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diff --git a/43649-0.txt b/43649-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..74f5126 --- /dev/null +++ b/43649-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3501 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43649 *** + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 43649-h.htm or 43649-h.zip: + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/43649/43649-h/43649-h.htm) + or + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/43649/43649-h.zip) + + + Images of the original pages are available through + Internet Archive. See + http://archive.org/details/overfrontinaerop00pulirich + + +Transcriber's note: + + Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). + + + + + +[Illustration: [See page 2 + +"A FEW SECONDS LATER THE TWO GREAT PROPELLERS BEGAN TO FLASH ROUND"] + + +OVER THE FRONT IN AN AEROPLANE +AND SCENES INSIDE THE FRENCH AND FLEMISH TRENCHES + +by + +RALPH PULITZER + +Illustrated + + + + + + + +[Illustration] + +Harper & Brothers Publishers +New York and London + +OVER THE FRONT IN AN AEROPLANE +------- +Copyright, 1915, by Harper & Brothers +Printed in the United States of America + + + + +TO MY WIFE + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAP. PAGE + + I. A FLIGHT TO THE FIRING LINE 1 + + II. HOW THE FRONT IS VISITED 16 + + III. IN THE FRENCH TRENCHES 41 + + IV. A TYPICAL DAY'S TOUR 59 + + V. A GRENADE-THROWING SCHOOL 88 + + VI. WITH THE BELGIAN BATTERIES 99 + + VII. IN THE FLEMISH TRENCHES 120 + + VIII. LESSONS 140 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + + "A FEW SECONDS LATER THE TWO GREAT PROPELLERS + BEGAN TO FLASH ROUND" _Frontispiece_ + + "BELOW US STRETCHED AN UNBROKEN WHITE OCEAN OF + THESE LOWER CLOUDS" _Facing p._ 6 + + "THERE WERE AUTOS WITH ... RAZOR-EDGED + KNIFE-BLADES ATTACHED" " 32 + + CAPTAIN D'A---- AND THE AUTHOR " 32 + + "THERE MASS IS STILL HELD EVERY SUNDAY FOR THE + BENEFIT OF THE SIXTEEN INHABITANTS WHO STILL + PERSISTED IN STAYING IN THE VILLAGE" " 48 + + THE AUTHOR IN A FRONT TRENCH NEAR RHEIMS " 52 + + "WE WERE COMPLETELY ABSORBED IN WATCHING THE + SOFT LITTLE CLOUDS PLAYFULLY DANCING ALONG + AHEAD OF THE LAZILY DRIFTING AEROPLANE" " 68 + + "AS WE HIKED ALONG AT THE GENERAL'S FAVORITE + PACE" " 72 + + "A HEAVY FIELD-PIECE STANDING ON TREADLED + WHEELS" " 72 + + PART OF THE ENORMOUS ENCAMPMENT OF SUPPLY-WAGONS, + WHICH CARRY THE COMPLETE SUPPLIES FOR THREE + FULL DAYS FOR ONE ARMY CORPS " 84 + + "COLONEL D----, COMMANDING THE ARTILLERY OF THE + SECTOR" " 104 + + THE AUTHOR IN ONE OF THE BIGGEST SHELL-PITS, WHICH + WERE TEN FEET DEEP AND TWENTY FEET IN DIAMETER " 104 + + COMMANDANT L---- IN THE NICKEL-STEEL SKULL-CAP + WHICH HE WORE INSIDE HIS KHAKI CAP " 120 + + "THE CHAUFFEUR REACHED THE OPEN PLACE BY THE + CHURCH" " 126 + + ON THE SHATTERED CHURCH HUNG THIS CRUCIFIX INTACT + THOUGH SURROUNDED BY SHRAPNEL HOLES " 126 + + UNDER HEAVY FIRE IN A BELGIAN COMMUNICATING-TRENCH " 136 + + + + +OVER THE FRONT IN AN AEROPLANE + + + + +I + +A FLIGHT TO THE FIRING LINE + + + PARIS, _August 13th_ (_Friday_). + +I have just returned from a unique visit to the front. This afternoon +I flew in an army aeroplane from Paris to the fighting lines, skirted +these lines for a few kilometres, and flew back to Paris. + +We made the round trip without a break. + +I am indebted to the quite exceptional kindness of the French Foreign +Office and of the French War Office for this flight. No other civilian +has been allowed to ascend in a French army aeroplane at all, and as +for visiting the front in one, it has apparently been undreamed of. +Poor Needham went up in a British military aeroplane, but what he saw +and felt were buried with him. + +I received definite word yesterday evening that at four-thirty this +afternoon I would find a military motor at the door of my hotel; that +it would take me to the great aviation station in the suburbs of Paris, +and that at five-thirty o'clock a double-cylindered battle-plane would +set flight with me. + +Everything ran like clockwork. At five o'clock I was shaking hands +with the Captain of this most important aviation station, and he was +explaining to me just how, day and night, his aeroplanes guarded Paris +from German air attacks. + +At five-thirty o'clock I was struggling into a heavy leather suit which +I put on over my regular clothes and a heavy padded helmet which was +carefully fastened under my chin by a buttoned flap and also an elastic +band. + +A few minutes later I was climbing sinuously into my seat in the +front of the aeroplane while my pilot wormed his way into his seat a +few feet behind me. A few seconds later the two great propellers (or +rather tractors) began to flash around. With a snap and a roar the +battle-plane started slowly forward, gained in speed till we were +running along the big field like a racing automobile, then suddenly the +people standing around dropped away from us as if on a gigantic express +elevator leaving one standing on the upper floor of a skyscraper, and +in a moment more the earth had become a strange and placid panorama +with which we had no connection or concern. + +On and up, on and up, we flew, headed straight as an arrow for +the closest portion of the battle-front, ninety kilometres (about +fifty-four miles) away. + +As the vast crazy-quilt of numberless shades of green and brown rolled +slowly below us I had time to pay more attention to my immediate +surroundings. I sat in the front, or observer's seat, of a great +new French biplane which the English call a battle-plane, and the +French call an "avion de chasse," or "hunting aeroplane." They call +their smaller single-motored machines their "avions de réglage," or +"regulating aeroplanes." But these great biplanes they fondly call +their hunting aeroplanes, for with them they hunt the Taubes and the +aviatiks of the enemy, and they tell me that their enemy usually gives +them a wide berth. + +I found myself sitting in a little cockpit strapped to a comfortable +seat. A few inches in front of my nose was the breach of a heavy +machine-gun whose muzzle projected over the bow of the fuselage. At +each side of my seat, under my elbows, were coiled long belts of +cartridges for the machine-gun. In the floor of the little cockpit, +right in front of my feet, was a little glass window through which I +could watch the ground passing directly (though some thousand feet) +underneath. Just behind this window, in the floor under my feet, was a +little metal trap-door. By straddling my feet I could open this, for +the purpose either of taking vertical photographs or of dropping bombs. +Only the three long, shell-like bombs which generally hang in straps to +the left of the observer had been removed, as had also the Winchester +rifle which hangs to his right. + +I could get an uninterrupted view of the scenery across a space of +about four feet right ahead. Further to right and left the view +flickered curiously through the lightning-swift twirling of the +propeller-blades. "Don't stretch your head out in front to either +side," had cautioned the aviation Captain before I left the earth, "or +you would certainly get guillotined." I craned my neck gingerly round +to look beyond me. In another little cockpit about four feet aft sat +the pilot. I could see his face peering over the edge through a low +windshield. Past his head on each side I got a view of the country we +were leaving behind. + +This happened to be a farewell glimpse of Paris. It stretched vaguely +away, bathed in the late afternoon sun and yet shrouded in heavy haze +and smoke, a sort of bird's-eye Whistler. + +Now feeling the air becoming distinctly colder, I looked ahead again. +For a time we had been flying at 1,000 metres. Now we gradually climbed +to 2,000 metres. The outrunners of the clouds began to drift by in +wisps of what seemed like mist. Below, the earth looked like the +display of a carpet-merchant's dreams. Square carpets, oblong carpets, +long strips of carpets, carpets of light green, of dark green, of +every intermediate shade of green; carpets of fawn color and of brown, +thin carpets and carpets of wonderfully thick pile, plain carpets and +carpets with symmetrical designs in light brown dots (several thousand +feet nearer those dots would have resolved themselves into homely +haycocks). + +Now the carpets stopped as we sailed over a forest of dense dark green +with little mirrors stuck in it, which, when looked at through my +field-glasses, proved to be not the tops of greenhouses, as I had at +first imagined, but big lakes. + +And now the wisps of mist became banks of fog. As we still climbed +on upward through these white banks the earth could only be seen in +isolated dark patches. Higher and higher we climbed, till finally the +earth was entirely veiled by the clouds below us. At a height of 3,000 +metres, or 9,900 feet, we straightened our angle and on an even keel +headed away toward the front. It was a magnificent sight. We were +flying along in a clear belt between the lower and the upper clouds. +Below us stretched an unbroken white ocean of these lower clouds. The +sun was just high enough to shed its slanting beams along the surface +of this snow-white sea. Above us were the lowering masses of the higher +clouds. + +[Illustration: Page 6 + +"BELOW US STRETCHED AN UNBROKEN WHITE OCEAN OF THESE LOWER CLOUDS"] + +In this lonely world of our own we flew forward at 130 kilometres (80 +miles approximately) an hour. The air was very thin and cold, but for +some reason there was no rush of wind against my face. If I moved my +head to right or left I could feel the wind from either propeller, but +in the middle it was relatively calm. The air felt very thin to breathe +and I had to swallow constantly to keep clearing my ears and the tubes +back of my nose. + +On and on we flew, until finally I felt, instead of hearing, a violent +rapping. Turning my head, I saw the pilot hammering with his right fist +on the deck between our cockpits to attract my attention. He grinned +amicably and opened his mouth wide. I could see he was shouting at me, +but could not hear the faintest sound over the roar of the propellers. +He pointed to the whiteness below us a little to the right. Then he +wrote an imaginary word with his forefinger on the deck between us. I +could not read it upside down. I opened my leather coat, and with the +cold instantly biting into my chest, hauled out my notebook and pencil +and stretched them out to him. He shook his head and indicated that he +could not take both hands away from steering. So I buttoned up my coat +again in some perplexity. + +Then, without abruptness, with a certain sickening majesty, the +aeroplane stood on its head and swooped down onto the surface of the +white sea below us. As it swallowed us we began to spiral rapidly +around as though we were tobogganing down a giant corkscrew. As we +went on down through this white nothingness I became very dizzy. The +propellers had slowed 'way down and I thought the engines had failed, +and that we were either falling 10,000 feet or making a forced descent. +But the pilot sat still back above me, so I did likewise. + +Suddenly we spiralled violently down through the bottom of the cloud +into sight of the earth again. Instantaneously the engines broke into +their old roar and the aeroplane stopped pointing straight down and +assumed a steep slant. If any one ever heaved a sigh of relief I did it +then. + +I felt the rapping behind me. Looking round, I saw the pilot pointing +down at the earth, ahead and to our right. I shook my head. Then, as we +careened downward, he stopped his motors for a fraction of a second, +and in the sudden deafening silence he shouted out, "The front!" + +Here, if my hopes had materialized, I should be able to give a most +striking picture of a battle as seen from an aeroplane. But honesty +compels me to say that any one who wants to get a good clear view of +the front had much better go there on the surface of the earth, and not +through the air. + +In the first place, it takes quite a little time and trouble to +discern the lines of opposing trenches even when you stand on a quiet +observation post with a General painstakingly pointing and explaining, +by the help of landmarks, just where they run. Here, though we were +now only 1,000 metres (about 3,300 feet) up, we were racing along the +front at 80 miles an hour, and all my friend the pilot could do was +to point here and there frantically. So among the maze of white lines +I saw running below me through the hazy atmosphere, some which I took +for trenches were undoubtedly roads; some which I took for roads were +equally undoubtedly trenches, while only a few, by their zigzagging, +could I unhesitatingly have guaranteed to have been trenches. + +In the next place the roar of the engines totally drowned out all the +reports of the guns which were going off below us, and the explosions +of the shells, which are such a striking feature of the front. + +To make matters still more undramatic there was no battle going on at +the precise moment when we shot downward out of the clouds, but only a +rather languid artillery exchange. Even a regulating aeroplane which +was sailing around directly below us and about half-way down between +us and the earth, correcting the fire of some batteries, was having an +exceptionally peaceful time of it. We could look down and see plainly +the red, white and blue circles of France painted on the tops of its +planes, but there were none of the customary woolly little white clouds +of German shrapnel bursting round it during the few seconds that it +remained in sight. + +Furthermore, the guns right below it and us were so cleverly concealed +that they were quite invisible. The only signs of its being a front at +all were the bursting shells from the French batteries. These little +puffs of smoke in the hazy distance the pilot spotted unerringly, but +he had a discouraging time pointing them out to my unaccustomed eyes as +we raced along. + +So this, I fear, is all that any one visiting the front by aeroplane +would have seen this afternoon. Possibly had we hung around longer we +might have seen more, but the pilot and I both had important dinner +engagements in Paris, and the sun was getting very low. We therefore +reluctantly swept around and, leaving the silver band of the Aisne +behind us, started for home. + +We kept low, not over 1,000 metres, so that the landscape was very +clear and interesting. First we passed over the city of Compiègne, +where I had lunched with Dr. Carrel only three days before to the +accompaniment of an artillery obligato. Then right over the big, +dark green Forest of Compiègne where I tried but failed to locate a +château I had visited with Mme. Carrel. Then on and on over a further +entrancing exhibit of parti-colored carpet fitting together at the +edges as snugly as any completed picture-puzzle. + +Before long we reached Senlis, where I had stopped on my way to +Compiègne the other day to take snap-shots of the streets of houses +gutted by the Germans during their brief occupation before the battle +of the Marne. Passing over Senlis, we dropped lower, so that I could +get a clear bird's-eye view of the havoc. Then on and on, without +incident, till the smoke of Paris came in sight, and on and on again, +till I looked down through a thousand yards or so of space on the +aviation field from which I had started just one hour and twenty-five +minutes earlier. + +Suddenly the motors stopped, the aeroplane keeled over onto the tip +of its left wing and, pivoting round on it, we began our dizzy spiral +descent. First on one wing-tip, and then on the other, we corkscrewed +dizzily down. First the whole surface of the earth would swiftly fly +up, revolving as it came, and slap me on the left side of the face, +then, a fraction of a second later, the same revolving surface would +heave swiftly up to slap me on the right side of my face. This double +spiral descent is certainly by all odds the dizziest proceeding that +was ever devised by man. + +Finally, with a swoop which I made sure would carry away most of the +chimney-pots of the suburb, we made a beautiful glide and alighted on +the grass of the aviation field as smoothly as a canoe launched from a +beach into a quiet lake. + +Here one would think our day had ended, but there was one very vivid +thrill left. + +As the aeroplane came to a stop a mechanic came running up, carrying +a pneumatic wheel. He spoke a few sharp words to the pilot, and the +latter asked me to get out quickly, saying that he would return +and explain some of the details of our flight a little later. So I +scrambled out, the machinist scrambled into my place, carrying the +pneumatic wheel, and with a rattle and a roar the aeroplane rolled +across the field and leaped into the air again. + +I joined some aviation officers and asked what was the matter. They +pointed to a machine a few thousand feet above us, and explained that +in leaving the ground that machine had lost one of its pneumatic +wheels. The aviator was ignorant of this, and, unless warned in time, +would, on trying to make his landing, turn turtle and get killed. My +pilot had gone up to meet him in the upper air and by waving the wheel +at him indicate his predicament, so that he could land on the left +wheel and tail of his machine. + +"Unless he understands before he lands he is a dead man," said the +officer. This really was a dramatic spectacle--the one aviator soaring +on guard high in the sky in complete unconsciousness of the death that +awaited him; the other, climbing nearer and nearer, then circling round +and round in narrowing circles. Finally, the first machine started down. + +"He understands," said some one. + +"No, he doesn't," said others. + +"Get the ambulance ready," ordered the aviation Captain, and the engine +of the motor-ambulance began to chug with a most sinister effect. + +We all stood perfectly powerless and watched the machine spiral down. +As he made his glide, men stood in the field waving spare wheels at +him to insure his understanding. But no. Instead of landing tilted +to the left on his sound wheel and tail, he made his landing leaning +over a little to the right where the wheel was missing. As it touched +the earth the great machine buried its nose in the ground, its tail +rose and rose till it stood perpendicular, and then fell forward in a +somersault, so that the plane was lying on its back. + +"He's finished. Get the ambulance," ordered the Captain. + +We all started at a run across the field toward the motionless +aeroplane, the motor-ambulance following close on our heels. As we +got to the wreck a figure crawled out and began to swear fluently at +not having been warned in a way that a sane man could understand. How +the aviator escaped will always remain a complete mystery. But his +escape made a happy climax to the thrilling ending of an unforgettable +afternoon. + + + + +II + +HOW THE FRONT IS VISITED + + +When the average newspaper-reader reads the average war correspondent's +excellent stories from the firing-line, his ideas are probably vague +indeed as to how the correspondent reached that very elastic zone known +as "the front." + +He probably pictures the military authorities extending to the writer +a magnificently sweeping invitation to witness and immortalize their +armies in battle. In his mind's eye he sees the journalist equipping +himself with automobile, shelter-tent, sleeping-bag, canned food, +medicine-chest and revolver--with everything, in fact, necessary +for the hardships and emergencies of campaigning. This visionary +correspondent then sallies forth from the luxury and security of Paris +(let us say), sitting by his chauffeur, military map in hand, directing +the course of his high-powered car to that section of the front where +the General Staff has informed him that a critical battle is to take +place. Arrived there, he watches an infantry charge capture the enemy's +trenches; then, leaping into his waiting motor, speeds away to another +portion of the line, which he reaches according to his schedule, just +in time to observe a particularly interesting bombardment of the +enemy's lines by a battery of heavy artillery. He is called away after +a time by the necessity of covering several miles more in order to +watch the defenders of a front trench repel an enemy attack. He may +lunch with a General, if he happens to drop in at headquarters just +as lunch is served, or he may have to share a soldier's frugal meal +in the darkness of a bomb-proof. After attending an aeroplane duel, +having a chat with the Generalissimo of the armies, inspecting the +consolidation of a few hundred yards of trenches just taken from the +enemy, watching the explosion of a mine, interviewing a fresh batch of +German prisoners, with whom a punctured tire almost causes him to miss +his appointment, and observing the methods employed by the Red Cross +in collecting the wounded under fire, he is overtaken by night after +a busy day, and sleeps in his shelter-tent before making up his mind +which particular army he will visit the following day. + +It is a thrilling and romantic picture. But how sadly distant from the +truth. + +The war correspondent does not buy himself a motor, because if he did +he would not be allowed to use it. All he buys himself is a railway +ticket. When it comes to motoring, he is packed with an assortment of +fellow-correspondents into military autos specially assigned by the +army authorities. + +He does not buy a shelter-tent or a sleeping-bag, because at a certain +scheduled hour every evening the staff-officer who has him and his +colleagues in tow will lead him into an excellent hotel in some large +town or other and assign him to a comfortable bedroom engaged ahead. He +does not buy canned provisions, because before going to bed the officer +buys him an appetizing dinner, follows it up with a good breakfast the +next morning, and at lunch-time introduces him to a courteous General, +or, at a pinch, to another hotel-keeper, by one or the other of whom +he is supplied with a prearranged and excellent lunch. + +He does not buy