Verdun to the Vosges

Contents

Chapter I
LONDON TO DIJON

Departure from London, September 8th, 1914 — A German officer's analysis of the invaders' plan of campaign — Paris — General condition of doubt and uncertainty — Travelling during the Battle of the Marne — Effect in France of the news of the victory

Chapter II
DIJON TO BELFORT

Arrival in Dijon — The laisser-passer difficulty — Besancon — An anxious moment — Arrival at Belfort — Doubtful reception — A Socialist private — Manifesto "Aux Camerades Socialistes" —  National Service — A Capitalists' War — The Strike of Strikes —  The struggle for freedom — Etat de siege — A city of darkness-Welcome by the Governor

Chapter III
IN ALSACE

On German soil — Montreux Vieux — The first ruined village —  Towards the Rhine — A night reconnaissance in Alsace —  Ferette — Covert drawn blank — Cheerfulness of the French soldier — His longing for home — His home at the front — Taube " over " — A Colonel's hobby — An army in earnest .
 

Chapter IV
ROBBERY UNDER ARMS

Eve of the War — French neutral zone along the frontier — German raids in time of peace — Sunday, August 2nd — The affair at Joncherey — First blood — A German epic — The Suarce raidr —  Bobbery under arms — Political importance of the incident —
Prisoners of war where no war was

Chapter V
BELFORT TO NANCY

News of Nancy — German lies — Security of Belfort — After twelve months — Breakdown of German plans — Visit to the Prefet of Belfort — A Prefect's duties and position — Check on militarism —  Special duties during the war — The Prefets and Sous-Prefets of the frontier Departments — Posts of danger — Example and precept — Return to Dijon — Chalindrey — British Tommies —  Wounded French officers — Toul — Arrival in Nancy
 

Chapter VI
ETAT-DE-SEIGE IN NANCY

Discouraging start in Nancy — General de la Masselliere — Visits to the Prefect and Mayor — Their appointment — Madame Mirman  — Their example — The Lorraine stock — Nancy by night — The sound of the guns — A united people — The French renaissance-Nancy newspapers — Nancy hospitals — Nursing sisters
 

Chapter VII
THE FRENCH OFFENSIVE

The German territorial gains — Bearing on peace proposals — The French offensive — General moral effect — Uncertainty as to direction of German attack — Sources from which eastern armies were drawn — Their offensive — General account — In the Woevre — Verdun and Longwy — From the Moselle to Mul-house — The frontier force — Justification of the offensive —  Description of frontier — Of Alsace — Importance of the Vosges  — The Sundgau — First French advance on August 7th — Altkirch retaken
 

Chapter VIII
OCCUPATIONS OF MULHOUSE

Advance on Mulhouse — Unopposed entry — Popular rejoicings —  German counter-attack — Smallness of French force — Their repulse  —  Terrorism  —  Harsh treatment of foreigners  —  Be-organization of French under General Pau — Second advance on Mulhouse — Battle round the town — Victory of the French —  Second occupation began

Chapter IX
MORHANGE

Description of the Vosges — French advance — Triumphs in Lorraine  — The check at Morhange — Why the French fell into the trap —  The disaster — New birth of the army — Bad news — The offensive abandoned
 

Chapter X
GENERAL DUBAIL'S STAND

Combination of reverses for France — Soldiers' ignorance of contemporary events — Reliance on barrier of fortresses — Determination to fight in the open — Different conditions — Position after Morhange — German advance — Troupe de Charmes —  Epinal — Vesouze, Mortagne, and Meurthe — Brave resistance of Dubail's army — The reverse of the picture — The terrorists' Credo — Condemnation of frightfulness — An example — The German excuse
 

Chapter XI
THE MARTYRED TOWN

Gerbeviller — Visit with M. Mirman — The ruins — Murder of old men — How the town was taken — Incendiarism — Soeur Julie —  An act of " sacrilege " — Other martyred towns — Badonviller —  The first occupation — The second — Fight in the streets — St. Benoit — Col de la Chipotte
 

Chapter XII
BATTLE OF THE GRAND COURONNE. I

The battle of the Grand Couronne — Two parts — The position south of the Meurthe — Transport of Dragoon regiment from Alsace —  Arrival at Charmes  —  Towards Luneville —  Procession of fugitives — Description of field of battle — South and north of Meurthe up to Nancy-Luneville road — General Bigot's divisions  — Retreat of the XVth and XVIth Army Corps — General retreat — Luneville abandoned — Position of XXth Army Corps —  The troops from the south reformed — A miracle — The battle begins — Germans cross Mortagne and Meurthe — A battle symphony — Across the field of battle — Scenes of desolation —  The battle continued — German attack checked — Retreat turned into advance — The XVth Army Corps leaves for the Argonne —  Their-regeneration
 

