“To the German guns must be added the tremendous amount of artillery used by the French in their defense, estimated to be almost as large now as that of the Germans.  The conclusion is that more than 6,000 cannon, varying from 3-inch field guns to 42-centimeter (16-inch) siege mortars, are engaged in hurling thousands of high explosive shells hourly in the never-ceasing, thunderous artillery duels of the mighty battle of Verdun.”

FROM A GERMAN OFFICER’S VIEWPOINT.

The stories told by those who, on the German side, lay in trenches under shell-fire before Verdun for days at a time and week after week, freezing, thirsting, in mud and water, between the dead and the dying, thrilled the hearer with their pathos and devotion.  These were the men who, like the waves of the sea, beat almost incessantly against the obstinate fortifications of Verdun, and there learned a new respect for the French enemy.  Such a story was written from the front in April by a German officer named Ross—­a man of Scottish descent—­who, before the war, was editor of a newspaper in Munich.  In the Berlin Vossische Zeitung he said: 

“It is a worthy, embittered foe against whom this last decisive struggle is aimed.  France is fighting for her existence.  She is no weaker than we are in men, guns, or munitions.  Only one thing decides between us—­will and nerves.  Every doubting, belittling word is a creeping poison which kills joyful, strong hope and does more damage than a thousand foes.  Only if we are convinced to our marrow that we shall win, shall we conquer.

“In this colossal combat, where numbers and mechanical weapons are so utterly alike, moral superiority is everything.  We have more than once had the experience that the effective result of a battle has depended upon who considered himself the victor and acted accordingly.  Often the merest remnant of will and nerves was the factor that influenced the decision.

“War, which only smoldered here and there during the endless trench fighting, like damp wood, burns here with such all-consuming fire that divisions have to be called up after days and hours in the trenches, and are ground to pieces and burned up into so many cinders and ashes.

“Such intensity of battle as is here before Verdun is unheard of.  No picture, no comparison, can give the remotest conception of the concentration of guns and shells with which the two antagonists are raging against each other.  I have seen troops who had held out in the fire for days and weeks, to whom in exposed positions food could hardly be brought, on whose bodies the clothes were not dry, who, yet reeking with dirt and dampness, had the nerve for new storming operations.”

BATTLE OF CAILLETTE WOOD.

Among the fiercer struggles before Verdun, the battle of Caillette Wood, east of the fortress city, will have a place in history as one of the most bloody and thrilling.