and far-reaching; he strengthened the
Douaumont Plateau defenses, and
poured in guns, ammunition, and fresh
troops.

General Petain did not, however,
pack his infantry into the restricted
Verdun area. Under fire his men were
scattered but fresh; the main force
being well out of range of the German
artillery, and used in short shifts at
the front. On the other hand, no Ger-
man within five miles of the French
guns was safe. As the new French
commander's shell supply quickened,

450



by his constant improvement of his
lines of communication, and as newly-
rifled guns arrived regularly to replace
those worn by firing, he gradually
dominated the German artillery.

THE GERMANS ARE INDUCED TO WASTE
SHELLS.

In continual drum-fire bombard-
ments it was not only shell stores that
were spent, but the life of the heavy
ordnance. The wasting of shell ac-
cumulation and the wearing out of the
guns cripple the immediate offensive
power of a nation in a manner that no
reserve of man-power could supply.
General Petain, therefore, had to pro-
voke the hostile artillery into con-
stant action, as well as induce the
German infantry to fling itself against
the quick-firers and machine-guns.
Thus, even if he could have done so at
once, it might not have been sound
policy to overwhelm the enemy with a
large part of the French accumulation
of shell. Considerable subtlety in
playing upon the mind of the German
commander was needed in order to
induce him to exhaust all his resources
thoroughly, while not doing any griev-
ous damage to France.

General Petain was always willing
to sell at a good price the pieces of
ground he did not want. On the first
day of his command he withdrew all
French posts in the Woevre Plain and
placed them upon the high ground.
But afterwards he was not so sternly
scientific in his concentrations of force.
Instead of evacuating his weak points,
he concealed machine-guns around
them with observers at the end of a
telephone wire, which ran to a central
exchange, from which heavy guns by
the hundred could be aimed. This
gave the Germans something strenuous
to achieve, and, going on the principle
that the struggle was greater than the
prize, they had, after accomplishing
their object, something to celebrate in
their communiques.

/GENERAL PETAIN REARRANGES HIS
\J ARTILLERY.

In the first days of March they
resumed their borrfbardment and in-
fantry attacks upon' the Douaumont
Plateau, losing' heavily, but not



HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR



shifting General Balfourier's corps; but
Douaumont had then become a place of
secondary importance. General Petain
had not waited for bridging material to
transport his big guns across the Meuse.
Instead of concentrating round the
spot at which the enemy was striking,
he ran his new heavy ordnance more
quickly up the Argonne Forest to the
hills above Verdun, on the opposite



swung round to westward to make a
flanking bombardment on the French
positions across the Meuse, and east of
these positions another mass of heavy
German artillery near Montfaucon
opened a hurricane fire. Then on
March 6 infantry assaults began.
Forges was taken at great cost, but
the enemy could not debouch from the
hamlet on to the northern slopes of




FRENCH REVICTUALING TRANSPORT

Not only did motor transport have to bear all the burden of reinforcements for the Army of Verdun, but also all its
supplies, food for men, guns, trench material and repair outfits, hospital and air-service requirements. In spite
of the heavy strain put upon them the roads were kept in excellent repair by soldiers engaged unceasingly upon
the task. Picture, Henry Ruschin



side of the streaVn. There, with a
range of five miles, he could sweep all
the reserve, support, and firing lines
of the enemy's forces engaged on the
front of three and a half miles between
Pepper Hill and Douaumont.

This abruptly changed the situa-
tion, as the Germans viewed it. They
had to take the hills across the Meuse
Dead Man Hill and Charny Ridge
especially in order to recover fully
the power of making mass attacks
on the Douaumont Plateau. So the
tide of battle shifted but at the
masterly direction of General Petain.
The great batteries at Beaumont



the Goose Crest. The force that at-
tempted to do so was shattered. But
the next day a fresh German division
reached part of the crest, and worked
down the railway to Regneville, lying
over against Samogneux, with the
river between. Again new forces were
deployed on March 7, and by another
day of hard and good fighting the
German commander made a brilliant
stroke. He captured Crows' Wood
(Bois des Corbeaux) and Cumieres
Wood, from which a decisive advance
could be made on Dead Man Hill. If
Dead Man Hill fell, General Petain's
power over the enemy's ground across

451



HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR



the Meuse would be seriously reduced,
and his more southerly position on
Charny Wood would be menaced.

