other mine struck the British Irresistible, although she remained afloat long enough for most of her crew to be saved. Toward sundown, shells had crippled both the British Inflexible and the French Gaulois, and in the dusk of evening the British Ocean sank almost immediately after contact with a mine. When night fell, the Allied fleet gave up the attempt and put out to sea. It had proved impossible to force the Dardanelles by a naval attack alone. GALLIPOLI The second attempt on the Dardanelles, accordingly, was made by land, an attempt to occupy the Gallipoli peninsula. The Gallipoli peninsula, as we have seen, forms the north shore of the Dardanelles. Although some fifty miles long, it is of an average width of not more than six or seven miles. It is covered by high and rugged hills, very precipitous. The Gallipoli campaign was under the general direction of General Sir Ian Hamilton, with the cooperation of the commanders of the French troops who assisted the British. The Turkish troops were under the command of the German General von Sanders. On April 25, under cover of the guns of the Allied warships, a landing was made at the very end of the peninsula. The British forces consisted of about 125,000 men, chiefly troops from New Zealand and Australia mobilized in Egypt. One of the many weaknesses of the Allied position in the attack on Gallipoli was the necessity of transporting all supplies long distances across the Mediterranean. Another weakness was the impossibility of concealing moves from the enemy's observation. The landing on the southern end of the peninsula was made only after several days' struggle, in which the British lost heavily. On May 1, the Turks attacked in force, but were stopped, and the Allies in turn then attacked the Turkish position. But the Allies could not advance and had to entrench. The French and British line extended across the entire tip of the peninsula and the French and British objective was the strong Turkish position of Krithia-Achi Baba. Several days later Allied warships shelled the Turkish lines, but von Sanders had several hundred thousand well-trained fighters under him, and the Turks held firm and inflicted severe losses upon the French and British. At the same time, Australian troops had landed farther up on the north shore of Gallipoli, making for the Turkish position of Sari Behr, with the hope of getting behind the Turks at the tip of the peninsula. But the Australians could not make headway, and after several fruitless attempts to advance on May 6-10, they, too, were compelled to entrench, after having lost many men. Toward the middle of May, some further attempts at advances were made by both the Turks and the Allies, but without success. Early in June, the forces at the end of the peninsula made another strong bid for Krithia and Achi Baba, but could gain only a few hundred yards in return for thousands of casualties. In the meantime, German and Austrian submarines had arrived at the east end of Mediterranean and began to give an account of themselves. In May, the British Goliath, Triumph and Majestic were torpedoed and sunk; and, realizing the danger of remaining longer off the Dardanelles, the great British and French battle-fleet withdrew and steamed for other locations. Throughout June and July the land fighting resulted in a deadlock. General Hamilton then determined to make no other attempt at Gallipoli until he had been reinforced. All this time, however, British submarines had made daring passages through the Dardanelles into the Sea of Marmora, had inflicted damage upon Turkish vessels there, and had consequently hindered the transportation of supplies to the Turkish forces on Gallipoli. By August, a considerable body of reinforcements had arrived at Gallipoli, and a final attempt was made to capture the peninsula. This attempt was made half-way along the northern shore, after a landing at Suvla Bay. The Turkish positions fronting Suvla Bay were strong, but if the Allied troops could carry them, the Turkish forces in the entire southern half of the peninsula would be in danger of capture and the way might be opened to attack the forts of the Dardanelles by land. At the same time that British troops advanced from Suvla Bay, the French and British on the other two fronts on Gallipoli endeavored to break through the Turkish positions opposite them. But the Turks were too strong. For three days the Allies fought bravely against overwhelming odds, but by August 10 the impetus of the attack had died down and the French and British were everywhere compelled to entrench and to consolidate their positions to beat off Turkish counter-attacks. On August 21 and 22, another violent attempt was made to capture the hills fronting Suvla Bay, but all in vain. Future efforts were useless, there was no longer reason for keeping back men from the western front, where men were so badly needed, and the attempt on the Dardanelles was abandoned as a costly failure. Although troops remained on Gallipoli for several more months, the fighting was sporadic. In December and January, 1916, evacuation was completed. As a result of their campaign, the French and British could show only a casualty list of more than 100,000, including 25,000 deaths, and a loss of prestige. ON THE EASTERN FRONT At the beginning of 1915, the eastern battle-line extended for almost a thousand miles, from the Baltic Sea to and along the Carpathians. To the north, it extended through the Baltic Provinces slightly into East Prussia and the Mazurian Lakes region. In the centre, it cut deeply into Russian Poland about fifty miles west of Warsaw. To the south, it spread into Galicia along the Carpathians. (See Map, page 539.) There were two outstanding features of the military situation in the east on January 1, 1915. These were the possible entrance of Roumania into the war and the siege of Przemysl. IN BUKOWINA AND TRANSYLVANIA If Roumania should enter the war, she would enter largely in the hope of redeeming a large part of the Roumanian branch of the South Slavs from Austrian rule and of incorporating "Roumania Irredenta" within a Greater Roumania. The Roumanians in Austria-Hungary inhabited chiefly Bukowina and Transylvania, the sections of southeastern Austria-Hungary bordering on the northwestern Roumanian frontier. Into Bukowina and Transylvania Russian forces had accordingly penetrated after the defeat of Austria in Galicia, and the occupation of these two provinces by Russian troops was strongly tempting Roumania to join Russia in the war. Germany and Austria therefore realized that Russian occupancy of Bukowina and Transylvania must not continue unhindered. And a successful blow at any part of the Russian line might compel Russia to support that part by withdrawing troops from before Przemysl. In January, therefore, Germany and Austria concentrated great forces in southeastern Austria-Hungary. At the end of the month, the Austro-Germans advanced. The Russian forces in Bukowina and Transylvania were not in great strength, and were able to oppose little resistance to the advance of the Central Powers. Bit by bit the Russians were driven north to the Carpathians until by the end of February Bukowina and Transylvania had been practically cleared of the invaders. The temptation for Roumania to remain neutral had become stronger. THE FOURTH DRIVE ON WARSAW Around the end of January, the Russians attempted advances north of Warsaw, in East Prussia (see below) and south of the Polish capital, in Galicia. These movements evidently were made to prevent the transportation of German troops from the eastern to the western front. The Germans in the east, however, realized that these movements on the north and south of the Russian line must have weakened the Russian centre, and prepared for a direct drive on Warsaw from the centre of the Russian line. On January 31, the German centre, under von Mackensen, loosed a tremendous artillery attack upon the Russian lines and advanced on the next day. It was another attempt to compel the diversion of Russian forces from Galicia. The battleline was some fifty miles from Warsaw, and the German drive was from the southwest, along the Rawka and Bzura Rivers. The German attack was irresistible and within several days the first, second and third lines of Russian trenches had been taken and a narrow gap had been opened into the Russian line by February 3. On the next day, von Mackensen endeavored to widen the gap, but by this time Russian reinforcements were at hand and the gap was closed. In other words, the Germans once more had been blocked by the greatest element of Russia's strength-an enormous supply of soldiers, just as Germany had made her initial advance because of the greatest element of Russia's weakness-lack of big guns and deficiencies in ammunition. The German losses were unusually severe and Przemysl was still unrelieved. THE SECOND BATTLE OF THE MAZURIAN LAKES Foiled thus in the centre, von Hindenburg determined to strike in East Prussia. By this time, the younger von Molkte had been replaced |