On their side the French carried out several surprise attacks on the enemy lines, taking material and prisoners.

On January 16 a powerful offensive was started by the Russo-Roumanian forces in the Roumanian theatre of war, with strong attacks between the Casinu and Sushitza valleys and on both sides of Fundeni.  In places the trenches of the German Allies were entered.

CHAPTER XXIX.

CONTINUATION OF WAR IN 1917.

  German Sea Raider Busy—­British Victory in Mesopotamia
 —­Russia Dethrones the Czar—­United States’ Relations
  with Germany Severed—­Germans Retreat on the West.

On January 10 the Greek government accepted the ultimatum of the Allies, providing satisfaction to them without interfering with the administration of the country or local communications.  From this time on the situation in Greece ceased to be a source of serious trouble to the Allied commanders at Saloniki.

GERMAN SEA RAIDER BUSY.

It was learned on January 17 that a German sea raider, which had succeeded in slipping through the cordon of British ships, had been preying on commerce in the south Atlantic for six weeks.  Twenty-one vessels were reported to have been sunk by the raider, with a total loss of approximately $40,000,000.  Victims of the raider who were landed at Pernambuco, Brazil, January 18 stated their belief that she was the steamship Moewe, notorious as a raider early in the war, but later reported docked in the Kiel Canal.  It was said that she left the Canal disguised as a Danish hay-ship.

NAVAL BATTLE IN THE NORTH SEA.

In a sea battle off Zeebrugge, Holland, on January 23, fourteen German torpedo-boat destroyers, attempting to leave port, were attacked by a British flotilla and seven of them were reported sunk.

BRITISH VICTORY IN MESOPOTAMIA.

Victorious advances were made in Mesopotamia during the month of January by the British forces, who were determined to wipe out the reverse sustained in the surrender at Kut-el-Amara in 1916.  On January 21 it was announced that the Turks had been driven out of positions on the right bank of the Tigris, near Kut, the British occupying their trenches on a wide front.

After a series of persistent attacks Kut-el-Amara fell before the British advance on February 26, opening the road to Bagdad.  The Turkish garrison of the city took flight, hotly pursued by the British cavalry, and more than 2,000 prisoners were taken, with many guns and large quantities of war material.  Next day the British defeated the Turks in a sanguinary battle 15 miles northwest of the captured town, and took many more prisoners.  Bagdad soon fell into their hands, and as the month of April approached the British were on the eve of effecting a junction with the Russian army advancing through Mesopotamia.

ON THE EASTERN FRONT.