CHAPTER I.
SETTING THE HOUSE IN ORDER.
In this volume I am going to tell you the story of the war as it unfolded itself during the year 1915. It was a year of life-and-death struggle, during which two other nations were swept by the seething whirlpool into the waters of strife, and eight out of ten persons in the continent of Europe were living under war conditions. It was a year during which the three greatest empires of the world, and seven other Powers, fought fierce and bitter combats on five different battle fronts in Europe alone. It was a year in which some millions of men fell on the stricken field, and yet the issue of the vast and terrible struggle remained undecided.
It was a year in which the Allies, who were quite unready when war was forced upon them, strained every nerve to set their military houses in order; to enlist and train for the field their reserves of manhood; and to furnish themselves with those weapons and munitions in which they were deficient. It was a year in which millions of hard-earned money were spent every day, and the combatants piled up mountains of debt for future generations to pay off.
It was a year during which the Allies had good cause to thank God for the long years of peaceful industry which had given Britain great riches, and for the splendid navy which maintained for her the freedom of the seas. Britain's vast reserves of wealth enabled her to raise plentiful money for carrying on the war, and thanks to her navy her merchant ships were able to carry the products of her mines, mills, and factories to other lands. Great Britain alone of all the combatants was thus able to produce wealth in time of war, and to assist her sorely-hampered friends with timely loans.
The Modern Pied Piper.
(From the picture by A. C. Michael. By permission of The Illustrated London News.)
You remember Browning's poem about the Pied Piper who drew the children after him by the magic of his music. This picture shows the pipers of a Highland regiment drawing men after them to the recruiting offices. "I rejoice in my Empire's effort," said the King, "and I feel pride in the voluntary response of my subjects all over the world. . . . The end is not in sight. More men and yet more are wanted to keep my armies in the field, and through them to secure Victory and enduring Peace."
During 1915 the British nation for the first time began to organize itself for warfare on a vast scale. It found itself forced to raise an army thirty times as great as it had ever marshalled before, and to equip millions of men with every weapon known to the science of war. Moreover, it had to do this while the small forces which it had already placed in the field were struggling to maintain themselves against terrible odds. It was a work that called for every ounce of energy and determination that the Empire possessed, and it could never have been done at all had not the British people, as a whole, given willing support to their leaders.
The year was not many months old when it became evident that we could not hope to hold the enemy in check and drive him from his strongly fortified trenches unless we had an almost unlimited supply of big guns and high explosive shells. Early in the struggle the French had set their gun and ammunition factories working at high pressure, and they had taken good care that they should be fully manned with skilled workmen. Britain, on the other hand, had far too small a number of factories for manufacturing the vast supplies of war material which she needed, and many of her skilled workmen had been allowed to enlist and proceed to the front.