The Children's Story of the War Volume 4 (of 10) The Story of the Year 1915

In the basin of the great American river Mississippi one may go forth on a spring morning with the sun brightly shining and a blue sky overhead, yet within a single hour all may...

In his dispatch of 6th January 1916 Sir Ian Hamilton tells us that early in July 1915 he was fully aware that the Kilid Bahr plateau could not be reached from the south. Even if...

We now return to the sodden plains of Flanders, where the torn and slashed fields, the riven woods, and the tattered hedgerows are beginning to don the livery of spring. Men loo...

In this volume I am going to tell you the story of the war as it unfolded itself during the year 1915. It was a year of life-and-death struggle, during which two other nations w...

Three days after the Battle of Festubert[61] came to an end, another European nation flung itself into the welter of strife. Italy declared war on Austria. The story of why she...

The 1st Division, lying to the south of the 7th Division, made excellent progress. Its 1st Brigade swept forward for a mile and three-quarters, and by noon was across the highro...

We are now to read the story of the great offensive which the Allies undertook in the West during the month of September 1915. I have already told you that the German lines were...

You are now to imagine yourself wrapped in the invisible cloak of the fairies, and able to move over land and sea, where you will, with the speed of thought. Thus magically endo...

We now come to that part of the French front on which the most successful attempts of the Allies were made during January and February. You have already heard of the little rive...

As soon as the wounded men from Neuve Chapelle arrived in Great Britain, budgets of personal experiences began to appear in the newspapers. All the men dwelt upon the terrible e...

When the Germans entered Warsaw the German High Command had to decide what the next move was to be. Should they entrench on the ground already won, and make the line of the Niem...

Every Briton may thank God that the Canadians were where they were when the cloud of poison gas sent the Turcos fleeing in panic to the rear. These sons of the eldest daughter o...

Two days after the Battle of the Dogger Bank we learned that a Turkish force was advancing upon Egypt. Why were the Turks about to invade the "Land of the Nile"? First of all, b...

December 1914 saw Serbia gloriously victorious; December 1915 saw her plunged in hopeless defeat, the remnants of her army on alien soil, her people in bondage, her aged king a...

The Germans were quite right in speaking of our mercantile marine as our "life-nerve." In 1913 we had nearly 39,600 merchant vessels, with a tonnage of more than 14,000,000 tons...

Three miles south of Ypres, close to the railway line which runs from that city to Comines, on the Lys, stands Hill 60, now known to all the world as the scene of a furious stru...

Up to the 24th of January 1915 squadrons of the German High Sea Fleet had adventured four times into the North Sea. The first occasion was on 28th August, 1914, when the Battle...

No part of the Dardanelles is more famous in history than the "Narrows." Across the narrowest part of the Narrows Xerxes[32] flung his bridge of boats when he set out to conquer...

You must not suppose that our submarines carried out their raids in the Dardanelles and in the Sea of Marmora without loss. Several of our under-water boats came to grief. E15,...

On the night of 27th April the Allies lay on a line running across the peninsula about three miles north of Cape Tekke. Next day, at eight in the morning, an advance was made on...

Now that you have read an account of how we gained a foothold, and no more than a foothold, on the Gallipoli peninsula, you will agree with me that only an army of heroes could...

You are now to read some soldiers' stories of the fighting during the winter months. The first story tells how Algerian horsemen, by a skilful ruse, managed to get a footing in...

As far back as November 3, 1914, a British and French squadron of battleships and battle cruisers shelled the forts which guard the entrance to the Dardanelles both on the Galli...

Lieutenant Fleming-Sandes saved the situation at Hohenzollern Redoubt on 29th September, when his own men and the troops on his right were beginning to retire owing to the heavy...

Suppose for a moment that, in the first week of May, a British soldier in the captured village of Neuve Chapelle is looking towards the German lines. Away to the north-east he s...

The Germans now opened the nozzles of the gas tubes in front of their trenches and sent a cloud of poisonous vapour against the Indians. The wretched victims suffered horribly,...

