of October (Vol. II, 168-172), the Germans made a
last attempt to interpose between the Allies and the sea, take Calais
and Boulogne and come south through Artois and Picardy.

They were halted in the desperate battles along the Yser and the Lys.
(Vol. II, 169-175.) The Belgian army, escaping from Antwerp, stood
solidly behind the Yser, the British just managed to cling to Ypres
(Vol. II, 171-172), and the French under Foch performed new miracles
on the defensive. Two months after the German defeat at the Marne, the
loss of the western campaign was made absolute by the unsuccessful
termination of the Battle of Flanders and a war of movement had fallen
to a war of trenches, a state of deadlock had succeeded to the
operations in the open field and the German tide had been permanently
checked. (Vol. II, 174-177.) But actually the check had been at the
Marne and in this battle the original German plan had been decisively
defeated. France had not been disposed of in two months, but had won
the decisive battle that German strategy had prepared. But she had
lacked the numbers and the artillery to turn the victory to best
account and had failed wholly in the attempt to free her own territory
as she was to continue to fail for two years.

[Illustration: November 15, 1914, the End of the Western Campaign.]

THE RUSSIAN PHASE

We have seen that it was the plan of the German General Staff to hold
the Russian armies while the great attack upon France was being made.
To do this the Germans had left a very small force in East Prussia,
but had practically assigned to Austria the task of holding up Russia.
(Vol. II, 371.)

German calculations as to Russian mobilization proved sadly
inaccurate. While the German troops were still in Belgium and the
Battle of Charleroi unfought, Russian troops crossed the East Prussian
boundary and began an invasion which produced something approximating
a panic. (Vol. II, 434.) One Russian army came due west from the
Niemen, another north from Warsaw, and all of Germany east of the
Vistula seemed in grave peril. (Vol. II, 437.)

TANNENBERG AND LEMBERG

It was then that the kaiser summoned Hindenburg, gave him the task of
defending East Prussia, and thus introduced one of the few famous and
successful soldiers of the war. (Vol. II, 438.) Hindenburg cleverly
concentrated his forces, leaving only a screen in front of the Russian
army coming from the Niemen toward Koenigsberg, practically surroun