himself a medicine-chest, because he is always within +shouting distance of enough medical talent to treat a whole city. + +He does not buy a revolver, because it would be gently but firmly taken +away from him if he did. + +If he is sensible, he does not even buy himself binoculars, for the +officers by whom he will find himself uninterruptedly accompanied +will be glad to let him use theirs, and though he may not look so +picturesque without them, he will be much more comfortable if he has +any hands-and-knees work to do. + +Finally, he will not have a word to say as to where he wants to go or +what he wants to see, for that has all been settled in advance. + +It is true that different Generals vary greatly in the risks that they +will allow correspondents to run with their respective armies. Some +feel that if a correspondent wants to take chances that is his own +affair so long as he does not unduly endanger the life of a valuable +staff-officer along with his own. Others feel personally responsible +for the safeguarding of visitors, whether the visitor is willing to +take chances or not. + +But these variations merely affect the more or less dangerous details +of the trip, not the programme as a whole, which is quite rigid. + +In the beginning of the war a few men, like Alexander Powell in +Flanders, and Robert Dunn in the retreat from Mons, were actual +knights-errant of the pen and wandered or whirled where they pleased, +and saw what happened to come their way. + +But on the western front, at least, that is all dead and gone. + +The activities of war correspondents have been thoroughly regulated, +systematized, standardized. Just what the correspondent is to be +permitted to see at the front is deliberately considered and arranged +in advance. The authorities decide what fights are fit for him to see +just as painstakingly as chaperons used to decide what plays were +fit for débutantes to see. He, together with the six or eight other +journalists who are to make up the party, is placed in the hands of a +military duenna who guards his every move from the time the admirably +organized tour starts, until he is again safely delivered back in +Paris. The precise duration of the trip, the precise route to be taken, +the precise place at which each meal is to be eaten, the precise room +in the precise hotel in which each night is to be spent, the precise +General to be met and trench to be visited, are all inexorably fixed in +the schedule of the trip. + +The only phenomena which the general staffs cannot predetermine are +the activities of the aviators and the course of the enemy's shells +and bullets. Hence, the only spontaneous adventures in store for +correspondents, which may come unexpectedly, at any moment, are the +whirring of aeroplanes overhead, their shelling and their duels and the +sudden passing or arrival of enemy projectiles, from tiny bullets up to +enormous "Jack Johnsons." + +Even this element of surprise can be avoided in the case of a +small minority of visitors who I understand prefer to limit their +researches at "the front" to the hospitals, supply-trains, motor-repair +organizations, encampments of reserves, and similar objects of +interest, which lie some twenty kilometres behind the trenches and yet +really are sufficiently a part of the front to be known as its rear. + +The front has a second category of visitors besides the war +correspondents of whom I have been writing--"the distinguished +strangers." These do not come to the front for the purpose of writing +about what they see, and are for this reason, as well as because of the +courtesy which it is desired to show them, allowed considerably more +latitude, although they, too, are kept religiously away from any part +of the lines where real trouble is expected. + +I myself was fortunate enough to be invited to visit the French and +Belgian fronts in a sort of dual capacity. Having pledged myself not to +go on to Germany, and to write nothing about anything that was shown me +in confidence, I was given a special trip, instead of going with one of +the regular "journalists' parties," which certainly have an unromantic +resemblance to Cook's Tours. I was thus enabled to visit certain +advanced trenches where larger parties, in the nature of things, could +not go, and was shown things which had not previously been shown to +correspondents. But the organization of my trip resembled that of the +average correspondents' tour closely enough to enable me to describe +its details. + + * * * * * + +In Paris in a rather small room on the second floor of the Ministry +for Foreign Affairs, at a methodically cluttered writing-table, on +which one of the oddly-shaped French telephones lapses into occasional +silence, sits a slender, suave, well-groomed Frenchman about forty +years old. He has a glossy dark moustache, large and pensive dark eyes, +a nicely deprecatory manner, and a beautifully conciliatory smile. He +chats to his visitor in excellent English, if English be required, and +smiles at him this almost tender smile. He is Monsieur P----, the war +correspondents' Czar. He is the absolute ruler of their destinies. For +it is he who picks and chooses among their waiting numbers, and decides +to which to accord the privilege of a place in one of the parties which +leave about every two weeks for a two- or three-day trip to the front. + +When an eager newspaper man has come over all the way from California, +let us say, for such a trip, has waited in Paris a month or six +weeks for such a trip and has seen colleagues favored above other +men start off with enthusiasm and return with hauteur from such a +trip, the transcendent importance of Monsieur P---- in that craving +correspondent's eyes verges on the pitiful. + +When you think of this hungry horde of newspaper men collected from the +ends of the earth on this one assignment, receiving curt cables and +telegrams every few days from their papers asking where their stories +are, all as suspicious and jealous of each other as prima-donnas, each +trying to "put over a beat" on the other, and each terrified lest some +other "put over a beat" on him, you can perhaps imagine that Monsieur +P----'s official duties do not constitute a sinecure. + +Behind the back of Monsieur P---- they grouch; before his face they +grovel. They try on him all the arts and practices of their profession, +from bluff, through blandishments to supplication. And Monsieur P---- +sits and smiles at them with tender sympathy and gives them their trips +fairly and squarely without fear or favoritism. The room echoes with +their pleas and protests, the telephone buzzes with their wheedlings +and reproaches; but Monsieur P---- deals out even-handed justice among +them and never turns a hair. There is probably not an hour of the day +or night that some war correspondent in any language from English to +Japanese is not calling down very horrible curses upon this autocrat's +head. And yet they all cherish for him the most sincere affection and +respect. + +I myself was fortunate enough to be introduced to Monsieur P---- within +a couple of hours of reaching Paris, my special trip to the front +having already been arranged for the following morning. Its machinery +was the same as that of the regular trips. Monsieur P---- got out an +official printed form of military pass for war correspondents. My +photograph was pasted on its cover. I was asked to write my signature +on the next page, which was devoted to this trip. There were several +more pages for possible other trips. On this first page was written +the name of Epernay, the city behind the front to which I was to go +by train the following morning. It was specified that the trip was to +last three days. The name of the staff-officer who was to accompany me +was written in, and subsequently his signature was appended. The whole +thing was signed, stamped by Monsieur P---- and handed over to me to +carry with me on the trip, to be handed back to him immediately upon my +return, and to be used again should I later make other trips. + +Then the staff-officer who was to be my chaperon came in and we were +introduced. In private life he happened to be a prince. In the army he +was at present plain Captain d'A----. Incidentally, he proved to be a +fine fellow and a very pleasant companion. + +Following his instructions, I was at the railroad station the following +morning at eight o'clock, together with Lincoln Eyre, whom I had been +permitted to invite on the trip. I presented my military pass to the +ticket-seller, who scrutinized it closely before selling me a railway +ticket to Epernay. It is the rule in France that correspondents must +pay for their railway tickets themselves, so that the Government cannot +be accused of paying their way for propagandist purposes. After you +reach the front the military authorities furnish army motors, and +themselves take care of your meals and bedrooms. + +On the train was one of the regular personally conducted +correspondents' caravans, consisting of about eight correspondents. +There were three Americans, a couple of Frenchmen, a couple of +Scandinavians, and, I think, a Russian. Their cicerone was a very +tall staff-officer who looked slightly worried by his cosmopolitan +responsibilities. Their party was going on to Verdun. + +After a comfortable two-hour trip we got out at Epernay. There we were +met by Captain F----, a staff-officer belonging to the General Staff of +the 5th Army, which we were to visit. Thus Captain d'A----, from the +Staff of the Paris War Office, had general responsibility for the trip, +while Captain F----, who also was to accompany us, was responsible for +the detailed military arrangements during our stay with the 5th Army. + +Captain d'A----'s orderly (who before mobilization had been the wealthy +young proprietor of a steamship line to South America) having taken +our bags to the hotel, where we were to return to spend the night, we +immediately started off on our schedule. + +The ground plan of my three-day trip was planned to give me a condensed +view of all the component parts of a French army of five army corps, or +about 200,000 men, from the rear up to the front trench. + +We accordingly began with the Motor Transport Repair Corps, situated in +Epernay, consisting of 1,000 men and 14 officers, including 3 doctors. +It kept in up-to-the-minute running order the 1,500 motor vehicles of +the army corps which occupied the front 20 miles before us. + +The Captain who showed us around had been technical supervisor of the +Rochet-Schneider Auto Company and had, together with all the other +mechanical experts, been mobilized directly into the present work. +He answered my surprise at the number of soldiers employed in these +peaceful labors by explaining that two soldiers at work in the rear for +every three soldiers fighting was the regular formula. + +Epernay, being the centre of the champagne industry, most of the +military repair garages had been located in the great wine storehouses. +It was odd to see soldiers repainting grim wire-cutting autos rubbing +elbows with peasant women busily wrapping gold-foil round the heads of +fat quarts of famous vintages. + +"Yes, they work together," smiled the Captain; "and it is not so +incongruous as it looks. For the champagne was a good ally of ours +during the battle of the Marne. It made enough casualties among the +Boches to have an appreciable effect on the course of the battle. When +we chased them out of here the broken bottles looked as though there +were no more champagne left in the world. But as a matter of fact, so +enormous are the quantities stored hereabouts that the German inroads +were relatively slight." + +It was remarkable how much we were able to crowd into an hour's +inspection. Great meat-lorries, each carrying enough fresh carcasses +to stock a city butcher-shop, secured ventilation yet guarded their +contents against flies by close-meshed steel netting instead of solid +sides. But to protect the meat from dust science had had to bow to +nature, for to the netting in its turn were attached pine boughs which +admitted air while excluding dust more efficiently than any artificial +contrivance. Enormous repair-lorries were each a perambulating garage +fully equipped with machinery for repairing broken parts or making new +ones. Some of these lorries ran on their own power. Others were towed +along by a big motor. In either case they made their own power to run +their repair machinery, and their own brilliant electric light by which +to work at night. They had almost hermetically sealed curtains to keep +the light from leaking out, for in mobile war they are often called +upon to do their work in sight and range of the enemy. But the trench +warfare has rooted them to the spot for a weary time. + +"But wait!" said the Captain. "When the advance begins just watch us +keep up with the procession." + +There were autos with a steel frame running from the radiator, overhead +to the back seat, this frame having razor-edged knife-blades attached. +In open warfare while scouting along strange roads these were useful in +shearing through any wires which the thoughtful foe might have strung +across for the decapitation of speeding visitors. + +There were uninteresting-looking big gray ammunition-lorries, +ambulances, post-offices on wheels and hundreds of ordinary autos for +the use of officers, messengers, etc. + +I was informed that the life of the average car in active service was +very far from being as short as was popularly supposed. "Why," said the +Captain, "we have many cars coming in which have been working hard for +eleven months, and now for the first time are compelled to come in for +repairs." + +I noticed with what fastidious care all the cars were painted and +varnished. "Yes, that is the way we apply psychology to motor-repair +work," chuckled the Captain. "Experience has taught us that when a +soldier is given a beautifully finished car to run he takes pride in +it. And he not only keeps the outside well cleaned, which greatly +postpones the date when it must come back to us for doctoring, but he +also bestows much more care on his motor. So it is not only æstheticism +which prompts that beautiful finish. But talk about æstheticism, here +is a real example of it." + +He showed me a car from whose front lamp-brackets some artist had +wrought in iron two very beautiful palm fronds. + +"The man sacrificed much leisure time to making those branches from +sheer love of his art and of the beautiful. The French people are like +that, Monsieur." + +Having eaten a sample of the good bread and most excellent Irish stew +which constitutes the soldiers' lunch, we returned to the hotel for our +own early lunch. Then I climbed into one military motor with Captain +F----, while Eyre installed himself in another with Captain d'A----, +and at about 12.30 we started off for the front of "the front." + +We climbed rapidly out of Epernay, up a long very steep grade, flanked +as far as the eye could reach by vineyards, in which peasant women, old +men and boys were busily harvesting the raw material for future "Secs," +"Extra drys," and "Bruts." Our bellowing military motor-siren drove +most of the heavy two-wheeled peasant's carts hastily toward the gutter +to give us passage. Every now and then some cart's fantastic creakings +would drown our clamor, and then as we finally forced our way past, the +soldier-chauffeur would launch some terse but terrific imprecations +at the driver. At the end of the ascent we cut loose along the broad +turnpike which ran through a forest across the top of a wide plateau. +Sprinkled all along the highway were uniformed "territorials" working +at road repair. + +[Illustration: Page 30 + +"THERE WERE AUTOS WITH ... RAZOR-EDGED KNIFE-BLADES ATTACHED"] + +[Illustration: Page 32 + +CAPTAIN D'A---- AND THE AUTHOR. (STARTING FOR THE FRONT FROM THE +FRONT OF THE HOTEL AT EPERNAY)] + +"It is of extreme military importance to keep all these lines of +communication in first-class condition," explained Captain F----. "It +is not so romantic to mend a road as to mend a trench, but it is just +as necessary." + +By rights we ought now to have started our routine of courtesies +by calling on General Franchet d'Esperey, commanding the 5th Army, +the first of whose five army corps we were about to visit. For the +amenities of a trip to the front require that in theory the stranger +should pay his prearranged respects to all those in command from the +General of the Army, through the General of the Army Corps, down +through the General of Division, to the Colonel of the Regiment he +happens to be visiting. And practise in this matter sticks uncommonly +close to theory. Charming though it is to meet these courteous, highly +intelligent and often illustrious men, it is impossible not to feel +that the amount of time devoted to such visits of ceremony is quite +out of proportion to the very limited time allowed the average visitor +to the front. It is not the actual ten or fifteen minutes spent in +conversation with these hospitable gentlemen which eats up the time, +but the fact that meetings with some of the busiest men in the world +are necessarily definite appointments which must be very punctually +kept. And four or five such appointments in the course of a day at +places scores of miles apart necessarily tear that day to pieces. + +However, General Franchet d'Esperey had suddenly been called out to an +inspection of a certain part of the front, so we skipped the engagement +which had been made with him, and motored on to call on the General in +command of the Army Corps with which we found ourselves. In the _salon_ +of a small château we were introduced, and conversed pleasantly for a +few minutes. Then he assigned one of his staff-officers to accompany us +to an observation point on the edge of the plateau from which he could +give us a sweeping view of many miles of the front, and point out the +interesting topographical features and the course of the trenches. + +I was thus simultaneously accompanied by Captain d'A----, the +staff-officer from the Paris War Office, by Captain F----, the +staff-officer from the 5th Army, and by the staff-officer of the Army +Corps. + +Having explained to us the "lay of the land" and incidentally pointed +out to us the sizable crater of a shell which a few days earlier had +come within twenty yards of putting a definite end to this particular +observation point, the last officer bade us good-bye. We climbed back +into our motors, and made the steep, winding descent from the plateau, +and raced over the long, straight road so well known to motor tourists +of peaceful days, which leads to where in the distance the low roofs +of Rheims can be seen, like some muddy tide washing the foot of the +craglike cathedral. In Rheims, which the enemy had considerately +stopped shelling an hour or so before our arrival, we had to go to +the headquarters of the Colonel in Command. He was out, but had left +a Major with instructions to show us to X----, a village about a +kilometre from the outskirts of Rheims and immediately touching on +the front trenches. We left our motors near the edge of the city and +walked to where down the street ran a deep narrow ditch lying open, +waiting for its sewer-pipes. "Climb in," said the Major. "Here's where +the communicating trench begins." In we climbed and were led by the +Major along a zigzag kilometre of trench until, fifteen minutes later, +we climbed out again in the main street of X----. There the Major +introduced us to the Captain at the moment in command of the battalion +occupying the village. He became our guide through the rest of the +afternoon, which we spent in the front trenches, and which is described +in the following chapter. + +Thus the War Department from Paris had notified the General Staff of +the 5th Army that I was to make a three-day visit to that army. That +General Staff had arranged a complete programme and had notified the +staffs of the various Army Corps which I was to visit. The first of +these Army Corps Staffs had decided that I was to visit the front +before Rheims, and had so notified the Colonel. The Colonel had decided +which particular portion of the front I was to visit before Rheims and +had so notified the Captain. And the Captain in turn had made up his +mind which specific trenches I was to visit, and conducted me through +them. + +Thus far my programme had been more interesting but just as rigid as +that of any of the correspondents' tours. + +At the end of the afternoon in the trenches a minor example arose of +the advantages which my special trip conferred. + +As we returned to our motors in the outskirts of Rheims, I told d'A---- +how keenly I wished to see the Rheims Cathedral. + +"It is not on the programme," he answered; "but if you want to see +it you certainly shall. It will get you back to Epernay pretty late, +instead of at the hour arranged for, but that will not matter." + +So we rolled through the streets of Rheims, where of the 110,000 +original population 20,000 still live and carry on their daily life. +The greater part of the city showed no signs whatever of the constantly +repeated bombardments which it has sustained, save for the blocks +on blocks of houses closed and with windows boarded up. But when we +entered that portion lying to the east of the cathedral and toward the +enemy, we passed through the fleshless skeleton of a city. The house +walls generally stood intact, but through the gaping windows one could +see the nothingness that lay behind, where great shells had plunged +downward through the roof, sweeping the whole interior, floor by floor, +down into the cellar; or where smaller shells had gutted the interior +by fire. Every now and then we would see a street completely blocked +by a great barrier of rubble, where a whole house had been plucked +out bodily from between its neighbors by some monstrous explosion and +smashed to pieces on the pavement as you would smash an egg on the +ground. + +Then we came out into the great square before the cathedral, and looked +up at its cliff-like façade. + +I heaved a sigh of relief. I seemed to be looking