America's War for Humanity Part 62

17. Germans capture Forges, March 5; drive against French left wing.

18. Germans take Regneville, west of Meuse, March 6.

19. Germans capture heights of c.u.mieres, etc., March 7.

20. Village of Vaux taken and retaken by Germans, March 8-10.

21. Crown Prince brings up 100,000 reinforcements, March 10-12.

22. French recapture trenches March 14, with 1,000 German prisoners.

23. Struggle for heights of Le Mort Homme, March 16.

24. Germans capture positions north of Avocourt, March 20.

25. Artillery duels east of Verdun, March 25.

26. French recapture part of Avocourt Wood, March 28.

27. Germans capture Malancourt, March 29-31.

28. Heavy fighting south of Douaumont, April 2-5; French successes in battle of Caillette woods, etc.

29. Germans recapture Haucourt, April 6.

30. Germans close in on Bethincourt salient, April 7.

31. French withdraw from Bethincourt April 9, but hold lines south.

32. French lines bombarded continuously, April 10-15, with violent a.s.saults but no decisive results.

So sound was the barricade, padded with sandbags and earth-works, that the artillery fire fell practically unavailing, and the French general realized that the barrier must be breached by explosives, as in Napoleon's battles.

It was 8 o'clock and already pitch dark in that blighted atmosphere when a special blasting corps, as devoted as the German chain workers, crept forward toward the German position. The rest of the French waited, sheltered in the ravine east of Douaumont, until an explosion should signal the a.s.sault.

In Indian file, to give the least possible sign of their presence to the hostile sentinels, the French blasters advanced in a long line, at first with comparative rapidity, only stiffening into the grotesque rigidity of simulated death when the searchlights played upon them, and resuming progress when the beam s.h.i.+fted. Then as they approached the barrier they moved slowly and more slowly. When they arrived within forty yards the movement of the crawling men became imperceptible.

The blasting corps lay at full length, like hundreds of other motionless forms about them, but all were working busily. With a short trowel, the file leader scuffled the earth from under his body, taking care not to raise his arms, and gradually making a shallow trench deep enough to hide him. The others followed his example until the whole line had sunk beneath the surface.

Then the leader began scooping his way forward, while his followers deepened the furrow already made. Thus literally inch by inch the files stole forward, sheltered in a narrow ditch from the gusts of German machine-gun fire that constantly swept the terrain. Here and there the sentinels' eyes caught a suspicious movement or an incautiously raised head sank down pierced by a bullet, but the stealthy, molelike advance continued. Hours pa.s.sed. It was nearly dawn when the remnant of the blasting corps reached the barricade at last and hurriedly put their explosives in position. Back they wriggled breathlessly. An over-hasty movement meant death, yet they must hurry lest the imminent explosions overwhelm them.

Suddenly there was a roar that dwarfed the cannonade and all along the barrier fountains of fire rose skyward, hurling a rain of fragments upon what was left of the blasting party.

THREE OUT OF FOUR DIE.

The barricade was breached, but 75 per cent of the devoted corps had given their lives to do it.

As the survivors lay exhausted the attackers charged over them, cheering. In the melee that followed there was no room to shoot or wield the rifle. Some of the French fought with unfixed bayonets, like the stabbing swords of the Roman legions. Others had knives or clubs. All were battle-frenzied, as only Frenchmen can be.

The Germans broke, and as the first rays of dawn streaked the sky only a small section of the wood was still in their hands. There a similar barrier stopped progress, and it was evident that the night's work must be repeated; but the hearts of the French soldiers were leaping with victory as they dug furiously to consolidate the ground they had gained, strewn with German bodies, thick as leaves. Over 6,000 Germans were counted in a section a quarter of a mile square, and the conquerors saw why their cannonade had been so ineffective. The Germans had piled a second barrier of corpses close behind the first, so that the soft human flesh would act as a buffer to neutralize the force of the sh.e.l.ls.

FRENCH DEFENSE TRULY HEROIC.

While all the German attacks upon the French lines in front of Verdun were marked with the utmost valor and intensity of devotion, the continuous defense made by the French under General Petain was equally vigorous and often truly heroic. Volunteers frequently remained in the French trenches from which the rest of the French defenders had been compelled to retire, to telephone information about the advancing enemy to the French batteries, and some of the heaviest losses of the Germans occurred when they believed themselves successful in an attack.

