When it appeared at one time that the
French must be hurled back, General Sir Douglas Haig, the British
commander-in-chief, weakened his own lines to the far north to take over
a portion of the ground just to his right and thus relieved the French
situation at Verdun somewhat.
General Petain thus was enabled to shorten his own lines, and from that
moment, with few exceptions, the French stood firm.
It seemed that the Germans, beaten off time after time as they were, must
soon abandon the attempt to break the French lines at Verdun; but each
repulse brought a new assault mightier than before. The Germans raced
across the open ground under a veritable hail of lead. They fell by
hundreds and thousands, but what few survived hurled themselves against
the barbed wire entanglements of the French or into the trenches, there
to die upon the points of the foes' bayonets, or to be shot down as they
tumbled over the breastworks.
The German general staff drew heavily from its forces on the east front
and added these new legions to the already large army occupied before
Verdun; but the result was always the same. So far they could progress
and no farther.
After almost five months of defensive tactics, General Petain began to
launch assaults of his own.
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