[Illustration: Cover] [Illustration: End paper left] [Illustration: End paper right] TRUE STORIES OF THE GREAT WAR TRUE STORIES OF THE GREAT WAR TALES OF ADVENTURE--HEROIC DEEDS--EXPLOITS TOLD BY THE SOLDIERS, OFFICERS, NURSES, DIPLOMATS, EYE WITNESSES _Collected in Six Volumes From Official and Authoritative Sources_ (_See Introductory to Volume I_) VOLUME I Editor-in-Chief FRANCIS TREVELYAN MILLER (Litt. D., LL.D.) Editor of The Search-Light Library 1917 REVIEW OF REVIEWS COMPANY NEW YORK Copyright, 1917, by REVIEW OF REVIEWS COMPANY TRUE STORIES OF THE GREAT WAR INTRODUCTORY Thirty million soldiers, each living a great human story--this is the real drama of the Great War as it is being written into the hearts and memories of the men at the front. If these soldiers could be gathered around one camp-fire, and each soldier could relate the most thrilling moment of his experience--what stories we would hear! "Don Quixote," the "Arabian Nights," Dante's "Inferno," Milton's "Paradise Lost, and Regained"--all the legends and tales of the world's literature out-told by the soldiers themselves. It is from the lips of these soldiers, and those who have passed through the tragedy of the war--the women and children whose eyes have beheld the inferno and whose souls have been uplifted by suffering and self-sacrifice--the generations will hear the epic of the days when millions of men gave their lives to "make the world safe for Democracy." The magnitude of this gigantic struggle against autocracy is such that human imagination cannot visualize it--it requires one to stand face to face with death itself. A member of the British War Staff estimates that more than a million letters a day are passing from the trenches and bases of the various armies "to the folk back home." Another observer at the General Headquarters of one of the armies estimates that more than a million and a half diaries are being kept by the soldiers. It is in these words, inscribed by bleeding bodies and suffering hearts, that posterity is to hear _True Stories of the Great War_. It is the purpose of these volumes, therefore, to begin the preservation of these soldiers' stories. This is the first collection that has been made; it is in itself an historic event. The manner in which this service has been performed may be of interest to the reader. It was my privilege to appoint a committee, or board of editors, to collect stories from soldiers in the various armies--personal letters, records of personal experiences, reminiscences, and all other available material. An exhaustive investigation has been made into the files of European and American periodicals to find the various narratives that have "crept into print."