After the Russian peace, the Germans attempted to overwhelm the British by hurling against them vastly superior numbers of highly trained men.  It is for the military critic of the future to analyse any tactical errors that may have been made at the second battle of the Somme.  Apparently there was an absence of preparation, of specific orders from high sources in the event of having to cede ground.  This much can be said, that the morale of the British Army remains unimpaired; that the presence of mind and ability of the great majority of the officers who, flung on their own resources, conducted the retreat, cannot be questioned; while the accomplishment of General Carey, in stopping the gap with an improvised force of non-combatants, will go down in history.  In an attempt to bring home to myself, as well as to my readers, a realization of what American participation in this war means or should mean.

A TRAVELLER IN WAR-TIME

CHAPTER I

Toward the end of the summer of 1917 it was very hot in New York, and hotter still aboard the transatlantic liner thrust between the piers.  One glance at our cabins, at the crowded decks and dining-room, at the little writing-room above, where the ink had congealed in the ink-wells, sufficed to bring home to us that the days of luxurious sea travel, of a la carte restaurants, and Louis Seize bedrooms were gone—­at least for a period.  The prospect of a voyage of nearly two weeks was not enticing.  The ship, to be sure, was far from being the best of those still running on a line which had gained a magic reputation of immunity from submarines; three years ago she carried only second and third class passengers!  But most of us were in a hurry to get to the countries where war had already become a grim and terrible reality.  In one way or another we had all enlisted.

By “we” I mean the American passengers.  The first welcome discovery among the crowd wandering aimlessly and somewhat disconsolately about the decks was the cheerful face of a friend whom at first I did not recognize because of his amazing disguise in uniform.  Hitherto he had been associated in my mind with dinner parties and clubs.

That life was past.  He had laid up his yacht and joined the Red Cross and, henceforth, for an indeterminable period, he was to abide amidst the discomforts and dangers of the Western Front, with five days’ leave every three months.  The members of a group similarly attired whom I found gathered by the after-rail were likewise cheerful.  Two well-known specialists from the Massachusetts General Hospital made significant the hegira now taking place that threatens to leave our country, like Britain, almost doctorless.  When I reached France it seemed to me that I met all the celebrated medical men I ever heard of.  A third in the group was a business man from the Middle West who had wound up his affairs and left a startled family in charge of a trust company.  Though his physical activities had hitherto consisted of an occasional mild game of golf, he wore his khaki like an old campaigner; and he seemed undaunted by the prospect—­still somewhat remotely ahead of him—­of a winter journey across the Albanian Mountains from the Aegean to the Adriatic.