'HE FRENCH NEED TIME TO PREPARE.



scattered by a bayonet charge. (See
map of western section on page 457.)

T^ALSE REPORTS OF SUCCESS SENT TO
I? GERMANY.

But, to the amazement of General
Petain and his Staff, the Berlin wire-
less spread the news that the Posen
Brigade had stormed not only the



He at once threw reinforcements
towards Dead Man Hill, and by an
attack quite as fine as that of Bal-
fourier's corps at Douaumont,
the division recovered the
greater part of the two woods.
All the next day it withstood
frontal and flank attacks, with
the enemy's guns pounding it
from the north, east, and south ;
the reverse fire coming from
German batteries across the
river, near Pepper Hill. On
March 10, another fresh, large
enemy force of some 20,000
infantry worked again through
part of Crows' Wood and
Cumieres Wood, suffering
frightful losses and achieving
no great result; for all that
General Petain had fought for
was time. He had gained more
than forty-eight hours in which
to Organize the works on and
round Dead Man Hill in the
way he wanted. This impor-
tant advanced position had
now become safe for the cru-
cial time at least.

The enemy commander also
needed time to bring up his
guns to cover the ground he

had won in the woodlands and

by the river. So there was a '"** DEFENSES OF VERDUN ON THE EASTERN BANK
lull round Dead Man. But on OF THE MEUSE




the



r From the forests of Spincourt and Gremilly in the north, German

.Slant eastern Slue OI hordes fell upon the French first lines in the woods between Hau-
l-lip \7f>rr1iin ca1if>nf- tVip> ("Vrman mont and Ornes. In five days they reached the plateau of Douau-
nt, tl e German mont commanding Verdun. In June Vaux fell but between Fleury
Was resumed With and Souville the advance was stayed.

hamlet in the hollow but the fort on
the plateau. Paris was perturbed, and
General Petain had to send one of his
Staff officers to Vaux. He found the
garrison in merry mood, with the
soldiers off duty playing cards. They
had neither won nor lost any battle;
the enemy had not come near them.
Meanwhile, the German Staff dis-
covered it had made a ridiculous mis-
statement, and tried to palliate its
blunder by ordering the fort to be
taken. But General Petain now knew



offensive was resumed with
extreme violence. The new objective
was the Fort of Vaux, southeast of
Douaumont Fort, and connecting with
it in the old system of defense, before
the structures of armored concrete
were emptied of guns. The fort on the
plateau was approached by a ravine
in which lay the village of Vaux.
Supported by their heavy artillery
in the Woevre Plain, the Germans
attacked round the mouth of the ravine
on March 9, and at night some 6,000
Poles got into the village, but were

452



HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR



that the Vaux sector had become im-
portant, and that if he massed an
unusual number of guns and men there,
and improved his means of bringing up
shells, his labor would not be wasted.
Thus opened another general butchery
of Germans, slaughtered for the sake
of Prussian prestige. Vaux Fort had
become Verdun in little. It had to be
captured to save the reputation of
a race of braggarts.



EXCUSES FOR INACCURATE
\Jf REPORTS.

The Germans began to show definite
signs of "grogginess." The chief
among these signs was their tendency
to lies of a gross and childish nature.
Their claim to the capture of Vaux
Fort was possibly a bad mistake, due
to some eager Staff subordinate's
misunderstanding. But in the middle
of March, when the Vaux attacks




VIEW OF FRENCH FIELD-KITCHENS AROUND VERDUN

Situated in a sheltered spot in the rear of the lines, as the comparatively undamaged trees show, it was far easier
to prepare the meals than it was to get the food up to the men, and there were many times during the fighting
when hunger and thirst augmented the horrors of war. *



But it was not captured just then,
though the struggle for it went on for
weeks with increasing fury. Even by
the middle of March the ground below
the fort was heaped with greyish forms,
where the dead and dying had rolled
down the slopes. In the ravine below,
the Germans, by the end of March,
won the eastern houses of the villages,
but could not for long advance farther.
Vaux Fort still remained untaken, and
the neighboring Caillette Wood was
recovered early in April, thus strength-
ening both the Douaumont and Vaux
positions.



looked like failing, the German Staff
claimed the capture of Dead Man Hill.
They stormed the Dead Man by
conveying the name to a lower ridge of
no decisive importance which they had
occupied. Challenged on the matter by
the French Staff, they tried to evade
the charge of falsehood by stating
that the words " Mart Homme" as
lettered on the French map they used,
extended to the lower ground. As
though the best-informed War Staff
in the world did not know every acre
of ground near its own frontiers! Most
likely it was an attempt to soothe the

453



HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR



German people, whose anxiety in
regard to Verdun was turning into
angry despondency.

