"It was the Munsters that charged first, with a sprig of shamrock on their caps; then the Dublins, the Worcesters, the Hampshires. Lying on the beach, on the rocks, on the lighters, they cried on the Mother of God. There, now, was Midshipman Drury swimming to a lighter which had broken loose, with a line in his mouth and a wound in his head. If ever a boy deserved his Victoria Cross, that lad did. And there was the captain of the River Clyde, now no longer a ship to be stuck to but a part forever of Gallipoli, alone with a boat by the spit of rock, trying to lift in the wounded under fire.
"All these things I saw as in a dream. Columns of smoke rose from the castle and town of Seddul-Bahr as the great shells from the fleet passed over our heads and burst, and in every lull we heard the wounded.
"At 1 o'clock the Lancashires were appearing over the ridge to the left from 'Lancashire landing.' "We saw fifteen men in a window in the castle on the right by the water. They signaled that they were all that remained of the Dublins who had landed at the Camber at Seddul-Bahr. At 3 o'clock we got 150 men alive to shore. We watched our men working to the right and up into the castle ruins—at each corner the officer crouching in front with revolver in rest.
"When night came a house in Seddul-Bahr was burning brightly and there was a full moon. We disembarked men at once. All around the wounded cried for help and shelter against the bullets, but there was no room on boats or gang-way for anything but the men to come to shore.
"For two nights no one had slept and then another day dawned. We were firmly ashore at Lancashire landing, and at Du Toit's battery to the northeast, and the Australians were dug in at Anzac. An end had to be made of V beach. The whole fleet collected and all morning blew the ridge and castle and town to pieces.
"And all the time that wonderful infantry went forward up the hill and through the ruined town. The troops that went in that attack had already lost half their strength; the officers that led up those narrow streets were nearly all killed. Dead beat, at 1 o'clock, before the final rush, they hesitated. Then our last colonel, a staff man, Col. Doughty Wylie, ran ashore with a cane, ran right up the hill, ran through the last handful of men sheltering under the crest, took them with a rush into the Turkish trench, and fell with a bullet through his head. But the Turks ran and the ridge was ours."
Many weeks of bloody fighting followed and while there was talk early in November of a possible abandonment of the Dardanelles campaign, the end of the month found the struggle still in progress, with no end in sight.
Official figures made public October 15, show that the British casualties at the Dardanelles up to October 9 were 96,899, of whom 1,185 were officers. The casualties among the Australian troops on the Gallipoli peninsula up to the same date amounted to 29,121 officers and men.
THE ATTITUDE OF GREECE.
On September 23, acting upon the advice of Premier Venizelos, King Constantine of Greece ordered a general mobilization of the Greek army, "as a measure of elementary prudence in view of the mobilization of Bulgaria." Ten days later Premier Venizelos resigned upon official notice that the King could not support his war policy, which was believed to reflect the sentiments of the Greek people and to support the Allies. King Constantine then endeavored to form a coalition ministry. The great point at issue was whether Greece should support or oppose the passage of the Allies through Greek territory to the aid of Serbia. British and French troops to the number of 70,000 had meanwhile been landed at Saloniki, the great Greek seaport, and were being hurried to the support of the Serbians in their central territory, to oppose the incursion of the Austro-Germans and the Bulgarians. In November King Constantine and his military chiefs were visited by Field-Marshal Earl Kitchener, the British Secretary of War, who made such demands upon them in the interest of the Allies, backed by a temporary blockade of the Greek coasts by the British and French fleets, that on November 25 it was announced that cordial relations between Greece and the entente powers had been established. The Greek government gave assurances that no attempt would be made to interfere with the Allies' troops should they under any contingency be forced to cross the Greek frontier, but that railway and other facilities would be afforded them. It was understood that the Allies also promised Greece a monetary indemnity after the war for any damage that might be done through the occupation of Greek territory.
With the question of Grecian intervention out of the way, the Allies then occupied themselves with the attitude of Rumania and the intervention of Russia in behalf of Serbia, in order that the latter country might be saved from the fate of Belgium. It was generally understood that Rumania could not afford to incur the enmity of Germany by active interference in behalf of Serbia, even though the Serbians and Rumanians were natural allies against Bulgaria.
On November 26, M. Pachitch, the Serbian premier, received a personal telegram from the Russian emperor, in which the latter promised the early appearance in Bulgaria of Russian troops and the Italian government also promised the Serbians to send to their aid an expeditionary force of 40,000 men. It was believed possible that the Russian forces might seek to advance through Rumania, instead of forcing a landing on the Black Sea coast of Bulgaria—in which case the crossing of Rumanian territory by Russian troops would bring Rumania into a serious situation both economically and politically, and render it difficult if not impossible for her to preserve her neutrality. At this time Russia had concentrated a great army near the Rumanian frontier, and it was understood that a large number of heavy guns had arrived at Odessa for its use. The direction in which this Russian army would move depended entirely upon the policy adopted by the Rumanian government.
