USA > Michigan > Lenawee County > Atlas and plat book of Lenawee County Michigan and history of the World War > Part 11
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THE OUTCOME-The final results of this long drawn out and most bloody contest were not decisive. While the Germans were pushed back along their whole front, the Allies were far from obtaining the results for which they had so freely spilt heroic blood.
All the fighting of this year was characterized by the unparalled sacrifice of men. Over 1,000,000 of French and Germans in killed and wounded together fell around Verdun. The fierce and long continued battle of the Somme, lasting from June 27 to mid-November, was probably equally fatal in its toll-taking of human life. The Allies learned from these two frightful battles-each in reality a series of great battles-to henceforth conserve their forces. In the great battles of 1917 and 1918 they largely abandoned the heavy attacks of masses of infantry which distinguished the battles of 1915 and 1916. Henceforth, an enormous and long continued artillery bombardment opened their battles; and not until the opposing lines were torn to pieces and thoroughly demoralized by this irresistible shell fire, were the men sent "over the top."
The German commanders were much slower in learning this vital lesson. They continued well into 1918 their great frontal attacks by massed bodies of "shock troops." While frequently gaining the desired objective by such tactics, they thereby rapidly reduced their man power, and the morale of a remarkably well trained and disciplined army.
THE RUSSIAN DRIVE OF 1916-The Russian drive, which began on the east- ern front on June 4, was one of the most remarkable successes of the Allies up to that time. It was part of the allied general program to carry on simultaneous offensives in all theatres of the war. The Russian forces were now nominally under the supreme command of the Czar in place of the Grand Duke Nicholas, who had been sent to the Caucasus. The Russians attacked on the whole eastern front from the Gulf of Riga (a part of the Baltic Sea) to the Roumanian frontier, but the main offensive was that led by General Brusiloff along a sector of 250 miles. The drive was immediately successful. Lutsk, in the Russian province of Volhynia, was taken on June 6, and the Russians began to press forward on
Kovel, in the same province, one of the chief objectives of the advance. By June 16, the Russians had pushed into the Austro-German lines a new salient with a radius of forty-five miles. Meantime, the Russians had also been pressing for- ward south of the Dniester river, forcing the Austrians to fall back on the Car- pathian passes. On June 17 the Russians captured Czernowitz, in the duchy of Bukowina, Austria, after which they overran practically all of the duchy. In all this fighting the Russians were daily taking thousands of Austrian prisoners and vast quantities of artillery, ammunition and war material of all kinds.
The Austrian crownland of Galicia next became the principal battle area. On July 16 the Russians commenced a great advance, which resulted in the fall of town after town and the capture of many thousands of prisoners. The Austrian army retreated rapidly and the Russians turned their attention to, the German army in Galicia. They were defeating it decisively, when once more General von Hindenburg arrived to save the situation. The Russians began to encounter a far more determined defensive, which had for its purpose the protection of Lemberg, capital of Galicia, and the holding of the Carpathians. A deadlock ensued, fol- lowed by an intermission in the hostilities. When this eastern campaign came to a standstill, at the end of August, the Russians had taken, during the three months, 400,000 prisoners and occupied 7,000 square miles of Austrian territory. The effect on the Central Empires was a great deal more damaging than the Somme battle on the west front. The military power of Austria-Hungary had suffered a serious decline.
ROUMANIA ENTERS THE WAR-Events on the eastern front were affected by the entrance of Roumania into the war on the side of the Allies, on August 27. At the beginning of September the Russian general attack was being aimed at Lemberg from the south. The German-Austrian lines were bent back, but the Russians were unable to attain their objective. On November 9 the Teutons scored an important local success by smashing the Russian front along two and one- half miles, southwest of Minsk, Russia. The Russian advance was stopped, the Germans having the better of the position. In the meantime, actuated by political motives, rather than by military expediency, Roumania began its operations by a campaign to win back Transylvania, the easternmost part of Hungary, where the population is largely of the Roumanian race and speaks the Roumanian language. Military authorities agree that Roumania's wise course of action would have been to invade Bulgaria, the ally of Germany and Austria, but this policy was not adopted. When the Roumanians opened their attack by advancing over the Tran- sylvania Alps, a Russo-Roumanian army attacked the Austro-Hungarian front in the Roumanians gained temporary advantages.