The consequences of such devotion on the part of French volunteers were exemplified early in the morning of April 12, at a point called Caurettes Woods, along the northeastern slopes of the hill known as Le Mort Homme (Dead Man's Hill), where a French withdrawal had been carried out. Volunteers remained behind to signal information to the French batteries, and an eyewitness of the attack described what followed thus:

"The French seventy-fives immediately concentrated on the hostile trench line. The Germans suffered heavily, but persevered, and soon dense columns appeared amid the sh.e.l.l-torn brushwood on the southern fringe of the Corbeaux Wood, pouring down into the valley separating them from the former French position on the hillside.

"Thinking the French still held the latter, the Germans deployed with their latest trench-storming device in the form of liquid fire containers, with special groups of four installed, two men working the pump and two directing the fire jet.

"The grayness of the dawn was illuminated by sheets of green and red flame and black oily clouds rolled along the valley toward the river like smoke from a burning 'gusher.'

"Suddenly the air was filled with shrill whistling, as sh.e.l.ls of the seventy-fives were hurled against the attackers. Thanks to the devoted sentinels dying at their posts in the sea of fire, the range was exact, and the exploding melinite shattered the charging columns.

"An appalling scene followed. The sh.e.l.ls had burst or overthrown the fire containers and the Germans were seen, running wildly amid the flames which overwhelmed hundreds of wounded and disabled.

FRENCH TROOPS CHARGE.

"In this scene of confusion the French charged with bayonet, despite the furnace heat and fumes produced by the red-hot containers flying in all directions. The enemy offered little resistance. It was like a slaughter of frenzied animals.

"The French mitrailleuse corps pressed close on their comrades' heels, placing weapons at vantage points that had escaped the fire and showering a leaden hail upon the main body of Germans retreating up Corbeaux Hill.

"Hundreds fought in a terror-stricken mob to hide in a hole that might have sheltered a score. Those beneath were stifled. Those above threw themselves screaming into the air as the bullets pierced them or fell dead in a wild dash toward a safer refuge. Flushed with success, the French charged again right to the entrance of the wood, and the slaughter recommenced.

"Five of the heroic sentinels, wonderful to say, returned with the French wave that ebbed when victory was won for that day."

CONDITIONS AT VERDUN ON APRIL 20.

Several determined attacks were delivered by the Germans on the French lines at Verdun between April 15 and 20, enormous ma.s.ses of men, sometimes as many as 100,000, being hurled against points in the northeast sector of the battle front. But the French defense held firm, although some trenches were lost and a considerable number of French prisoners were taken. Up to this time the total number of prisoners taken by the Germans at Verdun, from the beginning of the offensive, February 21, was claimed to be 711 officers and 38,155 men.

Such were the conditions before Verdun on April 20, when, with spring well under way on the Western battle fronts, there was daily expectation of a vigorous drive by the Allies against the German lines between Verdun and the sea. While both sides expressed confidence in the outcome of the war, no man could foretell with any degree of certainty what the final result of the great struggle would be.

ZEPPELIN RAIDS ON ENGLAND.

During the month of March and early in April a number of Zeppelin raids upon various parts of England did more or less damage, though none of an important military character. The east coast of Scotland also suffered from a Zeppelin visit in April.

Reports and figures issued by the British War Office showed that during the fifteen months from Christmas, 1914, to April 1, 1916, no fewer than thirty-four separate aerial raids occurred in Great Britain, including those of aeroplanes and Zeppelins. The total casualties suffered, mainly by civilians, men, women, and children, were 303 killed and 713 injured.

This record of results is interesting when it is remembered what they must have cost the Germans in money and men, in view of the comparatively small amount of damage that seems to have been done.

Germany, however, insisted that her air raids had done more substantial harm to England than the War Office would admit.

RUSSIAN ACTIVITIES IN THE EAST.

With the approach of spring in 1916, new activities began on the Eastern front, and the Russians threatened a vigorous attack on the German lines in the north "after the thaw." By the middle of the summer the Russians expected, according to semi-official reports, to have twelve million men armed, drilled, and equipped for battle.

On April 1 the Berlin government declared that in the Russian offensive on the Eastern front, against Field Marshal von Hindenburg, which lasted from March 18 to March 30, the losses to the Russians were 140,000 out of the 500,000 men engaged. This campaign was carried on mostly in the frozen terrain of the Dvinsk marshes, and along the Dvina River, and the German losses were also heavy, although the Russian attacks were as a rule repulsed.

FALL OF TREBIZOND.