VIGNETTES OF BATTLE.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume III, Issue 700, 9 May 1916, Page 6

VIGNETTES OF BATTLE.

j . I CARNAGE ABOUT VERDUN i TRAGIC STORY OF A DIARY. | The following pages from the diary ' of s high officer, written during the | battle of Verdun, tell a story tragic I with its simplicity. Here is what the j I officer wrote.l February 27—I'm still alive, but j what horror. This is the greatest battle ever fought. The Verdun 1 forts are belching death without a i i respite. German corpses can be; i counted in tens of thousands. Half i a million men lace one another and ' still more are arriving. February 28 —The battle has nowbeen raging a week. The Germans ■ , accumulated their frightfulesl engines of destruction and their best troops, but they have not been able ; to get the better of our soldiers. I 7 [ ■ j Verdun is saved by him who i .saved Nancy (Castelnau). Troops, arc arriving unceasingly. Ten motor i wagons loaded with men arrive 1 every minute. 1 The Germans left mountains of 1 dead before Douaumont. , The Verdun citadel remains intact, | despite its wounds. Castelnau faces the Kaiser. How joyful all of us salute, this smiling morning. France has once more shown thai in the greatest hour of peril the i courage of her soldiers and the energy of her generals assure her i I March I—Death is nothing in such a furnace as this. The soul rises to the level of the events. It is these terrible moments that make! ! the hero's brain become aflame. The! heart hardens before such atrocities. Without a spark of pity I have seen the masses of German corpses that choke the Douaumont ravines. I I have questioned prisoners and ; they still hope their comrades will ! take Verdun. But their eyes fill with tearv and fright when they i speak about our seventy-fives. Brave seventy-fives Never will the i tales of their prowess be fully told.: , Some times they fired with the Ger- j 1 mans at a 600-yard range and one ' shell mowed down at least fifteen I | men, but they still came on more ; numerous flian ever. Here I see General Retain. The whole army recognizes his energy : and valour. He exudes confidence. March 7—The action is losing its violence. The Germans must begin | to understand they cannot attain j Verdun, The town is partly demolished, but the citadel has resist- \ '. ed. Its miles of passages carved out i of rock are intact. ! Douaumont is only a heap of | ruins. It is covered with snow now j a foot deep, but here the snow is red. j March B—One vainly seeks to con-1 jure up an accurate memory of these! tragic days. The German Emperor ; i needed victory. He threw in his .best troops, the pillars of his em- j : pire, and our 75's annihilated them, j . I The number of shells fired sur-i i passes the imagination. They have '• | spent several millions. The soil j trembles even now under the shell | fire. It has been calculated that on j a front of only 200 yards wide and i 450 deep the Germans fired more j ithan 80,000 projectiles, mostly nine, ! and twelve-inch shells. j Asphyxiating gases and liquid fire j | also were used in a fask that has j j not been accomplished.