Early in 1918, while the Russian debacle complicated the war situation in Europe and the United States hummed with war activities, a series of speeches by statesmen of the powers at war resulted in demonstrating the futility of all hopes of a general peace. In an address to Congress on January 8 President Wilson, following and indorsing a notable speech by the English premier, Mr. Lloyd-George, laid down fourteen definite peace and war aims of the United States, closely agreeing with the expressed aims of the European Allies; "and for these," said Mr. Wilson, "we will fight to the death." Subsequently, in February, Mr. Wilson stated four general principles on which the nations at war should agree in seeking a satisfactory peace. The German chancellor, Von Hertling, addressing the Reichstag, declared that Germany could agree to Mr. Wilson's basic principles of peace, but British and French statesmen promptly pointed out that the German practices in Russia, and elsewhere as opportunity offered, failed to agree with Von Hertling's profession of the Wilson principles. German suggestions of an informal discussion of peace terms were therefore declined by the allied powers, and in March, 1918, all eyes were turned toward the Western front in anticipation of a long-threatened German drive. THE WORLD'S GREATEST BATTLE All previous battles of the Great War paled into comparative insignificance when the German offensive of 1918 opened on the Western front, March 21, with a desperate and partially successful attempt of a million men to break through the British line, attacking fiercely from the Ailette to the Scarpe, along a front of sixty miles. For weeks the battle raged over the territory of the Somme, and when a second German drive occurred farther north, from Givenchy to Ypres, fully 3,000, men were engaged on both sides, and all records of human combat were broken. The loss of life was appalling, but in the absence of official reports while the fighting was in progress, could only be guessed at, though the world knew that the rivers of France and Flanders ran with blood. The Germans attacked in masses and successive waves, and paid the penalty of their desperate strategy. For though the British, and later the French, lines were bent backward for miles, and gaps were occasionally torn in them by the foe's furious attack, the Allied defensive withstood the onslaught and after a month of the most terrific struggle the world has ever seen, both British and French forces presented an unbroken front to the disappointed enemy.