AMERICAN LOAN TO THE ALLIES.
On September 28, formal announcement was made in New York of the terms of an American loan to Great Britain and France, arranged by a commission of British and French financial authorities after conferences with American bankers; a bond issue of $500,000,000 was soon floated, drawing 5 per cent interest and issued to the syndicate at 96; the money to remain in the United States and to be used only in payment for commodities.
Late in November the French people were called upon to subscribe to a "loan of victory." The response from the people of Paris alone in one day amounted to $5,000,000,000, thus exceeding the records of all former popular war loans, including British and German issues, and typifying the patriotic ardor of the French people and their determination to continue the war to an issue successful to allied arms.
THE WESTERN CAMPAIGN.
After a week's heavy bombardment of the German lines, an important offensive movement was undertaken on September 25 by the French and British against the German lines on the western front. The forward movement occurred simultaneously in the Champagne district, between Rheims and Verdun, by the French and in the Artois district, between Ypres and Arras, by combined British and French forces. While the Allies did not succeed in gaining much ground, and both sides suffered heavy losses, it was claimed by the French war office on September 29 that as a result of the four days' assaults of the Anglo-French forces the Germans suffered losses amounting to the effective strength of 120, men, while 23,000 men and 120 cannon were captured from the Teutonic enemy. This constituted the result of what was described as the great Anglo-French drive of the autumn, and the situation on the western front then settled down once more into a state of siege. The first-line trenches of the opposing forces along a wide-flung front were within a short distance of each other. A new method of warfare had been developed and the world began to realize that all historic conditions of war had been revolutionized by the use of scientific weapons of destruction like the machine gun, which mowed down men like hay, and the high explosive shell that destroyed protective works as if they were made of cardboard and filled the trenches with dead and dying bodies. Such was the situation on the western front in the beginning of December. No let-up in the determination of either side; no advance seemingly possible, no attack that was not followed by a counter-attack; no gain of any consequence anywhere; no possibility seemingly of any decisive battle; nothing in sight but an absolute deadlock.
ON THE EASTERN FRONT.
Late in September the German campaign against Russia appeared to lose most of its force. Continued attempts were made by Field Marshal von Hindenburg to fight his way to Riga, but without avail, and Russian successes at various points along the eastern battle front were numerous in October and November. The Russians declared on November 15 that they deemed the city of Riga safe, and by November 26 it was apparent that the Germans were engaged in a general retirement all along the River Dvina. The Allies then became interested in the Kaiser's probable choice of a line of defense for the winter on the northern section of his Russian front. The breakdown of the German offensive was attributed by the Allies to three things—the increase in the Russian ammunition supply, a German shortage of munitions, and the weakening of the German line for the Balkan campaign.
BULGARIA ENTERS THE WAR.
On October 1, 1915, it was evident that Bulgarian forces would shortly be employed on the side of the central powers. Bulgarian troops from Sofia were moving on to the Serbian frontier. King Ferdinand had ordered the mobilization of all men under sixty-five years of age and martial law was proclaimed, no citizen under forty-five being allowed to leave the country. On October 4 Russia sent an ultimatum to Bulgaria and the Russian minister was ordered to leave Sofia if by 4 p.m., October 5, Bulgaria did not definitely break with Germany, Austria and Turkey. All the allied powers supported Russia in this demand. Bulgaria did not reply within the time specified and the Russian minister was reported too ill to move from Sofia, thus indicating that the diplomats of the great contending powers were still at work in an effort to secure the important support of Bulgaria in the Balkan campaign which was imminent.
On October 6, when Bulgaria was said to have sent an ultimatum to Serbia demanding the territory ceded after the recent Balkan wars, the envoys of the Allies at Sofia requested their passports, and Bulgaria became an active participant in the war. The Bulgarian minister at Nish, the Serbian capital, received his passports on October 8, and on the same day the Bulgarian minister at Paris was handed his passports. On the following day, October 9, Belgrade, the former Serbian capital, was occupied by Austro-German forces and the invasion of Serbia by Austria and Germany from the north and by Bulgaria from the east began in earnest. The Serbian capital was removed the same day to Ishtib, in the south.
THE SERBIAN CAMPAIGN.
When the great army of Germans and Austrians entered Serbia at Belgrade and other points along the Danube and began to drive the Serbian forces to the south, they met with immediate and continued successes. Bulgarian troops meanwhile pressed the Serbians on the west and by the end of November it seemed as if the entire territory of Serbia was doomed to the fate of Belgium. But on the south, allied troops, including a great body of French who had been landed at Saloniki in Greece and made their way northward, disputed the advance of the invaders and at several points drove back the Bulgarians, thus holding the southern territory of Serbia for their ally in the same manner that Flanders was being held by the Allies for Belgium.
