ued to "nibble" into the German
positions around Fleury three miles from Verdun, and had improved and
strengthened their positions at Hill 304. Fleury was now the nearest
point to Verdun that the Germans had succeeded in reaching, but here
their advance was halted.

The British had meanwhile been pressing forward on the Somme, and by
July 23, 1916, had penetrated the German third line. The Russians too
were winning successes, and had dealt a destructive blow in Volhynia.
The pressure from the east and west forced the Germans to withdraw
large bodies of troops from the Verdun sector and send them to the
relief of their brothers on other fronts.

In the closing days of July, 1916, the Franco-British "push" became
the principal German preoccupation. The great struggle for Verdun, the
longest battle continuously fought in history, from that time on
became a military operation of only second importance.

The magnitude of this great struggle may be illustrated by a few
statistics. In the six months' combat some 3,000 cannon had been
brought into action. About two millions of men had attacked or
defended the stronghold. No correct estimate can be made of the losses
on both sides, but it is stated that at least 200,000 were killed, and
the end was not yet in sight.

The second anniversary of the war found the Germans on the defensive.
Twenty million fighters had been called to the colors of twelve
belligerent nations; about four million had been killed, and over ten
million wounded and taken prisoners. For all this vast expenditure in
blood and treasure no decisive battle had been fought since the German
defeat on the Marne in September, 1914.

CHAPTER XLVII

SPRING OPERATIONS IN OTHER SECTORS

While greater issues were being fought out in the Verdun sector, from
the beginning of the second phase of the German attack during March,
there was considerable sporadic "liveliness" on other parts of the
western front. Though the main interest centered for the time around
the apparently impregnable fortresses of which Verdun is the nucleus,
a continuous, fluctuating activity was kept in progress along the
whole line up to the opening of the big allied offensive on the last
day of June. March 1, 1916, found the battle line practically
unchanged. From Ostend on the North Sea it ran straightway south
through the extreme western comer of Belgium, crossing the French
frontier at a point northwest of Lille. From there it zig