irst line, the Germans seemed to have but one idea, to
strengthen their second line to stem the advance. Their counterattacks
were concentrated on a comparatively unimportant part of the battle
front in certain places, the loss of which appeared to them to be
particularly dangerous. Therefore on the heights of Massiges the
German military authorities hurled in succession isolated battalions
of the 123d, 124th and 120th regiments; of the Thirtieth Regular
Regiment and of the Second Regiment Ersatz Reserve (Sixteenth Corps),
which were in turn decimated, for these counterattacks, hastily and
crudely prepared, all ended in sanguinary failures. It was not the men
who failed their leaders, for they fought like tigers when reasonable
opportunities were offered them.

That strong offensive capacity of the Germans seemed also, on the
occasion, to have broken down. General von Ditfurth's order of the day
bears witness to this: "It seemed to me that the infantry at certain
points was confining its action to a mere defensive.... I cannot
protest too strongly against such an idea, which necessarily results
in destroying the spirit of offensive in our own troops and in
arousing and strengthening in the mind of the enemy a feeling of his
superiority. The enemy is left full liberty of action and our action
is subjected to the will of the enemy."

It is of course impossible to estimate precisely what the German
losses were. There are certain known details, however, which may serve
to indicate their extent. One underofficer declared that he was the
only man remaining out of his company. A soldier of the third
battalion of the 123d Regiment, engaged on the 26th, stated that his
regiment was withdrawn from the front after only two days' fighting
because its losses were too great. The 118th Regiment relieved the
158th Regiment in the trenches after it had been reduced to fifteen or
twenty men per company. Certain units disappeared completely, as for
instance the Twenty-seventh Reserve Regiment and the Fifty-second
Regular Regiment, which, by the evening of the 25th, had left in
French hands the first 13 officers and 933 men, and the other 21
officers and 927 men. Certain figures may help to arrive at the total
losses. At the beginning of September, 1915, the German strength on
the Champagne front amounted to seventy battalions. In anticipation of
a French attack they brought there, before the 25th, another
twenty-nine battalions, making