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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Childrens' Story of the War, Volume 3
+(of 10), by James Edward Parrott
+
+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: The Childrens' Story of the War, Volume 3 (of 10)
+       From the First Battle of Ypres to the End of the Year 1914
+
+Author: James Edward Parrott
+
+Release Date: February 22, 2011 [EBook #35355]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHILDRENS' STORY OF THE WAR, VOL 3 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Marcia Brooks, Ross Cooling and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Canada Team at
+http://www.pgdpcanada.net (This file was produced from
+images generously made available by The Internet
+Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: cover--THE CHILDREN'S STORY OF THE WAR
+
+By Sir Edward Parrott, M.A., LL.D.]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: British Aeroplanes attacking the Zeppelin Factory at
+Friedrichshafen.
+
+On November 21, 1914, three British aeroplanes flew from France across
+the mountains into Germany, a distance of 250 miles, and dropped bombs
+on the Zeppelin factory at Friedrichshafen, on the shores of Lake
+Constance. Serious damage was done, and all the pilots but one returned
+safely. Another daring air raid was made on Christmas Day 1914 by seven
+aeroplanes on German warships lying off Cuxhaven.]
+
+
+
+
+  THE
+  CHILDREN'S STORY
+  OF THE WAR
+
+  BY
+  SIR EDWARD PARROTT, M.A., LL.D.
+  AUTHOR OF "BRITAIN OVERSEAS," "THE PAGEANT OF ENGLISH LITERATURE," ETC.
+
+
+  From the First Battle of Ypres to the End of the Year 1914
+
+
+  THOMAS NELSON AND SONS, Ltd.
+  LONDON, EDINBURGH, PARIS, AND NEW YORK
+  1916
+
+
+
+
+  "_O hearts ever youthful, like schoolboys at play,
+   So be it with you in the thick of the fray;
+   In the crash and the smoke and the roar of the fight,
+   Be it yours, if it need be, to die for the Right!
+   While deep in your heart a quick prayer shall arise
+   To Him who looks down on the earth from the skies,
+   For those whom you love in a faraway Home--
+   O! shield them, our Father, whatever may come!_"
+
+      I. Gregory Smith.
+     (_By permission of "The Times."_)
+
+
+
+
+  CONTENTS.
+
+
+       I. A Glance Backwards                             1
+      II. Some German Theories of War                   17
+     III. From Arras to Armentières                     27
+      IV. From Lille to Nieuport                        33
+       V. Maud'huy at Arras and the Retreat from
+            Antwerp                                     43
+      VI. With Rawlinson in Belgium                     49
+     VII. The Long, Thin Line of Steel and Valour       54
+    VIII. The Work of the Third British Corps           65
+      IX. Stirring Stories of Anxious Days              70
+       X. With the Second Corps                         78
+      XI. The Indians in the Trenches                   81
+     XII. Fire and Flood                                87
+    XIII. Eight Days of Struggle and Anxiety            97
+     XIV. Tales of Heroes                              113
+      XV. The Crisis of the First Battle of Ypres      129
+     XVI. The Price of Victory and the Passing of
+            a Hero                                     145
+    XVII. Tales from the Trenches                      154
+   XVIII. More Tales from the Trenches                 161
+     XIX. Germany's Colonial Empire                    171
+      XX. Germany's Vanishing Colonies                 177
+     XXI. The Story of the "Emden"                     187
+    XXII. The Last of the "Emden," and the Sea
+            Fight off Coronel                          193
+   XXIII. The Fall of Kiao-chau                        209
+    XXIV. The First Attack on Warsaw                   218
+     XXV. Von Hindenburg foiled                        225
+    XXVI. Stories from the Battlefields                231
+   XXVII. The Second Russian Advance on Cracow         241
+  XXVIII. The Second Assault on Warsaw                 252
+    XXIX. Warsaw again saved                           257
+     XXX. At War with Turkey                           264
+    XXXI. Fighting in Chaldea                          273
+   XXXII. The Campaign in the Caucasus                 278
+  XXXIII. The Battle of the Serbian Ridges             284
+   XXXIV. The Battle off the Falkland Islands          289
+    XXXV. Naval Raids on the East Coast of England     297
+   XXXVI. Winter in the Trenches                       305
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration:
+THE
+CHILDREN'S
+STORY OF
+THE WAR
+
+VOLUME III.]
+
+
+
+
+  CHAPTER I.
+
+  A GLANCE BACKWARDS.
+
+
+When the last British soldier, with the mud of the Aisne trenches still
+clinging to his tunic, detrained in Artois,[1] within fifty miles of the
+white cliffs of Dover, seventy-seven days of anxious and fateful
+struggle had come to an end. Before we follow the progress of the
+terrible campaign which was soon to begin, let us glance backwards and
+recall in brief outline the leading incidents of the crowded weeks which
+had elapsed since Germany unsheathed the sword and flung her legions
+into that "battle without a morrow" which she vainly hoped would win for
+her the mastery of Europe and the supremacy of the world.
+
+In our first volume we learned how the disunited states of Germany,
+under the leadership of Prussia, became welded together into a great
+empire on the ringing anvil of war. The German Empire had been created
+by the sword, and Germans had been taught to believe that only by the
+sword could it be maintained and increased. During less than half a
+century they had grown from poverty to riches and greatness, and this
+sudden rise to wealth and power had so turned their heads that they now
+deemed themselves entitled to world-empire. Mighty in industry and
+commerce, and possessed of the vastest and most highly organized weapon
+of war that the world has ever known, they nevertheless saw their
+ambitions thwarted again and again. They desired greatly a dominion
+beyond the seas, but colonies were hard to come by. With the failure of
+their attempts to expand they grew more and more embittered, until they
+believed that they were being robbed of their rightful due by the envy
+and greed of neighbouring Powers.
+
+On their eastern border they saw the Russians daily recovering from the
+effects of the war against Japan, and so rapidly advancing in military
+strength as to be a real menace to that commanding position which they
+coveted. Their leaders feared that if Russia were not speedily crippled
+she would
+
+           "Bestride the narrow world
+  Like a Colossus,[2] and we petty men
+  Walk under his huge legs, and peep about
+  To find ourselves dishonourable graves."
+
+While viewing the rise of Russia with mingled fear and contempt, they
+saw the British people, whom they had been taught to despise as a
+worn-out and wealth-corrupted race, holding dominion on every continent
+and in every sea, and unfurling their flag over one in four of all
+mankind. The spectacle was gall and wormwood to them, and they made no
+secret of their intention to wrest this vast empire from its present
+holders when the time was ripe. To this end they had built a great
+fleet, and their sailors drank to "The Day" when the lordship of the
+ocean should be theirs, and the overseas dominion of Britain the spoils
+of their triumph.
+
+But the fruits of industrial strength and armed might were slow in
+ripening, and in 1911, when, thanks to the support of Great Britain,
+France became supreme in Morocco and the shadowy claims of Germany were
+set aside, there was bitter chagrin in the Fatherland. It was then, as
+we have good reason to believe, that the leaders of the German people
+came to the conclusion that only by war could they realize their
+ambitions. War must be made on France and on her ally, Russia. When
+France was overthrown, Germany would be absolute master of Central and
+Western Europe. When Russia was crippled, Germany would have a free hand
+in the Balkans. Then, mightily increased in territory and resources, she
+would proceed to the conquest of Britain.
+
+Preparations on a vast scale were at once begun. The war lords of
+Germany bent all their thoughts and energies to the task. The effect of
+heavy artillery and high explosive shells was studied, and the great
+armament works were ordered to turn out huge howitzers and the necessary
+ammunition for them. Innumerable machine guns and motor cars were built,
+and nothing that made for military or naval efficiency was overlooked.
+The Kiel Canal was enlarged so as to accommodate the heaviest
+Dreadnoughts in the navy; the number of trained men in the army was
+increased; huge stocks of all the necessaries of war were collected. The
+bankers were instructed to sell their foreign stocks and shares, and to
+collect gold with which to purchase abroad the cotton, copper, rubber,
+and petrol, which are all-important in modern warfare. A deep-laid plot
+was hatched to hamper British bankers so that they could not lend money
+to France and Russia. Silently and secretly, and with wonderful
+foresight and zeal, everything was prepared for the great adventure.
+
+Some idea of the wonderful completeness of the German preparations for
+war may be gathered from the following description of a soldier's
+equipment:--
+
+    "The German soldier was clothed in cloth of a colour which, on
+    the average of European days, gave a greater degree of
+    invisibility than khaki. This cloth was excellently woven to
+    withstand weather and strain. Each soldier had a pocket-knife
+    worth a week's pay of a British corporal, and carried in this
+    pocket-knife a little equipment for mending his clothes (as also
+    a first-aid bandage of adhesive plaster). His boots were of
+    wonderfully strong and supple leather, such boots as only rich
+    civilians in England can buy. His valise of cowhide, tanned with
+    the hair on, was most ingeniously furnished with straps and
+    removable bolts of white metal for ease of carrying and ease of
+    packing and unpacking. Its contents, disposed in various little
+    cupboards, gave the maximum of food-reserve and
+    clothing-comforts for the space and weight. The order-books, the
+    maps, the other equipment of officers and non-commissioned
+    officers, showed the same skilful devotion to detail. During
+    many years of preparation the German mind had evidently devoted
+    itself with passionate industry to providing for every possible
+    emergency of the soldier's life in the field."
+
+
+A spy system of the most widespread and elaborate character had been
+established in all European countries. The Kaiser was assured by his
+spies that Great Britain would not actively join with Russia and France,
+because her people were sharply divided on an important political
+question, and because they had grown so spiritless that they would
+prefer to make money by providing the combatants with materials of war.
+France was well known to be ill-prepared for a campaign, and that great,
+unwieldy giant Russia would be so sluggish in making ready that months
+would elapse before he could become formidable. By the summer of 1914
+Germany had made all her military and naval preparations; she was armed
+to the teeth, and she knew that the nations against whom she had
+secretly prepared were quite unready to meet her.
+
+[Illustration: The Kaiser in the Field.
+
+_Photo: Central News._
+
+This remarkable Photograph shows the German Emperor directing the
+operations of his troops in Flanders.]
+
+Towards the end of June 1914, when the army was ready to the last gaiter
+button, an event took place which gave the Kaiser an excellent excuse
+for bringing about that war which was necessary for the fulfilment of
+his aims. The Archduke Ferdinand was murdered in Bosnia, and Serbia was
+charged with bringing about the crime. It was alleged that the heir to
+the throne of the Kaiser's ally, Austria-Hungary, had been foully done
+to death by miscreants in the pay of Russia's friend, Serbia. The Kaiser
+at once determined that Austria-Hungary's quarrel should be his; he
+would support Franz Josef in punishing Serbia--that is, in throwing down
+the gauntlet to Russia. This would be certain to bring about the war
+which his soul desired. A little more delay, however, was necessary. An
+army, as Napoleon told us long ago, marches on its stomach, and great
+supplies of food are required before it can take the field. For this
+reason the Kaiser decided to play for time until the harvest of the year
+had been gathered in. So for a whole month little was heard of the
+Archduke's murder, and the Powers of Europe were encouraged to believe
+that the crime would not lead to war.
+
+[Illustration: Montenegrin Artillery in Action.
+
+_Photo, Daily Mirror._
+
+Montenegro is the smallest kingdom in Europe, and consists of lofty
+highlands of gray, broken rock. The Montenegrins are said to be the
+finest and strongest race in Europe. They are born warriors, and their
+average height is six feet. They are of kindred race to the Serbians,
+and in this great war they have thrown in their lot with them.]
+
+As soon, however, as the German garners were full the Austro-Hungarian
+Government was urged to send to Serbia a series of demands such as had
+never been presented to a civilized and independent power before. They
+were meant to provoke Russia, and to drag her into the quarrel. What
+were these demands? Mr. Lloyd-George has told us, in the following
+burning words:--
+
+    "What were the Austrian demands? Serbia sympathized with her
+    fellow-countrymen in Bosnia. That was one of her crimes. She
+    must do so no more. Her newspapers were saying nasty things
+    about Austria. They must do so no longer.... Serbian newspapers
+    must not criticize Austria.... Serbia said: 'Very well; we will
+    give orders to the newspapers that they must not criticize
+    Austria in future, neither Austria, nor Hungary, nor anything
+    that is theirs.' Who can doubt the valour of Serbia when she
+    undertook to tackle her newspaper editors? She promised not to
+    sympathize with Bosnia, promised to write no critical articles
+    about Austria. She would have no public meetings at which
+    anything unkind was said about Austria. That was not enough. She
+    must dismiss from her army officers whom Austria should
+    subsequently name. But those officers had just emerged from a
+    war where they were adding lustre to the Serbian arms--gallant,
+    brave, efficient. I wonder whether it was their guilt or their
+    efficiency that prompted Austria's action. Serbia was to
+    undertake in advance to dismiss them from the army, the names to
+    be sent on subsequently. Can you name a country in the world
+    that would have stood that?"
+
+How did Serbia face the situation thus engineered? Listen again to Mr.
+Lloyd-George:--
+
+    "It was a difficult situation for a small country. Here was a
+    demand made upon her by a great military Power who could put
+    five or six men in the field for everyone she could; and that
+    Power supported by the greatest military Power in the world. How
+    did Serbia behave? It is not what happens to you in life that
+    matters; it is the way in which you face it. And Serbia faced
+    the situation with dignity. She said to Austria: 'If any
+    officers of mine have been guilty and are proved to be guilty, I
+    will dismiss them.' Austria said: 'That is not good enough for
+    me.' It was not guilt she was after, but capacity. Then came
+    Russia's turn. Russia has a special regard for Serbia. She has a
+    special interest in Serbia. Russians have shed their blood for
+    Serbian independence many a time. Serbia is a member of her
+    family, and she cannot see Serbia maltreated. Austria knew that.
+    Germany knew that, and Germany turned round to Russia and said:
+    'I insist that you shall stand by with your arms folded whilst
+    Austria is strangling your little brother to death.' What answer
+    did the Russian Slav give? He gave the only answer that becomes
+    a man. He turned to Austria and said: 'You lay hands on that
+    little fellow, and I will tear your ramshackle empire limb from
+    limb.'"
+
+The object of the Kaiser was achieved--the quarrel between Austria and
+Russia was now likely to provoke a European war. Our Foreign Minister,
+Sir Edward Grey, worked night and day to bring the estranged Powers to
+peaceful agreement, and he so far succeeded that on the 30th July
+Austria showed signs of drawing back. At once the Kaiser saw that all
+his hopes were likely to be shattered. That same evening he took steps
+which made war certain. He ordered Russia to cease all warlike
+preparations within twelve hours, and France within eighteen hours.
+Before France had returned an answer to this impudent demand, his Uhlans
+were over her border.
+
+The Germans began the campaign absolutely certain of victory. While all
+the talk of peace was going on, their General Staff was poring over maps
+of the future battlefields. France was to be overwhelmed by a mighty
+rush; she was to be beaten to the ground before her armies could be
+marshalled in strength. Short, sharp, and sudden was to be the blow; and
+when France lay at her conqueror's feet, the victorious legions would be
+entrained for the eastern front in sufficient time to meet the
+slow-moving Russians, who could be easily held up by the Austrians until
+the main German armies were free to assail them. The Germans believed
+that when Russia found herself alone in the struggle some arrangement
+could be made with her so that thenceforth she would not stand in the
+way of their ambitious schemes.
+
+Such was the plan of campaign, and it will readily be seen that any long
+delay in invading and subduing France would enable the Russian millions
+to be arrayed on the eastern frontier, and to carry war into Germany and
+Austria. Consequently, no time was available in which to besiege the
+barrier fortresses on the eastern frontier of France, and to push
+through the difficult country behind them. The quickest and easiest
+route to the heart of France had to be taken, and that lay through the
+Belgian plain, which was so well supplied with railways that food and
+munitions from the German bases could readily reach the invading armies
+as they pushed forward. Belgium, it was true, had been guaranteed
+freedom from invasion by a treaty to which Prussia was a party; but in
+the opinion of the German Government military necessity overrode all
+such engagements and reduced them to mere "scraps of paper." Belgium, it
+was thought, would make little or no resistance. She had but few trained
+soldiers, and these were ill-equipped. She had powerful fortresses on
+her frontier, but there were not enough men to garrison them properly,
+and there was a grave lack of ammunition for the guns. Even if the
+fortresses did resist, the Germans were prepared with a plan to deal
+with them.
+
+So Belgium was invaded, and this terrible breach of faith on the part of
+the Germans shocked all neutral nations. Great Britain had been the
+leading Power in neutralizing Belgium, and she could not in honour
+desert the little country which was ready to fight to the death for its
+independence. Nor dared she stand by with folded arms and see France
+overcome. A victorious Germany in possession of Antwerp and the Channel
+ports of France would be in a very favourable position to attack British
+shores. Should Germany become master of the west of Europe, the
+existence of the British Empire would be in dire peril. Britain,
+therefore, was compelled by dictates of honour and self-preservation to
+declare war on Germany.
+
+This declaration of war was a great blow to Germany; it upset all her
+calculations. It brought into the struggle not only the greatest naval
+Power in the world, but the unrivalled riches and resources of the
+British Empire. The British army which could be sent overseas was so
+small as to seem negligible to the Germans; but they could not shut
+their eyes to the fact that the British Empire, with its 417 millions of
+inhabitants, could, in the course of time, array colossal forces against
+them. In the meantime the British could, by means of their navy,
+paralyze German sea-power, and sweep German commerce from the seas, and
+at the same time, out of the abundance of their riches, find plentiful
+sinews of war for their Allies. Our declaration of war was bitterly
+resented in Germany, and a flood of hate against all things British
+began to sweep over the country.
+
+[Illustration: German Soldiers leaving Berlin for the Front.
+
+An amateur artist is drawing a caricature of General Joffre on the side
+of the carriage.]
+
+On 2nd August Germany demanded a free passage through Belgium; it was
+refused, and two days later the enemy was swarming across the frontier.
+Within ten days the great barrier forts of Liége were crushed into
+shapeless ruin by shells of such explosive power that neither steel nor
+concrete could resist them. Within a fortnight the greater part of
+Belgium was in German hands. Brussels was entered and occupied, and two
+and a half million men were ready to fall like an avalanche on France.
+
+The French Commander-in-Chief was faced by an appalling problem. With
+forces numbering one-half of those launched against him, he had to await
+the German attack on a frontier 500 miles long. He was uncertain as to
+where the main blow would fall. Accordingly he followed Napoleon's
+advice: "Engage everywhere, and then see." He engaged in Alsace; but the
+main forces of the enemy were not there. He engaged in Lorraine, and in
+the third week of August suffered a heavy defeat at the hands of the
+Bavarians, though he was still able to keep the field in that province.
+On 23rd August, when the Battle of Nancy was raging, the avalanche fell
+on the line of the Sambre and Meuse, where French armies were arrayed to
+meet the shock. Namur, the pivot of the defending armies, fell; its
+forts were blown to atoms by the great howitzers which unwisely had been
+permitted to come within range. An unexpected army of Saxons pierced the
+Allied centre, and the French were forced to retreat rapidly or suffer
+destruction. The northern gate to Paris was now forced, and the eastern
+gate in Lorraine was threatened. For a moment it seemed that the Germans
+had won the campaign in two battles.
+
+France had reserves, but they were far away in Alsace, in Burgundy,[3]
+and behind Paris. They could not be brought to the front in time to
+retrieve disaster, so the beaten armies had to hasten southwards towards
+their reserves.
+
+The Germans pushed southwards with incredible speed. The British, on the
+left of the French, had been left unsupported, and overwhelming numbers
+of the enemy were striving might and main to envelop them. They were in
+grave peril, and at any moment the right flank in Lorraine might be
+turned, and the retreating French be caught between two fires. There was
+nothing for it but swift and desperate retreat, until a line could be
+reached on which a stand was possible. Here and there, during the rapid
+retirement, the French gained local successes, which might have tempted
+them to halt and put their fortune to the test once more. But the French
+Commander-in-Chief was proof against the temptation. He held firmly to
+his plan, and continued the long and depressing retreat.
+
+[Illustration: A Hand-to-hand Fight during the Battle of the Marne.
+
+_By permission of the Sphere._
+
+The action here illustrated took place on the South bank of the Marne,
+where the Germans found themselves attacked by French colonial troops.
+The Germans were soon beaten back, after a fierce affray amidst burning
+houses and broken barricades.]
+
+Upon the devoted British fell the full force of the German shock.
+Hopelessly outnumbered, and with the enemy on three sides, they
+nevertheless struggled out of van Kluck's grasp, and made a fighting
+retreat that will go down to posterity as one of the finest feats known
+to the history of warfare. Terrible were their losses, as were those of
+the French armies on their right; but they were still unbroken, and were
+still capable of striking hard when the Allied line should be knitted up
+anew. In the early days of September this was accomplished; the whole
+Allied line lay extended from the southern outskirts of Paris eastwards
+to Verdun. It had been welded into strength by misfortune; it had taken
+the measure of the foe, and was eager for revenge.
+
+To the Germans it appeared that Paris had been abandoned, and in Berlin
+men confidently declared that the war was over, and that only the fruits
+of victory remained to be reaped. Von Kluck, sweeping irresistibly
+towards the capital, believed that he had only wearied and broken foes
+before him. He had good reason for this belief, for he could not
+conceive that any armies could have retreated so rapidly and suffered so
+severely and yet remain fit to oppose him. He was full of confidence,
+but it was the confidence of ignorance. He was totally unaware that a
+new army, fresh and unwearied, was silently concentrating in the streets
+of Paris.
+
+In Britain there were the worst of forebodings. The Allied armies had
+been driven back helter-skelter with a terrible tale of losses, and von
+Kluck was within gunshot of the outer forts of the French capital. The
+5th of September was the darkest hour before the dawn. Everywhere the
+Allied armies seemed to be on the verge of disaster. Von Kluck was
+wheeling his right in order to envelop the 5th French Army; farther east
+the Würtembergers were striking hard at the French centre; the Crown
+Prince, to the south of Verdun, was waiting for the huge siege guns with
+which he hoped to batter down the defences of that great fortress;
+Maubeuge was at its last gasp; and at Nancy the Bavarians, under the eye
+of the Kaiser himself, were preparing to break through the eastern
+barrier. The man in the street at home could only stifle his feelings of
+dismay, and hope that by some miracle victory might yet be snatched from
+the jaws of defeat.
+
+[Illustration: Motor-cyclist Dispatch Rider breaking through a Patrol of
+Uhlans.
+
+_By permission of The Sphere._
+
+The motor-cyclist enables communications to be kept up, and messages to
+be sent to and from headquarters all along the far-extended lines of the
+Allies. Adventures similar to that illustrated above were common in the
+early stages of the war.]
+
+So far the war had been one unbroken triumph for Germany. She had
+succeeded even beyond the expectations of her people at home. Fortress
+after fortress had fallen; victory after victory had been won; the
+capital of France was at her mercy; prisoners had been captured in huge
+numbers, and guns by the score. To crown all, just as Sedan Day was
+approaching and the fall of Paris was hourly expected, the news arrived
+that von Hindenburg had won an astounding victory at Tannenberg, in
+Eastern Prussia. The whole German nation went mad with delight. Its
+wildest ambitions were about to be realized.
+
+One short week later there was a sudden and dramatic change in the
+aspect of affairs. The Allies had made a leap forward; von Kluck, beaten
+and outflanked, was being harried northward through the woods of
+Compiègne; von Buelow, with his famous Guards reduced to half their
+strength, was hurrying towards the Aisne; the Duke of Würtemberg, foiled
+in his attacks on the French centre, was in sullen retreat; Verdun was
+still intact; and in Lorraine the Kaiser had seen the White Cuirassiers
+of Bavaria hurled back in confusion from the French line. The avalanche
+had fallen, but it had failed to overwhelm the Allied armies. The
+Germans were now, for the first time, tasting the bitterness of forced
+retreat.
+
+Back they were thrust, but not in rout, to the plateau beyond the Aisne,
+where, in a position of great strength, they were forced to fight,
+against all their traditions, on the defensive. For weeks they were
+besieged, but day by day their entrenchments were strengthened until
+they resembled fortresses. All the courage and skill and patience of the
+attackers could not bolt them from these burrows by means of frontal
+attacks. Then an attempt was made to outflank them by a northward
+movement of the Allied left. As this movement proceeded, a similar
+manoeuvre was begun by the foe. Each side attempted to outflank the
+other, and a feverish race set in for the North Sea, where both flanking
+movements must perforce end. Three French armies were strung out
+northwards as far as the La Bassée canal; the British army was
+transferred from the Aisne to fill the gap beyond; and a new army was
+collected and hurried to the assistance of the Belgians, who extended
+the line to the sea. The Allies just won the race, and the Germans found
+themselves besieged once more, this time on a line of trenches some 450
+miles in length. For months to come they strove to break through the
+Allied lines; with what success future pages of this history will tell.
+
+Such, in brief outline, is the story which has been told in our two
+former volumes. It is the story of the most ruthless and determined
+assault that has ever been made upon the liberties of mankind in the
+whole history of the world. We see master minds plotting and planning
+for long, secret years, watching and waiting for an occasion to swoop
+down upon unsuspecting neighbours and rob them of life and freedom and
+the fruits of their toil. We see them launching millions of men, armed
+with every death-dealing device that fiendish ingenuity can frame,
+against a little peaceful people that dares to stand in their way. The
+earth shakes with the roar of gigantic guns and the thunderclaps of
+bursting shells. Fortresses crumble to shapeless ruin; homesteads are
+given to the flames; temples of God are profaned and despoiled;
+monuments of art and piety are blotted out; cities are shattered; young
+and old, man, woman, and child, are given to the sword, and wherever the
+battle has raged there are ghastly heaps of dead and dying, "friend and
+foe in one red burial blent."
+
+Onward sweep the conquering legions, with pillars of cloud by day and
+pillars of fire by night, and it would seem that nothing human could
+give them pause. Armies recoil before them; but strive as they may, they
+cannot overwhelm them. Victory sits upon their banners, when suddenly
+those whom they have hunted and harried across the fair fields of France
+spring forward with undaunted fire and vigour, and the torrent is
+stayed. Then it is swept back, and soon the invaders are hemmed in by a
+ring of steel, against which they fling themselves in baffled rage like
+a trapped tiger against the bars of his cage.
+
+Such is the story of seventy-seven days of bloodshed, horror,
+destruction, and woe--days which can never be forgotten while the memory
+of man endures.
+
+[Footnote 1:] _Ar-twa´_, former province of France, now forming the
+greater part of the department Pas-de-Calais. Its name is derived from
+Arras, its capital.]
+
+[Footnote 2: The Colossus of Rhodes was one of the seven wonders of the
+ancient world. It was a huge figure of brass one hundred and twenty feet
+high, and it strode across the harbour mouth.]
+
+[Footnote 3: This old province of France lies between the Aube on the
+north, the Rhone on the south, the Meuse on the east, and the Loire on
+the west.]
+
+
+
+
+  CHAPTER II.
+
+  SOME GERMAN THEORIES OF WAR.
+
+
+Before I proceed with my story, let me call your attention to certain
+theories of war with which the German General Staff began the campaign.
+By a theory of war I mean some plan or scheme which, in the judgment of
+those making it, is _likely_ to prove of great advantage, but which can
+only be _proved_ to be so by actual practice. Some of the German
+theories turned out to be right, others wrong, as we shall see.
+
+If you were to witness a field day of British troops you would notice
+that the infantry make their attacks in long, thin skirmishing lines.
+The men are widely spread out, and as they advance they offer a small
+target to the guns of the enemy. Their losses are thus reduced to a
+minimum. The Germans, on the other hand, believe in making their attacks
+with their men massed together in close formation.
+
+Troops attacking in close order have certain advantages over those
+attacking in open order. First, they can begin their attack with the
+least possible delay. Suppose a hundred men are marching forward in
+fours, and are about to make an attack. If they are to spread out widely
+time will be needed for them to deploy. (See Fig. 2, p. 19.) But if they
+go forward packed close together as in Fig. 1, p. 18, they can attack
+much more quickly. You can easily understand that the quicker a blow is
+delivered, the more likely it is to be successful, for the defenders are
+given little time in which to make preparations for resisting it.
+
+Then, again, an attack delivered in mass formation brings much more
+weight to bear on the part of the enemy's line against which it is
+directed than an attack in open order. If, for example, a hundred men
+are hurled against a front of a hundred yards, the force with which they
+can assail it is much greater than it would be if the same hundred yards
+of front were attacked by fifty men. Where, as often happens, troops
+have to advance on a narrow front, say against a bridge, a causeway, a
+street, or a defile, they must attack in close order if they are to
+succeed.
+
+Of course, when a massed attack is made, a very good target is offered
+to the enemy, especially in these days of magazine rifles, machine guns,
+and quick-firing field guns, and large numbers of the attackers are sure
+to fall. In former wars it has been found that troops so punished break
+or are brought to a standstill, and that their attack therefore fails.
+The Germans, however, believe that men can be so disciplined that,
+though large numbers of them are shot down, the rest will push on and
+carry the position. They believe that this great waste of life is worth
+while, because the campaign will be over all the sooner, and the total
+losses will probably be no greater than they would be in a
+long-drawn-out war carried on by attacks in open order.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 1. Column advancing to the Attack in Close Order.]
+
+Now let us see how this theory bore the test of actual practice. You
+will remember that at the Battle of Mons and on other occasions the
+Germans made massed attacks on the Allied positions, and though their
+men were shot down in droves, they came on again and again, almost
+shoulder to shoulder. The theory that men can be so disciplined as to
+continue to advance in massed formation, even though they know that
+large numbers of them will certainly be killed or wounded, proved
+correct. Where the theory broke down was in supposing that the men who
+survived the slaughter would be able to carry the position. On some
+occasions they succeeded, but in the majority of cases a swarm of
+Germans advancing against inferior numbers were reduced by one-fourth,
+or even by one-third, in the first few minutes of the rush, and the
+remainder were too few to drive out the defenders. So, as far as actual
+results were concerned, attacks in close formation proved to be a
+failure. The Germans, however, persisted in them, and this led to an
+immense wastage of life. They flung away life like water, but, as we
+have seen, they did not win that speedy victory on which they had staked
+so much.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 2. Column deploying for Attack in Open Order.]
+
+Another theory of the German General Staff was that no existing fortress
+could withstand for more than a few days the effect of high explosive
+shells hurled from heavy howitzers. Up to about ten years ago it was
+thought that fortresses mounting heavy guns, and fully supplied with
+men, food, and ammunition, could hold out for months against a besieging
+force. The fixed guns of fortresses had then a far greater range than
+any movable guns that could be brought against them, and they were so
+powerful that they could, as a rule, put out of action the artillery of
+the besiegers.
+
+[Illustration: A German Howitzer for Siege Work.
+
+_Photo, Daily Mirror_.
+
+Notice the caterpillar wheels which enable it to traverse soft roads
+without sinking in.]
+
+On page 200 of Volume I. you were told how a howitzer differs from an
+ordinary field gun. Let me repeat what I then said. The great difference
+between the action of an ordinary gun and that of a howitzer is the
+difference between a boy throwing a stone at a mark which he can see,
+and the same boy lobbing a stone over a wall so that it will fall on
+something hidden from his view. The ordinary field gun has a long, flat
+sweep of fire, and is therefore unable to shoot over hills, trees, or
+houses, or to drop shells on men lying close behind a bank or in a deep,
+narrow trench.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Look at this little diagram. A howitzer, A, is firing at a fort, B, from
+the other side of a hill. The howitzer is invisible from the fort, and
+the men firing the howitzer cannot see the mark at which they are
+aiming. But a man on or above the hill can see the fort easily, and can
+so direct the fire of the howitzer that it can lob its shells over the
+hill and drop them directly on the fort. The guns of the fort are
+incapable of hitting the howitzer. The shells which they throw pass
+right over the hill, and fall a long way behind it.
+
+Until recently the fortress gun was master of the howitzer, for several
+reasons. The howitzers then in use were small, and their range was much
+less than that of heavy guns mounted in forts. No matter how carefully
+the howitzers were concealed or how frequently they were shifted about,
+they were sure sooner or later to be "spotted" from the fortress, and
+put out of action. The explosives which were then used in the howitzer
+shells were not sufficiently powerful to destroy the steel and concrete
+of the forts, and there was much difficulty in discovering, whether the
+aim of these high-angle guns was true.
+
+The Austrian and the German General Staff had studied all this very
+carefully, and they had come to the conclusion that howitzers could be
+constructed of such a size that they would be more than a match for
+fortress guns. Former howitzers were 6 inches across at the mouth; but
+before the war the Austrians built howitzers of from 11 to 12-inch
+calibre. This doubling of the calibre meant that the new weapon was
+_eight times_ as powerful as the old one. Such howitzers could throw
+their shells from an immense distance, and could take advantage of steep
+cover so far off that the fortress guns could not reach them. Though the
+new howitzers were so heavy, they were capable of being moved from place
+to place as soon as they were "spotted".
+
+Not only was the howitzer made much bigger than formerly, but new and
+very powerful explosives were discovered, and huge shells were filled
+with them. Experiments led the German Staff to believe that these
+explosives would utterly destroy the forts, no matter how solidly they
+might be constructed. How to aim these howitzers correctly was the only
+remaining difficulty. Aeroplanes and balloons solved the problem.
+Observers could fly high enough to see the forts, note where the shots
+fell, and signal to the gunners so that they could find the exact range.
+
+The Germans believed that no fortress along the line of their advance
+could long resist their big howitzers and high explosive shells. The
+French, on the other hand, thought that such ring fortresses as those at
+Liége, Namur, and Verdun could hold out for a considerable time. During
+the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-5, Port Arthur, though attacked by
+howitzers, held out for eleven months. The French saw no reason why
+their forts should not resist for several weeks at least.
+
+From what you have read in the former volumes you know that the German
+theory was right, and that the French theory was wrong. Liége, Namur,
+Maubeuge, and Antwerp all fell before the high explosive shells of the
+huge howitzers in an astonishingly brief time. Verdun did not fall, it
+is true, but this was because the French turned it into a new type of
+fortress altogether. They made field works at a considerable distance
+from the old forts, and moved out the heavy guns to advanced trenches.
+Rails were laid down so that as soon as the guns were "spotted" they
+could be moved to new positions at short notice. Thus, as I told you on
+page 280 of Volume II., instead of fixed forts, each, say, mounted with
+ten heavy guns, these same ten guns were "dotted here and there in
+trenches rapidly established in one place and another, along perhaps
+half a mile of wooded vale, and free to operate, when they moved, over
+perhaps double that front." This is the German theory of fortification,
+and Verdun was saved because the French adopted it.
+
+Another theory of the German Staff was that high explosive shells could
+be used with great effect not only against fortresses but against troops
+in the field. In former wars shrapnel[4] was largely used, but in the
+present war the Germans believed that high explosive shells would be
+more effective.[5] Modern armies, as you know, "dig themselves in"
+whenever they can, and fight from trenches. Against troops in deep
+trenches with good head-cover shrapnel is not very deadly. When trenches
+have been occupied for some time they become little fortresses, with
+strong parapets and entanglements of barbed wire in front of them.
+Before sending infantry to attack such trenches, the Germans determined
+to fire high explosive shells at them, so that the barbed wire would be
+torn away, the parapets of the trenches would be blown in, and the
+defensive works destroyed. In this respect, too, the German theory
+proved correct, and when the trench warfare began in real earnest the
+Allies had to follow the German example. Months passed, however, before
+their supply of howitzers and high explosive shells was sufficient to
+enable them to cope with the Germans on equal terms.
+
+[Illustration: The Effect of Shrapnel on Trenches.
+
+Some four hundred to five hundred balls and splinters spread forwards,
+downwards, and fan-wise when the shell bursts.
+
+(_By permission of The Sphere._)]
+
+In Volume I., page 189, I gave you some account of the machine gun
+which, as you will remember, discharges automatically and accurately
+some four hundred or five hundred shots a minute. As a rifleman can only
+fire about a dozen aimed shots in the same time, a machine gun is
+equivalent to at least thirty riflemen. It discharges its bullets in a
+cone-shaped stream, and is even more deadly than sustained rifle fire.
+Prior to the war each battalion in the British army was provided with
+two machine guns. The German General Staff, however, provided each unit
+of its infantry with a large number of machine guns,[6] which were so
+mounted that they could be carried rapidly over every kind of ground.
+The result was that the Germans had a very marked advantage over the
+Allies in machine firing power. Here, again, the German theory was
+correct, and the Allies were forced to follow suit and increase greatly
+their supply of machine guns.
+
+The Germans have no faith in the waiting game. They believe that
+constant attack is the best form of defence. It is foreign to their
+ideas to wait for the enemy to attack them; everywhere and always they
+endeavour to strike at the foe. They believe with the American humorist:
+
+  "Thrice blessed he who hath his quarrel just,
+   But four times he who gets his blow in fust."
+
+In order to enable troops to strike swiftly, and, therefore, to take the
+enemy unawares, the Germans provided themselves with fleets of motor
+cars in which they conveyed their soldiers to the points where they were
+needed. The admirable Belgian and French roads enabled the motors to
+travel very quickly, and this accounts in large measure for the rapid
+pursuit of the Allies. The motor cars were meant to be specially useful
+in making those flanking movements by which German generals strive to
+envelop their enemies. These flanking attacks, however, were not
+successful, perhaps because it was impossible to transport sufficient
+artillery along with the men.
+
+[Illustration: The Effect of High Explosive Shells on Trenches.
+
+A breach is made in the wire entanglements and the chief force of the
+explosion is downwards.
+
+(_By permission of The Sphere._)]
+
+Finally, let me deal for a few moments with a theory that proved to be
+hopelessly wrong, so entirely mistaken that it robbed the Germans of
+that speedy victory which they confidently expected, and led to a long
+and uncertain trench war in the West. What was this theory?
+
+The German General Staff believed that Paris would prove to be a great
+trap for the French. They believed that in no circumstances would the
+French Government permit Paris to be abandoned by the French armies.
+They thought that if Paris were threatened, one of two things would
+happen--either the French armies would be massed round the capital for
+its defence, or they would be divided, and some would try to hold the
+frontier, while others tried to hold the city. Further they felt sure
+that if the French Commander-in-Chief should wish to keep his armies
+undivided so that he could fight on the most advantageous ground,
+irrespective of whether Paris fell into German hands or not, the French
+politicians would interfere and overrule him. Then quarrels and
+confusion would arise; there would be no unity of purpose; divided
+authority would prevail, and France would go to pieces.
+
+Whatever happened, the Germans felt confident of victory. They had more
+men in the field than France could possibly bring against them. If they
+fought pitched battles with the full strength of the French forces
+outside Paris, they were bound to win, because they were superior in men
+and guns. If the French forces were divided, their task would be still
+easier; and if the French politicians interfered, France would do much
+to destroy herself. Such was the theory; now let us see how it worked
+out.
+
+From the very beginning of the struggle the French military authorities
+determined that they would conduct the war in their own way, and that
+they would not brook any interference from the politicians. They foresaw
+all the difficulties on which the Germans counted, and they fully
+realized that if they allowed their plans to be hampered by defending
+Paris they would fall into a trap from which there would be no escape.
+While, therefore, the enemy was making his great drive towards Paris,
+and even when he seemed to be on the point of besieging it, they did not
+attempt to go to its rescue, but still retreated, so that their line
+could be built up anew, and an advance made when the time was ripe. It
+is true that a new army had been mobilized in and around Paris, but it
+was not meant for the defence of the capital; it was intended for quite
+another purpose.[7]
+
+When von Kluck was near the outer fortifications of Paris he discovered
+that the German theory was all wrong. He was forced to swerve in order
+to follow up the French and British, and in the act of swerving he was
+caught, and forced to retreat. Thus that rapid success in the West which
+was the very keynote of the German plan of campaign was rendered
+impossible.
+
+[Footnote 4: See Vol. I., p. 197.]
+
+[Footnote 5: See diagrams on the following pages.]
+
+[Footnote 6: It was said that the Germans had 56,000 machine guns at
+the beginning of the war.]
+
+[Footnote 7: See Vol. II., p. 201.]
+
+
+
+
+  CHAPTER III.
+
+  FROM ARRAS TO ARMENTIÈRES.
+
+
+In Chapter XXXIII. of Volume II. you read something of the race for the
+sea. When I broke off the story the position of the Allies was as
+follows. Northwards from Compiègne to Lassigny extended the left wing of
+Maunoury's army. Still farther north, as far as the Somme, lay de
+Castelnau's army. Beyond it was the army of Maud'huy, which ultimately
+extended to the canal between Béthune and Lille. The British army was in
+process of being transferred from the Aisne to a position north of this
+canal. It was destined to fill the gap from the canal to the north of
+Ypres. The Belgians, assisted by the French, were to complete the line
+along the Yser to the North Sea.
+
+Now the movements by which the various armies of the Allies swung into
+these positions are very difficult to follow, and you must give me all
+your attention if you are to have clear ideas about them. First of all,
+we must know something about the character of country in which the war
+was to be waged for many months to come. Within this region there are
+several important towns which are mentioned in your geography books.
+There are also numberless villages which are quite unimportant in
+themselves, but have become world-renowned because they have been the
+scene of great and stirring incidents. I shall mention these villages as
+they occur in the course of the story, but the general character of the
+country and the position and importance of the larger towns I must deal
+with now. Do not begrudge the time given to this and the following
+chapter. It will enable you to follow with intelligent interest the
+story hereafter to be told; and to picture for yourselves the scenes
+amidst which some of the most terrible struggles in all history have
+taken place.
+
+Most of the region from the Somme to the mouth of the Yser is comprised
+within the two French departments of Pas-de-Calais and Nord, and the
+Belgian province of West Flanders. Pas-de-Calais is the French
+equivalent for the Strait of Dover, and the department is so called
+because its shores are mainly washed by that narrow neck of sea. The
+department of Nord lies to the north and east of Pas-de-Calais, and
+merges into the Belgian province of West Flanders.
+
+Nearly the whole of it is a plain, and much of it is as flat as the Fen
+district of Lincolnshire. A line of low heights runs south-east from
+Gris Nez,[8] and forms the watershed between the rivers running to the
+North Sea and those which empty themselves into the English Channel. The
+most important river of the region is the Lys, a tributary of the
+Scheldt. It rises in the heights just mentioned, and winds across the
+country north-eastwards to join the Scheldt at Ghent. Notice very
+carefully the course of this river, for it crosses the country almost
+midway between the two most important towns in the region from the
+Scarpe to Nieuport--the French city of Lille, and the Flemish city of
+Ypres.
+
+[Illustration: Bird's-eye View of the Country from Arras to the Sea.]
+
+From Arras to the sea near Ostend is a distance of over sixty miles.
+Nearly the whole of this stretch of country is a dead level. There is a
+crescent of low heights south of Ypres, but elsewhere, save at and near
+Cassel, about eighteen miles west of Ypres, there is not a hill worth
+mention. The hill of Cassel rises suddenly from the plain to a height of
+515 feet, and from the summit there is a very extensive view. It is said
+that thirty-two towns and a hundred villages can be seen from this
+windmill-studded hill. What is called the Mont des Cats is about the
+same height as the hill of Cassel. It stands almost on the frontier, to
+the south-west of Ypres, and was of the greatest importance to the
+Allies, for it was the key to their position north of the Lys.
+
+[Illustration: Brothers in Arms.
+
+_Photo, Alfieri._
+
+A British and a French soldier chatting together in Flanders.]
+
+I have already told you something of the ancient and beautiful city of
+Arras.[9] It is the capital of the department of Pas-de-Calais, and
+stands on the Scarpe, a tributary of the Scheldt. The old province of
+Artois, of which it was the capital, has changed hands very often during
+the course of its long and warlike history. It has been successively
+French, Burgundian, Flemish, Burgundian, German, and Spanish, and it
+finally came into the possession of France in 1640. You will remember
+that Arras, the capital, was formerly famous for the tapestry hangings
+known by its name. The manufacture, however, has long been extinct, and
+the city has now such varied industries as soap, oil, cast iron, salt,
+sugar refining, lace making, and the manufacture of agricultural
+implements. It is also one of the chief grain markets of France.
+
+Arras, as you will observe from the map on page 28, stands in a gap in
+the line of hills which I have mentioned as forming the watershed.
+Through this gap run the river Scarpe, many roads, and the main railway
+from Liége by way of Namur, Mons, and Valenciennes to the Channel ports.
+An enemy striving to push westwards to the English Channel would
+naturally strive to gain possession of Arras because of its convenient
+road and railway communications.
+
+Arras was formerly a beautiful little city, but it stands on the edge of
+perhaps the ugliest stretch of country on earth. Ten miles north of it
+is the town of Lens, south of which the Black Country of France begins.
+I have already told you that the Sambre cuts through an important
+coalfield. This coalfield is continued west into North France as far as
+the right bank of the Lys. The area of the coal-bearing region in
+Pas-de-Calais is about 240 square miles, and its yield is about twenty
+million tons per annum, which is about one-half of the total yearly
+output of France, but not a twelfth part of the annual production of
+Great Britain. You may be sure that this coal-bearing area is a busy and
+grimy region of pits and factories, much like the coal-mining parts of
+Lancashire or the West Riding of Yorkshire. There are the same
+straggling towns of mean houses merging into one another, the same
+mounds of refuse topped by the head-gear of pits, the same dirty roads,
+the same factory buildings, and the same criss-cross of railways and
+canals. The Lys, like the Irwell and the Aire, is black and foul with
+the grime of industry.
+
+Béthune, which may be said to mark the western limit of the coalfield,
+has numerous pits in the neighbourhood, and a variety of industries such
+as are usually found in towns similarly situated. It stands twenty miles
+west-south-west of Lille, and is connected with it by an important canal
+which runs almost directly east to La Bassée for about seven miles.
+Beyond La Bassée the canal continues its eastward course for another
+four miles, and then unites with a canal system running north-eastward
+to Lille. Along both sides of the canal there are important railway
+lines connecting Lille with Béthune and the Channel ports.
+
+La Bassée is a small manufacturing town of 4,800 inhabitants, with no
+special features to distinguish it from dozens of others in this
+industrial region, but owing to its military importance in the present
+war it will henceforth enjoy a fame which many a city of old renown
+might envy. You already know that the canal from Béthune to La Bassée
+was chosen as the dividing line between Maud'huy's army and the British
+forces. The point where two Allied armies join hands is always
+considered to be the weakest part of any defensive position. You will
+learn, as the story proceeds, that the Germans made the most determined
+efforts to break through the sally-port of La Bassée, and that the
+British strove with all their might to push through the German lines in
+the same neighbourhood, so as to cut the railway by which the enemy was
+able to move his troops rapidly from north to south, and _vice versâ_.
+
+Another industrial town in this region which must detain us for a moment
+is Armentières,[10] which stands on the Lys about ten miles north of La
+Bassée. Before the war it was a busy and prosperous place, with a
+population of some 29,000. Its chief manufactures were cloth and table
+linen. The Belgian frontier meets the Lys near Armentières, and
+continues north-eastward along the left bank of the river.
+
+[Footnote 8: _Gree-nay_ (gray nose), headland of Pas-de-Calais, the
+nearest point of the French shore to that of England (South Foreland).]
+
+
+[Footnote 9: See Vol. II., p. 127]
+
+[Footnote 10: _Ar-mon-te-air´_ (_n_ nasal).]
+
+
+
+
+  CHAPTER IV.
+
+  FROM LILLE TO NIEUPORT.
+
+
+By far the most important place between the Aisne and the coast of
+Belgium is Lille, which is less than eight miles from Armentières. In
+Lille we find ourselves in a city of more than 200,000 inhabitants,
+which was formerly the capital of French Flanders. It stands in the
+well-watered and very fertile plain of the Deule,[11] a navigable
+tributary of the Lys, and is connected with all the rivers of the
+district by a bewildering network of canals. Formerly it was considered
+to be a fortress of the first class, and its citadel was said to be the
+masterpiece of Vauban,[12] the great military engineer. He was a soldier
+of the Spanish army, who was taken prisoner by the French, and was
+induced by them to join the French service. His life was chiefly spent
+in making and besieging fortresses. He conducted no less than forty
+sieges, took part in more than three hundred combats, and built or
+helped to build one hundred and sixty fortresses.
+
+For ages Lille has been a storm-centre of war. It has been so frequently
+mishandled by besiegers that the Church of St. Maurice is the only
+building of importance which has survived from the Middle Ages. Lille is
+the greatest industrial centre of North France, and its linen, woollen,
+and cotton factories, its oil and sugar refineries, its chemical works
+and great engineering and motor shops are of the utmost importance. It
+is a handsome place, with many fine public buildings, and its picture
+gallery is famous all over Europe because it contains some of the best
+work of the Flemish and Dutch schools.
+
+You can now understand why Lille is a great prize of war. We shall read
+later that it was captured by the Germans. Its loss was a great blow to
+the Allies, because it not only controls seven railway lines and a great
+network of roads, but contains engineering and motor shops, which
+enabled the enemy to carry out important repairs and to manufacture many
+necessary implements of war within a mile or two of his front. Further,
+when Lille was lost, the proceeds of its manufacturing activity went to
+the Germans, and this rich, busy city thenceforth contributed nothing to
+the war expenses of France.
+
+A little to the north-east of Lille are two other large manufacturing
+towns in the midst of one of the busiest industrial districts of France.
+Roubaix[13] is the first of these, and Tourcoing[14] is the second. In
+Belgium, a few miles north-west of Tourcoing, is the much smaller
+industrial town of Menin,[15] which stands on the Lys where the main
+road from Bruges crosses the river on the way to Lille.
+
+North of the Lys we are in another world. We have left behind us the
+ugly pit mounds, the grimy towns, and the smoke of factories. We are now
+in West Flanders, in a countryside of market gardens, where every inch
+of ground is closely tilled, and the fields are laid out like a
+chessboard. There are many patches of woodland, some of them, such as
+the Forest of Houthulst, six or seven miles north of Ypres, being fairly
+large. West Flanders is not naturally fertile, but its dairy farmers and
+market gardeners, by dint of the greatest industry, have turned it into
+a rich and productive land. Six or seven hundred years ago its wealth
+came from a different source. Its cities were then bustling hives, in
+which most of the woollen cloth used in Europe was spun and woven.
+
+[Illustration: The Cloth Hall at Ypres before Bombardment.]
+
+The busiest and wealthiest of these cities was Ypres, which stands about
+twelve miles north of Armentières. In the thirteenth and fourteenth
+centuries there were some four hundred guilds of cloth manufacturers in
+the place, and its people numbered more than 200,000. So famous was its
+cloth that we find the English poet Chaucer[16] referring to it in his
+_Canterbury Tales_. His Wife of Bath, who was one of the pilgrims, was a
+cloth manufacturer, and Chaucer tells us that her wares "passed them of
+Ypres and of Gaunt" (Ghent). Before the war broke out Ypres was a little
+town of less than 18,000 people, and its industries were represented by
+its butter market and its small manufactures of lace and linen. But
+within it, as in the other ancient cities of Belgium, were some of the
+most glorious old buildings in all the world--the houses of the rich old
+burghers, the halls in which they met to transact their business, and
+the churches in which they thanked God for their prosperity. They spent
+their money lavishly on these buildings and filled them with treasures
+of art.
+
+The glory of Ypres, prior to the war, was the Cloth Hall, the largest
+and finest edifice of its kind in Belgium. It was begun in 1200, and was
+more than a hundred years a-building. The front was 433 feet in length,
+and the building consisted of three stories, with a high-pitched roof
+broken by dormer windows. The niches of the top story were filled with
+statues of Flemish counts and celebrated inhabitants of the city. On the
+south side rose a massive belfry, with pinnacles at the angles. The east
+side of the hall was formed by the so-called Nieuwerk, one of the most
+beautiful buildings of its kind. I am obliged to describe the Cloth Hall
+of Ypres in the past tense, for unhappily it is now in ruins. Ypres had
+also a very fine cathedral, a meat hall, and a large number of old
+houses with carved wooden fronts. They, too, have been destroyed, more
+or less, by shot and shell.
+
+In the days of its greatness Ypres, like Manchester of to-day, needed a
+waterway to the sea, so that it could rapidly and cheaply import wool
+from abroad, and export its finished cloth to distant markets. Ypres
+stands on a little river which is a tributary of the river Yser, a
+stream almost unknown to Britons before the war began, but now inscribed
+on the pages of history. The Yser rises to the west of Cassel, and flows
+in a curving course to enter the sea near Nieuport. A canal was cut from
+Ypres to the Yser, which was itself canalized, and thus the city
+provided itself with a waterway to the sea.
+
+On the canal, twelve or thirteen miles north of Ypres, is the village of
+Dixmude,[17] which is also one of the "dead cities" of Belgium. Its
+fine Grand' Place, its noble Church of St. Nicholas, its Gothic town
+hall, and its heavily shuttered stone houses, show us that it was
+formerly a place of wealth and importance. Now, says a recent writer,
+"its eleven hundred inhabitants might easily stand in a corner of the
+Grand' Place. The passer-by--there is rarely more than one--disturbs the
+silence, and one hears scarcely any sounds save the chimes in the tower
+or the cooing of doves on the cornices." Alas! since the tide of war
+rolled into this part of Belgium, those inhabitants who remain have
+continuously been deafened by the roar of great guns, and the towers
+from which the chimes rang out and the cornices on which the doves cooed
+have been levelled with the ground.
+
+Nieuport, the outport of Ypres, is the last of the towns in this region
+to which I shall call your attention. It stands about two miles from the
+mouth of the Yser, and, like Ypres and Dixmude, is only a relic of what
+it once was. About 4,000 people were dwelling in it before the war broke
+out, but its long, silent streets, with their massive houses, showed
+plainly that it was formerly a populous and busy place. In the
+thirteenth and fourteenth centuries its quays were thronged with ships
+discharging wool from England for the looms of Ypres, or filling their
+holds with the fine cloth made in the old city. Before the war, Nieuport
+still retained its cloth hall, town hall, and venerable Gothic church as
+memorials of this busy and prosperous time. When the trade of Ypres
+departed, Nieuport fell into decline. Prior to the war it was a small,
+quiet place, visited by a few ships and by occasional tourists.
+Everybody knows it now as the scene of battles which will change the
+destiny of the world. Beyond Nieuport are the great sand dunes which
+line the coast of Belgium, and extend as far west as Calais. From the
+top of the dunes we look out on the restless and shallow waters of the
+North Sea.
+
+We have now traversed the region over which warfare was to rage for many
+months to come.
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+Before I close this chapter, let me remind you that the whole region
+between Arras and the North Sea is filled with historical memories of
+former warfare. This is by no means the first time that the British have
+fought in West Flanders and Artois. Marlborough,[18] for example, fought
+the greatest of his campaigns in this region, during the long struggle
+between Louis XIV. of France and the allied forces of England, Holland,
+and Austria. I am going to tell you about these campaigns in some
+detail, because they have features greatly resembling those of the
+present struggle.
+
+Marlborough's great aim, was to recapture the valleys of the Lys and the
+Scheldt, which in the year 1708 were in the possession of the French.
+These rivers were then all-important, because they were the great lines
+of communication for armies fighting in Flanders and North France. It
+was by means of the rivers that food and munitions were brought to the
+soldiers and the heavy guns were moved from place to place. What
+railways are to modern commanders, navigable rivers were to generals in
+the long ages before steam.
+
+All the fortresses on the Scheldt were in the hands of the French,
+except Oudenarde,[19] which you will find on the accompanying map,
+thirty miles to the east of Ypres. At the time when our story opens,
+Oudenarde was about to be attacked by the French. Marlborough made a
+wonderful forced march, and fell upon them as they were advancing
+towards the fortress. By nightfall on July 11, 1708, he had won a great
+victory, and the remnants of the French army had fallen back in disorder
+to Ghent. While Marlborough was waiting for reinforcements to come up,
+some of his troops seized a French position near Ypres, and his main
+army encamped near Menin.
+
+Marlborough now proposed to besiege Lille, the greatest fortress on the
+road to Paris. He could not bring his siege train by way of the river,
+so it had to lumber slowly along the roads, and while doing so was in
+great danger of being captured by the enemy. Thanks, however, to his
+skilful arrangements, his heavy guns arrived safely, and then the siege
+began in real earnest. Lille was very strongly fortified, and was
+garrisoned by 15,000 men. While the siege was in progress a French army
+of more than 100,000 men marched to its succour; but so strongly was
+Marlborough posted that it did not dare to attack him. Instead of doing
+so it fell back behind the Scheldt, so as to cut off Marlborough's
+forces from Brussels. As, however, he still held Ostend, he was able to
+get supplies from England.
+
+The French now tried to seize Ostend, so that Marlborough might be cut
+off from the sea and bottled up. He sent forces against them; but the
+French fell back before him and opened the sluices of the canals, thus
+flooding much of the country between him and the sea. A little later
+they succeeded in capturing Nieuport, and Marlborough was cut off from
+Ostend.
+
+On 9th December Lille surrendered after the garrison had lost 8,000 men,
+and the besiegers not less than 14,000. Marlborough also captured Ghent,
+and at the end of December 1708 the French left Flanders altogether, and
+retired into their own territory. Thus the valleys of the Lys and
+Scheldt were recovered.
+
+[Illustration: Map illustrating Marlborough's Campaigns in Artois and
+West Flanders.]
+
+Before I proceed with the story of Marlborough's campaigns, let me point
+out that during the race to the sea there was a similar struggle between
+the Allies and the Germans for the possession of the same valleys. The
+Allies were hastening north in order to push across the Lys and Scheldt
+and cut the German communications. Unhappily the Germans moved
+northwards so rapidly that this was impossible. Further, when Antwerp
+fell, a German army was released which made a great effort to outflank
+the Allies by way of the coast. Each side foiled the other, and the
+result was the long trench war which will be described in future pages.
+
+Now let us return to our muttons. In the spring of 1709 Marlborough, who
+was now in possession of Lille proposed to march on Paris. The French
+knew that if he could seize Arras he would possess the gate to the
+capital. They therefore prepared to block his way by strongly
+entrenching themselves on a line extending from Douai,[20] which lies on
+the Scarpe about fourteen miles north-east of Arras, to Béthune. These
+trenches passed through La Bassée, where, as you know, the French and
+the British joined hands during the race to the sea in October 1914.
+Marlborough found these lines too strong to be carried by direct
+assault, so he turned aside and besieged Tournai, the town in which
+French Territorials, assisted by a British battery, made a very gallant
+stand on August 24, 1914.[21] Tournai surrendered after a siege of about
+thirty-seven days, and then Marlborough marched on Mons, the place where
+von Kluck, on August 23, 1914, vainly endeavoured to overwhelm the
+British.[22]
+
+[Illustration: The Battle of Malplaquet (September 11, 1709).
+
+(_From the picture by Jan van Huchtenburgh_).]
+
+While Marlborough was besieging Mons, the French, fearing that the
+fortress would suffer the fate of Lille and Tournai, marched an army
+against him. They entrenched themselves in a strong position on the edge
+of the broken and wooded country which fills the angle between two small
+rivers which unite at Mons, and were there attacked by Marlborough on
+September 11, 1709. After what he calls "a very murderous battle" the
+French were outflanked and their centre was broken through. The British
+encamped the following night on the French position, but they had lost
+so many men that they were unable to advance any further that year. You
+will find this victory referred to in your history books as the Battle
+of Malplaquet.[23]
+
+[Illustration: John Churchill, first Duke of Marlborough.
+
+(_Photo by Walker and Cockerell, from the painting in the National
+Portrait Gallery._)]
+
+In April 1710 the campaign was resumed. Douai was captured, but Arras
+and the road to France were found to be protected by a line of trenches
+which foiled even Marlborough. Béthune and other places fell into his
+hands; but during the winter the French extended their trenches from
+Namur on the east right to the coast, and the barrier seemed
+impregnable. In 1711, however, Marlborough carried out a series of
+movements which are said to be the most wonderful in the whole history
+of tactics. Early in August he approached the French lines as if about
+to attack Arras. The French massed their forces to meet him, and in
+order to do so had to weaken their hold on the trenches farther east.
+Suddenly, on the same night, Marlborough made a forced march of thirteen
+leagues to the left. Many of his men dropped from fatigue, but with the
+remainder he seized a portion of the trenches, and was behind the French
+lines while the French army was still awaiting his attack on Arras. He
+had completely outwitted the French general, though, for various
+reasons, he was unable to take further advantage of his success.
+
+The French trenches of which you have just read ran, roughly, east and
+west, and were meant to stop an advance on Paris from the north. During
+the race to the sea the rival armies were moving from the south to the
+north. Each was trying to outflank the other. The Allies wished to
+strike eastwards, and the Germans westwards, and the result was that the
+lines of trenches in which they opposed each other ran from north to
+south.
+
+[Footnote 11: _Dool._]
+
+[Footnote 12: _Vō-bān´_, born 1633, died 1707.]
+
+[Footnote 13: _Roo-bay´._]
+
+[Footnote 14: _Toor-kwan´_ (_n_ nasal).]
+
+[Footnote 15: _Meh-nan´_ (_n_ nasal).]
+
+[Footnote 16: Chaucer, "the morning star of English song," born 1340,
+died 1400.]
+
+[Footnote 17: _Diks-müd´._]
+
+[Footnote 18: The most brilliant, and perhaps the greatest, of all
+English generals, specially famous for his genius in tactics; born 1650,
+died 1722. (See _Highroads of History_, Book VI., Chaps. VII. and
+VIII.). Mr. Winston Churchill (First Lord of the Admiralty from October
+1911 to May 1915) is a direct descendant of the great general.]
+
+[Footnote 19: _Ow-den-ar´deh._]
+
+[Footnote 20: _Doo-ay´._]
+
+[Footnote 21: See Vol. II., p. 107.]
+
+[Footnote 22: See Vol. II., pp. 26 ff.]
+
+[Footnote 23: _Mal-Pla-kay´._]
+
+
+
+
+  CHAPTER V.
+
+  MAUD'HUY AT ARRAS, AND THE RETREAT FROM ANTWERP.
+
+
+Two hundred and three years after Marlborough vainly tried to capture
+Arras, that little historic town became once more a prize for which
+rival forces strove fiercely. Marlborough coveted it because it was, as
+Louis XIV. styled it, the true gateway to Paris. The Germans, who were
+now to make a great effort to seize it, desired its possession because
+it would enable them to outflank Maud'huy's army and seize the Channel
+ports.
+
+Arras had already been in German hands. During von Kluck's rush on Paris
+his troops drove out the weak French forces holding the city,[24] and
+occupied it up to the middle of September. When, however, the deadlock
+occurred on the Aisne, they withdrew from the quaint old place without
+doing it very much harm.
+
+It was on the last day of September 1914 that Maud'huy began to extend
+his army beyond that of de Castelnau. Soon his left was at Lens, and his
+cavalry was scouring the country still farther north towards the Lys and
+the Yser. Several Territorial regiments attached to his army had already
+been sent to occupy Lille and Douai. You can easily understand that
+those weak forces would be in great danger if the Germans were to sweep
+round to the west. The Allied generals, however, believed that they were
+ahead in the race, and that they would be the first to overlap. They
+were quite mistaken: the Germans were ahead, and were now preparing to
+overlap by sending cavalry and infantry in motor buses towards the line
+of Béthune and Cassel.
+
+On the afternoon of 1st October Douai had to be abandoned, and that very
+day the German guns began to thunder on the hills surrounding Arras. Von
+Buelow attacked Maud'huy in great force on the flats to the east of the
+city, while the Bavarians attempted to outflank him on the north. Though
+he received reinforcements he was obliged to retire behind the city and
+take up a position on the encircling hills. Before doing so he warned
+all the men of military age to leave the place. Then began a pitiful
+exodus to the coast.
+
+For two days the Germans fiercely bombarded Arras: the beautiful
+sixteenth-century town hall, with its superb clock tower, was ruined,
+and the cathedral, as well as many of the historic houses, was badly
+damaged. Shells were rained on the place; but the French maintained a
+stubborn front, and refused to give way. The attack continued right
+through the month. A most determined assault was made between the 20th
+and the 26th, when the Prussian Guard came into action; but the enemy
+could not cross the ramparts. On the 31st a large German force was
+allowed to enter the suburbs, where a trap had been prepared. The result
+was that a battalion of the Guard surrendered, and a military train with
+one of the great siege howitzers was captured.
+
+Maud'huy held the gate at Arras against all comers, and too great praise
+cannot be given to him and his brave troops. Had the Germans been able
+to sweep through the Arras gate the whole subsequent history of the war
+would have been changed.
+
+On the 3rd of October, when the Germans were closing in on Arras, their
+patrols were reported on the outskirts of Lille, which they had also
+entered during their southward march,[25] but had subsequently
+abandoned. The mayor at once warned the inhabitants to keep cool, to
+avoid gathering in crowds, and to give no offence to the enemy should he
+enter the city. Next day the cracking of rifles was heard in the
+suburbs, and several shells fell in the streets, one of them striking
+the town hall. A new German force was advancing towards Lille from
+Belgium. During the morning an armoured train containing 300 Uhlans
+came dashing towards the station. A signalman promptly switched it on to
+a siding, and the French attacked it. The surprised Uhlans tried to take
+refuge in the neighbouring houses and workshops, but most of them were
+captured next morning.
+
+[Illustration: A Battle amidst the Coal Trucks of Lens.
+
+(_From the picture by Paul Thiriat. By permission of The Sphere._)]
+
+Nor was this the only attack on Lille that day. Some 3,000 Germans tried
+to force their way in from the direction of Tourcoing, while others
+tried to cross from the Belgian to the French side of the Lys below
+Armentières, but both attacks were repelled. On the 6th there was
+fighting to the west of Lille and on the 10th a company of Uhlans dashed
+into the streets. They arrested the mayor and several other citizens as
+hostages; but in the nick of time a party of French Chasseurs arrived,
+set free the prisoners, and chased the Uhlans out of the city. Almost
+immediately the Germans began to bombard the place, and shells fell upon
+it at intervals until the 12th, when an infantry attack began. The
+Territorials did their best to resist, but they were altogether
+outnumbered, and were forced to withdraw. On the 13th Lille surrendered,
+and the Germans, with bands playing, marched in and took possession.
+Thus the most valuable city of North France fell into their hands.
+
+You already know that it was of the utmost importance that Lille should
+be retained by the Allies. Why, then, did not General Maud'huy send a
+stronger force to hold it? The fact is, that he was so hard pressed at
+Arras that he could not spare an additional man for the defence of
+Lille. He had all his work cut out to save Arras and prevent the Germans
+from swarming through the gap towards the Channel. But even the feeble
+resistance of the Territorials at Lille was of advantage to the Allies.
+The city was held for nine days, during which large German forces were
+detained. By keeping these forces busy round the city the Territorials
+helped to conceal the Allied movements which were going on farther to
+the west, and also enabled the French and British troops to reach the
+line of the Yser just, and only just, in time to stop the Germans from
+bursting through.
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+Now we must hurry north to Antwerp and see what happened after the
+tragic fall of that great fortress. In the last chapter of Volume II.,
+page 313, I told you that a British Naval Brigade, numbering about
+8,000 men in all, was sent to the assistance of the beleaguered city. It
+arrived too late to save the fortress, but its energies were not wasted.
+The defence of the city was prolonged for a few priceless days while the
+troops from the Aisne were being hurried up to the new theatre of war.
+
+The Belgian troops began to retreat from Antwerp on the evening of 6th
+October. Covered by cavalry, armoured motor cars, and cyclist corps,
+they moved out towards Ghent and Ostend, while a strong show of
+resistance was kept up by other Belgian troops and the British
+contingent in the trenches to the south of the city. Next day came the
+terrible flight of the civil population, and late that night, amidst
+scenes of indescribable confusion, the remainder of the Belgian troops
+and most of the British left the forts and trenches, cut the pontoon
+bridge over the Scheldt behind them, and hurried westwards, beating off
+attacks on their rear. Unfortunately, as you will remember, three
+battalions of the British Naval Brigade did not receive orders to retire
+until the road westwards was blocked by the enemy. Some 2,500 of them
+either passed into Holland, where they had to remain, or were captured
+by the Germans. It is said that 18,000 Belgians suffered the same fate.
+
+The following extract from the diary of a petty officer who served with
+the Naval Brigade gives you some idea of the experiences of the British
+contingent:--
+
+    "_October 8._--What a night last night! Shells coming in like
+    one o'clock. Man on my side got a bit in his leg, but says he
+    can shoot just as well on one leg. Belgian artilleryman reports
+    that he and two others are all that are left of our covering
+    fort. We seem to have nothing to do but wait for the end. These
+    trenches would be all right against savages, but against their
+    huge artillery, like so much dust. These shells come with a whiz
+    like an express train, and then--crash! The spirits of our troop
+    are top hole. No one the slightest bit excited--just smoking or
+    yarning and dodging shells; but it's just rotten not coming
+    alongside them. Here she comes--dip, crash! Saved again. Another
+    'non-stop' for Antwerp![26] When they shorten the range for
+    us--well, cheer oh! Officer just given us the bird for laughing.
+    'Grin at each other, but don't speak, chapsies. In case I don't
+    see you again, all my best love.'
+
+    "_Next day._--About six last night we had a German attack on our
+    left flank, and drove them off. As they had the range of our
+    entrenchment, we had orders to clear out. So we did so. As I
+    fell in outside, a shell exploded alongside. One man was left on
+    the deck. We had to march back to Antwerp. City in places in
+    flames. Everybody gone. Dead animals in the streets. Shells
+    screaming overhead. Right through the city, over a bridge of
+    boats, which were afterwards exploded, and marched until six
+    this morning. Only one hour's sleep on the pavement of a small
+    town. Thousands of men on the march back, thousands of refugees,
+    Belgians, horses, cattle, and artillery, just like pictures of
+    the retreat from Moscow and such like. We got a train at once,
+    and it's now one o'clock, and we are still in it, bound for the
+    coast. Part of our entrenchment was blown up as we were
+    retreating, so if we had not gone I don't suppose any of us
+    would have been alive. So, taking things all round, we had a
+    pretty brisk time, and seem to have done nothing. Don't know how
+    many miles we marched last night, but it is a picture which will
+    always live in my memory. The conduct of our boys is simply
+    marvellous--just as cool as seasoned veterans.
+
+    "_Saturday, October 10._--Blankenberghe.[27] Arrived last night;
+    slept at a kind of town hall. Had a meal where the refugees are
+    staying; breakfast at hotel. Girls wearing R.N.V.R.[28] ribbons
+    across their heads.
+
+    "_Sunday, October 11._--Came aboard collier yesterday afternoon,
+    and still aboard now. There are about 2,000 men here.
+    Accommodation for none, so I slept between the funnel and the
+    engine-room grating. Some even slept on the cylinders. Don't
+    know when we shall shove off."
+
+When Mr. Winston Churchill explained why the Naval Brigade had been sent
+to Antwerp, he said that it was "part of a large operation for the
+relief of the city which more powerful considerations prevented from
+being carried out." On the day after the Naval Brigade reached Antwerp
+(6th October), a part of the Fourth British Army Corps, under General
+Sir Henry Rawlinson, landed at Ostend and Zeebrugge,[29] and at once
+marched eastwards. The original object of this force, always supposing
+that Antwerp held out, was to join hands with the troops defending the
+city, and then advance across the Scheldt so as to cut the German lines
+of communication. On the evening of his arrival in Belgium Sir Henry
+Rawlinson visited Antwerp, and saw with his own eyes that the fortress
+could not be saved. His business now was to cover the retreat of the
+forces which had vainly tried to hold the city.
+
+[Footnote 24: See Vol. II., p. 127.]
+
+[Footnote 25: See Vol. II., p. 126.]
+
+[Footnote 26: These high explosive shells were nicknamed "Antwerp
+expresses."]
+
+[Footnote 27: Seaside resort of Belgium, 11 miles north-east of Ostend.]
+
+[Footnote 28: Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve.]
+
+[Footnote 29: That is, Sea Bruges. _Zā-brug´ge_, the port of Bruges,
+with which it is connected by a ship canal seven miles long.]
+
+
+
+
+  CHAPTER VI.
+
+  WITH RAWLINSON IN BELGIUM.
+
+
+When Rawlinson's troops reached Ghent, on 7th October 1914, they fell in
+with the first body of retreating Belgians, and also with a brigade of
+French Marine Fusiliers, 6,000 strong, which had been hastily organized
+and rushed northwards that very morning. Most of them were Breton[30]
+reservists and recruits who had never fought on land before. Their chief
+was Admiral Ronarc'h,[31] a big, broad-shouldered, cool seaman, with
+eyes of Celtic blue. The Germans called these Bretons lads and
+graybeards "the girls with the red pompoms."[32] They were soon to
+discover that the Bretons were not playing at war, but that they were
+fighters of iron resolution and fiery courage.
+
+When the troops under Rawlinson were disembarking at Ostend and
+Zeebrugge, fourteen transports, containing the 7th British Division,
+which had been assembled on the borders of the New Forest, were on the
+way to join him in Belgium. Just when the transports were off Ostend
+they received a wireless message ordering them to recross the Channel to
+Dover. A grain ship had just been blown up off Ostend, and it was
+feared that the transports would be sent to the bottom too. They were
+therefore ordered back to Dover to wait until the mines were swept up
+along the Belgian coast. On the day when the retirement from Antwerp was
+in full swing, the 7th Division disembarked at Zeebrugge, and marched to
+the outskirts of Bruges. The agony of Antwerp was then over, and all
+that could be done was to help to cover the retreat of the forces now
+marching away from the city.
+
+[Illustration: Bavarian Troops leaving Antwerp for the Dash on Calais.]
+
+The Germans, as you know, strove hard to cut off the retreating
+defenders, and in the villages to the east and south of Ghent the
+British forces and the French Marine Brigade made a stand against an
+army which numbered about 45,000. When they had checked the enemy, they
+decided to retire westwards towards Bruges. That night, under a wintry
+moon, a long march of twenty-six miles was accomplished, the 7th
+Division and the French Marines acting as the rearguard.
+
+After a brief rest the retreating forces turned south-south-east, the
+cavalry scouring the country in advance, and on the following evening
+reached Thielt,[33] where it was discovered that the pursuit had so
+greatly slackened that the weary men were enabled to get the first good
+sleep which they had enjoyed for several days. It is said that they owed
+this piece of good fortune to the mayor of one of the neighbouring
+towns, who deliberately sent the Germans off on a false scent. When the
+Germans discovered that they had been misdirected, the mayor was
+promptly shot.
+
+On 13th October the Allies reached Thourout,[34] where they divided into
+two parts. Admiral Ronarc'h and his Marines, along with the Belgian
+forces which had been holding Ghent, moved west to the Yser, where they
+joined the remnants of the Belgian army which had retreated through
+Bruges. Here the undaunted King Albert, accompanied by his devoted wife,
+Queen Elizabeth, rejoined the exhausted army, and helped to reorganize
+it for the terrible struggles which lay before it. Meanwhile Sir Henry
+Rawlinson's forces pressed on southwards, and arrived at Roulers,[35]
+_en route_ for Ypres, on 13th October, the day on which Lille fell into
+the hands of the Germans. By that time part of the German army which
+had been besieging Antwerp, and had been released for other operations
+when it fell, had swept through Bruges, and had occupied Ostend. German
+soldiers were seen strolling on the sands which in the early days of
+July had been crowded with laughing bathers and merry holiday-makers.
+Many of the German soldiers had never seen the sea before, and they
+gazed upon it with open-mouthed interest, straining their eyes in the
+vain attempt to see the shores of that island kingdom which was so
+steadfastly blocking their path to victory.
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+Mr. C. Underwood, an interpreter who was attached to the 7th Division,
+which played such an important part in the fighting retreat from Ghent,
+tells us[36] that it was the delay caused by sending back the transports
+of his division to Dover that prevented Sir Henry Rawlinson from
+marching to the relief of Antwerp.
+
+    "We left Roulers for Ypres," he says, "at 9.30 a.m. (October
+    14), and four Taubes flew over us on the road, but too high to
+    be shot at. We arrived at Ypres at 6.30, and that evening I saw
+    our first lot of allies, reserve dragoons dismounted in the
+    square to receive us. The Germans had been through and stayed
+    one night, the 7th, the day we landed at Zeebrugge. They had
+    taken up their quarters in the famous riding school, and the
+    first thing they had done was to break open the mess-room and
+    cellars, and take out all the wine, after which they broke up
+    everything and stole the mess-plate. When I saw it, a week
+    later, the school was strewn with broken bottles--champagne,
+    claret, port, etc., etc.--and every drawer and cupboard burst
+    open and ransacked. They had cut all communications at the
+    station, demanded an indemnity of 65,000 francs (£2,600), and
+    stolen all the money they could lay hands on from the Banque
+    National. Six thousand loaves were requisitioned in the evening
+    to be ready next morning, failing which there was a penalty of
+    £800 (20,000 francs). At 10.30 a.m. a Taube, with pilot and
+    observer, had been brought down; but they were not captured till
+    4.30, as they concealed themselves in a wood. They were both
+    brought in, furious with rage, as each was seized by the collar,
+    and a revolver pointed at their heads by Belgian officers. They
+    were driven off in a car at the rate of sixty miles an hour at
+    least!
+
+    "Next day the whole brigade marched out to Halte on the
+    Menin-Ypres road, dug trenches, and remained in them all night.
+    It was pitch dark in the morning when we were ordered to attack
+    a patrol of Germans towards Menin. About a quarter of a mile
+    beyond Gheluvelt[37] we engaged advance party of Uhlans at 8.30
+    a.m. in a thick fog. A file of the Bedfords brought in a
+    suspect, whose papers, not being in order, I escorted into
+    Ypres. He was there detained at the town hall, and I heard no
+    more of him. Had quite an amusing skirmish with the daughter of
+    the proprietress of the hotel of the Three Kings. Feeling very
+    hungry, I asked for lunch. She said she had nothing; asked for
+    an egg, same reply; bread, the same; finally, in a fury at such
+    disobliging conduct, I asked her whether she did not think
+    herself most ungrateful, considering we were there to defend
+    them against the Germans. This had the desired effect, and she
+    asked me to come in, cooked me a splendid omelet, brought out a
+    bottle of wine, and plenty of bread and cheese, for which she
+    only charged me two francs."
+
+On Sunday, the 18th, Mr. Underwood's brigade had its baptism of fire at
+a village a little to the north-east of Gheluvelt, where a British
+battery silenced the guns of the enemy. All night they waited for an
+attack, but the Germans left them alone until the morning. Then the
+fighting was continued, and thus began that series of desperate
+conflicts--"ten Waterloos a week"--known as the Battle of Ypres. I shall
+give you a full account of this gigantic struggle in a later chapter.
+
+The enemy against whom the 7th Division was now fighting consisted of
+four reserve corps which had left Germany on 11th October. Three of the
+corps had assembled in Brussels, and without losing an hour had been
+sent on an eighty-mile march westwards. They largely consisted of
+Landwehr[38] and new volunteers, and ranged from boys of sixteen to
+stout gentlemen in middle life. Though quite new to the work of war,
+they soon showed themselves as desperate in attack as the most seasoned
+veterans. Mr. Underwood says: "On questioning one of the prisoners, he
+informed me that they were all Landwehr men, fathers of families, about
+the age of thirty-nine and forty, who had been called up quite recently.
+There was no doubt that the Germans were well equipped; all their
+clothes were in excellent order and brand new. They seemed relieved, and
+evidently overjoyed, when I told them that they would probably be sent
+to England. They were afraid that the report which had been made to them
+that we shot all prisoners was true."
+
+[Footnote 30: Inhabitants of Brittany, a former province of France,
+forming the extreme north-west. The people are of Celtic stock, and
+their language is allied to the Welsh. Brittany was partly settled from
+England and Ireland in the fifth and sixth centuries, and thereafter was
+called Britannia Minor. Brittany has always been famous for its sailors.
+Jacques Cartier, the discoverer of the St. Lawrence, was a Breton.]
+
+[Footnote 31: _Ron´ark._]
+
+[Footnote 32: French sailors wear a red pompom on the top of their
+caps.]
+
+[Footnote 33: _Teelt_, 15 miles south-east of Bruges.]
+
+[Footnote 34: _Too-roo´_, 11 miles south-south-west of Bruges].
+
+[Footnote 35: _Roo-lare´_, 20 miles south by west of Bruges, a textile
+manufacturing town of 25,000 inhabitants.]
+
+[Footnote 36: In _Blackwood's Magazine_, March 1915.]
+
+[Footnote 37: Village on the Ypres-Menin road, four miles east of
+Ypres.]
+
+[Footnote 38: See Vol. I., p. 146.]
+
+
+
+
+  CHAPTER VII.
+
+  THE LONG, THIN LINE OF STEEL AND VALOUR.
+
+
+Let us look again at the sixty-mile stretch of country from Arras to the
+North Sea, the great danger zone during the month of October and for
+many months afterwards. An enemy advancing from Belgium and North
+France, desirous of capturing the coast of the Channel, and making
+himself master of the Strait of Dover, must cross this stretch of
+country in order to attain his object. You already know that a most
+determined effort was made by the Germans to push through the gap at
+Arras, from which the railways give access not only to the Channel ports
+but to Paris. As you are aware, General Maud'huy was able to say to the
+Germans, "No road this way."
+
+Seventeen miles north of Arras we find the second passage by which the
+Channel ports may be reached by an army advancing westwards. You have
+already heard more than once of the town of La Bassée, which stands on
+the canal uniting Béthune with Lille. A great thrust through La Bassée
+would serve almost as well as a thrust through the Arras gap, for
+Béthune, which lies seven miles to the west, is the junction of two
+diverging railways, both of which lead to Boulogne. The more northerly
+of these lines has a branch which runs through the important railway
+centre of Hazebrouck[39] to Ypres. At Hazebrouck the St. Omer[40]-Ypres
+line meets the railway which comes westwards from Lille through
+Armentières to the coast. A little west of Hazebrouck this line
+subdivides: one route goes through St. Omer to Boulogne; the other runs
+north to Dunkirk, from which Calais and Boulogne may be reached by a
+line along the coast.
+
+Examine this little railway map carefully, and you will see that if the
+Germans could make a thrust through the Allied lines at La Bassée they
+would soon be in possession of the two railway junctions of Béthune and
+Hazebrouck, which would give them no fewer than four lines of railway
+for their advance on the sea-coast. Had the Germans broken through at
+this point, the Allied forces to the north would have been overwhelmed.
+We shall soon learn that the sally-port at La Bassée was the scene of
+long and desperate struggles.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+The third passage by which the enemy might capture the coast of North
+France and outflank the Allies at the same time is by way of the Yser
+Canal and the Ypres Canal. You have already learnt how Rawlinson's army
+tried to block the road to Ypres and how the Belgians withdrew to the
+line of the Yser in order to contest its passage. Rawlinson's force was
+far too small to resist the numbers which were hurled against it on and
+after the 18th of October, and the much-battered Belgians were far too
+exhausted to offer more than a feeble resistance to the forces of the
+enemy following hard on their heels. They were strengthened by some
+French Territorials, but even with this support they had to fall back
+behind the line of the Yser on the 16th.
+
+[Illustration: Weary Belgian Soldiers resting on the Banks of the Yser
+River after their Retreat from Antwerp.
+
+_Photo, Daily Mirror_.]
+
+Now, while the gates at Arras and the Yser were thus being guarded by
+Allied forces too weak to do more than barely hold their own, what had
+happened at the middle gate of La Bassée? On 11th October, two days
+after the Germans made their triumphal march into Antwerp, General
+Smith-Dorrien and the Second Corps detrained, marched to the line of the
+La Bassée Canal, and took up a position along its southern bank. On
+their right were the French cavalry, linking them with Maud'huy's army;
+on the left were the brisk squadrons of Gough's cavalry, who were
+clearing the Germans from the wooded country to the north of the Lys.
+The Germans were holding the high ground south of La Bassée, where the
+French trenches had baffled Marlborough more than two hundred years
+before, and were in strong force on the road to Lille. That great
+industrial city had not yet fallen, so Sir John French decided to make a
+great effort to save it.
+
+On the morning of the 12th, in a thick fog, the Second Corps wheeled on
+its right, and took up a new position facing east, its left resting on
+the Lys and its right on the canal north of Béthune. It then advanced
+eastward, finding its way much impeded by the difficult character of the
+ground. Our soldiers from the coal-mining districts of Great Britain
+found themselves in familiar country--amidst the large, straggling,
+connected villages, the pit-heads, refuse mounds, and factories of their
+own homeland. They had to advance across a flat country with a patchwork
+of fields and hop-gardens, hemmed in by high bedraggled hedges, and cut
+across by interminable ditches, with frequent canals by way of variety.
+The roads, which were lined by scraggy poplars, were narrow, and deep in
+mud owing to the heavy traffic. Through this flat, depressing country in
+which good gun positions were few and far between, the British marched
+to meet the Germans. By nightfall, however, they had made some progress
+amidst the slippery maze of the muddy dykes, and had driven back several
+counter-attacks, both by steady fire and by bayonet charges.
+
+Next day the Second Corps began to wheel. It pivoted on the village of
+Givenchy,[41] which stands on the north bank of the canal, less than
+two miles due west of La Bassée, and endeavoured to get astride of the
+La Bassée-Lille road, so as to threaten the right flank and rear of the
+enemy's position on the high ground south of La Bassée. The enemy was
+found to be strongly entrenched, and supported by artillery in good
+positions. Before long the fighting was of the most desperate character.
+The British advanced across the marshy fields under a fierce and
+devastating fire with the utmost courage, fighting pitched battles in
+the villages, where every house had been loopholed and turned into a
+miniature fortress.
+
+[Illustration: The Fighting about La Bassée.
+
+Sketch map showing front held by the Second Corps on October 19, on
+night of October 22, and about mid-November 1914.]
+
+The 5th Division, on the right, bore the brunt of the deadly fray. At
+Pont Fixe, on the La Bassée canal near Givenchy, the Dorsets, led by
+their brave commander, Major Roper, fought hand-to-hand combats in the
+lanes between the houses, and drove the enemy headlong before them. The
+Germans then turned their guns on to the place, and tore it to
+fragments. High explosives and shrapnel were hurled on the village,
+until it seemed that no living thing could survive the deadly hail.
+When, however, the infantry attack was launched, the Dorsets were still
+there, but were sadly reduced in numbers. Though their leader was
+killed, they held on to the smoking ruins all day, and when nightfall
+came they were still in possession. One hundred and thirty killed and
+two hundred and seventy wounded was the price paid for this village on
+that blood-drenched day. The Bedfords, of the same brigade, fought their
+way to Givenchy, but were driven out again by heavy shell fire.
+
+That night news arrived that Lille had fallen and was in possession of
+the 14th German Corps. Though Lille was lost La Bassée might be won, and
+the Second Corps now devoted its energies to the task. Next day the 3rd
+Division suffered a heavy loss. Sir Hubert Hamilton, its commander, was
+struck by a shrapnel bullet while riding along his lines, and fell from
+his horse a dead man. He was one of the most skilful and beloved of the
+younger generals, and his loss was greatly deplored. An eye-witness thus
+describes his burial in the village graveyard:--
+
+    "Owing to the proximity of the enemy absolute silence was
+    observed, except for the low voice of the priest, advantage
+    being taken of a lull in the attack. Just at the moment when the
+    priest was saying the last prayer the guns began to roar again,
+    and projectiles whistled over the heads of the mourners. The
+    German attack was directed from a distance of a few hundred
+    yards. The moment was well chosen, for the volleys fired by the
+    troops of the Allies in honour of the dead, gloriously fallen
+    for the common cause, were at the same time volleys of
+    vengeance. Crackling reports of rifles continued round the
+    ruined church, but the voice of the priest, reciting the last
+    words of the requiem, lost nothing of its calm and clearness."
+
+Next day the 3rd Division brilliantly avenged the loss of its leader.
+Sir John French tells us that they "fought splendidly," crossing with
+planks the dykes with which this country is intersected, and driving the
+enemy from one entrenched position to another in loopholed villages,
+till at night they pushed the Germans off the road leading from
+Estaires,[42] on the Lys, to La Bassée. On the 16th the division
+advanced its left flank in front of the village of Aubers,[43] which
+lies behind a ridge of high ground and a stream which joins the Lys at
+Armentières. Aubers was captured by the 19th Brigade on the following
+day, and late that evening the village of Herlies,[44] about a mile and
+a half to the south-east, was carried at the point of the bayonet by the
+1st Lincolns and the 4th Royal Fusiliers.
+
+The Second Corps was now within four miles of La Bassée. So far it had
+been opposed by German cavalry; now it found itself up against the main
+wall of German defence. "This position of La Bassée," records Sir John
+French, "has throughout the battle defied all attempts at capture."
+Powerful counter-attacks began the next day, and continued right up to
+the end of the month. Against the masses of Germans now concentrated
+against them the Second Corps could do nothing but stand on the defence.
+Most resolutely they held their lines until the end of the month, and
+again and again repulsed very heavy attacks, in which the Germans lost
+heavily and left large numbers of dead and prisoners behind them.
+
+All this heavy work was now telling on the Second Corps, and their
+losses had been so heavy that Smith-Dorrien on the evening of the 22nd
+was obliged to withdraw his forces to lines of entrenchments which had
+been prepared on a line running from the eastern side of Givenchy to a
+village on the Béthune-Armentières road, some seven miles south-west of
+the latter town. There they settled down into their new trenches; but
+their lines were very thin, and had not every soldier in them done the
+work of ten men, they could never have held the position against the
+swarming masses of the enemy. One day, it is said, General French
+visited these lines, and talked with a colonel who was hard pressed. "We
+can't hold out much longer, sir," said the colonel; "it is impossible."
+"I want only men who can do the impossible," said French. "Carry on."
+
+Before I conclude this account of the very gallant but unavailing attack
+of the Second Corps on La Bassée, I must tell you one or two incidents
+which occurred during the fighting in October. On the 19th Major Daniell
+and his Royal Irish Regiment found the enemy in the village of Le
+Pilly,[45] about a mile to the north of Herlies. Every house in the
+place had been loopholed, and line after line of trenches had been dug,
+so that the position was as strong as a fortress. With loud yells the
+Royal Irish dashed upon the place, and, in spite of the shrapnel that
+was rained on them, carried it by storm. They then entrenched
+themselves, and prepared to defend the village. But next day the gallant
+battalion was cut off by German supports from Lille, and was surrounded,
+after suffering heavy losses.
+
+Very early on the morning of the 24th there was a fierce German attack
+upon our new lines, but owing to the skilful work of the artillery it
+came to naught. Towards evening there was another heavy attack, which
+the Wiltshires and Royal West Kents repulsed. Later on the Germans drove
+the Gordon Highlanders out of their trenches, but they were retaken by
+the Middlesex Regiment, gallantly led by Lieutenant Colonel Hull.
+
+While our men were "hanging on by their eyelids, some one, I am told,
+looked back from a trench and saw a solitary outpost, a turbaned,
+cloaked figure of the desert, very startling in the green, peaceful
+landscape, riding over a hill. Behind him nodded the turbans of Sikh
+cavalry, and the British in the trenches, who seemed past emotion, waved
+their rifles and cheered." It was the advance guard of the Lahore
+Division of the Indian army coming in the nick of time to reinforce the
+hard-pressed men who had fought almost continuously for nearly a
+fortnight. The Indians had been resting and preparing for a winter
+campaign near Marseilles, and had long been eager to play their part
+side by side with their fellow Britons. A few days before, Sir James
+Willcocks, their commander, had addressed them as follows:--
+
+    "You are the descendants of men who have been mighty rulers and
+    great warriors for many centuries. You will never forget this.
+    You will recall the glories of your race. Hindu and Mohammedan
+    will be fighting side by side with British soldiers and our
+    gallant French allies. You will be helping to make history. You
+    will be the first Indian soldiers of the King-Emperor who will
+    have the honour of showing in Europe that the sons of India have
+    lost none of their martial instincts and are worthy of the
+    confidence reposed in them.
+
+    "In battle, you will remember that your religions enjoin on you
+    that to give your life doing your duty is your highest reward. .
+    . . You will fight for your King-Emperor and your faith, so that
+    history will record the doings of India's sons, and your
+    children will proudly tell of the deeds of their fathers."
+
+This timely reinforcement was at once sent off to the support of the
+Second Corps.
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+We now know how a small army of much-tried Britons barred the way
+through the La Bassée postern and stretched a thin line of valour and
+steel northwards towards the Lys. I have still to tell you how the
+twelve-mile gap between Armentières and Ypres was closed. While the
+Second Corps was forming up near Béthune, the trains carrying the Third
+Corps were running into St. Omer. As each unit arrived it set out for
+Hazebrouck, and on the 13th the whole force moved eastwards towards the
+line of the Armentières-Ypres road, with the object of reaching
+Armentières, from which it could threaten Lille. Gough's cavalry lay to
+the north, and French cavalry to the south.
+
+The French cavalry had already done much hard fighting. On 9th October
+it was discovered that German horsemen were holding the south bank of
+the Lys to the west of Estaires. They had covered the river crossings
+with machine guns, and had set up searchlights, which at night swept
+their broad beams along the northern bank. The French commander
+assembled his men at a point on the river where the current was very
+swift and the water deep. The Germans believed that the river could not
+be forded at this spot, and had not troubled to hold it strongly. At
+dusk a French trooper who was a good swimmer stripped, and, carrying
+with him one end of a light rope, plunged into the water and swam across
+the river. When he arrived on the south bank his comrades on the other
+side fastened a heavy rope to the end of the line which he was holding,
+and the dripping soldier hauled it across and tied it securely to the
+trunk of a tree. The other end of the rope was made fast in a similar
+way, and during the night, assisted by the rope, men and horses crossed
+the stream. At daybreak, when the Germans found that the French were on
+their bank of the river they retired rapidly towards Armentières.
+
+In this force of French cavalry there was a champion rider, named
+Lieutenant Wallon. One day, during the cavalry fighting along the Lys
+two squadrons of the dragoons to which he was attached advanced across
+the fields in a thick mist to seize a river bridge at a village where
+there was an important crossing. The village was held by the enemy, and
+the French squadrons entrenched themselves in front of a small
+farmhouse, and beat off an attack, during which thirty Germans were
+shot. After an interval, eleven men in peasants' dress, with picks and
+spades over their shoulders, were seen advancing towards the French
+lines. Supposing that they were peaceful civilians, the French refrained
+from firing. When, however, these "peasants" were within forty yards or
+so of the trenches, they suddenly dropped their implements, and, drawing
+concealed revolvers, opened fire. A sergeant who stood by Lieutenant
+Wallon laughed as a bullet whistled by, and remarked that another Boche
+had missed him. The lieutenant, however, had fallen. The sergeant wished
+to carry him to a safe place in the rear; but the dying man said, "Leave
+me. A wounded man is worthless. Get back to the trench; you are wanted
+there." The trusty non-com. could not be persuaded to abandon his
+leader, and dragged him to the rear, where he shortly afterwards
+expired. The eleven disguised Germans were captured and shot; the bridge
+was taken, and the village occupied.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Footnote 39: _Ăz-brook´_]
+
+[Footnote 40: _O´mare._]
+
+[Footnote 41: _Zhee-van´shee_ [_n_ nasal].]
+
+[Footnote 42: _Es-tayr´_. See map, p. 59.]
+
+[Footnote 43: _Ō-bayr´._]
+
+[Footnote 44: _Her´lee._]
+
+[Footnote 45: _Pee´ye._]
+
+
+
+
+  CHAPTER VIII.
+
+  THE WORK OF THE THIRD BRITISH CORPS.
+
+
+The Third British Corps, commanded by General Pulteney, first came in
+contact with the German outposts at a village about a mile and a half
+west of Bailleul.[46] It was a day of heavy rain; the thick, steamy fog
+prevented the aircraft from scouting, and the water-logged fields were
+too much enclosed for cavalry to operate. The 10th Brigade, under
+General J. A. L. Haldane, were the first to attack, and they made a
+bayonet charge in which the 2nd Seaforths distinguished themselves. By
+nightfall the position was carried; the Germans were driven out, and the
+troops were entrenched, ready to attack Bailleul next day (14th October
+1914). In the morning it was discovered that the enemy had retired.
+Bailleul was occupied, and the signs of German pillage were to be seen
+everywhere. Fourteen villagers had been shot, and the inmates of the
+lunatic asylum had been turned out of doors. These poor creatures
+wandered about the countryside for days, and many of them were
+afterwards found dead by the roadside or in the woods. No wonder a
+native bitterly said, "The Germans are not soldiers so much as brigands
+and assassins.'"
+
+Some very fine deeds of gallantry were done during the first day's
+fighting. Sergeant E. Howard, of the 1st Royal Lancaster Regiment,
+discovered that twelve men of his platoon who were occupying a trench
+had ceased firing. Amidst a very heavy fire, he crawled up to them, and
+found that they were all dead! Sergeant G. A. Hodges, of the 2nd Essex
+Regiment, led his platoon into the firing line though shot through the
+shoulder; while Private C. Rowley, of the 1st Royal Warwickshire
+Regiment, crossed and recrossed from the firing line to the support
+trench, a distance of 300 yards, under a perfect hail of bullets, with
+ammunition for his hard-pressed comrades.
+
+On the 15th the Third Corps was ordered to carry the line of the Lys
+from just below Estaires to Armentières. The enemy offered no serious
+opposition, and by evening the work was done. Next day Armentières was
+entered, and on the 17th the Third Corps held a line extending from
+three miles north to three miles south of the town. It was now
+discovered that the Germans were holding in strength the right bank of
+the Lys from a short distance below Armentières to within a couple of
+miles of Menin.
+
+[Illustration: British Cavalry entering Warneton.
+
+The enemy was posted behind a high loopholed barricade, which was blown
+to pieces by British guns; whereupon our cavalry entered the town, but
+could not maintain themselves within it.]
+
+Next day an effort was made to clear the Germans out of this position.
+Midway between Armentières and Menin is the little town of Warneton,[47]
+which was seized by Allenby's corps. "Eye-witness" thus describes an
+incident which occurred at the capture of the place:--
+
+    "An important crossing over the Lys at Warneton was strongly
+    held by Germans, who at the entrance to the town had constructed
+    a high barricade, loopholed at the bottom so that men could fire
+    through it from a lying position. This formidable obstacle was
+    encountered by a squadron of our cavalry. Nothing daunted, they
+    obtained help from artillery, who man-hauled a gun into
+    position, and blew the barricade to pieces, scattering the
+    defenders. They then advanced some three-quarters of a mile into
+    the centre of the town, where they found themselves in a large
+    'place.' They had hardly reached the farther end when one of the
+    buildings suddenly appeared to leap skywards in a sheet of
+    flame, a shower of star shells at the same time making the place
+    as light as day, and enabling the enemy--who were ensconced in
+    surrounding houses--to pour in a devastating fire from rifles
+    and machine guns. Our cavalry managed to extricate themselves
+    from this trap with the loss of only one officer, the squadron
+    leader wounded, and nine men killed or wounded. But determining
+    that none of their number should fall into the enemy's hands, a
+    party of volunteers went back, and, taking off their boots in
+    order to make no noise on the pavement, re-entered the inferno
+    they had just left, and succeeded in carrying off their wounded
+    comrades."
+
+By this time the Third Corps found itself approaching the main German
+position, which was far too strong for it to attack with any prospect
+of success. Just about the time that the Second Corps was retiring to
+the line stretching from the eastern side of Givenchy northwards the
+Third Corps came to a standstill. It then lay across the Lys with a
+front of a dozen miles--an impossible length of line for one corps to
+hold. Both the Second and the Third Corps had reached the limit of their
+eastern advance.
+
+Though they could not push forward any farther, they had closed the
+sally-ports at La Bassée and Armentières. One more link was necessary to
+connect the Third Corps with Rawlinson's force holding the eastern gate
+to Ypres. This was provided by the 1st and 2nd Cavalry Divisions, under
+General Allenby. The 1st Division (Gough's), as we have seen, had
+cleared much of the country along the Lys, and had secured a footing on
+the right bank below Armentières. On the 14th it moved north to join the
+2nd Division, which had pushed back invading bands in the neighbourhood
+of Cassel and Hazebrouck.
+
+Thus the line was established. Half formed, weak, and insecure, it
+nevertheless extended from the La Bassée Canal to the sea, and though it
+was opposed by overwhelming odds, it barred the western road to the
+Germans. The weakest place in it was the bulge in front of Ypres, where
+Rawlinson's harassed and overstretched division was fighting for its
+life. Every day the enemy flung new forces against it. More and more
+Germans were rushed along the Belgian railroads to overwhelm it. "They
+seemed to rain down on us everywhere," said a spectator; "but most of
+all they rained on that weak point to our left."
+
+In Chapter VI. I gave you an outline of the doings of Rawlinson's men in
+Belgium. You there learned how they retreated from Ghent to Roulers, and
+how the cavalry division reconnoitred all the country towards Ypres and
+Menin, while the 7th Division battled with four reserve corps of
+Germans, who on the 18th of October were on the line Roulers-Menin.
+Rawlinson had a very difficult task to perform. He had to operate on a
+very wide front, and to encounter very superior forces; yet Sir John
+French could not spare a man to reinforce him. Sir John was very eager
+to get possession of Menin, for he thought it a very important point of
+passage which would greatly help the advance of the rest of the army. He
+therefore ordered Rawlinson on the 18th to advance his 7th Division, and
+try to seize the crossing of the Lys at Menin, so as to cut the German
+communications between Ghent and Lille.
+
+Rawlinson replied that large bodies of the enemy were advancing upon him
+from the east and north-east, and that his left flank was in danger.
+With his weak troops he dared not attempt such a task. Sir John tells us
+that Rawlinson was probably wise in not trying to capture Menin, but
+that the loss of it greatly helped the enemy to bring up reinforcements,
+and put an end to any further British advance.
+
+You have probably been wondering where the First Corps was at this time.
+You last heard of it on the Aisne; so far it had not been seen in
+Flanders. It did not arrive at Hazebrouck until October 19. While it was
+detraining, Sir John had some very hard thinking to do. Should he use
+the First Corps to reinforce the Second and Third Corps, and thus secure
+the ground already won on the right, or should he send it to help
+Rawlinson? Between the British left and the Franco-Belgian right there
+was "a place where the weak spot in the bladder might bulge, and,
+bulging too much, break." Sir John French, "with the air," some one has
+said, "of a business man closing a deal," made his decision, and turned
+in for a little sleep. He chose to let the Second and the Third Corps
+continue to do the impossible. He sent the First Corps to the line about
+the city which has given name to this whole series of actions--Ypres. It
+incorporated what was left of Rawlinson's force, then prepared to dig in
+and hold on.
+
+[Illustration: The Allied Line from La Bassée to the Sea about October
+20.]
+
+[Footnote 46: _Bay-yule´_, a small village seven miles north-west of
+Armentières.]
+
+[Footnote 47: _Varn-ton´_ (_n_ nasal).]
+
+
+
+
+  CHAPTER IX.
+
+  STIRRING STORIES OF ANXIOUS DAYS.
+
+
+In this chapter I am going to give you a selection of stories which
+illustrate the fighting from the fall of Antwerp down to the 20th of
+October 1914. Our first story tells how a British lady in her own yacht
+carried off many refugees from Ostend while the enemy was actually in
+the town.
+
+[Illustration: Miss Jessica Borthwick steering the Grace Darling out of
+Ostend Harbour.
+
+(_Photo, Sport and General._)]
+
+"At nine," says a newspaper correspondent, "we interviewed the official
+in charge at the burgomaster's office. 'Fly,' he said tersely. 'The
+Germans will be here, perhaps, in ten minutes.'... I had already
+arranged a retreat. At ten o'clock we went on board the _Grace Darling_,
+a schooner yacht which for the past weeks has been working the British
+Field Hospital in Belgium. She was chartered and fitted out for the
+purpose by Miss Jessica Borthwick at her own expense. As will appear,
+the _Grace Darling_ was by three hours the last vessel out of Ostend....
+
+"The Germans were now half a mile away, and we were lying well down in
+the almost empty harbour. It became necessary to get our auxiliary
+engine going, and make out at least as far as the harbour mouth. At a
+quarter-past ten the first Germans appeared--a patrol of
+Uhlans--trotting across the bridge that leads into the town from the
+Blankenberghe road.
+
+"At this critical moment the fact emerged that the man who had shipped
+as a first-class engineer to work our engine for us was not an engineer
+at all, but an organ-grinder! The organ-grinder's efforts to start the
+engine were deplorable, and we were so placed we could not get a breath
+of wind for the sails. The decks of the little yacht were covered with
+refugees--Belgian fathers, women, and children. They watched with a
+stricken calm a second and a third Uhlan patrol cross the bridge. Two
+escaped soldiers in plain clothes who had come on board dropped their
+uniforms into the water . . .
+
+"Every moment we were expecting the appearance of the Germans on the
+pier. Soon after midday we sailed at a majestic one mile per hour out of
+the harbour with the British flag flying. Past the pierhead we found
+some wind, actually got the engine started, and ploughed away at a
+cheerful ten knots. A mile out we anchored, to await developments.
+Through our glasses we saw four Uhlans standing like statues staring out
+to sea. From over the horizon came racing a torpedo boat, got the news,
+and promptly poked her nose into the harbour to see for herself. After
+five minutes she backed out, and went away swiftly. Thereafter Miss
+Borthwick and several correspondents, including myself, decided on a
+scouting expedition of our own in the launch. We plunged ahead through
+the green and lifting waves, raising a fine spray, till we were within a
+few hundred yards of the _digue_.[48] There we saw four Germans running
+across a little triangle of sandy beach and up on to the pier. We hung
+on for a moment, anxious as to what would happen next.
+
+"The Germans ran along the pier, the end of which was only two hundred
+yards from us. When we saw them taking cover among the little buildings
+at the end of the pier we considered it time to bolt. Promptly the
+Germans fired a wide shot, and signalled to us to come in, but we made
+for the open sea. Then they opened fire seriously. We lay as flat as we
+could--which was not very flat, for we were tightly packed in the tiny
+boat--and scooted. Two of the Germans were kneeling down with their
+rifles resting on the rail at the end of the pier, and two standing up.
+
+"It was an extremely uncomfortable four minutes before we were out of
+range. They fired rapidly, but did not even hit the boat, though they
+were very close above and beside us. We regained the _Grace Darling_,
+raised anchor, and at once made for sea."
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+Here is a description of one of the French regiments which fought so
+bravely under Maud'huy against the Bavarians round about Arras:--
+
+"They have come a long way down the straight roads between the hills,
+and there is dust in their eyes and throats, and they have arrived at
+that moment in the march when the pack weighs heaviest, when the
+shoulder-straps begin to rub, when the rifle seems to wear a hole in the
+shoulder, and when the shoe begins to pinch. The best-hearted man in the
+regiment knows that it is the time for a little joke. He begins to speak
+about his captain, who is walking a yard away from him. 'Our captain
+grows a little fat, I think, my little ones.' 'Yes,' says a comrade,
+taking up the joke; 'it is possible that he has been eating too much.'
+'And he has a great thirst, I am told,' says a third man. 'It is
+marvellous what a thirst our captain has! Three bottles of red wine are
+hardly enough to wet his throat.' 'He gets too old for war;' and so the
+joke goes on, every word of which is heard by the captain, who finally
+bursts into laughter, and says, 'You are impudent rascals, all of you.'
+The bad moment has passed. The weight of the pack is forgotten, and
+presently the baritone of the regiment sings the first line of a
+marching song. The chorus goes lilting down the long white road between
+the poplar sentinels."
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+Few stories have appeared with reference to the fighting round La
+Bassée. A dispatch rider says: "There was one brigade there that had a
+past. It had fought at Mons[49] and Le Cateau,[50] and then plugged away
+cheerfully through the Retreat and the Advance. What was left of it had
+fought stiffly on the Aisne. Some hard marching, a train journey, more
+hard marching, and it was thrown into action at La Bassée. There it
+fought itself to a standstill. It was attacked and attacked until,
+shattered, it was driven back one wild night. It was rallied, and,
+turning on the enemy, held them. More hard fighting, a couple of days'
+rest, and it staggered into action at Ypres, and somehow--no one knows
+how--it held its bit of line. A brigade called by the same name,
+consisting of the same regiments, commanded by the same general, but
+containing scarce a man of those who had come out in August, marched
+very proudly away from Ypres, and went--not to rest, but to hold another
+bit of the line.
+
+"And this brigade was not the Guards' Brigade. There were no picked men
+in the brigade. It contained just four ordinary regiments of the
+line--the Norfolks, the Bedfords, the Cheshires, and the Dorsets. What
+the 15th Brigade did other brigades have done."
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+You have just heard of the splendid endurance of the Dorsets. Here is
+another story concerning their doings. It is told by Private Cornelius
+O'Leary. "We encountered the Germans when they were making one of their
+fiercest attacks in their efforts to get through to Cálais. There were
+eight companies of us (1st Dorset Regiment), numbering 120 officers and
+men apiece, and the fight took place in a very large turnip field. The
+German artillery was in front of us, and the Maxim fire was on the right
+and left. It was impossible for us to make trenches, so we had to place
+our packs in front of us, and do the best we could. We were often
+outnumbered by ten to one, as the Germans were almost continually being
+reinforced. But we defeated them with heavy loss."
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+Armoured motor cars, equipped with machine guns, played an important
+part during the fighting of October. "In their employment", says
+"Eye-witness," "our gallant allies the Belgians, who are now fighting
+with us, and acquitting themselves nobly, have shown themselves to be
+experts. They appear to regard Uhlan-hunting as a form of sport. The
+crews display the utmost dash and skill in this form of warfare, often
+going out several miles ahead of their own advanced troops, and seldom
+failing to return loaded with spoils in the shape of Lancer caps,
+busbies, helmets, lances, rifles, and other trophies, which they
+distribute as souvenirs to crowds in the market places of frontier
+towns."
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+No man fought an armoured motor car more gallantly and successfully than
+Commander Sampson, the famous airman. "He is," says a correspondent,
+"the will o' the wisp of the British army, and he peppers the Germans
+according to his fancy, from aeroplane, armoured motor car, or armoured
+train." On one occasion two machine guns continually annoyed our
+advanced trenches. Eventually they were discovered; one was in a
+windmill, the other in a neighbouring cottage. Commander Sampson took
+out an armoured car with a three-pounder quick-firing gun, and one
+morning the Germans were surprised to see a low slate-coloured car come
+rushing out of the British lines, followed by heavy but rather wild
+rifle fire. The Germans naturally thought that the car was one of their
+own attempting to escape from the British, so they refrained from firing
+on it. Just as the car appeared to be about to enter the German lines it
+pulled up. In fifteen seconds the windmill, with its machine gun and
+crew, was blown to pieces by the shells from the quick-firer, and before
+the astonished Germans could collect themselves the gun had swung round,
+and more shells had crashed into the cottage, which was soon destroyed.
+Then the car shot back to the British lines, to be received not with
+rifle fire, but with a loud burst of cheering. It is said that the
+Kaiser was so exasperated at Commander Sampson's successful daring in
+this and many other adventures, that he offered a reward of £1,000 to
+any German soldier who could kill him.
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+[Illustration: The Arrows of Death.]
+
+It was during the month of October that we first learnt of the new
+weapon served out to our flying corps. It consists of an arrow-shaped
+missile of steel like a pointed lead pencil. A mechanical device spreads
+these missiles out as they fall from the aeroplane, so that they cover
+an area of about 200 square yards when dropped from a height of 500
+yards. From this height the arrow of death will pass right through a
+man's body.
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+"Eye-witness" tells us that "an easy capture was effected by an engineer
+telegraph linesman. Returning in the dark after repairing some air lines
+which had been cut by shell fire, he was passing through a wood, when
+his horse shied at some figures crouching in a ditch. He called out,
+'Come out of it!' whereupon to his surprise three German cavalrymen
+emerged and surrendered. He marched them back to his headquarters."
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+An action fought near a village less than a mile to the north of
+Armentières was brought about by a pig. The British and German trenches
+were so near that the soldiers talked with each other, made jokes, and
+even learnt the names of their opponents. One day a pig walked on to the
+strip of land between the trenches. British and Germans alike shot at
+him, and down he fell. Both sides wanted the pig, for roast pig is a
+pleasant change from the dull and tasteless round of ordinary rations.
+But how was he to be got in? To go out to fetch him meant instant death.
+Five daring soldiers lost their lives over that pig, and still he lay
+unreclaimed between the trenches.
+
+There was a big fellow in the German trench named Hans Müller. He crept
+out of his trench in the night, tied a rope to the pig's leg, and
+crawled back to his trench unhurt. The Germans waited till morning came,
+so that the British might see their triumph, and then began hauling in
+the pig. It was a bitter moment for the British, and the Germans did not
+forget to rejoice loudly in their success. But the British had their
+revenge: two nights later they took that German trench with the bayonet.
+That is how they made things even.
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+The dispatch rider already quoted tells us that spies were very busy in
+and behind our lines. "I heard a certain story, which I give as an
+illustration and not as a fact. There was once an artillery brigade
+billeted in a house two miles or so behind the lines. All the
+inhabitants of the house had fled, for the village had been heavily
+bombarded. Only a girl had had the courage to remain, and to act as
+hostess to the British. She was fresh and charming, clever at cooking,
+and modest in manner. Now, it was noticed that our guns could not be
+moved without the Germans knowing their new position. No transports or
+ammunition limbers were safe from their guns. The girl was told of the
+trouble; she was angry and sympathetic, and swore that through her the
+spy would be discovered. She spoke the truth."
+
+One night a man, who had his suspicions, saw the girl go into a cellar
+as if to bring up coal. He followed her, and, groping about in the dark,
+touched a wire. Quickly running his hand along it, he came to a
+telephone. The truth was now out. The Germans were receiving their
+information from the girl, who posed as the friend of the British. In a
+few hours she suffered the usual fate of spies.
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+"Battle noises," says the dispatch rider, "are terrific. At the present
+moment a howitzer is going strong behind us, and the noise is
+tremendous. It is like dropping a traction engine on a huge tin tray. A
+shell passing away from you over your head is like the loud crackling of
+a newspaper close to your ear. It makes a sort of deep, echoing crackle
+in the air, gradually lessening, until there is a dull boom, and a mile
+or so away you see a thick little cloud of white smoke in the air, or a
+pear-shaped cloud of gray-black smoke on the ground. Coming towards you,
+a shell makes a cutting, swishing note, gradually getting higher and
+higher, louder and louder. There is a longer note one instant, and then
+it ceases. Shrapnel bursting close to you has the worst sound.
+
+"It is almost funny to be in a village that is being shelled. Things
+simply disappear. You are standing in an archway a little back from the
+road--a shriek of shrapnel. The windows are broken, and the tiles rush
+clattering into the street, while little bullets and bits of shell jump
+from side to side, until their force is spent. Or, a deeper bang, a
+crash, and a whole house tumbles down."
+
+[Footnote 48: Harbour wall.]
+
+[Footnote 49: See Vol. II., pp. 26 ff.]
+
+[Footnote 50: See Vol. II., p. 91.]
+
+
+
+
+  CHAPTER X.
+
+  WITH THE SECOND CORPS.
+
+
+The last ten days of October 1914 were days of furious but indecisive
+fighting all along the line from Arras to the sea. "The Germans rocked
+their attack from side to side, searching for the weak spot. They gained
+here; they lost there; but the line remained as it had been when Haig
+moved up his First Corps. The British held on, and continued to dig in.
+These were days of incessant battering and continual losses; the
+hospital trains running back to the base carried as many as 4,000
+wounded in one day."
+
+The Germans, as you know, were bent on winning the Channel ports at all
+costs. They thought that the capture of Calais and Boulogne would create
+a panic in Great Britain, and make us keep our new armies at home for
+the defence of our shores, instead of sending them abroad for the
+reinforcement of our Allies. They also thought that if the Channel ports
+could be captured the British Navy would have to be divided, one portion
+keeping watch over the German naval bases on the North Sea, the other
+part operating in the English Channel. In this case the Germans hoped
+that they might fight and win a naval battle against one part of our
+divided fleet. There was a good deal of talk in the German papers about
+mounting huge guns at Calais which would command at least half of the
+Strait of Dover, and make the dispatch of transports very difficult, if
+not impossible.
+
+I have already described the three gates through which the Germans tried
+to pierce the Allied line and make their descent on the shores of the
+Channel. You know how they were held up at Arras and at La Bassée.
+Though they did not cease their efforts to break through these gates
+during the latter days of October, they began to direct a great attack
+on the bulge in the Allied line to the east of Ypres. Further, they also
+attempted to break through by way of the Yser. Military men still wonder
+why they continued to fling themselves against four points in the Allied
+line, instead of putting forward all their strength against one of them.
+We can only be thankful that they wasted their energies in attacking all
+these points, when they might have battered with all their force at one.
+
+We will now return to the Second British Corps, which, you will
+remember, had been under fire for twelve days, and had become so
+exhausted that on 22nd October it was found necessary to withdraw it to
+a line running generally from the eastern side of Givenchy, east of
+Neuve Chapelle,[51] to a point about four miles south-east of Estaires.
+The Lahore Division of the Indian Corps had now arrived, and was about
+to receive its baptism of fire. The village of Neuve Chapelle, which was
+destined to figure largely in later history, is four miles north of La
+Bassée. It was captured by the Germans on the 27th, and its recapture
+was entrusted to the Indians. The 28th of October will be ever memorable
+in the annals of the Indian army. On that day it first showed its mettle
+on a European battlefield.
+
+At Neuve Chapelle our trenches presented a salient[52] which could be
+swept by fire on both sides, and the Seaforths, who occupied some of
+them, were much exposed, and suffered heavily. The 47th Sikhs, the 9th
+Bhopal Infantry, and the 20th and 21st Companies of the 1st Sappers and
+Miners were now ordered to advance. They dashed forward with great
+spirit, and though they were under artillery fire for the first time,
+showed great indifference to the bursting shells. It was noticed that
+after the first few had exploded near them they hardly troubled to look
+around.
+
+The fighting was of the most desperate and confused character, and the
+Germans flung their dead from their trenches to make cover, under which
+they advanced. No sooner had the British won a hundred yards of trench
+than they were driven back by a counter-attack. The line swayed to and
+fro, now in front of the ruins of what had been Neuve Chapelle, now
+behind them. Trenches were dug in the streets, and sometimes were only a
+few yards apart. Part of Neuve Chapelle was won, but the whole of it
+could not be recovered.
+
+Next day there was a terrible fight at Festubert, a village less than
+two miles to the north-west of La Bassée. Ever since the 18th of October
+the German guns had been pounding the little place, which was held by
+the thin line of the 2nd Manchesters. In the early dawn of the 29th the
+Germans swarmed out of their trenches and swept down in dense masses on
+the British infantry, who were driven back to their supporting trench.
+Here they rallied, and thrust back the Germans who followed them. One of
+the lost trenches was recaptured by two men--Lieutenant James Leach and
+Sergeant Hogan, who were afterwards awarded the Victoria Cross, as you
+will hear later.
+
+More Indians now arrived, and the defence of the La Bassée gate was
+entrusted to them, to two and a half British brigades, and most of the
+Second Corps artillery. Amongst the Indian infantry were the 8th Gurkha
+Rifles. You will remember that the Gurkhas are little men. The trenches
+which they took over had been dug for taller white men, and they found
+that they could not see out of them. The German machine guns
+enfiladed[53] the Gurkhas, and most of their white officers fell. Little
+wonder that, so placed and so strange to this new kind of warfare, they
+were forced back. Wandering in the dark, they managed by good luck to
+stumble on the trenches of the 1st Seaforths, a regiment to whom they
+are blood brothers.
+
+For the next two days there was a heavy bombardment all along our
+position, and especially against the left wing behind Neuve Chapelle. On
+2nd November the Germans again pierced the British line in one place,
+but a desperate charge of the 2nd Gurkhas, the famous regiment which had
+fought so bravely on the ridge at Delhi,[54] saved the situation.
+
+For the next three weeks the troops in this section were engaged in
+beating off German attacks, which gradually grew less and less violent
+as the Germans concentrated their forces farther north for a great
+assault on Ypres. Our line was forced back till it ran from Givenchy, to
+which we stubbornly clung, north by Festubert, and onwards towards
+Estaires. After an unsuccessful attack on Givenchy (7th November) there
+was a fortnight's lull, during which the contest was little more than an
+artillery duel.
+
+[Footnote 51: _Noove Sha-pel´._]
+
+[Footnote 52: See Vol. II., p. 16.]
+
+[Footnote 53: Took them in flank and raked them from end to end.]
+
+[Footnote 54: During the Indian Mutiny. The story of the capture of
+Delhi is told on p. 149 of this volume.]
+
+
+
+
+  CHAPTER XI.
+
+  THE INDIANS IN THE TRENCHES.
+
+
+Every boy and girl has heard of the wonderful valour and daring of the
+Sikhs and Gurkhas. Many people in this country fully believed that they
+would prove invincible on European battlefields. Too much was, perhaps,
+expected of them: they found themselves waging an entirely new kind of
+warfare in a cold, clammy land, which numbed their limbs and broke down
+their stamina. It was all so strange and new--the awful roar of the
+great howitzer shells, the fighting from holes in the ground, the
+endless stream of shrapnel, the bitter cold, and the absence of those
+fierce, furious charges in which they delight. At first their nerve was
+shaken, but they quickly recovered, and it must be remembered that when
+they broke they dashed forward just as frequently as they retired.
+Nevertheless, their splendid courage was not in doubt for a moment, and
+before long the enemy went in terror of them, as the following letter,
+published in a German newspaper, plainly shows:--
+
+    "To-day for the first time we had to fight against the Indians,
+    and Heaven knows those brown rascals are not to be underrated.
+    At first we spoke with contempt of the Indians. To-day we
+    learned to look at them in a different light.... When for three
+    days it had rained shells and the British thought we were beaten
+    to a jelly, they had then in store for us a visit from their
+    brown allies. Heaven only knows what the English had put into
+    those fellows. Anyhow, those who stormed our lines seemed either
+    drunk or possessed with an evil spirit. With fearful shouting,
+    in comparison with which our hurrahs are like the whining of a
+    baby, thousands of those brown forms rushed upon us as suddenly
+    as if they were shot out of a fog, so that at first we were
+    completely taken by surprise. At a hundred metres (109 yards) we
+    opened a destructive fire which mowed down hundreds, but in
+    spite of that the others advanced, springing forward like cats
+    and surmounting obstacles with unexampled agility. In no time
+    they were in our trenches, and truly these brown enemies were
+    not to be despised. With butt-ends, bayonets, swords, and
+    daggers we fought each other; and we had bitter hard work,
+    which, however, was lightened by reinforcements which arrived
+    quickly, before we drove the fellows out of the trenches."
+
+The Indians are famous for "ruses"--that is, for tricks of war. Here is
+a striking instance of the resource and presence of mind of an Indian
+soldier. He and a comrade were instructed to creep out of the trench
+which they were defending, in order to spy out a German position some
+two hundred yards distant. They crawled along in the dark, and when they
+were half-way to the German trench a brilliant searchlight was suddenly
+flashed on them. At once they were revealed. One of the men was
+quick-witted enough to realize that only by a trick could he save his
+life. He immediately rose to his feet and advanced, salaaming to the
+Germans. They were so surprised that they ceased fire, and after some
+dumb show let him enter the trench. Then began a conversation, which, as
+you may imagine, was not very fruitful. The Germans were trying to find
+out the Indian race to which he belonged. When the word Mussulman was
+mentioned he nodded his head; but when the word British was uttered, he
+made a gesture of disgust. The Germans naturally concluded that he hated
+the British, so they gave him some rations and a blanket, and let him
+spend the night with them. Next morning, by means of dumb show, he made
+an officer believe that there were twenty-five other Mohammedans in his
+trench who were eager to join the Germans. Completely deceived, the
+officer gave him a final cup of coffee, and sent him off to bring in his
+friends. Needless to say, he did not return. Unhappily, a few weeks
+later this nimble-witted soldier was killed in action.
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+You must not suppose that the Indian army consists only of Gurkhas and
+Sikhs. There are many other Indian races serving as soldiers, and
+amongst them are the Pathans, fierce hillmen of the North-West Frontier
+Province. Somewhere south of Ypres British troops who were holding a
+line of trenches one misty night became aware of some hundreds of lithe
+gray figures silently gathering in their rear, and gliding forward like
+ghosts amidst the trees. Shortly afterwards a score of these gray
+figures detached themselves from the larger body, and stealthily, like
+Red Indians on the trail, moved up to and beyond the advanced line of
+the British trenches. Under their breath our soldiers whispered, "The
+Indians are going out," and as they craned their necks they saw the
+ghostly figures disappear from view, crawling python-like towards the
+first German trench.
+
+[Illustration: A Night Attack by Pathans.
+
+The People of Afghanistan and the adjoining borderland of India are
+known as Pathans (_Pat-ans'_), and their language as Pushtu. They
+include all the strongest and most warlike tribes of the North-West
+Frontier Province, and make excellent soldiers. The Afridis (_Af-ree'
+dees_), against whom 35,000 British and Indian troops made a campaign in
+1897-98, are Pathans. The Khaibar Pass, that great gloomy defile in the
+mountain barrier, through which every invader of India except the
+European has had to fight his way, is jealously guarded by Afridis in
+the pay of Britain.]
+
+What happened there no one quite knows. There was no shout or sudden
+cry, but in a few minutes the British saw one of the score reappear and
+glide back to his comrades in the rear. Then the hundreds who were
+waiting behind in the shadow of the trees went forward in dead silence
+to join the advanced party. For five minutes there was perfect quiet.
+Then came a few shots, followed by a wild splutter of musketry,
+intermingled with cries and groans. Three or four light-balls were
+thrown in the air, and by their means the British saw, some 600 yards to
+their front, a mass of wild and struggling men. They saw the gleam of
+steel and the whirling rifle butt as the Pathans smote down the foe.
+
+For ten minutes they hacked and slew amongst the half-awake and wholly
+bewildered Germans, who had been lying down awaiting the order to attack
+the British trenches. The score of Pathans who had gone out in advance
+had silently slain the German pickets, and their main body had thus been
+enabled to get right amidst the sleeping foe unchallenged. The slaughter
+was terrible, and only ended when the Germans, thoroughly aroused to
+their peril, ran for their lives. The threatened attack had been turned
+into a ghastly defeat.
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+In these pages I have given you countless instances of German cunning
+and audacity. The Indians, being in a strange country, incapable of
+speaking any language but their own, and not able to distinguish between
+the French and the German soldiers, were thought to be easy prey. Here
+is a story of a piece of German deception which utterly failed. A
+figure, standing out clear in the moonlight, and wearing a complete
+Gurkha uniform, suddenly appeared one night in front of a Gurkha trench,
+and delivered this message: "The Gurkhas are to move farther up the
+trench; another Gurkha contingent is advancing in support." Puzzled by
+this order, the officer in charge replied, "Who are you? Where do you
+come from?" To which the only answer was: "You are to move up to make
+room for other Gurkhas."
+
+[Illustration: Two London Scots and a Wounded Gurkha.
+
+(_Photo, Sport and General._)]
+
+The English was good, but something (or many small things) excited the
+officer's suspicion. "Answer, and answer quickly," he said: "if you are
+a Gurkha, by what boat did you cross?" The question was, in the
+circumstances, no easy one to answer, and the German (for such he was)
+turned at once and fled. But he had not gone five yards before he fell
+riddled by bullets. Had the officer been deceived, the trench would have
+swarmed with Germans almost before the Gurkhas had made room for them.
+
+An officer in a Gurkha regiment relates the following amusing story:
+"One night our men rushed a German trench, and one of them captured a
+big fat German, who surrendered at the sight of cold steel.
+
+"There is a reward for any man who brings in a prisoner, so the Gurkha
+started back across the open towards the British trenches with his
+captive. Unfortunately the little man got hit in the leg, so he climbed
+on the German's back, and made him carry him to our trenches, where he
+triumphantly handed his prisoner over, and was then carried off to
+hospital!"
