Chapter I: Front Matter

AMERICA'S WAR FOR HUMANITY

Pictorial History _of the_ World War _for_ Liberty

_By_ THOMAS H. RUSSELL, A.M. LL.D.

_Noted Historical and Military Writer. Member American Historical Association_

_Below_--Men of the 313th U.S. Field Artillery cleaning and polishing 75-millimeter shells, to be sent over to the Hun at night. Dirty or rusted shells are dangerous to use. (_U.S. Official Photos_.)]

_Below_--American and French soldiers looking over the town of Chateau Thierry after the battle. This was the scene of America's first great victory in the war. The town was stormed and the enemy routed by the troops the Germans had chosen to belittle. (_Copyright by C.P.I.; Photo from W.N.U._)]

_Below_--How hand grenades are thrown at the enemy in the trenches. American soldiers soon became expert at this superlative kind of baseball. (_U.S. Official Photos_.)]

_Below_--Surrendering the German submarines at the port of Harwich, England. Note the listless attitude of this particular German crew. _(Copyright, I.F.S.)_]

_Below_--An American patrol arriving at the ruins of the house used as an observatory by the German Crown Prince during the famous battle of Verdun. It is said that he watched the operations in comfort while seated before the eyepiece of a periscope carried up through the roof. (_U. S. Official Photos_.)]

_Below_--Y. M. C. A. Secretary H. F. Butterfield, with a volunteer detail of the 104th Infantry, 26th Division, loaded with cigarettes, chewing gum, and tobacco for the boys of the 104th, who were chasing the retreating foe in France. _(U. S. Official Photos.)_]

_Below_--Canadian officers of a Royal Air Squadron, lined up with their machines behind the front in France. It was the splendid work of these gallant fellows and thousands more like them--British, French, and Americans--that kept the supremacy of the air in the hands of the Allies. _(Canadian Official Photo, copyright by U. & U_.)]

_Below_--A Belgian scouting party in Flanders, making its way over a pontoon bridge, and dressed in the new khaki uniform of the Belgian army, which turned the tables on the Hun. _(Photo, U. & U._)]

_Below_--Scene when Cambrai was captured by the British, showing large numbers of British troops moving forward across the battlefield. In the foreground the men are seen leaving a communication trench. _(British Official Photo, from I. F. S._)]

_Below_--The first batch of American troops to return.from France after the armistice. The photo shows the camouflage of S. S. Mauretania as she arrived in New York harbor, bearing 5,000 men, of whom 1,100 were wounded. _(U. S. Official Photos_)]

_Bottom_--The first American-built tank, called the "America," biggest of all, weighing 45 tons and propelled by steam. (_Copyright, U. & U._)]

_Bottom_--Submarines of United States Navy at base in an Atlantic port awaiting orders for coast defense duty. (_Copyright, U. & U._)]

_Below_--A dashing attack by French poilus, advancing with full packs, bayonets fixed, and typical daring and courage. The spirit of the poilu is admirably illustrated in this snapshot. (_Photo by I.F.S._)]

_Below_--Wounded man making his way painfully back to the rear, with grim determination to keep going and all the grit of the typical American soldier. (_Official Photos by Signal Corps, U.S.A_.)]

_Bottom_--American Army Postoffice in France on Mothers' Day, 1918. Letters and packages from the folks back home are the American soldiers' greatest comfort on the battle front. (_Copyright, Committee on Public Information_.)]

The battery had inflicted heavy losses on the British troops. All the gunners were cut down and the guns put out of action.--Drawn by Dudley Tennant for The Graphic, from notes by a trooper.]

_Below_--Men of the 132nd U.S. Infantry, 33rd Division, in a front line trench, looking toward the valley of the Meuse, where it is estimated 70,000 men lie buried. (_U.S. Official Photos_.)]

The First Battalion of the Naval Militia of New York passing in review of Mayor Mitchell and other officials on stand at Union League Club, 39th Street and Fifth Avenue. (_Copyright by U. & U., N.Y._)]

Gen. Sir E.H. Allenby, British commander in Palestine and Syria, who defeated the Turks and captured Jerusalem, the Holy City, in December, 1917.]

