LONDON

Operation Lion’s Gate is underway in France. On April 1, 1918, I gave orders, from my office in Washington, to Admiral Sims to begin the military operation. It is now May first and I am on the staff of General Foch. Paris had been bombarded intermittently by long range guns that can carry for over a distance of 70 miles. Master Chief Gunnerson sleeps on a cot in my room. He has a loaded, double barreled shot gun under his cot. I wonder what he is planning on doing with it if our headquarters is leveled by German Artillery, 70 miles away. It must give him comfort because he checks it every night before falling asleep. He never fails to say, “Admiral Caldwell, thank you for taking me with you. That office in the Army Navy is no place to fight a world war.” Then he chuckles at his own inside joke and promptly falls asleep. The great push to the sea by the German armies lasted from March 21, 1918, to April 20, when the second battle of Somme made it obvious that the onrushing German forces had fought themselves to a standstill. On April 12, 1918, General Haig, the commander of the British forces under General Foch, issued his historic order to the allied troops to stand firm against the German onslaught, using the phrase, “With our backs to the sea, we will fight to the last man.” On April 15, General Foch eliminated the designation of British, French and American Expeditionary Forces and replaced the titles with Allied army divisions, Britain, Allied army divisions, France and Allied army divisions United States. When the Italians landed on the Mediterranean coast of southern France on April 18, they became known as the Allied army division, Italy. General Foch assumed command of the four armies and coordinated them from Paris while I assumed command of the American, British, French and Italian naval forces in Europe. On April 20, I ordered the British Navy to block the Channel at Zeebrugge that was held by German troops. April 24, General Foch turned back a drive started by German forces against Amiens. The next day they were turned back from Ypres. The month of May saw heavy fighting along the Italian fronts in France and Italy. May 10, the United States Marines drove the Germans out of their naval base at Ostend. On May 22, the French division captured Kemmel. By May 28, the American divisions recaptured Cantigny and Montdidier held by the Germans. The first week in June the Americans captured Chateau-Thierry and Venilly-la-Poterie. The Americans then pursued the retreating Germans into Belleau Wood. By June 11, the Americans crossed the River Marne. A German counterattack was defeated by the American 1st Division. June 22nd the Italians defeated the Austrians in northern Italy. Austria begins her retreat. June 25th Italians now occupy all the conquered territory of the Austrians. Letters from home with newspaper clippings kept me aware of what was happening in the United States. The American News Service, dateline July 4, 1918, the following address was delivered by President Wilson at the grave of George Washington at Mount Vernon. I am happy to draw apart with you to this quiet place of old counsel in order to speak a little of the meaning of this day of our nation’s independence. This place seems very still and remote. It is as serene and untouched by the hurry of the world as it was in those great days long ago when General Washington was here and held conferences with the men who were to be associated with him in the creation of a nation. From these gentle slopes they looked out upon a much different world. It is for that reason that we cannot feel, even here, in the immediate presence of this sacred tomb, that this is a place of death. From this green hillside we also might be able to see with comprehending eyes the world that lies around us and conceive anew the purpose that must set men free. We take our cue from Washington and his men – do we not? We intend what they intended. We here in America believe our participation in this present war to be only the fruit of what they planted. Our case differs from theirs only in this, that it is our inestimable privilege to concert with men out of every nation who shall make not only the liberties of America secure but the liberties of every other people as well. We are happy in the thought that we are permitted to do what they would have done had they been in our place. There must now be settled once and for all, what was settled for America in the great age upon whose inspiration we draw today. This is surely a fitting place from which calmly to look out upon our task, that we may fortify our spirits for its accomplishment. And this is the appropriate place from which to avow, alike to the friends who look on and to the friends with whom we have the happiness to be associated in action, the faith and purpose with which we act. This, then is our conception of the great struggle in which we are engaged. The plot is written plain upon every scene and every act of the supreme tragedy called war. On the one hand stand the peoples of the world – not only the peoples actually engaged but many others, also, who suffer under mastery but cannot act; peoples of many races and in every part of the world – the people of stricken Russia still, among the rest, though they are for the moment unorganized and helpless. Opposed to them, masters of many armies, stand an isolated group of Governments, who speak no common purpose, but only selfish ambitions of their own, by which none can profit but themselves.” There can be but one issue. The settlement must be final. There can be no compromise. No halfway decision would be tolerable. No associated peoples of the world are fighting and which must be conceded them before there can be peace. First, the destruction and elimination of every Central Empire, Second, the settlement of every question put before the Central Empire, Third, a common law of civilized societies and, fourth, a true League of Nations. These four objectives can be put into a single sentence. What we seek is the reign of law, based upon the consent of the governed and sustained by the organized opinion of mankind. I can sense that the air of this place we stand today carries the accents of such principles with a peculiar kindness. Here were started forces which the great nation against which they were primarily directed at first regarded as a revolt against its rightful authority, but which it has long since seen to have been a step in the liberation of its own people; and I stand here now to speak – speak proudly and with confident hope – of the spread of liberty to the great stage of the world itself!