Central High School - Brecky Yearbook (Washington, DC)

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In July, the chalky contour of the front trenches was again anxiously watched. Airplanes patrolled the skies, flying with the precision of wild geese. A lark was singing. Then there came the staccato of machine-guns, and the storming began. Above, the airplanes dashed here and there, with agility, the burnished aureole of their propellors gleaming in the sun. They swooped and slid. They flitted in fan- tastic minuet motions about the dumfounded sausage-balloons. On the carpet below them, the land battle was fought, and the Germans were defeated at the Somme. In the autumn, an army of leviathans, called tanks, lumbered upon the field. They wrenched and rumbled a serpentine track over the warted ground, and the Germans fied in terror before the new god of the enemy. - 1917 - When Germany defied the world with an announcement of unrestricted sub- marine warfare, the United States broke relations with her, and entered the war a few months later. The country fell into a frenzy of preparation, factory chimneys smoked feverishly, and men were hastily molded into armies. The Russian Revolution began in March. Happy mobs, civilians, and soldiers, gathered in the streets of Petrograd, waving scarlet fiags. It was a gay, noisy holi- day. But German intrigue was darkly busy, and the ephemeral freedom came to a ghastly end, leaving Russia, groping on her hands and knees. Italy, repentant for her early waywardness, began a malicious drive on the Aus- trians. Endless black threads of armies were drawn over the White mountain tops, down through ferny valleys, then up again, to meet the enemy. The Piave line was reached, and the Austrians scattered like sheep. The British Crusaders, among their desert campaigns, had been delivering the Promised Land, and in Christmas month, they marched through the narrow streets, and beneath the arches of Jerusalem. ' 1918-1919 The Bolsheviki persuaded a bewildered Russia to make peace, and German ruth- lessness was allowed full sway. Vain, and bloated with her easy success there Germany began a drive for the channel-ports, in the west. In a little French town behind the lines, Clemenceau, Lloyd-George, and Foch consulted together seriously The enemy had guzzled to his fill, and had never been more powerful than now. Clemenceau believed that unless something were done immediately, it would be necessary to treat with the Germans. But Foch had a plan of welding the lighters more closely together by which the day was saved. The Germans ground their way in, and had wet their boots in the Marne before they were halted., There the Allies with Foch as Commander-in-Chief were ready to refight the first battle of the Marne. The Americans had refreshed them with a vigorous, new blood, and their unity of command had strengthened them. The French and the Americans threw the enemy across the river, and scaled the cliffs on the other side, at his heels. The terrace- torn Chateau Thierry was taken, then Fismes, then Soissons. Haig dashed his prize regiments against the Hindenburg line, and the men leaped eagerly forward through a waste of wire and concrete. Bulgaria surrendered. The Belgian ports were at last freed. Turkey and Austria clamored for peace, and far-sighted diplomats drew up an armistice for Germany to sign. The Prussian autocratic government, which had been inflated to such an enormous degree, ff0IlfZ'lllZ4'lf on page 462 8 ! v

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jfl'0llI HI' to IDZRCQ 1914 It began in a minaretted little city, among the hills of Bosnia. An Austrian band suddenly stopped playing, and a shabby creature, with a blood-stained mouth, was. dragged away to prison. At the prompting of a group of bullies at Potsdam, Austria declared war. Russia began a startled mobilization, and the Germans hurried greedily toward Belgium. The tiny country was swiftly hacked through. Heaps of bricks and smouldering church-spires were left behind, while the roadways were littered with bits of homes. British, Belgian, and French armies retreated, and the government began to leave Paris. Lines of cabs raced through the boulevards to the southern railway stations. Then joffre orderda brusque halt. The Allies faced about, and skillfully pommeled back the heavy ranks of von Kluck and von Bulow, as far as the Aisne where they gave a surly growl and dug them- selves in to stay for months. In the meantime, a few German troops had sauntered into Russia, expecting a delayed resistance. But the Russians flew at them with bared teeth, and glittering scimitars, and the Germans stumbled awkwardly until von Hindenburg came to their rescue. The Slavs were lured into the quaggy lakes and marshes of Tanneberg, and were drowned. On the south, however, the Austrian army was rolled up the sides of the Carpathians, and gorged down through the narrow passes. Lemberg was soon captured. 1915 Such was the offense. When 1915 came, Germany's elbows were rubbing aggressively against those of her respectable neighbors. The Russians had crawled to the airy crests of the Carpathians, but von Mackensen battered them down again, and von Hindenburg, who had been marking time on the Polish frontier, heaved forward. The dismal Galician retreat began. On the western front, poison gas was used for the first time. jets of white vapor were released, and they swirled into a brown-green mist toward the Allied trenches. The French broke into a mad retreat, their lungs bursting. In May, theiLz1sz'z'1znz'a was stilettoed and sunk. Later, Nurse Cavell was hurried from a German prison, and shot down before a wall. The conquest of Serbia was completed. The blood-soaked peasants waded out from their homes through long stretches of miry, hopeless road. The wolves were howling in anticipation of their night's orgy. Thus did Germany add a goodly store to her treasure-trove of horrors. 1916 In February, in the midst of a fog of shell-smoke, with a spray of bullets, and the beating of the big guns, a new drive was begun. The Germans were again at large, with their zenith of power reached. The citadel of Verdun was their goal. They seethed forward venomously, but the French defense was spirited and brilliant. The invaders were driven back over hill after hill, and the Meuse remained free. 7

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