While the problem of solving the military phases of the situation was being considered by the Allied War Council the Russian forces under Kerensky and those under Trotzky, known as the Bolsheviki, clashed again and again at Petrograd, Moscow and other points, and the hope of the Allies as to any help from Russia sank. Germany entered into a peace compact with Ukrainia, and the hand of the Kaiser was seen in the Russian situation when officers of the German Army were reported in Petrograd in conference with the representatives of the various Russian factions. Russia suggested a separate armistice, or a separate peace, against which both the U.S. and France protested.
The failure of the Russian Government to assume any degree of stability made it possible for the Germans to withdraw many troops and transfer them to the Italian and Western Fronts.
One result of the Allied War Council deliberations was to show the necessity of rapid action on the part of the United States and get troops into France so that they might take over a definite sector. While it was estimated that several hundred thousand Americans were in France, the necessity for a larger force was made apparent by the statement that 90 reserves are required for every 400 fighters on the line.
DROPPED THEIR TOOLS FOR RIFLES.
The first bitter attack in which American troops figured was when a company of United States engineers, caught between cross-fires, dropped their tools for rifles and joined the English troops in helping to repulse the Germans near Cambrai.
A notable event in the progress of the war was the declaration of war upon Austria by the U.S. on Dec. 8, 1917, Congress adopting a resolution of war with but one dissenting vote.
Events which brought the seriousness of the war home to America began at this point to occur rapidly. First the Torpedo Boat Destroyer Jacob Jones was sunk in the war zone when nearly 30 men were reported lost. This was followed shortly by a report to the War Department that 17 Americans caught in the cross-fire by the Germans at Cambrai were missing or killed. The report of the sinking of the Alcedo, a patrol boat, with the loss of several officers, was also received, as was that of the sinking of the U.S. Destroyer "Chauncey" rammed in a collision, when two officers and eighteen men were lost.
One of the high spots of the war and one of the notable events in the history of the world, was the surrender of the City of Jerusalem to the British on Saturday, December 8, 1917. Gen. Allenby entered the famed city and established his troops on the ancient Jerico Road.
The capture of Jerusalem by the British forces marked the end, with two brief interludes, of more than 1200 years' possession of the seat of the Christian religion by the Mohammedans. For 673 years the Holy City had been in disputed ownership of the Turks, the last Christian ruler of Jerusalem being the German Emperor, Frederick, whose short-lived domination lasted from 1229 to 1244.