Chapter I: Front Matter

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Produced by Marcia Brooks, Ross Cooling and the Online Distributed Proofreading Canada Team at http://www.pgdpcanada.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)

THE CHILDREN'S STORY OF THE WAR

By Sir Edward Parrott, M.A., LL.D.

THE CHILDREN'S STORY OF THE WAR

Once more we hear the word
That sickened earth of old:--
"No law except the sword
Unsheathed and uncontrolled."
Once more it knits mankind,
Once more the nations go
To meet and break and bind
A crazed and driven foe.

* * * * *

No easy hopes or lies
Shall bring us to our goal,
But iron sacrifice
Of body, will, and soul.
There is but one task for all--
For each one life to give.
Who stands if freedom fall?
Who dies if England live?

Rudyard Kipling.

_(By kind permission.)_

The war found the Boy Scouts true to their motto, "Be Prepared." In London alone 25,000 Scouts were organised to help the various Government departments by acting as messengers. Along the south and east coasts nearly 3,000 went on duty to guard culverts, telephone and telegraph lines, railway stations, reservoirs, etc. Numbers of Scouts also worked as harvesters in the place of men who had joined the Army. The boys above are "doing their little bit" by carrying soldiers' baggage to the railway station.]

THE CHILDREN'S STORY OF THE WAR

BY
SIR EDWARD PARROTT, M.A., LL.D.
AUTHOR OF "BRITAIN OVERSEAS," "THE PAGEANT OF ENGLISH LITERATURE," ETC.

From the Beginning of the War to the Landing of the British Army in
France

THOMAS NELSON AND SONS, Ltd.
LONDON, EDINBURGH, PARIS, AND NEW YORK

_THIS STORY OF THE GREAT WAR_

_recounting for Children the Triumphs of_
_British Valour and Endurance by Land and Sea_

_is_

_DEDICATED_

_by special and gracious permission of_
_Her Majesty the QUEEN_

_to_

_H. R. H. PRINCE GEORGE._

CONTENTS.

I. A Bolt from the Blue 1

II. The Seething Whirlpool 16

III. The Beginnings of Prussia 35

IV. The Great War Lord of Europe 49

V. How the Great War Lord Fell 65

VI. The Man of Blood and Iron 74

VII. Clearing the Path 81

VIII. Preparing for War 86

IX. "The Cockpit of Europe" 93

X. A Terrible Struggle 97

XI. France under the Harrow 113

XII. The Boyhood of the Kaiser 121

XIII. Crown Prince and Kaiser 129

XIV. The Dawn of "The Day" 145

XV. Fateful Days 155

XVI. Why Britain went to War 161

XVII. The Submarine that Failed 177

XVIII. Infantry and its Work 186

XIX. Cavalry and Artillery 193

XX. Some Military Terms 209

XXI. The Invasion of Belgium 220

XXII. How Liége won the Legion of Honour 225

XXIII. The Raid into Alsace 241

XXIV. The Germans in Belgium 250

XXV. Deeds of Shame and Horror 257

XXVI. The Rally of the British Empire 273

XXVII. How India answered the Call 289

XXVIII. The German Advance on Brussels 295

XXIX. How the Germans entered Brussels 305

XXX. How the British Army was carried
Overseas 310