IN THE ARGONNE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 13803, 1 October 1915, Page 3

IN THE ARGONNE.

FURIOUS ATTACKS BEATEN BACK. PARIS, Sept. '29. A wounded French .officer, describing the C r own Prince's latest attack m the Argonno, declares that it was the most furious of the war. There was a tremendous bombardment, to which the French guns replied with little effect. The French parapets melted away, but the French did not llinch. Then' the Cxermaai guns abruptly ceased, and a new kind of liquid fire — a mixture of tar and petrol — was projected into the trenches, making an almost unbearable heat. Still the French stood their ground. Suddenly the German infantry loomed up at intervals between the liquid fires. We poured m streams of lead, but tho human wave slowly reached our trenches, and bloody hand-to-hand fighting followed m the dense smoke. We were obliged to fall back. Our reserves dashed forward, but were stopped by a curtain of lachrymatory shells. They put on their respirators, but they were unavailing. Nothing daunted, they dashed through the vapor holding their breath, their eyes streaming, and fell m scried masses on the Germans, who wavered and broke. OHu* artillery prevented supports coming up, and thus, after twenty-four hours of fighting, the enemy re-entered their trendies, though they held ours here and there. '