there for promotion to an earldom. The Prime Minister at once made the new earl Secretary of State for War. His first question when he went to the War Office was, "Is there a bed here?" When told there was none, he replied, "Get one.' At the War Office Kitchener slept only five hours out of twenty-four, leaving his post each morning at 1 o'clock and returning before 9.

Kitchener was one of the first men in Europe to forecast a long war. His announcement, made within a fortnight of his appointment as Secretary for War, that the war would be of three years' duration, came as a shock to people all over the world who had been led to believe that in six months everything would be over except the shouting. He at once set to work to recruit 5,000,000 men, known afterward as "Kitchener's armies." As he seldom did any talking, he was called inarticulate; but Kitchener could talk when he wished, his words curt in the manner of a soldier. A remark from a cockney non-commissioned officer became current, "E's no talker; not 'im. 'E's hall steel and hice." That was Kitchener-all steel and ice!

The decision of the Government to entrust Kitchener with supreme direction of the war was received in England with unanimous approval. As the war advanced, Great Britain's deficiencies, particularly in artillery ammunition, became apparent, and Kitchener was subjected to severe criticism, led by Lord Northcliffe of the London Times, who charged him with responsibility for failure to foresee an extraordinary demand for heavy shells. As a result there was formed a Ministry of Munitions with David Lloyd George at its head, and Kitchener's responsibilities were further lessened by the appointment of General Sir William Robertson as Chief of the Imperial Staff. Notwithstanding criticisms his great accomplishments during the war were recognized universally. Foremost among them was his creation from England's untrained manhood of a huge army. At the beginning of the war Great Britain had only a few hundred thousand trained men. When Kitchener died more than 5,000,000 had been enrolled in various branches of the service. The trip in which Kitchener lost his life (he was on his way to Russia) was not the first time he had ventured to cross the seas during the war. He went to France at an early stage of hostilities, and later, while British troops were hanging on to Gallipoli, went to the Near East. Landing at Kum Kale, he visited first-line trenches, surveyed positions, and, as the British troops were withdrawn from the peninsula a few months afterward, was believed to have reported back the inadvisability of attempting to press operations on the peninsula to a successful conclusion. Before he sailed for Russia, the last heard of him in England was that he had been 165

V. X-12

to Westminster Palace to be questioned by members of the House of Commons, who were not satisfied with the conduct of the war.

In the first weeks of the war occurred a famous hoax. A body of Russian soldiers, said to number 100,000 men or more, was reported to have circled around from Archangel, landed in Scottish ports, and been shipped through at night to reinforce the British in France. The scheme of sending them in this way to the Western Front was declared to have originated with Kitchener. The myth spread rapidly through the United Kingdom, with any number of witnesses to swear they had seen and talked in England with the Russians in their native language. For a long period the reports were not denied and belief in them deepened. Months afterward a British officer declared that the story had been given out for the purpose of impressing German commanders in Belgium and northern France and so to keep them in fear of a surprize either in the rear or on the western flank. Perhaps the ruse accomplished a purpose. Dread of Russians coming to France did become real among the German staff, and may have accounted to some extent, at least psychologically, for the retreat of Kluck from Paris. Kitchener was said to have caused a hundred transports laden with sundry goods to be sent from Scottish ports to Archangel, and in order to give further color to the hoax, had insured them in Holland, where the Germans would be sure to hear of it. When British troops were moved from various points in Scotland and the north of England to Channel ports, he had directed that the blinds of the trains should be lowered so as to arouse popular curiosity and speculation-in fact, to encourage the belief that these soldiers were Russians.20

ALEXANDER VON KLUCK, GERMAN FIELD-MARSHAL

Kluck was one of the few military men in history-Xenophon was another who won fame by a successful retreat. In that famous swoop of his on Paris, in August and September, 1914, he became for a time the foremost figure in world news-almost the only commander of whom men heard-but before the year ended he was relieved of his command and soon was heard of no more outside of Germany. In 1871 Kluck was a sub-lieutenant, his regiment stationed just outside Paris, where it waited until the first few millions of the billion dollar indemnity were paid by France to Germany, and then, in accordance with Bismarck's iron-bound agreement, marched with his regiment back twenty miles toward Germany, and there waited on French soil until another portion was paid. Months later, when

20 Compiled from an article by Henry N. Hall in The World (New York), from Associated Press correspondence and from The Evening Post (New York).

the second portion was paid, his regiment marched back another twenty miles. This was Kluck's first retreat from Paris, but it took longer than the second, for it occupied a year and a half. Kluck in 1914 had been put in the position of greatest danger, because he was regarded by the High Command as their ablest officer in the field. Eminent soldiers have almost always been silent men-Grant and Lee, Kitchener and Joffre, and now Kluck. A story told in Berlin illustrated this quality. He had just been appointed InspectorGeneral of three army corps, a position which made him practically suzerain over a quarter of a million men. Some learned society, numbering among its members leading men, requested him to address them on the duties of his position. Kluck replied with a courteous declination. He had twice been a professor in military schools, and of course had spoken before professional soldiers concerning their duties, but that was different from speaking about his own duties to a learned society. Soon afterward the society secured from the Emperor himself an intimation to Kluck that he might appear before it; Kluck now had to go. His address was, perhaps, the shortest of the kind on record. "Gentlemen," said he, "it is the duty of a soldier to obey. That is why I have come here and am speaking to you. Thank you." Kluck then took his seat.

