ploughed up, and the German infantry hardly found a single defender at the beginning of the attack, which reached the Baril ravine, Fleury, the Thiaumont work, and even penetrated the moats or ditches of the Froide Terre work, where the advanced elements had been taken prisoner. The French counter-attacks, however, stopped the German attack. General Mangin, who commanded this section of defence, launched unceasing counter- attacks. They hurled themselves against the German attacks but their advance at first was very slow; however, that of the enemy was stopped and his will was soon to be conquered. The stubbornness of the two adversaries was equal, and the course of the battle reached a dead-lock, but it was felt that the battle had already assumed another aspect.
However, on the evening of the 23rd the situation was serious, as the German wave was very near to beating against the Belleville height, the last stronghold to keep it from Verdun.
It reached the head of the ravines coming down from Froide Terre towards the Meuse, and the Poivre height was in danger of being submerged and its defenders taken in rear. General Nivelle, commanding the army, conferred with Gen. Mangin. Both were in agreement in thinking that it was necessary to counter-attack to the utmost; the threatened front was in a position of unstable equilibrium, and its only salvation was to be found in a movement forwards; Gen. Nivelle approved the orders issued in consequence. On his return to his headquarters he found Gen. Petain, who satisfied himself that all measures were ready for the evacuation of the right bank, prepared down to the last detail. The positions for withdrawal by echelons were fixed in advance, in such a way that this masterly retreat would not leave a single trophy of war to the enemy. There was to be found in Gen. Petain an admirable steadfastness of soul. With the exception of Gen. Nivelle not one of his subordinates suspected his fears. When he asked that opinion should be prepared for the retreat to the left bank he was thinking of those at home; to his soldiers and their officers he continued to show an impassive countenance, and he kept on saying, " We shall have them! "
For the third time Gen. Petain pointed out the gravity of the situation to the commander-in-chief. A third of the French artillery was on the right bank and would be lost in case of a reverse if it was not withdrawn before the German artillery could fire on the bridges over the Meuse, and three days were needed to carry out this withdrawal; it would be wise to begin it.
General Joffre, however, was imperturbable. He replied on the 26th that the preparation for the Franco-British offensive had commenced, and repeated that Verdun should be defended on the right bank; should there be a loss of material as a result of this decision the commander-in-chief would assume the entire responsibility for it. When the telegram that he had ordered to be written to the above effect was handed to him by his chief-of- staff, the latter drew his attention to this decision and to the responsibility which he was assuming thereby. " I have taken many others," said placidly the general as he signed. He ex- plained the general situation to the Minister for War, who had invited him to hurry on the Franco-British attack; the launching of the offensive had been subordinated to the reinforcement of the British and Russian armies in men and material; the hour had struck, and the guns on the Somme made their thunder heard. The offensive, previously fixed for June 29, was postponed till July i on account of bad weather, which hampered the artil- lery preparation. But it was on that date that it had been fixed by Gen. Joffre on Feb. 18, three days before the attack on Verdun, which had not succeeded in advancing or delaying it a single day.
The French Counter-offensive. The end of June had witnessed the arrest of the German advance by French counter-attacks. The ground, which had been won at one blow on the 23rd, was regained step by step; on the edges of the Thiaumont work the conflict always remained fierce enough; vibrations on the front decreased in magnitude, but its general tendency was towards the N. and to the detriment of the assailant. The work or rather the small protuberance which marked the site of the work was taken and retaken to such a degree that it changed hands 16 times during the summer; the slight advances which had carried
the German line beyond the craters were gradually reduced, and from this side the initiative in attack belonged to the French.
On the other hand the German offensive continued to progress slightly in the direction of Fleury-Souville. The French had been almost completely thrown out of the village, which they had partly retaken on June 27.
The Crown Prince carried out anew a strong attack against Fort Souville. On July u, after a violent artillery preparation and a storm of asphyxiating shells which enveloped the attack zone, he hurled 13 regiments belonging to 5 different divisions in between the slopes E. of Thiaumont up to the Vaux-Chapitre wood. The attack made a little progress on the nth, very little on the i2th; a small detachment, however, was taken prisoner on the superstructure of Fort Souville. Certain counter-attacks organized unexpectedly had limited the gain of this strong offensive, very costly as it was in men, to a depth of 400 metres to the S. of Fleury on a front of 800 metres. By sheer tenacity a well-organized counter-attack led to the recapture of all the ground lost, resulting in the capture of many prisoners. After July 20 it was the French who attacked, in front of Souville as well as round Thiaumont. After the nth Mangin's command was i increased on this sector, and this unity made possible the powerful i concentrations of artillery fire. Local attacks could be preceded by preparation on a large front, and thus leave the enemy un- certain as to the precise point where the action would unfold itself. Often several attacks would be carried out at the same time several kilometres distant from one another.
These minor operations were organized in detail, and numerous prisoners were taken along the whole front. This had its in- fluence on the strength of the German troops, on their moral and physical condition, and on the march of reliefs and bringing up of supplies, which presented targets to the harassing fire carried out at night. The trenches to be attacked were covered by the fire of the 75*3, which put up a barrage behind and prevented the escape of the defenders; at the same time the heavy artillery pounded them, either killing or burying the defenders; before the attack it often happened that whole detachments came out and surrendered themselves, declaring the position to be unten- able. The advance of the attack was preceded by artillery fire from field guns which moved on at the same pace as the attacking ' infantry; this was the " creeping barrage," which made its appearance after the end of June. The French thus obtained the maximum results with the minimum losses. During the months of July and Aug. they took 3,500 prisoners, and their advance was continued.
The village of Fleury, retaken and lost again at the beginning of Aug., remained in the hands of the French from Aug. 17 1 onwards. The whole of the Fleury-Thiaumont crater was French, and the outskirts of Souville were well cleared on the north-east. But the enemy now attacked Souville on the E., issuing from Fort Vaux. He gained about 1,200 metres, and the pressure was disturbing. The unity of command then made itself felt between the Meuse and the Woevre, and produced its full results; at the beginning of Sept. the enemy was thrown back from the posi- tions which he had just taken, and confined to the outskirts of Fort Vaux, from the other side of a crater whose inner slopes provided a good position for the defence of Souville.
The French losses had been heavier than the German during the first period, but the proportion was now reversed.
Hindenburg, who had just assumed command, proposed to the Kaiser that the attacks should be discontinued, and explained this decision as follows: " The battles which were fought in this region exhausted our strength as does a wound that will not heal. It was evident that this adventure did not leave us the least hope from whatever point of view, and its continuation cost us much more men than it did our enemy. Our advanced positions were exposed everywhere to the enemy's flanking fire; liaison with the front line was exceedingly difficult. The battle- field was a veritable hell, and the troops considered it rightly as such. To-day, after a retrospective study, I do not hesitate to say that from the purely military point of view, it would have been more to our advantage to improve our position in front of
