10 
LAND & WATER 
August 17, 1916, 
out figures for their own losses both on the Somme and 
lor a particular period in front of Verdun which have 
no relation to reality. 
We can test their untruth in one very simple instance. 
- They now say (for the first time) that up to the 21st 
of March they had lost in front of Verdun no more than 
Oo.ooo men in total casualties hit and caught. 
Now let us see what this means. The original attack 
at Verdun (without reference 1(3 the fighting of the 
Woevre in Hank — the attack upon the seven and a-half 
miles of the Northern front which was launched on the 
2ist of February and was brought to a standstill on the 
26th) was first launched with six divisions, all of which 
have been identified and all of which suffered very heavily, 
though not all to the same extent. Between the 26th 
of February and the 4th of March at least two new divi- 
sions appeared upon this narrow front and the second 
great assault was deli\ered by these eight (and broken 
without result) upon the qth of March. We are not yet 
arrived at March 21st by nearly a fortnight, yet already 
we can make some estimate of what the real (ierman 
losses were, for we have documentary evidence published 
in elaborate detail bj' the French government as to the 
losses suffered by two only out of these eight divisions in 
the interval. 
My readers are acquainted with that analysis. The 
two di\'isions in question were the 5th and 6th divisions 
belonging to the 3rd, or Brandenburg Corps. The losses 
in these two divisions alone amounted, as my readers 
know, to no less than 22,000 men, and such losses were 
only possible because the two divisions received drafts 
during the course of the fighting amounting to anything 
from one-half to two-thirds of their original strength. 
1 do not deny that these two divisions had the worst of 
the fighting, nor that their losses were exceptional ; but 
the point is that we have for two divisions alone out of 
eight upon that one narrow front, and without any 
mention of the fighting in the Woevre (which went on 
all the time, and which concerned other di\isions of the 
<ierman army), and that in the first fortnight only of the 
month, more than a third of what the Cicrmans say were 
their losses for a whole month. 
From the gth to the 21st of March they went on attack- 
ing upon the right bank and brought in yet another two 
divisions— I am speaking only of those who appeared 
in contact upon the front line. Ten divisions altogether, 
therefore, were subjected to the very heavy losses of that 
front line in the course of the month on the right bank of 
the Meuse. 
Meanwhile, the French heavy artillery was pounding 
communications and depots behind the fine the whole 
time, and the new assaults included a most murderous 
failure of the freshly-arrived troops against the slopes of 
Vaux, as well as tremendous fighting in front of Louve- 
mont. Meanwhile, upon the left bank of the Meuse a 
new attack had developed after March qth. One division 
carried Forges and suffered extremely heavily in estab- 
lishing itself upon the, eastern end of the Goose Crest ; 
another got into the Crows Wood at the foot of the 
]\lort d'Homme ; M-as broken and driven out of the wood ; 
was reinforced with very heavy new drafts ; attacked 
again and occupied the Crows Wood ; was counter- 
attacked and lost half of it again. One division was 
beginning to operate with losses severe, but not abnor- 
mally heavy near Bethincourt. Lastly, one division 
debouched from the wood of Avocourt and suffered enor- 
mously in an attempt to climb the slopes of Hill 340. 
It was beaten back into the Wood of Avocourt, and there 
remained up to the end of the period in question, that is, 
up to the 21st of March. , 
Now sum up and see what the fighting had involved 
up to the 2ist of March. The original .six divisions 
thrown into the furnace had increased to 14. Not that 
all the 14 were in line at any one moment, but 14 had 
come into play first and last. The fighting had been 
extremely heavy the whole time. , Heavy artillery work 
behind this first fine had been continuing" to impose upon 
ihe enemy, losses not as heavy indeed as were suffered 
in that first line, but still severe : perhaps not half, but 
cei-tainly a third of what the first line was suffering, 
l-'inally, we have the divisions operating in the Woevre 
which had their own losses to bear. 
