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2o8 The Great War great flanking movement about and beyond St. Quen- tin, where the Germans, confessedly outnumbered, were still holding on, but with apparent difficulty. Yet there was a far wider significance to this at- tack made by the army of the Crown Prince, and, from the outset, pressed home with preliminary suc- cess and in the first week of October not yet deci- sively checked. In sum, it was an effort to open a short road from Germany into France, which would permit the Germans to evacuate Belgium tempor- arily and recall many thousands of troops now em- ployed in guarding the long and vital line of com- munications from Liege by Brussels and also by Namur to the armies of von Kluck and von Boehm. This was the second time the Crown Prince had made a desperate drive at the Verdun barrier, and his first attack had been preceded by the costly and long continued effort to break through in front of Nancy, which in its final stage was made under the eyes of the Kaiser himself. To explain the value of the gateways into France covered by the Verdun-Toul barrier it is necessary to recall again the original purpose of German strategy. The invasion of Belgium was not di- rected against Belgium. Were France to be de- stroyed as a military power Belgium would be at the mercy of her German neighbor, but until that time Germany had no desire to detach army corps to garrison Belgium and contain Belgian forces in Antwerp. Hence her request for permission to

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