Racine County, Wisconsin - Chapter 1: The Outbreak of the War, 1920

WHEN an assassin's bullet slew Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria at Serajevo on June 28, 1914, it is doubtful whether anyone in the whole world anticipated that the act would precipitate a conflict involving all the great powers.

Austria sent her insolent ultimatum to Serbia on July 23, and the statesmen of Europe grew grave. Even then but few foresaw more than another "Balkan storm cloud" such as had frequently threatened European peace, but which usually had been banished by a wave of a diplomatic wand. As the days passed, the very stupendousness of the conflict which was threatened made it appear impossible that civilized governments could permit its beginning. With Germany upholding Austria's stand; Russia declaring herself bound to support Serbia; France assuring Russia that the republic would lend every aid to the autocracy in case of war; Great Britain insistent that Germany should not attack France by sea or through Belgium, the consequences of the first offensive step were certain to be of tragic import. It did not seem that the Central Powers would dare assume the responsibility of unleashing the whirlwind of war.

Through these fateful days, America watched from across the seas - at first with an air of amused tolerance at "much ado about nothing," later with surprise at the growing crisis and finally with the startled, shocked expression of one who for the first time recognizes that what he deemed a clever bit of stage play is, instead, a gory tragedy of real life.

Then, on August 1, 1914, the storm broke. Germany declared war on Russia. The Austrian army advanced toward Serbia and manned her own eastern borders. Russian troops assembled all along the Teutonic frontier. Germany's green and gray clad hordes, gathered together almost over night by means of her marvelous mobilization methods, dashed toward France over the ravished fields of neutral Belgium. France called her manhood to the colors and began the long and terrible fight for her very existence. Great Britain hesitated but three days, and then her navy sallied forth to check the marauding German ships of war, and her first regiments joined the French on the continent. The Balkan nations armed themselves and prepared to take sides as their best judgment dictated. Italy, for years in the Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria, declined to take part with them in the assault upon the peace of the world, and became an armed camp, albeit neutral.

In the brief span of a week, there was hardly a city in all Europe unaffected by the conflict. And before many months had passed Belgium, eastern France, Poland and Serbia were drenched with the blood of their defenders and of the invading hosts.

Neutral nations, aghast at the holocaust, sent words of horror-stricken appeal to all warring peoples, and silence was the answer. The Central Powers, by their mighty blows, hammered their way almost to the gates of Paris in September and were checked and driven back across the Marne, Belgium was a ruin, held by the invading forces of the Kaiser. Russian armies penetrated into Germany and then were hurled back in a rout far inside their frontier. Serbia was overrun. Montenegro took arms in behalf of Serbia and then Turkey joined her fate with that of Germany and Austria. Italy was finally forced into the Allied camp in 1915. Japan early had put her navy to the task of avenging a hatred felt against Germany ever since the Chino-Japanese war, and entered the Alliance against the Central Powers.

On land the movements of armies soon nearly ceased and trench warfare was ushered in. The opposing forces faced each other across mined areas and barbed wire entanglements, the warriors in systems of earthworks which reached across Belgium and France from the English Channel to Switzerland, from the Tyrolean Alps along the northern Italian border.

On the seas, the German merchant marine rushed to friendly or neutral ports to be interned. Teutonic raiders, bold and desperate, darted across the sea lanes destroying Allied shipping and spreading terror to distant colonies until they were finally sunk or driven into permanent hiding. The German and Austrian fleets were bottled in their fortified harbors, from where they continued to threaten their foes.

In the air, great fleets of aeroplanes crossed and re-crossed the firing lines to spy out enemy movements and spread death along the highways and railroads. As the struggle progressed, bombing planes were developed which dropped explosives upon towns and forts and railroads. Dirigible balloons were sent from Germany to strike terror and carry destruction to English cities. London was bombed repeatedly and many innocent non-combatants were victims of the ruthless campaign of horror. Paris was also an occasional victim of aerial attacks.

Effort after effort to win a decision on land failed. The battle lines remained almost stationary for two and a half years. New devices of warfare appeared. The German chemists reverted to an ancient and discarded method of killing, and developed poison gases that could be released from tanks, or conveyed into the enemy lines in shells and bombs. They suffocated, burned and in other ways slew and tortured thousands. The Allies reciprocated in kind, and soon all soldiers at the front were provided with grotesque looking masks containing chemicals to rob the gases of their power to kill.

Clumsy gasoline tractors were armored and armed, and rechristened "tanks." They ground their way across trenches and wire entanglements to deal death among the foe. Machine guns and automatic rifles of great ingenuity were perfected, and on battle-fields in time of action a veritable typhoon of bullets swept from side to side from concealed positions. Artillery was developed to a point of efficiency hitherto undreamed of, and the long range, accuracy and destructive power of the great missiles made territory within their reach impassable by human beings at times. Opposing infantry lines were so close that hand grenades, bayonets and short-range mortars replaced rifles for raids and daily minor brushes. The efficiency of weapons of all sorts almost totally prevented daytime actions in the field, and fighting was done at night or in the misty gray

Finally, terrified by the blockade which was threatening her existance, Germany launched her trump card - the submarine. Creeping out of her naval bases, the U-boats issued forth to sea hidden under the waters. They passed the blockading fleets and invaded the sea lanes along which ships brought food and other necessities of life to Great Britain. From their safe position beneath the waves, the commanders of the submersibles searched the seas with periscopes, located the merchant vessels, and launched the torpedoes which sent them to the bottom. Hundreds and hundreds of Britain's finest ships were thus destroyed with heavy loss of life. Frequently no attempt was made by the assailing U-boat to save passengers or crews of their victims.

