The early days of the week were marked by a
lull in the fighting at Verdun. On Monday, however, the Germans flung themselves against the French positions with renewed vigour. Two infantry divisions composed of men selected from five divisions, and num- bering about thirty thousand men, attacked the French at Douau- mont with the utmost fierceness. The result was most dishearten- ing to our enemies. In the greater part of the line they were hurled back, and only in one place did they effect a lodgment, and that a place of no importance. Their losses were extremely heavy, the men falling in hundreds under the fire of the French " seventy- fives." Altogether, the Germans have lost close on two hundred thousand men in their unsuccessful attacks on Verdun. If they had succeeded in taking the town, the price paid would be utterly out of proportion to the result achieved. As it is, the losses are without excuse. It has been pure waste of life. What makes matters worse is the fact that the Germans dare not now break off the encounter. They dare not confess to a failure so gigantic and so tragic. Their only course, therefore, is to try again in the hope, growing fainter and fainter, that they may be able to "hack their way through." They are bound to go on attempting the impossible. "Yarns, give me back my legions I" was the cry of the broken-hearted Emperor. How long will it be before the Kaiser addresses his son and heir in similar terms ?
