north, not with the intention of escaping, as they remained within range, but hoping in their turn to lure the Germans northward toward the point where the British main battle-ship fleet under Admiral Jellicoe was located. Admiral Beatty had meanwhile sent messages by wireless to Jellicoe, telling him of the presence of the Germans, and the great British battle fleet, far stronger than the combined fleets of von Hipper and von Scheer, was hurrying southward at full speed.

The Germans followed Beatty with his four cruisers and Thomas with his four battle-ships, and the two fleets kept up a running fight, with the odds greatly favoring the Germans. Beatty's vessels being the faster, drew ahead, and presently he and Thomas were able to throw their ships across the front of the advancing German column. As a result, Admiral von Hipper's flagship, the Lützow, which was in the lead, was put out of action, and the German Admiral transferred his flag to the next ship, the Moltke. The Lützow later sank.

The first vessels of the oncoming British fleet to arrive were three older-type battle-cruisers under Admiral Hood. They at once entered the battle, but scarcely had they done so when Hood's flagship, the Invincible, burst into flames and sank. The concentrated fire of the whole German battleship fleet was now poured upon the four remain

ing super-dreadnoughts and the six remaining battle-cruisers under Thomas and Beatty. Admiral Hood had gone down with his ship.

At this juncture the main British battle fleet under Admiral Jellicoe arrived on the scene of action, and once more the superiority lay with the British. By this time, however, it was growing dark, and the weather had become thick and hazy, making it difficult to tell friend from foe. The Germans, seeing that they were outnumbered, turned sharply to the west, while Jellicoe continued south, hoping to get between the German fleet and its base, and thus cut it off and either capture or destroy it.

Throughout the early part of the night there was furious fighting; many torpedoes were fired, and swarms of destroyers came into action. Three more cruisers-the Defense, the Black Prince, and the Warrior-were sunk on the British side, but they were light vessels, thinly armored, and of little value. On the German side a battle-ship, the Pommern, went down, together with the light cruisers Rostock, Elbing, Frauenlob, and Wiesbaden. The British and Germans each lost a number of torpedo-boat destroyers. These are the losses admitted on the two sides. The British statement was correct, that of the Germans was not. The men of the British fleet claimed to have seen three more battle-ships of the largest size and another battle-cruiser sunk, and Captain

Persius, mentioned before, admitted that the losses of the Germans had for political reasons been hidden. The announcement given to the public the next day, however, made it appear that the British had lost twice the tonnage and three times the men that the Germans had lost, and the reputation of the English navy suffered greatly in the public mind.

The most astounding feature of the battle, however, was that during the night, short in these latitudes at this time of year, the German fleet was able to elude Admiral Jellicoe's vigilance, and return to its base, in spite of the fact that the British vessels were between it and port. It is on this account that the English admiral has been criticized, but his reasons for not exposing his fleet to unknown dangers were doubtless those given earlier in this chapter.

This great battle, which is called the Battle of Jutland because it was fought off the coast of the Danish peninsula of Jutland, at the extreme eastern end of the North Sea, was the last naval engagement of any magnitude during the war. When the German fleet next came out of port, it was to surrender ignominiously to the war fleets of the Allies and America.

CHAPTER XVI

RUSSIA, AUSTRIA, AND ITALY IN 1916

WE

E left the Russians, at the close of the year 1915, standing at bay along their thousandmile line from Riga to the Rumanian border. The Germans made many attempts during the winter and spring of 1916 to break through, especially at the city of Dvinsk, south of Riga, on the river Dvina, but all of these efforts failed. The Russian armies had been supplied with arms and ammunition, their transport system had been improved, and they showed great activity all along the line. Early in June they began a formidable offensive on a front which gradually increased until it extended from the neighborhood of Pinsk, in the Pripet Marshes, southward to the Rumanian border. This was the portion of the eastern front held by the Austrians, and under the determined onslaughts of the newly organized Russian armies it slowly began to give way.

The entire operation was under the command of General Brusiloff, one of the most brilliant of the Russian commanders, and his successes soon attracted world-wide attention. So rapid was the advance of the Russians along this great front of

two hundred and fifty miles that by June 13 they had captured one hundred and twenty thousand prisoners and vast quantities of artillery, ammunition, and supplies. A day later the number of prisoners had been increased to one hundred and fifty thousand. By June 17 they had again captured Czernowitz, the capital of Bukowina, the Austrian province lying just to the north of the frontiers of Rumania. Before July 1 the prisoners alone lost by the Austrians amounted to nearly two hundred and twenty thousand, while their killed and wounded had reached huge figures. During July the Russians continued to sweep ahead with even greater vigor, and soon had conquered the Province of Bukowina, once more reached the Carpathian Mountains, threatening the passes into Hungary, while an advance of over forty miles, further to the north, made the position of Lemberg perilous. This great drive by the Russians under General Brusiloff was one of the finest Allied successes during the war, and by it the Austrians lost in killed, wounded, and missing at least seven hundred and fifty thousand men. Their losses in prisoners alone totaled four hundred thousand, while the artillery, ammunition, and supplies which passed into the hands of the Russians reached vast figures. It is said that the great drive came to a halt because of lack of ammunition, the immense demands of modern battles having used up the reserve supplies accumulated