r taken prisoners with all
their officers. Many Turks perished from the cold.

GREAT BATTLE BEFORE VERDUN

One of the greatest and most sanguinary battles of the war began before
Verdun on February 20, when the army of the Crown Prince of Germany, in
the presence of the Kaiser, started a determined and desperate drive
against the great French fortress. Ever since the battle of the Marne
halted the German advance on Paris early in September, 1914, the forces
of the Crown Prince had been striving unsuccessfully to break through
the French lines north and east of Verdun, but the fortress had well
maintained its reputation for impregnability and continued to bar the
high road to Paris.

For ten days the battle raged on the plains, in the forests and on the
hills before Verdun, and the loss of life was appalling on both sides.
By February 26, after six days of continuous fighting, the Germans had
penetrated the French lines along several miles of front, had occupied
several villages a few miles north of Verdun, driven the French from the
peninsula of the Meuse formed by a bend of the river about six miles
from the city, and carried by storm the outlying fort of Douaumont, at
the northeast corner of the Verdun fortifications. But their advance
was then halted by the French in a series of the most brilliant
counter-attacks, and the German offensive appeared to die down by March
1, when their losses in the ten days' battle were estimated at 175,000,
including between 40,000 and 50,000 killed. The French losses were
heavy, but the nature of the German attacks, in which huge masses of men
were hurled against the French entrenchments, exposed the Teuton
forces "to the most withering and destructive fire from the French
75-centimeters and machine guns. The battle exceeded in violence and
losses even the great battle of the Yser earlier in the war. Heavy
reinforcements had been brought to the Verdun front by the Germans, and
it was estimated that their forces engaged in the attack numbered at
least 500,000 men, supported by numerous 15-inch and 17-inch Austrian
mortars, with all the heavy German artillery used in the Serbian
campaign and part of that formerly employed on the Russian front.

While the battle of Verdun was in progress, the Germans also made
determined attacks in the Champagne region, graining some ground; but on
March 1 the Allied lines were holding fast all along the western front.

Wounded soldiers returning fr