HOW THE PRUSSIAN GUARD WAS DECIMATED

Waikato Argus, Volume XXXVI, Issue 5729, 5 October 1914, Page 2

HOW THE PRUSSIAN GUARD WAS DECIMATED

DEFEATING IN A FOG. Received 2.15 p.m., 4th. Paris, October 3. Details of the disaster to the Prussian Guards on the 26th show that 1 they included the regiment formerly commanded by the Crown Prince, j A brigade, taking advantage of a fog. advanced unperceived against the French linos, but they had not reckoned on the strength of the French entrenchments. When the sun broke through the mist the French commander ordered silence until the word of command was given. The Guards, still deceived, advanced until a bugle call followed by a volley decimated the first line. Despite their officers’ encouragement the second line wavered. The Crown Prince’s Regiment, officered by the flower of the German aristocracy, charged one tlank, where they found themselves opposed to the men of a battalion of D’Afrique Guards. They made a heroic resistance, but were unable to live under the withering fire of the French, and dwindled to a handful, and the Africas comI pieted the task. Bordeaux, October 3. i The Guards, in their attack aimed at cutting the railway between Rheim? and Verdun, encountered French batteries near Auain. The French regiments saw the Deaths Head Hussars 1000 metres away, and quickly took out their horses. When 600 metres away the catteries loaded, and the Hussars continued their furious gallop. The gunners tired, and the plain was dotted with black masses cf struggling horses. The Prussian officers tried in vain to rally the men, bat the batteries fired again, and the Hussars lied.