thing but God and public opinion. They
had such exalted faith in their army they believed they could gain by
Might what they had lost in prestige throughout the world. This is one
of the reasons the German people arose like one man when war was
declared. They wished and were ready to show the world that they were
the greatest people ever created.

II

The German explanation of why they lost the battle of the Marne is
interesting, not alone because of the explanation of the defeat, but
because it shows why the shipment of arms and ammunition from the
United States was such a poisonous pill to the army. Shortly after my
arrival in Berlin Dr. Alfred Zimmermann, then Under Secretary of State,
said the greatest scandal in Germany after the war would be the
investigation of the reasons for the shortage of ammunition in
September, 1914. He did not deny that Germany was prepared for a great
war. He must have known at the time what the Director of the Post and
Telegraph knew on the 2nd of August, 1914, when he wrote Announcement
No. 3. The German Army must have known the same thing and if it had
prepared for war, as every German admits it had, then preparations were
made to fight nine nations. But there was one thing which Germany
failed to take into consideration, Zimmermann said, and that was the
shipment of supplies from the United States. Then, he added, there
were two reasons why the battle of the Marne was lost: one, because
there was not sufficient ammunition; and, two, because the reserves
were needed to stop the Russian invasion of East Prussia. I asked him
whether Germany did not have enormous stores of ammunition on hand when
the war began. He said there was sufficient ammunition for a short
campaign, but that the Ministry of War had not mobilised sufficient
ammunition factories to keep up the supplies. He said this was the
reason for the downfall of General von Herringen, who was Minister of
War at the beginning of hostilities.

After General von Kluck was wounded and returned to his villa in
Wilmersdorf, a suburb of Berlin, I took a walk with him in his garden
and discussed the Marne. He confirmed what Zimmermann stated about the
shortage of ammunition and added that he had to give up his reserves to
General von Hindenburg, who had been ordered by the Kaiser to drive the
Russians from East Prussia.

III

At the very beginning of the war, although no intimations were
permitted to reach the out