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Page 49
"We shall see the strategical effect of this extraordinary measure in
the second phase of the Verdun battle, but its tactical effect was to
leave remarkably few French troops exposed to the appalling tempest of
German and Austrian shells. The fire-trench was almost empty, and in
many cases the real defenders of the French line were men with machine
guns, hidden in dug-outs at some distance from the photographed
positions at which the German gunners aimed. The batteries of light
guns, which the French handled with the flexibility and continuity of
fire of Maxims, were also concealed in widely scattered positions. The
main damage caused by the first intense bombardment was the destruction
of all the telephone wires along the French front. In one hour the
German guns plowed up every yard of ground behind the observing posts
and behind the fire trench. Communications could only be slowly
re-established by messengers, so that many parties of men had to fight
on their own initiative, with little or no combination of effort with
their comrades.
"Yet, desperate as were their circumstances, they broke down the German
plan for capturing trenches without an infantry attack. They caught the
patrols and annihilated them, and then swept back the disillusioned and
reluctant main bodies of German troops. First, the bombing parties were
felled, then the sappers as they came forward to repair the line for
their infantry, and at last the infantry itself in wave after wave of
field-gray. The small French garrison of every center of resistance
fought with cool, deadly courage, and often to the death.
"Artillery fire was practically useless against them, for though their
tunnel shelters were sometimes blown in by the twelve-inch shells, which
they regarded as their special terror by reason of their penetrative
power and wide blast, even the Germans had not sufficient shells to
search out all their underground chambers, every one of which have two
or three exits.
"The new organization of the French Machine-gun Corps was a fine factor
in the eventual success. One gun fired ten thousand rounds daily for a
week, most of the positions selected being spots from which each German
infantry advance would be enfiladed and shattered. Then the French 75's
which had been masked during the overwhelming fire of the enemy
howitzers, came unexpectedly into action when the German infantry
attacks increased in strength. Near Haumont, for example, eight
successive furious assaults were repulsed by three batteries of 75's.
One battery was then spotted by the Austrian twelve-inch guns, but it
remained in action until all its ammunition was exhausted. The gunners
then blew up their guns and retired, with the loss of only one man.
[Illustration: AMMUNITION FOR THE GUNS
Canadian narrow-gauge line taking ammunition up the line through a
shattered village.]
[Illustration: HOW VERDUN WAS SAVED
The motor transport never faltered when the railroads were put out of
action.]
"Von Falkenhayn had increased the Crown Prince's army from the fourteen
divisions--that battled at Douaumont Fort--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.
"Great as was the wastage of life, it was in no way immediately
decisive. 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
shellmakers and gunmakers."
Immortal and indomitable France had won over her foe more power than she
had possessed even after the battle of the Marne. If her Allies, with
the help of Japan and the United States, could soon overtake the
production of the German and Austrian munition factories, it was
possible that Verdun, so close to Sedan, might become one of the turning
points of the war.
Throughout the entire summer Verdun, with the whole population of France
roused to the supreme heights of heroism behind it, held like a rock.
Wave after wave of Germans in gray-green lines were sent against the
twenty-five miles of earthworks, while the French guns took their toll
of the crack German regiments. German dead lay upon the field until
exposed flesh became the same ghastly hue of their uniforms. No Man's
Land around Verdun was a waste and a stench.
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