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+German troops were holding a copse near a village north of the
+British-French position, and, fearing an attack, were in the habit of
+protecting themselves every night by a double line of sentinels. The
+copse considerably hampered the advance of the Allies, and an Indian
+regiment was brought up as a reinforcement. The officer in charge said
+that the wood would soon be captured, and without too great a sacrifice
+of life. A French officer who was present thought that the Indians were
+too big to enter the wood unnoticed, and declared that they would soon
+be perceived by the German sentinels. Thereupon the British officer
+offered to bet the Frenchman a sovereign that all the German sentinels
+would be removed. The bet was taken.
+
+At eleven o'clock that night, when every one, except the sentries, was
+slumbering, the copse was suddenly filled with a fearful din, with
+occasional shots, and a few shouts. Then all was silent again.
+
+Shortly afterwards the Indians returned. Two by two they came in and
+placed before their officer a prisoner tied up like a sausage, and
+carefully gagged. This went on until all the thirty German sentinels who
+had been guarding the entrance to the wood had been brought in and
+handed over to the officer.
+
+
+
+
+  CHAPTER XII.
+
+  FIRE AND FLOOD.
+
+
+We will now leave that melancholy region in which Britons of the Second
+Corps, like the ocean cliffs of their native land, have been thrusting
+back the furious surges of hostile attack for long and weary weeks.
+Melancholy indeed is the country over which the tide of war has swept.
+Prosperous villages and comfortable homesteads are now crumbling walls
+and smoking ruins, with the decaying carcasses of horses, cows, and pigs
+lying around. To and fro wander those wretched inhabitants who have
+escaped shot and shell, striving to save something from the wreckage of
+their homes. "Here, blocking up a narrow side street, is a dead horse
+still harnessed to a trap, and beside it is stretched the corpse of a
+Jäger[55]; close by, in an enclosure where a shell has found them, lie
+some thirty cavalry horses; a little farther on is laid out a row of
+German dead, for whom graves are being dug by the peasants.
+
+"The work of burial falls to a great extent on the inhabitants, who,
+with our soldiers, take no little care in marking the last
+resting-places of their countrymen and their Allies, either by little
+wooden crosses or else by flowers. Amidst the graves scattered all over
+the countryside are the rifle pits, trenches, and gun emplacements,
+which those now resting below the sod helped to defend or to attack.
+From these the progress of the fighting can be traced."
+
+We now move northwards to the stretch of country which lies between
+Ypres and the sea. It is a flat, marshy land, where the inhabitants are
+doomed to an everlasting struggle against the thankless soil and the
+invading flood. More than once the district has been the bed of an
+ancient sea. Beet grows on the silt of old bays; seaports have become
+agricultural villages, and channels along which large ships formerly
+sailed are green polders.[56] Only a very complete system of drainage
+saves the country from being water-logged. It is literally seamed with
+canals and dykes, and crops are only raised by the unremitting labour of
+men's hands. The towns and villages are small, and a few highroads,
+consisting of narrow causeways of cobble stone with broad bands of mud
+on either side, serve their needs. It is a dismal land of frequent rains
+and white mists, though quaint and pleasing in sunshine, when its white
+farmsteads, whirling windmills, lofty spires, and everlasting lines of
+pollards and poplars seem very attractive to the foreign eye.
+
+From Ypres seawards runs a canal which meets the Yser six miles south of
+the large village of Dixmude.[57] From Dixmude on to the sea, a distance
+of eleven miles, we find the canalized Yser, the main waterway of the
+district. Near the left bank of the canal, at a distance of about a mile
+and a half, runs a single-line railway,[58] which passes the villages of
+Pervyse[59] and Ramscappelle,[60] and has its terminus at the mouth of
+the river. No railway crosses the Yser between Dixmude and Nieuport, but
+the road from Bruges forks and sends one branch across the stream to
+Nieuport, and the other to Pervyse.
+
+A number of small creeks of brackish water flow through the low, marshy
+meadows, below the level of the sea, and bring their sluggish tribute to
+the Yser. Along the edges of the canal are two or three "islands" of
+higher ground; but nowhere, until we reach the dunes of the seashore,
+are there any elevations or commanding positions for guns. It is a
+blind, sodden country, as ill-fitted for the passage of troops and heavy
+guns as the coast region of Essex.
+
+To the inhabitants of this amphibious district water is a foe in peace
+and a friend in war. In times of great peril the sluices of the myriad
+canals can be opened, and the whole flat district from the railway
+embankment to the Yser and beyond can be flooded, and thus rendered
+impassable for an army. You can easily understand that the Belgians
+would not flood the country until every other means of defence had
+failed; for the land so submerged would be ruined for agriculture, and
+years of labour would be necessary to restore it to its former
+condition. The sluices were opened in the days of Marlborough, and again
+in 1793-94. You are soon to hear how the progress of the Germans was
+similarly stayed in 1914. The idea of calling in the aid of water as a
+defence has long been familiar to Belgian soldiers, and a scheme for
+flooding the country had been prepared before the war broke out.
+
+I have already described how the Allies held the avenues to the Channel
+ports at Arras and La Bassée. Two other efforts were made by the Germans
+to break through the line of defence--the one at Ypres, the other
+between Dixmude and the sea. All these four attacks were going on at the
+same time, and all were closely connected; but for the sake of clearness
+they must be described separately. We will now see how the Belgians and
+the French barred the road to Calais by way of the Yser, and in a later
+chapter I will describe the great struggle which took place round Ypres.
+
+When the retreating Belgians were driven out of the Forest of Houthulst
+on 16th October, they retired to the eastern bank of the Yser. All that
+was now left to them of their native land was but one-tenth of its
+surface; they were battle-worn and weary; their surviving countrymen
+were in bondage; their wrongs cried aloud to Heaven, but their spirit
+was still unsubdued. No longer were they fighting alone. Britons and
+Bretons, Indians and Canadians, stockmen from the Antipodes, and
+tribesmen from the Atlas had come to their succour, and with a new heart
+they prepared to defend the last few miles of territory which they could
+call their own.
+
+On the morning of the 17th the Belgians were strung out along the east
+bank of the Yser from Nieuport to Dixmude. In the ditches by the village
+were 5,000 Belgians and 7,000 of Ronarc'h's Marines. The total force
+numbered some 40,000, and against them von Beseler was now advancing
+with 60,000 men, while the Würtembergers were rapidly moving from the
+south. Early on the 17th two Belgian divisions in the centre were driven
+across the river, but they managed to regain the right bank in the
+course of the night. Early on the morning of the 18th von Beseler, with
+his right resting on the sand dunes, began a fierce attack that was full
+of danger. Everybody, from general to private, knew that the critical
+hour had come. If von Beseler could push back the Belgians beyond the
+railway embankment on the west side of the Yser, he would be in Dunkirk
+in two days, and in Calais the day after; the last narrow strip of
+Belgian soil would be lost, the Allied army at Ypres would be surrounded
+or forced to retire, and all the bloodshed farther south would have been
+in vain. The prospect was enough to make the stoutest heart quail.
+
+Fiercely the Belgians strove to hold their line in the unequal combat,
+but they were forced back step by step, and disaster seemed to await
+them, when suddenly succour came--from the sea! The guns of British
+warships began to rake the German trenches, and in their roar was the
+stern warning, "No road this way."
+
+History was repeating itself, as it has so often done during this war.
+More than two and a half centuries ago, when the French and English beat
+the Spaniards at the Battle of the Dunes,[61] which was fought on this
+very coast, Cromwell's fleet shelled the enemy's wing, and greatly
+helped to bring about the victory.
+
+As soon as the danger showed itself at Nieuport, King Albert begged our
+Admiralty for naval assistance. It was, of course, impossible to send
+ordinary warships to operate on this coast, because the sea is shallow,
+and cumbered with many a sandbank--"a very dangerous flat, and fatal,
+where the carcasses of many a tall ship lie buried." The Germans knew
+this well; they had examined the charts, and they had no fear of
+molestation from the sea. They believed that no warship could come
+sufficiently near to the coast to get within range of their trenches.
+
+Now it happened that when the war broke out there lay at Barrow three
+ships of light draught but very strong gun power which had been built
+for the Brazilian Government. Such ships are known as monitors, after
+the name of the first of the type, which was built in 1862, during the
+American Civil War. Really, a monitor is little more than a low, moving
+gun platform, carrying a little fort, in which one or two heavy weapons
+are mounted. Each of the three monitors at Barrow displaced 1,200 tons,
+and carried two 6-inch guns mounted forward in an armoured barbette, two
+4.7-inch howitzers aft, and four 3-pounder guns amidships. They were
+protected by stout armour, and as they drew only four feet seven inches
+of water, they could move in the shallows where ordinary ships would run
+aground. These ships were taken over by the British Government at the
+beginning of the war, and were called the _Humber_, the _Mersey_, and
+the _Severn_.
+
+[Illustration: British Monitors shelling German Trenches.
+
+Note the aeroplane and the balloon directing the fire of the monitors'
+guns.]
+
+On the evening of 17th October the three monitors left Dover under the
+command of Admiral Hood, and arrived off the Flemish coast just as the
+German attack began. An old cruiser, a battleship, a gunboat, and
+several destroyers, aided by French warships, also bombarded the coast
+from outside the shoals. Von Beseler endeavoured to bring his big guns
+to bear on them, but his artillery was completely outranged, and several
+of his batteries were destroyed. Every attempt to beat off the monitors
+failed. The German submarines were ineffective because they could not
+manoeuvre in shallow water, and their torpedoes, being set to a greater
+depth than the draught of the monitors, passed harmlessly beneath their
+hulls.
+
+The guns of the monitors swept the coast for six miles inland, their
+fire, which proved very accurate and deadly, being directed by naval
+balloons, aeroplanes, and signals from the shore. The Germans could not
+retaliate; nor could their troops easily protect themselves in trenches,
+for if they faced the sea they could be enfiladed from the canal, and if
+they faced the canal they could be enfiladed from the sea. For ten days
+the big guns of the monitors blazed across the sandhills. One vessel
+fired a thousand shells in a single day. Heavy batteries were
+established by the Germans at Ostend on the 24th, but they were at once
+bombarded, much to the discomfort of the German officers who had taken
+up their quarters in the big hotels on the sea front. By the end of the
+month the shore batteries ceased to fire, but before that time the
+Germans had been forced to give up their attempt to reach Calais by a
+march along the shore.
+
+During this land and sea warfare the Belgians and French struggled
+desperately to hold the line of the river Yser. Over and over again they
+beat back massed attacks of the enemy. There were frenzied hand-to-hand
+combats and thousands of men wrestled and died on the bridges, or were
+drowned in the waters beneath. On Friday, 23rd October, a body of
+Germans succeeded in crossing the river close to Nieuport, and in
+forcing their way to the railway line near Ramscappelle. The Belgians,
+however, drove them back to their old position on the eastern bank, and
+the carnage was terrible. Next day some five thousand Germans managed to
+push across the river at the point where the road from Bruges to Pervyse
+is carried over the stream. On Sunday, the 25th, more Germans crossed,
+and the line of the Yser seemed to have been won. But as they tried to
+deploy from their bridgeheads the French and Belgians, entrenched in the
+miry fields, which are crossed and recrossed by water courses, met them
+with such stubborn courage that they could make but little headway.
+Every yard was fiercely contested, and the German loss was terribly
+heavy. By the 28th the Allies had been beaten back almost to the railway
+embankment. Then, under the eye of the Emperor himself, the
+Würtembergers launched a terrific attack.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+From the higher ground near Nieuport the Germans advanced in dense
+masses, singing patriotic songs. The defenders fell back, and at three
+in the afternoon, when the Kaiser saw victory almost within his grasp,
+they played their last card. Under cover of British naval guns, the
+Belgians at high tide had been hard at work near Nieuport damming the
+lower reaches of the canal. The brimming waters of the Yser, swollen by
+the recent heavy rains, now almost overtopped its banks. At the critical
+moment some of the sluices were opened, and the Belgian guns broke down
+the banks at several places. Slowly the water spread over the flat
+meadows on the left bank of the canal in great shallow lagoons. The
+culverts and bridges beneath the railway embankment had been dammed up
+so as to prevent the flood from extending westwards.
+
+Soon the Germans between the embankment and the canal found themselves a
+foot deep in water; their guns sank in the mud, and whole battalions
+were bogged. Only on a few patches of higher ground could they maintain
+a dry foothold. Nevertheless they pushed on through the rising waters,
+in the hope of capturing Ramscappelle and seizing the railway embankment
+before the waters could stay them. The Emperor himself called for
+volunteers, and two Würtemberg brigades, composed of some of the best
+fighting men in the German Empire, were chosen to carry the village and
+win undying glory.
+
+[Illustration: The Würtembergers' Attack on Ramscappelle.
+
+_By permission of The Sphere._]
+
+On the 30th the great attempt was made. The Würtembergers, carrying
+roughly-hewn platforms, floundered through the water, and flung the
+"table tops" across the wider channels, thus forming bridges. While so
+doing, they were shot down by hundreds, but still they pressed on.
+Numbers told; Ramscappelle was partly occupied, and the railway line was
+seized. Next day French, Senegalese, and Belgians fell upon them
+furiously. The dismounted Bengal Lancers, who had been sent to the help
+of the Belgians, now exhausted by fourteen hours' continuous fighting,
+charged with their lances and took house after house, smashing in doors
+and windows to get at the German marines, who had been called up from
+Hamburg to take part in the struggle. In vain did the German officers,
+with threats and blows and pistol shots, try to prevent their men from
+retreating and surrendering. It is said that some twelve guns and over a
+thousand prisoners were taken in this furious counter-attack. Before
+long the Allies were over the railway embankment, and the German host
+was hurled back into the lagoons. The "seventy-fives" came up at a
+gallop, rifles and machine guns cracked incessantly, and soon the waters
+were dotted with fallen Germans.
+
+The flood through which the Würtembergers had waded was but the advance
+guard of a mighty deluge that was now about to overwhelm the whole
+district. Every sluice in this region of stream and canal was opened,
+and the brown flood spread over the land like the "bore" in a narrow
+estuary. Men and horses were swept from their feet and swallowed up in
+the seething waters; others sank to rise no more in the deep mud; field
+guns disappeared in the ooze, and all the while the pitiless guns of the
+Allies poured shot and shell on the drowning invaders. Thousands fell,
+but some escaped, while others struggled to dry ground, only to be taken
+prisoners. The attack had hopelessly failed, and the Emperor, who had
+been watching the struggle through his field glasses, shut them up and
+turned away. Once more he had been foiled at the very moment when
+victory seemed to be beckoning him.
+
+On 7th November a frenzied attack was begun on Dixmude, which, as you
+know, was held by Ronarc'h's Bretons. From the 16th of October to the
+10th of November they were fiercely but unsuccessfully assailed by three
+corps of the Duke of Würtemberg's army. "You have to sacrifice
+yourselves," said Ronarc'h to his men, "to save our left wing. Try to
+hold out four days." They held out for a fortnight.
+
+On the night of the 23rd and in the early morning of the 24th no fewer
+than fourteen separate attacks were made upon them, but every one
+failed. For most of the time the marines fought in trenches up to their
+waists in water, and, as General Joffre told them, they were in their
+own element. One night the Germans, driving some captured marines before
+them, crept silently towards the French lines. One of the prisoners
+shouted a warning, but immediately paid for his loyalty with his life.
+The wearied defenders, hearing the shout, sprang to arms and beat off
+the attack.
+
+On 10th November the Germans succeeded in capturing the broken walls and
+torn streets of what had once been the prosperous village of Dixmude.
+This success, however, had come too late. Around Ypres, as we shall
+learn in later pages, the flower of the German armies had everywhere
+been driven back from the Allied lines. All the doors to the coast were
+now locked, bolted, and barred. Nevertheless, fierce but futile
+struggles continued on the Yser until early in December, when their fury
+abated.
+
+[Footnote 55: German rifleman or sharpshooter.]
+
+[Footnote 56: Meadows reclaimed from the sea.]
+
+[Footnote 57: See p. 36.]
+
+[Footnote 58: See map on p. 93.]
+
+[Footnote 59: _Pair-veez´._]
+
+[Footnote 60: _Rams-ka-pel´._]
+
+[Footnote 61: Fought in 1658. Dunkirk was afterwards handed over to the
+English, and remained in their possession until 1662, when Charles II.
+sold it to France.]
+
+[Illustration: The Flooded Area in Flanders.
+
+_Photo, Daily Mirror._]
+
+
+
+
+  CHAPTER XIII.
+
+  EIGHT DAYS OF STRUGGLE AND ANXIETY.
+
+
+In Chapter IV. I gave you a brief account of the little city of Ypres,
+now about to become the storm-centre of a cyclone of blood and death
+such as the world has never seen before. I have told you of its
+commercial greatness, and of the glorious old buildings with which the
+rich burghers of former days adorned their city. Not only were they
+clever manufacturers and keen traders, but gallant soldiers as well. One
+of the proudest stories in their history tells how the red-coated
+burghers of Ypres in July 1302 joined themselves to the men of Bruges
+and Courtrai,[62] and marched against Count Robert of Artois, who was
+then overrunning Flanders with 8,000 knights of gentle blood, 10,000
+archers, and 30,000 foot-soldiers. Courtrai was threatened, and the
+burghers of Ypres, with their fellows from other Flemish towns, arrayed
+themselves in front of the city and behind a tangle of dykes and canals.
+The chivalry of France made a furious charge, and horses and riders
+plunged into the trap which had been laid for them. The slaughter was
+terrible. Seven hundred pairs of gilded spurs hung in the abbey church
+of Courtrai as the spoils of battle, and the men of Ypres shared with
+their comrades of West Flanders the renown of victory.
+
+Until a short time ago Ypres boasted a relic of warfare against the
+British. It possessed a flag captured from us in battle. At
+Ramillies[63] one of the regiments of the Irish Brigade[64] which fought
+for France managed to seize a British standard, which was proudly
+preserved in one of the city's convents at the outbreak of the war.
+
+You already know something of the situation and surroundings of Ypres.
+It stands twenty-three miles from the dunes at Nieuport, on a canal
+which joins the Yser to the south of the large village of Dixmude. To
+the south and east of Ypres is a crescent of gentle heights, but for the
+rest the country is a dead flat land, and the spires of Ypres are a
+landmark for many a mile of Flemish meadow and marsh. Cobbled roads,
+skirted by lines of poplars, radiate from the town in all directions.
+Towards the east run two main highways--the more northerly leading to
+Roulers, the more southerly to Menin, and thence to Lille.
+
+In Chapter VI. you read of the desperate stand made by the 7th Division
+between these two highroads, and in Chapter VIII. learned that on 19th
+October Sir John French had sent the First Corps to its aid. At this
+time Sir John hoped that an advance might be made to the north-east, and
+that Bruges and perhaps Ghent might be captured. He thought that Sir
+Douglas Haig would probably not be opposed by much more than the 3rd
+Reserve Corps, which he knew had suffered considerably in the earlier
+fighting, and perhaps by one or two Landwehr divisions. By the 21st he
+knew better. That day Sir Douglas Haig with the First Corps advanced
+along the road to Bruges, but could not proceed because the French
+Territorials on his left had been forced to retire behind the Yser
+Canal. At the same time the 7th Division between the two highroads and
+Allenby's cavalry beyond the Ypres-Comines canal were being heavily
+attacked. Sir John's programme was therefore entirely out of the
+question. The Allies found themselves outnumbered by three or four to
+one, and Sir John himself, on the evening of the 21st, declared that the
+utmost that could be done, owing to the unexpected reinforcements of the
+enemy, was to hold the positions round Ypres until General Joffre could
+send a relief of French troops, which could not arrive before 24th
+October.
+
+[Illustration: Diagram of the Ypres Salient.
+
+The two shadings indicate two stages in the German advance.]
+
+Sir Douglas Haig had therefore to halt and hold a line from Bixschoote,
+close to the Ypres Canal, to Zonnebeke,[65] on the Ypres-Roulers road.
+The remainder of the line round to Hollebeke was also held by his
+infantry, and south of Hollebeke Allenby's cavalry linked them up with
+the Third Corps, which was lying along the line of the Lys towards
+Armentières. Such was the position of our troops on 21st October. We
+were holding, you will observe, a bulge round Ypres. Any troops so
+placed are very insecure. They occupy a kind of wedge thrust into the
+territory held by the enemy, and this wedge can be attacked on each of
+its faces and at the jutting angle at one and the same time. If the line
+is broken anywhere the bulge must give way, and the troops holding it
+must retire and straighten out their line or suffer destruction.
+
+You may, perhaps, ask why the Germans chose to make a great attack on
+Ypres. It is not a great railway centre such as Hazebrouck or Béthune;
+only a single line of railway runs westwards from the city. Nor was it a
+depôt filled with stores and valuable to the Allies as a base. The
+reason why the Germans threw their strength against Ypres is that it
+was the heart of the dangerous bulge or salient which I have just
+described. If the salient could have been broken through--and the task
+did not seem to be very difficult--the whole Allied line of defence
+might have been pushed back beyond Ypres and Armentières, in which case
+the Allies would not be able to turn the north flank of the Germans.
+
+A frightful series of struggles soon began to rage. Day after day the
+gray-coated legions of the Kaiser in ever-increasing numbers swooped
+down on all parts of the salient, and only by almost superhuman
+endurance were the thin lines of the defence held against them. The line
+was nearly broken at Zonnebeke; it was actually pierced for a time in
+the centre at Becelaere, while on the extreme right a most determined
+assault was made against the cavalry at Kleine Zillebeke. The few
+reserves available were hurried to the danger points, and then began
+days of the heaviest possible fighting and of the utmost anxiety. One
+hundred thousand British, strung out along a line of twenty miles, had
+to hold back half a million Germans! Nor was this all: the half-million
+was growing in numbers every day.
+
+[Illustration: British Troops advancing for an Attack.
+
+_Photo, Sport and General._]
+
+On Thursday, the 22nd, the defence was just maintained; but late in the
+evening the line was broken between Langemarck and Bixschoote, where
+part of the Camerons was cut off and shut up in a wayside inn. There was
+also a gap between Becelaere and Gheluvelt. The Germans thrust their way
+in between the Scots Fusiliers and the Yorkshires, and the latter had to
+fight furiously and continuously on two fronts for the better part of
+three days in order to keep the enemy from enlarging the gap and getting
+through. So bitter and ruthless was the fighting that it seemed
+impossible that the defence could be maintained at this point. When the
+Bedfords restored the position on the 23rd the Yorkshires were still
+fighting; they had not budged. On the 30th they and the Scots Fusiliers,
+who had now been merged into one battalion, again saved the line, and
+earned the following praise from their general:--
+
+    "You have taken part in probably the fiercest combat that the
+    world has ever seen. I have often watched you in the trenches
+    with special interest, and on one occasion, at the crossroads at
+    Gheluvelt--a very precarious position--I asked who was holding
+    that particular line of trenches, which seemed a weak spot. When
+    I was told the 2nd Yorkshires, I knew it would be all right. I
+    knew it was a regiment I could hang my hat on at any time of
+    the day and night. There is not a single regiment in the whole
+    of the division for which I have more respect. I do not say it
+    to butter you up; I say it because I mean it."
+
+From Gheluvelt onwards towards Hollebeke there was a long line of
+trenches which was held by dismounted cavalry. It was one of the weakest
+parts of the line, and the Germans pressed it hard, but not hard enough.
+Farther south the Third Corps was also having a bad time. At Le Gheir,
+two miles south of Messines, some trenches had been lost; but they were
+recovered by a gallant counter-attack, in which the Essex Regiment and
+the Lancashire Fusiliers greatly distinguished themselves.
+
+On 23rd October, a day of great trial, an attempt was made to win back
+the trenches which had been lost by the Camerons on the
+Langemarck-Bixschoote road. The Queen's West Surrey Regiment, the
+Northamptons, the 1st Loyal North Lancashires, and the King's Royal
+Rifles were entrusted with the task. Under Major-General Bulfin they
+advanced in short rushes, with great determination, against a range of
+buildings strongly held by the Germans. After severe fighting and a
+dashing bayonet attack the place was captured, the lost trenches were
+recovered, and the imprisoned Camerons were released. Some 600 prisoners
+were taken, and the old front was restored. The Loyal North Lancashires
+and the "Cobblers"--that is, the Northamptons--showed to great advantage
+in the final bayonet charge.
+
+A special order which was issued three days later reads as follows:--
+
+"The Brigadier-General congratulates the 1st Loyal North Lancashire
+Regiment, Northamptonshire Regiment, and the 2nd King's Royal Rifle
+Corps; but desires especially to commend the fine soldierlike spirit of
+the 1st Loyal North Lancashire Regiment, which, advancing steadily under
+heavy shell and rifle fire, aided by its machine guns, was enabled to
+form up within a short distance of the enemy's trenches. Fixing
+bayonets, the battalion then charged, carried the trenches, and occupied
+them, and to them must be allotted the majority of the prisoners
+captured. The Brigadier-General congratulates himself on having in his
+brigade a battalion which, after marching the whole of the previous
+night without rest or food was able to maintain its splendid record in
+the past by the determination and self-sacrifice displayed in this
+action."
+
+On the same day the enemy pushed a corps of their new levies against the
+British line near Langemarck. Most of these newcomers had scarcely been
+under training for more than two months, yet they hurled themselves on
+our trenches with extraordinary courage and doggedness. They were mown
+down by our fire, but they came on again and again till the front was
+strewn with dead. It is said that three-quarters of the whole corps
+were put out of action on that day, and that some 1,500 German corpses
+lay round Langemarck that evening. Shortly afterwards French
+reinforcements arrived, and brought a welcome relief to the hard-pressed
+troops holding the salient.
+
+[Illustration: Hands up! Capture of Germans near Langemarck by the
+Cameron Highlanders.
+
+On October 23, 1914, about a hundred Germans had been compelled to take
+cover behind a mill and a small house. The house was rushed by a small
+force of the Camerons, who compelled the Germans to hold up their hands
+until a sufficiently strong guard arrived to take them to the rear.
+
+_From the picture by F. Matania. By permission of The Sphere._]
+
+It was on the 23rd October that Drummer William Kenny won the Victoria
+Cross for various deeds of gallantry, which will be related later on.
+
+On the 24th, when the Germans were across the Yser, and the Belgians
+were preparing to open the sluices,[66] the enemy struck hard against
+the Allied line all the way from Dixmude to La Bassée. At 6 a.m. part of
+the 7th Infantry Division, which was holding a position near Gheluvelt,
+was very violently attacked. Mr. C. Underwood, an interpreter with this
+division, gives us a vivid picture of the terrible straits in which his
+brigade found itself, and of the arrival of reinforcements in the very
+nick of time.
+
+    "We got a message from headquarters," he writes in _Blackwood's
+    Magazine_, "saying that we must hold out at all costs, as
+    reinforcements were coming up as quickly as possible to our
+    support. A corporal in charge of prisoners said that the
+    Wiltshire Regiment had suffered terribly, as also the Scots
+    Fusiliers, both having been badly peppered with 'Jack Johnsons,'
+    which had buried many of them alive in their trenches.
+
+    "At 7 a.m. next morning (the 24th) Captain Drysdale came up to
+    me and asked me to hurry up two battalions which were expected
+    every minute from the First Army Corps. The position was most
+    critical, _as we had not one man left to support the firing
+    line_, which was being very hardly pressed, and might give way
+    at any moment. At last, then, the long-expected supports were
+    arriving. Our men had behaved like heroes all. This was the
+    seventh day since we engaged the Germans, one division extending
+    over an unheard-of front of eight miles, and holding up what I
+    understood from one of our prisoners yesterday to be a force of
+    three army corps--that is, 15,000 to 20,000 British against
+    150,000 Germans! The ordeal of the last three days had been
+    terrible. These brave fellows actually had no sleep for seven
+    days, and had never left the trenches, fighting night and day,
+    sticking to them until they were literally blown out of them or
+    buried alive. They were now becoming pieces of wood, sleeping
+    standing up, and firing almost mechanically, with the slightest
+    support from our guns, which were now outclassed....
+
+    "Having got on to the road, I found the Northumberland
+    Hussars,[67] who had evidently been brought up with the idea of
+    their taking possession of the trenches if the supports were not
+    up in time. In ten minutes I sighted the head of a battalion
+    swinging up the road, and ran down as directed to hurry them up.
+    Found them to be the Highland Light Infantry and King's Own
+    Scottish Borderers. I told the commanding officer the position,
+    and he doubled them round the wood to the trenches which our
+    fellows were holding with their last gasp."
+
+On this day, 24th October, the point of the salient gave way. The
+gallant Wiltshires were driven in, and the Germans pushed into a wood
+west of Becelaere, where there was much desperate fighting for days to
+come. The Warwicks were ordered to make a counter-attack, in the course
+of which they lost 105 officers and men, including their colonel. He had
+been wounded in the foot three days before, but he nevertheless led his
+men in the charge with fiery courage. His horse was shot under him, but
+he found another, which was also shot, and this time Colonel Loring rose
+no more. In those dread days of struggle no regiment played a more
+heroic part than the Warwicks; they emerged from the ordeal a mere ghost
+of their former strength.
+
+It was noticeable at this time that the Germans, though they repeatedly
+pierced our line, did not follow up the advantage which they had gained.
+Perhaps this was due to the rawness of the troops; perhaps to the fact
+that they were weary with much fighting; but more probably to bad
+leadership, for even the famous Prussian Guard, in later assaults, more
+than once came to a standstill after it had broken the British line.
+Whatever the reason may have been, the Allies had cause to be thankful
+that the enemy failed to "make good."
+
+On the evening of the 25th the 20th Brigade of the 7th Division, which
+was then holding a position to the south of Gheluvelt, was forced to
+retire. The Germans broke through our lines, and the 2nd Scots Guards,
+after repelling the enemy, were pushed back with terrible losses.
+Thanks, however, to a splendid charge by the 7th Cavalry Brigade, the
+situation was saved. In these operations Lord Innes Ker, who led the
+advance guard, won great distinction. Meanwhile the Third Corps, resting
+on Armentières had been very hard pressed, and had been forced to fall
+back to a position of less risk.
+
+A French line division and some Territorials were brought up on the
+night of the 24th-25th, and were concentrated about Zillebeke. Meanwhile
+the 2nd Division made good progress to the north-east, and captured
+some guns and prisoners. On the 27th Sir John French went to the
+headquarters of the 1st Division to inquire into the condition of the
+7th Division, which had been marching and fighting for a whole month,
+and was becoming very weak. He broke up Sir Henry Rawlinson's command,
+and the much-tried 7th Division was absorbed into the First Corps.
+
+[Illustration: The Front at Ypres on October 27, 1914.]
+
+On the 28th there was a lull before the coming storm. The enemy was
+preparing for a mighty onslaught upon our whole line. About 5.30 the
+next morning a wireless message was intercepted, telling us what the
+Germans proposed to do. The Emperor had given orders that the line in
+front of Ypres must be broken at all costs, and three German corps were
+being massed for the purpose. The critical moment was at hand.
+
+Early on the morning of Thursday, the 29th, a mass assault was delivered
+against the crossroads one mile east of Gheluvelt. All morning the tide
+of battle ebbed and flowed. The 1st Division was driven from its
+trenches, and for a time the German thrust seemed to have succeeded. Mr.
+Underwood thus relates an incident which took place when the outlook was
+black indeed:--
+
+    "As I was watching the woods on our left front towards the
+    Gheluvelt-Menin road, I saw the Yorks retiring and the Gordons
+    advancing. I pointed this out to the general, who immediately
+    sent to find out by whose orders they were retiring. Presently,
+    to our consternation, the Gordons came back farther down the
+    road towards Gheluvelt; before we could do anything, the Yorks
+    came streaming over the open ploughed land. The general galloped
+    down the road to stop the Gordons, and I tried to stop the
+    Yorks, who persisted that the order had been given to them to
+    retire. We concluded that the order must have been given by a
+    German officer, and formed them up along the road under a
+    terrible shrapnel fire. They were being bowled over like
+    ninepins, as the Germans must have seen them crossing the open.
+    We tumbled them into the ditch alongside the road, and it was a
+    pitiable sight to see the poor fellows who were still in the
+    open and badly hit trying to crawl along towards our
+    headquarters to take shelter from the hail of shrapnel
+    bullets.... They were by now all lying out under the wall of the
+    farm, and the place looked like a shambles. It was a splendid
+    sight to see Lieutenant Jardine of the R.A.M.C. running out
+    under a hail of bullets and bringing in one wounded man after
+    another on his back.... Presently the shell fire died down a
+    bit, and the men in the ditches alongside the road, having had
+    time to recover, advanced once more to regain the ground which
+    they had lost.... One poor chap of the Warwicks whom I spoke to,
+    and had been very badly mauled, said, 'Well, sir, England can't
+    say we did not stick it to the last.'"
+
+In the counter-attack to which the Gordons were now advancing nearly the
+whole of the First Corps was engaged. Some very gallant charges were
+made, in one of which Lieutenant J.A.O. Brooke of the 2nd Gordons won
+the Victoria Cross and lost his life as you will read later on. About 2
+p.m. the enemy began to give way, and by dark most of the line north of
+the Menin road had been recovered. The same day the Third Corps was
+heavily assailed at Le Gheir, in what our soldiers call "Plugstreet"
+Woods,[68] and there was desperate fighting beneath its ragged larches.
+Here, again, trenches were lost and won. The Middlesex were driven out;
+but the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders nobly came to the rescue, and
+against great odds recaptured the trenches and slew almost every German
+in them.
+
+The attempt to break through to the south of Ypres was repeated with
+even greater vigour on the 30th. In the gray dawn a heavy bombardment
+was begun on the trenches held by our cavalry at Zandvoorde, a village
+about a mile and a half south of Gheluvelt. So fierce was the fire that
+no living thing could remain in the trenches. One troop was buried
+alive, and soon the whole division was obliged to withdraw to a ridge
+about a mile west of the village. This meant that the troops on the
+right were uncovered, and were obliged to fall back to preserve the
+line. While this movement was going on, the situation was about as
+serious as it could well be. The enemy had been reinforced, and had now
+gained possession of Zandvoorde. The Scots Greys and the Hussars were
+hurried up, and the ridge was held until evening, when the 4th (Guards)
+Brigade arrived and took over the line. They held it in trenches with
+water above their knees for twenty-three days.
+
+The salient was sharper than ever now, and therefore even more dangerous
+than before. The weakest place lay between Gheluvelt and the corner of
+the canal near Hollebeke. Had the Germans reached the canal they would
+have cut off the British holding the salient to the north, and nothing
+could have saved Ypres. The Emperor was on the field and he had told his
+men that if Ypres were captured the war would be over, and the victory
+of Germany would be complete. So desperate was the situation that Sir
+Douglas Haig determined to hold the line from Gheluvelt to the corner of
+the canal at all costs. He moved up reserves to the rear of the line,
+and made other preparations to resist the great assault of the morrow.
+
+Farther south there was great peril too. The cavalry had been driven out
+of Hollebeke, and had fallen back on the Ypres-Armentières road, where
+there was heavy fighting. The line of the Third Corps had been broken,
+but the rent had been repaired by the gallantry of the Somerset Light
+Infantry. Reserves were called up, and were stationed at Neuve Eglise,
+about three miles south-west of Messines. With these reserves came the
+first infantry Territorial regiment to take the field--the London
+Scottish.
+
+North of Zandevoorde there was also great danger of disaster. A
+battalion of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers found the troops on their right
+pushed back by sheer weight of numbers, and they themselves exposed to a
+most galling fire from machine guns on their flank. Their losses were
+terrible, but still they held on, and when the fight was over the
+battalion had almost ceased to exist. The Royal Scots Fusiliers suffered
+in like manner; but they and the remnant of the Yorkshires, bunched
+together into one battalion, held their trenches until dark. The Allied
+line was pushed back to the verge of Gheluvelt, and when night fell it
+seemed as though the Kaiser had spoken the truth when he declared,
+"Ypres will be mine by 1st November."
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+During the fighting around Ypres the Royal Flying Corps did splendid
+service. A _Daily News_ correspondent tells of one young flying man who
+seemed to make a perfect hobby of his work. The following account of his
+doings will give you an excellent idea of how airmen direct the fire of
+guns. "From dawn to sunset," says the correspondent, "this young officer
+is up and about, doing the most wonderful things with the utmost
+coolness. The other morning, up ahead of the lark, he volplaned[69] from
+a great height right in the midst of the German lines, as though he
+meant to make a brief morning call for breakfast. The Germans were too
+astonished for the moment to do anything but gasp and gape at him,
+though he was easily within range. He impudently stopped his engine,
+dropped half a dozen 'puffs' (as our Tommies call the aeroplane bombs)
+into a cavalry cluster, waved his hand, and off and above he went again.
+
+"Hundreds of rifle shots whirred around him as he fled; two of them
+struck him; and three minutes later he was down in the British lines
+once more, with blood trickling through the rents in his tunic. He was
+patched up and bandaged, had a good, hearty lunch, and before teatime he
+was up again in one of his mad frolics in the air. 'Surely you've had
+enough for one day,' said General ----; 'have a rest at least until
+to-morrow. We don't want to lose these matinée performances of yours;
+they're too fine for anything.' But the young aviator jammed his
+armoured helmet on his head, and said he couldn't resist making a
+flight, because it was great fun, and kept him fit. So off he went
+again.
+
+"That afternoon he excelled himself. There was a well-screened German
+battery which was doing nasty work from behind a slight rise at the back
+of the enemy's trenches. This was the airman's quarry. Up and up he went
+in quick, climbing spirals, and when he was at a height of 2,000 feet he
+poised for a spell to spot the lurking-place of the battery. When he had
+discovered it he, flew above it, and signalled to our gunners to drop
+their shells immediately below him. They fired; the shells fell some
+distance to the right. He next signalled to the range-finders to swing
+their guns more to the left. Again they fired, but the shells went too
+far. A third time he signalled, and the first of our shells that fell in
+the new direction wrecked the limber of the foremost German gun,
+smashing up horses and men alike. Good! Instantly the airman indicated
+that the range had been found, and then shell after shell burst over and
+among the battery which had been flogging us so mercilessly earlier in
+the day. In five minutes all that was left of it broke away from the
+cunning screen which masked it, and fled across country. The general,
+who had been watching the affair through his field glasses, cried,
+'Splendid! Magnificent! The best show I've ever witnessed. That man must
+have a heart of steel in a body of iron.' When the daring aviator
+descended the general warmly congratulated him, and shook him by the
+hand. 'You're almost too good to last,' he said. The airman only
+laughed."
+
+[Illustration: An Admiral of the Air.
+
+_Photo, Cribb._
+
+Wing-Commander C. R. Samson, R.N. See page 74.]
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+In the account of the fighting round Ypres nothing has been said of our
+artillery. Sir John French thus writes concerning it: "I cannot speak
+too highly of the valuable services rendered by the Royal Artillery
+throughout the battle." He also tells us that, though the enemy brought
+up guns of great range and power, our artillery overmastered them.
+Splendid work was done by a number of young artillery officers, who in
+the most gallant manner pressed forward in the vicinity of the firing
+line in order to direct their guns at the right targets, and at the
+right moment. Here is a story which illustrates the skill and courage of
+these young officers.
+
+"In many instances," says a _Times_ correspondent, "artillery subalterns
+have taken up dangerous positions well in advance of the front line of
+infantry, and, telephone in hand, have given the range to the gunners
+with perfect calmness. I was told of an incident which is typical of the
+splendid devotion of these men. A young lieutenant had posted himself in
+a tower a few hundred yards from the German trenches. He had telephoned
+his orders regularly for half an hour. Then he said, without any trace
+of excitement, to the operator on the other side, 'I hear the Germans
+coming up the stairs. I have my revolver. Don't believe anything more
+you hear.' With these words he dropped the receiver, and he has not been
+heard of since."
+
+[Footnote 62: _Koor-tray'_, 27 miles by rail south-west of Ghent, on the
+Lys; famous for its linen and lace manufactures. The "Battle of the
+Spurs" (1302) was fought outside its walls.]
+
+[Footnote 63: _Rā-mē-yee´_, 29 miles south-east of Brussels; scene of
+one of Marlborough's victories (1706).]
+
+[Footnote 64: Formed of Irishmen in the service of France. They fought
+gallantly against Marlborough; at Malplaquet the 18th (Royal Irish)
+Regiment and the Irish Brigade fought with each other, and the Royal
+Irish were the victors.]
+
+[Footnote 65: You will find these and other villages mentioned in this
+chapter on the map on p. 103.]
+
+[Footnote 66: See p. 95.]
+
+[Footnote 67: The Northumberland Hussar Yeomanry rejoice in the proud
+distinction of being the first of all Territorial regiments to go to the
+front in this war. They left England about September 15, 1914.]
+
+[Footnote 68: Ploegsteert, about three miles north of Armentières.]
+
+[Footnote 69: Shut off his engine and glided down in zigzags.]
+
+
+
+
+  CHAPTER XIV.
+
+  TALES OF HEROES.
+
+
+Before I proceed with the story of the critical day in the great
+struggle for Ypres, let me give you a few soldiers' stories of the
+fighting which took place during the month of October. Hundreds of
+attacks and counter-attacks were made and repelled during that terrible
+month, and a thousand deeds of the utmost gallantry were performed. Some
+of them won the highest award of valour, as we shall learn at the close
+of this chapter; but hundreds of others, equally splendid, went
+unrecorded and unrecognized, probably because they were not witnessed by
+superior officers. We must always remember, when we read accounts of
+gallant deeds done in battle, that they are but few out of many which
+deserve to be inscribed on the roll of fame. It has been well said that
+during the month of October 1914 the Victoria Cross was won a dozen
+times every day.
+
+Here is a story of a boy hero, a private in the D Company of the 2nd
+Manchesters, of whose exploits you have already read. His name was
+Preston; he was eighteen years of age, and was known as the "baby" of
+his regiment. On 20th October the Manchesters were surrounded, and their
+trenches were enfiladed by German fire. First the lieutenant was
+wounded, then the sergeant, and the company was left without a single
+officer in command. While the men were wondering what to do, Private
+Preston threw up his cap and shouted, "Fix bayonets, lads!" The company
+obeyed his order, and he led them in a wild and successful charge
+against the enemy. Six days later this gallant and resourceful boy was
+killed in action.
+
+[Illustration: The R.A.M.C. rendering First Aid in the Trenches.
+
+_By permission of The Sphere._]
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+A private of the South Wales Borderers tells how some Germans disguised
+as gravediggers attempted to rush a British trench. "We knew that the
+Germans had a recognized corps of gravediggers," he says, "but we found
+that the supposed gravediggers now advancing were armed not only with
+picks and shovels, but with rifles also. When they came within range
+they fired. We did likewise, and soon saw their backs. Later we caught
+three of them--an officer and two privates. The officer was a tall,
+brawny fellow, six feet in his stockings. A little Cockney in our
+regiment went up to the German officer, and, not supposing that he would
+be understood, said fiercely, 'For two pins I'd knock your blooming head
+off.' Imagine his surprise when the German giant, looking down upon him,
+replied in perfect English, 'Don't! I can't help this war. Like
+yourself, I must fight for my country.'"
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+You have already heard from Mr. C. Underwood of the fine work done by
+Lieutenant Jardine of the R.A.M.C. on the Gheluvelt-Menin road during
+29th October. An eye-witness says: "There was a man of small stature,
+Lieutenant Jardine, of the 21st Field Ambulance, who made frequent
+journeys from the shelter of a château at Gheluvelt to the trenches. He
+continually faced a hurricane of fire, and to see the little man coming
+back with a heavy burden on his shoulders was a sight not to be
+forgotten. After he had visited the trenches a number of times he had
+the appearance of a butcher straight from the slaughter-house. Many men
+owe to him the fact that they are alive to-day." Nor must we forget the
+Field Ambulance men, who "time after time came into the open to carry
+the more seriously wounded from the trenches."
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+Don't forget that there is plenty of opportunity for the display of
+courage, even behind the firing line. The following little story
+illustrates the steadfastness and resource of a man in the Army Ordnance
+Corps--that is, the branch of the service which conveys ammunition to
+the places where it is needed. Five motor lorries conveying ammunition
+had been cut off by the Germans. The men in charge of them blew up the
+ammunition and made off across country. One, however, refused to leave,
+and remained hidden in a wood near the side of the road. The Germans,
+finding the ammunition destroyed, passed on, and the hidden soldier came
+out of his hiding-place. Finding the wheels of the lorries intact, he
+managed to start one of the motors. He then hitched the other four
+lorries behind, and slowly brought the convoy safely into the British
+camp.
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+Major Viscount Dalrymple, of the Scots Guards, the first member of
+Parliament to be taken prisoner, gives the following account of his
+adventures:--
+
+"We came out in a great hurry in the dark and pouring rain on the night
+of 25th October, having heard that a trench held by Major Willie Holbeck
+and a platoon on the right flank had been overwhelmed. It was a beastly
+trench, next to the one I was in on the previous day, and by nightfall
+the Germans were entrenched only 100 yards in front of it. Willie was
+shelled and shot at in it all day, and they rushed him in large numbers
+in the dark of the evening. He and Corporal Maclean and a few others
+bolted back a hundred yards or so, and then tried to retake it with the
+bayonet, but failed. Major Hugh Fraser and I, with the remainder of the
+right flank and the left flank under Captain Fox, hurried off to the
+village, and when we got there we heard that a lot of Germans--more than
+1,000--were marching along the street away from us.
+
+"We were not sure whether to try to clear the village first, or whether
+to try to retake the lost trench. Eventually Major Fraser and Major
+Holbeck started up the track straight to the lost trench. When Fraser
+got fairly near the trench he found it full of Germans. He shouted,
+'Have a go at them!' and charged practically by himself. He was shot at
+once, as were, I think, most of his men. Major Willie Holbeck had his
+right thigh bone broken by a bullet. I did not hear much firing, and had
+no idea of what had happened until Holbeck crawled back.
+
+"Meanwhile I had discovered that a house near by us was full of Germans,
+so I sent Captain Fox along the road nearly opposite, and advanced on it
+myself with a platoon and a few more men. When we got within twenty
+yards or so they started firing at us. I shouted to the men to charge,
+and rushed over the hedge at the enemy. I was just going to bayonet an
+officer, when my men shot him, and he pulled me over by the leg as he
+fell. Then the Germans came out of the house, swarms of them. Some gave
+themselves up, while others fired at us out of a wood alongside, only
+about five yards away; until I got hold of a prisoner, and, pushing him
+round in front of me, told him to tell the others to surrender. He did
+so, and they surrendered to the number of 188 men and seven officers.
+Two of their officers had been killed, and a good many of their men; but
+I had two of my best sergeants and I don't know how many men killed and
+wounded. It took the whole left flank company to take the prisoners
+away, and I was not left with enough to attack the lost trench.
+
+"About 7 a.m. on the 26th the shelling began, and there was a lot of
+sniping from the village at my right rear. Presently I saw about sixty
+Germans, who had been hiding, bolting across our rear, and I think,
+between our fire and the German shelling, they must have been wiped out.
+Then the shelling got terrific, absolutely all over us. At one time for
+two consecutive minutes I counted over sixty shells a minute bursting
+within fifty yards or so of my trench. I was twice hit by pieces, which,
+however, did no harm, and none of my little section were touched. Our
+trench got pretty uninhabitable--fired at from front and rear and on one
+flank, the shells coming thick all the time.
+
+"Then word came from the trench on my left, held by a mixture of
+Staffords and Grenadiers and my men, that the Grenadiers on the left had
+retired. I shouted back that it was nonsense, and to stick to the
+trenches and fire whenever opportunity offered. I did not think there
+could be any genuine attack until they stopped shelling us.
+
+"About 3.30 I suddenly heard a bugle sounding 'Cease fire,' or something
+or other, on our right, and saw the next trench on the right full of
+Germans, and our people surrendering. . . . The Germans were all round
+except on the left, and I think our people had gone from there; so I
+told our men to lie low in the trenches, in case the Germans did not
+come so far, which they unfortunately did." Viscount Dalrymple and his
+little force were surrounded and forced to surrender. "I was marched off
+with about sixty men, mostly Staffordshires and King's Company
+Grenadiers, only about eight of my own, and one Staffordshire subaltern.
+At a village some way off I found the rest of our people.
+
+"Eight of us were in a second-class compartment for forty-eight
+hours--that is, every seat full--and were not allowed to lie down, stand
+up, or look out of the windows. If we opened a window it was generally
+shut again. After we had been in this compartment for about thirty hours
+we were given a plateful of potato soup with a little meat in it. We had
+not had anything to eat or drink for twenty-four hours previous to being
+captured, and had been under heavy fire the whole of the time."
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+Private G. Owen of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, who was mentioned in
+dispatches for conspicuous bravery on the field, thus describes the
+incident which won him the proud distinction:--"You will be surprised to
+hear about me getting mentioned in dispatches for helping a wounded
+comrade who had been shot in the leg and had had his thigh broken. I
+will tell you shortly how it happened. We had been warned to draw
+rations from a farmhouse just on the other side of our trenches, which
+was being shelled, and had a Maxim playing on it. Well, we had drawn tea
+for our comrades, and we had to go back for some eatables. We made a run
+for it. I was first, and got through the gate into the field, when I
+heard a shout of 'O Jerry, I'm hit!'
+
+"I ran back, and saw my mate lying in the road with his thigh broken by
+a bullet from the sniper with the Maxim. I caught hold of him the best
+way I could, and got him to safety with the help of the officer in
+charge, while the bullets and shells were screaming round for more
+victims."
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+A newspaper correspondent tells us of a little Welshman who made a great
+reputation as a sniper[70] during the fighting in front of Ypres. "If
+there is one thing," he says, "that the German soldier is beginning to
+be an adept in it is sniping. He has learnt many tricks, and the British
+soldier in the trenches pays him the utmost respect. He climbs trees, he
+worms along the ground, sometimes as stealthily as a Gurkha; in a field
+of roots he sticks a turnip on the spike of his helmet, and, thus
+disguised, sends quick death among an incautious enemy. He shoots
+straight, and is not afraid. But this little Welshman is claimed by his
+comrades to be king of them all. He spends each night at it, and his
+regiment's trenches are now rarely disturbed by even the most
+venturesome German sharpshooters. He steals forward as lightly as a cat,
+fires, and, slipping aside, awaits the enemy's reply. The flashes of
+their rifles give him a mark. He shoots at the nearest, and repeats the
+performance as often as the enemy will oblige him by disclosing their
+positions.
+
+"A London scoutmaster was sent out one night to ascertain the enemy's
+intentions. He found the Welshman ahead, and in whispers explained his
+object. The sniper bade him follow, and the scoutmaster quickly found
+himself less than twenty yards from the German trenches, undiscovered
+and unsuspected. This little Welshman in private life is a revivalist
+preacher."
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+An American correspondent who witnessed the British monitors[71]
+shelling the German trenches tells us the following story of a gallant
+British naval officer who fell while trying to aid the stricken
+Belgians. "As we watched the fighting we were joined by a Belgian
+captain, who told us the story of an English lieutenant[72] who had
+landed that morning. This officer came ashore from the monitor _Severn_
+with twenty men and three machine guns. Reaching Nieuport, he saw that
+the Belgians by losing a farm that morning had weakened their position.
+Accordingly he started with his twenty men across the bullet-swept area
+right to the trenches. Men who saw him say he walked as calmly as if on
+a tour of inspection, calling orders to his men, and signalling with his
+hands. In vain the Belgian officers shouted that their position was
+already occupied by Germans. Either he did not hear or he was determined
+to accomplish the task at all costs. When fifty yards from the coveted
+goal the young officer fell dead, a bullet having struck him between the
+eyes. The men retreated, carrying with them the guns and the memory of a
+hero worthy in all respects of the high traditions of the British navy."
+
+[Illustration: French Officers examining a German Prisoner.
+
+(_Photo, Central News._)]
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+A lance-corporal of the 2nd South Lancashire Regiment describes how he
+and his comrades saved a gun which they were working in the loft of a
+cottage. Some 200 Germans having broken through the British lines, tried
+to rush the cottage. "I crept on my stomach," says the lance-corporal,
+"and made for my gun, which was nicely pointed at them, fetching them
+down like sheep, thinking every minute they would get at me, especially
+when I heard footsteps on the stairs. Two of my comrades now came to my
+assistance. When they saw who it was they patted me on the back, and one
+of them said, 'Let's have a go at the gun, Len;' which I was glad of, as
+I was nearly done up. My chum did splendid work, fetching the remainder
+down. While he was firing Lieutenant Fulcher went downstairs just in
+time, as five Germans had got round without being seen. The brave
+officer killed the five, and returned to us in the loft. . . . Then,
+seeing we were all right, he once more returned to headquarters.
+
+"Half an hour later we were surrounded with shells . . . A piece struck
+the sergeant. Without delay we carried him into the house and did our
+very best for him. It was a pity that he should come to his end, as only
+the day before he received a telegram congratulating him on his splendid
+previous work, for which he was mentioned in dispatches.
+
+"We gave the alarm to the men down the cellar. It must have been God who
+told me to shout them up. In one more minute there would have been
+another seven killed, as no sooner had they got up than a shell burst in
+the cellar. I told the men to make for headquarters, which they did
+under heavy shell fire. How they got there without being hit I do not
+know. Myself and two others stopped, as we had our best friend in the
+roof (the gun). Another shell came and took the two men off their feet,
+luckily doing no harm; only I got a few splinters after the falling of
+the house. I found that I was the last, so I crawled out in the smoke
+and the dust, and made for headquarters. I reported to Lieutenant
+Fulcher that the sergeant was killed, and had died in my arms, and that
+I had been forced to leave the gun. There were tears in his eyes. He
+told me to lie down, but I could not, and he asked where I had left the
+gun. I told him, and said, 'I expect it is smashed.' He then asked for
+volunteers to go and fetch it, and two other lance-corporals at once
+offered to go with me. We saved the gun, everything else being smashed,
+and got back without being hit. General Haldane congratulated us, and
+granted us six days' special leave to England."
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+The following story comes from the German side. There are three
+characters in it--a Bavarian lieutenant, Sepp his servant, and Caro his
+dog. "Sepp could play the mouth organ[73] beautifully, rendering folk
+songs, dances, etc., and we had many a pleasant hour with his music. One
+day, when the shells were bursting not far from us, the lieutenant said
+to his servant, 'Sepp, if I am ever hit, play my burial song for me, as
+you know how, and send my mother a remembrance. Everything else,
+including money, you can keep.' The dog Caro was not allowed to go into
+action, but had to march all day with the baggage, and at night slept at
+his master's door, allowing no one save Sepp to enter. Often he managed
+to get loose from the baggage carts, and, in spite of the colonel's
+scolding, reached the firing-line, where he shared the danger with his
+master.
+
+"One fine day on the Yser a hostile bullet struck our dear young
+lieutenant in the forehead, so that he never moved again. On his face
+there was a pleasant smile, such as we had never before seen on the
+dead. Our grief was great; but a soldier never has much time for
+weeping. We dug his grave in a small pleasure garden, and laid the young
+hero to rest. We doffed our helmets, while some one said a brief prayer.
+On the mound we laid a last rose, and the soldiers made a cross. When
+the captain had said the last word Sepp at once began to play, more
+beautifully than we had ever heard before. No organ music had ever
+pleased me so much. Tears stood in the eyes of us all. Again and again
+he played funeral hymns and soldiers' songs, until we had to go.
+
+"We could not get Sepp away from his master's grave. He continued to sit
+there, weeping and playing on his mouth organ all the songs his master
+had loved best. Just as we were going, up came the dog Caro from
+somewhere, as though he knew of his master's death. He whined and
+howled, while all about this farewell scene the guns thundered and rifle
+bullets whistled. Deeply moved, we went away. The English made an
+attack, but still in the twilight Sepp continued to play, until he had
+to be removed forcibly to prevent him from falling into the enemy's
+hands. Only Caro remained; he would not budge.
+
+"When, two days later, we had beaten the English and came back past the
+same spot, there lay the faithful Caro, dead on his master's grave. We
+knew not whether he had perished of hunger and grief, or whether a
+fragment of shell had struck him, but we found no wound on his body. We
+buried the faithful animal at his master's feet. Since that day Sepp has
+never played another tune."
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+I will conclude this chapter by giving you a brief account of the heroes
+who were awarded the Victoria Cross between October 1 and 30, 1914. They
+are as follows:--
+
+Private Henry May, 1st Battalion the Cameronians (Scottish Rifles). On
+October 22, 1914, at a village about four miles south-west of
+Armentières, he went out of his own free will, and under a heavy
+cannonade tried to rescue a wounded man who was, unhappily, killed
+before he could save him. Later, on the same day, he carried a wounded
+officer a distance of 300 yards into safety, while exposed to very
+severe fire.
+
+Drummer William Kenny, 2nd Gordon Highlanders. On 23rd October, near
+Ypres, Drummer Kenny, an Irishman, whose parents live at Drogheda,
+showed wonderful bravery in rescuing wounded men on five different
+occasions. Each time he carried his life in his hand, and showed the
+most fearless courage. Twice previously he had saved machine guns by
+carrying them out of action, and frequently he had conveyed urgent
+messages over fire-swept ground. Like all true heroes, Drummer Kenny
+showed himself the most modest of men. Here is his own account of his
+repeated acts of bravery: "There were men lying about wounded, and I
+simply brought them in. The Maxims had to be fetched, and I did
+it--that's all."
+
+Lieutenant Arthur Martin-Leake, R.A.M.C. This gallant officer was the
+first man in the British army to be awarded the Victoria Cross for
+conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty in two separate campaigns.
+During the South African War he went out into the firing-line to dress a
+wounded man while forty Boers, who were only 100 yards off, rained
+bullets on the position. When he had done all he could for the stricken
+soldier he went over to a badly wounded officer, and while trying to
+place him in a more comfortable position was shot three times. He only
+gave up his merciful work when thoroughly exhausted, and even then he
+refused water until other wounded men had been served. For this splendid
+self-sacrifice and steadfast bravery he was rightly awarded the Victoria
+Cross. During the Balkan War he served with a British Red Cross
+contingent, and throughout the present war, and especially at Zonnebeke
+between October 29 and November 8, 1914, he repeatedly went out under
+heavy fire to bring in wounded men, some of whom were lying close to the
+enemy's trenches. Again the coveted distinction was awarded to him, and
+a clasp was added to the Cross which he had won in South Africa.
+
+Lieutenant James Leach and Sergeant John Hogan, 2nd Battalion the
+Manchester Regiment. Lieutenant Leach had only received his commission a
+few days before he won the Victoria Cross on October 29. "When I joined
+the Manchesters," he said in an interview, "there were only six officers
+and forty-five men, whereas the proper strength of the battalion was 30
+officers and 1,100 men. The regiment had been badly cut up at Le Cateau
+and La Bassée. On joining the regiment I was immediately put in command
+of a company which was in an advanced trench near Festubert.[74] The
+trench was large enough to hold thirty-five men; it was about 150 yards
+from the main trench, and 120 yards from the German trenches.
+
+"At seven o'clock on the morning of 29th October I had just started to
+have my breakfast, when a man to the right of me shouted, 'Look out,
+sir, look out; they're coming,' and began firing as fast as he could. I
+looked over the parapet, and saw about 250 of the enemy with fixed
+bayonets approaching the trench at the double, firing as they came on,
+and making a peculiar wailing noise. Before the Germans reached the
+trench we shot down something like 150 of them. With only such a short
+distance to cross from their trenches to ours, about 100 of the enemy
+managed to reach our trench and jump into it. By sheer weight of numbers
+they carried the trench, and killed about twelve of my men.
+
+[Illustration: How Lieutenant Leach and Sergeant Hogan recaptured a
+Trench from the Germans.
+
+(_From the picture by F. Matania. By permission of The Sphere._)]
+
+"At nine o'clock I called up the communication trench, and asked how far
+the enemy had got, and found they were occupying three of the four
+traverses.[75] When I went up again by myself two hours later, I found
+the Germans were occupying all the four traverses. Well, I thought, if
+we leave it much longer they will be down the communication trenches
+into the main trench.
+
+"The same evening we heard we were to be relieved by the Gurkhas, and I
+felt it would be rather bad on my part to leave the recovery of the
+trench to them. I therefore determined about two o'clock to regain the
+trench before dark. Calling for volunteers, Sergeant Hogan and ten
+others came forward, and we began to crawl up the communication trench.
+I fired anywhere with my revolver, only exposing my hand, with the
+intention of pushing back the enemy along the trench as far as we could.
+The idea was to force them to run back to their own trenches, so that we
+could shoot them down as they went.
+
+"All along the trench we crawled over dead and wounded Germans, so you
+see my revolver had been doing some execution. When we got to the left
+traverse I was surprised to hear an English voice round the corner
+shout, 'Don't shoot, sir.' I chanced this being a bit of treachery, and
+was surprised to see one of my own men coming round the corner. He had
+been captured in the morning rush, and he said a wounded German officer
+round the corner had asked him to tell me that they wanted to surrender.
+
+"I went round the corner, and found sixteen Germans on their knees with
+their hands up, shouting, 'Mercy.' I told the officer that he and his
+men had got to go into the main trench. This they did after they had
+taken off their equipment, holding up their hands as they went. About
+twenty wounded Germans crawled in with them. . . . Was I surprised when
+I heard I had been awarded the Victoria Cross? Yes, I was. I was
+mentioned in dispatches, and there I thought the matter had ended."
+
+Sergeant Hogan, when interviewed, showed the same pleasing modesty as
+Drummer Kenny. "I only did," he said, "what others would have done, and
+what others have done."
+
+A few further details as to this remarkable feat may be added. The
+following account is taken from the _Manchester Guardian_:--"Lieutenant
+Leach and Sergeant Hogan left the main trench with ten men, and,
+crawling along the communicating trench, they established themselves at
+a point where the trench, which had been captured by the Germans that
+same morning, turned sharply at right angles. Leach and Hogan then
+advanced. The aim of the two men was to drive the Germans back along the
+narrow trench to the opposite end, from which there was no exit. Leach
+and Hogan commenced from their corner. Leach, being armed with a
+revolver, could reach his hand round the corner and shoot along the
+sections without exposing his body; whilst the German soldiers, armed
+only with rifles, could not fire without exposing part of their bodies.
+
+"While Leach was shooting along the section Hogan watched the parapet to
+ward off attacks from above, as the Germans might crawl over from the
+section attacked and shoot them down from above or take them in the
+rear. Leach had now to fire with his left hand. When the section had
+been cleared by the two men, they took their stand at the next corner,
+and repeated the manoeuvre. As they advanced, section by section, Hogan
+put his hat on the end of his rifle and raised it above the parapet, to
+indicate to his platoon how far progress had been made, so that his
+comrades would not fire at that part of the trench that had been
+retaken." This went on, corner after corner being captured, until the
+two men heard one of their comrades who had been made prisoner that
+morning cry out, as described above by Lieutenant Leach.
+
+Lieutenant James Anson Otho Brooke, 2nd Gordon Highlanders. This officer
+received the Victoria Cross for conspicuous bravery and great ability
+near Gheluvelt on 29th October, when he led two attacks on the German
+trenches under heavy rifle and machine-gun fire, and regained a lost
+trench at a very critical moment. By his marked coolness and alertness
+he prevented the enemy from breaking through our line[76] at a time
+when a general counter-attack could not have been made. Lieutenant
+Brooke made the supreme sacrifice that day: he gave his life to save his
+fellows.
+
+[Illustration: Diagram to illustrate Trench Warfare.]
+
+[Footnote 70: Sharpshooter, who hides himself outside the trenches and
+fires on the enemy when occasion offers.]
+
+[Footnote 71: See p. 92.]
+
+[Footnote 72: Lieutenant Wise.]
+
+[Footnote 73: British soldiers are also fond of performing on the mouth
+organ.]
+
+[Footnote 74: See map, p. 59.]
+
+[Footnote 75: A study of the diagram on p. 128 will explain the meaning
+of "communication trench" and "traverse." Lieutenant Leach's company
+was holding a trench such as that marked A on the diagram.]
+
+[Footnote 76: See p. 108.]
+
+
+
+
+  CHAPTER XV.
+
+  THE CRISIS OF THE FIRST BATTLE OF YPRES.
+
+
+On Saturday, 31st October, came the crisis of the fierce and
+long-continued struggle. Day by day the enemy's attacks had been growing
+stronger and stronger. Across the lines the British could hear the
+Germans singing patriotic songs, as though they were working themselves
+up to a berserk rage.[77] An order taken from a prisoner showed that the
+Kaiser had ordered the British line to be smashed at all costs. "Before
+the sun was high on that morning," writes an American correspondent, "a
+British aviator volplaned down to his own lines with a wing damaged by
+shrapnel. He dropped from his seat pale and shaken. 'A close call?' they
+asked. 'It isn't that,' he replied; 'it's what I have seen--three corps,
+I tell you, against our First!' So he jerked out his story. He had seen
+the roads and ridges like ant-hills and ant-runs with men; he had seen
+new batteries going into position; he had seen, far away, the crawling
+gray serpents, which were still more German regiments going to their
+slaughter. 'And we're so thin from up there,' he said, 'and they're so
+many.'"[78]
+
+[Illustration: The French and British Commanders in the Field--General
+Joffre and General Sir John French.
+
+(_By permission of The Sphere._)]
+
+The little map on page 131 will show you the British position against
+which the Germans were now about to hurl themselves in vast strength.
+You see that the 1st Division held the village of Gheluvelt, and lay to
+the right and left of the main road from Ypres to Menin. On the left of
+the 1st Division lay the 2nd Division, extending the line as far north
+as Zonnebeke. The South Wales Borderers, who were on the extreme left of
+the 1st Division, were posted in the sunken part of the road between
+Gheluvelt and Reutel. The 2nd Worcesters, who belonged to the 2nd
+Division, were stationed in the wood which you will see to the
+south-west of Zonnebeke. On the right of the 1st Division, continuing
+the line up to the canal from Ypres to the Lys, lay the 7th Division.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+At daybreak on the 31st, von Beimling, with at least 100,000 Bavarians,
+attacked the centre of the British line. A heavy fire was directed
+against Gheluvelt, and when the way was thus prepared, the infantry
+dashed upon the place, but were repulsed. Again and again the Bavarians
+advanced, but nowhere could they make headway. The big guns reduced
+Gheluvelt to a heap of blazing ruins; but the British could not be
+shifted from them. The trenches of the Welsh were searched from end to
+end by German shells; but still they stuck to them. Every spot in front,
+and even the wood in the rear where the Worcesters were posted, was
+raked by the murderous German fire. But every time the enemy pushed
+forward they were beaten back.
+
+Having thus failed to pierce the British line at Gheluvelt, the
+Bavarians were ordered to fling themselves against the British to the
+south of the Menin-Ypres road--that is, against the 1st Queen's (Surrey)
+and the 2nd Royal Scots Fusiliers, the latter unit being the flank
+regiment of the 7th Division. Advancing in force, they got between the
+village of Gheluvelt and the Surreys on their left flank, and then, with
+their great numbers, were able to get round to the right flank of that
+regiment, which was almost surrounded and cut off. Only some seventy of
+the Surreys fought their way back into the woods in their rear. The
+British line was broken at last.
+
+What the Germans had now to do was to enlarge the breach. The retreat of
+the Surreys had laid open the flank of the Royal Scots Fusiliers, and
+the Bavarians tried to deal with them as they had dealt with the
+Surreys. Again they were successful, and the Scots were surrounded and
+cut off from their division. They would neither surrender nor give way,
+and only a remnant fought their way out, and followed the Surreys
+towards Ypres. Their brigadier, in describing the fighting, said, "I
+think it was perfectly splendid. Mind you, it was not a case of 'hands
+up,' or any nonsense of that sort; it was a fight to a finish. Why, even
+a German general came up to the colonel afterwards and congratulated
+him, and said he could not understand how his men had held out so long."
+The Royal Scots Fusiliers had suffered terribly. They had landed in
+Flanders over a thousand strong; they now numbered seventy men,
+commanded by a junior lieutenant.
+
+Thus the British line was successfully broken. The 1st Division could
+not maintain its ground, and as it retired the 1st Coldstreams were
+almost wiped out. Against the exposed flank of the 7th Division a strong
+infantry attack was now launched. It seemed as if nothing could stay the
+German advance, and that the British were bound to be overwhelmed with
+disaster. Enemy aeroplanes discovered Sir Douglas Haig's headquarters,
+and a shell burst in the house. Haig himself was at Hooge, on the
+Menin-Ypres road, at the time, and so escaped; but the general of the
+1st Division was wounded, and six of the staff officers were killed.
+
+A day's march away from Ypres is the ford where, two thousand years ago,
+Cæsar was in dire peril of being overwhelmed by the Nervii.[79] In that
+battle he snatched a shield from a soldier, and, plunging into the fray,
+rallied the Roman army, and turned defeat into victory. It was now Sir
+John French's part to play the part of Cæsar. He jumped into his motor
+car and sped towards the 1st Division. He found Sir Douglas Haig riding
+up and down trying to learn what had happened, and to settle what was to
+be done. As commander-in-chief and general greeted each other,
+orderlies, one after the other, rode up with the news that the British
+line was broken, that regiments were in retreat, that Gheluvelt had at
+last been taken, and that the Germans were advancing in overwhelming
+force. It was the most critical moment of the great battle.
+
+The 7th Division was now ordered to retreat, and this exposed the left
+flank of the French division on their right. It was under the command of
+General Moussy, who was struggling hard to keep his line intact. He had
+come to the assistance of the British at the very moment when all seemed
+lost, just as the French had come to the aid of the British at
+Inkerman[80] sixty years before. He was now terribly assailed, and again
+and again it seemed that his line must be staved in. At one point the
+Germans nearly broke through, and without reinforcements they could not
+be held back. Immediately the general sent off a corporal of his escort
+to scour the country, and to bring up every man that he could lay hold
+of. The corporal dismounted the sixty-five men of the general's escort,
+and called on lorry drivers, motor men, servants, cooks, anybody and
+everybody he saw to join him. With this motley array, many of them
+unarmed, he hurried to the trenches, and in a few minutes his scratch
+force was making a bayonet charge, practically without bayonets. The
+Germans thought that reinforcements had arrived, and therefore retired.
+
+This incident will remind you of the turning-point in the Battle of
+Bannockburn,[81] six hundred years before. While the English were
+struggling to break the Scottish line, they thought they saw a new army
+approaching. What they really saw was a band of camp followers and
+servants who had made banners of sheets and blankets tied to sticks and
+tent poles. They had formed themselves into ranks, and were now marching
+down a hill towards the battle. At this sight the English broke and
+fled. When General Moussy's corporal came up with his scratch regiment
+of 250 men the old incident of Bannockburn was repeated.
+
+The Germans were now not only pressing hard from the north of Gheluvelt
+to the canal, but were making headway against Allenby's cavalry, who
+were holding the whole line from Klein Zillebeke to the south of
+Messines.[82] Allenby's sole reinforcement consisted of exhausted
+Indians who had been sent up from the Second Corps. You will learn later
+how at this juncture Sepoy Khudadad,[83] of the 129th Baluchis,[84] won
+the Victoria Cross for his magnificent steadfastness in working his gun
+till every man of his detachment had been killed.[85]
+
+So terrible was the pressure round Hollebeke that Kavanagh's cavalry,
+who had been on the Menin road behind the 1st Division, were now hurried
+south to hold the line at this point. Even with this assistance
+Allenby's men were almost at their last gasp. Two nearly fresh German
+corps were attacking them, and hours must elapse before other
+reinforcements could arrive.
+
+[Illustration: The Scratch Force that saved de Moussy's Line.
+
+_Photo, Daily Mirror._]
+
+Now came the most critical hour of this most critical battle. Between
+two and three o'clock on the 31st the whole issue of the campaign in the
+West trembled in the balance. Just when the outlook seemed darkest, and
+all hope of saving the day seemed to have vanished, an orderly galloped
+up to Sir John French with the startling news that the German advance
+had stopped. Then came another piece of good news: the 1st Division was
+re-forming its line, and Gheluvelt had been retaken! What had happened?
+I will compile my account from a narrative issued by the Worcestershire
+County Council:--
+
+"Although the line of the 1st Division had been broken, the whole of it
+had not fallen back. The Surreys and the Scots had been practically
+wiped out, but the dauntless Welsh still stood firm. Posted in the
+hollow road to the east of Gheluvelt, where they were slightly sheltered
+from the German fire, the Welsh still held their ground, thus forming a
+pivot upon which, if reinforcements were forthcoming, the line could be
+re-formed and the position linked up.
+
+"Holding back by their fire the mass of Germans with whom they were
+still engaged, the Welsh were covering the flank of the 2nd Division and
+checking the German advance. If they could hold on and keep the flank
+covered until help arrived, the 1st Division could re-form and the gap
+could be filled up. The position was critical, and a very severe trial
+for the Welsh; but they belonged to a regiment which bore on its colours
+the word "Talavera,"[86] and where, as here, the British line had been
+broken, but the steadiness of a single regiment had saved the day. The
+Welsh had been told to hold the post to the last. They had done so.
+
+"When von Beimling advanced in the morning, hurling on them attack after
+attack, the Welsh held the road against him. When the Germans surrounded
+the Surreys and drove off the Scots, still the Welsh held on, firing,
+steadily firing, keeping back the Bavarians. When the Germans carried
+Gheluvelt and the British line gave way, the Welsh remained firing and
+held their ground against all comers, so delaying the German advance.
+Now at last, when orders had been given to begin the retreat, the Welsh
+still remained where they had been originally stationed, just as if the
+line were still intact, and no retreat had been ordered. Could help be
+sent to them so as to enable them to reap the reward of their heroic
+constancy?
+
+"Stationed in a corner of a wood about a mile from Gheluvelt, towards
+Ypres, near the Menin-Ypres road, was a body of some 600 men, four
+companies of the 2nd battalion of a regiment that the Duke of Wellington
+once described in a letter as 'the best regiment in his army' (the
+Worcesters, whose famous and well-deserved motto is 'Firm'). To them
+now, more than a century later, was given the opportunity for Sir John
+French to say whether he concurred or not in Wellington's high opinion.
+They were ordered 'to advance without delay, and to deliver a
+counter-attack with the utmost vigour.'
+
+"No one who knew the regiment doubted for an instant that they would do
+it. Every one was doubtful whether they could do it with success. They
+were only four companies; the Germans were legion. But whether they were
+to be successful or unsuccessful, their plain duty was to attack the
+Germans, however many, with their handful of men, however few. The Welsh
+had to be supported; the Germans had to be repulsed. Everything depended
+on their advance.
+
+"On receipt of his orders Major Hankey, who was in command of the
+battalion, sent Lieutenant Haskett Smith with six scouts to reconnoitre
+the ground, and cut any wire entanglements that would delay the advance.
+The A company, under Captain Wainman, was sent forward to occupy and
+hold a trench between the wood and the village. Not the least of the
+exploits of the Worcesters on that day was the advance of A company to
+occupy and hold this trench. It was in effect asking an English company
+to advance, and, as it proved, to advance successfully, against the
+whole German force at that point. The trench was occupied, and not
+merely occupied, but held.
+
+"Some 600 yards in front of the battalion was a small wood forming some
+sort of cover. Here B, C, and D companies deployed for the attack, in
+two lines. The Worcesters set out on their terrible task. For about half
+a mile they had to advance under a very heavy fire of shrapnel. Over
+part of the ground they could rush from one bit of cover to another, but
+at one place for about 200 yards there was no cover at all. Here they
+had not only the shrapnel on their front, but on their right flank the
+Bavarians pouring in a hail of bullets from rifles and machine guns. It
+looked as if no one could pass through that fire unhurt. The Germans
+were constantly bringing up reinforcements with fresh ammunition.
+
+"It appeared that the Worcesters were going to certain death. The
+appearance was not deceptive, for in crossing the 200 yards without
+cover the three companies had no fewer than 100 casualties. Even this
+did not cause the Worcesters to flinch. They pressed onward, reached the
+road, and formed up on the left of the Welsh. In front of them, at a
+distance of some 300 yards, was a small wood filled with Bavarians. On
+these the Worcesters opened fire with such success that the enemy
+gradually retreated.
+
+"But although the Worcesters had gained the road, supported the Welsh,
+and thus had enabled the 1st Division to re-form its line, their
+position was far from safe. Their right flank was open to the enemy,
+who, from the cover of the ruins of the village, was able, without much
+loss to himself, to pour in a continuous rifle fire. From time to time
+parties of Germans from the village got round the Worcesters' right
+flank. They became so troublesome that the Worcesters stormed the house
+nearest to their trench, and made it into a bastion for their defence,
+so that the German flank attacks ceased. The effect of this charge was
+to change the entire position. The Worcesters were now able to threaten
+the right flank of the Germans, who, on perceiving this, at once
+desisted from any further advance. Their offensive died away."
+
+The narrative then goes on to tell how those units of the 1st Division,
+which had retreated were brought back to the original line, how the
+cavalry cleared the Germans out of the woods, surprising and killing a
+good many of them, and how as it grew dark the Germans fell back. At
+last by 10 p.m. the British line as held on the morning of 31st October
+was re-formed. Thus a terrible disaster was averted by the cool courage
+and the devotion of the Welsh and the Worcesters. The crisis had passed;
+the fighting was not yet over, but the battle had been won.
+
+The Worcesters had lost heavily, but they had covered themselves with
+glory, and the whole army united to do them honour. A month later Sir
+John French paraded all that was left of the battalion that retook
+Gheluvelt, and told them that though they bore on their colours the
+names of many famous victories, they had added lustre to their former
+reputation by their splendid bravery that day.
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+Next day (1st November) French reinforcements were hurried up, but
+before they could arrive the Germans had made two attacks--the one
+against Klein Zillebeke, the other against Allenby's cavalry around
+Messines. The first attack was driven back, but the second was
+successful, and Hollebeke and Messines were both seized by the enemy.
+The Germans swarmed across the low ridges, and their artillery found gun
+positions from which Ypres and Messines could be shelled. The village
+was speedily levelled with the ground, and all attempts to retake the
+ruins failed. Allenby had in reserve four battalions from the Second
+Corps to the west of Messines, and he now called them into the firing
+line. Amongst them were the London Scottish, the first of all infantry
+Territorial regiments to go to the front. They were now about to undergo
+their baptism of fire.
+
+The London Scottish in civil life are clerks, young lawyers, doctors,
+architects, engineers, and literary men. They are a kilted regiment,
+clad in sober gray with blue facings, and in times of peace are
+remarkable for their smart uniform and their excellent drill. They were
+now to prove that citizen soldiers in the hour of their country's need
+can fight as valiantly and bear themselves as heroically as their
+comrades of the regular army.
+
+The accounts of the fighting in which the London Scottish were engaged
+differ widely, but I think you will get a good idea of what actually
+happened from the following description by a dispatch rider:--
+
+    "I was talking to some London Scottish; they had had a terrible
+    time. They were only supposed to be in support, and had no
+    machine guns with them, when news came of a highly critical
+    situation, and they were led up to the trenches under shell and
+    rifle fire over open ground--a thing very seldom undertaken even
+    by Regulars. They made a perfect advance as if they were on
+    parade, and then later on came an awful attack. The Germans came
+    on in masses, with bands playing, and, as I heard later, the
+    Kaiser in person looking on (from a safe distance); and the
+    Scots mowed them down and down till their ammunition gave out,
+    when they leaped out of the trenches and went for the enemy with
+    the bayonet. They were driven back into the trenches by force of
+    numbers, and a desperate fight took place. Their medical officer
+    was actually bayoneted in front of their eyes while bending down
+    attending to two wounded men. It was bright moonlight, and he
+    had a white badge and red cross on his arm, and even a blue
+    tunic on, and was, of course, without arms of any sort. The
+    Germans behaved like inhuman fiends; every wounded man they
+    bayoneted at once, and when the Scots saw this foul work they
+    gave the order, 'No prisoners.' They drove the Germans back
+    eventually, giving no quarter, and getting none."[87]
+
+While the London Scots were proving their mettle, the Germans broke
+through the line of the 1st Cavalry Division, and captured a village
+about 1½ miles north of Messines, on the Ypres-Armentières road. Next
+day, however, this village was retaken, though Messines still remained
+in German hands. There was also heavy fighting that day at Le Gheir,
+south of Messines, and in the course of it Drummer Bent of the East
+Lancashires won the Victoria Cross,[88] as you shall hear later.
+
+[Illustration: The Charge of the London Scottish at Messines, November
+1, 1914.
+
+(_From the picture by Dudley Tennant._)]
+
+For five days afterwards the battle resolved itself into an artillery
+duel, and our weary men had a breathing space. Reserves were brought up
+from the Second Corps, and two Territorial battalions and two Yeomanry
+regiments were put into the firing line. On 6th November the Germans
+made a sudden attack on the Klein Zillebeke position, and drove in the
+French, who were holding the right towards the canal. This left the 4th
+Cavalry Brigade unsupported; but the Household Brigade,[89] under
+General Kavanagh, came to the rescue, and the French were able to
+recapture their trenches. Once more, however, the French were driven
+back, and to stem the rush Kavanagh doubled a couple of dismounted
+squadrons across the road. There was a moment of wild confusion, in
+which British, French, and Germans were mingled together in the village
+street. When the confusion was at its height Major Dawnay of the 2nd
+Life Guards led his men to the charge, and the village was cleared with
+great loss to the enemy. Unhappily, Major Dawnay was killed by a
+shrapnel shell, but not until the British position was saved.
+
+You are accustomed to think of the 2nd Life Guards in all the glory of
+their peace uniform, in their steel helmets with horse-hair plumes,
+their gleaming breastplates, their white buckskin breeches and gloves,
+and their long knee-boots. Very different was the picture which they
+presented in the village street on that fierce day, their drab khaki
+uniforms splashed with mud and blood, their horses far in the rear, and
+they, on foot, lunging fiercely at the oncoming Germans with the
+bayonet. There is no pomp or glamour of gold lace, nodding plumes, and
+burnished steel on the modern battlefield.
+
+Kavanagh's Brigade stemmed the torrent and held its trenches far into
+the night, until the 4th Brigade had strengthened its position. Next
+morning (7th November) our men made a counter-attack; but though German
+trenches were brilliantly captured, they could not be retained. It was
+during this attack that Captain J. F. Vallentin of the South Staffords
+won the Victoria Cross.[90]
+
+Once more there was a lull. Nothing worthy of mention happened on the
+8th, 9th, and 10th, but on the 11th the storm broke out again in all
+its fury.
+
+You will remember that at Waterloo, when the cannon of the advancing
+Prussians were heard in the distance, and Napoleon saw defeat staring
+him in the face, he staked all on a charge of his Old Guard--the Guard
+that "dies but never surrenders." Six thousand of these men, the very
+flower and pride of his army, were hurled at the long-tried British. As
+they rushed up the slope, the British Guards, who had been lying down
+behind the top of the ridge, sprang to their feet and poured a volley
+into the enemy. The advancing columns wavered, and our men, charging
+with the bayonet, thrust them down the hill in utter confusion.
+
+The Kaiser was now about to follow the example of Napoleon and make one
+mighty effort to snatch victory out of defeat by launching his famous
+Prussian Guards against the stubborn foe. The Prussian Guards are the
+very apple of the Kaiser's eye; they are all picked men, over six feet
+in height, of wonderful discipline and unquenchable courage, and they
+count it the highest honour that life holds to be selected from the
+ordinary regiments for service as the bodyguard of the Emperor. If
+living men could "hack their way through," these were the men to do it.
+
+True, the Guards had not yet covered themselves with glory. They had
+suffered heavily at Charleroi[91] and Guise;[92] they had been badly
+beaten in the marshes of the Gond,[93] and had lost many of their
+numbers at Rheims;[94] but now, under the eye of the Kaiser himself,
+they were to sweep all before them and succeed where their comrades of
+the line had failed. Thirteen battalions of them were brought up from
+the Arras district with great speed and secrecy, and on Wednesday, 11th
+November, they were thrust against the point of the salient to the north
+and south of the Ypres-Menin road. The day opened with the most furious
+artillery attack known up to that time. The British trenches were
+continuously assailed with lyddite[95] and shrapnel; but our gallant men
+hung on, wondering how long they could exist in that tornado of spouting
+earth and flying shard.
+
+For eight hours the terrific cannonade continued. About seven in the
+evening, when the sky was dark and rain was falling, British aeroplanes
+appeared overhead and began to sweep the plain with their searchlights.
+In their glare our men saw to their amazement the Prussian Guards
+advancing towards their trenches with the high, prancing step of a
+Potsdam parade--the officers with their swords at the "Carry," and the
+lines of men as steady as a rock. On they marched, with flags flying and
+drums beating, but never a rifle snapped from the British trenches.
+Already the Guards felt the thrill of approaching victory; to them it
+seemed that the Allied line had been destroyed by the terrible
+cannonade. In a few short hours they would be in Ypres; a few days more
+and they would gaze across the narrow seas to the white cliffs of that
+hated land which they had sworn to subdue.
+
+They were eighty yards from the British trenches now, and their pace
+quickened. Suddenly they were caught in a whirlwind of fire; shrapnel
+hissed among them, machine guns clacked viciously, and French and
+British rifles spat death at them from front and flank. They went down
+in hundreds, but the gaps were filled up, and the line moved on
+unbroken. Battalions melted into companies, companies into platoons, and
+platoons into files, but still they were unchecked. Again and again they
+re-formed, only to see their ranks shattered once more; nevertheless
+their advance was not stayed.
+
+So fixed was their resolution and so strong was the force of their
+assault that the Allied line was broken in three places. Our first-line
+trenches were swamped with the gray flood, some of which poured into the
+tangle of woods behind, where a wild, desperate battle raged amidst the
+trees for two days. Furiously counter-attacked, and enfiladed by
+machine-gun fire, the Guards were finally driven back to the two short
+sections of trench which they had won. Even here they were not secure.
+The "Fighting Fifth"[96] held a salient between them, and took merciless
+toll of them while fresh attacks were being prepared.
+
+On the hundredth day of the war the Prussian Guard came, it saw, it was
+conquered. At nightfall the larger part of it lay dead in the wood--in
+some places eight ranks deep. The mighty effort of the Kaiser had
+failed; the flower of his army had been flung away, yet Ypres was as far
+off as ever.
+
+On the 12th and the following days there were further assaults, during
+one of which Lieutenant Dimmer of the King's Royal Rifles won the
+Victoria Cross for heroic fighting, which will be detailed later.[97]
+All the German efforts were fruitless, and on the 17th, when French
+reinforcements gave the sorely-tried British a respite, the enemy began
+to vent his baffled rage on the famous old Cloth Hall of Ypres. So far
+it had been spared in order that from its ancient walls the Kaiser might
+announce to the world that Belgium was his. Now that the Guard had
+failed, and Ypres still defied him, he spitefully ordered his artillery
+to batter down the historic building which seemed to mock at his
+discomfiture.
+
+The story of one other German failure must be told to round off this
+account of the First Battle of Ypres. While the Prussian Guard was
+making its vain effort, the left wing of the Würtemberg army was
+attacking the extreme left of the salient between Zonnebeke and
+Bixschoote. This portion of the line was held by Zouaves, French
+Territorials, and cavalry. Against them was flung an overwhelming force
+of Germans, including the left wing of the Würtemberg army. Around
+Bixschoote the fight raged with such fierceness that the place was
+choked with dead. Had it been captured the enemy would have carried
+Ypres from the north. The Zouaves, always famous as dashing fighters,
+excelled themselves in the defence of Bixschoote, and at no point of the
+Allied front did the enemy lose more heavily. For nearly a month the
+Zouaves held the pass until the weather broke and the high winds and
+snow blizzards of winter set in. So the storm of battle died away in a
+tempest of nature's making.
+
+[Footnote 77: In olden days Norse warriors, or _berserks_, worked
+themselves up before a battle into a fierce madness, known as the
+"berserk rage."]
+
+[Footnote 78: Quoted from Mr. Will Irwin's account of the battle in the
+_Daily Mail_.]
+
+[Footnote 79: In Shakespeare's _Julius Cæsar_, Act iii., Scene 2, Mark
+Antony, in the course of his speech over the dead body of Cæsar, says,
+"That day he overcame the Nervii." They were a tribe of Belgic Gauls
+holding territory from the Sambre to the North Sea. Cæsar overcame them
+B.C. 57.]
+
+[Footnote 80: Fought during the Crimean War on November 5, 1854.]
+
+[Footnote 81: Fought 1½ miles south of Stirling on June 24, 1314. The
+bore-stone in which it is said Bruce's banner was fixed still exists on
+Brock's Brae.]
+
+[Footnote 82: _Mes-seen´_, between four and five miles south of Ypres.]
+
+[Footnote 83: The name is equivalent to our Theodore, "gift of God."]
+
+[Footnote 84: So called because recruited from Baluchistan, a British
+territory between Afghanistan and the Arabian Sea.]
+
+[Footnote 85: See page 165.]
+
+[Footnote 86: Forty miles west by north of Toledo, Spain; scene of the
+famous battle (July 28, 1809) in which Wellington defeated Joseph
+Bonaparte.]
+
+[Footnote 87: See also the account given on pp. 161-3.]
+
+[Footnote 88: See p. 165.]
+
+[Footnote 89: So called because they form the sovereign's escort. The
+Household Cavalry consist of three regiments--1st and 2nd Life Guards,
+and the Royal Horse Guards (The Blues).]
+
+[Footnote 90: See p. 167.]
+
+[Footnote 91: See Vol. II., pp. 23-25.]
+
+[Footnote 92: See Vol. II., pp. 117, 118, 139.]
+
+[Footnote 93: See Vol. II., pp. 213, 214.]
+
+[Footnote 94: See Vol. II., pp. 282 ff.]
+
+[Footnote 95: A high explosive, consisting of picric acid, used as a
+bursting charge for shells.]
+
+[Footnote 96: Northumberland Fusiliers.]
+
+[Footnote 97: See p. 167.]
+
+
+
+
+  CHAPTER XVI.
+
+  THE PRICE OF VICTORY AND THE PASSING OF A HERO.
+
+
+In the old days a battle lasted a day or two at most; victory frequently
+came within a few hours, and couriers were speeding away with the news
+of victory or defeat before night had shrouded the stark bodies of the
+slain. But in this war battles have continued for weeks; one contest has
+merged into another, so that it is hard to say where one ends and
+another begins. The great series of fights which we call the Battle of
+Ypres began on 19th October, and did not end until 17th November; it
+lasted for thirty days!
+
+The First Battle of Ypres was not only remarkable for its long duration,
+but also for the mighty armies that were arrayed against each other.
+Never before in the history of the world have such huge forces struggled
+for victory. During the battles of the Seven Years' War the combatants
+on both sides did not exceed 120,000, and in the Napoleonic wars the
+opposing armies at no time reached a total of 450,000. At Waterloo there
+were but 170,000 engaged, and at Inkerman, in the Crimean War, there
+were not 90,000. Some 320,000 men fought at Gravelotte[98] during the
+Franco-German War of 1870-71, and at Mukden, in the Russo-Japanese War
+of 1904-5, the forces engaged totalled about 510,000. These numbers sink
+into insignificance compared with the multitudes who fought in Artois
+and West Flanders during the thirty days of the Ypres battle. Germany
+alone had not less than a million men.
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+Great was the price of victory. Britain lost at least 40,000 men, the
+French and Belgians 70,000, and the Germans probably 250,000--that is,
+360,000 in all--a number far exceeding the total of the whole armies
+engaged in any single battle of modern history down to the close of the
+nineteenth century. Whole battalions of the British army
+disappeared--the 1st Coldstreams, the 2nd Royal Scots Fusiliers, the 2nd
+Wiltshires, and the 1st Camerons were practically wiped out. One
+regiment went into the campaign 1,100 strong, and came out with only 73.
+Another took 1,350 to Flanders, and had but 300 when the Battle of Ypres
+was won.
+
+[Illustration: The Defeat of the Prussian Guard near Ypres on November
+11, 1914. (See page 143.)]
+
+(_By permission of The Sphere._)]
+
+You have already heard how the 7th Division was reduced to a shadow of
+its former strength. Sir Henry Rawlinson tells us that when the division
+was withdrawn to England to refit it was found that out of 400 officers
+who set out from England there were only 44 left, and out of 12,000 men
+only 2,336. One general, two brigadiers, nearly a dozen staff officers
+had fallen, and eighteen regiments and battalions had lost their
+colonels. Junior lieutenants frequently found themselves in command of a
+battalion, while a brigadier was left with one or two companies. History
+records no such tale of slaughter. More men fell in the Battle of Ypres
+than the North lost in the whole of the American Civil War.[99]
+
+Two striking features of this long series of contests must detain us for
+a moment. The first is the extraordinary valour of the boys and elderly
+men who formed a large part of the German levies. They charged in mass
+again and again, and went to death in droves. The second is the even
+more extraordinary defence which the British--never more than 150,000 in
+number--made against overwhelming odds. There have been instances of
+armies holding forces which outnumbered them four or five times for a
+single day; but the British resisted for weeks against forces five times
+as great. Around Ypres during the worst part of the fighting we had but
+three divisions and some cavalry to meet five army corps, three of them
+belonging to Germany's first line. For the best part of two days the 7th
+Division of 12,000 men held a front of eight miles against 120,000! In
+all the long fighting annals of Britain no such feat had ever been
+performed before.
+
+The Allies merely held their lines, yet really they won a great victory,
+because they had achieved their object. They had defeated a turning
+movement and a piercing movement, and had blocked the German advance to
+the sea. Thereafter in the west the enemy was not free to move, save at
+the will of the Allies; he was besieged from the Vosges to the North
+Sea.
+
+The British played the lion's part in the great struggle; but without
+the splendid support of the French and the Belgians they could have
+achieved nothing. The regular regiments of the line proved themselves to
+be composed of the finest fighting material in the world; the cavalry,
+playing the part of infantry, on foot and in the trenches, were no less
+wonderful; and the gunners, though outmatched in numbers and weight of
+artillery, showed marvellous skill and tenacity; while the citizen
+soldiers, called from their peaceful pursuits to the unfamiliar work of
+war, displayed the spirit of veteran troops. The great struggle round
+Ypres was a soldiers' victory. There was little room for generalship;
+nevertheless Sir John French, by his coolness and doggedness, by the
+confidence with which he animated his men, and by the cheery good will
+with which he encouraged them, must be regarded as the real inspirer of
+victory.
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+In the centre of Calcutta is the famous Maidan,[100] or Esplanade, a
+great space of turf and trees and gardens, which is the special glory of
+the city. Here you will find monuments to the great soldiers and
+statesmen who have won and kept for us "the brightest jewel in the
+British crown." Perhaps the noblest of all these monuments is that which
+commemorates the martial fame of Lord Roberts of Kandahar.[101]
+Frederick Sleigh Roberts was born at Cawnpore[102] five years before
+Queen Victoria came to the throne. He was educated in England, but when
+his school days were over he returned to the land of his birth, and
+became an officer in the Indian army.
+
+Hardly had he returned when that terrible uprising of the native
+soldiers which we call the Indian Mutiny began, and the first warfare
+which young Roberts knew was against the well-armed and well-trained
+sepoys[103] who had broken their oath of loyalty to the Queen, and were
+striving to drive the British out of the peninsula.
+
+Some years ago, when I visited India, I went, as in duty bound, to
+Delhi,[104] the present capital, and the great storm centre of fighting
+during the Mutiny. Memorials of that terrible time abound in Delhi.
+About a mile to the north of the city is the "Ridge," a low, narrow hill
+on which a band of Britons, the mere skeleton of an army, hungry,
+fever-stricken, "stormed at with shot and shell," held its own against
+an army of sepoys during the awful heat of an Indian summer.
+
+From the Flagstaff Tower in which the women and children took refuge
+during that dread time a road runs directly to the city, and on the
+right of it is a little garden in which stands a bronze statue to John
+Nicholson,[105] the hero of the siege. Close by the Nicholson statue is
+the Kashmir Gate, preserved in its ruinous condition to recall the
+marvellous daring of the six Britons who blew it up, and thus opened a
+way for the British troops to enter the city. Roberts, as a young
+subaltern of twenty-five, saw Nicholson lying wounded and dying by the
+side of the road not far from this gate. Nicholson was the most
+distinguished of that group of young men who by almost superhuman
+devotion saved India for the Empire during the Mutiny. It was under the
+influence of such men as Nicholson--men of lofty ideals of duty, of iron
+resolution and unfaltering courage--and amidst scenes of the most
+glorious heroism, that Roberts began his military career. Nicholson was
+his type and model. When the Mutiny was at an end Roberts was a veteran
+of ability and experience, and he wore the Victoria Cross on his breast.
+
+For forty-one years he served India, taking part in all the important
+campaigns, and gradually rising in the service until, in 1885, he
+became Commander-in-Chief. He won great fame in the Afghanistan
+campaigns, and became the idol of the Indian army, to whom he was known
+as "Bobs." No Indian commander-in-chief has ever been so admired and
+loved by the troops under his command. He never strove for popularity,
+but he could not escape it. His men assayed him, and found him pure gold
+throughout.
+
+[Illustration: Earl Roberts of Kandahar.]
+
+By no means was his life-work done when he left India. When disaster
+succeeded disaster during the early months of the Boer War, the nation
+looked to him as the one man who could pluck victory out of defeat. With
+his appearance on the veldt came the turn of the tide, and after his
+great march to Pretoria[106] the issue of the contest was no longer in
+doubt. Full of years and honours, he might have retired from public
+life, conscious that he had served his country greatly, and that his
+fame was secure. But he ever "scorned delights and lived laborious
+days," and when he had long passed the allotted span he devoted himself
+to the task of trying to bring home to the British people the danger of
+allowing their young men to grow up unprepared for that great European
+war which he was convinced would come within a few short years. Alas! we
+did not heed him, and when the day of battle arrived it found us
+unprepared, and forced to improvise armies while strife was raging and
+the fate of the Empire was hanging in the balance.
+
+Soon after the beginning of the great war which he had foreseen, Lord
+Roberts addressed the following message to the children of the Empire:--
+
+    "CHILDREN OF THE EMPIRE:
+
+    "You have all heard of the war; you have all heard of the
+    fighting forces sent from every part of the Empire to help the
+    Mother Country. Why are we fighting? Because the British Empire
+    does not break its promises, nor will it allow small nations to
+    be bullied.
+
+    "Now, the British Government promised, with all the Great Powers
+    of Europe, including Germany, that no army should set foot on
+    the territory of the little nation of Belgium without her leave;
+    in other words, she 'guaranteed the neutrality of Belgium.'
+
+    "Germany, however, was bent on war, and on dominating other
+    nations. Britain did her best to keep the peace, but Germany
+    (breaking her word) marched her armies into Belgium to try and
+    conquer France.
+
+    "Children of the Empire, this is why we are at war--to hold our
+    promise, to help our friends, and to keep the Flag of Liberty
+    flying, not only over our own Empire, but over the whole world.
+
+    "God save our King and Empire."
+
+When Indian soldiers were summoned to help the Mother Country in her
+hour of need, Lord Roberts felt a great desire to go over to France in
+order to meet them face to face once more, to greet them in their own
+languages, and to inspire them with some of his own dauntless courage.
+"I must go and see the Indian soldiers," he said. "It is the most useful
+thing I can do at this moment." He arrived in France on Wednesday, 11th
+November, and next day he saw the men to whom he was bound by such
+strong ties. Everywhere they greeted him with admiration and affection.
+On Friday evening he was found to be suffering from chill; disease of
+the lungs set in, and the old warrior, now in his eighty-second year,
+had no strength to resist the attack. He gradually sank, and at 8 p.m.
+on Saturday, 14th November 1914, within sound of the guns thundering
+around Ypres, he died.
+
+Lord Roberts was a man of war from his youth up, and it was fitting that
+he should pass away on a battlefield, amidst the soldiers who adored
+him. Officers from every corps in the British and Indian armies, and
+representatives of the French army, escorted the coffin to the hall at
+St. Omer where the body was laid in state, and a simple but affecting
+funeral service was held. The Prince of Wales[107] was there, as well
+as Prince Alexander of Teck, and all the chiefs of the army who could be
+spared from their duties. By the head of the coffin stood Prince Pertab
+Singh,[108] taking a last farewell of the warrior who was his old friend
+and ideal.[109] The hymns, "Now the labourer's task is o'er," and "O
+God, our help," were sung, and it seemed quite natural that Christian,
+Hindu, and Mohammedan should all join in the service.
+
+[Illustration: Funeral of Field-Marshal Lord Roberts: the Procession in
+the Rain, on the way to St. Paul's Cathedral, London.
+
+(_By permission of The Sphere._)]
+
+"It was a gloomy day," says one who was present, "with frequent cold
+showers; but as they took the coffin out the sun shone forth
+brilliantly, drawing across a dark bank of cloud opposite a vivid and
+most perfect rainbow. An aeroplane was flying out of the cloud into the
+sunshine, and the trumpets of the French cavalry rang out triumphantly.
+Then the minute guns started booming; the coffin, draped in the Union
+Jack, was placed in a Red Cross car; and so the gallant little hero went
+home from the war.
+
+"I thought during the service of Lord Roberts, almost a boy, attending
+John Nicholson's funeral at Delhi, and of all the span of life between,
+and the link of simple courage and devotion to duty binding all the
+varied incidents of it together, and was glad of the privilege of having
+known him."
+
+Last scene of all to end this strange, eventful history. Beneath the
+dome of St. Paul's, the resting-place of Nelson and Wellington, amidst a
+vast throng of the great and good of our nation, and with a sorrowing
+people outside, the last words of prayer and hope were said; and when
+all was over, thousands of citizens passed reverently by his grave.
+
+"It is the most useful thing I can do at this moment:" this was the
+keynote of Lord Roberts's life--to be of use to his country. There is a
+lesson in these simple words for you and me. Lord Roberts was happy in
+his life; he would be happier still in his death were all his
+fellow-countrymen to ask with heart and voice, "What is the most useful
+thing I can do for my country now and hereafter?"
+
+[Footnote 98: See Vol. 1., pp. 102, 104, 105, 107.]
+
+[Footnote 99: Fought between the Northern and Southern States of what is
+now the United States of America, mainly on the question of slavery in
+the Southern States, during 1861-65.]
+
+[Footnote 100: _My´dan._]
+
+[Footnote 101: Important city of South Afghanistan. In 1880 British
+troops in Kandahar were besieged, but Roberts made a great march from
+Kabul and relieved them.]
+
+[Footnote 102: City of North India, on the Ganges; the scene of two
+tragedies during the Indian Mutiny of 1857.]
+
+[Footnote 103: Native infantry soldiers of the Indian army. The native
+cavalry soldier is a "sowar."]
+
+[Footnote 104: On the right bank of the Jumna. It was created capital of
+India in place of Calcutta in 1911.]
+
+[Footnote 105: British general, of great physical strength and lofty,
+winning character. Born 1821, killed at Delhi 1857.]
+
+[Footnote 106: Capital of the Transvaal. Entered by Roberts on June 5,
+1900.]
+
+[Footnote 107: The Prince of Wales went to the front as a member of Sir
+John French's Staff in the middle of November 1914.]
+
+[Footnote 108: Ruler of Jodhpur, the largest state of Rajputana, India.
+He was born in 1844.]
+
+[Footnote 109: In his book _Forty-one Years in India_, Lord Roberts
+gives us a story showing the valour of this most famous of Indian
+soldiers. Roberts had wounded a boar, which attacked Pertab Singh, whose
+horse had fallen with him. The prince held the boar with his bare hands
+until Lord Roberts was able to come up and dispatch it. The boar's head
+was presented by the prince to Lord Roberts, and became one of his
+cherished possessions at his country house of Englemere, Ascot.]
+
+
+
+
+  CHAPTER XVII.
+
+  TALES FROM THE TRENCHES.
+
+
+The long struggle round Ypres was a series of combats in which
+everything depended on the courage and endurance of the rank and file
+and their regimental officers. Incidents abounded, and almost every man
+in the firing line had experiences worth relating. Before I give you
+some of these experiences, let me refer again to the extraordinary
+courage of the Germans in pressing on against our line to what, in many
+cases, must have been certain death. No doubt this was largely due to
+patriotism and to the iron discipline of the German army, but we have
+evidence that frequently the men were driven forward by the revolvers of
+their officers. "Eye-witness" gives us the following statement of a
+wounded German prisoner:--
+
+"On the 28th October my section received orders to go forward to the
+attack, and the officers warned us that if we gave way fire would be
+opened upon us from behind. This threat was carried into effect when the
+losses which we suffered compelled us to retire. Indeed, it was by a
+German bullet that I was wounded. Having fallen on the ground, I
+remained between the lines without food or care for two days, at the end
+of which time I dragged myself to a ruined house. During the whole of
+this time the German shells, which were short, were falling about my
+shelter. . . . Officers told us if we fell into the hands of the French
+we should be sent to the Foreign Legion,[110] and certainly massacred by
+Moroccans."
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+In the diary of a German soldier we find a very severe condemnation of
+his officers for their bad leadership. "Before noon," runs the diary,
+"we were sent out in a regular storm of bullets by order of the major.
+These gentlemen, the officers, send their men forward in the most
+ridiculous way. They themselves remain far behind safely under cover.
+Our leadership is really scandalous. Enormous losses on our side, partly
+from the fire of our own people, for our leaders neither know where the
+enemy lies nor where our own troops are, so that we are often fired on
+by our own men. It is a marvel to me that we have got on as far as we
+have done. Our captain fell, also all our section leaders and a large
+number of our men.
+
+"Moreover, no purpose was served by this advance, for we remained the
+rest of the day under cover, and could go neither forward nor back, nor
+even shoot. A trench which we had taken was not occupied by us, and the
+British naturally took it back at night. That was the sole result. Then
+when the enemy had again entrenched themselves, another attack was made,
+costing us many lives and fifty prisoners.
+
+"It is simply ridiculous this leadership. If only I had known before! My
+opinion of German officers has changed. An adjutant shouted to us from a
+trench far to the rear to cut down a hedge which was in front of us.
+Bullets were whistling round from in front and from behind. The
+gentleman himself, of course, remained behind. The 4th Company has now
+no leaders but a couple of non-commissioned officers. When will my turn
+come? I hope to goodness I shall get home again!
+
+"Still in the trenches. Shell and shrapnel burst without ceasing. In the
+evening a cup of rice and one-third of an apple per man. Let us hope
+peace will come soon. Such a war is really too awful. The English shoot
+like mad."
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+Now that I have shown you the Germans in an unfavourable light, let me
+tell you of an incident in which they appeared to advantage. Corporal J.
+Reardon of the 1st Grenadiers wrote home to his mother as follows: "The
+night our battalion got cut up the Germans shouted, 'Guards, fetch your
+wounded.' We did so, and they did not fire a shot. I think they were a
+crack regiment; anyhow they were jolly decent."
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+You have already heard something of the courage and devotion of our
+young artillery officers, who frequently went far in advance of the guns
+to direct the fire of their batteries. Here is another story[111] of
+similar heroism:--
+
+"Early in the day our gunners had found it impossible to locate certain
+German guns which were fast rendering our trenches untenable. The
+country was so flat that there was no possible point of vantage from
+which the gunners could 'observe,' except the steeple of a church. But
+the Germans knew that as well as we did, so the church was being
+vigorously shelled, and already no less than twelve lyddite shells had
+been pitched into it.
+
+"It was the duty of Lieutenant Davidson to 'observe,' so he calmly went
+to the church, climbed the already tottering tower, and, seated on the
+top, proceeded to telephone his information to the battery. In
+consequence, German battery after German battery was silenced; the
+infantry, which at one time was in danger of extermination, was saved;
+and the position, in spite of an attack in overwhelming force by the
+enemy, was successfully held. The church was reduced to a scrap-heap,
+but still Davidson sat tight on the remnants of his tower. For seven
+solid hours, expecting death every moment, he calmly scanned the country
+and telephoned his reports.
+
+"At dark his task was done, and he came down to rejoin his battery. As
+he left the ruins a fall of timber in one of the burning houses lit up
+everything with a sudden glare. There was the crack of a rifle--the
+German trenches were only a few hundred yards away--and a bullet passed
+through the back of his neck and out through the mouth. But without
+hurrying his pace he walked to his battery, gave them his final
+information, and then said, 'I think I'd better go and find the field
+ambulance, for the beggars have drilled a hole in me that needs
+plugging.' And he walked half a mile to the nearest 'collecting point.'
+
+"In the infantry of the 14th Brigade men can talk of nobody else but
+'Davidson of the Gunners.' They themselves face death every hour of the
+day and night; they themselves do unrecorded deeds of heroism worthy of
+the 'V.C.'; but with one voice they declare, 'Davidson is the real
+thing. If he doesn't get the V.C.--well, nobody deserves it.'"
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+In telling you stories from the battlefield I always try to include one
+or more which show you the zeal, skill, and devotion of those whose duty
+it is not to take but to save life. Here is the story of a French doctor
+who tended the wounded during the bombardment of Ypres.
+
+For four days, with the help of volunteer assistants, he cared for
+fifty-four German wounded, and the hospital had been frequently struck
+by shells, one of them intended to set it on fire. The supply of bread
+was failing, but the doctor and the nurses shared their portion with
+their patients. The doctor was urged to quit this dangerous post, but he
+said, "The mission of France is to elevate the Germans to our own level.
+So I shall remain here and continue to look after wounded Germans,
+showing them that a French doctor laughs at their shells, and only knows
+his duty." Unhappily this heroic man was killed by a shell on 13th or
+14th November. The surviving wounded, in the sole charge of two nuns,
+were then removed to a safer place.
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+Soldiers' letters to their friends at home are full of accounts of the
+fierce fighting about Ypres. Corporal G. Stuart of the Camerons, one of
+the regiments which was nearly wiped out, thus describes how he was made
+a prisoner by the Prussian Guard, and how he escaped:--
+
+"My regiment, or what was once a regiment, was holding a part of the
+trenches outside Ypres, and about half-past five in the morning the
+enemy's guns opened an awful fire on our trenches, and continued till
+about nine o'clock.
+
+"To make matters worse, there was a very heavy mist on, and we could
+hardly see a yard in front. About this time the mist cleared up, and
+there, about 200 yards in front, were the Germans--the famous Prussian
+Guards--advancing on us, a solid mass of men.
+
+[Illustration: How the Breton Marines held Dixmude. (See page 96.)]
+
+(_From the picture by Paul Thiriat. By permission of The Sphere._)]
+
+"We immediately opened fire on them; but, rapid as it was, it was
+impossible to stop them. They managed to get right through on our right.
+Then the next thing I saw was that I was properly surrounded, with no
+earthly chance of escape, so I was made a prisoner. Well, what do you
+think the Huns did? There would be about a dozen of us, I think, made
+to advance in front of them, to get shot at by our own people, who had
+retired to take up another position. Any man who made the least sign of
+resenting was immediately shot, and not yet being tired of life, I went,
+thinking I might have a possible chance of escape.
+
+"We advanced a few hundred yards, when they halted, and this time they
+made us put on their packs. Anyhow we had to advance again. This time we
+came under our own artillery fire, and I don't know yet how I was not
+blown to pieces. Really it makes my blood creep every time I think of
+it.
+
+"Well, we had to lie down, and I just turned to speak to a chum, when I
+got one right through the neck. I rolled up in a heap, but came to
+myself a few minutes after, and managed to make my way to a farmhouse,
+where I found the Germans were dressing their wounded.
+
+"I asked one of them to put my bandage on; but instead they made me go
+and look for 'Vater, vater.' I looked around for the 'vater,' but
+finding none, I went round to the other side of the house, and from here
+could see our guns just about 300 yards off. Now comes my chance. I had
+a good look round to see if everything was clear, so I dropped the jug I
+was to carry the 'vater' in, and 'hopped' it. Well, if the time was
+taken for that run, I bet a champion sprint winner would not have a
+look-in."
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+"I shall never forget the first night attack," writes Bombardier N.
+Tully of the R.F.A. "We had many guns in position--apparently more than
+the Kaiser's hordes bargained for. They came on out of their trenches
+shouting, 'Hoch! hoch! hoch!' but a few minutes afterwards they were
+screaming and cursing. Our shrapnel was mowing them down wholesale. . . .
+We gave them a bit of old England that night; the din of the guns and
+rifles was indescribable. We had a few spasmodic attacks the next few
+nights, but they gave me the impression that they were half-hearted and
+discouraged. I think it is the enemy who is fighting an uphill battle
+now. Our fellows are full of confidence in the final result.
+
+"I am awfully glad I am British. It does one good to see how cheerful
+our boys are, no matter how bad the weather; but, like me, I am sure
+they will long for the slaughter to cease, and to return to the best bit
+of land under the sun."
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+"It is the shell fire," wrote a correspondent, "which has made the
+Battle of Ypres a test of endurance such as no army has experienced
+before. Officers and men say that it has been ten times worse than on
+the Aisne. It has been persistent, and it has been deadly. Day and night
+there has been a succession of 'Oompahs,' 'Oompees,' 'Bowlers,' and
+'Pipsqueaks'--'Oompahs' being the big shells, 'Oompees' the smaller
+ones, 'Bowlers' the projectiles thrown by trench mortars,[112] and
+'Pipsqueaks' shrapnel. Atkins has a name for them all. The soil around
+Ypres is not a holding soil, but shifty and difficult to trench--unlike
+that on the Aisne--and constantly the trenches were being blown in by
+shells."
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+A private in the Honourable Artillery Corps tells an amusing story. "The
+first time we manned the front trenches," he says, "we had just got
+in--it was, of course, pitch dark--and we were peering cautiously about
+to see where we were. There were a few weird noises and strange lights,
+and I moved towards our corporal to ask him something, when suddenly a
+wild, unearthly wail went up apparently at my very feet. My blood ran
+cold, and I grasped him by the hand. 'What was that?' I cried. 'You're
+standing on a cat, I think,' he replied. And, indeed, I was! What it was
+doing there I don't know, but it remained with us off and on all day.
+
+"Later, when it was dark, there was a German attack on our left. We were
+ordered to man our trench, and then suddenly the order came along,
+'Sights at zero,[113] and fire low.' We waited, quivering with
+excitement, when all at once I saw something feeling its way cautiously
+over the trench in front of me. I sprang up to bayonet whatever came. It
+was not only a cat, but the same old cat! Twice it had pulled my leg in
+twenty-four hours."
+
+[Footnote 110: See Vol. II., p. 7.]
+
+[Footnote 111: From _With French in France and Flanders_, by an Army
+Chaplain.]
+
+[Footnote 112: The _Minenwerfer_, or trench-mortar used by the Germans,
+has a range of some 500 or 600 yards, and throws a bomb loaded with high
+explosives, weighing up to 200 lbs. It is fired at extreme elevation
+from the bottom of a pit in the trench.]
+
+[Footnote 113: No elevation.]
+
+
+
+
+  CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+  MORE TALES FROM THE TRENCHES.
+
+
+A private of the London Scottish thus describes his experiences during
+the fighting at Messines on Halloween[114] and the following day:--
+
+"We roused out at 4 a.m., and spent the morning wandering about from
+wood to wood, being followed by aeroplanes--beastly things. Finally, we
+entered a village, and a spy in a windmill gave them the range, and we
+had our first shells--horrible 'coal boxes,' and then shrapnel. We lost
+five men wounded there; then we went on, and finally extended to open
+order, and the battalion attacked up a valley, and we had to lie in a
+gutter about two feet deep along a road with poplars. There we stuck for
+two and a half hours, getting shelled all the time. It was dreadful. The
+big 'coal boxes' kept shaking the ground and covering us with dirt. I
+got a bit of shrapnel through my pack, and had my things spoilt, but
+wasn't touched.
+
+"Then we had to advance across a field about a quarter-mile under fire,
+and get into a deserted trench. There we stopped till dark, still being
+shelled, and hearing the regiment snapping away in the distance. At dusk
+we made another trench, and seven of us went into it. There we had a
+fine time--moonlight, and Germans only 200 yards off. We could spot them
+through the glasses, and made very good practice; some of them crept
+down a hedge to twenty yards, but we did them in. You could hear them
+all talking; and twice they came on in force, but we beat them off, and
+they left any amount on the ground.
+
+"Finally, at 12.45, they came on five or six deep, singing their
+national anthem, and walking quite slowly. Not liking German music, we
+gave them rapid fire; but they were too many. At last the cavalry had to
+hop it on both sides of us, and we ran like hares for our main trench;
+there we were thirty-two, and had the Germans in front, left, and rear
+five or six deep. There were thousands of them, all creeping up, and
+bullets everywhere. We all thought it was U P. I even took off my
+overcoat so as to be freer for the bayonet.
+
+"Then they lit a farm, and the black smoke from the wet thatch blew
+across our front. They were only fifty yards away, still creeping; so we
+dashed out to the right, and all got through except six. Then we got
+separated, and nine of us, including our lieutenant, had to wander
+round, with one shot through the back, looking for the regiment or
+British troops. We kept running into shell fire and rifle fire, but
+finally got to a village, and found some officers at 4.45, very tired;
+there we reported, and went to join a cavalry regiment about two miles
+off. We had only had one biscuit and jam since the previous breakfast,
+except some lozenges. Well, for breakfast we had to attack the same
+village we had been driven out of the day before. It was most
+exciting--shells and bullets everywhere.
+
+"Then we got mixed up with the Germans, and got the order to clear the
+houses with the bayonet. That was great sport; no shells, and only
+scrapping in a decent sort of way. We took four prisoners and scuppered
+the rest of them, about 200; then we were just examining the slain for
+pistols and other handy little souvenirs, when the shrapnel started
+again all among us. It was very hot, and we had to hop the twig behind a
+big bank; we were all laughing and joking. . . . One bullet turned my
+bonnet round on my head, and I sat down in the mud, and I got one
+through my kilt.
+
+"Finally, they came behind one of our trenches in kilts, and said,
+'Schotlant for effer and London Schottish;' but a volley put an end to
+that. At last the French arrived in force, and we had a stand easy, and
+were sent back for a rest. I am longing for another dig at them; it is
+the finest excitement going. One thing we have done--no more sneering at
+'Terriers' out here by the Tommies; they are all very proud of us now,
+and somehow we feel different now that we have been through the hoop."
+
+[Illustration: A Pleasant Scene in the Grand Place at Arras.
+
+(_From the picture by D. Macpherson. By permission of The Sphere._)
+
+A correspondent says: "In the early afternoon I saw in the huge Grand
+Place at Arras (one of the relics of the long occupation by the Spanish)
+the prettiest of scenes. A squadron of French dragoons had halted there,
+and the men had dismounted. The long row of horses had each a new
+master, for the dragoons had put children into the saddle, and each
+child had on its head a dragoon's casque."]
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+The following extract is from the diary of a subaltern in the London
+Scottish: "I have succeeded in getting hold of a motor 'bus to go for
+supplies. It is a London 'General.' There are dozens of them here, and
+it seems difficult to realize that we are so far away when we see the
+usual advertisements around us....
+
+"It is a funny thing, but a fact, that our fellows bear pain much better
+than the Germans. To-day I had a small bugler of a British battalion
+with a shocking shoulder wound, who sat there simply hanging on to
+himself, and not uttering a sound; while a tremendous German near by,
+with a bullet wound in his hand, sat nursing himself, weeping at
+frequent intervals, and making no end of a row."
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+In the defeat of the Prussian Guard on 11th November the Black Watch
+played a splendid part, and pursued the enemy for over a mile. A _Daily
+Chronicle_ correspondent says: "It was only when a batch of wounded and
+prisoners of the Prussian Guard arrived at ---- that our fellows
+actually realized the kind of men they have been fighting during the
+last few days. Huge fellows they are, all over six feet in height, one
+of them nearing seven--an exceptional giant, of course, but still not
+looking so very big among his fellows. When one realizes that this
+magnificent regiment has now been severely handled by our troops for the
+third time, and that they are looked upon as the flower of the German
+army, then one also realizes just what a magnificent performance our own
+men must have put up.
+
+"After submitting for over eight hours to a terrible shell fire of both
+lyddite and shrapnel, our men, as may well be imagined, were getting
+very tired, and it was next to impossible to send relief to our advanced
+trenches until after dusk. The Germans, anticipating the condition of
+things, and realizing that it was now or never, massed in force their
+Prussian Guards and some other forces, and drove our troops back through
+sheer weight of numbers.
+
+"Back they went, contesting stubbornly every trench as they vacated it.
+When within about sixty yards of where our artillery was hidden, our own
+men, acting under orders, suddenly split their line and dispersed on
+either side, leaving a huge gap--the break in the British line which
+the enemy had been trying to make for weeks. Into this break came the
+Prussian Guard, wildly shouting and cheering--into the jaws of death
+came the finest of the Kaiser's troops. They had advanced within fifty
+yards of the muzzles of our field guns when they belched forth fire at
+point-blank range, while our Maxims fired into the 'brown' from either
+side. Imagine those shells tearing their whistling and shrieking way
+through masses of men who a moment before were shouting in gleeful
+confidence of victory already won.
+
+"Not even the Prussian Guard could stand up to a terror like this. They
+broke and wavered and fled! But they had penetrated to within a few
+yards of our artillery. They turned back in headlong flight--a flight
+which was aided by a savage charge made by the Black Watch. The whole
+thing was beautifully timed by both artillery and infantry alike. Not
+only were the Germans driven back over the trenches, which but a short
+time ago they had taken from our men, but they were pursued by the
+Highlanders for over a mile beyond. The net result was that the enemy
+lost over 1,000 men killed and some 3,000 men wounded, as well as their
+own advanced trenches."
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+The following soldiers were awarded the Victoria Cross for deeds of
+valour done during the period from 31st October to 30th November 1914:--
+
+Sepoy Khudadad, 129th Duke of Connaught's Own Baluchis. Sepoy Khudadad
+had the signal honour of being the first Indian to win and wear the
+Victoria Cross, which, prior to this war, was only conferred on
+British-born soldiers. On 31st October, at Hollebeke, Sepoy Khudadad
+showed extraordinary courage and steadfastness. Though the white officer
+in charge of his detachment had been shot down and the other Maxim in
+the trench had been put out of action, Khudadad remained working his gun
+until all his five comrades had been killed, and he himself was badly
+wounded. The King in person pinned the decoration on the gallant Sepoy's
+breast during his visit to the front on December 3, 1914.
+
+[Illustration: How Drummer Bent saved a Wounded Comrade.
+
+(_From the picture by S. Begg. By permission of The Illustrated London
+News._)]
+
+Drummer Spencer John Bent, 1st Battalion, East Lancashire Regiment. On
+the night of the 1st-2nd November, near Le Gheir,[115] the officer,
+sergeant, and section commander of this hero's platoon were struck down,
+and the unit was without a leader. Drummer Bent at once took command,
+and with great presence of mind and coolness succeeded in holding the
+position. He had previously distinguished himself on the 22nd, and again
+on the 24th October, by bringing up ammunition under a heavy shell and
+rifle fire. Again, on the 3rd November, he went out and brought into
+cover several wounded men who were lying exposed in the open. He rescued
+one of his comrades by hooking his feet under the wounded man's arms and
+by dragging him in this manner for twenty-five yards to the shelter of a
+trench.
+
+Captain John Franks Vallentin, 1st South Staffordshire Regiment. On 7th
+November, at Zillebeke, Captain Vallentin very gallantly led an attack
+against the Germans, but while doing so was struck down. He struggled to
+his feet, and tried to press on, but was immediately killed. His men
+carried the trenches, and this was due in great measure to the
+confidence with which their captain's repeated acts of bravery and
+ability had inspired them.
+
+Lieutenant Walter Lorrain Brodie, 2nd Battalion, the Highland Light
+Infantry. On the night of 11th November Lieutenant Brodie, who was in
+charge of a machine-gun section, moved up to the trenches near
+Becelaere[116] to relieve a unit of another regiment. When darkness
+fell, and the men on guard had been posted, the remainder prepared to
+take what rest they could. Lieutenant Brodie and several men were
+occupying a section of the trench which formed an angle with the other
+sections. All was quiet, when the alarm was given, and the enemy swooped
+down on the trench and managed to capture a part of it. They then made a
+rush towards the section in which Lieutenant Brodie was stationed, in
+the hope of capturing his machine gun. At once the lieutenant led his
+men against the Germans, and there was a furious fight in the trench,
+during which he bayoneted several of the enemy. So gallantly did his men
+second his efforts that eighty Germans were killed and fifty-one taken
+prisoners. There is no doubt that Lieutenant Brodie, by his prompt and
+inspiring courage, relieved a very dangerous situation. Subsequently he
+was promoted captain.
+
+Lieutenant John Henry Stephen Dimmer, 2nd Battalion, the King's Royal
+Rifle Corps. As a boy Lieutenant Dimmer won a London County Council
+Scholarship, and was transferred to Rutlish School. Always fond of
+soldiering, he started a Boys' Brigade at Wimbledon, and brought it to a
+high state of efficiency. At fifteen he left school, and entered the
+office of a civil engineer; but the drums called him, and he offered
+himself as a recruit for the regular army. His inches were, however,
+against him; so he joined the 7th Battalion of the King's Royal Rifles
+(Militia). In his first year he was promoted sergeant, and soon after
+was transferred as a private to the regular battalion, which saw service
+in South Africa. In 1903 he was promoted corporal, and his military
+sketching received high praise from General Lyttelton and General Ian
+Hamilton.[117] In 1905 he received another step for his services as
+scout and signaller in the Mounted Infantry, and in the following year
+was sent to Belgium and Germany to study army methods. Later on he was
+employed abroad as an intelligence officer, and in 1908 received a
+commission as second lieutenant.
+
+[Illustration: Major J. H. S. Dimmer, V.C.]
+
+In a letter to his mother Lieutenant Dimmer wrote a brief account of how
+he won the V.C. on November 12, 1914, at Klein Zillebeke. He says: "Here
+is how it all happened. On Thursday last, at about one o'clock, we were
+suddenly attacked by the Prussian Guards. They shelled us unmercifully,
+and poured in a perfect hail of bullets at a range of about 100 yards. I
+got my Maxims going, but they smashed one up almost immediately, and
+then turned all their attention to the gun I was with, and succeeded in
+smashing that too; but before they completed the job I had been twice
+wounded, and was finally knocked out with the gun. My face is spattered
+with pieces of my gun and pieces of shell, and I have a bullet in my
+face and four small holes in my right shoulder. It made rather a nasty
+mess of me at first, but now that I am washed and my wounds dressed I
+look quite right."
+
+Lieutenant Dimmer's commanding officer declared that by holding on to
+his gun after he had been shot five times, he saved the whole battalion,
+if not the whole line, on at least three occasions.
+
+I have told you Lieutenant Dimmer's story thus fully because it shows
+very clearly how a man of grit and ability and devotion can win his way
+by sheer merit in the British army. In the German army, as you know,
+only men of a certain social class are appointed as officers. Major
+Dimmer (to which rank he was subsequently promoted) is only one of
+thousands who have risen from the ranks to distinction in the service of
+Britain. The story of his career and of how he won the highest award of
+valour sets a fine example to all young soldiers.
+
+Bandsman Thomas Edward Rendle, 1st Battalion, the Duke of Cornwall's
+Light Infantry. In time of war bandsmen serve as stretcher-bearers, and
+their duty is to convey the wounded from the field of battle to the
+dressing stations and ambulances. How Bandsman Rendle won the Victoria
+Cross on 20th November, at a village about a mile and a half west of
+Messines, is best told in the words of an officer of the Cornwalls:--
+
+"Two shells pitched into the trench only about thirty yards from me, and
+blew ten men to pieces. They also blew down the front part of the
+trench, and the earth filled up the dug-out part. This was very
+annoying, as it divided our trench into two parts, and made it
+impossible to get from one half to the other without running across this
+open piece of ground, about five or six yards wide. Of course, the
+Germans realized this at once, and put up a machine gun to cover this
+space, so that any one who crossed it carried his life very much in his
+hands.
+
+"Lieutenant Colebrook was shot that afternoon, in that part of the
+trench which had no communications. He asked for me, so I went along to
+him. This meant that I had to cross the gap, but luckily they failed to
+hit me. We decided it was quite impossible to move him until dark, as
+there was no way of getting him across the gap; so I sat down to chat
+with him, when suddenly the Germans started again with their shells.
