We certainly heard some strange "news" from Berlin—things that were news to us. One report, received July 25, 1918, when our troops were proving their valor in Foch's great drive, informed us:
The American army is lacking in the one essential, the will to fight. In any case, it will not be numerous enough to play any important part until 1920, and then only provided the transport difficulty is got over and the munition industry developed from its present nursery stage. Our submarines will see to the transports, and America will find it impossible to create a gigantic industry and a gigantic army at the same time. Ammunition perhaps, but guns cannot be cast in sewing-machine factories. At present the American soldiers are without either rifles or artillery.
At that moment there were a million American soldiers in France and we were turning out munitions at a rate the Germans could not believe was possible.
THE STATION WHOSE MESSAGES ARE HEARD AROUND THE WORLD
The Lafayette radio station, the most powerful in the world. Inset: a radio operator at work.
THE TABLET ON THE MAIN BUILDING OF THE LAFAYETTE RADIO STATION
The more evident it was that U-boat warfare had failed, the more vehement were the German naval authorities in asserting its success. Admiral Holtzendorff, head of the Admiralty, announced on July 29, that they were taking into consideration the counter measures—(that meant the mine barrage, the destroyers, patrol boats and all the things we were using to defeat them); that the Germans were building many more submarines, and that "final success is guaranteed."
After submarine crews had mutinied and U-boat warfare had ended with the recall of their submarines in October, the German chiefs were still bluffing their own people. As late as November 5, less than a week before the armistice, we caught this bulletin from Berlin: