THE FIGHTING FRENCH.

Mataura Ensign, 12 January 1916, Page 2

THE FIGHTING FRENCH.

The follow in ,e air- three short stories of French soldiers, r-mapshols of life in the trenches and in Ihe .liringi line on the Ysor ji.nd elsewhere. 'I hey are vivid' pictures of three different -kinds of fighting. 1.--FIVF, NIGHTS OF TORTHRF. . A lew yards to the east of the road bridge over the railway, at the summit of the crest .stands the Gorman redoubt. Hanking works on either side and the long, wicked-looking muzzles of quick-firing guns make it seem very formidable. Down the slope not oO yr.rds away are the French trenches. Put those tit) yards are terribly hard to win. The .slope is a treacherous slippery bank of mud. up which the attacking party can only f venture at a walk while the German bullets ni:'.ke hnvoe in their ranks. ■Six times h:\vo the brave French soldiers rushed to the attack and six timers' have they reached the top of the bank, with their numbers .so reduced 1 that it was impossible to hold what they had wo IV.

Jn one attack some of the men °.c-' ttinlly reached the ditch and scaled the wall of the little fort. One of them, a soldier named .Delniotte, reached the nnrape!', when he was hurled hack by the rush of an exploding sliell. It was still daylight when he recovered consciousness. By- lii.s side in- the ditch were three other soldiers, two severely wounded and one slightly.. The rest of h'.s company 'had disappeared. A hove him Delniotte saw a. wall J "iff high, rin which German sentries parsed to and fro every minute. Around him were heaps of dead Germans and Freii:h, and below was the hnllet-swept slope, np which he had come a \'v\v bonis before with the attaekin.fi ■party. For five days and Jive nights Delniotte remained iiv his terrible position. He and his wounded companions found biscuits and water in iho knapsacks of the dead around them. On the fifth day there was no food or water left, and' Delmolte. who was tortured by frostbite, resolved to make the attempt in the night to regain his t trenches. Death by a bullet from a s ntry W)is better than from cold and starvation and thirst. I Kventnally the fire on either side, heeame less severe, and Delniotte. v,'no felt his strength rapid.lv ebbing and who could hardly move his legs at all. decided to crawl out of the ditch. Two of bis companions were already almost I dead and the third refused to risk ;he attempt. and so Delniotte crawled out. :. into the night alone. 'Despite ad his precautions the German- heard him move and opened lire into the darkness. Luckily all t-h:> : r bul'iets went astray. Half the d'.st;ince was covered when a fresh elair.or arose. The French sentries in turn began to fire. •'France, France!'* were the < uly words Delniotte could shout, and lie repeated them half hysterically. "France, France!'-' he kept shouting, and the word's punctuated every yard he advanced, though the French had long ceased firing. He was rolled in a blanket rad rushed to the nearest a mini la nee. When lie came to and had taken a hot druk of rum and milk he saw; his colonel r.nd the general of the division stand ng with anxious faces round his bed. The surgeon said. "He'll do all right now." and nodded to the genera!. '•When you a.: e quite rested. D.-l-motte." said the latter, "you l mi.-st tell us your adventures. Now go to sleep." U —-THK MAJ'OK ON TIIK SLA.'IHF.AP. "Where is Major 'r"\ asked. "On bis slagbeap, of course,' was the reply, and* so 1 made my way. to tiie huge black pyramid of coal dust ;.nd waste which emerges in the middle of the plain. A dirty cord lay on the coal, intended to.-facilitate the ascent. | ,nnd I gladly made ik-'c of it to clamber to the top." Of course the major v. as there. Where else could he be or. a foggy morning like this, but direct ng his batteries from his post of v.". n tag.'l' J hear a voice as I reach the top^ "The telephone broken down. )V.I1; tell the fools to shout." The major is evidently not in the hest, of tempers.Hi.s moustaelie i.s all nwry and h:.s I; ce is already blaek. H'.s great-coat, t o, shows signs of an intimate aet|iiaintn:ve with coal dust. ■'Ah, they think the mist is going to hinder me, do-they !■'" The "they" is evidently the Germans. The assault has already begun. I .vo minutes' artillery lire on the enemy's "funk holes" and then a dash foiward. and so on. Things are going well, but the enemy's guns are waking it)), and worse than that their quick-firers. '! he latter are the major's perpetual' ni;. i._ mare Ho dreams of them night : fiddav. ■ '

tlic (ierman Hin chell.s burst sour throe hundred vatd.s from the slag lio.ip. .Major • shrugs his shoulders. "I guess thoy make their shells at the village smith's "now. What shoddy' stud'! ; if I could only get then- (piukfirons !"' Major . however, doe.s not trou > o himself much with the hazards of the hattle. It has become a matter ol r.u-, tine with him now,-and the shriek oi a passing shell does not make linn quiver in a nerve. He does not even feel the pleasure of a narrow escape. He is so accustomed to them. Kro:n time tov time ho totals un rhe value of the .shells he has fired. "There goes M'Stf," lie says, or else, "hint, means £l6o.'' As I slide down the shigheap a shell lmrst * unite near one of the batter es. Night falls and the major hunsell appears. Ho slides down, holding to the ropes and as he touches the ground says, "There's -£-100 gone": and he luir-j-ios'ofT to .supper and bed. and so to, dream about .some way of getting at those quiekfircrs. jH.—CAPTAIN "WHO TOOK A TKENCH. In the heat of the fighting, a section o|' trenches defended by a Zouave regiment succumbs to the flood of a force of Hermans three times larger. It is a grave matter, because the-"whole front caTv be enfiladed from that spot. The trench must ]) f retaken. A company of chasseurs —light infantry—is ordered to advance at the double and retake the trench. The start is "difficult. .Some of tlu.v men are almost stuck to the trenches. s o treacherous is the itmd, and tljoy have to be hauled out by main force and with the aid, of planks."" Their captain is Ernest A\ actuate. He is .short* and sturdy ami of Flemish descent. This company is hrdly out of the trenches when it. forms the ta-'get for thousands of rifles. It is difficult to advance quickly, as the men often s ; nk to their kivec.s in the Jiqir'd mud. "Useless to think of runtiiui:;; the men :nn.«t walk, almost crawl. With such obstacles before them the men are gradually thinned out. Some

of them stop ami, lying down, start firing at the enemy. Tlie other straggle out behind the capta.n. who, with ins pipe in his mouth and hi.s stick in his hanel, walks calmlv forward at their head. Captain -Waemare turns to beckon hi.s ini'ii in, and be see.s only two sergeants and a handful of soldiers. Ho does not hesitate, but pursues hi.s way straight forward to the Gen-man trench.. He reaches it alone. Vi'.ith h:.s revolver he kills two Germans, anel the rest, stupelied at 'the audacity and seeing the others coming up behind him, put up their haiul-s in tne air and surrender. Waemare had retaken the trench alone. H's men come up finally, and the position is rooeeupied. As s<mii as the general heard of Waemare's act he sent for him, complimentofl him. and promised to mention his biavery in despatches. I'ttr two day later the galant: ea]itain fed I with a indict in his heart while again leading h : s conr-anv to the a--sauit. ogih --' ..' :xziill!f