in street
without discovering the chief centers of resistance.

For nine hours the German bombardment of Vaux Fort and village was
prolonged. Enormous aerial torpedoes were hurled into the ruined
houses, but in the chaos of dust and flame and smoke the French held
fast, and not a position of any importance within the village or its
surroundings was abandoned.

The first regiments to attack were drawn from the Fifteenth and
Eighteenth German Army Corps. At daybreak, when the German hosts
debouched from the plain of the Woevre, there was a heavy white mist
which enabled them to reach the French trenches. Owing to the enemy's
superiority in numbers, and fearing that they might be surrounded, the
French retired from their first positions. The Germans pushed their
way as far as the church, losing heavily, and could go no farther.
They found some shelter behind the ruined walls of the church and
neighboring houses. Each time that they attempted to leave the
protective walls the French guns smashed their ranks and slew
hundreds.

When the mist vanished and the air cleared, the French batteries of
75's and 155's opened a heavy fire on and behind the foremost German
regiments, which not only cut gaps in their formations, but shut them
off from any help. The German commanders were in a desperate state of
mind, for they could not send either men or ammunition to the relief
of the troops under fire. The Germans did not start any new attacks
after that for a day and a half, although their artillery continued
active.

Vaux Fort the Germans claimed to have captured, when after four days
of the bloodiest fighting they had not succeeded in reaching even the
entanglements around the position.

The struggle in the village was of the most desperate character, but
while it lasted there was no more terrible fighting during the Verdun
battle than that which raged back and forth on the outskirts of the
fort. French officers from their commanding positions on the
neighboring heights afterward testified that they had never seen the
German command so recklessly and wantonly sacrifice their men. Column
after column was sent forward to certain death. Giant shells hurled by
the French burst in the midst of the exposed German battalions, and
the dead were piled in heaps over acres of ground.

[Illustration: The Crown Prince, who commands the German forces on the
Verdun front, giving Iron Crosses to men who have distinguished
themselves for v