The battle is raging, huge beyond all previous imagination. Rejuvenated, perfectly equipped with all they want, Russia's armies again have broken against our bulwarks in the east. France has experienced a regeneration in this war of which she hardly believed herself capable. She has dragged her dilatory English Ally into joining the offensive on the Somme, and whatever inward worth the British army has it now has an abundance of artillery. THE KAISER, _July, 1916_. [Illustration] _ANOTHER NAIL IN HINDENBURG_ (_In 1915 a gigantic statue of wood was erected in Berlin to Hindenburg_) * * * * * The problem implied in the second phase of the great Russian offensive of 1916 had been solved completely in favour of our Allies. The enemy had abandoned his entire front south of the Marshes, having lost in ten weeks' fighting (May, June, July) in prisoners alone well over 300,000 men. The total casualties suffered by him in that campaign almost equalled the original strength of his armies between the Pripet Marshes and the Carpathian Mountains. _The Times History of the War._ [Illustration] "_SEEMS TO BE NEUTRAL: SINK HIM!_" * * * * * The freedom of the sea means to Germany that the German Navy is to behave at sea as the German Army behaves on land. It means that neither enemy civilians nor neutrals may possess rights against militant Germany; that those who do not resist will be drowned, and those who do will be shot. Already 244 neutral merchantmen have been sunk in defiance of law and humanity, and the number daily grows. Mankind, with the experience of two years of war behind it, has made up its mind about German culture. It is not, I think, without material for forming a judgment about German freedom. A. J. BALFOUR, _First Lord of the Admiralty. July, 1916._ [Illustration] _NOW ALSO THE AXE IS LAID UNTO THE ROOT OF THE TREE_ * * * * * As the second year of the war drew to its close important gains were made by the Allied Armies on all fronts. On the Somme the British occupied Mameton Wood, Trones Wood, and the villages of Ovillers-la-Boiselle, Longueval, Podières. The French advanced on a front of 10-1/2 miles and captured the German positions from Estrées to Vermando-Villers. On the Eastern Front, the Russians crossed the Carpathians in the south and pierced Hindenburg's Riga line at several points. On the Isonzo the Italians began a great drive towards Gorizia. [Illustration] _THE SPIRIT OF FRANCE_ "_France is dying._"--_Hindenburg_ * * * * * This year has been so full of a glory so pure that it will forever illumine the human race. It has been a year in which France, the France of Joan of Arc and Valmy, has risen, if possible, to even greater heights.