different calibers on hand; for the army is +a most fastidious bookkeeper. Always there must be immense reserves for +an emergency, and on the Somme a day's allowance when the battle was +only "growling" was a month's a year previous. Let the general say the +word and fifty thousand more shells will be fired on Thursday than on +Wednesday. He throws off and on the switch of a Niagara of death. The +infantry is the Oliver Twist of incessant demand. It would like a score +of batteries turned on one machine gun, all the batteries in the army +against a battalion front, and a sheet of shells in the air night and +day, as you yourself would wish if you were up in the firing-line. + +Guardians of the precious lives of their own men and destroyers of the +enemy's, the guns keep vigil. Every night the flashes on the horizon are +a reminder to those in the distance that the battle never ends. Their +voices are like none other except guns; the flash from their muzzles is +as suggestive as the spark from a dynamo, which says that death is there +for reaching out your hand. Something docile is in their might, like the +answering of the elephant's bulk to the mahout's command, in their +noiseless elevation and depression, and the bigger they are the smoother +appears their recoil as they settle back into place ready for another +shot. The valleys where the guns hide play tricks with acoustics. I +have sat on a hill with a dozen batteries firing under the brow and +their crashes were hardly audible. + +"Only an artillery preparation, sir!" said an artilleryman as we started +up a slope stiff with guns, as the English say, all firing. You waited +your chance to run by after a battery had fired and were on the way +toward the next one before the one behind sent another round hurtling +overhead. + +The deep-throated roar of the big calibers is not so hard on the ears as +the crack of the smaller calibers. Returning, you go in face of the +blasts and then, though it rarely happens, you have in mind, if you have +ever been in front of one, the awkward possibility of a premature burst +of a shell in your face. Signs tell you where those black mouths which +you might not see are hidden, lest you walk straight into one as it +belches flame. When you have seen guns firing by thousands as far as the +eye can reach from a hill; when you have seen every caliber at work and +your head aches from the noise, the thing becomes overpowering and +monotonous. Yet you return again, drawn by the uncanny fascination of +artillery power. + +Riding home one day after hours with the guns in an attack, I saw for +the first time one of the monster railroad guns firing as I passed by on +the road. Would I get out to watch it? I hesitated. Yes, of course. But +it was only another gun, a giant tube of steel painted in frog patches +to hide it from aerial observation; only another gun, though it sent a +two-thousand-pound projectile to a target ten miles away, which a man +from a sausage balloon said was "on." + + + + +XXI + +BY THE WAY + + The River Somme--Amiens cathedral--Sunday afternoon + promenaders--Women, old men and boys--A prosperous old town--Madame + of the little Restaurant des Huîtres--The old waiter at the + hotel--The stork and the sea-gull--Distinguished visitors--Horses and + dogs--Water carts--Gossips of battle--The donkeys. + + +What contrasts! There was none so pleasant as that when you took the +river road homeward after an action. Leaving behind the Ridge and the +scarred slope and the crowding motor trucks in their cloud of dust, you +were in a green world soothing to eyes which were painful from watching +shell-blasts. Along the banks of the Somme on a hot day you might see +white figures of muscle-armored youth washed clean of the grime of the +firing-line in the exhilaration of minutes, seconds, glowingly lived +without regard to the morrow, shaking drops of water free from white +skins, under the shade of trees untouched by shell fire, after a plunge +in cool waters. Then from a hill where a panorama was flung free to the +eye, the Somme at your feet held islands of peace in its shining net as +it broke away from confining green walls and wound across the plain +toward Amiens. + +The Somme is kindly by nature with a desire to embrace all the country +around, and Amiens has trained its natural bent to man's service. + +It gave softer springs than those of any ambulance for big motor scows +that brought the badly wounded down from the front past the rich market +gardens that sent their produce in other boats to market. Under bridges +its current was divided and subdivided until no one could tell which was +Somme and which canal, busy itself as the peasants and the shopkeepers +doing a good turn to humankind, grinding wheat in one place and in +another farther on turning a loom to weave the rich velvets for which +Amiens is famous, and between its stages of usefulness supplying a +Venetian effect where balconies leaned across one of its subdivisions, +an area of old houses on crooked, short streets at their back huddled +with a kind of ancient reverence near the great cathedral. + +At first you might be discriminative about the exterior of Amiens +cathedral, having in mind only the interior as being worth while. I went +inside frequently and the call to go was strongest after seeing an +action. Standing on that stone floor where princes and warriors had +stood through eight hundred years of the history of France, I have seen +looking up at the incomparable nave with its majestic symmetry, French +_poilus_ in their faded blue, helmets in hand and perhaps the white of +a bandage showing, spruce generals who had a few hours away from their +commands, dust-laden dispatch riders, boyish officers with the bit of +blue ribbon that they had won for bravery on their breasts and knots of +privates in worn khaki. The man who had been a laborer before he put on +uniform was possessed by the same awe as the one who had been favored by +birth and education. A black-robed priest passing with his soft tread +could not have differed much to the eye from one who was there when the +Black Prince was fighting in France or the soldiers of Joan or of Condé +came to look at the nave. + +The cathedral and the Somme helped to make you whole with the world and +with time. After weeks you ceased to be discriminative about the +exterior. The cathedral was simply the cathedral. Returning from the +field, I knew where on every road I should have the first glimpse of its +serene, assertive mass above the sea of roofs--always there, always the +same, immortal; while the Ridge rocked with the Allied gun-blasts that +formed the police line of fire for its protection. + +I liked to walk up the canal tow-path where the townspeople went on +Sunday afternoons for their promenade, the blue of French soldiers on +leave mingling with civilian black--soldiers with wives or mothers on +their arms, safe for the time being. One scene reappears to memory as I +write: A young fellow back from the trenches bearing his sturdy boy of +two on his shoulder and the black-eyed young mother walking beside him, +both having eyes for nothing in the world except the boy. + +The old fishermen would tell you as they waited for a bite that the +German was _fichu_, their faith in the credit of France unimpaired as +they lived on the income of the savings of their industry before they +retired. You asked gardeners about business, which you knew was good +with that ever-hungry and spendthrift British Army "bulling" the market. +One day while taking a walk, Beach Thomas and I saw a diver preparing to +go down to examine the abutment of a bridge and we sat down to look on +with a lively interest, when we might have seen hundreds of guns firing. +It was a change. Nights, after dispatches were written, Gibbs and I, +anything but gory-minded, would walk in the silence, having the tow-path +to ourselves, and after a mutual agreement to talk of anything but the +war would revert to the same old subject. + +On other days when only "nibbling" was proceeding on the Ridge you might +strike across country over the stubble, flushing partridges from the +clover. And the women, the old men and the boys got in all the crops. +How I do not know, except by rising early and keeping at it until dark, +which is the way that most things worth while are accomplished in this +world. Those boys from ten to sixteen who were driving the plow for next +year's sowing had become men in their steadiness. + +Amiens was happy in the memory of the frustration of what might have +happened when her citizens looked at the posters, already valuable +relics, that had been put up by von Kluck's army as it passed through on +the way to its about-face on the Marne. The old town, out of the battle +area, out of the reach of shells, had prospered exceedingly. +Shopkeepers, particularly those who sold oysters, fresh fish, fruits, +cheese, all delicacies whatsoever to victims of iron rations in the +trenches, could retire on their profits unless they died from exhaustion +in accumulating more. They took your money so politely that parting with +it was a pleasure, no matter what the prices, though they were always +lower for fresh eggs than in New York. + +We came to know all with the intimacy that war develops, but for sheer +character and energy the blue ribbon goes to Madame of the little +Restaurant des Huîtres. She needed no gallant husband to make her a +marshal's wife, as in the case of Sans-Gêne, for she was a marshal +herself. She should have the _croix de guerre_ with all the stars and a +palm, too, for knowing how to cook. A small stove which was as busy +with its sizzling pans as a bombing party stood at the foot of a cramped +stairway, whose ascent revealed a few tables, with none for two and +everybody sitting elbow to elbow, as it were, in the small dining-room. +There were dishes enough and clean, too, and spotless serviettes, but no +display of porcelain and silver was necessary, for the food was a +sufficient attraction. Madame was all for action. If you did not order +quickly she did so for you, taking it for granted that a wavering mind +indicated a palate that called for arbitrary treatment. + +She had a machine gun tongue on occasion. If you did not like her +restaurant it was clear that other customers were waiting for your +place, and generals capitulated as promptly as lieutenants. A +camaraderie developed at table under the spur of her dynamic presence +and her occasional artillery concentrations, which were brief and +decisive, for she had no time to waste. Broiled lobster and sole, +oysters, filets and chops, sizzling fried potatoes, crisp salads, +mountains of forest strawberries with pots of thick cream and delectable +coffee descended from her hands, with no mistake in any orders or delay +in the prompt succession of courses, on the cloth before you by some +legerdemain of manipulation in the narrow quarters to the accompaniment +of her repartee. It was past understanding how she accomplished such +results in quantity and quality on that single stove with the help of +one assistant whom, apparently, she found in the way at times; for the +assistant would draw back in the manner of one who had put her finger +into an electric fan as her mistress began a manipulation of pots and +pans. + +If Madame des Huîtres should come to New York, I wonder--yes, she would +be overwhelmed by people who had anything like a trench appetite. Soon +she would be capitalized, with branches des Huîtres up and down the +land, while she would no longer touch a skillet, but would ride in a +limousine and grow fat, and I should not like her any more. + +People who could not get into des Huîtres or were not in the secret +which, I fear, was selfishly kept by those who were, had to dine at the +hotel, where a certain old waiter--all young ones being at the +front--though called mad could be made the object of method if he had +not method in madness. When he seemed about to collapse with fatigue, +tell him that there had been a big haul of German prisoners on the Ridge +and the blaze of delight in his dark eyes would galvanize him. If he +should falter again, a shout of, "_Vive l'Entente cordiale! En avant!_" +would send him off with coat-tails at right angles to his body as he +sprang into the midst of the riot of waiters outside the kitchen door, +from which he would emerge triumphantly bearing the course that was +next in order. Nor would he allow you to skip one. You must take them +all or, as the penalty of breaking up the system, you went hungry. + +Outside in the court where you went for coffee and might sometimes get +it if you gave the head waiter good news from the front, a stork and a +sea-gull with clipped wings posed at the fountain. What tales of battle +were told in sight of this incongruous pair whose antics relieved the +strain of war! When the stork took a step or two the gull plodded along +after him and when the gull moved the stork also moved, the two never +being more than three or four feet apart. Yet each maintained an +attitude of detachment as if loath to admit the slightest affection for +each other. Foolish birds, as many said and laughed at them; and again, +heroes out of the hell on the Ridge and wholly unconscious of their +heroism said that the two had the wisdom of the ages, particularly the +stork, though expert artillery opinion was that the practical gull +thought that only his own watchfulness kept the wisdom of the ages from +being drowned in the fountain in an absent-minded moment, though the +water was not up to a stork's ankle-joint. More nonsense, when the call +was for reaction from the mighty drama, was woven around these +entertainers by men who could not go to plays than would be credible to +people reading official bulletins; woven by dining parties of officers +who when dusk fell went indoors and gathered around the piano before +going into a charge on the morrow. + +At intervals men in civilian clothes, soft hats, gaiters over everyday +trousers, golf suits, hunting suits, appeared at the hotel or were seen +stalking about captured German trenches, their garb as odd in that +ordered world of khaki as powdered wig, knee-breeches and silver buckles +strolling up Piccadilly or Fifth Avenue. Prime ministers, Cabinet +members, great financiers, potentates, journalists, poets, artists of +many nationalities came to do the town. They saw the Ridge under its +blanket of shell-smoke, the mighty columns of transport, all the +complex, enormous organization of that secret world, peeked into German +dugouts, and in common with all observers estimated the distance of the +nearest shell-burst from their own persons. + +Many were amazed to find that generals worked in chateaux over maps, +directing by telephone, instead of standing on hilltops to give their +commands, and that war was a systematic business, which made those who +had been at the front writing and writing to prove that it was wonder if +nobody read what they wrote. An American who said that he did not see +why all the trucks and horses and wagons and men did not lose their way +was suggestive of the first vivid impressions which the "new eye" +brought to the scene. Another praised my first book for the way it had +made life at the front clear and then proceeded to state his surprise at +finding that trenches did not run straight, but in traverses, and that +soldiers lived in houses instead of tents and gunners did not see their +targets. Now he had seen this mighty army at work for himself. It is the +only way. I give up hope of making others see it. + +So grim the processes of fighting, so lacking in picturesqueness, that +one welcomed any of the old symbols of war. I regretted yet rejoiced +that the horse was still a factor. It was good to think that the +gasoline engine had saved the sore backs of the pack animals of other +days, removed the horror of dead horses beside the road and horses +driven to exhaustion by the urgency of fierce necessity, and that a +shell in the transport meant a radiator smashed instead of flesh torn +and scattered. Yet the horse was still serving man at the front and the +dog still flattering him. I have seen dogs lying dead on the field where +the mascot of a battalion had run along with the men in a charge; dogs +were found in German dugouts, and one dog adopted by a corps staff had +refused to leave the side of his fallen master, a German officer, until +the body was removed. + +The horse brought four-footed life into the dead world of the slope, +patiently drawing his load, mindless of gun-blasts and the shriek of +shell-fragments once he was habituated to them. As he can pass over +rough ground, he goes into areas where no motor vehicle except the tanks +may go. He need not wait on the road-builders before he takes the +eighteen pounders to their new positions or follows them with +ammunition. Far out on the field I have seen groups of artillery horses +waiting in a dip in the ground while their guns were within five hundred +yards of the firing-line, and winding across dead fields toward an +isolated battery the caisson horses trotting along with shells bursting +around them. + +Upon August days when the breeze that passed overhead was only +tantalization to men in communication trenches carrying up ammunition +and bombs, when dugouts were ovens, when the sun made the steel helmet a +hot skillet-lid over throbbing temples, the horse-drawn water carts +wound up the slope to assuage burning thirst and back again, between the +gates of hell and the piping station, making no more fuss than a country +postman on his rounds. + +Practically all the water that the fighters had, aside from what was in +their canteens, must be brought up in this way, for the village wells +were filled with the remains of shell-crushed houses. Gossips of battle +the water men, they and the stretcher-bearers both non-combatants going +and coming under the shells up to the battle line, but particularly so +the water men, who passed the time of day with every branch, each +working in its own compartment. When the weather was bad the water man's +business became slack and the lot of the stretcher-bearer grew worse in +the mud. What stories the stretcher-bearers brought in of wounded blown +off litters by shells, of the necessity of choosing the man most likely +to survive when only one of two could be carried, of whispered messages +from the dying, and themselves keeping to their work with cheery British +phlegm; and the water men told of new gun positions, of where the shells +were thickest, of how the fight was going. + +It irritated the water men, prosaic in their disregard of danger, to +have a tank hit on the way out. If it were hit on the way back when it +was empty this was of less account, for new tanks were waiting in +reserve. Tragedy for them was when a horse was killed and often they +returned with horses wounded. It did not occur to the man that he might +be hit; it was the loss of a horse or a tank that worried him. One had +his cart knocked over by a salvo of shells and set upright by the next, +whereupon, according to the account, he said to his mare: "Come on, +Mary, I always told you the Boches were bad shots!" But there are too +many stories of the water men to repeat without sifting. + +We must not forget the little donkeys which the French brought from +Africa to take the place of men in carrying supplies up to the trenches. +Single file they trotted along on their errand and they had their own +hospitals for wounded. It is said that when curtains of fire began ahead +they would throw forward their long ears inquiringly and hug close to +the side of the trench for cover and even edge into a dugout with the +men, who made room for as much donkey as possible, or when in the open +they would seek the shelter of shell-craters. Lest their perspicacity be +underrated, French soldiers even credited the wise elders among them +with the ability to distinguish between different calibers of shells. + + + + +XXII + +THE MASTERY OF THE AIR + + "Nose dives" and "crashers"--The most intense duels in + history--Aviators the pride of nations--Beauchamp--The D'Artagnan of + the air--Mastery of the air--The aristocrat of war, the golden youth + of adventure--Nearer immortality than any other living man can + be--The British are reckless aviators--Aerial influence on the + soldier's psychology--Varieties of aeroplanes--Immense numbers of + aeroplanes in the battles in the air. + + +Wing tip touching wing tip two phantoms passed in the mist fifteen +thousand feet above the earth and British plane and German plane which +had grazed each other were lost in the bank of cloud. The dark mass +which an aviator sees approaching when he is over the battlefield proves +to be a fifteen-inch shell at the top of its parabola which passes ten +feet over his head. A German aviator thinking he is near home circles +downward on an overcast day toward a British aerodrome to find out his +mistake too late, and steps out of his machine to be asked by his +captors if he won't come in and have tea. Thus, true accounts that come +to the aviators' mess make it unnecessary to carry your imagination with +you at the front. + +They talk of "nose dives" and "crashers," which mean the way an enemy's +plane was brought down, and although they have no pose or theatricalism +the consciousness of belonging to the wonder corps of modern war is not +lacking. One returns from a flight and finds that a three-inch +anti-aircraft gun-shell has gone through the body of his plane. + +"So that was it! Hardly felt it!" he said. + +If the shell had exploded? Oh, well, that is a habit of shells; and in +that case the pilot would be in the German lines unrecognizable among +the débris of his machine after a "crasher." + +Where in the old West gunmen used to put a notch on their revolver +handle for every man killed, now in each aviator's record is the number +of enemy planes which he has brought down. When a Frenchman has ten his +name goes into the official bulletin. Everything contributes to urge on +the fighting aviator to more and more victims till one day he, too, is a +victim. Never were duels so detached or so intense. No clashing of +steel, no flecks of blood, only two men with wings. While the soldier +feels his weapon go home and the bomber sees his bomb in flight, the +aviator watches for his opponent to drop forward in his seat as the +first sign that he has lost control of his plane and of victory, and he +does not hear the passing of the bullets that answer those from his own +machine gun. One hero comes to take the place of another who has been +lost. A smiling English youth was embarrassed when asked how he brought +down the great Immelmann, most famous of German aviators. + +Nelson's "Death or Westminster Abbey" has become paraphrased to "Death +or the _communiqué_." At twenty-one, while a general of division is +unknown except in the army an aviator's name may be the boast of a +nation. In him is expressed the national imagination, the sense of +hero-worship which people love to personify. The British aviation corps +stuck to anonymity until the giving of a Victoria Cross one day revealed +that Lieutenant Ball had brought down his twenty-sixth German plane. + +Soon after the taking of Fort Douaumont when I was at Verdun, Beauchamp, +blond, blue-eyed and gentle of manner, who had thrilled all France by +bombing Essen, said, "Now they will expect me to go farther and do +something greater;" and I was not surprised to learn a month later that +he had been killed. Something in the way he spoke convinced me that he +foresaw death and accepted it as a matter of course; and he realized, +too, the penalty of being a hero. He had flown over Essen and dropped +his bombs and seen them burst, which was all of his story. + +The public thrill over such exploits is the greater because of their +simplicity. An aviator has no experiences on the road; he cannot stop to +talk to anyone. There is flight; there is a lever that releases a bomb; +there is a machine gun. He may not indulge in psychology, which would be +wool-gathering, when every faculty is objectively occupied. He is +strangely helpless, a human being borne through space by a machine, and +when he returns to the mess he really has little to tell except as it +relates to mechanism and technique. + +The Royal Flying Corps, which is the official name, never wants for +volunteers. Ever the number of pilots is in excess of the number of +machines. Young men with embroidered wings on their breasts, which prove +that they have qualified, waited on factories to turn out wings for +flying. Flight itself is simple, but the initiative equal to great deeds +is another thing. Here you revert to an innate gift of the individual +who, finding in danger the zest of a glorious, curiosity, the +intoxication of action, clear eye, steady hand answering lightning +quickness of thought, becomes the D'Artagnan of the air. There is no +telling what boyish neophyte will show a steady hand in daring the +supreme hazards with light heart, or what man whom his friends thought +was born for aviation may lack the touch of genius. + +Far up in the air there is an imaginary boundary line which lies over +the battle line; and there is another which may be on your side or on +the other side of the battle line. It is the location of the second line +that tells who has the mastery of the air. A word of bare and impressive +meaning this of mastery in war, which represents force without +qualification; that the other man is down and you are up, the other +fends and you thrust. More glorious than the swift rush of destroyer to +a battleship that of the British planes whose bombs brought down six +German sausage balloons in flames before the Grand Offensive began. + +I need never have visited an aerodrome on the Somme to know whether +Briton and Frenchman or German was master of the air. The answer was +there whenever you looked in the heavens in the absence of iron crosses +on the hovering or scudding or turning plane wings and the multiplicity +of bull's-eyes; in the abandoned way that both British and French +pickets flew over the enemy area, as if space were theirs and they dared +any interference. If you saw a German plane appear you could count three +or four Allied planes appearing from different directions to surround +it. The German had to go or be caught in a cross fire, and manoeuvered +to his death. + +Mastery of the air is another essential of superiority for an +offensive; one of the vital features in the organized whole of an +attack. As you press men and guns forward enemy planes must not locate +your movements. Your planes with fighting planes as interference must +force a passage for your observers to spot the fall of shells on new +targets, to assist in reporting the progress of charges and to play +their proper auxiliary part in the complex system of army intelligence. + +Before the offensive new aerodromes began to appear along the front at +the same time that new roads were building. An army that had lacked both +planes and guns at the start now had both. Every aviator knew that he +was expected to gain and hold the mastery; his part was set no less than +that of the infantry. Where should "the spirit that quickeneth" dwell if +not with the aviators? No weary legs hamper him; he does not have to +crawl over the dead or hide in shell-craters or stand up to his knees in +mire. He is the pampered aristocrat of war, the golden youth of +adventure. + +He leaves a comfortable bed, with bath, a good breakfast, the +comradeship of a pleasant mess, the care of servants, to mount his +steed. When he returns he has only to step out of his seat. Mechanics +look after his plane and refreshment and shade in summer and warmth in +winter await alike the spoiled child of the favored, adventurous corps +who has not the gift and never quite dares the great hazards as well as +the one who dares them to his certain end. All depends on the man. + +Rising ten or fifteen thousand feet, slipping in and out of clouds, the +aviator breathes pure ozone on a dustless roadway, the world a carpet +under him; and though death is at his elbow it is no grimy companion +like death in the trenches. He is up or he is down, and when he is up +the thrill that holds his faculties permits of no apprehensions. There +is no halfway business of ghastly wounds which foredoom survival as a +cripple. Alive, he is nearer immortality than any other living man can +be; dead, his spirit leaves him while he is in the heavens. Death comes +splendidly, quickly, and until the last moment he is trying to keep +control of his machine. It is not for him to envy the days of cavalry +charges. He does not depend upon the companionship of other men to carry +him on, but is the autocrat of his own fate, the ruler of his own +dreams. All hours of daylight are the same to him. At any time he may be +called to flight and perhaps to die. The glories of sunset and sunrise +are his between the sun and the earth. + +You expect the British to be cool aviators, but with their phlegm, as we +have seen, goes that singular love of risk, of adventure, which sends +them to shoot tigers and climb mountains. Indeed, the Englishman's +phlegm is a sort of leash holding in check a certain recklessness which +his seeming casualness conceals. After it had become almost a law that +no aviator should descend lower than twelve thousand feet, British +aviators on the Somme descended to three hundred, emptied their machine +guns into the enemy, and escaped the patter of rifle fire which the +surprised German soldiers had hardly begun before the plane at two miles +a minute or more was out of range. + +When Lord Kitchener was inspecting an aerodrome in France in 1914 he +said: "One day you will be flying and evoluting in squadrons like the +navy;" and the aviators, then feeling their way step by step, smiled +doubtfully, convinced that "K" had an imagination. A few months later +the prophecy had come true and the types of planes had increased until +they were as numerous as the types of guns. + +The swift falcon waiting fifteen thousand feet up for his prey to add +another to his list in the _communiqué_ is as distinct from the one in +which I crossed the channel as the destroyer is from the cruiser and +from some still bigger types as is the cruiser from a battleship. While +the enemy was being fought down, bombs were dropped not by pounds but by +tons on villages and billets, on ammunition dumps and rail-heads, adding +their destruction to that of the shells. + +There was more value in mastery than in destruction or in freedom of +observation, for it affected the enemy's _morale_. A soldier likes to +see his own planes in the air and the enemy's being driven away. The +aerial influence on his psychology is enormous, for he can watch the +planes as he lies in a shell-crater with his machine gun or stands guard +in the trench; he has glimpses of passing wings overhead between the +bursts of shells. To know that his guns are not replying adequately and +that every time one of his planes appears it is driven to cover takes +the edge off initiative, courage and discipline, in the resentment that +he is handicapped. + +German prisoners used to say on the Somme that their aviators were +"funks," though the Allied aviators knew that it was not their +opponents' lack of courage which was the principal fault, even if they +had lost _morale_ from being the under dog and lacked British and French +initiative, but numbers and material. It was resource against resource +again; a fight in the delicate business of the manufacture of the +fragile framework, of the wonderful engines with their short lives, and +of the skilled battalions of workers in factories. The Germans had to +bring more planes from another front in order to restore the balance. +The Allies foreseeing this brought still more themselves, till the +numbers were so immense that when a battle between a score of planes on +either side took place no one dared venture the opinion that the limit +had been reached--not while there was so much room in the air and +volunteers for the aviation corps were so plentiful. + + + + +XXIII + +A PATENT CURTAIN OF FIRE + + Thiepval again--Director of tactics of an army corps--Graduates of + Staff Colleges--Army jargon--An army director's office--"Hope you + will see a good show"--"This road is shelled; closed to vehicles"--A + perfect summer afternoon--The view across No Man's Land--Nests of + burrowers more cunning than any rodents--men--Tranquil preliminaries + to an attack--The patent curtain of fire--Registering by practice + shots--Running as men will run only from death--The tall officer who + collapsed--"The shower of death." + + +"We had a good show day before yesterday," said Brigadier-General Philip +Howell, when I went to call on him one day. "Sorry you were not here. +You could have seen it excellently." + +The corps of which he was general staff officer had taken a section of +first-line trench at Thiepval with more prisoners than casualties, which +is the kind of news they like to hear at General Headquarters. Thiepval +was always in the background of the army's mind, the symbol of rankling +memory which irritated British stubbornness and consoled the enemy for +his defeat of July 15th and his gradual loss of the Ridge. The Germans, +on the defensive, considered that the failure to take Thiepval at the +beginning of the Somme battle proved its impregnability; the British, +on the offensive, considered no place impregnable. + +Faintly visible from the hills around Albert, distinctly from the +observation post in a high tree, the remains of the village looked like +a patch of coal dust smeared in a fold of the high ground. When British +fifteen-inch shells made it their target some of the dust rose in a +great geyser and fell back into place; but there were cellars in +Thiepval which even fifteen-inch shells could not penetrate. + +"However, we'll make the Germans there form the habit of staying +indoors," said a gunner. + +Howell who had the Thiepval task in hand I had first known at Uskub in +Macedonia in the days of the Macedonian revolution, when Hilmi Pasha was +juggling with the Powers of Europe and autonomy--days which seem far +away. A lieutenant then, Howell had an assignment from _The Times_, +while home on leave from India, in order to make a study of the Balkan +situation. In our walks around Uskub as we discussed the politics and +the armies of the world I found that all was grist that came to his keen +mind. His ideas about soldiering were explicit and practical. It was +such hard-working, observant officers as he, most of them students at +one time or another at the Staff College, who, when the crisis came, as +the result of their application in peace time, became the organizers and +commanders of the New Army. The lieutenant I had met at Uskub was now, +at thirty-eight, the director of the tactics of an army corps which was +solving the problem of reducing the most redoubtable of field works. + +Whenever I think of the Staff College I am reminded that at the close of +the American Civil War the commanders of all the armies and most of the +corps were graduates of West Point, which serves to prove that a man of +ability with a good military education has the start of one who has not, +though no laws govern geniuses; and if we should ever have to fight +another great war I look for our generals to have studied at Leavenworth +and when the war ends for the leaders to be men whom the public did not +know when it began. + +"We shall have another show to-morrow and I think that will be a good +one, too," said Howell. + +All attacks are "shows;" big shows over two or three miles or more of +front, little shows over a thousand yards or so, while five hundred +yards is merely "cleaning up a trench." It may seem a flippant way of +speaking, but it is simply the application of jargon to the everyday +work of an organization. An attack that fails is a "washout," for not +all attacks succeed. If they did, progress would be a matter of +marching. + +"Zero is at four; come at two," Howell said when I was going. + +At two the next afternoon I found him occupied less with final details +than with the routine business of one who is clearing his desk +preparatory to a week-end holiday. Against the wall of what had been +once a bedroom in the house of the leading citizen of the town, which +was his office, he had an improvised bookkeeper's desk and on it were +the mapped plans of the afternoon's operation, which he had worked over +with the diligence and professional earnestness of an architect over his +blue prints. He had been over the ground and studied it with the care of +a landscape gardener who is going to make improvements. + +"A smoke barrage screen along there," he explained, indicating the line +of a German trench, "but a real attack along here"--which sounded +familiar from staff officers in chateaux. + +Every detail of the German positions was accurately outlined, yard by +yard, their machine guns definitely located. + +"We're uncertain about that one," he remarked, laying his pencil on the +map symbol for an M.G. + +Trench mortars had another symbol, deep dugouts another. It was the +business of somebody to get all this information without being +communicative about his methods. Referring to a section of a hundred +yards or more he remarked that an eager company commander had thought +that he could take a bit of German trench there and had taken it, which +meant that the gunners had to be informed so as to rearrange the barrage +or curtain of fire with the resulting necessity of fresh observations +and fresh registry of practice shots. I judged that Howell did not want +the men to be too eager; he wanted them just eager enough. + +This game being played along the whole front has, of course, been +likened to chess, with guns and men as pieces. I had in mind the dummy +actors and dummy scenery with which stage managers try out their acts, +only in this instance there was never any rehearsal on the actual stage +with the actual scenery unless a first attack had failed, as the Germans +will not permit such liberties except under machine gun fire. A call or +two came over the telephone about some minor details, the principal ones +being already settled. + +"It's time to go," he said finally. + +The corps commander was downstairs in the dining-room comfortably +smoking his pipe after tea. There would be nothing for him to do until +news of the attack had been received. "I hope you will see a good show," +he remarked, by way of _au revoir_. + +How earnestly he hoped it there is no use of mentioning here. It is +taken for granted. Carefully thought out plans backed by hundreds of +guns and the lives of men at stake--and against the Thiepval +fortifications! + +"Yes, we'll make it nicely," concluded Howell, as we went down the +steps. A man used to motoring ten miles to catch the nine-thirty to town +could not have been more certain of the disposal of his time than this +soldier on the way to an attack. His car which was waiting had a right +of way up to front such as is enjoyed only by the manager of the works +on his own premises. Of course he paid no attention to the sign, "This +road is shelled; closed to vehicles," at the beginning of a stretch of +road which looked unused and desolate. + +"A car in front of me here the other day received a direct hit from a +'krump,' and car and passengers practically disappeared before my eyes," +he remarked, without further dwelling on the incident; for the Germans +were, in turn, irritated with the insistence of these stubborn British +that they could take Thiepval. + +Three prisoners in the barbed-wire inclosure that we passed looked +lonely. They must have been picked up in a little bombing affair in a +sap. + +"I think that they will have plenty of companions this evening," said +Howell. "How they will enjoy their dinner!" He smiled in recollection +as did I of that familiar sight of prisoners eating. Nothing excites +hunger like a battle or gives such zest to appetite as knowledge that +you are out of danger. I know that it is true and so does everybody at +the front. + +As his car knew no regulations except his wishes he might take it as far +as it could go without trying to cross trenches. I wonder how long it +would have taken me if I had had a map and asked no questions to find my +way to the gallery seat which Howell had chosen for watching the show. +After we had passed guns with only one out of ten firing leisurely but +all with their covers off, the gunners near their pieces and ample +ammunition at hand, we cut straight up the slope, Howell glancing at his +wrist watch and asking if he were walking too fast for me. We dropped +into a communication trench at a point which experience had proven was +the right place to begin to take cover. + +"This is a good place," he said at length, and we rubbed our helmets +with some of the chalk lumps of the parapet, which left the black spot +of our field glasses the only bit of us not in harmony with our +background. + +It was a perfect afternoon in late summer, without wind or excessive +heat, the blue sky unflecked; such an afternoon as you would choose for +lolling in a hammock and reading a book. The foreground was a slope +downward to a little valley where the usual limbless tree-trunks were +standing in a grove that had been thoroughly shelled. No one was in +sight there, and an occasional German five-point-nine shell burst on the +mixture of splinters and earth. + +On the other side of the valley was a cut in the earth, a ditch, the +British first-line trench, which was unoccupied, so far as I could see. +Beyond lay the old No Man's Land where grass and weeds had grown wild +for two seasons, hiding the numerous shell-craters and the remains of +the dead from the British charge of July 1st which had been repulsed. On +the other side of this was two hundred yards of desolate stretch up to +the wavy, chalky excavation from the deep cutting of the German +first-line trench, as distinct as a white line on dark-brown paper. +There was no sign of life here, either, or to the rear where ran the +network of other excavations as the result of the almost two years of +German digging, the whole thrown in relief on the slope up to the bare +trunks of two or three trees thrust upward from the smudge of the ruins +of Thiepval. + +Just a knoll in rolling farm country, that was all; but it concealed +burrows upon burrows of burrowers more cunning than any rodents--men. +Since July 1st the Germans had not been idle. They had had time to +profit from the lesson of the attack with additions and improvements. +They had deepened dugouts and joined them by galleries; they had Box and +Cox hiding-places; nests defensible from all sides which became known as +Mystery Works and Wonder Works. The message of that gashed and spaded +hillside was one of mortal defiance. + +Occasionally a British high explosive broke in the German trench and all +up and down the line as far as we could see this desultory shell fire +was proceeding, giving no sign of where the next attack was coming, +which was part of the plan. + +"It's ten to four!" said Howell. "We were here in ample time. I hope we +get them at relief," which was when a battalion that had been on duty +was relieved by a battalion that had been in rest. + +He laid his map on the parapet and the location and plan of the attack +became clear as a part of the extensive operations in the +Thiepval-Mouquet Farm sector. The British were turning the flank of +these Thiepval positions as they swung in from the joint of the break of +July 1st up to the Pozières Ridge. A squeeze here and a squeeze there; +an attack on that side and then on this; one bite after another. + +"I hope you will like our patent barrage," said the artillery general, +as he stopped for a moment on the way to a near-by observation post. "We +are thinking rather well of it ourselves of late." He did not even have +to touch a pushbutton to turn on the current. He had set four as zero. + +I am not going to speak of suspense before the attack as being in the +very air and so forth. I felt it personally, but the Germans did not +feel it or, at least, the British did not want them to feel it. There +was no more sign of an earthly storm brewing as one looked at the field +than of a thunderstorm as one looked at the sky. Perfect soporific +tranquillity possessed the surroundings except for shell-bursts, and +their meagerness intensified the aspect, strangely enough, on that +battlefield where I had never seen a quieter afternoon since the Somme +offensive had begun. One could ask nothing better than that the +tranquillity should put the Germans to sleep. To the staff expert, +however, the dead world lived without the sight of men. Every square rod +of ground had some message. + +Of course, I knew what was coming at four o'clock, but I was amazed at +its power and accuracy when it did come--this improved method of +artillery preparation, this patent curtain of fire. An outburst of +screaming shells overhead that became a continuous, roaring sweep like +that of a number of endless railroad trains in the air signified that +the guns which had been idle were all speaking. Every one by scattered +practice shots had registered on the German first-line trench at the +point where its shell-bursts would form its link in the chain of +bursts. Over the wavy line of chalk for the front of the attack broke +the flashes of cracking shrapnel jackets, whose bullets were whipping up +spurts of chalk like spurts of dust on a road from a hailstorm. + +As the gun-blasts began I saw some figures rise up back of the German +trench. I judged that they were the relief coming up or a working party +that had been under cover. These Germans had to make a quick decision: +Would they try a leap for the dugouts or a leap to the rear? They +decided on flight. A hundred-yard sprint and they would be out of that +murderous swath laid so accurately on a narrow belt. They ran as men +will only run from death. No goose-stepping or "after you, sir" limited +their eagerness. I had to smile at their precipitancy and as some +dropped it was hard to realize that they had fallen from death or +wounds. They seemed only manikins in a pantomime. + +Then a lone figure stepped up out of a communication trench just back of +the German first line. This tall officer, who could see nothing between +walls of earth where he was, stood up in full view looking around as if +taking stock of the situation, deciding, perhaps, whether that smoke +barrage to his right now rolling out of the British trench was on the +real line of attack or was only for deception; observing and concluding +what his men, I judge, were never to know, for, as a man will when +struck a hard blow behind the knees, he collapsed suddenly and the earth +swallowed him up before the bursts of shrapnel smoke had become so thick +over the trench that it formed a curtain. + +There must have been a shell a minute to the yard. Shrapnel bullets were +hissing into the mouths of dugouts; death was hugging every crevice, +saying to the Germans: + +"Keep down! Keep out of the rain! If you try to get out with a machine +gun you will be killed! Our infantry is coming!" + + + + +XXIV + +WATCHING A CHARGE + + The British trench comes to life--The line goes forward--A modern + charge no chance for heroics--Machine-like forward movement--The most + wicked sound in a battle--The first machine gun--A beautiful + barrage--The dreaded "shorts"--The barrage lifts to the second + line--The leap into the trenches--Figures in green with hands + up--Captured from dugouts--A man who made his choice and paid the + price--German answering fire--Second part of the program--Again the + protecting barrage--Success--Waves of men advancing behind waves of + shell fire--Prisoners in good fettle--Brigadier-General Philip + Howell. + + +Now the British trench came to life. What seemed like a row of +khaki-colored washbasins bottom side up and fast to a taut string rose +out of the cut in the earth on the other side of the valley, and after +them came the shoulders and bodies of British soldiers who began +climbing over the parapet just as a man would come up the cellar stairs. +This was the charge. + +Five minutes the barrage or curtain of fire was to last and five minutes +was the allotted time for these English soldiers to go from theirs to +the German trench which they were to take. So many paces to the minute +was the calculation of their rate of progress across that dreadful No +Man's Land, where machine guns and German curtains of fire had wrought +death in the preceding charge of July 1st. + +Every detail of the men's equipment was visible as their full-length +figures appeared on the background of the gray-green slope. They were +entirely exposed to fire from the German trench. Any tyro with a rifle +on the German parapet could have brought down a man with every shot. Yet +none fell; all were going forward. + +I would watch the line over a hundred yards of breadth immediately in +front of me, determined not to have my attention diverted to other parts +of the attack and to make the most of this unique opportunity of +observation in the concrete. + +The average layman conceives of a charge as a rush. So it is on the +drill-ground, but not where its movement is timed to arrival on the +second before a hissing storm of death, and the attackers must not be +winded when there is hot work awaiting them in close encounters around +traverses and at the mouths of dugouts. No one was sprinting ahead of +his companions; no one crying, "Come on, boys!" no one swinging his +steel helmet aloft, for he needed it for protection from any sudden +burst of shrapnel. All were advancing at a rapid pace, keeping line and +intervals except where they had to pass around shell-craters. + +If this charge had none of the display of other days it had all the more +thrill because of its workmanlike and regulated progress. No +get-drunk-six-days-of-the-week-and-fight-like-h--l-on-Sunday business of +the swashbuckling age before Thiepval. Every man must do his part as +coolly as if he were walking a tight rope with no net to catch him, with +death to be reckoned with in the course of a systematic evolution. + +"Very good! A trifle eager there! Excellent!" Howell sweeping the field +with his glasses was speaking in the expert appreciation of a football +coach watching his team at practice. "No machine guns yet," he said for +the second time, showing the apprehension that was in his mind. + +I, too, had been listening for the staccato of the machine gun, which is +the most penetrating, mechanical and wicked, to my mind, of all the +instruments of the terrible battle orchestra, as sinister as the +clicking of a switch which you know will derail a passenger train. The +men were halfway to the German trench, now. Two and a half minutes of +the allotted five had passed. In my narrow sector of vision not one man +had yet fallen. They might have been in a manoeuver and their goal a +deserted ditch. Looking right and left my eye ran along the line of +sturdy, moving backs which seemed less concerned than the spectator. Not +only because you were on their side but as the reward of their +steadiness, you wanted them to conquer that stretch of first-line +fortifications. Any second you expected to see the first shell-burst of +the answering German barrage break in the midst of them. + +Then came the first sharp, metallic note which there is no mistaking, +audible in the midst of shell-screams and gun-crashes, off to the right, +chilling your heart, quickening your observation with awful curiosity +and drawing your attention away from the men in front as you looked for +signs of a machine gun's gathering of a human harvest. Rat-tat-tat-tat +in quick succession, then a pause before another series instead of +continuous and slower cracks, and you knew that it was not a German but +a British machine gun farther away than you had thought. + +More than ever you rejoiced in every one of the bursts of stored +lightning thick as fireflies in the blanket of smoke over the German +trench, for every one meant a shower of bullets to keep down enemy +machine guns. The French say "_Belle!_" when they see such a barrage, +and beautiful is the word for it to those men who were going across the +field toward this shell-made nimbus looking too soft in the bright +sunlight to have darts of death. All the shell-bursts seemed to be in a +breadth of twenty or thirty yards. How could guns firing at a range of +from two to five thousand yards attain such accuracy! + +The men were three-quarters of the distance, now. As they drew nearer to +the barrage another apprehension numbed your thought. You feared to see +a "short"--one of the shells from their own guns which did not carry far +enough bursting among the men--and this, as one English soldier who had +been knocked over by a short said, with dry humor, was "very +discouraging, sir, though I suppose it is well meant." A terrible thing, +that, to the public, killing your own men with your own shells. It is +better to lose a few of them in this way than many from German machine +guns by lifting the barrage too soon, but fear of public indignation had +its influence in the early days of British gunnery. The better the +gunnery the closer the infantry can go and the greater its confidence. A +shell that bursts fifteen or twenty yards short means only the slightest +fault in length of fuse, error of elevation, or fault in registry, back +where the muzzles are pouring out their projectiles from the other side +of the slope. And there were no shorts that day. Every shell that I saw +burst was "on." It was perfect gunnery. + +Now it seemed that the men were going straight into the blanket over the +trenches still cut with flashes. Some forward ones who had become eager +were at the edge of the area of dust-spatters from shrapnel bullets in +the white chalk. Didn't they know that another twenty yards meant death? +Was their methodical phlegm such that they acted entirely by rule? No, +they knew their part. They stopped and stood waiting. Others were on the +second of the five minutes' allowance as suddenly all the flashes ceased +and nothing remained over the trench but the mantle of smoke. The +barrage had been lifted from the first to the second-line German trench +as you lift the spray of a hose from one flower bed to another. + +This was the moment of action for the men of the charge, not one of whom +had yet fired a shot. Each man was distinctly outlined against the white +background as, bayonets glistening and hands drawn back with bombs ready +to throw, they sprang forward to be at the mouths of the dugouts before +the Germans came out. Some leaped directly into the trench, others ran +along the parapet a few steps looking for a vantage point or throwing a +bomb as they went before they descended. It was a quick, urgent, +hit-and-run sort of business and in an instant all were out of sight and +the fighting was man to man, with the guns of both sides keeping their +hands off this conflict under ground. The entranced gaze for a moment +leaving that line of chalk saw a second British wave advancing in the +same way as the first from the British first-line trench. + +"All in along the whole line. Bombing their way forward there!" said +Howell, with matter-of-fact understanding of the progress of events. + +I blinked tired eyes and once more pressed them to the twelve diameters +of magnification, every diameter having full play in the clear light. I +saw nothing but little bursts of smoke rising out of the black streak in +the chalk which was the trench itself, each one from an egg of high +explosive thrown at close quarters but not numerous enough to leave any +doubt of the result and very evidently against a few recalcitrants who +still held out. + +Next, a British soldier appeared on the parapet and his attitude was +that of one of the military police directing traffic at a busy +crossroads close to the battle front. His part in the carefully worked +out system was shown when a figure in green came out of the trench with +hands held up in the approved signal of surrender the world over. The +figure was the first of a file with hands up--and very much in earnest +in this attitude, too, which is the one that the British and the French +consider most becoming in a German--who were started on toward the +first-line British trench. All along the front small bands of prisoners +were appearing in the same way. There would have been something +ridiculous about it, if it had not been so real. + +For the most part, the prisoners had been breached from dugouts which +had no exit through galleries after the Germans had been held fast by +the barrage. It was either a case of coming out at once or being bombed +to death in their holes; so they came out. + +"A live prisoner would be of more use to his fatherland one day than a +dead one, even though he had no more chance to fight again than a rabbit +held up by the ears," as one of the German prisoners said. + +"More use to yourself, too," remarked his captor. + +"That had occurred to me, also," admitted the German. + +During the filing out of the different bags of prisoners two incidents +passed before my eye with a realism that would have been worth a small +fortune to a motion picture man if equally dramatic ones had not been +posed. A German sprang out of the trench, evidently either of a mind to +resist or else in a panic, and dropped behind one of the piles of chalk +thrown up in the process of excavation. A British soldier went after him +and he held up his hands and was dispatched to join one of the groups. +Another who sought cover in the same way was of different temperament, +or perhaps resistance was inspired by the fact that he had a bomb. He +threw it at a British soldier who seemed to dodge it and drop on all +fours, the bomb bursting behind him. Bombs then came from all directions +at the German. There was no time to parley; he had made his choice and +must pay the price. He rolled over after the smoke had risen from the +explosions and then remained a still green blot against the chalk. A +British soldier bent over the figure in a hasty examination and then +sprang into the trench, where evidently he was needed. + +"The Germans are very slow with their shell fire," said Howell in the +course of his ejaculations, as he watched the operations. + +Answering barrages, including a visitation to our own position which was +completely exposed, were in order. Howell himself had been knocked over +by a shell here during the last attack. One explanation given later by a +German officer for the tardiness of the German guns was that the staff +had thought the British too stupid to attack from that direction, which +pleased Howell as showing the advantage of racial reputation as an aid +to strategy. + +However, the German artillery was not altogether unresponsive. It was +putting some "krumps" into the neighborhood of the British first line +and one of the bands of prisoners ran into the burst of a +five-point-nine. Ran is the word, for they were going as fast as they +could to get beyond their own curtain of fire, which experience told +them would soon be due. I saw this lot submerged in the spout of smoke +and dust but did not see how many if any were hit, as the sound of a +machine gun drew my attention across the dead grass of the old No Man's +Land to the German--I should say the former German--first-line trench +where an Englishman had his machine gun on the _parados_ and was +sweeping the field across to the German second-line trench. Perhaps some +of the Germans who had run away from the barrage at the start had been +hiding in shell-craters or had shown signs of moving or there were +targets elsewhere. + +So far so good, as Howell remarked. That supposedly impregnable German +fortification that had repulsed the first British attempt had been taken +as easily as if it were a boy's snow fort, thanks to the patent curtain +of fire and the skill that had been developed by battle lessons. It was +retribution for the men who had fallen in vain on July 1st. Howell was +not thinking of that, but of the second objective in the afternoon's +plan. By this time not more than a quarter of an hour had elapsed since +the first charge had "gone over the lid." Out of the cut in the welt of +chalk the line of helmets rose again and England started across the +field toward the German second-line trench, which was really a part of +the main first-line fortification on the slope, in the same manner as +toward the first. + +What about their protecting barrage? My eyes had been so intently +occupied that my ears had been uncommunicative and in a start of glad +surprise I realized that the same infernal sweep of shells was going +overhead and farther up on the Ridge fireflies were flashing out of the +mantle of smoke that blanketed the second line. Now the background +better absorbed the khaki tint and the figures of the men became more +and more hazy until they disappeared altogether as the flashes in front +of them ceased. Howell had to translate from the signals results which I +could not visually verify. One by one items of news appeared in rocket +flashes through the gathering haze which began to obscure the slope +itself. + +"I think we have everything that we expected to take this afternoon," +said Howell, at length. "The Germans are very slow to respond. I think +we rather took them by surprise." + +They had not even begun shelling their old first line, which they ought +to have known was now in British possession and which they must have had +registered, as a matter of course; or possibly their own intelligence +was poor and they had no real information of what had been proceeding on +the slope under the clouds of smoke, or their wires had been cut and +their messengers killed by shell fire. This was certain, that the +British in the first-line German trench had a choice lot of dugouts in +good condition for shelter, as the patent barrage does not smash in the +enemy's homes, only closes the doors with curtains of death. + +"I hope you're improving your dugouts," British soldiers would call out +across No Man's Land, "as that is all the better for us when we take +them!" + +We stayed on till Howell's expert eye had had its fill of details, with +no burst of shells to interfere with our comfort; though by the rules we +ought to have had a good "strafing," which was another reminder of my +debt to the German for his consideration to the American correspondent +at the British front. + +"What do you think of our patent barrage, now?" said the artillery +general returning from his post of observation. + +"Wonderful!" was all that one could say. + +"A good show!" said Howell. + +The rejoicing of both was better expressed in their eyes than in words. +Good news, too, for the corps commander smoking his pipe and waiting, +and for every battalion engaged--oh, particularly for the battalions! + +"Congratulations!" The exclamation was passed back and forth as we met +other officers on our way to brigade headquarters in a dugout on the +hillside, where Howell's felicitations to the happy brigadier on the way +that his men had gone in were followed by suggestions and a discussion +about future plans, which I left to them while I had a look through the +brigadier's telescope at Thiepval Ridge under the patterns of shell fire +of average days, which proved that the Germans were making no attempt at +a counter-attack to recover lost ground. I imagined that the German +staff was dumfounded to hear that their redoubtable old first line could +possibly have been taken with so little fireworks. + +It was when I came to the guns on our return that I felt an awe which I +wanted to translate into appreciation. They were firing slowly now or +not firing at all, and the idle gunners were lounging about. They had +not seen their own curtain of fire or the infantry charge; they had been +as detached from the action as the crew of a battleship turret. It was +their accuracy and their coördination with the infantry and the +infantry's coördination with the barrage that had expressed better than +volumes of reports the possibilities of the offensive with waves of men +advancing behind waves of shell fire, which was applied in the taking of +Douaumont later and must be the solution of the problem of a decision +on the Western front. + +Above the communication trenches the steel helmets of the British and +the gray fatigue caps of German prisoners were bobbing toward the rear +and at the casualty clearing station the doctor said, "Very light!" in +answer to the question about losses. The prisoners were in unusually +good fettle even for men safe out of shell fire; many had no chalk on +their clothes to indicate a struggle. They had been sitting in their +dugouts and walked out when an Englishman appeared at the door. Yes, +they said that they had been caught just before relief, and the relief +had been carried out in an unexpected fashion. If they must be taken +they, too, liked the patent barrage. + +"I'll let you know when there's to be another show," said Howell, as we +parted at corps headquarters; but none could ever surpass this one in +its success or its opportunity of intimate observation. + +This was the last time I saw him. A few days later, on one of his tours +to study the ground for an attack, he was killed by a shell. Army custom +permits the mention of his name because he is dead. He was a steadfast +friend, an able soldier, an upright, kindly, high-minded gentleman; and +when I was asked, not by the lady who had never kept up her interest so +long in anything as in this war, but by another, if living at the front +is a big strain, the answer is in the word that comes that a man whom +you have just seen in the fulness of life and strength is gone. + + + + +XXV + +CANADA IS STUBBORN + + What is Canada fighting for?--The Kaiser has brought Canadians + together--The land of immense distances--Canada's unfaltering + spirit--Canada our nearest neighbor geographically and + sentimentally--Ypres salient mud--Canadians invented the trench + raid--A wrestling fight in the mud--Germans "try it on" the + Canadians--"The limit" in artillery fire--Maple Leaf spirit--Baseball + talk on the firing line--A good sprinkling of Americans. + + +One day the Canadians were to lift their feet out of the mire of the +Ypres salient and take the high, dry road to the Somme front, and anyone +with a whit of chivalry in his soul would have rejoiced to know that +they were to have their part in the big movement of Sept. 15th. But let +us consider other things and other fighting before we come to the taking +of Courcelette. + +When I was home in the winter of 1915-16, for the first time the border +between the United States and Canada drew a line in sharp contrasts. The +newspapers in Canada had their casualty lists, parents were giving their +sons and wives their husbands to go three thousand miles to endure +hardship and risk death for a cause which to them had no qualifications +of a philosophic internationalism. Everything was distinct. Sacrifice +and fortitude, life and death, and the simple meaning words were masters +of the vocabulary. + +Some people might ask why Canada should be pouring out her blood in +Europe; what had Flanders to do with her? England was fighting to save +her island, France for the sanctity of her soil, but what was Canada +fighting for? As I understood it, she was fighting for Canada. A blow +had been struck against her, though it was struck across the Atlantic, +and across the Atlantic she was going to strike back. + +She had had no great formative war. Pardeburg was a kind of expedition +of brave men, like the taking of San Juan Hill. It did not sink deep +into the consciousness of the average Canadian, who knew only that some +neighbor of his had been in South Africa. Our own formative war was the +Revolution, not the Civil War where brother fought brother. The +Revolution made a mold which, perhaps, instead of being impressed upon +succeeding generations of immigrants may have only given a veneer to +them. A war may be necessary to make them molten for another shaping. + +No country wanted war less than Canada, but when war came its flame made +Canada molten with Canadian patriotism. As George III. brought the +Carolinas and Massachusetts together, so the Kaiser has brought the +Canadian provinces together. The men from that cultivated, rolling +country of Southern Ontario, from New Brunswick and the plains and the +coast and a quota from the neat farms of Quebec have met face to face, +not on railroad trains, not through representatives in Parliament or in +convention, but in billets and trenches. Whatever Canada is, she is not +small. She is particularly the land of immense distances; her breadth is +greater than that of the United States. All of the great territorial +expanse of Canada in its manhood, in the thoughts of those at home, was +centered in a few square miles of Flanders. + +I was in Canada when only the first division had had its trial and +recruiting was at full blast; and again when three hundred and fifty +thousand had joined the colors and Canada, now feeling the full measure +of loss of life, seemed unfaltering, which was the more remarkable in a +new country where livelihood is easy to gain and Opportunity knocks at +the door of youth if he has only the energy to take her by the hand and +go her way. I may add that not all the youth about Toronto or any other +town who gave as their reason for not enlisting that they were American +citizens actually were. They were not "too _proud_ to fight," whatever +other reason they had, for they had no pride; and if honest Quakers they +would not have given a lying excuse. + +Out in France I heard talk about this Canadian brigade being better than +that one, and that an Eastern Canada man wanted no leading from a +Western Canada man, and that not all who were winning military crosses +were hardy frontiersmen but some were lawyers and clerks in Montreal or +Toronto--or should I put Toronto first, or perhaps Ottawa or +Winnipeg--and more talk expressive of the rivalry which generals say is +good for spirit of corps. Moose Jaw Street was across from Halifax +Avenue and Vancouver Road from Hamilton Place in the same community. + +As I was not connected with any part of Canada, the Canadians, with +their Maple Leaf emblem, were all Canadians to me; men across the border +which we pass in coming and going without change of language or +steam-heated cars or iced-water tanks. Some Canadians think that the +United States with its more than a hundred millions may feel patronizing +toward their eight millions, when after Courcelette if a Canadian had +patronized the United States I should not have felt offended. I have +even heard some fools say that the two countries might yet go to war, +which shows how absurd some men have to be in order to attract +attention. All of this way of thinking on both sides should be placed on +a raft in the middle of Lake Erie and supplied with bombs to fight it +out among themselves under a curtain of fire; and their relatives ought +to feel a deep relief after the excursion steamers that came from +Toronto, Cleveland and Buffalo to see the show had returned home. + +To listen to certain narrators you might think that it was the Allies +who always got the worst of it in the Ypres salient, but the German did +not like the salient any better than they. I never met anybody who did +like it. German prisoners said that German soldiers regarded it as a +sentence of death to be sent to the salient. There are many kinds of mud +and then there is Ypres salient mud, which is all kinds together with a +Belgian admixture. I sometimes thought that the hellish outbreaks by +both sides in this region were due to the reason which might have made +Job run amuck if all the temper he had stored up should have broken out +in a storm. + +This is certain, that the Canadians took their share in the buffets in +the mud, not through any staff calculation but partly through German +favoritism and the workings of German psychology. Consider that the +first volunteer troops to be put in the battle line in France weeks +before any of Kitchener's Army was the first Canadian division, in +answer to its own request for action, which is sufficient soldierly +tribute of a commander to Canadian valor! That proud first division, +after it had been well mud-soaked and had its hand in, was caught in +the gas attack. It refused to yield when it was only human to yield, and +stood resolute in the fumes between the Germans and success and even +counter-attacked. Moreover, it was Canadians who introduced the trench +raid. + +If the Canadians did not particularly love the Germans, do you see any +reason why the Germans should love the Canadians? It was unpleasant to +suffer repulse by troops from an unmilitary, new country. Besides, +German psychology reasoned that if Canadians at the front were made to +suffer heavy losses the men at home would be discouraged from enlisting. +Why not? What had Canada to gain by coming to fight in France? It does +not appear an illogical hypothesis until you know the Canadians. + +However, it must not be understood that other battalions, brigades and +divisions, English and Scotch, did not suffer as heavily as the +Canadians. They did; and do not forget that in the area which has seen +the hardest, bloodiest, meanest, nastiest, ghastliest fighting in the +history of the world the Germans, too, have had their full share of +losses. The truth is that if any normal man was stuck in the mud of the +Ypres salient and another wanted his place he would say, "Take it! I'm +only trying to get out! We've got equally bad morasses in the Upper +Yukon;" and retire to a hill and set up a machine gun. + +When a Canadian officer was asked if he had organized some trenches that +his battalion had taken his reply, "How can you organize pea soup?" +filled a long-felt want in expression to characterize the nature of +trench-making in that kind of terrain. Yet in that sea of slimy and +infected mush men have fought for the possession of cubic feet of the +mixture as if it had the qualities of Balm of Gilead--which was also +logical. What appears most illogical to the outsider is sometimes most +logical in war. It was a fight for mastery, and mastery is the first +step in a war of frontal positions. + +Many lessons the Canadians had to learn about organization and staff +work, about details of discipline which make for homogeneity of action, +and the divisions that came to join the first one learned their lessons +in the Ypres salient school, which gave hard but lasting tuition. I was +away when at St. Eloi they were put to such tests as only the salient +can provide. The time was winter, when chill water filled the +shell-craters and the soil oozed out of sandbags and the mist was a +cold, wet poultice. Men bred to a dry climate had to fight in a climate +better suited to the Englishman or the German than to the Canadian. +There could be no dugouts. Lift a spade of earth below the earth level +and it became a puddle. It was a wrestling fight in the mud, this, +holding onto shell-craters and the soft remains of trenches. The Germans +had heard that the Canadians were highstrung, nervous, quick for the +offensive, but badly organized and poor at sticking. The Canadians +proved that they could be stubborn and that their soldiers, even if they +had not had the directing system of an army staff that had prepared for +forty years, with two years of experience could act on their own in +resisting as well as in attacking. "Our men! our men!" the officers +would say. That was it: Canada's men, learning tactics in face of German +tactics and holding their own! + +When all was peaceable up and down the line, with the Grand Offensive a +month away, the Germans once more "tried it on" the Canadians in the +Hooge and Mount Sorrell sector, where the positions were all in favor of +the Germans with room to plant two guns to one around the bulging +British line. For many days they had been quietly registering as they +massed their artillery for their last serious effort during the season +of 1916 in the north. + +Anything done to the Canadians always came close home to me; and news of +this attack and of its ferocity to anyone knowing the positions was +bound to carry apprehension, lasting only until we learned that the +Canadians were already counter-attacking, which set your pulse tingling +and little joy-bells ringing in your head. It meant, too, that the +Germans could not have developed any offensive that would be serious to +the situation as a whole at that moment, in the midst of preparations +for the Somme. Nothing could be seen of the fight, even had one known +that it was coming, in that flat region where everyone has to follow a +communication trench with only the sky directly overhead visible. + +There was an epic quality in the story of what happened as you heard it +from the survivors. It was an average quiet morning in the first-line +trenches when the German hurricane broke from all sides; but first-line +trenches is not the right phrase, for all the protection that could be +made was layers of sandbags laboriously filled and piled to a thickness +sufficient to stop a bullet at short range. + +What luxury in security were the dugouts of the Somme hills compared to +the protection that could be provided here! When the first series of +bursts announced the storm you could not descend a flight of steps to a +cavern whose roof was impenetrable even by five-hundred-pound shells. +Little houses of sandbags with corrugated tin roofs, in some instances +level with the earth, which any direct hit could "do in" were the best +that generous army resources could permit. High explosive shells must +turn such breastworks into rags and heaps of earth. There was nothing to +shoot at if a man tried to stick to the parapet, for fresh troops fully +equipped for their task back in the German trenches waited on demolition +of the Canadian breastworks before advancing under their own barrage. +Shrapnel sent down its showers, while the trench walls were opened in +great gaps and tossed heavenward. Officers clambered about in the midst +of the spouts of dust and smoke over the piles and around the craters, +trying to keep in touch with their men, when it was a case of every man +taking what cover he could. + +"The limit!" as the men said. "The absolute limit in an artillery +concentration!" + +But they did not go--not until they had orders. This was their kind of +discipline under fire; they "stayed on the job." One group charged out +beyond the swath of fire to meet the Germans in the open and there +fought to the death in expression of characteristic initiative. When +word was passed to retire, some grudgingly held on to fight the +outnumbering Germans in the midst of the débris and escaped only by +passing through the German barrage placed between the first and second +line to cover the German advance on the second. The supports themselves +under the carefully arranged pattern of shell fire held as the +rallying-points of the survivors, who found the communication trenches +so badly broken that it was as well to keep in the open. Little knots of +men with their defenses crushed held from the instinctive sense of +individual stubbornness. + +To tell the whole story of that day as of many other days where a few +battalions were engaged, giving its fair due to each group in the +struggle, is not for a correspondent who had to cover the length of the +battle line and sees the whole as an example of Maple Leaf spirit. The +rest is for battalion historians, who will find themselves puzzled about +an action where there was little range of vision and this obscured by +shell-smoke and the preoccupation of each man trying to keep cover and +do his own part to the death. + +In the farmhouses afterward, as groups of officers tried to assemble +their experiences, I had the feeling of being in touch with the proof of +all that I had seen in Canada months previously. Losses had been heavy +for the battalions engaged though not for the Canadian corps as a whole, +no heavier than British battalions or the Germans had suffered in the +salient. Canada happened to get the blow this time. + +The men, after a night's sleep and writing home that they were safe and +how comrades had died, might wander about the roads or make holiday as +they chose. They were not casual about the fight, but outspoken and +frank, Canadian fashion. They realized what they had been through and +spoke of their luck in having survived. From the fields came the cry of, +"Leave that to me!" as a fly rose from the bat, or, "Out on first!" as +men took a rest from shell-curves and high explosives with baseball +curves and hot liners between the bases, which was very homelike there +in Flanders. Which of the players was American one could not tell by +voice or looks, for the climate along the border makes a type of +complexion and even of features with the second generation which is +readily distinguished from the English type. + +"What part of Canada do you come from?" asked an officer of a private. + +"Out west, sir!" + +"What part of the west?" + +"'Way out west, sir!" + +"An officer is asking you. Be definite." + +"Well, the State of Washington, sir." + +There was a good sprinkling of Americans in the battle, including +officers; but on the baseball field and the battlefield they were a part +of the whole, performing their task in a way that left no doubt of +their quality. Whether the spirit of adventure or the principle at stake +had brought her battalions to Flanders, Canada had proved that she could +be stubborn. She was to have her chance to prove that she could be +quick. + + + + +XXVI + +THE TANKS ARRIVE + + The New Army Irish--Irish wit--And Irish courage--Pompous Prussian + Guard officer--The British Guards and their characteristics--Who + invented the tank?--The great secret--Combination of an armadillo, a + caterpillar, a diplodocus, a motor car and a traveling + circus--Something really new on the front--Gas attacks--A tank in the + road--A moving "strong point"--Making an army laugh--Suspense for the + inmates of the untried tanks. + + +The situation on the Ridge was where we left it in a previous chapter +with all except a few parts of it held, enough for a jumping-off place +at all points for the sweep down into the valley toward Bapaume. In the +grim preliminary business of piecemeal gains which should make possible +an operation over a six-mile front on Sept. 15th, which was the first +general attack since July 14th, the part that the Irish battalions +played deserves notice, where possibly the action of the tried and +sturdy English regiments on their flanks need not be mentioned, as being +characteristic of the work they had been doing for months. + +They were the New Army Irish, all volunteers, men who had enlisted to +fight against Germany when their countrymen were largely disaffected, +which requires more initiative than to join the colors when it is the +universal passion of the community. Many stories were told of this Irish +division. If there are ten Irishmen among a hundred soldiers the stories +have a way of being about the ten Irishmen. + +I like that one of the Connaught man who, on his first day in the +trenches, was set to digging out the dirt that had been filled into a +trench by a shell-burst. Along came another shell before he was half +through his task; the burst of a second knocked him over and doubled the +quantity of earth before him. When he picked himself up he went to the +captain and threw down his spade, saying: + +"Captain, I can't finish that job without help. They're gaining on me!" + +Some people thought that the Sinn Fein movement which had lately broken +out in the Dublin riots would make the new Irish battalions lukewarm in +any action. They would go in but without putting spirit into their +attack. Other skeptics questioned if the Irish temperament which was +well suited to dashing charges would adapt itself to the matter-of-fact +necessities of the Somme fighting. Their commander, however, had no +doubts; and the army had none when the test was made. + +Through Guillemont, that wicked resort of machine guns, which had been +as severely hammered by shell fire after it had repulsed British attacks +as any village on the Somme, the Irish swept in good order, cleaning up +dugouts and taking prisoners on the way with all the skill of veterans +and a full relish of the exploit, and then forward, as a well-linked +part of a successful battle line, to the sunken road which was the +second objective. + +"I thought we were to take a village, Captain," said one of the men, +after they were established in the sunken road. "What are we stopping +here for?" + +"We have taken it. You passed through it--that grimy patch +yonder"--which was Guillemont's streets and houses mixed in ruins five +hundred yards to the rear. + +"You're sure, Captain?" + +"Quite!" + +"Well, then, I'd not like to be the drunken man that tried to find his +keyhole in that town!" + +It was a pity, perhaps, that the Irish who assisted in the taking of +Ginchy, which completed the needful mastery of the Ridge for British +purposes, could not have taken part in the drive that was to follow. We +had looked forward to this drive as the reward of a down hill run after +the patient labor of wrenching our way up hill. Even the Germans, who +had suffered appalling losses in trying to hold the Ridge, must have +been relieved that they no longer had to fight against the inevitable. + +Again the clans were gathering and again there ran through the army the +anticipation which came from the preparation for a great blow. The +Canadians were appearing in billets back of the front. If in no other +way, I should have known of their presence by their habit of moving +about roads and fields getting acquainted with their surroundings and +finding out if apples were ripe. For other portions of the country it +was a little unfair that these generous and well-paid spenders should +take the place of the opulent Australians in villages where small boys +already had hordes of pennies and shopkeepers were hastening to +replenish their stocks to be equal to their opportunities. + +At last the Guards, too, were to have their turn, but not to go in +against the Prussian Guard, which those with a sense of histrionic +fitness desired. When a Prussian Guard officer had been taken at +Contalmaison he had said, "The Prussian Guard feels that it is +surrendering to a foe worthy of its steel when it yields to superior +numbers of the English Guard!" or words to that effect according to +reports, only to receive the answer that his captors were English +factory hands and the like of the New Army, whose officers excused +themselves, in the circumstances, for their identity as politely as +they could. + +Grenadiers, Coldstreams, Scottish, or Irish, the Guards were the Guards, +England's crack regiments, the officers of each wearing their buttons in +a distinctive way and the tall privates saluting with the distinctive +Guards' salute. In the Guards the old spirit of gaiety in face of danger +survived. Their officers out in shell-craters under curtains of fire +joked one another with an aristocratic, genial sangfroid, the slender +man who had a nine-inch crater boasting of his luck over the thickset +man who tried to accommodate himself to a five-inch, while a colonel +blew his hunting-horn in the charge, which the Guards made in a manner +worthy of tradition. + +Though the English would have been glad to go against the Prussian Guard +with bayonet or bomb or a free-for-all, army commanders in these days +are not signaling to the enemy, "Let us have a go between your Guards +and our Guards!" but are putting crack regiments and line regiments in a +battle line to a common task, where the only criterion is success. + +The presence of the Guards, however, yielded interest to another new +arrival on the Somme front. When the plan for a style of armored motor +car which would cross shell-craters and trenches was laid before an +eminent general at the War Office, what he wrote in dismissing it from +further consideration might have been more blasphemous if he could have +spared the time to be anything but satirically brief. Such conservatives +probably have prevented many improvements from materializing, and +probably they have also saved the world from many futile creations which +would only have wasted time and material. + +Happily both for geniuses and fools, who all, in the long run, let us +hope, receive their just deserts, there is no downing an idea in a free +country where continued knocking at doors and waiting in hallways +eventually secure it a trial. Then, if it succeeds, the fellow who +thought that the conception was original with him finds his claims +disputed from all points of the compass. If it fails, the poor thing +goes to a fatherless grave. + +I should like to say that I was the originator of the tank--one of the +originators. In generous mood, I am willing to share honors with rivals +too numerous to mention. Haven't I also looked across No Man's Land +toward the enemy's parapet? Whoever has must have conjectured about a +machine that would take frontal positions with less loss of life than is +usual and would solve the problem of breaking the solid line of the +Western front. The possibility has haunted every general, every +soldier. + +Some sort of armadillo or caterpillar which would resist bullet fire was +the most obvious suggestion, but when practical construction was +considered, the dreamer was brought down from the empyrean, where the +aeroplane is at home, to the forge and the lathe, where grimy machinists +are the pilots of a matter-of-fact world. Application was the thing. I +found myself so poor at it that I did not even pass on my plan to the +staff, which had already considered a few thousand plans. Ericsson +conceiving a gun in a revolving turret was not so great a man as +Ericsson making the monitor a practicable engine of war. + +To Lieutenant-Colonel Swinton, of the Engineers, was given the task of +transforming blue-print plans into reality. There was no certainty that +he would succeed, but the War Office, when it had need for every foundry +and every skilled finger in the land, was enterprising enough to give +him a chance. He and thousands of workmen spent months at this most +secret business. If one German spy had access to one workman, then the +Germans might know what was coming. Nobody since Ericsson had a busier +time than Swinton without telling anybody what he was doing. The +whisperers knew that some diabolical surprise was under way and they +would whisper about it. No censor regulations can reach them. Sometimes +the tribe was given false information in great confidence in order to +keep it too occupied to pass on the true. + +The new monster was called a tank because it was not like a tank; yet it +seemed to me as much like a tank as like anything else. As a tank is a +receptacle for a liquid, it was a name that ought to mask a new type of +armored motor car as successfully as any name could. Flower pot would +have been too wide of the mark. A tank might carry a new kind of gas or +a burning liquid to cook or frizzle the adversary. + +Considering the size of the beast, concealment seemed about as difficult +as for a suburban cottager to keep the fact that he had an elephant on +the premises from his next-door neighbor; but the British Army has +become so used to slipping ships across the channel in face of submarine +danger that nobody is surprised at anything that appears at the front +unheralded. + +One day the curtain rose, and the finished product of all the +experiments and testing appeared at the British front. Hundreds of +thousands of soldiers were now in the secret. "Have you seen the tanks?" +was the question up and down the line. All editors were inventing their +own type of tank. Though I have patted one on the shoulder in a familiar +way, as I might stroke the family cat, it neither kicked nor bit me. +Though I have been inside of one, I am not supposed to know at this +writing anything about its construction. Unquestionably the tank +resembles an armadillo, a caterpillar, a diplodocus, a motor car, and a +traveling circus. It has more feet than a caterpillar, and they have +steel toenails which take it over the ground; its hide is more resistant +than an armadillo's, and its beauty of form would make the diplodocus +jealous. No pianist was ever more temperamental; no tortoise ever more +phlegmatic. + +In summer heat, when dust clouds hung thick on the roads behind the +shell clouds of the fields, when the ceaseless battle had been going on +for two months and a half, the soldiers had their interest stimulated by +a mechanical novelty just before a general attack. Two years of war had +cumulatively desensitized them to thrills. New batteries moving into +position were only so many more guns. Fresh battalions marching to the +front were only more infantry, all of the same pattern, equipped in the +same way, moving with the same fixed step. Machine gun rattles had +become as commonplace as the sound of creaking caisson wheels. Gas +shells, lachrymatory shells and _Flammenwerfer_ were as old-fashioned as +high explosives and shrapnel. Bombing encounters in saps had no +variation. The ruins of the village taken to-day could not be told from +the one taken yesterday except by its location on the map. Even the +aeroplanes had not lately developed any sensational departures from +habit. One paid little more attention to them than a gondolier pays to +the pigeons of St. Mark's. Curtains of fire all looked alike. There was +no new way of being killed--nothing to break the ghastly monotony of +charges and counter-charges. + +All the brains of Europe had been busy for two years inventing new forms +of destruction, yet no genius had found any sinuous creature that would +creep into dugouts with a sting for which there was no antidote. +Everybody was engaged in killing, yet nobody was able to "kill to his +satisfaction," as the Kentucky colonel said. The reliable methods were +the same as of old and as I have mentioned elsewhere: projectiles +propelled by powder, whether from long-necked naval guns at twenty +thousand yards, or short-necked howitzers at five thousand yards, or +rifles and machine guns at twenty-five hundred yards, or trench mortars +coughing balls of explosives for one thousand yards. + +True, the gas attack at Ypres had been an innovation. It was not a +discovery; merely an application of ghastliness which had been +considered too horrible for use. As a surprise it had been +successful--once. The defense answered with gas masks, which made it +still more important that soldiers should not be absent-minded and leave +any of their kit out of reach. The same amount of energy put into +projectiles would have caused more casualties. Meanwhile, no staff of +any army, making its elaborate plans in the use of proved weapons, could +be certain that the enemy had not under way, in this age of invention +which has given us the wireless, some new weapon which would be +irresistible. + +Was the tank this revolutionary wonder? Its sponsors had no such hope. +England went on building guns and pouring out shells, cartridges and +bombs. At best, the tanks were another application of an old, +established form of killing in vogue with both Daniel Boone and +Napoleon's army--bullets. + +The first time that I saw a tank, the way that the monster was blocking +a road gorged with transport had something of the ludicrousness of, say, +a pliocene monster weighing fifty tons which had nonchalantly lain down +at Piccadilly Circus when the traffic was densest. Only the motor-truck +drivers and battalions which were halted some distance away minded the +delay. Those near by were sufficiently entertained by the spectacle +which stopped them. They gathered around the tank and gaped and grinned. + +The tank's driver was a brown-skinned, dark-haired Englishman, with a +face of oriental stolidity. Questions were shot at him, but he would not +even say whether his beast would stand without hitching or not; whether +it lived on hay, talcum powder, or the stuff that bombs are made of; or +what was the nature of its inwards, or which was the head and which the +tail, or if when it seemed to be backing it was really going forward. + +By the confession of some white lettering on its body, it was officially +one of His Majesty's land ships. It no more occurred to anyone to +suggest that it move on and clear the road than to argue with a bulldog +which confronts you on a path. I imagined that the feelings of the young +officer who was its skipper must have been much the same as those of a +man acting as his own chauffeur and having a breakdown on a holiday in a +section of town where the population was as dense as it was curious in +the early days of motoring. For months he had been living a cloistered +life to keep his friends from knowing what he was doing, as he worked to +master the eccentricities of his untried steed, his life and the lives +of his crew depending upon this mastery. Now he had stepped from behind +the curtain of military secrecy into the full blaze of staring, +inquiring publicity. + +The tank's inclination was entirely reptilian. Its body hugged the earth +in order to expose as little surface as possible to the enemy's fire; it +was mottled like a toad in patches of coloring to add to its low +visibility, and there was no more hop in it than in the Gila monster. + +The reason of its being was obvious. Its hide being proof against the +bullets of machine guns and rifles, it was a moving "strong point" which +could go against the enemy's fixed strong points, where machine guns +were emplaced to mow down infantry charges, with its own machine guns. +Only now it gave no sign of moving. As a mechanical product it was no +more remarkable than a steam shovel. The wonder was in the part that it +was about to play. A steam shovel is a labor-saving, and this a +soldier-saving, device. + +For the moment it seemed a leviathan dead weight in the path of traffic. +If it could not move of itself, the only way for traffic to pass was to +build a road around it. Then there was a rumbling noise within its body +which sounded like some unnatural gasoline engine, and it hitched itself +around with the ponderosity of a canal boat being warped into a dock and +proceeded on its journey to take its appointed place in the battle line. + +Did the Germans know that the tanks were building? I think that they had +some inkling a few weeks before the tanks' appearance that something of +the sort was under construction. There was a report, too, of a German +tank which was not ready in time to meet the British. Some German +prisoners said that their first intimation of this new affliction was +when the tanks appeared out of the morning mist, bearing down on the +trenches; others said that German sausage observation balloons had seen +something resembling giant turtles moving across the fields up to the +British lines and had given warning to the infantry to be on the +lookout. + +Thus, something new had come into the war, deepening the thrill of +curiosity and intensifying the suspense before an attack. The world, its +appetite for novelty fed by the press, wanted to know all about the +tanks; but instead of the expected mechanical details, censorship would +permit only vague references to the tanks' habits and psychology, and +the tanks were really strong on psychology--subjectively and +objectively. It was the objective result in psychology that counted: the +effect on the fighting men. Human imagination immediately characterized +them as living things; monstrous comrades of infantry in attack. + +Blessed is the man, machine, or incident that will make any army laugh +after over two months of battle. Individuals were always laughing over +incidents; but here hundreds of thousands of men were to see a new style +of animal perform elephantine tricks. The price of admission to the +theater was the risk of a charge in their company, and the prospect gave +increased zest to battalions taking their place for next day's action. +What would happen to the tanks? What would they do to the Germans? + +The staff, which had carefully calculated their uses and limitations, +had no thought that the tanks would go to Berlin. They were simply a new +auxiliary. Probably the average soldier was skeptical of their +efficiency; but his skepticism did not interfere with his curiosity. He +wanted to see the beast in action. + +Christopher Columbus crossing uncharted seas did not undertake a more +daring journey than the skippers of the tanks. The cavalryman who +charges the enemy's guns in an impulse knows only a few minutes of +suspense. A torpedo destroyer bent on coming within torpedo range in +face of blasts from a cruiser's guns, the aviator closing in on an +enemy's plane, have the delirium of purpose excited by speed. But the +tanks are not rapid. They are ponderous and relatively slow. Columbus +had already been to sea in ships. The aviator and the commander of a +destroyer know their steeds and have precedent to go by, while the +skippers of the tanks had none. They went forth with a new kind of ship +on a new kind of sea, whose waves were shell-craters, whose tempests +sudden concentrations of shell fire. + +The Germans might have full knowledge of the ships' character and await +their appearance with forms of destruction adapted to the purpose. All +was speculation and uncertainty. Officers and crew were sealed up in a +steel box, the sport of destiny. For months they had been preparing for +this day, the crowning experiment and test, and all seemed of a type +carefully chosen for their part, soldiers who had turned land sailors, +cool and phlegmatic like the monsters which they directed. Each one +having given himself up to fate, the rest was easy in these days of +war's superexaltation, which makes men appear perfectly normal when +death hovers near. Not one would have changed places with any +infantryman. Already they had _esprit de corps_. They belonged to an +exclusive set of warriors. + +Lumberingly dipping in and out of shell-craters, which sometimes half +concealed the tanks like ships in a choppy sea, rumbling and wrenching, +they appeared out of the morning mist in face of the Germans who put up +their heads and began working their machine guns after the usual +artillery curtain of fire had lifted. + + + + +XXVII + +THE TANKS IN ACTION + + How the tanks attacked--A tank walking up the main Street of a + village--Effect on the Germans--Prussian colonel surrenders to a + tank--Tanks against trees--The tank in High Wood--The famous Crème de + Menthe--Demolishing a sugar factory--Germans take the tanks + seriously--Differences of opinion regarding tanks--Wandering + tanks--German attack on a stranded tank--Prehistoric turtles--Saving + twenty-five thousand casualties. + + +With the reverse slope of the Ridge to conceal their approach to the +battle line, the tanks squatting among the men at regular intervals over +a six-mile front awaiting the cue of zero for the attack at dawn and the +mist still holding to cover both tanks and men, the great Somme stage +was set in a manner worthy of the début of the new monsters. + +A tactical system of coördinated action had been worked out for the +infantry and the untried auxiliary, which only experienced soldiers +could have applied with success. According to the nature of the +positions in front, the tanks were set definite objectives or left to +find their own objectives. They might move on located machine gun +positions or answer a hurry call for help from the infantry. Ahead of +them was a belt of open field between them and the villages whose +capture was to be the consummation of the day's work. While observers +were straining their eyes to follow the progress of the tanks and seeing +but little, corps headquarters eagerly awaited news of the most +picturesque experiment of the war, which might prove ridiculous, or be a +wonderful success, or simply come up to expectations. + +No more thrilling message was ever brought by an aeroplane than that +which said that a tank was "walking" up the main street of Flers +surrounded by cheering British soldiers, who were in possession of the +village. "Walking" was the word officially given; and very much walking, +indeed, the tank must have seemed to the aviator in his swift flight. An +eagle looked down on a tortoise which had a serpent's sting. This tank, +having attended to its work on the way, passed on through Flers bearing +a sign: "Extra Special! Great Hun Victory!" Beyond Flers it found itself +alongside a battery of German field guns and blazed bullets into the +amazed and helpless gunners. + +The enemy may have heard of the tanks, but meeting them was a different +matter. After he had fought shells, bullets, bombs, grenades, mortars, +bayonets and gas, the tank was the straw that broke the camel's back of +many a German. A steel armadillo laying its bulk across a trench and +sweeping it on both sides with machine guns brought the familiar +complaint that this was not fighting according to rules in a war which +ceased to have rules after the bombing of civilian populations, the +sinking of the _Lusitania_, and the gas attack at Ypres. It depends on +whose ox is gored. There is a lot of difference between seeing the enemy +slaughtered by some new device and being slaughtered by one yourself. No +wonder that German prisoners who had escaped alive from a trench filled +with dead, when they saw a tank on the road as they passed to the rear +threw up their hands with a guttural: "Mein Gott! There is another! +There is no fighting that! This is not war; it is butchery!" Yes, it was +butchery--and butchery is war these days. Wasn't it so always? And as a +British officer remarked to the protestants: + +"The tank is entirely in keeping with Hague rules, being only armor, +machinery and machine guns." + +Germans surrendered to a tank in bodies after they saw the hopelessness +of turning their own machine gun and rifle fire upon that steel hide. +Why not? Nothing takes the fight out of anyone like finding that his +blows go into the air and the other fellow's go home. There seemed a +strange loss of dignity when a Prussian colonel delivered himself to a +tank, which took him on board and eventually handed him over to an +infantry guard; but the skipper of the tank enjoyed it if the colonel +did not. + +The surprising thing was how few casualties there were among the crews +of the tanks, who went out prepared to die and found themselves safe in +their armored shells after the day's fight was over, whether their ships +had gone across a line of German trenches, developed engine trouble, or +temporarily foundered in shell-holes. Bullets had merely made +steel-bright flecks on the tanks' paint and shrapnel had equally failed +to penetrate the armor. + +Among the imaginary tributes paid to the tank's powers is that it "eats" +trees--that is to say, it can cut its way through a wood--and that it +can knock down a stone wall. As it has no teeth it cannot masticate +timber. All that it accomplishes must be done by ramming or by lifting +up its weight to crush an obstacle. A small tree or a weak wall yields +before its mass. + +As foresters, the tanks had a stiff task in High Wood, where the Germans +had held to the upper corner with their nests of machine guns which the +preliminary bombardment of British artillery had not silenced and they +began their murderous song immediately the British charge started. They +commanded the front and the flanks if the men continued to advance and +therefore might make a break in the whole movement, which was precisely +the object of the desperate resistance that had preserved this strong +point at any cost against the rushes of British bombers, trench mortars +and artillery shells for two months. + +Soldiers are not expected to undertake the impossible. Nobody who is +sane will leap into a furnace with a cup of water to put out the fire. +Only a battalion commander who is a fool will refuse, in face of +concentrated machine gun fire, to stop the charge. + +"Leave it to me!" was the unspoken message communicated to the infantry +by the sight of that careening, dipping, clambering, steel body as it +rumbled toward the miniature fortress. And the infantry, as it saw the +tank's machine guns blazing, left it to the tank, and, working its way +to the right, kept in touch with the general line of attack, confident +that no enemy would be left behind to fire into their backs. Thus, a +handful of men capable, with their bullet sprays, of holding up a +thousand men found the tables turned on them by another handful manning +a tank. They were simply "done in," as the tank officer put it. Safe +behind his armor, he had them no less at his mercy than a submarine has +a merchant ship. Even if unarmed, a tank could take care of an isolated +machine gun position by sitting on it. + +One of the most famous tanks was Crème de Menthe. She had a good press +agent and also made good. She seemed to like sugar. At least, her +glorious exploit was in a sugar factory, a huge building of brick with a +tall brick chimney which had been brought down by shell fire. Underneath +the whole were immense dugouts still intact where German machine gunners +lay low, like Br'er Rabbit, as usual, while the shells of the artillery +preparation were falling, and came out to turn on the bullet spray as +the British infantry approached. British do the same against German +attacks; only in the battle of the Somme the British had been always +attacking, always taking machine gun positions. + +Crème de Menthe, chosen comrade of the Canadians on their way to the +taking of Courcelette, was also at home among débris. The Canadians saw +that she was as she moved toward it with the glee of a sea lion toward a +school of fish. She did not go dodging warily, peering around corners +with a view to seeing the enemy before she was seen. Whatever else a +tank is, it is not a crafty boy scout. It is brazenly and nonchalantly +public in its methods, like a steam roller coming down the street into a +parade without regard to the rules of the road. Externally it is not +temperamental. It does not bother to follow the driveway or mind the +"Keep Off the Grass" sign when it goes up to the entrance of a dugout. + +And Crème de Menthe took the sugar factory and a lot of prisoners. "Why +not?" as one of the Canadians said. "Who wouldn't surrender when a beast +of that kind came up to the door? It was enough to make a man who had +drunk only light Munich beer wonder if he had 'got 'em!'" + +Prisoners were a good deal of bother to the tanks. Perhaps future tanks +will be provided with pockets for carrying prisoners. But the future of +tanks is wrapped in mystery at the present. + +This is not taking them seriously, you may say. In that case, I am only +reflecting the feelings of the army. Even if the tanks had taken Bapaume +or gone to the Kaiser's headquarters, the army would have laughed at +them. It was the Germans who took the tanks seriously; and the more +seriously the Germans took the tanks the more the British laughed. + +"Of all the double-dyed, ridiculous things, was the way that Crème de +Menthe person took the sugar factory!" said a Canadian, who broke into a +roar at the recollection of the monster's antics. "Good old girl, Crème +de Menthe! Ought to retire her for life and let her sit up on her +haunches in a café and sip her favorite tipple out of barrel with a +garden hose for a straw--which would be about her size." + +However, there was a variation of opinions among soldiers about tanks +drawn from personal experience, when life and death form opinions, of +the way it had acted as an auxiliary to their part of the line. A tank +that conquered machine-gun positions and enfiladed trenches was an +heroic comrade surrounded by a saga of glorious anecdotes. One which +became stalled and failed in its enterprise called for satirical comment +which was applied to all. + +We did not personify machine guns, or those monstrous, gloomy, big +howitzers with their gaping maws, or other weapons; but every man in the +army personified the tanks. Two or three tanks, I should have remarked, +did start for Berlin, without waiting for the infantry. The temptation +was strong. All they had to do was to keep on moving. When Germans +scuttling for cover were the only thing that the skippers could see, +they realized that they were in the wrong pew, or, in strictly military +language, that they had got beyond their "tactical objective." + +Having left most of their ammunition where they thought that it would do +the most good in the German lines, these wanderers hitched themselves +around and waddled back to their own people. For a tank is an auxiliary, +not an army, or an army staff, or a curtain of fire, and must coöperate +with the infantry or it may be in the enemy's lines to stay. There was +one tank which found itself out of gasoline and surrounded by Germans. +It could move neither way, but could still work its guns. Marooned on a +hostile shore, it would have to yield when the crew ran out of food. + +The Germans charged the beast, and got under its guns, pounded at the +door, tried to bomb and pry it open with bayonets and crawled over the +top looking for dents in the armor with the rage of hornets, but in +vain. They could not harm the crew inside and the crew could not harm +them. + +"A noisy lot!" said the tank's skipper. + +Tactical objective be--British soldiers went to the rescue of their +tank. Secure inside their shell, the commander and crew awaited the +result of the fight. After the Germans were driven away, someone went +for a can of gasoline, which gave the beast the breath of life to +retreat to its "correct tactical position." + +Even if it had not been recovered at the time, the British would have +regained possession with their next advance; for the Germans had no way +of taking a tank to the rear. There are no tractors powerful enough to +draw one across the shell-craters. It can be moved only by its own +power, and with its engine out of order it becomes a fixture on the +landscape. Stranded tanks have an appearance of Brobdingnagian +helplessness. They are fair targets for revenge by a concentration of +German artillery fire; yet when half hidden in a gigantic shell-hole +which they could not navigate they are a small target and, their tint +melting into the earth, are hard to locate. + +Seen through the glasses, disregarding ordinary roads and traveled +routes, the tanks' slatey backs seemed like prehistoric turtles whose +natural habitat is shell-mauled earth. They were the last word in the +business of modern war, symbolic of its satire and the old strife +between projectile and armor, offensive and defensive. If two tanks were +to meet in a duel, would they try to ram each other after ineffectually +rapping each other with their machine guns? + +"I hope that it knows where it is going!" exclaimed a brigadier-general, +as he watched one approach his dugout across an abandoned trench, +leaning over a little as it dipped into the edge of a shell-crater some +fifteen feet in diameter with its sureness of footing on a rainy day +when a pedestrian slipped at every step. + +There was no indication of any guiding human intelligence, let alone +human hand, directing it; and, so far as one could tell, it might have +mistaken the general's underground quarters for a storage station where +it could assuage its thirst for gasoline or a blacksmith's shop where it +could have a bent steel claw straightened. When, finally, it stopped at +his threshold, the general expressed his relief that it had not tried to +come down the steps. A door like that of a battleship turret opened, and +out of the cramped interior where space for crew and machinery is so +nicely calculated came the skipper, who saluted and reported that his +ship awaited orders for the next cruise. + +Soon the sight of tanks became part of the routine of existence, and +interest in watching an advance centered on the infantry which they +supported in a charge; for only by its action could you judge whether or +not machine gun fire had developed and, later, whether or not the tanks +were silencing it. The human element was still supreme, its movement and +its losses in life the criterion of success and failure, with an eternal +thrill that no machine can arouse. If the tanks had accomplished nothing +more than they did in the two great September attacks they would have +been well worth while. I think that they saved twenty-five thousand +casualties, which would have been the additional cost of gaining the +ground won by unassisted infantry action. When machines manned by a few +men can take the place of many battalions in this fashion they exemplify +the essential principle of doing the enemy a maximum of damage with a +minimum to your own forces. + + + + +XXVIII + +CANADA IS QUICK + + Canada's first offensive--The "surprise party"--Over nasty + ground--Canada's hour--Germans amazed--Business of the Canadians to + "get there"--Two difficult villages--Canadians make new + rules--Canada's green soldiers accomplish an unheard of + feat--Attacking on their nerve--The last burst--Fewer Canadians than + Germans, but--"Mopping up"--Rounding up the captives--An aristocratic + German and a democratic Canadian--French-Canadians--Thirteen + counter-attacks beaten--Quickness and adaptability--Canada's soldiers + make good. + + +The tanks having received their theatric due, we come to other results +of Sept. 14th when the resistance of the right was stiff and Canada had +her turn of fortune in sharing in the brilliant success on the left. + +It was the Canadians' first offensive. They knew that the eyes of the +army were upon them. Not only for themselves, after parrying blows +throughout their experience at the front, but in the name of other +battalions that had endured the remorseless grind of the Ypres salient +they were to strike the blows of retribution. The answer as to how they +would charge was written in faces clear-cut by the same climate that +gave them their nervous alertness. + +On that ugly part of the Ridge where no stable trench could be made +under the vengeful German artillery fire and small numbers were shrewdly +distributed in shell-craters and such small ditches as could be +maintained, they crept out in the darkness a few days before the attack +to "take over" from the Australians and familiarize themselves with this +tempest-torn farming land which still heaved under tornadoes of shells. +The men from the faraway island continent had provided the jumping-off +place and the men from this side of the Pacific and the equator were to +do the jumping, which meant a kind of overseas monopoly of Pozières +Ridge. + +The Germans still hated the idea of yielding all the crest that stared +down on them and hid the slope beyond which had once been theirs. They +would try again to recover some of it, but chose a time for their effort +which was proof enough that they did not know that a general attack was +coming. Just before dawn, with zero at dawn, when the Canadians were +forming on the reverse slope for their charge, the Germans laden with +bombs made theirs and secured a footing in the thin front line among the +shell-craters and, grim shadows in the night lighted by bursts of bombs +and shells, struggled as they have on many similar occasions. + +Then came the "surprise party." Not far away the Canadian charge waited +on the tick of the second which was to release the six-mile line of +infantry and the tanks. + +"We were certainly keyed up," as one of the men said. "It was up to us +all right, now." + +Breasting the tape in their readiness for the word, the dry air of North +America with its champagne exhilaration was in their lungs whipping +their red corpuscles. They had but one thought and that was to "get +there." No smooth drill-ground for that charge, but earth broken with +shell-craters as thick as holes in a pepper-box cover! A man might +stumble into one, but he must get up and go on. One fellow who twisted +his ankle found it swollen out of all shape when the charge was over. If +he had given it such a turn at home he would not have attempted to move +but would have called for a cab or assistance. Under the spell of action +he did not even know that he was hurt. + +It was Canada's hour; all the months of drill at home, all the dreams on +board the transport of charges to come, all the dull monotony of +billets, all the slimy vigil of trenches, all the labor of preparation +come to a head for every individual. Such was the impulse of the tidal +wave which broke over the crest upon the astounded Germans who had +gained a footing in the trench, engulfing them in as dramatic an +episode as ever occurred on the Somme front. + +"Give yourselves up and be quick about it! We've business elsewhere!" +said the officers. + +Yes, they had business with the German first-line trench when the +artillery curtain lifted, where few Germans were found, most of them +having been in the charge. The survivors here put up their hands before +they put up their heads from shelter and soon were on their way back to +the rear in the company of the others. + +"I guess we had the first batch of prisoners to reach an inclosure on +the morning of the 14th," said one Canadian. "We had a start with some +coming into our own front line to be captured." + +On the left Mouquet Farm, which, with its unsurpassed dugouts and +warrens surrounded by isolated machine gun posts, had repulsed previous +attacks, could not resist the determined onslaught which will share +glory, when history is written, with the storming of Courcelette. Down +hill beside the Bapaume Road swept the right and center, with +shell-craters still thick but growing fewer as the wave came out into +open fields in face of the ruins of the sugar factory, with the tank +Crème de Menthe ready to do her part. She did not take care of all the +machine guns; the infantry attended to at least one, I know. The German +artillery turned on curtains of fire, but in one case the Canadians +were not there when the curtain was laid to bar their path. They had +been too rapid for the Germans. No matter what obstacle the Germans put +in the way the business of the Canadians was to "get there"--and they +"got there." The line marked on their map from the Bapaume Road to the +east of the sugar factory as their objective was theirs. In front of +them was the village of Courcelette and in front of the British line +linked up on their right was Martinpuich. + +Spades now! Dig as hard as you have charged in order to hold the freshly +won position, with "there" become "here" and the Ridge at your backs! +The London song of "The Byng Boys are Here," which gave the name of the +Byng Boys to the Canadians after General Byng took command of their +corps, had a most realistic application. + +With the news from the right of the six-mile front that of a continuing +fierce struggle, word from the left had the definite note of success. +Was General Byng pleased with his Byng Boys? Was his superior, the army +commander, pleased with the Canadians? They had done the trick and this +is the thing that counts on such occasions; but when you take trenches +and fields, however great the gain of ground, they lack the concrete +symbol of victory which a village possesses. + +And ahead were Courcelette and Martinpuich, both only partially +demolished by shell fire and in nowise properly softened according to +the usual requirements for capitulation, with their cellars doubtless +heavily reinforced as dugouts. Officers studying the villages through +their glasses believed that they could be taken. Why not try? To try +required nerve, when it was against all tactical experience to rush on +to a new objective over such a broad front without taking time for +elaborate artillery preparation. General Byng, who believed in his men +and understood their initiative, their "get there" quality, was ready to +advance and so was the corps commander of the British in front of +Martinpuich. Sir Douglas Haig gave consent. + +"Up and at them!" then, with fresh battalions hurried up so rapidly that +they had hardly time to deploy, but answering the order for action with +the spirit of men who have been stalled in trenches and liked the new +experience of stretching their legs. With a taste of victory, nothing +could stop these highstrung reserves, except the things that kill and +wound. The first charge had succeeded and the second must succeed. + +German guns had done the customary thing by laying barrages back of the +new line across the field and shelling the crest of the Ridge to prevent +supports from coming up. It was quite correct form for the German +commander to consider the ceremony of the day over. The enemy had taken +his objective. Of course, he would not try for another immediately. +Meanwhile, his tenure of new line must be made as costly as possible. +But this time the enemy did not act according to rules. He made some new +ones. + +The reserve battalions which were to undertake the storming of the +village had gone over the ground under the barrages and were up to the +first objective, and when through the new line occupied by the men who +made the first charge they could begin their own charge. As barrages are +intermittent, one commander had his men lie down behind one until it had +ceased. Again, after waiting on another for a while he decided that he +might be late in keeping his engagement in Courcelette and gave the +order to go through, which, as one soldier said, "we did in a +hundred-yard dash sprinting a double quick--good reason why!" When the +fresh wave passed the fellows in the new line the winners of the first +objective called, "Go to it!" "You'll do it!" "Hurrah for Canada!" and +added touches of characteristic dry humor which shell fire makes a +little drier, such as a request to engage seats for the theatre at +Courcelette that evening. + +Consider that these battalions which were to take Courcelette had to +march about two miles under shell fire, part of the way over ground +that was spongy earth cut by shell-craters, before they could begin +their charge and that they were undertaking an innovation in tactics, +and you have only half an understanding of their task. Their officers +were men out of civil life in every kind of occupation, learning their +war in the Ypres salient stalemate, and now they were to have the +severest possible test in directing their units in an advance. + +There had been no time to lay out pattern plans for each company's +course in this second rush according to map details, which is so +important against modern defenses. The officers did not know where +machine guns were hidden; they were uncertain of the strength of the +enemy who had had all day to prepare for the onslaught on his bastions +in the village. It was pitched battle conditions against set defenses. +Under curtains of fire, with the concentration heavy at one point and +weak at another, with machine gun or sniping fire developing in some +areas, with the smoke and the noise, with trenches to cross, the +business of keeping a wave of men in line of attack for a long +distance--difficult enough in a manoeuver--was possible only when the +initiative and an understanding of the necessities of the situation +exist in the soldiers themselves. If one part of the line was not up, if +a section was being buffeted by salvos of shells, the officers had to +meet the emergency; and officers as well as men were falling, companies +being left with a single officer or with only a "non-com" in charge. +Unless a man was down he knew that his business was to "get there" and +his direction was straight ahead in line with the men on his right and +left. + +With dead and wounded scattered over the field behind them, all who +could stand on their feet, including officers and men knocked over and +buried by shells and with wounds of arms and heads and even legs which +made them hobble, reached the edge of the village on time and lay down +to await the lifting of the fire of their own guns before the final +rush. + +After charging such a distance and paying the toll of casualties exacted +they enjoyed a breathing space, a few minutes in which to steady their +thoughts for the big thing before, "lean for the hunt," they sprang up +to be in for the fray with the burst of the last shells from their guns. +They knew what to do. It had been drilled into them; they had talked it +and dreamed it in billets when routine became humdrum, these men with +practical minds who understood the essentials of their task. + +There were fewer Canadians charging through the streets than there were +Germans in the village at that moment. The Canadians did not know it, +but if they had it would have made no difference, such was their spirit. +Secure in their dugouts from bombardment, the first that the Germans, in +their systematized confidence that the enemy would not try for a second +objective that day, knew of the presence of the Canadians was when the +attackers were at the door and a St. Lawrence River incisiveness was +calling on the occupants to come out as they were prisoners--which +proves the advantage of being quick. The second wave was left to "mop +up" while the first wave passed on through the village to nail down the +prize by digging new trenches. Thus, they had their second objective, +though on the left of the line where the action had been against a part +of the old first-line system of trenches progress had been slow and +fighting bitter. + +The Canadians who had to "mop up" had the "time of their lives" and some +ticklish moments. What a scene! Germans in clean uniforms coming out of +their dugouts blinking in surprise at their undoing and in disgust, +resentment and suppressed rage! Canadians, dust-covered from +shell-bursts, eyes flashing, laughing, rushing about on the job in the +midst of shouts of congratulation and directions to prisoners among the +ruins, and the German commander so angered by the loss of the village +that he began pouring in shells on Germans and Canadians at the same +time! Two colonels were among the captured, a regimental and a battalion +commander. The senior was a baron--one cannot leave him out of any +narrative--and inclined to bear himself with patrician contempt toward +the Canadian democracy, which is a mistake for barons in his situation +with every Canadian more or less of a king that day. When he tried to +start his men into a revolt his hosts acted promptly, with the result +that the uprising was nipped in the bud and the baron was shot through +the leg, leaving him still "fractious and patronizing." Then the little +colonel of the French-Canadians said, "I think I might as well shoot you +in a more vital part and have done with it!" or something equally to the +point and suddenly the baron became quite democratic himself. + +One of the battalions that took Courcelette was French-Canadian. No +other Canadian battalion will deny them the glory that they won that +day, and it must have been irritating to the German baron to surrender +superior numbers to the stocky type that we see in New England factory +towns and on their farms in Quebec, for they now formed the battalion, +the frontiersmen, the _courrier de bois_, having been mostly killed in +the salient. Shall I forget that little private, forty years old if he +were a day, with a hole from shrapnel in his steel helmet and the bit +of purple and white ribbon worn proudly on his breast, who, when I asked +him how he felt after he received the clout from a shell-fragment, +remarked blandly that it had knocked him down and made his head ache! + +"You have the military cross!" I said. + +"Yais, sir. I'm going to win the Victoria Cross!" he replied, saluting. +Talk about "the spirit that quickeneth!" + +Or, shall I forget the French-Canadian colonel telling his story of how +he and the battalion on his left in equal difficulties held the line +beyond Courcelette with his scattered men against thirteen +counter-attacks that night; how he had to go from point to point +establishing his posts in the dark, and his repeated "'I golly!" of +wonder at how he had managed to hold on, with its ring of naïve +unrealization of the humor of being knocked over by a shell and finding, +"'I golly!" that he had not been hurt! They had not enlisted freely, the +French-Canadians, but those who had proved that if the war emotion had +taken hold of them as it had of the rest of Canada they would not have +been found wanting. + +"'I golly!" they had to fight from the very fact that there were only a +few to strike for old France and for the martial honor of Quebec. And +they held all they took as sturdily as the other Canadian battalion in +front of the village when the Germans awakened to revenge for the loss +of Courcelette. + +From start to finish of that great day it had been quickness that +counted; quickness to realize opportunities; alertness of individual +action in "mopping up" after the village was taken; prompt adaptability +to situations which is the gift of the men of a new country; and that +individual confidence of the Canadian once he was not tied to a trench +and might let his initiative have full play, man to man, which is not a +thing of drill or training but of inheritance and environment. On the +right, Martinpuich was taken by the British and also held. + +It was in rain and mist after the battle, while the dead still lay on +the field, that I went over the Ridge and along the path of the Canadian +charges, wondering how they had passed through the curtains of fire when +I saw shrapnel cases so thick that you could step from one to another; +wondering how men could survive in the shell-craters and the poor, +tumbled trenches in the soft, shell-mashed earth; wondering at the whole +business of their being here in France, a veteran army two years after +the war had begun. I saw them dripping from the rains, mud-spattered, +but in the joy of having made good when their turn came, and in a way +that was an exemplification of Canadian character in every detail. "Heap +good!" I suppose that big Sioux Indian, looking as natural seated in a +trench in his imperturbability as if he were seated in front of his +tepee, would have put it. He was seeing a strange business, but high +explosives shaking the earth, aeroplanes overhead, machine guns rattling +in the war of the Pale Faces he accepted without emotion. + +With the second battle of Ypres, with St. Eloi, Hooge, Mount Sorrell, +and Observatory Ridge, Courcelette had completed the cycle of soldierly +experiences for those who bore the Maple Leaf in France of the +_Fleur-de-lis_. Officers and men of every walk of life called to a new +occupation, a democracy out of the west submitting to discipline had +been inured and trained to a new life of risk and comradeship and +sacrifice for a cause. It will seem strange to be out of khaki and to go +to the office, or the store, or to get up to milk the cows at dawn; +"but," as one man said, "we'll manage to adapt ourselves to it without +spending nights in a mud hole or asking the neighbors to throw any bombs +over the fence in order to make the change gradual." + + + + +XXIX + +THE HARVEST OF VILLAGES + + High and low visibilities--Low Visibility a pro-German--High + Visibility and his harvest smile--Thirty villages taken by the + British--The 25th of September--The Road of the Entente--Twelve miles + of artillery fire--Two villages taken--Combles--British and French + meet in a captured village--English stubbornness--Dugouts holding a + thousand men--Capture of Thiepval. + + +Always we were talking of the two visibilities, high and low. I thought +of them as brothers with the same meteorological parent, one a good and +the other an evil genius. Every morning we looked out of doors to see +which had the stage. Thus, we might know whether or not the "zero" of an +attack set for to-day would be postponed, as it was usually if the sun +gave no sign of appearing, though not always; sometimes the staff gave +those who tried to guess what was in its mind a surprise. + +Low Visibility, a pro-German who was in his element in the Ypres salient +in midwinter, delighted in rain, mist, fog and thick summer +haze--anything that prevented observers from seeing the burst of shells, +transformed shell-craters into miniature lakes and fields into mire to +founder charges, and stalled guns. + +High Visibility was as merry as his wicked brother was dour. He sent the +sunlight streaming into your room in the morning, washed the air of +particles enabling observers to see shell-bursts at long range, and +favored successful charges under accurate curtains of fire--the patron +saint of all modern artillery work, who would be most at home in Arizona +where you could carry on an offensive the year around. + +During September his was a glad harvest smile which revealed figures on +the chalk welts a mile away as clearly as if within a stone's throw +under the glasses and limned the tree-trunks of ruined villages in sharp +outlines. He was your companion now when you might walk up the Ridge +and, standing among shell-craters still as a frozen sea where but lately +an inferno had raged, look out across the fields toward new lines of +shell fire and newly won villages on lower levels. He helped to make the +month of September when he was most needed the most successful month of +the offensive, with its second great attack on the 25th turning the +table of losses entirely against the Germans and bringing many guests to +the prisoners' inclosures. + +These were days that were rich with results, days of harvest, indeed, +when the ceaseless fighting on the Ridge and the iron resolution of a +commander had its reward; when advances gathered in villages till the +British had taken thirty and the French, with fresh efforts after their +own chipping away at strong points, also had jumping-off places for +longer drives as they swung in with their right on the Somme in +combination with British attacks. + +The two armies advanced as one on the 25th. The scene recalled the +splendor of the storming of Contalmaison which, if not for its waste and +horror, might lead men to go to war for the glory of the +panorama--glorious to the observer in this instance when he thought only +of the spectacle, in a moment of oblivion to the hard work of +preparation and the savage work of execution. Our route to a point of +observation for the attack which was at midday took us along the Road of +the Entente, as I called it, where French battalions marched with +British battalions, stately British motor trucks mixed with the lighter +French vehicles, and Gaul sat resting on one side of the road and Briton +on the other as German prisoners went by, and there was a mingling of +blue and khaki which are both of low visibility against the landscape +yet as distinct as the characters of the two races, each with its own +way of fighting true to racial bent yet accomplishing its purpose. + +Just under the slope where we sat the British guns linked up with the +French. To the northward the British were visible right away past Ginchy +and Guillemont to Flers and the French clear to the Somme. We were +almost midway of a twelve-mile stretch of row upon row of flashes of +many calibers, the French more distinct at the foot of a slope +fearlessly in the open like the British, a long machine-loom of gunnery +with some monsters far back sending up great clouds of black smoke from +Mt. St. Quentin which hid our view of Péronne. + +Now it was all together for the guns in the preliminary whirlwind, with +_soixante-quinzes_ ahead sparkling up and down like the flashes of an +automatic electric sign, making a great, thrumming beat of sound in the +valley, and the 120's near by doing their best, too, with their wicked +crashes, while the ridges beyond were a bobbing canopy of looming, +curling smoke. The units of the two armies might have been wired to a +single switchboard with heartbeats under blue and khaki jackets timed +together in the final expression of _entente cordiale_ become _entente +furieuse_. + +The sunlight had the golden kindness of September and good Brother High +Visibility seemed to make it a personal matter to-day against the +Kaiser. Distinct were the moving figures of the gunners and bright was +the gleam of the empty shells dropping out of the breach of the +_soixante-quinze_ as the barrel swung back in place and of the loaded +shells going home; distinct were paths and trenches and all the detail +of the tired, worn landscape, with the old trenches where we were +sitting tumbling in and their sides fringed with wild grass and weeds, +which was Nature's own little say in the affair and a warning that in a +few years after the war she and the peasant will have erased war's +landmarks. + +The lifting of the barrage as the infantry went in was signaled to the +eye when the canopy of shell-smoke began to grow thin and gossamery for +want of fresh bursts and another was forming beyond, as if the master +hand at such things had lifted a long trail of cloud from one set of +crests to another; only, nature never does things with such mathematical +precision. All in due order to keep its turn in the program the German +artillery began to reply according to its system of distribution, with +guns and ammunition plentiful but inferior in quantity to the French. +They did not like that stretch of five hundred yards behind a slope +where they thought that the most troublesome batteries were, and the +puffs of shrapnel smoke thickened dimming the flashes from the bursting +jackets until a wall of mist hung there. A torrent of five-point-nines +was tearing up fresh craters with high explosives back of other gun +positions, and between the columns of smoke we saw the French gunners +going on unconcerned by this plowing of the landscape which was not +disturbing them. + +Far off on the plain where a British ammunition train was visible the +German loosed more anger, whipping the fields into geysers; but the +caissons moved on as if this were a signal of all aboard for the next +station without the Germans being aware that their target was gone. A +British battery advancing at another point evidently was not in view of +the Germans two thousand yards away, though good Brother High Visibility +gave our glasses the outline of the horses at five thousand yards. + +Thus, you watched to see what the Germans were shooting at, with +suspense at one point and at another the joy of the observer who sees +the one who is "it" in blind man's buff missing his quarry. Some +shrapnel searching a road in front and a scream overhead indicated a +parcel of high explosives for a village at the rear. In Morval where +houses were still standing, their white walls visible through the +glasses, there was a kind of flash which was not that of a shell but +prolonged, like a windowpane flaming under the sun, which we knew meant +that the village was taken, as was also Gueudecourt we learned +afterward. + +Reserves were filing along a road between the tiers of guns, helmets on +the backs of heads French fashion when there is no fire, with the easy +marching stride of the French and figures disappeared and reappeared on +the slope as they advanced. Wounded were coming along the winding gray +streak of highway near where we sat and a convoy of prisoners passed led +by a French guard whose attitude seemed to have an eye-twinkling of "See +who's here and see what I've got!" Not far away was a French private at +a telephone. + +"It goes well!" he said. "Rancourt is taken and we are advancing on +Frégicourt. Combles is a ripe plum." + +All the while Combles had been an oasis in the shell fire, the one place +that had immunity, although it had almost as much significance in the +imagination of the French people as Thiepval in that of the English. +They looked forward to its storming as a set dramatic event and to its +fall as one of the turning-points in the campaign. Often a position +which was tactically of little importance, to our conception, would +become the center of great expectations to the outside world, while the +conquest of a strong point with its nests of machine guns produced no +responsive thrill. + +Combles was a village and a large village, its size perhaps accounting +for the importance associated with it when it had almost none in a +military sense. Yet correspondents knew that readers at the breakfast +table would be hungry for details about Combles, where the taking of the +Schwaben Redoubt or Regina Trench, which were defended savagely, had no +meaning. Its houses were very distinct, some being but little damaged +and some of the shade trees still retaining their branches. This town +nestling in a bowl was not worth the expenditure of much ammunition when +what the Germans wanted to hold and the Anglo-French troops to gain was +the hills around it. Rancourt was the other side of Combles, which +explains the plum simile. + +The picturesque thing was that the British troops were working up on one +side of Combles and the French on the other side; and the next morning +after the British had gathered in some escaping Germans who seemed to +have lost their way, the blue and the khaki met in the main street +without indulging in formal ceremonies and exchanged a "Good morning!" +and "_Bon jour!_" and "Here we are! Voyla! Quee pawnsays-vous!" and "Ça +va bien! Oh, yais, I tink so!" and found big piles of shells and other +munitions which the Germans could not take away and cellars with many +wounded who had been brought in from the hills--and that was all there +was to it: a march in and look around, when for glory's sake, at least, +the victors ought to have delivered congratulatory addresses. But tired +soldiers will not do that sort of thing. I shall not say that they are +spoiling pictures for the Salon, for there are incidents enough to keep +painters going for a thousand years; which ought to be one reason for +not having a war for another thousand! + +As for Thiepval, the British staff, inconsiderate of the correspondents +this time--they really were not conducting the war for us--did not +inform us of the attack, being busy those days reaping villages and +trenches after they were over the Ridge while High Visibility had Low +Visibility shut up in the guardhouse. Besides, the British were so near +Thiepval as the result of their persistent advances that its taking was +only another step forward, one of savage fighting, however, in the same +kind of operations that I have described in the chapter on "Watching a +Charge." The débris beaten into dust had been so scattered that one +could not tell where the village began or ended, but the smudge was a +symbol to the army no less than to the British public--a symbol of the +boasted impregnability of the first-line German fortifications which had +resisted the attack of July 1st--and its capture a reward of English +stubbornness appealing to the race which is not unconscious of the +characteristic that has carried its tongue and dominion over the world. + +Point was given, too, by the enormous dugouts, surpassing previous +exhibits, capable of holding a garrison of a thousand men and a hospital +which, under the bursts of huge shells of the months of British +bombardment, had been safe under ground. The hospital was equipped with +excellent medical apparatus as well as anæsthetics manufactured in +Germany, of which the British were somewhat short. The German battalion +that held the place had been associated with the work of preparing its +defenses and were practically either all taken prisoner or killed, so +far as could be learned. They had sworn that they would never lose +Thiepval; but the deeper the dugouts the farther upstairs men inside +have to climb in order to get to the door before the enemy, who arrives +at the threshold as the whirlwind barrage lifts. + +As I have said, Thiepval was not on the very crest of the Ridge and on +the summit the same elaborate works had been built to hold this high +ground. We watched other attacks under curtains of fire as the British +pressed on. Sometimes we could see the Germans moving out in the open +from their dugouts at the base of the hill in St. Pierre Divion and +driven to cover as the British guns sniped at them with shrapnel. +Resistlessly the British infantry under its covering barrages kept on +till the crest and all its dugouts and galleries were gained, thus +breaking back the old first-line fortifications stage by stage and +forcing the German into the open, where he must dig anew on equal terms. + +The capture of Thiepval did not mean that its ruins were to have any +rest from shells, for the German guns had their turn. They seemed fond +of sending up spouts from a little pond in the foreground, which had no +effect except to shower passing soldiers with dirty water. However much +the pond was beaten it was still there; and I was struck by the fact +that this was a costly and unsuccessful system of drainage for such an +efficient people as the Germans to apply. + + + + +XXX + +FIVE GENERALS AND VERDUN + + Sixty miles an hour to meet General Joffre--Joffre somewhat like + Grant--Two figures which France will remember for all time--Joffre + and Castelnau--Two very old friends--At Verdun--What Napoleon and + Wellington might have thought--A staff whose feet and mind never + dragged--The hero of Douaumont, General Nivelle--Simplicity--Men who + believe in giving blows--A true soldier--A prized photograph of + Joffre--The drama of Douaumont--General Mangin, corps commander at + Verdun--An eye that said "Attack!"