The Literary digest history of the world war, compiled from original and contemporary sources- American, British, French, German, and others (1919) (14799975923)

Identifier: literarydigesthi05hals (find matches)
Title: The Literary digest history of the world war, compiled from original and contemporary sources: American, British, French, German, and others
Year: 1919 (1910s)
Authors: Halsey, Francis W. (Francis Whiting), 1851-1919, comp
Subjects: World War, 1914-1918
Publisher: New York, London, Funk & Wagnalls Company
Contributing Library: Columbia University Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN



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Ger-mans exhausted themselves down to the point where the op-portunity of the French and British would come. KarlBleistreu, a German military writer in Neu Europa, de-clared at this time that the German losses on the WesternFront between August, 1914, and August, 1917, had totalled2,604,961 in killed and prisoners, and that on the EasternFront the total killed and prisoners were 1,484,550. OtherGerman writers estimated the grand total of German killedand prisoners, adding those dying of illness, wounds andcasualties in colonial and naval fighting as high as 5,000,000.The losses of the Germans in the present offensive were be-coming known in Germany, but only by slow degrees. Ad-vices from Holland were that hospitals, monasteries, con-vents, and schools in Belgium had been filled to overflowingwith wounded, and that even private houses were being re-quisitioned for use as hospitals. Cattle-cars, in which haywas used as bedding, were used to transport maimed menfrom the battle-front. 96
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97 ON THE WESTERN FRONT The Germans on April 24 resumed hammering at the frontdoor of Amiens. For days there had been heavy artillery-firing along the northern sectors of the salient. German in-fantry began to advance on the line passing Yillers-Breton-neux, southward to Hangard, a distance of eight miles. Thefirst attacks were repulsed, but subsequent ones centeredabout Villers-Bretonneux, caused a British withdrawal.Villers-Bretonneux was about eleven miles directly east ofAmiens on the northern end of that fighting front. Whileflanked on the south by low-lying ground, it was backed byrolling hills to the west and northwest. A double drive, oneon the Somme, the other on the Armentieres sector, hadbegun. By April 25 it developed into a terrific struggle, thetide of battle surging to and fro for two days, with a de-cision in the balance. The British, forced out of Villers-Bretonneux, launched a counter-attack and swept the Ger-mans back almost to the lines which they held before thefi