+
+"The first two went over the trench, but the next one pitched just in
+front and buried me with mud. This I thought was a bit too much, so I
+said that Colebrook must be got away. I was called away to the other end
+of the trench for a few minutes. In the meantime Bandsman Rendle, one of
+the stretcher-bearers, lay on his stomach in the gap under fire, and
+tried to clear the earth out of the original trench to get a safe path
+for Lieutenant Colebrook to pass. But another shell came that decided
+him to risk it. So he took Colebrooke on his back, and wormed his way
+across the open space on his stomach, getting him to the right half of
+the trench, where it was all plain sailing, and from which Colebrook was
+sent back to battalion headquarters."
+
+Naik[118] Darwan Sing Negí, 1st Battalion, 39th Garhwal Rifles. Less
+than a month after Sepoy Khudadad won the Victoria Cross, another Indian
+soldier proved himself so supremely brave that the highest award of
+valour was given to him. On the night of the 23rd-24th November, near
+Festubert, the Garhwal Rifles were engaged in retaking trenches and
+clearing the enemy out of them. Naik Darwan Sing Negí greatly
+distinguished himself in this work. He was one of the first to push
+round each successive traverse, and though wounded in two places in the
+head and also in the arm, he fought on in spite of severe fire from
+bombs and rifles at the closest range. Great was the naik's delight when
+his Majesty himself pinned the cross to his breast.
+
+Lieutenant Frank Alexander de Pass, 34th Prince Albert Victor's Own
+Poona Horse. Near Festubert, on 24th November, Lieutenant de Pass
+entered a German sap[119] and destroyed a traverse in the face of the
+enemy's bombs. Subsequently he rescued under heavy fire a wounded man
+who was lying exposed in the open. Unhappily this gallant officer lost
+his life on the same day in a second attempt to capture the sap, which
+had been reoccupied by the enemy.
+
+[Footnote 114: The eve before All Saints' Day (1st November).]
+
+[Footnote 115: About two miles south of Messines.]
+
+[Footnote 116: About a mile north-east of Gheluvelt.]
+
+[Footnote 117: Appointed commander of the British forces in Gallipoli in
+March 1915.]
+
+[Footnote 118: Corporal in the Indian army.]
+
+[Footnote 119: A narrow ditch or trench burrowed out towards the enemy's
+lines.]
+
+[Illustration: The German Colonies are marked in solid black.]
+
+
+
+
+  CHAPTER XIX.
+
+  GERMANY'S COLONIAL EMPIRE.
+
+
+About the year 1880 the rulers of Germany began to think of founding a
+colonial empire. There were many reasons why it seemed to them advisable
+that they should extend their dominion overseas. Germany had become a
+great manufacturing nation, and she needed new markets in which to sell
+her surplus goods, and tropical lands which would give her large and
+cheap supplies of the raw material for making them. Further, many of her
+people, anxious to better themselves, were emigrating to America,[120]
+where they were lost to Germany. It was thought that, had she possessed
+colonies, Germans would have settled in them instead of going to
+America, and thus would not have reduced the strength of the Fatherland.
+Many patriotic Germans wished to see their country a great naval power,
+and they knew that colonies could neither be obtained nor maintained
+without a big navy. They, therefore, were in favour of colonial
+expansion, because it would force Germany to become powerful on the
+seas.
+
+About this time the attention of the world was specially directed to
+Africa. The travels of Livingstone[121] and Stanley[122] and other
+explorers, British, French, German, and Italian, were revealing the
+"Dark Continent" as a new sphere for the expansion of the European
+Powers. Almost immediately they began to "peg out their claims." A
+number of clever writers in Germany began to point out to their
+fellow-countrymen that unless they set up a colonial empire they would
+be left behind in the race. Before long they had persuaded the people
+that overseas trade, ships of war, and colonies were the three things
+that Germany must provide herself with, or be content to continue as a
+second-rate Power. Most of the writers thought that colonies could be
+obtained in a lawful way, but a historian[123] who had great influence
+on the ruling classes taught openly that the best method of winning a
+colonial empire was to defeat and despoil Britain. This teaching suited
+the German mind exactly, and gradually it gained such ground that it
+became almost a national policy.
+
+In 1886 what is known as the "great scramble for Africa" began, and
+Germany played her part in it. In Eastern Africa her explorers had made
+many important discoveries, and as far back as 1860 one of them said, "I
+am persuaded that in a short time a colony established in East Africa
+would be most successful, and after two or three years would become
+self-supporting." Not, however, until 1884 was an attempt made to set up
+a German colony in this part of the world. In that year three German
+political agents, in the disguise of needy travellers, crossed over from
+Zanzibar to the mainland, and began making treaties by which the local
+chiefs signed away their country.
+
+Some of these treaties were not worth the paper they were written on,
+for the chiefs were vassals of the Sultan of Zanzibar, who was under
+British protection. Nevertheless, a German fleet was sent to Zanzibar,
+and the Sultan was forced, at a price of £200,000, to yield up his
+territory on the mainland from Cape Delgado to a line drawn from the
+mouth of the Umbe River to the Victoria Nyanza. The British afterwards
+proclaimed a protectorate over the remainder of the Sultan's African
+dominions.
+
+At the beginning of the present war German East Africa covered an area
+of 364,000 square miles--that is, it was almost double the size of
+Germany, and had an estimated population of over 7½ millions, the whites
+numbering a little over 5,000. From the low-lying coast lands it rises
+to lofty and irregular mountains, which form the outer buttress of a
+plateau some 3,000 or 4,000 feet in height. From the middle of this
+plateau streams are thrown off north to the Victoria Nyanza,[124] west
+to Lake Tanganyika,[125] and east to the Indian Ocean. Parts of this
+plateau are mere desert, waterless and scrub-covered, with loose
+shingle, dried-up water-courses, and bare, fantastic rocks. Other parts
+are well watered and fertile, and in these favourable regions the
+Germans have developed agriculture greatly. Prior to the war, rubber,
+copal, bark, fibre, teak, mahogany, coffee, tobacco, sugar cane, cotton,
+etc., were largely grown and exported; gold, coal, graphite, iron, salt,
+and precious stones were mined; and ivory was obtained from the
+elephants, which still roam the forests in large numbers. When the war
+began, German East Africa was making good and steady progress.
+
+The Germans did not win the colony without considerable fighting with
+the natives, and one of the risings which took place in 1904 cost East
+Africa the lives of about 120,000 men, women, and children. The Germans
+have no genius for dealing with natives; their brutal, blustering
+methods are certain to provoke strife wherever they obtain a foothold.
+They have, however, a genius for organizing, and this is seen in the
+towns which they have built, and the eight fairly good harbours which
+they have constructed on the coast. The name of the capital,
+Dar-es-Salaam, means "the harbour of peace;" it is a good port and a
+delightful place. German East Africa suffered a great shock when the
+Uganda railway was built by the British and the trade of the lake region
+was thus captured. The Germans replied by building two lines which gave
+the quickest access to British Central Africa and to the Southern Congo.
+
+[Illustration: British Native Troops preparing to embark at Freetown,
+Sierra Leone, for the Kamerun.
+
+(_Photo Central News._)]
+
+The most valuable colonies of Germany, however, were established in West
+Africa. Third in order of size, but first in commercial value, is the
+colony of Kamerun,[126] which forms a rough wedge between British
+Nigeria and French Congo, with its point at Lake Chad. The colony of
+Kamerun has an area of 190,000 square miles, and an estimated population
+of 3½ millions, whites numbering less than 2,000.
+
+The country was going a-begging when the Germans in 1884 sent an
+expedition which took it over. When the British agent arrived five days
+later he found the chiefs bound to the German Empire. He, however,
+declined to agree to this arrangement, and came to terms with the tribes
+on the British frontier; but the Home Government would not support him,
+and thus the Germans were allowed to become masters of Kamerun. Many of
+the natives refused to be taken under the wing of the German eagle, and
+were only persuaded to acknowledge their new masters by means of rifles
+and big guns. After thirty years the proud Fula[127] tribes in the
+hinterland still remained unreconciled to German rule.
+
+Kamerun is a rich and largely unexplored territory, very similar in
+character to the southern part of our colony of Nigeria. The Germans
+have spent much time and money in developing the country, and have built
+excellent towns, good roads, and some railways. Along the coast and in
+the deep, long valleys between the mountains the oil palm abounds; and
+in the forests, which are full of elephants, there is a wealth of ebony
+and other valuable timber. There are great mineral resources, too, but
+they have not so far been largely worked. Kamerun was very rapidly
+advancing when the war broke out, because the traders were backed from
+the Fatherland, and the officials were ready and eager to do everything
+that would advance its interests. It must be confessed that in the work
+of colonial development the Germans showed an energy and resource which
+put Britain in the shade.
+
+In 1883 the only unclaimed strip of West African territory between the
+Gambia and Nigeria was Togoland, which lies between British Ashanti and
+French Dahomey, and is in all respects similar in character to these
+countries. The coast line is but thirty-three miles in length, and the
+Germans having secured it, laid claim to a huge expanse of
+hinterland--an area of 33,000 square miles. Britain and France, after
+much discussion, allowed the claim, and thus Germany became possessed of
+Togoland, her smallest but by no means her least valuable colony. She
+has spent much money on roads and railways, and in building the fine
+town of Lomé, one of the best in all West Africa. For the last twenty
+years Togoland has been self-supporting. When the war began Togoland
+possessed one of the greatest of all German wireless stations at
+Kamina.[128] It could communicate direct with Berlin, and was one of an
+important chain which linked up the Fatherland not only with Togoland
+but with Kamerun, East Africa, and South-West Africa.
+
+[Footnote 120: In the nineteenth century more than 3½ million Germans
+emigrated to America and became citizens of the United States.]
+
+[Footnote 121: The great missionary explorer, discoverer of the Zambesi,
+the upper course of the Congo, Lake Nyassa and other Central African
+lakes; also founder of Nyassaland. Born 1813; died 1873, at a village
+south of Lake Bangweolo. He was buried in Westminster Abbey.]
+
+[Footnote 122: Sir Henry Morton Stanley, who did for the Congo what
+Livingstone did for the Zambesi, and further verified and added to the
+great discoveries already made. He made what has been called "the
+greatest journey in African exploration." He laid the foundations of the
+Congo Free State. Born 1841, died 1904.]
+
+[Footnote 123: Treitschke (_trysh´ke_), German historian and bitter
+enemy of Britain. Born 1834, died 1896.]
+
+[Footnote 124: Great lake of equatorial Africa, 26,000 square miles in
+area, discovered by Captain Speke in 1858, and circumnavigated by
+Stanley in 1875 and 1889.]
+
+[Footnote 125: Lake lying south-west of Victoria Nyanza, 13,000 square
+miles in area. Its only outlet is to the Congo.]
+
+[Footnote 126: Spelt in many British maps, Cameroons.]
+
+[Footnote 127: Fulas or Fulahs, the ruling native race in Nigeria,
+French Sudan, Kamerun, etc.]
+
+[Footnote 128: Near Atakpame, at the head of the railway which runs
+north from Lomé for a hundred miles.]
+
+
+
+
+  CHAPTER XX.
+
+  GERMANY'S VANISHING COLONIES.
+
+
+We now turn to German South-West Africa, which has an area of 322,450
+square miles and a native population of about 80,000. The whites number
+nearly 15,000, of whom 12,000 are Germans. In 1884 Great Britain seized
+Walfish Bay, the only good harbour, and also some of the guano islands
+off the coast. Further, Cecil John Rhodes,[129] who had constantly urged
+the British Government to take over the territory, had obtained mining
+rights from the local chiefs.
+
+Less than fifty years ago German missionaries, in the territory then
+known as Damaraland, appealed to the British Government to annex the
+country. The appeal was rejected. In 1883 a Bremen merchant, F. A. E.
+Lüderitz, whose name has been given to the settlement at Lüderitz Bay,
+set up a trading station under the sanction and approval of Bismarck. On
+the strength of Lüderitz's trifling commercial claims Germany annexed
+the country. It is said that when Rhodes heard the news he threw the
+papers signed by the local chiefs into a safe and slammed the iron door,
+with the remark, "Let them lie there until the country is British." The
+extent of Germany's trading interest in her new possession may be
+gathered from the fact that the little steamer employed by Lüderitz was
+known as "The Bottle Mail," because she imported full bottles of beer
+for the German trader, and carried back the "empties" as exports!
+
+Germany rejoiced in her new possession, but she had hard work to occupy
+it. For five or six years the Hottentots fought hard for their
+independence, and until they were put down there was scarcely any
+attempt at settlement. In October 1904 the brutal methods of the
+officials led to a great rising of the Hereros, the bravest of the
+native peoples. During this revolt the Germans did many of those deeds
+of shame and horror which afterwards covered their name with infamy in
+Belgium. It took 19,000 Germans to put down the Hereros, and they were
+not completely subdued until 1908.
+
+[Illustration: German Camel Corps in German South-West Africa.
+
+_Photo, Underwood & Underwood._]
+
+German South-West Africa is not an inviting land. Much of it is
+waterless desert, but there are large areas of splendid grass land very
+suitable for grazing, and upon them the Herero raise huge herds of
+cattle. Sheep thrive well, and so do goats. Many Boers from Cape Colony
+have settled in the country, and their flocks and herds have prospered
+greatly. It was these Boers from Cape Colony who "made" German
+South-West Africa.
+
+The Germans have done much to foster agriculture, and have opened up the
+country by good roads, and by railways which in 1913 had a total length
+of 1,304 miles. They have also bored largely for water. Despite all
+their efforts, however, the colony did not pay its way until 1912, when
+diamonds were discovered in the Lüderitz Bay district. Copper was also
+found and mined, and before the war some 27,500 tons of this metal were
+exported annually.
+
+When the great struggle began in Europe, the German Empire overseas
+covered an estimated area of over 1,000,000 square miles, of which
+nearly 90 per cent. was in Africa, and by far the bulk of the remainder
+in certain islands of the Pacific Ocean. Of the fourteen islands
+comprising the Samoan group, which lies 1,600 miles to the north of New
+Zealand, Germany held eight of the best, and America the remainder. To
+most people the mention of Samoa recalls Robert Louis Stevenson,[130]
+the sweet singer and stirring romancer who spent the last years of his
+life at Vailima, in a deep cleft of the mountains near Apia, in the
+fertile island of Upolu, the largest island of the Samoan group. Here he
+wrote several of his books, and worked hard at clearing the rank
+tropical jungle and at making roads. He died in his island home Dec. 3,
+1894, and was buried on the summit of a mountain. Thanks to his
+descriptions,[131] the Samoans and their beautiful sunny islands are
+familiar to the readers of English books all the world over.
+
+Apia, near to which Stevenson lived, was the capital of the German
+islands; it has an excellent harbour. On March 19, 1889, when the
+harbour was full of shipping, including German and American men-of-war
+and H.M.S. _Calliope_, one of the disastrous hurricanes which
+occasionally sweep over the islands of the Southern Seas began to blow.
+The only possible way in which these ships could escape wreck was to put
+to sea and there ride out the storm. All the ships tried to leave the
+harbour, but the only one that was able to make headway against the
+fearful wind and sea was the _Calliope_. All the other ships were
+wrecked, and many lives were lost. When King George V., then Prince of
+Wales, visited Wellington, the seat of the New Zealand Government, he
+passed under an arch of coal with this inscription: "The coal that saved
+the _Calliope_."
+
+The German Samoan islands were acquired in 1899. The two largest of them
+have a united area of 1,000 square miles; the total population of the
+islands is about 35,000, and the annual trade was reckoned at £120,000.
+Amongst other Pacific possessions of Germany when the war began were the
+southern islands of the Solomon group, an archipelago of high wooded
+mountains, lying to the east of New Guinea. The Bismarck Archipelago, to
+the west of them, the coral reefs of the Carolines, Pelew, and Marianne
+(or Ladrone) Islands,[132] and the Marshall Islands still farther north,
+were also in German hands. On Neu-Pommern, one of the Bismarck group,
+there was a powerful wireless station.
+
+By far the largest island possession of Germany was a portion of New
+Guinea. This huge, lizard-shaped island--the second largest island in
+the world--lies about eighty miles north of Australia, and stands like a
+stepping-stone between that continent and Asia. The Dutch held the
+western half, and the remainder was divided between Germany and Britain,
+the south-east part being ours and the remainder German. The German
+portion was known as Kaiser Wilhelm Land, and had an area of 70,000
+square miles. Most of it is unexplored, but there is no doubt that it is
+exceedingly rich in wild tropical products, and that it possesses great
+mineral wealth. The Germans have not made much headway in Kaiser Wilhelm
+Land or in the "Spice Islands," already mentioned; but they spent much
+money in developing the country and in fostering trade.
+
+The Australians have long feared that the possession of part of New
+Guinea by an unfriendly Power would be a danger to them, as it would
+afford an enemy a base for operations against the island-continent. The
+Queensland Government tried to get a footing in New Guinea about thirty
+years ago, but the British Government would not then lend its support. A
+few years later the home authorities were brought to see the necessity
+of occupying that part of New Guinea which faced Australia, and in 1887
+it was added to the British Empire. It is now governed by the Australian
+Commonwealth.
+
+Germany had only one other possession besides those which I have
+mentioned. This was Kiao-chau, on the east coast of the Chinese province
+of Shan-tung. Germany obtained it by force and fraud, as you shall hear.
+In the autumn of 1895 Japan emerged as victor from a war with China, and
+by the treaty of peace she was to hold certain parts of the Liao-tung
+peninsula. The Kaiser professed to fear the growing power of Japan, and
+he had a picture[133] painted to point a moral to the Powers of Europe.
+It showed the European nations confronted with what is called the
+"Yellow Peril," and called upon them to defend their holiest
+possessions.
+
+The German view of the Japanese has been put as follows: "It is for
+Europe to look continually eastward. There is a yellow cloud rising
+there which betokens a coming storm. Who are these Japanese who desire
+to control the teeming millions of China? The Japanese are
+highly-educated barbarians. They have fresh minds, and they are the most
+imitative beings on earth if one excepts the smaller species of monkeys;
+they are not a civilized people. You may put a clever savage into a
+European dress or into a European-built battleship, but he remains a
+savage. Races do not become civilized in twenty years. Europe cannot
+allow the Japanese to control the Chinese millions, for the Japanese
+are without a soul." Well might the Japanese retort that if the Germans
+represent civilization with a soul, it would be to the benefit of the
+world if mankind remained savage.
+
+[Illustration: Landing of British Forces on Tsing-tau Peninsula,
+September 23, 1914.
+
+_Photo, The Sphere._]
+
+Professing to stand forth as the champion of soulful civilization, the
+Kaiser persuaded France and Russia to join with him in robbing the
+Japanese of the fruits of their victory. He only needed an excuse to
+interfere, and an excuse is easily found if you set yourself to look for
+it. In the autumn of 1897 two persons, said to be German missionaries,
+were murdered somewhere in the heart of China. At once the Kaiser was
+filled with righteous indignation; he shook his "mailed fist," and
+sending his brother, Prince Henry, to China with a couple of old ships
+which broke down on the voyage, bade him "declare the gospel of your
+Majesty's hallowed person." With these ancient craft the Kaiser seized a
+piece of Chinese territory for himself, and demanded that it should be
+leased to him with sovereign rights for ninety-nine years. In this way
+he obtained Kiao-chau, his Asiatic "place in the sun."
+
+The protectorate of Kiao-chau has an area of about 200 square miles; it
+contains thirty-three townships and a native population of about
+192,000. The whites number about 4,500, the greater part of them being
+Germans. Before the war, Tsing-tau, the port, was a powerful fortress, a
+first-class naval station, and a great entrenched camp, strong both by
+land and sea, equipped with the latest type of forts, and defended by a
+strong garrison. Twenty millions of money had been spent on the harbour,
+fortress, and naval station. The colony was very dear to the heart of
+the Kaiser, and he spoke of it as "a model of German culture." From
+Kiao-chau German influence was to radiate throughout the Far East, until
+the yellow peoples stood in awe of the Kaiser's name.
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+The great struggle which I am describing in these pages has been well
+called "the World-wide War." Immediately the Kaiser flung down the gage
+of battle in Europe the Allies began to attack his colonial possessions
+in Africa, Asia, and the Southern Seas. The German fleet was bottled up
+in its ports; no German transport dared cross the ocean; no help could
+come to them from the Fatherland. The German forces in each possession
+had to fight their own battle with such resources as they then
+possessed. It was clear to everybody that without sea power Germany
+could not hope to hold any of her colonies very long; they were bound to
+fall, and fall rapidly.
+
+The Australian navy, assisted by our China squadron, put to sea
+immediately, and scoured the Pacific for German cruisers. A force of New
+Zealanders set sail from Wellington on 15th August, and, under the
+escort of H.M.S. _Australia_, H.M.S. _Melbourne_, and the French cruiser
+_Montcalm_, crossed the sixteen hundred miles of sea between them and
+Samoa. They reached Apia on the 28th, and the islands surrendered
+without a blow being struck. Before the war was a month old Robert Louis
+Stevenson's body was lying in British soil.
+
+The next attack was on Neu-Pommern, the chief island of the Bismarck
+Archipelago, where, you will remember, there was an important wireless
+station. On 11th September a British force arrived at Herbertshohe, the
+port at the northern end of the island. A party of sailors landed at
+dawn and pushed through the bush towards the wireless station. The roads
+had been mined, rifle pits had been dug, and snipers were hidden in the
+trees. The British fought their way for six miles, losing ten officers
+and four men; but when they reached the wireless station the whole enemy
+force surrendered. The German flag was hauled down, the Union Jack flew
+triumphantly in its stead, and thus the Bismarck Archipelago was lost to
+the Kaiser.
+
+Two days later our troops sailed for the Solomon Islands, which were
+captured without difficulty and without bloodshed. A force was then sent
+against Kaiser Wilhelm Land, where it was thought that the Germans would
+show fight. Again there was a bloodless victory, and the British flag
+was hoisted above the chief port, which was left in the possession of
+British troops. Early in November the Japanese occupied the Marshall
+Islands and some of the other northern groups.
+
+By this time the Pacific possessions of Germany had vanished, save for a
+few small and unimportant islands, and her wireless stations had been
+destroyed. These rapid successes were largely due to the Australian
+navy, which had worked with the highest speed and efficiency. H.M.S.
+_Melbourne_, for example, covered no less than 11,000 miles of sea in
+the first six weeks of the war.
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+Togoland was the first of Germany's African colonies to fall. Its
+geographical position made it easy of attack and very difficult to hold.
+You will remember that it had British and French territory on its
+flanks, and that its sea coast was open to bombardment by British ships.
+So situated, and held by military forces which did not number more than
+250 whites and 3,000 natives in all, it was certain to fall quickly and
+easily.
+
+Soon after the outbreak of war the cables connecting Togoland with
+Germany were cut by the British, so that only by means of wireless
+telegraphy could the colony communicate with the Fatherland. Native
+troops were rushed down from Kumasi[134] to the Gold Coast, and all
+Britons in Accra[135] were sworn in as volunteers. On 6th August a
+British advance guard pushed across the western frontier, and a few days
+later was followed by the main column, under Colonel Bryant. Meanwhile
+the French made a similar movement from Dahomey, on the eastern
+frontier. When the British advance guard reached Lomé, it found the town
+deserted, and the Germans retiring northwards along the railway line. On
+the arrival of the main column arrangements were made for an advance on
+Kamina, where the great wireless station had been established. There
+were two or three skirmishes on the way, but no engagement of any
+particular importance. On the river, south of Nuatja, the enemy was
+found to be strongly entrenched, and fighting continued from early
+morning until after dusk. During the night the enemy abandoned Nuatja,
+and at daybreak the British marched in. Our losses in this engagement,
+including those of the French troops from Dahomey, were very high.
+
+Two days later the advance was continued towards Kamina, near the
+Government station of Atakpame, at the railhead. Here the enemy had dug
+trenches, built blockhouses, laid in provisions, and made other
+preparations to stand a siege. During the advance our men spent two or
+three nights in the mud huts of filthy native villages. Several rivers,
+swollen into rushing torrents by the heavy rain, impeded the advance,
+for the Germans had blown up the road and railway bridges. Meanwhile the
+advance guard pushed forward, and as they did so the enemy sent two men
+with a flag of truce to Colonel Bryant, offering to surrender on certain
+terms and with the usual honours of war. Colonel Bryant told them that
+they were not in a position to ask for terms, and that they must
+surrender unconditionally. Next day (10th August) the enemy agreed to
+do so.
+
+A telegraphist with the Togoland Field Force thus describes the
+surrender: "I rode in with the Headquarters Staff, and, arriving at
+Kamina, found the Germans, all white men (their native troops having
+deserted), drawn up in front of the acting Governor's residence, with
+himself, a smart-looking man, at their head, and all their rifles,
+machine guns, ammunition, and other weapons of war piled in front of
+them.
+
+"We formed up on the other side in the shape of a triangle--the British
+troops on the right, French on the left, guns at the apex, and
+Headquarters Staff in the centre. Our adjutant, with the Union Jack in
+one hand and the French flag in the other, accompanied by a native
+soldier of each nation, planted the two flags in front of the massed
+troops, who all presented arms. We saluted, and in that brief
+half-minute, while we were at the 'present,' Togoland, which had been a
+German colony for over thirty years, passed into the hands of Britain
+and France. It was most impressive, and something I am not likely to
+forget. We took at this place alone 206 white German prisoners, three
+machine guns, hundreds of rifles, and thousands of rounds of ammunition.
+
+"The Germans had destroyed their powerful wireless station--a tremendous
+place, three miles long, with nine masts 250 to 410 feet high--two days
+before we arrived; otherwise I might have been able to get into
+communication with Whitehall direct, instead of sending the news of the
+surrender to the Secretary of State on a little field buzzer set, tapped
+in on the telegraph wire by the side of the road.
+
+"This town, Atakpame, is in the half of Togoland allotted to the French,
+so the British troops have left the place. It is now occupied by
+Senegalese (French native troops, and fine fighting men). . . . This is
+a magnificent country, and Atakpame is beautifully situated up in the
+hills. . . . This letter leaves by the last English mail out of
+Atakpame, which has been under three different flags in less than three
+weeks--German, British, and French.
+
+"Quick work, eh?"
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+By this time Kamerun, German South-West Africa, and German East Africa
+had been attacked. I will tell you how they resisted later on, when we
+come to the period at which they were finally conquered.
+
+[Footnote 129: Cecil John Rhodes (1853-1902), for nearly a quarter of a
+century the most powerful man in South Africa. Rhodesia was named after
+him.]
+
+[Footnote 130: Born 1850, died 1894. Scottish novelist and poet. All
+boys and girls should read his _Treasure Island_, _The Black Arrow_,
+_Kidnapped_, and _Catriona_. Many of his verses are in the earlier books
+of the _Highroads of Literature_.]
+
+[Footnote 131: See Stevenson's _A Footnote to History_.]
+
+[Footnote 132: With the exception of Guam, the largest, which belongs to
+the United States.]
+
+[Footnote 133: Reproduced in Vol. I., p. 142.]
+
+[Footnote 134: Capital of Ashanti.]
+
+[Footnote 135: Capital of the Gold Coast.]
+
+
+
+
+  CHAPTER XXI.
+
+  THE STORY OF THE "EMDEN."
+
+
+When the war broke out there was a German squadron of ships of war in
+Eastern waters, its base being Tsing-tau. Admiral von Spee, who
+commanded it, did not attempt to go to the rescue of the Pacific islands
+when the British attacked them, but departed with most of his ships for
+the west coast of South America. Two of his smaller cruisers--the
+_Königsberg_ and the _Emden_--were, however, detached to prey on British
+commerce in the East. You have read[136] how the _Königsberg_ caught
+H.M.S. _Pegasus_ unawares, in Zanzibar harbour, and disabled her. I
+shall tell you later how this vessel was finally destroyed. In this
+chapter we will learn something of the career of the _Emden_.
+
+A ship of war can do as much mischief amongst peaceful merchantmen as a
+cat among pigeons. Ordinary trading ships are entirely at the mercy of a
+fast cruiser armed with big guns. They have no means of resisting, and
+must surrender when called upon to do so. During the American Civil War
+a ship, afterwards known as the _Alabama_, was built at Birkenhead for
+the Southern States. By some mistake she was allowed to leave the Mersey
+and proceed to the Azores, where she was fully equipped as a vessel of
+war. In August 1862 she began to prey on the merchantmen of the Northern
+States, and by June 1864 she had captured and destroyed about
+sixty-eight of their ships. By hoisting the British flag she decoyed
+them within reach of her guns, and then they were obliged to yield. In
+the end the _Alabama_ was chased by a Northern ship of war to the
+English Channel, and a fight took place off the French shore near
+Cherbourg. In an hour the _Alabama_ was shattered, and her career was
+ended for ever.[137] Up to the time when the _Emden_ left Kiao-chau, in
+August 1914, the _Alabama_ was the most successful commerce-raider of
+history. The Emden, however, soon deposed her from that pride of place.
+In two short months she did more damage than the _Alabama_ did in two
+years.
+
+The _Emden_ was a light cruiser of 3,544 tons displacement, and she
+dated from 1908. She had a speed of 25 knots, and her armament consisted
+of ten 4.1-inch guns, four 2.1-inch guns, and four machine guns, as well
+as two torpedo tubes. Her captain, was Commander Karl von Müller, who
+has thus been described: "Picture a young man of about thirty, tall,
+clean-shaven, with closely-cropped hair and keen eyes, a
+neatly-proportioned figure, a man with the manners of a drawing-room,
+possessed of a keen sense of humour and an extensive knowledge of the
+sea and its affairs." As the story proceeds you will learn that
+Commander Müller was a man of quick, ready, and inventive mind, and that
+for two months he played a successful game of hide-and-seek with the
+many Allied ships of war that were bent on his destruction.
+
+The _Emden's_ adventures began almost before she was out of sight of
+Kiao-chau. She knew that Japanese men-of-war were near at hand, and that
+she was more than likely to fall in with one of them. Sure enough, a
+Japanese vessel was sighted; but it was not the three-funnelled _Emden_,
+under the black, white, and red flag of Germany that passed the enemy
+warship, but a vessel of four funnels flying the British white ensign.
+The Japanese were completely deceived, especially when the _Emden's_
+crew lined the rails and greeted them with three hearty British cheers.
+By means of this clever trick the _Emden_ gained the open sea
+unmolested.
+
+What she did up to 10th September we do not know. Just when the first
+Indian contingent was leaving for Marseilles she appeared in the Bay of
+Bengal and began her career of destruction. Inside four days she had
+seized and sunk five ships, and before seven weeks were over had
+destroyed seventeen vessels of 70,000 tons burden, and worth more than
+£2,000,000. Captain von Müller fell in with some of these ships; others
+it is said that he decoyed by sending out the S.O.S. signal[138] in
+defiance of the rules of war which Germany had signed at the Hague. His
+practice was to close in upon his victim very quickly, destroy its
+wireless apparatus before the alarm could be given, put the crew on
+board one of his prizes, take what coal and provisions he required, and
+then with a mine or a few shots send the captured vessel to the bottom.
+It is said that when he overhauled the _Kabinga_ he discovered that the
+captain's wife was on board, and released the ship. The captain's wife,
+on taking leave of him, hoped that he would soon be caught, but that his
+life would be spared. Commander Müller was generous to his prisoners,
+and in no case were they treated harshly.
+
+[Illustration: Captain von Müller.
+
+(_Photo, Record Press._)]
+
+On 22nd September the _Emden_ was off Madras, that great straggling
+seaport which fronts a strand on which the sea foams in unceasing
+billows. One of the _Emden's_ crew had worked in Madras, and he pointed
+out to the captain the position of the oil tanks at the entrance to the
+harbour. At 9.30 that night the _Emden_ crept in, turned her
+searchlights on the tanks, and fired two broadsides to find the range.
+Then the searchlights were turned off, and salvos were fired which set
+the tanks on fire. While great flames were shooting skyward and making
+the night as bright as day, the _Emden_ retired full speed northward.
+The shore batteries opened fire, but their shells fell short.
+
+[Illustration: The Emden, the famous German Commerce-raider.
+
+_Photo, Central News._]
+
+Next day the _Emden_ turned her nose north-east, to give the impression
+that she was sailing for Calcutta, but when out of sight of land turned
+southwards. Off Pondicherry[139] she paused, but perceiving that the
+town was defenceless, refrained from firing a gun. She then ran past the
+east coast of Ceylon to the island of Diego Garcia, in the Chagos
+Archipelago, a group of low coral islands between Mauritius and Ceylon.
+Diego Garcia was reached on 10th October. The few European families on
+the island had not yet heard of the war, as they are only visited by a
+steamer once in three months. The _Emden_ coaled at Diego Garcia, and
+took on board supplies of cocoa-nuts and fish.
+
+About the middle of October she lost her attendant collier, and with it
+her reserve of ammunition, coal, and food. By this time it was clear
+that her course was practically run, and that she had better do what
+mischief she could to the warships and war material of the enemy before
+meeting her doom.
+
+Early on the morning of 28th October the _Emden_ was ten miles outside
+Penang, in the Straits Settlements,[140] and the carpenters were set to
+work rigging up a dummy funnel, to make her look like a British cruiser.
+She then hoisted British colours and entered the harbour, in which
+several ships could be seen, with an unknown cruiser well in front of
+them. When the _Emden_ entered the harbour she discovered that this
+cruiser was the Russian ship _Jemtchug_. Mistaking the _Emden_ for a
+British man-of-war, the _Jemtchug_ did not attempt to prevent the German
+cruiser from getting between her and the land. The _Emden_ then let fly
+two torpedoes, the first of which struck the Russian cruiser just under
+the after funnel. The other torpedo, fired at closer range, struck her
+below the bridge, and caused a terrible explosion. Meanwhile the _Emden_
+was firing salvo after salvo at the _Jemtchug_, which made but a feeble
+reply; all of her shots missed, but some of them hit ships in the
+harbour behind.
+
+As the _Jemtchug_ sank the _Emden_ turned and left the harbour at full
+speed. Thirty miles out she fell in with the British steamer
+_Glenturret_, which had signalled to the shore for a pilot, who had just
+reached her in his launch. The _Emden_ had swung out her boats to take
+possession of the prize when a warship appeared on the horizon. The
+_Emden_ immediately recalled her boats and made off, as the warship
+appeared to be a large one. This, however, was only the effect of the
+early morning _mirage_.[141] At about 6,000 yards distance the newcomer
+was found to be the French destroyer _Mousquet_.
+
+The _Emden_ opened fire, and the _Mousquet_ replied, though, of course,
+the destroyer was quite outclassed by the cruiser. The first few shots
+from the _Emden_ hit the _Mousquet's_ engine-room, and apparently
+wrecked her. "Cease fire" was then ordered, to enable the French
+destroyer to surrender; but instead of doing so she showed fight once
+more. A few more shots from the _Emden_ were sufficient to sink her,
+bows first. About thirty-six of the crew were rescued. While this
+merciful work was going on, another destroyer was seen approaching from
+Penang; whereupon the _Emden_ steamed off at full speed for the Indian
+Ocean. The destroyer chased her for three hours; but a heavy rainstorm
+came on, and the _Emden_ escaped.
+
+There was a good deal of discontent in England when news arrived that
+the _Emden_ had sunk ship after ship, and had not been brought to
+account. The Admiralty explained that searching for the _Emden_ over
+vast expanses of ocean was no easy task, and that the many thousand
+islands of the East Indies afforded her plenty of hiding-places, and the
+straits between them numberless avenues of escape. To catch the raider
+was a matter of time, patience, and good luck. The Germans were highly
+delighted that their ship had proved such a will o' the wisp, and one of
+their papers contained a caricature showing the _Emden_ as a
+Jack-in-the-box that continually popped up to the annoyance of John
+Bull. It was inscribed, "_Emden_ über Alles," and underneath was the
+following rhyme:--
+
+  "When you think you have him tightly,
+   He springs forth again so lightly."
+
+We are soon to hear how, by a stroke of good luck the _Emden_ was caught
+tightly and destroyed.
+
+[Footnote 136: Vol. II., p. 170.]
+
+[Footnote 137: She left, however, a legacy of trouble. The United States
+said, with justice, that the British Government was responsible, for the
+ship ought never to have been built by a neutral Power nor permitted to
+leave a neutral harbour. In the end, Britain had to pay the United
+States three millions of money as damages.]
+
+[Footnote 138: The wireless signal sent out by ships in distress,
+calling for immediate help.]
+
+[Footnote 139: Chief French settlement in India, 90 miles
+south-south-west of Madras.]
+
+[Footnote 140: British Crown colony in and off the Malay Peninsula, in
+south-east Asia. In the Straits Settlements are included Singapore,
+Malacca, the Dindings, Penang, and Wellesley Province.]
+
+[Footnote 141: Caused by the rays of light being bent in their passage
+through layers of air of differing density, and therefore giving a
+delusive appearance to objects.]
+
+
+
+
+  CHAPTER XXII.
+
+  THE LAST OF THE "EMDEN," AND THE SEA FIGHT OFF CORONEL.
+
+
+If you look at a map of the Indian Ocean, you will see, some 700 miles
+south of Sumatra and 1,200 miles south-west of Singapore, a group of
+about twenty atolls,[142] known as the Cocos-Keeling Islands. They are
+covered with palm groves, and they export cocoa-nuts and copra. The
+"king" of the islands is Mr. Sydney Ross, a descendant of the Captain J.
+C. Ross who settled on them in 1825. It was to these remote islands that
+Captain von Müller brought the _Emden_ in the early days of November.
+His object was to destroy the important British wireless station
+established on Direction Island.
+
+On the morning of 9th November the operators in charge of the station
+saw a cruiser in the offing. At first they believed the vessel to be a
+British warship, but they were soon undeceived. Before a boat could be
+lowered and a landing-party sent ashore, the operators at the wireless
+station, with true British coolness, sent off distress signals, and
+warned the adjacent stations, by means of the three submarine cables
+which come ashore on the island, that the Germans were about to land.
+One launch and two cutters, containing three officers and forty men,
+arrived about 7.30; the wireless mast was blown up; the instruments were
+smashed, the storerooms and workshops were completely wrecked, and a
+dummy cable and one real cable were cut and a third damaged. The
+remaining cable was left uninjured, probably because the Germans did
+not know that it existed. In less than two hours the work of destruction
+was completed. Then suddenly loud and repeated siren calls were heard
+from the _Emden_. Before the boats could return she was off at top
+speed.
+
+She had been trapped at last. In the wireless room of H.M.S. _Sydney_,
+then engaged in escorting Australian transports, a message had been
+received: "Strange warship off entrance." In a moment Captain Glossop
+guessed that it was the raider that had so long eluded him. Immediately
+he worked up to twenty knots an hour, and with the "white bone" in his
+ship's teeth sped towards the island. At 9.15 the feathery tops of the
+cocoa-nut trees were sighted, and a few minutes later the _Emden_ was
+seen bearing down on the _Sydney_ at a great rate. Captain von Müller
+knew that the _Sydney's_ 6-inch guns could destroy his ship at a
+distance too great for his 4.7-inch guns to do much mischief. He
+therefore tried to close in with the _Sydney_, which endeavoured to keep
+sufficiently far off to obtain the advantage afforded by her bigger
+guns.
+
+Then began a running fight which lasted for an hour and forty minutes.
+At first the _Emden_'s fire was very rapid and accurate, but as the
+_Sydney's_ shells began to burst on her decks it slackened quickly. The
+foremost funnel of the _Emden_ was shot away, then the foremast, then
+the second funnel, and lastly the third funnel. She was now burning
+furiously, and her deck was strewn with dead and dying. A few minutes
+later and she was seen to be making for the beach on North Keeling
+Island, where she grounded at 11.20 a.m. Captain Glossop gave her two
+more broadsides, and then left her to pursue a merchant ship which had
+come up during the action.
+
+The merchantman was overhauled, and found to be a captured British
+collier in a sinking condition. As she was past repair she was sent to
+the bottom, and the _Sydney_, with the crew of the collier on board,
+returned to the _Emden_, now a dismal wreck amidst the surf foaming on
+the reef. Her colours, however, were still flying at the masthead. When
+called upon to haul them down her captain replied that he would never
+surrender. Very reluctantly, Captain Glossop again fired at the _Emden_.
+Five minutes later white flags fluttered aloft, and her ensign was
+hauled down.
+
+[Illustration: German Landing Party on the Cocos-Keeling Islands.
+
+_Photo, The Sphere_
+
+The yacht shown in the photograph is the _Ayesha_, in which the landing
+party escaped from the island.]
+
+About six o'clock that night the _Emden's_ landing-party seized and
+provisioned Mr. Ross's 70-ton schooner, the _Ayesha_, and made off. For
+months they were unheard of, though all sorts of rumours were current as
+to their fate. On March 1, 1915, it was reported that they had reached
+Damascus, and were on their way to Constantinople.
+
+Captain von Müller was captured unwounded, and amongst his officers was
+Franz Josef of Hohenzollern, a nephew of the Kaiser. As a tribute to the
+gallantry and humanity which Captain von Müller had exhibited, he was
+permitted to retain his sword. While the German soldiers were making
+their name a byword of loathing in Belgium, Captain von Müller had been
+behaving as a sailor and a gentleman; consequently he was regarded in
+Britain as something of a hero. He had fought staunchly, and although he
+had perhaps violated the laws of war on several occasions, his sins were
+forgiven him because he had been merciful to the defenceless and the
+captive.
+
+The _Emden_ lost some 250 killed and wounded, while the _Sydney_ had
+four killed and twelve wounded. Only about ten hits seem to have been
+made on the British vessel, and the damage done was surprisingly small.
+Australians were overjoyed to hear that a ship of their own navy had rid
+the seas of the famous raider. Their satisfaction was all the greater
+when they remembered that the victorious crew consisted largely of young
+and untried sailors.
+
+Let me tell you of a pleasing little incident that happened when the
+_Sydney_, with prisoners on board, returned to the transports which she
+and the _Melbourne_ were convoying. Captain Glossop had given orders
+that there was to be no cheering, as he had German wounded on board, and
+some of them might be dying. The _Sydney_ steamed past forty transports,
+whose decks and rigging were crowded with patriotic men; but not a cheer
+was raised, though all were deeply stirred by the good news. Two German
+officers asked Captain Glossop the reason of the silence. When he
+explained, they were much affected. One of them shook him by the hand
+and said, "You have been kind, but this crowns all. We cannot speak to
+thank you for it."
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+The news was received with great delight by our soldiers in Artois and
+West Flanders. At one place where the opposing trenches were close
+together the men cheered, and passed on the information with appropriate
+comments to the enemy, who replied with a vindictive volley. At
+Lloyd's[143] the old _Lutine_ bell[144] was rung, and when, amidst tense
+silence, the crier announced that the _Emden's_ career of destruction
+had ended, underwriters,[145] brokers, and clerks burst forth into
+excited cheering, which was repeated again and again. During the past
+two months the insurance companies had been heavily hit; freight for the
+East had been difficult to obtain, Indian tea had gone up twopence per
+pound, the jute trade had been paralysed, and tin and rubber had largely
+increased in price. All this was now over, and shipping in Eastern
+waters resumed its normal course.
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+Almost equally good news arrived the same day. The _Königsberg_, after
+her attack on the _Pegasus_ in Zanzibar harbour, had gone into hiding
+somewhere along the German East African coast. A diligent search was
+made for her by H.M.S. _Chatham_, and on 30th October she was discovered
+in shoal water about six miles up a river opposite Mafia island. The
+_Chatham_, owing to her greater draught, could not ascend the river; but
+she sank colliers in the only navigable channel, so that the German
+cruiser could not come out. She lay amidst dense palm groves, and was
+aground, except at high tide. Part of her crew had been landed and
+entrenched on the banks of the river. Both the entrenchments and the
+_Königsberg_ were shelled, but owing to the thick foliage shrouding the
+ship it was not possible to estimate what damage had been done.
+
+From the end of October 1914 until the beginning of July 1915 the
+_Königsberg_ lay in this position. She was most difficult to attack, as
+only shallow-draught ships could get sufficiently close to engage her.
+In May 1915 the Admiralty decided to send to German East Africa two of
+the monitors--the _Severn_ and the _Mersey_--which had done so much to
+foil the coast dash towards Calais. Aircraft accompanied the vessels,
+and discovered the exact whereabouts of the _Königsberg_. On 4th July
+the monitors entered the river and opened fire. The _Königsberg_
+replied, and fired salvos of five guns with great accuracy, twice
+hitting the _Mersey_, and causing some casualties.
+
+The aeroplanes found great difficulty in "spotting" the effects of the
+monitors' fire, because of the dense jungle. For six hours the monitors
+continued firing, and the _Königsberg_ was hit five times, though her
+masts were still standing. Then a salvo struck her, and she burst into
+flames. For a time she continued to fire with one gun, but during the
+last part of the engagement she made no reply, either because her
+ammunition had run out or because her guns were disabled. On 11th July
+another attack was made, and the _Königsberg_ was battered into
+shapeless ruin.
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+During November 19 a British squadron approached the harbour of
+Dar-es-Salaam,[146] in which three German vessels had taken refuge. The
+entrance had been blocked by a floating dock, and only vessels of light
+draught could pass the obstruction. On November 28 a British flotilla
+supported by a cruiser entered the harbour, and after a parley the
+governor of the town hoisted the white flag. Commander Henry Peel
+Ritchie, R.N., who was in charge of the operations, now boarded the
+German ships, but soon discovered that the surrender of the town was a
+trick to destroy him and his men. A heavy fire was opened on the boats
+from trenches on shore, and Commander Peel Ritchie had the greatest
+difficulty in getting them safely out of harbour. He himself was one of
+the first to be hit, but he continued at his post until his eighth
+wound, received twenty-five minutes later, rendered him unconscious. The
+cockswain of his pinnace, though hit twice, gallantly stuck to the wheel
+until the boat was out of gunfire. For his splendid courage, and for the
+inspiring example which he set to his men, Commander Ritchie was awarded
+the Victoria Cross. The cockswain, Leading Seaman Thomas Arthur
+Gallagher, received the Conspicuous Gallantry Medal.
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+We will now follow the fortunes of the German squadron under Admiral von
+Spee. You will remember that it left Kiao-chau early in August for the
+South American coast. Von Spee's squadron, which consisted of modern
+ships, comprised two armoured cruisers, the _Gneisenau_ and the
+_Scharnhorst_; and three light cruisers, the _Dresden_, _Leipzig_, and
+_Nürnberg_. The first two vessels had a speed of at least 23 knots, and
+were armed with eight 8.2-inch guns, six of 5.9-inch, and eighteen
+21-pounders. The _Dresden_ was a sister ship to the _Emden_, the
+_Nürnberg_ was slightly smaller, and the _Leipzig_ smaller still. The
+object of this squadron was to prey on British commerce in the Pacific.
+The _Emden_, as you know, was detailed for similar work in the Indian
+Ocean, and the _Karlsruhe_ in the South Atlantic.
+
+I have told at length of the short and merry life of the _Emden_. The
+_Karlsruhe_ was not so successful, but she destroyed no fewer than
+thirteen steamers in the course of a week or two. She was remarkable for
+the number of attendant vessels which accompanied her, some of them her
+own captures. These she employed as scouts to warn her of danger, and to
+give notice of vessels which might be seized. It is said that she had
+many hairbreadth escapes from British cruisers. Towards the end of
+November she disappeared, and though many rumours were afloat, nothing
+was certainly known of her whereabouts. In March 1915 it was reported
+that she had gone down off the West Indian island of Grenada.
+
+[Illustration: Destruction of the German Raider Emden by H.M.S. Sydney
+of the Australian Navy, November 9, 1914.]
+
+You can easily understand that without a regular supply of coal and
+provisions the German commerce-raiders could not long keep the seas.
+When a fighting ship in time of war puts into a neutral port, she may
+not receive more coal and provisions than will carry her to the nearest
+harbour of her own land, and she may not obtain any further supplies at
+that port for three months. Some of the South American states, however,
+were very slack in observing the rules of naval warfare, and two of
+them--Ecuador and Colombia--actually permitted German coaling and
+provisioning bases to be set up on their coasts, and allowed their
+wireless stations to be used for the purpose of ascertaining the
+movements of the British cruisers which were trying to catch the
+raiders. When Admiral von Spee sailed for the western coast of South
+America, he was going into waters where there were many harbours in
+which he could coal, and many friends who would see that he was well
+supplied. German merchants abound in Chile.
+
+On 14th September von Spee's squadron touched at Apia, and on the 22nd
+two of his cruisers arrived off Papeete, in Tahiti, one of the loveliest
+of the Pacific Islands. A small French gunboat was sunk, and the town
+was bombarded. Then his squadron of five warships with attendant
+colliers concentrated near Valparaiso, and he was ready, like a
+twentieth-century Drake, to prey ruthlessly upon the merchantmen that
+came round the Horn.
+
+Von Spee did not expect that he would go unmolested. He knew that
+Britain had a squadron which was even then cruising northwards along the
+coast of Chile, under the command of a renowned seaman, Sir Christopher
+Cradock. But this squadron was all too weak to meet him in fair fight.
+It consisted of two armoured cruisers, the _Good Hope_ and the
+_Monmouth_, the light cruiser _Glasgow_, and an armed liner, the
+_Otranto_, the latter being incapable of engaging a ship of war. None of
+the vessels was speedy, and none was heavily armed. The _Canopus_, a
+seventeen-year-old battleship, was on its way to meet him, but had not
+yet arrived. Von Spee could count on sixteen 8.2-inch guns, and to
+oppose them Cradock had but two 9.2-inch guns. When the _Canopus_ joined
+him his big-gun armament would be increased by four 12-inch guns, but
+even then the British squadron would be inferior in weight of broadside
+to the German squadron. Nor had the British any advantage of speed. The
+_Glasgow_ could do 26 knots an hour, but the _Monmouth_ could only do
+23. In big guns, speed, and armour the Germans were greatly superior.
+Cradock was hourly expecting reinforcements, but for some reason they
+were not forthcoming. One of his officers wrote as follows on 12th
+October: "We think the Admiralty have forgotten their trade-route
+squadron 10,000 miles from London town. Five German cruisers against us.
+Pray that we may prevent them concentrating."
+
+They had concentrated, as we know, and Cradock had now to decide whether
+he would give battle with his three cruisers or wait for the arrival of
+the _Canopus_. He was a dashing, fearless officer, and he took the risk.
+He sent off a wireless message to the _Canopus_: "I am going to attack
+the enemy now," and ordered speed to be increased to 17 knots. It is
+doubtful whether the _Canopus_ ever received the message, for the enemy
+was "jamming the wireless"--that is, was sending out bogus messages to
+interfere with the messages of the British flagship. At any rate, the
+_Canopus_ did not join Cradock, and he steamed without her towards the
+foe.
+
+The _Glasgow_ swept northward, and about four o'clock in the afternoon
+of 1st November sighted the enemy. She sent off wireless signals to the
+flagship, _Good Hope_, but they were jammed. The _Monmouth_ and
+_Otranto_ joined the _Glasgow_ soon after, and at five o'clock the _Good
+Hope_ came up. Both squadrons were now moving southwards, the Germans
+having the inshore course. At the head of the British line was the _Good
+Hope_, with the _Monmouth_, _Glasgow_, and _Otranto_ following, one
+behind the other. The German line was headed by the _Scharnhorst_, with
+the _Gneisenau_, _Dresden_, and _Nürnberg_ following.
+
+Try to imagine the scene. The sea was running high; there was a stiff
+wind blowing, and away in the west the sun was sinking in a flaming sky
+of crimson and gold. Against the bright sunset the British ships stood
+out sharp and clear, while the German vessels were shrouded by the
+gathering gloom and the dark background of the land. Behind them were
+the long ridges and lofty peaks of the Andes, their eternal snows
+glowing red in the light of the setting sun. Amidst the roar of sea and
+wind the two squadrons raced south in the teeth of the gale. The day was
+speeding fast to its close, and the German admiral, owing to the
+superior speed of his ships, was able to choose the range at which the
+battle was to be fought.
+
+The sun sank into the sea, and eight minutes later, at a range of about
+12,000 yards--roughly, seven miles--the leading German cruiser opened
+fire with her biggest guns. Shells shrieked over and short of the _Good
+Hope_ within a hundred yards of her, and the _Otranto_ began to edge
+away to the south-west. The _Good Hope_ and the _Monmouth_ replied as
+best they could to the _Scharnhorst_ and _Gneisenau_, but their fire was
+ineffective; the two 9.2-inch guns of the _Good Hope_ could not be
+brought into action, because they were mounted so near to the water's
+edge that the waves washed over them. Meanwhile the _Glasgow_ was
+exchanging shots with the light cruisers _Leipzig_ and _Dresden_. The
+shooting of the enemy was deadly, and in a few minutes all was over--the
+British ships were pounded to pieces by guns which quite outranged those
+which they carried. "It was as though a man standing at Charing Cross
+were attacked with deadly accuracy by a foe on Ealing Common, without
+any possibility of replying." Think of the horror and hopelessness of it
+all!
+
+Broadside after broadside of powerful guns crashed on the British
+cruisers. The third salvo set the _Good Hope_ and the _Monmouth_ on
+fire. The range had now narrowed down to 5,000 yards, and darkness was
+coming on apace. Many of the shells falling into the sea threw up huge
+geysers of white spray, which gleamed ghost-like in the twilight. The
+British could fire only at the flashes of the enemy's guns, and often
+even these slight indications were hidden from the gun-layers by the
+heavy head seas.
+
+The _Monmouth_ had been heavily hit, and was rapidly becoming
+unmanageable; the fore turret of the _Good Hope_ was burning fiercely,
+and she began to fall away out of line towards the enemy. Suddenly, at
+about a quarter to eight, there was a roar louder than that of the
+booming guns; the flames had reached the magazine of the _Good Hope_,
+and a terrific explosion took place. A column of fire shot up 200 feet,
+and the sea was strewn with _débris_. The _Good Hope_ never fired her
+guns again. Down she went headlong into the stormy deep, with gallant
+Sir Christopher Cradock and his crew of nearly 900 officers and men.
+
+[Illustration: The Good Hope going down with her last Guns firing.
+
+(_From the picture by Norman Wilkinson. By permission of the Illustrated
+London News._)]
+
+The _Monmouth_, too, was in dire distress. She was so badly damaged by
+the terrific cannonade that she could no longer fire. She was down by
+the head, and was obliged to turn away to get her stern to the sea. The
+little unarmoured _Glasgow_ was now left alone, and on her the
+_Scharnhorst_ and _Gneisenau_ concentrated their fire. Again and again
+she was hit, but fortunately not dangerously. The sea was now running
+higher than ever; rain and mist came on, though the moon was rising. The
+_Glasgow_ could render no aid to the _Monmouth_; she could not rescue
+her crew in the raging sea, and she could not contend with the
+heavily-armoured vessels of the enemy. There was nothing for it but to
+abandon the _Monmouth_ and seek safety in flight. If she stayed to the
+end she would be needlessly sacrificing herself and her crew; and the
+_Canopus_, now coming up from the south, could not be warned of the
+destruction that awaited her.
+
+So with a heavy heart Captain Luce swung his vessel to the north-west,
+and steamed off at full speed. As he did so the doomed men on the
+_Monmouth_ gave her a pealing cheer. Before the sinking vessel was lost
+to sight another and another cheer was heard. At twenty minutes past
+nine o'clock Captain Luce counted seventy-five flashes of fire stabbing
+the darkness. The _Nürnberg_ had come up, and was dealing the _Monmouth_
+its death-blows. It is said that the British ship in her final throes
+made a gallant attempt to ram the enemy. For a few seconds the watching
+men on the _Glasgow_ saw the play of her searchlight. It disappeared,
+and all was over; the _Monmouth_ had gone down with her flag flying.
+
+  "Toll for the brave--the brave that are no more."
+
+The sole survivor, the _Glasgow_, sped away at 24 knots an hour, and as
+she gained on her pursuers she bore round gradually to the south. Her
+wireless was working in the hope of picking up the _Canopus_; but the
+enemy again jammed her messages, and only after several hours did she
+get in touch with her sister ship. At length they fell in with each
+other, and steamed in company southward, threaded the wild,
+glacier-fringed Strait of Magellan, and in due time reached Stanley
+Harbour, in the wind-swept Falkland Isles.
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+This disastrous sea fight will go down to history as the Battle of
+Coronel, for the little Chilian port of Coronel was the nearest place to
+the stretch of wild waters in which the _Good Hope_ and the _Monmouth_
+went down. We shall never learn the full details of the action, for
+those who played the leading part in it on the British side are no more.
+The Germans have called their victory "the fairest sea fight of the
+war." No more misleading description can be imagined--even in Germany.
+The enemy had swifter, better armed, and more heavily armoured ships
+than we had, and his victory was due to superior speed and greater gun
+power.
+
+Captain Luce tells us that "nothing could have been more admirable than
+the conduct of the officers and men throughout. Though it was most
+trying to receive a great volume of fire without the chance of returning
+it adequately, all kept perfectly cool. There was no wild firing, and
+discipline was the same as at battle practice. . . . The serious reverse
+sustained has entirely failed to impair the spirit of officers and
+ship's company, and it is our unanimous wish to meet the enemy again as
+soon as possible." We need no assurance that on that dread November day
+our tars fought and died as Britons are wont to do.
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+The Falkland Islands lie some three hundred miles to the east of the
+Strait of Magellan. They were discovered by John Davis, the Arctic
+explorer, as far back as 1592, but were first settled by the French in
+1764. Seven years later they became British. The group consists of two
+large islands and of about one hundred islets, rocks, and sandbanks. The
+two large islands are East Falkland and West Falkland, and the only town
+of importance is Stanley, in the north-east of the former island.
+Berkeley Sound and Port William are the two most important sounds in
+East Falkland. Stanley Harbour, on which the capital stands, is a large,
+safe, and easily entered inlet of Port William.
+
+If New Zealand may be said to be the most English of all British
+possessions, the Falkland Islands are certainly the most Scottish. In
+appearance they resemble the Outer Hebrides, and a large part of the
+population is of Scottish descent. The winters are cold and misty, but
+not very severe. So violent are the winds that tennis and croquet can
+only be played on sheltered grounds, and unless walls are erected the
+cabbages in the gardens are blown clean out of the soil. There is only
+one real tree on the islands, and that stands in the governor's garden.
+Penguins are so numerous on the smaller islands and in the lagoons, that
+the governor is sometimes nicknamed King of the Penguin Islands. The
+total population is about 2,300, and the people are mainly occupied in
+sheep-farming and seafaring. The colony is prosperous, and Stanley,
+which has a wireless installation, is a refitting and coaling station
+for ships rounding Cape Horn.
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+When the _Canopus_ and the _Glasgow_ reached Port Stanley, and the
+defeat off Coronel became known, great was the alarm of the colonists.
+They felt sure that the victorious German squadron was about to swoop
+down on the islands. Their alarm was increased when the two British
+battleships were ordered by wireless to proceed to Rio de Janeiro,[147]
+where they were to be repaired.
+
+One morning the church and dockyard bells pealed out an alarm; the
+lookout on the hill above the town had sighted a cruiser, cleared for
+action, and making straight for the wireless station. The volunteers
+paraded; non-combatants streamed out of the place, and all waited for
+the firing to begin. Signals were exchanged between the vessel and the
+shore, and the colonists breathed freely once more. It was a false
+alarm. The newcomer was not a German cruiser, but the _Canopus_.
+
+Obeying orders, she and the _Glasgow_ had made for Rio de Janeiro, but
+when two days from that port she had been instructed to return to
+Stanley, for a reason which we shall learn later. She came about at
+once, and tried to get into touch with the wireless station. As she
+could not do so, she concluded that the Germans had raided the island
+and destroyed the wireless station. Decks were immediately cleared for
+action; the guns were loaded and trained; and with every man at his
+post, ready to fight the whole of von Spee's squadron if necessary, the
+_Canopus_ steered into Stanley Harbour. You can easily imagine the
+relief of the colonists when they discovered that the newcomer was a
+friend and not a foe.
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+Von Spee was a victor, but even while celebrating his victory he knew
+that his hours were numbered. He was well aware that the British would
+take good care to send an overpowering squadron against him, and that
+there would be only one end to the battle which could not be long
+delayed. It is said that when the German colony at Valparaiso gave a
+banquet to the admiral in honour of his victory, the steps near the door
+of the hall were strewn with flowers. Von Spee noticed them, and said,
+"I think you had better keep these for my grave; they may be wanted." He
+spoke the simple truth: they were wanted--in less than forty days.
+
+[Footnote 142: Coral islands, consisting of a more or less oval belt of
+coral rock, within which there is a lagoon.]
+
+[Footnote 143: At the Royal Exchange, London. The chief business of
+Lloyd's is connected with the insurance of ships.]
+
+[Footnote 144: _La Lutine_, a 32-gun frigate launched in 1785. It
+originally belonged to the French navy, but was captured by Admiral
+Duncan.
+
+It sailed from Yarmouth Roads on the morning of October 9, 1799, for
+Hamburg, and was wrecked the same night off the island of Vlieland, one
+of the Frisian Islands. All on board were lost, except one man.
+
+The frigate had on board a large amount of specie--gold and silver--the
+destination of which appears to be somewhat of a mystery. If the specie
+was merely sent by London Merchants to Hamburg on purely commercial
+transactions--as is alleged--how was it that a frigate ship was
+employed, and how did it come to be so near the Zuider Zee? To explain
+this some say that the specie was intended for the pay of British troops
+then in the Netherlands.
+
+Up to the present, treasure to the value of £100,000 has been recovered;
+but it is estimated that gold and silver worth a million pounds still
+lie buried in the shifting sands north of the Zuider Zee.
+
+Various attempts have been made to recover the specie. On July 17, 1858,
+divers brought to daylight the bell of the frigate. It was well
+preserved, and weighed 80 lbs. It now stands at the footboard of the
+table in the library at Lloyd's, where other relics of the _Lutine_ are
+also to be found.]
+
+[Footnote 145: Men who undertake the insurance of ships.]
+
+[Footnote 146: See p. 173.]
+
+[Footnote 147: Capital of Brazil, on the beautiful bay of Rio.]
+
+
+
+
+  CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+  THE FALL OF KIAO-CHAU.
+
+
+We must now hark back to Kiao-chau, and learn what was taking place in
+that "model of German culture." I have already told you how Germany
+played the chief part in ejecting the Japanese from the Liao-tung
+peninsula, and how, while professing to be China's friend, she stole
+from her 200 square miles of territory, on which she established the
+fortress and naval base of Tsing-tau. A few years later, when a mixed
+force of British, American, German, French, Russian, and Japanese troops
+invaded China during the "Boxer" rising,[148] the Kaiser's soldiers
+treated the Japanese with the utmost contempt. Japan had therefore old
+scores to pay off. She was Britain's ally, and, as such, was Germany's
+foe. Friendship for Britain and hatred of Germany made her eager to take
+a hand in the great struggle, though it is said that many high-placed
+Japanese believed that Germany would win. Nevertheless Japan did not
+hesitate for a moment to throw in her lot with the British. She was
+staunchly loyal to her plighted word; while the Germans, who scorned
+her, were tearing up their bond in Belgium.
+
+The war was not three weeks old when Japan declared war, and undertook
+to make a clean sweep of German sea power in the Far East. She proposed
+to wrest Kiao-chau from the Germans, and at the end of the war restore
+it to China. Japan has a fine navy of six Dreadnoughts, six other
+battleships, four first-class battle cruisers, and large classes of
+other cruisers, destroyers, and coast-defence ships. A squadron of her
+fleet at once co-operated with the British in Eastern waters. Her army,
+which had been trained on the German model, numbered 250,000 on a peace
+footing, and could be increased to 1,100,000. It was admirably equipped,
+especially with heavy guns. Japan was thus formidable, alike by land and
+sea.
+
+Before I describe the blockade, siege, and storming of Tsing-tau, let us
+have a clear idea of its geographical position. The map on the opposite
+page shows you the German protectorate of Kiao-chau and the surrounding
+country. Kiao-chau Bay, which has an area of about 200 square miles, is
+almost land-locked. At the southerly point of the peninsula on the
+eastern side of the bay you see the fortress of Tsing-tau, from which a
+railway twenty-two miles long runs north, skirting the shore and
+sweeping round the head of the bay to the station at Kiao-chau. The
+peninsula itself is flat and low-lying, except along the south coast;
+but here and there a number of low hills rise from the plain, and these
+the Germans had strongly fortified as the outer defences of Tsing-tau.
+You will see several of them on the map; one is marked Bismarck Hill,
+another Moltke Hill. Several rivers cross the peninsula, the most
+important being the Chang-sun, which enters the sea almost opposite to
+Potato Island in Kiao-chau Bay. The ground is marshy in the course of
+this river, and also along the coast farther north.
+
+On 27th August an Allied fleet appeared off the south coast of the
+peninsula. A small island was seized as a naval base, and the sea was
+diligently swept for the mines with which the Germans had strewn it. So
+thoroughly was the work done that only one Japanese vessel was blown up
+by mines during the whole of the operations. The line of warships now
+extended east and west, so that all communication with the fortress by
+sea was cut off. Then the bombardment of the forts and harbour began.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+On 2nd September the Japanese were ready to begin their land attack. The
+Gulf of Pechili lies directly to the north of Kiao-chau Bay. On the
+Shantung coast of this bay you will find Lai-chow. It was near this
+place that the first Japanese force landed. You will notice that the
+Japanese had to cross a strip of Chinese territory before reaching the
+boundary of German territory. When they crossed the boundary they found
+themselves held up and brought to a standstill. The autumn rains, always
+heavy in Shantung, had been heavier than usual; all the rivers had
+overflowed their banks, and had spread out into wide lagoons. Until the
+floods subsided it was impossible to reach Tsing-tau by this route.
+Nevertheless the Japanese by 13th September had reached the town of
+Kiao-chau, and had seized the railway station, twenty-two miles from
+Tsing-tau. General Kamio, who commanded the force, sent aeroplanes over
+the fortress, and bombs were dropped on the wireless station, the
+electric power station, and on the ships in the harbour. Soon the
+floods began to fall, and Kamio found himself able to advance. By the
+27th he had reached Prince Henry Hill, the chief of the outer defences
+of the fortress. Next day he assaulted and captured the hill, from the
+crest of which all the forts around Tsing-tau could be bombarded. He was
+now in much the same position as the Germans when they had broken
+through the outer line of the Antwerp defences and were enabled to shell
+the inner forts. Prince Henry Hill was the key to Tsing-tau, and it is
+surprising that the Germans did not make a greater effort to retain it.
+
+[Illustration: Landing of the Japanese at Laoshan Bay.
+
+_Photo, Record Press._]
+
+Meanwhile the Japanese had made another landing at Laoshan Bay, on the
+south side of the peninsula, where they were within the boundary of
+German territory. Japanese engineers erected a solid pier, by means of
+which men, guns, and stores were brought ashore, and on 23rd September
+transports arrived with a British force consisting of 1,000 of the South
+Wales Borderers and 500 Sikhs, under General Barnardiston, who was in
+command of our troops in North China. The British force was landed
+easily and rapidly, and all was now ready for a march on Tsing-tau
+itself. You will notice that the Allied force at Laoshan Bay had only a
+short distance to march before joining hands with General Kamio's men.
+The floods were no longer a great obstacle, and the advance was not
+delayed. On the evening of 28th September, just after the capture of
+Prince Henry Hill, the Allied forces were only five miles from
+Tsing-tau; and their lines stretched right across the peninsula, so that
+the fortress was shut in both by land and sea. German warships in
+Kiao-chau Bay attempted to do what British monitors afterwards did on
+the Belgian coast--that is, shell the right wing of the enemy. Japanese
+aviators, however, showed such skill and daring that the warships were
+driven off.
+
+The Kaiser had ordered his troops to defend Tsing-tau as long as breath
+remained in their bodies. The feeble defence of Prince Henry Hill did
+not seem to show that they were disposed to hold out to the last man.
+During the next month General Kamio was inclined to think that their
+defence was largely make-believe, for they fired their shells in the
+most wanton and reckless fashion, sometimes discharging 1,000 to 1,500
+projectiles a day. He therefore determined on a grand assault instead of
+a long, slow siege.
+
+From the sea a vigorous bombardment was kept up, and on 15th October the
+Japanese general offered a safe-conduct to all non-combatants who cared
+to leave the fortress. The American consul, several ladies and children,
+and a few Chinese took advantage of the offer. On 31st October, 140
+Japanese siege guns were in position, and as it was the Emperor's
+birthday a royal salute was fired with live shells. Before, however, the
+guns were fired, the Japanese signalled, "Are you now quite ready,
+gentlemen?" The reply came in the shape of a whizzing bullet. Then the
+shells began to whistle. All the forts were bombarded; fires broke out
+near the harbour; the oil tanks were speedily in flames, and black smoke
+filled the heavens. The forts were assailed by guns of practically the
+same calibre as those with which the Belgian fortresses had been
+battered down. A British officer who witnessed the bombardment said, "It
+really was a wonderful sight, and the Japanese shooting was magnificent
+. . . . Every shell seemed to find the mark. There was hardly a stick left
+in the forts and redoubts; concrete platforms, trenches, guns, and
+barbed-wire entanglements, all were destroyed. Our small force did their
+full share."
+
+The German warships in the harbour replied, but before evening one of
+them had disappeared, and a second sank two days later. On 1st November
+H.M.S. _Triumph_, in seven shots, silenced the forts on Bismarck Hill;
+on 2nd November Fort Iltis was put out of action, and the Allies drove
+the Germans off a hill which they were holding. Next day the electric
+light station and the wireless station were wrecked; and, under heavy
+shell and rifle fire, the besiegers advanced still nearer to the
+fortress. By the night of the 6th the Germans were almost ready to
+surrender.
+
+Throughout the darkness the guns of the enemy roared at intervals. The
+Allies, however, pushed on and occupied central positions on the main
+line of defence. By this time they had dug their trenches to within a
+score of yards of the redoubts. When the Germans attempted to leave one
+of their strongholds they found enemy rifles and machine guns covering
+the only exit. Early next morning (7th November) all was ready for the
+final assault. Between six and seven o'clock, while the troops, in tense
+silence, were awaiting the order to storm, white flags appeared above
+the observatory and several of the forts. Then the little Japanese
+soldiers broke into loud shouts of "Banzai![149]" Tsing-tau had yielded,
+and the Kaiser had no longer an Asiatic "place in the sun."
+
+At 7.50 in the evening terms of surrender were signed. Honours of war
+were accorded to the defenders, and it was arranged that they should
+march out the next day. At 10 a.m. on 10th November the governor, 201
+officers, and 3,841 men laid down their arms as prisoners of war. The
+German casualties were heavy; the Japanese lost 236 killed and 1,282
+wounded out of a total force of about 23,000; the British 1,500 were
+reduced by 12. In addition, the Japanese lost a cruiser, a destroyer, a
+torpedo boat, and three mine-sweepers.
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+In Japan the news was received with delighted surprise. There were great
+rejoicings in the island kingdom, and when General Barnardiston reached
+Tokio he was accorded a welcome such as had never before been given to
+any stranger. He was greeted by parades of troops and thousands of
+cheering school children. The whole Japanese nation made holiday to
+rejoice in its victory, and the capital was gloriously decorated and
+illuminated. The National Assembly was called together, and the greatest
+enthusiasm prevailed. The German officers had been allowed to retain
+their swords, and the people showed them the utmost kindness.
+
+The rapid fall of the fortress was a great blow to German pride. One of
+the newspapers wrote as follows:--
+
+    "Tsing-tau has fallen. The history of the German leased
+    territory is henceforth at an end. It was short but glorious.
+    From a decayed Chinese fishing village had been made a shining
+    testimony to German culture. That the most beautiful, the
+    cleanest, and the most progressive town in the Far East had
+    sprung up in a couple of years from the soil was calculated to
+    awake the jealousy of the slit-eyed people of the East. Never
+    shall we forget the bold deed of violence of the yellow robbers
+    or of England that set them on to do it. We know that we cannot
+    yet settle with Japan for years to come. Perhaps she will
+    rejoice over her cowardly robbery. Here our mills can grind but
+    slowly. Even if years pass, however, we shall certainly not
+    often speak of it, but as certainly always think of it. And if
+    eventually the time of reckoning arrives, then as unanimously
+    as what is now a cry of pain will a great shout of rejoicing
+    ring through Germany. 'Woe to Nippon.'"[150]
+
+[Illustration: The city of Warsaw looking north-west across the Vistula,
+which here flows under the three bridges connecting the city proper with
+its suburb, Praga.
+
+Warsaw is beautifully situated on the left bank of the Vistula, which is
+here about as wide as the Thames at Gravesend. Most of the city is built
+on a low hill which rises from the broad plain to a terrace 120 feet
+above the river-level. Though dating from the Middle Ages, Warsaw is
+very modern in appearance. It is a large manufacturing centre, but has
+none of the smoke and grime which characterize most industrial towns.
+There is no livelier or gayer city in the east of Europe. Its buildings
+are fine, and its well-laid-out public gardens are a great attraction.
+In Sigismund Square is the former royal castle, round which the life of
+the city is centred. Four main thoroughfares radiate from it, and on or
+near these are the chief public buildings, churches, and statues. The
+Church of the Holy Ghost contains the heart and monument of the great
+Polish musician Chopin. The population of Warsaw in 1911 was 872,478,
+one-third of the people being Jews. Praga is the junction of six great
+trunk lines which converge from Vienna, Berlin, and Danzig on the one
+side of the frontier, and from Petrograd, Moscow, and Kiev (South
+Russia) on the other.]
+
+[Footnote 148: Europeans gave the name "Boxers" to members of a
+widespread society in China which had for its object the ridding of the
+country of foreigners. The German Minister at Pekin was murdered in
+1900, and several of the legations were besieged. The expedition
+referred to above relieved the besieged on August 14, 1900, and exacted
+a penalty of sixty-four millions from the Chinese Government.]
+
+[Footnote 149: Literally, ten thousand years; "Japan for ever!"]
+
+[Footnote 150: The Japanese Empire.]
+
+
+
+
+  CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+  THE FIRST ATTACK ON WARSAW.
+
+
+It is high time that we returned to the Eastern theatre of war. In
+Chapter XXXIV. of Volume II. you were told that at the end of September
+1914 the Russians, after their crushing defeats of the Austrians, had
+advanced through Galicia to within a hundred miles of Cracow. At that
+time it seemed to us in the West that the Russian left would be almost
+certain to capture the great Galician fortress, and advance into Silesia
+and across the Carpathians towards Vienna within the next few weeks.
+Meanwhile we believed that the Russian right would be over the German
+frontier in full march for Berlin. It was rumoured--falsely, as we now
+know--that the Austrians shared our belief, and that their Government
+had decided to leave Vienna for Salzburg[151] or Innsbruck.[152] Though
+the Allies in the West were held up by the Germans on the Aisne, the
+prospects of their rapid and complete success in the East seemed very
+bright indeed.
+
+Then suddenly came a great disappointment. We learnt that, instead of
+advancing on Cracow, the Russians were retreating from Galicia. By the
+middle of October they were back again on the San, with nothing to show
+for their victories and their weeks of hard fighting. Why had they
+retreated? They were not pushed back by the Austrians; they were
+retiring of their own accord in order to meet a new and dangerous
+movement which the Germans had begun to make in Russian Poland.
+
+On the frontier of East Prussia there was a deadlock, and von Hindenburg
+had come to the conclusion that all the victories that could be won in
+that deadly region of lake and swamp would avail him nothing. His
+business was to destroy the Russian armies, and that could not be done
+by even a dozen successful campaigns in East Prussia. He must strike
+hard at the Russian centre--somewhere across the Polish plain, which was
+then but lightly held by his enemy.
+
+At what point in the Russian centre should he try to break
+through?--that was the question. There was one point that seemed to
+beckon him with the promise of full and speedy success. I have already
+told you that on the Vistula, half-way between the German fortress of
+Thorn and the Galician frontier, stands the great city of Warsaw.[153]
+It is not only a great place of manufactures, but a powerful fortress
+and the capital of Russian Poland, which contains twelve million
+people--Poles, Germans, Russians, and half a score other races. Amongst
+these mixed peoples Germany had many friends who would spy for her, and
+otherwise help her to win the city. Though the Tsar had promised to set
+up the old kingdom of Poland again if all went well with his arms,
+nobody yet knew whether the Poles would be loyal to Russia, or whether
+they would throw in their lot with the Germans. The Kaiser's agents had
+been secretly at work amongst them, striving hard to show that Codlin
+was their friend and not Short.[154] They believed that if the Germans
+could seize the capital of Poland the Poles would declare for them.
+
+There was another and more important reason why von Hindenburg should
+launch his attack against Warsaw. The city is a great railway junction.
+Four railways, with cross lines to relieve the pressure on any one line,
+meet at Warsaw. One of these lines runs northwards to East Prussia; a
+second goes north-east to Petrograd; a third eastwards to Moscow; a
+fourth south along the right bank of the Vistula to Novo Alexandra,
+where it sweeps eastwards, and links up with the main system of South
+Russia. If Warsaw could be seized the Russian communications would be
+cut; a wedge would be thrust in between the northern army and the
+southern army in Galicia, and, so divided, they would be an easy prey.
+Clearly, Warsaw was the place at which the Russian centre must be
+broken.
+
+The task was by no means easy. Warsaw itself lies on the west bank of
+the Vistula, with strong forts and lines of entrenchments in front of
+it; but the main railway stations are on the east bank of the river in
+the suburb of Praga, which is connected with the city proper by three
+bridges--the fine Alexander Bridge, for foot passengers and ordinary
+traffic, in the middle; the new road bridge to the south of it; and the
+railway bridge, protected by the guns of the citadel, to the north.
+Between the city and the main railway stations flows the river Vistula,
+broad, deep, and rapid--the greatest military obstacle in Eastern
+Europe. The capture of the city alone would not be sufficient for von
+Hindenburg's purpose. If the Russians could hold the eastern bank they
+could still bring up reinforcements, and could still maintain
+communications with their armies to the north and south. If, however,
+the stations in Praga could be seized, the Russians could not use their
+railways, and, as you know, a modern army cannot live long without
+railways. Further, the Germans would be in an excellent position to
+carry the whole line of the Vistula; and, once this was won, the
+Russians could be kept at bay by means of comparatively small forces,
+and prevented from making war in Poland until they had retaken the line
+of the river. The bulk of the German armies would then be able to leave
+the Eastern theatre of war and fall in strength upon the Allies in the
+West.
+
+Now, it was highly important that von Hindenburg should capture Warsaw
+without loss of time. The autumn rains were setting in, and the Polish
+roads, never good, would soon be quagmires, through which heavy guns and
+wagons could only be hauled with great difficulty. The Russians believe
+that General Winter always fights for them; in Poland, General Mud is
+their equally good friend.
+
+In the early days of October, by means of the gridiron of railways which
+Germany has constructed on her eastern border for the express purpose of
+invading Russia, von Hindenburg massed about a million men all along the
+frontier from Thorn southwards, and soon they began to move across the
+rolling ridges and low boggy valleys towards the Vistula. The left (A)
+advanced towards Warsaw along both banks of the Vistula; the centre (B)
+pushed eastwards from Kalisz; while the right (C) moved north-eastwards
+from Silesia. The right consisted of three columns, the most southerly
+of which was composed of Austrians, who were to push along the Upper
+Vistula. This Austrian column was to work with the column on its left,
+and both were to strike at Josefov, which stands between the confluence
+of the Vistula and the San and the fortress of Ivangorod.
+
+A glance at the map below will explain why an attempt was to be made to
+force the river at this point. There is no railway on the eastern bank
+of the Vistula between Novo Alexandra and the San. The railway strikes
+off south-east from Ivangorod, and the nearest point on it to Josefov is
+Lublin, thirty-three miles away. All the roads in this region are bad,
+and the forces fighting in it are at a great disadvantage, because they
+have no railway by which to bring up troops, food, ammunition, and big
+guns. The Russians defending Josefov had no railway on the eastern side
+of the river within thirty-three miles, while the Germans had a railhead
+about ten or twelve miles away on the western side.
+
+[Illustration: Von Hindenburg's First Advance on Warsaw.]
+
+If von Hindenburg could force the river at Josefov, and cut the railway
+at Lublin, while his northern columns seized Warsaw, the Russians would
+be in a bad way. They would have to retreat from the line of the
+Vistula, and for months to come would be unable to take the offensive in
+Poland. The German plan was excellent if only it could have been carried
+out secretly. The Russian cavalry, however, soon let the Grand Duke
+Nicholas know that the German columns were advancing, and he was clever
+enough to guess exactly what von Hindenburg was trying to do. He knew
+that if his armies remained to the west of the Vistula they would be
+badly supplied with food and munitions, because the railways of the
+Polish plain are few and far between, and also because his forces might
+easily be divided by the German centre, one column of which was pushing
+along the north bank of the broad, muddy river Pilitza. He determined to
+risk nothing, and leaving a screen of light horse west of the river to
+keep in touch with the enemy, ordered the rest of his forces to fall
+back behind the San and the Vistula. The march on Cracow had, therefore,
+to be abandoned; the grip on Przemysl to be loosened; and the Russian
+army in Galicia brought back for fifty miles, as you have already heard.
+
+All Russian Poland west of the Vistula was thus given up to the enemy.
+The Russians have always had the courage to retreat when the way of
+safety lies to the rear, but they only recoil for a stronger and fiercer
+leap forward. They were not greatly disturbed even when the German
+centre entered Lodz, the Manchester of Poland. The capture of this great
+industrial city was, of course, a great loss to Russia, but an attempt
+to hold it would have resulted in disaster. Nor were they dismayed when
+the German right centre, pushing through Radom, reached the Vistula
+below Ivangorod, and began to cross.
+
+The German advance was slow, but it was very thorough. As the columns
+proceeded eastwards they felled whole forests to form corduroy roads by
+which their guns could cross the marshes. Even the gauge of the railway
+from Kalisz by way of Lodz to Warsaw was altered so that German rolling
+stock could be used. They advanced as though they intended to occupy the
+country for all time.
+
+They were full of confidence. Captured Poles had told them that the
+Grand Duke did not intend to defend Warsaw, and that he meant to give up
+the valley of the Vistula. German aviators reported that they had seen
+troop trains moving from the capital and from Ivangorod eastwards. Van
+Hindenburg was completely misled, and began to dream of a new
+Tannenberg.[155]
+
+By 15th October the Germans were attacking the line of the Vistula in
+force. An attempt was made to cross the river between Ivangorod and
+Warsaw. Raft after raft crossed the stream, and soon two battalions of
+infantry were drawn up on the eastern bank waiting for their fellows to
+arrive. Suddenly from the woods and coppices the Russians sprang forward
+in overwhelming numbers. The two battalions were wiped out, and the
+crowded rafts on the river disappeared as the Russian shells crashed
+down upon them. A strong assault on the bridgehead at Ivangorod met with
+the same terrible fate. A pontoon bridge was thrown across the stream,
+but when it was thick with marching men, shrapnel began to burst above
+it. The river ran red with blood, and the stream was choked with
+corpses.
+
+These two attempts to cross the river were but feints. The real attempt,
+as we know, was being made at Josefov, where the river narrows. The
+eastern shore seemed to be held lightly; there was no sign of the enemy,
+and a large German force with guns crossed the river by means of
+pontoons, and pushed on towards the railway from Ivangorod to Lublin,
+fully believing that it had turned the Russian left. Then came a rude
+awakening. On 21st October General Ruzsky fell upon them at a village in
+the midst of swampy flats, eight miles from Novo Alexandra. The Russians
+plied the bayonet with deadly effect, and few Germans escaped to tell
+the tale. Next day Ruzsky was over the river, driving the Germans before
+him.
+
+He counter-attacked both north and south of Ivangorod, and thus was able
+to cut off the German centre and left from the German right. The
+invaders were now in two groups, the one to the north and the other to
+the south of the Pilitza. Advancing with great spirit, the Russians
+thrust the enemy out of the open country near the river into the great
+spruce woods which extend westwards for ten miles. Countless
+hand-to-hand engagements took place in their marshes and forest glades.
+The slaughter was terrible. At a village north of the railway between
+Radom and Ivangorod, the Russians buried 16,000 dead, their own and the
+enemy's. When the tide of war had rolled by, the forest seemed as though
+it had been swept by a hurricane. The Germans were forced into the open
+country beyond the woods, and as they emerged the Russian guns caught
+them and mowed them down in thousands.
+
+The Germans fought desperately, but every attempt to make a stand was
+crushed, and the remnants were forced back. By the 25th they were at
+Radom, and the Crown Prince, who had been waiting to enter Ivangorod in
+triumph, boarded the train which was waiting with steam up, and hurried
+westwards into safety. The Russians gave the retreating enemy no rest
+day or night. Near Kielce[156] they stood at bay. The strongest position
+in their line was a graveyard, with a little white church in the middle.
+The Caucasians[157] poured like a torrent over the wall and seized the
+gate, which was the only outlet. In the darkness, amidst the graves, men
+fought with clubbed muskets and cold steel until the ground was
+literally soaked with blood. Ringed round by foes, the Germans and
+Austrians strove with the fury of despair, but they were no match for
+the Caucasians. The enemy's loss was very heavy, and 12,000 prisoners
+and fifty guns were taken. At one o'clock on 4th November the Russians,
+horse, foot, and artillery, poured into Kielce. Meanwhile the extreme
+left of the Russians had won Sandomir[158] after storming a triple line
+of defences, and the routed enemy was flying south-west towards Cracow.
+
+[Footnote 151: Picturesque town on the Eastern Alps, 155 miles west by
+south of Vienna.]
+
+[Footnote 152: Capital of the Tyrol; on the Inn, a tributary of the
+Danube.]
+
+[Footnote 153: See Vol. II., p. 58.]
+
+[Footnote 154: See Dickens's _Old Curiosity Shop_, chap. xix. Each of
+these worthies tried to prove to Little Nell that he was the friend to
+be trusted and not the other.]
+
+[Footnote 155: See Vol. II., p. 71-72.]
+
+[Footnote 156: _Kyel´tseh_, on the railway, about eighty miles as the
+crow flies south-east of Ivangorod.]
+
+[Footnote 157: Natives of the Caucasus, a Russian territory between the
+Black Sea and the Caspian. The Caucasians are very fierce and warlike.]
+
+[Footnote 158: On the left bank of the Vistula, a few miles above its
+junction with the San.]
+
+
+
+
+  CHAPTER XXV.
+
+  VON HINDENBURG FOILED.
+
+
+Meanwhile, what was happening at Warsaw? The coming of the enemy was
+heralded by airships and aeroplanes, which hovered over the city,
+dropping bombs on the railway stations, and showers of leaflets urging
+the Poles to take sides with the Germans. The city was full of spies,
+and many of the Jew inhabitants were friendly to the enemy. Spies were
+shot and hanged daily. The coming of the aircraft created a panic, but
+the terror soon passed away. Then Uhlans appeared eight miles from the
+centre of the city, and numbers of well-to-do residents fled into
+Russia. Despite these "excursions and alarms," most of the people in
+Warsaw went about their business or pleasure quite unmoved.
+
+On Friday, the 16th, the fight for Warsaw began. Von Hindenburg himself
+directed the operations of the five army corps which were to make the
+grand assault. On Sunday, the 18th, the Germans were on the edge of the
+city, and the shells from their field howitzers were bursting in the
+suburbs. The windows of Warsaw shook with the roar of guns, and at night
+the western sky was bright with the flashes of artillery and the flames
+of burning homesteads. Fierce warfare was raging only a few miles away,
+but the citizens seemed as gay and light-hearted as ever. They thronged
+the pavements, the cafés, and the cinema shows in the old accustomed
+way, and save for the cannonading, the streams of wounded, the
+occasional appearance of a Taube, and the soldiers in the streets, there
+was nothing to indicate that a desperate battle was being fought five
+miles away.
+
+Outside the forts to the west of the Vistula the Grand Duke had dug
+lines of trenches; but when the fight began they were but thinly held.
+It is said that there was a period of seven hours during which the
+Germans might have entered the city unopposed. Along one of the main
+roads leading directly to Warsaw there were no Russians capable of
+holding back the enemy for a single hour. For some unknown reason the
+Germans failed to take advantage of this gap in the line of defence.
+
+Just at the critical moment reinforcements arrived, and the people
+poured into the streets to welcome them. The first corps to reach the
+city consisted of Siberians, who were so eager to meet the enemy that
+they leaped down from the cars and formed up without a moment's delay.
+In a very brief time they were swinging over the Vistula bridge, through
+the main street, and on their way to the trenches. These men had been
+brought by rail from Moscow. The people cheered them to the echo, flung
+flowers amongst them, and pressed cigarettes and other gifts on them.
+
+[Illustration: German Infantry moving across the Plain towards Warsaw.
+
+_Photo, The Sphere._]
+
+The big stubborn Siberians bore the brunt of the German attack, and made
+a most determined defence. They were assisted by their old enemies and
+present friends, the Japanese. Several batteries of heavy guns, served
+by Japanese gunners who had travelled from the Far East by the Siberian
+railway, now came into action. Nevertheless, the situation was still
+full of peril.
+
+More reinforcements followed, and soon the Russians were so strongly
+entrenched as to defy all von Hindenburg's efforts. Many of the
+newcomers had marched from Galicia amidst terrible weather along the
+right bank of the Vistula, over roads deep in mud or flooded by swollen
+streams. We do not know exactly the strength of the relieving army, but
+a Russian writer tells us that in one day "four columns, each 250,000
+strong, crossed the Vistula over sixteen pontoon bridges," and deployed
+on the left bank ready for an advance.
+
+By the evening of Monday, the 19th, the German attack slackened and died
+away, and "on Tuesday there returned to the city thousands of tired-out,
+woe-begone Siberian Cossacks and Caucasian cavalrymen--the soldiers who
+had turned the scale. All Warsaw turned out in the rain to give them
+cakes and cigarettes, handshakes and cheers."
+
+Why had the Germans given up their attempt on Warsaw? The Grand Duke was
+not content with merely holding Warsaw. While the German guns were
+hurling their shells at the Russian trenches, General Rennenkampf[159]
+was making a flank attack on the Germans from the fortress of Novo
+Georgievsk, lower down on the Vistula. We do not know exactly what
+happened in this part of the battlefield, but one thing is certain--the
+German left was attacked with crushing force. It was rolled back from
+the Vistula, but was still fighting hard; but when Ruzsky, on the 22nd,
+began to carry all before him south of the Pilitza, it was bound to
+retreat. Rennenkampf followed it up and retook Lodz, while von
+Hindenburg sullenly retreated towards his frontier, fighting innumerable
+rearguard actions by the way. Thousands of his men were sacrificed to
+prevent stores and guns from falling into the hands of the Russians, and
+the whole country over which he passed was turned into a desert. In one
+case the lives of 2,000 men of the rearguard were thrown away in order
+to save a convoy. The roads which von Hindenburg had made during his
+advance were blown up; railway lines, stations, bridges, and towers were
+destroyed, and even the rails were twisted into the shape of corkscrews.
+
+When the Germans ran short of explosives they found other means of
+destruction. A water-tower, for example, was destroyed by sending a
+railway engine full tilt against it. Telegraph wires were cut into
+sections, the posts were broken or sawn through, and the insulators were
+smashed in pieces. It looked as though the Germans did not intend to
+travel that road again. But there was method in von Hindenburg's
+madness. He was devastating all Poland _except the northern quarter_.
+This he left intact, because he meant to make another advance through it
+when the time was ripe. For this reason he retreated, not through the
+northern quarter of Poland, but towards the south-west.
+
+What were the Austrians in Galicia doing while disaster was thus
+overtaking the German armies? In the first two months of the war they
+had been badly led, and had suffered much. But under new leadership they
+proved themselves far more successful. They swept through Galicia,
+seized Jaroslav, relieved Przemysl, and nearly recaptured Lemberg. The
+starving garrison at Przemysl received food and supplies, and was thus
+given a new lease of life. When, however, the Germans farther north were
+forced to retreat, the Austrians were bound to do so too. They were,
+however, in no hurry to retire. They only withdrew to the south of the
+Upper Vistula when the Russians were beginning to envelop them.
+
+[Illustration: The Grand Duke Nicholas.]
+
+Thus ended the first attempt to capture Warsaw. The nut was too hard for
+von Hindenburg to crack, though he had by no means given up his attempts
+to crush it. He had been foiled; but, as we shall learn later, he was to
+come on again and again with wonderful perseverance. For the moment,
+however, he had failed, and failed badly. While the Allies in the West
+were only just holding back the desperate assaults of the enemy from
+Arras to the sea, the Russians were rejoicing in victory, and British
+newspapers were painting rosy pictures of the Grand Duke leading his
+triumphant armies within a few short weeks into the German capital.
+Alas! the hope was vain; rivers of blood were to flow before that happy
+day was even in sight.
+
+[Illustration: Homeless and Ruined.
+
+_Photo, Daily Mirror._
+
+The Germans have burned down the houses of these Polish peasants, and
+have destroyed their little all. The latter are here seen raking over
+the ground in the hope of finding something which has escaped
+destruction. The bitter Russian winter is rapidly approaching, and they
+have no where to lay their heads.]
+
+[Footnote 159: See Vol. II., p. 65.]
+
+
+
+
+  CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+  STORIES FROM THE BATTLEFIELDS.
+
+
+During the Russian retreat to the Vistula it was necessary to destroy a
+bridge over which the Germans must pass. It had to be done at the moment
+of their crossing, and no body of men could be spared to remain behind
+for the purpose. A simple soldier, well aware that only a miracle could
+save him, offered to do the work alone. Breast deep in icy cold water,
+he placed the charges of dynamite beneath the bridge, but had no time to
+fix wires to the fuses and lead them away to a safe distance. Still in
+the water, he waited for the Germans; and when they were tramping across
+the bridge above his head, he fired the fuses, and the whole structure
+crashed into fragments. Strange to say, he escaped unhurt, and swam
+ashore miles down the stream. When he told his tale he simply added, "It
+wasn't meant for me to be killed just yet."
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+On another occasion four sappers with their officer were told off to
+blow up a bridge immediately the Russians had crossed it, and before the
+Germans, who were close on their heels, could reach it. There was no
+time to make the usual preparations. The officer handed out charges to
+the men, who fixed them to the bridge. Then he gave each of them a
+cigarette and took one himself. They lighted their cigarettes and lay
+down, each man close to his charge. "Mind, boys," said he, "that the
+cigarettes don't go out. Smoke quietly till the enemy reaches the
+bridge; then when I say 'One, two, three!' put them to the fuses and run
+if you can."
+
+The men smoked quietly as they watched the Germans rushing down the bank
+towards the bridge; then, as the officer counted, "One, two, three,"
+they placed their cigarettes to the fuses and ran for their lives to the
+Russian bank. In a few moments there was a loud explosion, and the
+bridge simply disappeared. The baffled Germans opened a furious fire,
+but to no purpose. Their path was blocked by a deep, rapid river.
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+Here is another story of heroism at a bridge. When the Russians were
+following up the Germans during their retreat from the Vistula, they
+reached a bridge across a tributary of the Warta. The fact that it was
+standing was clear proof that it was mined, and that sappers had been
+left behind to blow it up as soon as the Russians began to cross it. The
+rearguard of the Germans had trained guns on the bridge. A Russian
+engineer officer thought that it might be cleared of mines and
+preserved. He therefore called for volunteers to undertake the delicate
+and difficult task. Everyone of his Caucasian sappers volunteered, but
+he only chose those who had no parents alive.
+
+It was ten o'clock at night, and quite dark, when the attempt was made.
+In the thick gloom the seven chosen men silently wormed their way on to
+the bridge. They groped about, and discovered that it was covered with
+planks nailed on to it in various directions. At once they guessed that
+the charges were laid under these planks. Almost noiselessly they
+removed the boards and the charges, and then cleared away every inch of
+the fuses round the woodwork under the bridge. To do this they had to
+hang down over the water, holding on with one hand and unfastening the
+interlacing fuses with the other. In some places they hung by their
+feet, head downwards, in order to have both hands free.
+
+Their comrades waited breathlessly on the bank for a full hour, and then
+the seven men who had been working on the bridge reappeared and quietly
+said, "The way is clear." Thanks to their extraordinary skill and
+devotion, the bridge was now safe, and the Russians crossed without
+mishap.
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+The Grand Duke Nicholas, the Commander-in-chief of the Russian armies,
+is a man of the most fearless courage and the idol of his soldiers. A
+correspondent says: "During the terrific fighting to the north of the
+Radom-Ivangorod railway, the Grand Duke's motor car, marked by a blue
+and white flag, drove slowly down a road on which German shells were
+falling. The Siberians, with whom the Commander-in-chief is particularly
+popular, raised such a cheer that their comrades in the trenches
+imagined that a great victory had been won. The omen was fulfilled, for
+next day the Germans were driven along the Pilitza, and were obliged to
+abandon four guns. 'Big Nicholas' let down the roof of his motor car and
+praised the soldiers as '_Molodsti_' (fine fellows)--the usual
+salutation of a general. A chorus of '_Radi staratsa_' ('We are
+delighted to do our best') was the reply."
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+You will remember that there were very fierce struggles in the woods
+which lie to the west of the Vistula and to the north and south of the
+Radom-Ivangorod railway. A correspondent[160] thus describes the
+fighting in the woods, and their condition when the Germans had been
+driven out of them:--
+
+"Day after day the Russians poured troops in on their side of the wood.
+These entered, were seen for a few minutes, then disappeared in the maze
+of trees, and were lost. Companies, regiments, battalions, and even
+brigades were quite cut off from each other. None knew what was going on
+anywhere but a few feet in front. All knew that the only thing required
+of them was to keep advancing. This they did, foot by foot and day after
+day, fighting each other hand to hand, taking, losing, and retaking
+position after position. In all of this ten kilometres[161] of forest I
+dare venture to say there is hardly an acre without its trenches, rifle
+pits, and graves.
+
+"Here one sees where a dozen men had a little fort of their own, and
+fought furiously with the enemy a few feet away in a similar position.
+Day after day it went on, and day after day troops were poured into the
+Russian side of the wood, and day and night the continuous crack of
+rifle fire and the roar of artillery hurling shells into the wood could
+be heard for miles. . . . The forest looks as though a hurricane had
+swept through. Trees staggering from their shattered trunks, and limbs
+hanging everywhere, show where the shrapnel shells have been bursting.
+Yard by yard the ranks and lines of the enemy were driven back, but the
+nearer their retreat brought them to the open country west of the wood
+the hotter the contest became; for each man in his own mind must have
+known how they would fare when, once driven from the protecting forest,
+they attempted to retreat through the open country without shelter.
+
+"The state of the last two kilometres of the wooded belt is hard to
+describe. There seems scarcely an acre that is not sown like the scene
+of a paper-chase; only the trail here consists of blood-stained bandages
+and bits of uniform. Here also there was small use for the artillery,
+and the rifle and the bayonet played the leading part. Men, fighting
+hand to hand with clubbed muskets and bayonets, fought from tree to tree
+and ditch to ditch. . . .
+
+"But at last the day came when the dirty, grimy, blood-stained soldiers
+of the Tsar pushed their antagonists out of the far side of the belt of
+woodland. . . . Once out in the open, the hungry guns of the Russians
+got their chance. Down every road through the wood came the six-horse
+teams, with the guns jumping and jingling behind, with their
+accompanying caissons[162] heavy with shrapnel. The moment the enemy
+were in the clear, these batteries, eight guns to a unit, were
+unlimbered on the fringe of the wood, and were pouring out their death
+and destruction on the wretched enemy, now retreating hastily across the
+open."
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+The Russians, as perhaps you know, are a deeply religious people. A
+soldier thus tells us how he went into battle during an assault:--
+
+"Our hearts were beating wildly. I felt a choking sensation in my
+throat, and my spirit boiled up within me. I heard myself shouting, and
+in my brain something was urging me to 'run, run' against the enemy.
+Some one in the front ranks began to sing the majestic hymn,
+
+  'O Lord, save Thy people.'
+
+Before he had finished the first line the rear ranks have taken it up
+and continued it,
+
+  'And bless Thine heritage.'
+
+The waves of the melody seem to dash against the faces of the enemy. At
+first only a few voices joined in the hymn. More and more began to sing.
+The whole column seemed to give forth one vast wave of sound. It seemed
+as though even the dying lying around joined in with their last breath.
+A dark-faced Jew lad who ran beside me joined in too. I saw his open
+mouth and heard his rich baritone voice. Death seemed to have no terror.
+We felt that our death was necessary, as is the death of the autumn
+leaves which fall from the trees to fertilize the soil for the future
+harvest."
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+You have heard of General Ruzsky, who commanded the army which wiped out
+the German troops across the Vistula, and then flung his legions across
+the stream to drive the enemy before him in rout. He was then a man of
+sixty years of age, with wrinkled brow, gray hair and moustache, and a
+stoop in his shoulders. In battle he exposed himself without fear,
+believing that his example would inspire his men. Not only was he famous
+as a fighter, but also as a student. At home, he lived a simple life in
+a small flat at Kiev.[163] He did not drink or smoke, and his spectacles
+gave him the look of a professor. Ruzsky drove about in a motor car with
+orange-coloured tyres, which caught the eyes of his soldiers and told
+them that their general was amongst them.
+
+[Illustration: Siberian Cavalry crossing a River.
+
+_Photo, Record Press._]
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+Russian boys were very eager to go to the war, and some of them followed
+regiments to the front. A group of three rosy-cheeked schoolboys from
+Petrograd--Pete, Jack, and Eustace--carrying home-made pistols roughly
+carved out of chunks of wood, with cartridge cases for barrels and wire
+hooks for hammers, hung on to a detachment of Guards, and actually
+reached the war zone, but were caught by a policeman as they were hiding
+behind a railway embankment, cooking porridge at a fire. The policeman
+took them to the nearest officer, who asked,--
+
+"Where did you get those weapons?"
+
+"I made them," Jack explained. "I can cut one out in three hours."
+
+"And why," inquired the officer, "have you a pistol without a barrel?"
+
+"It flew off when I fired," replied Eustace.
+
+The officer laughed, and the policeman searched the would-be-soldiers'
+pockets. He found in them some home-made gunpowder, a pipe-lighter, and
+a bottle containing some liquid. He discovered that the pipe-lighter was
+for the purpose of making a fire, and that the bottle contained spirit
+to put in the pipe-lighter. The boys had come prepared with everything
+for the campaign. To their great distress they were taken to the railway
+station and sent back to their parents. The Russian writer who tells the
+story thus concludes: "God grant, little children, that you may preserve
+the fire of your loyal little hearts till the day when you are men, and
+then Russia will have need of you."
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+You know that the Germans and Austrians made great efforts to win over
+the Poles by all sorts of lavish promises. Professor Bernard Pares, an
+Englishman with the Russian army, tells us that most of the Poles
+remained faithful to the Tsar, and that they were confident that he
+would set up their old kingdom again when he was victorious. "I saw at
+Kielce," he says, "ample evidence of the enthusiasm of the Poles for the
+Russian cause. They show the greatest courtesy and kindness to Russians,
+especially in the villages. I am told on good evidence that when a
+German soldier defaced a portrait of the Tsar, a Polish official struck
+him in the face, and for this was bound to a telegraph pole for two
+days, and then taken down and shot. . . . Yesterday the commander of a
+Russian army corps at Radom,[164] where the Germans had remained over a
+month, issued the following letter of thanks to the people of the
+town:--
+
+    "'Poles,--Our wounded officers and soldiers, and also our
+    prisoners who had fallen into the hands of the enemy, and had
+    passed through the town or province of Radom, speak with deep
+    gratitude of your cordial treatment of them. You have tended the
+    wounded, fed the starving, and clothed and sheltered from the
+    enemy those escaping from captivity. You have given them money
+    and guided them to our lines. Accept from me, and from all ranks
+    of the Army entrusted to me, warm and hearty thanks for all
+    your kindness, for your Slavonic sympathy and goodness.'"
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+A correspondent thus describes the touching spectacle which was to be
+seen every day at the Sacred Gate of Vilna,[165] when the fate of Warsaw
+was hanging in the balance: "Above the gateway is a chapel with wide
+open doors showing a richly-gilded and flower-decked image of the
+Virgin. At one side stands a row of leaden organ pipes, at the other
+stands a priest. Music is wafted through the air with incense and the
+sound of prayers. Down below in the narrow, muddy roadway kneel many
+poor men and women with prayer-books in their hands. They are Poles. But
+through the gateway come incessantly, all day and all night, Russian
+troops going to the front. And every soldier or officer as he comes
+lifts his hat and passes through the praying throng uncovered. This is
+beautiful. Let Russia always be so in the presence of the Mother of
+Poland."
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+The following story illustrates the doggedness of the Russian soldier.
+"A detachment of twenty Russian cavalry met a hundred of the enemy's
+horsemen, and, being so greatly outnumbered, decided to beat a retreat.
+One of the Russians, however, was slightly wounded, and thrown from his
+horse. As he lay on the ground he took up his rifle and began to pick
+off the Germans who were pursuing his comrades. His shooting was so good
+that he killed three of them. Peasants came up and offered to carry him
+to a place of safety; but he said, 'No, I will not hide from Germans,'
+and went on firing. Meanwhile the enemy, suspecting an ambush, gave up
+the chase. When they returned and found that they had been foiled by a
+single man they at once finished him off. He died happy, knowing that he
+had by his self-sacrifice secured the safety of his comrades."
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+Here is a grim story which illustrates the splendid patience and
+uncomplaining endurance of the Russian wounded:--
+
+"A tall, thin soldier stopped near. 'You are wounded, old chap?'
+inquired the general.
+
+"'Yes, sir,' the man replied, not recognizing the general in the gloom.
+'How do I get to the hospital?'
+
+"'You ought first to find your regiment, and give up your rifle and
+cartridges. But can you get there? where are you wounded?'
+
+"The soldier threw open his cloak, and the general examined him with a
+pocket electric torch. The entire shirt and the inner part of the cloak
+on the breast were soaked with black blood. One knew that underneath was
+an enormous gaping wound. The soldier stood erect, slightly supporting
+himself on his rifle.
+
+"'Go to the hospital,' said the general. Then he turned to me. 'You saw?
+That is what they are like, and all are the same.'"
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+Professor Pares gives us the following picture of the Russian soldiers
+on the march:--"We travelled in the midst of troops all hurrying forward
+to participate in the taking of Kielce. They moved slowly along the road
+in straggling groups like an enormous family on its way to a huge
+picnic; but the unit of each regiment is never lost, and all meet at
+'the appointed place.' When they come to a barrier in the road they show
+great readiness and resource in removing it, and all work together like
+brothers. Any number of men run up from their loose ranks to push a
+motor or cart or transport wagon over a marshy stream, and those who are
+so assisted call back, 'Thank you, brothers.' It is like a current that
+slows up and takes thought against some barrier, but whose general
+movement seems not even to be checked. Some of the side-tracks looked
+very bad indeed, but every one somehow got through, no matter what the
+size of their carriage. Often at such points there were companies that
+rested along the grassy banks of the road; in other places one saw by
+the side large numbers of gray transport wagons. Those carrying straw
+for the bivouacs were in front; sometimes one came upon a resting
+battery. The brotherhood between officers and men is another notable
+feature of the march of a Russian army."
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+"The next day we returned to Radom, occupying seats in the motor of a
+Russian general. The great stream of troops was still flowing on. There
+were troops of all kinds. We called to ask the names of each regiment,
+which they always gave in a kind of jovial chorus. There were food
+transports, field kitchens, pontoons, and, not least important, the
+post. At one point we saw a large body of Austrian prisoners sitting by
+a wood drinking water with their very small escort. These men helped
+some of our motors over difficult places. The great current of men and
+wagons still flowed on. Teams of white horses which, because they can be
+so clearly seen, are only allowed to serve in the transport, were
+dashing through mud and water with an ardour as great as though they
+were on the field of battle. At one place a bread wagon dropped all its
+cargo and turned over on its side; but horse and driver, evidently not
+noticing, carried it on into the stream without checking the pace, one
+wheel flying in the air and the other broken beneath the wagon.
+
+"Our general spoke frequently with the men, who helped us in getting our
+motor over difficult places. When the trouble was over he said heartily,
+'Once more, thank you, brothers.' Nothing will remain with me longer
+than these endless, irregular lines of big, sleepy, almost
+stupid-looking men, moving at a walk which might last for ever, and all
+in one direction, and all with set eyes--the people that lies down to
+sleep at the roadside, that breakfasts off stale biscuit soaked in
+water, that carries nothing but what it can put to a hundred uses, that
+will crouch for days without food in flooded trenches, that can die like
+flies for an idea, and is sure sooner or later to attain it--the people
+that never complains, the people of brothers."
+
+[Footnote 160: Mr. Stanley Washburn, special war correspondent of the
+_Times_. The quotation is from his "Field Notes from the Russian
+Front."]
+
+[Footnote 161: Between six and seven miles.]
+
+[Footnote 162: Ammunition limbers.]
+
+[Footnote 163: Or Kieff, chief town of Little Russia; on the Dnieper,
+660 miles south of Petrograd.]
+
+[Footnote 164: On the railway, about thirty miles west of Ivangorod.]
+
+[Footnote 165: Town of Russia, on a tributary of the Niemen, 190 miles
+east of Königsberg in East Prussia.]
+
+
+
+
+  CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+  THE SECOND RUSSIAN ADVANCE ON CRACOW.
+
+
+At the close of Chapter XXV. we left the Germans, who had been beaten
+north of the Pilitza, retreating rapidly towards the Warta, and those
+who had suffered defeat south of that river hurrying towards Cracow. As
+you know, they wrecked the roads, railways, and bridges on their line of
+retreat, and the work was done with such thoroughness that a whole army
+must have been detailed for the purpose. So rapidly, however, did the
+main bodies of the Germans move that they did not even pause to bury
+their dead properly. Consequently, they left behind them but few
+prisoners and guns. In some places they had prepared strong positions,
+but these they abandoned almost without striking a blow.
+
+You know that the Germans had set their hearts on Warsaw, because it
+would enable them to control the sheaf of railways by means of which the
+Russians were able to maintain their armies in Poland. The Russians, on
+the other hand, had set their hearts on Cracow, because it would give
+them a road along the river Oder to Berlin, and another across the
+Carpathians to Vienna. Now that the Germans and Austrians were in
+retreat, the Grand Duke was able to advance again towards Cracow. When
+the Germans attacked him along the line of the Vistula he had four
+armies, which we will call A, B, C, D, holding that river. The army A
+extended from the fortress of Novo Georgievsk to the south of Warsaw;
+the army B continued the line to the south of Ivangorod; and the armies
+C and D lay still farther south up to the junction of the San with the
+Vistula. Along the San was Brussilov's army, which had retreated from
+Galicia.
+
+The Grand Duke knew that while Brussilov advanced again through Galicia
+he must protect Brussilov's flank, so that the Germans could not
+interfere with his movements. In order to do this he must hold the
+Germans who had retreated towards the Warta by means of armies A, B, and
+C. If fortune favoured him he might, by means of the army A, roll up the
+left flank of the Germans, and hem them in between C and his fourth
+army, D, which was now marching south-east towards Cracow. He therefore
+hastened the advance of his troops all along the line. Army A advanced
+along the Vistula towards Thorn, and the cavalry screen of Cossacks,
+riding hard, was not twenty miles from that fortress on 9th November.
+Army B struck at the Warta in the neighbourhood of Kolo, and on 10th
+November its vanguard was actually across the German frontier, and had
+cut the railway from Posen to Cracow. Meanwhile Army C was striking at
+the Upper Warta, while Army D was pushing south-east. By 12th November
+the cavalry of this fourth army had got within twenty miles north of
+Cracow. While these movements were going on Brussilov was pushing
+westward once more, and had already reached and reoccupied the main
+passes of the Western Carpathians.
+
+Everything was going well, and many people in this country fully
+believed that the Russians would be in Cracow before long. But wiser
+folks wondered what new move von Hindenburg was about to make. It was
+not likely that the Germans would sit still under the terribly rough
+handling which they had recently received. They had lost very heavily,
+and they had been beaten back to their frontier, but they were still
+full of fight. On 13th November it was evident that they were going to
+make a very powerful counter-attack.
+
+Let me remind you of two facts which it is important that you should
+remember. The first is, that along the Polish frontier the Germans
+possess a network of railways which enable them to move troops from
+north to south very rapidly; the second is, that though the Germans had
+devastated much of Poland they had kept the roads and railways intact in
+the northern quarter of the country. As soon as von Hindenburg had
+withdrawn his left and centre behind his own frontier, he put his troops
+into trains, and hurried them northward to the neighbourhood of Thorn,
+where he had large reserves. Some of these reserves came from Germany,
+and some were brought from the Western front. Altogether he gathered in
+an astonishingly brief time a striking force of about 800,000 men, and
+behind them he had many thousands more. He now began to push eastward on
+a forty-mile front between the Warta and the Lower Vistula towards
+Warsaw once more.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+As the roads and railways in this region were good, he hoped to make a
+rapid advance, and fall on Warsaw before the Russians could bring up
+reinforcements along the broken railways and ruined roads farther south.
+Even if his centre were heavily attacked he had the means of retiring
+rapidly. It was a very ingenious plan which he was now about to carry
+out. General von Mackensen was to command the armies in the field.
+
+The Russians, you will observe, were very badly placed to meet the
+sudden thrust that was now about to begin. They were strung out upon a
+huge curve of a thousand miles in length, and their communications were
+bad. As the railways had been destroyed, reinforcements from the south
+would take a long time to come up, and before they could appear von
+Mackensen hoped to be in Warsaw. The Army A which he had to meet was
+only about 200,000 strong. Of course it might be strengthened by new
+forces brought up from behind Warsaw, but in this case, too, there would
+be much delay. Everything promised a speedy victory for the Germans.
+
+In the next chapter we will see how they fared. In this chapter we will
+follow the fortunes of the two armies that were advancing on Cracow. I
+have already told you that the cavalry of Army D under General
+Dmitrieff, a Bulgarian, who fought bravely in the Balkan War and
+afterwards offered his sword to Russia, was twenty miles north of Cracow
+on 12th November. At that time the main body was about sixty miles
+behind. For three weeks it pushed on slowly but steadily, and meanwhile
+Brussilov had recaptured Jaroslav, had again besieged Przemysl, and,
+leaving a force to mask that fortress, was pushing into the passes of
+the Carpathians, which, as you know, form a great natural barrier
+between Galicia and the Hungarian plain. As the Carpathians figure
+largely in this and in future fighting, I will give you a brief
+description of them now.
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+[Illustration: The Tatra Range of the Carpathians.
+
+_Photo, Exclusive News Agency._]
+
+The Carpathians curve for 1,000 miles like a huge sickle round the
+Hungarian plain from the deep trench of the Danube, known as the Iron
+Gates, to what is called the Moravian Gate, beyond which lie the
+Bohemian mountains. The southern portion of this range, which barricades
+Hungary against Rumania, consists of high and bold ridges and lofty
+rocky tablelands; it forms a stronghold so well fortified by nature that
+it has been called the "Eastern citadel of Central Europe." That
+portion of the range which overlooks Galicia may be called the "waist"
+of the Carpathians, for here it is at its lowest, and is crossed by a
+number of passes, over which roads and railways have been made. Still
+farther west, fronting Silesia on the north is the loftiest and boldest
+part of the range--the High Tatra. Here we find a great mountain wall of
+granite, with steep, rocky ramparts and jagged crests, varied by
+beautiful lakes, which lie in the cup-shaped hollows. The High Tatra is
+as grand in its way as the Alps of Switzerland. Nowhere, however, do the
+Carpathians reach the snow-line, so the range contains no glaciers such
+as you find in the Alps. The lower slopes are generally covered with
+forests of beech, oak, and fir; but higher up, amidst the rocks, even
+the hardy pine can find no foothold. In the forests of the High Tatra
+the bear, wolf, and lynx are still to be found.
+
+The part of the Carpathians which chiefly concerns us now is neither the
+high, bold ridges which look towards Rumania, nor the great rocky
+wilderness of the High Tatra, but the "waist" which lies between Galicia
+and the Hungarian plain. No great range of mountains is so easily
+crossed as this section of the Carpathians. It consists mainly of
+sandstone, which, for the most part, affords easy slopes, rounded tops,
+and wide valleys. Here we find the five principal passes by which
+traffic across the range is maintained. All of these passes are low and
+easy. They rise from flats in the foothills, which are themselves one
+thousand to twelve hundred feet above the sea-level, and the highest of
+them does not rise two thousand feet higher. The summits of one of them,
+the Dukla Pass, are less than six hundred feet above the last flats of
+the foothills.
+
+As these passes will occur again and again in the course of our story,
+it is necessary that we should know their position and something about
+each of them. The first of them to the east is the Delatyn Pass, the
+highest of all; then, going west, we reach the Beskid Pass, across which
+the railway from Lemberg runs down to the Hungarian plain. Still farther
+west is the Uzsok Pass, which is less than three thousand feet above the
+sea-level, and carries a good road and a railway. It is probably the
+most difficult of all the passes to force. The next gateway in order is
+the Lupkow Pass, which is not two thousand feet above the sea, and is
+also crossed by road and railway. About twenty miles to the west is the
+Dukla Pass, which is the lowest and easiest of all. Though it does not
+carry a railway, it is nevertheless the key to the Western Carpathians.
+Its saddle is only 1,500 feet above the sea; it is ten miles wide, and
+can be crossed even in winter by a large army. Whoever holds the Dukla
+Pass can turn all the passes to the east against an invader coming from
+either north or south.
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Now let us return to the Russian armies invading Galicia. While
+Brussilov was seizing and holding the Uzsok, Lupkow, and Dukla Passes,
+Dmitrieff, commanding what I have called Army D, was pushing his way
+towards Cracow. As he moved westwards he had some heavy fighting to do.
+He carried a strongly fortified town by assault, and his men waded up to
+the neck in ice-cold water through the river Raba in the face of a heavy
+fire. One bitter day they carried trenches and wire entanglements at the
+point of the bayonet. They were seasoned by forty-five days of almost
+continuous struggle, and were in the highest spirits. By the end of the
+first week in December his Cossacks were in the suburbs of Cracow, and
+his main force was about twelve miles east of the fortress. His right
+was preparing to wheel round so as to close in on the city from the
+north, where it was hardest to defend. On 4th December it was only three
+and a half miles from the outer fortifications.
+
+A month previously, when the Russians were within a hundred miles of the
+fortress, it was ill prepared to stand a siege. While they were retiring
+to the San and advancing again, the Austrians had been busy
+strengthening its defences by making a wide circle of trenches around
+the city, and putting big movable guns into them, as the French had done
+at Verdun.[166] No field army, however, had been placed in these
+trenches, because it was hoped that Mackensen's new move on Warsaw would
+be sufficient to cause the Russians to retire again. By the end of the
+first week in December it was clear that Brussilov and Dmitrieff were
+not going to be drawn off by any threat in Poland, but were going to
+leave the defence of Warsaw to the other Russian forces. The Austrians
+now saw that they must attack the Russians in Galicia, unless they were
+prepared to see Cracow fall into the hands of the enemy.
+
+Two armies were, therefore, launched against the Russians. The first
+army, which consisted largely of Hungarians, pushed up from the plain to
+the south through the Carpathian passes in order to sweep Brussilov out
+of them and then threaten the Russian rear and its lines of
+communication. Meanwhile a second Austrian army moved from the
+south-west amongst the foothills of the Carpathians, and struck at the
+left of the Russians in front of Cracow. The two armies attacked at the
+same time. On 8th December, while Brussilov was heavily engaged in the
+mountains, Dmitrieff fought a battle on the outskirts of the city. He
+held his own well, but he found that the Austrian right was working its
+way through the higher glens so as to reach the valley of the river
+Donajetz[167] and threaten his rear, and that at the same time a third
+force from the direction of the Warta was strongly attacking his right.
+He was, therefore, obliged to fall back.
+
+[Illustration: Position of the Russians in Galicia at Christmas.]
+
+Four days later the Austrians succeeded in seizing the broad and easy
+pass of the Dukla, and were in a position to pour their forces down upon
+Galicia, and hold up the rear of Dmitrieff's army while the other army
+strongly attacked it from the west. The position of the Russians was now
+very dangerous, and another retirement was necessary. Dmitrieff fell
+back behind the line of the river Donajetz and its tributary the Biala,
+so as to cover the mouth of the Dukla Pass. His front now curved from
+the Vistula to the east of its confluence with the Donajetz, Tarnow on
+the Biala, past Krosno, and almost to the head-waters of the river San.
+Brussilov continued the line south-eastwards, and covered the northern
+exits of the Lupkow Pass and the Uzsok Pass.
+
+There was great disappointment in France and Great Britain when the news
+arrived that the Russians were again retreating. So far, however, there
+was no disaster. As long as the enemy could be held in the passes all
+might yet be well. If, however, the Uzsok Pass, which carries a railway
+from the Hungarian plain to Przemysl and Lemberg, could be captured by
+the Austrians, Brussilov would have to retire northwards, in which case
+the enemy would be able to regain the besieged city of Przemysl. While
+the struggle was raging in the mountains, the Russians heavily bombarded
+the city, in the hope of capturing it and setting free the troops that
+were around it. Unhappily, the bombardment had no effect.
+
+[Illustration: Russian Artillery in the Carpathians.
+
+_Photo, Record Press._]
+
+A few days later the Austrians seized the crest of the Lupkow Pass, and
+began fighting hard for the Uzsok Pass. Before, however, they could
+become really dangerous, Russian reinforcements arrived, and a
+counter-attack began. About 20th December, when the snow lay thick on
+the mountains and icy blizzards were sweeping across the passes, the
+Russians once more advanced. The left, swinging south-west from Krosno,
+seized the mouth of the Dukla Pass, and cut off and captured more than
+10,000 Austrians. Meanwhile the centre and right moved forward to the
+position shown on the map (p. 249), and by Christmas Day Brussilov was
+holding the mouths of the Lupkow and Uzsok once more. He did not fear
+fresh attacks by way of the passes, for the wild wintry weather forbade
+the passage of troops even across the lowest gaps in the chain. At the
+end of the year the Russians were still besieging Przemysl, and their
+right was within forty miles of Cracow.
+
+The city had been saved by the valour of the Hungarians. But for their
+stubborn fighting in the passes, Dmitrieff would have eaten his
+Christmas dinner on the banks of the Oder, and his joyful toast to his
+soldiers would have been, "Onward to Berlin."
+
+[Footnote 166: See Vol. II., p. 280.]
+
+[Footnote 167: _Doon-a-yetz´_, rises in the Carpathians and flows north
+to the Vistula, about forty miles east of Cracow.]
+
+
+
+
+  CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+  THE SECOND ASSAULT ON WARSAW.
+
+
+We must now learn how von Mackensen made his swoop on the threatened
+city of Warsaw. When the Cossacks in Galicia were within an easy day's
+ride of Cracow, and North Poland was shrouded in white, clammy mists
+which no eye could pierce for more than a few hundred yards, his troops
+set out from Thorn on the second great venture. The first had failed,
+but the second might be a triumph. Who could say?
+
+About 13th November Ruzsky's outposts along the Vistula were driven in,
+and his scouts reported that a very strong force of Germans was
+advancing along both banks of the river. The Russian general had far too
+few troops to meet the large numbers now flung against him, and, as I
+explained in the previous chapter, he could not expect reinforcements
+either from the south or from beyond the Vistula for a considerable
+time. He was, therefore, forced to retire, and by the 16th November the
+Germans were fifty miles to the east of their frontier, and half-way to
+Warsaw. No doubt during their advance they captured many prisoners and
+many guns, but owing to the straggling character of the Russian march,
+which was described on page 239, the losses of our ally were not so high
+as they would have been in the case of a Western army. The
+Turkomans,[168] mounted on fine horses, and wearing orange and scarlet
+sheepskin coats, flashed to and fro in the midst during many rearguard
+actions, and managed to delay the enemy's advance. One of these
+delaying fights took place on the night of the 15th-16th November, and
+was claimed by von Hindenburg as a great victory. He reported that he
+had captured 28,000 prisoners, and Berlin went mad with delight. The
+commander-in-chief was at once rewarded--he was made a field-marshal.
+
+Ruzsky's idea was to fall back in good order behind the river Bzura,
+which rises near Lodz, flows northwards for twenty or more miles, then
+runs eastwards for about forty miles, and finally flows north to join
+the Vistula, some ten miles below Lowicz.[169] During its eastward
+course the river flows through a great belt of marshes, which lie partly
+in the course of the river and partly to the west of it. The marshes are
+crossed by a few small paths totally unfitted for the passage of large
+bodies of men with heavy guns. All the bridges along the river had been
+broken down, but in its upper reaches the river could be forded. Look at
+this little map. You will find on the railway from Thorn to Lowicz the
+town of Kutno, and almost due south of it, beyond the Bzura, you will
+see Piatek. Between these two places the marshes are crossed by a great
+causeway, along which the heaviest traffic can make its way. From what I
+have told you of the Bzura, you will gather that an army lying behind
+the marshes of the river would be in a very strong position to meet a
+frontal attack. They could only be assailed in front along one road--the
+causeway already mentioned. They might, of course, be outflanked by a
+force crossing the river below Lowicz (A), or fording the stream to the
+south of the marshes (B). The Germans, as we shall see, made not only a
+frontal attack along the causeway, but also flanking attacks at A and B.
+
+[Illustration: Diagram showing the Russian Position behind the Marshes
+of the Bzura.
+
+Notice the causeway leading from Kutno to Piatek. Along this causeway
+the Germans made their frontal attack.]
+
+About fifteen miles to the south of Piatek is Lodz, the "Manchester of
+Poland." It contains half a million people, and has grown more rapidly
+than any other city of Europe. Its chief industry is cotton, but there
+are also large factories in which silk, woollen, and linen fabrics are
+made, as well as numerous dye-works, flour mills, distilleries, and
+machine shops. The Germans had captured it during their first march on
+Warsaw, but had lost it during the retreat. They were now to make a bold
+bid for it again.
+
+Accordingly the German right now pressed hard against the Bzura at B,
+south of the marshes. While the right was crossing the river at B, the
+extreme left moved towards Plock, so as to outflank the Russian position
+by crossing the river at A. The main attack, however, was to be made not
+on the flanks but in the centre, across the causeway at C. Now I want
+you to notice that if Russian reinforcements could have come up from the
+south, the German flanking forces at B would have been hemmed in between
+the Russians to the north of Lodz and those advancing on the city from
+the south. Von Hindenburg, however, felt quite sure that the Russians
+from the south could not arrive in time owing to the broken roads and
+railways. Long before they came up he hoped to be in Warsaw.
+
+[Illustration: A German Battery overwhelmed by Cossacks.
+
+This grim picture illustrates the fate of the Germans who were trapped
+in the "pocket" as described on page 255.]
+
+An extraordinary state of things soon occurred. At first the Russians
+beat off attacks on the causeway, and held the German army in the
+villages north of the marshes. But on 19th November von Mackensen made a
+huge effort. He crossed the causeway, and pushed the Russians well south
+of Piatek. For the next four days his troops tramped across the
+causeway, and the Russians fell back more and more, till there was a
+deep sag in their line east of Lodz. Von Mackensen pushed this sag
+deeper and deeper, and wider and wider, until it resembled a pocket, and
+on 23rd November the bottom of the pocket fell out, and the Russian army
+was split into two parts, as shown in the diagram on the next page. The
+Germans burst through the gap, and the Russians were now in a most
+dangerous plight, especially as the enemy was bringing up strong forces
+both from the south-east and the south. Lodz was now being attacked from
+the front, from the flank, and from the rear. The Germans appeared to
+have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams.
+
+"There's many a slip between the cup and the lip," says the old proverb.
+The Germans now expected to envelop the divided forces of the Russians,
+and make an end of them altogether. But when the cup was almost at their
+lips, the slip took place. The Russians had hastily summoned guns and
+men from Asia, and troop trains had been rolling for weeks past at top
+speed along the Siberian railway. The Siberians were detrained at a
+station on the railway south of Lowicz, just as reinforcements from the
+south were at last coming up. On the 24th the Siberians appeared on the
+field; another day, and they would have been too late--the Russian left
+would have been destroyed for ever.
