The Eastern Front and Elsewhere.— The Russian army in Galicia began a second invasion of Hungary in the first week of January, 1915. This was fol lowed by a new drive into East Prussia. The Russians defeated the Turks in the Caucasus and occupied Tabriz, Persia. Between March 19, and April 5 the Russians won the principal chain of the Carpathians on a 75-mile front and took 70,000 Austrian prisoners. Their ad vance in East Prussia was quickly checked and led to a heavy defeat. May 2, Austrian and German troops forced back the entire Russian army in Galicia, and in June the Austrian stronghold Przemysl was recaptured; a territory as large as Belgium was reclaimed, Lem berg fell. and in the first week of August, German troops occupied War saw. Brest-Litovsk, the most important fortress in Russia's second line of de fense was captured by the Germans in the last week in August. Grodno and Vilna fell to German arms in September.
A Turkish attempt on the Suez Canal January 27 was defeated by British and Egyptian forces guarding the waterway and another attempt in February to the north of Suez was also a failure. On February 19-20 a fleet of French and British warships bombarded the Turkish forts at the entrance to the Dardanelles. The forts were reduced during the month, but the Allies lost during the operation three great battleships. A landing of Allied troops on the Gallipoli Peninsula was carried out under cover of the guns of the fleet, with a loss of 15,000 men. For the remainder of the year the Gallipoli campaign was vigor ously pressed, but the result was failure, and on December 15 the Allies began a general retirement on land and sea.
On May 24, Italy declared war against Austria-Hungary and the following day Italian troops crossed the border and in June occupied Monfalcone and important positions. On July 9, in South Africa, General Botha, commanding British co lonial troops, received the surrender of all German forces in German Southwest Africa. Bulgarian mobilization was fol lowed in Greece on September 23, by orders for a general mobilization of all Greek forces. Bulgaria's reply to the Allies' note concerning her warlike prep arations having proved unsatisfactory, on October 6 the Ministers representing France, England and Italy at Sofia asked for their passports. Serbia was invaded by a great Austro-German army October 7, in an attempt to open up a route to Constantinople to aid the Turks. The Serbians drove the invaders' right wing across the Danube, crushed their left wing, but were unable to save Bel grade, which was occupied by the enemy.
Bulgaria entered the war as an ally of the Central Powers and Turkey on Octo ber 11, and invaded Serbia at several points. The Greek Government declin The attempt made by the French and British to help Serbia had come too late, owing to the time wasted in parleys with Bulgaria.
The Franco-British force, while inflict-. ing heavy losses on the Bulgars, could not save Serbia, her army retired before the enemy, and practically all her people went into exile. The remainder of the army was shipped by the Allies to Corfu where it was reorganized.
The Anglo-Indian expeditionary force which invaded Mesopotamia and which achieved a victory over the Turks near the Persian Gulf, and later in an ad vance toward Bagdad, met with a suc cession of disasters which forced the ing to fulfill their treaty with Serbia (a defensive alliance) ; the French troops landed at Salonica to act against Bul garia, encouraged to do so by Ex-Pre mier Venizelos of Greece who was eager to have his country join the Allies. The bulk of the Greek people favored the En tente, but the disaster at the Dardanelles and the fate of Serbia now over-run by Austrians, Germans, and Bulgarians caused King Constantine to adopt a neutral attitude which favored the Cen tral Powers.
British commander General Townshend to retire to the Arab river town of Kut el-Amara where he was besieged by Turks and Arabs.
1916 The year 1916 did not open very pro pitiously for the Allies in the land cam paigns except in Africa, where all but one of the German colonies had been cap tured. At sea they had maintained their supremacy—which was further sustained by the outcome of the Jutland battle later described—and continued to throt tle Germany's sea-borne trade with their naval cordon. The credit side of the Allies' record was also augmented by the fact that their armies were still in being, and adding to their strength, except Serbia's. On the other hand there was a disquieting situation on most of the war fronts. In the west only a few miles had been recovered from the Ger mans and at a heavy cost. On the Russian front and in the Balkans the situation was worse. Nearly all Galicia and Poland and Courland had fallen to the Germans, and the Serbian army had virtually been wiped out. On the ad jacent front—the Austro-Italian line— Italy had made little headway. Further east the British had failed against the Turks in the Dardanelles and were balked in their advance on Bagdad.