GUERRILLA FIGHTING

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2344, 29 December 1914, Page 5

GUERRILLA FIGHTING

An interesting account of how the/ French have been holding tho Germans; in the Vosges, in Southern Alsace,'Ms , given by a correspondent of the "Daily, , - News." Fighting has there been go-j ing on, he says, since the-first week o£; August', and positions occupied by the'two forces are now virtually what, theyi were then. Twice tho French entered; Millhausen, and penetrated to -the Khino.; twice- the Germans hare been ready to advance on Belfort, and they have been prevented for tho, same; reason—the failure of tlib Grand Hi'n/ In the Vosges tho French have de{ veloped to the full those remarkable; qualities for guerilla, fighting. Many,; English visitors to the Riviera will re-| member the battalions of ChasseursAlpins that werer stationed there. Itis mainly- these'niountain regimonts, re* , ; cruited in the Alps and the Pyrenees,-; that have'held tho Vosges from the be-; ginning, and they play with tbo heavy;. South Germans• opposed to Hiem 'like! matadors with a bull. Occasionally,; the bull gathers himself together, .and; with a rush flatters all sofore- lum,| but they are- soon at him again, ftont,-; flank, and rear. _ 1 "Fighting in the forest, fighting on , - the mountain," writes a German officer,-1 whose lotter has been Published; in .thoj "Beurgcrfreund," ot MaulbronnJ; ■ "Thcso words mean for'us terror and; spectres. The first terror is, the enemy, is always invisible. The second ttrroij is. there are sorcerers on every B'idei Third terror; wo aro fired on froui .overyj where. Fourth terror, lack of all/coii-' tact-;-no company knows whether if is in'lino with tho others or already in then' ■midst of-tho enemy.. . Now.comes tho fifth, and worst 'of all—being shot byj our own troops. ' Wo take the greatest precautions; but in spito of that, 'gronpO of enemies succeed in interposing them<. selves between ours. The French neictf show us moro than from ten to fifty, men who aro every where and nowhe-ro. It often happens iu _ tho-evening that four or five of tliom'will rush -tou-anls us as if possessed, yelling "and firing so rapidly that we think it is'a swious attack; then they disappear as siuMo'iily as they came. Apart from troops of the line, wo have chiefly Chnsscnrs Alpins as adversaries; those- ;;?ii)inr:ls with tho blue breeches and the round, flat caps. It is a troup'e• d'o'lfto, niid, well trained. They cioop, i oisfllcasly among tho bushes, rapidly and with remarkable initiative. One 'oi's nob hear even a whispered command from tho chief, and suddenly they aro oil us liko wild beasts. . . . Ever since one of these attacks I have felt terror in all