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62 o General History of Europe farther into France, and the Allied forces were almost equally unsuccessful in their repeated attempts, at terrible sacrifice of life, to force the Germans more than a few miles back. Both sides "dug themselves in," and trench warfare went on almost in- cessantly, with the aid of machine guns, shells, and huge cannon. Airplanes flew hither and thither, observing the enemy's positions and operations and dropping bombs in his midst. Poisonous gases and liquid fire, introduced by Germany, added their horrors to the situation. 1123. The War on the East Front (1914-1915). On the East- ern Front the Russians at first advanced far more rapidly than had been expected. They succeeded in invading East Prussia, but were soon driven out by the German general, Hindenburg, and his army. They made their main attack on the Austrians in Galicia, but were forced to withdraw, owing to the operations of the German and Austrian armies in Poland. During the winter of 1915 the Russians made fierce attempts to pass the Carpathians and invade Austria-Hungary. They failed, however, on account of lack of supplies, and hundreds of thousands of lives were sacri- ficed in vain. In August, 1915, Russia was forced to surrender Warsaw and other large Polish towns to the Germans, who pushed on beyond Poland and occupied Courland, Livonia, and Esthonia. They therefore were able to take possession of and hold for the time being very important Russian territories in addition to their control of Poland. 1124. Turkey joins the Central Powers, November, 1914. In November, 1914, the Teutonic allies were reenforced by Turkey. The Sultan issued a call to all faithful Mohammedans to wage a holy war on the enemies of Islam. But, contrary to the hopes of Germany, there was no general rising of the Mohammedans in India and Egypt against the British rule. England seized the opportunity to declare Egypt altogether independent of Turkey, December, 1914, and established a new ruler, who was given the title of Sultan of Egypt and accepted an English protectorate, over his country. The Englisli also invaded Mesopotamia, and finally captured the famous old city of Bagdad, in March,