Verdun—the World's Greatest Battlefield. —Chicago American.
Approximate Positions of German Troops at Various Dates, and MoreImportant Actions of the Verdun Campaign in in Their ChronologicalOrder.—See Key to Letters and Numbers on Opposite Page.]THE VERDUN BATTLEFIELDKey to Map on Opposite PageBattle lines showing the approximate positions of the German troops atVerdun at various dates are designated in the map as follows:A. Positions Feb. 21, 1916, when German offensive was begun.B. Positions on Feb. 23.C. Positions on Feb. 25.D. Positions on Feb. 27.E. Bethincourt salient, April 7, before French retired.F. Positions on April 18.The more important actions of the Verdun campaign in their chronologicalorder are indicated as follows:1. Germans open offensive against Verdun, piercing French lines.2. French evacuate Haumont, Feb. 22.3. French recapture Forest of Caures, Feb. 22, but lose it again.4. Germans pierce French line, taking 3,000 prisoners.5. Germans capture Brabant, Haumont, Samogneux, etc., Feb. 23.6. Berlin reports capture of four villages and 10,000 French prisonersFeb. 23.7. Germans capture Louvemont and fortified positions Feb. 25. FortDouaumont stormed by Brandenburg corps, then surrounded byFrench, but relieved by Germans March 3.8. Germans take Champneuville Feb. 27, with 5,000 prisoners.9. Bloody encounters at village of Eix on Woevre plain, Feb. 27.10. Germans occupy Moranville and Haudiomont, Feb. 27.11. Champlon and Manheuilles fall Feb. 28; 1,300 French prisoners.12. Verdun battered and set on fire by 42-centimeter guns.13. French evacuate Fort Vaux, after heavy bombardment, March 1.14. Germans begin violent bombardment of Dead Man's Hill, March 1.15. Germans capture village of Douaumont, March 2; 1,000 prisoners.16. Fresnes captured by Germans, March 5.17. Germans capture Forges, March 5; drive against French left wing.18. Germans take Regneville, west of Meuse, March 6.19. Germans capture heights of Cumieres, etc., March 7.20. Village of Vaux taken and retaken by Germans, March 8-10.21. Crown Prince brings up 100,000 reinforcements, March 10-12.22. French recapture trenches March 14, with 1,000 German prisoners.23. Struggle for heights of Le Mort Homme, March 16.24. Germans capture positions north of Avocourt, March 20.25. Artillery duels east of Verdun, March 25.26. French recapture part of Avocourt Wood, March 28.27. Germans capture Malancourt, March 29-31.28. Heavy fighting south of Douaumont, April 2-5; French successes inbattle of Caillette woods, etc.29. Germans recapture Haucourt, April 6.30. Germans close in on Bethincourt salient, April 7.31. French withdraw from Bethincourt April 9, but hold lines south.32. French lines bombarded continuously, April 10-15, with violentassaults but no decisive results.
So sound was the barricade, padded with sandbags and earth-works, that the artillery fire fell practically unavailing, and the French general realized that the barrier must be breached by explosives, as in Napoleon's battles.
It was 8 o'clock and already pitch dark in that blighted atmosphere when a special blasting corps, as devoted as the German chain workers, crept forward toward the German position. The rest of the French waited, sheltered in the ravine east of Douaumont, until an explosion should signal the assault.
In Indian file, to give the least possible sign of their presence to the hostile sentinels, the French blasters advanced in a long line, at first with comparative rapidity, only stiffening into the grotesque rigidity of simulated death when the searchlights played upon them, and resuming progress when the beam shifted. Then as they approached the barrier they moved slowly and more slowly. When they arrived within forty yards the movement of the crawling men became imperceptible.
The blasting corps lay at full length, like hundreds of other motionless forms about them, but all were working busily. With a short trowel, the file leader scuffled the earth from under his body, taking care not to raise his arms, and gradually making a shallow trench deep enough to hide him. The others followed his example until the whole line had sunk beneath the surface.
Then the leader began scooping his way forward, while his followers deepened the furrow already made. Thus literally inch by inch the files stole forward, sheltered in a narrow ditch from the gusts of German machine-gun fire that constantly swept the terrain. Here and there the sentinels' eyes caught a suspicious movement or an incautiously raised head sank down pierced by a bullet, but the stealthy, molelike advance continued. Hours passed. It was nearly dawn when the remnant of the blasting corps reached the barricade at last and hurriedly put their explosives in position. Back they wriggled breathlessly. An over-hasty movement meant death, yet they must hurry lest the imminent explosions overwhelm them.
Suddenly there was a roar that dwarfed the cannonade and all along the barrier fountains of fire rose skyward, hurling a rain of fragments upon what was left of the blasting party.
THREE OUT OF FOUR DIE.
The barricade was breached, but 75 per cent of the devoted corps had given their lives to do it.
As the survivors lay exhausted the attackers charged over them, cheering. In the melee that followed there was no room to shoot or wield the rifle. Some of the French fought with unfixed bayonets, like the stabbing swords of the Roman legions. Others had knives or clubs. All were battle-frenzied, as only Frenchmen can be.
The Germans broke, and as the first rays of dawn streaked the sky only a small section of the wood was still in their hands. There a similar barrier stopped progress, and it was evident that the night's work must be repeated; but the hearts of the French soldiers were leaping with victory as they dug furiously to consolidate the ground they had gained, strewn with German bodies, thick as leaves. Over 6,000 Germans were counted in a section a quarter of a mile square, and the conquerors saw why their cannonade had been so ineffective. The Germans had piled a second barrier of corpses close behind the first, so that the soft human flesh would act as a buffer to neutralize the force of the shells.
FRENCH DEFENSE TRULY HEROIC.
While all the German attacks upon the French lines in front of Verdun were marked with the utmost valor and intensity of devotion, the continuous defense made by the French under General Petain was equally vigorous and often truly heroic. Volunteers frequently remained in the French trenches from which the rest of the French defenders had been compelled to retire, to telephone information about the advancing enemy to the French batteries, and some of the heaviest losses of the Germans occurred when they believed themselves successful in an attack.
The consequences of such devotion on the part of French volunteers were exemplified early in the morning of April 12, at a point called Caurettes Woods, along the northeastern slopes of the hill known as Le Mort Homme (Dead Man's Hill), where a French withdrawal had been carried out. Volunteers remained behind to signal information to the French batteries, and an eyewitness of the attack described what followed thus:
"The French seventy-fives immediately concentrated on the hostile trench line. The Germans suffered heavily, but persevered, and soon dense columns appeared amid the shell-torn brushwood on the southern fringe of the Corbeaux Wood, pouring down into the valley separating them from the former French position on the hillside.
"Thinking the French still held the latter, the Germans deployed with their latest trench-storming device in the form of liquid fire containers, with special groups of four installed, two men working the pump and two directing the fire jet.
"The grayness of the dawn was illuminated by sheets of green and red flame and black oily clouds rolled along the valley toward the river like smoke from a burning 'gusher.'
"Suddenly the air was filled with shrill whistling, as shells of the seventy-fives were hurled against the attackers. Thanks to the devoted sentinels dying at their posts in the sea of fire, the range was exact, and the exploding melinite shattered the charging columns.
"An appalling scene followed. The shells had burst or overthrown the fire containers and the Germans were seen, running wildly amid the flames which overwhelmed hundreds of wounded and disabled.
FRENCH TROOPS CHARGE.
"In this scene of confusion the French charged with bayonet, despite the furnace heat and fumes produced by the red-hot containers flying in all directions. The enemy offered little resistance. It was like a slaughter of frenzied animals.
"The French mitrailleuse corps pressed close on their comrades' heels, placing weapons at vantage points that had escaped the fire and showering a leaden hail upon the main body of Germans retreating up Corbeaux Hill.
"Hundreds fought in a terror-stricken mob to hide in a hole that might have sheltered a score. Those beneath were stifled. Those above threw themselves screaming into the air as the bullets pierced them or fell dead in a wild dash toward a safer refuge. Flushed with success, the French charged again right to the entrance of the wood, and the slaughter recommenced.
"Five of the heroic sentinels, wonderful to say, returned with the French wave that ebbed when victory was won for that day."
CONDITIONS AT VERDUN ON APRIL 20.
Several determined attacks were delivered by the Germans on the French lines at Verdun between April 15 and 20, enormous masses of men, sometimes as many as 100,000, being hurled against points in the northeast sector of the battle front. But the French defense held firm, although some trenches were lost and a considerable number of French prisoners were taken. Up to this time the total number of prisoners taken by the Germans at Verdun, from the beginning of the offensive, February 21, was claimed to be 711 officers and 38,155 men.
Such were the conditions before Verdun on April 20, when, with spring well under way on the Western battle fronts, there was daily expectation of a vigorous drive by the Allies against the German lines between Verdun and the sea. While both sides expressed confidence in the outcome of the war, no man could foretell with any degree of certainty what the final result of the great struggle would be.
ZEPPELIN RAIDS ON ENGLAND.
During the month of March and early in April a number of Zeppelin raids upon various parts of England did more or less damage, though none of an important military character. The east coast of Scotland also suffered from a Zeppelin visit in April.
Reports and figures issued by the British War Office showed that during the fifteen months from Christmas, 1914, to April 1, 1916, no fewer than thirty-four separate aerial raids occurred in Great Britain, including those of aeroplanes and Zeppelins. The total casualties suffered, mainly by civilians, men, women, and children, were 303 killed and 713 injured. This record of results is interesting when it is remembered what they must have cost the Germans in money and men, in view of the comparatively small amount of damage that seems to have been done. Germany, however, insisted that her air raids had done more substantial harm to England than the War Office would admit.
RUSSIAN ACTIVITIES IN THE EAST.
With the approach of spring in 1916, new activities began on the Eastern front, and the Russians threatened a vigorous attack on the German lines in the north "after the thaw." By the middle of the summer the Russians expected, according to semi-official reports, to have twelve million men armed, drilled, and equipped for battle.
On April 1 the Berlin government declared that in the Russian offensive on the Eastern front, against Field Marshal von Hindenburg, which lasted from March 18 to March 30, the losses to the Russians were 140,000 out of the 500,000 men engaged. This campaign was carried on mostly in the frozen terrain of the Dvinsk marshes, and along the Dvina River, and the German losses were also heavy, although the Russian attacks were as a rule repulsed.
FALL OF TREBIZOND.
In Asia Minor, however, Russian successes of the winter were crowned in the early spring by the fall of the Baltic seaport of Trebizond, which was occupied on April 18. This city, the most important Turkish port on the Black Sea, was captured by the Russian army advancing from Erzerum. Aided by the Russian Black Sea fleet, the invaders pushed past the last series of natural obstacles along the Anatolian coast when, on Sunday, April 16, they occupied a strongly fortified Turkish position on the left bank of the Kara Dere River, twelve miles outside the fortified town. The official Russian report said:
"Our valiant troops, after a sanguinary battle on the Kara Dere River, pressed the Turks without respite, and surmounted incredible obstacles, everywhere breaking the fierce resistance of the enemy. The well-combined action of the fleet permitted the execution of most hazardous landing operations, and lent the support of its artillery to the troops operating in the coastal region.
"Credit for this fresh victory also is partly due the assistance given our Caucasian army by the troops operating in other directions in Asia Minor. By their desperate fighting and heroic exploits, they did everything in their power to facilitate the task of the detachments on the coast."
GERMANY AND THE UNITED STATES.
The long-continued controversy between the United States and Germany over the methods and results of German submarine warfare came to a climax with the torpedoing of the British channel steamer Sussex, on March 24, 1916, in pursuance of the new German policy of attacking merchant vessels without warning. There was no pretense that the Sussex was an "armed merchantman," and no warning was given the passengers and crew, the former including a number of Americans on their way from Folkestone to the French port of Dieppe. The ship, though badly damaged, made port with assistance, but the loss of life from the explosion and drowning amounted to fifty, and several American passengers were injured. Germany disclaimed responsibility for the disaster, but the weight of evidence pointed to a German submarine as the cause, and in view of the repeated violations of German promises to the United States to give due warning to passenger vessels and insure safety to their occupants, President Wilson and his advisers, in April, seriously considered the advisability of breaking off diplomatic relations with the German Empire, by way of a protest in the name of humanity. On April 18 the President decided to lay the whole matter before Congress.
The record of German submarine attacks involving death or injury to American citizens up to this time included the sinking or damaging of the following vessels: British steamer Falaba, 160 lives lost, including one American; American steamer Gulflight, three Americans lost; British steamship Lusitania, 1,134 lives lost, including 115 Americans; American steamer Leelanaw, sunk; liner Arabic sunk, two Americans killed; liner Hesperian sunk mysteriously, three days after Germany had promised to sink no more liners; Italian liner Ancona sunk (by Austrian submarine), with loss of American lives; Japanese liner Yanaka Maru sunk in Mediterranean; British liner Persia sunk, United States Consul McNeely killed; steamer Sussex attacked, several Americans seriously injured; British steamers Manchester Engineer, Eagle Point and Berwyn Dale attacked, endangering American members of crews.
A FINAL NOTE TO GERMANY.
