ST
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"sive of the year.
i ek North American
: Nika, V7 od seh eisrved; uciusint the wn
Mines oud subi ssurveds sedan the yo
New British Offensive.
Immobilized by the mud of Flandérs,
‘where British attacks had continued
intermittently from the end of July to
the middle of November, with rather
excessive losses, the British command-
er in chief turned to a more southerly
portion of his line for the final offem-
‘Choosing the Cam.’
brai front on which to launch the ef-
fort, careful preparations, Including
‘the concentration of an unusual num-
‘ber of tanks, were made to insure &
break through the enemy’s defenses.
The tanks and the infantry were to
make an opening through which: the
cavalry was to pass and attack thé
flanks of the enemy. Then French
troops held in readiness in the vicinity
were to follow. As to the question of
command of these combined forces
when both should become engaged it
was to be left to the senior general
officer in the vicinity, who might be
either French or British. In going
over these plans it seemed to me that
their idea of securing co-operation
after the French should begin partich
pation was rather vague.
During the day we first went to visit
General Byng, commanding the third
army, who explained further details
of the attack and the progress already’
‘made. He and his chief of staff ‘were
busy receiving news from the front
- and felt that all was going well.
British Victory Spurs Allies.
The attack was made on a six-mile
front and the British had the advan-
tage from the outset. The sudden de-
bouchment of the long line of tanks,
closely followed by the infantry, all
without the usual warning of long pre-
liminary artillery bombardment, com-
pletely surprised the Germans. The
tanks broke wide gaps in the wire and
subdued the machine-gun nests, aiding
the infantry through the defenses with
a minimum of loss. ’
The front was rather narrow, con-
sidering the depth of the objectives. A
maximum gain of some four and a
half miles was secured the first day,
and a greater result was prevented, it
was said, by a serious check to the
tanks at Flesquieres. i
For some reason or other the French
were not called into action, but pre-
sumably it was because the British
cavalry, which was to precede them,
could not go forward as planned. The
offensive continued for two or three
days longer with varying success. It
was, however, a decided victory, and,
while not as great as the British ex-
pected, it gave encouragement to the
allies on the western front and no
doubt helped to offset temporarily the
depressing effect of the serious defeat
recently sustained by the Italian army.
CHAPTER XXII
An American mission headed by Col.
JB. M. House arrived in France toward
‘the end of November for an interallied
conference. Other members of the
mission were Admiral W. S. Benson;
|Gen. Tasker H. Bliss, chief of staff,
Oscar T. Crosby, for the Treasury de-
partment; Vance McCormick, chair-
man of the war trade board; Bain-
bridge Colby, shipping board; Alonzo
B, Taylor, Thomas N. Perkins, war in-
dustries, and Paul Cravath.
As the representatives of different
nationalities gathered in Paris recent
reports of decreasing losses of ocean
tonnage and greater destruction of
German submarines, with prospects of
still further improvement, seemed to
give more of hopefulness in the gen-
eral situation and allied spirits were
somewhat revived.
The British had won at Cambrai and
were making satisfactory progress in
their advance on Jerusalem, which, it
‘was said, would be facilitated by the
|use of their new base at Jaffa. The
{Italians seemed to have recovered
| their morale to a limited extent, with
the stiffening of their lines by British
'and French divisions, and had success-
fully held their own against the Aus-
'trian attack on the Piave.
Not the least hopeful thing was the
step just taken toward unity of com-
mand in the creation of the supreme
war council. But the decisive factor
in the whole situation, if it could be
utilized in time, was the tremendous
economical and physical power of the
My Experiences
in the World War
By General John J. Pershing
United States.” To make that avail
able before it was too late was the
problem upon the ‘solution of which
depended the success of the allied
cause. Would the allles see it and
would they work together to solve it?
: Interaliied Conference.
When all were seated around ‘the
table in the assembly room at the ‘mint
istry of foreign affairs Prime Minis-
of the gathering and the necessity of
ance into action. No attempts at ora-
tory were in evidence, nor was there
prolonged discourse on any subject.
able man power, shipping, munitions
in a general way. The conference did
little more than agree that the study
of the various subjects should be left
to committees composed of interallfed
representatives. ok
It was very clear that everybody
was looking to America to provide the
the allies superiority. None was more
eager to increase our forces than our-
solves, but on my part every possible
argument to procure shipping had
been presented to the allies and to our
War department, so when the confer-
ence urged the expedition of our
forces it made the stromgest kind of
a case in favor of immediate increase
of allied aid in tonnage.
‘For some time reliance upon the
allies for any considerable amount of
tonnage had seemed almost in vain,
and it looked as though we should
have to depend upon our own limited
were giving some assistance in the
transportation of men, American ships
had carried up to November 1, 67,218
and the British 54,751.
\ Our Engineers in Fight.
The results of the British success at
Cambrai were not to be permanent, as
eral von Marwitz hastily assembled a
force of some fifteen divisions, and
November 30 suddenly launched a vio-
lent counterattack. The British were
short of reserves, and before Von Mar-
witz was stopped his troops had re-
gained most of the lost ground.
It was in this operation that a de-
tachment of our Eleventh regiment of
engineers became engaged while serv-
ing with the British. The men, to the
Number of 280, were ‘at work in the
Gauzacourt railway yard when the
Germans attacked. One officer and
nine men were wounded, and the de-
tachment withdrew. They were then
given arms and fought with the Brit- |
ish. N
War Council Meets Again.
