Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1917-08-06
Brief Review Of the
Three---Brief Review

tBy Captain George l.. Kilmer.)
The assassination on June 2S, 1914
of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand
heir to the throne, quickly resulted
in the outbreak of world war. Wher
Austria-Hungary pressed her de
mands upon Servia for reparatioI
Russia championed the little Slav ma.
tion. Germany declared that her
Austro-Hungarian ally must have q
"free hand" in dealing with Servia
and the storm broke.
The first two years of the war,
from August, 1914, to August, 1915,
were marked by the subjugation of
nearly all of Belgium, part of north
ern France, all of Servia and the
r greater part of Russian Poland by
the German armies. Russia con-
quered and then lost large slice Of
Austrian territory in Galicia.
Following the invasion of Belgium
in August, 1914, Great Britain and
France entered the war as the allies
of Russia.
The German march toward Paris,
through Belgium and France, was ef-
fectually checked at the river Marne
early in September. 1914, and in the
weeks following the opposing lines in
France and Belgium we're established
practically where they remained for
the next two years.
Italy entered the war in May, 1915,
and attacked Austria by land, east
and northeast of Venice. The first
year of the war saw the fall of War
saw and the extension of the German
front to the Drina river, midway be-
tween Warsaw and Petrograd. In
1916, the second year Of the war, the
Germans attacked with great force
the French fortress of Verdun, but
were unable to reduce 1t. This event
was followed by concerted drive by
the French and British in northern
France against the German lines
along the Ancre and Somme rivers.
Throughout the first two years
various local campaigns were inaug-
urated by the allies, notably for the
capture of Constantinople (the Turks
having Joined the Teutonic powers
late in 1910, with an expedition in
Mesopotamia to support it. The
move against the Turkish capital
failed. and the forces were trans
ferred to Greece to operate against
the central powers in the Balkans,
where the Bulgarians were fighting
for Germany.
The greatest naval battle of the
war, fought off Jutland in May, 1917,
was draw, and the large vessels
have not taken decisive part in the
progress of the war. In 1915 Ger
many started system of drastic sub
marine warfare, primarily intended
to blockade the ports of her foes. Bel
ligerent and neutral alike were made
to suffer in the submarine zones
throughout 1915 and 1916, and an
indirect result of Germany's naval
policy was the entrance of the United
States into the war.
Grounds For Allies Optimism.
Almost at the close of the second
year of the world war the British
war minitser, Lloyd George, speaking
for the allies, said, Victory is begin
ming to flow in our direction" 1t
had been flowing in all directions
whenever 1t flowed at all up to that
time. So the third year of the con-
flict opened with optimism ruling in
the camps of the allies. On the west
front at the end Of July, 1916, 1t was
assured that the French would hold
on at Vcrdun. that the German line
on the Somme and the Ancre was not
impregnable and that the Russian
drive headed by Brusiloff in Buko-
wilma and eastern Galicia was proceed
ing with irresistible force toward the
Stokhad and the Dniester,
Emphasis was given to the hopeful
view by Italian success on both fronts
in Austria. The great Austrian drive
which began in April and aimed at
the expulsion Of invading armies from
Trentino had been checked. This was
a negative victory because the Aus
trian spoils had been heavy and the
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