the southeast Carpathians. The forces of the Central Empires fell back, while These successes were more than offset, however, by the advance of the Germans, Bulgarians and Turks, who entered Roumania at three points. Within two weeks after the opening of hostilities, the Russo-Roumanian forces were falling back severely defeated. Reverses overtook the Roumanians on every side. Finally the entire Roumanian army which had invaded Hungary was forced back across the Danube. There followed a campaign in Roumania in which the German troops were constantly victorious, under the leadership of two noted generals: Falkenhayn and Mackensen. These two gen- erals effected a junction on November 25 at Alexandria, fifty miles southwest of Bucharest, capital of Roumania. The Russians attempted to come to the rescue of the Roumanians, but their efforts were futile. On December 1 a great Teuton offensive was launched. The Russians also launched an offensive in the Riga dis- trict, but were unable to divert enough Teutons to save Roumania from its impend- ing doom. Bucharest fell on December 6, the Roumanians moving their capital to Jassy. They had entered the war with high hopes, but proved to be a weak ally, quickly put out of the fighting. They had a fairly well trained and equipped army of about 500,000 men. But a poor plan of campaign on their part, and the over- whelming forces brought against them, proved their downfall. The Allies have been severely criticised also for failure to more adequately support Roumania. They depended upon Russia, and Russia could not, unaided, do the work.
THE ITALIAN CAMPAIGN-The Austrian-Italian campaign was one of the major operations of 1916. Italy had declared war on Austria on May 23, 1915. On June 28 Italy invaded Austrian territory south of Riva (Austria), on the western shore of Lake Garda. Other successes followed, but Italy did not take a promi- nent part in the war until the following year.
The Austro-Italian campaign of 1916 was influenced by the events at Verdun, for the offensive begun by the Italians, on March 14, when they began shelling the Austrian positions on the Isonzo river, was undertaken for the purpose of pre- venting Teutonic reinforcements being sent to Verdun. The Italians made some headway during March and April, but the main campaign was to come later. About the middle of April the Austrians began to concentrate in great force in the Trentino (lying between Italy and Austria), in preparation for an offensive on a large scale. This was initiated on May 14, with a heavy bombardment of the Italian positions. The Italians were caught napping by the Austrians, who had 350,000 men and a great quantity of artillery, and in consequence were soon forced back. The purpose of the Austrian campaign was to isolate the Italian army on the Isonzo River, cause it to capitulate and then force Italy out of the war, leav- ing the Franco-Italian frontier open to Austrian offensive all along the line. The Austrians were forced to withdraw troops to serve against the Russians and, between June 2 and 17, to cease their offensive altogether. The Italians were now ready to go forward once more, and by June 25, the Austrians were in retreat, losing large numbers of men and guns.
Italian efforts to secure a foothold on the Carso Plateau, which blocks the way to Trieste, the most important Austrian town on the Adriatic Sea, were car- ried on determinedly, but the obstacles were many and the progress slow. Italy was handicapped by lack of adequate shells, though no army fought more bravely than hers. The Carso is a great upstanding bank of stone. The Austrians had mined it and tunnelled it until it was well-nigh impregnable. Here is a vivid description of the fighting there:
"The upward path was gained in a succession of mines and deep galleries, protected by stone-built breastworks. The enemy's shrapnel and high explosive broke with deadly effect on the bare rock, and scattered flakes and splinters of stone which were more dangerous than the flying bullets and fragments of shell. Earthworks could not be made, for there was no earth except what the Italians brought with them in sandbags and handcart. Slowly and at a heavy cost of life and limb, the Italian troops pushed on, and by yards and inches drew close enough to assault, one after another, the armored caverns and the labyrinth of fortified passages which the Austrians, long before the war and in preparation for it, had constructed."
The determined courage of the Italians won out. On August 9 the Carso Plateau fell and with it the city of Gorizia. Nearly 19,000 prisoners were taken by the Italians and a serious blow had been dealt to Austrian prestige. The Italians had opened the way to Trieste.
