America's War for Humanity eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 688 pages of information about America's War for Humanity.

America's War for Humanity eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 688 pages of information about America's War for Humanity.

One of the greatest and most sanguinary battles of the war began before Verdun on February 20, when the army of the Crown Prince of Germany, in the presence of the Kaiser, started a determined and desperate drive against the great French fortress.  Ever since the battle of the Marne halted the German advance on Paris early in September, 1914, the forces of the Crown Prince had been striving unsuccessfully to break through the French lines north and east of Verdun, but the fortress had well maintained its reputation for impregnability and continued to bar the high road to Paris.

For ten days the battle raged on the plains, in the forests and on the hills before Verdun, and the loss of life was appalling on both sides.  By February 26, after six days of continuous fighting, the Germans had penetrated the French lines along several miles of front, had occupied several villages a few miles north of Verdun, driven the French from the peninsula of the Meuse formed by a bend of the river about six miles from the city, and carried by storm the outlying fort of Douaumont, at the northeast corner of the Verdun fortifications.  But their advance was then halted by the French in a series of the most brilliant counter-attacks, and the German offensive appeared to die down by March 1, when their losses in the ten days’ battle were estimated at 175,000, including between 40,000 and 50,000 killed.  The French losses were heavy, but the nature of the German attacks, in which huge masses of men were hurled against the French entrenchments, exposed the Teuton forces “to the most withering and destructive fire from the French 75-centimeters and machine guns.  The battle exceeded in violence and losses even the great battle of the Yser earlier in the war.  Heavy reinforcements had been brought to the Verdun front by the Germans, and it was estimated that their forces engaged in the attack numbered at least 500,000 men, supported by numerous 15-inch and 17-inch Austrian mortars, with all the heavy German artillery used in the Serbian campaign and part of that formerly employed on the Russian front.

While the battle of Verdun was in progress, the Germans also made determined attacks in the Champagne region, graining some ground; but on March 1 the Allied lines were holding fast all along the western front.

Wounded soldiers returning from the front during the bloody struggle before Verdun told tragic tales of the fighting.  “I watched the assault of the Germans upon the village of Milancourt, near the Meuse,” said a wounded Frenchman.  “They came in solid ranks, without a word, loading and reloading their rifles without cessation.  Our seventy-fives fell among them, and then the mitrailleuses entered into action.  It was no longer a battalion.  It was a few scattered groups of men that one saw, torn by a rain of shells and bullets, squeezing close against each other as though for mutual protection.

“On the border of Montfaucon I saw one of these groups disappear at one blow, as if they had been swallowed into a marsh.  Our shells!  What frightful work they did.  Never will I forget those fragments of human beings that fell just at my feet.  Never can I forget that terrible picture.

Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
America's War for Humanity from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.