SECOND WINTER OF WAR
In all the arenas of the great struggle, the winter campaign of 1915-16, the second winter of the war, was accompanied by unparalleled hardships and sufferings. It was, in fact, described by Major Moraht, military expert of the Berliner Tageblatt and the best known German military critic, as "the most terrific campaign in the world's history." Hundreds of thousands of men of all classes, in all the armies stretched along the battle fronts east and west, struggled against wind, weather, and winter amid conditions of the most extreme self-denial. Speaking for the Teutonic forces in January, Major Moraht said: "On our western and eastern fronts and along the lines held by our Austro-Hungarian allies, the conditions under which we must stubbornly hold out are such as never in the history of the world's most terrible campaign had to be endured before." The winter was exceptionally severe and men were invalided by the thousands, owing to frost-bites, despite ingenious precautions and the fact that their spells in the trenches were reduced considerably.
The conditions faced by the Austrians and Italians in the Alps and on the Isonzo were especially appalling. Thus a detachment of Austrian and Alpine troops, engaged in patrol duty, met its doom in an avalanche in southern Tyrol. Only one out of twelve was rescued alive, and he lay buried under snow for fourteen hours before he was rescued.
Added to the sufferings of the fighting men during the winter the sum total of human misery in Europe when 1916 dawned was vastly increased by the awful conditions prevailing in Poland and in Serbia. Poland, a land long recognized as given over to sorrows, had been crossed and recrossed by hostile armies. It had been harried, almost destroyed. Towns and food supplies, fields and granaries, were obliterated. The cattle had been driven off by the invaders and the people were left starving. The misery of Belgium a year before was as nothing compared with the misery of Poland amid the rigors of winter, and the unhappy country clamored for the help of happier peoples. It had become a land of graves and trenches, of ruin and destruction on a scale that had been wrought nowhere else by the war. Many of the abandoned trenches were the temporary "homes" of countless refugees, mostly women and children, who had been driven from their homes in the burned and ruined villages that dotted the land. And there was little or no relief in sight for the stricken Poles, innocent victims of a ruthless war and pitiful playthings of Fate.
ON THE WESTERN FRONT
Artillery fighting with mortars and long-range cannon was a continuous performance during December and January in nearly every section of the western battle line. Every day tens of thousands of shells, both high explosive and shrapnel, were hurled at the trenches and men were killed or wounded by the score at a time. To the war-hardened men behind the guns on both sides this business of slaying and running the risk of being slain or crippled became so prolonged and monotonous that they thought no more of it than of cutting down a forest or building a pontoon bridge.
Early in January the city of Nancy, just behind the French lines, was bombarded for three days by German 15-inch guns. Much damage was done and a number of the inhabitants were killed and wounded. As a consequence there was an exodus from the city, safe conducts being issued to more than 30,000 persons.
Estimates made in Vienna of the total booty of the Teutonic allies during the first seventeen months of the war, up to January 1, 1916, were as follows: Nearly 3,000,000 prisoners, 10,000 guns, and 40, machine guns, while 470,000 square kilometers of enemy territory had been occupied.
About the same time the German losses, as compiled from official lists, were estimated at 2,588,000, including over 500,000 killed and 350, taken by the Allies as prisoners of war.
CONSCRIPTION IN ENGLAND
After every effort had been exhausted in the British Isles to raise troops by voluntary enlistment, first under Lord Kitchener and then under Lord Derby, the British government was finally compelled to resort to conscription, although nearly 3,000,000 men had voluntarily responded to the call to the colors. A bill was presented in the House of Commons by Premier Asquith on January 5, 1916, providing for compulsory service by "all men between the ages of 18 and 41 who are bachelors or widowers without children dependent on them." Ireland was excluded from the terms of the measure, which finally passed the Commons on January 20, the opposition having dwindled to a meager handful of votes. Four members of the Cabinet, however, resigned as a protest against conscription.
BRITISH BATTLESHIPS SUNK
On January 9 the British battleship King Edward VII foundered at sea as the result of striking a mine. Owing to a heavy sea it had to be abandoned and sank shortly afterward. The entire crew of nearly 800 men were saved. The vessel was a predreadnaught of 16,350 tons and cost nearly $8,000,000. A week previously the British battleship Natal, a vessel of similar character, was sunk by an internal explosion.
The main battle fleets of both Britain and Germany remained "in statuo quo" up to March 1, 1916. British cruisers and patrol ships maintained a constant watch upon the waters of the North Sea, and visitors permitted to see the battle fleet at its secret rendezvous reported efficiency and eternal vigilance as its watchwords. The German fleet lay in safety in the Kiel Canal, still awaiting orders to put to sea and enjoy "der Tag," after nineteen months of inactivity.
