Show X U pe aishi a ga s 0 1 toll AM m 1 A ua 6 F 0 copyright 1931 t tn 11 II 11 tri ivy american by general 0 an newspaper alliance world rights right r se d 0 including the scandinavian ite production in john J S big 0 or in part prohibited SI S I CHAPTER continued As tile the situation in which we found ourselves regarding artillery tion was approaching a crisis it be came necessary to lay the whole ques tion before the munitions board after a full fall investigation of their resources both tile the french and british concluded that they could un nn fler der take to meet our requirements with the distinct understanding that their plants must be greatly increased in er r opacity and that we should furnish promptly the late gen ansker H n bliss ahlet of the war department general staff represented us in the hilled allied conference and reported results and agreements reached he had brought the latest data from home and ills hla knowledge concerning steel and munitions enabled him to give valuable assistance to my chief of ordnance in our efforts to had flad I 1 solution to the difficult munitions problem aletter A letter from secretary of war baker dated september 10 had only recently been received and gave me an idea of some of ills his problems lu in part he wrote as follows 1 I am especially concerned that our troops should not be engaged in actual fighting in france until they hey are arc there in such numbers and have made such buch thorough preparation that their first appearance will be both to their own morale and to the spirit of our people here I 1 think it goes without saving that the germans will make a very special efort to strike swiftly and strongly ng alast tiny any part of the line which we undertake to defend in order to be able to report to their people encouragingly about our participation and also with the object of discouraging our soldiers and our people as much as possible in the matter of selecting corps and division commanders I 1 constantly feel eel that I 1 ought to have your advice and judgment prom from till all that you iou have said eald supplemented by bj all 1 I have learned elsewhere the need for young end and physically strong men Is apparent and I 1 am perfectly willing to go any ani limit in meeting this requirement it will of course necessitate passing over a substantial number of our older generals who are very eager to go to france and who in their own ideas and that of the country have certain right to be preferred but their occupation here in the t of troops Is of course couise a val valuable ab I 1 e c contribution trib ution to the cause and when whenever chenevier evier I 1 can feel sure in the selection of tie the younger roan man that he actually has the capa capacity city to develop to a sufficient ex tent to justify his bis being preferred to a man of greater experience I 1 shall not hesitate mobilizing of army delayed in view of the emergency that was mo eo clearly set forth by the joffre and balfour missions when they visited the united states and which was con firmed after my arrival in france and reported with all emphasis I 1 have never it leen een able to understand the unnecessary delay caused by waiting six BIS months for the co construction of large cantonments canton ments before calling out men and assembling them for training of course it was particularly urgent that the specialists and laborers needed in france to build up our facilities should have been provided as fast as they could be profitably employed but nothing should have postponed the immediate ined late mobilization of the combat units of the regular army and the national guard CHAPTER the units of the twenty sixth division maj gen clarence edwards edwarda commanding began to arrive the latter part of september Septem bir continued during october and the early part of november and were now assembled in the billeting area near Neuf chateau I 1 inspected the division november 11 1917 and found the various organizations presented a very credit lable appearance the officers seemed alert and military and the personnel looked strong and vigorous their instruction st had bad been carried out under the direction of brigadier general traub one of the brigade commanders and seemed to be well advanced the probable situation as to man power in which the allies would find themselves in the spring was causing much solicitude the germans had captured riga in september keren power was at an end and the bolshevik government was established with lenin and in control the rhe situation was such that russia lad had become entirely negligible as tar far us its assistance to the allies was concern concerned berned ed an analysis of the possible strength of the contestants showed that germany would be able to spare a n consid arable number cumber of divisions from the russian front careful study by my mv staff in operation cooperation co with the allied staffs had led to the conclusion that lier ler total number in the west by spring would bo be as many as not counting the possibility of the added strength of forty eight divisions from austria tile the greatest number the allies could muster according to estimates would be divisions counting two amerl ameri an italy could not be counted on to do 40 emoi cuore e than barely told ter her even with the help of the lie eleven allied divisions then on that front other american divis divisions lons might pos sibly be in by may alay I 1 if they should arrive according to schedule which was doubtful but they would be too late to participate in the expected early spring campaign at the lie low rate of arrival we ve should not have more than half of the twenty one dl di visions promised by tile the war depart merit ment ready for service by tune june outcome depended on america in this war where the battle lines extended across entire countries and in which the qualities of the appo bents were about equal tile aspect largely resolved itself into a consideration of the number and location of divisions on either side tile llie situation was of such a 11 diameter character olini it was waa a question which side could provide the superiority of tones forces nee ne essary to success in other words till outcome would depend upon the duill ber of troops that america could send over all eyes ees were on the Pit anstein stern front to allied statesmen the collapse or of russia meant possible grave ne political consequences to the allied ers it forecast the release of divisions and the increase in the ranks in belgium and northern france to n preponderance that could not be overcome to us it indicated a race between americas Ame ilca best effort to poor our fighting men into france and germanas germanys Germ Gerni anys best deter ruination to crush the allies before our soldiers could arrive in num bers to dominate the battlefield faced defeat with allies our estimates of the shipping foi troops and supplies as set forth in tin the plan by which a due proportion of combat and line of communication troops were to form such increment of six divisions would require by june I 1 for the shipment of twenty four di visions a total of over tons no one seemed to know where liere wt wc were to obtain tile the tons of shipping in addition to the GOO tons we were then supposed to be using it appeared almost certain then that should disaster befall the allied armies that under these conditions we would have to go down don with them I 1 always felt certain however howe cr that thai tonnage could be found for our pur I 1 pose it if the necessary pre pressure sure were exerted x arted to force it into use appeals were made continuously and persis was to be left to the senior general generel officer in the vicinity who might be either french or british in gol going na over these plans it seemed to me ine that their idea of securing operation cooperation co after the french should begin participation was wag rather vogue during the day we