Facing the Hindenburg line

Preface

IN the double capacity of war correspondent and Y. M. C. A. lecturer, I had unusual opportunities of seeing the war, on all the fronts of western Europe, as it was in 191 7. As a correspondent, I could go where, as a Y. M. C. A. man, I could not; and as a Y. M. C. A. worker my duty called me where as a newspaper man I could not have gone. The observations of most military men are confined to their own particular sector or sphere. My commission was a roving one.

I do not say these things to boast. No man can come into close contact with this world misfortune and, if he have any imagination or any soul, come away with egoism accentuated. When many of the choicest men of earth: artists, scholars, musicians, men of letters, are dying — common soldiers in trenches, — one can only feel the insignificance of self. I say these things, then, only to give confidence in the statements made, when, in these days, one cannot always be sure what to believe. I have written down what I saw and heard.

B. A. J.

Kansas City, Mo.

Contents

CHAPTER PAOa

I. Dodging the Submarine 9

II. The Folkestone Air-raid... 17