On Wednesday, April 19, President Wilson appeared before Congress, assembled in joint session for the purpose of hearing him, and announced that he had addressed a final note of warning to Germany, giving the Imperial German Government irrevocable notice that the United States would break off diplomatic relations if the illegal and inhuman submarine campaign was continued. The language used by the President, after recounting the course of events leading to his action, was as follows:
"I have deemed it my duty, therefore, to say to the Imperial German Government that if it is still its purpose to prosecute relentless and indiscriminate warfare against vessels of commerce by the use of submarines, the government of the United States is at least forced to the conclusion that there is but one course it can pursue; and that unless the Imperial German Government should now immediately declare and effect an abandonment of its present method of warfare against passenger and freight-carrying vessels this government can have no choice but to sever diplomatic relations with the government of the German Empire altogether."
THE GERMAN WAR CLOUD PASSES.
Germany replied to the President's note on May 4, denying the implication of intentional destruction of vessels regardless of their nature or nationality, and declaring that in future no merchant vessels should be sunk without warning or without saving human lives, "unless the ships attempt to escape or offer resistance."
On May 8, President Wilson dispatched a reply to Germany's note, accepting the German promises as to the future conduct of submarine warfare, but refusing to regard them as contingent on any action between the United States and any other country. Germany later admitted that a German submarine sank the Sussex, and promised that the commander would be punished and indemnities paid to the families of those who perished.
This was regarded at Washington as practically closing the submarine controversy, and the German war-cloud, which had assumed serious proportions, gradually passed away. ABORTIVE REVOLT IN IRELAND.
An attempt at rebellion by Irish extremists, accompanied by bloody riots in Dublin and other cities in the south and west of Ireland, followed the sinking on April 21 of a German vessel which, convoyed by a submarine, endeavored to land arms and ammunition on the Irish coast. Sir Roger Casement, an anti-British Irishman of considerable note, who had been resident in Germany for some months, was taken prisoner upon landing from the submarine.
For several days, beginning April 25, the rebels, who formed an inconsiderable part of the Irish people and were strongly condemned by the Nationalist leaders and party, held possession of streets and public buildings in Dublin. Incendiary fires did damage estimated at over $100,000,000, many peaceable citizens were killed, and the casualties among British troops and constabulary amounted to 521, including killed, before the uprising was quelled and the "Irish Republic" overthrown, with the unconditional surrender of its deluded leaders, on April 30. Next day the remnants of the Sinn Fein rebels in Ireland surrendered, making over 1,000 prisoners, who were transported to English prisons. Military law had been proclaimed throughout Ireland and nearly a score of the leaders of the revolt, who were accused of murder, were tried by court-martial and summarily executed. The revolt was alleged to have been encouraged in Germany and also by Irish extremists in the United States, by whom the rebel leaders executed in Ireland were regarded as "martyrs."
BRITISH SURRENDER AT KUT-EL AMARA.
After holding out against the Turks at Kut-el-Amara, in Mesopotamia, for 143 days, General Townshend, the British commander, was compelled, through exhaustion of his supplies, to surrender his force of 9,000 officers and men, on April 28. This force included about 2,000 English and 7,000 Indian troops, many being on the sick list. The Turks recognized the gallantry of the defense and refused to accept General Townshend's sword. Many of the sick and wounded were exchanged, and it was planned to imprison the rest of the British force on an island in the Sea of Marmora.
ATTACKS ON VERDUN CONTINUE.
German attacks on the French lines at Verdun continued with the utmost vigor up to June 10. From time to time they resulted in small successes, gained at immense cost in human life. From May 27 to May 30 the battle raged with especial severity, this period marking the greatest effort made by the Germans during the whole of the prolonged operations at Verdun. The French stood firm under an avalanche of shot and shell, and drove back wave after wave of a tremendous flood of Teutonic infantry. The infantry fighting in this struggle was described as the fiercest of the war.
The total German casualties up to June 1 were estimated at nearly 3,000,000; the French at 2,500,000, and the British at 600,000, over 25,000 of the latter being commissioned officers.
General Joseph S. Gallieni, former minister of war of France, died at Versailles on May 27, universally mourned by the French, who regarded him as the saviour of Paris in the critical days of August-September, 1914, when he was military governor of Paris and commander of the intrenched camp.
THE WORLD'S GREATEST SEA FIGHT.
British and German High-Sea Fleets Finally Clash in the North Sea—Huge Losses in Tonnage and Men on Both Sides—British Navy Remains in Control of the Sea.
After many months of unceasing sea patrol on the part of the British, and of diligent preparation in port on the German side, it came at last—the long-expected clash of mighty rival fleets in the North Sea.
It was on the misty afternoon of Wednesday, May 31, that Admiral David Beatty, in command of Britain's battle-cruiser squadron, sighted the vanguard of the German high-seas fleet steaming "on an enterprise to the north" from its long-accustomed anchorages in the placid waters of the Kiel Canal and under the guns of Helgoland.
The British battleship fleet was far away to the northwest, but the wireless promptly flashed the signal, "Enemy in sight," and as the battle-cruisers raced to close quarters with the tardy foe, and sacrificed themselves in the effort to hold him in the open sea, down from the north rushed the leviathans of the Mistress of the Seas, that were counted on to crush the enemy when the opportunity came.
But the early stages of the fight found the British battling against odds. Germany's mightiest warcraft were in the shadows of the mist, behind the cruiser scouts; destroyers swarmed around them, submarines appeared from the depths, and Zeppelins hovered overhead.
Gallantly did Admiral Beatty on his victorious Lion struggle to hold his own till the British battleships came up; but one after another his hard-pressed cruisers succumbed to weight of metal, until five of them had sunk beneath the sea, with all their devoted crews, before the near approach of Admiral Jellicoe and his dreadnaughts sent the enemy scuttling back to port, to claim a victory that startled the world for a day, only to disappear when the full extent of the German losses became known, and it was learned that the German high-seas fleet had lost some of its proudest units, that its losses, not only relatively but absolutely almost equaled those of the British fleet, and that the British remained in full control of the high seas, after scouring them in vain for further signs of the enemy.
THE BRITISH LOSSES.
The ships lost by the British in the battle included three battle-cruisers, the Queen Mary, Indefatigable, and Invincible; three light cruisers, the Defense, Black Prince, and Warrior, and eight destroyers, the Tipperary, Turbulent, Nestor, Alcaster, Fortune, Sparrowhawk, Ardent, and Shark. The Warrior, badly damaged, was taken in tow, but sank before reaching port. All but one of its crew were saved.
The British dreadnaught Marlborough was also damaged, but succeeded in making port for repairs.
Following are particulars of the British cruisers sunk:
QUEEN MARY—27,000 tons; 720 feet long. Eight 13.5 inch guns, sixteen 4 inch guns, three 21 inch torpedo tubes. Complement, 900. Cost,
$10,000,000.
INDEFATIGABLE—18,750 tons: 578 feet long. Eight 12 inch guns, sixteen 4 inch guns, three 21 inch torpedo tubes. Complement, 900. Cost,
$8,000,000.
