Show beneral A alaj per frers ngos countries by the th ill all north A american erlos newspaper Newe piper alliance All lanc world riah re ito r served including the tha jw n a in re production io n I 1 in whole orin or in part prohibited 1 service CHAPTER continued the assaulting lines of infantry accompanied compa nied by numerous tanks succeeded without difficulty in reaching the limited objectives port fort kalmal son on the key point was reduced to a heap of rubbish by the very heavy artillery fire concentrated upon it the capture of this dominant position by the french caused the immediate withdrawal of the germans on the right tind and left and during the succeeding fortnight they retired behind the allette victory Is if offset tills this achievement of the french in capturing positions against which the april offensive by nivelle dashed it self pelt to pieces had a very stimulating effect upon their morale but it would have been more lasting had it not been followed so soon by the serious defeat of the italians at cavoretto Ca poretto october 24 after extending thanks to our host we left for literally covered with mud stopping there to con general retain petain on the suc euc cess of the day while tit at Comple gnp we dropped in at the dispensary where some borne american women under miss elsie de wolfe who afterward became lady mendl maintained a clinic clin for badly burned gas cases we also als 51 made a brief call at the lio hospital nearby to see colonel bunau varila of panama canal fame who had lost a leg at the recent french offen off enslie Alve near verdun ferdun from his cheerful mood he seemed to be rather proud of his hl wound in 1927 1027 1 I took part in the dedication of the ossuary near verdun at which colonel bunau varila was present on the rounds to inspect this fine monument we passed the ma many ny bays which contain the he bones of men who lost their lives in the great battle battie when we came to the bay corresponding to the sector in which he fought he be jovially remarked that he thought ills his leg must be in there dock construction delayed toward tow aid the end of october accompanied by gens richard N blatchford Blat cliford and mason M patrick and cols charles it 11 krauthoff and david dald S stanley I 1 visited bordeaux one of the ports chosen for the use of american troops As facilities were only sufficient to accommodate a limited amount of additional medium draft shipping we had started the construe alon of new docks at bassens bossens Bas sens 12 miles below where deep water would permit vessels to come alongside although considerable guan quantities of ma berlat had been sent over this new construction was delayed principally because of the lack of piling which the engineers had planned to have hae brought from the pacific coast an incident happened in connection with the shipments of piling from home that would have been amus amusing liag it if it had not been so serious one ship that reached bordeaux Boide aus was supposed to be loaded with especially long piling but upon inspection the engineers found it much shorter than prescribed bed upon inquiry it was learned that to get tl ur plies piles in between bulkheads the supercargo had sawed the ends off while speaking of forest products another example of inefficiency that occurred a little later might be mentioned one of the vessels from home was loaded hv by the quartermasters denart among them I 1 spoke to two colonels and criticized the lack of sanitation but it was evident that they were unable to compel the men to work even een to the extent of cleaning out stables latrines or drains and the conditions may be better imagined than described bed the alie men were a heavy stu pid looking lot who in their now new estate apparently did not care how bad things were so long as the french continued to feed and clothe them progress Is noted Gl clevres Gle evres which lies miles directly south of carls became the site of our principal supply depot in france under col C J Sin monds able and energetic direction construction to cov c ov er nn an area of 12 square miles was going forward Ioni ard with all possible speed colonel was gradually putting order older and system into the place regardless of the adverse conditions under tinder which the line of com communion munica lions was laboring belling la there was everywhere ft a tine fine and enthusiastic spirit among the and men who without exception were cheerful and optimistic in istle after all considering the lack of men and material we were making progress on the physical side of the organization that would feed clotho clothe and furnish munitions for the great army we hoped to have hae one obstacle however ho weer was to be found in the number of independent hurnaus inn pans represented at the ports find and the lie larger centers of activity not only in our own system but especially in that ali at of the french and the consequent difficulty of securing teamwork among them As a remedy I 1 sent to each baso base section a competent general officer with an organized staff to coordinate and systematize the man ager cent rent of affairs and in a brIef tIme conslo able improvement was noticeable ir ie methods of handling troop arrivals and cargo and in