"On the 10th of March," says M.Henri Bordeaux, "the enemy climbed the northern slopes of Fort Vaux.

He was then from two to three hundred metres from the counter-scarp.

He took three months to cross these two to three hundred metres--three months of superhuman effort, and of incredible losses in young men, the flower of the nation." The German strategic reserves were for the first time seriously shaken, and by the end of this wonderful year Petain, Nivelle, and Mangin between them had recovered from the assailants all but a fraction of what had been lost at Verdun.

Meanwhile, behind the "shield" of Verdun, which was thus attracting and wasting the force of the enemy, the Allied Armies had prepared the great offensive of the summer.

Italy struck in the Trentino on the 25th of June, Russia attacked in June and July, the British attacked on the Somme on July 1st.