OCR Text |
Show IS THE BATTLE OF VERDUN CLOSING? Nine weeks of tremendous fighting on the part of the Germans has failed to dislodge the French at Verdun. True, the Germans have gained ground, driving the French in from tho first and second line trenches In all directions, but the heart of the Verdun defenses has been undisturbed undis-turbed except at Douaumont, where the Kaiser's troops gained possession. The fighting, within the last three weeks, has lacked the fury of the earlier ear-lier period of the struggle, and today the indications are the Germans blun-, dercd In their attack. Six weeks before the Verdun battle ' opened, a message came out of Basel, Switzerland, to the effect that Em- , peror William was about to startle the world with an offensive of , mighty proportions. It Is now plain ( that Swiss eye-witnesses of the preparations prep-arations being made at Metz for the Verdun campaign had gained the Idea ( that nothing could resist the great ( guns, the mountains of shells and the wavea of men that were being assem- ' bled. , When the thousands of Germans guns began to make the earth trem-ble trem-ble around the historic fortress, the Kaiser and the Crown Prince expected expect-ed to sweep through the French en- tanglements and crush the left wing; ', of General Joffre's army, They had reason to believe no earthly power could resist the rain of flro. The first week they were encouraged by tho gains made. Thou came tho halt and with It the knowledge that tho tank was greater than had been anticipated. anti-cipated. Since then every foot of ad-vanco ad-vanco has been paid for in a stream of blood, and, within tho past ten days, the Germans have lost instead of gained ground. Tho naval battle and tho Zeppelin raids may be the first signs of a spectacular diversion. Havo the Gorman Gor-man strategists declared Verdun a slaughter pen and ndvlsod against further fur-ther desperate effort, and have the leaders ordered a shift In military activities ac-tivities so as to take the German mind away from the stalemate on the Mouso? , oo |