Current History, A Monthly Magazine

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French Amenities

[From The London Times, Dec. 18, 1914.]

_An officer in the R.A.M.C. writes:_

Figure to yourself (as Wells says, isn't it?) a country of flat plowed
field, pollard willows and deep muddy ditches. Then we come along, and
in military parlance "dig ourselves in." That is, with the sweat of
the brows of hundreds of Tommies working by night deep narrow trenches
five feet deep and at least with the earth thrown up another two and a
half feet as a bank on top. These trenches are one and a half to two
feet wide, and curl and twist about in a maddening manner to make them
safer from shell-fire. Little caves are scooped in the walls of the
trenches, where the men live about four to a hole, and slightly bigger
dugouts where two officers live. All the soil is clay, stickier and
greasier than one could believe possible. It's like almost solid
paint, and the least rain makes the sides of the trenches slimy, and
the bottom a perfect sea of mud--pulls the heels off your boots
almost. One feels like Gulliver walking along a Lilliputian town all
the time. The front line of trenches--the firing line--have scientific
loopholes and lookout places in them for seeing and firing from, and a
dropping fire goes on from both sides all day long, but is very
harmless.

Dec. 3, 1914.--I was just starting for my daily constitutional "on
top" when the enemy began their bombarding, nearly one and a half
hours earlier than usual, so I will postpone my little walk and finish
this instead. Yesterday we had one man killed and two wounded, the
first casualties for over a week. The story of one of the wounded is
worth telling to show you the pluck of these men. He told me he
noticed some new digging going on on the side of the enemy in front
of his firing post. One can see the spadefuls of earth coming up from
below the ground level when new trenches are being dug. Although this
was in broad daylight, our man thought he would go and see what the
Germans were up to, so he hops over the side of his trench and runs
forward thirty yards to a ditch and crawls along it some hundred yards
or so. He then spots a large shell-hole in the field on one side of
the ditch, so doubles off and gets into that and has a good look
around. Not satisfied with the point of view, he sprints to a line of
willows nearer still to the enemy--within 250 yards of them
indeed--and proceeds to climb up one of them. While doing this he gets
shot through the shoulder. He told me he thought he had ricked his arm
at first, as it felt numb and useless. Meanwhile a great pal of his in
the regiment, hearing that he had gone out like this, hops over the
parapet and sets off to look for him, and comes up just as he gets
hit. The second man upbraids the first roundly for being a fool,
carries his rifle for him, and brings him back. All this is done quite
in the day's work and "sub rosa," as they would get punished for
leaving the trench like that in the daytime if it was spotted. The
pluck of these men is perfectly extraordinary, and the placid way life
goes on under the risk of being sniped or shelled any moment is, until
one gets used to seeing it, quite past belief. I must say the officers
set the men a magnificent example.

_A young officer attached to the Yorkshire Light Infantry writes on
Dec. 6:_

One wonders when one sees a German face to face, is this really one of
those devils who wrought such devastation--for devastation they have
surely wrought. You can hardly believe it, for he seems much the same
as other soldiers. I can assure you that there is none of that
insensate hatred that one hears about, out here. We are out to kill,
and kill we do, at any and every opportunity. But, when all is done
and the battle is over, the splendid universal "soldier spirit" comes
over all the men, and we cannot help thinking that Kipling must have
been in the firing line when he wrote that "East is East and West is
West" thing. Just to give you some idea of what I mean, the other
night four German snipers were shot on our wire. The next night our
men went out and brought one in who was near and getatable and buried
him. They did it with just the same reverence and sadness as they do
to our own dear fellows. I went to look at the grave the next morning,
and one of the most uncouth-looking men in my company had placed a
cross at the head of the grave, and had written on it:

Here lies a German,
We don't know his name,
He died bravely fighting
For his Fatherland.

And under that, "got mit uns," (sic,) that being the highest effort of
all the men at German. Not bad for a bloodthirsty Briton, eh? Really,
that shows the spirit.

