The Revolution
battle of all time with the conviction that the end of the war would be decided not by the daring of the German assault but by the tenacity of its defense. Let the Germans win as many victories as they pleased, at home the Revolution was marching in, not the victorious army.
This belief English, French and American newspapers began to plant in the hearts of their readers, while infinitely skillful propaganda drove on the troops at the front.
“Germany on the eve of Revolution! Victory of the Allies inevitable!” This was the best medicine to set the wavering Poilu and Tommy on their feet. Now rifles and machine-guns could be got to firing again, and instead of a flight in panic terror, there was hopeful resistance.
This was the result of the munitions strike. It strengthened the enemy peoples’ faith in victory, and swept away the paralyzing despair of the Allied front—for which thousands of German soldiers afterward paid with their lives.
The originators of this basest of all villainy were those who expected the highest State offices in the Germany of the Revolution.
The visible effects of this deed on the German side could, it is true, be apparently overcome for the time being; but on the enemy side the results were not long in coming. The resistance had lost the aimlessness of an army that has given everything up for lost, and in its stead appeared the bitter intensity of a struggle for victory.
For in all human probability victory must come, if the Western Front could but hold out a few months against the German attack. The parliaments of the Entente recognized the possibilities of the future, and voted stupendous sums to continue the propaganda which would undermine Germany.
It was my good fortune to have a share in the first two and the last offensives.
They are the most tremendous impressions of my life—tremendous because now for the last time the struggle, as in 1914,
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