+
+Ruzsky, now reinforced, did his utmost to close up the mouth of the
+pocket, and thus cut off the 90,000 Germans who were within it. For two
+days he pressed together the edges of the top of the pocket, and more
+and more shut in the trapped corps. More troops were needed to close it
+completely, and Rennenkampf, on the extreme right, was ordered to push
+forward with the utmost speed. Unhappily, he arrived a day too late, and
+the pocket was never wholly shut up.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Von Mackensen strove hard by bringing up reserves to force back the
+Russians who were pinching him on either side, and by doing so managed
+to provide an exit for his trapped troops. From 24th to 26th November a
+furious struggle continued night and day. Battalions were broken into
+fragments, and the men roamed about the frozen and deserted land "like a
+pack of hungry wolves." By the 26th something like 40,000 men had
+escaped, and had reached their own lines. Amongst them was a remnant of
+the Prussian guards. Not only had thousands of Germans been killed and
+wounded, but multitudes of prisoners were in Russian hands. A few days
+later Warsaw was swarming with them. But for Rennenkampf's late arrival
+Russia would have accomplished a new Sedan.
+
+[Footnote 168: Natives of Russian Central Asia.]
+
+[Footnote 169: _Lo´vitch_, 44 miles west-south-west of Warsaw.]
+
+
+
+
+  CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+  WARSAW AGAIN SAVED.
+
+
+Fresh troops were now brought up from Germany, and a determined effort
+was made to envelop the Russians by striking hard at their left while
+the rest of the line was strongly held up. The Russian left wing was
+pushed back, chiefly because it had broken roads and railways behind it,
+and was farthest from its base of supply. Lodz, to the rear of the
+Russian lines, now formed an ugly salient, much like that at Ypres.
+Ruzsky knew that if he were forced to retreat through the seven miles of
+the Lodz streets he could only march slowly and in crowded formation,
+and would probably be badly cut up in the process. It was a risk which
+there was no reason to face. Lodz was of no value in his plan of
+campaign, though, of course, it was valuable to the enemy because of its
+resources. Ruzsky therefore determined to give it up, and to straighten
+out his line by falling back. Accordingly, on the 27th he slowly
+retreated. His withdrawal lasted more than a week. German shells began
+to fall in the streets of Lodz on 5th December, and the next day the
+enemy entered the city, and were received with great joy by their
+fellow-countrymen, who form a large part of its population. For the
+second time the Germans were masters of Lodz.
+
+There was much joy in Berlin, and the capture of the city was acclaimed
+as a great victory, in which "we did not lose a single man." As we have
+seen, the Russians gave it up of their own accord, because the game of
+holding it was not worth the candle. As a matter of fact, there was no
+battle and no victory. It is said that for fifteen hours the Germans
+shelled empty trenches, from which the Russians had withdrawn on the
+previous day. Nevertheless they still speak of the Battle of Lodz, and
+consider it a feather in their caps.
+
+A few days later von Hindenburg thus addressed his men:--
+
+    "In the course of severe fighting, lasting several days, my
+    troops have brought to a standstill a Russian army superior in
+    numbers. Over 60,000 prisoners, 150 guns, and about 200 machine
+    guns have fallen into our hands. But the enemy is not yet
+    annihilated. Therefore, forward, with God, for King and
+    Fatherland, till the last Russian lies beaten at our feet."
+
+No doubt the Germans had made large captures, but so had the Russians.
+Von Hindenburg, though he called upon his men to rejoice, knew that he
+had really failed in his object, which was to make the Russians retire
+from Galicia and come to the help of their hard-pressed comrades in
+North Poland. They had done nothing of the sort. As you know, the
+Galician campaign went on without interference.
+
+Von Hindenburg had promised his troops that they should eat their
+Christmas dinner in Warsaw. He was still seventy miles from the city,
+and December was already six days old. There was no time to be lost if
+his promise was to be kept.
+
+He now hurled his left against the Russian right wing, which lay north
+of the Bzura and well east of Lowicz. At the same time he increased his
+forces in East Prussia, and ordered them to march southwards from Mlava
+so as to cut the main railway from Warsaw to Petrograd. Had this move
+succeeded, the Russians would have been obliged to abandon Warsaw.
+Happily, a force advanced from the fortress of Novo Georgievsk, and
+drove back the Germans from East Prussia almost to their frontier. For
+the time being, the Russian right flank was secure.
+
+[Illustration: The Battle of the Bzura. Russian Field Artillery in
+Action.
+
+_By permission of The Illustrated London News._]
+
+The Russian wing just south of the Vistula was not, however, well placed
+to meet the other attack. It was cut into two by the river Bzura, and
+its communications were very bad. So, with great wisdom, Ruzsky
+determined to withdraw this wing behind the Bzura and its tributary the
+Rawka, which flows north to join the Bzura, a few miles east of Lowicz.
+Behind these rivers he would have good communications, by means of
+which he could easily bring up food, munitions, and reinforcements. So
+far the winter frosts had not been severe; there was only a thin coating
+of ice on the Polish bogs, and the Vistula and the Pilitza were still
+open for river traffic. Just when Ruzsky was planning his retirement a
+complete thaw set in, and in a few days the whole countryside was one
+slough of despond. The Germans advancing against his new position would
+have to flounder through many feet of mud to get at him.
+
+For a fortnight the Russians slowly fell back all along the line, and
+the towns to the west of the line of the Bzura and the Rawka were
+occupied by the Germans. By the 18th of December the Russians were in
+their new position, which soon proved itself to be as strong as the
+Allied position from Arras to Nieuport. The same kind of warfare now
+took place both in East and West. The Russians dug themselves in close
+to the shallow, muddy streams, and on the other side the Germans
+occupied the fairly high bank which marks the rim of an old channel.
+
+Attacks and counter-attacks were nightly incidents of the struggle. When
+the early darkness set in, the Germans, in close formation, crashed
+through the cat-ice along the shore, waded breast-high through the
+bitterly cold waters, and, in spite of severe losses, frequently gained
+the Russian bank. Sometimes they captured an advanced trench, but rarely
+could they hold it, and all the time they were losing heavily. Warsaw
+was only thirty-five miles away, and the roar of the German guns was
+clearly heard in the city. But there was no panic; the Russian lines
+were proof against every assault. By Christmas Eve the enemy was doing
+no more than hold his trenches. In East and West alike stalemate had set
+in.
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+A writer thus describes Christmas Day in the Russian lines: "The Bishop
+of Moscow," he says, "arranged a solemn Christmas Day service, with
+trained singers who were serving in the army. He later visited the
+hospitals, giving short and plain addresses, and blessing each branch of
+the service in turn. There was a great Christmas tree in the station,
+where presents were distributed to the wounded. Gifts were also
+distributed under fire by the hospital workers to the soldiers in the
+trenches. In the evening I took part in a Christmas gathering in one of
+the big hospitals. Every one's health was drunk in turn; the persons
+toasted were mentioned by their Christian names, and all was woven into
+a long song. Afterwards we sang songs of the Volga."
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+The failure of the second attempt to capture Warsaw brings us down to
+the end of the year 1914, and the moment is convenient for summing up
+the work of the Russian armies during the first five months of the war.
+In common with her Allies, Russia was not ready to take the field when
+war was declared; most of her soldiers had yet to be called up, and she
+had not sufficient rifles, ammunition, and uniforms for them. Further,
+by means of her very imperfect railway system, she had to transport such
+forces as were ready many thousands of miles before they could reach the
+theatre of war. In spite of all these difficulties, she had a force
+prepared to strike a full fortnight before the Germans believed that she
+could put her men into the field.
+
+While the Kaiser's hosts were swinging through Belgium, in the hope of
+overwhelming the French and the British, the Russians, though still too
+weak for the purpose, invaded East Prussia, the sacred land of the
+German squires, and by doing so relieved to some extent the strain in
+the West. Dearly did Russia pay for this act of chivalry. She suffered
+one of the most terrible defeats in her history at Tannenberg; but she
+was still undismayed. In Galicia, on the other hand, she crushed the
+Austrians in two mighty battles before the Germans could come to their
+aid, and captured the whole eastern half of the country.
+
+Her troops were rapidly approaching Cracow, which alone barred the road
+to Silesia and Berlin, when the Germans, who from the first were greatly
+superior in numbers, made a dangerous move against Warsaw, the great
+railway centre which it was essential for Russia to hold if she was to
+maintain the war on the enemy's frontier. To meet this grave threat, the
+Grand Duke ordered his forces to fall back from Galicia, and hold the
+long line of the Vistula against the determined invader. Then when von
+Hindenburg had made his furious thrust, and had been flung back almost
+from the gates of Warsaw, the Russians sprang forward once more, and
+drove the Germans in rout behind their own frontier. Again they swept
+into Galicia, and there they were maintaining themselves when the year
+1914 came to a close.
+
+By means of the network of railways on the German frontier von
+Hindenburg rapidly massed troops for a march across the undevastated
+north of Poland towards the city which had already foiled him, hoping
+that this new threat would have the former effect. It failed in its
+purpose. The Russians met his many with their few behind the marshes of
+the Bzura, and the late arrival of Rennenkampf's troops alone saved the
+Germans from being completely wiped out. As it was, they suffered
+terribly, but reinforced, made another frenzied attempt on Warsaw. Again
+the Russians retreated, and behind a river front of great strength
+defied the Germans to do their worst. By Christmas Eve the Germans had
+failed, for the second time in three months, to capture the city of
+their desire.
+
+[Illustration: Christmas in the Trenches of Poland.
+
+_Photo, Alfieri._
+
+This photograph shows an advanced trench in Poland as held by the
+Germans on Christmas Day. It will be noticed that two sentinels in full
+marching order keep watch, and that the rifles of the defenders lie in
+position, ready to be discharged at a moment's notice. A typical German
+officer is seen sleeping close to the sentry in the foreground.]
+
+Such in the briefest possible outline is the record of Russia's part in
+the war during the year 1914. The Russians had most loyally supported
+the Allies; they had sacrificed thousands of men in order to draw
+against them the greatest number of Germans, and by their stubborn and
+persistent efforts they had caused the enemy after 15th November to
+abandon his offensive movements in the West. Their commander-in-chief
+and most of their other leaders had shown fine generalship and great
+resolution, and their soldiers had given fresh proof of the dogged
+courage for which they have always been renowned.
+
+All this came as a great surprise to those who remembered that the
+Russian armies had been utterly baffled and overthrown in the war which
+they had waged ten years before against Japan. Then they were badly
+trained, badly equipped, and badly led; but Russia had taken to heart
+the bitter lessons of defeat, and during the intervening years had so
+thoroughly reorganized her forces that they were now able to inflict
+defeats upon the foremost military nation of the world. As an armed
+power Russia had been born anew.
+
+
+
+
+  CHAPTER XXX.
+
+  AT WAR WITH TURKEY.
+
+
+At the beginning of the great struggle King George sent a message to the
+Sultan, in which he referred to the friendship which had existed between
+the United Kingdom and Turkey for more than a century. Two days before
+the fall of Tsingtau this old friendship was broken; we were forced to
+declare war on the Power which we had so often befriended during more
+than a hundred years. The fact was that Germany had become all-powerful
+in Turkey, and the Sultan was merely a puppet in the Kaiser's hands.
+
+I have already told you how the Kaiser courted the Sultan in 1889,[170]
+and won for Germany many important industrial and commercial advantages
+in Asia Minor. In July 1908 an event took place in Turkey which seemed
+at first to be a great blow to Germany. Up to that time the government
+of Turkey had been Oriental; the Sultan was absolute; there was no
+parliament, and bad governors robbed the people right and left. Western
+ideas, however, had gradually been gaining ground, especially amongst
+the younger men. In July 1908 the Young Turks, after long preparation,
+rose in rebellion under a vain but very pushing man named Enver Bey. The
+Sultan, the Kaiser's friend, was deposed; his younger brother was placed
+on the throne, and a new form of government, in which the people had
+some share, was set up. Before long, Enver Bey became the most powerful
+man in the country. He was a simple captain when the reform movement
+began, but he rapidly rose to be Chief of the General Staff and
+Secretary for War.
+
+This revolution seemed to have overturned Germany's plans, and to have
+robbed her at one blow of all the power and influence which she had
+gained in Turkey. Thanks, however, to the army which von der Goltz had
+drilled and trained and officered, Germany managed to retain her
+influence. Enver Bey and other leading Young Turks were won over, and
+Germany continued to hold the reins of military power. Then came the war
+with Italy, and in 1912 the sudden and unexpected Balkan War, in which
+the German-trained Turkish army was badly beaten. When all was over,
+Turkey had been reduced to a little country less than twice the size of
+Wales.
+
+After this disaster the Turkish army was practically handed over to
+Germany, lock, stock, and barrel. German officers were poured into the
+army, and nearly all the divisions and brigades had German commanders.
+In January 1914 General Liman von Sanders became commander of all the
+thirteen corps of the Turkish army.
+
+Now, I think you can understand that when the great European war broke
+out it was highly improbable that Turkey would remain neutral. We were
+most anxious to keep Turkey out of the fight, and on 7th August Sir
+Edward Grey promised, on behalf of Great Britain, France, and Russia,
+that if she would refrain from war we would guarantee her independence,
+and would see that she lost no territory when the struggle was over. We
+also undertook to make no change in the government of Egypt, which, as
+you know, was then supposed to be under the overlordship of the Sultan.
+
+When we declared war on Germany there were in this country two
+men-of-war which Messrs. Armstrong, Whitworth, and Company had built for
+the Turkish Government, but which had not been handed over to their
+owners. According to what is called International Law,[171] a nation
+going to war has a perfect right to acquire any warships which have been
+built or are building in its ports, but have not left the country. Our
+Admiralty very properly bought these vessels from the builders. Sir
+Edward Grey telegraphed to the Sultan on 25th August, expressing his
+deep regret that the Government had been obliged to take this course,
+and promising to restore the ships at the end of the war if Turkey would
+remain strictly neutral. There seemed to be a good deal of angry feeling
+against Britain in Constantinople when the Turks learnt that we had
+taken over their ships. The Turkish Prime Minister, however, assured us
+that this angry feeling was largely pretence, and meant nothing. Turkey,
+however, was soon to show herself in her true colours.
+
+In Chapter XXI. of our second volume I told you that the two German
+cruisers _Goeben_ and _Breslau_ were chased by a British squadron in the
+Mediterranean, but that they managed to escape, and on 10th August took
+refuge in the Dardanelles. It was the duty of Turkey as a neutral Power
+to see that these ships did not pass through the Strait, and that they
+were either sent off to sea again in the course of twenty-four hours, or
+were disarmed and interned until the end of the war. Next day, to the
+astonishment of the world, the Turks announced that they had bought the
+cruisers from Germany because Britain had seized the ships which had
+been built for them on the Tyne. I have already told you that Britain
+had every right to take over the Turkish ships. On the other hand,
+Turkey had no right whatever to buy warships from a nation that was at
+war with another nation. To do so was a friendly act to Germany and an
+unfriendly act to Britain, France, and Russia. If the Turks had acted
+according to international law, they would have ordered the _Goeben_ and
+_Breslau_ out of their waters, in which case the Allied ships in the
+Mediterranean would have captured them. By buying them, the Turks
+prevented Britain from reducing the enemy's naval strength, and at the
+same time they assisted Germany by paying over their price. By means of
+these ships the Turks hoped to make themselves masters of the Black Sea.
+
+This unfriendly act in itself afforded Great Britain good grounds for
+declaring war on Turkey; but she was very patient, and confined herself
+to protests. The Turkish Government promised to send away the German
+officers and crews of the _Goeben_ and _Breslau_, but did not do so. All
+the while the Turkish Prime Minister was protesting that Turkey wished
+to be neutral; but he was merely playing for time. Attempts were being
+made to stir up rebellion in Egypt and India, and Turkey was holding her
+hand until the Moslems in these countries should be ready to rise.
+
+Towards the end of October the British Government learned that Turkish
+ships, without any declaration of war, and without warning of any kind,
+had wantonly attacked open, undefended Russian towns on the Black Sea.
+It was well known, too, that Enver Bey, the Turkish Minister of War, was
+strongly pro-German, and that since the war began German officers in
+large numbers had poured into Constantinople. Certain rights enjoyed by
+foreigners living in Turkey had been abolished; the army had been
+mobilized, and there was no doubt that an attack was being prepared
+against Egypt. On 29th October a horde of Bedouins[172] invaded the
+Sinai Peninsula,[173] and seized certain wells. The same day Turkish
+torpedo boats raided Odessa, sank and damaged several ships, and
+bombarded the town.
+
+Next day the ambassadors of the Allies had interviews with the Sultan
+and his advisers. The Sultan and the Prime Minister were in favour of
+peace, but Enver Bey and the military party overruled them. On 1st
+November the ambassadors left Constantinople, and four days later the
+King issued a proclamation which began as follows:--
+
+"_Owing to hostile acts committed by Turkish forces under German
+officers, a state of war now exists between Us and the Sultan of
+Turkey._"
+
+Before I describe the part played by Turkey in the war during the year
+1914, let me tell you something about the army which she was able to put
+into the field. Every man in Turkey is supposed to serve, but as a rule
+only Mohammedans are called upon to do so. The conscript belongs to the
+army for twenty years--nine in the Nizam, or first line; nine in the
+Redif, or Active Reserve; and two in the Mustafiz, or Territorial
+Militia. Probably, at a pinch, the Turks could put into the field
+between 700,000 and 800,000 men, providing there was equipment for them.
+Their artillery had suffered heavily in the Balkan War; but since then
+Turkey had bought many quick-firing guns from Krupp and the famous
+Austrian firm of Skoda. Germany had also provided the Turks with a
+number of heavy batteries.
+
+The Turkish foot-soldier has always been famous as a fighting man. He
+is, as a rule, strong and well built, his nerves are steady, he is very
+stubborn in defence, and he can bear fatigue wonderfully well. But, as
+you know, he did not come off with flying colours during the Balkan War,
+probably because the German discipline to which he had been subjected
+had robbed him of his old dash and go, and because he was not in full
+sympathy with the German officers who commanded him. As a soldier, he
+was half Turk, half German; he had lost many of his Turkish virtues as a
+fighting man, and had not fully acquired those of Germany. Nevertheless,
+he is still brave, still dogged, still much enduring, and will always
+prove a formidable foe.
+
+An American caricature of the time showed the Sultan laying his head
+upon a block and chopping it off with his own hand. Most observers in
+Western Europe felt that by acting as the cat's-paw of Germany, Turkey
+was deliberately committing suicide. She was solving the century-old
+problem--Shall Turkey remain a European Power? However the war might
+end, Turkey was bound to be wiped off the map of Europe as an
+independent state. There were many people in this country who were
+deeply sorry to see a brave people thus tricked into disaster for a
+cause which they could not understand, and for which they had no
+sympathy. Before long, however, the children of Osman[174] were fighting
+and dying amidst the snows of the Caucasus or on the sands of the desert
+in their old fearless, uncomplaining fashion--fighting and dying for no
+purpose save to ensure the destruction of their race as a ruling power.
+
+[Illustration: Constantinople, the ancient Byzantium.
+
+_Photo, Exclusive News Agency._]
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+Naturally the Turks wished to fight in the Balkan Peninsula, and to
+recover, if possible, some of the territory which they had lost during
+the recent disastrous wars. This, however, they could not do, because
+Greece and Bulgaria, their neighbours, remained neutral. The Germans
+wished to use the Turkish army to create diversions--that is, to attack
+the Allies at a distance from the main theatres of war, and thus compel
+them to divide their forces. The frontiers of Turkey in Asia touch that
+wild, mountainous region in which Russia holds sway beneath the towering
+masses of the Caucasus; they also touch the bounds of Egypt, in which
+Britain is supreme, and draw near to the head of the Persian Gulf, which
+for generations we have watched and guarded in the interests of our
+Indian Empire, and have long regarded as a British sphere of influence.
+In these three regions the Turks might be of real assistance to their
+German masters. If they fought in Transcaucasia, they would draw off
+Russian troops from the thousand-mile line which the soldiers of the
+Tsar were then holding from the Niemen to the Dniester. If they attacked
+the Suez Canal, they might bar Britain's short road to India, and force
+her to keep a large army in Egypt. Further, when the Turks advanced,
+their Moslem brethren in Egypt and India might rise in rebellion, and
+force Britain to withdraw troops from the Western front to put them
+down. Then, again, the Turks might push down to the shores of the
+Persian Gulf, and obtain a foothold from which India might be threatened
+and the oil fields of Persia secured. The Turks, therefore, attacked on
+the Persian Gulf, in Transcaucasia, and in Egypt. With their descent
+upon the Suez Canal I shall deal in our next volume; in this and the
+next chapter I will describe the fighting at the head of the Persian
+Gulf, and afterwards I will tell you something of the operations in
+Transcaucasia.
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+South of Transcaucasia lies the Armenian plateau, which consists of
+lofty ranges of sterile mountains, with fertile vales and wide plains
+between them. The highest peak of this plateau is Ararat, on which it is
+said that the Ark rested after the flood. Ararat stands where the
+Russian, the Turkish, and the Persian empires meet, and from its
+southern slopes that famous river the Euphrates goes leaping through the
+mountain gorges on its way to the distant Persian Gulf. In the mountains
+to the south-east of Ararat rises the Tigris, which also flows towards
+the Persian Gulf, and gradually draws nearer and nearer to the
+Euphrates, with which it finally unites. Between the two rivers is
+Mesopotamia, which in early times was a wonderfully fertile country,
+but under the blighting hand of the Turk has become a wilderness, though
+it might again "blossom as the rose" if the waters of the rivers were
+properly distributed over the land.
+
+On the plain of the Euphrates and the Tigris are the ruins of cities
+which were famous at the very dawn of history. Near the busy town of
+Mosul, on the Tigris, is the site of the ancient city of Nineveh; and
+near the Euphrates, not far from the town of Hilla, are the ruins of
+Babylon. Two hundred miles below Mosul is Bagdad, which recalls the
+"Arabian Nights." Above Basra, the city of Sindbad the Sailor, the
+Euphrates and the Tigris unite, and the combined stream flows for about
+seventy miles to the Persian Gulf as the Shat-el-Arab. On the eastern
+side of its lower course is Abadan Island, on which about 1,000 tons of
+crude oil are refined daily. The oil comes down a pipe line from the
+wells, which are about 150 miles north-east of the refinery.
+
+[Illustration: The Persian Gulf.[175]]
+
+The region between Basra and the Persian Gulf is the ancient land of
+Chaldea, the original home of Abraham, the father of the Hebrew people.
+Britons and Turks were now to meet in warfare on the river flats where
+the written history of the world began.
+
+You can easily understand that the refinery at Abadan and the pipe line
+from the oil wells would be open to attack if we should go to war with
+Turkey. To lose this great source of supply would be a grievous blow to
+us, for more and more of our warships now raise their steam with oil
+instead of coal. As soon as the European war began the Government of
+India dispatched an Anglo-Indian force, consisting of the 2nd Dorsets
+and of Indian infantry and artillery, to the Persian Gulf. This force
+was landed on the island of Bahrein, but when war was declared with
+Turkey it re-embarked, and on 7th November reached the bar at the mouth
+of the Shat-el-Arab, near the village of Fao. A gunboat bombarded the
+mud fort of this village, and reduced it to silence in about an hour. A
+force of marines was then landed, and the place was occupied.
+
+The transports then sailed up the estuary, passing Abadan on the left
+bank, and after a voyage of about thirty-five miles, disembarked,
+unopposed, at the Turkish village of Sanijeh,[176] where trenches were
+dug. While General Delamain, who commanded the British expedition, was
+waiting for reinforcements he was attacked by a force of Turks from
+Basra. The Indians quickly checked them, and later in the day showed the
+utmost gallantry in turning them out of a village in which they had
+established themselves.
+
+On 13th November, soon after daybreak, two Anglo-Indian brigades,
+including the 1st Oxford Light Infantry and the 2nd Norfolks, arrived,
+under the command of Sir Arthur Barrett, off the bar of the
+Shat-el-Arab, and by the 15th were ready to disembark at Sanijeh. It was
+no easy task to get men, guns, and stores ashore on the slippery mud
+banks of a broad tidal river, but the work was accomplished before
+sunset. Meanwhile General Delamain attacked the village of Sahain, four
+miles to the north. A short, sharp action took place; but the 2,000
+Turks who were posted in a date grove were not entirely cleared out of
+it. On the 16th the newly-arrived forces rested, and received the news
+that the Turkish garrison of Basra was advancing to give battle. There
+were Europeans in Basra, and General Barrett was eager to capture the
+place speedily, lest evil should befall the foreign residents.
+
+[Footnote 170: See Vol. I., p. 148.]
+
+[Footnote 171: A name given to all those usages which civilized states
+have agreed to observe in their dealings with each other. It is not real
+law because there is no superior power to enforce it.]
+
+[Footnote 172: Arabs who wander with their flocks and herds from place
+to place. They are found in the Syrian and Egyptian deserts, in
+Mesopotamia, and especially in Arabia where they form one-seventh of the
+population.]
+
+[Footnote 173: The southern half of the triangular and hilly tract of
+country between the Gulf of Suez and the Gulf of Akabah, northern arms
+of the Red Sea.]
+
+[Footnote 174: Osman I., founder of the Ottoman Empire, born 1258, died
+1326. Every new Sultan is invested with the sword of Osman, which is
+preserved in a mosque at Constantinople.]
+
+[Footnote 175: For some account of the Bagdad railway (shown in the
+inset map), see Vol. I, p. 148.]
+
+[Footnote 176: See map on p. 277.]
+
+
+
+
+  CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+  FIGHTING IN CHALDEA.
+
+
+On the morning of the 17th the British advanced to the village of
+Sahain,[177] only to discover that the Turks had abandoned it. Nine
+miles farther up the river, at a place called Sahil, the enemy lay in
+force ready to attack. An officer with the expedition thus describes the
+Turkish position:--
+
+    "Imagine a billiard table, only, of course, thousands of times
+    bigger, and instead of being green cloth it is sandy desert.
+    Imagine that one end of the table is high ground held by the
+    Turks with guns in position, and the infantry entrenched, and
+    then imagine us attacking them from the other end. Not a scrap
+    of cover of any kind; absolutely flat and unbroken; no cover for
+    the guns or infantry advancing, no cover for the hospital or
+    wounded as we advanced--nothing; simply a wide, flat, sandy
+    plain!"
+
+To make matters worse, recent rains had made the plain a slough, so that
+the cavalry and guns could scarcely proceed at more than a walking pace.
+
+Early on the morning of the 18th our batteries and gun-boats began
+bombarding the Turkish trenches. The artillery of the enemy replied, but
+the marksmanship was bad, though General Barrett had a narrow escape
+from a shrapnel shell which buried itself in the ground at his feet. The
+Turkish infantry, however, made excellent practice, and their bullets
+swept the front with a withering fire. Nevertheless, our men advanced
+with admirable steadiness. The honours of the day went to the 2nd
+Dorsets, who, without a moment's wavering, crept nearer and nearer to
+the enemy, until they were near enough for the final bayonet charge.
+When they leaped to their feet and dashed forward the Turks broke from
+their trenches, and, flinging away their arms, ammunition, and even
+their clothes, fled to the rear.
+
+Owing to the soggy nature of the ground and to a mirage which screened
+the flight of the enemy, pursuit was well-nigh impossible. About 4 p.m.
+the little battle was practically over--the trenches, two guns, and the
+camp of the enemy were in our possession. The Dorsets lost 130 men in
+this engagement out of a total casualty list of 353, which included
+three officers and thirty-five men killed. More than 1,500 Turks were
+dead or wounded.
+
+[Illustration: Hoisting the Union Jack at Basra.
+
+_Photo, Illustrated London News._]
+
+On the 21st news arrived that the Turks had abandoned Basra, and that
+Arabs were looting the place. A British force was at once embarked on
+river steamers, while other troops were sent forward across the desert
+on foot. About eight miles beyond Sahil the Turks had attempted to
+impede the navigation of the river by sinking ships in the fairway; but
+the business had been badly done, and our gunboats, after silencing a
+battery of Krupp guns on the bank, got past the obstruction. About ten
+on the morning of the 22nd the river force entered Basra without
+opposition. Later in the day the desert column arrived; the German flag
+was hauled down, and the Union Jack was hoisted in its stead. During the
+remainder of the month the British prepared a base camp a few miles up
+the river.
+
+At the beginning of December news arrived that the Turks had reassembled
+at Kurna, some forty-nine miles above Basra, and were about to put their
+fortunes to the test once more. The sketch map on page 277 shows you the
+position of Kurna, the highest point on the river to which ocean-going
+steamers can ascend. You will notice that the old and now
+partly-blocked-up channel of the Euphrates unites with the Tigris at
+Kurna, and that the town occupies a strong position in the angle between
+the rivers, with broad waters on two sides of it. Some people tell us
+that Kurna stands on the site of the garden of Eden, though others say
+that the abode of our first parents lay to the north-west of Bagdad.
+
+Not much opposition was expected at Kurna, so only a small force,
+including a detachment of the Norfolks, was sent upstream on 3rd
+December. It was accompanied by three gunboats, a yacht, and two
+launches, all armed. Next morning the troops were landed on the eastern
+bank about four miles below Kurna, while the gunboats went ahead to
+engage the Turkish artillery and to shell the town. By midday the
+British force was looking across the three-hundred-yard-wide stream
+towards the palm groves which surround Kurna, and was attacking the
+village of Mezera, which stands about a mile from the left bank of the
+Tigris. The Turks were driven out of the village, and withdrew to the
+bank of the river, where they kept up so heavy a fire that our men were
+compelled to retire. It was now evident that the Turks were holding the
+place in force, and that the task of the British was much harder than
+had been supposed.
+
+The attackers dug themselves in, and sent back to Basra for
+reinforcements, which arrived on 7th December. On that day the action of
+the 5th was fought over again, but with far better results. Mezera was
+recaptured, the Turkish trenches on the bank of the river were cleared,
+and the survivors escaped across the stream. The gunboats did excellent
+work, and several of them were hit.
+
+It was now clear that Kurna could not be taken by a frontal attack. The
+only way was to cross the river above the town and fall upon the place
+from the rear. Early on 8th December two battalions with two mountain
+guns were marched a long way up the river; some daring sappers swam the
+stream carrying with them a wire. Snipers fired at them repeatedly, but
+they managed to get across safely, and construct a sort of flying
+bridge. By this means, and also by the use of a dhow which had been
+seized, our troops and their guns crossed the river. By evening they had
+entrenched themselves amidst the trees to the north of Kurna. All was
+ready for the final assault.
+
+It was never delivered. On the night of the 8th
+
+    "a small steamer came down from Kurna showing all her lights, so
+    we did not fire on her. She turned out to be carrying three
+    Turkish officers who had come to offer the surrender of Kurna!
+    Of course we knew we could get into the town, but thought most
+    of the garrison would escape up the river Euphrates. They wanted
+    to be allowed to march out with their arms, but, of course, we
+    would not agree to that, and after about an hour they agreed to
+    an unconditional surrender."
+
+Thus Kurna fell into British hands. The whole garrison surrendered, and
+the Turkish officers gave up their swords; but as a compliment to the
+commander his sword was returned to him. Chaldea was now in our
+possession, and we were well placed to beat off attacks from the north.
+There were still, however, many Turkish troops in the neighbourhood, but
+they did not make any serious attack on us. We had achieved our purpose,
+and had built up a strong barricade against an enemy advance to the
+Persian Gulf and a threat to the security of India.
+
+[Illustration: Basra and Kurna.]
+
+    "We are now," wrote an officer on December 13th, "in a big
+    entrenched camp outside Kurna. . . . Although this is my own
+    regiment, and one is naturally proud of it, I must say they have
+    behaved splendidly. They are a jolly good lot, always merry and
+    bright, and never any trouble. By the way, I heard a rather
+    funny remark last night by one of the men. The mosquitoes are
+    rather bad here, and in the middle of the night, about 1 a.m., I
+    woke up and heard the man say to his neighbour: ''Ere, Bill, if
+    this is the garden of Eden, I wonder what Adam and Eve did with
+    these 'ere mosquitoes a-buzzin' around them.'"
+
+[Footnote 177: See map on page 277.]
+
+
+
+
+  CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+  THE CAMPAIGN IN THE CAUCASUS.
+
+
+While Anglo-Indian troops were winning easy victories on the desert
+sands of Chaldea, Russians and Turks were locked in deadly combat amidst
+the rocky uplands of the broad isthmus that extends between the Black
+Sea and the Caspian Sea. The most striking natural feature of this
+region is the great chain of the Caucasus, the most stupendous mountain
+mass of Western Eurasia. It strikes from north-west to south-east right
+across the country like a huge frowning wall, and in this respect
+resembles the Pyrenees, though its peaks are vastly higher and much of
+it is crowned with perpetual snow. So formidable and complete is this
+great natural barrier that no railway crosses it, and only two main
+roads have been constructed over its passes. The railway which carries
+the traveller from the north to the south of the chain has to creep
+round by way of the strip of low land between its eastern end and the
+Caspian Sea.
+
+One would suppose that this huge barrier would mark off race from race,
+civilization from civilization, and religion from religion; that Europe
+would stop short on its northern slopes, and Asia begin on its southern
+side. This is true in a general sense, but the whole tangled region of
+lofty mountains, with its maze of spurs and plateaus and foothills, with
+towns and villages five or six thousand feet above sea-level, is
+inhabited by many more or less Christian tribes, and is part of Russia.
+It forms the government of the Caucasus, and its southern boundary
+marches with Turkey on the west and with Persia on the east. The Turkish
+fortress of Erzerum is only about seventy miles from the Russian
+frontier.
+
+This mountainous region has been a cockpit of struggle from very early
+times, but the difficult nature of the country has enabled the wild and
+turbulent highlanders to maintain their independence against Turk and
+Persian and Russian alike. Not until 1835 did Russia begin to annex the
+country; she did not come into full possession of it until more than
+forty years later.
+
+Before I describe the actual fighting let us look a little closer at
+this Russian government of the Caucasus.[178] Its main features are the
+great block of the Caucasus range and the lower mountain region to the
+south, known as Georgia. Between the two, at a distance of about sixty
+miles from the high ridge of the Caucasus, is a natural trench which
+rises gradually from the Black Sea for 3,000 feet to the watershed, and
+then slopes down to the Caspian Sea. Along this depression from Batum,
+on the Black Sea, to the great oil town of Baku, on the Caspian Sea,
+runs the railway which I have already mentioned. On it, about half-way
+between Batum and Baku, and also on the chief road which crosses the
+Caucasus, is Tiflis, the capital. It stands on the valley floor,
+surrounded by gray heights rising from twelve to fifteen hundred feet
+above it, and occupies both banks of the river Kur.
+
+The fighting which I am going to describe all took place to the south of
+Tiflis, between the depression mentioned above and the Turkish border.
+You will notice that a railway runs south from Tiflis amidst the
+Georgian mountains, and then swings eastwards to the frontier. This
+railway has to climb two ridges of fairly high mountains, and at its
+railhead of Sarikamish it is 6,000 feet above sea-level. The whole
+country through which it passes is a wild confusion of high hills with
+summits of 10,000 feet in elevation, and deep gorges, leading up to the
+Armenian plateau which I mentioned on page 270. It is impossible to get
+from one valley to another, except by the railway, without climbing
+steep and snow-clad ridges. You can scarcely conceive of a more
+difficult country in which to carry on the operations of war.
+
+[Illustration: The Campaign on the Caucasian Frontier.
+
+(Inset--The Turkish Advance.)]
+
+For the Caucasus campaign which the Turks were now about to begin they
+collected at Erzerum an army of 150,000 men with which to oppose the
+Russian army, which was not more than 100,000 strong. The object of the
+Turks was to capture the fortress of Kars, and thus open the way to
+Tiflis and to the Caspian oil fields at Baku. In order to do this they
+proposed to entice the Russians from Sarikamish across the frontier, and
+hold them at some point as far from the railhead as possible. While the
+Russian front was thus held, the Turks intended to make a wide
+encircling movement with their left centre and fall upon Sarikamish. At
+the same time, their left was to push up the Choruk River, cross the
+mountains to Ardahan, follow the road to Kars, and thus take the
+fortress in the rear.
+
+Fighting began in the first fortnight of November. The Russians advanced
+from Sarikamish, and crossed the frontier to within about forty or fifty
+miles of Erzerum. Now that they were sufficiently far from their
+railhead, the great Turkish plan was put into operation. You will
+understand more clearly what the plan was if you study the little inset
+map on the opposite page. The 11th Corps was ordered to hold the
+Russians in the direction of Erzerum, while the 10th Corps, at Id, was
+to follow a bad mountain road which crosses the passes and comes down to
+the railway between Sarikamish and Kars. Between the 10th Corps and the
+11th Corps a third corps, the 9th, was also to strike across the
+mountains directly at the railhead.
+
+Meanwhile the 1st Corps was carried in transports to Trebizond, on the
+Black Sea. It was to follow the valley of the Choruk until it came to a
+mountain road which climbs a pass of more than eight thousand feet, and
+runs to the town of Ardahan, from which there is a fairly easy road to
+Kars.
+
+About the middle of December the 11th Corps took the offensive, and,
+after fierce fighting, pushed back the Russians for about a dozen miles.
+On Christmas Day the Russians made a stand. At that time they were
+strung out along the railway and the road that runs by the side of it
+for about thirty miles. Meanwhile the 9th and 10th Corps had struggled
+over the high hills, and were descending upon Sarikamish and the railway
+to the east of it; while the 1st Corps, on the extreme Turkish left, had
+climbed the mountains at the head of the Choruk valley in the teeth of
+fierce blizzards, and had reached a position from which in the pauses of
+the storms they could look down on Ardahan. On 28th December it seemed
+as if the Turkish plan had succeeded.
+
+But the forces which had toiled over the mountains and had battled with
+the furious storms and the deep snow were worn out and utterly incapable
+of meeting the Russians. Their transport and big guns could not follow
+them over the rocky steeps; so they were without artillery, ammunition,
+and a proper supply of food. Many of the men were starving, and their
+hands and feet were frost-bitten, while thousands of others could only
+crawl along in a dazed and numb condition. It was impossible for these
+hungry, cold, and toil-worn men to make a great united attack, and the
+Russians were therefore able to deal with them piecemeal.
+
+First they dealt with the 10th Corps. On January 1, 1915, after three
+days of hard fighting on the railway, they forced this corps to retreat
+into the hills. This retreat left the 9th Corps unsupported. The
+Russians had pushed forward their right in pursuit of the retreating
+enemy, and at the same time their left had advanced, so that the 9th
+Corps was taken on both flanks. It fought with the fury of despair, and
+on January 3, 1915, when it had almost been wiped out, the remnants laid
+down their arms. It is said that the Turks yielded rather to cold and
+hunger than to the onset of the Russians; that they surrendered as much
+to the Russian field kitchens as to Russian steel.
+
+Meanwhile the 1st Corps had entered Ardahan, but could not advance any
+farther. The Russian force which had been detached to cope with it drove
+the worn-out Turks from the town, and thrust them back in complete rout
+into the mountains and towards the Choruk valley, by which they had
+advanced. The 10th Corps, now in flight, was also heading in the same
+direction. The 11th Corps, which had been holding up the Russians on the
+road from Erzerum to Sarikamish, now made a big effort to save the
+situation. It had been unable to rescue the 9th Corps, but it might do
+something to cover the retreat of the 10th Corps. Accordingly it
+attacked vigorously, and pushed back the Russians to within twenty miles
+of Sarikamish, where three days' heavy fighting took place amidst the
+snowdrifts. By January 17, 1915, the 11th Corps had also been broken,
+and was forced to retreat on Erzerum, with a great loss of men and guns.
+
+While this struggle was going on, the Russian right was pursuing the
+1st Corps and the remnant of the 10th and was driving them towards
+Trebizond. The Turkish navy attempted to bring reinforcements and stores
+to these harried corps; but Russian warships sank several of the
+transports and provision vessels, and hunted the _Breslau_ and the
+_Hamidieh_, which accompanied them, back to Constantinople. The _Goeben_
+had already been crippled and put out of action for several weeks.
+
+So, in hopeless and utter failure, ended the great adventure in the
+Caucasus. The plan of campaign had been prepared by German generals, who
+worked from the map without any actual knowledge of the terribly
+difficult country in which the troops were to operate. They did not
+foresee that the mountains and gorges, the broken tracks, the fierce
+storms, the deep snow, and the biting cold were of themselves sufficient
+to defeat any army, however brave and determined. Neither did they
+foresee that the Turks would have to fight when worn out with marching
+and privation. They set their allies an impossible task; but the Turks
+fought like heroes. More than 50,000 of them were killed or wounded, or
+led away into captivity. For many months to come, Russia had nothing to
+fear from the Turks in the Caucasus.
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+Immediately war was declared on Turkey several of our submarines were
+sent to the Dardanelles, to destroy, if possible, some of the Turkish
+warships. Submarine B11 was most successful in this work, and its
+commander, Lieutenant Norman Douglas Holbrook, R.N., was awarded the
+Victoria Cross for a conspicuous act of bravery on 13th December. On
+that day he entered the Dardanelles, and, notwithstanding the difficult
+current, dived his vessel under five rows of mines, and then torpedoed
+the Turkish battleship _Messudiyeh_, which was guarding the mine-field.
+After this exploit he brought his vessel back safely, though it was
+fiercely attacked by gun fire and torpedo boats. So beset was he that on
+one occasion he had to submerge the submarine for nine hours.
+
+[Footnote 178: See map on next page.]
+
+
+
+
+  CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+  THE BATTLE OF THE SERBIAN RIDGES.
+
+
+During some hundreds of pages I have told you nothing about the part
+which gallant little Serbia was playing in the great struggle. On page
+76 of our second volume I briefly summed up the situation at the end of
+August 1914. At that time the first Austrian invasion had failed, and
+the country was almost clear of the enemy. The Austrians had suffered a
+serious set-back.
+
+Early in September they prepared a second army of invasion. Before I
+follow its fortunes, I want you to look closely at the little map on the
+opposite page. You notice that from the railway uniting the Lower Drina
+with Shabatz on the Save, right away to the southern frontier, the
+country is criss-crossed in all directions by great uplands, almost as
+difficult for an army to traverse as those of Georgia. The river valleys
+alone give access to the interior, and afford railway routes. There are
+a few good government highways, but most of the roads are mere tracks,
+which in wet weather become quagmires. When once the autumn rains set
+in, the work of transport in Serbia is greatly hampered.
+
+All the lowland parts of Serbia lie along the right bank of the Save and
+the Danube. This district is open, though hilly. East of Shabatz the
+lowlands form a rough triangle, with the course of the river Save as its
+base, and the highland town of Valjevo, on the river Kolubara, as its
+apex. It was across this triangle of easy country that the Austrians
+made their second invasion.
+
+The Serbians did not wait for the Austrian attack, but pushed over the
+plain, and in the darkness of night on 6th September crossed the Save at
+several points, and made a dash on the Hungarian town of Semlin,
+opposite Belgrade. They occupied the place on the 10th, but were unable
+to hold it, and were driven back with heavy losses into the Tser
+Mountains, which you see marked on the map.
+
+The Austrian commander-in-chief proposed to turn the Serbian left, and
+at the same time hurry forward mountain troops to Valjevo, and thus cut
+off the retreat of the Serbian army. During September and October
+attacks and counter-attacks were constant, but neither side made much
+headway. The Austrians could not drive the Serbians off the crests of
+the mountains, and the Serbians could not drive back the Austrians, who
+were advancing up the Drina to turn the Serbian left. At length,
+however, the Serbian ammunition began to fail, and the Austrian numbers
+began to tell. On 6th November the enemy won the summits of the Tser
+Mountains, and the Serbians, in order to avoid being enveloped, were
+forced to retreat eastwards. This they did in perfect order.
+
+[Illustration: Map to illustrate the Campaign of November and December
+1914.]
+
+The Austrians pushed on, and occupied Valjevo on 14th November. While
+the Serbians retired to the summit of a range south of Valjevo, the
+invaders pillaged the whole Kolubara valley and their line of march was
+marked by fire and massacre. Belgrade was abandoned, and on 2nd December
+the Austrians made a state entry into the undefended capital. Telegrams
+of congratulation were sent to old Franz Josef, and Vienna was full of
+rejoicing. The Austrians boldly declared that the campaign was over,
+that the Serbians were finally defeated, and that the fruits of victory
+were about to be reaped. So certain of success was the Austrian general
+that he sent back three of his corps to help his fellow-countrymen, who
+were now about to begin their attack on the Carpathian passes from the
+south.
+
+For a whole fortnight the Austrians dallied in Valjevo and on the skirts
+of the ridges occupied by the enemy. During this period the Serbians
+were by no means idle. Every available man was brought up, gun positions
+were prepared, and trenches were dug and strengthened. Best of all, the
+Western Allies sent them ammunition for big guns and small arms, and
+these supplies now reached the hard-pressed Serbians, despite the
+efforts of Turkish and Bulgarian bands to capture them.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Serbia was about to make her last stand. Everything had to be staked on
+the issue of the coming battle. If the Serbians should be driven back
+they would be almost certain to lose Kragujevatz,[179] their arsenal and
+chief industrial centre, and without it they could scarcely continue the
+struggle. They would also lose Nish, the old capital, now the sojourning
+place of the government. The Serbians, however, held a very strong
+position on the Maljen ridge, to the west of the main road leading from
+Valjevo to Kragujevatz, and were also posted on the still higher Rudnik
+ridge to the east of this road.
+
+The plan of the enemy was to advance its centre against the Rudnik ridge
+along the single-line railway which runs up the valley of the Lig, a
+tributary of the Kolubara. At the same time the right was to move up the
+head waters of the Kolubara and attack the Maljen ridge, while the left
+was to swing round in a wide sweep, and thus enclose the Serbian army.
+By 3rd December the Austrian centre had gained the western part of the
+Rudnik ridge, and the wings were making good progress.
+
+The critical hour has struck; the fate of Serbia hangs in the balance.
+Old King Peter rises from a sick-bed and joins his soldiers, to die, if
+need be, with them. He addresses them in burning words which recall the
+speech of King Henry before Agincourt[180] and that of Robert Bruce
+before Bannockburn. He recalls the bitter struggles of their
+forefathers, recounts the ancient glories of their race, and paints the
+bright future which waits upon victory. Thus nobly he concludes:--
+
+    "Heroes, you have taken two oaths--one to me, your King, and the
+    other to your country. I am an old, broken man, on the edge of
+    the grave,[181] and I release you from your oath to me. From
+    your other oath no one can release you. If you feel you cannot
+    go on, go to your homes, and I pledge my word that after the
+    war, if we come out of it, nothing shall happen to you. But I
+    and my sons stay here."
+
+Every Serbian feels himself uplifted by the noble words of his leader;
+not a man leaves the ranks; all are ready to do and die with their king.
+The weary and ragged soldiers pledge their faith anew, and steel their
+hearts to sweep the cruel hordes of invaders from the soil which they
+have profaned.
+
+At sunrise on 3rd December the two centre divisions of the Serbian army
+begin to advance across the bare, sharp ridges, now thinly powdered with
+snow. Fog hides them from the Austrian battalions which are descending
+from the plateau which they occupy to attack the Rudnik ridge. The sun
+shines out and dissipates the fog. Suddenly the Serbian guns, which have
+been dumb for many days, begin to speak, and the soldiers, fired with
+new courage, dash forward. So fierce is the onset that the Austrians,
+unable to deploy, fall into confusion. Panic seizes them, and they fly
+back a terrified mob to the plateau from which they advanced a few
+minutes ago full of confidence.
+
+Fresh Austrian troops are hurried up, and for three days the battle
+rages fiercely. On the afternoon of 5th December the left centre breaks,
+and crowds of discomfited men stream northward down the Lig valley. The
+fugitives think only of their own safety; they fling away arms and
+equipment, and on the mountain roads and in the deep ravines abandon
+their artillery and baggage. Then the Austrian centre suffers the same
+fate, and the road to Valjevo is crowded with beaten troops hurrying
+into safety. There is good news, too, from the Serbian left, where a
+great victory has been won, and the enemy is in full retreat along the
+head waters of the Kolubara. By the dawn of the 6th the Austrian centre
+and right have everywhere given way, and the routed enemy is a mere
+panic-stricken mob, hot-foot for the frontier.
+
+The Serbians follow up the pursuit with great vigour, and sweep the
+Austrians over the Drina and the Save with fearful slaughter and the
+capture of thousands of prisoners and many guns. The Austrian left tries
+to make a stand, but all to no purpose. It is thrust back to a position
+already prepared on the crescent of hills to the south of Belgrade. Here
+it holds out till the 13th, when it, too, is broken, and its remnants
+strew the streets of Belgrade with rifles and equipment, and stampede
+wildly over the Danube bridges whipped by the merciless flail of the
+Serbian guns. A rearguard sacrifices itself in the northern suburbs to
+cover the retreat, but all is over; and on the 15th old King Peter is on
+his knees in the cathedral, giving thanks for the great victory
+vouchsafed to his arms. A few days later, and the Serbians are able to
+boast that not a single armed Austrian remains on their soil.
+
+[Illustration: King Peter watching the Battle of the Ridges.]
+
+[Footnote 179: _Krar-goo´ye-vatz._]
+
+
+
+
+  CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+  THE BATTLE OFF THE FALKLAND ISLANDS.
+
+
+The disastrous battle off Coronel took place on 1st November. Ten days
+later, in silence and secrecy, the _Invincible_ and the _Inflexible_,
+the first two battle cruisers built by Britain, left Plymouth, and
+steamed at full speed across the Atlantic to the West Indies. On board
+the _Invincible_ was Vice-Admiral Sir Doveton Sturdee, who was to take
+command of the avenging squadron. On his voyage to the Falklands he
+picked up the three armoured cruisers the _Carnarvon_, the _Kent_, and
+the _Cornwall_; also the light cruiser _Bristol_, the _Glasgow_, now
+repaired, and the _Macedonia_, an armed liner. He was thus in command of
+a very formidable force. Each of his two battle cruisers carried eight
+12-inch guns, so mounted that they could be fired on either broadside.
+
+How to get into touch with the German squadron was the problem that
+Sturdee set himself to solve. It is said that he managed it by means of
+a remarkable piece of "bluff." While his ships were steaming south he
+sent off a wireless message ordering the _Canopus_ to proceed to
+Stanley, where she would be perfectly safe under the new guns which had
+been sent out to strengthen the forts. This message was picked up by the
+Germans, as it was meant to be. They believed that it was a trick
+intended to mislead them as to the safety of the _Canopus_, and that all
+the talk about forts and new guns was simple nonsense. But one thing the
+message did tell them, and that was that the _Canopus_ was proceeding to
+Stanley Harbour, where she would have only the remnants of Cradock's
+beaten squadron to support her. Von Spee thought she would be an easy
+prey. He therefore resolved to capture her, and while Sturdee's
+squadron, all unknown to him, was speeding towards the Falkland Islands,
+he headed for Cape Horn, and steered towards Stanley.
+
+The British squadron arrived in Stanley Harbour on the morning of 7th
+December, and coaling at once began. Within the inner harbour lay the
+_Canopus_, _Glasgow_, and _Bristol_; in the outer gulf were the battle
+cruisers and the remaining vessels of the squadron. All were perfectly
+hidden from an enemy in the open sea.
+
+At 7.30 on the morning of 8th December the look-out on Sapper's Hill
+reported as follows: "Eight ships sighted about twelve miles off,
+south-east, all making for Stanley." It was von Spee's squadron
+descending upon Stanley to smash up the unprotected _Canopus_ and
+destroy the wireless station. The German admiral proposed, when that was
+done, to dash across the Atlantic to the coast of German South-West
+Africa, and prevent the landing of a force from Cape Town.
+
+Speedily the great good news that von Spee was walking straight into the
+trap laid for him reached the British warships. Officers were roused
+from sleep, and the flag-lieutenant of the _Invincible_, so the story
+goes, dashed down to the Admiral's cabin clad only in pyjamas. Sturdee
+was shaving, and he received the information with the utmost calmness.
+"Well," he said drily, "you had better go and get dressed. We'll see
+about it later." I hope this story is true, because it recalls the
+famous incident when Drake was informed that the Spanish Armada was in
+sight.
+
+Screened by the land, Sturdee waited for the Germans to draw nearer, so
+as to make victory doubly secure. At about a quarter to nine the _Kent_
+steamed down the harbour, and took up a position at the entrance. The
+advance ships of the enemy came boldly on, anticipating an easy victory
+against the feeble force which they imagined to be in the harbour. Then
+they turned broadside on, with the intention of destroying the wireless
+station. Directed by officers on the hills above the town, the _Canopus_
+from her moorings opened fire over the narrow neck of land, and five
+shots in quick succession fell around the German ships, which
+immediately hoisted their colours and wheeled round to close in with the
+other three vessels of their squadron. Soon the British admiral knew
+that the ships in the offing were the _Scharnhorst_, _Gneisenau_,
+_Leipzig_, _Nürnberg_, and _Dresden_. He could hardly believe his good
+luck. He had come out to seek this very squadron, and it had come to
+find him instead.
+
+A few minutes later the two leading cruisers of the enemy altered their
+course and made directly for the harbour mouth, where the _Kent_ was
+ready to engage them. Meanwhile the British battle cruisers were rapidly
+raising steam by means of oil fuel, and while doing so were sending up
+dense clouds of smoke with which to shroud themselves. Nearer and nearer
+came the leading ships of von Spee's squadron, and soon their commanders
+and crews had the surprise of their lives. They could now see the masts
+and funnels of the battle cruisers, and they knew for the first time
+that the British were waiting for them in great strength. Van Spee was
+well aware that he could not cope with such a force. The British ships
+were faster, and their guns were heavier and of longer range. He had
+played into the enemy's hands, and only a miracle could save him.
+Immediately the ships of his vanguard changed direction and hurried back
+to their consorts.
+
+It was a beautiful morning. The sun was bright, the sky was clear, and
+the sea was calm--one of those rare days which come to the foggy,
+wind-swept islands like angels' visits, few and far between. Leaving the
+_Canopus_ in harbour, Admiral Sturdee about ten o'clock ordered the
+chase to begin, and the _Glasgow_, followed by the _Kent_, _Invincible_,
+_Cornwall_, _Inflexible_, and _Carnarvon_, steamed out to sea. The
+colliers and supply ships of the German squadron at once retreated to
+the south, and the _Bristol_ and _Macedonia_ followed them up. The
+remainder of van Spee's ships turned tail, and at top speed hurried away
+eastward. Their only hope lay in flight.
+
+The great gray warships tore through the sunlit seas, the white foam
+streaming from their bows as they furrowed the waves. The _Invincible_
+and the _Inflexible_ soon drew ahead, but had to slacken off to enable
+the slower cruisers to keep up with them. At about eleven o'clock the
+position of the ships was as shown in the diagram on the next page.
+
+Von Spee now saw that he was being slowly but surely overtaken, and that
+he could not escape by flight. He therefore detached his three light
+cruisers, the _Leipzig_, _Nürnberg_, and _Dresden_, which made off
+towards the south, followed by the _Kent_, _Cornwall_, and _Glasgow_,
+while the two British battle cruisers and the _Carnarvon_ steadily
+gained on the _Gneisenau_ and the _Scharnhorst_. They were soon within
+striking distance; 15,000 or 16,000 yards of sea separated them from the
+enemy. Admiral Sturdee however, was in no hurry to engage, and ordered
+his men to dinner. He even gave them time for a comfortable smoke after
+their meal. Just after a quarter to one he made this signal: "Open fire
+and engage the enemy."
+
+The men flew to their stations, and with the utmost eagerness obeyed the
+short, sharp orders. The ranges were signalled, the big guns were aimed,
+and suddenly the air quivered with the thunder of their discharge. There
+was a gleam of fire at their muzzles, followed by dense clouds of smoke,
+as the shells screamed over the sea. The morning promise of a fine day
+had gone. The sky became overcast, and the air was thick with a drizzle
+of rain.
+
+[Illustration: Battle off the Falkland Islands, December 8, 1914.]
+
+We will first follow the fortunes of the British battle cruisers now
+engaged in a fierce duel with the _Gneisenau_ and the _Scharnhorst_.
+About two o'clock it was discovered that the British vessels were
+diverging from the enemy, who, seeing this, turned to starboard, in the
+hope of getting away. At once the British ships turned starboard too,
+and this brought them again within effective range. The smoke was now
+impeding the firing, so Admiral Sturdee worked up to top speed, and got
+on the other side of the enemy, from which position the _Scharnhorst_
+was pounded mercilessly. You can picture the scene for yourselves: the
+roar of the guns, the scream of the shells, the loud crashes as shots
+went home, the wash of the waves, the whistle of the rising breeze, the
+grinding of the hydraulic machinery as the turrets swung round, the
+throb of the engines--all uniting in a chorus of deafening and incessant
+noise.
+
+The _Scharnhorst_ was soon in the throes of her last agony. Clouds of
+smoke rose from her, and spurts of bright flame. Shot after shot struck
+her, and though she returned the fire, the British vessels were too far
+away for her shells to do much damage. Her 8.2-inch guns could not cope
+with the 12-inch monsters of the battle cruisers. At three o'clock
+Admiral Sturdee, seeing that the end of the _Scharnhorst_ was near, sent
+out this signal to his ships: "God save the King." By 3.30 the masts and
+funnels of the enemy had been shot away, and at five minutes past four
+she listed to port and turned bottom upwards. In a cloud of steam and
+smoke she disappeared amidst the swirling waters, her propellers still
+going and her flag still flying. Seven hundred and sixty brave men and
+their gallant admiral had gone to their doom.
+
+Fire was now concentrated on the _Gneisenau_, and soon she was done for.
+At half-past five, when her upper works were a total wreck, when one of
+her turrets had been blown overboard and flames were raging, she ceased
+firing. Several times her flag had been shot away, but every time it had
+been replaced. The three British vessels now closed in on her; her
+engines were smashed to fragments, but with one gun she still fought on.
+Soon after six o'clock she began to settle down, and Admiral Sturdee
+signalled to his consorts, "Cease fire." Six hundred of her crew had
+been killed, and the survivors were now lined up on deck waiting for the
+end. Then she suddenly heeled over, her stern rose high in the air, and
+a few moments later she too disappeared. The sea was dotted with men
+battling for life amidst the waves.
+
+An officer on board the _Invincible_ thus describes the errand of mercy
+on which the British were soon engaged:--
+
+    "Now came the awful part. The _Inflexible_, _Carnarvon_, and
+    ourselves hurried up to where she had disappeared, shown by
+    slightly discoloured water, and on coming up close saw a good
+    amount of wreckage with men clinging to it. Never shall I forget
+    it: they were mostly calling out, and it sounded like a wail to
+    us. We all lowered boats as quickly as possible, and picked up
+    as many as possible; but heaps must have sunk, as the water was
+    40 degrees and they were all numb. It was awful being on the
+    ship, because when all the boats were away they kept floating
+    past, some swimming, some unconscious, just beneath the water.
+    We lowered people down on bow-lines, and hauled them up the
+    ship's side; some of them were quite dead when they came in.
+    Altogether this ship saved about 115, of which fourteen were
+    dead."
+
+Meanwhile what had happened to the _Dresden_, _Nürnberg_, and _Leipzig_,
+which were being chased by the _Glasgow_, _Kent_, and _Cornwall_? The
+battle between these light cruisers was more equal than the fight which
+I have just described. All day the struggle continued. The _Kent_, which
+was chasing the _Nürnberg_, got far out of sight of land, and lost touch
+with her consorts. It was feared that she had been lost, especially as
+no reply was received to the numberless calls sent out to her. Late in
+the afternoon of the next day she returned safely to Stanley with her
+wireless shot away, and showing every mark of fierce combat. Her silk
+ensign and Jack, presented by the ladies of the county of Kent, had been
+torn to ribbons.
+
+The _Nürnberg_ could steam a knot faster than the _Kent_, but the
+British stokers and engineers worked like heroes. They piled her
+furnaces high with fuel, and strained her engines to the utmost. When
+the engineers reported that coal was running short, the captain replied,
+"Very well, then; have a go at the boats." Accordingly the boats were
+broken up, the wood was smeared with oil and passed into the furnaces.
+Shortly afterwards the wooden ladders, doors, and almost everything that
+would burn followed the boats. She managed to work up to 25 knots--a
+knot and a half more than her registered speed--and slowly but surely
+came within range of the enemy.
+
+[Illustration: The Sinking of the Nürnberg by the British Light Cruiser
+Kent.
+
+(_Drawn by Montagu Dawson from a sketch by an eye-witness. By permission
+of The Sphere._)]
+
+The _Nürnberg_ was well fought, and the _Kent_ was hit several times. A
+bursting shell set fire to some cordite charges, and a flash of flame
+went down the hoist into the ammunition passage. Sergeant Charles Mayer
+instantly picked up a charge of cordite and hurled it into safety. He
+then seized a fire hose, and by flooding the compartment averted all
+danger. But for this heroic action there would have been an explosion,
+and the _Kent_ would probably have been put out of action, if not
+destroyed altogether. By about seven o'clock the _Nürnberg_ was in
+flames, and less than half an hour later she sank, her guns firing to
+the last. As she disappeared some of her crew waved the German ensign
+from the quarter-deck.
+
+The _Glasgow_ and the _Cornwall_ came within range of the _Leipzig_
+about three in the afternoon, and for six hours they engaged her. From
+time to time she turned and fired a salvo at her pursuers; but though
+shells fell fast and thick around the _Glasgow_, there were few
+casualties, though many narrow escapes. Not till nine o'clock was the
+_Leipzig_ finally disposed of. As the darkness of a wet night closed in,
+she heeled over and went down. The German transports and colliers had
+been sunk and their crews saved earlier in the day by the _Bristol_ and
+the _Macedonia_. Of von Spee's squadron, only the _Dresden_ and the
+armed liner _Eitel Friedrich_[182] remained.
+
+The battered _Dresden_ had managed to escape early in the fight, and she
+was lost sight of for many weeks. Ultimately she was cornered by the
+_Kent_ and the _Cornwall_ off Juan Fernandez[183] on March 18, 1915, and
+after a five minutes' action was forced to hoist the white flag. When
+her crew were taken off she was in flames. Finally her magazine
+exploded, and she sank.
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+Such was the first decisive naval battle of the war. It was a triumph
+not only for the officers and men of the British squadron, but also for
+the Admiralty, which had so skilfully and secretly planned the whole
+enterprise. The British victory was well-nigh complete; only one warship
+escaped, and our loss was small. The _Invincible_ had no casualties; the
+_Inflexible_ had one man killed. The _Kent_, which fought the most
+stubborn engagement, lost four men killed and twelve wounded; while the
+_Glasgow_ had nine killed and four wounded. The German loss was
+terrible. Some 3,000 men must have perished, including von Spee and two
+of his sons. Let us do honour to those of our foes who sank beneath the
+waves on that dread day. "The German admiral fought as Cradock had
+fought; the German sailors died as Cradock's men had died. There can be
+no higher praise."
+
+[Footnote 180: See Shakespeare's _Henry V._, Act iv., Scene 3.]
+
+[Footnote 181: King Peter was born in 1844.]
+
+[Footnote 182: She was afterwards interned at Newport News, on the
+northern shore of the estuary of the James River, Virginia.]
+
+[Footnote 183: Rocky island belonging to Chile, 400 miles off the coast
+of that country. Alexander Selkirk lived four years on this island, and
+his story formed the basis of De Foe's _Robinson Crusoe_.]
+
+
+
+
+  CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+  NAVAL RAIDS ON THE EAST COAST OF ENGLAND.
+
+
+Every British boy and girl remembers Campbell's stirring lines:--[184]
+
+  "Britannia needs no bulwarks,
+     No towers along the steep;
+   Her march is o'er the mountain waves,
+     Her home is on the deep."
+
+In these days of fast warships, aeroplanes, and airships, we can no
+longer say that "Britannia needs no bulwarks, no towers along the
+steep." While it is probably true that no invasion of Great Britain
+could be successful while the British Navy remains undefeated, it is
+likewise true that the Navy in war time cannot guarantee that an enemy
+with bases on the North Sea will not be able to make sudden swoops upon
+certain parts of the British coast. During the darkness of night or
+amidst the obscurity of fog, fast warships can dash across the North
+Sea, turn their guns on seaside towns for a short time, and then hurry
+back to the safety of their own waters before a British fleet can catch
+them. Aeroplanes and airships can also fly across by day and drop bombs
+on coast towns by night. Of course, such attacks can never decide the
+war. At the best they can only cause panic and spread dismay amongst the
+people. The British, however, are not easily frightened or dismayed.
+Those who know the British temper best will tell you that such naval
+raids and air attacks can only make our people more determined than ever
+to defeat the enemy.
+
+Perhaps you think that the Navy ought to protect coast towns from sudden
+raids. You must remember that the business of the Navy is to destroy the
+fleets of the enemy, and that it must always be ready to give battle
+whenever occasion offers. Were our warships to be strung out along the
+coast for the protection of towns, they would be an easy prey; they
+would be quite unable to concentrate rapidly in order to meet the enemy
+when he came out in strength or to fall upon him in the open sea on his
+way to or from an attack on our coasts.
+
+During the month of October, when the German guns thundering against
+Ypres could be heard across the Channel, we began to prepare seriously
+against raids and even invasion. Mine fields were laid along the
+threatened shores, and within easy reach of all possible landing-places
+Yeomanry and Territorials were stationed, trenches were dug, wire
+entanglements were erected, and anti-aircraft guns were mounted. Over
+and over again there were false alarms that the enemy were coming. In
+the early days of November he made his first appearance.
+
+Late on the afternoon of 2nd November eight German warships steamed out
+of the mouth of the Elbe, and cleared for action, ready for a descent
+upon the east coast of England. Probably some of the many German spies
+who then swarmed in the eastern counties had reported that the coast was
+clear, and that a sudden swoop had every prospect of success. The
+squadron consisted of the _Seydlitz_, the _Moltke_, and the _Von der
+Tann_, battle cruisers; the _Bluecher_ and the _Yorck_, armoured
+cruisers; and the _Kolberg_, the _Graudenz_, and the _Strassburg_, light
+cruisers. All but the _Yorck_ could steam 25 knots an hour, and the
+battle cruisers mounted 11-inch guns. Early on the morning of the 3rd
+they ran through the nets of a fishing fleet about eight miles east of
+Lowestoft, and sighted an old coast patrol boat, the _Halcyon_. Shots
+were fired at her, but she managed to get away unpursued, with her
+wireless apparatus, bridge and funnel damaged, and one man wounded.
+
+By eight in the morning the German ships were ten miles off Yarmouth,
+and had begun to aim their guns at the wireless station and the naval
+air station. Their shells ploughed the beach or plumped harmlessly into
+the sea. For a quarter of an hour they kept up their cannonade without
+doing any damage. Then they retired, and while doing so threw out mines
+to prevent pursuit. Later in the day a British submarine, D5, ran on one
+of these mines and was blown up. Before the voyage ended the engineer
+was hoisted on his own petard.[185] The _Yorck_ collided with another of
+the mines, and went to the bottom with all her crew.
+
+The destruction of von Spee's squadron off the Falkland Islands aroused
+much anger and bitterness in Germany, and many Germans loudly complained
+that their great and expensive fleet did nothing but skulk in its ports.
+Stung by these reproaches, and eager to avenge the defeat in the
+Southern Seas, the German naval authorities now prepared a raid upon the
+Yorkshire coast. The distance between Heligoland and Scarborough is
+about 320 miles. A ship leaving Heligoland at five in the evening, and
+steaming between 20 and 25 knots an hour, can easily reach Scarborough
+about eight in the morning, spend an hour in shelling the town, and be
+back again at its base before midnight.
+
+On the evening of 15th December, seven days after the Battle off the
+Falkland Islands, a German raiding force steamed westward from
+Heligoland. We do not yet know exactly what ships were included in it,
+but probably Rear-Admiral Funke had with him most of the vessels which
+took part in the former raid, as well as the _Derfflinger_. Before
+daybreak, when a thick, cold mist lay low on the coast, the squadron
+arrived off the mouth of the Tees. There the forces were divided. The
+_Derfflinger_ and the _Von der Tann_, with another vessel, probably the
+_Bluecher_, were sent north against the Hartlepools; while two light
+cruisers, along with, probably, the _Seydlitz_ and the _Graudenz_,
+sailed south against Scarborough.
+
+According to the laws of war, which Germany has undertaken to recognize,
+unfortified towns may not be bombarded. Nobody in his senses could
+possibly call Scarborough a fortified town. On a green promontory there
+are the picturesque ruins of a castle, now crumbling to decay, and
+formerly there was a battery below it. But when the German ships
+appeared off Scarborough, its only weapon of defence was an old
+60-pounder Russian gun captured in the Crimea, and sent to the town as
+an interesting relic. True, there was a wireless station on a hill
+behind the town, and some battalions of the new army were in the
+neighbourhood. Otherwise the Germans had not the shadow of an excuse for
+attacking Scarborough.
+
+A few minutes before eight o'clock, when the all-the-year-round bathers
+were taking their morning dip, four strange warships were seen looming
+through the mist, and a few moments later the booming of guns was heard.
+Shells began to crash on the coastguard station and in the castle
+grounds, and shortly afterwards the ships steamed in front of the town
+to within five hundred yards of the shore. Quite unmolested, they
+proceeded to bombard every large object within sight. The Grand Hotel
+was struck by three shells; churches, public buildings, and
+hospitals--one of them flying the Red Cross flag--were hit, and large
+numbers of private houses were wrecked. Many shells were directed
+against the wireless station and the gas works.
+
+For forty minutes the bombardment continued, and probably some five
+hundred shots were fired. Eighteen persons, chiefly women and children,
+were killed, and about seventy were wounded. One house was struck by a
+shell which glanced off a railway bridge about twenty yards distant. The
+whole place crumpled up as though struck by a giant's hammer, and a
+child of nine, another of five, the mother, and a soldier son, were
+instantly killed, while the father and another son were severely
+wounded. The number of narrow escapes was great. In some cases roofs
+were torn off and walls crushed in, yet the occupants remained unharmed.
+By a quarter to nine all was over, and the hulls of the raiding vessels
+disappeared round the castle promontory.
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+Some fifteen miles north of Scarborough is the pleasant seaside resort
+of Whitby, built on both sides of the estuary of the little river Esk.
+Those of you who have spent your holidays in the town will remember the
+red-tiled cottages of the fishermen, the gray walls of the quays and
+houses, the little bridge, and the ships sailing up the river at high
+tide. Most of the town is on the West Cliff, and across the river, on a
+high, treeless headland, are the roofless ruins of an abbey on the site
+of an older monastic building, which has always been regarded as the
+cradle of English song. It was on this spot that the first English poem
+composed in England flowed from the lips of Caedmon, a humble man who,
+in the seventh century, tended the cows and slept in the byre of the
+monastery, which was then under the rule of the abbess Hilda. For this
+reason Whitby is sacred all the world over to lovers of English
+literature. This quiet seaside place, without a vestige of
+fortification, was now to receive a visit of destruction from the
+sailors of a nation which has always professed to reverence art,
+learning, and literature.
+
+About nine o'clock the coastguard at Whitby saw through the haze two
+warships rapidly steaming up from the south. Ten minutes later they
+began firing at the coastguard station on West Cliff, where many
+townsfolk gathered to watch the bombardment, which continued for a
+quarter of an hour. Some of the shots damaged the coastguard station,
+destroyed the western gateway of the ancient abbey on the East Cliff,
+and wrecked a number of private houses. Shells fell at Ruswarp, a mile
+inland, and damaged a school at Meadowfield. Happily, the scholars, who
+had just begun their morning lessons, were unhurt. In all, three persons
+were killed and two were injured. After the bombardment the cruisers
+turned northwards, and were quickly lost to view in the haze.
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+[Illustration: The Bombardment of Hartlepool, showing shells falling on
+the Battery at the end of the Pier.
+
+(_By permission of The Illustrated London News._)]
+
+Meanwhile the other division had visited the Hartlepools, which stand on
+Tees Bay, to the north of the wide estuary of the Tees. West Hartlepool
+and Hartlepool proper are really one town, with important docks and
+shipbuilding yards, which at this time were busily engaged on Government
+orders. The port is defended by two small batteries of 6-inch guns, so
+the Germans were able to say that they were attacking a fortified place.
+West Hartlepool had no defence whatever--it was without a single gun.
+There were some companies of the new army in the town, and in the bay a
+gunboat, a destroyer, and a submarine were stationed.
+
+About the time when the bombardment of Scarborough began this British
+flotilla encountered the _Derfflinger_, the _Von der Tann_, and the
+_Bluecher_ about eight miles from the coast, on the north side of the
+peninsula on which Old Hartlepool stands. The British flotilla was, of
+course, hopelessly outclassed by the German cruisers, but with great
+gallantry it tried to close in and torpedo the enemy. Shots were
+exchanged, and the British patrol vessels were obliged to run for
+safety, with some five men killed and twenty-two wounded. The German
+cruisers now approached within 2¼ miles of the shore, and their guns
+opened fire. At once the two batteries, which were manned by
+Territorials of the Durham Garrison Artillery, who had never before
+fired a shot in anger, engaged the German ships with the greatest
+gallantry, and fought like veterans; but their 6-inch guns could not
+cope with the 8-inch and 11-inch guns of the enemy. Shells from the
+German warships burst in and around the "Heugh" battery, and killed
+several men.
+
+The _Bluecher_ now engaged the batteries while the other vessels moved
+farther north, shelled Old Hartlepool, and fired over the peninsula at
+West Hartlepool and the docks. Both the shore batteries claimed to have
+made hits. The streets of the old town suffered greatly; many houses and
+the gas works were destroyed, churches, hospitals, workhouses,
+factories, schools, and private houses were struck, and one of the
+shipbuilding yards was damaged. The docks, however, were untouched,
+though seven ships in them were injured. The streets were full of people
+when the bombardment began, and little children going to school and
+mothers with babies in their arms were killed. The total death-roll was
+119, including nine men of the King's forces, and over four hundred
+persons were injured. Some six hundred houses were damaged or destroyed.
+
+At 8.50 the fire ceased, and the cruisers disappeared, throwing out
+mines to prevent pursuit. That night three steamers making for the port
+struck some of these mines, and went down, with much loss of life.
+
+The temper of the townsfolk was admirable. There were confusion, of
+course, and some panic, but for the most part the people remained calm
+and collected. The girls at the Hartlepool Telephone Exchange, for
+example, worked on steadily through the cannonade. The moment the danger
+was over the work of rescue and relief was begun, and the ordinary
+business of the day was resumed. It is said that one old lady, hearing
+the crash of the bursting shells, asked what was happening. When she was
+told, she remarked, "Hey! is it only Germans? I was frightened it was
+thunder!" Many of the little children who had been injured by the
+bursting shells or by the fall of houses showed wonderful courage in
+their agony.
+
+Between nine and ten o'clock on that December morning the German vessels
+came together again, and started on their homeward voyage. Unhappily
+they managed to escape, but only by the skin of their teeth. Before the
+first shell was fired our Grand Fleet knew that the German squadron was
+off the Yorkshire coast, and immediately two battle cruisers and half a
+dozen battleships were sent off to engage the enemy. The fog, however,
+thickened as they ran south, until it stretched across the waters in a
+series of belts. Nevertheless the battle cruisers came within eight
+miles of the German vessels, which at once changed course. Just when it
+seemed that they were at our mercy the fog grew denser, and in the
+obscurity they made good their escape.
+
+Though the German warships had escaped, they had certainly suffered. The
+captain of the _Bluecher_ afterwards confessed that he had ten killed
+and twenty wounded, and two guns put out of action. The _Von der Tann_
+probably suffered even more severely, and the _Seydlitz_ did not go
+scot-free.
+
+When the news reached the Fatherland that a German squadron had
+bombarded English coast towns and had returned in safety there was great
+rejoicing. Soon, however, America and other neutral nations began to
+express their horror that undefended towns should have been attacked,
+and the Germans tried to excuse themselves by declaring that they had
+only attacked fortified places and an important naval signal station. As
+you know, the only town of the three with a semblance of defence is
+Hartlepool. As a matter of fact, the Germans simply killed unarmed and
+peaceful townsfolk in order to terrify the British people, and convince
+them of the hopelessness of continuing the struggle with Germany. The
+only result was to send a flock of recruits to the colours, and to heap
+further disgrace on the German Government. Mr. Winston Churchill summed
+up the situation exactly: "Whatever feats of arms the German Navy may
+hereafter perform, the stigma of the baby-killers of Scarborough will
+brand its officers and men while sailors sail the seas."
+
+[Footnote 184: From _Ye Mariners of England_.]
+
+[Footnote 185: A proverb meaning caught in his own trap. The petard was
+a kind of bomb employed for blowing open gates, etc.]
+
+
+
+
+  CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+  WINTER IN THE TRENCHES.
+
+We must now return to the Western front and briefly follow the course of
+the fighting down to the end of the year. With the failure of the
+Kaiser's great and costly effort to break through the thin British lines
+before Ypres the critical moment had passed. Thenceforward through the
+rain and sleet and snow of winter the armies faced each other in
+trenches, and though the guns were rarely silent, and there were attacks
+and counter-attacks without number, nothing decisive took place. On both
+sides the combatants were more anxious to make their positions secure
+than to win new points of vantage.
+
+During the closing days of November there were several gallant assaults
+on the German trenches by British troops, and in some of them Victoria
+Crosses were won. On the 23rd the Germans captured 800 yards of the
+trenches held by the 34th Sikh Pioneers, but a desperate counter-attack
+across the frosty snow in the darkness won them back again. It was in
+this fighting that Naik Darwan Sing Negi, as related on page 170, won
+the highest award of valour.
+
+In December the trench fighting was keener and more frequent. In the
+first days of the month the French captured the ferryman's house on the
+east bank of the Ypres Canal, between Dixmude and Bixschoote. For weeks
+they had striven to secure this post, and it was only won by much
+bloodshed. Shortly afterwards information was received that the German
+lines had been weakened by the withdrawal of troops sent to help von
+Hindenburg in the East, and that a good opportunity afforded itself for
+an attempt to improve the Allied position, especially where it was
+weakest--that is, from Klein Zillebeke to Messines, where the Germans
+were posted on low ridges which gave them good gun positions. On 14th
+December at seven in the morning, our guns heavily bombarded two wooded
+spurs to the north of Messines, which were then in possession of the
+enemy. The Royal Scots advanced against one of these spurs, and the
+Gordon Highlanders against the other; but though they showed the
+greatest gallantry in the attack, only the western edge of one position
+was won. Neither we nor the Germans could make headway in this
+direction.
+
+It was in the neighbourhood of La Bassée that the most extensive
+operations were undertaken. On the first two days of December Maud'huy's
+left wing carried the Château of Vermelles,[186] three miles south of
+the canal. Guns posted at the château forced the Germans to retire
+behind the railway and abandon a village. It was at once occupied, and a
+gain of a mile and a half was registered.
+
+[Illustration: The Fighting near La Bassée, December 19, 1914.]
+
+Sir James Willcocks now decided that the time was ripe for an attack by
+the Indian Corps on the advanced trenches opposite to them. Two Indian
+divisions then held a position from Cuinchy[187] across the railway and
+canal through Givenchy, and east of Festubert to Neuve Chapelle. The
+brigade on the right attacked at 4.30 on the morning of 19th December,
+and carried two lines of trenches, but found at daybreak that it had no
+supports on either side. It held on until dark, when it had to retire.
+The same fate overtook the brigade on the left. At first successful, it
+was finally driven back to its own lines.
+
+Next day, 20th December, the Germans attacked the whole Indian front.
+Big guns and trench mortars prepared the way; then the German infantry
+swarmed out of their trenches and attacked the brigade which lay north
+of Givenchy. The Indians were forced to fall back, and by ten o'clock
+the Germans had captured a large part of the village. Farther south our
+line stood firm; but the capture of Givenchy was a serious blow, for it
+formed the pivot of our front. Reinforcements were hurried up, and to
+the 1st Manchesters, the 4th Suffolks, and two battalions of French
+Territorials was assigned the task of recovering the lost position. At
+five in the evening the Manchesters and Suffolks dashed upon the
+village, retook it, and cleared the enemy out of two lines of trenches
+to the north-east, though they could not dislodge them to the north.
+
+Meanwhile General Macbean with an Indian force delivered an attack on
+the German position; but it failed, and the whole of his troops were
+driven back. Farther north there was serious trouble too. The advance of
+the Germans north of Givenchy had exposed the right of an Indian
+brigade, which included the 1st Seaforth Highlanders. All the afternoon
+of the 20th the Germans shelled the Indian left fiercely, and the troops
+suffered severely. Sir John French tells us that they were "pinned to
+the ground by artillery fire." North of the Seaforths a battalion of the
+2nd Gurkhas gave way, and though the 2nd Black Watch managed to close
+the gap, there was a dint in our line which became a serious danger.
+
+That afternoon Sir Douglas Haig was ordered to bring up the whole of the
+1st Division to the support of the battered line. His troops attacked
+with great vigour, and by nightfall on 21st December most of our
+original trenches from Givenchy to Festubert had been won back.
+Meanwhile the 2nd Brigade was fighting hard farther north, and by 10
+p.m. had carried the support trenches of those from which the 2nd
+Gurkhas had been driven. The fire trenches which the Gurkhas had
+occupied had been utterly destroyed by the enemy's shells, and could no
+longer be used. By the evening of 23rd December the whole line had been
+restored, and there was no longer any immediate danger. The Indians who
+had given way had only done so when worn out with two months' struggle,
+and when they had lost some ten thousand men. Thanks to Sir Douglas
+Haig's prompt help, the situation had been saved.
+
+[Illustration: The Prince of Wales making a Tour of the British Lines in
+Flanders.
+
+(_Photo, Central News._)]
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+The following Victoria Crosses were awarded for outstanding deeds of
+gallantry during December 1914:--
+
+Private Henry Howey Robson, 2nd Battalion Royal Scots (Lothian
+Regiment). On December 14, 1914, near Kemmel,[188] during an attack on
+the German position, Private Robson gallantly left his trench under a
+very heavy fire, and brought in a wounded non-commissioned officer.
+Later on he attempted the rescue of another man, and though wounded,
+persevered in his efforts until a second shot rendered him helpless.
+Private Robson, who belonged to South Shields, subsequently received the
+freedom of his native town as a tribute to his splendid bravery.
+
+Private James Mackenzie, 2nd Battalion Scots Guards. On the 19th
+December, near Fromelles, about five miles south by west of Armentières,
+a stretcher-party tried to reach a wounded man lying in front of the
+German trenches, but was compelled to abandon the attempt owing to the
+fierce fire of the enemy. Private Mackenzie thereupon went out in the
+midst of a storm of bullets and succeeded in bringing the poor fellow
+into safety. Later in the day he tried to rescue another wounded man,
+but unhappily was killed in the attempt. "Greater love hath no man than
+this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."
+
+Lieutenant Philip Neame, Royal Engineers. On the same day, near Neuve
+Chapelle, Lieutenant Neame, under a very heavy fire and a shower of
+bombs, held back the enemy, and succeeded in rescuing all the wounded
+men whom it was possible to move. For this display of courage and
+devotion he was rightly awarded the highest token of valour.
+
+Private Abraham Acton, 2nd Battalion Border Regiment, and Private James
+Smith, 3rd Battalion Border Regiment. These two soldiers on 21st
+December, near Fromelles, volunteered to go out and bring in a wounded
+man, who for seventy-five hours had been lying exposed close to the
+enemy's trenches. They succeeded in rescuing him, and later in the day
+again left their trench, in order to bring another wounded man into
+cover. While carrying him into safety they were under fire for a full
+hour, and every moment of it they ran the risk of being shot down.
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+On the last day of November our troops were greatly delighted to hear
+that his Majesty the King had come to visit them. The Prince of Wales,
+who was a student at Oxford, and an enthusiastic member of the Officers'
+Training Corps when the war broke out, had already been at the front for
+some months as a member of Sir John French's Staff. Britons all over the
+world were delighted to know that the heir to the throne had set such a
+fine example to the young manhood of the nation, and that he had thrown
+himself into his military duties with great zeal and devotion. From the
+moment our troops left British shores the King's thoughts had been with
+them, and as soon as circumstances permitted he crossed over to France
+to cheer them by his presence, to show his personal interest in their
+welfare, to visit the wounded, and to pay the highest compliment in his
+power to our gallant Allies. Never since George II. had fought at
+Dettingen, in 1743, had a British sovereign taken his place among his
+troops on the field of battle.
+
+Accompanied by the Prince of Wales, his Majesty first visited the
+hospitals, where he spoke with great sympathy to many of the wounded
+men, not only British but German. Many a poor fellow lying on his couch
+of suffering found himself better able to bear his pain because he knew
+that his King had a kindly thought for him. His Majesty also visited the
+Indian hospital, and talked with many of the men, who were delighted to
+learn that in some cases he knew the circumstances under which they had
+been wounded. One Sepoy sprang from his bed as his Majesty appeared, and
+called out in the only English that he knew: "God save the King!"
+
+Later on, his Majesty made a tour of the whole British front, and
+inspected all the troops who were not actually in the trenches. It is
+said that he also visited the bivouacs by night, and in every way made
+himself acquainted with the conditions under which the men were living
+and fighting. He also presented the Distinguished Service Order and
+Distinguished Conduct Medals to a number of soldiers who had been
+mentioned in dispatches, and conferred the Victoria Cross on some of
+those who had won the award early in the war. An officer of the Royal
+Engineers thus describes the inspection of his division:--
+
+    "Punctually at 1.30 the sound of distant cheering announced the
+    arrival of the King. The troops all along the road gave three
+    cheers, by regiments. . . . The King then walked right round the
+    line of troops, through mud and slush. I found myself bringing
+    up the rear with the Prince of Wales just beside me. Not a word
+    was spoken all the way round; it was really a most impressive
+    sight--one of those showery days with spells of fine weather and
+    blue sky; all round the field warriors with fixed bayonets and
+    drawn swords; in the centre the King and his suite; and up
+    above, against the blue, two British aeroplanes, purring away,
+    keeping off the hostile Taubes. . . . After this inspection, the
+    King presented the medals. The men came up in turn, and the King
+    pinned the medal on each and said a few words to each with a
+    smile; they _did_ look proud as they went away. As soon as the
+    presentation was over the troops gave the 'Royal Salute, Present
+    Arms,' which the King graciously acknowledged from the middle of
+    the field. . . . At 2 p.m. all the guns in the line let off a
+    round in his honour."
+
+Another account tells us that the King was specially interested in the
+Leicesters, who had only come out of the trenches the previous midnight.
+
+    "They were in a lovely state of mud and unshavedness. The King
+    simply revelled in them. He stopped and chatted to quite every
+    one man in three, wanted to know all about trench fighting, and
+    didn't seem to mind a bit their being covered in mud and
+    unshaved for days. The Prince was just as interested. He
+    wandered about at will, chatting with all and sundry. One man
+    was wearing a pair of German boots, which interested the King
+    very much. He spent quite twenty minutes with the Leicesters,
+    and they deserved it. They have done splendidly all through."
+
+During the visit the King was taken to a commanding point on the line
+between Gheluvelt and Messines, from which he could see a wide stretch
+of Flanders and many of the places associated with the recent fighting.
+On his left he saw much-battered Ypres, and could clearly distinguish
+the Cathedral and the Cloth Hall. Afterwards he saw the woods east of
+Ypres, in which some of the hardest fights had been fought, and where so
+many British and their brave allies rest for ever from their heroic
+labours. He also met the President of the French Republic, General Foch,
+and other French generals, and conferred the Order of Merit upon General
+French. His final act before leaving for England was to confer the Order
+of the Garter on King Albert. Belgian troops were drawn up to receive
+him in the little town of Furnes, and he told them how greatly he
+admired the courage and constancy which they and their King had
+displayed during their terrible ordeal. So ended a visit which not only
+put new heart into our men, but welded the Allies into still closer
+friendship. It was felt by all who were present that the enemy's guns
+would boom in vain against an alliance so strengthened by the presence
+of Britain's King at the battle front.
+
+[Illustration: "Three Cheers for the King!"
+
+His Majesty the King, followed by the Prince of Wales and the Staff,
+passing along the lines of British troops drawn up to greet him.
+
+(_Drawn by F. Matania from a sketch by an eye-witness. By permission of
+The Sphere._)]
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+Before I close the record of the year, something must be said of the
+fighting between the French and the Germans during the month of
+December. We must not forget that the British then held less than
+one-tenth of the Allied line in the West, and that the French trenches
+extended from La Bassée to the borders of Switzerland. During December,
+save for continuous sniping and artillery duels, there was little
+fighting except in the Argonne, along the Moselle, and on the steeps of
+the Vosges. In the Argonne, the left wing of Sarrail's army of Verdun
+and the right wing of the Crown Prince's army struggled in the wooded
+country between Varennes and Vienne.[189] You will remember that during
+October the Germans had made a bold bid to capture this pass which
+enabled Sarrail to join arms with Langle's army in Champagne.
+
+In the wooded country, and in the hamlets north and south of the road
+crossing the forest, the Germans made many attacks during the winter,
+but all failed, and in the intervals the French showed that dash and
+enterprise for which they have long been famous. Some day wonderful
+tales will be told of scouting enterprises amidst the dark trees, where
+every figure showed up against the white ground; of adventurous snipers
+concealed in the branches of lofty firs; and of fierce night assaults
+amidst the snowy glens and frosty ravines. Verdun was safer than ever.
+Almost every week Sarrail pushed his lines out farther, till on the east
+he threatened the railway by which the Germans were supplied, and they
+had to build another, out of range. At some places the opposing trenches
+were only twenty yards apart. The Germans still clung to the bridgehead
+at St. Mihiel, on the west bank of the Meuse, but they could advance no
+farther.
+
+The army of Lorraine, strongly entrenched on the east bank of the
+Moselle, not only maintained itself, but on the left wing gained ground;
+while in the Vosges the Chasseurs Alpins,[190] mounted on skis, made
+fierce attacks on the crests amidst the deep snow, and by their
+mountaineering skill and dashing enterprise carried many of them. In
+this section of the front there was no trench warfare, but open fighting
+such as the French love. When they won a German signal station on one of
+the crests they advanced with bugles blowing, singing the
+_Marseillaise_, and carrying before them the tricolour. Over and over
+again the Chasseurs, making sudden descents along mountain tracks, fell
+upon the enemy, and caught him unawares. They hauled their guns into
+almost impossible positions, and bombarded him from unexpected quarters.
+They gave him no rest, day or night.
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+Elsewhere, however, trench warfare was the order of the day, and
+something must be said about its main features before I conclude this
+volume. Let us pay a visit to the Flanders front in December. We find
+that the hastily-constructed trenches of October have been turned into a
+series of strong fortifications. We notice that the advanced firing line
+consists for the most part of a number of short, separate trenches,[191]
+each of which the enemy must win before he can advance and all of which
+he cannot command by flank fire. Many of these advanced trenches, though
+at least five feet deep, are not more than two or three feet wide. They
+are connected with the next line of trenches by means of zigzag
+communication trenches, and are but lightly held, being employed chiefly
+as observation posts.
+
+[Illustration: Christmas Greetings from the Trenches.
+
+_Photo, Photopress._]
+
+The stronghold of each series of trenches is the main firing trench in
+which the bulk of the defenders live. These trenches are wide and deep,
+and are floored with wood or hurdles. Each trench is divided into
+sections by means of a wall or traverse, jutting to the rear, and
+leaving but a narrow passage round it. By means of these traverses each
+section of the trench becomes a separate trench, and the whole of it
+cannot be enfiladed. The front towards the enemy consists of a parapet
+of sand-bags with loopholes, from which the men fire. As a rule, each
+trench is supplied with one or more machine guns.
+
+In many places the trenches are so close, and so keen a watch is kept,
+that it is highly dangerous for a man to show his head above the
+parapet. The enemy is observed through an arrangement of mirrors called
+a periscope. Some of the main trenches are roofed to afford head cover,
+and in the walls or in pits a little to the rear are the
+"dug-outs"--that is, caves into which the men retire to sleep or to take
+shelter when the shelling becomes hot. Some distance in front of the
+parapet there is a strong wire entanglement. If the wire has not been
+previously destroyed by artillery fire, it must be cut before the enemy
+can get into the trench itself.
+
+You notice that the trenches are not a fixture. Both sides "sap" towards
+their opponents' line, and drive mines forward until they are close to,
+or even under, the opposite trenches. In these mines charges are fired,
+and if successful, part of the trenches is blown in, and an infantry
+attack follows. More than once the miners of one side have found
+themselves separated from the miners of the other side by a mere wall of
+soil. Then there is feverish haste to fire a charge before the other
+side can do so.
+
+All through the day "snipers" are busy on both sides. They occupy pits,
+or craters made by shells, or ensconce themselves in ruins, or hide
+amidst the branches of trees, and try to pick off all opponents who show
+themselves. At night patrols steal out to the "No Man's Land" between
+the lines, and sometimes fall in with an enemy patrol and rush it with
+the bayonet. What are called "listening patrols" creep as near as
+possible to the opposite trenches, and try to overhear conversation,
+and find out what is going on in the enemy's lines. Each side burns
+flares to light up the darkness and make visible all movements in "No
+Man's Land."
+
+[Illustration: Bomb-throwers at Work.
+
+_By permission of The Sphere._]
+
+In this war every device which science can suggest is in use. In trench
+fighting, however, we have gone back to the ways of our forefathers.
+Mortars are employed to throw bombs into the enemy's trenches, and hand
+grenades, such as those used by the earliest grenadiers, are flung by
+each side. A correspondent of the _Times_ thus describes the
+bomb-throwers:--
+
+    "Around their middle they carry some twenty or thirty bombs,
+    little cylinders fastened on a long stick, around which fall
+    streamers of ribbon. The clothing of ribbons suggests a mixed
+    breed of Scotsmen and Red Indians who have taken to wearing the
+    Red Indian head-dress as a kilt. In action they are stranger
+    still. Crouching down among the barbed wire, the bombers, with
+    their supporting infantrymen with fixed bayonets, raise
+    themselves a little from the earth, and seizing one of these
+    rocket-like bombs from their belts, grasp it by the stick and
+    hurl it high above the parapet. It twists and travels
+    uncertainly through the air, and then finally the streamers
+    settle it in its flight, and it plunges straight as a plumb line
+    down into the trench. There is a noise as though a gigantic
+    Chinese cracker were jumping along the zigzag trench, and clouds
+    of greenish smoke rise up, through which hurtle lumps of earth
+    and stone and fragments of the outer iron ring of the bomb which
+    constitute its shrapnel."[192]
+
+Life in the trenches must always be uncomfortable, and may be very
+trying indeed. During the winter West Flanders was a huge bog; the
+canals and rivers overflowed their banks, and many of the trenches were
+always knee-deep in slime and icy water. Large numbers of our men
+suffered from frost-bite in the feet. Though they were clad in sheepskin
+coats, and everything possible was done for their comfort, they had to
+bear trials and hardships such as few troops have ever endured before.
+The cheerfulness of our men during those bitter, dreary, and trying days
+was amazing. The British food supplies were excellent and unfailing.
+Never before has an army been fed so well. Arrangements were also made
+for giving the men a hot bath and a change of clothing when they
+returned from the trenches to their billets in the villages behind the
+firing line.
+
+       *     *     *     *     *
+
+So the year wore on, and the season of "peace and good will towards men"
+arrived. On Christmas Eve a hard frost set in, and Christmas Day broke
+cold and misty. On that morning every officer and man in the field
+received a card from the King and the Queen, bearing portraits of their
+Majesties, and this greeting copied from the King's own handwriting:
+"With our best wishes for Christmas, 1914. May God protect you and bring
+you home safe.--Mary R. George R. I." The special card for the sick and
+wounded bore these words: "May you soon be restored to health." From
+Princess Mary's Soldiers' and Sailors' Christmas Fund came a box with an
+embossed cover, and inside a small gilt casket, containing a photograph
+of the Princess, and a card on which was printed: "With best wishes for
+a Happy Christmas and a Victorious New Year from Princess Mary and
+friends at home." Smokers found a pipe, an ounce of tobacco, and a
+packet of cigarettes in the box; while non-smokers discovered a supply
+of chocolate. An immense number of parcels containing other Christmas
+gifts also arrived, and everywhere Christmas fare was abundant.
+
+Strange scenes were witnessed in parts of the firing line during the
+festive season. A member of the London Rifle Brigade says:--
+
+    "We had rather an interesting time in the trenches on Christmas
+    Eve and Christmas Day. We were in places less than 100 yards
+    from the Germans, and held conversation with them across. It was
+    agreed in our part of the firing line that there should be no
+    firing and no thought of war on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day,
+    so they sang and played to us several of their own tunes, and
+    some of ours, such as 'Home, Sweet Home,' 'Tipperary,' etc.,
+    while we did the same for them. The regiment on our left all got
+    out of their trenches, and every time a flare went up they
+    simply stood there, cheered, and waved their hats, and not a
+    shot was fired on them. The singing and playing continued all
+    night, and the next day (Christmas) our fellows paid a visit to
+    the German trenches, and they did likewise. Cigarettes, cigars,
+    addresses, etc., were exchanged, and every one, friend and foe,
+    were real good pals. One of the German officers took a photo of
+    English and German soldiers arm in arm with exchanged caps and
+    helmets.
+
+    "On Christmas Eve the Germans burned coloured lights and candles
+    along the top of their trenches, and on Christmas Day a football
+    match was played between them and us in front of the trench.
+    They even allowed us to bury all our dead lying in front, and
+    some of them, with hats in hand, brought in one of our dead
+    officers from behind their trench, so that we could bury him
+    decently. They were really magnificent in the whole thing and
+    jolly good sorts. I have now a very different opinion of the
+    Germans. Both sides have started the firing, and are already
+    enemies again. Strange it all seems, doesn't it?"
+
+So with a soldiers' truce ended the first five months of the war. In the
+West, deadlock had set in; Allies and Germans were facing each other
+over a front of well-nigh five hundred miles from the sodden fields of
+Flanders to within sight of Alpine snows, winning here and losing there
+a few yards of fiercely-contested ground, and enduring with what
+patience they could command the icy showers and the biting frost of
+winter. In the East, from the East Prussian wilderness of lake and
+morass to the wind-swept passes of the Carpathians, there was the same
+deadlock. On both of the main fronts of war the forces of the Central
+Powers were held up, and their dream of a swift and easy conquest had
+vanished. Nevertheless, with nearly all Belgium, a large part of
+industrial France, and a considerable portion of Russian Poland in their
+possession, they felt confident, at least, of an advantageous peace.
+
+Amongst the Allies, however, there was no thought of peace. Unprepared
+for war, they had, nevertheless, foiled the first and most dangerous
+onslaught of a foe that, according to all the rules, should have swept
+them away like chaff before the wind. They had gained time in which to
+make up for their lack of readiness, and they now began to realize that
+they must put forth every effort if they were to defeat the mighty
+forces arrayed against them.
+
+In Britain men flocked to the colours, and on every open space in the
+country drilling was going on. Already we had a million men in arms, and
+within six months we hoped to put double that number into the field.
+Time was with us. Every day saw us growing greater in men and resources,
+while every day the enemy was bound to decline in strength. So the
+Allies, strong in friendship and undaunted by their heavy losses, faced
+the future with unshaken courage and undaunted hope. "We shall never
+sheathe the sword, which we have not lightly drawn," said the Prime
+Minister, "until Belgium recovers in full measure all, and more than
+all, that she has sacrificed, until France is safe against the fear of
+invasion, until the rights of the small nations of Europe are placed on
+an unshakable foundation, and until the military tyranny of Prussia is
+wholly and finally destroyed." Such was the determination of Britons all
+over the world at the close of the year 1914.
+
+[Footnote 186: _Ver-mell´._]
+
+[Footnote 187: _Quin´she._]
+
+[Footnote 188: Five miles south-south-west of Ypres.]
+
+[Footnote 189: See Vol. II., p. 281.]
+
+[Footnote 190: French soldiers specially trained for fighting in the
+Alps. They are splendid mountaineers, and were quite at home on the high
+crests of the Vosges.]
+
+[Footnote 191: See diagram, p. 128.]
+
+[Footnote 192: Sometimes bombs are made in a rough-and-ready fashion out
+of jam-pots and bully beef tins charged with explosives and loaded with
+stones or scraps of iron.]
+
+
+  END OF VOLUME III.
+
+
+  PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN.
+
+
+  =Transcriber's Notes:=
+   hyphenation, spelling and grammar have been preserved as in
+    the original
+  Page   1, Pas de Calais ==> Pas-de-Calais [Ed. for consistency]
+  Page  29, Pas de Calais ==> Pas-de-Calais [Ed. for consistency]
+  Page  38, Book VI., Chaps. ==> Book VI., (Chaps.
+  Page  59, A Pont Fixe ==> At Pont Fixe
+  Page  62, Wilcocks ==> Willcocks
+  Page 109, Zandevoorde ==> Zandvoorde
+  Page 150, June 5, 1900 ==> June 5, 1900.
+  Page 163, decent sort of way ==> decent sort of way.
+  Page 198, See p. 173 ==> See p. 173.
+  Page 228, garrison at Przemsyl ==> garrison at Przemysl
+  Page 264, Tsingtau ==> Tsing-tau [Ed. for consistency]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Childrens' Story of the War,
+Volume 3 (of 10), by James Edward Parrott
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHILDRENS' STORY OF THE WAR, VOL 3 ***
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+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" />
+    <title>
+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Children's Story Of The War (Volume 3),
+      by Sir Edward Parrott, M.A., Ll.D.
+    </title>
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+
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Childrens' Story of the War, Volume 3
+(of 10), by James Edward Parrott
+
+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: The Childrens' Story of the War, Volume 3 (of 10)
+       From the First Battle of Ypres to the End of the Year 1914
+
+Author: James Edward Parrott
+
+Release Date: February 22, 2011 [EBook #35355]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHILDRENS' STORY OF THE WAR, VOL 3 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Marcia Brooks, Ross Cooling and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Canada Team at
+http://www.pgdpcanada.net (This file was produced from
+images generously made available by The Internet
+Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="313" height="458" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+
+<br /><br /><br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/frontis.jpg" width="275" height="403" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h3>British Aeroplanes attacking the Zeppelin Factory at Friedrichshafen.</h3>
+
+<h4>On November 21, 1914, three British aeroplanes flew from France across
+the mountains into Germany, a distance of 250 miles, and dropped bombs
+on the Zeppelin factory at Friedrichshafen, on the shores of Lake
+Constance. Serious damage was done, and all the pilots but one returned
+safely. Another daring air raid was made on Christmas Day 1914 by seven
+aeroplanes on German warships lying off Cuxhaven.</h4>
+
+
+
+
+<br /><br /><br /><br />
+<h2>THE</h2>
+<h1>CHILDREN'S STORY</h1>
+<h1>OF THE WAR</h1>
+<br />
+<h3>by</h3>
+<h2>SIR EDWARD PARROTT, M.A., LL.D.</h2>
+<h4>AUTHOR OF "BRITAIN OVERSEAS," "THE PAGEANT OF ENGLISH LITERATURE," ETC.</h4>
+<br /><br />
+<h3>From the First Battle of Ypres to the End of the Year 1914</h3>
+<br /><br />
+<h2>THOMAS NELSON AND SONS, <span class="smcap">Ltd</span>.</h2>
+<h3>LONDON, EDINBURGH, PARIS, AND NEW YORK<br />
+1916</h3>
+
+
+<br /><br /><br /><br />
+<div class="poem2"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"<i>O hearts ever youthful, like schoolboys at play,</i></span>
+<span class="i0">&nbsp;<i>So be it with you in the thick of the fray;</i></span>
+<span class="i0">&nbsp;<i>In the crash and the smoke and the roar of the fight,</i></span>
+<span class="i0">&nbsp;<i>Be it yours, if it need be, to die for the Right!</i></span>
+<span class="i0">&nbsp;<i>While deep in your heart a quick prayer shall arise</i></span>
+<span class="i0">&nbsp;<i>To Him who looks down on the earth from the skies,</i></span>
+<span class="i0">&nbsp;<i>For those whom you love in a faraway Home&mdash;</i></span>
+<span class="i0">&nbsp;<i>O! shield them, our Father, whatever may come!</i>"</span>
+</div></div>
+<p style="margin-left: 55%;"><span class="smcap">I. Gregory Smith.</span></p>
+<p style="margin-left: 50%;">(<i>By permission of "The Times."</i>)</p>
+
+
+<br /><br /><br /><br />
+<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS.</h2>
+<hr style="width: 15%;" />
+<table summary="Contents" width="60%">
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">I.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">A Glance Backwards</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">II.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">Some German Theories of War</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">17</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">III.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">From Arras to Armenti&egrave;res</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">27</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">IV.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">From Lille to Nieuport</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">33</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">V.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">Maud'huy at Arras, and the Retreat from Antwerp</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">43</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">VI.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">With Rawlinson in Belgium</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">49</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">VII.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">The Long, Thin Line of Steel and Valour</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">54</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">VIII.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">The Work of the Third British Corps</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">65</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">IX.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">Stirring Stories of Anxious Days</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">70</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">X.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">With the Second Corps</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">78</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XI.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">The Indians in the Trenches</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">81</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XII.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">Fire and Flood</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">87</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XIII.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">Eight Days of Struggle and Anxiety</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">97</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XIV.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">Tales of Heroes</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">113</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XV.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">The Crisis of the First Battle of Ypres</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">129</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XVI.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">The Price of Victory and the Passing of a Hero</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">145</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XVII.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">Tales from the Trenches</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">154</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XVIII.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">More Tales from the Trenches</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">161</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XIX.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">Germany's Colonial Empire</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">171</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XX.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">Germany's Vanishing Colonies</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">177</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XXI.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">The Story of the "Emden"</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">187</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XXII.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">The Last of the "Emden," and the Sea Fight off Coronel</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">193</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XXIII.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">The Fall of Kiao-chau</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">209</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XXIV.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">The First Attack on Warsaw</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">218</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XXV.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">Von Hindenburg foiled</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">225</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XXVI.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI">Stories from the Battlefields</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">231</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XXVII.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII">The Second Russian Advance on Cracow</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">241</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XXVIII.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII">The Second Assault on Warsaw</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">252</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XXIX.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX">Warsaw again saved</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">257</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XXX.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXX">At War with Turkey</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">264</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XXXI.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXI">Fighting in Chaldea</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">273</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XXXII.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXII">The Campaign in the Caucasus</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">278</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XXXIII.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIII">The Battle of the Serbian Ridges</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">284</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XXXIV.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIV">The Battle off the Falkland Islands</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">289</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XXXV.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXV">Naval Raids on the East Coast of England</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">297</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XXXVI.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVI">Winter in the Trenches</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">305</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+
+<br /><br /><br /><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/p001.jpg" width="447" height="170" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2>
+
+<h3>A GLANCE BACKWARDS.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap">W</span>hen the last British soldier, with the mud of the Aisne trenches still
+clinging to his tunic, detrained in Artois,<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> within fifty miles of the
+white cliffs of Dover, seventy-seven days of anxious and fateful
+struggle had come to an end. Before we follow the progress of the
+terrible campaign which was soon to begin, let us glance backwards and
+recall in brief outline the leading incidents of the crowded weeks which
+had elapsed since Germany unsheathed the sword and flung her legions
+into that "battle without a morrow" which she vainly hoped would win for
+her the mastery of Europe and the supremacy of the world.</p>
+
+<p>In our first volume we learned how the disunited states of Germany,
+under the leadership of Prussia, became welded together into a great
+empire on the ringing anvil of war. The German Empire had been created
+by the sword, and Germans had been taught to believe that only by the
+sword could it be maintained and increased. During less than half a
+century they had grown from poverty to riches and greatness, and this
+sudden rise to wealth and power had so turned their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span> heads that they now
+deemed themselves entitled to world-empire. Mighty in industry and
+commerce, and possessed of the vastest and most highly organized weapon
+of war that the world has ever known, they nevertheless saw their
+ambitions thwarted again and again. They desired greatly a dominion
+beyond the seas, but colonies were hard to come by. With the failure of
+their attempts to expand they grew more and more embittered, until they
+believed that they were being robbed of their rightful due by the envy
+and greed of neighbouring Powers.</p>
+
+<p>On their eastern border they saw the Russians daily recovering from the
+effects of the war against Japan, and so rapidly advancing in military
+strength as to be a real menace to that commanding position which they
+coveted. Their leaders feared that if Russia were not speedily crippled
+she would</p>
+
+<div class="poem2"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i4">"Bestride the narrow world</span>
+<span class="i0">Like a Colossus,<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> and we petty men</span>
+<span class="i0">Walk under his huge legs, and peep about</span>
+<span class="i0">To find ourselves dishonourable graves."</span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>While viewing the rise of Russia with mingled fear and contempt, they
+saw the British people, whom they had been taught to despise as a
+worn-out and wealth-corrupted race, holding dominion on every continent
+and in every sea, and unfurling their flag over one in four of all
+mankind. The spectacle was gall and wormwood to them, and they made no
+secret of their intention to wrest this vast empire from its present
+holders when the time was ripe. To this end they had built a great
+fleet, and their sailors drank to "The Day" when the lordship of the
+ocean should be theirs, and the overseas dominion of Britain the spoils
+of their triumph.</p>
+
+<p>But the fruits of industrial strength and armed might were slow in
+ripening, and in 1911, when, thanks to the support of Great Britain,
+France became supreme in Morocco and the shadowy claims of Germany were
+set aside, there was bitter chagrin in the Fatherland. It was then, as
+we have good reason to believe, that the leaders of the German people
+came to the conclusion that only by war could they rea<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span>lize their
+ambitions. War must be made on France and on her ally, Russia. When
+France was overthrown, Germany would be absolute master of Central and
+Western Europe. When Russia was crippled, Germany would have a free hand
+in the Balkans. Then, mightily increased in territory and resources, she
+would proceed to the conquest of Britain.</p>
+
+<p>Preparations on a vast scale were at once begun. The war lords of
+Germany bent all their thoughts and energies to the task. The effect of
+heavy artillery and high explosive shells was studied, and the great
+armament works were ordered to turn out huge howitzers and the necessary
+ammunition for them. Innumerable machine guns and motor cars were built,
+and nothing that made for military or naval efficiency was overlooked.
+The Kiel Canal was enlarged so as to accommodate the heaviest
+Dreadnoughts in the navy; the number of trained men in the army was
+increased; huge stocks of all the necessaries of war were collected. The
+bankers were instructed to sell their foreign stocks and shares, and to
+collect gold with which to purchase abroad the cotton, copper, rubber,
+and petrol, which are all-important in modern warfare. A deep-laid plot
+was hatched to hamper British bankers so that they could not lend money
+to France and Russia. Silently and secretly, and with wonderful
+foresight and zeal, everything was prepared for the great adventure.</p>
+
+<p>Some idea of the wonderful completeness of the German preparations for
+war may be gathered from the following description of a soldier's
+equipment:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"The German soldier was clothed in cloth of a colour which, on
+the average of European days, gave a greater degree of
+invisibility than khaki. This cloth was excellently woven to
+withstand weather and strain. Each soldier had a pocket-knife
+worth a week's pay of a British corporal, and carried in this
+pocket-knife a little equipment for mending his clothes (as also
+a first-aid bandage of adhesive plaster). His boots were of
+wonderfully strong and supple leather, such boots as only rich
+civilians in England can buy. His valise of cowhide, tanned with
+the hair on, was most ingeniously furnished with straps and
+removable bolts of white metal for ease of carrying and ease of
+packing and unpacking. Its contents, disposed in various little
+cupboards, gave the maximum of food-reserve and
+clothing-comforts for the space and weight. The order-books, the
+maps, the other equipment of officers and non-commissioned
+officers, showed the same skilful devotion to detail. During
+many years of preparation the German mind had evidently devoted
+itself with passionate industry to providing for every possible
+emergency of the soldier's life in the field."</p></div>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>A spy system of the most widespread and elaborate character had been
+established in all European countries. The Kaiser was assured by his
+spies that Great Britain would not actively join with Russia and France,
+because her people were sharply divided on an important political
+question, and because they had grown so spiritless that they would
+prefer to make money by providing the combatants with materials of war.
+France was well known to be ill-prepared for a campaign, and that great,
+unwieldy giant Russia would be so sluggish in making ready that months
+would elapse before he could become formidable. By the summer of 1914
+Germany had made all her military and naval preparations; she was armed
+to the teeth, and she knew that the nations against whom she had
+secretly prepared were quite unready to meet her.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/p012.jpg" width="629" height="468" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h3>The Kaiser in the Field.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>Photo: Central News.</i></h3>
+
+<h4>This remarkable Photograph shows the German Emperor directing the
+operations of his troops in Flanders.</h4>
+
+<p>Towards the end of June 1914, when the army was ready to the last gaiter
+button, an event took place which gave the Kaiser an excellent excuse
+for bringing about that war which was necessary for the fulfilment of
+his aims. The Archduke Ferdinand was murdered in Bosnia, and Serbia was
+charged with bringing about the crime. It was alleged that the heir to
+the throne of the Kaiser's ally, Austria-Hungary, had been foully done
+to death by miscreants in the pay of Russia's friend, Serbia. The Kaiser
+at once determined that Austria-Hungary's quarrel should be his; he
+would support Franz Josef in punishing Serbia&mdash;that is, in throwing down
+the gauntlet to Russia. This would be certain to bring about the war
+which his soul desired. A little more delay, however, was necessary. An
+army, as Napoleon told us long ago, marches on its stomach, and great
+supplies of food are required before it can take the field. For this
+reason the Kaiser decided to play for time until the harvest of the year
+had been gathered in. So for a whole month little was heard of the
+Archduke's murder, and the Powers of Europe were encouraged to believe
+that the crime would not lead to war.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/p016.jpg" width="597" height="410" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h3>Montenegrin Artillery in Action.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>Photo, Daily Mirror.</i></h3>
+
+<h4>Montenegro is the smallest kingdom in Europe, and consists of lofty
+highlands of gray, broken rock. The Montenegrins are said to be the
+finest and strongest race in Europe. They are born warriors, and their
+average height is six feet. They are of kindred race to the Serbians,
+and in this great war they have thrown in their lot with them.</h4>
+
+<p>As soon, however, as the German garners were full the Austro-Hungarian
+Government was urged to send to Serbia a series of demands such as had
+never been presented to a civilized and independent power before. They
+were meant to provoke Russia, and to drag her into the quarrel. What
+were these demands? Mr. Lloyd-George has told us, in the following
+burning words:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"What were the Austrian demands? Serbia sympathized with her
+fellow-countrymen in Bosnia. That was one of her crimes. She
+must do so no more. Her newspapers were saying nasty things
+about Austria. They must do so no longer.... Serbian newspapers
+must not criticize Austria.... Serbia said: 'Very well; we will
+give orders to the newspapers that they must not criticize
+Austria in future, neither Austria, nor Hungary, nor anything
+that is theirs.' Who can doubt the valour of Serbia when she
+undertook to tackle her newspaper editors? She promised not to
+sympathize with Bosnia, promised to write no critical articles
+about Austria. She would have no public meetings at which
+anything unkind was said about Austria. That was not enough. She
+must dismiss from her army officers whom Austria should
+subsequently name. But those officers had just emerged from a
+war where they were adding lustre to the Serbian arms&mdash;gallant,
+brave, efficient. I wonder whether it was their guilt or their
+efficiency that prompted Austria's action. Serbia was to
+undertake in advance to dismiss them from the army, the names to
+be sent on subsequently. Can you name a country in the world
+that would have stood that?"</p></div>
+
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span>
+<p>How did Serbia face the situation thus engineered? Listen again to Mr.
+Lloyd-George:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"It was a difficult situation for a small country. Here was a
+demand made upon her by a great military Power who could put
+five or six men in the field for everyone she could; and that
+Power supported by the greatest military Power in the world. How
+did Serbia behave? It is not what happens to you in life that
+matters; it is the way in which you face it. And Serbia faced
+the situation with dignity. She said to Austria: 'If any
+officers of mine have been guilty and are proved to be guilty, I
+will dismiss them.' Austria said: 'That is not good enough for
+me.' It was not guilt she was after, but capacity. Then came
+Russia's turn. Russia has a special regard for Serbia. She has a
+special interest in Serbia. Russians have shed their blood for
+Serbian independence many a time. Serbia is a member of her
+family, and she cannot see Serbia maltreated. Austria knew that.
+Germany knew that, and Germany turned round to Russia and said:
+'I insist that you shall stand by with your arms folded whilst
+Austria is strangling your little brother to death.' What answer
+did the Russian Slav give? He gave the only answer that becomes
+a man. He turned to Austria and said: 'You lay hands on that
+little fellow, and I will tear your ramshackle empire limb from
+limb.'"</p></div>
+
+<p>The object of the Kaiser was achieved&mdash;the quarrel between Austria and
+Russia was now likely to provoke a European war. Our Foreign Minister,
+Sir Edward Grey, worked night and day to bring the estranged Powers to
+peaceful agreement, and he so far succeeded that on the 30th July
+Austria showed signs of drawing back. At once the Kaiser saw that all
+hi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span>s hopes were likely to be shattered. That same evening he took steps
+which made war certain. He ordered Russia to cease all warlike
+preparations within twelve hours, and France within eighteen hours.
+Before France had returned an answer to this impudent demand, his Uhlans
+were over her border.</p>
+
+<p>The Germans began the campaign absolutely certain of victory. While all
+the talk of peace was going on, their General Staff was poring over maps
+of the future battlefields. France was to be overwhelmed by a mighty
+rush; she was to be beaten to the ground before her armies could be
+marshalled in strength. Short, sharp, and sudden was to be the blow; and
+when France lay at her conqueror's feet, the victorious legions would be
+entrained for the eastern front in sufficient time to meet the
+slow-moving Russians, who could be easily held up by the Austrians until
+the main German armies were free to assail them. The Germans believed
+that when Russia found herself alone in the struggle some arrangement
+could be made with her so that thenceforth she would not stand in the
+way of their ambitious schemes.</p>
+
+<p>Such was the plan of campaign, and it will readily be seen that any long
+delay in invading and subduing France would enable the Russian millions
+to be arrayed on the eastern frontier, and to carry war into Germany and
+Austria. Consequently, no time was available in which to besiege the
+barrier fortresses on the eastern frontier of France, and to push
+through the difficult country behind them. The quickest and easiest
+route to the heart of France had to be taken, and that lay through the
+Belgian plain, which was so well supplied with railways that food and
+munitions from the German bases could readily reach the invading armies
+as they pushed forward. Belgium, it was true, had been guaranteed
+freedom from invasion by a treaty to which Prussia was a party; but in
+the opinion of the German Government military necessity overrode all
+such engagements and reduced them to mere "scraps of paper." Belgium, it
+was thought, would make little or no resistance. She had but few trained
+soldiers, and these were ill-equipped. She had powerful fortresses on
+her frontier, but there were not enough men to garrison them properly,
+and there was a grave lack of ammunition for the guns. Even if the
+fortresses did resist, the Germans were prepared with a plan to deal
+with them.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>So Belgium was invaded, and this terrible breach of faith on the part of
+the Germans shocked all neutral nations. Great Britain had been the
+leading Power in neutralizing Belgium, and she could not in honour
+desert the little country which was ready to fight to the death for its
+independence. Nor dared she stand by with folded arms and see France
+overcome. A victorious Germany in possession of Antwerp and the Channel
+ports of France would be in a very favourable position to attack British
+shores. Should Germany become master of the west of Europe, the
+existence of the British Empire would be in dire peril. Britain,
+therefore, was compelled by dictates of honour and self-preservation to
+declare war on Germany.</p>
+
+<p>This declaration of war was a great blow to Germany; it upset all her
+calculations. It brought into the struggle not only the greatest naval
+Power in the world, but the unrivalled riches and resources of the
+British Empire. The British army which could be sent overseas was so
+small as to seem negligible to the Germans; but they could not shut
+their eyes to the fact that the British Empire, with its 417 millions of
+inhabitants, could, in the course of time, array colossal forces against
+them. In the meantime the British could, by means of their navy,
+paralyze German sea-power, and sweep German commerce from the seas, and
+at the same time, out of the abundance of their riches, find plentiful
+sinews of war for their Allies. Our declaration of war was bitterly
+resented in Germany, and a flood of hate against all things British
+began to sweep over the country.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/p020.jpg" width="310" height="433" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h3>German Soldiers leaving Berlin for the Front.</h3>
+
+<h4>An amateur artist is drawing a caricature of General Joffre on the side of the carriage.</h4>
+
+<p>On 2nd August Germany demanded a free passage through Belgium; it was
+refused, and two days later the enemy was swarming across the frontier.
+Within ten days the great barrier forts of Li&eacute;ge were crushed into
+shapeless ruin by shells of such explosive power that neither steel nor
+concrete could resist them. Within a fortnight the greater part of
+Belgium was in German hands. Brussels was entered and occupied, and two
+and a half million men were ready to fall like an avalanche on France.</p>
+
+<p>The French Commander-in-Chief was faced by an appalling problem. With
+forces numbering one-half of those launched against him, he had to await
+the German attack on a frontier 500 miles long. He was uncertain as to
+where the main<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span> blow would fall. Accordingly he followed Napoleon's
+advice: "Engage everywhere, and then see." He engaged in Alsace; but the
+main forces of the enemy were not there. He engaged</p>
+
+<p>in Lorraine, and in the third week of August suffered a heavy defeat at
+the hands of the Bavarians, though he was still able to keep the field
+in that province. On 23rd August, when the Battle of Nancy was raging,
+the avalanche fell on the line of the Sambre and Meuse, where French
+armies were arrayed to meet the shock. Namur, the pivot of the defending
+armies, fell; its forts were blown to atoms by the great howitzers which
+unwisely had been permitted to come within range. An unexpected army of
+Saxons pierced the Allied centre, and the French were forced to retreat
+rapidly or suffer destruction. The northern gate to Paris was now
+forced, and the eastern gate in Lorraine was threatened. For a moment it
+seemed that the Germans had won the campaign in two battles.</p>
+
+<p>France had reserves, but they were far away in Alsace, in Burgundy,<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a>
+and behind Paris. They could not be brought to the front in time to
+retrieve disaster, so the beaten armies had to hasten southwards towards
+their reserves.</p>
+
+<p>The Germans pushed southwards with incredible speed. The British, on the
+left of the French, had been left unsupported, and overwhelming numbers
+of the enemy were striving might and main to envelop them. They were in
+grave peril, and at any moment the right flank in Lorraine might be
+turned, and the retreating French be caught between two fires. There was
+nothing for it but swift and desperate retreat, until a line could be
+reached on which a stand was possible. Here and there, during the rapid
+retirement, the French gained local successes, which might have tempted
+them to halt and put their fortune to the test once more. But the French
+Commander-in-Chief was proof against the temptation. He held firmly to
+his plan, and continued the long and depressing retreat.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 726px;">
+<img src="images/p022.jpg" width="726" height="483" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h3>A Hand-to-hand Fight during the Battle of the Marne.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>By
+permission of the Sphere.</i></h3>
+
+<h4>The action here illustrated took place on the South bank of the Marne,
+where the Germans found themselves attacked by French colonial troops.
+The Germans were soon beaten back, after a fierce affray amidst burning
+houses and broken barricades.</h4>
+
+<p>Upon the devoted British fell the full force of the German shock.
+Hopelessly outnumbered, and with the enemy on three sides, they
+nevertheless struggled out of van Kluck's grasp, and made a fighting
+retreat that will go down to posterity as one of the finest feats known
+to the history of warfare. Terrible<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> were their losses, as were those of
+the French armies on their right; but they were still unbroken, and were
+still capable of striking hard when the Allied line should be knitted up
+anew. In the early days of September this was accomplished; the whole
+Allied line lay extended from the southern outskirts of Paris eastwards
+to Verdun. It had been welded into strength by misfortune; it had taken
+the measure of the foe, and was eager for revenge.</p>
+
+<p>To the Germans it appeared that Paris had been abandoned, and in Berlin
+men confidently declared that the war was over, and that only the fruits
+of victory remained to be reaped. Von Kluck, sweeping irresistibly
+towards the capital, believed that he had only wearied and broken foes
+before him. He had good reason for this belief, for he could not
+conceive that any armies could have retreated so rapidly and suffered so
+severely and yet remain fit to oppose him. He was full of confidence,
+but it was the confidence of ignorance. He was totally unaware that a
+new army, fresh and unwearied, was silently concentrating in the streets
+of Paris.</p>
+
+<p>In Britain there were the worst of forebodings. The Allied armies had
+been driven back helter-skelter with a terrible tale of losses, and von
+Kluck was within gunshot of the outer forts of the French capital. The
+5th of September was the darkest hour before the dawn. Everywhere the
+Allied armies seemed to be on the verge of disaster. Von Kluck was
+wheeling his right in order to envelop the 5th French Army; farther east
+the W&uuml;rtembergers were striking hard at the French centre; the Crown
+Prince, to the south of Verdun, was waiting for the huge siege guns with
+which he hoped to batter down the defences of that great fortress;
+Maubeuge was at its last gasp; and at Nancy the Bavarians, under the eye
+of the Kaiser himself, were preparing to break through the eastern
+barrier. The man in the street at home could only stifle his feelings of
+dismay, and hope that by some miracle victory might yet be snatched from
+the jaws of defeat.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 726px;">
+<img src="images/p024.jpg" width="726" height="436" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h3>Motor-cyclist Dispatch Rider breaking through a Patrol of
+Uhlans.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>By permission of The Sphere.</i></h3>
+
+<h4>The motor-cyclist enables communications to be kept up, and messages to
+be sent to and from headquarters all along the far-extended lines of the
+Allies. Adventures similar to that illustrated above were common in the
+early stages of the war.</h4>
+
+<p>So far the war had been one unbroken triumph for Germany. She had
+succeeded even beyond the expectations of her people at home. Fortress
+after fortress had fallen; victory after victory had been won; the
+capital of France was at her mercy; prisoners had been captured in huge
+numbers, and guns by the score. To crown all, just as Sedan Day was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span>
+approaching and the fall of Paris was hourly expected, the news arrived
+that von Hindenburg had won an astounding victory at Tannenberg, in
+Eastern Prussia. The whole German nation went mad with delight. Its
+wildest ambitions were about to be realized.</p>
+
+<p>One short week later there was a sudden and dramatic change in the
+aspect of affairs. The Allies had made a leap forward; von Kluck, beaten
+and outflanked, was being harried northward through the woods of
+Compi&egrave;gne; von Buelow, with his famous Guards reduced to half their
+strength, was hurrying towards the Aisne; the Duke of W&uuml;rtemberg, foiled
+in his attacks on the French centre, was in sullen retreat; Verdun was
+still intact; and in Lorraine the Kaiser had seen the White Cuirassiers
+of Bavaria hurled back in confusion from the French line. The avalanche
+had fallen, but it had failed to overwhelm the Allied armies. The
+Germans were now, for the first time, tasting the bitterness of forced
+retreat.</p>
+
+<p>Back they were thrust, but not in rout, to the plateau beyond the Aisne,
+where, in a position of great strength, they were forced to fight,
+against all their traditions, on the defensive. For weeks they were
+besieged, but day by day their entrenchments were strengthened until
+they resembled fortresses. All the courage and skill and patience of the
+attackers could not bolt them from these burrows by means of frontal
+attacks. Then an attempt was made to outflank them by a northward
+movement of the Allied left. As this movement proceeded, a similar
+manoeuvre was begun by the foe. Each side attempted to outflank the
+other, and a feverish race set in for the North Sea, where both flanking
+movements must perforce end. Three French armies were strung out
+northwards as far as the La Bass&eacute;e canal; the British army was
+transferred from the Aisne to fill the gap beyond; and a new army was
+collected and hurried to the assistance of the Belgians, who extended
+the line to the sea. The Allies just won the race, and the Germans found
+themselves besieged once more, this time on a line of trenches some 450
+miles in length. For months to come they strove to break through the
+Allied lines; with what success future pages of this history will tell.</p>
+
+<p>Such, in brief outline, is the story which has been told in our two
+former volumes. It is the story of the most ruthless and determined
+assault that has ever been made upon the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span> liberties of mankind in the
+whole history of the world. We see master minds plotting and planning
+for long, secret years, watching and waiting for an occasion to swoop
+down upon unsuspecting neighbours and rob them of life and freedom and
+the fruits of their toil. We see them launching millions of men, armed
+with every death-dealing device that fiendish ingenuity can frame,
+against a little peaceful people that dares to stand in their way. The
+earth shakes with the roar of gigantic guns and the thunderclaps of
+bursting shells. Fortresses crumble to shapeless ruin; homesteads are
+given to the flames; temples of God are profaned and despoiled;
+monuments of art and piety are blotted out; cities are shattered; young
+and old, man, woman, and child, are given to the sword, and wherever the
+battle has raged there are ghastly heaps of dead and dying, "friend and
+foe in one red burial blent."</p>
+
+<p>Onward sweep the conquering legions, with pillars of cloud by day and
+pillars of fire by night, and it would seem that nothing human could
+give them pause. Armies recoil before them; but strive as they may, they
+cannot overwhelm them. Victory sits upon their banners, when suddenly
+those whom they have hunted and harried across the fair fields of France
+spring forward with undaunted fire and vigour, and the torrent is
+stayed. Then it is swept back, and soon the invaders are hemmed in by a
+ring of steel, against which they fling themselves in baffled rage like
+a trapped tiger against the bars of his cage.</p>
+
+<p>Such is the story of seventy-seven days of bloodshed, horror,
+destruction, and woe&mdash;days which can never be forgotten while the memory
+of man endures.</p>
+
+
+<br /><br /><br /><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2>
+
+<h3>SOME GERMAN THEORIES OF WAR.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap">B</span>efore I proceed with my story, let me call your attention to certain
+theories of war with which the German General Staff began the campaign.