--A five-o'clock-in-the-morning + corps--The old fortress town, Verdun--The effort of + Colossus--Germany's high water mark--Thrifty fighters, the + French--Germany good enough to win against Rumania, but not at + Verdun. + + +That spirited friend Lieutenant T., at home in an English or a French +mess or walking arm-in-arm with the _poilus_ of his old battalion, +required quick stepping to keep up with him when we were not in his +devil of a motor car that carried me on a flying visit to the French +lines before I started for home and did not fail even when sixty miles +an hour were required to keep the appointment with General Joffre--which +we did, to the minute. + +Many people have told of sitting across the table in his private office +from the victor of the Marne; and it was when he was seated and began to +talk that you appreciated the power of the man, with his great head and +its mass of white hair and the calm, largely-molded features, who could +give his orders when the fate of France was at stake and then retire to +rest for the night knowing that his part was done for the day and the +rest was with the army. In common with all men when experience and +responsibility have ripened their talents, though lacking in the gift of +formal speech-making, as Grant was, he could talk well, in clear +sentences, whose mold was set by precise thought, which brought with it +the eloquence that gains its point. It was more than personality, in +this instance, that had appeal. He was the personification of a great +national era. + +In view of changes which were to come, another glimpse that I had of him +in the French headquarters town which was not by appointment is +peculiarly memorable. When I was out strolling I saw on the other side +of the street two figures which all France knew and will know for all +time. Whatever vicissitudes of politics, whatever campaigns ensue, +whatever changes come in the world after the war, Joffre's victory at +the Marne and Castelnau's victory in Lorraine, which was its complement +in masterly tactics, make their niches in the national Pantheon secure. + +The two old friends, comrades of army life long before fame came to +them one summer month, Commander-in-Chief and Chief of Staff, were +taking their regular afternoon promenade--Joffre in his familiar short, +black coat which made his figure the burlier, his walk affected by the +rheumatism in his legs, though he certainly had no rheumatism in his +head, and Castelnau erect and slight of figure, his slimness heightened +by his long, blue overcoat--chatting as they walked slowly, and behind +them followed a sturdy guard in plain clothes at a distance of a few +paces, carrying two cushions. Joffre stopped and turned with a +"you-don't-say-so" gesture and a toss of his head at something that +Castelnau had told him. + +Very likely they were not talking of the war; indeed, most likely it was +about friends in their army world, for both have a good wit, a keen and +amiable understanding of human nature. At all events, they were enjoying +themselves. So they passed on into the woods, followed by the guard who +would place their cushions on their favorite seat, and the two who had +been lieutenants and captains and colonels together would continue their +airing and their chat until they returned to the business of directing +their millions of men. + + * * * * * + +It was raining in this darkened French village near Verdun and a passing +battalion went dripping by, automobiles sent out sprays of muddy water +from their tires, and over in the crowded inclosures the German +prisoners taken at Douaumont stood in the mud waiting to be entrained. +Occasionally a soldier or an officer came out of a doorway that sent +forth a stream of light, and upstairs in the municipal building where we +went to pay our respects to the general commanding the army that had won +the victory which had thrilled France as none had since the Marne, we +found that it was the regular hour for his staff to report. They +reported standing in the midst of tables and maps and standing received +their orders. In future, when I see the big room with its mahogany table +and fat armchairs reserved for directors' meetings I shall recall +equally important conferences in the affairs of a nation that were held +under simpler auspices. + +This conference seemed in keeping with the atmosphere of the place: +nobody in any flurry of haste and nobody wasting time. One after another +the officers reported; and whatever their ages, for some would have +seemed young for great responsibilities two years before, they were men +going about their business alert, self-possessed, reflective of the +character of their leader as staffs always are, men whose feet and whose +minds never dragged. When they spoke to anybody politeness was the +lubricant of prompt exchange of thought, a noiseless, eight-cylinder, +hundred-horse-power sort of staff. If the little Corsican could have +looked on, if he could have seen the taking of Douaumont, or if +Wellington could have seen the taking of the Ridge, I think that they +would have been well satisfied--and somewhat jealous to find that +military talent was so widespread. + +The man who came out of the staff-room would have won his marshal's +baton in Napoleon's day, I suppose, though he was out of keeping with +those showy times. I did not then know that he was to be +Commander-in-Chief; only that all France thrilled with his name, which +time will forever associate with Douaumont. At once you felt the dynamic +quality under his agreeable manner and knew that General Nivelle did +things swiftly and quietly, without wasteful expenditure of reserve +force, which he could call upon when needed by turning on the current. + +There was a stranger come to call; it was a rainy night; we had better +not drive back to the hotel at Bar-le-Duc, he suggested, but find a +billet in town, which was hospitality not to be imposed upon when one +could see how limited quarters were in this small village. Some day I +suppose a plaque will be put up on the door of that small house, with +its narrow hall and plain hat-rack and the sitting-room turned into a +dining-room, saying that General (perhaps it will be Marshal) Nivelle +lived here during the battle of Verdun. It is a fine gift, simplicity. +Some great men, or those who are called great, lack it; but nothing is +so attractive in any man. No sentry at the door, no servant to open it. +You simply went in, hung up your cap and took off your raincoat. + +Hundreds of staffs were sitting down to the same kind of dinner with a +choice of red or white wine and the menu was that of an average French +household. I recall this and other staff dinners, in contrast to costly +plate and rich food in a house where a gold Croesus with diamond eyes +and necklace should have been on the mantelpiece as the household god, +with the thought that even war is a good thing if it centers ambition on +objects other than individual gain. Without knowing it, Joffre, +Castelnau, Foch, Pétain, Nivelle and others were the richest men in +France. + +A colonel when the war began, in the sifting by Father Joffre to find +real leaders by the criterion of success General Nivelle had risen to +command an army. Wherever he was in charge he got the upper hand of the +enemy. All that he and his officers said reflected one spirit--that of +the offensive. They were men who believed in giving blows. A nation +looking for a man who could win victories said, "Here he is!" when its +people read the _communiqué_ about Douaumont one morning. He had been +going his way, doing the tasks in hand according to his own method, and +at one of the stations fame found him. Soldiers have their philosophy +and these days when it includes fame, probably fame never comes. This +time it came to a soldier without any of the showy qualities that fame +used to prefer, one who, I should say, was quite unaffected by it owing +to a greater interest in his work; a man without powerful influence to +urge his promotion. If you had met him before the war he would have +impressed you with his kindly features, well-shaped head and vitality, +and if you know soldiers you would have known that he was highly trained +in his profession. His staff was a family, but the kind of family where +every member has telepathic connection with its head; I could not +imagine that any officer who had not would be at home in the little +dining-room. Readiness of perception and quickness of action in +intelligent obedience were inherent. + +Over in his office in the municipal building where we went after dinner +the general took something wrapped in tissue paper out of a drawer and +from his manner, had he been a collector, I should have known that it +was some rare treasure. When he undid the paper I saw a photograph of +General Joffre autographed with a sentiment for the occasion. + +"He gave it to me for Douaumont!" said General Nivelle, a touch of pride +in his voice--the only sign of pride that I noticed. + +There spoke the soldier to whom praise from his chief was the best +praise and more valued than any other encomium. + +When I spoke of Douaumont he drew out the map and showed me his order of +the day, which had a soldierly brevity that made words keen-edged tools. +The attacking force rushed up overnight and appeared as a regulated +tidal wave of men, their pace timed under cover of curtains of fire +which they hugged close, then over the German trenches and on into the +fort. Six thousand prisoners and forty-five hundred French casualties! +It was this dramatic, this complete and unequivocal success that had +captured the imagination of France, but he was not dramatic in telling +it. He made it a military evolution on a piece of paper; though when he +put his pencil down on Douaumont and held it fast there for a moment, +saying, "And that is all for the present!" the pencil seemed to turn +into steel. + +All for the present! And the future? That of the army of France was to +be in his hands. He had the supreme task. He would approach it as he +had approached all other tasks. + + * * * * * + +You had only to look at General Mangin commanding the corps before +Verdun to know that attack was not alone a system but a gospel with him. +Five stripes on his arm for wounds, all won in colonial work, +sun-browned, swart, with a strong, abutting chin which might have been a +fit point for Nivelle's pencil, an eye that said "Attack!" and could +twinkle with the wisdom of many campaigns! + +"General Joffre sat in that chair two hours before the advance," he +said, with the same respectful awe that other generals had exhibited +toward the Commander-in-Chief. + +The time had come for the old leader, grown weary, to go; for the +younger men of the school which the war has produced, with its curtains +of fire and wave attacks, to take his place. But the younger ones in the +confidence of their system could look on the old leader while he lived +as the great, indomitable figure of the critical stages of the war. + +A man of iron, Mangin, with a breadth of chest in keeping with his chin, +who could bear the strain of command which had brought down many +generals from sheer physical incapacity. Month after month this chin had +stood out against German drives, all the while wanting to be in its +natural element of the offensive. His resolute, outright solution of +problems by human ratios would fit him into any age or any climate. He +was at home leading a punitive expedition or in the complicated business +of Verdun. Whether he was using a broadsword or a curtain of fire he +proposed to strike his enemy early and hard and keep on striking. In the +course of talking with him I spoke of the contention that in some cases +in modern war men could be too brave. + +"Rarely!" he replied, a single word which had the emphasis of both that +jaw and that shrewd, piercing eye. + +"What is the best time to go out to the front?" I asked the general. + +"Five o'clock in the morning!" + +The officer who escorted me did not think anything of getting up at that +hour. Mangin's is a five-o'clock-in-the-morning corps. + +Shall I describe that town on the banks of the Meuse which has been +described many times? Or that citadel built by Vauban, with dynamos and +electric light in its underground chambers and passages, its hospitals, +shops, stores and barrack room, so safe under its walls and roof of +masonry that the Germans presciently did not waste their shells on it +but turned them with particular vengeance on the picturesque old houses +along the river bank, neglecting the barracks purposely in view of their +usefulness to the conquerors when Mecca was theirs. There must be +something sacred to a Frenchman in the citadel which held life secure +and in the ruins which bore their share of the blows upon this old +fortress town in the lap of the hills, looking out toward hills which +had been the real defense. + +Interest quickened on the way to the Verdun front as you came to the +slopes covered with torn and fallen trees, where the Germans laid their +far-reaching curtains of fire to catch the French reserves struggling +through mud and shell-craters on those February and March days to the +relief of the front line. Only when you have known the life of an army +in action in winter in such a climate can you appreciate the will that +drove men forward to the attack and the will of the defenders against +outnumbering guns, having to yield, point by point, with shrewd thrift, +small bands of men in exposed places making desperate resistance against +torrents of shells. + +Verdun was German valor at its best and German gunnery at its mightiest, +the effort of Colossus shut in a ring of steel to force a decision; and +the high-water mark of German persistence was where you stood on the +edge of the area of mounds that shells had heaped and craters that +shells had scooped by the concentration of fire on Fort Souville. A few +Germans in the charge reached here, but none returned. The survivors +entered Verdun, the French will tell you with a shrug, as prisoners. +Down the bare slope with its dead grass blotched by craters the eye +travels and then up another slope to a crest which you see as a cumulus +of shell-tossed earth under an occasional shell-burst. That is +Douaumont, whose taking cost the Germans such prolonged and bloody +effort and aroused the Kaiser to a florid outburst of laudation of his +Brandenburgers who, by its capture, had, as Germany then thought, +brought France to her death-gasp. + +On that hill German prestige and system reached their zenith; and the +answer eight months later was French _élan_ which, in two hours, with +the swiftness and instinctive cohesion of democracy drilled and +embattled and asking no spur from an autocrat, swept the Germans off the +summit. From other charges I could visualize the precise and spirited +movement of those blue figures under waves of shell fire in an attack +which was the triumphant example of the latest style of offensive +against frontal positions. There was no Kaiser to burst into rhetoric to +thank General Nivelle, who had his reward in an autographed photograph +from Father Joffre; and the men of that charge had theirs in the +gratitude of a people. + +Fort Vaux, on another crest at the right, was still in German hands, but +that, too, was to be regained with the next rush. Yes, it was good to +be at Verdun after Douaumont had been retaken, standing where you would +have been in range of a German sniper a week before. Turning as on a +pivot, you could identify through the glasses all the positions whose +names are engraved on the French mind. Not high these circling hills, +the keystone of a military arch, but taken together it was clear how, in +this as in other wars, they were nature's bastion at the edge of the +plain that lay a misty line in the distance. + +Either in front or to the rear of Souville toward Verdun the surprising +thing was how few soldiers you saw and how little transport within range +of German guns; which impressed you with the elastic system of the +French, who are there and are not there. Let an attack by the Germans +develop and soldiers would spring out of the earth and the valleys echo +with the thunder of guns. A thrifty people, the French. + +When studying those hills that had seen the greatest German offensive +after I had seen the offensive on the Somme, I thought of all that the +summer had meant on the Western front, beginning with Douaumont lost and +ending with Douaumont regained and the sweep over the conquered Ridge; +and I thought of another general, Sir Douglas Haig, who had had to train +his legions, begin with bricks and mortar to make a house under shell +fire and, day by day, with his confidence in "the spirit that +quickeneth" as the great asset, had wrought with patient, far-seeing +skill a force in being which had never ceased attacking and drawing in +German divisions to hold the line that those German divisions were meant +to break. + +Von Falkenhayn was gone from power; the Crown Prince who thirsted for +war had had his fill and said that war was an "idiocy." It was the +sentiment of the German trenches which put von Falkenhayn out; the +silent ballots of that most sensitive of all public opinion, casting its +votes with the degree of its disposition to stand fire, which no officer +can control by mere orders. + +With the Verdun offensive over, the German soldiers struggling on the +Ridge had a revelation which was translated into a feeling that +censorship could not stifle of the failure of the campaign to crush +France. They called for the man who had won victories and the Kaiser +gave them von Hindenburg, whom fortune favored when he sent armies +inspirited by his leadership against amateur soldiers in veteran +confidence, while the weather had stopped the Allied offensive in the +West. + +Imagine Lee's men returning from Gettysburg to be confronted by +inexperienced home militia and their cry, "The Yanks have given us a +rough time of it, but you fellows get out of the way!" Such was the +feeling of that German Army as it went southward; not the army that it +was, but quite good enough an army to win against Rumania with the +system that had failed at Verdun. + + + + +XXXI + +_AU REVOIR_, SOMME! + + Sir Douglas Haig--Atmosphere at headquarters something of Oxford and + of Scotland--Sir Henry Rawlinson--"Degumming" the inefficient--Back + on the Ridge again--The last shell-burst--Good-bye to the mess--The + fellow war-correspondents--_Bon voyage_. + + +The fifth of the great attacks, which was to break in more of the old +first-line fortifications, taking Beaumont-Hamel and other villages, was +being delayed by Brother Low Visibility, who had been having his innings +in rainy October and early November, when the time came for me to say +good-byes and start homeward. + +Sir Douglas Haig had been as some invisible commander who was +omnipresent in his forceful control of vast forces. His disinclination +for reviews or display was in keeping with his nature and his conception +of his task. The army had glimpses of him going and coming in his car +and observers saw him entering or leaving an army or a corps +headquarters, his strong, calm features expressive of confidence and +resolution. + +There were many instances of his fine sensitiveness, his quick +decisions, his Scotch phrases which could strip a situation bare of +non-essentials. It was good that a man with his culture and charm could +have the qualities of a great commander. In the chateau which was his +Somme headquarters where final plans were made, the final word given +which put each issue to the test, the atmosphere had something of Oxford +and of Scotland and of the British regular army, and everything seemed +done by a routine that ran so smoothly that the appearance of routine +was concealed. + +Here he had said to me early in the offensive that he wanted me to have +freedom of observation and to criticise as I chose, and he trusted me +not to give military information to the enemy. When I went to take my +leave and thank him for his courtesies the army that he had drilled had +received the schooling of battle and tasted victory. How great his task +had been only a soldier could appreciate, and only history can do +justice to the courage that took the Ridge or the part that it had +played in the war. + +Upstairs in a small room of another chateau the Commander-in-Chief and +the Commander of the Fourth of the group of armies under Sir +Douglas--who had played polo together in India as subalterns, Sir Henry +Rawlinson being still as much of a Guardsman as Sir Douglas was a +Scot--had held many conferences. Sir Henry could talk sound soldierly +sense about the results gained and look forward, as did the whole army, +to next summer when the maximum of skill and power should be attained. +In common with Nivelle, both were leaders who had earned their way in +battle, which was promoting the efficient and shelving or "degumming," +in the army phrase, the inefficient. Every week, every day, I might say, +the new army organization had tightened. + +With steel helmet on and gas mask over the shoulder for the last time, I +had a final promenade up to the Ridge, past the guns and Mouquet Farm, +picking my way among the shell-craters and other grisly reminders of the +torment that the fighters had endured to a point where I could look out +over the fields toward Bapaume. For eight and ten miles the way had been +blazed free of the enemy by successive attacks. Five hundred yards ahead +"krumps" splashing the soft earth told where the front line was and +around me was the desert which such pounding had created, with no one in +the immediate neighborhood except some artillery officers hugging a +depression and spotting the fall of shells from their guns just short of +Bapaume and calling out the results by telephone, over one of the +strands of the spider's web of intelligence which they had unrolled from +a reel when they came. I joined them for a few minutes in their retreat +below the skyline and listened to their remarks about Brother Low +Visibility, who soon was to have the world for his own in winter mists, +rain and snow, limiting the army's operations by his perversity until +spring came. + +And so back, as the diarists say, by the grassless and blasted route +over which I had come. After I was in the car I heard one of the wicked +screams with its unpleasant premonition, which came to an end by +whipping out a ball of angry black smoke short of a near-by howitzer, +which was the last shell-burst that I saw. + +Good-bye, too, to my English comrades in a group at the doorway: to +Robinson with his poise, his mellowness, his wisdom, his well-balanced +sentences, who had seen the world around from mining camps of the west +to Serbian refugee camps; to "our Gibbs," ever sweet-tempered, writing +his heart out every night in the human wonder of all he saw in burning +sentences that came crowding to his pencil-point which raced on till he +was exhausted, though he always revived at dinner to undertake any +controversy on behalf of a better future for the whole human race; to +blithesome Thomas who will never grow up, making words dance a tune, +quoting Horace in order to forget the shells, all himself with his coat +off and swinging a peasant's scythe; to Philips the urbane, not saying +much but coming to the essential point, our scout and cartographer, who +knew all the places on the map between the Somme and the Rhine and heard +the call of Pittsburgh; to Russell, that pragmatic, upstanding expert in +squadrons and barrages, who saved all our faces as reporters by knowing +news when he saw it, arbiter of mess conversations, whose pungent wit +had a movable zero--luck to them all! May Robinson have a stately +mansion on the Thames where he can study nature at leisure; Gibbs never +want for something to write about; Thomas have six crops of hay a year +to mow and a garden with a different kind of bird nesting in every tree; +Philips a new pipe every day and a private yacht sailing on an ocean of +maps; Russell a home by the sea where he can watch the ships come +in--when the war is over. + +It happened that High Visibility had slightly the upper hand over his +gloomy brother the day they bade me _bon voyage_. My last glimpse of the +cathedral showed it clear against the sky; and ahead many miles of rich, +familiar landscape of Picardy and Artois were to unfold before I took +the cross-channel steamer. I knew that I had felt the epic touch of +great events. + + +THE END + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's My Second Year of the War, by Frederick Palmer + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MY SECOND YEAR OF THE WAR *** + +***** This file should be named 18497-8.txt or 18497-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/4/9/18497/ + +Produced by Rick Niles, Graeme Mackreth and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: My Second Year of the War + +Author: Frederick Palmer + +Release Date: June 4, 2006 [EBook #18497] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MY SECOND YEAR OF THE WAR *** + + + + +Produced by Rick Niles, Graeme Mackreth and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<p class="center" style="margin-bottom: 8em;"> +<img src="images/illus01.png" alt="cover" /> +</p> + + + + + + +<h2> +MY SECOND YEAR</h2> +<h2>OF THE WAR</h2> + +<h4>BY</h4> +<h3>FREDERICK PALMER</h3> +<p class="center">Author of "The Last Shot," "The Old Blood," "My Year +of the Great War," etc.</p> + + +<p class="center" style="margin-top: 5em;"> +NEW YORK<br /> +DODD, MEAD & COMPANY<br /> +1917<br /> +</p> + +<p class="center" style="margin-top: 5em;"><small> +<span class="smcap">Copyright</span>, 1917<br /> +<span class="smcap">By</span> DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY, Inc.<br /></small> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4>CONTENTS</h4> + + + +<ul class="TOC"> +<li> +<a href="#I"><span class="smcap">Back to the Front</span></a></li> +<li> +<a href="#II"> <span class="smcap">Verdun and Its Sequel</span></a></li> +<li> +<a href="#III"><span class="smcap">A Canadian Innovation</span></a></li> +<li> +<a href="#IV"><span class="smcap">Ready for the Blow</span></a></li> +<li> +<a href="#V"><span class="smcap">The Blow</span></a></li> +<li> +<a href="#VI"><span class="smcap">First Results of the Somme</span></a></li> +<li> +<a href="#VII"><span class="smcap">Out of the Hopper of Battle</span></a></li> +<li> +<a href="#VIII"><span class="smcap">Forward the Guns!</span></a></li> +<li> +<a href="#IX"><span class="smcap">When the French Won</span></a></li> +<li> +<a href="#X"><span class="smcap">Along the Road to Victory</span></a></li> +<li> +<a href="#XI"> <span class="smcap">The Brigade that Went Through</span></a></li> +<li> +<a href="#XII"><span class="smcap">The Storming of Contalmaison</span></a></li> +<li> +<a href="#XIII"><span class="smcap">A Great Night Attack</span></a></li> +<li> +<a href="#XIV"><span class="smcap">The Cavalry Goes In</span></a></li> +<li> +<a href="#XV"><span class="smcap">Enter the Anzacs</span></a></li> +<li> +<a href="#XVI"><span class="smcap">The Australians and a Windmill</span></a></li> +<li> +<a href="#XVII"><span class="smcap">The Hateful Ridge</span></a></li> +<li> +<a href="#XVIII"> <span class="smcap">A Truly French Affair</span> </a></li> +<li> +<a href="#XIX"><span class="smcap">On the Aerial Ferry</span></a></li> +<li> +<a href="#XX"><span class="smcap">The Ever Mighty Guns</span></a></li> +<li> +<a href="#XXI"><span class="smcap">By the Way</span></a></li> +<li> +<a href="#XXII"><span class="smcap">The Mastery of the Air</span></a></li> +<li> +<a href="#XXIII"> <span class="smcap">A Patent Curtain of Fire</span></a></li> +<li> +<a href="#XXIV"><span class="smcap">Watching a Charge</span></a></li> +<li> +<a href="#XXV"><span class="smcap">Canada Is Stubborn</span></a></li> +<li> +<a href="#XXVI"><span class="smcap">The Tanks Arrive</span></a></li> +<li> +<a href="#XXVII"><span class="smcap">The Tanks in Action</span> </a></li> +<li> +<a href="#XXVIII"><span class="smcap">Canada Is Quick</span> </a></li> +<li> +<a href="#XXIX"><span class="smcap">The Harvest of Villages</span></a></li> +<li> +<a href="#XXX"><span class="smcap">Five Generals and Verdun</span></a></li> +<li> +<a href="#XXXI"><i>Au Revoir</i>, <span class="smcap">Somme</span>!</a></li> +</ul> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>MY SECOND YEAR OF THE WAR</h3> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4><a name="I" id="I"></a>I</h4> + +<h4>BACK TO THE FRONT</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>How America fails to realize the war—Difficulties of +realization—Uncle Sam is sound at heart—In London again—A Chief of +Staff who has risen from the ranks—Sir William Robertson takes time +to think—At the front—Kitchener's mob the new army—A quiet +headquarters—Sir Douglas Haig—His office a clearing house of +ideas—His business to deal in blows—"The Spirit that quickeneth."</p></div> + + +<p>"I've never kept up my interest so long in anything as in this war," +said a woman who sat beside me at dinner when I was home from the front +in the winter of 1915-16. Since then I have wondered if my reply, +"Admirable mental concentration!" was not ironic at the expense of +manners and philosophy. In view of the thousands who were dying in +battle every day, her remark seemed as heartless as it was superficial +and in keeping with the riotous joy of living and prosperity which +strikes every returned American with its contrast to Europe's +self-denial, emphasized by such details gained by glimpses in the shop +windows of Fifth Avenue as the exhibit of a pair of ladies' silk hose +inset with lace, price one hundred dollars.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, she was knitting socks or mufflers, I forget which, for the +Allies. Her confusion about war news was common to the whole country, +which heard the special pleading of both sides without any +cross-questioning by an attorney. She remarked how the Allies' bulletins +said that the Allies were winning and the German bulletins that the +Germans were winning; but so far as she could see on the map the armies +remained in much the same positions and the wholesale killing continued. +Her interest, I learned on further inquiry, was limited and partisan. +When the Germans had won a victory, she refused to read about it and +threw down her paper in disgust.</p> + +<p>There was something human in her attitude, as human as the war itself. +It was a reminder of how far away from the Mississippi is the Somme; how +broad is the Atlantic; how impossible it is to project yourself into the +distance even in the days of the wireless. She was moving in the orbit +of her affairs, with its limitations, just as the soldiers were in +theirs. Before the war luxury was as common in Paris as in New York; but +with so ghastly a struggle proceeding in Europe it seemed out of keeping +that the joy of living should endure anywhere in the world. Yet Europe +was tranquilly going its way when the Southern States were suffering +pain and hardship worse than any that France and England have known. +Paris and London were dining and smiling when Richmond was in flames.</p> + +<p>War can be brought home to no community until its own sons are dying and +risking death. In nothing are we so much the creatures of our +surroundings as in war. For the first few weeks when I was at home, a +nation going its way in an era of prosperity had an aspect of vulgarity; +peace itself was vulgar by contrast with the atmosphere of heroic +sacrifice in which I had lived for over a year. I asked myself if my +country could ever rise to the state of exaltation of France and +England. Though first thought, judging by superficial appearances alone, +might have said "No," I knew that we could if there ever came a call to +defend our soil—a call that could be brought home to the valleys of the +Hudson and the Mississippi as a call was brought home to the valleys of +the Somme, the Meuse and the Marne.</p> + +<p>Many Americans had returned from Europe with reports of humiliation +endured as a result of their country's attitude. Shopkeepers had made +insulting remarks, they said, and in some instances had refused to sell +goods. They had been conscious of hostility under the politeness of +their French and English friends. A superficial confirmation of their +contention might be taken from the poster I noticed on my way from +Paddington Station to my hotel upon my arrival in England. It advertised +an article in a cheap weekly under the title of "Uncle Sham."</p> + +<p>I took this just as seriously as I took a cartoon in a New York evening +paper of pro-German tendencies on the day that I had sailed from New +York, which showed John Bull standing idly by and urging France on to +sacrifices in the defense of Verdun. It was as easy for an American to +be indignant at one as for an Englishman at the other, but a little +unworthy of the intelligence of either. I was too convinced that Uncle +Sam, who does not always follow my advice, is sound at heart and a +respectable member of the family of nations to be in the least disturbed +in my sense of international good will. If I had been irritated I should +have contributed to the petty backbiting by the mischievous uninformed +which makes bad blood between peoples.</p> + +<p>I knew, too, from experience, as I had kept repeating at home, that when +the chosen time arrived for the British to strike, they would prove with +deeds the shamelessness of this splash of printer's ink and confound, as +they have on the Somme, the witticism of a celebrated Frenchman who has +since made his apology for saying that the British would fight on till +the last drop of French blood was shed. Besides, on the same day that I +saw the poster I saw in a British publication a reproduction of a German +cartoon—exemplifying the same kind of vulgar facility—picturing Uncle +Sam being led by the nose by John Bull.</p> + +<p>Thinking Englishmen and Frenchmen, when they pause in their +preoccupation of giving life and fortune for their cause to consider +this extraneous subject, realize the widespread sympathy of the United +States for the Allied cause and how a large proportion of our people +were prepared to go to war after the sinking of the <i>Lusitania</i> for an +object which could bring them no territorial reward. If we will fight +only for money and aggrandizement, as the "Uncle Sham" style of +reasoners hold, we should long ago have taken Mexico and Central +America. Personally, I have never had anyone say to me that I was "too +proud to fight," though if I went about saying that I was ashamed of my +country I might; for when I think of my country I think of no group of +politicians, financiers, or propagandists, no bureaucracy or particular +section of opinion, but of our people as a whole. But unquestionably we +were unpopular with the masses of Europeans. A sentence taken out of its +context was misconstrued into a catch-phrase indicating the cravenness +of a nation wedded to its flesh-pots, which pretended a moral +superiority to others whose passionate sacrifice made them +supersensitive when they looked across the Atlantic to the United +States, which they saw profiting from others' misfortunes.</p> + +<p>By living at home I had gained perspective about the war and by living +with the war I have gained perspective about my own country. At the +front I was concerned day after day with the winning of trenches and the +storming of villages whose names meant as little in the Middle West as a +bitter fight for good government in a Western city meant to the men at +the front. After some months of peace upon my return to England I +resented passport regulations which had previously been a commonplace; +but soon I was back in the old groove, the groove of war, with war +seeming as normal in England as peace seemed in the United States.</p> + +<p>In London, recruiting posters with their hectic urgings to the manhood +of England to volunteer no longer blanketed the hoardings and the walls +of private buildings. Conscription had come. Every able-bodied man must +now serve at the command of the government. England seemed to have +greater dignity. The war was wholly master of her proud individualism, +which had stubbornly held to its faith that the man who fought best was +he who chose to fight rather than he who was ordered to fight.</p> + +<p>There was a new Chief of Staff at the War Office, Sir William +Robertson, who had served for seven years as a private before he +received his commission as an officer, singularly expressing in his +career the character of the British system, which leaves open to merit +the door at the head of a long stairway which calls for hard climbing. +England believes in men and he had earned his way to the direction of +the most enormous plant with the largest personnel which the British +Empire had ever created.</p> + +<p>It was somewhat difficult for the caller to comprehend the full extent +of the power and responsibility of this self-made leader at his desk in +a great room overlooking Whitehall Place, for he had so simplified an +organization that had been brought into being in two years that it +seemed to run without any apparent effort on his part. The methods of +men who have great authority interest us all. I had first seen Sir +William at a desk in a little room of a house in a French town when his +business was that of transport and supply for the British Expeditionary +Force. Then he moved to a larger room in the same town, as Chief of +Staff of the army in France. Now he had a still larger one and in +London.</p> + +<p>I had heard much of his power of application, which had enabled him to +master languages while he was gaining promotion step by step; but I +found that the new Chief of Staff of the British Army was not "such a +fool as ever to overwork," as one of his subordinates said, and no +slave to long hours of drudgery at his desk.</p> + +<p>"Besides his routine," said another subordinate, speaking of Sir +William's method, "he has to do a great deal of thinking." This passing +remark was most illuminating. Sir William had to think for the whole. He +had trained others to carry out his plans, and as former head of the +Staff College who had had experience in every branch, he was supposed to +know how each branch should be run.</p> + +<p>When I returned to the front, my first motor trip which took me along +the lines of communication revealed the transformation, the more +appreciable because of my absence, which the winter had wrought. The New +Army had come into its own. And I had seen this New Army in the making. +I had seen Kitchener's first hundred thousand at work on Salisbury Plain +under old, retired drillmasters who, however eager, were hazy about +modern tactics. The men under them had the spirit which will endure the +drudgery of training. With time they must learn to be soldiers. More raw +material, month after month, went into the hopper. The urgent call of +the recruiting posters and the press had, in the earlier stages of the +war, supplied all the volunteers which could be utilized. It took much +longer to prepare equipment and facilities than to get men to enlist. +New Army battalions which reached the front in August, 1915, had had +their rifles only for a month. Before rifles could be manufactured rifle +plants had to be constructed. As late as December, 1915, the United +States were shipping only five thousand rifles a week to the British. +Soldiers fully drilled in the manual of arms were waiting for the arms +with which to fight; but once the supply of munitions from the new +plants was started it soon became a flood.</p> + +<p>All winter the New Army battalions had been arriving in France. With +them had come the complicated machinery which modern war requires. The +staggering quantity of it was better proof than figures on the shipping +list of the immense tonnage which goes to sea under the British flag. +The old life at the front, as we knew it, was no more. When I first saw +the British Army in France it held seventeen miles of line. Only +seventeen, but seventeen in the mire of Flanders, including the bulge of +the Ypres salient.</p> + +<p>By the first of January, 1915, a large proportion of the officers and +men of the original Expeditionary Force had perished. Reservists had +come to take the vacant places. Officers and non-commissioned officers +who survived had to direct a fighting army in the field and to train a +new army at home. An offensive was out of the question. All that the +force in the trenches could do was to hold. When the world wondered why +it could not do more, those who knew the true state of affairs wondered +how it could do so much. With flesh and blood infantry held against +double its own numbers supported by guns firing five times the number of +British shells. The British could not confess their situation without +giving encouragement to the Germans to press harder such attacks as +those of the first and second battle of Ypres, which came perilously +near succeeding.</p> + +<p>This little army would not admit the truth even in its own mind. With +that casualness by which the Englishman conceals his emotions the +surviving officers of battalions which had been battered for months in +the trenches would speak of being "top dog, now." While the world was +thinking that the New Army would soon arrive to their assistance, they +knew as only trained soldiers can know how long it takes to make an army +out of raw material. So persistent was their pose of winning that it +hypnotized them into conviction. As it had never occurred to them that +they could be beaten, so they were not.</p> + +<p>If sometimes the logic of fact got the better of simulation, they would +speak of the handicap of fighting an enemy who could deliver blows with +the long reach of his guns to which they could not respond. But this did +not happen often. It was a part of the game for the German to marshal +more guns than they if he could. They accepted the situation and fought +on. They, too, looked forward to "the day," as the Germans had before +the war; and their day was the one when the New Army should be ready to +strike its first blow.</p> + +<p>There was also a new leader in France, king of the British world there. +Sir William sent him the new battalions and the guns and the food for +men and guns and his business was to make them into an army. They +arrived thinking that they were already one, as they were against any +ordinary foe, though not yet in homogeneity of organization against a +foe that had prepared for war for forty years and on top of this had had +two years' experience in actual battle.</p> + +<p>On a quiet byroad near headquarters town, where all the staff business +of General Headquarters was conducted, a wisp of a flag hung at the +entrance to the grounds of a small modern chateau. There seemed no place +in all France more isolated and tranquil, its size forbidding many +guests. It was such a house as some quiet, studious man might have +chosen to rest in during his summer holiday. The sound of the guns never +reached it; the rumble of army transport was unheard.</p> + +<p>Should you go there to luncheon you would be received by a young aide +who, in army jargon, was known as a "crock"; that is, he had been +invalided as the result of wounds or exposure in the trenches and, +though unfit for active service, could still serve as aide to the +Commander-in-Chief. At the appointed minute of the hour, in keeping with +military punctuality, whether of generals or of curtains of fire, a man +with iron-gray hair, clear, kindly eyes, and an unmistakably strong +chin, came out of his office and welcomed the guests with simple +informality. He seemed to have left business entirely behind when he +left his desk. You knew him at once for the type of well-preserved +British officer who never neglects to keep himself physically fit. It +amounts to a talent with British officers to have gone through campaigns +in India and South Africa and yet always to appear as fresh as if they +had never known anything more strenuous than the leisurely life of an +English country gentleman.</p> + +<p>I had always heard how hard Sir Douglas Haig worked, just as I had heard +how hard Sir William Robertson worked. Sir Douglas, too, showed no signs +of pressure, and naturally the masterful control of surroundings without +any seeming effort is a part of the equipment of military leaders. The +power of the modern general is not evident in any of the old symbols.</p> + +<p>It was really the army that chose Sir Douglas to be Commander-in-Chief. +Whenever the possibility of the retirement of Sir John French was +mentioned and you asked an officer who should take his place, the answer +was always either Robertson or Haig. In any profession the members +should be the best judges of excellence in that profession, and through +eighteen months of organizing and fighting these two men had earned the +universal praise of their comrades in arms. Robertson went to London and +Haig remained in France. England looked to them for victory.</p> + +<p>Birth was kind to Sir Douglas. He came of an old Scotch family with fine +traditions. Oxford followed almost as a matter of course for him and +afterward he went into the army. From that day there is something in +common between his career and Sir William's, simple professional zeal +and industry. They set out to master their chosen calling. Long before +the public had ever heard of either one their ability was known to their +fellow soldiers. No two officers were more averse to any form of public +advertisement, which was contrary to their instincts no less than to the +ethics of soldiering. In South Africa, which was the practical school +where the commanders of the British Army of to-day first learned how to +command, their efficient staff work singled them out as coming men. Both +had vision. They studied the continental systems of war and when the +great war came they had the records which were the undeniable +recommendation that singled them out from their fellows. Sir John French +and Sir Ian Hamilton belonged to the generation ahead of them, the +difference being that between the '50s and the '60s.</p> + +<p>It was the test of command of a corps and afterward of an army in +Flanders and Northern France which made Sir Douglas Commander-in-Chief, +a test of more than the academic ability which directs chessmen on the +board: that of the physical capacity to endure the strain of month after +month of campaigning, to keep a calm perspective, never to let the +mastery of the force under you get out of hand and never to be burdened +with any details except those which are vital.</p> + +<p>The subordinate who went in an uncertain mood to see either Sir Douglas +or Sir William left with a sense of stalwart conviction. Both had the +gift of simplifying any situation, however complex. When a certain +general became unstrung during the retreat from Mons, Sir Douglas seemed +to consider that his first duty was to assist this man to recover +composure, and he slipped his arm through the general's and walked him +up and down until composure had returned. Again, on the retreat from +Mons Sir Douglas said, "We must stay here for the present, if we all die +for it," stating this military necessity as coolly as if it merely meant +waiting another quarter-hour for the arrival of a guest to dinner.</p> + +<p>No less than General Joffre, Sir Douglas lived by rule. He, too, +insisted on sleeping well at night and rising fresh for his day's work. +During the period of preparation for the offensive his routine began +with a stroll in the garden before breakfast. Then the heads of the +different branches of his staff in headquarters town came in turn to +make their reports and receive instructions. At luncheon very likely he +might not talk of war. A man of his education and experience does not +lack topics to take his mind off his duties. Every day at half-past two +he went for a ride and with him an escort of his own regiment of +Lancers. The rest of the afternoon was given over to conferences with +subordinates whom he had summoned. On Sunday morning he always went into +headquarters town and in a small, temporary wooden chapel listened to a +sermon from a Scotch dominie who did not spare its length in awe of the +eminent member of his congregation. Otherwise, he left the chateau only +when he went to see with his own eyes some section of the front or of +the developing organization.</p> + +<p>Of course, the room in the chateau which was his office was hung with +maps as the offices of all the great leaders are, according to report. +It seems the most obvious decoration. Whether it was the latest +photograph from an aeroplane or the most recent diagram of plans of +attack, it came to him if his subordinates thought it worth while. All +rivers of information flowed to the little chateau. He and the Chief of +Staff alone might be said to know all that was going on. Talking with +him in the office, which had been the study of a French country +gentleman, one gained an idea of the things which interested him; of the +processes by which he was building up his organization. He was the +clearing house of all ideas and through them he was setting the +criterion of efficiency. He spoke of the cause for which he was fighting +as if this were the great thing of all to him and to every man under +him, but without allowing his feelings to interfere with his judgment of +the enemy. His opponent was seen without illusion, as soldier sees +soldier. To him his problem was not one of sentiment, but of military +power. He dealt in blows; and blows alone could win the war.</p> + +<p>Simplicity and directness of thought, decision and readiness to accept +responsibility, seemed second nature to the man secluded in that little +chateau, free from any confusion of detail, who had a task—the greatest +ever fallen to the lot of a British commander—of making a raw army into +a force which could undertake an offensive against frontal positions +considered impregnable by many experts and occupied by the skilful +German Army. He had, in common with Sir William Robertson, "a good deal +of thinking to do"; and what better place could he have chosen than this +retreat out of the sound of the guns, where through his subordinates he +felt the pulse of the whole army day by day?</p> + +<p>His favorite expression was "the spirit that quickeneth"; the spirit of +effort, of discipline, of the fellowship of cohesion of +organization—spreading out from the personality at the desk in this +room down through all the units to the men themselves. Though officers +and soldiers rarely saw him they had felt the impulse of his spirit soon +after he had taken command. A new era had come in France. That old +organization called the British Empire, loose and decentrated—and +holding together because it was so—had taken another step forward in +the gathering of its strength into a compact force.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4><a name="II" id="II"></a>II</h4> + +<h4>VERDUN AND ITS SEQUEL</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>German grand strategy and Verdun—Why the British did not go to +Verdun—What they did to help—Racial characteristics in +armies—Father Joffre a miser of divisions—The Somme +country—Age-old tactics—If the flank cannot be turned can the front +be broken?—Theory of the Somme offensive.</p></div> + + +<p>In order properly to set the stage for the battle of the Somme, which +was the corollary of that of Verdun, we must, at the risk of appearing +to thresh old straw, consider the German plan of campaign in 1916 when +the German staff had turned its eyes from the East to the West. During +the summer of 1915 it had attempted no offensive on the Western front, +but had been content to hold its solid trench lines in the confidence +that neither the British nor the French were prepared for an offensive +on a large scale.</p> + +<p>Blue days they were for us with the British Army in France during July +and early August, while the official bulletins revealed on the map how +von Hindenburg's and von Mackensen's legions were driving through +Poland. More critical still the subsequent period when inside +information indicated that German intrigue in Petrograd, behind the +Russian lines which the German guns were pounding, might succeed in +making a separate peace. Using her interior lines for rapid movement of +troops, enclosed by a steel ring and fighting against nations speaking +different languages with their capitals widely separated and their +armies not in touch, each having its own sentimental and territorial +objects in the war, the obvious object of Germany's policy from the +outset would be to break this ring, forcing one of the Allies to +capitulate under German blows.</p> + +<p>In August, 1914, she had hoped to win a decisive battle against France +before she turned her legions against Russia for a decision. Now she +aimed to accomplish at Verdun what she had failed to accomplish on the +Marne, confident in her information that France was exhausted. It was +von Hindenburg's turn to hold the thin line while the Germans +concentrated on the Western front twenty-six hundred thousand men, with +every gun that they could spare and all the munitions that had +accumulated after the Russian drive was over. The fall of Paris was +unnecessary to their purpose. Capitals, whether Paris, Brussels, or +Bucharest, are only the trophies of military victory. Primarily the +German object, which naturally included the taking of Verdun, was to +hammer at the heart of French defense until France, staggering under the +blows, her <i>morale</i> broken by the loss of the fortress, her supposedly +mercurial nature in the depths of depression, would surrender to +impulse and ask for terms.</p> + +<p>After the German attacks began at Verdun all the world was asking why +the British, who were holding only sixty-odd miles of line at the time +and must have large reserves, did not rush to the relief of the French. +The French people themselves were a little restive under what was +supposed to be British inaction. Army leaders could not reveal their +plans by giving reasons—the reasons which are now obvious—for their +action or inaction. To some unmilitary minds the situation seemed as +simple as if Jones were attacked on the street by Smith and Robinson, +while Miller, Jones' friend who was a block away, would not go to his +rescue. To others, perhaps a trifle more knowing, it seemed only a +matter of marching some British divisions across country or putting them +on board a train.</p> + +<p>Of course the British were only too ready to assist the French. Any +other attitude would have been unintelligent; for, with the French Army +broken, the British Army would find itself having to bear unassisted the +weight of German blows in the West. There were three courses which the +British Army might take.</p> + +<p><i>First.</i> It could send troops to Verdun. But the mixture of units +speaking different languages in the intricate web of communications +required for directing modern operations, and the mixture of transport +in the course of heavy concentrations in the midst of a critical action +where absolute cohesion of all units was necessary, must result in +confusion which would make any such plan impracticable. Only the +desperate situation of the French being without reserve could have +compelled its second consideration, as it represented the extreme of +that military inefficiency which makes wasteful use of lives and +material.</p> + +<p><i>Second.</i> The British could attack along their front as a diversion to +relieve pressure on Verdun. For this the Germans were fully prepared. It +fell in exactly with their plan. Knowing that the British New Army was +as yet undeveloped as an instrument for the offensive and that it was +still short of guns and shells, the Germans had struck in the inclement +weather of February at Verdun, thinking, and wrongly to my mind, that +the handicap to the vitality of their men of sleet, frost and cold, +soaking rains would be offset by the time gained. Not only had the +Germans sufficient men to carry on the Verdun offensive, but facing the +British their numbers were the largest mile for mile since the first +battle of Ypres. Familiar with British valor as the result of actual +contact in battle from Mons to the Marne and back to Ypres, and +particularly in the Loos offensive (which was the New Army's first +"eye-opener" to the German staff), the Germans reasoned that, with what +one German called "the courage of their stupidity, or the stupidity of +their courage," the British, driven by public demand to the assistance +of the French, would send their fresh infantry with inadequate artillery +support against German machine guns and curtains of fire, and pile up +their dead until their losses would reduce the whole army to inertia for +the rest of the year.</p> + +<p>Of course, the German hypothesis—the one which cost von Falkenhayn his +place as Chief of Staff—was based on such a state of exhaustion by the +French that a British attack would be mandatory. The initial stage of +the German attack was up to expectations in ground gained, but not in +prisoners or material taken. The French fell back skilfully before the +German onslaught against positions lightly held by the defenders in +anticipation of the attack, and turned their curtains of fire upon the +enemy in possession of captured trenches. Then France gave to the +outside world another surprise. Her spirit, ever brilliant in the +offensive, became cold steel in a stubborn and thrifty defensive. She +was not "groggy," as the Germans supposed. For every yard of earth +gained they had to pay a ghastly price; and their own admiration of +French shell and valor is sufficient professional glory for either +Pétain, Nivelle, or Mangin, or the private in the ranks.</p> + +<p><i>Third.</i> The British could take over more trench line, thus releasing +French forces for Verdun, which was the plan adopted at the conference +of the French and British commands. One morning in place of a French +army in Artois a British army was in occupation. The round helmets of +the British took the place of the oblong helmets of the French along the +parapet; British soldiers were in billets in place of the French in the +villages at the rear and British guns moved into French gun-emplacements +with the orderly precision which army training with its discipline alone +secures; while the French Army was on board railway trains moving at +given intervals of headway over rails restricted to their use on their +way to Verdun where, under that simple French staff system which is the +product of inheritance and previous training and this war's experience, +they fell into place as a part of the wall of men and cannon.</p> + +<p>Outside criticism, which drew from this arrangement the conclusion that +it left the British to the methodical occupation of quiet trenches while +their allies were sent to the sacrifice, had its effect for a time on +the outside public and even on the French, but did not disturb the +equanimity of the British staff in the course of its preparations or of +the French staff, which knew well enough that when the time came the +British Army would not be fastidious about paying the red cost of +victory. Four months later when British battalions were throwing +themselves against frontal positions with an abandon that their staff +had to restrain, the same sources of outside criticism, including +superficial gossip in Paris, were complaining that the British were too +brave in their waste of life. It has been fashionable with some people +to criticize the British, evidently under the impression that the +British New Army would be better than a continental army instantly its +battalions were landed in France.</p> + +<p>Every army's methods, every staff's way of thinking, are characteristic +in the long run of the people who supply it with soldiers. The German +Army is what it is not through the application of any academic theory of +military perfection, but through the application of organization to +German character. Naturally phlegmatic, naturally disinclined to +initiative, the Germans before the era of modern Germany had far less of +the martial instinct than the French. German army makers, including the +master one of all, von Moltke, set out to use German docility and +obedience in the creation of a machine of singular industry and rigidity +and ruthless discipline. Similar methods would mean revolt in democratic +France and individualistic England where every man carries Magna Charta, +talisman of his own "rights," in his waistcoat pocket.</p> + +<p>The French peasant, tilling his fields within range of the guns, the +market gardener bringing his products down the Somme in the morning to +Amiens, or the Parisian clerk, business man and workman—they are France +and the French Army. But the heart-strength and character-strength of +France, I think, is her stubborn, conservative, smiling peasant. It is +repeating a commonplace to say that he always has a few gold pieces in +his stocking. He yields one only on a critical occasion and then a +little grumblingly, with the thrift of the bargainer who means that it +shall be well spent.</p> + +<p>The Anglo-Saxon, whose inheritance is particularly evident in Americans +in this respect, when he gives in a crisis turns extravagant whether of +money or life, as England has in this war. The sea is his and new lands +are his, as they are ours. Australians with their dollar and a half a +day, buying out the shops of a village when they were not in the +trenches, were astounding to the natives though not in the least to +themselves. They were acting like normal Anglo-Saxons bred in a rich +island continent. Anglo-Saxons have money to spend and spend it in the +confidence that they will make more.</p> + +<p>General Joffre, grounded in the France of the people and the soil, was a +thrifty general. Indeed, from the lips of Frenchmen in high places the +Germans might have learned that the French Army was running short of +men. Joffre seemed never to have any more divisions to spare; yet never +came a crisis that he did not find another division in the toe of his +stocking, which he gave up as grumblingly as the peasant parts with his +gold piece.</p> + +<p>A miser of divisions, Father Joffre. He had enough for Verdun as we +know—and more. While he was holding on the defensive there, he was able +to prepare for an offensive elsewhere. He spared the material and the +guns to coöperate with the British on the Somme and later he sent to +General Foch, commander of the northern group of French Armies, the +unsurpassed Iron Corps from Nancy and the famous Colonial Corps.</p> + +<p>It was in March, 1916, when suspense about Verdun was at its height, +that Sir Douglas Haig, Commander-in-Chief of the group of British +Armies, and Sir Henry Rawlinson, who was to be his right-hand man +through the offensive as commander of the Fourth Army, went over the +ground opposite the British front on the Somme and laid the plans for +their attack, and Sir Henry received instructions to begin the elaborate +preparations for what was to become the greatest battle of all time. It +included, as the first step, the building of many miles of railway and +highway for the transport of the enormous requisite quantities of guns +and materials.</p> + +<p>The Somme winds through rich alluvial lands at this point and around a +number of verdant islands in its leisurely course. Southward, along the +old front line, the land is more level, where the river makes its bend +in front of Péronne. Northward, generically, it rises into a region of +rolling country, with an irregularly marked ridge line which the Germans +held.</p> + +<p>No part of the British front had been so quiet in the summer of 1915 as +the region of Picardy. From the hill where later I watched the attack of +July 1st, on one day in August of the previous year I had such a broad +view that if a shell were to explode anywhere along the front of five +miles it would have been visible to me, and I saw not a single burst of +smoke from high explosive or shrapnel. Apparently the Germans never +expected to undertake any offensive here. All their energy was devoted +to defensive preparations, without even an occasional attack over a few +hundred yards to keep in their hand. Tranquillity, which amounted to the +simulation of a truce, was the result. At different points you might see +Germans walking about in the open and the observer could stand exposed +within easy range of the guns without being sniped at by artillery, as +he would have been in the Ypres salient.</p> + +<p>When the British took over this section of line, so short were they of +guns that they had to depend partly on French artillery; and their +troops were raw New Army battalions or regulars stiffened by a small +percentage of veterans of Mons and Ypres. The want of guns and shells +required correspondingly more troops to the mile, which left them still +relying on flesh and blood rather than on machinery for defense. The +British Army was in that middle stage of a few highly trained troops and +the first arrival of the immense forces to come; while the Germans +occupied on the Eastern front were not of a mind to force the issue. +There is a story of how one day a German battery, to vary the monotony, +began shelling a British trench somewhat heavily. The British, in reply, +put up a sign, "If you don't stop we will fire our only rifle grenade at +you!" to which the Germans replied in the same vein, "Sorry! We will +stop"—as they did.</p> + +<p>The subsoil of the hills is chalk, which yields to the pick rather +easily and makes firm walls for trenches. Having chosen their position, +which they were able to do in the operations after the Marne as the two +armies, swaying back and forth in the battle for positions northward, +came to rest, the Germans had set out, as the result of experience, to +build impregnable works in the days when forts had become less important +and the trench had become supreme. As holding the line required little +fighting, the industrious Germans under the stiff bonds of discipline +had plenty of time for sinking deep dugouts and connecting galleries +under their first line and for elaborating their communication trenches +and second line, until what had once been peaceful farming land now +consisted of irregular welts of white chalk crossing fields without +hedges or fences, whose sweep had been broken only by an occasional +group of farm buildings of a large proprietor, a plot of woods, or the +village communities where the farmers lived and went to and from their +farms which were demarked to the eye only by the crop lines.</p> + +<p>One can never make the mistake of too much simplification in the +complicated detail of modern tactics where the difficulty is always to +see the forest for the trees. Strategy has not changed since prehistoric +days. It must always remain the same: feint and surprise. The first +primitive man who looked at the breast of his opponent and struck +suddenly at his face was a strategist; so, too, the anthropoid at the +Zoo who leads another to make a leap for a trapeze and draws it out from +under him; so, too, the thug who waits to catch his victim coming +unawares out of an alley. Anybody facing more than one opponent will try +to protect his back by a wall, which is also strategy—strategy being +the veritable instinct of self-preservation which aims at an advantage +in the disposition of forces.</p> + +<p>Place two lines of fifty men facing each other in the open without +officers, and some fellow with initiative on the right or the left end +will instinctively give the word and lead a rush for cover somewhere on +the flank which will permit an enfilade of the enemy's ranks. +Practically all of the great battles of the world have been won by +turning an enemy's flank, which compelled him to retreat if it did not +result in rout or capture.</p> + +<p>The swift march of a division or a brigade from reserve to the flank at +the critical moment has often turned the fortune of a day. All +manoeuvering has this object in view. Superior numbers facilitate the +operation, and victory has most often resolved itself into superior +numbers pressing a flank and nothing more; though subsequently his +admiring countrymen acclaimed the victor as the inventor of a strategic +plan which was old before Alexander took the field, when the victor's +genius consisted in the use of opportunities that enabled him to strike +at the critical point with more men than his adversary. In flank of the +Southern Confederacy Sherman swung through the South; in flank the +Confederates aimed to bend back the Federal line at Kulp's Hill and +Little Round Top. By the flank Grant pressed Lee back to Appomattox. +Yalu, Liao Yang and Mukden were won in the Russo-Japanese war by +flanking movements which forced Kuropatkin to retire, though never +disastrously.</p> + +<p>Pickett's charge at Gettysburg remains to the American the most futile +and glorious illustration of a charge against a frontal position, with +its endeavor to break the center. The center may waver, but it is the +flanks that go; though, of course, in all consistent operations of big +armies a necessary incident of any effort to press back the wings is +sufficient pressure on the front, simultaneously delivered, to hold all +the troops there in position and keep the enemy command in apprehension +of the disaster that must follow if the center were to break badly at +the same time that his flanks were being doubled back. The foregoing is +only the repetition of principles which cannot be changed by the length +of line and masses of troops and incredible volumes of artillery fire; +which makes the European war the more confusing to the average reader as +he receives his information in technical terms.</p> + +<p>The same object that leads one line of men to try to flank another sent +the German Army through Belgium in order to strike the French Army in +flank. It succeeded in this purpose, but not in turning the French +flank; though by this operation, in violation of the territory of a +neutral nation, it made enemy territory the scene of future action. One +may discuss until he is blue in the face what would have happened if the +Germans had thrown their legions directly against the old French +frontier. Personally, in keeping with the idea that I expressed in "The +Last Shot," I think that they would never have gone through the Trouée +de Miracourt or past Verdun.</p> + +<p>With a solid line of trenches from Switzerland to the North Sea, any +offensive must "break the center," as it were, in order to have room for +a flanking operation. It must go against frontal positions, +incorporating in its strategy every defensive lesson learned and the +defensive tactics and weapons developed in eighteen months of trench +warfare. If, as was generally supposed, the precision of modern arms, +with rifles and machine guns sending their bullets three thousand yards +and curtains of fire delivered from hidden guns anywhere from two to +fifteen miles away, was all in favor of the defensive, then how, when in +the days of muzzle-loading rifles and smooth-bore guns frontal attacks +had failed, could one possibly succeed in 1916?</p> + +<p>Again and again in our mess and in all of the messes at the front, and +wherever men gathered the world over, the question, Can the line be +broken? has been discussed. As discussed it is an academic question. The +practical answer depends upon the strength of the attacking force +compared to that of the defending force. If the Germans could keep only +five hundred thousand men on the Western front they would have to +withdraw from a part of the line, concentrate on chosen positions and +depend on tactics to defend their exposed flanks in pitched battle. +Three million men, with ten thousand guns, could not break the line +against an equally skilful army of three millions with ten thousand +guns; but five millions with fifteen thousand guns might break the line +held by an equally skilful army of a million with five thousand guns. +Thus, you are brought to a question of numbers, of skill and of +material. If the object be attrition, then the offensive, if it can +carry on its attacks with less loss of men than the defensive, must win. +With the losses about equal, the offensive must also eventually win if +it has sufficient reserves.</p> + +<p>There could be no restraining the public, with the wish father to the +thought, from believing that the attack of July 1st on the Somme was an +effort at immediate decision, though the responsible staff officer was +very careful to state that there was no expectation of breaking the line +and that the object was to gain a victory in <i>morale</i>, train the army in +actual conditions for future offensives, and, when the ledger was +balanced, to prove that, with superior gunfire, the offensive could be +conducted with less loss than the defensive under modern conditions. +This, I think, may best be stated now. The results we shall consider +later.</p> + +<p>One thing was certain, with the accruing strength of the British and the +French Armies, they could not rest idle. They must attack. They must +take the initiative away from the Germans. The greater the masses of +Germans which were held on the Western front under the Allied pounding, +the better the situation for the Russians and the Italians; and, +accordingly, the plan for the summer of 1916 for the first time +permitted all the Allies, thanks to increased though not adequate +munitions—there never can be that—to conduct something like a common +offensive. That of the Russians, starting earlier than the others, was +the first to pause, which meant that the Anglo-French and the Italian +offensives were in full blast, while the Russians, for the time being, +had settled into new positions.</p> + +<p>Preparation for this attack on the Somme, an operation without parallel +in character and magnitude unless it be the German offensive at Verdun +which had failed, could not be too complete. There must be a continuous +flow of munitions which would allow the continuation of the battle with +blow upon blow once it had begun. Adequate realization of his task would +not hasten a general to undertake it until he was fully ready, and +military preference, if other considerations had permitted, would have +postponed the offensive till the spring of 1917.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4><a name="III" id="III"></a>III</h4> + +<h4>A CANADIAN INNOVATION</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Gathering of the clans from Australia, New Zealand and +Canada—England sends Sir Douglas Haig men but not an army—Methods +of converting men into an army—The trench raid a Canadian +invention—Development of trench raiding—The correspondents' +quarters—Getting ready for the "big push"—A well-kept secret.</p></div> + + +<p>"Some tough!" remarked a Canadian when he saw the Australians for the +first time marching along a French road. They and the New Zealanders +were conspicuous in France, owing to their felt hats with the brim +looped up on the side, their stalwart physique and their smooth-shaven, +clean-cut faces. Those who had been in Gallipoli formed the stiffening +of veteran experience and comradeship for those fresh from home or from +camps in Egypt.</p> + +<p>Canadian battalions, which had been training in Canada and then in +England, increased the Canadian numbers until they had an army equal in +size to that of Meade or Lee at Gettysburg. English, Scotch, Welsh, +Irish, South Africans and Newfoundlanders foregathering in Picardy, +Artois and Flanders left one wondering about English as "she is spoke." +On the British front I have heard every variety, including that of +different parts of the United States. One day I received a letter from a +fellow countryman which read like this:</p> + +<p>"I'm out here in the R.F.A. with 'krumps' bursting on my cocoanut and am +going to see it through. If you've got any American newspapers or +magazines lying loose please send them to me, as I am far from +California."</p> + +<p>The clans kept arriving. Every day saw new battalions and new guns +disembark. England was sending to Sir Douglas Haig men and material, but +not an army in the modern sense. He had to weld the consignments into a +whole there in the field in face of the enemy. Munitions were a matter +of resource and manufacturing, but the great factory of all was the +factory of men. It was not enough that the gunners should know how to +shoot fairly accurately back in England, or Canada, or Australia. They +must learn to coöperate with scores of batteries of different calibers +in curtains of fire and, in turn, with the infantry, whose attacks they +must support with the finesse of scientific calculation plus the +instinctive <i>liaison</i> which comes only with experience under trained +officers, against the German Army which had no lack of material in its +conscript ranks for promotion to fill vacancies in the officers' lists.</p> + +<p>From seventeen miles of front to twenty-seven, and then to sixty and +finally to nearly one hundred, the British had broadened their +responsibility, which meant only practice in the defensive, while the +Germans had had two years' practice in the offensive. The two British +offensives at Neuve Chapelle had included a small proportion of the +battalions which were to fight on the Somme; and the third, incomparably +more ambitious, faced heavier concentration of troops and guns than its +predecessors.</p> + +<p>What had not been gained in battle practice must be approximated in +drill. Every battalion commander, every staff officer and every general +who had had any experience, must be instructor as well as director. They +must assemble their machine and tune it up before they put it on a +stiffer road than had been tried before.</p> + +<p>The British Army zone in France became a school ground for the Grand +Offensive; and while the people at home were thinking, "We've sent you +the men and the guns—now for action!" the time of preparation was +altogether too short for the industrious learners. Every possible kind +of curriculum which would simulate actual conditions of attack had been +devised. In moving about the rear the rattle of a machine gun ten miles +back of the line told of the machine gun school; a series of explosions +drew attention to bombers working their way through practice trenches in +a field; a heavier explosion was from the academy for trench mortars; a +mighty cloud of smoke and earth rising two or three hundred feet was a +new experiment in mining. Sir Douglas went on the theory that no soldier +can know his work too well. He meant to allow no man in his command to +grow dull from idleness.</p> + +<p>Trench warfare had become systematized, and inevitably the holding of +the same line for month after month was not favorable to the development +of initiative. A man used to a sedentary life is not given to physical +action. One who is always digging dugouts is loath to leave the +habitation which has cost him much labor in order to live in the open.</p> + +<p>Battalions were in position for a given number of days, varying with the +character of the position held, when they were relieved for a rest in +billets. While in occupation they endured an amount of shell fire +varying immensely between different sectors. A few men were on the watch +with rifles and machine guns for any demonstration by the enemy, while +the rest were idle when not digging. They sent out patrols at night into +No Man's Land for information; exchanged rifle grenades, mortars and +bombs with the enemy. Each week brought its toll of casualties, light in +the tranquil places, heavy in the wickedly hot corner of the Ypres +salient, where attacks and counter-attacks never ceased and the +apprehension of having your parapet smashed in by an artillery +"preparation," which might be the forerunner of an attack, was +unremittingly on the nerves.</p> + +<p>It was a commonplace that any time you desired you could take a front of +a thousand or two yards simply by concentrating your gunfire, cutting +the enemy's barbed wire and tearing the sandbags of his parapet into +ribbons, with resulting fearful casualties to him; and then a swift +charge under cover of the artillery hurricane would gain possession of +the débris, the enemy's wounded and those still alive in his dugouts. +Losses in operations of this kind usually were much lighter in taking +the enemy's position than in the attempt to hold it, as he, in answer to +your offensive, turned the full force of his guns upon his former trench +which your men were trying to organize into one of their own. Later, +under cover of his own guns, his charge recovered the ruins, forcing the +party of the first part who had started the "show" back to his own +former first line trench, which left the situation as it was before with +both sides a loser of lives without gaining any ground and with the +prospect of drudgery in building anew their traverses and burrows and +filling new sandbags.</p> + +<p>It was the repetition of this sort of "incident," as reported in the +daily <i>communiqués</i>, which led the outside world to wonder at the +fatuousness and the satire of the thing, without understanding that its +object was entirely for the purpose of <i>morale</i>. An attack was made to +keep the men up to the mark; a counter-attack in order not to allow the +enemy ever to develop a sense of superiority. Every soldier who +participated in a charge learned something in method and gained +something in the quality considered requisite by his commanders. He had +met face to face in mortal hand-to-hand combat in the trench traverses +the enemy who had been some invisible force behind a gray line of +parapet sniping at him every time he showed his head.</p> + +<p>Attack and counter-attack without adding another square yard to the +territory in your possession—these had cost hundreds of thousands of +casualties on the Western front. The next step was to obtain the +<i>morale</i> of attack without wasting lives in trying to hold new ground.</p> + +<p>Credit for the trench raid, which was developed through the winter of +1915, belongs to the Canadian. His plan was as simple as that of the +American Indian who rushed a white settlement and fled after he was +through scalping; or the cowboys who shot up a town; or the Mexican +insurgents who descend upon a village for a brief visit of killing and +looting. The Canadian proposed to enter the German trenches by surprise, +remain long enough to make the most of the resulting confusion, and then +to return to his own trenches without trying to hold and organize the +enemy's position and thus draw upon his head while busy with the spade a +murderous volume of shell fire.</p> + +<p>The first raids were in small parties over a narrow front and the +tactics those of the frontiersman, who never wants in individual +initiative and groundcraft. Behind their lines the Canadians rehearsed +in careful detail again and again till each man was letter perfect in +the part that he was to play in the "little surprise being planned in +Canada for Brother Boche." The time chosen for the exploit was a dark, +stormy night, when the drumbeat of rain and the wind blowing in their +direction would muffle the movements of the men as they cut paths +through the barbed wires for their panther-like rush. It was the kind of +experiment whose success depends upon every single participant keeping +silence and performing the task set for him with fastidious exactitude.</p> + +<p>The Germans, confident in the integrity of their barbed wire, with all +except the sentries whose ears and eyes failed to detect danger asleep +in their dugouts, found that the men of the Maple Leaf had sprung over +the parapet and were at the door demanding surrender. It was an affair +to rejoice the heart of Israel Putnam or Colonel Mosby, and its success +was a new contribution in tactics to stalemate warfare which seemed to +have exhausted every possible invention and novelty. Trench raids were +made over broader and broader fronts until they became considerable +operations, where the wire was cut by artillery which gave the same kind +of support to the men that it was to give later on in the Grand +Offensive.</p> + +<p>There was a new terror to trench holding and dwelling. Now the man who +lay down in a dugout for the night was not only in danger of being blown +heavenward by a mine, or buried by the explosion of a heavy shell, or +compelled to spring up in answer to the ring of the gong which announced +a gas attack, but he might be awakened at two a.m. (a favorite hour for +raids) by the outcry of sentries who had been overpowered by the +stealthy rush of shadowy figures in the night, and while he got to his +feet be killed by the burst of a bomb thrown by men whom he supposed +were also fast asleep in their own quarters two or three hundred yards +away.</p> + +<p>Trench-raid rivalry between battalions, which commanders liked to +instil, inevitably developed. Battalions grew as proud of their trench +raids as battleships of their target practice. A battalion which had not +had a successful trench raid had something to explain. What pride for +the Bantams—the little fellows below regulation height who had enlisted +in a division of their own on Lord Kitchener's suggestion—when in one +of their trench raids they brought back some hulking, big Germans and a +man's size German machine gun across No Man's Land!</p> + +<p>Raiders never attempted to remain long in the enemy's trenches. They +killed the obdurate Germans, took others prisoners and, aside from the +damage that they did, always returned with identifications of the +battalions which occupied the position, while the prisoners brought in +yielded valuable information.</p> + +<p>The German, more adaptive than creative, more organizing than +pioneering, was not above learning from the British, and soon they, too, +were undertaking surprise parties in the night. Although they tightened +the discipline for the defensive of both sides, trench raids were of far +more service to the British than to the Germans; for the British staff +found in them an invaluable method of preparation for the offensive. Not +only had the artillery practice in supporting actual rather than +theoretical attacks, but when the men went over the parapet it was in +face of the enemy, who might turn on his machine guns if not silenced by +accurate gunfire. They learned how to coördinate their efforts, whether +individually or as units, both in the charge and in cleaning out the +German dugouts. Their sense of observation, adaptability and team play +was quickened in the life-and-death contact with the foe.</p> + +<p>Through the spring months the trench raids continued in their process +of "blooding" the new army for the "big push." Meanwhile, the +correspondents, who were there to report the operations of the army, +were having as quiet a time as a country gentleman on his estate without +any of the cares of his superintendent.</p> + +<p>Our homing place from our peregrinations about the army was not too far +away from headquarters town to be in touch with it or too near to feel +the awe of proximity to the directing authority of hundreds of thousands +of men. Trench raids had lost their novelty for the public which the +correspondents served. A description of a visit to a trench was as +commonplace to readers as the experience itself to one of our seasoned +group of six men. We had seen all the schools of war and the +Conscientious Objectors' battalion, too—those extreme pacifists who +refuse to kill their fellow man. Their opinions being respected by +English freedom and individualism, they were set to repairing roads and +like tasks.</p> + +<p>The war had become completely static. Unless some new way of killing +developed, even the English public did not care to read about its own +army. When my English comrades saw that a petty scandal received more +space in the London papers than their accounts of a gallant air raid, +they had moments of cynical depression.</p> + +<p>Between journeys we took long walks, went birds'-nesting and chatted +with the peasants. What had we to do with war? Yet we never went afield +to trench or headquarters, to hospital or gun position, without finding +something new and wonderful to us if not to the public in that vast hive +of military industry.</p> + +<p>"But if we ever start the push they'll read every detail," said our +wisest man. "It's the push that is in everybody's mind. The man in the +street is tired of hearing about rehearsals. He wants the curtain to go +up."</p> + +<p>Each of us knew that the offensive was coming and where, without ever +speaking of it in our mess or being supposed to know. Nobody was +supposed to know, except a few "brass hats" in headquarters town. One of +the prime requisites of the gold braid which denotes a general or of the +red band around the cap and the red tab on the coat lapel which denote +staff is ability to keep a secret; but long association with an army +makes it a sort of second nature, even with a group of civilians. When +you met a Brass Hat you pretended to believe that the monotony of those +official army reports about shelling a new German redoubt or a violent +artillery duel, or four enemy planes brought down, which read the same +on Friday as on Thursday, was to continue forever. The Brass Hats +pretended to believe the same among themselves. For all time the +British and the French Armies were to keep on hurling explosives at the +German Army from the same positions.</p> + +<p>Occasionally a Brass Hat did intimate that the offensive would probably +come in the spring of 1917, if not later, and you accepted the +information as strictly confidential and indefinite, as you should +accept any received from a Brass Hat. It never occurred to anybody to +inquire if "1917" meant June or July of 1916. This would be as bad form +as to ask a man whose head was gray last year and is black this year if +he dyed his hair.</p> + +<p>Those heavy howitzers, fresh from the foundry, drawn by big caterpillar +tractors, were all proceeding in one direction—toward the Somme. +Villages along their route were filling with troops. The nearer the +front you went, the greater the concentration of men and material. +Shells, the size of the milk cans at suburban stations, stood in close +order on the platforms beside the sidings of new light railways; shells +of all calibers were piled at new ammunition dumps; fields were cut by +the tracks of guns moving into position; steam rollers were road-making +in the midst of the long processions of motor trucks, heavy laden when +bound toward the trenches and empty when returning; barbed-wire +enclosures were ready as collecting stations for prisoners; clusters of +hospital tents at other points seemed out of proportion to the trickle +of wounded from customary trench warfare.</p> + +<p>All this preparation, stretching over weeks and months, unemotional and +methodical, infinite in detail, prodigious in effort, suggested the work +of engineers and contractors and subcontractors in the building of some +great bridge or canal, with the workmen all in the same kind of uniform +and with managers, superintendents and foremen each having some insignia +of rank and the Brass Hats and Red Tabs the inspectors and auditors.</p> + +<p>The officer installing a new casualty clearing station, or emplacing a +gun, or starting another ammunition dump, had not heard of any +offensive. He was only doing what he was told. It was not his business +to ask why of any Red Tab, any more than it was the business of a Red +Tab to ask why of a Brass Hat, or his business to know that the same +sort of thing was going on over a front of sixteen miles. Each one saw +only his little section of the hive. Orders strictly limited workers to +their sections at the same time that their lips were sealed. Contractors +were in no danger of strikes; employees received no extra pay for +overtime. It was as evident that the offensive was to be on the Somme as +that the circus has come to town, when you see tents rising at dawn in a +vacant lot while the elephants are standing in line.</p> + +<p>Toward the end of June I asked the Red Tab who sat at the head of our +table if I might go to London on leave. He was surprised, I think, but +did not appear surprised. It is one of the requisites of a Red Tab that +he should not. He said that he was uncertain if leave were being granted +at present. This was unusual, as an intimation of refusal had never been +made on any previous occasion. When I said that it would be for only two +or three days, he thought that it could be arranged all right. What this +considerate Red Tab meant was that I should return "in time." Yet he had +not mentioned that there was to be any offensive and I had not. We had +kept the faith of military secrecy. Besides, I really did not know, +unless I opened a pigeonhole in my brain. It was also my business not to +know—the only business I had with the "big push" except to look on.</p> + +<p>Over in London my friends surprised me by exclaiming, "What are you +doing here?" and, "Won't you miss the offensive which is about to +begin?" Now, what would a Brass Hat say in such an awkward emergency? +Would he look wise or unwise when he said it? Trying to look unwise, I +replied: "They have the men now and can strike any time that they +please. It's not my place to know where or when. I asked for leave and +they gave it." I was quite relieved and felt that I was almost worthy +of a secretive Brass Hat myself, when one man remarked: "They don't let +you know much, do they?"</p> + +<p>To keep such immense preparations wholly a secret among any +English-speaking people would be out of the question. Only the Japanese +are mentally equipped for security of information. With other races it +is a struggling effort. Can you imagine Washington keeping a military +secret? You could hear the confidential whispers all the way from the +War Department to the Capitol. In such a great movement as that of the +Somme one weak link in a chain of tens of thousands of officers is +enough to break it, not to mention a million or so of privates.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4><a name="IV" id="IV"></a>IV</h4> + +<h4>READY FOR THE BLOW</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>French national spirit—Our gardeners—Tuning up for the +attack—Policing the sky—Sausage balloons—Matter-of-fact, +systematic war—A fury of trench raids—Reserves marching +forward—Organized human will—Sons of the old country ready to +strike—The greatest struggle of the war about to begin.</p></div> + + +<p>Our headquarters during my first summer at the front had been in the +flat border region of the Pas de Calais, which seemed neither Flanders +nor France. Our second summer required that we should be nearer the +middle of the British line, as it extended southward, in order to keep +in touch with the whole. In the hilly country of Artois a less +comfortable chateau was compensated for by the smiling companionship of +neighbors in the fields and villages of the real France.</p> + +<p>The quality of this sympathetic appeal was that of the thoroughbred +racial and national spirit of a great people, in the politeness which +gave to a thickset peasant woman a certain grace, in the smiles of the +land and its inhabitants, in that inbred patriotism which through the +centuries has created a distinctive civilization called French by the +same ready sacrifices for its continuity as those which were made on +the Marne and at Verdun. Flanders is not France, and France is +increasingly French as you proceed from Ypres to Amiens, the capital of +Picardy. I was glad that Picardy had been chosen as the scene of the +offensive. It made the blow seem more truly a blow for France. I was to +learn to love Picardy and its people under the test of battle.</p> + +<p>In order that we might be near the field of the Somme we were again to +move our quarters, and we had the pang of saying good-by to another +garden and another gardener. All the gardeners of our different chateaux +had been philosophers. It was Louis who said that he would like to make +all the politicians who caused wars into a salad, accompanying his +threat with appropriate gestures; Charles who thought that once the +"Boches" were properly pruned they might be acceptable second-rate +members of international society; and Leon who wanted the Kaiser put to +the plow in a coat of corduroy as the best cure for his conceit. That +afternoon, when <i>au revoirs</i> were spoken and our cars wound in and out +over the byroads of the remote countryside, not a soldier was visible +until we came to the great main road, where we had the signal that +peaceful surroundings were finally left behind in the distant, ceaseless +roar of the guns, like some gigantic drumbeat calling the armies to +combat.</p> + +<p>A giant with nerves of telephone wires and muscles of steel and a human +heart seemed to be snarling his defiance before he sprang into action. +We knew the meaning of the set thunders of the preliminary bombardment. +That night to the eastward the sky was an aurora borealis of flashes; +and the next day we sought the source of the lightnings.</p> + +<p>Seamed and tracked and gashed were the slopes behind the British line +and densely peopled with busy men in khaki. Every separate scene was +familiar to us out of our experience, but every one had taken on a new +meaning. The whole exerted a majestic spell. Graded like the British +social scale were the different calibers of guns. Those with the largest +reach were set farthest back. Fifteen-inch howitzer dukes or nine-inch +howitzer earls, with their big, ugly mouths and their deliberate and +powerful fire, fought alone, each in his own lair, whether under a tree +or in the midst of the ruins of a village. The long naval guns, though +of smaller caliber, had a still greater reach and were sending their +shells five to ten miles beyond the German trenches.</p> + +<p>The eight-inch and six-inch howitzers were more gregarious. They worked +in groups of four and sometimes a number of batteries were in line. +Beyond them were those alert commoners, the field guns, rapid of fire +with their eighteen-pound shells. These seemed more tractable and +companionable, better suited for human association, less mechanically +brutal. They were not monstrous enough to require motor tractors to draw +them at a stately gait, but behind their teams could be up and away +across the fields on short notice, their caissons of ammunitions +creaking behind them. Along the communication trenches perspiring +soldiers carried "plum puddings" or the trench-mortar shells which were +to be fired from the front line and boxes of egg-shaped bombs which +fitted nicely in the palm of the hand for throwing.</p> + +<p>It seemed that all the guns in the world must be firing as you listened +from a distance, although when you came into the area where the guns +were in tiers behind the cover of a favorable slope you found that many +were silent. The men of one battery might be asleep while its neighbor +was sending shells with a one-two-three deliberation. Any sleep or rest +that the men got must be there in the midst of this crashing babel from +steel throats. Again, the covers were being put over the muzzles for the +night, or, out of what had seemed blank hillside, a concealed battery +which had not been firing before sent out its vicious puffs of smoke +before its reports reached your ears. Every battery was doing as it was +told from some nerve-center; every one had its registered target on the +map—a trench, or a road, or a German battery, or where it was thought +that a German battery ought to be.</p> + +<p>The flow of ammunition for all came up steadily, its expenditure +regulated on charts by officers who kept watch for extravagance and +aimed to make every shell count. A fortune was being fired away every +hour; a sum which would send a youth for a year to college or bring up a +child went into a single large shell which might not have the luck to +kill one human being as excuse for its existence; an endowment for a +maternity hospital was represented in a day's belch of destruction from +a single acre of trodden wheat land. One trench mortar would consume in +an hour plum puddings for an orphan school. For you might pause to think +of it in this way if you chose. Thousands do at the front.</p> + +<p>Down on the banks of the Somme the blue uniforms of the French in place +of the British khaki hovered around the gun-emplacements; the +<i>soixante-quinze</i> with its virtuoso artistic precision was neighbor to +the British eighteen-pounder. Guns, guns, guns—French and English! The +same nests of them opposite Gommecourt and at Estrées thundered across +at one another from either bank of the Somme through summer haze over +the green spaces of the islands edged with the silver of its tranquil +flow in the moonlight or its glare in the sunlight.</p> + +<p>Not the least of the calculations in this activity was to screen every +detail from aerial observation. New hangars had risen at the edge of +level fields, whence the swift fighting machines of an aircraft +concentration in keeping with the concentration of guns and all other +material rose to reconnaissance, or to lie in wait as a falcon to pounce +upon an invading German plane. Thus the sky was policed by flight +against prying aerial eyes. If one German plane could descend to an +altitude of a thousand feet, its photographs would reveal the location +of a hundred batteries to German gunners and show the plan of +concentration clearly enough to leave no doubt of the line of attack; +but the anti-aircraft guns, plentiful now as other British material, +would have caught it going, if not coming, provided it escaped being +jockeyed to death by half a dozen British planes with their machine guns +rattling.</p> + +<p>To "camouflet" became a new English verb British planes tested out a +battery's visibility from the air. Landscape painters were called in to +assist in the deceit. One was set to "camouflet" the automobile van for +the pigeons which, carried in baskets on the men's backs in charges, +were released as another means of sending word of the progress of an +attack obscured in the shell-smoke. This conscientious artist +"camoufleted" the pigeon-van so successfully that the pigeons could not +find their way home.</p> + +<p>Night was the hour of movement. At night the planes, if they went forth, +saw only a vague and shadowy earth. The sausage balloons, German and +Allied, those monitors of the sky, a line of opaque, weird question +marks against the blue, stared across at each other out of range of the +enemy's guns, "spotting" the fall of shells for their own side from +their suspended basket observation posts from early morning until they +were drawn in by their gasoline engines with the coming of dusk. Clumsy +and helpless they seemed; but in common with the rest of the army they +had learned to reach their dugouts swiftly at the first sign of shell +fire, and descended then with a ridiculous alacrity which suggested the +possession of the animal intelligence of self-preservation. Occasionally +one broke loose and, buffeted like an umbrella down the street by the +wind, started for the Rhine. And the day before the great attack the +British aviation corps sprang a surprise on the German sausages, six of +which disappeared in balls of flame.</p> + +<p>A one-armed man of middle age from India, who offered to do his "bit," +refused a post at home in keeping with his physical limitations. His +eyes were all right, he said, when he nominated himself as a balloon +observer, and he never suffered from sea-sickness which sausage balloons +most wickedly induce. Many a man who has ascended in one not only could +see nothing, but wanted to see nothing, and turning spinach lopping over +the basket rail prayed only that the engine would begin drawing in +immediately.</p> + +<p>One day the one-armed pilot was up with a "joy-rider"; that is, an +officer who was not a regular aerial observer but was sight-seeing. The +balloon suddenly broke loose with the wind blowing strong toward Berlin, +which was a bit awkward, as he remarked, considering that he had an +inexperienced passenger.</p> + +<p>"We mustn't let the Boches get us!" he said. "Look sharp and do as I +say."</p> + +<p>First, he got the joy-rider into the parachute harness for such +emergencies and over the side, then himself, both descending safely on +the right side of the British trenches—which was rather "smart work," +as the British would say, but all to the taste of the one-armed pilot +who was looking for adventures. I have counted thirty-three British +sausage balloons within my range of vision from a hill. The previous +year the British had not a baker's dozen.</p> + +<p>What is lacking? Have we enough of everything? These questions were +haunting to organizers in those last days of preparation.</p> + +<p>After dark the scene from a hill, as you rode toward the horizon of +flashes, was one of incredible grandeur. Behind you, as you looked +toward the German lines, was the blanket of night pierced and slashed by +the flashes of gun blasts; overhead the bloodcurdling, hoarse sweep of +their projectiles; and beyond the darkness had been turned into a +chaotic, uncanny day by the jumping, leaping, spreading blaze of +explosives which made all objects on the landscape stand out in +flickering silhouette. Spurts of flame from the great shells rose out of +the bowels of the earth, softening with their glow the sharp, +concentrated, vicious snaps of light from shrapnel. Little flashes +played among big flashes and flashes laid over flashes shingle fashion +in a riot of lurid competition, while along the line of the German +trenches at some places lay a haze of shimmering flame from the rapid +fire of the trench mortars.</p> + +<p>The most resourceful of descriptive writers is warranted in saying that +the scene was indescribable. Correspondents did their best, and after +they had squeezed the rhetorical sponge of its last drop of ink +distilled to frenzy of adjectives in inadequate effort, they gaspingly +laid their copy on the table of the censor, who minded not "word +pictures" which contained no military secrets.</p> + +<p>Vision exalted and numbed by the display, one's mind sought the meaning +and the purpose of this unprecedented bombardment, with its precision +of the devil's own particular brand of "kultur," which was to cut the +Germans' barbed wire, smash in their trenches, penetrate their dugouts, +close up their communication trenches, do unto their second line the +same as to their first line, bury their machine guns in débris, crush +each rallying strong point in that maze of warrens, burst in the roofs +of village billets over their heads, lay a barrier of death across all +roads and, in the midst of the process of killing and wounding, imprison +the men of the front line beyond relief by fresh troops and shut them +off from food and munitions. Theatric, horrible and more than +that—matter-of-fact, systematic war! There was relatively little +response from the German batteries, whose silence had a sinister +suggestion. They waited on the attack as the target of their revenge for +the losses which they were suffering.</p> + +<p>By now they knew from the bombardment, if not from other sources, that a +British attack was coming at some point of the line. Their flares were +playing steadily over No Man's Land to reveal any movement by the +British or the French. From their trenches rose signal rockets—the only +real fireworks, leisurely and innocent, without any sting of death in +their sparks—which seemed to be saying "No movement yet" to commanders +who could not be reached by any other means through the curtains of fire +and to artillerists who wanted to turn on their own curtains of fire +instantly the charge started. Then there were other little flashes and +darts of light and flame which insisted on adding their moiety to the +garish whole. And under the German trenches at several points were vast +charges of explosives which had been patiently borne under ground +through arduously made tunnels.</p> + +<p>So much for the machinery of material. Thus far we have mentioned only +guns and explosions, things built of steel to fire missiles of steel and +things on wheels, and little about the machine of human beings now to +come abreast of the tape for the charge, the men who had been "blooded," +the "cannon fodder." Every shell was meant for killing men; every German +battery and machine gun was a monster frothing red at the lips in +anticipation of slaughter.</p> + +<p>A fury of trench raids broke out from the Somme to Ypres further to +confuse the enemy as to the real front of attack. Men rushed the +trenches which they were to take and hold later, and by their brief +visit learned whether or not the barbed wire had been properly cut to +give the great charge a clear pathway and whether or not the German +trenches were properly mashed. They brought in prisoners whose +identification and questioning were invaluable to the intelligence +branch, where the big map on the wall was filled in with the location +of German divisions, thus building up the order of battle, so vital to +all plans, with its revelation of the disposition and strength of the +enemy's forces. It was known that the Germans were rapidly bringing up +new batteries north of the Ancre while low visibility postponed the day +of the attack.</p> + +<p>The men that worked on the new roads keeping them in condition for the +passage of the heavy transport, whether columns of motor trucks, or +caissons, or the great tractors drawing guns, were no less a part of the +scheme than the daring raiders. Every soldier who was going over the +parapet in the attack must have his food and drink and bombs to throw +and cartridges to fire after he had reached his objective.</p> + +<p>Most telling of all the innumerably suggestive features to me were the +streets of empty white tents at the casualty clearing stations, and the +empty hospital cars on the railway sidings, and the new enclosures for +prisoners—for these spoke the human note. These told that man was to be +the target.</p> + +<p>The staff might plan, gunners might direct their fire accurately against +unseen targets by the magic of their calculations, generals might +prepare their orders, the intricate web of telephone and telegraph wires +might hum with directions, but the final test lay with him who, rifle +and bomb ready in hand, was going to cross No Man's Land and take +possession of the German trenches. A thousand pictures cloud the memory +and make a whole intense in one's mind, which holds all proudly in +admiration of human stoicism, discipline and spirit and sadly, too, with +a conscious awe in the possession as of some treasure intrusted to him +which he cheapens by his clumsy effort at expression.</p> + +<p>Stage by stage the human part had moved forward. Khaki figures were +swarming the village streets while the people watched them with a sort +of worshipful admiration of their stalwart, trained bodies and a +sympathetic appreciation of what was coming. These men with their fair +complexion and strange tongue were to strike against the Germans. Two +things the French had learned about the English: they were generous and +they were just, though phlegmatic. Now they were to prove that with +their methodical deliberation they were brave. Some would soon die in +battle—and for France.</p> + +<p>By day they loitered in the villages waiting on the coming of darkness, +their training over—nothing to do now but wait. If they went forward it +was by platoons or companies, lest they make a visible line on the +chalky background of the road to the aviator's eye. A battalion drawn up +in a field around a battalion commander, sitting his horse sturdily as +he gave them final advice, struck home the military affection of loyalty +of officer to man and man to officer. A soldier parting at a doorway +from a French girl in whose eyes he had found favor during a brief +residence in her village struck another chord. That elderly woman with +her good-by to a youth was speaking as she would to her own son who was +at the front and unconsciously in behalf of some English mother. Up near +the trenches at dusk, in the last billet before the assembly for attack, +company officers were recalling the essentials of instructions to a line +standing at ease at one side of the street while caissons of shells had +the right of way.</p> + +<p>With the coming of night battalions of reserves formed and set forth on +the march, going toward the flashes in the heavens which illumined the +men in their steady tramp, the warmth of their bodies and their breaths +pressing close to your car as you turned aside to let them pass. "East +Surreys," or "West Ridings," or "Manchesters" might come the answer to +inquiries. All had the emblems of their units in squares of cloth on +their shoulders, and on the backs of some of the divisions were bright +yellow or white patches to distinguish them from Germans to the gunners +in the shell-smoke.</p> + +<p>Nothing in their action at first glance indicated the stress of their +thoughts. Officers and men, their physical movements set by the mold of +discipline, were in gesture, in voice, in manner the same as when they +were on an English road in training. This was a part of the drill, a +part of man's mastery of his emotions. None were under any illusions as +soldiers of other days had been. Few nursed the old idea of being the +lucky man who would escape. They knew the chances they were taking, the +meaning of frontal attacks and of the murderous and wholesale quickness +of machine gun methods.</p> + +<p>Will, organized human will, was in their steps and shining out of their +eyes. It occurred to me that they might have escaped this if England had +kept out of the war at the price of something with which Englishmen +refused to part. "The day" was coming, "the day" they had foreseen, "the +day" for which their people waited.</p> + +<p>When they were closing in with death, the clans which make up the +British Empire kept faith with their character as do all men. These +battalions sang the songs and whistled the tunes of drill grounds at +home, though in low notes lest the enemy should hear, and lapsed into +silence when they drew near the front and filed through the +communication trenches.</p> + +<p>Quiet the English, that great body of the army which sees itself as the +skirt for the Celtic fringe, ploddingly undemonstrative with memories of +the phlegm of their history holding emotions unexpressed; the Scotch in +their kilts, deep-chested, with their trunk-like legs and broad hips, +braw of face under their mushroom helmets, seemed like mediæval men of +arms ready in spirit as well as looks for fierce hand-to-hand +encounters; the Welsh, more emotional than the English, had songs which +were pleasant to the ear if the words were unrecognizable; and the +ruddy-faced Irish, with their soft voices, had a beam in their eyes of +inward anticipation of the sort of thing to come which no Irishman ever +meets in a hesitating mood. No overseas troops were there except the +Newfoundland battalion; for only sons of the old country were to strike +on July 1st.</p> + +<p>Returning from a tour at night I had absorbed what seemed at one moment +the unrealness and at another the stern, unyielding reality of the +scenes. The old French territorial, with wrinkled face and an effort at +a military mustache, who came out of his sentry box at a control post +squinting by the light of a lantern held close to his nose at the bit of +paper which gave the bearer freedom of the army and nodding with his +polite word of concurrence, was a type who might have stopped a traveler +in Louis XIV.'s time. All the farmers sleeping in the villages who would +be up at dawn at their work, all the people in Amiens, knew that the +hour was near. The fact was in the air no less than in men's minds. +Nobody mentioned that the greatest struggle of the war was about to +begin. We all knew that it was in hearts, souls, fiber.</p> + +<p>There were moments when imagination gave to that army in its integrity +of organization only one heart in one body. Again, it was a million +hearts in a million bodies, deaf except to the voice of command. Most +amazing was the absence of fuss whether with the French or the British. +Everybody seemed to be doing what he was told to do and to know how to +do it. With much to be left to improvisation after the attack began, +nothing might be neglected in the course of preparation.</p> + +<p>In other days where infantry on the march deployed and brought up +suddenly against the enemy in open conflict the anticipatory suspense +was not long and was forgotten in the brief space of conflict. Here this +suspense really had been cumulative for months. It built itself up, +little by little, as the material and preparations increased, as the +battalions assembled, until sometimes, despite the roar of the +artillery, there seemed a great silence while you waited for a string, +drawn taut, to crack.</p> + +<p>On the night of June 30th the word was passed behind a closed door in +the hotel that seven-thirty the next morning was the hour and the +spectators should be called at five—which seemed the final word in +staff prevision.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4><a name="V" id="V"></a>V</h4> + +<h4>THE BLOW</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Plans at headquarters—A battle by inches—In the observation +post—The débris of a ruined village—"Softening" by shell fire—A +slice out of the front—The task of the infantryman—The dawn before +the attack—Five minutes more—A wave of men twenty-five miles +long—Mist and shell-smoke—Duty of the war-correspondent.</p></div> + + +<p>I was glad to have had glimpses of every aspect of the preparation from +battalion headquarters in the front line trenches to General +Headquarters, which had now been moved to a smaller town near the +battlefield where the intelligence branch occupied part of a +schoolhouse. In place of exercises in geography and lithographs of +natural history objects, on the schoolroom walls hung charts of the +German Order of Battle, as built up through many sources of information, +which the British had to face. There was no British Order of Battle in +sight. This, as the Germans knew it, you might find in a German +intelligence office; but the British were not going to aid the Germans +in ascertaining it by giving it any publicity.</p> + +<p>By means of a map spread out on a table an officer explained the plan of +attack with reference to broad colored lines which denoted the +objectives. The whole was as explicit as if Bonaparte had said:</p> + +<p>"We shall engage heavily on our left, pound the center with our +artillery, and flank on our right."</p> + +<p>The higher you go in the command the simpler seem the plans which by +direct and comprehensive strokes conceal the detail which is delegated +down through the different units. At Gommecourt there was a salient, an +angle of the German trench line into the British which seemed to invite +"pinching," and this was to be the pivot of the British movement. The +French who were on both sides of the Somme were to swing in from their +southern flank of attack near Soyecourt in the same fashion as the +British from the northern, thus bringing the deepest objective along the +river in the direction of Péronne, which would fall when eventually the +tactical positions commanding it were gained.</p> + +<p>Not with the first rush, for the lines of the objective were drawn well +short of it, but with later rushes the British meant to gain the +irregular ridge formation from Thiepval to Longueval, which would start +them on the way to the consummation of their siege hammering. It was to +be a battle by inches; the beginning of a long task. German <i>morale</i> was +still high on the Western front; their numbers immense. <i>Morale</i> could +be broken, numbers worn down, only by pounding.</p> + +<p>Granted that the attack of July 1st should succeed all along the line, +it would gain little ground; but it would everywhere break through the +first line fortifications over a front of more than twenty-five miles, +the British for about fifteen and the French for about ten. The +soldierly informant at "Intelligence" reminded the listener, too, that +battalions which might be squeezed or might run into unexpected +obstacles would suffer fearfully as in all great battles and one must be +careful not to be over-depressed by the accounts of the survivors or +over-elated by the roseate narratives of battalions which had swept all +before them with slight loss.</p> + +<p>The day before I saw the map of the whole I had seen the map of a part +at an Observation Post at Auchonvillers. The two were alike in a +standardized system, only one dealt with corps and the other with +battalions. A trip to Auchonvillers at any time during the previous year +or up to the end of June, 1916, had not been fraught with any particular +risk. It was on the "joy-riders'" route, as they say.</p> + +<p>When I said that the German batteries were making relatively little +reply to the preliminary British bombardment I did not mean to imply +that they were missing any opportunities. At the dead line for +automobiles on the road the burst of a shrapnel overhead had a +suggestiveness that it would not have had at other times. Perhaps the +Germans were about to put a barrage on the road. Perhaps they were +going to start their guns in earnest. Happily, they have always been +most considerate where I was concerned and they were only throwing in a +few shells in the course of artillery routine, which happened also on +our return from the Observation Post. But they were steadily attentive +with "krumps" to a grove where some British howitzers sought the screen +of summer foliage. If they could put any batteries out of action while +they waited for the attack this was good business, as it meant fewer +guns at work in support of the British charge.</p> + +<p>An artilleryman, perspiring and mud-spattered from shell-bursts, who +came across the fields, said: "They knocked off the corner of our +gun-pit and got two men. That's all." His eyes were shining; he was in +the elation of battle. Casualties were an incident in the preoccupation +of his work and of the thought: "At last we have the shells! At last it +is our turn!"</p> + +<p>On our way forward we passed more batteries and wisely kept to the open +away from them, as they are dangerous companions in an artillery duel. +Then we stepped into the winding communication trench with its system of +wires fast to the walls, and kept on till we passed under a lifted +curtain into a familiar chamber roofed with heavy cement blocks and +earth.</p> + +<p>"Safe from a direct hit by five-point-nines," said the observation +officer, a regular promoted from the ranks who had been "spotting" +shells since the war began. "A nine-inch would break the blocks, but I +don't think that it would do us in."</p> + +<p>Even if it did "do us in," why, we were only two or three men. All this +protection was less perhaps to insure safety than to insure security of +observation for these eyes of the guns. The officer was as proud of his +O.P. as any battalion commander of his trench or a battery commander of +his gun-position, which is the same kind of human pride that a man has +in the improvements on his new country estate.</p> + +<p>There was a bench to sit on facing the narrow observation slit, similar +to that of a battleship's conning tower, which gave a wide sweep of +vision. A commonplace enough <i>mise-en-scène</i> on average days, now +significant because of the stretch of dead world of the trench systems +and No Man's Land which was soon to be seething with the tumult of +death.</p> + +<p>Directly in front of us was Beaumont-Hamel. Before the war it had been +like hundreds of other villages. Since the war its ruins were like +scores of others in the front line. Parts of a few walls were standing. +It was difficult to tell where the débris of Beaumont-Hamel began and +that of the German trench ended. Dust was mixed with the black bursts +of smoke rising from the conglomerate mass of buildings and streets +thrown together by previous explosions. The effect suggested the regular +spout of geysers from a desert rock crushed by charges of dynamite.</p> + +<p>Could anybody be alive in Beaumont-Hamel? Wasn't this bombardment +threshing straw which had long since yielded its last kernel of grain? +Wasn't it merely pounding the graves of a garrison? Other villages, +equally passive and derelict, were being submitted to the same +systematic pounding, which was like timed hammer-beats.</p> + +<p>"We keep on softening them," said the observer.</p> + +<p>Soldiers have a gift for apt words to describe their work, as have all +professional experts. Softening! It personified the enemy as something +hard and tough which would grow pulpy under enough well-mapped blows +striking at every vital part from dugouts to billets.</p> + +<p>All the barbed-wire entanglements in front of the first-line trenches +appeared to be cut, mangled, twisted into balls, beaten back into the +earth and exhumed again, leaving only a welt of crater-spotted ground in +front of the chalky contour of the first-line trenches which had been +mashed and crushed out of shape.</p> + +<p>"Yes, the Boche's first line looks rather messy," said the officer. +"We've been giving him an awful doing these last few days. Turning our +attention mostly to the second line, now. That's our lot, there," he +added, indicating a cluster of bursts over a nest of burrows farther up +on the hillside.</p> + +<p>"Any attempts to repair their wire at night?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"No. They have to do it under our machine gun fire. Any Boches who have +survived are lying doggo."</p> + +<p>How many dugouts were still intact and secure refuges for the waiting +Germans? Only trench raids could ascertain. As well might the observer +with his glasses or an aeroplane looking down try to take a census of +the number of inhabitants of a prairie dog village who were all in their +holes.</p> + +<p>The officer spread out his map marked "Secret and confidential," +delimiting the boundaries of a narrow sector. He had nothing to do with +what lay to the right and left—other sectors, other men's business—of +the area inclosed in the clear, heavy lines crosswise of British and +German trenches—a slice out of the front, as it were. Speaking over the +telephone to the blind guns, he was interested only in the control of +gunfire in this sector. The charge to him was lines on the map parallel +with the trenches which would be at given points at given moments—lines +which he must support when their soldier counterparts were invisible +through the shell-smoke in the nice calculation of time and range which +should put the shells into the enemy and never into the charging man.</p> + +<p>To infantry commanders with similar maps those lines were breathing +human lines of men whom they had trained, and the gunfire a kind of +spray which the gunners were to adjust for the protection of the +battalions when they should cross that dead space. Once the British were +in the German front trenches, details which had been told off for the +purpose were to take possession of the dugouts and "breach" them of +prisoners and disarm all other Germans, lest they fire into the backs of +those who carried the charge farther on to the final stage of the +objective. What awaited them they would know only when they climbed over +the parapet and became silhouettes of vulnerable flesh in the open. Yes, +one had the system in the large and the small, by the army, the corps, +the division, the brigade, the battalion, and the man, the individual +infantryman who was to suffer that hazard of marching in the open toward +the trenches which not guns, or motor trucks, or trench-mortar shells +could take, but only he could take and hold.</p> + +<p>The advantage of watching the attack from this O.P. in comparison with +that of other points was mooted; for the spectator had to choose his +seat for the panorama. This time we sought a place where we hoped to +see something of the battle as a whole.</p> + +<p>"<i>C'est arrivé!</i>" said the old porter to me at the door when I left the +hotel before dawn. The great day had arrived!</p> + +<p>Amiens was in darkness, with the lightnings of the guns which had never +ceased their labors through the night flashing in the heavens their +magnetic summons to battle. When a dip into a valley shut out their roar +a divine hush lay over the world. On either side of the main road was +the peace of the hour before the dawn which would send the peasants from +their beds to the fields. There were no lights yet in the villages. It +had not occurred to the inhabitants to try to see the battle. They knew +that they would be in the way; sentries or gunners would halt them.</p> + +<p>The traffic was light and all vehicles, except a flying staff officer's +car, were going their methodical way. Vaguely, as an aviation station +was passed, planes were visible being pushed out of their sheds; the hum +of propellers being tried out was faintly heard. The birds of battle +were testing their wings before flight and every one out of the hundreds +which would take part that day had his task set, no less than had a +corps, a regiment of artillery, or the bombers in a charge.</p> + +<p>"This is the place," was the word to the chauffeur as we swept up a +grade in the misty darkness.</p> + +<p>Stretched from trunk to trunk of the trees beside the road were canvas +screens to hide the transport from enemy observation. Passing between +them had the effect of going through the curtains into a parterre box. +Light was just breaking and we were in a field of young beets on the +crest of a rise, with no higher ground beyond us all the way to +Thiepval, which was in the day's objective, and to Pozières, which was +beyond it. Ordinarily, on a clear day we should have had from here a +view over five or six miles of front and through our glasses the action +should have been visible in detail.</p> + +<p>This morning the sun was not showing his head and the early mist lay +opaque over all the positions, holding in place the mighty volume of +smoke from bursting shells. As it was not seven o'clock the sun might +yet realize its duty in July and dissipate this shroud, which was so +thick that it partially obscured the flashes of the guns and the +shell-bursts.</p> + +<p>Seven-ten came and seven-twenty and still no more light. It was too late +now to seek another hill and, if we had sought one, we should have had +no better view. At least, we were seeing as much as the Commander of the +Fourth Army in his dugout near by. The artillery fire increased. Every +gun was now firing, all stretching their powers to the maximum. The +mist and smoke over the positions seemed to tremble with the blasts. +Near-by shells, especially German, broke brilliantly against a +background so thick that it swallowed up the flashes of more distant +shells in its garishly illumined density. Thousands of officers were +studying their wrist watches for the tick of "zero" as the minute-hands +moved on with merciless fatalism; and hundreds of thousands of men who +had come into position overnight were in line in the trenches looking to +their officers for the word.</p> + +<p>Our little group in the beet field was restless and silent; or if we +spoke it was not of what was oppressing our minds and stilling our +heartbeats. Our glasses gave no aid; they only made the fog thicker. Had +we been in the first-line British trenches we could hardly have seen the +men who left them through this wall of smoke and mist as they entered +the German first line and the answering German "krumps" would have +driven us to the dugouts and German curtains of fire held us prisoner.</p> + +<p>One of us called attention to a lark that had risen and was singing with +all the power in his little throat. Another mentioned a squadron of +aeroplanes against the background of a soft and domeless sky, flying +with the precision of wild geese. We knew that the German guns were +responding now, for the final blasts of British concentration had been +a sufficient signal of attack if some British prisoner taken in a trench +raid had not revealed the hour.</p> + +<p>Seven-twenty-five! someone said, but not one of us needed any reminder. +Five minutes more and the great experiment would begin. Had Sir Douglas +Haig made an army equal to the task? What would be the answer to +skeptics who said that the London cockneys and the Manchester factory +hands and all the others without military training could not be made +into a force skilful enough to take those trenches? Was the feat of +conquering those fortifications within the bounds of human courage, +skill and resource?</p> + +<p>Not what one saw but what one felt and knew counted. A crowd is +spellbound in watching a steeplejack at work, or an aviator doing a +"loop-the-loop," or an acrobat swinging from one bar to another above +the sawdust ring, or the "leap of death" of the movies; and here we were +in the presence of a multitude who were running a far greater risk in an +untried effort, with their inspiration not a breathless audience but +duty. For none wanted to die. All were human in this. None had any sense +of the glorious sport of war, only that of grim routine.</p> + +<p>Our group was not particularly religious, but I think that we were all +uttering a prayer for England and France. At seven-thirty something +seemed to crack in our brains. There was no visible sign that a wave of +men twenty-five miles long, reaching from Gommecourt to Soyecourt, +wherever the trenches ran across fields, through villages and along +slopes to the banks of the Somme and beyond, had left their parapets. I +knew the men who were going into that charge too well to have any +apprehension that any battalion would falter. The thing was to be done +and they were to do it. Now they were out in No Man's Land; now they +were facing the reception prepared for them. Thousands might already be +down. We could discern that the German guns, long waiting for their +prey, were seeking it in eager ferocity as they laid their curtains of +fire on the appointed places which they had registered. The hell of the +poets and the priests must have some emotion, some temperamental +variation. This was sheer mechanical hell, its pulse that of the dynamo +and the engine.</p> + +<p>Seven-forty-five! Helplessly we stared at the blanket. If the charge had +gone home it was already in the German trenches. For all we knew it +might have been repulsed and its remnants be struggling back through the +curtains of artillery fire and the sweep of machine gun fire. As the sun +came out without clearing away the mist and shell-smoke over the field +we had glimpses of some reserves who had looked like a yellow patch +behind a hill deploying to go forward, suggestive of yellow-backed +beetles who were the organized servitors of a higher mind on some other +planet.</p> + +<p>This was all we saw; and to make more of it would not be fair to other +occasions when views of attacks were more intimate. Yet I would not +change the impression now. It has its place in the spectator's history +of the battle.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4><a name="VI" id="VI"></a>VI</h4> + +<h4>FIRST RESULTS OF THE SOMME</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>At the little schoolhouse—Twenty miles of German fortifications +taken—Doubtful situation north of Thiepval—Prisoners and +wounded—Defeat and victory—The topography of Thiepval—Sprays of +bullets and blasts of artillery fire—"The day" of the New Army—The +courage of civilized man—Fighting with a kind of divine +stubbornness—Braver than the "Light Brigade"—Died fighting as final +proof of the New Army's spirit—Crawling back through No Man's +Land—Not beaten but roughly handled.</p></div> + + +<p>In the room at the head of the narrow stairs in the schoolhouse of the +quiet headquarters town we should have the answer to the question, Has +the British attack succeeded? which was throbbing in our pulsebeats. By +the same map on the table in the center of the room showing the plan of +attack with its lines indicating the objectives we should learn how many +of them had been gained. The officer who had outlined the plan of battle +with fine candor was equally candid about its results, so far as they +were known. Not only did he avoid mincing words, but he avoided wasting +them.</p> + +<p>From Thiepval northward the situation was obscure. The German artillery +response had been heavy and the action almost completely blanketed from +observation. Some detachments must have reached their objective, as +their signals had been seen. From La Boisselle southward the British had +taken every objective. They were in Mametz and Montauban and around +Fricourt. For the French it had been a clean sweep, without a single +repulse. Twenty miles of those formidable German fortifications were in +the possession of the Allies.</p> + +<p>On the ledge of the schoolroom window, with the shrill voices of the +children at recess playing in the yard below rising to my ears, I wrote +my dispatch for the press at home, less conscious then than now of the +wonder of the situation. Downstairs the curé of the church next door was +standing on the steps, an expectant look in his eyes. When I told him +the news his smile and the flash of his eye, which lacked the meekness +usually associated with the Church, were good to see.</p> + +<p>"And the French?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"All of their objectives!"</p> + +<p>"Ah!" He drew a deep breath and rubbed his hands together softly. "And +prisoners?"</p> + +<p>"A great many."</p> + +<p>"Ah! And guns?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>Thus he ran up the scale of happiness. I left him on the steps of the +church with a proud, glad, abstracted look.</p> + +<p>Beyond the town peaceful fields stretched away to the battle area, where +figures packed together inside the new prisoners' inclosures made a +green blot. Litters were thick in the streets of the casualty clearing +stations which had been empty yesterday. There were no idle ambulances +now. They had passengers in green as well as in khaki. The first +hospital trains were pulling out from the rail-head across from a +clearing station. Thus promptly, as foreseen, the processes of battle +had worked themselves out.</p> + +<p>From "light" cases and from "bad" cases, from officers and men, you had +the account of an individual's supreme experience, infinitesimal +compared to the whole but when taken together making up the whole. The +wounded in the Thiepval-Gommecourt sector spoke of having "crawled" back +across No Man's Land. South of Thiepval they had "walked" back. This, +too, told the story of the difference between repulse and victory.</p> + +<p>As the fight went for each man in the fray, so the battle went to his +conception. The spectator going here and there could hear accounts at +one headquarters of battalions that were beyond the first-line trenches +and at another of battalions whose survivors were back in their own +trenches. He could hear one wounded man say: "It was too stiff, sir. +There was no getting through their curtains of fire against their +machine guns, sir;" and another: "We went into their first line without +a break and right on, gathering in Boches on the way."</p> + +<p>Victory is sweet. It writes itself. Perhaps because failure is harder to +write, though in this case it is equally glorious, we shall have this +first. To make the picture of that day clearer, imagine a movement of +the whole arm, with the shoulder at Gommecourt and the fist swinging in +at Montauban, crushing its way against those fortifications. It broke +through for a distance of more than from the elbow to the fingers' ends +twenty miles southward from Thiepval—a name to bear in mind. Men +crossing the open under protecting waves of shell fire had proved that +men in dugouts with machine guns were not invincible.</p> + +<p>From a certain artillery observation post in a tree you had a good view +of Thiepval, already a blackened spot with the ruins of the chateau +showing white in its midst and pricked by the toothpick-like trunks of +trees denuded of their limbs, which were to become such a familiar sight +on the battlefield. It was uphill all the way to Thiepval for the +British. A river so-called, really a brook, the Ancre, runs at the foot +of the slope and turns eastward beyond Thiepval, where a ridge called +Crucifix Ridge north-east of the village takes its name from a Christ +with outstretched arms visible for many miles around. Then on past the +bend of the Ancre the British and the German positions continued to the +Gommecourt salient.</p> + +<p>Along these five miles the odds of terrain were all against the British. +The high ground which they sought to gain was of supreme tactical value. +Nature was an ally of soldierly industry in constructing defenses. The +German staff expected the brunt of the offensive in this sector and +every hour's delay in the attack was invaluable for their final +preparations. Thiepval, Beaumont-Hamel and Gommecourt would not be +yielded if there were any power of men or material at German command to +keep them. Indeed, the Germans said that Thiepval was impregnable. Their +boast was good on July 1st but not in the end, as we shall see, for, +before the summer was over, Thiepval was to be taken with less loss to +the British than to the defenders.</p> + +<p>At Beaumont-Hamel and Thiepval, particularly, and in all villages house +cellars had been enlarged and connected by new galleries, the débris +from the buildings forming a thicker roof against penetration by shells. +Where there had seemed no life in Beaumont-Hamel battalions were snug in +their refuges as the earth around trembled from the explosions. Those +shell-threshed parapets of the first-line German trenches which appeared +to represent complete destruction had not filled in all the doorways of +dugouts which big shells had failed to reach. The cut and twisted +fragments of barbed wire which were the remains of the maze of +entanglements fringing the parapets no longer protected them from a +charge; but the garrisons depended upon another kind of defense which +sent its deadly storms against the advancing infantry.</p> + +<p>The British battalions that went over the parapet from Thiepval +northward were of the same mettle as those that took Montauban and +Mametz; their training and preparation the same. Where battalions to the +southward swept forward according to plan and the guns' pioneering was +successful, those on this front in many cases started from trenches +already battered in by German shell fire. A few steps across that dead +space and officers knew that the supporting artillery, working no less +thoroughly in its preliminary bombardment here than elsewhere, had not +the situation in hand.</p> + +<p>All the guns which the Germans had brought up during the time that +weather delayed the British attack added their weight to the artillery +concentration. Down the valley of the Ancre at its bend they had more or +less of an enfilade. Machine guns had survived in their positions in the +débris of the trenches or had been mounted overnight and others appeared +from manholes in front of the trenches. Sprays of bullets cut crosswise +of the blasts of the German curtains of artillery fire. How any men +could go the breadth of No Man's Land and survive would have been called +miraculous in other days; in these days we know that it was due to the +law of chance which will wound one man a dozen times and never bark the +skin of another.</p> + +<p>Any troops might have been warranted in giving up the task before they +reached the first German trench. Veterans could have retired without +criticism. This is the privilege of tried soldiers who have won +victories and are secured by such an expression as, "If the Old Guard +saw that it could not be done, why, then, it could not." But these were +New Army men in their first offensive. Their victories were yet to be +won. This was "the day."</p> + +<p>Each officer and each man had given himself up as a hostage to death for +his cause, his pride of battalion and his manhood when he went over the +parapet. The business of the officers was to lead their men to certain +goals; that of the men was to go with the officers. All very simple +reasoning, this, yet hardly reason: the second nature of training and +spirit. How officers had studied the details of their objectives on the +map in order to recognize them when they were reached! How like drill it +was the way that those human waves moved forward! But they were not +waves for long in some instances, only survivors still advancing as if +they were parts of a wave, unseen by their commanders in the +shell-smoke, buffeted by bursts of high explosives, with every man +simply keeping on toward the goal till he arrived or fell. Foolhardy, +you say. Perhaps. It is an easy word to utter over a map after the +event. You would think of finer words if you had been at the front.</p> + +<p>Would England have wanted her New Army to act otherwise?—the first +great army that she had put into the field on trial on the continent of +Europe against an army which had, by virtue of its own experience, the +right to consider the newcomers as amateurs? They became more skilful +later; but in war all skill is based on such courage as these men showed +that day. Those who sit in offices in times of peace and think otherwise +had better be relieved. It is the precept that the German Army itself +taught and practiced at Ypres and Verdun. On July 1st a question was +answered for anyone who had been in the Manchurian war. He learned that +those bred in sight of cathedrals in the civilization of the epic poem +can surpass without any inspiration of oriental fatalism or religious +fanaticism the courage of the land of Shintoism and Bushido.</p> + +<p>In most places the charge reached the German trenches. There, frequently +outnumbered by the garrison, the men stabbed and bombed, fought to put +out machine guns that were turned on them and so stay the tide coming +out of the mouths of dugouts—simply fought and kept on fighting with a +kind of divine stubbornness.</p> + +<p>Tennyson's "Light Brigade" seems bombast and gallery play after July +1st. In that case some men on horses who had received an order rode out +and rode back, and verse made ever memorable this wild gallop of +exhilaration with horses bearing the men. The battalions of July 1st +went on their own feet driven by their own will toward their goals, +without turning back. Surviving officers with objectives burned in their +brains led the surviving men past the first-line trenches if the +directions required this. "Theirs not to reason why—theirs but to do +and die—cannon to right of them volleyed and thundered,"—old-fashioned, +smoke-powder cannon firing round shot for the Light Brigade; for these +later-day battalions every kind of modern shell and machine guns, showers +of death and sheets of death!</p> + +<p>The goal—the goal! Ten men out of a hundred reached it in a few cases +and when they arrived they sent up rocket signals to say that they were +there! there! there! Two or three battalions literally disappeared into +the blue. I thought that the Germans might have taken a considerable +number of prisoners, but not so. Those isolated lots who went on to +their objectives regardless of every other thought died fighting, as +final proof of the New Army's spirit, against the Germans enraged by +their heavy losses from the preliminary British bombardment.</p> + +<p>It was where gaps existed and gallantry went blindly forward, unable in +the fog of shell-smoke to see whether the units on the right or the left +were up, that these sacrifices of heroism were made; but where command +was held over the line and the opposition was not of a variable kind +counsel was taken of the impossible and retreat was ordered. That is, +the units turned back toward their own trenches under direction. They +had to pass through the same curtain of shell fire in returning as in +charging, and ahead of them through the blasts they drove their +prisoners.</p> + +<p>"Never mind. It's from your own side!" said one Briton to a German who +had been knocked over by a German "krump" when he picked himself up; and +the German answered that this did not make him like it any better.</p> + +<p>Scattered with British wounded taking cover in new and old shell-craters +was No Man's Land as the living passed. A Briton and his prisoner would +take cover together. An explosion and the prisoner might be blown to +bits, or if the captor were, another Briton took charge of the prisoner. +Persistently stubborn were the captors in holding on to prisoners who +were trophies out of that inferno, and when a Briton was back in the +first-line trench with his German his delight was greater in delivering +his man alive than in his own safety. Out in No Man's Land the wounded +hugged their shell-craters until the fire slackened or night fell, when +they crawled back.</p> + +<p>Where early in the morning it had appeared as if the attack were +succeeding reserve battalions were sent in to the support of those in +front, and as unhesitatingly and steadily as at drill they entered the +blanket of shell-smoke with its vivid flashes and hissing of shrapnel +bullets and shell-fragments. Commanders, I found, stood in awe of the +steadfast courage of their troops. Whether officers or men, those who +came out of hell were still true to their heritage of English phlegm.</p> + +<p>Covered with chalk dust from crawling, their bandages blood-soaked, +bespattered with the blood of comrades as they lay on litters or hobbled +down a communication trench, they looked blank when they mentioned the +scenes that they had witnessed; but they gave no impression of despair. +It did not occur to them that they had been beaten; they had been +roughly handled in one round of a many-round fight. Had a German +counter-attack developed they would have settled down, rifle in hand, to +stall through the next round. And that young officer barely twenty, +smiling though weak from loss of blood from two wounds, refusing +assistance as he pulled himself along among the "walking wounded," +showed a bravery in his stoicism equal to any on the field when he said, +"It did not go well this time," in a way that indicated that, of course, +it would in the end.</p> + +<p>It was over one of those large scale, raised maps showing in facsimile +all the elevations that a certain corps commander told the story of the +whole attack with a simplicity and frankness which was a victory of +character even if he had not won a victory in battle. He rehearsed the +details of preparation, which were the same in their elaborate care as +those of corps which had succeeded; and he did not say that luck had +been against him—indeed, he never once used the word—but merely that +the German fortifications had been too strong and the gunfire too heavy. +He bore himself in the same manner that he would in his house in +England; but his eyes told of suffering and when he spoke of his men his +voice quavered.</p> + +<p>Where the young officer had said that it had not gone well this time and +a private had said, "We must try again, sir!" the general had said that +repulse was an incident of a prolonged operation in the initial stage, +which sounded more professional but was no more illuminating. All spoke +of lessons learned for the future. Thus they had stood the supreme test +which repulse alone can give.</p> + +<p>What could an observer say or do that was not banal in the eyes of men +who had been through such experiences? Only listen and look on with the +awe of one who feels that he is in the presence of immortal heroism. And +an hour's motor ride away were troops in the glow of that success which +is without comparison in its physical elation—the success of arms.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4><a name="VII" id="VII"></a>VII</h4> + +<h4>OUT OF THE HOPPER OF BATTLE</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>An army of movement—Taking over the captured space—At Minden Post, +a crossroads of battle—German prisoners—Their desire to live—Their +variety—The ambulance line—The refuse from the hopper of +battle—Resting in the battle line—Reminiscences of the fighters—A +mighty crater—The dugouts around Fricourt—Method of taking a +dugout—The litter over the field.</p></div> + + +<p>When I went southward through that world of triumph back of Mametz and +Montauban I kept thinking of a strong man who had broken free of his +bonds and was taking a deep breath before another effort. Where from +Thiepval to Gommecourt the men who had expected to be organizing new +trenches were back in their old ones and the gunners who had hoped to +move their guns forward were in the same positions and all the plans for +supplying an army in advance were still on paper, to the southward +anticipation had become realization and the system devised to carry on +after success was being applied.</p> + +<p>A mighty, eager industry pervaded the rear. Here, at last, was an army +of movement. New roads must be made in order that the transport could +move farther forward; medical corps men were establishing more advanced +clearing stations; new ammunition dumps were being located; military +police were adapting traffic regulations to the new situation. Old +trenches had been filled up to give trucks and guns passageway. In every +face was the shining desire which overcomes fatigue. An army long +trench-tied was stretching its limbs as it found itself in the open. At +corps headquarters lines were drawn on the maps of positions gained and +beyond them the lines of new objectives.</p> + +<p>Could it be possible that our car was running along that road back of +the first-line trenches where it would have been death to show your head +two days ago? And could battalions in reserve be lying in the open on +fields where forty-eight hours previously a company would have drawn the +fire of half a dozen German batteries? Was it dream or reality that you +were walking about in the first-line German trenches? So long had you +been used to stationary warfare, with your side and the other side +always in the same places hedged in by walls of shell fire, that the +transformation seemed as amazing as if by some magic overnight lower +Broadway with all its high buildings had been moved across the North +River.</p> + +<p>Among certain scenes which memory still holds dissociated from others by +their outstanding characterization, that of Minden Post remains vivid +as illustrating the crossroads man-traffic of battle. A series of big +dugouts, of houses and caves with walls of sandbags, back of the first +British line near Carnoy was a focus of communication trenches and the +magnet to the men hastening from bullet-swept, shell-swept spaces to +security. The hot breath of the firing-line had scorched them and cast +them out and they came together in congestion at this clearing station +like a crowd at a gate. Eyes were bloodshot and set in deep hollows from +fatigue, those of the British having the gleam of triumph and those of +the Germans a dazed inquiry as they awaited directions.