I don't believe there is a man living who, when first interviewing an
11-inch howitzer shell, is not pink with funk. After the first ten,
one gets quite used to them, but really, they are terrible! They hit a
house. You can see the great shell--a black streak--just before it
strikes, then, before you hear the explosion, the whole house simply
lifts up into the air, apparently quite silently; then you hear the
roar, and the whole earth shakes. In the place where the house was
there is a huge fountain-spout of what looks like pink fluff. It is
the pulverized bricks. Then a monstrous shoot of black smoke towering
up a hundred feet or more, and, finally, there is a curious
willow-like formation, and then--you duck, as huge pieces of shell,
and house, and earth, and haystack tumble over your head. And yet, do
you know, it is really remarkable how little damage they do against
earth trenches. With a whole morning's shelling, not a single man of
my company was killed, although not a single shell missed what it had
aimed at by more than fifty yards. That makes all the difference, that
fifty yards. If you only keep your head down, you are as safe as
houses; exactly, you will remark, "as safe as houses."

The Things the Wounded Talk About

[A British Surgeon, in The London Times, Dec. 22, 1914.]

If you would realize fully what the war, as an event in the procession
of events, means you must come to France and visit a military
hospital. You must make this visit not as a sightseer, nor yet in the
spirit of a philanthropist, but only as a friend. You must come
prepared to listen to stories that have no relation to war and the
affairs of war--most soldiers, I think, are reluctant to speak of the
things they have seen--to stories that concern home ties and the
doings, real and conjectured, of children--queer, sentimental stories
woven around old ideas like the Christmas idea and the idea of home.

They will fill you with wonder at first, those unwarlike tales,
because they belong to the truly unexpected, against which it is
impossible to be prepared. It would not be an exaggeration to describe
the first effect of them as startling. They kill so many illusions and
they discredit so many beliefs. War, rendered thus the background of
life, assumes a new proportion and a new meaning. Or, rather, it
becomes vague and meaningless, like a darkness.

A few days ago I sat by the bedside of a wounded sapper--a
reservist--and heard the story of life in a signal-box on a branch
line in the North of England. The man was dying. I think he knew it.
But the zest of his everyday life was still strong in him. He
described the manner in which, on leaving the army originally, he had
obtained his post on the railway. He told me that there were three
trains each way in the day, and mentioned that on Winter nights the
last train was frequently very late. This meant a late supper, but his
wife saw to it that everything was kept hot. Sometimes his wife came
to the box to meet him if it was a dry night.

In the next bed there was a young Scotsman from a Highland district
which I know very well. We were friends so soon as he learned that I
knew his home. He was a roadman, and we talked of his roads and the
changes which had been wrought in them of late years by motor traffic.
He recalled a great storm, during which the sea wall around a certain
harbor was washed away and the highway rendered impassable. Then,
rather diffidently, he confessed that he had lost a foot and would be
handicapped in his work--"at Ypres."

At the far end of the ward there was a German who spoke a little
English. He was a married man and came from Saxony. His wife and
children, he said, would miss him at Christmas. We spoke a long time
on the subject of Christmas. I suppose by all the orthodox canons that
this German should have told me that he was glad to be a prisoner or
else should have declared his conviction that the German Army would
speedily carry everything before it to victory. But somehow he forgot
to say these things and I forgot to ask him about them. These things
seemed far away in the quiet ward, even--and for this I beg
forgiveness--grotesque and uninteresting.

I had the curiosity to return to the young Scot and to ask him if he
regretted the decision which had led to his being maimed for life. He
shook his head. "No, because I've had a good home. A man with a good
home should fight for it." He added that his father had advised him
very strongly to enlist.

