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ey n with a te ic m dment of t million shell But the shells were of r qu ty, metim bu ting prematurely to kill gun crews and ied i antry. The m ent st ed on June 24 prepara­ tory to an attack heduled June 29, but at the request of the French the at ck was t ned to July 1 Therefore the gun crews ran short of shell,s and the Ge s were able to r over from the m rdment
The next mistake made by the hi command was to t ne " ro hou to 7 0 AM (at a time of the y when wn came fore 4 AM) instead of attacking when it was st ely light to have more of the element of surpri . This decision was made at the insistence of Genear l F h, who wanted the gu e to able to o rve the eff t of the last sta of the mbardment Then the high command was sure the m rdment would i effective that the men were told to march toward the Germans at walkng pace, carrying loads of 70 und
The night fore the attack, one of the generals nt out a "g luck" me ge to the men over field telephone, that the Germans picked up the m ge and knew that the attack was imminent Al the night fore, the men had en brought up from trenches hind the lin me coming a distance of ten mil They were e austed and crowded into water­ lo ed trenche
Finally at 7 AM the men were ordered out The Germans were waiting for them. The first day, there were , British casualties, 8, German casualtie After the first , Haig narrowed the lines from the ori nal 25 miles down to six, the first nsible decision he had made. But the ttle dra ed on until Novem r. Altogether there were , Al­ lied cas ltie They gained very little ground, though they inflicted many casualties (650, ) on the German The pr ure on Verdun was relieved, but that battle was dying off anyway.
The final orecard on the mme showed a gain of eight mil at a total c t to th sides of 1,250, dead and wounded r two and one half men r inc
Al in 1916, Franz J f died, to succeeded by his 29-year ld eat-nephew Charle The new Em ror was a deeply spiritual Catholic, motivated by conce for the welfare of his ople in the st Hapsburg tradition. He was determin to grant greater autonomy to the l al na­ tionality groups within the Empire. But fore he could institute the re­ forms, the deadly war must brought to an end He first tried to r­ suade Kai r Wilhelm to consider withdrawing from the war, allowing France to keep Al ce and rraine, in exchange for which Charles would