• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

- I rn German possession until the' armistice Mackensen is supposed to have used two organized resistance. They took many riie German Rush as It Met the was signed. So did the Briey coal and thousand guns at the Dunajec. Von prisoners. But all along the line When the Whole World irbn fields. It was cxtremely improbable Falkenhayn used three thousand at Ver¬ French units offered fight. They sac- Reeovered Unshakable French that France ever would undertake an dun, most of them of the newer and rificed themselves in order to retard the Three offensive fromjthe Meusc, so long as the heavier calibres. German advancc. It took the shock Its Breath Along With German armies remained on the Aisne, Topographical conditions greatly infantry four days, from February 21 Years the Oise and the Somme. In Picardy the favored the artillery attack. The to February 25, to rcach the main Its were miles j. Ago Germans from French line of on only sixty Fffench positions on the east bank of defence the north, Hopes Paris. In 1915, 1916 and 1917 the French the river curved in a semicircle from from Samogneux to Forts de Douau- never were to risk an of¬ mont By William L. PVIcPherson strong enough Brabant, on the north, to the Cotcs of and Vaux. fensive on the Lorraine or Alsace bordcr. the continuous in the Douaumont on the Meuse on the south. When the empty shell of Fort de fighting east side of the river. The left The are sector. When the German attack slaek- bank northern was, therefore, not Douaumont was taken by the Branden- operation began on March n Hitherto ened on March ai!d only subject to direct fire, but could division on I, the real crisis of the lasted until April 11. the ,,r iSHE EPIC OF VERDUN." this is that von Falkenhayn was con- burg February 25 the Ger¬ centre of th bc enfiladed its whole length by man defence was over. attack being shifted This French phrase will stick a dcfcnsive in- Ignored along High Command thought that Ver¬ graduallv further ducting purely operation, German batteries near on the and further west. because of its felicity. The tended to make the German In German Forges, dun was won. But on that day the real Petain then had both the men and the The Germans ga^i TH_ positions fact, strategy in France, west bank, and in Wood to ground Spincourt French of but at an defence of the ancicnt fort- in France more secure an Al¬ both before and after von defence the fortress had guns to hold the positions on the east persistently, enormou* against Falkenhayn's the northeast of Ornes. The German cost. Near the river rcss on the Meusc was Homeric in qual¬ lied attack. offensive, completely ignored the threat only begun. bank of the Meuse. He had also devel¬ they pushed south fire on February 21 was massed con- the method of as far as the famous ity. There France met the rudest test 'The last, paragraph of the General of Verdun. After von Falkenhayn's dis- The fighting around Verdun divides oped counter attack. so two-crested Dead devotion and secutively on the various segments on to which had made Man's Hill, whose northern crest of the war with epical Staff's cxposition reads: missal von Hindenburg tranquilly went the itself into several easily distinguishable costly troops already thev northern cight mile front. Its in- saeririces to a which captured. But they never got fortitudc. "It ahead completing the vast fortified.zone phases. The first phase. ended on Feb¬ great gain position possession had not been possible for us up to tensity may be judged from the state¬ of the southern crest, or of Germany, near the peak of her mili¬ which bcars his name. 25. In the in their weakened condition they Hill 304 to the spring of 1916 to close this From that ;;one ment of a French officer that ruary opening five days the the west of it. the tary developmcnt, flushed by the ex¬ sally port. Ludendorff artillery Germans couldn't hold. He was reducing the bat¬ two keys cf the de War on two fronts had a substantial launched the great offensive fell in an area broke through the northern fence on this success of her Eastern cam- kept 80,000 projectiles 1,000 tie of Verdun to a series of ac- part of the Verdun traordinary of our forces in of 1918, regardless of the existence of face of the semicircular bridgehead east infantry front France in portion the Russian and metres long by 500 to (100 metres wide. tions in which .he better individual In order to facilitate paigns, challenged February, Balkan thcatres. when these forces the Verdun sally port. He probably could of the Mcuse