By the touchstone of the men it has broken this war is judged, and the
makers of this war. And more than ruined villages and desecrated
churches these soldiers pronounce condemnation. They, who have given
so much, are, in a sense, without joy and without enthusiasm; rather
they shun recollection. There is no zest in the killing of men. Their
thoughts, especially at this season, are directed away from the dull,
mechanic force which labors against its bonds across Europe, and dwell
in the homes it has threatened. The war is revealed as a thing gross
and dull-witted, a crime even against the ancient, chivalrous spirit
of war.

Three Dying Foes Made Friends

[From The Hartford Courant, Jan. 14, 1915.]

_To the Editor of The Courant:_

_I have read nothing more tender and moving than the subjoined letter
found by a Red Cross agent at the side of a dead officer and forwarded
to the person to whom it was addressed. The writer was a French
cavalry officer engaged to a young American girl in Paris. It was
written as he lay dying from wounds received in a cavalry charge. Let
it speak for itself._

_E.P.P._

There are two other men lying near me, and I do not think there is
much hope for them either. One is an officer of a Scottish regiment
and the other a private in the Uhlans. They were struck down after me,
and when I came to myself, I found them bending over me, rendering
first aid.

The Britisher was pouring water down my throat from his flask, while
the German was endeavoring to stanch my wound with an antiseptic
preparation served out to them by their medical corps. The Highlander
had one of his legs shattered, and the German had several pieces of
shrapnel buried in his side.

In spite of their own sufferings they were trying to help me, and when
I was fully conscious again the German gave us a morphia injection and
took one himself. His medical corps had also provided him with the
injection and the needle, together with printed instructions for its
use.

After the injection, feeling wonderfully at ease, we spoke of the
lives we had lived before the war. We all spoke English, and we talked
of the women we had left at home. Both the German and the Britisher
had only been married a year....

I wondered, and I supposed the others did, why we had fought each
other at all. I looked at the Highlander, who was falling to sleep,
exhausted, and in spite of his drawn face and mud-stained uniform, he
looked the embodiment of freedom. Then I thought of the Tricolor of
France and all that France had done for liberty. Then I watched the
German, who had ceased to speak. He had taken a Prayer Book from his
knapsack and was trying to read a service for soldiers wounded in
battle.

And ... while I watched him, I realized what we were fighting for....
He was dying in vain, while the Britisher and myself, by our deaths,
would probably contribute something toward the cause of civilization
and peace.

[The letter ends with a reference to the failing light and the roar of
guns.]

[Illustration]

Chronology of the War

Showing Progress of Campaigns on All Fronts and Collateral Events from
Jan. 7 to and Including Jan. 31, 1915

CAMPAIGN IN EASTERN EUROPE

[Continued from the Last Number.]

Jan. 8--Germans are trying to carry the Russian lines near Bolinow by
the use of steel shields to protect riflemen.

Jan. 9--Germans renew offensive from direction of Mlawa; fighting on
the Rawka and in the north; Russians enter Transylvania; Austrians
meet delays near Nida River.

Jan. 11--Russians are strengthening their lines.

Jan. 12--Russians are pressing the Austrians near the Nida; Austrians
are fleeing from Bukowina.

Jan. 13--Russians occupy several villages in the Masurian Lake region
and threaten Mlawa; Austrians state that Russians lost heavily in
Przemysl siege.

Jan. 14--Russians push north from Warsaw; Germans retake several
positions on Bzura River; it is reported that Germans are short of
supplies.

Jan. 15--New Russian army marches north in Poland; Germans near Mlawa
are in peril; von Hindenburg declared in danger.

Jan. 16--Austrians bring up heavy artillery to hold the Donajec River;
Germans are on way to Budapest.

Jan. 17--Russians take Kirlibaba Pass and progress along right bank of
the Vistula; Germans pushed back on Plock.

Jan. 18--Germans occupy Kielce; Russians fall back to Radom; Russian
capture of Kirlibaba Pass flanks Austrians; Germans out of Plock.

Jan. 20--Russians drive Austrians back in Hungary and march on
Jacobeni.

Jan. 21--Russians renew offensive against Mlawa; Austrians rout
Russians from intrenchments on Donajec River.

