CHAPTER XLVIII
ZEPPELIN RAIDS
During the night of July 31 to August 1, 1916, a squadron of Zeppelins, reported to have numbered at least six, raided the eastern and southeastern counties of England. Sixty bombs were dropped, causing considerable material damage, but, as far as was ascertained, no casualties.
Again the following day, August 2, 1916, six Zeppelins appeared over the east coast of England. According to German claims, London, the naval base at Harwich, and various industrial establishments in the county of Norfolk were covered with a total of about eighty bombs, which caused, of course, considerable loss. Although English authorities claimed that antiaircraft guns registered a number of hits against one, or possibly two, of the Zeppelins, and that another, flying during its return trip over Dutch territory, was fired at and hit, all of the six were later reported to have returned to their home base undamaged.
Another squadron visited the east coast again one week later, August 9, 1916. There were reported to have been between seven and ten machines which dropped about 160 bombs, caused extensive damage, and killed twenty-three people. English batteries finally forced the withdrawal of the Zeppelins.
About twenty-four hours after Rumania's entrance into the war on the side of the Allies a Zeppelin, accompanied by an aeroplane, appeared during the night of August 28, 1916, over Rumania's capital, Bucharest. After a short bombardment, which caused but little damage, they were both forced to withdraw by the fire of antiaircraft guns. Before returning to their bases they bombarded three other unnamed Rumanian cities without causing much damage.
Shortly after 11 o'clock in the evening of September 2, 1916, the eastern coasts of England were again attacked, this time by a fleet of thirteen airships, the most formidable attack that had so far been launched against England.
The measures taken by the English authorities for the reduction or obscuration of lights proved most efficacious, for the raiding squadrons, instead of steering a steady course as to the raids of the spring and of last autumn, groped about in darkness looking for a safe avenue to approach their objectives.
Three airships only were able to approach the outskirts of London. One of them, the L-21, appeared over the northern district about 2.15 in the morning of September 3, 1916, where she was picked up by searchlights and heavily engaged by antiaircraft guns and aeroplanes. After a few minutes the airship was seen to burst into flames and fall rapidly toward the earth.
The ship was destroyed, the wreckage, engines, and half-burned bodies of the crew being found at Cuffley, near Enfield. The other two ships which approached London were driven off by the defenses without being able to approach the center of the city. A great number of bombs were dropped promiscuously over the east Anglian and southeastern counties, causing considerable but not very serious damage. Two people were reported killed and thirteen injured.
The funeral of the sixteen members of the German Zeppelin took place on September 6, 1916, at Potter's Bar Cemetery, and was carried out under the direction of the British Royal Flying Corps. A young member of the latter, Lieutenant William Robinson, who had been responsible for the Zeppelin's destruction, received later the Victoria Cross as well as a number of monetary rewards and civic honors. The site at Cuffley, which had been the scene of the airship's destruction, was presented to the English nation by its owner.
During the night of September 23, 1916, twelve Zeppelins again made their appearance over the eastern counties of England and the outskirts of London. Although the material damage was widespread, it was borne chiefly by small homes and shops. The toll in human life was greater than at any other raid, amounting to thirty-eight killed and 125 injured. However, two of the Zeppelins were forced down in Essex; one of them was destroyed together with its crew; the other managed to make a landing and its crew of twenty-one were made prisoners.
Two days later, during the night of September 25, 1916, a smaller squadron of about six airships attacked the northeastern and southern counties of England. Bombs did considerable damage, most of which, however, was inflicted on privately owned property. Thirty-six people were killed and twenty-seven more injured.
With the advance of autumn Zeppelin raids became less frequent. Only once during October, 1916, on the night of October 1 to 2, did a squadron of Zeppelins appear over English territory. At that time ten airships attacked the eastern coast and London. The damage again was principally to private property. Only one person was reported killed and one injured. One of the Zeppelins, however, was brought down in flames near Potter's Bar, and from its wreckage the bodies of nineteen members of its crew were recovered.