INVINCIBLE—17,250 tons; 562 feet long. Eight 12 inch guns, sixteen 4 inch guns, three 21 inch torpedo tubes. Complement, 731. Cost,
$8,760,000.
DEFENSE—14,600 tons; 525 feet long. Four 9.2 inch guns, ten 7.5 inch guns, sixteen 12 pounders, five torpedo tubes. Complement, 755. Cost,
$6,810,000.
BLACK PRINCE—13,550 tons; 480 feet long. Six 9.2 inch guns, twenty pounders, three torpedo tubes. Complement, 704. Cost, $5,750,000.
WARRIOR—13,550 tons; 480 feet long. Six 9.2 inch guns, four 7.5 inch guns, twenty-four 3 pounders, three torpedo tubes. Complement, 704, all saved but one. Cost, $5,900,000.
The destroyers sunk were each of about 950 tons, 266 feet long, and carried a complement of 100 men. Only a few survivors were picked up after the battle.
THE GERMAN LOSSES.
The German losses, as claimed by the British, included two dreadnaughts, believed to be the Hindenburgh and Westfalen, each of approximately 26,000 tons, with a complement of 1,000 men; the battle-cruiser Derfflinger, 26,600 tons, complement, 900 men; the battleship Pommern, of 12,997 tons, complement, 729 men, cost, $6,000,000; the new fast cruiser Elbing, of 5,000 tons, complement, 500 men; the cruisers Frauenlob, of 2,715 tons, complement, 264 men, and Wiesbaden, not registered; a number of destroyers, variously estimated at from six to sixteen, and one submarine rammed and sunk. Besides these, the battle-cruiser Lutzow, of 26,600 tons, was reported badly damaged, and the battle-cruiser Seydlitz, of equal size, suffered heavily in the battle and was hotly pursued to the mine fields of Helgoland.
The total loss of life in the battle amounted to approximately 4, British, including 333 officers; and probably 4,000 or more Germans. Rear-Admiral Horace Hood, second in command of the battle-cruiser fleet, went down with the Invincible. Rear-Admiral Arbuthnot went down with the Defense.
STORY OF THE BATTLE.
The great naval battle, which may go down in history as the battle of the Skager Rack, was fought in the eastern waters of the North Sea, off the coast of Denmark. It lasted for many hours, fighting being continued through the night of May 31-June 1. In general, the battle area extended from the Skager Rack southward to Horn Reef off the Danish coast, the center of the fighting being about 100 miles north of Helgoland, the main German naval base in the North Sea.
Both in the number of lives and the tonnage lost, the battle was the greatest sea-fight in history, as well as the first in which modern dreadnaughts have been engaged. Never before have two naval forces of such magnitude as the British and German high-sea fleets engaged in combat.
The greatest previous tonnage loss was during the Japanese-Russian war. In the naval battle of Tsushima in May, 1905, the loss totaled 93, tons. Twenty-one Russian craft were sunk in this fight.
The text of the first British admiralty statement was in part as follows:
"On the afternoon of Wednesday, May 31, a naval engagement took place off the coast of Jutland. The British ships on which the brunt of the fighting fell were the battle-cruiser fleet and some cruisers and light cruisers, supported by four fast battleships. Among these the losses were heavy.
"The German battle fleet aided by low visibility avoided a prolonged action with our main forces. As soon as they appeared on the scene the enemy returned to port, though not before receiving severe damage from our battleships."
The battle was one in which no quarter was asked or even possible. There were no surrenders, and the ships lost went down and carried with them virtually the whole crews. Only the Warrior, which was towed part way from the scene of battle to a British port, was an exception.
Of the thousand men on the Queen Mary, only a corporal's guard was accounted for. The same was true of the Invincible, while there were no survivors reported from the Indefatigable, the Defense or the Black Prince.
TELL OF BATTLE HORRORS.
After the battle there were many stories of ships sinking with a great explosion: of crews going down singing the national anthem; of merchant ships passing through a sea thick with floating bodies.
From survivors came thrilling stories of the horrors and humanities of the battle. The British destroyer Shark acted as a decoy to bring the German ships into the engagement. It was battered to pieces by gunfire, and a half dozen sailors, picked up clinging to a buoy by a Danish ship, told of its commander and two seamen serving its only remaining gun until the last minute, when the commander's leg was blown off.
A lifeboat with German survivors from the German cruiser Elbing rescued Surgeon Burton of the British destroyer Tipperary. He had sustained four wounds.
THE FIRST OFFICIAL STORY.
The first account in detail of the battle was given by a high official of the British Admiralty, who said on June 4:
"We were looking for a fight when our fleet went out. Stories that the fleet was decoyed by the Germans are sheerest nonsense. In a word, with an inferior fleet we engaged the entire German high sea fleet, interrupted their plans, and drove them back into their harbors.
"In carrying out the plan decided upon we sustained heavy losses, which we expected, but we also attained the expected result of forcing the enemy to abandon his plan and seek refuge after we had given battle in his own waters near his coast.
"With the exception of two divisions, part of which was only partly engaged, the brunt of battle was borne by the battle-cruiser fleet, and with one exception our battle fleet is ready for sea service. I must admit that we had exceptionally hard luck with our battle-cruisers, but the loss of three great ships does not in any measure cripple our control of the sea.
"The great battle had four phases. The first opened at 3:15 p. m., when our battle-cruisers, at a range of six miles, joined action with German battle-cruisers. Shortly afterward the second phase began with the arrival on both sides of battleships, the Germans arriving first. But before their arrival our three battle-cruisers had been blown up, supposedly the result of gunfire, although possibly they were victims of torpedoes. "Such close range fighting with battle-cruisers might be criticized as bad tactics, but our fleet, following the traditions of the navy, went out to engage the enemy, and on account of weather conditions could do so only at short range.
"The third phase was the engagement of battleships, which never was more than partial. This phase included a running fight, as the German dreadnaughts fled toward their bases. All the big ship fighting was over by 9:15 p. m.
ENEMY GONE BY DAWN.
"Then came one of the most weird features of the battle, as German destroyers made attack after attack, like infantry following artillery preparation, on our big ships. But these onslaughts were futile, not a single torpedo launched by them getting home.
"With the morning these attacks ended and the scene of battle was swept by Jellicoe's fleet. Not a single enemy vessel remained in sight.
"An incident of the great battle was the torpedoing of the super-dreadnaught Marlborough, which is now safely an harbor. It must have struck a veritable hornets' nest of submarines, as by skillful maneuvering it avoided three of these before it was finally hit.
"Early in the engagement, according to Admiral Beatty's report, a German battle-cruiser, after being hotly engaged, blew up and broke in two.
