Chapter I: Preface

At the beginning of September, 1914, I was commissioned by _The Times_ to go to France as its representative on the eastern frontier, and it so happens that, during the war, no other English newspaper correspondent has been stationed for any length of time on the long section of the front between Verdun and Belfort. One or two paid flying visits to Lorraine after I was settled there, but they were birds of passage, and were off again almost as soon as they arrived. In collecting the material for my despatches and letters I was helped more than I can say by my colleague, Monsieur Fleury Lamure, a French journalist who had already worked for _The Times_ in Belgium, where he spent some exciting days in August dodging about in front of the armies of von Kluck, von Bulow, and von Hausen as they advanced on Charleroi and Namur. Before the war he had served two years as an engineer officer in the French and Russian navies, and had also worked in Manchuria and the Near East, first as interpreter to General Silvestre, the French military _attaché_ at Kuropatkin’s headquarters, and then as correspondent of the _Novoe Vremya_, with the Servians, in the second Balkan war. In the course of our wanderings together we found that the French military and civil authorities highly appreciated the fact that the newspaper which most of them consider the greatest of English journals had associated a Frenchman with me in the work of writing about the operations of their frontier force. From the first our path was smoothed by what they looked upon as a graceful and sensible act on the part of the Editor. At a later stage in the war my French colleague, who has been twice _réformé_ as unfit for the active exercise of his profession, offered himself at the Admiralty in Paris for one of the auxiliary forces, but was told that the best thing he could do for his country was to go on working for _The Times_.

From September, 1914, to January, 1915, after which no correspondents were allowed in the zone of the armies, we made our headquarters at Nancy. Between us, at various times, we visited a large part of the front from Verdun to Ferette, close to the Swiss frontier, and only fifteen or twenty miles from the Rhine. Sometimes we were in the trenches, _â bout portant_ of the enemy’s rifles, and for four months hardly a day or a night passed when we did not hear the sound of the guns. From what we saw and from what we heard from those who took an active part in it, we were able to get what is, I believe, a fairly correct idea of the general run of the fighting on both sides of the frontier. We were well placed, not only for judging the temper of the civil population of the invaded provinces, but also the spirit and fighting qualities of their defenders.

Before we came to Lorraine we had both seen a little of the early fighting in Belgium—at Namur and Mons, and Charleroi and Dinant. But it was at Nancy that I really got to know something of French soldiers and learnt to admire the wonderful cheerfulness and courage of the XXth Army Corps and the other splendid troops who talked with the enemy in the gate of France, and blocked the passage with their dead bodies.

All that is long ago, though not so long as it seems after the weary waiting of more than a year’s work in the trenches. But the end is not yet. Those army corps, or their successors—for nearly all of the original officers and men are dead or wounded—are still steadily pressing the enemy back, almost on the same ground as when we were there, and, though the full story cannot be told even now, it is neither too late nor too soon for an Englishman to try and give some idea of the debt which England owes to the French armies of the east.

But I should like to say a word about England too. It is always difficult to see ourselves as others see us. Till long after I had gone abroad for this war—to be quite frank, till the end of 1915—I had no real idea of the view which other nations held at the beginning of the chances of our taking a hand in it. I knew, of course, that many Germans had declared since it began that they for their part had never believed that we would draw the sword. I knew from Englishmen who were in Berlin two days, and even I believe one day, before we did declare war, that Englishmen at that time were received in the streets with cries of “Vive l’Angleterre,” or rather “Hoch! England!” and that the bitter revulsion of feeling against us only began when we had thrown down the glove. But that—as I then thought—extraordinary miscalculation and misunderstanding of our national temper, the infuriated reaction from which found vent in the “Gott strafe England” campaign and the “Song of Hate,” I put down to an inexplicable blindness peculiar to the German nation, and to the sort of fury to which we are all liable when other people on important occasions do not act as we wish and expect that they will. Since then—but only lately—I have learnt better, from the vantage ground of a neutral nation.

