HORRORS OF VERDUN.

Waikato Times, Volume 87, Issue 13269, 26 August 1916, Page 3 (Supplement)

HORRORS OF VERDUN.

"Amid the cries and appeals of

ying cbmradeS, we'fougßl'on'.' ""We letermined that never should we yiek >ur German foes," writes M. Rene J >ert, a member of the firm of Messn foubert and Company, of Cognac, Fran o relations in Melbourne, in the course i graphic description of one of the "Q» nan attacks on Verdun. M. Rene Joi >ert has fought all through the campaign rom the beginning in Belgium. "For three days General Joffre hits* elf watched our rlag. We have had the >fficial felicitations of our Generalissimo, ind those of the President and Minister )f War," says the letter. "In a word, >ur brigade has helped largely to save Verdun. "You ought to see our General at the elephone replying to the anxious quesions that are asked him. 'We will Jiold m until the end.' We have held on, ollowing his expression, 'Like a Tiger,' or three days and four nights. But of ho 0580 men that we were, hardly 900 emain, and I am of that number. "You can have absolute faith in onr >fncial communiques. They are the exict reflection of what has passed at Veriun. Now to tell you about it:— "After thinking only of a well-gained est, we leave our trenches at Berry an iac for Epernay, and are sent to Verlun. It is time that our men evacuated he wood of Caures, the wood and the ■illage of Hautmont, and retired/ four or ive kilometres behind this retirement to ivoid useless losses. It was by order, ind not under pressure of the Germans, iiat we evacuated pur first lines. What vould have happened if we had not done t'.' I think everybody would have been ;illed without any result. "On February 25 we arrived at Verdun. Yftcr a three hours' march we crossed Teury, a small village near which eighty ir 100 "75's" were firing without stopiing. The uproar was deafening. "AVe remained all the day in a pine vood to the left of Fleury. and comnenced to receive the first German shells. >\ e lost a few men. A very tiring march ollowed, to relieve a regiment. By an incredible chance shells fell to he right and left of our route, but we irrived in the "Valley of the Dead" which at that time had no dead). "The regiment that we had to relieve las gone in the night, and has abandoned ts positions. We know nothing of this. Therefore, instead of finding this regiment we find ourselves face to face with the Germans.

"Surprised, we charge with bayonets, crossing the stream, the water up to oar cnees, under the fire of the German rifles. The day begins to dawn. We make a first rush of 100 metres, then another, then still another, and aftex some alternatives of advance and retreat, we arrive, at nearly 9 o'clock in the morning, at the top of the crest, slightly on the opposite dope We have repulsed them 600 to 700 metres (about 700 yawls). "There, while the first line is firing, the second line is digging holes for the nrers. Then the first line falls back in line with the second, thus forming only one line, sheltered by a mound of earth. "Here, no more trenches, it is war in opci, country. This assault cost us 500 or 600 men. Two battalions have taken part in it. with two companies of tie ■.hi;d battalion. The two other companies of the third battalion are in reserve. Behind our first line, held by three companies, come other lines.

When the first counter-attack of the

German comes we are installed, and our artillery is in place, 30 metres from one another. They do not even get near us. All the day it is the same thing, -ajkl the next morning we have repulsed seven coi.nter-attacka. "Our shelter for the firers we have made very deep, and have transformed them into veritable trenches. Then begins the most terrible bombardment the world

has ever seen. "Two hundred and ten, three hundred and -five, three hundred and eighty shells fal; without interruption, and the only stops that occur are to permit the Germans to attack. Never will they reach, jiir lines.

"Their attacks are always managed the same way. We see five or six Germans

coming to us, crawling, then thirty or forty. We do not move. They disappear, and then suddenly they advance ir profound masses, in columns of four. "It was then that rifles and artillery went forward, and that our cannons began to speak with deadly effect. What fearful and rude joy! What monstrous desire we have to kill them! What a pleasure to see our brutal enemy falling. It is beautiful to live in such hours! "They fall, mowed down in entire files, and still we shoot. We are absolutely mad. They pirouette round in all fashions, and vhen they can stand no more of it, leave heaps of dead and dying, and run

"The Germans have made behind us a barrier of insuperable shells. No means to save oneself! Those who try remain there killed by the shells or fragments. This lasted two days and nights. The third night "Les Boches," having slackened their firing, we remove our wounded to the farm of Thiauniont and at the same time bring up 80,000 cartridges; it is then that wo baptise the valley that leads to the farm at Thiaumont "The Valley of Death." "Of the two companies of our regiment and of the 73rd Infantry, which have come to reinforce us, there only remain the dead and dying. They have been taken under the bombardment without shelter, and have fallen there, stupidly struck by the shells without being able to defend themselves. There they are in the Yallev, dead and dving, perhaps 2000, perhaps 3000. "To be killed, rifle in hand, by an enemy that one can see, is not so bad; he has the best of you, and if he gets you under that is your bad luck. You should get in first. But to die stupidly killed by a shell, against which you are not able to do anything, the thought is maddening. "The third day and the foutrh night are relatively calm. Oh, very relatively! A counter-attack in the afternoon and a bombardment of three or four hours! After a night of anxious waiting, all that remains of our poor, but beautiful regiment is relieved.

"We have neither eaten nor slept since our arrival, and we had drunk only the water of the little brook while under fire. "We arrive about nine o'clock in the morning near Verdun Barracks, where we fall, harrassed by fatigue. And 'Les Bosches' are bombarding the barracks, with the result that 40 are k : lled jr wounded. We leave the barracks in the night, in order to go to a valley near bv, where we think we will be under shelter. But still the shells fell, and men also. We remain there frrty-eight hours. Then we depart in the direction of Fleury, to another valley., where we are a little quieter. "And always, so to say, without eating. "At last, on the following night, we are definitely relieved, and after still another day and a night passed on the banks of the Meuse, we leave in autoears for the back. What we have found is good. I can leave you to think how we appreciate it. "This battle of Verdun has been the most terrible and most horrible of the war. It is the most frightful slaughter and butchery that the world has seen. The Germans have lost a grand opportunity of taking Verdun. They will never have it again. They will be able to attack and bombard, but they will gain nothing. The only result will be more killed. Never will they have Verdun. "I hope that this battle of Verdun will hasten the end of the war. The losses in it are incalculable, unimaginable. It is a veritable hecatomb.'"