Driven to desperation by her own domestic troubles, Germany threw caution to the winds and sank every craft which could be successfully attacked, regardless of its nature, provided that it was being used to help feed and clothe the hated British.

Passengers from neutral countries were numbered among the victims. Ships of neutral nations engaged in trade with the Allies were sunk. Protest after protest was made. The German government explained, apologized, excused her actions by various subterfuges - but the disregard for international law and for the rights of humanity continued with a few intermissions. When the Cunard liner Lusitania, bearing hundreds of Americans to England was sunk off the coast of Ireland with a loss of nearly 1,.500 lives of men, women and children, in May 1915, the United States government finally spoke. President Wilson, after a year of patient efforts to keep this country from becoming entangled in the awful conflict, sent to Germany a note which demanded that her disregard for law and decency cease. For nearly a year the German navy indicated an effort to respect the rights of neutrals while still carrying on a successful submarine campaign against British and French shipping. Admiral von Tirpitz declared, after the war, that had the Kaiser continued to disregard neutral rights at that time England would have been decisively defeated before America could have entered the war in force, and would then have been able to prevent American transports from crossing the Atlantic when this country finally declared war. He declares that themildness of the campaign for the rest of that year enabled England to take steps to overcome the submarine menace to some extent. However that may be, it was the following-

This was the day the Batteries left for war. Some of the old campaign hats of the men may be seen far in the crowd. The Battery men were sure some attraction that day. Lower picture shows an exciting moment.

1916, President Wilson sent an ultimatum to Germany threatening to break off all relations with her unless the killing of American citizens on the high seas cease. Again the German government hesitated between the two possible courses of action and again the danger of starvation was temporarily lessened in the British isles while a more humane policy of warfare was being followed for a time by the Central Powei-s.

On January 31, 1917, the advocates of unrestricted submarine warfare against the Allies, regardless of any neutral rights, won out in Germany and the Kaiser declared his intention to the world of destroying England at all costs. The United States immediately on receiving this insolent declaration, severed diplomatic relations with Germany and armed her merchant vessels. She could not permit any nation to close the high seas to her lawful commerce, as Germany frankly stated it intended to do and plainly was trying to do.

As this rebuke had no salutary effect upon Germany but rather seemed to incite her to new acts of lawlessness against American ships and American lives. President Wilson in April,

In his address President Wilson cited the many acts of barbarism committed against America and Germany's refusal to heed words of friendly warning; action of the German government in sending hundreds of spies and secret agents to this country to wreck industries, promote strikes and disorders and influence legislation; and her recently detected effort to incite Mexico to engage in war with the United States.

At the time this country officially entered the war our military forces were on a peacetime basis and entirely unprepared as to strength, equipment or supplies to begin any offensive action except on the sea.

Germany was flushed with victories on land, and with three years of successful effort to prevent invasion of her own soil. Great Britain was on the verge of starvation. Admiral William S. Sims, U. S. N. is authority for the statement that the British government informed him officially in April that the Allies would be forced to admit complete defeat within five months if some means were not devised to end the submarine menace.

Italy had made no headway against the Austrians and was soon to suffer a terrible defeat on the Isonzo front. In France the Allied spring drive, upon which Germany's foes had staked everything had just proved almost a total failure.

The world at large did not realize the terrible straits in which the Allies found themselves at this stage. The rigid censorship kept the curtain of secrecy between the terrible picture of future disaster, and the public. At all costs, Germany had to be kept in ignorance of how near she was approaching to victory.

Only in Asia Minor did comparatively unimportant victories come to the British banners, and they helped to break the spirits of the Turks and Austrians who might otherwise have aided Germany more effectively on the western front.

The manhood of France had been decimated by the war. Every house, it seemed, mourned its dead. There were no more reserves. Great Britain and France had both put forth their greatest efforts and failed. From now on they could only hope to ward off total defeat until the Americans could come to their aid. And America had to start almost from the bottom to create an army. Its navy alone was ready for war.

It was nearly a year later when the first American combat units were in action against the Germans in France. But by July 1918, the Central Powers had received their first severe defeat on the western front since 1914. In September the Americans administered two decisive defeats to the foe. Early in October the whole German front in France and Germany collapsed under the combined pressure of the Allies. In November, the Kaiser abdicated his throne and fled, and the German government accepted terms of surrender which were practically unconditional.

The American navy had furnished the additional strength necessary to overcome the submarine menace; American industries had furnished the necessary material and ammunitions; American money had financed the bankrupt Allies; the American people had thrown their whole heart and soul and strength into the struggle; American soldiers had met and mastered the German hosts every day for weeks; American military strength had given the Allies sufficient power to drive the hitherto victorious foe to his knees.

That, in brief, is the story of the great war. Racine men and women played their part in it, and it was a part which will be remembered with pride as long as patriotism and love of country survive in America.