"_We'll duck and we'll dive like little tin turtles,_ _We'll duck and we'll dive beneath the North Seas,_ _Until we strike something that doesn't expect us:_ _From here to Cuxha...

On page 144 of our first volume I gave you a brief account of the great airship invented by Count Zeppelin and called after his name. It is said that the newest type of Zeppelin...

The new year opened with a naval disaster. On 31st December eight vessels of the Channel Fleet left Sheerness for a cruise in the English Channel, and by three o'clock on the mo...

In chapter XXIX. of our third volume I told you how von Hindenburg's second attempt on Warsaw was foiled, and how the Russians during the last days of December 1914 stood firm o...

You will remember that while von Hindenburg was vainly attempting to pierce the river line of the Niemen and the Narev on the Russian right wing, the Austrians were in motion ag...

You will remember that, in order to prevent the Germans from massing their forces to resist the great French offensive in Champagne, the Allies had prepared attacks on other par...

On 25th April--six weeks and four days after our naval failure at the Narrows--British forces landed on the Gallipoli peninsula. Before I relate the marvellous story of how our...

The year 1915 saw the beginning and the end of a campaign which will go down to history as a splendid failure. Aided by the French, the British strove to force a right-of-way th...

Over and over in these pages you have read of "airy navies grappling in the central blue." Every soldier, fighting his battles over again by the home fireside, loves to describe...

Now we must return to the battle front in the West, and see how the Allies fared during the months of January and February. You will remember that when the year 1914 closed the...

A correspondent with the Russian armies tells us that no mind can picture the awful effect of the German bombardment which drove the Russians out of their positions on the Donaj...

In the great struggle for the trenches which I described in the former chapter there was plentiful opportunity for our men to do deeds of individual daring. The fighting was at...

The fighting on the Western front from the beginning of the September offensive to the close of the year abounded in heroic incidents, and many Victoria Crosses were won. In thi...

While the Germans were fiercely shelling Hill 60 the tide of war rolled along the Ypres Salient, which has so often figured in these pages. The Gaspipe Officer already quoted sa...

Seven Victoria Crosses were awarded for remarkable feats of courage and devotion during the great series of struggles known as the Second Battle of Ypres. You will not, I am sur...

The heaviest winter fighting in the British section of the front took place in the neighbourhood of La Bassée. The German Emperor's birthday occurs on 27th January, and his sold...

launched two armies against the Russians, who were then threatening Cracow, and how the Russians were forced to retreat to the position shown on the map on page 119. During the...

At ten in the morning of Sunday, 9th May, the infantry advanced; the right seized the ruins of La Targette, and pushed on to capture Neuville St. Vaast, which lies in a hollow t...

Before I describe very briefly the Zeppelin raids upon England, let me set down the names and exploits of the five gallant airmen who were awarded the Victoria Cross during the...

So far the Germans had failed hopelessly at sea. The battle off Coronel had been their only success, and the squadron that had achieved it was now no more. The bombardment of Sc...

In this chapter I shall tell you some stories illustrating the fierce fighting which took place in the Eastern theatre of war during the first three months of the year 1915. I h...

In this British book, written for British boys and girls, I naturally give the foremost place to the doings of British soldiers. We must, however, always remember that up to the...

I have told you in the form of a continuous story how the Canadians saved the day. In doing so I have had to keep your attention fixed on that part of the British line extending...

The Russians had already prepared positions on the river line, and by 19th February they had occupied them, and were waiting for the Germans to attack. Next day the enemy launch...

While the Second Battle of Ypres was raging, the French were making a big effort in Artois, more especially in the district between Lens and Arras. On page 223 you will see a ma...

"_How sleep the brave, who sink to rest By all their country's wishes blest! When Spring, with dewy fingers cold, Returns to deck their hallowed mould, She there shall dress a s...

The Gallipoli campaign was a diversion that did not succeed--a side-show that failed. I shall not, therefore, describe the progress of the fighting in full detail. The story is...

droves. The Brigadier was killed; 42 officers and some 1,900 men fell. Neither the Northumbrians nor the Indians could pierce the curtain of fire. The 40th Pathans, known in Ind...