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Updated: June 28, 2025
Pains and penalties were threatened against any newspaper which should dare to publish a word of military information beyond the official communiques issued in order to hide the truth.
It was the repetition of this sort of "incident," as reported in the daily communiqués, which led the outside world to wonder at the fatuousness and the satire of the thing, without understanding that its object was entirely for the purpose of morale. An attack was made to keep the men up to the mark; a counter-attack in order not to allow the enemy ever to develop a sense of superiority.
The long-forgotten communiqués of that early period of the war reported success after success, until at last it was announced that the victorious French armies had reached Sarrebourg and Morhange, and were astride the Strassburg-Metz Railroad. And then Berlin took up the cry, and France and the world learned of a great German victory and of the defeat and rout of the invading army.
But, however futile the raids, and however widely they missed their mark, there was no falling off in the outrageous claims made in the German communiques. Bombs dropped in fields, waste lands, and even the sea, masqueraded in the reports as missiles which had sunk ships in harbour, destroyed docks, and started fires in important military areas.
It was estimated that the Germans had 143 divisions in France, but only ninety-nine of these were in the actual line, the rest being held in strategic reserve. During the month of April, 1917, more aeroplanes were lost by the combatants than in any month since the fighting began. A careful compilation from British, French, and German communiqués shows a total loss of 717 during this period.
We were in reserve during the first two days of the attack, and received with clock-like regularity the communiqués telling of our successful advances.
We took occasion to point out to him that the British Empire, which had sent its men into this war, yearned to know what they were doing and how they were doing, and that their patience and loyalty depended upon closer knowledge of what was happening than was told them in the communiques issued by the Commander-in-Chief himself.
The actions were described from day to day with some detail by the Allies, and as "unimportant attempts" by the German official communiqués. The latter generally consisted of few words that gave little or no indication of what had happened, and frequently wound up with the phrase: "There was no change on the front."
We will let the rival communiqués relate what happened: Austrian Version Russian Version Annihilated two battalions Annihilated two battalions of Russian infantry belonging of the Honveds; captured 21 to the Alexander Regiment; officers, over 1,000 rank and took 1,400 prisoners, and file, and 8 machine guns. drove Russians back beyond the Dniester.
It was claimed for Cadorna's communiqués, I think justly, that at this time no others were more moderate and truthful. No point was claimed as won, until it was not merely won but securely held.
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