Not until the end of November, 1916, was another Zeppelin attack reported. At that time, during the night of November 27 to 28, 1916, two airships raided Yorkshire and Durham. They did considerable damage, killed one and injured sixteen persons. Both Zeppelins were brought down and destroyed and the entire crews of both perished.
One airship was attacked by an aeroplane of the British Royal Flying Corps and brought down in flames into the sea off the coast of Durham.
Another airship crossed the North Midland counties and dropped bombs at various places. On her return journey she Was repeatedly attacked by aeroplanes of the British Royal Flying Corps and by guns. She appeared to have been damaged, for the last part of her journey was made at very slow speed, and she was unable to reach the coast before day was breaking.
Near the Norfolk coast she apparently succeeded in effecting repairs, and, after passing through gunfire from the land defenses, which claimed to have made a hit, proceeded east at high speed and at an altitude of over 8,000 feet. She was attacked nine miles out at sea by four machines of the British Royal Naval Air Service, while gunfire was opened from an armed British trawler, and the airship was finally brought down in flames.
During December, 1916, no Zeppelins were apparently used actively. As far as it was possible to determine definitely, the number of German airships wrecked from the outbreak of the war up to January 1, 1917, was nineteen. Of these twelve were lost during 1916 as follows:
L-19. Wrecked in the North Sea on February 3.
L-77. Shot down by French guns near Brabant-le-Roi on February 21.
L-15. Shot down in raid on eastern counties, and sank off Thames estuary on April 1.
L-20. Wrecked near Stavanger on May 3.
Unnamed airship. Destroyed by British warships off Schleswig on May 4.
Unnamed airship. Brought down by Allied warships at Saloniki on May 5.
L-21. Burned and wrecked near Enfield, September 3.
L-32 and L-33. Brought down in Essex, September 24.
Airship brought down at Potter's Bar, October 1.
Two airships brought down in flames off the east coast, November 27-28.
Another list, based on an article published in the "Journal of the Proceedings of the United States Naval Institute," yields a total of thirty-eight Zeppelins as having been destroyed since the outbreak of the war. Of this number the loss of thirty was said to have been authenticated.
Of the larger total (38) 5 were destroyed in 1914, 17 in 1915, and 16 in 1916. Of these 4 were lost in France, 6 in Russia, 7 in Belgium, 7 in England, 1 in Denmark, 1 in Norway, 1 in the Balkans, 5 in the East, and 6 in Germany.
No further activities of Zeppelins were reported during January, 1917, except that it was announced unofficially on January 3, 1917, that two Zeppelins had been destroyed at Tondern, Schleswig, by a fire due to defective electric wiring in a recently constructed double shed.
To sum up the losses in aeroplanes incurred by the various belligerents during the six months' period, August, 1916, to February, 1917, is practically impossible. Figures are available for a few months only, and they are not only unofficial, but come from all kinds of different sources, most of them very much biased.
Furthermore, there always is a wide discrepancy between figures published by adherents of the Allies and those published by the friends of the Central Powers.
As an example of this condition the following may well serve: At the end of January, 1916, an unofficial statement claimed that the Germans lost during 1916 on the western front a total of 221 aeroplanes. The French authorities immediately claimed that they had knowledge of 417 German aeroplanes which had been shot down by their aviators, and that 195 more machines were brought down damaged, of which undoubtedly a number finally were to be considered lost to the Germans. Neither statement, however, is supported by sufficient data to allow any kind of checking up. The truth, therefore, must be sought somewhere around the average between these two figures.
Equally difficult is it to arrive at any definite figures regarding the losses in man power incurred by the various aviation corps. No official figures are available except the lists of casualties published in aviation papers. These, however, cover only the French and English organizations, and even in these two cases they contain a large number of men who lost their lives not at the front, but in aviation camps in England or France while being trained.
However, that section of the French Aviation Corps containing American volunteers has been more liberal in publishing statistics. On November 3, 1916, it was announced that the flying unit of the French Corps, consisting entirely of American volunteers, had brought down between May and November a total of twenty-one German machines. At that time it consisted of twelve American members. Unfortunately it had lost previously to this date two of its members.
