The French officer returned the salute.

"Follow me," he said briefly.




CHAPTER II

VERDUN


Rightly is the fortress of Verdun called the gateway to France. By reason
of its strategic position, it is absolutely essential that an invading
army have possession of Verdun before thought of a successful advance on
Paris can be entertained; and it was upon the capture of Paris that the
German emperor laid his hopes, in spite of the collapse of a similar
offensive launched in the first days of the war.

But Wilhelm II had learned a lesson. Verdun must be taken before he
ordered his armies upon the French capital; and so it was that, upon
February twenty-third, 1916, the German Crown Prince began a determined
assault upon the historic French fortress.

In sheer human interest the battle of Verdun surpassed all other
individual events of the war. For six months and more the defenders of
the gateway to France withstood a storm at the fury of which the world
stood aghast.

Foot by foot, almost inch by inch, the Germans forged ahead with a