irs, and Austria was forced shortly to
abandon her offensive in Venetia and hurry her reserves eastward.
(Vol. V, 265-291.) Accordingly, in a brief time Italian troops were
advancing again and regaining the lost ground. The Verdun attack
actually failed in all but local value, the Trentino thrust was still
succeeding when it had to be abandoned, but in abandoning it Austria
confessed her great preparations and considerable sacrifices had been
vain. Compared with Verdun, it was a minor defeat; but coming with
Verdun, it was a further blow to Austro-German prestige.

GERMANY LOSES THE OFFENSIVE

At the outset of the war Germany found herself with greater numbers,
superior artillery, and possessing a mechanical efficiency surpassing
anything that war had known. She was able to mobilize more men,
transport them more quickly, and employ them more effectively than her
opponents. Her heavy artillery gave her a decisive advantage both in
the matter of enemy fortresses and enemy armies. But they did not
quite avail to give her the decisive victory she had expected.

The second year of the war revealed the enormous resources of Germany
and the incredible fashion in which her people had been disciplined
and her preparations made. The collapse of Austria and the defeat of
the Marne did not deprive her of the offensive, and the weight of her
initial blow sufficed to hold her western foes incapable of effective
action, while she reorganized Austrian resources, put new armies in
the field, and won the great battles in the Russian field, which
carried her advance to the Beresina and the Dvina.

But the Russian operation in 1914 had been sufficient to deprive her
of the troops needed to deliver the final blow in the west, and the
French, Italian, and British attacks in September, 1915, had compelled
her to stay her hand against Russia at the critical hour. When she
chose to attack France at Verdun she had always to recognize that
sooner or later Russia would again take the field, and that unless her
second blow at France had already succeeded before this time came her
position would be difficult, while if her blow at France did not
suffice to prevent an allied offensive in the west, she might at last
have to fight a defensive war on both fronts.

Hitherto she had been able to fight offensively on one front while
holding on the other. Hitherto she had been able to move her reserves
from one front to the other whenever the need was