Kiffin Rockwell of Atlanta, Ga., had been killed in an air battle over Thame in Alsace on September 23, 1916. He had joined the Foreign Legion of the French army in May, 1915, had been severely wounded, received the Military Medal, and after his recovery had been transferred to the Flying Corps. He had participated in thirty-four air battles, and a few hours before his death had been promoted to be a second lieutenant.
Norman Prince, Harvard graduate and native of Hamilton, Mass., was severely wounded early in October, 1916. He died a week later on October 14, 1916, in a hospital after first having been decorated with the cross of the Legion of Honor. He had also received some time before the Military Medal.
On November 2, 1916, it was announced that Anthony H. Jannus, a young Washington aviator, had been killed in Russia on October 12, 1916, while flying for the Russian army.
Another young American, Ruskin Watts of Westfield, N. J., who was serving in the English Aviation Corps on the western front, was on November 2, 1916, reported as missing since September 22, 1916. No further news of his fate was known.
This meant that, as far as was known definitely, four Americans had lost their lives fighting for the Allies as members of their aviation service.[Back to Contents]
CHAPTER XLIX
SUBMARINE WARFARE
The totals of the damage inflicted by submarines of the Central Powers on the merchant fleets of the Entente Allies during July, 1916, was not officially announced until August 16, 1916. On that day an official statement was published in Berlin to the effect that German and Austrian submarines and mines had destroyed during July, 1916, 74 merchantmen belonging to England and her allies. These ships had a total tonnage of 103,000 tons.
The activity of German and Austrian submarines increased considerably during August, 1916. According to an official German statement submarines or mines sunk 126 merchant ships, belonging to England and her allies, totaling 170,679 tons gross, as well as 35 neutral merchant ships, totaling 38,568 tons. These figures, however, did not agree with figures compiled in this country. The New York "Journal of Commerce" records only 93 ships of a total tonnage of 123,397 as having been sunk in August, 1916. The same authority also announced that in the period from August 1, 1914, to September 1, 1916, there had been destroyed, 1,584 merchant ships, aggregating 2,939,915 tons.
Among the ships sunk in August, 1916, was the Italian mail steamer Letimbro. She went to the bottom of the Mediterranean on August 4, 1916, and it was claimed that many of her 1,100 passengers were lost. Other ships of more than 2,000 tons which were lost in August, 1916, were:
British: Tottenham, 3,106 tons; Favonian, 3,049 tons; Mount Coniston, 3,018 tons; Aaro, 2,603 tons; Trident, 3,129 tons; San Bernardo, 3,803 tons; Antiope, 2,793 tons; Whitgift, 4,397 tons; Britannic, 3,487 tons; Heighington, 2,800 tons; and Newburn, 3,554 tons.
Italian: Citta di Messina, 2,464 tons; Hermerberg, 2,824 tons; Siena, 4,372 tons; Teti, 2,868 tons; Nereus, 3,980 tons; Angelo, 8,609 tons; Sebastiano, 3,995 tons; Stampalia, 9,000.
Other nations: Ivar, Danish, 2,139 tons; Kohina Maru, Japanese, 3,164 tons; Tenmei Maru, Japanese, 3,360 tons; Tricoupis, Greek, 2,387 tons; Ganekogorta Mendi, Spanish, 3,061 tons; Pagasarri, Spanish, 3,287 tons.
Of vessels smaller than 2,000 tons the losses to the various nations were as follows: Great Britain, 23; France, 6; Italy, 10; Russia, 4; Norway, 9; Sweden, 6; Holland, 2; Denmark, 3; Greece, 3.
A large discrepancy regarding the total number and tonnage of Allied and neutral merchantmen sunk by mines and submarines was again noticeable in the figures published in the United States newspapers and in official statements of the German admiralty.