at the same +incredible beauty that I had looked at just over a year ago, when the +world was still at peace. It is true that half the great rose window +was empty of glass; that here and there stood statues headless or with +chipped and mutilated limbs. But in the vast profusion of carvings on +the façade these were almost lost. Gradually, however, the full tragedy +bore in on me. + +Have you ever seen an exquisite cameo face congested by drunkenness +or disease so that it remains but a blurred and subtly bloated +semblance of its former loveliness? If you have, you will know what +has befallen the façade at Rheims. It stood away from the German guns +so that not a shell hit it. But Fate and inefficiency left it covered +with scaffolding which caught fire, and the towering blaze licked +and licked so furiously at every sculptured angle, line and curve +that in a few hours all those keenly chiselled outlines which the +centuries themselves had only faintly mellowed, became flabby, blunt +and indeterminate. One used at times to gaze at the façade through +half-closed lids, so that no exquisite detail should distract from +the swimming, hazy glory of the whole. That glory it still possesses, +but to those who knew it in its earlier unmarred splendor it seems to +stand, straining aloft, in patient martyrdom. A heavy barricade, built +at a distance of some twenty yards, prevented entrance or even a close +approach. As we stood counting the shrapnel scars on the horse of +Jeanne d'Arc, which ended the myth that this statue had come through +the whole bombardment miraculously untouched, a little girl approached +with a basket full of pieces of colored glass. These she offered for +sale as fragments of the priceless stained glass of the cathedral. +It required no expert to see that they were pitifully spurious. Thus +huckstering makes pennies out of tragedy. + +We departed silently, and leaving Captain F---- to return to his +headquarters for the night, we were quickly speeding through the +twilight on our way back to Epernay. + + + + +III + +IN THE FRENCH TRENCHES + + + WITH THE 5TH FRENCH ARMY, _Aug. 3_ (_via Paris_). + +On the anniversary of the last day of the world's peace, the 365th day +of the war, I stood in the darkness of a very advanced front trench. + +A short section where I stood was roofed and bomb-proofed. Through +a row of very narrow rifle-slits came little beams of daylight that +rested in flecks on the white, chalky back of the trenches and were +thrown up very faintly against the logs of the trench roof. + +Very dimly, I could gradually make out a narrow plank standing-platform +running along below the slits. A card was tacked to the wooden frame +of each opening, bearing the name of the particular soldier to whom +that opening belonged. Above each slit hung (or could hang) its owner's +rifle in slings from the roof. + +Every few yards, set in little recesses dug out from the back of the +trench, stood fat bottles. They contained chemicals with which to soak +the soldiers' mouth-coverings if attacked by poisoned gas. + +The trench was nearly empty of men. But at the loophole nearest me +stood the rigid figure of a soldier. His legs were invisible in the +darkness. His body showed up vaguely. His face was brilliantly lighted +by the thin blade of light through the rifle-slit. He stood silent and +motionless, his eyes intently focussed out into the sunlight. + +I looked through the next slit, through a spider's web of barbed wire, +between stunted black posts, across two hundred yards of green grass +and wild flowers, at another tangle of posts and barbed wire with a +narrow furrow of white chalky soil running along just behind it--the +German trenches. + +Not a living thing was in sight in the sunny loneliness. There was +silence except for the crack, crack, crack of striking bullets from +inaudible German rifles. I looked back at the face of the "guetteur," +the watcher. His eyes, fixed on the narrow white line, were puckered +with intentness, but his lips were parted in an easy, good-humored +smile, brightening a face young, clean-cut, alert, calm and very +patient. + +He seemed to symbolize the spirit of the new France, the France of +endurance, of determination, of buoyancy, of patience, the stoic France +that can keep silent and motionless, the France that can stand in the +darkness undismayed, watching and waiting till the moment comes to leap +up and out into the light. + +Early that morning, from the window of a château on the edge of a +high plateau, a young staff-officer had shown me the great plain of +Champagne stretching away to the low hills on the horizon. Miles away +lay Rheims, made to seem squatty by the cathedral which towered in its +midst. + +Across the green fields of the panorama, over swelling hills, +disappearing into dark woods, reappearing at the other end, I saw two +tiny lines of white like the aimless tracing of a child's slate-pencil +on a slate. They ran on across the landscape, now drawn boldly forward, +now swerving with indecision, now zigzagging with perplexity. Sometimes +the child's pencil had slipped and made short little lines at right +angles. Sometimes the pencil had made three or four short starts +parallel with each other before it finally got under way. Sometimes +it had made a regular little maze of lines. But always the two white +scratchings on the slate were drawn on and on till, wavering but always +close abreast, the trenches of the two armies disappeared into the far +distance. + +Through powerful glasses the officer showed me little puffs of smoke +floating up from the sunny, silent, peaceful landscape. They were from +the exploding shells. To the right I saw a high cloud of smoke rising +lazily into the air out of some woods. It was a house in the German +lines fired by French shells. And, though the little puffs of smoke +were only here and there on the landscape, everywhere I could see +through the glasses the microscopic figures of peasants working busily +in their fields, bringing in the harvest. Many were soldiers helping +out, but very many were old men, boys and women. Again the scene seemed +symbolical. + +Behind the soldier watching in the bomb-proof were the innumerable tiny +plodding figures, undaunted by the abrupt little puffs of smoke, doing +their patient share toward bringing in the harvest. + +In the château itself as I went down-stairs I passed a bedroom door +with "Seine Koenigliche Hoheit" written across it in white chalk. +The Duke of Brunswick had slept there at the high tide of the German +advance. His staff had had their names chalked across various other +doors, but few of them remained. + +One by one they were being gradually scrubbed off. It was explained to +me that these chalk marks were particularly hard to remove from wooden +doors. But with patience it is being done. + +The trip which I was taking to the French front had been most kindly +arranged for me by the French Government as a special trip for my +particular benefit. It had the advantage of enabling us to go into +portions of the advanced trenches, where the larger parties could not +go for fear of precipitating shelling by the Germans. + +Our party consisted of a staff-officer from Paris, a staff-officer from +army headquarters, Lincoln Eyre, whom the authorities had allowed me to +ask along--and myself. + +After leaving the château we got into two elephant-gray army motors +with Remington carbines swung on their dashboards. The military +chauffeurs tore along the road, which was in easy range of the German +artillery, but which for some reason never was shelled. + +As we whirled along we passed a variegated procession of vehicles. +Now a high peasant cart carrying home the harvest; now a military +motor-cyclist; now a motor-ambulance, with a pair of white feet showing +through the back, and the wounded man lying on a stretcher slung from +the roof by four straps to reduce jolts to a minimum; now a motor +full of officers smoking cigarettes; now a cavalryman exercising an +officer's mount. + +Finally we stopped about a kilometre from a little village, which must +be nameless. On leaving our motors we walked a little further along +the road and then climbed down into a trench. This was about six feet +deep and three feet wide, the bottom and sides of white, chalky soil. +We pursued a serpentine course, but there was method in its meandering, +for a straight vista of trench leading toward the enemy would be a +splendid hunting-ground for bullets. + +We had not gone far when I heard a sound like a boy cracking a toy +whip. "A bullet striking near us," explained an officer ahead of me. + +I found it almost impossible to tell the difference between the report +of the French guns and the explosions of German shells. An officer told +me that their time-table nickname for French gun reports was "départs" +(departures), while that for the German shell explosions was "arrivées" +(arrivals). + +Of course if either gun or shell explosion or both is very near to you +you can easily tell the difference, if there is enough of you left to +tell anything. + +We walked on with the toy whip cracking at every other step and +"départs" and "arrivées" inviting guesswork as to which was which. +We passed soldiers in shirt-sleeves, deepening and widening a +communication trench. It was rather difficult to squeeze past them, but +this very definitely emphasized the wonderful terms of discipline, yet +the democratic friendliness, existing between the French officers and +the men. The officers talked to the men intimately and placed their +hands on the men's shoulders affectionately in squeezing by. The men +answered the officers easily, without restraint, but all stood at +attention and smartly gave the salute, which they regarded as a dignity +and not a degradation--a marvellous combination of discipline and +democracy. + +We finally climbed out of the trench at the first house of the little +village, or rather of what had been a little village, for it was, on +close view, nothing more than the aftermath of an earthquake. In actual +fact it reminded me vividly of the walk I had taken through the remains +of Messina after the last great earthquake. + +Before entering the village I stood in the road looking through my +field-glasses at a German war-balloon to my left. "Come along, come +along," shouted one of the officers. "If you stand there you'll start +the Germans shelling. You're in plain sight of them." Needless to say I +came along. + +We walked through the shattered village, which the Germans shelled +religiously every day, until we came to the remains of a church. +Climbing in over the ruins we saw that there was one corner where +miraculously enough a few yards of floor and a few yards of roof had +escaped being shelled to pieces. There the altar had been set with +about ten chairs crowded in front of it. There mass is still held every +Sunday for the benefit of the sixteen inhabitants who still persisted +in staying in the village. + +[Illustration: Page 49 + +"THERE MASS IS STILL HELD EVERY SUNDAY FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE SIXTEEN +INHABITANTS WHO STILL PERSISTED IN STAYING IN THE VILLAGE"] + +These must indeed be solemn little services, for the Germans are far +from being Sabbatarians when it comes to shelling this particular +church. + +Going on, we stopped in front of what was a house for one story and a +skeleton from there up. It looked as if nothing less than a squirrel +could get up to its rooftree, and nothing larger than a cat could +conceal itself behind any of the shreds and tatters of its roof. +Nevertheless, up there was the observation-post which I was about to +visit. We entered and found some soldiers cooking meat and potatoes on +a smokeless stove. One of them was amusing himself prancing around the +place on a pair of child's stilts. + +Following instructions, I climbed up a long ladder, which led to two +rafters--the sole survivors of the second floor. A few planks had been +stretched between these. From them another ladder ran up to a small +patch of attic floor which, marvellously intact, nestled around three +sides of a brick chimney under the fragment of the roof. Arrived there, +I carefully lifted a little leather curtain, hung over a hole in the +roof, and squinted cautiously down upon the German lines. + +The French trenches were practically hidden by the houses of the little +village, so that the first thing I saw was a belt of barbed wire, and +an unostentatious little white line, which marked the advanced German +position. Look as closely as one could, it was impossible to detect the +slightest movement, yet it was from this innocent-looking little line +that the bullets were imitating toy whips. I wedged myself into the +chimney to get a view of another side and then climbed down. + +We now left the village and walked into the open advanced trenches. +The most remarkable thing was their utter desolation. We walked for a +hundred yards at a time, past scores and scores of rifle-slits, without +seeing a man. An officer explained that troops are not permitted in the +open trenches during the daytime, to save them needless loss from the +shells, which each side all day long, in a desultory way, threw into +the open trenches of the other. + +The men stayed down in the shell-proof shelters all the day and manned +the trenches at night, when attacks are most feared. + +It seemed as if the Germans could easily rush these trenches before +the men could be called out to meet them, but along the sides of every +trench ran one or two telephone wires. Apparently one quick order +would have these front trenches lined with men. We came to one of the +points nearest the German lines, from where the German trenches seemed +a mere stone's-throw. From there French soldiers used to crawl out +and fraternize with the Germans, between the lines, but that is now +forbidden. + +We next came through a covered trench to a covered grenade section. +Here a table stood against the outer wall. It had three lines of +sockets in it, one ahead of the other. The soldiers fastened grenades +to the muzzles of their rifles, shoved the muzzles up through the +protected slit in the roof, rested the butts in one of the three +sockets, which gave three different ranges, and pulled the trigger. If +there is a premature explosion they are saved from its effects by the +muzzle being above the roof. + +We continued on into a long section of the covered front trench, where +the rifle-slits have wires stretched across them about three inches +from the bottom. The soldiers must stick their rifles out under the +wire, which prevents their overshooting in the night. These covered +trenches are roofed with logs and covered with two or three feet of +earth. They are proof against ordinary shells, but not against heavy +artillery. + +When that starts bombarding, the men climb down into excavations, +fifteen feet below the level of the trenches, and wait there until the +storm is over. + +Soon we came to a black little underground chamber. An officer gave +an order and a brilliant ray of light shot in through an aperture in +the wall, near the low roof. This aperture was some three feet from +one side to the other, and only about six or eight inches from top to +bottom. It had been opened by dropping a hinged steel shutter which +was worked by a wire running over a pulley. The aperture was just +above the surface of the ground outside. In the little room stood a +machine-gun with its wicked-looking muzzle just flush with the opening. +The gunner showed us how, by swinging the gun from side to side, he +could play a stream of bullets through the wire entanglements, a foot +or two from the ground. + +[Illustration: Page 51 + +THE AUTHOR IN A FRONT TRENCH NEAR RHEIMS. (THE GERMANS ARE ABOUT +THREE HUNDRED YARDS BEYOND THE WIRE ENTANGLEMENTS)] + +At regular intervals we passed watchers, some standing in the covered +trenches gazing through the slits, some lying out above the open +trenches behind steel shields, and some using periscopes--all depending +on the location of the trench. + +Looking into such a periscope one would swear that he was looking +straight out through a loophole. There is not the slightest sign of +looking at a reflection in a mirror. We walked bent double through an +extremely long pitch-black tunnel in an advanced position where some of +the officers themselves had never been, and then started back through +the open trenches. + +At one point a lot of Germans had been buried. Sometimes a shell +explosion does a ghastly bit of disinterment, but I saw nothing +unpleasant on this occasion. At another point above the heads of each +side of the trench stood two shattered ammunition-carts. The Germans +shelled this place pertinaciously, believing that the carts were guns. + +At another point we walked under a framework of wood, covered with barb +wire resting on two transverse timbers stretching across the top of +the trench. A rope hung down from one of the transverses. If the enemy +broke into the trench the defenders, by pulling this rope, could drop +the barb-wire contrivance into the trench, thus blocking it. + +Finally we got back to the village. I had asked how the sixteen +inhabitants made a living. An officer replied that they sold eggs and +milk to the troops. I asked out of what they produced the milk and +he replied, "Very certainly out of a cow." As an answer to my polite +scepticism I was taken to see the cow. We walked down a little street +where I was told that the Germans were directing most of their shells. +They fortunately were napping while we walked through. We suddenly +turned into a gateway, and there in the middle of this wreck of a +village was a barnyard with chickens clucking, a horse tied to the +wall, and three cows. + +And on a stool by one of the cows sat an aged woman making the milk +hiss down into a tin pail. There she sat, shells sailing to and fro +over her head, with the "départs" starting and the "arrivées" bursting. +There she sat and rocked with hearty laughter at the story of my +scepticism, and went on effectively proving her existence by her cow +by the extraction of that very milk which was sold to the soldiers. +We left the old lady surrounded by what seemed to her to be all the +comforts of home, and a few steps further were introduced to the Mayor +of X----. + +It was a smiling, bland old man who greeted us most genially. +Apparently he had not a care in the world as he stood courteously +making conversation. It seemed to me that the humble old woman milking +her cow, and the Mayor entertaining visitors to what was no longer +his village, were further symbols of the spirit of a nation which was +not easily destined to decadence and downfall. Leaving the Mayor, we +entered the cemetery. There we were looking at the graves of two German +officers, two French officers and seventy French soldiers when an +"arrivée" burst with a louder report than we had as yet heard, followed +by a deep noise. + +"What's that?" I asked. + +An officer replied, "That's the metal fuse which at the moment of +explosion flies off through the air. You can only hear that when the +explosion is pretty close. You can certainly say now that you have been +under shell fire." + +We went back to the end of the village furthest from the Germans +and entered the headquarters in one of the few houses still in fair +preservation. There the officers in command of the village opened a +bottle of champagne in our honor and we stood around drinking each +other's health. At that precise moment an unusually loud salvo of +French artillery went off by way of a salute to the toast. + +On the way back through the communicating trenches, we saw an attempt +by the German guns to bring down a French aviator, who was flying above +us. The latest development of fire regulation by aviation is that the +Captain of the battery himself goes up in an aeroplane and sends his +corrections on aim down to his battery by wireless. This Captain had +his four "seventy-fives" hidden near our communication trench. Every +time they went off their report was so violent that I could not help +jumping. + +The battery Captain was sailing around overhead and the German gunner +was letting drive at him with what looked to us to be pretty bad shots. +I could see the aeroplane wheeling in the air and hear the distant +reports of the "départs," wait an appreciable time and then see the +burst of white flame high up in the sky, followed by little puffs of +smoke. + +"That's a wretched shot," said I, as one shell burst over our heads, +far behind the aeroplane. + +"Yes, a bad shot for an aeroplane, but a good shot for us," Captain +F---- replied. + +I was standing with my head away back, looking straight overhead. +"Come, move on, move on, or you'll catch some of that on your face," +warned Captain d'A----. I obediently moved on and, sure enough, a +couple of seconds later he picked up a strictly fresh shrapnel ball +which had just fallen into our trench out of the sky. In the mean time +the Captain up in the air had corrected his guns, so that they were +hitting whatever they were shooting at, and he sailed away to the rear, +while his battery became really enthusiastic and went off with a series +of tearing crashes, which kept me jumping all the way to the end of the +communicating trench. + +There I climbed out with my ears full of the "seventy-fives'" violent +reports, the distant explosion of their shells, the distant reports of +the enemy's guns, the "crack, crack, crack" of the rifle bullets and +the occasional sharp whistling of one overhead. + +But my mind was full of the soldier watching and waiting, of the +peasants harvesting between the smoke puffs, the laughing old woman +milking the cow, of the genial Mayor extending his ruined hospitality, +and of what little things like these should bring to pass in the future +of France. + + + + +IV + +A TYPICAL DAY'S TOUR + + +The morning after our trip to the front at Rheims we got up at seven +o'clock after a good night's sleep in the comfortable hotel, and by +shortly after eight were ready to start. + +But here came a hitch in the smoothly running mechanism. + +The