he was overwhelmed by the concentrated force of
a mighty Teuton drive, and afterward, did some fighting that
astonished the world. The photo shows some of her artillery engaged in
holding back the enemy in the mountain regions near Nish.

[Illustration: A SCENE FROM EARLY TRENCH WARFARE. Painting shows German
soldiers defending a trench line on the left. British attackers are
approaching from the right. Several men are already dead in front of the
trench.]
From the woods in the background the British charge on an angle of the
German breastworks under cover of artillery and machine-gun fire. This
illustrates the early trench warfare before the development of the
elaborate concrete-protected structures the Germans later devised.
They can be seen wearing the famous spiked helmets which were later
replaced by steel ones.

This was the complex of nationalities, the ferment of races existing in
1914. Out of the hatreds engendered by the domination over the
liberty-loving Slavic peoples by an arrogant Teutonic minority grew the
assassinations at Sarajevo. These crimes were the expression of hatred
not for the heir apparent of Austria but for the Hapsburg and their
Germanic associates.

By a twist of the wheel of fate, the same Slavic peoples whose
determination to rid themselves of the Teutonic yoke, started the war,
also bore rather more than their share in the swift-moving events that
decided and closed the war.

Russia, the dying giant among the great nations, championed the Slavic
peoples at the beginning of the war. It entered the conflict in aid of
little Serbia, but at the end Russia bowed to Germany in the infamous
peace treaty at Brest-Litovsk. Thereafter during the last months of the
war Russia was virtually an ally of its ancient enemy, Turkey, the "Sick
Man of Europe," and the central German empires. With these allies the
Bolshevik government of Russia attempted to head off the Czecho-Slovak
regiments that had been captured by Russia during its drive into Austria
and had been imprisoned in Siberia. After the peace consummated at
Brest-Litovsk, these regiments determined to fight on the side of the
Allies and endeavored to make their way to the western front.

No war problems were more difficult than those of the Czecho-Slovaks.
Few have been handled so masterfully. Surrounded by powerful enemies
which for centuries have been bent on destroying every trace of Slavic
culture, they had lear