</p> + +<p>Only a half-hour before, perhaps, the Germans had been fighting with the +ferocity of racial hate and the method of iron discipline. Now they were +simply helpless, disheveled human beings, their short boots and green +uniforms whitened by chalk dust. Hunger had weakened the stamina of many +of them in the days when the preliminary British bombardment had shut +them off from supplies; but none looked as if he were really underfed. I +never saw a German prisoner who was except for the intervals when battle +kept the food waiting at the rear away from his mouth, though some who +were under-sized and ill-proportioned looked incapable of absorbing +nutrition.</p> + +<p>In order to make them fight better they had been told that the British +gave no quarter. Out of hell, with shells no longer bursting overhead or +bullets whimpering and hissing past, they were conscious only that they +were alive, and being alive, though they had risked life as if death +were an incident, now freed of discipline and of the exhilaration of +battle, their desire to live was very human in the way that hands shot +up if a sharp word were spoken to them by an officer. They were wholly +lacking in military dignity as they filed by; but it returned as by a +magic touch when a non-commissioned officer was bidden to take charge of +a batch and march them to an inclosure. Then, in answer to the command +shoulders squared, heels rapped together, and the instinct of long +training put a ramrod to their backbones which stiffened mere tired +human beings into soldiers. Distinct gratitude was evident when their +papers were taken for examination over the return of their +identification books, which left them still docketed and numbered +members of "system" and not mere lost souls as they would otherwise have +considered themselves.</p> + +<p>"All kinds of Boches in our exhibit!" said a British soldier.</p> + +<p>As there were, in truth: big, hulking, awkward fellows, beardless +youths, men of forty with stoops formed in civil life, professional men +with spectacles fastened to their ears by cords and fat men with the +cranial formation and physiognomy in keeping with French comic pictures +of the "type Boche."</p> + +<p>Mixed with the British wounded they came, tall and short, thin and +portly, the whole a motley procession of friend and foe in a strange +companionship which was singularly without rancor. I saw only one +incident of any harshness of captor to prisoner. A big German ran +against the wounded arm of a Briton, who winced with pain and turned and +gave the German a punch in very human fashion with his free arm. Another +German with his slit trousers' leg flapping around a bandage was leaning +on the arm of a Briton whose other arm was in a sling. A giant Prussian +bore a spectacled comrade pickaback. Germans impressed as litter-bearers +brought in still forms in khaki. Water and tobacco, these are the +bounties which no man refuses to another at such a time as this. The +gurgle of a canteen at a parched mouth on that warm July day was the +first gift to wounded Briton or German and the next a cigarette.</p> + +<p>Every returning Briton was wounded, of course, but many of the Germans +were unwounded. Long rows of litters awaited the busy doctors' visit for +further examination. First dressings put on by the man himself or by a +comrade in the firing-line were removed and fresh dressings substituted. +Ambulance after ambulance ran up, the litters of those who were "next" +were slipped in behind the green curtains, and on soft springs over +spinning rubber tires the burdens were sped on their way to England.</p> + +<p>Officers were bringing order out of the tide which flowed in across the +fields and the communication trenches as if they were used to such +situations, with the firing-line only two thousand yards away. The +seriously wounded were separated from the lightly wounded, who must not +expect to ride but must go farther on foot. The shell-mauled German +borne pickaback by a comrade found himself in an ambulance across from a +Briton and his bearer was to know sleep after a square meal in the +prisoners' inclosure.</p> + +<p>And all this was the refuse from the hopper of battle, which has no +service for prisoners unless to carry litters and no use at all for +wounded; and it was only a by-product of the proof of success compared +to a trip over the field itself—a field still fresh.</p> + +<p>Artillery caissons and ambulances and signal wire carts and other +specially favored transport—favored by risk of being in range of +hundreds of guns—now ran along the road in the former No Man's Land +which for nearly two years had had no life except the patrols at night. +The bodies of those who fell on such nocturnal scouting expeditions +could not be recovered and their bones lay there in the midst of rotting +green and khaki in the company of the fresh dead of the charge who were +yet to be buried.</p> + +<p>There was the battalion which took the trenches resting yonder on a +hillside, while another battalion took its place in the firing-line. The +men had stripped off their coats; they were washing and making tea and +sprawling in the sunshine, these victors, looking across at curtains of +fire where the battle was raging. Thus reserves might have waited at +Gettysburg or at Waterloo.</p> + +<p>"They may put some shells into you," I suggested to their colonel.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps," he said. The prospect did not seem to disturb him or the men. +It was a possibility hazy to minds which asked only sleep or relaxation +after two sleepless nights under fire. "The Germans haven't any +aeroplanes up to enable them to see us and no sausage balloons, either. +Since our planes brought down those six in flames the day before the +attack the others have been very coy."</p> + +<p>His young officers were all New Army products; he, the commander, being +the only regular. There were still enough regulars left to provide one +for each of the New Army battalions, in some cases even two.</p> + +<p>"The men were splendid," he said, "just as good as regulars. They went +in without any faltering and we had a stiffish bit of trench in front of +us, you know. It's jolly out here, isn't it?"</p> + +<p>He was tired and perhaps he would be killed to-morrow, but nothing could +prevent him from going some distance to show us the way to the trenches +that his men had taken. They were heroes to him and he was one to them; +and they had won. That was the thing, victory, though they regarded it +as a matter of course, which gave them a glow warmer than the sunlight +as they lay at ease on the grass. They had "been in;" they had seen the +day for which they had long waited. A quality of mastery was in their +bearing, but their elation was tempered by the thought of the missing +comrades, the dead.</p> + +<p>"I wish as long as Bill had to go that he hadn't fallen before we got to +the trench," said one soldier. "He had set his heart on seeing what a +Boche dugout was like."</p> + +<p>"George was beside me when a Boche got him with a bomb. I did for the +Boche with a bayonet," said another.</p> + +<p>"When the machine gun began I thought that it would get us all, but we +had to go on."</p> + +<p>They were matter-of-fact, dwelling on the simple essentials. Men had +died; men had been wounded; men had survived. This was all according to +expectation. Mostly, they did not rehearse their experiences. Their +brains had had emotion enough; their bodies asked for rest. They lay +silently enjoying the fact of life and sunlight. Details which were lost +in the haze of action would develop in the memory in later years like +the fine points of a photographic plate.</p> + +<p>The former German trench on a commanding knoll had little resemblance to +a trench. Here artillerists had fulfilled infantry requirements to the +letter. Areas of shell-craters lay on either side of the tumbled walls +and dugout entrances were nearly all closed. The infantry which took the +position met no fire in front, but had an enfilade at one point from a +machine gun. Where the dead lay told exactly the breadth of its sweep +through which the charge had unfalteringly passed; and this was only a +first objective. As you could see, the charge had gone on to its second +with slight loss. A young officer after being wounded had crawled into a +shell-crater, drawn his rubber sheet over him and so had died +peacefully, the clot of his life's blood on the earth beside him.</p> + +<p>In the field of ruins around Fricourt a mighty crater of one of the +mines exploded on July 1st at the hour of attack was large enough to +hold a battalion. Germans had gone aloft in a spatter with its vast +plume of smoke and dust scooped from the bowels of the earth. Famous +since to sightseers of war were the dugouts around Fricourt which were +the last word in German provision against attack. The making of dugouts +is standardized like everything else in this war. There is the same +angle of entrance, the same flight of steps to that underground refuge, +in keeping with the established pattern. Depth, capacity and comfort are +the result of local initiative and industry. There may be beds and +tables and tiers of bunks. Many such chambers were as undisturbed as if +never a shell had burst in the neighborhood. The Germans in occupation +had been told to hold on; a counter-attack would relieve them. The faith +of some of them endured so well that they had to be blasted out by +explosives before they would surrender.</p> + +<p>There was reassurance in the proximity of such good dugouts when +habitable to a correspondent if shells began to fall, as well as +protection for the British in reserve. Some whence came foul odors were +closed by the British as the simplest form of burial for the dead within +who had waited for bombs to be thrown before surrendering. For the +method of taking a dugout had long since become as standardized as its +construction. The men inside could have their choice from the Briton at +the entrance.</p> + +<p>"Either file out or take what we send," as a soldier put it. "We can't +leave you there to come out and fire into our backs, as the Kaiser told +you to do, when we've started on ahead."</p> + +<p>You could follow for miles the ruins of the first line, picking your way +among German dead in all attitudes, while a hand or a head or a foot +stuck out of the shell-hammered chalk mixed with flesh and fragments of +clothing, the thing growing nauseatingly horrible and your wonder +increasing as to how gunfire had accomplished the destruction and how +men had been able to conquer the remains that the shells had left. It +was a prodigious feat, emphasizing again the importance of the months of +preparation.</p> + +<p>And the litter over the whole field! This, in turn, expressed how varied +and immense is the material required for such operations. One had in +mind the cleaning up after some ghastly debauch. Shell-fragments were +mixed with the earth; piles of cartridge cases lay beside pools of +blood. Trench mortars poked their half-filled muzzles out of the toppled +trench walls. Bundles of rocket flares, empty ammunition boxes, steel +helmets crushed in by shell-fragments, gasbags, eye-protectors against +lachrymatory shells, spades, water bottles, unused rifle grenades, egg +bombs, long stick-handled German bombs, map cases, bits of German "K.K." +bread, rifles, the steel jackets of shells and unexploded shells of all +calibers were scattered about the field between the irregular welts of +chalky soil where shell fire had threshed them to bits.</p> + +<p>The rifles and accoutrements of the fallen were being gathered in piles, +this being, too, a part of a prearranged system, as was the gathering of +the wounded and later of the dead who had worn them. Big, barelegged +forms of the sturdy Highland regiment which would not halt for a machine +gun were being brought in and laid in a German communication trench +which had only to be closed to make a common grave, each identification +disk being kept as a record of where the body lay. Another communication +trench near by was reserved for German dead who were being gathered at +the same time as the British. In life the foes had faced each other +across No Man's Land. In death they were also separated.</p> + +<p>Up to the first-line German trenches, of course, there were only British +dead, those who had fallen in the charge. It was this that made it seem +as if the losses had been all on one side. In the German trenches the +entries on the other side of the ledger appeared; and on the fields and +in the communication trenches lay green figures. Over that open space +they were scattered green dots; again, where they had run for cover to a +wood's edge, they lay thick as they had dropped under the fire of a +machine gun which the British had brought into action. A fierce game of +hare and hounds had been played. Both German and British dead lay facing +in the same direction when they were in the open, the Germans in +retreat, the British in pursuit. An officer called attention to this +grim proof that the initiative was with the British.</p> + +<p>By the number of British dead lying in No Man's Land or by the blood +clots when the bodies had been removed, it was possible to tell what +price battalions had paid for success. Nothing could bring back the +lives of comrades who had fallen in front of Thiepval to the survivors +of that action; but could they have seen the broad belts of No Man's +Land with only an occasional prostrate figure it would have had the +reassurance that another time they might have easier going. Wherever the +Germans had brought a machine gun into action the results of its work +lay a stark warning of the necessity of silencing these automatic +killers before a charge. Yet from Mametz to Montauban the losses had +been light, leaving no doubt that the Germans, convinced that the weight +of the attack would be to the north, had been caught napping.</p> + +<p>The Allies could not conceal the fact and general location of their +offensive, but they did conceal its plan as a whole. The small number of +shell-craters attested that no such artillery curtains of fire had been +concentrated here as from Thiepval to Gommecourt. Probably the Germans +had not the artillery to spare or had drawn it off to the north.</p> + +<p>All branches of the winning army making themselves at home in the +conquered area among the dead and the litter behind the old German first +line—this was the fringe of the action. Beyond was the battle itself, +with the firing-line still advancing under curtains of shell-bursts.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4><a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a>VIII</h4> + +<h4>FORWARD THE GUNS!</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>An audacious battery—"An unusual occasion"—Guns to the front at +night—Close to the firing-line—Not so dangerous for observers—The +German lines near by—Advantages of even a gentle slope—Skilfully +chosen German positions—A game of hide and seek with +death—Business-like progress—Haze, shell-smoke and moving +figures—Each figure part of the "system."</p></div> + + +<p>Hadn't that battery commander mistaken his directions when he emplaced +his howitzers behind a bluff in the old No Man's Land? Didn't he know +that the German infantry was only the other side of the knoll and that +two or three score German batteries were in range? I looked for a +tornado to descend forthwith upon the gunners' heads. I liked their +audacity, but did not court their company when I could not break a habit +of mind bred in the rules of trench-tied warfare where the other fellow +was on the lookout for just such fair targets as they.</p> + +<p>For the moment these "hows" were not firing and the gunners were in a +little circumscribed world of their own, dissociated from the movement +around them as they busily dug pits for their ammunition. In due course +someone might tell them to begin registering on a certain point or to +turn loose on one which they had already registered. Meanwhile, very +workmanlike in their shirt-sleeves, they had no concern with the traffic +in the rear, except as it related to their own supply of shells, or with +the litter of the field, or the dead, or the burial parties and the +scattered wounded passing back from the firing-line. Their business +relations were exclusively with the battle area hidden by the bluff. I +thought that they were "rather fond of themselves" (as the British say) +that morning, though not so much so, perhaps, as the crew of the +eighteen pounders still farther forward within about a thousand yards of +the Germans whom they were pelting with shrapnel.</p> + +<p>Ordinarily, the eighteen pounders were expected to keep a distance of +four or five thousand yards; but this was "rather an unusual occasion" +as an officer explained. It would never do for the eighteen pounders to +be wall-flowers; they must be on the ballroom floor. Had these men who +were mechanically slipping shells into the gun-breeches slept last night +or the previous night? Oh, yes, for two or three hours when they were +not firing.</p> + +<p>What did fatigue matter to an eighteen-pounder spirit released from the +eternal grind of trench warfare and pushing across the open in the way +that eighteen pounders were meant to do? Weren't they horse artillery? +What use had they had for their horses in the immovable Ypres salient +except when they drew back their guns to the billets after their tour of +duty?—they who had drilled and drilled in evolutions in England under +the impression that field guns were a mobile arm!</p> + +<p>When orders came on the afternoon of July 1st to go ahead "right into +it" it was like a summons to a holiday for a desk-ridden man brought up +in the Rockies. Out into the night with creaking wheels and caissons +following with sharp words of urging from the sergeant, "Now, wheelers, +as I taught you at Aldershot," as they went across old trenches or up a +stiff slope and into the darkness, with transport giving them the right +of way, and on to a front that was in motion, with officers studying +their maps and directions by the pocket flashlight—this was something +like. And a young lieutenant hurried forward to where the rifles were +talking to signal back the results of the guns firing from the midst of +the battle. Something like, indeed! The fellows training their pieces in +keeping with his instructions might be in for a sudden concentration of +blasts from the enemy, of course. Wasn't that part of the experience? +Wasn't it their place to take their share of the pounding, and didn't +they belong to the guns?</p> + +<p>These were examples close at hand, but sprinkled about the well-won area +I saw the puffs from other British batteries which, after a nocturnal +journey, morning found close to the firing-line. While I was moving +about in the neighborhood I cast glances in the direction of that +particular battery of eighteen pounders which was still serenely firing +without being disturbed by the German guns. There was something unreal +about it after nearly two years of the Ypres salient.</p> + +<p>But the worst shock to a trench-tied habit of mind was when I stood upon +the parapet of a German trench and saw ahead the British firing-line and +the German, too. I ducked as instinctively, according to past training, +as if I had seen a large, black, murderous thing coming straight for my +head. In the stalemate days a dozen sharpshooters waiting for such +opportunities would have had a try at you; a machine gun might have +loosened up, and even batteries of artillery in their search for game to +show itself from cover did not hesitate to snipe with shells at an +individual.</p> + +<p>I must be dead; at least, I ought to be according to previous formulæ; +but realizing that I was still alive and that nothing had cracked or +whistled overhead, I took another look and then remained standing. I had +been considering myself altogether too important a mortal. German guns +and snipers were not going to waste ammunition on a non-combatant on the +skyline when they had an overwhelming number of belligerent targets. A +few shrapnel breaking remotely were all that we had to bother us, and +these were sparingly sent with the palpable message, "We'll let you +fellows in the rear know what we would do to you if we were not so +preoccupied with other business."</p> + +<p>I was near enough to see the operations; to have gone nearer would have +been to face in the open the sweep of bullets over the heads of the +British front line hugging the earth, which is not wise in these days of +the machine gun. A correspondent likes to see without being shot at and +his lot is sometimes to be shot at without being able to see anything +except the entrance of a dugout, which on some occasions is more +inviting than the portals of a palace.</p> + +<p>In the distance was the main German second trench line on the crest of +Longueval and High Wood Ridge, which the British were later to win after +a struggle which left nothing of woods or villages or ridges except +shell-craters. Naturally, the Germans had not restricted their original +defenses to the ridge itself, any more than the French had theirs to the +hills immediately in front of Verdun. They had placed their original +first-line trenches along the series of advantageous positions on the +slope and turned every bit of woods and every eminence into a strong +point on the way back to the second line, whose barbed-wire +entanglements rusted by long exposure were distinct under the glasses. +A German officer stood on the parapet looking out in our direction, +probably trying to locate the British infantry advance which was hugging +a fold in the ground and resting there for the time being. I imagined +how beaver-like were the Germans in the second line strengthening their +defenses. I scanned all the slopes facing us in the hope of seeing a +German battery. There must be one under those balls of black smoke from +high explosives from British guns and another a half mile away under the +same kind of shower.</p> + +<p>"They withdrew most of their guns behind the ridge overnight," said an +officer, "in order to avoid capture in case we made another rush."</p> + +<p>On the other side of this natural wall they would be safe from any +except aerial observation, and the advanced British batteries, though +all in the open, were in folds in the ground, or behind bluffs, or just +below the skyline of a rise where they had found their assigned position +by the map. How much a few feet of depression in a field, a slightly +sunken road, the grade of a gentle slope, which hid man or gun from view +counted for I did not realize that day as I was to realize in the fierce +fight for position which was to come in succeeding weeks.</p> + +<p>It was easy to understand why the Germans had made a strong point in the +first line where I was standing, for it was a position which, in +relation to both the British and the German trenches, would instantly +appeal to the tactical eye. Here they had emplaced machine guns manned +by chosen desperate men which had given the British charge its worst +experience over a mile front. I could see all the movement over a broad +area to the rear which, however, the rise under my feet hid from the +ridge where the German officer stood. The advantage which the Germans +had after their retreat from the Marne was brought home afresh once you +were on conquered ground. A mile more or less of depth had no +sentimental interest to them, for they were on foreign soil. They had +chosen their positions by armies, by corps, by battalions, by hundreds +of miles and tens of miles and tens of yards with the view to a command +of observation and ground. This was a simple application of the formula +as old as man; but it was their numbers and preparedness that permitted +its application and wherever the Allies were to undertake the offensive +they must face this military fact, which made the test of their skill +against frontal positions all the stiffer and added tribute to success.</p> + +<p>The scene in front reminded one of a great carpet which did not lie flat +on the floor but was in undulations, with the whole on an incline toward +Longueval and High Wood Ridge. The Ridge I shall call it after this, +for so it was in capital letters to millions of French, British and +German soldiers in the summer of 1916. And this carpet was peopled with +men in a game of hide and seek with death among its folds.</p> + +<p>No vehicle, no horse was anywhere visible. Yet it was a poignantly live +world where the old trench lines had been a dead world—a world alive in +the dots of men strung along the crest, in others digging new trenches, +in messengers and officers on the move, in clumps of reserves behind a +hillock or in a valley. Though bursting shrapnel jackets whipped out the +same kind of puffs as always from a flashing center which spread into +nimbus radiant in the sunlight and the high explosives sent up the same +spouts of black smoke as if a stick of dynamite had burst in a coal box, +the shell fire seemed different; it had a quality of action and +adventure in comparison with the monotonous exhibition which we had +watched in stalemate warfare. Death now had some element of glory and +sport. It was less like set fate in a stationary shambles.</p> + +<p>Directly ahead was a bare sweep of field of waste wild grass between the +German communication trenches where wheat had grown before the war, and +the British firing-line seemed like heads fastened to a greenish +blanket. Holding the ground that they had gained, they were waiting on +something to happen elsewhere. Others must advance before they could go +farther.</p> + +<p>The battle was not general; it raged at certain points where the Germans +had anchored themselves after some recovery from the staggering blow of +the first day. Beyond Fricourt the British artillery was making a +crushing concentration on a clump of woods. This seemed to be the +hottest place of all. I would watch it. Nothing except the blanket of +shell-smoke hanging over the trees was visible for a time, unless you +counted figures some distance away moving about in a sort of detached +pantomime.</p> + +<p>Then a line of British infantry seemed to rise out of the pile of the +carpet and I could see them moving with a drill-ground steadiness toward +the edge of the woods, only to be lost to the eye in a fold of the +carpet or in a changed background. There had been something workmanlike +and bold about their rigid, matter-of-fact progress, reflective of +man-power in battle as seen very distinctly for a space in that field of +baffling and shimmering haze. I thought that I had glimpses of some of +them just before they entered the woods and that they were mixing with +figures coming out of the woods. At any rate, what was undoubtedly a +half company of German prisoners were soon coming down the slope in a +body, only to disappear as if they, too, were playing their part in the +hide and seek of that irregular landscape with its variation from white +chalk to dark green foliage.</p> + +<p>Khaki figures stood out against the chalk and melted into the fields or +the undergrowth, or came up to the skyline only to be swallowed into the +earth probably by the German trench which they were entering. I wondered +if one group had been killed, or knocked over, or had merely taken cover +in a shell-crater when a German "krump" seemed to burst right among +them, though at a distance of even a few hundred yards nothing is so +deceiving as the location of a shell-burst in relation to objects in +line with it. The black cloud drew a curtain over them. When it lifted +they were not on the stage. This was all that one could tell.</p> + +<p>What seemed only a platoon became a company for an instant under +favorable light refraction. The object of British khaki, French blue and +German green is invisibility, but nothing can be designed that will not +be visible under certain conditions. A motley such as the "tanks" were +painted would be best, but the most utilitarian of generals has not yet +dared to suggest motley as a uniform for an army. It occurred to me how +distinct the action would have been if the participants had worn the +blue coats and red trousers in which the French fought their early +battles of the war.</p> + +<p>All was confused in that mixture of haze and shell-smoke and maze of +trenches, with the appearing and disappearing soldiers living patterns +of the carpet which at times itself seemed to move to one's tiring, +intensified gaze. Each one was working out his part of a plan; each was +a responsive unit of the system of training for such affairs.</p> + +<p>The whole would have seemed fantastic if it had not been for the sound +of the machine guns and the rifles and the deeper-throated chorus of the +heavy guns, which proved that this was no mesmeric, fantastic spectacle +but a game with death, precise and ordered, with nothing that could be +rehearsed left to chance any more than there was in the regulation of +the traffic which was pressing forward, column after column, to supply +the food which fed the artillery-power and man-power that should crush +through frontal positions.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4><a name="IX" id="IX"></a>IX</h4> + +<h4>WHEN THE FRENCH WON</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>A big man's small quarters—General Foch—French capacity for +enjoying a victory—Winning quality of French as victors—When the +heart of France stood still—The bravery of the race—Germany's +mistaken estimate of France—Why the French will fight this war to a +finish—French and Germans as different breeds as ever lived +neighbor—The democracy of the French—<i>Élan</i>—"War of movement."</p></div> + + +<p>The farther south the better the news. There was another world of +victory on the other side of a certain dividing road where French and +British transport mingled. That world I was to see next on a day of +days—a holiday of elation.</p> + +<p>A brief note, with its permission to "circulate within the lines," +written in a bold hand in the chateau where General Foch directed the +Northern Group of French Armies, placed no limitation on freedom of +movement for my French friend and myself.</p> + +<p>Of course, General Foch's chateau was small. All chateaux occupied by +big commanders are small, and as a matter of method I am inclined to +think. If they have limited quarters there is no room for the intrusion +of anyone except their personal staff and they can live with the +simplicity which is a soldier's barrack training.</p> + +<p>Joffre, Castelnau and Foch were the three great names in the French Army +which the public knew after the Marne, and of the three Foch has, +perhaps, more of the dash which the world associates with the French +military type. He simplified victory, which was the result of the same +arduous preparation as on the British side, with a single gesture as he +swept his pencil across the map from Dompierre to Flaucourt. Thus his +army had gone forward and that was all there was to it, which was enough +for the French and also for the Germans on this particular front.</p> + +<p>"It went well! It goes well!" he said, with dramatic brevity. He had +made the plans which were so definite in the bold outline to which he +held all subordinates in a coördinated execution; and I should meet the +men who had carried out his plans, from artillerists who had blazed the +way to infantry who had stormed the enemy trenches. There was no +mistaking his happiness. It was not that of a general, but the common +happiness of all France.</p> + +<p>Victory in France for France could never mean to an Englishman what it +meant to a Frenchman. The Englishman would have to be on his own soil +before he could understand what was in the heart of the French after +their drive on the Somme. I imagined that day that I was a Frenchman. +By proxy I shared their joy of winning, which in a way seemed to be +taking an unfair advantage of my position, considering that I had not +been fighting.</p> + +<p>There is no race, it seems to me, who know quite so well how to enjoy +victory as the French. They make it glow with a rare quality which +absorbs you into their own exhilaration. I had the feeling that the +pulse of every citizen in France had quickened a few beats. All the +peasant women as they walked along the road stood a little straighter +and the old men and old women were renewing their youth in quiet +triumph; for now they had learned the first result of the offensive and +might permit themselves to exult.</p> + +<p>Once before in this war at the Marne I had followed the French legions +in an advance. Then victory meant that France was safe. The people had +found salvation through their sacrifice, and their relief was so +profound that to the outsider they seemed hardly like the French in +their stoic gratitude. This time they were articulate, more like the +French of our conception. They could fondle victory and take it apart +and play with it and make the most of it.</p> + +<p>If I had no more interest in the success of one European people than +another, then as a spectator I should choose that it should be to the +French, provided that I was permitted to be present. They make victory +no raucous-voiced, fleshy woman, shrilly gloating, no superwoman, cold +and efficient, who considers it her right as a superior being, but a +gracious person, smiling, laughing, singing in a human fashion, whether +she is greeting winning generals or privates or is looking in at the +door of a chateau or a peasant's cottage.</p> + +<p>An old race, the French, tried out through many victories and defeats +until a vital, indescribable quality which may be called the art of +living governs all emotions. Victory to the Germans could not mean half +what it would to the French. The Germans had expected victory and had +organized for it for years as a definite goal in their ambitions. To the +French it was a visitation, a reward of courage and kindly fortune and +the right to be the French in their own world and in their own way, +which to man or to State is the most justifiable of all rights.</p> + +<p>Twice the heart of France had stood still in suspense, first on the +Marne and then at the opening onslaught on Verdun; and between the Marne +and Verdun had been sixteen months when, on the soil of their France and +looking out on the ruins of their villages, they had striven to hold +what remained to them. They had been the great martial people of Europe +and because Napoleon III. tripped them by the fetish of the Bonaparte +name in '70, people thought that they were no longer martial. This puts +the world in the wrong, as it implies that success in war is the test of +greatness. When the world expressed its surprise and admiration at +French courage France smiled politely, which is the way of France, and +in the midst of the shambles, as she strained every nerve, was a little +amused, not to say irritated, to think that Frenchmen had to prove again +to the world that they were brave.</p> + +<p>Whether the son came from the little shops of Paris, from stubborn +Brittany, the valley of the Meuse, or the vineyards, war made him the +same kind of Frenchman that he was in the time of Louis XIV. and +Napoleon, fighting now for France rather than for glory as he did in +Napoleon's time; a man cured of the idea of conquest, advanced a step +farther than the stage of the conqueror, and his courage, though slower +to respond to wrath, the finer. He had proven that the more highly +civilized a people, the more content and the more they had to lose by +war, the less likely they were to be drawn into war, the more +resourceful and the more stubborn in defense they might +become—especially that younger generation of Frenchmen with their +exemplary habits and their fondness for the open air.</p> + +<p>If France had been beaten at the Marne, notice would have been served on +humanity that thrift and refinement mean enervation. We should have +believed in the alarmists who talk of oriental hordes and of the vigor +of primitive manhood overcoming art and education.</p> + +<p>The Germans could not give up their idea that both the French and the +English must be dying races. The German staff had been well enough +informed to realize that they must first destroy the French Army as the +continental army most worthy of their steel and, at the same time, they +could not convince themselves that France was other than weak. She loved +her flesh-pots too well; her families would yield and pay rather than +sacrifice only sons.</p> + +<p>At any time since October, 1914, the French could have had a separate +peace; but the answer of the Frenchman, aside from his bounden faith to +the other Allies, was that he would have no peace that was given—only a +peace that was yielded. France would win by the strength of her manhood +or she would die. When the war was over a Frenchman could look a German +in the face and say, "I have won this peace by the force of my blows;" +or else the war would go on to extermination.</p> + +<p>At intervals in the long, long months of sacrifice France was very +depressed; for the French are more inclined than the English to be up +and down in their emotions. They have their bad and their good days. +Yet, when they were bluest over reports of the retreat from the Marne or +losses at Verdun they had no thought of making terms. Depression merely +meant that they would all have to succumb without winning. Thus, after +the weary stalling and resistance of the blows at Verdun, never making +any real progress in driving the enemy out of France, ever dreaming of +the day when they should see the Germans' backs, France had waited for +the movement that came on the Somme.</p> + +<p>The people were always talking of this offensive. They had heard that it +was under way. Yet, how were they to know the truth? The newspapers gave +vague hints; gossip carried others, more concrete, sometimes correct but +usually incorrect; and all that the women and the old men and the +children at home could do was to keep on with the work. And this they +did; it is instinct. Then one morning news was flashed over France that +the British and the French had taken over twenty thousand prisoners. The +tables were turned at last! France was on the march!</p> + +<p>"Do you see why we love France?" said my friend T——, who was with me +that day, as with a turn of the road we had a glimpse of the valley of +the Somme. He swung his hand toward the waving fields of grain, the +villages and plots of woods, as the train flew along the metals between +rows of stately shade trees. "It is France. It is bred in our bones. We +are fighting for that—just what you see!"</p> + +<p>"But wouldn't you take some of Germany if you could?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"No. We want none of Germany and we want no Germans. Let them do as they +please with what is their own. They are brave; they fight well; but we +will not let them stay in France."</p> + +<p>Look into the faces of the French soldiers and look into the faces of +Germans and you have two breeds as different as ever lived neighbor in +the world. It would seem impossible that there could be anything but a +truce between them and either preserve its own characteristics of +civilization. The privilege of each to survive through all the centuries +has been by force of arms and, after the Marne and Verdun, the Somme put +the seal on the French privilege to survive. If there be any hope of +true internationalism among the continental peoples I think that it can +rely on the Frenchman, who only wants to make the most of his own +without encroaching on anybody's else property and is disinterested in +human incubation for the purpose of overwhelming his neighbors. True +internationalism will spring from the provincialism that holds fast to +its own home and does not interfere with the worship by other countries +of their gods.</p> + +<p>All this may seem rambling, but to a spectator of war indulging in a +little philosophy it goes to the kernel of the meaning of victory to the +French and to my own happiness in seeing the French win. Sometimes the +Frenchman seems the most soldierly of men; again, a superficial observer +might wonder if the French Army had any real discipline. And there, +again, you have French temperament; the old civilization that has +defined itself in democracy. For the French are the most democratic of +all peoples, not excluding ourselves. That is not saying that they are +the freest of all peoples, because no people on earth are freer than the +English or the American.</p> + +<p>An Englishman is always on the lookout lest someone should interfere +with his individual rights as he conceives them. He is the least +gregarious of all Europeans in one sense and the French the most +gregarious, which is a factor contributing to French democracy. It is +his gregariousness that makes the Frenchman polite and his politeness +which permits of democracy. An officer may talk with a private soldier +and the private may talk back because of French politeness and equality, +which yield fellowship at one moment and the next slip back into the +bonds of discipline which, by consent of public opinion, have tightened +until they are as strict as in Napoleon's day. Gregariousness was +supreme on this day of victory; democracy triumphant. Democracy had +proved itself again as had English freedom against Prussian system. +Vitality is another French possession and this means industry. The +German also is industrious, but more from discipline and training than +from a philosophy of life. French vitality is inborn, electrically +installed by the sunshine of France.</p> + +<p>When a battery of French artillery moves along the road it is +democratic, but when it swings its guns into action it is military. Then +its vitality is something that is not the product of training, something +that training cannot produce. A French battalion moving up to the +trenches seems not to have any particular order, but when it goes over +the parapet in an attack it has the essence of military spirit which is +coördination of action. No two French soldiers seem quite alike on the +march or when moving about a village on leave. Each seems three beings: +one a Frenchman, one a soldier, a third himself. German psychology left +out the result of the combination, just as it never considered that the +British could in two years submerge their individualism sufficiently to +become a military nation.</p> + +<p>There is a French word, <i>élan</i>, which has been much overworked in +describing French character. Other nations have no equivalent word; +other races lack the quality which it expresses, a quality which you +get in the wave of a hand from a peasant girl to a passing car, in the +woman who keeps a shop, in French art, habits, literature. To-day old +Monsieur Élan was director-general of the pageant.</p> + +<p>This people of apt phrases have one for the operations before the trench +system was established; it is the "war of movement." That was the word, +movement, for the blue river of men and transport along the roads to the +front. We were back to the "war of movement" for the time being, at any +rate; for the French had broken through the German fortifications for a +depth of four to five miles in a single day.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4><a name="X" id="X"></a>X</h4> + +<h4>ALONG THE ROAD TO VICTORY</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>A thrifty victory—Seventeen-inch guns asleep—A procession of guns +that gorged the roads—French rules of the road—Absence of system +conceals an excellent system—Spoils of war—The Colonial Corps—The +"chocolates"—"Boches"—Dramatic victors—The German line in front of +the French attack—Galloping <i>soixante-quinzes</i>.</p></div> + + +<p>Anyone with experience of armies cannot be deceived about losses when he +is close to the front. Even if he does not go over the field while the +dead of both sides are still lying there, infallible signs without a +word being spoken reflect the truth. It was shining in panoplies of +smiles with the French after the attack of July 1st. Victory was sweet +because it came at slight cost. Staff officers could congratulate +themselves on having driven a thrifty bargain. Casualty clearing +stations were doing a small business; prisoners' inclosures a driving +one.</p> + +<p>"We've nothing to fire at," said an officer of heavy artillery. "Our +targets are out of reach. The Germans went too fast for us; they left us +without occupation."</p> + +<p>Where with the British I had watched the preparations for the offensive +develop, the curtain was now raised on the French preparations, which +were equally elaborate, after the offensive had gone home. General +Joffre had spared more guns from Verdun for the Somme than optimism had +supposed possible. Those immense fellows of caliber from twelve to +seventeen-inch, mounted on railway trucks, were lions asleep under their +covers on the sidings which had been built for them. Their tracks would +have to be carried farther forward before they roared at the Germans +again.</p> + +<p>Five miles are not far for a battalion to march, though an immense +distance to a modern army with its extensive and complicated plant. Even +the aviators wanted to be nearer the enemy and were looking for a new +park. Sheds where artillery horses had been sheltered for more than a +year were empty; camps were being vacated; vast piles of shells must +follow the guns which the tractors were taking forward. The nests of +spacious dugouts in a hillside nicely walled in by sandbags had served +their purpose. They were beyond the range of any German guns.</p> + +<p>For the first time you realized what the procession which gorged the +roads would be like if the Western front were actually broken. Guns of +every caliber from the 75's to the 120's and 240's, ammunition pack +trains, ambulances horse-drawn and motor-drawn, big and little motor +trucks, staff officers' cars, cycle riders and motor cycle riders, small +two-wheeled carts, all were mixed with the flow of infantry going and +coming and crowding the road-menders off the road.</p> + +<p>There was none of the stateliness of the columns of British motor trucks +and none of the rigidity of British marching. It all seemed a great +family affair. When one wondered what part any item of the variegated +transport played it was always promptly explained.</p> + +<p>Officers and men exchanged calls of greeting as they passed. Eyes were +flashing to the accompaniment of gestures. There were arguments about +right of way in which the fellow with the two-wheeled cart held his own +with the chauffeur of the three-ton motor truck. But the argument was +accompanied by action. In some cases it was over, a decision made and +the block of traffic broken before a phlegmatic man could have had +discussion fairly under way. For Frenchmen are nothing if not quick of +mind and body and whether a Frenchman is pulling or pushing or driving +he likes to express the emotions of the moment. If a piece of transport +were stalled there would be a chorus of exclamations and running +disputes as to the method of getting it out of the rut, with the result +that at the juncture when an outsider might think that utter confusion +was to ensue, every Frenchman in sight had swarmed to the task under the +direction of somebody who seemed to have made the suggestion which won +the favor of the majority.</p> + +<p>Much has been written about the grimness of the French in this war. +Naturally they were grim in the early days; but what impresses me most +about the French Army whenever I see it is that it is entirely French. +Some people had the idea that when the French went to war they would +lose their heads, run to and fro and dance about and shout. They have +not acted so in this war and they never have acted so in any other war. +They still talk with eyes, hands and shoulders and fight with them, too.</p> + +<p>The tide never halted for long. It flowed on with marvelous alacrity and +a seeming absence of system which soon convinced you as concealing a +very excellent system. Every man really knew where he was going; he +could think for himself, French fashion. Near the front I witnessed a +typical scene when an officer ran out and halted a soldier who was +walking across the fields by himself and demanded to know who he was and +what he was doing there.</p> + +<p>"I am wounded, sir," was the reply, as he opened his coat and showed a +bandage. "I am going to the casualty clearing station and this is the +shortest way"—not to mention that it was a much easier way than to hug +the edge of the road in the midst of the traffic.</p> + +<p>The battalions and transport which made up this tide of an army's rear +trying to catch up with its extreme front had a view, as the road dipped +into a valley, of the trophies which are the proof of victory. Here were +both guns and prisoners. Among the guns nicely parked you might have +your choice between the latest 77's out of Krupps' and pieces of the +vintage of the '80's. One 77 had not a blemish; another had its muzzle +broken off by the burst of a shell, its spokes slashed by +shell-fragments, and its armored shield, opened by a jagged hole, was as +crumpled as if made of tin.</p> + +<p>Four of the old fortress type had a history. They bore the mark of their +French maker. They had fired at the Germans from Maubeuge and after +having been taken by the Germans were set to fire at the French. One +could imagine how the German staff had scattered such pieces along the +line when in stalemate warfare any kind of gun that had a barrel and +could discharge a shell would add to the volume of gunfire.</p> + +<p>Such a ponderous piece with its heavy, old-fashioned trail and no recoil +cylinder was never meant to play any part in an army of movement. You +could picture how it had been dragged up into position back of the +German trenches and how a crew of old Landsturm gunners had been +allowed a certain number of shells a day and told off to fire them at +certain villages and crossroads, with that systematic regularity of the +German artillery system which often defeats its own purpose, as we on +the Allies' side well know.</p> + +<p>Very likely, as often happened, the crew fired six rounds before +breakfast and eight at four o'clock in the afternoon, and the rest of +the time they might sit about playing cards. Of course, retreat was out +of the question with a gun of this sort. Yet through the twenty months +that the opposing armies had sniped at each other from the same +positions the relic had done faithful auxiliary service. The French +could move it on to some other part of the line now where no offensive +was expected and some old territorials could use it as the old +Landsturmers had used it.</p> + +<p>All the guns in this park had been taken by the Colonial Corps, which +thinks itself a little better than the Nancy (or Iron) Corps, a view +with which the Iron Corps entirely disagreed. Scattered among the +Colonial Corps, whether on the march or in billets, were the black men. +There is no prejudice against the "chocolates," as they are called, who +provide variation and amusement, not to mention color. Most adaptable of +human beings is the negro, whom you find in all lands and engaged in all +kinds of pursuits, reflecting always the character of his surroundings. +If his French comrades charged he would charge and just as far; if they +fell back he would fall back and just as far. No Frenchman could +approach the pride of the blacks over those captured guns, which brought +grins that left only half of their ebony countenances as a background +for the whites of their eyes and teeth.</p> + +<p>The tide of infantry, vehicles and horses flowing past must have been a +strange world to the German prisoners brought past it to the inclosures, +when they had not yet recovered from their astonishment at the +suddenness of the French whirlwind attack. The day was warm and the +ground dry, and those prisoners who were not munching French bread were +lying sardine fashion pillowing their heads on one another, a confused +mass of arms and legs, dead to the world in sleep—a green patch of +humanity with all the fight out of them, without weapons or power of +resistance, guarded by a single French soldier, while the belligerent +energy of war was on that road a hundred yards away.</p> + +<p>"They are good Boches, now," said the French sentry; "we sha'n't have to +take that lot again."</p> + +<p>Boches! They are rarely called anything else at the front. With both +French and English this has become the universal word for the Germans +which will last as long as the men who fought in this war survive. +Though the Germans dislike it that makes no difference. They will have +to accept it even when peace comes, for it is established. One day they +may come to take a certain pride in it as a distinction which stands for +German military efficiency and racial isolation. The professional +soldier expressing his admiration of the way the German charges, handles +his artillery, or the desperate courage of his machine gun crews may +speak of him as "Brother Boche" or the "old Boche" in a sort of amiable +recognition of the fact of how worthy he is of an enemy's steel if only +he would refrain from certain unsportsmanlike habits.</p> + +<p>At length the blue river on the way to the front divided at a crossroad +and we were out on the plain which swept away to the bend of the Somme +in front of Péronne. Officers returning from the front when asked how +the battle was going were never too preoccupied to reply. It was +anybody's privilege to ask a question and everybody seemed to delight to +answer it. I talked with a group of men who were washing down their +bread with draughts of red wine, their first meal after they had been +through two lines of trenches. Their brigade had taken more prisoners +than it had had casualties. Their dead were few and less mourned because +they had fallen in such a glorious victory. Rattling talk gave gusto to +every mouthful.</p> + +<p>Unlike the English, these victors were articulate; they rejoiced in +their experiences and were glad to tell about them. If one had fought it +out at close quarters with a German and got his man, he made the +incident into a dramatic episode for your edification. It was war; he +had been in a charge; he had escaped alive; he had won. He liked the +thrill of his exploit and enjoyed the telling, not allowing it to drag, +perhaps, for want of a leg. Every Frenchman is more or less of a +general, as Napoleon said, and every one knew the meaning of this +victory. He liked to make the most of it and relive it.</p> + +<p>After having seen the trenches that the British had taken on the high +ground around Fricourt, I was the more interested to see those that the +French had taken on July 1st. The British had charged uphill against the +strongest fortifications that the Germans could devise in that chalky +subsoil so admirably suited for the purpose. Those before the French +were not so strong and were in alluvial soil on the plain. Many of the +German dugouts in front of Dompierre were in relatively as good +condition as those at Fricourt, though not so numerous or so strong; +which meant that the artillery of neither army had been able completely +to destroy them. The ground on the plain permitted of no such +advantageous tactical points for machine guns as those which had +confronted the British, in front of whom the Germans had massed immense +reserves of artillery, particularly in the Thiepval-Gommecourt sector +where the British attack had failed, besides having the valuable ridge +of Bapaume at their backs. In front of the French the Germans had +smaller forces of artillery on the plain where the bend of the Somme was +at their backs.</p> + +<p>This is not detracting from the French success, which was complete and +masterful. The coördination of artillery and infantry must have been +perfect, as you could see when you went over the field where there were +surprisingly few French dead and the German dead, though more plentiful +than the French, were not very numerous. It seemed that the French +artillery had absolutely pinioned the Germans to their trenches and +communication trenches in the Dompierre sector and the French appearing +close under their own shells in a swift and eager wave gathered in all +the German garrison as prisoners. The ruins of the villages might have +been made either by French, British or German artillery. There is true +internationalism in artillery destruction.</p> + +<p>It was something to see the way that French transport and reserves were +going right across the plain in splendid disregard of any German +artillery concentration. But, as usual, they knew what they were doing. +No shells fell among them while I was at the front, and out on the +plain where the battle still raged the <i>soixante-quinze</i> batteries were +as busy as knitting-machines working some kind of magic which protected +that column from tornadoes of the same kind that they themselves were +sending. The German artillery, indeed, seemed a little demoralized. +Krump-krump-krump, they put a number of shells into a group of trees +beside the road where they mistakenly thought that there was a battery. +Swish-swish-swish came another salvo which I thought was meant for us, +but it passed by and struck where there was no target.</p> + +<p>I have had glimpses of nearly every feature of war, but there was one in +this advance which was not included in my experiences. The French +infantry was hardly in the first-line German trench when the ditch had +been filled in and the way was open for the <i>soixante-quinze</i> to go +forward. For the guns galloped into action just as they might have done +at manoeuvers. Some dead artillery horses near the old trench line told +the story of how a German shell must have stopped one of the guns, which +was small price to pay for so great a privilege as—let us +repeat—galloping the guns into action across the trenches in broad +daylight and keeping close to the infantry as it advanced from position +to position on the plain.</p> + +<p>Here was a surviving bit of the glory and the sport of war, whose +passing may be one of the great influences in preventing future wars; +but there being war and the French having to win that war, why, the +spectacle of this marvelous field gun, so beloved of its alert and +skilful gunners, playing the part that was intended for it on the heels +of the enemy made a thrilling incident in the history of modern France. +The French had shown on that day that they had lost none of their +initiative of Napoleon's time, just as the British had shown that they +could be as stubborn and determined as in Wellington's.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4><a name="XI" id="XI"></a>XI</h4> + +<h4>THE BRIGADE THAT WENT THROUGH</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>A young brigadier—A regular soldier—No heroics—How his brigade +charged—Systematically cleaning up the dugouts—"It was orders. We +did it."—The second advance—Holding on for two sleepless days and +nights—Soda water and cigars—Yorkshiremen, and a stubborn +lot—British phlegm—Five officers out of twenty who had "gone +through"—Stereotyped phrases and inexpressible emotions.</p></div> + + +<p>No sound of the guns was audible in this quiet French village where a +brigade out of the battle line was in rest. The few soldiers moving +about were looking in the shop windows, trying their French with the +inhabitants, or standing in small groups. Their faces were tired and +drawn as the only visible sign of the torment of fire that they had +undergone. They had met everything the German had to offer in the way of +projectiles and explosives; but before we have their story we shall have +that of the young brigadier-general who had his headquarters in one of +the houses. His was the brigade that went "through," and he was the kind +of brigadier who would send a brigade "through."</p> + +<p>With its position in the attack of July 1st in the joint, as it were, +between the northern sector where the German line was not broken and +the southern where it was, this brigade had suffered what the charges +which failed had suffered and it had known the triumph of those which +had succeeded, at a cost in keeping with the experience.</p> + +<p>The brigadier was a regular soldier and nothing but a soldier from head +to foot, in thought, in manner and in his decisive phrases. Nowadays, +when we seem to be drawing further and further away from versatility, +perhaps more than ever we like the soldier to be a soldier, the poet to +be a poet, the surgeon to be a surgeon; and I can even imagine this +brigadier preferring that if another man was to be a pacifist he should +be a real out and out pacifist. You knew at a glance without asking that +he had been in India and South Africa, that he was fond of sport and +probably fond of fighting. He had rubbed up against all kinds of men, as +the British officer who has the inclination may do in the course of his +career, and his straight eye—an eye which you would say had never been +accustomed to indefiniteness about anything—must have impressed the men +under his command with the confidence that he knew his business and that +they must follow him. Yet it could twinkle on occasion with a pungent +humor as he told his story, which did not take him long but left you +long a-thinking. A writer who was as good a writer as he was a soldier +if he had had the same experience could have made a book out of it; but +then he could not have been a man of action at the same time.</p> + +<p>He made it clear at once that he had not led his brigade in person over +the parapet, or helped in person to bomb the enemy's dugouts, or +indulged in any other kind of gallery play. I do not think that all the +drawing-rooms in London or all the reception committees which receive +gallant sons in their home towns could betray him into the faintest +simulation of the pose of a hero. He was not a hero and he did not +believe in heroics. His occupation was commanding men and taking +trenches.</p> + +<p>Not once did he utter anything approaching a boast over a feat which his +friends and superiors had expected of him. This would be "swank," as +they call it, only he would characterize it by even a stronger word. He +is the kind of officer, the working, clear-thinking type, who would earn +promotion by success at arms in a long war, while the gallery-play crowd +whose promotion and favors come by political gift and academic reports +in time of peace would be swept into the dustbin. He was simply a +capable fighter; and war is fighting.</p> + +<p>His men had gone over the "lid" in excellent fashion, quite on time. He +had seen at once what they were in for, but he had no doubt that they +would keep on, for he had warned them to expect machine gun fire and +told them what to do in case it came. They applied the system in which +he had trained them with a coolness that won his approbation as a +directing expert—his matter-of-fact approbation in the searching +analysis of every detail, with no ecstasies about their unparalleled +gallantry. He expected them to be gallant. However, I could imagine that +if you said a word against them his eyes would flash indignation. They +were his men and he might criticize them, but no one else might except a +superior officer. The first wave reached the first-line German trench on +time, that is, half of them did; the rest, including more than half of +the officers, were down, dead or wounded, in No Man's Land in the swift +crossing of two hundred yards of open space.</p> + +<p>He had watched their advance from the first-line British trench. Later, +when the situation demanded it, I learned that he went up to the +captured German line and on to the final objective, but this fact was +drawn out of him. It might lead to a misunderstanding; you might think +that he had been taking as much risk as his officers and men, and risk +of any kind for him was an incident of the business of managing a +brigade.</p> + +<p>"How about the dugouts?" I asked.</p> + +<p>This was an obvious question. The trouble on July 1st had been, as we +know, that the Germans hiding in their dugouts had rushed forth as soon +as the British curtain of fire lifted and sometimes fought the British +in the trench traverses with numbers superior. Again, they had +surrendered, only to overpower their guards, pick up rifles and man +their machine guns after the first wave had passed on, instead of filing +back across No Man's Land in the regular fashion of prisoners.</p> + +<p>"I was looking out for that," said the brigadier, like a lawyer who has +stated his opponent's case; but other commanders had taken the same +precautions with less fortunate results. When he said that he was +"looking out for that" it meant, in his case, that he had so thoroughly +organized his men—and he was not the only brigadier who had, he was a +type—in view of every emergency in "cleaning up" that the Germans did +not outwit them. The half which reached the German trench had the +situation fully in hand and details for the dugouts assigned before they +went on. And they did go on. This was the wonderful thing.</p> + +<p>"With your numbers so depleted, wasn't it a question whether or not it +was wise for you to attempt to carry out the full plan?"</p> + +<p>He gave me a short look of surprise. I realized that if I had been one +of the colonels and made such a suggestion I should have drawn a curtain +of fire upon myself.</p> + +<p>"It was orders," he said, and added: "We did it."</p> + +<p>Yes, they did it—when commanding officers, majors and senior captains +were down, when companies without any officers were led by sergeants and +even by corporals who knew what to do, thanks to their training.</p> + +<p>In order to reach the final objective the survivors of the first charge +which had gone two hundred yards to the first line must cover another +thousand, which must have seemed a thousand miles; but that was not for +them to consider. The spirit of the resolute man who had drilled them, +if not his presence, was urging them forward. They reached the point +where the landmarks compared with their map indicated their stopping +place—about one-quarter of the number that had left the British trench.</p> + +<p>They had enough military sense to realize that if they tried to go back +over the same ground which they had crossed there might be less than +one-quarter of the fourth remaining. They preferred to die with their +faces rather than their backs to the enemy. No, they did not mean to +die. They meant to hold on and "beat the Boche," according to their +teaching.</p> + +<p>As things had been going none too well with the brigade on their left +their flank was exposed. They met this condition by fortifying +themselves against enfilade in an old German communication trench and +rushing other points of advantage to secure their position. When a +German machine gun was able to sweep them, a corporal slipped up another +communication trench and bombed it out of business. Running out of bombs +of their own, they began gathering German bombs which were lying about +plentifully and threw these at the Germans. Short of rifle ammunition +they found that there was ammunition for the German rifles which had +been captured. They were not choice about their methods and neither were +the Germans in that cheek-by-jowl affair with both sides so exhausted +that a little more grit on one side struck the balance in its favor.</p> + +<p>This medley of British and Germans in a world of personal combat shared +shell fire, heat and misery. The British sent their rocket signals up to +say that they had arrived. In two or three other instances the signals +had meant that a dozen men only had reached their objective, a force +unable to hold until reinforcements could come. Not so this time. The +little group held; they held even when the Germans got some fresh men +and attempted a counter-attack; they held until assistance came. For two +sleepless days and nights under continual fire they remained in their +dearly won position until, under cover of darkness, they were relieved.</p> + +<p>In the most tranquil of villages the survivors looking in shop windows +and trying out their French might wonder how it was that they were +alive, though they were certain that their brigadier thought well of +them. Ask them or their officers what they thought of their brigadier +and they were equally certain of that, too. Theirs was the best +brigadier in the army. Think what this kind of confidence means to men +in such an action when their lives are the pawns of his direction!</p> + +<p>I felt a kind of awe in the presence of one of the battalions in billet +in a warehouse, more than in the presence of prime ministers or +potentates. Most of them were blinking and mind-stiff after having slept +the clock around. They were Yorkshiremen, chiefly workers in worsted +mills and a stubborn lot.</p> + +<p>"What did you most want to do when you got out of the fight?" I asked.</p> + +<p>They spoke with one voice which left no question of their desires in a +one-two-three order. They wanted a wash, a shave, a good meal, and then +sleep. And personal experiences? Tom called on Jim and Jim had bayoneted +two Germans, he said; then Jim called on Bill, who had had a wonderful +experience according to Jim, though all that Bill made of it was that he +got there first with his bombs. Told among themselves the stories might +have been thrilling. Before a stranger they were mere official reports. +It had been quick work, too quick for anything but to dodge for cover +and act promptly in your effort to get the other fellow before he got +you.</p> + +<p>Generically, they had a job to do and they did it just as they would +have done one in the factories at home. They were not so interested in +any exhibition of courage as in an encounter which had the element of +sport. Each narrator invariably returned to the subject of soda water. +The outstanding novelty of the charge to these men was the quantity of +soda water in bottles which they had found in the German dugouts. They +went on to their second objective with bottles of soda water in their +pockets and German light cigars in the corners of their mouths and +stopped to drink soda water between bombing rushes after they had +arrived. It was a hot, thirsty day.</p> + +<p>Through the curtains of artillery fire which were continually maintained +back of their new positions supplies could not be brought up, but Boche +provisions saved the day. In fact, I think this was one of the reasons +why they felt almost kindly toward the Germans. They found the canned +meat excellent, but did not care for the "K.K." bread.</p> + +<p>Thus in the dim light of the warehouse they talked on, making their task +appear as a half-holiday of sport. It seemed to me that this was in +keeping with their training; the fashionable attitude of the British +soldier toward a horrible business. If this helps him to endure what +these men had endured without flinching, with comrades being blown to +bits around them by shell-bursts, why, then, it is the attitude best +suited to develop the fighting quality of the British. They had it from +their officers who, in turn, perhaps, had it in part from such British +regulars as the brigadier, though mostly I think that it was inborn +racial phlegm.</p> + +<p>I met the five officers who were the survivors of the twenty in one +battalion, the five who had "carried through." One was a barrister, +another just out of Oxford, a third, as I remember, a real estate broker +in a small town. They told their stories without a gesture, quite as if +they were giving an account of a game of golf. It might have seemed +callous, but you knew better.</p> + +<p>You knew when they said that it was "a bit stiff," or "a bit thick," or +"it looked as if they had us," what inexpressible emotion lay behind the +accepted army phrases. The truth was they would not permit themselves to +think of the void in their lines made by the death of their comrades. +They had drawn the curtain on all incidents which had not the appeal of +action and finality as a part of the business of "going through." One +officer with a twitch of the lips remarked almost casually that new +officers and drafts were arriving and that it would seem strange to see +so many new faces in the mess.</p> + +<p>Those of their old comrades who were not dead were already in hospital +in England. When an officer who had been absent joined the group he +brought the news that one of their number who had been badly hit would +live. The others' quiet ejaculation of "Good!" had a thrill back of it +which communicated its joy to me. Eight of the wounded had not been +seriously hit, which meant that these would return and that, after all, +only four were dead. This was the first intimate indication I had of how +the offensive exposing the whole bodies of men in a charge against the +low-velocity shrapnel bullets and high-velocity bullets from rifles and +machine guns must result in the old ratio of only one mortal wound for +every five men hit.</p> + +<p>There was consolation in that fact. It was another advantage of the war +of movement as compared with the war of shambles in trenches. And none, +from the general down to the privates, had really any idea of how +glorious a part they had played. They had merely "done their bit" and +taken what came their way—and they had "gone through."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4><a name="XII" id="XII"></a>XII</h4> + +<h4>THE STORMING OF CONTALMAISON</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The mighty animal of war makes ready for another effort—New charts +at headquarters—The battle of the Somme the battle of woods and +villages—A terrible school of war in session—Mametz—A wood not +"thinned"—The Quadrangle—Marooned Scots—"Softening" a +village—Light German cigars—Going after Contalmaison—Aeroplanes in +the blue sky—Midsummer fruitfulness and war's destruction—Making +chaos of a village—Attack under cover of a wall of smoke—A +melodrama under the passing shells.</p></div> + + +<p>If the British and the French could have gone on day after day as they +had on July 1st they would have put the Germans out of France and +Belgium by autumn. Arrival at the banks of the Rhine and even the taking +of Essen would have been only a matter of calculation by a schedule of +time and distance. After the shock of the first great drive in which the +mighty animal of war lunged forward, it had to stretch out its steel +claws to gain further foothold and draw its bulky body into position for +another huge effort. Wherever the claws moved there were Germans, who +were too wise soldiers to fall back supinely on new lines of +fortifications and await the next general attack. They would parry every +attempt at footholds of approach for launching it; pound the claws as +if they were the hands of an invader grasping at a window ledge.</p> + +<p>At headquarters there was a new chart with different colored patches +numbered by the days of the month beginning July 1st, each patch +indicating the ground that had been won on that day. Compare their order +with a relief map and in one-two-three fashion you were able to grasp +the natural tactical sequence; how one position was taken in order to +command another. Sometimes, though, they represented the lines of least +resistance. Often the real generals were the battalions on the battle +front who found the weak points and asked permission to press on. The +principle was the same as water finding its level as it spreads from a +reservoir.</p> + +<p>I have often thought that a better name for the battle of the Somme +would be the battle of woods and villages. Their importance never really +dawned on the observer until after July 1st. Or, it might be called the +battle of the spade. Give a man an hour with a spade in that chalky +subsoil and a few sandbags and he will make a fortress for himself which +only a direct hit by a shell can destroy. He ducks under the sweep of +bullets when he is not firing and with his steel helmet is fairly safe +from shrapnel while he waits in his lair until the other fellow comes.</p> + +<p>Thus the German depended on the machine gun and the rifle to stop any +charge which was not supported by artillery fire sufficient to crush in +the trenches and silence his armament. When it was, he had his own +artillery to turn a curtain of fire onto the charge in progress and to +hammer the enemy if he got possession. This was obviously the right +system—in theory. But the theory did not always work out, as we shall +see. Its development through the four months that I watched the Somme +battle was only less interesting than the development of offensive +tactics by the British and the French. Every day this terrible school of +war was in session, with a British battalion more skilful and cunning +every time that it went into the firing-line.</p> + +<p>Rising out of the slopes toward the Ridge in green patches were three +large woods, not to mention small ones, under a canopy of shell-smoke, +Mametz, Bernafay and Trônes, with their orgies of combat hidden under +their screens of foliage. They recall the Wilderness—a Wilderness +lasting for days, with only one feature of the Wilderness lacking which +was a conflagration, but with lachrymatory and gas shells and a few +other features that were lacking in Virginia. In the next war we may +have still more innovations. Ours is the ingenious human race.</p> + +<p>It is Mametz with an area of something over two hundred acres that +concerns us now. The Germans thought highly of Mametz. They were +willing to lose thousands of lives in order to keep it in their +possession. For two years it had not been thinned according to French +custom; now shells and bullets were to undertake the task which had been +neglected. So thick was the undergrowth that a man had to squeeze his +way through and an enemy was as well ambushed as a field mouse in high +grass.</p> + +<p>The Germans had run barriers of barbed wire through the undergrowth. +They had their artillery registered to fringe the woods with curtains of +fire and machine guns nestling in unseen barricades and trenches. +Through the heart of it they had a light railway for bringing up +supplies. All these details had been arranged in odd hours when they +were not working on the main first- and second-line fortifications during +their twenty months of preparation. I think they must have become weary +at times of so much "choring," judging by a German general's order after +his inspection of the second line, in which he said that the battalions +in occupation were a lazy lot who were a disgrace to the Fatherland. +After the battle began they could add to the defenses improvements +adapted to the needs of the moment. Of course, large numbers of Germans +were killed and wounded by British shell fire in the process of +"thinning" out the woods; but that was to be expected, as the Germans +learned during the battle of the Somme.</p> + +<p>How the British ever took Mametz Wood I do not understand; or how they +took Trônes Wood later, for that matter. A visit to the woods only +heightened perplexity. I have seen men walk over broken bottles with +bare feet, swallow swords and eat fire and knew that there was some +trick about it, as there was about the taking of Mametz.</p> + +<p>The German had not enough barbed wire to go all the way around the +woods, or, at least, British artillery would not let him string any more +and he thought that the British would attack where they ought to +according to rule; that is, by the south. Instead, they went in by the +west, where the machine guns were not waiting and the heavy guns were +not registered, as I understand it. A piece of strategy of that kind +might have won a decisive battle in an old-time war, but I confess that +it did not occur to me to ask who planned it when I heard the story. +Strategists became so common on the Somme that everybody took them as +much for granted as that every battalion had a commander.</p> + +<p>Mametz was not taken with the first attack. The British were in the +woods once and had to come out; but they had learned that before they +could get a proper <i>point d'appui</i> they must methodically "clean up" a +small grove, a neighboring cemetery, an intricate maze of trenches +called the Quadrangle, and a few other outlying obstacles. In the first +rush a lot of Tyneside Scots were marooned from joining in the retreat. +They fortified themselves in German dugouts and waited in siege, these +dour men of the North. When the British returned eighty of the Scots +were still full of fight if short of food and "verra well" otherwise, +thank you. At times they had been under blasts of shells from both +sides, and again they had been in an oasis of peace, with neither +British nor German gunners certain whether they would kill friend or +foe.</p> + +<p>Going in from the west while the Germans had their curtains of fire +registered elsewhere, the British grubbed their way in one charge +through most of Mametz and when night fell in the midst of the +undergrowth, with a Briton not knowing whether it was Briton or German +lying on the other side of a tree-trunk, they had the satisfaction of +possessing four big guns which the Germans had been unable to withdraw, +and had ascertained also that the Germans had a strong position +protected by barbed wire at the northern end of the woods.</p> + +<p>"This will require a little thinking," as one English officer said, "but +of course we shall take it."</p> + +<p>The purchase on Mametz and the occupation of Bailiff's Wood, the +Quadrangle, La Boisselle and Ovillers-la-Boisselle brought the circle +of advancing British nearer to Contalmaison, which sat up on the hills +in a sea of chalk seams. Contalmaison was being gradually "softened" by +the artillery. The chateau was not yet all down, but after each bite by +a big shell less of the white walls was visible when the clouds of smoke +from the explosion lifted. Bit by bit the guns would get the chateau, +just as bit by bit a stonemason chips a block down to the proper +dimensions to fit it into place in a foundation.</p> + +<p>A visit to La Boisselle on the way to Contalmaison justified the +expectation as to what was in store for Contalmaison. I saw the +blackened and shell-whittled trunks of two trees standing in La +Boisselle. Once with many others they had given shade in the gardens of +houses; but there were no traces of houses now except as they were mixed +with the earth. The village had been hammered into dust. Yet some +dugouts still survived. Keeping at it, the British working around these +had eventually forced the surrender of the garrison, who could not raise +their heads to fire without being met by a bullet or a bomb-burst from +the watchful besiegers.</p> + +<p>"Slow work, but they had to come out," was the graphic phrase of one of +the captors, "and they looked fed up, too. They had even run out of +cigars"—which settled it.</p> + +<p>Oh, those light German cigars! Sometimes I believe that they were the +real mainstay of the German organization. Cigars gone, spirit gone! I +have seen an utterly weary German prisoner as he delivered his papers to +his captor bring out his last cigar and thrust it into his mouth to +forestall its being taken as tribute, with his captor saying with +characteristic British cheerfulness, "Keep it, Bochy! It smells too much +like a disinfectant for me, but let's have your steel helmet"—the +invariable prize demanded by the victor.</p> + +<p>The British had already been in Contalmaison, but did not stay. "Too +many German machine guns and too much artillery fire and not enough +men," to put it with colloquial army brevity. It often happened that a +village was entered and parts of it held during a day, then evacuated at +night, leaving the British guns full play for the final "softening." +These initial efforts had the result of reconnaissances in force. They +permitted a thorough look around the enemy's machine gun positions so as +to know how to avoid their fire and "do them in," revealed the cover +that would be available for the next advance, and brought invaluable +information to the gunners for the accurate distribution of their fire. +Always some points important for future operations were held.</p> + +<p>"We are going after Contalmaison this afternoon," said a staff officer +at headquarters, "and if you hurry you may see it."</p> + +<p>As a result, I witnessed the most brilliant scene of battle of any on +the Somme, unless it was the taking of Combles. There was bright +sunshine, with the air luminously clear and no heat waves. From my +vantage point I could see clear to the neighborhood of Péronne. The +French also were attacking; the drumhead fire of their <i>soixante-quinze</i> +made a continuous roll, and the puffs of shrapnel smoke hung in a long, +gossamery cloud fringing the horizon and the canopy of the green ridges.</p> + +<p>Every aeroplane of the Allies seemed to be aloft, each one distinct +against the blue with shimmering wings and the soft, burnished aureole +of the propellers. They were flying at all heights. Some seemed almost +motionless two or three miles above the earth, while others shot up from +their aerodromes.</p> + +<p>Planes circling, planes climbing, planes slipping down aerial toboggan +slides with propellers still, planes going as straight as crows toward +the German line to be lost to sight in space while others developed out +of space as swift messengers bound for home with news of observations, +planes touring a sector of the front, swooping low over a corps +headquarters to drop a message and returning to their duty; planes of +all types, from the monsters with vast stretch of wing and crews of +three or more men, stately as swans, to those gulls, the saucy little +Nieuports, shooting up and down and turning with incredible swiftness, +their tails in the air; planes and planes in a fantastic aerial minuet, +flitting around the great sausage balloons stationary in the still air.</p> + +<p>With ripening grain and sweet-smelling harvests of clover and hay in the +background and weeds and wild grass in the foreground, the area of +vegetation in the opulence of midsummer was demarked from the area of +shell-craters, trenches and explosions. You had the majesty of battle +and the desolation of war; nature's eternal seeding and fruiting +alongside the most ruthless forms of destruction. In the clear air the +black bursts of the German high explosives hammering Mametz Wood, as if +in revenge for its loss, seemed uglier and more murderous than usual; +the light smoke of shrapnel had a softer, more lingering quality; +soldiers were visible distinctly at a great distance in their comings +and goings; the water carts carrying water up to the first line were a +kind of pilgrim circuit riders of that thirsty world of deadly strife; a +file of infantry winding up the slope at regular intervals were +silhouettes as like as beads on a string. The whole suggested a hill of +ants which had turned their habits of industry against an invader of +their homes in the earth, and the columns of motor trucks and caissons +ever flowing from all directions were as a tide, which halted at the +foot of the slope and then flowed back.</p> + +<p>There were shell-bursts wherever you looked, with your attention drawn +to Contalmaison as it would be to a gathering crowd in the thick of city +traffic. All the steel throats in clumps of woods, under cover of road +embankments, in gullies and on the reverse side of slopes, were +speaking. The guns were giving to Contalmaison all they had to give and +the remaining walls of the chateau disappeared in a fog like a fishing +smack off the Grand Banks. Super-refined, man-directed hell was making +sportive chaos in the village which it hid with its steaming breath cut +by columns of black smoke from the H.E.'s and crowned with flashes of +shrapnel; and under the sun's rays the gases from the powder made +prismatic splendor in flurries and billows shot with the tints of the +rainbow.</p> + +<p>Submerging a simple farming hamlet in this kind of a tempest was only +part of the plan of the gunners, who cut a pattern of fire elsewhere in +keeping with the patterns of the German trenches, placing a curtain of +fire behind the town and another on the edge, and at other points not a +curtain but steady hose-streams of fire. Answering German shells +revealed which of the chalky scars on the slope was the British +first-line trench, and from this, as steam from a locomotive runs in a +flying plume along the crest of a railway cutting, rose a billowing wall +of smoke which was harmless, not even asphyxiating, its only purpose +being to screen the infantry attack, with a gentle breeze sweeping it on +into the mantle over Contalmaison as the wind carries the smoke of a +prairie fire. Lookout Mountain was known as the battle in the clouds, +where generals could not see what their troops were doing. Now all +battles are in a cloud.</p> + +<p>From the first-line British trench the first wave of the British attack +moved under cover of the smoke-screen and directly you saw that the +shells had ceased to fall in Contalmaison. Its smoke mantle slowly +lifting revealed fragmentary walls of that sturdy, defiant chateau still +standing. Another wave of British infantry was on its way. Four waves in +all were to go in, each succeeding one with its set part in supporting +the one in front and in mastering the dugouts and machine gun positions +that might have survived.</p> + +<p>With no shells falling in Contalmaison, the bomb and the bayonet had the +stage to themselves, a stage more or less hemmed in by explosions and +with a sweep of projectiles from both sides passing over the heads of +the cast in a melodrama which had "blessed little comedy relief," as one +soldier put it. The Germans were already shelling the former British +first line and their supports, while the British maintained a curtain of +fire on the far side of the village to protect their infantry as it +worked its way through the débris, and any fire which they had to spare +after lifting it from Contalmaison they were distributing on different +strong points, not in curtains but in a repetition of punches. It was +the best artillery work that I had seen and its purpose seemed that of a +man with a stick knocking in any head that appeared from any hole.</p> + +<p>Act III. now. The British curtain of fire was lifted from the far edge +of the village, which meant that the infantry according to schedule +should be in possession of all of the village. But they might not stay. +They might be forced out soon after they sent up their signals. When the +Germans turned on a curtain of fire succeeding the British fire this was +further evidence of British success sufficient to convince any skeptic. +The British curtain was placed beyond it to hold off any counter-attack +and prevent sniping till the new occupants of the premises had "dug +themselves in."</p> + +<p>The Germans had not forgotten that it was their turn now to hammer +Contalmaison, through which they thought that British reserves and fresh +supplies of bombs must come; and I saw one of the first "krumps" of this +concentration take another bite out of the walls of the chateau.</p> + +<p>By watching the switching of the curtains of fire I had learned that +this time Contalmaison was definitely held; and though they say that I +don't know anything about news, I beat the <i>communiqué</i> on the fact as +the result of my observation, which ought at least to classify me as a +"cub" reporter.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4><a name="XIII" id="XIII"></a>XIII</h4> + +<h4>A GREAT NIGHT ATTACK</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Following hard blows with blows—Trônes Woods—Attack and +counter-attack—A heavy price to pay—"The spirit that quickeneth" +knew no faltering—Second-line German fortifications—A daringly +planned attack—"Up and at them!"—An attack not according to the +scientific factory system—The splendid and terrible hazard—Gun +flashes in the dark numerous as fireflies—Majestic, diabolical, +beautiful—A planet bombarding with aerolites—Signal flares in the +distance—How far had the British gone?—Sunrise on the attack—Good +news that day.</p></div> + + +<p>Of all the wonderful nights at the front that of July 13th-14th was +distinctive for its incomparable suspense. A great experiment was to be +tried; at least, so it seemed to the observer, though the staff did not +take that attitude. It never does once it has decided upon any daring +enterprise. When you send fifty thousand men into a charge that may fail +with a loss of half of their number or may brilliantly succeed with a +loss of only five per cent., none from the corps commanders and division +commanders, who await results after the plans are made, down to the +privates must have any thought except that the plan is right and that it +will go through.</p> + +<p>There is no older military maxim than to follow up any hard blow with +other blows, in order that the enemy may have no time to recuperate; +but in moving against a frontal line under modern conditions the +congestion of transport and ammunition which must wait on new roads and +the filling in of captured trenches makes a difficult problem in +organization. Never had there been and never were there necessary such +numbers of men and such quantities of material as on the Somme front.</p> + +<p>The twelve days succeeding July 1st had seen the taking of minor +position after position by local concentrations of troops and artillery +fire, while the army as a whole had been preparing for another big +attack at the propitious moment when these preliminary gains should +justify it.</p> + +<p>Half a tactical eye could see that the woods of Mametz, Bernafay and +Trônes must be held in order to allow of elbow room for a mass movement +over a broad front. The German realized this and after he had lost +Mametz and Bernafay he held all the more desperately to Trônes, which, +for the time being, was the superlative horror in woods fighting, though +we were yet to know that it could be surpassed by Delville and High +Woods.</p> + +<p>In Trônes the Germans met attack with counter-attack again and again. +The British got through to the east side of the woods, and in reply the +Germans sent in a wave forcing the British back to the west, but no +farther. Then the British, reinforced again, reached the east side. +Showers of leaves and splinters descended from shell-bursts and machine +guns were always rattling. The artillery of both sides hammered the +approaches of the woods to prevent reinforcements from coming up.</p> + +<p>In the cellars of Guillemont village beyond Trônes the Germans had +refuges for concentrating their reserves to feed in more troops, whose +orders, as all the prisoners taken said, were to hold to the last man. +Trônes Wood was never to be yielded to the British. Its importance was +too vital. Grim national and racial pride and battalion pride and +soldierly pride grappled in unyielding effort and enmity. The middle of +the woods became a neutral ground where the wounded of the different +sallies lay groaning from pain and thirst. Small groups of British had +dug themselves in among the Germans and, waterless, foodless, held out, +conserving their ammunition or, when it was gone, waiting for the last +effort with the bayonet.</p> + +<p>For several days the spare British artillery had been cutting the barbed +wire of the second line and smashing in the trenches; and the big guns +which had been advanced since July 1st were sending their shells far +beyond the Ridge into villages and crossroads and other vital points, in +order to interfere with German communications.</p> + +<p>The Thiepval-Gommecourt line where the British had been repulsed on +July 1st had reverted to something approaching stalemate conditions, +with the usual exchange of artillery fire, and it was along the broader +front where the old German first line had been broken through that the +main concentrations of men and guns were being made in order to continue +the advance for the present through the opening won on July 1st. The +price paid for the taking of the woods and for repeated attacks where +initial attacks had failed might seem to the observer—unless he knew +that the German losses had been equally heavy if not heavier since July +1st—disproportionate not only to the ground gained but also to general +results up to this time which, and this was most important, had +demonstrated, as a promise for the future, that the British New Army +could attack unremittingly and successfully against seasoned German +troops in positions which the Germans had considered impregnable.</p> + +<p>"The spirit that quickeneth" knew no faltering. Battle police were +without occupation. There were no stragglers. With methodical, +phlegmatic steadiness the infantry moved up to the firing-line when its +turn came.</p> + +<p>The second-line German fortifications, if not as elaborate, were even +better situated than the first; not on the crest of the Ridge, of +course, where they would be easily swept by artillery blasts, but where +the latest experience demonstrated that they could make the most of the +commanding high ground with the least exposure. Looking through my +glasses I could see the portion of the open knoll stretching from +Longueval to High Wood which was to be the object of the most extensive +effort since July 1st.</p> + +<p>As yet, except in trench raids over narrow fronts, there had been no +attempt to rush a long line under cover of darkness because of the +difficulty of the different groups keeping touch and identifying their +objectives.</p> + +<p>The charge of July 1st had been at seven-thirty in the morning. +Contalmaison had been stormed in the afternoon. Fricourt was taken at +midday. When the bold suggestion was made that over a three-mile front +the infantry should rush the second-line trenches in the darkness, +hoping to take the enemy by surprise, it was as daring a conception +considering the ground and the circumstances as ever came to the mind of +a British commander and might be said to be characteristic of the dash +and so-called "foolhardiness" of the British soldier, accustomed to +"looking smart" and rushing his enemy from colonial experiences. Nelson +had the "spirit that quickeneth" when he turned his blind eye to the +enemy. The French, too, are for the attack. It won Marengo and +Austerlitz. No general ever dared more than Frederick the Great, not +even Cæsar. Thus the great races of history have won military dominion.</p> + +<p>"Up and at them!" is still the shibboleth in which the British believe, +no less than our pioneers and Grant and Stonewall Jackson believed in +it, and nothing throughout the Somme battle was so characteristically +British as not only the stubbornness of their defense when small parties +were surrounded, but the way in which they would keep on attacking and +the difficulty which generals had not in encouraging initiative but in +keeping battalions and brigades from putting into practice their +conviction that they could take a position on their own account if they +could have a chance instead of waiting on a systematic advance.</p> + +<p>Thus, an attack on that second line on the Ridge after the Germans had +had two weeks of further preparation was an adventure of an order, in +the days of mechanical transport, aeroplanes and indirect artillery fire +when all military science is supposed to be reduced to a factory system, +worthy of the days of the sea-rovers and of Clive, of Washington's +crossing of the Delaware or of the storming of Quebec, when a bold +confidence made gamble for a mighty stake.</p> + +<p>So, at least, it seemed to the observer, though, as I said, the staff +insisted that it was a perfectly normal operation. The Japanese had +made many successful night attacks early in the Russo-Japanese war, but +these had been against positions undefended by machine gun fire and +curtains of artillery fire. When the Japanese reached their objective +they were not in danger of being blasted out by high explosives and +incidentally they were not fighting what has been called the most highly +trained army on earth on the most concentrated front that has ever been +known in military history.</p> + +<p>But "Up and at them!" Sir Douglas Haig, who had "all his nerve with +him," said to go ahead. At three-thirty a.m., a good hour before dawn, +that wave of men three miles long was to rush into the night toward an +invisible objective, with the darkness so thick that they could hardly +recognize a figure ten yards away. Yet as one English soldier said, "You +could see the German as soon as he saw you and you ought to be able to +throw a bomb as quickly as he and a bayonet would have just as much +penetration at three-thirty in the morning as at midday."</p> + +<p>When I saw the battalions who were to take part in the attack marching +up I realized, as they did not, the splendid and terrible hazard of +success or failure, of life or death, which was to be theirs. Along the +new roads they passed and then across the conquered ground, its uneven +slopes made more uneven by continued digging and shell fire, and +disappeared, and Night dropped her curtain on the field with no one +knowing what morning would reveal.</p> + +<p>The troops were in position; all was ready; all the lessons learned from +the attack of July 1st were to be applied. At midnight there was no +movement except of artillery caissons; gunners whose pieces two hours +later were to speak with a fury of blasts were sound asleep beside their +ammunition. The absolute order in this amazing network of all kinds of +supplies and transport contributed to the suspense. Night bombardments +we had already seen, and I would not dwell on this except that it had +the same splendor by night that the storming of Contalmaison had by day.</p> + +<p>The artillery observer for a fifteen-inch gun was a good-humored host. +He was putting his "bit," as the British say, into Bazentin-le-Petit +village and the only way we knew where Bazentin was in the darkness was +through great flashes of light which announced the bursting of a +fifteen-hundred-pound shell that had gone hurtling through the air with +its hoarse, ponderous scream. All the slope up to the Ridge was merged +in the blanket of night. Out of it came the regular flashes of guns for +a while as the prelude to the unloosing of the tornado before the +attack.</p> + +<p>Now that we saw them all firing, for the first time we had some idea of +the number that had been advanced into the conquered territory since +July 1st. The ruins and the sticks of trees of Fricourt and Mametz with +their few remaining walls stood out spectral in the flashes of batteries +that had found nesting places among the débris. The whole slope had +become a volcanic uproar. One might as well have tried to count the +number of fireflies over a swamp as the flashes. The limitation of +reckoning had been reached. Guns ahead of us and around us and behind us +as usual, in a battle of competitive crashes among themselves, and near +by we saw the figures of the gunners outlined in instants of weird +lightning glow, which might include the horses of a caisson in a flicker +of distinct silhouette flashed out of the night and then lost in the +night, with the riders sitting as straight as if at drill. Every voice +had one message, "This for the Ridge!" which was crowned by hell's +tempest of shell-bursts to prepare the way for the rush by the infantry +at "zero."</p> + +<p>The thing was majestic, diabolical, beautiful, absurd—anything you +wished to call it. Look away from the near-by guns where the faces of +the gunners were illumined and you could not conceive of the scene as +being of human origin; but mixing awed humility with colossal egoism in +varying compounds of imagination and fact, you might think of your +little group of observers as occupying a point of view in space where +one planet hidden in darkness was throwing aerolites at another hidden +in darkness striking it with mighty explosions, and the crashes and +screams were the sound of the missiles on their unlighted way.</p> + +<p>It was still dark when three-thirty came and pyrotechnics were added to +the display, which I could not think of as being in any sense +pyrotechnical, when out of the blanket as signals from the planet's +surface in the direction of some new manoeuver appeared showers of +glowing red sparks, which rose to a height of a hundred feet with a +breadth of thirty or forty feet, it seemed at that distance. One shower +was in the neighborhood of Ovillers, one at La Boisselle and one this +side of Longueval. Then in the distance beyond Longueval the sky was +illumined by a great conflagration not on the fireworks program, which +must have been a German ammunition dump exploded by British shells.</p> + +<p>It was our planet, now, and a particular portion of it in Picardy. No +imaginative translation to space could hold any longer. With the charge +going in, the intimate human element was supreme. The thought of those +advancing waves of men in the darkness made the fiery display a +dissociated objective spectacle. On the Ridge more signal flares rose +and those illumining the dark masses of foliage must be Bazentin Wood +gained, and those beyond must be in the Bazentin villages, Little +Bazentin and Big Bazentin, though neither of them, like most of the +villages, numbering a dozen to fifty houses could be much smaller and be +called villages.</p> + +<p>This was all the objective. Yes, but though the British had arrived, as +the signals showed, could they remain? It seemed almost too good to be +true. And that hateful Trônes Wood? Had we taken that, too, as a part of +the tidal wave of a broad attack instead of trying to take it piecemeal?</p> + +<p>Our suspense was intensified by the thought that this action might be +the turning-point in the first stage of the great Somme battle. We +strained our eyes into the darkness studying, as a mariner studies the +sky, the signs with which we had grown familiar as indicative of +results. There was a good augury in the comparatively slight German +shell fire in response, though we were reminded that it might at any +minute develop with sudden ferocity.</p> + +<p>Now the flashes of the guns grew dim. A transformation more wonderful +than artillery could produce, that of night into day, was in process. +Not a curtain but the sun's ball of fire, undisturbed by any efforts of +the human beings on a few square miles of earth, was holding to his +schedule in as kindly a fashion as ever toward planets which kept at a +respectful distance from his molten artillery concentration.</p> + +<p>Out of the blanket which hid the field appeared the great welts of chalk +of the main line trenches, then the lesser connecting ones; the woods +became black patches and the remaining tree-trunks gaunt, still and +dismal sentinels of the gray ruins of the villages, until finally all +the conformations of the scarred and tortured slope were distinct in the +first fresh light of a brilliant summer's day. Where the blazes had been +was the burst of black smoke from shells and we saw that it was still +German fire along the visible line of the British objective, assuring us +that the British had won the ground which they had set out to take and +were holding it.</p> + +<p>"Up and at them!" had done the trick this time, and trick it was; a +trick or stratagem, to use the higher sounding word; a trick in not +waiting on the general attack for the taking of Trônes according to +obvious tactics, but including Trônes in the sweep; a trick in the +daring way that the infantry was sent in ahead of the answering German +curtain of fire.</p> + +<p>All the news was good that day. The British had swept through Bazentin +Wood and taken the Bazentin villages. They held Trônes Wood and were in +Delville and High Woods. A footing was established on the Ridge where +the British could fight for final mastery on even terms with the enemy. +"Slight losses" came the reports from corps and divisions and +confirmation of official reports was seen in the paucity of the wounded +arriving at the casualty clearing stations and in the faces of officers +and men everywhere. Even British phlegm yielded to exhilaration.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4><a name="XIV" id="XIV"></a>XIV</h4> + +<h4>THE CAVALRY GOES IN</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The "dodo" band—Cavalry a luxury—Cavalry, however, may not be +discarded—What ten thousand horse might do—A taste of action for the +cavalry—An "incident"—Horses that had the luck to "go in"—Cavalrymen +who showed signs of action—The novelty of a cavalry action—A camp +group—Germans caught unawares—Horsemen and an aeroplane—Retiring in +good order—Just enough casualties to give the fillip of danger to +recollection.</p></div> + +<p>Sometimes a squadron of cavalry, British or Indian, survivors of the +ardent past, intruded in a mechanical world of motor trucks and tractors +drawing guns. With outward pride these lean riders of burnished, sleek +horses, whose broad backs bore gallantly the heavy equipment, concealed +their irritation at idleness while others fought. They brought +picturesqueness and warm-blooded life to the scene. Such a merciless war +of steel contrivances needed some ornament. An old sergeant one day, +when the cavalry halted beside his battalion which was resting, in an +exhibit of affectionate recollection exclaimed:</p> + +<p>"It's good to stroke a horse's muzzle again! I was in the Dragoon Guards +once, myself."</p> + +<p>Sometimes the cavalry facetiously referred to itself as the "Dodo" +band, with a galling sense of helplessness under its humor; and others +had thought of it as being like the bison preserved in the Yellowstone +Park lest the species die out.</p> + +<p>A cynical general said that a small force of cavalry was a luxury which +such a vast army of infantry and guns might afford. In his opinion, even +if we went to the Rhine, the cavalry would melt in its first charge +under the curtains of fire and machine gun sprays of the rearguard +actions of the retreating enemy. He had never been in the cavalry, and +any squadron knew well what he and all of those who shared his views +were thinking whenever it passed over the brow of a hill that afforded a +view of the welter of shell fire over a field cut with shell-craters and +trenches which are pitfalls for horses. Yet it returned gamely and with +fastidious application to its practice in crossing such obstacles in +case the command to "go in" should ever come. Such preparations were +suggestive to extreme skeptics of the purchase of robes and the +selection of a suitable hilltop of a religious cult which has appointed +the day for ascension.</p> + +<p>Excepting a dash in Champagne, not since trench warfare began had the +cavalry had any chance. The thought of action was an hypothesis +developed from memory of charges in the past. Aeroplanes took the +cavalry's place as scouts, machine guns and rifles emplaced behind a +first-line trench which had succumbed to an attack took its place as +rearguard, and aeroplane patrols its place as screen.</p> + +<p>Yet any army, be it British, French, or German, which expected to carry +through an offensive would not turn all its cavalry into infantry. This +was parting with one of the old three branches of horse, foot and gun +and closing the door to a possible opportunity. If the Japanese had had +cavalry ready at the critical moment after Mukden, its mobility would +have hampered the Russian retreat, if not turned it into a rout. When +you need cavalry you need it "badly," as the cowboy said about his +six-shooter.</p> + +<p>Should the German line ever be broken and all that earth-tied, enormous, +complicated organization, with guns emplaced and its array of congested +ammunition dumps and supply depots, try to move on sudden demand, what +added confusion ten thousand cavalry would bring! What rich prizes would +await it as it galloped through the breach and in units, separating each +to its objective according to evolutions suited to the new conditions, +dismounted machine guns to cover roads and from chosen points sweep +their bullets into wholesale targets! The prospect of those few wild +hours, when any price in casualties might be paid for results, was the +inspiration of dreams when hoofs stamped in camps at night or bits +champed as lances glistened in line above khaki-colored steel helmets on +morning parade.</p> + +<p>A taste, just a taste, of action the cavalry was to have, owing to the +success of the attack of July 14th, which manifestly took the Germans by +surprise between High and Delville Woods and left them staggering with +second-line trenches lost and confusion ensuing, while guns and +scattered battalions were being hurried up by train in an indiscriminate +haste wholly out of keeping with German methods of prevision and +precision. The breach was narrow, the field of action for horses +limited; but word came back that over the plateau which looked away to +Bapaume between Delville and High Woods there were few shell-craters and +no German trenches or many Germans in sight as day dawned.</p> + +<p>Gunners rubbed their eyes at the vision as they saw the horsemen pass +and infantry stood amazed to see them crossing trenches, Briton and +Indian on their way up the slope to the Ridge. How they passed the crest +without being decimated by a curtain of fire would be a mystery if there +were any mysteries in this war, where everything seems to be worked out +like geometry or chemical formulæ. The German artillery being busy +withdrawing heavy guns and the other guns preoccupied after the +startling results of an attack not down on the calendar for that day +did not have time to "get on" the cavalry when they were registered on +different targets—which is suggestive of what might come if the line +were cleft over a broad front. A steel band is strong until it breaks, +which may be in many pieces.</p> + +<p>"Did you see the charge?" you ask. No, nor even the ride up the slope, +being busy elsewhere and not knowing that the charge was going to take +place. I could only seek out the two squadrons who participated in the +"incident," as the staff called it, after it was over. Incident is the +right word for a military sense of proportion. When the public in +England and abroad heard that the cavalry were "in" they might expect to +hear next day that the Anglo-French Armies were in full pursuit of the +broken German Armies to the Rhine, when no such outcome could be in the +immediate program unless German numbers were cut in two or the Prussian +turned Quaker.</p> + +<p>An incident! Yes, but something to give a gallop to the pen of the +writer after the monotony of gunfire and bombing. I was never more eager +to hear an account of any action than of this charge—a cavalry charge, +a charge of cavalry, if you please, on the Western front in July, 1916.</p> + +<p>In one of the valleys back of the front out of sight of the battle there +were tired, tethered horses with a knowing look in their eyes, it +seemed to me, and a kind of superior manner toward the sleek, fresh +horses which had not had the luck to "go in"; and cavalrymen were lying +under their shelters fast asleep, their clothing and accoutrements +showing the unmistakable signs of action. We heard from their officers +the story of both the Dragoon Guards and the Deccan Horse (Indian) who +had known what it was to ride down a German in the open.</p> + +<p>The shade of Phil Sheridan might ponder on what the world was coming to +that we make much of such a small affair; but he would have felt all the +glowing satisfaction of these men if he had waited as long as they for +any kind of a cavalry action. The accounts of the two squadrons may go +together. Officers were shaving and aiming for enough water to serve as +a substitute for a bath. The commander with his map could give you every +detail with a fond, lingering emphasis on each one, as a battalion +commander might of a first experience in a trench raid when later the +same battalion would make an account of a charge in battle which was +rich with incidents of hand-to-hand encounters and prisoners breached +from dugouts into an "I-came-I-saw" narrative, and not understand why +further interest should be shown by the inquirer in what was the +everyday routine of the business of war. For the trite saying that +everything is relative does not forfeit any truth by repetition.</p> + +<p>The cavalry had done everything quite according to tactics, which would +only confuse the layman. The wonder was that any of it had come back +alive. On that narrow front it had ridden out toward the Germany Army +with nothing between the cavalry and the artillery and machine guns +which had men on horses for targets. In respect to days when to show a +head above a trench meant death the thing was stupefying, incredible. +These narrators forming a camp group, with lean, black-bearded, +olive-skinned Indians in attendance bringing water in horse-buckets for +the baths, and the sight of kindly horses' faces smiling at you, and the +officers themselves horsewise and with the talk and manner of +horsemen—only they made it credible. How real it was to them! How real +it became to me!</p> + +<p>There had been some Germans in hiding in the grass who were taken +unawares by this rush of gallopers with lances. Every participant agreed +as to the complete astonishment of the enemy. It was equivalent to a +football player coming into the field in ancient armor and the more of a +surprise considering that those Germans had been sent out after a +morning full of surprises to make contact with the British and +reëstablish the broken line.</p> + +<p>Not dummies of straw this time for the lance's sharp point, but +startled men in green uniform—the vision which had been in mind when +every thrust was made at the dummies! This was what cavalry was for, the +object of all the training. It rode through quite as it would have +ridden fifty or a hundred years ago. A man on the ground, a man on a +horse! This feature had not changed.</p> + +<p>"You actually got some?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes!"</p> + +<p>"On the lances?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>From the distance came the infernal sound of guns in their threshing +contest of explosions which made this incident more impressive than any +account of a man buried by shells, of isolated groups holding out in +dugouts, or of venturesome soldiers catching and tossing back German +bombs at the man who threw them, because it was unique on the Somme. +Both British and Indians had had the same kind of an opportunity. After +riding through they wheeled and rode back in the accepted fashion of +cavalry.</p> + +<p>By this time some of the systematic Germans had recollected that a part +of their drill was how to receive a cavalry charge, and when those who +had not run or been impaled began firing and others stood ready with +their bayonets but with something of the manner of men who were not +certain whether they were in a trance or not, according to the account, +a German machine gun began its wicked staccato as another feature of +German awakening to the situation.</p> + +<p>This brings us to the most picturesque incident of the "incident." Most +envied of all observers of the tournament was an aviator who looked down +on a show bizarre even in the annals of aviation. The German planes had +been driven to cover, which gave the Briton a fair field. A knightly +admiration, perhaps a sense of fellowship not to say sympathy with the +old arm of scouting from the new, possessed him; or let it be that he +could not resist a part in such a rare spectacle which was so tempting +to sporting instinct. He swooped toward that miserable, earth-tied +turtle of a machine gun and emptied his drum into it. He was not over +three hundred feet, all agree, above the earth, when not less than ten +thousand feet was the rule.</p> + +<p>"It was jolly fine of him!" as the cavalry put it. To have a charge and +then to have that happen—well, it was not so bad to be in the cavalry. +The plane drew fire by setting all the Germans to firing at it without +hitting it, and the machine gun, whether silenced or not, ceased to +bother the cavalry, which brought back prisoners to complete a +well-rounded adventure before withdrawing lest the German guns, also +entering into the spirit of the situation, should blow men and horses +off the Ridge instead of leaving them to retire in good order.</p> + +<p>Casualties: about the same number of horses as men. Riders who had lost +their horses mounted riderless horses. A percentage of one in six or +seven had been hit, which was the most amazing part of it; indeed, the +most joyful part, completing the likeness to the days when war still had +the element of sport. There had been killed and wounded or it would not +have been a battle, but not enough to cast a spell of gloom; just enough +to be a part of the gambling hazard of war and give the fillip of danger +to recollection.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4><a name="XV" id="XV"></a>XV</h4> + +<h4>ENTER THE ANZACS</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Newfoundland sets the pace—Australia and New Zealand lands that +breed men—Australians "very proud, individual men"—Geographical +isolation a cause of independence—The "Anzacs'" idea of +fighting—Sir Charles Birdwood—How he taught his troops +discipline—Bean and Ross—Difference between Australians and New +Zealanders—The Australian uniform and physique—A dollar and a half +a day—General Birdwood and his men—Australian humor.</p></div> + + +<p>It was British troops exclusively which started the Grand Offensive if +we except the Newfoundland battalion which alone had the honor of +representing the heroism of North America on July 1st; for people in +passing the Grand Banks which makes them think of Newfoundland are wont +to regard it as a part of Canada, when it is a separate colony whose +fishermen and frontiersmen were attached to a British division that went +to Gallipoli with a British brigade and later shared the fate of British +battalions in the attack on the Thiepval-Gommecourt sector.</p> + +<p>On that famous day in Picardy the Newfoundlanders advanced into the +smoke of the curtains of fire unflinchingly and kept on charging the +machine guns. Survivors and the wounded who crept back at night across +No Man's Land had no need to trumpet their heroism. All the army knew +it. Newfoundland had set the pace for the other clans from oversea.</p> + +<p>It was British troops, too, which took Contalmaison and Mametz, Bernafay +and Trônes Woods and who carried out all the attack of July 15th, with +the exception of the South African brigade which stormed Delville Wood +with the tearing enthusiasm of a rush for a new diamond mine.</p> + +<p>Whenever the troops from oversea are not mentioned you may be sure that +it is the British, the home troops, who are doing the fighting, their +number being about ten to one of the others with the one out of ten +representing double the number of those who fought on either side in any +great pitched battle in our Civil War. After the Newfoundlanders and +South Africans, who were few but precious, the Australians, an army of +themselves, came to take their part in the Somme battle.</p> + +<p>I have never been in Australia or New Zealand, but this I know that when +the war is over I am going. I want to see the land that breeds such men. +They are free men if ever there were such; free whether they come from +town or from bush. I had heard of their commonwealth ideas, their +State-owned utilities, their socialistic inclinations, which might +incline you to think that they were all of the same State-cut pattern of +manhood; but I had heard, too, how they had restricted immigration of +Orientals and limited other immigration by method if not by law, which +was suggestive of a tendency to keep the breed to itself, as I +understood from my reading.</p> + +<p>Whenever I saw an Australian I thought: "Here is a very proud, +individual man," but also an Australian, particularly an Australian. +Some people thought that there was a touch of insolence in his bearing +when he looked you straight in the eye as much as to say: "The best +thing in the world is to be an upstanding member of the human race who +is ready to prove that he is as good as any other. If you don't think +so, well—" There was no doubt about the Australian being brave. This +was as self-evident as that the pine is straight and the beech is hard +wood.</p> + +<p>The Australians came from a great distance. This you knew without +geographical reference. Far away in their island continent they have +been working out their own destiny, not caring for interference from the +outside. To put it in strong language, there is a touch of the "I don't +care a rap for anybody who does not care a rap for me" in their extreme +moments of independence. It is refreshing that a whole population may +have an island continent to themselves and carry on in this fashion.</p> + +<p>They had had an introduction to universal service which was also +characteristic of their democracy and helpful in time of war. The +"Anzac" had caught the sense of its idea (before other English-speaking +people) not to let others do your fighting for you but all "join in the +scrum." Orientals might crave the broad spaces of a new land, in which +event if they ever took Australia and New Zealand they would not be +bothered by many survivors of the white population, because most of the +Anzacs would be dead—this being particularly the kind of people the +Anzacs are as I knew them in France, which was not a poor trial ground +of their quality.</p> + +<p>When they went to Gallipoli it was said that they had no discipline; and +certainly at first discipline did irritate them as a snaffle bit +irritates a high-spirited horse. "Little Kitch," as the stalwart Anzacs +called the New Army Englishman, thought that they broke all the military +commandments of the drill-grounds in a way that would be their undoing. +I rather think that it might have been the undoing of Little Kitch, with +his stubborn, methodical, phlegmatic, "stick-it" courage; but after the +Australians had fought the Turk a while it was evident that they knew +how to fight, and their general, Sir Charles Birdwood, supplied the +discipline which is necessary if fighting power is not to be wasted in +misplaced emotion.</p> + +<p>Lucky Birdwood to command the Australians and lucky Australians to have +him as commander! It was he who in choosing a telegraph code word made +up "Anzac" for the Australian-New Zealand corps, which at once became +the collective term for the combination. What a test he put them to and +they put him to! He had to prove himself to them before he could develop +the Anzacs into a war unit worthy of their fighting quality. Such is +democracy where man judges man by standards, set, in this case, by +Australian customs.</p> + +<p>When he understood them he knew why he was fortunate. He was one of them +and at the same time a stiff disciplinarian. They objected to saluting, +but he taught them to salute in a way that did not make saluting seem +the whole thing—this was what they resented—but a part of the routine. +It was said that he knew every man in the corps by name, which shows how +stories will grow around a commander who rises at five and retires at +midnight and has a dynamic ubiquity in keeping in touch with his men. +Such a force included some "rough customers" who might mistake war for a +brawler's opportunity; but Sir Charles had a way with them that worked +out for their good and the good of the corps.</p> + +<p>Though they were of a free type of democracy, the Australian government, +either from inherent sense or as the result of distance, as critics +might say, or owing to General Birdwood's gift of having his way, did +not handicap the Australians as heavily as they might have been +handicapped under the circumstances by officers who were skilful in +politics without being skilful in war.</p> + +<p>As publicist the Australians had Bean, a trained journalist, a +red-headed blade of a man who was an officer among officers and a man +among men and held the respect of all by Australian qualities. If there +could be only one chronicler allowed, then Bean's choice had the +applause of a corps, though Bean says that Australia is full of just as +good journalists who did not have his luck. The New Zealanders had Ross +to play the same part for them with equal loyalty and he was as much of +a New Zealander as Bean was an Australian.</p> + +<p>For, make no mistake, though the Australians and the New Zealanders +might seem alike to the observer as they marched along a road, they are +not, as you will find if you talk with them. The New Zealanders have +islands of their own, not to mention that the Tasmanians have one, too. +Besides, the New Zealanders include a Maori battalion and of all +aborigines of lands where the white races have settled in permanence to +build new nations, the Maoris have best accustomed themselves to +civilization and are the highest type—a fact which every New Zealander +takes as another contributing factor to New Zealand's excellence. Quiet +men the New Zealanders, bearing themselves with the pride of Guardsmen +whose privates all belong to superior old families, and New Zealanders +every minute of every hour of the day, though you might think that civil +war was imminent if you started them on a discussion about home +politics.</p> + +<p>Give any unit of an army some particular, readily distinguishable +symbol, be it only a feather in the cap or a different headgear, and +that lot becomes set apart from the others in a fashion that gives them +<i>esprit de corps</i>. With the Scots it is the kilt and the different +plaids. All the varied uniforms of regiments of the armies of olden days +had this object. Modern war requires neutral tones and its necessary +machinelike homogeneity may look askance at too much rivalry among units +as tending toward each one acting by itself rather than in co-operation +with the rest.</p> + +<p>All the forces at the front except the Anzacs were in khaki and wore +caps when not wearing steel helmets in the trenches or on the +firing-line. The Australians were in slate-colored uniform and they +wore looped-up soft hats. The hats accentuated the manner, the height +and the sturdiness of the men whose physique was unsurpassed at the +British front, and practically all were smooth-shaven. For generations +they had had adequate nutrition and they had the capacity to absorb it, +which generations from the slums may lack even if the food is +forthcoming.</p> + +<p>There was no reason why every man in Australia should not have enough to +eat and, whether bush or city dweller, he was fond of the open air where +he might exercise the year around. He had blown his lungs; he had fed +well and came of a daring pioneer stock. When an Anzac battalion under +those hats went swinging along the road it seemed as if the men were +taking the road along with them, such was their vigorous tread. On leave +in London they were equally conspicuous. Sometimes they used a little +vermilion with the generosity of men who received a dollar and a half a +day as their wage. It was the first time, in many instances, that they +had seen the "old town" and they had come far and to-morrow might go +back to France for the last time.</p> + +<p>My first view of them in the trenches after they came from Gallipoli was +in the flat country near Ypres whose mushiness is so detested by all +soldiers. They had been used to digging trenches in dry hillsides, +where they might excavate caves with solid walls. Here they had to fill +sandbags with mud and make breastworks, which were frequently breached +by shell fire. At first, they had been poor diggers; but when democracy +learns its lesson by individual experience it is incorporated in every +man and no longer is a question of orders. Now they were deepening +communication trenches and thickening parapet walls and were +mud-plastered by their labor.</p> + +<p>Having risen at General Birdwood's hour of five to go with him on +inspection I might watch his methods, and it means something to men to +have their corps commander thus early among them when a drizzly rain is +softening the morass under foot. He stopped and asked the privates how +they were in a friendly way and they answered with straight-away candor. +Then he gave some directions about improvements with a +we-are-all-working-together suggestiveness, but all the time he was the +general. These privates were not without their Australian sense of +humor, which is dry; and in answer to the inquiry about how he was one +said:</p> + +<p>"All right, except we'd like a little rum, sir."</p> + +<p>In cold weather the distribution of a rum ration was at the disposition +of a commander, who in most instances did not give it. This stalwart +Australian evidently had not been a teetotaler.</p> + +<p>"We'll give you some rum when you have made a trench raid and taken some +prisoners," the general replied.</p> + +<p>"It might be an incentive, sir!" said the soldier very respectfully.</p> + +<p>"No Australian should need such an incentive!" answered the general, and +passed on.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir!" was the answer of another soldier to the question if he had +been in Gallipoli.</p> + +<p>"Wounded?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir."</p> + +<p>"How?"</p> + +<p>"I was examining a bomb, sir, to find out how it was made and it went +off to my surprise, sir!"</p> + +<p>There was not even a twinkle of the eye accompanying the response, yet I +was not certain that this big fellow from the bush had been wounded in +that way. I suspected him of a quiet joke.</p> + +<p>"Throw them at the Germans next time," said the general.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir. It's safer!"</p> + +<p>Returning after that long morning of characteristic routine, as we +passed through a village where Australians were billeted one soldier +failed to salute. When the general stopped him his hand shot up in +approved fashion as he recognized his commander and he said contritely, +with the touch of respect of a man to the leader in whom he believes:</p> + +<p>"I did not see that it was you, sir!"</p> + +<p>The general had on a mackintosh with the collar turned up, which +concealed his rank.</p> + +<p>"But you might see that it was an officer."</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir."</p> + +<p>"And you salute officers."</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir."</p> + +<p>Which he would hereafter now that it was General Birdwood's order, +though this everlasting raising of your hand, as one Australian said, +made you into a kind of human windmill when the world was so full of +officers. Gradually all came to salute, and when an Australian salutes +he does it in a way that is a credit to Australia.</p> + +<p>After a period of fighting a tired division retired from the battle +front and a fresh one took the place. Thus, following the custom of the +circulation of troops by the armies of both sides, whether at Verdun or +on the Somme, the day arrived when along the road toward the front came +the Australian battalions, hardened and disciplined by trench warfare, +keen-edged in spirit, and ready for the bold task which awaited them at +Pozières. This time the New Zealanders were not along.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4><a name="XVI" id="XVI"></a>XVI</h4> + +<h4>THE AUSTRALIANS AND A WINDMILL</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The windmill upon the hill—Pozières—Its topography—Warlike +intensity of the Australians—A "stiff job"—An Australian +chronicler—Incentives to Australian efficiency—German complaint +that the Australians came too fast—Clockwork efficiency—Man-to-man +business—Sunburned, gaunt battalions from the vortex—The fighting +on the Ridge—Mouquet Farm—A contest of individuality against +discipline—"Advance, Australia!"—New Zealanders—South Africans.</p></div> + + +<p>When I think of the Australians in France I always think of a windmill. +This is not implying that they were in any sense Quixotic or that they +tilted at a windmill, there being nothing left of the windmill to tilt +at when their capture of its ruins became the crowning labor of their +first tour on the Somme front.</p> + +<p>In their progress up that sector of the Ridge the windmill came after +Pozières, as the ascent of the bare mountain peak comes after the +reaches below the timber line. Pozières was beyond La Boisselle and +Ovillers-la-Boisselle, from which the battle movement swung forward at +the hinge of the point where the old first-line German fortifications +had been broken on July 1st.</p> + +<p>To think of Pozières will be to think of the Australians as long as the +history of the Somme battle endures. I read an interview in a New York +paper with the Chief of Staff of the German Army opposite the British in +which he must have been correctly quoted, as his remarks passed the +censorship. He said that the loss of Pozières was a blunder. I liked his +frankness in laying the blame on a subordinate who, if he also had +spoken, might have mentioned the presence of the Australians as an +excuse, which, personally, I think is an excellent one.</p> + +<p>Difficult as it now becomes to keep any sequence in the operations when, +at best, chronology ceases to be illuminative of phases, it is well here +to explain that the attack of July 15th had not gained the whole Ridge +on the front ahead of the broad stretch of ruptured first line. Besides, +the Ridge is not like the roof of a house, but a most illusive series of +irregular knolls with small plateaus or valleys between, a sort of +miniature broken tableland. The foothold gained on July 15th meant no +broad command of vision down the slope to the main valley on the other +side. Even a shoulder five or ten feet higher than the neighboring +ground meant a barrier to artillery observation which shells would not +blast away; and the struggle for such positions was to go on for weeks.</p> + +<p>Pozières, then, was on the way to the Ridge and its possession would +put the formidable defenses of Thiepval in a salient, thus enabling the +British to strike it from the side as well as in front, which is the aim +of all strategy whether it works in mobile divisions in an open field or +is biting and tearing its way against field fortifications. Therefore, +the Germans had good reason to hold Pozières, which protected first-line +trenches that had required twenty months of preparation. Wherever they +could keep the Briton or the Frenchman from forcing the fight into the +open which made the contest an even one in digging, they were saving +life and ammunition by nests of redoubts and dugouts.</p> + +<p>The reason that the Australians wanted to take Pozières was not so +tactical as human in their minds. It was the village assigned to them +and they wished to investigate it immediately and get established in the +property that was to be theirs, once they took it, to hold in trust for +the inhabitants. I had a fondness for watching them as they marched up +to the front looking unreal in their steel helmets which they wore in +place of the broad-brimmed hats. There was a sort of warlike intensity +about them which may come from the sunlight of an island continent +reflecting the histrionic adaptability of appearances to the task in +hand.</p> + +<p>Their first objective was to be the main street. They had a "stiff job" +ahead, as everybody agreed, and so had the British troops operating on +their right.</p> + +<p>"This objective business has a highly educated sound, which might limit +martial enthusiasm," said one Australian. "As I understand it, that's +the line where we stop no matter how good the going and which we must +reach no matter how hard the going."</p> + +<p>Precisely. An Australian battalion needed a warning in the first +instance lest it might keep on advancing, which meant that commanders +would not know where it was in the shell-smoke and it might get +"squeezed" for want of support on the right and left, as I have +explained elsewhere. Certainly, warning was unnecessary in the second +instance about the hard going.</p> + +<p>Bean has all the details of the taking of Pozières; he knows what every +battalion did, and I was going to say what every soldier did. When the +Australians were in he was in making notes and when they were out he was +out writing up his notes. His was intimate war correspondence about the +fellows who came from all the districts of his continent, his home +folks. I am only expressing the impressions of one who had glimpses of +the Australians while the battle was raging elsewhere.</p> + +<p>Of course, skeptics had said that Gallipoli was one thing and the Somme +another and the Australian man-to-man method might receive a shock from +Prussian system; but, then, skeptics had said that the British could not +make an army in two years. The Australians knew what was in the +skeptics' minds, which was further incentive. They had a general whom +they believed in and they did not admit that any man on earth was a +better man than an Australian. And their staff? Of course, when it takes +forty years to make a staff how could the Australians have one that +could hold its own with the Germans? And this was what the Australians +had to do, staff and man: beat the Germans.</p> + +<p>When with clockwork promptness came the report that they had taken all +of their objectives it showed that they were up to the standard of their +looks and their staff signals were working well. They had a lot of +prisoners, too, who complained that the Australians came on too fast. +Meanwhile, they were on one side of the street and the Germans on the +other, hugging débris and sniping at one another. Now the man-to-man +business began to count. The Australian got across the street; he went +after the other fellow; he made a still hunt of it. This battle had +become a personal matter which pleased their sense of individualism; for +it is not bred into Australians to be afraid if they are out alone after +dark.</p> + +<p>Having worked beyond their first objective, when they were given as +their second the rest of the village they took it; and they were not +"biffed" out of it, either. What was the use of yielding ground when you +would have to make another charge in order to regain what had been lost? +They were not that kind of arithmeticians, they said. They believed in +addition not subtraction in an offensive campaign.</p> + +<p>So they stuck, though the Germans made repeated daring counter-attacks +and poured in shell fire from the guns up Thiepval way and off Bapaume +way with hellish prodigality. For the German staff was evidently much +out of temper about the "blunder" and for many weeks to come were to +continue pounding Pozières. If they could not shake the Australian out +of the village they meant to make him pay heavy taxes and to try to kill +his reliefs and stop his supplies. How the Australians managed to get +food and men up through the communication trenches under the unceasing +inferno over that bare slope is tribute to their skill in slipping out +and in between its blasts.</p> + +<p>Not only were they able to hold, but they kept on attacking. Every day +we heard that they had taken more ground and whenever we went out to +have a look the German lines were always a little farther back. One day +we were asking if the Australians were in the cemetery yet; the next +day they were and the next they had more of it as they worked their way +uphill, fighting from grave to grave; and the next day they had mastered +all of it, thanks to a grim persistence which some had said would not +comport with their highstrung temperament.</p> + +<p>The windmill was a landmark crowning the Ridge; as fair a target as ever +artillery ranged on—a gunner's delight. After having been knocked into +splinters the splinters were spread about by high explosives which +reduced the stone base to fragments.</p> + +<p>Sunburned, gaunt battalions came out of the vortex for a turn of rest. +With helmets battered by shrapnel bullets, after nights in the rain and +broiling hot days, their faces grimy and unshaven, their clothes torn +and spotted, they were still Australians who looked you in the eye with +a sense of having proved their birthright as free men. Sometimes the old +spirit incited by the situation got out of bonds. One night when a +company rose up to the charge the company next in line called out, +"Where are you going?" and on the reply, "We've orders to take that +trench in front," the company that had no orders to advance exclaimed, +"Here, we're going to join in the scrum!" and they did, taking more +trench than the plan required.</p> + +<p>The fierce period of the battle was approaching when fighting on the +Ridge was to be a bloody, wrestling series of clinches. Now trenches +could not be dug on that bold, treeless summit. As soon as an aeroplane +spotted a line developing out of the field of shell-craters the guns +filled the trench and then proceeded to pound it into the fashionable +style for farming land on the Ridge.</p> + +<p>Trenches out of the question, it became a war among shell-craters. Here +a soldier ensconced himself with rifle and bombs or a machine gunner +deepened the hole with his spade for the gun. This was "scrapping" to +the Australians' taste. It called for individual nerve and daring on +that shell-swept, pestled earth, creeping up to new positions or back +for water and food by night, lying "doggo" by day and waiting for a +counter-attack by the Germans, who were always the losers in this grim, +stealthy advance.</p> + +<p>In Mouquet Farm the Germans had dugouts whose elaborateness was realized +only after they were taken. A battalion could find absolute security in +them. Long galleries ran back to entrances in areas safe from shell +fire. Overhead no semblance of farm buildings was left by British and +Australian guns. When I visited the ruins later I could not tell how +many buildings there had been; and Mouquet Farm was not the only strong +point that the Germans had to fall back on, let it be said. In the +underground tunnels and chambers the Germans gathered for their +counter-attacks, which they attempted with something of their old +precision and courage.</p> + +<p>This was the opportunity of the machine gunners in shell-craters and the +snipers and the curtain of artillery fire. Sometimes the Australians +allowed the attack to get good headway. They even left gaps in their +lines for the game to enter the net before they began firing; and again, +when a broken German charge sought flight its remnants faced an +impassable curtain of fire which fenced them in and they dropped into +shell-craters and held up their hands, which was the only thing to do.</p> + +<p>Soon the Germans learned, too, how to make the most of shell-craters. +The harder the Australians fought the greater the spur to German pride +not to be beaten by these supposedly undisciplined, untrained men. The +Germans called for more guns and got them. Mouquet Farm became a +fortress of machine guns. It was not taken by the Australians—their +successors took what was left of it. The nearer they came to the crest +which was their supreme goal the ghastlier and more concentrated grew +the shell fire, as the German guns had only to range on the skyline. But +this equally applied to Australian gunners as the Germans were crowded +toward the summit where the débris of the windmill remained, till +finally they had to fall back to the other side.</p> + +<p>Then they tried sweeping over the Ridge from the cover of the reverse +slope in counter-attacks, only to be whipped by machine gun fire, lashed +by shrapnel and crushed by high explosives—themselves mixed with the +ruins of the windmill. At last they gave up the effort. It was not in +German discipline to make any more attempts.</p> + +<p>The Australians had the windmill as much as anyone had it as, for a +time, it was in No Man's Land where blasts of shells would permit of no +occupation. But the symbol for which it stood was there in readiness as +a jumping-off place for the sweep-down into the valley later on when the +Canadians should take the place of the Australians; and before they +retired they could look in triumph across at Thiepval and down on +Courcelette and Martinpuich and past the valley to Bapaume.</p> + +<p>The development of the campaign had given the Australians work suited to +their bent when this war of machinery, attaining its supreme complexity +on the Somme, left the human machine between walls of shell fire to +fight it out individually against the human machine, in a contest of +will, courage, audacity, alertness and resource, man to man. "Advance, +Australia!" is the Australian motto; and the Australians advanced.</p> + +<p>The New Zealanders had their part elsewhere and played it in the New +Zealand way.</p> + +<p>"They have never failed to take an objective set them," said a general +after the taking of Flers, "and they have always gained their positions +with slight losses."</p> + +<p>Could there be higher praise? Success and thrift, courage and skill in +taking cover! For the business of a soldier is to do his enemy the +maximum of damage with the minimum to himself, as anyone may go on +repeating. Probably the remark of the New Zealanders in answer to the +commander's praise would be, "Thank you. Why not?" as if this were what +the New Zealanders expected of themselves. They take much for granted +about New Zealand, without being boastful.</p> + +<p>"A blooming quiet lot that keeps to themselves," said a British soldier, +"but likable when you get to know them."</p> + +<p>You might depend upon the average New Zealand private for an interesting +talk about social organization, municipal improvements, and human +welfare under government direction. The standard of individual +intelligence and education was high and it seemed to make good fighting +men.</p> + +<p>The Australians had had to grub their way foot by foot, and the South +Africans on July 15th with veldt gallantry had swept into Delville Wood, +which was to be a shambles for two months, and stood off with a thin +line the immense forces of hastily gathered reserves which the Germans +threw at this vital point which had been lost in a surprise attack.</p> + +<p>All this on the way up to the Ridge. The New Zealanders were to play a +part in the same movement as the Canadians after the Ridge was taken. +They were in the big sweep down from the Ridge over a broad front. +Across the open for about two miles they had to go, fair targets for +shell fire; and they went, keeping their order as if on parade, working +out each evolution with soldierly precision including coöperation with +the "tanks." They were at their final objective on schedule time, +accomplishing the task with amazingly few casualties and so little fuss +that it seemed a kind of skilful field-day manoeuver. All that they took +they held and still held it when the mists of autumn obscured artillery +observation and they were relieved from the quagmire for their turn of +rest.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4><a name="XVII" id="XVII"></a>XVII</h4> + +<h4>THE HATEFUL RIDGE</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Grinding of courage of three powerful races—A ridge that will be +famous—Germans on the defensive—Efforts to maintain their +<i>morale</i>—Gas shells—Summer heat, dust and fatigue—Prussian hatred +of the British—Dead bodies strapped to guns—Guillemont a +granulation of bricks and mortar and earth—"We've only to keep at +them, sir"—Stalking machine guns—Machine guns in craters—British +cheerfulness—The war will be over when it is won—Soldiers talk +shop—An incident of brutal militarism—Simple rules for surviving +shell fire—A "happy home" with a shell arriving every +minute—Business-like monotony of the battle—Insignificance of one +man among millions—A victory of position, of will, of <i>morale</i>!</p></div> + + +<p>Sometimes it occurred to one to consider what history might say about +the Ridge and also to wonder how much history, which pretends to know +all, would really know. Thus, one sought perspective of the colossal +significance of the uninterrupted battle whose processes numbed the mind +and to distinguish the meaning of different stages of the struggle. +Nothing had so well reflected the character of the war or of its +protagonists, French, British and German, as this grinding of resources, +of courage, and of will of three powerful races.