WOODLAND STRUGGLE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15932, 1 June 1915, Page 10

WOODLAND STRUGGLE.

STUBBORN FRENCH TROOPS.

CLING 'TO TFKIR GAINS.

ENEMY'S HEAVY LOSSES.

The desperate efforts made by the Germans to recapture the positions won by the French in the Woevre (cast of Verdun and Saint Mihiel) are confirmed in vivid fashion by some of those who took part in the actual fighting, and who, wounded, have reached Paris. One of the fiercest struggles was that which need for the possession of the dominant position of the Bois de Montmarc, where the French recently won considerable ground. The Germans made no fewer titan 15 counter-atUcks. for peremptory orders had come from the Grand Headquarters to retake the lost ground "at all costs." Tho enemy's attacks all failed, and even the sober French communique, describing the results of. the battles on April 8 and 9, said that the ground was covered with heaps of German dead. Eye-witnesses report that the fighting was especially violent during the night of April 8, when the German?, threw into the furnace some of their best regiments. Ten Night Attacks. At nightfall the fiercest German attack developed. At several points the Germans managed to reach the barbed wire defences of the new French trenches, but tho withering fire of well-placed sections of mitrailleuses eventually dispersed them. At eleven o'clock a fresh series of attacks, each succeeding one more determined than the last, were delivered: and before the day broke the French, worn but unflinching, had been called upon to hurl back ten of these great waves of steel and fire. As fast as,one attack was beaten off. fresh contingents of Germans rushed forward, and it was only by almost super- , human physical energy and moral endurance that the French troops, encouraged, however, by the splendid courage of their officers, were able to resist. I Gallantry of Officers. Many acts of bravery on the part of the French officers are narrated. Thus, at one o'clock in the morning, a number of Germans, having succeeded in forcing the front of a trench, a lieutenant, sword in hand, leaped upon them, struck down three, killed a fourth with his revolver, and when wounded in his turn still found strength to command and encourage his men until all the Germans had been cleared out of the trenches. In another trench an adjutant found himself confronted by an officer and ten soldiers. Isolated from the rest of his company, the Frenchman waged a Homeric struggle, ending in the death of three of his assailants. He was wounded in the head, and lost consciousness. His first words when picked tip later by French soldiers were: "Have we kept the trench ?" Mown Down in Hundreds. i The final German attack took place just after daybreak. Tho Germans advanced ; in deep, close masses, singing the " Wacht am Rhein." This time the French adopted different tactics. The enemy's columns were allowed to advance to" within 20 metres of the French lines, without a shot being fired. Then, suddenly, a storm of bullets was poured into the ranks of the Germans from every direction. Great numbers of mitrailleuses had been concentrated, and when their terrible fire began to play on the assailants the latter were simply mown down in hundreds. The Germans were thrown into disorder, and, seizing the moment, a couple of French battalions sprang out of their trenches and charged with the bayonet. This was the end.