The Vosges fall steeply to the Alsatian plain, but descend gradually to the west. No single railway crosses them between the Gap of Belfort and the gap which you see to the north of Strassburg, but many carriage roads traverse the passes. The whole region is very picturesque; the lakes are surrounded by forests of pine, beech, and maple; there are many green meadows, which provide pasturage for large herds of cattle; numerous ruined castles stand on the spurs, and the lower slopes are studded with vineyards.
From what you have read you will readily understand that the Vosges are a formidable barrier to invasion from the east. To the west of the main chain you see another ridge of heights, and beyond them the valley of the Upper Moselle. On this river, not far from its head-waters, is the second great barrier fortress of France—Epinal.[135] To the north of Epinal, and about ten miles west of Nancy, is the third fortress—Toul.[136] The fort of St. Michel, about twenty miles north-west of Toul, is the key to the circle of forts that defend the entrenched camp, and the strongest fort on the frontier. If you were to visit Toul you would see little or nothing of the batteries, for they are hidden in brushwood and stunted woods high above the vineyards.
Farther to the north, about thirty-five miles west of Metz, is Verdun, which has already been mentioned in these pages. As Verdun is the only barrier fortress which was seriously attacked by the Germans during 1914, let us learn something of its story. Verdun is a great entrenched camp, contained within a ring which measures thirty miles round. There are sixteen large forts and about twenty smaller forts on this ring, and the most distant of them is about nine miles from the centre of the city. All these defences have been constructed since the Franco-German War, during which the city was bombarded on three different occasions. It yielded early in November 1870.
During the Battle of the Marne the Crown Prince made a great effort to capture Verdun. I have already told you that he battered down Fort Troyon,[137] but was unable to capture it, though it lay in ruins. Between the 10th and 12th of September the Crown Prince's army, along with the other German armies, was forced to retreat. It fell back two days' march to the north, and immediately the French general, Sarrail,[138] prepared Verdun to stand a long siege. Seven thousand civilians—"useless mouths," as the French soldiers call them—were ordered to withdraw, and the food supply for the garrison was regulated.
General Sarrail was well aware that if the great howitzers of the Germans were once permitted to come within range of the forts they would succumb as speedily as those of Liége, Namur, and Maubeuge. He therefore pushed out his circle of defences for twenty miles from the city. By means of earthworks and trenches he made a great fortified zone, which encircled the forts at such a distance that the German howitzers were kept out of range. Every height and valley was seamed with defences, and some of the hillsides became a maze of barbed wire. The heavy guns of the forts were moved out to the advanced trenches, and rails were laid down so that as soon as they were "spotted" they could be moved on to another position. Thus, instead of fixed forts, each, say, mounted with ten heavy guns, these same ten heavy guns were "dotted here and there in trenches rapidly established in one place and another, along perhaps half a mile of wooded vale, and free to operate when they moved over perhaps double that front."
The result was that the army of the Crown Prince found itself held up in the form of a semicircle, as shown in this diagram. Against these outer lines of defence seven German army corps were launched, but with no success.
In the third week of September the Bavarian army made a determined attack on the little town of St. Mihiel,[139] which stands on the Meuse, midway between Toul and Verdun. North to Verdun and south to Toul, between the Meuse and the Moselle, is the district known as "the Plain of the Woëvre."[140] It is crossed by the Heights of the Meuse, which form a plateau about three hundred feet above the river, and fall steeply towards the east in deep ravines and wooded knolls. On 20th September the Bavarians pushed through the Woëvre and drew near to the Meuse. Two forts blocked their way, one of them being on the site of an old earthwork known as the Camp of the Romans. The Bavarians got their heavy guns into position, and by the evening of 22nd September the Camp of the Romans was in ruins. The garrison, however, made such a gallant resistance in the outer works that the German general permitted it to retire with the honours of war. As the French marched out of the fort the Germans cheered them, presented arms, and dipped their flags. Shortly afterwards the Bavarians seized St. Mihiel and its bridgehead,[141] on the western side of the water. A French cavalry detachment prevented them from advancing any further, and they were forced to entrench themselves on the edge of the river.
