Ferdinand of Bulgaria Insists Upon Joining Germany--Dramatic Scene in the King's Palace--The Die is Cast--Bulgaria Succumbs to Seductions of Potsdam Gang--Greece Mobilizes--French and British Troops at Saloniki--Serbia Over-run--Roumania's Disastrous Venture in the Arena of Mars 145
British Army Threatening Bagdad Besieged in Kut-el-Amara--After Heroic Defense General Townshend Surrenders after 143 Days of Siege--New British Expedition Recaptures Kut--Troops Push on Up the Tigris--Fall of Bagdad the Magnificent 187
Grave of the Military Reputations of von Falkenhayn and the Crown Prince--Hindenburg's Warning--Why the Germans Made the Disastrous Attempt to Capture the Great Fortress--Heroic France Reveals Itself to the World--"They Shall Not Pass"--Nivelle's Glorious Stand on Dead Man Hill--Lord Northcliffe's Description--A Defense Unsurpassed in the History of France 209
THE THRILL OF OLD-TIME WAR _Frontispiece_
THE GLORIOUS CHARGE OF THE NINTH LANCERS 4
CHARGING THROUGH BARBED WIRE ENTANGLEMENTS 6
BRITISH INDIAN TROOPS CHARGING THE GERMAN TRENCHES AT NEUVE CHAPELLE 10
CHARGING ON GERMAN TRENCHES IN GAS MASKS 12
AN INCIDENT OF THE WAR IN FLANDERS 18 [Transcriber's Note: This illustration was missing from the source for this e-book.]
ITALY'S TITANIC LABOR TO CONQUER THE ALPS 30
TRANSPORTING WOUNDED AMID THE DIFFICULTIES OF THE ITALIAN MOUNTAIN FRONT 42
THE HISTORIC LANDING FROM THE "RIVER CLYDE" AT SEDDUL BAHR 76
BAGDAD THE MAGNIFICENT FALLS TO THE BRITISH 208
NEUVE CHAPELLE AND WAR IN BLOOD-SOAKED TRENCHES
After the immortal stand of Joffre at the first battle of the Marne and the sudden savage thrust at the German center which sent von Kluck and his men reeling back in retreat to the prepared defenses along the line of the Aisne, the war in the western theater resolved itself into a play for position from deep intrenchments. Occasionally would come a sudden big push by one side or the other in which artillery was massed until hub touched hub and infantry swept to glory and death in waves of gray, or blue or khaki as the case might be. But these tremendous efforts and consequent slaughters did not change the long battle line from the Alps to the North Sea materially. Here and there a bulge would be made by the terrific pressure of men and material in some great assault like that first push of the British at Neuve Chapelle, like the German attack at Verdun or like the tremendous efforts by both sides on that bloodiest of all battlefields, the Somme.