He was plain Kluck without the "von" for fifty years. When making him a colonel, the Emperor placed "von" before his name, which if not quite befitting a man in command of a regiment, was better adapted to one who had married a Baroness. Kluck was the son of a minor Government official, and had entered the army in 1865, when nineteen years old. In the war against Austria he was a sub-lieutenant in the campaign directed against the southern German States, Bavaria and Württemberg. In 1870 he served in all the operations about Metz, and at Colomby Neuilly gained the Iron Cross, without which a German officer would feel that he had lived in vain. During the year and a half he spent on French soil, following the treaty of peace, he had ample opportunity to become acquainted with the topography of the country over which he so desperately contested the French advance in the battle of the Marne.

In his own person, Kluck conveyed a sense of fatherhood to his soldiers. He was not as formal and silent as many commanders. He had a stout figure that inspired confidence. Because of his ability to "get under the hide," as it were, of the common soldier, he was advanced in 1881 to the post of teacher in a school for non-commissioned officers. Here he was so successful that in the following year he received a similar appointment at another non-commissioned officer's school. He held these positions while only a captain in rank. In 1887 he was made a major and taught in a school at

Neubreisach. Next year he took command of a battalion of infantry, was made a lieutenant-colonel of a regiment in 1893 and colonel in 1896. He was then stationed in Berlin, an unusual honor for an officer who had never been to the War Academy, and who had never served on the General Staff. His advancement was due to sterling qualities and real ability. In 1898 Kluck was put in command of Fusileer Regiment No. 34, and 1889 in command of the Twenty-third Infantry Brigade. In 1902 he became a lieutenantgeneral, in 1906 a general, and in the following year was placed in command of the Fifth Army Corps. In 1913 he was made an inspector-general, and was still on the active list when war was declared, altho then sixty-eight years old.

No hesitation was shown in placing him in command of the army that was to advance through Belgium to the gates of Paris. It was popularly understood that the Emperor's orders to Kluck had been to "take Paris or die." There was, however, no sound military reason for taking Paris, until the larger part of the French Army had been destroyed or captured. Kluck made a wonderful dash, a gigantic stab, as it were, at the French capital, but he missed his mark. One's balance might easily have been lost in that heroic dash. For days it was alternately hoped and feared that he might fail in his purpose and that he might not. He got away by the simple expedient of attacking as he retreated. He struck and fell back; and again he struck and fell back. When the French followed, they found him fully emplaced, with his flank on the Oise and facing a forest north of Compiègne, while his front was along the north bank of the Aisne, a river deep and unfordable. He was now in positions with which he had been familiar for forty-three years, in intrenchments previously prepared, and from which the French and British heroically battled in vain for over a month to dislodge him. After the Battle of the Aisne, Kluck, now sixty-nine years old, was retired. He had been made a field-marshal but the world heard of him no more.21

GENERAL ERIC LUDENDORFF, GERMAN GRAND QUARTER

MASTER-GENERAL

One's first impression of Ludendorff was that of a man with a large, rounded forehead denuded of hair, with eyes of profound blue, searching keenly. A blond mustache ran along thin lips. As a whole his face reflected an alert intelligence. His mentality contrasted strongly with that of Hindenburg, who had a heavy mass and ponderous look. Ludendorff's corpulence was large considering 21 Adapted from an article by Richard Barry in The Times (New York).

his medium height, but he conveyed an impression of an energetic man, who felt entirely sure of himself and was in full physical and intellectual vigor. Henri Carre,22 who knew him, declared at the zenith of Ludendorff's success that he was no abler man than Foch and that he had yet to display the same artistry. By nature he was indefatigable, endowed with a supple mind, rich in expedients devised on the spur of the moment-a quality precious to the elder Moltke. He was a real soldier because he had imagination and ideas. All his qualities were accentuated by cool energy. He had a tenacious will and a strong soul.

As German commanders went, he was young, not much past fifty when the war began, and was born in the province of Posen, April 9, 1865. His rise had been so meteoric that ordinary reference-books in Germany failed to note its steps. He had the good luck to possess a far-seeing and wealthy parent of Prussian stock, who got him at seventeen into the Ploen Cadet School, from which he emerged as a sub-lieutenant in an infantry regiment at Wesel. Later he turned up as a lieutenant of marines at Kiel and then got into the grenadiers. From the War College he emerged at thirty with the rank of captain. How he got into the Great General Staff at Berlin in view of his comparatively mediocre origin, was not clear, but he went through the grades successfully, and proved himself an officer of the General Staff type, bred in the Moltke school and a creditable pupil of Schlieffen. When he was forty-seven, he took command of the Fusileers at Düsseldorf and not long after was at Strassburg as major-general of infantry. With the latter force he went into the grand mobilization in July and August, 1914.

In the siege of Liége, in August, 1914, Ludendorff happened to be on the spot when a major-general at the head of the leading brigade was struck by a bullet. Ludendorff assumed command in his place, led the brigade forward and became the first man to break into the fortified towns. This commended him to the Kaiser, who bestowed upon him the Pour le Mérite, founded by Frederick II, and attached him to the Headquarters Staff. When General von Prittwitz in the same month of August, while commanding in the east, retreated from the advancing hosts of Russia and allowed them to overrun East Prussia and Posen, penetrating to Silesia and threatening Breslau and Berlin, Ludendorff took advantage of his presence in the immediate entourage of the Kaiser to recall to the latter's mind the almost forgotten "Old Man of the Lakes," and his hobby, the eastern defense against Russia. The Kaiser took up the idea and sent Ludendorff off by special train to fetch Hindenburg from his retirement in Hanover to assume supreme command of the 22 A writer for L'Illustration (Paris).