WAR OF THE NATIONS 



6167 



WAR OF THE NATIONS 



The Drive Towards Metz. On September 12 

 over 700,000 Americans attacked the Germans 

 at Saint Mihiel, at the western tip of a salient 

 that had existed for over three years and was 

 a constant menace to Verdun. French units 

 were on the flanks. In two days the enemy 

 had been pushed back from this triangular area, 

 and the fighting line ran almost directly south- 

 east from Verdun to within two miles of the 

 Lorraine border. Then began a gruelling cam- 

 paign north of Verdun, in the region of the 

 Argonne Forest and along the Meuse River. 

 The spectacular features of the struggle farther 

 to the northwest were lacking, but there w:i.< 

 no question as to the importance of the opera- 

 tions. For six weeks the desperate defense of 

 the Germans testified to vital facts. If the 

 allied advance could not be checked the Briey 

 coal fields, which had supplied the Germans 

 for three years, would have to be given up; 

 exit from France, in case of necessity, through 

 the Metz gateway would be blocked, and the 

 only great avenue into Germany for the masses 

 of troops and war material would be along the 

 Meuse valley by way of Namur and Liege. 



Here, as on every other fighting front, there 

 was uninterrupted success for entente arms. 

 By October 15 great naval guns of the United 

 States, mounted on railroad cars, were throwing 

 shells upon the formidable forts surrounding 

 Metz, which were only twelve miles distant. 



Germany's Rapid Collapse. The armies of 

 the kaiser had been in continuous retreat since 

 July, but rear guards, protecting the departing 

 hosts, fought with as great stubbornness as at 

 any previous stage of the war. When Valen- 

 ciennes was taken the fortress at Maubeuge 

 was threatened; this was a few miles from the 

 Belgian frontier, and was the last German 

 stronghold on French soil. The German retire- 

 ment was more and more assuming the aspects 

 of a rout. 



News of the exact state of affairs was reach- 

 ing beyond the Rhine, and the German people 

 began to understand that they had been sys- 

 tematically deceived. Bulgaria had surren- 

 I, Austria-Hungary had quit the alliance, 

 Turkey had given up, and Germany stood 

 alone. President Wilson had nearly a year 

 before specified fourteen points \\lurh were 

 declared to be fundamental in any peace dis- 

 cussion. One of these was that in Germany 

 there should be a government in which the 

 allies could repose confid- 



The emperor placed Prince Maximilian of 



Bavaria in the poet of Chancellor of the 



ire and assigned to him the task of seeking 



a cessation of hostilities for discussion of a 

 possible peace. Socialists were admitted to the 

 Ministry; within a few days they dominated 

 the government, and President Wilson was 

 informed that a government of the people was 

 ready to discuss peace. The President, in reply, 

 advised Germany that terms of an armistice 

 could be had upon application to the high 



nee 



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FRANCE: 



SWITZERLAND 



THE ARMISTICE MAP 



By terms of the armistice Germany's army was 

 ordered to evacuate Alsace and Lorraine and all 

 of the German Empire west of the Rhine. More- 

 over, evacuation was to extend twi-ntv miles 

 eastward from the Rhine ; the eastern strip thus 

 cleared was to become a neutral rone, in which 

 neither allied nor German troops were to be 

 massed, except for an area encircling the stra- 

 tegic cities of Cologne. Coblenz and Mayence. 

 The shaded area on the map shows the extent of 

 allied occupation of German and former German 

 territory. The black area is the part of France 

 held by Germany on the day of the surrender : Its 

 northern and southern extensions show the final 

 battle line. 



allied military command, in the person of Mar- 

 shal Foch. The emperor left Berlin and sought 

 refuge with his army, but it was a poor staff on 

 which to lean. The chancellor demanded the 

 kaiser's abdication; Von Hindenburg declared 

 also that such an act was indispensable, and 

 William II bowed to the inevitable. In tin- 

 early morning of November 10 the last of the 

 autocrats entered Holland to seek asylum and 

 safety even from his own soldiers. 



In the meant nnr the German government 

 had been informed of the demands of the pro- 

 posed armistice through representatives who 

 had been escorted through the French lines to 

 tin headquarters of Foch. Seventy-two hours 

 was the time limit for acceptance, and this 

 limit was to expire on Monday, November 11, 

 at 5:00 A.M. Capitulation followed within the 



