The Austro-German offensive continued steadily for three weeks and on November 21 was being pressed on three main fronts: First, along the Piave River; second, from the Piave to the Brenta; third, from the Brenta across the Asiago Plateau. The Italian troops were holding firm and inflicting heavy losses on the enemy. The spirit of the Italian people was calm and public opinion strongly supported the most stubborn resistance to the invader. Although all the fruits of Italy"s two years of strife had been swept away in a single month and a dread enemy was reaching ever forward, seeking her most treasured possessions of art and industry, the internal dissensions which Germany probably hoped to start had not appeared. The population of Venice, however, had been reduced from 160,000 to 20,000.
ANARCHY RAMPANT IN RUSSIA
The Imperial government of Russia, headed by Premier Kerensky, was ousted on November 7, when a period of practical anarchy set in. On the evening of that day a congress of workmen"s and soldiers" delegates a.s.sembled in Petrograd, with 560 delegates in attendance. Without preliminary discussion the congress elected officers pledged to make "a democratic peace." They included fourteen so-called Maximalists or members of the Bolsheviki (majority), the radical Socialist party suspected of pro-German tendencies, headed by Nikolai Lenine and Leon Trotzky; also seven revolutionary Socialists. These leaders at once sent an ultimatum to the Kerensky government, demanding their surrender within 20 minutes. The government replied indirectly, refusing to recognize the Bolsheviki committee. Rioting then broke out and the Winter Palace, headquarters of the provisional government, was besieged by troops favorable to the rebels. The cruiser Aurora, firing from the Neva River, and the guns of the St. Peter and St. Paul fortress bombarded the palace and early next morning compelled the surrender of the government forces defending it. Women of the "Battalion of Death,"
armed with machine guns and rifles, were among the defenders, who held out for four hours. Soon the Bolsheviki were in complete control of the city, Kerensky was in flight, several members of his cabinet were arrested by the rebels, and the provisional government was no more.
Several weeks of political and industrial chaos in Russia followed the Lenine coup d" etat, which was a triumph, probably temporary, of extremists. A number of the commissioners appointed by the Lenine-Trotzky faction to carry on the government, gave up their posts within a few days, characterizing the Bolsheviki regime as "impossible"
and as inevitably involving "the destruction of the revolution and the country."
On November 23, Leon Trotzky, styling himself "National Commissioner for foreign affairs," addressed to the emba.s.sies of the Allies in Petrograd a note proposing "an immediate armistice on all fronts and the immediate opening of peace negotiations." An official announcement was also made that the Bolsheviki government had decided to undertake without delay the reduction of the Russian armies, beginning with the release from their military duties of all citizen soldiers conscripted in 1899.
SECOND "LIBERTY LOAN" OVERSUBSCRIBED
The second "Liberty Loan" of the United States war bond issues was largely oversubscribed by the patriotic citizens of the country. When the books closed on October 27 it was announced that the subscriptions received from approximately 9,000,000 persons amounted to over $5,000,000,000, the amount of the bond issue being $3,000,000,000.
BRITISH SMASH HINDENBURG LINE
By a series of attacks on the morning of November 21 that took the German enemy completely by surprise, the British Third army, under command of Lieut.-Gen. Sir Julian Byng, broke through the Hindenburg line on a front of 32 miles between St Quentin and the Scarpe. The following day, when they consolidated the new positions gained, 10, German prisoners were sent to the rear, with a large number of guns and quant.i.ties of material abandoned by the astonished enemy, while at one point the victorious troops were 6-1/2 miles in advance of their former positions and the city of Cambrai was brought within easy range of their guns.
It was the greatest and most successful surprise of the war. There was no preliminary bombardment to warn the enemy, and the advance continued steadily for two days, when the towns of Masnieres, Marcoing, Ribecourt, Havrincourt, Graincourt, and Flesquieres, long occupied by the enemy, all were behind the British lines.
Just before dawn on the 20th there was absolute quiet along the whole line. A few minutes later British tanks were rumbling along over "No Man"s Land" flanked and followed by the infantry. The tanks smashed down the barbed wire entanglements and were atop the trenches and, dugouts before their German defenders were aware of their peril.
The German artillery could lay down no barrage, and line after line of trenches had been captured before they got into action. Then the British guns opened, but not for barrage purposes. They were sh.e.l.ling and silencing the enemy artillery.
Following through the gaps made by the tanks, English, Scottish, and Irish regiments swept over the enemy"s outposts and stormed the first defensive system of the Hindenburg line on the whole front.
The infantry and tanks then swept on in accordance with the program and captured the German second system of defense, more than a mile beyond.
This latter was known as the Hindenburg support line.
English rifle regiments and light infantry captured La Vacquerie and the formidable defense on the spur known as Welsh ridge. Other English county troops stormed the village of Ribecourt and fought their way through Coillet wood.
In severe hand-to-hand fighting at Flesquieres near Cambrai, on the 21st, British troops, preceded by tanks, stormed the town. The Germans fired on the tanks with seven big guns at short range. The British infantry charged the guns, captured them, and killed the crews. Three other big guns were captured in a similar manner at Premy Chapelle.
British cavalry captured a battery at Rumilly, sabering the crews.
Highland territorial battalions crossed the Grand ravine and entered Flesquieres, where fighting took place. West Biding terriorials captured Havrincourt and the German trench, systems north of the village, while the Ulster battalions, covering the latter"s left flank, moved Northward up the West bank of the Ca.n.a.l du Nord.
Later in the day the advance was continued and rapid progress was made at all points, English, Scottish, Irish, and Welsh battalions secured the crossings on the ca.n.a.l at Masnieres and captured Marcoing and Neuf Wood. On the following day, Wednesday, November 21, reinforcements which the enemy hurried up to the battlefield to oppose the British advance were driven out of a further series of villages and other fortified positions.
Thousands of cavalry co-operated with the great army of tanks and infantry in continuing the successful a.s.sault begun on November 20. Open fighting went on at many places and the mounted troops, who long had waited for a chance to vindicate their existence in this war, rendered invaluable services in "mopping up".
AMERICAN COMMISSION IN EUROPE
A special American Commission, headed by Colonel Edward M. House, personal friend and trusted adviser of President Wilson, arrived in London on November 8, on its way to attend the Allies" conference which met in Paris November 22, to perfect a system of co-ordination among the nations at war with Germany and secure a better understanding of their respective needs.
BRITISH NEAR JERUSALEM
On November 24 the British forces contending against the Turks in Palestine had advanced to the suburbs of Jerusalem, after inflicting a severe defeat upon the enemy at Askelon, with Turkish casualties of 10,000. More than seventy guns were captured at Askelon, and the British subsequently occupied the ancient port of Jaffa (Poppa). The fall of Jerusalem was then considered imminent and the end of Turkish dominion in the Holy Land was plainly in sight.
[Ill.u.s.tration: ITALIAN BATTLE FRONT, MAY 4, 1918.
The Heavy Line Shows the Position of the Hostile Armies, When the Austrians Threatened A New Drive in 1918. The Shaded Line Shows the Italian Positions Before the Austro-German Offensive, in the Fall of 1917.]
WIN AND LOSE AT CAMBRAI
For the first time since the war began England celebrated on November the victory of Field Marshal Haig and General Byng at Cambrai, in the old-fashioned way, by the ringing of bells in London and other cities.
Heavy fighting continued for several days at the apex of the wedge driven into the German line, especially at Bourlon Wood and the village of Fontaine, where attacks and counter-attacks followed in rapid succession.
Up to November 30 the British held their gains near Cambrai and that city lay under their guns. Then the Germans in a determined attack surprised the British in their turn, and forced them, back from their new positions for a distance of about two miles, nearly to the Bapaume-Cambrai road.
Next day, by fierce fighting, the British recaptured Gouzeau-court. The battle then raged over a fifteen-mile front, desperate efforts being made by the Germans to regain all the ground taken by the British west and south of Cambrai. The British had had no chance to dig themselves in and consolidate their positions in the ground won, and on December 1 and 2 the struggle was in the open, a fierce hand-to-hand conflict unlike anything previously seen in the war. The British lost guns, for the first time in more than thirty months. They also lost many men, taken prisoner by the enemy, but soon succeeded in checking the counter-offensive.