The latter on October 26, 1916, announced that 180 ships with a total tonnage of 254,600 had been sunk, of which 141 of 182,000 tons belonged to Great Britain and her allies, and 39 of 72,600 tons to neutral nations. The New York "Journal of Commerce," on October 5, 1916, published a summary of merchantmen lost during September, 1916, which accounted only for 70 vessels of 150,317 tons, of which 25 were said to have belonged to Great Britain and 18 to neutral Norway, while France lost 4, Italy 4, Sweden 5, Denmark 4, Spain, Greece, and Holland each 2, and Belgium 1. Of all these the following were more than 2,000 tons:
British: Duart, 3,108 tons; Strathalian, 4,404 tons; Swift Wings, 4,465 tons; Kelvinia, 3,140 tons; Torridge, 5,036 tons; Strathtay, 4,428 tons; Heathdene, 3,541 tons; Llangorse, 3,841 tons; Butetown, 2,466 tons; Bronwen, 4,250 tons; Strathe, 2,500 tons; Newby, 2,168 tons; Counsellor, 4,958 tons; Lexie, 3,778 tons; Swedish Prince, 3,712 tons; Roddam, 3,218 tons; Lord Tredegar, 3,856 tons; Dewa, 3,802 tons.
Norwegian: Elizabeth IV, 4,182 tons; Polynesia, 4,064 tons; Bufjord, 2,284 tons; Qvindeggen, 2,610 tons; Furu, 2,029 tons; Isdalen, 2,275 tons.
Other nations: Antwerpen, Dutch, 11,000 tons; Benpark, Italian, 3,842 tons; Gamen, Swedish, 2,617 tons; Luis Vives, Spanish, 2,394 tons; Assimacos, Greek, 2,898 tons.
For the month of October, 1916, the New York "Journal of Commerce" placed its total figures of Allied and neutral merchantmen sunk by mines or submarines at 127 vessels of 227,116 tons, according to a compilation published on November 3, 1916. No official figures of the German Government for October, 1916, were available. Of the above-mentioned 127 vessels, Great Britain lost 38; Norway, 56; Sweden, 10; Denmark, 8; Greece, 5; Russia, 4; Holland, 3; France, Belgium, and Rumania, each 1. Of these the following were of more than 2,000 tons:
British: Franconia, 18,150 tons; Alaunia, 13,405 tons; Welsh Prince, 4,934 tons; Rowanmore, 10,320 tons; Astoria, 4,262 tons; Cabotia, 4,309 tons; Midland, 4,247 tons; Cluden, 3,166 tons; Barbara, 3,740 tons; Framfield, 2,510 tons; Ethel Duncan, 2,510 tons; Sidmouth, 4,045 tons; Crosshill, 5,002 tons; Sebek, 4,601 tons; Renylan, 3,875 tons; Strathdene, 4,321 tons; West Point, 3,847 tons; Stephano, 3,449 tons.
Norwegian: Christian Knudsen, 4,224 tons; Risholm, 2,155 tons; Snestadt, 2,350 tons; Edam, 2,381 tons; Sola, 3,057 tons; Bygdo, 2,345 tons.
Russian: Tourgai, 4,281 tons; Mercator, 2,827 tons.
Dutch: Bloomersdijk, 4,850 tons.
Greek: George M. Embiricos, 3,636 tons; Massalia, 2,186 tons; Germaine, 2,573 tons.
Rumanian: Bistritza, 3,668 tons.
More interest than ever before in submarine warfare was aroused in this country when the German war submarine U-53 unexpectedly made its appearance in the harbor of Newport, R. I., during the afternoon of October 7, 1916. About three hours afterward, without having taken on any supplies, and after explaining her presence by the desire of delivering a letter addressed to Count von Bernstorff, then German Ambassador at Washington, the U-53 left as suddenly and mysteriously as she had appeared.
This was the first appearance of a war submarine in an American port. It was claimed that the U-53 had made the trip from Wilhelmshaven in seventeen days. She was 213 feet long, equipped with two guns, four torpedo tubes, and an exceptionally strong wireless outfit. Besides her commander, Captain Rose, she was manned by three officers and thirty-three men.
