one army corps of 40,000 men, which the Russians captured.

After receiving more troops from the west front the Germans attacked Lodz in earnest. They approached within 13 miles, where they planted one of their huge mortars on concrete. They knew exactly how much ammunition was stored in each Russian fort, for their spies had been everywhere. They picked out the one containing the most explosives and trained the gun on it. They fired four shots, each of which went astray, digging great holes in the earth where it landed. The fifth struck the center of the fortifications, causing a tremendous explosion of all the ammunition in the firing pits. This threw huge chunks of concrete out into the field as if they were paper, and overturned the great guns of the fort. One hit was enough. The Russians gave up Lodz to their enemy and fell back farther into Russian Poland.

Perhaps the most brilliant story of the year of 1914 tells how Serbia fought the Austrian forces SERBIAN and drove them from her territory. The FRONT warfare between Austria and Serbia had been bitterly waged for two months, but at the beginning of October the Austrians got the advantage. With a re-enforced army and some German aid they crossed the Drina River and moved forward toward Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, from two directions. Belgrade was caught on the flank and rear, and the garrison was forced to evacuate and retreat. The Austrians were about ready to take the railroad leading from Belgrade to Constantinople, and the Serbians were in despair.

Then occurred one of the most stirring and dramatic events of the entire war, and one that will be

told for all time to come.

On December 9, 1914, when the broken forces of the Serbians were giving way before the enemy, there rode upon the field of battle the erect and aged figure of King Peter of Serbia. This white-haired monarch rallied his discouraged troops, and himself led them against the enemy. They pushed forward against the Austrians so suddenly that they astonished them, routed, and drove them back from Belgrade. Then they chased them farther back across the Drina, and even across the Danube, and freed the soil of Serbia, for the time being, from her foes. Serbia remained free of the enemy until October, 1915, when Von Mackensen made his drive,

CHAPTER VII

ENGLAND AND HER FLEET

Not long after the war broke out the colonies of the British Empire began to show most surprising loyalty to their mother country and prepared to enlist their sons in the fight for humanity. To the field of battle Canada sent her most splendid young men. They crossed the sea by hundreds of thousands to enter the trenches in Belgium. The young men of Canada wanted to go because they believed the issue was a question of right against wrong, and they were eager to get to the front and offer their services and even their lives. Up to August, 1917, we are told, Canada sent 450,000 soldiers to the trenches of France.

Australia, New Zealand and South Africa are all self-governing parts of the great British Empire. They were in no way forced to come to the aid of England, but with high purpose they all sent money and supplies and thousands of their sons to aid the mother country. Germany could not understand this loyalty. She thought England's empire, especially South Africa, which was largely Dutch, would refuse to aid England. But again the German war lords were surprised. They could not see that such conduct as tearing up a treaty and calling a sacred promise "a mere scrap of paper" and the trampling upon the rights of Belgium and Serbia was regarded by fair-minded men, the world over, as an outrage.

With her great fleet England soon cleared the seas of German shipping. She put an end to German ENGLAND'S trade with other countries and forced NAVY SERVICE the Kaiser's battle fleet to remain in home waters under the protection of mines and German forts. England soon had all German ports of the North Sea blockaded. A few daring German commerce raiders went forth to sea through the British blockade, and German submarines inflicted. considerable damage upon the ships of the Allies and neutral merchant ships, but Germany could not break the English blockade which threatened in time to starve her out.

In August, 1914, a British squadron sent three light German cruisers and two or three destroyers to the bottom of the North Sea. A month later a German submarine sank three British cruisers in the same waters, with the loss of 1,000 English seamen. The next naval battle was off the coast of Chile in November, 1914, when three German cruisers sank two British cruisers and damaged two others. In December, 1914, a British squadron, commanded by Admiral Sturdee, evened up the score. With a stronger fleet he came upon five German warships near the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic. After a five hours' battle he sent to the bottom three German warships and the other two fled. Sturdee followed them and sank one more ship on the same day. The other fast cruiser escaped, but was later overtaken and destroyed.

The greatest naval battle of history was fought in the North Sea, May 31, 1916, between the main fleets BATTLE OF of the British and German navies. We JUTLAND do not know the full details as to the ships engaged or the losses, but there were about

eighty heavy ships besides many smaller craft in the fight. Twenty-five ships were said to have been sunk and nearly 10,000 sailors were killed. Night put an end to the fighting and the German fleet sailed for home. Both sides claimed the victory, but the battle was not decisive. The British loss in men and ships was probably the greater, but they could afford heavy losses and still hold control of the sea. The German losses were so heavy that up to July, 1917, they had not sought another encounter with the British navy.

AND EMDEN

Australia had sent out a navy of several cruisers, one of which was named the "Sydney." This gave THE SYDNEY valuable assistance to the Allies by running down and destroying the noted German raider, the "Emden." The "Emden" was a small cruiser of the Kaiser's navy that had been the terror of the Pacific and Indian oceans since the beginning of the war. She had sunk incre than twenty vessels which, with their cargoes, were valued at more than twenty millions of dollars. Late in October, 1914, she appeared at Penang in the Straits of Malacca and performed a most daring feat. As a disguise she had rigged up a fourth smokestack and, flying the Japanese flag, she steamed into the harbor past the British forts and torpedoed and sank a Russian cruiser and a French destroyer and escaped untouched.

Scores of British and Japanese ships were scouring the seas for the "Emden." On November 9, 1914, the "Sydney" sighted her off Cocos Island in the Indian Ocean. The "Sydney" was the faster ship and soon overtook her enemy. The Germans fought bravely, but the "Emden" was beached and burned. Of the 308 men aboard only thirty escaped