</p> + +<p>We are always talking of phases as the result of natural human +speculation and tendency to set events in groups. Observers also may +gratify this inclination as well as the contemporaneous military expert +writing from his maps. It is historically accepted, I think, that the +first decisive phase was the battle of the Marne when Paris was saved. +The second was Verdun, when the Germans again sought a decision on the +Western front by an offensive of sledgehammer blows against frontal +positions; and, perhaps, the third came when on the Ridge the British +and the French kept up their grim, insistent, piecemeal attacks, holding +the enemy week in and week out on the defensive, aiming at mastery as +the scales trembled in the new turn of the balance and initiative passed +from one side to the other in the beginning of that new era.</p> + +<p>This scarred slope with its gentle ascent, this section of farming land +with its woods growing more ragged every day from shell fire, with its +daily and nightly thunders, its trickling procession of wounded and +prisoners down the communication trenches speaking the last word in +human bravery, industry, determination and endurance—this might one day +be not only the monument to the positions of all the battalions that had +fought, its copses, its villages, its knolls famous to future +generations as is Little Round Top with us, but in its monstrous realism +be an immortal expression, unrealized by those who fought, of a +commander's iron will and foresight in gaining that supremacy in arms, +men and material which was the genesis of the great decision.</p> + +<p>The German had not yielded his offensive at Verdun after the attack of +July 1st. At least, he still showed the face of initiative there while +he rested content that at the same time he could maintain his front +intact on the Somme. The succeeding attack of July 15th broke his +confidence with its suggestion that the confusion in his lines would be +too dangerous if it happened over a broader front for him to consider +anything but the defensive. Thus, the Allied offensive had broken his +offensive.</p> + +<p>Now he began drawing away his divisions from the Verdun sector, bringing +guns to answer the British and French fire and men whose prodigal use +alone could enforce his determination to maintain <i>morale</i> and prevent +any further bold strokes such as that of July 15th.</p> + +<p>His sausage balloons began to reappear in the sky as the summer wore on; +he increased the number of his aeroplanes; more of his five-point-nine +howitzers were sending their compliments; he stretched out his shell +fire over communication trenches and strong points; mustered great +quantities of lachrymatory shells and for the first time used gas shells +with a generosity which spoke his faith in their efficacy. The +lachrymatory shell makes your eyes smart, and the Germans apparently +considered this a great auxiliary to high explosives and shrapnel. Was +it because of the success of the first gas attack at Ypres that they now +placed such reliance in gas shells? The shell when it lands seems a +"dud," which is a shell that has failed to explode; then it blows out a +volume of gas.</p> + +<p>"If one hit right under your nose," said a soldier, "and you hadn't your +gas mask on, it might kill you. But when you see one fall you don't run +to get a sniff in order to accommodate the Boche by asphyxiating +yourself."</p> + +<p>Another soldier suggested that the Germans had a big supply on hand and +were working off the stock for want of other kinds. The British who by +this time were settled in the offensive joked about the deluge of gas +shells with a gallant, amazing humor. Going up to the Ridge was going to +their regular duty. They did not shirk it or hail it with delight. They +simply went, that was all, when it was a battalion's turn to go.</p> + +<p>July heat became August heat as the grinding proceeded. The gunners +worked in their shirts or stripped to the waist. Sweat streaks mapped +the faces of the men who came out of the trenches. Stifling clouds of +dust hung over the roads, with the trucks phantom-like as they emerged +from the gritty mist and their drivers' eyes peered out of masks of +gray which clung to their faces. A fall of rain came as a blessing to +Briton and German alike. German prisoners worn with exhaustion had +complexions the tint of their uniforms. If the British seemed weary +sometimes, one had only to see the prisoners to realize that the +defensive was suffering more than the offensive. The fatigue of some of +the men was of the kind that one week's sleep or a month's rest will not +cure; something fixed in their beings.</p> + +<p>It was a new kind of fighting for the Germans. They smarted under it, +they who had been used to the upper hand. In the early stages of the war +their artillery had covered their well-ordered charges; they had been +killing the enemy with gunfire. Now the Allies were returning the +compliment; the shoe was on the other foot. A striking change, indeed, +from "On to Paris!" the old battle-cry of leaders who had now come to +urge these men to the utmost of endurance and sacrifice by telling them +that if they did not hold against the relentless hammering of British +and French guns what had been done to French villages would be done to +their own.</p> + +<p>Prisoners spoke of peace as having been promised as close at hand by +their officers. In July the date had been set as Sept. 1st. Later, it +was set as Nov. 1st. The German was as a swimmer trying to reach shore, +in this case peace, with the assurance of those who urged him on that a +few more strokes would bring him there. Thus have armies been urged on +for years.</p> + +<p>Those fighting did not have, as had the prisoners, their eyes opened to +the vast preparations behind the British lines to carry on the +offensive. Mostly the prisoners were amiable, peculiarly unlike the +proud men taken in the early days of the war when confidence in their +"system" as infallible was at its height. Yet there were exceptions. I +saw an officer marching at the head of the survivors of his battalion +along the road from Montauban one day with his head up, a cigar stuck in +the corner of his mouth at an aggressive angle, his unshaven chin and +dusty clothes heightening his attitude of "You go to ——, you English!"</p> + +<p>The hatred of the British was a strengthening factor in the defense. +Should they, the Prussians, be beaten by New Army men? No! Die first! +said Prussian officers. The German staff might be as good as ever, but +among the mixed troops—the old and the young, the hollow-chested and +the square-shouldered, mouth-breathers with spectacles and bent fathers +of families, vigorous boys in their late 'teens with the down still on +their cheeks and hardened veterans survivors of many battles east and +west—they were reverting appreciably to natural human tendencies +despite the iron discipline.</p> + +<p>It was Skobeloff, if I recollect rightly, who said that out of every +hundred men twenty were natural fighters, sixty were average men who +would fight under impulse or when well led, and twenty were timid; and +armies were organized on the basis of the sixty average to make them +into a whole of even efficiency in action. The German staff had supplied +supreme finesse to this end. They had an army that was a machine; yet +its units were flesh and blood and the pounding of shell fire and the +dogged fighting on the Ridge must have an effect.</p> + +<p>It became apparent through those two months of piecemeal advance that +the sixty average men were not as good as they had been. The twenty +"funk-sticks," in army phrase, were given to yielding themselves if they +were without an officer, but the twenty natural fighters—well, human +psychology does not change. They were the type that made the +professional armies of other days, the brigands, too, and also those of +every class of society to whom patriotic duty had become an exaltation +approaching fanaticism. More fighting made them fight harder.</p> + +<p>Such became members of the machine gun corps, which took an oath never +to surrender, and led bombing parties and posted themselves in +shell-craters to face the charges while shells fell thick around them, +or remained up in the trench taking their chances against curtains of +fire that covered an infantry charge, in the hope of being able to turn +on their own bullet spray for a moment before being killed. Sometimes +their dead bodies were found strapped to their guns, more often probably +by their own request, as an insurance against deserting their posts, +than by command.</p> + +<p>Shell fire was the theatricalism of the struggle, the roar of guns its +thunder; but night or day the sound of the staccato of that little arch +devil of killing, the machine gun, coming from the Ridge seemed as true +an expression of what was always going on there as a rattlesnake's +rattle is of its character. Delville and High Woods and Guillemont and +Longueval and the Switch Trench—these are symbolic names of that +attrition, of the heroism of British persistence which would not take No +for answer.</p> + +<p>You might think that you had seen ruins until you saw those of +Guillemont after it was taken. They were the granulation of bricks and +mortar and earth mixed by the blasts of shell fire which crushed solids +into dust and splintered splinters. Guillemont lay beyond Trônes Wood +across an open space where the German guns had full play. There was a +stone quarry on the outskirts, and a quarry no less than a farm like +Waterlot, which was to the northward, and Falfemont, to the southward +and flanking the village, formed shelter. It was not much of a quarry, +but it was a hole which would be refuge for reserves and machine guns. +The two farms, clear targets for British guns, had their deep dugouts +whose roofs were reinforced by the ruins that fell upon them against +penetration even by shells of large caliber. How the Germans fought to +keep Falfemont! Once they sent out a charge with the bayonet to meet a +British charge between walls of shell fire and there through the mist +the steel was seen flashing and vague figures wrestling.</p> + +<p>Guillemont and the farms won and Ginchy which lay beyond won and the +British had their flank on high ground. Twice they were in Guillemont +but could not remain, though as usual they kept some of their gains. It +was a battle from dugout to dugout, from shelter to shelter of any kind +burrowed in débris or in fields, with the British never ceasing here or +elsewhere to continue their pressure. And the débris of a village had +particular appeal; it yielded to the spade; its piles gave natural +cover.</p> + +<p>A British soldier returning from one of the attacks as he hobbled +through Trônes Wood expressed to me the essential generalship of the +battle. He was outwardly as unemotional as if he were coming home from +his day's work, respectful and good-humored, though he had a hole in +both arms from machine gun fire, a shrapnel wound in the heel, and +seemed a trifle resentful of the added tribute of another shrapnel wound +in his shoulder after he had left the firing-line and was on his way to +the casualty clearing station. Insisting that he could lift the +cigarette I offered him to his lips and light it, too, he said:</p> + +<p>"We've only to keep at them, sir. They'll go."</p> + +<p>So the British kept at them and so did the French at every point. Was +Delville Wood worse than High Wood? This is too nice a distinction in +torments to be drawn. Possess either of them completely and command of +the Ridge in that section was won. The edge of a wood on the side away +from your enemy was the easiest part to hold. It is difficult to range +artillery on it because of restricted vision, and the enemy's shells +aimed at it strike the trees and burst prematurely among his own men. +Other easy, relatively easy, places to hold are the dead spaces of +gullies and ravines. There you were out of fire and there you were not; +there you could hold and there you could not. Machine gun fire and shell +fire were the arbiters of topography more dependable than maps.</p> + +<p>Why all the trees were not cut down by the continual bombardments of +both sides was past understanding. There was one lone tree on the +skyline near Longueval which I had watched for weeks. It still had a +limb, yes, the luxury of a limb, the last time that I saw it, pointing +with a kind of defiance in its immunity. Of course it had been struck +many times. Bits of steel were imbedded in its trunk; but only a direct +hit on the trunk will bring down a tree. Trees may be slashed and +whittled and nicked and gashed and still stand; and when villages have +been pulverized except for the timbering of the houses, a scarred shade +tree will remain.</p> + +<p>Thus, trees in Delville Wood survived, naked sticks among fallen and +splintered trunks and upturned roots. How any man could have survived +was the puzzling thing. None could if he had remained there continuously +and exposed himself; but man is the most cunning of animals. With gas +mask and eye-protectors ready, steel helmet on his head and his faithful +spade to make himself a new hole whenever he moved, he managed the +incredible in self-protection. Earth piled back of a tree-trunk would +stop bullets and protect his body from shrapnel. There he lay and there +a German lay opposite him, except when attacks were being made.</p> + +<p>Not getting the northern edge of the woods the British began sapping out +in trenches to the east toward Ginchy, where the map contours showed the +highest ground in that neighborhood. New lines of trenches kept +appearing on the map, often with group names such as Coffee Alley, Tea +Lane and Beer Street, perhaps. Out in the open along the irregular +plateau the shells were no more kindly, the bombing and the sapping no +less diligent all the way to the windmill, where the Australians were +playing the same kind of a game. With the actual summit gained at +certain points, these had to be held pending the taking of the whole, or +of enough to permit a wave of men to move forward in a general attack +without its line being broken by the resistance of strong points, which +meant confusion.</p> + +<p>Before any charge the machine guns must be "killed." No initiative of +pioneer or Indian scout surpassed that exhibited in conquering machine +gun positions. When a big game hunter tells you about having stalked +tigers, ask him if he has ever stalked a machine gun to its lair.</p> + +<p>As for the nature of the lair, here is one where a Briton "dug himself +in" to be ready to repulse any counter-attack to recover ground that the +British had just won. Some layers of sandbags are sunk level with the +earth with an excavation back of them large enough for a machine gun +standard and to give the barrel swing and for the gunner, who back of +this had dug himself a well four or five feet deep of sufficient +diameter to enable him to huddle at the bottom in "stormy weather." He +was general and army, too, of his little establishment. In the midst of +shells and trench mortars, with bullets whizzing around his head, he had +to keep a cool aim and make every pellet which he poured out of his gun +muzzle count against the wave of men coming toward him who were at his +mercy if he could remain alive for a few minutes and keep his head.</p> + +<p>He must not reveal his position before his opportunity came. All around +where this Briton had held the fort there were shell-craters like the +dots of close shooting around a bull's-eye; no tell-tale blood spots +this time, but a pile of two or three hundred cartridge cases lying +where they had fallen as they were emptied of their cones of lead. Luck +was with the occupant, but not with another man playing the same game +not far away. Broken bits of gun and fragments of cloth mixed with earth +explained the fate of a German machine gunner who had emplaced his piece +in the same manner.</p> + +<p>Before a charge, crawl up at night from shell-crater to shell-crater and +locate the enemy's machine guns. Then, if your own guns and the trench +mortars do not get them, go stalking with supplies of bombs and remember +to throw yours before the machine gunner, who also has a stock for such +emergencies, throws his. When a machine gun begins rattling into a +company front in a charge the men drop for cover, while officers +consider how to draw the devil's tusks. Arnold von Winkelried, who +gathered the spears to his breast to make a path for his comrades, won +his glory because the fighting forces were small in his day. But with +such enormous forces as are now engaged and with heroism so common, we +make only an incident of the officer who went out to silence a machine +gun and was found lying dead across the gun with the gunner dead beside +him.</p> + +<p>Those whose business it was to observe, the six correspondents, +Robinson, Thomas, Gibbs, Philips, Russell and myself, went and came +always with a sense of incapacity and sometimes with a feeling that +writing was a worthless business when others were fighting. The line of +advance on the big map at our quarters extended as the brief army +reports were read into the squares every morning by the key of figures +and numerals with a detail that included every little trench, every +copse, every landmark, and then we chose where we would go that day. At +corps headquarters there were maps with still more details and officers +would explain the previous day's work to us. Every wood and village, +every viewpoint, we knew, and every casualty clearing station and +prisoners' inclosure. At battalion camps within sight of the Ridge and +within range of the guns, where their blankets helped to make shelter +from the sun, you might talk with the men out of the fight and lunch and +chat with the officers who awaited the word to go in again or perhaps to +hear that their tour was over and they could go to rest in Ypres sector, +which had become relatively quiet.</p> + +<p>They had their letters and packages from home before they slept and had +written letters in return after waking; and there was nothing to do now +except to relax and breathe, to renew the vitality that had been +expended in the fierce work where shells were still threshing the earth, +which rose in clouds of dust to settle back again in enduring passive +resistance.</p> + +<p>There was much talk early in the war about British cheerfulness; so much +that officers and men began to resent it as expressing the idea that +they took such a war as this as a kind of holiday, when it was the last +thing outside of Hades that any sane man would choose. It was a question +in my own mind at times if Hades would not have been a pleasant change. +Yet the characterization is true, peculiarly true, even in the midst of +the fighting on the Ridge. Cheerfulness takes the place of emotionalism +as the armor against hardship and death; a good-humored balance between +exhilaration and depression which meets smile with smile and creates an +atmosphere superior to all vicissitudes. Why should we be downhearted? +Why, indeed, when it does no good. Not "Merrie England!" War is not a +merry business; but an Englishman may be cheerful for the sake of self +and comrades.</p> + +<p>Of course, these battalions, officers and men, would talk about when the +war would be over. Even the Esquimaux must have an opinion on the +subject by this time. That of the men who make the war, whose lives are +the lives risked, was worth more, perhaps, than that of people living +thousands of miles away; for it is they who are doing the fighting, who +will stop fighting. To them it would be over when it was won. The time +this would require varied with different men—one year, two years; and +again they would turn satirical and argue whether the sixth or the +seventh year would be the worst. And they talked shop about the latest +wrinkles in fighting; how best to avoid having men buried by +shell-bursts; the value of gas and lachrymatory shells; the ratio of +high explosives to shrapnel; methods of "cleaning out" dugouts or "doing +in" machine guns, all in a routine that had become an accepted part of +life like the details of the stock carried and methods of selling in a +department store.</p> + +<p>Indelible the memories of these talks, which often brought out +illustrations of racial temperament. One company was more horrified over +having found a German tied to a trench <i>parados</i> to be killed by +British shell fire as a field punishment than by the horrors of other +men equally mashed and torn, or at having crawled over the moist bodies +of the dead, or slept among them, or been covered with spatters of blood +and flesh—for that incident struck home with a sense of brutal +militarism which was the thing in their minds against which they were +fighting.</p> + +<p>With steel helmets on and gas masks over our shoulders, we would leave +our car at the dead line and set off to "see something," when now the +fighting was all hidden in the folds of the ground, or in the woods, or +lost on the horizon where the front line of either of these two great +armies, with their immense concentration of men and material and roads +gorged with transport and thousands of belching guns, was held by a few +men with machine guns in shell-craters, their positions sometimes +interwoven. Old hands in the Somme battle become shell-wise. They are +the ones whom the French call "varnished," which is a way of saying that +projectiles glance off their anatomy. They keep away from points where +the enemy will direct his fire as a matter of habit or scientific +gunnery, and always recollect that the German has not enough shells to +sow them broadcast over the whole battle area.</p> + +<p>It is not an uncommon thing for one to feel quite safe within a couple +of hundred yards of an artillery concentration. That corner of a +village, that edge of a shattered grove, that turn in the highway, that +sunken road—keep away from them! Any kind of trench for shrapnel; lie +down flat unless a satisfactory dugout is near for protection from high +explosives which burst in the earth. If you are at the front and a +curtain of fire is put behind you, wait until it is over or go around +it. If there is one ahead, wait until another day—provided that you are +a spectator. Always bear in mind how unimportant you are, how small a +figure on the great field, and that if every shell fired had killed one +soldier there would not be an able-bodied man in uniform left alive on +the continent of Europe. By observing these simple rules you may see a +surprising amount with a chance of surviving.</p> + +<p>One day I wanted to go into the old German dugouts under a formless pile +of ruins which a British colonel had made his battalion headquarters; +but I did not want to go enough to persist when I understood the +situation. Formerly, my idea of a good dugout—and I always like to be +within striking distance of one—was a cave twenty feet deep with a roof +of four or five layers of granite, rubble and timber; but now I feel +more safe if the fragments of a town hall are piled on top of this.</p> + +<p>The Germans were putting a shell every minute with clockwork regularity +into the colonel's "happy home" and at intervals four shells in a salvo. +You had to make a run for it between the shells, and if you did not know +the exact location of the dugout you might have been hunting for it some +time. Runners bearing messages took their chances both going and coming +and two men were hit. The colonel was quite safe twenty feet underground +with the matting of débris including that of a fallen chimney overhead, +but he was a most unpopular host. The next day he moved his headquarters +and not having been considerate enough to inform the Germans of the fact +they kept on methodically pounding the roof of the untenanted premises.</p> + +<p>After every battlefield "promenade" I was glad to step into the car +waiting at the "dead line," where the chauffeurs frequently had had +harder luck in being shelled than we had farther forward. Yet I know of +no worse place to be in than a car when you hear the first growing +scream which indicates that yours is the neighborhood selected by a +German battery or two for expending some of its ammunition. When you are +in danger you like to be on your feet and to possess every one of your +faculties. I used to put cotton in my ears when I walked through the +area of the gun positions as some protection to the eardrums from the +blasts, but always took it out once I was beyond the big calibers, as +an acute hearing after some experience gave you instant warning of any +"krump" or five-point-nine coming in your direction, advising you which +way to dodge and also saving you from unnecessarily running for a dugout +if the shell were passing well overhead or short.</p> + +<p>I was glad, too, when the car left the field quite behind and was over +the hills in peaceful country. But one never knew. Fifteen miles from +the front line was not always safe. Once when a sudden outburst of +fifteen-inch naval shells sent the people of a town to cover and +scattered fragments over the square, one cut open the back of the +chauffeur's head just as we were getting into our car.</p> + +<p>"Are you going out to be strafed at?" became an inquiry in the mess on +the order of "Are you going to take an afternoon off for golf to-day?" +The only time I felt that I could claim any advantage in phlegm over my +comrades was when I slept through two hours of aerial bombing with +anti-aircraft guns busy in the neighborhood, which, as I explained, was +no more remarkable than sleeping in a hotel at home with flat-wheeled +surface cars and motor horns screeching under your window. A subway +employee or a traffic policeman in New York ought never to suffer from +shell-shock if he goes to war.</p> + +<p>The account of personal risk which in other wars might make a magazine +article or a book chapter, once you sat down to write it, melted away as +your ego was reduced to its proper place in cosmos. Individuals had +never been so obscurely atomic. With hundreds of thousands fighting, +personal experience was valuable only as it expressed that of the whole. +Each story brought back to the mess was much like others, thrilling for +the narrator and repetition for the polite listener, except it was some +officer fresh from the communication trench who brought news of what was +going on in that day's work.</p> + +<p>Thus, the battle had become static; its incidents of a kind like the +product of some mighty mill. The public, falsely expecting that the line +would be broken, wanted symbols of victory in fronts changing on the map +and began to weary of the accounts. It was the late Charles A. Dana who +is credited with saying: "If a dog bites a man it is not news, but if a +man bites a dog it is."</p> + +<p>Let the men attack with hatchets and in evening dress and this would win +all the headlines in the land because people at their breakfast tables +would say: "Here is something new in the war!" Men killing men was not +news, but a battalion of trained bloodhounds sent out to bite the +Germans would have been. I used to try to hunt down some of the +"novelties" which received the favor of publication, but though they +were well known abroad the man in the trenches had heard nothing about +them.</p> + +<p>Bullets, shells, bayonets and bombs remained the tried and practical +methods there on the Ridge with its overpowering drama, any act of which +almost any day was greater than Spionkop or Magersfontein which thrilled +a world that was not then war-stale; and ever its supreme feature was +that determination which was like a kind of fate in its progress of +chipping, chipping at a stone foundation that must yield.</p> + +<p>The Ridge seeped in one's very existence. You could see it as clearly in +imagination as in reality, with its horizon under shell-bursts and the +slope with its maze of burrows and its battered trenches. Into those +calm army reports association could read many indications: the telling +fact that the German losses in being pressed off the Ridge were as great +if not greater than the British, their sufferings worse under a heavier +deluge of shell fire, the increased skill of the offensive and the +failure of German counter-attacks after each advance.</p> + +<p>No one doubted that the Ridge would be taken and taken it was, or all of +it that was needed for the drive that was to clean up any outstanding +points, with its sweep down into the valley. A victory this, not to be +measured by territory; for in one day's rush more ground was gained +than in two months of siege. A victory of position, of will, of +<i>morale</i>! Sharpening its steel and wits on enemy steel and wits in every +kind of fighting, the New Army had proved itself in the supreme test of +all qualities.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4><a name="XVIII" id="XVIII"></a>XVIII</h4> + +<h4>A TRULY FRENCH AFFAIR</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>A French lieutenant arm-in-arm with two privates—A luncheon at the +front—French regimental officers—Three and four stripes on the +sleeves for the number of wounds—Over the parapet twenty-three +times—Comradeship of soldiers—Monsieur Élan again—Baby +<i>soixante-quinze</i>—An incident truly French.</p></div> + + +<p>This was another French day, an ultra French day, with Monsieur Élan +playfully inciting human nature to make holiday in the sight of bursting +shells. There had been many other luncheons with generals and staffs in +their chateaux which were delightful and illuminating occasions, but +this had a distinction of its own not only in its companionship but in +its surroundings.</p> + +<p><i>Mon lieutenant</i> who invited me warned me to eat a light breakfast in +order to leave room for adequate material appreciation of the +hospitality of his own battalion, in which he had fought in the ranks +earning promotion and his <i>croix de guerre</i> in a way that was more +gratifying to him than the possession of a fortune, chateaux and +high-powered cars. I have seen him in the streets of our town "hiking" +along with the French marching step arm-in-arm with two French +privates, though he was an officer. He introduced them as from "my +battalion!" with as much pride as if they were Generals Joffre and +Castelnau.</p> + +<p>What a setting for a "swell repast," as he jokingly called it! A table +made of boxes with boxes for seats and plates of tin, under apple trees +looking down into a valley where the transport and blue-clad regiments +were winding their way past the eddies of men of the battalion in a rest +camp, with the <i>soixante-quinze</i> firing from the slopes beyond at +intervals and a German battery trying to reach a British sausage balloon +hanging lazily in the still air against the blue sky and never getting +it. A flurry of figures after some "krumps" had burst at another point +meant that some men had been killed and wounded.</p> + +<p>As the colonel and the second in command were not present there was no +restraint of seniority on the festivity, though I think that seniority +knowing what was going on might have felt lonely in its isolation. We +had many courses, soup, fish, entrée and roast, salad and cheese which +was cheese in a land where they eat cheese, and luscious grapes and +pears; everything that the market afforded served in sight of the front +line. Why not? France thinks that nothing is too good for her fighters. +If ever man ought to have the best it is when to-morrow he returns to +the firing-line and hard rations—when to-morrow he may die for France.</p> + +<p>The senior captain presided. He was a man of other wars, burned by the +suns of Morocco, with a military moustache that gave effect to his +spirited manner. When my friend, the lieutenant, joined the regiment as +a private he was smooth-shaven and his colonel asked him whether he was +a priest or a bookmaker, or meant to be a soldier. Next morning he +allowed nature to have her way on his upper lip, the colonel's hint +being law in all things to those who served under him.</p> + +<p>Every officer had his <i>croix de guerre</i> in this colonial battalion with +its ranks open to all comers of all degrees and promotion for those who +could earn it in face of the machine guns where the New Army privates +were earning theirs. One officer with the chest of Hercules, who looked +equal to the fiercest Prussian or the tallest Pomeranian and at least +one additional small Teuton for good measure, mentioned that he had been +in Peking. I asked him if he knew some officer friends of mine who had +been there at the same time. He replied that he had been a private then, +and he liked the American Y.M.C.A.</p> + +<p>His breast was a panoply of medals. Among them was the Legion of Honor, +while his <i>croix de guerre</i> had all the stars, bronze, silver and gold, +and two palms, as I remember, which meant that twice some deed of his +out in the inferno had won official mention for him all the way up from +the battalion through brigade, division and corps to the supreme +command. The American Y.M.C.A. in Peking ought to be proud of his good +opinion.</p> + +<p>The architect, tall, well built, smiling and fair-haired, with an +intellectual face, sat opposite the little dealer in precious stones who +had traveled the world around in his occupation. There was an artist, +too, who held an argument with the architect on art which <i>mon +capitaine</i> considered meretricious and hair-splitting, his conviction +being that they were only airing a wordy pretentiousness and really knew +little more of what they were talking about than he. In politics we had +a Republican, a Socialist and a Royalist, who also were babbling without +capturing any dugouts, according to <i>mon capitaine</i> who was simply a +soldier. It was clear that the Socialist and the Royalist were both +popular, as well as my friend, though he had been promoted to the staff.</p> + +<p>Another present was the "Admiral," a naval officer, commanding the +monstrous guns of twelve to seventeen inches mounted on railway trucks, +who wrote sonnets between directing two-thousand-pound projectiles on +their errands of mashing German dugouts. He did not like gunnery where +he did not see his target naval fashion, but he had done so well that +he was kept at it. His latest sonnet was to an abstract girl somewhere +in France which the Socialist, who was a man of critical judgment in +everything and of a rollicking disposition, praised very highly and read +aloud with the elocution of a Coquelin.</p> + +<p>While others had as many as three and four gold stripes on their sleeves +to indicate the number of their wounds, the Socialist had been over the +parapet twenty-three times in charges without being hit, which he took +as a sure sign that his was the right kind of politics, the Royalist and +the Republican disagreeing and <i>mon capitaine</i> saying that politics were +a mere matter of taste and being wounded a matter of luck. Thereupon, +the Socialist undertook a brief oration rich with humor, relieving it of +too much of the seriousness of the tribune in the Chamber of Deputies, +where he will probably thunder out his periods one of these days if he +contrives to keep on going over the parapet without being hit.</p> + +<p>A man was what he was as a man and nothing more in that distinguished +company which had gained its distinction by extinguishing Germans. +Comradeship made all differences of opinion, birth and wealth only the +excuse for banter in this variation of type from the tall architect with +his charming manner to the matter-of-fact expert in diamonds and opals, +from the big private of colonial regulars who had won his shoulder +straps to the fellow with the blue blood of aristocratic France in his +veins. The architect I particularly remember, for he was killed in the +next charge, and the dealer in precious stones, for a shell-burst in the +face would never allow his eyes to see the flash of a diamond again.</p> + +<p>But let youth eat, drink and be merry in the shadow of the fortunes of +war which might claim some of them to-morrow, making vacancies for +promotion of privates down in the camp. Where Cheeriness was the +handmaiden of <i>morale</i> with the British, Monsieur Élan was with the +French. Everybody talked not only with his lips but with his hands and +shoulders, in that absence of self-consciousness which gives grace to +free expression. They spoke of their homes at one juncture with a sober +and lingering desire and a catch in the throat and they touched on the +problems after the war, which they would win or fight on forever, +concluding that the men from the trenches who would have the say would +make a new and better France and sweep aside any interference with the +march of their numbers and patriotism.</p> + +<p>We ate until capacity was reached and loitered over the black coffee, +with the private who had produced all the courses out of the dugout with +the magic of the rabbit out of a hat sharing in the conversation at +times without breaking the bonds of discipline. Finally, the cook was +brought forth, too, to receive his meed of praise as the real magician. +Then we went to pay our respects to the colonel and the second in +command. A sturdy little man the colonel, a regular from his neat +fatigue cap to the soles of his polished boots, but with a human twinkle +through his eyeglasses reflecting much wisdom in the handling of men of +all kinds, which, no doubt, was why he was in command of this battalion.</p> + +<p>Afterward, we visited the men lounging in their quarters or forming a +smiling group, each one ready with quick responses when spoken to, men +of all kinds from Apaches of Paris to the sons of princes, perhaps, +while the Washington Post March was played for the American. Later, +across the road we saw the then new baby <i>soixante-quinze</i> guns for +trench work, which were being wheeled about with a merry appreciation of +the fact that a battery of father <i>soixante-quinze</i> was passing by at +the time.</p> + +<p>Finally, came an incident truly French and delightful in its boyishness, +as <i>mon capitaine</i> hinted that I should ask <i>mon colonel</i> if he would +permit <i>mon capitaine</i> to go into town and have dinner with my friend +and the admiral and myself, returning in my friend's car in time to +proceed to the firing-line with the battalion to-morrow. Accordingly I +spoke to the colonel and the twinkle of his eye as he gave consent +indicated, perhaps, that he knew who had put me up to it. <i>Mon +capitaine</i> had his dinner and a good one, too, and was back at dawn +ready for battle.</p> + +<p>It is not that France has changed; only that some people who ought to +have known better have changed their opinions formed about her after '70 +when, in the company of other foreigners, they went to see the sights of +Paris.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4><a name="XIX" id="XIX"></a>XIX</h4> + +<h4>ON THE AERIAL FERRY</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The "Ferry-Pilot's" office—Everybody is young in the Royal Flying +Corps—Any kind of aeroplane to choose from—A flying machine new +from the factory—"A good old 'bus"—Twenty planes a day from England +to France—England seen from the clouds—An aerial +guide-post—Stopping places—The channel from 4,000 feet aloft—Out +of sight in the clouds midway between England and France—Tobogganing +from the clouds—France from the air—A good flight.</p></div> + + +<p>Personal experience now intrudes in answer to the question whence come +all the aeroplanes that take the place of those lost or worn out, which +was made clear when I was in London for a few days' change from the +fighting on the Ridge through a request to a general at the War Office +for permission to fly back to the front.</p> + +<p>"Why not?" he said. "When are you going?"</p> + +<p>"Monday."</p> + +<p>He called up another general on the telephone and in a few words the +arrangements were made.</p> + +<p>"And my baggage?" I suggested.</p> + +<p>"How much of it?"</p> + +<p>"A suit case."</p> + +<p>"The machine ought to manage that considering that it carries one +hundred and fifty pounds in bombs."</p> + +<p>On Monday morning at the appointed hour I was walking past a soldierly +line of planes flanking an aerodrome field scattered with others that +had just alighted or were about to rise and inquiring my way to the +"Ferry-Pilot's" office. I found it, identified by a white-lettered sign +on a blackboard, down the main street of temporary buildings occupied by +the aviators as quarters.</p> + +<p>"Yes, all right," said the young officer sitting at the desk, "but we +are making no crossings this morning. There is a storm over the +channel."</p> + +<p>Weather forecasts, which had long ago disappeared from the English +newspapers lest they give information to Zeppelins, had become the +privilege of those who travel by air or repulsed aerial raids.</p> + +<p>"It may clear up this afternoon," he added. "Why not go up to the mess +and make yourself comfortable, and return about three? Perhaps you may +go then."</p> + +<p>At three I was back in his office, where five or six young aviators were +waiting for their orders as jockeys might wait their turn to take out +horses. Everybody is young in the Royal Flying Corps and everybody +thinks and talks in the terms of youth.</p> + +<p>"You can push off at once!" said the officer at the desk.</p> + +<p>Of course I must have a pass, which was a duplicate in mimeograph with +my name as passenger in place of "machine gunner;" or, to put it another +way, I was one joy-rider who must be officially delivered from an +aerodrome in England to an aerodrome in France. Youth laughed when I +took that view. Had I ever flown before? Oh, yes, a fact that put the +situation still more at ease.</p> + +<p>"What kind of a 'bus would you like?" asked the master pilot. "We have +all kinds going over to-day. Take your choice."</p> + +<p>I went out into the field to choose my steed and decided upon a big +"pusher," where both aviator and passenger sit forward with the +propeller and the roar of the motor behind them. She had been flown down +across England from the factory the day before and, tried out, was ready +for the channel passage.</p> + +<p>"You'll take her over," said the master pilot to one of the group +waiting their turn.</p> + +<p>Then it occurred to somebody that another official detail had been +overlooked, and I had to give my name and address and next of kin to +complete formalities which should impress novices, while youth looked on +smilingly at forty-three which was wise if not reckless. They put me in +an aviator's rig with the addition of a life-belt in case we should get +a ducking in the channel and I climbed up into my position for the long +run, a roomy place in the semi-circular bow of the beast which was +ordinarily occupied by a machine gun and gunner.</p> + +<p>"She's a good old 'bus, very steady. You'll like her," said one of the +group of youngsters looking on.</p> + +<p>There were no straps, these being quite unnecessary, but also there was +no seat.</p> + +<p>"What is <i>à la mode</i>?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Stand up if you like!"</p> + +<p>"Or sit on the edge and let your feet hang over!"</p> + +<p>We were all laughing, for the aviation corps is never gloomy. It rises +and alights and fights and dies smilingly.</p> + +<p>"I like your hospitality, but not having been trained to trapeze work +I'll play the Turk," I replied, squatting with legs crossed; and in this +position I was able to look over the railing right and left and forward. +The world was mine.</p> + +<p>Flight being no new thing in the year 1916, I shall not indulge in any +rhetoric. The pertinence of the experience was entirely in the fact that +I was taking the aerial ferry which sent twenty planes a day to France +on an average and perhaps fifty when the weather had held up traffic the +previous day. I was to buffet the clouds instead of the waves on a +crowded steamer and have a glimpse behind the curtains of military +secrecy of the wonders of resource and organization, which are a +commonplace to the wonder-workers themselves.</p> + +<p>It was to be a straight, business flight, a matter of routine, a flight +without any loitering on the way or covering unnecessary distance to +reach the destination. There would be risks enough for the plane when it +crossed into the enemy's area with its machine gun in position. The +gleam of two lines of steel of a railroad set our course. After we had +risen to a height of three or four thousand feet an occasional dash of +rain whipped your face, and again the soft mist of a cloud.</p> + +<p>It was real English weather, overcast; and England plotted under your +eye, a vast garden with its hedges, fields and quiet villages, had never +been so fully realized in its rich greens. We overtook trains going in +our direction and passed trains going in the opposite direction under +their trailing spouts of steam. Only an occasional encampment of tents +suggested that the land was at war. The soft light melted the different +tones of the landscape together in a dreamy whole and always the +impression was of a land loved for its hedges, its pastures and its +island seclusion, loved as a garden. In order to hold it secure this +plane was flying and the great army in France was fighting.</p> + +<p>After forty minutes of the exhilaration of flight which never grows +stale, the pilot thumped one of the wings which gave out the sound of a +drumhead to attract my attention and indicated an immense white arrow on +a pasture pointing toward the bank of mist that hid the channel. This +was the guide-post of the aerial ferry. He wheeled around it in order to +give me a better view, which was his only departure from routine before, +on the line of the arrow's pointing, he took his course, leaving the +railroad behind, while ahead the green carpet seemed to end in a +vaporish horizon.</p> + +<p>Usually as they rose for the channel crossing pilots ascended to a +height of ten thousand feet, in order that they should have range in +case of engine trouble for a long glide which might permit them to reach +shore, or, if they must alight in the sea, to descend close to a vessel. +In both England and France along the established aerial pathway are +certain way stations fit to give rubber tires a soft welcome, with +gasoline in store if a fresh supply is required. It was the pride of my +pilot, who had formerly been in the navy and had come from South Africa +to "do his bit," that in twenty crossings he had never had to make a +stop. To-day the clouds kept us down to an altitude of only four +thousand feet.</p> + +<p>Hills and valleys do not exist, all landscape being flat to the +aviator's eye, as we know; but against reason some mental kink made me +feel that this optical law should not apply to the chalk cliffs when we +came to the coast, where only the green sward which crowns them was +visible and beyond this a line of gray, the beach, which had an edge of +white lace that was moving—the surf.</p> + +<p>Soldiers who were returning from leave in the regular way were having a +jumpy passage, as one knew by the whitecaps that looked like tiny white +flowers on a pewter cloth; only if you looked steadily at one it +disappeared and others appeared in its place. Otherwise, the channel in +a heavy sea was as still as a painted ocean with painted ships which, +however fast they were moving, were making no headway to us traveling as +smoothly in our 'bus as a motor boat on a glassy lake.</p> + +<p>I looked at my watch as we crossed the lace edging on the English side +and again as we crossed it on the French side. The time elapsed was +seventeen and a half minutes, which is not rapid going, even for the +broader part of the channel which we chose. The fastest plane, I am +told, has made it at the narrowest point in eight and a half minutes. +Not going as high as usual, the pilot did not speed his motor, as the +lower the altitude the more uncomfortable might be the result of engine +trouble to his passenger.</p> + +<p>Now, however, we were rising midway of the crossing into the gray bank +overhead; one second the channel floor was there and the next it was +not. Underneath us was mist and ahead and behind and above us only mist, +soft and cool against the face. We were wholly out of sight of land and +water, above the clouds, detached from earth, lost in the sky between +England and France.</p> + +<p>This was the great moment to me. I was away from the sound of the guns; +from the headlines of newspapers announcing the latest official +bulletins; from prisoners' camps and casualty clearing stations; from +dugouts and trenches and the Ridge. Here was real peace, the peace of +the infinite—and no one could ask you when you thought the war would be +over. You were nobody, yet again you were the whole population of the +world, you and the aviator and the plane, perfectly helpless in one +sense and in another gloriously secure. Even he seemed a part of the +machine carrying you swiftly on, without any sense of speed except the +driving freshness of the air in your face. I felt that I should not mind +going on forever. Time was unlimited. There was only space and the +humming of the motor and the faintly gleaming circle of light of the +propeller and those two rigid wings with their tracery of braces.</p> + +<p>We were not long out of sight of land and water, but long enough to make +one wish to fly over the channel again, the next time at ten thousand +feet, when it was a gleaming swath hidden at times by patches of +luminous nimbus.</p> + +<p>The engine stopped. There was the silence of the clouds, cushioned +silence, cushioned by the mist. Next, we were on a noiseless toboggan +and when we came to the end of a glide of a thousand feet or more, +France loomed ahead with its lacework of surf and an expanse of chalk +cliffs at an angle and landscape rising out of the haze. A few minutes +more and the salt thread that kept Napoleon out of England and has kept +Germany out of England was behind us. We were over the Continent of +Europe.</p> + +<p>I had never before understood the character of both England and France +so well. England was many little gardens correlated by roads and lanes; +France was one great garden. Majestic in their suggestion of +spaciousness were those broad stretches of hedgeless, fenceless fields, +their crop lines sharply drawn as are all lines from a plane, fields +between the plots of woodland and the villages and towns, revealing a +land where all the soil is tilled.</p> + +<p>Soon we were over camps that I knew and long, straight highways that I +had often traveled in my comings and goings. But how empty seemed the +roads where you were always passing motor trucks and guns! Long, gray +streaks with occasional specks which, as you rose to a greater height, +were lost like scattered beads melting into a ribbon! Reserve trenches +that I had known, too, were white tracings on a flat surface in their +standard contour of traverses. There was the chateau where I had lived +for months. Yes, I could identify that, and there the town where we went +to market.</p> + +<p>We flew around the tower of a cathedral low enough to see the people +moving in the streets, and then, in a final long glide, after an hour +and fifty minutes in the air, the rubber wheels touched earth, rose and +touched it again before the steady old 'bus slowed down not far from +another plane that had arrived only a few minutes previously. When a day +of good weather follows a day of bad and the arrivals are frequent, +planes are flopping about this aerodrome like so many penguins before +they are marshaled by the busy attendants in line along the edge of the +field or under the shelter of hangars.</p> + +<p>We had had none of those thrilling experiences which are supposed to +happen to aerial joy-riders, but had made a perfectly safe, normal trip, +which, I repeat, was the real point of this wonderful business of the +aerial ferry. I went into the office and officially reported my arrival +at the same time that the pilot reported delivery of his plane.</p> + +<p>"Good-night," he said. "I'm off to catch the steamer to bring over +another 'bus to-morrow."</p> + +<p>Waiting near by was my car and soldier chauffeur, who asked, in his +quiet English way, if I had had "a good flight, sir;" and soon I was +back in the atmosphere of the army as the car sped along the road, past +camps, villages and motor trucks, until in the moonlight, as we came +over a hill, the cathedral tower of Amiens appeared above the dark mass +of the town against the dim horizon.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4><a name="XX" id="XX"></a>XX</h4> + +<h4>THE EVER MIGHTY GUNS</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>A thousand guns at the master's call—Schoolmaster of the guns—More +and more guns but never too many—The gunner's skill which has life +and death at stake—"Grandmother" first of the fifteen-inch +howitzers—Soldier-mechanics—War still a matter of +missiles—Improvements in gunnery—Third rail of the battlefield—The +game of guns checkmating guns—A Niagara of death—A giant tube of +steel painted in frog patches.</p></div> + + +<p>How reconcile that urbane gunner-general, a genius among experts you +were told, as the master of a thunderous magic which shot its deadly +lightnings over the German area! Let him move a red pin on the map and a +tractor was towing a nine-inch gun to a new position; a black pin and a +battery of eighteen pounders took the road. A thousand guns answered his +call with a hundred thousand shells when it pleased him. I stood in awe +of him, for chaos seemed to be doing his bidding at the end of a +pushbutton.</p> + +<p>Whirlwind curtains of fire and creeping and leaping curtains were his +familiar servants, and he set the latest fashion by his improvements. +Had the French or the Germans something new? This he applied. Had he +something new? He passed on the method to the French and gave the +Germans the benefit of its results.</p> + +<p>Observers seated in the baskets of observation balloons, aeroplanes +circling low in risk of anti-aircraft fire, men sitting in tree-tops and +others in front-line trenches spotting the fall of shells were the eyes +for the science he was working out on his map. Those nests and lines of +guns that seemed to be simply sending shells into the blue from their +hiding-places played fortissimo and pianissimo under his baton. He +correlated their efforts, gave them purpose and system in their roaring +traffic of projectiles.</p> + +<p>Where Sir Douglas Haig was schoolmaster of the whole, he was +schoolmaster of the guns. After the grim days of the salient, when he +worked with relics from fortresses and anything that could be improvised +against the German artillery, came the latest word in black-throated, +fiery-tongued monsters from England where the new gunners had learned +their ABC's and he and his assistants were to teach them solid geometry +and calculus and give them a toilsome experience, which was still more +useful.</p> + +<p>His host kept increasing as more and more guns arrived, but never too +many. There cannot be too many. Plant them as thick as trees in a forest +for a depth of six or eight miles and there would not be enough by the +criterion of the infantry, to whom the fortunes of war increasingly +related to the nature of the artillery support. He must have smiled with +the satisfaction of a farmer over a big harvest yield that filled the +granary as the stack of shells at an ammunition depot spread over the +field, and he could go among his guns with the pride of a landowner +among his flocks. He knew all the diseases that guns were heir to and +their weaknesses of temperament. A gun doctor was part of the +establishment. This specialist went among the guns and felt of their +pulses and listened to accounts of their symptoms and decided whether +they could be cared for at a field hospital or would have to go back to +the base.</p> + +<p>Temperament? An old eight-inch howitzer which has helped in a dozen +curtains of fire and blown in numerous dugouts may be a virtuoso for +temperament. Many things enter into mastery of the magic of the +thunders, from clear eyesight of observers who see accurately to +precision of gunner's skill, of powder, of fuse, of a hundred trifles +which can never be too meticulously watched. The erring inspector of +munitions far away oversea by an oversight may cost the lives of many +soldiers or change the fate of a charge.</p> + +<p>Comparable only with the surgeon's skill in the skill which has life and +death as the stake of its result is the gunner's. The surgeon is trying +to save one life which a slip of the knife may destroy; the gunner is +trying both to save and to take life. In the gunner's skill life that is +young and sturdy, muscles that are hardened by exercise and drill, +manhood in its pink, must place its trust. A little carelessness or the +slightest error and monsters with their long, fiery reach may strike you +in the back instead of the enemy in front, and instead of dead and +wounded and capitulation among smashed dugouts and machine gun positions +you may be received by showers of bombs. No wonder that gunners work +hard! No wonder that discipline is tightened by the screw of fearful +responsibility!</p> + +<p>At the front we had a sort of reverence for Grandmother, the first of +the fifteen-inch howitzers to arrive as the belated answer of "prepared +England" who "forced the war" on "unprepared Germany" to the famous +forty-two centimeters that pounded Liège and Maubeuge. Gently +Grandmother with her ugly mouth and short neck and mammoth supporting +ribs of steel was moved and nursed; for she, too, was temperamental. +Afterward, Grandfather came and Uncle and Cousin and Aunt and many grown +sons and daughters, until the British could have turned the city of +Lille into ruins had they chosen; but they kept their destruction for +the villages on the Somme, which represent a property loss remarkably +small, as the average village could be rebuilt for not over two hundred +thousand dollars.</p> + +<p>Other children of smaller caliber also arrived in surprising numbers. +Make no mistake about that nine-inch howitzer, which appears to be only +a monstrous tube of steel firing a monstrous shell, not being a +delicately adjusted piece of mechanism. The gunner, his clothes +oil-soaked, who has her breech apart pays no attention to the field of +guns around him or the burst of a shell a hundred yards away, no more +than the man with a motor breakdown pays to passing traffic. Is he a +soldier? Yes, by his uniform, but primarily a mechanic, this man from +Birmingham, who is polishing that heavy piece of steel which, when it +locks in the breech, holds the shell fast in place and allows all the +force of the explosion to pass through the muzzle, while the recoil +cylinder takes up the shock as nicely as on a battleship, with no +tremble of the base set in the débris of a village. He shakes his head, +this preoccupied mechanician. It may be necessary to call in the gun +doctor. His "how" has been in service a long time, but is not yet +showing the signs of general debility of the eight-inch battery near by. +They have fired three times their allowance and are still good for +sundry purposes in the gunner-general's play of red and black pins on +his map. The life of guns has surpassed all expectations; but the +smaller calibers forward and the <i>soixante-quinze</i> must not suffer from +general debility when they lay on a curtain of fire to cover a charge.</p> + +<p>War is still a matter of projectiles, of missiles thrown by powder, +whether cannon or rifle, as it was in Napoleon's time, the change being +in range, precision and destructive power. The only new departure is the +aeroplane, for the gas attack is another form of the Chinese stink-pot +and our old mystery friend Greek fire may claim antecedence to the +<i>Flammenwerfer</i>. The tank with its machine guns applied the principle of +projectiles from guns behind armor. Steel helmets would hardly be +considered an innovation by mediæval knights. Bombs and hand grenades +and mortars are also old forms of warfare, and close-quarter fighting +with the bayonet, as was evident to all practical observers before the +war, will endure as long as the only way to occupy a position is by the +presence of men on the spot and as long as the defenders fight to hold +it in an arena free of interference by guns which must hold their fire +in fear of injury to your own soldiers as well as to the enemy.</p> + +<p>With all the inventive genius of Europe applied in this war, the heat +ray or any other revolutionary means of killing which would make guns +and rifles powerless has not been developed. It is still a question of +throwing or shooting projectiles accurately at your opponent, only where +once it was javelin, or spear, or arrow, now it is a matter of shells +for anywhere from one mile to twenty miles; and the more hits that you +could make with javelins or arrows and can make with shells the more +likely it is that victory will incline to your side. Where flights of +arrows hid the sun, barrages now blanket the earth.</p> + +<p>The improvement in shell fire is revolutionary enough of itself. +Steadily the power of the guns has increased. What they may accomplish +is well illustrated by the account of a German battalion on the Somme. +When it was ten miles from the front a fifteen-inch shell struck in its +billets just before it was ordered forward. On the way luck was against +it at every stage of progress and it suffered in turn from nine-inch, +eight-inch and six-inch shells, not to mention bombs from an aviator +flying low, and afterward from eighteen pounders. When it reached the +trenches a preliminary bombardment was the stroke of fate that led to +the prompt capitulation of some two hundred survivors to a British +charge. The remainder of the thousand men was practically all casualties +from shell-bursts, which, granting some exaggeration in a prisoner's +tale, illustrates what killing the guns may wreak if the target is under +their projectiles.</p> + +<p>The gunnery of 1915 seems almost amateurish to that of 1916, a fact +hardly revealed to the public by its reading of bulletins and of such a +quantity of miscellaneous information that the significance of it +becomes obscure. At the start of the war the Germans had the advantage +of many mobile howitzers and immense stores of high explosive shells, +while the French were dependent on their <i>soixante-quinze</i> and shrapnel; +and at this disadvantage the brilliancy of their work with this +wonderful field gun on the Marne and in Lorraine was the most important +contributory factor in saving France next to the vital one of French +courage and organization. The Allies had to follow the German suit with +howitzers and high explosive shells and the cry for more and more guns +and more and more munitions for the business of blasting your enemy and +his positions to bits became universal.</p> + +<p>The first barrage, or curtain of fire, ever used to my knowledge was a +feeble German effort in the Ypres salient in the autumn of 1914, though +the French drum fire distributed over a certain area had, in a sense, a +like effect. To make certain of clearness about fundamentals familiar to +those at the front but to the general public only a symbol for something +not understood, a curtain of fire is a swath of fragments and bullets +from bursting projectiles which may stop a charge or prevent reserves +from coming to the support of the front line. It is a barrier of death, +the third rail of the battlefield. From the sky shrapnel descend with +their showers of bullets, while the high explosives heave up the earth +under foot. Shrapnel largely went out of fashion in the period when high +explosives smashed in trenches and dugouts; but the answer was deeper +dugouts too stoutly roofed to permit of penetration and shrapnel +returned to play a leading part again, as we shall see in the +description of a charge under an up-to-date curtain of fire in another +chapter.</p> + +<p>Counter-battery work is another one of the gunner-general's cares, which +requires, as it were, the assistance of the detective branch. Before you +can fight you must find the enemy's guns in their hiding-places or take +a chance on the probable location of his batteries, which will +ordinarily seek every copse, every sunken road and every reverse slope. +The interesting captured essay on British fighting methods, by General +von Arnim, the general in command of the Germans opposite the British on +the Somme, with its minutiæ of directions indicative of how seriously he +regarded the New Army, mentioned the superior means of reporting +observations to the guns used by British aeroplanes and warned German +gunners against taking what had formerly been obvious cover, because +British artillery never failed to concentrate on those spots with +disastrous results.</p> + +<p>Where aeroplanes easily detect lines, be they roads or a column of +infantry, as I have said, a battery in the open with guns and gunners +the tint of the landscape is not readily distinguishable at the high +altitude to which anti-aircraft gunfire restricts aviators. When a +concentration begins on a battery, either the gunners must go to their +dugouts or run beyond the range of the shells until the "strafe" is +over. If A could locate all of B's guns and had two thousand guns of his +own to keep B's two thousand silenced by counter-battery work and two +thousand additional to turn on B's infantry positions, it would be only +a matter of continued charges under cover of curtains of fire until the +survivors, under the gusts of shells with no support from their own +guns, would yield against such ghastly, hopeless odds.</p> + +<p>Such is the power of the guns—and such the game of guns checkmating +guns—in their effort to stop the enemy's curtains of fire while +maintaining their own that the genius who finds a divining rod which, +from a sausage balloon, will point out the position of every enemy +battery has fame awaiting him second only to that of the inventor of a +system of distilling a death-dealing heat ray from the sun.</p> + +<p>And the captured gun! It is a prize no less dear to the infantry's +heart to-day than it was a hundred years ago. Our battalion took a +battery! There is a thrill for every officer and man and all the friends +at home. Muzzle cracked by a direct hit, recoil cylinder broken, wheels +in kindling wood, shield fractured—there you have a trophy which is +proof of accuracy to all gunners and an everlasting memorial in the town +square to the heroism of the men of that locality.</p> + +<p>In the gunners' branch of the corps or division staff (which may be next +door to the telephone exchange where "Hello!" soldiers are busy all day +keeping guns, infantry, transport, staff and units, large and small, in +touch) the visitor will linger as he listens to the talk of shop by +these experts in mechanical destruction. Generic discussions about which +caliber of gun is most efficient for this and that purpose have the +floor when the result of a recent action does not furnish a fresher +topic. There are faddists and old fogies of course, as in every other +band of experts. The reports of the infantry out of its experience under +shell-bursts, which should be the gospel, may vary; for the infantry +think well of the guns when the charge goes home with casualties light +and ill when the going is bad.</p> + +<p>Every day charts go up to the commanders showing the expenditure of +ammunition and the stock of different calibers on hand; for the army is +a most fastidious bookkeeper. Always there must be immense reserves for +an emergency, and on the Somme a day's allowance when the battle was +only "growling" was a month's a year previous. Let the general say the +word and fifty thousand more shells will be fired on Thursday than on +Wednesday. He throws off and on the switch of a Niagara of death. The +infantry is the Oliver Twist of incessant demand. It would like a score +of batteries turned on one machine gun, all the batteries in the army +against a battalion front, and a sheet of shells in the air night and +day, as you yourself would wish if you were up in the firing-line.</p> + +<p>Guardians of the precious lives of their own men and destroyers of the +enemy's, the guns keep vigil. Every night the flashes on the horizon are +a reminder to those in the distance that the battle never ends. Their +voices are like none other except guns; the flash from their muzzles is +as suggestive as the spark from a dynamo, which says that death is there +for reaching out your hand. Something docile is in their might, like the +answering of the elephant's bulk to the mahout's command, in their +noiseless elevation and depression, and the bigger they are the smoother +appears their recoil as they settle back into place ready for another +shot. The valleys where the guns hide play tricks with acoustics. I +have sat on a hill with a dozen batteries firing under the brow and +their crashes were hardly audible.</p> + +<p>"Only an artillery preparation, sir!" said an artilleryman as we started +up a slope stiff with guns, as the English say, all firing. You waited +your chance to run by after a battery had fired and were on the way +toward the next one before the one behind sent another round hurtling +overhead.</p> + +<p>The deep-throated roar of the big calibers is not so hard on the ears as +the crack of the smaller calibers. Returning, you go in face of the +blasts and then, though it rarely happens, you have in mind, if you have +ever been in front of one, the awkward possibility of a premature burst +of a shell in your face. Signs tell you where those black mouths which +you might not see are hidden, lest you walk straight into one as it +belches flame. When you have seen guns firing by thousands as far as the +eye can reach from a hill; when you have seen every caliber at work and +your head aches from the noise, the thing becomes overpowering and +monotonous. Yet you return again, drawn by the uncanny fascination of +artillery power.</p> + +<p>Riding home one day after hours with the guns in an attack, I saw for +the first time one of the monster railroad guns firing as I passed by on +the road. Would I get out to watch it? I hesitated. Yes, of course. But +it was only another gun, a giant tube of steel painted in frog patches +to hide it from aerial observation; only another gun, though it sent a +two-thousand-pound projectile to a target ten miles away, which a man +from a sausage balloon said was "on."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4><a name="XXI" id="XXI"></a>XXI</h4> + +<h4>BY THE WAY</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The River Somme—Amiens cathedral—Sunday afternoon +promenaders—Women, old men and boys—A prosperous old town—Madame +of the little Restaurant des Huîtres—The old waiter at the +hotel—The stork and the sea-gull—Distinguished visitors—Horses and +dogs—Water carts—Gossips of battle—The donkeys.</p></div> + + +<p>What contrasts! There was none so pleasant as that when you took the +river road homeward after an action. Leaving behind the Ridge and the +scarred slope and the crowding motor trucks in their cloud of dust, you +were in a green world soothing to eyes which were painful from watching +shell-blasts. Along the banks of the Somme on a hot day you might see +white figures of muscle-armored youth washed clean of the grime of the +firing-line in the exhilaration of minutes, seconds, glowingly lived +without regard to the morrow, shaking drops of water free from white +skins, under the shade of trees untouched by shell fire, after a plunge +in cool waters. Then from a hill where a panorama was flung free to the +eye, the Somme at your feet held islands of peace in its shining net as +it broke away from confining green walls and wound across the plain +toward Amiens.</p> + +<p>The Somme is kindly by nature with a desire to embrace all the country +around, and Amiens has trained its natural bent to man's service.</p> + +<p>It gave softer springs than those of any ambulance for big motor scows +that brought the badly wounded down from the front past the rich market +gardens that sent their produce in other boats to market. Under bridges +its current was divided and subdivided until no one could tell which was +Somme and which canal, busy itself as the peasants and the shopkeepers +doing a good turn to humankind, grinding wheat in one place and in +another farther on turning a loom to weave the rich velvets for which +Amiens is famous, and between its stages of usefulness supplying a +Venetian effect where balconies leaned across one of its subdivisions, +an area of old houses on crooked, short streets at their back huddled +with a kind of ancient reverence near the great cathedral.</p> + +<p>At first you might be discriminative about the exterior of Amiens +cathedral, having in mind only the interior as being worth while. I went +inside frequently and the call to go was strongest after seeing an +action. Standing on that stone floor where princes and warriors had +stood through eight hundred years of the history of France, I have seen +looking up at the incomparable nave with its majestic symmetry, French +<i>poilus</i> in their faded blue, helmets in hand and perhaps the white of +a bandage showing, spruce generals who had a few hours away from their +commands, dust-laden dispatch riders, boyish officers with the bit of +blue ribbon that they had won for bravery on their breasts and knots of +privates in worn khaki. The man who had been a laborer before he put on +uniform was possessed by the same awe as the one who had been favored by +birth and education. A black-robed priest passing with his soft tread +could not have differed much to the eye from one who was there when the +Black Prince was fighting in France or the soldiers of Joan or of Condé +came to look at the nave.</p> + +<p>The cathedral and the Somme helped to make you whole with the world and +with time. After weeks you ceased to be discriminative about the +exterior. The cathedral was simply the cathedral. Returning from the +field, I knew where on every road I should have the first glimpse of its +serene, assertive mass above the sea of roofs—always there, always the +same, immortal; while the Ridge rocked with the Allied gun-blasts that +formed the police line of fire for its protection.</p> + +<p>I liked to walk up the canal tow-path where the townspeople went on +Sunday afternoons for their promenade, the blue of French soldiers on +leave mingling with civilian black—soldiers with wives or mothers on +their arms, safe for the time being. One scene reappears to memory as I +write: A young fellow back from the trenches bearing his sturdy boy of +two on his shoulder and the black-eyed young mother walking beside him, +both having eyes for nothing in the world except the boy.</p> + +<p>The old fishermen would tell you as they waited for a bite that the +German was <i>fichu</i>, their faith in the credit of France unimpaired as +they lived on the income of the savings of their industry before they +retired. You asked gardeners about business, which you knew was good +with that ever-hungry and spendthrift British Army "bulling" the market. +One day while taking a walk, Beach Thomas and I saw a diver preparing to +go down to examine the abutment of a bridge and we sat down to look on +with a lively interest, when we might have seen hundreds of guns firing. +It was a change. Nights, after dispatches were written, Gibbs and I, +anything but gory-minded, would walk in the silence, having the tow-path +to ourselves, and after a mutual agreement to talk of anything but the +war would revert to the same old subject.</p> + +<p>On other days when only "nibbling" was proceeding on the Ridge you might +strike across country over the stubble, flushing partridges from the +clover. And the women, the old men and the boys got in all the crops. +How I do not know, except by rising early and keeping at it until dark, +which is the way that most things worth while are accomplished in this +world. Those boys from ten to sixteen who were driving the plow for next +year's sowing had become men in their steadiness.</p> + +<p>Amiens was happy in the memory of the frustration of what might have +happened when her citizens looked at the posters, already valuable +relics, that had been put up by von Kluck's army as it passed through on +the way to its about-face on the Marne. The old town, out of the battle +area, out of the reach of shells, had prospered exceedingly. +Shopkeepers, particularly those who sold oysters, fresh fish, fruits, +cheese, all delicacies whatsoever to victims of iron rations in the +trenches, could retire on their profits unless they died from exhaustion +in accumulating more. They took your money so politely that parting with +it was a pleasure, no matter what the prices, though they were always +lower for fresh eggs than in New York.</p> + +<p>We came to know all with the intimacy that war develops, but for sheer +character and energy the blue ribbon goes to Madame of the little +Restaurant des Huîtres. She needed no gallant husband to make her a +marshal's wife, as in the case of Sans-Gêne, for she was a marshal +herself. She should have the <i>croix de guerre</i> with all the stars and a +palm, too, for knowing how to cook. A small stove which was as busy +with its sizzling pans as a bombing party stood at the foot of a cramped +stairway, whose ascent revealed a few tables, with none for two and +everybody sitting elbow to elbow, as it were, in the small dining-room. +There were dishes enough and clean, too, and spotless serviettes, but no +display of porcelain and silver was necessary, for the food was a +sufficient attraction. Madame was all for action. If you did not order +quickly she did so for you, taking it for granted that a wavering mind +indicated a palate that called for arbitrary treatment.</p> + +<p>She had a machine gun tongue on occasion. If you did not like her +restaurant it was clear that other customers were waiting for your +place, and generals capitulated as promptly as lieutenants. A +camaraderie developed at table under the spur of her dynamic presence +and her occasional artillery concentrations, which were brief and +decisive, for she had no time to waste. Broiled lobster and sole, +oysters, filets and chops, sizzling fried potatoes, crisp salads, +mountains of forest strawberries with pots of thick cream and delectable +coffee descended from her hands, with no mistake in any orders or delay +in the prompt succession of courses, on the cloth before you by some +legerdemain of manipulation in the narrow quarters to the accompaniment +of her repartee. It was past understanding how she accomplished such +results in quantity and quality on that single stove with the help of +one assistant whom, apparently, she found in the way at times; for the +assistant would draw back in the manner of one who had put her finger +into an electric fan as her mistress began a manipulation of pots and +pans.</p> + +<p>If Madame des Huîtres should come to New York, I wonder—yes, she would +be overwhelmed by people who had anything like a trench appetite. Soon +she would be capitalized, with branches des Huîtres up and down the +land, while she would no longer touch a skillet, but would ride in a +limousine and grow fat, and I should not like her any more.</p> + +<p>People who could not get into des Huîtres or were not in the secret +which, I fear, was selfishly kept by those who were, had to dine at the +hotel, where a certain old waiter—all young ones being at the +front—though called mad could be made the object of method if he had +not method in madness. When he seemed about to collapse with fatigue, +tell him that there had been a big haul of German prisoners on the Ridge +and the blaze of delight in his dark eyes would galvanize him. If he +should falter again, a shout of, "<i>Vive l'Entente cordiale! En avant!</i>" +would send him off with coat-tails at right angles to his body as he +sprang into the midst of the riot of waiters outside the kitchen door, +from which he would emerge triumphantly bearing the course that was +next in order. Nor would he allow you to skip one. You must take them +all or, as the penalty of breaking up the system, you went hungry.</p> + +<p>Outside in the court where you went for coffee and might sometimes get +it if you gave the head waiter good news from the front, a stork and a +sea-gull with clipped wings posed at the fountain. What tales of battle +were told in sight of this incongruous pair whose antics relieved the +strain of war! When the stork took a step or two the gull plodded along +after him and when the gull moved the stork also moved, the two never +being more than three or four feet apart. Yet each maintained an +attitude of detachment as if loath to admit the slightest affection for +each other. Foolish birds, as many said and laughed at them; and again, +heroes out of the hell on the Ridge and wholly unconscious of their +heroism said that the two had the wisdom of the ages, particularly the +stork, though expert artillery opinion was that the practical gull +thought that only his own watchfulness kept the wisdom of the ages from +being drowned in the fountain in an absent-minded moment, though the +water was not up to a stork's ankle-joint. More nonsense, when the call +was for reaction from the mighty drama, was woven around these +entertainers by men who could not go to plays than would be credible to +people reading official bulletins; woven by dining parties of officers +who when dusk fell went indoors and gathered around the piano before +going into a charge on the morrow.</p> + +<p>At intervals men in civilian clothes, soft hats, gaiters over everyday +trousers, golf suits, hunting suits, appeared at the hotel or were seen +stalking about captured German trenches, their garb as odd in that +ordered world of khaki as powdered wig, knee-breeches and silver buckles +strolling up Piccadilly or Fifth Avenue. Prime ministers, Cabinet +members, great financiers, potentates, journalists, poets, artists of +many nationalities came to do the town. They saw the Ridge under its +blanket of shell-smoke, the mighty columns of transport, all the +complex, enormous organization of that secret world, peeked into German +dugouts, and in common with all observers estimated the distance of the +nearest shell-burst from their own persons.</p> + +<p>Many were amazed to find that generals worked in chateaux over maps, +directing by telephone, instead of standing on hilltops to give their +commands, and that war was a systematic business, which made those who +had been at the front writing and writing to prove that it was wonder if +nobody read what they wrote. An American who said that he did not see +why all the trucks and horses and wagons and men did not lose their way +was suggestive of the first vivid impressions which the "new eye" +brought to the scene. Another praised my first book for the way it had +made life at the front clear and then proceeded to state his surprise at +finding that trenches did not run straight, but in traverses, and that +soldiers lived in houses instead of tents and gunners did not see their +targets. Now he had seen this mighty army at work for himself. It is the +only way. I give up hope of making others see it.</p> + +<p>So grim the processes of fighting, so lacking in picturesqueness, that +one welcomed any of the old symbols of war. I regretted yet rejoiced +that the horse was still a factor. It was good to think that the +gasoline engine had saved the sore backs of the pack animals of other +days, removed the horror of dead horses beside the road and horses +driven to exhaustion by the urgency of fierce necessity, and that a +shell in the transport meant a radiator smashed instead of flesh torn +and scattered. Yet the horse was still serving man at the front and the +dog still flattering him. I have seen dogs lying dead on the field where +the mascot of a battalion had run along with the men in a charge; dogs +were found in German dugouts, and one dog adopted by a corps staff had +refused to leave the side of his fallen master, a German officer, until +the body was removed.</p> + +<p>The horse brought four-footed life into the dead world of the slope, +patiently drawing his load, mindless of gun-blasts and the shriek of +shell-fragments once he was habituated to them. As he can pass over +rough ground, he goes into areas where no motor vehicle except the tanks +may go. He need not wait on the road-builders before he takes the +eighteen pounders to their new positions or follows them with +ammunition. Far out on the field I have seen groups of artillery horses +waiting in a dip in the ground while their guns were within five hundred +yards of the firing-line, and winding across dead fields toward an +isolated battery the caisson horses trotting along with shells bursting +around them.</p> + +<p>Upon August days when the breeze that passed overhead was only +tantalization to men in communication trenches carrying up ammunition +and bombs, when dugouts were ovens, when the sun made the steel helmet a +hot skillet-lid over throbbing temples, the horse-drawn water carts +wound up the slope to assuage burning thirst and back again, between the +gates of hell and the piping station, making no more fuss than a country +postman on his rounds.</p> + +<p>Practically all the water that the fighters had, aside from what was in +their canteens, must be brought up in this way, for the village wells +were filled with the remains of shell-crushed houses. Gossips of battle +the water men, they and the stretcher-bearers both non-combatants going +and coming under the shells up to the battle line, but particularly so +the water men, who passed the time of day with every branch, each +working in its own compartment. When the weather was bad the water man's +business became slack and the lot of the stretcher-bearer grew worse in +the mud. What stories the stretcher-bearers brought in of wounded blown +off litters by shells, of the necessity of choosing the man most likely +to survive when only one of two could be carried, of whispered messages +from the dying, and themselves keeping to their work with cheery British +phlegm; and the water men told of new gun positions, of where the shells +were thickest, of how the fight was going.</p> + +<p>It irritated the water men, prosaic in their disregard of danger, to +have a tank hit on the way out. If it were hit on the way back when it +was empty this was of less account, for new tanks were waiting in +reserve. Tragedy for them was when a horse was killed and often they +returned with horses wounded. It did not occur to the man that he might +be hit; it was the loss of a horse or a tank that worried him. One had +his cart knocked over by a salvo of shells and set upright by the next, +whereupon, according to the account, he said to his mare: "Come on, +Mary, I always told you the Boches were bad shots!" But there are too +many stories of the water men to repeat without sifting.</p> + +<p>We must not forget the little donkeys which the French brought from +Africa to take the place of men in carrying supplies up to the trenches. +Single file they trotted along on their errand and they had their own +hospitals for wounded. It is said that when curtains of fire began ahead +they would throw forward their long ears inquiringly and hug close to +the side of the trench for cover and even edge into a dugout with the +men, who made room for as much donkey as possible, or when in the open +they would seek the shelter of shell-craters. Lest their perspicacity be +underrated, French soldiers even credited the wise elders among them +with the ability to distinguish between different calibers of shells.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4><a name="XXII" id="XXII"></a>XXII</h4> + +<h4>THE MASTERY OF THE AIR</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Nose dives" and "crashers"—The most intense duels in +history—Aviators the pride of nations—Beauchamp—The D'Artagnan of +the air—Mastery of the air—The aristocrat of war, the golden youth +of adventure—Nearer immortality than any other living man can +be—The British are reckless aviators—Aerial influence on the +soldier's psychology—Varieties of aeroplanes—Immense numbers of +aeroplanes in the battles in the air.</p></div> + + +<p>Wing tip touching wing tip two phantoms passed in the mist fifteen +thousand feet above the earth and British plane and German plane which +had grazed each other were lost in the bank of cloud. The dark mass +which an aviator sees approaching when he is over the battlefield proves +to be a fifteen-inch shell at the top of its parabola which passes ten +feet over his head. A German aviator thinking he is near home circles +downward on an overcast day toward a British aerodrome to find out his +mistake too late, and steps out of his machine to be asked by his +captors if he won't come in and have tea. Thus, true accounts that come +to the aviators' mess make it unnecessary to carry your imagination with +you at the front.</p> + +<p>They talk of "nose dives" and "crashers," which mean the way an enemy's +plane was brought down, and although they have no pose or theatricalism +the consciousness of belonging to the wonder corps of modern war is not +lacking. One returns from a flight and finds that a three-inch +anti-aircraft gun-shell has gone through the body of his plane.</p> + +<p>"So that was it! Hardly felt it!" he said.</p> + +<p>If the shell had exploded? Oh, well, that is a habit of shells; and in +that case the pilot would be in the German lines unrecognizable among +the débris of his machine after a "crasher."</p> + +<p>Where in the old West gunmen used to put a notch on their revolver +handle for every man killed, now in each aviator's record is the number +of enemy planes which he has brought down. When a Frenchman has ten his +name goes into the official bulletin. Everything contributes to urge on +the fighting aviator to more and more victims till one day he, too, is a +victim. Never were duels so detached or so intense. No clashing of +steel, no flecks of blood, only two men with wings. While the soldier +feels his weapon go home and the bomber sees his bomb in flight, the +aviator watches for his opponent to drop forward in his seat as the +first sign that he has lost control of his plane and of victory, and he +does not hear the passing of the bullets that answer those from his own +machine gun. One hero comes to take the place of another who has been +lost. A smiling English youth was embarrassed when asked how he brought +down the great Immelmann, most famous of German aviators.</p> + +<p>Nelson's "Death or Westminster Abbey" has become paraphrased to "Death +or the <i>communiqué</i>." At twenty-one, while a general of division is +unknown except in the army an aviator's name may be the boast of a +nation. In him is expressed the national imagination, the sense of +hero-worship which people love to personify. The British aviation corps +stuck to anonymity until the giving of a Victoria Cross one day revealed +that Lieutenant Ball had brought down his twenty-sixth German plane.</p> + +<p>Soon after the taking of Fort Douaumont when I was at Verdun, Beauchamp, +blond, blue-eyed and gentle of manner, who had thrilled all France by +bombing Essen, said, "Now they will expect me to go farther and do +something greater;" and I was not surprised to learn a month later that +he had been killed. Something in the way he spoke convinced me that he +foresaw death and accepted it as a matter of course; and he realized, +too, the penalty of being a hero. He had flown over Essen and dropped +his bombs and seen them burst, which was all of his story.</p> + +<p>The public thrill over such exploits is the greater because of their +simplicity. An aviator has no experiences on the road; he cannot stop to +talk to anyone. There is flight; there is a lever that releases a bomb; +there is a machine gun. He may not indulge in psychology, which would be +wool-gathering, when every faculty is objectively occupied. He is +strangely helpless, a human being borne through space by a machine, and +when he returns to the mess he really has little to tell except as it +relates to mechanism and technique.</p> + +<p>The Royal Flying Corps, which is the official name, never wants for +volunteers. Ever the number of pilots is in excess of the number of +machines. Young men with embroidered wings on their breasts, which prove +that they have qualified, waited on factories to turn out wings for +flying. Flight itself is simple, but the initiative equal to great deeds +is another thing. Here you revert to an innate gift of the individual +who, finding in danger the zest of a glorious, curiosity, the +intoxication of action, clear eye, steady hand answering lightning +quickness of thought, becomes the D'Artagnan of the air. There is no +telling what boyish neophyte will show a steady hand in daring the +supreme hazards with light heart, or what man whom his friends thought +was born for aviation may lack the touch of genius.</p> + +<p>Far up in the air there is an imaginary boundary line which lies over +the battle line; and there is another which may be on your side or on +the other side of the battle line. It is the location of the second line +that tells who has the mastery of the air. A word of bare and impressive +meaning this of mastery in war, which represents force without +qualification; that the other man is down and you are up, the other +fends and you thrust. More glorious than the swift rush of destroyer to +a battleship that of the British planes whose bombs brought down six +German sausage balloons in flames before the Grand Offensive began.</p> + +<p>I need never have visited an aerodrome on the Somme to know whether +Briton and Frenchman or German was master of the air. The answer was +there whenever you looked in the heavens in the absence of iron crosses +on the hovering or scudding or turning plane wings and the multiplicity +of bull's-eyes; in the abandoned way that both British and French +pickets flew over the enemy area, as if space were theirs and they dared +any interference. If you saw a German plane appear you could count three +or four Allied planes appearing from different directions to surround +it. The German had to go or be caught in a cross fire, and manoeuvered +to his death.</p> + +<p>Mastery of the air is another essential of superiority for an +offensive; one of the vital features in the organized whole of an +attack. As you press men and guns forward enemy planes must not locate +your movements. Your planes with fighting planes as interference must +force a passage for your observers to spot the fall of shells on new +targets, to assist in reporting the progress of charges and to play +their proper auxiliary part in the complex system of army intelligence.</p> + +<p>Before the offensive new aerodromes began to appear along the front at +the same time that new roads were building. An army that had lacked both +planes and guns at the start now had both. Every aviator knew that he +was expected to gain and hold the mastery; his part was set no less than +that of the infantry. Where should "the spirit that quickeneth" dwell if +not with the aviators? No weary legs hamper him; he does not have to +crawl over the dead or hide in shell-craters or stand up to his knees in +mire. He is the pampered aristocrat of war, the golden youth of +adventure.</p> + +<p>He leaves a comfortable bed, with bath, a good breakfast, the +comradeship of a pleasant mess, the care of servants, to mount his +steed. When he returns he has only to step out of his seat. Mechanics +look after his plane and refreshment and shade in summer and warmth in +winter await alike the spoiled child of the favored, adventurous corps +who has not the gift and never quite dares the great hazards as well as +the one who dares them to his certain end. All depends on the man.</p> + +<p>Rising ten or fifteen thousand feet, slipping in and out of clouds, the +aviator breathes pure ozone on a dustless roadway, the world a carpet +under him; and though death is at his elbow it is no grimy companion +like death in the trenches. He is up or he is down, and when he is up +the thrill that holds his faculties permits of no apprehensions. There +is no halfway business of ghastly wounds which foredoom survival as a +cripple. Alive, he is nearer immortality than any other living man can +be; dead, his spirit leaves him while he is in the heavens. Death comes +splendidly, quickly, and until the last moment he is trying to keep +control of his machine. It is not for him to envy the days of cavalry +charges. He does not depend upon the companionship of other men to carry +him on, but is the autocrat of his own fate, the ruler of his own +dreams. All hours of daylight are the same to him. At any time he may be +called to flight and perhaps to die. The glories of sunset and sunrise +are his between the sun and the earth.</p> + +<p>You expect the British to be cool aviators, but with their phlegm, as we +have seen, goes that singular love of risk, of adventure, which sends +them to shoot tigers and climb mountains. Indeed, the Englishman's +phlegm is a sort of leash holding in check a certain recklessness which +his seeming casualness conceals. After it had become almost a law that +no aviator should descend lower than twelve thousand feet, British +aviators on the Somme descended to three hundred, emptied their machine +guns into the enemy, and escaped the patter of rifle fire which the +surprised German soldiers had hardly begun before the plane at two miles +a minute or more was out of range.</p> + +<p>When Lord Kitchener was inspecting an aerodrome in France in 1914 he +said: "One day you will be flying and evoluting in squadrons like the +navy;" and the aviators, then feeling their way step by step, smiled +doubtfully, convinced that "K" had an imagination. A few months later +the prophecy had come true and the types of planes had increased until +they were as numerous as the types of guns.</p> + +<p>The swift falcon waiting fifteen thousand feet up for his prey to add +another to his list in the <i>communiqué</i> is as distinct from the one in +which I crossed the channel as the destroyer is from the cruiser and +from some still bigger types as is the cruiser from a battleship. While +the enemy was being fought down, bombs were dropped not by pounds but by +tons on villages and billets, on ammunition dumps and rail-heads, adding +their destruction to that of the shells.</p> + +<p>There was more value in mastery than in destruction or in freedom of +observation, for it affected the enemy's <i>morale</i>. A soldier likes to +see his own planes in the air and the enemy's being driven away. The +aerial influence on his psychology is enormous, for he can watch the +planes as he lies in a shell-crater with his machine gun or stands guard +in the trench; he has glimpses of passing wings overhead between the +bursts of shells. To know that his guns are not replying adequately and +that every time one of his planes appears it is driven to cover takes +the edge off initiative, courage and discipline, in the resentment that +he is handicapped.</p> + +<p>German prisoners used to say on the Somme that their aviators were +"funks," though the Allied aviators knew that it was not their +opponents' lack of courage which was the principal fault, even if they +had lost <i>morale</i> from being the under dog and lacked British and French +initiative, but numbers and material. It was resource against resource +again; a fight in the delicate business of the manufacture of the +fragile framework, of the wonderful engines with their short lives, and +of the skilled battalions of workers in factories. The Germans had to +bring more planes from another front in order to restore the balance. +The Allies foreseeing this brought still more themselves, till the +numbers were so immense that when a battle between a score of planes on +either side took place no one dared venture the opinion that the limit +had been reached—not while there was so much room in the air and +volunteers for the aviation corps were so plentiful.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4><a name="XXIII" id="XXIII"></a>XXIII</h4> + +<h4>A PATENT CURTAIN OF FIRE</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Thiepval again—Director of tactics of an army corps—Graduates of +Staff Colleges—Army jargon—An army director's office—"Hope you +will see a good show"—"This road is shelled; closed to vehicles"—A +perfect summer afternoon—The view across No Man's Land—Nests of +burrowers more cunning than any rodents—men—Tranquil preliminaries +to an attack—The patent curtain of fire—Registering by practice +shots—Running as men will run only from death—The tall officer who +collapsed—"The shower of death."</p></div> + + +<p>"We had a good show day before yesterday," said Brigadier-General Philip +Howell, when I went to call on him one day. "Sorry you were not here. +You could have seen it excellently."</p> + +<p>The corps of which he was general staff officer had taken a section of +first-line trench at Thiepval with more prisoners than casualties, which +is the kind of news they like to hear at General Headquarters. Thiepval +was always in the background of the army's mind, the symbol of rankling +memory which irritated British stubbornness and consoled the enemy for +his defeat of July 15th and his gradual loss of the Ridge. The Germans, +on the defensive, considered that the failure to take Thiepval at the +beginning of the Somme battle proved its impregnability; the British, +on the offensive, considered no place impregnable.</p> + +<p>Faintly visible from the hills around Albert, distinctly from the +observation post in a high tree, the remains of the village looked like +a patch of coal dust smeared in a fold of the high ground. When British +fifteen-inch shells made it their target some of the dust rose in a +great geyser and fell back into place; but there were cellars in +Thiepval which even fifteen-inch shells could not penetrate.</p> + +<p>"However, we'll make the Germans there form the habit of staying +indoors," said a gunner.</p> + +<p>Howell who had the Thiepval task in hand I had first known at Uskub in +Macedonia in the days of the Macedonian revolution, when Hilmi Pasha was +juggling with the Powers of Europe and autonomy—days which seem far +away. A lieutenant then, Howell had an assignment from <i>The Times</i>, +while home on leave from India, in order to make a study of the Balkan +situation. In our walks around Uskub as we discussed the politics and +the armies of the world I found that all was grist that came to his keen +mind. His ideas about soldiering were explicit and practical. It was +such hard-working, observant officers as he, most of them students at +one time or another at the Staff College, who, when the crisis came, as +the result of their application in peace time, became the organizers and +commanders of the New Army. The lieutenant I had met at Uskub was now, +at thirty-eight, the director of the tactics of an army corps which was +solving the problem of reducing the most redoubtable of field works.</p> + +<p>Whenever I think of the Staff College I am reminded that at the close of +the American Civil War the commanders of all the armies and most of the +corps were graduates of West Point, which serves to prove that a man of +ability with a good military education has the start of one who has not, +though no laws govern geniuses; and if we should ever have to fight +another great war I look for our generals to have studied at Leavenworth +and when the war ends for the leaders to be men whom the public did not +know when it began.</p> + +<p>"We shall have another show to-morrow and I think that will be a good +one, too," said Howell.</p> + +<p>All attacks are "shows;" big shows over two or three miles or more of +front, little shows over a thousand yards or so, while five hundred +yards is merely "cleaning up a trench." It may seem a flippant way of +speaking, but it is simply the application of jargon to the everyday +work of an organization. An attack that fails is a "washout," for not +all attacks succeed. If they did, progress would be a matter of +marching.</p> + +<p>"Zero is at four; come at two," Howell said when I was going.</p> + +<p>At two the next afternoon I found him occupied less with final details +than with the routine business of one who is clearing his desk +preparatory to a week-end holiday. Against the wall of what had been +once a bedroom in the house of the leading citizen of the town, which +was his office, he had an improvised bookkeeper's desk and on it were +the mapped plans of the afternoon's operation, which he had worked over +with the diligence and professional earnestness of an architect over his +blue prints. He had been over the ground and studied it with the care of +a landscape gardener who is going to make improvements.</p> + +<p>"A smoke barrage screen along there," he explained, indicating the line +of a German trench, "but a real attack along here"—which sounded +familiar from staff officers in chateaux.</p> + +<p>Every detail of the German positions was accurately outlined, yard by +yard, their machine guns definitely located.</p> + +<p>"We're uncertain about that one," he remarked, laying his pencil on the +map symbol for an M.G.</p> + +<p>Trench mortars had another symbol, deep dugouts another. It was the +business of somebody to get all this information without being +communicative about his methods. Referring to a section of a hundred +yards or more he remarked that an eager company commander had thought +that he could take a bit of German trench there and had taken it, which +meant that the gunners had to be informed so as to rearrange the barrage +or curtain of fire with the resulting necessity of fresh observations +and fresh registry of practice shots. I judged that Howell did not want +the men to be too eager; he wanted them just eager enough.</p> + +<p>This game being played along the whole front has, of course, been +likened to chess, with guns and men as pieces. I had in mind the dummy +actors and dummy scenery with which stage managers try out their acts, +only in this instance there was never any rehearsal on the actual stage +with the actual scenery unless a first attack had failed, as the Germans +will not permit such liberties except under machine gun fire. A call or +two came over the telephone about some minor details, the principal ones +being already settled.</p> + +<p>"It's time to go," he said finally.</p> + +<p>The corps commander was downstairs in the dining-room comfortably +smoking his pipe after tea. There would be nothing for him to do until +news of the attack had been received. "I hope you will see a good show," +he remarked, by way of <i>au revoir</i>.</p> + +<p>How earnestly he hoped it there is no use of mentioning here. It is +taken for granted. Carefully thought out plans backed by hundreds of +guns and the lives of men at stake—and against the Thiepval +fortifications!</p> + +<p>"Yes, we'll make it nicely," concluded Howell, as we went down the +steps. A man used to motoring ten miles to catch the nine-thirty to town +could not have been more certain of the disposal of his time than this +soldier on the way to an attack. His car which was waiting had a right +of way up to front such as is enjoyed only by the manager of the works +on his own premises. Of course he paid no attention to the sign, "This +road is shelled; closed to vehicles," at the beginning of a stretch of +road which looked unused and desolate.</p> + +<p>"A car in front of me here the other day received a direct hit from a +'krump,' and car and passengers practically disappeared before my eyes," +he remarked, without further dwelling on the incident; for the Germans +were, in turn, irritated with the insistence of these stubborn British +that they could take Thiepval.</p> + +<p>Three prisoners in the barbed-wire inclosure that we passed looked +lonely. They must have been picked up in a little bombing affair in a +sap.</p> + +<p>"I think that they will have plenty of companions this evening," said +Howell. "How they will enjoy their dinner!" He smiled in recollection +as did I of that familiar sight of prisoners eating. Nothing excites +hunger like a battle or gives such zest to appetite as knowledge that +you are out of danger. I know that it is true and so does everybody at +the front.</p> + +<p>As his car knew no regulations except his wishes he might take it as far +as it could go without trying to cross trenches. I wonder how long it +would have taken me if I had had a map and asked no questions to find my +way to the gallery seat which Howell had chosen for watching the show. +After we had passed guns with only one out of ten firing leisurely but +all with their covers off, the gunners near their pieces and ample +ammunition at hand, we cut straight up the slope, Howell glancing at his +wrist watch and asking if he were walking too fast for me. We dropped +into a communication trench at a point which experience had proven was +the right place to begin to take cover.</p> + +<p>"This is a good place," he said at length, and we rubbed our helmets +with some of the chalk lumps of the parapet, which left the black spot +of our field glasses the only bit of us not in harmony with our +background.</p> + +<p>It was a perfect afternoon in late summer, without wind or excessive +heat, the blue sky unflecked; such an afternoon as you would choose for +lolling in a hammock and reading a book. The foreground was a slope +downward to a little valley where the usual limbless tree-trunks were +standing in a grove that had been thoroughly shelled. No one was in +sight there, and an occasional German five-point-nine shell burst on the +mixture of splinters and earth.</p> + +<p>On the other side of the valley was a cut in the earth, a ditch, the +British first-line trench, which was unoccupied, so far as I could see. +Beyond lay the old No Man's Land where grass and weeds had grown wild +for two seasons, hiding the numerous shell-craters and the remains of +the dead from the British charge of July 1st which had been repulsed. On +the other side of this was two hundred yards of desolate stretch up to +the wavy, chalky excavation from the deep cutting of the German +first-line trench, as distinct as a white line on dark-brown paper. +There was no sign of life here, either, or to the rear where ran the +network of other excavations as the result of the almost two years of +German digging, the whole thrown in relief on the slope up to the bare +trunks of two or three trees thrust upward from the smudge of the ruins +of Thiepval.</p> + +<p>Just a knoll in rolling farm country, that was all; but it concealed +burrows upon burrows of burrowers more cunning than any rodents—men. +Since July 1st the Germans had not been idle. They had had time to +profit from the lesson of the attack with additions and improvements. +They had deepened dugouts and joined them by galleries; they had Box and +Cox hiding-places; nests defensible from all sides which became known as +Mystery Works and Wonder Works. The message of that gashed and spaded +hillside was one of mortal defiance.</p> + +<p>Occasionally a British high explosive broke in the German trench and all +up and down the line as far as we could see this desultory shell fire +was proceeding, giving no sign of where the next attack was coming, +which was part of the plan.</p> + +<p>"It's ten to four!" said Howell. "We were here in ample time. I hope we +get them at relief," which was when a battalion that had been on duty +was relieved by a battalion that had been in rest.</p> + +<p>He laid his map on the parapet and the location and plan of the attack +became clear as a part of the extensive operations in the +Thiepval-Mouquet Farm sector. The British were turning the flank of +these Thiepval positions as they swung in from the joint of the break of +July 1st up to the Pozières Ridge. A squeeze here and a squeeze there; +an attack on that side and then on this; one bite after another.</p> + +<p>"I hope you will like our patent barrage," said the artillery general, +as he stopped for a moment on the way to a near-by observation post. "We +are thinking rather well of it ourselves of late." He did not even have +to touch a pushbutton to turn on the current. He had set four as zero.</p> + +<p>I am not going to speak of suspense before the attack as being in the +very air and so forth. I felt it personally, but the Germans did not +feel it or, at least, the British did not want them to feel it. There +was no more sign of an earthly storm brewing as one looked at the field +than of a thunderstorm as one looked at the sky. Perfect soporific +tranquillity possessed the surroundings except for shell-bursts, and +their meagerness intensified the aspect, strangely enough, on that +battlefield where I had never seen a quieter afternoon since the Somme +offensive had begun. One could ask nothing better than that the +tranquillity should put the Germans to sleep. To the staff expert, +however, the dead world lived without the sight of men. Every square rod +of ground had some message.</p> + +<p>Of course, I knew what was coming at four o'clock, but I was amazed at +its power and accuracy when it did come—this improved method of +artillery preparation, this patent curtain of fire. An outburst of +screaming shells overhead that became a continuous, roaring sweep like +that of a number of endless railroad trains in the air signified that +the guns which had been idle were all speaking. Every one by scattered +practice shots had registered on the German first-line trench at the +point where its shell-bursts would form its link in the chain of +bursts. Over the wavy line of chalk for the front of the attack broke +the flashes of cracking shrapnel jackets, whose bullets were whipping up +spurts of chalk like spurts of dust on a road from a hailstorm.</p> + +<p>As the gun-blasts began I saw some figures rise up back of the German +trench. I judged that they were the relief coming up or a working party +that had been under cover. These Germans had to make a quick decision: +Would they try a leap for the dugouts or a leap to the rear? They +decided on flight. A hundred-yard sprint and they would be out of that +murderous swath laid so accurately on a narrow belt. They ran as men +will only run from death. No goose-stepping or "after you, sir" limited +their eagerness. I had to smile at their precipitancy and as some +dropped it was hard to realize that they had fallen from death or +wounds. They seemed only manikins in a pantomime.</p> + +<p>Then a lone figure stepped up out of a communication trench just back of +the German first line. This tall officer, who could see nothing between +walls of earth where he was, stood up in full view looking around as if +taking stock of the situation, deciding, perhaps, whether that smoke +barrage to his right now rolling out of the British trench was on the +real line of attack or was only for deception; observing and concluding +what his men, I judge, were never to know, for, as a man will when +struck a hard blow behind the knees, he collapsed suddenly and the earth +swallowed him up before the bursts of shrapnel smoke had become so thick +over the trench that it formed a curtain.</p> + +<p>There must have been a shell a minute to the yard. Shrapnel bullets were +hissing into the mouths of dugouts; death was hugging every crevice, +saying to the Germans:</p> + +<p>"Keep down! Keep out of the rain! If you try to get out with a machine +gun you will be killed! Our infantry is coming!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4><a name="XXIV" id="XXIV"></a>XXIV</h4> + +<h4>WATCHING A CHARGE</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The British trench comes to life—The line goes forward—A modern +charge no chance for heroics—Machine-like forward movement—The most +wicked sound in a battle—The first machine gun—A beautiful +barrage—The dreaded "shorts"—The barrage lifts to the second +line—The leap into the trenches—Figures in green with hands +up—Captured from dugouts—A man who made his choice and paid the +price—German answering fire—Second part of the program—Again the +protecting barrage—Success—Waves of men advancing behind waves of +shell fire—Prisoners in good fettle—Brigadier-General Philip +Howell.</p></div> + + +<p>Now the British trench came to life. What seemed like a row of +khaki-colored washbasins bottom side up and fast to a taut string rose +out of the cut in the earth on the other side of the valley, and after +them came the shoulders and bodies of British soldiers who began +climbing over the parapet just as a man would come up the cellar stairs. +This was the charge.</p> + +<p>Five minutes the barrage or curtain of fire was to last and five minutes +was the allotted time for these English soldiers to go from theirs to +the German trench which they were to take. So many paces to the minute +was the calculation of their rate of progress across that dreadful No +Man's Land, where machine guns and German curtains of fire had wrought +death in the preceding charge of July 1st.</p> + +<p>Every detail of the men's equipment was visible as their full-length +figures appeared on the background of the gray-green slope. They were +entirely exposed to fire from the German trench. Any tyro with a rifle +on the German parapet could have brought down a man with every shot. Yet +none fell; all were going forward.</p> + +<p>I would watch the line over a hundred yards of breadth immediately in +front of me, determined not to have my attention diverted to other parts +of the attack and to make the most of this unique opportunity of +observation in the concrete.</p> + +<p>The average layman conceives of a charge as a rush. So it is on the +drill-ground, but not where its movement is timed to arrival on the +second before a hissing storm of death, and the attackers must not be +winded when there is hot work awaiting them in close encounters around +traverses and at the mouths of dugouts. No one was sprinting ahead of +his companions; no one crying, "Come on, boys!" no one swinging his +steel helmet aloft, for he needed it for protection from any sudden +burst of shrapnel. All were advancing at a rapid pace, keeping line and +intervals except where they had to pass around shell-craters.</p> + +<p>If this charge had none of the display of other days it had all the more +thrill because of its workmanlike and regulated progress. No +get-drunk-six-days-of-the-week-and-fight-like-h—l-on-Sunday business of +the swashbuckling age before Thiepval. Every man must do his part as +coolly as if he were walking a tight rope with no net to catch him, with +death to be reckoned with in the course of a systematic evolution.</p> + +<p>"Very good! A trifle eager there! Excellent!" Howell sweeping the field +with his glasses was speaking in the expert appreciation of a football +coach watching his team at practice. "No machine guns yet," he said for +the second time, showing the apprehension that was in his mind.</p> + +<p>I, too, had been listening for the staccato of the machine gun, which is +the most penetrating, mechanical and wicked, to my mind, of all the +instruments of the terrible battle orchestra, as sinister as the +clicking of a switch which you know will derail a passenger train. The +men were halfway to the German trench, now. Two and a half minutes of +the allotted five had passed. In my narrow sector of vision not one man +had yet fallen. They might have been in a manoeuver and their goal a +deserted ditch. Looking right and left my eye ran along the line of +sturdy, moving backs which seemed less concerned than the spectator. Not +only because you were on their side but as the reward of their +steadiness, you wanted them to conquer that stretch of first-line +fortifications. Any second you expected to see the first shell-burst of +the answering German barrage break in the midst of them.</p> + +<p>Then came the first sharp, metallic note which there is no mistaking, +audible in the midst of shell-screams and gun-crashes, off to the right, +chilling your heart, quickening your observation with awful curiosity +and drawing your attention away from the men in front as you looked for +signs of a machine gun's gathering of a human harvest. Rat-tat-tat-tat +in quick succession, then a pause before another series instead of +continuous and slower cracks, and you knew that it was not a German but +a British machine gun farther away than you had thought.</p> + +<p>More than ever you rejoiced in every one of the bursts of stored +lightning thick as fireflies in the blanket of smoke over the German +trench, for every one meant a shower of bullets to keep down enemy +machine guns. The French say "<i>Belle!</i>" when they see such a barrage, +and beautiful is the word for it to those men who were going across the +field toward this shell-made nimbus looking too soft in the bright +sunlight to have darts of death. All the shell-bursts seemed to be in a +breadth of twenty or thirty yards. How could guns firing at a range of +from two to five thousand yards attain such accuracy!</p> + +<p>The men were three-quarters of the distance, now. As they drew nearer to +the barrage another apprehension numbed your thought. You feared to see +a "short"—one of the shells from their own guns which did not carry far +enough bursting among the men—and this, as one English soldier who had +been knocked over by a short said, with dry humor, was "very +discouraging, sir, though I suppose it is well meant." A terrible thing, +that, to the public, killing your own men with your own shells. It is +better to lose a few of them in this way than many from German machine +guns by lifting the barrage too soon, but fear of public indignation had +its influence in the early days of British gunnery. The better the +gunnery the closer the infantry can go and the greater its confidence. A +shell that bursts fifteen or twenty yards short means only the slightest +fault in length of fuse, error of elevation, or fault in registry, back +where the muzzles are pouring out their projectiles from the other side +of the slope. And there were no shorts that day. Every shell that I saw +burst was "on." It was perfect gunnery.</p> + +<p>Now it seemed that the men were going straight into the blanket over the +trenches still cut with flashes. Some forward ones who had become eager +were at the edge of the area of dust-spatters from shrapnel bullets in +the white chalk. Didn't they know that another twenty yards meant death? +Was their methodical phlegm such that they acted entirely by rule? No, +they knew their part. They stopped and stood waiting. Others were on the +second of the five minutes' allowance as suddenly all the flashes ceased +and nothing remained over the trench but the mantle of smoke. The +barrage had been lifted from the first to the second-line German trench +as you lift the spray of a hose from one flower bed to another.</p> + +<p>This was the moment of action for the men of the charge, not one of whom +had yet fired a shot. Each man was distinctly outlined against the white +background as, bayonets glistening and hands drawn back with bombs ready +to throw, they sprang forward to be at the mouths of the dugouts before +the Germans came out. Some leaped directly into the trench, others ran +along the parapet a few steps looking for a vantage point or throwing a +bomb as they went before they descended. It was a quick, urgent, +hit-and-run sort of business and in an instant all were out of sight and +the fighting was man to man, with the guns of both sides keeping their +hands off this conflict under ground. The entranced gaze for a moment +leaving that line of chalk saw a second British wave advancing in the +same way as the first from the British first-line trench.</p> + +<p>"All in along the whole line. Bombing their way forward there!" said +Howell, with matter-of-fact understanding of the progress of events.</p> + +<p>I blinked tired eyes and once more pressed them to the twelve diameters +of magnification, every diameter having full play in the clear light. I +saw nothing but little bursts of smoke rising out of the black streak in +the chalk which was the trench itself, each one from an egg of high +explosive thrown at close quarters but not numerous enough to leave any +doubt of the result and very evidently against a few recalcitrants who +still held out.</p> + +<p>Next, a British soldier appeared on the parapet and his attitude was +that of one of the military police directing traffic at a busy +crossroads close to the battle front. His part in the carefully worked +out system was shown when a figure in green came out of the trench with +hands held up in the approved signal of surrender the world over. The +figure was the first of a file with hands up—and very much in earnest +in this attitude, too, which is the one that the British and the French +consider most becoming in a German—who were started on toward the +first-line British trench. All along the front small bands of prisoners +were appearing in the same way. There would have been something +ridiculous about it, if it had not been so real.</p> + +<p>For the most part, the prisoners had been breached from dugouts which +had no exit through galleries after the Germans had been held fast by +the barrage. It was either a case of coming out at once or being bombed +to death in their holes; so they came out.</p> + +<p>"A live prisoner would be of more use to his fatherland one day than a +dead one, even though he had no more chance to fight again than a rabbit +held up by the ears," as one of the German prisoners said.</p> + +<p>"More use to yourself, too," remarked his captor.</p> + +<p>"That had occurred to me, also," admitted the German.</p> + +<p>During the filing out of the different bags of prisoners two incidents +passed before my eye with a realism that would have been worth a small +fortune to a motion picture man if equally dramatic ones had not been +posed. A German sprang out of the trench, evidently either of a mind to +resist or else in a panic, and dropped behind one of the piles of chalk +thrown up in the process of excavation. A British soldier went after him +and he held up his hands and was dispatched to join one of the groups. +Another who sought cover in the same way was of different temperament, +or perhaps resistance was inspired by the fact that he had a bomb. He +threw it at a British soldier who seemed to dodge it and drop on all +fours, the bomb bursting behind him. Bombs then came from all directions +at the German. There was no time to parley; he had made his choice and +must pay the price. He rolled over after the smoke had risen from the +explosions and then remained a still green blot against the chalk. A +British soldier bent over the figure in a hasty examination and then +sprang into the trench, where evidently he was needed.</p> + +<p>"The Germans are very slow with their shell fire," said Howell in the +course of his ejaculations, as he watched the operations.</p> + +<p>Answering barrages, including a visitation to our own position which was +completely exposed, were in order. Howell himself had been knocked over +by a shell here during the last attack. One explanation given later by a +German officer for the tardiness of the German guns was that the staff +had thought the British too stupid to attack from that direction, which +pleased Howell as showing the advantage of racial reputation as an aid +to strategy.</p> + +<p>However, the German artillery was not altogether unresponsive. It was +putting some "krumps" into the neighborhood of the British first line +and one of the bands of prisoners ran into the burst of a +five-point-nine. Ran is the word, for they were going as fast as they +could to get beyond their own curtain of fire, which experience told +them would soon be due. I saw this lot submerged in the spout of smoke +and dust but did not see how many if any were hit, as the sound of a +machine gun drew my attention across the dead grass of the old No Man's +Land to the German—I should say the former German—first-line trench +where an Englishman had his machine gun on the <i>parados</i> and was +sweeping the field across to the German second-line trench. Perhaps some +of the Germans who had run away from the barrage at the start had been +hiding in shell-craters or had shown signs of moving or there were +targets elsewhere.</p> + +<p>So far so good, as Howell remarked. That supposedly impregnable German +fortification that had repulsed the first British attempt had been taken +as easily as if it were a boy's snow fort, thanks to the patent curtain +of fire and the skill that had been developed by battle lessons. It was +retribution for the men who had fallen in vain on July 1st. Howell was +not thinking of that, but of the second objective in the afternoon's +plan. By this time not more than a quarter of an hour had elapsed since +the first charge had "gone over the lid." Out of the cut in the welt of +chalk the line of helmets rose again and England started across the +field toward the German second-line trench, which was really a part of +the main first-line fortification on the slope, in the same manner as +toward the first.</p> + +<p>What about their protecting barrage? My eyes had been so intently +occupied that my ears had been uncommunicative and in a start of glad +surprise I realized that the same infernal sweep of shells was going +overhead and farther up on the Ridge fireflies were flashing out of the +mantle of smoke that blanketed the second line. Now the background +better absorbed the khaki tint and the figures of the men became more +and more hazy until they disappeared altogether as the flashes in front +of them ceased. Howell had to translate from the signals results which I +could not visually verify. One by one items of news appeared in rocket +flashes through the gathering haze which began to obscure the slope +itself.</p> + +<p>"I think we have everything that we expected to take this afternoon," +said Howell, at length. "The Germans are very slow to respond. I think +we rather took them by surprise."</p> + +<p>They had not even begun shelling their old first line, which they ought +to have known was now in British possession and which they must have had +registered, as a matter of course; or possibly their own intelligence +was poor and they had no real information of what had been proceeding on +the slope under the clouds of smoke, or their wires had been cut and +their messengers killed by shell fire. This was certain, that the +British in the first-line German trench had a choice lot of dugouts in +good condition for shelter, as the patent barrage does not smash in the +enemy's homes, only closes the doors with curtains of death.</p> + +<p>"I hope you're improving your dugouts," British soldiers would call out +across No Man's Land, "as that is all the better for us when we take +them!"</p> + +<p>We stayed on till Howell's expert eye had had its fill of details, with +no burst of shells to interfere with our comfort; though by the rules we +ought to have had a good "strafing," which was another reminder of my +debt to the German for his consideration to the American correspondent +at the British front.</p> + +<p>"What do you think of our patent barrage, now?" said the artillery +general returning from his post of observation.</p> + +<p>"Wonderful!" was all that one could say.</p> + +<p>"A good show!" said Howell.</p> + +<p>The rejoicing of both was better expressed in their eyes than in words. +Good news, too, for the corps commander smoking his pipe and waiting, +and for every battalion engaged—oh, particularly for the battalions!</p> + +<p>"Congratulations!" The exclamation was passed back and forth as we met +other officers on our way to brigade headquarters in a dugout on the +hillside, where Howell's felicitations to the happy brigadier on the way +that his men had gone in were followed by suggestions and a discussion +about future plans, which I left to them while I had a look through the +brigadier's telescope at Thiepval Ridge under the patterns of shell fire +of average days, which proved that the Germans were making no attempt at +a counter-attack to recover lost ground. I imagined that the German +staff was dumfounded to hear that their redoubtable old first line could +possibly have been taken with so little fireworks.</p> + +<p>It was when I came to the guns on our return that I felt an awe which I +wanted to translate into appreciation. They were firing slowly now or +not firing at all, and the idle gunners were lounging about. They had +not seen their own curtain of fire or the infantry charge; they had been +as detached from the action as the crew of a battleship turret. It was +their accuracy and their coördination with the infantry and the +infantry's coördination with the barrage that had expressed better than +volumes of reports the possibilities of the offensive with waves of men +advancing behind waves of shell fire, which was applied in the taking of +Douaumont later and must be the solution of the problem of a decision +on the Western front.</p> + +<p>Above the communication trenches the steel helmets of the British and +the gray fatigue caps of German prisoners were bobbing toward the rear +and at the casualty clearing station the doctor said, "Very light!" in +answer to the question about losses. The prisoners were in unusually +good fettle even for men safe out of shell fire; many had no chalk on +their clothes to indicate a struggle. They had been sitting in their +dugouts and walked out when an Englishman appeared at the door. Yes, +they said that they had been caught just before relief, and the relief +had been carried out in an unexpected fashion. If they must be taken +they, too, liked the patent barrage.</p> + +<p>"I'll let you know when there's to be another show," said Howell, as we +parted at corps headquarters; but none could ever surpass this one in +its success or its opportunity of intimate observation.</p> + +<p>This was the last time I saw him. A few days later, on one of his tours +to study the ground for an attack, he was killed by a shell. Army custom +permits the mention of his name because he is dead. He was a steadfast +friend, an able soldier, an upright, kindly, high-minded gentleman; and +when I was asked, not by the lady who had never kept up her interest so +long in anything as in this war, but by another, if living at the front +is a big strain, the answer is in the word that comes that a man whom +you have just seen in the fulness of life and strength is gone.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4><a name="XXV" id="XXV"></a>XXV</h4> + +<h4>CANADA IS STUBBORN</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>What is Canada fighting for?—The Kaiser has brought Canadians +together—The land of immense distances—Canada's unfaltering +spirit—Canada our nearest neighbor geographically and +sentimentally—Ypres salient mud—Canadians invented the trench +raid—A wrestling fight in the mud—Germans "try it on" the +Canadians—"The limit" in artillery fire—Maple Leaf spirit—Baseball +talk on the firing line—A good sprinkling of Americans.</p></div> + + +<p>One day the Canadians were to lift their feet out of the mire of the +Ypres salient and take the high, dry road to the Somme front, and anyone +with a whit of chivalry in his soul would have rejoiced to know that +they were to have their part in the big movement of Sept. 15th. But let +us consider other things and other fighting before we come to the taking +of Courcelette.</p> + +<p>When I was home in the winter of 1915-16, for the first time the border +between the United States and Canada drew a line in sharp contrasts. The +newspapers in Canada had their casualty lists, parents were giving their +sons and wives their husbands to go three thousand miles to endure +hardship and risk death for a cause which to them had no qualifications +of a philosophic internationalism. Everything was distinct. Sacrifice +and fortitude, life and death, and the simple meaning words were masters +of the vocabulary.</p> + +<p>Some people might ask why Canada should be pouring out her blood in +Europe; what had Flanders to do with her? England was fighting to save +her island, France for the sanctity of her soil, but what was Canada +fighting for? As I understood it, she was fighting for Canada. A blow +had been struck against her, though it was struck across the Atlantic, +and across the Atlantic she was going to strike back.</p> + +<p>She had had no great formative war. Pardeburg was a kind of expedition +of brave men, like the taking of San Juan Hill. It did not sink deep +into the consciousness of the average Canadian, who knew only that some +neighbor of his had been in South Africa. Our own formative war was the +Revolution, not the Civil War where brother fought brother. The +Revolution made a mold which, perhaps, instead of being impressed upon +succeeding generations of immigrants may have only given a veneer to +them. A war may be necessary to make them molten for another shaping.</p> + +<p>No country wanted war less than Canada, but when war came its flame made +Canada molten with Canadian patriotism. As George III. brought the +Carolinas and Massachusetts together, so the Kaiser has brought the +Canadian provinces together. The men from that cultivated, rolling +country of Southern Ontario, from New Brunswick and the plains and the +coast and a quota from the neat farms of Quebec have met face to face, +not on railroad trains, not through representatives in Parliament or in +convention, but in billets and trenches. Whatever Canada is, she is not +small. She is particularly the land of immense distances; her breadth is +greater than that of the United States. All of the great territorial +expanse of Canada in its manhood, in the thoughts of those at home, was +centered in a few square miles of Flanders.</p> + +<p>I was in Canada when only the first division had had its trial and +recruiting was at full blast; and again when three hundred and fifty +thousand had joined the colors and Canada, now feeling the full measure +of loss of life, seemed unfaltering, which was the more remarkable in a +new country where livelihood is easy to gain and Opportunity knocks at +the door of youth if he has only the energy to take her by the hand and +go her way. I may add that not all the youth about Toronto or any other +town who gave as their reason for not enlisting that they were American +citizens actually were. They were not "too <i>proud</i> to fight," whatever +other reason they had, for they had no pride; and if honest Quakers they +would not have given a lying excuse.</p> + +<p>Out in France I heard talk about this Canadian brigade being better than +that one, and that an Eastern Canada man wanted no leading from a +Western Canada man, and that not all who were winning military crosses +were hardy frontiersmen but some were lawyers and clerks in Montreal or +Toronto—or should I put Toronto first, or perhaps Ottawa or +Winnipeg—and more talk expressive of the rivalry which generals say is +good for spirit of corps. Moose Jaw Street was across from Halifax +Avenue and Vancouver Road from Hamilton Place in the same community.</p> + +<p>As I was not connected with any part of Canada, the Canadians, with +their Maple Leaf emblem, were all Canadians to me; men across the border +which we pass in coming and going without change of language or +steam-heated cars or iced-water tanks. Some Canadians think that the +United States with its more than a hundred millions may feel patronizing +toward their eight millions, when after Courcelette if a Canadian had +patronized the United States I should not have felt offended. I have +even heard some fools say that the two countries might yet go to war, +which shows how absurd some men have to be in order to attract +attention. All of this way of thinking on both sides should be placed on +a raft in the middle of Lake Erie and supplied with bombs to fight it +out among themselves under a curtain of fire; and their relatives ought +to feel a deep relief after the excursion steamers that came from +Toronto, Cleveland and Buffalo to see the show had returned home.</p> + +<p>To listen to certain narrators you might think that it was the Allies +who always got the worst of it in the Ypres salient, but the German did +not like the salient any better than they. I never met anybody who did +like it. German prisoners said that German soldiers regarded it as a +sentence of death to be sent to the salient. There are many kinds of mud +and then there is Ypres salient mud, which is all kinds together with a +Belgian admixture. I sometimes thought that the hellish outbreaks by +both sides in this region were due to the reason which might have made +Job run amuck if all the temper he had stored up should have broken out +in a storm.</p> + +<p>This is certain, that the Canadians took their share in the buffets in +the mud, not through any staff calculation but partly through German +favoritism and the workings of German psychology. Consider that the +first volunteer troops to be put in the battle line in France weeks +before any of Kitchener's Army was the first Canadian division, in +answer to its own request for action, which is sufficient soldierly +tribute of a commander to Canadian valor! That proud first division, +after it had been well mud-soaked and had its hand in, was caught in +the gas attack. It refused to yield when it was only human to yield, and +stood resolute in the fumes between the Germans and success and even +counter-attacked. Moreover, it was Canadians who introduced the trench +raid.</p> + +<p>If the Canadians did not particularly love the Germans, do you see any +reason why the Germans should love the Canadians? It was unpleasant to +suffer repulse by troops from an unmilitary, new country. Besides, +German psychology reasoned that if Canadians at the front were made to +suffer heavy losses the men at home would be discouraged from enlisting. +Why not? What had Canada to gain by coming to fight in France? It does +not appear an illogical hypothesis until you know the Canadians.</p> + +<p>However, it must not be understood that other battalions, brigades and +divisions, English and Scotch, did not suffer as heavily as the +Canadians. They did; and do not forget that in the area which has seen +the hardest, bloodiest, meanest, nastiest, ghastliest fighting in the +history of the world the Germans, too, have had their full share of +losses. The truth is that if any normal man was stuck in the mud of the +Ypres salient and another wanted his place he would say, "Take it! I'm +only trying to get out! We've got equally bad morasses in the Upper +Yukon;" and retire to a hill and set up a machine gun.</p> + +<p>When a Canadian officer was asked if he had organized some trenches that +his battalion had taken his reply, "How can you organize pea soup?" +filled a long-felt want in expression to characterize the nature of +trench-making in that kind of terrain. Yet in that sea of slimy and +infected mush men have fought for the possession of cubic feet of the +mixture as if it had the qualities of Balm of Gilead—which was also +logical. What appears most illogical to the outsider is sometimes most +logical in war. It was a fight for mastery, and mastery is the first +step in a war of frontal positions.</p> + +<p>Many lessons the Canadians had to learn about organization and staff +work, about details of discipline which make for homogeneity of action, +and the divisions that came to join the first one learned their lessons +in the Ypres salient school, which gave hard but lasting tuition. I was +away when at St. Eloi they were put to such tests as only the salient +can provide. The time was winter, when chill water filled the +shell-craters and the soil oozed out of sandbags and the mist was a +cold, wet poultice. Men bred to a dry climate had to fight in a climate +better suited to the Englishman or the German than to the Canadian. +There could be no dugouts. Lift a spade of earth below the earth level +and it became a puddle. It was a wrestling fight in the mud, this, +holding onto shell-craters and the soft remains of trenches. The Germans +had heard that the Canadians were highstrung, nervous, quick for the +offensive, but badly organized and poor at sticking. The Canadians +proved that they could be stubborn and that their soldiers, even if they +had not had the directing system of an army staff that had prepared for +forty years, with two years of experience could act on their own in +resisting as well as in attacking. "Our men! our men!" the officers +would say. That was it: Canada's men, learning tactics in face of German +tactics and holding their own!</p> + +<p>When all was peaceable up and down the line, with the Grand Offensive a +month away, the Germans once more "tried it on" the Canadians in the +Hooge and Mount Sorrell sector, where the positions were all in favor of +the Germans with room to plant two guns to one around the bulging +British line. For many days they had been quietly registering as they +massed their artillery for their last serious effort during the season +of 1916 in the north.</p> + +<p>Anything done to the Canadians always came close home to me; and news of +this attack and of its ferocity to anyone knowing the positions was +bound to carry apprehension, lasting only until we learned that the +Canadians were already counter-attacking, which set your pulse tingling +and little joy-bells ringing in your head. It meant, too, that the +Germans could not have developed any offensive that would be serious to +the situation as a whole at that moment, in the midst of preparations +for the Somme. Nothing could be seen of the fight, even had one known +that it was coming, in that flat region where everyone has to follow a +communication trench with only the sky directly overhead visible.</p> + +<p>There was an epic quality in the story of what happened as you heard it +from the survivors. It was an average quiet morning in the first-line +trenches when the German hurricane broke from all sides; but first-line +trenches is not the right phrase, for all the protection that could be +made was layers of sandbags laboriously filled and piled to a thickness +sufficient to stop a bullet at short range.</p> + +<p>What luxury in security were the dugouts of the Somme hills compared to +the protection that could be provided here! When the first series of +bursts announced the storm you could not descend a flight of steps to a +cavern whose roof was impenetrable even by five-hundred-pound shells. +Little houses of sandbags with corrugated tin roofs, in some instances +level with the earth, which any direct hit could "do in" were the best +that generous army resources could permit. High explosive shells must +turn such breastworks into rags and heaps of earth. There was nothing to +shoot at if a man tried to stick to the parapet, for fresh troops fully +equipped for their task back in the German trenches waited on demolition +of the Canadian breastworks before advancing under their own barrage. +Shrapnel sent down its showers, while the trench walls were opened in +great gaps and tossed heavenward. Officers clambered about in the midst +of the spouts of dust and smoke over the piles and around the craters, +trying to keep in touch with their men, when it was a case of every man +taking what cover he could.</p> + +<p>"The limit!" as the men said. "The absolute limit in an artillery +concentration!"</p> + +<p>But they did not go—not until they had orders. This was their kind of +discipline under fire; they "stayed on the job." One group charged out +beyond the swath of fire to meet the Germans in the open and there +fought to the death in expression of characteristic initiative. When +word was passed to retire, some grudgingly held on to fight the +outnumbering Germans in the midst of the débris and escaped only by +passing through the German barrage placed between the first and second +line to cover the German advance on the second. The supports themselves +under the carefully arranged pattern of shell fire held as the +rallying-points of the survivors, who found the communication trenches +so badly broken that it was as well to keep in the open. Little knots of +men with their defenses crushed held from the instinctive sense of +individual stubbornness.</p> + +<p>To tell the whole story of that day as of many other days where a few +battalions were engaged, giving its fair due to each group in the +struggle, is not for a correspondent who had to cover the length of the +battle line and sees the whole as an example of Maple Leaf spirit. The +rest is for battalion historians, who will find themselves puzzled about +an action where there was little range of vision and this obscured by +shell-smoke and the preoccupation of each man trying to keep cover and +do his own part to the death.</p> + +<p>In the farmhouses afterward, as groups of officers tried to assemble +their experiences, I had the feeling of being in touch with the proof of +all that I had seen in Canada months previously. Losses had been heavy +for the battalions engaged though not for the Canadian corps as a whole, +no heavier than British battalions or the Germans had suffered in the +salient. Canada happened to get the blow this time.</p> + +<p>The men, after a night's sleep and writing home that they were safe and +how comrades had died, might wander about the roads or make holiday as +they chose. They were not casual about the fight, but outspoken and +frank, Canadian fashion. They realized what they had been through and +spoke of their luck in having survived. From the fields came the cry of, +"Leave that to me!" as a fly rose from the bat, or, "Out on first!" as +men took a rest from shell-curves and high explosives with baseball +curves and hot liners between the bases, which was very homelike there +in Flanders. Which of the players was American one could not tell by +voice or looks, for the climate along the border makes a type of +complexion and even of features with the second generation which is +readily distinguished from the English type.</p> + +<p>"What part of Canada do you come from?" asked an officer of a private.</p> + +<p>"Out west, sir!"</p> + +<p>"What part of the west?"</p> + +<p>"'Way out west, sir!"</p> + +<p>"An officer is asking you. Be definite."</p> + +<p>"Well, the State of Washington, sir."</p> + +<p>There was a good sprinkling of Americans in the battle, including +officers; but on the baseball field and the battlefield they were a part +of the whole, performing their task in a way that left no doubt of +their quality. Whether the spirit of adventure or the principle at stake +had brought her battalions to Flanders, Canada had proved that she could +be stubborn. She was to have her chance to prove that she could be +quick.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4><a name="XXVI" id="XXVI"></a>XXVI</h4> + +<h4>THE TANKS ARRIVE</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The New Army Irish—Irish wit—And Irish courage—Pompous Prussian +Guard officer—The British Guards and their characteristics—Who +invented the tank?—The great secret—Combination of an armadillo, a +caterpillar, a diplodocus, a motor car and a traveling +circus—Something really new on the front—Gas attacks—A tank in the +road—A moving "strong point"—Making an army laugh—Suspense for the +inmates of the untried tanks.</p></div> + + +<p>The situation on the Ridge was where we left it in a previous chapter +with all except a few parts of it held, enough for a jumping-off place +at all points for the sweep down into the valley toward Bapaume. In the +grim preliminary business of piecemeal gains which should make possible +an operation over a six-mile front on Sept. 15th, which was the first +general attack since July 14th, the part that the Irish battalions +played deserves notice, where possibly the action of the tried and +sturdy English regiments on their flanks need not be mentioned, as being +characteristic of the work they had been doing for months.</p> + +<p>They were the New Army Irish, all volunteers, men who had enlisted to +fight against Germany when their countrymen were largely disaffected, +which requires more initiative than to join the colors when it is the +universal passion of the community. Many stories were told of this Irish +division. If there are ten Irishmen among a hundred soldiers the stories +have a way of being about the ten Irishmen.