Early the next morning, October 8, 1916, it became evident what had brought the U-53 to this side of the Atlantic. At the break of day she made her reappearance southeast of Nantucket. The American steamer Kansan of the American Hawaiian Company bound from New York by way of Boston to Genoa was stopped by her, but after proving her nationality and neutral ownership was allowed to proceed. Five other steamships, three of them British, one Dutch, and one Norwegian, were less fortunate. The British freighter Strathend, of 4,321 tons, was the first victim. Her crew were taken aboard the Nantucket Shoals Lightship. Two other British freighters, West Point and Stephano, followed in short order to the bottom of the ocean. The crews of both were saved by United States torpedo-boat destroyers which had come from Newport as soon as news of the U-53's activities had been received there. This was also the case with the crews of the Dutch ship Bloomersdijk and the Norwegian tanker Christian Knudsen.
On December 20, 1916, the German admiralty announced that the total losses inflicted on Allied and neutral merchantmen by submarines and mines during November, 1916, amounted to 191 vessels of 408,500 tons. Of these 138 ships of 314,500 belonged to Great Britain and her allies, and 53 ships of 94,000 tons to neutral countries.
On November 13, 1916, the Norwegian steamship Older, on passage from Newport to Gibraltar, was captured by a German submarine, which placed a prize crew on board her. For a time the submarine remained in company. Eventually, however, the Older separated from the submarine, apparently with the intention of making for a German port. She was intercepted by a British ship of war, recaptured, and brought into a British port, and the prize crew were made prisoners of war.
The losses of Allied and neutral merchantmen sunk by submarines and mines during the month of December, 1916, according to the New York "Journal of Commerce," totaled 134 vessels of 251,750 tons, of which 53 vessels of 157,217 tons belonged to Great Britain and her allies, and 81 vessels of 84,533 tons to neutrals.
Among the largest of these were the following British boats: King Malcom, 4,351 tons; Reapwell, 3,417 tons; Luciston, 2,948 tons; Moeraki, 4,392 tons; King Bleddyn, 4,387 tons; Couch, 5,620 tons; Tanfield, 4,358 tons; Avristan, 3,818 tons; Strathalbyn, 4,331 tons; Ursula, 5,011 tons; Bretwalda, 4,037 tons; Westminster, 4,342 tons.
The French merchant marine, in addition to a number of smaller boats, lost: Kangaroo, 2,493 tons; Emma Laurans, 2,152 tons. One Belgian steamer of 2,360 tons, the Keltier, also was sunk.
Of neutrals, the Dutch lost the Kediri, 3,781 tons; the Norwegians the Rakiura, 3,569 tons; Modum, 2,942 tons; Meteor, 4,211 tons; Manpanger, 3,354 tons; the Greeks, Salamis, 3,638 tons; and the Danish, Michail Ontchonkoff, 2,118 tons.
The balance of the boats destroyed in December, 1916, was made up of vessels of less than 2,000 tons, among which there were Russian, Swedish, and Portuguese boats as well as ships belonging to the nations already mentioned. One American-owned was also included, the John Lambert, of 1,550 tons, owned by the Great Britain & St. Lawrence Transportation Company.
On December 4, 1916, a German submarine sank in the Mediterranean the former Anchor liner Caledonia, a steamer of 9,223 tons. The German version of this occurrence was as follows:
"On December 4, 1916, in the Mediterranean, the British liner Caledonia attempted to ram one of our submarines without having previously been attacked by the latter.
"Just before the submarine was struck by the steamer's bows it succeeded in firing a torpedo, which hit and sank the Caledonia. The submarine was only slightly damaged.
"The captain of the steamer, James Blaikie, was taken prisoner by the submarine."
In January, 1917, the toll exacted by mines and submarines was especially large. The New York "Journal of Commerce" gave on February 6, 1917, the following figures: 154 vessels of 336,997 tons. Of these 87, of 229,366 tons, belonged to Great Britain and her allies, and 67, of 107,631 tons, to neutrals. No American boats were included.
On January 1, 1917, a German submarine sank the British transport Ivernia in the Mediterranean while carrying troops. Four officers and 146 men as well as 33 members of the crew were reported missing.