RUSSIA'S WINTER CAMPAIGN
After several months of comparative inactivity Russia launched a forward movement against the Austro-German forces late in December. This winter drive was not unexpected, as the Russian armies had had time to recover from their reverses of the summer and autumn of 1915 and had received much-needed supplies of guns and ammunition.
The fact that Russia was vigorously on the offensive again was soon demonstrated. The first week of 1916 was marked by a progressive development of a forward Russian movement extending along the Stye and Strypa rivers from the Pripet marshes to Bessarabia. The main attack seemed to be directed against Bukowina and Eastern Galicia, and for some time the pressure of the Russian attacks forced back the lines of the Austro-German right along the eastern front.
During January the Russians were also actively engaged against the Turks in the Caucasus, where the battle front was over 100 miles long, and against the Turks, aided by Germans in Persia, They began a general offensive in the Caucasus on January 11 and made steady gains over the Turks, while similar successes attended their efforts in Persia, where revolutionists had entered the field against the Russians and British.
THE BALKAN CAMPAIGN
The month of December saw the end of the Austro-German and Bulgarian drives through Serbia. By the end of the year the remnants of the Serbian army had been driven across the frontiers and some 50,000 of them found refuge in January on the Greek island of Corfu, which was seized by the Allies for that purpose. King Peter found an asylum in Italy; Belgrade and Nish were occupied by Austrians and Germans, and the Bulgarians halted at the Greek border. The small British and French forces in Serbia, greatly outnumbered, retired before the enemy's advance from north and east, but saved the Serbian army from total annihilation by protecting its retreat to the southern frontier. Then the British and French retreated across the Greek border to Saloniki, where they were largely reinforced and proceeded to fortify themselves against possible German or Bulgarian attacks. King Constantine of Greece, brother-in-law of the Kaiser, feebly protested against the proceedings of the Allies on Greek soil, saying that he wished his country to remain neutral—but his protest was offset by the facts that the great majority of the people of Greece were favorable to the Allies and that their landing at Saloniki was for the purpose of aiding Serbia, Greece's friend and ally, which Greece had notably failed to do. Frequent threats of the bombardment of Saloniki by the Germans or by the Bulgars were made during January, but up to February 10 the threatened attack had failed to materialize and the Allies were strongly intrenched in a 30-mile arc around the town, while the guns of a powerful fleet of British and French warships commanded the approaches and protected transports and landings.
SINKING OF THE PERSIA
On December 30 the Peninsular & Oriental liner Persia was torpedoed by a submarine, probably Austrian, in the Mediterranean about 300 miles northwest of Alexandria, and sank in five minutes. One hundred and fifty-five out of the 400 passengers and crew were landed at Alexandria on January 1, and eleven others were subsequently reported safe. Among those lost was Robert N. McNeely, who was on his way to take up his duties as American consul at Aden.
FROM BERLIN TO CONSTANTINOPLE
By the middle of January German engineers had succeeded in repairing the railroad bridges and roadbed destroyed during the Serbian campaign and thus reopened direct communication between Berlin and Constantinople.
CANADIAN PARLIAMENT BUILDING BURNED
On the night of February 3 the beautiful Gothic structure which housed the Canadian Parliament at Ottawa—the architectural pride of the Dominion—was wrecked by a fire which started in a reading room adjacent to the chamber of the House of Commons. Six persons, two of them women friends of the Speaker's family, lost their lives. The House was in session when the fire broke out, and many members and other occupants of the building escaped narrowly and with great difficulty. The money loss from the fire was enormous, and priceless paintings, books and national documents were destroyed.
Opinions differed as to the causes of the fire, but the occurrence about the same time of several highly suspicious fires in Canadian munition factories and the unexplained rapidity with which the Parliament Building fire spread with mysterious volumes of suffocating smoke, caused widespread suspicion that the disaster was of incendiary and enemy origin. A tidal wave of resentment flooded the Dominion and deep feeling was aroused against men of German birth or extraction remaining in Canada, some of them occupying public positions of responsibility. A Commission was appointed by the Government to investigate the causes of the fire, and, pending its report, official denials were made that German spies had anything to do with the burning of the Houses of Parliament. These denials, however, failed to convince the Canadian people that German sympathizers were entirely innocent of any participation in the origin of the conflagration.