evening before, on our run back to Epernay, Eyre and I had noticed +the exhilarating abandon with which our soldier chauffeur slung his car +along. We supposed that was the traditional method in which military +cars were run. We christened our driver "Barney Oldfield" and commented +jocosely on his various close squeaks. We noticed that Captain d'A----, +who in the front trenches had been absolutely imperturbable, did not +seem wholly at ease, but kept on leaning forward and muttering, "Mais +doucement! doucement!" through the front window. We thought, however, +that this was mere consideration on his part for our inexperienced +nervous systems. + +On this following morning he declared to us that our chauffeur was +evidently a veritable maniac besides being an execrable driver, and +that nothing would induce him to ride behind "Barney Oldfield" again. +Shells and bullets were all in the day's work, but he'd be switched if +he would have his neck quite superfluously broken by an imbecile like +that. + +He therefore, with our cordial approval, had sent round to the +auto-repair department for a sedater driver. But it was apparently +against the regulations to keep the same car if we changed chauffeurs, +and it was as hard to get another car in this headquarters of cars as +it is to get fresh milk on a cattle-ranch. + +So we fretted politely for the best part of an hour before the new +chauffeur drove up. This delay haunted us for the rest of the day. + +We motored over the same road we had covered the day before till we +got near Rheims again. There, at about ten o'clock, we met Captain +F----, who had been cooling his heels for an hour. I transferred myself +into his motor and we started off to inspect some batteries. + +First, of course, we had to present ourselves to the General in +Command of the next Army Corps which we were to visit. We reached his +headquarters after half an hour's run and found him an interesting and +agreeable man of the world. He was much upset by the death the day +before of a Lieutenant of engineers. It appears that this Lieutenant +had been in command of a sap that was being run under the German +trenches in order to explode a mine. The Germans had counter-sapped, +broken into his tunnel, and exploded a mine there. He had recklessly +crawled down his sap and had not returned. Then his Colonel crawled +down the little tunnel after him, first taking the precaution to have a +rope tied on to himself. The soldiers at the French end of the tunnel +paid out the rope till it suddenly stopped. Then, as there was no more +movement, they became alarmed and, hauling in the rope, dragged the +Colonel back in a senseless condition. The Lieutenant had reached the +neighborhood of the exploded mine and had been overcome and killed by +the unescaped gases of the explosion. The Colonel in his turn had been +overcome, but had been hauled out in time to be revived. + +It was strange to see how this loss was taken to heart by a General who +must in the past months have had to receive reports of deaths by the +thousand. + +We motored on and about eleven o'clock were ushered into the +headquarters of the General of Division whose batteries we wanted to +see. + +The other Generals had greeted us in the luxurious _salons_ of +châteaus, sitting near writing-desks holding a few papers, but without +any token of the military work on which they were engaged. This General +was housed with his staff in an old shooting-box. The room in which he +welcomed us had large-scale maps on its walls, and engineering plans on +its tables. The General himself was a splendid type of French officer, +remarkably young, wiry, snappy, keen as mustard. When the war began he +had been a Lieutenant-Colonel and had gone up the ladder by leaps and +bounds. + +He said he would begin by himself taking us to an observation-point at +the top of a high hill, whence we could follow the whole sweep of front +from about the point where it had yesterday run out of our sight, on +for many miles to the Aisne and well beyond it. + +Up the hill we went at about as fast a walk as I have ever used on +a stiff up-grade. Beside me, setting the pace, went the General in +his baggy red riding-breeches, his tight-fitting black tunic, his +well-polished black-leather puttees and shapely boots. As we climbed at +top speed he talked a steady and most interesting stream. I began to +listen for any symptoms of the pace affecting his breath. But not a bit +of it; on he walked and on he talked. It was a hot day and the sweat +began to drip off of me in spite of my cool khaki clothes. But the +General in his black-cloth tunic and red breeches remained as cool as a +cucumber. By the time we legged it over the crest of the hill I would +have been willing to back him in a walking contest against any one of +the twenty thousand men in his division. + +Now we walked along a level path through woods till we came to an open +space on the hillside. + +The General stopped abruptly. "Don't go further here," he snapped out, +"the Germans might see us through their glasses. They've got them +constantly trained on this hill to try to locate my observation-post. +They have not struck it yet, though the other day they happened to drop +a shell not far from it which killed two of my officers." + +So we retraced our steps a short distance and took another path which +avoided the open place on the hillside. + +Finally we reached the observation-post, carefully screened by an +artificial bower of pine boughs. Maps were tacked on a rude table, +while a big telescope stuck its muzzle surreptitiously out between the +boughs. + +The young General pointed out the two white trench lines pursuing +each other league on league across the face of the summer landscape +below us, now abruptly approaching, now coyly withdrawing from each +other in their deadly courtship. He ran swiftly over the various +features of interest: That white scar on the slope down yonder was +where the French had recently exploded a great mine under the Germans. +Particularly bloody fighting had been going on at that point. Those +roofs in the hollow the other side of that little hill were the +village of Bery-au-Bac, which so frequently appeared in the official +communiques as the scene of desperate attacks. Over there beyond +the canal in that angle between it and the Aisne for perhaps half a +kilometre there was a complete gap in the trench lines which were +popularly supposed to run uninterruptedly from the North Sea to the +Alps. Still further over yonder the hostile trenches approached each +other so closely that one of those houses had one end occupied by the +French and the other by the Germans. + +"Over there," said the General with a sweep of his hand and a shake of +his head, "occurred one of the great misfortunes of the battle of the +Marne. Our troops there had hurled the Germans back across the Aisne +and clear back over those hills. But the French troops over here more +to the left had had their advance checked by the retreating Germans. +Now those troops to the right were so far ahead that they had lost +touch with the ones to the left. Had they been veteran troops they +could easily have manoeuvred the backward troops up into line with +themselves, and had they done this, with the Germans forced back beyond +that line of natural defense, the Craonne plateau positions would have +been turned and there is no knowing how far the German retreat might +have been compelled to continue. But alas! they were green troops, and +when they had waited and found that the troops to their left were not +linking up with them they fell back from their precious territory to +form a line with their fellows. And that is why we are here to-day." + +The General then led the way some little distance to another +underground observation-post to be used in case of a bombardment. + +A flight of steps led down into it. It had a good many feet of solid +earth above it, and consisted of two rooms with two bunks covered with +pine boughs in one, and two camp cots in the other for the General +himself and his artillery aide. It was well stored with water and +provisions, and here the General, in case of a sustained bombardment, +could remain in relative security for days on end, observing the +effect of his own artillery fire or of any infantry attacks he might +direct, and sending his orders out by telephone. It will probably be +asked how he could do much observing from a cellar several metres under +ground. The answer is that the second of the two rooms had a sort of +window about a foot high and running the whole length of the wall, +which opened out through the side of the hill. It was covered by a +heavy steel shutter which could be partly or entirely swung up by a +pulley arrangement, and through this crack in the hillside the whole +sector lay in perfect view. + +Climbing out again, we ventured a hint or two as to how interested we +were in batteries. But the General himself was intensely interested +in an intricate system of subterranean passages which his Chief of +Engineers was building to connect up the observation-post with other +points, and he took the very human view that the technical explanations +of the Engineer which were so absorbing to him must necessarily be +equally enthralling to us. + +Finally we started back across the hilltop toward where my imagination +conjured up serried arrays of great guns frowning at the enemy. + +On the way we stopped to inspect the telephone central which connected +up the observation-posts with all the batteries behind and the trenches +in front, and for that matter, with Paris or any other part of France. + +In a low log hut, its roof and walls protected by several feet of +sand-bags, a soldier sat at a large switchboard with a telephone +receiver strapped to his head. As we stood for a moment watching him +a bell tinkled. He stuck the small peg into one of the multitudinous +little holes. + +"Allo! This is Number 15," he said in a low voice, then listened +intently to some message. + +"All right," he said at its conclusion. Then turning half round on his +stool he saluted and reported: + +"Mon General, Number 19 reports that a Boche aeroplane has passed them +and is coming over us." + +"Telephone our guns to fire at him, and warn Numbers 11 and 12 to +prepare for his coming," ordered the General, and as the soldier stuck +his pegs in and gave his telephone messages we hustled out to see the +excitement. Sure enough, we had hardly got out when we heard a distant +whirring, and high up in the air saw an aeroplane floating our way. + +[Illustration: Page 70 + +"WE WERE COMPLETELY ABSORBED IN WATCHING THE SOFT LITTLE CLOUDS +PLAYFULLY DANCING ALONG AHEAD OF THE LAZILY DRIFTING AEROPLANE"] + +"Keep under the tree! Keep under the tree!" warned the General sharply. +"If he sees us all standing here, and gets away, he will report this as +an important point and it will rain 'marmites' for days to come." + +So he, his staff-officers, Eyre and I grouped ourselves under a big +tree and stared up at the approaching aeroplane through the gaps in its +branches. + +"Whang!" A "soixante-quinze" exploded violently in the woods close by, +and I jumped equally violently. + +"Whang! Whang! Whang!" came three more shots in extremely close +succession. + +"You've got a whole battery shooting, haven't you?" I remarked. + +"Oh, no! There is only one gun located just there. It does not waste +time in firing, does it?" smiled the General. "Our 'soixante-quinze' +field-guns can shoot twenty-five shots a minute." + +Other guns in the immediate neighborhood took up the chorus, and, +looking through our glasses, we could see little soft white cloudlets +puff into being all around the aeroplane. + +But he kept sailing calmly on. + +A little further off in the woods came a staccato rat! tat! tat! tat! +tat! like a boy drawing a stick along a picket fence. + +"There goes one of our mitrailleuses at work on him." + +We were completely absorbed in watching the soft little clouds +playfully dancing along ahead of the lazily drifting aeroplane, when +the General's voice brought us back to earth. + +"Come! Come! We must hurry or we shall be late for lunch. I did not +realize how late it was." + +I looked at him in horror. What! Forsake the sensations of this moment +for such a thing as a lunch! Any one of those gentle little white puffs +might transform the aeroplane into a hurtling mass of flame. Lunch! + +But the General was entirely sincere and very positive. From his point +of view Boche aeroplanes could be shot at any hour of the day, but +lunch was an event which took place only once in the twenty-four hours. +Lunch was the recognized symbol of hospitality; aeroplane shellings +decidedly were not. + +As we reluctantly followed him through the woods he may have noticed my +disappointment, for he remarked: + +"It is highly improbable that you would see anything more than you +already have seen. They are very difficult things to hit, you know. As +a matter of fact, we were doing most of our shooting in front of him +rather than at him, so as to head him back. But he evidently has his +nerve with him, for he has kept right on and got away from us. Listen! +Our guns have stopped, and there are the guns I telephoned to at Number +12 taking a shy at him." + +As we hiked along at the General's favorite pace Captain F---- +diffidently suggested: + +"And the batteries, mon General, in which this gentleman was much +interested. I suppose there will be no opportunity to see them?" + +"Oh, there is really nothing interesting about them, as they are not +firing to-day. The pieces are scattered all over the hillside in the +woods, and the crews are having their lunch. But as a matter of fact +our route home takes us right by one 120-millimetre gun and we can +have a look at that." + +Walking down the rear slope of the hill, we came upon a party of +soldiers, apparently out for a picnic, eating their lunch on a rustic +table, with pine branches over their heads and fragrant pine needles +under their feet. + +They jumped to attention. + +"Show us the piece," said the General to their non-commissioned officer. + +The groups of soldiers hustled over to a big object bundled up in +tarpaulins, which stood a few yards off. Stripping off the coverings, +they showed us a heavy field-piece standing on treadled wheels with its +muzzle pointed apparently aimlessly up the green-wooded hillside at +some clouds which floated in the blue sky just above the hill-crest. + +"That gun," explained the General, "is aimed at the village of ----, +about eight kilometres distant, behind the German lines. Their reserves +have to pass through the village to reach the front; so whenever +we hear that they are bringing up their reserves we start this gun +shelling that little village. Usually an important village is shared by +several guns, but that village is the particular property of this gun. + +[Illustration: Page 71 + +"AS WE HIKED ALONG AT THE GENERAL'S FAVORITE PACE"] + +[Illustration: Page 72 + +"A HEAVY FIELD-PIECE STANDING ON TREADLED WHEELS"] + +"Show the gentlemen how it works," he ordered. The artillerymen leaped +into position, swung open the breach, lifted a heavy shell, and thrust +it into the chamber. + +"Careful there; don't shoot it off!" exclaimed the General, and added +to me, "There's no use damaging our own French villages more than is +indispensable." + +As tenderly as a thoroughbred is blanketed after a race the big gun +was bundled up again by its crew, and, leaving them to resume their +picnicking under the pine-tree, we strode away to the shooting-box and +the lunch. + +And a very excellent lunch it was to which the General, some eight of +his staff-officers and our party of four sat down in the dingy old +dining-room of the shooting-box. + +"You certainly mobilized an excellent chef," laughed Captain d'A---- as +we reached the entrée. + +With white wine mixed with water to drink during the lunch, champagne +served in the French fashion with the dessert, and cigars, coffee and +liqueurs to follow, the commissariat department undoubtedly deserved +congratulations. + + ------------------------------------ + + MENU + + du 1º Août 1915 + + ------------------------------------ + + DÉJEUNER + + ------------------------------------ + + Hors-d'oeuvres + + Oeufs pochés à la Rossini + + Tournedos grillés à la Bouchère + + Pommes frites + + Pigeons rotis + + Haricots verts à l'anglaise + + Crème au chocolat + + Compote de pèches + + Dessert + + ------------------------------------ + +The conversation was of course not for publication, but one passage I +think I can repeat without fear of violating confidence. + +"Why did not Von Kluck march on Paris when he had the chance?" I asked +the officer who was sitting on one side of me. + +"I will tell you," he replied. "In the 1913 'Kriegsspiel' [great +manoeuvres] in Germany the theoretical invasion of France by the +attacking armies was precisely the same advance as in actual fact they +made the following year. In the maneuvers Von Kluck commanded the right +wing precisely as he did in the actual invasion. In these maneuvers he +came to a point in his advance where he had to choose between attacking +Paris and swinging past Paris in pursuit of the enemy. He decided to +attack Paris. The verdict of the board of generals who were judging the +maneuvers contained the severest kind of arraignment of Von Kluck for +having violated the cardinal principal of German military strategy by +allowing a mere geographical point to divert him from the one paramount +object of German generalship--the enemy's army. We actually possess a +copy of this official reprimand, for 'tout s'achête' (there is nothing +that money will not buy), you know. Now when little over one year +later Von Kluck in actual warfare came face to face with precisely the +same choice of alternatives, with the previous year's censure still +stingingly fresh in mind, he ignored Paris and followed the enemy army." + +Luncheon over, we bade the splendid young General and his staff +good-bye, and motored quite a distance to visit one of the French +field hospitals. The wounded, after having first aid applied in the +trenches, were brought here in ambulances, where their wounds were +thoroughly dressed or operations performed. When there was a great rush +of wounded those capable of standing the journey were shipped on to +base hospitals as quickly as possible to make room for the new cases. +During the last few months, however, there had been so little hard +fighting on the section of the front which this hospital served, that +many of the wounded had been kept there for weeks and some for months. +The big rooms on the ground floor of the large country house in which +the hospital had been located, had been converted into wards for the +wounded privates, while the bedrooms on the upper floor were reserved +principally for officers. + +It was curious to hear the deprecatory tone in which the Chief Surgeon +regretted that he had no freshly wounded to bandage or operate on +for our benefit. In fact from the front hospitals to the great base +hospitals of Paris the surgeons are all alike. They cannot keep a +professional note of regret out of their voices when explaining that +very few wounded have come in of late, nor a professional note of +encouragement when they understand an important action is soon to be +fought which will again fill their cots with "cases." It would be an +outrage to hold this attitude against these splendid men. If they had +not become impregnated by their professional point of view toward the +horrors of their work, they would all long ago have been in madhouses. + +Our whole progress through the hospital was a strange conglomeration of +pathos and farce. For the Surgeon in Command, on our being introduced +to him, stated that he was the proud possessor of an orderly who +spoke the English tongue "à merveille." Our staff-officers politely +indicated to him that our own French, though not perhaps up to +Comédie Française standards, was no mean thing, and would render his +explanations entirely comprehensible to us. But these hints were of +no avail. The accomplishments of his linguistic prodigy must not be +wasted. So the orderly was produced and turned out to be master of the +most grotesquely unintelligible English that I have ever listened to. + +As we passed between the lines of cots, each with its still figure +huddled under its gray blanket, as we were followed about by the +wondering gaze of the many eyes which look so incredibly large in the +wasted faces of the wounded, we had to listen to the explanations of +the Chief Surgeon, and then lend our ears to the burblings of the +orderly exterpreting them for our benefit. Even when we stood in the +modest little graveyard where those who had died of their wounds were +buried we were torn between tears and grins by the attentions of the +excellent man whom, I am ashamed to say, Eyre and I had christened +"the pest," and by the embarrassed writhings of our staff-officers +who spoke such excellent English that they thoroughly realized the +situation. + +Having spent perhaps three-quarters of an hour in the hospital, which, +judged by the somewhat unexacting French standards, seemed efficiently +run, we departed for the first impromptu engagement of the day--the +studies of a class in grenade-throwing, which met not very far from the +hospital, and which I have elsewhere described in detail. + +After an hour devoted to this exceedingly interesting experience, we +were whirled away to a distant appointment with another General of an +Army Corps. He led us to the flat roof of his headquarters, from which +at some distance he pointed out a third installment of the trenches +continuing from about the point where they had that morning run out of +sight, and from that point stretching along the Craonne plateau, nearly +to Soissons. + +Having terminated a fifteen-minute meeting with this extremely +courteous General, the next number on our programme was the inspection +of an aviation "esquadrille" or squadron. + +On our way, however, we stopped unexpectedly to look at a most +beautiful new anti-aircraft "seventy-five," a gun numbers of which the +French had just completed and were bringing to the front. As I was not +allowed to photograph the gun even from a distance and was enjoined to +regard its details as absolutely confidential, I can only say that, +mounted on its own motor, it could travel along the roads at forty +kilometres an hour; that it could be in action within one minute and a +half after coming to a stop, and that the way the turning of a couple +of little cranks which a child could whirl made the heavy muzzle swing, +and mount, and cut figure eights in the air, was something wholly +incredible. + +We listened to a technical but most interesting exposition by the +Artillery Captain of the most up-to-date methods of firing at +aeroplanes, including the progressive and retrogressive systems, and +then sped away to the aviation field some ten or fifteen kilometres +distant. We found the aviation squadron on a very large field near +the top of a gradually sloping bare hill, comfortably installed, the +machines in their great hangars, the aviators in their small tents. The +whole organization was especially adapted for mobility. In one hour, at +need, the field would have left on it not a man, a stick or a shred +of the encampment. Hangars and tents would be careering along some +highroad, neatly folded in the big aviation lorries that stood handy, +mechanics would be sitting on the box seats or have their legs dangling +over the tail-boards, while pilots and observers would waft themselves +more comfortably by air to their new camp site. + +The Captain of the "esquadrille" showed us, with quite pardonable +pride, his "avions de réglage"--planes carrying no bombs or +machine-guns, but equipped with wireless, which are used to correct +the fire of artillery, and his "avions de chasse" or hunting-planes +equipped with bombs, a machine-gun and a Winchester carbine. Some of +these had the pilot sit behind and the observer in front operating +the machine gun over the bow. Others had the pilot in front and the +observer behind, in which case the observer, standing up, operated the +machine-gun over the head of the pilot. Finally he showed us a splendid +new Caudron biplane having two independent motors and two traction +screws in front, so that if either motor were put out of business the +plane could continue flying on the other. + +I was so enthusiastic about this machine that the Aviation Captain +turned to me and asked casually, "Would you perhaps like to go up and +take a 'petite promenade' in the Caudron?" + +Would I? It did not take me many fractions of a second to impress on +him that I certainly would. But here Captain d'A---- demurred. It +was, he said, absolutely forbidden that any one should go up in army +aeroplanes except aviators on military duty. Those were the strict army +regulations. He was quite right and entirely justified in his attitude. +But Captain F----, who was a good sport and had become quite a chum of +mine, said, "Oh, let him go up. After all, the Swiss Military Attaché +went up the other day. I'll take the responsibility." And as he was +in immediate authority while we remained with the 5th Army, Captain +d'A---- good-naturedly shrugged his shoulders and let it go at that. + +So I hurried down with the Aviation Captain to his tent to put on a +warm aviation suit, while the Caudron was prepared for our flight. +As we approached his tent, a single-motored aeroplane took aboard its +pilot and observer, its propellers whirred and roared, and it rolled +casually away up the gradual slope, through a field of standing grain, +till near the hilltop it took to the air as easily as a bird and +spiralled up toward the low-lying dark clouds. + +In the Captain's tent I struggled into a heavy suit of black fur made +like a suit of combination underwear, legs and body all in one piece, +put on a pair of goggles and a heavily padded helmet, and emerged to +meet the disappointment of my life. Down pattered some drops of rain, +down spiralled the aeroplane which had just gone up. + +"Too bad," said the Aviation Captain. "I can't send a machine up in the +rain." + +I pleaded with my staff-officers to wait here for an hour to see +whether the rain might not stop. In vain. Even that good sport Captain +F---- was adamant. We could not possibly wait, because it would +completely throw out a visit to a horse hospital, and an inspection of +an army corps supply-train which were both unalterably fixed upon our +schedule. We were very late already. We must be off. + +Well, then, could we not return early to-morrow morning to get the +flight? + +"Malheureusement ça ne peut pas se faire." (French euphemism for "No.") +To-morrow morning I was slated for a visit to a base hospital which, +including motoring there and motoring back, would consume most of the +morning. + +But I would infinitely prefer to go for a "petite promenade" in the +Caudron than to inspect the most unique base hospital in the world. + +Yes, they could understand that perfectly, but unfortunately the +hospital was among "the arrangements" and the "petite promenade" was +not. Personally they would throw the hospital overboard in a minute, +but the matter was beyond their control. + +So off we went, Captain F---- full of sympathy and I full of sulks, and +at about half past five visited what under other circumstances would +have been an exceedingly interesting big hospital full of hundreds of +sick and wounded horses. But I fear I was in no mood to appreciate the +ingenuity and thoroughness with which the kilometre or more of hospital +sheds had been constructed by the soldiers on a framework of poles, +with wicker-work sides covered with a sort of adobe, and a sloping roof +of thatched straw with little gables built here and there for the mere +love of beautifying which is apparently ever present in the French +race, whether at war or peace. + +[Illustration: Page 85 + +PART OF THE ENORMOUS ENCAMPMENT OF SUPPLY-WAGONS, WHICH CARRY THE +COMPLETE SUPPLIES FOR THREE FULL DAYS FOR ONE ARMY CORPS] + +On we went for another long run till we reached the enormous encampment +of supply-wagons, which carry the complete supplies for three full days +for one army corps. They had been there since the armies dug themselves +in. + +"We are not useful now," the Colonel in Command regretfully confided +to me; "for almost all the supplies reach our armies by rail. But only +wait till the advance begins. Then we shall show what we can do." + +This great encampment which covered some square miles of countryside +had begun as a bivouac and ended as a town. One walked down avenues +and side streets solidly flanked by the huts which this army had +built itself. They were all more or less standardized in building +materials--wattled walls covered with clay, and thatched straw roofs. +But there the uniformity abruptly ended. For these little houses had +not been merely constructed by builders as they would have been in +nearly any other country. This was France and they had been conceived +by architects. And each house expressed the original conception of the +soldier-architect who had designed it. + +No one who has not walked through this mushroom town or the many others +like it can imagine the infinite variety of architectural forms which +can be wrought in one-story shacks of wattle, clay and straw. The +pliable wattle and clay lent themselves to effects which could not +have been possible in stone, brick or wood. Extraordinary bays and +alcoves, never before dreamed of by the Ecole des Beaux Arts gave light +and shadow to long walls. Bas-relief and high-relief were done with +spirit and often with fine art in the clay which covered the wattled +walls, the thatched straw of the roofs was erected into strange gables, +dormer windows, turrets and machicolations. Eccentric, grotesque many +of these experiments unquestionably were, but they meant on the part of +the tired soldiers hours and days and weeks of extra and unnecessary +work, lavished, not for their creature comfort, not for their physical +safety, but solely for their artistic satisfaction. + +It was twilight when we took our leave and night had fallen long before +we rolled into Château Thiery, whither Captain d'A----'s orderly had +transported our bags, and where a very late dinner and comfortable beds +were awaiting us. + + + + +V + +A GRENADE-THROWING SCHOOL + + + WITH THE 5TH FRENCH ARMY, _Aug. 9_. + +I have just returned from attending a soldiers' school of +bomb-throwing. The military authorities permitted my presence as an +exceptional favor, informing me that this is the first time such a +privilege has been accorded a foreign civilian. + +This particular school holds its classes in a large green field in +a peaceful little valley, within long artillery range of the firing +lines. No German shells, however, have hitherto distracted the pupils +from their rather gruesome lessons, and I will not endanger their +continued studies by giving a more definite description of the locality. + +This school is attended by privates from each regiment, who spend four +days at their highly explosive studies. Toward the middle of the +field, about two hundred yards from one end and about three hundred +from the other, was a section of open trench about twenty yards long +and some four feet deep. This trench was about the usual three feet in +width except in its centre, where for about five feet it was recessed +back to a width of some six feet. This was where the French instructor +stood and whirled his arms to throw the bombs. A couple of feet to the +left of this recess was another recess, covered with a bomb-proof roof +of logs and earth. + +Into this the instructor and his pupil sought refuge from the effects +of the bomb explosion. As the explosion really is surprisingly violent +and takes place at the longest only five seconds from the time the +mechanism of the bomb is started, and at a maximum distance of thirty +yards, the instructor and any one in the trench with him have got to be +exceedingly spry in running under the bomb-proof in order to beat the +bomb. There is, too, the danger of a premature explosion. + +To make me feel more entirely at my ease, they told me that only a few +days ago an officer of explosives brought a Colonel to see one of +these demonstrations in another school, behind a different part of the +line. As they came to the entrance of the trench the officer politely +made way for the Colonel to enter the trench first. As the Colonel did +so, the bomb exploded prematurely and killed the Colonel outright. + +About twenty yards in front of the trench was dug a shallow dummy +trench to represent a German target. Some 150 yards further distant was +set up a section of wire entanglements. + +We found the 128 soldiers ranged in line a few yards behind the trench. +At its edge I took my place with the Captain of explosives and three or +four other officers. The infantrymen lined up two deep behind us. + +In the open recess in the trench stood the non-commissioned officer +of engineers, facing backward toward us. He was the instructor. At +the order of the Captain he placed an innocent-looking satchel on the +trench edge at his right elbow, plunged a hand into it and briskly +plucked out, one after the other, eight different varieties of bombs. +Picking them up, one at a time, he gave a terse lecture on the +construction and method of operation of each. + +The bombs were all fully loaded, and the explosion of any one of them +would have sent a great many of us well on the way to the cemetery. I +noticed in some of the officers, and undoubtedly in myself, a certain +tenseness as the engineer nonchalantly illustrated within an inch or +two of actuality how a percussion bomb would explode if brought in +contact with the ground. + +In demonstrating the first grenade he adjusted around his wrist a loop +with about eight inches of cord hanging from it. A heavy two-inch metal +pin was attached to the end of the cord. Picking up a black spherical +bomb slightly bigger than a baseball, he stuck the pin lightly into a +hole in its side. The bomb was to be thrown with full force. In flying +out of the hand it pulled itself free from the pin, causing a friction +which ignited the five-second fuse. The pin of course remained behind, +hanging to the cord, and was promptly stuck into another bomb. This +bomb, being particularly heavy, could be thrown only fifteen metres by +an average thrower and twenty as a maximum. + +The second bomb was black and pear-shaped. It had a spring which +looked like a nickel shoe-horn folded back tight against it. The +pressure of the palm against the shoe-horn in throwing it released the +spring and started the fuse, which, like all the rest, was set at five +seconds. + +The third bomb was a can of white tin attached by two wires to a white +deal handle. A nail was stuck into a hole in the can. The nail was +hammered in by a sharp rap against the ground. ("If you try to knock +it in against the palm of your hand it would hurt," explained our +instructor.) The nail, driven in, started the fuse. + +In the demonstration of this particular bomb our mentor was quite +peculiarly realistic, bringing it violently down to within what seemed +like the fraction of an inch of the ground. + +The fourth bomb was black and round and was started by scratching the +tip of a stiffly projecting bit of ignitible fuse against a black band +of raspy material worn round the thumb of the left hand. The fifth bomb +was lighted in a very similar manner against the side of an ordinary +safety-match box. These five were regular grenades. + +The sixth and seventh were incendiary grenades to set fire to wooden +obstructions, etc. The one, in exploding, scattered the burning liquid +to a distance of a few yards, the other set fire only to the spot where +it burst. These were both large spherical bombs. Before being thrown +kerosene was poured into them through a little bunghole, which was then +stopped up. + +The eighth was an asphyxiating bomb. I cannot, however, be too careful +in emphasizing the fact that this so-called "asphyxiating" bomb was not +poisonous, like the German asphyxiating gases, but merely irritated the +eyes, nostrils and throat, so that when thrown into a German bomb-proof +it would force out the occupants. It left no ill after-effects. + +Besides these there were two aerial torpedoes. One was shot out of an +old-fashioned little mortar propelled by black powder. The other was +bigger and more powerful, had a fin tail to keep its flight accurate +and was fired out of a complicated little gun. As both this torpedo +and its gun are new inventions, I am not permitted to give any closer +details concerning them. + +The Sergeant of engineers having completed his little lecture, with +himself and his class still in this world, the soldiers and officers +all withdrew to the end of the field, some 200 yards behind the trench, +and there lay down on their stomachs. I got into the trench with the +engineer, placing myself to his left in front of the entrance to the +bomb-proof, and the demonstration in the gentle art of grenade-throwing +began. He took bomb number one, stuck the pin at the end of the cord +firmly into the hole, swung his arm back and let fly. + +Having seen the departure of the bomb, I ungracefully tumbled into the +bomb-proof, with the engineer a close second. Once there, there was an +appreciable pause. Then came an explosion, the violence of which really +astonished me. I could distinctly feel the ground shake. + +After giving the fragments which had been hurled our way plenty of +time to come down on the roof, we stepped out into the trench again. +The engineer next picked up bomb number three with the deal handle, +hammered the nail home with one sharp rap against the edge of the +trench and sent the grenade hurtling through the air. + +The mechanism of the first bomb had not been put in operation until the +bomb started on its flight. But the fuse of this third bomb started +burning the instant he hammered the nail in, and was burning while he +was whirling his arm preparatory to letting it fly. As it thus got a +running start on us, we had only barely time to get under cover before +the explosion took place. + +Next came bomb number four. The demonstrator adjusted the black band +round his left thumb, took the bomb in his right hand and gave it a +scratch. + +He evidently had some doubts as to whether the first scratch had +lighted the fuse, because after glancing at it he proceeded to give it +a second scratch before throwing it. + +I need hardly say that I had already made home base in the bomb-proof +and was perfectly satisfied to watch from there his second effort to +get a light, which was crowned with complete success. + +After watching the way these three bombs were started and thrown I +now wanted to watch the rest of them explode. So after considerable +discussion between the staff-officer who had me in charge and the +officer of explosives as to just how much danger there was in the +operation, we moved out of the trench up to the top of a little rise +about fifty yards to the right, where we ensconced ourselves in some +bushes. The soldiers were all kept at their original distances of 200 +yards behind the trench. + +From my new position I got an excellent view of the engineer whirling +his arm and letting fly; of the heavy black objects rushing through the +air; of the accuracy with which they hit the dummy trench; of the lazy +manner in which they rolled only two or three feet along the ground +before coming to rest, and of the treacherous inertia with which each +lay apparently as dead and cold as a piece of coal dropped by some +passing coal-cart, while the second of time which possibly elapsed +seemed like a minute at the least. Then came an amazingly instantaneous +burst of lead-colored smoke covering a circle some forty yards in +diameter, accompanied by an explosion of surprising violence. I could +see no flash of fire at all. + +Next came the new aerial torpedo fired from the new gun. (The old +little mortar with the black powder was not used.) The new gun made +practically no report in discharging the torpedo. It was beautiful +to watch the slender fishlike projectile go sailing in a high and +graceful arc up, up, up, against the sky and then down, down, down, +until it landed just beyond the wire entanglements. But it really never +did land, for it had a percussion device in its nose which exploded it +on touching ground. This big torpedo had a reduced charge of explosive +so as not to destroy too much of the field. Judging by the report of +this reduced charge, the full charge going off must be the grandfather +of all explosions. + +Next came the two incendiary bombs. One of these burst on contact, +setting fire to the patch of grass where it landed. The other had a +fuse which shot out a stream of golden sparks like fireworks before +exploding. This bomb threw burning liquid in all directions, setting +many fires in the grass for a radius of several yards. + +Last came the asphyxiating bomb. It consisted of a sphere formed by +five pieces of perforated iron held loosely together in a sort of +disjointed shell by a little wire basket. Inside this openwork ball +hung a small glass vessel full of acid. When the engineer threw the +ball against the ground the five pieces of metal shell collapsed onto +the glass, breaking it and liberating the acid, which made a wet +splash on the ground. This acid in turn makes a gas which the French +somewhat euphemistically call "gas timide." + +To show that this gas was not poisonous, like the German gases, we were +invited to stand in a close circle right around the fragments of the +bomb immediately after it had been thrown, with our heads bent over. We +stood and stood, sniffing away, but could detect no gas of any kind. + +"Ah," said the officer of explosives, "in the full open air like this +our 'gas timide' takes longer to be noticed, but in an inclosed space +it works very rapidly." + +Hardly had he finished speaking when I began to notice a smell +something like wood alcohol. At the same time my eyes began to stream +with tears, my nose felt as though it was indulging in one long +continuous sneeze, and I turned hastily away, coughing and sputtering +and wiping my eyes, with an officer on each side keeping me active +company. + +"If that's a 'timide' gas," I remarked to one of the officers as we +left the pupils to begin actual practice, "I'd hate to meet a fierce +one." + + + + +VI + +WITH THE BELGIAN BATTERIES + + + HEADQUARTERS OF THE BELGIAN ARMY, + LA PANNE, BELGIUM, _Aug. 30_. + +Yesterday I spent a day with the Belgian artillery. In the morning at +ten o'clock Commandant L----, who had me in charge, called for me at +the very comfortable seaside hotel where I am staying. In his military +motor we threaded our way through the streets of the town. These were +jammed with thousands of Belgian soldiers enjoying their six days of +rest before returning for three days in the front trenches (followed +by six days in reserve and three days again in the front trenches). +A cheerful, well-fed-looking lot of men they are, not smart, but +husky-looking in their new khaki uniforms and greatcoats. + +"Alas!" an infantry Captain yesterday complained to me, "they are fine +soldiers and have good uniforms, but we cannot get the men to look +'chic' in them like the British. Just look at those caps! They've +pulled them and twisted them about to suit their ideas! Those caps a +few days ago were 'chic' caps! And now, mon Dieu! look at them!" + +However, I confess I was not much interested in whether these +privates were Belgian Beau Brummels or not. I had come to Flanders +not to inspect them on parade, but to watch them work on the firing +line. There I found them scrupulously clean, very patient and wholly +courageous, attributes which are more important than creased trousers, +unwrinkled jackets and well-blocked caps. + +Once free from La Panne, our motor made good time along the country +road till we reached Furnes. There we stopped to take some photographs +of the beautiful old Hôtel de Ville which the German shells that drop +in from time to time