The second conference of the su-
preme war council was held at Ver-
sailles December A. Our representa-
tives, political and military, at this
meeting were Mr. House and ‘General
Bliss, respectively. At the opening
session M. Clemenceau drew attention
to the general situation, referring espe-
cially to the collapse of Russia, the
probable release of enemy troops from
that front, the adverse situation in
Italy, the depletion of allied man
power, and the reliance of the allies
on American assistance. ?
' The premier enjoined the military
representatives “to bear in mind that
their function is to advise the su-
preme war council as a whole and not
merely as representatives of their re-
spective nations on the council, and
‘that they should view the problems
confronting them not from a national
standpoint but from that of the plies
as a whole.”
The military representatives at this
conference were instructed to examine
the military situation and report their
recommendations as to the future plan
of operations; ‘to study the immediate
situation in Italy from the offensive as
well as from the defensive point of
view, and to report on the utilization
of the Belgian/ army. ;
It was evident that this body was to
become a kind of superparliament
not only for the discussion of re-
sources, aims and purposes, but for
the determination of policies looking
to concert of action in support of the
‘military efforts.
| ~~; Doughboys In the Tre
nches in Winter Time.
‘ter Clemenceau, who presided, spoke:
briefly, setting forth the importance’
translating the noble spirit of the alli-
Naturally questions concerning avail-
and supplies were mentioned, but only
additional man power needed to give
resources for most of it. The British
the Germans quickly retaliated. Gen-
The spirit in which
N
} ap
‘meeting made it clear that the su-
: preme war council would sensibly pro-
mote co- -operation among the powers.
The second meeting of the inter- |
allied conference December 3 closed.
its sessions. None of the questions
brought before the first session could
be settled, but they were taken up
by the more permanent body, the su-
preme war council, which, as time
went on, undertook to co-ordinate the
work of the various committees that.
had been forced 40 handle the poke 1
lems involved. .
ie CHAPTER XXI11
"A large party, including Col. B. M.
House, the American ‘delegates to the
interallied ©
William G. Sharp and Lord Northeliffe,
went by special’ train from Paris De-.
cember 4, 1917, to our training area,.|
‘stopping, at my Chaumont headquar-
ters en “route. .
On ‘the train I had an Interesting |
conversation with Lord Northcliffe of
the; British air board .regarding the"
formation of an American army and
its, transportation overseas. Lord:
Northcliffe * thought his government
should do more to help with shipping, |
but, like most Englishmen, he ‘be-
lieved it best for us to send our men
for service with the British. e ar-
The sensational new cool gasoline
conference, Ambassador 5
George had recently made to Mr.
House, that we ‘should incorporate in
their units any infantry that we might
not be able to organize immediately
into complete divisions of our own.
“It is all very well,” I said, “to make
. such an appeal to us, but it is impos-
sible to ignore our national viewpoint.
The people themselves would not ap-
prove, even though the President:and.
his advisers should lean that way. We
cannot permit our men to serve under
another flag except in an extreme
emergency, "and then only temporarily.”
1 also insisted that we would con-
tribute more largely to allied success
_ by the use of the American army as
a unit, i j
“ Hits Fault Finders. Sid
. ‘About this time Mr. House told me
that Petain had ‘criticized the Ameri-
‘can “ideas of training and also that
Tiouls Loucheur, minister of munitions,
had spoken. about the rise in prices.
caused by American purchases. Mr.
‘House wisely suggested to these gen-
~ tlemen, he ‘said, that matters of this
kind were for me to settle. ;
I called without delay on M. Clem-
goed m ravoror & OER that Toya f
‘sonal attention. He entirely agreed
- was no other conclusion, however, than
tent of my independent .autbority.
enceau and told him of the reports
and explained my understanding, about
training agreements with Petain and
also. the steps that had previously
‘Been faker oy Ie PUFTTIASTIE. roar,
in co-operation with his own ‘bureaus,
to prevent the rise in prices. I also
to;d him that French dealers were
largely to blame if prices had risen,
as we had eliminated competition
among ourselves and that our pur-
¢hases were and had been for some
time actually handled through French
officials,
I objected to these back-door meth-
ods of lodging complaints and empha-
sized the necessity of frankness and
directness in all our dealings. I asked
him to:give instructions that if there
was any fault to find with our meth-
ods it should be brought to my per-
‘apology and hie
on his part.
with me and expressed chagrin and
surprise that any other course had case.
been followed. On the face of it there.
that both’ ‘complaints were made for
the purpose of finding out just the ex-
- Gets Apology From Petain.
I took occasion a few days later to | gon
let Petain know very politely what I
thought of the impropriety of this sort
of thing and also criticized him then
confidential
and there for telllag anybody, even
Mr. House, as he had done, about the
plan to attack the St. Mihiel salient
as the first offensive hy the American
would be no fur i= ha
As a matter of fact, 1 think the"
French erroneously regarded House as
a sort of special ambassador, an
thought that they could lay the foun-
dation for an approach through him
to the question of amalgamation.
Just before his return to the States
House sald to me that he entirely
er the disposition of our troop
to my judgment. Assurance on. 3
point was in no sense Becessary: as I
During his stay in » Frasics 1 for
a high opinion of ‘House's abilit
formed a friendship in the. beginni
which enabled us to discuss all mat
ters most freely and frankly.
he left for home he and I arranged
communication b;
cable should it become necessary
reach Mr. Baker or Mr. Wilson dire:
The Missing Turkeys.
headquarters at Chavmont el
T1910. General Harbord _rep sorted i
hl ¥
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