Von Falkenhayn had increased the
Crown Prince's army to twenty-five
divisions. In April he added five more
divisions 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 growing restive,
and complaining that the wastage at
Verdun would tell against the success
of the campaign on the Riga-Dvinsk
front, which was to open when the
Baltic ice melted.

SHELLS ARE USED FASTER THAN THEY
ARE MADE.

Great as was the wastage of life,
it was in no way immediately de-
cisive. But when the expenditure of
shells almost outran the highest speed
of production of the German munition
factories, and the wear on the guns was
more than Krupp and Skoda could
make good, there was danger to the
enemy in beginning another great
offensive likely to overtax his shell-
makers and gun-makers. Von Falken-
hayn's great concentration against the
British army, for example, remained
perhaps, only a silent demonstration
because of the shell and gun difficulty.



There was, of course, ample munition
for a most violent and sustained attack,
but if after another operation like that
at Verdun the British line was un-
broken and its artillery power un-
diminished, it would be difficult for
the enemy to turn against re-armed
Russia.

The attacks continued on the Heights
of the Meuse and especially around
Dead Man Hill, to the middle of April.
Victorious Verdun was still being blown
up in flaming ruin like Rheims and
Ypres. Whenever an infantry assault
failed, the Germans hurled incendiary
shells into the unattainable town.
The price at which the Crown Prince
was to be allowed to ride by Vauban's
citadel was much higher in April than
it was in February. General Petain
was a hard bargainer. And he could
not be left alone. He had forcibly to
be kept in the position he occupied, for
if the force against him weakened he
might in turn employ his enormous
artillery power to blast a path right
through the German lines. His posi-
tion, at the eastern corner of the long
German line stretching to the sea,
was very menacing. Far from the
Battle of Verdun being ended, there
were possibilities in it of a decisive
development. NORTHCLIFFE.




AN ANTI-AIRCRAFT GUN ON A FIXED MOUNT



454




Camouflaged German Artillery Advancing

CHAPTER XXIX

The Battle of Verdun II

THE GERMANS NOW STRIVE TO REDUCE THE MAN POWER

OF FRANCE



"'T'HE Qth of April," said General
* Petain to his men, "is a day of
glory for your arms. The fierce as-
saults of the Crown Prince's soldiers
have everywhere been thrown back.
Infantry, artillery, sappers and avia-
tors of the Second Army have vied
with one another in heroism. Courage,
men. On les aura!" So in a key of
quiet confidence for France, the first
phase of the great battle of Verdun had
come to an end, and with it all hope of
sweeping German victory. After two
months of fighting the attack had
gained little more than on the first
days in February. On the right bank
of the Meuse it had reached the last
line of the defenses of Verdun, on the
left bank it had destroyed the whole of
the first line on the Forges, but had
failed to capture Hill 304 and le Mort
Homme.

VERDUN BECOMES A SYMBOL BOTH TO
FRANCE AND TO GERMANY.

Only a brief resting space that lasted
until the end of the month, and the
second phase of the battle of Verdun
the battle of German "fixation"
began and lasted until mid-July. The
enemy had thrown in thirty divisions
where they meant to have used eight,
and Verdun in future must cost less;
must serve to bleed France's strength
. rather than open the gateway to her
capital. Furthermore, the battle had



passed out of the realms of strategy
into politics, where the High Command
was spending German reserves because
its reputation was at stake, because
having thrown so much upon the ven-
ture it could not retire without at
least some return. So the press was
gagged and deceived, and communiques
falsified, and the Fatherland continued
to glory in the enterprise, while all the
time the Great Headquarters knew
that by May the campaign "bore the
stamp of the first great battle of
attrition, in which the struggle for
victory meant feeding a stationary
fighting line with a continuous mass
of men and materials," in the words of
General Ludendorff.



PHASES OF THE FIGHTING IN THIS
1 SECOND BATTLE.

