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the cost, the forces of the kaiser would have to be beaten.

In addition to their constant air attacks upon the submarine bases at Zeebrugge and Ostend, the British Navy made a gallant and successful attempt to render these ports useless for the German under-water boats. An expedition was prepared with the greatest secrecy, having as its object the blocking of these ports by sinking vessels across their channels. At night, under cover of smoke screens, the antiquated war-ship Vindictive was sent into the harbor of Zeebrugge, accompanied by other craft, including a submarine loaded with high explosives. The submarine was driven against the Mole, an artificial breakwater which forms the Zeebrugge harbor, and exploded, while at the same time the Vindictive, together with the Thetis, the Intrepid and the Iphigenia, loaded with concrete, were sunk in the entrance of the canal leading to Bruges. The loss of life on the Vindictive and the destroyers which accompanied her, exposed as they were to the concentrated fire of the German shore batteries, was very heavy. The Vindictive was hit one thousand times, but the British sailors and marines did not flinch, and the operation was successfully carried out. The results at Ostend were not so satisfactory, but at both places the channels were seriously obstructed, and although the Germans tried their best to clear them, the daily bombing-operations

carried on by Allied air forces prevented them from doing so. This success seriously impaired the efficiency of the German submarine campaign. The Germans, in some spirit of desperation, attempted a submarine attack along the American coast. U-boats, equipped for a long stay at sea, crossed the Atlantic and began operations against American coastwise shipping. They did not attempt to attack the United States transport service, efficiently guarded by American cruisers and destroyers, but confined their efforts to sinking barges, fishing-boats, and sailing vessels along the New England coast. Their depredations amounted to nothing, from a military standpoint, and the American public laughed at them.

The constant bombing of London and Paris from the air caused the Allies to retaliate. Great bombing-planes were sent over the German cities along the Rhine, and many munition factories, chemical works, and the like were destroyed. Germany began to get a taste of the horrors she had been inflicting upon the cities of England and France, and, as has been pointed out in a previous chapter, she promptly begged that such bombing-operations should cease.

It is of interest to note that while autocracy in Germany and the nations allied with her was steadily becoming weaker, in the great democratic nations opposed to her it was becoming stronger. This apparent paradox requires explanation.

Some one has said that the most perfect form of government in the world would be a "benevolent autocracy." This may be true, but autocracies are rarely benevolent, and thus the nations living under democratic rule have placed about their rulers many safeguards by which their powers would be regulated and curbed should any tendency appear toward the gathering of too much authority in the hands of any one man. In times of war, however, these constitutional regulations and safeguards must of necessity be set aside, and the men in authority be given power which they would not need in times of peace, and which in such times. would be promptly taken away from them. Thus we find in England the chief authority centered during this war in the prime minister, Lloyd George; in France, in Clemenceau, called because of his savage energy "The Tiger"; in Italy, in Premier Orlando; and in the United States, in President Wilson. These men, possessing the confidence of the people of their respective nations, wielded for the time being almost, if not quite, as much power as the kaiser himself. In fact, as we have already said, the people of Germany and Austria were beginning to show signs of restlessness under their autocratic form of government. Reforms were demanded by them which would limit the power of their rulers as such power was limited in more democratic countries. This movement on the part of the people of the Central

Powers, as Germany and her allies were called, ultimately exercised a profound effect in bringing the war to an end.

In March, 1918, the final test of military strength began. The conflict which followed constitutes the military history of the year 1918.

CHAPTER XXVI

THE GREAT BATTLE OF 1918

The German Offensive

E use the expression "The Great Battle

WE

of 1918," because throughout that entire year, from March, when the weather makes fighting possible, until November, when it usually comes to a halt on account of cold and rain, a huge battle was in progress. No such battle as this had ever been fought before, and it is devoutly to be hoped that no such battle will ever be fought again. The conflict involved, on the two sides, and on the various fronts, forces amounting to over twentyfive million men, and although the battle was fought over many areas widely removed from one another, it was really but one vast and final conflict between the forces of autocracy on the one hand, directed by General von Ludendorff, and the forces of democracy on the other, directed by Marshal Ferdinand Foch. It was in truth a battle of giants.

In a general way the Battle of 1918 may be divided into six great phases, as follows:

(1) The German Offensive.

(2) The Allied Counter-Offensive.

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