German front line

“ The rest—the ineffectives, the very old and the very young, the weak and the useless—we mean to place in front of the firing line, put firing squads behind them, and drive them through the French and English lines, that France and England may take care of them." That [Pg 7] is what Germany has been doing ever since the war broke out. Wherever her armies have gone, from Armenia to Serbia, Poland, Belgium, and France, she has been driving women, children, and men through our lines for us to care for. ”

“ In the night, only illumined by the fitful flare of the star-shells shedding a pale and sudden luminance behind the front line and leaving the darkness more intense than ever, the old and battered communication trench of the Germans has to be made good to the front line. ”

“ They had passed over No Man’s Land through a storm of death which held many back. They had mastered the barrier of the wire, and now were at the first line of the German defense. And so fierce and terrible had been the rush of the Americans the Germans had fallen back, so that, save for lifeless gray bodies, the trenches were unoccupied. ”

“ The German military authorities most advantageously employed the respites given them by the strategic errors of the Allies. Never have the broad lines of trenches, the far-flung battle frontiers, been more powerfully guarded than now. Never have the Germans had more abundant stores of munitions. Never has the network of railways covering the length and breadth of Pan-Germany been so complete. Never has the Great General Staff, making full use of its central position, been better able to concentrate on any front with lightning speed. ”

“ By the expenditure of vast sums of money, Germany has made ready in the most comprehensive sense to march rapidly across our borders with an army of 1,000,000 men. She has seventeen lines of railway (twenty-three tracks) leading to our frontiers, which would enable her to send to the front more than 500 troop-trains daily. She can concentrate the greater part of her armed forces (fourteen to sixteen army corps) on our frontier within a few days of the declaration of war ”

“ With the advent of the United States into the struggle it became more and more apparent to the German military leaders that they must win the war before the tremendous manufacturing and aviator resources of this country could be felt on the West Front. ”

“ The German nation is, up to this date, but little cramped by the war. The people and the army [Pg 217] lack for nothing. All the shops, hotels, restaurants, theaters, and dance halls in Berlin are open and well patronized. Several million men fit for military service have not yet been called out, because they are not needed. At the front they have such a great body of infantry that a certain proportion of them are by turns given a vacation and allowed to return to their homes. The German officers say that Germany did not count on a speedy termination of the war ”

“ But the spirit of the men—that one can understand. "We are accumulating, concentrating now, for the summer offensive. Of course the Germans have been working hard too. They have lots of new and improved machines. But when the test comes we are confident that we shall down them again, as we did on the Somme. For us, the all-important thing is the fighting behind the enemy lines. Our object is to prevent the German machines from rising at all, to keep them down, while our airmen are reconnoitering along the fighting line. Awfully dangerous work! Lots don't come back. ”

“ After the Allies were firmly established east of the Rhine the great German industrial area of the Ruhr was encircled and the defending troops captured. The advance through Germany was rapid and met with little opposition except in scattered areas. The Russians drove into Germany from the east and enemy troops in trying to escape capture by the Russians surrendered by the thousands to the western Allies. As the U. S., British, and Canadian troops in the north reached the line where it was expected they would meet the Russian forces, they halted. ”

“ I may not indicate the geography of the front on which the Russians and Germans are now facing each other, but the German general plan is to protect the railway and all approaches to a vital junction such as Goldapp and Insterburg. Between them and the frontier lies a country of singular difficulty for the troops. It is easy of defense, with small broken hills, innumerable lakes and roads winding in watered valleys among woods. The Germans have gone to earth in their usual lavish fashion, digging themselves in with a thoroughness worthy of permanent fortifications. ”

“ The army might very well find itself utterly isolated, with its line of communications completely broken down, at a time when the demand upon the resources of all Continental countries was so great that there was no surplus for our use. Such a state of affairs seems to me to be a perfectly possible one, [Pg 135] and to form, with the chance of a disaster to the transports, the greatest danger to which we should be exposed in a German war. ”

“ The annihilation of the German Army is still a long way from attainment; we still have a quantity of unspent forces at our command in the recruit depôts behind the front, in the reserve battalions, and at home. But doubtless there are certain limits to all this on our side, whereas our enemies—chiefly America—are in a position to replace men and materials on an ever-increasing scale. ”

“ It is true that the bulk of the German forces are massed against the British lines, and that in some parts of the centre and the east, owing to the nature of the ground, they are but thinly strung along the French front, which accounts partly for the disproportion in the number of kilometres covered by each Ally. But, also, we had to make our Army; the French, God be thanked, had theirs ready, and gloriously have they stood the brunt, as the defenders of civilisation, till we could take our full share. ”

“ Not all of the troops, however, were thus immediately redistributed to the farms and factories and business houses of Germany. A picked force of 200,000 veterans of the first line was diverted to the leading German seaports on the North Sea and the Baltic, and within a few days after the close of the war 20,000 of these troops, with the necessary artillery and equipment, had been embarked upon certain transports of moderate size and draft, which, as soon as the troops were aboard, pulled out into midstream and awaited further orders. ”

“ What will be the position of that Western front of which we are in full authority the guarantors? The German army at the present time is more numerous than that of France, though not nearly so matured or perfected. Next year it will grow much larger, and its maturity will be more complete. Relieved from all anxiety in the East, and having secured resources which will greatly diminish, if not entirely remove, the deterrent of a naval blockade, the rulers of Nazi Germany will have a free choice open to them in what direction they will turn their eyes. ”

