CHAPTER XL. SHIPS AND THE MEN WHO MADE THEM The Emergency Fleet Corporation--Charles M. Schwab as Master Shipbuilder--Hog Island the Wonder Shipyard of the World--An Unbeatable Record--Concrete Ships--Wooden Ships--Standardizing the Steel Ship--Attitude of Labor in the War--Samuel Gompers an Unofficial Member of the Cabinet--Great Task of the United States Employment Service CHAPTER XLI. GERMANY'S DYING DESPERATE EFFORT The High Tide of German Success--An Army of Six Million Men Flung Recklessly on the Allies--Most Terrific Battles in all History--The Red Ruin of War from Arras to St. Quentin--Amiens Within Arms' Reach of the Invaders--Paris Bombarded by Long-Range Guns from Distance of Seventy-six Miles--A Generalissimo at Last--Marshal Foch in Supreme Command CHAPTER XLII. CHATEAU-THIERRY, FIELD OF GLORY German Wave Stops with the Americans--Prussian Guard Flung Back--The Beginning of Autocracy's End--America's Record of Valor and Victory-- Cantigny--Belleau Wood--Thierry--St. Mihiel--Shock Troops of the Enemy Annihilated--Soldier's Remarkable Letter. CHAPTER XLIII. ENGLAND AND FRANCE STRIKE IN THE NORTH Second Terrific Blow of General Foch--Lens, the Storehouse of Minerals, Captured--Bapaume Retaken--British Snap the Famous Hindenburg Line--The Great Thrust Through Cambrai--Tanks to the Front--Cavalry in Action CHAPTER XLIV. BELGIUM'S GALLANT EFFORT The Little Army Under King Albert Thrusts Savagely at the Germans--Ostend and Zeebrugge Freed from the Submarine Pirates--Pathetic Scenes as Belgians are Restored to Their Homes CHAPTER XLV. ITALY'S TERRIFIC DRIVE Enemy Offensive Opens on Front of Ninety-Seven Miles--Repulse of the Austrians--Italy Turns the Tables--Terrific Counter-Thrusts from the Piave to Trente--Forcing the Alpine Passages--Battles High in the Air--English, French and Americans Back up the Italians in Humbling the Might of Austria--D'Annunzio's Romantic Bombardment of Vienna--Diaz Leads his Men to Victory CHAPTER XLVI. BULGARIA DESERTS GERMANY Greece in the Throes of Revolution--Fall of Constantine--Serbians Begin Advance on Bulgars--Thousands of Prisoners Taken--Surrender of Bulgaria--Panic in Berlin--Passage Through the Country Granted for Armies of the Allies--Ferdinand Abdicates--Germany's Imagined Mittel-Europa Dream Forever Destroyed CHAPTER XLVII. THE CENTRAL EMPIRES WHINE FOR PEACE Austria-Hungary Makes the First Plea--President Wilson's Abrupt Answer--Prince Max, Camouflaged as an Apostle of Peace, made Chancellor and Opens Germany's Pathetic Plea for a Peace by Negotiation--The President Replies on Behalf of all the Allied Powers--Foch Pushes on Regardless of Peace Notes CHAPTER XLVIII. BATTLES IN THE AIR Conquering the Fear of Death--From Individual Fights to Battles Between Squadrons--Heroes of the Warring Nations--America's Wonderful Record--From Nowhere to First Place in Eighteen Months--The Liberty Motor