reached the end of his strength and lay at the mercy of his strong assailant. Fear and gloom entered the hearts of the soldiers, who up to then had been possessed by blind faith. They feared the coming spring. For, seeing that they had so far failed to break the German when he could place only part of his forces on the Western front, how were they to count on victory now that the undivided forces of that tremendous State of heroes appeared to be gathering for an attack against the West ?
At the moment that the German divisions received their final orders for the great attack, the General Strike broke out in Germany.
The world was dumbfounded at first. Then the enemy propaganda breathed again and pounced on this help at the twelfth hour. Here at one blow was the means for reviving the sinking confidence of the allied soldiers, for representing the chance of victory as being now a certainty once more, and for turning the terrified depression with regard to coming events into determined confidence.
British, French and American newspapers started sowing this conviction in the hearts of their readers, whilst immensely clever propaganda was used to excite the troops at the front.
“Germany on the Eve of Revolution ! An Allied Victory Inevitable !” This was the best medicine to set the wavering Tommy or Poilu on his feet again.
All this was the result of the munitions strike. It revived faith in victory in the enemy nations and did away with that crippling depression on the allied front ; as a consequence thousands of German soldiers paid for it with their blood. But the promoters of that rascally and disgraceful strike were those who expected to obtain the biggest posts under the State in revolu¬ tionary Germany.
It was my luck to be in the first two and the last offensives. They made on me the most tremendous impressions that ever came to me in the whole