It is a fact that not only the Germanophil but the Francophil Swiss were genuinely and deeply astonished when they learnt—from the official _communiqués_—that we intended to intervene in the war because the soil of Belgium had been invaded. When the thing was done they accepted it as a fact. They were bound to. But they did not anticipate it. They found it hard to believe that with an army, as they thought—and they were not so far wrong—of only 150,000 men, with nothing to gain and everything to lose, we would be so quixotic as to throw ourselves into a contest in which we were not directly concerned, and to send our “contemptible little army” (even smaller than their own) to fight in a foreign country the battles of another state against the overpowering military might of Germany.

It is also a fact—and to me a still more astounding revelation—that a month after the war had begun there were people in France, and among them soldiers of high standing, who were honestly surprised at what we had already done in the war, as well as profoundly grateful, and who even then honestly doubted whether we really meant to put our backs into it to any purpose.

One can understand their astonishment at what we have done since. Even an Englishman may say, without excessive national conceit, that the work of our Navy, the huge volunteer armies raised in a year from the Mother-country and our Dominions and Colonies and India, and our subsequent if only partial acceptance of the principle of National Service, are not everyday affairs. But the initial Swiss doubt or scepticism as to our possible action, once the neutrality of Belgium had been violated, and the fears of our friends in France at the beginning, that having set our hand to the plough we might turn back before the furrow was finished, are not so easy for us Englishmen to comprehend. We had thought that they knew us better. No matter what Government had been in power, once the Germans had declared their intention of passing through the country of the Belgians, we must inevitably have drawn the sword to defend or avenge them; more than that, even if Belgium had not been invaded, we must no less have put our sword at the disposal of invaded France, for the one wrong was in reality as great as the other. And, no matter what Government may be in power to-morrow or the day after, the spirit of England will not change. We stand by the side of France and our other Allies to the end. And by now, I fancy, the French have found that out.

But do we, even now, realize fully what the war means, and what, as a nation, we have got to do before we can expect to win it? I have just come back to England after an absence of a year and a half. I find that though Parliament and the great mass of the people in all ranks have accepted the principle of National Service, there are still in some quarters powerful organizations which are vehemently opposed to it. I find that in spite of all the warnings that have been issued in the Press and by other means as to the imperative necessity of thrift, and in spite of all the efforts made by countless individuals and large sections of the community to model their lives in accordance with those warnings, other individuals and other sections of the community pay no attention to them at all. Money is being earned in unexampled and hitherto undreamt-of profusion, and is being spent with reckless prodigality. Thrift there is on all sides, but cheek by jowl and hand-in-hand with it there is appalling waste.

We have got to get rid of that word thrift altogether. At the best it is an affair of calculation, and can never inspire us to great deeds or counteract the personal and ignoble motives by which human nature, even in the greatest crises, is too often swayed. There is nothing lofty or idealistic or spiritual about it. We must get into an altogether higher region than that of economics. We must learn the lesson not of thrift but of self-sacrifice. Only that can save us. Without it, even though we have the dreaded ships and the splendid men and the all-necessary money too, we shall be in this war as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. With it, bearing all things, believing all things, hoping all things, enduring all things, we shall move mountains and overcome the world—the world of the powers of darkness. It is the lack of it, and nothing but the lack of it, which is at present preventing us from winning the war and putting an end to its intolerable misery and evil.

G. C.

LONDON,
March, 1916.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

LONDON TO DIJON

PAGE

Departure from London, September 8th, 1914—A German 1
officer’s analysis of the invaders’ plan of
campaign—Paris—General condition of doubt and
uncertainty—Travelling during the Battle of the
Marne—Effect in France of the news of the victory

CHAPTER II

DIJON TO BELFORT

Arrival in Dijon—The laisser-passer difficulty—Besançon—An 11
anxious moment—Arrival at Belfort—Doubtful reception—A
Socialist private—Manifesto “Aux Camerades
Socialistes”—National Service—A Capitalists’ War—The
Strike of Strikes—The struggle for freedom—État de siège—A
city of darkness—Welcome by the Governor

CHAPTER III

IN ALSACE

On German soil—Montreux Vieux—The first ruined 21
village—Towards the Rhine—A night reconnaissance in
Alsace—Ferette—Covert drawn blank—Cheerfulness of the
French soldier—His longing for home—His home at the
front—Taube “over”—A Colonel’s hobby—An army in earnest

CHAPTER IV

ROBBERY UNDER ARMS

Eve of the War—French neutral zone along the frontier—German 33
raids in time of peace—Sunday, August 2nd—The affair at
Joncherey—First blood—A German epic—The Suarce
raid—Robbery under arms—Political importance of the
incident—Prisoners of war where no war was

