batteries, containing many guns of large
caliber, continued to shell the Belgian trenches to such an extent
that it was necessary for their inhabitants to keep close to the
bomb-proof chambers with which the trenches were liberally supplied.
But the Belgians kept so many of the German troops occupied that,
in this way, they gave great aid to their allies, and enabled the
French and British to regain much of the territory which was lost
in the first attack which the Germans made with poisonous gas. The
remainder of the summer was occupied with intermittent artillery
duels and minor engagements between the opposing trench lines.
In the meantime the Belgian army was adding to the number of its
troops and gathering munitions for an aggressive movement.

PART II--NAVAL OPERATIONS

* * * * *

CHAPTER XV

THE WAR ZONE

The war on the seas, with the long-expected battle between the fleets
of the great nations, developed during the second six months of the
war into a strange series of adventures. The fleets of the British
and the Germans stood like huge phantoms--the first enshrouded in
mystery somewhere in the Irish and North Seas; the second held
in leash behind the Kiel Canal, awaiting the opportune moment to
make its escape.

These tense, waiting days were broken by sensational and spectacular
incidents--not so much through the sea fights of great modern warships
as through the adventures of the raiders on the seven seas, the
exploits of the submarines, and the daring attempt of the allied
fleets to batter down the mighty forts in the Dardanelles and bombard
their way toward Constantinople--the coveted stronghold of the
Ottoman Empire. The several phases of these naval operations are
described in special chapters in this volume, therefore we will
now confine ourselves to the general naval developments.

In the spring of 1915 the threat made by Admiral von Tirpitz that
Germany would carry on war against British and allied shipping by
sinking their vessels with submarines, was made effective. The
submersible craft began to appear on all the coasts of the British
Isles. It infested the Irish Sea to such an extent that shipping
between England and Ireland was seriously menaced.

A particularly daring raid took place on the night of February
1, 1915, when a number of submarines tried to scuttle ships lying
at Dover. The attack failed, but drew fire from the guns of the
fort here