German staff,
who was retired about this time, was said to have still favored the
greater conception of a decisive victory over the French army by an
attack on Verdun instead of on the Channel ports; and the kaiser's
own idea was said to have prevailed against his.

Now the allied armies in the west were to face a test second only to
that of the Marne. The British army, which had been in the
neighborhood of Soissons, had moved down to the left flank, hoping
to assist in a successful turning movement. Their little force was
being increased by every reserve that they could muster and arm.
From India they brought their native troops, long-service men
trained by British officers. These, at a time when every man of any
kind was needed, were thrown into the crucible of the coming
conflict, which reached its climax during the last days of October
in the chill rains and mists of Flanders, with rich fields of a flat
country turned into a glutinous mud.

Meanwhile, in a futile attempt, the British rushed small forces of
marines to the assistance of the Antwerp garrison. With Antwerp
theirs, the Germans were free to concentrate against the Channel
ports. Once more the offensive was entirely with them in the west.
They even brought into action some of the regiments of volunteers
who had been enlisted in August; and following the German system of
expending a fresh regiment in a single charge, these new levies were
sent in masses to the attack. The Belgians, including those who
escaped from Antwerp and from being driven into Holland, rested
their left on the sea. Some sixty thousand were all they could
muster out of a population of seven millions for the defense of the
sliver of country that still remained under their flag. A type of
man-of-war which was supposed to be antedated, the monitor, with its
low draft and powerful guns was brought into action by the British
in protecting the Belgians, who finally saved themselves by flooding
their front.

Next to the Belgians was a French army, and next to them the British
army, which shared with the French the brunt of the attack in that
sector around the old town of Ypres, which was to give its name to
the Ypres salient, the bloodiest region of this war, and of any war
in the history of Europe.

So far as one can learn, the losses of the British and the French
here were about 150,000, and of the Germans, about 250,000. Within
the succeeding year, probably another 200,000 men of both