Jan. 22--New Russian army nears Prussia; invasion of Hungary halted;
Russian advance is causing alarm in Budapest.

Jan. 23--Germans are massing in Hungary; Russians advance in the
north.

Jan. 24--Russians checked in Transylvania.

Jan. 25--Armies are deadlocked in Central Poland; Austrians declare
that Transylvania is safe; fierce fighting in Bukowina; Russians
forced from trenches south of Tarnow.

Jan. 27--Austrians report the recapture of Uzsok Pass; Russians seize
Pilkalen; ten army corps are gathered in Southern Hungary, with many
Germans in them.

Jan. 28--Great struggle for the Carpathians is opening; Austro-German
forces advance on eighty-mile front.

Jan. 29--Russian wings advance in East Prussia and the Carpathians;
Russians close in on Insterburg; Tilsit surrounded.

Jan. 30--Russians cut railway between Memel and Tilsit, and enter
Hungary.

Jan. 31--Russians gain in Carpathians.

CAMPAIGN IN WESTERN EUROPE.

Jan. 8--Allies gain north of Soissons, near Rheims, and in Alsace;
French Alpine troops use skis in gaining an advantage in Alsace.

Jan. 9--Germans retake Steinbach and Burnhaupt; French take Perthes
and gain near Soupir.

Jan. 10--French cut German railway lines to prevent reserves from
coming to the relief of Altkirch.

Jan. 11--Allies, attacking from Perthes, are trying to cut German rail
communications.

Jan. 12--French attempt offensive near Soissons and Perthes; they are
checked in Alsace; British forces at the front are steadily increasing
in number.

Jan. 13--Germans, reinforced, win victory at Soissons, forcing French
to abandon five miles of trenches and to cross the Aisne, leaving guns
and wounded; heights of Vregny are won in this fight by the Germans
under the eyes of the Kaiser; Germans take 3,150 prisoners and
fourteen guns in two days' fighting.

Jan. 15--French are calm over the Soissons defeat; British gain near
La Bassee.

Jan. 17--Allies take trenches in Belgium; deadlock at La Bassee;
Allies closing on Lille.

Jan. 18--Fierce fighting at La Boisselle; both sides are claiming
success at Tracy-le-Val.

Jan. 19--French advance in attempt to cut off St. Mihiel.

Jan. 20--French are nearer Metz; British take Freylinghuysen.

Jan. 21--Germans repulsed in Ardennes woods by French and Belgians;
French retake trenches at Notre Dame de Lorette; Germans retake Le
Pretre woods; it is learned that the Soissons battle was won by von
Kluck's veterans, and that the Germans granted a half-hour truce while
French Red Cross aided wounded.

Jan. 22--Fierce fighting in Hartmanns-Weiler region.

Jan. 23--Germans renew activity near Ypres and bombard left wing of
Allies; fighting in Argonne region.

Jan. 24--Germans are bombarding Flanders towns; Allies leave St.
Georges.

Jan. 25--Kaiser sends Prince Eitel Friedrich to capture Thann and
direct fighting in Alsace; French gain toward Altkirch and destroy
bridges over the Meuse at St. Mihiel; Germans forced to abandon
Dixmude trenches because of floods.

Jan. 26--Another battle on at La Bassee; Germans gain ground by
vigorous offensive near Craonne and in Alsace.

Jan. 27--Germans attack between La Bassee and Bethune, this being the
Kaiser's birthday; the French claim that the German loss is 20,000;
indecisive fighting near Ypres.

Jan. 28--French defeated at Craonne; Germans make gains in the Vosges
and Upper Alsace.

Jan. 29--Germans checked in two attempts to cross the Aisne; they
drain the Yser flood area.

Jan. 30--Germans win in the Argonne.

Jan. 31--Kaiser directs German assault on La Bassee; zouaves and
Indians win the Great Dune west of Lombaertzyde.

CAMPAIGN IN AFRICA.

