History of the World War, Vol. 3

death in the victory of Verdun. There, with the gateway to Paris lying open at its back, the French army, in the longest p

s, there met disaster and disgrace. There the mettle of the Crown Prince was tested and he was found

the war. The plans were upon a scale that might well have proved successful. The Kaiser, influenced by the Crown Prince and by von Falkenhayn, decreed that the Russian campaign must be postponed and that von Hindenburg must send his crack troops to join the army of the Crown Prince fronting Verdun. Ludendorff promptly resigned as Chief o

HELD THE GERMANS WITH THE INSPIR

captured. They declared that the Verdun fortifications made a menacing salient thrust into the rich iron fields of the Briey basin. From this metalliferous field of Lorraine came the ore that supplied eighty per cent of the steel required for German and Austrian guns and munition

of Briey. Then assembling the vast forces drained from all the fronts and having erected ammunition dumps coverin

mont was the next objective. This was taken on February 25th after a concentrated bomba

e transportation burdens suddenly cast upon it. In this desperate emergency a transport system was born of necessity, a system that saved Verdun. It was fleet upon fleet of motor trucks, all sizes, all styles; anything that could pack a few shells or a handful of men was utilized. The backbone of the system was a great fleet of trucks driven by men whose average daily rest was four hours, and upon whose

bing the early days of t

ready looks as if it would surpass anything in history. More than a month has elapsed since, by the kindness of General Joffre and General Pétain, I was able to watch the struggle from various vital viewpoints. The battle had then been raging with great intensity for a fortnig

as completely realizing the idea of a nation in arms. In 1914, when they were commanders, France was inferior to a still greater degree in point of numbers to Prussianized Germany. In armament, France was inferior at first to her enemy. The French High Command has thus been trained by adversity to do all that human intellect can against almost overwhelming hostile material forces. General Joffre, General Castelnau-and, la

es, and maintaining a show of force in the Balkans, Germany seems to have succeeded in bringing up nearly two millions and a half of men for her grand spring offensive in the west. At one time her forces in France and Flanders were only ninety divisions. But troops and guns were withdrawn in increasing numbers from Russia and Serbia in December, 1915, until there were, it is estimated, a hundred and eighteen d

idea by making an apparent preliminary attack at Lions, on a five-mile front with rolling gas-clouds and successive waves of infantry. During this feint the veritable offensive movement softly began on Saturday, February 19, 1916, when the enormous masses of hostile artillery west, east, and north of the Verdun salient started registering on t

rabant and the Meuse; twelve-inch shells fell with terrible precision every few yards, according to the statements made by the French troops. I afterwards saw a big German shell, from at least six miles distant from my place of observation, hit quite a small target. So I can well believe that, in the first bombardment of French positions, which had been p

of the Verdun salient, Caures Woods, was smothered in shells of all sizes, poured in from east, north and west. In this manner almost the whole enormous force of heavy artillery was centered upon mile after mile of the French

line so as to allow the artillery to move onward. There was thus a large element of truth in the marvelous tales afterwards told by German prisoners. Their commanders thought it would be possible to do all the fighting with long-range artillery, leaving the infantry to act as squatt

own hurricane bombardments in Champagne and the Carency sector. General Castelnau, the acting Commander-in-Chief on the French front, was indeed the inventor of hurricane fire tactics, which he had used for the first time in February, 1915, in Champagne. When General Joffre took over the conduct of all French operations, leaving t

guns, hidden in dug-outs at some distance from the photographed positions at which the German gunners aimed. The batteries of light guns, which the French handled with the flexibility and continuity of fire of Maxims, were also concealed in widely scattered positions. The main damage caused by the first intense bombardment was the destruction of all

wept back the disillusioned and reluctant main bodies of German troops. First, the bombing parties were felled, then the sappers as they came forward to repair the line for their infan

ve-inch shells, which they regarded as their special terror by reason of their penetrative power and wide blast, even the

d shattered. Then the French 75's which had been masked during the overwhelming fire of the enemy howitzers, came unexpectedly into action when the German infantry attacks increased in strength. Near Haumont, for example, eight successive furious assaul

ION FOR

aking ammunition up the line

RDUN W

faltered when the railro

sions to the forces around Verdun by weakening the effectives in other sectors and drawing more troops from the Russian front. It was rumored that von Hindenburg was growi

e highest speed of production of the German munition factories, and the wear on the guns was more than Krupp and Skoda could

. If her Allies, with the help of Japan and the United States, could soon overtake the production of the German and Austr

ave of Germans in gray-green lines were sent against the twenty-five miles of earthworks, while the French guns took their toll of the crack German regimen

eneral Joffre had refused the proffered help. No man knew better than he what his country, with its exceedingly low birthrate, was suffering on the Meuse. He had but to send a telegram to British Headquarters, and a million Britons, with thousands of heavy guns, would fling themselves upon the German lines and compel Fa

ts surrounding the bloody field, the French struck back. General Nivelle, who had taken command at Verdun under Joffre, commenced a series of attacks and a persistent pressure against the German forces on both

nspiring battle in the long an