"Officers of the fleet also reported passing a closely engaged German battle-cruiser which was left behind while the British pursued the Germans. On their return this vessel was missing. Judging from its previous plight it must now be at the bottom of the sea. This accounts for two of the enemy's battle-cruisers, and we have their admission that they had lost two battleships.
"Zeppelins did not play the important part attributed to them. Only one appeared. It remained in action a brief time, retiring under heavy fire, evidently badly damaged. Weather conditions were such that it is doubtful whether any aircraft would have been of much service.
"The enemy sprang no surprises. We saw nothing of any 17-inch guns. No tricks were used which were not already known in naval warfare.
"From the standpoint of actual strength the navy's loss in personnel, while great, was not serious, as we have plenty of men to replace them. But the deaths of so many gallant officers and men have caused profound grief.
"Admiral Hood went down with his flagship Invincible, in the words of Admiral Beaty's report, 'leading his division into action with the most inspiring courage.' His flag captain, Cay, went down with him. Capt. Sowerby, former British naval attaché at Washington, perished with his ship, the Indefatigable, while Capt. Prowse died on the Queen Mary."
BODIES FLOATING IN THE SEA.
From Copenhagen it was reported on June 3 that hundreds of bodies, many of them horribly mutilated by explosions, and great quantities of debris were drifting about in the North Sea near the scene of the battle. All steamers arriving at Danish ports reported sighting floating bodies and bits of wreckage.
The steamer Para picked up a raft aboard which were three German survivors from the torpedo boat V-48. They had clung to the raft for forty-eight hours and were semi-conscious when rescued. They reported that ninety-nine of the V-48 crew perished and that in all about twenty German torpedo boats were destroyed.
Other German sailors, rescued by Scandinavian steamers, described the Teutonic losses in the Jutland battle as colossal. A number of the crew of the cruiser Wiesbaden and men from several German torpedo boats were rescued and brought to Copenhagen. They reported that many of their comrades, after floating for thirty-six hours on rafts without food or water, drank the sea water, became insane and jumped into the ocean.
The German survivors said that several of their torpedo boats and submarines were capsized by the British shells and sank instantly. Bodies of both British and German sailors were washed ashore on the coast of Jutland.
OFFICER'S STORY OF THE FIGHT.
Survivors who arrived at Edinburgh on June 5 from British destroyers which made a massed attack on a German battleship in the battle off Jutland, were convinced that they sent to the bottom the dreadnaught Hindenburg, the pride of the German navy. These sailors said that the Hindenburg was struck successively by four torpedoes while the destroyers dashed in alongside of its hull, tearing it to pieces until the mighty ship reeled and sank.
An officer from one of the British destroyers gave the following graphic account of the battle:
"The ships of the grand fleet went into action as if they were going into maneuvers. From every yardarm the white ensign flew, the flag which is to the sailor as the tattered colors were in days of old to a hard-pressed regiment. That it went hard with the battle-cruisers is apparent, but one ship cannot fight a dozen. They had fought a great fight, a fight to be proud of, a fight which will live longer than many a victory.
"We fought close into the foe, and if anything is certain in the uncertainties of naval battle it is that we gave at least as good as we got. We passed along the line of German ships some miles away and let off broadside after broadside. The air was heavy with masses of smoke, black, yellow, green and every other color, which drifted slowly between the opposing lines, hiding sometimes friend and sometimes foe. The enemy ships were firing very fast, but watching the ships in front one came to the conclusion that the shooting was decidedly erratic. Again and again salvos of shells fell far short of the mark, to be followed immediately by others which screamed past high in the air.
ROAR OP THE GUNS TERRIFIC.
"I watched the Iron Duke swinging through the seas, letting off broadside after broadside, wicked tongues of flames leaping through clouds of smoke. The din of battle was stunning, stupendous, deafening, as hundreds of the heaviest guns in the world roared out at once. Great masses of water rose in the air like waterspouts, reaching as high as the masts, as the salvos of German shells fell short or went over their target. Now and then a shell found its mark, but it left us absolutely cold as to its effect on each man at a time like this. A dozen men may be knocked out at one's side. It makes no difference.
"It was impossible to see what was happening among the ships of the foe. The smoke obscured everything so effectually that one could only get a glimpse at intervals when a kindly wind blew a lane through the pall. It was apparent that the best ships of the enemy were engaged, but how many neither eye nor glass could make out. The number was certainly large. It was equally impossible to see what damage we were causing. Only the high command knew fine progress of the battle. That the damage inflicted on the German ships was great does not admit of any doubt. At one time two vessels, red with fire, gleamed through the smoke.
FLAGSHIP LOSES ITS WIRELESS.
"It is a curious feeling to be in the midst of a battle and not to know to which side fortune leans. Where only a few ships are engaged it is different. Our own losses were known with some degree of exactness, but even that was uncertain. Thus at one time it was thought that the Lion had been lost as it did not answer any call. It transpired that its wireless had been destroyed.
"With the dusk came the great opportunity of the mosquito craft and both sides made use of it to the full. It was in this way that one of the saddest of many sad incidents occurred. A destroyer, true to its name, dashed for the big enemy ship. It soon got into effective range and loosed its torpedo and with deadly effect on a German battleship. The ship went down and the destroyer raced for safety, the commander and officer standing on the bridge indulging in mutual congratulations at their success. At that moment a shell hit the bridge and wiped out the entire group.
"We fought what was in its way a great fight, although it was not a sailor's battle. Both the grand and the terrible were present to an almost overpowering degree. As a spectacle it was magnificent, awful. How awful, it was impossible to realize until the fever of action had subsided, until the guns were silent and the great ships, some battered, others absolutely untouched, were plowing home on the placid sea."
MEN THRILLED BY BATTLE FEVER.
After describing the battle itself, the officer reverted to incidents preceding it, saying:
"I shall never forget the thrill which passed through the men on the ships of the grand fleet when that inspiring message was received from the battle-cruiser squadron many leagues away: 'I am engaged with heavy forces of the enemy.' One looked on the faces of his fellows and saw that the effect was electrical. The great ships swung around into battle order and the responsive sea rocked and churned as the massive vessels raced for what were virtually enemy waters. As the grand fleet drew near the scene of action the smoke of battle and mutter of guns came down on the winds. The eagerness of the men became almost unbearably intense and it was a blessed relief when our own guns gave tongue."
RUSSIAN TROOPS LAND IN FRANCE.
Between April 20 and June 1, a large flotilla of transports arriving at Marseilles, France, brought Russian soldiers in large numbers to the support of the French line. The transports were understood to have made the voyage of 10,250 miles from Vladivostok under convoy by the British navy.
EARL KITCHENER KILLED AT SEA.
