an military authorities. On the first day they were
unable to respond effectively even with their artillery, the fire of
which along the whole front was badly directed and as a rule poorly
sustained. The loss of numerous batteries obviously deprived them of a
portion of their resources.

[Sidenote: Enemy endeavors to stem advance.]

[Sidenote: Isolated battalion on the heights of Massiges.]

The following days the enemy seemed to have but one idea, to strengthen
their second line to stem our advance. The counter-attacks were
concentrated on a comparatively unimportant part of the battlefront in
certain places, the loss of which appeared to them to be particularly
dangerous. Therefore on the heights of Massiges the German military
authorities threw in succession isolated battalions of the 123rd, 124th,
and 120th regiments, of the 30th regular regiment and of the 2nd
regiment of Ersatz Reserve (16th Corps), which were each in turn
decimated, for these counter-attacks, hastily and crudely prepared, all
resulted in sanguinary failures. Generally speaking, the offensive
capacity of the Germans appeared to be broken. The following order of
the day of General von Ditfurth bears witness to this:

[Sidenote: General von Ditfurth's order.]

"It seemed to me that the infantry at certain points was confining its
action to a mere defensive. . . . I cannot protest too strongly against
such an idea, which necessarily results in destroying the spirit of
offensive in our own troops and in arousing and strengthening in the
mind of the enemy a feeling of his superiority.

"The enemy is left full liberty of action and our own action is
subjected to the will of the enemy."

[Sidenote: Prisoners exhausted.]

(5) In an engagement in the open the number of prisoners is an
indication of the spirit of the enemy. In Champagne the Germans
surrendered in constituted units (sections or companies), and even in
groups of several hundred men. They confessed that they were worn out.
They had been, for the most part, without supplies for several days and
had suffered more particularly from thirst. They all showed that they
had been greatly impressed by our uninterrupted artillery fire, the
feeble response of their own guns, and the extent of their losses.

Here by way of specimen is what was set down by a reserve lieutenant of
the 90th Regiment of infantry (10th Corps):

"Yesterday I had sixteen men killed by high explosive bombs. The trench