The ruined building was the central structure of the magnificent group of Government buildings at Ottawa, and one of the finest examples of Gothic architecture on the Continent. The Library of Parliament, occupying a separate structure in the rear of the building wrecked, was fortunately spared by the fire. It was announced by the Premier, Sir Robert Borden, that steps would be taken to replace the Parliament Building with a still finer structure, and the Houses of Parliament continued their sessions in temporary quarters. One immediate result of the fire and of the suspicions attached to its origin was to stimulate recruiting in the Dominion and stiffen the resolve of the Canadian people to do their utmost to aid the success of British arms at the European front. Canada became more than ever an armed camp of determined patriots. The general sentiment was expressed by the Toronto Globe, which said: "If German agents see a way to injure Canada, they will stop at nothing to compass their ends. Arson to them is a commonplace and murder an incident in the day's work. The destruction of the Parliament Building may have been the result of an accident, but the general belief at Ottawa is that it was the work of an incendiary."
RUSSIAN SUCCESSES IN ASIA MINOR
On February 15, following a five days' siege, Erzerum, the great Armenian fortress, where the main Turkish army of the Caucasus had taken refuge, fell into the hands of the Russians. The Turkish army numbered 160,000 men and was under the chief command of the German general, Field Marshal von der Goltz, formerly military governor of Belgium. The main body of the Turks managed to avoid capture at Erzerum, but the Russians took 15,000 prisoners there, besides hundreds of guns and immense quantities of munitions and supplies. Then began a determined and deadly pursuit of the Turkish army, with the object of driving it out of Armenia, and the efforts of the Russians met with continued successes. Turkish opposition in Asia Minor was swiftly broken down, and steps were taken by the Russians to relieve the British force which had been beleagured by the Turks at Kut-el-Amara, in Mesopatamia, 150 miles from Erzerum.
On February 27-28 the Turks hastily evacuated the important Black Sea port of Trebizond and neighboring cities before the victorious Russian advance. On March 1 two Russian armies were moving rapidly on Trebizond, one along the shores of the Black Sea through Rizeh, and the other in a northwesterly direction from Erzerum. The capture of Erzerum was effected in bitter wintry weather. During the assault on the fortress several Turkish regiments were annihilated or taken prisoners with all their officers. Many Turks perished from the cold.
GREAT BATTLE BEFORE VERDUN
One of the greatest and most sanguinary battles of the war began before Verdun on February 20, when the army of the Crown Prince of Germany, in the presence of the Kaiser, started a determined and desperate drive against the great French fortress. Ever since the battle of the Marne halted the German advance on Paris early in September, 1914, the forces of the Crown Prince had been striving unsuccessfully to break through the French lines north and east of Verdun, but the fortress had well maintained its reputation for impregnability and continued to bar the high road to Paris.
For ten days the battle raged on the plains, in the forests and on the hills before Verdun, and the loss of life was appalling on both sides. By February 26, after six days of continuous fighting, the Germans had penetrated the French lines along several miles of front, had occupied several villages a few miles north of Verdun, driven the French from the peninsula of the Meuse formed by a bend of the river about six miles from the city, and carried by storm the outlying fort of Douaumont, at the northeast corner of the Verdun fortifications. But their advance was then halted by the French in a series of the most brilliant counter-attacks, and the German offensive appeared to die down by March 1, when their losses in the ten days' battle were estimated at 175,000, including between 40,000 and 50,000 killed. The French losses were heavy, but the nature of the German attacks, in which huge masses of men were hurled against the French entrenchments, exposed the Teuton forces "to the most withering and destructive fire from the French 75-centimeters and machine guns. The battle exceeded in violence and losses even the great battle of the Yser earlier in the war. Heavy reinforcements had been brought to the Verdun front by the Germans, and it was estimated that their forces engaged in the attack numbered at least 500,000 men, supported by numerous 15-inch and 17-inch Austrian mortars, with all the heavy German artillery used in the Serbian campaign and part of that formerly employed on the Russian front.
While the battle of Verdun was in progress, the Germans also made determined attacks in the Champagne region, graining some ground; but on March 1 the Allied lines were holding fast all along the western front.
Wounded soldiers returning from the front during the bloody struggle before Verdun told tragic tales of the fighting. "I watched the assault of the Germans upon the village of Milancourt, near the Meuse," said a wounded Frenchman. "They came in solid ranks, without a word, loading and reloading their rifles without cessation. Our seventy-fives fell among them, and then the mitrailleuses entered into action. It was no longer a battalion. It was a few scattered groups of men that one saw, torn by a rain of shells and bullets, squeezing close against each other as though for mutual protection.
"On the border of Montfaucon I saw one of these groups disappear at one blow, as if they had been swallowed into a marsh. Our shells! What frightful work they did. Never will I forget those fragments of human beings that fell just at my feet. Never can I forget that terrible picture.
"I followed the attack on Haumont and Samogneux. The field of battle was lighted as if in full day by star shells. Black masses of Germans advanced, protected by their artillery, while ours remained silent. Finally our artillery began, and then the enemy ranks wavered, halted and disappeared.