The British armored cruiser Hampshire, 10,850 tons, with Earl Kitchener, the British secretary of state for war, and his staff on board, was sunk shortly after nightfall on June 5, to the west of the Orkney Islands, either by a mine or a torpedo. Heavy seas were running and Admiral Jellicoe reported that there were no survivors. The crew numbered officers and men. Earl Kitchener was on his way to Russia for a secret conference with the military authorities when the disaster occurred. His latest achievement was the creation, from England's untrained manhood, of an army approximating 5,000,000 men, of whom he was the military idol.
BATTLES EAST AND WEST
After gallantly holding their own for many months against repeated German attacks, the Canadian troops holding that section of the western front southeast of Ypres, between Hooge and the Ypres-Menin railway, were engaged during the week ending June 3, 1916, in a battle scarcely less determined in its nature than that of St. Julien and other great encounters in which they distinguished themselves and added to Canadian military laurels earlier in the war.
On Friday, June 2, the Germans, after a concentrated bombardment with heavy artillery, pressed forward to the assault and succeeded in penetrating the British lines. During the night they pushed their attack and succeeded in cutting their way through the defenses to the depth of nearly a mile in the direction of Zillebeke. The hard-fighting Canadians then rallied and began counter-assaults at 7 o'clock on the following morning. By Sunday morning, June 4, they had succeeded in gradually driving the Germans from much of the ground they had gained, but the losses to the Canadians were severe.
In the British official report of the engagement, it was stated that "the Canadians behaved with the utmost gallantry, counter-attacking successfully after a heavy and continued bombardment." The German losses were very heavy and a large number of dead were abandoned on the recaptured ground. Frederick Palmer, the noted war correspondent, said that for a thousand yards in the center of the line where the Germans secured lodgment the Canadians fired from positions in the rear and filled the ruined trenches with German dead.
It was announced by the War Office that Generals Mercer and Williams, who were inspecting the front trenches on June 2, during the German bombardment, were among the missing. Soon after it was found that General Mercer was severely wounded during the fight, and was taken to hospital at Boulogne, while General Williams, who was wounded less severely, was captured by the enemy. General Mercer was the commander of the Third Division of Canadian troops, which in this action had its first real test in hand-to-hand fighting, and came out of the trial like veterans with glory undimmed.
The two-days' fighting occurred around the famous Hill No. 60 and Sanctuary Wood, names destined to live in Canadian history. It was entirely a Canadian battle, and while the losses of the devoted troops from the Dominion probably reached the regrettable total of over 6,000, including a number of men captured by the Germans during the first day's attack, when they overran the front trenches, they doggedly bombed and bayoneted their way back to the wrecked trenches next day and regained nearly all their front. The commanding officers were especially pleased that the newer Canadian battalions had kept up the traditions of the first contingent, established in 1915 at St. Julien and elsewhere in France and Flanders, by immediately turning upon the Germans with a counter-attack which was carried out both coolly and skilfully.
The Ypres salient, thus successfully defended by the Canadians in one of the hottest of the minor battles of the war, was regarded by the British commander-in-chief as an important position which must be defended despite the heavy losses. General Gwatkin, Chief of Staff for Canada, stated that the German losses during the heavy fighting exceeded those of the Canadians.
Colonel Buller of the Princess Patricia Regiment was killed by shrapnel while leading his men at Sanctuary Wood.
The total enlistments in Canada up to June 10 exceeded 333,000 men.
GREAT DRIVE BY THE RUSSIANS.
The first week of June, 1916, saw the Russians successful in a great drive against the Austrian positions in Volhynia and Galicia, a movement that for awhile overshadowed the events on the western front. In the space of five days a new Russian commander, General Brusiloff, who had succeeded General Ivanhoff as Chief of the Russian Southwestern Armies, captured 1,143 Austrian officers and 64,714 men, recovered almost, four thousand square miles of fertile Volhyman soil, and recaptured the fortified town of Lutsk. He had the advantage of a most efficient artillery preparation, which blew the Austrian entanglements, trenches and earthworks into such a chaos that the bewildered occupants surrendered in thousands when the Russian infantry charged.
German reinforcements from the trenches north of the Pripet River tried to stay the Russian rush, but in vain, and many Germans were among the prisoners taken. At several points the Russian cavalry led the attack after the artillery had done its work. A division of young Russians, by an impetuous attack, captured a bridge-head on the Styr and took 2, German and Austrian troops and much rich booty. In Galicia the Russian armies crossed the Stripa and by June 10 were once more too near Lemberg for the comfort of the Austrian garrison. At that time the total number of prisoners taken in this drive was considerably over 100,000, while the booty in guns, rifles, ammunition and supplies of all conceivable kinds was enormous. The Allies were greatly heartened by these Russian successes on the eastern front, and on June 15 Germany was preparing to meet them by troop movements from the north, where Field Marshal von Hindenburgh was in command on Russian territory. The extent and rapidity of the Russian successes up to that time were without parallel in military history.
RUSSIA COMPELS AUSTRIAN RETREAT
During the following month the Russian advance toward the Carpathians, for the second time in the war, continued steadily. It was apparent that General Brusiloff, unlike his predecessors in command, was well supplied with effective artillery and ammunition in plenty, and that the vast resources of the Russian Empire had been at last successfully mobilized for attack. Guns and ammunition, in immense quantities, had been secured from Japan, among other sources, and this former enemy of Russia, now her strong and capable ally, aided materially in changing the aspect of affairs on the Eastern battle front.
On June 16, the Russian offensive had progressed to the Galician frontier, and terrific fighting marked the advance along the whole line south of Volhynia. Two German armies went to the aid of the Austrians in the region of the Stochod and Styr rivers, and German forces also made a stand before Kovel. The mortality on both sides was described as frightful, but the Russians continued to make headway and the capture of thousands of Teutonic prisoners was of almost daily occurrence, the total reaching 172,000 before June 18.
Czernowitz, the capital of Bukowina, fell into the hands of the Russians at midnight of June 17, after the bridgehead on the Pruth river had been stormed by the victorious troops of the Czar. One thousand Austrians were captured at the bridgehead, but the garrison succeeded in escaping. The invading troops swept on, crossed the Sereth river, and soon gained control of about one-half of Roumania's western frontier. By July the Austrians were retreating into the foothills of the Carpathian mountains, hotly pressed by the Russian advance. The German army around Kovel continued to make a stubborn resistance, but could not prevent the Austrian rout, and as the Russians approached the Carpathian passes the Austrian prisoners taken by them during the drive reached a total of 200,000 officers and men. Immense quantities of munitions of war also fell into their hands.