NAVAL BATTLE OF JUTLAND-The naval battle off the coast of Jutland, a province of Denmark, was another notable event of 1916. It was the greatest naval engagement of modern times, both on account of the number and size of the ships which took part in it, and of the tremendous power and skill with which science and invention had equipped the fleets. On the afternoon of May 31, the British grand fleet, under the command of Sir John Jellicoe, was patroling the North Sea, when the cruiser division, commanded by Admiral Beatty, sighted a division of German cruisers in advance of the German grand fleet. Beatty at once proceeded to attack the enemy, while the British main fleet (informed by wire- less that the German navy had at last come out of its safe quarters behind the mine fields and coast defenses of Helgoland and the Kiel canal) rapidly steamed co Beatty's assistance. The greater part of the battle had been fought before the British dreadnaughts arrived. The five German battle cruisers, being attacked by the six heavier British cruisers, steamed southward toward the main body of the German fleet. The British immediately pursued. At a separating distance of nearly eleven miles the action began. The British lost an important ship almost at once. This was the battle cruiser Indefatigable, which went down with all its crew of 900 officers and men, except two survivors. Another British cruiser. the Queen Mary, sank from a terrific explosion. Out of a crew of 1,000, only a score or so were saved. The first part of the battle lasted about an hour. A new phase began with the arrival of a large part of the German grand fleet. The
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A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE GREAT WAR
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odds were now heavily against Admiral Beatty. He withdrew to the northwest, his object being to draw on the German main fleet so that it would have to fight the British dreadnaughts under Admiral Jellicoe. He succeeded in sinking a Ger- man cruiser just before Jellicoe arrived with the main fleet. Now came what promised to be the most terrible of all naval battles. Admiral Jellicoe arrived and prepared to throw the weight of the greatest navy the world has ever seen against the German fleet. But at this dramatic point the mists blotted the Ger- man navy from sight, thus giving the German ships a chance to escape, which they did in all haste. The German ships reached their base before the British reached theirs, and startled the world with a report of a great German navy vic- tory. Later on, the British admiralty report gave the real facts. The British lost three battle cruisers, three armored cruisers and eight destroyers, the total tonnage amounting to 114,100 tons, while the officers and men who perished num- bered 5,613. Though no British battleship was lost, the Marlborough was tor- pedoed, but continued in action. The Warspite was hit, but succeeded in getting back to port. The Germans admitted losing one battleship, one battle cruiser, four light cruisers and five destroyers, the total tonnage lost being 63,015, and the loss in officers and men 3,866. According to the British admirality, however, the Germans lost four battleships, three of which were seen to sink, while the total number of vessels of all kinds lost was eighteen, with a total tonnage of 113.435. Only the haze and mist saved the German fleet from the ordeal of facing Britain's superior forces and prevented the crowning of Admiral Beatty's efforts with com- plete success. The battle again proved that Britain was still mistress of the seas. Thereafter, for the duration of the war, the German fleet did not venture from port; it was practically out of commission until the armistice, signed November 11, 1918, compelled the surrender of the greater part of the vessels to the British.
BULGARIA ENTERS THE WAR ON SIDE OF CENTRAL POWERS-While German armies were winning in western Russia, in the summer of 1915, German diplomats were secretly scoring a notable victory in the Balkans. Bulgaria, the most warlike of the three small kindoms-Serbia, Bulgaria and Roumania-which separated the Teutons from Turkey, was won to the side of the Central Empires, and September 20, 1915, a treaty was signed between Turkey and Bulgaria, both now allies of Germany and Austria. About the same day Field Marshal Von Mackensen, Germany's able soldier, appeared at the head of a new German army opposite Belgrade, the Serbian capital. The Serb and Greek armies were mobilized and the Greeks were anxious to attack Bulgaria without waiting for a declaration of war. England persuaded them to wait, still believing that Bulgaria would remain neutral. On October 4 diplomatic relations between Bulgaria and Russia were broken in consequence of an ultimatum which demanded that Bulgaria should definitely break with the Central Powers. On October 11, 1915, Bulgaria declared war on Serbia and four days later England declared war on Bulgaria.