As before the opening attacks in
February, so in April the Germans
made feints to deceive French opinion.
Hints of new activity in the North Sea,
of fresh air-raids over Britain, and of
enemy-fostered rebellion in Ireland,
seemed to point to the fact that Eng-
land and not France was about to re-
ceive the Teuton onslaught. But in
the first week of May fighting broke
out fiercely on the left bank of the
Meuse and gradually spread east
across the river, and the cdtes to the
level Woevre once more. This later
fighting may be divided into three

455



HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR



parts. First of all, the German right
wing sought to capture Hill 304 and
Mort Homme and drive the French
back upon their final defenses. Simul-
taneously the French counter-attacked
on the right bank and regained Douau-
mont Fort for a brief space. Then the
Germans in concentrated attack from
Douaumont threw themselves upon
the last line of the right bank defenses
covering Verdun and won the Fort of
Vaux, the work of Thiaumont, and the
village of Fleury for a short while, and
brought their armies within four miles
of the walls of Verdun itself.

The French first line on the left
bank ran along the northern edge of
the plateau sloping south from Forges
river, somewhat in the shape of an S
lying upon its side. Its strongest points
were the Mort Homme and Hill 304,
separated from each other by the little
Esnes, a branch of the Forges. Mort
Homme in its turn is made up of two
hills, Hill 265 on the northwest, and
Hill 295 on the southwest. The capture
of the lower Hill 265 had been claimed
by the Germans as Mort Homme
proper. These hills formed the out-
works of the main French position
lying farther to the south on Charny
ridge. In his attempts to break
through, the enemy spread the battle
line ever towards the west, as he tried
first to take Mort Homme by frontal
assault, then to turn the position by
attacking it from Hill 304, and lastly
failing this he endeavored to turn
Hill 304 by an attack from the Avo-
court wood.

THE GERMAN ATTACK ON HILL 304 IS
BEGUN.

On May 3, after three weeks of
desultory fighting the artillery began
a tremendous bombardment of the
French first trenches on Hill 304. For
three days and three nights the ridge
was swept by a storm of steel and high
explosive, and none dared show him-
self on its expanse. Then the German
infantry attacks began and because
the artillery had practically obliterated
the French front lines, the enemy got a
footing on the ridge and endeavored to
develop it. His efforts were fruitless
and he turned now to attacking

456



Avocourt Wood in an attempt to turn
Hill 304 from there.

THE FIERCE GERMAN ATTACK ON DEAD
MAN'S HILL.

The Germans pounded the French
artillery in the wood, May 17, and the
battle spread east and all along the
line to the Meuse. The thunder of t\\e
guns filled the air and the May days
were obscured under a thick pall of
smoke, so dense that it often rendered
aerial reconnaissance impossible.
Fiercest and most severe were the
attacks on Mort Homme, from north-
east and northwest. In the east the
attack failed, but in the west it gained
possession of some French trenches, so
that no longer was the summit domi-
nated by the French guns but swept
by the gunners of both sides. Never-
theless, the French defense was taking
heavy toll of the enemy whose dead
encumbered the ravines and raised
the level of the ground several me-
tres. "It is absolutely impossible,"
wrote a French officer, "to convey
what losses the Germans suffer in these
attacks. Nothing can give an idea of
it. Whole ranks are mowed down and
those that follow them suffer the same
fate. Imagine if you can what it would
be like to rake water. Those gaps
filled up again at once. That is enough
to show with what disdain of life the
German attacks are planned and
carried out." Sometimes the enemy
used the mounds of dead as shelter
before making the next rush.

THE FRENCH PREPARE TO RETAKE FORT
DOUAUMONT.

By this time the French command,
in order to relieve the pressure on
Mort Homme, gave orders for a
counter-attack upon the right bank.
Fort Douaumont, which had been
entered by the Brandenburgers in the
dark days of February, was the ob-
jective chosen. The Germans had
strengthened their hold upon the fort,
and held east, west and north of it very
strongly. Only on the south could
they make no headway, and there their
artillery poured a daily flood of cur-
tain fire. Nivelle had now succeeded
Petain in the defense of Verdun, when
the latter superseded Langle de Gary



HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR



in command of the Central Group of
the French armies. Preparations for
the retaking of Douaumont were pa-
tient and thorough. Since the fort had
fallen, its place had been taken by
Fort Vaux and working from this base
during the months of April and May
the French had advanced and captured
Caillette Wood and Hardaumont.

The Fifth Division of the Third
Corps had been chosen, among picked
troops, to deliver the attack on



selves for further battles, in which you
will have the absolute certainty of your
superiority over an enemy whom you
have seen so often flee or raise his
hands before your bayonets and gren-
ades. You are certain of that now.
Any German who gets into a trench of
the Fifth Division is dead or captured.
Any position methodically attacked by
the Fifth Division is a captured posi-
tion. You march under the wings of
Victory."