On July 4 Russian cavalry patrols advanced over the passes into southern Hungary, and General Brusiloff's army neared Lemberg, which was defended by a combined Teutonic army under General von Bothmer, along the River Strypa. The losses of the Austrians and Germans, in killed and wounded up to this time, were placed at 500,000 men, the Russian offensive having lasted one month, with no evidence of slackening. General von Bothmer then began a retirement westward, while General Brusiloff advanced between the Pruth and Dniester rivers, and a concerted push toward Lemberg was begun.
"BIG PUSH" ON THE WESTERN FRONT
After many months of preparation by the British, during which "Kitchener's army" was being sedulously trained for active service, a new phase of the great war began on July 1, 1916, when a great offensive was started on the western front by the British and French simultaneously, after a seven-day bombardment of the German trenches. In this preliminary bombardment more than one million shells were fired daily, and the prolonged battle which ensued was the greatest of all time.
This offensive proved that the Allies had not been shaken from their determination to bide their time until they were thoroughly prepared and ready for the attack, and were able to co-ordinate their efforts in genuine teamwork against the powerful and strongly-entrenched enemy in the west, while the Russian offensive on the eastern front was also in progress. This long-awaited movement was no isolated attack, costly but ineffectual, like those of the English at Neuve Chapelle and Loos, but "a carefully studied and deliberately prepared campaign of severe pressure upon Germany at each of her battle fronts." It proved that the war-councils of the Allies held in Paris and London, in Petrograd and Rome, were no mere conventional affairs, but were at last to bear fruit in concerted action that might decide the issue of the war.
The "big push," as it was popularly called in England, was started by the British and French on both sides of the River Somme, sixty miles north of Paris, at 7:30 o 'clock on the morning of July 1, and resulted on the same day in a great wedge being driven into the German lines along a front of twenty-five miles, with its sharp point penetrating nearly five miles. The French advance was made in the direction of Peronne, an important center of transportation and distribution long held by the Germans.
An eyewitness who watched the beginning of the battle from a hill said that overwhelming as was the power of the guns, yet as the gathering of human and mechanical material proceeded, "the grim and significant spectacle was the sight of detachments of infantry moving forward in field-fighting equipment, until finally the dugouts were hives of khaki ready to swarm out for battle."
As the days of the bombardment passed, the air of expectancy was noticeable everywhere through the British army, commanded by Sir Douglas Haig. Finally the word was passed that the infantry was to make the assault early the next morning. Then, "at 7:20 A.M. the rapid-fire trench mortars added their shells to the deluge pouring upon the first-line German trenches. After ten minutes of this, promptly at 7:30 o'clock, the guns lifted their fire to the second line of German trenches, as if they were answering to the pressure of a single electric button, and the men of the new British army leaped over their parapets and rushed toward the wreckage the guns and mortars had wrought. Even close at hand, they were visible for only a moment before being hidden by the smoke of the German shell-curtain over what remained of the trenches."
Of the deadly work beneath that pall of smoke, as steel met steel and the new soldiers of Britain fleshed their bayonets for the first time, and fell by the thousand under the murderous fire of machine-guns, history will tell the tale long after the survivors have ceased to recount the deeds of the day to their grandchildren wherever the English tongue is spoken. Each side gives credit to the other for the utmost bravery and devotion during the battle. The new English regiments fought like veterans, and fully maintained the traditions of the British army for dogged bravery, while the Germans fought with desperate tenacity, valor and resourcefulness, this last quality being displayed in the devices which had been invented and were used to prevent or delay the Allied advance. It was indeed wonderful how well the Germans had protected their machine-guns from the devastating effects of the preliminary bombardment, which tore trenches to pieces and utterly demolished barbed-wire entanglements, but failed in many cases to destroy the deep bomb-proofs in which the Teuton machine-guns were protected and concealed.
CONTINUATION OF THE GREAT BATTLE
On July 2 and 3, the battle of the Somme continued without cessation of infantry fighting, while the big guns thundered on both sides. The British offensive took Fricourt on the 2nd, after a tremendous bombardment, and occupied several villages, while the French advanced to within three miles of Peronne. Ten thousand more prisoners fell into the hands of the Allies on these two days. On the 4th, German resistance temporarily halted the British, but the French offensive took German second-line positions south of the Somme on a six-mile front. Violent counter-attacks by the Germans on July 6 failed to wrest from the French the ground won by them during the previous five days, and the Allied troops resumed their advance, taking the German second-line trenches all along the front in the face of a heavy fire. Next day Contalmaison was won by the British, but recaptured by the Prussian Guard, who held the town for three days, when they were again driven out.
A desperate struggle for the possession of the Mametz woods marked the fighting from the 10th to the 12th, the British and the Germans alternating in its possession. Victory at this point finally lay with the British, who on July 12 gained possession of the whole locality, together with the Trones wood, which had also been the scene of a bloody straggle. By this time some 30,000 German prisoners had been taken by the Allies during the offensive, while the losses in killed and wounded on both sides, in the absence of official reports, could only be estimated in appalling numbers.
TRAGIC TALE OF A GERMAN PRISONER
A typical description of some of the horrors of the battle, as it surged around Contalmaison, was given by a German prisoner on July 12 to the war correspondent of the London Chronicle. He spoke English, having been employed in London for some years prior to the war. With his regiment, the 122nd Bavarians, he went into Contalmaison five days before his capture. Soon the rations they took with them were exhausted, and owing to the ceaseless gunfire they were unable to get fresh supplies. They suffered agonies of thirst and the numbers of their dead and wounded increased day after day.
"There was a hole in the ground," said the German prisoner, whose head was bound with a bloody bandage and who was still dazed and troubled when the correspondent talked with him. "It was a dark hole which held twenty men, all lying in a heap together, and that was the only dugout for my company, so there was not room for more than a few. It was necessary to take turns in this shelter while outside the English shells were coming and bursting everywhere. Two or three men were dragged out to make room for two or three others, then those who went outside were killed or wounded.
"There was only one doctor, an unter officer,"—he pointed to a man who lay asleep on the ground face downward—"and he bandaged some of us till he had no more bandages; then last night we knew the end was coming. Your guns began to fire altogether, the dreadfultrommelfeuer, as we call it, and the shells burst and smashed up the earth about us. "We stayed down in the hole, waiting for the end. Then we heard your soldiers shouting. Presently two of them came down into our hole. They were two boys and had their pockets full of bombs; they had bombs in their hands also, and they seemed to wonder whether they should kill us, but we were all wounded—nearly all—and we cried 'Kamerade!' and now we are prisoners."
Other prisoners said in effect that the fire was terrible in Contalmaison and at least half their men holding it were killed or wounded, so that when the British entered they walked over the bodies of the dead. The men who escaped were in a pitiful condition. "They lay on the ground utterly exhausted, most of them, and, what was strange, with their faces to the earth. Perhaps it was to blot out the vision of the things they had seen."
