VERDUN.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXXVI, Issue 7717, 6 May 1916, Page 3

VERDUN.

A GRAPHIC PEN PICTURE. OF HISTORIC ASSAULT. One of tlu* most graphic |m*ii piejp* of llit* mighty battle of Verdun jjjdi luis yet reached the United is that sent in a special cabletani bv an American correspondent ,the Near York “Times," despatch--1 “from the headquarters of the tpy of Verdun," and dated March | s t. The message was sent by inotojr ,r from Verdun to Paris, and was as (Hows J—“The French troops have retired i.m the heaps of blood-stained ruins once was the village of Malanwrt, and alter three days’ fighting it Germans have occupied the posioo they thought would fall at the lit assault. It is an axiom of milip aeiciice that any position can he |to if one is willing to pay the cost. L| the Germans have paid in full, fcther it "ill profit them is another Liter, for Mnlnneourt is exposed to Lb a terrible crossfire from the Loth batteries south and east, that [hold it means frightful slaughter. L to debouch from it certain death. F‘What toll Malaneourt has already |tn of German lives one cannot asMiin, hut it must run into thouU Attack after attack broke La under the pitiless fire of the I'l and milrailleuses. One such atLpt I witnessed soon after dawn. I description whereof will cover »rest. Toward 3 o’clock this morn1, i Staff Captain rushed into the h behind the front, where I was Lpiflff, crying, ‘Come quickly, if you Ud see a proof of French courage. L Bosches will have something t« Itftnber before Malaneourt is pi.’ I sprang up, fully dressed. ■ rubbmu' my eyes, followed him Ljrh tin- < hilly darkness to when* liatumnliile headlights spread a lot brilliance across the road. As ■ burned northward the dark hori ■ before us was streaked with mn. The thunder of the entuion- ■ frew loader ns when one upfcfhes a gigantic waterfall. The He earth seemed to vibrate. Sudllj the ear halts, and I jump after nude into a trench that looks like Kpenirrave under the fore-short cn■nr of nn electric torch. BFor two hours we plod along the Hux’ (passageways), now piling Into deep saps, now mounting he Hi lines of Handling harrieades. Haver live miles, always in these Brans, while shells pass at intcrHilmve our heads, little ones with Hill whistle and heavier ones with Hutrous buzz. When one falls H by, a fountain of earth and Hn trees leap upward and falls flbiil, rattling on our helmets. Hit dawn we reach a poste de Kmdcnieul, dug deep in a hillside Bbrltcr. It faces westward, and B* as, m a fiery semi-circle, is Britle-troiit from Hcthincourt to ■owl, with Malaneourt as its Any storm centre. The bombard Spat its height, and the whole Bis shrouded in scores of grey jßlark smoke eloiids, slowly drift - Bade in the cold morning breeze Briftc tin* details of the Frond jßtrnaii positions. Due north of BUter looms tlie dark mass ol BIN. tin* trench-scarred flank of a deluge of lead across w«*»d> of Malaneourt, where 8 nu,,1 - S lie hidden. These woods Ball the western landscape, Iml gßnonlv woods in name. Through hßiooc sees a chaos <*f storm|Btr»uiid. relit into hills and hum|Blikca frozen jumble of waves. (Battered live slumps rising liere gßrn* like jagged teetli. ißjfuriou is the French cannon bß*t the ■ round seems fluid, the (Billy eh;'aging form melting inand hummocks. Close (Huthc white road runs nortlinflhthc shapeless group of hlaekißbns called Malaneourt, where (B<Uvs the French soldiers have IgH*despite the German efforts to 1 watched the shells Bo|*>n the village like myriads I*-"!: thunderbolts, but tbeir HP an* wasted, for the deB* ,n ‘ sheltered underground. hiß *hat Iml I fire furnace there is Bfleft to bum. H b 1 “‘lock, and down tlu* slopes the (ierman waves to the assault. Ihdiind thß* hill i> crowned with a ring KB**' ll ." which seem to lie tlßfiric eyes, peering through the g file French positions. From UB 1 111 1 1" 1 centre of that ring. |gß®*n commander directs his l(lBTlii> advancing Germans roll hlB" 1 ' 111 in grey-green jmtehes. I o ty “i dense blocks—even their cannot facet bat suijß*a 300 yards separate Hi** smoking ruins of tbeir see! tlu* groups are dimin;€fHyltaig. like snowballs under B* h hr*'. and the hillside heis strewn with green dots Berains strewn upon a carpet. jgß**to realise that these grains • ° Ursc^VeS ’ * n l * u ‘‘ r h troops are invisible, ndlßStance is magnificent, de“l* shells that beats qgß* lll - For the German snow j If* foa?M *d rolling, and have hundreds of single spots, pgßjht'g painfully backward, again," says my capif his words were a sigof cheering runs along trenches, from whose -jaß*Mitrailleuses, buried to their continue to spit death jJBJJJhat is left of the German- .. t‘» south, from east to * rfß* w,, rhl with tireless zest, heat or Arctic snow, • s,m plc means 1 owe. itlB 1 * I have one faithful friend, T. di.-v' prompt aid to Tend, —me to endure, Woods’ Peppermint