CHAPTER V

BELFORT TO NANCY

News of Nancy—German lies—Security of Belfort—After twelve 39
months—Breakdown of German plans—Visit to the Préfet of
Belfort—A Prefect’s duties and position—Check on
militarism—Special duties during the war—The Préfets and
Sous-Préfets of the frontier Departments—Posts of
danger—Example and precept—Return to
Dijon—Chalindrey—British Tommies—Wounded French
officers—Toul—Arrival in Nancy

CHAPTER VI

ÉTAT-DE-SIÈGE IN NANCY

Discouraging start in Nancy—General de la Massellière—Visits 48
to the Prefect and Mayor—Their appointment—Madame
Mirman—Their example—The Lorraine stock—Nancy by night—The
sound of the guns—A united people—The French
renaissance—Nancy newspapers—Nancy hospitals—Nursing
sisters

CHAPTER VII

THE FRENCH OFFENSIVE

The German territorial gains—Bearing on peace proposals—The 61
French offensive—General moral effect—Uncertainty as to
direction of German attack—Sources from which eastern
armies were drawn—Their offensive—General account—In the
Woevre—Verdun and Longwy—From the Moselle to Mulhouse—The
frontier force—Justification of the offensive—Description
of frontier—Of Alsace—Importance of the Vosges—The
Sundgau—First French advance on August 7th—Altkirch
retaken

CHAPTER VIII

OCCUPATIONS OF MULHOUSE

Advance on Mulhouse—Unopposed entry—Popular 77
rejoicings—German counter-attack—Smallness of French
force—Their repulse—Terrorism—Harsh treatment of
foreigners—Reorganization of French under General
Pau—Second advance on Mulhouse—Battle round the
town—Victory of the French—Second occupation began

CHAPTER IX

MORHANGE

Description of the Vosges—French advance—Triumphs in 88
Lorraine—The check at Morhange—Why the French fell into
the trap—The disaster—New birth of the army—Bad news—The
offensive abandoned

CHAPTER X

GENERAL DUBAIL’S STAND

Combination of reverses for France—Soldiers’ ignorance of 100
contemporary events—Reliance on barrier of
fortresses—Determination to fight in the open—Different
conditions—Position after Morhange—German advance—Trouée
de Charmes—Epinal—Vesouze, Mortagne, and Meurthe—Brave
resistance of Dubail’s army—The reverse of the picture—The
terrorists’ _Credo_—Condemnation of frightfulness—An
example—The German excuse

CHAPTER XI

THE MARTYRED TOWN

Gerbéviller—Visit with M. Mirman—The ruins—Murder of old 114
men—How the town was taken—Incendiarism—Sœur Julie—An
act of “sacrilege”—Other martyred towns—Badonviller—The
first occupation—The second—Fight in the streets—St.
Benoit—Col de la Chipotte

CHAPTER XII

BATTLE OF THE GRAND COURONNÉ. I

The battle of the Grand Couronné—Two parts—The position 125
south of the Meurthe—Transport of Dragoon regiment from
Alsace—Arrival at Charmes—Towards Lunéville—Procession of
fugitives—Description of field of battle—South and north
of Meurthe up to Nancy-Lunéville road—General Bigot’s
divisions—Retreat of the XVth and XVIth Army Corps—General
retreat—Lunéville abandoned—Position of XXth Army
Corps—The troops from the south reformed—A miracle—The
battle begins—Germans cross Mortagne and Meurthe—A battle
symphony—Across the field of battle—Scenes of
desolation—The battle continued—German attack
checked—Retreat turned into advance—The XVth Army Corps
leaves for the Argonne—Their regeneration

CHAPTER XIII

BATTLE OF THE GRAND COURONNÉ. II

Nancy, the woman-town—Absence of fortifications—Attitude of 141
her defenders—The pivot of the line—Kaiser’s dreams of
conquest—Description of four German lines of attack—Of the
country—General de Castelnau’s line—Champenoux
villages—Réméréville—Farms and cottages—Loopholed
blockhouses—The wounded—The refugees—Account of
Nomeny—German brutality—Rottenness of German
civilization—Germany’s future—Inspiration of soldiers of
Lorraine—The part of the women—A woman’s letter