+By a theory of war I mean some plan or scheme which, in the judgment of
+those making it, is <i>likely</i> to prove of great advantage, but which can
+only be <i>proved</i> to be so by actual practice. Some of the German
+theories turned out to be right, others wrong, as we shall see.</p>
+
+<p>If you were to witness a field day of British troops you would notice
+that the infantry make their attacks in long, thin skirmishing lines.
+The men are widely spread out, and as they advance they offer a small
+target to the guns of the enemy. Their losses are thus reduced to a
+minimum. The Germans, on the other hand, believe in making their attacks
+with their men massed together in close formation.</p>
+
+<p>Troops attacking in close order have certain advantages over those
+attacking in open order. First, they can begin their attack with the
+least possible delay. Suppose a hundred men are marching forward in
+fours, and are about to make an attack. If they are to spread out widely
+time will be needed for them to deploy. (See Fig. 2, p. <a href="#Page_19">19</a>.) But if they
+go forward packed close together as in Fig. 1, p. <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, they can attack
+much more quickly. You can easily understand that the quicker a blow is
+delivered, the more likely it is to be successful, for the defenders are
+given little time in which to make preparations for resisting it.</p>
+
+<p>Then, again, an attack delivered in mass formation brings much more
+weight to bear on the part of the enemy's line against which it is
+directed than an attack in open order. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span>If, for example, a hundred men
+are hurled against a front of a hundred yards, the force with which they
+can assail it is much greater than it would be if the same hundred yards
+of front were attacked by fifty men. Where, as often happens, troops
+have to advance on a narrow front, say against a bridge, a causeway, a
+street, or a defile, they must attack in close order if they are to
+succeed.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, when a massed attack is made, a very good target is offered
+to the enemy, especially in these days of magazine rifles, machine guns,
+and quick-firing field guns, and large numbers of the attackers are sure
+to fall. In former wars it has been found that troops so punished break
+or are brought to a standstill, and that their attack therefore fails.
+The Germans, however, believe that men can be so disciplined that,
+though large numbers of them are shot down, the rest will push on and
+carry the position. They believe that this great waste of life is worth
+while, because the campaign will be over all the sooner, and the total
+losses will probably be no greater than they would be in a
+long-drawn-out war carried on by attacks in open order.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/p028.jpg" width="557" height="205" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h4>Fig. 1. Column advancing to the Attack in Close Order.</h4>
+
+<p>Now let us see how this theory bore the test of actual practice. You
+will remember that at the Battle of Mons and on other occasions the
+Germans made massed attacks on the Allied positions, and though their
+men were shot down in droves, they came on again and again, almost
+shoulder to shoulder. The theory that men can be so disciplined as to
+continue to advance in massed formation, even though they know that
+large numbers of them will certainly be killed or wounded, proved
+correct. Where the theory broke<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> down was in supposing that the men who
+survived the slaughter would be able to carry the position. On some
+occasions they succeeded, but in the majority of cases a swarm of
+Germans advancing against inferior numbers were reduced by one-fourth,
+or even by one-third, in the first few minutes of the rush, and the
+remainder were too few to drive out the defenders. So, as far as actual
+results were concerned, attacks in close formation proved to be a
+failure. The Germans, however, persisted in them, and this led to an
+immense wastage of life. They flung away life like water, but, as we
+have seen, they did not win that speedy victory on which they had staked
+so much.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/p029.jpg" width="339" height="305" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h4>Fig. 2. Column deploying for Attack in Open Order.</h4>
+
+<p>Another theory of the German General Staff was that no existing fortress
+could withstand for more than a few days the effect of high explosive
+shells hurled from heav<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span>y howitzers. Up to about ten years ago it was
+thought that fortresses mounting heavy guns, and fully supplied with
+men, food, and ammunition, could hold out for months against a besieging
+force. The fixed guns of fortresses had then a far greater range than
+any movable guns that could be brought against them, and they were so
+powerful that they could, as a rule, put out of action the artillery of
+the besiegers.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/p030.jpg" width="330" height="436" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h3>A German Howitzer for Siege Work.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>Photo, Daily Mirror</i>.</h3>
+
+<h4>Notice the caterpillar wheels which enable it to traverse soft roads
+without sinking in.</h4>
+
+<p>On page 200 of Volume I. you were told how a howitzer differs from an
+ordinary field gun. Let me repeat what I then said. The great difference
+between the action of an ordinary gun and that of a howitzer is the
+difference between a boy throwing a stone at a mark which he can see,
+and the same boy lobbing a stone over a wall so that it will fall on
+something hidden from his view. The ordinary field gun has a long, flat
+sweep of fire, and is therefore unable to shoot over hills, trees, or
+houses, or to drop shells on men lying close behind a bank or in a deep,
+narrow trench.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/p031.jpg" width="561" height="269" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>Look at this little diagram. A howitzer, A, is firing at a fort, B, from
+the other side of a hill. The howitzer is invisible from the fort, and
+the men firing the howitzer cannot see the mark at which they are
+aiming. But a man on or above the hill can see the fort easily, and can
+so direct the fire of the howitzer that it can lob its shells over the
+hill and drop them directly on the fort. The guns of the fort are
+incapable of hitting the howitzer. The shells which they throw pass
+right over the hill, and fall a long way behind it.</p>
+
+<p>Until recently the fortress gun was master of the howitzer,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> for several
+reasons. The howitzers then in use were small, and their range was much
+less than that of heavy guns mounted in forts. No matter how carefully
+the howitzers were concealed or how frequently they were shifted about,
+they were sure sooner or later to be "spotted" from the fortress, and
+put out of action. The explosives which were then used in the howitzer
+shells were not sufficiently powerful to destroy the steel and concrete
+of the forts, and there was much difficulty in discovering, whether the
+aim of these high-angle guns was true.</p>
+
+<p>The Austrian and the German General Staff had studied all this very
+carefully, and they had come to the conclusion that howitzers could be
+constructed of such a size that they would be more than a match for
+fortress guns. Former howitzers were 6 inches across at the mouth; but
+before the war the Austrians built howitzers of from 11 to 12-inch
+calibre. This doubling of the calibre meant that the new weapon was
+<i>eight times</i> as powerful as the old one. Such howitzers could throw
+their shells from an immense distance, and could take advantage of steep
+cover so far off that the fortress guns could not reach them. Though the
+new howitzers were so heavy, they were capable of being moved from place
+to place as soon as they were "spotted".</p>
+
+<p>Not only was the howitzer made much bigger than formerly, but new and
+very powerful explosives were discovered, and huge shells were filled
+with them. Experiments led the German Staff to believe that these
+explosives would utterly destroy the forts, no matter how solidly they
+might be constructed. How to aim these howitzers correctly was the only
+remaining difficulty. Aeroplanes and balloons solved the problem.
+Observers could fly high enough to see the forts, note where the shots
+fell, and signal to the gunners so that they could find the exact range.</p>
+
+<p>The Germans believed that no fortress along the line of their advance
+could long resist their big howitzers and high explosive shells. The
+French, on the other hand, thought that such ring fortresses as those at
+Li&eacute;ge, Namur, and Verdun could hold out for a considerable time. During
+the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-5, Port Arthur, though attacked by
+howitzers, held out for eleven months. The French saw no reason why
+their forts should not resist for several weeks at least.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>From what you have read in the former volumes you know that the German
+theory was right, and that the French theory was wrong. Li&eacute;ge, Namur,
+Maubeuge, and Antwerp all fell before the high explosive shells of the
+huge howitzers in an astonishingly brief time. Verdun did not fall, it
+is true, but this was because the French turned it into a new type of
+fortress altogether. They made field works at a considerable distance
+from the old forts, and moved out the heavy guns to advanced trenches.
+Rails were laid down so that as soon as the guns were "spotted" they
+could be moved to new positions at short notice. Thus, as I told you on
+page 280 of Volume II., instead of fixed forts, each, say, mounted with
+ten heavy guns, these same ten guns were "dotted here and there in
+trenches rapidly established in one place and another, along perhaps
+half a mile of wooded vale, and free to operate, when they moved, over
+perhaps double that front." This is the German theory of fortification,
+and Verdun was saved because the French adopted it.</p>
+
+<p>Another theory of the German Staff was that high explosive shells could
+be used with great effect not only against fortresses but against troops
+in the field. In former wars shrapnel<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> was largely used, but in the
+present war the Germans believed that high explosive shells would be
+more effective.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> Modern armies, as you know, "dig themselves in"
+whenever they can, and fight from trenches. Against troops in deep
+trenches with good head-cover shrapnel is not very deadly. When trenches
+have been occupied for some time they become little fortresses, with
+strong parapets and entanglements of barbed wire in front of them.
+Before sending infantry to attack such trenches, the Germans determined
+to fire high explosive shells at them, so that the barbed wire would be
+torn away, the parapets of the trenches would be blown in, and the
+defensive works destroyed. In this respect, too, the German theory
+proved correct, and when the trench warfare began in real earnest the
+Allies had to follow the German example. Months passed, however, before
+their supply of howitzers and high explosive shells was sufficient to
+enable them to cope with the Germans on equal terms.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/p034.jpg" width="549" height="254" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h3>The Effect of Shrapnel on Trenches.</h3>
+
+<h4>Some four hundred to five hundred balls and splinters spread forwards,
+downwards, and fan-wise when the shell bursts.<br />
+
+(<i>By permission of The Sphere.</i>)</h4>
+
+<p>In Volume I., page 189, I gave you some account of the machine gun
+which, as you will remember, discharges automatically and accurately
+some four hundred or five hundred shots a minute. As a rifleman can only
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span>
+fire about a dozen aimed shots in the same time, a machine gun is
+equivalent to at least thirty riflemen. It discharges its bullets in a
+cone-shaped stream, and is even more deadly than sustained rifle fire.
+Prior to the war each battalion in the British army was provided with
+two machine guns. The German General Staff, however, provided each unit
+of its infantry with a large number of machine guns,<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> which were so
+mounted that they could be carried rapidly over every kind of ground.
+The result was that the Germans had a very marked advantage over the
+Allies in machine firing power. Here, again, the German theory was
+correct, and the Allies were forced to follow suit and increase greatly
+their supply of machine guns.</p>
+
+<p>The Germans have no faith in the waiting game. They believe that
+constant attack is the best form of defence. It is foreign to their
+ideas to wait for the enemy to attack them; everywhere and always they
+endeavour to strike at the foe. They believe with the American humorist:</p>
+
+<div class="poem2"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Thrice blessed he who hath his quarrel just,</span>
+<span class="i0">&nbsp;But four times he who gets his blow in fust."</span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>In order to enable troops to strike swiftly, and, therefore, to take the
+enemy unawares, the Germans provided themselves with fleets of motor
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span>
+cars in which they conveyed their soldiers to the points where they were
+needed. The admirable Belgian and French roads enabled the motors to
+travel very quickly, and this accounts in large measure for the rapid
+pursuit of the Allies. The motor cars were meant to be specially useful
+in making those flanking movements by which German generals strive to
+envelop their enemies. These flanking attacks, however, were not
+successful, perhaps because it was impossible to transport sufficient
+artillery along with the men.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/p035.jpg" width="560" height="326" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h3>The Effect of High Explosive Shells on Trenches.</h3>
+
+<h4>A breach is made in the wire entanglements and the chief force of the
+explosion is downwards.<br />
+
+(<i>By permission of The Sphere.</i>)</h4>
+
+<p>Finally, let me deal for a few moments with a theory that proved to be
+hopelessly wrong, so entirely mistaken that it robbed the Germans of
+that speedy victory which they confidently expected, and led to a long
+and uncertain trench war in the West. What was this theory?</p>
+
+<p>The German General Staff believed that Paris would prove to be a great
+trap for the French. They believed that in no circumstances would the
+French Government permit Paris to be abandoned by the French armies.
+They thought that if<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span> Paris were threatened, one of two things would
+happen&mdash;either the French armies would be massed round the capital for
+its defence, or they would be divided, and some would try to hold the
+frontier, while others tried to hold the city. Further they felt sure
+that if the French Commander-in-Chief should wish to keep his armies
+undivided so that he could fight on the most advantageous ground,
+irrespective of whether Paris fell into German hands or not, the French
+politicians would interfere and overrule him. Then quarrels and
+confusion would arise; there would be no unity of purpose; divided
+authority would prevail, and France would go to pieces.</p>
+
+<p>Whatever happened, the Germans felt confident of victory. They had more
+men in the field than France could possibly bring against them. If they
+fought pitched battles with the full strength of the French forces
+outside Paris, they were bound to win, because they were superior in men
+and guns. If the French forces were divided, their task would be still
+easier; and if the French politicians interfered, France would do much
+to destroy herself. Such was the theory; now let us see how it worked
+out.</p>
+
+<p>From the very beginning of the struggle the French military authorities
+determined that they would conduct the war in their own way, and that
+they would not brook any interference from the politicians. They foresaw
+all the difficulties on which the Germans counted, and they fully
+realized that if they allowed their plans to be hampered by defending
+Paris they would fall into a trap from which there would be no escape.
+While, therefore, the enemy was making his great drive towards Paris,
+and even when he seemed to be on the point of besieging it, they did not
+attempt to go to its rescue, but still retreated, so that their line
+could be built up anew, and an advance made when the time was ripe. It
+is true that a new army had been mobilized in and around Paris, but it
+was not meant for the defence of the capital; it was intended for quite
+another purpose.<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p>
+
+<p>When von Kluck was near the outer fortifications of Paris he discovered
+that the German theory was all wrong. He was forced to swerve in order
+to follow up the French and British, and in the act of swerving he was
+caught, and forced to retreat. Thus that rapid success in the West which
+was the very keynote of the German plan of campaign was rendered
+impossible.</p>
+
+
+<br /><br /><br /><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2>
+
+<h3>FROM ARRAS TO ARMENTI&Egrave;RES.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap">I</span>n Chapter XXXIII. of Volume II. you read something of the race for the
+sea. When I broke off the story the position of the Allies was as
+follows. Northwards from Compi&egrave;gne to Lassigny extended the left wing of
+Maunoury's army. Still farther north, as far as the Somme, lay de
+Castelnau's army. Beyond it was the army of Maud'huy, which ultimately
+extended to the canal between B&eacute;thune and Lille. The British army was in
+process of being transferred from the Aisne to a position north of this
+canal. It was destined to fill the gap from the canal to the north of
+Ypres. The Belgians, assisted by the French, were to complete the line
+along the Yser to the North Sea.</p>
+
+<p>Now the movements by which the various armies of the Allies swung into
+these positions are very difficult to follow, and you must give me all
+your attention if you are to have clear ideas about them. First of all,
+we must know something about the character of country in which the war
+was to be waged for many months to come. Within this region there are
+several important towns which are mentioned in your geography books.
+There are also numberless villages which are quite unimportant in
+themselves, but have become world-renowned because they have been the
+scene of great and stirring incidents. I shall mention these villages as
+they occur in the course of the story, but the general character of the
+country and the position and importance of the larger towns I must deal
+wit<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span>h now. Do not begrudge the time given to this and the following
+chapter. It will enable you to follow with intelligent interest the
+story hereafter to be told; and to picture for yourselves the scenes
+amidst which some of the most terrible struggles in all history have
+taken place.</p>
+
+<p>Most of the region from the Somme to the mouth of the Yser is comprised
+within the two French departments of Pas-de-Calais and Nord, and the
+Belgian province of West Flanders. Pas-de-Calais is the French
+equivalent for the Strait of Dover, and the department is so called
+because its shores are mainly washed by that narrow neck of sea. The
+department of Nord lies to the north and east of Pas-de-Calais, and
+merges into the Belgian province of West Flanders.</p>
+
+<p>Nearly the whole of it is a plain, and much of it is as flat as the Fen
+district of Lincolnshire. A line of low heights runs south-east from
+Gris Nez,<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> and forms the watershed between the rivers running to the
+North Sea and those which empty themselves into the English Channel. The
+most important river of the region is the Lys, a tributary of the
+Scheldt. It rises in the heights just mentioned, and winds across the
+country north-eastwards to join the Scheldt at Ghent. Notice very
+carefully the course of this river, for it crosses the country almost
+midway between the two most important towns in the region from the
+Scarpe to Nieuport&mdash;the French city of Lille, and the Flemish city of
+Ypres.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/p038.jpg" width="331" height="497" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h4>Bird's-eye View of the Country from Arras to the Sea.</h4>
+
+<p>From Arras to the sea near Ostend is a distance of over sixty miles.
+Nearly the whole of this stretch of country is a dead level. There is a
+crescent of low heights south of Ypres, but elsewhere, save at and near
+Cassel, about eighteen miles west of Ypres, there is not a hill worth
+mention. The hill of Cassel rises suddenly from the plain to a height of
+515 feet, and from the summit there is a very extensive view. It is said
+that thirty-two towns and a hundred villages can be seen from this
+windmill-studded hill. What is called the Mont des Cats is about the
+same height as the hill of Cassel. It stands almost on the frontier, to
+the south-west of Ypres, and was of the greatest importance to the
+Allies, for it was the key to their position north of the Lys.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/p040.jpg" width="302" height="434" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h3>Brothers in Arms.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>Photo, Alfieri.</i></h3>
+
+<h4>A British and a French soldier chatting together in Flanders.</h4>
+
+<p>I have already told you something of the ancient and beautiful city of
+Arras.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> It is the capital of the department of Pas-de-Calais, and
+stands on the Scarpe, a tributary of the Scheldt. The old province of
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span>
+Artois, of which it was the capital, has changed hands very often during
+the course of its long and warlike history. It has been successively
+French, Burgundian, Flemish, Burgundian, German, and Spanish, and it
+finally came into the possession of France in 1640. You will remember
+that Arras, the capital, was formerly famous for the tapestry hangings
+known by its name. The manufacture, however, has long been extinct, and
+the city has now such varied industries as soap, oil, cast iron, salt,
+sugar refining, lace making, and the manufacture of agricultural
+implements. It is also one of the chief grain markets of France.</p>
+
+<p>Arras, as you will observe from the map on page <a href="#Page_29">28</a>, stands in a gap in
+the line of hills which I have mentioned as forming the watershed.
+Through this gap run the river Scarpe, many roads, and the main railway
+from Li&eacute;ge by way of Namur, Mons, and Valenciennes to the Channel ports.
+An enemy striving to push westwards to the English Channel would
+naturally strive to gain possession of Arras because of its convenient
+road and railway communications.</p>
+
+<p>Arras was formerly a beautiful little city, but it stands on the edge of
+perhaps the ugliest stretch of country on earth. Ten miles north of it
+is the town of Lens, south of which the Black Country of France begins.
+I have already told you that the Sambre cuts through an important
+coalfield. This coalfield is continued west into North France as far as
+the right bank of the Lys. The area of the coal-bearing region in
+Pas-de-Calais is about 240 square miles, and its yield is about twenty
+million tons per annum, which is about one-half of the total yearly
+output of France, but not a twelfth part of the annual production of
+Great Britain. You may be sure that this coal-bearing area is a busy and
+grimy region of pits and factories, much like the coal-mining parts of
+Lancashire or the West Riding of Yorkshire. There are the same
+straggling towns of mean houses merging into one another, the same
+mounds of refuse topped by the head-gear of pits, the same dirty roads,
+the same factory buildings, and the same criss-cross of railways and
+canals. The Lys, like the Irwell and the Aire, is black and foul with
+the grime of industry.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>B&eacute;thune, which may be said to mark the western limit of the coalfield,
+has numerous pits in the neighbourhood, and a variety of industries such
+as are usually found in towns similarly situated. It stands twenty miles
+west-south-west of Lille, and is connected with it by an important canal
+which runs almost directly east to La Bass&eacute;e for about seven miles.
+Beyond La Bass&eacute;e the canal continues its eastward course for another
+four miles, and then unites with a canal system running north-eastward
+to Lille. Along both sides of the canal there are important railway
+lines connecting Lille with B&eacute;thune and the Channel ports.</p>
+
+<p>La Bass&eacute;e is a small manufacturing town of 4,800 inhabitants, with no
+special features to distinguish it from dozens of others in this
+industrial region, but owing to its military importance in the present
+war it will henceforth enjoy a fame which many a city of old renown
+might envy. You already know that the canal from B&eacute;thune to La Bass&eacute;e
+was chosen as the dividing line between Maud'huy's army and the British
+forces. The point where two Allied armies join hands is always
+considered to be the weakest part of any defensive position. You will
+learn, as the story proceeds, that the Germans made the most determined
+efforts to break through the sally-port of La Bass&eacute;e, and that the
+British strove with all their might to push through the German lines in
+the same neighbourhood, so as to cut the railway by which the enemy was
+able to move his troops rapidly from north to south, and <i>vice vers&acirc;</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Another industrial town in this region which must detain us for a moment
+is Armenti&egrave;res,<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> which stands on the Lys about ten miles north of La
+Bass&eacute;e. Before the war it was a busy and prosperous place, with a
+population of some 29,000. Its chief manufactures were cloth and table
+linen. The Belgian frontier meets the Lys near Armenti&egrave;res, and
+continues north-eastward along the left bank of the river.</p>
+
+
+<br /><br /><br /><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2>
+
+<h3>FROM LILLE TO NIEUPORT.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap">B</span>y far the most important place between the Aisne and the coast of
+Belgium is Lille, which is less than eight miles from Armenti&egrave;res. In
+Lille we find ourselves in a city of more than 200,000 inhabitants,
+which was formerly the capital of French Flanders. It stands in the
+well-watered and very fertile plain of the Deule,<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> a navigable
+tributary of the Lys, and is connected with all the rivers of the
+district by a bewildering network of canals. Formerly it was considered
+to be a fortress of the first class, and its citadel was said to be the
+masterpiece of Vauban,<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> the great military engineer. He was a soldier
+of the Spanish army, who was taken prisoner by the French, and was
+induced by them to join the French service. His life was chiefly spent
+in making and besieging fortresses. He conducted no less than forty
+sieges, took part in more than three hundred combats, and built or
+helped to build one hundred and sixty fortresses.</p>
+
+<p>For ages Lille has been a storm-centre of war. It has been so frequently
+mishandled by besiegers that the Church of St. Maurice is the only
+building of importance which has survived from the Middle Ages. Lille is
+the greatest industrial centre of North France, and its linen, woollen,
+and cotton factories, its oil and sugar refineries, its chemical works
+and great engineering and motor shops are of the utmost importance. It
+is a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span>handsome place, with many fine public buildings, and its picture
+gallery is famous all over Europe because it contains some of the best
+work of the Flemish and Dutch schools.</p>
+
+<p>You can now understand why Lille is a great prize of war. We shall read
+later that it was captured by the Germans. Its loss was a great blow to
+the Allies, because it not only controls seven railway lines and a great
+network of roads, but contains engineering and motor shops, which
+enabled the enemy to carry out important repairs and to manufacture many
+necessary implements of war within a mile or two of his front. Further,
+when Lille was lost, the proceeds of its manufacturing activity went to
+the Germans, and this rich, busy city thenceforth contributed nothing to
+the war expenses of France.</p>
+
+<p>A little to the north-east of Lille are two other large manufacturing
+towns in the midst of one of the busiest industrial districts of France.
+Roubaix<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> is the first of these, and Tourcoing<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> is the second. In
+Belgium, a few miles north-west of Tourcoing, is the much smaller
+industrial town of Menin,<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> which stands on the Lys where the main
+road from Bruges crosses the river on the way to Lille.</p>
+
+<p>North of the Lys we are in another world. We have left behind us the
+ugly pit mounds, the grimy towns, and the smoke of factories. We are now
+in West Flanders, in a countryside of market gardens, where every inch
+of ground is closely tilled, and the fields are laid out like a
+chessboard. There are many patches of woodland, some of them, such as
+the Forest of Houthulst, six or seven miles north of Ypres, being fairly
+large. West Flanders is not naturally fertile, but its dairy farmers and
+market gardeners, by dint of the greatest industry, have turned it into
+a rich and productive land. Six or seven hundred years ago its wealth
+came from a different source. Its cities were then bustling hives, in
+which most of the woollen cloth used in Europe was spun and woven.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/p044.jpg" width="608" height="423" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h4>The Cloth Hall at Ypres before Bombardment.</h4>
+
+<p>The busiest and wealthiest of these cities was Ypres, which stands about
+twelve miles north of Armenti&egrave;res. In the thirteenth and fourteenth
+centuries there were some four hundred guilds of cloth manufacturers in
+the place, and its people numbered more than 200,000. So famous was its
+cloth that we find<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> the English poet Chaucer<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> referring to it in his
+<i>Canterbury Tales</i>. His Wife of Bath, who was one of the pilgrims, was a
+cloth manufacturer, and Chaucer tells us that her wares "passed them of
+Ypres and of Gaunt" (Ghent). Before the war broke out Ypres was a little
+town of less than 18,000 people, and its industries were represented by
+its butter market and its small manufactures of lace and linen. But
+within it, as in the other ancient cities of Belgium, were some of the
+most glorious old buildings in all the world&mdash;the houses of the rich old
+burghers, the halls in which they met to transact their business, and
+the churches in which they thanked God for their prosperity. They spent
+their money lavishly on these buildings and filled them with treasures
+of art.</p>
+
+<p>The glory of Ypres, prior to the war, was the Cloth Hall, the largest
+and finest edifice of its kind in Belgium. It was begun in 1200, and was
+more than a hundred years a-building. The front was 433 feet in length,
+and the building consisted of three stories, with a high-pitched roof
+broken by dormer windows. The niches of the top story were filled with
+statues of Flemish counts and celebrated inhabitants of the city. On the
+south side rose a massive belfry, with pinnacles at the angles. The east
+side of the hall was formed by the so-called Nieuwerk, one of the most
+beautiful buildings of its kind. I am obliged to describe the Cloth Hall
+of Ypres in the past tense, for unhappily it is now in ruins. Ypres had
+also a very fine cathedral, a meat hall, and a large number of old
+houses with carved wooden fronts. They, too, have been destroyed, more
+or less, by shot and shell.</p>
+
+<p>In the days of its greatness Ypres, like Manchester of to-day, needed a
+waterway to the sea, so that it could rapidly and cheaply import wool
+from abroad, and export its finished cloth to distant markets. Ypres
+stands on a little river which is a tributary of the river Yser, a
+stream almost unknown to Britons before the war began, but now inscribed
+on the pages of history. The Yser rises to the west of Cassel, and flows
+in a curving course to enter the sea near Nieuport. A canal was cut from
+Ypres to the Yser, which was itself canalized, and thus the city
+provided itself with a waterway to the sea.</p>
+
+<p>On the canal, twelve or thirteen miles north of Ypres, is the village of
+Dixmude,<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> which is also one of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span>"dead cities" of Belgium. Its
+fine Grand' Place, its noble Church of St. Nicholas, its Gothic town
+hall, and its heavily shuttered stone houses, show us that it was
+formerly a place of wealth and importance. Now, says a recent writer,
+"its eleven hundred inhabitants might easily stand in a corner of the
+Grand' Place. The passer-by&mdash;there is rarely more than one&mdash;disturbs the
+silence, and one hears scarcely any sounds save the chimes in the tower
+or the cooing of doves on the cornices." Alas! since the tide of war
+rolled into this part of Belgium, those inhabitants who remain have
+continuously been deafened by the roar of great guns, and the towers
+from which the chimes rang out and the cornices on which the doves cooed
+have been levelled with the ground.</p>
+
+<p>Nieuport, the outport of Ypres, is the last of the towns in this region
+to which I shall call your attention. It stands about two miles from the
+mouth of the Yser, and, like Ypres and Dixmude, is only a relic of what
+it once was. About 4,000 people were dwelling in it before the war broke
+out, but its long, silent streets, with their massive houses, showed
+plainly that it was formerly a populous and busy place. In the
+thirteenth and fourteenth centuries its quays were thronged with ships
+discharging wool from England for the looms of Ypres, or filling their
+holds with the fine cloth made in the old city. Before the war, Nieuport
+still retained its cloth hall, town hall, and venerable Gothic church as
+memorials of this busy and prosperous time. When the trade of Ypres
+departed, Nieuport fell into decline. Prior to the war it was a small,
+quiet place, visited by a few ships and by occasional tourists.
+Everybody knows it now as the scene of battles which will change the
+destiny of the world. Beyond Nieuport are the great sand dunes which
+line the coast of Belgium, and extend as far west as Calais. From the
+top of the dunes we look out on the restless and shallow waters of the
+North Sea.</p>
+
+<p>We have now traversed the region over which warfare was to rage for many
+months to come.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Before I close this chapter, let me remind you that the whole region
+between Arras and the North Sea is filled with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span> historical memories of
+former warfare. This is by no means the first time that the British have
+fought in West Flanders and Artois. Marlborough,<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> for example, fought
+the greatest of his campaigns in this region, during the long struggle
+between Louis XIV. of France and the allied forces of England, Holland,
+and Austria. I am going to tell you about these campaigns in some
+detail, because they have features greatly resembling those of the
+present struggle.</p>
+
+<p>Marlborough's great aim, was to recapture the valleys of the Lys and the
+Scheldt, which in the year 1708 were in the possession of the French.
+These rivers were then all-important, because they were the great lines
+of communication for armies fighting in Flanders and North France. It
+was by means of the rivers that food and munitions were brought to the
+soldiers and the heavy guns were moved from place to place. What
+railways are to modern commanders, navigable rivers were to generals in
+the long ages before steam.</p>
+
+<p>All the fortresses on the Scheldt were in the hands of the French,
+except Oudenarde,<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> which you will find on the accompanying map,
+thirty miles to the east of Ypres. At the time when our story opens,
+Oudenarde was about to be attacked by the French. Marlborough made a
+wonderful forced march, and fell upon them as they were advancing
+towards the fortress. By nightfall on July 11, 1708, he had won a great
+victory, and the remnants of the French army had fallen back in disorder
+to Ghent. While Marlborough was waiting for reinforcements to come up,
+some of his troops seized a French position near Ypres, and his main
+army encamped near Menin.</p>
+
+<p>Marlborough now proposed to besiege Lille, the greatest fortress on the
+road to Paris. He could not bring his siege train by way of the river,
+so it had to lumber slowly along the roads, and while doing so was in
+great danger of being captured by the enemy. Thanks, however, to his
+skilful arrangements, his heavy guns arrived safely, and then the siege
+began in real earnest. Lille was very strongly fortified, and was
+garrisoned by 15,000 men. While the siege was in progress a French army
+of more than 100,000 men marched to its succour;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span> but so strongly was
+Marlborough posted that it did not dare to attack him. Instead of doing
+so it fell back behind the Scheldt, so as to cut off Marlborough's
+forces from Brussels. As, however, he still held Ostend, he was able to
+get supplies from England.</p>
+
+<p>The French now tried to seize Ostend, so that Marlborough might be cut
+off from the sea and bottled up. He sent forces against them; but the
+French fell back before him and opened the sluices of the canals, thus
+flooding much of the country between him and the sea. A little later
+they succeeded in capturing Nieuport, and Marlborough was cut off from
+Ostend.</p>
+
+<p>On 9th December Lille surrendered after the garrison had lost 8,000 men,
+and the besiegers not less than 14,000. Marlborough also captured Ghent,
+and at the end of December 1708 the French left Flanders altogether, and
+retired into their own territory. Thus the valleys of the Lys and
+Scheldt were recovered.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/p049.jpg" width="566" height="309" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h4>Map illustrating Marlborough's Campaigns in Artois and West Flanders.</h4>
+
+<p>Before I proceed with the story of Marlborough's campaigns, let me point
+out that during the race to the sea there was a similar struggle between
+the Allies and the Germans for the possession of the same valleys. The
+Allies were hastening north in order to push across the Lys and Scheldt
+and cut the German communications. Unhappily the Germans<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span> moved
+northwards so rapidly that this was impossible. Further, when Antwerp
+fell, a German army was released which made a great effort to outflank
+the Allies by way of the coast. Each side foiled the other, and the
+result was the long trench war which will be described in future pages.</p>
+
+<p>Now let us return to our muttons. In the spring of 1709 Marlborough, who
+was now in possession of Lille proposed to march on Paris. The French
+knew that if he could seize Arras he would possess the gate to the
+capital. They therefore prepared to block his way by strongly
+entrenching themselves on a line extending from Douai,<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> which lies on
+the Scarpe about fourteen miles north-east of Arras, to B&eacute;thune. These
+trenches passed through La Bass&eacute;e, where, as you know, the French and
+the British joined hands during the race to the sea in October 1914.
+Marlborough found these lines too strong to be carried by direct
+assault, so he turned aside and besieged Tournai, the town in which
+French Territorials, assisted by a British battery, made a very gallant
+stand on August 24, 1914.<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> Tournai surrendered after a siege of about
+thirty-seven days, and then Marlborough marched on Mons, the place where
+von Kluck, on August 23, 1914, vainly endeavoured to overwhelm the
+British.<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a></p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/p050.jpg" width="697" height="475" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h3>The Battle of Malplaquet (September 11, 1709).</h3>
+
+<h4>(<i>From the picture by Jan van Huchtenburgh</i>).</h4>
+
+<p>While Marlborough was besieging Mons, the French, fearing that the
+fortress would suffer the fate of Lille and Tournai, marched an army
+against him. They entrenched themselves in a strong position on the edge
+of the broken and wooded country which fills the angle between two small
+rivers which unite at Mons, and were there attacked by Marlborough on
+September 11, 1709. After what he calls "a very murderous battle" the
+French were outflanked and their centre was broken through. The British
+encamped the following night on the French position, but they had lost
+so many men that they were unable to advance any further that year. You
+will find this victory referred to in your history books as the Battle
+of Malplaquet.<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a></p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/p051.jpg" width="114" height="150" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h4>John Churchill, first Duke of Marlborough.<br />
+
+(<i>Photo by Walker and Cockerell, from the painting in the National
+Portrait Gallery.</i>)</h4>
+
+<p>In April 1710 the campaign was resumed. Douai was captured, but Arras
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span>
+and the road to France were found to be protected by a line of trenches
+which foiled even Marlborough. B&eacute;thune and other places fell into his
+hands; but during the winter the French extended their trenches from
+Namur on the east right to the coast, and the barrier seemed
+impregnable. In 1711, however, Marlborough carried out a series of
+movements which are said to be the most wonderful in the whole history
+of tactics. Early in August he approached the French lines as if about
+to attack Arras. The French massed their forces to meet him, and in
+order to do so had to weaken their hold on the trenches farther east.
+Suddenly, on the same night, Marlborough made a forced march of thirteen
+leagues to the left. Many of his men dropped from fatigue, but with the
+remainder he seized a portion of the trenches, and was behind the French
+lines while the French army was still awaiting his attack on Arras. He
+had completely outwitted the French general, though, for various
+reasons, he was unable to take further advantage of his success.</p>
+
+<p>The French trenches of which you have just read ran, roughly, east and
+west, and were meant to stop an advance on Paris from the north. During
+the race to the sea the rival armies were moving from the south to the
+north. Each was trying to outflank the other. The Allies wished to
+strike eastwards, and the Germans westwards, and the result was that the
+lines of trenches in which they opposed each other ran from north to
+south.</p>
+
+
+<br /><br /><br /><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2>
+
+<h3>MAUD'HUY AT ARRAS, AND THE RETREAT FROM ANTWERP.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap">T</span>wo hundred and three years after Marlborough vainly tried to capture
+Arras, that little historic town became once more a prize for which
+rival forces strove fiercely. Marlborough coveted it because it was, as
+Louis XIV. styled it, the true gateway to Paris. The Germans, who were
+now to make a great effort to seize it, desired its possession because
+it would enable them to outflank Maud'huy's army and seize the Channel
+ports.</p>
+
+<p>Arras had already been in German hands. During von Kluck's rush on Paris
+his troops drove out the weak French forces holding the city,<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> and
+occupied it up to the middle of September. When, however, the deadlock
+occurred on the Aisne, they withdrew from the quaint old place without
+doing it very much harm.</p>
+
+<p>It was on the last day of September 1914 that Maud'huy began to extend
+his army beyond that of de Castelnau. Soon his left was at Lens, and his
+cavalry was scouring the country still farther north towards the Lys and
+the Yser. Several Territorial regiments attached to his army had already
+been sent to occupy Lille and Douai. You can easily understand that
+those weak forces would be in great danger if the Germans were to sweep
+round to the west. The Allied generals, however, believed that they were
+ahead in the race, and that they would be the first to overl<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span>ap. They
+were quite mistaken: the Germans were ahead, and were now preparing to
+overlap by sending cavalry and infantry in motor buses towards the line
+of B&eacute;thune and Cassel.</p>
+
+<p>On the afternoon of 1st October Douai had to be abandoned, and that very
+day the German guns began to thunder on the hills surrounding Arras. Von
+Buelow attacked Maud'huy in great force on the flats to the east of the
+city, while the Bavarians attempted to outflank him on the north. Though
+he received reinforcements he was obliged to retire behind the city and
+take up a position on the encircling hills. Before doing so he warned
+all the men of military age to leave the place. Then began a pitiful
+exodus to the coast.</p>
+
+<p>For two days the Germans fiercely bombarded Arras: the beautiful
+sixteenth-century town hall, with its superb clock tower, was ruined,
+and the cathedral, as well as many of the historic houses, was badly
+damaged. Shells were rained on the place; but the French maintained a
+stubborn front, and refused to give way. The attack continued right
+through the month. A most determined assault was made between the 20th
+and the 26th, when the Prussian Guard came into action; but the enemy
+could not cross the ramparts. On the 31st a large German force was
+allowed to enter the suburbs, where a trap had been prepared. The result
+was that a battalion of the Guard surrendered, and a military train with
+one of the great siege howitzers was captured.</p>
+
+<p>Maud'huy held the gate at Arras against all comers, and too great praise
+cannot be given to him and his brave troops. Had the Germans been able
+to sweep through the Arras gate the whole subsequent history of the war
+would have been changed.</p>
+
+<p>On the 3rd of October, when the Germans were closing in on Arras, their
+patrols were reported on the outskirts of Lille, which they had also
+entered during their southward march,<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> but had subsequently
+abandoned. The mayor at once warned the inhabitants to keep cool, to
+avoid gathering in crowds, and to give no offence to the enemy should he
+enter the city. Next day the cracking of rifles was heard in the
+suburbs, and several shells fell in the streets, one of them striking
+the town hall. A new German force was advancing towards Lille from
+Belgium. During the morning an armoured train<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> containing 300 Uhlans
+came dashing towards the station. A signalman promptly switched it on to
+a siding, and the French attacked it. The surprised Uhlans tried to take
+refuge in the neighbouring houses and workshops, but most of them were
+captured next morning.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/p055.jpg" width="392" height="532" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h3>A Battle amidst the Coal Trucks of Lens.</h3>
+
+<h4>(<i>From the picture by Paul Thiriat. By permission of The Sphere.</i>)</h4>
+
+<p>Nor was this the only attack on Lille that day. Some 3,000 Germans tried
+to force their way in from the direction of Tourcoing, while others
+tried to cross from the Belgian to the French side of the Lys below
+Armenti&egrave;res, but both attacks were repelled. On the 6th there was
+fighting to the west of Lille and on the 10th a company of Uhlans dashed
+into the streets. They arrested the mayor and several other citizens as
+hostages; but in the nick of time a party of French Chasseurs arrived,
+set free the prisoners, and chased the Uhlans out of the city. Almost
+immediately the Germans began to bombard the place, and shells fell upon
+it at intervals until the 12th, when an infantry attack began. The
+Territorials did their best to resist, but they were altogether
+outnumbered, and were forced to withdraw. On the 13th Lille surrendered,
+and the Germans, with bands playing, marched in and took possession.
+Thus the most valuable city of North France fell into their hands.</p>
+
+<p>You already know that it was of the utmost importance that Lille should
+be retained by the Allies. Why, then, did not General Maud'huy send a
+stronger force to hold it? The fact is, that he was so hard pressed at
+Arras that he could not spare an additional man for the defence of
+Lille. He had all his work cut out to save Arras and prevent the Germans
+from swarming through the gap towards the Channel. But even the feeble
+resistance of the Territorials at Lille was of advantage to the Allies.
+The city was held for nine days, during which large German forces were
+detained. By keeping these forces busy round the city the Territorials
+helped to conceal the Allied movements which were going on farther to
+the west, and also enabled the French and British troops to reach the
+line of the Yser just, and only just, in time to stop the Germans from
+bursting through.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Now we must hurry north to Antwerp and see what happened after the
+tragic fall of that great fortress. In the last chapter of Volume II.,
+page 313, I told you that a British Naval Brig<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span>ade, numbering about
+8,000 men in all, was sent to the assistance of the beleaguered city. It
+arrived too late to save the fortress, but its energies were not wasted.
+The defence of the city was prolonged for a few priceless days while the
+troops from the Aisne were being hurried up to the new theatre of war.</p>
+
+<p>The Belgian troops began to retreat from Antwerp on the evening of 6th
+October. Covered by cavalry, armoured motor cars, and cyclist corps,
+they moved out towards Ghent and Ostend, while a strong show of
+resistance was kept up by other Belgian troops and the British
+contingent in the trenches to the south of the city. Next day came the
+terrible flight of the civil population, and late that night, amidst
+scenes of indescribable confusion, the remainder of the Belgian troops
+and most of the British left the forts and trenches, cut the pontoon
+bridge over the Scheldt behind them, and hurried westwards, beating off
+attacks on their rear. Unfortunately, as you will remember, three
+battalions of the British Naval Brigade did not receive orders to retire
+until the road westwards was blocked by the enemy. Some 2,500 of them
+either passed into Holland, where they had to remain, or were captured
+by the Germans. It is said that 18,000 Belgians suffered the same fate.</p>
+
+<p>The following extract from the diary of a petty officer who served with
+the Naval Brigade gives you some idea of the experiences of the British
+contingent:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"<i>October 8.</i>&mdash;What a night last night! Shells coming in like
+one o'clock. Man on my side got a bit in his leg, but says he
+can shoot just as well on one leg. Belgian artilleryman reports
+that he and two others are all that are left of our covering
+fort. We seem to have nothing to do but wait for the end. These
+trenches would be all right against savages, but against their
+huge artillery, like so much dust. These shells come with a whiz
+like an express train, and then&mdash;crash! The spirits of our troop
+are top hole. No one the slightest bit excited&mdash;just smoking or
+yarning and dodging shells; but it's just rotten not coming
+alongside them. Here she comes&mdash;dip, crash! Saved again. Another
+'non-stop' for Antwerp!<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> When they shorten the range for
+us&mdash;well, cheer oh! Officer just given us the bird for laughing.
+'Grin at each other, but don't speak, chapsies. In case I don't
+see you again, all my best love.'</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Next day.</i>&mdash;About six last night we had a German attack on our
+left flank, and drove them off. As they had the range of our
+entrenchment, we had orders to clear out. So we did so. As I
+fell in outside, a shell exploded alongside. One man was left on
+the deck. We had to march back to Antwerp. City in places in
+flames. Everybody gone. Dead animals in the streets. Shells
+screaming overhead. Right through the city, over a bridge of
+boats, which were afterwards exploded, and marched until six
+this morning. Only one hour's sleep on the pavement of a small
+town. Thousands of men on the march back, thousands of refugees,
+Belgians, horses, cattle, and artillery, just like pictures of
+the retreat from Moscow and such like. We got a train at once,
+and it's now one o'clock, and we are still in it, bound for the
+coast. Part of our entrenchment was blown up as we were
+retreating, so if we had not gone I don't suppose any of us
+would have been alive. So, taking things all round, we had a
+pretty brisk time, and seem to have done nothing. Don't know how
+many miles we marched last night, but it is a picture which will
+always live in my memory. The conduct of our boys is simply
+marvellous&mdash;just as cool as seasoned veterans.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Saturday, October 10.</i>&mdash;Blankenberghe.<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> Arrived last night;
+slept at a kind of town hall. Had a meal where the refugees are
+staying; breakfast at hotel. Girls wearing R.N.V.R.<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a> ribbons
+across their heads.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Sunday, October 11.</i>&mdash;Came aboard collier yesterday afternoon,
+and still aboard now. There are about 2,000 men here.
+Accommodation for none, so I slept between the funnel and the
+engine-room grating. Some even slept on the cylinders. Don't
+know when we shall shove off."</p></div>
+
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span>
+<p>When Mr. Winston Churchill explained why the Naval Brigade had been sent
+to Antwerp, he said that it was "part of a large operation for the
+relief of the city which more powerful considerations prevented from
+being carried out." On the day after the Naval Brigade reached Antwerp
+(6th October), a part of the Fourth British Army Corps, under General
+Sir Henry Rawlinson, landed at Ostend and Zeebrugge,<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a> and at once
+marched eastwards. The original object of this force, always supposing
+that Antwerp held out, was to join hands with the troops defending the
+city, and then advance across the Scheldt so as to cut the German lines
+of communication. On the evening of his arrival in Belgium Sir Henry
+Rawlinson visited Antwerp, and saw with his own eyes that the fortress
+could not be saved. His business now was to cover the retreat of the
+forces which had vainly tried to hold the city.</p>
+
+
+<br /><br /><br /><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2>
+
+<h3>WITH RAWLINSON IN BELGIUM.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap">W</span>hen Rawlinson's troops reached Ghent, on 7th October 1914, they fell in
+with the first body of retreating Belgians, and also with a brigade of
+French Marine Fusiliers, 6,000 strong, which had been hastily organized
+and rushed northwards that very morning. Most of them were Breton<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a>
+reservists and recruits who had never fought on land before. Their chief
+was Admiral Ronarc'h,<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> a big, broad-shouldered, cool seaman, with
+eyes of Celtic blue. The Germans called these Bretons lads and
+graybeards "the girls with the red pompoms."<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> They were soon to
+discover that the Bretons were not playing at war, but that they were
+fighters of iron resolution and fiery courage.</p>
+
+<p>When the troops under Rawlinson were disembarking at Ostend and
+Zeebrugge, fourteen transports, containing the 7th British Division,
+which had been assembled on the borders of the New Forest, were on the
+way to join him in Belgium. Just when the transports were off Ostend
+they received a wireless message ordering them to recross the Channel to
+Dover. A grain ship had just been blown up off Ostend, and it was
+f<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span>eared that the transports would be sent to the bottom too. They were
+therefore ordered back to Dover to wait until the mines were swept up
+along the Belgian coast. On the day when the retirement from Antwerp was
+in full swing, the 7th Division disembarked at Zeebrugge, and marched to
+the outskirts of Bruges. The agony of Antwerp was then over, and all
+that could be done was to help to cover the retreat of the forces now
+marching away from the city.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 743px;">
+<img src="images/p060.jpg" width="743" height="486" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h4>Bavarian Troops leaving Antwerp for the Dash on Calais.</h4>
+
+<p>The Germans, as you know, strove hard to cut off the retreating
+defenders, and in the villages to the east and south of Ghent the
+British forces and the French Marine Brigade made a stand against an
+army which numbered about 45,000. When they had checked the enemy, they
+decided to retire westwards towards Bruges. That night, under a wintry
+moon, a long march of twenty-six miles was accomplished, the 7th
+Division and the French Marines acting as the rearguard.</p>
+
+<p>After a brief rest the retreating forces turned south-south-east, the
+cavalry scouring the country in advance, and on the following evening
+reached Thielt,<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> where it was discovered that the pursuit had so
+greatly slackened that the weary men were enabled to get the first good
+sleep which they had enjoyed for several days. It is said that they owed
+this piece of good fortune to the mayor of one of the neighbouring
+towns, who deliberately sent the Germans off on a false scent. When the
+Germans discovered that they had been misdirected, the mayor was
+promptly shot.</p>
+
+<p>On 13th October the Allies reached Thourout,<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a> where they divided into
+two parts. Admiral Ronarc'h and his Marines, along with the Belgian
+forces which had been holding Ghent, moved west to the Yser, where they
+joined the remnants of the Belgian army which had retreated through
+Bruges. Here the undaunted King Albert, accompanied by his devoted wife,
+Queen Elizabeth, rejoined the exhausted army, and helped to reorganize
+it for the terrible struggles which lay before it. Meanwhile Sir Henry
+Rawlinson's forces pressed on southwards, and arrived at Roulers,<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a>
+<i>en route</i> for Ypres, on 13th October, the day on which Lille fell into
+the hands of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span> Germans. By that time part of the German army which
+had been besieging Antwerp, and had been released for other operations
+when it fell, had swept through Bruges, and had occupied Ostend. German
+soldiers were seen strolling on the sands which in the early days of
+July had been crowded with laughing bathers and merry holiday-makers.
+Many of the German soldiers had never seen the sea before, and they
+gazed upon it with open-mouthed interest, straining their eyes in the
+vain attempt to see the shores of that island kingdom which was so
+steadfastly blocking their path to victory.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Mr. C. Underwood, an interpreter who was attached to the 7th Division,
+which played such an important part in the fighting retreat from Ghent,
+tells us<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a> that it was the delay caused by sending back the transports
+of his division to Dover that prevented Sir Henry Rawlinson from
+marching to the relief of Antwerp.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"We left Roulers for Ypres," he says, "at 9.30 a.m. (October
+14), and four Taubes flew over us on the road, but too high to
+be shot at. We arrived at Ypres at 6.30, and that evening I saw
+our first lot of allies, reserve dragoons dismounted in the
+square to receive us. The Germans had been through and stayed
+one night, the 7th, the day we landed at Zeebrugge. They had
+taken up their quarters in the famous riding school, and the
+first thing they had done was to break open the mess-room and
+cellars, and take out all the wine, after which they broke up
+everything and stole the mess-plate. When I saw it, a week
+later, the school was strewn with broken bottles&mdash;champagne,
+claret, port, etc., etc.&mdash;and every drawer and cupboard burst
+open and ransacked. They had cut all communications at the
+station, demanded an indemnity of 65,000 francs (&pound;2,600), and
+stolen all the money they could lay hands on from the Banque
+National. Six thousand loaves were requisitioned in the evening
+to be ready next morning, failing which there was a penalty of
+&pound;800 (20,000 francs). At 10.30 a.m. a Taube, with pilot and
+observer, had been brought down; but they were not captured till
+4.30, as they concealed themselves in a wood. They were both
+brought in, furious with rage, as each was seized by the collar,
+and a revolver pointed at their heads by Belgian officers. They
+were driven off in a car at the rate of sixty miles an hour at
+least!</p>
+
+<p>"Next day the whole brigade marched out to Halte on the
+Menin-Ypres road, dug trenches, and remained in them all night.
+It was pitch dark in the morning when we were ordered to attack
+a patrol of Germans towards Menin. About a quarter of a mile
+beyond Gheluvelt<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a> we engaged advance party of Uhlans at 8.30
+a.m. in a thick fog. A file of the Bedfords brought in a
+suspect, whose papers, not being in order, I escorted into
+Ypres. He was there detained at the town hall, and I heard no
+more of him. Had quite an amusing skirmish with the daughter of
+the proprietress of the hotel of the Three Kings. Feeling very
+hungry, I asked for lunch. She said she had nothing; asked for
+an egg, same reply; bread, the same; finally, in a fury at such
+disobliging conduct, I asked her whether she did not think
+herself most ungrateful, considering we were there to defend
+them against the Germans. This had the desired effect, and she
+asked me to come in, cooked me a splendid omelet, brought out a
+bottle of wine, and plenty of bread and cheese, for which she
+only charged me two francs."</p></div>
+
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span>
+<p>On Sunday, the 18th, Mr. Underwood's brigade had its baptism of fire at
+a village a little to the north-east of Gheluvelt, where a British
+battery silenced the guns of the enemy. All night they waited for an
+attack, but the Germans left them alone until the morning. Then the
+fighting was continued, and thus began that series of desperate
+conflicts&mdash;"ten Waterloos a week"&mdash;known as the Battle of Ypres. I shall
+give you a full account of this gigantic struggle in a later chapter.</p>
+
+<p>The enemy against whom the 7th Division was now fighting consisted of
+four reserve corps which had left Germany on 11th October. Three of the
+corps had assembled in Brussels, and without losing an hour had been
+sent on an eighty-mile march westwards. They largely consisted of
+Landwehr<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a> and new volunteers, and ranged from boys of sixteen to
+stout gentlemen in middle life. Though quite new to the work of war,
+they soon showed themselves as desperate in attack as the most seasoned
+veterans. Mr. Underwood says: "On questioning one of the prisoners, he
+informed me that they were all Landwehr men, fathers of families, about
+the age of thirty-nine and forty, who had been called up quite recently.
+There was no doubt that the Germans were well equipped; all their
+clothes were in excellent order and brand new. They seemed relieved, and
+evidently overjoyed, when I told them that they would probably be sent
+to England. They were afraid that the report which had been made to them
+that we shot all prisoners was true."</p>
+
+
+<br /><br /><br /><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE LONG, THIN LINE OF STEEL AND VALOUR.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap">L</span>et us look again at the sixty-mile stretch of country from Arras to the
+North Sea, the great danger zone during the month of October and for
+many months afterwards. An enemy advancing from Belgium and North
+France, desirous of capturing the coast of the Channel, and making
+himself master of the Strait of Dover, must cross this stretch of
+country in order to attain his object. You already know that a most
+determined effort was made by the Germans to push through the gap at
+Arras, from which the railways give access not only to the Channel ports
+but to Paris. As you are aware, General Maud'huy was able to say to the
+Germans, "No road this way."</p>
+
+<p>Seventeen miles north of Arras we find the second passage by which the
+Channel ports may be reached by an army advancing westwards. You have
+already heard more than once of the town of La Bass&eacute;e, which stands on
+the canal uniting B&eacute;thune with Lille. A great thrust through La Bass&eacute;e
+would serve almost as well as a thrust through the Arras gap, for
+B&eacute;thune, which lies seven miles to the west, is the junction of two
+diverging railways, both of which lead to Boulogne. The more northerly
+of these lines has a branch which runs through the important railway
+centre of Hazebrouck<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a> to Ypres. At Hazebrouck the St. Omer<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a>-Ypres
+line meets the railway which comes westwards from Lille through
+Armenti&egrave;res to the coast. A little west of Hazebr<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span>ouck this line
+subdivides: one route goes through St. Omer to Boulogne; the other runs
+north to Dunkirk, from which Calais and Boulogne may be reached by a
+line along the coast.</p>
+
+<p>Examine this little railway map carefully, and you will see that if the
+Germans could make a thrust through the Allied lines at La Bass&eacute;e they
+would soon be in possession of the two railway junctions of B&eacute;thune and
+Hazebrouck, which would give them no fewer than four lines of railway
+for their advance on the sea-coast. Had the Germans broken through at
+this point, the Allied forces to the north would have been overwhelmed.
+We shall soon learn that the sally-port at La Bass&eacute;e was the scene of
+long and desperate struggles.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/p065.jpg" width="453" height="357" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>The third passage by which the enemy might capture the coast of North
+France and outflank the Allies at the same time is by way of the Yser
+Canal and the Ypres Canal. You have already learnt how Rawlinson's army
+tried to block the road to Ypres and how the Belgians withdrew to the
+line of the Yser in order to contest its passage. Rawlinson's force was
+far too small to resist the numbers which were hurled against it on and
+after the 18th of October, and the much-battered Belgians were far too
+exhausted to offer more than a feeble resistance to the forces of the
+enemy following hard on their heels. They were strengthened by some
+French Territorials, but even with this support they had to fall back
+behind the line of the Yser on the 16th.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span></p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/p066067.jpg" width="661" height="468" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h4>Weary Belgian Soldiers resting on the Banks of the Yser
+River after their Retreat from Antwerp.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>Photo, Daily Mirror</i>.</h4>
+
+<p>Now, while the gates at Arras and the Yser were thus being guarded by
+Allied forces too weak to do more than barely hold their own, what had
+happened at the middle gate of La Bass&eacute;e? On 11th October, two days
+after the Germans made their triumphal march into Antwerp, General
+Smith-Dorrien and the Second Corps detrained, marched to the line of the
+La Bass&eacute;e Canal, and took up a position along its southern bank. On
+their right were the French cavalry, linking them with Maud'huy's army;
+on the left were the brisk squadrons of Gough's cavalry, who were
+clearing the Germans from the wooded country to the north of the Lys.
+The Germans were holding the high ground south of La Bass&eacute;e, where the
+French trenches had baffled Marlborough more than two hundred years
+before, and were in strong force on the road to Lille. That great
+industrial city had not yet fallen, so Sir John French decided to make a
+great effort to save it.</p>
+
+<p>On the morning of the 12th, in a thick fog, the Second Corps wheeled on
+its right, and took up a new position facing east, its left resting on
+the Lys and its right on the canal north of B&eacute;thune. It then advanced
+eastward, finding its way much impeded by the difficult character of the
+ground. Our soldiers from the coal-mining districts of Great Britain
+found themselves in familiar country&mdash;amidst the large, straggling,
+connected villages, the pit-heads, refuse mounds, and factories of their
+own homeland. They had to advance across a flat country with a patchwork
+of fields and hop-gardens, hemmed in by high bedraggled hedges, and cut
+across by interminable ditches, with frequent canals by way of variety.
+The roads, which were lined by scraggy poplars, were narrow, and deep in
+mud owing to the heavy traffic. Through this flat, depressing country in
+which good gun positions were few and far between, the British marched
+to meet the Germans. By nightfall, however, they had made some progress
+amidst the slippery maze of the muddy dykes, and had driven back several
+counter-attacks, both by steady fire and by bayonet charges.</p>
+
+<p>Next day the Second Corps began to wheel. It pivoted on the village of
+Givenchy,<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a> which stands on the north bank <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span>of the canal, less than
+two miles due west of La Bass&eacute;e, and endeavoured to get astride of the
+La Bass&eacute;e-Lille road, so as to threaten the right flank and rear of the
+enemy's position on the high ground south of La Bass&eacute;e. The enemy was
+found to be strongly entrenched, and supported by artillery in good
+positions. Before long the fighting was of the most desperate character.
+The British advanced across the marshy fields under a fierce and
+devastating fire with the utmost courage, fighting pitched battles in
+the villages, where every house had been loopholed and turned into a
+miniature fortress.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/p069.jpg" width="368" height="374" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h3>The Fighting about La Bass&eacute;e.</h3>
+
+<h4>Sketch map showing front held by the Second Corps on October 19, on
+night of October 22, and about mid-November 1914.</h4>
+
+<p>The 5th Division, on the right, bore the brunt of the deadly fray. At
+Pont Fixe, on the La Bass&eacute;e canal near Givenchy, the Dorsets, led by
+their brave commander, Major Roper, fought<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span> hand-to-hand combats in the
+lanes between the houses, and drove the enemy headlong before them. The
+Germans then turned their guns on to the place, and tore it to
+fragments. High explosives and shrapnel were hurled on the village,
+until it seemed that no living thing could survive the deadly hail.
+When, however, the infantry attack was launched, the Dorsets were still
+there, but were sadly reduced in numbers. Though their leader was
+killed, they held on to the smoking ruins all day, and when nightfall
+came they were still in possession. One hundred and thirty killed and
+two hundred and seventy wounded was the price paid for this village on
+that blood-drenched day. The Bedfords, of the same brigade, fought their
+way to Givenchy, but were driven out again by heavy shell fire.</p>
+
+<p>That night news arrived that Lille had fallen and was in possession of
+the 14th German Corps. Though Lille was lost La Bass&eacute;e might be won, and
+the Second Corps now devoted its energies to the task. Next day the 3rd
+Division suffered a heavy loss. Sir Hubert Hamilton, its commander, was
+struck by a shrapnel bullet while riding along his lines, and fell from
+his horse a dead man. He was one of the most skilful and beloved of the
+younger generals, and his loss was greatly deplored. An eye-witness thus
+describes his burial in the village graveyard:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Owing to the proximity of the enemy absolute silence was
+observed, except for the low voice of the priest, advantage
+being taken of a lull in the attack. Just at the moment when the
+priest was saying the last prayer the guns began to roar again,
+and projectiles whistled over the heads of the mourners. The
+German attack was directed from a distance of a few hundred
+yards. The moment was well chosen, for the volleys fired by the
+troops of the Allies in honour of the dead, gloriously fallen
+for the common cause, were at the same time volleys of
+vengeance. Crackling reports of rifles continued round the
+ruined church, but the voice of the priest, reciting the last
+words of the requiem, lost nothing of its calm and clearness."</p></div>
+
+<p>Next day the 3rd Division brilliantly avenged the loss of its leader.
+Sir John French tells us that they "fought splendidly," crossing with
+planks the dykes with which this country is intersected, and driving the
+enemy from one entrenched position to another in loopholed villages,
+till at night they pushed the Germans off the road leading from
+Estaires,<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a> on the Lys, to La Bass&eacute;e. On the 16th the division
+advance<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span>d its left flank in front of the village of Aubers,<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a> which
+lies behind a ridge of high ground and a stream which joins the Lys at
+Armenti&egrave;res. Aubers was captured by the 19th Brigade on the following
+day, and late that evening the village of Herlies,<a name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a> about a mile and
+a half to the south-east, was carried at the point of the bayonet by the
+1st Lincolns and the 4th Royal Fusiliers.</p>
+
+<p>The Second Corps was now within four miles of La Bass&eacute;e. So far it had
+been opposed by German cavalry; now it found itself up against the main
+wall of German defence. "This position of La Bass&eacute;e," records Sir John
+French, "has throughout the battle defied all attempts at capture."
+Powerful counter-attacks began the next day, and continued right up to
+the end of the month. Against the masses of Germans now concentrated
+against them the Second Corps could do nothing but stand on the defence.
+Most resolutely they held their lines until the end of the month, and
+again and again repulsed very heavy attacks, in which the Germans lost
+heavily and left large numbers of dead and prisoners behind them.</p>
+
+<p>All this heavy work was now telling on the Second Corps, and their
+losses had been so heavy that Smith-Dorrien on the evening of the 22nd
+was obliged to withdraw his forces to lines of entrenchments which had
+been prepared on a line running from the eastern side of Givenchy to a
+village on the B&eacute;thune-Armenti&egrave;res road, some seven miles south-west of
+the latter town. There they settled down into their new trenches; but
+their lines were very thin, and had not every soldier in them done the
+work of ten men, they could never have held the position against the
+swarming masses of the enemy. One day, it is said, General French
+visited these lines, and talked with a colonel who was hard pressed. "We
+can't hold out much longer, sir," said the colonel; "it is impossible."
+"I want only men who can do the impossible," said French. "Carry on."</p>
+
+<p>Before I conclude this account of the very gallant but unavailing attack
+of the Second Corps on La Bass&eacute;e, I must tell you one or two incidents
+which occurred during the fighting in October. On the 19th Major Daniell
+and his Royal Irish Regiment found the enemy in the village of Le
+Pilly,<a name="FNanchor_45_45" id="FNanchor_45_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a> about a mile to the north of Herlies. Every house in the
+place had been loopholed, and line after line of trenches had been d<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span>ug,
+so that the position was as strong as a fortress. With loud yells the
+Royal Irish dashed upon the place, and, in spite of the shrapnel that
+was rained on them, carried it by storm. They then entrenched
+themselves, and prepared to defend the village. But next day the gallant
+battalion was cut off by German supports from Lille, and was surrounded,
+after suffering heavy losses.</p>
+
+<p>Very early on the morning of the 24th there was a fierce German attack
+upon our new lines, but owing to the skilful work of the artillery it
+came to naught. Towards evening there was another heavy attack, which
+the Wiltshires and Royal West Kents repulsed. Later on the Germans drove
+the Gordon Highlanders out of their trenches, but they were retaken by
+the Middlesex Regiment, gallantly led by Lieutenant Colonel Hull.</p>
+
+<p>While our men were "hanging on by their eyelids, some one, I am told,
+looked back from a trench and saw a solitary outpost, a turbaned,
+cloaked figure of the desert, very startling in the green, peaceful
+landscape, riding over a hill. Behind him nodded the turbans of Sikh
+cavalry, and the British in the trenches, who seemed past emotion, waved
+their rifles and cheered." It was the advance guard of the Lahore
+Division of the Indian army coming in the nick of time to reinforce the
+hard-pressed men who had fought almost continuously for nearly a
+fortnight. The Indians had been resting and preparing for a winter
+campaign near Marseilles, and had long been eager to play their part
+side by side with their fellow Britons. A few days before, Sir James
+Willcocks, their commander, had addressed them as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"You are the descendants of men who have been mighty rulers and
+great warriors for many centuries. You will never forget this.
+You will recall the glories of your race. Hindu and Mohammedan
+will be fighting side by side with British soldiers and our
+gallant French allies. You will be helping to make history. You
+will be the first Indian soldiers of the King-Emperor who will
+have the honour of showing in Europe that the sons of India have
+lost none of their martial instincts and are worthy of the
+confidence reposed in them.</p>
+
+<p>"In battle, you will remember that your religions enjoin on you
+that to give your life doing your duty is your highest reward. .
+. . You will fight for your King-Emperor and your faith, so that
+history will record the doings of India's sons, and your
+children will proudly tell of the deeds of their fathers."</p></div>
+
+<p>This<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span> timely reinforcement was at once sent off to the support of the
+Second Corps.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>We now know how a small army of much-tried Britons barred the way
+through the La Bass&eacute;e postern and stretched a thin line of valour and
+steel northwards towards the Lys. I have still to tell you how the
+twelve-mile gap between Armenti&egrave;res and Ypres was closed. While the
+Second Corps was forming up near B&eacute;thune, the trains carrying the Third
+Corps were running into St. Omer. As each unit arrived it set out for
+Hazebrouck, and on the 13th the whole force moved eastwards towards the
+line of the Armenti&egrave;res-Ypres road, with the object of reaching
+Armenti&egrave;res, from which it could threaten Lille. Gough's cavalry lay to
+the north, and French cavalry to the south.</p>
+
+<p>The French cavalry had already done much hard fighting. On 9th October
+it was discovered that German horsemen were holding the south bank of
+the Lys to the west of Estaires. They had covered the river crossings
+with machine guns, and had set up searchlights, which at night swept
+their broad beams along the northern bank. The French commander
+assembled his men at a point on the river where the current was very
+swift and the water deep. The Germans believed that the river could not
+be forded at this spot, and had not troubled to hold it strongly. At
+dusk a French trooper who was a good swimmer stripped, and, carrying
+with him one end of a light rope, plunged into the water and swam across
+the river. When he arrived on the south bank his comrades on the other
+side fastened a heavy rope to the end of the line which he was holding,
+and the dripping soldier hauled it across and tied it securely to the
+trunk of a tree. The other end of the rope was made fast in a similar
+way, and during the night, assisted by the rope, men and horses crossed
+the stream. At daybreak, when the Germans found that the French were on
+their bank of the river they retired rapidly towards Armenti&egrave;res.</p>
+
+<p>In this force of French cavalry there was a champion rider, named
+Lieutenant Wallon. One day, during the cavalry fighting along the Lys
+two squadrons of the dragoons to which he was attached advanced across
+the fields in a thick mist to seize a river bridge at a village where
+there was an important crossing. The village was held by the enemy, and
+the French squadrons entren<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span>ched themselves in front of a small
+farmhouse, and beat off an attack, during which thirty Germans were
+shot. After an interval, eleven men in peasants' dress, with picks and
+spades over their shoulders, were seen advancing towards the French
+lines. Supposing that they were peaceful civilians, the French refrained
+from firing. When, however, these "peasants" were within forty yards or
+so of the trenches, they suddenly dropped their implements, and, drawing
+concealed revolvers, opened fire. A sergeant who stood by Lieutenant
+Wallon laughed as a bullet whistled by, and remarked that another Boche
+had missed him. The lieutenant, however, had fallen. The sergeant wished
+to carry him to a safe place in the rear; but the dying man said, "Leave
+me. A wounded man is worthless. Get back to the trench; you are wanted
+there." The trusty non-com. could not be persuaded to abandon his
+leader, and dragged him to the rear, where he shortly afterwards
+expired. The eleven disguised Germans were captured and shot; the bridge
+was taken, and the village occupied.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/p074.jpg" width="131" height="387" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+
+<br /><br /><br /><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE WORK OF THE THIRD BRITISH CORPS.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap">T</span>he Third British Corps, commanded by General Pulteney, first came in
+contact with the German outposts at a village about a mile and a half
+west of Bailleul.<a name="FNanchor_46_46" id="FNanchor_46_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a> It was a day of heavy rain; the thick, steamy fog
+prevented the aircraft from scouting, and the water-logged fields were
+too much enclosed for cavalry to operate. The 10th Brigade, under
+General J. A. L. Haldane, were the first to attack, and they made a
+bayonet charge in which the 2nd Seaforths distinguished themselves. By
+nightfall the position was carried; the Germans were driven out, and the
+troops were entrenched, ready to attack Bailleul next day (14th October
+1914). In the morning it was discovered that the enemy had retired.
+Bailleul was occupied, and the signs of German pillage were to be seen
+everywhere. Fourteen villagers had been shot, and the inmates of the
+lunatic asylum had been turned out of doors. These poor creatures
+wandered about the countryside for days, and many of them were
+afterwards found dead by the roadside or in the woods. No wonder a
+native bitterly said, "The Germans are not soldiers so much as brigands
+and assassins.'"</p>
+
+<p>Some very fine deeds of gallantry were done during the first day's
+fighting. Sergeant E. Howard, of the 1st Royal Lancaster Regiment,
+discovered that twelve men of his platoon who were occupying a trench
+had ceased firing. Amidst a very heavy fire, he crawled up to them, and
+found that they were all dead! Sergeant G. A. Hodges, of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span> 2nd Essex
+Regiment, led his platoon into the firing line though shot through the
+shoulder; while Private C. Rowley, of the 1st Royal Warwickshire
+Regiment, crossed and recrossed from the firing line to the support
+trench, a distance of 300 yards, under a perfect hail of bullets, with
+ammunition for his hard-pressed comrades.</p>
+
+<p>On the 15th the Third Corps was ordered to carry the line of the Lys
+from just below Estaires to Armenti&egrave;res. The enemy offered no serious
+opposition, and by evening the work was done. Next day Armenti&egrave;res was
+entered, and on the 17th the Third Corps held a line extending from
+three miles north to three miles south of the town. It was now
+discovered that the Germans were holding in strength the right bank of
+the Lys from a short distance below Armenti&egrave;res to within a couple of
+miles of Menin.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/p077.jpg" width="316" height="446" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h3>British Cavalry entering Warneton.</h3>
+
+<h4>The enemy was posted behind a high loopholed barricade, which was blown
+to pieces by British guns; whereupon our cavalry entered the town, but
+could not maintain themselves within it.</h4>
+
+<p>Next day an effort was made to clear the Germans out of this position.
+Midway between Armenti&egrave;res and Menin is the little town of Warneton,<a name="FNanchor_47_47" id="FNanchor_47_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a>
+which was seized by Allenby's corps. "Eye-witness" thus describes an
+incident which occurred at the capture of the place:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"An important crossing over the Lys at Warneton was strongly
+held by Germans, who at the entrance to the town had constructed
+a high barricade, loopholed at the bottom so that men could fire
+through it from a lying position. This formidable obstacle was
+encountered by a squadron of our cavalry. Nothing daunted, they
+obtained help from artillery, who man-hauled a gun into
+position, and blew the barricade to pieces, scattering the
+defenders. They then advanced some three-quarters of a mile into
+the centre of the town, where they found themselves in a large
+'place.' They had hardly reached the farther end when one of the
+buildings suddenly appeared to leap skywards in a sheet of
+flame, a shower of star shells at the same time making the place
+as light as day, and enabling the enemy&mdash;who were ensconced in
+surrounding houses&mdash;to pour in a devastating fire from rifles
+and machine guns. Our cavalry managed to extricate themselves
+from this trap with the loss of only one officer, the squadron
+leader wounded, and nine men killed or wounded. But determining
+that none of their number should fall into the enemy's hands, a
+party of volunteers went back, and, taking off their boots in
+order to make no noise on the pavement, re-entered the inferno
+they had just left, and succeeded in carrying off their wounded
+comrades."</p></div>
+
+<p>By this time the Third Corps found itself approaching the main German
+position, which was far too strong for it to attack<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span> with any prospect
+of success. Just about the time that the Second Corps was retiring to
+the line stretching from the eastern side of Givenchy northwards the
+Third Corps came to a standstill. It then lay across the Lys with a
+front of a dozen miles&mdash;an impossible length of line for one corps to
+hold. Both the Second and the Third Corps had reached the limit of their
+eastern advance.</p>
+
+<p>Though they could not push forward any farther, they had closed the
+sally-ports at La Bass&eacute;e and Armenti&egrave;res. One more link was necessary to
+connect the Third Corps with Rawlinson's force holding the eastern gate
+to Ypres. This was provided by the 1st and 2nd Cavalry Divisions, under
+General Allenby. The 1st Division (Gough's), as we have seen, had
+cleared much of the country along the Lys, and had secured a footing on
+the right bank below Armenti&egrave;res. On the 14th it moved north to join the
+2nd Division, which had pushed back invading bands in the neighbourhood
+of Cassel and Hazebrouck.</p>
+
+<p>Thus the line was established. Half formed, weak, and insecure, it
+nevertheless extended from the La Bass&eacute;e Canal to the sea, and though it
+was opposed by overwhelming odds, it barred the western road to the
+Germans. The weakest place in it was the bulge in front of Ypres, where
+Rawlinson's harassed and overstretched division was fighting for its
+life. Every day the enemy flung new forces against it. More and more
+Germans were rushed along the Belgian railroads to overwhelm it. "They
+seemed to rain down on us everywhere," said a spectator; "but most of
+all they rained on that weak point to our left."</p>
+
+<p>In Chapter VI. I gave you an outline of the doings of Rawlinson's men in
+Belgium. You there learned how they retreated from Ghent to Roulers, and
+how the cavalry division reconnoitred all the country towards Ypres and
+Menin, while the 7th Division battled with four reserve corps of
+Germans, who on the 18th of October were on the line Roulers-Menin.
+Rawlinson had a very difficult task to perform. He had to operate on a
+very wide front, and to encounter very superior forces; yet Sir John
+French could not spare a man to reinforce him. Sir John was very eager
+to get possession of Menin, for he thought it a very important point of
+passage which would greatly help the advance of the rest of the army. He
+therefore ordered Rawlinson on the 18th to advance his 7th Division, and
+try to seize the crossing of the Lys at Menin, so as to cut the German
+communications between Ghent and Lille.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Rawlinson replied that large bodies of the enemy were advancing upon him
+from the east and north-east, and that his left flank was in danger.
+With his weak troops he dared not attempt such a task. Sir John tells us
+that Rawlinson was probably wise in not trying to capture Menin, but
+that the loss of it greatly helped the enemy to bring up reinforcements,
+and put an end to any further British advance.</p>
+
+<p>You have probably been wondering where the First Corps was at this time.
+You last heard of it on the Aisne; so far it had not been seen in
+Flanders. It did not arrive at Hazebrouck until October 19. While it was
+detraining, Sir John had some very hard thinking to do. Should he use
+the First Corps to reinforce the Second and Third Corps, and thus secure
+the ground already won on the right, or should he send it to help
+Rawlinson? Between the British left and the Franco-Belgian right there
+was "a place where the weak spot in the bladder might bulge, and,
+bulging too much, break." Sir John French, "with the air," some one has
+said, "of a business man closing a deal," made his decision, and turned
+in for a little sleep. He chose to let the Second and the Third Corps
+continue to do the impossible. He sent the First Corps to the line about
+the city which has given name to this whole series of actions&mdash;Ypres. It
+incorporated what was left of Rawlinson's force, then prepared to dig in
+and hold on.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/p079.jpg" width="463" height="295" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h4>The Allied Line from La Bass&eacute;e to the Sea about October 20.</h4>
+
+
+<br /><br /><br /><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2>
+
+<h3>STIRRING STORIES OF ANXIOUS DAYS.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap">I</span>n this chapter I am going to give you a selection of stories which
+illustrate the fighting from the fall of Antwerp down to the 20th of
+October 1914. Our first story tells how a British lady in her own yacht
+carried off many refugees from Ostend while the enemy was actually in
+the town.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/p081.jpg" width="442" height="345" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h3>Miss Jessica Borthwick steering the Grace Darling out of Ostend Harbour.</h3>
+
+<h4>(<i>Photo, Sport and General.</i>)</h4>
+
+<p>"At nine," says a newspaper correspondent, "we interviewed the official
+in charge at the burgomaster's office. 'Fly,' he said tersely. 'The
+Germans will be here, perhaps, in ten minutes.'... I had already
+arranged a retreat. At ten o'clock we went on board the <i>Grace Darling</i>,
+a schooner yacht which for the past weeks has been working the British
+Field Hospital in Belgium. She was chartered and fitted out for the
+purpose by Miss Jessica Borthwick at her own expense. As will appear,
+the <i>Grace Darling</i> was by three hours the last vessel out of Ostend....</p>
+
+<p>"The Germans were now half a mile away, and we were lying well down in
+the almost empty harbour. It became necessary to get our auxiliary
+engine going, and make out at least as far as the harbour mouth. At a
+quarter-past ten the first Germans appeared&mdash;a patrol of
+Uhlans&mdash;trotting across the bridge that leads into the town from the
+Blankenberghe road.</p>
+
+<p>"At this critical moment the fact emerged that the man who had shipped
+as a first-class engineer to work our engine for us was not an engineer
+at all, but an organ-grinder! The organ-grinder's efforts to start the
+engine were deplorable, and we were so placed we could not get a breath
+of wind for the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span> sails. The decks of the little yacht were covered with
+refugees&mdash;Belgian fathers, women, and children. They watched with a
+stricken calm a second and a third Uhlan patrol cross the bridge. Two
+escaped soldiers in plain clothes who had come on board dropped their
+uniforms into the water . . .</p>
+
+<p>"Every moment we were expecting the appearance of the Germans on the
+pier. Soon after midday we sailed at a majestic one mile per hour out of
+the harbour with the British flag flying. Past the pierhead we found
+some wind, actually got the engine started, and ploughed away at a
+cheerful ten knots. A mile out we anchored, to await developments.
+Through our glasses we saw four Uhlans standing like statues staring out
+to sea. From over the horizon came racing a torpedo boat, got the news,
+and promptly poked her nose into the harbour to see for herself. After
+five minutes she backed out, and went away swiftly. Thereafter Miss
+Borthwick<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span> and several correspondents, including myself, decided on a
+scouting expedition of our own in the launch. We plunged ahead through
+the green and lifting waves, raising a fine spray, till we were within a
+few hundred yards of the <i>digue</i>.<a name="FNanchor_48_48" id="FNanchor_48_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_48_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a> There we saw four Germans running
+across a little triangle of sandy beach and up on to the pier. We hung
+on for a moment, anxious as to what would happen next.</p>
+
+<p>"The Germans ran along the pier, the end of which was only two hundred
+yards from us. When we saw them taking cover among the little buildings
+at the end of the pier we considered it time to bolt. Promptly the
+Germans fired a wide shot, and signalled to us to come in, but we made
+for the open sea. Then they opened fire seriously. We lay as flat as we
+could&mdash;which was not very flat, for we were tightly packed in the tiny
+boat&mdash;and scooted. Two of the Germans were kneeling down with their
+rifles resting on the rail at the end of the pier, and two standing up.</p>
+
+<p>"It was an extremely uncomfortable four minutes before we were out of
+range. They fired rapidly, but did not even hit the boat, though they
+were very close above and beside us. We regained the <i>Grace Darling</i>,
+raised anchor, and at once made for sea."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Here is a description of one of the French regiments which fought so
+bravely under Maud'huy against the Bavarians round about Arras:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"They have come a long way down the straight roads between the hills,
+and there is dust in their eyes and throats, and they have arrived at
+that moment in the march when the pack weighs heaviest, when the
+shoulder-straps begin to rub, when the rifle seems to wear a hole in the
+shoulder, and when the shoe begins to pinch. The best-hearted man in the
+regiment knows that it is the time for a little joke. He begins to speak
+about his captain, who is walking a yard away from him. 'Our captain
+grows a little fat, I think, my little ones.' 'Yes,' says a comrade,
+taking up the joke; 'it is possible that he has been eating too much.'
+'And he has a great thirst, I am told,' says a third man. 'It is
+marvellous what a thirst our captain has! Three bottles of red wine are
+hardly enough to wet his throat.' 'He gets too old for war;' and so the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span>
+joke goes on, every word of which is heard by the captain, who finally
+bursts into laughter, and says, 'You are impudent rascals, all of you.'
+The bad moment has passed. The weight of the pack is forgotten, and
+presently the baritone of the regiment sings the first line of a
+marching song. The chorus goes lilting down the long white road between
+the poplar sentinels."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Few stories have appeared with reference to the fighting round La
+Bass&eacute;e. A dispatch rider says: "There was one brigade there that had a
+past. It had fought at Mons<a name="FNanchor_49_49" id="FNanchor_49_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_49_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a> and Le Cateau,<a name="FNanchor_50_50" id="FNanchor_50_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_50_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a> and then plugged away
+cheerfully through the Retreat and the Advance. What was left of it had
+fought stiffly on the Aisne. Some hard marching, a train journey, more
+hard marching, and it was thrown into action at La Bass&eacute;e. There it
+fought itself to a standstill. It was attacked and attacked until,
+shattered, it was driven back one wild night. It was rallied, and,
+turning on the enemy, held them. More hard fighting, a couple of days'
+rest, and it staggered into action at Ypres, and somehow&mdash;no one knows
+how&mdash;it held its bit of line. A brigade called by the same name,
+consisting of the same regiments, commanded by the same general, but
+containing scarce a man of those who had come out in August, marched
+very proudly away from Ypres, and went&mdash;not to rest, but to hold another
+bit of the line.</p>
+
+<p>"And this brigade was not the Guards' Brigade. There were no picked men
+in the brigade. It contained just four ordinary regiments of the
+line&mdash;the Norfolks, the Bedfords, the Cheshires, and the Dorsets. What
+the 15th Brigade did other brigades have done."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>You have just heard of the splendid endurance of the Dorsets. Here is
+another story concerning their doings. It is told by Private Cornelius
+O'Leary. "We encountered the Germans when they were making one of their
+fiercest attacks in their efforts to get through to C&aacute;lais. There were
+eight companies of us (1st Dorset Regiment), numbering 120 officers and
+men apiece, and the fight took place in a very large turnip field. The
+German artillery was in front of us, and the Maxim fire was on the right
+and left. It was impossible for us to make trenches, so we had to place
+our packs<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span> in front of us, and do the best we could. We were often
+outnumbered by ten to one, as the Germans were almost continually being
+reinforced. But we defeated them with heavy loss."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Armoured motor cars, equipped with machine guns, played an important
+part during the fighting of October. "In their employment", says
+"Eye-witness," "our gallant allies the Belgians, who are now fighting
+with us, and acquitting themselves nobly, have shown themselves to be
+experts. They appear to regard Uhlan-hunting as a form of sport. The
+crews display the utmost dash and skill in this form of warfare, often
+going out several miles ahead of their own advanced troops, and seldom
+failing to return loaded with spoils in the shape of Lancer caps,
+busbies, helmets, lances, rifles, and other trophies, which they
+distribute as souvenirs to crowds in the market places of frontier
+towns."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>No man fought an armoured motor car more gallantly and successfully than
+Commander Sampson, the famous airman. "He is," says a correspondent,
+"the will o' the wisp of the British army, and he peppers the Germans
+according to his fancy, from aeroplane, armoured motor car, or armoured
+train." On one occasion two machine guns continually annoyed our
+advanced trenches. Eventually they were discovered; one was in a
+windmill, the other in a neighbouring cottage. Commander Sampson took
+out an armoured car with a three-pounder quick-firing gun, and one
+morning the Germans were surprised to see a low slate-coloured car come
+rushing out of the British lines, followed by heavy but rather wild
+rifle fire. The Germans naturally thought that the car was one of their
+own attempting to escape from the British, so they refrained from firing
+on it. Just as the car appeared to be about to enter the German lines it
+pulled up. In fifteen seconds the windmill, with its machine gun and
+crew, was blown to pieces by the shells from the quick-firer, and before
+the astonished Germans could collect themselves the gun had swung round,
+and more shells had crashed into the cottage, which was soon destroyed.
+Then the car shot back to the British lines, to be received not with
+rifle fire, but with a loud burst of cheering. It is said that the
+Kaiser was so exasperated at Commander Sampson's successful daring in
+this and many other adventures, that he offered a reward of &pound;1,000 to
+any German soldier who could kill him.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/p085.jpg" width="310" height="447" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h4>The Arrows of Death.</h4>
+
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span>
+<p>It was during the month of October that we first learnt of the new
+weapon served out to our flying corps. It consists of an arrow-shaped
+missile of steel like a pointed lead pencil. A mechanical device spreads
+these missiles out as they fall from the aeroplane, so that they cover
+an area of about 200 square yards when dropped from a height of 500
+yards. From this height the arrow of death will pass right through a
+man's body.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>"Eye-witness" tells us that "an easy capture was effected by an engineer
+telegraph linesman. Returning in the dark after repairing some air lines
+which had been cut by shell fire, he was passing through a wood, when
+his horse shied at some figures crouching in a ditch. He called out,
+'Come out of it!' whereupon to his surprise three German cavalrymen
+emerged and surrendered. He marched them back to his headquarters."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>An action fought near a village less than a mile to the north of
+Armenti&egrave;res was brought about by a pig. The British and German trenches
+were so near that the soldiers talked with each other, made jokes, and
+even learnt the names of their opponents. One day a pig walked on to the
+strip of land between the trenches. British and Germans alike shot at
+him, and down he fell. Both sides wanted the pig, for roast pig is a
+pleasant change from the dull and tasteless round of ordinary rations.
+But how was he to be got in? To go out to fetch him meant instant death.
+Five daring soldiers lost their lives over that pig, and still he lay
+unreclaimed between the trenches.</p>
+
+<p>There was a big fellow in the German trench named Hans M&uuml;ller. He crept
+out of his trench in the night, tied a rope to the pig's leg, and
+crawled back to his trench unhurt. The Germans waited till morning came,
+so that the British might see their triumph, and then began hauling in
+the pig. It was a bitter moment for the British, and the Germans did not
+forget to rejoice loudly in their success. But the British had their
+revenge: two nights later they took that German trench with the bayonet.
+That is how they made things even.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span></p><hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The dispatch rider already quoted tells us that spies were very busy in
+and behind our lines. "I heard a certain story, which I give as an
+illustration and not as a fact. There was once an artillery brigade
+billeted in a house two miles or so behind the lines. All the
+inhabitants of the house had fled, for the village had been heavily
+bombarded. Only a girl had had the courage to remain, and to act as
+hostess to the British. She was fresh and charming, clever at cooking,
+and modest in manner. Now, it was noticed that our guns could not be
+moved without the Germans knowing their new position. No transports or
+ammunition limbers were safe from their guns. The girl was told of the
+trouble; she was angry and sympathetic, and swore that through her the
+spy would be discovered. She spoke the truth."</p>
+
+<p>One night a man, who had his suspicions, saw the girl go into a cellar
+as if to bring up coal. He followed her, and, groping about in the dark,
+touched a wire. Quickly running his hand along it, he came to a
+telephone. The truth was now out. The Germans were receiving their
+information from the girl, who posed as the friend of the British. In a
+few hours she suffered the usual fate of spies.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>"Battle noises," says the dispatch rider, "are terrific. At the present
+moment a howitzer is going strong behind us, and the noise is
+tremendous. It is like dropping a traction engine on a huge tin tray. A
+shell passing away from you over your head is like the loud crackling of
+a newspaper close to your ear. It makes a sort of deep, echoing crackle
+in the air, gradually lessening, until there is a dull boom, and a mile
+or so away you see a thick little cloud of white smoke in the air, or a
+pear-shaped cloud of gray-black smoke on the ground. Coming towards you,
+a shell makes a cutting, swishing note, gradually getting higher and
+higher, louder and louder. There is a longer note one instant, and then
+it ceases. Shrapnel bursting close to you has the worst sound.</p>
+
+<p>"It is almost funny to be in a village that is being shelled. Things
+simply disappear. You are standing in an archway a little back from the
+road&mdash;a shriek of shrapnel. The windows are broken, and the tiles rush
+clattering into the street, while little bullets and bits of shell jump
+from side to side, until their force is spent. Or, a deeper bang, a
+crash, and a whole house tumbles down."</p>
+
+
+<br /><br /><br /><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h2>
+
+<h3>WITH THE SECOND CORPS.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap">T</span>he last ten days of October 1914 were days of furious but indecisive
+fighting all along the line from Arras to the sea. "The Germans rocked
+their attack from side to side, searching for the weak spot. They gained
+here; they lost there; but the line remained as it had been when Haig
+moved up his First Corps. The British held on, and continued to dig in.
+These were days of incessant battering and continual losses; the
+hospital trains running back to the base carried as many as 4,000
+wounded in one day."</p>
+
+<p>The Germans, as you know, were bent on winning the Channel ports at all
+costs. They thought that the capture of Calais and Boulogne would create
+a panic in Great Britain, and make us keep our new armies at home for
+the defence of our shores, instead of sending them abroad for the
+reinforcement of our Allies. They also thought that if the Channel ports
+could be captured the British Navy would have to be divided, one portion
+keeping watch over the German naval bases on the North Sea, the other
+part operating in the English Channel. In this case the Germans hoped
+that they might fight and win a naval battle against one part of our
+divided fleet. There was a good deal of talk in the German papers about
+mounting huge guns at Calais which would command at least half of the
+Strait of Dover, and make the dispatch of transports very difficult, if
+not impossible.</p>
+
+<p>I have already described the three gates through which the Germans tried
+to pierce the Allied line and make their descent on the shores of the
+Channel. You know how they were held<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> up at Arras and at La Bass&eacute;e.
+Though they did not cease their efforts to break through these gates
+during the latter days of October, they began to direct a great attack
+on the bulge in the Allied line to the east of Ypres. Further, they also
+attempted to break through by way of the Yser. Military men still wonder
+why they continued to fling themselves against four points in the Allied
+line, instead of putting forward all their strength against one of them.
+We can only be thankful that they wasted their energies in attacking all
+these points, when they might have battered with all their force at one.</p>
+
+<p>We will now return to the Second British Corps, which, you will
+remember, had been under fire for twelve days, and had become so
+exhausted that on 22nd October it was found necessary to withdraw it to
+a line running generally from the eastern side of Givenchy, east of
+Neuve Chapelle,<a name="FNanchor_51_51" id="FNanchor_51_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_51_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a> to a point about four miles south-east of Estaires.
+The Lahore Division of the Indian Corps had now arrived, and was about
+to receive its baptism of fire. The village of Neuve Chapelle, which was
+destined to figure largely in later history, is four miles north of La
+Bass&eacute;e. It was captured by the Germans on the 27th, and its recapture
+was entrusted to the Indians. The 28th of October will be ever memorable
+in the annals of the Indian army. On that day it first showed its mettle
+on a European battlefield.</p>
+
+<p>At Neuve Chapelle our trenches presented a salient<a name="FNanchor_52_52" id="FNanchor_52_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_52_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a> which could be
+swept by fire on both sides, and the Seaforths, who occupied some of
+them, were much exposed, and suffered heavily. The 47th Sikhs, the 9th
+Bhopal Infantry, and the 20th and 21st Companies of the 1st Sappers and
+Miners were now ordered to advance. They dashed forward with great
+spirit, and though they were under artillery fire for the first time,
+showed great indifference to the bursting shells. It was noticed that
+after the first few had exploded near them they hardly troubled to look
+around.</p>
+
+<p>The fighting was of the most desperate and confused character, and the
+Germans flung their dead from their trenches to make cover, under which
+they advanced. No sooner had the British won a hundred yards of trench
+than they were driven back by a counter-attack. The line swayed to and
+fro, now in front of the ruins of what had been Neuve Chapelle,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span> now
+behind them. Trenches were dug in the streets, and sometimes were only a
+few yards apart. Part of Neuve Chapelle was won, but the whole of it
+could not be recovered.</p>
+
+<p>Next day there was a terrible fight at Festubert, a village less than
+two miles to the north-west of La Bass&eacute;e. Ever since the 18th of October
+the German guns had been pounding the little place, which was held by
+the thin line of the 2nd Manchesters. In the early dawn of the 29th the
+Germans swarmed out of their trenches and swept down in dense masses on
+the British infantry, who were driven back to their supporting trench.
+Here they rallied, and thrust back the Germans who followed them. One of
+the lost trenches was recaptured by two men&mdash;Lieutenant James Leach and
+Sergeant Hogan, who were afterwards awarded the Victoria Cross, as you
+will hear later.</p>
+
+<p>More Indians now arrived, and the defence of the La Bass&eacute;e gate was
+entrusted to them, to two and a half British brigades, and most of the
+Second Corps artillery. Amongst the Indian infantry were the 8th Gurkha
+Rifles. You will remember that the Gurkhas are little men. The trenches
+which they took over had been dug for taller white men, and they found
+that they could not see out of them. The German machine guns
+enfiladed<a name="FNanchor_53_53" id="FNanchor_53_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_53_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a> the Gurkhas, and most of their white officers fell. Little
+wonder that, so placed and so strange to this new kind of warfare, they
+were forced back. Wandering in the dark, they managed by good luck to
+stumble on the trenches of the 1st Seaforths, a regiment to whom they
+are blood brothers.</p>
+
+<p>For the next two days there was a heavy bombardment all along our
+position, and especially against the left wing behind Neuve Chapelle. On
+2nd November the Germans again pierced the British line in one place,
+but a desperate charge of the 2nd Gurkhas, the famous regiment which had
+fought so bravely on the ridge at Delhi,<a name="FNanchor_54_54" id="FNanchor_54_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_54_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a> saved the situation.</p>
+
+<p>For the next three weeks the troops in this section were engaged in
+beating off German attacks, which gradually grew less and less violent
+as the Germans concentrated their forces farther north for a great
+assault on Ypres. Our line was forced back till it ran from Givenchy, to
+which we stubbornly clung, north by Festubert, and onwards towards
+Estaires. After an unsuccessful attack on Givenchy (7th November) there
+was a fortnight's lull, during which the contest was little more than an
+artillery duel.</p>
+
+
+<br /><br /><br /><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE INDIANS IN THE TRENCHES.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap">E</span>very boy and girl has heard of the wonderful valour and daring of the
+Sikhs and Gurkhas. Many people in this country fully believed that they
+would prove invincible on European battlefields. Too much was, perhaps,
+expected of them: they found themselves waging an entirely new kind of
+warfare in a cold, clammy land, which numbed their limbs and broke down
+their stamina. It was all so strange and new&mdash;the awful roar of the
+great howitzer shells, the fighting from holes in the ground, the
+endless stream of shrapnel, the bitter cold, and the absence of those
+fierce, furious charges in which they delight. At first their nerve was
+shaken, but they quickly recovered, and it must be remembered that when
+they broke they dashed forward just as frequently as they retired.
+Nevertheless, their splendid courage was not in doubt for a moment, and
+before long the enemy went in terror of them, as the following letter,
+published in a German newspaper, plainly shows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"To-day for the first time we had to fight against the Indians,
+and Heaven knows those brown rascals are not to be underrated.
+At first we spoke with contempt of the Indians. To-day we
+learned to look at them in a different light.... When for three
+days it had rained shells and the British thought we were beaten
+to a jelly, they had then in store for us a visit from their
+brown allies. Heaven only knows what the English had put into
+those fellows. Anyhow, those who stormed our lines seemed either
+drunk or possessed with an evil spirit. With fearful shouting,
+in comparison with which our hurrahs are like the whining of a
+baby, thousands of those brown forms rushed upon us as suddenly
+as if they were shot out of a fog, so that at first we were
+completely taken by surprise. At a hundred metres (109 yards) we
+opened a destructive fire which mowed down hundreds, but in
+spite of that the others advanced, springing forward like cats
+and surmounting obstacles with unexampled agility. In no time
+they were in our trenches, and truly these brown enemies were
+not to be despised. With butt-ends, bayonets, swords, and
+daggers we fought each other; and we had bitter hard work,
+which, however, was lightened by reinforcements which arrived
+quickly, before we drove the fellows out of the trenches."</p></div>
+
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span>
+<p>The Indians are famous for "ruses"&mdash;that is, for tricks of war. Here is
+a striking instance of the resource and presence of mind of an Indian
+soldier. He and a comrade were instructed to creep out of the trench
+which they were defending, in order to spy out a German position some
+two hundred yards distant. They crawled along in the dark, and when they
+were half-way to the German trench a brilliant searchlight was suddenly
+flashed on them. At once they were revealed. One of the men was
+quick-witted enough to realize that only by a trick could he save his
+life. He immediately rose to his feet and advanced, salaaming to the
+Germans. They were so surprised that they ceased fire, and after some
+dumb show let him enter the trench. Then began a conversation, which, as
+you may imagine, was not very fruitful. The Germans were trying to find
+out the Indian race to which he belonged. When the word Mussulman was
+mentioned he nodded his head; but when the word British was uttered, he
+made a gesture of disgust. The Germans naturally concluded that he hated
+the British, so they gave him some rations and a blanket, and let him
+spend the night with them. Next morning, by means of dumb show, he made
+an officer believe that there were twenty-five other Mohammedans in his
+trench who were eager to join the Germans. Completely deceived, the
+officer gave him a final cup of coffee, and sent him off to bring in his
+friends. Needless to say, he did not return. Unhappily, a few weeks
+later this nimble-witted soldier was killed in action.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>You must not suppose that the Indian army consists only of Gurkhas and
+Sikhs. There are many other Indian races serving as soldiers, and
+amongst them are the Pathans, fierce hillmen of the North-West Frontier
+Province. Somewhere south of Ypres British troops who were holding a
+line of trenches one misty night became aware of some hundreds of lithe
+gray figures silently gathering in their rear, and glidi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span>ng forward like
+ghosts amidst the trees. Shortly afterwards a score of these gray
+figures detached themselves from the larger body, and stealthily, like
+Red Indians on the trail, moved up to and beyond the advanced line of
+the British trenches. Under their breath our soldiers whispered, "The
+Indians are going out," and as they craned their necks they saw the
+ghostly figures disappear from view, crawling python-like towards the
+first German trench.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/p093.jpg" width="325" height="443" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h3>A Night Attack by Pathans.</h3>
+
+<h4>The People of Afghanistan and the adjoining borderland of India are
+known as Pathans (<i>Pat-ans'</i>), and their language as Pushtu. They
+include all the strongest and most warlike tribes of the North-West
+Frontier Province, and make excellent soldiers. The Afridis (<i>Af-ree'
+dees</i>), against whom 35,000 British and Indian troops made a campaign in
+1897-98, are Pathans. The Khaibar Pass, that great gloomy defile in the
+mountain barrier, through which every invader of India except the
+European has had to fight his way, is jealously guarded by Afridis in
+the pay of Britain.</h4>
+
+<p>What happened there no one quite knows. There was no shout or sudden
+cry, but in a few minutes the British saw one of the score reappear and
+glide back to his comrades in the rear. Then the hundreds who were
+waiting behind in the shadow of the trees went forward in dead silence
+to join the advanced party. For five minutes there was perfect quiet.
+Then came a few shots, followed by a wild splutter of musketry,
+intermingled with cries and groans. Three or four light-balls were
+thrown in the air, and by their means the British saw, some 600 yards to
+their front, a mass of wild and struggling men. They saw the gleam of
+steel and the whirling rifle butt as the Pathans smote down the foe.</p>
+
+<p>For ten minutes they hacked and slew amongst the half-awake and wholly
+bewildered Germans, who had been lying down awaiting the order to attack
+the British trenches. The score of Pathans who had gone out in advance
+had silently slain the German pickets, and their main body had thus been
+enabled to get right amidst the sleeping foe unchallenged. The slaughter
+was terrible, and only ended when the Germans, thoroughly aroused to
+their peril, ran for their lives. The threatened attack had been turned
+into a ghastly defeat.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>In these pages I have given you countless instances of German cunning
+and audacity. The Indians, being in a strange country, incapable of
+speaking any language but their own, and not able to distinguish between
+the French and the German soldiers, were thought to be easy prey. Here
+is a story of a piece of German deception which utterly failed. A
+figure, standing out clear in the moonlight, and wearing a complete
+Gurkha uniform, suddenly appeared one night in front of a Gurkha trench,
+and delivered this message: "The Gurkhas are to move farther up the
+trench; another Gurkha contingent is advancing in support." Puzzled by
+thi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span>s order, the officer in charge replied, "Who are you? Where do you
+come from?" To which the only answer was: "You are to move up to make
+room for other Gurkhas."</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/p095.jpg" width="331" height="352" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h3>Two London Scots and a Wounded Gurkha.</h3>
+
+<h4>(<i>Photo, Sport and General.</i>)</h4>
+
+<p>The English was good, but something (or many small things) excited the
+officer's suspicion. "Answer, and answer quickly," he said: "if you are
+a Gurkha, by what boat did you cross?" The question was, in the
+circumstances, no easy one to answer, and the German (for such he was)
+turned at once and fled. But he had no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span>t gone five yards before he fell
+riddled by bullets. Had the officer been deceived, the trench would have
+swarmed with Germans almost before the Gurkhas had made room for them.</p>
+
+<p>An officer in a Gurkha regiment relates the following amusing story:
+"One night our men rushed a German trench, and one of them captured a
+big fat German, who surrendered at the sight of cold steel.</p>
+
+<p>"There is a reward for any man who brings in a prisoner, so the Gurkha
+started back across the open towards the British trenches with his
+captive. Unfortunately the little man got hit in the leg, so he climbed
+on the German's back, and made him carry him to our trenches, where he
+triumphantly handed his prisoner over, and was then carried off to
+hospital!"</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>German troops were holding a copse near a village north of the
+British-French position, and, fearing an attack, were in the habit of
+protecting themselves every night by a double line of sentinels. The
+copse considerably hampered the advance of the Allies, and an Indian
+regiment was brought up as a reinforcement. The officer in charge said
+that the wood would soon be captured, and without too great a sacrifice
+of life. A French officer who was present thought that the Indians were
+too big to enter the wood unnoticed, and declared that they would soon
+be perceived by the German sentinels. Thereupon the British officer
+offered to bet the Frenchman a sovereign that all the German sentinels
+would be removed. The bet was taken.</p>
+
+<p>At eleven o'clock that night, when every one, except the sentries, was
+slumbering, the copse was suddenly filled with a fearful din, with
+occasional shots, and a few shouts. Then all was silent again.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly afterwards the Indians returned. Two by two they came in and
+placed before their officer a prisoner tied up like a sausage, and
+carefully gagged. This went on until all the thirty German sentinels who
+had been guarding the entrance to the wood had been brought in and
+handed over to the officer.</p>
+
+
+<br /><br /><br /><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h2>
+
+<h3>FIRE AND FLOOD.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap">W</span>e will now leave that melancholy region in which Britons of the Second
+Corps, like the ocean cliffs of their native land, have been thrusting
+back the furious surges of hostile attack for long and weary weeks.
+Melancholy indeed is the country over which the tide of war has swept.
+Prosperous villages and comfortable homesteads are now crumbling walls
+and smoking ruins, with the decaying carcasses of horses, cows, and pigs
+lying around. To and fro wander those wretched inhabitants who have
+escaped shot and shell, striving to save something from the wreckage of
+their homes. "Here, blocking up a narrow side street, is a dead horse
+still harnessed to a trap, and beside it is stretched the corpse of a
+J&auml;ger<a name="FNanchor_55_55" id="FNanchor_55_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_55_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a>; close by, in an enclosure where a shell has found them, lie
+some thirty cavalry horses; a little farther on is laid out a row of
+German dead, for whom graves are being dug by the peasants.</p>
+
+<p>"The work of burial falls to a great extent on the inhabitants, who,
+with our soldiers, take no little care in marking the last
+resting-places of their countrymen and their Allies, either by little
+wooden crosses or else by flowers. Amidst the graves scattered all over
+the countryside are the rifle pits, trenches, and gun emplacements,
+which those now resting below the sod helped to defend or to attack.
+From these the progress of the fighting can be traced."</p>
+
+<p>We now move northwards to the stretch of country<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span> which lies between
+Ypres and the sea. It is a flat, marshy land, where the inhabitants are
+doomed to an everlasting struggle against the thankless soil and the
+invading flood. More than once the district has been the bed of an
+ancient sea. Beet grows on the silt of old bays; seaports have become
+agricultural villages, and channels along which large ships formerly
+sailed are green polders.<a name="FNanchor_56_56" id="FNanchor_56_56"></a><a href="#Footnote_56_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a> Only a very complete system of drainage
+saves the country from being water-logged. It is literally seamed with
+canals and dykes, and crops are only raised by the unremitting labour of
+men's hands. The towns and villages are small, and a few highroads,
+consisting of narrow causeways of cobble stone with broad bands of mud
+on either side, serve their needs. It is a dismal land of frequent rains
+and white mists, though quaint and pleasing in sunshine, when its white
+farmsteads, whirling windmills, lofty spires, and everlasting lines of
+pollards and poplars seem very attractive to the foreign eye.</p>
+
+<p>From Ypres seawards runs a canal which meets the Yser six miles south of
+the large village of Dixmude.<a name="FNanchor_57_57" id="FNanchor_57_57"></a><a href="#Footnote_57_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a> From Dixmude on to the sea, a distance
+of eleven miles, we find the canalized Yser, the main waterway of the
+district. Near the left bank of the canal, at a distance of about a mile
+and a half, runs a single-line railway,<a name="FNanchor_58_58" id="FNanchor_58_58"></a><a href="#Footnote_58_58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a> which passes the villages of
+Pervyse<a name="FNanchor_59_59" id="FNanchor_59_59"></a><a href="#Footnote_59_59" class="fnanchor">[59]</a> and Ramscappelle,<a name="FNanchor_60_60" id="FNanchor_60_60"></a><a href="#Footnote_60_60" class="fnanchor">[60]</a> and has its terminus at the mouth of
+the river. No railway crosses the Yser between Dixmude and Nieuport, but
+the road from Bruges forks and sends one branch across the stream to
+Nieuport, and the other to Pervyse.</p>
+
+<p>A number of small creeks of brackish water flow through the low, marshy
+meadows, below the level of the sea, and bring their sluggish tribute to
+the Yser. Along the edges of the canal are two or three "islands" of
+higher ground; but nowhere, until we reach the dunes of the seashore,
+are there any elevations or commanding positions for guns. It is a
+blind, sodden country, as ill-fitted for the passage of troops and heavy
+guns as the coast region of Essex.</p>
+
+<p>To the inhabitants of this amphibious district water is a foe in peace
+and a friend in war. In times of great peril the sluices of the myriad
+canals can be opened, and the whole f<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span>lat district from the railway
+embankment to the Yser and beyond can be flooded, and thus rendered
+impassable for an army. You can easily understand that the Belgians
+would not flood the country until every other means of defence had
+failed; for the land so submerged would be ruined for agriculture, and
+years of labour would be necessary to restore it to its former
+condition. The sluices were opened in the days of Marlborough, and again
+in 1793-94. You are soon to hear how the progress of the Germans was
+similarly stayed in 1914. The idea of calling in the aid of water as a
+defence has long been familiar to Belgian soldiers, and a scheme for
+flooding the country had been prepared before the war broke out.</p>
+
+<p>I have already described how the Allies held the avenues to the Channel
+ports at Arras and La Bass&eacute;e. Two other efforts were made by the Germans
+to break through the line of defence&mdash;the one at Ypres, the other
+between Dixmude and the sea. All these four attacks were going on at the
+same time, and all were closely connected; but for the sake of clearness
+they must be described separately. We will now see how the Belgians and
+the French barred the road to Calais by way of the Yser, and in a later
+chapter I will describe the great struggle which took place round Ypres.</p>
+
+<p>When the retreating Belgians were driven out of the Forest of Houthulst
+on 16th October, they retired to the eastern bank of the Yser. All that
+was now left to them of their native land was but one-tenth of its
+surface; they were battle-worn and weary; their surviving countrymen
+were in bondage; their wrongs cried aloud to Heaven, but their spirit
+was still unsubdued. No longer were they fighting alone. Britons and
+Bretons, Indians and Canadians, stockmen from the Antipodes, and
+tribesmen from the Atlas had come to their succour, and with a new heart
+they prepared to defend the last few miles of territory which they could
+call their own.</p>
+
+<p>On the morning of the 17th the Belgians were strung out along the east
+bank of the Yser from Nieuport to Dixmude. In the ditches by the village
+were 5,000 Belgians and 7,000 of Ronarc'h's Marines. The total force
+numbered some 40,000, and against them von Beseler was now advancing
+with 60,000 men, while the W&uuml;rtembergers were rapidly moving from the
+south. Early on the 17th two Belgian divisions in the centre were driven
+across the river, but they managed to regain the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span> right bank in the
+course of the night. Early on the morning of the 18th von Beseler, with
+his right resting on the sand dunes, began a fierce attack that was full
+of danger. Everybody, from general to private, knew that the critical
+hour had come. If von Beseler could push back the Belgians beyond the
+railway embankment on the west side of the Yser, he would be in Dunkirk
+in two days, and in Calais the day after; the last narrow strip of
+Belgian soil would be lost, the Allied army at Ypres would be surrounded
+or forced to retire, and all the bloodshed farther south would have been
+in vain. The prospect was enough to make the stoutest heart quail.</p>
+
+<p>Fiercely the Belgians strove to hold their line in the unequal combat,
+but they were forced back step by step, and disaster seemed to await
+them, when suddenly succour came&mdash;from the sea! The guns of British
+warships began to rake the German trenches, and in their roar was the
+stern warning, "No road this way."</p>
+
+<p>History was repeating itself, as it has so often done during this war.
+More than two and a half centuries ago, when the French and English beat
+the Spaniards at the Battle of the Dunes,<a name="FNanchor_61_61" id="FNanchor_61_61"></a><a href="#Footnote_61_61" class="fnanchor">[61]</a> which was fought on this
+very coast, Cromwell's fleet shelled the enemy's wing, and greatly
+helped to bring about the victory.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as the danger showed itself at Nieuport, King Albert begged our
+Admiralty for naval assistance. It was, of course, impossible to send
+ordinary warships to operate on this coast, because the sea is shallow,
+and cumbered with many a sandbank&mdash;"a very dangerous flat, and fatal,
+where the carcasses of many a tall ship lie buried." The Germans knew
+this well; they had examined the charts, and they had no fear of
+molestation from the sea. They believed that no warship could come
+sufficiently near to the coast to get within range of their trenches.</p>
+
+<p>Now it happened that when the war broke out there lay at Barrow three
+ships of light draught but very strong gun power which had been built
+for the Brazilian Government. Such ships are known as monitors, after
+the name of the first of the type, which was built in 1862, during the
+American Civil War. Really, a monitor is little more than a low, moving
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span>gun platform, carrying a little fort, in which one or two heavy weapons
+are mounted. Each of the three monitors at Barrow displaced 1,200 tons,
+and carried two 6-inch guns mounted forward in an armoured barbette, two
+4.7-inch howitzers aft, and four 3-pounder guns amidships. They were
+protected by stout armour, and as they drew only four feet seven inches
+of water, they could move in the shallows where ordinary ships would run
+aground. These ships were taken over by the British Government at the
+beginning of the war, and were called the <i>Humber</i>, the <i>Mersey</i>, and
+the <i>Severn</i>.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/p101.jpg" width="391" height="503" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h3>British Monitors shelling German Trenches.</h3>
+
+<h4>Note the aeroplane and the balloon directing the fire of the monitors' guns.</h4>
+
+<p>On the evening of 17th October the three monitors left Dover under the
+command of Admiral Hood, and arrived off the Flemish coast just as the
+German attack began. An old cruiser, a battleship, a gunboat, and
+several destroyers, aided by French warships, also bombarded the coast
+from outside the shoals. Von Beseler endeavoured to bring his big guns
+to bear on them, but his artillery was completely outranged, and several
+of his batteries were destroyed. Every attempt to beat off the monitors
+failed. The German submarines were ineffective because they could not
+manoeuvre in shallow water, and their torpedoes, being set to a greater
+depth than the draught of the monitors, passed harmlessly beneath their
+hulls.</p>
+
+<p>The guns of the monitors swept the coast for six miles inland, their
+fire, which proved very accurate and deadly, being directed by naval
+balloons, aeroplanes, and signals from the shore. The Germans could not
+retaliate; nor could their troops easily protect themselves in trenches,
+for if they faced the sea they could be enfiladed from the canal, and if
+they faced the canal they could be enfiladed from the sea. For ten days
+the big guns of the monitors blazed across the sandhills. One vessel
+fired a thousand shells in a single day. Heavy batteries were
+established by the Germans at Ostend on the 24th, but they were at once
+bombarded, much to the discomfort of the German officers who had taken
+up their quarters in the big hotels on the sea front. By the end of the
+month the shore batteries ceased to fire, but before that time the
+Germans had been forced to give up their attempt to reach Calais by a
+march along the shore.</p>
+
+<p>During this land and sea warfare the Belgians and French struggled
+desperately to hold the line of the river Yser. Over and over again they
+beat back massed attacks of the en<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span>emy. There were frenzied hand-to-hand
+combats and thousands of men wrestled and died on the bridges, or were
+drowned in the waters beneath. On Friday, 23rd October, a body of
+Germans succeeded in crossing the river close to Nieuport, and in
+forcing their way to the railway line near Ramscappelle. The Belgians,
+however, drove them back to their old position on the eastern bank, and
+the carnage was terrible. Next day some five thousand Germans managed to
+push across the river at the point where the road from Bruges to Pervyse
+is carried over the stream. On Sunday, the 25th, more Germans crossed,
+and the line of the Yser seemed to have been won. But as they tried to
+deploy from their bridgeheads the French and Belgians, entrenched in the
+miry fields, which are crossed and recrossed by water courses, met them
+with such stubborn courage that they could make but little headway.
+Every yard was fiercely contested, and the German loss was terribly
+heavy. By the 28th the Allies had been beaten back almost to the railway
+embankment. Then, under the eye of the Emperor himself, the
+W&uuml;rtembergers launched a terrific attack.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/p103.jpg" width="340" height="308" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>From the higher ground near Nieuport the Germans advanced<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span> in dense
+masses, singing patriotic songs. The defenders fell back, and at three
+in the afternoon, when the Kaiser saw victory almost within his grasp,
+they played their last card. Under cover of British naval guns, the
+Belgians at high tide had been hard at work near Nieuport damming the
+lower reaches of the canal. The brimming waters of the Yser, swollen by
+the recent heavy rains, now almost overtopped its banks. At the critical
+moment some of the sluices were opened, and the Belgian guns broke down
+the banks at several places. Slowly the water spread over the flat
+meadows on the left bank of the canal in great shallow lagoons. The
+culverts and bridges beneath the railway embankment had been dammed up
+so as to prevent the flood from extending westwards.</p>
+
+<p>Soon the Germans between the embankment and the canal found themselves a
+foot deep in water; their guns sank in the mud, and whole battalions
+were bogged. Only on a few patches of higher ground could they maintain
+a dry foothold. Nevertheless they pushed on through the rising waters,
+in the hope of capturing Ramscappelle and seizing the railway embankment
+before the waters could stay them. The Emperor himself called for
+volunteers, and two W&uuml;rtemberg brigades, composed of some of the best
+fighting men in the German Empire, were chosen to carry the village and
+win undying glory.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 689px;">
+<img src="images/p104.jpg" width="689" height="426" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h4>The W&uuml;rtembergers' Attack on Ramscappelle.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>By
+permission of The Sphere.</i></h4>
+
+<p>On the 30th the great attempt was made. The W&uuml;rtembergers, carrying
+roughly-hewn platforms, floundered through the water, and flung the
+"table tops" across the wider channels, thus forming bridges. While so
+doing, they were shot down by hundreds, but still they pressed on.
+Numbers told; Ramscappelle was partly occupied, and the railway line was
+seized. Next day French, Senegalese, and Belgians fell upon them
+furiously. The dismounted Bengal Lancers, who had been sent to the help
+of the Belgians, now exhausted by fourteen hours' continuous fighting,
+charged with their lances and took house after house, smashing in doors
+and windows to get at the German marines, who had been called up from
+Hamburg to take part in the struggle. In vain did the German officers,
+with threats and blows and pistol shots, try to prevent their men from
+retreating and surrendering. It is said that some twelve guns and over a
+thousand prisoners were taken in this furious counter-attack. Before
+long the Allies were over the railway embankment, and the German<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span> host
+was hurled back into the lagoons. The "seventy-fives" came up at a
+gallop, rifles and machine guns cracked incessantly, and soon the waters
+were dotted with fallen Germans.</p>
+
+<p>The flood through which the W&uuml;rtembergers had waded was but the advance
+guard of a mighty deluge that was now about to overwhelm the whole
+district. Every sluice in this region of stream and canal was opened,
+and the brown flood spread over the land like the "bore" in a narrow
+estuary. Men and horses were swept from their feet and swallowed up in
+the seething waters; others sank to rise no more in the deep mud; field
+guns disappeared in the ooze, and all the while the pitiless guns of the
+Allies poured shot and shell on the drowning invaders. Thousands fell,
+but some escaped, while others struggled to dry ground, only to be taken
+prisoners. The attack had hopelessly failed, and the Emperor, who had
+been watching the struggle through his field glasses, shut them up and
+turned away. Once more he had been foiled at the very moment when
+victory seemed to be beckoning him.</p>
+
+<p>On 7th November a frenzied attack was begun on Dixmude, which, as you
+know, was held by Ronarc'h's Bretons. From the 16th of October to the
+10th of November they were fiercely but unsuccessfully assailed by three
+corps of the Duke of W&uuml;rtemberg's army. "You have to sacrifice
+yourselves," said Ronarc'h to his men, "to save our left wing. Try to
+hold out four days." They held out for a fortnight.</p>
+
+<p>On the night of the 23rd and in the early morning of the 24th no fewer
+than fourteen separate attacks were made upon them, but every one
+failed. For most of the time the marines fought in trenches up to their
+waists in water, and, as General Joffre told them, they were in their
+own element. One night the Germans, driving some captured marines before
+them, crept silently towards the French lines. One of the prisoners
+shouted a warning, but immediately paid for his loyalty with his life.
+The wearied defenders, hearing the shout, sprang to arms and beat off
+the attack.</p>
+
+<p>On 10th November the Germans succeeded in capturing the broken walls and
+torn streets of what had once been the prosperous village of Dixmude.
+This success, however, had come too late. Around Ypres, as we shall
+learn in later pages, the flower of the German armies had everywhere
+been driven back from the Allied lines. All the doors to the coast were
+now locked, bolted, and barred. Nevertheless, fierce but futile
+struggles continued on the Yser until early in December, when their fury
+abated.</p>
+
+
+<br /><br /><br /><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/p107.jpg" width="553" height="197" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h4>The Flooded Area in Flanders.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>Photo, Daily Mirror.</i></h4>
+
+
+<br />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>EIGHT DAYS OF STRUGGLE AND ANXIETY.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap">I</span>n Chapter IV. I gave you a brief account of the little city of Ypres,
+now about to become the storm-centre of a cyclone of blood and death
+such as the world has never seen before. I have told you of its
+commercial greatness, and of the glorious old buildings with which the
+rich burghers of former days adorned their city. Not only were they
+clever manufacturers and keen traders, but gallant soldiers as well. One
+of the proudest stories in their history tells how the red-coated
+burghers of Ypres in July 1302 joined themselves to the men of Bruges
+and Courtrai,<a name="FNanchor_62_62" id="FNanchor_62_62"></a><a href="#Footnote_62_62" class="fnanchor">[62]</a> and marched against Count Robert of Artois, who was
+then overrunning Flanders with 8,000 knights of gentle blood, 10,000
+archers, and 30,000 foot-soldiers. Courtrai was threatened, and the
+burghers of Ypres, with their fellows from other Flemish towns, arrayed
+themselves in front of the city and behind a tangle of dykes and canals.
+The chivalry of France made a furious charge, and horses and riders
+plunged into the trap which had been laid for them. The slaughter was
+terrible. Seven hu<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span>ndred pairs of gilded spurs hung in the abbey church
+of Courtrai as the spoils of battle, and the men of Ypres shared with
+their comrades of West Flanders the renown of victory.</p>
+
+<p>Until a short time ago Ypres boasted a relic of warfare against the
+British. It possessed a flag captured from us in battle. At
+Ramillies<a name="FNanchor_63_63" id="FNanchor_63_63"></a><a href="#Footnote_63_63" class="fnanchor">[63]</a> one of the regiments of the Irish Brigade<a name="FNanchor_64_64" id="FNanchor_64_64"></a><a href="#Footnote_64_64" class="fnanchor">[64]</a> which fought
+for France managed to seize a British standard, which was proudly
+preserved in one of the city's convents at the outbreak of the war.</p>
+
+<p>You already know something of the situation and surroundings of Ypres.
+It stands twenty-three miles from the dunes at Nieuport, on a canal
+which joins the Yser to the south of the large village of Dixmude. To
+the south and east of Ypres is a crescent of gentle heights, but for the
+rest the country is a dead flat land, and the spires of Ypres are a
+landmark for many a mile of Flemish meadow and marsh. Cobbled roads,
+skirted by lines of poplars, radiate from the town in all directions.
+Towards the east run two main highways&mdash;the more northerly leading to
+Roulers, the more southerly to Menin, and thence to Lille.</p>
+
+<p>In Chapter VI. you read of the desperate stand made by the 7th Division
+between these two highroads, and in Chapter VIII. learned that on 19th
+October Sir John French had sent the First Corps to its aid. At this
+time Sir John hoped that an advance might be made to the north-east, and
+that Bruges and perhaps Ghent might be captured. He thought that Sir
+Douglas Haig would probably not be opposed by much more than the 3rd
+Reserve Corps, which he knew had suffered considerably in the earlier
+fighting, and perhaps by one or two Landwehr divisions. By the 21st he
+knew better. That day Sir Douglas Haig with the First Corps advanced
+along the road to Bruges, but could not proceed because the French
+Territorials on his left had been forced to retire behind the Yser
+Canal. At the same time the 7th Division between the two highroads and
+Allenby's cavalry beyond the Ypres-Comines canal were being<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span> heavily
+attacked. Sir John's programme was therefore entirely out of the
+question. The Allies found themselves outnumbered by three or four to
+one, and Sir John himself, on the evening of the 21st, declared that the
+utmost that could be done, owing to the unexpected reinforcements of the
+enemy, was to hold the positions round Ypres until General Joffre could
+send a relief of French troops, which could not arrive before 24th
+October.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/p109.jpg" width="226" height="323" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h3>Diagram of the Ypres Salient.</h3>
+
+<h4>The two shadings indicate two stages in the German advance.</h4>
+
+<p>Sir Douglas Haig had therefore to halt and hold a line from Bixschoote,
+close to the Ypres Canal, to Zonnebeke,<a name="FNanchor_65_65" id="FNanchor_65_65"></a><a href="#Footnote_65_65" class="fnanchor">[65]</a> on the Ypres-Roulers road.
+The remainder of the line round to Hollebeke was also held by his
+infantry, and south of Hollebeke Allenby's cavalry linked them up with
+the Third Corps, which was lying along the line of the Lys towards
+Armenti&egrave;res. Such was the position of our troops on 21st October. We
+were holding, you will observe, a bulge round Ypres. Any troops so
+placed are very insecure. They occupy a kind of wedge thrust into the
+territory held by the enemy, and this wedge can be attacked on each of
+its faces and at the jutting angle at one and the same time. If the line
+is broken anywhere the bulge must give way, and the troops holding it
+must retire and straighten out their line or suffer destruction.</p>
+
+<p>You may, perhaps, ask why the Germans chose to make a great attack on
+Ypres. It is not a great railway centre such as Hazebrouck or B&eacute;thune;
+only a single line of railway runs westwards from the city. Nor was it a
+dep&ocirc;t filled with stores and valuable to the Allies as a base. The
+reason w<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span>hy the Germans threw their strength against Ypres is that it
+was the heart of the dangerous bulge or salient which I have just
+described. If the salient could have been broken through&mdash;and the task
+did not seem to be very difficult&mdash;the whole Allied line of defence
+might have been pushed back beyond Ypres and Armenti&egrave;res, in which case
+the Allies would not be able to turn the north flank of the Germans.</p>
+
+<p>A frightful series of struggles soon began to rage. Day after day the
+gray-coated legions of the Kaiser in ever-increasing numbers swooped
+down on all parts of the salient, and only by almost superhuman
+endurance were the thin lines of the defence held against them. The line
+was nearly broken at Zonnebeke; it was actually pierced for a time in
+the centre at Becelaere, while on the extreme right a most determined
+assault was made against the cavalry at Kleine Zillebeke. The few
+reserves available were hurried to the danger points, and then began
+days of the heaviest possible fighting and of the utmost anxiety. One
+hundred thousand British, strung out along a line of twenty miles, had
+to hold back half a million Germans! Nor was this all: the half-million
+was growing in numbers every day.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 727px;">
+<img src="images/p110.jpg" width="727" height="458" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h4>British Troops advancing for an Attack.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>Photo, Sport and General.</i></h4>
+
+<p>On Thursday, the 22nd, the defence was just maintained; but late in the
+evening the line was broken between Langemarck and Bixschoote, where
+part of the Camerons was cut off and shut up in a wayside inn. There was
+also a gap between Becelaere and Gheluvelt. The Germans thrust their way
+in between the Scots Fusiliers and the Yorkshires, and the latter had to
+fight furiously and continuously on two fronts for the better part of
+three days in order to keep the enemy from enlarging the gap and getting
+through. So bitter and ruthless was the fighting that it seemed
+impossible that the defence could be maintained at this point. When the
+Bedfords restored the position on the 23rd the Yorkshires were still
+fighting; they had not budged. On the 30th they and the Scots Fusiliers,
+who had now been merged into one battalion, again saved the line, and
+earned the following praise from their general:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"You have taken part in probably the fiercest combat that the
+world has ever seen. I have often watched you in the trenches
+with special interest, and on one occasion, at the crossroads at
+Gheluvelt&mdash;a very precarious position&mdash;I asked who was holding
+that particular line of trenches, which seemed a weak spot. When
+I was told the 2nd Yorkshires, I knew it would be all right. I
+knew it was a regiment I could hang my hat on at an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span>y time of
+the day and night. There is not a single regiment in the whole
+of the division for which I have more respect. I do not say it
+to butter you up; I say it because I mean it."</p></div>
+
+<p>From Gheluvelt onwards towards Hollebeke there was a long line of
+trenches which was held by dismounted cavalry. It was one of the weakest
+parts of the line, and the Germans pressed it hard, but not hard enough.
