POPULAR FRENCH HERO LEADS A CHARGE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16039, 4 October 1915, Page 5

POPULAR FRENCH HERO LEADS A CHARGE.

GENERAL MABCHAND'S BRAVERY THRILLS TROOPS.

WOUNDED AT FIRST '" GERMAN TRENCH. LasDOJT, October 2. General Marchand, who was wounded in the Champagne battle, has undergone a successful operation. '■'■"■'.'- : '■".%.* Calmly puffing his pipe like a company commander, General Marchand placed himself at the head of a column in advance between Perthes les Hurles and Souain, three miles to the- eastward. '?■ This picture was given by a wounded private of colonial infantry, who was beside General Marchand. when wounded" The General's bravery is a legend of the whole division. When the order to advance was given on Saturday, General Marchand arrived amid a hail of bullets. His short speech was inaudible, Rowing; to the roar of the guns. Our colonial division, with the Moroccan division, a brigade of Zouaves, and a brigade of the Foreign Legion, formed in the first days of the war, was launched against j. he trenches. They covered 150 yds through a perfect hail of shot and shell, and had just reached the first German trench when General Marchand dropped with a shell splinter in the abdomen. Stretcher-bearers picked him up and took him to the hospital at Suippes, where he is doing well. It is believed that his cure is only a question of time."

General Marchand Is a well-known explorer, as well as a soldier, and was in command of the French force at Fashoda in 1898, when the incident occurred ■■ which for a time caused strained relations between Britain and France. Earl Kitchener was in command of the British force at Fashoda, and when in France recently, met General Marchand and revived old memories. Gene/al Mart-hand's promotion during the war has been rapid. -- What is known as the Fashoda incident arose through the French Government conceiving the project of forestalling the British in the Upper Nile Valley, and" uniting her possessions in West Africa with those at the entrance to the Bed Sea. A small force under General (then Major) Marchand was sent from the French Congo to occupy Fashoda, on the Nile, whilst a Franco-Abvssinian expedition was despatched from the eastward to join hands with Major Marchand. The scheme was frustrated by the advance of an Anglo-Egyptian force under' General Kitchener and the resolute attitude of the British Government. Major Marchand had to retire from Fashoda. As a concession to the French he waa allowed to retreat by the Abyssinian route. France afterwards recognised the British claim to the basin of the Nile.