*CHAPTER VII*
*THE ADVANCE*
The month of October, 1918, was one of the most glorious in the pages ofAmerican history written by the world's war. From early in the monthGeneral Pershing's men struck along their wide front and everywhere theGermans gave ground. French and British troops also made progress dailyalong the great battle front.
On October 3 the Germans retreated on the Lenz front. The Britishadvanced to within six miles of Lille. Belgian and French troopsadvanced in the region of Hooglede and Roulers. Two days later theGerman retreat began in the Champagne region. Continuing along the lineto the south, the allies pressed their advantage at all points.
It was clear to all military experts that the beginning of the end wasin sight. From Rheims, American troops, late in October, began theadvance that was to carry them into Sedan and beyond. Germany'sresistance was becoming more feeble daily.
The German emperor was never to recover from the moral effect of thedesertion of Bulgaria as German supremacy waned. With Bulgaria out ofthe war, German efforts were turned to keeping Turkey and Austria inline. But these, too, were to fail. Only a short time after Bulgarialaid down arms, Turkey signed a truce with England and France. TheUnited States had no hand in the making of these two truces, becauseAmerica, despite much urging, had never formally declared war on Turkeyand Bulgaria.
With the fortunes of Germany at low ebb, it became apparent that Austriawould eventually leave her more powerful ally in the lurch. Again andagain reports filtering into the allied lines told of fast growingpolitical disturbances in the dual monarchy. Several cabinets hadfallen. The red flag of anarchy was flying in the streets of some ofthe smaller towns. The Hungarian parliament had broken with the cabinetat Vienna, and it seemed only a question of time until the Austrianrevolt would make an end of Austria as a factor in the war.
Conditions were growing serious in Germany also, as reports reaching theAmerican forces revealed. So far, however, disorder was not as rampantas in Austria-Hungary, but it was growing clear that the masses of theGerman people, long since tired of fighting a losing battle, weregetting ready to take matters into their own hands.
In none of the allied capitals, however, was it believed that Germanywas yet ready to consider a peace, which, everyone knew, must depriveGermany of her claim to being a world power. The world knew that whenthe allies imposed their terms, they would be such as would tie thehands of Germany for decades to come and would eventually prevent arepetition, by a blundering and crazy ruler, of a condition that hadplunged the whole world into war.
So the daily advance of the allied armies meant one more day nearer topeace.
To the north, where the British under Field Marshal Haig were pressingtheir advantage, the German line held more firmly than to the south,where French and Americans were delivering their smashing blows. Theentire sector south and east of the Argonne Forest was controlled byAmerican forces under the personal direction of General Pershing. True,General Pershing was nominally under command of Field Marshal Foch, theFrench commander in chief, but so was Field Marshal Haig, the Britishcommander, and General Diaz, the Italian commander in chief, for thatmatter. It was Marshal Foch who was the master mind of the whole alliedoffensive.
When the rumor was first circulated among the allied forces that Austriawas about to sue for peace, there were few who placed credence in it,despite the fact that they knew such an appeal was sure to be madebefore long. Nevertheless, if it were true, it would be of advantage tothe allies to know of the impending appeal at the earliest possiblemoment.
To General Pershing, Marshal Foch had entrusted the task of ascertainingthe truth or falsity of the report. General Pershing, in turn, hadpassed the word along where he felt it would do the most good. This washow it happened that Hal and Chester found themselves so fortunate as tobe ordered within the German lines at Sedan on the mission which openedthis book.
That Germany would have profited greatly at that time could theAmericans, French and British have been fooled by the false rumor goeswithout saying. And it is true, too, that the longer the rumor waspermitted to live the greater became the danger of over-confidence inthe ranks of the allies.
It is for this reason that General Pershing was immensely pleased toreceive so soon a report from Colonel O'Neil, at Rheims that this firstrumor of an impending appeal for peace by Austria was nothing more thana German plot. Immediately the word was passed along the whole battlefront. The result was, that Germany, instead of having gained by thispiece of duplicity, suffered. For when allied troops went into battlethey struck that much harder. For a time they had believed that theirefforts were to be crowned with immediate success, and now that theylearned the Germans had been playing with them they fought with thedesperate energy of the man who fears he has been made ridiculous.
It was learned later that this rumor of Austria's decision to break withGermany was started by the Germans themselves for the reason we haveseen.
Austria was not so much as consulted in the matter, and it has beenshown since that this very fact was responsible, in a measure, forAustria's decision some time later to sue for a separate peace. So thebomb launched by the kaiser and his advisers proved a veritableboomerang.
But President Wilson and his advisers had not been fooled by the Germanplot. President Wilson, some time before, had laid down conditions onwhich Germany and Austria might have peace, and to these he stuck. Hehad informed the German and Austrian people that they might have peaceat any time by laying down their arms, provided they ousted themilitarists who were responsible for the war. Several efforts had beenmade by German and Austrian officials to fool America by changes ofcabinets and other political tricks but President Wilson, with hisallies, was adamant.
So the situation stood in the middle of October, when the allies girdedthemselves for what they felt sure would prove the deciding effort.
All along the great battle line, which stretched from the North Sea tothe frontier of Switzerland, British, French, Belgians and Americanssupported by their own allies, Portuguese, some few Brazilians andtroops from British and French colonial possessions, gathered themselvesfor the final spring.
The last great offensive was begun by the British and Belgians to thenorth. Through Belgium and western France they plowed, pushing theenemy back on all sides. Brussels, the capital of Belgium, in Germanhands since early in the war, was recaptured. The Belgian government,which after the fall of Brussels had moved into France, returned toBrussels amid the cheering of thousands of Belgians.
As the Germans retreated, they followed their customary tactics ofcruelty. Fire and sword were applied to the abandoned towns until athreat from France put a stop to it. France's threat was this: That forevery town destroyed by the Germans in their retreat, retaliation wouldbe made. For every town thus destroyed by the Germans, a German townwould also be put to the torch.
This threat, carried by neutral envoys to the German high command,resulted in the abandonment of the German campaign of destruction, forthe German high command was now more far-seeing than it had been a yearbefore. The kaiser and his generals at last had been forced to theconclusion that they were waging a losing war. Also, they knew that theFrench troops had not forgotten the horrors of the early days of thewar, and their hatred of everything Prussian dated farther back eventhan that--to the days of the Franco-Prussian war, when they had beenable to gauge for the first time the workings of the Prussian mind.
To the south of the Belgian frontier, the French wrested St. Quentin,Lille and other important railroad towns from the enemy. No longer didthe Germans offer the fierce resistance that had characterized theirearlier activities. They withdrew now without the stubbornness of yore.Their morale had been shattered, and they were glad to retire.
All along the battle line the great field and siege guns of theAmericans, French, Belgian and British played havoc in the enemy ranks.The German artillery
replied, but it lacked the volume and the fiercechallenge of old. Then, too, the Germans had lost thousands andthousands of their guns, field pieces and machine guns. Factoriesbehind the German frontier had been depleted of workers to fill the gapsin the fighting front, with the result that guns and ammunitions werenot being produced so fast as they had been the year before.
This meant that the Germans were compelled to conserve their ammunition.The high command had also found it necessary to be more sparing of itsman-power and less prodigal with its food supplies. No longer could theenemy sacrifice a few thousand men and thousands and thousands of roundsof ammunition to gain a few feet of ground.
On the other hand, due to the activity of American factories, the allieswere supplied with more ammunition, guns and food than ever before sincethe war began. Also, numerically, were superior to the foe.
With these facts in mind, Field Marshal Foch ordered the advance allalong the front that was to prove the end of Germany as a militarypower; that was to result in the abdication of the German emperor andthe crown prince; and that was to mean revolution throughout the Germanempire until such time as a stable government could raise its head andthe common people could come into their own.
And so it was a great day for the German people when Marshal Foch gavethe word that set his millions of men in motion from the North Seahundreds of miles south to the frontier of Switzerland. It was a movethat meant that the German people would do away with masters and wouldset up a government of their own--a government which was to be patternedafter that of the United States of America--a "government of the people,for the people and by the people."
In this last great mission, Hal and Chester were to perform their fullduties, and they were to have greater fortune than ever before, for theywere to be "in at the death," as Hal put it, with Marshal Foch when thegreat French military leader gave to the enemy terms that resulted inthe ending of the war.
In the meantime, all unconscious of what was in store for them, the twolads, after returning from their mission within the German lines, weretaking a well deserved rest in their temporary quarters in the Frenchcity of Rheims.
The Boy Allies with Marshal Foch; or, The Closing Days of the Great World War Page 7