+Farther south the Third Corps was also having a bad time. At Le Gheir,
+two miles south of Messines, some trenches had been lost; but they were
+recovered by a gallant counter-attack, in which the Essex Regiment and
+the Lancashire Fusiliers greatly distinguished themselves.</p>
+
+<p>On 23rd October, a day of great trial, an attempt was made to win back
+the trenches which had been lost by the Camerons on the
+Langemarck-Bixschoote road. The Queen's West Surrey Regiment, the
+Northamptons, the 1st Loyal North Lancashires, and the King's Royal
+Rifles were entrusted with the task. Under Major-General Bulfin they
+advanced in short rushes, with great determination, against a range of
+buildings strongly held by the Germans. After severe fighting and a
+dashing bayonet attack the place was captured, the lost trenches were
+recovered, and the imprisoned Camerons were released. Some 600 prisoners
+were taken, and the old front was restored. The Loyal North Lancashires
+and the "Cobblers"&mdash;that is, the Northamptons&mdash;showed to great advantage
+in the final bayonet charge.</p>
+
+<p>A special order which was issued three days later reads as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"The Brigadier-General congratulates the 1st Loyal North Lancashire
+Regiment, Northamptonshire Regiment, and the 2nd King's Royal Rifle
+Corps; but desires especially to commend the fine soldierlike spirit of
+the 1st Loyal North Lancashire Regiment, which, advancing steadily under
+heavy shell and rifle fire, aided by its machine guns, was enabled to
+form up within a short distance of the enemy's trenches. Fixing
+bayonets, the battalion then charged, carried the trenches, and occupied
+them, and to them must be allotted the majority of the prisoners
+captured. The Brigadier-General congratulates himself on having in his
+brigade a battalion which, after marching the whole of the previous
+night without rest or food was able to maintain its splendid record in
+the past by the determination and self-sacrifice displayed in this
+action."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>On the same day the enemy pushed a corps of their new levies against the
+British line near Langemarck. Most of these newcomers had scarcely been
+under training for more than two months, yet they hurled themselves on
+our trenches with extraordinary courage and doggedness. They were mown
+down by our fire, but they came on again and again till the front was
+strewn with dead. It is said that three-qua<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span>rters of the whole corps
+were put out of action on that day, and that some 1,500 German corpses
+lay round Langemarck that evening. Shortly afterwards French
+reinforcements arrived, and brought a welcome relief to the hard-pressed
+troops holding the salient.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 777px;">
+<img src="images/p116.jpg" width="777" height="478" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h3>Hands up! Capture of Germans near Langemarck by the
+Cameron Highlanders.</h3>
+
+<h4>On October 23, 1914, about a hundred Germans had been compelled to take
+cover behind a mill and a small house. The house was rushed by a small
+force of the Camerons, who compelled the Germans to hold up their hands
+until a sufficiently strong guard arrived to take them to the rear.<br />
+
+<i>From the picture by F. Matania. By permission of The Sphere.</i></h4>
+
+<p>It was on the 23rd October that Drummer William Kenny won the Victoria
+Cross for various deeds of gallantry, which will be related later on.</p>
+
+<p>On the 24th, when the Germans were across the Yser, and the Belgians
+were preparing to open the sluices,<a name="FNanchor_66_66" id="FNanchor_66_66"></a><a href="#Footnote_66_66" class="fnanchor">[66]</a> the enemy struck hard against
+the Allied line all the way from Dixmude to La Bass&eacute;e. At 6 a.m. part of
+the 7th Infantry Division, which was holding a position near Gheluvelt,
+was very violently attacked. Mr. C. Underwood, an interpreter with this
+division, gives us a vivid picture of the terrible straits in which his
+brigade found itself, and of the arrival of reinforcements in the very
+nick of time.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"We got a message from headquarters," he writes in <i>Blackwood's
+Magazine</i>, "saying that we must hold out at all costs, as
+reinforcements were coming up as quickly as possible to our
+support. A corporal in charge of prisoners said that the
+Wiltshire Regiment had suffered terribly, as also the Scots
+Fusiliers, both having been badly peppered with 'Jack Johnsons,'
+which had buried many of them alive in their trenches.</p>
+
+<p>"At 7 a.m. next morning (the 24th) Captain Drysdale came up to
+me and asked me to hurry up two battalions which were expected
+every minute from the First Army Corps. The position was most
+critical, <i>as we had not one man left to support the firing
+line</i>, which was being very hardly pressed, and might give way
+at any moment. At last, then, the long-expected supports were
+arriving. Our men had behaved like heroes all. This was the
+seventh day since we engaged the Germans, one division extending
+over an unheard-of front of eight miles, and holding up what I
+understood from one of our prisoners yesterday to be a force of
+three army corps&mdash;that is, 15,000 to 20,000 British against
+150,000 Germans! The ordeal of the last three days had been
+terrible. These brave fellows actually had no sleep for seven
+days, and had never left the trenches, fighting night and day,
+sticking to them until they were literally blown out of them or
+buried alive. They were now becoming pieces of wood, sleeping
+standing up, and firing almost mechanically, with the slightest
+support from our guns, which were now outclassed....</p>
+
+<p>"Having got on to the road, I found the Northumberland
+Hussars,<a name="FNanchor_67_67" id="FNanchor_67_67"></a><a href="#Footnote_67_67" class="fnanchor">[67]</a> who had evidently been brought up with the idea of
+their taking possession of the trenches if the supports were not
+up in time. In ten minutes I sighted the head of a battalion
+swinging up the road, and ran down as directed to hurry them up.
+Found them to be the Highland Light Infantry and King's Own
+Scottish Borderers. I told the commanding officer the position,
+and he doubled them round the wood to the trenches which our
+fellows were holding with their last gasp."</p></div>
+
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span>
+<p>On this day, 24th October, the point of the salient gave way. The
+gallant Wiltshires were driven in, and the Germans pushed into a wood
+west of Becelaere, where there was much desperate fighting for days to
+come. The Warwicks were ordered to make a counter-attack, in the course
+of which they lost 105 officers and men, including their colonel. He had
+been wounded in the foot three days before, but he nevertheless led his
+men in the charge with fiery courage. His horse was shot under him, but
+he found another, which was also shot, and this time Colonel Loring rose
+no more. In those dread days of struggle no regiment played a more
+heroic part than the Warwicks; they emerged from the ordeal a mere ghost
+of their former strength.</p>
+
+<p>It was noticeable at this time that the Germans, though they repeatedly
+pierced our line, did not follow up the advantage which they had gained.
+Perhaps this was due to the rawness of the troops; perhaps to the fact
+that they were weary with much fighting; but more probably to bad
+leadership, for even the famous Prussian Guard, in later assaults, more
+than once came to a standstill after it had broken the British line.
+Whatever the reason may have been, the Allies had cause to be thankful
+that the enemy failed to "make good."</p>
+
+<p>On the evening of the 25th the 20th Brigade of the 7th Division, which
+was then holding a position to the south of Gheluvelt, was forced to
+retire. The Germans broke through our lines, and the 2nd Scots Guards,
+after repelling the enemy, were pushed back with terrible losses.
+Thanks, however, to a splendid charge by the 7th Cavalry Brigade, the
+situation was saved. In these operations Lord Innes Ker, who led the
+advance guard, won great distinction. Meanwhile the Third Corps, resting
+on Armenti&egrave;res had been very hard pressed, and had been forced to fall
+back to a position of less risk.</p>
+
+<p>A French line division and some Territorials were brought up on the
+night of the 24th-25th, and were concentrated about Zillebeke. Meanwhile
+the 2nd Division made good progress to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span> the north-east, and captured
+some guns and prisoners. On the 27th Sir John French went to the
+headquarters of the 1st Division to inquire into the condition of the
+7th Division, which had been marching and fighting for a whole month,
+and was becoming very weak. He broke up Sir Henry Rawlinson's command,
+and the much-tried 7th Division was absorbed into the First Corps.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/p113.jpg" width="279" height="377" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h4>The Front at Ypres on October 27, 1914.</h4>
+
+<p>On the 28th there was a lull before the coming storm. The enemy was
+preparing for a mighty onslaught upon our whole line. About 5.30 the
+next morning a wireless message was intercepted, telling us what the
+Germans proposed to do. The Emperor had given orders that the line in
+front of Ypres must be broken at all costs, and three German corps were
+being massed for the purpose. The critical moment was at hand.</p>
+
+<p>Early on the morning of Thursday, the 29th, a mass assault was delivered
+against the crossroads one mile east of Gheluvelt. All morning the tide
+of battle ebbed and flowed. The 1st Division was driven from its
+trenches, and for a time the German thrust seemed to have succeeded. Mr.
+Underwood thus relates an incident which took place when the outlook was
+black indeed:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"As I was watching the woods on our left front towards the
+Gheluvelt-Menin road, I saw the Yorks retiring and the Gordons
+advancing. I pointed this out to the general, who immediately
+sent to find out by whose orders they were retiring. Presently,
+to our consternation, the Gordons came back farther down the
+road towards Gheluvelt; before we could do anything, the Yorks
+came streaming over the open ploughed land. The general galloped
+down the road to stop the Gordons, and I tried to stop the
+Yorks, who persisted that the order had been given to them to
+retire. We concluded that the order must have been given by a
+German officer, and formed them up along the road under a
+terrible shrapnel fire. They were being bowled over like
+ninepins, as the Germans must have seen them crossing the open.
+We tumbled them into the ditch alongside the road, and it was a
+pitiable sight to see the poor fellows who were still in the
+open and badly hit trying to crawl along towards our
+headquarters to take shelter from the hail of shrapnel
+bullets.... They were by now all lying out under the wall of the
+farm, and the place looked like a shambles. It was a splendid
+sight to see Lieutenant Jardine of the R.A.M.C. running out
+under a hail of bullets and bringing in one wounded man after
+another on his back.... Presently the shell fire died down a
+bit, and the men in the ditches alongside the road, having had
+time to recover, advanced once more to regain the ground which
+they had lost.... One poor chap of the Warwicks whom I spoke to,
+and had been very badly mauled, said, 'Well, sir, England can't
+say we did not stick it to the last.'"</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>In the counter-attack to which the Gordons were now advancing nearly the
+whole of the First Corps was engaged. Some very gallant charges were
+made, in one of which Lieutenant J.A.O. Brooke of the 2nd Gordons won
+the Victoria Cross and lost his life as you will read later on. About 2
+p.m. the enemy began to give way, and by dark most of the line north of
+the Menin road had been recovered. The same day the Third Corps was
+heavily assailed at Le Gheir, in what our soldiers call "Plugstreet"
+Woods,<a name="FNanchor_68_68" id="FNanchor_68_68"></a><a href="#Footnote_68_68" class="fnanchor">[68]</a> and there was desperate fighting beneath its ragged larches.
+Here, again, trenches were lost and won. The Middlesex were driven out;
+but the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders nobly came to the rescue, and
+against great odds recaptured the trenches and slew almost every German
+in them.</p>
+
+<p>The attempt to break through to the south of Ypres was repeated with
+even greater vigour on the 30th. In the gray dawn a heavy bombardment
+was begun on the trenches held by our cavalry at Zandvoorde, a village
+about a mile and a half south of Gheluvelt. So fierce was the fire that
+no living thing could remain in the trenches. One troop was buried
+alive, and soon the whole division was obliged to withdraw to a ridge
+about a mile west of the village. This meant that the troops on the
+right were uncovered, and were obliged to fall back to preserve the
+line. While this movement was going on, the situation was about as
+serious as it could well be. The enemy had been reinforced, and had now
+gained possession of Zandvoorde. The Scots Greys and the Hussars were
+hurried up, and the ridge was held until evening, when the 4th (Guards)
+Brigade arrived and took over the line. They held it in trenches with
+water above their knees for twenty-three days.</p>
+
+<p>The salient was sharper than ever now, and therefore even more dangerous
+than before. The weakest place lay between Gheluvelt and the corner of
+the canal near Hollebeke. Had the Germans reached the canal they would
+have cut off the British holding the salient to the north, and nothing
+could have saved Ypres. The Emperor was on the field and he had told his
+men that if Ypres were captured the war would be over, and the victory
+of Germany would be complete. So<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span> desperate was the situation that Sir
+Douglas Haig determined to hold the line from Gheluvelt to the corner of
+the canal at all costs. He moved up reserves to the rear of the line,
+and made other preparations to resist the great assault of the morrow.</p>
+
+<p>Farther south there was great peril too. The cavalry had been driven out
+of Hollebeke, and had fallen back on the Ypres-Armenti&egrave;res road, where
+there was heavy fighting. The line of the Third Corps had been broken,
+but the rent had been repaired by the gallantry of the Somerset Light
+Infantry. Reserves were called up, and were stationed at Neuve Eglise,
+about three miles south-west of Messines. With these reserves came the
+first infantry Territorial regiment to take the field&mdash;the London
+Scottish.</p>
+
+<p>North of Zandevoorde there was also great danger of disaster. A
+battalion of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers found the troops on their right
+pushed back by sheer weight of numbers, and they themselves exposed to a
+most galling fire from machine guns on their flank. Their losses were
+terrible, but still they held on, and when the fight was over the
+battalion had almost ceased to exist. The Royal Scots Fusiliers suffered
+in like manner; but they and the remnant of the Yorkshires, bunched
+together into one battalion, held their trenches until dark. The Allied
+line was pushed back to the verge of Gheluvelt, and when night fell it
+seemed as though the Kaiser had spoken the truth when he declared,
+"Ypres will be mine by 1st November."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>During the fighting around Ypres the Royal Flying Corps did splendid
+service. A <i>Daily News</i> correspondent tells of one young flying man who
+seemed to make a perfect hobby of his work. The following account of his
+doings will give you an excellent idea of how airmen direct the fire of
+guns. "From dawn to sunset," says the correspondent, "this young officer
+is up and about, doing the most wonderful things with the utmost
+coolness. The other morning, up ahead of the lark, he volplaned<a name="FNanchor_69_69" id="FNanchor_69_69"></a><a href="#Footnote_69_69" class="fnanchor">[69]</a> from
+a great height right in the midst of the German lines, as though he
+meant to make a brief morning call for breakfast. The Germans were too
+astonished for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span> the moment to do anything but gasp and gape at him,
+though he was easily within range. He impudently stopped his engine,
+dropped half a dozen 'puffs' (as our Tommies call the aeroplane bombs)
+into a cavalry cluster, waved his hand, and off and above he went again.</p>
+
+<p>"Hundreds of rifle shots whirred around him as he fled; two of them
+struck him; and three minutes later he was down in the British lines
+once more, with blood trickling through the rents in his tunic. He was
+patched up and bandaged, had a good, hearty lunch, and before teatime he
+was up again in one of his mad frolics in the air. 'Surely you've had
+enough for one day,' said General &mdash;&mdash;; 'have a rest at least until
+to-morrow. We don't want to lose these matin&eacute;e performances of yours;
+they're too fine for anything.' But the young aviator jammed his
+armoured helmet on his head, and said he couldn't resist making a
+flight, because it was great fun, and kept him fit. So off he went
+again.</p>
+
+<p>"That afternoon he excelled himself. There was a well-screened German
+battery which was doing nasty work from behind a slight rise at the back
+of the enemy's trenches. This was the airman's quarry. Up and up he went
+in quick, climbing spirals, and when he was at a height of 2,000 feet he
+poised for a spell to spot the lurking-place of the battery. When he had
+discovered it he, flew above it, and signalled to our gunners to drop
+their shells immediately below him. They fired; the shells fell some
+distance to the right. He next signalled to the range-finders to swing
+their guns more to the left. Again they fired, but the shells went too
+far. A third time he signalled, and the first of our shells that fell in
+the new direction wrecked the limber of the foremost German gun,
+smashing up horses and men alike. Good! Instantly the airman indicated
+that the range had been found, and then shell after shell burst over and
+among the battery which had been flogging us so mercilessly earlier in
+the day. In five minutes all that was left of it broke away from the
+cunning screen which masked it, and fled across country. The general,
+who had been watching the affair through his field glasses, cried,
+'Splendid! Magnificent! The best show I've ever witnessed. That man must
+have a heart of steel in a body of iron.' When the daring aviator
+descended the general warmly congratulated him, and shook him by the
+hand. 'You're almost too good to last,' he said. The airman only
+laughed."</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/p121.jpg" width="373" height="514" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h3>An Admiral of the Air.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>Photo, Cribb.</i></h3>
+
+<h4>Wing-Commander C. R. Samson, R.N. See page <a href="#Page_74">74</a>.</h4>
+
+<p>In the account of the fighting round Ypres nothing has been said of our
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span>
+artillery. Sir John French thus writes concerning it: "I cannot speak
+too highly of the valuable services rendered by the Royal Artillery
+throughout the battle." He also tells us that, though the enemy brought
+up guns of great range and power, our artillery overmastered them.
+Splendid work was done by a number of young artillery officers, who in
+the most gallant manner pressed forward in the vicinity of the firing
+line in order to direct their guns at the right targets, and at the
+right moment. Here is a story which illustrates the skill and courage of
+these young officers.</p>
+
+<p>"In many instances," says a <i>Times</i> correspondent, "artillery subalterns
+have taken up dangerous positions well in advance of the front line of
+infantry, and, telephone in hand, have given the range to the gunners
+with perfect calmness. I was told of an incident which is typical of the
+splendid devotion of these men. A young lieutenant had posted himself in
+a tower a few hundred yards from the German trenches. He had telephoned
+his orders regularly for half an hour. Then he said, without any trace
+of excitement, to the operator on the other side, 'I hear the Germans
+coming up the stairs. I have my revolver. Don't believe anything more
+you hear.' With these words he dropped the receiver, and he has not been
+heard of since."</p>
+
+
+<br /><br /><br /><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h2>
+
+<h3>TALES OF HEROES.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap">B</span>efore I proceed with the story of the critical day in the great
+struggle for Ypres, let me give you a few soldiers' stories of the
+fighting which took place during the month of October. Hundreds of
+attacks and counter-attacks were made and repelled during that terrible
+month, and a thousand deeds of the utmost gallantry were performed. Some
+of them won the highest award of valour, as we shall learn at the close
+of this chapter; but hundreds of others, equally splendid, went
+unrecorded and unrecognized, probably because they were not witnessed by
+superior officers. We must always remember, when we read accounts of
+gallant deeds done in battle, that they are but few out of many which
+deserve to be inscribed on the roll of fame. It has been well said that
+during the month of October 1914 the Victoria Cross was won a dozen
+times every day.</p>
+
+<p>Here is a story of a boy hero, a private in the D Company of the 2nd
+Manchesters, of whose exploits you have already read. His name was
+Preston; he was eighteen years of age, and was known as the "baby" of
+his regiment. On 20th October the Manchesters were surrounded, and their
+trenches were enfiladed by German fire. First the lieutenant was
+wounded, then the sergeant, and the company was left without a single
+officer in command. While the men were wondering what to do, Private
+Preston threw up his cap and shouted, "Fix bayonets, lads!" The company
+obeyed his order, and he led them in a wild and successful charge
+against the enemy. Six days later this gallant and resourceful boy was
+killed in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span> action.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/p124.jpg" width="657" height="430" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h4>The R.A.M.C. rendering First Aid in the Trenches.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>By
+permission of The Sphere.</i></h4>
+
+<p>A private of the South Wales Borderers tells how some Germans disguised
+as gravediggers attempted to rush a British trench. "We knew that the
+Germans had a recognized corps of gravediggers," he says, "but we found
+that the supposed gravediggers now advancing were armed not only with
+picks and shovels, but with rifles also. When they came within range
+they fired. We did likewise, and soon saw their backs. Later we caught
+three of them&mdash;an officer and two privates. The officer was a tall,
+brawny fellow, six feet in his stockings. A little Cockney in our
+regiment went up to the German officer, and, not supposing that he would
+be understood, said fiercely, 'For two pins I'd knock your blooming head
+off.' Imagine his surprise when the German giant, looking down upon him,
+replied in perfect English, 'Don't! I can't help this war. Like
+yourself, I must fight for my country.'"</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>You have already heard from Mr. C. Underwood of the fine work done by
+Lieutenant Jardine of the R.A.M.C. on the Gheluvelt-Menin road during
+29th October. An eye-witness says: "There was a man of small stature,
+Lieutenant Jardine, of the 21st Field Ambulance, who made frequent
+journeys from the shelter of a ch&acirc;teau at Gheluvelt to the trenches. He
+continually faced a hurricane of fire, and to see the little man coming
+back with a heavy burden on his shoulders was a sight not to be
+forgotten. After he had visited the trenches a number of times he had
+the appearance of a butcher straight from the slaughter-house. Many men
+owe to him the fact that they are alive to-day." Nor must we forget the
+Field Ambulance men, who "time after time came into the open to carry
+the more seriously wounded from the trenches."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Don't forget that there is plenty of opportunity for the display of
+courage, even behind the firing line. The following little story
+illustrates the steadfastness and resource of a man in the Army Ordnance
+Corps&mdash;that is, the branch of the service which conveys ammunition to
+the places where it is needed. Five motor lorries conveying ammunition
+had <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span>been cut off by the Germans. The men in charge of them blew up the
+ammunition and made off across country. One, however, refused to leave,
+and remained hidden in a wood near the side of the road. The Germans,
+finding the ammunition destroyed, passed on, and the hidden soldier came
+out of his hiding-place. Finding the wheels of the lorries intact, he
+managed to start one of the motors. He then hitched the other four
+lorries behind, and slowly brought the convoy safely into the British
+camp.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Major Viscount Dalrymple, of the Scots Guards, the first member of
+Parliament to be taken prisoner, gives the following account of his
+adventures:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"We came out in a great hurry in the dark and pouring rain on the night
+of 25th October, having heard that a trench held by Major Willie Holbeck
+and a platoon on the right flank had been overwhelmed. It was a beastly
+trench, next to the one I was in on the previous day, and by nightfall
+the Germans were entrenched only 100 yards in front of it. Willie was
+shelled and shot at in it all day, and they rushed him in large numbers
+in the dark of the evening. He and Corporal Maclean and a few others
+bolted back a hundred yards or so, and then tried to retake it with the
+bayonet, but failed. Major Hugh Fraser and I, with the remainder of the
+right flank and the left flank under Captain Fox, hurried off to the
+village, and when we got there we heard that a lot of Germans&mdash;more than
+1,000&mdash;were marching along the street away from us.</p>
+
+<p>"We were not sure whether to try to clear the village first, or whether
+to try to retake the lost trench. Eventually Major Fraser and Major
+Holbeck started up the track straight to the lost trench. When Fraser
+got fairly near the trench he found it full of Germans. He shouted,
+'Have a go at them!' and charged practically by himself. He was shot at
+once, as were, I think, most of his men. Major Willie Holbeck had his
+right thigh bone broken by a bullet. I did not hear much firing, and had
+no idea of what had happened until Holbeck crawled back.</p>
+
+<p>"Meanwhile I had discovered that a house near by us was full of Germans,
+so I sent Captain Fox along the road nearly opposite, and advanced on it
+myself with a platoon and a few more men. When we got within twenty
+yards or so they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span> started firing at us. I shouted to the men to charge,
+and rushed over the hedge at the enemy. I was just going to bayonet an
+officer, when my men shot him, and he pulled me over by the leg as he
+fell. Then the Germans came out of the house, swarms of them. Some gave
+themselves up, while others fired at us out of a wood alongside, only
+about five yards away; until I got hold of a prisoner, and, pushing him
+round in front of me, told him to tell the others to surrender. He did
+so, and they surrendered to the number of 188 men and seven officers.
+Two of their officers had been killed, and a good many of their men; but
+I had two of my best sergeants and I don't know how many men killed and
+wounded. It took the whole left flank company to take the prisoners
+away, and I was not left with enough to attack the lost trench.</p>
+
+<p>"About 7 a.m. on the 26th the shelling began, and there was a lot of
+sniping from the village at my right rear. Presently I saw about sixty
+Germans, who had been hiding, bolting across our rear, and I think,
+between our fire and the German shelling, they must have been wiped out.
+Then the shelling got terrific, absolutely all over us. At one time for
+two consecutive minutes I counted over sixty shells a minute bursting
+within fifty yards or so of my trench. I was twice hit by pieces, which,
+however, did no harm, and none of my little section were touched. Our
+trench got pretty uninhabitable&mdash;fired at from front and rear and on one
+flank, the shells coming thick all the time.</p>
+
+<p>"Then word came from the trench on my left, held by a mixture of
+Staffords and Grenadiers and my men, that the Grenadiers on the left had
+retired. I shouted back that it was nonsense, and to stick to the
+trenches and fire whenever opportunity offered. I did not think there
+could be any genuine attack until they stopped shelling us.</p>
+
+<p>"About 3.30 I suddenly heard a bugle sounding 'Cease fire,' or something
+or other, on our right, and saw the next trench on the right full of
+Germans, and our people surrendering. . . . The Germans were all round
+except on the left, and I think our people had gone from there; so I
+told our men to lie low in the trenches, in case the Germans did not
+come so far, which they unfortunately did." Viscount Dalrymple and his
+little force were surrounded and forced to surrender. "I was marched off
+with about si<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span>xty men, mostly Staffordshires and King's Company
+Grenadiers, only about eight of my own, and one Staffordshire subaltern.
+At a village some way off I found the rest of our people.</p>
+
+<p>"Eight of us were in a second-class compartment for forty-eight
+hours&mdash;that is, every seat full&mdash;and were not allowed to lie down, stand
+up, or look out of the windows. If we opened a window it was generally
+shut again. After we had been in this compartment for about thirty hours
+we were given a plateful of potato soup with a little meat in it. We had
+not had anything to eat or drink for twenty-four hours previous to being
+captured, and had been under heavy fire the whole of the time."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Private G. Owen of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, who was mentioned in
+dispatches for conspicuous bravery on the field, thus describes the
+incident which won him the proud distinction:&mdash;"You will be surprised to
+hear about me getting mentioned in dispatches for helping a wounded
+comrade who had been shot in the leg and had had his thigh broken. I
+will tell you shortly how it happened. We had been warned to draw
+rations from a farmhouse just on the other side of our trenches, which
+was being shelled, and had a Maxim playing on it. Well, we had drawn tea
+for our comrades, and we had to go back for some eatables. We made a run
+for it. I was first, and got through the gate into the field, when I
+heard a shout of 'O Jerry, I'm hit!'</p>
+
+<p>"I ran back, and saw my mate lying in the road with his thigh broken by
+a bullet from the sniper with the Maxim. I caught hold of him the best
+way I could, and got him to safety with the help of the officer in
+charge, while the bullets and shells were screaming round for more
+victims."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>A newspaper correspondent tells us of a little Welshman who made a great
+reputation as a sniper<a name="FNanchor_70_70" id="FNanchor_70_70"></a><a href="#Footnote_70_70" class="fnanchor">[70]</a> during the fighting in front of Ypres. "If
+there is one thing," he says, "that the German soldier is beginning to
+be an adept in it is sniping. He has learnt many tricks, and the British
+soldier in the trenches pays him the utmost respect. He climbs trees, he
+worms along the ground, sometimes as stealthily as a Gurkha; in a field
+of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span> roots he sticks a turnip on the spike of his helmet, and, thus
+disguised, sends quick death among an incautious enemy. He shoots
+straight, and is not afraid. But this little Welshman is claimed by his
+comrades to be king of them all. He spends each night at it, and his
+regiment's trenches are now rarely disturbed by even the most
+venturesome German sharpshooters. He steals forward as lightly as a cat,
+fires, and, slipping aside, awaits the enemy's reply. The flashes of
+their rifles give him a mark. He shoots at the nearest, and repeats the
+performance as often as the enemy will oblige him by disclosing their
+positions.</p>
+
+<p>"A London scoutmaster was sent out one night to ascertain the enemy's
+intentions. He found the Welshman ahead, and in whispers explained his
+object. The sniper bade him follow, and the scoutmaster quickly found
+himself less than twenty yards from the German trenches, undiscovered
+and unsuspected. This little Welshman in private life is a revivalist
+preacher."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>An American correspondent who witnessed the British monitors<a name="FNanchor_71_71" id="FNanchor_71_71"></a><a href="#Footnote_71_71" class="fnanchor">[71]</a>
+shelling the German trenches tells us the following story of a gallant
+British naval officer who fell while trying to aid the stricken
+Belgians. "As we watched the fighting we were joined by a Belgian
+captain, who told us the story of an English lieutenant<a name="FNanchor_72_72" id="FNanchor_72_72"></a><a href="#Footnote_72_72" class="fnanchor">[72]</a> who had
+landed that morning. This officer came ashore from the monitor <i>Severn</i>
+with twenty men and three machine guns. Reaching Nieuport, he saw that
+the Belgians by losing a farm that morning had weakened their position.
+Accordingly he started with his twenty men across the bullet-swept area
+right to the trenches. Men who saw him say he walked as calmly as if on
+a tour of inspection, calling orders to his men, and signalling with his
+hands. In vain the Belgian officers shouted that their position was
+already occupied by Germans. Either he did not hear or he was determined
+to accomplish the task at all costs. When fifty yards from the coveted
+goal the young officer fell dead, a bullet having struck him between the
+eyes. The men retreated, carrying with them the guns and the memory of a
+hero worthy in all respects of the high traditions of the British navy."</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/p129.jpg" width="313" height="445" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h3>French Officers examining a German Prisoner.</h3>
+
+<h4>(<i>Photo, Central News.</i>)</h4>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>A lance-corporal of the 2nd South Lancashire Regiment describes how he
+and his comrades saved a gun which they were working in the loft of a
+cottage. Some 200 Germans having broken through the British lines, tried
+to rush the cottage. "I crept on my stomach," says the lance-corporal,
+"and made for my gun, which was nicely pointed at them, fetching them
+down like sheep, thinking every minute they would get at me, especially
+when I heard footsteps on the stairs. Two of my comrades now came to my
+assistance. When they saw who it was they patted me on the back, and one
+of them said, 'Let's have a go at the gun, Len;' which I was glad of, as
+I was nearly done up. My chum did splendid work, fetching the remainder
+down. While he was firing Lieutenant Fulcher went downstairs just in
+time, as five Germans had got round without being seen. The brave
+officer killed the five, and returned to us in the loft. . . . Then,
+seeing we were all right, he once more returned to headquarters.</p>
+
+<p>"Half an hour later we were surrounded with shells . . . A piece struck
+the sergeant. Without delay we carried him into the house and did our
+very best for him. It was a pity that he should come to his end, as only
+the day before he received a telegram congratulating him on his splendid
+previous work, for which he was mentioned in dispatches.</p>
+
+<p>"We gave the alarm to the men down the cellar. It must have been God who
+told me to shout them up. In one more minute there would have been
+another seven killed, as no sooner had they got up than a shell burst in
+the cellar. I told the men to make for headquarters, which they did
+under heavy shell fire. How they got there without being hit I do not
+know. Myself and two others stopped, as we had our best friend in the
+roof (the gun). Another shell came and took the two men off their feet,
+luckily doing no harm; only I got a few splinters after the falling of
+the house. I found that I was the last, so I crawled out in the smoke
+and the dust, and made for headquarters. I reported to Lieutenant
+Fulcher that the sergeant was killed, and had died in my arms, and that
+I had been forced to leave the gun. There were tears in his eyes. He
+told me to lie down, but I could not, and he asked where I had left the
+gun. I told him, and said, 'I expect it is smashed.' He then asked for
+volunteers to go and fetch it, and two other lance-corporals at once
+off<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span>ered to go with me. We saved the gun, everything else being smashed,
+and got back without being hit. General Haldane congratulated us, and
+granted us six days' special leave to England."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The following story comes from the German side. There are three
+characters in it&mdash;a Bavarian lieutenant, Sepp his servant, and Caro his
+dog. "Sepp could play the mouth organ<a name="FNanchor_73_73" id="FNanchor_73_73"></a><a href="#Footnote_73_73" class="fnanchor">[73]</a> beautifully, rendering folk
+songs, dances, etc., and we had many a pleasant hour with his music. One
+day, when the shells were bursting not far from us, the lieutenant said
+to his servant, 'Sepp, if I am ever hit, play my burial song for me, as
+you know how, and send my mother a remembrance. Everything else,
+including money, you can keep.' The dog Caro was not allowed to go into
+action, but had to march all day with the baggage, and at night slept at
+his master's door, allowing no one save Sepp to enter. Often he managed
+to get loose from the baggage carts, and, in spite of the colonel's
+scolding, reached the firing-line, where he shared the danger with his
+master.</p>
+
+<p>"One fine day on the Yser a hostile bullet struck our dear young
+lieutenant in the forehead, so that he never moved again. On his face
+there was a pleasant smile, such as we had never before seen on the
+dead. Our grief was great; but a soldier never has much time for
+weeping. We dug his grave in a small pleasure garden, and laid the young
+hero to rest. We doffed our helmets, while some one said a brief prayer.
+On the mound we laid a last rose, and the soldiers made a cross. When
+the captain had said the last word Sepp at once began to play, more
+beautifully than we had ever heard before. No organ music had ever
+pleased me so much. Tears stood in the eyes of us all. Again and again
+he played funeral hymns and soldiers' songs, until we had to go.</p>
+
+<p>"We could not get Sepp away from his master's grave. He continued to sit
+there, weeping and playing on his mouth organ all the songs his master
+had loved best. Just as we were going, up came the dog Caro from
+somewhere, as though he knew of his master's death. He whined and
+howled, while all about this farewell scene the guns thundered and rifle
+bullets whistled. Deeply moved, we went away. The English made an
+att<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span>ack, but still in the twilight Sepp continued to play, until he had
+to be removed forcibly to prevent him from falling into the enemy's
+hands. Only Caro remained; he would not budge.</p>
+
+<p>"When, two days later, we had beaten the English and came back past the
+same spot, there lay the faithful Caro, dead on his master's grave. We
+knew not whether he had perished of hunger and grief, or whether a
+fragment of shell had struck him, but we found no wound on his body. We
+buried the faithful animal at his master's feet. Since that day Sepp has
+never played another tune."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>I will conclude this chapter by giving you a brief account of the heroes
+who were awarded the Victoria Cross between October 1 and 30, 1914. They
+are as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Private Henry May</span>, 1st Battalion the Cameronians (Scottish Rifles). On
+October 22, 1914, at a village about four miles south-west of
+Armenti&egrave;res, he went out of his own free will, and under a heavy
+cannonade tried to rescue a wounded man who was, unhappily, killed
+before he could save him. Later, on the same day, he carried a wounded
+officer a distance of 300 yards into safety, while exposed to very
+severe fire.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Drummer William Kenny</span>, 2nd Gordon Highlanders. On 23rd October, near
+Ypres, Drummer Kenny, an Irishman, whose parents live at Drogheda,
+showed wonderful bravery in rescuing wounded men on five different
+occasions. Each time he carried his life in his hand, and showed the
+most fearless courage. Twice previously he had saved machine guns by
+carrying them out of action, and frequently he had conveyed urgent
+messages over fire-swept ground. Like all true heroes, Drummer Kenny
+showed himself the most modest of men. Here is his own account of his
+repeated acts of bravery: "There were men lying about wounded, and I
+simply brought them in. The Maxims had to be fetched, and I did
+it&mdash;that's all."</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Lieutenant Arthur Martin-Leake, R.A.M.C.</span> This gallant officer was the
+first man in the British army to be awarded the Victoria Cross for
+conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty in two separate campaigns.
+During the South African War he went out into the firing-line to dress a
+wounded man while forty Boers, who were only 100 yards off, rained
+bullets on the position. When he had done all he could for the stricken
+soldier he went over to a badly wounded offic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span>er, and while trying to
+place him in a more comfortable position was shot three times. He only
+gave up his merciful work when thoroughly exhausted, and even then he
+refused water until other wounded men had been served. For this splendid
+self-sacrifice and steadfast bravery he was rightly awarded the Victoria
+Cross. During the Balkan War he served with a British Red Cross
+contingent, and throughout the present war, and especially at Zonnebeke
+between October 29 and November 8, 1914, he repeatedly went out under
+heavy fire to bring in wounded men, some of whom were lying close to the
+enemy's trenches. Again the coveted distinction was awarded to him, and
+a clasp was added to the Cross which he had won in South Africa.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Lieutenant James Leach</span> and <span class="smcap">Sergeant John Hogan</span>, 2nd Battalion the
+Manchester Regiment. Lieutenant Leach had only received his commission a
+few days before he won the Victoria Cross on October 29. "When I joined
+the Manchesters," he said in an interview, "there were only six officers
+and forty-five men, whereas the proper strength of the battalion was 30
+officers and 1,100 men. The regiment had been badly cut up at Le Cateau
+and La Bass&eacute;e. On joining the regiment I was immediately put in command
+of a company which was in an advanced trench near Festubert.<a name="FNanchor_74_74" id="FNanchor_74_74"></a><a href="#Footnote_74_74" class="fnanchor">[74]</a> The
+trench was large enough to hold thirty-five men; it was about 150 yards
+from the main trench, and 120 yards from the German trenches.</p>
+
+<p>"At seven o'clock on the morning of 29th October I had just started to
+have my breakfast, when a man to the right of me shouted, 'Look out,
+sir, look out; they're coming,' and began firing as fast as he could. I
+looked over the parapet, and saw about 250 of the enemy with fixed
+bayonets approaching the trench at the double, firing as they came on,
+and making a peculiar wailing noise. Before the Germans reached the
+trench we shot down something like 150 of them. With only such a short
+distance to cross from their trenches to ours, about 100 of the enemy
+managed to reach our trench and jump into it. By sheer weight of numbers
+they carried the trench, and killed about twelve of my men.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/p135.jpg" width="318" height="445" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h3>How Lieutenant Leach and Sergeant Hogan recaptured a Trench from the Germans.</h3>
+
+<h4>(<i>From the picture by F. Matania. By permission of The Sphere.</i>)</h4>
+
+<p>"At nine o'clock I called up the communication trench, and asked how far
+the enemy had got, and found they were occupying three of the four
+traverses.<a name="FNanchor_75_75" id="FNanchor_75_75"></a><a href="#Footnote_75_75" class="fnanchor">[75]</a> When I went up again by myself two hours later, I found
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span>
+the Germans were occupying all the four traverses. Well, I thought, if
+we leave it much longer they will be down the communication trenches
+into the main trench.</p>
+
+<p>"The same evening we heard we were to be relieved by the Gurkhas, and I
+felt it would be rather bad on my part to leave the recovery of the
+trench to them. I therefore determined about two o'clock to regain the
+trench before dark. Calling for volunteers, Sergeant Hogan and ten
+others came forward, and we began to crawl up the communication trench.
+I fired anywhere with my revolver, only exposing my hand, with the
+intention of pushing back the enemy along the trench as far as we could.
+The idea was to force them to run back to their own trenches, so that we
+could shoot them down as they went.</p>
+
+<p>"All along the trench we crawled over dead and wounded Germans, so you
+see my revolver had been doing some execution. When we got to the left
+traverse I was surprised to hear an English voice round the corner
+shout, 'Don't shoot, sir.' I chanced this being a bit of treachery, and
+was surprised to see one of my own men coming round the corner. He had
+been captured in the morning rush, and he said a wounded German officer
+round the corner had asked him to tell me that they wanted to surrender.</p>
+
+<p>"I went round the corner, and found sixteen Germans on their knees with
+their hands up, shouting, 'Mercy.' I told the officer that he and his
+men had got to go into the main trench. This they did after they had
+taken off their equipment, holding up their hands as they went. About
+twenty wounded Germans crawled in with them. . . . Was I surprised when
+I heard I had been awarded the Victoria Cross? Yes, I was. I was
+mentioned in dispatches, and there I thought the matter had ended."</p>
+
+<p>Sergeant Hogan, when interviewed, showed the same pleasing modesty as
+Drummer Kenny. "I only did," he said, "what others would have done, and
+what others have done."</p>
+
+<p>A few further details as to this remarkable feat may be added. The
+following account is taken from the <i>Manchester Guardian</i>:&mdash;"Lieutenant
+Leach and Sergeant Hogan lef<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span>t the main trench with ten men, and,
+crawling along the communicating trench, they established themselves at
+a point where the trench, which had been captured by the Germans that
+same morning, turned sharply at right angles. Leach and Hogan then
+advanced. The aim of the two men was to drive the Germans back along the
+narrow trench to the opposite end, from which there was no exit. Leach
+and Hogan commenced from their corner. Leach, being armed with a
+revolver, could reach his hand round the corner and shoot along the
+sections without exposing his body; whilst the German soldiers, armed
+only with rifles, could not fire without exposing part of their bodies.</p>
+
+<p>"While Leach was shooting along the section Hogan watched the parapet to
+ward off attacks from above, as the Germans might crawl over from the
+section attacked and shoot them down from above or take them in the
+rear. Leach had now to fire with his left hand. When the section had
+been cleared by the two men, they took their stand at the next corner,
+and repeated the manoeuvre. As they advanced, section by section, Hogan
+put his hat on the end of his rifle and raised it above the parapet, to
+indicate to his platoon how far progress had been made, so that his
+comrades would not fire at that part of the trench that had been
+retaken." This went on, corner after corner being captured, until the
+two men heard one of their comrades who had been made prisoner that
+morning cry out, as described above by Lieutenant Leach.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Lieutenant James Anson Otho Brooke</span>, 2nd Gordon Highlanders. This officer
+received the Victoria Cross for conspicuous bravery and great ability
+near Gheluvelt on 29th October, when he led two attacks on the German
+trenches under heavy rifle and machine-gun fire, and regained a lost
+trench at a very critical moment. By his marked coolness and alertness
+he prevented the enemy from breaking<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span> through our line<a name="FNanchor_76_76" id="FNanchor_76_76"></a><a href="#Footnote_76_76" class="fnanchor">[76]</a> at a time
+when a general counter-attack could not have been made. Lieutenant
+Brooke made the supreme sacrifice that day: he gave his life to save his
+fellows.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 736px;">
+<img src="images/p138.jpg" width="736" height="513" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h4>Diagram to illustrate Trench Warfare.</h4>
+
+
+<br /><br /><br /><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE CRISIS OF THE FIRST BATTLE OF YPRES.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap">O</span>n Saturday, 31st October, came the crisis of the fierce and
+long-continued struggle. Day by day the enemy's attacks had been growing
+stronger and stronger. Across the lines the British could hear the
+Germans singing patriotic songs, as though they were working themselves
+up to a berserk rage.<a name="FNanchor_77_77" id="FNanchor_77_77"></a><a href="#Footnote_77_77" class="fnanchor">[77]</a> An order taken from a prisoner showed that the
+Kaiser had ordered the British line to be smashed at all costs. "Before
+the sun was high on that morning," writes an American correspondent, "a
+British aviator volplaned down to his own lines with a wing damaged by
+shrapnel. He dropped from his seat pale and shaken. 'A close call?' they
+asked. 'It isn't that,' he replied; 'it's what I have seen&mdash;three corps,
+I tell you, against our First!' So he jerked out his story. He had seen
+the roads and ridges like ant-hills and ant-runs with men; he had seen
+new batteries going into position; he had seen, far away, the crawling
+gray serpents, which were still more German regiments going to their
+slaughter. 'And we're so thin from up there,' he said, 'and they're so
+many.'"<a name="FNanchor_78_78" id="FNanchor_78_78"></a><a href="#Footnote_78_78" class="fnanchor">[78]</a></p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 707px;">
+<img src="images/p140.jpg" width="707" height="470" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h3>The French and British Commanders in the Field&mdash;General
+Joffre and General Sir John French.</h3>
+
+<h4>(<i>By permission of The Sphere.</i>)</h4>
+
+<p>The little map on page <a href="#Page_131">131</a> will show you the British position against
+which the Germans were now about to hurl themselves in vast strength.
+You see that the 1st Division held the village of Gheluvelt, and lay to
+the right and left of the main road from Ypres to Menin. On the left of
+the 1st<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span> Division lay the 2nd Division, extending the line as far north
+as Zonnebeke. The South Wales Borderers, who were on the extreme left of
+the 1st Division, were posted in the sunken part of the road between
+Gheluvelt and Reutel. The 2nd Worcesters, who belonged to the 2nd
+Division, were stationed in the wood which you will see to the
+south-west of Zonnebeke. On the right of the 1st Division, continuing
+the line up to the canal from Ypres to the Lys, lay the 7th Division.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/p141.jpg" width="228" height="272" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>At daybreak on the 31st, von Beimling, with at least 100,000 Bavarians,
+attacked the centre of the British line. A heavy fire was directed
+against Gheluvelt, and when the way was thus prepared, the infantry
+dashed upon the place, but were repulsed. Again and again the Bavarians
+advanced, but nowhere could they make headway. The big guns reduced
+Gheluvelt to a heap of blazing ruins; but the British could not be
+shifted from them. The trenches of the Welsh were searched from end to
+end by German shells; but still they stuck to them. Every spot in front,
+and even the wood in the rear where the Worcesters were posted, was
+raked by the murderous German fire. But every time the enemy pushed
+forward they were beaten back.</p>
+
+<p>Having thus failed to pierce the British line at Gheluvelt, the
+Bavarians were ordered to fling themselves against the British to the
+south of the Menin-Ypres road&mdash;that is, against the 1st Queen's (Surrey)
+and the 2nd Royal Scots Fusiliers, the latter unit being the flank
+regiment of the 7th Division. Advancing in force, they got between the
+village of Gheluvelt and the Surreys on their left flank, and then, with
+their great numbers, were able to get round to the right flank of that
+regiment, which was almost surrounded and cut off. Only some seventy of
+the Surreys fought their way back into the woods in their rear. The
+British line was broken at last.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>What the Germans had now to do was to enlarge the breach. The retreat of
+the Surreys had laid open the flank of the Royal Scots Fusiliers, and
+the Bavarians tried to deal with them as they had dealt with the
+Surreys. Again they were successful, and the Scots were surrounded and
+cut off from their division. They would neither surrender nor give way,
+and only a remnant fought their way out, and followed the Surreys
+towards Ypres. Their brigadier, in describing the fighting, said, "I
+think it was perfectly splendid. Mind you, it was not a case of 'hands
+up,' or any nonsense of that sort; it was a fight to a finish. Why, even
+a German general came up to the colonel afterwards and congratulated
+him, and said he could not understand how his men had held out so long."
+The Royal Scots Fusiliers had suffered terribly. They had landed in
+Flanders over a thousand strong; they now numbered seventy men,
+commanded by a junior lieutenant.</p>
+
+<p>Thus the British line was successfully broken. The 1st Division could
+not maintain its ground, and as it retired the 1st Coldstreams were
+almost wiped out. Against the exposed flank of the 7th Division a strong
+infantry attack was now launched. It seemed as if nothing could stay the
+German advance, and that the British were bound to be overwhelmed with
+disaster. Enemy aeroplanes discovered Sir Douglas Haig's headquarters,
+and a shell burst in the house. Haig himself was at Hooge, on the
+Menin-Ypres road, at the time, and so escaped; but the general of the
+1st Division was wounded, and six of the staff officers were killed.</p>
+
+<p>A day's march away from Ypres is the ford where, two thousand years ago,
+C&aelig;sar was in dire peril of being overwhelmed by the Nervii.<a name="FNanchor_79_79" id="FNanchor_79_79"></a><a href="#Footnote_79_79" class="fnanchor">[79]</a> In that
+battle he snatched a shield from a soldier, and, plunging into the fray,
+rallied the Roman army, and turned defeat into victory. It was now Sir
+John French's part to play the part of C&aelig;sar. He jumped into his motor
+car and sped towards the 1st Division. He found Sir Douglas Haig riding
+up and down trying to learn what had happened, and to settle what was to
+be done. As commander-in-chief and general greeted each other,
+orderlies,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span> one after the other, rode up with the news that the British
+line was broken, that regiments were in retreat, that Gheluvelt had at
+last been taken, and that the Germans were advancing in overwhelming
+force. It was the most critical moment of the great battle.</p>
+
+<p>The 7th Division was now ordered to retreat, and this exposed the left
+flank of the French division on their right. It was under the command of
+General Moussy, who was struggling hard to keep his line intact. He had
+come to the assistance of the British at the very moment when all seemed
+lost, just as the French had come to the aid of the British at
+Inkerman<a name="FNanchor_80_80" id="FNanchor_80_80"></a><a href="#Footnote_80_80" class="fnanchor">[80]</a> sixty years before. He was now terribly assailed, and again
+and again it seemed that his line must be staved in. At one point the
+Germans nearly broke through, and without reinforcements they could not
+be held back. Immediately the general sent off a corporal of his escort
+to scour the country, and to bring up every man that he could lay hold
+of. The corporal dismounted the sixty-five men of the general's escort,
+and called on lorry drivers, motor men, servants, cooks, anybody and
+everybody he saw to join him. With this motley array, many of them
+unarmed, he hurried to the trenches, and in a few minutes his scratch
+force was making a bayonet charge, practically without bayonets. The
+Germans thought that reinforcements had arrived, and therefore retired.</p>
+
+<p>This incident will remind you of the turning-point in the Battle of
+Bannockburn,<a name="FNanchor_81_81" id="FNanchor_81_81"></a><a href="#Footnote_81_81" class="fnanchor">[81]</a> six hundred years before. While the English were
+struggling to break the Scottish line, they thought they saw a new army
+approaching. What they really saw was a band of camp followers and
+servants who had made banners of sheets and blankets tied to sticks and
+tent poles. They had formed themselves into ranks, and were now marching
+down a hill towards the battle. At this sight the English broke and
+fled. When General Moussy's corporal came up with his scratch regiment
+of 250 men the old incident of Bannockburn was repeated.</p>
+
+<p>The Germans were now not only pressing hard from the north of Gheluvelt
+to the canal, but were making headway<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span> against Allenby's cavalry, who
+were holding the whole line from Klein Zillebeke to the south of
+Messines.<a name="FNanchor_82_82" id="FNanchor_82_82"></a><a href="#Footnote_82_82" class="fnanchor">[82]</a> Allenby's sole reinforcement consisted of exhausted
+Indians who had been sent up from the Second Corps. You will learn later
+how at this juncture Sepoy Khudadad,<a name="FNanchor_83_83" id="FNanchor_83_83"></a><a href="#Footnote_83_83" class="fnanchor">[83]</a> of the 129th Baluchis,<a name="FNanchor_84_84" id="FNanchor_84_84"></a><a href="#Footnote_84_84" class="fnanchor">[84]</a> won
+the Victoria Cross for his magnificent steadfastness in working his gun
+till every man of his detachment had been killed.<a name="FNanchor_85_85" id="FNanchor_85_85"></a><a href="#Footnote_85_85" class="fnanchor">[85]</a></p>
+
+<p>So terrible was the pressure round Hollebeke that Kavanagh's cavalry,
+who had been on the Menin road behind the 1st Division, were now hurried
+south to hold the line at this point. Even with this assistance
+Allenby's men were almost at their last gasp. Two nearly fresh German
+corps were attacking them, and hours must elapse before other
+reinforcements could arrive.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 763px;">
+<img src="images/p144.jpg" width="763" height="501" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h4>The Scratch Force that saved de Moussy's Line.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>Photo, Daily Mirror.</i></h4>
+
+<p>Now came the most critical hour of this most critical battle. Between
+two and three o'clock on the 31st the whole issue of the campaign in the
+West trembled in the balance. Just when the outlook seemed darkest, and
+all hope of saving the day seemed to have vanished, an orderly galloped
+up to Sir John French with the startling news that the German advance
+had stopped. Then came another piece of good news: the 1st Division was
+re-forming its line, and Gheluvelt had been retaken! What had happened?
+I will compile my account from a narrative issued by the Worcestershire
+County Council:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Although the line of the 1st Division had been broken, the whole of it
+had not fallen back. The Surreys and the Scots had been practically
+wiped out, but the dauntless Welsh still stood firm. Posted in the
+hollow road to the east of Gheluvelt, where they were slightly sheltered
+from the German fire, the Welsh still held their ground, thus forming a
+pivot upon which, if reinforcements were forthcoming, the line could be
+re-formed and the position linked up.</p>
+
+<p>"Holding back by their fire the mass of Germans with whom they were
+still engaged, the Welsh were covering the flank of the 2nd Division and
+checking the German advance. If they could hold on and keep the flank
+covered until help<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span> arrived, the 1st Division could re-form and the gap
+could be filled up. The position was critical, and a very severe trial
+for the Welsh; but they belonged to a regiment which bore on its colours
+the word "Talavera,"<a name="FNanchor_86_86" id="FNanchor_86_86"></a><a href="#Footnote_86_86" class="fnanchor">[86]</a> and where, as here, the British line had been
+broken, but the steadiness of a single regiment had saved the day. The
+Welsh had been told to hold the post to the last. They had done so.</p>
+
+<p>"When von Beimling advanced in the morning, hurling on them attack after
+attack, the Welsh held the road against him. When the Germans surrounded
+the Surreys and drove off the Scots, still the Welsh held on, firing,
+steadily firing, keeping back the Bavarians. When the Germans carried
+Gheluvelt and the British line gave way, the Welsh remained firing and
+held their ground against all comers, so delaying the German advance.
+Now at last, when orders had been given to begin the retreat, the Welsh
+still remained where they had been originally stationed, just as if the
+line were still intact, and no retreat had been ordered. Could help be
+sent to them so as to enable them to reap the reward of their heroic
+constancy?</p>
+
+<p>"Stationed in a corner of a wood about a mile from Gheluvelt, towards
+Ypres, near the Menin-Ypres road, was a body of some 600 men, four
+companies of the 2nd battalion of a regiment that the Duke of Wellington
+once described in a letter as 'the best regiment in his army' (the
+Worcesters, whose famous and well-deserved motto is 'Firm'). To them
+now, more than a century later, was given the opportunity for Sir John
+French to say whether he concurred or not in Wellington's high opinion.
+They were ordered 'to advance without delay, and to deliver a
+counter-attack with the utmost vigour.'</p>
+
+<p>"No one who knew the regiment doubted for an instant that they would do
+it. Every one was doubtful whether they could do it with success. They
+were only four companies; the Germans were legion. But whether they were
+to be successful or unsuccessful, their plain duty was to attack the
+Germans, however many, with their handful of men, however few. The Welsh
+had to be supported; the Germans had to be repulsed. Everything depended
+on their advance.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"On receipt of his orders Major Hankey, who was in command of the
+battalion, sent Lieutenant Haskett Smith with six scouts to reconnoitre
+the ground, and cut any wire entanglements that would delay the advance.
+The A company, under Captain Wainman, was sent forward to occupy and
+hold a trench between the wood and the village. Not the least of the
+exploits of the Worcesters on that day was the advance of A company to
+occupy and hold this trench. It was in effect asking an English company
+to advance, and, as it proved, to advance successfully, against the
+whole German force at that point. The trench was occupied, and not
+merely occupied, but held.</p>
+
+<p>"Some 600 yards in front of the battalion was a small wood forming some
+sort of cover. Here B, C, and D companies deployed for the attack, in
+two lines. The Worcesters set out on their terrible task. For about half
+a mile they had to advance under a very heavy fire of shrapnel. Over
+part of the ground they could rush from one bit of cover to another, but
+at one place for about 200 yards there was no cover at all. Here they
+had not only the shrapnel on their front, but on their right flank the
+Bavarians pouring in a hail of bullets from rifles and machine guns. It
+looked as if no one could pass through that fire unhurt. The Germans
+were constantly bringing up reinforcements with fresh ammunition.</p>
+
+<p>"It appeared that the Worcesters were going to certain death. The
+appearance was not deceptive, for in crossing the 200 yards without
+cover the three companies had no fewer than 100 casualties. Even this
+did not cause the Worcesters to flinch. They pressed onward, reached the
+road, and formed up on the left of the Welsh. In front of them, at a
+distance of some 300 yards, was a small wood filled with Bavarians. On
+these the Worcesters opened fire with such success that the enemy
+gradually retreated.</p>
+
+<p>"But although the Worcesters had gained the road, supported the Welsh,
+and thus had enabled the 1st Division to re-form its line, their
+position was far from safe. Their right flank was open to the enemy,
+who, from the cover of the ruins of the village, was able, without much
+loss to himself, to pour in a continuous rifle fire. From time to time
+parties of Germans from the village got round the Worcesters' right
+flank. They became so troublesome that the Worcesters<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span> stormed the house
+nearest to their trench, and made it into a bastion for their defence,
+so that the German flank attacks ceased. The effect of this charge was
+to change the entire position. The Worcesters were now able to threaten
+the right flank of the Germans, who, on perceiving this, at once
+desisted from any further advance. Their offensive died away."</p>
+
+<p>The narrative then goes on to tell how those units of the 1st Division,
+which had retreated were brought back to the original line, how the
+cavalry cleared the Germans out of the woods, surprising and killing a
+good many of them, and how as it grew dark the Germans fell back. At
+last by 10 p.m. the British line as held on the morning of 31st October
+was re-formed. Thus a terrible disaster was averted by the cool courage
+and the devotion of the Welsh and the Worcesters. The crisis had passed;
+the fighting was not yet over, but the battle had been won.</p>
+
+<p>The Worcesters had lost heavily, but they had covered themselves with
+glory, and the whole army united to do them honour. A month later Sir
+John French paraded all that was left of the battalion that retook
+Gheluvelt, and told them that though they bore on their colours the
+names of many famous victories, they had added lustre to their former
+reputation by their splendid bravery that day.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Next day (1st November) French reinforcements were hurried up, but
+before they could arrive the Germans had made two attacks&mdash;the one
+against Klein Zillebeke, the other against Allenby's cavalry around
+Messines. The first attack was driven back, but the second was
+successful, and Hollebeke and Messines were both seized by the enemy.
+The Germans swarmed across the low ridges, and their artillery found gun
+positions from which Ypres and Messines could be shelled. The village
+was speedily levelled with the ground, and all attempts to retake the
+ruins failed. Allenby had in reserve four battalions from the Second
+Corps to the west of Messines, and he now called them into the firing
+line. Amongst them were the London Scottish, the first of all infantry
+Territorial regiments to go to the front. They were now about to undergo
+their baptism of fire.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The London Scottish in civil life are clerks, young lawyers, doctors,
+architects, engineers, and literary men. They are a kilted regiment,
+clad in sober gray with blue facings, and in times of peace are
+remarkable for their smart uniform and their excellent drill. They were
+now to prove that citizen soldiers in the hour of their country's need
+can fight as valiantly and bear themselves as heroically as their
+comrades of the regular army.</p>
+
+<p>The accounts of the fighting in which the London Scottish were engaged
+differ widely, but I think you will get a good idea of what actually
+happened from the following description by a dispatch rider:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"I was talking to some London Scottish; they had had a terrible
+time. They were only supposed to be in support, and had no
+machine guns with them, when news came of a highly critical
+situation, and they were led up to the trenches under shell and
+rifle fire over open ground&mdash;a thing very seldom undertaken even
+by Regulars. They made a perfect advance as if they were on
+parade, and then later on came an awful attack. The Germans came
+on in masses, with bands playing, and, as I heard later, the
+Kaiser in person looking on (from a safe distance); and the
+Scots mowed them down and down till their ammunition gave out,
+when they leaped out of the trenches and went for the enemy with
+the bayonet. They were driven back into the trenches by force of
+numbers, and a desperate fight took place. Their medical officer
+was actually bayoneted in front of their eyes while bending down
+attending to two wounded men. It was bright moonlight, and he
+had a white badge and red cross on his arm, and even a blue
+tunic on, and was, of course, without arms of any sort. The
+Germans behaved like inhuman fiends; every wounded man they
+bayoneted at once, and when the Scots saw this foul work they
+gave the order, 'No prisoners.' They drove the Germans back
+eventually, giving no quarter, and getting none."<a name="FNanchor_87_87" id="FNanchor_87_87"></a><a href="#Footnote_87_87" class="fnanchor">[87]</a></p></div>
+
+<p>While the London Scots were proving their mettle, the Germans broke
+through the line of the 1st Cavalry Division, and captured a village
+about 1&frac12; miles north of Messines, on the Ypres-Armenti&egrave;res road. Next
+day, however, this village was retaken, though Messines still remained
+in German hands. There was also heavy fighting that day at Le Gheir,
+south of Messines, and in the course of it Drummer Bent of the East
+Lancashires won the Victoria Cross,<a name="FNanchor_88_88" id="FNanchor_88_88"></a><a href="#Footnote_88_88" class="fnanchor">[88]</a> as you shall hear later.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 718px;">
+<img src="images/p150.jpg" width="718" height="491" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h3>The Charge of the London Scottish at Messines, November 1, 1914.</h3>
+
+<h4>(<i>From the picture by Dudley Tennant.</i>)</h4>
+
+<p>For five days afterwards the battle resolved itself into an artillery
+duel, and our weary men had a breathing space. Reserves were brought up
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span>
+from the Second Corps, and two Territorial battalions and two Yeomanry
+regiments were put into the firing line. On 6th November the Germans
+made a sudden attack on the Klein Zillebeke position, and drove in the
+French, who were holding the right towards the canal. This left the 4th
+Cavalry Brigade unsupported; but the Household Brigade,<a name="FNanchor_89_89" id="FNanchor_89_89"></a><a href="#Footnote_89_89" class="fnanchor">[89]</a> under
+General Kavanagh, came to the rescue, and the French were able to
+recapture their trenches. Once more, however, the French were driven
+back, and to stem the rush Kavanagh doubled a couple of dismounted
+squadrons across the road. There was a moment of wild confusion, in
+which British, French, and Germans were mingled together in the village
+street. When the confusion was at its height Major Dawnay of the 2nd
+Life Guards led his men to the charge, and the village was cleared with
+great loss to the enemy. Unhappily, Major Dawnay was killed by a
+shrapnel shell, but not until the British position was saved.</p>
+
+<p>You are accustomed to think of the 2nd Life Guards in all the glory of
+their peace uniform, in their steel helmets with horse-hair plumes,
+their gleaming breastplates, their white buckskin breeches and gloves,
+and their long knee-boots. Very different was the picture which they
+presented in the village street on that fierce day, their drab khaki
+uniforms splashed with mud and blood, their horses far in the rear, and
+they, on foot, lunging fiercely at the oncoming Germans with the
+bayonet. There is no pomp or glamour of gold lace, nodding plumes, and
+burnished steel on the modern battlefield.</p>
+
+<p>Kavanagh's Brigade stemmed the torrent and held its trenches far into
+the night, until the 4th Brigade had strengthened its position. Next
+morning (7th November) our men made a counter-attack; but though German
+trenches were brilliantly captured, they could not be retained. It was
+during this attack that Captain J. F. Vallentin of the South Staffords
+won the Victoria Cross.<a name="FNanchor_90_90" id="FNanchor_90_90"></a><a href="#Footnote_90_90" class="fnanchor">[90]</a></p>
+
+<p>Once more there was a lull. Nothing worthy of mention happened on the
+8th, 9th, and 10th, but on the 11th th<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span>e storm broke out again in all
+its fury.</p>
+
+<p>You will remember that at Waterloo, when the cannon of the advancing
+Prussians were heard in the distance, and Napoleon saw defeat staring
+him in the face, he staked all on a charge of his Old Guard&mdash;the Guard
+that "dies but never surrenders." Six thousand of these men, the very
+flower and pride of his army, were hurled at the long-tried British. As
+they rushed up the slope, the British Guards, who had been lying down
+behind the top of the ridge, sprang to their feet and poured a volley
+into the enemy. The advancing columns wavered, and our men, charging
+with the bayonet, thrust them down the hill in utter confusion.</p>
+
+<p>The Kaiser was now about to follow the example of Napoleon and make one
+mighty effort to snatch victory out of defeat by launching his famous
+Prussian Guards against the stubborn foe. The Prussian Guards are the
+very apple of the Kaiser's eye; they are all picked men, over six feet
+in height, of wonderful discipline and unquenchable courage, and they
+count it the highest honour that life holds to be selected from the
+ordinary regiments for service as the bodyguard of the Emperor. If
+living men could "hack their way through," these were the men to do it.</p>
+
+<p>True, the Guards had not yet covered themselves with glory. They had
+suffered heavily at Charleroi<a name="FNanchor_91_91" id="FNanchor_91_91"></a><a href="#Footnote_91_91" class="fnanchor">[91]</a> and Guise;<a name="FNanchor_92_92" id="FNanchor_92_92"></a><a href="#Footnote_92_92" class="fnanchor">[92]</a> they had been badly
+beaten in the marshes of the Gond,<a name="FNanchor_93_93" id="FNanchor_93_93"></a><a href="#Footnote_93_93" class="fnanchor">[93]</a> and had lost many of their
+numbers at Rheims;<a name="FNanchor_94_94" id="FNanchor_94_94"></a><a href="#Footnote_94_94" class="fnanchor">[94]</a> but now, under the eye of the Kaiser himself,
+they were to sweep all before them and succeed where their comrades of
+the line had failed. Thirteen battalions of them were brought up from
+the Arras district with great speed and secrecy, and on Wednesday, 11th
+November, they were thrust against the point of the salient to the north
+and south of the Ypres-Menin road. The day opened with the most furious
+artillery attack known up to that time. The British<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span> trenches were
+continuously assailed with lyddite<a name="FNanchor_95_95" id="FNanchor_95_95"></a><a href="#Footnote_95_95" class="fnanchor">[95]</a> and shrapnel; but our gallant men
+hung on, wondering how long they could exist in that tornado of spouting
+earth and flying shard.</p>
+
+<p>For eight hours the terrific cannonade continued. About seven in the
+evening, when the sky was dark and rain was falling, British aeroplanes
+appeared overhead and began to sweep the plain with their searchlights.
+In their glare our men saw to their amazement the Prussian Guards
+advancing towards their trenches with the high, prancing step of a
+Potsdam parade&mdash;the officers with their swords at the "Carry," and the
+lines of men as steady as a rock. On they marched, with flags flying and
+drums beating, but never a rifle snapped from the British trenches.
+Already the Guards felt the thrill of approaching victory; to them it
+seemed that the Allied line had been destroyed by the terrible
+cannonade. In a few short hours they would be in Ypres; a few days more
+and they would gaze across the narrow seas to the white cliffs of that
+hated land which they had sworn to subdue.</p>
+
+<p>They were eighty yards from the British trenches now, and their pace
+quickened. Suddenly they were caught in a whirlwind of fire; shrapnel
+hissed among them, machine guns clacked viciously, and French and
+British rifles spat death at them from front and flank. They went down
+in hundreds, but the gaps were filled up, and the line moved on
+unbroken. Battalions melted into companies, companies into platoons, and
+platoons into files, but still they were unchecked. Again and again they
+re-formed, only to see their ranks shattered once more; nevertheless
+their advance was not stayed.</p>
+
+<p>So fixed was their resolution and so strong was the force of their
+assault that the Allied line was broken in three places. Our first-line
+trenches were swamped with the gray flood, some of which poured into the
+tangle of woods behind, where a wild, desperate battle raged amidst the
+trees for two days. Furiously counter-attacked, and enfiladed by
+machine-gun fire, the Guards were finally driven back to the two short
+sections of trench which they had won. Even here they were not secure.
+The "Fighting Fifth"<a name="FNanchor_96_96" id="FNanchor_96_96"></a><a href="#Footnote_96_96" class="fnanchor">[96]</a> held a salient between them, and took merciless
+toll of them while fresh attacks were being prepared.</p>
+
+<p>On the hundredth day of the war the Prussian Guard came, it saw, it was
+conquered. At nightfall the larger part<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span> of it lay dead in the wood&mdash;in
+some places eight ranks deep. The mighty effort of the Kaiser had
+failed; the flower of his army had been flung away, yet Ypres was as far
+off as ever.</p>
+
+<p>On the 12th and the following days there were further assaults, during
+one of which Lieutenant Dimmer of the King's Royal Rifles won the
+Victoria Cross for heroic fighting, which will be detailed later.<a name="FNanchor_97_97" id="FNanchor_97_97"></a><a href="#Footnote_97_97" class="fnanchor">[97]</a>
+All the German efforts were fruitless, and on the 17th, when French
+reinforcements gave the sorely-tried British a respite, the enemy began
+to vent his baffled rage on the famous old Cloth Hall of Ypres. So far
+it had been spared in order that from its ancient walls the Kaiser might
+announce to the world that Belgium was his. Now that the Guard had
+failed, and Ypres still defied him, he spitefully ordered his artillery
+to batter down the historic building which seemed to mock at his
+discomfiture.</p>
+
+<p>The story of one other German failure must be told to round off this
+account of the First Battle of Ypres. While the Prussian Guard was
+making its vain effort, the left wing of the W&uuml;rtemberg army was
+attacking the extreme left of the salient between Zonnebeke and
+Bixschoote. This portion of the line was held by Zouaves, French
+Territorials, and cavalry. Against them was flung an overwhelming force
+of Germans, including the left wing of the W&uuml;rtemberg army. Around
+Bixschoote the fight raged with such fierceness that the place was
+choked with dead. Had it been captured the enemy would have carried
+Ypres from the north. The Zouaves, always famous as dashing fighters,
+excelled themselves in the defence of Bixschoote, and at no point of the
+Allied front did the enemy lose more heavily. For nearly a month the
+Zouaves held the pass until the weather broke and the high winds and
+snow blizzards of winter set in. So the storm of battle died away in a
+tempest of nature's making.</p>
+
+
+<br /><br /><br /><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE PRICE OF VICTORY AND THE PASSING OF A HERO.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap">I</span>n the old days a battle lasted a day or two at most; victory frequently
+came within a few hours, and couriers were speeding away with the news
+of victory or defeat before night had shrouded the stark bodies of the
+slain. But in this war battles have continued for weeks; one contest has
+merged into another, so that it is hard to say where one ends and
+another begins. The great series of fights which we call the Battle of
+Ypres began on 19th October, and did not end until 17th November; it
+lasted for thirty days!</p>
+
+<p>The First Battle of Ypres was not only remarkable for its long duration,
+but also for the mighty armies that were arrayed against each other.
+Never before in the history of the world have such huge forces struggled
+for victory. During the battles of the Seven Years' War the combatants
+on both sides did not exceed 120,000, and in the Napoleonic wars the
+opposing armies at no time reached a total of 450,000. At Waterloo there
+were but 170,000 engaged, and at Inkerman, in the Crimean War, there
+were not 90,000. Some 320,000 men fought at Gravelotte<a name="FNanchor_98_98" id="FNanchor_98_98"></a><a href="#Footnote_98_98" class="fnanchor">[98]</a> during the
+Franco-German War of 1870-71, and at Mukden, in the Russo-Japanese War
+of 1904-5, the forces engaged totalled about 510,000. These numbers sink
+into insignificance compared with the multitudes who fought in Artois
+and West Flanders during the thirty days of the Ypres battle. Germany
+alone had not less than a million men.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span></p><hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Great was the price of victory. Britain lost at least 40,000 men, the
+French and Belgians 70,000, and the Germans probably 250,000&mdash;that is,
+360,000 in all&mdash;a number far exceeding the total of the whole armies
+engaged in any single battle of modern history down to the close of the
+nineteenth century. Whole battalions of the British army
+disappeared&mdash;the 1st Coldstreams, the 2nd Royal Scots Fusiliers, the 2nd
+Wiltshires, and the 1st Camerons were practically wiped out. One
+regiment went into the campaign 1,100 strong, and came out with only 73.
+Another took 1,350 to Flanders, and had but 300 when the Battle of Ypres
+was won.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 702px;">
+<img src="images/p156.jpg" width="702" height="456" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h3>The Defeat of the Prussian Guard near Ypres on November
+11, 1914. (See page <a href="#Page_143">143</a>.)</h3>
+
+<h4>(<i>By permission of The Sphere.</i>)</h4>
+
+<p>You have already heard how the 7th Division was reduced to a shadow of
+its former strength. Sir Henry Rawlinson tells us that when the division
+was withdrawn to England to refit it was found that out of 400 officers
+who set out from England there were only 44 left, and out of 12,000 men
+only 2,336. One general, two brigadiers, nearly a dozen staff officers
+had fallen, and eighteen regiments and battalions had lost their
+colonels. Junior lieutenants frequently found themselves in command of a
+battalion, while a brigadier was left with one or two companies. History
+records no such tale of slaughter. More men fell in the Battle of Ypres
+than the North lost in the whole of the American Civil War.<a name="FNanchor_99_99" id="FNanchor_99_99"></a><a href="#Footnote_99_99" class="fnanchor">[99]</a></p>
+
+<p>Two striking features of this long series of contests must detain us for
+a moment. The first is the extraordinary valour of the boys and elderly
+men who formed a large part of the German levies. They charged in mass
+again and again, and went to death in droves. The second is the even
+more extraordinary defence which the British&mdash;never more than 150,000 in
+number&mdash;made against overwhelming odds. There have been instances of
+armies holding forces which outnumbered them four or five times for a
+single day; but the British resisted for weeks against forces five times
+as great. Around Ypres during the worst part of the fighting we had but
+three divisions and some cavalry to meet five army corps, three of them
+belonging to Germany's first line. For the best part of two days the 7th
+Division of 12,000 men held a front of eight miles against 120,000! In
+all the long fighting annals of Britain no such feat had ever been
+performed before.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The Allies merely held their lines, yet really they won a great victory,
+because they had achieved their object. They had defeated a turning
+movement and a piercing movement, and had blocked the German advance to
+the sea. Thereafter in the west the enemy was not free to move, save at
+the will of the Allies; he was besieged from the Vosges to the North
+Sea.</p>
+
+<p>The British played the lion's part in the great struggle; but without
+the splendid support of the French and the Belgians they could have
+achieved nothing. The regular regiments of the line proved themselves to
+be composed of the finest fighting material in the world; the cavalry,
+playing the part of infantry, on foot and in the trenches, were no less
+wonderful; and the gunners, though outmatched in numbers and weight of
+artillery, showed marvellous skill and tenacity; while the citizen
+soldiers, called from their peaceful pursuits to the unfamiliar work of
+war, displayed the spirit of veteran troops. The great struggle round
+Ypres was a soldiers' victory. There was little room for generalship;
+nevertheless Sir John French, by his coolness and doggedness, by the
+confidence with which he animated his men, and by the cheery good will
+with which he encouraged them, must be regarded as the real inspirer of
+victory.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>In the centre of Calcutta is the famous Maidan,<a name="FNanchor_100_100" id="FNanchor_100_100"></a><a href="#Footnote_100_100" class="fnanchor">[100]</a> or Esplanade, a
+great space of turf and trees and gardens, which is the special glory of
+the city. Here you will find monuments to the great soldiers and
+statesmen who have won and kept for us "the brightest jewel in the
+British crown." Perhaps the noblest of all these monuments is that which
+commemorates the martial fame of Lord Roberts of Kandahar.<a name="FNanchor_101_101" id="FNanchor_101_101"></a><a href="#Footnote_101_101" class="fnanchor">[101]</a>
+Frederick Sleigh Roberts was born at Cawnpore<a name="FNanchor_102_102" id="FNanchor_102_102"></a><a href="#Footnote_102_102" class="fnanchor">[102]</a> five years before
+Queen Victoria came to the throne. He was educated in England, but when
+his school days were over he returned to the land of his birth, and
+became an officer in the Indian army.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Hardly had he returned when that terrible uprising of the native
+soldiers which we call the Indian Mutiny began, and the first warfare
+which young Roberts knew was against the well-armed and well-trained
+sepoys<a name="FNanchor_103_103" id="FNanchor_103_103"></a><a href="#Footnote_103_103" class="fnanchor">[103]</a> who had broken their oath of loyalty to the Queen, and were
+striving to drive the British out of the peninsula.</p>
+
+<p>Some years ago, when I visited India, I went, as in duty bound, to
+Delhi,<a name="FNanchor_104_104" id="FNanchor_104_104"></a><a href="#Footnote_104_104" class="fnanchor">[104]</a> the present capital, and the great storm centre of fighting
+during the Mutiny. Memorials of that terrible time abound in Delhi.
+About a mile to the north of the city is the "Ridge," a low, narrow hill
+on which a band of Britons, the mere skeleton of an army, hungry,
+fever-stricken, "stormed at with shot and shell," held its own against
+an army of sepoys during the awful heat of an Indian summer.</p>
+
+<p>From the Flagstaff Tower in which the women and children took refuge
+during that dread time a road runs directly to the city, and on the
+right of it is a little garden in which stands a bronze statue to John
+Nicholson,<a name="FNanchor_105_105" id="FNanchor_105_105"></a><a href="#Footnote_105_105" class="fnanchor">[105]</a> the hero of the siege. Close by the Nicholson statue is
+the Kashmir Gate, preserved in its ruinous condition to recall the
+marvellous daring of the six Britons who blew it up, and thus opened a
+way for the British troops to enter the city. Roberts, as a young
+subaltern of twenty-five, saw Nicholson lying wounded and dying by the
+side of the road not far from this gate. Nicholson was the most
+distinguished of that group of young men who by almost superhuman
+devotion saved India for the Empire during the Mutiny. It was under the
+influence of such men as Nicholson&mdash;men of lofty ideals of duty, of iron
+resolution and unfaltering courage&mdash;and amidst scenes of the most
+glorious heroism, that Roberts began his military career. Nicholson was
+his type and model. When the Mutiny was at an end Roberts was a veteran
+of ability and experience, and he wore the Victoria Cross on his breast.</p>
+
+<p>For forty-one years he served India, taking part in all the important
+campaigns, and gradually rising in the servi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span>ce until, in 1885, he
+became Commander-in-Chief. He won great fame in the Afghanistan
+campaigns, and became the idol of the Indian army, to whom he was known
+as "Bobs." No Indian commander-in-chief has ever been so admired and
+loved by the troops under his command. He never strove for popularity,
+but he could not escape it. His men assayed him, and found him pure gold
+throughout.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/p160.jpg" width="166" height="266" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h4>Earl Roberts of Kandahar.</h4>
+
+<p>By no means was his life-work done when he left India. When disaster
+succeeded disaster during the early months of the Boer War, the nation
+looked to him as the one man who could pluck victory out of defeat. With
+his appearance on the veldt came the turn of the tide, and after his
+great march to Pretoria<a name="FNanchor_106_106" id="FNanchor_106_106"></a><a href="#Footnote_106_106" class="fnanchor">[106]</a> the issue of the contest was no longer in
+doubt. Full of years and honours, he might have retired from public
+life, conscious that he had served his country greatly, and that his
+fame was secure. But he ever "scorned delights and lived laborious
+days," and when he had long passed the allotted span he devoted himself
+to the task of trying to bring home to the British people the danger of
+allowing their young men to grow up unprepared for that great European
+war which he was convinced would come within a few short years. Alas! we
+did not heed him, and when the day of battle arrived it found us
+unprepared, and forced to improvise armies while strife was raging and
+the fate of the Empire was hanging in the balance.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Soon after the beginning of the great war which he had foreseen, Lord
+Roberts addressed the following message to the children of the Empire:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><h4>"CHILDREN OF THE EMPIRE:</h4>
+
+<p>"You have all heard of the war; you have all heard of the
+fighting forces sent from every part of the Empire to help the
+Mother Country. Why are we fighting? Because the British Empire
+does not break its promises, nor will it allow small nations to
+be bullied.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, the British Government promised, with all the Great Powers
+of Europe, including Germany, that no army should set foot on
+the territory of the little nation of Belgium without her leave;
+in other words, she 'guaranteed the neutrality of Belgium.'</p>
+
+<p>"Germany, however, was bent on war, and on dominating other
+nations. Britain did her best to keep the peace, but Germany
+(breaking her word) marched her armies into Belgium to try and
+conquer France.</p>
+
+<p>"Children of the Empire, this is why we are at war&mdash;to hold our
+promise, to help our friends, and to keep the Flag of Liberty
+flying, not only over our own Empire, but over the whole world.</p>
+
+<p>"God save our King and Empire."</p></div>
+
+<p>When Indian soldiers were summoned to help the Mother Country in her
+hour of need, Lord Roberts felt a great desire to go over to France in
+order to meet them face to face once more, to greet them in their own
+languages, and to inspire them with some of his own dauntless courage.
+"I must go and see the Indian soldiers," he said. "It is the most useful
+thing I can do at this moment." He arrived in France on Wednesday, 11th
+November, and next day he saw the men to whom he was bound by such
+strong ties. Everywhere they greeted him with admiration and affection.
+On Friday evening he was found to be suffering from chill; disease of
+the lungs set in, and the old warrior, now in his eighty-second year,
+had no strength to resist the attack. He gradually sank, and at 8 p.m.
+on Saturday, 14th November 1914, within sound of the guns thundering
+around Ypres, he died.</p>
+
+<p>Lord Roberts was a man of war from his youth up, and it was fitting that
+he should pass away on a battlefield, amidst the soldiers who adored
+him. Officers from every corps in the British and Indian armies, and
+representatives of the French army, escorted the coffin to the hall at
+St. Omer where the body was laid in state, and a simple but affecting
+funeral servic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span>e was held. The Prince of Wales<a name="FNanchor_107_107" id="FNanchor_107_107"></a><a href="#Footnote_107_107" class="fnanchor">[107]</a> was there, as well
+as Prince Alexander of Teck, and all the chiefs of the army who could be
+spared from their duties. By the head of the coffin stood Prince Pertab
+Singh,<a name="FNanchor_108_108" id="FNanchor_108_108"></a><a href="#Footnote_108_108" class="fnanchor">[108]</a> taking a last farewell of the warrior who was his old friend
+and ideal.<a name="FNanchor_109_109" id="FNanchor_109_109"></a><a href="#Footnote_109_109" class="fnanchor">[109]</a> The hymns, "Now the labourer's task is o'er," and "O
+God, our help," were sung, and it seemed quite natural that Christian,
+Hindu, and Mohammedan should all join in the service.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 713px;">
+<img src="images/p162.jpg" width="713" height="463" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h3>Funeral of Field-Marshal Lord Roberts: the Procession in
+the Rain, on the way to St. Paul's Cathedral, London.</h3>
+
+<h4>(<i>By permission of The Sphere.</i>)</h4>
+
+<p>"It was a gloomy day," says one who was present, "with frequent cold
+showers; but as they took the coffin out the sun shone forth
+brilliantly, drawing across a dark bank of cloud opposite a vivid and
+most perfect rainbow. An aeroplane was flying out of the cloud into the
+sunshine, and the trumpets of the French cavalry rang out triumphantly.
+Then the minute guns started booming; the coffin, draped in the Union
+Jack, was placed in a Red Cross car; and so the gallant little hero went
+home from the war.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought during the service of Lord Roberts, almost a boy, attending
+John Nicholson's funeral at Delhi, and of all the span of life between,
+and the link of simple courage and devotion to duty binding all the
+varied incidents of it together, and was glad of the privilege of having
+known him."</p>
+
+<p>Last scene of all to end this strange, eventful history. Beneath the
+dome of St. Paul's, the resting-place of Nelson and Wellington, amidst a
+vast throng of the great and good of our nation, and with a sorrowing
+people outside, the last words of prayer and hope were said; and when
+all was over, thousands of citizens passed reverently by his grave.</p>
+
+<p>"It is the most useful thing I can do at this moment:" this was the
+keynote of Lord Roberts's life&mdash;to be of use to his country. There is a
+lesson in these simple words for you and me. Lord Roberts was happy in
+his life; he would be happier still in his death were all his
+fellow-countrymen to ask with heart and voice, "What is the most useful
+thing I can do for my country now and hereafter?"</p>
+
+
+<br /><br /><br /><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII.</h2>
+
+<h3>TALES FROM THE TRENCHES.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap">T</span>he long struggle round Ypres was a series of combats in which
+everything depended on the courage and endurance of the rank and file
+and their regimental officers. Incidents abounded, and almost every man
+in the firing line had experiences worth relating. Before I give you
+some of these experiences, let me refer again to the extraordinary
+courage of the Germans in pressing on against our line to what, in many
+cases, must have been certain death. No doubt this was largely due to
+patriotism and to the iron discipline of the German army, but we have
+evidence that frequently the men were driven forward by the revolvers of
+their officers. "Eye-witness" gives us the following statement of a
+wounded German prisoner:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"On the 28th October my section received orders to go forward to the
+attack, and the officers warned us that if we gave way fire would be
+opened upon us from behind. This threat was carried into effect when the
+losses which we suffered compelled us to retire. Indeed, it was by a
+German bullet that I was wounded. Having fallen on the ground, I
+remained between the lines without food or care for two days, at the end
+of which time I dragged myself to a ruined house. During the whole of
+this time the German shells, which were short, were falling about my
+shelter. . . . Officers told us if we fell into the hands of the French
+we should be sent to the Foreign Legion,<a name="FNanchor_110_110" id="FNanchor_110_110"></a><a href="#Footnote_110_110" class="fnanchor">[110]</a> and certainly massacred by
+Moroccans."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span></p><hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>In the diary of a German soldier we find a very severe condemnation of
+his officers for their bad leadership. "Before noon," runs the diary,
+"we were sent out in a regular storm of bullets by order of the major.
+These gentlemen, the officers, send their men forward in the most
+ridiculous way. They themselves remain far behind safely under cover.
+Our leadership is really scandalous. Enormous losses on our side, partly
+from the fire of our own people, for our leaders neither know where the
+enemy lies nor where our own troops are, so that we are often fired on
+by our own men. It is a marvel to me that we have got on as far as we
+have done. Our captain fell, also all our section leaders and a large
+number of our men.</p>
+
+<p>"Moreover, no purpose was served by this advance, for we remained the
+rest of the day under cover, and could go neither forward nor back, nor
+even shoot. A trench which we had taken was not occupied by us, and the
+British naturally took it back at night. That was the sole result. Then
+when the enemy had again entrenched themselves, another attack was made,
+costing us many lives and fifty prisoners.</p>
+
+<p>"It is simply ridiculous this leadership. If only I had known before! My
+opinion of German officers has changed. An adjutant shouted to us from a
+trench far to the rear to cut down a hedge which was in front of us.
+Bullets were whistling round from in front and from behind. The
+gentleman himself, of course, remained behind. The 4th Company has now
+no leaders but a couple of non-commissioned officers. When will my turn
+come? I hope to goodness I shall get home again!</p>
+
+<p>"Still in the trenches. Shell and shrapnel burst without ceasing. In the
+evening a cup of rice and one-third of an apple per man. Let us hope
+peace will come soon. Such a war is really too awful. The English shoot
+like mad."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Now that I have shown you the Germans in an unfavourable light, let me
+tell you of an incident in which they appeared to advantage. Corporal J.
+Reardon of the 1st Grenadiers wrote home to his mother as follows: "The
+night our battalion got cut up the Germans shouted, 'Guards, fetch your
+wounded.' We did so, and they did not fire a shot. I think they were a
+crack regiment; anyhow they were jolly decent."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>You have already heard something of the courage and devotion of our
+young artillery officers, who frequently went far in advance of the guns
+to direct the fire of their batteries. Here is another story<a name="FNanchor_111_111" id="FNanchor_111_111"></a><a href="#Footnote_111_111" class="fnanchor">[111]</a> of
+similar heroism:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Early in the day our gunners had found it impossible to locate certain
+German guns which were fast rendering our trenches untenable. The
+country was so flat that there was no possible point of vantage from
+which the gunners could 'observe,' except the steeple of a church. But
+the Germans knew that as well as we did, so the church was being
+vigorously shelled, and already no less than twelve lyddite shells had
+been pitched into it.</p>
+
+<p>"It was the duty of Lieutenant Davidson to 'observe,' so he calmly went
+to the church, climbed the already tottering tower, and, seated on the
+top, proceeded to telephone his information to the battery. In
+consequence, German battery after German battery was silenced; the
+infantry, which at one time was in danger of extermination, was saved;
+and the position, in spite of an attack in overwhelming force by the
+enemy, was successfully held. The church was reduced to a scrap-heap,
+but still Davidson sat tight on the remnants of his tower. For seven
+solid hours, expecting death every moment, he calmly scanned the country
+and telephoned his reports.</p>
+
+<p>"At dark his task was done, and he came down to rejoin his battery. As
+he left the ruins a fall of timber in one of the burning houses lit up
+everything with a sudden glare. There was the crack of a rifle&mdash;the
+German trenches were only a few hundred yards away&mdash;and a bullet passed
+through the back of his neck and out through the mouth. But without
+hurrying his pace he walked to his battery, gave them his final
+information, and then said, 'I think I'd better go and find the field
+ambulance, for the beggars have drilled a hole in me that needs
+plugging.' And he walked half a mile to the nearest 'collecting point.'</p>
+
+<p>"In the infantry of the 14th Brigade men can talk of nobody else but
+'Davidson of the Gunners.' They themselves face death every hour of the
+day and night; they themselves do unrecorded deeds of heroism worthy of
+the 'V.C.'; but with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span> one voice they declare, 'Davidson is the real
+thing. If he doesn't get the V.C.&mdash;well, nobody deserves it.'"</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>In telling you stories from the battlefield I always try to include one
+or more which show you the zeal, skill, and devotion of those whose duty
+it is not to take but to save life. Here is the story of a French doctor
+who tended the wounded during the bombardment of Ypres.</p>
+
+<p>For four days, with the help of volunteer assistants, he cared for
+fifty-four German wounded, and the hospital had been frequently struck
+by shells, one of them intended to set it on fire. The supply of bread
+was failing, but the doctor and the nurses shared their portion with
+their patients. The doctor was urged to quit this dangerous post, but he
+said, "The mission of France is to elevate the Germans to our own level.
+So I shall remain here and continue to look after wounded Germans,
+showing them that a French doctor laughs at their shells, and only knows
+his duty." Unhappily this heroic man was killed by a shell on 13th or
+14th November. The surviving wounded, in the sole charge of two nuns,
+were then removed to a safer place.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Soldiers' letters to their friends at home are full of accounts of the
+fierce fighting about Ypres. Corporal G. Stuart of the Camerons, one of
+the regiments which was nearly wiped out, thus describes how he was made
+a prisoner by the Prussian Guard, and how he escaped:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"My regiment, or what was once a regiment, was holding a part of the
+trenches outside Ypres, and about half-past five in the morning the
+enemy's guns opened an awful fire on our trenches, and continued till
+about nine o'clock.</p>
+
+<p>"To make matters worse, there was a very heavy mist on, and we could
+hardly see a yard in front. About this time the mist cleared up, and
+there, about 200 yards in front, were the Germans&mdash;the famous Prussian
+Guards&mdash;advancing on us, a solid mass of men.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 734px;">
+<img src="images/p168.jpg" width="734" height="455" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h3>How the Breton Marines held Dixmude. (See page <a href="#Page_96">96</a>.)</h3>
+
+<h4>(<i>From the picture by Paul Thiriat. By permission of The Sphere.</i>)</h4>
+
+<p>"We immediately opened fire on them; but, rapid as it was, it was
+impossible to stop them. They managed to get right through on our right.
+Then the next thing I saw was that I was properly surrounded, with no
+earthly chance of escape, so I was made a prisoner. Well, what do you
+think<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span> the Huns did? There would be about a dozen of us, I think, made
+to advance in front of them, to get shot at by our own people, who had
+retired to take up another position. Any man who made the least sign of
+resenting was immediately shot, and not yet being tired of life, I went,
+thinking I might have a possible chance of escape.</p>
+
+<p>"We advanced a few hundred yards, when they halted, and this time they
+made us put on their packs. Anyhow we had to advance again. This time we
+came under our own artillery fire, and I don't know yet how I was not
+blown to pieces. Really it makes my blood creep every time I think of
+it.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, we had to lie down, and I just turned to speak to a chum, when I
+got one right through the neck. I rolled up in a heap, but came to
+myself a few minutes after, and managed to make my way to a farmhouse,
+where I found the Germans were dressing their wounded.</p>
+
+<p>"I asked one of them to put my bandage on; but instead they made me go
+and look for 'Vater, vater.' I looked around for the 'vater,' but
+finding none, I went round to the other side of the house, and from here
+could see our guns just about 300 yards off. Now comes my chance. I had
+a good look round to see if everything was clear, so I dropped the jug I
+was to carry the 'vater' in, and 'hopped' it. Well, if the time was
+taken for that run, I bet a champion sprint winner would not have a
+look-in."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>"I shall never forget the first night attack," writes Bombardier N.
+Tully of the R.F.A. "We had many guns in position&mdash;apparently more than
+the Kaiser's hordes bargained for. They came on out of their trenches
+shouting, 'Hoch! hoch! hoch!' but a few minutes afterwards they were
+screaming and cursing. Our shrapnel was mowing them down wholesale. . .
+. We gave them a bit of old England that night; the din of the guns and
+rifles was indescribable. We had a few spasmodic attacks the next few
+nights, but they gave me the impression that they were half-hearted and
+discouraged. I think it is the enemy who is fighting an uphill battle
+now. Our fellows are full of confidence in the final result.</p>
+
+<p>"I am awfully glad I am British. It does one good to see how cheerful
+our boys are, no matter how bad the weather; but, like me, I am sure
+they will long for the slaughter to cease, and to return to the best bit
+of land under the sun."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>"It is the shell fire," wrote a correspondent, "which has made the
+Battle of Ypres a test of endurance such as no army has experienced
+before. Officers and men say that it has been ten times worse than on
+the Aisne. It has been persistent, and it has been deadly. Day and night
+there has been a succession of 'Oompahs,' 'Oompees,' 'Bowlers,' and
+'Pipsqueaks'&mdash;'Oompahs' being the big shells, 'Oompees' the smaller
+ones, 'Bowlers' the projectiles thrown by trench mortars,<a name="FNanchor_112_112" id="FNanchor_112_112"></a><a href="#Footnote_112_112" class="fnanchor">[112]</a> and
+'Pipsqueaks' shrapnel. Atkins has a name for them all. The soil around
+Ypres is not a holding soil, but shifty and difficult to trench&mdash;unlike
+that on the Aisne&mdash;and constantly the trenches were being blown in by
+shells."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>A private in the Honourable Artillery Corps tells an amusing story. "The
+first time we manned the front trenches," he says, "we had just got
+in&mdash;it was, of course, pitch dark&mdash;and we were peering cautiously about
+to see where we were. There were a few weird noises and strange lights,
+and I moved towards our corporal to ask him something, when suddenly a
+wild, unearthly wail went up apparently at my very feet. My blood ran
+cold, and I grasped him by the hand. 'What was that?' I cried. 'You're
+standing on a cat, I think,' he replied. And, indeed, I was! What it was
+doing there I don't know, but it remained with us off and on all day.</p>
+
+<p>"Later, when it was dark, there was a German attack on our left. We were
+ordered to man our trench, and then suddenly the order came along,
+'Sights at zero,<a name="FNanchor_113_113" id="FNanchor_113_113"></a><a href="#Footnote_113_113" class="fnanchor">[113]</a> and fire low.' We waited, quivering with
+excitement, when all at once I saw something feeling its way cautiously
+over the trench in front of me. I sprang up to bayonet whatever came. It
+was not only a cat, but the same old cat! Twice it had pulled my leg in
+twenty-four hours."</p>
+
+
+<br /><br /><br /><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>MORE TALES FROM THE TRENCHES.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap">A</span> private of the London Scottish thus describes his experiences during
+the fighting at Messines on Halloween<a name="FNanchor_114_114" id="FNanchor_114_114"></a><a href="#Footnote_114_114" class="fnanchor">[114]</a> and the following day:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"We roused out at 4 a.m., and spent the morning wandering about from
+wood to wood, being followed by aeroplanes&mdash;beastly things. Finally, we
+entered a village, and a spy in a windmill gave them the range, and we
+had our first shells&mdash;horrible 'coal boxes,' and then shrapnel. We lost
+five men wounded there; then we went on, and finally extended to open
+order, and the battalion attacked up a valley, and we had to lie in a
+gutter about two feet deep along a road with poplars. There we stuck for
+two and a half hours, getting shelled all the time. It was dreadful. The
+big 'coal boxes' kept shaking the ground and covering us with dirt. I
+got a bit of shrapnel through my pack, and had my things spoilt, but
+wasn't touched.</p>
+
+<p>"Then we had to advance across a field about a quarter-mile under fire,
+and get into a deserted trench. There we stopped till dark, still being
+shelled, and hearing the regiment snapping away in the distance. At dusk
+we made another trench, and seven of us went into it. There we had a
+fine time&mdash;moonlight, and Germans only 200 yards off. We could spot them
+through the glasses, and made very good practice; some of them crept
+down a hedge to twenty yards, but we did them in. You could hear them
+all talking; and twice they came on in force, but we beat them off, and
+they left any amount on the ground.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Finally, at 12.45, they came on five or six deep, singing their
+national anthem, and walking quite slowly. Not liking German music, we
+gave them rapid fire; but they were too many. At last the cavalry had to
+hop it on both sides of us, and we ran like hares for our main trench;
+there we were thirty-two, and had the Germans in front, left, and rear
+five or six deep. There were thousands of them, all creeping up, and
+bullets everywhere. We all thought it was U P. I even took off my
+overcoat so as to be freer for the bayonet.</p>
+
+<p>"Then they lit a farm, and the black smoke from the wet thatch blew
+across our front. They were only fifty yards away, still creeping; so we
+dashed out to the right, and all got through except six. Then we got
+separated, and nine of us, including our lieutenant, had to wander
+round, with one shot through the back, looking for the regiment or
+British troops. We kept running into shell fire and rifle fire, but
+finally got to a village, and found some officers at 4.45, very tired;
+there we reported, and went to join a cavalry regiment about two miles
+off. We had only had one biscuit and jam since the previous breakfast,
+except some lozenges. Well, for breakfast we had to attack the same
+village we had been driven out of the day before. It was most
+exciting&mdash;shells and bullets everywhere.</p>
+
+<p>"Then we got mixed up with the Germans, and got the order to clear the
+houses with the bayonet. That was great sport; no shells, and only
+scrapping in a decent sort of way. We took four prisoners and scuppered
+the rest of them, about 200; then we were just examining the slain for
+pistols and other handy little souvenirs, when the shrapnel started
+again all among us. It was very hot, and we had to hop the twig behind a
+big bank; we were all laughing and joking. . . . One bullet turned my
+bonnet round on my head, and I sat down in the mud, and I got one
+through my kilt.</p>
+
+<p>"Finally, they came behind one of our trenches in kilts, and said,
+'Schotlant for effer and London Schottish;' but a volley put an end to
+that. At last the French arrived in force, and we had a stand easy, and
+were sent back for a rest. I am longing for another dig at them; it is
+the finest excitement going. One thing we have done&mdash;no more sneering at
+'Terriers' out here by the Tommies; they are all very proud of us now,
+and somehow we feel different now that we have been through the hoop."</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 688px;">
+<img src="images/p172.jpg" width="688" height="457" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h3>A Pleasant Scene in the Grand Place at Arras.</h3>
+
+<h4>(<i>From the picture by D. Macpherson. By permission of The Sphere.</i>)<br />
+
+A correspondent says: "In the early afternoon I saw in the huge Grand
+Place at Arras (one of the relics of the long occupation by the Spanish)
+the prettiest of scenes. A squadron of French dragoons had halted there,
+and the men had dismounted. The long row of horses had each a new
+master, for the dragoons had put children into the saddle, and each
+child had on its head a dragoon's casque."</h4>
+
+<p>The following extract is from the diary of a subaltern in the London
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span>
+Scottish: "I have succeeded in getting hold of a motor 'bus to go for
+supplies. It is a London 'General.' There are dozens of them here, and
+it seems difficult to realize that we are so far away when we see the
+usual advertisements around us....</p>
+
+<p>"It is a funny thing, but a fact, that our fellows bear pain much better
+than the Germans. To-day I had a small bugler of a British battalion
+with a shocking shoulder wound, who sat there simply hanging on to
+himself, and not uttering a sound; while a tremendous German near by,
+with a bullet wound in his hand, sat nursing himself, weeping at
+frequent intervals, and making no end of a row."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>In the defeat of the Prussian Guard on 11th November the Black Watch
+played a splendid part, and pursued the enemy for over a mile. A <i>Daily
+Chronicle</i> correspondent says: "It was only when a batch of wounded and
+prisoners of the Prussian Guard arrived at &mdash;&mdash; that our fellows
+actually realized the kind of men they have been fighting during the
+last few days. Huge fellows they are, all over six feet in height, one
+of them nearing seven&mdash;an exceptional giant, of course, but still not
+looking so very big among his fellows. When one realizes that this
+magnificent regiment has now been severely handled by our troops for the
+third time, and that they are looked upon as the flower of the German
+army, then one also realizes just what a magnificent performance our own
+men must have put up.</p>
+
+<p>"After submitting for over eight hours to a terrible shell fire of both
+lyddite and shrapnel, our men, as may well be imagined, were getting
+very tired, and it was next to impossible to send relief to our advanced
+trenches until after dusk. The Germans, anticipating the condition of
+things, and realizing that it was now or never, massed in force their
+Prussian Guards and some other forces, and drove our troops back through
+sheer weight of numbers.</p>
+
+<p>"Back they went, contesting stubbornly every trench as they vacated it.
+When within about sixty yards of where our artillery was hidden, our own
+men, acting under orders, suddenly split their line and dispersed on
+either side, leaving a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span> huge gap&mdash;the break in the British line which
+the enemy had been trying to make for weeks. Into this break came the
+Prussian Guard, wildly shouting and cheering&mdash;into the jaws of death
+came the finest of the Kaiser's troops. They had advanced within fifty
+yards of the muzzles of our field guns when they belched forth fire at
+point-blank range, while our Maxims fired into the 'brown' from either
+side. Imagine those shells tearing their whistling and shrieking way
+through masses of men who a moment before were shouting in gleeful
+confidence of victory already won.</p>
+
+<p>"Not even the Prussian Guard could stand up to a terror like this. They
+broke and wavered and fled! But they had penetrated to within a few
+yards of our artillery. They turned back in headlong flight&mdash;a flight
+which was aided by a savage charge made by the Black Watch. The whole
+thing was beautifully timed by both artillery and infantry alike. Not
+only were the Germans driven back over the trenches, which but a short
+time ago they had taken from our men, but they were pursued by the
+Highlanders for over a mile beyond. The net result was that the enemy
+lost over 1,000 men killed and some 3,000 men wounded, as well as their
+own advanced trenches."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The following soldiers were awarded the Victoria Cross for deeds of
+valour done during the period from 31st October to 30th November 1914:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Sepoy Khudadad</span>, 129th Duke of Connaught's Own Baluchis. Sepoy Khudadad
+had the signal honour of being the first Indian to win and wear the
+Victoria Cross, which, prior to this war, was only conferred on
+British-born soldiers. On 31st October, at Hollebeke, Sepoy Khudadad
+showed extraordinary courage and steadfastness. Though the white officer
+in charge of his detachment had been shot down and the other Maxim in
+the trench had been put out of action, Khudadad remained working his gun
+until all his five comrades had been killed, and he himself was badly
+wounded. The King in person pinned the decoration on the gallant Sepoy's
+breast during his visit to the front on December 3, 1914.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 718px;">
+<img src="images/p176.jpg" width="718" height="454" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h3>How Drummer Bent saved a Wounded Comrade.</h3>
+
+<h4>(<i>From the picture by S. Begg. By permission of The Illustrated London News.</i>)</h4>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Drummer Spencer John Bent</span>, 1st Battalion, East Lancashire Regiment. On
+the night of the 1st-2nd November, near Le<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span> Gheir,<a name="FNanchor_115_115" id="FNanchor_115_115"></a><a href="#Footnote_115_115" class="fnanchor">[115]</a> the officer,
+sergeant, and section commander of this hero's platoon were struck down,
+and the unit was without a leader. Drummer Bent at once took command,
+and with great presence of mind and coolness succeeded in holding the
+position. He had previously distinguished himself on the 22nd, and again
+on the 24th October, by bringing up ammunition under a heavy shell and
+rifle fire. Again, on the 3rd November, he went out and brought into
+cover several wounded men who were lying exposed in the open. He rescued
+one of his comrades by hooking his feet under the wounded man's arms and
+by dragging him in this manner for twenty-five yards to the shelter of a
+trench.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Captain John Franks Vallentin</span>, 1st South Staffordshire Regiment. On 7th
+November, at Zillebeke, Captain Vallentin very gallantly led an attack
+against the Germans, but while doing so was struck down. He struggled to
+his feet, and tried to press on, but was immediately killed. His men
+carried the trenches, and this was due in great measure to the
+confidence with which their captain's repeated acts of bravery and
+ability had inspired them.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Lieutenant Walter Lorrain Brodie</span>, 2nd Battalion, the Highland Light
+Infantry. On the night of 11th November Lieutenant Brodie, who was in
+charge of a machine-gun section, moved up to the trenches near
+Becelaere<a name="FNanchor_116_116" id="FNanchor_116_116"></a><a href="#Footnote_116_116" class="fnanchor">[116]</a> to relieve a unit of another regiment. When darkness
+fell, and the men on guard had been posted, the remainder prepared to
+take what rest they could. Lieutenant Brodie and several men were
+occupying a section of the trench which formed an angle with the other
+sections. All was quiet, when the alarm was given, and the enemy swooped
+down on the trench and managed to capture a part of it. They then made a
+rush towards the section in which Lieutenant Brodie was stationed, in
+the hope of capturing his machine gun. At once the lieutenant led his
+men against the Germans, and there was a furious fight in the trench,
+during which he bayoneted several of the enemy. So gallantly did his men
+second his efforts that eighty Germans were killed and fifty-one taken
+prisoners. There is no doubt that Lieutenant Brodie, by his prompt and
+inspiring courage, relieved a very dangerous situation. Subsequently he
+was promoted captain.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Lieutenant John Henry Stephen Dimmer</span>, 2nd Battalion,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span> the King's Royal
+Rifle Corps. As a boy Lieutenant Dimmer won a London County Council
+Scholarship, and was transferred to Rutlish School. Always fond of
+soldiering, he started a Boys' Brigade at Wimbledon, and brought it to a
+high state of efficiency. At fifteen he left school, and entered the
+office of a civil engineer; but the drums called him, and he offered
+himself as a recruit for the regular army. His inches were, however,
+against him; so he joined the 7th Battalion of the King's Royal Rifles
+(Militia). In his first year he was promoted sergeant, and soon after
+was transferred as a private to the regular battalion, which saw service
+in South Africa. In 1903 he was promoted corporal, and his military
+sketching received high praise from General Lyttelton and General Ian
+Hamilton.<a name="FNanchor_117_117" id="FNanchor_117_117"></a><a href="#Footnote_117_117" class="fnanchor">[117]</a> In 1905 he received another step for his services as
+scout and signaller in the Mounted Infantry, and in the following year
+was sent to Belgium and Germany to study army methods. Later on he was
+employed abroad as an intelligence officer, and in 1908 received a
+commission as second lieutenant.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/p178.jpg" width="123" height="308" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h4>Major J. H. S. Dimmer, V.C.</h4>
+
+<p>In a letter to his mother Lieutenant Dimmer wrote a brief account of how
+he won the V.C. on November 12, 1914, at Klein Zillebeke. He says: "Here
+is how it all happened. On Thursday last, at about one o'clock, we were
+suddenly attacked by the Prussian Guards. They shelled us unmercifully,
+and poured in a perfect hail of bullets at a range of about 100 yards. I
+got my Maxims going, but they smashed one up almost immediately, and
+then turned all their attention to the gun I was with, and succeeded in
+smashing that too; but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span> before they completed the job I had been twice
+wounded, and was finally knocked out with the gun. My face is spattered
+with pieces of my gun and pieces of shell, and I have a bullet in my
+face and four small holes in my right shoulder. It made rather a nasty
+mess of me at first, but now that I am washed and my wounds dressed I
+look quite right."</p>
+
+<p>Lieutenant Dimmer's commanding officer declared that by holding on to
+his gun after he had been shot five times, he saved the whole battalion,
+if not the whole line, on at least three occasions.</p>
+
+<p>I have told you Lieutenant Dimmer's story thus fully because it shows
+very clearly how a man of grit and ability and devotion can win his way
+by sheer merit in the British army. In the German army, as you know,
+only men of a certain social class are appointed as officers. Major
+Dimmer (to which rank he was subsequently promoted) is only one of
+thousands who have risen from the ranks to distinction in the service of
+Britain. The story of his career and of how he won the highest award of
+valour sets a fine example to all young soldiers.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Bandsman Thomas Edward Rendle</span>, 1st Battalion, the Duke of Cornwall's
+Light Infantry. In time of war bandsmen serve as stretcher-bearers, and
+their duty is to convey the wounded from the field of battle to the
+dressing stations and ambulances. How Bandsman Rendle won the Victoria
+Cross on 20th November, at a village about a mile and a half west of
+Messines, is best told in the words of an officer of the Cornwalls:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Two shells pitched into the trench only about thirty yards from me, and
+blew ten men to pieces. They also blew down the front part of the
+trench, and the earth filled up the dug-out part. This was very
+annoying, as it divided our trench into two parts, and made it
+impossible to get from one half to the other without running across this
+open piece of ground, about five or six yards wide. Of course, the
+Germans realized this at once, and put up a machine gun to cover this
+space, so that any one who crossed it carried his life very much in his
+hands.</p>
+
+<p>"Lieutenant Colebrook was shot that afternoon, in that part of the
+trench which had no communications. He asked for me, so I went along to
+him. This meant that I had to cross the gap, but luckily they failed to
+hit me. We decided it <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span>was quite impossible to move him until dark, as
+there was no way of getting him across the gap; so I sat down to chat
+with him, when suddenly the Germans started again with their shells.</p>
+
+<p>"The first two went over the trench, but the next one pitched just in
+front and buried me with mud. This I thought was a bit too much, so I
+said that Colebrook must be got away. I was called away to the other end
+of the trench for a few minutes. In the meantime Bandsman Rendle, one of
+the stretcher-bearers, lay on his stomach in the gap under fire, and
+tried to clear the earth out of the original trench to get a safe path
+for Lieutenant Colebrook to pass. But another shell came that decided
+him to risk it. So he took Colebrooke on his back, and wormed his way
+across the open space on his stomach, getting him to the right half of
+the trench, where it was all plain sailing, and from which Colebrook was
+sent back to battalion headquarters."</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Naik<a name="FNanchor_118_118" id="FNanchor_118_118"></a><a href="#Footnote_118_118" class="fnanchor">[118]</a> Darwan Sing Neg&iacute;</span>, 1st Battalion, 39th Garhwal Rifles. Less
+than a month after Sepoy Khudadad won the Victoria Cross, another Indian
+soldier proved himself so supremely brave that the highest award of
+valour was given to him. On the night of the 23rd-24th November, near
+Festubert, the Garhwal Rifles were engaged in retaking trenches and
+clearing the enemy out of them. Naik Darwan Sing Neg&iacute; greatly
+distinguished himself in this work. He was one of the first to push
+round each successive traverse, and though wounded in two places in the
+head and also in the arm, he fought on in spite of severe fire from
+bombs and rifles at the closest range. Great was the naik's delight when
+his Majesty himself pinned the cross to his breast.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Lieutenant Frank Alexander de Pass</span>, 34th Prince Albert Victor's Own
+Poona Horse. Near Festubert, on 24th November, Lieutenant de Pass
+entered a German sap<a name="FNanchor_119_119" id="FNanchor_119_119"></a><a href="#Footnote_119_119" class="fnanchor">[119]</a> and destroyed a traverse in the face of the
+enemy's bombs. Subsequently he rescued under heavy fire a wounded man
+who was lying exposed in the open. Unhappily this gallant officer lost
+his life on the same day in a second attempt to capture the sap, which
+had been reoccupied by the enemy.</p>
+
+
+<br /><br /><br /><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/p181.jpg" width="404" height="305" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h4>The German Colonies are marked in solid black.</h4>
+
+
+<br />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX.</h2>
+
+<h3>GERMANY'S COLONIAL EMPIRE.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap">A</span>bout the year 1880 the rulers of Germany began to think of founding a
+colonial empire. There were many reasons why it seemed to them advisable
+that they should extend their dominion overseas. Germany had become a
+great manufacturing nation, and she needed new markets in which to sell
+her surplus goods, and tropical lands which would give her large and
+cheap supplies of the raw material for making them. Further, many of her
+people, anxious to better themselves, were emigrating to America,<a name="FNanchor_120_120" id="FNanchor_120_120"></a><a href="#Footnote_120_120" class="fnanchor">[120]</a>
+where they were lost to Germany. It was thought that, had she possessed
+colonies, Germans would have settled in them instead of going to
+America, and thus would not have reduced the strength of the Fatherland.
+Many patriotic Germans wished to see their country a great naval power,
+and they knew that colonies could neither be obtained nor maintained
+without a big navy. They, therefore, were in favour of colonial
+expansion, because<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span> it would force Germany to become powerful on the
+seas.</p>
+
+<p>About this time the attention of the world was specially directed to
+Africa. The travels of Livingstone<a name="FNanchor_121_121" id="FNanchor_121_121"></a><a href="#Footnote_121_121" class="fnanchor">[121]</a> and Stanley<a name="FNanchor_122_122" id="FNanchor_122_122"></a><a href="#Footnote_122_122" class="fnanchor">[122]</a> and other
+explorers, British, French, German, and Italian, were revealing the
+"Dark Continent" as a new sphere for the expansion of the European
+Powers. Almost immediately they began to "peg out their claims." A
+number of clever writers in Germany began to point out to their
+fellow-countrymen that unless they set up a colonial empire they would
+be left behind in the race. Before long they had persuaded the people
+that overseas trade, ships of war, and colonies were the three things
+that Germany must provide herself with, or be content to continue as a
+second-rate Power. Most of the writers thought that colonies could be
+obtained in a lawful way, but a historian<a name="FNanchor_123_123" id="FNanchor_123_123"></a><a href="#Footnote_123_123" class="fnanchor">[123]</a> who had great influence
+on the ruling classes taught openly that the best method of winning a
+colonial empire was to defeat and despoil Britain. This teaching suited
+the German mind exactly, and gradually it gained such ground that it
+became almost a national policy.</p>
+
+<p>In 1886 what is known as the "great scramble for Africa" began, and
+Germany played her part in it. In Eastern Africa her explorers had made
+many important discoveries, and as far back as 1860 one of them said, "I
+am persuaded that in a short time a colony established in East Africa
+would be most successful, and after two or three years would become
+self-supporting." Not, however, until 1884 was an attempt made to set up
+a German colony in this part of the world. In that year three German
+political agents, in the disguise of needy travellers, crossed over from
+Zanzibar to the mainland, and began making treaties by which the local
+chiefs signed away their country.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Some of these treaties were not worth the paper they were written on,
+for the chiefs were vassals of the Sultan of Zanzibar, who was under
+British protection. Nevertheless, a German fleet was sent to Zanzibar,
+and the Sultan was forced, at a price of &pound;200,000, to yield up his
+territory on the mainland from Cape Delgado to a line drawn from the
+mouth of the Umbe River to the Victoria Nyanza. The British afterwards
+proclaimed a protectorate over the remainder of the Sultan's African
+dominions.</p>
+
+<p>At the beginning of the present war German East Africa covered an area
+of 364,000 square miles&mdash;that is, it was almost double the size of
+Germany, and had an estimated population of over 7&frac12; millions, the whites
+numbering a little over 5,000. From the low-lying coast lands it rises
+to lofty and irregular mountains, which form the outer buttress of a
+plateau some 3,000 or 4,000 feet in height. From the middle of this
+plateau streams are thrown off north to the Victoria Nyanza,<a name="FNanchor_124_124" id="FNanchor_124_124"></a><a href="#Footnote_124_124" class="fnanchor">[124]</a> west
+to Lake Tanganyika,<a name="FNanchor_125_125" id="FNanchor_125_125"></a><a href="#Footnote_125_125" class="fnanchor">[125]</a> and east to the Indian Ocean. Parts of this
+plateau are mere desert, waterless and scrub-covered, with loose
+shingle, dried-up water-courses, and bare, fantastic rocks. Other parts
+are well watered and fertile, and in these favourable regions the
+Germans have developed agriculture greatly. Prior to the war, rubber,
+copal, bark, fibre, teak, mahogany, coffee, tobacco, sugar cane, cotton,
+etc., were largely grown and exported; gold, coal, graphite, iron, salt,
+and precious stones were mined; and ivory was obtained from the
+elephants, which still roam the forests in large numbers. When the war
+began, German East Africa was making good and steady progress.</p>
+
+<p>The Germans did not win the colony without considerable fighting with
+the natives, and one of the risings which took place in 1904 cost East
+Africa the lives of about 120,000 men, women, and children. The Germans
+have no genius for dealing with natives; their brutal, blustering
+methods are certain to provoke strife wherever they obtain a foothold.
+They have, however, a genius for organizing, and this is seen in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span>
+towns which they have built, and the eight fairly good harbours which
+they have constructed on the coast. The name of the capital,
+Dar-es-Salaam, means "the harbour of peace;" it is a good port and a
+delightful place. German East Africa suffered a great shock when the
+Uganda railway was built by the British and the trade of the lake region
+was thus captured. The Germans replied by building two lines which gave
+the quickest access to British Central Africa and to the Southern Congo.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/p184.jpg" width="613" height="426" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h3>British Native Troops preparing to embark at Freetown,
+Sierra Leone, for the Kamerun.</h3>
+
+<h4>(<i>Photo Central News.</i>)</h4>
+
+<p>The most valuable colonies of Germany, however, were established in West
+Africa. Third in order of size, but first in commercial value, is the
+colony of Kamerun,<a name="FNanchor_126_126" id="FNanchor_126_126"></a><a href="#Footnote_126_126" class="fnanchor">[126]</a> which forms a rough wedge between British
+Nigeria and French Congo, with its point at Lake Chad. The colony of
+Kamerun has an area of 190,000 square miles, and an estimated population
+of 3&frac12; millions, whites numbering less than 2,000.</p>
+
+<p>The country was going a-begging when the Germans in 1884 sent an
+expedition which took it over. When the British agent arrived five days
+later he found the chiefs bound to the German Empire. He, however,
+declined to agree to this arrangement, and came to terms with the tribes
+on the British frontier; but the Home Government would not support him,
+and thus the Germans were allowed to become masters of Kamerun. Many of
+the natives refused to be taken under the wing of the German eagle, and
+were only persuaded to acknowledge their new masters by means of rifles
+and big guns. After thirty years the proud Fula<a name="FNanchor_127_127" id="FNanchor_127_127"></a><a href="#Footnote_127_127" class="fnanchor">[127]</a> tribes in the
+hinterland still remained unreconciled to German rule.</p>
+
+<p>Kamerun is a rich and largely unexplored territory, very similar in
+character to the southern part of our colony of Nigeria. The Germans
+have spent much time and money in developing the country, and have built
+excellent towns, good roads, and some railways. Along the coast and in
+the deep, long valleys between the mountains the oil palm abounds; and
+in the forests, which are full of elephants, there is a wealth of ebony
+and other valuable timber. There are great mineral resources, too, but
+they have not so far been largely worked. Kamerun was very rapidly
+advancing when the war broke out, be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span>cause the traders were backed from
+the Fatherland, and the officials were ready and eager to do everything
+that would advance its interests. It must be confessed that in the work
+of colonial development the Germans showed an energy and resource which
+put Britain in the shade.</p>
+
+<p>In 1883 the only unclaimed strip of West African territory between the
+Gambia and Nigeria was Togoland, which lies between British Ashanti and
+French Dahomey, and is in all respects similar in character to these
+countries. The coast line is but thirty-three miles in length, and the
+Germans having secured it, laid claim to a huge expanse of
+hinterland&mdash;an area of 33,000 square miles. Britain and France, after
+much discussion, allowed the claim, and thus Germany became possessed of
+Togoland, her smallest but by no means her least valuable colony. She
+has spent much money on roads and railways, and in building the fine
+town of Lom&eacute;, one of the best in all West Africa. For the last twenty
+years Togoland has been self-supporting. When the war began Togoland
+possessed one of the greatest of all German wireless stations at
+Kamina.<a name="FNanchor_128_128" id="FNanchor_128_128"></a><a href="#Footnote_128_128" class="fnanchor">[128]</a> It could communicate direct with Berlin, and was one of an
+important chain which linked up the Fatherland not only with Togoland
+but with Kamerun, East Africa, and South-West Africa.</p>
+
+
+<br /><br /><br /><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX.</h2>
+
+<h3>GERMANY'S VANISHING COLONIES.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap">W</span>e now turn to German South-West Africa, which has an area of 322,450
+square miles and a native population of about 80,000. The whites number
+nearly 15,000, of whom 12,000 are Germans. In 1884 Great Britain seized
+Walfish Bay, the only good harbour, and also some of the guano islands
+off the coast. Further, Cecil John Rhodes,<a name="FNanchor_129_129" id="FNanchor_129_129"></a><a href="#Footnote_129_129" class="fnanchor">[129]</a> who had constantly urged
+the British Government to take over the territory, had obtained mining
+rights from the local chiefs.</p>
+
+<p>Less than fifty years ago German missionaries, in the territory then
+known as Damaraland, appealed to the British Government to annex the
+country. The appeal was rejected. In 1883 a Bremen merchant, F. A. E.
+L&uuml;deritz, whose name has been given to the settlement at L&uuml;deritz Bay,
+set up a trading station under the sanction and approval of Bismarck. On
+the strength of L&uuml;deritz's trifling commercial claims Germany annexed
+the country. It is said that when Rhodes heard the news he threw the
+papers signed by the local chiefs into a safe and slammed the iron door,
+with the remark, "Let them lie there until the country is British." The
+extent of Germany's trading interest in her new possession may be
+gathered from the fact that the little steamer employed by L&uuml;deritz was
+known as "The Bottle Mail," because she imported full bottles of beer
+for the German trader, and carried back the "empties" as exports!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Germany rejoiced in her new possession, but she had hard work to occupy
+it. For five or six years the Hottentots fought hard for their
+independence, and until they were put down there was scarcely any
+attempt at settlement. In October 1904 the brutal methods of the
+officials led to a great rising of the Hereros, the bravest of the
+native peoples. During this revolt the Germans did many of those deeds
+of shame and horror which afterwards covered their name with infamy in
+Belgium. It took 19,000 Germans to put down the Hereros, and they were
+not completely subdued until 1908.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 682px;">
+<img src="images/p188.jpg" width="682" height="475" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h4>German Camel Corps in German South-West Africa.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>Photo,
+Underwood &amp; Underwood.</i></h4>
+
+<p>German South-West Africa is not an inviting land. Much of it is
+waterless desert, but there are large areas of splendid grass land very
+suitable for grazing, and upon them the Herero raise huge herds of
+cattle. Sheep thrive well, and so do goats. Many Boers from Cape Colony
+have settled in the country, and their flocks and herds have prospered
+greatly. It was these Boers from Cape Colony who "made" German
+South-West Africa.</p>
+
+<p>The Germans have done much to foster agriculture, and have opened up the
+country by good roads, and by railways which in 1913 had a total length
+of 1,304 miles. They have also bored largely for water. Despite all
+their efforts, however, the colony did not pay its way until 1912, when
+diamonds were discovered in the L&uuml;deritz Bay district. Copper was also
+found and mined, and before the war some 27,500 tons of this metal were
+exported annually.</p>
+
+<p>When the great struggle began in Europe, the German Empire overseas
+covered an estimated area of over 1,000,000 square miles, of which
+nearly 90 per cent. was in Africa, and by far the bulk of the remainder
+in certain islands of the Pacific Ocean. Of the fourteen islands
+comprising the Samoan group, which lies 1,600 miles to the north of New
+Zealand, Germany held eight of the best, and America the remainder. To
+most people the mention of Samoa recalls Robert Louis Stevenson,<a name="FNanchor_130_130" id="FNanchor_130_130"></a><a href="#Footnote_130_130" class="fnanchor">[130]</a>
+the sweet singer and stirring romancer who spent the last years of his
+life at Vailima, in a deep cleft of the mountains near Apia, in the
+fertile island of Upolu, the largest island of the Samoan group. Here he
+wrote several of his books, and worked<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span> hard at clearing the rank
+tropical jungle and at making roads. He died in his island home Dec. 3,
+1894, and was buried on the summit of a mountain. Thanks to his
+descriptions,<a name="FNanchor_131_131" id="FNanchor_131_131"></a><a href="#Footnote_131_131" class="fnanchor">[131]</a> the Samoans and their beautiful sunny islands are
+familiar to the readers of English books all the world over.</p>
+
+<p>Apia, near to which Stevenson lived, was the capital of the German
+islands; it has an excellent harbour. On March 19, 1889, when the
+harbour was full of shipping, including German and American men-of-war
+and H.M.S. <i>Calliope</i>, one of the disastrous hurricanes which
+occasionally sweep over the islands of the Southern Seas began to blow.
+The only possible way in which these ships could escape wreck was to put
+to sea and there ride out the storm. All the ships tried to leave the
+harbour, but the only one that was able to make headway against the
+fearful wind and sea was the <i>Calliope</i>. All the other ships were
+wrecked, and many lives were lost. When King George V., then Prince of
+Wales, visited Wellington, the seat of the New Zealand Government, he
+passed under an arch of coal with this inscription: "The coal that saved
+the <i>Calliope</i>."</p>
+
+<p>The German Samoan islands were acquired in 1899. The two largest of them
+have a united area of 1,000 square miles; the total population of the
+islands is about 35,000, and the annual trade was reckoned at &pound;120,000.
+Amongst other Pacific possessions of Germany when the war began were the
+southern islands of the Solomon group, an archipelago of high wooded
+mountains, lying to the east of New Guinea. The Bismarck Archipelago, to
+the west of them, the coral reefs of the Carolines, Pelew, and Marianne
+(or Ladrone) Islands,<a name="FNanchor_132_132" id="FNanchor_132_132"></a><a href="#Footnote_132_132" class="fnanchor">[132]</a> and the Marshall Islands still farther north,
+were also in German hands. On Neu-Pommern, one of the Bismarck group,
+there was a powerful wireless station.</p>
+
+<p>By far the largest island possession of Germany was a portion of New
+Guinea. This huge, lizard-shaped island&mdash;the second largest island in
+the world&mdash;lies about eighty miles north of Australia, and stands like a
+stepping-stone between that continent and Asia. The Dutch held the
+western half, and the remainder was divided between Germany and Britain,
+the south-east part being ours and the remainder German.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span> The German
+portion was known as Kaiser Wilhelm Land, and had an area of 70,000
+square miles. Most of it is unexplored, but there is no doubt that it is
+exceedingly rich in wild tropical products, and that it possesses great
+mineral wealth. The Germans have not made much headway in Kaiser Wilhelm
+Land or in the "Spice Islands," already mentioned; but they spent much
+money in developing the country and in fostering trade.</p>
+
+<p>The Australians have long feared that the possession of part of New
+Guinea by an unfriendly Power would be a danger to them, as it would
+afford an enemy a base for operations against the island-continent. The
+Queensland Government tried to get a footing in New Guinea about thirty
+years ago, but the British Government would not then lend its support. A
+few years later the home authorities were brought to see the necessity
+of occupying that part of New Guinea which faced Australia, and in 1887
+it was added to the British Empire. It is now governed by the Australian
+Commonwealth.</p>
+
+<p>Germany had only one other possession besides those which I have
+mentioned. This was Kiao-chau, on the east coast of the Chinese province
+of Shan-tung. Germany obtained it by force and fraud, as you shall hear.
+In the autumn of 1895 Japan emerged as victor from a war with China, and
+by the treaty of peace she was to hold certain parts of the Liao-tung
+peninsula. The Kaiser professed to fear the growing power of Japan, and
+he had a picture<a name="FNanchor_133_133" id="FNanchor_133_133"></a><a href="#Footnote_133_133" class="fnanchor">[133]</a> painted to point a moral to the Powers of Europe.
