The second week in May saw minor German successes on the western front, but these were immediately succeeded by determined efforts on the part of the Allies to retrieve lost ground. The week of May 10 to 15 was marked by fierce assaults by the British and French upon the German positions in Flanders and northern France. Thousands of lives were sacrificed on both sides. At one point on the Yser where the Germans were beaten back, they left 2,000 dead on the field, but this was only a small percentage of the total losses during this series of engagements in May. Around Ypres early in the month the Canadians lost heavily, but made a splendid record for gallantry and endurance in the face of odds. The Germans began at this time the use of asphyxiating gases in their attacks. The results were horrifying in the extreme, and as these inhuman assaults with gas were continued, the Allies prepared to adopt the use of similar noxious gases by way of retaliation. BRITISH WARSHIP TORPEDOED. On May 12 the British warship Goliath was sunk by a Turkish torpedo during the continued attack by the Allies on the Dardanelles. Twenty officers and 160 men of the crew were saved and over 500 lives were lost. The Goliath was one of the older British battleships of the pre-dreadnaught type. She was built in 1898, was 400 feet long and feet wide, with a displacement of 12,950 tons. Her armament consisted of four twelve-inch and twelve six-inch guns, twelve twelve-pounders, six three-pounders, and two machine guns. In the determined attack on the Dardanelles, land forces of British and French troops co-operated with the combined fleets. The Turks made a stubborn resistance, but were compelled to give way gradually before the terrific bombardment of the warships and the persistent attacks by land. In the fighting on the Gallipoli peninsula the British colonial troops from New Zealand covered themselves with glory, fighting like veterans and breaking down Turkish opposition with the bayonet. On May 19 one of the most important forts at the Narrows, guarding the entrance to the Sea of Marmora, was silenced by the warships' fire, and this was an important step on the Allies' way to Constantinople. Meanwhile an immense German army, said to number 1,600,000 men, had been forcing the Russians back in Galicia to the San River and the gates of Przemysl. A German bombardment of this fortress seemed imminent on May 20. ITALY ENTERS THE WAR. On Sunday, May 23, Italy finally plunged into the great conflict with a declaration of war against Austria. The formal declaration, presented to the Austro-Hungarian foreign minister, Baron von Burian, by the Duke of Avarna, Italian ambassador at Vienna, asserted that Italy had "grave motives" for annulling her treaty of alliance with Austria and "confident in her good right," resumed her liberty of action. The declaration of war continued as follows: