June I, KjiG 
L A iN D & W A T E R 
the details of which I liave not seen published. These 
divisions were not fully deployed. The elements of each 
stood one behind the other in support, one regiment 
lieing destined to take the first brunt of the shock ; its 
fellows would replace or reinforce it later according to 
the punishment it might have received. 
In the mid-afternoon of February 21st, a cold and misty 
day, the advance portions of the" 5th and 6th Divisions 
struck the French covering line after that line had been 
turned upside down by the previous intensive bombard- 
ment. The main region upon which the shock was de- 
livered here on the east or left of the German attack was 
the wood of Herbebois, a wood recently cut, and full, 
therefore, of comparatively large clearings \yith under- 
wood grown up during the" last year or two. The Frencli 
obstacles here were very thoroughly organised and tho 
attack of the 3rd Army Corps was checked with heavy 
initial loss. 
On the next day, Tuesday, February 22nd, the attacks 
were continued in a flurry of snow and failed to secure 
an advance. They were further continued during the 
morning of Wednesday the 23rd. But in the afternoon 
the success of German troops further to the west pushing 
in the centre of the French covering line compelled the 
retirement of the French here on the east, and from 4 p.m. 
onwards the French retreated before the advance of the 
3rd Branclenburg Corps into and beyond the wood of 
'Herbebois, and during the following night fell back 
once more. 
During Thursday the 24th and all the succeeding night 
Ihi; French further retired upon Bezonvau.x village and 
tlie wo(k1 of La Vauche, so that by the dawn of day upon 
tlie Friday, the 25th, the whole l-'rench line was only just 
in front of their main position, the Ridge of Douaumont 
continued in a half circle to the Hill of Poivre, and so to 
the Meusc at Bras. Upon the morning of Friday, the 
25th. the 3rd Brandenburg Corps, which had thus been 
held uj) at a considerable expense in men for neariy three 
days at the wood of Herbebois, but had in the succeeding 
two days advanced over neariy two miles of ground, 
delivered an attack violent in proportion to the critical 
nature of the moment. As they were the best troops 
the Prussians were employing for this great shock, so 
1licy had the chief task allotted to them. 
The 5th Division on the west or right was checked, but 
I he 6th Division mastered the ravine of La Vauche and 
acquired, though with very heavy loss, the summit of the 
ridge. The 24th Regiment rushed the ruins of the old 
fort of Douaumont. and we had the famous message 
upon which so much discussion has turned. 
This Friday evening w^as the hour in which the enemy 
believed that he had achieved his purpose ; the decisive 
))oint was the ridge and fort of Douaumont, and he had 
laid hands upon it. Heavy as had been the price already 
paid it seemed as though the rest would be the mere 
jjursuit of a broken enemy. 
But the French had been fighting with a covering line 
nnly, and upon the next day, Saturday the 26th, they 
lavuichcd a body as large in numbers as the whole German 
3rd Corps, to wit, the French 20th Corps ; they swarmed 
back over the level of the Douaumont plateau and re- 
covered the ground on cither side of the ruins of the fort, 
though not tliose ruins themselves. In these the remnants 
of the 24th regiment remained entrenched, and defied all 
efforts to dislodge them. 
In order to clear the situation and to relieve the men 
in the fort from tiieir perilous outlying position, as also in 
order U> push further on to the plateau, and make them- 
selves really masters of it, the two divisions of the 3rd 
Corps were ordered to strike again to tiie west and tiie 
east of the Fort. Upon the west was the village of Douau- 
mont : upon the east the wood of La Caillctte. It was 
therefore the 5th or right Division \vliicli attacked the 
village ; the 6th or left Division which attacked the wood. 
Upon Sunday the 27th of February, the 52nd regiment 
of the 5th Division threw itself against the French en- 
ft-enche'd in Douaumont village and was broken. On 
the next day, the 28th, its place was taken by the I2th 
regiment which met with the same fate. Meanwhile 
against Caillette Wood the 64th regiment of the 6th 
Division and the Jaegers hurled themselves six times upon 
the French lines in these same two days and were broken 
back as their comrades of the 5th Division had been 
against the village. 