The British battleship Cornwallis was sunk on January 9, 1917, likewise in the Mediterranean. Thirteen members of the crew were reported missing. The Cornwallis, which was launched at Blackwell in 1901 and completed in 1904, had a displacement of 14,000 tons, length of 405 feet, beam of 75-½ feet, and draft of 26-½ feet. Her indicated horsepower was 18,238, developing a speed of 18.9 knots. She carried four 12-inch, twelve 6-inch, ten 12-pounder, and two 3-pounder guns, as well as four torpedo tubes. The complement of the Cornwallis was about 750.
Two days later, January 11, 1917, the British seaplane carrier Ben-Machree was sunk by gunfire in Kasteloxizo Harbor (Asia Minor). There were no casualties.
Among the larger boats (above 2,000 tons) sunk during January, 1917, were the following:
British: Apsleyhall, 3,882 tons; Holly Branch, 3,568 tons; Baycraig, 3,761 tons; Lesbian, 2,555 tons; Andoni, 3,188 tons; Baynesk, 3,286 tons; Lynfield, 3,023 tons; Manchester Inventor, 4,247 tons; Wragby, 3,641 tons; Garfield, 3,838 tons; Auchencrag, 3,916 tons; Port Nicholson, 8,418 tons; Matina, 3,870 tons; Toftwood, 3,082 tons; Mohacsfield, 3,678 tons; Tremeadow, 3,653 tons; Neuquen, 3,583 tons; Tabasco, 2,987 tons; Matheran, 7,654 tons; Jevington, 2,747 tons.
French: Tuskar, 3,043 tons.
Japanese: Taki Maru, 3,208 tons; Chinto Maru, 2,592 tons; Misagatu Maru, No. 3, 2,608 tons.
Russian: Egret, 3,185 tons.
Norwegian: Britannic, 2,289 tons; Older, 2,256 tons; Fama, 2,147 tons; Esperança, 4,428 tons; Bergenhus, 3,606 tons; Jotunfjell, 2,492 tons; Myrdal, 2,631 tons.
Dutch: Salland, 3,657 tons; Zeta, 3,053 tons.
Greek: Evangelos, 3,773 tons; Demetrios Goulandris, 3,744 tons; Aristotelis C. Ioannow, 2,868 tons; Demetrios Inglessis, 2,088 tons; Tsiropinas, 3,015 tons.
Spanish: Valle, 2,365 tons; Manuel, 2,419 tons; Parahyba, 2,537 tons.
Toward the end of January, 1917, the severity of submarine warfare was noticeably increased. Day by day the number of vessels sunk grew larger, and some of them were of especially large tonnage. On January 28, 1917, a French transport, carrying 950 soldiers to Saloniki, the Amiral Magon, was sunk in the Mediterranean with a loss of about 150 men.
Then came on January 29, 1917, the official announcement that the British Government had decided to lay new mine fields in the North Sea in order to cope more successfully with the ever-growing submarine menace. According to this announcement the British Government warned all neutrals that from this date the following area in the North Sea was to be considered dangerous to shipping:
The area comprising all the waters, except the Netherlands and Danish territorial waters, lying southwestward and eastward of a line commencing four miles from the coast of Jutland in latitude 56 degrees N., longitude 8 degrees E.
As a result of this new policy it was announced by Lloyd's that eleven vessels of about 15,000 tons were sunk on the first day of the blockade. During the first week of the blockade, February 1 to 8, 1917, according to British figures, which, however, were claimed by German officials to be much lower than the actual figures, there were sunk 58 vessels of 112,043 tons, of which 1 was American, 20 belonged to other neutrals, 32 to Great Britain, and 5 to the other belligerents.[Back to Contents]
PART VI—THE UNITED STATES AND THE BELLIGERENTS
CHAPTER L
THE OLD MENACE
A welcome period of quiet in the submarine controversy with Germany followed the settlement of the Sussex case recorded in the previous volume. But neither the Administration nor the country was deluded into resting in any false security. The dragon was not throttled; it merely slumbered by the application of a diplomatic opiate. While the war lasted the menace of its awaking and jeopardizing German peace with the United States was always present.