THE DEFENSES OF VERDUN TO THE WEST OF THE MEUSE

The first French line ran north of Forges Brook in a salient whose arc rested on Avocourt and Forges. Behind this
lay strong positions on Hill 304, le Mort Homme and Cumieres. The main line to the south, on Charny ridge be-
tween Bois de Bourrus and Meuse, was never reached by the enemy who achieved his farthest advance at Chat-
tancourt. The maps on pages 437 and 452 s.iould also be consulted in this connection.

THE GERMAN OBSERVATION BALLOONS
ARE DESTROYED.



Douaumont, and in mid-April had
been sent to the rear to refit and rest.
Before they went their commander,
General Mangin, thus addressed them:
"You are going to reform your de-
pleted ranks. Many among you will
return to your homes and will bear
with you to your families the warlike
ardor and thirst for vengeance which
inspires you. There is no rest for any
Frenchman as long as the barbarous
enemy treads the hallowed ground of
our country; there can be no peace for
the world so long as the monster of
Prussian militarism has not been laid
low. You will therefore prepare your-



Within a month the Fifth were back,
burning for the fray. The German
flanking and communication trenches
were strongly held. In the French plan
of attack, upon the i2Qth Regiment in
the centre devolved the task of captur-
ing the fort itself, the 36th and 74th
were to take the positions respectively
west and east of the fort. Nor were the
men of the Fifth Division deceived as to
the kind of fighting that would follow,
and all' knew that German counter-
attacks of the fiercest kind might be
expected. At 8 o'clock on the morning

457



HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR



of the 22nd of May a French aeroplane
squadron went up and flew above the
German sausage-balloons doing ob-
servation work. The fortunes of war



they were strengthening their hold
upon Douaumont, the left and right
wings of the attacking force were meet-
ing with fierce resistance. The 36th



had given Mangin the use of a new succeeded in dislodging the Germans



invention, as auspicious preface to his
attack upon the fort. Whilst the
watchers gazed, dark objects fell from
the bombing squadron and in a mo-
ment six of the enemy balloons Went



from their positions, but on the right
the resistance was more formidable as
the artillery preparation had been less
effective, and the enemy still held
communication trenches whence he




WHAT WAS LEFT OF FORT DOUAUMONT

This is ground consecrated to the deathless heroism of the French troops. Douaumont was entered by the Third
Brandenburgers February 26, 1916; a brilliant counter-attack led by General Mangin recaptured it for France
May 22. Two days later again it fell to the Germans but was finally recaptured by the French, October 24.



up in a puff of smoke and fell flaming
to the ground. The new French bomb
of high explosive force was made up
of a large body which as it fell split up
into smaller bombs each composed of
minute pa'rticles of burning chemical.
Soon the German artillery fire began
to fall wide of the mark and a French
poilu remarked, "We have put a
bandage around the Boches' eyes."

T^vOUAUMONT IS GALLANTLY TAKEN BUT
LJ NOT HELD.

At ten minutes to twelve after pre-
liminary bombardment the men of the
i2Qth Regiment leaped forward in open
order. At twelve a Bengal light upon
the fort showed that in the short space
of time the Normans had gone through
three lines of intrenchments and gained
the southwest angle of the fort. While

458



could serve the French infantry with
enfilading fire. The German counter-
attack was not long delayed. That
night when darkness fell, and the
mists were climbing from the Woevre,
heavy bombardment swept down upon
the i2Qth Regiment in the fort. At
dawn in hideous crescendo every avail-
able piece concentrated upon the
ruins, infantry attacks followed, and
alternated with bombardment all
through one hectic day. Nevertheless,
the 1 29th held fast, and were able to
boast that they had not yielded an
inch of ground when they in turn were
relieved. For two days the fort held;
it took two fresh divisions before it
was again wrested from the French;
and the heroic little episode had only
heightened the endurance and stiffened



HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR



the morale of the defenders of Verdun,
besides losing the Germans some
trenches east and west of the position.

THE VIOLENT GERMAN ASSAULTS ON THE
TWO HILLS.

As if in concert with the volume of
the guns across the Meuse, so now
German onslaughts upon Mort Homme
and Hill 304 grew in fury, and the