AT the beginning of 1916 the Central

Powers were confident of an early and a favorable decision. During 1915 they had had success after success. A minimum of men had held the Western Front while the armies of Russia were being pushed back, or else were conducted to German prison camps. Serbia had been destroyed, the Allied expedition against Gallipoli was obviously a failure, and General Townshend and his men were shut up in Kut-el-Amara, awaiting the relief

which never came. A short sharp campaign on all fronts would, so the German High Command believed, bring the contest to a glorious end.

ED HOPES ARE AROUSED DURING THE

ALL YEAR.

Before the end of the year, about September 1, the Allied peoples also had their moment of confidence. The

German attack upon Verdun had failed, the Austrian attack on Italy had been repulsed, and the Italians had advanced well toward Trieste; Brusilov was still advancing and his offensive seemed destined to succeed; Rumania had just declared war upon Austria-Hungary and had crossed the mountains into Transylvania. On the Somme the great British offensive was pounding the quaking German line. It seemed that the Central Powers must soon yield.

Both German and Allied hopes were disappointed. Verdun did not fall; the German line on the Somme was not broken; the Russian recovery, though brilliant, lacked the final ounce of strength necessary for success; though the Austrians could not drive down into the Italian plain, they were able to prevent the Italians from seizing. the key to the Adriatic; Rumania's high hopes of annexing her scattered children were blasted, and the enemy held her capital, her seaport, her granaries, and her oilfields. The great naval battle of Jutland had shown the German sailors to be possessed of greater skill and better guns than had been suspected, but the British fleet, though somewhat battered, continued to hold undisputed command of the

which the government apparently made no real effort to send forward to the fighting line. Russia was, in truth, on the point of collapse though this fact was not realized by her allies.

Baron von Freytag-Loringhoven was the most distinguished student of war in the German Empire. He was Quartermaster General under von Falkenhayn and later Deputy Chief of the General Staff.

The Western Front was the scene of the heaviest fighting yet seen on both the French and the British fronts. During January there were small operations, some of them bloody, but nothing approaching a general engagement. In February, however, came the German attempt to break through at Verdun. This was neither a single battle, nor a siege, but a whole series of operations continuing through many months. It was marked by great bravery and grim determination on the part of the German forces, and by bravery no less remarkable and by unbelievable endurance on the part of the French.

VERDUN A SOURCE OF DANGER TO THE

GERMAN LINE.

From the beginning of the war Verdun and its ring of nearly forty forts

had projected as a salient into the German lines. Situated on both banks of the Meuse it was feared by the Germans as a possible base from which an attack might be launched upon Metz and upon their communications. The French valued it highly, not only as one of their major defenses, but also as a symbol of French invincibility.

The Allies were hoping to break through during 1916. To forestall them, by paralyzing the French offensive, on February 21 after two days of preliminary bombardment, a perfect hail of steel descended upon a small section of the French defenses. A thousand pieces of artillery were engaged, some of them the great Krupp and Skoda howitzers which had so easily destroyed the Belgian forts. The French lines were pulverized, but the French withdrew, to new positions, always selling the ground they left at a high price. During the first week great German gains were made and the German people were informed that the fortress was on the point of capture; but the French held on, regaining occasionally a bit of the lost ground.

HE LATER ASPECTS OF THE VERDUN

TH BATTLES.

These crushing attacks continued until April 9, about which time they were brought to a standstill. Then followed a period in which the German attacks were intended not so much to take the fortress, as to prevent the French from reinforcing the British armies on the Somme. About the middle of July the French regained the offensive, and for five months the Germans struggled to hold what they had already taken, only to lose in a few days in October, and again in December, what they had gained so painfully in weeks and months. The casualties on both sides were enormous, but the whole campaign was a French victory, for they held fast. General von Falkenhayn, the Chief of the German General Staff, paid the penalty for failure, and was relieved by General von Hindenburg at the end of August.

During 1915 great British armies had been in process of formation. English youth from the most exalted to the

had pushed past Noyon. Here, on both sides of the Somme River, the British and the French were to push forward. The sanguine had hoped that they might break through and cause a general German retreat. At least they would relieve the pressure on Verdun. Before the end of the five months Verdun was no longer in danger, and the contest had settled into a war of attrition, an attempt to reduce Germany's man-power as she had attempted to bleed France.

The attack was hastened a little on account of the situation at Verdun but not unduly. The battle, or series of battles, began with a grand artillery

G

ENERAL HAIG DETERMINES TO CON-
TINUE THE FIGHTING.

General Haig determined to continue the fighting and for two weeks he slowly blasted his way toward the German second line, breaking through it on a narrow front, on July 14. For more than a month more he struggled to widen the breach in the first and second lines and to clear the country between. This was the first open fighting in the West since trench warfare began. The French likewise moved forward and were approaching Combles at the middle of August. Combined British and French attacks followed and during September the Germans