The battle opened on 16 February with a violent artillery duel followed by an infantry charge. It was directed against the German position opposite Beausejour Farm, where there was a depression flanked by two hills on which the enemy had strong artillery defenses. The charge failed but it was renewed from day to day and at last succeeded on the 27th when some French Colonials were brought up. Hard fighting now ensued until the arrival of re serves from Flanders in the middle of March. At its close the French had not reached the coveted railroad. They had lost severely, more than 100,000 men in killed and wounded, while their opponents, fighting on the defensive, had lost less than that number. Aside from its effect on the fortunes of the Russians, the battle of Champagne must be considered a French defeat.
These operations stand out as distinct strokes in a series of minor operations from the Swiss border to the northern end of the French line at La Bassee, a distance of more than 100 miles. Sniping was constant, as opportunity offered. The artillery kept up its persistent work. 'Where the trencEes were close enough together hand grenades were hurled front one to the other. It was at this time that trench raids were inaugurated, and they soon became frequent They kept the men in training and were a means of gaining information. Now and again some more substantial attack was carried through, raining a bit of trench, cut ting off *an obtruding angle, or seizing an eleva tion on which some machine guns or sharp shooters were stationed. In the Argonne, espe cially, there was mud) of this ldnd of fighting. The French line at this point ran along a gap in the forest, from Varennes to Vienne le Chateau, following a road from one end of the gap to the other. The Germans had pressed down toward this pass from the north, which was all important to the French, since it was the link between their armies on the east and west. Forest fighting went on here all winter, and the French had the better of it, gaining ground on the north and holding it. Still another movement that is noteworthy here was an attadc by the French on the Heights of the Meuse south of Verdun. Here the Ger mans had pressed westward nearly to the banks of the river. There was danger that they would cut off communications and force the abandonment of the fortress. General Sar mil commanded the French forces here and had well won the thanks of the country for his faithful and skilful defense of the greatest fortress of the French frontier. In February he started operations to drive the intruders back from the edge of the Heights. He took Les Eparges and the high ground around it, which, when fortified, became a safeguard of Verdun on the southeast At the same time operations conducted by other French forces near Pont-a-Mousson carried the Germans back from one to two miles. Saint Mihiel, at the angle between Verdun and Pont-A Mousson, however, remained safe in German hands. It was too strong to be stormed, and the French contented themselves with holding fimily the sides of the salient, knowing that the point would not be advanced if the sides remained intact In all this fighting the net results were small. It would be incorrect to say that this
was no more than the commanders had ex pected. At that time neither side had that re. spect for the fighting qualities of the other that each came to have in time. Nor did either side fully realize the conditions and limi tations of the new style of war. Painfully and slowly and at great cost in life they were to learn how hard it is to take well-defended trenches. If the armies that faced one an other at the end of the first winter of the war could have known how long their struggle was going to be, and if the nations behind them could have known what sacrifices were to be demanded, it is doubtful if the contest would have been allowed to go on.
3. The British Straggle in Flanders.— The first battle of Ypres closed with the futile as sault of the Prussian Guards on the British posi tion, 11 Nov. 1914. The Germans had made many costly charges and were satisfied to sus pend the engagement. Already heavy work had begun in the East, and their reserves were deinande$1 for it The tired British were re lieved temporarily by French troops whom Joffre sent, but they were eventually back in the trenches, wading through mud and slush, standing sentinel in the wearying winter days, and always ready to challenge the foe.
This spirit became aggressive when it was learned that the enemy had withdrawn some of his troops to serve in the East. Some isolated attadcs were made on his lines with good re sults, and this led the officers in command of the Indian troops in the trenches at Givenchy, two miles west of La Bassee, which. the Ger mans held, to attempt to drive them from the latter position. An attack was opened before dawn on 19 December. Two lines of trenches were carried but the straggling dawn showed them unprotected on their flanks and they had to be abandoned in the succeeding night. The Germans seem to have decided to give 'the Indians a lesson. On 20 December they drenched their lines with shrapnel and trench mortar bombs and sent forward their infantry in heavy formation. The Indians in Givenchy fell back, and that important place passed into enemy hands. General French ordered up English and Welsh trooRs to restore the lines, which the Indians had given up on a two-mile front. By hard fighting this object was at tained. The Indians had been two months in the trenches and were dispirited by the hard ships, to which they were unaccustomed, and by their heavy losses. They never adapted themselves to the monotony of trench warfare, This affair left the troops facing one an other at this section in a state of tenseness, and another struggle of the same character occurred from 2S January to 6 February. It was brought on by the Germans, who were sup posed to, wish to have some success for eel°. brating the kaiser's birthday, 27 Januar/. They succeeded in talcing Givenchy but were promptly thrown out. They took position in a bridcfield where the kilns and stacks made ex cellent defenses, and some bitter fighting en sued before they were at last driven back. Much hand-to-hand fighting occurred in this region and the losses were severe on each side.