SHRINE OF ST FINE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17284, 27 September 1916, Page 4

SHRINE OF ST FINE.

A STORY OP FRENCH HEROISM

(From. H. WARNER ALLEN, Representative of British Press with French Army-)

PARIS/ August 2

Verdun has been thrown into tho background by the great events on tho Somme, but. ifc would bo supremely unjust to forgc.t that it is only the heroic resistance of tho French on the Meuso which has made it possible for the French and British armies to take tho offensive elsewhere. While the British and French havo been hammering tho German lines in Pieardy, the defenders of Verdun havo been more than holding their own, and one of their deeds that deserve,"! immortal memory is the battle for the shrine of Sainto-Fine. Last January, when I visited Verdun, this ruined shrino, which covers three square yards of ground, was still untouched by shell fire. It lies a little distance to the south-west of tho crossing formed by tho roads from Fleury to Souvillo and from Va'ax to Verdun by way of tho Vaux-Chapitro Wood. At the beginning of July tho Germans had succeeded in advancing beyond the Vaux-Verdun road and had carried the shrino. This position threatened to break through.the French linos, and through the gap the» Germans tried to carry Souville. A barrage firo, however, separated the storming party from all support and it was annihilated. When the French resumed tho offensive, slowly and surely ir. tho direction of Floury, it became indispensable to close the Sainte-Fir.e gap. As to who SainteFino was no one has any idea. The Sainto may havo been a Delphine or a Josephine, or perhaps a poi>a. may have found the key to the riddle*when he said, before tho attack on July 12, that ho was going on a pilgrimage to Sainte-Fifine. The battlefield was a chaos. Between Douaumont and Souvillo the ground was riddled with enormous holes twenty to forty feet in diameter and more, and' roads, meadows, villages and trenches had disappeared. On the 13th, the day of the attack, a month's rain had given the _ final touch to tho misery and desolation of the scene. A preliminary French roconnaissanco was mado in the direction of the shrine. It was received with heavy rifle and maxim fire. Two officers and sixteen men wore killed; but the reconnaissance had done its work. Word was sent to the gunners, and the Gorman lino was deluged with fire. Moanwhilo French infantry felt their way along the position, seeking for the weak points, and meeting the enemy again and again at close quarters with the grenade/ Tho woods wero swept by patrols. A dispatch-bearer, unarmed, suddenly came across two Germans. Tho Germans had their rifles, but they surrendered. Ho took them to the post of command, and there it was noticed that their rifles wero loaded. "Why did you bring them iu," he was asked, " without making them unload their rifles?" "I was afraid that it would remind them that their rifles were loaded," was the reply. Soon after a German shell fell on that particular post, and part of it collapsed, burying tho two men in its ruins. They were probably crushed out of recognition, but thoir comrades set to work to dig them out. After four hours' desperate toil one man was found still breathing, lying on his comrade's corpse. A doctor at once wormed lua way down through tho splintered trunks and crumbling earth and gave tho dying man seme morphine to dull his pain. At last tho rain stopped and the sun camo out again, and with the heat came tho terrible torture of thirst. While it rained water could bo collected in canvas sheets, but with the sun all moisture vanished, and the enemy's barrage fire made all communication with tho rear impossible. On the night of the 17th it was decided that a further rcconnaissanco on the Sainto-Fine should bo made. It was led by a lieutenant, who in civilian life was an employee of a great Paris bank, and it consisted of about sixty men. The French crept forward from hole to- hole until they wero within two yards of the Germans. Then they sprang to their feet and hurled their grenades at tho enemy, who surrendered or took to their heels. In ten minutes tho position was theirs. The French took refugo in a little cellar which was all that remained of the ancient chapel. There they wero completely ctit off by barrage fire and it .was not until the night of the 18th that the lieutenant was ablo to announce that'he had succeeded in his mission and that he was digging himself iu.