DEATH RIDE OF PRUSSIAN GUARDS

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2272, 5 October 1914, Page 5

DEATH RIDE OF PRUSSIAN GUARDS

STORY OF THE DISASTER (Reo. October 4, 2.15 p-m.) Paris, Ootober 8. Details of the disaster to tho Prus< sian Guards on September 26 show that the brigade'included the regiment formerly commanded by the Crown Prince. The brigade, taking advantage of fog, advanced unperceived against the French lines, but bad not reckoned on ' the strength of the French entrenchments. When the sun broke the mist the French commander ordered silence until the word of command had been given.. The Guards wore deceived, and advanced until a bugle-call, followed by a volley) decimated the first line. Despite their officers' encouragement, the < second line wavered. The" Crown l'nnce's regiment, officered by the flower of tho German aristocracy, charged one flank, but found themselves opposed by the men of tho battalions d' Afriquo. The Guards • made a heroic resistance, but.were unable to live, under the withering lire from, the French, and dwindled to a handful. The Africans completed tho task. A Bordeaux message states that the Guards' attack, which aimed at cuf> ting the' railway between Roims and Verdun, encountered the French batteries near Sousin. The French saw the Death's Head Hussars a, thousand metres away, 'and quickly took out the horses. When tho enemy were sis hundred metres away tho batterios had loaded. The Hussars continued at a furious gallop, and when the gunners■'.. fired the plain was dotted with black masses of struggling horses. The Prussian officers tried in vain to. rally their men. The batteries fired again, and the Hussars fled. ■