WAR OF THE NATIONS 



0168 



WAR OF THE NATIONS 



bours; 11:(HJ A.M., November 11. 

 he hour when hostilities should ce:.- 



Collapse on Other Fronts. No great 

 was laid upon an allied advance in the South- 

 ern Balkan area in September. >vt within 

 one month Serbia was cleared almost to the 

 Bulgarian frontier. The armies of Bulgaria 

 accepted an armistice which amounted to un- 

 conditional surrender. 



The way was now open to a direct attack 

 upon Austria-Hungary from the south; the 

 latter country appealed in vain for German 

 aid, which could not be sent, for Germany was 

 in sore distress on the vital western front. 

 Therefore the Austro-Hungarian alliance with 

 Germany ended on November 3, after Italy 

 had driven the enemy beyond the line of its 

 coveted strip of Austrian territory the Tren- 

 tino. The Austrian surrender was complete 

 and humiliating. 



Meantime, Allenby's British army in Asia 

 Minor had defeated the Turks, and their com- 

 munication with Germany and Austria-Hun- 

 gary having been cut, Turkish surrender was 

 inevitable. It occurred on October 31. 



The End. The terms of the armistice forced 

 upon the defeated nation were to be complied 

 with within thirty days. The stipulations were 

 as follows: 



Evacuation within fourteen days of Belgium, 

 France, Alsace-Lorraine and Luxemburg. 



Surrender of 5,000 guns, half field and half 

 artillery; 25,000 machine guns; 3,000 flame 

 throwers, and 1,500 airplanes. 



Surrender of 5.000 locomotives, 150,000 cars, 

 50,000 wagons and 10,000 motor lorries. 



Surrender of railways of Alsace-Lorraine and 

 stores of coal and iron there. 



Immediate return of allied prisoners, but Ger- 

 man prisoners not to be returned. 



Evacuation of west bank of the Rhine, the 

 allies to hold the crossing of the river at Co- 

 blentz, Cologne and Mayence for a twenty-mile 

 radius. 



The east bank of the Rhine to become a neu- 

 tral zone and to be evacuated in nineteen days. 



German troops to retire at once from any occu- 

 pied territory which before the war belonged to 

 Russia, Rumania and Turkey. 



The allied force to have access to this evacu- 

 ated territory. 



Abrogation of Brest-Litovsk and Rumanian 

 treaties. 



Evacuation of all German forces in East 

 Africa within one month. 



Surrender of all German submarines. 



Surrender of seventy-four warships, including 

 fifty destroyers, ten battle-ships, six battle 

 cruisers and eight light cruisers. 



Restitution for damage done by German 

 armies in invaded territories. 



Return of cash taken from the national bank 

 of Belgium. 



Return of gold taken from Russia and Rumania. 



British forces moved across the part of Ger- 

 many evacuated by the German armies and 

 established themselves in the northern section, 

 with headquarters at Cologne; American armies 

 moved across to Coblenz, and the French occu- 

 pied Mayence. From these three strategic 

 points they controlled all the Rhine country 

 back of them and also the bridgeheads to the 

 east for a distance of twenty miles. Thus there 

 -tablished a new "Watch on the Rhine." 



Loss of Man Power. A few days after hos- 

 tilities ceased, the principal powers engaged 

 announced their casualties, subject to later cor- 

 rections. 



Great Britain: Total losses, 3,049,932. Of 

 these, nearly 900,000 were known to be dead; 

 the wounded numbered over 2,000,000. There 

 were 359,145 missing, including prisoners in 

 enemy hands and unknown dead. 



France: Total losses, 2,719,652. Of these, 

 1,400,000 were known dead, including 32,769 offi- 

 cers ; the wounded numbered 3,000,000, including 

 83,142 officers. There were 326,695 missing, in- 

 cluding prisoners in enemy hands and unknown 

 dead. 



United States: Total losses, reported on De- 

 cember 1, 1918, but admittedly not complete, were 

 somewhat in excess of 250,000. Of these about 

 58,478 were killed, and 14,565 had fallen into Ger- 

 man hands as prisoners or were otherwise miss- 

 ing. The remainder were on the list of wounded, 

 and of these somewhat over half were not perma- 

 nently disabled. 



The Valor of America's Soldiers. In preced- 

 ing pages there is given an outline of the terrific 

 struggles which were fought out on the battle- 

 fields of Europe. The American forces reached 

 a state of training at a time when the allied 

 chances of victory were waning. Indeed, it is 

 recorded that an allied commander in welcom- 

 ing the American forces said to high officers, 

 "Gentlemen, I am afraid you are too late for the 

 party." 



The speed with which the Americans were 

 prepared for the battle line was, next to the 

 incredible quickness in getting 2,000,000 of them 

 to Europe, extremely gratifying. In the last 

 three months of the war the Americans were 

 holding thirty-nine miles of battle front, and 

 were conducting an offensive which was one 

 of the most important of the war. 



History will record that the allies expected 

 Germany early in the summer of 1918 to break 

 through to the channel ports and to capture 

 Paris. The coming of the Americans in such 

 unexpected numbers changed every aspect of 

 the war, and when an American contingent 

 definitely stopped the German onrush at Cha- 

 teau Thierry, which had not been checked since 

 the offensive began on March 21, the war en- 



