L A N D AND W A T E R . 
Marrh z, 1916. 
curved northwards, tlie full extent of which was about 
eight and a half miles in length) upon -Monday, the 21st 
Febniar\', the artillery preparation ceased and the 
enemy launched his fust infautry, drawn, as obsen-ation 
showed, from th;; elements of some fomteen divisions. 
It is especially important to obser\-e at this moment, 
tlie morning of February 21st, the difference which already 
begins to appear betwei-n the French and German 
tactics in these great offensives. 
The corresponding action of the French in Cham- 
pagne five jnonths ago will be remt^mbered. There, as 
here, the offcnsi\o was preceded by forty-eight hotirs' 
bombardment with hcav\- artillery at long range. There, 
as here, the infantry assault was laimchcd immediately 
after. There as here, the fust line trenches and all their 
organisation were swept over by that advance ; the 
survivors of the defensive, dazed and almost impotent 
under the effect of the recent bombardment, were cap- 
tured. ' 
But when so much is said of the similarity between 
the two situations, a great contrast at once appears. 
The French attack had been delivered against the German 
line, which had been bidden at all costs to hold, which 
was full of men, and had trusted to its power, even after 
bombardment, of breaking the French infantry attack 
by rille and machine-gun fne before the trenches w-ere 
reached or carried. No gims were moved back. So far 
from their men being moved back, reinforcements were 
ordered to push up to the front the moment the bom- 
bardment should cease. As a consequence, upon a front 
of rather over twelve miles, the French captured 20,000 
imwounded prisoners, some scores of guns, the whole of 
the first line organisation, killed more than 30,000 of the 
enemy, and put out of action the equivalent of several 
corps, all the work of the first blow. 
Here, before Verdun, five months later, the French 
line (which was now the defending one), had received no 
such orders to hold indefinitely, but had, on the contrary, 
been regarded as no more than an advanced position from 
which retirement would be conducted back and back 
until the main organised defensive position was reached. 
As a consequence, the enemy when he attacked over 
this front (of eight to nine miles in all its sinuosities) 
upon Monday the 21st, cut off perhaps 3,000 men, in- 
cluding woimded, and found himself at the end of the 
day in possession of two small batches of the front only, 
not two miles in e.\tcnt. the largest of which w'as the 
wood of Haumont and a portion of the wood of Caures. 
Upon the flanks, in front of Herbebois and in front of 
Brabant, he was stopped. Meanwhile, under the cover 
of this first line of resistance the retirement was continuing. 
During the following day, Tuesday the 22nd. the 
covering troops left in the front line delivered sharp 
counter offensives, retaking part of the wood of Caures, 
and still holding the enemy up upon the wings. These 
blows were only struck to cover the retreat that was 
proceeding behind them. On the night of that Tuesday, 
the French again retired on to a third line, and on the 
morning of \\'cdncsday were standing along positions 
stretching from in front of Samogneu.\ to Ornes ; 
these positions — the two ends of the line — are protected 
by steep banks shelving tip to them. In the middle they 
pass through the valley and village of Beaumont. 
It is to be remarked that upon every series of posi- 
tions thus taken up by the French as they retired, a 
difficult assault by the enemy had to be delivered. He 
was compelled to lose heavily in each process : \ery much 
more heavily than the defenders. 
The assailant still coming on in dense bodies and the 
covering line still being left far inferior in number and 
still subject, of course, to preliminary intensive bombard- 
ments before each attack, holds this line As well as it 
can during the Wednesday but is beaten bacK at Beau- 
mont in the valley, the wings with their ravines to protect 
them standing firm. 
By the Thursday' morning it is found that the French 
have withdrawn in the night to yet a third line which 
runs from near Champneuville — from the Meuse in that 
neighbourhood — very slightly north of east, terminating 
south of Ornes, which has been abandoned. 
On that Thursday the German attack, in which 
elements from fifteen or sixteen di\'isions have already 
been noted, swarms through the intervening space 
and assaults at the usual price the third line so formed. 
When darkness fell upon the Thursday, the French 
again drew back to their final disposition, that is the main 
ridge covering Verdun— on which this struggle was to be 
decided. 
They abandoned Champneiuille leaving only com- 
paratively small forces upon the narrow hill which stands 
in the bend of the Meuse. Their last line now lay on the 
ridge of Louvemont to make its stand.* It stretched from 
Vacherauville round by Louvemont in front of the Farm 
of Chambrettc and so round eastwards and southward 
again across the Douaumont plateau until it fell to the 
plain of the Woeuvre to the east below, and in that plain 
it was being withdrawn somewhat nearer to the base of 
the hills. This last portion of the retirement, that on 
the plain, was conducted without molestation throughout 
the whole of the next day, Friday, the 25th. 
Meanwhile upon the morning of this same Friday 
the 25th, the French forces stood massed upon the main 
^mmi^mi'^v~*9 I 
I 
^VERDUN ^^% \ "^N 
VIZ 
f . f T Mik^ 