Chapter XIII
BATTLE OF THE GRAND COURONNE. II

Nancy, the woman-town — Absence of fortifications — Attitude of her defenders — The pivot of the line — Kaiser's dreams of conquest — Description of four German lines of attack — Of the country — General de Castlenau's line — Champenoux villages —  Remerville — Farms and cottages — Loopholed blockhouses —  The wounded — The refugees — Account of Nomeny — German brutality — Rottenness of German civilization  —  Germany's future — Inspiration of soldiers of Lorraine — The part of the women — A woman's letter
 

Chapter XIV
BATTLE OF THE GRAND COURONNE. III

The attack on. Nancy from the north — St. Genevieve — The assault —  How it was repulsed — The attack from the east — Dombasle —  Gourbesseau — Remereville — Soldiers' disregard of fire — In Champagne  —  French disadvantages in Lorraine  —  Their gallantry — Individualism — Main attack from north-east —  Attack on plateau of Amance — -September 8th — Importance of the date — What it meant to the Kaiser — Final assault on Amance — Relations between Battle of the Marne and Battle of the Grand Couronne' — Bombardment of Nancy — The German retreat — Last struggle in Champenoux — Losses of the victors  — Their graves — The horror of the horizon — The reassurance of the front

Chapter XV
LUNEVILLE

Effect of Battle of the Grand Couronne on Luneville — Extent of damage in the town — Entry of Germans — Familiar faces — M. Minier, M. Mequillet, M. Keller — Faubourg d'Einville burnt —  German Governor's proclamation — Hostages — Plight of inhabitants — Outside the town — The turn of the tide — France and Germany — A duel to the death — Last fights before the town —  German bestiality — General Joffre's message — The last advance  —  French enter the town — Restored to France
 

Chapter XVI
NEWSPAPER CORRESPONDENTS

After the storm — A Prefect's duties — Newspaper correspondents —  War a serious matter — Enemy's means of information — On the battlefield — " Behind the front" — German dread of newspapers  — Their own — French and British — The truth concealed — In Belgium — Effect in neutral Switzerland — Change of opinion due to knowledge of state of internes — Confidence of M. Mirman  — The Times an agent for good — Expulsion from Nancy-Hopes of return
 

Chapter XVII
A DAY WITH A PREFECT

A Conseil de Revision — Comparison with English recruiting —  French boys' enthusiasm — Their experience of terrorism — A greybeard — The Mayors of Lorraine — A war to kill war —  Lunch at the Prefecture — Through the French army — At the front — A deserted village — Towards Nomeny — A check —  Retreat — M. Puech — A souvenir — French sang-froid
 

Chapter XVII
THE ATTACK ON THE RIVER FORTS

Position after Battle of the Grand Couronne' — German failures reviewed — Mystery of Manonviller — Position of Toul — Of the barrier of fortresses — Description of the Woevre — Troyon —  The first bombardment — German demand for surrender — The attacking force — Relief from Toul — The attack abandoned —  Renewed bombardment of the river forts — Formation of the St. Mihiel triangle
 

Chapter XIX
THE "SOIXANTE-QUINZE"

The Emperor William — His advisers — The modem Huns — The barrier of the trenches — The Soixante-Quinze — Its superiority to its German rival — The French gunner — Pride of the nation in its artillery — Determination in the workshops — The struggle of the trenches  — A German description

Chapter XX
SIEGE WARFARE

Second period of the war — Germany besieged — The pressure on the west — Partial offensives — The lack of shells^-Its effect on the war — "Craters of Death" — Monotony of the trenches — A National Army — Soldier-priests — Their contempt of death —  Their self-sacrifice — Their spiritual work — Influence on the troops — The realities of life — Church and State — The example of the State — Spirit of unity — Points of attack — Hammer and tongs — The St. Mihiel salient — Chauvoncourt — Les Eparges —  Bois d'Ailly — Bois Brute — Bois le Pretre — The Vosges and Alsace — 'The soldiers of France — France and England — The Boche standards of right and wrong — The German cancer and the end of the war
 

Chapter THE LAST
GERMANY AND THE ALLIES

Pride and prejudice — English pride before the war — Pride of France  — Pride of race — Noblesse Oblige — Pride of Germany — Pride of the parvenu — Peaceful pre-war invasion of German commerce and kultur — Neutral views of Germany's guilt — French views of England — Redemption by hate — What is " the right" ? —  Greater Germany? — Tannenberg's views — The Kaiser's conversion — Germany's designs on neutral countries — The new year — The dead

EPILOGUE
By M. Leon Mirman

 

 

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

 

General de Castlenau
Les Halles, Raon l'Etape
French Advance in Village Street of Magnieres
M. Léon Mirman
M. Simon
French Advance at Sainte-Barbe
General Dubail
Gerbéviller
Farm of Léomont
General Foch
Infantry Attack on Farm of Saint Epvre, on the Heights above Lunéville
Outside the Préfecture, Nancy
Nomeny
Réméréville
Chateau de Haraucourt
French Attack from Cemetery of Rehainviller near Luneville
Church at Drouville

 

MAPS

 

Eastern Frontier

Alsace and the Vosges

Lorraine Frontier

La Woevre