Top: United States Warship North Dakota.

Bottom: New type of rapid-firing machine gun used by the United States Army.]

_Bottom_--"Blue Devils of France"; battle-scarred veterans of the fighting lines leaving the White House after their reception. President Wilson shook hands with every one of these gallant soldiers. (_Copyright, I.F.S._)]

_Below_--U.S. Secretary of War Newton D. Baker getting ready to try on an American infantryman's pack at a rest camp in England. (_U.S. Official Photos_.)]

Marshal Petain of France, the hero of Verdun, who led the victorious French into Strassburg and heads the French army of occupation in Germany.]

The above photograph shows the gun train complete, ready for transportation. The motive power is furnished by the powerful motor truck at the right, which also carries most of the artillerymen forming the gun crew. About thirty men are needed to manipulate the gun in action. The huge shells and ammunition are conveyed in separate trucks or caissons. As a fort-wrecker this powerful piece of ordnance is most effective. Its total weight is nearly 100 tons. The gun proper is at the left and its Krupp sliding breech can be plainly seen at the side. In the center is the gun carriage, with its very powerful recoil apparatus. When the gun is in action these two sections are joined, being so constructed as to fit together readily. The bursting projectiles were called by the British soldiers "Jack Johnsons," "Black Marias" and "Coal-boxes," from the thick black smoke they produced. These epithets ignored their awful death-dealing qualities. (_Copyright, U. & U._).]

A few minutes after the Aboukir was struck by a torpedo from the German submarine U-9 early on September 22, 1914, she listed to port at an angle of 45 degrees and the captain sang out from the bridge: "Every man for himself!" The drawing depicts the scene that followed, as described by a survivor. Two-thirds of the crew of 650 were drowned or killed by the explosion. The boats of the cruisers Hogue and Cressy, which were soon after also torpedoed and sunk, are seen coming to the rescue. The total loss was over 1,400 lives.--_Drawn by Charles Dixon, R.I., for The Graphic_.]

"_LaFayette, we are here_"--_General Pershing_

THE OFFICIAL STORY OF AMERICAN OPERATIONS IN FRANCE

_By_ GENERAL JOHN J. PERSHING _Commander-in-Chief_

WILLIAM DUNSEATH EATON CONTRIBUTING EDITOR _Author "The War in Verse and Prose" "A Soldier of Navarre" etc._

SPECIAL CHAPTERS BY HON. JAMES MARTIN MILLER _Former United States Consul to France Author "Spanish-American War" "Prussian-Japanese War" etc._

DEDICATION

To the soldiers and sailors of the United States and Canada; to the men of the armies and navies of nations allied with us; to the splendid courage and devotion of American, French, British and Belgian women, who have endured in silence the pain of losses worse than death, and never faltered in works of mercy for which no thanks can ever pay; to all the agencies of good that have helped save civilization and the world from the most dreadful menace of all time, this volume is dedicated.

To the honor of those nations upon whom the laurel of victory has descended. To those who have vouchsafed for us the permanence of the higher ideals of humanity and civilization.

To those who have sheltered posterity from the dominance of barbarity, brutality, serfdom, bigotry and degradation.

To those who have striven against the Teuton and the Turk that God-given and God-ordained freedom may triumph.

To those noble stoics of Belgium, of France, of Serbia, of Roumania, of Poland and all other peoples who have felt the mailed fist of the ruthless oppressor; who have looked upon their devastated fields, their dismantled cathedrals, their violated hearth-stones and the desecrated graves of their kindred, and that peace, tranquillity, contentment and prosperity may again be restored to them in bounteous meed.

To those heroes who by their valor, their vigor and their inspired devotion to right and patriotism have so nobly fought and conquered.

To those martyrs whom God in his immutable manifestations has chosen for the ultimate sacrifice of their lives upon the altar of freedom and humanity's cause.

In honor to these who have attained this glorious victory. In honor to the commingling flags of the allied nations reflecting in their rainbow hues a covenant of everlasting peace in this their hour of triumph, may we all consecrate our purposes and our lives to a brotherhood of mankind, a spirit of broadest humanity and universal peace on earth.

--_L.J. Robinson_.