Taking over the command on the night of the 25th, General Pétain at once divided the battle-line into four sectors, officered as follows: _General Bazelaire_, on the left bank, from Avocourt to the river; _General Guillaumat_, from the Meuse to Douaumont; _General Balfourier_, from this point to the Woevre; _General Duchesne_, on the Meuse Heights.
There were no trenches, but he ordered that the forts should at least be connected by a continuous line of entrenchments to be made while the battle was at its height and which the “poilus,” in their disdain for the shovel and pick, called the “Panic Line.” The entire 59th division was told off to organise the counter slopes on the second and third lines. Thirteen battalions kept in repair the road from Bar-le-Duc to Verdun, _via_ Souilly (the “=Sacred Way=”), which eventually became the main artery for revictualling the place in men and munitions, and along which 1,700 motor lorries passed each way daily. Lastly, General Pétain managed to imbue all under his command with his energy, activity and faith, and the enemy’s drive was stopped.
On the 26th, the 39th D.I., which had relieved the 37th, victoriously repulsed all attacks on Poivre Hill, while the 31st Brigade continued to hold Douaumont until relieved in the evening by the 2nd D.I.
[Illustration: THE RELIEF BY MOTOR-LORRIES.
_Regiment leaving Nixéville in lorries for the rear._]
On the following days the fighting continued about and in the streets of Douaumont, which the enemy finally captured on March 4th. The Germans now began to show signs of weakening. Their effort on the right bank had failed. Checked at Douaumont, they were taken in the rear by the French positions on the left bank, and were obliged to modify their plans. From that time they operated simultaneously or successively on both banks.
[Illustration: _Mort-Homme and Hill 287 in May, 1916._]
On March 6th two German divisions attacked from Béthincourt to Forges, where the French front was held by the 67th D.I., and succeeded in taking Forges and Regnéville, but were checked by the positions on Oie Hill. Continuing their advance on the 7th, they succeeded in capturing these positions, as well as Corbeaux Wood. The village of Cumières was the scene of terrible fighting, but remained in the hands of the French, while further to the west the enemy’s attacks broke down at Mort-Homme.