AN EPIC OF VERDUN.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 174, 22 July 1916, Page 15

AN EPIC OF VERDUN.

VIVID PICTURE OF THE FIGiHTING. I A FRENCH SOLDIER'S DESCRIPTION. t-Alphonse G. 'Xlcole -was a waiter in a San Francisco Testaurant when he heard his country's call to irnis, :i«.l .-hslkl to the front Iα time to take part in the tattle of the Marne. He Uas li»cn .twice wounded, but has returned t.i> the front, mid at latest accounts wns in the French army that Iras so heroically defenjed'the' fortress of Verdun. In a letter puWU.nod in the San Francisco "Bnlletln," which he addressed Otto Johanson, a brother waiter, Alphonso gires a graphic ami tlniMi:i" account of the German.attacks ir.-.l Hoi>- tl.pse are met. His occaeionally quaint English only eerves to give added and retiUty to his narrative.] SOMEWHERE ON - THE FRO.'CT, IN" FRANCE, Easter Day, April I'll, ICUU. My Dear Otto,—l will tuk«'ao'vuntago of a lew days of lost (three tllometres only from the firing-line) to write a long letter and let you see, through a keyhole, v little of my every-day life. It will be ako the every-day life .of any' foot soldier on. the front, the most miserable, joyous, dangerous, and hard life altogether. In front of mc, on my Tight, on my left, ' the great 'battle is going on. The Crown Prince wants Verdun. Verdun was his • goal, but it has been the grave of hi* armies. Divisions upon divisions of his ■best troops fell in front.of Uβ. WJren it •will be known, the total of German losses ■before Verdun will make nnybody shudder. Just no-w the greatest battle of the times is melting in single and separate diminutive operations. The war monster has lieen vanquished once more. Here and there he will start up, -will try to T>Ue again,!but every time he will squat down a little more toothless. . ■ ■

'Biit I will not toll you of general facts, ■which yon may read every day in the "BulJetin." What. I nish to describe is the every-day life of a eoldler In, the trenches, when the battle Is going ou, aud whon the calm is op the liatt\eflcl(].'. When this great battle, started on the 21st of February- my regiment was not in Jt, -tout on another spot of ihe immense front wfrere we ted some mission to accomplish. ENEMY IN 1 WAVES.OF TENS OP THOUSANDS. . Beforjß we came Jie.re -we had to stand oplj; icparate shocks, Instead ox tMso

i waves of tend of thousands of enemies who J -would rush against our positions. I The part of the artillery has been, and lis still, stupendous. Never co many shells I have been thrown on a battlefield. Several millions of them! Artillery men looked like furious devils, trying night and day to break the world to pieces. When yonr turn comes to go In the battle I think no one is able to receive and retain a true Impression of what Is going on, for you are necessarily excited, because the noise of the battle is too terrible to be heard; too great the fatigue to be tired, and your ryes are too small -to see and the sublimity of the spectacles. O»i the German side It was nothing less thaji butchery, but nothing looking like warfare. G«nhan staff ofilcers sent their men where no one could escape. First n monstrous bombardment, where probalily they used a thousand cannon, spitting out thousands of shells in a few hours—shells of Hie largest size, from the 105 millimetres, weighing about 40 pounds, to the '-'10 and 380 millimetres, weighing respectively, 150 to 300 pounds. 'i'hese Ojombardmclits would be demoralising if you. were not well accustomed, hut after so ■many months your nerves are tamed, your heart keeps steady, and your flesh hns become strong. You forget the danger. You notice the bombardmeut as a matter of fact, only as the prelude to an attack. BATTLEFK&L/D LIKE A BOILING SEA. Besides, ■ most of the men are underground in -their dugout**. Some watchers only here an(l there will risk an eye over the parapet, for when it rains shells there Is do possibility of infantry action. On the whole our military Iβ, not Inactive, far from it, 'but answers blow for. blow and, certainly more. ■' The -battlefield is like a boiling sea In the tempest. Explosions dig out holes that will immediately he smashed by others. The soil changes its topography every minute. . Will this mouptain slide in tlie valley? Trees fly up in the air like tooLh■pieks, and come down again with a.heartrending noise. Shells shriek their lugu'brlous whistling, explode with a .formidable cracking, sending black thick smoke, dirt and grnpeehot all around. If there is. a vijlage about, walls will sink down, roofs will he projected--hish np, will come down crushed in a thousand pieces, and the clear cry of- its broken tiles will speak of destruction. Smoke and .dust and fire, ether and sulphur, strong eunelis make, of you an insensible man; you are like an automatic gun, lined up with a will. Even the skies will accumulate black clouds, as If to mask this .horror to its- frightened , eyes." But the .watcbejs sire the alarm:

"GAiS—GAS—ASPHYXIATING GASES." Everybody puts on a special mask on the nose and mouth, and a pair of glasses like motorists. Thus adorned, men will work some special apparels, aud the new emotion will be quickly forgotten, for gases will be harmless now. But everyone knows that action is coming soon; that In a few minutes the enemy will attack, will rush In number. But let it come and it will be received accordingly. "There, now. Everybody on the lookout. Don't get excited. Don't shoot without orders, whatever:" i There are no more shel'.s coming now on our trenches. "TUE GEU.MANS A.KE COMING." Suddenly nn Impressing silence falls heavily on the battlefclil. Men will vomu to hands now, aud light ti'.l denth in this silence. For after the thunder of the

bombardment the enervating and dry noise of the musketry will be like sllsncc. From everywhere now are coming, battalions of German soldiers. They are a great wave, coming rapidly, shoulder t" ehoulder. They are coming! They come: A liumlred metres separate this compact mass from ous. Eighty metres now. Sixty, Forty "Fire ou the line at will. Fire." Machine guns shoot speedily. Ulses shoot, shoot In the mass. 'The tlrst row falls and bltee' the dust; the second wave Is quite disturbed already, and greatly surprised. ' "• "How is this," they seem to tlilnlc, "these Frenchmen still there?' . Eh, yes. But it is no time for reflections. 4 It fe a question to Tiurn cartridges I quickly, as many as you .possibly can. It is not necessary to aim. They are so many that you can't miss. .Another wave comes again and another, and another. Onr light artillery cut up their retreat. now by shooting, a barrier I of shcUs at their lieefci Shells and shrapnel explode now in the mass. The thunder is on again. The beautiful battalions melt down. Men fail one on the other, mowed dow.n like ripe wheat. Those who miraculously escape buljets and. grape irous fly like mad men, and spread the terror to the new waves coming. • THE BATTLEFIELDS CKOF OF DEATH. On the battlefield death made a good crop, and it to full of corpses; of wounded that holler their sufferings in a harsh language; of men who lie flat on the soil, not ;iitlc to malic .1 pace backward or forward till night, How ninny killed ou the batUeiMd! Six hundred! Sight ban-

died? You can't count or appreciate. But they are so So many You live again in the formidable thunder. You look about yourself. Some of your friends are missing. There are some dead ones; here some dying. Over there, wounded lighters go hobbling, helping each other toward the rear, where they will find a doctor's post. Ued Cross men wl)l come at night with litters to look for the wounded who cannot possibly wnlk. In two hours Germans will attack again probably, but the result will be the'same. Ami Verdun will remain inviolable. Tomorrow people in Paris, or elsewhere, at breakfast, will read in the papers:— •'•Yesterday, nfter ii bombardment or groat intensity that lasted four hours, ttie enemy pronounced :i stilus attack in mass ngulngt oar positions of so and so. The lire o£ our machine guns ami musketry dispersed the enemy, who eutlereU sensible losses "