LAND & WATER 
May II, 1916 
IHE LAST ATTACK AT VERDUN 
By Hilaire Belloc 
AT the end of last week and during the week-end, 
the Germans acted upon the ^'erdun sector in a 
fashion which is puzzUng to anyone who studies 
the war on its purely military' side, which can be 
explained, perhaps, partly by those who are followini,' 
the political side of the war, and which in any case leaves 
a problem nut yet solved. 
Everyone is aware that the critical point of \'crdnn is 
the Mort Homme. My readers are all familiar with the 
fact that if the enemy fails to take the Mort Homme he 
may render it untenable by taking Hill 304, a Hat- 
topped eminence, very steep upon the south and the east, 
steepish upon the north, and gradually approached from 
the west"; it is slightly higher than the Mort Homme 
(50 ft. higher) and is at a range of a little over 2,000 yards. 
This sector, then, which may roughly be called the 
sector of the Mort Homme and of Hill 304, has been an 
open objective upon the west of the Meusc ever since 
the middle of March. 
Upon the east of the Meuse, where the first mam 
attack of the enemy was delivered, that attack broke 
down upon the chain of chief defensive positions, which 
runs from the village of Bras upon the Meuse round the 
Louyemont ridge to the ruins of the village of Douau- 
mont, and so to the ravine of Vaux, beyond which it is 
continued along the crest of the high steep hills crowned 
by the old fort of Vaux and so down to the plain of the 
\\oevre near Fresnes. 
These positions east of the Meuse are the main positions 
of the defence. The defence is not concerned with pre- 
venting the Germans from entering the town or ruins of 
Verdun. It is concerned with making the (iermans lose 
as many men as possible in a prolongation of their attempt , 
and it is concerned with letting French troops which 
have been thus maintained almost entirely upon the 
defensive, lose as few men as possible in this task. The 
French are not defending Verdun even if (unreasonable as 
the phrase sounds) the Germans are merely trying to 
enter that small town. The French are using the Ger- 
mans' desire to enter it as a means of weakening the 
Germans. 
Now for a statement of the events as they have de- 
veloped in the last week. 
The chief effort of the enemy has been against the Mort 
Homme — Hill 304 — sector. 
On \\ednesday, May 3rd, the enemy began a new 
intensive bombardment of this particular narrow sector 
\ipon the \'erdun front. 
He carried on this bombardment two days and appears 
nowhere to have exceeded something between 5,000 and 
6,000 yards in the scope of this artillery preparation from 
its extreme eastern to its extreme western point. All this 
work was directed against the north-western slopes which 
fall gradually upon (i) Avocourt Wood, (2) the northern 
slopes of Hill 304, and (3) the valley between the Mort 
Homme and Hill 304. Upon Friday, after this heavy 
artillery preparation, he launched about one division along 
the valley Ijetwecn the two hills and made repeated 
efforts to pierce between them and to carry Hill 304. 
Up to that evening — the evening of Friday the 5th — • 
he had completely failed, and that at the expense of very 
heavy losses. 
Upon the Friday night and the Saturday the bombard- 
ment was resumed. Upon the Sunday, May 7th, with 
troops estimated at the equivalent of about two divisions, 
he attacked the whole front. The bombardment had 
reduced all the trenches on the north slope of Hill 304 to 
chaos. ■ Before nightfall the French had evacuated these 
battered trenches on the northern slope of Hill 304. 
They had, with the bayonet, repulsed all the German 
efforts to get out of the wood on the north-west. 
Renewed action on Monday (the 8th) led to no further 
result here. The French held and still hold (at the 
moment of writing), the summit of the hill. 
The total result, therefore, in the small central portion 
of about four days' action on the north and north-westerly 
slopes of the flat-topped height is that the French line 
2000 
280 
Homrnz 
Esucs" cATeaappartntlq seized 
tni^nam£onSundcui& 
tostanam on 'Monday. 