The achievements of the Deutschland, a peaceful commercial submarine which inaugurated an undersea traffic between the United States and Germany, provided an interesting diversion from the tension created by the depredations of her armed sisters. After safely crossing the Atlantic and finding a safe berth in an American port in the summer of 1916, she showed such hesitation in setting out on the return trip that doubts were general as to whether the dangers of capture by alert Allied cruisers were not too great to be risked. The attempt nevertheless was finally made on August 2, 1916, when she darted under water after passing out of the three-mile limit at the Virginia Capes and was successful. She arrived at Bremen on August 23, 1916, with a cargo of rubber and metal, and apparently found no difficulty in eluding the foes supposedly in wait for her on the high seas. When she left her Baltimore berth, so the story went, eight British warships awaited her, attended by numerous fishing craft hired to spread nets to entangle her. Near the English coast dense fogs aided by obscuring the vision of her foes' naval lookouts, and in rounding Scotland to reach the North Sea she had to evade a long line of warships and innumerable auxiliary craft extended far north.
Germany found occasion for exultation in her return without mishap. The blockade was broken. Berlin was bedecked with flags and the whole country celebrated the event as though Marshal von Hindenburg had won another victory. The Deutschland again left Bremen on October 10, 1916, and found her way into New London, Conn., on November 1, 1916, leaving for Germany three weeks later with a rubber and metal cargo said to be worth $2,000,000 and a number of mail pouches. She was reported to have arrived safely off the mouth of the Weser on December 10, 1916.
A repetition of the Deutschland's exploits was looked for from her sister undersea craft, the Bremen, about whose movements the widest speculation was centered. She was reported to have left Germany for the United States on September 1, 1916, but did not appear, nor was any trace of her seen en route. She never arrived, and became a mystery of the sea. A story circulated that she had been captured by a British patrol boat in the Straits of Dover and thirty-three of her crew of thirty-five made prisoners, the remaining two having been killed when the boat was caught in a steel net. The British admiralty preserved its customary silence as to the truth of this report. Her German owners finally acknowledged their belief that she had been lost probably through an accident to her machinery. At any rate a life preserver bearing the name Bremen was picked up off the Maine coast about the end of September, 1916.
As the summer of 1916 advanced American contemplation of this agreeable trade relation with blockaded Germany by means of a commercial submarine service was abruptly switched to a review of the manner in which that country was observing its undertaking not to sink unresisting vessels without warning. A certain communication credited to Admiral von Tirpitz was circulated in Germany urging a return to his discarded sea policy. This was nothing more nor less than the pursuit of unrestricted and ruthless submarine warfare, the espousal of which by him as Minister of Marine, in conflict with the milder methods favored by the German Chancellor, forced his resignation earlier in the year. Of course such a change would mean an immediate clash with the United States and the ending of diplomatic relations.
President Wilson had been watching Germany's behavior since May, 1916, when she pledged her submarine commanders to safeguard the lives on board doomed vessels. Three months' probation, according to American reports, failed to show any evidence that she was not living up to her promise; but British reports cited a number of instances pointing to an absolute disregard of her undertaking with the United States. She had hedged this promise with a condition reserving her liberty of action should a "new situation" develop necessitating a change in her sea policy, and the question arose whether she was not trying to create a new situation to justify such a change. Concurrent with the new Von Tirpitz propaganda, at any rate, came a recrudescence of submarine destruction without warning, mainly in the Mediterranean. This activity lent weight to a fear that the kaiser and Von Bethmann-Hollweg were yielding to the pressure exercised by the Von Tirpitz party. Germany regarded her submarines as her chief weapons for damaging the Allies; but she was embarrassed by the problem of how to operate them without clashing with American interests. Her policy at length shaped itself to a careful discrimination in raiding Atlantic traffic and avoiding attacks on liners altogether.
The leader of the German National Liberals, Dr. Ernest Bassermann, echoed the Von Tirpitz cry, in an address to his constituents at Saarbrücken. The most ruthless employment of all weapons, he urged, was imperative. Besides Von Tirpitz, High Admiral Koester, Count Zeppelin, and Prince von Bülow shared this view. He told the world, which he was really addressing, that the submarine campaign had not been abandoned, but only suspended solely on account of the American protest. It was not clear that there had really been any cessation of submarine activity, though some abatement had undoubtedly followed the undertaking with the United States.
