e in the strength of
their first line, and the interruption of telephonic communications
had prevented their being informed of the rapid French advance. Then
as to the disposition and employment of reserves: Here it looks as
though that perfect organization and semi-infallible precision which
characterize the German army had, for the nonce, gone awry in the
Champagne conflict. In order to make up for the insufficiency of the
local reserves the German military authorities had to put in line not
only the important units which they held at their disposal behind the
front (Tenth Corps brought back from Russia), but the local reserves
from other sectors (Soissons, Argonne, the Woevre, Alsace), which were
dispatched to Champagne one battalion after another, and even in
groups of double companies. Ill provided with food and munitions, the
reenforcements were pushed to battle on an unknown terrain without
indication as to the direction they had to take and without their
junction with neighboring units having been arranged. Through the
haste with which the reserves were thrown under the fire of the French
artillery and infantry--already in possession of the positions--the
German losses must have been increased enormously. A letter taken from
a soldier of the 118th Regiment may be cited as corroborative
evidence: "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 thirty-five to fifty centimeters (12 to 17 in.) 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 12 noon, 600 men, fresh troops, joined the regiment.
In five days we had lost as many and more."

The disorder in which the reenforcements were engaged appears strongly
from this fact: On only that part of the front included between
Maisons de Champagne and Hill 189 there were on October 2, 1915, no
fewer than thirty-two different battalions belonging to twenty-one
different regiments. During the days following the French rush
through the f