Jan. 9--French win in Kamerun.

Jan. 15--British take Swakopmund.

CAMPAIGN IN ASIA MINOR AND EGYPT.

Jan. 9--Turks hasten construction of railway lines across Sinai
peninsula.

Jan. 10--Turks are marching on Egypt; reserve Turkish army, trying to
save Erzerum, repulsed at frontier.

Jan. 12--Erzerum road is being fought for; Noury Bey captured by
Russians.

Jan. 13--Turks occupy Tabriz and report Arab victory over British
troops on the lower Tigris.

Jan. 14--Armenian refugees cross Russian frontier; Turkish invasion of
Persia continues.

Jan. 15--Turks advance in Persia.

Jan. 17--Turkish corps cut to pieces in the Caucasus.

Jan. 18--Turkish soldiers are being frozen to death.

Jan. 21--Turks are pushing plans for a strategic railway to the
Egyptian frontier.

Jan. 24--Russians check Turkish advance on Erzerum.

Jan. 27--British defeat Turkish advance guard toward El Kantara on the
Suez Canal; three Turkish army corps now marching on Egypt; British
win at Korna.

Jan. 28--Turks, reinforced, attack Russians in the Caucasus.

Jan. 29--Turks fortify Erzerum, and order civilians to depart.

Jan. 30--Russians take Tabriz.

Jan. 31--Turks defeated near Sari-Kamysh.

NAVAL RECORD.

Jan. 11--Report from Vienna that French dreadnought Courbet has been
sunk.

Jan. 12--Japanese cruisers are hunting the German converted cruiser
Prince Eitel Friedrich off the coast of Peru.

Jan. 13--Dover forts drive off two German submarines; bombardment of
the Dardanelles by the allied fleets continues.

Jan. 16--French submarine Saphir sunk by Turkish mine at the
Dardanelles; Italian gunboat Coatit damaged in the Adriatic.

Jan. 20--Dutch naval patrol boat sunk by a mine, five men being lost.

Jan. 21--German cruiser Karlsruhe reported off Porto Rico.

Jan. 22--German submarine U-19 sinks British freighter Durward.

Jan. 23--German supply ship sunk by Australian cruiser.

Jan. 24--British patrolling squadron under Vice Admiral Beatty defeats
German squadron attempting to reach English coast; German battle
cruiser Bluecher sunk and two other German battle cruisers damaged;
British battle cruisers Lion and Tiger damaged; Germans claim three
British ships were sunk.

Jan. 28--British Admiralty denies that any British ship was sunk.

Jan. 30--German submarine sinks three British steamers in Irish
Channel and chases Liverpool passenger boat.

Jan. 31--German submarine sinks two British steamers in English
Channel; third steamer escapes.

AERIAL RECORD.

Jan. 10--German aeroplanes threw thirty bombs on Dunkirk, damaging
several houses; Belgian aviators give battle to the Germans at great
altitude and finally drive them off; German aviator shot down by
French near Amiens.

Jan. 16--German hydroaeroplane lost in North Sea; nine aviators of the
Allies drop bombs on Ostend.

Jan. 19--German airships drop bombs on Yarmouth, King's Lynn, and
other English towns; four persons are killed, ten wounded, and
considerable property damage is done; it is reported that the German
plant at Friedrichshafen produces a super-Zeppelin every three weeks.

Jan. 21--Allies drop bombs on Essen.

Jan. 22--Holland is to investigate a report that a Zeppelin violated
her neutrality by flying over her territory.

Jan. 23--Germans drop bombs on Dunkirk; it is reported that the
American Consulate is damaged.

Jan. 25--It is reported from Amsterdam that 400 German war automobiles
were destroyed in the raid on Essen.

Jan. 26--Russians bring down German airship that bombarded Libau.

Jan. 28--Crew of German airship that bombarded Libau will be tried by
military court and will not be treated as prisoners of war; bomb
dropped on Belgrade.

