river,
from Charny Ridge, from the hill of Mort Homme, and from that of
304--high ground, in fact, almost continuous with the Hill of Talou.
Taking a bird's-eye view of this particular position of the salient of
Verdun, one sees the River Meuse flowing from south to north, winding
in big bends through the hills which bound the valley, while, on those
same hills to west and east of the river, eminences project which form
the positions with which we are dealing. Running almost due east and
west, there are Hill 304 and the Mort Homme, with Charny Ridge closer
to the river and overlooking it. Then comes a flattened piece of land
which is marshy in the winter, and through which the river winds,
forming a big bend, and flowing in that part in an east-and-westerly
direction. At Vacherauville--lying close to the eastern bank of the
river--the next outcrop on the banks of the Meuse is the Cote de Talou,
and, still east of it, the Cote du Poivre, while a little farther east,
in the neighbourhood of Louvemont, the heights sweep round abruptly to
the south to Douaumont, and then to Vaux, towards which those outlying
parties of French who had held on so stubbornly to Herbebois, Ornes,
and Maucourt, and had retired towards Bezonvaux, were now being driven
by the enemy.

A glance at the sketch attached will show at once that the hills we
have mentioned to the west or left of the River Meuse, and those to the
right, form, as it were, a gateway through which the river passes,
entering the gateway at Vacherauville and emerging at Cumieres, where a
wood and a village nestle close to the river.

Then let us imagine troops marching along roads running parallel to the
river in a southerly direction, with the intention of forcing their way
through the gateway we have delineated, or rather of forcing their way
up the slopes of the Cote de Talou and on to the Cote du Poivre. The
roads which they must follow are clearly under command of the guns
posted on Hill 304, the Mort Homme, and Charny Ridge, which enfilade
the position.

[Illustration: MAP OF VERDUN SALIENT AFTER FOUR MONTHS OF CONTINUOUS
FIGHTING]

Such was the condition of affairs on this eventful morning, when,
having driven in the northern portion of the salient at Beaumont, and
shortened its baseline, the Germans once more threw their masses to the
assault in the desperate effort to drive in the wedge they had already
inserted, to stampede the French at that position, and,