On Tuesday, February 2Qth, the 3rd Army Corps was 
exhausted in energy and broken. It was past any further 
effort and was called back to the rear. 
The great mass designed for victorious shock, of which 
it had formed one portion, had failed in its task and liad 
suffered so heavily that it was for the moment ruined. 
Its place had to be taken by reserves. The defence 
of this sector of a mile or so from Douaumont Village 
to the Caillette Wood was as a fact taken over by 
the 113th Division. The two divisions of the 3rd 
corps, the 5th, and the 6th, or what was left of them, 
were withdrawn to positions right back again behind 
Ornes, to be reformed after their terrible experience. 
Actual Losses 
But all these terms " heavy losses " : " terrible ex- 
perience." and the rest are general. The reader will 
demand, if he is to form a judgment upon even this detail 
of the war, the ])roportion of losses. 
From information unusually detailed which the Freni :h 
authorities obtained later on that question can be 
answered, and the answer is startling. 
The patching together again of the 3rd Corps and the 
replenishing of its enormous gaps with new human 
material showed a necessity of replacing the cadres (that 
is, the officers and non-commissioned oihcerswho are the 
framework of any military body) to the extent of two- 
ihirds. Of three regimental officers and sergeants who 
had gone into action exactly a week before, on the after- 
noon of Monday, the 21st of L'ebruary, two had been 
hit by the evening of Monday the 28th. The corps had 
no reserves left. F^verv one of its elements had been 
thrown in and shattered. The Jaegers, who had been 
most spared, received their worst punishment in the 
Caillctte Wood in the last days. The 64th regiment of 
the 6th Division saw its last units shattered in the same 
place. The 24th regiment had spent itself in the tremen- 
dous attack which had carried Douaumont Fort, while 
of the 5th Division, the 52nd regiment, as we have seen, 
had been shattered in front of Douaumont village two 
days before the end ; the remnants of the I2th taking its 
place had been broken upon the morrow. 
We have no documentary evidence, I believe, of the 
exact losses in the rank and file, and it is wise to suppose 
that these were somewhat inferior to the 66 per cent, 
losses of the cadres. But at any rate they were certainly 
over half the effectives employed, and it is remarkable 
that in looking round for material to fill the gaps the 
chief remaining reservoir was only the young class '16. 
During the period of recruitment behind the hues these 
lads were povrred into this crack corps in such numbers 
that many of the companies rehed for nearly half their 
new strength upon the presence of such recruits. 
On the fifth day of this remodelling, Saturday the 4th 
of March, a message and an order of the day of the cus- 
tomary rather sentimental sort (which perhaps we judge 
rather harshly from the ignorance everyone has of a 
foreign tempe-rament) reached the 3rd Corps from the 
Commander-in-Chief of this group of armies before Ver- 
dun, the Crown Prince of Prussia. He appealed to his 
" faithful Brandenburgers," condoled with them over 
their losses, emphasised the pecuHar value of the Prussians 
among the (iermanic combatants, and told them how he 
relied upon them for further and " decisive " efforts. 
This piece of rhetoric is not insignificant, for it tells us 
something of the effect produced by the immense sacrifice 
already suffered and tells us even more of the hopes that 
were still entertained of victory. 
The 3rd Corps was not ready to inarch upon the day 
following this appeal as had been hoped. 
It was not until the evening of March 7th, Tuesday, that 
its commander reported everything ready for taking up 
again the dreadful business of a renewed attack. 
The 3rd Army Corps was reconstituted indeed, but it 
was no longer its old self. Less than half of the men 
who had been given that careful long training of four 
months behind the lines remained. Only a third of the 
specially selected and instructed cadres, which had held 
it together, marched out southward again to take the 
field. Not only were most of its men new, but as we 
have seen, a very large portion of them were of the 
youngest tvpe of recruit. Most significant of all, the 