The ( lermans ask us to believe, or rather want their 
ci\ilians at home to believe, that this enormous mass of 
men fighting for a whole month under the most strenuous 
conditions, lost less than three times what one-seventh 
or one-eighth of their units had lost in the first fortnight ! 
It is nonsense, and the enemy's Higher Command knows 
it is nonsense. It is not meant to deceive us. It is 
meant to deceive their opinion at home, and it has pro- 
"bably succeeded in doing so. 
Another example of this sort of thing which has par- 
ticularly impressed opinion here in England is the Tom- 
l-'ool account published throughout dermany of the des- 
truction of London in the last Zeppelin raid, the breaking 
of its bridges, the panic-stricken crowds in the streets, 
and the hospitals cranuned with wounded. 
I have seen it stated th&t foreign newspapers are no 
longer allowed in Germany. I do not know whether this 
poHcy has been maintained. But if it has it would be all 
of a piece with the publication of crude rubbish of this 
sort. 
The communiques published by the German authorities 
with regard to the fighting on the Eastern front show 
exactly the same spirit. When the Germans are ham- 
mered, lose thousands of prisoners and dozens of guns, 
you have almost invariably the phrase : " The fighting 
is continuing." Any check to the Russian advance is 
noted and made the end of that particular communique. 
A successive re-advance by the Russians is omitted but, 
curiously enough, where Austrian reverses are concerned 
the fullest comment is allowed in the German Press as 
though by way of contrast with the supposed superiority 
and freedom from loss of the North German imits. 
They know their own public best, and it may be wise 
to treat it in this way, but it behoves us to note the polic}' 
carefully and to appreciate its significance. 
I cannot forbear to quote the following, from the 
pen of Major Moraht : 
" On the Russian front, faced as we are by massed 
attacks, we are forced to choose between extreme resist- 
ance and an elastic retreat, effected after inflicting severe 
losses on the columns of the assaulting enemy. It is the 
latter course we have chosen ; and by so doing we for- 
feited the applause of the readers of communiques and 
that merely outward sign of victory which is achieved 
by an advance." 
Excellent ! a year ago : But what about effectives to- 
day ? And what about a retreat that lengthens the line that 
your dwindling and irreplaceable effectives must hold ? 
And what about a retreat that ends on German soil ? 
H. Belloc 
Thou.gh slightly melodramatic in form, Catherine Radzi- 
will's latest novel. Became of These Things (Cassell and Co., 
6s.), is a powerful piece of work. It deals with the adven- 
tures of one Wera, a Russian lady, who had been deserted 
by her husband and had fallen in love witli a doctor when the 
war broke on Russia. The result was regeneration for all 
the characters concerned, not only for Wera and her husband 
and lover, but also for the minor characters of the book. 
But the main interest hes in the phases of the campaign 
that the book depicts. The horror of Samsonoff's fight 
against mud at Tannenberg, and the utter callousness of 
German war, are the main points of the book, which deserves 
attention rather for its subject than for its characters. 
Above the Battle, by Romain RoUand (George Allen and 
Unwin, 2s. 6d. net) is a series of essays on subjects con- 
nected with the war by an admitted great thinker, and in 
these essays is all the incisive strength that one associates 
■with the man through his former work. " Know once for all," 
he says, addressing Germany, " that there is nothing more 
overwhelming for us I.atins, nothing more difficult to endure, 
than your mihtarisation of the intellect. If, jjy some awful 
fate, this spirit were triumphant, I should leave Europe for 
ever. To live here would be intolerable to me." And 
though his sentiments are not those of indiscriminate hate, 
such as is worthy only of a Prussian, one has only to read a 
few of these pages to see that the quotation given e mbodies 
his attitude toward Germany and German war— he is no luke- 
warm adherent to the Allied cause, but a patriot of broad 
views and sympathies. Such misunderstanding of Rolland 
as has arisen is due, not to any sympathy on his part with 
Germany, but rather to his realisation "of the world-wide 
suffering the war has caused, and to his discrimination 
between system and individual. He writes from Switzer- 
land : had he written from Belgium his attitude might 
have been different. 
