the check suffered than the conditions under which
these reserves were engaged.

The units were despatched to the fight completely disassociated. Among
the regiments of the 5th Division (3rd Corps), one, the 81st, was
identified near Massiges, while a battalion of the 12th was at Tahure
and a battalion of the 32nd at the Trou Bricot. It was the same as
regards the 56th Division, of which the 88th and 35th Regiments were
despatched to Massiges and the 91st to Souain, while a battalion of the
79th took up a position to the west of the Butte de Tahure.

[Sidenote: Haste increased German losses.]

Ill provided with food and munitions, the reinforcements were thrown
into the engagement on an unknown terrain without indication as to the
direction they had to take and without their junction with neighbouring
units having been arranged. Through the haste with which they threw
their reserves under the fire of our artillery and of our infantry,
already in possession of the positions, the German General Staff
considerably increased the number of their losses.

[Sidenote: Soldiers brought by motor-car.]

A letter taken from a soldier of the 118th Regiment furnishes us with
proof of this: "We were put in a motor-car and proceeded at a headlong
pace to Tahure, by way of Vouziers. Two hours' rest in the open air,
with rain falling and then we had a six hours' march to take up our
positions. On our way we were greeted by the fire of the enemy shells,
so that, for instance, out of 280 men of the second company, only 224
arrived safe and sound inside the trenches. These trenches, freshly dug,
were barely from 35 to 50 centimetres deep. Continually surrounded by
mines and bursting shells, we had to remain in them and do the best we
could with them for 118 hours without getting anything hot to eat.

"Hell itself could not be more terrible. To-day, at about twelve o'clock
noon, 600 men, fresh troops, joined the regiment. In five days we have
lost as many and more."

[Sidenote: Battalions from many regiments.]

The disorder amid which the reinforcements were engaged appears clearly
from this fact, that on the only part of the front included between
Maisons de Champagne and Hill 189 there were on October 2, 1915,
thirty-two battalions belonging to twenty-one different regiments.

(4) The violence of the shock sustained, and the necessity of replacing
in the fighting line units which had almost entirely disappeared,
hampered the Germ