have left practically undamaged. + +From Furnes on we took the straight road to Ypres. The road was +for a time quite congested with ammunition-wagons, ambulances, +supply-lorries, etc. On our left we passed an encampment of +mitrailleuse dog-teams; on our right a park of British armored +motor-cannon. + +We passed, too, long lines of trolley-cars packed with cheerful +soldiers being brought back from the front for their period of rest, +and with others going out to take their places. Thus the humble +street-car has taken its place in the machinery of war. + +Soon we turned into another road which led us to the village of +Lampernisse. Here we visited and photographed the ruins of the church. +Not very long ago the Germans dropped a big shell into this church and +killed forty-two chasseurs who were sleeping in it. They are buried in +the graveyard in one big grave. Subsequently the Germans, believing +that the steeple of the church was being used for observation purposes, +kept on shelling it till they brought it all down, and incidentally +wrecked what remained of the village. + +From here on our movements must be shrouded in mystery, but ultimately +at about 11.45 we reached a humble group of farm buildings, the +headquarters of Colonel D----, commanding the artillery of the sector. +We found him in a little bomb-proof telephone central built onto one +of the farm buildings. With a Major and a Captain he was poring over +very large scale maps spread on a table. Behind him a soldier sat at +a telephone switchboard. From the outside a whole sheaf of telephone +wires ran away, in various directions. + +My Commandant presented me to the Colonel and explained my desire to +see some howitzers in action. + +"Perfect!" exclaimed the Colonel genially. "We have just definitely +located a German blockhouse in their defense system and at two +o'clock this afternoon we are going to destroy it with one of our +150-millimetre howitzers. So if you will honor the Villa Beausejour +with your company at lunch you can afterward watch the howitzer work." + +The old farm-house had been euphemistically christened the Villa +Beausejour by the Colonel's staff. + +Inviting me into the bomb-proof, the Colonel then showed me on one of +the large scale maps the whole lay of the land. Red lines indicated the +Belgian intrenchments, blue lines the German. In the same way all over +the map behind the red line the Belgian batteries were indicated in +red, while the same held good in blue of those German batteries which +the Belgians had managed to locate. Some of these latter were false +emplacements. It was only when a little blue cannon was drawn behind +the emplacement that an actual gun was indicated. + +The Colonel pointed out to me on this map the exact location of the +Villa Beausejour, of the blockhouse which was to be destroyed, and of +the gun which was to destroy it. He also showed me photographs of the +German positions taken from Belgian aeroplanes. Taking one of these +photographs and comparing it with a map, he explained to me how the map +showed only one road leading to a certain spot, while the photograph +showed a new second road leading to the same spot. This indicated the +existence of a concealed battery at that place. + +The telephone bell rang. "This is Number 12," answered the +soldier-operator. He listened for a few moments and then told the +Colonel that Headquarters wished him to send over an officer after +lunch to cross-question the two German prisoners just captured for +information which might be of use to his artillery. + +"Tell them I shall do so," replied the Colonel. + +As we had another half-hour before lunch, he deputed one of his +officers to take me to a battery of 75's not far off and incidentally +show me some of the shell-holes made in the neighborhood by the German +"marmites," as the French and Belgians call the big high-explosive +shells. + +A brisk walk brought us to the 75's, cleverly concealed in an +artificial wood which had been transplanted bodily. The Captain in +Command showed me the guns, and also a fine bomb-proof shelter which +he had just completed. It was very much needed, as, in spite of the +artificial woods, the Germans had roughly located his battery, and +whenever any Belgian 75's in his neighborhood open up on the enemy they +immediately cut loose on his battery. The whole surface of the fields +for hundreds of yards around was pockmarked with shell-holes. + +He showed me one of his guns where a curious thing had happened. A +couple of days before a German shell had hit obliquely the steel +shield of this gun and had glanced off through the left wheel, +knocking the spokes out on its way. The shell had then entered the +ammunition-caisson standing next to the gun, had there burst, hurling +the heavy caisson bodily through the air to where its wreck landed +upside down, and had not exploded its contents of shells. + +[Illustration: Page 101 + +"COLONEL D----, COMMANDING THE ARTILLERY OF THE SECTOR"] + +[Illustration: Page 105 + +THE AUTHOR IN ONE OF THE BIGGEST SHELL-PITS, WHICH WERE TEN FEET +DEEP AND TWENTY FEET IN DIAMETER] + +After taking photographs of some of the biggest shell-pits, which were +some ten feet deep and twenty feet in diameter, we returned to the +Villa Beausejour and lunch. We sat down fourteen to lunch--the Colonel, +ten artillery officers, the Chaplain, my Commandant and I. + +Lunch consisted of potato soup, paté de foie gras, vegetables, +strawberry-jam pie, cheese and coffee. There was no wine to start with, +but one of the officers soon came in with two bottles of white wine, +which we all mixed with our mineral-water. + +The talk ran mostly on the two German prisoners. + +"I certainly hope we shall be able to find out from them just where +that battery is that has been giving us all this trouble lately," +exclaimed one officer. + +"And those howitzers that I can't locate," from another. + +"And where that body of troops to the right sleeps," from a third. + +"Perhaps they'll know in which of those farms the German headquarters +are," from a fourth. + +It appeared that the prisoners were from German Poland. When the +Belgian artillery had the day before driven the German troops into +their bomb-proofs these two had seized the opportunity to crawl forward +out of the trench, through the wire entanglements, across the open to +a Belgian advanced listening-post, where they had surrendered. They +were now at General Headquarters and had already given much valuable +information, including the unusually large number of men who slept +during the daytime in the blockhouse, and the presence in a certain +farm of a number of German officers. + +A Captain of a battery of 75's who sat near me at lunch, was going to +tackle the farm-house that afternoon with his guns. The Captain in +command of my howitzers was not at lunch, as he was already on his +way to his observation-post, situated at the extreme front, within +270 yards of the blockhouse. From there he was going to correct the +howitzer fire, over some four kilometres of telephone line connecting +his observation-post with his guns. + +A good deal of the talk at lunch was devoted to anathematizing a +certain general-staff officer who had charge of the uniforming of the +army and, apparently, was bent on changing the new khaki caps of the +officers from the British shape, which they all liked, to the French +shape. + +A good story was told to illustrate the amazing efficiency of the +German intelligence department. One day when the army was being +reuniformed in khaki, a certain regiment of chasseurs was ordered to +leave their trenches right after dark that night to march to the rear +for the purpose of having their new uniforms issued to them. An hour or +two after they had received this order the Germans right opposite them +hoisted a great placard above their trenches. On it was sign-painted: + +"Good-bye, brave chasseurs! Run along to get your new uniforms at +seventeen francs fifty apiece!" + +Lunch being finished, my Commandant and I said good-bye all round and, +with detailed directions, started on a half-hour's walk to find the +howitzer battery. The Chaplain, in khaki, with an old black umbrella +and a long fishing-pole, came along as far as the first canal. There, +standing on a flat bit of embankment between two shell-holes, he +placidly began to fish. + +The artillery, which had been booming in a desultory way all morning, +had of course stopped during the lunch-hour. For the artillerymen on +both sides certainly keep union rules in laying off when the time for +the dinner-pail comes round. If the noon whistle blew they could not be +more punctual in dropping work. + +Now, however, the noon-hour was over and the guns again began to take +up their monotonous bass drumming. For a full half-hour we walked, +first along a deserted wagon-road, then to the left, along a path by +the bank of a canal, past an artificial hedge here and an artificial +grove of trees there. Some of these had batteries ambushed in them, +others were shams to divert the attention of the German aviators and +the fire of the German artillery from the real emplacements. + +Finally, we came to a tall false hedge made of withered saplings +wired together. In the lee of this hedge was a low flat roof, perhaps +three feet above the surface of the ground, covered with a sprinkling +of earth and boughs. Under this we climbed down into a cellar-like +excavation about three feet deep, giving six feet of head room. + +Here I first made the acquaintance of Julia. I found her standing with +her back to me under the plank shelter, with only her exceedingly short +and retroussé nose sniffling up at the leaden patch of threatening sky +which showed between the forward edge of the roof and the top of the +high false hedge in front. No one could well call Julia beautiful, but +there was power in every line and curve of her. She was a particularly +short-muzzled 150-millimetre heavy field-howitzer, and she had been +christened Julia in chalk letters across the back of her thick steel +shield by the members of her devoted crew. + +On her breech were engraved a crown and a big "C. I.," for she and +her three sisters had been intended for Carol I., King of Roumania, +before they were bought up by the Belgian Government. One of the four +had exploded through trying to fire a 155-millimetre shell through her +150-millimetre bore, but the other three were doing fine work for their +adopted country. On my way to my appointment with Julia, we had passed +one of her sisters, called "Zoe," cowering up against the wall of a +very disreputable old farm-house, hiding her humiliation in a hole in +the ground under a plank roofing and a false hedge much like Julia's. + +Any one who thinks that nowadays he will see artillery ranged in +imposing array, is doomed to disappointment. The artillery commander +(especially of the heavier guns) goes around the countryside stealthily +hiding one piece here, surreptitiously slipping another in there, +always selecting the most separate and inconspicuous locations, much as +a woman will wander around a hotel room stowing her pieces of jewelry +here and there where the burglars will never think of looking for them. +Only the burglars in the present case are hostile shells that make +holes ten feet deep and twenty feet across. + +Julia's crew consisted of a Lieutenant and eight men. The Lieutenant +and seven of the men were grouped around the breech of the gun when +I arrived. The eighth man squatted to the left by a field-telephone +with the receiver held to his ear. Commandant L---- introduced me +to the Lieutenant, and then asked whether his Captain had reached +the observation-post. The Lieutenant had not heard from him yet, but +imagined he must get there any moment. + +It began to rain hard, much to the vexation of the Commandant, who +feared it would hide the blockhouse from the observer and put an end to +the bombardment. + +"Oh! no," said the Lieutenant; "he's only 270 yards distant from it. +He'll be able to see it all right." + +On the board floor to the left, between the telephone and the front +wall of the excavation, were piled twenty-five or thirty wicked-looking +150-millimetre high-explosive shells. They were conical in shape, about +2-1/2 feet long and 6 inches in diameter, made of steel, with a copper +band around them near the base, and a copper nose. + +I started to lift one of them, and only succeeded at the second +attempt. They weighed about 110 pounds apiece. + +Stacked next to them were a corresponding number of hollow copper +cylinders containing stiff little cream-colored children's belts, with +eyelet-holes down the middle, coiled neatly inside them. Some of them +had one coil; others two coils, one on top of the other; others three +coils superimposed. These were the propelling charges for the shells, +and were of three strengths according as one, two or three of the +coils of cream-colored explosive were put in the copper shells. They +were topped off with a heavy felt pad which fitted neatly into the +cylinder. + +Meantime the rain came down in torrents and began to leak through the +thin plank roofing in little streams which were very hard to dodge. + +The Lieutenant showed us a bomb-proof which he had just begun to build +into the earth wall of the cellar, behind the stack of shells. He was +going to cover it with a concrete roof, pile a few feet of earth on top +of that, then some sand-bags, and top the whole off with boulders, so +as to make any shell hitting it explode at once on the surface, instead +of boring half-way down before exploding. He was doing all this work +with his eight men at night when they were not handling the gun. During +the day they slept except when, as now, they wanted to disturb the +sleep of the enemy. This bomb-proof was only meant for refuge when the +Germans began bombarding him. The men's regular sleeping-quarters were +a little to the rear. + +And still the rain came down, the air became raw and cold, and the +little waterfalls became harder and harder to dodge. But the man at the +telephone squatted patiently by the wall, and his seven mates chatted +placidly together in incomprehensible Flemish, switching instantly to +French when answering any question the Lieutenant put to them. + +The Lieutenant explained how the gun was aimed, the sighting device +showing a stake in line with a church steeple; only as there was +nothing to be seen in front of Julia except an earth bank and ten +feet of false hedge, it stands to reason that stake and steeple +were behind her and appeared, not through a telescope as I had just +stupidly thought, but as a reflection in a mirror--which is the way all +well-conducted howitzers are aimed. + +Finally, after an hour's wait the Lieutenant rang up his Major on the +telephone and asked whether anything was amiss with the Captain. No; +the Captain was only linking up a new telephone connection nearly four +kilometres in front of us. + +The Lieutenant pointed out a false hedge some hundred yards behind us. + +"That is exceedingly dangerous for us here," he explained. "It is much +too close to us. It should be at least 150 yards further removed. If +it draws the German fire, as it is intended to do, that fire is just +as apt to hit us as the false hedge. It was put up as a protection +to another gun which was off there to the right, but it's a very +uncomfortable thing to have near us, especially before we have a +bomb-proof to crawl into." + +"Ting--aling--aling!" went the telephone bell. The soldier listened. +"The Captain says, 'Are you all ready?'" + +"Tell him 'yes'," replied the Lieutenant. + +"Aim for 3,750 metres," repeated the soldier at the telephone. + +The Lieutenant and a couple of his men busied themselves around the +sight and elevating cranks of the gun. Another man removed a leather +cap which had been fitted over Julia's nose to keep the rain out. + +I was busy sticking cotton wool in my ears. + +"The Captain says to say when you are ready and he will give the order +to fire." + +"All ready," said the Lieutenant, backing away from Julia and holding a +thick white cord in his hand which ran from her to him. + +"All ready," replied the soldier into the telephone. + +"Tirez!" ("Fire!") said he a fraction of a second later. + +The Lieutenant's arm gave a jerk, the whole front of the shelter was a +mass of blood-red flame, there was a bellow of sound, the barrel of the +great gun ran smoothly three feet or so back into the cellar and then +smoothly forward again. There was a rush of air around my legs. + +Almost simultaneously with the report I heard with one ear the +telephonist say, "Coup parti" ("The shot has left"), while with the +other I listened to the long-drawn wheeze with which the projectile +mounted into the sky on its mountain-high trajectory. In the second +which had meanwhile elapsed one of the artillerymen had swung open the +breech of the gun, another had taken out the now empty copper cylinder +and placed it on the floor to the right of Julia, a third had lifted a +new shell and with the aid of the second had run it into the breech, +and a fourth had slipped in a fresh copper cylinder containing a full +charge of three of the little cream-colored tape-coils. Whereupon the +first artilleryman had swung to and locked the breech again. + +"In eighteen seconds you should hear the shell explode," said the +Lieutenant, taking his stand by the telephonist with an open notebook +and pencil in his hands--"15, 16, 17, 18"--I finished counting. Boom! +came the distant explosion. + +A few seconds of silence. + +"Plus 3," announced the telephonist, repeating an order from the +distant Captain. + +The Lieutenant made an entry in his notebook and simultaneously rattled +off some figures like a football quarterback. The men worked over the +sights and cranks, while my Commandant said to me: "That shot was too +far to the right; plus 3 means five three-thousandths further to the +left." + +"All ready," said the Lieutenant. + +"All ready," repeated the telephonist, and then: + +"Tirez!" and again the twitch of the white cord, the blood-red flame, +the roar, the slow, easy recoil, the diminishing wheeze, the "Coup +parti," the eighteen seconds' silence, and the distant boom. + +"Plus 4," sang out the telephonist, and there was a mechanical +repetition of operations. "The observer corrected the first shot about +ten metres to the left, and, finding that was not enough, corrected the +second shot another fifteen metres to the left. They'll edge along like +that till they reach the blockhouse, destroying the trench to right of +it on the way. Then, when they've destroyed the blockhouse completely, +if that does not take up all the day's allowance of shells, they'll +expend the remainder on knocking out the trench to the left of the +blockhouse. To-day's allowance for Julia is twenty shells, and probably +she will use up most of them on the blockhouse to make a thorough job +of it." + +"Tirez!" came the telephonist's voice, and as the roar was succeeded +by silence, my Commandant exclaimed to me: "Filons!" French slang for +which the American equivalent is, "Let us beat it!" + +As I reluctantly crawled up into the rain after having shaken hands +with the Lieutenant, my Commandant explained that the Germans would +undoubtedly begin to search the immediate vicinity with their artillery +to try to silence the gun which was throwing the "marmites" into them. +As we had the provocative false hedge right behind us and no bomb-proof +to crawl into, I had to agree that he was prudent. + +And so we "beat it" through the downpour, sliding around in the oily +Flemish mud, while the German guns began to drop whole kitchen-loads of +"marmites" into a poor wrecked village five hundred yards to our left, +from which they evidently suspected that our shots had come. + +As we slithered along, drenched to the skin, toward the "Villa +Beausejour" and our waiting motor, we could hear the Captain of +75's letting off salvo after salvo at the farm-house of which the +prisoners had informed him, while behind us Julia continued to explode +at half-minute intervals. There was all the difference in the world +between the dry short report of the big howitzer and the hollower, +sharper, more penetrating explosion of the 75's. + +To-day I learned from the Captain of the 75's that his first few +volleys had set the farm-house on fire. A lot of soldiers had come +running to put the fire out. His guns kept on dropping and scattering +these until, with a series of loud explosions, the whole farm-house had +blown up. It turned out that it was not an officers' headquarters, but +an ammunition store-house. + +As to our blockhouse, I understand that it was completely demolished, +though whether or not it took the whole of Julia's twenty shells to +complete the work I was unable to learn. + + + + +VII + +IN THE FLEMISH TRENCHES + + + HEADQUARTERS OF THE BELGIAN ARMY, + LA PANNE, _Aug. 30_. + +To-day I was given the opportunity of comparing the trenches of Belgium +with those I had visited in France. It was a very interesting contrast. + +Commandant L----, who still had me in charge, picked me up at my hotel +at 10 o'clock in the morning. Proceedings were delayed while I insisted +on taking a snap-shot of him in the nickel-steel skull-cap which he +wore inside his khaki cap. + +More and more of the French officers are wearing these helmets, and he +had just ordered his from Paris. It is an admirable protection, very +tough, not at all heavy, tucked inside the sweatband of the cap and +entirely invisible. If a bullet hits it straight point-blank it will, +of course, penetrate and carry a piece of the steel helmet into the +wearer's head with it. But a bullet hitting thus would be fatal anyway. +While if the bullet is spent, or if it hits at an angle, the helmet +will deflect it. + +[Illustration: Page 120 + +COMMANDANT L---- IN THE NICKEL-STEEL SKULL-CAP WHICH HE WORE INSIDE +HIS KHAKI CAP] + +On the way to the trenches we stopped off at the Belgian aerodrome, +where an Aviation Captain showed and explained to me the details of the +Voisin and Nieuport machines, which were chiefly used, including the +ingenious bomb-dropping mechanism and the wireless apparatus. + +The Belgians certainly deserve the utmost credit for the way in which +they have developed their air service from nothing at the beginning of +the war to a highly efficient aviation corps. But for that matter their +whole army has been reorganized on an admirable basis. + +One must realize the shattered condition in which they were swept from +Antwerp back to the very fringe of their country behind the Yser. One +must realize that they are practically an army without a country. One +must understand that when they get furloughs they cannot spend them +with their families in their homes, getting comfort and encouragement. +They either stay within sound of the firing or spend a bleak six days +among the strangers of England or of Northern France. When all this is +considered their material reorganization and the preservation of their +_morale_ in its present splendid shape is a remarkable achievement. + +And let no one forget that if the British proudly saved the French by +their retreat from Mons (which no one seems likely to be allowed to +forget) it is equally certain that the shattered Belgian army humbly +saved the British on the Yser. + +Rolling along the straight highroad to Y---- we passed the usual +congestion of troop-filled trolley-cars, lorries, ambulances, +farm-wagons, officers' autos and motor-cyclists. Our military motor was +an excellent one, with the one fault that it seemed extremely difficult +for the chauffeur to shift his gear from neutral into low speed, and +he would frequently get hung up for several seconds with the car at a +standstill till finally he got his gears in mesh. + +At one point we stopped to see an interesting manifestation of the +newly developing art of war. A giant 12-inch British naval gun was +mounted on a specially designed railroad truck. It stood on a railway +siding, with its ammunition-car coupled on behind. A kind of crane +stood ready to swing the huge shells from the ammunition-car to the +breech of the gun. When some object was found worth firing 12-inch +shells at, the engine backed up to the gun-truck with steam up. The +track was cleared. + +Then the great gun did its firing at the object, and forthwith was +whisked away one, five or ten miles down the track out of danger of +the German replies. This is what, officers seem agreed, will take the +place of the antiquated fixed fortresses--miles of railway loops and +sidings running behind artificial concealments or in semi-open cuts, +with batteries of heavy fortress guns shuttling to and fro, firing and +changing position constantly. + +We motored on till we neared the point where the Belgian army ends and +the French begins. Here we paid our respects to the General in command +of the division we were visiting. He promptly asked us to lunch, and +a very good lunch it was: Vegetable soup, some entrée which I could +not identify, shoulder of mutton with potatoes and beans, cantaloupe, +cheese and black coffee, with a choice between beer, claret and white +wine to drink at lunch, a glass of champagne at dessert, and liqueurs +with the coffee. + +The conversation of the officers turned largely on what was happening +to their friends and acquaintances in Belgium, about whom they heard +by mail through Switzerland or Holland. One young countess aroused +considerable discussion. She had been sitting in a street-car in +Brussels with a Belgian friend when a German officer boarded the car. +Her friend bowed to the officer. + +"What! You bow to a pig like that!" cried the countess. Whereupon the +officer had stopped the car and placed her under arrest. She had been +given her choice between two months in prison or ten thousand francs' +fine, and had paid the fine. + +Certain of the officers held that she had been unpatriotic in not +accepting imprisonment rather than help the German exchequer. Others +felt she had done enough in insulting the officer and rebuking her +friend. The talk dwelt, too, on certain other Belgian ladies who had +compromised with their patriotism to the extent of taking up social +relations with the invaders. From what I heard I feel sorry for these +over-hospitable ladies when the Belgians are once more masters of their +own country. + +After lunch I began to feel more and more impatient to get started +for the trenches, but I had already learned too much of etiquette at +the front to show it. For the officers of all the armies feel that +it is infinitely more important to prove to you that they can give +you a good cup of coffee and a good cigar than it is to show you the +most beautiful battle that was ever fought. They are, too, all alike +obsessed with the very human fallacy that the little ingenuities and +contrivances which they have devised for their personal comfort, safety +or delectation must be of infinitely more absorbing interest to the +visitor than the guns and the trenches, which to them are such an old +and boring story. + +So now we had to admire the way one officer had had his sleeping-shack +wall-papered, how another had invented some home-made shower-baths, how +a third had had a genuine heavy wooden bedstead installed instead of a +camp cot. + +However, finally we made our adieus and motored away with full +directions from the General as to how to meet him at 4 o'clock at +an observation-post from which he was to witness an interesting +bombardment. As it was then a quarter to 3, my hopes of getting into +the trenches began to look slim. + +We were now motoring straight toward the front over a stretch of +country which the Germans had been profusely bombarding. The road was +full of holes where the Belgian blocks had been torn out by shells. We +bumped over the shallower ones and dodged the deeper ones, but every +now and then the chauffeur would miscalculate the depth of a hole +and the car would come down on its axle with a prodigious thump. By +shutting one's eyes one could easily imagine one's self taxicabbing +along a New York side-street. + +The guns had, of course, by now resumed work after their lunch-time +siesta and were grumbling away at each other in great shape. Presently +we came to a deserted village, which could be seen from some of the +German artillery positions and which they shelled on the slightest +provocation. The General had particularly told us to run through the +village in a hurry, especially across the open place around the church. +When we got safely out of the other end of the place, he had said, we +might leave our motor and sneak back on foot to take photographs. This +having been carefully explained to the chauffeur, he bumped us swiftly +down the ruined main street, reached the open place by the church, +where he had to turn to the right, came suddenly on top of a big, deep +shell-hole, just dodged it by slapping on his emergency, and stood +stock-still trying to get into first speed. + +[Illustration: Page 127 + +"THE CHAUFFEUR REACHED THE OPEN PLACE BY THE CHURCH"] + +[Illustration: Page 127 + +ON THE SHATTERED CHURCH HUNG THIS CRUCIFIX INTACT THOUGH SURROUNDED BY +SHRAPNEL HOLES] + +The Commandant cursed and I swore, the Commandant's orderly sitting +next the chauffeur shook his fist at the chauffeur, and the chauffeur +shook one fist at his gears while with the other he wrenched and hauled +at his lever. + +There is no use denying that we were all equally nervous. Every instant +we expected to see the first of a stream of shells explode near us. +Finally, after the suspense had in reality lasted not more than six or +eight seconds, the accursed low gear meekly meshed and we bumped off +down the side-street, heaving deep sighs of relief. + +Outside the utterly ruined village we left our car behind a clump +of trees and walked back to take some photographs of what had been +the church. Then into the motor and on again till we stopped at the +cross-road which led directly to the front. + +Here we left our motor. The rain suddenly beginning to come down in +sheets, we ducked into a ruined house whose roof some freak of the +shells had allowed to remain quite intact. We were quickly joined by +about fifty infantrymen who had been working at a reserve line of +intrenchments in the fields outside. Here we all waited for ten minutes +till the rain-squall stopped. + +It may not be a particularly pretty subject, but I think it well worth +stating that that mass of soldiers, packed into the small inclosed +space, left the air as pure and untainted at the end of those ten +minutes as it had been before they jammed their way in. I had noticed +the same thing the day before during the two hours that I had spent by +the howitzer with the nine men of the crew. There is no doubt about it +that even the English--who of course originally invented and patented +personal cleanliness in this world--will have to scrub exceedingly hard +to keep up with the Belgians. + +The rain having stopped, we slipped and slithered on foot along the +byroad till we came to a prairie-dog village of bomb-proofs with +soldiers' heads popping out of the little openings and then popping in +again. Here we met a young First Lieutenant, who very kindly offered +to show us the quickest way to the communicating trench, and off we +marched. + +At this point we were just about half-way between the two opposing +bodies of artillery. High in air, right above our heads, the shells of +the two armies, hurtling along in opposite directions, met and passed +each other on their way. These big projectiles in passing over us +sounded exactly as if they were running along aerial rails. You could +hear them rattling along these rails, bumping over the rail joints, +banging over switches. It was a perfect illusion. By closing your eyes +you could have sworn that you were standing under Brooklyn Bridge +hearing the procession of street-cars, with silenced gongs, roll by at +express speed overhead. First there would be a distant report, then +silence as the shell rose, and then suddenly it would get on the rails, +rattle up to the top of its grade, coast down the grade the other side +and leave the tracks a second or two before the final explosion. + +Some ten minutes later we were walking along a broad road, with the +noise of exploding shells getting louder and louder ahead. Then +suddenly a perfect swarm of bullets came chirping past us. + +"Just this little bit of the road is visible from the German lines," +remarked the Lieutenant. "They are about 500 metres away from us here." + +It must have been comical to see the way in which the Commandant, his +orderly and I did an Indian war-dance down that road, all three bent +double. The Lieutenant must have caught the contagion from us, for, +as more bullets came by, zeup! zeup! zeup! he doubled up himself. In +a few seconds, however, he said we were out of sight again, and so we +straightened up and walked forward proudly erect, although every little +while when some bullets went by just over our heads we showed distinct +tendencies to collapse anew. + +Now we came to the communication trench and climbed down into it one +after the other. It was very different from the French "boyaux," or +communicating trenches. Those were dug a good seven feet deep almost +everywhere, and never less than six feet. So that one could walk about +in them at one's ease without paying any attention to the bullets that +cracked up above. Only a shell plunging directly into one of these +three feet wide, seven feet deep ditches could be dangerous. + +But the Belgians could not dig down more than about two and one-half +feet at the most without striking water. That, with an earth and sod +rampart about two feet high, gave a protection never more than five +feet at its highest and often under four feet in height. Now, it +probably sounds very easy to keep sheltered while walking along behind +four feet of ditch and parapet, but if any one tries it for more than +five minutes at a time he will know what a real backache feels like. + +This trench, which ran forward in very short abrupt zigzags, was +floored with pieces of wicker-work to prevent sinking into the mud. The +half-hour's rain had filled long stretches of it ankle-deep with water. + +Crouched double, we waded along in single file, the Lieutenant, myself, +the Commandant and his orderly. The bullets were striking some ruined +farm buildings close on our left with sharp cracks. They hit the +breastworks with muffled thuds and passed close over the breastwork +with a kind of buzzing whistle. We paddled along till suddenly we came +to a place where, for some unaccountable reason, the trench stopped, +renewing itself again perhaps three or four yards further on. Across +the unsheltered surface of the ground which intervened ran a slack +telephone wire some two feet above the ground. + +"You'd better hurry up across here," remarked the Lieutenant as he +scrambled out of the trench, took a couple of strides, swung first +one leg and then the other over the telephone wire, took a couple of +strides more and dropped into the trench beyond. + +There is not the slightest question as to the hurry in which I +negotiated this obstacle. Then, to see what I must have looked like, +I turned to watch the two who were following me. The Commandant, I +must confess, managed to accomplish the feat in a fashion not wholly +destitute of dignity. But the way his orderly bounded out of the +trench, hurdled the telephone wire and with one lithe leap descended +upon us in the other trench was a sight for sore eyes. It certainly +must have drawn a chuckle from the German sharpshooters witnessing it +through their telescopic sights. + +A hundred yards or so further on we came to a halt at an angle in the +communication trench from which could be had a good view of the front. + +Lifting my head cautiously till my eyes were just above the edge of the +rampart, I could see some 250 yards ahead the chocolate-colored back of +the Belgian front trench. For where the chalky soil of Champagne makes +the trenches there very white in color, the boggy soil of Belgium is a +rich brown. + +Beyond the Belgian front trench ran a line of tall trees; beyond the +line of trees again ran another brown line. + +"That's the German front line, I suppose?" I said to the Lieutenant. + +"No, that's their second line you're looking at. Raise your head a +little more, and right over the top of our front-line trenches you'll +see their front line." + +I craned my neck, and, sure enough, another brown line hove into view +apparently only a few yards ahead of the Belgian front line, with the +usual barbed-wire tangle in front of it. + +"That trench is about 100 metres from our front trench," said the +Lieutenant. "The Germans have got all that barbed wire before their +front trench, but we don't need wire because we have the Y---- Canal +right before our front trench. Only it flows so close under the +breastworks that you can't see it from here." + +A great cloud of jet-black smoke suddenly welled up from the Belgian +front trench. + +"Ah, that's a six-inch bomb they've thrown into our trench with one of +their 'minenwerfer,'" exclaimed the Lieutenant. + +The report of the explosion from where we stood, not more than 250 +metres away, was not loud. + +The artillery was hard at it. Big clouds of black smoke rose sluggishly +by the German trench where the Belgian high-explosive shells were +bursting. Livelier clouds of white indicated the shrapnel explosions. + +I was craning my neck to see what damage was being done the German +trench when a whole swarm of bullets struck very close indeed to my +head. The Lieutenant pulled me down into the trench. + +"They shot at you that time, all right!" he laughed. + +"Impossible!" I answered. "I can only barely see their trench over the +top of your first-line trench, so how could they possibly see me from +there?" + +"Ah, but they were not shooting at you from there. They are up in the +tops of some of those trees," he explained, pointing to the row of +tall, innocent-looking trees. "Their sharpshooters climb up at night +and snipe from there all day, and those of them whom we do not locate +and kill climb down again the next night. They have telescopic sights +on their rifles, and these rifles are mounted on little tripods so that +they can fix their aim immovably on some spot where they think they +have seen a movement; and the next time the movement comes, ping! Only +I don't think they can use the tripods up in the trees." + +At the Lieutenant's suggestion we scattered down along the trench in +case our little crowd might have been observed from a tree and an +artilleryman might try his luck on us. + +Further down the trench where I took my new stand I went on watching +the shells burst, and listening to the projectiles from the opposing +sides go rattling along their invisible rails high overhead. + +A little off to our right the French 75's were firing so quickly that +I hoped it would develop into the famous "trommelfeuer" ("drum-roll +fire," as the Germans call it), but it did not. We had received word +that they were going to fire 400 rounds at some objective whose nature +I did not learn. They certainly were firing them, and losing no time +about it, either. + +I could not see their shells burst, as the lines took a turn just to +our right and disappeared behind some trees. + +At the points where the armies of different nationalities connect they +are always scrupulously careful to inform each other what artillery +work they have in preparation, so that a sudden violent cannonade on +the part of one army will not alarm the next with the idea that a +German assault is being resisted. + +It was particularly interesting to watch the Belgian soldiers, who +every few yards squatted placidly in the trench, short spades and +trowels in hand, busily engaged in digging little pits about two +feet deep in the bottom of the trench, and then scooping out little +channels running to these pits. These channels would drain the +surrounding yard or two of trench bottom into the pits, leaving muddy +patches where a moment before three or four inches of water had stood. +There the Belgian soldiers squatted like children making mud pies at +the seashore, and chatted complacently in Flemish while they fought +the enemy, who was only less hateful to them than the Germans. A +splendid, cool, nerveless lot of men, doing their work unostentatiously +but efficiently, neither dashing on the one hand nor dogged on the +other, but gifted with the admirable _morale_ of the imperturbably +matter-of-fact. + +[Illustration: Page 135 + +UNDER HEAVY FIRE IN A BELGIAN COMMUNICATING-TRENCH. (THE FIGURE +STANDING UPRIGHT JUST BEHIND THE AUTHOR IS THE LIEUTENANT, WHO +STRAIGHTENED UP DURING THE MOMENT THE SNAPSHOT WAS BEING TAKEN +BUT WAS NOT HIT)] + +Suddenly I heard an exclamation from one of the soldiers. Looking where +he pointed, I saw, just beyond the Belgian front trench, a huge column +of muddy water standing bolt upright against the horizon. It stood +there motionless until I began to think it would remain a permanent +fixture in the landscape. Then it suddenly collapsed. A Belgian shell +falling short had soused down into the Y---- Canal and exploded, +sending up this five-story waterspout. + +It seemed a shame not to go forward into the front trench, but with the +Germans lobbing six-inch bombs in there with their "mine throwers" and +the artillery getting busier all the time, the Commandant thought it +would be taking too great risks. So we turned and crouched along back. +As we did so, it is worthy of comment, three German shells struck not +far to our left at not more than half-a-minute intervals and not one of +the three exploded. It was a striking example of faulty explosives. + +We returned by a different trench, so that we did not have to repeat +the acrobatic feat over the telephone wire. But we had a little +excitement to make up for it, for, as I splashed along with a most +intense crick in my bent back, one of the German projectiles, which was +apparently running on perfect schedule along its overhead rails on its +way toward the Belgian artillery, suddenly jumped the track and came +hissing down toward us. + +Simultaneously with the crash of the explosion I saw the men ahead of +me passionately hugging the bottom of the trench, and I found myself on +my knees and elbows, not a whit behind them in my devotion. + +"That was a close one," said Captain L----. + +"What was it--a 75?" I asked. + +"Seventy-five nothing," he replied; "that was a 150 millimetre, and it +exploded within thirty metres of your head. There--see for yourself. If +we had not been in the trench that would have caught us nicely!" + +I peeped over the edge of the trench and there, sure enough, was a big +cloud of sooty black smoke wallowing up from behind some broken masonry +not more than thirty yards off. + +"Filons!" ("Let us beat it!") said the Commandant tersely, and we did. + + + + +VIII + +LESSONS + + +The great lesson that a visit to England, France and what remains of +Belgium to-day will teach any one who is willing to be taught by hard +facts and not by wistful visions is that peace in the near future is +quite impossible. For the only peace, in the conviction of the Allies, +that will end this war is a peace neither of conciliation nor of +compromise, but a peace whose terms are arbitrarily imposed by one side +and of necessity submitted to by the other. + +That is the end to which the Allies are determined to fight, whether +that end is achieved by the more merciful method of decisive military +victory or must be gained by the more terrible pressure of complete +financial, industrial and economic prostration. + +Any attempt to abort this object by mediatory proposals, whether +Pontifical or Presidential, the Allies frankly declare they would +consider an inopportune impertinence. + +I have had the privilege of studying the spirit of the English, the +French and the Belgians at a time when that spirit was being severely +tested--when their fortunes were at their lowest ebb since the days +just before the battle of the Marne. Their spring advance had utterly +failed to materialize; throughout the summer they had been held in +almost