Bulgaria immediately mobilized every available man, down to the youngest class, and enrolled about 750,000, leaving only the women and old men to work the farms. She attacked the Serbian army in October and made possible the Austro-German advance into Serbia under General von Mackensen. Thereafter the Bulgarians advanced rapidly, meeting with little opposition, for they entered the war when it seemed most likely that the Central Empires would win. The troops of King Ferdinand, of Bulgaria, overran all Macedonia and captured Mona- stir, 136 miles northwest of Salonica, a place of 60,000 population. The victorious Bulgarians settled down to enjoy their triumph, cherishing the delusion that Greater Bulgaria-which they had fought to accomplish in the preceding Balkan wars (1912 and 1913)-had at last been brought about and that their ancient ene- mies, the Serbs, were effectually disposed of.
The campaign of 1916 bolstered up this delusion of the Bulgarians. Von Mackensen led an army of Germans, Turks and Bulgarians into the Dobrudja, the southeastern portion of Roumania, between the lower Danube and the Black Sea. As a result of an active campaign, Roumania was put out of the war and the Bul- garians were in undisputed possession of the entire Dobrudja, another part of the Greater Bulgaria of their dreams. This was in October, 1916. The year closed with Bulgaria apparently nearer to her dreams of empire than any of her Teu- tonic allies.
GERMAN SUBMARINE WARFARE-March 1 was the date set by the German government for unrestricted submarine warfare on a frightful scale. The new policy-that of sinking ships without any warning whatever and making no pro- vision for the removal of crew or passengers-was an admission that the subma- rine was not accomplishing what Germany had hoped. The facts were, that in 1915 Great Britain had lost, through Germany's submarine warfare, 741 steam ships and 334 sailing ships, a total of 1,075 vessels, with an aggregate tonnage of 1,534,- 901. In the same time, however, Britain had built 655 new steam ships and 152 new sailing vessels, a total of 807, with an aggregate tonnage of 1,523,850. In other words, Britain was building new ships almost as rapidly as German sub- marines were sinking vessels, so that the submarine was making no appreciable delay. Germany had hoped to completely blockade the British Isles with the submarine and make it impossible for them to secure food or supplies. They had failed, however, and their new submarine policy was frank admission of this fact.
In the three ensuing months after the new policy was adopted, it was esti- mated that the loss to allied and neutral shipping amounted to over 320,000 tons. The total number of vessels sunk during the three months was 196, consisting of 153 belonging to the Allies and 43 to neutrals. The number of lives lost on all allied ships was 205 and on neutrals 18, a total of 223. Among the most serious sinkings was that of the channel steamer Sussex, unarmed and with Americans on board, March 10. This was the beginning of serious controversy between the American and German governments, culminating in the severing of diplomatic relations. The Sussex was doing its regular work of conveying passengers across the English channel, was unarmed and received absolutely no warning. The United States ambassador, on first taking up the matter with the German gov- ernment, was assured that no German submarine was responsible for the deed. In a note dated April 10, however, the German government admitted having sunk a vessel in the channel at almost the same time and place as the Sussex was sunk, but denied that it sunk the Sussex. In a note dated April 18, the United States asserted that it was "conclusively established" that the Sussex had been sunk by a German submarine. The German reply, dated May 8, admitted that one of its submarines had sunk the Sussex, declared its readiness to pay an adequate indemnity to the injured American citizens, and stated that the submarine com- mander had been properly punished.
The German submarine campaign during June, July and August was responsi- ble for the destruction of 237 merchant ships belonging to the Allies and 52 be- longing to the neutrals, a total of 289, representing nearly 300,000 tons. No lives were lost, care having been taken by the German submarine commanders to respect the pledge given by their government to the United States after the sink- ing of the Sussex.
The German submarine campaign during September, October and November was responsible for the sinking of over a million tons of shipping belonging to the Allies and neutral nations. The allied loss was 439 vessels, with an aggre- gate tonnage of 778,500; the neutral nations lost 179 vessels, representing 241,600 tons. One of the sensational episodes of the underseas campaign was sending a submarine within sight and sound of the American coast. The U-53 made an unexpected appearance at Newport, R. I., October 7. After a few hours she put to sea. The next day she sunk five ships off Nantucket, three British, one Nor- wegian and one Dutch. The war was being brought home to the United States as never before, and American participation was drawing closer day by day.
