“Yet, desperate as were their circumstances, they broke down the German plan for capturing trenches without an infantry attack.  They caught the patrols and annihilated them, and then swept back the disillusioned and reluctant main bodies of German troops.  First, the bombing parties were felled, then the sappers as they came forward to repair the line for their infantry, and at last the infantry itself in wave after wave of field-gray.  The small French garrison of every center of resistance fought with cool, deadly courage, and often to the death.

“Artillery fire was practically useless against them, for though their tunnel shelters were sometimes blown in by the twelve-inch shells, which they regarded as their special terror by reason of their penetrative power and wide blast, even the Germans had not sufficient shells to search out all their underground chambers, every one of which have two or three exits.

“The new organization of the French Machine-gun Corps was a fine factor in the eventual success.  One gun fired ten thousand rounds daily for a week, most of the positions selected being spots from which each German infantry advance would be enfiladed and shattered.  Then the French 75’s which had been masked during the overwhelming fire of the enemy howitzers, came unexpectedly into action when the German infantry attacks increased in strength.  Near Haumont, for example, eight successive furious assaults were repulsed by three batteries of 75’s.  One battery was then spotted by the Austrian twelve-inch guns, but it remained in action until all its ammunition was exhausted.  The gunners then blew up their guns and retired, with the loss of only one man.

[Illustration:  Ammunition for the guns

Canadian narrow-gauge line taking ammunition up the line through a shattered village.]

[Illustration:  How Verdun was saved

The motor transport never faltered when the railroads were put out of action.]

“Von Falkenhayn had increased the Crown Prince’s army from the fourteen divisions—­that battled at Douaumont Fort—­to twenty-five divisions.  In April he added five more divisions to the forces around Verdun by weakening the effectives in other sectors and drawing more troops from the Russian front.  It was rumored that von Hindenburg was growing restive and complaining that the wastage at Verdun would tell against the success of the campaign on the Riga-Dvinsk front, which was to open when the Baltic ice melted.

“Great as was the wastage of life, it was in no way immediately decisive.  But when the expenditure of shells almost outran the highest speed of production of the German munition factories, and the wear on the guns was more than Krupp and Skoda could make good, there was danger to the enemy in beginning another great offensive likely to overtax his shellmakers and gunmakers.”

Immortal and indomitable France had won over her foe more power than she had possessed even after the battle of the Marne.  If her Allies, with the help of Japan and the United States, could soon overtake the production of the German and Austrian munition factories, it was possible that Verdun, so close to Sedan, might become one of the turning points of the war.