The manifest unrest in Germany provoked by the curb placed upon her submarines by President Wilson caused the eyes of Washington to be fixed anxiously on the uncertain situation. It was solely a psychological and mental condition, but of a character that seemed premonitory of an outbreak on Germany's part. Dr. von Bethmann-Hollweg, in a cryptic remark to the Reichstag on September 28, 1916, succeeded in aggravating American concern, though he may not have so intended. "A German statesman," he said, "who would hesitate to use against Britain every available instrument of battle that would really shorten this war should be hanged."
There was no obvious reference to the United States in this utterance; but the German press seized upon it as a pretext for an attack on American neutrality. The connection was provided by the coincidental death of an American aviator named Rockwell, who, with a number of compatriots, had served the Allies on the French front. The point made was that the active part American airmen were taking in the ranks of the Allies, combined with the enormous supply of war materials furnished by American firms, indicated the futility of abiding by concessions made to the United States controlling the submarine war. The United States was charged with taking advantage of restricted submarine activity to cover the participation of American citizens as aids to the Entente and to expand its war trade. Being simultaneous and couched in the same key, the press outbursts bore every indication of a common inspiration, probably official.
"Moderation in the use of Germany's undersea craft," said one group of journals in effect, "merely serves to further American assistance to the Entente Allies in men and munitions."
Another paper, the "Tageszeitung," characterized the American policy as one in the pursuance of which President Wilson Was making a threatened use of a "wooden sword," and called for a policy of the utmost firmness against that country.
It was intimated from Washington that if any faction in Germany—in this case the Pan-Germans—succeeded in reviving submarine methods whereby ships were sunk without warning or without safeguards against loss of American lives, the submarine crisis with Germany would be reopened with all its possibilities. At the same time no serious importance was attached by official Washington to the German clamor for more frightfulness.
It was true that the Pan-Germans were making a powerful onslaught for the overthrow of the German Chancellor, Dr. von Bethmann-Hollweg, who was the only obstacle to a return to ruthless submarine warfare. Moreover, as perceived by the "Berliner Tageblatt," "tension in the atmosphere of imperial politics has reached such a high point that a discharge must follow if the empire is not to suffer lasting damage." But Washington looked for development on the high seas, not in the political arena of Berlin, where the sound and fury of words did not afford a safe barometer of governmental action.
By the end of September, 1916, a "lull" in German submarine activity was reported, due, according to Lord Robert Cecil, to a shortage in submarines. But reports showed that between June 1, 1916, and September 24, 1916, 277 vessels, sixty-six of which were neutral, had been sunk by submarines, fifteen of them without warning, and with the loss of eighty-four lives. The abatement really took place in June and July, 1916, following the American agreement with Germany in May, 1916. The "lull" may therefore be measured by these figures: Vessels sunk in June, 57; in July, 42; in August, 103; in September (to the 24th), 75.
The only real lull was a cessation in attacks on liners. The British view, based on the allegation that fifteen vessels had been sunk without warning causing a loss of eighty-four lives, was that German frightfulness was already in full swing despite Berlin's promise to the United States. The American attitude, however, was that so long as American lives were not lost on ships sunk without warning the United States had no ground for intervention. Hence Germany could apparently sink vessels with impunity so long as the noncombatant victims belonged to other nationalities.
The agitation in Germany to break the undertaking with the United States was thrashed out between the adherents of Chancellor von Bethmann-Hollweg and the Pan-Germanists without shaking the Chancellor's strength. He had the support of Field Marshal von Hindenburg and the navy chiefs, who, in frowning on an unbridled submarine warfare, successfully imposed the weight of their authority against any change. The subject divided the Budget Committee of the Reichstag, the question being whether its discussion should be permitted in open session. The outcome was that the committee decided, by a vote of 24 to 4, to smother the agitation by refusing to permit its ventilation in the open Reichstag.[Back to Contents]