t lands--but the lines on both sides held and victory
refused to perch on any banner.

Modern scientific strategy exhausted its utmost efforts; flanking and
turning movements were planned, attempted and failed; huge masses of
men were hurled against each other in every formation known to military
skill; myriads of lives and millions of money were sacrificed in
historic endeavors to breach the enemy's front--but ever the foeman held
his ground and neither side could claim decided advantage. Intrenchments
such as the world has never seen before covered the countryside for
fifty miles. Teuton, Gaul and Anglo-Saxon, Turco and Hindu, literally
"dug themselves in," and refused to budge an inch, though hell itself,
in all its horror and its fury, was loosed against them.

And thus the battle of the Aisne--also aptly called, from its extent and
ramifications, the battle of the Rivers--continued through many weeks
while all the world wondered and stood aghast at the slaughter, and the
single gleam of brightness that came out of that maelstrom of death and
misery was the growing respect of Frenchman, German and Briton for the
individual and collective courage of each other and the death-defying
devotion that was daily displayed by all.

FIGHTING CONTINUOUS DAY AND NIGHT

Beginning as an artillery duel in which the field-guns of the French and
Germans were matched against each other from opposite heights as never
before, the battle of the Aisne soon resolved itself into a series of
daily actions in which every arm of the opposing hosts engaged. There
was little rest for the troops day or night. Artillery fire beginning at
daybreak and continuing till dusk might break out again at any hour
of the night, the range of the enemy's intrenchments being known.
Frequently the artillery seemed to open fire in the still watches of the
night for no other reason than to prevent the enemy in his trenches from
getting any sleep at all, and many a man was borne to the rear on both
sides suffering from no wound, but from utter exhaustion--a state of
collapse which is often as deadly as shrapnel to the soldier in the
field.

For weeks at a time the only real rest for many of the troops engaged
along the line of battle came in snatches of a few hours when they were
temporarily relieved by fresh troops brought up from the rear, and
these in their turn might be soon exhausted by the continuous strain of
keeping on the alert to repel attacks--or,