Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 10.djvu/495

LEFT WORLD WAR 426 WORLD WAR after two months' fighting, the Germans had not got beyond Douaumont and Vaux on the right, while the French line on the left remained fixed on part of Dead Man Hill and the adjacent eleva- tion, Hill 304, The German determina- tion, however, to take these positions was not weakened, and during May they put forth their utmost strength to break the French resistance at both ends. Re- newed attacks forced the French to yield parts of both hills. On the Douaumont and Vaux line the Germans also resumed their attacks to complete their possession of Vaux, where the French occupied near-by slopes that commanded the vil- lage, which was held by the Germans and consisted of a single street. The French on their part were bent on recovering Douaumont fort, which they penetrated on May 22. They held it for two days^ back to the extreme edge of the hills. A number of points next in line toward Verdun from Douaumont and Vaux — Thiaumont, Fleury, Chapitre Wood and Fumin — were savagely at- tacked on June 23. Fleury was a pivotal point for capturing the fortress of Sou- viUe, about three miles from Verdun. The struggle for Thiaumont continued for several days; the place changed hands frequently, and on July 4 was finally held by the Germans, who also gained a footing in Chapitre Wood. The French were now just holding the inside line of Verdun forts — Belleville, Souville and Tavannes — with their backs to the river and with German trenches ap- ?roaching right up to the ditches of these orts. In other words, the French were about in their last ditch befoi'e Verdun, Then the great Allied offensive on the '6ENe0ULPT COURCHAMPS GfsHDELU ♦ M0NT/£/?5 ELLEAU ^ETRBPILL/ GSRMIQyy B0URECHE5 W^ • marTgnV eoCACiEK, ^ ^ V INC EL I -^O jy£i /r^ ^ l/Aijx SCENE OF AMERICAN VICTORY AT CHATETAU -THIERRY JUNE 6-12, 13«8 COUPRU DOMPT/A/ COt/PETTES CHATEAU,^^ — -IgRRr NOOENTEL AMERICAN VICTORY AT CHATEAU-THIERRY bitter fighting at close quarters mean- time taking place within its walls before they were ousted by Bavarian re-enforce- ments. With June came an eight-day battle for the Vaux slopes. The strain became too terrible for the French garri- son to endure, and the brave remnant finally were surrounded and yielded the position. The Germans were now in con- tact with the inner defenses of Verdun, and the war situation elsewhere de- manded that the crushing blow to France be delivered without delay. They had pushed out from Douaumont and cap- tured Vaux, had crowded up and over Dead Man Hill and up the slope of Hill 304, forcing the French Somme intervened, and the Germans gained nothing more in their final at- tempt to reach the city. On July 12 they were halted by the French on the Fleury and Souville road and four days later the struggle for Verdun ceased. The devel- opment of Allied operations on the Somme compelled the Germans to make jiat sector their principal preoccupation on the western front. A long strip of the outer defenses of Verdun, averaging three miles in breadth north and north- east, fell to the attackers; some three miles to the south from the nearest points reached by the Germans lay the beleaguered city, shell torn but safe. In a five-months' combat 3,000 cannon and
 * BETZU