GERMANY AT BAY MAJOR HALDt\NE MACFALL GERMANY AT BAY MARSHAL JOFFRE (tit· J. Sunps''"· A'.B.A .) Gerniany at Bay BY HALDANE MACFALL.-_- Major, late Sherwood Foresters With an Introduction by FIELD-MARSHAL VISCOUNT FRENCH WITH PORTRAITS AND MAPS CASSELL AND COMPANY, LTD London, New York, Toronto and Melbourne 1918 First published NtnJe1116n- 1917. R•!Jriuteco D~JCem6w 1917 (TAr•• tim~~s), '""'"'"' tgtB (Twic:c), 4-l•nlt. tgtS. 1to ~y Comrades Who Sleep 'THE HEROIC DEAD Who Answered the Call of .Joffre and French and Saved the World A PERSONAL NOTE I had written and published "The Splendid Way­ faring," the first volume of a trilogy, just before the .War, and was engaged upon the second volume, "The Book of Generous Courage," to prove the utter rot­ tenness of the German Kultur in peace and its inevit­ able doom in the fierce test of the furnace of Battle, when the War broke out, as I thought it would. However, the delibe·rate judgments based upon the strategic notes on which I had been building that volume, over some thirty years of keen study, have been proved to the hilt ever since the German rushed int9 this war. And in another form, more easily grasped by the simp.Zest mind, I now put it before the Man-in-the-Street in the hope that it may do some­ thing to help to guide him as to how alone he can -rid the wo-rld of the brazen god before whom the Hun had willed to make us all bow down and worship. "The Book of Generous Courage" must wait awhile. There is no time to be lost if Britain and America are to awake to the appalling danger that lies ahead in the making of Peace. To the American in par­ ticular the danger is as hideous as it is secret and sinister. The great American tradition of aloofness viii A Personal Note from world affairs was a counsel of perfection-so long as no powerful enemy arose to assail it. But the German, with astounding craft, made of this appar­ ently safe policy the 'Very trap for destroying America. We in Britain ha'IJe run a terrible Tisk from lack of strategic thinking, but we were nearer the danger and more easily alarmed. The American is far away, and wrapped in the mantle of the written tradition of the Monroe Doctrine. By consequence, it is un­ thinkable to an American that Germany could e'IJen dream of destroying her-yet the destruction of BTitain and America is the aim of the German's war-it is to that deliberate purpose and to that alone that the Germans ha'IJe launched upon this war. ·when, there­ fore, we find great American journalists telling us that the heart of AmeTica bleeds for Belgium, but has little interest in the Balkans; when we find our 'American Allies unrepresented in PaTis at the lVar Council about the Eastern war, we are bound to recognize tk.at the American does not e'Ven now realise that it is exactly this majestically heroic Serbia that matters in this war more than anything-that it is precisely this Serbia which he.ld the gate shut to the Pan-German A!ap-and that it is precisely the making or unmaking of Serbia which will lead to the future welfare or disaster of America and Britain. Serbia is the bulwark of Britain and America, as surely as Britain is the bulwark of America against the German design of world dominion. And if this book pro'Ve nothing but thllt to the_ Man-in-the-Street it wiLl not A Personal Note ix have been written in vain. If America and Britain allow Serbia to fall, they__ will have to fight the Ger­ man, enormously enkamced in power, in his strategy for .World Dominion. Since the ink dried on the last page in this volume, this midsummer of 1917, there have been such revela­ tions-the American Ambassador, Mr. Gerard's "My Four Years in Germany"; the disclosure of the Kaiser's treaty with the Tsar for the attack on Britain in 1905; the publication of Russian State secrets­ which all strongly support what was here deduced, that much whick would have been challenged is now the accepted truth, whilst the calm, wise sanity of General Smuts and of the great American President, and their wide vision in Statesmanship, have done muck to clear a dangerous situation. My thanks are due to the Editor of "Land and Water" for the use of my friend Joseph Simpson's ,very fine portrait of Field-Marshal Joffre. H. M. CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTION BY THE VISCOUNT FRENCH • xiii BOOK I Of Strategy in General CHAPTER x. To THE MAN-IN-THE-STREET • 3 2. THE GERMAN GENIUS IN WAR 9 3· How THE STRATEGIC STUDENT WoRKs 16 BOOK II Of th~ Strategy of the Great War 4· RisE OF THE GERMAN MENACE 21 5· GER~AN STRATEGY ROOTED IN KULTUR 35 6, WHAT EXACTLY IS THE GERMAN HIGHER STRATEGY ? • I 52 7· THE GERMAN WAR-MACHINE 70 8. THE BRITISH AND FRENCH WAR-MACHINES 