FIELD WORKS ROUND VERDUN.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 8, Issue 61, 11 March 1916, Page 6

FIELD WORKS ROUND VERDUN.

HOW- THE FORTRESS WAS SAVED EARLY IN THE WAR. For the Germans Verdun is one of the great disappointments of the war. On this part of the line, the rock on which their long-considered schemes of invasion foundered was'not, as it might have been, the great fortresses of the frontier, but the fact, that the Germans have never been able to get near them. They have been foiled, not by forts, but by forces. They knew, and trusted in the destructive power of their giant Krupp guns; but in the territories of Belfort, the Vosges, Lorraine, Le Woevre, and the heights cf the Meuse they have not tod a chance. The generals and their armies have always been able to keep the Germans at arm's length and not for the first time in the history of the -world men 'and moral have triumphed ever matter 'and * machines. The French cupolas that were to have been pounded to pieces are still untouched. »

Verdun itself is even stronger than at the beginning of the war, since the army that has been fighting in front of it i s practically intact, and has been hardened and heartened by experience of warfare. Its guns are of the first order, and quite capable of holding their own with the German heavy artillery, if it ever gets within shootv ing, distance. ' But that,, as things stand at present, is highly improbable. In spite of all its efforts the army of the Crown Prince has never been able to get nearer to the town than the line that passed through Nontfaucon (in the north-east of the Argonne), Fdrges, Oynes, Etain, FresnesenfWoevre, and a point oh the Meuse near Saint MihieL At no point is the line nearer than 10 miles from the centre of the fortress, and there are no signs of any improvement in the Germants' chances of ever

reaching it. At the beginning of the war the French armies under General Sarrail shared in the fighting on the Belgian frontier and in the neighbourhood of Longwy, 'and, in accordance with the general strategic withdrew upon Verdun! While the British and the rest of the French armies were retirin gtc their positions for the battle of the Marne this army fell back with-

out pressure from the enemy and was at no time troubled during its retreat. The retirement was completed on September 10th, when the right of this 'army rested upon Verdun and its.left upon Bar-el-Duc, almost immediately south. The line threatened the flank of the Crown Prince's army, and at the same time afforded protection to Verdun. Such, more or less, were the positons it occupied during the battle of the Marne. How greatly it contributed to precipitate the retreat after the decisive day of the battle was shown by the fury of the assault delivered by the Crown Prince upon the whole cf this front on the very test day of the struggle which dispelled the nightmare of occupation weighing upon Paris. The Crown Prince made a terrific attempt to batter his way through the Fort de Troyon, but failed.

The enemy was more successful to the south at Saint Mihiel, and it was en the last day of the battle of the Marne that the general learned that the Germans had succeeded in crossing the Meuse in his rear at this point, and- threatened to cut his army in two* to envelop Verdun 'and a large portion of the field army defending it. The prompt despatch of two cavalry corps to the threatened point succeeded in stemming the German rush, and elsewhere along the battleline, although- in considerable numerical inferiority General Sarrail was opposed by the Third,. Tenth, Sixteenth, and Thirteenth Wurtemberg corps and five or six divisions of reserves. Yet

he succeeded in defending himself with such vigor that, although- complete victory was not attained, the Third German Corps was obliged to retire hi a state of extreme exhaustion, having sustained heavy losses in killed, wounded 'and prisoners, and having abandoned much of Its material.