"Our guns had waited until the Germans were in a little hollow all arranged for the massacre. In a little while there lay the bodies of some 2,000 or 3,000 Germans. They occupied some villages, but their attack on Verdun has failed after terrible losses."
GERMAN SUBMARINE ACTIVITIES
The sinking of British and French ships, and sometimes neutral vessels, by German and Austrian submarines continued during the month of February. On February 27 the Peninsular & Oriental Line steamship Maloja, of 12,431 tons, was sunk by a torpedo or mine only two miles off the Admiralty pier at Dover, with a loss of 155 lives, including many passengers, men, women and children, en route to India. Dozens of craft went at once to the rescue, and one of them, the Empress of Fort William, a vessel of 2,181 tons, was also torpedoed or struck a mine and sank nearby. Of the Maloja's passengers and crew, 260 were rescued.
On February 28 the great French liner La Provence was sunk in the Mediterranean with a loss estimated at 900 lives. It had a displacement of 19,200 tons, length 602 feet, beam 65 feet, and had been in the service of the French Government as a troop transport.
Under new orders to their submarine commanders, in spite of protests by the United States Government, Germany and Austria inaugurated on March 1 the policy of sinking without warning all Allied merchant vessels believed to carry any armament for defensive purposes, and the world waited with bated breath for fresh developments of the Teutonic campaign of frightfulness.
CLIMAX OF THE WAR.
Prolonged Battle of Verdun the Most Terrible in History— Enormous Losses on Both Sides—Submarine Activity Imperils Relations of America and Germany.
Beginning with the first infantry attack by the Germans on Monday, February 21, after twenty-four hours of continuous bombardment, the battles incident to the siege of Verdun were fought at brief intervals during the next two months, down to the middle of April, and marked the climax of the War. The losses on both sides were enormous and extraordinary, and taken as a whole the struggle on the semicircular front north and east of the great French stronghold fully justified its description as "the most terrible battle in the world's history."
When spring of 1916 arrived, the struggle seemed to be a pretty even draw, but the end was not in sight. Both sides showed the greatest confidence in the outcome. In France the confidence of the nation found expression in the voice of M. Alexandre Ribot, the veteran minister of finance, who, having Verdun before his eyes, told the Chamber of Deputies: "We have reached the decisive hour. We can say without exaggeration, without illusion, and without vain optimism, that we now see the end of this horrible war."
But while the French were certain that victory would ultimately be theirs, the German papers and people were just as fully persuaded that this finest of the fortresses of France would finally fall before the determined assaults of the Kaiser's army, which no fort had, as yet, stopped.
Both sides recognized that this was the supreme moment of the War. The Germans had gained by April 15 from three to five miles along a front of about 15 miles, but had taken only two of the ring of minor forts around Verdun. The French claimed that the configuration of the ground occupied by the contending forces at that time made their line impregnable. Although Verdun was said by the German military experts to be only an incident in the German offensive which was planned to secure the final "decision," they realized the importance of Verdun to their whole line on the Western front, and knew its value too well not to make the most desperate and exhaustive efforts for its conquest.
A TERRIFIC ARTILLERY DUEL.
For many weeks the battle for Verdun was signalized by the most terrific artillery fire in history. No words can tell of the ear-stunning roar of the guns, or depict the horror of the tons of steel daily crashing and splintering amid massed bodies of men, while the softly-falling snows of late winter covered, but could not conceal, the ensanguined landscape. Modern warfare was seen at Verdun in all its panoply of terror. Amid fire and fury, the rich and fertile countryside was transformed into a vast scene of ruin and desolation, while heroism and self-sacrifice abounded on both sides, men were maddened by the frenzy of the fight and the ghastly horrors of night and day, and Death stalked gloatingly and glutted, but never surfeited, over the bloody field.
The German attacks followed one another so fast and so furiously that the weeks of fighting became one prolonged battle, and a description of one attack will almost serve for all. Thus, a wounded French officer said of the seven days of continuous fighting which opened the German offensive against Verdun: "The first symptom of the battle favorable to the French was the inability of the Germans to silence the French artillery. The attack opened with strong reconnoitering parties advancing, wherein was noted an unusually large proportion of officers. For the first time the German officers were seen to be leading their men into battle, instead of driving them, as had been the rule—and this was said to be at the behest of the watching Kaiser. Then came the infantry in great numbers. During the next two days the fighting waxed fiercer and fiercer.
"At first fourteen German divisions were engaged, then sixteen, and finally seventeen divisions (340,000 men). The French command at this point carried out a maneuver which will be recorded as a masterpiece in military history.