first went to visit general byng commanding the third a army ri 11 y who explained explain ed further details of the attack and ann the progress already made lie ile and ills his chief of staff were busy receiving news from tile the front cronl and felt that all was going well british victory spurs allies the attack was made on a six mile front and the british had tile the advantage from froin the outset tile the sudden bouch bouchi ment nent of the long line of tanks closely followed hy by the infantry all without the usual warning of long preliminary Il artillery bombardment completely surprised the germans the tanks broke wide gaps in tile the wire and aim subdued the machine gun nests alding the infantry through the defenses w with I 1 th ri minimum of loss the front was rather narrow considering si the depth of the objectives A maximum gain of some four and a half liala miles was secured the first day and a 11 greater result was wag prevented it was said by a serious check to the tanks at for sonic some reason or other the alie french were not called into action but presumably it was because the british cavalry which was to precede them could not go forward as planned the offensive continued for two or three days longer with varying success Is it was however a decided victory and while not as great as the british expected it gave encouragement to the allies on the western front and no doubt helped to offset temporarily the depressing effect of the serious defeat recently sustained by the italian army CHAPTER an american mission headed by col B E 31 house arrived in france toward the end of november for an conference other members of the mission were admiral W S benson gen tasker 11 II bliss chief of staff oscar T crosby for the treasury department part ment vance AleC McConn orinick lck chairman of the war trade hoard board baan bridge colby shipping board alonzo 13 0 taylor thomas N perkins war industries dus dust tries rles and paul cravath As the representatives of different nationalities gathered in parts paris recent reports of decreasing losses of ocean briefly setting forth the importance of the gatherl tig and tile the nece necessity setty of translating tile the noble spirit of the alliance into action no attempts nt oratory were in evidence nor was there prolonged discourse on any subject questions concerning annil able man power shipping munitions and supplies were mentioned but only in a general way tile the conference did little more than agree that the study ot of the various subjects should be left to committees composed of representatives tt it wits was very clear hint ahat everybody IV was ns looking to america to provide the additional man power needed to give the allies superiority none was more eager to increase our forces than our hut but on my part every possible angui argument I 1 nent to procure shipping had been presented to tile the allies and to our war department so when the conference urged the expedition of our forces it made the strongest kind of a case in favor favoron of immediate increase 0 of f allied aid in tonnage for sonic some time reliance upon tipon tile the allies for any considerable amount of tonnage had seemed almost in vain and it looked as though we should have to depend upon our own limited resources for most of it the british were wee giving sonic assistance in the transportation of men bled american ships had carried up to november 1 and the british the results of tile the british success at cambrai were not to be permanent as tile germans quickly retaliated general von marwitz hastily assembled a force of some fifteen divisions and november 30 suddenly launched a violent counterattack the british were short of reserves and before von marwitz was stopped his troops had bad regained most of the lost ground it was in this operation that a detachment tach ment of our eleventh regiment of engineers became engaged while serving with the british the men to the number of were at work in the Gauz acourt railway yard when the germans attacked attached one onen officer and nine men were wounded and the detachment tach ment withdrew they were then given arms and fought with the tie british war council meets again the second conference of the supreme war council was held at versailles december 1 our represents political and military at this meeting were mr house and general blohs respectively at the opening session Clemene clemenceau cau drew diew attention to tile the general situation referring especially to the collapse of russia the probable release of enemy troops from that front the adverse situation in italy the depletion of allied man power and the reliance of the allies on american assistance the premier enjoined the military tary representatives to bear in mind that their function lg Is to advise the supreme war wai r council as a whole and not merely as representatives of their respective spec tive nations on the council and that they should view the problems confronting them not from a national 1 f 4 t Z k V RK 24 general pershing visits the king and queen of cf belgium bently in an effort to get action on this vital question but several months elapsed before it really came taken as a whole the apparently slow progress of our preparation in europe also caused considerable adverse comment it if not dismay among the allies inquiries were made directly by the military and civil officials as to why we did not move more rapidly to which the reply was always lack of shipping new british offensive immobilized by tile the mud of flanders where here british attacks had continued intermittently from the end of july to tile the middle of november with rather excessive losses the british commander in chief turned to a more southerly portion of his line for the final offensive of the year choosing the cam brat front on which to launch alie effort careful preparations including the concentration of an unusual number of tanks were made to insure a break through the defenses the tanks banks and the infantry were to make an opening through which tile the cavalry was nas to pass and attack the flanks of the enemy then french troops held in readiness in the vie vicinity anity were to follow As to the question of command of these combined forces when both should bae barome orlie engaged it tonnage and greater destruction ot of german submarines with prospects 0 of still further improvement seemed to give more of hopefulness in the general situation and allied spirits were somewhat revived the british had won at and were making satisfactory progress in their advance on jerusalem which it was said would be facilitated by the use of their new base at jaffa the italians seemed to have recovered their morale to a limited extent with wit the stiff stiffening etling of their lines by british and french divisions and lind bad successfully held their own against the austrian attack on the piave not the least hopeful thing was the stop step just taken toward unity of command in the creation of the supreme war council but the decisive factor in ill the whole situation it if it could lie be utilized utilize tl in time was the tremendous economical and physical power of the united states to make that available before it was too late was tile problem upon the solution of which depended the success of the allied cause would the allies see it aw anil would they work together to solve it when all were seated around tile the table in the assembly room at the min astry of foreign affairs prime minia ter clemenceau who presided ded spoke looks j standpoint but from that of the allies as a whole the military representatives at this conference were instructed to examine the military situation and report their t air recommendations as to the future plan of operations to study the immediate situation in italy from the offensive as well as from the defensive defran point of view and to report on the utilization of the belgian array army it |