I the German Offensive

The Second Phase.

The Germans failed to gain an immediate decision at Verdun. They soon realised that the British Army was about to attack them on the Somme. For four months they kept the battle of Verdun going with furious tenacity in order to disorganize the attack prepared by the Allies in Picardy. For the French Staff the problem was to hold on at Verdun without ceasing to prepare for the Somme. On March 6, as Gen. Petain had expected and feared from the beginning, the Germans ex tended the action to the west bank. The attack was made by two corps, the VI. Res. and the X. Res., the latter taken from the General Reserve. On the 6th they captured the Hill de l'Oie and on the loth Bois de Cumieres. They were thus enabled to attack one of the pillars of the main line of defence, the Mort Homme. On the 14th they captured the lower crest of that double hill. The higher crest, Peak 295, could be held by neither side and was No Man's Land.

The second pillar of the French line, further to the west, and known as Hill 304, was attacked on March 20 by the 11th Bava rian Div. which took the Bois d'Avocourt but could not issue thence.

The Germans brought up fresh troops and the battle began again on March 28 on the west bank. It ended on April 8 by the French losing all that remained of their former front line. The new front passed thereafter by the redoubt at Avocourt, the first slopes of Hill 304, the southern reverse of the Mort Homme and the north of Cumieres. On the right bank on March 31 the Germans captured the village of Vaux, which had held out till then, and on April 2 took the lake behind the village. Then on April 9 the Crown Prince attacked on both banks on a scale not known since the first attacks in February. The results were in significant. On the morrow Gen. Petain wrote in his orders of the day "the 9th April was a glorious day for our Armies . . . Courage. Nous les aurons." On April 20 the French counter-attacked on the east bank in order to clear the Mort Homme. But on May 3 the Germans renewed the offensive by an attack on Hill 304. On the 8th they captured Bois Camard, west of the Hill. On the 13th and 16th they attempted without success to advance from this position.

They then organized a new attack on the 18th with a fresh corps, the XVIII. Res. Corps and two divisions of the XVIII. and added on the 22nd the 22nd. Res. Division. This violent battle ended on the 24th with the capture of Cumieres. As the Germans had no reserves available the tired units could not be relieved and on the 26th they lost a portion of the trenches they had won.

There had been changes in the command. On April 2 the east bank sector had been placed under the orders of Gen. Nivelle, the west bank under Gen. Berthelot. At the end of April Petain was called to command the Armies of the Centre and handed the II. Army over to Nivelle. The Germans, too, from March had divided the field of battle into two sections, Gen. von Mudra

commanding on the right bank, Gen. von Gallwitz on the left bank. In April Mudra was replaced by Lochow. In July Francois relieved Gallwitz. The Allies' preparations on the Somme took definite shape. Before all things the Germans had to prevent the French from taking part in these operations. For this a new success in the Meuse was necessary.

The main French line of defence on the east bank was the Cote de Froide Terre—Fleury—Fort de Souville. On the right this position was covered by the fort of Vaux, on the left by the crest of Thiaumont. It was first necessary to capture Vaux and Thiau mont. On June i these two positions were attacked. Vaux was taken on the 9th. Thiaumont farm, taken by the Germans on the 1st, was recaptured by the French on the 2nd, who lost it again on the 9th. German attacks on the Thiaumont outworks behind the farm failed completely. They succeeded in establishing them selves on the west and opposite side in the ravine of La-Dame. At the same time battle was resumed on the west bank. Between May 29 and 31 the Germans took Cumieres but tried vainly to move out of Bois Camard against Hill Time pressed more and more. On June 4 Gen. Brusilov started a wide offensive in Volhynia. In these conditions the Germans delivered a large scale attack on the line Froide Terre–Souville on June 21. On the west the Bavarian Corps took the fortified post of Thiaumont but was checked in front of the fort at Froide Terre. In the centre the Alpine Corps captured Fleury. On the west the Div. took the first line of trenches in front of Souville but failed before the second line. So serious was the situation for the French that on June 23 Petain warned Gen. Joffre and suggested moving to the west bank if the enemy reached the counterscarps. Joffre's answer on the 27th was a per emptory order to hold on to the east bank.

Meanwhile the preliminaries of the great Franco-British offen sive on the Somme started on June 24 and the actual battle began on July 1. On July II the Germans made yet another attack on Verdun—from Vaux to Souville. It crumpled up on the slopes of Souville, the principal objective. On Aug. 3 the French retook Thiaumont and Fleury on Aug. 4. The Germans regained Thiau mont on the 8th. Throughout the whole month there was local fighting. The last German attack on Sept. 3 also failed. The battle of Verdun, properly called, had come to an end. From Feb. 21 to June 15 the Army at Verdun had seen 66 divisions on its front. Up to July 1 the Germans had used up 434 divisions. It is true that they maintained them on the ground by depots situated a march behind the front and left them fighting till worn out. The French artillery fired 10,300,000 rounds with the field artillery, 1,200,000 rounds of medium and 600,000 rounds of large calibre.