the increased progress of construction CHAPTER breakfasting with me in parts paris no vember 4 1017 the british prime minister mr lloyd george referred to the italian defeat at Ca cavoretto Capo poretto ietto its as ie be ing a most serious disaster and point ed out that sending british and french divisions to italy had materially weakened the lines in france mr lloyd george also spoke nt at some length on the lack of concerted action among the allied armies I 1 agreed with him and added that in my opinion there never had been real operation cooperation co on the western front between the british and french that when one was attacking attaching the other was usually standing still and that the germans were thus left tree free to concentrate their reserves against the threatened point we were facing a grave crisis next year if not sooner said mr air lloyd george and no one knew how it was to be met the enemy might attack each one separately with the same results as in the case of italy he then asked what I 1 thought of creating a supreme war council having in mind councils called to decide upon military operations in the field I 1 told him that the advice of war councils was not usually of any great value and that the proposition did not appeal to me I 1 said that authority should be vested somewhere to co erdl arx T I 1 le graves gravel of corporal J B gresham and privates enright and hay ment with shavings for the cold storage plant instead of steel billets for the manufacture of guns when tons of sawdust and shavings could have been obtained from the logging districts in france trouble with russians continuing the inspection we ire went on sunday to bornau about forty miles from bordeaux thinking it might possibly he be available for our use later inter an on it was then occupied by a brigade of disaffected russians who like most of their fellows had defied their officers and refused to participate further in the war after being withdrawn from the line they had given the F rench french tw huep trouble even to committing depre depredations lations on the people that they had to be sent out of the zone of the armies to this rather remote camp where they were held practically as prisoners there wis vlas no transportation to car ry them back to russia andas and as they had bad been allowed to keep heep their arms it wag wa difficult to enforce discipline nate the operations on the western front and suggested the possibility of having a supreme supreme commander there lloyd george favors council mr lloyd george replied in effect that it was unlikely that the allies would agree upon any one as the french would object to any but a frenchman and the british might not like that lie he thought the council would be useful for the purpose primarily of bringing the heads of the allied governments together at intervals to determine general policies I 1 admitted that such an organization might serve to unite the allies in ili common purpose but that the conduct of operations by the combined armich 5 should hould he under military direction I 1 got the distinct impression th that at while lie he was seeking to secure greater unity of action he also sought some means of controlling the activities of the british army during previous months that army had been engaged in almost continuous offe offensive nElve operations practically single tingle handed with very vary heavy losses and few compensating advantages mr lloyd george went on to say that there was to be a meeting of the prime ministers at rapallo italy and that he fie hoped they might reach some agreement that would result in a council such as lie had in mind ile he thought that the united states ought to be represented at this meeting and suggested that I 1 should attend As the purpose of a council seemed to be more for political co than fur for aurely I 1 birely military control I 1 told him that it seemed best for me not to participate without some intimation from my government to do so in the afternoon at II 11 Pai nieves tile the european allies and america are not fighting for or the same thing mr ivinson thinks a great deal more of his ideas of people governing themselves of a friendly working arrangement among all the great gibat powers after the war than he does of 0 rials or specific things going to this or that country what he wants Is to smash the german military power and have a society of democratic nations afterwards but to england france and italy these things are phrases useful perhaps but of secondary interest Engin england nd wants to maintain her colonial coloni il possessions to keep her position on the sea and her commercial place in the world WP VP know what ja K 7 W 13 4 aa american Amp rican troops moving to the front request I 1 called on him and lie he also told me of the proposal to form a su preme war council and wanted me to go to the conference in italy I 1 gave gae him the same reply that I 1 had given ghen mr lloyd george shortly thereafter the rapallo meeting was held resulting in an agreement ag ree among the prime ministers of the governments participating great britain france and italy approved by wilson the creation of the council did n not ot meet with universal hersal un approval the commanders of the british and F reach french armies and high officials in clil civil circles being opposed to it military tary commanders were afraid it would result in undue interference with the conduct of operations and in derision deil sion it was often referred to as the soviet the action of the three governments at rapallo was approved by president wilson november 17 and that fact appeared in the press a day or so later the presidents action strengthened the hands of those who favored faired the council and probably became the influence that saved it tile the fact Is that if the french and british army commanders in a friendly spirit of co operation cooperation had made a joint study of the military problem of the western front as a whole and then had seriously under undertaken tal en to pull together as though under orie one control cont iol the supreme war council would never have been born the supreme war council made a favorable fao rable start and gave gae the impression that flint a wise and conservative exercise of its really unlimited powers would characterize charac terise its actions it refrained fra ined from interfering directly with military commanders and operations and confined itself largely to questions question of policy such as the co ordination of allied resources and the conservation and distribution of allied strength however weer as time went on the su preme war council assumed greater and greater authority over military questions conflict with wilson ideals As to the political situation the undercurrent der current dt at the moment as nearly as could be learned showed a continued lack of accord among the different nations which were not at nil all in agreement with president wilsons Wll Wil sons ideals each had its own aspirations and each sought to gain some advantage over the others some of the divergent war alms had to do with territory distant from france and troops were sent that might have been more usefully employed on the western front in a letter to secretary of war baker I 1 a memorandum which was a report of a conversation held by a man in my confidence with a british official high up in the counsel of areat britain tile the date of tills this conversation was october 24 1017 perhaps it should not be taken too seriously I 1 wrote but it Is an indication of the british attitude sees difference in alms alma in this conversation the british official al declared france wants alsace lorraine Lorral nc as indemnity and security for the future italy has definite nite territorial claims thus the governments of these countries think a great deal about what the they want for themselves and less about ideals unless these ideals are Inel incidental dental to success so there Is no clear unity among the allies in europe and america CHAPTER soon after the sirs first division entered a quiet sector of the the peaceful aspect ot of the situation was disturbed by a germin german raid on an isolated post of the sixteenth infantry idov november ember 3 1917 A group was caught in a box bardige b birrage and although the men mado a courageous counge ous resistance three were killed five wounded arid and twelve captured these were the first casualties that had occurred in our army to units serving sen ing in the trenches tren dies the dead were corporal james B gresham and privates thomas r F enright find and merle D hay all of company r F the french took charge of the funerals and turned out a formal cormal guard in addition to our own the services sen ices were w ere conducted by the french general bordeaux Bordea uv who came with his full staff and delivered a beautiful oration over the graves A large number of french troops also came informally inform illy to pay their final tribute this joint homage to our dead there under the fire of the guns seemed to symbolize the common sacr inces we were to make mak e in the sunie same great cause ammunition question acute the ammunition question again became acute tit nt that time despite des alte our agreements with the french und and their positive assurances that they would make prompt deliveries but their explanation plan atlon was that we had not furnished the full amount of raw material required in my early reference to the prospects of procuring artillery of and calibers and ammunition for its use it had been expected that nothing should diminish our efforts at home in their manufacture but when the probability of delay and possibly failure of the french to furnish ammunition for these guns was reported to washington my cable met the complacent reply much to my surprise that the french government must furnish it for there Is no other way of getting it at the present time there is riot not in this country any actual output of ammunition of the types mentioned itlo ned none has been expected I 1 home ports overcrowded the difficulty of providing the french with raw material was largely traceable to the lack of shipping and of course the unscientific use of stint we had the fact is that the ports at home were overcrowded with all sort of material and supplies awaiting ve vessels s the french had over tons of supplies e s at seaboard wh which ch they were unable to move and were clamoring for tons additional of steel stee ralls rails TO baj CONTINUED |