Inspection parties from the Grand Fleet boarded the Germans to make sure that all conditions of the armistice were observed. The enemy vessels were to be interned in Scapa Flow. Part of the crews were to remain for maintenance work and the remainder were to be returned to Germany soon. The total tonnage surrendered, exclusive of submarines, amounted to approximately 420,000, divided as follows: Battle cruisers, 121,000 tons; dreadnoughts, 225,000 tons; light cruisers, 43,000 tons, and destroyers, 30,000. Even after the cessation of hostilities there was still plenty of work to do for the naval forces of the Allies. After the occupation of Constantinople, already described, Allied ships occupied Odessa on November 26, 1918, and on the same day anchored off Sebastopol, the Russian naval base in the Crimea. There they took over the Russian ships, then in the hands of the Germans, as well as some German submarines. In the Baltic, too, British and other Allied ships made their appearance. On December 3, 1918, a British squadron, consisting of twenty-two ships and including destroyers, cruisers, mine sweepers, and transport steamers, were reported to have arrived in the port of Libau in Courland. At midnight on December 4, 1918, one of these ships, the British light cruiser _Cassandra_, of 6,000 tons, struck a mine and sank within an hour with a loss of eleven men. A few days later, on December 6, 1918, it was announced that some of these ships had successfully bombarded, from the Gulf of Finland, front and rear positions held by the Bolsheviki forces in Esthonia, stopping their advance. PART VI--THE AMERICAN ARMY IN FRANCE CHAPTER XVIII AMERICAN ACHIEVEMENTS ON THE WESTERN FRONT By FREDERICK PALMER (LATE LT. COLONEL U.S.R.) The glory of our accomplishment in France lies in the titanic energy and natural resourcefulness of our people which were applied with a unity of purpose which surprised even ourselves. It is possible for us to exaggerate our part in assisting the Allies to final victory, and it is also possible for us to underestimate our part. If England had not entered the war in 1914, and if Italy and Rumania had not entered later, and if Canada and Australia and the British dominions had not put forth all their strength, and if the United States had not sent an army to France, the Germans would have won. The balance of victory and failure at times hung by a thread. While Americans must always realize that comparatively we suffered slightly beside Britain and France and Italy, and that the Canadians were the veterans of cruel and wicked fighting in holding the western front against the enemy in the height of his confidence, numbers, and efficiency, no one will gainsay that at the end of the conflict we were giving our lives as freely as our neighbors and Allies.