The month of October, 1918, was one of the most glorious in the pages of American history written by the world's war. From early in the month General Pershing's men struck along their wide front and everywhere the Germans gave ground. French and British troops also made progress daily along the great battle front.
On October 3 the Germans retreated on the Lenz front. The British advanced to within six miles of Lille. Belgian and French troops advanced in the region of Hooglede and Roulers. Two days later the German retreat began in the Champagne region. Continuing along the line to the south, the allies pressed their advantage at all points.
It was clear to all military experts that the beginning of the end was in sight. From Rheims, American troops, late in October, began the advance that was to carry them into Sedan and beyond. Germany's resistance was becoming more feeble daily.
The German emperor was never to recover from the moral effect of the desertion of Bulgaria as German supremacy waned. With Bulgaria out of the war, German efforts were turned to keeping Turkey and Austria in line. But these, too, were to fail. Only a short time after Bulgaria laid down arms, Turkey signed a truce with England and France. The United States had no hand in the making of these two truces, because America, despite much urging, had never formally declared war on Turkey and Bulgaria.
With the fortunes of Germany at low ebb, it became apparent that Austria would eventually leave her more powerful ally in the lurch. Again and again reports filtering into the allied lines told of fast growing political disturbances in the dual monarchy. Several cabinets had fallen. The red flag of anarchy was flying in the streets of some of the smaller towns. The Hungarian parliament had broken with the cabinet at Vienna, and it seemed only a question of time until the Austrian revolt would make an end of Austria as a factor in the war.
Conditions were growing serious in Germany also, as reports reaching the American forces revealed. So far, however, disorder was not as rampant as in Austria-Hungary, but it was growing clear that the masses of the German people, long since tired of fighting a losing battle, were getting ready to take matters into their own hands.
In none of the allied capitals, however, was it believed that Germany was yet ready to consider a peace, which, everyone knew, must deprive Germany of her claim to being a world power. The world knew that when the allies imposed their terms, they would be such as would tie the hands of Germany for decades to come and would eventually prevent a repetition, by a blundering and crazy ruler, of a condition that had plunged the whole world into war.
So the daily advance of the allied armies meant one more day nearer to peace.
To the north, where the British under Field Marshal Haig were pressing their advantage, the German line held more firmly than to the south, where French and Americans were delivering their smashing blows. The entire sector south and east of the Argonne Forest was controlled by American forces under the personal direction of General Pershing. True, General Pershing was nominally under command of Field Marshal Foch, the French commander in chief, but so was Field Marshal Haig, the British commander, and General Diaz, the Italian commander in chief, for that matter. It was Marshal Foch who was the master mind of the whole allied offensive.
When the rumor was first circulated among the allied forces that Austria was about to sue for peace, there were few who placed credence in it, despite the fact that they knew such an appeal was sure to be made before long. Nevertheless, if it were true, it would be of advantage to the allies to know of the impending appeal at the earliest possible moment.
To General Pershing, Marshal Foch had entrusted the task of ascertaining the truth or falsity of the report. General Pershing, in turn, had passed the word along where he felt it would do the most good. This was how it happened that Hal and Chester found themselves so fortunate as to be ordered within the German lines at Sedan on the mission which opened this book.
That Germany would have profited greatly at that time could the Americans, French and British have been fooled by the false rumor goes without saying. And it is true, too, that the longer the rumor was permitted to live the greater became the danger of over-confidence in the ranks of the allies.
It is for this reason that General Pershing was immensely pleased to receive so soon a report from Colonel O'Neil, at Rheims that this first rumor of an impending appeal for peace by Austria was nothing more than a German plot. Immediately the word was passed along the whole battle front. The result was, that Germany, instead of having gained by this piece of duplicity, suffered. For when allied troops went into battle they struck that much harder. For a time they had believed that their efforts were to be crowned with immediate success, and now that they learned the Germans had been playing with them they fought with the desperate energy of the man who fears he has been made ridiculous.
It was learned later that this rumor of Austria's decision to break with Germany was started by the Germans themselves for the reason we have seen.
