There was laid on my desk every morning a daily newspaper--I suppose it was the only "secret" daily ever gotten out in America--which, compiled and mimeographed by the Naval Communication Service and marked "confidential," was sent in sealed envelopes to officers and officials whose duties compelled them to keep in touch with all that was going on abroad. This contained not only all that Germany was sending out, but a digest of all that was sent out by the British, French and Italians. We certainly heard some strange "news" from Berlin--things that were news to us. One report, received July 25, 1918, when our troops were proving their valor in Foch's great drive, informed us: The American army is lacking in the one essential, the will to fight. In any case, it will not be numerous enough to play any important part until 1920, and then only provided the transport difficulty is got over and the munition industry developed from its present nursery stage. Our submarines will see to the transports, and America will find it impossible to create a gigantic industry and a gigantic army at the same time. Ammunition perhaps, but guns cannot be cast in sewing-machine factories. At present the American soldiers are without either rifles or artillery. At that moment there were a million American soldiers in France and we were turning out munitions at a rate the Germans could not believe was possible. [Illustration: THE STATION WHOSE MESSAGES ARE HEARD AROUND THE WORLD The Lafayette radio station, the most powerful in the world. Inset: a radio operator at work.] The more evident it was that U-boat warfare had failed, the more vehement were the German naval authorities in asserting its success. Admiral Holtzendorff, head of the Admiralty, announced on July 29, that they were taking into consideration the counter measures--(that meant the mine barrage, the destroyers, patrol boats and all the things we were using to defeat them); that the Germans were building many more submarines, and that "final success is guaranteed." [Illustration: THE TABLET ON THE MAIN BUILDING OF THE LAFAYETTE RADIO STATION] After submarine crews had mutinied and U-boat warfare had ended with the recall of their submarines in October, the German chiefs were still bluffing their own people. As late as November 5, less than a week before the armistice, we caught this bulletin from Berlin: English wireless service reported, and this report was circulated also in neutral newspapers, that German submarines had passed Norwegian coast on their way home with a white flag at the mast-head. This is a pure invention. English wireless has thus again circulated a lie. At that very time the U-boats were all hurrying home, some of them passing so close to the Norwegian coast, to avoid mines and destroyers, that they could be plainly seen from shore. When the French and Americans by terrific attacks drove the Germans across the Marne, Berlin announced: