November 30, 1910 LAND & WATER 
The New Warfare at Verdun 
By Arno Dosch Fleurot 
13 
[Tlic wriler of this article is an American journalist, 
just back from Verdun. He gives a vivid account of 
how the French fight and win now that the infantry 
is supported adequately by heavy artillery] 
ON the side of Fort Douaumont, called by the 
Kaiser the keystone of Verdun, there is a hole 
in the shell-torn earth named the Abri Adalbert. 
It is a well-protected shelter built by the French 
in the early days of the war, but renamed by the Germans 
after the Kaiser's son. Prince Adalbert. Now that 
the French have recaptured Douaumont and the whole 
ridge of the Barren Ground (Froide Terre) upon which 
it is situated, as well as all the other forts dominating 
Verdun from the east, it amuses those wonderful fellows, 
the poilus, to keep the name, and to sleep thick and safe 
in the abri named in honour of the brother of the Crown 
Prince. The fact that they recaptured it in a lightning 
attack at the end of October might be enough to brighten 
the dark hole, but it is more particularly the complete 
failure of the Crown Prince's pretences and of the whole 
Imperial purpose that gives the joke the Gallic touch. 
An Important Lesson 
Sitting in the Abri Adalbert, between the setting of 
the moon and the dawn, a few days after Fort Douaumont 
was recaptured, I heard at first-hand how the Froide 
Terre and Douaumont had been retaken. It contains 
an important military lesson, one the Germans ex- 
perienced too thoroughly not to understand. So there 
is no impropriety in relating it. It reveals an entirely 
new period in warfare— the period that has succeeded the 
trench warfare. It is no less distinct a development of 
this war and requires greater engineering skill as well as 
greater heroism. It shows clearly for what all armies 
must prepare. The nicely calculated success of the 
French points the way. 
I got the story from too many mouths— white teeth 
flashing and bright eyes fired again— to put it directly 
into the words of any one. The military significance of 
it only came up after we had talked of many things in 
our efforts to forget we were soaking wet to the skin. 
Sitting around an alcohol stove lighted to make us' 
chocolate, there were two privates, a sergeant with a 
telephone receiver to his ear, a handsome young captain, 
two other American correspondents and myself. 
^Ve took up the tale from the hour when the big attack 
began. At this time Fort Souville on the ridge to the 
south had already been retaken, and the slow progress 
of the summer had brought back into French hands the 
gradual slope towards the watery j)lain of the Woeuvre, 
including the village of Fleury. But, at the moment of 
the big attack, Vaux, farther down from Souville towards 
the Woeuvre, was still held by the Germans, and, on the 
Froide Terre ridge the Germans not only held the two 
dominant forts, Thiaumont and Douaumont, but were 
more than half way down the ridge towards the Meuse 
and Verdun. From that point their menace of Verdun 
was the most dangerous, particularly as they were con- 
stantly launching attacks down the hill. It was 'neces- 
sary first to dislodge them from the Froide Terre, no easy 
task considering their occupation of the two forts, thcfr 
numerous shelters and complete trench-series. 
But the French did it, and did it in four hours once 
their heavy artillery work had prepared the way. Their 
method was also not expensive in lives, considering the 
ground gained, and will undoubtedly become the accepted 
method' of rooting out an entrenched enemy. In it lies 
the technique essential to every attacking army. 
Up to the time of the rapid regaining of Verdun's 
outer defences, the French had been handicapped by the 
lack of heavy artillery. General I\langin, who .directed 
the artillery lire, felt rightly that he could blow 
the Germans completely off Terre Froide ridge. 
He began with a preliminary artillery fire that spared 
no square inch on the whole ridge. He used only his 
liea\y pieces and fired contact shells. It required more 
than a million shells, how much more I do not know, but 
the destruction was complete. The ridge was left as I 
have described it. It lias since been shelled by the Ger- 
mans with almost equal completeness, but there has been 
nothing more for them to do than to boil it over again. 
Timed to the Minute 
This work finished, the attack began. It had been 
figured down to the minute, and went off as scheduled. 
The earth in front of the French troops no longer showed 
a piece of barbed wire or a trench. Its defenders were 
crouched in the shell-craters and hidden in the abris. 
Over them swept a curtain of French fire from the smaller 
but quicker .75 millimetre and .105 millimetre guns. 
This curtain descended on the riflemen and mitrailleuse 
companies in the shell-craters. 
The first line of I'Tench riflemen was not very thick, 
but was so far forward it was really under the edge 
of its own curtain of fire. Of the 20,000 Gei'mans in the 
first line of defence, not one escaped. 
Immediately behind this doubly heroic first line came 
the " cleaners of the trenches. ' Their name sounds 
bloodthirsty, but their work is not necessarily so. Their 
business is, first, to prevent the first fine being shot in 
the back, and then to make prisoners. In this case they 
were armed chiefly with bombs to throw into the shelters, 
and, from the looks of the entrances of the shelters on 
the Froide Terre they did not miss one. One way or 
another they finished off the first German line and moved 
on to finish off each succeeding first line as they moved on 
up the hill. Behind the " cleaners of the trenches " 
came the main body of infantry, supported by big 
machine guns. The}' moved in comparative safety, 
if it can be considered even remotely safe to be under 
an enemy barrier-fire. 
The attack up the hill was scheduled for a certain 
minute, and at that minute the curtain of fire fell just 
before the first French line. Each minute it moved 
forward 25 metres, nearly eighty feet. The commanders 
of the artillery two or three miles back and the com- 
manders of the first, second and third lines of infantry 
worked with their eyes on their watches. Minute by 
minute the line swept forward eighty feet at a time. 
There could be no hitch, no delay. Once the curtain of 
fire descended it had to sweep up over the ridge and the 
lines behind had to pace it. It was possible for the. 
Germans to bring up reinforcements and meet the first 
French line under their curtain of fire, and to prevent 
the French from bringing up their third line by a barrier- 
fire so intense as to give the troops nO chance of coming 
through alive, but- either they did not have the troo])s 
or were unwilling to have them annihilated under the 
French curtain-fire. The French met resistance, and 
reinforcements were brought up, but not in sufficient 
numbers to slacken that steady pace of eighty feet a 
minute. That speed may not seem much, but it was made 
up and down over shell-craters. 
The essentials of this latest form of attack were : 
(i) Plenty of heavy artillery supplied with millions of 
shells. 
(2) An equally good supply of lighter, rapid-firing 
artillery of which the best type is the French .75 milli- 
metre, and the bigger model of similar type, the .105. 
(3) Light machine guns that can be carried by one 
man with helpers bearing ammunition. 
(4) Heavier machine guns to back them up. 
All other considerations are variable. 
CaiTied out on a wide front, so rapid an advance as 
this against an entrenched enemy can only be guided from 
the air. Aeroplanes must hang inunediately over the 
advancing troops reporting the progress back to the 
artillery commander. They must also fly low enough to 
see in detail what is going on. 
The whole plan of the battle was so scientific, so care- 
fully worked out and scheduled, there was no room for 
slack work. There was also no place for " cannon-fodder." 
The unskilled soldier has disappeared. He must be an 
