Part 31 (1/2)

CHAPTER XXI

THE TURNING OF THE TIDE

In the days immediately following their interview with General Petain, the lads saw much fighting; and with the close of each day there came bitterness to them, to the French troops, their officers and to the people of France and of all the allied nations.

For the armies of the German Crown Prince continued to advance steadily in spite of the heroic resistance of the French; and it began to appear that the ”Gateway to France” must ere long fall into alien hands.

Day after day the Germans hurled themselves forward in herculean efforts to break the French lines; and most every day found them fighting a little nearer to Verdun. In vain the French attempted to stem the onslaught of the invading forces; the Germans were not to be denied.

On the days when the fiercest of the German a.s.saults were made, it was learned that the Emperor of Germany had directed the a.s.saults in person.

From the top of a small hill, surrounded by his staff, the Kaiser looked down upon the battlefield for days at a time, showing no signs of emotion as his countrymen fell right and left, that the German flag might be planted a few yards--sometimes only a few feet--farther westward.

While the German losses were something terrible in this continuous fighting, the French suffered untold hards.h.i.+ps. The effect of the great German sh.e.l.ls, which fell within the French lines almost incessantly, was tremendous. It did not seem that flesh and blood could survive their deadly effect--and yet the French fought back gamely.

At last the Germans reached a point only three miles and a half from the city of Verdun itself.

Then began the fiercest of the fighting.

After having been pushed back many miles by the German hordes, the French now braced suddenly and gave as good as they received. Instead of waiting for the German attacks, General Petain launched offensives of his own. At first these broke down easily under the German sh.e.l.ls, but as they continued, the drives began to meet with more and more success. It became apparent that at this point the advantage usually rested with the attacking party.

Battles--or what would have been called battles in any other war of history, but now, in the official reports were merely referred to as skirmishes--raged for hours at a stretch, some of the most important continuing for days, first with advantage to one side and then to the other.

In vain the German Crown Prince hurled his men forward to pierce the French lines that now separated him from Verdun, less than four miles away.

While the German guns still continued to sh.e.l.l the city and the fortifications, there was little they could accomplish now. All walls and houses in the path of the great guns had crumbled under their terrible fire days ago; there was nothing left to destroy, except at intervals where a small fort still stood and breathed defiance to the enemy.

But the German guns served one purpose. They afforded protection for the infantry as it advanced to the attack. Only when the Germans advanced close enough to come to hand grips with the French did the big guns become silent.

But now came the turning of the tide.

From far back the French threw out reinforcements to the hard pressed men in front. Huge new field guns were brought up. Great ma.s.ses of ammunition, which the French had been storing up for just such a chance, were rushed to the front. Soon the French guns were speaking as loudly and as often as the great German 42-centimetres themselves.

The first work of the new French offensive was to clear the Germans from Dead Man's Hill, Hill No. 320 and Hill No. 304. These battles, among the fiercest of all history, however, were really little more than skirmishes, when the entire movement was taken into consideration.

Terrible though they were, after all they were nothing more than small parts of the great battle of Verdun itself.

From Dead Man's Hill and the other two elevations captured by the French, the Germans now were pushed clear back to the banks of the river Meuse; and then they were driven beyond. Thiaumont farm, where Hal and Chester had seen hard fighting, came once more beneath the French tricolor; and the German eagle went back farther still.

There was little or no rest for the men in the trenches on either side.

Out would rush the Germans from their trenches in a grand attack upon the trenches of the French. Hand-to-hand fighting would ensue. Perhaps the Germans would be driven back. If they were they would make a new effort an hour or so later.

Perhaps the French would give way and the Germans would occupy the trenches. A short time later the French would re-form under the very rifles of the enemy, and, by a grand charge, oust the Germans from their newly won positions. Then came the work of concentrating and fortifying the trenches all over again.

It was terrible work, these days before Verdun.

Hal and Chester played no small part in the advance of the French army.

More than once they were despatched upon important missions; and their fortune had been of the best. Not once had they failed to accomplish a piece of work entrusted to them. General Petain began to look upon them as among his best men. Many a piece of work that, a month before, he would have entrusted to an older head now fell to the lot of either Hal or Chester; and the boys did not complain. In fact, the more they had to do the better they liked it.