Austria was not so much as consulted in the matter, and it has been shown since that this very fact was responsible, in a measure, for Austria's decision some time later to sue for a separate peace. So the bomb launched by the kaiser and his advisers proved a veritable boomerang.
But President Wilson and his advisers had not been fooled by the German plot. President Wilson, some time before, had laid down conditions on which Germany and Austria might have peace, and to these he stuck. He had informed the German and Austrian people that they might have peace at any time by laying down their arms, provided they ousted the militarists who were responsible for the war. Several efforts had been made by German and Austrian officials to fool America by changes of cabinets and other political tricks but President Wilson, with his allies, was adamant.
So the situation stood in the middle of October, when the allies girded themselves for what they felt sure would prove the deciding effort.
All along the great battle line, which stretched from the North Sea to the frontier of Switzerland, British, French, Belgians and Americans supported by their own allies, Portuguese, some few Brazilians and troops from British and French colonial possessions, gathered themselves for the final spring.
The last great offensive was begun by the British and Belgians to the north. Through Belgium and western France they plowed, pushing the enemy back on all sides. Brussels, the capital of Belgium, in German hands since early in the war, was recaptured. The Belgian government, which after the fall of Brussels had moved into France, returned to Brussels amid the cheering of thousands of Belgians.
As the Germans retreated, they followed their customary tactics of cruelty. Fire and sword were applied to the abandoned towns until a threat from France put a stop to it. France's threat was this: That for every town destroyed by the Germans in their retreat, retaliation would be made. For every town thus destroyed by the Germans, a German town would also be put to the torch.
This threat, carried by neutral envoys to the German high command, resulted in the abandonment of the German campaign of destruction, for the German high command was now more far-seeing than it had been a year before. The kaiser and his generals at last had been forced to the conclusion that they were waging a losing war. Also, they knew that the French troops had not forgotten the horrors of the early days of the war, and their hatred of everything Prussian dated farther back even than that—to the days of the Franco-Prussian war, when they had been able to gauge for the first time the workings of the Prussian mind.
To the south of the Belgian frontier, the French wrested St. Quentin, Lille and other important railroad towns from the enemy. No longer did the Germans offer the fierce resistance that had characterized their earlier activities. They withdrew now without the stubbornness of yore. Their morale had been shattered, and they were glad to retire.
All along the battle line the great field and siege guns of the Americans, French, Belgian and British played havoc in the enemy ranks. The German artillery replied, but it lacked the volume and the fierce challenge of old. Then, too, the Germans had lost thousands and thousands of their guns, field pieces and machine guns. Factories behind the German frontier had been depleted of workers to fill the gaps in the fighting front, with the result that guns and ammunitions were not being produced so fast as they had been the year before.
This meant that the Germans were compelled to conserve their ammunition. The high command had also found it necessary to be more sparing of its man-power and less prodigal with its food supplies. No longer could the enemy sacrifice a few thousand men and thousands and thousands of rounds of ammunition to gain a few feet of ground.
On the other hand, due to the activity of American factories, the allies were supplied with more ammunition, guns and food than ever before since the war began. Also, numerically, were superior to the foe.
With these facts in mind, Field Marshal Foch ordered the advance all along the front that was to prove the end of Germany as a military power; that was to result in the abdication of the German emperor and the crown prince; and that was to mean revolution throughout the German empire until such time as a stable government could raise its head and the common people could come into their own.
And so it was a great day for the German people when Marshal Foch gave the word that set his millions of men in motion from the North Sea hundreds of miles south to the frontier of Switzerland. It was a move that meant that the German people would do away with masters and would set up a government of their own—a government which was to be patterned after that of the United States of America—a "government of the people, for the people and by the people."
In this last great mission, Hal and Chester were to perform their full duties, and they were to have greater fortune than ever before, for they were to be "in at the death," as Hal put it, with Marshal Foch when the great French military leader gave to the enemy terms that resulted in the ending of the war.
In the meantime, all unconscious of what was in store for them, the two lads, after returning from their mission within the German lines, were taking a well deserved rest in their temporary quarters in the French city of Rheims.