- 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. The German casualties now rcai hed a France, still somewhat inferior to Ger¬ total of about 20o.nno. many in weight of artillery, but fully equal in the disciplinc and valor of her And infantry, didn't shrink from the ordeal. Falkenhayn At times it seemed as if the lines around Still Attacked Verdun would brcak under the stupen- Still von dous German pounding. They sagged, Haroid Horne Falkenhayn wouldn't admit By even after this testimony of his incompe- sick at hcart and defeat. The battie entered its but they were. never broken. After a Though wcak physi- articles cxciusively occurred to Wool- capital, but Woolworth had a sum fourth AN IMAGINARY Aladdin built a tence sickencd him to such an cxtent scanty phase on May 7. (Tn the west hand to hand struggle, which lastcd cally, he went on--as a drcamer, kept on worth it also dawned on a number of of $50. could bank of he was to They succeed. Woolworth the Meuse violent :. palacc a obliged retirc to his farm for going. men German attacks al! many months, French dc-gj." tri- by rubbing magic business in Watcrtown and some could but try and fail. the line a year to regain his health. When the. idea of a along culminated, on umphed. lamp. F. W. Woolworth rubbed. store selling 5 cent. of the surrounding stores. They had But so May 29, confident was he of the possi- in the capture of the southern summit the nickel and built a bilitics The Poilu ordinary of the idea that he denied the of Dead Man's H:!I, Then the attack real wonder in a world existence of to At His Best bored with won- difficulties, succeeded in bor- shifted the east bank. After a week on the of The superb military quality of the dcrs. rowing $300 basis of sheer en furious fighting Fort de Vaux wat French ioldicr never stood out more con- thusiasm, selected worth of taken. Just as the sun plays on the golden $322 goods than it did at Verdun. For and started a store in Utica, tho A breach was spicuously bail at the top of the Woolworth Build¬ tele- thus openrd in the Verdun was a battlc of unitc, of squads, gram ordering the goods eating up al! main French line of defrnrr. ing long after the rest of the is but rmrtheast of individuals.for inches of ground, city $5 of all he had. of Verdun. Through it the Germans scraps of wood.footholds on hill slopes, clothed in night, so will Woolworth's The store was a suecess. advanced in June against Fort de Yet his Sou- many times taken and retaken. Never romantic carecr play with the imagina- greatest problem in those days ville, two miles southwest of Fort d« was how before had enormous armies grappled so tion of postcrity long after the most fan- to draw a check or start an Vaux. They made some progress and for weeks so account or the of ferociously and weeks in tastic tares of are keep simplest books. fighting continued in this sector through fancy forgottcn. In business he was rcsdricted an area. distinctly a novice. July. But the British offensive on th' For the of the man was a That fact enhanccd Vcrdun's signifi- story human After a wdiile his trade ran down, but Somme now absorbed German atten- one. not from instead of canee. It also gave the struggle its sur- spun the brain of a poct waiting for it to petei out tion. The assault on Verdun flajrrni passing mora! value. French ncrves or artist, but from a dreamcr who entirely he moved to Lancaster. Penn.. and then ended. The and where May Juw proved equal to the fiercest strain that dreamed in terms of fact and built in his suecess was so great that attacks resulted in at least IOO.OjOO could be put upon them by the new Ger¬ within a month he opened up another additional German casualties, deeds. store in bringing man tactics of assault, based on un- Harrisburg. the German total to 300,000, or over. At twenty-six Frank W. Woolworth The precedented artillery conccntration, the Harrisburg store. however, did The French losses were some- was a failure. probably use of special shock formations and the His past was a series of not fare so well, and was closed in March, what less. 18S0. lavish cmploymcnt of gas waves, flame dull chores and unsucccssful attempts to A new store was opened in York, Verdun was. however. still elosely throwers and shclls charged with aspbyx- carn a livclihood. His future, to those Penn., but this too proved a faiiure and belcaguered. The German General it was closed after a three months' trial. Staff iating and tcar-producing gascs. who knew him, "wasn't worth a communication of Ortobcr. 1016. nickel," It was ten No other German attack on the West years after the birth of tho in which von Falkenhayn'? strategy and yet his future, built on nickels, 99-cent stores. front was as sustaincd and vicious as They had flourished and was elucidated. contained this compla- proved that dreams no died. that at Verdun. When it failcd France recognize par- History, it seemed. was to repeat cent statement of the situation on the itself. breathed more frecly. The indefinable ticular age and, given the proper im- Tt had already put its niark of Meuse: doom on prestige of German arms was shaken. petus, can materialize into the most all the other 5 and 10 cent "What our troops have exhibited in glit- stores. Of Sedan and Gravclotte were forgotten. tering of realities. the hundreds which had the way of buoyant aggres? eness. il The French knew so far as sprung up all over the country the two a stiff defence of that, their It is hard for the everyday mind to conquered territory, armies were the German on- Woolworth stores, one in Scranton and in the cheerful concerned, with the of endurame of unheard ilaught could be France's future conjure figures small things one in Lancaster, alone struggled on, just of hardships and of stayed. in suffonr,^ every was reasonably secured, big terms, yet Woolworth turncd a waiting for the -final crash and closing. sort and in an undeniable /.est for barring collapse The of civilian moralc, due to defeatist in- dream into a fact.a fact that tellsof gray clouds did not dishearten battie stands out as the highest pos¬ trigues or war weariness. 250 tons of sold young Woolworth. He went on, disre- sible cxample of heroism. The victory hairpins every year and the £ On the German side Yerdun was the garding signs and portents of the which they thereby achii onsid- 61,000,000 pounds of candy,32,000 tons, times, He completest military faiiure of the war. did just the reverse, and erable. We can look down on the basir. consumed by the millions of customcrs another store of It had no value except as an experiment opened in Rcading, Penn. \"crdun, on the city, on the Meu« who buy them in 5 and 10 This he. in attrition. And attrition, pure and cent packages- followed with another and an¬ bndges and the rai!roa»~<»--^-:.: way the recovery by shaky V* V\ * ^ '.¦.. -"i". avm of its once proud diMinction "the queen of battles.'"