</p> + +<p>I like that one of the Connaught man who, on his first day in the +trenches, was set to digging out the dirt that had been filled into a +trench by a shell-burst. Along came another shell before he was half +through his task; the burst of a second knocked him over and doubled the +quantity of earth before him. When he picked himself up he went to the +captain and threw down his spade, saying:</p> + +<p>"Captain, I can't finish that job without help. They're gaining on me!"</p> + +<p>Some people thought that the Sinn Fein movement which had lately broken +out in the Dublin riots would make the new Irish battalions lukewarm in +any action. They would go in but without putting spirit into their +attack. Other skeptics questioned if the Irish temperament which was +well suited to dashing charges would adapt itself to the matter-of-fact +necessities of the Somme fighting. Their commander, however, had no +doubts; and the army had none when the test was made.</p> + +<p>Through Guillemont, that wicked resort of machine guns, which had been +as severely hammered by shell fire after it had repulsed British attacks +as any village on the Somme, the Irish swept in good order, cleaning up +dugouts and taking prisoners on the way with all the skill of veterans +and a full relish of the exploit, and then forward, as a well-linked +part of a successful battle line, to the sunken road which was the +second objective.</p> + +<p>"I thought we were to take a village, Captain," said one of the men, +after they were established in the sunken road. "What are we stopping +here for?"</p> + +<p>"We have taken it. You passed through it—that grimy patch +yonder"—which was Guillemont's streets and houses mixed in ruins five +hundred yards to the rear.</p> + +<p>"You're sure, Captain?"</p> + +<p>"Quite!"</p> + +<p>"Well, then, I'd not like to be the drunken man that tried to find his +keyhole in that town!"</p> + +<p>It was a pity, perhaps, that the Irish who assisted in the taking of +Ginchy, which completed the needful mastery of the Ridge for British +purposes, could not have taken part in the drive that was to follow. We +had looked forward to this drive as the reward of a down hill run after +the patient labor of wrenching our way up hill. Even the Germans, who +had suffered appalling losses in trying to hold the Ridge, must have +been relieved that they no longer had to fight against the inevitable.</p> + +<p>Again the clans were gathering and again there ran through the army the +anticipation which came from the preparation for a great blow. The +Canadians were appearing in billets back of the front. If in no other +way, I should have known of their presence by their habit of moving +about roads and fields getting acquainted with their surroundings and +finding out if apples were ripe. For other portions of the country it +was a little unfair that these generous and well-paid spenders should +take the place of the opulent Australians in villages where small boys +already had hordes of pennies and shopkeepers were hastening to +replenish their stocks to be equal to their opportunities.</p> + +<p>At last the Guards, too, were to have their turn, but not to go in +against the Prussian Guard, which those with a sense of histrionic +fitness desired. When a Prussian Guard officer had been taken at +Contalmaison he had said, "The Prussian Guard feels that it is +surrendering to a foe worthy of its steel when it yields to superior +numbers of the English Guard!" or words to that effect according to +reports, only to receive the answer that his captors were English +factory hands and the like of the New Army, whose officers excused +themselves, in the circumstances, for their identity as politely as +they could.</p> + +<p>Grenadiers, Coldstreams, Scottish, or Irish, the Guards were the Guards, +England's crack regiments, the officers of each wearing their buttons in +a distinctive way and the tall privates saluting with the distinctive +Guards' salute. In the Guards the old spirit of gaiety in face of danger +survived. Their officers out in shell-craters under curtains of fire +joked one another with an aristocratic, genial sangfroid, the slender +man who had a nine-inch crater boasting of his luck over the thickset +man who tried to accommodate himself to a five-inch, while a colonel +blew his hunting-horn in the charge, which the Guards made in a manner +worthy of tradition.</p> + +<p>Though the English would have been glad to go against the Prussian Guard +with bayonet or bomb or a free-for-all, army commanders in these days +are not signaling to the enemy, "Let us have a go between your Guards +and our Guards!" but are putting crack regiments and line regiments in a +battle line to a common task, where the only criterion is success.</p> + +<p>The presence of the Guards, however, yielded interest to another new +arrival on the Somme front. When the plan for a style of armored motor +car which would cross shell-craters and trenches was laid before an +eminent general at the War Office, what he wrote in dismissing it from +further consideration might have been more blasphemous if he could have +spared the time to be anything but satirically brief. Such conservatives +probably have prevented many improvements from materializing, and +probably they have also saved the world from many futile creations which +would only have wasted time and material.</p> + +<p>Happily both for geniuses and fools, who all, in the long run, let us +hope, receive their just deserts, there is no downing an idea in a free +country where continued knocking at doors and waiting in hallways +eventually secure it a trial. Then, if it succeeds, the fellow who +thought that the conception was original with him finds his claims +disputed from all points of the compass. If it fails, the poor thing +goes to a fatherless grave.</p> + +<p>I should like to say that I was the originator of the tank—one of the +originators. In generous mood, I am willing to share honors with rivals +too numerous to mention. Haven't I also looked across No Man's Land +toward the enemy's parapet? Whoever has must have conjectured about a +machine that would take frontal positions with less loss of life than is +usual and would solve the problem of breaking the solid line of the +Western front. The possibility has haunted every general, every +soldier.</p> + +<p>Some sort of armadillo or caterpillar which would resist bullet fire was +the most obvious suggestion, but when practical construction was +considered, the dreamer was brought down from the empyrean, where the +aeroplane is at home, to the forge and the lathe, where grimy machinists +are the pilots of a matter-of-fact world. Application was the thing. I +found myself so poor at it that I did not even pass on my plan to the +staff, which had already considered a few thousand plans. Ericsson +conceiving a gun in a revolving turret was not so great a man as +Ericsson making the monitor a practicable engine of war.</p> + +<p>To Lieutenant-Colonel Swinton, of the Engineers, was given the task of +transforming blue-print plans into reality. There was no certainty that +he would succeed, but the War Office, when it had need for every foundry +and every skilled finger in the land, was enterprising enough to give +him a chance. He and thousands of workmen spent months at this most +secret business. If one German spy had access to one workman, then the +Germans might know what was coming. Nobody since Ericsson had a busier +time than Swinton without telling anybody what he was doing. The +whisperers knew that some diabolical surprise was under way and they +would whisper about it. No censor regulations can reach them. Sometimes +the tribe was given false information in great confidence in order to +keep it too occupied to pass on the true.</p> + +<p>The new monster was called a tank because it was not like a tank; yet it +seemed to me as much like a tank as like anything else. As a tank is a +receptacle for a liquid, it was a name that ought to mask a new type of +armored motor car as successfully as any name could. Flower pot would +have been too wide of the mark. A tank might carry a new kind of gas or +a burning liquid to cook or frizzle the adversary.</p> + +<p>Considering the size of the beast, concealment seemed about as difficult +as for a suburban cottager to keep the fact that he had an elephant on +the premises from his next-door neighbor; but the British Army has +become so used to slipping ships across the channel in face of submarine +danger that nobody is surprised at anything that appears at the front +unheralded.</p> + +<p>One day the curtain rose, and the finished product of all the +experiments and testing appeared at the British front. Hundreds of +thousands of soldiers were now in the secret. "Have you seen the tanks?" +was the question up and down the line. All editors were inventing their +own type of tank. Though I have patted one on the shoulder in a familiar +way, as I might stroke the family cat, it neither kicked nor bit me. +Though I have been inside of one, I am not supposed to know at this +writing anything about its construction. Unquestionably the tank +resembles an armadillo, a caterpillar, a diplodocus, a motor car, and a +traveling circus. It has more feet than a caterpillar, and they have +steel toenails which take it over the ground; its hide is more resistant +than an armadillo's, and its beauty of form would make the diplodocus +jealous. No pianist was ever more temperamental; no tortoise ever more +phlegmatic.</p> + +<p>In summer heat, when dust clouds hung thick on the roads behind the +shell clouds of the fields, when the ceaseless battle had been going on +for two months and a half, the soldiers had their interest stimulated by +a mechanical novelty just before a general attack. Two years of war had +cumulatively desensitized them to thrills. New batteries moving into +position were only so many more guns. Fresh battalions marching to the +front were only more infantry, all of the same pattern, equipped in the +same way, moving with the same fixed step. Machine gun rattles had +become as commonplace as the sound of creaking caisson wheels. Gas +shells, lachrymatory shells and <i>Flammenwerfer</i> were as old-fashioned as +high explosives and shrapnel. Bombing encounters in saps had no +variation. The ruins of the village taken to-day could not be told from +the one taken yesterday except by its location on the map. Even the +aeroplanes had not lately developed any sensational departures from +habit. One paid little more attention to them than a gondolier pays to +the pigeons of St. Mark's. Curtains of fire all looked alike. There was +no new way of being killed—nothing to break the ghastly monotony of +charges and counter-charges.</p> + +<p>All the brains of Europe had been busy for two years inventing new forms +of destruction, yet no genius had found any sinuous creature that would +creep into dugouts with a sting for which there was no antidote. +Everybody was engaged in killing, yet nobody was able to "kill to his +satisfaction," as the Kentucky colonel said. The reliable methods were +the same as of old and as I have mentioned elsewhere: projectiles +propelled by powder, whether from long-necked naval guns at twenty +thousand yards, or short-necked howitzers at five thousand yards, or +rifles and machine guns at twenty-five hundred yards, or trench mortars +coughing balls of explosives for one thousand yards.</p> + +<p>True, the gas attack at Ypres had been an innovation. It was not a +discovery; merely an application of ghastliness which had been +considered too horrible for use. As a surprise it had been +successful—once. The defense answered with gas masks, which made it +still more important that soldiers should not be absent-minded and leave +any of their kit out of reach. The same amount of energy put into +projectiles would have caused more casualties. Meanwhile, no staff of +any army, making its elaborate plans in the use of proved weapons, could +be certain that the enemy had not under way, in this age of invention +which has given us the wireless, some new weapon which would be +irresistible.</p> + +<p>Was the tank this revolutionary wonder? Its sponsors had no such hope. +England went on building guns and pouring out shells, cartridges and +bombs. At best, the tanks were another application of an old, +established form of killing in vogue with both Daniel Boone and +Napoleon's army—bullets.</p> + +<p>The first time that I saw a tank, the way that the monster was blocking +a road gorged with transport had something of the ludicrousness of, say, +a pliocene monster weighing fifty tons which had nonchalantly lain down +at Piccadilly Circus when the traffic was densest. Only the motor-truck +drivers and battalions which were halted some distance away minded the +delay. Those near by were sufficiently entertained by the spectacle +which stopped them. They gathered around the tank and gaped and grinned.</p> + +<p>The tank's driver was a brown-skinned, dark-haired Englishman, with a +face of oriental stolidity. Questions were shot at him, but he would not +even say whether his beast would stand without hitching or not; whether +it lived on hay, talcum powder, or the stuff that bombs are made of; or +what was the nature of its inwards, or which was the head and which the +tail, or if when it seemed to be backing it was really going forward.</p> + +<p>By the confession of some white lettering on its body, it was officially +one of His Majesty's land ships. It no more occurred to anyone to +suggest that it move on and clear the road than to argue with a bulldog +which confronts you on a path. I imagined that the feelings of the young +officer who was its skipper must have been much the same as those of a +man acting as his own chauffeur and having a breakdown on a holiday in a +section of town where the population was as dense as it was curious in +the early days of motoring. For months he had been living a cloistered +life to keep his friends from knowing what he was doing, as he worked to +master the eccentricities of his untried steed, his life and the lives +of his crew depending upon this mastery. Now he had stepped from behind +the curtain of military secrecy into the full blaze of staring, +inquiring publicity.</p> + +<p>The tank's inclination was entirely reptilian. Its body hugged the earth +in order to expose as little surface as possible to the enemy's fire; it +was mottled like a toad in patches of coloring to add to its low +visibility, and there was no more hop in it than in the Gila monster.</p> + +<p>The reason of its being was obvious. Its hide being proof against the +bullets of machine guns and rifles, it was a moving "strong point" which +could go against the enemy's fixed strong points, where machine guns +were emplaced to mow down infantry charges, with its own machine guns. +Only now it gave no sign of moving. As a mechanical product it was no +more remarkable than a steam shovel. The wonder was in the part that it +was about to play. A steam shovel is a labor-saving, and this a +soldier-saving, device.</p> + +<p>For the moment it seemed a leviathan dead weight in the path of traffic. +If it could not move of itself, the only way for traffic to pass was to +build a road around it. Then there was a rumbling noise within its body +which sounded like some unnatural gasoline engine, and it hitched itself +around with the ponderosity of a canal boat being warped into a dock and +proceeded on its journey to take its appointed place in the battle line.</p> + +<p>Did the Germans know that the tanks were building? I think that they had +some inkling a few weeks before the tanks' appearance that something of +the sort was under construction. There was a report, too, of a German +tank which was not ready in time to meet the British. Some German +prisoners said that their first intimation of this new affliction was +when the tanks appeared out of the morning mist, bearing down on the +trenches; others said that German sausage observation balloons had seen +something resembling giant turtles moving across the fields up to the +British lines and had given warning to the infantry to be on the +lookout.</p> + +<p>Thus, something new had come into the war, deepening the thrill of +curiosity and intensifying the suspense before an attack. The world, its +appetite for novelty fed by the press, wanted to know all about the +tanks; but instead of the expected mechanical details, censorship would +permit only vague references to the tanks' habits and psychology, and +the tanks were really strong on psychology—subjectively and +objectively. It was the objective result in psychology that counted: the +effect on the fighting men. Human imagination immediately characterized +them as living things; monstrous comrades of infantry in attack.</p> + +<p>Blessed is the man, machine, or incident that will make any army laugh +after over two months of battle. Individuals were always laughing over +incidents; but here hundreds of thousands of men were to see a new style +of animal perform elephantine tricks. The price of admission to the +theater was the risk of a charge in their company, and the prospect gave +increased zest to battalions taking their place for next day's action. +What would happen to the tanks? What would they do to the Germans?</p> + +<p>The staff, which had carefully calculated their uses and limitations, +had no thought that the tanks would go to Berlin. They were simply a new +auxiliary. Probably the average soldier was skeptical of their +efficiency; but his skepticism did not interfere with his curiosity. He +wanted to see the beast in action.</p> + +<p>Christopher Columbus crossing uncharted seas did not undertake a more +daring journey than the skippers of the tanks. The cavalryman who +charges the enemy's guns in an impulse knows only a few minutes of +suspense. A torpedo destroyer bent on coming within torpedo range in +face of blasts from a cruiser's guns, the aviator closing in on an +enemy's plane, have the delirium of purpose excited by speed. But the +tanks are not rapid. They are ponderous and relatively slow. Columbus +had already been to sea in ships. The aviator and the commander of a +destroyer know their steeds and have precedent to go by, while the +skippers of the tanks had none. They went forth with a new kind of ship +on a new kind of sea, whose waves were shell-craters, whose tempests +sudden concentrations of shell fire.</p> + +<p>The Germans might have full knowledge of the ships' character and await +their appearance with forms of destruction adapted to the purpose. All +was speculation and uncertainty. Officers and crew were sealed up in a +steel box, the sport of destiny. For months they had been preparing for +this day, the crowning experiment and test, and all seemed of a type +carefully chosen for their part, soldiers who had turned land sailors, +cool and phlegmatic like the monsters which they directed. Each one +having given himself up to fate, the rest was easy in these days of +war's superexaltation, which makes men appear perfectly normal when +death hovers near. Not one would have changed places with any +infantryman. Already they had <i>esprit de corps</i>. They belonged to an +exclusive set of warriors.</p> + +<p>Lumberingly dipping in and out of shell-craters, which sometimes half +concealed the tanks like ships in a choppy sea, rumbling and wrenching, +they appeared out of the morning mist in face of the Germans who put up +their heads and began working their machine guns after the usual +artillery curtain of fire had lifted.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4><a name="XXVII" id="XXVII"></a>XXVII</h4> + +<h4>THE TANKS IN ACTION</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>How the tanks attacked—A tank walking up the main Street of a +village—Effect on the Germans—Prussian colonel surrenders to a +tank—Tanks against trees—The tank in High Wood—The famous Crème de +Menthe—Demolishing a sugar factory—Germans take the tanks +seriously—Differences of opinion regarding tanks—Wandering +tanks—German attack on a stranded tank—Prehistoric turtles—Saving +twenty-five thousand casualties.</p></div> + + +<p>With the reverse slope of the Ridge to conceal their approach to the +battle line, the tanks squatting among the men at regular intervals over +a six-mile front awaiting the cue of zero for the attack at dawn and the +mist still holding to cover both tanks and men, the great Somme stage +was set in a manner worthy of the début of the new monsters.</p> + +<p>A tactical system of coördinated action had been worked out for the +infantry and the untried auxiliary, which only experienced soldiers +could have applied with success. According to the nature of the +positions in front, the tanks were set definite objectives or left to +find their own objectives. They might move on located machine gun +positions or answer a hurry call for help from the infantry. Ahead of +them was a belt of open field between them and the villages whose +capture was to be the consummation of the day's work. While observers +were straining their eyes to follow the progress of the tanks and seeing +but little, corps headquarters eagerly awaited news of the most +picturesque experiment of the war, which might prove ridiculous, or be a +wonderful success, or simply come up to expectations.</p> + +<p>No more thrilling message was ever brought by an aeroplane than that +which said that a tank was "walking" up the main street of Flers +surrounded by cheering British soldiers, who were in possession of the +village. "Walking" was the word officially given; and very much walking, +indeed, the tank must have seemed to the aviator in his swift flight. An +eagle looked down on a tortoise which had a serpent's sting. This tank, +having attended to its work on the way, passed on through Flers bearing +a sign: "Extra Special! Great Hun Victory!" Beyond Flers it found itself +alongside a battery of German field guns and blazed bullets into the +amazed and helpless gunners.</p> + +<p>The enemy may have heard of the tanks, but meeting them was a different +matter. After he had fought shells, bullets, bombs, grenades, mortars, +bayonets and gas, the tank was the straw that broke the camel's back of +many a German. A steel armadillo laying its bulk across a trench and +sweeping it on both sides with machine guns brought the familiar +complaint that this was not fighting according to rules in a war which +ceased to have rules after the bombing of civilian populations, the +sinking of the <i>Lusitania</i>, and the gas attack at Ypres. It depends on +whose ox is gored. There is a lot of difference between seeing the enemy +slaughtered by some new device and being slaughtered by one yourself. No +wonder that German prisoners who had escaped alive from a trench filled +with dead, when they saw a tank on the road as they passed to the rear +threw up their hands with a guttural: "Mein Gott! There is another! +There is no fighting that! This is not war; it is butchery!" Yes, it was +butchery—and butchery is war these days. Wasn't it so always? And as a +British officer remarked to the protestants:</p> + +<p>"The tank is entirely in keeping with Hague rules, being only armor, +machinery and machine guns."</p> + +<p>Germans surrendered to a tank in bodies after they saw the hopelessness +of turning their own machine gun and rifle fire upon that steel hide. +Why not? Nothing takes the fight out of anyone like finding that his +blows go into the air and the other fellow's go home. There seemed a +strange loss of dignity when a Prussian colonel delivered himself to a +tank, which took him on board and eventually handed him over to an +infantry guard; but the skipper of the tank enjoyed it if the colonel +did not.</p> + +<p>The surprising thing was how few casualties there were among the crews +of the tanks, who went out prepared to die and found themselves safe in +their armored shells after the day's fight was over, whether their ships +had gone across a line of German trenches, developed engine trouble, or +temporarily foundered in shell-holes. Bullets had merely made +steel-bright flecks on the tanks' paint and shrapnel had equally failed +to penetrate the armor.</p> + +<p>Among the imaginary tributes paid to the tank's powers is that it "eats" +trees—that is to say, it can cut its way through a wood—and that it +can knock down a stone wall. As it has no teeth it cannot masticate +timber. All that it accomplishes must be done by ramming or by lifting +up its weight to crush an obstacle. A small tree or a weak wall yields +before its mass.</p> + +<p>As foresters, the tanks had a stiff task in High Wood, where the Germans +had held to the upper corner with their nests of machine guns which the +preliminary bombardment of British artillery had not silenced and they +began their murderous song immediately the British charge started. They +commanded the front and the flanks if the men continued to advance and +therefore might make a break in the whole movement, which was precisely +the object of the desperate resistance that had preserved this strong +point at any cost against the rushes of British bombers, trench mortars +and artillery shells for two months.</p> + +<p>Soldiers are not expected to undertake the impossible. Nobody who is +sane will leap into a furnace with a cup of water to put out the fire. +Only a battalion commander who is a fool will refuse, in face of +concentrated machine gun fire, to stop the charge.</p> + +<p>"Leave it to me!" was the unspoken message communicated to the infantry +by the sight of that careening, dipping, clambering, steel body as it +rumbled toward the miniature fortress. And the infantry, as it saw the +tank's machine guns blazing, left it to the tank, and, working its way +to the right, kept in touch with the general line of attack, confident +that no enemy would be left behind to fire into their backs. Thus, a +handful of men capable, with their bullet sprays, of holding up a +thousand men found the tables turned on them by another handful manning +a tank. They were simply "done in," as the tank officer put it. Safe +behind his armor, he had them no less at his mercy than a submarine has +a merchant ship. Even if unarmed, a tank could take care of an isolated +machine gun position by sitting on it.</p> + +<p>One of the most famous tanks was Crème de Menthe. She had a good press +agent and also made good. She seemed to like sugar. At least, her +glorious exploit was in a sugar factory, a huge building of brick with a +tall brick chimney which had been brought down by shell fire. Underneath +the whole were immense dugouts still intact where German machine gunners +lay low, like Br'er Rabbit, as usual, while the shells of the artillery +preparation were falling, and came out to turn on the bullet spray as +the British infantry approached. British do the same against German +attacks; only in the battle of the Somme the British had been always +attacking, always taking machine gun positions.</p> + +<p>Crème de Menthe, chosen comrade of the Canadians on their way to the +taking of Courcelette, was also at home among débris. The Canadians saw +that she was as she moved toward it with the glee of a sea lion toward a +school of fish. She did not go dodging warily, peering around corners +with a view to seeing the enemy before she was seen. Whatever else a +tank is, it is not a crafty boy scout. It is brazenly and nonchalantly +public in its methods, like a steam roller coming down the street into a +parade without regard to the rules of the road. Externally it is not +temperamental. It does not bother to follow the driveway or mind the +"Keep Off the Grass" sign when it goes up to the entrance of a dugout.</p> + +<p>And Crème de Menthe took the sugar factory and a lot of prisoners. "Why +not?" as one of the Canadians said. "Who wouldn't surrender when a beast +of that kind came up to the door? It was enough to make a man who had +drunk only light Munich beer wonder if he had 'got 'em!'"</p> + +<p>Prisoners were a good deal of bother to the tanks. Perhaps future tanks +will be provided with pockets for carrying prisoners. But the future of +tanks is wrapped in mystery at the present.</p> + +<p>This is not taking them seriously, you may say. In that case, I am only +reflecting the feelings of the army. Even if the tanks had taken Bapaume +or gone to the Kaiser's headquarters, the army would have laughed at +them. It was the Germans who took the tanks seriously; and the more +seriously the Germans took the tanks the more the British laughed.</p> + +<p>"Of all the double-dyed, ridiculous things, was the way that Crème de +Menthe person took the sugar factory!" said a Canadian, who broke into a +roar at the recollection of the monster's antics. "Good old girl, Crème +de Menthe! Ought to retire her for life and let her sit up on her +haunches in a café and sip her favorite tipple out of barrel with a +garden hose for a straw—which would be about her size."</p> + +<p>However, there was a variation of opinions among soldiers about tanks +drawn from personal experience, when life and death form opinions, of +the way it had acted as an auxiliary to their part of the line. A tank +that conquered machine-gun positions and enfiladed trenches was an +heroic comrade surrounded by a saga of glorious anecdotes. One which +became stalled and failed in its enterprise called for satirical comment +which was applied to all.</p> + +<p>We did not personify machine guns, or those monstrous, gloomy, big +howitzers with their gaping maws, or other weapons; but every man in the +army personified the tanks. Two or three tanks, I should have remarked, +did start for Berlin, without waiting for the infantry. The temptation +was strong. All they had to do was to keep on moving. When Germans +scuttling for cover were the only thing that the skippers could see, +they realized that they were in the wrong pew, or, in strictly military +language, that they had got beyond their "tactical objective."</p> + +<p>Having left most of their ammunition where they thought that it would do +the most good in the German lines, these wanderers hitched themselves +around and waddled back to their own people. For a tank is an auxiliary, +not an army, or an army staff, or a curtain of fire, and must coöperate +with the infantry or it may be in the enemy's lines to stay. There was +one tank which found itself out of gasoline and surrounded by Germans. +It could move neither way, but could still work its guns. Marooned on a +hostile shore, it would have to yield when the crew ran out of food.</p> + +<p>The Germans charged the beast, and got under its guns, pounded at the +door, tried to bomb and pry it open with bayonets and crawled over the +top looking for dents in the armor with the rage of hornets, but in +vain. They could not harm the crew inside and the crew could not harm +them.</p> + +<p>"A noisy lot!" said the tank's skipper.</p> + +<p>Tactical objective be—British soldiers went to the rescue of their +tank. Secure inside their shell, the commander and crew awaited the +result of the fight. After the Germans were driven away, someone went +for a can of gasoline, which gave the beast the breath of life to +retreat to its "correct tactical position."</p> + +<p>Even if it had not been recovered at the time, the British would have +regained possession with their next advance; for the Germans had no way +of taking a tank to the rear. There are no tractors powerful enough to +draw one across the shell-craters. It can be moved only by its own +power, and with its engine out of order it becomes a fixture on the +landscape. Stranded tanks have an appearance of Brobdingnagian +helplessness. They are fair targets for revenge by a concentration of +German artillery fire; yet when half hidden in a gigantic shell-hole +which they could not navigate they are a small target and, their tint +melting into the earth, are hard to locate.</p> + +<p>Seen through the glasses, disregarding ordinary roads and traveled +routes, the tanks' slatey backs seemed like prehistoric turtles whose +natural habitat is shell-mauled earth. They were the last word in the +business of modern war, symbolic of its satire and the old strife +between projectile and armor, offensive and defensive. If two tanks were +to meet in a duel, would they try to ram each other after ineffectually +rapping each other with their machine guns?</p> + +<p>"I hope that it knows where it is going!" exclaimed a brigadier-general, +as he watched one approach his dugout across an abandoned trench, +leaning over a little as it dipped into the edge of a shell-crater some +fifteen feet in diameter with its sureness of footing on a rainy day +when a pedestrian slipped at every step.</p> + +<p>There was no indication of any guiding human intelligence, let alone +human hand, directing it; and, so far as one could tell, it might have +mistaken the general's underground quarters for a storage station where +it could assuage its thirst for gasoline or a blacksmith's shop where it +could have a bent steel claw straightened. When, finally, it stopped at +his threshold, the general expressed his relief that it had not tried to +come down the steps. A door like that of a battleship turret opened, and +out of the cramped interior where space for crew and machinery is so +nicely calculated came the skipper, who saluted and reported that his +ship awaited orders for the next cruise.</p> + +<p>Soon the sight of tanks became part of the routine of existence, and +interest in watching an advance centered on the infantry which they +supported in a charge; for only by its action could you judge whether or +not machine gun fire had developed and, later, whether or not the tanks +were silencing it. The human element was still supreme, its movement and +its losses in life the criterion of success and failure, with an eternal +thrill that no machine can arouse. If the tanks had accomplished nothing +more than they did in the two great September attacks they would have +been well worth while. I think that they saved twenty-five thousand +casualties, which would have been the additional cost of gaining the +ground won by unassisted infantry action. When machines manned by a few +men can take the place of many battalions in this fashion they exemplify +the essential principle of doing the enemy a maximum of damage with a +minimum to your own forces.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4><a name="XXVIII" id="XXVIII"></a>XXVIII</h4> + +<h4>CANADA IS QUICK</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Canada's first offensive—The "surprise party"—Over nasty +ground—Canada's hour—Germans amazed—Business of the Canadians to +"get there"—Two difficult villages—Canadians make new +rules—Canada's green soldiers accomplish an unheard of +feat—Attacking on their nerve—The last burst—Fewer Canadians than +Germans, but—"Mopping up"—Rounding up the captives—An aristocratic +German and a democratic Canadian—French-Canadians—Thirteen +counter-attacks beaten—Quickness and adaptability—Canada's soldiers +make good.</p></div> + + +<p>The tanks having received their theatric due, we come to other results +of Sept. 14th when the resistance of the right was stiff and Canada had +her turn of fortune in sharing in the brilliant success on the left.</p> + +<p>It was the Canadians' first offensive. They knew that the eyes of the +army were upon them. Not only for themselves, after parrying blows +throughout their experience at the front, but in the name of other +battalions that had endured the remorseless grind of the Ypres salient +they were to strike the blows of retribution. The answer as to how they +would charge was written in faces clear-cut by the same climate that +gave them their nervous alertness.</p> + +<p>On that ugly part of the Ridge where no stable trench could be made +under the vengeful German artillery fire and small numbers were shrewdly +distributed in shell-craters and such small ditches as could be +maintained, they crept out in the darkness a few days before the attack +to "take over" from the Australians and familiarize themselves with this +tempest-torn farming land which still heaved under tornadoes of shells. +The men from the faraway island continent had provided the jumping-off +place and the men from this side of the Pacific and the equator were to +do the jumping, which meant a kind of overseas monopoly of Pozières +Ridge.</p> + +<p>The Germans still hated the idea of yielding all the crest that stared +down on them and hid the slope beyond which had once been theirs. They +would try again to recover some of it, but chose a time for their effort +which was proof enough that they did not know that a general attack was +coming. Just before dawn, with zero at dawn, when the Canadians were +forming on the reverse slope for their charge, the Germans laden with +bombs made theirs and secured a footing in the thin front line among the +shell-craters and, grim shadows in the night lighted by bursts of bombs +and shells, struggled as they have on many similar occasions.</p> + +<p>Then came the "surprise party." Not far away the Canadian charge waited +on the tick of the second which was to release the six-mile line of +infantry and the tanks.</p> + +<p>"We were certainly keyed up," as one of the men said. "It was up to us +all right, now."</p> + +<p>Breasting the tape in their readiness for the word, the dry air of North +America with its champagne exhilaration was in their lungs whipping +their red corpuscles. They had but one thought and that was to "get +there." No smooth drill-ground for that charge, but earth broken with +shell-craters as thick as holes in a pepper-box cover! A man might +stumble into one, but he must get up and go on. One fellow who twisted +his ankle found it swollen out of all shape when the charge was over. If +he had given it such a turn at home he would not have attempted to move +but would have called for a cab or assistance. Under the spell of action +he did not even know that he was hurt.</p> + +<p>It was Canada's hour; all the months of drill at home, all the dreams on +board the transport of charges to come, all the dull monotony of +billets, all the slimy vigil of trenches, all the labor of preparation +come to a head for every individual. Such was the impulse of the tidal +wave which broke over the crest upon the astounded Germans who had +gained a footing in the trench, engulfing them in as dramatic an +episode as ever occurred on the Somme front.</p> + +<p>"Give yourselves up and be quick about it! We've business elsewhere!" +said the officers.</p> + +<p>Yes, they had business with the German first-line trench when the +artillery curtain lifted, where few Germans were found, most of them +having been in the charge. The survivors here put up their hands before +they put up their heads from shelter and soon were on their way back to +the rear in the company of the others.</p> + +<p>"I guess we had the first batch of prisoners to reach an inclosure on +the morning of the 14th," said one Canadian. "We had a start with some +coming into our own front line to be captured."</p> + +<p>On the left Mouquet Farm, which, with its unsurpassed dugouts and +warrens surrounded by isolated machine gun posts, had repulsed previous +attacks, could not resist the determined onslaught which will share +glory, when history is written, with the storming of Courcelette. Down +hill beside the Bapaume Road swept the right and center, with +shell-craters still thick but growing fewer as the wave came out into +open fields in face of the ruins of the sugar factory, with the tank +Crème de Menthe ready to do her part. She did not take care of all the +machine guns; the infantry attended to at least one, I know. The German +artillery turned on curtains of fire, but in one case the Canadians +were not there when the curtain was laid to bar their path. They had +been too rapid for the Germans. No matter what obstacle the Germans put +in the way the business of the Canadians was to "get there"—and they +"got there." The line marked on their map from the Bapaume Road to the +east of the sugar factory as their objective was theirs. In front of +them was the village of Courcelette and in front of the British line +linked up on their right was Martinpuich.</p> + +<p>Spades now! Dig as hard as you have charged in order to hold the freshly +won position, with "there" become "here" and the Ridge at your backs! +The London song of "The Byng Boys are Here," which gave the name of the +Byng Boys to the Canadians after General Byng took command of their +corps, had a most realistic application.</p> + +<p>With the news from the right of the six-mile front that of a continuing +fierce struggle, word from the left had the definite note of success. +Was General Byng pleased with his Byng Boys? Was his superior, the army +commander, pleased with the Canadians? They had done the trick and this +is the thing that counts on such occasions; but when you take trenches +and fields, however great the gain of ground, they lack the concrete +symbol of victory which a village possesses.</p> + +<p>And ahead were Courcelette and Martinpuich, both only partially +demolished by shell fire and in nowise properly softened according to +the usual requirements for capitulation, with their cellars doubtless +heavily reinforced as dugouts. Officers studying the villages through +their glasses believed that they could be taken. Why not try? To try +required nerve, when it was against all tactical experience to rush on +to a new objective over such a broad front without taking time for +elaborate artillery preparation. General Byng, who believed in his men +and understood their initiative, their "get there" quality, was ready to +advance and so was the corps commander of the British in front of +Martinpuich. Sir Douglas Haig gave consent.</p> + +<p>"Up and at them!" then, with fresh battalions hurried up so rapidly that +they had hardly time to deploy, but answering the order for action with +the spirit of men who have been stalled in trenches and liked the new +experience of stretching their legs. With a taste of victory, nothing +could stop these highstrung reserves, except the things that kill and +wound. The first charge had succeeded and the second must succeed.</p> + +<p>German guns had done the customary thing by laying barrages back of the +new line across the field and shelling the crest of the Ridge to prevent +supports from coming up. It was quite correct form for the German +commander to consider the ceremony of the day over. The enemy had taken +his objective. Of course, he would not try for another immediately. +Meanwhile, his tenure of new line must be made as costly as possible. +But this time the enemy did not act according to rules. He made some new +ones.</p> + +<p>The reserve battalions which were to undertake the storming of the +village had gone over the ground under the barrages and were up to the +first objective, and when through the new line occupied by the men who +made the first charge they could begin their own charge. As barrages are +intermittent, one commander had his men lie down behind one until it had +ceased. Again, after waiting on another for a while he decided that he +might be late in keeping his engagement in Courcelette and gave the +order to go through, which, as one soldier said, "we did in a +hundred-yard dash sprinting a double quick—good reason why!" When the +fresh wave passed the fellows in the new line the winners of the first +objective called, "Go to it!" "You'll do it!" "Hurrah for Canada!" and +added touches of characteristic dry humor which shell fire makes a +little drier, such as a request to engage seats for the theatre at +Courcelette that evening.</p> + +<p>Consider that these battalions which were to take Courcelette had to +march about two miles under shell fire, part of the way over ground +that was spongy earth cut by shell-craters, before they could begin +their charge and that they were undertaking an innovation in tactics, +and you have only half an understanding of their task. Their officers +were men out of civil life in every kind of occupation, learning their +war in the Ypres salient stalemate, and now they were to have the +severest possible test in directing their units in an advance.</p> + +<p>There had been no time to lay out pattern plans for each company's +course in this second rush according to map details, which is so +important against modern defenses. The officers did not know where +machine guns were hidden; they were uncertain of the strength of the +enemy who had had all day to prepare for the onslaught on his bastions +in the village. It was pitched battle conditions against set defenses. +Under curtains of fire, with the concentration heavy at one point and +weak at another, with machine gun or sniping fire developing in some +areas, with the smoke and the noise, with trenches to cross, the +business of keeping a wave of men in line of attack for a long +distance—difficult enough in a manoeuver—was possible only when the +initiative and an understanding of the necessities of the situation +exist in the soldiers themselves. If one part of the line was not up, if +a section was being buffeted by salvos of shells, the officers had to +meet the emergency; and officers as well as men were falling, companies +being left with a single officer or with only a "non-com" in charge. +Unless a man was down he knew that his business was to "get there" and +his direction was straight ahead in line with the men on his right and +left.</p> + +<p>With dead and wounded scattered over the field behind them, all who +could stand on their feet, including officers and men knocked over and +buried by shells and with wounds of arms and heads and even legs which +made them hobble, reached the edge of the village on time and lay down +to await the lifting of the fire of their own guns before the final +rush.</p> + +<p>After charging such a distance and paying the toll of casualties exacted +they enjoyed a breathing space, a few minutes in which to steady their +thoughts for the big thing before, "lean for the hunt," they sprang up +to be in for the fray with the burst of the last shells from their guns. +They knew what to do. It had been drilled into them; they had talked it +and dreamed it in billets when routine became humdrum, these men with +practical minds who understood the essentials of their task.</p> + +<p>There were fewer Canadians charging through the streets than there were +Germans in the village at that moment. The Canadians did not know it, +but if they had it would have made no difference, such was their spirit. +Secure in their dugouts from bombardment, the first that the Germans, in +their systematized confidence that the enemy would not try for a second +objective that day, knew of the presence of the Canadians was when the +attackers were at the door and a St. Lawrence River incisiveness was +calling on the occupants to come out as they were prisoners—which +proves the advantage of being quick. The second wave was left to "mop +up" while the first wave passed on through the village to nail down the +prize by digging new trenches. Thus, they had their second objective, +though on the left of the line where the action had been against a part +of the old first-line system of trenches progress had been slow and +fighting bitter.</p> + +<p>The Canadians who had to "mop up" had the "time of their lives" and some +ticklish moments. What a scene! Germans in clean uniforms coming out of +their dugouts blinking in surprise at their undoing and in disgust, +resentment and suppressed rage! Canadians, dust-covered from +shell-bursts, eyes flashing, laughing, rushing about on the job in the +midst of shouts of congratulation and directions to prisoners among the +ruins, and the German commander so angered by the loss of the village +that he began pouring in shells on Germans and Canadians at the same +time! Two colonels were among the captured, a regimental and a battalion +commander. The senior was a baron—one cannot leave him out of any +narrative—and inclined to bear himself with patrician contempt toward +the Canadian democracy, which is a mistake for barons in his situation +with every Canadian more or less of a king that day. When he tried to +start his men into a revolt his hosts acted promptly, with the result +that the uprising was nipped in the bud and the baron was shot through +the leg, leaving him still "fractious and patronizing." Then the little +colonel of the French-Canadians said, "I think I might as well shoot you +in a more vital part and have done with it!" or something equally to the +point and suddenly the baron became quite democratic himself.</p> + +<p>One of the battalions that took Courcelette was French-Canadian. No +other Canadian battalion will deny them the glory that they won that +day, and it must have been irritating to the German baron to surrender +superior numbers to the stocky type that we see in New England factory +towns and on their farms in Quebec, for they now formed the battalion, +the frontiersmen, the <i>courrier de bois</i>, having been mostly killed in +the salient. Shall I forget that little private, forty years old if he +were a day, with a hole from shrapnel in his steel helmet and the bit +of purple and white ribbon worn proudly on his breast, who, when I asked +him how he felt after he received the clout from a shell-fragment, +remarked blandly that it had knocked him down and made his head ache!</p> + +<p>"You have the military cross!" I said.</p> + +<p>"Yais, sir. I'm going to win the Victoria Cross!" he replied, saluting. +Talk about "the spirit that quickeneth!"</p> + +<p>Or, shall I forget the French-Canadian colonel telling his story of how +he and the battalion on his left in equal difficulties held the line +beyond Courcelette with his scattered men against thirteen +counter-attacks that night; how he had to go from point to point +establishing his posts in the dark, and his repeated "'I golly!" of +wonder at how he had managed to hold on, with its ring of naïve +unrealization of the humor of being knocked over by a shell and finding, +"'I golly!" that he had not been hurt! They had not enlisted freely, the +French-Canadians, but those who had proved that if the war emotion had +taken hold of them as it had of the rest of Canada they would not have +been found wanting.</p> + +<p>"'I golly!" they had to fight from the very fact that there were only a +few to strike for old France and for the martial honor of Quebec. And +they held all they took as sturdily as the other Canadian battalion in +front of the village when the Germans awakened to revenge for the loss +of Courcelette.</p> + +<p>From start to finish of that great day it had been quickness that +counted; quickness to realize opportunities; alertness of individual +action in "mopping up" after the village was taken; prompt adaptability +to situations which is the gift of the men of a new country; and that +individual confidence of the Canadian once he was not tied to a trench +and might let his initiative have full play, man to man, which is not a +thing of drill or training but of inheritance and environment. On the +right, Martinpuich was taken by the British and also held.</p> + +<p>It was in rain and mist after the battle, while the dead still lay on +the field, that I went over the Ridge and along the path of the Canadian +charges, wondering how they had passed through the curtains of fire when +I saw shrapnel cases so thick that you could step from one to another; +wondering how men could survive in the shell-craters and the poor, +tumbled trenches in the soft, shell-mashed earth; wondering at the whole +business of their being here in France, a veteran army two years after +the war had begun. I saw them dripping from the rains, mud-spattered, +but in the joy of having made good when their turn came, and in a way +that was an exemplification of Canadian character in every detail. "Heap +good!" I suppose that big Sioux Indian, looking as natural seated in a +trench in his imperturbability as if he were seated in front of his +tepee, would have put it. He was seeing a strange business, but high +explosives shaking the earth, aeroplanes overhead, machine guns rattling +in the war of the Pale Faces he accepted without emotion.</p> + +<p>With the second battle of Ypres, with St. Eloi, Hooge, Mount Sorrell, +and Observatory Ridge, Courcelette had completed the cycle of soldierly +experiences for those who bore the Maple Leaf in France of the +<i>Fleur-de-lis</i>. Officers and men of every walk of life called to a new +occupation, a democracy out of the west submitting to discipline had +been inured and trained to a new life of risk and comradeship and +sacrifice for a cause. It will seem strange to be out of khaki and to go +to the office, or the store, or to get up to milk the cows at dawn; +"but," as one man said, "we'll manage to adapt ourselves to it without +spending nights in a mud hole or asking the neighbors to throw any bombs +over the fence in order to make the change gradual."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4><a name="XXIX" id="XXIX"></a>XXIX</h4> + +<h4>THE HARVEST OF VILLAGES</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>High and low visibilities—Low Visibility a pro-German—High +Visibility and his harvest smile—Thirty villages taken by the +British—The 25th of September—The Road of the Entente—Twelve miles +of artillery fire—Two villages taken—Combles—British and French +meet in a captured village—English stubbornness—Dugouts holding a +thousand men—Capture of Thiepval.</p></div> + + +<p>Always we were talking of the two visibilities, high and low. I thought +of them as brothers with the same meteorological parent, one a good and +the other an evil genius. Every morning we looked out of doors to see +which had the stage. Thus, we might know whether or not the "zero" of an +attack set for to-day would be postponed, as it was usually if the sun +gave no sign of appearing, though not always; sometimes the staff gave +those who tried to guess what was in its mind a surprise.</p> + +<p>Low Visibility, a pro-German who was in his element in the Ypres salient +in midwinter, delighted in rain, mist, fog and thick summer +haze—anything that prevented observers from seeing the burst of shells, +transformed shell-craters into miniature lakes and fields into mire to +founder charges, and stalled guns.</p> + +<p>High Visibility was as merry as his wicked brother was dour. He sent the +sunlight streaming into your room in the morning, washed the air of +particles enabling observers to see shell-bursts at long range, and +favored successful charges under accurate curtains of fire—the patron +saint of all modern artillery work, who would be most at home in Arizona +where you could carry on an offensive the year around.</p> + +<p>During September his was a glad harvest smile which revealed figures on +the chalk welts a mile away as clearly as if within a stone's throw +under the glasses and limned the tree-trunks of ruined villages in sharp +outlines. He was your companion now when you might walk up the Ridge +and, standing among shell-craters still as a frozen sea where but lately +an inferno had raged, look out across the fields toward new lines of +shell fire and newly won villages on lower levels. He helped to make the +month of September when he was most needed the most successful month of +the offensive, with its second great attack on the 25th turning the +table of losses entirely against the Germans and bringing many guests to +the prisoners' inclosures.</p> + +<p>These were days that were rich with results, days of harvest, indeed, +when the ceaseless fighting on the Ridge and the iron resolution of a +commander had its reward; when advances gathered in villages till the +British had taken thirty and the French, with fresh efforts after their +own chipping away at strong points, also had jumping-off places for +longer drives as they swung in with their right on the Somme in +combination with British attacks.</p> + +<p>The two armies advanced as one on the 25th. The scene recalled the +splendor of the storming of Contalmaison which, if not for its waste and +horror, might lead men to go to war for the glory of the +panorama—glorious to the observer in this instance when he thought only +of the spectacle, in a moment of oblivion to the hard work of +preparation and the savage work of execution. Our route to a point of +observation for the attack which was at midday took us along the Road of +the Entente, as I called it, where French battalions marched with +British battalions, stately British motor trucks mixed with the lighter +French vehicles, and Gaul sat resting on one side of the road and Briton +on the other as German prisoners went by, and there was a mingling of +blue and khaki which are both of low visibility against the landscape +yet as distinct as the characters of the two races, each with its own +way of fighting true to racial bent yet accomplishing its purpose.</p> + +<p>Just under the slope where we sat the British guns linked up with the +French. To the northward the British were visible right away past Ginchy +and Guillemont to Flers and the French clear to the Somme. We were +almost midway of a twelve-mile stretch of row upon row of flashes of +many calibers, the French more distinct at the foot of a slope +fearlessly in the open like the British, a long machine-loom of gunnery +with some monsters far back sending up great clouds of black smoke from +Mt. St. Quentin which hid our view of Péronne.</p> + +<p>Now it was all together for the guns in the preliminary whirlwind, with +<i>soixante-quinzes</i> ahead sparkling up and down like the flashes of an +automatic electric sign, making a great, thrumming beat of sound in the +valley, and the 120's near by doing their best, too, with their wicked +crashes, while the ridges beyond were a bobbing canopy of looming, +curling smoke. The units of the two armies might have been wired to a +single switchboard with heartbeats under blue and khaki jackets timed +together in the final expression of <i>entente cordiale</i> become <i>entente +furieuse</i>.</p> + +<p>The sunlight had the golden kindness of September and good Brother High +Visibility seemed to make it a personal matter to-day against the +Kaiser. Distinct were the moving figures of the gunners and bright was +the gleam of the empty shells dropping out of the breach of the +<i>soixante-quinze</i> as the barrel swung back in place and of the loaded +shells going home; distinct were paths and trenches and all the detail +of the tired, worn landscape, with the old trenches where we were +sitting tumbling in and their sides fringed with wild grass and weeds, +which was Nature's own little say in the affair and a warning that in a +few years after the war she and the peasant will have erased war's +landmarks.</p> + +<p>The lifting of the barrage as the infantry went in was signaled to the +eye when the canopy of shell-smoke began to grow thin and gossamery for +want of fresh bursts and another was forming beyond, as if the master +hand at such things had lifted a long trail of cloud from one set of +crests to another; only, nature never does things with such mathematical +precision. All in due order to keep its turn in the program the German +artillery began to reply according to its system of distribution, with +guns and ammunition plentiful but inferior in quantity to the French. +They did not like that stretch of five hundred yards behind a slope +where they thought that the most troublesome batteries were, and the +puffs of shrapnel smoke thickened dimming the flashes from the bursting +jackets until a wall of mist hung there. A torrent of five-point-nines +was tearing up fresh craters with high explosives back of other gun +positions, and between the columns of smoke we saw the French gunners +going on unconcerned by this plowing of the landscape which was not +disturbing them.</p> + +<p>Far off on the plain where a British ammunition train was visible the +German loosed more anger, whipping the fields into geysers; but the +caissons moved on as if this were a signal of all aboard for the next +station without the Germans being aware that their target was gone. A +British battery advancing at another point evidently was not in view of +the Germans two thousand yards away, though good Brother High Visibility +gave our glasses the outline of the horses at five thousand yards.</p> + +<p>Thus, you watched to see what the Germans were shooting at, with +suspense at one point and at another the joy of the observer who sees +the one who is "it" in blind man's buff missing his quarry. Some +shrapnel searching a road in front and a scream overhead indicated a +parcel of high explosives for a village at the rear. In Morval where +houses were still standing, their white walls visible through the +glasses, there was a kind of flash which was not that of a shell but +prolonged, like a windowpane flaming under the sun, which we knew meant +that the village was taken, as was also Gueudecourt we learned +afterward.</p> + +<p>Reserves were filing along a road between the tiers of guns, helmets on +the backs of heads French fashion when there is no fire, with the easy +marching stride of the French and figures disappeared and reappeared on +the slope as they advanced. Wounded were coming along the winding gray +streak of highway near where we sat and a convoy of prisoners passed led +by a French guard whose attitude seemed to have an eye-twinkling of "See +who's here and see what I've got!" Not far away was a French private at +a telephone.</p> + +<p>"It goes well!" he said. "Rancourt is taken and we are advancing on +Frégicourt. Combles is a ripe plum."</p> + +<p>All the while Combles had been an oasis in the shell fire, the one place +that had immunity, although it had almost as much significance in the +imagination of the French people as Thiepval in that of the English. +They looked forward to its storming as a set dramatic event and to its +fall as one of the turning-points in the campaign. Often a position +which was tactically of little importance, to our conception, would +become the center of great expectations to the outside world, while the +conquest of a strong point with its nests of machine guns produced no +responsive thrill.</p> + +<p>Combles was a village and a large village, its size perhaps accounting +for the importance associated with it when it had almost none in a +military sense. Yet correspondents knew that readers at the breakfast +table would be hungry for details about Combles, where the taking of the +Schwaben Redoubt or Regina Trench, which were defended savagely, had no +meaning. Its houses were very distinct, some being but little damaged +and some of the shade trees still retaining their branches. This town +nestling in a bowl was not worth the expenditure of much ammunition when +what the Germans wanted to hold and the Anglo-French troops to gain was +the hills around it. Rancourt was the other side of Combles, which +explains the plum simile.</p> + +<p>The picturesque thing was that the British troops were working up on one +side of Combles and the French on the other side; and the next morning +after the British had gathered in some escaping Germans who seemed to +have lost their way, the blue and the khaki met in the main street +without indulging in formal ceremonies and exchanged a "Good morning!" +and "<i>Bon jour!</i>" and "Here we are! Voyla! Quee pawnsays-vous!" and "Ça +va bien! Oh, yais, I tink so!" and found big piles of shells and other +munitions which the Germans could not take away and cellars with many +wounded who had been brought in from the hills—and that was all there +was to it: a march in and look around, when for glory's sake, at least, +the victors ought to have delivered congratulatory addresses. But tired +soldiers will not do that sort of thing. I shall not say that they are +spoiling pictures for the Salon, for there are incidents enough to keep +painters going for a thousand years; which ought to be one reason for +not having a war for another thousand!</p> + +<p>As for Thiepval, the British staff, inconsiderate of the correspondents +this time—they really were not conducting the war for us—did not +inform us of the attack, being busy those days reaping villages and +trenches after they were over the Ridge while High Visibility had Low +Visibility shut up in the guardhouse. Besides, the British were so near +Thiepval as the result of their persistent advances that its taking was +only another step forward, one of savage fighting, however, in the same +kind of operations that I have described in the chapter on "Watching a +Charge." The débris beaten into dust had been so scattered that one +could not tell where the village began or ended, but the smudge was a +symbol to the army no less than to the British public—a symbol of the +boasted impregnability of the first-line German fortifications which had +resisted the attack of July 1st—and its capture a reward of English +stubbornness appealing to the race which is not unconscious of the +characteristic that has carried its tongue and dominion over the world.</p> + +<p>Point was given, too, by the enormous dugouts, surpassing previous +exhibits, capable of holding a garrison of a thousand men and a hospital +which, under the bursts of huge shells of the months of British +bombardment, had been safe under ground. The hospital was equipped with +excellent medical apparatus as well as anæsthetics manufactured in +Germany, of which the British were somewhat short. The German battalion +that held the place had been associated with the work of preparing its +defenses and were practically either all taken prisoner or killed, so +far as could be learned. They had sworn that they would never lose +Thiepval; but the deeper the dugouts the farther upstairs men inside +have to climb in order to get to the door before the enemy, who arrives +at the threshold as the whirlwind barrage lifts.</p> + +<p>As I have said, Thiepval was not on the very crest of the Ridge and on +the summit the same elaborate works had been built to hold this high +ground. We watched other attacks under curtains of fire as the British +pressed on. Sometimes we could see the Germans moving out in the open +from their dugouts at the base of the hill in St. Pierre Divion and +driven to cover as the British guns sniped at them with shrapnel. +Resistlessly the British infantry under its covering barrages kept on +till the crest and all its dugouts and galleries were gained, thus +breaking back the old first-line fortifications stage by stage and +forcing the German into the open, where he must dig anew on equal terms.</p> + +<p>The capture of Thiepval did not mean that its ruins were to have any +rest from shells, for the German guns had their turn. They seemed fond +of sending up spouts from a little pond in the foreground, which had no +effect except to shower passing soldiers with dirty water. However much +the pond was beaten it was still there; and I was struck by the fact +that this was a costly and unsuccessful system of drainage for such an +efficient people as the Germans to apply.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4><a name="XXX" id="XXX"></a>XXX</h4> + +<h4>FIVE GENERALS AND VERDUN</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Sixty miles an hour to meet General Joffre—Joffre somewhat like +Grant—Two figures which France will remember for all time—Joffre +and Castelnau—Two very old friends—At Verdun—What Napoleon and +Wellington might have thought—A staff whose feet and mind never +dragged—The hero of Douaumont, General Nivelle—Simplicity—Men who +believe in giving blows—A true soldier—A prized photograph of +Joffre—The drama of Douaumont—General Mangin, corps commander at +Verdun—An eye that said "Attack!"—A five-o'clock-in-the-morning +corps—The old fortress town, Verdun—The effort of +Colossus—Germany's high water mark—Thrifty fighters, the +French—Germany good enough to win against Rumania, but not at +Verdun.</p></div> + + +<p>That spirited friend Lieutenant T., at home in an English or a French +mess or walking arm-in-arm with the <i>poilus</i> of his old battalion, +required quick stepping to keep up with him when we were not in his +devil of a motor car that carried me on a flying visit to the French +lines before I started for home and did not fail even when sixty miles +an hour were required to keep the appointment with General Joffre—which +we did, to the minute.</p> + +<p>Many people have told of sitting across the table in his private office +from the victor of the Marne; and it was when he was seated and began to +talk that you appreciated the power of the man, with his great head and +its mass of white hair and the calm, largely-molded features, who could +give his orders when the fate of France was at stake and then retire to +rest for the night knowing that his part was done for the day and the +rest was with the army. In common with all men when experience and +responsibility have ripened their talents, though lacking in the gift of +formal speech-making, as Grant was, he could talk well, in clear +sentences, whose mold was set by precise thought, which brought with it +the eloquence that gains its point. It was more than personality, in +this instance, that had appeal. He was the personification of a great +national era.</p> + +<p>In view of changes which were to come, another glimpse that I had of him +in the French headquarters town which was not by appointment is +peculiarly memorable. When I was out strolling I saw on the other side +of the street two figures which all France knew and will know for all +time. Whatever vicissitudes of politics, whatever campaigns ensue, +whatever changes come in the world after the war, Joffre's victory at +the Marne and Castelnau's victory in Lorraine, which was its complement +in masterly tactics, make their niches in the national Pantheon secure.</p> + +<p>The two old friends, comrades of army life long before fame came to +them one summer month, Commander-in-Chief and Chief of Staff, were +taking their regular afternoon promenade—Joffre in his familiar short, +black coat which made his figure the burlier, his walk affected by the +rheumatism in his legs, though he certainly had no rheumatism in his +head, and Castelnau erect and slight of figure, his slimness heightened +by his long, blue overcoat—chatting as they walked slowly, and behind +them followed a sturdy guard in plain clothes at a distance of a few +paces, carrying two cushions. Joffre stopped and turned with a +"you-don't-say-so" gesture and a toss of his head at something that +Castelnau had told him.</p> + +<p>Very likely they were not talking of the war; indeed, most likely it was +about friends in their army world, for both have a good wit, a keen and +amiable understanding of human nature. At all events, they were enjoying +themselves. So they passed on into the woods, followed by the guard who +would place their cushions on their favorite seat, and the two who had +been lieutenants and captains and colonels together would continue their +airing and their chat until they returned to the business of directing +their millions of men.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>It was raining in this darkened French village near Verdun and a passing +battalion went dripping by, automobiles sent out sprays of muddy water +from their tires, and over in the crowded inclosures the German +prisoners taken at Douaumont stood in the mud waiting to be entrained. +Occasionally a soldier or an officer came out of a doorway that sent +forth a stream of light, and upstairs in the municipal building where we +went to pay our respects to the general commanding the army that had won +the victory which had thrilled France as none had since the Marne, we +found that it was the regular hour for his staff to report. They +reported standing in the midst of tables and maps and standing received +their orders. In future, when I see the big room with its mahogany table +and fat armchairs reserved for directors' meetings I shall recall +equally important conferences in the affairs of a nation that were held +under simpler auspices.</p> + +<p>This conference seemed in keeping with the atmosphere of the place: +nobody in any flurry of haste and nobody wasting time. One after another +the officers reported; and whatever their ages, for some would have +seemed young for great responsibilities two years before, they were men +going about their business alert, self-possessed, reflective of the +character of their leader as staffs always are, men whose feet and whose +minds never dragged. When they spoke to anybody politeness was the +lubricant of prompt exchange of thought, a noiseless, eight-cylinder, +hundred-horse-power sort of staff. If the little Corsican could have +looked on, if he could have seen the taking of Douaumont, or if +Wellington could have seen the taking of the Ridge, I think that they +would have been well satisfied—and somewhat jealous to find that +military talent was so widespread.</p> + +<p>The man who came out of the staff-room would have won his marshal's +baton in Napoleon's day, I suppose, though he was out of keeping with +those showy times. I did not then know that he was to be +Commander-in-Chief; only that all France thrilled with his name, which +time will forever associate with Douaumont. At once you felt the dynamic +quality under his agreeable manner and knew that General Nivelle did +things swiftly and quietly, without wasteful expenditure of reserve +force, which he could call upon when needed by turning on the current.</p> + +<p>There was a stranger come to call; it was a rainy night; we had better +not drive back to the hotel at Bar-le-Duc, he suggested, but find a +billet in town, which was hospitality not to be imposed upon when one +could see how limited quarters were in this small village. Some day I +suppose a plaque will be put up on the door of that small house, with +its narrow hall and plain hat-rack and the sitting-room turned into a +dining-room, saying that General (perhaps it will be Marshal) Nivelle +lived here during the battle of Verdun. It is a fine gift, simplicity. +Some great men, or those who are called great, lack it; but nothing is +so attractive in any man. No sentry at the door, no servant to open it. +You simply went in, hung up your cap and took off your raincoat.</p> + +<p>Hundreds of staffs were sitting down to the same kind of dinner with a +choice of red or white wine and the menu was that of an average French +household. I recall this and other staff dinners, in contrast to costly +plate and rich food in a house where a gold Croesus with diamond eyes +and necklace should have been on the mantelpiece as the household god, +with the thought that even war is a good thing if it centers ambition on +objects other than individual gain. Without knowing it, Joffre, +Castelnau, Foch, Pétain, Nivelle and others were the richest men in +France.</p> + +<p>A colonel when the war began, in the sifting by Father Joffre to find +real leaders by the criterion of success General Nivelle had risen to +command an army. Wherever he was in charge he got the upper hand of the +enemy. All that he and his officers said reflected one spirit—that of +the offensive. They were men who believed in giving blows. A nation +looking for a man who could win victories said, "Here he is!" when its +people read the <i>communiqué</i> about Douaumont one morning. He had been +going his way, doing the tasks in hand according to his own method, and +at one of the stations fame found him. Soldiers have their philosophy +and these days when it includes fame, probably fame never comes. This +time it came to a soldier without any of the showy qualities that fame +used to prefer, one who, I should say, was quite unaffected by it owing +to a greater interest in his work; a man without powerful influence to +urge his promotion. If you had met him before the war he would have +impressed you with his kindly features, well-shaped head and vitality, +and if you know soldiers you would have known that he was highly trained +in his profession. His staff was a family, but the kind of family where +every member has telepathic connection with its head; I could not +imagine that any officer who had not would be at home in the little +dining-room. Readiness of perception and quickness of action in +intelligent obedience were inherent.</p> + +<p>Over in his office in the municipal building where we went after dinner +the general took something wrapped in tissue paper out of a drawer and +from his manner, had he been a collector, I should have known that it +was some rare treasure. When he undid the paper I saw a photograph of +General Joffre autographed with a sentiment for the occasion.</p> + +<p>"He gave it to me for Douaumont!" said General Nivelle, a touch of pride +in his voice—the only sign of pride that I noticed.</p> + +<p>There spoke the soldier to whom praise from his chief was the best +praise and more valued than any other encomium.</p> + +<p>When I spoke of Douaumont he drew out the map and showed me his order of +the day, which had a soldierly brevity that made words keen-edged tools. +The attacking force rushed up overnight and appeared as a regulated +tidal wave of men, their pace timed under cover of curtains of fire +which they hugged close, then over the German trenches and on into the +fort. Six thousand prisoners and forty-five hundred French casualties! +It was this dramatic, this complete and unequivocal success that had +captured the imagination of France, but he was not dramatic in telling +it. He made it a military evolution on a piece of paper; though when he +put his pencil down on Douaumont and held it fast there for a moment, +saying, "And that is all for the present!" the pencil seemed to turn +into steel.</p> + +<p>All for the present! And the future? That of the army of France was to +be in his hands. He had the supreme task. He would approach it as he +had approached all other tasks.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>You had only to look at General Mangin commanding the corps before +Verdun to know that attack was not alone a system but a gospel with him. +Five stripes on his arm for wounds, all won in colonial work, +sun-browned, swart, with a strong, abutting chin which might have been a +fit point for Nivelle's pencil, an eye that said "Attack!" and could +twinkle with the wisdom of many campaigns!</p> + +<p>"General Joffre sat in that chair two hours before the advance," he +said, with the same respectful awe that other generals had exhibited +toward the Commander-in-Chief.</p> + +<p>The time had come for the old leader, grown weary, to go; for the +younger men of the school which the war has produced, with its curtains +of fire and wave attacks, to take his place. But the younger ones in the +confidence of their system could look on the old leader while he lived +as the great, indomitable figure of the critical stages of the war.</p> + +<p>A man of iron, Mangin, with a breadth of chest in keeping with his chin, +who could bear the strain of command which had brought down many +generals from sheer physical incapacity. Month after month this chin had +stood out against German drives, all the while wanting to be in its +natural element of the offensive. His resolute, outright solution of +problems by human ratios would fit him into any age or any climate. He +was at home leading a punitive expedition or in the complicated business +of Verdun. Whether he was using a broadsword or a curtain of fire he +proposed to strike his enemy early and hard and keep on striking. In the +course of talking with him I spoke of the contention that in some cases +in modern war men could be too brave.</p> + +<p>"Rarely!" he replied, a single word which had the emphasis of both that +jaw and that shrewd, piercing eye.</p> + +<p>"What is the best time to go out to the front?" I asked the general.</p> + +<p>"Five o'clock in the morning!"</p> + +<p>The officer who escorted me did not think anything of getting up at that +hour. Mangin's is a five-o'clock-in-the-morning corps.</p> + +<p>Shall I describe that town on the banks of the Meuse which has been +described many times? Or that citadel built by Vauban, with dynamos and +electric light in its underground chambers and passages, its hospitals, +shops, stores and barrack room, so safe under its walls and roof of +masonry that the Germans presciently did not waste their shells on it +but turned them with particular vengeance on the picturesque old houses +along the river bank, neglecting the barracks purposely in view of their +usefulness to the conquerors when Mecca was theirs. There must be +something sacred to a Frenchman in the citadel which held life secure +and in the ruins which bore their share of the blows upon this old +fortress town in the lap of the hills, looking out toward hills which +had been the real defense.</p> + +<p>Interest quickened on the way to the Verdun front as you came to the +slopes covered with torn and fallen trees, where the Germans laid their +far-reaching curtains of fire to catch the French reserves struggling +through mud and shell-craters on those February and March days to the +relief of the front line. Only when you have known the life of an army +in action in winter in such a climate can you appreciate the will that +drove men forward to the attack and the will of the defenders against +outnumbering guns, having to yield, point by point, with shrewd thrift, +small bands of men in exposed places making desperate resistance against +torrents of shells.</p> + +<p>Verdun was German valor at its best and German gunnery at its mightiest, +the effort of Colossus shut in a ring of steel to force a decision; and +the high-water mark of German persistence was where you stood on the +edge of the area of mounds that shells had heaped and craters that +shells had scooped by the concentration of fire on Fort Souville. A few +Germans in the charge reached here, but none returned. The survivors +entered Verdun, the French will tell you with a shrug, as prisoners. +Down the bare slope with its dead grass blotched by craters the eye +travels and then up another slope to a crest which you see as a cumulus +of shell-tossed earth under an occasional shell-burst. That is +Douaumont, whose taking cost the Germans such prolonged and bloody +effort and aroused the Kaiser to a florid outburst of laudation of his +Brandenburgers who, by its capture, had, as Germany then thought, +brought France to her death-gasp.</p> + +<p>On that hill German prestige and system reached their zenith; and the +answer eight months later was French <i>élan</i> which, in two hours, with +the swiftness and instinctive cohesion of democracy drilled and +embattled and asking no spur from an autocrat, swept the Germans off the +summit. From other charges I could visualize the precise and spirited +movement of those blue figures under waves of shell fire in an attack +which was the triumphant example of the latest style of offensive +against frontal positions. There was no Kaiser to burst into rhetoric to +thank General Nivelle, who had his reward in an autographed photograph +from Father Joffre; and the men of that charge had theirs in the +gratitude of a people.</p> + +<p>Fort Vaux, on another crest at the right, was still in German hands, but +that, too, was to be regained with the next rush. Yes, it was good to +be at Verdun after Douaumont had been retaken, standing where you would +have been in range of a German sniper a week before. Turning as on a +pivot, you could identify through the glasses all the positions whose +names are engraved on the French mind. Not high these circling hills, +the keystone of a military arch, but taken together it was clear how, in +this as in other wars, they were nature's bastion at the edge of the +plain that lay a misty line in the distance.</p> + +<p>Either in front or to the rear of Souville toward Verdun the surprising +thing was how few soldiers you saw and how little transport within range +of German guns; which impressed you with the elastic system of the +French, who are there and are not there. Let an attack by the Germans +develop and soldiers would spring out of the earth and the valleys echo +with the thunder of guns. A thrifty people, the French.</p> + +<p>When studying those hills that had seen the greatest German offensive +after I had seen the offensive on the Somme, I thought of all that the +summer had meant on the Western front, beginning with Douaumont lost and +ending with Douaumont regained and the sweep over the conquered Ridge; +and I thought of another general, Sir Douglas Haig, who had had to train +his legions, begin with bricks and mortar to make a house under shell +fire and, day by day, with his confidence in "the spirit that +quickeneth" as the great asset, had wrought with patient, far-seeing +skill a force in being which had never ceased attacking and drawing in +German divisions to hold the line that those German divisions were meant +to break.</p> + +<p>Von Falkenhayn was gone from power; the Crown Prince who thirsted for +war had had his fill and said that war was an "idiocy." It was the +sentiment of the German trenches which put von Falkenhayn out; the +silent ballots of that most sensitive of all public opinion, casting its +votes with the degree of its disposition to stand fire, which no officer +can control by mere orders.</p> + +<p>With the Verdun offensive over, the German soldiers struggling on the +Ridge had a revelation which was translated into a feeling that +censorship could not stifle of the failure of the campaign to crush +France. They called for the man who had won victories and the Kaiser +gave them von Hindenburg, whom fortune favored when he sent armies +inspirited by his leadership against amateur soldiers in veteran +confidence, while the weather had stopped the Allied offensive in the +West.</p> + +<p>Imagine Lee's men returning from Gettysburg to be confronted by +inexperienced home militia and their cry, "The Yanks have given us a +rough time of it, but you fellows get out of the way!" Such was the +feeling of that German Army as it went southward; not the army that it +was, but quite good enough an army to win against Rumania with the +system that had failed at Verdun.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4><a name="XXXI" id="XXXI"></a>XXXI</h4> + +<h4><i>AU REVOIR</i>, SOMME!</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Sir Douglas Haig—Atmosphere at headquarters something of Oxford and +of Scotland—Sir Henry Rawlinson—"Degumming" the inefficient—Back +on the Ridge again—The last shell-burst—Good-bye to the mess—The +fellow war-correspondents—<i>Bon voyage</i>.</p></div> + + +<p>The fifth of the great attacks, which was to break in more of the old +first-line fortifications, taking Beaumont-Hamel and other villages, was +being delayed by Brother Low Visibility, who had been having his innings +in rainy October and early November, when the time came for me to say +good-byes and start homeward.</p> + +<p>Sir Douglas Haig had been as some invisible commander who was +omnipresent in his forceful control of vast forces. His disinclination +for reviews or display was in keeping with his nature and his conception +of his task. The army had glimpses of him going and coming in his car +and observers saw him entering or leaving an army or a corps +headquarters, his strong, calm features expressive of confidence and +resolution.</p> + +<p>There were many instances of his fine sensitiveness, his quick +decisions, his Scotch phrases which could strip a situation bare of +non-essentials. It was good that a man with his culture and charm could +have the qualities of a great commander. In the chateau which was his +Somme headquarters where final plans were made, the final word given +which put each issue to the test, the atmosphere had something of Oxford +and of Scotland and of the British regular army, and everything seemed +done by a routine that ran so smoothly that the appearance of routine +was concealed.</p> + +<p>Here he had said to me early in the offensive that he wanted me to have +freedom of observation and to criticise as I chose, and he trusted me +not to give military information to the enemy. When I went to take my +leave and thank him for his courtesies the army that he had drilled had +received the schooling of battle and tasted victory. How great his task +had been only a soldier could appreciate, and only history can do +justice to the courage that took the Ridge or the part that it had +played in the war.</p> + +<p>Upstairs in a small room of another chateau the Commander-in-Chief and +the Commander of the Fourth of the group of armies under Sir +Douglas—who had played polo together in India as subalterns, Sir Henry +Rawlinson being still as much of a Guardsman as Sir Douglas was a +Scot—had held many conferences. Sir Henry could talk sound soldierly +sense about the results gained and look forward, as did the whole army, +to next summer when the maximum of skill and power should be attained. +In common with Nivelle, both were leaders who had earned their way in +battle, which was promoting the efficient and shelving or "degumming," +in the army phrase, the inefficient. Every week, every day, I might say, +the new army organization had tightened.</p> + +<p>With steel helmet on and gas mask over the shoulder for the last time, I +had a final promenade up to the Ridge, past the guns and Mouquet Farm, +picking my way among the shell-craters and other grisly reminders of the +torment that the fighters had endured to a point where I could look out +over the fields toward Bapaume. For eight and ten miles the way had been +blazed free of the enemy by successive attacks. Five hundred yards ahead +"krumps" splashing the soft earth told where the front line was and +around me was the desert which such pounding had created, with no one in +the immediate neighborhood except some artillery officers hugging a +depression and spotting the fall of shells from their guns just short of +Bapaume and calling out the results by telephone, over one of the +strands of the spider's web of intelligence which they had unrolled from +a reel when they came. I joined them for a few minutes in their retreat +below the skyline and listened to their remarks about Brother Low +Visibility, who soon was to have the world for his own in winter mists, +rain and snow, limiting the army's operations by his perversity until +spring came.</p> + +<p>And so back, as the diarists say, by the grassless and blasted route +over which I had come. After I was in the car I heard one of the wicked +screams with its unpleasant premonition, which came to an end by +whipping out a ball of angry black smoke short of a near-by howitzer, +which was the last shell-burst that I saw.</p> + +<p>Good-bye, too, to my English comrades in a group at the doorway: to +Robinson with his poise, his mellowness, his wisdom, his well-balanced +sentences, who had seen the world around from mining camps of the west +to Serbian refugee camps; to "our Gibbs," ever sweet-tempered, writing +his heart out every night in the human wonder of all he saw in burning +sentences that came crowding to his pencil-point which raced on till he +was exhausted, though he always revived at dinner to undertake any +controversy on behalf of a better future for the whole human race; to +blithesome Thomas who will never grow up, making words dance a tune, +quoting Horace in order to forget the shells, all himself with his coat +off and swinging a peasant's scythe; to Philips the urbane, not saying +much but coming to the essential point, our scout and cartographer, who +knew all the places on the map between the Somme and the Rhine and heard +the call of Pittsburgh; to Russell, that pragmatic, upstanding expert in +squadrons and barrages, who saved all our faces as reporters by knowing +news when he saw it, arbiter of mess conversations, whose pungent wit +had a movable zero—luck to them all! May Robinson have a stately +mansion on the Thames where he can study nature at leisure; Gibbs never +want for something to write about; Thomas have six crops of hay a year +to mow and a garden with a different kind of bird nesting in every tree; +Philips a new pipe every day and a private yacht sailing on an ocean of +maps; Russell a home by the sea where he can watch the ships come +in—when the war is over.</p> + +<p>It happened that High Visibility had slightly the upper hand over his +gloomy brother the day they bade me <i>bon voyage</i>. My last glimpse of the +cathedral showed it clear against the sky; and ahead many miles of rich, +familiar landscape of Picardy and Artois were to unfold before I took +the cross-channel steamer. I knew that I had felt the epic touch of +great events.</p> + + +<p class="center">THE END</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's My Second Year of the War, by Frederick Palmer + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MY SECOND YEAR OF THE WAR *** + +***** This file should be named 18497-h.htm or 18497-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/4/9/18497/ + +Produced by Rick Niles, Graeme Mackreth and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + +*** END: FULL LICENSE *** + + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> diff --git a/18497-h/images/illus01.png b/18497-h/images/illus01.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8e3defd --- /dev/null +++ b/18497-h/images/illus01.png diff --git a/18497.txt b/18497.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3190a14 --- /dev/null +++ b/18497.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9454 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of My Second Year of the War, by Frederick Palmer + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: My Second Year of the War + +Author: Frederick Palmer + +Release Date: June 4, 2006 [EBook #18497] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MY SECOND YEAR OF THE WAR *** + + + + +Produced by Rick Niles, Graeme Mackreth and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +[Illustration: Front Cover] + + + +MY SECOND YEAR +OF THE WAR + +BY +FREDERICK PALMER +Author of "The Last Shot," "The Old Blood," "My Year +of the Great War," etc. + + +NEW YORK +DODD, MEAD & COMPANY +1917 + +COPYRIGHT, 1917 + +BY DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY, Inc. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER PAGE + + I BACK TO THE FRONT 1 + + II VERDUN AND ITS SEQUEL 18 + + III A CANADIAN INNOVATION 35 + + IV READY FOR THE BLOW 50 + + V THE BLOW 67 + + VI FIRST RESULTS OF THE SOMME 81 + + VII OUT OF THE HOPPER OF BATTLE 94 + + VIII FORWARD THE GUNS! 108 + + IX WHEN THE FRENCH WON 119 + + X ALONG THE ROAD TO VICTORY 130 + + XI THE BRIGADE THAT WENT THROUGH 142 + + XII THE STORMING OF CONTALMAISON 153 + + XIII A GREAT NIGHT ATTACK 167 + + XIV THE CAVALRY GOES IN 180 + + XV ENTER THE ANZACS 190 + + XVI THE AUSTRALIANS AND A WINDMILL 201 + + XVII THE HATEFUL RIDGE 213 + +XVIII A TRULY FRENCH AFFAIR 236 + + XIX ON THE AERIAL FERRY 244 + + XX THE EVER MIGHTY GUNS 255 + + XXI BY THE WAY 269 + + XXII THE MASTERY OF THE AIR 282 + +XXIII A PATENT CURTAIN OF FIRE 292 + + XXIV WATCHING A CHARGE 304 + + XXV CANADA IS STUBBORN 319 + + XXVI THE TANKS ARRIVE 332 + +XXVII THE TANKS IN ACTION 348 + +XXVIII CANADA IS QUICK 360 + + XXIX THE HARVEST OF VILLAGES 374 + + XXX FIVE GENERALS AND VERDUN 385 + + XXXI _Au Revoir_, SOMME! 400 + + + + +MY SECOND YEAR OF THE WAR + + + + +I + +BACK TO THE FRONT + + How America fails to realize the war--Difficulties of + realization--Uncle Sam is sound at heart--In London again--A Chief of + Staff who has risen from the ranks--Sir William Robertson takes time + to think--At the front--Kitchener's mob the new army--A quiet + headquarters--Sir Douglas Haig--His office a clearing house of + ideas--His business to deal in blows--"The Spirit that quickeneth." + + +"I've never kept up my interest so long in anything as in this war," +said a woman who sat beside me at dinner when I was home from the front +in the winter of 1915-16. Since then I have wondered if my reply, +"Admirable mental concentration!" was not ironic at the expense of +manners and philosophy. In view of the thousands who were dying in +battle every day, her remark seemed as heartless as it was superficial +and in keeping with the riotous joy of living and prosperity which +strikes every returned American with its contrast to Europe's +self-denial, emphasized by such details gained by glimpses in the shop +windows of Fifth Avenue as the exhibit of a pair of ladies' silk hose +inset with lace, price one hundred dollars. + +Meanwhile, she was knitting socks or mufflers, I forget which, for the +Allies. Her confusion about war news was common to the whole country, +which heard the special pleading of both sides without any +cross-questioning by an attorney. She remarked how the Allies' bulletins +said that the Allies were winning and the German bulletins that the +Germans were winning; but so far as she could see on the map the armies +remained in much the same positions and the wholesale killing continued. +Her interest, I learned on further inquiry, was limited and partisan. +When the Germans had won a victory, she refused to read about it and +threw down her paper in disgust. + +There was something human in her attitude, as human as the war itself. +It was a reminder of how far away from the Mississippi is the Somme; how +broad is the Atlantic; how impossible it is to project yourself into the +distance even in the days of the wireless. She was moving in the orbit +of her affairs, with its limitations, just as the soldiers were in +theirs. Before the war luxury was as common in Paris as in New York; but +with so ghastly a struggle proceeding in Europe it seemed out of keeping +that the joy of living should endure anywhere in the world. Yet Europe +was tranquilly going its way when the Southern States were suffering +pain and hardship worse than any that France and England have known. +Paris and London were dining and smiling when Richmond was in flames. + +War can be brought home to no community until its own sons are dying and +risking death. In nothing are we so much the creatures of our +surroundings as in war. For the first few weeks when I was at home, a +nation going its way in an era of prosperity had an aspect of vulgarity; +peace itself was vulgar by contrast with the atmosphere of heroic +sacrifice in which I had lived for over a year. I asked myself if my +country could ever rise to the state of exaltation of France and +England. Though first thought, judging by superficial appearances alone, +might have said "No," I knew that we could if there ever came a call to +defend our soil--a call that could be brought home to the valleys of the +Hudson and the Mississippi as a call was brought home to the valleys of +the Somme, the Meuse and the Marne. + +Many Americans had returned from Europe with reports of humiliation +endured as a result of their country's attitude. Shopkeepers had made +insulting remarks, they said, and in some instances had refused to sell +goods. They had been conscious of hostility under the politeness of +their French and English friends. A superficial confirmation of their +contention might be taken from the poster I noticed on my way from +Paddington Station to my hotel upon my arrival in England. It advertised +an article in a cheap weekly under the title of "Uncle Sham." + +I took this just as seriously as I took a cartoon in a New York evening +paper of pro-German tendencies on the day that I had sailed from New +York, which showed John Bull standing idly by and urging France on to +sacrifices in the defense of Verdun. It was as easy for an American to +be indignant at one as for an Englishman at the other, but a little +unworthy of the intelligence of either. I was too convinced that Uncle +Sam, who does not always follow my advice, is sound at heart and a +respectable member of the family of nations to be in the least disturbed +in my sense of international good will. If I had been irritated I should +have contributed to the petty backbiting by the mischievous uninformed +which makes bad blood between peoples. + +I knew, too, from experience, as I had kept repeating at home, that when +the chosen time arrived for the British to strike, they would prove with +deeds the shamelessness of this splash of printer's ink and confound, as +they have on the Somme, the witticism of a celebrated Frenchman who has +since made his apology for saying that the British would fight on till +the last drop of French blood was shed. Besides, on the same day that I +saw the poster I saw in a British publication a reproduction of a German +cartoon--exemplifying the same kind of vulgar facility--picturing Uncle +Sam being led by the nose by John Bull. + +Thinking Englishmen and Frenchmen, when they pause in their +preoccupation of giving life and fortune for their cause to consider +this extraneous subject, realize the widespread sympathy of the United +States for the Allied cause and how a large proportion of our people +were prepared to go to war after the sinking of the _Lusitania_ for an +object which could bring them no territorial reward. If we will fight +only for money and aggrandizement, as the "Uncle Sham" style of +reasoners hold, we should long ago have taken Mexico and Central +America. Personally, I have never had anyone say to me that I was "too +proud to fight," though if I went about saying that I was ashamed of my +country I might; for when I think of my country I think of no group of +politicians, financiers, or propagandists, no bureaucracy or particular +section of opinion, but of our people as a whole. But unquestionably we +were unpopular with the masses of Europeans. A sentence taken out of its +context was misconstrued into a catch-phrase indicating the cravenness +of a nation wedded to its flesh-pots, which pretended a moral +superiority to others whose passionate sacrifice made them +supersensitive when they looked across the Atlantic to the United +States, which they saw profiting from others' misfortunes. + +By living at home I had gained perspective about the war and by living +with the war I have gained perspective about my own country. At the +front I was concerned day after day with the winning of trenches and the +storming of villages whose names meant as little in the Middle West as a +bitter fight for good government in a Western city meant to the men at +the front. After some months of peace upon my return to England I +resented passport regulations which had previously been a commonplace; +but soon I was back in the old groove, the groove of war, with war +seeming as normal in England as peace seemed in the United States. + +In London, recruiting posters with their hectic urgings to the manhood +of England to volunteer no longer blanketed the hoardings and the walls +of private buildings. Conscription had come. Every able-bodied man must +now serve at the command of the government. England seemed to have +greater dignity. The war was wholly master of her proud individualism, +which had stubbornly held to its faith that the man who fought best was +he who chose to fight rather than he who was ordered to fight. + +There was a new Chief of Staff at the War Office, Sir William +Robertson, who had served for seven years as a private before he +received his commission as an officer, singularly expressing in his +career the character of the British system, which leaves open to merit +the door at the head of a long stairway which calls for hard climbing. +England believes in men and he had earned his way to the direction of +the most enormous plant with the largest personnel which the British +Empire had ever created. + +It was somewhat difficult for the caller to comprehend the full extent +of the power and responsibility of this self-made leader at his desk in +a great room overlooking Whitehall Place, for he had so simplified an +organization that had been brought into being in two years that it +seemed to run without any apparent effort on his part. The methods of +men who have great authority interest us all. I had first seen Sir +William at a desk in a little room of a house in a French town when his +business was that of transport and supply for the British Expeditionary +Force. Then he moved to a larger room in the same town, as Chief of +Staff of the army in France. Now he had a still larger one and in +London. + +I had heard much of his power of application, which had enabled him to +master languages while he was gaining promotion step by step; but I +found that the new Chief of Staff of the British Army was not "such a +fool as ever to overwork," as one of his subordinates said, and no +slave to long hours of drudgery at his desk. + +"Besides his routine," said another subordinate, speaking of Sir +William's method, "he has to do a great deal of thinking." This passing +remark was most illuminating. Sir William had to think for the whole. He +had trained others to carry out his plans, and as former head of the +Staff College who had had experience in every branch, he was supposed to +know how each branch should be run. + +When I returned to the front, my first motor trip which took me along +the lines of communication revealed the transformation, the more +appreciable because of my absence, which the winter had wrought. The New +Army had come into its own. And I had seen this New Army in the making. +I had seen Kitchener's first hundred thousand at work on Salisbury Plain +under old, retired drillmasters who, however eager, were hazy about +modern tactics. The men under them had the spirit which will endure the +drudgery of training. With time they must learn to be soldiers. More raw +material, month after month, went into the hopper. The urgent call of +the recruiting posters and the press had, in the earlier stages of the +war, supplied all the volunteers which could be utilized. It took much +longer to prepare equipment and facilities than to get men to enlist. +New Army battalions which reached the front in August, 1915, had had +their rifles only for a month. Before rifles could be manufactured rifle +plants had to be constructed. As late as December, 1915, the United +States were shipping only five thousand rifles a week to the British. +Soldiers fully drilled in the manual of arms were waiting for the arms +with which to fight; but once the supply of munitions from the new +plants was started it soon became a flood. + +All winter the New Army battalions had been arriving in France. With +them had come the complicated machinery which modern war requires. The +staggering quantity of it was better proof than figures on the shipping +list of the immense tonnage which goes to sea under the British flag. +The old life at the front, as we knew it, was no more. When I first saw +the British Army in France it held seventeen miles of line. Only +seventeen, but seventeen in the mire of Flanders, including the bulge of +the Ypres salient. + +By the first of January, 1915, a large proportion of the officers and +men of the original Expeditionary Force had perished. Reservists had +come to take the vacant places. Officers and non-commissioned officers +who survived had to direct a fighting army in the field and to train a +new army at home. An offensive was out of the question. All that the +force in the trenches could do was to hold. When the world wondered why +it could not do more, those who knew the true state of affairs wondered +how it could do so much. With flesh and blood infantry held against +double its own numbers supported by guns firing five times the number of +British shells. The British could not confess their situation without +giving encouragement to the Germans to press harder such attacks as +those of the first and second battle of Ypres, which came perilously +near succeeding. + +This little army would not admit the truth even in its own mind. With +that casualness by which the Englishman conceals his emotions the +surviving officers of battalions which had been battered for months in +the trenches would speak of being "top dog, now." While the world was +thinking that the New Army would soon arrive to their assistance, they +knew as only trained soldiers can know how long it takes to make an army +out of raw material. So persistent was their pose of winning that it +hypnotized them into conviction. As it had never occurred to them that +they could be beaten, so they were not. + +If sometimes the logic of fact got the better of simulation, they would +speak of the handicap of fighting an enemy who could deliver blows with +the long reach of his guns to which they could not respond. But this did +not happen often. It was a part of the game for the German to marshal +more guns than they if he could. They accepted the situation and fought +on. They, too, looked forward to "the day," as the Germans had before +the war; and their day was the one when the New Army should be ready to +strike its first blow. + +There was also a new leader in France, king of the British world there. +Sir William sent him the new battalions and the guns and the food for +men and guns and his business was to make them into an army. They +arrived thinking that they were already one, as they were against any +ordinary foe, though not yet in homogeneity of organization against a +foe that had prepared for war for forty years and on top of this had had +two years' experience in actual battle. + +On a quiet byroad near headquarters town, where all the staff business +of General Headquarters was conducted, a wisp of a flag hung at the +entrance to the grounds of a small modern chateau. There seemed no place +in all France more isolated and tranquil, its size forbidding many +guests. It was such a house as some quiet, studious man might have +chosen to rest in during his summer holiday. The sound of the guns never +reached it; the rumble of army transport was unheard. + +Should you go there to luncheon you would be received by a young aide +who, in army jargon, was known as a "crock"; that is, he had been +invalided as the result of wounds or exposure in the trenches and, +though unfit for active service, could still serve as aide to the +Commander-in-Chief. At the appointed minute of the hour, in keeping with +military punctuality, whether of generals or of curtains of fire, a man +with iron-gray hair, clear, kindly eyes, and an unmistakably strong +chin, came out of his office and welcomed the guests with simple +informality. He seemed to have left business entirely behind when he +left his desk. You knew him at once for the type of well-preserved +British officer who never neglects to keep himself physically fit. It +amounts to a talent with British officers to have gone through campaigns +in India and South Africa and yet always to appear as fresh as if they +had never known anything more strenuous than the leisurely life of an +English country gentleman. + +I had always heard how hard Sir Douglas Haig worked, just as I had heard +how hard Sir William Robertson worked. Sir Douglas, too, showed no signs +of pressure, and naturally the masterful control of surroundings without +any seeming effort is a part of the equipment of military leaders. The +power of the modern general is not evident in any of the old symbols. + +It was really the army that chose Sir Douglas to be Commander-in-Chief. +Whenever the possibility of the retirement of Sir John French was +mentioned and you asked an officer who should take his place, the answer +was always either Robertson or Haig. In any profession the members +should be the best judges of excellence in that profession, and through +eighteen months of organizing and fighting these two men had earned the +universal praise of their comrades in arms. Robertson went to London and +Haig remained in France. England looked to them for victory. + +Birth was kind to Sir Douglas. He came of an old Scotch family with fine +traditions. Oxford followed almost as a matter of course for him and +afterward he went into the army. From that day there is something in +common between his career and Sir William's, simple professional zeal +and industry. They set out to master their chosen calling. Long before +the public had ever heard of either one their ability was known to their +fellow soldiers. No two officers were more averse to any form of public +advertisement, which was contrary to their instincts no less than to the +ethics of soldiering. In South Africa, which was the practical school +where the commanders of the British Army of to-day first learned how to +command, their efficient staff work singled them out as coming men. Both +had vision. They studied the continental systems of war and when the +great war came they had the records which were the undeniable +recommendation that singled them out from their fellows. Sir John French +and Sir Ian Hamilton belonged to the generation ahead of them, the +difference being that between the '50s and the '60s. + +It was the test of command of a corps and afterward of an army in +Flanders and Northern France which made Sir Douglas Commander-in-Chief, +a test of more than the academic ability which directs chessmen on the +board: that of the physical capacity to endure the strain of month after +month of campaigning, to keep a calm perspective, never to let the +mastery of the force under you get out of hand and never to be burdened +with any details except those which are vital. + +The subordinate who went in an uncertain mood to see either Sir Douglas +or Sir William left with a sense of stalwart conviction. Both had the +gift of simplifying any situation, however complex. When a certain +general became unstrung during the retreat from Mons, Sir Douglas seemed +to consider that his first duty was to assist this man to recover +composure, and he slipped his arm through the general's and walked him +up and down until composure had returned. Again, on the retreat from +Mons Sir Douglas said, "We must stay here for the present, if we all die +for it," stating this military necessity as coolly as if it merely meant +waiting another quarter-hour for the arrival of a guest to dinner. + +No less than General Joffre, Sir Douglas lived by rule. He, too, +insisted on sleeping well at night and rising fresh for his day's work. +During the period of preparation for the offensive his routine began +with a stroll in the garden before breakfast. Then the heads of the +different branches of his staff in headquarters town came in turn to +make their reports and receive instructions. At luncheon very likely he +might not talk of war. A man of his education and experience does not +lack topics to take his mind off his duties. Every day at half-past two +he went for a ride and with him an escort of his own regiment of +Lancers. The rest of the afternoon was given over to conferences with +subordinates whom he had summoned. On Sunday morning he always went into +headquarters town and in a small, temporary wooden chapel listened to a +sermon from a Scotch dominie who did not spare its length in awe of the +eminent member of his congregation. Otherwise, he left the chateau only +when he went to see with his own eyes some section of the front or of +the developing organization. + +Of course, the room in the chateau which was his office was hung with +maps as the offices of all the great leaders are, according to report. +It seems the most obvious decoration. Whether it was the latest +photograph from an aeroplane or the most recent diagram of plans of +attack, it came to him if his subordinates thought it worth while. All +rivers of information flowed to the little chateau. He and the Chief of +Staff alone might be said to know all that was going on. Talking with +him in the office, which had been the study of a French country +gentleman, one gained an idea of the things which interested him; of the +processes by which he was building up his organization. He was the +clearing house of all ideas and through them he was setting the +criterion of efficiency. He spoke of the cause for which he was fighting +as if this were the great thing of all to him and to every man under +him, but without allowing his feelings to interfere with his judgment of +the enemy. His opponent was seen without illusion, as soldier sees +soldier. To him his problem was not one of sentiment, but of military +power. He dealt in blows; and blows alone could win the war. + +Simplicity and directness of thought, decision and readiness to accept +responsibility, seemed second nature to the man secluded in that little +chateau, free from any confusion of detail, who had a task--the greatest +ever fallen to the lot of a British commander--of making a raw army into +a force which could undertake an offensive against frontal positions +considered impregnable by many experts and occupied by the skilful +German Army. He had, in common with Sir William Robertson, "a good deal +of thinking to do"; and what better place could he have chosen than this +retreat out of the sound of the guns, where through his subordinates he +felt the pulse of the whole army day by day? + +His favorite expression was "the spirit that quickeneth"; the spirit of +effort, of discipline, of the fellowship of cohesion of +organization--spreading out from the personality at the desk in this +room down through all the units to the men themselves. Though officers +and soldiers rarely saw him they had felt the impulse of his spirit soon +after he had taken command. A new era had come in France. That old +organization called the British Empire, loose and decentrated--and +holding together because it was so--had taken another step forward in +the gathering of its strength into a compact force. + + + + +II + +VERDUN AND ITS SEQUEL + + German grand strategy and Verdun--Why the British did not go to + Verdun--What they did to help--Racial characteristics in + armies--Father Joffre a miser of divisions--The Somme + country--Age-old tactics--If the flank cannot be turned can the front + be broken?--Theory of the Somme offensive. + + +In order properly to set the stage for the battle of the Somme, which +was the corollary of that of Verdun, we must, at the risk of appearing +to thresh old straw, consider the German plan of campaign in 1916 when +the German staff had turned its eyes from the East to the West. During +the summer of 1915 it had attempted no offensive on the Western front, +but had been content to hold its solid trench lines in the confidence +that neither the British nor the French were prepared for an offensive +on a large scale. + +Blue days they were for us with the British Army in France during July +and early August, while the official bulletins revealed on the map how +von Hindenburg's and von Mackensen's legions were driving through +Poland. More critical still the subsequent period when inside +information indicated that German intrigue in Petrograd, behind the +Russian lines which the German guns were pounding, might succeed in +making a separate peace. Using her interior lines for rapid movement of +troops, enclosed by a steel ring and fighting against nations speaking +different languages with their capitals widely separated and their +armies not in touch, each having its own sentimental and territorial +objects in the war, the obvious object of Germany's policy from the +outset would be to break this ring, forcing one of the Allies to +capitulate under German blows. + +In August, 1914, she had hoped to win a decisive battle against France +before she turned her legions against Russia for a decision. Now she +aimed to accomplish at Verdun what she had failed to accomplish on the +Marne, confident in her information that France was exhausted. It was +von Hindenburg's turn to hold the thin line while the Germans +concentrated on the Western front twenty-six hundred thousand men, with +every gun that they could spare and all the munitions that had +accumulated after the Russian drive was over. The fall of Paris was +unnecessary to their purpose. Capitals, whether Paris, Brussels, or +Bucharest, are only the trophies of military victory. Primarily the +German object, which naturally included the taking of Verdun, was to +hammer at the heart of French defense until France, staggering under the +blows, her _morale_ broken by the loss of the fortress, her supposedly +mercurial nature in the depths of depression, would surrender to +impulse and ask for terms. + +After the German attacks began at Verdun all the world was asking why +the British, who were holding only sixty-odd miles of line at the time +and must have large reserves, did not rush to the relief of the French. +The French people themselves were a little restive under what was +supposed to be British inaction. Army leaders could not reveal their +plans by giving reasons--the reasons which are now obvious--for their +action or inaction. To some unmilitary minds the situation seemed as +simple as if Jones were attacked on the street by Smith and Robinson, +while Miller, Jones' friend who was a block away, would not go to his +rescue. To others, perhaps a trifle more knowing, it seemed only a +matter of marching some British divisions across country or putting them +on board a train. + +Of course the British were only too ready to assist the French. Any +other attitude would have been unintelligent; for, with the French Army +broken, the British Army would find itself having to bear unassisted the +weight of German blows in the West. There were three courses which the +British Army might take. + +_First._ It could send troops to Verdun. But the mixture of units +speaking different languages in the intricate web of communications +required for directing modern operations, and the mixture of transport +in the course of heavy concentrations in the midst of a critical action +where absolute cohesion of all units was necessary, must result in +confusion which would make any such plan impracticable. Only the +desperate situation of the French being without reserve could have +compelled its second consideration, as it represented the extreme of +that military inefficiency which makes wasteful use of lives and +material. + +_Second._ The British could attack along their front as a diversion to +relieve pressure on Verdun. For this the Germans were fully prepared. It +fell in exactly with their plan. Knowing that the British New Army was +as yet undeveloped as an instrument for the offensive and that it was +still short of guns and shells, the Germans had struck in the inclement +weather of February at Verdun, thinking, and wrongly to my mind, that +the handicap to the vitality of their men of sleet, frost and cold, +soaking rains would be offset by the time gained. Not only had the +Germans sufficient men to carry on the Verdun offensive, but facing the +British their numbers were the largest mile for mile since the first +battle of Ypres. Familiar with British valor as the result of actual +contact in battle from Mons to the Marne and back to Ypres, and +particularly in the Loos offensive (which was the New Army's first +"eye-opener" to the German staff), the Germans reasoned that, with what +one German called "the courage of their stupidity, or the stupidity of +their courage," the British, driven by public demand to the assistance +of the French, would send their fresh infantry with inadequate artillery +support against German machine guns and curtains of fire, and pile up +their dead until their losses would reduce the whole army to inertia for +the rest of the year. + +Of course, the German hypothesis--the one which cost von Falkenhayn his +place as Chief of Staff--was based on such a state of exhaustion by the +French that a British attack would be mandatory. The initial stage of +the German attack was up to expectations in ground gained, but not in +prisoners or material taken. The French fell back skilfully before the +German onslaught against positions lightly held by the defenders in +anticipation of the attack, and turned their curtains of fire upon the +enemy in possession of captured trenches. Then France gave to the +outside world another surprise. Her spirit, ever brilliant in the +offensive, became cold steel in a stubborn and thrifty defensive. She +was not "groggy," as the Germans supposed. For every yard of earth +gained they had to pay a ghastly price; and their own admiration of +French shell and valor is sufficient professional glory for either +Petain, Nivelle, or Mangin, or the private in the ranks. + +_Third._ The British could take over more trench line, thus releasing +French forces for Verdun, which was the plan adopted at the conference +of the French and British commands. One morning in place of a French +army in Artois a British army was in occupation. The round helmets of +the British took the place of the oblong helmets of the French along the +parapet; British soldiers were in billets in place of the French in the +villages at the rear and British guns moved into French gun-emplacements +with the orderly precision which army training with its discipline alone +secures; while the French Army was on board railway trains moving at +given intervals of headway over rails restricted to their use on their +way to Verdun where, under that simple French staff system which is the +product of inheritance and previous training and this war's experience, +they fell into place as a part of the wall of men and cannon. + +Outside criticism, which drew from this arrangement the conclusion that +it left the British to the methodical occupation of quiet trenches while +their allies were sent to the sacrifice, had its effect for a time on +the outside public and even on the French, but did not disturb the +equanimity of the British staff in the course of its preparations or of +the French staff, which knew well enough that when the time came the +British Army would not be fastidious about paying the red cost of +victory. Four months later when British battalions were throwing +themselves against frontal positions with an abandon that their staff +had to restrain, the same sources of outside criticism, including +superficial gossip in Paris, were complaining that the British were too +brave in their waste of life. It has been fashionable with some people +to criticize the British, evidently under the impression that the +British New Army would be better than a continental army instantly its +battalions were landed in France. + +Every army's methods, every staff's way of thinking, are characteristic +in the long run of the people who supply it with soldiers. The German +Army is what it is not through the application of any academic theory of +military perfection, but through the application of organization to +German character. Naturally phlegmatic, naturally disinclined to +initiative, the Germans before the era of modern Germany had far less of +the martial instinct than the French. German army makers, including the +master one of all, von Moltke, set out to use German docility and +obedience in the creation of a machine of singular industry and rigidity +and ruthless discipline. Similar methods would mean revolt in democratic +France and individualistic England where every man carries Magna Charta, +talisman of his own "rights," in his waistcoat pocket. + +The French peasant, tilling his fields within range of the guns, the +market gardener bringing his products down the Somme in the morning to +Amiens, or the Parisian clerk, business man and workman--they are France +and the French Army. But the heart-strength and character-strength of +France, I think, is her stubborn, conservative, smiling peasant. It is +repeating a commonplace to say that he always has a few gold pieces in +his stocking. He yields one only on a critical occasion and then a +little grumblingly, with the thrift of the bargainer who means that it +shall be well spent. + +The Anglo-Saxon, whose inheritance is particularly evident in Americans +in this respect, when he gives in a crisis turns extravagant whether of +money or life, as England has in this war. The sea is his and new lands +are his, as they are ours. Australians with their dollar and a half a +day, buying out the shops of a village when they were not in the +trenches, were astounding to the natives though not in the least to +themselves. They were acting like normal Anglo-Saxons bred in a rich +island continent. Anglo-Saxons have money to spend and spend it in the +confidence that they will make more. + +General Joffre, grounded in the France of the people and the soil, was a +thrifty general. Indeed, from the lips of Frenchmen in high places the +Germans might have learned that the French Army was running short of +men. Joffre seemed never to have any more divisions to spare; yet never +came a crisis that he did not find another division in the toe of his +stocking, which he gave up as grumblingly as the peasant parts with his +gold piece. + +A miser of divisions, Father Joffre. He had enough for Verdun as we +know--and more. While he was holding on the defensive there, he was able +to prepare for an offensive elsewhere. He spared the material and the +guns to cooeperate with the British on the Somme and later he sent to +General Foch, commander of the northern group of French Armies, the +unsurpassed Iron Corps from Nancy and the famous Colonial Corps. + +It was in March, 1916, when suspense about Verdun was at its height, +that Sir Douglas Haig, Commander-in-Chief of the group of British +Armies, and Sir Henry Rawlinson, who was to be his right-hand man +through the offensive as commander of the Fourth Army, went over the +ground opposite the British front on the Somme and laid the plans for +their attack, and Sir Henry received instructions to begin the elaborate +preparations for what was to become the greatest battle of all time. It +included, as the first step, the building of many miles of railway and +highway for the transport of the enormous requisite quantities of guns +and materials. + +The Somme winds through rich alluvial lands at this point and around a +number of verdant islands in its leisurely course. Southward, along the +old front line, the land is more level, where the river makes its bend +in front of Peronne. Northward, generically, it rises into a region of +rolling country, with an irregularly marked ridge line which the Germans +held. + +No part of the British front had been so quiet in the summer of 1915 as +the region of Picardy. From the hill where later I watched the attack of +July 1st, on one day in August of the previous year I had such a broad +view that if a shell were to explode anywhere along the front of five +miles it would have been visible to me, and I saw not a single burst of +smoke from high explosive or shrapnel. Apparently the Germans never +expected to undertake any offensive here. All their energy was devoted +to defensive preparations, without even an occasional attack over a few +hundred yards to keep in their hand. Tranquillity, which amounted to the +simulation of a truce, was the result. At different points you might see +Germans walking about in the open and the observer could stand exposed +within easy range of the guns without being sniped at by artillery, as +he would have been in the Ypres salient. + +When the British took over this section of line, so short were they of +guns that they had to depend partly on French artillery; and their +troops were raw New Army battalions or regulars stiffened by a small +percentage of veterans of Mons and Ypres. The want of guns and shells +required correspondingly more troops to the mile, which left them still +relying on flesh and blood rather than on machinery for defense. The +British Army was in that middle stage of a few highly trained troops and +the first arrival of the immense forces to come; while the Germans +occupied on the Eastern front were not of a mind to force the issue. +There is a story of how one day a German battery, to vary the monotony, +began shelling a British trench somewhat heavily. The British, in reply, +put up a sign, "If you don't stop we will fire our only rifle grenade at +you!" to which the Germans replied in the same vein, "Sorry! We will +stop"--as they did. + +The subsoil of the hills is chalk, which yields to the pick rather +easily and makes firm walls for trenches. Having chosen their position, +which they were able to do in the operations after the Marne as the two +armies, swaying back and forth in the battle for positions northward, +came to rest, the Germans had set out, as the result of experience, to +build impregnable works in the days when forts had become less important +and the trench had become supreme. As holding the line required little +fighting, the industrious Germans under the stiff bonds of discipline +had plenty of time for sinking deep dugouts and connecting galleries +under their first line and for elaborating their communication trenches +and second line, until what had once been peaceful farming land now +consisted of irregular welts of white chalk crossing fields without +hedges or fences, whose sweep had been broken only by an occasional +group of farm buildings of a large proprietor, a plot of woods, or the +village communities where the farmers lived and went to and from their +farms which were demarked to the eye only by the crop lines. + +One can never make the mistake of too much simplification in the +complicated detail of modern tactics where the difficulty is always to +see the forest for the trees. Strategy has not changed since prehistoric +days. It must always remain the same: feint and surprise. The first +primitive man who looked at the breast of his opponent and struck +suddenly at his face was a strategist; so, too, the anthropoid at the +Zoo who leads another to make a leap for a trapeze and draws it out from +under him; so, too, the thug who waits to catch his victim coming +unawares out of an alley. Anybody facing more than one opponent will try +to protect his back by a wall, which is also strategy--strategy being +the veritable instinct of self-preservation which aims at an advantage +in the disposition of forces. + +Place two lines of fifty men facing each other in the open without +officers, and some fellow with initiative on the right or the left end +will instinctively give the word and lead a rush for cover somewhere on +the flank which will permit an enfilade of the enemy's ranks. +Practically all of the great battles of the world have been won by +turning an enemy's flank, which compelled him to retreat if it did not +result in rout or capture. + +The swift march of a division or a brigade from reserve to the flank at +the critical moment has often turned the fortune of a day. All +manoeuvering has this object in view. Superior numbers facilitate the +operation, and victory has most often resolved itself into superior +numbers pressing a flank and nothing more; though subsequently his +admiring countrymen acclaimed the victor as the inventor of a strategic +plan which was old before Alexander took the field, when the victor's +genius consisted in the use of opportunities that enabled him to strike +at the critical point with more men than his adversary. In flank of the +Southern Confederacy Sherman swung through the South; in flank the +Confederates aimed to bend back the Federal line at Kulp's Hill and +Little Round Top. By the flank Grant pressed Lee back to Appomattox. +Yalu, Liao Yang and Mukden were won in the Russo-Japanese war by +flanking movements which forced Kuropatkin to retire, though never +disastrously. + +Pickett's charge at Gettysburg remains to the American the most futile +and glorious illustration of a charge against a frontal position, with +its endeavor to break the center. The center may waver, but it is the +flanks that go; though, of course, in all consistent operations of big +armies a necessary incident of any effort to press back the wings is +sufficient pressure on the front, simultaneously delivered, to hold all +the troops there in position and keep the enemy command in apprehension +of the disaster that must follow if the center were to break badly at +the same time that his flanks were being doubled back. The foregoing is +only the repetition of principles which cannot be changed by the length +of line and masses of troops and incredible volumes of artillery fire; +which makes the European war the more confusing to the average reader as +he receives his information in technical terms. + +The same object that leads one line of men to try to flank another sent +the German Army through Belgium in order to strike the French Army in +flank. It succeeded in this purpose, but not in turning the French +flank; though by this operation, in violation of the territory of a +neutral nation, it made enemy territory the scene of future action. One +may discuss until he is blue in the face what would have happened if the +Germans had thrown their legions directly against the old French +frontier. Personally, in keeping with the idea that I expressed in "The +Last Shot," I think that they would never have gone through the Trouee +de Miracourt or past Verdun. + +With a solid line of trenches from Switzerland to the North Sea, any +offensive must "break the center," as it were, in order to have room for +a flanking operation. It must go against frontal positions, +incorporating in its strategy every defensive lesson learned and the +defensive tactics and weapons developed in eighteen months of trench +warfare. If, as was generally supposed, the precision of modern arms, +with rifles and machine guns sending their bullets three thousand yards +and curtains of fire delivered from hidden guns anywhere from two to +fifteen miles away, was all in favor of the defensive, then how, when in +the days of muzzle-loading rifles and smooth-bore guns frontal attacks +had failed, could one possibly succeed in 1916? + +Again and again in our mess and in all of the messes at the front, and +wherever men gathered the world over, the question, Can the line be +broken? has been discussed. As discussed it is an academic question. The +practical answer depends upon the strength of the attacking force +compared to that of the defending force. If the Germans could keep only +five hundred thousand men on the Western front they would have to +withdraw from a part of the line, concentrate on chosen positions and +depend on tactics to defend their exposed flanks in pitched battle. +Three million men, with ten thousand guns, could not break the line +against an equally skilful army of three millions with ten thousand +guns; but five millions with fifteen thousand guns might break the line +held by an equally skilful army of a million with five thousand guns. +Thus, you are brought to a question of numbers, of skill and of +material. If the object be attrition, then the offensive, if it can +carry on its attacks with less loss of men than the defensive, must win. +With the losses about equal, the offensive must also eventually win if +it has sufficient reserves. + +There could be no restraining the public, with the wish father to the +thought, from believing that the attack of July 1st on the Somme was an +effort at immediate decision, though the responsible staff officer was +very careful to state that there was no expectation of breaking the line +and that the object was to gain a victory in _morale_, train the army in +actual conditions for future offensives, and, when the ledger was +balanced, to prove that, with superior gunfire, the offensive could be +conducted with less loss than the defensive under modern conditions. +This, I think, may best be stated now. The results we shall consider +later. + +One thing was certain, with the accruing strength of the British and the +French Armies, they could not rest idle. They must attack. They must +take the initiative away from the Germans. The greater the masses of +Germans which were held on the Western front under the Allied pounding, +the better the situation for the Russians and the Italians; and, +accordingly, the plan for the summer of 1916 for the first time +permitted all the Allies, thanks to increased though not adequate +munitions--there never can be that--to conduct something like a common +offensive. That of the Russians, starting earlier than the others, was +the first to pause, which meant that the Anglo-French and the Italian +offensives were in full blast, while the Russians, for the time being, +had settled into new positions. + +Preparation for this attack on the Somme, an operation without parallel +in character and magnitude unless it be the German offensive at Verdun +which had failed, could not be too complete. There must be a continuous +flow of munitions which would allow the continuation of the battle with +blow upon blow once it had begun. Adequate realization of his task would +not hasten a general to undertake it until he was fully ready, and +military preference, if other considerations had permitted, would have +postponed the offensive till the spring of 1917. + + + + +III + +A CANADIAN INNOVATION + + Gathering of the clans from Australia, New Zealand and + Canada--England sends Sir Douglas Haig men but not an army--Methods + of converting men into an army--The trench raid a Canadian + invention--Development of trench raiding--The correspondents' + quarters--Getting ready for the "big push"--A well-kept secret. + + +"Some tough!" remarked a Canadian when he saw the Australians for the +first time marching along a French road. They and the New Zealanders +were conspicuous in France, owing to their felt hats with the brim +looped up on the side, their stalwart physique and their smooth-shaven, +clean-cut faces. Those who had been in Gallipoli formed the stiffening +of veteran experience and comradeship for those fresh from home or from +camps in Egypt. + +Canadian battalions, which had been training in Canada and then in +England, increased the Canadian numbers until they had an army equal in +size to that of Meade or Lee at Gettysburg. English, Scotch, Welsh, +Irish, South Africans and Newfoundlanders foregathering in Picardy, +Artois and Flanders left one wondering about English as "she is spoke." +On the British front I have heard every variety, including that of +different parts of the United States. One day I received a letter from a +fellow countryman which read like this: + +"I'm out here in the R.F.A. with 'krumps' bursting on my cocoanut and am +going to see it through. If you've got any American newspapers or +magazines lying loose please send them to me, as I am far from +California." + +The clans kept arriving. Every day saw new battalions and new guns +disembark. England was sending to Sir Douglas Haig men and material, but +not an army in the modern sense. He had to weld the consignments into a +whole there in the field in face of the enemy. Munitions were a matter +of resource and manufacturing, but the great factory of all was the +factory of men. It was not enough that the gunners should know how to +shoot fairly accurately back in England, or Canada, or Australia. They +must learn to cooeperate with scores of batteries of different calibers +in curtains of fire and, in turn, with the infantry, whose attacks they +must support with the finesse of scientific calculation plus the +instinctive _liaison_ which comes only with experience under trained +officers, against the German Army which had no lack of material in its +conscript ranks for promotion to fill vacancies in the officers' lists. + +From seventeen miles of front to twenty-seven, and then to sixty and +finally to nearly one hundred, the British had broadened their +responsibility, which meant only practice in the defensive, while the +Germans had had two years' practice in the offensive. The two British +offensives at Neuve Chapelle had included a small proportion of the +battalions which were to fight on the Somme; and the third, incomparably +more ambitious, faced heavier concentration of troops and guns than its +predecessors. + +What had not been gained in battle practice must be approximated in +drill. Every battalion commander, every staff officer and every general +who had had any experience, must be instructor as well as director. They +must assemble their machine and tune it up before they put it on a +stiffer road than had been tried before. + +The British Army zone in France became a school ground for the Grand +Offensive; and while the people at home were thinking, "We've sent you +the men and the guns--now for action!" the time of preparation was +altogether too short for the industrious learners. Every possible kind +of curriculum which would simulate actual conditions of attack had been +devised. In moving about the rear the rattle of a machine gun ten miles +back of the line told of the machine gun school; a series of explosions +drew attention to bombers working their way through practice trenches in +a field; a heavier explosion was from the academy for trench mortars; a +mighty cloud of smoke and earth rising two or three hundred feet was a +new experiment in mining. Sir Douglas went on the theory that no soldier +can know his work too well. He meant to allow no man in his command to +grow dull from idleness. + +Trench warfare had become systematized, and inevitably the holding of +the same line for month after month was not favorable to the development +of initiative. A man used to a sedentary life is not given to physical +action. One who is always digging dugouts is loath to leave the +habitation which has cost him much labor in order to live in the open. + +Battalions were in position for a given number of days, varying with the +character of the position held, when they were relieved for a rest in +billets. While in occupation they endured an amount of shell fire +varying immensely between different sectors. A few men were on the watch +with rifles and machine guns for any demonstration by the enemy, while +the rest were idle when not digging. They sent out patrols at night into +No Man's Land for information; exchanged rifle grenades, mortars and +bombs with the enemy. Each week brought its toll of casualties, light in +the tranquil places, heavy in the wickedly hot corner of the Ypres +salient, where attacks and counter-attacks never ceased and the +apprehension of having your parapet smashed in by an artillery +"preparation," which might be the forerunner of an attack, was +unremittingly on the nerves. + +It was a commonplace that any time you desired you could take a front of +a thousand or two yards simply by concentrating your gunfire, cutting +the enemy's barbed wire and tearing the sandbags of his parapet into +ribbons, with resulting fearful casualties to him; and then a swift +charge under cover of the artillery hurricane would gain possession of +the debris, the enemy's wounded and those still alive in his dugouts. +Losses in operations of this kind usually were much lighter in taking +the enemy's position than in the attempt to hold it, as he, in answer to +your offensive, turned the full force of his guns upon his former trench +which your men were trying to organize into one of their own. Later, +under cover of his own guns, his charge recovered the ruins, forcing the +party of the first part who had started the "show" back to his own +former first line trench, which left the situation as it was before with +both sides a loser of lives without gaining any ground and with the +prospect of drudgery in building anew their traverses and burrows and +filling new sandbags. + +It was the repetition of this sort of "incident," as reported in the +daily _communiques_, which led the outside world to wonder at the +fatuousness and the satire of the thing, without understanding that its +object was entirely for the purpose of _morale_. An attack was made to +keep the men up to the mark; a counter-attack in order not to allow the +enemy ever to develop a sense of superiority. Every soldier who +participated in a charge learned something in method and gained +something in the quality considered requisite by his commanders. He had +met face to face in mortal hand-to-hand combat in the trench traverses +the enemy who had been some invisible force behind a gray line of +parapet sniping at him every time he showed his head. + +Attack and counter-attack without adding another square yard to the +territory in your possession--these had cost hundreds of thousands of +casualties on the Western front. The next step was to obtain the +_morale_ of attack without wasting lives in trying to hold new ground. + +Credit for the trench raid, which was developed through the winter of +1915, belongs to the Canadian. His plan was as simple as that of the +American Indian who rushed a white settlement and fled after he was +through scalping; or the cowboys who shot up a town; or the Mexican +insurgents who descend upon a village for a brief visit of killing and +looting. The Canadian proposed to enter the German trenches by surprise, +remain long enough to make the most of the resulting confusion, and then +to return to his own trenches without trying to hold and organize the +enemy's position and thus draw upon his head while busy with the spade a +murderous volume of shell fire. + +The first raids were in small parties over a narrow front and the +tactics those of the frontiersman, who never wants in individual +initiative and groundcraft. Behind their lines the Canadians rehearsed +in careful detail again and again till each man was letter perfect in +the part that he was to play in the "little surprise being planned in +Canada for Brother Boche." The time chosen for the exploit was a dark, +stormy night, when the drumbeat of rain and the wind blowing in their +direction would muffle the movements of the men as they cut paths +through the barbed wires for their panther-like rush. It was the kind of +experiment whose success depends upon every single participant keeping +silence and performing the task set for him with fastidious exactitude. + +The Germans, confident in the integrity of their barbed wire, with all +except the sentries whose ears and eyes failed to detect danger asleep +in their dugouts, found that the men of the Maple Leaf had sprung over +the parapet and were at the door demanding surrender. It was an affair +to rejoice the heart of Israel Putnam or Colonel Mosby, and its success +was a new contribution in tactics to stalemate warfare which seemed to +have exhausted every possible invention and novelty. Trench raids were +made over broader and broader fronts until they became considerable +operations, where the wire was cut by artillery which gave the same kind +of support to the men that it was to give later on in the Grand +Offensive. + +There was a new terror to trench holding and dwelling. Now the man who +lay down in a dugout for the night was not only in danger of being blown +heavenward by a mine, or buried by the explosion of a heavy shell, or +compelled to spring up in answer to the ring of the gong which announced +a gas attack, but he might be awakened at two a.m. (a favorite hour for +raids) by the outcry of sentries who had been overpowered by the +stealthy rush of shadowy figures in the night, and while he got to his +feet be killed by the burst of a bomb thrown by men whom he supposed +were also fast asleep in their own quarters two or three hundred yards +away. + +Trench-raid rivalry between battalions, which commanders liked to +instil, inevitably developed. Battalions grew as proud of their trench +raids as battleships of their target practice. A battalion which had not +had a successful trench raid had something to explain. What pride for +the Bantams--the little fellows below regulation height who had enlisted +in a division of their own on Lord Kitchener's suggestion--when in one +of their trench raids they brought back some hulking, big Germans and a +man's size German machine gun across No Man's Land! + +Raiders never attempted to remain long in the enemy's trenches. They +killed the obdurate Germans, took others prisoners and, aside from the +damage that they did, always returned with identifications of the +battalions which occupied the position, while the prisoners brought in +yielded valuable information. + +The German, more adaptive than creative, more organizing than +pioneering, was not above learning from the British, and soon they, too, +were undertaking surprise parties in the night. Although they tightened +the discipline for the defensive of both sides, trench raids were of far +more service to the British than to the Germans; for the British staff +found in them an invaluable method of preparation for the offensive. Not +only had the artillery practice in supporting actual rather than +theoretical attacks, but when the men went over the parapet it was in +face of the enemy, who might turn on his machine guns if not silenced