and the French troops were fight¬ operations to an ordeal of endurance. It was Only of the French were against Pepper Ridge, on the 1915, had been released could the reduction of have made a successful drive south from A for drawn in on the eastern and southeastern ing qualities infantry east bank a in sheer Fight bound to tell in the run. And after von set out to to be competition staying Vcrdun be undertaken with the Argonne or east from the St. Mihiel faces. Three hundred thousand Germans long Falkenhayn earrv Goose both and moral. Yon this stratcgic March I the French to Ridge, on the west bank. power, physical purpose in view: first to close the salient and surrounded Verdun if he had Every Step were cngaged against about 100,000 artillery began !n order to had said that the Russians French measure up to the German in calibre and envelop Goose Ridge he triod Hindenburg so far as thought it necessary to do so in order to As at the Dunajec and in the French French. Besides their losses in dead and to take to a contest1 in which sally port, Germany was con- numbers. Dead Man's Hill. ln were not equal and the solidify the German defensive position in attack in the first line de- wounded the French lost between 10,000 order to envclon would to the belligerent with cerned, then, in course of further Champagne, Dead Man's Hill he shifted vietory go to France. fences were blasted away. Woods were and 20,000 prisoners. But this was the the attack U "the ncrves." His theory had operations, swing the door inward Hill 304. in order stronger toward Von ex¬ razed and the hi'lsidcs were ordinary cost of a line The Third Finally, to surround itself in the East. The Ger- France." Falkenhayn undoubtedly ploughcd holding subjeel Hill 304, he jubtified pected to repeat von Mackensen's cx- up. Most of the men in the trenches to "drum fire" bombardment. The Ger¬ Phase attempted to sma?h the mans aow to wdth it In this last phrase only is there any 1 rench line still sought experiment ploits on the He were either killed, wounded or mans had made an advance further west. the West. intimation that von Dunajcc. employcd stunned. averaging Malancourt and between in Falkenhayn expected the same mcans and the. same tactics. But the defence didn't melt three miles on the whole Eastern front Avocourt. All these ef. involvcd no to use Verdun as a base for an away. The third phase of the battie was the forts The campaign for Verdun advancc But he a and at broke down with torrifk on mct foe vastly better prc- Fortunately for the French the ad- Fort de Douaumont they were in extension of the German attack to the losses subtleties of strategy. Von Falkenhayn Paris. Yet, if he didn't, why did he Meanwhile on the east pared for defence than the Russians vanced linQs were lightly manncd. sight of Verdun. left bank of the Meuse. Halted at Dou¬ bank the Ger¬ set .out to eject the French by brute continue for months his costly effort to mans made a series. of were in 1915, and far superior in lead¬ There were only 100,000 French Petain's arrival was despcrate &s one of the destroy the French east troops the signal for a aumont, von Falkenhayn decided to try saults on foree from strongest positions bridgehcad of and morale. Fort de about a border and tho Meusc? ership in the Verdun sector and they were French counter attack. This cleared the to reach Verdun from the west. Tacti- Vaux, mil, they held between the Swiss All records were south of Fort de broken by the Ger¬ cvenly distributed over thd whole front. hill on which Fort de Douaumont an advance on the west bank had Douaumont. ThcJ And the strength of their posi¬ Verdun was never used as a man stood, cally lasted. with %Arras. French artillery concentration against the As in the east, the German shock a intermissions, from March tions didn't save the French. What for an lekving Brandenburg's battalion ma- been made necessary from the fact that « until sally port invasion of German are of the advanced French line north advanced at the end of Apri! 1. They were a was not the phalanxes the rooned in the dismantled work. From the French batteries on that side could complet* stopped Germany rampart Lorraine. Mctz remained undisturbed in of Verdun and east of the Mcuse. Von to failure. Then. on April 18. fhe of forts and trenches about Verdun, bombardment, expecting find no February 26 to February 29 there was enrilade the more advanced German line third hills, phase of the great battie ended with the but an ever renewed rampart of living repulse of an assaull on Pcoper Hi!!, men.

Load more

  1

Copy Link