"If the Germans had been only fifteen yards away, the French could have been submerged by the attack, providing the attacking forces were prepared to make any sacrifice, but the distance being 1,500 yards there was little chance for the Germans against the opposing artillery. The French troops were accordingly swung back to positions from which they could see the Germans approaching over exposed ground. The effect was that the immediate front of the attack, which was originally twenty-five miles in extent, was reduced to nine miles, but even this soon proved too wide. The German losses were so great that the attack could not be kept up at all points; and at the end of the seventh day the offensive dwindled to fragmentary attacks,—but only to be renewed with added vigor after a brief period of rest for the infantry on both sides, while the artillery kept up its daily and nightly duel without ceasing, until the entire terrain became an earthly inferno, thickly scattered over with the dead and the dying."
THE DEADLY MINE IN CAURES WOOD.
Frightful in result, too, was the tragic stratagem played on the Germans in Caures Wood, near the village of Beaumont. The whole wood had been mined by the French, and was connected electrically with a station in the village. When the Germans had advanced, fully a division strong, to attack the wood, the French regiment holding it ran, as if seized with panic, back toward the village. The Germans pursued them with shouts of victory. Soon the last Frenchman had emerged from the trees, but the French commander waited until the Germans were all in the mined area. They were just beginning to debouch on the other side when he pressed the button. There was a tremendous roar, drowning for a moment even the boom of the cannon. The wood was covered with a cloud of smoke, and even on the French trenches in Beaumont "there rained a ghastly dew." When the French re-entered the wood, unopposed, they found not a single German unwounded, and hardly a score alive.
GERMAN LOSSES AT VERDUN.
The German successes during the weeks of fighting in the vicinity of Verdun, consisting of a series of advances along the front, without any decisive result so far as the strength of the defense of the main fortress was concerned, were gained at the cost of enormous losses in killed and wounded. These losses were estimated on April 7 to have reached the huge total of 200,000—one of the greatest battle losses in the whole range of warfare. During the period from February 21, when the battle of Verdun began, to April 1, it was said that two German army corps had been withdrawn from the front, having lost in the first attacks at least one-third of their force. They subsequently reappeared and again suffered like losses, the German reinforcements being practically used up as fast as they were put in line.
Declarations gathered from prisoners and the observations of the French staff led the latter to estimate that at least one-third of the total number of men engaged were the minimum losses of the German infantry during the first forty days of the battle, or 150,000 men of the first fighting line alone.
Concerning the German losses before Verdun, Col. Feyler, a Swiss military expert, wrote on April 10 as follows: "It is certain that the first great attacks in February and March caused the German assailants very exceptional losses. The 18th army corps lost 17,000 men and the 3d corps lost 22,000. These are figures which in the history of wars will form a magnificent eulogy on the heroism of these troops. It will become a classic example, like that of the Prussian Guard at St. Privat, France, August 18, 1870. It is probable that before Verdun, as at St. Privat, the leaders underestimated the defenders' strength, especially in cannon and machine guns.
"There are other examples. In the unfruitful attack on Fort Vaux, the 7th reserve regiment was literally mowed down by machine guns, while the 60th regiment lost 60 per cent of its effectives. In the attack on the Malancourt and Avocourt woods, March 20, three regiments of the 11th Bavarian division, whose record in this war seems to have been particularly praiseworthy, lost about 50 per cent of their men."
LOSSES OF THE FRENCH.
While the greater bulk of the total losses in killed and wounded before Verdun was sustained by the Germans, however, it must not be imagined for an instant that the French defenders of the fortress escaped lightly. On the contrary, their losses were likewise enormous, being estimated by the German general staff at a total of not less than 110,000 from February 20 to April 1. A considerable number of French troops, officers and men, were also captured by the Germans during the numerous attacks in February, March and April upon the French trenches and other positions before Verdun.
A MILLION MEN ENGAGED.
Some idea of the tremendous forces engaged on both sides in what will probably be called in history "the Siege of Verdun," may be gained from the brief summary made on April 1 by an observer present with the army of the Crown Prince of Germany on the north front of the Verdun battlefield, from which point of vantage he telegraphed as follows:
"Probably not far from a million men are battling on both sides around Verdun. Never in the history of the world have such enormous masses of military been engaged in battle at one point.
"On the forty-mile semicircular firing-line around the French fortress, from the River Meuse above St. Mihiel to Avocourt, the Germans probably have several thousand guns, at least 2,500, in action or reserve. Were each gun fired only once an hour, there would be a shot every second.
"As probably half the guns are of middle and heavy caliber, the average weight per shell is certain to be more than twenty-five pounds. It follows that even in desultory firing about 160,000 pounds of iron, or from four to five carloads, are raining on the French positions every hour. And this is magnified many times when the fire is increased to the intensity which the artillerymen call 'drumming' the positions of the enemy.
