Before they began a change had occurred in the French command. General Petain had succeeded De Langle de Cary in command of the middle portion of the great battle line, stretching from Soissons to Verdun, and Gen eral Nivelle, under his supervision, was in command of the second army defending Ver dun. The change in command did not mean a change in tactics.
The fourth stage of the battle, the first after the lull in April, was an attempt to sweep back the defenses on the west bank of the river. It began with a severe bombardment on 3 May against Hill 304. During four days artillery and infantry made alternate attacks on this hill without success. At last it was assaulted with the equivalent of an army corps against two regiments defending it. Five times they rushed forward and were repulsed, the last time in a fierce counterattack that was delivered in the darkness. Next day, the 8th, the top of Hill 304 was so yiolently swept by hostile fire that the Frenc,h drew their lines down to its base, yielding the position for which they had talcen heavy toll. From 17-21 May Mort Homme was carried in the same kind of a concentration. Then came a period of grea-t rushes and counter-rushes to carry the lines farther along the river bank. They yielded the Germans nothing and cost thern tremen dously. At the end of the month tile line of battle on the west side was about a mile south of the crests of Hill 304 and Mort Homme and ran straight east and west, to the river on one hand and to Avocourt and the Argonne on the other. Now the battle died down in this part of the field.
The next and fifth stage of the battle of Verdun belongs to the story of the eastern side of the river and here the offensive was taken by the French. The object was to press bacic the enemy at Douaumont and to draw off some of the troops being used on the other side of the river. After a two days' bombardment the infantry went forward on 22 May and took most of the ruins of Fort Douaumont out of the hands of the Germans. On& the northeast corner held out, defended by machine guns in great numbers. Here the French held on despite the maddening crash of shells over their heads until the 24th, when two fresh Bavarian divisions recovered what three French regiments had won. Thus ended
the French offensive without profit. The sixth stage of the battle was a serie.s of operations around the right end of the line that ran across the Heights of the Meuse. In this position they had gradually worked forward until they were within five miles of Verdun at some points. At Douaumont they had high ground from which they could observe all the ground to the city. They had found it impossible to go forward in a straight line from that elevation, and they decided to make the attempt by their left flank. Blocking their way on the left stood Fort Vaux, held by determined French soldiers. Its guns covered a wide area right and left and protected the strong Fort Souville, which was the last strong protective work of Verdun.
On 31 May, a heavy bombardment was begun, and the next day an infantry attack was made. There were some gains west of Fort Vaux and others to the east, and the next step was to make a converging assault on the fort from three sides. Some idea of the intensity of the fighting in this section may be obtained from the fact that for three months an average of 8,000 shells a day had fallen on this fort, On 2-3 June the infantry were again employed,. and again Bavarians were used in wave after wave. They were received by the garrison in cellars and among the ruins of the concrete construction, with Major Raynal in command. The name of this heroic man deserves special mention in a series of opera tions in which heroic deeds were common. Under his indomitable will the garrison held out until 6 June and did not surrender until it was reduced to a mere handful. On 7 June came a massed attacic on a long stretch of trenches. The result was an advance as far as Fleury. Here was the farthest advance of the Germans in the battle, although there was heavy fighting until the end of June. Indeed the battle flared up occasionally until August. But it is better to say that it did not continue in its proper form beyond 30 Tune, which was the 130th day of its continuation. At its close the Germans were three and three-quarters miles from Verdun at the nearest point.