THE BURNING TRENCH.

Press, Volume LI, Issue 15268, 3 May 1915, Page 9

THE BURNING TRENCH.

trcosiocn own coußesfoxpent.J LONDON, March 16.

lv tlic following i-reitfti couiiauniquo wo are told bow the French soldiers were assailed with bi.irninc pitch. "The .communique of the 2»tJx unstated that in tno Malonoourt Wood, (norib-ivest of Verdun) one ot our advancod trenches, which was a trench recently t.aken from tbe enemy, nail boon sprinkled by the Germans with burning liquod and had had to bo abandoned. The accounts of soldiers who oM-iiped from the iiro make it possibly brietiv to reconstruct this episode, lhtf French and German tienches intersect th.> Malanoourt'Wood crosswise from west to citet. They are very close each other, and iv fcomo cnse.s only hidden from view by tho thickness'of the undergrowth and the slope of the "round. Sup*, run on both -tides, and lilting is tarried on by «xplodmg iiiines ami firing baud grenades. Our steady advauco has made us masters or the enemy's,trenches at several point*. On February L*ith, at about mid-day, men occupying one of the trenches thus taken near tho central path of the wood saw a th:<k volume of smoke mintr over tho narapet of their earthwork*. This coioumn of dark-coloured smoko was about -10 metres high. Tho&o who were farthest insidq the wood rould sco it, and thought that we had jtifct exploded a mine. The defenders of the trench felt heated hh- blowing over tho parapet, aud m a Jew seconds wens flooded with a -«»u»4 which they think was pitch.. Jete Of tho tiquia" nlayod ait y*ei- 'ttn»m \n the midst of the fctnoke, as U squirted, by ;<• pump. There were about ten yards ot timber and barbed wire in front of thu trench, but tho Germans, hidden by too clouds of emoko and many of them carrying hu£c pairs oi shears ouus round their necks, managed to fere* v passage In this way they succeeded in. getting into tbe trench and gainic gome, ground, but wo managed to -et up « strong barricade m tho rear, and early next day a counter-attack. deiiTcred' with areat vigour, gavo n» back.almost, in its entirety the ground lost on February -6th.' , ■