Museum Series

Illustrations from Photographs loaned by American Museum of Natural History. Large 12mo. Cloth.

Price $1.35 each.

THE MONSTER-HUNTERS
THE POLAR HUNTERS
THE AZTEC-HUNTERS

THE WONDER OF WAR IN THE AIR
THE WONDER OF WAR ON LAND

With Illustrations from unusual War Photographs and Sketches. Large 12mo. Cloth. Price $1.35 each.

LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO., BOSTON

Courtesy of "L'Illustration."

Where Boyhood Guards France.

Night in the trenches, showing sentry on duty and occupants of firing-line snatching a sleep which may be the prelude of death.

THE WONDER OF
WAR ON LAND

FRANCIS ROLT-WHEELER

Author of "U. S. Service Series" and "The Wonder of War in the Air"

With Forty-two Illustrations from War Photographs
and Sketches

BOSTON
LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO.

Published, August, 1918

The Wonder of War on Land

Norwood Press
BERWICK & SMITH CO
NORWOOD, MASS.
U. S. A.

[FOREWORD]

The author wishes to point out that in a volume, such as this, which deals largely with modern war strategy, not a little of the information which has been placed at his disposal by official sources is not, at this time, available for publication. For this reason, the tactics herein presented deal mainly with the larger issues, but it is believed that a sufficient description of the principles has been given to make clear the chief wonders of modern land war. For the same reason, the author has not entered upon controversy with regard to the origin or the character of the Great War, but has stated only such facts as are admitted both by the Allies and by the Central Powers. Military reasons preclude the naming of those officers and officials who have been especially courteous in giving information and advice, but it may justly be said that counsel and assistance has been received from American, French, Belgian, and English sources.

Acknowledgment is made herein of the courtesy of L'Illustration, J'ai Vu, Le Monde Illustré, Panorama de la Guerre, La Grande Guerre, and Le Miroir of Paris; of Illustrated London News, Graphic, Sketch, Sphere, The War of the Nations, and The War Illustrated of London; for the use of illustrations taken from their publications and being from photographs or sketches made by their photographers or artists in the field. For the use of official photographs taken by the Photographic Corps of the armies of France, Belgium, and England, acknowledgment of courtesy also is made.

[PREFACE]

Never, in the history of the world, has the courage of the individual soldier and the skill of the individual officer been so superbly witnessed as in the Great War. Still less has it ever been that a general dealt with such mighty forces or was confronted with such appalling problems of organization. The brain would reel with its immensity were it not for the fact that the brain grows accustomed to prodigies, to prodigies of valor, of skill, and of self-sacrifice.

Two great questions stand out paramount in the Great War. It is a conflict of principles, it is also a conflict of strategies. These two are interlocked. The strategy that dooms hundreds of thousands to death recklessly is the result of one principle; the strategy that makes every soldier a hero and a patriot is based on an opposing principle. These are hereinafter set forth and tell their own hideous and their own glorious tale.

War, such as the Great War, has never been before. The changed conditions did not come suddenly, they came gradually, and each new death-dealing device was brought about as the result of some disaster that had gone before. The Siege-Gun explains the fall of Liége, the weakness of fortifications explains trench warfare, the defense at Ypres explains the poison gas, and the trench deadlock foreshadows the tank.

The United States is in the war. It is our war. We must know all that can be known. We must do all that can be done. We have entered the war on a high and noble plane, and we must know what are the fundamental principles at stake. War is neither a gathering of heroes nor a shambles. It is holy and it is dreadful. It is sublime and it is sordid. It is so terrible a thing that it can only be pardoned when its causes are just, even as they are just, noble, and sublime in this war. To give the boys of the United States a fair viewpoint on this war, to reveal the great issues involved, to build up a swift-blooded admiration for the men who have taken their lives in their hands to defend these great ideals and to prepare our lads for a manhood in which they shall be worthy of their fathers and of their elder brothers, to give a deeper pulse to the pride of being an American, is the aim and purpose of

The Author.

[CONTENTS]

PAGE
CHAPTER I
Where the Shell Struck	[1]
CHAPTER II
The Heroes of the Forts	[44]
CHAPTER III
The Captive Kaiser	[86]
CHAPTER IV
The Perils of Escape	[135]
CHAPTER V
The Dispatch-Rider	[190]
CHAPTER VI
Retreat! Retreat!	[220]
CHAPTER VII
Where Destiny Said "Halt!"	[253]
CHAPTER VIII
Digging In	[302]
CHAPTER IX
The Demon Faces	[334]

[ILLUSTRATIONS]