e crown prince's army
operating in the Argonne. Bulgaria had meanwhile entered the conflict
and started the finishing campaign of Serbia with the assistance of
her Teutonic allies.

Between October 19 and October 24, 1915, the Germans made eight
distinct attacks in the Souchez sector in Artois, attempting to loosen
the French grip on Hill 140. In this venture the First Bavarian Army
Corps was practically wiped out by terrible losses. Each attack was
reported to have been repulsed. Commenting on the same event, the
German report said that "... enemy advances were repulsed. Detachments
which penetrated our positions were immediately driven back." Both
sides of the battle line now settled down to the same round of seesaw
battles of the preceding midsummer; attacks and counterattacks;
trenches captured and recaptured; here a hundred yards won, there a
hundred yards lost. After almost every one of these events the three
headquarters issued statements to the effect that "the enemy was
repelled with heavy losses," or that some place or other had been
"recaptured by our troops." On October 24, 1915, the French in
Champagne made some important progress. In front of their (the French)
position the Germans occupied a very strongly organized salient which
had resisted all previous attacks. In its southwestern part, on the
northern slopes of Hill 196, at a point one and a quarter miles to the
north of Mesnil-les-Hurlus, this salient included a valuable strategic
position called La Courtine (The Curtain), which the French took after
some severe fighting. La Courtine extended for a distance of 1,200
yards with an average depth of 250 yards, and embracing three or four
lines of trenches connected up with underground tunnels and the
customary communication trenches, all of which had been thoroughly
prepared for defense. In spite of the excellence of these works and
the ferocious resistance of the German soldiers, the French succeeded
in taking this position by storm after preparatory artillery fire. On
the same day that this was announced, the Berlin report put it thus:
"In Champagne the French attacked near Tahure and against our salient
north of Le Mesnil, after a strong preparation with their artillery.
Near Tahure their attack was not carried out to its completion,
having been stopped by our fire. Late in the afternoon stubborn
fighting was in progress on the salient north of Le Mesnil. North and
east of this salient an attack was