by +accurate gunfire. They learned how to cooerdinate their efforts, whether +individually or as units, both in the charge and in cleaning out the +German dugouts. Their sense of observation, adaptability and team play +was quickened in the life-and-death contact with the foe. + +Through the spring months the trench raids continued in their process +of "blooding" the new army for the "big push." Meanwhile, the +correspondents, who were there to report the operations of the army, +were having as quiet a time as a country gentleman on his estate without +any of the cares of his superintendent. + +Our homing place from our peregrinations about the army was not too far +away from headquarters town to be in touch with it or too near to feel +the awe of proximity to the directing authority of hundreds of thousands +of men. Trench raids had lost their novelty for the public which the +correspondents served. A description of a visit to a trench was as +commonplace to readers as the experience itself to one of our seasoned +group of six men. We had seen all the schools of war and the +Conscientious Objectors' battalion, too--those extreme pacifists who +refuse to kill their fellow man. Their opinions being respected by +English freedom and individualism, they were set to repairing roads and +like tasks. + +The war had become completely static. Unless some new way of killing +developed, even the English public did not care to read about its own +army. When my English comrades saw that a petty scandal received more +space in the London papers than their accounts of a gallant air raid, +they had moments of cynical depression. + +Between journeys we took long walks, went birds'-nesting and chatted +with the peasants. What had we to do with war? Yet we never went afield +to trench or headquarters, to hospital or gun position, without finding +something new and wonderful to us if not to the public in that vast hive +of military industry. + +"But if we ever start the push they'll read every detail," said our +wisest man. "It's the push that is in everybody's mind. The man in the +street is tired of hearing about rehearsals. He wants the curtain to go +up." + +Each of us knew that the offensive was coming and where, without ever +speaking of it in our mess or being supposed to know. Nobody was +supposed to know, except a few "brass hats" in headquarters town. One of +the prime requisites of the gold braid which denotes a general or of the +red band around the cap and the red tab on the coat lapel which denote +staff is ability to keep a secret; but long association with an army +makes it a sort of second nature, even with a group of civilians. When +you met a Brass Hat you pretended to believe that the monotony of those +official army reports about shelling a new German redoubt or a violent +artillery duel, or four enemy planes brought down, which read the same +on Friday as on Thursday, was to continue forever. The Brass Hats +pretended to believe the same among themselves. For all time the +British and the French Armies were to keep on hurling explosives at the +German Army from the same positions. + +Occasionally a Brass Hat did intimate that the offensive would probably +come in the spring of 1917, if not later, and you accepted the +information as strictly confidential and indefinite, as you should +accept any received from a Brass Hat. It never occurred to anybody to +inquire if "1917" meant June or July of 1916. This would be as bad form +as to ask a man whose head was gray last year and is black this year if +he dyed his hair. + +Those heavy howitzers, fresh from the foundry, drawn by big caterpillar +tractors, were all proceeding in one direction--toward the Somme. +Villages along their route were filling with troops. The nearer the +front you went, the greater the concentration of men and material. +Shells, the size of the milk cans at suburban stations, stood in close +order on the platforms beside the sidings of new light railways; shells +of all calibers were piled at new ammunition dumps; fields were cut by +the tracks of guns moving into position; steam rollers were road-making +in the midst of the long processions of motor trucks, heavy laden when +bound toward the trenches and empty when returning; barbed-wire +enclosures were ready as collecting stations for prisoners; clusters of +hospital tents at other points seemed out of proportion to the trickle +of wounded from customary trench warfare. + +All this preparation, stretching over weeks and months, unemotional and +methodical, infinite in detail, prodigious in effort, suggested the work +of engineers and contractors and subcontractors in the building of some +great bridge or canal, with the workmen all in the same kind of uniform +and with managers, superintendents and foremen each having some insignia +of rank and the Brass Hats and Red Tabs the inspectors and auditors. + +The officer installing a new casualty clearing station, or emplacing a +gun, or starting another ammunition dump, had not heard of any +offensive. He was only doing what he was told. It was not his business +to ask why of any Red Tab, any more than it was the business of a Red +Tab to ask why of a Brass Hat, or his business to know that the same +sort of thing was going on over a front of sixteen miles. Each one saw +only his little section of the hive. Orders strictly limited workers to +their sections at the same time that their lips were sealed. Contractors +were in no danger of strikes; employees received no extra pay for +overtime. It was as evident that the offensive was to be on the Somme as +that the circus has come to town, when you see tents rising at dawn in a +vacant lot while the elephants are standing in line. + +Toward the end of June I asked the Red Tab who sat at the head of our +table if I might go to London on leave. He was surprised, I think, but +did not appear surprised. It is one of the requisites of a Red Tab that +he should not. He said that he was uncertain if leave were being granted +at present. This was unusual, as an intimation of refusal had never been +made on any previous occasion. When I said that it would be for only two +or three days, he thought that it could be arranged all right. What this +considerate Red Tab meant was that I should return "in time." Yet he had +not mentioned that there was to be any offensive and I had not. We had +kept the faith of military secrecy. Besides, I really did not know, +unless I opened a pigeonhole in my brain. It was also my business not to +know--the only business I had with the "big push" except to look on. + +Over in London my friends surprised me by exclaiming, "What are you +doing here?" and, "Won't you miss the offensive which is about to +begin?" Now, what would a Brass Hat say in such an awkward emergency? +Would he look wise or unwise when he said it? Trying to look unwise, I +replied: "They have the men now and can strike any time that they +please. It's not my place to know where or when. I asked for leave and +they gave it." I was quite relieved and felt that I was almost worthy +of a secretive Brass Hat myself, when one man remarked: "They don't let +you know much, do they?" + +To keep such immense preparations wholly a secret among any +English-speaking people would be out of the question. Only the Japanese +are mentally equipped for security of information. With other races it +is a struggling effort. Can you imagine Washington keeping a military +secret? You could hear the confidential whispers all the way from the +War Department to the Capitol. In such a great movement as that of the +Somme one weak link in a chain of tens of thousands of officers is +enough to break it, not to mention a million or so of privates. + + + + +IV + +READY FOR THE BLOW + + French national spirit--Our gardeners--Tuning up for the + attack--Policing the sky--Sausage balloons--Matter-of-fact, + systematic war--A fury of trench raids--Reserves marching + forward--Organized human will--Sons of the old country ready to + strike--The greatest struggle of the war about to begin. + + +Our headquarters during my first summer at the front had been in the +flat border region of the Pas de Calais, which seemed neither Flanders +nor France. Our second summer required that we should be nearer the +middle of the British line, as it extended southward, in order to keep +in touch with the whole. In the hilly country of Artois a less +comfortable chateau was compensated for by the smiling companionship of +neighbors in the fields and villages of the real France. + +The quality of this sympathetic appeal was that of the thoroughbred +racial and national spirit of a great people, in the politeness which +gave to a thickset peasant woman a certain grace, in the smiles of the +land and its inhabitants, in that inbred patriotism which through the +centuries has created a distinctive civilization called French by the +same ready sacrifices for its continuity as those which were made on +the Marne and at Verdun. Flanders is not France, and France is +increasingly French as you proceed from Ypres to Amiens, the capital of +Picardy. I was glad that Picardy had been chosen as the scene of the +offensive. It made the blow seem more truly a blow for France. I was to +learn to love Picardy and its people under the test of battle. + +In order that we might be near the field of the Somme we were again to +move our quarters, and we had the pang of saying good-by to another +garden and another gardener. All the gardeners of our different chateaux +had been philosophers. It was Louis who said that he would like to make +all the politicians who caused wars into a salad, accompanying his +threat with appropriate gestures; Charles who thought that once the +"Boches" were properly pruned they might be acceptable second-rate +members of international society; and Leon who wanted the Kaiser put to +the plow in a coat of corduroy as the best cure for his conceit. That +afternoon, when _au revoirs_ were spoken and our cars wound in and out +over the byroads of the remote countryside, not a soldier was visible +until we came to the great main road, where we had the signal that +peaceful surroundings were finally left behind in the distant, ceaseless +roar of the guns, like some gigantic drumbeat calling the armies to +combat. + +A giant with nerves of telephone wires and muscles of steel and a human +heart seemed to be snarling his defiance before he sprang into action. +We knew the meaning of the set thunders of the preliminary bombardment. +That night to the eastward the sky was an aurora borealis of flashes; +and the next day we sought the source of the lightnings. + +Seamed and tracked and gashed were the slopes behind the British line +and densely peopled with busy men in khaki. Every separate scene was +familiar to us out of our experience, but every one had taken on a new +meaning. The whole exerted a majestic spell. Graded like the British +social scale were the different calibers of guns. Those with the largest +reach were set farthest back. Fifteen-inch howitzer dukes or nine-inch +howitzer earls, with their big, ugly mouths and their deliberate and +powerful fire, fought alone, each in his own lair, whether under a tree +or in the midst of the ruins of a village. The long naval guns, though +of smaller caliber, had a still greater reach and were sending their +shells five to ten miles beyond the German trenches. + +The eight-inch and six-inch howitzers were more gregarious. They worked +in groups of four and sometimes a number of batteries were in line. +Beyond them were those alert commoners, the field guns, rapid of fire +with their eighteen-pound shells. These seemed more tractable and +companionable, better suited for human association, less mechanically +brutal. They were not monstrous enough to require motor tractors to draw +them at a stately gait, but behind their teams could be up and away +across the fields on short notice, their caissons of ammunitions +creaking behind them. Along the communication trenches perspiring +soldiers carried "plum puddings" or the trench-mortar shells which were +to be fired from the front line and boxes of egg-shaped bombs which +fitted nicely in the palm of the hand for throwing. + +It seemed that all the guns in the world must be firing as you listened +from a distance, although when you came into the area where the guns +were in tiers behind the cover of a favorable slope you found that many +were silent. The men of one battery might be asleep while its neighbor +was sending shells with a one-two-three deliberation. Any sleep or rest +that the men got must be there in the midst of this crashing babel from +steel throats. Again, the covers were being put over the muzzles for the +night, or, out of what had seemed blank hillside, a concealed battery +which had not been firing before sent out its vicious puffs of smoke +before its reports reached your ears. Every battery was doing as it was +told from some nerve-center; every one had its registered target on the +map--a trench, or a road, or a German battery, or where it was thought +that a German battery ought to be. + +The flow of ammunition for all came up steadily, its expenditure +regulated on charts by officers who kept watch for extravagance and +aimed to make every shell count. A fortune was being fired away every +hour; a sum which would send a youth for a year to college or bring up a +child went into a single large shell which might not have the luck to +kill one human being as excuse for its existence; an endowment for a +maternity hospital was represented in a day's belch of destruction from +a single acre of trodden wheat land. One trench mortar would consume in +an hour plum puddings for an orphan school. For you might pause to think +of it in this way if you chose. Thousands do at the front. + +Down on the banks of the Somme the blue uniforms of the French in place +of the British khaki hovered around the gun-emplacements; the +_soixante-quinze_ with its virtuoso artistic precision was neighbor to +the British eighteen-pounder. Guns, guns, guns--French and English! The +same nests of them opposite Gommecourt and at Estrees thundered across +at one another from either bank of the Somme through summer haze over +the green spaces of the islands edged with the silver of its tranquil +flow in the moonlight or its glare in the sunlight. + +Not the least of the calculations in this activity was to screen every +detail from aerial observation. New hangars had risen at the edge of +level fields, whence the swift fighting machines of an aircraft +concentration in keeping with the concentration of guns and all other +material rose to reconnaissance, or to lie in wait as a falcon to pounce +upon an invading German plane. Thus the sky was policed by flight +against prying aerial eyes. If one German plane could descend to an +altitude of a thousand feet, its photographs would reveal the location +of a hundred batteries to German gunners and show the plan of +concentration clearly enough to leave no doubt of the line of attack; +but the anti-aircraft guns, plentiful now as other British material, +would have caught it going, if not coming, provided it escaped being +jockeyed to death by half a dozen British planes with their machine guns +rattling. + +To "camouflet" became a new English verb British planes tested out a +battery's visibility from the air. Landscape painters were called in to +assist in the deceit. One was set to "camouflet" the automobile van for +the pigeons which, carried in baskets on the men's backs in charges, +were released as another means of sending word of the progress of an +attack obscured in the shell-smoke. This conscientious artist +"camoufleted" the pigeon-van so successfully that the pigeons could not +find their way home. + +Night was the hour of movement. At night the planes, if they went forth, +saw only a vague and shadowy earth. The sausage balloons, German and +Allied, those monitors of the sky, a line of opaque, weird question +marks against the blue, stared across at each other out of range of the +enemy's guns, "spotting" the fall of shells for their own side from +their suspended basket observation posts from early morning until they +were drawn in by their gasoline engines with the coming of dusk. Clumsy +and helpless they seemed; but in common with the rest of the army they +had learned to reach their dugouts swiftly at the first sign of shell +fire, and descended then with a ridiculous alacrity which suggested the +possession of the animal intelligence of self-preservation. Occasionally +one broke loose and, buffeted like an umbrella down the street by the +wind, started for the Rhine. And the day before the great attack the +British aviation corps sprang a surprise on the German sausages, six of +which disappeared in balls of flame. + +A one-armed man of middle age from India, who offered to do his "bit," +refused a post at home in keeping with his physical limitations. His +eyes were all right, he said, when he nominated himself as a balloon +observer, and he never suffered from sea-sickness which sausage balloons +most wickedly induce. Many a man who has ascended in one not only could +see nothing, but wanted to see nothing, and turning spinach lopping over +the basket rail prayed only that the engine would begin drawing in +immediately. + +One day the one-armed pilot was up with a "joy-rider"; that is, an +officer who was not a regular aerial observer but was sight-seeing. The +balloon suddenly broke loose with the wind blowing strong toward Berlin, +which was a bit awkward, as he remarked, considering that he had an +inexperienced passenger. + +"We mustn't let the Boches get us!" he said. "Look sharp and do as I +say." + +First, he got the joy-rider into the parachute harness for such +emergencies and over the side, then himself, both descending safely on +the right side of the British trenches--which was rather "smart work," +as the British would say, but all to the taste of the one-armed pilot +who was looking for adventures. I have counted thirty-three British +sausage balloons within my range of vision from a hill. The previous +year the British had not a baker's dozen. + +What is lacking? Have we enough of everything? These questions were +haunting to organizers in those last days of preparation. + +After dark the scene from a hill, as you rode toward the horizon of +flashes, was one of incredible grandeur. Behind you, as you looked +toward the German lines, was the blanket of night pierced and slashed by +the flashes of gun blasts; overhead the bloodcurdling, hoarse sweep of +their projectiles; and beyond the darkness had been turned into a +chaotic, uncanny day by the jumping, leaping, spreading blaze of +explosives which made all objects on the landscape stand out in +flickering silhouette. Spurts of flame from the great shells rose out of +the bowels of the earth, softening with their glow the sharp, +concentrated, vicious snaps of light from shrapnel. Little flashes +played among big flashes and flashes laid over flashes shingle fashion +in a riot of lurid competition, while along the line of the German +trenches at some places lay a haze of shimmering flame from the rapid +fire of the trench mortars. + +The most resourceful of descriptive writers is warranted in saying that +the scene was indescribable. Correspondents did their best, and after +they had squeezed the rhetorical sponge of its last drop of ink +distilled to frenzy of adjectives in inadequate effort, they gaspingly +laid their copy on the table of the censor, who minded not "word +pictures" which contained no military secrets. + +Vision exalted and numbed by the display, one's mind sought the meaning +and the purpose of this unprecedented bombardment, with its precision +of the devil's own particular brand of "kultur," which was to cut the +Germans' barbed wire, smash in their trenches, penetrate their dugouts, +close up their communication trenches, do unto their second line the +same as to their first line, bury their machine guns in debris, crush +each rallying strong point in that maze of warrens, burst in the roofs +of village billets over their heads, lay a barrier of death across all +roads and, in the midst of the process of killing and wounding, imprison +the men of the front line beyond relief by fresh troops and shut them +off from food and munitions. Theatric, horrible and more than +that--matter-of-fact, systematic war! There was relatively little +response from the German batteries, whose silence had a sinister +suggestion. They waited on the attack as the target of their revenge for +the losses which they were suffering. + +By now they knew from the bombardment, if not from other sources, that a +British attack was coming at some point of the line. Their flares were +playing steadily over No Man's Land to reveal any movement by the +British or the French. From their trenches rose signal rockets--the only +real fireworks, leisurely and innocent, without any sting of death in +their sparks--which seemed to be saying "No movement yet" to commanders +who could not be reached by any other means through the curtains of fire +and to artillerists who wanted to turn on their own curtains of fire +instantly the charge started. Then there were other little flashes and +darts of light and flame which insisted on adding their moiety to the +garish whole. And under the German trenches at several points were vast +charges of explosives which had been patiently borne under ground +through arduously made tunnels. + +So much for the machinery of material. Thus far we have mentioned only +guns and explosions, things built of steel to fire missiles of steel and +things on wheels, and little about the machine of human beings now to +come abreast of the tape for the charge, the men who had been "blooded," +the "cannon fodder." Every shell was meant for killing men; every German +battery and machine gun was a monster frothing red at the lips in +anticipation of slaughter. + +A fury of trench raids broke out from the Somme to Ypres further to +confuse the enemy as to the real front of attack. Men rushed the +trenches which they were to take and hold later, and by their brief +visit learned whether or not the barbed wire had been properly cut to +give the great charge a clear pathway and whether or not the German +trenches were properly mashed. They brought in prisoners whose +identification and questioning were invaluable to the intelligence +branch, where the big map on the wall was filled in with the location +of German divisions, thus building up the order of battle, so vital to +all plans, with its revelation of the disposition and strength of the +enemy's forces. It was known that the Germans were rapidly bringing up +new batteries north of the Ancre while low visibility postponed the day +of the attack. + +The men that worked on the new roads keeping them in condition for the +passage of the heavy transport, whether columns of motor trucks, or +caissons, or the great tractors drawing guns, were no less a part of the +scheme than the daring raiders. Every soldier who was going over the +parapet in the attack must have his food and drink and bombs to throw +and cartridges to fire after he had reached his objective. + +Most telling of all the innumerably suggestive features to me were the +streets of empty white tents at the casualty clearing stations, and the +empty hospital cars on the railway sidings, and the new enclosures for +prisoners--for these spoke the human note. These told that man was to be +the target. + +The staff might plan, gunners might direct their fire accurately against +unseen targets by the magic of their calculations, generals might +prepare their orders, the intricate web of telephone and telegraph wires +might hum with directions, but the final test lay with him who, rifle +and bomb ready in hand, was going to cross No Man's Land and take +possession of the German trenches. A thousand pictures cloud the memory +and make a whole intense in one's mind, which holds all proudly in +admiration of human stoicism, discipline and spirit and sadly, too, with +a conscious awe in the possession as of some treasure intrusted to him +which he cheapens by his clumsy effort at expression. + +Stage by stage the human part had moved forward. Khaki figures were +swarming the village streets while the people watched them with a sort +of worshipful admiration of their stalwart, trained bodies and a +sympathetic appreciation of what was coming. These men with their fair +complexion and strange tongue were to strike against the Germans. Two +things the French had learned about the English: they were generous and +they were just, though phlegmatic. Now they were to prove that with +their methodical deliberation they were brave. Some would soon die in +battle--and for France. + +By day they loitered in the villages waiting on the coming of darkness, +their training over--nothing to do now but wait. If they went forward it +was by platoons or companies, lest they make a visible line on the +chalky background of the road to the aviator's eye. A battalion drawn up +in a field around a battalion commander, sitting his horse sturdily as +he gave them final advice, struck home the military affection of loyalty +of officer to man and man to officer. A soldier parting at a doorway +from a French girl in whose eyes he had found favor during a brief +residence in her village struck another chord. That elderly woman with +her good-by to a youth was speaking as she would to her own son who was +at the front and unconsciously in behalf of some English mother. Up near +the trenches at dusk, in the last billet before the assembly for attack, +company officers were recalling the essentials of instructions to a line +standing at ease at one side of the street while caissons of shells had +the right of way. + +With the coming of night battalions of reserves formed and set forth on +the march, going toward the flashes in the heavens which illumined the +men in their steady tramp, the warmth of their bodies and their breaths +pressing close to your car as you turned aside to let them pass. "East +Surreys," or "West Ridings," or "Manchesters" might come the answer to +inquiries. All had the emblems of their units in squares of cloth on +their shoulders, and on the backs of some of the divisions were bright +yellow or white patches to distinguish them from Germans to the gunners +in the shell-smoke. + +Nothing in their action at first glance indicated the stress of their +thoughts. Officers and men, their physical movements set by the mold of +discipline, were in gesture, in voice, in manner the same as when they +were on an English road in training. This was a part of the drill, a +part of man's mastery of his emotions. None were under any illusions as +soldiers of other days had been. Few nursed the old idea of being the +lucky man who would escape. They knew the chances they were taking, the +meaning of frontal attacks and of the murderous and wholesale quickness +of machine gun methods. + +Will, organized human will, was in their steps and shining out of their +eyes. It occurred to me that they might have escaped this if England had +kept out of the war at the price of something with which Englishmen +refused to part. "The day" was coming, "the day" they had foreseen, "the +day" for which their people waited. + +When they were closing in with death, the clans which make up the +British Empire kept faith with their character as do all men. These +battalions sang the songs and whistled the tunes of drill grounds at +home, though in low notes lest the enemy should hear, and lapsed into +silence when they drew near the front and filed through the +communication trenches. + +Quiet the English, that great body of the army which sees itself as the +skirt for the Celtic fringe, ploddingly undemonstrative with memories of +the phlegm of their history holding emotions unexpressed; the Scotch in +their kilts, deep-chested, with their trunk-like legs and broad hips, +braw of face under their mushroom helmets, seemed like mediaeval men of +arms ready in spirit as well as looks for fierce hand-to-hand +encounters; the Welsh, more emotional than the English, had songs which +were pleasant to the ear if the words were unrecognizable; and the +ruddy-faced Irish, with their soft voices, had a beam in their eyes of +inward anticipation of the sort of thing to come which no Irishman ever +meets in a hesitating mood. No overseas troops were there except the +Newfoundland battalion; for only sons of the old country were to strike +on July 1st. + +Returning from a tour at night I had absorbed what seemed at one moment +the unrealness and at another the stern, unyielding reality of the +scenes. The old French territorial, with wrinkled face and an effort at +a military mustache, who came out of his sentry box at a control post +squinting by the light of a lantern held close to his nose at the bit of +paper which gave the bearer freedom of the army and nodding with his +polite word of concurrence, was a type who might have stopped a traveler +in Louis XIV.'s time. All the farmers sleeping in the villages who would +be up at dawn at their work, all the people in Amiens, knew that the +hour was near. The fact was in the air no less than in men's minds. +Nobody mentioned that the greatest struggle of the war was about to +begin. We all knew that it was in hearts, souls, fiber. + +There were moments when imagination gave to that army in its integrity +of organization only one heart in one body. Again, it was a million +hearts in a million bodies, deaf except to the voice of command. Most +amazing was the absence of fuss whether with the French or the British. +Everybody seemed to be doing what he was told to do and to know how to +do it. With much to be left to improvisation after the attack began, +nothing might be neglected in the course of preparation. + +In other days where infantry on the march deployed and brought up +suddenly against the enemy in open conflict the anticipatory suspense +was not long and was forgotten in the brief space of conflict. Here this +suspense really had been cumulative for months. It built itself up, +little by little, as the material and preparations increased, as the +battalions assembled, until sometimes, despite the roar of the +artillery, there seemed a great silence while you waited for a string, +drawn taut, to crack. + +On the night of June 30th the word was passed behind a closed door in +the hotel that seven-thirty the next morning was the hour and the +spectators should be called at five--which seemed the final word in +staff prevision. + + + + +V + +THE BLOW + + Plans at headquarters--A battle by inches--In the observation + post--The debris of a ruined village--"Softening" by shell fire--A + slice out of the front--The task of the infantryman--The dawn before + the attack--Five minutes more--A wave of men twenty-five miles + long--Mist and shell-smoke--Duty of the war-correspondent. + + +I was glad to have had glimpses of every aspect of the preparation from +battalion headquarters in the front line trenches to General +Headquarters, which had now been moved to a smaller town near the +battlefield where the intelligence branch occupied part of a +schoolhouse. In place of exercises in geography and lithographs of +natural history objects, on the schoolroom walls hung charts of the +German Order of Battle, as built up through many sources of information, +which the British had to face. There was no British Order of Battle in +sight. This, as the Germans knew it, you might find in a German +intelligence office; but the British were not going to aid the Germans +in ascertaining it by giving it any publicity. + +By means of a map spread out on a table an officer explained the plan of +attack with reference to broad colored lines which denoted the +objectives. The whole was as explicit as if Bonaparte had said: + +"We shall engage heavily on our left, pound the center with our +artillery, and flank on our right." + +The higher you go in the command the simpler seem the plans which by +direct and comprehensive strokes conceal the detail which is delegated +down through the different units. At Gommecourt there was a salient, an +angle of the German trench line into the British which seemed to invite +"pinching," and this was to be the pivot of the British movement. The +French who were on both sides of the Somme were to swing in from their +southern flank of attack near Soyecourt in the same fashion as the +British from the northern, thus bringing the deepest objective along the +river in the direction of Peronne, which would fall when eventually the +tactical positions commanding it were gained. + +Not with the first rush, for the lines of the objective were drawn well +short of it, but with later rushes the British meant to gain the +irregular ridge formation from Thiepval to Longueval, which would start +them on the way to the consummation of their siege hammering. It was to +be a battle by inches; the beginning of a long task. German _morale_ was +still high on the Western front; their numbers immense. _Morale_ could +be broken, numbers worn down, only by pounding. + +Granted that the attack of July 1st should succeed all along the line, +it would gain little ground; but it would everywhere break through the +first line fortifications over a front of more than twenty-five miles, +the British for about fifteen and the French for about ten. The +soldierly informant at "Intelligence" reminded the listener, too, that +battalions which might be squeezed or might run into unexpected +obstacles would suffer fearfully as in all great battles and one must be +careful not to be over-depressed by the accounts of the survivors or +over-elated by the roseate narratives of battalions which had swept all +before them with slight loss. + +The day before I saw the map of the whole I had seen the map of a part +at an Observation Post at Auchonvillers. The two were alike in a +standardized system, only one dealt with corps and the other with +battalions. A trip to Auchonvillers at any time during the previous year +or up to the end of June, 1916, had not been fraught with any particular +risk. It was on the "joy-riders'" route, as they say. + +When I said that the German batteries were making relatively little +reply to the preliminary British bombardment I did not mean to imply +that they were missing any opportunities. At the dead line for +automobiles on the road the burst of a shrapnel overhead had a +suggestiveness that it would not have had at other times. Perhaps the +Germans were about to put a barrage on the road. Perhaps they were +going to start their guns in earnest. Happily, they have always been +most considerate where I was concerned and they were only throwing in a +few shells in the course of artillery routine, which happened also on +our return from the Observation Post. But they were steadily attentive +with "krumps" to a grove where some British howitzers sought the screen +of summer foliage. If they could put any batteries out of action while +they waited for the attack this was good business, as it meant fewer +guns at work in support of the British charge. + +An artilleryman, perspiring and mud-spattered from shell-bursts, who +came across the fields, said: "They knocked off the corner of our +gun-pit and got two men. That's all." His eyes were shining; he was in +the elation of battle. Casualties were an incident in the preoccupation +of his work and of the thought: "At last we have the shells! At last it +is our turn!" + +On our way forward we passed more batteries and wisely kept to the open +away from them, as they are dangerous companions in an artillery duel. +Then we stepped into the winding communication trench with its system of +wires fast to the walls, and kept on till we passed under a lifted +curtain into a familiar chamber roofed with heavy cement blocks and +earth. + +"Safe from a direct hit by five-point-nines," said the observation +officer, a regular promoted from the ranks who had been "spotting" +shells since the war began. "A nine-inch would break the blocks, but I +don't think that it would do us in." + +Even if it did "do us in," why, we were only two or three men. All this +protection was less perhaps to insure safety than to insure security of +observation for these eyes of the guns. The officer was as proud of his +O.P. as any battalion commander of his trench or a battery commander of +his gun-position, which is the same kind of human pride that a man has +in the improvements on his new country estate. + +There was a bench to sit on facing the narrow observation slit, similar +to that of a battleship's conning tower, which gave a wide sweep of +vision. A commonplace enough _mise-en-scene_ on average days, now +significant because of the stretch of dead world of the trench systems +and No Man's Land which was soon to be seething with the tumult of +death. + +Directly in front of us was Beaumont-Hamel. Before the war it had been +like hundreds of other villages. Since the war its ruins were like +scores of others in the front line. Parts of a few walls were standing. +It was difficult to tell where the debris of Beaumont-Hamel began and +that of the German trench ended. Dust was mixed with the black bursts +of smoke rising from the conglomerate mass of buildings and streets +thrown together by previous explosions. The effect suggested the regular +spout of geysers from a desert rock crushed by charges of dynamite. + +Could anybody be alive in Beaumont-Hamel? Wasn't this bombardment +threshing straw which had long since yielded its last kernel of grain? +Wasn't it merely pounding the graves of a garrison? Other villages, +equally passive and derelict, were being submitted to the same +systematic pounding, which was like timed hammer-beats. + +"We keep on softening them," said the observer. + +Soldiers have a gift for apt words to describe their work, as have all +professional experts. Softening! It personified the enemy as something +hard and tough which would grow pulpy under enough well-mapped blows +striking at every vital part from dugouts to billets. + +All the barbed-wire entanglements in front of the first-line trenches +appeared to be cut, mangled, twisted into balls, beaten back into the +earth and exhumed again, leaving only a welt of crater-spotted ground in +front of the chalky contour of the first-line trenches which had been +mashed and crushed out of shape. + +"Yes, the Boche's first line looks rather messy," said the officer. +"We've been giving him an awful doing these last few days. Turning our +attention mostly to the second line, now. That's our lot, there," he +added, indicating a cluster of bursts over a nest of burrows farther up +on the hillside. + +"Any attempts to repair their wire at night?" I asked. + +"No. They have to do it under our machine gun fire. Any Boches who have +survived are lying doggo." + +How many dugouts were still intact and secure refuges for the waiting +Germans? Only trench raids could ascertain. As well might the observer +with his glasses or an aeroplane looking down try to take a census of +the number of inhabitants of a prairie dog village who were all in their +holes. + +The officer spread out his map marked "Secret and confidential," +delimiting the boundaries of a narrow sector. He had nothing to do with +what lay to the right and left--other sectors, other men's business--of +the area inclosed in the clear, heavy lines crosswise of British and +German trenches--a slice out of the front, as it were. Speaking over the +telephone to the blind guns, he was interested only in the control of +gunfire in this sector. The charge to him was lines on the map parallel +with the trenches which would be at given points at given moments--lines +which he must support when their soldier counterparts were invisible +through the shell-smoke in the nice calculation of time and range which +should put the shells into the enemy and never into the charging man. + +To infantry commanders with similar maps those lines were breathing +human lines of men whom they had trained, and the gunfire a kind of +spray which the gunners were to adjust for the protection of the +battalions when they should cross that dead space. Once the British were +in the German front trenches, details which had been told off for the +purpose were to take possession of the dugouts and "breach" them of +prisoners and disarm all other Germans, lest they fire into the backs of +those who carried the charge farther on to the final stage of the +objective. What awaited them they would know only when they climbed over +the parapet and became silhouettes of vulnerable flesh in the open. Yes, +one had the system in the large and the small, by the army, the corps, +the division, the brigade, the battalion, and the man, the individual +infantryman who was to suffer that hazard of marching in the open toward +the trenches which not guns, or motor trucks, or trench-mortar shells +could take, but only he could take and hold. + +The advantage of watching the attack from this O.P. in comparison with +that of other points was mooted; for the spectator had to choose his +seat for the panorama. This time we sought a place where we hoped to +see something of the battle as a whole. + +"_C'est arrive!_" said the old porter to me at the door when I left the +hotel before dawn. The great day had arrived! + +Amiens was in darkness, with the lightnings of the guns which had never +ceased their labors through the night flashing in the heavens their +magnetic summons to battle. When a dip into a valley shut out their roar +a divine hush lay over the world. On either side of the main road was +the peace of the hour before the dawn which would send the peasants from +their beds to the fields. There were no lights yet in the villages. It +had not occurred to the inhabitants to try to see the battle. They knew +that they would be in the way; sentries or gunners would halt them. + +The traffic was light and all vehicles, except a flying staff officer's +car, were going their methodical way. Vaguely, as an aviation station +was passed, planes were visible being pushed out of their sheds; the hum +of propellers being tried out was faintly heard. The birds of battle +were testing their wings before flight and every one out of the hundreds +which would take part that day had his task set, no less than had a +corps, a regiment of artillery, or the bombers in a charge. + +"This is the place," was the word to the chauffeur as we swept up a +grade in the misty darkness. + +Stretched from trunk to trunk of the trees beside the road were canvas +screens to hide the transport from enemy observation. Passing between +them had the effect of going through the curtains into a parterre box. +Light was just breaking and we were in a field of young beets on the +crest of a rise, with no higher ground beyond us all the way to +Thiepval, which was in the day's objective, and to Pozieres, which was +beyond it. Ordinarily, on a clear day we should have had from here a +view over five or six miles of front and through our glasses the action +should have been visible in detail. + +This morning the sun was not showing his head and the early mist lay +opaque over all the positions, holding in place the mighty volume of +smoke from bursting shells. As it was not seven o'clock the sun might +yet realize its duty in July and dissipate this shroud, which was so +thick that it partially obscured the flashes of the guns and the +shell-bursts. + +Seven-ten came and seven-twenty and still no more light. It was too late +now to seek another hill and, if we had sought one, we should have had +no better view. At least, we were seeing as much as the Commander of the +Fourth Army in his dugout near by. The artillery fire increased. Every +gun was now firing, all stretching their powers to the maximum. The +mist and smoke over the positions seemed to tremble with the blasts. +Near-by shells, especially German, broke brilliantly against a +background so thick that it swallowed up the flashes of more distant +shells in its garishly illumined density. Thousands of officers were +studying their wrist watches for the tick of "zero" as the minute-hands +moved on with merciless fatalism; and hundreds of thousands of men who +had come into position overnight were in line in the trenches looking to +their officers for the word. + +Our little group in the beet field was restless and silent; or if we +spoke it was not of what was oppressing our minds and stilling our +heartbeats. Our glasses gave no aid; they only made the fog thicker. Had +we been in the first-line British trenches we could hardly have seen the +men who left them through this wall of smoke and mist as they entered +the German first line and the answering German "krumps" would have +driven us to the dugouts and German curtains of fire held us prisoner. + +One of us called attention to a lark that had risen and was singing with +all the power in his little throat. Another mentioned a squadron of +aeroplanes against the background of a soft and domeless sky, flying +with the precision of wild geese. We knew that the German guns were +responding now, for the final blasts of British concentration had been +a sufficient signal of attack if some British prisoner taken in a trench +raid had not revealed the hour. + +Seven-twenty-five! someone said, but not one of us needed any reminder. +Five minutes more and the great experiment would begin. Had Sir Douglas +Haig made an army equal to the task? What would be the answer to +skeptics who said that the London cockneys and the Manchester factory +hands and all the others without military training could not be made +into a force skilful enough to take those trenches? Was the feat of +conquering those fortifications within the bounds of human courage, +skill and resource? + +Not what one saw but what one felt and knew counted. A crowd is +spellbound in watching a steeplejack at work, or an aviator doing a +"loop-the-loop," or an acrobat swinging from one bar to another above +the sawdust ring, or the "leap of death" of the movies; and here we were +in the presence of a multitude who were running a far greater risk in an +untried effort, with their inspiration not a breathless audience but +duty. For none wanted to die. All were human in this. None had any sense +of the glorious sport of war, only that of grim routine. + +Our group was not particularly religious, but I think that we were all +uttering a prayer for England and France. At seven-thirty something +seemed to crack in our brains. There was no visible sign that a wave of +men twenty-five miles long, reaching from Gommecourt to Soyecourt, +wherever the trenches ran across fields, through villages and along +slopes to the banks of the Somme and beyond, had left their parapets. I +knew the men who were going into that charge too well to have any +apprehension that any battalion would falter. The thing was to be done +and they were to do it. Now they were out in No Man's Land; now they +were facing the reception prepared for them. Thousands might already be +down. We could discern that the German guns, long waiting for their +prey, were seeking it in eager ferocity as they laid their curtains of +fire on the appointed places which they had registered. The hell of the +poets and the priests must have some emotion, some temperamental +variation. This was sheer mechanical hell, its pulse that of the dynamo +and the engine. + +Seven-forty-five! Helplessly we stared at the blanket. If the charge had +gone home it was already in the German trenches. For all we knew it +might have been repulsed and its remnants be struggling back through the +curtains of artillery fire and the sweep of machine gun fire. As the sun +came out without clearing away the mist and shell-smoke over the field +we had glimpses of some reserves who had looked like a yellow patch +behind a hill deploying to go forward, suggestive of yellow-backed +beetles who were the organized servitors of a higher mind on some other +planet. + +This was all we saw; and to make more of it would not be fair to other +occasions when views of attacks were more intimate. Yet I would not +change the impression now. It has its place in the spectator's history +of the battle. + + + + +VI + +FIRST RESULTS OF THE SOMME + + At the little schoolhouse--Twenty miles of German fortifications + taken--Doubtful situation north of Thiepval--Prisoners and + wounded--Defeat and victory--The topography of Thiepval--Sprays of + bullets and blasts of artillery fire--"The day" of the New Army--The + courage of civilized man--Fighting with a kind of divine + stubbornness--Braver than the "Light Brigade"--Died fighting as final + proof of the New Army's spirit--Crawling back through No Man's + Land--Not beaten but roughly handled. + + +In the room at the head of the narrow stairs in the schoolhouse of the +quiet headquarters town we should have the answer to the question, Has +the British attack succeeded? which was throbbing in our pulsebeats. By +the same map on the table in the center of the room showing the plan of +attack with its lines indicating the objectives we should learn how many +of them had been gained. The officer who had outlined the plan of battle +with fine candor was equally candid about its results, so far as they +were known. Not only did he avoid mincing words, but he avoided wasting +them. + +From Thiepval northward the situation was obscure. The German artillery +response had been heavy and the action almost completely blanketed from +observation. Some detachments must have reached their objective, as +their signals had been seen. From La Boisselle southward the British had +taken every objective. They were in Mametz and Montauban and around +Fricourt. For the French it had been a clean sweep, without a single +repulse. Twenty miles of those formidable German fortifications were in +the possession of the Allies. + +On the ledge of the schoolroom window, with the shrill voices of the +children at recess playing in the yard below rising to my ears, I wrote +my dispatch for the press at home, less conscious then than now of the +wonder of the situation. Downstairs the cure of the church next door was +standing on the steps, an expectant look in his eyes. When I told him +the news his smile and the flash of his eye, which lacked the meekness +usually associated with the Church, were good to see. + +"And the French?" he asked. + +"All of their objectives!" + +"Ah!" He drew a deep breath and rubbed his hands together softly. "And +prisoners?" + +"A great many." + +"Ah! And guns?" + +"Yes." + +Thus he ran up the scale of happiness. I left him on the steps of the +church with a proud, glad, abstracted look. + +Beyond the town peaceful fields stretched away to the battle area, where +figures packed together inside the new prisoners' inclosures made a +green blot. Litters were thick in the streets of the casualty clearing +stations which had been empty yesterday. There were no idle ambulances +now. They had passengers in green as well as in khaki. The first +hospital trains were pulling out from the rail-head across from a +clearing station. Thus promptly, as foreseen, the processes of battle +had worked themselves out. + +From "light" cases and from "bad" cases, from officers and men, you had +the account of an individual's supreme experience, infinitesimal +compared to the whole but when taken together making up the whole. The +wounded in the Thiepval-Gommecourt sector spoke of having "crawled" back +across No Man's Land. South of Thiepval they had "walked" back. This, +too, told the story of the difference between repulse and victory. + +As the fight went for each man in the fray, so the battle went to his +conception. The spectator going here and there could hear accounts at +one headquarters of battalions that were beyond the first-line trenches +and at another of battalions whose survivors were back in their own +trenches. He could hear one wounded man say: "It was too stiff, sir. +There was no getting through their curtains of fire against their +machine guns, sir;" and another: "We went into their first line without +a break and right on, gathering in Boches on the way." + +Victory is sweet. It writes itself. Perhaps because failure is harder to +write, though in this case it is equally glorious, we shall have this +first. To make the picture of that day clearer, imagine a movement of +the whole arm, with the shoulder at Gommecourt and the fist swinging in +at Montauban, crushing its way against those fortifications. It broke +through for a distance of more than from the elbow to the fingers' ends +twenty miles southward from Thiepval--a name to bear in mind. Men +crossing the open under protecting waves of shell fire had proved that +men in dugouts with machine guns were not invincible. + +From a certain artillery observation post in a tree you had a good view +of Thiepval, already a blackened spot with the ruins of the chateau +showing white in its midst and pricked by the toothpick-like trunks of +trees denuded of their limbs, which were to become such a familiar sight +on the battlefield. It was uphill all the way to Thiepval for the +British. A river so-called, really a brook, the Ancre, runs at the foot +of the slope and turns eastward beyond Thiepval, where a ridge called +Crucifix Ridge north-east of the village takes its name from a Christ +with outstretched arms visible for many miles around. Then on past the +bend of the Ancre the British and the German positions continued to the +Gommecourt salient. + +Along these five miles the odds of terrain were all against the British. +The high ground which they sought to gain was of supreme tactical value. +Nature was an ally of soldierly industry in constructing defenses. The +German staff expected the brunt of the offensive in this sector and +every hour's delay in the attack was invaluable for their final +preparations. Thiepval, Beaumont-Hamel and Gommecourt would not be +yielded if there were any power of men or material at German command to +keep them. Indeed, the Germans said that Thiepval was impregnable. Their +boast was good on July 1st but not in the end, as we shall see, for, +before the summer was over, Thiepval was to be taken with less loss to +the British than to the defenders. + +At Beaumont-Hamel and Thiepval, particularly, and in all villages house +cellars had been enlarged and connected by new galleries, the debris +from the buildings forming a thicker roof against penetration by shells. +Where there had seemed no life in Beaumont-Hamel battalions were snug in +their refuges as the earth around trembled from the explosions. Those +shell-threshed parapets of the first-line German trenches which appeared +to represent complete destruction had not filled in all the doorways of +dugouts which big shells had failed to reach. The cut and twisted +fragments of barbed wire which were the remains of the maze of +entanglements fringing the parapets no longer protected them from a +charge; but the garrisons depended upon another kind of defense which +sent its deadly storms against the advancing infantry. + +The British battalions that went over the parapet from Thiepval +northward were of the same mettle as those that took Montauban and +Mametz; their training and preparation the same. Where battalions to the +southward swept forward according to plan and the guns' pioneering was +successful, those on this front in many cases started from trenches +already battered in by German shell fire. A few steps across that dead +space and officers knew that the supporting artillery, working no less +thoroughly in its preliminary bombardment here than elsewhere, had not +the situation in hand. + +All the guns which the Germans had brought up during the time that +weather delayed the British attack added their weight to the artillery +concentration. Down the valley of the Ancre at its bend they had more or +less of an enfilade. Machine guns had survived in their positions in the +debris of the trenches or had been mounted overnight and others appeared +from manholes in front of the trenches. Sprays of bullets cut crosswise +of the blasts of the German curtains of artillery fire. How any men +could go the breadth of No Man's Land and survive would have been called +miraculous in other days; in these days we know that it was due to the +law of chance which will wound one man a dozen times and never bark the +skin of another. + +Any troops might have been warranted in giving up the task before they +reached the first German trench. Veterans could have retired without +criticism. This is the privilege of tried soldiers who have won +victories and are secured by such an expression as, "If the Old Guard +saw that it could not be done, why, then, it could not." But these were +New Army men in their first offensive. Their victories were yet to be +won. This was "the day." + +Each officer and each man had given himself up as a hostage to death for +his cause, his pride of battalion and his manhood when he went over the +parapet. The business of the officers was to lead their men to certain +goals; that of the men was to go with the officers. All very simple +reasoning, this, yet hardly reason: the second nature of training and +spirit. How officers had studied the details of their objectives on the +map in order to recognize them when they were reached! How like drill it +was the way that those human waves moved forward! But they were not +waves for long in some instances, only survivors still advancing as if +they were parts of a wave, unseen by their commanders in the +shell-smoke, buffeted by bursts of high explosives, with every man +simply keeping on toward the goal till he arrived or fell. Foolhardy, +you say. Perhaps. It is an easy word to utter over a map after the +event. You would think of finer words if you had been at the front. + +Would England have wanted her New Army to act otherwise?--the first +great army that she had put into the field on trial on the continent of +Europe against an army which had, by virtue of its own experience, the +right to consider the newcomers as amateurs? They became more skilful +later; but in war all skill is based on such courage as these men showed +that day. Those who sit in offices in times of peace and think otherwise +had better be relieved. It is the precept that the German Army itself +taught and practiced at Ypres and Verdun. On July 1st a question was +answered for anyone who had been in the Manchurian war. He learned that +those bred in sight of cathedrals in the civilization of the epic poem +can surpass without any inspiration of oriental fatalism or religious +fanaticism the courage of the land of Shintoism and Bushido. + +In most places the charge reached the German trenches. There, frequently +outnumbered by the garrison, the men stabbed and bombed, fought to put +out machine guns that were turned on them and so stay the tide coming +out of the mouths of dugouts--simply fought and kept on fighting with a +kind of divine stubbornness. + +Tennyson's "Light Brigade" seems bombast and gallery play after July +1st. In that case some men on horses who had received an order rode out +and rode back, and verse made ever memorable this wild gallop of +exhilaration with horses bearing the men. The battalions of July 1st +went on their own feet driven by their own will toward their goals, +without turning back. Surviving officers with objectives burned in their +brains led the surviving men past the first-line trenches if the +directions required this. "Theirs not to reason why--theirs but to do +and die--cannon to right of them volleyed and thundered,"--old-fashioned, +smoke-powder cannon firing round shot for the Light Brigade; for these +later-day battalions every kind of modern shell and machine guns, showers +of death and sheets of death! + +The goal--the goal! Ten men out of a hundred reached it in a few cases +and when they arrived they sent up rocket signals to say that they were +there! there! there! Two or three battalions literally disappeared into +the blue. I thought that the Germans might have taken a considerable +number of prisoners, but not so. Those isolated lots who went on to +their objectives regardless of every other thought died fighting, as +final proof of the New Army's spirit, against the Germans enraged by +their heavy losses from the preliminary British bombardment. + +It was where gaps existed and gallantry went blindly forward, unable in +the fog of shell-smoke to see whether the units on the right or the left +were up, that these sacrifices of heroism were made; but where command +was held over the line and the opposition was not of a variable kind +counsel was taken of the impossible and retreat was ordered. That is, +the units turned back toward their own trenches under direction. They +had to pass through the same curtain of shell fire in returning as in +charging, and ahead of them through the blasts they drove their +prisoners. + +"Never mind. It's from your own side!" said one Briton to a German who +had been knocked over by a German "krump" when he picked himself up; and +the German answered that this did not make him like it any better. + +Scattered with British wounded taking cover in new and old shell-craters +was No Man's Land as the living passed. A Briton and his prisoner would +take cover together. An explosion and the prisoner might be blown to +bits, or if the captor were, another Briton took charge of the prisoner. +Persistently stubborn were the captors in holding on to prisoners who +were trophies out of that inferno, and when a Briton was back in the +first-line trench with his German his delight was greater in delivering +his man alive than in his own safety. Out in No Man's Land the wounded +hugged their shell-craters until the fire slackened or night fell, when +they crawled back. + +Where early in the morning it had appeared as if the attack were +succeeding reserve battalions were sent in to the support of those in +front, and as unhesitatingly and steadily as at drill they entered the +blanket of shell-smoke with its vivid flashes and hissing of shrapnel +bullets and shell-fragments. Commanders, I found, stood in awe of the +steadfast courage of their troops. Whether officers or men, those who +came out of hell were still true to their heritage of English phlegm. + +Covered with chalk dust from crawling, their bandages blood-soaked, +bespattered with the blood of comrades as they lay on litters or hobbled +down a communication trench, they looked blank when they mentioned the +scenes that they had witnessed; but they gave no impression of despair. +It did not occur to them that they had been beaten; they had been +roughly handled in one round of a many-round fight. Had a German +counter-attack developed they would have settled down, rifle in hand, to +stall through the next round. And that young officer barely twenty, +smiling though weak from loss of blood from two wounds, refusing +assistance as he pulled himself along among the "walking wounded," +showed a bravery in his stoicism equal to any on the field when he said, +"It did not go well this time," in a way that indicated that, of course, +it would in the end. + +It was over one of those large scale, raised maps showing in facsimile +all the elevations that a certain corps commander told the story of the +whole attack with a simplicity and frankness which was a victory of +character even if he had not won a victory in battle. He rehearsed the +details of preparation, which were the same in their elaborate care as +those of corps which had succeeded; and he did not say that luck had +been against him--indeed, he never once used the word--but merely that +the German fortifications had been too strong and the gunfire too heavy. +He bore himself in the same manner that he would in his house in +England; but his eyes told of suffering and when he spoke of his men his +voice quavered. + +Where the young officer had said that it had not gone well this time and +a private had said, "We must try again, sir!" the general had said that +repulse was an incident of a prolonged operation in the initial stage, +which sounded more professional but was no more illuminating. All spoke +of lessons learned for the future. Thus they had stood the supreme test +which repulse alone can give. + +What could an observer say or do that was not banal in the eyes of men +who had been through such experiences? Only listen and look on with the +awe of one who feels that he is in the presence of immortal heroism. And +an hour's motor ride away were troops in the glow of that success which +is without comparison in its physical elation--the success of arms. + + + + +VII + +OUT OF THE HOPPER OF BATTLE + + An army of movement--Taking over the captured space--At Minden Post, + a crossroads of battle--German prisoners--Their desire to live--Their + variety--The ambulance line--The refuse from the hopper of + battle--Resting in the battle line--Reminiscences of the fighters--A + mighty crater--The dugouts around Fricourt--Method of taking a + dugout--The litter over the field. + + +When I went southward through that world of triumph back of Mametz and +Montauban I kept thinking of a strong man who had broken free of his +bonds and was taking a deep breath before another effort. Where from +Thiepval to Gommecourt the men who had expected to be organizing new +trenches were back in their old ones and the gunners who had hoped to +move their guns forward were in the same positions and all the plans for +supplying an army in advance were still on paper, to the southward +anticipation had become realization and the system devised to carry on +after success was being applied. + +A mighty, eager industry pervaded the rear. Here, at last, was an army +of movement. New roads must be made in order that the transport could +move farther forward; medical corps men were establishing more advanced +clearing stations; new ammunition dumps were being located; military +police were adapting traffic regulations to the new situation. Old +trenches had been filled up to give trucks and guns passageway. In every +face was the shining desire which overcomes fatigue. An army long +trench-tied was stretching its limbs as it found itself in the open. At +corps headquarters lines were drawn on the maps of positions gained and +beyond them the lines of new objectives. + +Could it be possible that our car was running along that road back of +the first-line trenches where it would have been death to show your head +two days ago? And could battalions in reserve be lying in the open on +fields where forty-eight hours previously a company would have drawn the +fire of half a dozen German batteries? Was it dream or reality that you +were walking about in the first-line German trenches? So long had you +been used to stationary warfare, with your side and the other side +always in the same places hedged in by walls of shell fire, that the +transformation seemed as amazing as if by some magic overnight lower +Broadway with all its high buildings had been moved across the North +River. + +Among certain scenes which memory still holds dissociated from others by +their outstanding characterization, that of Minden Post remains vivid +as illustrating the crossroads man-traffic of battle. A series of big +dugouts, of houses and caves with walls of sandbags, back of the first +British line near Carnoy was a focus of communication trenches and the +magnet to the men hastening from bullet-swept, shell-swept spaces to +security. The hot breath of the firing-line had scorched them and cast +them out and they came together in congestion at this clearing station +like a crowd at a gate. Eyes were bloodshot and set in deep hollows from +fatigue, those of the British having the gleam of triumph and those of +the Germans a dazed inquiry as they awaited directions. + +Only a half-hour before, perhaps, the Germans had been fighting with the +ferocity of racial hate and the method of iron discipline. Now they were +simply helpless, disheveled human beings, their short boots and green +uniforms whitened by chalk dust. Hunger had weakened the stamina of many +of them in the days when the preliminary British bombardment had shut +them off from supplies; but none looked as if he were really underfed. I +never saw a German prisoner who was except for the intervals when battle +kept the food waiting at the rear away from his mouth, though some who +were under-sized and ill-proportioned looked incapable of absorbing +nutrition. + +In order to make them fight better they had been told that the British +gave no quarter. Out of hell, with shells no longer bursting overhead or +bullets whimpering and hissing past, they were conscious only that they +were alive, and being alive, though they had risked life as if death +were an incident, now freed of discipline and of the exhilaration of +battle, their desire to live was very human in the way that hands shot +up if a sharp word were spoken to them by an officer. They were wholly +lacking in military dignity as they filed by; but it returned as by a +magic touch when a non-commissioned officer was bidden to take charge of +a batch and march them to an inclosure. Then, in answer to the command +shoulders squared, heels rapped together, and the instinct of long +training put a ramrod to their backbones which stiffened mere tired +human beings into soldiers. Distinct gratitude was evident when their +papers were taken for examination over the return of their +identification books, which left them still docketed and numbered +members of "system" and not mere lost souls as they would otherwise have +considered themselves. + +"All kinds of Boches in our exhibit!" said a British soldier. + +As there were, in truth: big, hulking, awkward fellows, beardless +youths, men of forty with stoops formed in civil life, professional men +with spectacles fastened to their ears by cords and fat men with the +cranial formation and physiognomy in keeping with French comic pictures +of the "type Boche." + +Mixed with the British wounded they came, tall and short, thin and +portly, the whole a motley procession of friend and foe in a strange +companionship which was singularly without rancor. I saw only one +incident of any harshness of captor to prisoner. A big German ran +against the wounded arm of a Briton, who winced with pain and turned and +gave the German a punch in very human fashion with his free arm. Another +German with his slit trousers' leg flapping around a bandage was leaning +on the arm of a Briton whose other arm was in a sling. A giant Prussian +bore a spectacled comrade pickaback. Germans impressed as litter-bearers +brought in still forms in khaki. Water and tobacco, these are the +bounties which no man refuses to another at such a time as this. The +gurgle of a canteen at a parched mouth on that warm July day was the +first gift to wounded Briton or German and the next a cigarette. + +Every returning Briton was wounded, of course, but many of the Germans +were unwounded. Long rows of litters awaited the busy doctors' visit for +further examination. First dressings put on by the man himself or by a +comrade in the firing-line were removed and fresh dressings substituted. +Ambulance after ambulance ran up, the litters of those who were "next" +were slipped in behind the green curtains, and on soft springs over +spinning rubber tires the burdens were sped on their way to England. + +Officers were bringing order out of the tide which flowed in across the +fields and the communication trenches as if they were used to such +situations, with the firing-line only two thousand yards away. The +seriously wounded were separated from the lightly wounded, who must not +expect to ride but must go farther on foot. The shell-mauled German +borne pickaback by a comrade found himself in an ambulance across from a +Briton and his bearer was to know sleep after a square meal in the +prisoners' inclosure. + +And all this was the refuse from the hopper of battle, which has no +service for prisoners unless to carry litters and no use at all for +wounded; and it was only a by-product of the proof of success compared +to a trip over the field itself--a field still fresh. + +Artillery caissons and ambulances and signal wire carts and other +specially favored transport--favored by risk of being in range of +hundreds of guns--now ran along the road in the former No Man's Land +which for nearly two years had had no life except the patrols at night. +The bodies of those who fell on such nocturnal scouting expeditions +could not be recovered and their bones lay there in the midst of rotting +green and khaki in the company of the fresh dead of the charge who were +yet to be buried. + +There was the battalion which took the trenches resting yonder on a +hillside, while another battalion took its place in the firing-line. The +men had stripped off their coats; they were washing and making tea and +sprawling in the sunshine, these victors, looking across at curtains of +fire where the battle was raging. Thus reserves might have waited at +Gettysburg or at Waterloo. + +"They may put some shells into you," I suggested to their colonel. + +"Perhaps," he said. The prospect did not seem to disturb him or the men. +It was a possibility hazy to minds which asked only sleep or relaxation +after two sleepless nights under fire. "The Germans haven't any +aeroplanes up to enable them to see us and no sausage balloons, either. +Since our planes brought down those six in flames the day before the +attack the others have been very coy." + +His young officers were all New Army products; he, the commander, being +the only regular. There were still enough regulars left to provide one +for each of the New Army battalions, in some cases even two. + +"The men were splendid," he said, "just as good as regulars. They went +in without any faltering and we had a stiffish bit of trench in front of +us, you know. It's jolly out here, isn't it?" + +He was tired and perhaps he would be killed to-morrow, but nothing could +prevent him from going some distance to show us the way to the trenches +that his men had taken. They were heroes to him and he was one to them; +and they had won. That was the thing, victory, though they regarded it +as a matter of course, which gave them a glow warmer than the sunlight +as they lay at ease on the grass. They had "been in;" they had seen the +day for which they had long waited. A quality of mastery was in their +bearing, but their elation was tempered by the thought of the missing +comrades, the dead. + +"I wish as long as Bill had to go that he hadn't fallen before we got to +the trench," said one soldier. "He had set his heart on seeing what a +Boche dugout was like." + +"George was beside me when a Boche got him with a bomb. I did for the +Boche with a bayonet," said another. + +"When the machine gun began I thought that it would get us all, but we +had to go on." + +They were matter-of-fact, dwelling on the simple essentials. Men had +died; men had been wounded; men had survived. This was all according to +expectation. Mostly, they did not rehearse their experiences. Their +brains had had emotion enough; their bodies asked for rest. They lay +silently enjoying the fact of life and sunlight. Details which were lost +in the haze of action would develop in the memory in later years like +the fine points of a photographic plate. + +The former German trench on a commanding knoll had little resemblance to +a trench. Here artillerists had fulfilled infantry requirements to the +letter. Areas of shell-craters lay on either side of the tumbled walls +and dugout entrances were nearly all closed. The infantry which took the +position met no fire in front, but had an enfilade at one point from a +machine gun. Where the dead lay told exactly the breadth of its sweep +through which the charge had unfalteringly passed; and this was only a +first objective. As you could see, the charge had gone on to its second +with slight loss. A young officer after being wounded had crawled into a +shell-crater, drawn his rubber sheet over him and so had died +peacefully, the clot of his life's blood on the earth beside him. + +In the field of ruins around Fricourt a mighty crater of one of the +mines exploded on July 1st at the hour of attack was large enough to +hold a battalion. Germans had gone aloft in a spatter with its vast +plume of smoke and dust scooped from the bowels of the earth. Famous +since to sightseers of war were the dugouts around Fricourt which were +the last word in German provision against attack. The making of dugouts +is standardized like everything else in this war. There is the same +angle of entrance, the same flight of steps to that underground refuge, +in keeping with the established pattern. Depth, capacity and comfort are +the result of local initiative and industry. There may be beds and +tables and tiers of bunks. Many such chambers were as undisturbed as if +never a shell had burst in the neighborhood. The Germans in occupation +had been told to hold on; a counter-attack would relieve them. The faith +of some of them endured so well that they had to be blasted out by +explosives before they would surrender. + +There was reassurance in the proximity of such good dugouts when +habitable to a correspondent if shells began to fall, as well as +protection for the British in reserve. Some whence came foul odors were +closed by the British as the simplest form of burial for the dead within +who had waited for bombs to be thrown before surrendering. For the +method of taking a dugout had long since become as standardized as its +construction. The men inside could have their choice from the Briton at +the entrance. + +"Either file out or take what we send," as a soldier put it. "We can't +leave you there to come out and fire into our backs, as the Kaiser told +you to do, when we've started on ahead." + +You could follow for miles the ruins of the first line, picking your way +among German dead in all attitudes, while a hand or a head or a foot +stuck out of the shell-hammered chalk mixed with flesh and fragments of +clothing, the thing growing nauseatingly horrible and your wonder +increasing as to how gunfire had accomplished the destruction and how +men had been able to conquer the remains that the shells had left. It +was a prodigious feat, emphasizing again the importance of the months of +preparation. + +And the litter over the whole field! This, in turn, expressed how varied +and immense is the material required for such operations. One had in +mind the cleaning up after some ghastly debauch. Shell-fragments were +mixed with the earth; piles of cartridge cases lay beside pools of +blood. Trench mortars poked their half-filled muzzles out of the toppled +trench walls. Bundles of rocket flares, empty ammunition boxes, steel +helmets crushed in by shell-fragments, gasbags, eye-protectors against +lachrymatory shells, spades, water bottles, unused rifle grenades, egg +bombs, long stick-handled German bombs, map cases, bits of German "K.K." +bread, rifles, the steel jackets of shells and unexploded shells of all +calibers were scattered about the field between the irregular welts of +chalky soil where shell fire had threshed them to bits. + +The rifles and accoutrements of the fallen were being gathered in piles, +this being, too, a part of a prearranged system, as was the gathering of +the wounded and later of the dead who had worn them. Big, barelegged +forms of the sturdy Highland regiment which would not halt for a machine +gun were being brought in and laid in a German communication trench +which had only to be closed to make a common grave, each identification +disk being kept as a record of where the body lay. Another communication +trench near by was reserved for German dead who were being gathered at +the same time as the British. In life the foes had faced each other +across No Man's Land. In death they were also separated. + +Up to the first-line German trenches, of course, there were only British +dead, those who had fallen in the charge. It was this that made it seem +as if the losses had been all on one side. In the German trenches the +entries on the other side of the ledger appeared; and on the fields and +in the communication trenches lay green figures. Over that open space +they were scattered green dots; again, where they had run for cover to a +wood's edge, they lay thick as they had dropped under the fire of a +machine gun which the British had brought into action. A fierce game of +hare and hounds had been played. Both German and British dead lay facing +in the same direction when they were in the open, the Germans in +retreat, the British in pursuit. An officer called attention to this +grim proof that the initiative was with the British. + +By the number of British dead lying in No Man's Land or by the blood +clots when the bodies had been removed, it was possible to tell what +price battalions had paid for success. Nothing could bring back the +lives of comrades who had fallen in front of Thiepval to the survivors +of that action; but could they have seen the broad belts of No Man's +Land with only an occasional prostrate figure it would have had the +reassurance that another time they might have easier going. Wherever the +Germans had brought a machine gun into action the results of its work +lay a stark warning of the necessity of silencing these automatic +killers before a charge. Yet from Mametz to Montauban the losses had +been light, leaving no doubt that the Germans, convinced that the weight +of the attack would be to the north, had been caught napping. + +The Allies could not conceal the fact and general location of their +offensive, but they did conceal its plan as a whole. The small number of +shell-craters attested that no such artillery curtains of fire had been +concentrated here as from Thiepval to Gommecourt. Probably the Germans +had not the artillery to spare or had drawn it off to the north. + +All branches of the winning army making themselves at home in the +conquered area among the dead and the litter behind the old German first +line--this was the fringe of the action. Beyond was the battle itself, +with the firing-line still advancing under curtains of shell-bursts. + + + + +VIII + +FORWARD THE GUNS! + + An audacious battery--"An unusual occasion"--Guns to the front at + night--Close to the firing-line--Not so dangerous for observers--The + German lines near by--Advantages of even a gentle slope--Skilfully + chosen German positions--A game of hide and seek with + death--Business-like progress--Haze, shell-smoke and moving + figures--Each figure part of the "system." + + +Hadn't that battery commander mistaken his directions when he emplaced +his howitzers behind a bluff in the old No Man's Land? Didn't he know +that the German infantry was only the other side of the knoll and that +two or three score German batteries were in range? I looked for a +tornado to descend forthwith upon the gunners' heads. I liked their +audacity, but did not court their company when I could not break a habit +of mind bred in the rules of trench-tied warfare where the other fellow +was on the lookout for just such fair targets as they. + +For the moment these "hows" were not firing and the gunners were in a +little circumscribed world of their own, dissociated from the movement +around them as they busily dug pits for their ammunition. In due course +someone might tell them to begin registering on a certain point or to +turn loose on one which they had already registered. Meanwhile, very +workmanlike in their shirt-sleeves, they had no concern with the traffic +in the rear, except as it related to their own supply of shells, or with +the litter of the field, or the dead, or the burial parties and the +scattered wounded passing back from the firing-line. Their business +relations were exclusively with the battle area hidden by the bluff. I +thought that they were "rather fond of themselves" (as the British say) +that morning, though not so much so, perhaps, as the crew of the +eighteen pounders still farther forward within about a thousand yards of +the Germans whom they were pelting with shrapnel. + +Ordinarily, the eighteen pounders were expected to keep a distance of +four or five thousand yards; but this was "rather an unusual occasion" +as an officer explained. It would never do for the eighteen pounders to +be wall-flowers; they must be on the ballroom floor. Had these men who +were mechanically slipping shells into the gun-breeches slept last night +or the previous night? Oh, yes, for two or three hours when they were +not firing. + +What did fatigue matter to an eighteen-pounder spirit released from the +eternal grind of trench warfare and pushing across the open in the way +that eighteen pounders were meant to do? Weren't they horse artillery? +What use had they had for their horses in the immovable Ypres salient +except when they drew back their guns to the billets after their tour of +duty?--they who had drilled and drilled in evolutions in England under +the impression that field guns were a mobile arm! + +When orders came on the afternoon of July 1st to go ahead "right into +it" it was like a summons to a holiday for a desk-ridden man brought up +in the Rockies. Out into the night with creaking wheels and caissons +following with sharp words of urging from the sergeant, "Now, wheelers, +as I taught you at Aldershot," as they went across old trenches or up a +stiff slope and into the darkness, with transport giving them the right +of way, and on to a front that was in motion, with officers studying +their maps and directions by the pocket flashlight--this was something +like. And a young lieutenant hurried forward to where the rifles were +talking to signal back the results of the guns firing from the midst of +the battle. Something like, indeed! The fellows training their pieces in +keeping with his instructions might be in for a sudden concentration of +blasts from the enemy, of course. Wasn't that part of the experience? +Wasn't it their place to take their share of the pounding, and didn't +they belong to the guns? + +These were examples close at hand, but sprinkled about the well-won area +I saw the puffs from other British batteries which, after a nocturnal +journey, morning found close to the firing-line. While I was moving +about in the neighborhood I cast glances in the direction of that +particular battery of eighteen pounders which was still serenely firing +without being disturbed by the German guns. There was something unreal +about it after nearly two years of the Ypres salient. + +But the worst shock to a trench-tied habit of mind was when I stood upon +the parapet of a German trench and saw ahead the British firing-line and +the German, too. I ducked as instinctively, according to past training, +as if I had seen a large, black, murderous thing coming straight for my +head. In the stalemate days a dozen sharpshooters waiting for such +opportunities would have had a try at you; a machine gun might have +loosened up, and even batteries of artillery in their search for game to +show itself from cover did not hesitate to snipe with shells at an +individual. + +I must be dead; at least, I ought to be according to previous formulae; +but realizing that I was still alive and that nothing had cracked or +whistled overhead, I took another look and then remained standing. I had +been considering myself altogether too important a mortal. German guns +and snipers were not going to waste ammunition on a non-combatant on the +skyline when they had an overwhelming number of belligerent targets. A +few shrapnel breaking remotely were all that we had to bother us, and +these were sparingly sent with the palpable message, "We'll let you +fellows in the rear know what we would do to you if we were not so +preoccupied with other business." + +I was near enough to see the operations; to have gone nearer would have +been to face in the open the sweep of bullets over the heads of the +British front line hugging the earth, which is not wise in these days of +the machine gun. A correspondent likes to see without being shot at and +his lot is sometimes to be shot at without being able to see anything +except the entrance of a dugout, which on some occasions is more +inviting than the portals of a palace. + +In the distance was the main German second trench line on the crest of +Longueval and High Wood Ridge, which the British were later to win after +a struggle which left nothing of woods or villages or ridges except +shell-craters. Naturally, the Germans had not restricted their original +defenses to the ridge itself, any more than the French had theirs to the +hills immediately in front of Verdun. They had placed their original +first-line trenches along the series of advantageous positions on the +slope and turned every bit of woods and every eminence into a strong +point on the way back to the second line, whose barbed-wire +entanglements rusted by long exposure were distinct under the glasses. +A German officer stood on the parapet looking out in our direction, +probably trying to locate the British infantry advance which was hugging +a fold in the ground and resting there for the time being. I imagined +how beaver-like were the Germans in the second line strengthening their +defenses. I scanned all the slopes facing us in the hope of seeing a +German battery. There must be one under those balls of black smoke from +high explosives from British guns and another a half mile away under the +same kind of shower. + +"They withdrew most of their guns behind the ridge overnight," said an +officer, "in order to avoid capture in case we made another rush." + +On the other side of this natural wall they would be safe from any +except aerial observation, and the advanced British batteries, though +all in the open, were in folds in the ground, or behind bluffs, or just +below the skyline of a rise where they had found their assigned position +by the map. How much a few feet of depression in a field, a slightly +sunken road, the grade of a gentle slope, which hid man or gun from view +counted for I did not realize that day as I was to realize in the fierce +fight for position which was to come in succeeding weeks. + +It was easy to understand why the Germans had made a strong point in the +first line where I was standing, for it was a position which, in +relation to both the British and the German trenches, would instantly +appeal to the tactical eye. Here they had emplaced machine guns manned +by chosen desperate men which had given the British charge its worst +experience over a mile front. I could see all the movement over a broad +area to the rear which, however, the rise under my feet hid from the +ridge where the German officer stood. The advantage which the Germans +had after their retreat from the Marne was brought home afresh once you +were on conquered ground. A mile more or less of depth had no +sentimental interest to them, for they were on foreign soil. They had +chosen their positions by armies, by corps, by battalions, by hundreds +of miles and tens of miles and tens of yards with the view to a command +of observation and ground. This was a simple application of the formula +as old as man; but it was their numbers and preparedness that permitted +its application and wherever the Allies were to undertake the offensive +they must face this military fact, which made the test of their skill +against frontal positions all the stiffer and added tribute to success. + +The scene in front reminded one of a great carpet which did not lie flat +on the floor but was in undulations, with the whole on an incline toward +Longueval and High Wood Ridge. The Ridge I shall call it after this, +for so it was in capital letters to millions of French, British and +German soldiers in the summer of 1916. And this carpet was peopled with +men in a game of hide and seek with death among its folds. + +No vehicle, no horse was anywhere visible. Yet it was a poignantly live +world where the old trench lines had been a dead world--a world alive in +the dots of men strung along the crest, in others digging new trenches, +in messengers and officers on the move, in clumps of reserves behind a +hillock or in a valley. Though bursting shrapnel jackets whipped out the +same kind of puffs as always from a flashing center which spread into +nimbus radiant in the sunlight and the high explosives sent up the same +spouts of black smoke as if a stick of dynamite had burst in a coal box, +the shell fire seemed different; it had a quality of action and +adventure in comparison with the monotonous exhibition which we had +watched in stalemate warfare. Death now had some element of glory and +sport. It was less like set fate in a stationary shambles. + +Directly ahead was a bare sweep of field of waste wild grass between the +German communication trenches where wheat had grown before the war, and +the British firing-line seemed like heads fastened to a greenish +blanket. Holding the ground that they had gained, they were waiting on +something to happen elsewhere. Others must advance before they could go +farther. + +The battle was not general; it raged at certain points where the Germans +had anchored themselves after some recovery from the staggering blow of +the first day. Beyond Fricourt the British artillery was making a +crushing concentration on a clump of woods. This seemed to be the +hottest place of all. I would watch it. Nothing except the blanket of +shell-smoke hanging over the trees was visible for a time, unless you +counted figures some distance away moving about in a sort of detached +pantomime. + +Then a line of British infantry seemed to rise out of the pile of the +carpet and I could see them moving with a drill-ground steadiness toward +the edge of the woods, only to be lost to the eye in a fold of the +carpet or in a changed background. There had been something workmanlike +and bold about their rigid, matter-of-fact progress, reflective of +man-power in battle as seen very distinctly for a space in that field of +baffling and shimmering haze. I thought that I had glimpses of some of +them just before they entered the woods and that they were mixing with +figures coming out of the woods. At any rate, what was undoubtedly a +half company of German prisoners were soon coming down the slope in a +body, only to disappear as if they, too, were playing their part in the +hide and seek of that irregular landscape with its variation from white +chalk to dark green foliage. + +Khaki figures stood out against the chalk and melted into the fields or +the undergrowth, or came up to the skyline only to be swallowed into the +earth probably by the German trench which they were entering. I wondered +if one group had been killed, or knocked over, or had merely taken cover +in a shell-crater when a German "krump" seemed to burst right among +them, though at a distance of even a few hundred yards nothing is so +deceiving as the location of a shell-burst in relation to objects in +line with it. The black cloud drew a curtain over them. When it lifted +they were not on the stage. This was all that one could tell. + +What seemed only a platoon became a company for an instant under +favorable light refraction. The object of British khaki, French blue and +German green is invisibility, but nothing can be designed that will not +be visible under certain conditions. A motley such as the "tanks" were +painted would be best, but the most utilitarian of generals has not yet +dared to suggest motley as a uniform for an army. It occurred to me how +distinct the action would have been if the participants had worn the +blue coats and red trousers in which the French fought their early +battles of the war. + +All was confused in that mixture of haze and shell-smoke and maze of +trenches, with the appearing and disappearing soldiers living patterns +of the carpet which at times itself seemed to move to one's tiring, +intensified gaze. Each one was working out his part of a plan; each was +a responsive unit of the system of training for such affairs. + +The whole would have seemed fantastic if it had not been for the sound +of the machine guns and the rifles and the deeper-throated chorus of the +heavy guns, which proved that this was no mesmeric, fantastic spectacle +but a game with death, precise and ordered, with nothing that could be +rehearsed left to chance any more than there was in the regulation of +the traffic which was pressing forward, column after column, to supply +the food which fed the artillery-power and man-power that should crush +through frontal positions. + + + + +IX + +WHEN THE FRENCH WON + + A big man's small quarters--General Foch--French capacity for + enjoying a victory--Winning quality of French as victors--When the + heart of France stood still--The bravery of the race--Germany's + mistaken estimate of France--Why the French will fight this war to a + finish--French and Germans as different breeds as ever lived + neighbor--The democracy of the French--_Elan_--"War of movement." + + +The farther south the better the news. There was another world of +victory on the other side of a certain dividing road where French and +British transport mingled. That world I was to see next on a day of +days--a holiday of elation. + +A brief note, with its permission to "circulate within the lines," +written in a bold hand in the chateau where General Foch directed the +Northern Group of French Armies, placed no limitation on freedom of +movement for my French friend and myself. + +Of course, General Foch's chateau was small. All chateaux occupied by +big commanders are small, and as a matter of method I am inclined to +think. If they have limited quarters there is no room for the intrusion +of anyone except their personal staff and they can live with the +simplicity which is a soldier's barrack training. + +Joffre, Castelnau and Foch were the three great names in the French Army +which the public knew after the Marne, and of the three Foch has, +perhaps, more of the dash which the world associates with the French +military type. He simplified victory, which was the result of the same +arduous preparation as on the British side, with a single gesture as he +swept his pencil across the map from Dompierre to Flaucourt. Thus his +army had gone forward and that was all there was to it, which was enough +for the French and also for the Germans on this particular front. + +"It went well! It goes well!" he said, with dramatic brevity. He had +made the plans which were so definite in the bold outline to which he +held all subordinates in a cooerdinated execution; and I should meet the +men who had carried out his plans, from artillerists who had blazed the +way to infantry who had stormed the enemy trenches. There was no +mistaking his happiness. It was not that of a general, but the common +happiness of all France. + +Victory in France for France could never mean to an Englishman what it +meant to a Frenchman. The Englishman would have to be on his own soil +before he could understand what was in the heart of the French after +their drive on the Somme. I imagined that day that I was a Frenchman. +By proxy I shared their joy of winning, which in a way seemed to be +taking an unfair advantage of my position, considering that I had not +been fighting. + +There is no race, it seems to me, who know quite so well how to enjoy +victory as the French. They make it glow with a rare quality which +absorbs you into their own exhilaration. I had the feeling that the +pulse of every citizen in France had quickened a few beats. All the +peasant women as they walked along the road stood a little straighter +and the old men and old women were renewing their youth in quiet +triumph; for now they had learned the first result of the offensive and +might permit themselves to exult. + +Once before in this war at the Marne I had followed the French legions +in an advance. Then victory meant that France was safe. The people had +found salvation through their sacrifice, and their relief was so +profound that to the outsider they seemed hardly like the French in +their stoic gratitude. This time they were articulate, more like the +French of our conception. They could fondle victory and take it apart +and play with it and make the most of it. + +If I had no more interest in the success of one European people than +another, then as a spectator I should choose that it should be to the +French, provided that I was permitted to be present. They make victory +no raucous-voiced, fleshy woman, shrilly gloating, no superwoman, cold +and efficient, who considers it her right as a superior being, but a +gracious person, smiling, laughing, singing in a human fashion, whether +she is greeting winning generals or privates or is looking in at the +door of a chateau or a peasant's cottage. + +An old race, the French, tried out through many victories and defeats +until a vital, indescribable quality which may be called the art of +living governs all emotions. Victory to the Germans could not mean half +what it would to the French. The Germans had expected victory and had +organized for it for years as a definite goal in their ambitions. To the +French it was a visitation, a reward of courage and kindly fortune and +the right to be the French in their own world and in their own way, +which to man or to State is the most justifiable of all rights. + +Twice the heart of France had stood still in suspense, first on the +Marne and then at the opening onslaught on Verdun; and between the Marne +and Verdun had been sixteen months when, on the soil of their France and +looking out on the ruins of their villages, they had striven to hold +what remained to them. They had been the great martial people of Europe +and because Napoleon III. tripped them by the fetish of the Bonaparte +name in '70, people thought that they were no longer martial. This puts +the world in the wrong, as it implies that success in war is the test of +greatness. When the world expressed its surprise and admiration at +French courage France smiled politely, which is the way of France, and +in the midst of the shambles, as she strained every nerve, was a little +amused, not to say irritated, to think that Frenchmen had to prove again +to the world that they were brave. + +Whether the son came from the little shops of Paris, from stubborn +Brittany, the valley of the Meuse, or the vineyards, war made him the +same kind of Frenchman that he was in the time of Louis XIV. and +Napoleon, fighting now for France rather than for glory as he did in +Napoleon's time; a man cured of the idea of conquest, advanced a step +farther than the stage of the conqueror, and his courage, though slower +to respond to wrath, the finer. He had proven that the more highly +civilized a people, the more content and the more they had to lose by +war, the less likely they were to be drawn into war, the more +resourceful and the more stubborn in defense they might +become--especially that younger generation of Frenchmen with their +exemplary habits and their fondness for the open air. + +If France had been beaten at the Marne, notice would have been served on +humanity that thrift and refinement mean enervation. We should have +believed in the alarmists who talk of oriental hordes and of the vigor +of primitive manhood overcoming art and education. + +The Germans could not give up their idea that both the French and the +English must be dying races. The German staff had been well enough +informed to realize that they must first destroy the French Army as the +continental army most worthy of their steel and, at the same time, they +could not convince themselves that France was other than weak. She loved +her flesh-pots too well; her families would yield and pay rather than +sacrifice only sons. + +At any time since October, 1914, the French could have had a separate +peace; but the answer of the Frenchman, aside from his bounden faith to +the other Allies, was that he would have no peace that was given--only a +peace that was yielded. France would win by the strength of her manhood +or she would die. When the war was over a Frenchman could look a German +in the face and say, "I have won this peace by the force of my blows;" +or else the war would go on to extermination. + +At intervals in the long, long months of sacrifice France was very +depressed; for the French are more inclined than the English to be up +and down in their emotions. They have their bad and their good days. +Yet, when they were bluest over reports of the retreat from the Marne or +losses at Verdun they had no thought of making terms. Depression merely +meant that they would all have to succumb without winning. Thus, after +the weary stalling and resistance of the blows at Verdun, never making +any real progress in driving the enemy out of France, ever dreaming of +the day when they should see the Germans' backs, France had waited for +the movement that came on the Somme. + +The people were always talking of this offensive. They had heard that it +was under way. Yet, how were they to know the truth? The newspapers gave +vague hints; gossip carried others, more concrete, sometimes correct but +usually incorrect; and all that the women and the old men and the +children at home could do was to keep on with the work. And this they +did; it is instinct. Then one morning news was flashed over France that +the British and the French had taken over twenty thousand prisoners. The +tables were turned at last! France was on the march! + +"Do you see why we love France?" said my friend T----, who was with me +that day, as with a turn of the road we had a glimpse of the valley of +the Somme. He swung his hand toward the waving fields of grain, the +villages and plots of woods, as the train flew along the metals between +rows of stately shade trees. "It is France. It is bred in our bones. We +are fighting for that--just what you see!" + +"But wouldn't you take some of Germany if you could?" I asked. + +"No. We want none of Germany and we want no Germans. Let them do as they +please with what is their own. They are brave; they fight well; but we +will not let them stay in France." + +Look into the faces of the French soldiers and look into the faces of +Germans and you have two breeds as different as ever lived neighbor in +the world. It would seem impossible that there could be anything but a +truce between them and either preserve its own characteristics of +civilization. The privilege of each to survive through all the centuries +has been by force of arms and, after the Marne and Verdun, the Somme put +the seal on the French privilege to survive. If there be any hope of +true internationalism among the continental peoples I think that it can +rely on the Frenchman, who only wants to make the most of his own +without encroaching on anybody's else property and is disinterested in +human incubation for the purpose of overwhelming his neighbors. True +internationalism will spring from the provincialism that holds fast to +its own home and does not interfere with the worship by other countries +of their gods. + +All this may seem rambling, but to a spectator of war indulging in a +little philosophy it goes to the kernel of the meaning of victory to the +French and to my own happiness in seeing the French win. Sometimes the +Frenchman seems the most soldierly of men; again, a superficial observer +might wonder if the French Army had any real discipline. And there, +again, you have French temperament; the old civilization that has +defined itself in democracy. For the French are the most democratic of +all peoples, not excluding ourselves. That is not saying that they are +the freest of all peoples, because no people on earth are freer than the +English or the American. + +An Englishman is always on the lookout lest someone should interfere +with his individual rights as he conceives them. He is the least +gregarious of all Europeans in one sense and the French the most +gregarious, which is a factor contributing to French democracy. It is +his gregariousness that makes the Frenchman polite and his politeness +which permits of democracy. An officer may talk with a private soldier +and the private may talk back because of French politeness and equality, +which yield fellowship at one moment and the next slip back into the +bonds of discipline which, by consent of public opinion, have tightened +until they are as strict as in Napoleon's day. Gregariousness was +supreme on this day of victory; democracy triumphant. Democracy had +proved itself again as had English freedom against Prussian system. +Vitality is another French possession and this means industry. The +German also is industrious, but more from discipline and training than +from a philosophy of life. French vitality is inborn, electrically +installed by the sunshine of France. + +When a battery of French artillery moves along the road it is +democratic, but when it swings its guns into action it is military. Then +its vitality is something that is not the product of training, something +that training cannot produce. A French battalion moving up to the +trenches seems not to have any particular order, but when it goes over +the parapet in an attack it has the essence of military spirit which is +cooerdination of action. No two French soldiers seem quite alike on the +march or when moving about a village on leave. Each seems three beings: +one a Frenchman, one a soldier, a third himself. German psychology left +out the result of the combination, just as it never considered that the +British could in two years submerge their individualism sufficiently to +become a military nation. + +There is a French word, _elan_, which has been much overworked in +describing French character. Other nations have no equivalent word; +other races lack the quality which it expresses, a quality which you +get in the wave of a hand from a peasant girl to a passing car, in the +woman who keeps a shop, in French art, habits, literature. To-day old +Monsieur Elan was director-general of the pageant. + +This people of apt phrases have one for the operations before the trench +system was established; it is the "war of movement." That was the word, +movement, for the blue river of men and transport along the roads to the +front. We were back to the "war of movement" for the time being, at any +rate; for the French had broken through the German fortifications for a +depth of four to five miles in a single day. + + + + +X + +ALONG THE ROAD TO VICTORY + + A thrifty victory--Seventeen-inch guns asleep--A procession of guns + that gorged the roads--French rules of the road--Absence of system + conceals an excellent system--Spoils of war--The Colonial Corps--The + "chocolates"--"Boches"--Dramatic victors--The German line in front of + the French attack--Galloping _soixante-quinzes_. + + +Anyone with experience of armies cannot be deceived about losses when he +is close to the front. Even if he does not go over the field while the +dead of both sides are still lying there, infallible signs without a +word being spoken reflect the truth. It was shining in panoplies of +smiles with the French after the attack of July 1st. Victory was sweet +because it came at slight cost. Staff officers could congratulate +themselves on having driven a thrifty bargain. Casualty clearing +stations were doing a small business; prisoners' inclosures a driving +one. + +"We've nothing to fire at," said an officer of heavy artillery. "Our +targets are out of reach. The Germans went too fast for us; they left us +without occupation." + +Where with the British I had watched the preparations for the offensive +develop, the curtain was now raised on the French preparations, which +were equally elaborate, after the offensive had gone home. General +Joffre had spared more guns from Verdun for the Somme than optimism had +supposed possible. Those immense fellows of caliber from twelve to +seventeen-inch, mounted on railway trucks, were lions asleep under their +covers on the sidings which had been built for them. Their tracks would +have to be carried farther forward before they roared at the Germans +again. + +Five miles are not far for a battalion to march, though an immense +distance to a modern army with its extensive and complicated plant. Even +the aviators wanted to be nearer the enemy and were looking for a new +park. Sheds where artillery horses had been sheltered for more than a +year were empty; camps were being vacated; vast piles of shells must +follow the guns which the tractors were taking forward. The nests of +spacious dugouts in a hillside nicely walled in by sandbags had served +their purpose. They were beyond the range of any German guns. + +For the first time you realized what the procession which gorged the +roads would be like if the Western front were actually broken. Guns of +every caliber from the 75's to the 120's and 240's, ammunition pack +trains, ambulances horse-drawn and motor-drawn, big and little motor +trucks, staff officers' cars, cycle riders and motor cycle riders, small +two-wheeled carts, all were mixed with the flow of infantry going and +coming and crowding the road-menders off the road. + +There was none of the stateliness of the columns of British motor trucks +and none of the rigidity of British marching. It all seemed a great +family affair. When one wondered what part any item of the variegated +transport played it was always promptly explained. + +Officers and men exchanged calls of greeting as they passed. Eyes were +flashing to the accompaniment of gestures. There were arguments about +right of way in which the fellow with the two-wheeled cart held his own +with the chauffeur of the three-ton motor truck. But the argument was +accompanied by action. In some cases it was over, a decision made and +the block of traffic broken before a phlegmatic man could have had +discussion fairly under way. For Frenchmen are nothing if not quick of +mind and body and whether a Frenchman is pulling or pushing or driving +he likes to express the emotions of the moment. If a piece of transport +were stalled there would be a chorus of exclamations and running +disputes as to the method of getting it out of the rut, with the result +that at the juncture when an outsider might think that utter confusion +was to ensue, every Frenchman in sight had swarmed to the task under the +direction of somebody who seemed to have made the suggestion which won +the favor of the majority. + +Much has been written about the grimness of the French in this war. +Naturally they were grim in the early days; but what impresses me most +about the French Army whenever I see it is that it is entirely French. +Some people had the idea that when the French went to war they would +lose their heads, run to and fro and dance about and shout. They have +not acted so in this war and they never have acted so in any other war. +They still talk with eyes, hands and shoulders and fight with them, too. + +The tide never halted for long. It flowed on with marvelous alacrity and +a seeming absence of system which soon convinced you as concealing a +very excellent system. Every man really knew where he was going; he +could think for himself, French fashion. Near the front I witnessed a +typical scene when an officer ran out and halted a soldier who was +walking across the fields by himself and demanded to know who he was and +what he was doing there. + +"I am wounded, sir," was the reply, as he opened his coat and showed a +bandage. "I am going to the casualty clearing station and this is the +shortest way"--not to mention that it was a much easier way than to hug +the edge of the road in the midst of the traffic. + +The battalions and transport which made up this tide of an army's rear +trying to catch up with its extreme front had a view, as the road dipped +into a valley, of the trophies which are the proof of victory. Here were +both guns and prisoners. Among the guns nicely parked you might have +your choice between the latest 77's out of Krupps' and pieces of the +vintage of the '80's. One 77 had not a blemish; another had its muzzle +broken off by the burst of a shell, its spokes slashed by +shell-fragments, and its armored shield, opened by a jagged hole, was as +crumpled as if made of tin. + +Four of the old fortress type had a history. They bore the mark of their +French maker. They had fired at the Germans from Maubeuge and after +having been taken by the Germans were set to fire at the French. One +could imagine how the German staff had scattered such pieces along the +line when in stalemate warfare any kind of gun that had a barrel and +could discharge a shell would add to the volume of gunfire. + +Such a ponderous piece with its heavy, old-fashioned trail and no recoil +cylinder was never meant to play any part in an army of movement. You +could picture how it had been dragged up into position back of the +German trenches and how a crew of old Landsturm gunners had been +allowed a certain number of shells a day and told off to fire them at +certain villages and crossroads, with that systematic regularity of the +German artillery system which often defeats its own purpose, as we on +the Allies' side well know. + +Very likely, as often happened, the crew fired six rounds before +breakfast and eight at four o'clock in the afternoon, and the rest of +the time they might sit about playing cards. Of course, retreat was out +of the question with a gun of this sort. Yet through the twenty months +that the opposing armies had sniped at each other from the same +positions the relic had done faithful auxiliary service. The French +could move it on to some other part of the line now where no offensive +was expected and some old territorials could use it as the old +Landsturmers had used it. + +All the guns in this park had been taken by the Colonial Corps, which +thinks itself a little better than the Nancy (or Iron) Corps, a view +with which the Iron Corps entirely disagreed. Scattered among the +Colonial Corps, whether on the march or in billets, were the black men. +There is no prejudice against the "chocolates," as they are called, who +provide variation and amusement, not to mention color. Most adaptable of +human beings is the negro, whom you find in all lands and engaged in all +kinds of pursuits, reflecting always the character of his surroundings. +If his French comrades charged he would charge and just as far; if they +fell back he would fall back and just as far. No Frenchman could +approach the pride of the blacks over those captured guns, which brought +grins that left only half of their ebony countenances as a background +for the whites of their eyes and teeth. + +The tide of infantry, vehicles and horses flowing past must have been a +strange world to the German prisoners brought past it to the inclosures, +when they had not yet recovered from their astonishment at the +suddenness of the French whirlwind attack. The day was warm and the +ground dry, and those prisoners who were not munching French bread were +lying sardine fashion pillowing their heads on one another, a confused +mass of arms and legs, dead to the world in sleep--a green patch of +humanity with all the fight out of them, without weapons or power of +resistance, guarded by a single French soldier, while the belligerent +energy of war was on that road a hundred yards away. + +"They are good Boches, now," said the French sentry; "we sha'n't have to +take that lot again." + +Boches! They are rarely called anything else at the front. With both +French and English this has become the universal word for the Germans +which will last as long as the men who fought in this war survive. +Though the Germans dislike it that makes no difference. They will have +to accept it even when peace comes, for it is established. One day they +may come to take a certain pride in it as a distinction which stands for +German military efficiency and racial isolation. The professional +soldier expressing his admiration of the way the German charges, handles +his artillery, or the desperate courage of his machine gun crews may +speak of him as "Brother Boche" or the "old Boche" in a sort of amiable +recognition of the fact of how worthy he is of an enemy's steel if only +he would refrain from certain unsportsmanlike habits. + +At length the blue river on the way to the front divided at a crossroad +and we were out on the plain which swept away to the bend of the Somme +in front of Peronne. Officers returning from the front when asked how +the battle was going were never too preoccupied to reply. It was +anybody's privilege to ask a question and everybody seemed to delight to +answer it. I talked with a group of men who were washing down their +bread with draughts of red wine, their first meal after they had been +through two lines of trenches. Their brigade had taken more prisoners +than it had had casualties. Their dead were few and less mourned because +they had fallen in such a glorious victory. Rattling talk gave gusto to +every mouthful. + +Unlike the English, these victors were articulate; they rejoiced in +their experiences and were glad to tell about them. If one had fought it +out at close quarters with a German and got his man, he made the +incident into a dramatic episode for your edification. It was war; he +had been in a charge; he had escaped alive; he had won. He liked the +thrill of his exploit and enjoyed the telling, not allowing it to drag, +perhaps, for want of a leg. Every Frenchman is more or less of a +general, as Napoleon said, and every one knew the meaning of this +victory. He liked to make the most of it and relive it. + +After having seen the trenches that the British had taken on the high +ground around Fricourt, I was the more interested to see those that the +French had taken on July 1st. The British had charged uphill against the +strongest fortifications that the Germans could devise in that chalky +subsoil so admirably suited for the purpose. Those before the French +were not so strong and were in alluvial soil on the plain. Many of the +German dugouts in front of Dompierre were in relatively as good +condition as those at Fricourt, though not so numerous or so strong; +which meant that the artillery of neither army had been able completely +to destroy them. The ground on the plain permitted of no such +advantageous tactical points for machine guns as those which had +confronted the British, in front of whom the Germans had massed immense +reserves of artillery, particularly in the Thiepval-Gommecourt sector +where the British attack had failed, besides having the valuable ridge +of Bapaume at their backs. In front of the French the Germans had +smaller forces of artillery on the plain where the bend of the Somme was +at their backs. + +This is not detracting from the French success, which was complete and +masterful. The cooerdination of artillery and infantry must have been +perfect, as you could see when you went over the field where there were +surprisingly few French dead and the German dead, though more plentiful +than the French, were not very numerous. It seemed that the French +artillery had absolutely pinioned the Germans to their trenches and +communication trenches in the Dompierre sector and the French appearing +close under their own shells in a swift and eager wave gathered in all +the German garrison as prisoners. The ruins of the villages might have +been made either by French, British or German artillery. There is true +internationalism in artillery destruction. + +It was something to see the way that French transport and reserves were +going right across the plain in splendid disregard of any German +artillery concentration. But, as usual, they knew what they were doing. +No shells fell among them while I was at the front, and out on the +plain where the battle still raged the _soixante-quinze_ batteries were +as busy as knitting-machines working some kind of magic which protected +that column from tornadoes of the same kind that they themselves were +sending. The German artillery, indeed, seemed a little demoralized. +Krump-krump-krump, they put a number of shells into a group of trees +beside the road where they mistakenly thought that there was a battery. +Swish-swish-swish came another salvo which I thought was meant for us, +but it passed by and struck where there was no target. + +I have had glimpses of nearly every feature of war, but there was one in +this advance which was not included in my experiences. The French +infantry was hardly in the first-line German trench when the ditch had +been filled in and the way was open for the _soixante-quinze_ to go +forward. For the guns galloped into action just as they might have done +at manoeuvers. Some dead artillery horses near the old trench line told +the story of how a German shell must have stopped one of the guns, which +was small price to pay for so great a privilege as--let us +repeat--galloping the guns into action across the trenches in broad +daylight and keeping close to the infantry as it advanced from position +to position on the plain. + +Here was a surviving bit of the glory and the sport of war, whose +passing may be one of the great influences in preventing future wars; +but there being war and the French having to win that war, why, the +spectacle of this marvelous field gun, so beloved of its alert and +skilful gunners, playing the part that was intended for it on the heels +of the enemy made a thrilling incident in the history of modern France. +The French had shown on that day that they had lost none of their +initiative of Napoleon's time, just as the British had shown that they +could be as stubborn and determined as in Wellington's. + + + + +XI + +THE BRIGADE THAT WENT THROUGH + + A young brigadier--A regular soldier--No heroics--How his brigade + charged--Systematically cleaning up the dugouts--"It was orders. We + did it."--The second advance--Holding on for two sleepless days and + nights--Soda water and cigars--Yorkshiremen, and a stubborn + lot--British phlegm--Five officers out of twenty who had "gone + through"--Stereotyped phrases and inexpressible emotions. + + +No sound of the guns was audible in this quiet French village where a +brigade out of the battle line was in rest. The few soldiers moving +about were looking in the shop windows, trying their French with the +inhabitants, or standing in small groups. Their faces were tired and +drawn as the only visible sign of the torment of fire that they had +undergone. They had met everything the German had to offer in the way of +projectiles and explosives; but before we have their story we shall have +that of the young brigadier-general who had his headquarters in one of +the houses. His was the brigade that went "through," and he was the kind +of brigadier who would send a brigade "through." + +With its position in the attack of July 1st in the joint, as it were, +between the northern sector where the German line was not broken and +the southern where it was, this brigade had suffered what the charges +which failed had suffered and it had known the triumph of those which +had succeeded, at a cost in keeping with the experience. + +The brigadier was a regular soldier and nothing but a soldier from head +to foot, in thought, in manner and in his decisive phrases. Nowadays, +when we seem to be drawing further and further away from versatility, +perhaps more than ever we like the soldier to be a soldier, the poet to +be a poet, the surgeon to be a surgeon; and I can even imagine this +brigadier preferring that if another man was to be a pacifist he should +be a real out and out pacifist. You knew at a glance without asking that +he had been in India and South Africa, that he was fond of sport and +probably fond of fighting. He had rubbed up against all kinds of men, as +the British officer who has the inclination may do in the course of his +career, and his straight eye--an eye which you would say had never been +accustomed to indefiniteness about anything--must have impressed the men +under his command with the confidence that he knew his business and that +they must follow him. Yet it could twinkle on occasion with a pungent +humor as he told his story, which did not take him long but left you +long a-thinking. A writer who was as good a writer as he was a soldier +if he had had the same experience could have made a book out of it; but +then he could not have been a man of action at the same time. + +He made it clear at once that he had not led his brigade in person over +the parapet, or helped in person to bomb the enemy's dugouts, or +indulged in any other kind of gallery play. I do not think that all the +drawing-rooms in London or all the reception committees which receive +gallant sons in their home towns could betray him into the faintest +simulation of the pose of a hero. He was not a hero and he did not +believe in heroics. His occupation was commanding men and taking +trenches. + +Not once did he utter anything approaching a boast over a feat which his +friends and superiors had expected of him. This would be "swank," as +they call it, only he would characterize it by even a stronger word. He +is the kind of officer, the working, clear-thinking type, who would earn +promotion by success at arms in a long war, while the gallery-play crowd +whose promotion and favors come by political gift and academic reports +in time of peace would be swept into the dustbin. He was simply a +capable fighter; and war is fighting. + +His men had gone over the "lid" in excellent fashion, quite on time. He +had seen at once what they were in for, but he had no doubt that they +would keep on, for he had warned them to expect machine gun fire and +told them what to do in case it came. They applied the system in which +he had trained them with a coolness that won his approbation as a +directing expert--his matter-of-fact approbation in the searching +analysis of every detail, with no ecstasies about their unparalleled +gallantry. He expected them to be gallant. However, I could imagine that +if you said a word against them his eyes would flash indignation. They +were his men and he might criticize them, but no one else might except a +superior officer. The first wave reached the first-line German trench on +time, that is, half of them did; the rest, including more than half of +the officers, were down, dead or wounded, in No Man's Land in the swift +crossing of two hundred yards of open space. + +He had watched their advance from the first-line British trench. Later, +when the situation demanded it, I learned that he went up to the +captured German line and on to the final objective, but this fact was +drawn out of him. It might lead to a misunderstanding; you might think +that he had been taking as much risk as his officers and men, and risk +of any kind for him was an incident of the business of managing a +brigade. + +"How about the dugouts?" I asked. + +This was an obvious question. The trouble on July 1st had been, as we +know, that the Germans hiding in their dugouts had rushed forth as soon +as the British curtain of fire lifted and sometimes fought the British +in the trench traverses with numbers superior. Again, they had +surrendered, only to overpower their guards, pick up rifles and man +their machine guns after the first wave had passed on, instead of filing +back across No Man's Land in the regular fashion of prisoners. + +"I was looking out for that," said the brigadier, like a lawyer who has +stated his opponent's case; but other commanders had taken the same +precautions with less fortunate results. When he said that he was +"looking out for that" it meant, in his case, that he had so thoroughly +organized his men--and he was not the only brigadier who had, he was a +type--in view of every emergency in "cleaning up" that the Germans did +not outwit them. The half which reached the German trench had the +situation fully in hand and details for the dugouts assigned before they +went on. And they did go on. This was the wonderful thing. + +"With your numbers so depleted, wasn't it a question whether or not it +was wise for you to attempt to carry out the full plan?" + +He gave me a short look of surprise. I realized that if I had been one +of the colonels and made such a suggestion I should have drawn a curtain +of fire upon myself. + +"It was orders," he said, and added: "We did it." + +Yes, they did it--when commanding officers, majors and senior captains +were down, when companies without any officers were led by sergeants and +even by corporals who knew what to do, thanks to their training. + +In order to reach the final objective the survivors of the first charge +which had gone two hundred yards to the first line must cover another +thousand, which must have seemed a thousand miles; but that was not for +them to consider. The spirit of the resolute man who had drilled them, +if not his presence, was urging them forward. They reached the point +where the landmarks compared with their map indicated their stopping +place--about one-quarter of the number that had left the British trench. + +They had enough military sense to realize that if they tried to go back +over the same ground which they had crossed there might be less than +one-quarter of the fourth remaining. They preferred to die with their +faces rather than their backs to the enemy. No, they did not mean to +die. They meant to hold on and "beat the Boche," according to their +teaching. + +As things had been going none too well with the brigade on their left +their flank was exposed. They met this condition by fortifying +themselves against enfilade in an old German communication trench and +rushing other points of advantage to secure their position. When a +German machine gun was able to sweep them, a corporal slipped up another +communication trench and bombed it out of business. Running out of bombs +of their own, they began gathering German bombs which were lying about +plentifully and threw these at the Germans. Short of rifle ammunition +they found that there was ammunition for the German rifles which had +been captured. They were not choice about their methods and neither were +the Germans in that cheek-by-jowl affair with both sides so exhausted +that a little more grit on one side struck the balance in its favor. + +This medley of British and Germans in a world of personal combat shared +shell fire, heat and misery. The British sent their rocket signals up to +say that they had arrived. In two or three other instances the signals +had meant that a dozen men only had reached their objective, a force +unable to hold until reinforcements could come. Not so this time. The +little group held; they held even when the Germans got some fresh men +and attempted a counter-attack; they held until assistance came. For two +sleepless days and nights under continual fire they remained in their +dearly won position until, under cover of darkness, they were relieved. + +In the most tranquil of villages the survivors looking in shop windows +and trying out their French might wonder how it was that they were +alive, though they were certain that their brigadier thought well of +them. Ask them or their officers what they thought of their brigadier +and they were equally certain of that, too. Theirs was the best +brigadier in the army. Think what this kind of confidence means to men +in such an action when their lives are the pawns of his direction! + +I felt a kind of awe in the presence of one of the battalions in billet +in a warehouse, more than in the presence of prime ministers or +potentates. Most of them were blinking and mind-stiff after having slept +the clock around. They were Yorkshiremen, chiefly workers in worsted +mills and a stubborn lot. + +"What did you most want to do when you got out of the fight?" I asked. + +They spoke with one voice which left no question of their desires in a +one-two-three order. They wanted a wash, a shave, a good meal, and then +sleep. And personal experiences? Tom called on Jim and Jim had bayoneted +two Germans, he said; then Jim called on Bill, who had had a wonderful +experience according to Jim, though all that Bill made of it was that he +got there first with his bombs. Told among themselves the stories might +have been thrilling. Before a stranger they were mere official reports. +It had been quick work, too quick for anything but to dodge for cover +and act promptly in your effort to get the other fellow before he got +you. + +Generically, they had a job to do and they did it just as they would +have done one in the factories at home. They were not so interested in +any exhibition of courage as in an encounter which had the element of +sport. Each narrator invariably returned to the subject of soda water. +The outstanding novelty of the charge to these men was the quantity of +soda water in bottles which they had found in the German dugouts. They +went on to their second objective with bottles of soda water in their +pockets and German light cigars in the corners of their mouths and +stopped to drink soda water between bombing rushes after they had +arrived. It was a hot, thirsty day. + +Through the curtains of artillery fire which were continually maintained +back of their new positions supplies could not be brought up, but Boche +provisions saved the day. In fact, I think this was one of the reasons +why they felt almost kindly toward the Germans. They found the canned +meat excellent, but did not care for the "K.K." bread. + +Thus in the dim light of the warehouse they talked on, making their task +appear as a half-holiday of sport. It seemed to me that this was in +keeping with their training; the fashionable attitude of the British +soldier toward a horrible business. If this helps him to endure what +these men had endured without flinching, with comrades being blown to +bits around them by shell-bursts, why, then, it is the attitude best +suited to develop the fighting quality of the British. They had it from +their officers who, in turn, perhaps, had it in part from such British +regulars as the brigadier, though mostly I think that it was inborn +racial phlegm. + +I met the five officers who were the survivors of the twenty in one +battalion, the five who had "carried through." One was a barrister, +another just out of Oxford, a third, as I remember, a real estate broker +in a small town. They told their stories without a gesture, quite as if +they were giving an account of a game of golf. It might have seemed +callous, but you knew better. + +You knew when they said that it was "a bit stiff," or "a bit thick," or +"it looked as if they had us," what inexpressible emotion lay behind the +accepted army phrases. The truth was they would not permit themselves to +think of the void in their lines made by the death of their comrades. +They had drawn the curtain on all incidents which had not the appeal of +action and finality as a part of the business of "going through." One +officer with a twitch of the lips remarked almost casually that new +officers and drafts were arriving and that it would seem strange to see +so many new faces in the mess. + +Those of their old comrades who were not dead were already in hospital +in England. When an officer who had been absent joined the group he +brought the news that one of their number who had been badly hit would +live. The others' quiet ejaculation of "Good!" had a thrill back of it +which communicated its joy to me. Eight of the wounded had not been +seriously hit, which meant that these would return and that, after all, +only four were dead. This was the first intimate indication I had of how +the offensive exposing the whole bodies of men in a charge against the +low-velocity shrapnel bullets and high-velocity bullets from rifles and +machine guns must result in the old ratio of only one mortal wound for +every five men hit. + +There was consolation in that fact. It was another advantage of the war +of movement as compared with the war of shambles in trenches. And none, +from the general down to the privates, had really any idea of how +glorious a part they had played. They had merely "done their bit" and +taken what came their way--and they had "gone through." + + + + +XII + +THE STORMING OF CONTALMAISON + + The mighty animal of war makes ready for another effort--New charts + at headquarters--The battle of the Somme the battle of woods and + villages--A terrible school of war in session--Mametz--A wood not + "thinned"--The Quadrangle--Marooned Scots--"Softening" a + village--Light German cigars--Going after Contalmaison--Aeroplanes in + the blue sky--Midsummer fruitfulness and war's destruction--Making + chaos of a village--Attack under cover of a wall of smoke--A + melodrama under the passing shells. + + +If the British and the French could have gone on day after day as they +had on July 1st they would have put the Germans out of France and +Belgium by autumn. Arrival at the banks of the Rhine and even the taking +of Essen would have been only a matter of calculation by a schedule of +time and distance. After the shock of the first great drive in which the +mighty animal of war lunged forward, it had to stretch out its steel +claws to gain further foothold and draw its bulky body into position for +another huge effort. Wherever the claws moved there were Germans, who +were too wise soldiers to fall back supinely on new lines of +fortifications and await the next general attack. They would parry every +attempt at footholds of approach for launching it; pound the claws as +if they were the hands of an invader grasping at a window ledge. + +At headquarters there was a new chart with different colored patches +numbered by the days of the month beginning July 1st, each patch +indicating the ground that had been won on that day. Compare their order +with a relief map and in one-two-three fashion you were able to grasp +the natural tactical sequence; how one position was taken in order to +command another. Sometimes, though, they represented the lines of least +resistance. Often the real generals were the battalions on the battle +front who found the weak points and asked permission to press on. The +principle was the same as water finding its level as it spreads from a +reservoir. + +I have often thought that a better name for the battle of the Somme +would be the battle of woods and villages. Their importance never really +dawned on the observer until after July 1st. Or, it might be called the +battle of the spade. Give a man an hour with a spade in that chalky +subsoil and a few sandbags and he will make a fortress for himself which +only a direct hit by a shell can destroy. He ducks under the sweep of +bullets when he is not firing and with his steel helmet is fairly safe +from shrapnel while he waits in his lair until the other fellow comes. + +Thus the German depended on the machine gun and the rifle to stop any +charge which was not supported by artillery fire sufficient to crush in +the trenches and silence his armament. When it was, he had his own +artillery to turn a curtain of fire onto the charge in progress and to +hammer the enemy if he got possession. This was obviously the right +system--in theory. But the theory did not always work out, as we shall +see. Its development through the four months that I watched the Somme +battle was only less interesting than the development of offensive +tactics by the British and the French. Every day this terrible school of +war was in session, with a British battalion more skilful and cunning +every time that it went into the firing-line. + +Rising out of the slopes toward the Ridge in green patches were three +large woods, not to mention small ones, under a canopy of shell-smoke, +Mametz, Bernafay and Trones, with their orgies of combat hidden under +their screens of foliage. They recall the Wilderness--a Wilderness +lasting for days, with only one feature of the Wilderness lacking which +was a conflagration, but with lachrymatory and gas shells and a few +other features that were lacking in Virginia. In the next war we may +have still more innovations. Ours is the ingenious human race. + +It is Mametz with an area of something over two hundred acres that +concerns us now. The Germans thought highly of Mametz. They were +willing to lose thousands of lives in order to keep it in their +possession. For two years it had not been thinned according to French +custom; now shells and bullets were to undertake the task which had been +neglected. So thick was the undergrowth that a man had to squeeze his +way through and an enemy was as well ambushed as a field mouse in high +grass. + +The Germans had run barriers of barbed wire through the undergrowth. +They had their artillery registered to fringe the woods with curtains of +fire and machine guns nestling in unseen barricades and trenches. +Through the heart of it they had a light railway for bringing up +supplies. All these details had been arranged in odd hours when they +were not working on the main first- and second-line fortifications during +their twenty months of preparation. I think they must have become weary +at times of so much "choring," judging by a German general's order after +his inspection of the second line, in which he said that the battalions +in occupation were a lazy lot who were a disgrace to the Fatherland. +After the battle began they could add to the defenses improvements +adapted to the needs of the moment. Of course, large numbers of Germans +were killed and wounded by British shell fire in the process of +"thinning" out the woods; but that was to be expected, as the Germans +learned during the battle of the Somme. + +How the British ever took Mametz Wood I do not understand; or how they +took Trones Wood later, for that matter. A visit to the woods only +heightened perplexity. I have seen men walk over broken bottles with +bare feet, swallow swords and eat fire and knew that there was some +trick about it, as there was about the taking of Mametz. + +The German had not enough barbed wire to go all the way around the +woods, or, at least, British artillery would not let him string any more +and he thought that the British would attack where they ought to +according to rule; that is, by the south. Instead, they went in by the +west, where the machine guns were not waiting and the heavy guns were +not registered, as I understand it. A piece of strategy of that kind +might have won a decisive battle in an old-time war, but I confess that +it did not occur to me to ask who planned it when I heard the story. +Strategists became so common on the Somme that everybody took them as +much for granted as that every battalion had a commander. + +Mametz was not taken with the first attack. The British were in the +woods once and had to come out; but they had learned that before they +could get a proper _point d'appui_ they must methodically "clean up" a +small grove, a neighboring cemetery, an intricate maze of trenches +called the Quadrangle, and a few other outlying obstacles. In the first +rush a lot of Tyneside Scots were marooned from joining in the retreat. +They fortified themselves in German dugouts and waited in siege, these +dour men of the North. When the British returned eighty of the Scots +were still full of fight if short of food and "verra well" otherwise, +thank you. At times they had been under blasts of shells from both +sides, and again they had been in an oasis of peace, with neither +British nor German gunners certain whether they would kill friend or +foe. + +Going in from the west while the Germans had their curtains of fire +registered elsewhere, the British grubbed their way in one charge +through most of Mametz and when night fell in the midst of the +undergrowth, with a Briton not knowing whether it was Briton or German +lying on the other side of a tree-trunk, they had the satisfaction of +possessing four big guns which the Germans had been unable to withdraw, +and had ascertained also that the Germans had a strong position +protected by barbed wire at the northern end of the woods. + +"This will require a little thinking," as one English officer said, "but +of course we shall take it." + +The purchase on Mametz and the occupation of Bailiff's Wood, the +Quadrangle, La Boisselle and Ovillers-la-Boisselle brought the circle +of advancing British nearer to Contalmaison, which sat up on the hills +in a sea of chalk seams. Contalmaison was being gradually "softened" by +the artillery. The chateau was not yet all down, but after each bite by +a big shell less of the white walls was visible when the clouds of smoke +from the explosion lifted. Bit by bit the guns would get the chateau, +just as bit by bit a stonemason chips a block down to the proper +dimensions to fit it into place in a foundation. + +A visit to La Boisselle on the way to Contalmaison justified the +expectation as to what was in store for Contalmaison. I saw the +blackened and shell-whittled trunks of two trees standing in La +Boisselle. Once with many others they had given shade in the gardens of +houses; but there were no traces of houses now except as they were mixed +with the earth. The village had been hammered into dust. Yet some +dugouts still survived. Keeping at it, the British working around these +had eventually forced the surrender of the garrison, who could not raise +their heads to fire without being met by a bullet or a bomb-burst from +the watchful besiegers. + +"Slow work, but they had to come out," was the graphic phrase of one of +the captors, "and they looked fed up, too. They had even run out of +cigars"--which settled it. + +Oh, those light German cigars! Sometimes I believe that they were the +real mainstay of the German organization. Cigars gone, spirit gone! I +have seen an utterly weary German prisoner as he delivered his papers to +his captor bring out his last cigar and thrust it into his mouth to +forestall its being taken as tribute, with his captor saying with +characteristic British cheerfulness, "Keep it, Bochy! It smells too much +like a disinfectant for me, but let's have your steel helmet"--the +invariable prize demanded by the victor. + +The British had already been in Contalmaison, but did not stay. "Too +many German machine guns and too much artillery fire and not enough +men," to put it with colloquial army brevity. It often happened that a +village was entered and parts of it held during a day, then evacuated at +night, leaving the British guns full play for the final "softening." +These initial efforts had the result of reconnaissances in force. They +permitted a thorough look around the enemy's machine gun positions so as +to know how to avoid their fire and "do them in," revealed the cover +that would be available for the next advance, and brought invaluable +information to the gunners for the accurate distribution of their fire. +Always some points important for future operations were held. + +"We are going after Contalmaison this afternoon," said a staff officer +at headquarters, "and if you hurry you may see it." + +As a result, I witnessed the most brilliant scene of battle of any on +the Somme, unless it was the taking of Combles. There was bright +sunshine, with the air luminously clear and no heat waves. From my +vantage point I could see clear to the neighborhood of Peronne. The +French also were attacking; the drumhead fire of their _soixante-quinze_ +made a continuous roll, and the puffs of shrapnel smoke hung in a long, +gossamery cloud fringing the horizon and the canopy of the green ridges. + +Every aeroplane of the Allies seemed to be aloft, each one distinct +against the blue with shimmering wings and the soft, burnished aureole +of the propellers. They were flying at all heights. Some seemed almost +motionless two or three miles above the earth, while others shot up from +their aerodromes. + +Planes circling, planes climbing, planes slipping down aerial toboggan +slides with propellers still, planes going as straight as crows toward +the German line to be lost to sight in space while others developed out +of space as swift messengers bound for home with news of observations, +planes touring a sector of the front, swooping low over a corps +headquarters to drop a message and returning to their duty; planes of +all types, from the monsters with vast stretch of wing and crews of +three or more men, stately as swans, to those gulls, the saucy little +Nieuports, shooting up and down and turning with incredible swiftness, +their tails in the air; planes and planes in a fantastic aerial minuet, +flitting around the great sausage balloons stationary in the still air. + +With ripening grain and sweet-smelling harvests of clover and hay in the +background and weeds and wild grass in the foreground, the area of +vegetation in the opulence of midsummer was demarked from the area of +shell-craters, trenches and explosions. You had the majesty of battle +and the desolation of war; nature's eternal seeding and fruiting +alongside the most ruthless forms of destruction. In the clear air the +black bursts of the German high explosives hammering Mametz Wood, as if +in revenge for its loss, seemed uglier and more murderous than usual; +the light smoke of shrapnel had a softer, more lingering quality; +soldiers were visible distinctly at a great distance in their comings +and goings; the water carts carrying water up to the first line were a +kind of pilgrim circuit riders of that thirsty world of deadly strife; a +file of infantry winding up the slope at regular intervals were +silhouettes as like as beads on a string. The whole suggested a hill of +ants which had turned their habits of industry against an invader of +their homes in the earth, and the columns of motor trucks and caissons +ever flowing from all directions were as a tide, which halted at the +foot of the slope and then flowed back. + +There were shell-bursts wherever you looked, with your attention drawn +to Contalmaison as it would be to a gathering crowd in the thick of city +traffic. All the steel throats in clumps of woods, under cover of road +embankments, in gullies and on the reverse side of slopes, were +speaking. The guns were giving to Contalmaison all they had to give and +the remaining walls of the chateau disappeared in a fog like a fishing +smack off the Grand Banks. Super-refined, man-directed hell was making +sportive chaos in the village which it hid with its steaming breath cut +by columns of black smoke from the H.E.'s and crowned with flashes of +shrapnel; and under the sun's rays the gases from the powder made +prismatic splendor in flurries and billows shot with the tints of the +rainbow. + +Submerging a simple farming hamlet in this kind of a tempest was only +part of the plan of the gunners, who cut a pattern of fire elsewhere in +keeping with the patterns of the German trenches, placing a curtain of +fire behind the town and another on the edge, and at other points not a +curtain but steady hose-streams of fire. Answering German shells +revealed which of the chalky scars on the slope was the British +first-line trench, and from this, as steam from a locomotive runs in a +flying plume along the crest of a railway cutting, rose a billowing wall +of smoke which was harmless, not even asphyxiating, its only purpose +being to screen the infantry attack, with a gentle breeze sweeping it on +into the mantle over Contalmaison as the wind carries the smoke of a +prairie fire. Lookout Mountain was known as the battle in the clouds, +where generals could not see what their troops were doing. Now all +battles are in a cloud. + +From the first-line British trench the first wave of the British attack +moved under cover of the smoke-screen and directly you saw that the +shells had ceased to fall in Contalmaison. Its smoke mantle slowly +lifting revealed fragmentary walls of that sturdy, defiant chateau still +standing. Another wave of British infantry was on its way. Four waves in +all were to go in, each succeeding one with its set part in supporting +the one in front and in mastering the dugouts and machine gun positions +that might have survived. + +With no shells falling in Contalmaison, the bomb and the bayonet had the +stage to themselves, a stage more or less hemmed in by explosions and +with a sweep of projectiles from both sides passing over the heads of +the cast in a melodrama which had "blessed little comedy relief," as one +soldier put it. The Germans were already shelling the former British +first line and their supports, while the British maintained a curtain of +fire on the far side of the village to protect their infantry as it +worked its way through the debris, and any fire which they had to spare +after lifting it from Contalmaison they were distributing on different +strong points, not in curtains but in a repetition of punches. It was +the best artillery work that I had seen and its purpose seemed that of a +man with a stick knocking in any head that appeared from any hole. + +Act III. now. The British curtain of fire was lifted from the far edge +of the village, which meant that the infantry according to schedule +should be in possession of all of the village. But they might not stay. +They might be forced out soon after they sent up their signals. When the +Germans turned on a curtain of fire succeeding the British fire this was +further evidence of British success sufficient to convince any skeptic. +The British curtain was placed beyond it to hold off any counter-attack +and prevent sniping till the new occupants of the premises had "dug +themselves in." + +The Germans had not forgotten that it was their turn now to hammer +Contalmaison, through which they thought that British reserves and fresh +supplies of bombs must come; and I saw one of the first "krumps" of this +concentration take another bite out of the walls of the chateau. + +By watching the switching of the curtains of fire I had learned that +this time Contalmaison was definitely held; and though they say that I +don't know anything about news, I beat the _communique_ on the fact as +the result of my observation, which ought at least to classify me as a +"cub" reporter. + + + + +XIII + +A GREAT NIGHT ATTACK + + Following hard blows with blows--Trones Woods--Attack and + counter-attack--A heavy price to pay--"The spirit that quickeneth" + knew no faltering--Second-line German fortifications--A daringly + planned attack--"Up and at them!"