Meanwhile, despite the threatening character of the Allied offensive on the Somme, German assaults on the Verdun front continued unabated during July, and there was little evidence of the withdrawal of German troops from that point to reinforce the army opposed to the British. But except at Verdun, Germany was at bay everywhere, and the situation was recognized in the Fatherland as serious. Never before had the Allies been able to drive at Germany from all sides at once. Only at Verdun the German Crown Prince, long halted at that point, was keeping up a slow but strong offensive pressure.
GERMAN SUBMARINE REACHES BALTIMORE
On July 9, the German merchant submarine Deutschland, in command of Capt. Koenig, slipped into port at Baltimore, after eluding British warships in the North Sea, English Channel, and Atlantic. The Deutschland carried as cargo nearly a million dollars' worth of dyestuffs, as well as important mail. The owners announced that she was the first of a regular fleet to be placed in service between German and American ports, to thwart the British blockade. She made the 4,000-mile voyage in sixteen days, including nine hours during which, according to her captain, she lay at the bottom of the Channel to escape capture. On July 25 she was preparing for her return voyage with a cargo said to consist largely of crude rubber and nickel, having been accepted by the United States Government as an innocent merchantman and granted clearance papers on that basis. Outside the Virginia capes, beyond the three-mile limit, British and French cruisers awaited her possible appearance, with the hope of effecting her capture. But it was announced in Germany that the Deutschland reached her home port safely Aug. 23.
CANADIANS STRENGTHEN THEIR FRONTS
Along the portion of the western battle front held by Canadian troops, there were frequent heavy bombardments by the enemy during the month of July, but the gallant soldiers of the Dominion consolidated their positions won in battle at Loos and elsewhere, and fully held their own. In trench mortar fighting their batteries maintained the upper hand, often returning six shells for one thrown by the Germans. The Canadian patrols were very active; every night reconnaissances were made all along the Canadian front, and numerous hostile working parties engaged in strengthening German trenches and entanglements were dispersed by Canadian rifle fire.
On July 8, in the gardens of Kensington Palace, London, Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll, presented to General Steele, for the Canadian forces, a silken Union Jack and a silver shield, given by the women and children of the British Isles in acknowledgment of Canada's good will and valuable co-operation. The Princess made a short address expressing high admiration and enthusiastic appreciation of the eager readiness with which the officers and men of Canada had come forward to take their share in the cause of the Empire. General Steele, in receiving the gifts, returned thanks on behalf of the Canadian troops.
NEW RUSSIAN DRIVE NEAR RIGA
On July 24, General Kuropatkin began a new Russian drive in the battle sector south of Riga. After making a preliminary breach in the German lines, Kuropatkin drove in a wedge of fresh troops which swept Marshal von Hindenburg's German forces back along a front of 30 miles, and to a depth at one point of 12 miles. The attack was preceded by a bombardment lasting four days, which battered into ruins the German defense along the coast line from the Gulf of Riga to Uxhull. The Kaiser and his chief of staff recognized the importance of General Kuropatkin's advance by hastening to the Eastern battle front on July 25.
TWO TEARS' WAR CASUALTIES
Killed. Wounded. Missing.Russia 1,200,000 2,500,000 2,000,000Germany 900,000 1,900,000 150,000France 850,000 1,500,000 325,000Austro-Hungary 475,000 1,000,000 900,000Great Britain 160,000 450,000 70,000Turkey 75,000 200,000 75,000Serbia 60,000 125,000 75,000Italy 50,000 100,000 30,000Belgium 30,000 70,000 50,000Bulgaria 5,000 25,000 5,000_________ _________ _________ __________Total 3,805,000 7,870,000 3,680,000
THE STRUGGLE ON THE SOMME
The second phase of the great Anglo-French offensive on the western front began to develop late in July, and attacks were continuous throughout the month of August and up to September 15. At every point in the Somme region the giant British and French guns poured shell into the German works, destroying barbed wire entanglements and wrecking trenches, while Allied gains were reported almost daily, as the Germans were slowly but surely ousted from their original positions along a wide front.
An engagement typical of the prolonged fighting on the Somme occurred near Armentieres, where the Australians on a two-mile front made the greatest trench raid ever undertaken in any war, inflicting heavy damage upon the enemy by bombing and hand-to-hand fighting. The German position at Longueval passed into British control on July 28, after what was called the most terrific fighting of the war, in Delville Wood.
Between August 6 and September 10 the British under Gen. Sir Douglas Haig and the French under Gen. Foch fought off many determined German counter-attacks in the Somme sector, and continued their advance, the French gaining Maurepas and the British moving closer to Guillemont and Ginchy, driving the Germans back along eleven miles of front and capturing Thiepval Ridge and other important positions near Pozieres.
On September 9 German official reports admitted considerable losses on the western line, both in the section south of the Somme and to the northeast of Verdun. Fierce attacks by the Germans at Verdun had been renewed during August, but the French, under the able command of Gen. Nivelle, more than held their own, recapturing a considerable portion of the terrain occupied by the enemy, including Fleury and the important Thiaumont Work.
ITALIANS CAPTURE GORITZ.
The greatest blow which the Italian army had struck against Austria since the beginning of the war was completed on August 9, when Italian troops captured the fortified city of Goritz, for which they had been struggling for months. The number of prisoners taken by the Italians was 21,750, and in the next few days nearly 20,000 more fell into their hands, with great stores of war munitions and many guns.
The taking of Goritz, one of the strongest fortresses in Europe, compelled the retirement of the Austrians at other points along the Isonzo River, and opened the road for the Italians, under Gen. Cadorna, to strike at the coveted city of Trieste, twenty-two miles to the southeast. With the capture of the "keystone" at Goritz, the Italian commander confidently expected the resistance of the Austrians to weaken and looked forward to the early occupation of the coveted provinces of the Trentino.
ITALY AT WAR WITH GERMANY
On August 27, Italy declared war on Germany, giving as a reason the fact that Germany had sent both land and sea forces to the aid of Austria. The declaration became inevitable when Italy sent troops to Saloniki to cooperate in the campaign of the Entente Allies on the Macedonian front. For more than a year Italy's position with regard to Germany had been an anomalous one, for although she withdrew from the Triple Alliance on May 25, 1915, and declared war against Austria, she remained officially at peace with Germany until August 27, 1916.
RUMANIA ENTERS THE WAR
After many months of hesitation, Rumania finally decided to enter the war on the side of the Allies and declared war on Austria, August 27. The next day Germany declared war on Rumania, and the issue was squarely joined in the Balkans, which then became the scene of a mighty struggle for the possession of Germany's road to Constantinople and the East. Tremendous activity at once began on the Balkan front, with Rumania's endeavor to aid Russia in cutting off Bulgaria and Turkey from the Central Powers. In the event of the success of this move, it was expected that the Allies would start a gigantic drive toward Constantinople.