HOW THE WAR BEGAN By W. L. COURTNEY, LL.D., and J. M. KENNEDY THE FLEETS AT WAR By ARCHIBALD HURD THE CAMPAIGN OF SEDAN By GEORGE HOOPER THE CAMPAIGN ROUND LIEGE By J. M. KENNEDY IN THE FIRING LINE Battle Stories told by British Soldiers at the Front. By A. ST. JOHN ADCOCK GREAT BATTLES OF THE WORLD By STEPHEN CRANE Author of “The Red Badge of Courage.” BRITISH REGIMENTS AT THE FRONT The glorious story of their Battle Honours. THE RED CROSS IN WAR By M. F. BILLINGTON FORTY YEARS AFTER The Story

War between Russia and Austria has been inevitable since the latter first cast her eyes eastwards and decided that Salonika was to be the object of her expansion. To reach a port on the east the Teuton must crush the Slav. Fundamentally, it is a battle of races. Hitherto the Teuton has managed to avoid actual conflict; by means of carefully designed coups at opportune moments, or, to put it more bluntly, by the methods of a common thief, he has made very good progress during the last few years w

The war that the nation fights is already half won. Tzars, Kaisers, Kings and Governments may spend millions on perfecting their fighting machines, they may hurl those machines at one another, but unless they have behind them the united will of their subjects, their efforts are bereft of more than half their force. The victorious army is the one which enjoys the whole-hearted support of a people prepared to face any sacrifice for the sake of its cause. The moral factor is as important as the mat

Mobilisation in Russia is an inevitably slow and difficult operation. The circumstances under which it is effected render it almost impossible to reduce it to a matter of automatic precision, as is the case with the German Army. It is typically Russian: rather ponderous and very human. The chances of its being successfully and quickly accomplished are so slight compared with those of its proving an orgy of confusion and disorganisation that nobody, least of all in Russia itself, where businessli

On August 15th the Grand Duke Nicholas issued, on behalf of the Tzar, the following Proclamation addressed to all the Poles: “ Poles ,—The hour has sounded when the sacred dream of your fathers and your grandfathers may be realised. A century and a half has passed since the living body of Poland was torn in pieces, but the soul of the country is not dead. It continues to live, inspired by the hope that there will come for the Polish people an hour of resurrection, and of fraternal reconciliation

Apart from the initial handicap of having to fight on the defensive because of the comparative slowness of her mobilisation, Russia is the most advantageously situated of all European Powers for war on the grand scale. Britain is dependent on her command of the sea for her food and trade; the existence of both France and Germany more or less depend on supplies from the outer world. But Russia is self-contained. Her vast “lump” of empire can supply all her needs, from food and trade to an unlimit

The Russians must be somewhat of a disappointment to many experts, professional and amateur, whose supreme ignorance of the conditions obtaining in the eastern theatre of the war was only equalled by their sublime confidence in the ability of a steamroller to push forward, full steam ahead, over all obstacles and against all opposition. When towards the middle of August the news came that Russia was ready for serious business, it was confidently predicted that the end was in sight. It was only a

It has already been pointed out that Russia could not advance directly on Berlin and thus expose herself to the danger of being cut off and annihilated by German armies from East Prussia and Austrians from Galicia. A march on Posen would more likely than not have resulted in another and more stupendous Sedan. In the previous chapter it was shown that, for various reasons, the Russian General Staff decided not to threaten Berlin by the northern route through Prussia. The nature of the country was

The Austrians had prepared Lemberg for a siege of at least a year. The Russians captured it in a week. The fortresses, which were reckoned as first-class examples of modern fortifications, were reduced to ruins by the bombardment of the Russian heavy artillery. The victory, therefore, proved to the Russians, just as Liège and Namur had proved to the Germans in the west, that modern fortresses are helpless against modern artillery. The Russians employed no remarkably heavy guns, but merely their

To the unthinking, Russia has proved somewhat disappointing. Such great things were expected of her by those who knew nothing of the conditions in the eastern theatre of war. At the end of over a month of fighting she had not advanced a mile along the direct road to Berlin. Her army in the north, after an advance which was acclaimed as of tremendous importance, was defeated, driven back and practically forgotten. The south-west of Poland was still overrun by the enemy, and the only real advance