by Richard van Pelt, WWI Correspondent

The headlines from today’s Daily Capital Journal:

FRENCH CLAIM TO BE ADVANCING SLOWLY ALONG WHOLE LINE
Fighting Reported at All Points Along Frontier, with Germans Yielding
THE BATTLE LINE IS 250 MILES LONG
German Reinforcements Said to be Mostly Boys 18 to 20 Years Old

Paris, Dec. 11. Fighting in water-filled trenches in roads knee deep in mire, through swampy patches of woods and in fields which are no better than wallows for men and horses, the allies made further gradual progress Thursday, according to a war office statement issued here today.

ENGLAND SECURES VERY RICH PRIZE BY TAKING KORNA
Captures Best Part of the Old Babylonian empire on Persian Gulf
ALL THE POWERS WERE ANXIOUS TO GET IT
Is of Vast Strategic Importance – Nebuchadnezzar Took It 2018 Years Ago

FIGHT AT CRACOW BECOMING ONE OF GREATEST OF WAR
German and Austrian forces Make Desperate Attempt to Relieve Cracow
TEUTON ARTILLERY OUTRANGES RUSSIAN
Russians Claim Evacuation of Warsaw Might Be Good Piece of Strategy

GERMAN ADMIRAL’S SHIP GOES DOWN WITH FLAGS FLYING
Admiral Von Spee Goes Down with His Ship, Refusing to Surrender
GUNS KEPT FIRING UNTIL SUBMERGED
German Cruisers Off Chilean Coast Take Flight on Learning of Disaster

. . . According to the latest account to each here, the Germans were caught between a British and a Japanese squadron, but fought until their last gun was silenced.

The Scharnhorst, Admiral Von Spee’s flagship, was said to have continued firing until its artillery actually was submerged.

Von Spee commanded German naval forces responsible for protecting Germany’s interests and territories in the Far East. His forces were inadequate for the task, which he recognized. Winston Churchill wrote: “He was a cut flower in a vase, fair to see yet bound to die.”

Von Spee’s two sons also were killed on the same day during the Battle of the Falklands.

The Daily Oregon Statesman reported that Germany has conditionally agreed to a Christmas truce, as recommended by Pope Benedict XV:

GERMANS WILL PERMIT TRUCE
All Allies, However, Must Cease Fighting during Holidays

Berlin, Dec. 10. (by Wireless Telegraphy to Sayville, L. I.) – Among the news items given out by the German official press bureau today were the following:

Allies Must Agree
“Immediately Germany received the suggestion of Pope Benedict for a truce among the warring nations during the Christmas holidays, an affirmative reply was sent to the Vatican. The reply, however, was conditional on the acquiescence of all the other belligerents in the pope’s suggestion.”

“Wants Regular Army of 120,000” read the headline in the Daily Oregon Statesman. The Secretary of War’s report to the President states that there is a need for an increased force because garrisons have been depleted in order to increase the forces in the canal zone, Hawaii and the Philippines. Addressing the war in Europe, the Secretary of War demonstrates a masterful command of bureaucratic obfuscation:

“It would be premature,”

[the report] says, “to attempt now to draw the ultimate lessons from the war in Europe. It is an imperative duty, however, to heed so much of what it brings home to us as is incontrovertible and not to be changed by any event, leaving for later and more detailed and comprehensive consideration what its later developments and final conclusions many indicate.”