AMERICAN INTERESTS.

Jan. 24--Administration makes public in Washington a letter written by
Secretary Bryan to Senator Stone of Missouri in which discrimination
against Germany and Austria-Hungary is denied; twenty charges made by
pro-Germans are taken up and the Administration's position and action
on each are stated in detail.

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY.

Jan. 17--Anti-war demonstrations in Vienna; Czech editor executed for
treason.

Jan. 20--Governor of Cracow orders partial evacuation of the city.

Jan. 21--Archduke Charles Francis, the Austrian Crown Prince, is in
Berlin, where he will be joined shortly by Baron Burian, the new
Austro-Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs; plans of campaign
against Russia are to be discussed with German officials.

Jan. 23--Baron Burian leaves Berlin for German Army Headquarters to
confer with the Kaiser.

Jan. 25--Riots in many parts of Hungary.

Jan. 28--Riot among Southern Slavs because of mobilization order.

Jan. 29--Prisoners of war are to be employed in farm work.

Jan. 30--Warning is sent to Rumania against agitation among Rumanian
population of Transylvania.

BELGIUM.

Jan. 8--Cardinal Mercier has been placed under restraint by the German
authorities because of his pastoral, read in the churches on Jan. 3,
in which he told the Belgians that they owe German authority "neither
respect, nor attachment, nor obedience."

Jan. 9--It is reported that Cardinal Mercier was arrested, but the
report is denied by the Military Governor of Belgium; circulation of
the Mercier pastoral is not being permitted.

Jan. 10--The Mercier pastoral is read in English churches; Belgian
refugees are proving a problem in England and Holland.

Jan. 11--Admiration for Cardinal Mercier expressed by King Albert in a
letter to the Pope.

Jan. 12--It is reported from Rome that the Vatican has asked Germany
for an explanation regarding the acts with reference to Cardinal
Mercier.

Jan. 22--Full text of the Mercier pastoral is printed in THE NEW YORK
TIMES.

CANADA.

Jan. 22--Major General Hughes, Minister of Militia and Defense,
arrives in Vancouver to arrange for enlistment of third contingent.

Jan. 30--First detachment of Canadian troops is in France; other
detachments are en route; nine German prisoners escape from Halifax
citadel; war fund of $1,500,000 raised in five days in Montreal.

Jan. 31--Six Canadians, including two officers, killed in La Bassee
fight.

EGYPT.

Jan. 10--Abbas Hilmi, deposed Khedive, calls upon Egyptians and
Sudanese to rise against England.

ENGLAND.

Jan. 8--House of Lords adjourns after discussion of recruiting and
other phases of the war.

Jan. 12--Government appeals to women to induce men to enlist.

Jan. 15--War Office issues statement that letters destined for hostile
countries will be held up unless they are unsealed.

Jan. 16--Seven British naval officers, interned in Holland, escape,
but five are recaptured.

Jan. 23--Statement shows that total casualty list of officers up to
Jan. 12 was 4,344, of whom 1,266 were killed, the rest being wounded
and missing; many interned Germans and Austrians released on parole.

Jan. 27--Two Hindu soldiers win Victoria Crosses; London financial
papers deprecate a joint loan for the Allies.

Jan. 28--Many Oxford "blues" are serving in the army.

Jan. 31--There are 178 peers serving in the army.

FRANCE.

Jan. 10--Government will surrender German surgeons and nurses held as
prisoners of war only in equal exchange.

Jan. 14--Socialist Senator demands postponement of war discussion in
Parliament and says speeches must give way to voice of cannon.

Jan. 18--Paris darkened by police order.

Jan. 22--Capt. Uhde, stated to be a relative of the Kaiser, is sent to
concentration camp after being accused of having spied on the French
fleet at Toulon.

Jan. 27--Many doctors have been killed, wounded, and taken prisoner,
the reason for lengthy casualty list being stated to be that the
French doctors do not desert their wounded on approach of the enemy.

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