complete check by the Germans' depleted line. The Dardanelles +had turned out to be a slaughter-house, with success appearing more +and more precarious, and the only alternative to success seeming to be +disaster. + +The starvation of Germany had become a conceded impossibility. Her +dearth of rubber, copper, cotton, etc., had assumed more and more the +nature of a superable handicap rather than a decisive crippling. Her +financial situation had already made fools of so many economic seers +that they had become less and less didactic regarding her impending +bankruptcy. + +The practical success of allied diplomacy among the Balkan neutrals +had grown to seem more and more dubious. + +Finally, Russia had been so manhandled that in the opinion of British +and French military authorities with whom I talked it would take her +from one to two years to reorganize her armies into condition for an +effective offensive. + +Yet, in spite of all these admitted disadvantages, I did not meet a +single Frenchman, Englishman or Belgian who was not sincerely confident +of ultimate victory. But only an ultimate peace could, in their +conviction, be victorious. An immediate peace, or a peace in the near +future, no matter what the German concessions, would for the Allies be +the peace of defeat. + +From Germany must come, not concessions, but abandonments, or the war, +with all its hideous sacrifices unredeemed, would be a failure. Such an +artificially fabricated peace, such a compromise between irreconcilable +principles, would be but the prelude, more or less dragged out, to a +fresh conflict. + +I have talked to men and women of many classes, of many degrees of +education and of many grades of intelligence. I found their views +unanimous and their reasons for these views so constantly the same as +finally to seem almost hackneyed. + +I am aware of the existence in England of such a body of peace +propagandists as the Union of Democratic Control, and in Holland +of some French pacifists, and scattered here and there of +Internationalists. But of all the men and women with whom I casually +talked there was not one who shared these gentlemen's views. + +Of all the French statements of reasons why the war must go on, which +were iterated and reiterated to me, the best came from a prince, a +retired naval captain and a little dressmaker. Unfortunately, they may +not be quoted by name. + +The prince said: "After this taste of blood the world can never remain +long at peace while any powerful nation dedicates itself to the ideals +and instincts of militarism. Germany, under the guidance of Prussia, is +to-day such a nation. These aims and instincts have been so thoroughly +absorbed by her people that, even if they sincerely wished to, these +people could not eliminate them inside of two or three generations. It +is ludicrous to imagine that these characteristics, which have become +nearly if not quite hereditary, could be negotiated out of them. They +must be subjugated out of the German people." + +The naval captain said: "It is a mere matter of arithmetic. It can +be easily demonstrated that at the end of this war, with its cost on +her shoulders, if France does not immediately reduce her armaments to +a minimum she is absolutely bound to go bankrupt. Now, as we cannot +conceivably trust any mere promises of disarmament which Germany might +make, it is obvious that we must go on with this war until we have +reduced her to such a condition that we can enforce disarmament upon +her, and thus safely enjoy its benefits ourselves." + +The little dressmaker said: "My husband has been fighting at the +front for months. It would be natural for me to wish the war to end +to-morrow, no matter on what terms, if I could get my husband back +before he is killed. But I want the war to go on until the 'Boches' are +crushed; otherwise in another ten years or so there will be a new war, +and then they will come and take away not only my husband, but my son +as well." + +In England the same line of reasoning prevailed. And the fact cannot +be too strongly emphasized that this reasoning did not take the shape +of stock arguments devised by politicians to bolster up some expedient +course and drilled into the people for parrot-like repetition. The +arguments were the spontaneous expression of the heartfelt convictions +of all these people. + +Intelligent opinion in England ranges between the two statements made +to me, respectively, by a very famous Tory statesman and administrator, +and by one of the best-known Liberal statesmen in English public life +to-day. + +The first of these was terse and to the point: + +"It is the greatest mistake for your Government to feel that the United +States can, by remaining neutral, help to bring the war to a close. +This war will be fought to a point where no mediation will be possible +or needed. No peace with Germany, signed with a Hohenzollern in power, +would be worth more than twenty years' peace to the world. To make +Germany's promises binding on her, her people have got to have a share +in her foreign policy, and that they cannot have under the present +dynasty or system." + +The second statement was: + +"The best information that I can obtain from Germany is that, if she +wins, the advanced party, which is in the ascendancy, plans to erect +Poland into a semi-independent kingdom, contributing to it that portion +of Poland which Germany herself now possesses. She will annex Belgium, +probably a strip of Northern France, and possibly enough of Holland to +give her command of the mouths of the Scheldt and Rhine. + +"Personally I cannot feel it to be unreasonable from her point of view +that she should plan to correct a situation where her great water +artery, the Rhine, is bottled up at its outlet. She will also take all +Courland, and this, too, is not so unreasonable, since the population +is far more German than Russian. Nevertheless, if such geographical and +ethnological changes as these were accomplished and to be maintained, +who can conceivably imagine that Germany can afford to modify her +militarism? + +"My own views as to what the general terms of peace should be if the +Allies win are shared by men in both England and France whose opinions +will have weight in the peace negotiations. They are: + +"To erect an independent Polish kingdom or state; to reconstitute +Belgium with indemnity; to hold a plebiscite in Alsace-Lorraine, taken +by a neutral, preferably the United States, in order to determine to +whom they should belong, and in what proportions; to dismember Turkey, +excepting Anatolia, which, being strictly Turkish, should be left to +the Turks; to enforce a very large degree of disarmament upon Germany +and Europe; to leave the German-speaking German Empire intact. (This +talk about the deposition of the Hohenzollerns as one of the peace +terms is sheer impertinence.) + +"Now, you must readily perceive that any peace made in the near future +must conform or approximate to the German plans which I have outlined +and must involve a continuance of militarism and a standing incitement +to fresh wars. While a peace on the terms which we favor, a peace +that will perpetuate peace, must be wrung from a decisively beaten +Germany, and is therefore a long way off. That is why we shall have to +go through a very bad time of it for some period to come, and why our +ultimate victory will be at least one year, and possibly two or three +years off." + +The keenest realization that victory will be slow, the completest +confidence that its certainty is axiomatic, is to be found in the +allied armies. There, ungrudgingly, they give the Germans fullest +credit for their preparedness, for their foresight, for their powers of +systematic and sustained labor, for their inventiveness. And they do +not waste their time trying to devise discrediting substitutes for such +words as "ability" in talking of their Generals, "courageousness" in +talking of their soldiers, and "patriotism" in talking of their people. +It is only when you get far behind the firing line that manliness +merges into meanness in estimating the enemy. + +Yet these very officers who paid such soldierly tributes to their +antagonists were so wholly assured of eventual victory that any +scepticism on my part did not irritate them, but merely moved them to +good-natured smiles. + +"So far," an English staff-officer remarked to me, "we English have +been bungling amateurs in the art of war contending against trained +professional specialists. But with a couple of years' more experience +I believe we shall know as much about it as they do, and then we shall +win." + +"In the last analysis, talking from the military standpoint, this war, +like every war, will be won by men," said a French staff-officer. +"The Germans will not be beaten through lack of guns or ammunition or +machinery or supplies, but through lack of men. How long by the aid of +mechanics they can postpone the hour when the lack of men becomes fatal +to them I do not know--one year, two years. But in the end, with the +allied man-power steadily growing, and the German man-power steadily +lessening, their military collapse is inevitable." + +These are typical of a score of similar views advanced by officers, +from Generals down to subalterns. + +In the French army, as they show you their elaborate machine-shops +mounted on motor-lorries for the repair of all the vehicles in the +transport service, they will say with the most complete conviction: +"This mobility is not of much importance now, but when we begin the +pursuit of the 'Boches' then they will come in handy!" + +When they show you their great parks of supply-trains, each carrying +three days' complete provisions for one army corps, they will tell you +earnestly: + +"Not much use now when the railroads do most of the carrying of +supplies to the armies, but wait till the advance begins and then we +shall be useful!" + +When they let you examine their wonderful 75's, mounted on an +automobile capable of doing over thirty miles an hour over the road, +and of starting a stream of twenty-five shells a minute one minute +after coming to a standstill, they will shrug their shoulders and say: +"Something of a waste just now, perhaps, but when the advance is on +they will do wonderful work!" + +The advance! The advance! is in all their minds. + +"But when will the advance begin?" you ask a chalk-powdered infantryman +sweating in the sun-soaked trenches. + +"Ah!" he will answer with complete unconcern. "Not yet, Monsieur. They +say next spring or next summer. But then 'On les aura!'" ("We'll get +them!") + +And that unconcern means far more than appears on the surface. It means +that the "poilu" knows he will have another winter in the trenches, +with all the terrible discomforts that soldiers dread so much more than +they dread danger. He knows it, and is completely reconciled to it. + +"That was the one thing we feared"--a French General admitted to +me--"the effect on the men's _morale_ of the certainty that they would +have another winter in the trenches. But they know it now, and 'ils +s'en fichent!'" (to which the nearest American slang equivalent would +be "they should worry!") + +In the amazing New France (which the French prefer to consider a +reincarnated rather than a transformed France) the people are as +determined as the army. A short time ago, when the authorities first +began to give the soldiers at the front their "permissions" to go home +for three days, they did so with considerable apprehension that the +home influence on the soldier might be a disheartening one. + +But, on the contrary, the reunion seemed to give mutual encouragement. +The soldier braced up the "home folks'" confidence and pride in the +army, and the home folks stimulated the soldier's confidence and pride +in himself. Thus the experiment has turned out a great success. + +The politicians and their fermentations are, in France, the bugbears +of the army officers. This feeling of aversion and contempt extends, +so far as I could make out, down through the rank and file. They feel +that when a nation is at death-grips with its enemy even the most +beautiful of democratic theories should be safely locked away with +other luxuries; that the politicians should confine their activities to +voting the funds necessary for the successful prosecution of the war, +and should leave the conduct of the war severely alone. + +But in France even those politicians who hanker after a finger in the +military pie are unanimous for seeing the war through to a decisive +victory. They may play politics about whether the Government should or +should not have been removed from Paris to Bordeaux last September; +they may squabble over whether General Sarrail is the persecuted +military genius of the war or an incompetent officer whose removal +from Verdun should never have been sugar-coated by his appointment to +Gallipoli; they may intrigue to oust Millerand from the War Ministry +and try to get together on Briand for his place; they may stick loyally +to Joffre because an old man who is fond of fishing is not likely to +become an old man on horseback. + +But, whether tirading against the evils of a bureaucracy or perorating +against the iniquities of the censorship, you will find the politicians +of France, Royalists, Clericals, Conservatives, Radicals and Socialists +with all their subtle subdivisions, having proved their patriotism +by the greatest sacrifice of which a politician is capable--having +for nigh on ten months kept silent!--earnestly and honestly working +for their country. They are striving, not for the quick peace of +compromise which would relegate the silent, efficient soldiers to their +subordinate powers and would restore to themselves all the prestige of +full-throated eloquence, but for the deferred and definitive peace of +victory, with all the continuance of second-fiddling to which such a +postponement subjects them. + +It is indeed fortunate for the alliance that France--Army, Government +and People--is united in the determination to fight this war through to +its logical conclusion. For France is apt to be the nation which pays +the piper. England is physically safe behind her fleets, Russia proper +is physically safe behind her distances, for the German invasion is not +apt to go far beyond her alien provinces of Courland and Poland. + +But France is not at sword's length, but at dagger's point, with her +enemy--one little slip by any one, from an absent-minded General down +to a sleeping sentinel, and she may become not a defeated, but a +conquered nation. + +And this you can see in the faces of the French to-day. Not anger, +not bitterness, not sadness; neither excitement nor despondency is in +their faces, but a look of hushed and solemn suspense. It is a nation +with straining ears, with straining eyes, with bated breath, waiting, +waiting. + +After leaving the hush of France, England appears at a disadvantage +largely undeserved. Compared with the atmosphere of strain in Paris, +the atmosphere of London seems one of relaxation. Contrasted with +the breathless struggle for self-preservation in France, the British +attitude toward the war seems almost dilettante. + +This is unquestionably due in part to the fact that in England a +very literal-minded race is shipping its soldiers to fight in merely +geographical localities for seemingly abstract principles. The trouble +is that England has the Channel and France has the imagination. It is +obvious how markedly stronger the combination would be if Britain were +fighting an invader and France were fighting for a sentiment. + +The superficial impression of holiday soldiering that one gets in +England is emphasized by the British hatred of the dramatic and +the British worship of sport. The British go on laughing, dining, +play-going, dancing, supping; in fact, frivolling, because they think +it would be melodramatic to forswear these pursuits because of the war. +They go on cricketing, racing, fishing, shooting, hunting, because they +go on eating, drinking, sleeping and bathing. These are part of the +bodily functions of the Briton. + +To any other nation, sport, no matter how intimate a part of the +national life, in certain emergencies becomes trivial. To say that +to an Englishman would be equivalent to saying that under any +circumstances childbirth or prayer could be trivial. It is a national +characteristic which must simply be accepted. + +The impression made on superficial observers by these manners and +habits of casual unconcern does England a certain injustice. For as far +as her duties to her allies are concerned she has undoubtedly gone far +beyond her obligations. + +As one of her Cabinet members (a man who may well be her next Prime +Minister) put it to me: + +"The best two ways that I know of to prove one's devotion to a cause +are to pay for it and to die for it. England is voluntarily doing both +in far greater measure than her commitments call for. When the war +started she agreed to help France on land with an army of 150,000 men. +She has now raised an army of 3,000,000 men. + +"When the war started she agreed to assume the naval responsibility +of protecting the coast of France. She has not only done that, and +incidentally driven Germany from the seas, but she has thrown her ships +into the attack on the Dardanelles and has helped Russia with her +submarines in the Baltic. + +"When the war started there was a financial understanding between +England and France. England has not only carried out her share in this +understanding, but has been instrumental in the financing of Italy, and +stands ready to assume further similar responsibilities in the Balkans. + +"How any candid mind in the face of such a record can charge Great +Britain with shirking her share in the war passes my understanding." + +There is no doubt about the truth of this. To get the voluntary gift +of three million lives within one year, to get the voluntary loan +of £600,000,000 in less than one month is probably an unparalleled +achievement. Great Britain has done far more than her duty to others +called for. And yet the question will not be smothered: Is she doing +all that is called for by a strong, far-seeing nation's duty to itself? + +She has thrown into the scales all the peculiar assets of a democracy +in spontaneous zeal and voluntary sacrifice. But can a really great +nation in such a crisis as this afford to be the recipient of only +those contributions, no matter how prodigal, which are spontaneous +and voluntary? Can a really proud nation afford to base its career +at such a time upon the charity of its citizens? With Russia on the +one hand purging herself of the bureaucratic evils of absolutism and +forcing upon herself the pains of democratization, with France, on the +other hand, sacrificing for the time her most cherished principles +of republicanism in order to substitute the efficiency of Authority +for the waste motions of Democracy, can England afford to remain +complacently convinced that she represents the happy mean between these +two extremes--a mean which needs no modifying? + +Can England as a nation continue with admiring acquiescence to watch +the cream of her manhood spend itself in Flanders and the Dardanelles; +continue with deprecating acquiescence to watch the skimmed milk of +her manhood preserve itself at home for the sacred duty of fathering a +future generation? + +Can England acquiesce placidly in the professional, the business, the +financial sacrifices generally which so many Englishmen are splendidly +making, and acquiesce plaintively in the disgusting treason whose +guilt was shared in varying measure by the gouging coal-owners and the +striking coal-miners of Wales? + +Can England set out to curb the drunkenness which in certain parts +is crippling her ammunition production and then sink back into +acquiescence in the temporizing compromise which taxed drunkenness +instead of terminating it? + +Can England, in fine, afford to preserve Personal Liberty at the +slightest risk of imperilling National Liberty? + +Perhaps England can. Perhaps England must. + +So long as England fulfils and far exceeds her covenants with her +allies it is not a question for them to answer. It is assuredly not +a question to which any neutral visitor can with seemliness hazard a +solution. + +It is not even a question, in my opinion, which is apt to affect the +ultimate outcome of this particular war. + +But it is a question to which on some future day Macaulay's New +Zealander will, with positiveness and propriety, be in a position to +find the answer. + + + + + * * * * * + + + + +Transcriber's note: + +Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. Printer's +inconsistencies in the use of accents, hyphens, and punctuation +have been retained. The original spelling has been used except +where there was good reason to correct it. Any such changes are +noted below. + +The following misprints and misspellings have been corrected: + +Page 3, "avions de reglage" changed to "avions de réglage". (their +"avions de réglage," or "regulating aeroplanes.") + +Page 4, "aviatiks" changed to "Aviatiks". (Aviatiks of the enemy) + +Page 4, "fusilage" changed to "fuselage". (projected over the bow of +the fuselage) + +Page 11, "pilot- spotted" changed to "pilot spotted". (puffs of smoke +in the hazy distance the pilot spotted unerringly) + +Page 33, "practise" changed to "practice". (And practice in this matter) + +Page 57, "departs" changed to '"départs"'. (distant reports of the +"départs") + +Page 86, "leant themselves" changed to "lent themselves". (and clay +lent themselves to effects which) + +Page 100, "scrupulously cleanly," changed to "scrupulously clean,". +(I found them scrupulously clean, very patient) + +Page 136, "drommelfeuer" changed to "trommelfeuer". (the famous +"trommelfeuer" ... "drum-roll fire," as the Germans call it) + +There is in the book the single use of the word "exterpreting" +(page 78) for which no adequate definition has been found. It is +not a spelling mistake. From the context it might be an amusing +play on the word "interpreting." + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43649 *** |