In their attempt to deliver a great simultaneous encircling attack, to surround the victorious British in their new Cambrai salient, the Germans sent forward great forces of infantry, supported by a terrific bombardment. The British met the shock brilliantly, finally held their own, and the German drive was declared to have missed its end, at enormous sacrifice of life.
On the night of December 5 the British strengthened their line by abandoning certain untenable positions near Cambrai, falling back deliberately and successfully, unknown to the enemy, upon a well-chosen line which ruled out the dangerous salient made by Bourlon Wood. Here they prepared to maintain their hold upon the captured length of the Hindenburg line against any pressure.
The German casualties in the battle of Cambrai were estimated at 100, men, greatly exceeding those of the British in consequence of the nature of the ma.s.sed attacks made by infantry in the counteroffensive.
As the year 1917 closed there was a succession of German attacks and counter-attacks by the British in the Cambrai sector, the British lines holding firmly at all points and continuing to hold during the winter.
SOME RESULTS OP THE YEAR
The British War Office issued the following statement of captures and losses during 1917: Captures--prisoners on all fronts, 114,544; guns, 781. Losses--prisoners, 28,379; guns, 166.
The following figures, obtained from reliable sources, tell the real story of Germany"s "ruthless" submarine campaign against British shipping. Tonnage of British, ships of more than 1,600 tons in August, 1914--16,841,519; loss by enemy action in 3-1/2 years, less new construction, purchase, and captures, 2,750,000; remaining tonnage January I,1918--14,091,519.
On December 3, 1917, it was announced officially in London that East Africa had been completely cleared of the enemy. Every German-colony was then occupied by Allied forces.
DISASTER AT HALIFAX
As the result of a collision in the harbor of Halifax, Nova Scotia, between the French munition ship "Mont Blanc" and the Belgian relief ship "Imo" on December 6, thousands of tons of high explosives blew up, killing more than 1,260 persons, injuring thousands, and destroying millions of dollars in property in the city.
JERUSALEM CAPTURED BY BRITISH
Advancing steadily upon Jerusalem in the Palestine campaign against the Turks, the British forces under General Allenby finally, on December 10, captured the Holy City and restored it to Christendom. The Turks were driven to the north, with heavy losses, the port of Joppa was occupied, and Palestine was slowly but surely freed from Mussulman dominion.
General Allenby formally entered and took possession of Jerusalem on December 11 with a small representative force of British and colonial troops, being received and welcomed with impressive ceremonies by the inhabitants.
WAR DECLARED AGAINST AUSTRIA
The United Stages Congress on December 7, 1917, pa.s.sed a resolution declaring a state of war to exist with Austria-Hungary. Austrian aliens, however, were permitted free movement in the United States, only Germans being cla.s.sed as alien enemies and subjected to restrictions as such.
It was announced by the Secretary of War during the winter that 500, American troops would be on the fighting line in France in the spring of 1918 and that a total of 1,500,000 men would be available for the front during the year.
A portion of the French front was taken over by the United States troops under General Pershing early in 1918 and in a number of trench raids and patrol engagements in the last weeks of winter they gave a good account of themselves, receiving their baptism of enemy fire and gas with the utmost gallantry and winning several minor engagements. A small number of Americans were captured in German raids up to March 10, but the losses inflicted upon the enemy more than counterbalanced those sustained.
RUSSIA FORCED INTO "PEACE"
On November 28, a few days after German emissaries had been sent to Petrograd to parley with the peace faction in disorganized Russia, the Bolshevik _de facto_ government under Nicolai Lenine and Leon Trotzky began negotiations for an armistice with Germany; and on December 3 an armistice was arranged. The Cossacks under General Kaledines and General Korniloff began a revolt against the Bolsheviki, who organized their forces as Red Guards, and a virtual reign of terror was inaugurated in Russia while negotiations for a separate peace with Germany proceeded with numerous interruptions. The administration of Lenine and Trotzky became an absolutely despotic regime, all forms of opposition, being summarily dealt with, while crime was rampant and blood flowed freely in Petrograd and Moscow. The Ukrainian provinces formed a separate republic and proceeded to make peace with Germany and Austria.
Formal announcement of the armistice with the Petrograd government was made at Berlin December 16, with the statement that peace negotiations would begin immediately at Brest-Litovsk on the Eastern front. Russia thus violated her pledge to the Allies not to make a separate peace.