CHAPTER XIV

BATTLE OF THE GRAND COURONNÉ. III

The attack on Nancy from the north—St. Généviève—The 155
assault—How it was repulsed—The attack from the
east—Dombasle—Courbesseau—Réméréville—Soldiers’ disregard
of fire—In Champagne—French disadvantages in
Lorraine—Their gallantry—Individualism—Main attack from
north-east—Attack on plateau of Amance—September
8th—Importance of the date—What it meant to the
Kaiser—Final assault on Amance—Relations between Battle of
the Marne and Battle of the Grand Couronné—Bombardment of
Nancy—The German retreat—Last struggle in
Champenoux—Losses of the victors—Their graves—The horror
of the horizon—The reassurance of the front

CHAPTER XV

LUNÉVILLE

Effect of Battle of the Grand Couronné on Lunéville—Extent 178
of damage in the town—Entry of Germans—Familiar faces—M.
Minier, M. Mequillet, M. Keller—Faubourg d’Einville
burnt—German Governor’s proclamation—Hostages—Plight of
inhabitants—Outside the town—The turn of the tide—France
and Germany—A duel to the death—Last fights before the
town—German bestiality—General Joffre’s message—The last
advance—French enter the town—Restored to France

CHAPTER XVI

NEWSPAPER CORRESPONDENTS

After the storm—A Prefect’s duties—Newspaper 193
correspondents—War a serious matter—Enemy’s means of
information—On the battlefield—“Behind the front”—German
dread of newspapers—Their own—French and British—The truth
concealed—In Belgium—Effect in neutral Switzerland—Change
of opinion due to knowledge of state of
_internés_—Confidence of M. Mirman—_The Times_ an agent
for good—Expulsion from Nancy—Hopes of return

CHAPTER XVII

A DAY WITH A PREFECT

A Conseil de Révision—Comparison with English 205
recruiting—French boys’ enthusiasm—Their experience of
terrorism—A greybeard—The Mayors of Lorraine—A war to kill
war—Lunch at the Préfecture—Through the French army—At the
front—A deserted village—Towards Nomeny—A check—Retreat—M.
Puech—A souvenir—French sang-froid

CHAPTER XVIII

THE ATTACK ON THE RIVER FORTS

Position after Battle of the Grand Couronné—German failures 218
reviewed—Mystery of Manonviller—Position of Toul—Of the
barrier of fortresses—Description of the Woevre—Troyon—The
first bombardment—German demand for surrender—The
attacking force—Relief from Toul—The attack
abandoned—Renewed bombardment of the river forts—Formation
of the St. Mihiel triangle

CHAPTER XIX

THE “SOIXANTE-QUINZE”

The Emperor William—His advisers—The modern Huns—The barrier 244
of the trenches—The Soixante-Quinze—Its superiority to its
German rival—The French gunner—Pride of the nation in its
artillery—Determination in the workshops—The struggle of
the trenches—A German description

CHAPTER XX

SIEGE WARFARE

Second period of the war—Germany besieged—The pressure on 263
the west—Partial offensives—The lack of shells—Its effect
on the war—“Craters of Death”—Monotony of the trenches—A
National Army—Soldier-priests—Their contempt of
death—Their self-sacrifice—Their spiritual work—Influence
on the troops—The realities of life—Church and State—The
example of the State—Spirit of unity—Points of
attack—Hammer and tongs—The St. Mihiel
salient—Chauvoncourt—Les Eparges—Bois d’Ailly—Bois
Brulé—Bois le Prêtre—The Vosges and Alsace—The soldiers of
France—France and England—The Boche standards of right and
wrong—The German cancer and the end of the war

CHAPTER THE LAST

GERMANY AND THE ALLIES

Pride and prejudice—English pride before the war—Pride of 282
France—Pride of race—_Noblesse Oblige_—Pride of
Germany—Pride of the _parvenu_—Peaceful pre-war invasion
of German commerce and kultur—Neutral views of Germany’s
guilt—French views of England—Redemption by hate—What is
“the right”?—Greater Germany?—Tannenberg’s views—The
Kaiser’s conversion—Germany’s designs on neutral
countries—The new year—The dead