Verdun to the Vosges: Impressions of the War on the Fortress Frontier of France

The kind of modern siege in which the Allies are engaged, unlike the bombardment of a modern fortress, but like the sieges of old times, is bound to be a protracted affair. Stil...

In following the course of the war in the eastern provinces up to this point we have seen first of all how the tide of it ebbed and flowed for five weeks along the line of the f...

The attempt to reach Nancy from the north was to be carried out by a detachment of the Metz army. In the earlier stages of the campaign, that army, or a part of it, had marched...

The capture of St. Mihiel and the Camp des Romains was the last real triumph—I had almost said the only real triumph—that the Germans won in the east of France. For the scene of...

By this brilliant series of hand-to-hand, town-to-town struggles, Dubail’s army, operating in the Bonhomme-Donon-Gerbéviller triangle, had prevented the enemy from penetrating w...

One of the immediate and most satisfactory results of the victory in front of Nancy was the hasty withdrawal of the Germans from Lunéville, after an occupation which lasted for...

The days that followed—I may be more precise and say the three weeks that followed—were the most critical that France had ever known. Crowded together between August 20th and Se...

All towns are feminine by rights, but Nancy, I think, more than any that I have ever known. In its municipal arms the chief feature is a Scotch thistle. The emblem should belong...

Having said so much of what our friends of the various Préfectures did or tried to do for two humble newspaper correspondents, I should like, before going on to consider the nex...

Next morning the General was as good as his word. A note was brought to our hotel by an orderly to say that if we would be round at his quarters after lunch we should be able to...

As soon as not only the menace but the cruel reality of the occupation was lifted from the smaller towns and villages, some of which had suffered so far more terribly than Lunév...

there were no considerations of loyalty to treaty obligations to deter her from attacking instead of waiting to be attacked. And that was the course on which General Joffre deci...

On the map the main ridge of the Hautes and Basses Vosges (and the boundary line of that part of the frontier) follows almost exactly the shape and position of a small manuscrip...

It was certainly a lie with regard to Gerbéviller. That unhappy place was twice bombarded, first by the Germans and afterwards by the French, and at the first time of asking the...

Our start in Nancy was not encouraging. We reported ourselves first at the Place, the military headquarters of the town, and were ushered by mistake into the room of an officer...

Encouraged by their success at Altkirch, the French set out early next morning for Mulhouse, ten miles further down the valley of the Ill. The troops which had descended the pre...

In Paris, when we passed through it, it was still possible for inoffensive travellers to feel themselves free men. At Dijon we had our first real taste of the restrictions on pe...

We left London on the evening of September the 8th with passports viséd for Dijon, and a faint hope that, if we were lucky, we might succeed some day in getting to Belfort, the...

Our first direct news of Nancy was given us by an army-surgeon whom we met in Dijon. He had just been invalided home suffering from septic poisoning as the result of an operatio...

Between Montreux Vieux and Pfetterhausen there is a little French village called Suarce, which, on the very eve of the war, was the scene of an incident almost as dramatic from...

There is no denying the importance of the German territorial gains in Belgium and France, even with the smaller acquisitions of the French in Haut Alsace as a set-off. But the e...

Second period of the war—Germany besieged—The pressure on 263 the west—Partial offensives—The lack of shells—Its effect on the war—“Craters of Death”—Monotony of the trenches—A...

The battle of the Grand Couronné—Two parts—The position 125 south of the Meurthe—Transport of Dragoon regiment from Alsace—Arrival at Charmes—Towards Lunéville—Procession of fug...

The attack on Nancy from the north—St. Généviève—The 155 assault—How it was repulsed—The attack from the east—Dombasle—Courbesseau—Réméréville—Soldiers’ disregard of fire—In Cha...

Nancy, the woman-town—Absence of fortifications—Attitude of 141 her defenders—The pivot of the line—Kaiser’s dreams of conquest—Description of four German lines of attack—Of the...

Effect of Battle of the Grand Couronné on Lunéville—Extent 178 of damage in the town—Entry of Germans—Familiar faces—M. Minier, M. Mequillet, M. Keller—Faubourg d’Einville burnt...

The German territorial gains—Bearing on peace proposals—The 61 French offensive—General moral effect—Uncertainty as to direction of German attack—Sources from which eastern armi...

After the storm—A Prefect’s duties—Newspaper 193 correspondents—War a serious matter—Enemy’s means of information—On the battlefield—“Behind the front”—German dread of newspaper...

News of Nancy—German lies—Security of Belfort—After twelve 39 months—Breakdown of German plans—Visit to the Préfet of Belfort—A Prefect’s duties and position—Check on militarism...

Position after Battle of the Grand Couronné—German failures 218 reviewed—Mystery of Manonviller—Position of Toul—Of the barrier of fortresses—Description of the Woevre—Troyon—Th...

Combination of reverses for France—Soldiers’ ignorance of 100 contemporary events—Reliance on barrier of fortresses—Determination to fight in the open—Different conditions—Posit...

A Conseil de Révision—Comparison with English 205 recruiting—French boys’ enthusiasm—Their experience of terrorism—A greybeard—The Mayors of Lorraine—A war to kill war—Lunch at...

Arrival in Dijon—The laisser-passer difficulty—Besançon—An 11 anxious moment—Arrival at Belfort—Doubtful reception—A Socialist private—Manifesto “Aux Camerades Socialistes”—Nati...

Eve of the War—French neutral zone along the frontier—German 33 raids in time of peace—Sunday, August 2nd—The affair at Joncherey—First blood—A German epic—The Suarce raid—Robbe...

On German soil—Montreux Vieux—The first ruined 21 village—Towards the Rhine—A night reconnaissance in Alsace—Ferette—Covert drawn blank—Cheerfulness of the French soldier—His lo...

Discouraging start in Nancy—General de la Massellière—Visits 48 to the Prefect and Mayor—Their appointment—Madame Mirman—Their example—The Lorraine stock—Nancy by night—The soun...

Gerbéviller—Visit with M. Mirman—The ruins—Murder of old 114 men—How the town was taken—Incendiarism—Sœur Julie—An act of “sacrilege”—Other martyred towns—Badonviller—The first...

The Emperor William—His advisers—The modern Huns—The barrier 244 of the trenches—The Soixante-Quinze—Its superiority to its German rival—The French gunner—Pride of the nation in...

Advance on Mulhouse—Unopposed entry—Popular 77 rejoicings—German counter-attack—Smallness of French force—Their repulse—Terrorism—Harsh treatment of foreigners—Reorganization of...

Departure from London, September 8th, 1914—A German 1 officer’s analysis of the invaders’ plan of campaign—Paris—General condition of doubt and uncertainty—Travelling during the...

Description of the Vosges—French advance—Triumphs in 88 Lorraine—The check at Morhange—Why the French fell into the trap—The disaster—New birth of the army—Bad news—The offensiv...