SUMMARY OF THE 1916 CAMPAIGN-The end of this year saw the Central Powers at the height of their success. I Russia had been driven back within her own boundaries, and Russian Poland, over 1,000,000 prisoners and immense booty had been taken. Turkey and Bulgaria were subservient allies, and the Germans held supreme power from the English channel to the Euphrates, and from the Baltic to the Adriatic. Belgium and northern France were firmly held and the Allies, in spite of vast sacrifices of brave lives, had moved them scarcely at all. Futhermore, their deadly submarines were rapidly destroying the shipping of the world, and bringing starvation daily closer to England. Things looked dark, in- deed, for the Allies; but with a courage beyond pratse, they fought on
CHAPTER V.
THE CAMPAIGN OF 1917-The entrance of the United States into the world war was one of the great happenings of 1917. The declaration of war by the United States against Germany was inevitable in the face of the long-continued abuses of the rights of humanity and the disregard of all international law.
THE LUSITANIA AND OTHER OUTRAGES-The American people had been first aroused against Germany by the sinking of the steamship Lusitania on May 7, 1915, with a loss of 1,198 lives, over 100 being American. There had appeared at the end of April, in American newspapers, an advertisement issued by the Ger- man Embassy at Washington, warning Americans not to sail on belligerent pas- senger liners bound for England, inasmuch as they were liable to destruction in the submarine war zone which Germany had established. When the Lusitania sailed, a few days later, this warning was disregarded and over 2,000 men, women and children embarked. On May 7, off the coast of Ireland, the liner was struck by a torpedo, fired without warning, and sunk within twenty minutes.
Many Americans clamored for war against Germany at that time, but Presi- dent Wilson began a series of diplomatic note exchanges which continued inter- mittently until the actual declaration of war on April 6, 1917. Germany attempted to sidestep responsibility for the murder of the noncombatants on the Lusitania by asserting that it was a war vessel, carrying war munitions, but this was dis- proved. The sinking of the Lusitania followed other German acts of piracy on the seas. On April 15, 1915, the American steamer, Cushing, was attacked by a German airplane. On May 1, 1915, the American steamer Gulflight was torpedoed and sunk. Then came the Lusitania outrage. In a speech delivered three days later President Wilson made it plain that the United States would not go to war on that account. Nevertheless, the government, on May 13, dispatched a strongly worded protest to Germany covering the whole subject of German submarine war- fare. Germany's answer was evasive, but sufficed the American government for the time being.
The next two years matters went from bad to worse. Ships were sunk by German submarines without warning and without time being granted for the crew and passengers to leave on lifeboats. Lifeboats which were launched were sunk, and men, women and children foully murdered. Germany put into practice a policy of ruthless piracy on the high seas which disregarded every dictate and principle of law and humanity. At least 200 Americans went to their deaths through German and Austrian submarines up to February 1, 1917. Most of the Americans lost were traveling on unarmed merchant ships. More than 2,000 citi- zens of other nationalities lost their lives in the attacks.
Twenty American negro muleteers on the Leyland liner Armenian were killed June 28, 1915, by shellfire and drowning when the Armenian failed to escape with her cargo of army mules from a submersible near the Cornwall coast. On July 25, 1915, came the first complete destruction of an American ship by a submarine. It was the Leelanaw of New York, bound from Archangel, Russia, to Belfast, Ire- land, with flax. Finally, on January 31, 1917, the German government issued a notice to the neutral nations that, beginning with the next day, merchant ships bound to and from allied ports would be sunk without warning, and that the dan- ger zone had been extended over a much larger area. This was giving official sanction to a practice that had been in vogue for two years, but which Germany officially claimed to have discountenanced. It came at the very time that Presi- dent Wilson was using his high office in an attempt to bring about peace between the warring nations, in fact, when peace seemed imminent.
WAR DECLARED BY UNITED STATES-The president studied the situation for three days. On the morning of February 3, he determined to break off rela- tions with Germany. Congress was assembled in joint session that afternoon and addressed by the president. In his address President Wilson recalled the warn- ing he had given Germany on April 18, 1916, after the sinking of the Sussex, with the loss of American life, that if relentless and indiscriminate submarine warfare were persisted in, the United States could have no choice but to sever diplomatic relations. The German government had given a "solemn assurance," but now that this pledge had been deliberately withdrawn, the United States government had no alternative consistent with American honor and dignity but to suspend diplomatic relations. Count Bernstorff, the German ambassador, left America. on February 14. About the same time, James W. Gerard, the United States ambassa- dor, left Germany.
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