months of incessant efforts and a
sacrifice of human lives unparalleled in history.

The fighting before Verdun illustrated and emphasized the revolution
in methods of attack and defense which has taken place in the French
army. At the beginning of the war the French believed in depending
largely on their light artillery both to prepare and to support an
attack, and for this purpose their 75's were admirably adapted. This
method worked well when carried out properly, and before the Germans
had time to bring up their heavy guns; it was by resorting to it that
the French won the victory of the Marne. But the Marne taught the
Germans that the surest way to break up the French system of attack
was to interpose obstacles, such as woods, wire entanglements, and
particularly trenches. To destroy these obstacles the French then had
to resort to heavy-calibered pieces, with which, as I have already
remarked, they were at first very inadequately supplied. In the spring
of 1915 in Artois, and in the autumn of the same year in Champagne,
they attempted to break through the German lines, but these attacks
were not supported by sufficient artillery and were each conducted in
a single locality over a limited front. Then, at Verdun, the Germans
tried opposite tactics, attempting to break through on a wide front
extending on both sides of the Meuse. So appalling were their losses,
however, that, as the attack progressed, they were compelled by lack
of sufficient effectives to constantly narrow their front until
finally the action was taking place along a line of only a few
kilometres. This permitted the French to concentrate both their
infantry and their artillery into dense formations, and before this
concentrated and intensive fire the German attacking columns withered
and were swept away like leaves before an autumn wind.

The French infantry--and the same is, I believe, true of the
German--is now to all intents and purposes divided into two classes:
holding troops and attacking, or "shock" troops, as the French call
them. The latter consist of such picked elements as the Chasseur
battalions, the Zouaves, the Colonials, the First, Twentieth, and
Twenty-first Army Corps, and, of course, the Foreign Legion. All these
are recruited from the youngest and most vigorous men, due regard
being also paid to selecting recruits from those parts of France which
have always produced the best fighting stock--and among these are the
invaded dist