Translations:CP 05410/14/en
- ↑ Proust would have read, as early as the evening of 14 October 1914, the official communiqué published by Le Temps of 15 October: "the Germans announce that they are proceeding with a Verdun offensive" (Dernières nouvelles : la guerre," p.4, column 1) (Latest News: The War). The communiqué categorically denies this information, but the explanations given attest, on the contrary, that there had indeed been two attempts by the Germans in the region of Woëvre and Saint-Mihiel to close in on Verdun. The following day, on the front page, under the headline "La guerre: la situation militaire" (The War: The Military Situation), Le Temps counters as false the declaration of the German general staff: "Far from besieging the town of Verdun, as they claim, they are held back at distance by our troops" (Le Temps, 16 October 1914, p. 1, column 3). Even if these attempts had failed and the French army had held its "excellent" positions, the German plan of besieging Verdun was not devoid of reality, and what had been a failure a few days earlier was to succeed in the days to come. [FL]