The Story of the Great War, Volume 1: Introductions; Special Articles; Causes of War; Diplomatic and State Papers
History
The Story of the Great War, Volume 1: Introductions; Special Articles; Causes of War; Diplomatic and State Papers
World War, 1914-1918
Follow the course of the long procession of motor trucks which feed
the army and you arrive at one of the great supply depots which
every day send out the precise quota of supplies that are needed,
with every motor truck having its schedule and keeping that schedule
with the accuracy of a first-class passenger train. Follow the
ambulances back from station to station, where the wounded men are
examined to see if they are suffering from a hemorrhage and whether
they are able to stand the farther journey and do not need an
immediate operation, and you are brought to the immense base
hospitals in a closely guarded and well ordered camp where every
sanitary tradition known to modern life is absolutely enforced. One
of these hospitals had twelve thousand beds and in the offensive of
September 25, 1915, it discharged seven thousand patients in a day.
Soldiers are restricted to the neighborhood of their billets and
officers themselves must have passes if they travel outside the
region occupied by their battalions. Everyone is a policeman under
an intricate system guarding every detail of army secrets from any
spy and from those gallant aviators who risk antiaircraft gunfire in
the hope of bringing home some information to their side.
Never has the Intelligence Service of an army had so many secrets to
guard; never has it required such complicated measures of protection
against espionage. In Napoleonic times, it was enough to know that
your adversary was marching a hundred thousand men along parallel
roads. This your cavalry scouts might discover; or a spy who had
crossed the frontier in an unfrequented place might be watching the
enemy's army and counting his numbers as they passed. Now the
frontier is an intact line of trenches.
The spies of Richelieu's day have been surpassed in this, our
day--with their stories yet to be told. Many a man who spoke the
enemy's language well has put on the enemy's uniform, joined one of
his scouting parties between the trenches in the darkness, entered
the enemy's trenches, heard all the talk and slipped back to his own
lines safely. If apprehended, his fate was certain--death.
The most efficient spy, of course, is the one with military training
He knows the value of what he sees. Usually he is an officer of good
family who has been cashiered for gambling or debt and takes a
desperate chance out of patriotism and the hope of atonement.
Naturally, the easiest route for spies was through Holland and
Switzerland which became the gateway of passing spies and the
playground of espionage and counterespionage. Gradually the
restrictions tightened for all neutral travelers from capital to
capital, while none were permitted to go into the zones of the
armies, some twenty or thirty miles from the trenches.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account