--An attack not according to the + scientific factory system--The splendid and terrible hazard--Gun + flashes in the dark numerous as fireflies--Majestic, diabolical, + beautiful--A planet bombarding with aerolites--Signal flares in the + distance--How far had the British gone?--Sunrise on the attack--Good + news that day. + + +Of all the wonderful nights at the front that of July 13th-14th was +distinctive for its incomparable suspense. A great experiment was to be +tried; at least, so it seemed to the observer, though the staff did not +take that attitude. It never does once it has decided upon any daring +enterprise. When you send fifty thousand men into a charge that may fail +with a loss of half of their number or may brilliantly succeed with a +loss of only five per cent., none from the corps commanders and division +commanders, who await results after the plans are made, down to the +privates must have any thought except that the plan is right and that it +will go through. + +There is no older military maxim than to follow up any hard blow with +other blows, in order that the enemy may have no time to recuperate; +but in moving against a frontal line under modern conditions the +congestion of transport and ammunition which must wait on new roads and +the filling in of captured trenches makes a difficult problem in +organization. Never had there been and never were there necessary such +numbers of men and such quantities of material as on the Somme front. + +The twelve days succeeding July 1st had seen the taking of minor +position after position by local concentrations of troops and artillery +fire, while the army as a whole had been preparing for another big +attack at the propitious moment when these preliminary gains should +justify it. + +Half a tactical eye could see that the woods of Mametz, Bernafay and +Trones must be held in order to allow of elbow room for a mass movement +over a broad front. The German realized this and after he had lost +Mametz and Bernafay he held all the more desperately to Trones, which, +for the time being, was the superlative horror in woods fighting, though +we were yet to know that it could be surpassed by Delville and High +Woods. + +In Trones the Germans met attack with counter-attack again and again. +The British got through to the east side of the woods, and in reply the +Germans sent in a wave forcing the British back to the west, but no +farther. Then the British, reinforced again, reached the east side. +Showers of leaves and splinters descended from shell-bursts and machine +guns were always rattling. The artillery of both sides hammered the +approaches of the woods to prevent reinforcements from coming up. + +In the cellars of Guillemont village beyond Trones the Germans had +refuges for concentrating their reserves to feed in more troops, whose +orders, as all the prisoners taken said, were to hold to the last man. +Trones Wood was never to be yielded to the British. Its importance was +too vital. Grim national and racial pride and battalion pride and +soldierly pride grappled in unyielding effort and enmity. The middle of +the woods became a neutral ground where the wounded of the different +sallies lay groaning from pain and thirst. Small groups of British had +dug themselves in among the Germans and, waterless, foodless, held out, +conserving their ammunition or, when it was gone, waiting for the last +effort with the bayonet. + +For several days the spare British artillery had been cutting the barbed +wire of the second line and smashing in the trenches; and the big guns +which had been advanced since July 1st were sending their shells far +beyond the Ridge into villages and crossroads and other vital points, in +order to interfere with German communications. + +The Thiepval-Gommecourt line where the British had been repulsed on +July 1st had reverted to something approaching stalemate conditions, +with the usual exchange of artillery fire, and it was along the broader +front where the old German first line had been broken through that the +main concentrations of men and guns were being made in order to continue +the advance for the present through the opening won on July 1st. The +price paid for the taking of the woods and for repeated attacks where +initial attacks had failed might seem to the observer--unless he knew +that the German losses had been equally heavy if not heavier since July +1st--disproportionate not only to the ground gained but also to general +results up to this time which, and this was most important, had +demonstrated, as a promise for the future, that the British New Army +could attack unremittingly and successfully against seasoned German +troops in positions which the Germans had considered impregnable. + +"The spirit that quickeneth" knew no faltering. Battle police were +without occupation. There were no stragglers. With methodical, +phlegmatic steadiness the infantry moved up to the firing-line when its +turn came. + +The second-line German fortifications, if not as elaborate, were even +better situated than the first; not on the crest of the Ridge, of +course, where they would be easily swept by artillery blasts, but where +the latest experience demonstrated that they could make the most of the +commanding high ground with the least exposure. Looking through my +glasses I could see the portion of the open knoll stretching from +Longueval to High Wood which was to be the object of the most extensive +effort since July 1st. + +As yet, except in trench raids over narrow fronts, there had been no +attempt to rush a long line under cover of darkness because of the +difficulty of the different groups keeping touch and identifying their +objectives. + +The charge of July 1st had been at seven-thirty in the morning. +Contalmaison had been stormed in the afternoon. Fricourt was taken at +midday. When the bold suggestion was made that over a three-mile front +the infantry should rush the second-line trenches in the darkness, +hoping to take the enemy by surprise, it was as daring a conception +considering the ground and the circumstances as ever came to the mind of +a British commander and might be said to be characteristic of the dash +and so-called "foolhardiness" of the British soldier, accustomed to +"looking smart" and rushing his enemy from colonial experiences. Nelson +had the "spirit that quickeneth" when he turned his blind eye to the +enemy. The French, too, are for the attack. It won Marengo and +Austerlitz. No general ever dared more than Frederick the Great, not +even Caesar. Thus the great races of history have won military dominion. + +"Up and at them!" is still the shibboleth in which the British believe, +no less than our pioneers and Grant and Stonewall Jackson believed in +it, and nothing throughout the Somme battle was so characteristically +British as not only the stubbornness of their defense when small parties +were surrounded, but the way in which they would keep on attacking and +the difficulty which generals had not in encouraging initiative but in +keeping battalions and brigades from putting into practice their +conviction that they could take a position on their own account if they +could have a chance instead of waiting on a systematic advance. + +Thus, an attack on that second line on the Ridge after the Germans had +had two weeks of further preparation was an adventure of an order, in +the days of mechanical transport, aeroplanes and indirect artillery fire +when all military science is supposed to be reduced to a factory system, +worthy of the days of the sea-rovers and of Clive, of Washington's +crossing of the Delaware or of the storming of Quebec, when a bold +confidence made gamble for a mighty stake. + +So, at least, it seemed to the observer, though, as I said, the staff +insisted that it was a perfectly normal operation. The Japanese had +made many successful night attacks early in the Russo-Japanese war, but +these had been against positions undefended by machine gun fire and +curtains of artillery fire. When the Japanese reached their objective +they were not in danger of being blasted out by high explosives and +incidentally they were not fighting what has been called the most highly +trained army on earth on the most concentrated front that has ever been +known in military history. + +But "Up and at them!" Sir Douglas Haig, who had "all his nerve with +him," said to go ahead. At three-thirty a.m., a good hour before dawn, +that wave of men three miles long was to rush into the night toward an +invisible objective, with the darkness so thick that they could hardly +recognize a figure ten yards away. Yet as one English soldier said, "You +could see the German as soon as he saw you and you ought to be able to +throw a bomb as quickly as he and a bayonet would have just as much +penetration at three-thirty in the morning as at midday." + +When I saw the battalions who were to take part in the attack marching +up I realized, as they did not, the splendid and terrible hazard of +success or failure, of life or death, which was to be theirs. Along the +new roads they passed and then across the conquered ground, its uneven +slopes made more uneven by continued digging and shell fire, and +disappeared, and Night dropped her curtain on the field with no one +knowing what morning would reveal. + +The troops were in position; all was ready; all the lessons learned from +the attack of July 1st were to be applied. At midnight there was no +movement except of artillery caissons; gunners whose pieces two hours +later were to speak with a fury of blasts were sound asleep beside their +ammunition. The absolute order in this amazing network of all kinds of +supplies and transport contributed to the suspense. Night bombardments +we had already seen, and I would not dwell on this except that it had +the same splendor by night that the storming of Contalmaison had by day. + +The artillery observer for a fifteen-inch gun was a good-humored host. +He was putting his "bit," as the British say, into Bazentin-le-Petit +village and the only way we knew where Bazentin was in the darkness was +through great flashes of light which announced the bursting of a +fifteen-hundred-pound shell that had gone hurtling through the air with +its hoarse, ponderous scream. All the slope up to the Ridge was merged +in the blanket of night. Out of it came the regular flashes of guns for +a while as the prelude to the unloosing of the tornado before the +attack. + +Now that we saw them all firing, for the first time we had some idea of +the number that had been advanced into the conquered territory since +July 1st. The ruins and the sticks of trees of Fricourt and Mametz with +their few remaining walls stood out spectral in the flashes of batteries +that had found nesting places among the debris. The whole slope had +become a volcanic uproar. One might as well have tried to count the +number of fireflies over a swamp as the flashes. The limitation of +reckoning had been reached. Guns ahead of us and around us and behind us +as usual, in a battle of competitive crashes among themselves, and near +by we saw the figures of the gunners outlined in instants of weird +lightning glow, which might include the horses of a caisson in a flicker +of distinct silhouette flashed out of the night and then lost in the +night, with the riders sitting as straight as if at drill. Every voice +had one message, "This for the Ridge!" which was crowned by hell's +tempest of shell-bursts to prepare the way for the rush by the infantry +at "zero." + +The thing was majestic, diabolical, beautiful, absurd--anything you +wished to call it. Look away from the near-by guns where the faces of +the gunners were illumined and you could not conceive of the scene as +being of human origin; but mixing awed humility with colossal egoism in +varying compounds of imagination and fact, you might think of your +little group of observers as occupying a point of view in space where +one planet hidden in darkness was throwing aerolites at another hidden +in darkness striking it with mighty explosions, and the crashes and +screams were the sound of the missiles on their unlighted way. + +It was still dark when three-thirty came and pyrotechnics were added to +the display, which I could not think of as being in any sense +pyrotechnical, when out of the blanket as signals from the planet's +surface in the direction of some new manoeuver appeared showers of +glowing red sparks, which rose to a height of a hundred feet with a +breadth of thirty or forty feet, it seemed at that distance. One shower +was in the neighborhood of Ovillers, one at La Boisselle and one this +side of Longueval. Then in the distance beyond Longueval the sky was +illumined by a great conflagration not on the fireworks program, which +must have been a German ammunition dump exploded by British shells. + +It was our planet, now, and a particular portion of it in Picardy. No +imaginative translation to space could hold any longer. With the charge +going in, the intimate human element was supreme. The thought of those +advancing waves of men in the darkness made the fiery display a +dissociated objective spectacle. On the Ridge more signal flares rose +and those illumining the dark masses of foliage must be Bazentin Wood +gained, and those beyond must be in the Bazentin villages, Little +Bazentin and Big Bazentin, though neither of them, like most of the +villages, numbering a dozen to fifty houses could be much smaller and be +called villages. + +This was all the objective. Yes, but though the British had arrived, as +the signals showed, could they remain? It seemed almost too good to be +true. And that hateful Trones Wood? Had we taken that, too, as a part of +the tidal wave of a broad attack instead of trying to take it piecemeal? + +Our suspense was intensified by the thought that this action might be +the turning-point in the first stage of the great Somme battle. We +strained our eyes into the darkness studying, as a mariner studies the +sky, the signs with which we had grown familiar as indicative of +results. There was a good augury in the comparatively slight German +shell fire in response, though we were reminded that it might at any +minute develop with sudden ferocity. + +Now the flashes of the guns grew dim. A transformation more wonderful +than artillery could produce, that of night into day, was in process. +Not a curtain but the sun's ball of fire, undisturbed by any efforts of +the human beings on a few square miles of earth, was holding to his +schedule in as kindly a fashion as ever toward planets which kept at a +respectful distance from his molten artillery concentration. + +Out of the blanket which hid the field appeared the great welts of chalk +of the main line trenches, then the lesser connecting ones; the woods +became black patches and the remaining tree-trunks gaunt, still and +dismal sentinels of the gray ruins of the villages, until finally all +the conformations of the scarred and tortured slope were distinct in the +first fresh light of a brilliant summer's day. Where the blazes had been +was the burst of black smoke from shells and we saw that it was still +German fire along the visible line of the British objective, assuring us +that the British had won the ground which they had set out to take and +were holding it. + +"Up and at them!" had done the trick this time, and trick it was; a +trick or stratagem, to use the higher sounding word; a trick in not +waiting on the general attack for the taking of Trones according to +obvious tactics, but including Trones in the sweep; a trick in the +daring way that the infantry was sent in ahead of the answering German +curtain of fire. + +All the news was good that day. The British had swept through Bazentin +Wood and taken the Bazentin villages. They held Trones Wood and were in +Delville and High Woods. A footing was established on the Ridge where +the British could fight for final mastery on even terms with the enemy. +"Slight losses" came the reports from corps and divisions and +confirmation of official reports was seen in the paucity of the wounded +arriving at the casualty clearing stations and in the faces of officers +and men everywhere. Even British phlegm yielded to exhilaration. + + + + +XIV + +THE CAVALRY GOES IN + + The "dodo" band--Cavalry a luxury--Cavalry, however, may not be + discarded--What ten thousand horse might do--A taste of action for the + cavalry--An "incident"--Horses that had the luck to "go in"--Cavalrymen + who showed signs of action--The novelty of a cavalry action--A camp + group--Germans caught unawares--Horsemen and an aeroplane--Retiring in + good order--Just enough casualties to give the fillip of danger to + recollection. + + +Sometimes a squadron of cavalry, British or Indian, survivors of the +ardent past, intruded in a mechanical world of motor trucks and tractors +drawing guns. With outward pride these lean riders of burnished, sleek +horses, whose broad backs bore gallantly the heavy equipment, concealed +their irritation at idleness while others fought. They brought +picturesqueness and warm-blooded life to the scene. Such a merciless war +of steel contrivances needed some ornament. An old sergeant one day, +when the cavalry halted beside his battalion which was resting, in an +exhibit of affectionate recollection exclaimed: + +"It's good to stroke a horse's muzzle again! I was in the Dragoon Guards +once, myself." + +Sometimes the cavalry facetiously referred to itself as the "Dodo" +band, with a galling sense of helplessness under its humor; and others +had thought of it as being like the bison preserved in the Yellowstone +Park lest the species die out. + +A cynical general said that a small force of cavalry was a luxury which +such a vast army of infantry and guns might afford. In his opinion, even +if we went to the Rhine, the cavalry would melt in its first charge +under the curtains of fire and machine gun sprays of the rearguard +actions of the retreating enemy. He had never been in the cavalry, and +any squadron knew well what he and all of those who shared his views +were thinking whenever it passed over the brow of a hill that afforded a +view of the welter of shell fire over a field cut with shell-craters and +trenches which are pitfalls for horses. Yet it returned gamely and with +fastidious application to its practice in crossing such obstacles in +case the command to "go in" should ever come. Such preparations were +suggestive to extreme skeptics of the purchase of robes and the +selection of a suitable hilltop of a religious cult which has appointed +the day for ascension. + +Excepting a dash in Champagne, not since trench warfare began had the +cavalry had any chance. The thought of action was an hypothesis +developed from memory of charges in the past. Aeroplanes took the +cavalry's place as scouts, machine guns and rifles emplaced behind a +first-line trench which had succumbed to an attack took its place as +rearguard, and aeroplane patrols its place as screen. + +Yet any army, be it British, French, or German, which expected to carry +through an offensive would not turn all its cavalry into infantry. This +was parting with one of the old three branches of horse, foot and gun +and closing the door to a possible opportunity. If the Japanese had had +cavalry ready at the critical moment after Mukden, its mobility would +have hampered the Russian retreat, if not turned it into a rout. When +you need cavalry you need it "badly," as the cowboy said about his +six-shooter. + +Should the German line ever be broken and all that earth-tied, enormous, +complicated organization, with guns emplaced and its array of congested +ammunition dumps and supply depots, try to move on sudden demand, what +added confusion ten thousand cavalry would bring! What rich prizes would +await it as it galloped through the breach and in units, separating each +to its objective according to evolutions suited to the new conditions, +dismounted machine guns to cover roads and from chosen points sweep +their bullets into wholesale targets! The prospect of those few wild +hours, when any price in casualties might be paid for results, was the +inspiration of dreams when hoofs stamped in camps at night or bits +champed as lances glistened in line above khaki-colored steel helmets on +morning parade. + +A taste, just a taste, of action the cavalry was to have, owing to the +success of the attack of July 14th, which manifestly took the Germans by +surprise between High and Delville Woods and left them staggering with +second-line trenches lost and confusion ensuing, while guns and +scattered battalions were being hurried up by train in an indiscriminate +haste wholly out of keeping with German methods of prevision and +precision. The breach was narrow, the field of action for horses +limited; but word came back that over the plateau which looked away to +Bapaume between Delville and High Woods there were few shell-craters and +no German trenches or many Germans in sight as day dawned. + +Gunners rubbed their eyes at the vision as they saw the horsemen pass +and infantry stood amazed to see them crossing trenches, Briton and +Indian on their way up the slope to the Ridge. How they passed the crest +without being decimated by a curtain of fire would be a mystery if there +were any mysteries in this war, where everything seems to be worked out +like geometry or chemical formulae. The German artillery being busy +withdrawing heavy guns and the other guns preoccupied after the +startling results of an attack not down on the calendar for that day +did not have time to "get on" the cavalry when they were registered on +different targets--which is suggestive of what might come if the line +were cleft over a broad front. A steel band is strong until it breaks, +which may be in many pieces. + +"Did you see the charge?" you ask. No, nor even the ride up the slope, +being busy elsewhere and not knowing that the charge was going to take +place. I could only seek out the two squadrons who participated in the +"incident," as the staff called it, after it was over. Incident is the +right word for a military sense of proportion. When the public in +England and abroad heard that the cavalry were "in" they might expect to +hear next day that the Anglo-French Armies were in full pursuit of the +broken German Armies to the Rhine, when no such outcome could be in the +immediate program unless German numbers were cut in two or the Prussian +turned Quaker. + +An incident! Yes, but something to give a gallop to the pen of the +writer after the monotony of gunfire and bombing. I was never more eager +to hear an account of any action than of this charge--a cavalry charge, +a charge of cavalry, if you please, on the Western front in July, 1916. + +In one of the valleys back of the front out of sight of the battle there +were tired, tethered horses with a knowing look in their eyes, it +seemed to me, and a kind of superior manner toward the sleek, fresh +horses which had not had the luck to "go in"; and cavalrymen were lying +under their shelters fast asleep, their clothing and accoutrements +showing the unmistakable signs of action. We heard from their officers +the story of both the Dragoon Guards and the Deccan Horse (Indian) who +had known what it was to ride down a German in the open. + +The shade of Phil Sheridan might ponder on what the world was coming to +that we make much of such a small affair; but he would have felt all the +glowing satisfaction of these men if he had waited as long as they for +any kind of a cavalry action. The accounts of the two squadrons may go +together. Officers were shaving and aiming for enough water to serve as +a substitute for a bath. The commander with his map could give you every +detail with a fond, lingering emphasis on each one, as a battalion +commander might of a first experience in a trench raid when later the +same battalion would make an account of a charge in battle which was +rich with incidents of hand-to-hand encounters and prisoners breached +from dugouts into an "I-came-I-saw" narrative, and not understand why +further interest should be shown by the inquirer in what was the +everyday routine of the business of war. For the trite saying that +everything is relative does not forfeit any truth by repetition. + +The cavalry had done everything quite according to tactics, which would +only confuse the layman. The wonder was that any of it had come back +alive. On that narrow front it had ridden out toward the Germany Army +with nothing between the cavalry and the artillery and machine guns +which had men on horses for targets. In respect to days when to show a +head above a trench meant death the thing was stupefying, incredible. +These narrators forming a camp group, with lean, black-bearded, +olive-skinned Indians in attendance bringing water in horse-buckets for +the baths, and the sight of kindly horses' faces smiling at you, and the +officers themselves horsewise and with the talk and manner of +horsemen--only they made it credible. How real it was to them! How real +it became to me! + +There had been some Germans in hiding in the grass who were taken +unawares by this rush of gallopers with lances. Every participant agreed +as to the complete astonishment of the enemy. It was equivalent to a +football player coming into the field in ancient armor and the more of a +surprise considering that those Germans had been sent out after a +morning full of surprises to make contact with the British and +reestablish the broken line. + +Not dummies of straw this time for the lance's sharp point, but +startled men in green uniform--the vision which had been in mind when +every thrust was made at the dummies! This was what cavalry was for, the +object of all the training. It rode through quite as it would have +ridden fifty or a hundred years ago. A man on the ground, a man on a +horse! This feature had not changed. + +"You actually got some?" + +"Oh, yes!" + +"On the lances?" + +"Yes." + +From the distance came the infernal sound of guns in their threshing +contest of explosions which made this incident more impressive than any +account of a man buried by shells, of isolated groups holding out in +dugouts, or of venturesome soldiers catching and tossing back German +bombs at the man who threw them, because it was unique on the Somme. +Both British and Indians had had the same kind of an opportunity. After +riding through they wheeled and rode back in the accepted fashion of +cavalry. + +By this time some of the systematic Germans had recollected that a part +of their drill was how to receive a cavalry charge, and when those who +had not run or been impaled began firing and others stood ready with +their bayonets but with something of the manner of men who were not +certain whether they were in a trance or not, according to the account, +a German machine gun began its wicked staccato as another feature of +German awakening to the situation. + +This brings us to the most picturesque incident of the "incident." Most +envied of all observers of the tournament was an aviator who looked down +on a show bizarre even in the annals of aviation. The German planes had +been driven to cover, which gave the Briton a fair field. A knightly +admiration, perhaps a sense of fellowship not to say sympathy with the +old arm of scouting from the new, possessed him; or let it be that he +could not resist a part in such a rare spectacle which was so tempting +to sporting instinct. He swooped toward that miserable, earth-tied +turtle of a machine gun and emptied his drum into it. He was not over +three hundred feet, all agree, above the earth, when not less than ten +thousand feet was the rule. + +"It was jolly fine of him!" as the cavalry put it. To have a charge and +then to have that happen--well, it was not so bad to be in the cavalry. +The plane drew fire by setting all the Germans to firing at it without +hitting it, and the machine gun, whether silenced or not, ceased to +bother the cavalry, which brought back prisoners to complete a +well-rounded adventure before withdrawing lest the German guns, also +entering into the spirit of the situation, should blow men and horses +off the Ridge instead of leaving them to retire in good order. + +Casualties: about the same number of horses as men. Riders who had lost +their horses mounted riderless horses. A percentage of one in six or +seven had been hit, which was the most amazing part of it; indeed, the +most joyful part, completing the likeness to the days when war still had +the element of sport. There had been killed and wounded or it would not +have been a battle, but not enough to cast a spell of gloom; just enough +to be a part of the gambling hazard of war and give the fillip of danger +to recollection. + + + + +XV + +ENTER THE ANZACS + + Newfoundland sets the pace--Australia and New Zealand lands that + breed men--Australians "very proud, individual men"--Geographical + isolation a cause of independence--The "Anzacs'" idea of + fighting--Sir Charles Birdwood--How he taught his troops + discipline--Bean and Ross--Difference between Australians and New + Zealanders--The Australian uniform and physique--A dollar and a half + a day--General Birdwood and his men--Australian humor. + + +It was British troops exclusively which started the Grand Offensive if +we except the Newfoundland battalion which alone had the honor of +representing the heroism of North America on July 1st; for people in +passing the Grand Banks which makes them think of Newfoundland are wont +to regard it as a part of Canada, when it is a separate colony whose +fishermen and frontiersmen were attached to a British division that went +to Gallipoli with a British brigade and later shared the fate of British +battalions in the attack on the Thiepval-Gommecourt sector. + +On that famous day in Picardy the Newfoundlanders advanced into the +smoke of the curtains of fire unflinchingly and kept on charging the +machine guns. Survivors and the wounded who crept back at night across +No Man's Land had no need to trumpet their heroism. All the army knew +it. Newfoundland had set the pace for the other clans from oversea. + +It was British troops, too, which took Contalmaison and Mametz, Bernafay +and Trones Woods and who carried out all the attack of July 15th, with +the exception of the South African brigade which stormed Delville Wood +with the tearing enthusiasm of a rush for a new diamond mine. + +Whenever the troops from oversea are not mentioned you may be sure that +it is the British, the home troops, who are doing the fighting, their +number being about ten to one of the others with the one out of ten +representing double the number of those who fought on either side in any +great pitched battle in our Civil War. After the Newfoundlanders and +South Africans, who were few but precious, the Australians, an army of +themselves, came to take their part in the Somme battle. + +I have never been in Australia or New Zealand, but this I know that when +the war is over I am going. I want to see the land that breeds such men. +They are free men if ever there were such; free whether they come from +town or from bush. I had heard of their commonwealth ideas, their +State-owned utilities, their socialistic inclinations, which might +incline you to think that they were all of the same State-cut pattern of +manhood; but I had heard, too, how they had restricted immigration of +Orientals and limited other immigration by method if not by law, which +was suggestive of a tendency to keep the breed to itself, as I +understood from my reading. + +Whenever I saw an Australian I thought: "Here is a very proud, +individual man," but also an Australian, particularly an Australian. +Some people thought that there was a touch of insolence in his bearing +when he looked you straight in the eye as much as to say: "The best +thing in the world is to be an upstanding member of the human race who +is ready to prove that he is as good as any other. If you don't think +so, well--" There was no doubt about the Australian being brave. This +was as self-evident as that the pine is straight and the beech is hard +wood. + +The Australians came from a great distance. This you knew without +geographical reference. Far away in their island continent they have +been working out their own destiny, not caring for interference from the +outside. To put it in strong language, there is a touch of the "I don't +care a rap for anybody who does not care a rap for me" in their extreme +moments of independence. It is refreshing that a whole population may +have an island continent to themselves and carry on in this fashion. + +They had had an introduction to universal service which was also +characteristic of their democracy and helpful in time of war. The +"Anzac" had caught the sense of its idea (before other English-speaking +people) not to let others do your fighting for you but all "join in the +scrum." Orientals might crave the broad spaces of a new land, in which +event if they ever took Australia and New Zealand they would not be +bothered by many survivors of the white population, because most of the +Anzacs would be dead--this being particularly the kind of people the +Anzacs are as I knew them in France, which was not a poor trial ground +of their quality. + +When they went to Gallipoli it was said that they had no discipline; and +certainly at first discipline did irritate them as a snaffle bit +irritates a high-spirited horse. "Little Kitch," as the stalwart Anzacs +called the New Army Englishman, thought that they broke all the military +commandments of the drill-grounds in a way that would be their undoing. +I rather think that it might have been the undoing of Little Kitch, with +his stubborn, methodical, phlegmatic, "stick-it" courage; but after the +Australians had fought the Turk a while it was evident that they knew +how to fight, and their general, Sir Charles Birdwood, supplied the +discipline which is necessary if fighting power is not to be wasted in +misplaced emotion. + +Lucky Birdwood to command the Australians and lucky Australians to have +him as commander! It was he who in choosing a telegraph code word made +up "Anzac" for the Australian-New Zealand corps, which at once became +the collective term for the combination. What a test he put them to and +they put him to! He had to prove himself to them before he could develop +the Anzacs into a war unit worthy of their fighting quality. Such is +democracy where man judges man by standards, set, in this case, by +Australian customs. + +When he understood them he knew why he was fortunate. He was one of them +and at the same time a stiff disciplinarian. They objected to saluting, +but he taught them to salute in a way that did not make saluting seem +the whole thing--this was what they resented--but a part of the routine. +It was said that he knew every man in the corps by name, which shows how +stories will grow around a commander who rises at five and retires at +midnight and has a dynamic ubiquity in keeping in touch with his men. +Such a force included some "rough customers" who might mistake war for a +brawler's opportunity; but Sir Charles had a way with them that worked +out for their good and the good of the corps. + +Though they were of a free type of democracy, the Australian government, +either from inherent sense or as the result of distance, as critics +might say, or owing to General Birdwood's gift of having his way, did +not handicap the Australians as heavily as they might have been +handicapped under the circumstances by officers who were skilful in +politics without being skilful in war. + +As publicist the Australians had Bean, a trained journalist, a +red-headed blade of a man who was an officer among officers and a man +among men and held the respect of all by Australian qualities. If there +could be only one chronicler allowed, then Bean's choice had the +applause of a corps, though Bean says that Australia is full of just as +good journalists who did not have his luck. The New Zealanders had Ross +to play the same part for them with equal loyalty and he was as much of +a New Zealander as Bean was an Australian. + +For, make no mistake, though the Australians and the New Zealanders +might seem alike to the observer as they marched along a road, they are +not, as you will find if you talk with them. The New Zealanders have +islands of their own, not to mention that the Tasmanians have one, too. +Besides, the New Zealanders include a Maori battalion and of all +aborigines of lands where the white races have settled in permanence to +build new nations, the Maoris have best accustomed themselves to +civilization and are the highest type--a fact which every New Zealander +takes as another contributing factor to New Zealand's excellence. Quiet +men the New Zealanders, bearing themselves with the pride of Guardsmen +whose privates all belong to superior old families, and New Zealanders +every minute of every hour of the day, though you might think that civil +war was imminent if you started them on a discussion about home +politics. + +Give any unit of an army some particular, readily distinguishable +symbol, be it only a feather in the cap or a different headgear, and +that lot becomes set apart from the others in a fashion that gives them +_esprit de corps_. With the Scots it is the kilt and the different +plaids. All the varied uniforms of regiments of the armies of olden days +had this object. Modern war requires neutral tones and its necessary +machinelike homogeneity may look askance at too much rivalry among units +as tending toward each one acting by itself rather than in co-operation +with the rest. + +All the forces at the front except the Anzacs were in khaki and wore +caps when not wearing steel helmets in the trenches or on the +firing-line. The Australians were in slate-colored uniform and they +wore looped-up soft hats. The hats accentuated the manner, the height +and the sturdiness of the men whose physique was unsurpassed at the +British front, and practically all were smooth-shaven. For generations +they had had adequate nutrition and they had the capacity to absorb it, +which generations from the slums may lack even if the food is +forthcoming. + +There was no reason why every man in Australia should not have enough to +eat and, whether bush or city dweller, he was fond of the open air where +he might exercise the year around. He had blown his lungs; he had fed +well and came of a daring pioneer stock. When an Anzac battalion under +those hats went swinging along the road it seemed as if the men were +taking the road along with them, such was their vigorous tread. On leave +in London they were equally conspicuous. Sometimes they used a little +vermilion with the generosity of men who received a dollar and a half a +day as their wage. It was the first time, in many instances, that they +had seen the "old town" and they had come far and to-morrow might go +back to France for the last time. + +My first view of them in the trenches after they came from Gallipoli was +in the flat country near Ypres whose mushiness is so detested by all +soldiers. They had been used to digging trenches in dry hillsides, +where they might excavate caves with solid walls. Here they had to fill +sandbags with mud and make breastworks, which were frequently breached +by shell fire. At first, they had been poor diggers; but when democracy +learns its lesson by individual experience it is incorporated in every +man and no longer is a question of orders. Now they were deepening +communication trenches and thickening parapet walls and were +mud-plastered by their labor. + +Having risen at General Birdwood's hour of five to go with him on +inspection I might watch his methods, and it means something to men to +have their corps commander thus early among them when a drizzly rain is +softening the morass under foot. He stopped and asked the privates how +they were in a friendly way and they answered with straight-away +candor. Then he gave some directions about improvements with a +we-are-all-working-together suggestiveness, but all the time he was the +general. These privates were not without their Australian sense of +humor, which is dry; and in answer to the inquiry about how he was one +said: + +"All right, except we'd like a little rum, sir." + +In cold weather the distribution of a rum ration was at the disposition +of a commander, who in most instances did not give it. This stalwart +Australian evidently had not been a teetotaler. + +"We'll give you some rum when you have made a trench raid and taken some +prisoners," the general replied. + +"It might be an incentive, sir!" said the soldier very respectfully. + +"No Australian should need such an incentive!" answered the general, and +passed on. + +"Yes, sir!" was the answer of another soldier to the question if he had +been in Gallipoli. + +"Wounded?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"How?" + +"I was examining a bomb, sir, to find out how it was made and it went +off to my surprise, sir!" + +There was not even a twinkle of the eye accompanying the response, yet I +was not certain that this big fellow from the bush had been wounded in +that way. I suspected him of a quiet joke. + +"Throw them at the Germans next time," said the general. + +"Yes, sir. It's safer!" + +Returning after that long morning of characteristic routine, as we +passed through a village where Australians were billeted one soldier +failed to salute. When the general stopped him his hand shot up in +approved fashion as he recognized his commander and he said contritely, +with the touch of respect of a man to the leader in whom he believes: + +"I did not see that it was you, sir!" + +The general had on a mackintosh with the collar turned up, which +concealed his rank. + +"But you might see that it was an officer." + +"Yes, sir." + +"And you salute officers." + +"Yes, sir." + +Which he would hereafter now that it was General Birdwood's order, +though this everlasting raising of your hand, as one Australian said, +made you into a kind of human windmill when the world was so full of +officers. Gradually all came to salute, and when an Australian salutes +he does it in a way that is a credit to Australia. + +After a period of fighting a tired division retired from the battle +front and a fresh one took the place. Thus, following the custom of the +circulation of troops by the armies of both sides, whether at Verdun or +on the Somme, the day arrived when along the road toward the front came +the Australian battalions, hardened and disciplined by trench warfare, +keen-edged in spirit, and ready for the bold task which awaited them at +Pozieres. This time the New Zealanders were not along. + + + + +XVI + +THE AUSTRALIANS AND A WINDMILL + + The windmill upon the hill--Pozieres--Its topography--Warlike + intensity of the Australians--A "stiff job"--An Australian + chronicler--Incentives to Australian efficiency--German complaint + that the Australians came too fast--Clockwork efficiency--Man-to-man + business--Sunburned, gaunt battalions from the vortex--The fighting + on the Ridge--Mouquet Farm--A contest of individuality against + discipline--"Advance, Australia!"--New Zealanders--South Africans. + + +When I think of the Australians in France I always think of a windmill. +This is not implying that they were in any sense Quixotic or that they +tilted at a windmill, there being nothing left of the windmill to tilt +at when their capture of its ruins became the crowning labor of their +first tour on the Somme front. + +In their progress up that sector of the Ridge the windmill came after +Pozieres, as the ascent of the bare mountain peak comes after the +reaches below the timber line. Pozieres was beyond La Boisselle and +Ovillers-la-Boisselle, from which the battle movement swung forward at +the hinge of the point where the old first-line German fortifications +had been broken on July 1st. + +To think of Pozieres will be to think of the Australians as long as the +history of the Somme battle endures. I read an interview in a New York +paper with the Chief of Staff of the German Army opposite the British in +which he must have been correctly quoted, as his remarks passed the +censorship. He said that the loss of Pozieres was a blunder. I liked his +frankness in laying the blame on a subordinate who, if he also had +spoken, might have mentioned the presence of the Australians as an +excuse, which, personally, I think is an excellent one. + +Difficult as it now becomes to keep any sequence in the operations when, +at best, chronology ceases to be illuminative of phases, it is well here +to explain that the attack of July 15th had not gained the whole Ridge +on the front ahead of the broad stretch of ruptured first line. Besides, +the Ridge is not like the roof of a house, but a most illusive series of +irregular knolls with small plateaus or valleys between, a sort of +miniature broken tableland. The foothold gained on July 15th meant no +broad command of vision down the slope to the main valley on the other +side. Even a shoulder five or ten feet higher than the neighboring +ground meant a barrier to artillery observation which shells would not +blast away; and the struggle for such positions was to go on for weeks. + +Pozieres, then, was on the way to the Ridge and its possession would +put the formidable defenses of Thiepval in a salient, thus enabling the +British to strike it from the side as well as in front, which is the aim +of all strategy whether it works in mobile divisions in an open field or +is biting and tearing its way against field fortifications. Therefore, +the Germans had good reason to hold Pozieres, which protected first-line +trenches that had required twenty months of preparation. Wherever they +could keep the Briton or the Frenchman from forcing the fight into the +open which made the contest an even one in digging, they were saving +life and ammunition by nests of redoubts and dugouts. + +The reason that the Australians wanted to take Pozieres was not so +tactical as human in their minds. It was the village assigned to them +and they wished to investigate it immediately and get established in the +property that was to be theirs, once they took it, to hold in trust for +the inhabitants. I had a fondness for watching them as they marched up +to the front looking unreal in their steel helmets which they wore in +place of the broad-brimmed hats. There was a sort of warlike intensity +about them which may come from the sunlight of an island continent +reflecting the histrionic adaptability of appearances to the task in +hand. + +Their first objective was to be the main street. They had a "stiff job" +ahead, as everybody agreed, and so had the British troops operating on +their right. + +"This objective business has a highly educated sound, which might limit +martial enthusiasm," said one Australian. "As I understand it, that's +the line where we stop no matter how good the going and which we must +reach no matter how hard the going." + +Precisely. An Australian battalion needed a warning in the first +instance lest it might keep on advancing, which meant that commanders +would not know where it was in the shell-smoke and it might get +"squeezed" for want of support on the right and left, as I have +explained elsewhere. Certainly, warning was unnecessary in the second +instance about the hard going. + +Bean has all the details of the taking of Pozieres; he knows what every +battalion did, and I was going to say what every soldier did. When the +Australians were in he was in making notes and when they were out he was +out writing up his notes. His was intimate war correspondence about the +fellows who came from all the districts of his continent, his home +folks. I am only expressing the impressions of one who had glimpses of +the Australians while the battle was raging elsewhere. + +Of course, skeptics had said that Gallipoli was one thing and the Somme +another and the Australian man-to-man method might receive a shock from +Prussian system; but, then, skeptics had said that the British could not +make an army in two years. The Australians knew what was in the +skeptics' minds, which was further incentive. They had a general whom +they believed in and they did not admit that any man on earth was a +better man than an Australian. And their staff? Of course, when it takes +forty years to make a staff how could the Australians have one that +could hold its own with the Germans? And this was what the Australians +had to do, staff and man: beat the Germans. + +When with clockwork promptness came the report that they had taken all +of their objectives it showed that they were up to the standard of their +looks and their staff signals were working well. They had a lot of +prisoners, too, who complained that the Australians came on too fast. +Meanwhile, they were on one side of the street and the Germans on the +other, hugging debris and sniping at one another. Now the man-to-man +business began to count. The Australian got across the street; he went +after the other fellow; he made a still hunt of it. This battle had +become a personal matter which pleased their sense of individualism; for +it is not bred into Australians to be afraid if they are out alone after +dark. + +Having worked beyond their first objective, when they were given as +their second the rest of the village they took it; and they were not +"biffed" out of it, either. What was the use of yielding ground when you +would have to make another charge in order to regain what had been lost? +They were not that kind of arithmeticians, they said. They believed in +addition not subtraction in an offensive campaign. + +So they stuck, though the Germans made repeated daring counter-attacks +and poured in shell fire from the guns up Thiepval way and off Bapaume +way with hellish prodigality. For the German staff was evidently much +out of temper about the "blunder" and for many weeks to come were to +continue pounding Pozieres. If they could not shake the Australian out +of the village they meant to make him pay heavy taxes and to try to kill +his reliefs and stop his supplies. How the Australians managed to get +food and men up through the communication trenches under the unceasing +inferno over that bare slope is tribute to their skill in slipping out +and in between its blasts. + +Not only were they able to hold, but they kept on attacking. Every day +we heard that they had taken more ground and whenever we went out to +have a look the German lines were always a little farther back. One day +we were asking if the Australians were in the cemetery yet; the next +day they were and the next they had more of it as they worked their way +uphill, fighting from grave to grave; and the next day they had mastered +all of it, thanks to a grim persistence which some had said would not +comport with their highstrung temperament. + +The windmill was a landmark crowning the Ridge; as fair a target as ever +artillery ranged on--a gunner's delight. After having been knocked into +splinters the splinters were spread about by high explosives which +reduced the stone base to fragments. + +Sunburned, gaunt battalions came out of the vortex for a turn of rest. +With helmets battered by shrapnel bullets, after nights in the rain and +broiling hot days, their faces grimy and unshaven, their clothes torn +and spotted, they were still Australians who looked you in the eye with +a sense of having proved their birthright as free men. Sometimes the old +spirit incited by the situation got out of bonds. One night when a +company rose up to the charge the company next in line called out, +"Where are you going?" and on the reply, "We've orders to take that +trench in front," the company that had no orders to advance exclaimed, +"Here, we're going to join in the scrum!" and they did, taking more +trench than the plan required. + +The fierce period of the battle was approaching when fighting on the +Ridge was to be a bloody, wrestling series of clinches. Now trenches +could not be dug on that bold, treeless summit. As soon as an aeroplane +spotted a line developing out of the field of shell-craters the guns +filled the trench and then proceeded to pound it into the fashionable +style for farming land on the Ridge. + +Trenches out of the question, it became a war among shell-craters. Here +a soldier ensconced himself with rifle and bombs or a machine gunner +deepened the hole with his spade for the gun. This was "scrapping" to +the Australians' taste. It called for individual nerve and daring on +that shell-swept, pestled earth, creeping up to new positions or back +for water and food by night, lying "doggo" by day and waiting for a +counter-attack by the Germans, who were always the losers in this grim, +stealthy advance. + +In Mouquet Farm the Germans had dugouts whose elaborateness was realized +only after they were taken. A battalion could find absolute security in +them. Long galleries ran back to entrances in areas safe from shell +fire. Overhead no semblance of farm buildings was left by British and +Australian guns. When I visited the ruins later I could not tell how +many buildings there had been; and Mouquet Farm was not the only strong +point that the Germans had to fall back on, let it be said. In the +underground tunnels and chambers the Germans gathered for their +counter-attacks, which they attempted with something of their old +precision and courage. + +This was the opportunity of the machine gunners in shell-craters and the +snipers and the curtain of artillery fire. Sometimes the Australians +allowed the attack to get good headway. They even left gaps in their +lines for the game to enter the net before they began firing; and again, +when a broken German charge sought flight its remnants faced an +impassable curtain of fire which fenced them in and they dropped into +shell-craters and held up their hands, which was the only thing to do. + +Soon the Germans learned, too, how to make the most of shell-craters. +The harder the Australians fought the greater the spur to German pride +not to be beaten by these supposedly undisciplined, untrained men. The +Germans called for more guns and got them. Mouquet Farm became a +fortress of machine guns. It was not taken by the Australians--their +successors took what was left of it. The nearer they came to the crest +which was their supreme goal the ghastlier and more concentrated grew +the shell fire, as the German guns had only to range on the skyline. But +this equally applied to Australian gunners as the Germans were crowded +toward the summit where the debris of the windmill remained, till +finally they had to fall back to the other side. + +Then they tried sweeping over the Ridge from the cover of the reverse +slope in counter-attacks, only to be whipped by machine gun fire, lashed +by shrapnel and crushed by high explosives--themselves mixed with the +ruins of the windmill. At last they gave up the effort. It was not in +German discipline to make any more attempts. + +The Australians had the windmill as much as anyone had it as, for a +time, it was in No Man's Land where blasts of shells would permit of no +occupation. But the symbol for which it stood was there in readiness as +a jumping-off place for the sweep-down into the valley later on when the +Canadians should take the place of the Australians; and before they +retired they could look in triumph across at Thiepval and down on +Courcelette and Martinpuich and past the valley to Bapaume. + +The development of the campaign had given the Australians work suited to +their bent when this war of machinery, attaining its supreme complexity +on the Somme, left the human machine between walls of shell fire to +fight it out individually against the human machine, in a contest of +will, courage, audacity, alertness and resource, man to man. "Advance, +Australia!" is the Australian motto; and the Australians advanced. + +The New Zealanders had their part elsewhere and played it in the New +Zealand way. + +"They have never failed to take an objective set them," said a general +after the taking of Flers, "and they have always gained their positions +with slight losses." + +Could there be higher praise? Success and thrift, courage and skill in +taking cover! For the business of a soldier is to do his enemy the +maximum of damage with the minimum to himself, as anyone may go on +repeating. Probably the remark of the New Zealanders in answer to the +commander's praise would be, "Thank you. Why not?" as if this were what +the New Zealanders expected of themselves. They take much for granted +about New Zealand, without being boastful. + +"A blooming quiet lot that keeps to themselves," said a British soldier, +"but likable when you get to know them." + +You might depend upon the average New Zealand private for an interesting +talk about social organization, municipal improvements, and human +welfare under government direction. The standard of individual +intelligence and education was high and it seemed to make good fighting +men. + +The Australians had had to grub their way foot by foot, and the South +Africans on July 15th with veldt gallantry had swept into Delville Wood, +which was to be a shambles for two months, and stood off with a thin +line the immense forces of hastily gathered reserves which the Germans +threw at this vital point which had been lost in a surprise attack. + +All this on the way up to the Ridge. The New Zealanders were to play a +part in the same movement as the Canadians after the Ridge was taken. +They were in the big sweep down from the Ridge over a broad front. +Across the open for about two miles they had to go, fair targets for +shell fire; and they went, keeping their order as if on parade, working +out each evolution with soldierly precision including cooeperation with +the "tanks." They were at their final objective on schedule time, +accomplishing the task with amazingly few casualties and so little fuss +that it seemed a kind of skilful field-day manoeuver. All that they took +they held and still held it when the mists of autumn obscured artillery +observation and they were relieved from the quagmire for their turn of +rest. + + + + +XVII + +THE HATEFUL RIDGE + + Grinding of courage of three powerful races--A ridge that will be + famous--Germans on the defensive--Efforts to maintain their + _morale_--Gas shells--Summer heat, dust and fatigue--Prussian hatred + of the British--Dead bodies strapped to guns--Guillemont a + granulation of bricks and mortar and earth--"We've only to keep at + them, sir"--Stalking machine guns--Machine guns in craters--British + cheerfulness--The war will be over when it is won--Soldiers talk + shop--An incident of brutal militarism--Simple rules for surviving + shell fire--A "happy home" with a shell arriving every + minute--Business-like monotony of the battle--Insignificance of one + man among millions--A victory of position, of will, of _morale_! + + +Sometimes it occurred to one to consider what history might say about +the Ridge and also to wonder how much history, which pretends to know +all, would really know. Thus, one sought perspective of the colossal +significance of the uninterrupted battle whose processes numbed the mind +and to distinguish the meaning of different stages of the struggle. +Nothing had so well reflected the character of the war or of its +protagonists, French, British and German, as this grinding of resources, +of courage, and of will of three powerful races. + +We are always talking of phases as the result of natural human +speculation and tendency to set events in groups. Observers also may +gratify this inclination as well as the contemporaneous military expert +writing from his maps. It is historically accepted, I think, that the +first decisive phase was the battle of the Marne when Paris was saved. +The second was Verdun, when the Germans again sought a decision on the +Western front by an offensive of sledgehammer blows against frontal +positions; and, perhaps, the third came when on the Ridge the British +and the French kept up their grim, insistent, piecemeal attacks, holding +the enemy week in and week out on the defensive, aiming at mastery as +the scales trembled in the new turn of the balance and initiative passed +from one side to the other in the beginning of that new era. + +This scarred slope with its gentle ascent, this section of farming land +with its woods growing more ragged every day from shell fire, with its +daily and nightly thunders, its trickling procession of wounded and +prisoners down the communication trenches speaking the last word in +human bravery, industry, determination and endurance--this might one day +be not only the monument to the positions of all the battalions that had +fought, its copses, its villages, its knolls famous to future +generations as is Little Round Top with us, but in its monstrous realism +be an immortal expression, unrealized by those who fought, of a +commander's iron will and foresight in gaining that supremacy in arms, +men and material which was the genesis of the great decision. + +The German had not yielded his offensive at Verdun after the attack of +July 1st. At least, he still showed the face of initiative there while +he rested content that at the same time he could maintain his front +intact on the Somme. The succeeding attack of July 15th broke his +confidence with its suggestion that the confusion in his lines would be +too dangerous if it happened over a broader front for him to consider +anything but the defensive. Thus, the Allied offensive had broken his +offensive. + +Now he began drawing away his divisions from the Verdun sector, bringing +guns to answer the British and French fire and men whose prodigal use +alone could enforce his determination to maintain _morale_ and prevent +any further bold strokes such as that of July 15th. + +His sausage balloons began to reappear in the sky as the summer wore on; +he increased the number of his aeroplanes; more of his five-point-nine +howitzers were sending their compliments; he stretched out his shell +fire over communication trenches and strong points; mustered great +quantities of lachrymatory shells and for the first time used gas shells +with a generosity which spoke his faith in their efficacy. The +lachrymatory shell makes your eyes smart, and the Germans apparently +considered this a great auxiliary to high explosives and shrapnel. Was +it because of the success of the first gas attack at Ypres that they now +placed such reliance in gas shells? The shell when it lands seems a +"dud," which is a shell that has failed to explode; then it blows out a +volume of gas. + +"If one hit right under your nose," said a soldier, "and you hadn't your +gas mask on, it might kill you. But when you see one fall you don't run +to get a sniff in order to accommodate the Boche by asphyxiating +yourself." + +Another soldier suggested that the Germans had a big supply on hand and +were working off the stock for want of other kinds. The British who by +this time were settled in the offensive joked about the deluge of gas +shells with a gallant, amazing humor. Going up to the Ridge was going to +their regular duty. They did not shirk it or hail it with delight. They +simply went, that was all, when it was a battalion's turn to go. + +July heat became August heat as the grinding proceeded. The gunners +worked in their shirts or stripped to the waist. Sweat streaks mapped +the faces of the men who came out of the trenches. Stifling clouds of +dust hung over the roads, with the trucks phantom-like as they emerged +from the gritty mist and their drivers' eyes peered out of masks of +gray which clung to their faces. A fall of rain came as a blessing to +Briton and German alike. German prisoners worn with exhaustion had +complexions the tint of their uniforms. If the British seemed weary +sometimes, one had only to see the prisoners to realize that the +defensive was suffering more than the offensive. The fatigue of some of +the men was of the kind that one week's sleep or a month's rest will not +cure; something fixed in their beings. + +It was a new kind of fighting for the Germans. They smarted under it, +they who had been used to the upper hand. In the early stages of the war +their artillery had covered their well-ordered charges; they had been +killing the enemy with gunfire. Now the Allies were returning the +compliment; the shoe was on the other foot. A striking change, indeed, +from "On to Paris!" the old battle-cry of leaders who had now come to +urge these men to the utmost of endurance and sacrifice by telling them +that if they did not hold against the relentless hammering of British +and French guns what had been done to French villages would be done to +their own. + +Prisoners spoke of peace as having been promised as close at hand by +their officers. In July the date had been set as Sept. 1st. Later, it +was set as Nov. 1st. The German was as a swimmer trying to reach shore, +in this case peace, with the assurance of those who urged him on that a +few more strokes would bring him there. Thus have armies been urged on +for years. + +Those fighting did not have, as had the prisoners, their eyes opened to +the vast preparations behind the British lines to carry on the +offensive. Mostly the prisoners were amiable, peculiarly unlike the +proud men taken in the early days of the war when confidence in their +"system" as infallible was at its height. Yet there were exceptions. I +saw an officer marching at the head of the survivors of his battalion +along the road from Montauban one day with his head up, a cigar stuck in +the corner of his mouth at an aggressive angle, his unshaven chin and +dusty clothes heightening his attitude of "You go to ----, you English!" + +The hatred of the British was a strengthening factor in the defense. +Should they, the Prussians, be beaten by New Army men? No! Die first! +said Prussian officers. The German staff might be as good as ever, but +among the mixed troops--the old and the young, the hollow-chested and +the square-shouldered, mouth-breathers with spectacles and bent fathers +of families, vigorous boys in their late 'teens with the down still on +their cheeks and hardened veterans survivors of many battles east and +west--they were reverting appreciably to natural human tendencies +despite the iron discipline. + +It was Skobeloff, if I recollect rightly, who said that out of every +hundred men twenty were natural fighters, sixty were average men who +would fight under impulse or when well led, and twenty were timid; and +armies were organized on the basis of the sixty average to make them +into a whole of even efficiency in action. The German staff had supplied +supreme finesse to this end. They had an army that was a machine; yet +its units were flesh and blood and the pounding of shell fire and the +dogged fighting on the Ridge must have an effect. + +It became apparent through those two months of piecemeal advance that +the sixty average men were not as good as they had been. The twenty +"funk-sticks," in army phrase, were given to yielding themselves if they +were without an officer, but the twenty natural fighters--well, human +psychology does not change. They were the type that made the +professional armies of other days, the brigands, too, and also those of +every class of society to whom patriotic duty had become an exaltation +approaching fanaticism. More fighting made them fight harder. + +Such became members of the machine gun corps, which took an oath never +to surrender, and led bombing parties and posted themselves in +shell-craters to face the charges while shells fell thick around them, +or remained up in the trench taking their chances against curtains of +fire that covered an infantry charge, in the hope of being able to turn +on their own bullet spray for a moment before being killed. Sometimes +their dead bodies were found strapped to their guns, more often probably +by their own request, as an insurance against deserting their posts, +than by command. + +Shell fire was the theatricalism of the struggle, the roar of guns its +thunder; but night or day the sound of the staccato of that little arch +devil of killing, the machine gun, coming from the Ridge seemed as true +an expression of what was always going on there as a rattlesnake's +rattle is of its character. Delville and High Woods and Guillemont and +Longueval and the Switch Trench--these are symbolic names of that +attrition, of the heroism of British persistence which would not take No +for answer. + +You might think that you had seen ruins until you saw those of +Guillemont after it was taken. They were the granulation of bricks and +mortar and earth mixed by the blasts of shell fire which crushed solids +into dust and splintered splinters. Guillemont lay beyond Trones Wood +across an open space where the German guns had full play. There was a +stone quarry on the outskirts, and a quarry no less than a farm like +Waterlot, which was to the northward, and Falfemont, to the southward +and flanking the village, formed shelter. It was not much of a quarry, +but it was a hole which would be refuge for reserves and machine guns. +The two farms, clear targets for British guns, had their deep dugouts +whose roofs were reinforced by the ruins that fell upon them against +penetration even by shells of large caliber. How the Germans fought to +keep Falfemont! Once they sent out a charge with the bayonet to meet a +British charge between walls of shell fire and there through the mist +the steel was seen flashing and vague figures wrestling. + +Guillemont and the farms won and Ginchy which lay beyond won and the +British had their flank on high ground. Twice they were in Guillemont +but could not remain, though as usual they kept some of their gains. It +was a battle from dugout to dugout, from shelter to shelter of any kind +burrowed in debris or in fields, with the British never ceasing here or +elsewhere to continue their pressure. And the debris of a village had +particular appeal; it yielded to the spade; its piles gave natural +cover. + +A British soldier returning from one of the attacks as he hobbled +through Trones Wood expressed to me the essential generalship of the +battle. He was outwardly as unemotional as if he were coming home from +his day's work, respectful and good-humored, though he had a hole in +both arms from machine gun fire, a shrapnel wound in the heel, and +seemed a trifle resentful of the added tribute of another shrapnel wound +in his shoulder after he had left the firing-line and was on his way to +the casualty clearing station. Insisting that he could lift the +cigarette I offered him to his lips and light it, too, he said: + +"We've only to keep at them, sir. They'll go." + +So the British kept at them and so did the French at every point. Was +Delville Wood worse than High Wood? This is too nice a distinction in +torments to be drawn. Possess either of them completely and command of +the Ridge in that section was won. The edge of a wood on the side away +from your enemy was the easiest part to hold. It is difficult to range +artillery on it because of restricted vision, and the enemy's shells +aimed at it strike the trees and burst prematurely among his own men. +Other easy, relatively easy, places to hold are the dead spaces of +gullies and ravines. There you were out of fire and there you were not; +there you could hold and there you could not. Machine gun fire and shell +fire were the arbiters of topography more dependable than maps. + +Why all the trees were not cut down by the continual bombardments of +both sides was past understanding. There was one lone tree on the +skyline near Longueval which I had watched for weeks. It still had a +limb, yes, the luxury of a limb, the last time that I saw it, pointing +with a kind of defiance in its immunity. Of course it had been struck +many times. Bits of steel were imbedded in its trunk; but only a direct +hit on the trunk will bring down a tree. Trees may be slashed and +whittled and nicked and gashed and still stand; and when villages have +been pulverized except for the timbering of the houses, a scarred shade +tree will remain. + +Thus, trees in Delville Wood survived, naked sticks among fallen and +splintered trunks and upturned roots. How any man could have survived +was the puzzling thing. None could if he had remained there continuously +and exposed himself; but man is the most cunning of animals. With gas +mask and eye-protectors ready, steel helmet on his head and his faithful +spade to make himself a new hole whenever he moved, he managed the +incredible in self-protection. Earth piled back of a tree-trunk would +stop bullets and protect his body from shrapnel. There he lay and there +a German lay opposite him, except when attacks were being made. + +Not getting the northern edge of the woods the British began sapping out +in trenches to the east toward Ginchy, where the map contours showed the +highest ground in that neighborhood. New lines of trenches kept +appearing on the map, often with group names such as Coffee Alley, Tea +Lane and Beer Street, perhaps. Out in the open along the irregular +plateau the shells were no more kindly, the bombing and the sapping no +less diligent all the way to the windmill, where the Australians were +playing the same kind of a game. With the actual summit gained at +certain points, these had to be held pending the taking of the whole, or +of enough to permit a wave of men to move forward in a general attack +without its line being broken by the resistance of strong points, which +meant confusion. + +Before any charge the machine guns must be "killed." No initiative of +pioneer or Indian scout surpassed that exhibited in conquering machine +gun positions. When a big game hunter tells you about having stalked +tigers, ask him if he has ever stalked a machine gun to its lair. + +As for the nature of the lair, here is one where a Briton "dug himself +in" to be ready to repulse any counter-attack to recover ground that the +British had just won. Some layers of sandbags are sunk level with the +earth with an excavation back of them large enough for a machine gun +standard and to give the barrel swing and for the gunner, who back of +this had dug himself a well four or five feet deep of sufficient +diameter to enable him to huddle at the bottom in "stormy weather." He +was general and army, too, of his little establishment. In the midst of +shells and trench mortars, with bullets whizzing around his head, he had +to keep a cool aim and make every pellet which he poured out of his gun +muzzle count against the wave of men coming toward him who were at his +mercy if he could remain alive for a few minutes and keep his head. + +He must not reveal his position before his opportunity came. All around +where this Briton had held the fort there were shell-craters like the +dots of close shooting around a bull's-eye; no tell-tale blood spots +this time, but a pile of two or three hundred cartridge cases lying +where they had fallen as they were emptied of their cones of lead. Luck +was with the occupant, but not with another man playing the same game +not far away. Broken bits of gun and fragments of cloth mixed with earth +explained the fate of a German machine gunner who had emplaced his piece +in the same manner. + +Before a charge, crawl up at night from shell-crater to shell-crater and +locate the enemy's machine guns. Then, if your own guns and the trench +mortars do not get them, go stalking with supplies of bombs and remember +to throw yours before the machine gunner, who also has a stock for such +emergencies, throws his. When a machine gun begins rattling into a +company front in a charge the men drop for cover, while officers +consider how to draw the devil's tusks. Arnold von Winkelried, who +gathered the spears to his breast to make a path for his comrades, won +his glory because the fighting forces were small in his day. But with +such enormous forces as are now engaged and with heroism so common, we +make only an incident of the officer who went out to silence a machine +gun and was found lying dead across the gun with the gunner dead beside +him. + +Those whose business it was to observe, the six correspondents, +Robinson, Thomas, Gibbs, Philips, Russell and myself, went and came +always with a sense of incapacity and sometimes with a feeling that +writing was a worthless business when others were fighting. The line of +advance on the big map at our quarters extended as the brief army +reports were read into the squares every morning by the key of figures +and numerals with a detail that included every little trench, every +copse, every landmark, and then we chose where we would go that day. At +corps headquarters there were maps with still more details and officers +would explain the previous day's work to us. Every wood and village, +every viewpoint, we knew, and every casualty clearing station and +prisoners' inclosure. At battalion camps within sight of the Ridge and +within range of the guns, where their blankets helped to make shelter +from the sun, you might talk with the men out of the fight and lunch and +chat with the officers who awaited the word to go in again or perhaps to +hear that their tour was over and they could go to rest in Ypres sector, +which had become relatively quiet. + +They had their letters and packages from home before they slept and had +written letters in return after waking; and there was nothing to do now +except to relax and breathe, to renew the vitality that had been +expended in the fierce work where shells were still threshing the earth, +which rose in clouds of dust to settle back again in enduring passive +resistance. + +There was much talk early in the war about British cheerfulness; so much +that officers and men began to resent it as expressing the idea that +they took such a war as this as a kind of holiday, when it was the last +thing outside of Hades that any sane man would choose. It was a question +in my own mind at times if Hades would not have been a pleasant change. +Yet the characterization is true, peculiarly true, even in the midst of +the fighting on the Ridge. Cheerfulness takes the place of emotionalism +as the armor against hardship and death; a good-humored balance between +exhilaration and depression which meets smile with smile and creates an +atmosphere superior to all vicissitudes. Why should we be downhearted? +Why, indeed, when it does no good. Not "Merrie England!" War is not a +merry business; but an Englishman may be cheerful for the sake of self +and comrades. + +Of course, these battalions, officers and men, would talk about when the +war would be over. Even the Esquimaux must have an opinion on the +subject by this time. That of the men who make the war, whose lives are +the lives risked, was worth more, perhaps, than that of people living +thousands of miles away; for it is they who are doing the fighting, who +will stop fighting. To them it would be over when it was won. The time +this would require varied with different men--one year, two years; and +again they would turn satirical and argue whether the sixth or the +seventh year would be the worst. And they talked shop about the latest +wrinkles in fighting; how best to avoid having men buried by +shell-bursts; the value of gas and lachrymatory shells; the ratio of +high explosives to shrapnel; methods of "cleaning out" dugouts or "doing +in" machine guns, all in a routine that had become an accepted part of +life like the details of the stock carried and methods of selling in a +department store. + +Indelible the memories of these talks, which often brought out +illustrations of racial temperament. One company was more horrified over +having found a German tied to a trench _parados_ to be killed by +British shell fire as a field punishment than by the horrors of other +men equally mashed and torn, or at having crawled over the moist bodies +of the dead, or slept among them, or been covered with spatters of blood +and flesh--for that incident struck home with a sense of brutal +militarism which was the thing in their minds against which they were +fighting. + +With steel helmets on and gas masks over our shoulders, we would leave +our car at the dead line and set off to "see something," when now the +fighting was all hidden in the folds of the ground, or in the woods, or +lost on the horizon where the front line of either of these two great +armies, with their immense concentration of men and material and roads +gorged with transport and thousands of belching guns, was held by a few +men with machine guns in shell-craters, their positions sometimes +interwoven. Old hands in the Somme battle become shell-wise. They are +the ones whom the French call "varnished," which is a way of saying that +projectiles glance off their anatomy. They keep away from points where +the enemy will direct his fire as a matter of habit or scientific +gunnery, and always recollect that the German has not enough shells to +sow them broadcast over the whole battle area. + +It is not an uncommon thing for one to feel quite safe within a couple +of hundred yards of an artillery concentration. That corner of a +village, that edge of a shattered grove, that turn in the highway, that +sunken road--keep away from them! Any kind of trench for shrapnel; lie +down flat unless a satisfactory dugout is near for protection from high +explosives which burst in the earth. If you are at the front and a +curtain of fire is put behind you, wait until it is over or go around +it. If there is one ahead, wait until another day--provided that you are +a spectator. Always bear in mind how unimportant you are, how small a +figure on the great field, and that if every shell fired had killed one +soldier there would not be an able-bodied man in uniform left alive on +the continent of Europe. By observing these simple rules you may see a +surprising amount with a chance of surviving. + +One day I wanted to go into the old German dugouts under a formless pile +of ruins which a British colonel had made his battalion headquarters; +but I did not want to go enough to persist when I understood the +situation. Formerly, my idea of a good dugout--and I always like to be +within striking distance of one--was a cave twenty feet deep with a roof +of four or five layers of granite, rubble and timber; but now I feel +more safe if the fragments of a town hall are piled on top of this. + +The Germans were putting a shell every minute with clockwork regularity +into the colonel's "happy home" and at intervals four shells in a salvo. +You had to make a run for it between the shells, and if you did not know +the exact location of the dugout you might have been hunting for it some +time. Runners bearing messages took their chances both going and coming +and two men were hit. The colonel was quite safe twenty feet underground +with the matting of debris including that of a fallen chimney overhead, +but he was a most unpopular host. The next day he moved his headquarters +and not having been considerate enough to inform the Germans of the fact +they kept on methodically pounding the roof of the untenanted premises. + +After every battlefield "promenade" I was glad to step into the car +waiting at the "dead line," where the chauffeurs frequently had had +harder luck in being shelled than we had farther forward. Yet I know of +no worse place to be in than a car when you hear the first growing +scream which indicates that yours is the neighborhood selected by a +German battery or two for expending some of its ammunition. When you are +in danger you like to be on your feet and to possess every one of your +faculties. I used to put cotton in my ears when I walked through the +area of the gun positions as some protection to the eardrums from the +blasts, but always took it out once I was beyond the big calibers, as +an acute hearing after some experience gave you instant warning of any +"krump" or five-point-nine coming in your direction, advising you which +way to dodge and also saving you from unnecessarily running for a dugout +if the shell were passing well overhead or short. + +I was glad, too, when the car left the field quite behind and was over +the hills in peaceful country. But one never knew. Fifteen miles from +the front line was not always safe. Once when a sudden outburst of +fifteen-inch naval shells sent the people of a town to cover and +scattered fragments over the square, one cut open the back of the +chauffeur's head just as we were getting into our car. + +"Are you going out to be strafed at?" became an inquiry in the mess on +the order of "Are you going to take an afternoon off for golf to-day?" +The only time I felt that I could claim any advantage in phlegm over my +comrades was when I slept through two hours of aerial bombing with +anti-aircraft guns busy in the neighborhood, which, as I explained, was +no more remarkable than sleeping in a hotel at home with flat-wheeled +surface cars and motor horns screeching under your window. A subway +employee or a traffic policeman in New York ought never to suffer from +shell-shock if he goes to war. + +The account of personal risk which in other wars might make a magazine +article or a book chapter, once you sat down to write it, melted away as +your ego was reduced to its proper place in cosmos. Individuals had +never been so obscurely atomic. With hundreds of thousands fighting, +personal experience was valuable only as it expressed that of the whole. +Each story brought back to the mess was much like others, thrilling for +the narrator and repetition for the polite listener, except it was some +officer fresh from the communication trench who brought news of what was +going on in that day's work. + +Thus, the battle had become static; its incidents of a kind like the +product of some mighty mill. The public, falsely expecting that the line +would be broken, wanted symbols of victory in fronts changing on the map +and began to weary of the accounts. It was the late Charles A. Dana who +is credited with saying: "If a dog bites a man it is not news, but if a +man bites a dog it is." + +Let the men attack with hatchets and in evening dress and this would win +all the headlines in the land because people at their breakfast tables +would say: "Here is something new in the war!" Men killing men was not +news, but a battalion of trained bloodhounds sent out to bite the +Germans would have been. I used to try to hunt down some of the +"novelties" which received the favor of publication, but though they +were well known abroad the man in the trenches had heard nothing about +them. + +Bullets, shells, bayonets and bombs remained the tried and practical +methods there on the Ridge with its overpowering drama, any act of which +almost any day was greater than Spionkop or Magersfontein which thrilled +a world that was not then war-stale; and ever its supreme feature was +that determination which was like a kind of fate in its progress of +chipping, chipping at a stone foundation that must yield. + +The Ridge seeped in one's very existence. You could see it as clearly in +imagination as in reality, with its horizon under shell-bursts and the +slope with its maze of burrows and its battered trenches. Into those +calm army reports association could read many indications: the telling +fact that the German losses in being pressed off the Ridge were as great +if not greater than the British, their sufferings worse under a heavier +deluge of shell fire, the increased skill of the offensive and the +failure of German counter-attacks after each advance. + +No one doubted that the Ridge would be taken and taken it was, or all of +it that was needed for the drive that was to clean up any outstanding +points, with its sweep down into the valley. A victory this, not to be +measured by territory; for in one day's rush more ground was gained +than in two months of siege. A victory of position, of will, of +_morale_! Sharpening its steel and wits on enemy steel and wits in every +kind of fighting, the New Army had proved itself in the supreme test of +all qualities. + + + + +XVIII + +A TRULY FRENCH AFFAIR + + A French lieutenant arm-in-arm with two privates--A luncheon at the + front--French regimental officers--Three and four stripes on the + sleeves for the number of wounds--Over the parapet twenty-three + times--Comradeship of soldiers--Monsieur Elan again--Baby + _soixante-quinze_--An incident truly French. + + +This was another French day, an ultra French day, with Monsieur Elan +playfully inciting human nature to make holiday in the sight of bursting +shells. There had been many other luncheons with generals and staffs in +their chateaux which were delightful and illuminating occasions, but +this had a distinction of its own not only in its companionship but in +its surroundings. + +_Mon lieutenant_ who invited me warned me to eat a light breakfast in +order to leave room for adequate material appreciation of the +hospitality of his own battalion, in which he had fought in the ranks +earning promotion and his _croix de guerre_ in a way that was more +gratifying to him than the possession of a fortune, chateaux and +high-powered cars. I have seen him in the streets of our town "hiking" +along with the French marching step arm-in-arm with two French +privates, though he was an officer. He introduced them as from "my +battalion!" with as much pride as if they were Generals Joffre and +Castelnau. + +What a setting for a "swell repast," as he jokingly called it! A table +made of boxes with boxes for seats and plates of tin, under apple trees +looking down into a valley where the transport and blue-clad regiments +were winding their way past the eddies of men of the battalion in a rest +camp, with the _soixante-quinze_ firing from the slopes beyond at +intervals and a German battery trying to reach a British sausage balloon +hanging lazily in the still air against the blue sky and never getting +it. A flurry of figures after some "krumps" had burst at another point +meant that some men had been killed and wounded. + +As the colonel and the second in command were not present there was no +restraint of seniority on the festivity, though I think that seniority +knowing what was going on might have felt lonely in its isolation. We +had many courses, soup, fish, entree and roast, salad and cheese which +was cheese in a land where they eat cheese, and luscious grapes and +pears; everything that the market afforded served in sight of the front +line. Why not? France thinks that nothing is too good for her fighters. +If ever man ought to have the best it is when to-morrow he returns to +the firing-line and hard rations--when to-morrow he may die for France. + +The senior captain presided. He was a man of other wars, burned by the +suns of Morocco, with a military moustache that gave effect to his +spirited manner. When my friend, the lieutenant, joined the regiment as +a private he was smooth-shaven and his colonel asked him whether he was +a priest or a bookmaker, or meant to be a soldier. Next morning he +allowed nature to have her way on his upper lip, the colonel's hint +being law in all things to those who served under him. + +Every officer had his _croix de guerre_ in this colonial battalion with +its ranks open to all comers of all degrees and promotion for those who +could earn it in face of the machine guns where the New Army privates +were earning theirs. One officer with the chest of Hercules, who looked +equal to the fiercest Prussian or the tallest Pomeranian and at least +one additional small Teuton for good measure, mentioned that he had been +in Peking. I asked him if he knew some officer friends of mine who had +been there at the same time. He replied that he had been a private then, +and he liked the American Y.M.C.A. + +His breast was a panoply of medals. Among them was the Legion of Honor, +while his _croix de guerre_ had all the stars, bronze, silver and gold, +and two palms, as I remember, which meant that twice some deed of his +out in the inferno had won official mention for him all the way up from +the battalion through brigade, division and corps to the supreme +command. The American Y.M.C.A. in Peking ought to be proud of his good +opinion. + +The architect, tall, well built, smiling and fair-haired, with an +intellectual face, sat opposite the little dealer in precious stones who +had traveled the world around in his occupation. There was an artist, +too, who held an argument with the architect on art which _mon +capitaine_ considered meretricious and hair-splitting, his conviction +being that they were only airing a wordy pretentiousness and really knew +little more of what they were talking about than he. In politics we had +a Republican, a Socialist and a Royalist, who also were babbling without +capturing any dugouts, according to _mon capitaine_ who was simply a +soldier. It was clear that the Socialist and the Royalist were both +popular, as well as my friend, though he had been promoted to the staff. + +Another present was the "Admiral," a naval officer, commanding the +monstrous guns of twelve to seventeen inches mounted on railway trucks, +who wrote sonnets between directing two-thousand-pound projectiles on +their errands of mashing German dugouts. He did not like gunnery where +he did not see his target naval fashion, but he had done so well that +he was kept at it. His latest sonnet was to an abstract girl somewhere +in France which the Socialist, who was a man of critical judgment in +everything and of a rollicking disposition, praised very highly and read +aloud with the elocution of a Coquelin. + +While others had as many as three and four gold stripes on their sleeves +to indicate the number of their wounds, the Socialist had been over the +parapet twenty-three times in charges without being hit, which he took +as a sure sign that his was the right kind of politics, the Royalist and +the Republican disagreeing and _mon capitaine_ saying that politics were +a mere matter of taste and being wounded a matter of luck. Thereupon, +the Socialist undertook a brief oration rich with humor, relieving it of +too much of the seriousness of the tribune in the Chamber of Deputies, +where he will probably thunder out his periods one of these days if he +contrives to keep on going over the parapet without being hit. + +A man was what he was as a man and nothing more in that distinguished +company which had gained its distinction by extinguishing Germans. +Comradeship made all differences of opinion, birth and wealth only the +excuse for banter in this variation of type from the tall architect with +his charming manner to the matter-of-fact expert in diamonds and opals, +from the big private of colonial regulars who had won his shoulder +straps to the fellow with the blue blood of aristocratic France in his +veins. The architect I particularly remember, for he was killed in the +next charge, and the dealer in precious stones, for a shell-burst in the +face would never allow his eyes to see the flash of a diamond again. + +But let youth eat, drink and be merry in the shadow of the fortunes of +war which might claim some of them to-morrow, making vacancies for +promotion of privates down in the camp. Where Cheeriness was the +handmaiden of _morale_ with the British, Monsieur Elan was with the +French. Everybody talked not only with his lips but with his hands and +shoulders, in that absence of self-consciousness which gives grace to +free expression. They spoke of their homes at one juncture with a sober +and lingering desire and a catch in the throat and they touched on the +problems after the war, which they would win or fight on forever, +concluding that the men from the trenches who would have the say would +make a new and better France and sweep aside any interference with the +march of their numbers and patriotism. + +We ate until capacity was reached and loitered over the black coffee, +with the private who had produced all the courses out of the dugout with +the magic of the rabbit out of a hat sharing in the conversation at +times without breaking the bonds of discipline. Finally, the cook was +brought forth, too, to receive his meed of praise as the real magician. +Then we went to pay our respects to the colonel and the second in +command. A sturdy little man the colonel, a regular from his neat +fatigue cap to the soles of his polished boots, but with a human twinkle +through his eyeglasses reflecting much wisdom in the handling of men of +all kinds, which, no doubt, was why he was in command of this battalion. + +Afterward, we visited the men lounging in their quarters or forming a +smiling group, each one ready with quick responses when spoken to, men +of all kinds from Apaches of Paris to the sons of princes, perhaps, +while the Washington Post March was played for the American. Later, +across the road we saw the then new baby _soixante-quinze_ guns for +trench work, which were being wheeled about with a merry appreciation of +the fact that a battery of father _soixante-quinze_ was passing by at +the time. + +Finally, came an incident truly French and delightful in its boyishness, +as _mon capitaine_ hinted that I should ask _mon colonel_ if he would +permit _mon capitaine_ to go into town and have dinner with my friend +and the admiral and myself, returning in my friend's car in time to +proceed to the firing-line with the battalion to-morrow. Accordingly I +spoke to the colonel and the twinkle of his eye as he gave consent +indicated, perhaps, that he knew who had put me up to it. _Mon +capitaine_ had his dinner and a good one, too, and was back at dawn +ready for battle. + +It is not that France has changed; only that some people who ought to +have known better have changed their opinions formed about her after '70 +when, in the company of other foreigners, they went to see the sights of +Paris. + + + + +XIX + +ON THE AERIAL FERRY + + The "Ferry-Pilot's" office--Everybody is young in the Royal Flying + Corps--Any kind of aeroplane to choose from--A flying machine new + from the factory--"A good old 'bus"--Twenty planes a day from England + to France--England seen from the clouds--An aerial + guide-post--Stopping places--The channel from 4,000 feet aloft--Out + of sight in the clouds midway between England and France--Tobogganing + from the clouds--France from the air--A good flight. + + +Personal experience now intrudes in answer to the question whence come +all the aeroplanes that take the place of those lost or worn out, which +was made clear when I was in London for a few days' change from the +fighting on the Ridge through a request to a general at the War Office +for permission to fly back to the front. + +"Why not?" he said. "When are you going?" + +"Monday." + +He called up another general on the telephone and in a few words the +arrangements were made. + +"And my baggage?" I suggested. + +"How much of it?" + +"A suit case." + +"The machine ought to manage that considering that it carries one +hundred and fifty pounds in bombs." + +On Monday morning at the appointed hour I was walking past a soldierly +line of planes flanking an aerodrome field scattered with others that +had just alighted or were about to rise and inquiring my way to the +"Ferry-Pilot's" office. I found it, identified by a white-lettered sign +on a blackboard, down the main street of temporary buildings occupied by +the aviators as quarters. + +"Yes, all right," said the young officer sitting at the desk, "but we +are making no crossings this morning. There is a storm over the +channel." + +Weather forecasts, which had long ago disappeared from the English +newspapers lest they give information to Zeppelins, had become the +privilege of those who travel by air or repulsed aerial raids. + +"It may clear up this afternoon," he added. "Why not go up to the mess +and make yourself comfortable, and return about three? Perhaps you may +go then." + +At three I was back in his office, where five or six young aviators were +waiting for their orders as jockeys might wait their turn to take out +horses. Everybody is young in the Royal Flying Corps and everybody +thinks and talks in the terms of youth. + +"You can push off at once!" said the officer at the desk. + +Of course I must have a pass, which was a duplicate in mimeograph with +my name as passenger in place of "machine gunner;" or, to put it another +way, I was one joy-rider who must be officially delivered from an +aerodrome in England to an aerodrome in France. Youth laughed when I +took that view. Had I ever flown before? Oh, yes, a fact that put the +situation still more at ease. + +"What kind of a 'bus would you like?" asked the master pilot. "We have +all kinds going over to-day. Take your choice." + +I went out into the field to choose my steed and decided upon a big +"pusher," where both aviator and passenger sit forward with the +propeller and the roar of the motor behind them. She had been flown down +across England from the factory the day before and, tried out, was ready +for the channel passage. + +"You'll take her over," said the master pilot to one of the group +waiting their turn. + +Then it occurred to somebody that another official detail had been +overlooked, and I had to give my name and address and next of kin to +complete formalities which should impress novices, while youth looked on +smilingly at forty-three which was wise if not reckless. They put me in +an aviator's rig with the addition of a life-belt in case we should get +a ducking in the channel and I climbed up into my position for the long +run, a roomy place in the semi-circular bow of the beast which was +ordinarily occupied by a machine gun and gunner. + +"She's a good old 'bus, very steady. You'll like her," said one of the +group of youngsters looking on. + +There were no straps, these being quite unnecessary, but also there was +no seat. + +"What is _a la mode_?" I asked. + +"Stand up if you like!" + +"Or sit on the edge and let your feet hang over!" + +We were all laughing, for the aviation corps is never gloomy. It rises +and alights and fights and dies smilingly. + +"I like your hospitality, but not having been trained to trapeze work +I'll play the Turk," I replied, squatting with legs crossed; and in this +position I was able to look over the railing right and left and forward. +The world was mine. + +Flight being no new thing in the year 1916, I shall not indulge in any +rhetoric. The pertinence of the experience was entirely in the fact that +I was taking the aerial ferry which sent twenty planes a day to France +on an average and perhaps fifty when the weather had held up traffic the +previous day. I was to buffet the clouds instead of the waves on a +crowded steamer and have a glimpse behind the curtains of military +secrecy of the wonders of resource and organization, which are a +commonplace to the wonder-workers themselves. + +It was to be a straight, business flight, a matter of routine, a flight +without any loitering on the way or covering unnecessary distance to +reach the destination. There would be risks enough for the plane when it +crossed into the enemy's area with its machine gun in position. The +gleam of two lines of steel of a railroad set our course. After we had +risen to a height of three or four thousand feet an occasional dash of +rain whipped your face, and again the soft mist of a cloud. + +It was real English weather, overcast; and England plotted under your +eye, a vast garden with its hedges, fields and quiet villages, had never +been so fully realized in its rich greens. We overtook trains going in +our direction and passed trains going in the opposite direction under +their trailing spouts of steam. Only an occasional encampment of tents +suggested that the land was at war. The soft light melted the different +tones of the landscape together in a dreamy whole and always the +impression was of a land loved for its hedges, its pastures and its +island seclusion, loved as a garden. In order to hold it secure this +plane was flying and the great army in France was fighting. + +After forty minutes of the exhilaration of flight which never grows +stale, the pilot thumped one of the wings which gave out the sound of a +drumhead to attract my attention and indicated an immense white arrow on +a pasture pointing toward the bank of mist that hid the channel. This +was the guide-post of the aerial ferry. He wheeled around it in order to +give me a better view, which was his only departure from routine before, +on the line of the arrow's pointing, he took his course, leaving the +railroad behind, while ahead the green carpet seemed to end in a +vaporish horizon. + +Usually as they rose for the channel crossing pilots ascended to a +height of ten thousand feet, in order that they should have range in +case of engine trouble for a long glide which might permit them to reach +shore, or, if they must alight in the sea, to descend close to a vessel. +In both England and France along the established aerial pathway are +certain way stations fit to give rubber tires a soft welcome, with +gasoline in store if a fresh supply is required. It was the pride of my +pilot, who had formerly been in the navy and had come from South Africa +to "do his bit," that in twenty crossings he had never had to make a +stop. To-day the clouds kept us down to an altitude of only four +thousand feet. + +Hills and valleys do not exist, all landscape being flat to the +aviator's eye, as we know; but against reason some mental kink made me +feel that this optical law should not apply to the chalk cliffs when we +came to the coast, where only the green sward which crowns them was +visible and beyond this a line of gray, the beach, which had an edge of +white lace that was moving--the surf. + +Soldiers who were returning from leave in the regular way were having a +jumpy passage, as one knew by the whitecaps that looked like tiny white +flowers on a pewter cloth; only if you looked steadily at one it +disappeared and others appeared in its place. Otherwise, the channel in +a heavy sea was as still as a painted ocean with painted ships which, +however fast they were moving, were making no headway to us traveling as +smoothly in our 'bus as a motor boat on a glassy lake. + +I looked at my watch as we crossed the lace edging on the English side +and again as we crossed it on the French side. The time elapsed was +seventeen and a half minutes, which is not rapid going, even for the +broader part of the channel which we chose. The fastest plane, I am +told, has made it at the narrowest point in eight and a half minutes. +Not going as high as usual, the pilot did not speed his motor, as the +lower the altitude the more uncomfortable might be the result of engine +trouble to his passenger. + +Now, however, we were rising midway of the crossing into the gray bank +overhead; one second the channel floor was there and the next it was +not. Underneath us was mist and ahead and behind and above us only mist, +soft and cool against the face. We were wholly out of sight of land and +water, above the clouds, detached from earth, lost in the sky between +England and France. + +This was the great moment to me. I was away from the sound of the guns; +from the headlines of newspapers announcing the latest official +bulletins; from prisoners' camps and casualty clearing stations; from +dugouts and trenches and the Ridge. Here was real peace, the peace of +the infinite--and no one could ask you when you thought the war would be +over. You were nobody, yet again you were the whole population of the +world, you and the aviator and the plane, perfectly helpless in one +sense and in another gloriously secure. Even he seemed a part of the +machine carrying you swiftly on, without any sense of speed except the +driving freshness of the air in your face. I felt that I should not mind +going on forever. Time was unlimited. There was only space and the +humming of the motor and the faintly gleaming circle of light of the +propeller and those two rigid wings with their tracery of braces. + +We were not long out of sight of land and water, but long enough to make +one wish to fly over the channel again, the next time at ten thousand +feet, when it was a gleaming swath hidden at times by patches of +luminous nimbus. + +The engine stopped. There was the silence of the clouds, cushioned +silence, cushioned by the mist. Next, we were on a noiseless toboggan +and when we came to the end of a glide of a thousand feet or more, +France loomed ahead with its lacework of surf and an expanse of chalk +cliffs at an angle and landscape rising out of the haze. A few minutes +more and the salt thread that kept Napoleon out of England and has kept +Germany out of England was behind us. We were over the Continent of +Europe. + +I had never before understood the character of both England and France +so well. England was many little gardens correlated by roads and lanes; +France was one great garden. Majestic in their suggestion of +spaciousness were those broad stretches of hedgeless, fenceless fields, +their crop lines sharply drawn as are all lines from a plane, fields +between the plots of woodland and the villages and towns, revealing a +land where all the soil is tilled. + +Soon we were over camps that I knew and long, straight highways that I +had often traveled in my comings and goings. But how empty seemed the +roads where you were always passing motor trucks and guns! Long, gray +streaks with occasional specks which, as you rose to a greater height, +were lost like scattered beads melting into a ribbon! Reserve trenches +that I had known, too, were white tracings on a flat surface in their +standard contour of traverses. There was the chateau where I had lived +for months. Yes, I could identify that, and there the town where we went +to market. + +We flew around the tower of a cathedral low enough to see the people +moving in the streets, and then, in a final long glide, after an hour +and fifty minutes in the air, the rubber wheels touched earth, rose and +touched it again before the steady old 'bus slowed down not far from +another plane that had arrived only a few minutes previously. When a day +of good weather follows a day of bad and the arrivals are frequent, +planes are flopping about this aerodrome like so many penguins before +they are marshaled by the busy attendants in line along the edge of the +field or under the shelter of hangars. + +We had had none of those thrilling experiences which are supposed to +happen to aerial joy-riders, but had made a perfectly safe, normal trip, +which, I repeat, was the real point of this wonderful business of the +aerial ferry. I went into the office and officially reported my arrival +at the same time that the pilot reported delivery of his plane. + +"Good-night," he said. "I'm off to catch the steamer to bring over +another 'bus to-morrow." + +Waiting near by was my car and soldier chauffeur, who asked, in his +quiet English way, if I had had "a good flight, sir;" and soon I was +back in the atmosphere of the army as the car sped along the road, past +camps, villages and motor trucks, until in the moonlight, as we came +over a hill, the cathedral tower of Amiens appeared above the dark mass +of the town against the dim horizon. + + + + +XX + +THE EVER MIGHTY GUNS + + A thousand guns at the master's call--Schoolmaster of the guns--More + and more guns but never too many--The gunner's skill which has life + and death at stake--"Grandmother" first of the fifteen-inch + howitzers--Soldier-mechanics--War still a matter of + missiles--Improvements in gunnery--Third rail of the battlefield--The + game of guns checkmating guns--A Niagara of death--A giant tube of + steel painted in frog patches. + + +How reconcile that urbane gunner-general, a genius among experts you +were told, as the master of a thunderous magic which shot its deadly +lightnings over the German area! Let him move a red pin on the map and a +tractor was towing a nine-inch gun to a new position; a black pin and a +battery of eighteen pounders took the road. A thousand guns answered his +call with a hundred thousand shells when it pleased him. I stood in awe +of him, for chaos seemed to be doing his bidding at the end of a +pushbutton. + +Whirlwind curtains of fire and creeping and leaping curtains were his +familiar servants, and he set the latest fashion by his improvements. +Had the French or the Germans something new? This he applied. Had he +something new? He passed on the method to the French and gave the +Germans the benefit of its results. + +Observers seated in the baskets of observation balloons, aeroplanes +circling low in risk of anti-aircraft fire, men sitting in tree-tops and +others in front-line trenches spotting the fall of shells were the eyes +for the science he was working out on his map. Those nests and lines of +guns that seemed to be simply sending shells into the blue from their +hiding-places played fortissimo and pianissimo under his baton. He +correlated their efforts, gave them purpose and system in their roaring +traffic of projectiles. + +Where Sir Douglas Haig was schoolmaster of the whole, he was +schoolmaster of the guns. After the grim days of the salient, when he +worked with relics from fortresses and anything that could be improvised +against the German artillery, came the latest word in black-throated, +fiery-tongued monsters from England where the new gunners had learned +their ABC's and he and his assistants were to teach them solid geometry +and calculus and give them a toilsome experience, which was still more +useful. + +His host kept increasing as more and more guns arrived, but never too +many. There cannot be too many. Plant them as thick as trees in a forest +for a depth of six or eight miles and there would not be enough by the +criterion of the infantry, to whom the fortunes of war increasingly +related to the nature of the artillery support. He must have smiled with +the satisfaction of a farmer over a big harvest yield that filled the +granary as the stack of shells at an ammunition depot spread over the +field, and he could go among his guns with the pride of a landowner +among his flocks. He knew all the diseases that guns were heir to and +their weaknesses of temperament. A gun doctor was part of the +establishment. This specialist went among the guns and felt of their +pulses and listened to accounts of their symptoms and decided whether +they could be cared for at a field hospital or would have to go back to +the base. + +Temperament? An old eight-inch howitzer which has helped in a dozen +curtains of fire and blown in numerous dugouts may be a virtuoso for +temperament. Many things enter into mastery of the magic of the +thunders, from clear eyesight of observers who see accurately to +precision of gunner's skill, of powder, of fuse, of a hundred trifles +which can never be too meticulously watched. The erring inspector of +munitions far away oversea by an oversight may cost the lives of many +soldiers or change the fate of a charge. + +Comparable only with the surgeon's skill in the skill which has life and +death as the stake of its result is the gunner's. The surgeon is trying +to save one life which a slip of the knife may destroy; the gunner is +trying both to save and to take life. In the gunner's skill life that is +young and sturdy, muscles that are hardened by exercise and drill, +manhood in its pink, must place its trust. A little carelessness or the +slightest error and monsters with their long, fiery reach may strike you +in the back instead of the enemy in front, and instead of dead and +wounded and capitulation among smashed dugouts and machine gun positions +you may be received by showers of bombs. No wonder that gunners work +hard! No wonder that discipline is tightened by the screw of fearful +responsibility! + +At the front we had a sort of reverence for Grandmother, the first of +the fifteen-inch howitzers to arrive as the belated answer of "prepared +England" who "forced the war" on "unprepared Germany" to the famous +forty-two centimeters that pounded Liege and Maubeuge. Gently +Grandmother with her ugly mouth and short neck and mammoth supporting +ribs of steel was moved and nursed; for she, too, was temperamental. +Afterward, Grandfather came and Uncle and Cousin and Aunt and many grown +sons and daughters, until the British could have turned the city of +Lille into ruins had they chosen; but they kept their destruction for +the villages on the Somme, which represent a property loss remarkably +small, as the average village could be rebuilt for not over two hundred +thousand dollars. + +Other children of smaller caliber also arrived in surprising numbers. +Make no mistake about that nine-inch howitzer, which appears to be only +a monstrous tube of steel firing a monstrous shell, not being a +delicately adjusted piece of mechanism. The gunner, his clothes +oil-soaked, who has her breech apart pays no attention to the field of +guns around him or the burst of a shell a hundred yards away, no more +than the man with a motor breakdown pays to passing traffic. Is he a +soldier? Yes, by his uniform, but primarily a mechanic, this man from +Birmingham, who is polishing that heavy piece of steel which, when it +locks in the breech, holds the shell fast in place and allows all the +force of the explosion to pass through the muzzle, while the recoil +cylinder takes up the shock as nicely as on a battleship, with no +tremble of the base set in the debris of a village. He shakes his head, +this preoccupied mechanician. It may be necessary to call in the gun +doctor. His "how" has been in service a long time, but is not yet +showing the signs of general debility of the eight-inch battery near by. +They have fired three times their allowance and are still good for +sundry purposes in the gunner-general's play of red and black pins on +his map. The life of guns has surpassed all expectations; but the +smaller calibers forward and the _soixante-quinze_ must not suffer from +general debility when they lay on a curtain of fire to cover a charge. + +War is still a matter of projectiles, of missiles thrown by powder, +whether cannon or rifle, as it was in Napoleon's time, the change being +in range, precision and destructive power. The only new departure is the +aeroplane, for the gas attack is another form of the Chinese stink-pot +and our old mystery friend Greek fire may claim antecedence to the +_Flammenwerfer_. The tank with its machine guns applied the principle of +projectiles from guns behind armor. Steel helmets would hardly be +considered an innovation by mediaeval knights. Bombs and hand grenades +and mortars are also old forms of warfare, and close-quarter fighting +with the bayonet, as was evident to all practical observers before the +war, will endure as long as the only way to occupy a position is by the +presence of men on the spot and as long as the defenders fight to hold +it in an arena free of interference by guns which must hold their fire +in fear of injury to your own soldiers as well as to the enemy. + +With all the inventive genius of Europe applied in this war, the heat +ray or any other revolutionary means of killing which would make guns +and rifles powerless has not been developed. It is still a question of +throwing or shooting projectiles accurately at your opponent, only where +once it was javelin, or spear, or arrow, now it is a matter of shells +for anywhere from one mile to twenty miles; and the more hits that you +could make with javelins or arrows and can make with shells the more +likely it is that victory will incline to your side. Where flights of +arrows hid the sun, barrages now blanket the earth. + +The improvement in shell fire is revolutionary enough of itself. +Steadily the power of the guns has increased. What they may accomplish +is well illustrated by the account of a German battalion on the Somme. +When it was ten miles from the front a fifteen-inch shell struck in its +billets just before it was ordered forward. On the way luck was against +it at every stage of progress and it suffered in turn from nine-inch, +eight-inch and six-inch shells, not to mention bombs from an aviator +flying low, and afterward from eighteen pounders. When it reached the +trenches a preliminary bombardment was the stroke of fate that led to +the prompt capitulation of some two hundred survivors to a British +charge. The remainder of the thousand men was practically all casualties +from shell-bursts, which, granting some exaggeration in a prisoner's +tale, illustrates what killing the guns may wreak if the target is under +their projectiles. + +The gunnery of 1915 seems almost amateurish to that of 1916, a fact +hardly revealed to the public by its reading of bulletins and of such a +quantity of miscellaneous information that the significance of it +becomes obscure. At the start of the war the Germans had the advantage +of many mobile howitzers and immense stores of high explosive shells, +while the French were dependent on their _soixante-quinze_ and shrapnel; +and at this disadvantage the brilliancy of their work with this +wonderful field gun on the Marne and in Lorraine was the most important +contributory factor in saving France next to the vital one of French +courage and organization. The Allies had to follow the German suit with +howitzers and high explosive shells and the cry for more and more guns +and more and more munitions for the business of blasting your enemy and +his positions to bits became universal. + +The first barrage, or curtain of fire, ever used to my knowledge was a +feeble German effort in the Ypres salient in the autumn of 1914, though +the French drum fire distributed over a certain area had, in a sense, a +like effect. To make certain of clearness about fundamentals familiar to +those at the front but to the general public only a symbol for something +not understood, a curtain of fire is a swath of fragments and bullets +from bursting projectiles which may stop a charge or prevent reserves +from coming to the support of the front line. It is a barrier of death, +the third rail of the battlefield. From the sky shrapnel descend with +their showers of bullets, while the high explosives heave up the earth +under foot. Shrapnel largely went out of fashion in the period when high +explosives smashed in trenches and dugouts; but the answer was deeper +dugouts too stoutly roofed to permit of penetration and shrapnel +returned to play a leading part again, as we shall see in the +description of a charge under an up-to-date curtain of fire in another +chapter. + +Counter-battery work is another one of the gunner-general's cares, which +requires, as it were, the assistance of the detective branch. Before you +can fight you must find the enemy's guns in their hiding-places or take +a chance on the probable location of his batteries, which will +ordinarily seek every copse, every sunken road and every reverse slope. +The interesting captured essay on British fighting methods, by General +von Arnim, the general in command of the Germans opposite the British on +the Somme, with its minutiae of directions indicative of how seriously he +regarded the New Army, mentioned the superior means of reporting +observations to the guns used by British aeroplanes and warned German +gunners against taking what had formerly been obvious cover, because +British artillery never failed to concentrate on those spots with +disastrous results. + +Where aeroplanes easily detect lines, be they roads or a column of +infantry, as I have said, a battery in the open with guns and gunners +the tint of the landscape is not readily distinguishable at the high +altitude to which anti-aircraft gunfire restricts aviators. When a +concentration begins on a battery, either the gunners must go to their +dugouts or run beyond the range of the shells until the "strafe" is +over. If A could locate all of B's guns and had two thousand guns of his +own to keep B's two thousand silenced by counter-battery work and two +thousand additional to turn on B's infantry positions, it would be only +a matter of continued charges under cover of curtains of fire until the +survivors, under the gusts of shells with no support from their own +guns, would yield against such ghastly, hopeless odds. + +Such is the power of the guns--and such the game of guns checkmating +guns--in their effort to stop the enemy's curtains of fire while +maintaining their own that the genius who finds a divining rod which, +from a sausage balloon, will point out the position of every enemy +battery has fame awaiting him second only to that of the inventor of a +system of distilling a death-dealing heat ray from the sun. + +And the captured gun! It is a prize no less dear to the infantry's +heart to-day than it was a hundred years ago. Our battalion took a +battery! There is a thrill for every officer and man and all the friends +at home. Muzzle cracked by a direct hit, recoil cylinder broken, wheels +in kindling wood, shield fractured--there you have a trophy which is +proof of accuracy to all gunners and an everlasting memorial in the town +square to the heroism of the men of that locality. + +In the gunners' branch of the corps or division staff (which may be next +door to the telephone exchange where "Hello!" soldiers are busy all day +keeping guns, infantry, transport, staff and units, large and small, in +touch) the visitor will linger as he listens to the talk of shop by +these experts in mechanical destruction. Generic discussions about which +caliber of gun is most efficient for this and that purpose have the +floor when the result of a recent action does not furnish a fresher +topic. There are faddists and old fogies of course, as in every other +band of experts. The reports of the infantry out of its experience under +shell-bursts, which should be the gospel, may vary; for the infantry +think well of the guns when the charge goes home with casualties light +and ill when the going is bad. + +Every day charts go up to the commanders showing the expenditure of +ammunition and the stock of different calibers on hand; for the army is +a most fastidious bookkeeper. Always there must be immense reserves for +an emergency, and on the Somme a day's allowance when the battle was +only "growling" was a month's a year previous. Let the general say the +word and fifty thousand more shells will be fired on Thursday than on +Wednesday. He throws off and on the switch of a Niagara of death. The +infantry is the Oliver Twist of incessant demand. It would like a score +of batteries turned on one machine gun, all the batteries in the army +against a battalion front, and a sheet of shells in the air night and +day, as you yourself would wish if you were up in the firing-line. + +Guardians of the precious lives of their own men and destroyers of the +enemy's, the guns keep vigil. Every night the flashes on the horizon are +a reminder to those in the distance that the battle never ends. Their +voices are like none other except guns; the flash from their muzzles is +as suggestive as the spark from a dynamo, which says that death is there +for reaching out your hand. Something docile is in their might, like the +answering of the elephant's bulk to the mahout's command, in their +noiseless elevation and depression, and the bigger they are the smoother +appears their recoil as they settle back into place ready for another +shot. The valleys where the guns hide play tricks with acoustics. I +have sat on a hill with a dozen batteries firing under the brow and +their crashes were hardly audible. + +"Only an artillery preparation, sir!" said an artilleryman as we started +up a slope stiff with guns, as the English say, all firing. You waited +your chance to run by after a battery had fired and were on the way +toward the next one before the one behind sent another round hurtling +overhead. + +The deep-throated roar of the big calibers is not so hard on the ears as +the crack of the smaller calibers. Returning, you go in face of the +blasts and then, though it rarely happens, you have in mind, if you have +ever been in front of one, the awkward possibility of a premature burst +of a shell in your face. Signs tell you where those black mouths which +you might not see are hidden, lest you walk straight into one as it +belches flame. When you have seen guns firing by thousands as far as the +eye can reach from a hill; when you have seen every caliber at work and +your head aches from the noise, the thing becomes overpowering and +monotonous. Yet you return again, drawn by the uncanny fascination of +artillery power. + +Riding home one day after hours with the guns in an attack, I saw for +the first time one of the monster railroad guns firing as I passed by on +the road. Would I get out to watch it? I hesitated. Yes, of course. But +it was only another gun, a giant tube of steel painted in frog patches +to hide it from aerial observation; only another gun, though it sent a +two-thousand-pound projectile to a target ten miles away, which a man +from a sausage balloon said was "on." + + + + +XXI + +BY THE WAY + + The River Somme--Amiens cathedral--Sunday afternoon + promenaders--Women, old men and boys--A prosperous old town--Madame + of the little Restaurant des Huitres--The old waiter at the + hotel--The stork and the sea-gull--Distinguished visitors--Horses and + dogs--Water carts--Gossips of battle--The donkeys. + + +What contrasts! There was none so pleasant as that when you took the +river road homeward after an action. Leaving behind the Ridge and the +scarred slope and the crowding motor trucks in their cloud of dust, you +were in a green world soothing to eyes which were painful from watching +shell-blasts. Along the banks of the Somme on a hot day you might see +white figures of muscle-armored youth washed clean of the grime of the +firing-line in the exhilaration of minutes, seconds, glowingly lived +without regard to the morrow, shaking drops of water free from white +skins, under the shade of trees untouched by shell fire, after a plunge +in cool waters. Then from a hill where a panorama was flung free to the +eye, the Somme at your feet held islands of peace in its shining net as +it broke away from confining green walls and wound across the plain +toward Amiens. + +The Somme is kindly by nature with a desire to embrace all the country +around, and Amiens has trained its natural bent to man's service. + +It gave softer springs than those of any ambulance for big motor scows +that brought the badly wounded down from the front past the rich market +gardens that sent their produce in other boats to market. Under bridges +its current was divided and subdivided until no one could tell which was +Somme and which canal, busy itself as the peasants and the shopkeepers +doing a good turn to humankind, grinding wheat in one place and in +another farther on turning a loom to weave the rich velvets for which +Amiens is famous, and between its stages of usefulness supplying a +Venetian effect where balconies leaned across one of its subdivisions, +an area of old houses on crooked, short streets at their back huddled +with a kind of ancient reverence near the great cathedral. + +At first you might be discriminative about the exterior of Amiens +cathedral, having in mind only the interior as being worth while. I went +inside frequently and the call to go was strongest after seeing an +action. Standing on that stone floor where princes and warriors had +stood through eight hundred years of the history of France, I have seen +looking up at the incomparable nave with its majestic symmetry, French +_poilus_ in their faded blue, helmets in hand and perhaps the white of +a bandage showing, spruce generals who had a few hours away from their +commands, dust-laden dispatch riders, boyish officers with the bit of +blue ribbon that they had won for bravery on their breasts and knots of +privates in worn khaki. The man who had been a laborer before he put on +uniform was possessed by the same awe as the one who had been favored by +birth and education. A black-robed priest passing with his soft tread +could not have differed much to the eye from one who was there when the +Black Prince was fighting in France or the soldiers of Joan or of Conde +came to look at the nave. + +The cathedral and the Somme helped to make you whole with the world and +with time. After weeks you ceased to be discriminative about the +exterior. The cathedral was simply the cathedral. Returning from the +field, I knew where on every road I should have the first glimpse of its +serene, assertive mass above the sea of roofs--always there, always the +same, immortal; while the Ridge rocked with the Allied gun-blasts that +formed the police line of fire for its protection. + +I liked to walk up the canal tow-path where the townspeople went on +Sunday afternoons for their promenade, the blue of French soldiers on +leave mingling with civilian black--soldiers with wives or mothers on +their arms, safe for the time being. One scene reappears to memory as I +write: A young fellow back from the trenches bearing his sturdy boy of +two on his shoulder and the black-eyed young mother walking beside him, +both having eyes for nothing in the world except the boy. + +The old fishermen would tell you as they waited for a bite that the +German was _fichu_, their faith in the credit of France unimpaired as +they lived on the income of the savings of their industry before they +retired. You asked gardeners about business, which you knew was good +with that ever-hungry and spendthrift British Army "bulling" the market. +One day while taking a walk, Beach Thomas and I saw a diver preparing to +go down to examine the abutment of a bridge and we sat down to look on +with a lively interest, when we might have seen hundreds of guns firing. +It was a change. Nights, after dispatches were written, Gibbs and I, +anything but gory-minded, would walk in the silence, having the tow-path +to ourselves, and after a mutual agreement to talk of anything but the +war would revert to the same old subject. + +On other days when only "nibbling" was proceeding on the Ridge you might +strike across country over the stubble, flushing partridges from the +clover. And the women, the old men and the boys got in all the crops. +How I do not know, except by rising early and keeping at it until dark, +which is the way that most things worth while are accomplished in this +world. Those boys from ten to sixteen who were driving the plow for next +year's sowing had become men in their steadiness. + +Amiens was happy in the memory of the frustration of what might have +happened when her citizens looked at the posters, already valuable +relics, that had been put up by von Kluck's army as it passed through on +the way to its about-face on the Marne. The old town, out of the battle +area, out of the reach of shells, had prospered exceedingly. +Shopkeepers, particularly those who sold oysters, fresh fish, fruits, +cheese, all delicacies whatsoever to victims of iron rations in the +trenches, could retire on their profits unless they died from exhaustion +in accumulating more. They took your money so politely that parting with +it was a pleasure, no matter what the prices, though they were always +lower for fresh eggs than in New York. + +We came to know all with the intimacy that war develops, but for sheer +character and energy the blue ribbon goes to Madame of the little +Restaurant des Huitres. She needed no gallant husband to make her a +marshal's wife, as in the case of Sans-Gene, for she was a marshal +herself. She should have the _croix de guerre_ with all the stars and a +palm, too, for knowing how to cook. A small stove which was as busy +with its sizzling pans as a bombing party stood at the foot of a cramped +stairway, whose ascent revealed a few tables, with none for two and +everybody sitting elbow to elbow, as it were, in the small dining-room. +There were dishes enough and clean, too, and spotless serviettes, but no +display of porcelain and silver was necessary, for the food was a +sufficient attraction. Madame was all for action. If you did not order +quickly she did so for you, taking it for granted that a wavering mind +indicated a palate that called for arbitrary treatment. + +She had a machine gun tongue on occasion. If you did not like her +restaurant it was clear that other customers were waiting for your +place, and generals capitulated as promptly as lieutenants. A +camaraderie developed at table under the spur of her dynamic presence +and her occasional artillery concentrations, which were brief and +decisive, for she had no time to waste. Broiled lobster and sole, +oysters, filets and chops, sizzling fried potatoes, crisp salads, +mountains of forest strawberries with pots of thick cream and delectable +coffee descended from her hands, with no mistake in any orders or delay +in the prompt succession of courses, on the cloth before you by some +legerdemain of manipulation in the narrow quarters to the accompaniment +of her repartee. It was past understanding how she accomplished such +results in quantity and quality on that single stove with the help of +one assistant whom, apparently, she found in the way at times; for the +assistant would draw back in the manner of one who had put her finger +into an electric fan as her mistress began a manipulation of pots and +pans. + +If Madame des Huitres should come to New York, I wonder--yes, she would +be overwhelmed by people who had anything like a trench appetite. Soon +she would be capitalized, with branches des Huitres up and down the +land, while she would no longer touch a skillet, but would ride in a +limousine and grow fat, and I should not like her any more. + +People who could not get into des Huitres or were not in the secret +which, I fear, was selfishly kept by those who were, had to dine at the +hotel, where a certain old waiter--all young ones being at the +front--though called mad could be made the object of method if he had +not method in madness. When he seemed about to collapse with fatigue, +tell him that there had been a big haul of German prisoners on the Ridge +and the blaze of delight in his dark eyes would galvanize him. If he +should falter again, a shout of, "_Vive l'Entente cordiale! En avant!_" +would send him off with coat-tails at right angles to his body as he +sprang into the midst of the riot of waiters outside the kitchen door, +from which he would emerge triumphantly bearing the course that was +next in order. Nor would he allow you to skip one. You must take them +all or, as the penalty of breaking up the system, you went hungry. + +Outside in the court where you went for coffee and might sometimes get +it if you gave the head waiter good news from the front, a stork and a +sea-gull with clipped wings posed at the fountain. What tales of battle +were told in sight of this incongruous pair whose antics relieved the +strain of war! When the stork took a step or two the gull plodded along +after him and when the gull moved the stork also moved, the two never +being more than three or four feet apart. Yet each maintained an +attitude of detachment as if loath to admit the slightest affection for +each other. Foolish birds, as many said and laughed at them; and again, +heroes out of the hell on the Ridge and wholly unconscious of their +heroism said that the two had the wisdom of the ages, particularly the +stork, though expert artillery opinion was that the practical gull +thought that only his own watchfulness kept the wisdom of the ages from +being drowned in the fountain in an absent-minded moment, though the +water was not up to a stork's ankle-joint. More nonsense, when the call +was for reaction from the mighty drama, was woven around these +entertainers by men who could not go to plays than would be credible to +people reading official bulletins; woven by dining parties of officers +who when dusk fell went indoors and gathered around the piano before +going into a charge on the morrow. + +At intervals men in civilian clothes, soft hats, gaiters over everyday +trousers, golf suits, hunting suits, appeared at the hotel or were seen +stalking about captured German trenches, their garb as odd in that +ordered world of khaki as powdered wig, knee-breeches and silver buckles +strolling up Piccadilly or Fifth Avenue. Prime ministers, Cabinet +members, great financiers, potentates, journalists, poets, artists of +many nationalities came to do the town. They saw the Ridge under its +blanket of shell-smoke, the mighty columns of transport, all the +complex, enormous organization of that secret world, peeked into German +dugouts, and in common with all observers estimated the distance of the +nearest shell-burst from their own persons. + +Many were amazed to find that generals worked in chateaux over maps, +directing by telephone, instead of standing on hilltops to give their +commands, and that war was a systematic business, which made those who +had been at the front writing and writing to prove that it was wonder if +nobody read what they wrote. An American who said that he did not see +why all the trucks and horses and wagons and men did not lose their way +was suggestive of the first vivid impressions which the "new eye" +brought to the scene. Another praised my first book for the way it had +made life at the front clear and then proceeded to state his surprise at +finding that trenches did not run straight, but in traverses, and that +soldiers lived in houses instead of tents and gunners did not see their +targets. Now he had seen this mighty army at work for himself. It is the +only way. I give up hope of making others see it. + +So grim the processes of fighting, so lacking in picturesqueness, that +one welcomed any of the old symbols of war. I regretted yet rejoiced +that the horse was still a factor. It was good to think that the +gasoline engine had saved the sore backs of the pack animals of other +days, removed the horror of dead horses beside the road and horses +driven to exhaustion by the urgency of fierce necessity, and that a +shell in the transport meant a radiator smashed instead of flesh torn +and scattered. Yet the horse was still serving man at the front and the +dog still flattering him. I have seen dogs lying dead on the field where +the mascot of a battalion had run along with the men in a charge; dogs +were found in German dugouts, and one dog adopted by a corps staff had +refused to leave the side of his fallen master, a German officer, until +the body was removed. + +The horse brought four-footed life into the dead world of the slope, +patiently drawing his load, mindless of gun-blasts and the shriek of +shell-fragments once he was habituated to them. As he can pass over +rough ground, he goes into areas where no motor vehicle except the tanks +may go. He need not wait on the road-builders before he takes the +eighteen pounders to their new positions or follows them with +ammunition. Far out on the field I have seen groups of artillery horses +waiting in a dip in the ground while their guns were within five hundred +yards of the firing-line, and winding across dead fields toward an +isolated battery the caisson horses trotting along with shells bursting +around them. + +Upon August days when the breeze that passed overhead was only +tantalization to men in communication trenches carrying up ammunition +and bombs, when dugouts were ovens, when the sun made the steel helmet a +hot skillet-lid over throbbing temples, the horse-drawn water carts +wound up the slope to assuage burning thirst and back again, between the +gates of hell and the piping station, making no more fuss than a country +postman on his rounds. + +Practically all the water that the fighters had, aside from what was in +their canteens, must be brought up in this way, for the village wells +were filled with the remains of shell-crushed houses. Gossips of battle +the water men, they and the stretcher-bearers both non-combatants going +and coming under the shells up to the battle line, but particularly so +the water men, who passed the time of day with every branch, each +working in its own compartment. When the weather was bad the water man's +business became slack and the lot of the stretcher-bearer grew worse in +the mud. What stories the stretcher-bearers brought in of wounded blown +off litters by shells, of the necessity of choosing the man most likely +to survive when only one of two could be carried, of whispered messages +from the dying, and themselves keeping to their work with cheery British +phlegm; and the water men told of new gun positions, of where the shells +were thickest, of how the fight was going. + +It irritated the water men, prosaic in their disregard of danger, to +have a tank hit on the way out. If it were hit on the way back when it +was empty this was of less account, for new tanks were waiting in +reserve. Tragedy for them was when a horse was killed and often they +returned with horses wounded. It did not occur to the man that he might +be hit; it was the loss of a horse or a tank that worried him. One had +his cart knocked over by a salvo of shells and set upright by the next, +whereupon, according to the account, he said to his mare: "Come on, +Mary, I always told you the Boches were bad shots!" But there are too +many stories of the water men to repeat without sifting. + +We must not forget the little donkeys which the French brought from +Africa to take the place of men in carrying supplies up to the trenches. +Single file they trotted along on their errand and they had their own +hospitals for wounded. It is said that when curtains of fire began ahead +they would throw forward their long ears inquiringly and hug close to +the side of the trench for cover and even edge into a dugout with the +men, who made room for as much donkey as possible, or when in the open +they would seek the shelter of shell-craters. Lest their perspicacity be +underrated, French soldiers even credited the wise elders among them +with the ability to distinguish between different calibers of shells. + + + + +XXII + +THE MASTERY OF THE AIR + + "Nose dives" and "crashers"--The most intense duels in + history--Aviators the pride of nations--Beauchamp--The D'Artagnan of + the air--Mastery of the air--The aristocrat of war, the golden youth + of adventure--Nearer immortality than any other living man can + be--The British are reckless aviators--Aerial influence on the + soldier's psychology--Varieties of aeroplanes--Immense numbers of + aeroplanes in the battles in the air. + + +Wing tip touching wing tip two phantoms passed in the mist fifteen +thousand feet above the earth and British plane and German plane which +had grazed each other were lost in the bank of cloud. The dark mass +which an aviator sees approaching when he is over the battlefield proves +to be a fifteen-inch shell at the top of its parabola which passes ten +feet over his head. A German aviator thinking he is near home circles +downward on an overcast day toward a British aerodrome to find out his +mistake too late, and steps out of his machine to be asked by his +captors if he won't come in and have tea. Thus, true accounts that come +to the aviators' mess make it unnecessary to carry your imagination with +you at the front. + +They talk of "nose dives" and "crashers," which mean the way an enemy's +plane was brought down, and although they have no pose or theatricalism +the consciousness of belonging to the wonder corps of modern war is not +lacking. One returns from a flight and finds that a three-inch +anti-aircraft gun-shell has gone through the body of his plane. + +"So that was it! Hardly felt it!" he said. + +If the shell had exploded? Oh, well, that is a habit of shells; and in +that case the pilot would be in the German lines unrecognizable among +the debris of his machine after a "crasher." + +Where in the old West gunmen used to put a notch on their revolver +handle for every man killed, now in each aviator's record is the number +of enemy planes which he has brought down. When a Frenchman has ten his +name goes into the official bulletin. Everything contributes to urge on +the fighting aviator to more and more victims till one day he, too, is a +victim. Never were duels so detached or so intense. No clashing of +steel, no flecks of blood, only two men with wings. While the soldier +feels his weapon go home and the bomber sees his bomb in flight, the +aviator watches for his opponent to drop forward in his seat as the +first sign that he has lost control of his plane and of victory, and he +does not hear the passing of the bullets that answer those from his own +machine gun. One hero comes to take the place of another who has been +lost. A smiling English youth was embarrassed when asked how he brought +down the great Immelmann, most famous of German aviators. + +Nelson's "Death or Westminster Abbey" has become paraphrased to "Death +or the _communique_." At twenty-one, while a general of division is +unknown except in the army an aviator's name may be the boast of a +nation. In him is expressed the national imagination, the sense of +hero-worship which people love to personify. The British aviation corps +stuck to anonymity until the giving of a Victoria Cross one day revealed +that Lieutenant Ball had brought down his twenty-sixth German plane. + +Soon after the taking of Fort Douaumont when I was at Verdun, Beauchamp, +blond, blue-eyed and gentle of manner, who had thrilled all France by +bombing Essen, said, "Now they will expect me to go farther and do +something greater;" and I was not surprised to learn a month later that +he had been killed. Something in the way he spoke convinced me that he +foresaw death and accepted it as a matter of course; and he realized, +too, the penalty of being a hero. He had flown over Essen and dropped +his bombs and seen them burst, which was all of his story. + +The public thrill over such exploits is the greater because of their +simplicity. An aviator has no experiences on the road; he cannot stop to +talk to anyone. There is flight; there is a lever that releases a bomb; +there is a machine gun. He may not indulge in psychology, which would be +wool-gathering, when every faculty is objectively occupied. He is +strangely helpless, a human being borne through space by a machine, and +when he returns to the mess he really has little to tell except as it +relates to mechanism and technique. + +The Royal Flying Corps, which is the official name, never wants for +volunteers. Ever the number of pilots is in excess of the number of +machines. Young men with embroidered wings on their breasts, which prove +that they have qualified, waited on factories to turn out wings for +flying. Flight itself is simple, but the initiative equal to great deeds +is another thing. Here you revert to an innate gift of the individual +who, finding in danger the zest of a glorious, curiosity, the +intoxication of action, clear eye, steady hand answering lightning +quickness of thought, becomes the D'Artagnan of the air. There is no +telling what boyish neophyte will show a steady hand in daring the +supreme hazards with light heart, or what man whom his friends thought +was born for aviation may lack the touch of genius. + +Far up in the air there is an imaginary boundary line which lies over +the battle line; and there is another which may be on your side or on +the other side of the battle line. It is the location of the second line +that tells who has the mastery of the air. A word of bare and impressive +meaning this of mastery in war, which represents force without +qualification; that the other man is down and you are up, the other +fends and you thrust. More glorious than the swift rush of destroyer to +a battleship that of the British planes whose bombs brought down six +German sausage balloons in flames before the Grand Offensive began. + +I need never have visited an aerodrome on the Somme to know whether +Briton and Frenchman or German was master of the air. The answer was +there whenever you looked in the heavens in the absence of iron crosses +on the hovering or scudding or turning plane wings and the multiplicity +of bull's-eyes; in the abandoned way that both British and French +pickets flew over the enemy area, as if space were theirs and they dared +any interference. If you saw a German plane appear you could count three +or four Allied planes appearing from different directions to surround +it. The German had to go or be caught in a cross fire, and manoeuvered +to his death. + +Mastery of the air is another essential of superiority for an +offensive; one of the vital features in the organized whole of an +attack. As you press men and guns forward enemy planes must not locate +your movements. Your planes with fighting planes as interference must +force a passage for your observers to spot the fall of shells on new +targets, to assist in reporting the progress of charges and to play +their proper auxiliary part in the complex system of army intelligence. + +Before the offensive new aerodromes began to appear along the front at +the same time that new roads were building. An army that had lacked both +planes and guns at the start now had both. Every aviator knew that he +was expected to gain and hold the mastery; his part was set no less than +that of the infantry. Where should "the spirit that quickeneth" dwell if +not with the aviators? No weary legs hamper him; he does not have to +crawl over the dead or hide in shell-craters or stand up to his knees in +mire. He is the pampered aristocrat of war, the golden youth of +adventure. + +He leaves a comfortable bed, with bath, a good breakfast, the +comradeship of a pleasant mess, the care of servants, to mount his +steed. When he returns he has only to step out of his seat. Mechanics +look after his plane and refreshment and shade in summer and warmth in +winter await alike the spoiled child of the favored, adventurous corps +who has not the gift and never quite dares the great hazards as well as +the one who dares them to his certain end. All depends on the man. + +Rising ten or fifteen thousand feet, slipping in and out of clouds, the +aviator breathes pure ozone on a dustless roadway, the world a carpet +under him; and though death is at his elbow it is no grimy companion +like death in the trenches. He is up or he is down, and when he is up +the thrill that holds his faculties permits of no apprehensions. There +is no halfway business of ghastly wounds which foredoom survival as a +cripple. Alive, he is nearer immortality than any other living man can +be; dead, his spirit leaves him while he is in the heavens. Death comes +splendidly, quickly, and until the last moment he is trying to keep +control of his machine. It is not for him to envy the days of cavalry +charges. He does not depend upon the companionship of other men to carry +him on, but is the autocrat of his own fate, the ruler of his own +dreams. All hours of daylight are the same to him. At any time he may be +called to flight and perhaps to die. The glories of sunset and sunrise +are his between the sun and the earth. + +You expect the British to be cool aviators, but with their phlegm, as we +have seen, goes that singular love of risk, of adventure, which sends +them to shoot tigers and climb mountains. Indeed, the Englishman's +phlegm is a sort of leash holding in check a certain recklessness which +his seeming casualness conceals. After it had become almost a law that +no aviator should descend lower than twelve thousand feet, British +aviators on the Somme descended to three hundred, emptied their machine +guns into the enemy, and escaped the patter of rifle fire which the +surprised German soldiers had hardly begun before the plane at two miles +a minute or more was out of range. + +When Lord Kitchener was inspecting an aerodrome in France in 1914 he +said: "One day you will be flying and evoluting in squadrons like the +navy;" and the aviators, then feeling their way step by step, smiled +doubtfully, convinced that "K" had an imagination. A few months later +the prophecy had come true and the types of planes had increased until +they were as numerous as the types of guns. + +The swift falcon waiting fifteen thousand feet up for his prey to add +another to his list in the _communique_ is as distinct from the one in +which I crossed the channel as the destroyer is from the cruiser and +from some still bigger types as is the cruiser from a battleship. While +the enemy was being fought down, bombs were dropped not by pounds but by +tons on villages and billets, on ammunition dumps and rail-heads, adding +their destruction to that of the shells. + +There was more value in mastery than in destruction or in freedom of +observation, for it affected the enemy's _morale_. A soldier likes to +see his own planes in the air and the enemy's being driven away. The +aerial influence on his psychology is enormous, for he can watch the +planes as he lies in a shell-crater with his machine gun or stands guard +in the trench; he has glimpses of passing wings overhead between the +bursts of shells. To know that his guns are not replying adequately and +that every time one of his planes appears it is driven to cover takes +the edge off initiative, courage and discipline, in the resentment that +he is handicapped. + +German prisoners used to say on the Somme that their aviators were +"funks," though the Allied aviators knew that it was not their +opponents' lack of courage which was the principal fault, even if they +had lost _morale_ from being the under dog and lacked British and French +initiative, but numbers and material. It was resource against resource +again; a fight in the delicate business of the manufacture of the +fragile framework, of the wonderful engines with their short lives, and +of the skilled battalions of workers in factories. The Germans had to +bring more planes from another front in order to restore the balance. +The Allies foreseeing this brought still more themselves, till the +numbers were so immense that when a battle between a score of planes on +either side took place no one dared venture the opinion that the limit +had been reached--not while there was so much room in the air and +volunteers for the aviation corps were so plentiful. + + + + +XXIII + +A PATENT CURTAIN OF FIRE + + Thiepval again--Director of tactics of an army corps--Graduates of + Staff Colleges--Army jargon--An army director's office--"Hope you + will see a good show"--"This road is shelled; closed to vehicles"--A + perfect summer afternoon--The view across No Man's Land--Nests of + burrowers more cunning than any rodents--men--Tranquil preliminaries + to an attack--The patent curtain of fire--Registering by practice + shots--Running as men will run only from death--The tall officer who + collapsed--"The shower of death." + + +"We had a good show day before yesterday," said Brigadier-General Philip +Howell, when I went to call on him one day. "Sorry you were not here. +You could have seen it excellently." + +The corps of which he was general staff officer had taken a section of +first-line trench at Thiepval with more prisoners than casualties, which +is the kind of news they like to hear at General Headquarters. Thiepval +was always in the background of the army's mind, the symbol of rankling +memory which irritated British stubbornness and consoled the enemy for +his defeat of July 15th and his gradual loss of the Ridge. The Germans, +on the defensive, considered that the failure to take Thiepval at the +beginning of the Somme battle proved its impregnability; the British, +on the offensive, considered no place impregnable. + +Faintly visible from the hills around Albert, distinctly from the +observation post in a high tree, the remains of the village looked like +a patch of coal dust smeared in a fold of the high ground. When British +fifteen-inch shells made it their target some of the dust rose in a +great geyser and fell back into place; but there were cellars in +Thiepval which even fifteen-inch shells could not penetrate. + +"However, we'll make the Germans there form the habit of staying +indoors," said a gunner. + +Howell who had the Thiepval task in hand I had first known at Uskub in +Macedonia in the days of the Macedonian revolution, when Hilmi Pasha was +juggling with the Powers of Europe and autonomy--days which seem far +away. A lieutenant then, Howell had an assignment from _The Times_, +while home on leave from India, in order to make a study of the Balkan +situation. In our walks around Uskub as we discussed the politics and +the armies of the world I found that all was grist that came to his keen +mind. His ideas about soldiering were explicit and practical. It was +such hard-working, observant officers as he, most of them students at +one time or another at the Staff College, who, when the crisis came, as +the result of their application in peace time, became the organizers and +commanders of the New Army. The lieutenant I had met at Uskub was now, +at thirty-eight, the director of the tactics of an army corps which was +solving the problem of reducing the most redoubtable of field works. + +Whenever I think of the Staff College I am reminded that at the close of +the American Civil War the commanders of all the armies and most of the +corps were graduates of West Point, which serves to prove that a man of +ability with a good military education has the start of one who has not, +though no laws govern geniuses; and if we should ever have to fight +another great war I look for our generals to have studied at Leavenworth +and when the war ends for the leaders to be men whom the public did not +know when it began. + +"We shall have another show to-morrow and I think that will be a good +one, too," said Howell. + +All attacks are "shows;" big shows over two or three miles or more of +front, little shows over a thousand yards or so, while five hundred +yards is merely "cleaning up a trench." It may seem a flippant way of +speaking, but it is simply the application of jargon to the everyday +work of an organization. An attack that fails is a "washout," for not +all attacks succeed. If they did, progress would be a matter of +marching. + +"Zero is at four; come at two," Howell said when I was going. + +At two the next afternoon I found him occupied less with final details +than with the routine business of one who is clearing his desk +preparatory to a week-end holiday. Against the wall of what had been +once a bedroom in the house of the leading citizen of the town, which +was his office, he had an improvised bookkeeper's desk and on it were +the mapped plans of the afternoon's operation, which he had worked over +with the diligence and professional earnestness of an architect over his +blue prints. He had been over the ground and studied it with the care of +a landscape gardener who is going to make improvements. + +"A smoke barrage screen along there," he explained, indicating the line +of a German trench, "but a real attack along here"--which sounded +familiar from staff officers in chateaux. + +Every detail of the German positions was accurately outlined, yard by +yard, their machine guns definitely located. + +"We're uncertain about that one," he remarked, laying his pencil on the +map symbol for an M.G. + +Trench mortars had another symbol, deep dugouts another. It was the +business of somebody to get all this information without being +communicative about his methods. Referring to a section of a hundred +yards or more he remarked that an eager company commander had thought +that he could take a bit of German trench there and had taken it, which +meant that the gunners had to be informed so as to rearrange the barrage +or curtain of fire with the resulting necessity of fresh observations +and fresh registry of practice shots. I judged that Howell did not want +the men to be too eager; he wanted them just eager enough. + +This game being played along the whole front has, of course, been +likened to chess, with guns and men as pieces. I had in mind the dummy +actors and dummy scenery with which stage managers try out their acts, +only in this instance there was never any rehearsal on the actual stage +with the actual scenery unless a first attack had failed, as the Germans +will not permit such liberties except under machine gun fire. A call or +two came over the telephone about some minor details, the principal ones +being already settled. + +"It's time to go," he said finally. + +The corps commander was downstairs in the dining-room comfortably +smoking his pipe after tea. There would be nothing for him to do until +news of the attack had been received. "I hope you will see a good show," +he remarked, by way of _au revoir_. + +How earnestly he hoped it there is no use of mentioning here. It is +taken for granted. Carefully thought out plans backed by hundreds of +guns and the lives of men at stake--and against the Thiepval +fortifications! + +"Yes, we'll make it nicely," concluded Howell, as we went down the +steps. A man used to motoring ten miles to catch the nine-thirty to town +could not have been more certain of the disposal of his time than this +soldier on the way to an attack. His car which was waiting had a right +of way up to front such as is enjoyed only by the manager of the works +on his own premises. Of course he paid no attention to the sign, "This +road is shelled; closed to vehicles," at the beginning of a stretch of +road which looked unused and desolate. + +"A car in front of me here the other day received a direct hit from a +'krump,' and car and passengers practically disappeared before my eyes," +he remarked, without further dwelling on the incident; for the Germans +were, in turn, irritated with the insistence of these stubborn British +that they could take Thiepval. + +Three prisoners in the barbed-wire inclosure that we passed looked +lonely. They must have been picked up in a little bombing affair in a +sap. + +"I think that they will have plenty of companions this evening," said +Howell. "How they will enjoy their dinner!" He smiled in recollection +as did I of that familiar sight of prisoners eating. Nothing excites +hunger like a battle or gives such zest to appetite as knowledge that +you are out of danger. I know that it is true and so does everybody at +the front. + +As his car knew no regulations except his wishes he might take it as far +as it could go without trying to cross trenches. I wonder how long it +would have taken me if I had had a map and asked no questions to find my +way to the gallery seat which Howell had chosen for watching the show. +After we had passed guns with only one out of ten firing leisurely but +all with their covers off, the gunners near their pieces and ample +ammunition at hand, we cut straight up the slope, Howell glancing at his +wrist watch and asking if he were walking too fast for me. We dropped +into a communication trench at a point which experience had proven was +the right place to begin to take cover. + +"This is a good place," he said at length, and we rubbed our helmets +with some of the chalk lumps of the parapet, which left the black spot +of our field glasses the only bit of us not in harmony with our +background. + +It was a perfect afternoon in late summer, without wind or excessive +heat, the blue sky unflecked; such an afternoon as you would choose for +lolling in a hammock and reading a book. The foreground was a slope +downward to a little valley where the usual limbless tree-trunks were +standing in a grove that had been thoroughly shelled. No one was in +sight there, and an occasional German five-point-nine shell burst on the +mixture of splinters and earth. + +On the other side of the valley was a cut in the earth, a ditch, the +British first-line trench, which was unoccupied, so far as I could see. +Beyond lay the old No Man's Land where grass and weeds had grown wild +for two seasons, hiding the numerous shell-craters and the remains of +the dead from the British charge of July 1st which had been repulsed. On +the other side of this was two hundred yards of desolate stretch up to +the wavy, chalky excavation from the deep cutting of the German +first-line trench, as distinct as a white line on dark-brown paper. +There was no sign of life here, either, or to the rear where ran the +network of other excavations as the result of the almost two years of +German digging, the whole thrown in relief on the slope up to the bare +trunks of two or three trees thrust upward from the smudge of the ruins +of Thiepval. + +Just a knoll in rolling farm country, that was all; but it concealed +burrows upon burrows of burrowers more cunning than any rodents--men. +Since July 1st the Germans had not been idle. They had had time to +profit from the lesson of the attack with additions and improvements. +They had deepened dugouts and joined them by galleries; they had Box and +Cox hiding-places; nests defensible from all sides which became known as +Mystery Works and Wonder Works. The message of that gashed and spaded +hillside was one of mortal defiance. + +Occasionally a British high explosive broke in the German trench and all +up and down the line as far as we could see this desultory shell fire +was proceeding, giving no sign of where the next attack was coming, +which was part of the plan. + +"It's ten to four!" said Howell. "We were here in ample time. I hope we +get them at relief," which was when a battalion that had been on duty +was relieved by a battalion that had been in rest. + +He laid his map on the parapet and the location and plan of the attack +became clear as a part of the extensive operations in the +Thiepval-Mouquet Farm sector. The British were turning the flank of +these Thiepval positions as they swung in from the joint of the break of +July 1st up to the Pozieres Ridge. A squeeze here and a squeeze there; +an attack on that side and then on this; one bite after another. + +"I hope you will like our patent barrage," said the artillery general, +as he stopped for a moment on the way to a near-by observation post. "We +are thinking rather well of it ourselves of late." He did not even have +to touch a pushbutton to turn on the current. He had set four as zero. + +I am not going to speak of suspense before the attack as being in the +very air and so forth. I felt it personally, but the Germans did not +feel it or, at least, the British did not want them to feel it. There +was no more sign of an earthly storm brewing as one looked at the field +than of a thunderstorm as one looked at the sky. Perfect soporific +tranquillity possessed the surroundings except for shell-bursts, and +their meagerness intensified the aspect, strangely enough, on that +battlefield where I had never seen a quieter afternoon since the Somme +offensive had begun. One could ask nothing better than that the +tranquillity should put the Germans to sleep. To the staff expert, +however, the dead world lived without the sight of men. Every square rod +of ground had some message. + +Of course, I knew what was coming at four o'clock, but I was amazed at +its power and accuracy when it did come--this improved method of +artillery preparation, this patent curtain of fire. An outburst of +screaming shells overhead that became a continuous, roaring sweep like +that of a number of endless railroad trains in the air signified that +the guns which had been idle were all speaking. Every one by scattered +practice shots had registered on the German first-line trench at the +point where its shell-bursts would form its link in the chain of +bursts. Over the wavy line of chalk for the front of the attack broke +the flashes of cracking shrapnel jackets, whose bullets were whipping up +spurts of chalk like spurts of dust on a road from a hailstorm. + +As the gun-blasts began I saw some figures rise up back of the German +trench. I judged that they were the relief coming up or a working party +that had been under cover. These Germans had to make a quick decision: +Would they try a leap for the dugouts or a leap to the rear? They +decided on flight. A hundred-yard sprint and they would be out of that +murderous swath laid so accurately on a narrow belt. They ran as men +will only run from death. No goose-stepping or "after you, sir" limited +their eagerness. I had to smile at their precipitancy and as some +dropped it was hard to realize that they had fallen from death or +wounds. They seemed only manikins in a pantomime. + +Then a lone figure stepped up out of a communication trench just back of +the German first line. This tall officer, who could see nothing between +walls of earth where he was, stood up in full view looking around as if +taking stock of the situation, deciding, perhaps, whether that smoke +barrage to his right now rolling out of the British trench was on the +real line of attack or was only for deception; observing and concluding +what his men, I judge, were never to know, for, as a man will when +struck a hard blow behind the knees, he collapsed suddenly and the earth +swallowed him up before the bursts of shrapnel smoke had become so thick +over the trench that it formed a curtain. + +There must have been a shell a minute to the yard. Shrapnel bullets were +hissing into the mouths of dugouts; death was hugging every crevice, +saying to the Germans: + +"Keep down! Keep out of the rain! If you try to get out with a machine +gun you will be killed! Our infantry is coming!" + + + + +XXIV + +WATCHING A CHARGE + + The British trench comes to life--The line goes forward--A modern + charge no chance for heroics--Machine-like forward movement--The most + wicked sound in a battle--The first machine gun--A beautiful + barrage--The dreaded "shorts"--The barrage lifts to the second + line--The leap into the trenches--Figures in green with hands + up--Captured from dugouts--A man who made his choice and paid the + price--German answering fire--Second part of the program--Again the + protecting barrage--Success--Waves of men advancing behind waves of + shell fire--Prisoners in good fettle--Brigadier-General Philip + Howell. + + +Now the British trench came to life. What seemed like a row of +khaki-colored washbasins bottom side up and fast to a taut string rose +out of the cut in the earth on the other side of the valley, and after +them came the shoulders and bodies of British soldiers who began +climbing over the parapet just as a man would come up the cellar stairs. +This was the charge. + +Five minutes the barrage or curtain of fire was to last and five minutes +was the allotted time for these English soldiers to go from theirs to +the German trench which they were to take. So many paces to the minute +was the calculation of their rate of progress across that dreadful No +Man's Land, where machine guns and German curtains of fire had wrought +death in the preceding charge of July 1st. + +Every detail of the men's equipment was visible as their full-length +figures appeared on the background of the gray-green slope. They were +entirely exposed to fire from the German trench. Any tyro with a rifle +on the German parapet could have brought down a man with every shot. Yet +none fell; all were going forward. + +I would watch the line over a hundred yards of breadth immediately in +front of me, determined not to have my attention diverted to other parts +of the attack and to make the most of this unique opportunity of +observation in the concrete. + +The average layman conceives of a charge as a rush. So it is on the +drill-ground, but not where its movement is timed to arrival on the +second before a hissing storm of death, and the attackers must not be +winded when there is hot work awaiting them in close encounters around +traverses and at the mouths of dugouts. No one was sprinting ahead of +his companions; no one crying, "Come on, boys!" no one swinging his +steel helmet aloft, for he needed it for protection from any sudden +burst of shrapnel. All were advancing at a rapid pace, keeping line and +intervals except where they had to pass around shell-craters. + +If this charge had none of the display of other days it had all the more +thrill because of its workmanlike and regulated progress. No +get-drunk-six-days-of-the-week-and-fight-like-h--l-on-Sunday business of +the swashbuckling age before Thiepval. Every man must do his part as +coolly as if he were walking a tight rope with no net to catch him, with +death to be reckoned with in the course of a systematic evolution. + +"Very good! A trifle eager there! Excellent!" Howell sweeping the field +with his glasses was speaking in the expert appreciation of a football +coach watching his team at practice. "No machine guns yet," he said for +the second time, showing the apprehension that was in his mind. + +I, too, had been listening for the staccato of the machine gun, which is +the most penetrating, mechanical and wicked, to my mind, of all the +instruments of the terrible battle orchestra, as sinister as the +clicking of a switch which you know will derail a passenger train. The +men were halfway to the German trench, now. Two and a half minutes of +the allotted five had passed. In my narrow sector of vision not one man +had yet fallen. They might have been in a manoeuver and their goal a +deserted ditch. Looking right and left my eye ran along the line of +sturdy, moving backs which seemed less concerned than the spectator. Not +only because you were on their side but as the reward of their +steadiness, you wanted them to conquer that stretch of first-line +fortifications. Any second you expected to see the first shell-burst of +the answering German barrage break in the midst of them. + +Then came the first sharp, metallic note which there is no mistaking, +audible in the midst of shell-screams and gun-crashes, off to the right, +chilling your heart, quickening your observation with awful curiosity +and drawing your attention away from the men in front as you looked for +signs of a machine gun's gathering of a human harvest. Rat-tat-tat-tat +in quick succession, then a pause before another series instead of +continuous and slower cracks, and you knew that it was not a German but +a British machine gun farther away than you had thought. + +More than ever you rejoiced in every one of the bursts of stored +lightning thick as fireflies in the blanket of smoke over the German +trench, for every one meant a shower of bullets to keep down enemy +machine guns. The French say "_Belle!_" when they see such a barrage, +and beautiful is the word for it to those men who were going across the +field toward this shell-made nimbus looking too soft in the bright +sunlight to have darts of death. All the shell-bursts seemed to be in a +breadth of twenty or thirty yards. How could guns firing at a range of +from two to five thousand yards attain such accuracy! + +The men were three-quarters of the distance, now. As they drew nearer to +the barrage another apprehension numbed your thought. You feared to see +a "short"--one of the shells from their own guns which did not carry far +enough bursting among the men--and this, as one English soldier who had +been knocked over by a short said, with dry humor, was "very +discouraging, sir, though I suppose it is well meant." A terrible thing, +that, to the public, killing your own men with your own shells. It is +better to lose a few of them in this way than many from German machine +guns by lifting the barrage too soon, but fear of public indignation had +its influence in the early days of British gunnery. The better the +gunnery the closer the infantry can go and the greater its confidence. A +shell that bursts fifteen or twenty yards short means only the slightest +fault in length of fuse, error of elevation, or fault in registry, back +where the muzzles are pouring out their projectiles from the other side +of the slope. And there were no shorts that day. Every shell that I saw +burst was "on." It was perfect gunnery. + +Now it seemed that the men were going straight into the blanket over the +trenches still cut with flashes. Some forward ones who had become eager +were at the edge of the area of dust-spatters from shrapnel bullets in +the white chalk. Didn't they know that another twenty yards meant death? +Was their methodical phlegm such that they acted entirely by rule? No, +they knew their part. They stopped and stood waiting. Others were on the +second of the five minutes' allowance as suddenly all the flashes ceased +and nothing remained over the trench but the mantle of smoke. The +barrage had been lifted from the first to the second-line German trench +as you lift the spray of a hose from one flower bed to another. + +This was the moment of action for the men of the charge, not one of whom +had yet fired a shot. Each man was distinctly outlined against the white +background as, bayonets glistening and hands drawn back with bombs ready +to throw, they sprang forward to be at the mouths of the dugouts before +the Germans came out. Some leaped directly into the trench, others ran +along the parapet a few steps looking for a vantage point or throwing a +bomb as they went before they descended. It was a quick, urgent, +hit-and-run sort of business and in an instant all were out of sight and +the fighting was man to man, with the guns of both sides keeping their +hands off this conflict under ground. The entranced gaze for a moment +leaving that line of chalk saw a second British wave advancing in the +same way as the first from the British first-line trench. + +"All in along the whole line. Bombing their way forward there!" said +Howell, with matter-of-fact understanding of the progress of events. + +I blinked tired eyes and once more pressed them to the twelve diameters +of magnification, every diameter having full play in the clear light. I +saw nothing but little bursts of smoke rising out of the black streak in +the chalk which was the trench itself, each one from an egg of high +explosive thrown at close quarters but not numerous enough to leave any +doubt of the result and very evidently against a few recalcitrants who +still held out. + +Next, a British soldier appeared on the parapet and his attitude was +that of one of the military police directing traffic at a busy +crossroads close to the battle front. His part in the carefully worked +out system was shown when a figure in green came out of the trench with +hands held up in the approved signal of surrender the world over. The +figure was the first of a file with hands up--and very much in earnest +in this attitude, too, which is the one that the British and the French +consider most becoming in a German--who were started on toward the +first-line British trench. All along the front small bands of prisoners +were appearing in the same way. There would have been something +ridiculous about it, if it had not been so real. + +For the most part, the prisoners had been breached from dugouts which +had no exit through galleries after the Germans had been held fast by +the barrage. It was either a case of coming out at once or being bombed +to death in their holes; so they came out. + +"A live prisoner would be of more use to his fatherland one day than a +dead one, even though he had no more chance to fight again than a rabbit +held up by the ears," as one of the German prisoners said. + +"More use to yourself, too," remarked his captor. + +"That had occurred to me, also," admitted the German. + +During the filing out of the different bags of prisoners two incidents +passed before my eye with a realism that would have been worth a small +fortune to a motion picture man if equally dramatic ones had not been +posed. A German sprang out of the trench, evidently either of a mind to +resist or else in a panic, and dropped behind one of the piles of chalk +thrown up in the process of excavation. A British soldier went after him +and he held up his hands and was dispatched to join one of the groups. +Another who sought cover in the same way was of different temperament, +or perhaps resistance was inspired by the fact that he had a bomb. He +threw it at a British soldier who seemed to dodge it and drop on all +fours, the bomb bursting behind him. Bombs then came from all directions +at the German. There was no time to parley; he had made his choice and +must pay the price. He rolled over after the smoke had risen from the +explosions and then remained a still green blot against the chalk. A +British soldier bent over the figure in a hasty examination and then +sprang into the trench, where evidently he was needed. + +"The Germans are very slow with their shell fire," said Howell in the +course of his ejaculations, as he watched the operations. + +Answering barrages, including a visitation to our own position which was +completely exposed, were in order. Howell himself had been knocked over +by a shell here during the last attack. One explanation given later by a +German officer for the tardiness of the German guns was that the staff +had thought the British too stupid to attack from that direction, which +pleased Howell as showing the advantage of racial reputation as an aid +to strategy. + +However, the German artillery was not altogether unresponsive. It was +putting some "krumps" into the neighborhood of the British first line +and one of the bands of prisoners ran into the burst of a +five-point-nine. Ran is the word, for they were going as fast as they +could to get beyond their own curtain of fire, which experience told +them would soon be due. I saw this lot submerged in the spout of smoke +and dust but did not see how many if any were hit, as the sound of a +machine gun drew my attention across the dead grass of the old No Man's +Land to the German--I should say the former German--first-line trench +where an Englishman had his machine gun on the _parados_ and was +sweeping the field across to the German second-line trench. Perhaps some +of the Germans who had run away from the barrage at the start had been +hiding in shell-craters or had shown signs of moving or there were +targets elsewhere. + +So far so good, as Howell remarked. That supposedly impregnable German +fortification that had repulsed the first British attempt had been taken +as easily as if it were a boy's snow fort, thanks to the patent curtain +of fire and the skill that had been developed by battle lessons. It was +retribution for the men who had fallen in vain on July 1st. Howell was +not thinking of that, but of the second objective in the afternoon's +plan. By this time not more than a quarter of an hour had elapsed since +the first charge had "gone over the lid." Out of the cut in the welt of +chalk the line of helmets rose again and England started across the +field toward the German second-line trench, which was really a part of +the main first-line fortification on the slope, in the same manner as +toward the first. + +What about their protecting barrage? My eyes had been so intently +occupied that my ears had been uncommunicative and in a start of glad +surprise I realized that the same infernal sweep of shells was going +overhead and farther up on the Ridge fireflies were flashing out of the +mantle of smoke that blanketed the second line. Now the background +better absorbed the khaki tint and the figures of the men became more +and more hazy until they disappeared altogether as the flashes in front +of them ceased. Howell had to translate from the signals results which I +could not visually verify. One by one items of news appeared in rocket +flashes through the gathering haze which began to obscure the slope +itself. + +"I think we have everything that we expected to take this afternoon," +said Howell, at length. "The Germans are very slow to respond. I think +we rather took them by surprise." + +They had not even begun shelling their old first line, which they ought +to have known was now in British possession and which they must have had +registered, as a matter of course; or possibly their own intelligence +was poor and they had no real information of what had been proceeding on +the slope under the clouds of smoke, or their wires had been cut and +their messengers killed by shell fire. This was certain, that the +British in the first-line German trench had a choice lot of dugouts in +good condition for shelter, as the patent barrage does not smash in the +enemy's homes, only closes the doors with curtains of death. + +"I hope you're improving your dugouts," British soldiers would call out +across No Man's Land, "as that is all the better for us when we take +them!" + +We stayed on till Howell's expert eye had had its fill of details, with +no burst of shells to interfere with our comfort; though by the rules we +ought to have had a good "strafing," which was another reminder of my +debt to the German for his consideration to the American correspondent +at the British front. + +"What do you think of our patent barrage, now?" said the artillery +general returning from his post of observation. + +"Wonderful!" was all that one could say. + +"A good show!" said Howell. + +The rejoicing of both was better expressed in their eyes than in words. +Good news, too, for the corps commander smoking his pipe and waiting, +and for every battalion engaged--oh, particularly for the battalions! + +"Congratulations!" The exclamation was passed back and forth as we met +other officers on our way to brigade headquarters in a dugout on the +hillside, where Howell's felicitations to the happy brigadier on the way +that his men had gone in were followed by suggestions and a discussion +about future plans, which I left to them while I had a look through the +brigadier's telescope at Thiepval Ridge under the patterns of shell fire +of average days, which proved that the Germans were making no attempt at +a counter-attack to recover lost ground. I imagined that the German +staff was dumfounded to hear that their redoubtable old first line could +possibly have been taken with so little fireworks. + +It was when I came to the guns on our return that I felt an awe which I +wanted to translate into appreciation. They were firing slowly now or +not firing at all, and the idle gunners were lounging about. They had +not seen their own curtain of fire or the infantry charge; they had been +as detached from the action as the crew of a battleship turret. It was +their accuracy and their cooerdination with the infantry and the +infantry's cooerdination with the barrage that had expressed better than +volumes of reports the possibilities of the offensive with waves of men +advancing behind waves of shell fire, which was applied in the taking of +Douaumont later and must be the solution of the problem of a decision +on the Western front. + +Above the communication trenches the steel helmets of the British and +the gray fatigue caps of German prisoners were bobbing toward the rear +and at the casualty clearing station the doctor said, "Very light!" in +answer to the question about losses. The prisoners were in unusually +good fettle even for men safe out of shell fire; many had no chalk on +their clothes to indicate a struggle. They had been sitting in their +dugouts and walked out when an Englishman appeared at the door. Yes, +they said that they had been caught just before relief, and the relief +had been carried out in an unexpected fashion. If they must be taken +they, too, liked the patent barrage. + +"I'll let you know when there's to be another show," said Howell, as we +parted at corps headquarters; but none could ever surpass this one in +its success or its opportunity of intimate observation. + +This was the last time I saw him. A few days later, on one of his tours +to study the ground for an attack, he was killed by a shell. Army custom +permits the mention of his name because he is dead. He was a steadfast +friend, an able soldier, an upright, kindly, high-minded gentleman; and +when I was asked, not by the lady who had never kept up her interest so +long in anything as in this war, but by another, if living at the front +is a big strain, the answer is in the word that comes that a man whom +you have just seen in the fulness of life and strength is gone. + + + + +XXV + +CANADA IS STUBBORN + + What is Canada fighting for?--The Kaiser has brought Canadians + together--The land of immense distances--Canada's unfaltering + spirit--Canada our nearest neighbor geographically and + sentimentally--Ypres salient mud--Canadians invented the trench + raid--A wrestling fight in the mud--Germans "try it on" the + Canadians--"The limit" in artillery fire--Maple Leaf spirit--Baseball + talk on the firing line--A good sprinkling of Americans. + + +One day the Canadians were to lift their feet out of the mire of the +Ypres salient and take the high, dry road to the Somme front, and anyone +with a whit of chivalry in his soul would have rejoiced to know that +they were to have their part in the big movement of Sept. 15th. But let +us consider other things and other fighting before we come to the taking +of Courcelette. + +When I was home in the winter of 1915-16, for the first time the border +between the United States and Canada drew a line in sharp contrasts. The +newspapers in Canada had their casualty lists, parents were giving their +sons and wives their husbands to go three thousand miles to endure +hardship and risk death for a cause which to them had no qualifications +of a philosophic internationalism. Everything was distinct. Sacrifice +and fortitude, life and death, and the simple meaning words were masters +of the vocabulary. + +Some people might ask why Canada should be pouring out her blood in +Europe; what had Flanders to do with her? England was fighting to save +her island, France for the sanctity of her soil, but what was Canada +fighting for? As I understood it, she was fighting for Canada. A blow +had been struck against her, though it was struck across the Atlantic, +and across the Atlantic she was going to strike back. + +She had had no great formative war. Pardeburg was a kind of expedition +of brave men, like the taking of San Juan Hill. It did not sink deep +into the consciousness of the average Canadian, who knew only that some +neighbor of his had been in South Africa. Our own formative war was the +Revolution, not the Civil War where brother fought brother. The +Revolution made a mold which, perhaps, instead of being impressed upon +succeeding generations of immigrants may have only given a veneer to +them. A war may be necessary to make them molten for another shaping. + +No country wanted war less than Canada, but when war came its flame made +Canada molten with Canadian patriotism. As George III. brought the +Carolinas and Massachusetts together, so the Kaiser has brought the +Canadian provinces together. The men from that cultivated, rolling +country of Southern Ontario, from New Brunswick and the plains and the +coast and a quota from the neat farms of Quebec have met face to face, +not on railroad trains, not through representatives in Parliament or in +convention, but in billets and trenches. Whatever Canada is, she is not +small. She is particularly the land of immense distances; her breadth is +greater than that of the United States. All of the great territorial +expanse of Canada in its manhood, in the thoughts of those at home, was +centered in a few square miles of Flanders. + +I was in Canada when only the first division had had its trial and +recruiting was at full blast; and again when three hundred and fifty +thousand had joined the colors and Canada, now feeling the full measure +of loss of life, seemed unfaltering, which was the more remarkable in a +new country where livelihood is easy to gain and Opportunity knocks at +the door of youth if he has only the energy to take her by the hand and +go her way. I may add that not all the youth about Toronto or any other +town who gave as their reason for not enlisting that they were American +citizens actually were. They were not "too _proud_ to fight," whatever +other reason they had, for they had no pride; and if honest Quakers they +would not have given a lying excuse. + +Out in France I heard talk about this Canadian brigade being better than +that one, and that an Eastern Canada man wanted no leading from a +Western Canada man, and that not all who were winning military crosses +were hardy frontiersmen but some were lawyers and clerks in Montreal or +Toronto--or should I put Toronto first, or perhaps Ottawa or +Winnipeg--and more talk expressive of the rivalry which generals say is +good for spirit of corps. Moose Jaw Street was across from Halifax +Avenue and Vancouver Road from Hamilton Place in the same community. + +As I was not connected with any part of Canada, the Canadians, with +their Maple Leaf emblem, were all Canadians to me; men across the border +which we pass in coming and going without change of language or +steam-heated cars or iced-water tanks. Some Canadians think that the +United States with its more than a hundred millions may feel patronizing +toward their eight millions, when after Courcelette if a Canadian had +patronized the United States I should not have felt offended. I have +even heard some fools say that the two countries might yet go to war, +which shows how absurd some men have to be in order to attract +attention. All of this way of thinking on both sides should be placed on +a raft in the middle of Lake Erie and supplied with bombs to fight it +out among themselves under a curtain of fire; and their relatives ought +to feel a deep relief after the excursion steamers that came from +Toronto, Cleveland and Buffalo to see the show had returned home. + +To listen to certain narrators you might think that it was the Allies +who always got the worst of it in the Ypres salient, but the German did +not like the salient any better than they. I never met anybody who did +like it. German prisoners said that German soldiers regarded it as a +sentence of death to be sent to the salient. There are many kinds of mud +and then there is Ypres salient mud, which is all kinds together with a +Belgian admixture. I sometimes thought that the hellish outbreaks by +both sides in this region were due to the reason which might have made +Job run amuck if all the temper he had stored up should have broken out +in a storm. + +This is certain, that the Canadians took their share in the buffets in +the mud, not through any staff calculation but partly through German +favoritism and the workings of German psychology. Consider that the +first volunteer troops to be put in the battle line in France weeks +before any of Kitchener's Army was the first Canadian division, in +answer to its own request for action, which is sufficient soldierly +tribute of a commander to Canadian valor! That proud first division, +after it had been well mud-soaked and had its hand in, was caught in +the gas attack. It refused to yield when it was only human to yield, and +stood resolute in the fumes between the Germans and success and even +counter-attacked. Moreover, it was Canadians who introduced the trench +raid. + +If the Canadians did not particularly love the Germans, do you see any +reason why the Germans should love the Canadians? It was unpleasant to +suffer repulse by troops from an unmilitary, new country. Besides, +German psychology reasoned that if Canadians at the front were made to +suffer heavy losses the men at home would be discouraged from enlisting. +Why not? What had Canada to gain by coming to fight in France? It does +not appear an illogical hypothesis until you know the Canadians. + +However, it must not be understood that other battalions, brigades and +divisions, English and Scotch, did not suffer as heavily as the +Canadians. They did; and do not forget that in the area which has seen +the hardest, bloodiest, meanest, nastiest, ghastliest fighting in the +history of the world the Germans, too, have had their full share of +losses. The truth is that if any normal man was stuck in the mud of the +Ypres salient and another wanted his place he would say, "Take it! I'm +only trying to get out! We've got equally bad morasses in the Upper +Yukon;" and retire to a hill and set up a machine gun. + +When a Canadian officer was asked if he had organized some trenches that +his battalion had taken his reply, "How can you organize pea soup?" +filled a long-felt want in expression to characterize the nature of +trench-making in that kind of terrain. Yet in that sea of slimy and +infected mush men have fought for the possession of cubic feet of the +mixture as if it had the qualities of Balm of Gilead--which was also +logical. What appears most illogical to the outsider is sometimes most +logical in war. It was a fight for mastery, and mastery is the first +step in a war of frontal positions. + +Many lessons the Canadians had to learn about organization and staff +work, about details of discipline which make for homogeneity of action, +and the divisions that came to join the first one learned their lessons +in the Ypres salient school, which gave hard but lasting tuition. I was +away when at St. Eloi they were put to such tests as only the salient +can provide. The time was winter, when chill water filled the +shell-craters and the soil oozed out of sandbags and the mist was a +cold, wet poultice. Men bred to a dry climate had to fight in a climate +better suited to the Englishman or the German than to the Canadian. +There could be no dugouts. Lift a spade of earth below the earth level +and it became a puddle. It was a wrestling fight in the mud, this, +holding onto shell-craters and the soft remains of trenches. The Germans +had heard that the Canadians were highstrung, nervous, quick for the +offensive, but badly organized and poor at sticking. The Canadians +proved that they could be stubborn and that their soldiers, even if they +had not had the directing system of an army staff that had prepared for +forty years, with two years of experience could act on their own in +resisting as well as in attacking. "Our men! our men!" the officers +would say. That was it: Canada's men, learning tactics in face of German +tactics and holding their own! + +When all was peaceable up and down the line, with the Grand Offensive a +month away, the Germans once more "tried it on" the Canadians in the +Hooge and Mount Sorrell sector, where the positions were all in favor of +the Germans with room to plant two guns to one around the bulging +British line. For many days they had been quietly registering as they +massed their artillery for their last serious effort during the season +of 1916 in the north. + +Anything done to the Canadians always came close home to me; and news of +this attack and of its ferocity to anyone knowing the positions was +bound to carry apprehension, lasting only until we learned that the +Canadians were already counter-attacking, which set your pulse tingling +and little joy-bells ringing in your head. It meant, too, that the +Germans could not have developed any offensive that would be serious to +the situation as a whole at that moment, in the midst of preparations +for the Somme. Nothing could be seen of the fight, even had one known +that it was coming, in that flat region where everyone has to follow a +communication trench with only the sky directly overhead visible. + +There was an epic quality in the story of what happened as you heard it +from the survivors. It was an average quiet morning in the first-line +trenches when the German hurricane broke from all sides; but first-line +trenches is not the right phrase, for all the protection that could be +made was layers of sandbags laboriously filled and piled to a thickness +sufficient to stop a bullet at short range. + +What luxury in security were the dugouts of the Somme hills compared to +the protection that could be provided here! When the first series of +bursts announced the storm you could not descend a flight of steps to a +cavern whose roof was impenetrable even by five-hundred-pound shells. +Little houses of sandbags with corrugated tin roofs, in some instances +level with the earth, which any direct hit could "do in" were the best +that generous army resources could permit. High explosive shells must +turn such breastworks into rags and heaps of earth. There was nothing to +shoot at if a man tried to stick to the parapet, for fresh troops fully +equipped for their task back in the German trenches waited on demolition +of the Canadian breastworks before advancing under their own barrage. +Shrapnel sent down its showers, while the trench walls were opened in +great gaps and tossed heavenward. Officers clambered about in the midst +of the spouts of dust and smoke over the piles and around the craters, +trying to keep in touch with their men, when it was a case of every man +taking what cover he could. + +"The limit!" as the men said. "The absolute limit in an artillery +concentration!" + +But they did not go--not until they had orders. This was their kind of +discipline under fire; they "stayed on the job." One group charged out +beyond the swath of fire to meet the Germans in the open and there +fought to the death in expression of characteristic initiative. When +word was passed to retire, some grudgingly held on to fight the +outnumbering Germans in the midst of the debris and escaped only by +passing through the German barrage placed between the first and second +line to cover the German advance on the second. The supports themselves +under the carefully arranged pattern of shell fire held as the +rallying-points of the survivors, who found the communication trenches +so badly broken that it was as well to keep in the open. Little knots of +men with their defenses crushed held from the instinctive sense of +individual stubbornness. + +To tell the whole story of that day as of many other days where a few +battalions were engaged, giving its fair due to each group in the +struggle, is not for a correspondent who had to cover the length of the +battle line and sees the whole as an example of Maple Leaf spirit. The +rest is for battalion historians, who will find themselves puzzled about +an action where there was little range of vision and this obscured by +shell-smoke and the preoccupation of each man trying to keep cover and +do his own part to the death. + +In the farmhouses afterward, as groups of officers tried to assemble +their experiences, I had the feeling of being in touch with the proof of +all that I had seen in Canada months previously. Losses had been heavy +for the battalions engaged though not for the Canadian corps as a whole, +no heavier than British battalions or the Germans had suffered in the +salient. Canada happened to get the blow this time. + +The men, after a night's sleep and writing home that they were safe and +how comrades had died, might wander about the roads or make holiday as +they chose. They were not casual about the fight, but outspoken and +frank, Canadian fashion. They realized what they had been through and +spoke of their luck in having survived. From the fields came the cry of, +"Leave that to me!" as a fly rose from the bat, or, "Out on first!" as +men took a rest from shell-curves and high explosives with baseball +curves and hot liners between the bases, which was very homelike there +in Flanders. Which of the players was American one could not tell by +voice or looks, for the climate along the border makes a type of +complexion and even of features with the second generation which is +readily distinguished from the English type. + +"What part of Canada do you come from?" asked an officer of a private. + +"Out west, sir!" + +"What part of the west?" + +"'Way out west, sir!" + +"An officer is asking you. Be definite." + +"Well, the State of Washington, sir." + +There was a good sprinkling of Americans in the battle, including +officers; but on the baseball field and the battlefield they were a part +of the whole, performing their task in a way that left no doubt of +their quality. Whether the spirit of adventure or the principle at stake +had brought her battalions to Flanders, Canada had proved that she could +be stubborn. She was to have her chance to prove that she could be +quick. + + + + +XXVI + +THE TANKS ARRIVE + + The New Army Irish--Irish wit--And Irish courage--Pompous Prussian + Guard officer--The British Guards and their characteristics--Who + invented the tank?--The great secret--Combination of an armadillo, a + caterpillar, a diplodocus, a motor car and a traveling + circus--Something really new on the front--Gas attacks--A tank in the + road--A moving "strong point"--Making an army laugh--Suspense for the + inmates of the untried tanks. + + +The situation on the Ridge was where we left it in a previous chapter +with all except a few parts of it held, enough for a jumping-off place +at all points for the sweep down into the valley toward Bapaume. In the +grim preliminary business of piecemeal gains which should make possible +an operation over a six-mile front on Sept. 15th, which was the first +general attack since July 14th, the part that the Irish battalions +played deserves notice, where possibly the action of the tried and +sturdy English regiments on their flanks need not be mentioned, as being +characteristic of the work they had been doing for months. + +They were the New Army Irish, all volunteers, men who had enlisted to +fight against Germany when their countrymen were largely disaffected, +which requires more initiative than to join the colors when it is the +universal passion of the community. Many stories were told of this Irish +division. If there are ten Irishmen among a hundred soldiers the stories +have a way of being about the ten Irishmen. + +I like that one of the Connaught man who, on his first day in the +trenches, was set to digging out the dirt that had been filled into a +trench by a shell-burst. Along came another shell before he was half +through his task; the burst of a second knocked him over and doubled the +quantity of earth before him. When he picked himself up he went to the +captain and threw down his spade, saying: + +"Captain, I can't finish that job without help. They're gaining on me!" + +Some people thought that the Sinn Fein movement which had lately broken +out in the Dublin riots would make the new Irish battalions lukewarm in +any action. They would go in but without putting spirit into their +attack. Other skeptics questioned if the Irish temperament which was +well suited to dashing charges would adapt itself to the matter-of-fact +necessities of the Somme fighting. Their commander, however, had no +doubts; and the army had none when the test was made. + +Through Guillemont, that wicked resort of machine guns, which had been +as severely hammered by shell fire after it had repulsed British attacks +as any village on the Somme, the Irish swept in good order, cleaning up +dugouts and taking prisoners on the way with all the skill of veterans +and a full relish of the exploit, and then forward, as a well-linked +part of a successful battle line, to the sunken road which was the +second objective. + +"I thought we were to take a village, Captain," said one of the men, +after they were established in the sunken road. "What are we stopping +here for?" + +"We have taken it. You passed through it--that grimy patch +yonder"--which was Guillemont's streets and houses mixed in ruins five +hundred yards to the rear. + +"You're sure, Captain?" + +"Quite!" + +"Well, then, I'd not like to be the drunken man that tried to find his +keyhole in that town!" + +It was a pity, perhaps, that the Irish who assisted in the taking of +Ginchy, which completed the needful mastery of the Ridge for British +purposes, could not have taken part in the drive that was to follow. We +had looked forward to this drive as the reward of a down hill run after +the patient labor of wrenching our way up hill. Even the Germans, who +had suffered appalling losses in trying to hold the Ridge, must have +been relieved that they no longer had to fight against the inevitable. + +Again the clans were gathering and again there ran through the army the +anticipation which came from the preparation for a great blow. The +Canadians were appearing in billets back of the front. If in no other +way, I should have known of their presence by their habit of moving +about roads and fields getting acquainted with their surroundings and +finding out if apples were ripe. For other portions of the country it +was a little unfair that these generous and well-paid spenders should +take the place of the opulent Australians in villages where small boys +already had hordes of pennies and shopkeepers were hastening to +replenish their stocks to be equal to their opportunities. + +At last the Guards, too, were to have their turn, but not to go in +against the Prussian Guard, which those with a sense of histrionic +fitness desired. When a Prussian Guard officer had been taken at +Contalmaison he had said, "The Prussian Guard feels that it is +surrendering to a foe worthy of its steel when it yields to superior +numbers of the English Guard!" or words to that effect according to +reports, only to receive the answer that his captors were English +factory hands and the like of the New Army, whose officers excused +themselves, in the circumstances, for their identity as politely as +they could. + +Grenadiers, Coldstreams, Scottish, or Irish, the Guards were the Guards, +England's crack regiments, the officers of each wearing their buttons in +a distinctive way and the tall privates saluting with the distinctive +Guards' salute. In the Guards the old spirit of gaiety in face of danger +survived. Their officers out in shell-craters under curtains of fire +joked one another with an aristocratic, genial sangfroid, the slender +man who had a nine-inch crater boasting of his luck over the thickset +man who tried to accommodate himself to a five-inch, while a colonel +blew his hunting-horn in the charge, which the Guards made in a manner +worthy of tradition. + +Though the English would have been glad to go against the Prussian Guard +with bayonet or bomb or a free-for-all, army commanders in these days +are not signaling to the enemy, "Let us have a go between your Guards +and our Guards!" but are putting crack regiments and line regiments in a +battle line to a common task, where the only criterion is success. + +The presence of the Guards, however, yielded interest to another new +arrival on the Somme front. When the plan for a style of armored motor +car which would cross shell-craters and trenches was laid before an +eminent general at the War Office, what he wrote in dismissing it from +further consideration might have been more blasphemous if he could have +spared the time to be anything but satirically brief. Such conservatives +probably have prevented many improvements from materializing, and +probably they have also saved the world from many futile creations which +would only have wasted time and material. + +Happily both for geniuses and fools, who all, in the long run, let us +hope, receive their just deserts, there is no downing an idea in a free +country where continued knocking at doors and waiting in hallways +eventually secure it a trial. Then, if it succeeds, the fellow who +thought that the conception was original with him finds his claims +disputed from all points of the compass. If it fails, the poor thing +goes to a fatherless grave. + +I should like to say that I was the originator of the tank--one of the +originators. In generous mood, I am willing to share honors with rivals +too numerous to mention. Haven't I also looked across No Man's Land +toward the enemy's parapet? Whoever has must have conjectured about a +machine that would take frontal positions with less loss of life than is +usual and would solve the problem of breaking the solid line of the +Western front. The possibility has haunted every general, every +soldier. + +Some sort of armadillo or caterpillar which would resist bullet fire was +the most obvious suggestion, but when practical construction was +considered, the dreamer was brought down from the empyrean, where the +aeroplane is at home, to the forge and the lathe, where grimy machinists +are the pilots of a matter-of-fact world. Application was the thing. I +found myself so poor at it that I did not even pass on my plan to the +staff, which had already considered a few thousand plans. Ericsson +conceiving a gun in a revolving turret was not so great a man as +Ericsson making the monitor a practicable engine of war. + +To Lieutenant-Colonel Swinton, of the Engineers, was given the task of +transforming blue-print plans into reality. There was no certainty that +he would succeed, but the War Office, when it had need for every foundry +and every skilled finger in the land, was enterprising enough to give +him a chance. He and thousands of workmen spent months at this most +secret business. If one German spy had access to one workman, then the +Germans might know what was coming. Nobody since Ericsson had a busier +time than Swinton without telling anybody what he was doing. The +whisperers knew that some diabolical surprise was under way and they +would whisper about it. No censor regulations can reach them. Sometimes +the tribe was given false information in great confidence in order to +keep it too occupied to pass on the true. + +The new monster was called a tank because it was not like a tank; yet it +seemed to me as much like a tank as like anything else. As a tank is a +receptacle for a liquid, it was a name that ought to mask a new type of +armored motor car as successfully as any name could. Flower pot would +have been too wide of the mark. A tank might carry a new kind of gas or +a burning liquid to cook or frizzle the adversary. + +Considering the size of the beast, concealment seemed about as difficult +as for a suburban cottager to keep the fact that he had an elephant on +the premises from his next-door neighbor; but the British Army has +become so used to slipping ships across the channel in face of submarine +danger that nobody is surprised at anything that appears at the front +unheralded. + +One day the curtain rose, and the finished product of all the +experiments and testing appeared at the British front. Hundreds of +thousands of soldiers were now in the secret. "Have you seen the tanks?" +was the question up and down the line. All editors were inventing their +own type of tank. Though I have patted one on the shoulder in a familiar +way, as I might stroke the family cat, it neither kicked nor bit me. +Though I have been inside of one, I am not supposed to know at this +writing anything about its construction. Unquestionably the tank +resembles an armadillo, a caterpillar, a diplodocus, a motor car, and a +traveling circus. It has more feet than a caterpillar, and they have +steel toenails which take it over the ground; its hide is more resistant +than an armadillo's, and its beauty of form would make the diplodocus +jealous. No pianist was ever more temperamental; no tortoise ever more +phlegmatic. + +In summer heat, when dust clouds hung thick on the roads behind the +shell clouds of the fields, when the ceaseless battle had been going on +for two months and a half, the soldiers had their interest stimulated by +a mechanical novelty just before a general attack. Two years of war had +cumulatively desensitized them to thrills. New batteries moving into +position were only so many more guns. Fresh battalions marching to the +front were only more infantry, all of the same pattern, equipped in the +same way, moving with the same fixed step. Machine gun rattles had +become as commonplace as the sound of creaking caisson wheels. Gas +shells, lachrymatory shells and _Flammenwerfer_ were as old-fashioned as +high explosives and shrapnel. Bombing encounters in saps had no +variation. The ruins of the village taken to-day could not be told from +the one taken yesterday except by its location on the map. Even the +aeroplanes had not lately developed any sensational departures from +habit. One paid little more attention to them than a gondolier pays to +the pigeons of St. Mark's. Curtains of fire all looked alike. There was +no new way of being killed--nothing to break the ghastly monotony of +charges and counter-charges. + +All the brains of Europe had been busy for two years inventing new forms +of destruction, yet no genius had found any sinuous creature that would +creep into dugouts with a sting for which there was no antidote. +Everybody was engaged in killing, yet nobody was able to "kill to his +satisfaction," as the Kentucky colonel said. The reliable methods were +the same as of old and as I have mentioned elsewhere: projectiles +propelled by powder, whether from long-necked naval guns at twenty +thousand yards, or short-necked howitzers at five thousand yards, or +rifles and machine guns at twenty-five hundred yards, or trench mortars +coughing balls of explosives for one thousand yards. + +True, the gas attack at Ypres had been an innovation. It was not a +discovery; merely an application of ghastliness which had been +considered too horrible for use. As a surprise it had been +successful--once. The defense answered with gas masks, which made it +still more important that soldiers should not be absent-minded and leave +any of their kit out of reach. The same amount of energy put into +projectiles would have caused more casualties. Meanwhile, no staff of +any army, making its elaborate plans in the use of proved weapons, could +be certain that the enemy had not under way, in this age of invention +which has given us the wireless, some new weapon which would be +irresistible. + +Was the tank this revolutionary wonder? Its sponsors had no such hope. +England went on building guns and pouring out shells, cartridges and +bombs. At best, the tanks were another application of an old, +established form of killing in vogue with both Daniel Boone and +Napoleon's army--bullets. + +The first time that I saw a tank, the way that the monster was blocking +a road gorged with transport had something of the ludicrousness of, say, +a pliocene monster weighing fifty tons which had nonchalantly lain down +at Piccadilly Circus when the traffic was densest. Only the motor-truck +drivers and battalions which were halted some distance away minded the +delay. Those near by were sufficiently entertained by the spectacle +which stopped them. They gathered around the tank and gaped and grinned. + +The tank's driver was a brown-skinned, dark-haired Englishman, with a +face of oriental stolidity. Questions were shot at him, but he would not +even say whether his beast would stand without hitching or not; whether +it lived on hay, talcum powder, or the stuff that bombs are made of; or +what was the nature of its inwards, or which was the head and which the +tail, or if when it seemed to be backing it was really going forward. + +By the confession of some white lettering on its body, it was officially +one of His Majesty's land ships. It no more occurred to anyone to +suggest that it move on and clear the road than to argue with a bulldog +which confronts you on a path. I imagined that the feelings of the young +officer who was its skipper must have been much the same as those of a +man acting as his own chauffeur and having a breakdown on a holiday in a +section of town where the population was as dense as it was curious in +the early days of motoring. For months he had been living a cloistered +life to keep his friends from knowing what he was doing, as he worked to +master the eccentricities of his untried steed, his life and the lives +of his crew depending upon this mastery. Now he had stepped from behind +the curtain of military secrecy into the full blaze of staring, +inquiring publicity. + +The tank's inclination was entirely reptilian. Its body hugged the earth +in order to expose as little surface as possible to the enemy's fire; it +was mottled like a toad in patches of coloring to add to its low +visibility, and there was no more hop in it than in the Gila monster. + +The reason of its being was obvious. Its hide being proof against the +bullets of machine guns and rifles, it was a moving "strong point" which +could go against the enemy's fixed strong points, where machine guns +were emplaced to mow down infantry charges, with its own machine guns. +Only now it gave no sign of moving. As a mechanical product it was no +more remarkable than a steam shovel. The wonder was in the part that it +was about to play. A steam shovel is a labor-saving, and this a +soldier-saving, device. + +For the moment it seemed a leviathan dead weight in the path of traffic. +If it could not move of itself, the only way for traffic to pass was to +build a road around it. Then there was a rumbling noise within its body +which sounded like some unnatural gasoline engine, and it hitched itself +around with the ponderosity of a canal boat being warped into a dock and +proceeded on its journey to take its appointed place in the battle line. + +Did the Germans know that the tanks were building? I think that they had +some inkling a few weeks before the tanks' appearance that something of +the sort was under construction. There was a report, too, of a German +tank which was not ready in time to meet the British. Some German +prisoners said that their first intimation of this new affliction was +when the tanks appeared out of the morning mist, bearing down on the +trenches; others said that German sausage observation balloons had seen +something resembling giant turtles moving across the fields up to the +British lines and had given warning to the infantry to be on the +lookout. + +Thus, something new had come into the war, deepening the thrill of +curiosity and intensifying the suspense before an attack. The world, its +appetite for novelty fed by the press, wanted to know all about the +tanks; but instead of the expected mechanical details, censorship would +permit only vague references to the tanks' habits and psychology, and +the tanks were really strong on psychology--subjectively and +objectively. It was the objective result in psychology that counted: the +effect on the fighting men. Human imagination immediately characterized +them as living things; monstrous comrades of infantry in attack. + +Blessed is the man, machine, or incident that will make any army laugh +after over two months of battle. Individuals were always laughing over +incidents; but here hundreds of thousands of men were to see a new style +of animal perform elephantine tricks. The price of admission to the +theater was the risk of a charge in their company, and the prospect gave +increased zest to battalions taking their place for next day's action. +What would happen to the tanks? What would they do to the Germans? + +The staff, which had carefully calculated their uses and limitations, +had no thought that the tanks would go to Berlin. They were simply a new +auxiliary. Probably the average soldier was skeptical of their +efficiency; but his skepticism did not interfere with his curiosity. He +wanted to see the beast in action. + +Christopher Columbus crossing uncharted seas did not undertake a more +daring journey than the skippers of the tanks. The cavalryman who +charges the enemy's guns in an impulse knows only a few minutes of +suspense. A torpedo destroyer bent on coming within torpedo range in +face of blasts from a cruiser's guns, the aviator closing in on an +enemy's plane, have the delirium of purpose excited by speed. But the +tanks are not rapid. They are ponderous and relatively slow. Columbus +had already been to sea in ships. The aviator and the commander of a +destroyer know their steeds and have precedent to go by, while the +skippers of the tanks had none. They went forth with a new kind of ship +on a new kind of sea, whose waves were shell-craters, whose tempests +sudden concentrations of shell fire. + +The Germans might have full knowledge of the ships' character and await +their appearance with forms of destruction adapted to the purpose. All +was speculation and uncertainty. Officers and crew were sealed up in a +steel box, the sport of destiny. For months they had been preparing for +this day, the crowning experiment and test, and all seemed of a type +carefully chosen for their part, soldiers who had turned land sailors, +cool and phlegmatic like the monsters which they directed. Each one +having given himself up to fate, the rest was easy in these days of +war's superexaltation, which makes men appear perfectly normal when +death hovers near. Not one would have changed places with any +infantryman. Already they had _esprit de corps_. They belonged to an +exclusive set of warriors. + +Lumberingly dipping in and out of shell-craters, which sometimes half +concealed the tanks like ships in a choppy sea, rumbling and wrenching, +they appeared out of the morning mist in face of the Germans who put up +their heads and began working their machine guns after the usual +artillery curtain of fire had lifted. + + + + +XXVII + +THE TANKS IN ACTION + + How the tanks attacked--A tank walking up the main Street of a + village--Effect on the Germans--Prussian colonel surrenders to a + tank--Tanks against trees--The tank in High Wood--The famous Creme de + Menthe--Demolishing a sugar factory--Germans take the tanks + seriously--Differences of opinion regarding tanks--Wandering + tanks--German attack on a stranded tank--Prehistoric turtles--Saving + twenty-five thousand casualties. + + +With the reverse slope of the Ridge to conceal their approach to the +battle line, the tanks squatting among the men at regular intervals over +a six-mile front awaiting the cue of zero for the attack at dawn and the +mist still holding to cover both tanks and men, the great Somme stage +was set in a manner worthy of the debut of the new monsters. + +A tactical system of cooerdinated action had been worked out for the +infantry and the untried auxiliary, which only experienced soldiers +could have applied with success. According to the nature of the +positions in front, the tanks were set definite objectives or left to +find their own objectives. They might move on located machine gun +positions or answer a hurry call for help from the infantry. Ahead of +them was a belt of open field between them and the villages whose +capture was to be the consummation of the day's work. While observers +were straining their eyes to follow the progress of the tanks and seeing +but little, corps headquarters eagerly awaited news of the most +picturesque experiment of the war, which might prove ridiculous, or be a +wonderful success, or simply come up to expectations. + +No more thrilling message was ever brought by an aeroplane than that +which said that a tank was "walking" up the main street of Flers +surrounded by cheering British soldiers, who were in possession of the +village. "Walking" was the word officially given; and very much walking, +indeed, the tank must have seemed to the aviator in his swift flight. An +eagle looked down on a tortoise which had a serpent's sting. This tank, +having attended to its work on the way, passed on through Flers bearing +a sign: "Extra Special! Great Hun Victory!" Beyond Flers it found itself +alongside a battery of German field guns and blazed bullets into the +amazed and helpless gunners. + +The enemy may have heard of the tanks, but meeting them was a different +matter. After he had fought shells, bullets, bombs, grenades, mortars, +bayonets and gas, the tank was the straw that broke the camel's back of +many a German. A steel armadillo laying its bulk across a trench and +sweeping it on both sides with machine guns brought the familiar +complaint that this was not fighting according to rules in a war which +ceased to have rules after the bombing of civilian populations, the +sinking of the _Lusitania_, and the gas attack at Ypres. It depends on +whose ox is gored. There is a lot of difference between seeing the enemy +slaughtered by some new device and being slaughtered by one yourself. No +wonder that German prisoners who had escaped alive from a trench filled +with dead, when they saw a tank on the road as they passed to the rear +threw up their hands with a guttural: "Mein Gott! There is another! +There is no fighting that! This is not war; it is butchery!" Yes, it was +butchery--and butchery is war these days. Wasn't it so always? And as a +British officer remarked to the protestants: + +"The tank is entirely in keeping with Hague rules, being only armor, +machinery and machine guns." + +Germans surrendered to a tank in bodies after they saw the hopelessness +of turning their own machine gun and rifle fire upon that steel hide. +Why not? Nothing takes the fight out of anyone like finding that his +blows go into the air and the other fellow's go home. There seemed a +strange loss of dignity when a Prussian colonel delivered himself to a +tank, which took him on board and eventually handed him over to an +infantry guard; but the skipper of the tank enjoyed it if the colonel +did not. + +The surprising thing was how few casualties there were among the crews +of the tanks, who went out prepared to die and found themselves safe in +their armored shells after the day's fight was over, whether their ships +had gone across a line of German trenches, developed engine trouble, or +temporarily foundered in shell-holes. Bullets had merely made +steel-bright flecks on the tanks' paint and shrapnel had equally failed +to penetrate the armor. + +Among the imaginary tributes paid to the tank's powers is that it "eats" +trees--that is to say, it can cut its way through a wood--and that it +can knock down a stone wall. As it has no teeth it cannot masticate +timber. All that it accomplishes must be done by ramming or by lifting +up its weight to crush an obstacle. A small tree or a weak wall yields +before its mass. + +As foresters, the tanks had a stiff task in High Wood, where the Germans +had held to the upper corner with their nests of machine guns which the +preliminary bombardment of British artillery had not silenced and they +began their murderous song immediately the British charge started. They +commanded the front and the flanks if the men continued to advance and +therefore might make a break in the whole movement, which was precisely +the object of the desperate resistance that had preserved this strong +point at any cost against the rushes of British bombers, trench mortars +and artillery shells for two months. + +Soldiers are not expected to undertake the impossible. Nobody who is +sane will leap into a furnace with a cup of water to put out the fire. +Only a battalion commander who is a fool will refuse, in face of +concentrated machine gun fire, to stop the charge. + +"Leave it to me!" was the unspoken message communicated to the infantry +by the sight of that careening, dipping, clambering, steel body as it +rumbled toward the miniature fortress. And the infantry, as it saw the +tank's machine guns blazing, left it to the tank, and, working its way +to the right, kept in touch with the general line of attack, confident +that no enemy would be left behind to fire into their backs. Thus, a +handful of men capable, with their bullet sprays, of holding up a +thousand men found the tables turned on them by another handful manning +a tank. They were simply "done in," as the tank officer put it. Safe +behind his armor, he had them no less at his mercy than a submarine has +a merchant ship. Even if unarmed, a tank could take care of an isolated +machine gun position by sitting on it. + +One of the most famous tanks was Creme de Menthe. She had a good press +agent and also made good. She seemed to like sugar. At least, her +glorious exploit was in a sugar factory, a huge building of brick with a +tall brick chimney which had been brought down by shell fire. Underneath +the whole were immense dugouts still intact where German machine gunners +lay low, like Br'er Rabbit, as usual, while the shells of the artillery +preparation were falling, and came out to turn on the bullet spray as +the British infantry approached. British do the same against German +attacks; only in the battle of the Somme the British had been always +attacking, always taking machine gun positions. + +Creme de Menthe, chosen comrade of the Canadians on their way to the +taking of Courcelette, was also at home among debris. The Canadians saw +that she was as she moved toward it with the glee of a sea lion toward a +school of fish. She did not go dodging warily, peering around corners +with a view to seeing the enemy before she was seen. Whatever else a +tank is, it is not a crafty boy scout. It is brazenly and nonchalantly +public in its methods, like a steam roller coming down the street into a +parade without regard to the rules of the road. Externally it is not +temperamental. It does not bother to follow the driveway or mind the +"Keep Off the Grass" sign when it goes up to the entrance of a dugout. + +And Creme de Menthe took the sugar factory and a lot of prisoners. "Why +not?" as one of the Canadians said. "Who wouldn't surrender when a beast +of that kind came up to the door? It was enough to make a man who had +drunk only light Munich beer wonder if he had 'got 'em!'" + +Prisoners were a good deal of bother to the tanks. Perhaps future tanks +will be provided with pockets for carrying prisoners. But the future of +tanks is wrapped in mystery at the present. + +This is not taking them seriously, you may say. In that case, I am only +reflecting the feelings of the army. Even if the tanks had taken Bapaume +or gone to the Kaiser's headquarters, the army would have laughed at +them. It was the Germans who took the tanks seriously; and the more +seriously the Germans took the tanks the more the British laughed. + +"Of all the double-dyed, ridiculous things, was the way that Creme de +Menthe person took the sugar factory!" said a Canadian, who broke into a +roar at the recollection of the monster's antics. "Good old girl, Creme +de Menthe! Ought to retire her for life and let her sit up on her +haunches in a cafe and sip her favorite tipple out of barrel with a +garden hose for a straw--which would be about her size." + +However, there was a variation of opinions among soldiers about tanks +drawn from personal experience, when life and death form opinions, of +the way it had acted as an auxiliary to their part of the line. A tank +that conquered machine-gun positions and enfiladed trenches was an +heroic comrade surrounded by a saga of glorious anecdotes. One which +became stalled and failed in its enterprise called for satirical comment +which was applied to all. + +We did not personify machine guns, or those monstrous, gloomy, big +howitzers with their gaping maws, or other weapons; but every man in the +army personified the tanks. Two or three tanks, I should have remarked, +did start for Berlin, without waiting for the infantry. The temptation +was strong. All they had to do was to keep on moving. When Germans +scuttling for cover were the only thing that the skippers could see, +they realized that they were in the wrong pew, or, in strictly military +language, that they had got beyond their "tactical objective." + +Having left most of their ammunition where they thought that it would do +the most good in the German lines, these wanderers hitched themselves +around and waddled back to their own people. For a tank is an auxiliary, +not an army, or an army staff, or a curtain of fire, and must cooeperate +with the infantry or it may be in the enemy's lines to stay. There was +one tank which found itself out of gasoline and surrounded by Germans. +It could move neither way, but could still work its guns. Marooned on a +hostile shore, it would have to yield when the crew ran out of food. + +The Germans charged the beast, and got under its guns, pounded at the +door, tried to bomb and pry it open with bayonets and crawled over the +top looking for dents in the armor with the rage of hornets, but in +vain. They could not harm the crew inside and the crew could not harm +them. + +"A noisy lot!" said the tank's skipper. + +Tactical objective be--British soldiers went to the rescue of their +tank. Secure inside their shell, the commander and crew awaited the +result of the fight. After the Germans were driven away, someone went +for a can of gasoline, which gave the beast the breath of life to +retreat to its "correct tactical position." + +Even if it had not been recovered at the time, the British would have +regained possession with their next advance; for the Germans had no way +of taking a tank to the rear. There are no tractors powerful enough to +draw one across the shell-craters. It can be moved only by its own +power, and with its engine out of order it becomes a fixture on the +landscape. Stranded tanks have an appearance of Brobdingnagian +helplessness. They are fair targets for revenge by a concentration of +German artillery fire; yet when half hidden in a gigantic shell-hole +which they could not navigate they are a small target and, their tint +melting into the earth, are hard to locate. + +Seen through the glasses, disregarding ordinary roads and traveled +routes, the tanks' slatey backs seemed like prehistoric turtles whose +natural habitat is shell-mauled earth. They were the last word in the +business of modern war, symbolic of its satire and the old strife +between projectile and armor, offensive and defensive. If two tanks were +to meet in a duel, would they try to ram each other after ineffectually +rapping each other with their machine guns? + +"I hope that it knows where it is going!" exclaimed a brigadier-general, +as he watched one approach his dugout across an abandoned trench, +leaning over a little as it dipped into the edge of a shell-crater some +fifteen feet in diameter with its sureness of footing on a rainy day +when a pedestrian slipped at every step. + +There was no indication of any guiding human intelligence, let alone +human hand, directing it; and, so far as one could tell, it might have +mistaken the general's underground quarters for a storage station where +it could assuage its thirst for gasoline or a blacksmith's shop where it +could have a bent steel claw straightened. When, finally, it stopped at +his threshold, the general expressed his relief that it had not tried to +come down the steps. A door like that of a battleship turret opened, and +out of the cramped interior where space for crew and machinery is so +nicely calculated came the skipper, who saluted and reported that his +ship awaited orders for the next cruise. + +Soon the sight of tanks became part of the routine of existence, and +interest in watching an advance centered on the infantry which they +supported in a charge; for only by its action could you judge whether or +not machine gun fire had developed and, later, whether or not the tanks +were silencing it. The human element was still supreme, its movement and +its losses in life the criterion of success and failure, with an eternal +thrill that no machine can arouse. If the tanks had accomplished nothing +more than they did in the two great September attacks they would have +been well worth while. I think that they saved twenty-five thousand +casualties, which would have been the additional cost of gaining the +ground won by unassisted infantry action. When machines manned by a few +men can take the place of many battalions in this fashion they exemplify +the essential principle of doing the enemy a maximum of damage with a +minimum to your own forces. + + + + +XXVIII + +CANADA IS QUICK + + Canada's first offensive--The "surprise party"--Over nasty + ground--Canada's hour--Germans amazed--Business of the Canadians to + "get there"--Two difficult villages--Canadians make new + rules--Canada's green soldiers accomplish an unheard of + feat--Attacking on their nerve--The last burst--Fewer Canadians than + Germans, but--"Mopping up"--Rounding up the captives--An aristocratic + German and a democratic Canadian--French-Canadians--Thirteen + counter-attacks beaten--Quickness and adaptability--Canada's soldiers + make good. + + +The tanks having received their theatric due, we come to other results +of Sept. 14th when the resistance of the right was stiff and Canada had +her turn of fortune in sharing in the brilliant success on the left. + +It was the Canadians' first offensive. They knew that the eyes of the +army were upon them. Not only for themselves, after parrying blows +throughout their experience at the front, but in the name of other +battalions that had endured the remorseless grind of the Ypres salient +they were to strike the blows of retribution. The answer as to how they +would charge was written in faces clear-cut by the same climate that +gave them their nervous alertness. + +On that ugly part of the Ridge where no stable trench could be made +under the vengeful German artillery fire and small numbers were shrewdly +distributed in shell-craters and such small ditches as could be +maintained, they crept out in the darkness a few days before the attack +to "take over" from the Australians and familiarize themselves with this +tempest-torn farming land which still heaved under tornadoes of shells. +The men from the faraway island continent had provided the jumping-off +place and the men from this side of the Pacific and the equator were to +do the jumping, which meant a kind of overseas monopoly of Pozieres +Ridge. + +The Germans still hated the idea of yielding all the crest that stared +down on them and hid the slope beyond which had once been theirs. They +would try again to recover some of it, but chose a time for their effort +which was proof enough that they did not know that a general attack was +coming. Just before dawn, with zero at dawn, when the Canadians were +forming on the reverse slope for their charge, the Germans laden with +bombs made theirs and secured a footing in the thin front line among the +shell-craters and, grim shadows in the night lighted by bursts of bombs +and shells, struggled as they have on many similar occasions. + +Then came the "surprise party." Not far away the Canadian charge waited +on the tick of the second which was to release the six-mile line of +infantry and the tanks. + +"We were certainly keyed up," as one of the men said. "It was up to us +all right, now." + +Breasting the tape in their readiness for the word, the dry air of North +America with its champagne exhilaration was in their lungs whipping +their red corpuscles. They had but one thought and that was to "get +there." No smooth drill-ground for that charge, but earth broken with +shell-craters as thick as holes in a pepper-box cover! A man might +stumble into one, but he must get up and go on. One fellow who twisted +his ankle found it swollen out of all shape when the charge was over. If +he had given it such a turn at home he would not have attempted to move +but would have called for a cab or assistance. Under the spell of action +he did not even know that he was hurt. + +It was Canada's hour; all the months of drill at home, all the dreams on +board the transport of charges to come, all the dull monotony of +billets, all the slimy vigil of trenches, all the labor of preparation +come to a head for every individual. Such was the impulse of the tidal +wave which broke over the crest upon the astounded Germans who had +gained a footing in the trench, engulfing them in as dramatic an +episode as ever occurred on the Somme front. + +"Give yourselves up and be quick about it! We've business elsewhere!" +said the officers. + +Yes, they had business with the German first-line trench when the +artillery curtain lifted, where few Germans were found, most of them +having been in the charge. The survivors here put up their hands before +they put up their heads from shelter and soon were on their way back to +the rear in the company of the others. + +"I guess we had the first batch of prisoners to reach an inclosure on +the morning of the 14th," said one Canadian. "We had a start with some +coming into our own front line to be captured." + +On the left Mouquet Farm, which, with its unsurpassed dugouts and +warrens surrounded by isolated machine gun posts, had repulsed previous +attacks, could not resist the determined onslaught which will share +glory, when history is written, with the storming of Courcelette. Down +hill beside the Bapaume Road swept the right and center, with +shell-craters still thick but growing fewer as the wave came out into +open fields in face of the ruins of the sugar factory, with the tank +Creme de Menthe ready to do her part. She did not take care of all the +machine guns; the infantry attended to at least one, I know. The German +artillery turned on curtains of fire, but in one case the Canadians +were not there when the curtain was laid to bar their path. They had +been too rapid for the Germans. No matter what obstacle the Germans put +in the way the business of the Canadians was to "get there"--and they +"got there." The line marked on their map from the Bapaume Road to the +east of the sugar factory as their objective was theirs. In front of +them was the village of Courcelette and in front of the British line +linked up on their right was Martinpuich. + +Spades now! Dig as hard as you have charged in order to hold the freshly +won position, with "there" become "here" and the Ridge at your backs! +The London song of "The Byng Boys are Here," which gave the name of the +Byng Boys to the Canadians after General Byng took command of their +corps, had a most realistic application. + +With the news from the right of the six-mile front that of a continuing +fierce struggle, word from the left had the definite note of success. +Was General Byng pleased with his Byng Boys? Was his superior, the army +commander, pleased with the Canadians? They had done the trick and this +is the thing that counts on such occasions; but when you take trenches +and fields, however great the gain of ground, they lack the concrete +symbol of victory which a village possesses. + +And ahead were Courcelette and Martinpuich, both only partially +demolished by shell fire and in nowise properly softened according to +the usual requirements for capitulation, with their cellars doubtless +heavily reinforced as dugouts. Officers studying the villages through +their glasses believed that they could be taken. Why not try? To try +required nerve, when it was against all tactical experience to rush on +to a new objective over such a broad front without taking time for +elaborate artillery preparation. General Byng, who believed in his men +and understood their initiative, their "get there" quality, was ready to +advance and so was the corps commander of the British in front of +Martinpuich. Sir Douglas Haig gave consent. + +"Up and at them!" then, with fresh battalions hurried up so rapidly that +they had hardly time to deploy, but answering the order for action with +the spirit of men who have been stalled in trenches and liked the new +experience of stretching their legs. With a taste of victory, nothing +could stop these highstrung reserves, except the things that kill and +wound. The first charge had succeeded and the second must succeed. + +German guns had done the customary thing by laying barrages back of the +new line across the field and shelling the crest of the Ridge to prevent +supports from coming up. It was quite correct form for the German +commander to consider the ceremony of the day over. The enemy had taken +his objective. Of course, he would not try for another immediately. +Meanwhile, his tenure of new line must be made as costly as possible. +But this time the enemy did not act according to rules. He made some new +ones. + +The reserve battalions which were to undertake the storming of the +village had gone over the ground under the barrages and were up to the +first objective, and when through the new line occupied by the men who +made the first charge they could begin their own charge. As barrages are +intermittent, one commander had his men lie down behind one until it had +ceased. Again, after waiting on another for a while he decided that he +might be late in keeping his engagement in Courcelette and gave the +order to go through, which, as one soldier said, "we did in a +hundred-yard dash sprinting a double quick--good reason why!" When the +fresh wave passed the fellows in the new line the winners of the first +objective called, "Go to it!" "You'll do it!" "Hurrah for Canada!" and +added touches of characteristic dry humor which shell fire makes a +little drier, such as a request to engage seats for the theatre at +Courcelette that evening. + +Consider that these battalions which were to take Courcelette had to +march about two miles under shell fire, part of the way over ground +that was spongy earth cut by shell-craters, before they could begin +their charge and that they were undertaking an innovation in tactics, +and you have only half an understanding of their task. Their officers +were men out of civil life in every kind of occupation, learning their +war in the Ypres salient stalemate, and now they were to have the +severest possible test in directing their units in an advance. + +There had been no time to lay out pattern plans for each company's +course in this second rush according to map details, which is so +important against modern defenses. The officers did not know where +machine guns were hidden; they were uncertain of the strength of the +enemy who had had all day to prepare for the onslaught on his bastions +in the village. It was pitched battle conditions against set defenses. +Under curtains of fire, with the concentration heavy at one point and +weak at another, with machine gun or sniping fire developing in some +areas, with the smoke and the noise, with trenches to cross, the +business of keeping a wave of men in line of attack for a long +distance--difficult enough in a manoeuver--was possible only when the +initiative and an understanding of the necessities of the situation +exist in the soldiers themselves. If one part of the line was not up, if +a section was being buffeted by salvos of shells, the officers had to +meet the emergency; and officers as well as men were falling, companies +being left with a single officer or with only a "non-com" in charge. +Unless a man was down he knew that his business was to "get there" and +his direction was straight ahead in line with the men on his right and +left. + +With dead and wounded scattered over the field behind them, all who +could stand on their feet, including officers and men knocked over and +buried by shells and with wounds of arms and heads and even legs which +made them hobble, reached the edge of the village on time and lay down +to await the lifting of the fire of their own guns before the final +rush. + +After charging such a distance and paying the toll of casualties exacted +they enjoyed a breathing space, a few minutes in which to steady their +thoughts for the big thing before, "lean for the hunt," they sprang up +to be in for the fray with the burst of the last shells from their guns. +They knew what to do. It had been drilled into them; they had talked it +and dreamed it in billets when routine became humdrum, these men with +practical minds who understood the essentials of their task. + +There were fewer Canadians charging through the streets than there were +Germans in the village at that moment. The Canadians did not know it, +but if they had it would have made no difference, such was their spirit. +Secure in their dugouts from bombardment, the first that the Germans, in +their systematized confidence that the enemy would not try for a second +objective that day, knew of the presence of the Canadians was when the +attackers were at the door and a St. Lawrence River incisiveness was +calling on the occupants to come out as they were prisoners--which +proves the advantage of being quick. The second wave was left to "mop +up" while the first wave passed on through the village to nail down the +prize by digging new trenches. Thus, they had their second objective, +though on the left of the line where the action had been against a part +of the old first-line system of trenches progress had been slow and +fighting bitter. + +The Canadians who had to "mop up" had the "time of their lives" and some +ticklish moments. What a scene! Germans in clean uniforms coming out of +their dugouts blinking in surprise at their undoing and in disgust, +resentment and suppressed rage! Canadians, dust-covered from +shell-bursts, eyes flashing, laughing, rushing about on the job in the +midst of shouts of congratulation and directions to prisoners among the +ruins, and the German commander so angered by the loss of the village +that he began pouring in shells on Germans and Canadians at the same +time! Two colonels were among the captured, a regimental and a battalion +commander. The senior was a baron--one cannot leave him out of any +narrative--and inclined to bear himself with patrician contempt toward +the Canadian democracy, which is a mistake for barons in his situation +with every Canadian more or less of a king that day. When he tried to +start his men into a revolt his hosts acted promptly, with the result +that the uprising was nipped in the bud and the baron was shot through +the leg, leaving him still "fractious and patronizing." Then the little +colonel of the French-Canadians said, "I think I might as well shoot you +in a more vital part and have done with it!" or something equally to the +point and suddenly the baron became quite democratic himself. + +One of the battalions that took Courcelette was French-Canadian. No +other Canadian battalion will deny them the glory that they won that +day, and it must have been irritating to the German baron to surrender +superior numbers to the stocky type that we see in New England factory +towns and on their farms in Quebec, for they now formed the battalion, +the frontiersmen, the _courrier de bois_, having been mostly killed in +the salient. Shall I forget that little private, forty years old if he +were a day, with a hole from shrapnel in his steel helmet and the bit +of purple and white ribbon worn proudly on his breast, who, when I asked +him how he felt after he received the clout from a shell-fragment, +remarked blandly that it had knocked him down and made his head ache! + +"You have the military cross!" I said. + +"Yais, sir. I'm going to win the Victoria Cross!" he replied, saluting. +Talk about "the spirit that quickeneth!" + +Or, shall I forget the French-Canadian colonel telling his story of how +he and the battalion on his left in equal difficulties held the line +beyond Courcelette with his scattered men against thirteen +counter-attacks that night; how he had to go from point to point +establishing his posts in the dark, and his repeated "'I golly!" of +wonder at how he had managed to hold on, with its ring of naive +unrealization of the humor of being knocked over by a shell and finding, +"'I golly!" that he had not been hurt! They had not enlisted freely, the +French-Canadians, but those who had proved that if the war emotion had +taken hold of them as it had of the rest of Canada they would not have +been found wanting. + +"'I golly!" they had to fight from the very fact that there were only a +few to strike for old France and for the martial honor of Quebec. And +they held all they took as sturdily as the other Canadian battalion in +front of the village when the Germans awakened to revenge for the loss +of Courcelette. + +From start to finish of that great day it had been quickness that +counted; quickness to realize opportunities; alertness of individual +action in "mopping up" after the village was taken; prompt adaptability +to situations which is the gift of the men of a new country; and that +individual confidence of the Canadian once he was not tied to a trench +and might let his initiative have full play, man to man, which is not a +thing of drill or training but of inheritance and environment. On the +right, Martinpuich was taken by the British and also held. + +It was in rain and mist after the battle, while the dead still lay on +the field, that I went over the Ridge and along the path of the Canadian +charges, wondering how they had passed through the curtains of fire when +I saw shrapnel cases so thick that you could step from one to another; +wondering how men could survive in the shell-craters and the poor, +tumbled trenches in the soft, shell-mashed earth; wondering at the whole +business of their being here in France, a veteran army two years after +the war had begun. I saw them dripping from the rains, mud-spattered, +but in the joy of having made good when their turn came, and in a way +that was an exemplification of Canadian character in every detail. "Heap +good!" I suppose that big Sioux Indian, looking as natural seated in a +trench in his imperturbability as if he were seated in front of his +tepee, would have put it. He was seeing a strange business, but high +explosives shaking the earth, aeroplanes overhead, machine guns rattling +in the war of the Pale Faces he accepted without emotion. + +With the second battle of Ypres, with St. Eloi, Hooge, Mount Sorrell, +and Observatory Ridge, Courcelette had completed the cycle of soldierly +experiences for those who bore the Maple Leaf in France of the +_Fleur-de-lis_. Officers and men of every walk of life called to a new +occupation, a democracy out of the west submitting to discipline had +been inured and trained to a new life of risk and comradeship and +sacrifice for a cause. It will seem strange to be out of khaki and to go +to the office, or the store, or to get up to milk the cows at dawn; +"but," as one man said, "we'll manage to adapt ourselves to it without +spending nights in a mud hole or asking the neighbors to throw any bombs +over the fence in order to make the change gradual." + + + + +XXIX + +THE HARVEST OF VILLAGES + + High and low visibilities--Low Visibility a pro-German--High + Visibility and his harvest smile--Thirty villages taken by the + British--The 25th of September--The Road of the Entente--Twelve miles + of artillery fire--Two villages taken--Combles--British and French + meet in a captured village--English stubbornness--Dugouts holding a + thousand men--Capture of Thiepval. + + +Always we were talking of the two visibilities, high and low. I thought +of them as brothers with the same meteorological parent, one a good and +the other an evil genius. Every morning we looked out of doors to see +which had the stage. Thus, we might know whether or not the "zero" of an +attack set for to-day would be postponed, as it was usually if the sun +gave no sign of appearing, though not always; sometimes the staff gave +those who tried to guess what was in its mind a surprise. + +Low Visibility, a pro-German who was in his element in the Ypres salient +in midwinter, delighted in rain, mist, fog and thick summer +haze--anything that prevented observers from seeing the burst of shells, +transformed shell-craters into miniature lakes and fields into mire to +founder charges, and stalled guns. + +High Visibility was as merry as his wicked brother was dour. He sent the +sunlight streaming into your room in the morning, washed the air of +particles enabling observers to see shell-bursts at long range, and +favored successful charges under accurate curtains of fire--the patron +saint of all modern artillery work, who would be most at home in Arizona +where you could carry on an offensive the year around. + +During September his was a glad harvest smile which revealed figures on +the chalk welts a mile away as clearly as if within a stone's throw +under the glasses and limned the tree-trunks of ruined villages in sharp +outlines. He was your companion now when you might walk up the Ridge +and, standing among shell-craters still as a frozen sea where but lately +an inferno had raged, look out across the fields toward new lines of +shell fire and newly won villages on lower levels. He helped to make the +month of September when he was most needed the most successful month of +the offensive, with its second great attack on the 25th turning the +table of losses entirely against the Germans and bringing many guests to +the prisoners' inclosures. + +These were days that were rich with results, days of harvest, indeed, +when the ceaseless fighting on the Ridge and the iron resolution of a +commander had its reward; when advances gathered in villages till the +British had taken thirty and the French, with fresh efforts after their +own chipping away at strong points, also had jumping-off places for +longer drives as they swung in with their right on the Somme in +combination with British attacks. + +The two armies advanced as one on the 25th. The scene recalled the +splendor of the storming of Contalmaison which, if not for its waste and +horror, might lead men to go to war for the glory of the +panorama--glorious to the observer in this instance when he thought only +of the spectacle, in a moment of oblivion to the hard work of +preparation and the savage work of execution. Our route to a point of +observation for the attack which was at midday took us along the Road of +the Entente, as I called it, where French battalions marched with +British battalions, stately British motor trucks mixed with the lighter +French vehicles, and Gaul sat resting on one side of the road and Briton +on the other as German prisoners went by, and there was a mingling of +blue and khaki which are both of low visibility against the landscape +yet as distinct as the characters of the two races, each with its own +way of fighting true to racial bent yet accomplishing its purpose. + +Just under the slope where we sat the British guns linked up with the +French. To the northward the British were visible right away past Ginchy +and Guillemont to Flers and the French clear to the Somme. We were +almost midway of a twelve-mile stretch of row upon row of flashes of +many calibers, the French more distinct at the foot of a slope +fearlessly in the open like the British, a long machine-loom of gunnery +with some monsters far back sending up great clouds of black smoke from +Mt. St. Quentin which hid our view of Peronne. + +Now it was all together for the guns in the preliminary whirlwind, with +_soixante-quinzes_ ahead sparkling up and down like the flashes of an +automatic electric sign, making a great, thrumming beat of sound in the +valley, and the 120's near by doing their best, too, with their wicked +crashes, while the ridges beyond were a bobbing canopy of looming, +curling smoke. The units of the two armies might have been wired to a +single switchboard with heartbeats under blue and khaki jackets timed +together in the final expression of _entente cordiale_ become _entente +furieuse_. + +The sunlight had the golden kindness of September and good Brother High +Visibility seemed to make it a personal matter to-day against the +Kaiser. Distinct were the moving figures of the gunners and bright was +the gleam of the empty shells dropping out of the breach of the +_soixante-quinze_ as the barrel swung back in place and of the loaded +shells going home; distinct were paths and trenches and all the detail +of the tired, worn landscape, with the old trenches where we were +sitting tumbling in and their sides fringed with wild grass and weeds, +which was Nature's own little say in the affair and a warning that in a +few years after the war she and the peasant will have erased war's +landmarks. + +The lifting of the barrage as the infantry went in was signaled to the +eye when the canopy of shell-smoke began to grow thin and gossamery for +want of fresh bursts and another was forming beyond, as if the master +hand at such things had lifted a long trail of cloud from one set of +crests to another; only, nature never does things with such mathematical +precision. All in due order to keep its turn in the program the German +artillery began to reply according to its system of distribution, with +guns and ammunition plentiful but inferior in quantity to the French. +They did not like that stretch of five hundred yards behind a slope +where they thought that the most troublesome batteries were, and the +puffs of shrapnel smoke thickened dimming the flashes from the bursting +jackets until a wall of mist hung there. A torrent of five-point-nines +was tearing up fresh craters with high explosives back of other gun +positions, and between the columns of smoke we saw the French gunners +going on unconcerned by this plowing of the landscape which was not +disturbing them. + +Far off on the plain where a British ammunition train was visible the +German loosed more anger, whipping the fields into geysers; but the +caissons moved on as if this were a signal of all aboard for the next +station without the Germans being aware that their target was gone. A +British battery advancing at another point evidently was not in view of +the Germans two thousand yards away, though good Brother High Visibility +gave our glasses the outline of the horses at five thousand yards. + +Thus, you watched to see what the Germans were shooting at, with +suspense at one point and at another the joy of the observer who sees +the one who is "it" in blind man's buff missing his quarry. Some +shrapnel searching a road in front and a scream overhead indicated a +parcel of high explosives for a village at the rear. In Morval where +houses were still standing, their white walls visible through the +glasses, there was a kind of flash which was not that of a shell but +prolonged, like a windowpane flaming under the sun, which we knew meant +that the village was taken, as was also Gueudecourt we learned +afterward. + +Reserves were filing along a road between the tiers of guns, helmets on +the backs of heads French fashion when there is no fire, with the easy +marching stride of the French and figures disappeared and reappeared on +the slope as they advanced. Wounded were coming along the winding gray +streak of highway near where we sat and a convoy of prisoners passed led +by a French guard whose attitude seemed to have an eye-twinkling of "See +who's here and see what I've got!" Not far away was a French private at +a telephone. + +"It goes well!" he said. "Rancourt is taken and we are advancing on +Fregicourt. Combles is a ripe plum." + +All the while Combles had been an oasis in the shell fire, the one place +that had immunity, although it had almost as much significance in the +imagination of the French people as Thiepval in that of the English. +They looked forward to its storming as a set dramatic event and to its +fall as one of the turning-points in the campaign. Often a position +which was tactically of little importance, to our conception, would +become the center of great expectations to the outside world, while the +conquest of a strong point with its nests of machine guns produced no +responsive thrill. + +Combles was a village and a large village, its size perhaps accounting +for the importance associated with it when it had almost none in a +military sense. Yet correspondents knew that readers at the breakfast +table would be hungry for details about Combles, where the taking of the +Schwaben Redoubt or Regina Trench, which were defended savagely, had no +meaning. Its houses were very distinct, some being but little damaged +and some of the shade trees still retaining their branches. This town +nestling in a bowl was not worth the expenditure of much ammunition when +what the Germans wanted to hold and the Anglo-French troops to gain was +the hills around it. Rancourt was the other side of Combles, which +explains the plum simile. + +The picturesque thing was that the British troops were working up on one +side of Combles and the French on the other side; and the next morning +after the British had gathered in some escaping Germans who seemed to +have lost their way, the blue and the khaki met in the main street +without indulging in formal ceremonies and exchanged a "Good morning!" +and "_Bon jour!_" and "Here we are! Voyla! Quee pawnsays-vous!" and "Ca +va bien! Oh, yais, I tink so!" and found big piles of shells and other +munitions which the Germans could not take away and cellars with many +wounded who had been brought in from the hills--and that was all there +was to it: a march in and look around, when for glory's sake, at least, +the victors ought to have delivered congratulatory addresses. But tired +soldiers will not do that sort of thing. I shall not say that they are +spoiling pictures for the Salon, for there are incidents enough to keep +painters going for a thousand years; which ought to be one reason for +not having a war for another thousand! + +As for Thiepval, the British staff, inconsiderate of the correspondents +this time--they really were not conducting the war for us--did not +inform us of the attack, being busy those days reaping villages and +trenches after they were over the Ridge while High Visibility had Low +Visibility shut up in the guardhouse. Besides, the British were so near +Thiepval as the result of their persistent advances that its taking was +only another step forward, one of savage fighting, however, in the same +kind of operations that I have described in the chapter on "Watching a +Charge." The debris beaten into dust had been so scattered that one +could not tell where the village began or ended, but the smudge was a +symbol to the army no less than to the British public--a symbol of the +boasted impregnability of the first-line German fortifications which had +resisted the attack of July 1st--and its capture a reward of English +stubbornness appealing to the race which is not unconscious of the +characteristic that has carried its tongue and dominion over the world. + +Point was given, too, by the enormous dugouts, surpassing previous +exhibits, capable of holding a garrison of a thousand men and a hospital +which, under the bursts of huge shells of the months of British +bombardment, had been safe under ground. The hospital was equipped with +excellent medical apparatus as well as anaesthetics manufactured in +Germany, of which the British were somewhat short. The German battalion +that held the place had been associated with the work of preparing its +defenses and were practically either all taken prisoner or killed, so +far as could be learned. They had sworn that they would never lose +Thiepval; but the deeper the dugouts the farther upstairs men inside +have to climb in order to get to the door before the enemy, who arrives +at the threshold as the whirlwind barrage lifts. + +As I have said, Thiepval was not on the very crest of the Ridge and on +the summit the same elaborate works had been built to hold this high +ground. We watched other attacks under curtains of fire as the British +pressed on. Sometimes we could see the Germans moving out in the open +from their dugouts at the base of the hill in St. Pierre Divion and +driven to cover as the British guns sniped at them with shrapnel. +Resistlessly the British infantry under its covering barrages kept on +till the crest and all its dugouts and galleries were gained, thus +breaking back the old first-line fortifications stage by stage and +forcing the German into the open, where he must dig anew on equal terms. + +The capture of Thiepval did not mean that its ruins were to have any +rest from shells, for the German guns had their turn. They seemed fond +of sending up spouts from a little pond in the foreground, which had no +effect except to shower passing soldiers with dirty water. However much +the pond was beaten it was still there; and I was struck by the fact +that this was a costly and unsuccessful system of drainage for such an +efficient people as the Germans to apply. + + + + +XXX + +FIVE GENERALS AND VERDUN + + Sixty miles an hour to meet General Joffre--Joffre somewhat like + Grant--Two figures which France will remember for all time--Joffre + and Castelnau--Two very old friends--At Verdun--What Napoleon and + Wellington might have thought--A staff whose feet and mind never + dragged--The hero of Douaumont, General Nivelle--Simplicity--Men who + believe in giving blows--A true soldier--A prized photograph of + Joffre--The drama of Douaumont--General Mangin, corps commander at + Verdun--An eye that said "Attack!"--A five-o'clock-in-the-morning + corps--The old fortress town, Verdun--The effort of + Colossus--Germany's high water mark--Thrifty fighters, the + French--Germany good enough to win against Rumania, but not at + Verdun. + + +That spirited friend Lieutenant T., at home in an English or a French +mess or walking arm-in-arm with the _poilus_ of his old battalion, +required quick stepping to keep up with him when we were not in his +devil of a motor car that carried me on a flying visit to the French +lines before I started for home and did not fail even when sixty miles +an hour were required to keep the appointment with General Joffre--which +we did, to the minute. + +Many people have told of sitting across the table in his private office +from the victor of the Marne; and it was when he was seated and began to +talk that you appreciated the power of the man, with his great head and +its mass of white hair and the calm, largely-molded features, who could +give his orders when the fate of France was at stake and then retire to +rest for the night knowing that his part was done for the day and the +rest was with the army. In common with all men when experience and +responsibility have ripened their talents, though lacking in the gift of +formal speech-making, as Grant was, he could talk well, in clear +sentences, whose mold was set by precise thought, which brought with it +the eloquence that gains its point. It was more than personality, in +this instance, that had appeal. He was the personification of a great +national era. + +In view of changes which were to come, another glimpse that I had of him +in the French headquarters town which was not by appointment is +peculiarly memorable. When I was out strolling I saw on the other side +of the street two figures which all France knew and will know for all +time. Whatever vicissitudes of politics, whatever campaigns ensue, +whatever changes come in the world after the war, Joffre's victory at +the Marne and Castelnau's victory in Lorraine, which was its complement +in masterly tactics, make their niches in the national Pantheon secure. + +The two old friends, comrades of army life long before fame came to +them one summer month, Commander-in-Chief and Chief of Staff, were +taking their regular afternoon promenade--Joffre in his familiar short, +black coat which made his figure the burlier, his walk affected by the +rheumatism in his legs, though he certainly had no rheumatism in his +head, and Castelnau erect and slight of figure, his slimness heightened +by his long, blue overcoat--chatting as they walked slowly, and behind +them followed a sturdy guard in plain clothes at a distance of a few +paces, carrying two cushions. Joffre stopped and turned with a +"you-don't-say-so" gesture and a toss of his head at something that +Castelnau had told him. + +Very likely they were not talking of the war; indeed, most likely it was +about friends in their army world, for both have a good wit, a keen and +amiable understanding of human nature. At all events, they were enjoying +themselves. So they passed on into the woods, followed by the guard who +would place their cushions on their favorite seat, and the two who had +been lieutenants and captains and colonels together would continue their +airing and their chat until they returned to the business of directing +their millions of men. + + * * * * * + +It was raining in this darkened French village near Verdun and a passing +battalion went dripping by, automobiles sent out sprays of muddy water +from their tires, and over in the crowded inclosures the German +prisoners taken at Douaumont stood in the mud waiting to be entrained. +Occasionally a soldier or an officer came out of a doorway that sent +forth a stream of light, and upstairs in the municipal building where we +went to pay our respects to the general commanding the army that had won +the victory which had thrilled France as none had since the Marne, we +found that it was the regular hour for his staff to report. They +reported standing in the midst of tables and maps and standing received +their orders. In future, when I see the big room with its mahogany table +and fat armchairs reserved for directors' meetings I shall recall +equally important conferences in the affairs of a nation that were held +under simpler auspices. + +This conference seemed in keeping with the atmosphere of the place: +nobody in any flurry of haste and nobody wasting time. One after another +the officers reported; and whatever their ages, for some would have +seemed young for great responsibilities two years before, they were men +going about their business alert, self-possessed, reflective of the +character of their leader as staffs always are, men whose feet and whose +minds never dragged. When they spoke to anybody politeness was the +lubricant of prompt exchange of thought, a noiseless, eight-cylinder, +hundred-horse-power sort of staff. If the little Corsican could have +looked on, if he could have seen the taking of Douaumont, or if +Wellington could have seen the taking of the Ridge, I think that they +would have been well satisfied--and somewhat jealous to find that +military talent was so widespread. + +The man who came out of the staff-room would have won his marshal's +baton in Napoleon's day, I suppose, though he was out of keeping with +those showy times. I did not then know that he was to be +Commander-in-Chief; only that all France thrilled with his name, which +time will forever associate with Douaumont. At once you felt the dynamic +quality under his agreeable manner and knew that General Nivelle did +things swiftly and quietly, without wasteful expenditure of reserve +force, which he could call upon when needed by turning on the current. + +There was a stranger come to call; it was a rainy night; we had better +not drive back to the hotel at Bar-le-Duc, he suggested, but find a +billet in town, which was hospitality not to be imposed upon when one +could see how limited quarters were in this small village. Some day I +suppose a plaque will be put up on the door of that small house, with +its narrow hall and plain hat-rack and the sitting-room turned into a +dining-room, saying that General (perhaps it will be Marshal) Nivelle +lived here during the battle of Verdun. It is a fine gift, simplicity. +Some great men, or those who are called great, lack it; but nothing is +so attractive in any man. No sentry at the door, no servant to open it. +You simply went in, hung up your cap and took off your raincoat. + +Hundreds of staffs were sitting down to the same kind of dinner with a +choice of red or white wine and the menu was that of an average French +household. I recall this and other staff dinners, in contrast to costly +plate and rich food in a house where a gold Croesus with diamond eyes +and necklace should have been on the mantelpiece as the household god, +with the thought that even war is a good thing if it centers ambition on +objects other than individual gain. Without knowing it, Joffre, +Castelnau, Foch, Petain, Nivelle and others were the richest men in +France. + +A colonel when the war began, in the sifting by Father Joffre to find +real leaders by the criterion of success General Nivelle had risen to +command an army. Wherever he was in charge he got the upper hand of the +enemy. All that he and his officers said reflected one spirit--that of +the offensive. They were men who believed in giving blows. A nation +looking for a man who could win victories said, "Here he is!" when its +people read the _communique_ about Douaumont one morning. He had been +going his way, doing the tasks in hand according to his own method, and +at one of the stations fame found him. Soldiers have their philosophy +and these days when it includes fame, probably fame never comes. This +time it came to a soldier without any of the showy qualities that fame +used to prefer, one who, I should say, was quite unaffected by it owing +to a greater interest in his work; a man without powerful influence to +urge his promotion. If you had met him before the war he would have +impressed you with his kindly features, well-shaped head and vitality, +and if you know soldiers you would have known that he was highly trained +in his profession. His staff was a family, but the kind of family where +every member has telepathic connection with its head; I could not +imagine that any officer who had not would be at home in the little +dining-room. Readiness of perception and quickness of action in +intelligent obedience were inherent. + +Over in his office in the municipal building where we went after dinner +the general took something wrapped in tissue paper out of a drawer and +from his manner, had he been a collector, I should have known that it +was some rare treasure. When he undid the paper I saw a photograph of +General Joffre autographed with a sentiment for the occasion. + +"He gave it to me for Douaumont!" said General Nivelle, a touch of pride +in his voice--the only sign of pride that I noticed. + +There spoke the soldier to whom praise from his chief was the best +praise and more valued than any other encomium. + +When I spoke of Douaumont he drew out the map and showed me his order of +the day, which had a soldierly brevity that made words keen-edged tools. +The attacking force rushed up overnight and appeared as a regulated +tidal wave of men, their pace timed under cover of curtains of fire +which they hugged close, then over the German trenches and on into the +fort. Six thousand prisoners and forty-five hundred French casualties! +It was this dramatic, this complete and unequivocal success that had +captured the imagination of France, but he was not dramatic in telling +it. He made it a military evolution on a piece of paper; though when he +put his pencil down on Douaumont and held it fast there for a moment, +saying, "And that is all for the present!" the pencil seemed to turn +into steel. + +All for the present! And the future? That of the army of France was to +be in his hands. He had the supreme task. He would approach it as he +had approached all other tasks. + + * * * * * + +You had only to look at General Mangin commanding the corps before +Verdun to know that attack was not alone a system but a gospel with him. +Five stripes on his arm for wounds, all won in colonial work, +sun-browned, swart, with a strong, abutting chin which might have been a +fit point for Nivelle's pencil, an eye that said "Attack!" and could +twinkle with the wisdom of many campaigns! + +"General Joffre sat in that chair two hours before the advance," he +said, with the same respectful awe that other generals had exhibited +toward the Commander-in-Chief. + +The time had come for the old leader, grown weary, to go; for the +younger men of the school which the war has produced, with its curtains +of fire and wave attacks, to take his place. But the younger ones in the +confidence of their system could look on the old leader while he lived +as the great, indomitable figure of the critical stages of the war. + +A man of iron, Mangin, with a breadth of chest in keeping with his chin, +who could bear the strain of command which had brought down many +generals from sheer physical incapacity. Month after month this chin had +stood out against German drives, all the while wanting to be in its +natural element of the offensive. His resolute, outright solution of +problems by human ratios would fit him into any age or any climate. He +was at home leading a punitive expedition or in the complicated business +of Verdun. Whether he was using a broadsword or a curtain of fire he +proposed to strike his enemy early and hard and keep on striking. In the +course of talking with him I spoke of the contention that in some cases +in modern war men could be too brave. + +"Rarely!" he replied, a single word which had the emphasis of both that +jaw and that shrewd, piercing eye. + +"What is the best time to go out to the front?" I asked the general. + +"Five o'clock in the morning!" + +The officer who escorted me did not think anything of getting up at that +hour. Mangin's is a five-o'clock-in-the-morning corps. + +Shall I describe that town on the banks of the Meuse which has been +described many times? Or that citadel built by Vauban, with dynamos and +electric light in its underground chambers and passages, its hospitals, +shops, stores and barrack room, so safe under its walls and roof of +masonry that the Germans presciently did not waste their shells on it +but turned them with particular vengeance on the picturesque old houses +along the river bank, neglecting the barracks purposely in view of their +usefulness to the conquerors when Mecca was theirs. There must be +something sacred to a Frenchman in the citadel which held life secure +and in the ruins which bore their share of the blows upon this old +fortress town in the lap of the hills, looking out toward hills which +had been the real defense. + +Interest quickened on the way to the Verdun front as you came to the +slopes covered with torn and fallen trees, where the Germans laid their +far-reaching curtains of fire to catch the French reserves struggling +through mud and shell-craters on those February and March days to the +relief of the front line. Only when you have known the life of an army +in action in winter in such a climate can you appreciate the will that +drove men forward to the attack and the will of the defenders against +outnumbering guns, having to yield, point by point, with shrewd thrift, +small bands of men in exposed places making desperate resistance against +torrents of shells. + +Verdun was German valor at its best and German gunnery at its mightiest, +the effort of Colossus shut in a ring of steel to force a decision; and +the high-water mark of German persistence was where you stood on the +edge of the area of mounds that shells had heaped and craters that +shells had scooped by the concentration of fire on Fort Souville. A few +Germans in the charge reached here, but none returned. The survivors +entered Verdun, the French will tell you with a shrug, as prisoners. +Down the bare slope with its dead grass blotched by craters the eye +travels and then up another slope to a crest which you see as a cumulus +of shell-tossed earth under an occasional shell-burst. That is +Douaumont, whose taking cost the Germans such prolonged and bloody +effort and aroused the Kaiser to a florid outburst of laudation of his +Brandenburgers who, by its capture, had, as Germany then thought, +brought France to her death-gasp. + +On that hill German prestige and system reached their zenith; and the +answer eight months later was French _elan_ which, in two hours, with +the swiftness and instinctive cohesion of democracy drilled and +embattled and asking no spur from an autocrat, swept the Germans off the +summit. From other charges I could visualize the precise and spirited +movement of those blue figures under waves of shell fire in an attack +which was the triumphant example of the latest style of offensive +against frontal positions. There was no Kaiser to burst into rhetoric to +thank General Nivelle, who had his reward in an autographed photograph +from Father Joffre; and the men of that charge had theirs in the +gratitude of a people. + +Fort Vaux, on another crest at the right, was still in German hands, but +that, too, was to be regained with the next rush. Yes, it was good to +be at Verdun after Douaumont had been retaken, standing where you would +have been in range of a German sniper a week before. Turning as on a +pivot, you could identify through the glasses all the positions whose +names are engraved on the French mind. Not high these circling hills, +the keystone of a military arch, but taken together it was clear how, in +this as in other wars, they were nature's bastion at the edge of the +plain that lay a misty line in the distance. + +Either in front or to the rear of Souville toward Verdun the surprising +thing was how few soldiers you saw and how little transport within range +of German guns; which impressed you with the elastic system of the +French, who are there and are not there. Let an attack by the Germans +develop and soldiers would spring out of the earth and the valleys echo +with the thunder of guns. A thrifty people, the French. + +When studying those hills that had seen the greatest German offensive +after I had seen the offensive on the Somme, I thought of all that the +summer had meant on the Western front, beginning with Douaumont lost and +ending with Douaumont regained and the sweep over the conquered Ridge; +and I thought of another general, Sir Douglas Haig, who had had to train +his legions, begin with bricks and mortar to make a house under shell +fire and, day by day, with his confidence in "the spirit that +quickeneth" as the great asset, had wrought with patient, far-seeing +skill a force in being which had never ceased attacking and drawing in +German divisions to hold the line that those German divisions were meant +to break. + +Von Falkenhayn was gone from power; the Crown Prince who thirsted for +war had had his fill and said that war was an "idiocy." It was the +sentiment of the German trenches which put von Falkenhayn out; the +silent ballots of that most sensitive of all public opinion, casting its +votes with the degree of its disposition to stand fire, which no officer +can control by mere orders. + +With the Verdun offensive over, the German soldiers struggling on the +Ridge had a revelation which was translated into a feeling that +censorship could not stifle of the failure of the campaign to crush +France. They called for the man who had won victories and the Kaiser +gave them von Hindenburg, whom fortune favored when he sent armies +inspirited by his leadership against amateur soldiers in veteran +confidence, while the weather had stopped the Allied offensive in the +West. + +Imagine Lee's men returning from Gettysburg to be confronted by +inexperienced home militia and their cry, "The Yanks have given us a +rough time of it, but you fellows get out of the way!" Such was the +feeling of that German Army as it went southward; not the army that it +was, but quite good enough an army to win against Rumania with the +system that had failed at Verdun. + + + + +XXXI + +_AU REVOIR_, SOMME! + + Sir Douglas Haig--Atmosphere at headquarters something of Oxford and + of Scotland--Sir Henry Rawlinson--"Degumming" the inefficient--Back + on the Ridge again--The last shell-burst--Good-bye to the mess--The + fellow war-correspondents--_Bon voyage_. + + +The fifth of the great attacks, which was to break in more of the old +first-line fortifications, taking Beaumont-Hamel and other villages, was +being delayed by Brother Low Visibility, who had been having his innings +in rainy October and early November, when the time came for me to say +good-byes and start homeward. + +Sir Douglas Haig had been as some invisible commander who was +omnipresent in his forceful control of vast forces. His disinclination +for reviews or display was in keeping with his nature and his conception +of his task. The army had glimpses of him going and coming in his car +and observers saw him entering or leaving an army or a corps +headquarters, his strong, calm features expressive of confidence and +resolution. + +There were many instances of his fine sensitiveness, his quick +decisions, his Scotch phrases which could strip a situation bare of +non-essentials. It was good that a man with his culture and charm could +have the qualities of a great commander. In the chateau which was his +Somme headquarters where final plans were made, the final word given +which put each issue to the test, the atmosphere had something of Oxford +and of Scotland and of the British regular army, and everything seemed +done by a routine that ran so smoothly that the appearance of routine +was concealed. + +Here he had said to me early in the offensive that he wanted me to have +freedom of observation and to criticise as I chose, and he trusted me +not to give military information to the enemy. When I went to take my +leave and thank him for his courtesies the army that he had drilled had +received the schooling of battle and tasted victory. How great his task +had been only a soldier could appreciate, and only history can do +justice to the courage that took the Ridge or the part that it had +played in the war. + +Upstairs in a small room of another chateau the Commander-in-Chief and +the Commander of the Fourth of the group of armies under Sir +Douglas--who had played polo together in India as subalterns, Sir Henry +Rawlinson being still as much of a Guardsman as Sir Douglas was a +Scot--had held many conferences. Sir Henry could talk sound soldierly +sense about the results gained and look forward, as did the whole army, +to next summer when the maximum of skill and power should be attained. +In common with Nivelle, both were leaders who had earned their way in +battle, which was promoting the efficient and shelving or "degumming," +in the army phrase, the inefficient. Every week, every day, I might say, +the new army organization had tightened. + +With steel helmet on and gas mask over the shoulder for the last time, I +had a final promenade up to the Ridge, past the guns and Mouquet Farm, +picking my way among the shell-craters and other grisly reminders of the +torment that the fighters had endured to a point where I could look out +over the fields toward Bapaume. For eight and ten miles the way had been +blazed free of the enemy by successive attacks. Five hundred yards ahead +"krumps" splashing the soft earth told where the front line was and +around me was the desert which such pounding had created, with no one in +the immediate neighborhood except some artillery officers hugging a +depression and spotting the fall of shells from their guns just short of +Bapaume and calling out the results by telephone, over one of the +strands of the spider's web of intelligence which they had unrolled from +a reel when they came. I joined them for a few minutes in their retreat +below the skyline and listened to their remarks about Brother Low +Visibility, who soon was to have the world for his own in winter mists, +rain and snow, limiting the army's operations by his perversity until +spring came. + +And so back, as the diarists say, by the grassless and blasted route +over which I had come. After I was in the car I heard one of the wicked +screams with its unpleasant premonition, which came to an end by +whipping out a ball of angry black smoke short of a near-by howitzer, +which was the last shell-burst that I saw. + +Good-bye, too, to my English comrades in a group at the doorway: to +Robinson with his poise, his mellowness, his wisdom, his well-balanced +sentences, who had seen the world around from mining camps of the west +to Serbian refugee camps; to "our Gibbs," ever sweet-tempered, writing +his heart out every night in the human wonder of all he saw in burning +sentences that came crowding to his pencil-point which raced on till he +was exhausted, though he always revived at dinner to undertake any +controversy on behalf of a better future for the whole human race; to +blithesome Thomas who will never grow up, making words dance a tune, +quoting Horace in order to forget the shells, all himself with his coat +off and swinging a peasant's scythe; to Philips the urbane, not saying +much but coming to the essential point, our scout and cartographer, who +knew all the places on the map between the Somme and the Rhine and heard +the call of Pittsburgh; to Russell, that pragmatic, upstanding expert in +squadrons and barrages, who saved all our faces as reporters by knowing +news when he saw it, arbiter of mess conversations, whose pungent wit +had a movable zero--luck to them all! May Robinson have a stately +mansion on the Thames where he can study nature at leisure; Gibbs never +want for something to write about; Thomas have six crops of hay a year +to mow and a garden with a different kind of bird nesting in every tree; +Philips a new pipe every day and a private yacht sailing on an ocean of +maps; Russell a home by the sea where he can watch the ships come +in--when the war is over. + +It happened that High Visibility had slightly the upper hand over his +gloomy brother the day they bade me _bon voyage_. My last glimpse of the +cathedral showed it clear against the sky; and ahead many miles of rich, +familiar landscape of Picardy and Artois were to unfold before I took +the cross-channel steamer. I knew that I had felt the epic touch of +great events. + + +THE END + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's My Second Year of the War, by Frederick Palmer + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MY SECOND YEAR OF THE WAR *** + +***** This file should be named 18497.txt or 18497.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/4/9/18497/ + +Produced by Rick Niles, Graeme Mackreth and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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