+It showed the European nations confronted with what is called the
+"Yellow Peril," and called upon them to defend their holiest
+possessions.</p>
+
+<p>The German view of the Japanese has been put as follows: "It is for
+Europe to look continually eastward. There is a yellow cloud rising
+there which betokens a coming storm. Who are these Japanese who desire
+to control the teeming millions of China? The Japanese are
+highly-educated barbarians. They have fresh minds, and they are the most
+imitative beings on earth if one excepts the smaller species of monkeys;
+they are not a civilized people. You may put a clever savage into a
+European dress or into a European-built battleship, but he remains a
+savage. Races do not become civilized in twenty years. Europe cannot
+allow the Japanese to control the Chinese millions, for the Japanese
+are without a soul." Well might the Japanese retort that if the Germans
+represent civilization with a soul, it would be to the benefit<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span> of the
+world if mankind remained savage.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 709px;">
+<img src="images/p192.jpg" width="709" height="477" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h4>Landing of British Forces on Tsing-tau Peninsula,
+September 23, 1914.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>Photo, The Sphere.</i></h4>
+
+<p>Professing to stand forth as the champion of soulful civilization, the
+Kaiser persuaded France and Russia to join with him in robbing the
+Japanese of the fruits of their victory. He only needed an excuse to
+interfere, and an excuse is easily found if you set yourself to look for
+it. In the autumn of 1897 two persons, said to be German missionaries,
+were murdered somewhere in the heart of China. At once the Kaiser was
+filled with righteous indignation; he shook his "mailed fist," and
+sending his brother, Prince Henry, to China with a couple of old ships
+which broke down on the voyage, bade him "declare the gospel of your
+Majesty's hallowed person." With these ancient craft the Kaiser seized a
+piece of Chinese territory for himself, and demanded that it should be
+leased to him with sovereign rights for ninety-nine years. In this way
+he obtained Kiao-chau, his Asiatic "place in the sun."</p>
+
+<p>The protectorate of Kiao-chau has an area of about 200 square miles; it
+contains thirty-three townships and a native population of about
+192,000. The whites number about 4,500, the greater part of them being
+Germans. Before the war, Tsing-tau, the port, was a powerful fortress, a
+first-class naval station, and a great entrenched camp, strong both by
+land and sea, equipped with the latest type of forts, and defended by a
+strong garrison. Twenty millions of money had been spent on the harbour,
+fortress, and naval station. The colony was very dear to the heart of
+the Kaiser, and he spoke of it as "a model of German culture." From
+Kiao-chau German influence was to radiate throughout the Far East, until
+the yellow peoples stood in awe of the Kaiser's name.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The great struggle which I am describing in these pages has been well
+called "the World-wide War." Immediately the Kaiser flung down the gage
+of battle in Europe the Allies began to attack his colonial possessions
+in Africa, Asia, and the Southern Seas. The German fleet was bottled up
+in its ports; no German transport dared cross the ocean; no help could
+come to them from the Fatherland. The German forces in each possession
+had to fight their own battle with such resource<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span>s as they then
+possessed. It was clear to everybody that without sea power Germany
+could not hope to hold any of her colonies very long; they were bound to
+fall, and fall rapidly.</p>
+
+<p>The Australian navy, assisted by our China squadron, put to sea
+immediately, and scoured the Pacific for German cruisers. A force of New
+Zealanders set sail from Wellington on 15th August, and, under the
+escort of H.M.S. <i>Australia</i>, H.M.S. <i>Melbourne</i>, and the French cruiser
+<i>Montcalm</i>, crossed the sixteen hundred miles of sea between them and
+Samoa. They reached Apia on the 28th, and the islands surrendered
+without a blow being struck. Before the war was a month old Robert Louis
+Stevenson's body was lying in British soil.</p>
+
+<p>The next attack was on Neu-Pommern, the chief island of the Bismarck
+Archipelago, where, you will remember, there was an important wireless
+station. On 11th September a British force arrived at Herbertshohe, the
+port at the northern end of the island. A party of sailors landed at
+dawn and pushed through the bush towards the wireless station. The roads
+had been mined, rifle pits had been dug, and snipers were hidden in the
+trees. The British fought their way for six miles, losing ten officers
+and four men; but when they reached the wireless station the whole enemy
+force surrendered. The German flag was hauled down, the Union Jack flew
+triumphantly in its stead, and thus the Bismarck Archipelago was lost to
+the Kaiser.</p>
+
+<p>Two days later our troops sailed for the Solomon Islands, which were
+captured without difficulty and without bloodshed. A force was then sent
+against Kaiser Wilhelm Land, where it was thought that the Germans would
+show fight. Again there was a bloodless victory, and the British flag
+was hoisted above the chief port, which was left in the possession of
+British troops. Early in November the Japanese occupied the Marshall
+Islands and some of the other northern groups.</p>
+
+<p>By this time the Pacific possessions of Germany had vanished, save for a
+few small and unimportant islands, and her wireless stations had been
+destroyed. These rapid successes were largely due to the Australian
+navy, which had worked with the highest speed and efficiency. H.M.S.
+<i>Melbourne</i>, for example, covered no less than 11,000 miles of sea in
+the first six weeks of the war.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Togoland was the first of Germany's African colonies to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span> fall. Its
+geographical position made it easy of attack and very difficult to hold.
+You will remember that it had British and French territory on its
+flanks, and that its sea coast was open to bombardment by British ships.
+So situated, and held by military forces which did not number more than
+250 whites and 3,000 natives in all, it was certain to fall quickly and
+easily.</p>
+
+<p>Soon after the outbreak of war the cables connecting Togoland with
+Germany were cut by the British, so that only by means of wireless
+telegraphy could the colony communicate with the Fatherland. Native
+troops were rushed down from Kumasi<a name="FNanchor_134_134" id="FNanchor_134_134"></a><a href="#Footnote_134_134" class="fnanchor">[134]</a> to the Gold Coast, and all
+Britons in Accra<a name="FNanchor_135_135" id="FNanchor_135_135"></a><a href="#Footnote_135_135" class="fnanchor">[135]</a> were sworn in as volunteers. On 6th August a
+British advance guard pushed across the western frontier, and a few days
+later was followed by the main column, under Colonel Bryant. Meanwhile
+the French made a similar movement from Dahomey, on the eastern
+frontier. When the British advance guard reached Lom&eacute;, it found the town
+deserted, and the Germans retiring northwards along the railway line. On
+the arrival of the main column arrangements were made for an advance on
+Kamina, where the great wireless station had been established. There
+were two or three skirmishes on the way, but no engagement of any
+particular importance. On the river, south of Nuatja, the enemy was
+found to be strongly entrenched, and fighting continued from early
+morning until after dusk. During the night the enemy abandoned Nuatja,
+and at daybreak the British marched in. Our losses in this engagement,
+including those of the French troops from Dahomey, were very high.</p>
+
+<p>Two days later the advance was continued towards Kamina, near the
+Government station of Atakpame, at the railhead. Here the enemy had dug
+trenches, built blockhouses, laid in provisions, and made other
+preparations to stand a siege. During the advance our men spent two or
+three nights in the mud huts of filthy native villages. Several rivers,
+swollen into rushing torrents by the heavy rain, impeded the advance,
+for the Germans had blown up the road and railway bridges. Meanwhile the
+advance guard pushed forward, and as they did so the enemy sent two men
+with a flag of truce to Colonel Bryant, offering to surrender on certain
+terms and with the usual honours of war. Colonel Bryant told them that
+they were not in a position to ask for terms, and that they must
+surrender unconditionally. Next day (10th August) the enemy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span> agreed to
+do so.</p>
+
+<p>A telegraphist with the Togoland Field Force thus describes the
+surrender: "I rode in with the Headquarters Staff, and, arriving at
+Kamina, found the Germans, all white men (their native troops having
+deserted), drawn up in front of the acting Governor's residence, with
+himself, a smart-looking man, at their head, and all their rifles,
+machine guns, ammunition, and other weapons of war piled in front of
+them.</p>
+
+<p>"We formed up on the other side in the shape of a triangle&mdash;the British
+troops on the right, French on the left, guns at the apex, and
+Headquarters Staff in the centre. Our adjutant, with the Union Jack in
+one hand and the French flag in the other, accompanied by a native
+soldier of each nation, planted the two flags in front of the massed
+troops, who all presented arms. We saluted, and in that brief
+half-minute, while we were at the 'present,' Togoland, which had been a
+German colony for over thirty years, passed into the hands of Britain
+and France. It was most impressive, and something I am not likely to
+forget. We took at this place alone 206 white German prisoners, three
+machine guns, hundreds of rifles, and thousands of rounds of ammunition.</p>
+
+<p>"The Germans had destroyed their powerful wireless station&mdash;a tremendous
+place, three miles long, with nine masts 250 to 410 feet high&mdash;two days
+before we arrived; otherwise I might have been able to get into
+communication with Whitehall direct, instead of sending the news of the
+surrender to the Secretary of State on a little field buzzer set, tapped
+in on the telegraph wire by the side of the road.</p>
+
+<p>"This town, Atakpame, is in the half of Togoland allotted to the French,
+so the British troops have left the place. It is now occupied by
+Senegalese (French native troops, and fine fighting men). . . . This is
+a magnificent country, and Atakpame is beautifully situated up in the
+hills. . . . This letter leaves by the last English mail out of
+Atakpame, which has been under three different flags in less than three
+weeks&mdash;German, British, and French.</p>
+
+<p>"Quick work, eh?"</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>By this time Kamerun, German South-West Africa, and German East Africa
+had been attacked. I will tell you how they resisted later on, when we
+come to the period at which they were finally conquered.</p>
+
+
+<br /><br /><br /><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE STORY OF THE "EMDEN."</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap">W</span>hen the war broke out there was a German squadron of ships of war in
+Eastern waters, its base being Tsing-tau. Admiral von Spee, who
+commanded it, did not attempt to go to the rescue of the Pacific islands
+when the British attacked them, but departed with most of his ships for
+the west coast of South America. Two of his smaller cruisers&mdash;the
+<i>K&ouml;nigsberg</i> and the <i>Emden</i>&mdash;were, however, detached to prey on British
+commerce in the East. You have read<a name="FNanchor_136_136" id="FNanchor_136_136"></a><a href="#Footnote_136_136" class="fnanchor">[136]</a> how the <i>K&ouml;nigsberg</i> caught
+H.M.S. <i>Pegasus</i> unawares, in Zanzibar harbour, and disabled her. I
+shall tell you later how this vessel was finally destroyed. In this
+chapter we will learn something of the career of the <i>Emden</i>.</p>
+
+<p>A ship of war can do as much mischief amongst peaceful merchantmen as a
+cat among pigeons. Ordinary trading ships are entirely at the mercy of a
+fast cruiser armed with big guns. They have no means of resisting, and
+must surrender when called upon to do so. During the American Civil War
+a ship, afterwards known as the <i>Alabama</i>, was built at Birkenhead for
+the Southern States. By some mistake she was allowed to leave the Mersey
+and proceed to the Azores, where she was fully equipped as a vessel of
+war. In August 1862 she began to prey on the merchantmen of the Northern
+States, and by June 1864 she had captured and destroyed about
+sixty-eight of their ships. By hoisting the British flag she decoyed
+them within reach of her guns, and then they were obliged to yield.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span> In
+the end the <i>Alabama</i> was chased by a Northern ship of war to the
+English Channel, and a fight took place off the French shore near
+Cherbourg. In an hour the <i>Alabama</i> was shattered, and her career was
+ended for ever.<a name="FNanchor_137_137" id="FNanchor_137_137"></a><a href="#Footnote_137_137" class="fnanchor">[137]</a> Up to the time when the <i>Emden</i> left Kiao-chau, in
+August 1914, the <i>Alabama</i> was the most successful commerce-raider of
+history. The Emden, however, soon deposed her from that pride of place.
+In two short months she did more damage than the <i>Alabama</i> did in two
+years.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Emden</i> was a light cruiser of 3,544 tons displacement, and she
+dated from 1908. She had a speed of 25 knots, and her armament consisted
+of ten 4.1-inch guns, four 2.1-inch guns, and four machine guns, as well
+as two torpedo tubes. Her captain, was Commander Karl von M&uuml;ller, who
+has thus been described: "Picture a young man of about thirty, tall,
+clean-shaven, with closely-cropped hair and keen eyes, a
+neatly-proportioned figure, a man with the manners of a drawing-room,
+possessed of a keen sense of humour and an extensive knowledge of the
+sea and its affairs." As the story proceeds you will learn that
+Commander M&uuml;ller was a man of quick, ready, and inventive mind, and that
+for two months he played a successful game of hide-and-seek with the
+many Allied ships of war that were bent on his destruction.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Emden's</i> adventures began almost before she was out of sight of
+Kiao-chau. She knew that Japanese men-of-war were near at hand, and that
+she was more than likely to fall in with one of them. Sure enough, a
+Japanese vessel was sighted; but it was not the three-funnelled <i>Emden</i>,
+under the black, white, and red flag of Germany that passed the enemy
+warship, but a vessel of four funnels flying the British white ensign.
+The Japanese were completely deceived, especially when the <i>Emden's</i>
+crew lined the rails and greeted them with three hearty British cheers.
+By means of this clever trick the <i>Emden</i> gained the open sea
+unmolested.</p>
+
+<p>What she did up to 10th September we do not know. Just when the first
+Indian contingent was leaving for Marseil<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span>les she appeared in the Bay of
+Bengal and began her career of destruction. Inside four days she had
+seized and sunk five ships, and before seven weeks were over had
+destroyed seventeen vessels of 70,000 tons burden, and worth more than
+&pound;2,000,000. Captain von M&uuml;ller fell in with some of these ships; others
+it is said that he decoyed by sending out the S.O.S. signal<a name="FNanchor_138_138" id="FNanchor_138_138"></a><a href="#Footnote_138_138" class="fnanchor">[138]</a> in
+defiance of the rules of war which Germany had signed at the Hague. His
+practice was to close in upon his victim very quickly, destroy its
+wireless apparatus before the alarm could be given, put the crew on
+board one of his prizes, take what coal and provisions he required, and
+then with a mine or a few shots send the captured vessel to the bottom.
+It is said that when he overhauled the <i>Kabinga</i> he discovered that the
+captain's wife was on board, and released the ship. The captain's wife,
+on taking leave of him, hoped that he would soon be caught, but that his
+life would be spared. Commander M&uuml;ller was generous to his prisoners,
+and in no case were they treated harshly.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/p199.jpg" width="196" height="273" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h3>Captain von M&uuml;ller.</h3>
+
+<h4>(<i>Photo, Record Press.</i>)</h4>
+
+<p>On 22nd September the <i>Emden</i> was off Madras, that great straggling
+seaport which fronts a strand on which the sea foams in unceasing
+billows. One of the <i>Emden's</i> crew had worked in Madras, and he pointed
+out to the captain the position of the oil tanks at the entrance to the
+harbour. At 9.30 that night the <i>Emden</i> crept in, turned her
+searchlights on the tanks, and fired two broadsides to find the range.
+Then the searchlights were turned off, and salvos were fired which set
+the tanks on fire. While great flames were shooting skyward and making
+the night as bright as day, the <i>Emden</i> retired full speed northward.
+The shore batteries opened fire, but their shells fell short.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 686px;">
+<img src="images/p200.jpg" width="686" height="501" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h4>The Emden, the famous German Commerce-raider.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>Photo, Central News.</i></h4>
+
+<p>Next day the <i>Emden</i> turned her nose north-east, to give the impression
+that she was sailing for Calcutta, but when out of sight of land turned
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span>
+southwards. Off Pondicherry<a name="FNanchor_139_139" id="FNanchor_139_139"></a><a href="#Footnote_139_139" class="fnanchor">[139]</a> she paused, but perceiving that the
+town was defenceless, refrained from firing a gun. She then ran past the
+east coast of Ceylon to the island of Diego Garcia, in the Chagos
+Archipelago, a group of low coral islands between Mauritius and Ceylon.
+Diego Garcia was reached on 10th October. The few European families on
+the island had not yet heard of the war, as they are only visited by a
+steamer once in three months. The <i>Emden</i> coaled at Diego Garcia, and
+took on board supplies of cocoa-nuts and fish.</p>
+
+<p>About the middle of October she lost her attendant collier, and with it
+her reserve of ammunition, coal, and food. By this time it was clear
+that her course was practically run, and that she had better do what
+mischief she could to the warships and war material of the enemy before
+meeting her doom.</p>
+
+<p>Early on the morning of 28th October the <i>Emden</i> was ten miles outside
+Penang, in the Straits Settlements,<a name="FNanchor_140_140" id="FNanchor_140_140"></a><a href="#Footnote_140_140" class="fnanchor">[140]</a> and the carpenters were set to
+work rigging up a dummy funnel, to make her look like a British cruiser.
+She then hoisted British colours and entered the harbour, in which
+several ships could be seen, with an unknown cruiser well in front of
+them. When the <i>Emden</i> entered the harbour she discovered that this
+cruiser was the Russian ship <i>Jemtchug</i>. Mistaking the <i>Emden</i> for a
+British man-of-war, the <i>Jemtchug</i> did not attempt to prevent the German
+cruiser from getting between her and the land. The <i>Emden</i> then let fly
+two torpedoes, the first of which struck the Russian cruiser just under
+the after funnel. The other torpedo, fired at closer range, struck her
+below the bridge, and caused a terrible explosion. Meanwhile the <i>Emden</i>
+was firing salvo after salvo at the <i>Jemtchug</i>, which made but a feeble
+reply; all of her shots missed, but some of them hit ships in the
+harbour behind.</p>
+
+<p>As the <i>Jemtchug</i> sank the <i>Emden</i> turned and left the harbour at full
+speed. Thirty miles out she fell in with the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span> British steamer
+<i>Glenturret</i>, which had signalled to the shore for a pilot, who had just
+reached her in his launch. The <i>Emden</i> had swung out her boats to take
+possession of the prize when a warship appeared on the horizon. The
+<i>Emden</i> immediately recalled her boats and made off, as the warship
+appeared to be a large one. This, however, was only the effect of the
+early morning <i>mirage</i>.<a name="FNanchor_141_141" id="FNanchor_141_141"></a><a href="#Footnote_141_141" class="fnanchor">[141]</a> At about 6,000 yards distance the newcomer
+was found to be the French destroyer <i>Mousquet</i>.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Emden</i> opened fire, and the <i>Mousquet</i> replied, though, of course,
+the destroyer was quite outclassed by the cruiser. The first few shots
+from the <i>Emden</i> hit the <i>Mousquet's</i> engine-room, and apparently
+wrecked her. "Cease fire" was then ordered, to enable the French
+destroyer to surrender; but instead of doing so she showed fight once
+more. A few more shots from the <i>Emden</i> were sufficient to sink her,
+bows first. About thirty-six of the crew were rescued. While this
+merciful work was going on, another destroyer was seen approaching from
+Penang; whereupon the <i>Emden</i> steamed off at full speed for the Indian
+Ocean. The destroyer chased her for three hours; but a heavy rainstorm
+came on, and the <i>Emden</i> escaped.</p>
+
+<p>There was a good deal of discontent in England when news arrived that
+the <i>Emden</i> had sunk ship after ship, and had not been brought to
+account. The Admiralty explained that searching for the <i>Emden</i> over
+vast expanses of ocean was no easy task, and that the many thousand
+islands of the East Indies afforded her plenty of hiding-places, and the
+straits between them numberless avenues of escape. To catch the raider
+was a matter of time, patience, and good luck. The Germans were highly
+delighted that their ship had proved such a will o' the wisp, and one of
+their papers contained a caricature showing the <i>Emden</i> as a
+Jack-in-the-box that continually popped up to the annoyance of John
+Bull. It was inscribed, "<i>Emden</i> &uuml;ber Alles," and underneath was the
+following rhyme:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem2"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"When you think you have him tightly,</span>
+<span class="i0">&nbsp;He springs forth again so lightly."</span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>We are soon to hear how, by a stroke of good luck the <i>Emden</i> was caught
+tightly and destroyed.</p>
+
+
+<br /><br /><br /><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE LAST OF THE "EMDEN," AND THE SEA FIGHT OFF CORONEL.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap">I</span>f you look at a map of the Indian Ocean, you will see, some 700 miles
+south of Sumatra and 1,200 miles south-west of Singapore, a group of
+about twenty atolls,<a name="FNanchor_142_142" id="FNanchor_142_142"></a><a href="#Footnote_142_142" class="fnanchor">[142]</a> known as the Cocos-Keeling Islands. They are
+covered with palm groves, and they export cocoa-nuts and copra. The
+"king" of the islands is Mr. Sydney Ross, a descendant of the Captain J.
+C. Ross who settled on them in 1825. It was to these remote islands that
+Captain von M&uuml;ller brought the <i>Emden</i> in the early days of November.
+His object was to destroy the important British wireless station
+established on Direction Island.</p>
+
+<p>On the morning of 9th November the operators in charge of the station
+saw a cruiser in the offing. At first they believed the vessel to be a
+British warship, but they were soon undeceived. Before a boat could be
+lowered and a landing-party sent ashore, the operators at the wireless
+station, with true British coolness, sent off distress signals, and
+warned the adjacent stations, by means of the three submarine cables
+which come ashore on the island, that the Germans were about to land.
+One launch and two cutters, containing three officers and forty men,
+arrived about 7.30; the wireless mast was blown up; the instruments were
+smashed, the storerooms and workshops were completely wrecked, and a
+dummy cable and one real cable were cut and a third damaged. The
+remaini<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span>ng cable was left uninjured, probably because the Germans did
+not know that it existed. In less than two hours the work of destruction
+was completed. Then suddenly loud and repeated siren calls were heard
+from the <i>Emden</i>. Before the boats could return she was off at top
+speed.</p>
+
+<p>She had been trapped at last. In the wireless room of H.M.S. <i>Sydney</i>,
+then engaged in escorting Australian transports, a message had been
+received: "Strange warship off entrance." In a moment Captain Glossop
+guessed that it was the raider that had so long eluded him. Immediately
+he worked up to twenty knots an hour, and with the "white bone" in his
+ship's teeth sped towards the island. At 9.15 the feathery tops of the
+cocoa-nut trees were sighted, and a few minutes later the <i>Emden</i> was
+seen bearing down on the <i>Sydney</i> at a great rate. Captain von M&uuml;ller
+knew that the <i>Sydney's</i> 6-inch guns could destroy his ship at a
+distance too great for his 4.7-inch guns to do much mischief. He
+therefore tried to close in with the <i>Sydney</i>, which endeavoured to keep
+sufficiently far off to obtain the advantage afforded by her bigger
+guns.</p>
+
+<p>Then began a running fight which lasted for an hour and forty minutes.
+At first the <i>Emden</i>'s fire was very rapid and accurate, but as the
+<i>Sydney's</i> shells began to burst on her decks it slackened quickly. The
+foremost funnel of the <i>Emden</i> was shot away, then the foremast, then
+the second funnel, and lastly the third funnel. She was now burning
+furiously, and her deck was strewn with dead and dying. A few minutes
+later and she was seen to be making for the beach on North Keeling
+Island, where she grounded at 11.20 a.m. Captain Glossop gave her two
+more broadsides, and then left her to pursue a merchant ship which had
+come up during the action.</p>
+
+<p>The merchantman was overhauled, and found to be a captured British
+collier in a sinking condition. As she was past repair she was sent to
+the bottom, and the <i>Sydney</i>, with the crew of the collier on board,
+returned to the <i>Emden</i>, now a dismal wreck amidst the surf foaming on
+the reef. Her colours, however, were still flying at the masthead. When
+called upon to haul them down her captain replied that he would never
+surrender. Very reluctantly, Captain Glossop again fired at the <i>Emden</i>.
+Five minutes later white flags fluttered aloft, and her ensign was
+hauled down.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 751px;">
+<img src="images/p204.jpg" width="751" height="525" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h3>German Landing Party on the Cocos-Keeling Islands.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>Photo, The Sphere</i></h3>
+
+<h4>The yacht shown in the photograph is the <i>Ayesha</i>,
+in which the landing party escaped from the island.</h4>
+
+<p>About six o'clock that night the <i>Emden's</i> landing-par<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span>ty seized and
+provisioned Mr. Ross's 70-ton schooner, the <i>Ayesha</i>, and made off. For
+months they were unheard of, though all sorts of rumours were current as
+to their fate. On March 1, 1915, it was reported that they had reached
+Damascus, and were on their way to Constantinople.</p>
+
+<p>Captain von M&uuml;ller was captured unwounded, and amongst his officers was
+Franz Josef of Hohenzollern, a nephew of the Kaiser. As a tribute to the
+gallantry and humanity which Captain von M&uuml;ller had exhibited, he was
+permitted to retain his sword. While the German soldiers were making
+their name a byword of loathing in Belgium, Captain von M&uuml;ller had been
+behaving as a sailor and a gentleman; consequently he was regarded in
+Britain as something of a hero. He had fought staunchly, and although he
+had perhaps violated the laws of war on several occasions, his sins were
+forgiven him because he had been merciful to the defenceless and the
+captive.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Emden</i> lost some 250 killed and wounded, while the <i>Sydney</i> had
+four killed and twelve wounded. Only about ten hits seem to have been
+made on the British vessel, and the damage done was surprisingly small.
+Australians were overjoyed to hear that a ship of their own navy had rid
+the seas of the famous raider. Their satisfaction was all the greater
+when they remembered that the victorious crew consisted largely of young
+and untried sailors.</p>
+
+<p>Let me tell you of a pleasing little incident that happened when the
+<i>Sydney</i>, with prisoners on board, returned to the transports which she
+and the <i>Melbourne</i> were convoying. Captain Glossop had given orders
+that there was to be no cheering, as he had German wounded on board, and
+some of them might be dying. The <i>Sydney</i> steamed past forty transports,
+whose decks and rigging were crowded with patriotic men; but not a cheer
+was raised, though all were deeply stirred by the good news. Two German
+officers asked Captain Glossop the reason of the silence. When he
+explained, they were much affected. One of them shook him by the hand
+and said, "You have been kind, but this crowns all. We cannot speak to
+thank you for it."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The news was received with great delight by our soldiers in Artois and
+West Flanders. At one place where the opposing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span> trenches were close
+together the men cheered, and passed on the information with appropriate
+comments to the enemy, who replied with a vindictive volley. At
+Lloyd's<a name="FNanchor_143_143" id="FNanchor_143_143"></a><a href="#Footnote_143_143" class="fnanchor">[143]</a> the old <i>Lutine</i> bell<a name="FNanchor_144_144" id="FNanchor_144_144"></a><a href="#Footnote_144_144" class="fnanchor">[144]</a> was rung, and when, amidst tense
+silence, the crier announced that the <i>Emden's</i> career of destruction
+had ended, underwriters,<a name="FNanchor_145_145" id="FNanchor_145_145"></a><a href="#Footnote_145_145" class="fnanchor">[145]</a> brokers, and clerks burst forth into
+excited cheering, which was repeated again and again. During the past
+two months the insurance companies had been heavily hit; freight for the
+East had been difficult to obtain, Indian tea had gone up twopence per
+pound, the jute trade had been paralysed, and tin and rubber had largely
+increased in price. All this was now over, and shipping in Eastern
+waters resumed its normal course.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Almost equally good news arrived the same day. The <i>K&ouml;nigsberg</i>, after
+her attack on the <i>Pegasus</i> in Zanzibar harbour, had gone into hiding
+somewhere along the German East African coast. A diligent search was
+made for her by H.M.S. <i>Chatham</i>, and on 30th October she was discovered
+in shoal water about six miles up a river opposite Mafia island. The
+<i>Chatham</i>, owing to her greater draught, could not ascend the river; but
+she sank colliers in the only navigable channel, so that the German
+cruiser could not come out. She lay amidst dense<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span> palm groves, and was
+aground, except at high tide. Part of her crew had been landed and
+entrenched on the banks of the river. Both the entrenchments and the
+<i>K&ouml;nigsberg</i> were shelled, but owing to the thick foliage shrouding the
+ship it was not possible to estimate what damage had been done.</p>
+
+<p>From the end of October 1914 until the beginning of July 1915 the
+<i>K&ouml;nigsberg</i> lay in this position. She was most difficult to attack, as
+only shallow-draught ships could get sufficiently close to engage her.
+In May 1915 the Admiralty decided to send to German East Africa two of
+the monitors&mdash;the <i>Severn</i> and the <i>Mersey</i>&mdash;which had done so much to
+foil the coast dash towards Calais. Aircraft accompanied the vessels,
+and discovered the exact whereabouts of the <i>K&ouml;nigsberg</i>. On 4th July
+the monitors entered the river and opened fire. The <i>K&ouml;nigsberg</i>
+replied, and fired salvos of five guns with great accuracy, twice
+hitting the <i>Mersey</i>, and causing some casualties.</p>
+
+<p>The aeroplanes found great difficulty in "spotting" the effects of the
+monitors' fire, because of the dense jungle. For six hours the monitors
+continued firing, and the <i>K&ouml;nigsberg</i> was hit five times, though her
+masts were still standing. Then a salvo struck her, and she burst into
+flames. For a time she continued to fire with one gun, but during the
+last part of the engagement she made no reply, either because her
+ammunition had run out or because her guns were disabled. On 11th July
+another attack was made, and the <i>K&ouml;nigsberg</i> was battered into
+shapeless ruin.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>During November 19 a British squadron approached the harbour of
+Dar-es-Salaam,<a name="FNanchor_146_146" id="FNanchor_146_146"></a><a href="#Footnote_146_146" class="fnanchor">[146]</a> in which three German vessels had taken refuge. The
+entrance had been blocked by a floating dock, and only vessels of light
+draught could pass the obstruction. On November 28 a British flotilla
+supported by a cruiser entered the harbour, and after a parley the
+governor of the town hoisted the white flag. Commander <span class="smcap">Henry Peel
+Ritchie</span>, R.N., who was in charge of the operations, now boarded the
+German ships, but soon discovered that the surrender of the town was a
+trick to destroy him and his men. A heavy fire was opened on the boats
+from trenches on shore, and Commander Peel Ritchie had the greatest
+difficulty in getting them safely out of harbour. He himself was one of
+the fir<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span>st to be hit, but he continued at his post until his eighth
+wound, received twenty-five minutes later, rendered him unconscious. The
+cockswain of his pinnace, though hit twice, gallantly stuck to the wheel
+until the boat was out of gunfire. For his splendid courage, and for the
+inspiring example which he set to his men, Commander Ritchie was awarded
+the Victoria Cross. The cockswain, Leading Seaman Thomas Arthur
+Gallagher, received the Conspicuous Gallantry Medal.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>We will now follow the fortunes of the German squadron under Admiral von
+Spee. You will remember that it left Kiao-chau early in August for the
+South American coast. Von Spee's squadron, which consisted of modern
+ships, comprised two armoured cruisers, the <i>Gneisenau</i> and the
+<i>Scharnhorst</i>; and three light cruisers, the <i>Dresden</i>, <i>Leipzig</i>, and
+<i>N&uuml;rnberg</i>. The first two vessels had a speed of at least 23 knots, and
+were armed with eight 8.2-inch guns, six of 5.9-inch, and eighteen
+21-pounders. The <i>Dresden</i> was a sister ship to the <i>Emden</i>, the
+<i>N&uuml;rnberg</i> was slightly smaller, and the <i>Leipzig</i> smaller still. The
+object of this squadron was to prey on British commerce in the Pacific.
+The <i>Emden</i>, as you know, was detailed for similar work in the Indian
+Ocean, and the <i>Karlsruhe</i> in the South Atlantic.</p>
+
+<p>I have told at length of the short and merry life of the <i>Emden</i>. The
+<i>Karlsruhe</i> was not so successful, but she destroyed no fewer than
+thirteen steamers in the course of a week or two. She was remarkable for
+the number of attendant vessels which accompanied her, some of them her
+own captures. These she employed as scouts to warn her of danger, and to
+give notice of vessels which might be seized. It is said that she had
+many hairbreadth escapes from British cruisers. Towards the end of
+November she disappeared, and though many rumours were afloat, nothing
+was certainly known of her whereabouts. In March 1915 it was reported
+that she had gone down off the West Indian island of Grenada.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 749px;">
+<img src="images/p210211.jpg" width="749" height="553" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h4>Destruction of the German Raider Emden by H.M.S. Sydney
+of the Australian Navy, November 9, 1914.</h4>
+
+<p>You can easily understand that without a regular supply of coal and
+provisions the German commerce-raiders could not long keep the seas.
+When a fighting ship in time of war puts into a neutral port, she may
+not receive more coal and provisions than will carry her to the nearest
+harbour of her own land, and she may not obtain any further supplies at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span>
+that port for three months. Some of the South American states, however,
+were very slack in observing the rules of naval warfare, and two of
+them&mdash;Ecuador and Colombia&mdash;actually permitted German coaling and
+provisioning bases to be set up on their coasts, and allowed their
+wireless stations to be used for the purpose of ascertaining the
+movements of the British cruisers which were trying to catch the
+raiders. When Admiral von Spee sailed for the western coast of South
+America, he was going into waters where there were many harbours in
+which he could coal, and many friends who would see that he was well
+supplied. German merchants abound in Chile.</p>
+
+<p>On 14th September von Spee's squadron touched at Apia, and on the 22nd
+two of his cruisers arrived off Papeete, in Tahiti, one of the loveliest
+of the Pacific Islands. A small French gunboat was sunk, and the town
+was bombarded. Then his squadron of five warships with attendant
+colliers concentrated near Valparaiso, and he was ready, like a
+twentieth-century Drake, to prey ruthlessly upon the merchantmen that
+came round the Horn.</p>
+
+<p>Von Spee did not expect that he would go unmolested. He knew that
+Britain had a squadron which was even then cruising northwards along the
+coast of Chile, under the command of a renowned seaman, Sir Christopher
+Cradock. But this squadron was all too weak to meet him in fair fight.
+It consisted of two armoured cruisers, the <i>Good Hope</i> and the
+<i>Monmouth</i>, the light cruiser <i>Glasgow</i>, and an armed liner, the
+<i>Otranto</i>, the latter being incapable of engaging a ship of war. None of
+the vessels was speedy, and none was heavily armed. The <i>Canopus</i>, a
+seventeen-year-old battleship, was on its way to meet him, but had not
+yet arrived. Von Spee could count on sixteen 8.2-inch guns, and to
+oppose them Cradock had but two 9.2-inch guns. When the <i>Canopus</i> joined
+him his big-gun armament would be increased by four 12-inch guns, but
+even then the British squadron would be inferior in weight of broadside
+to the German squadron. Nor had the British any advantage of speed. The
+<i>Glasgow</i> could do 26 knots an hour, but the <i>Monmouth</i> could only do
+23. In big guns, speed, and armour the Germans were greatly superior.
+Cradock was hourly expecting reinforcements, but for some reason they
+were not forthcoming. One of his officers wrote as follows on 12th
+October: "We<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span> think the Admiralty have forgotten their trade-route
+squadron 10,000 miles from London town. Five German cruisers against us.
+Pray that we may prevent them concentrating."</p>
+
+<p>They had concentrated, as we know, and Cradock had now to decide whether
+he would give battle with his three cruisers or wait for the arrival of
+the <i>Canopus</i>. He was a dashing, fearless officer, and he took the risk.
+He sent off a wireless message to the <i>Canopus</i>: "I am going to attack
+the enemy now," and ordered speed to be increased to 17 knots. It is
+doubtful whether the <i>Canopus</i> ever received the message, for the enemy
+was "jamming the wireless"&mdash;that is, was sending out bogus messages to
+interfere with the messages of the British flagship. At any rate, the
+<i>Canopus</i> did not join Cradock, and he steamed without her towards the
+foe.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Glasgow</i> swept northward, and about four o'clock in the afternoon
+of 1st November sighted the enemy. She sent off wireless signals to the
+flagship, <i>Good Hope</i>, but they were jammed. The <i>Monmouth</i> and
+<i>Otranto</i> joined the <i>Glasgow</i> soon after, and at five o'clock the <i>Good
+Hope</i> came up. Both squadrons were now moving southwards, the Germans
+having the inshore course. At the head of the British line was the <i>Good
+Hope</i>, with the <i>Monmouth</i>, <i>Glasgow</i>, and <i>Otranto</i> following, one
+behind the other. The German line was headed by the <i>Scharnhorst</i>, with
+the <i>Gneisenau</i>, <i>Dresden</i>, and <i>N&uuml;rnberg</i> following.</p>
+
+<p>Try to imagine the scene. The sea was running high; there was a stiff
+wind blowing, and away in the west the sun was sinking in a flaming sky
+of crimson and gold. Against the bright sunset the British ships stood
+out sharp and clear, while the German vessels were shrouded by the
+gathering gloom and the dark background of the land. Behind them were
+the long ridges and lofty peaks of the Andes, their eternal snows
+glowing red in the light of the setting sun. Amidst the roar of sea and
+wind the two squadrons raced south in the teeth of the gale. The day was
+speeding fast to its close, and the German admiral, owing to the
+superior speed of his ships, was able to choose the range at which the
+battle was to be fought.</p>
+
+<p>The sun sank into the sea, and eight minutes later, at a range of about
+12,000 yards&mdash;roughly, seven miles&mdash;the leading German cruiser opened
+fire with her biggest guns. Shells shrieked over and short of the <i>Good
+Hope</i> within a hundred<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span> yards of her, and the <i>Otranto</i> began to edge
+away to the south-west. The <i>Good Hope</i> and the <i>Monmouth</i> replied as
+best they could to the <i>Scharnhorst</i> and <i>Gneisenau</i>, but their fire was
+ineffective; the two 9.2-inch guns of the <i>Good Hope</i> could not be
+brought into action, because they were mounted so near to the water's
+edge that the waves washed over them. Meanwhile the <i>Glasgow</i> was
+exchanging shots with the light cruisers <i>Leipzig</i> and <i>Dresden</i>. The
+shooting of the enemy was deadly, and in a few minutes all was over&mdash;the
+British ships were pounded to pieces by guns which quite outranged those
+which they carried. "It was as though a man standing at Charing Cross
+were attacked with deadly accuracy by a foe on Ealing Common, without
+any possibility of replying." Think of the horror and hopelessness of it
+all!</p>
+
+<p>Broadside after broadside of powerful guns crashed on the British
+cruisers. The third salvo set the <i>Good Hope</i> and the <i>Monmouth</i> on
+fire. The range had now narrowed down to 5,000 yards, and darkness was
+coming on apace. Many of the shells falling into the sea threw up huge
+geysers of white spray, which gleamed ghost-like in the twilight. The
+British could fire only at the flashes of the enemy's guns, and often
+even these slight indications were hidden from the gun-layers by the
+heavy head seas.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Monmouth</i> had been heavily hit, and was rapidly becoming
+unmanageable; the fore turret of the <i>Good Hope</i> was burning fiercely,
+and she began to fall away out of line towards the enemy. Suddenly, at
+about a quarter to eight, there was a roar louder than that of the
+booming guns; the flames had reached the magazine of the <i>Good Hope</i>,
+and a terrific explosion took place. A column of fire shot up 200 feet,
+and the sea was strewn with <i>d&eacute;bris</i>. The <i>Good Hope</i> never fired her
+guns again. Down she went headlong into the stormy deep, with gallant
+Sir Christopher Cradock and his crew of nearly 900 officers and men.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 804px;">
+<img src="images/p214.jpg" width="804" height="508" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h3>The Good Hope going down with her last Guns firing.</h3>
+
+<h4>(<i>From the picture by Norman Wilkinson. By permission of the Illustrated
+London News.</i>)</h4>
+
+<p>The <i>Monmouth</i>, too, was in dire distress. She was so badly damaged by
+the terrific cannonade that she could no longer fire. She was down by
+the head, and was obliged to turn away to get her stern to the sea. The
+little unarmoured <i>Glasgow</i> was now left alone, and on her the
+<i>Scharnhorst</i> and <i>Gneisenau</i> concentrated their fire. Again and again
+she was hit, but fortunately not dangerously. The sea was now running<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span>
+higher than ever; rain and mist came on, though the moon was rising. The
+<i>Glasgow</i> could render no aid to the <i>Monmouth</i>; she could not rescue
+her crew in the raging sea, and she could not contend with the
+heavily-armoured vessels of the enemy. There was nothing for it but to
+abandon the <i>Monmouth</i> and seek safety in flight. If she stayed to the
+end she would be needlessly sacrificing herself and her crew; and the
+<i>Canopus</i>, now coming up from the south, could not be warned of the
+destruction that awaited her.</p>
+
+<p>So with a heavy heart Captain Luce swung his vessel to the north-west,
+and steamed off at full speed. As he did so the doomed men on the
+<i>Monmouth</i> gave her a pealing cheer. Before the sinking vessel was lost
+to sight another and another cheer was heard. At twenty minutes past
+nine o'clock Captain Luce counted seventy-five flashes of fire stabbing
+the darkness. The <i>N&uuml;rnberg</i> had come up, and was dealing the <i>Monmouth</i>
+its death-blows. It is said that the British ship in her final throes
+made a gallant attempt to ram the enemy. For a few seconds the watching
+men on the <i>Glasgow</i> saw the play of her searchlight. It disappeared,
+and all was over; the <i>Monmouth</i> had gone down with her flag flying.</p>
+
+<div class="poem2"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Toll for the brave&mdash;the brave that are no more."</span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The sole survivor, the <i>Glasgow</i>, sped away at 24 knots an hour, and as
+she gained on her pursuers she bore round gradually to the south. Her
+wireless was working in the hope of picking up the <i>Canopus</i>; but the
+enemy again jammed her messages, and only after several hours did she
+get in touch with her sister ship. At length they fell in with each
+other, and steamed in company southward, threaded the wild,
+glacier-fringed Strait of Magellan, and in due time reached Stanley
+Harbour, in the wind-swept Falkland Isles.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>This disastrous sea fight will go down to history as the Battle of
+Coronel, for the little Chilian port of Coronel was the nearest place to
+the stretch of wild waters in which the <i>Good Hope</i> and the <i>Monmouth</i>
+went down. We shall never learn the full details of the action, for
+those who played the leading part in it on the British side are no more.
+The Germans have called their victory "the fairest sea fight of the
+war." No more misleading description can be imag<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span>ined&mdash;even in Germany.
+The enemy had swifter, better armed, and more heavily armoured ships
+than we had, and his victory was due to superior speed and greater gun
+power.</p>
+
+<p>Captain Luce tells us that "nothing could have been more admirable than
+the conduct of the officers and men throughout. Though it was most
+trying to receive a great volume of fire without the chance of returning
+it adequately, all kept perfectly cool. There was no wild firing, and
+discipline was the same as at battle practice. . . . The serious reverse
+sustained has entirely failed to impair the spirit of officers and
+ship's company, and it is our unanimous wish to meet the enemy again as
+soon as possible." We need no assurance that on that dread November day
+our tars fought and died as Britons are wont to do.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The Falkland Islands lie some three hundred miles to the east of the
+Strait of Magellan. They were discovered by John Davis, the Arctic
+explorer, as far back as 1592, but were first settled by the French in
+1764. Seven years later they became British. The group consists of two
+large islands and of about one hundred islets, rocks, and sandbanks. The
+two large islands are East Falkland and West Falkland, and the only town
+of importance is Stanley, in the north-east of the former island.
+Berkeley Sound and Port William are the two most important sounds in
+East Falkland. Stanley Harbour, on which the capital stands, is a large,
+safe, and easily entered inlet of Port William.</p>
+
+<p>If New Zealand may be said to be the most English of all British
+possessions, the Falkland Islands are certainly the most Scottish. In
+appearance they resemble the Outer Hebrides, and a large part of the
+population is of Scottish descent. The winters are cold and misty, but
+not very severe. So violent are the winds that tennis and croquet can
+only be played on sheltered grounds, and unless walls are erected the
+cabbages in the gardens are blown clean out of the soil. There is only
+one real tree on the islands, and that stands in the governor's garden.
+Penguins are so numerous on the smaller islands and in the lagoons, that
+the governor is sometimes nicknamed King of the Penguin Islands. The
+total population is about 2,300, and the people are mainly occupied in
+sheep-farming and seafaring. The colony is prosperous, and Stanley,
+which has <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span>a wireless installation, is a refitting and coaling station
+for ships rounding Cape Horn.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>When the <i>Canopus</i> and the <i>Glasgow</i> reached Port Stanley, and the
+defeat off Coronel became known, great was the alarm of the colonists.
+They felt sure that the victorious German squadron was about to swoop
+down on the islands. Their alarm was increased when the two British
+battleships were ordered by wireless to proceed to Rio de Janeiro,<a name="FNanchor_147_147" id="FNanchor_147_147"></a><a href="#Footnote_147_147" class="fnanchor">[147]</a>
+where they were to be repaired.</p>
+
+<p>One morning the church and dockyard bells pealed out an alarm; the
+lookout on the hill above the town had sighted a cruiser, cleared for
+action, and making straight for the wireless station. The volunteers
+paraded; non-combatants streamed out of the place, and all waited for
+the firing to begin. Signals were exchanged between the vessel and the
+shore, and the colonists breathed freely once more. It was a false
+alarm. The newcomer was not a German cruiser, but the <i>Canopus</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Obeying orders, she and the <i>Glasgow</i> had made for Rio de Janeiro, but
+when two days from that port she had been instructed to return to
+Stanley, for a reason which we shall learn later. She came about at
+once, and tried to get into touch with the wireless station. As she
+could not do so, she concluded that the Germans had raided the island
+and destroyed the wireless station. Decks were immediately cleared for
+action; the guns were loaded and trained; and with every man at his
+post, ready to fight the whole of von Spee's squadron if necessary, the
+<i>Canopus</i> steered into Stanley Harbour. You can easily imagine the
+relief of the colonists when they discovered that the newcomer was a
+friend and not a foe.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Von Spee was a victor, but even while celebrating his victory he knew
+that his hours were numbered. He was well aware that the British would
+take good care to send an overpowering squadron against him, and that
+there would be only one end to the battle which could not be long
+delayed. It is said that when the German colony at Valparaiso gave a
+banquet to the admiral in honour of his victory, the steps near the door
+of the hall were strewn with flowers. Von Spee noticed them, and said,
+"I think you had better keep these for my grave; they may be wanted." He
+spoke the simple truth: they were wanted&mdash;in less than forty days.</p>
+
+
+<br /><br /><br /><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE FALL OF KIAO-CHAU.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap">W</span>e must now hark back to Kiao-chau, and learn what was taking place in
+that "model of German culture." I have already told you how Germany
+played the chief part in ejecting the Japanese from the Liao-tung
+peninsula, and how, while professing to be China's friend, she stole
+from her 200 square miles of territory, on which she established the
+fortress and naval base of Tsing-tau. A few years later, when a mixed
+force of British, American, German, French, Russian, and Japanese troops
+invaded China during the "Boxer" rising,<a name="FNanchor_148_148" id="FNanchor_148_148"></a><a href="#Footnote_148_148" class="fnanchor">[148]</a> the Kaiser's soldiers
+treated the Japanese with the utmost contempt. Japan had therefore old
+scores to pay off. She was Britain's ally, and, as such, was Germany's
+foe. Friendship for Britain and hatred of Germany made her eager to take
+a hand in the great struggle, though it is said that many high-placed
+Japanese believed that Germany would win. Nevertheless Japan did not
+hesitate for a moment to throw in her lot with the British. She was
+staunchly loyal to her plighted word; while the Germans, who scorned
+her, were tearing up their bond in Belgium.</p>
+
+<p>The war was not three weeks old when Japan declared war, and undertook
+to make a clean sweep of German sea power in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span> the Far East. She proposed
+to wrest Kiao-chau from the Germans, and at the end of the war restore
+it to China. Japan has a fine navy of six Dreadnoughts, six other
+battleships, four first-class battle cruisers, and large classes of
+other cruisers, destroyers, and coast-defence ships. A squadron of her
+fleet at once co-operated with the British in Eastern waters. Her army,
+which had been trained on the German model, numbered 250,000 on a peace
+footing, and could be increased to 1,100,000. It was admirably equipped,
+especially with heavy guns. Japan was thus formidable, alike by land and
+sea.</p>
+
+<p>Before I describe the blockade, siege, and storming of Tsing-tau, let us
+have a clear idea of its geographical position. The map on the opposite
+page shows you the German protectorate of Kiao-chau and the surrounding
+country. Kiao-chau Bay, which has an area of about 200 square miles, is
+almost land-locked. At the southerly point of the peninsula on the
+eastern side of the bay you see the fortress of Tsing-tau, from which a
+railway twenty-two miles long runs north, skirting the shore and
+sweeping round the head of the bay to the station at Kiao-chau. The
+peninsula itself is flat and low-lying, except along the south coast;
+but here and there a number of low hills rise from the plain, and these
+the Germans had strongly fortified as the outer defences of Tsing-tau.
+You will see several of them on the map; one is marked Bismarck Hill,
+another Moltke Hill. Several rivers cross the peninsula, the most
+important being the Chang-sun, which enters the sea almost opposite to
+Potato Island in Kiao-chau Bay. The ground is marshy in the course of
+this river, and also along the coast farther north.</p>
+
+<p>On 27th August an Allied fleet appeared off the south coast of the
+peninsula. A small island was seized as a naval base, and the sea was
+diligently swept for the mines with which the Germans had strewn it. So
+thoroughly was the work done that only one Japanese vessel was blown up
+by mines during the whole of the operations. The line of warships now
+extended east and west, so that all communication with the fortress by
+sea was cut off. Then the bombardment of the forts and harbour began.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/p221.jpg" width="338" height="340" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>On 2nd September the Japanese were ready to begin their land attack. The
+Gulf of Pechili lies directly to the north of Kiao-chau Bay. On the
+Shantung coast of this bay you will find Lai-chow. It was near this
+place that the f<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span>irst Japanese force landed. You will notice that the
+Japanese had to cross a strip of Chinese territory before reaching the
+boundary of German territory. When they crossed the boundary they found
+themselves held up and brought to a standstill. The autumn rains, always
+heavy in Shantung, had been heavier than usual; all the rivers had
+overflowed their banks, and had spread out into wide lagoons. Until the
+floods subsided it was impossible to reach Tsing-tau by this route.
+Nevertheless the Japanese by 13th September had reached the town of
+Kiao-chau, and had seized the railway station, twenty-two miles from
+Tsing-tau. General Kamio, who commanded the force, sent aeroplanes over
+the fortress, and bombs were dropped on the wireless station, the
+electric power station, and on t<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span>he ships in the harbour. Soon the
+floods began to fall, and Kamio found himself able to advance. By the
+27th he had reached Prince Henry Hill, the chief of the outer defences
+of the fortress. Next day he assaulted and captured the hill, from the
+crest of which all the forts around Tsing-tau could be bombarded. He was
+now in much the same position as the Germans when they had broken
+through the outer line of the Antwerp defences and were enabled to shell
+the inner forts. Prince Henry Hill was the key to Tsing-tau, and it is
+surprising that the Germans did not make a greater effort to retain it.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 766px;">
+<img src="images/p222.jpg" width="766" height="464" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h4>Landing of the Japanese at Laoshan Bay.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>Photo, Record Press.</i></h4>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the Japanese had made another landing at Laoshan Bay, on the
+south side of the peninsula, where they were within the boundary of
+German territory. Japanese engineers erected a solid pier, by means of
+which men, guns, and stores were brought ashore, and on 23rd September
+transports arrived with a British force consisting of 1,000 of the South
+Wales Borderers and 500 Sikhs, under General Barnardiston, who was in
+command of our troops in North China. The British force was landed
+easily and rapidly, and all was now ready for a march on Tsing-tau
+itself. You will notice that the Allied force at Laoshan Bay had only a
+short distance to march before joining hands with General Kamio's men.
+The floods were no longer a great obstacle, and the advance was not
+delayed. On the evening of 28th September, just after the capture of
+Prince Henry Hill, the Allied forces were only five miles from
+Tsing-tau; and their lines stretched right across the peninsula, so that
+the fortress was shut in both by land and sea. German warships in
+Kiao-chau Bay attempted to do what British monitors afterwards did on
+the Belgian coast&mdash;that is, shell the right wing of the enemy. Japanese
+aviators, however, showed such skill and daring that the warships were
+driven off.</p>
+
+<p>The Kaiser had ordered his troops to defend Tsing-tau as long as breath
+remained in their bodies. The feeble defence of Prince Henry Hill did
+not seem to show that they were disposed to hold out to the last man.
+During the next month General Kamio was inclined to think that their
+defence was largely make-believe, for they fired their shells in the
+most wanton and reckless fashion, sometimes discharging 1,000 to 1,500
+projectiles a day. He therefore determined on a grand assault instead of
+a long, slow siege.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>From the sea a vigorous bombardment was kept up, and on 15th October the
+Japanese general offered a safe-conduct to all non-combatants who cared
+to leave the fortress. The American consul, several ladies and children,
+and a few Chinese took advantage of the offer. On 31st October, 140
+Japanese siege guns were in position, and as it was the Emperor's
+birthday a royal salute was fired with live shells. Before, however, the
+guns were fired, the Japanese signalled, "Are you now quite ready,
+gentlemen?" The reply came in the shape of a whizzing bullet. Then the
+shells began to whistle. All the forts were bombarded; fires broke out
+near the harbour; the oil tanks were speedily in flames, and black smoke
+filled the heavens. The forts were assailed by guns of practically the
+same calibre as those with which the Belgian fortresses had been
+battered down. A British officer who witnessed the bombardment said, "It
+really was a wonderful sight, and the Japanese shooting was magnificent.
+. . . Every shell seemed to find the mark. There was hardly a stick left
+in the forts and redoubts; concrete platforms, trenches, guns, and
+barbed-wire entanglements, all were destroyed. Our small force did their
+full share."</p>
+
+<p>The German warships in the harbour replied, but before evening one of
+them had disappeared, and a second sank two days later. On 1st November
+H.M.S. <i>Triumph</i>, in seven shots, silenced the forts on Bismarck Hill;
+on 2nd November Fort Iltis was put out of action, and the Allies drove
+the Germans off a hill which they were holding. Next day the electric
+light station and the wireless station were wrecked; and, under heavy
+shell and rifle fire, the besiegers advanced still nearer to the
+fortress. By the night of the 6th the Germans were almost ready to
+surrender.</p>
+
+<p>Throughout the darkness the guns of the enemy roared at intervals. The
+Allies, however, pushed on and occupied central positions on the main
+line of defence. By this time they had dug their trenches to within a
+score of yards of the redoubts. When the Germans attempted to leave one
+of their strongholds they found enemy rifles and machine guns covering
+the only exit. Early next morning (7th November) all was ready for the
+final assault. Between six and seven o'clock, while the troops, in tense
+silence, were awaiting the order to storm, white flags appeared above
+the observat<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span>ory and several of the forts. Then the little Japanese
+soldiers broke into loud shouts of "Banzai!<a name="FNanchor_149_149" id="FNanchor_149_149"></a><a href="#Footnote_149_149" class="fnanchor">[149]</a>" Tsing-tau had yielded,
+and the Kaiser had no longer an Asiatic "place in the sun."</p>
+
+<p>At 7.50 in the evening terms of surrender were signed. Honours of war
+were accorded to the defenders, and it was arranged that they should
+march out the next day. At 10 a.m. on 10th November the governor, 201
+officers, and 3,841 men laid down their arms as prisoners of war. The
+German casualties were heavy; the Japanese lost 236 killed and 1,282
+wounded out of a total force of about 23,000; the British 1,500 were
+reduced by 12. In addition, the Japanese lost a cruiser, a destroyer, a
+torpedo boat, and three mine-sweepers.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>In Japan the news was received with delighted surprise. There were great
+rejoicings in the island kingdom, and when General Barnardiston reached
+Tokio he was accorded a welcome such as had never before been given to
+any stranger. He was greeted by parades of troops and thousands of
+cheering school children. The whole Japanese nation made holiday to
+rejoice in its victory, and the capital was gloriously decorated and
+illuminated. The National Assembly was called together, and the greatest
+enthusiasm prevailed. The German officers had been allowed to retain
+their swords, and the people showed them the utmost kindness.</p>
+
+<p>The rapid fall of the fortress was a great blow to German pride. One of
+the newspapers wrote as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Tsing-tau has fallen. The history of the German leased
+territory is henceforth at an end. It was short but glorious.
+From a decayed Chinese fishing village had been made a shining
+testimony to German culture. That the most beautiful, the
+cleanest, and the most progressive town in the Far East had
+sprung up in a couple of years from the soil was calculated to
+awake the jealousy of the slit-eyed people of the East. Never
+shall we forget the bold deed of violence of the yellow robbers
+or of England that set them on to do it. We know that we cannot
+yet settle with Japan for years to come. Perhaps she will
+rejoice over her cowardly robbery. Here our mills can grind but
+slowly. Even if years pass, however, we shall certainly not
+often speak of it, but as certainly always think of it. And if
+eventually the time of reckoning arrives, then as unanimously
+as what is now a cry of pain will a great shout of rejoicing
+ring through Germany. 'Woe to Nippon.'"<a name="FNanchor_150_150" id="FNanchor_150_150"></a><a href="#Footnote_150_150" class="fnanchor">[150]</a></p></div>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 1013px;">
+<img src="images/p226227.jpg" width="1013" height="518" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h3>The city of Warsaw looking north-west across the Vistula,
+which here flows under the three bridges connecting the city proper with
+its suburb, Praga.</h3>
+
+<h4>Warsaw is beautifully situated on the left bank of the Vistula, which is
+here about as wide as the Thames at Gravesend. Most of the city is built
+on a low hill which rises from the broad plain to a terrace 120 feet
+above the river-level. Though dating from the Middle Ages, Warsaw is
+very modern in appearance. It is a large manufacturing centre, but has
+none of the smoke and grime which characterize most industrial towns.
+There is no livelier or gayer city in the east of Europe. Its buildings
+are fine, and its well-laid-out public gardens are a great attraction.
+In Sigismund Square is the former royal castle, round which the life of
+the city is centred. Four main thoroughfares radiate from it, and on or
+near these are the chief public buildings, churches, and statues. The
+Church of the Holy Ghost contains the heart and monument of the great
+Polish musician Chopin. The population of Warsaw in 1911 was 872,478,
+one-third of the people being Jews. Praga is the junction of six great
+trunk lines which converge from Vienna, Berlin, and Danzig on the one
+side of the frontier, and from Petrograd, Moscow, and Kiev (South
+Russia) on the other.</h4>
+
+
+<br /><br /><br /><br />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE FIRST ATTACK ON WARSAW.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap">I</span>t is high time that we returned to the Eastern theatre of war. In
+Chapter XXXIV. of Volume II. you were told that at the end of September
+1914 the Russians, after their crushing defeats of the Austrians, had
+advanced through Galicia to within a hundred miles of Cracow. At that
+time it seemed to us in the West that the Russian left would be almost
+certain to capture the great Galician fortress, and advance into Silesia
+and across the Carpathians towards Vienna within the next few weeks.
+Meanwhile we believed that the Russian right would be over the German
+frontier in full march for Berlin. It was rumoured&mdash;falsely, as we now
+know&mdash;that the Austrians shared our belief, and that their Government
+had decided to leave Vienna for Salzburg<a name="FNanchor_151_151" id="FNanchor_151_151"></a><a href="#Footnote_151_151" class="fnanchor">[151]</a> or Innsbruck.<a name="FNanchor_152_152" id="FNanchor_152_152"></a><a href="#Footnote_152_152" class="fnanchor">[152]</a> Though
+the Allies in the West were held up by the Germans on the Aisne, the
+prospects of their rapid and complete success in the East seemed very
+bright indeed.</p>
+
+<p>Then suddenly came a great disappointment. We learnt that, instead of
+advancing on Cracow, the Russians were retreating from Galicia. By the
+middle of October they were back again on the San, with nothing to show
+for their victories and their weeks of hard fighting. Why had they
+retreated? They were not pushed back by the Austrians; they were
+retiring of their own accord in order to meet a new and dangerous
+movement which the Germans had begun to make in Russian Poland.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>On the frontier of East Prussia there was a deadlock, and von Hindenburg
+had come to the conclusion that all the victories that could be won in
+that deadly region of lake and swamp would avail him nothing. His
+business was to destroy the Russian armies, and that could not be done
+by even a dozen successful campaigns in East Prussia. He must strike
+hard at the Russian centre&mdash;somewhere across the Polish plain, which was
+then but lightly held by his enemy.</p>
+
+<p>At what point in the Russian centre should he try to break
+through?&mdash;that was the question. There was one point that seemed to
+beckon him with the promise of full and speedy success. I have already
+told you that on the Vistula, half-way between the German fortress of
+Thorn and the Galician frontier, stands the great city of Warsaw.<a name="FNanchor_153_153" id="FNanchor_153_153"></a><a href="#Footnote_153_153" class="fnanchor">[153]</a>
+It is not only a great place of manufactures, but a powerful fortress
+and the capital of Russian Poland, which contains twelve million
+people&mdash;Poles, Germans, Russians, and half a score other races. Amongst
+these mixed peoples Germany had many friends who would spy for her, and
+otherwise help her to win the city. Though the Tsar had promised to set
+up the old kingdom of Poland again if all went well with his arms,
+nobody yet knew whether the Poles would be loyal to Russia, or whether
+they would throw in their lot with the Germans. The Kaiser's agents had
+been secretly at work amongst them, striving hard to show that Codlin
+was their friend and not Short.<a name="FNanchor_154_154" id="FNanchor_154_154"></a><a href="#Footnote_154_154" class="fnanchor">[154]</a> They believed that if the Germans
+could seize the capital of Poland the Poles would declare for them.</p>
+
+<p>There was another and more important reason why von Hindenburg should
+launch his attack against Warsaw. The city is a great railway junction.
+Four railways, with cross lines to relieve the pressure on any one line,
+meet at Warsaw. One of these lines runs northwards to East Prussia; a
+second goes north-east to Petrograd; a third eastwards to Moscow; a
+fourth south along the right bank of the Vistula to Novo Alexandra,
+where it sweeps eastwards, and links up with the main system of South
+Russia. If Warsaw could be seized the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span> Russian communications would be
+cut; a wedge would be thrust in between the northern army and the
+southern army in Galicia, and, so divided, they would be an easy prey.
+Clearly, Warsaw was the place at which the Russian centre must be
+broken.</p>
+
+<p>The task was by no means easy. Warsaw itself lies on the west bank of
+the Vistula, with strong forts and lines of entrenchments in front of
+it; but the main railway stations are on the east bank of the river in
+the suburb of Praga, which is connected with the city proper by three
+bridges&mdash;the fine Alexander Bridge, for foot passengers and ordinary
+traffic, in the middle; the new road bridge to the south of it; and the
+railway bridge, protected by the guns of the citadel, to the north.
+Between the city and the main railway stations flows the river Vistula,
+broad, deep, and rapid&mdash;the greatest military obstacle in Eastern
+Europe. The capture of the city alone would not be sufficient for von
+Hindenburg's purpose. If the Russians could hold the eastern bank they
+could still bring up reinforcements, and could still maintain
+communications with their armies to the north and south. If, however,
+the stations in Praga could be seized, the Russians could not use their
+railways, and, as you know, a modern army cannot live long without
+railways. Further, the Germans would be in an excellent position to
+carry the whole line of the Vistula; and, once this was won, the
+Russians could be kept at bay by means of comparatively small forces,
+and prevented from making war in Poland until they had retaken the line
+of the river. The bulk of the German armies would then be able to leave
+the Eastern theatre of war and fall in strength upon the Allies in the
+West.</p>
+
+<p>Now, it was highly important that von Hindenburg should capture Warsaw
+without loss of time. The autumn rains were setting in, and the Polish
+roads, never good, would soon be quagmires, through which heavy guns and
+wagons could only be hauled with great difficulty. The Russians believe
+that General Winter always fights for them; in Poland, General Mud is
+their equally good friend.</p>
+
+<p>In the early days of October, by means of the gridiron of railways which
+Germany has constructed on her eastern border for the express purpose of
+invading Russia, von Hindenburg massed about a million men all along the
+frontier from Thorn southwards, and soon they began to move across the
+rolling<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span> ridges and low boggy valleys towards the Vistula. The left (A)
+advanced towards Warsaw along both banks of the Vistula; the centre (B)
+pushed eastwards from Kalisz; while the right (C) moved north-eastwards
+from Silesia. The right consisted of three columns, the most southerly
+of which was composed of Austrians, who were to push along the Upper
+Vistula. This Austrian column was to work with the column on its left,
+and both were to strike at Josefov, which stands between the confluence
+of the Vistula and the San and the fortress of Ivangorod.</p>
+
+<p>A glance at the map below will explain why an attempt was to be made to
+force the river at this point. There is no railway on the eastern bank
+of the Vistula between Novo Alexandra and the San. The railway strikes
+off south-east from Ivangorod, and the nearest point on it to Josefov is
+Lubl<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span>in, thirty-three miles away. All the roads in this region are bad,
+and the forces fighting in it are at a great disadvantage, because they
+have no railway by which to bring up troops, food, ammunition, and big
+guns. The Russians defending Josefov had no railway on the eastern side
+of the river within thirty-three miles, while the Germans had a railhead
+about ten or twelve miles away on the western side.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/p231.jpg" width="343" height="303" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h4>Von Hindenburg's First Advance on Warsaw.</h4>
+
+<p>If von Hindenburg could force the river at Josefov, and cut the railway
+at Lublin, while his northern columns seized Warsaw, the Russians would
+be in a bad way. They would have to retreat from the line of the
+Vistula, and for months to come would be unable to take the offensive in
+Poland. The German plan was excellent if only it could have been carried
+out secretly. The Russian cavalry, however, soon let the Grand Duke
+Nicholas know that the German columns were advancing, and he was clever
+enough to guess exactly what von Hindenburg was trying to do. He knew
+that if his armies remained to the west of the Vistula they would be
+badly supplied with food and munitions, because the railways of the
+Polish plain are few and far between, and also because his forces might
+easily be divided by the German centre, one column of which was pushing
+along the north bank of the broad, muddy river Pilitza. He determined to
+risk nothing, and leaving a screen of light horse west of the river to
+keep in touch with the enemy, ordered the rest of his forces to fall
+back behind the San and the Vistula. The march on Cracow had, therefore,
+to be abandoned; the grip on Przemysl to be loosened; and the Russian
+army in Galicia brought back for fifty miles, as you have already heard.</p>
+
+<p>All Russian Poland west of the Vistula was thus given up to the enemy.
+The Russians have always had the courage to retreat when the way of
+safety lies to the rear, but they only recoil for a stronger and fiercer
+leap forward. They were not greatly disturbed even when the German
+centre entered Lodz, the Manchester of Poland. The capture of this great
+industrial city was, of course, a great loss to Russia, but an attempt
+to hold it would have resulted in disaster. Nor were they dismayed when
+the German right centre, pushing through Radom, reached the Vistula
+below Ivangorod, and began to cross.</p>
+
+<p>The German advance was slow, but it was very thorough. As the columns
+proceeded eastwards they felled whole fores<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span>ts to form corduroy roads by
+which their guns could cross the marshes. Even the gauge of the railway
+from Kalisz by way of Lodz to Warsaw was altered so that German rolling
+stock could be used. They advanced as though they intended to occupy the
+country for all time.</p>
+
+<p>They were full of confidence. Captured Poles had told them that the
+Grand Duke did not intend to defend Warsaw, and that he meant to give up
+the valley of the Vistula. German aviators reported that they had seen
+troop trains moving from the capital and from Ivangorod eastwards. Van
+Hindenburg was completely misled, and began to dream of a new
+Tannenberg.<a name="FNanchor_155_155" id="FNanchor_155_155"></a><a href="#Footnote_155_155" class="fnanchor">[155]</a></p>
+
+<p>By 15th October the Germans were attacking the line of the Vistula in
+force. An attempt was made to cross the river between Ivangorod and
+Warsaw. Raft after raft crossed the stream, and soon two battalions of
+infantry were drawn up on the eastern bank waiting for their fellows to
+arrive. Suddenly from the woods and coppices the Russians sprang forward
+in overwhelming numbers. The two battalions were wiped out, and the
+crowded rafts on the river disappeared as the Russian shells crashed
+down upon them. A strong assault on the bridgehead at Ivangorod met with
+the same terrible fate. A pontoon bridge was thrown across the stream,
+but when it was thick with marching men, shrapnel began to burst above
+it. The river ran red with blood, and the stream was choked with
+corpses.</p>
+
+<p>These two attempts to cross the river were but feints. The real attempt,
+as we know, was being made at Josefov, where the river narrows. The
+eastern shore seemed to be held lightly; there was no sign of the enemy,
+and a large German force with guns crossed the river by means of
+pontoons, and pushed on towards the railway from Ivangorod to Lublin,
+fully believing that it had turned the Russian left. Then came a rude
+awakening. On 21st October General Ruzsky fell upon them at a village in
+the midst of swampy flats, eight miles from Novo Alexandra. The Russians
+plied the bayonet with deadly effect, and few Germans escaped to tell
+the tale. Next day Ruzsky was over the river, driving the Germans before
+him.</p>
+
+<p>He counter-attacked both north and south of Ivangorod, and thus was able
+to cut off the German centre and left from the German right. The
+invaders were now in two groups, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span> one to the north and the other to
+the south of the Pilitza. Advancing with great spirit, the Russians
+thrust the enemy out of the open country near the river into the great
+spruce woods which extend westwards for ten miles. Countless
+hand-to-hand engagements took place in their marshes and forest glades.
+The slaughter was terrible. At a village north of the railway between
+Radom and Ivangorod, the Russians buried 16,000 dead, their own and the
+enemy's. When the tide of war had rolled by, the forest seemed as though
+it had been swept by a hurricane. The Germans were forced into the open
+country beyond the woods, and as they emerged the Russian guns caught
+them and mowed them down in thousands.</p>
+
+<p>The Germans fought desperately, but every attempt to make a stand was
+crushed, and the remnants were forced back. By the 25th they were at
+Radom, and the Crown Prince, who had been waiting to enter Ivangorod in
+triumph, boarded the train which was waiting with steam up, and hurried
+westwards into safety. The Russians gave the retreating enemy no rest
+day or night. Near Kielce<a name="FNanchor_156_156" id="FNanchor_156_156"></a><a href="#Footnote_156_156" class="fnanchor">[156]</a> they stood at bay. The strongest position
+in their line was a graveyard, with a little white church in the middle.
+The Caucasians<a name="FNanchor_157_157" id="FNanchor_157_157"></a><a href="#Footnote_157_157" class="fnanchor">[157]</a> poured like a torrent over the wall and seized the
+gate, which was the only outlet. In the darkness, amidst the graves, men
+fought with clubbed muskets and cold steel until the ground was
+literally soaked with blood. Ringed round by foes, the Germans and
+Austrians strove with the fury of despair, but they were no match for
+the Caucasians. The enemy's loss was very heavy, and 12,000 prisoners
+and fifty guns were taken. At one o'clock on 4th November the Russians,
+horse, foot, and artillery, poured into Kielce. Meanwhile the extreme
+left of the Russians had won Sandomir<a name="FNanchor_158_158" id="FNanchor_158_158"></a><a href="#Footnote_158_158" class="fnanchor">[158]</a> after storming a triple line
+of defences, and the routed enemy was flying south-west towards Cracow.</p>
+
+
+<br /><br /><br /><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV.</h2>
+
+<h3>VON HINDENBURG FOILED.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap">M</span>eanwhile, what was happening at Warsaw? The coming of the enemy was
+heralded by airships and aeroplanes, which hovered over the city,
+dropping bombs on the railway stations, and showers of leaflets urging
+the Poles to take sides with the Germans. The city was full of spies,
+and many of the Jew inhabitants were friendly to the enemy. Spies were
+shot and hanged daily. The coming of the aircraft created a panic, but
+the terror soon passed away. Then Uhlans appeared eight miles from the
+centre of the city, and numbers of well-to-do residents fled into
+Russia. Despite these "excursions and alarms," most of the people in
+Warsaw went about their business or pleasure quite unmoved.</p>
+
+<p>On Friday, the 16th, the fight for Warsaw began. Von Hindenburg himself
+directed the operations of the five army corps which were to make the
+grand assault. On Sunday, the 18th, the Germans were on the edge of the
+city, and the shells from their field howitzers were bursting in the
+suburbs. The windows of Warsaw shook with the roar of guns, and at night
+the western sky was bright with the flashes of artillery and the flames
+of burning homesteads. Fierce warfare was raging only a few miles away,
+but the citizens seemed as gay and light-hearted as ever. They thronged
+the pavements, the caf&eacute;s, and the cinema shows in the old accustomed
+way, and save for the cannonading, the streams of wounded, the
+occasional appearance of a Taube, and the soldiers in the streets, there
+was nothing to indicate that a desperate battle was being fought five
+miles away.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Outside the forts to the west of the Vistula the Grand Duke had dug
+lines of trenches; but when the fight began they were but thinly held.
+It is said that there was a period of seven hours during which the
+Germans might have entered the city unopposed. Along one of the main
+roads leading directly to Warsaw there were no Russians capable of
+holding back the enemy for a single hour. For some unknown reason the
+Germans failed to take advantage of this gap in the line of defence.</p>
+
+<p>Just at the critical moment reinforcements arrived, and the people
+poured into the streets to welcome them. The first corps to reach the
+city consisted of Siberians, who were so eager to meet the enemy that
+they leaped down from the cars and formed up without a moment's delay.
+In a very brief time they were swinging over the Vistula bridge, through
+the main street, and on their way to the trenches. These men had been
+brought by rail from Moscow. The people cheered them to the echo, flung
+flowers amongst them, and pressed cigarettes and other gifts on them.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 874px;">
+<img src="images/p236.jpg" width="874" height="500" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h4>German Infantry moving across the Plain towards Warsaw.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>Photo, The Sphere.</i></h4>
+
+<p>The big stubborn Siberians bore the brunt of the German attack, and made
+a most determined defence. They were assisted by their old enemies and
+present friends, the Japanese. Several batteries of heavy guns, served
+by Japanese gunners who had travelled from the Far East by the Siberian
+railway, now came into action. Nevertheless, the situation was still
+full of peril.</p>
+
+<p>More reinforcements followed, and soon the Russians were so strongly
+entrenched as to defy all von Hindenburg's efforts. Many of the
+newcomers had marched from Galicia amidst terrible weather along the
+right bank of the Vistula, over roads deep in mud or flooded by swollen
+streams. We do not know exactly the strength of the relieving army, but
+a Russian writer tells us that in one day "four columns, each 250,000
+strong, crossed the Vistula over sixteen pontoon bridges," and deployed
+on the left bank ready for an advance.</p>
+
+<p>By the evening of Monday, the 19th, the German attack slackened and died
+away, and "on Tuesday there returned to the city thousands of tired-out,
+woe-begone Siberian Cossacks and Caucasian cavalrymen&mdash;the soldiers who
+had turned the scale. All Warsaw turned out in the rain to give them
+cakes and cigarettes, handshakes and cheers."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Why had the Germans given up their attempt on Warsaw? The Grand Duke was
+not content with merely holding Warsaw. While the German guns were
+hurling their shells at the Russian trenches, General Rennenkampf<a name="FNanchor_159_159" id="FNanchor_159_159"></a><a href="#Footnote_159_159" class="fnanchor">[159]</a>
+was making a flank attack on the Germans from the fortress of Novo
+Georgievsk, lower down on the Vistula. We do not know exactly what
+happened in this part of the battlefield, but one thing is certain&mdash;the
+German left was attacked with crushing force. It was rolled back from
+the Vistula, but was still fighting hard; but when Ruzsky, on the 22nd,
+began to carry all before him south of the Pilitza, it was bound to
+retreat. Rennenkampf followed it up and retook Lodz, while von
+Hindenburg sullenly retreated towards his frontier, fighting innumerable
+rearguard actions by the way. Thousands of his men were sacrificed to
+prevent stores and guns from falling into the hands of the Russians, and
+the whole country over which he passed was turned into a desert. In one
+case the lives of 2,000 men of the rearguard were thrown away in order
+to save a convoy. The roads which von Hindenburg had made during his
+advance were blown up; railway lines, stations, bridges, and towers were
+destroyed, and even the rails were twisted into the shape of corkscrews.</p>
+
+<p>When the Germans ran short of explosives they found other means of
+destruction. A water-tower, for example, was destroyed by sending a
+railway engine full tilt against it. Telegraph wires were cut into
+sections, the posts were broken or sawn through, and the insulators were
+smashed in pieces. It looked as though the Germans did not intend to
+travel that road again. But there was method in von Hindenburg's
+madness. He was devastating all Poland <i>except the northern quarter</i>.
+This he left intact, because he meant to make another advance through it
+when the time was ripe. For this reason he retreated, not through the
+northern quarter of Poland, but towards the south-west.</p>
+
+<p>What were the Austrians in Galicia doing while disaster was thus
+overtaking the German armies? In the first two months of the war they
+had been badly led, and had suffered much. But under new leadership they
+proved themselves far more successful. They swept through Galicia,
+seized Jaroslav, relieved Przemysl, and nearly recaptured Lemberg.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span> The
+starving garrison at Przemysl received food and supplies, and was thus
+given a new lease of life. When, however, the Germans farther north were
+forced to retreat, the Austrians were bound to do so too. They were,
+however, in no hurry to retire. They only withdrew to the south of the
+Upper Vistula when the Russians were beginning to envelop them.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/p239.jpg" width="304" height="372" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h4>The Grand Duke Nicholas.</h4>
+
+<p>Thus ended the first attempt to capture Warsaw. The nut was too hard for
+von Hindenburg to crack, though he had by no means given up his attempts
+to crush it. He had been foiled; but, as we shall learn later, he was to
+come on again and again with wonderful perseverance. For the moment,
+however, he had failed, and failed badly. While the Allies in the West
+were only just holding back the desperate assaults of the enemy from
+Arras to the sea, the Russians were rejoicing in victory, and British
+newspapers were painting rosy pictures of the Grand Duke leading his
+triumphant armies within a few short weeks into the German capital.
+Alas! the hope was vain; rivers of blood were to flow before that happy
+day was even in sight.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 733px;">
+<img src="images/p240.jpg" width="733" height="469" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h3>Homeless and Ruined.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>Photo, Daily Mirror.</i></h3>
+
+<h4>The Germans have burned down the houses of these Polish peasants, and
+have destroyed their little all. The latter are here seen raking over
+the ground in the hope of finding something which has escaped
+destruction. The bitter Russian winter is rapidly approaching, and they
+have no where to lay their heads.</h4>
+
+
+<br /><br /><br /><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXVI.</h2>
+
+<h3>STORIES FROM THE BATTLEFIELDS.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap">D</span>uring the Russian retreat to the Vistula it was necessary to destroy a
+bridge over which the Germans must pass. It had to be done at the moment
+of their crossing, and no body of men could be spared to remain behind
+for the purpose. A simple soldier, well aware that only a miracle could
+save him, offered to do the work alone. Breast deep in icy cold water,
+he placed the charges of dynamite beneath the bridge, but had no time to
+fix wires to the fuses and lead them away to a safe distance. Still in
+the water, he waited for the Germans; and when they were tramping across
+the bridge above his head, he fired the fuses, and the whole structure
+crashed into fragments. Strange to say, he escaped unhurt, and swam
+ashore miles down the stream. When he told his tale he simply added, "It
+wasn't meant for me to be killed just yet."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>On another occasion four sappers with their officer were told off to
+blow up a bridge immediately the Russians had crossed it, and before the
+Germans, who were close on their heels, could reach it. There was no
+time to make the usual preparations. The officer handed out charges to
+the men, who fixed them to the bridge. Then he gave each of them a
+cigarette and took one himself. They lighted their cigarettes and lay
+down, each man close to his charge. "Mind, boys," said he, "that the
+cigarettes don't go out. Smoke quietly till the enemy reaches the
+bridge; then when I say 'One, two, three!' put them to the fuses and run
+if you can."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The men smoked quietly as they watched the Germans rushing down the bank
+towards the bridge; then, as the officer counted, "One, two, three,"
+they placed their cigarettes to the fuses and ran for their lives to the
+Russian bank. In a few moments there was a loud explosion, and the
+bridge simply disappeared. The baffled Germans opened a furious fire,
+but to no purpose. Their path was blocked by a deep, rapid river.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Here is another story of heroism at a bridge. When the Russians were
+following up the Germans during their retreat from the Vistula, they
+reached a bridge across a tributary of the Warta. The fact that it was
+standing was clear proof that it was mined, and that sappers had been
+left behind to blow it up as soon as the Russians began to cross it. The
+rearguard of the Germans had trained guns on the bridge. A Russian
+engineer officer thought that it might be cleared of mines and
+preserved. He therefore called for volunteers to undertake the delicate
+and difficult task. Everyone of his Caucasian sappers volunteered, but
+he only chose those who had no parents alive.</p>
+
+<p>It was ten o'clock at night, and quite dark, when the attempt was made.
+In the thick gloom the seven chosen men silently wormed their way on to
+the bridge. They groped about, and discovered that it was covered with
+planks nailed on to it in various directions. At once they guessed that
+the charges were laid under these planks. Almost noiselessly they
+removed the boards and the charges, and then cleared away every inch of
+the fuses round the woodwork under the bridge. To do this they had to
+hang down over the water, holding on with one hand and unfastening the
+interlacing fuses with the other. In some places they hung by their
+feet, head downwards, in order to have both hands free.</p>
+
+<p>Their comrades waited breathlessly on the bank for a full hour, and then
+the seven men who had been working on the bridge reappeared and quietly
+said, "The way is clear." Thanks to their extraordinary skill and
+devotion, the bridge was now safe, and the Russians crossed without
+mishap.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The Grand Duke Nicholas, the Commander-in-chief of the Russian armies,
+is a man of the most fearless courage and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span> idol of his soldiers. A
+correspondent says: "During the terrific fighting to the north of the
+Radom-Ivangorod railway, the Grand Duke's motor car, marked by a blue
+and white flag, drove slowly down a road on which German shells were
+falling. The Siberians, with whom the Commander-in-chief is particularly
+popular, raised such a cheer that their comrades in the trenches
+imagined that a great victory had been won. The omen was fulfilled, for
+next day the Germans were driven along the Pilitza, and were obliged to
+abandon four guns. 'Big Nicholas' let down the roof of his motor car and
+praised the soldiers as '<i>Molodsti</i>' (fine fellows)&mdash;the usual
+salutation of a general. A chorus of '<i>Radi staratsa</i>' ('We are
+delighted to do our best') was the reply."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>You will remember that there were very fierce struggles in the woods
+which lie to the west of the Vistula and to the north and south of the
+Radom-Ivangorod railway. A correspondent<a name="FNanchor_160_160" id="FNanchor_160_160"></a><a href="#Footnote_160_160" class="fnanchor">[160]</a> thus describes the
+fighting in the woods, and their condition when the Germans had been
+driven out of them:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Day after day the Russians poured troops in on their side of the wood.
+These entered, were seen for a few minutes, then disappeared in the maze
+of trees, and were lost. Companies, regiments, battalions, and even
+brigades were quite cut off from each other. None knew what was going on
+anywhere but a few feet in front. All knew that the only thing required
+of them was to keep advancing. This they did, foot by foot and day after
+day, fighting each other hand to hand, taking, losing, and retaking
+position after position. In all of this ten kilometres<a name="FNanchor_161_161" id="FNanchor_161_161"></a><a href="#Footnote_161_161" class="fnanchor">[161]</a> of forest I
+dare venture to say there is hardly an acre without its trenches, rifle
+pits, and graves.</p>
+
+<p>"Here one sees where a dozen men had a little fort of their own, and
+fought furiously with the enemy a few feet away in a similar position.
+Day after day it went on, and day after day troops were poured into the
+Russian side of the wood, and day and night the continuous crack of
+rifle fire and the roar of artillery hurling shells into the wood could
+be heard for miles. . . . The forest looks as though a hurricane had
+swept through. Trees staggering from their shattered trunks, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span> limbs
+hanging everywhere, show where the shrapnel shells have been bursting.
+Yard by yard the ranks and lines of the enemy were driven back, but the
+nearer their retreat brought them to the open country west of the wood
+the hotter the contest became; for each man in his own mind must have
+known how they would fare when, once driven from the protecting forest,
+they attempted to retreat through the open country without shelter.</p>
+
+<p>"The state of the last two kilometres of the wooded belt is hard to
+describe. There seems scarcely an acre that is not sown like the scene
+of a paper-chase; only the trail here consists of blood-stained bandages
+and bits of uniform. Here also there was small use for the artillery,
+and the rifle and the bayonet played the leading part. Men, fighting
+hand to hand with clubbed muskets and bayonets, fought from tree to tree
+and ditch to ditch. . . .</p>
+
+<p>"But at last the day came when the dirty, grimy, blood-stained soldiers
+of the Tsar pushed their antagonists out of the far side of the belt of
+woodland. . . . Once out in the open, the hungry guns of the Russians
+got their chance. Down every road through the wood came the six-horse
+teams, with the guns jumping and jingling behind, with their
+accompanying caissons<a name="FNanchor_162_162" id="FNanchor_162_162"></a><a href="#Footnote_162_162" class="fnanchor">[162]</a> heavy with shrapnel. The moment the enemy
+were in the clear, these batteries, eight guns to a unit, were
+unlimbered on the fringe of the wood, and were pouring out their death
+and destruction on the wretched enemy, now retreating hastily across the
+open."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The Russians, as perhaps you know, are a deeply religious people. A
+soldier thus tells us how he went into battle during an assault:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Our hearts were beating wildly. I felt a choking sensation in my
+throat, and my spirit boiled up within me. I heard myself shouting, and
+in my brain something was urging me to 'run, run' against the enemy.
+Some one in the front ranks began to sing the majestic hymn,</p>
+
+<div class="poem2"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">'O Lord, save Thy people.'</span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Before he had finished the first line the rear ranks have taken it up
+and continued it,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>
+'And bless Thine heritage.'<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>The waves of the melody seem to dash against the faces of the enemy. At
+first only a few voices joined in the hymn. More and more began to sing.
+The whole column seemed to give forth one vast wave of sound. It seemed
+as though even the dying lying around joined in with their last breath.
+A dark-faced Jew lad who ran beside me joined in too. I saw his open
+mouth and heard his rich baritone voice. Death seemed to have no terror.
+We felt that our death was necessary, as is the death of the autumn
+leaves which fall from the trees to fertilize the soil for the future
+harvest."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>You have heard of General Ruzsky, who commanded the army which wiped out
+the German troops across the Vistula, and then flung his legions across
+the stream to drive the enemy before him in rout. He was then a man of
+sixty years of age, with wrinkled brow, gray hair and moustache, and a
+stoop in his shoulders. In battle he exposed himself without fear,
+believing that his example would inspire his men. Not only was he famous
+as a fighter, but also as a student. At home, he lived a simple life in
+a small flat at Kiev.<a name="FNanchor_163_163" id="FNanchor_163_163"></a><a href="#Footnote_163_163" class="fnanchor">[163]</a> He did not drink or smoke, and his spectacles
+gave him the look of a professor. Ruzsky drove about in a motor car with
+orange-coloured tyres, which caught the eyes of his soldiers and told
+them that their general was amongst them.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 709px;">
+<img src="images/p246.jpg" width="709" height="453" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h4>Siberian Cavalry crossing a River.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>Photo, Record Press.</i></h4>
+
+<p>Russian boys were very eager to go to the war, and some of them followed
+regiments to the front. A group of three rosy-cheeked schoolboys from
+Petrograd&mdash;Pete, Jack, and Eustace&mdash;carrying home-made pistols roughly
+carved out of chunks of wood, with cartridge cases for barrels and wire
+hooks for hammers, hung on to a detachment of Guards, and actually
+reached the war zone, but were caught by a policeman as they were hiding
+behind a railway embankment, cooking porridge at a fire. The policeman
+took them to the nearest officer, who asked,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Where did yo<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span>u get those weapons?"</p>
+
+<p>"I made them," Jack explained. "I can cut one out in three hours."</p>
+
+<p>"And why," inquired the officer, "have you a pistol without a barrel?"</p>
+
+<p>"It flew off when I fired," replied Eustace.</p>
+
+<p>The officer laughed, and the policeman searched the would-be-soldiers'
+pockets. He found in them some home-made gunpowder, a pipe-lighter, and
+a bottle containing some liquid. He discovered that the pipe-lighter was
+for the purpose of making a fire, and that the bottle contained spirit
+to put in the pipe-lighter. The boys had come prepared with everything
+for the campaign. To their great distress they were taken to the railway
+station and sent back to their parents. The Russian writer who tells the
+story thus concludes: "God grant, little children, that you may preserve
+the fire of your loyal little hearts till the day when you are men, and
+then Russia will have need of you."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>You know that the Germans and Austrians made great efforts to win over
+the Poles by all sorts of lavish promises. Professor Bernard Pares, an
+Englishman with the Russian army, tells us that most of the Poles
+remained faithful to the Tsar, and that they were confident that he
+would set up their old kingdom again when he was victorious. "I saw at
+Kielce," he says, "ample evidence of the enthusiasm of the Poles for the
+Russian cause. They show the greatest courtesy and kindness to Russians,
+especially in the villages. I am told on good evidence that when a
+German soldier defaced a portrait of the Tsar, a Polish official struck
+him in the face, and for this was bound to a telegraph pole for two
+days, and then taken down and shot. . . . Yesterday the commander of a
+Russian army corps at Radom,<a name="FNanchor_164_164" id="FNanchor_164_164"></a><a href="#Footnote_164_164" class="fnanchor">[164]</a> where the Germans had remained over a
+month, issued the following letter of thanks to the people of the
+town:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"'Poles,&mdash;Our wounded officers and soldiers, and also our
+prisoners who had fallen into the hands of the enemy, and had
+passed through the town or province of Radom, speak with deep
+gratitude of your cordial treatment of them. You have tended the
+wounded, fed the starving, and clothed and sheltered from the
+enemy those escaping from captivity. You have given them money
+and guided them to our lines. Accept from me, and from all ranks
+of the Army entrusted to me, warm and hearty than<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span>ks for all
+your kindness, for your Slavonic sympathy and goodness.'"</p></div>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>A correspondent thus describes the touching spectacle which was to be
+seen every day at the Sacred Gate of Vilna,<a name="FNanchor_165_165" id="FNanchor_165_165"></a><a href="#Footnote_165_165" class="fnanchor">[165]</a> when the fate of Warsaw
+was hanging in the balance: "Above the gateway is a chapel with wide
+open doors showing a richly-gilded and flower-decked image of the
+Virgin. At one side stands a row of leaden organ pipes, at the other
+stands a priest. Music is wafted through the air with incense and the
+sound of prayers. Down below in the narrow, muddy roadway kneel many
+poor men and women with prayer-books in their hands. They are Poles. But
+through the gateway come incessantly, all day and all night, Russian
+troops going to the front. And every soldier or officer as he comes
+lifts his hat and passes through the praying throng uncovered. This is
+beautiful. Let Russia always be so in the presence of the Mother of
+Poland."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The following story illustrates the doggedness of the Russian soldier.
+"A detachment of twenty Russian cavalry met a hundred of the enemy's
+horsemen, and, being so greatly outnumbered, decided to beat a retreat.
+One of the Russians, however, was slightly wounded, and thrown from his
+horse. As he lay on the ground he took up his rifle and began to pick
+off the Germans who were pursuing his comrades. His shooting was so good
+that he killed three of them. Peasants came up and offered to carry him
+to a place of safety; but he said, 'No, I will not hide from Germans,'
+and went on firing. Meanwhile the enemy, suspecting an ambush, gave up
+the chase. When they returned and found that they had been foiled by a
+single man they at once finished him off. He died happy, knowing that he
+had by his self-sacrifice secured the safety of his comrades."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Here is a grim story which illustrates the splendid patience and
+uncomplaining endurance of the Russian wounded:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"A tall, thin soldier stopped near. 'You are wounded, old chap?'
+inquired the general.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"'Yes, sir,' the man replied, not recognizing the general in the gloom.
+'How do I get to the hospital?'</p>
+
+<p>"'You ought first to find your regiment, and give up your rifle and
+cartridges. But can you get there? where are you wounded?'</p>
+
+<p>"The soldier threw open his cloak, and the general examined him with a
+pocket electric torch. The entire shirt and the inner part of the cloak
+on the breast were soaked with black blood. One knew that underneath was
+an enormous gaping wound. The soldier stood erect, slightly supporting
+himself on his rifle.</p>
+
+<p>"'Go to the hospital,' said the general. Then he turned to me. 'You saw?
+That is what they are like, and all are the same.'"</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Professor Pares gives us the following picture of the Russian soldiers
+on the march:&mdash;"We travelled in the midst of troops all hurrying forward
+to participate in the taking of Kielce. They moved slowly along the road
+in straggling groups like an enormous family on its way to a huge
+picnic; but the unit of each regiment is never lost, and all meet at
+'the appointed place.' When they come to a barrier in the road they show
+great readiness and resource in removing it, and all work together like
+brothers. Any number of men run up from their loose ranks to push a
+motor or cart or transport wagon over a marshy stream, and those who are
+so assisted call back, 'Thank you, brothers.' It is like a current that
+slows up and takes thought against some barrier, but whose general
+movement seems not even to be checked. Some of the side-tracks looked
+very bad indeed, but every one somehow got through, no matter what the
+size of their carriage. Often at such points there were companies that
+rested along the grassy banks of the road; in other places one saw by
+the side large numbers of gray transport wagons. Those carrying straw
+for the bivouacs were in front; sometimes one came upon a resting
+battery. The brotherhood between officers and men is another notable
+feature of the march of a Russian army."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>"The next day we returned to Radom, occupying seats in the motor of a
+Russian general. The great stream of troops<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span> was still flowing on. There
+were troops of all kinds. We called to ask the names of each regiment,
+which they always gave in a kind of jovial chorus. There were food
+transports, field kitchens, pontoons, and, not least important, the
+post. At one point we saw a large body of Austrian prisoners sitting by
+a wood drinking water with their very small escort. These men helped
+some of our motors over difficult places. The great current of men and
+wagons still flowed on. Teams of white horses which, because they can be
+so clearly seen, are only allowed to serve in the transport, were
+dashing through mud and water with an ardour as great as though they
+were on the field of battle. At one place a bread wagon dropped all its
+cargo and turned over on its side; but horse and driver, evidently not
+noticing, carried it on into the stream without checking the pace, one
+wheel flying in the air and the other broken beneath the wagon.</p>
+
+<p>"Our general spoke frequently with the men, who helped us in getting our
+motor over difficult places. When the trouble was over he said heartily,
+'Once more, thank you, brothers.' Nothing will remain with me longer
+than these endless, irregular lines of big, sleepy, almost
+stupid-looking men, moving at a walk which might last for ever, and all
+in one direction, and all with set eyes&mdash;the people that lies down to
+sleep at the roadside, that breakfasts off stale biscuit soaked in
+water, that carries nothing but what it can put to a hundred uses, that
+will crouch for days without food in flooded trenches, that can die like
+flies for an idea, and is sure sooner or later to attain it&mdash;the people
+that never complains, the people of brothers."</p>
+
+
+<br /><br /><br /><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXVII.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE SECOND RUSSIAN ADVANCE ON CRACOW.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap">A</span>t the close of Chapter XXV. we left the Germans, who had been beaten
+north of the Pilitza, retreating rapidly towards the Warta, and those
+who had suffered defeat south of that river hurrying towards Cracow. As
+you know, they wrecked the roads, railways, and bridges on their line of
+retreat, and the work was done with such thoroughness that a whole army
+must have been detailed for the purpose. So rapidly, however, did the
+main bodies of the Germans move that they did not even pause to bury
+their dead properly. Consequently, they left behind them but few
+prisoners and guns. In some places they had prepared strong positions,
+but these they abandoned almost without striking a blow.</p>
+
+<p>You know that the Germans had set their hearts on Warsaw, because it
+would enable them to control the sheaf of railways by means of which the
+Russians were able to maintain their armies in Poland. The Russians, on
+the other hand, had set their hearts on Cracow, because it would give
+them a road along the river Oder to Berlin, and another across the
+Carpathians to Vienna. Now that the Germans and Austrians were in
+retreat, the Grand Duke was able to advance again towards Cracow. When
+the Germans attacked him along the line of the Vistula he had four
+armies, which we will call A, B, C, D, holding that river. The army A
+extended from the fortress of Novo Georgievsk to the south of Warsaw;
+the army B continued the line to the south of Ivangorod; and the armies
+C and D lay still farther south up to the junction of the San with the
+Vistula. Along the San was Brussilov's army, w<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span>hich had retreated from
+Galicia.</p>
+
+<p>The Grand Duke knew that while Brussilov advanced again through Galicia
+he must protect Brussilov's flank, so that the Germans could not
+interfere with his movements. In order to do this he must hold the
+Germans who had retreated towards the Warta by means of armies A, B, and
+C. If fortune favoured him he might, by means of the army A, roll up the
+left flank of the Germans, and hem them in between C and his fourth
+army, D, which was now marching south-east towards Cracow. He therefore
+hastened the advance of his troops all along the line. Army A advanced
+along the Vistula towards Thorn, and the cavalry screen of Cossacks,
+riding hard, was not twenty miles from that fortress on 9th November.
+Army B struck at the Warta in the neighbourhood of Kolo, and on 10th
+November its vanguard was actually across the German frontier, and had
+cut the railway from Posen to Cracow. Meanwhile Army C was striking at
+the Upper Warta, while Army D was pushing south-east. By 12th November
+the cavalry of this fourth army had got within twenty miles north of
+Cracow. While these movements were going on Brussilov was pushing
+westward once more, and had already reached and reoccupied the main
+passes of the Western Carpathians.</p>
+
+<p>Everything was going well, and many people in this country fully
+believed that the Russians would be in Cracow before long. But wiser
+folks wondered what new move von Hindenburg was about to make. It was
+not likely that the Germans would sit still under the terribly rough
+handling which they had recently received. They had lost very heavily,
+and they had been beaten back to their frontier, but they were still
+full of fight. On 13th November it was evident that they were going to
+make a very powerful counter-attack.</p>
+
+<p>Let me remind you of two facts which it is important that you should
+remember. The first is, that along the Polish frontier the Germans
+possess a network of railways which enable them to move troops from
+north to south very rapidly; the second is, that though the Germans had
+devastated much of Poland they had kept the roads and railways intact in
+the northern quarter of the country. As soon as von Hindenburg had
+withdrawn his left and centre behind his own frontier, he put his troops
+into trains, and hurried them northward to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span> neighbourhood of Thorn,
+where he had large reserves. Some of these reserves came from Germany,
+and some were brought from the Western front. Altogether he gathered in
+an astonishingly brief time a striking force of about 800,000 men, and
+behind them he had many thousands more. He now began to push eastward on
+a forty-mile front between the Warta and the Lower Vistula towards
+Warsaw once more.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/p253.jpg" width="277" height="404" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span>
+
+<p>As the roads and railways in this region were good, he hoped to make a
+rapid advance, and fall on Warsaw before the Russians could bring up
+reinforcements along the broken railways and ruined roads farther south.
+Even if his centre were heavily attacked he had the means of retiring
+rapidly. It was a very ingenious plan which he was now about to carry
+out. General von Mackensen was to command the armies in the field.</p>
+
+<p>The Russians, you will observe, were very badly placed to meet the
+sudden thrust that was now about to begin. They were strung out upon a
+huge curve of a thousand miles in length, and their communications were
+bad. As the railways had been destroyed, reinforcements from the south
+would take a long time to come up, and before they could appear von
+Mackensen hoped to be in Warsaw. The Army A which he had to meet was
+only about 200,000 strong. Of course it might be strengthened by new
+forces brought up from behind Warsaw, but in this case, too, there would
+be much delay. Everything promised a speedy victory for the Germans.</p>
+
+<p>In the next chapter we will see how they fared. In this chapter we will
+follow the fortunes of the two armies that were advancing on Cracow. I
+have already told you that the cavalry of Army D under General
+Dmitrieff, a Bulgarian, who fought bravely in the Balkan War and
+afterwards offered his sword to Russia, was twenty miles north of Cracow
+on 12th November. At that time the main body was about sixty miles
+behind. For three weeks it pushed on slowly but steadily, and meanwhile
+Brussilov had recaptured Jaroslav, had again besieged Przemysl, and,
+leaving a force to mask that fortress, was pushing into the passes of
+the Carpathians, which, as you know, form a great natural barrier
+between Galicia and the Hungarian plain. As the Carpathians figure
+largely in this and in future fighting, I will give you a brief
+description of them now.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 713px;">
+<img src="images/p254.jpg" width="713" height="464" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h4>The Tatra Range of the Carpathians.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>Photo, Exclusive News Agency.</i></h4>
+
+<p>The Carpathians curve for 1,000 miles like a huge sickle round the
+Hungarian plain from the deep trench of the Danube, known as the Iron
+Gates, to what is called the Moravian Gate, beyond which lie the
+Bohemian mountains. The southern portion of this range, which barricades
+Hungary against Rumania, consists of high and bold ridges and lofty
+rocky tablelands; it forms a stronghold so well fortified by nature that
+it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span> has been called the "Eastern citadel of Central Europe." That
+portion of the range which overlooks Galicia may be called the "waist"
+of the Carpathians, for here it is at its lowest, and is crossed by a
+number of passes, over which roads and railways have been made. Still
+farther west, fronting Silesia on the north is the loftiest and boldest
+part of the range&mdash;the High Tatra. Here we find a great mountain wall of
+granite, with steep, rocky ramparts and jagged crests, varied by
+beautiful lakes, which lie in the cup-shaped hollows. The High Tatra is
+as grand in its way as the Alps of Switzerland. Nowhere, however, do the
+Carpathians reach the snow-line, so the range contains no glaciers such
+as you find in the Alps. The lower slopes are generally covered with
+forests of beech, oak, and fir; but higher up, amidst the rocks, even
+the hardy pine can find no foothold. In the forests of the High Tatra
+the bear, wolf, and lynx are still to be found.</p>
+
+<p>The part of the Carpathians which chiefly concerns us now is neither the
+high, bold ridges which look towards Rumania, nor the great rocky
+wilderness of the High Tatra, but the "waist" which lies between Galicia
+and the Hungarian plain. No great range of mountains is so easily
+crossed as this section of the Carpathians. It consists mainly of
+sandstone, which, for the most part, affords easy slopes, rounded tops,
+and wide valleys. Here we find the five principal passes by which
+traffic across the range is maintained. All of these passes are low and
+easy. They rise from flats in the foothills, which are themselves one
+thousand to twelve hundred feet above the sea-level, and the highest of
+them does not rise two thousand feet higher. The summits of one of them,
+the Dukla Pass, are less than six hundred feet above the last flats of
+the foothills.</p>
+
+<p>As these passes will occur again and again in the course of our story,
+it is necessary that we should know their position and something about
+each of them. The first of them to the east is the Delatyn Pass, the
+highest of all; then, going west, we reach the Beskid Pass, across which
+the railway from Lemberg runs down to the Hungarian plain. Still farther
+west is the Uzsok Pass, which is less than three thousand feet above the
+sea-level, and carries a good road and a railway. It is probably the
+most difficult of all the passes to force. The next gateway in order is
+the Lupkow Pass, which is not two thousand feet above the sea, and is
+also crossed by road a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span>nd railway. About twenty miles to the west is the
+Dukla Pass, which is the lowest and easiest of all. Though it does not
+carry a railway, it is nevertheless the key to the Western Carpathians.
+Its saddle is only 1,500 feet above the sea; it is ten miles wide, and
+can be crossed even in winter by a large army. Whoever holds the Dukla
+Pass can turn all the passes to the east against an invader coming from
+either north or south.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/p257.jpg" width="397" height="392" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>Now let us return to the Russian armies invading Galicia. While
+Brussilov was seizing and holding the Uzsok, Lupkow, and Dukla Passes,
+Dmitrieff, commanding what I have called Army D, was pushing his way
+towards Cracow. As he moved<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span> westwards he had some heavy fighting to do.
+He carried a strongly fortified town by assault, and his men waded up to
+the neck in ice-cold water through the river Raba in the face of a heavy
+fire. One bitter day they carried trenches and wire entanglements at the
+point of the bayonet. They were seasoned by forty-five days of almost
+continuous struggle, and were in the highest spirits. By the end of the
+first week in December his Cossacks were in the suburbs of Cracow, and
+his main force was about twelve miles east of the fortress. His right
+was preparing to wheel round so as to close in on the city from the
+north, where it was hardest to defend. On 4th December it was only three
+and a half miles from the outer fortifications.</p>
+
+<p>A month previously, when the Russians were within a hundred miles of the
+fortress, it was ill prepared to stand a siege. While they were retiring
+to the San and advancing again, the Austrians had been busy
+strengthening its defences by making a wide circle of trenches around
+the city, and putting big movable guns into them, as the French had done
+at Verdun.<a name="FNanchor_166_166" id="FNanchor_166_166"></a><a href="#Footnote_166_166" class="fnanchor">[166]</a> No field army, however, had been placed in these
+trenches, because it was hoped that Mackensen's new move on Warsaw would
+be sufficient to cause the Russians to retire again. By the end of the
+first week in December it was clear that Brussilov and Dmitrieff were
+not going to be drawn off by any threat in Poland, but were going to
+leave the defence of Warsaw to the other Russian forces. The Austrians
+now saw that they must attack the Russians in Galicia, unless they were
+prepared to see Cracow fall into the hands of the enemy.</p>
+
+<p>Two armies were, therefore, launched against the Russians. The first
+army, which consisted largely of Hungarians, pushed up from the plain to
+the south through the Carpathian passes in order to sweep Brussilov out
+of them and then threaten the Russian rear and its lines of
+communication. Meanwhile a second Austrian army moved from the
+south-west amongst the foothills of the Carpathians, and struck at the
+left of the Russians in front of Cracow. The two armies attacked at the
+same time. On 8th December, while Brussilov was heavily engaged in the
+mountains, Dmitrieff fought a battle on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span> outskirts of the city. He
+held his own well, but he found that the Austrian right was working its
+way through the higher glens so as to reach the valley of the river
+Donajetz<a name="FNanchor_167_167" id="FNanchor_167_167"></a><a href="#Footnote_167_167" class="fnanchor">[167]</a> and threaten his rear, and that at the same time a third
+force from the direction of the Warta was strongly attacking his right.
+He was, therefore, obliged to fall back.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/p259.jpg" width="369" height="292" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h4>Position of the Russians in Galicia at Christmas.</h4>
+
+<p>Four days later the Austrians succeeded in seizing the broad and easy
+pass of the Dukla, and were in a position to pour their forces down upon
+Galicia, and hold up the rear of Dmitrieff's army while the other army
+strongly attacked it from the west. The position of the Russians was now
+very dangerous, and another retirement was necessary. Dmitrieff fell
+back behind the line of the river Donajetz and its tributary the Biala,
+so as to cover the mouth of the Dukla Pass. His front now curved from
+the Vistula to the east of its confluence with the Donajetz, Tarnow on
+the Biala, past Krosno, and almost to the head-waters of the river San.
+Brussilov continued the line south-eastwards, and covered the northern
+exits of the Lupkow Pass and the Uzsok Pass.</p>
+
+<p>There was great disappointment in France and Great Britain when the news
+arrived that the Russians were again<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span> retreating. So far, however, there
+was no disaster. As long as the enemy could be held in the passes all
+might yet be well. If, however, the Uzsok Pass, which carries a railway
+from the Hungarian plain to Przemysl and Lemberg, could be captured by
+the Austrians, Brussilov would have to retire northwards, in which case
+the enemy would be able to regain the besieged city of Przemysl. While
+the struggle was raging in the mountains, the Russians heavily bombarded
+the city, in the hope of capturing it and setting free the troops that
+were around it. Unhappily, the bombardment had no effect.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 698px;">
+<img src="images/p260.jpg" width="698" height="486" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h4>Russian Artillery in the Carpathians.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>Photo, Record Press.</i></h4>
+
+<p>A few days later the Austrians seized the crest of the Lupkow Pass, and
+began fighting hard for the Uzsok Pass. Before, however, they could
+become really dangerous, Russian reinforcements arrived, and a
+counter-attack began. About 20th December, when the snow lay thick on
+the mountains and icy blizzards were sweeping across the passes, the
+Russians once more advanced. The left, swinging south-west from Krosno,
+seized the mouth of the Dukla Pass, and cut off and captured more than
+10,000 Austrians. Meanwhile the centre and right moved forward to the
+position shown on the map (p. <a href="#Page_249">249</a>), and by Christmas Day Brussilov was
+holding the mouths of the Lupkow and Uzsok once more. He did not fear
+fresh attacks by way of the passes, for the wild wintry weather forbade
+the passage of troops even across the lowest gaps in the chain. At the
+end of the year the Russians were still besieging Przemysl, and their
+right was within forty miles of Cracow.</p>
+
+<p>The city had been saved by the valour of the Hungarians. But for their
+stubborn fighting in the passes, Dmitrieff would have eaten his
+Christmas dinner on the banks of the Oder, and his joyful toast to his
+soldiers would have been, "Onward to Berlin."</p>
+
+
+<br /><br /><br /><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXVIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE SECOND ASSAULT ON WARSAW.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap">W</span>e must now learn how von Mackensen made his swoop on the threatened
+city of Warsaw. When the Cossacks in Galicia were within an easy day's
+ride of Cracow, and North Poland was shrouded in white, clammy mists
+which no eye could pierce for more than a few hundred yards, his troops
+set out from Thorn on the second great venture. The first had failed,
+but the second might be a triumph. Who could say?</p>
+
+<p>About 13th November Ruzsky's outposts along the Vistula were driven in,
+and his scouts reported that a very strong force of Germans was
+advancing along both banks of the river. The Russian general had far too
+few troops to meet the large numbers now flung against him, and, as I
+explained in the previous chapter, he could not expect reinforcements
+either from the south or from beyond the Vistula for a considerable
+time. He was, therefore, forced to retire, and by the 16th November the
+Germans were fifty miles to the east of their frontier, and half-way to
+Warsaw. No doubt during their advance they captured many prisoners and
+many guns, but owing to the straggling character of the Russian march,
+which was described on page <a href="#Page_239">239</a>, the losses of our ally were not so high
+as they would have been in the case of a Western army. The
+Turkomans,<a name="FNanchor_168_168" id="FNanchor_168_168"></a><a href="#Footnote_168_168" class="fnanchor">[168]</a> mounted on fine horses, and wearing orange and scarlet
+sheepskin coats, flashed to and fro in the midst during many rearguard
+actions, and managed to delay the enemy's advance<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span>. One of these
+delaying fights took place on the night of the 15th-16th November, and
+was claimed by von Hindenburg as a great victory. He reported that he
+had captured 28,000 prisoners, and Berlin went mad with delight. The
+commander-in-chief was at once rewarded&mdash;he was made a field-marshal.</p>
+
+<p>Ruzsky's idea was to fall back in good order behind the river Bzura,
+which rises near Lodz, flows northwards for twenty or more miles, then
+runs eastwards for about forty miles, and finally flows north to join
+the Vistula, some ten miles below Lowicz.<a name="FNanchor_169_169" id="FNanchor_169_169"></a><a href="#Footnote_169_169" class="fnanchor">[169]</a> During its eastward
+course the river flows through a great belt of marshes, which lie partly
+in the course of the river and partly to the west of it. The marshes are
+crossed by a few small paths totally unfitted for the passage of large
+bodies of men with heavy guns. All the bridges along the river had been
+broken down, but in its upper reaches the river could be forded. Look at
+this little map. You will find on the railway from Thorn to Lowicz the
+town of Kutno, and almost due south of it, beyond the Bzura, you will
+see Piatek. Between these two places the marshes are crossed by a great
+causeway, along which the heaviest traffic can make its way. From what I
+have told you of the Bzura, you will gather that an army lying behind
+the marshes of the river would be in a very strong position to meet a
+frontal attack. They could only be assailed in front along one road&mdash;the
+causeway already mentioned. They might, of course, be outflanked by a
+force crossing the river below Lowicz (<span class="smcap">A</span>), or fording the stream to the
+south of the marshes (<span class="smcap">B</span>). The Germans, as we shall see, made not only a
+frontal attack along the causeway, but also flanking attacks at <span class="smcap">A</span> and <span class="smcap">B</span>.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/p263.jpg" width="284" height="199" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h3>Diagram showing the Russian Position behind the Marshes of the Bzura.</h3>
+
+<h4>Notice the causeway leading from Kutno to Piatek. Along this causeway
+the Germans made their frontal attack.</h4>
+
+<p>About fifteen miles to the south of Piatek is Lodz, the "Manchester of
+Poland." It contains half a million people,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span> and has grown more rapidly
+than any other city of Europe. Its chief industry is cotton, but there
+are also large factories in which silk, woollen, and linen fabrics are
+made, as well as numerous dye-works, flour mills, distilleries, and
+machine shops. The Germans had captured it during their first march on
+Warsaw, but had lost it during the retreat. They were now to make a bold
+bid for it again.</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly the German right now pressed hard against the Bzura at B,
+south of the marshes. While the right was crossing the river at B, the
+extreme left moved towards Plock, so as to outflank the Russian position
+by crossing the river at A. The main attack, however, was to be made not
+on the flanks but in the centre, across the causeway at C. Now I want
+you to notice that if Russian reinforcements could have come up from the
+south, the German flanking forces at B would have been hemmed in between
+the Russians to the north of Lodz and those advancing on the city from
+the south. Von Hindenburg, however, felt quite sure that the Russians
+from the south could not arrive in time owing to the broken roads and
+railways. Long before they came up he hoped to be in Warsaw.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 733px;">
+<img src="images/p264.jpg" width="733" height="428" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h3>A German Battery overwhelmed by Cossacks.</h3>
+
+<h4>This grim picture illustrates the fate of the Germans who were trapped
+in the "pocket" as described on page <a href="#Page_255">255</a>.</h4>
+
+<p>An extraordinary state of things soon occurred. At first the Russians
+beat off attacks on the causeway, and held the German army in the
+villages north of the marshes. But on 19th November von Mackensen made a
+huge effort. He crossed the causeway, and pushed the Russians well south
+of Piatek. For the next four days his troops tramped across the
+causeway, and the Russians fell back more and more, till there was a
+deep sag in their line east of Lodz. Von Mackensen pushed this sag
+deeper and deeper, and wider and wider, until it resembled a pocket, and
+on 23rd November the bottom of the pocket fell out, and the Russian army
+was split into two parts, as shown in the diagram on the next page. The
+Germans burst through the gap, and the Russians were now in a most
+dangerous plight, especially as the enemy was bringing up strong forces
+both from the south-east and the south. Lodz was now being attacked from
+the front, from the flank, and from the rear. The Germans appeared to
+have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams.</p>
+
+<p>"There's many a slip between the cup and the lip," says the old proverb.
+The Germans now expected to envelop <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span>the divided forces of the Russians,
+and make an end of them altogether. But when the cup was almost at their
+lips, the slip took place. The Russians had hastily summoned guns and
+men from Asia, and troop trains had been rolling for weeks past at top
+speed along the Siberian railway. The Siberians were detrained at a
+station on the railway south of Lowicz, just as reinforcements from the
+south were at last coming up. On the 24th the Siberians appeared on the
+field; another day, and they would have been too late&mdash;the Russian left
+would have been destroyed for ever.</p>
+
+<p>Ruzsky, now reinforced, did his utmost to close up the mouth of the
+pocket, and thus cut off the 90,000 Germans who were within it. For two
+days he pressed together the edges of the top of the pocket, and more
+and more shut in the trapped corps. More troops were needed to close it
+completely, and Rennenkampf, on the extreme right, was ordered to push
+forward with the utmost speed. Unhappily, he arrived a day too late, and
+the pocket was never wholly shut up.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/p266.jpg" width="280" height="210" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>Von Mackensen strove hard by bringing up reserves to force back the
+Russians who were pinching him on either side, and by doing so managed
+to provide an exit for his trapped troops. From 24th to 26th November a
+furious struggle continued night and day. Battalions were broken into
+fragments, and the men roamed about the frozen and deserted land "like a
+pack of hungry wolves." By the 26th something like 40,000 men had
+escaped, and had reached their own lines. Amongst them was a remnant of
+the Prussian guards. Not only had thousands of Germans been killed and
+wounded, but multitudes of prisoners were in Russian hands. A few days
+later Warsaw was swarming with them. But for Rennenkampf's late arrival
+Russia would have accomplished a new Sedan.</p>
+
+
+<br /><br /><br /><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXIX.</h2>
+
+<h3>WARSAW AGAIN SAVED.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap">F</span>resh troops were now brought up from Germany, and a determined effort
+was made to envelop the Russians by striking hard at their left while
+the rest of the line was strongly held up. The Russian left wing was
+pushed back, chiefly because it had broken roads and railways behind it,
+and was farthest from its base of supply. Lodz, to the rear of the
+Russian lines, now formed an ugly salient, much like that at Ypres.
+Ruzsky knew that if he were forced to retreat through the seven miles of
+the Lodz streets he could only march slowly and in crowded formation,
+and would probably be badly cut up in the process. It was a risk which
+there was no reason to face. Lodz was of no value in his plan of
+campaign, though, of course, it was valuable to the enemy because of its
+resources. Ruzsky therefore determined to give it up, and to straighten
+out his line by falling back. Accordingly, on the 27th he slowly
+retreated. His withdrawal lasted more than a week. German shells began
+to fall in the streets of Lodz on 5th December, and the next day the
+enemy entered the city, and were received with great joy by their
+fellow-countrymen, who form a large part of its population. For the
+second time the Germans were masters of Lodz.</p>
+
+<p>There was much joy in Berlin, and the capture of the city was acclaimed
+as a great victory, in which "we did not lose a single man." As we have
+seen, the Russians gave it up of their own accord, because the game of
+holding it was not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span> worth the candle. As a matter of fact, there was no
+battle and no victory. It is said that for fifteen hours the Germans
+shelled empty trenches, from which the Russians had withdrawn on the
+previous day. Nevertheless they still speak of the Battle of Lodz, and
+consider it a feather in their caps.</p>
+
+<p>A few days later von Hindenburg thus addressed his men:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"In the course of severe fighting, lasting several days, my
+troops have brought to a standstill a Russian army superior in
+numbers. Over 60,000 prisoners, 150 guns, and about 200 machine
+guns have fallen into our hands. But the enemy is not yet
+annihilated. Therefore, forward, with God, for King and
+Fatherland, till the last Russian lies beaten at our feet."</p></div>
+
+<p>No doubt the Germans had made large captures, but so had the Russians.
+Von Hindenburg, though he called upon his men to rejoice, knew that he
+had really failed in his object, which was to make the Russians retire
+from Galicia and come to the help of their hard-pressed comrades in
+North Poland. They had done nothing of the sort. As you know, the
+Galician campaign went on without interference.</p>
+
+<p>Von Hindenburg had promised his troops that they should eat their
+Christmas dinner in Warsaw. He was still seventy miles from the city,
+and December was already six days old. There was no time to be lost if
+his promise was to be kept.</p>
+
+<p>He now hurled his left against the Russian right wing, which lay north
+of the Bzura and well east of Lowicz. At the same time he increased his
+forces in East Prussia, and ordered them to march southwards from Mlava
+so as to cut the main railway from Warsaw to Petrograd. Had this move
+succeeded, the Russians would have been obliged to abandon Warsaw.
+Happily, a force advanced from the fortress of Novo Georgievsk, and
+drove back the Germans from East Prussia almost to their frontier. For
+the time being, the Russian right flank was secure.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 713px;">
+<img src="images/p268.jpg" width="713" height="434" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h3>The Battle of the Bzura. Russian Field Artillery in Action.</h3>
+
+<h4><i>By permission of The Illustrated London News.</i></h4>
+
+<p>The Russian wing just south of the Vistula was not, however, well placed
+to meet the other attack. It was cut into two by the river Bzura, and
+its communications were very bad. So, with great wisdom, Ruzsky
+determined to withdraw this wing behind the Bzura and its tributary the
+Rawka, which flows north to join the Bzura, a few miles east of Lowicz.
+Behind these rivers he would have good communications, by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span> means of
+which he could easily bring up food, munitions, and reinforcements. So
+far the winter frosts had not been severe; there was only a thin coating
+of ice on the Polish bogs, and the Vistula and the Pilitza were still
+open for river traffic. Just when Ruzsky was planning his retirement a
+complete thaw set in, and in a few days the whole countryside was one
+slough of despond. The Germans advancing against his new position would
+have to flounder through many feet of mud to get at him.</p>
+
+<p>For a fortnight the Russians slowly fell back all along the line, and
+the towns to the west of the line of the Bzura and the Rawka were
+occupied by the Germans. By the 18th of December the Russians were in
+their new position, which soon proved itself to be as strong as the
+Allied position from Arras to Nieuport. The same kind of warfare now
+took place both in East and West. The Russians dug themselves in close
+to the shallow, muddy streams, and on the other side the Germans
+occupied the fairly high bank which marks the rim of an old channel.</p>
+
+<p>Attacks and counter-attacks were nightly incidents of the struggle. When
+the early darkness set in, the Germans, in close formation, crashed
+through the cat-ice along the shore, waded breast-high through the
+bitterly cold waters, and, in spite of severe losses, frequently gained
+the Russian bank. Sometimes they captured an advanced trench, but rarely
+could they hold it, and all the time they were losing heavily. Warsaw
+was only thirty-five miles away, and the roar of the German guns was
+clearly heard in the city. But there was no panic; the Russian lines
+were proof against every assault. By Christmas Eve the enemy was doing
+no more than hold his trenches. In East and West alike stalemate had set
+in.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>A writer thus describes Christmas Day in the Russian lines: "The Bishop
+of Moscow," he says, "arranged a solemn Christmas Day service, with
+trained singers who were serving in the army. He later visited the
+hospitals, giving short and plain addresses, and blessing each branch of
+the service in turn. There was a great Christmas tree in the station,
+where presents were distributed to the wounded. Gifts were also
+distributed under fire by the hospital workers to the soldiers in the
+tr<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></span>enches. In the evening I took part in a Christmas gathering in one of
+the big hospitals. Every one's health was drunk in turn; the persons
+toasted were mentioned by their Christian names, and all was woven into
+a long song. Afterwards we sang songs of the Volga."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The failure of the second attempt to capture Warsaw brings us down to
+the end of the year 1914, and the moment is convenient for summing up
+the work of the Russian armies during the first five months of the war.
+In common with her Allies, Russia was not ready to take the field when
+war was declared; most of her soldiers had yet to be called up, and she
+had not sufficient rifles, ammunition, and uniforms for them. Further,
+by means of her very imperfect railway system, she had to transport such
+forces as were ready many thousands of miles before they could reach the
+theatre of war. In spite of all these difficulties, she had a force
+prepared to strike a full fortnight before the Germans believed that she
+could put her men into the field.</p>
+
+<p>While the Kaiser's hosts were swinging through Belgium, in the hope of
+overwhelming the French and the British, the Russians, though still too
+weak for the purpose, invaded East Prussia, the sacred land of the
+German squires, and by doing so relieved to some extent the strain in
+the West. Dearly did Russia pay for this act of chivalry. She suffered
+one of the most terrible defeats in her history at Tannenberg; but she
+was still undismayed. In Galicia, on the other hand, she crushed the
+Austrians in two mighty battles before the Germans could come to their
+aid, and captured the whole eastern half of the country.</p>
+
+<p>Her troops were rapidly approaching Cracow, which alone barred the road
+to Silesia and Berlin, when the Germans, who from the first were greatly
+superior in numbers, made a dangerous move against Warsaw, the great
+railway centre which it was essential for Russia to hold if she was to
+maintain the war on the enemy's frontier. To meet this grave threat, the
+Grand Duke ordered his forces to fall back from Galicia, and hold the
+long line of the Vistula against the determined invader. Then when von
+Hindenburg had made his furious thrust, and had been flung back almost
+from the gates of Warsaw, the Russians sprang forward once more, and
+drove the Germans in rout behind their own frontier. Again they swept
+into Galicia, and there they were maintaining themselves when t<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span>he year
+1914 came to a close.</p>
+
+<p>By means of the network of railways on the German frontier von
+Hindenburg rapidly massed troops for a march across the undevastated
+north of Poland towards the city which had already foiled him, hoping
+that this new threat would have the former effect. It failed in its
+purpose. The Russians met his many with their few behind the marshes of
+the Bzura, and the late arrival of Rennenkampf's troops alone saved the
+Germans from being completely wiped out. As it was, they suffered
+terribly, but reinforced, made another frenzied attempt on Warsaw. Again
+the Russians retreated, and behind a river front of great strength
+defied the Germans to do their worst. By Christmas Eve the Germans had
+failed, for the second time in three months, to capture the city of
+their desire.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 692px;">
+<img src="images/p272.jpg" width="692" height="473" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h3>Christmas in the Trenches of Poland.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>Photo, Alfieri.</i></h3>
+
+<h4>This photograph shows an advanced trench in Poland as held by the
+Germans on Christmas Day. It will be noticed that two sentinels in full
+marching order keep watch, and that the rifles of the defenders lie in
+position, ready to be discharged at a moment's notice. A typical German
+officer is seen sleeping close to the sentry in the foreground.</h4>
+
+<p>Such in the briefest possible outline is the record of Russia's part in
+the war during the year 1914. The Russians had most loyally supported
+the Allies; they had sacrificed thousands of men in order to draw
+against them the greatest number of Germans, and by their stubborn and
+persistent efforts they had caused the enemy after 15th November to
+abandon his offensive movements in the West. Their commander-in-chief
+and most of their other leaders had shown fine generalship and great
+resolution, and their soldiers had given fresh proof of the dogged
+courage for which they have always been renowned.</p>
+
+<p>All this came as a great surprise to those who remembered that the
+Russian armies had been utterly baffled and overthrown in the war which
+they had waged ten years before against Japan. Then they were badly
+trained, badly equipped, and badly led; but Russia had taken to heart
+the bitter lessons of defeat, and during the intervening years had so
+thoroughly reorganized her forces that they were now able to inflict
+defeats upon the foremost military nation of the world. As an armed
+power Russia had been born anew.</p>
+
+
+<br /><br /><br /><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXX" id="CHAPTER_XXX"></a>CHAPTER XXX.</h2>
+
+<h3>AT WAR WITH TURKEY.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap">A</span>t the beginning of the great struggle King George sent a message to the
+Sultan, in which he referred to the friendship which had existed between
+the United Kingdom and Turkey for more than a century. Two days before
+the fall of Tsingtau this old friendship was broken; we were forced to
+declare war on the Power which we had so often befriended during more
+than a hundred years. The fact was that Germany had become all-powerful
+in Turkey, and the Sultan was merely a puppet in the Kaiser's hands.</p>
+
+<p>I have already told you how the Kaiser courted the Sultan in 1889,<a name="FNanchor_170_170" id="FNanchor_170_170"></a><a href="#Footnote_170_170" class="fnanchor">[170]</a>
+and won for Germany many important industrial and commercial advantages
+in Asia Minor. In July 1908 an event took place in Turkey which seemed
+at first to be a great blow to Germany. Up to that time the government
+of Turkey had been Oriental; the Sultan was absolute; there was no
+parliament, and bad governors robbed the people right and left. Western
+ideas, however, had gradually been gaining ground, especially amongst
+the younger men. In July 1908 the Young Turks, after long preparation,
+rose in rebellion under a vain but very pushing man named Enver Bey. The
+Sultan, the Kaiser's friend, was deposed; his younger brother was placed
+on the throne, and a new form of government, in which the people had
+some share, was set up. Before long, Enver Bey became the most powerful
+man in the country. He was a simple captain when the reform movement
+began, but he rapidly rose to be Chief of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></span>the General Staff and
+Secretary for War.</p>
+
+<p>This revolution seemed to have overturned Germany's plans, and to have
+robbed her at one blow of all the power and influence which she had
+gained in Turkey. Thanks, however, to the army which von der Goltz had
+drilled and trained and officered, Germany managed to retain her
+influence. Enver Bey and other leading Young Turks were won over, and
+Germany continued to hold the reins of military power. Then came the war
+with Italy, and in 1912 the sudden and unexpected Balkan War, in which
+the German-trained Turkish army was badly beaten. When all was over,
+Turkey had been reduced to a little country less than twice the size of
+Wales.</p>
+
+<p>After this disaster the Turkish army was practically handed over to
+Germany, lock, stock, and barrel. German officers were poured into the
+army, and nearly all the divisions and brigades had German commanders.
