a great offensive.]

The year 1915 was rich in successes for the Germans. In the West, thanks
to an energetic defensive, they had held firm against the Allies'
onslaughts in Artois and in Champagne. Their offensive in the East was
most fruitful. Galicia had been almost completely recovered, the kingdom
of Poland occupied, Courland, Lithuania, and Volhynia invaded. To the
South they had crushed Serbia's opposition, saved Turkey, and won over
Bulgaria. These triumphs, however, had not brought them peace, for the
heart and soul of the Allies lay, after all, in the West--in England and
France. The submarine campaign was counted on to keep England's hands
tied; it remained, therefore, to attack and annihilate the French army.
And so, in the autumn of 1915, preparations were begun on a huge scale
for delivering a terrible blow in the West and dealing France the _coup
de grace_.

The determination with which the Germans followed out this plan and the
reckless way in which they drew on their resources leave no doubt as to
the importance the operation held for them. They staked everything on
putting their adversaries out of the running by breaking through their
lines, marching on Paris, and shattering the confidence of the French
people. This much they themselves admitted. The German press, at the
beginning of the battle, treated it as a matter of secondary import,
whose object was to open up free communications between Metz and the
troops in the Argonne; but the proportions of the combat soon gave the
lie to such modest estimates, and in the excitement of the first days
official utterances betrayed how great were the expectations.

[Sidenote: Troops urged to take Verdun.]

[Sidenote: Objects of the campaign.]

On March 4 the Crown Prince urged his already over-taxed troops to make
one supreme effort to "capture Verdun, the heart of France"; and General
von Deimling announced to the 15th Army Corps that this would be the
last battle of the war. At Berlin, travelers from neutral countries
leaving for Paris by way of Switzerland were told that the Germans would
get there first. The Kaiser himself, replying toward the end of February
to the good wishes of his faithful province of Brandenburg,
congratulated himself publicly on seeing his warriors of the 3d Army
Corps about to carry "the most important stronghold of our principal
enemy." It is plain, then, that the object was to take Verdun, win a
decisive victory, and start a