“ It is true that the German armies were not compelled, like those of Napoleon, to live on the land. They could bring their supplies from Berlin day by day, but every mile they advanced into hostile territory made their task harder. The German line of communication, as it grew longer, became weaker and the troops needed for garrison duty in the captured towns, seriously diminished the strength of the fighting army, The Russian retreat was good strategy and it was carried on with extraordinary cleverness. ”

“ We pry them out and clear the trenches.
"In front of us all is quiet. On the right we hear the Germans struggling, growling, repeating the commands of the officers: 'Vorwärts! Vorwärts!' But nobody fires and nobody attacks our trenches. We fire in the general direction of the German voices, infrequent shots far apart answer us. The commands of 'Vorwärts' have stopped. They are at the foot of the trenches, but they do not storm them. 'After them with the bayonet,' our men cry, 'Finish them as we finished the others.'
"'Halt, boys,' calls the sharp, vibrating voice of our commander. ”

“ But the British navy being superior to the German, held Germany in siege.
THE SECOND SUMMER'S CAMPAIGN
Germany must make the best possible use of her comprehensive industrial organization and of her preparedness for war and throw the greatest possible number of men into the fighting line at the earliest possible moment. She was practically in a race against time; and time was with the Allies. While (p. 049) they retained command of the sea the United States and other neutral nations overseas, once their plants for manufacture were completed, could pour out supplies of munitions. ”

“ These Germans, who withdrew before us, I have since discovered, were beginning to come through the gap which had been made in our front line. If they had only known the number of British reinforcements, and had pushed their attack home, they might perhaps, to use an expression, have been marching into Ypres ‘in fours’ in the evening. As it was, our advance in open country completely bluffed them: they hesitated and were lost. Their hesitation enabled our front line to close its gap, and several of the enemy, who had broken through, and then withdrew before our advance, were captured. ”

“ Once we passed a train with heavy artillery on specially constructed waggons, and we saw several trains of ordinary field artillery. These trains of troops, munitions, motor-cars, coal, and a hundred other weapons of war that were hidden from view, the whole methodical procession of supplies to the Front, were most suggestive of power, of concentration, and organisation of effort. Most impressive was this glimpse of Germany at war. It is difficult to convey the impression to those who have not seen Germany in a state of war. ”

“ A larger and stronger Germany would dominate Europe and would overshadow our lives. Her coast-line would be increased, her ports would face our own, her coaling stations would be in every sea, and her great army, greater then than ever, would be within striking distance of our shores. To avoid sinking for ever into the condition of a dependant, we should be compelled to have recourse to rigid compulsory service, and our diminished revenues would be all turned to the needs of self-defence. ”

“ We expect from the new Eastern Front nothing different from that which German soldiers had to do during four Russian war Winters twenty-five years ago. Every German soldier must set an example to our faithful allies. ”

“ But they could do no [Pg 186] more for the moment in the north than hold the railway lines through which the reinforcements were being poured.
Then came the German new front to the south. The Allies' reinforcements had to swing to meet them, or rather to pour men across to adjust the balance at the threatened points. To this the fresh British reinforcements were specially devoted; again to hold the key, and more than one key, of the new lines of defence. ”

“ And all the while imagine the Germans out there, creeping through the trees, crowding along the trenches, sifting out and settling down into the old favorite formation, making all ready for one more desperate trial of it, stacking the cards for yet another deep gambling plunge on the great German game—the massed attack in solid lines at close interval. ”

“ They’re overmanned where we are under-manned—backed up from home where our boys are only blamed and neglected—well supplied with troops and ammunition, where our police are kept down to the danger point and now and then even without cartridges. The Germans have no railway yet, but they’ve a policy and they keep it secret. We have a railway, and no policy except retrenchment and economy. I’m convinced the German government has no scruples. ”

“ That the superiority of the broadside fire of the British line-of-battleships to the broadside fire of the German line is about 3 to 2, and the superiority of her active-service personnel is over 2 to i. (3) That the strategical position with which Nature has endowed her has been taken such full advantage of since 1906 that, in case of war breaking out between the two countries, not a single German man-of-war, not a single German merchant ship, not a single German fishing-smack, could leave or enter a German port, and her ocean-borne trade would cease to exist. ”

“ The whole system rests on the question of mobilization, meaning the ability to arm, transport, clothe, and feed a fighting force of four and one-half million men, in the shortest possible time on any given point in either eastern or western Europe. For let it be clearly understood that the main point of the training of the German armies is the readiness to launch the entire fighting force like a thunderbolt on any given point of the compass. Germany knows through past experience the advisability and necessity of conducting war in an enemy's country. The German army is built for aggression. ”

“ He went on to demonstrate that, although no war was in sight, France had surpassed Germany in her military organization and numbers, while Russia was continually perfecting her strategical railway system, and locating her best troops on her western frontier. To keep up an equal footing with her neighbors, it was necessary for Germany to add 83,894 men to the present number of soldiers. In order to do this the existing obligation to serve in [Pg 460] the army would have to be extended to every one capable of carrying arms. ”

“ All German troops at present in any territory which before the war formed part of Austria-Hungary, Roumania, or Turkey, shall withdraw within the frontiers of Germany as they existed on August 1, 1914, and all German troops at present in territories which before the war formed part of Russia must likewise return to within the frontiers of Germany as above defined, as soon as the Allies shall think the moment suitable, having regard to the internal situation of these territories. ”