ths of the spring and summer, there had been hard fighting
all along the 400-mile line from the North Sea to Switzerland. The
military results had been small on either side and now the French
resolved on a mighty offensive which should be decisive in its
accomplishments. What these results actually were is told in the
following narrative.

THE GREAT CHAMPAGNE OFFENSIVE OF 1915

OFFICIAL ACCOUNT OF THE FRENCH HEADQUARTERS STAFF

Copyright, National Review, January, 1916.

[Sidenote: Menace of the French in Alsace.]

After the battles of May and June, 1915, in Artois, activity on the
Western front became concentrated in the Vosges, where, by a series of
successful engagements, we managed to secure possession of more
favorable positions and to retain them in spite of incessant
counter-attacks. The superiority established over the adversary, the
wearing down of the latter through vain and costly counter-offensives,
which absorbed in that sector his local resources; the state of
uncertainty in which the Germans found themselves in view of the menace
of a French division in Alsace--such were the immediate results of these
engagements. From the number of the effectives engaged, and the limited
front along which the attacks took place, those attacks nevertheless
were no more than local.

[Sidenote: Preparing for a great offensive.]

While those operations were developing, the higher command was carefully
preparing for a great offensive. The situation of the Russian armies
imposed on us, as their Allies, obligations the accomplishment of which
had been made possible by the results of a long course of preparation no
less than by the aid of circumstances.

[Sidenote: Improved defensive organizations.]

The inaction of the adversary, engaged on the Eastern front in a series
of operations of which he had not foreseen the difficulties, and thus
reduced to the defensive on our front, left the initiative of the
operations in our hands. The landing in France of fresh British troops
enabled Marshal French to take upon himself the defence of a portion of
the lines hitherto held by French troops. The improvement of our
defensive organizations, which made possible certain economies in the
effectives, the regrouping of units and the creation of new units, also
had the effect of placing a larger number of men at the disposal of the
Generalissimo. The increased output of war _materiel_ ensured him the
necessary means for a c