Asia Minor, so that the Central Powers could draw no further supplies from that source.

But

An attempt was at first made to force the passage of the Dardanelles with the allied fleet. Some of the forts at the entrance were bombarded and silenced, and allied vessels proceeded for some distance up the strait. Germany had sent submarines overland to Constantinople, where they were placed in the Bosporus and thence went down to the Dardanelles, and the waters were thickly sown with mines. After the loss of several vessels from these causes the allies abandoned the attempt to force the passage with ships alone, and an army was sent to cooperate with the fleet.

THE GALLIPOLI CAMPAIGN

The ensuing campaign was one of the most gallant but most fruitless of the war. The almost unprecedented feat was performed of safely landing a considerable army on the Gallipoli Peninsula, in the face of a hostile force much superior in numbers and powerfully entrenched. This was done on April 25th, and was repeated in the landing of a second army in June, further up the peninsula at Suvla Bay. Numerous minor engagements were fought, and the allies made some progress during the early part of the summer. Early in August a great battle was fought, lasting five days, in which the allies aimed to drive the Turks from the lower part of the peninsula. In this they failed, and the battle terminated indecisively.

In one respect, however, it was decisive. It convinced the British military authorities of the folly of attempting to pursue the campaign further. They held their ground for some time longer, however, until the entrance of Bulgaria into the war enabled the sending of German troops

and supplies to Constantinople, and a succession of phenomenal storms and floods almost swept the camps out of existence. At the middle of December Suvla Bay was abandoned, and on January 9, 1916, the last position of the allies on the peninsula was evacuated.

THE RAPE OF SERBIA

Bulgaria's entrance into the war, on October 6th, was the signal for a concerted attack upon Serbia, for the

purpose of eliminating that nation from the map of Europe. Bulgaria armies, reinforced by Turks, poured into Serbia from the east, while a German and Austrian army, under German command, crossed the frontier at the north. The purpose was not alone to destroy Serbia but to compel Greece to join the Central Powers or else share the fate of Belgium, and thus to give the Central Powers possession of the entire Balkan Peninsula, with a great frontage on the Mediterranean.

Disregarding Greek neutrality, or with the permission of the ministry, the allies began rushing troops to Salonika, to be sent to the defense of Serbia. But it was too late. The Serbians earlier in the war had been able to hold the Austrians in check, but they were unable to stand against a German army, while a Bulgar-Turkish force was attacking their flank. The German and Bulgarian armies met and joined forces at the end of October, and a few days later captured the important Serbian city of Nish. Before the end of the year every foot of Serbian soil had been conquered, and a large part of the Serbian people had been massacred.

For nearly a year the Teuton-Bulgar forces had undisturbed possession of Serbia, looting it and desolating it at will, while a polyglot army of allies, British, French, Serbian, Italian and Russian, stood at bay at Salonika. At last, however, the allies moved northward through Macedonia, and succeeded in redeeming a small part of Serbia, the Serbs reoccupying their city of Monastir, or what was left of it, on November 19, 1916.

THE ROUMANIAN BLUNDER

Early in the war agitation arose in Roumania for entry into the conflict. But lack of preparedness, and realization of the futility of the fortifications of Bucharest against modern artillery, restrained the government from taking that step until the latter part of August, 1916—more than two years after the outbreak of the war. Immediately after the declaration the Roumanian army invaded Transylvania through several narrow mountain passes, which they strangely neglected to guard after their passage. The result was that the passes were seized by the Germans behind them, and they were all but annihilated.

By the middle of October the blundering Roumanians were all killed, captured, or scattered, and the German and Austrian army under Von Falkenhayn invaded Roumania. At the same time another German and Bulgarian

army, under Von Mackensen, poured into Roumania from the south. The Roumanians rallied and offered desperate resistance to the invaders, but they were overwhelmed and in a few weeks more than half of the kingdom was occupied by the enemy, the capital, Bucharest, falling on December 6th. The advance of a considerable Russian army finally checked the invaders at the River Sereth. Immense supplies of foodstuffs and oil fell into the hands of the Germans, and

the net result of the entry of Roumania into the war was a decided advantage for the Central Powers.

THE WAR IN ASIA

Three separate campaigns have been waged in Asia. One has been in Arabia and on the Egyptian frontier, where Turks and Germans made vigorous attempts to seize the Suez Canal and to incite an insurrection against British rule in Egypt. There the British were successful in defeating their foes. In addition, practically the whole of Arabia, including the Holy Cities of El Medina and Mecca, revolted against Turkey and established its inde

pendence. The British forces then moved on, and early in the present year began the occupation of Palestine, with every prospect of soon expelling the Turks from all that country.

THE DESOLATION OF ARMENIA

Russia undertook at the beginning of the war a campaign through the Caucasus into Armenia and Asia Minor. It was marked with blundering and came to naught. In return, the Turks invaded the Transcaucasian provinces of Russia, and then began, under German direction, the extermination of the Armenian nation. The German atrocities in Belgium were emulated by the Turks and their Kurd levies, on a gigantic scale. Certainly several hundred thousand and probably nearly or quite a million non-combatant Armenians, men, women and children, were put to death with every refinement of cruelty-rape, mutilation, flaying, burning, drowning and starvation.

At last the Russian Grand Duke Nicholas, the conqueror of Galicia, was put in command in the Caucasus, and in February, 1916, he swept into the Turkish Empire in Asia, capturing Erzeroum, Bitlis, Trebizond and Erzingan. He was too late to save Armenia, but he was able to co-operate efficiently with a British army which was moving up Mesopotamia.

THE BAGDAD CAMPAIGNS

Twice the British essayed to reach Bagdad from the Persian Gulf. The first attempt was made in the fall of 1915, and the expedition was successful in penetrating to within less than twenty miles of the ancient city. It was animated with more valor than discretion, however, being too small and not sufficiently supported along its