woke up slowly to it, but I am now perfectly
satisfied with what we are doing. We have now 2,500 factories,
employing 1,500,000 men and 250,000 women. By spring we shall have
turned out an immense amount of munitions. We shall have for the first
time in the war more than the enemy. Our superiority in men and
munitions will be unquestioned, and I think that the war for us is
just beginning. We have 3,000,000 men under arms; by spring we shall
have a million more.... Our victory must be a real and final victory.
You must not think of a deadlock. One must crack the nut before one
gets at the kernel. It may take a long time, but you must hear the
crack. The pressure on the enemy is becoming greater. They are
spreading their frontier temporarily, but becoming weaker in a
military sense. Make no mistake about it; Great Britain is determined
to fight this war to a finish. We may make mistakes, but we do not
give in. It was the obstinacy of Great Britain that wore down Napoleon
after twenty years of warfare. Her allies broke away one by one, but
Great Britain kept on. Our allies on this occasion are just as solid
and determined as we are."

CHAPTER XIV

THE BATTLE OF VERDUN--THE GERMAN ATTACK

Toward the close of 1915 the German General Staff decided on a vast
onslaught on the French front that would so crush and cripple the
fighting forces of France that they would cease to count as an
important factor in the war. A great action was also necessary owing
to the external and internal situation of the German Empire. The time
was ripe for staging a spectacular victory that would astonish the
world, intimidate Greece and Rumania, and stiffen the weakening hold
that Germany had on Turkey and Bulgaria.

The German General Staff knew that Russia was arming several hundred
thousand new troops, that Great Britain had reenforced her armies on
the Continent, that the Allies were amply supplied with guns and
shells, and that in the spring they would undertake an offensive on a
large scale that would go far toward ending the war. In order to
anticipate this threatened onslaught the German staff decided to
strike, hoping to gain a victory before the Allies were entirely
ready.

Having arrived at this decision, the next problem was to select the
battle field, and Verdun was decided upon. At first this choice
created general astonishment, for the capture of Verdun would only
mean the gaining of a certain number of square miles o