+In January 1914 General Liman von Sanders became commander of all the
+thirteen corps of the Turkish army.</p>
+
+<p>Now, I think you can understand that when the great European war broke
+out it was highly improbable that Turkey would remain neutral. We were
+most anxious to keep Turkey out of the fight, and on 7th August Sir
+Edward Grey promised, on behalf of Great Britain, France, and Russia,
+that if she would refrain from war we would guarantee her independence,
+and would see that she lost no territory when the struggle was over. We
+also undertook to make no change in the government of Egypt, which, as
+you know, was then supposed to be under the overlordship of the Sultan.</p>
+
+<p>When we declared war on Germany there were in this country two
+men-of-war which Messrs. Armstrong, Whitworth, and Company had built for
+the Turkish Government, but which had not been handed over to their
+owners. According to what is called International Law,<a name="FNanchor_171_171" id="FNanchor_171_171"></a><a href="#Footnote_171_171" class="fnanchor">[171]</a> a nation
+going to war has a perfect right to acquire any warships which have been
+built or are building in its ports, but have not left the country. Our
+Admiralty very properly bought these vess<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span>els from the builders. Sir
+Edward Grey telegraphed to the Sultan on 25th August, expressing his
+deep regret that the Government had been obliged to take this course,
+and promising to restore the ships at the end of the war if Turkey would
+remain strictly neutral. There seemed to be a good deal of angry feeling
+against Britain in Constantinople when the Turks learnt that we had
+taken over their ships. The Turkish Prime Minister, however, assured us
+that this angry feeling was largely pretence, and meant nothing. Turkey,
+however, was soon to show herself in her true colours.</p>
+
+<p>In Chapter XXI. of our second volume I told you that the two German
+cruisers <i>Goeben</i> and <i>Breslau</i> were chased by a British squadron in the
+Mediterranean, but that they managed to escape, and on 10th August took
+refuge in the Dardanelles. It was the duty of Turkey as a neutral Power
+to see that these ships did not pass through the Strait, and that they
+were either sent off to sea again in the course of twenty-four hours, or
+were disarmed and interned until the end of the war. Next day, to the
+astonishment of the world, the Turks announced that they had bought the
+cruisers from Germany because Britain had seized the ships which had
+been built for them on the Tyne. I have already told you that Britain
+had every right to take over the Turkish ships. On the other hand,
+Turkey had no right whatever to buy warships from a nation that was at
+war with another nation. To do so was a friendly act to Germany and an
+unfriendly act to Britain, France, and Russia. If the Turks had acted
+according to international law, they would have ordered the <i>Goeben</i> and
+<i>Breslau</i> out of their waters, in which case the Allied ships in the
+Mediterranean would have captured them. By buying them, the Turks
+prevented Britain from reducing the enemy's naval strength, and at the
+same time they assisted Germany by paying over their price. By means of
+these ships the Turks hoped to make themselves masters of the Black Sea.</p>
+
+<p>This unfriendly act in itself afforded Great Britain good grounds for
+declaring war on Turkey; but she was very patient, and confined herself
+to protests. The Turkish Government promised to send away the German
+officers and crews of the <i>Goeben</i> and <i>Breslau</i>, but did not do so. All
+the while the Turkish Prime Minister was protesting that Turkey wished
+to be neutral; but he was merely p<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span>laying for time. Attempts were being
+made to stir up rebellion in Egypt and India, and Turkey was holding her
+hand until the Moslems in these countries should be ready to rise.</p>
+
+<p>Towards the end of October the British Government learned that Turkish
+ships, without any declaration of war, and without warning of any kind,
+had wantonly attacked open, undefended Russian towns on the Black Sea.
+It was well known, too, that Enver Bey, the Turkish Minister of War, was
+strongly pro-German, and that since the war began German officers in
+large numbers had poured into Constantinople. Certain rights enjoyed by
+foreigners living in Turkey had been abolished; the army had been
+mobilized, and there was no doubt that an attack was being prepared
+against Egypt. On 29th October a horde of Bedouins<a name="FNanchor_172_172" id="FNanchor_172_172"></a><a href="#Footnote_172_172" class="fnanchor">[172]</a> invaded the
+Sinai Peninsula,<a name="FNanchor_173_173" id="FNanchor_173_173"></a><a href="#Footnote_173_173" class="fnanchor">[173]</a> and seized certain wells. The same day Turkish
+torpedo boats raided Odessa, sank and damaged several ships, and
+bombarded the town.</p>
+
+<p>Next day the ambassadors of the Allies had interviews with the Sultan
+and his advisers. The Sultan and the Prime Minister were in favour of
+peace, but Enver Bey and the military party overruled them. On 1st
+November the ambassadors left Constantinople, and four days later the
+King issued a proclamation which began as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Owing to hostile acts committed by Turkish forces under German
+officers, a state of war now exists between Us and the Sultan of
+Turkey.</i>"</p>
+
+<p>Before I describe the part played by Turkey in the war during the year
+1914, let me tell you something about the army which she was able to put
+into the field. Every man in Turkey is supposed to serve, but as a rule
+only Mohammedans are called upon to do so. The conscript belongs to the
+army for twenty years&mdash;nine in the Nizam, or first line; nine in the
+Redif, or Active Reserve; and two in the Mustafiz, or Territorial
+Militia. Probably, at a pinch, the Turks could put into the field
+between 700,000 and 800,000 men, providing there was equipment for them.
+Their artillery had suffered heavily in the Balkan <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span>War; but since then
+Turkey had bought many quick-firing guns from Krupp and the famous
+Austrian firm of Skoda. Germany had also provided the Turks with a
+number of heavy batteries.</p>
+
+<p>The Turkish foot-soldier has always been famous as a fighting man. He
+is, as a rule, strong and well built, his nerves are steady, he is very
+stubborn in defence, and he can bear fatigue wonderfully well. But, as
+you know, he did not come off with flying colours during the Balkan War,
+probably because the German discipline to which he had been subjected
+had robbed him of his old dash and go, and because he was not in full
+sympathy with the German officers who commanded him. As a soldier, he
+was half Turk, half German; he had lost many of his Turkish virtues as a
+fighting man, and had not fully acquired those of Germany. Nevertheless,
+he is still brave, still dogged, still much enduring, and will always
+prove a formidable foe.</p>
+
+<p>An American caricature of the time showed the Sultan laying his head
+upon a block and chopping it off with his own hand. Most observers in
+Western Europe felt that by acting as the cat's-paw of Germany, Turkey
+was deliberately committing suicide. She was solving the century-old
+problem&mdash;Shall Turkey remain a European Power? However the war might
+end, Turkey was bound to be wiped off the map of Europe as an
+independent state. There were many people in this country who were
+deeply sorry to see a brave people thus tricked into disaster for a
+cause which they could not understand, and for which they had no
+sympathy. Before long, however, the children of Osman<a name="FNanchor_174_174" id="FNanchor_174_174"></a><a href="#Footnote_174_174" class="fnanchor">[174]</a> were fighting
+and dying amidst the snows of the Caucasus or on the sands of the desert
+in their old fearless, uncomplaining fashion&mdash;fighting and dying for no
+purpose save to ensure the destruction of their race as a ruling power.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 705px;">
+<img src="images/p278.jpg" width="705" height="436" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h4>Constantinople, the ancient Byzantium.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>Photo, Exclusive News Agency.</i></h4>
+
+<p>Naturally the Turks wished to fight in the Balkan Peninsula, and to
+recover, if possible, some of the territory which they had lost during
+the recent disastrous wars. This, however, they could not do, because
+Greece and Bulgaria, their neighbours, remained neutral. The Germans
+wished to use<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span> the Turkish army to create diversions&mdash;that is, to attack
+the Allies at a distance from the main theatres of war, and thus compel
+them to divide their forces. The frontiers of Turkey in Asia touch that
+wild, mountainous region in which Russia holds sway beneath the towering
+masses of the Caucasus; they also touch the bounds of Egypt, in which
+Britain is supreme, and draw near to the head of the Persian Gulf, which
+for generations we have watched and guarded in the interests of our
+Indian Empire, and have long regarded as a British sphere of influence.
+In these three regions the Turks might be of real assistance to their
+German masters. If they fought in Transcaucasia, they would draw off
+Russian troops from the thousand-mile line which the soldiers of the
+Tsar were then holding from the Niemen to the Dniester. If they attacked
+the Suez Canal, they might bar Britain's short road to India, and force
+her to keep a large army in Egypt. Further, when the Turks advanced,
+their Moslem brethren in Egypt and India might rise in rebellion, and
+force Britain to withdraw troops from the Western front to put them
+down. Then, again, the Turks might push down to the shores of the
+Persian Gulf, and obtain a foothold from which India might be threatened
+and the oil fields of Persia secured. The Turks, therefore, attacked on
+the Persian Gulf, in Transcaucasia, and in Egypt. With their descent
+upon the Suez Canal I shall deal in our next volume; in this and the
+next chapter I will describe the fighting at the head of the Persian
+Gulf, and afterwards I will tell you something of the operations in
+Transcaucasia.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>South of Transcaucasia lies the Armenian plateau, which consists of
+lofty ranges of sterile mountains, with fertile vales and wide plains
+between them. The highest peak of this plateau is Ararat, on which it is
+said that the Ark rested after the flood. Ararat stands where the
+Russian, the Turkish, and the Persian empires meet, and from its
+southern slopes that famous river the Euphrates goes leaping through the
+mountain gorges on its way to the distant Persian Gulf. In the mountains
+to the south-east of Ararat rises the Tigris, which also flows towards
+the Persian Gulf, and gradually draws nearer and nearer to the
+Euphrates, with which it finally unites. Between the two rivers is
+Mesopotamia, which in early times was a wonderfully fertile c<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span>ountry,
+but under the blighting hand of the Turk has become a wilderness, though
+it might again "blossom as the rose" if the waters of the rivers were
+properly distributed over the land.</p>
+
+<p>On the plain of the Euphrates and the Tigris are the ruins of cities
+which were famous at the very dawn of history. Near the busy town of
+Mosul, on the Tigris, is the site of the ancient city of Nineveh; and
+near the Euphrates, not far from the town of Hilla, are the ruins of
+Babylon. Two hundred miles below Mosul is Bagdad, which recalls the
+"Arabian Nights." Above Basra, the city of Sindbad the Sailor, the
+Euphrates and the Tigris unite, and the combined stream flows for about
+seventy miles to the Persian Gulf as the Shat-el-Arab. On the eastern
+side of its lower course is Abadan Island, on which about 1,000 tons of
+crude oil are refined daily. The oil comes down a pipe line from the
+wells, which are about 150 miles north-east of the refinery.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/p281.jpg" width="462" height="391" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h4>The Persian Gulf.<a name="FNanchor_175_175" id="FNanchor_175_175"></a><a href="#Footnote_175_175" class="fnanchor">[175]</a></h4>
+
+<p>The region between Basra and the Persian Gulf is the ancient land of
+Cha<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span>ldea, the original home of Abraham, the father of the Hebrew people.
+Britons and Turks were now to meet in warfare on the river flats where
+the written history of the world began.</p>
+
+<p>You can easily understand that the refinery at Abadan and the pipe line
+from the oil wells would be open to attack if we should go to war with
+Turkey. To lose this great source of supply would be a grievous blow to
+us, for more and more of our warships now raise their steam with oil
+instead of coal. As soon as the European war began the Government of
+India dispatched an Anglo-Indian force, consisting of the 2nd Dorsets
+and of Indian infantry and artillery, to the Persian Gulf. This force
+was landed on the island of Bahrein, but when war was declared with
+Turkey it re-embarked, and on 7th November reached the bar at the mouth
+of the Shat-el-Arab, near the village of Fao. A gunboat bombarded the
+mud fort of this village, and reduced it to silence in about an hour. A
+force of marines was then landed, and the place was occupied.</p>
+
+<p>The transports then sailed up the estuary, passing Abadan on the left
+bank, and after a voyage of about thirty-five miles, disembarked,
+unopposed, at the Turkish village of Sanijeh,<a name="FNanchor_176_176" id="FNanchor_176_176"></a><a href="#Footnote_176_176" class="fnanchor">[176]</a> where trenches were
+dug. While General Delamain, who commanded the British expedition, was
+waiting for reinforcements he was attacked by a force of Turks from
+Basra. The Indians quickly checked them, and later in the day showed the
+utmost gallantry in turning them out of a village in which they had
+established themselves.</p>
+
+<p>On 13th November, soon after daybreak, two Anglo-Indian brigades,
+including the 1st Oxford Light Infantry and the 2nd Norfolks, arrived,
+under the command of Sir Arthur Barrett, off the bar of the
+Shat-el-Arab, and by the 15th were ready to disembark at Sanijeh. It was
+no easy task to get men, guns, and stores ashore on the slippery mud
+banks of a broad tidal river, but the work was accomplished before
+sunset. Meanwhile General Delamain attacked the village of Sahain, four
+miles to the north. A short, sharp action took place; but the 2,000
+Turks who were posted in a date grove were not entirely cleared out of
+it. On the 16th the newly-arrived forces rested, and received the news
+that the Turkish garrison of Basra was advancing to give battle. There
+were Europeans in Basra, and General Barrett was eager to capture the
+place speedily, lest evil should befall the foreign residents.</p>
+
+
+<br /><br /><br /><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[273]</a></span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXI" id="CHAPTER_XXXI"></a>CHAPTER XXXI.</h2>
+
+<h3>FIGHTING IN CHALDEA.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap">O</span>n the morning of the 17th the British advanced to the village of
+Sahain,<a name="FNanchor_177_177" id="FNanchor_177_177"></a><a href="#Footnote_177_177" class="fnanchor">[177]</a> only to discover that the Turks had abandoned it. Nine
+miles farther up the river, at a place called Sahil, the enemy lay in
+force ready to attack. An officer with the expedition thus describes the
+Turkish position:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Imagine a billiard table, only, of course, thousands of times
+bigger, and instead of being green cloth it is sandy desert.
+Imagine that one end of the table is high ground held by the
+Turks with guns in position, and the infantry entrenched, and
+then imagine us attacking them from the other end. Not a scrap
+of cover of any kind; absolutely flat and unbroken; no cover for
+the guns or infantry advancing, no cover for the hospital or
+wounded as we advanced&mdash;nothing; simply a wide, flat, sandy
+plain!"</p></div>
+
+<p>To make matters worse, recent rains had made the plain a slough, so that
+the cavalry and guns could scarcely proceed at more than a walking pace.</p>
+
+<p>Early on the morning of the 18th our batteries and gun-boats began
+bombarding the Turkish trenches. The artillery of the enemy replied, but
+the marksmanship was bad, though General Barrett had a narrow escape
+from a shrapnel shell which buried itself in the ground at his feet. The
+Turkish infantry, however, made excellent practice, and their bullets
+swept the front with a withering fire. Nevertheless, our men advanced
+with admirable steadiness. The honours of the day went to the 2nd
+Dorsets, who, without a moment's wavering, crept nearer and nearer to
+the enemy, until they were near enough for the final bayonet cha<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[275]</a></span>rge.
+When they leaped to their feet and dashed forward the Turks broke from
+their trenches, and, flinging away their arms, ammunition, and even
+their clothes, fled to the rear.</p>
+
+<p>Owing to the soggy nature of the ground and to a mirage which screened
+the flight of the enemy, pursuit was well-nigh impossible. About 4 p.m.
+the little battle was practically over&mdash;the trenches, two guns, and the
+camp of the enemy were in our possession. The Dorsets lost 130 men in
+this engagement out of a total casualty list of 353, which included
+three officers and thirty-five men killed. More than 1,500 Turks were
+dead or wounded.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 683px;">
+<img src="images/p284.jpg" width="683" height="502" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h4>Hoisting the Union Jack at Basra.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>Photo, Illustrated London News.</i></h4>
+
+<p>On the 21st news arrived that the Turks had abandoned Basra, and that
+Arabs were looting the place. A British force was at once embarked on
+river steamers, while other troops were sent forward across the desert
+on foot. About eight miles beyond Sahil the Turks had attempted to
+impede the navigation of the river by sinking ships in the fairway; but
+the business had been badly done, and our gunboats, after silencing a
+battery of Krupp guns on the bank, got past the obstruction. About ten
+on the morning of the 22nd the river force entered Basra without
+opposition. Later in the day the desert column arrived; the German flag
+was hauled down, and the Union Jack was hoisted in its stead. During the
+remainder of the month the British prepared a base camp a few miles up
+the river.</p>
+
+<p>At the beginning of December news arrived that the Turks had reassembled
+at Kurna, some forty-nine miles above Basra, and were about to put their
+fortunes to the test once more. The sketch map on page <a href="#Page_277">277</a> shows you the
+position of Kurna, the highest point on the river to which ocean-going
+steamers can ascend. You will notice that the old and now
+partly-blocked-up channel of the Euphrates unites with the Tigris at
+Kurna, and that the town occupies a strong position in the angle between
+the rivers, with broad waters on two sides of it. Some people tell us
+that Kurna stands on the site of the garden of Eden, though others say
+that the abode of our first parents lay to the north-west of Bagdad.</p>
+
+<p>Not much opposition was expected at Kurna, so only a small force,
+including a detachment of the Norfolks, was sent upstream on 3rd
+December. It was accompanied by three gunboats, a yacht, and two
+launches, all armed. Next morni<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[276]</a></span>ng the troops were landed on the eastern
+bank about four miles below Kurna, while the gunboats went ahead to
+engage the Turkish artillery and to shell the town. By midday the
+British force was looking across the three-hundred-yard-wide stream
+towards the palm groves which surround Kurna, and was attacking the
+village of Mezera, which stands about a mile from the left bank of the
+Tigris. The Turks were driven out of the village, and withdrew to the
+bank of the river, where they kept up so heavy a fire that our men were
+compelled to retire. It was now evident that the Turks were holding the
+place in force, and that the task of the British was much harder than
+had been supposed.</p>
+
+<p>The attackers dug themselves in, and sent back to Basra for
+reinforcements, which arrived on 7th December. On that day the action of
+the 5th was fought over again, but with far better results. Mezera was
+recaptured, the Turkish trenches on the bank of the river were cleared,
+and the survivors escaped across the stream. The gunboats did excellent
+work, and several of them were hit.</p>
+
+<p>It was now clear that Kurna could not be taken by a frontal attack. The
+only way was to cross the river above the town and fall upon the place
+from the rear. Early on 8th December two battalions with two mountain
+guns were marched a long way up the river; some daring sappers swam the
+stream carrying with them a wire. Snipers fired at them repeatedly, but
+they managed to get across safely, and construct a sort of flying
+bridge. By this means, and also by the use of a dhow which had been
+seized, our troops and their guns crossed the river. By evening they had
+entrenched themselves amidst the trees to the north of Kurna. All was
+ready for the final assault.</p>
+
+<p>It was never delivered. On the night of the 8th</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"a small steamer came down from Kurna showing all her lights, so
+we did not fire on her. She turned out to be carrying three
+Turkish officers who had come to offer the surrender of Kurna!
+Of course we knew we could get into the town, but thought most
+of the garrison would escape up the river Euphrates. They wanted
+to be allowed to march out with their arms, but, of course, we
+would not agree to that, and after about an hour they agreed to
+an unconditional surrender."</p></div>
+
+<p>Thus Kurna fell into British hands. The whole garrison surrendered, and
+the Turkish officers gave up their swords; but as a compliment to the
+commander his sword was return<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[277]</a></span>ed to him. Chaldea was now in our
+possession, and we were well placed to beat off attacks from the north.
+There were still, however, many Turkish troops in the neighbourhood, but
+they did not make any serious attack on us. We had achieved our purpose,
+and had built up a strong barricade against an enemy advance to the
+Persian Gulf and a threat to the security of India.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/p287.jpg" width="367" height="400" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h4>Basra and Kurna.</h4>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"We are now," wrote an officer on December 13th, "in a big
+entrenched camp outside Kurna. . . . Although this is my own
+regiment, and one is naturally proud of it, I must say they have
+behaved splendidly. They are a jolly good lot, always merry and
+bright, and never any trouble. By the way, I heard a rather
+funny remark last night by one of the men. The mosquitoes are
+rather bad here, and in the middle of the night, about 1 a.m., I
+woke up and heard the man say to his neighbour: ''Ere, Bill, if
+this is the garden of Eden, I wonder what Adam and Eve did with
+these 'ere mosquitoes a-buzzin' around them.'"</p></div>
+
+
+<br /><br /><br /><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[278]</a></span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXII" id="CHAPTER_XXXII"></a>CHAPTER XXXII.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE CAMPAIGN IN THE CAUCASUS.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap">W</span>hile Anglo-Indian troops were winning easy victories on the desert
+sands of Chaldea, Russians and Turks were locked in deadly combat amidst
+the rocky uplands of the broad isthmus that extends between the Black
+Sea and the Caspian Sea. The most striking natural feature of this
+region is the great chain of the Caucasus, the most stupendous mountain
+mass of Western Eurasia. It strikes from north-west to south-east right
+across the country like a huge frowning wall, and in this respect
+resembles the Pyrenees, though its peaks are vastly higher and much of
+it is crowned with perpetual snow. So formidable and complete is this
+great natural barrier that no railway crosses it, and only two main
+roads have been constructed over its passes. The railway which carries
+the traveller from the north to the south of the chain has to creep
+round by way of the strip of low land between its eastern end and the
+Caspian Sea.</p>
+
+<p>One would suppose that this huge barrier would mark off race from race,
+civilization from civilization, and religion from religion; that Europe
+would stop short on its northern slopes, and Asia begin on its southern
+side. This is true in a general sense, but the whole tangled region of
+lofty mountains, with its maze of spurs and plateaus and foothills, with
+towns and villages five or six thousand feet above sea-level, is
+inhabited by many more or less Christian tribes, and is part of Russia.
+It forms the government of the Caucasus, and its southern boundary
+marches with Turkey on the west and with Persia on the east. The Turkish
+fortress of Erzerum is only a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[279]</a></span>bout seventy miles from the Russian
+frontier.</p>
+
+<p>This mountainous region has been a cockpit of struggle from very early
+times, but the difficult nature of the country has enabled the wild and
+turbulent highlanders to maintain their independence against Turk and
+Persian and Russian alike. Not until 1835 did Russia begin to annex the
+country; she did not come into full possession of it until more than
+forty years later.</p>
+
+<p>Before I describe the actual fighting let us look a little closer at
+this Russian government of the Caucasus.<a name="FNanchor_178_178" id="FNanchor_178_178"></a><a href="#Footnote_178_178" class="fnanchor">[178]</a> Its main features are the
+great block of the Caucasus range and the lower mountain region to the
+south, known as Georgia. Between the two, at a distance of about sixty
+miles from the high ridge of the Caucasus, is a natural trench which
+rises gradually from the Black Sea for 3,000 feet to the watershed, and
+then slopes down to the Caspian Sea. Along this depression from Batum,
+on the Black Sea, to the great oil town of Baku, on the Caspian Sea,
+runs the railway which I have already mentioned. On it, about half-way
+between Batum and Baku, and also on the chief road which crosses the
+Caucasus, is Tiflis, the capital. It stands on the valley floor,
+surrounded by gray heights rising from twelve to fifteen hundred feet
+above it, and occupies both banks of the river Kur.</p>
+
+<p>The fighting which I am going to describe all took place to the south of
+Tiflis, between the depression mentioned above and the Turkish border.
+You will notice that a railway runs south from Tiflis amidst the
+Georgian mountains, and then swings eastwards to the frontier. This
+railway has to climb two ridges of fairly high mountains, and at its
+railhead of Sarikamish it is 6,000 feet above sea-level. The whole
+country through which it passes is a wild confusion of high hills with
+summits of 10,000 feet in elevation, and deep gorges, leading up to the
+Armenian plateau which I mentioned on page <a href="#Page_270">270</a>. It is impossible to get
+from one valley to another, except by the railway, without climbing
+steep and snow-clad ridges. You can scarcely conceive of a more
+difficult country in which to carry on the operations of war.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 730px;">
+<img src="images/p290.jpg" width="730" height="463" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h3>The Campaign on the Caucasian Frontier.</h3>
+
+<h4>(Inset&mdash;The Turkish Advance.)</h4>
+
+<p>For the Caucasus campaign which the Turks were now about to begin they
+collected at Erzerum an army of 150,000<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[281]</a></span> men with which to oppose the
+Russian army, which was not more than 100,000 strong. The object of the
+Turks was to capture the fortress of Kars, and thus open the way to
+Tiflis and to the Caspian oil fields at Baku. In order to do this they
+proposed to entice the Russians from Sarikamish across the frontier, and
+hold them at some point as far from the railhead as possible. While the
+Russian front was thus held, the Turks intended to make a wide
+encircling movement with their left centre and fall upon Sarikamish. At
+the same time, their left was to push up the Choruk River, cross the
+mountains to Ardahan, follow the road to Kars, and thus take the
+fortress in the rear.</p>
+
+<p>Fighting began in the first fortnight of November. The Russians advanced
+from Sarikamish, and crossed the frontier to within about forty or fifty
+miles of Erzerum. Now that they were sufficiently far from their
+railhead, the great Turkish plan was put into operation. You will
+understand more clearly what the plan was if you study the little inset
+map on the opposite page. The 11th Corps was ordered to hold the
+Russians in the direction of Erzerum, while the 10th Corps, at Id, was
+to follow a bad mountain road which crosses the passes and comes down to
+the railway between Sarikamish and Kars. Between the 10th Corps and the
+11th Corps a third corps, the 9th, was also to strike across the
+mountains directly at the railhead.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the 1st Corps was carried in transports to Trebizond, on the
+Black Sea. It was to follow the valley of the Choruk until it came to a
+mountain road which climbs a pass of more than eight thousand feet, and
+runs to the town of Ardahan, from which there is a fairly easy road to
+Kars.</p>
+
+<p>About the middle of December the 11th Corps took the offensive, and,
+after fierce fighting, pushed back the Russians for about a dozen miles.
+On Christmas Day the Russians made a stand. At that time they were
+strung out along the railway and the road that runs by the side of it
+for about thirty miles. Meanwhile the 9th and 10th Corps had struggled
+over the high hills, and were descending upon Sarikamish and the railway
+to the east of it; while the 1st Corps, on the extreme Turkish left, had
+climbed the mountains at the head of the Choruk valley in the teeth of
+fierce blizzards, and had reached a position from which in the pauses of
+the storms they could look down on Ardahan. On 28th December it seemed
+as if the Turkish plan had succeeded.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[282]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But the forces which had toiled over the mountains and had battled with
+the furious storms and the deep snow were worn out and utterly incapable
+of meeting the Russians. Their transport and big guns could not follow
+them over the rocky steeps; so they were without artillery, ammunition,
+and a proper supply of food. Many of the men were starving, and their
+hands and feet were frost-bitten, while thousands of others could only
+crawl along in a dazed and numb condition. It was impossible for these
+hungry, cold, and toil-worn men to make a great united attack, and the
+Russians were therefore able to deal with them piecemeal.</p>
+
+<p>First they dealt with the 10th Corps. On January 1, 1915, after three
+days of hard fighting on the railway, they forced this corps to retreat
+into the hills. This retreat left the 9th Corps unsupported. The
+Russians had pushed forward their right in pursuit of the retreating
+enemy, and at the same time their left had advanced, so that the 9th
+Corps was taken on both flanks. It fought with the fury of despair, and
+on January 3, 1915, when it had almost been wiped out, the remnants laid
+down their arms. It is said that the Turks yielded rather to cold and
+hunger than to the onset of the Russians; that they surrendered as much
+to the Russian field kitchens as to Russian steel.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the 1st Corps had entered Ardahan, but could not advance any
+farther. The Russian force which had been detached to cope with it drove
+the worn-out Turks from the town, and thrust them back in complete rout
+into the mountains and towards the Choruk valley, by which they had
+advanced. The 10th Corps, now in flight, was also heading in the same
+direction. The 11th Corps, which had been holding up the Russians on the
+road from Erzerum to Sarikamish, now made a big effort to save the
+situation. It had been unable to rescue the 9th Corps, but it might do
+something to cover the retreat of the 10th Corps. Accordingly it
+attacked vigorously, and pushed back the Russians to within twenty miles
+of Sarikamish, where three days' heavy fighting took place amidst the
+snowdrifts. By January 17, 1915, the 11th Corps had also been broken,
+and was forced to retreat on Erzerum, with a great loss of men and guns.</p>
+
+<p>While this struggle was going on, the Russian right<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[283]</a></span> was pursuing the
+1st Corps and the remnant of the 10th and was driving them towards
+Trebizond. The Turkish navy attempted to bring reinforcements and stores
+to these harried corps; but Russian warships sank several of the
+transports and provision vessels, and hunted the <i>Breslau</i> and the
+<i>Hamidieh</i>, which accompanied them, back to Constantinople. The <i>Goeben</i>
+had already been crippled and put out of action for several weeks.</p>
+
+<p>So, in hopeless and utter failure, ended the great adventure in the
+Caucasus. The plan of campaign had been prepared by German generals, who
+worked from the map without any actual knowledge of the terribly
+difficult country in which the troops were to operate. They did not
+foresee that the mountains and gorges, the broken tracks, the fierce
+storms, the deep snow, and the biting cold were of themselves sufficient
+to defeat any army, however brave and determined. Neither did they
+foresee that the Turks would have to fight when worn out with marching
+and privation. They set their allies an impossible task; but the Turks
+fought like heroes. More than 50,000 of them were killed or wounded, or
+led away into captivity. For many months to come, Russia had nothing to
+fear from the Turks in the Caucasus.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Immediately war was declared on Turkey several of our submarines were
+sent to the Dardanelles, to destroy, if possible, some of the Turkish
+warships. Submarine B11 was most successful in this work, and its
+commander,</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Lieutenant Norman Douglas Holbrook</span>, R.N., was awarded the Victoria Cross
+for a conspicuous act of bravery on 13th December. On that day he
+entered the Dardanelles, and, notwithstanding the difficult current,
+dived his vessel under five rows of mines, and then torpedoed the
+Turkish battleship <i>Messudiyeh</i>, which was guarding the mine-field.
+After this exploit he brought his vessel back safely, though it was
+fiercely attacked by gun fire and torpedo boats. So beset was he that on
+one occasion he had to submerge the submarine for nine hours.</p>
+
+
+<br /><br /><br /><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[284]</a></span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXXIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE BATTLE OF THE SERBIAN RIDGES.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap">D</span>uring some hundreds of pages I have told you nothing about the part
+which gallant little Serbia was playing in the great struggle. On page
+76 of our second volume I briefly summed up the situation at the end of
+August 1914. At that time the first Austrian invasion had failed, and
+the country was almost clear of the enemy. The Austrians had suffered a
+serious set-back.</p>
+
+<p>Early in September they prepared a second army of invasion. Before I
+follow its fortunes, I want you to look closely at the little map on the
+opposite page. You notice that from the railway uniting the Lower Drina
+with Shabatz on the Save, right away to the southern frontier, the
+country is criss-crossed in all directions by great uplands, almost as
+difficult for an army to traverse as those of Georgia. The river valleys
+alone give access to the interior, and afford railway routes. There are
+a few good government highways, but most of the roads are mere tracks,
+which in wet weather become quagmires. When once the autumn rains set
+in, the work of transport in Serbia is greatly hampered.</p>
+
+<p>All the lowland parts of Serbia lie along the right bank of the Save and
+the Danube. This district is open, though hilly. East of Shabatz the
+lowlands form a rough triangle, with the course of the river Save as its
+base, and the highland town of Valjevo, on the river Kolubara, as its
+apex. It was across this triangle of easy country that the Austrians
+made their second invasion.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[285]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The Serbians did not wait for the Austrian attack, but pushed over the
+plain, and in the darkness of night on 6th September crossed the Save at
+several points, and made a dash on the Hungarian town of Semlin,
+opposite Belgrade. They occupied the place on the 10th, but were unable
+to hold it, and were driven back with heavy losses into the Tser
+Mountains, which you see marked on the map.</p>
+
+<p>The Austrian commander-in-chief proposed to turn the Serbian left, and
+at the same time hurry forward mountain troops to Valjevo, and thus cut
+off the retreat of the Serbian army. During September and October
+attacks and counter-attacks were constant, but neither side made much
+headway. The Austrians could not drive the Serbians off the crests of
+the mountains, and the Serbians could not drive back the Austrians, who
+were advancing up the Drina to turn the Serbian left. At length,
+however, the Serbian ammunition began to fail, and the Austrian numbers
+began to tell. On 6th November the enemy won the summits of the Tser
+Mountains, and the Serbians, in order to avoid being enveloped, were
+forced to retreat eastwards. This they did in perfect order.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/p295.jpg" width="459" height="339" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h4>Map to illustrate the Campaign of November and December 1914.</h4>
+
+<p>The Austrians pushed on, and occupied Valjevo on 14th November. While
+the Serbians retired to the summit of a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[286]</a></span> range south of Valjevo, the
+invaders pillaged the whole Kolubara valley and their line of march was
+marked by fire and massacre. Belgrade was abandoned, and on 2nd December
+the Austrians made a state entry into the undefended capital. Telegrams
+of congratulation were sent to old Franz Josef, and Vienna was full of
+rejoicing. The Austrians boldly declared that the campaign was over,
+that the Serbians were finally defeated, and that the fruits of victory
+were about to be reaped. So certain of success was the Austrian general
+that he sent back three of his corps to help his fellow-countrymen, who
+were now about to begin their attack on the Carpathian passes from the
+south.</p>
+
+<p>For a whole fortnight the Austrians dallied in Valjevo and on the skirts
+of the ridges occupied by the enemy. During this period the Serbians
+were by no means idle. Every available man was brought up, gun positions
+were prepared, and trenches were dug and strengthened. Best of all, the
+Western Allies sent them ammunition for big guns and small arms, and
+these supplies now reached the hard-pressed Serbians, despite the
+efforts of Turkish and Bulgarian bands to capture them.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/p296.jpg" width="337" height="230" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>Serbia was about to make her last stand. Everything had to be staked on
+the issue of the coming battle. If the Serbians should be driven back
+they would be almost certain to lose Kragujevatz,<a name="FNanchor_179_179" id="FNanchor_179_179"></a><a href="#Footnote_179_179" class="fnanchor">[179]</a> their arsenal and
+chief industrial centre, and without it they could scarcely continue the
+struggle. They would also lose Nish, the old capital, now the sojourning
+place of the government. The Serbians, however, held a very strong
+position on the Maljen ridge, to the west of the main road leading from
+Valjevo to Kragujevatz, and were also posted on the still higher Rudnik
+ridge to the east of this road.</p>
+
+<p>The plan of the enemy was to advance its centre against the Rudnik ridge
+along the single-line railway which runs up the valley of the Lig, a
+tributary of the Kolubara. At the same time the right was to move up the
+head waters of the Kolubara and attack the Maljen ridge, while the left
+was to swing round in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[287]</a></span> a wide sweep, and thus enclose the Serbian army.
+By 3rd December the Austrian centre had gained the western part of the
+Rudnik ridge, and the wings were making good progress.</p>
+
+<p>The critical hour has struck; the fate of Serbia hangs in the balance.
+Old King Peter rises from a sick-bed and joins his soldiers, to die, if
+need be, with them. He addresses them in burning words which recall the
+speech of King Henry before Agincourt<a name="FNanchor_180_180" id="FNanchor_180_180"></a><a href="#Footnote_180_180" class="fnanchor">[180]</a> and that of Robert Bruce
+before Bannockburn. He recalls the bitter struggles of their
+forefathers, recounts the ancient glories of their race, and paints the
+bright future which waits upon victory. Thus nobly he concludes:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Heroes, you have taken two oaths&mdash;one to me, your King, and the
+other to your country. I am an old, broken man, on the edge of
+the grave,<a name="FNanchor_181_181" id="FNanchor_181_181"></a><a href="#Footnote_181_181" class="fnanchor">[181]</a> and I release you from your oath to me. From
+your other oath no one can release you. If you feel you cannot
+go on, go to your homes, and I pledge my word that after the
+war, if we come out of it, nothing shall happen to you. But I
+and my sons stay here."</p></div>
+
+<p>Every Serbian feels himself uplifted by the noble words of his leader;
+not a man leaves the ranks; all are ready to do and die with their king.
+The weary and ragged soldiers pledge their faith anew, and steel their
+hearts to sweep the cruel hordes of invaders from the soil which they
+have profaned.</p>
+
+<p>At sunrise on 3rd December the two centre divisions of the Serbian army
+begin to advance across the bare, sharp ridges, now thinly powdered with
+snow. Fog hides them from the Austrian battalions which are descending
+from the plateau which they occupy to attack the Rudnik ridge. The sun
+shines out and dissipates the fog. Suddenly the Serbian guns, which have
+been dumb for many days, begin to speak, and the soldiers, fired with
+new courage, dash forward. So fierce is the onset that the Austrians,
+unable to deploy, fall into confusion. Panic seizes them, and they fly
+back a terrified mob to the plateau from which they advanced a few
+minutes ago full of confidence.</p>
+
+<p>Fresh Austrian troops are hurried up, and for three days the battle
+rages fiercely. On the afternoon of 5th December the left centre breaks,
+and crowds of discomfited men strea<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[288]</a></span>m northward down the Lig valley. The
+fugitives think only of their own safety; they fling away arms and
+equipment, and on the mountain roads and in the deep ravines abandon
+their artillery and baggage. Then the Austrian centre suffers the same
+fate, and the road to Valjevo is crowded with beaten troops hurrying
+into safety. There is good news, too, from the Serbian left, where a
+great victory has been won, and the enemy is in full retreat along the
+head waters of the Kolubara. By the dawn of the 6th the Austrian centre
+and right have everywhere given way, and the routed enemy is a mere
+panic-stricken mob, hot-foot for the frontier.</p>
+
+<p>The Serbians follow up the pursuit with great vigour, and sweep the
+Austrians over the Drina and the Save with fearful slaughter and the
+capture of thousands of prisoners and many guns. The Austrian left tries
+to make a stand, but all to no purpose. It is thrust back to a position
+already prepared on the crescent of hills to the south of Belgrade. Here
+it holds out till the 13th, when it, too, is broken, and its remnants
+strew the streets of Belgrade with rifles and equipment, and stampede
+wildly over the Danube bridges whipped by the merciless flail of the
+Serbian guns. A rearguard sacrifices itself in the northern suburbs to
+cover the retreat, but all is over; and on the 15th old King Peter is on
+his knees in the cathedral, giving thanks for the great victory
+vouchsafed to his arms. A few days later, and the Serbians are able to
+boast that not a single armed Austrian remains on their soil.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/p298.jpg" width="335" height="325" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h4>King Peter watching the Battle of the Ridges.</h4>
+
+
+<br /><br /><br /><br />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[289]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXXIV.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE BATTLE OFF THE FALKLAND ISLANDS.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap">T</span>he disastrous battle off Coronel took place on 1st November. Ten days
+later, in silence and secrecy, the <i>Invincible</i> and the <i>Inflexible</i>,
+the first two battle cruisers built by Britain, left Plymouth, and
+steamed at full speed across the Atlantic to the West Indies. On board
+the <i>Invincible</i> was Vice-Admiral Sir Doveton Sturdee, who was to take
+command of the avenging squadron. On his voyage to the Falklands he
+picked up the three armoured cruisers the <i>Carnarvon</i>, the <i>Kent</i>, and
+the <i>Cornwall</i>; also the light cruiser <i>Bristol</i>, the <i>Glasgow</i>, now
+repaired, and the <i>Macedonia</i>, an armed liner. He was thus in command of
+a very formidable force. Each of his two battle cruisers carried eight
+12-inch guns, so mounted that they could be fired on either broadside.</p>
+
+<p>How to get into touch with the German squadron was the problem that
+Sturdee set himself to solve. It is said that he managed it by means of
+a remarkable piece of "bluff." While his ships were steaming south he
+sent off a wireless message ordering the <i>Canopus</i> to proceed to
+Stanley, where she would be perfectly safe under the new guns which had
+been sent out to strengthen the forts. This message was picked up by the
+Germans, as it was meant to be. They believed that it was a trick
+intended to mislead them as to the safety of the <i>Canopus</i>, and that all
+the talk about forts and new guns was simple nonsense. But one thing the
+message did tell them, and that was that the <i>Canopus</i> was proceeding to
+Stanley Harbour, where she would have only the remnants of Cradock's
+beaten<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[290]</a></span> squadron to support her. Von Spee thought she would be an easy
+prey. He therefore resolved to capture her, and while Sturdee's
+squadron, all unknown to him, was speeding towards the Falkland Islands,
+he headed for Cape Horn, and steered towards Stanley.</p>
+
+<p>The British squadron arrived in Stanley Harbour on the morning of 7th
+December, and coaling at once began. Within the inner harbour lay the
+<i>Canopus</i>, <i>Glasgow</i>, and <i>Bristol</i>; in the outer gulf were the battle
+cruisers and the remaining vessels of the squadron. All were perfectly
+hidden from an enemy in the open sea.</p>
+
+<p>At 7.30 on the morning of 8th December the look-out on Sapper's Hill
+reported as follows: "Eight ships sighted about twelve miles off,
+south-east, all making for Stanley." It was von Spee's squadron
+descending upon Stanley to smash up the unprotected <i>Canopus</i> and
+destroy the wireless station. The German admiral proposed, when that was
+done, to dash across the Atlantic to the coast of German South-West
+Africa, and prevent the landing of a force from Cape Town.</p>
+
+<p>Speedily the great good news that von Spee was walking straight into the
+trap laid for him reached the British warships. Officers were roused
+from sleep, and the flag-lieutenant of the <i>Invincible</i>, so the story
+goes, dashed down to the Admiral's cabin clad only in pyjamas. Sturdee
+was shaving, and he received the information with the utmost calmness.
+"Well," he said drily, "you had better go and get dressed. We'll see
+about it later." I hope this story is true, because it recalls the
+famous incident when Drake was informed that the Spanish Armada was in
+sight.</p>
+
+<p>Screened by the land, Sturdee waited for the Germans to draw nearer, so
+as to make victory doubly secure. At about a quarter to nine the <i>Kent</i>
+steamed down the harbour, and took up a position at the entrance. The
+advance ships of the enemy came boldly on, anticipating an easy victory
+against the feeble force which they imagined to be in the harbour. Then
+they turned broadside on, with the intention of destroying the wireless
+station. Directed by officers on the hills above the town, the <i>Canopus</i>
+from her moorings opened fire over the narrow neck of land, and five
+shots in quick succession fell around the German ships, which
+immediately hoisted their colours and wheeled round to close in with the
+other three vessels<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[291]</a></span> of their squadron. Soon the British admiral knew
+that the ships in the offing were the <i>Scharnhorst</i>, <i>Gneisenau</i>,
+<i>Leipzig</i>, <i>N&uuml;rnberg</i>, and <i>Dresden</i>. He could hardly believe his good
+luck. He had come out to seek this very squadron, and it had come to
+find him instead.</p>
+
+<p>A few minutes later the two leading cruisers of the enemy altered their
+course and made directly for the harbour mouth, where the <i>Kent</i> was
+ready to engage them. Meanwhile the British battle cruisers were rapidly
+raising steam by means of oil fuel, and while doing so were sending up
+dense clouds of smoke with which to shroud themselves. Nearer and nearer
+came the leading ships of von Spee's squadron, and soon their commanders
+and crews had the surprise of their lives. They could now see the masts
+and funnels of the battle cruisers, and they knew for the first time
+that the British were waiting for them in great strength. Van Spee was
+well aware that he could not cope with such a force. The British ships
+were faster, and their guns were heavier and of longer range. He had
+played into the enemy's hands, and only a miracle could save him.
+Immediately the ships of his vanguard changed direction and hurried back
+to their consorts.</p>
+
+<p>It was a beautiful morning. The sun was bright, the sky was clear, and
+the sea was calm&mdash;one of those rare days which come to the foggy,
+wind-swept islands like angels' visits, few and far between. Leaving the
+<i>Canopus</i> in harbour, Admiral Sturdee about ten o'clock ordered the
+chase to begin, and the <i>Glasgow</i>, followed by the <i>Kent</i>, <i>Invincible</i>,
+<i>Cornwall</i>, <i>Inflexible</i>, and <i>Carnarvon</i>, steamed out to sea. The
+colliers and supply ships of the German squadron at once retreated to
+the south, and the <i>Bristol</i> and <i>Macedonia</i> followed them up. The
+remainder of van Spee's ships turned tail, and at top speed hurried away
+eastward. Their only hope lay in flight.</p>
+
+<p>The great gray warships tore through the sunlit seas, the white foam
+streaming from their bows as they furrowed the waves. The <i>Invincible</i>
+and the <i>Inflexible</i> soon drew ahead, but had to slacken off to enable
+the slower cruisers to keep up with them. At about eleven o'clock the
+position of the ships was as shown in the diagram on the next page.</p>
+
+<p>Von Spee now saw that he was being slowly but surely overtaken, and that
+he could not escape by flight. He therefore detached his three light
+cruisers, the <i>Leipzig</i>, <i>N&uuml;rnberg</i>,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[292]</a></span> and <i>Dresden</i>, which made off
+towards the south, followed by the <i>Kent</i>, <i>Cornwall</i>, and <i>Glasgow</i>,
+while the two British battle cruisers and the <i>Carnarvon</i> steadily
+gained on the <i>Gneisenau</i> and the <i>Scharnhorst</i>. They were soon within
+striking distance; 15,000 or 16,000 yards of sea separated them from the
+enemy. Admiral Sturdee however, was in no hurry to engage, and ordered
+his men to dinner. He even gave them time for a comfortable smoke after
+their meal. Just after a quarter to one he made this signal: "Open fire
+and engage the enemy."</p>
+
+<p>The men flew to their stations, and with the utmost eagerness obeyed the
+short, sharp orders. The ranges were signalled, the big guns were aimed,
+and suddenly the air quivered with the thunder of their discharge. There
+was a gleam of fire at their muzzles, followed by dense clouds of smoke,
+as the shells screamed over the sea. The morning promise of a fine day
+had gone. The sky became overcast, and the air was thick with a drizzle
+of rain.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/p302.jpg" width="432" height="356" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h4>Battle off the Falkland Islands, December 8, 1914.</h4>
+
+<p>We will first follow the fortunes of the British battle cruisers now
+engaged in a fierce duel with the <i>Gneisenau</i> and the <i>Scharnhorst</i>.
+About two o'clock it was discovered that the British<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[293]</a></span> vessels were
+diverging from the enemy, who, seeing this, turned to starboard, in the
+hope of getting away. At once the British ships turned starboard too,
+and this brought them again within effective range. The smoke was now
+impeding the firing, so Admiral Sturdee worked up to top speed, and got
+on the other side of the enemy, from which position the <i>Scharnhorst</i>
+was pounded mercilessly. You can picture the scene for yourselves: the
+roar of the guns, the scream of the shells, the loud crashes as shots
+went home, the wash of the waves, the whistle of the rising breeze, the
+grinding of the hydraulic machinery as the turrets swung round, the
+throb of the engines&mdash;all uniting in a chorus of deafening and incessant
+noise.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Scharnhorst</i> was soon in the throes of her last agony. Clouds of
+smoke rose from her, and spurts of bright flame. Shot after shot struck
+her, and though she returned the fire, the British vessels were too far
+away for her shells to do much damage. Her 8.2-inch guns could not cope
+with the 12-inch monsters of the battle cruisers. At three o'clock
+Admiral Sturdee, seeing that the end of the <i>Scharnhorst</i> was near, sent
+out this signal to his ships: "God save the King." By 3.30 the masts and
+funnels of the enemy had been shot away, and at five minutes past four
+she listed to port and turned bottom upwards. In a cloud of steam and
+smoke she disappeared amidst the swirling waters, her propellers still
+going and her flag still flying. Seven hundred and sixty brave men and
+their gallant admiral had gone to their doom.</p>
+
+<p>Fire was now concentrated on the <i>Gneisenau</i>, and soon she was done for.
+At half-past five, when her upper works were a total wreck, when one of
+her turrets had been blown overboard and flames were raging, she ceased
+firing. Several times her flag had been shot away, but every time it had
+been replaced. The three British vessels now closed in on her; her
+engines were smashed to fragments, but with one gun she still fought on.
+Soon after six o'clock she began to settle down, and Admiral Sturdee
+signalled to his consorts, "Cease fire." Six hundred of her crew had
+been killed, and the survivors were now lined up on deck waiting for the
+end. Then she suddenly heeled over, her stern rose high in the air, and
+a few moments later she too disappeared. The sea was dotted with men
+battling for life amidst the waves.</p>
+
+<p>An officer on board the <i>Invincible</i> thus describes the errand of mercy
+on which the British were soon engaged:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Now came the awful part. The <i>Inflexible</i>, <i>Carnarvon</i>, and
+ourselves hurried up to where she had disappeared, shown by
+slightly discoloured water, and on coming up close saw a good
+amount of wreckage with men clinging to it. Never shall I forget
+it: they were mostly calling out, and it sounded like a wail to
+us. We all lowered boats as quickly as possible, and picked up
+as many as possible; but heaps must have sunk, as the water was
+40 degrees and they were all numb. It was awful being on the
+ship, because when all the boats were away they kept floating
+past, some swimming, some unconscious, just beneath the water.
+We lowered people down on bow-lines, and hauled them up the
+ship's side; some of them were quite dead when they came in.
+Altogether this ship saved about 115, of which fourteen were
+dead."</p></div>
+
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[295]</a></span>
+<p>Meanwhile what had happened to the <i>Dresden</i>, <i>N&uuml;rnberg</i>, and <i>Leipzig</i>,
+which were being chased by the <i>Glasgow</i>, <i>Kent</i>, and <i>Cornwall</i>? The
+battle between these light cruisers was more equal than the fight which
+I have just described. All day the struggle continued. The <i>Kent</i>, which
+was chasing the <i>N&uuml;rnberg</i>, got far out of sight of land, and lost touch
+with her consorts. It was feared that she had been lost, especially as
+no reply was received to the numberless calls sent out to her. Late in
+the afternoon of the next day she returned safely to Stanley with her
+wireless shot away, and showing every mark of fierce combat. Her silk
+ensign and Jack, presented by the ladies of the county of Kent, had been
+torn to ribbons.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>N&uuml;rnberg</i> could steam a knot faster than the <i>Kent</i>, but the
+British stokers and engineers worked like heroes. They piled her
+furnaces high with fuel, and strained her engines to the utmost. When
+the engineers reported that coal was running short, the captain replied,
+"Very well, then; have a go at the boats." Accordingly the boats were
+broken up, the wood was smeared with oil and passed into the furnaces.
+Shortly afterwards the wooden ladders, doors, and almost everything that
+would burn followed the boats. She managed to work up to 25 knots&mdash;a
+knot and a half more than her registered speed&mdash;and slowly but surely
+came within range of the enemy.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 690px;">
+<img src="images/p304.jpg" width="690" height="441" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h3>The Sinking of the N&uuml;rnberg by the British Light Cruiser Kent.</h3>
+
+<h4>(<i>Drawn by Montagu Dawson from a sketch by an eye-witness. By permission
+of The Sphere.</i>)</h4>
+
+<p>The <i>N&uuml;rnberg</i> was well fought, and the <i>Kent</i> was hit several times. A
+bursting shell set fire to some cordite charges, and a flash of flame
+went down the hoist into the ammunition passage. Sergeant Charles Mayer
+instantly picked up a charge of cordite and hurled it into safety. He
+then seized a fire hose, and by flooding the compartment averted all
+danger. But<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[296]</a></span> for this heroic action there would have been an explosion,
+and the <i>Kent</i> would probably have been put out of action, if not
+destroyed altogether. By about seven o'clock the <i>N&uuml;rnberg</i> was in
+flames, and less than half an hour later she sank, her guns firing to
+the last. As she disappeared some of her crew waved the German ensign
+from the quarter-deck.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Glasgow</i> and the <i>Cornwall</i> came within range of the <i>Leipzig</i>
+about three in the afternoon, and for six hours they engaged her. From
+time to time she turned and fired a salvo at her pursuers; but though
+shells fell fast and thick around the <i>Glasgow</i>, there were few
+casualties, though many narrow escapes. Not till nine o'clock was the
+<i>Leipzig</i> finally disposed of. As the darkness of a wet night closed in,
+she heeled over and went down. The German transports and colliers had
+been sunk and their crews saved earlier in the day by the <i>Bristol</i> and
+the <i>Macedonia</i>. Of von Spee's squadron, only the <i>Dresden</i> and the
+armed liner <i>Eitel Friedrich</i><a name="FNanchor_182_182" id="FNanchor_182_182"></a><a href="#Footnote_182_182" class="fnanchor">[182]</a> remained.</p>
+
+<p>The battered <i>Dresden</i> had managed to escape early in the fight, and she
+was lost sight of for many weeks. Ultimately she was cornered by the
+<i>Kent</i> and the <i>Cornwall</i> off Juan Fernandez<a name="FNanchor_183_183" id="FNanchor_183_183"></a><a href="#Footnote_183_183" class="fnanchor">[183]</a> on March 18, 1915, and
+after a five minutes' action was forced to hoist the white flag. When
+her crew were taken off she was in flames. Finally her magazine
+exploded, and she sank.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Such was the first decisive naval battle of the war. It was a triumph
+not only for the officers and men of the British squadron, but also for
+the Admiralty, which had so skilfully and secretly planned the whole
+enterprise. The British victory was well-nigh complete; only one warship
+escaped, and our loss was small. The <i>Invincible</i> had no casualties; the
+<i>Inflexible</i> had one man killed. The <i>Kent</i>, which fought the most
+stubborn engagement, lost four men killed and twelve wounded; while the
+<i>Glasgow</i> had nine killed and four wounded. The German loss was
+terrible. Some 3,000 men must have perished, including von Spee and two
+of his sons. Let us do honour to those of our foes who sank beneath the
+waves on that dread day. "The German admiral fought as Cradock had
+fought; the German sailors died as Cradock's men had died. There can be
+no higher praise."</p>
+
+
+<br /><br /><br /><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[297]</a></span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXV" id="CHAPTER_XXXV"></a>CHAPTER XXXV.</h2>
+
+<h3>NAVAL RAIDS ON THE EAST COAST OF ENGLAND.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap">E</span>very British boy and girl remembers Campbell's stirring lines:&mdash;<a name="FNanchor_184_184" id="FNanchor_184_184"></a><a href="#Footnote_184_184" class="fnanchor">[184]</a></p>
+
+<div class="poem2"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Britannia needs no bulwarks,</span>
+<span class="i2">No towers along the steep;</span>
+<span class="i0">&nbsp;Her march is o'er the mountain waves,</span>
+<span class="i2">Her home is on the deep."</span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>In these days of fast warships, aeroplanes, and airships, we can no
+longer say that "Britannia needs no bulwarks, no towers along the
+steep." While it is probably true that no invasion of Great Britain
+could be successful while the British Navy remains undefeated, it is
+likewise true that the Navy in war time cannot guarantee that an enemy
+with bases on the North Sea will not be able to make sudden swoops upon
+certain parts of the British coast. During the darkness of night or
+amidst the obscurity of fog, fast warships can dash across the North
+Sea, turn their guns on seaside towns for a short time, and then hurry
+back to the safety of their own waters before a British fleet can catch
+them. Aeroplanes and airships can also fly across by day and drop bombs
+on coast towns by night. Of course, such attacks can never decide the
+war. At the best they can only cause panic and spread dismay amongst the
+people. The British, however, are not easily frightened or dismayed.
+Those who know the British temper best will tell you that such naval
+raids and air attacks can only make our people more determined than ever
+to defeat the enemy.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[298]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Perhaps you think that the Navy ought to protect coast towns from sudden
+raids. You must remember that the business of the Navy is to destroy the
+fleets of the enemy, and that it must always be ready to give battle
+whenever occasion offers. Were our warships to be strung out along the
+coast for the protection of towns, they would be an easy prey; they
+would be quite unable to concentrate rapidly in order to meet the enemy
+when he came out in strength or to fall upon him in the open sea on his
+way to or from an attack on our coasts.</p>
+
+<p>During the month of October, when the German guns thundering against
+Ypres could be heard across the Channel, we began to prepare seriously
+against raids and even invasion. Mine fields were laid along the
+threatened shores, and within easy reach of all possible landing-places
+Yeomanry and Territorials were stationed, trenches were dug, wire
+entanglements were erected, and anti-aircraft guns were mounted. Over
+and over again there were false alarms that the enemy were coming. In
+the early days of November he made his first appearance.</p>
+
+<p>Late on the afternoon of 2nd November eight German warships steamed out
+of the mouth of the Elbe, and cleared for action, ready for a descent
+upon the east coast of England. Probably some of the many German spies
+who then swarmed in the eastern counties had reported that the coast was
+clear, and that a sudden swoop had every prospect of success. The
+squadron consisted of the <i>Seydlitz</i>, the <i>Moltke</i>, and the <i>Von der
+Tann</i>, battle cruisers; the <i>Bluecher</i> and the <i>Yorck</i>, armoured
+cruisers; and the <i>Kolberg</i>, the <i>Graudenz</i>, and the <i>Strassburg</i>, light
+cruisers. All but the <i>Yorck</i> could steam 25 knots an hour, and the
+battle cruisers mounted 11-inch guns. Early on the morning of the 3rd
+they ran through the nets of a fishing fleet about eight miles east of
+Lowestoft, and sighted an old coast patrol boat, the <i>Halcyon</i>. Shots
+were fired at her, but she managed to get away unpursued, with her
+wireless apparatus, bridge and funnel damaged, and one man wounded.</p>
+
+<p>By eight in the morning the German ships were ten miles off Yarmouth,
+and had begun to aim their guns at the wireless station and the naval
+air station. Their shells ploughed the beach or plumped harmlessly into
+the sea. For a quarter of an hour they kept up their cannonade without
+doing any damage.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[299]</a></span> Then they retired, and while doing so threw out mines
+to prevent pursuit. Later in the day a British submarine, D5, ran on one
+of these mines and was blown up. Before the voyage ended the engineer
+was hoisted on his own petard.<a name="FNanchor_185_185" id="FNanchor_185_185"></a><a href="#Footnote_185_185" class="fnanchor">[185]</a> The <i>Yorck</i> collided with another of
+the mines, and went to the bottom with all her crew.</p>
+
+<p>The destruction of von Spee's squadron off the Falkland Islands aroused
+much anger and bitterness in Germany, and many Germans loudly complained
+that their great and expensive fleet did nothing but skulk in its ports.
+Stung by these reproaches, and eager to avenge the defeat in the
+Southern Seas, the German naval authorities now prepared a raid upon the
+Yorkshire coast. The distance between Heligoland and Scarborough is
+about 320 miles. A ship leaving Heligoland at five in the evening, and
+steaming between 20 and 25 knots an hour, can easily reach Scarborough
+about eight in the morning, spend an hour in shelling the town, and be
+back again at its base before midnight.</p>
+
+<p>On the evening of 15th December, seven days after the Battle off the
+Falkland Islands, a German raiding force steamed westward from
+Heligoland. We do not yet know exactly what ships were included in it,
+but probably Rear-Admiral Funke had with him most of the vessels which
+took part in the former raid, as well as the <i>Derfflinger</i>. Before
+daybreak, when a thick, cold mist lay low on the coast, the squadron
+arrived off the mouth of the Tees. There the forces were divided. The
+<i>Derfflinger</i> and the <i>Von der Tann</i>, with another vessel, probably the
+<i>Bluecher</i>, were sent north against the Hartlepools; while two light
+cruisers, along with, probably, the <i>Seydlitz</i> and the <i>Graudenz</i>,
+sailed south against Scarborough.</p>
+
+<p>According to the laws of war, which Germany has undertaken to recognize,
+unfortified towns may not be bombarded. Nobody in his senses could
+possibly call Scarborough a fortified town. On a green promontory there
+are the picturesque ruins of a castle, now crumbling to decay, and
+formerly there was a battery below it. But when the German ships
+appeared off Scarborough, its only weapon of defence was an old
+60-pounder Russian gun captured in the Crimea, and sent to the town as
+an interesting relic. True, there was a wirele<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[300]</a></span>ss station on a hill
+behind the town, and some battalions of the new army were in the
+neighbourhood. Otherwise the Germans had not the shadow of an excuse for
+attacking Scarborough.</p>
+
+<p>A few minutes before eight o'clock, when the all-the-year-round bathers
+were taking their morning dip, four strange warships were seen looming
+through the mist, and a few moments later the booming of guns was heard.
+Shells began to crash on the coastguard station and in the castle
+grounds, and shortly afterwards the ships steamed in front of the town
+to within five hundred yards of the shore. Quite unmolested, they
+proceeded to bombard every large object within sight. The Grand Hotel
+was struck by three shells; churches, public buildings, and
+hospitals&mdash;one of them flying the Red Cross flag&mdash;were hit, and large
+numbers of private houses were wrecked. Many shells were directed
+against the wireless station and the gas works.</p>
+
+<p>For forty minutes the bombardment continued, and probably some five
+hundred shots were fired. Eighteen persons, chiefly women and children,
+were killed, and about seventy were wounded. One house was struck by a
+shell which glanced off a railway bridge about twenty yards distant. The
+whole place crumpled up as though struck by a giant's hammer, and a
+child of nine, another of five, the mother, and a soldier son, were
+instantly killed, while the father and another son were severely
+wounded. The number of narrow escapes was great. In some cases roofs
+were torn off and walls crushed in, yet the occupants remained unharmed.
+By a quarter to nine all was over, and the hulls of the raiding vessels
+disappeared round the castle promontory.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Some fifteen miles north of Scarborough is the pleasant seaside resort
+of Whitby, built on both sides of the estuary of the little river Esk.
+Those of you who have spent your holidays in the town will remember the
+red-tiled cottages of the fishermen, the gray walls of the quays and
+houses, the little bridge, and the ships sailing up the river at high
+tide. Most of the town is on the West Cliff, and across the river, on a
+high, treeless headland, are the roofless ruins of an abbey on the site
+of an older monastic building, which has always been regarded as the
+cradle of English song. It was on this spot that the first English poem
+composed in England flowed from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[301]</a></span> the lips of Caedmon, a humble man who,
+in the seventh century, tended the cows and slept in the byre of the
+monastery, which was then under the rule of the abbess Hilda. For this
+reason Whitby is sacred all the world over to lovers of English
+literature. This quiet seaside place, without a vestige of
+fortification, was now to receive a visit of destruction from the
+sailors of a nation which has always professed to reverence art,
+learning, and literature.</p>
+
+<p>About nine o'clock the coastguard at Whitby saw through the haze two
+warships rapidly steaming up from the south. Ten minutes later they
+began firing at the coastguard station on West Cliff, where many
+townsfolk gathered to watch the bombardment, which continued for a
+quarter of an hour. Some of the shots damaged the coastguard station,
+destroyed the western gateway of the ancient abbey on the East Cliff,
+and wrecked a number of private houses. Shells fell at Ruswarp, a mile
+inland, and damaged a school at Meadowfield. Happily, the scholars, who
+had just begun their morning lessons, were unhurt. In all, three persons
+were killed and two were injured. After the bombardment the cruisers
+turned northwards, and were quickly lost to view in the haze.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 734px;">
+<img src="images/p312.jpg" width="734" height="422" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h3>The Bombardment of Hartlepool, showing shells falling on
+the Battery at the end of the Pier.</h3>
+
+<h4>(<i>By permission of The Illustrated London News.</i>)</h4>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the other division had visited the Hartlepools, which stand on
+Tees Bay, to the north of the wide estuary of the Tees. West Hartlepool
+and Hartlepool proper are really one town, with important docks and
+shipbuilding yards, which at this time were busily engaged on Government
+orders. The port is defended by two small batteries of 6-inch guns, so
+the Germans were able to say that they were attacking a fortified place.
+West Hartlepool had no defence whatever&mdash;it was without a single gun.
+There were some companies of the new army in the town, and in the bay a
+gunboat, a destroyer, and a submarine were stationed.</p>
+
+<p>About the time when the bombardment of Scarborough began this British
+flotilla encountered the <i>Derfflinger</i>, the <i>Von der Tann</i>, and the
+<i>Bluecher</i> about eight miles from the coast, on the north side of the
+peninsula on which Old Hartlepool stands. The British flotilla was, of
+course, hopelessly outclassed by the German cruisers, but with great
+gallantry it tried to close in and torpedo the enemy. Shots were
+exchanged, and the British patrol vessels were obliged to run for
+safety, w<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[303]</a></span>ith some five men killed and twenty-two wounded. The German
+cruisers now approached within 2&frac14; miles of the shore, and their guns
+opened fire. At once the two batteries, which were manned by
+Territorials of the Durham Garrison Artillery, who had never before
+fired a shot in anger, engaged the German ships with the greatest
+gallantry, and fought like veterans; but their 6-inch guns could not
+cope with the 8-inch and 11-inch guns of the enemy. Shells from the
+German warships burst in and around the "Heugh" battery, and killed
+several men.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Bluecher</i> now engaged the batteries while the other vessels moved
+farther north, shelled Old Hartlepool, and fired over the peninsula at
+West Hartlepool and the docks. Both the shore batteries claimed to have
+made hits. The streets of the old town suffered greatly; many houses and
+the gas works were destroyed, churches, hospitals, workhouses,
+factories, schools, and private houses were struck, and one of the
+shipbuilding yards was damaged. The docks, however, were untouched,
+though seven ships in them were injured. The streets were full of people
+when the bombardment began, and little children going to school and
+mothers with babies in their arms were killed. The total death-roll was
+119, including nine men of the King's forces, and over four hundred
+persons were injured. Some six hundred houses were damaged or destroyed.</p>
+
+<p>At 8.50 the fire ceased, and the cruisers disappeared, throwing out
+mines to prevent pursuit. That night three steamers making for the port
+struck some of these mines, and went down, with much loss of life.</p>
+
+<p>The temper of the townsfolk was admirable. There were confusion, of
+course, and some panic, but for the most part the people remained calm
+and collected. The girls at the Hartlepool Telephone Exchange, for
+example, worked on steadily through the cannonade. The moment the danger
+was over the work of rescue and relief was begun, and the ordinary
+business of the day was resumed. It is said that one old lady, hearing
+the crash of the bursting shells, asked what was happening. When she was
+told, she remarked, "Hey! is it only Germans? I was frightened it was
+thunder!" Many of the little children who had been injured by the
+bursting shells or by the fall of houses showed wonderful courage in
+their agony.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[304]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Between nine and ten o'clock on that December morning the German vessels
+came together again, and started on their homeward voyage. Unhappily
+they managed to escape, but only by the skin of their teeth. Before the
+first shell was fired our Grand Fleet knew that the German squadron was
+off the Yorkshire coast, and immediately two battle cruisers and half a
+dozen battleships were sent off to engage the enemy. The fog, however,
+thickened as they ran south, until it stretched across the waters in a
+series of belts. Nevertheless the battle cruisers came within eight
+miles of the German vessels, which at once changed course. Just when it
+seemed that they were at our mercy the fog grew denser, and in the
+obscurity they made good their escape.</p>
+
+<p>Though the German warships had escaped, they had certainly suffered. The
+captain of the <i>Bluecher</i> afterwards confessed that he had ten killed
+and twenty wounded, and two guns put out of action. The <i>Von der Tann</i>
+probably suffered even more severely, and the <i>Seydlitz</i> did not go
+scot-free.</p>
+
+<p>When the news reached the Fatherland that a German squadron had
+bombarded English coast towns and had returned in safety there was great
+rejoicing. Soon, however, America and other neutral nations began to
+express their horror that undefended towns should have been attacked,
+and the Germans tried to excuse themselves by declaring that they had
+only attacked fortified places and an important naval signal station. As
+you know, the only town of the three with a semblance of defence is
+Hartlepool. As a matter of fact, the Germans simply killed unarmed and
+peaceful townsfolk in order to terrify the British people, and convince
+them of the hopelessness of continuing the struggle with Germany. The
+only result was to send a flock of recruits to the colours, and to heap
+further disgrace on the German Government. Mr. Winston Churchill summed
+up the situation exactly: "Whatever feats of arms the German Navy may
+hereafter perform, the stigma of the baby-killers of Scarborough will
+brand its officers and men while sailors sail the seas."</p>
+
+
+<br /><br /><br /><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[305]</a></span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXXVI.</h2>
+
+<h3>WINTER IN THE TRENCHES.</h3>
+
+<p><span class="dropcap">W</span>e must now return to the Western front and briefly follow the course of
+the fighting down to the end of the year. With the failure of the
+Kaiser's great and costly effort to break through the thin British lines
+before Ypres the critical moment had passed. Thenceforward through the
+rain and sleet and snow of winter the armies faced each other in
+trenches, and though the guns were rarely silent, and there were attacks
+and counter-attacks without number, nothing decisive took place. On both
+sides the combatants were more anxious to make their positions secure
+than to win new points of vantage.</p>
+
+<p>During the closing days of November there were several gallant assaults
+on the German trenches by British troops, and in some of them Victoria
+Crosses were won. On the 23rd the Germans captured 800 yards of the
+trenches held by the 34th Sikh Pioneers, but a desperate counter-attack
+across the frosty snow in the darkness won them back again. It was in
+this fighting that Naik Darwan Sing Negi, as related on page <a href="#Page_170">170</a>, won
+the highest award of valour.</p>
+
+<p>In December the trench fighting was keener and more frequent. In the
+first days of the month the French captured the ferryman's house on the
+east bank of the Ypres Canal, between Dixmude and Bixschoote. For weeks
+they had striven to secure this post, and it was only won by much
+bloodshed. Shortly afterwards information was received that the German
+lines had been weakened by the withdrawal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[306]</a></span> of troops sent to help von
+Hindenburg in the East, and that a good opportunity afforded itself for
+an attempt to improve the Allied position, especially where it was
+weakest&mdash;that is, from Klein Zillebeke to Messines, where the Germans
+were posted on low ridges which gave them good gun positions. On 14th
+December at seven in the morning, our guns heavily bombarded two wooded
+spurs to the north of Messines, which were then in possession of the
+enemy. The Royal Scots advanced against one of these spurs, and the
+Gordon Highlanders against the other; but though they showed the
+greatest gallantry in the attack, only the western edge of one position
+was won. Neither we nor the Germans could make headway in this
+direction.</p>
+
+<p>It was in the neighbourhood of La Bass&eacute;e that the most extensive
+operations were undertaken. On the first two days of December Maud'huy's
+left wing carried the Ch&acirc;teau of Vermelles,<a name="FNanchor_186_186" id="FNanchor_186_186"></a><a href="#Footnote_186_186" class="fnanchor">[186]</a> three miles south of
+the canal. Guns posted at the ch&acirc;teau forced the Germans to retire
+behind the railway and abandon a village. It was at once occupied, and a
+gain of a mile and a half was registered.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/p316.jpg" width="364" height="325" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h4>The Fighting near La Bass&eacute;e, December 19, 1914.</h4>
+
+<p>Sir James Willcocks now decided that the time was ripe for an attack by
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[307]</a></span>
+the Indian Corps on the advanced trenches opposite to them. Two Indian
+divisions then held a position from Cuinchy<a name="FNanchor_187_187" id="FNanchor_187_187"></a><a href="#Footnote_187_187" class="fnanchor">[187]</a> across the railway and
+canal through Givenchy, and east of Festubert to Neuve Chapelle. The
+brigade on the right attacked at 4.30 on the morning of 19th December,
+and carried two lines of trenches, but found at daybreak that it had no
+supports on either side. It held on until dark, when it had to retire.
+The same fate overtook the brigade on the left. At first successful, it
+was finally driven back to its own lines.</p>
+
+<p>Next day, 20th December, the Germans attacked the whole Indian front.
+Big guns and trench mortars prepared the way; then the German infantry
+swarmed out of their trenches and attacked the brigade which lay north
+of Givenchy. The Indians were forced to fall back, and by ten o'clock
+the Germans had captured a large part of the village. Farther south our
+line stood firm; but the capture of Givenchy was a serious blow, for it
+formed the pivot of our front. Reinforcements were hurried up, and to
+the 1st Manchesters, the 4th Suffolks, and two battalions of French
+Territorials was assigned the task of recovering the lost position. At
+five in the evening the Manchesters and Suffolks dashed upon the
+village, retook it, and cleared the enemy out of two lines of trenches
+to the north-east, though they could not dislodge them to the north.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile General Macbean with an Indian force delivered an attack on
+the German position; but it failed, and the whole of his troops were
+driven back. Farther north there was serious trouble too. The advance of
+the Germans north of Givenchy had exposed the right of an Indian
+brigade, which included the 1st Seaforth Highlanders. All the afternoon
+of the 20th the Germans shelled the Indian left fiercely, and the troops
+suffered severely. Sir John French tells us that they were "pinned to
+the ground by artillery fire." North of the Seaforths a battalion of the
+2nd Gurkhas gave way, and though the 2nd Black Watch managed to close
+the gap, there was a dint in our line which became a serious danger.</p>
+
+<p>That afternoon Sir Douglas Haig was ordered to bring up the whole of the
+1st Division to the support of the batte<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[309]</a></span>red line. His troops attacked
+with great vigour, and by nightfall on 21st December most of our
+original trenches from Givenchy to Festubert had been won back.
+Meanwhile the 2nd Brigade was fighting hard farther north, and by 10
+p.m. had carried the support trenches of those from which the 2nd
+Gurkhas had been driven. The fire trenches which the Gurkhas had
+occupied had been utterly destroyed by the enemy's shells, and could no
+longer be used. By the evening of 23rd December the whole line had been
+restored, and there was no longer any immediate danger. The Indians who
+had given way had only done so when worn out with two months' struggle,
+and when they had lost some ten thousand men. Thanks to Sir Douglas
+Haig's prompt help, the situation had been saved.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/p318.jpg" width="360" height="497" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h3>The Prince of Wales making a Tour of the British Lines in Flanders.</h3>
+
+<h4>(<i>Photo, Central News.</i>)</h4>
+
+<p>The following Victoria Crosses were awarded for outstanding deeds of
+gallantry during December 1914:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Private Henry Howey Robson</span>, 2nd Battalion Royal Scots (Lothian
+Regiment). On December 14, 1914, near Kemmel,<a name="FNanchor_188_188" id="FNanchor_188_188"></a><a href="#Footnote_188_188" class="fnanchor">[188]</a> during an attack on
+the German position, Private Robson gallantly left his trench under a
+very heavy fire, and brought in a wounded non-commissioned officer.
+Later on he attempted the rescue of another man, and though wounded,
+persevered in his efforts until a second shot rendered him helpless.
+Private Robson, who belonged to South Shields, subsequently received the
+freedom of his native town as a tribute to his splendid bravery.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Private James Mackenzie</span>, 2nd Battalion Scots Guards. On the 19th
+December, near Fromelles, about five miles south by west of Armenti&egrave;res,
+a stretcher-party tried to reach a wounded man lying in front of the
+German trenches, but was compelled to abandon the attempt owing to the
+fierce fire of the enemy. Private Mackenzie thereupon went out in the
+midst of a storm of bullets and succeeded in bringing the poor fellow
+into safety. Later in the day he tried to rescue another wounded man,
+but unhappily was killed in the attempt. "Greater love hath no man than
+this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Lieutenant Philip Neame</span>, Royal Engineers. On the same day, near Neuve
+Chapelle, Lieutenant Neame, under a very heavy fire and a shower of
+bombs, held back th<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[310]</a></span>e enemy, and succeeded in rescuing all the wounded
+men whom it was possible to move. For this display of courage and
+devotion he was rightly awarded the highest token of valour.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Private Abraham Acton</span>, 2nd Battalion Border Regiment, and <span class="smcap">Private James
+Smith</span>, 3rd Battalion Border Regiment. These two soldiers on 21st
+December, near Fromelles, volunteered to go out and bring in a wounded
+man, who for seventy-five hours had been lying exposed close to the
+enemy's trenches. They succeeded in rescuing him, and later in the day
+again left their trench, in order to bring another wounded man into
+cover. While carrying him into safety they were under fire for a full
+hour, and every moment of it they ran the risk of being shot down.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>On the last day of November our troops were greatly delighted to hear
+that his Majesty the King had come to visit them. The Prince of Wales,
+who was a student at Oxford, and an enthusiastic member of the Officers'
+Training Corps when the war broke out, had already been at the front for
+some months as a member of Sir John French's Staff. Britons all over the
+world were delighted to know that the heir to the throne had set such a
+fine example to the young manhood of the nation, and that he had thrown
+himself into his military duties with great zeal and devotion. From the
+moment our troops left British shores the King's thoughts had been with
+them, and as soon as circumstances permitted he crossed over to France
+to cheer them by his presence, to show his personal interest in their
+welfare, to visit the wounded, and to pay the highest compliment in his
+power to our gallant Allies. Never since George II. had fought at
+Dettingen, in 1743, had a British sovereign taken his place among his
+troops on the field of battle.</p>
+
+<p>Accompanied by the Prince of Wales, his Majesty first visited the
+hospitals, where he spoke with great sympathy to many of the wounded
+men, not only British but German. Many a poor fellow lying on his couch
+of suffering found himself better able to bear his pain because he knew
+that his King had a kindly thought for him. His Majesty also visited the
+Indian hospital, and talked with many of the men, who were delighted to
+learn that in some cases he knew the circumstances under which they had
+been wounded. One Sepoy sprang from his bed as his Majesty appeared, and
+called out in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[311]</a></span> only English that he knew: "God save the King!"</p>
+
+<p>Later on, his Majesty made a tour of the whole British front, and
+inspected all the troops who were not actually in the trenches. It is
+said that he also visited the bivouacs by night, and in every way made
+himself acquainted with the conditions under which the men were living
+and fighting. He also presented the Distinguished Service Order and
+Distinguished Conduct Medals to a number of soldiers who had been
+mentioned in dispatches, and conferred the Victoria Cross on some of
+those who had won the award early in the war. An officer of the Royal
+Engineers thus describes the inspection of his division:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Punctually at 1.30 the sound of distant cheering announced the
+arrival of the King. The troops all along the road gave three
+cheers, by regiments. . . . The King then walked right round the
+line of troops, through mud and slush. I found myself bringing
+up the rear with the Prince of Wales just beside me. Not a word
+was spoken all the way round; it was really a most impressive
+sight&mdash;one of those showery days with spells of fine weather and
+blue sky; all round the field warriors with fixed bayonets and
+drawn swords; in the centre the King and his suite; and up
+above, against the blue, two British aeroplanes, purring away,
+keeping off the hostile Taubes. . . . After this inspection, the
+King presented the medals. The men came up in turn, and the King
+pinned the medal on each and said a few words to each with a
+smile; they <i>did</i> look proud as they went away. As soon as the
+presentation was over the troops gave the 'Royal Salute, Present
+Arms,' which the King graciously acknowledged from the middle of
+the field. . . . At 2 p.m. all the guns in the line let off a
+round in his honour."</p></div>
+
+<p>Another account tells us that the King was specially interested in the
+Leicesters, who had only come out of the trenches the previous midnight.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"They were in a lovely state of mud and unshavedness. The King
+simply revelled in them. He stopped and chatted to quite every
+one man in three, wanted to know all about trench fighting, and
+didn't seem to mind a bit their being covered in mud and
+unshaved for days. The Prince was just as interested. He
+wandered about at will, chatting with all and sundry. One man
+was wearing a pair of German boots, which interested the King
+very much. He spent quite twenty minutes with the Leicesters,
+and they deserved it. They have done splendidly all through."</p></div>
+
+<p>During the visit the King was taken to a commanding point on the line
+between Gheluvelt and Messines, from w<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[313]</a></span>hich he could see a wide stretch
+of Flanders and many of the places associated with the recent fighting.
+On his left he saw much-battered Ypres, and could clearly distinguish
+the Cathedral and the Cloth Hall. Afterwards he saw the woods east of
+Ypres, in which some of the hardest fights had been fought, and where so
+many British and their brave allies rest for ever from their heroic
+labours. He also met the President of the French Republic, General Foch,
+and other French generals, and conferred the Order of Merit upon General
+French. His final act before leaving for England was to confer the Order
+of the Garter on King Albert. Belgian troops were drawn up to receive
+him in the little town of Furnes, and he told them how greatly he
+admired the courage and constancy which they and their King had
+displayed during their terrible ordeal. So ended a visit which not only
+put new heart into our men, but welded the Allies into still closer
+friendship. It was felt by all who were present that the enemy's guns
+would boom in vain against an alliance so strengthened by the presence
+of Britain's King at the battle front.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 697px;">
+<img src="images/p322.jpg" width="697" height="456" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h3>"Three Cheers for the King!"</h3>
+
+<h4>His Majesty the King, followed by the Prince of Wales and the Staff,
+passing along the lines of British troops drawn up to greet him.<br />
+
+(<i>Drawn by F. Matania from a sketch by an eye-witness. By permission of The Sphere.</i>)</h4>
+
+<p>Before I close the record of the year, something must be said of the
+fighting between the French and the Germans during the month of
+December. We must not forget that the British then held less than
+one-tenth of the Allied line in the West, and that the French trenches
+extended from La Bass&eacute;e to the borders of Switzerland. During December,
+save for continuous sniping and artillery duels, there was little
+fighting except in the Argonne, along the Moselle, and on the steeps of
+the Vosges. In the Argonne, the left wing of Sarrail's army of Verdun
+and the right wing of the Crown Prince's army struggled in the wooded
+country between Varennes and Vienne.<a name="FNanchor_189_189" id="FNanchor_189_189"></a><a href="#Footnote_189_189" class="fnanchor">[189]</a> You will remember that during
+October the Germans had made a bold bid to capture this pass which
+enabled Sarrail to join arms with Langle's army in Champagne.</p>
+
+<p>In the wooded country, and in the hamlets north and south of the road
+crossing the forest, the Germans made many attacks during the winter,
+but all failed, and in the intervals the French showed that dash and
+enterprise for which they have long been famous. Some day wonderful
+tales will be told of scouting enterprises amidst the dark trees, where
+every fi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[314]</a></span>gure showed up against the white ground; of adventurous snipers
+concealed in the branches of lofty firs; and of fierce night assaults
+amidst the snowy glens and frosty ravines. Verdun was safer than ever.
+Almost every week Sarrail pushed his lines out farther, till on the east
+he threatened the railway by which the Germans were supplied, and they
+had to build another, out of range. At some places the opposing trenches
+were only twenty yards apart. The Germans still clung to the bridgehead
+at St. Mihiel, on the west bank of the Meuse, but they could advance no
+farther.</p>
+
+<p>The army of Lorraine, strongly entrenched on the east bank of the
+Moselle, not only maintained itself, but on the left wing gained ground;
+while in the Vosges the Chasseurs Alpins,<a name="FNanchor_190_190" id="FNanchor_190_190"></a><a href="#Footnote_190_190" class="fnanchor">[190]</a> mounted on skis, made
+fierce attacks on the crests amidst the deep snow, and by their
+mountaineering skill and dashing enterprise carried many of them. In
+this section of the front there was no trench warfare, but open fighting
+such as the French love. When they won a German signal station on one of
+the crests they advanced with bugles blowing, singing the
+<i>Marseillaise</i>, and carrying before them the tricolour. Over and over
+again the Chasseurs, making sudden descents along mountain tracks, fell
+upon the enemy, and caught him unawares. They hauled their guns into
+almost impossible positions, and bombarded him from unexpected quarters.
+They gave him no rest, day or night.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Elsewhere, however, trench warfare was the order of the day, and
+something must be said about its main features before I conclude this
+volume. Let us pay a visit to the Flanders front in December. We find
+that the hastily-constructed trenches of October have been turned into a
+series of strong fortifications. We notice that the advanced firing line
+consists for the most part of a number of short, separate trenches,<a name="FNanchor_191_191" id="FNanchor_191_191"></a><a href="#Footnote_191_191" class="fnanchor">[191]</a>
+each of which the enemy must win before he can advance and all of which
+he cannot command by flank fire. Many of these advanced trenches, though
+at least five feet deep, are not more than two or three feet wide. They
+are connected with the next line of trenches by means of zigzag
+communication trenches, and are but lightly held, being employed chiefly
+as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[316]</a></span> observation posts.</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/p325.jpg" width="309" height="429" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h4>Christmas Greetings from the Trenches.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>Photo, Photopress.</i></h4>
+
+<p>The stronghold of each series of trenches is the main firing trench in
+which the bulk of the defenders live. These trenches are wide and deep,
+and are floored with wood or hurdles. Each trench is divided into
+sections by means of a wall or traverse, jutting to the rear, and
+leaving but a narrow passage round it. By means of these traverses each
+section of the trench becomes a separate trench, and the whole of it
+cannot be enfiladed. The front towards the enemy consists of a parapet
+of sand-bags with loopholes, from which the men fire. As a rule, each
+trench is supplied with one or more machine guns.</p>
+
+<p>In many places the trenches are so close, and so keen a watch is kept,
+that it is highly dangerous for a man to show his head above the
+parapet. The enemy is observed through an arrangement of mirrors called
+a periscope. Some of the main trenches are roofed to afford head cover,
+and in the walls or in pits a little to the rear are the
+"dug-outs"&mdash;that is, caves into which the men retire to sleep or to take
+shelter when the shelling becomes hot. Some distance in front of the
+parapet there is a strong wire entanglement. If the wire has not been
+previously destroyed by artillery fire, it must be cut before the enemy
+can get into the trench itself.</p>
+
+<p>You notice that the trenches are not a fixture. Both sides "sap" towards
+their opponents' line, and drive mines forward until they are close to,
+or even under, the opposite trenches. In these mines charges are fired,
+and if successful, part of the trenches is blown in, and an infantry
+attack follows. More than once the miners of one side have found
+themselves separated from the miners of the other side by a mere wall of
+soil. Then there is feverish haste to fire a charge before the other
+side can do so.</p>
+
+<p>All through the day "snipers" are busy on both sides. They occupy pits,
+or craters made by shells, or ensconce themselves in ruins, or hide
+amidst the branches of trees, and try to pick off all opponents who show
+themselves. At night patrols steal out to the "No Man's Land" between
+the lines, and sometimes fall in with an enemy patrol and rush it with
+the bayonet. What are called "listening patrols" creep as near as
+possible to the opposite trenches, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[317]</a></span> try to overhear conversation,
+and find out what is going on in the enemy's lines. Each side burns
+flares to light up the darkness and make visible all movements in "No
+Man's Land."</p>
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80%;">
+<img src="images/p327.jpg" width="331" height="326" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h4>Bomb-throwers at Work.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>By permission of The Sphere.</i></h4>
+
+<p>In this war every device which science can suggest is in use. In trench
+fighting, however, we have gone back to the ways of our forefathers.
+Mortars are employed to throw bombs into the enemy's trenches, and hand
+grenades, such as those used by the earliest grenadiers, are flung by
+each side. A correspondent of the <i>Times</i> thus describes the
+bomb-throwers:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Around their middle they carry some twenty or thirty bombs,
+little cylinders fastened on a long stick, around which fall
+streamers of ribbon. The clothing of ribbons suggests a mixed
+breed of Scotsmen and Red Indians who have taken to wearing the
+Red Indian head-dress as a kilt. In action they are stranger
+still. Crouching down among the barbed wire, the bombers, with
+their supporting infantrymen with fixed bayonets, raise
+themselves a little from the earth, and seizing one of these
+rocket-like bombs from their belts, grasp it by the stick and
+hurl it high above the parapet. It twists and travels
+uncertainly through the air, and then finally the streamers
+settle it in its flight, and it plunges straight as a plumb line
+down into the trench. There is a noise as though a gigantic
+Chinese cracker were jumping along the zigzag trench, and clouds
+of greenish smoke rise up, through which hurtle lumps of earth
+and stone and fragments of the outer iron ring of the bomb which
+constitute its shrapnel."<a name="FNanchor_192_192" id="FNanchor_192_192"></a><a href="#Footnote_192_192" class="fnanchor">[192]</a></p></div>
+
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[318]</a></span>
+<p>Life in the trenches must always be uncomfortable, and may be very
+trying indeed. During the winter West Flanders was a huge bog; the
+canals and rivers overflowed their banks, and many of the trenches were
+always knee-deep in slime and icy water. Large numbers of our men
+suffered from frost-bite in the feet. Though they were clad in sheepskin
+coats, and everything possible was done for their comfort, they had to
+bear trials and hardships such as few troops have ever endured before.
+The cheerfulness of our men during those bitter, dreary, and trying days
+was amazing. The British food supplies were excellent and unfailing.
+Never before has an army been fed so well. Arrangements were also made
+for giving the men a hot bath and a change of clothing when they
+returned from the trenches to their billets in the villages behind the
+firing line.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>So the year wore on, and the season of "peace and good will towards men"
+arrived. On Christmas Eve a hard frost set in, and Christmas Day broke
+cold and misty. On that morning every officer and man in the field
+received a card from the King and the Queen, bearing portraits of their
+Majesties, and this greeting copied from the King's own handwriting:
+"With our best wishes for Christmas, 1914. May God protect you and bring
+you home safe.&mdash;Mary R. George R. I." The special card for the sick and
+wounded bore these words: "May you soon be restored to health." From
+Princess Mary's Soldiers' and Sailors' Christmas Fund came a box with an
+embossed cover, and inside a small gilt casket, containin<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[319]</a></span>g a photograph
+of the Princess, and a card on which was printed: "With best wishes for
+a Happy Christmas and a Victorious New Year from Princess Mary and
+friends at home." Smokers found a pipe, an ounce of tobacco, and a
+packet of cigarettes in the box; while non-smokers discovered a supply
+of chocolate. An immense number of parcels containing other Christmas
+gifts also arrived, and everywhere Christmas fare was abundant.</p>
+
+<p>Strange scenes were witnessed in parts of the firing line during the
+festive season. A member of the London Rifle Brigade says:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"We had rather an interesting time in the trenches on Christmas
+Eve and Christmas Day. We were in places less than 100 yards
+from the Germans, and held conversation with them across. It was
+agreed in our part of the firing line that there should be no
+firing and no thought of war on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day,
+so they sang and played to us several of their own tunes, and
+some of ours, such as 'Home, Sweet Home,' 'Tipperary,' etc.,
+while we did the same for them. The regiment on our left all got
+out of their trenches, and every time a flare went up they
+simply stood there, cheered, and waved their hats, and not a
+shot was fired on them. The singing and playing continued all
+night, and the next day (Christmas) our fellows paid a visit to
+the German trenches, and they did likewise. Cigarettes, cigars,
+addresses, etc., were exchanged, and every one, friend and foe,
+were real good pals. One of the German officers took a photo of
+English and German soldiers arm in arm with exchanged caps and
+helmets.</p>
+
+<p>"On Christmas Eve the Germans burned coloured lights and candles
+along the top of their trenches, and on Christmas Day a football
+match was played between them and us in front of the trench.
+They even allowed us to bury all our dead lying in front, and
+some of them, with hats in hand, brought in one of our dead
+officers from behind their trench, so that we could bury him
+decently. They were really magnificent in the whole thing and
+jolly good sorts. I have now a very different opinion of the
+Germans. Both sides have started the firing, and are already
+enemies again. Strange it all seems, doesn't it?"</p></div>
+
+<p>So with a soldiers' truce ended the first five months of the war. In the
+West, deadlock had set in; Allies and Germans were facing each other
+over a front of well-nigh five hundred miles from the sodden fields of
+Flanders to within sight of Alpine snows, winning here and losing there
+a few yards of fiercely-contested ground, and enduring with what
+patience they could command the icy showers and the biting frost of
+winter. In the East, from the East Prussian wilderness of lake and
+morass to the wind-swept passes of the Carpathians,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[320]</a></span> there was the same
+deadlock. On both of the main fronts of war the forces of the Central
+Powers were held up, and their dream of a swift and easy conquest had
+vanished. Nevertheless, with nearly all Belgium, a large part of
+industrial France, and a considerable portion of Russian Poland in their
+possession, they felt confident, at least, of an advantageous peace.</p>
+
+<p>Amongst the Allies, however, there was no thought of peace. Unprepared
+for war, they had, nevertheless, foiled the first and most dangerous
+onslaught of a foe that, according to all the rules, should have swept
+them away like chaff before the wind. They had gained time in which to
+make up for their lack of readiness, and they now began to realize that
+they must put forth every effort if they were to defeat the mighty
+forces arrayed against them.</p>
+
+<p>In Britain men flocked to the colours, and on every open space in the
+country drilling was going on. Already we had a million men in arms, and
+within six months we hoped to put double that number into the field.
+Time was with us. Every day saw us growing greater in men and resources,
+while every day the enemy was bound to decline in strength. So the
+Allies, strong in friendship and undaunted by their heavy losses, faced
+the future with unshaken courage and undaunted hope. "We shall never
+sheathe the sword, which we have not lightly drawn," said the Prime
+Minister, "until Belgium recovers in full measure all, and more than
+all, that she has sacrificed, until France is safe against the fear of
+invasion, until the rights of the small nations of Europe are placed on
+an unshakable foundation, and until the military tyranny of Prussia is
+wholly and finally destroyed." Such was the determination of Britons all
+over the world at the close of the year 1914.</p>
+
+
+<br /><br />
+<h3>END OF VOLUME III.</h3>
+
+
+<br /><br />
+<h4>PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN.</h4>
+
+
+<br /><br />
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> <i>Ar-twa&acute;</i>, former province of France, now forming the
+greater part of the department Pas-de-Calais. Its name is derived from Arras, its capital.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> The Colossus of Rhodes was one of the seven wonders of the
+ancient world. It was a huge figure of brass one hundred and twenty feet
+high, and it strode across the harbour mouth.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> This old province of France lies between the Aube on the
+north, the Rhone on the south, the Meuse on the east, and the Loire on
+the west.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> See Vol. I., p. 197.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> See diagrams on the following pages.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> It was said that the Germans had 56,000 machine guns at
+the beginning of the war.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> See Vol. II., p. 201.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> <i>Gree-nay</i> (gray nose), headland of Pas-de-Calais, the
+nearest point of the French shore to that of England (South Foreland).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> See Vol. II., p. 127</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> <i>Ar-mon-te-air&acute;</i> (<i>n</i> nasal).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> <i>Dool.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> <i>V&#333;-b&#257;n&acute;</i>, born 1633, died 1707.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> <i>Roo-bay&acute;.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> <i>Toor-kwan&acute;</i> (<i>n</i> nasal).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> <i>Meh-nan&acute;</i> (<i>n</i> nasal).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> Chaucer, "the morning star of English song," born 1340,
+died 1400.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> <i>Diks-m&uuml;d&acute;.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> The most brilliant, and perhaps the greatest, of all
+English generals, specially famous for his genius in tactics; born 1650,
+died 1722. (See <i>Highroads of History</i>, Book VI., Chaps. VII. and
+VIII.). Mr. Winston Churchill (First Lord of the Admiralty from October
+1911 to May 1915) is a direct descendant of the great general.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> <i>Ow-den-ar&acute;deh.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> <i>Doo-ay&acute;.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> See Vol. II., p. 107.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> See Vol. II., pp. 26 ff.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> <i>Mal-Pla-kay&acute;.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> See Vol. II., p. 127.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> See Vol. II., p. 126.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> These high explosive shells were nicknamed "Antwerp
+expresses."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> Seaside resort of Belgium, 11 miles north-east of Ostend.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> That is, Sea Bruges. <i>Z&#257;-brug&acute;ge</i>, the port of Bruges,
+with which it is connected by a ship canal seven miles long.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> Inhabitants of Brittany, a former province of France,
+forming the extreme north-west. The people are of Celtic stock, and
+their language is allied to the Welsh. Brittany was partly settled from
+England and Ireland in the fifth and sixth centuries, and thereafter was
+called Britannia Minor. Brittany has always been famous for its sailors.
+Jacques Cartier, the discoverer of the St. Lawrence, was a Breton.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> <i>Ron&acute;ark.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> French sailors wear a red pompom on the top of their
+caps.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> <i>Teelt</i>, 15 miles south-east of Bruges.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> <i>Too-roo&acute;</i>, 11 miles south-south-west of Bruges</p></div>.
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> <i>Roo-lare&acute;</i>, 20 miles south by west of Bruges, a textile
+manufacturing town of 25,000 inhabitants.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> In <i>Blackwood's Magazine</i>, March 1915.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> Village on the Ypres-Menin road, four miles east of
+Ypres.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> See Vol. I., p. 146.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> <i>&#258;z-brook&acute;</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> <i>O&acute;mare.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> <i>Zhee-van&acute;shee</i> [<i>n</i> nasal].</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> <i>Es-tayr&acute;</i>. See map, p. <a href="#Page_59">59</a>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> <i>&#332;-bayr&acute;.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> <i>Her&acute;lee.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_45_45" id="Footnote_45_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> <i>Pee&acute;ye.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_46_46" id="Footnote_46_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> <i>Bay-yule&acute;</i>, a small village seven miles north-west of
+Armenti&egrave;res.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_47_47" id="Footnote_47_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> <i>Varn-ton&acute;</i> (<i>n</i> nasal).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_48_48" id="Footnote_48_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> Harbour wall.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_49_49" id="Footnote_49_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> See Vol. II., pp. 26 ff.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_50_50" id="Footnote_50_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> See Vol. II., p. 91.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_51_51" id="Footnote_51_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51_51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> <i>Noove Sha-pel&acute;.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_52_52" id="Footnote_52_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_52_52"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> See Vol. II., p. 16.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_53_53" id="Footnote_53_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_53_53"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> Took them in flank and raked them from end to end.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_54_54" id="Footnote_54_54"></a><a href="#FNanchor_54_54"><span class="label">[54]</span></a> During the Indian Mutiny. The story of the capture of
+Delhi is told on p. <a href="#Page_149">149</a> of this volume.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_55_55" id="Footnote_55_55"></a><a href="#FNanchor_55_55"><span class="label">[55]</span></a> German rifleman or sharpshooter.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_56_56" id="Footnote_56_56"></a><a href="#FNanchor_56_56"><span class="label">[56]</span></a> Meadows reclaimed from the sea.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_57_57" id="Footnote_57_57"></a><a href="#FNanchor_57_57"><span class="label">[57]</span></a> See p. <a href="#Page_36">36</a>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_58_58" id="Footnote_58_58"></a><a href="#FNanchor_58_58"><span class="label">[58]</span></a> See map on p. <a href="#Page_93">93</a>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_59_59" id="Footnote_59_59"></a><a href="#FNanchor_59_59"><span class="label">[59]</span></a> <i>Pair-veez&acute;.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_60_60" id="Footnote_60_60"></a><a href="#FNanchor_60_60"><span class="label">[60]</span></a> <i>Rams-ka-pel&acute;.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_61_61" id="Footnote_61_61"></a><a href="#FNanchor_61_61"><span class="label">[61]</span></a> Fought in 1658. Dunkirk was afterwards handed over to the
+English, and remained in their possession until 1662, when Charles II.
+sold it to France.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_62_62" id="Footnote_62_62"></a><a href="#FNanchor_62_62"><span class="label">[62]</span></a> <i>Koor-tray'</i>, 27 miles by rail south-west of Ghent, on the
+Lys; famous for its linen and lace manufactures. The "Battle of the
+Spurs" (1302) was fought outside its walls.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_63_63" id="Footnote_63_63"></a><a href="#FNanchor_63_63"><span class="label">[63]</span></a> <i>R&#257;-m&#275;-yee&acute;</i>, 29 miles south-east of Brussels; scene of
+one of Marlborough's victories (1706).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_64_64" id="Footnote_64_64"></a><a href="#FNanchor_64_64"><span class="label">[64]</span></a> Formed of Irishmen in the service of France. They fought
+gallantly against Marlborough; at Malplaquet the 18th (Royal Irish)
+Regiment and the Irish Brigade fought with each other, and the Royal
+Irish were the victors.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_65_65" id="Footnote_65_65"></a><a href="#FNanchor_65_65"><span class="label">[65]</span></a> You will find these and other villages mentioned in this
+chapter on the map on p. <a href="#Page_103">103</a>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_66_66" id="Footnote_66_66"></a><a href="#FNanchor_66_66"><span class="label">[66]</span></a> See p. <a href="#Page_95">95</a>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_67_67" id="Footnote_67_67"></a><a href="#FNanchor_67_67"><span class="label">[67]</span></a> The Northumberland Hussar Yeomanry rejoice in the proud
+distinction of being the first of all Territorial regiments to go to the
+front in this war. They left England about September 15, 1914.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_68_68" id="Footnote_68_68"></a><a href="#FNanchor_68_68"><span class="label">[68]</span></a> Ploegsteert, about three miles north of Armenti&egrave;res.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_69_69" id="Footnote_69_69"></a><a href="#FNanchor_69_69"><span class="label">[69]</span></a> Shut off his engine and glided down in zigzags.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_70_70" id="Footnote_70_70"></a><a href="#FNanchor_70_70"><span class="label">[70]</span></a> Sharpshooter, who hides himself outside the trenches and
+fires on the enemy when occasion offers.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_71_71" id="Footnote_71_71"></a><a href="#FNanchor_71_71"><span class="label">[71]</span></a> See p. <a href="#Page_92">92</a>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_72_72" id="Footnote_72_72"></a><a href="#FNanchor_72_72"><span class="label">[72]</span></a> Lieutenant Wise.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_73_73" id="Footnote_73_73"></a><a href="#FNanchor_73_73"><span class="label">[73]</span></a> British soldiers are also fond of performing on the mouth
+organ.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_74_74" id="Footnote_74_74"></a><a href="#FNanchor_74_74"><span class="label">[74]</span></a> See map, p. <a href="#Page_59">59</a>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_75_75" id="Footnote_75_75"></a><a href="#FNanchor_75_75"><span class="label">[75]</span></a> A study of the diagram on p. <a href="#Page_128">128</a> will explain the meaning
+of "communication trench" and "traverse." Lieutenant Leach's company
+was holding a trench such as that marked A on the diagram.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_76_76" id="Footnote_76_76"></a><a href="#FNanchor_76_76"><span class="label">[76]</span></a> See p. <a href="#Page_108">108</a>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_77_77" id="Footnote_77_77"></a><a href="#FNanchor_77_77"><span class="label">[77]</span></a> In olden days Norse warriors, or <i>berserks</i>, worked
+themselves up before a battle into a fierce madness, known as the
+"berserk rage."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_78_78" id="Footnote_78_78"></a><a href="#FNanchor_78_78"><span class="label">[78]</span></a> Quoted from Mr. Will Irwin's account of the battle in the
+<i>Daily Mail</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_79_79" id="Footnote_79_79"></a><a href="#FNanchor_79_79"><span class="label">[79]</span></a> In Shakespeare's <i>Julius C&aelig;sar</i>, Act iii., Scene 2, Mark
+Antony, in the course of his speech over the dead body of C&aelig;sar, says,
+"That day he overcame the Nervii." They were a tribe of Belgic Gauls
+holding territory from the Sambre to the North Sea. C&aelig;sar overcame them
+B.C. 57.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_80_80" id="Footnote_80_80"></a><a href="#FNanchor_80_80"><span class="label">[80]</span></a> Fought during the Crimean War on November 5, 1854.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_81_81" id="Footnote_81_81"></a><a href="#FNanchor_81_81"><span class="label">[81]</span></a> Fought 1&frac12; miles south of Stirling on June 24, 1314. The
+bore-stone in which it is said Bruce's banner was fixed still exists on
+Brock's Brae.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_82_82" id="Footnote_82_82"></a><a href="#FNanchor_82_82"><span class="label">[82]</span></a> <i>Mes-seen&acute;</i>, between four and five miles south of Ypres.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_83_83" id="Footnote_83_83"></a><a href="#FNanchor_83_83"><span class="label">[83]</span></a> The name is equivalent to our Theodore, "gift of God."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_84_84" id="Footnote_84_84"></a><a href="#FNanchor_84_84"><span class="label">[84]</span></a> So called because recruited from Baluchistan, a British
+territory between Afghanistan and the Arabian Sea.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_85_85" id="Footnote_85_85"></a><a href="#FNanchor_85_85"><span class="label">[85]</span></a> See page <a href="#Page_165">165</a>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_86_86" id="Footnote_86_86"></a><a href="#FNanchor_86_86"><span class="label">[86]</span></a> Forty miles west by north of Toledo, Spain; scene of the
+famous battle (July 28, 1809) in which Wellington defeated Joseph
+Bonaparte.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_87_87" id="Footnote_87_87"></a><a href="#FNanchor_87_87"><span class="label">[87]</span></a> See also the account given on pp. <a href="#Page_161">161</a>-<a href="#Page_163">3</a>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_88_88" id="Footnote_88_88"></a><a href="#FNanchor_88_88"><span class="label">[88]</span></a> See p. <a href="#Page_165">165</a>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_89_89" id="Footnote_89_89"></a><a href="#FNanchor_89_89"><span class="label">[89]</span></a> So called because they form the sovereign's escort. The
+Household Cavalry consist of three regiments&mdash;1st and 2nd Life Guards,
+and the Royal Horse Guards (The Blues).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_90_90" id="Footnote_90_90"></a><a href="#FNanchor_90_90"><span class="label">[90]</span></a> See p. <a href="#Page_167">167</a>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_91_91" id="Footnote_91_91"></a><a href="#FNanchor_91_91"><span class="label">[91]</span></a> See Vol. II., pp. 23-25.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_92_92" id="Footnote_92_92"></a><a href="#FNanchor_92_92"><span class="label">[92]</span></a> See Vol. II., pp. 117, 118, 139.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_93_93" id="Footnote_93_93"></a><a href="#FNanchor_93_93"><span class="label">[93]</span></a> See Vol. II., pp. 213, 214.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_94_94" id="Footnote_94_94"></a><a href="#FNanchor_94_94"><span class="label">[94]</span></a> See Vol. II., pp. 282 ff.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_95_95" id="Footnote_95_95"></a><a href="#FNanchor_95_95"><span class="label">[95]</span></a> A high explosive, consisting of picric acid, used as a
+bursting charge for shells.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_96_96" id="Footnote_96_96"></a><a href="#FNanchor_96_96"><span class="label">[96]</span></a> Northumberland Fusiliers.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_97_97" id="Footnote_97_97"></a><a href="#FNanchor_97_97"><span class="label">[97]</span></a> See p. <a href="#Page_167">167</a>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_98_98" id="Footnote_98_98"></a><a href="#FNanchor_98_98"><span class="label">[98]</span></a> See Vol. 1., pp. 102, 104, 105, 107.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_99_99" id="Footnote_99_99"></a><a href="#FNanchor_99_99"><span class="label">[99]</span></a> Fought between the Northern and Southern States of what is
+now the United States of America, mainly on the question of slavery in
+the Southern States, during 1861-65.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_100_100" id="Footnote_100_100"></a><a href="#FNanchor_100_100"><span class="label">[100]</span></a> <i>My&acute;dan.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_101_101" id="Footnote_101_101"></a><a href="#FNanchor_101_101"><span class="label">[101]</span></a> Important city of South Afghanistan. In 1880 British
+troops in Kandahar were besieged, but Roberts made a great march from
+Kabul and relieved them.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_102_102" id="Footnote_102_102"></a><a href="#FNanchor_102_102"><span class="label">[102]</span></a> City of North India, on the Ganges; the scene of two
+tragedies during the Indian Mutiny of 1857.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_103_103" id="Footnote_103_103"></a><a href="#FNanchor_103_103"><span class="label">[103]</span></a> Native infantry soldiers of the Indian army. The native
+cavalry soldier is a "sowar."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_104_104" id="Footnote_104_104"></a><a href="#FNanchor_104_104"><span class="label">[104]</span></a> On the right bank of the Jumna. It was created capital of
+India in place of Calcutta in 1911.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_105_105" id="Footnote_105_105"></a><a href="#FNanchor_105_105"><span class="label">[105]</span></a> British general, of great physical strength and lofty,
+winning character. Born 1821, killed at Delhi 1857.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_106_106" id="Footnote_106_106"></a><a href="#FNanchor_106_106"><span class="label">[106]</span></a> Capital of the Transvaal. Entered by Roberts on June 5,
+1900.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_107_107" id="Footnote_107_107"></a><a href="#FNanchor_107_107"><span class="label">[107]</span></a> The Prince of Wales went to the front as a member of Sir
+John French's Staff in the middle of November 1914.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_108_108" id="Footnote_108_108"></a><a href="#FNanchor_108_108"><span class="label">[108]</span></a> Ruler of Jodhpur, the largest state of Rajputana, India.
+He was born in 1844.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_109_109" id="Footnote_109_109"></a><a href="#FNanchor_109_109"><span class="label">[109]</span></a> In his book <i>Forty-one Years in India</i>, Lord Roberts
+gives us a story showing the valour of this most famous of Indian
+soldiers. Roberts had wounded a boar, which attacked Pertab Singh, whose
+horse had fallen with him. The prince held the boar with his bare hands
+until Lord Roberts was able to come up and dispatch it. The boar's head
+was presented by the prince to Lord Roberts, and became one of his
+cherished possessions at his country house of Englemere, Ascot.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_110_110" id="Footnote_110_110"></a><a href="#FNanchor_110_110"><span class="label">[110]</span></a> See Vol. II., p. 7.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_111_111" id="Footnote_111_111"></a><a href="#FNanchor_111_111"><span class="label">[111]</span></a> From <i>With French in France and Flanders</i>, by an Army
+Chaplain.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_112_112" id="Footnote_112_112"></a><a href="#FNanchor_112_112"><span class="label">[112]</span></a> The <i>Minenwerfer</i>, or trench-mortar used by the Germans,
+has a range of some 500 or 600 yards, and throws a bomb loaded with high
+explosives, weighing up to 200 lbs. It is fired at extreme elevation
+from the bottom of a pit in the trench.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_113_113" id="Footnote_113_113"></a><a href="#FNanchor_113_113"><span class="label">[113]</span></a> No elevation.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_114_114" id="Footnote_114_114"></a><a href="#FNanchor_114_114"><span class="label">[114]</span></a> The eve before All Saints' Day (1st November).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_115_115" id="Footnote_115_115"></a><a href="#FNanchor_115_115"><span class="label">[115]</span></a> About two miles south of Messines.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_116_116" id="Footnote_116_116"></a><a href="#FNanchor_116_116"><span class="label">[116]</span></a> About a mile north-east of Gheluvelt.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_117_117" id="Footnote_117_117"></a><a href="#FNanchor_117_117"><span class="label">[117]</span></a> Appointed commander of the British forces in Gallipoli in
+March 1915.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_118_118" id="Footnote_118_118"></a><a href="#FNanchor_118_118"><span class="label">[118]</span></a> Corporal in the Indian army.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_119_119" id="Footnote_119_119"></a><a href="#FNanchor_119_119"><span class="label">[119]</span></a> A narrow ditch or trench burrowed out towards the enemy's
+lines.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_120_120" id="Footnote_120_120"></a><a href="#FNanchor_120_120"><span class="label">[120]</span></a> In the nineteenth century more than 3&frac12; million Germans
+emigrated to America and became citizens of the United States.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_121_121" id="Footnote_121_121"></a><a href="#FNanchor_121_121"><span class="label">[121]</span></a> The great missionary explorer, discoverer of the Zambesi,
+the upper course of the Congo, Lake Nyassa and other Central African
+lakes; also founder of Nyassaland. Born 1813; died 1873, at a village
+south of Lake Bangweolo. He was buried in Westminster Abbey.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_122_122" id="Footnote_122_122"></a><a href="#FNanchor_122_122"><span class="label">[122]</span></a> Sir Henry Morton Stanley, who did for the Congo what
+Livingstone did for the Zambesi, and further verified and added to the
+great discoveries already made. He made what has been called "the
+greatest journey in African exploration." He laid the foundations of the
+Congo Free State. Born 1841, died 1904.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_123_123" id="Footnote_123_123"></a><a href="#FNanchor_123_123"><span class="label">[123]</span></a> Treitschke (<i>trysh&acute;ke</i>), German historian and bitter
+enemy of Britain. Born 1834, died 1896.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_124_124" id="Footnote_124_124"></a><a href="#FNanchor_124_124"><span class="label">[124]</span></a> Great lake of equatorial Africa, 26,000 square miles in
+area, discovered by Captain Speke in 1858, and circumnavigated by
+Stanley in 1875 and 1889.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_125_125" id="Footnote_125_125"></a><a href="#FNanchor_125_125"><span class="label">[125]</span></a> Lake lying south-west of Victoria Nyanza, 13,000 square
+miles in area. Its only outlet is to the Congo.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_126_126" id="Footnote_126_126"></a><a href="#FNanchor_126_126"><span class="label">[126]</span></a> Spelt in many British maps, Cameroons.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_127_127" id="Footnote_127_127"></a><a href="#FNanchor_127_127"><span class="label">[127]</span></a> Fulas or Fulahs, the ruling native race in Nigeria,
+French Sudan, Kamerun, etc.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_128_128" id="Footnote_128_128"></a><a href="#FNanchor_128_128"><span class="label">[128]</span></a> Near Atakpame, at the head of the railway which runs
+north from Lom&eacute; for a hundred miles.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_129_129" id="Footnote_129_129"></a><a href="#FNanchor_129_129"><span class="label">[129]</span></a> Cecil John Rhodes (1853-1902), for nearly a quarter of a
+century the most powerful man in South Africa. Rhodesia was named after
+him.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_130_130" id="Footnote_130_130"></a><a href="#FNanchor_130_130"><span class="label">[130]</span></a> Born 1850, died 1894. Scottish novelist and poet. All
+boys and girls should read his <i>Treasure Island</i>, <i>The Black Arrow</i>,
+<i>Kidnapped</i>, and <i>Catriona</i>. Many of his verses are in the earlier books
+of the <i>Highroads of Literature</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_131_131" id="Footnote_131_131"></a><a href="#FNanchor_131_131"><span class="label">[131]</span></a> See Stevenson's <i>A Footnote to History</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_132_132" id="Footnote_132_132"></a><a href="#FNanchor_132_132"><span class="label">[132]</span></a> With the exception of Guam, the largest, which belongs to
+the United States.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_133_133" id="Footnote_133_133"></a><a href="#FNanchor_133_133"><span class="label">[133]</span></a> Reproduced in Vol. I., p. 142.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_134_134" id="Footnote_134_134"></a><a href="#FNanchor_134_134"><span class="label">[134]</span></a> Capital of Ashanti.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_135_135" id="Footnote_135_135"></a><a href="#FNanchor_135_135"><span class="label">[135]</span></a> Capital of the Gold Coast.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_136_136" id="Footnote_136_136"></a><a href="#FNanchor_136_136"><span class="label">[136]</span></a> Vol. II., p. 170.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_137_137" id="Footnote_137_137"></a><a href="#FNanchor_137_137"><span class="label">[137]</span></a> She left, however, a legacy of trouble. The United States
+said, with justice, that the British Government was responsible, for the
+ship ought never to have been built by a neutral Power nor permitted to
+leave a neutral harbour. In the end, Britain had to pay the United
+States three millions of money as damages.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_138_138" id="Footnote_138_138"></a><a href="#FNanchor_138_138"><span class="label">[138]</span></a> The wireless signal sent out by ships in distress,
+calling for immediate help.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_139_139" id="Footnote_139_139"></a><a href="#FNanchor_139_139"><span class="label">[139]</span></a> Chief French settlement in India, 90 miles
+south-south-west of Madras.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_140_140" id="Footnote_140_140"></a><a href="#FNanchor_140_140"><span class="label">[140]</span></a> British Crown colony in and off the Malay Peninsula, in
+south-east Asia. In the Straits Settlements are included Singapore,
+Malacca, the Dindings, Penang, and Wellesley Province.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_141_141" id="Footnote_141_141"></a><a href="#FNanchor_141_141"><span class="label">[141]</span></a> Caused by the rays of light being bent in their passage
+through layers of air of differing density, and therefore giving a
+delusive appearance to objects.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_142_142" id="Footnote_142_142"></a><a href="#FNanchor_142_142"><span class="label">[142]</span></a> Coral islands, consisting of a more or less oval belt of
+coral rock, within which there is a lagoon.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_143_143" id="Footnote_143_143"></a><a href="#FNanchor_143_143"><span class="label">[143]</span></a> At the Royal Exchange, London. The chief business of
+Lloyd's is connected with the insurance of ships.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_144_144" id="Footnote_144_144"></a><a href="#FNanchor_144_144"><span class="label">[144]</span></a> <i>La Lutine</i>, a 32-gun frigate launched in 1785. It
+originally belonged to the French navy, but was captured by Admiral
+Duncan.
+</p><p>
+It sailed from Yarmouth Roads on the morning of October 9, 1799, for
+Hamburg, and was wrecked the same night off the island of Vlieland, one
+of the Frisian Islands. All on board were lost, except one man.
+</p><p>
+The frigate had on board a large amount of specie&mdash;gold and silver&mdash;the
+destination of which appears to be somewhat of a mystery. If the specie
+was merely sent by London Merchants to Hamburg on purely commercial
+transactions&mdash;as is alleged&mdash;how was it that a frigate ship was
+employed, and how did it come to be so near the Zuider Zee? To explain
+this some say that the specie was intended for the pay of British troops
+then in the Netherlands.
+</p><p>
+Up to the present, treasure to the value of &pound;100,000 has been recovered;
+but it is estimated that gold and silver worth a million pounds still
+lie buried in the shifting sands north of the Zuider Zee.
+</p><p>
+Various attempts have been made to recover the specie. On July 17, 1858,
+divers brought to daylight the bell of the frigate. It was well
+preserved, and weighed 80 lbs. It now stands at the footboard of the
+table in the library at Lloyd's, where other relics of the <i>Lutine</i> are
+also to be found.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_145_145" id="Footnote_145_145"></a><a href="#FNanchor_145_145"><span class="label">[145]</span></a> Men who undertake the insurance of ships.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_146_146" id="Footnote_146_146"></a><a href="#FNanchor_146_146"><span class="label">[146]</span></a> See p. <a href="#Page_173">173</a>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_147_147" id="Footnote_147_147"></a><a href="#FNanchor_147_147"><span class="label">[147]</span></a> Capital of Brazil, on the beautiful bay of Rio.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_148_148" id="Footnote_148_148"></a><a href="#FNanchor_148_148"><span class="label">[148]</span></a> Europeans gave the name "Boxers" to members of a
+widespread society in China which had for its object the ridding of the
+country of foreigners. The German Minister at Pekin was murdered in
+1900, and several of the legations were besieged. The expedition
+referred to above relieved the besieged on August 14, 1900, and exacted
+a penalty of sixty-four millions from the Chinese Government.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_149_149" id="Footnote_149_149"></a><a href="#FNanchor_149_149"><span class="label">[149]</span></a> Literally, ten thousand years; "Japan for ever!"</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_150_150" id="Footnote_150_150"></a><a href="#FNanchor_150_150"><span class="label">[150]</span></a> The Japanese Empire.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_151_151" id="Footnote_151_151"></a><a href="#FNanchor_151_151"><span class="label">[151]</span></a> Picturesque town on the Eastern Alps, 155 miles west by
+south of Vienna.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_152_152" id="Footnote_152_152"></a><a href="#FNanchor_152_152"><span class="label">[152]</span></a> Capital of the Tyrol; on the Inn, a tributary of the
+Danube.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_153_153" id="Footnote_153_153"></a><a href="#FNanchor_153_153"><span class="label">[153]</span></a> See Vol. II., p. 58.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_154_154" id="Footnote_154_154"></a><a href="#FNanchor_154_154"><span class="label">[154]</span></a> See Dickens's <i>Old Curiosity Shop</i>, chap. xix. Each of
+these worthies tried to prove to Little Nell that he was the friend to
+be trusted and not the other.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_155_155" id="Footnote_155_155"></a><a href="#FNanchor_155_155"><span class="label">[155]</span></a> See Vol. II., p. 71-72.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_156_156" id="Footnote_156_156"></a><a href="#FNanchor_156_156"><span class="label">[156]</span></a> <i>Kyel&acute;tseh</i>, on the railway, about eighty miles as the
+crow flies south-east of Ivangorod.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_157_157" id="Footnote_157_157"></a><a href="#FNanchor_157_157"><span class="label">[157]</span></a> Natives of the Caucasus, a Russian territory between the
+Black Sea and the Caspian. The Caucasians are very fierce and warlike.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_158_158" id="Footnote_158_158"></a><a href="#FNanchor_158_158"><span class="label">[158]</span></a> On the left bank of the Vistula, a few miles above its
+junction with the San.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_159_159" id="Footnote_159_159"></a><a href="#FNanchor_159_159"><span class="label">[159]</span></a> See Vol. II., p. 65.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_160_160" id="Footnote_160_160"></a><a href="#FNanchor_160_160"><span class="label">[160]</span></a> Mr. Stanley Washburn, special war correspondent of the
+<i>Times</i>. The quotation is from his "Field Notes from the Russian
+Front."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_161_161" id="Footnote_161_161"></a><a href="#FNanchor_161_161"><span class="label">[161]</span></a> Between six and seven miles.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_162_162" id="Footnote_162_162"></a><a href="#FNanchor_162_162"><span class="label">[162]</span></a> Ammunition limbers.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_163_163" id="Footnote_163_163"></a><a href="#FNanchor_163_163"><span class="label">[163]</span></a> Or Kieff, chief town of Little Russia; on the Dnieper,
+660 miles south of Petrograd.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_164_164" id="Footnote_164_164"></a><a href="#FNanchor_164_164"><span class="label">[164]</span></a> On the railway, about thirty miles west of Ivangorod.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_165_165" id="Footnote_165_165"></a><a href="#FNanchor_165_165"><span class="label">[165]</span></a> Town of Russia, on a tributary of the Niemen, 190 miles
+east of K&ouml;nigsberg in East Prussia.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_166_166" id="Footnote_166_166"></a><a href="#FNanchor_166_166"><span class="label">[166]</span></a> See Vol. II., p. 280.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_167_167" id="Footnote_167_167"></a><a href="#FNanchor_167_167"><span class="label">[167]</span></a> <i>Doon-a-yetz&acute;</i>, rises in the Carpathians and flows north
+to the Vistula, about forty miles east of Cracow.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_168_168" id="Footnote_168_168"></a><a href="#FNanchor_168_168"><span class="label">[168]</span></a> Natives of Russian Central Asia.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_169_169" id="Footnote_169_169"></a><a href="#FNanchor_169_169"><span class="label">[169]</span></a> <i>Lo&acute;vitch</i>, 44 miles west-south-west of Warsaw.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_170_170" id="Footnote_170_170"></a><a href="#FNanchor_170_170"><span class="label">[170]</span></a> See Vol. I., p. 148.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_171_171" id="Footnote_171_171"></a><a href="#FNanchor_171_171"><span class="label">[171]</span></a> A name given to all those usages which civilized states
+have agreed to observe in their dealings with each other. It is not real
+law because there is no superior power to enforce it.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_172_172" id="Footnote_172_172"></a><a href="#FNanchor_172_172"><span class="label">[172]</span></a> Arabs who wander with their flocks and herds from place
+to place. They are found in the Syrian and Egyptian deserts, in
+Mesopotamia, and especially in Arabia where they form one-seventh of the
+population.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_173_173" id="Footnote_173_173"></a><a href="#FNanchor_173_173"><span class="label">[173]</span></a> The southern half of the triangular and hilly tract of
+country between the Gulf of Suez and the Gulf of Akabah, northern arms
+of the Red Sea.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_174_174" id="Footnote_174_174"></a><a href="#FNanchor_174_174"><span class="label">[174]</span></a> Osman I., founder of the Ottoman Empire, born 1258, died
+1326. Every new Sultan is invested with the sword of Osman, which is
+preserved in a mosque at Constantinople.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_175_175" id="Footnote_175_175"></a><a href="#FNanchor_175_175"><span class="label">[175]</span></a> For some account of the Bagdad railway (shown in the
+inset map), see Vol. I, p. 148.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_176_176" id="Footnote_176_176"></a><a href="#FNanchor_176_176"><span class="label">[176]</span></a> See map on p. <a href="#Page_277">277</a>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_177_177" id="Footnote_177_177"></a><a href="#FNanchor_177_177"><span class="label">[177]</span></a> See map on page <a href="#Page_277">277</a>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_178_178" id="Footnote_178_178"></a><a href="#FNanchor_178_178"><span class="label">[178]</span></a> See map on next page.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_179_179" id="Footnote_179_179"></a><a href="#FNanchor_179_179"><span class="label">[179]</span></a> <i>Krar-goo&acute;ye-vatz.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_180_180" id="Footnote_180_180"></a><a href="#FNanchor_180_180"><span class="label">[180]</span></a> See Shakespeare's <i>Henry V.</i>, Act iv., Scene 3.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_181_181" id="Footnote_181_181"></a><a href="#FNanchor_181_181"><span class="label">[181]</span></a> King Peter was born in 1844.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_182_182" id="Footnote_182_182"></a><a href="#FNanchor_182_182"><span class="label">[182]</span></a> She was afterwards interned at Newport News, on the
+northern shore of the estuary of the James River, Virginia.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_183_183" id="Footnote_183_183"></a><a href="#FNanchor_183_183"><span class="label">[183]</span></a> Rocky island belonging to Chile, 400 miles off the coast
+of that country. Alexander Selkirk lived four years on this island, and
+his story formed the basis of De Foe's <i>Robinson Crusoe</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_184_184" id="Footnote_184_184"></a><a href="#FNanchor_184_184"><span class="label">[184]</span></a> From <i>Ye Mariners of England</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_185_185" id="Footnote_185_185"></a><a href="#FNanchor_185_185"><span class="label">[185]</span></a> A proverb meaning caught in his own trap. The petard was
+a kind of bomb employed for blowing open gates, etc.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_186_186" id="Footnote_186_186"></a><a href="#FNanchor_186_186"><span class="label">[186]</span></a> <i>Ver-mell&acute;.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_187_187" id="Footnote_187_187"></a><a href="#FNanchor_187_187"><span class="label">[187]</span></a> <i>Quin&acute;she.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_188_188" id="Footnote_188_188"></a><a href="#FNanchor_188_188"><span class="label">[188]</span></a> Five miles south-south-west of Ypres.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_189_189" id="Footnote_189_189"></a><a href="#FNanchor_189_189"><span class="label">[189]</span></a> See Vol. II., p. 281.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_190_190" id="Footnote_190_190"></a><a href="#FNanchor_190_190"><span class="label">[190]</span></a> French soldiers specially trained for fighting in the
+Alps. They are splendid mountaineers, and were quite at home on the high
+crests of the Vosges.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_191_191" id="Footnote_191_191"></a><a href="#FNanchor_191_191"><span class="label">[191]</span></a> See diagram, p. <a href="#Page_128">128</a>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_192_192" id="Footnote_192_192"></a><a href="#FNanchor_192_192"><span class="label">[192]</span></a> Sometimes bombs are made in a rough-and-ready fashion out
+of jam-pots and bully beef tins charged with explosives and loaded with
+stones or scraps of iron.</p></div>
+
+</div>
+
+
+<br /><br />
+<b>Transcriber's Notes:</b><br />
+ hyphenation, spelling and grammar have been preserved as in the original<br />
+Page   1, Pas de Calais ==> Pas-de-Calais [Ed. for consistency]<br />
+Page  29, Pas de Calais ==> Pas-de-Calais" [Ed. for consistency]<br />
+Page  38, Book VI., Chaps. ==> Book VI., (Chaps."<br />
+Page  59, A Pont Fixe ==> At Pont Fixe<br />
+Page  62, Wilcocks ==> Willcocks<br />
+Page 109, Zandevoorde ==> Zandvoorde<br />
+Page 150, June 5, 1900 ==> June 5, 1900.<br />
+Page 163, decent sort of way ==> decent sort of way.<br />
+Page 198, See p. 173 ==> See p. 173.<br />
+Page 228, garrison at Przemsyl ==> garrison at Przemysl<br />
+Page 264, Tsingtau ==> Tsing-tau [Ed. for consistency]
+<br />
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
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+  </body>
+</html>
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diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
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@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
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@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #35355 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/35355)
author	Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org>	2025-10-14 20:03:35 -0700
committer	Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org>	2025-10-14 20:03:35 -0700
commit	ff22e4c4ce04efb24811c7c1d26b034ee4a4f854 (patch)
tree	a3012d54df9f7287ce7b634434250b720192b575