Artillery preparation commenced at 2.30 a.m. and lasted three hours. At 5.30 a.m. the Americans attacked with great dash the redoubtable enemy positions on the left bank of the Meuse, capturing Malancourt, Béthincourt and Forges. Keeping up with the infantry, the artillery crossed the Forges stream during the morning. The woods, very strongly defended, were cleared of the enemy, and by noon the Americans had reached Gercourt, Cuisy, the southern part of Montfaucon and Cheppy. In the afternoon a desperate battle was engaged on the positions covering the redoubtable ridge of Montfaucon, the most important enemy observation-post in the region of Verdun. The Americans wisely turned the ridge on the right, advancing as far as Septsarges. By evening Montfaucon was surrounded. The advance, now slower, continued on the 27th and 28th, despite German counter-attacks. To the west of Montfaucon, Ivoiry and Epinouville were captured, and thus the ridge fell. The Americans took 8,000 prisoners and 100 guns. [Illustration] The Franco-American Offensive of October, 1918 On the right bank of the Meuse, a French army corps and American troops, under General Pershing, joined in the struggle, capturing Brabant, Haumont, Haumont Wood and Caures Wood, while the famous line from which, in February, 1916, the Crown Prince’s army had attacked Verdun, was soon reached and passed. By the end of October more than 20,000 prisoners, 150 guns, nearly 1,000 trench-mortars and several thousand machine-guns, had been captured, while unconquered Verdun was definitely lost to the Germans. Their retreat was now destined to continue uninterruptedly until the Armistice. [Illustration: _Renault Tanks and American Troops on the old French Lines at Regnéville._] [Illustration: _The German Advance and the ground reconquered (Sectioned zones) by the French and American armies_] CONCLUSION The Battle of Verdun was not merely one of the hardest of the War’s many battles, it was also one of the most serious checks received by the Germans. The enemy High Command had foreseen neither its amplitude nor its long duration. Whereas, “according to plan,” Verdun—“Heart of France”—was speedily to be overpowered by a carefully prepared mass attack, the Germans found themselves involved in a formidable struggle, without being able either to obtain a decisive advantage or keep the relatively small advantages obtained at the beginning of the battle. The battle did not develop “according to plan,” its successive phases being determined by circumstances. The huge numbers of troops which the Germans were compelled to engage brings out very clearly the immensity of their effort and the different phases of the struggle. * * * * * The first and shortest phase (February 21st–March 1st) was that of the =surprise attack= by a large concentration of specially trained troops.