"To the German guns must be added the tremendous amount of artillery used by the French in their defense, estimated to be almost as large now as that of the Germans. The conclusion is that more than 6,000 cannon, varying from 3-inch field guns to 42-centimeter (16-inch) siege mortars, are engaged in hurling thousands of high explosive shells hourly in the never-ceasing, thunderous artillery duels of the mighty battle of Verdun."
FROM A GERMAN OFFICER'S VIEWPOINT.
The stories told by those who, on the German side, lay in trenches under shell-fire before Verdun for days at a time and week after week, freezing, thirsting, in mud and water, between the dead and the dying, thrilled the hearer with their pathos and devotion. These were the men who, like the waves of the sea, beat almost incessantly against the obstinate fortifications of Verdun, and there learned a new respect for the French enemy. Such a story was written from the front in April by a German officer named Ross—a man of Scottish descent—who, before the war, was editor of a newspaper in Munich. In the Berlin Vossische Zeitung he said:
"It is a worthy, embittered foe against whom this last decisive struggle is aimed. France is fighting for her existence. She is no weaker than we are in men, guns, or munitions. Only one thing decides between us—will and nerves. Every doubting, belittling word is a creeping poison which kills joyful, strong hope and does more damage than a thousand foes. Only if we are convinced to our marrow that we shall win, shall we conquer.
"In this colossal combat, where numbers and mechanical weapons are so utterly alike, moral superiority is everything. We have more than once had the experience that the effective result of a battle has depended upon who considered himself the victor and acted accordingly. Often the merest remnant of will and nerves was the factor that influenced the decision.
"War, which only smoldered here and there during the endless trench fighting, like damp wood, burns here with such all-consuming fire that divisions have to be called up after days and hours in the trenches, and are ground to pieces and burned up into so many cinders and ashes.
"Such intensity of battle as is here before Verdun is unheard of. No picture, no comparison, can give the remotest conception of the concentration of guns and shells with which the two antagonists are raging against each other. I have seen troops who had held out in the fire for days and weeks, to whom in exposed positions food could hardly be brought, on whose bodies the clothes were not dry, who, yet reeking with dirt and dampness, had the nerve for new storming operations."
BATTLE OF CAILLETTE WOOD.
Among the fiercer struggles before Verdun, the battle of Caillette Wood, east of the fortress city, will have a place in history as one of the most bloody and thrilling.
The position of the wood, to the right of Douaumont, was important as part of the French line. It was carried by the Germans on Sunday morning, April 2, after a bombardment of twelve hours, which seemed to break even the record of Verdun for intensity. The French curtain of fire had checked their further advance, according to a special correspondent of the Chicago Herald, and a savage countercharge in the afternoon had gained for the defenders a corpse-strewn welter of splintered trees and shell-shattered ground that had been the southern corner of the wood. Further charges had broken against a massive barricade, the value of which as a defense paid good interest on the expenditure of German lives which its construction demanded. A wonderful work had been accomplished that Sunday morning in the livid, London-like fog and twilight produced by the lowering clouds and battle smoke.
FORMED A HUMAN CHAIN UNDER FIRE.
While the German assaulting columns in the van fought the French hand to hand, picked corps of workers behind them formed an amazing human chain from the woods to the east over the shoulder of the center of the Douaumont slope to the crossroads of a network of communicating trenches 600 yards in the rear.
Four deep was this human chain, and along its line nearly 3,000 men passed an unending stream of wooden billets, sandbags, chevaux-de-frise, steel shelters, and light mitrailleuses—in a word, all the material for defensive fortifications passed from hand to hand, like buckets at a country fire.
Despite the hurricane of French artillery fire, the German commander had adopted the only possible means of rapid transport over the shell-torn ground covered with debris, over which neither horse nor cart could go. Every moment counted. Unless barriers rose swiftly, the French counter-attacks, already massing, would sweep the assailants back into the wood.
Cover was disdained. The workers stood at full height, and the chain stretched openly across the hillocks, a fair target for the French gunners. The latter missed no chance. Again and again great holes were torn in the line by the bursting melinite, but as coolly as at maneuvers the iron-disciplined soldiers of Germany sprang forward from shelters to take the places of the fallen, and the work went on apace.
USE THE DEAD AS A SHELTER.
Gradually another line doubled the chain of the workers, as the upheaved corpses formed a continuous embankment, each additional dead man giving greater protection to his comrades, until the barrier began to form shape along the diameter of the wood. There others were digging and burying logs deep in the earth, installing shelters and mitrailleuses or feverishly building fortifications.
At last the work was ended at fearful cost; but as the vanguard sullenly withdrew behind it, from the whole length burst a havoc of flame upon the advancing Frenchmen. Vainly the latter dashed forward. They couldn't pass, and as the evening fell the barrier still held, covering the German working parties, burrowed like moles in the mass of trenches and boyeaux.
FRENCH PLAN TO BLAST BARRICADE.