ENGINEERS' HEROIC SACRIFICES TO BLOW UP A BRIDGE.
DOZEN MEN BUN THE GAUNTLET OF ENEMY'S FIRE. TWELFTH MAN IS KILLED AS THE BRIDGE IS DESTROYED. Paris, September 17. A wounded private in the Cuirassiers relates that the Cuirassiers and British Royal Engineers retreated across the. Aisne at Soissons. The Germans were endeavouring to rush masses across the bridge by which the allies had retreated, when several Royal Engineers dashed at the bridge and laid a charge, hoping to blow it up. All wore killed before the fuse could be lighted, but another party of engineers crept up to the bridge, despite machine guns and German sharpshooters hidden in a clump of trees. The whole place was an inferno. First one engineer made a rush at this gate of hell, attempting to light the fuse, but a volley from the sharpshooters shot him down. A second, a third, and a fourth ran the gauntlet, ail being killed. Altogether 11 were shot down, then the German rifle fire slackened, and the twelfth raced across and lit the fuse. German riflemen killed him as the bridge was blown up.
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New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15718, 19 September 1914, Page 7
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186ENGINEERS' HEROIC SACRIFICES TO BLOW UP A BRIDGE. New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15718, 19 September 1914, Page 7
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