r endeavors in Galicia and for
several months made great progress; then Rumania entered the war and the
Russian forces in Galicia slowed down. In Caucasus, however, Russian
troops gained Erzerum, one of the Turk fortresses, and captured the
seaport of Trebizond, practically gaining Armenia. Like the Germans in
retreat from Flanders, the Turks practiced unspeakable horrors. Their
cruelties were such as to almost exterminate the race.

The tragedy of the Balkans in 1916 was Rumania. With an army of more
than half a million men, she entered the war with the approval of the
Entente and entered Transylvania. But the Germans began a counter-attack
in Dobrudja, and the Rumanians were compelled to withdraw some of their
forces from Transylvania. The German commander then threw his forces
across the remaining Rumanians and drove them across the border, after
which he swung his own troops through the mountain passes into Rumania.
The two German forces invading Rumania met at Bucharest, and the
Rumanian capital was occupied.

Another fiasco was that of the British expeditionary force which was
sent from India by way of the Persian Gulf and up the Tigris river to
Bagdad. General Townsend succeeded in getting within 15 miles of Bagdad,
but he was defeated by a superior Turkish force and compelled to fall
back to Kut-el-Amara. Here his inadequate force, lacking medical and
transport facilities, was fairly starved out before he was relieved. He
was finally compelled to surrender the last week in April, 1916.

Little more than a year after the collapse of this expedition, however,
the famous old city of Bagdad was captured by the English after a
well-directed campaign under General Maude.

ITALY'S HELP TO THE ALLIES.

Italy, having begun active warfare with the Allies in 1915, waged war
along the Austrian border, compelling the Austro-German forces to
concentrate a larger body of troops for duty on the Italian frontier,
and to that extent materially assisted the Allies. At the same time the
Italians fought their way up over the mountains and won more than 500
square miles of territory and took nearly 90,000 prisoners.

The final alignment of the Greeks with the Allies marked the progress of
affairs in the middle of 1917, when Constantine was forced from his
throne in favor of his second son, and Venizelos was returned as
Premier. But the entrance of the Greeks did not materially alter the
situation.

The two most important ev