74 9· BREAKDOWN OF THE' GERMAN STRATEGY 85 10, OF BATTLE • 99 II. FALL OF THE GERMAN WAR GOD • • 106 12. tHE SIEGE OF GERMANY • 161 xii Contents BOOK III The Peace Map CHAPTER PAGE IJ. LIP-SERVICE REPUDIATION OF KULTUR • 263 14. THE GERMAN PEACE STRATEGY • 269 15. REPARATION AND PUNISHMENT · 283 16. THE FUTURE OF STRATEGIC STUDY 291 INDEX • 295 ILLUSTRATIONS PORTRAITS MARSHAL JOFFRE Frontispiece VISCOUNT FRENCH To face p. 128 MAPS PAGE PRUSSIA AND HER DOMINIONS IN 1815 • 20 STRATEGY UP TO THE RETREAT FROM THE MARNE Toface II2 FocH'S COUNTER-ATTACK ON SEPTEMBER g, 1914 • 153 GERMAN STRATEGY AFTER THE MARNE • 162 FIRST RussiAN CAMPAIGN • Between 192-3 1"HE PAN-GERMAN MAP • 272 MAP OF GERMANY'S jUST PLACE IN EUROPE • • 273 INDEX AIRCRAFT, German conception Argonne, the, Germans unsuc- of morality of, 264 cessful in, I 88. 189 Aisne, the, Germans entrench Arras, battle of, I79 on, I6I Aryan theory, the, 42, 47 Albert, battle for, I70 Aubers, British reverse at, 2I3 Alexander of Serbia, Crown Austria and a Pan-Gerw.an Prince, 20I Empire, 92 Alesieff, military genius of, 207 annexes Bosnia and Herze- Allied Fleet, naval demonstra­ govina, 92 tion by, 2I3 bombards Belgrade, I09 Allies, the, disposition of, on German mastery of, I95 Belfort-Verdun line, 118 war with Italy, 26 land in Gallipoli, 214 Austria-Hungary declares war Peace Map of, 273 on Serbia, I09 trench warfare of, 2 I I Austrian losses in 19I6 Russian Alsace, French attack in, I I4 summer offensive, 242 et Alsace (Upper), French victory seq. at, II9 Austrians defeated at Sho1batz, Alsace-Lorraine, Joffre strikes a 166, I9I second blow, u8, I2I defeated in Galicia, I97 America, attitude of, to Great war, 224 BAI.KANS, the, Sarrail begins the German in, 35 his offensive, 250 threatens Germany, 238 Bavaria, alliance with Prnssia, Treitschke's contempt for, 59, 29 63, 64. 67 Beatty, Sir David, I92 why she entered the war, 256 and the battle of Jutland, 239 Ancre, the, German retirement Beaucourt falls to the Naval on, 252, 254 Division, 252 Anglo - Rnssian Agreement Beaumont Hamel taken by the (I907). 87 Highlanders, 252 Antwerp, arrival of English Belfort-Verdun line, the, Io6 troops in, I 7 3 disposition of troops, u8 Belgian retirement to, I69 Belgian Army, retreat of, I22 evacuation of, I74 frontier, enemy concentration German attack on and on, IIS occupation of, I72-4 Belgians fall back on Antwerp, spies in, I 7 4 I69 Apremont, fall of, I89 flood the country, I78 Arabs, the, proclaim independ­ Belgium, events in, in early ence of Turkey, 247 days of Great War, us 295 296 Index Belgium, German violation of, CADoRNA, a counter-offensive 96, II5 by, 239 landing of British troops in, bombards Isonw front and I72 carries Gorizia, 245 the German objective in, 116 Campbell-Bannerman, Sir H. violation of: a German foresight of, 95. 2I4 blunder, Io8 Capper, General, at Antwerp, Belgrade, bombardment of, I09 I73 Below, von, appeal to his troops, Carpathians, the, Russian cap­ 249 ture of, 204 Berestechko, Russian success at, Cary, Langle de, gives battle at 244 Mezieres, I 36 Bethmann-Hollweg's indictment gallantry of, I 54 of Britain, 222 Castelnau, General de, brilliant Bismarck, astuteness and power strategy of, I 20 of, 26 et SI!IJ. Cavell, Nurse, murder of, 226 dictum concerning France, 8 5 287 dismissal of, 2 I Chamberlain, Houston Stuart, a machinations of, 28 et seq. renegade Englishman, 45 on strategy, 86 Champagne, costly battle to Boer War, the, 78 Germans in, 2 16 Borleaux- Vermandvillers line French offensive in, 212 carried by the French, 249 German defeat in, I89 Bosnia, annexation of, protest Charleroi, battle of, I25 from Triple Entente, 92 Chateau Thierry, French and Brandenburgers, surrender of British at, I 54 at Verdun, 235 Churchill, Winston, report on Breslau, the, II 2 British Fleet, I IO British Expeditionary Force, Coast, the, battle for Belgian, the, lands in France, II2 I64 et seq. psychology of, 79 Colonies, the, and the Great the retreat from Mons, I29 War, 97 British Fleet in battle of the Compiegne, rearguard action at Heligoland Bight, I9I I39 ready for war, I IO ·Germans outflanked at, I70 the blockade, I92 Constantine, King of Greece, British War Office, organisation treachery of, I9S. 218, of, 75 220, 246 Britons, and American attitude Constantinople, affairs in, 237 in Great War, 224 Contalmaison, fall of, 249 Brody, Russian capture of, 244 Coronel, defeat of Admiral Broussiloff at Ravaruska, I66, Cradock, 215 I92 Courland, Germ1111 invasion of, Brussels, Germans enter, I22 205 Bukovina, the, in Russian hands, Cradock, Admiral, a sea-fight in 243 the Pacific, 2 I 5 Bulgaria and a Pan-German Ctesiphon, battle of, 236 Empire, 92, 94, I68, I95.