"HOW WE STORMED THE CHATEAU"
HOUSE-TO-HOUSE FIGHTING FRENCH OFFICER'S NARRATIVE The taking of the mining .torn and chateau of Vermelles, between Bethune lud Lens, by French troops after desperate house-to-house fighting was noted in the official communique on December 2 as "a rather sharp engagement." A commandant who was in charge of some of the troops afterwards described' the events of the fight in detail to a correspondent of tho "Temps," who notes that there is. nothing left of this little mining town. Thousands of shells litter the streets, many of them unexploded. Little sticks of wood mark the presence of these shells, which are still liable to explode from concussion. "We have not suffered much, either my troops'or niyself, during the war to the knife which we have carried on against the Germans in this spot for fifty-two days, but it has been a stiff job,' said the French commandant. "About October 13 or 14, when we left Pbilosophe and reached the first houses of Vermelles, we lost a good many, but as soon asiwo got behind the walls of the houses everything went well. I had some little mountain guus which were of great use to me. When we knew that the Germans were in a house in front of us only ten or twenty yards away we bored a hole in the wall and pushed the muzzle of the gun through. Then we fired and shook them up badly. A solitary field gun which had been entrusted to me was also of great use. We dragged it from house to house as we fought our way through the village. Whenever we met a wall thicker than usual we brought our field gun into action with a couple of melinite shells and blew it down. "The Prussians had fixed a quickfirer above the port! of the church. I told the gunner to turn his piece on it, and the first shell blew the gun and its gunners to pieces. "The taking of the park and chateau was more difficult. The Germans were strongly entrenched in the park. Underground _ passages connected . the chateau with neighbouring nouses and with a brewery. The brewery was made of reinforced concrete and served them as a bomb-proof shelter. Wo worked up to a big house just in front of the park. From here two underground saps wero made, more than a hundred yards in length, and the wall of tho park was mined. At the same time wo made breaches in the'walls of our own houses arid prepared to rash to the attack: Our batteries were also instructed to watch for the retreat of the Germans and bombard them. Our guns were so well served that we knew they could fire at troops fifty yards away from our own men without danger.
Fight in the Chateau. "At 11 o'clock in the morning of December 1 the Trail of the park was blown up .with a great explosion. The Germans were quite unprepared. A. company of my regiment and thirty native Moroccan troops, with knives in their teeth, dashed through the breaches and invaded the chateau. The Germans, taken by surprise, tried to defend themselves, and some of them fought very bravely. "In the cellars we found the officers taking their coffee. They resisted, and every man was killed. 'Only one man surrendered. Our losses were very slight, three dead and a few wounded.' • "Wo then occupied the German trenches, and five days later wo turned thom out of the brewery a hundred yards from thechateau. I hoped to live in the house attached to the brewery, but my brother officer in charge of the guns, who has himself to live in a straw mud hut, ,was quite determined that I should not instal myself in such a comfortable lodging. He very soon blew the house to pieces, and its German garrison with it. "In the cellars of the brewery we made a great haul of ammunition. • _ 'A sergeant in my regiment owned eight houses in Vermelles, three of which he' built only a year ago! Every one was demolished by the fire of our guns. After.we took the place he went to examine them, and was not greatly disturbed by the destruction of them. As long as my people are safe and sound, he said, 'I don't mind.' We can always work.' But afterwards he searched his uncle's house and found in the cellar the calcined remains of the old man, his wife, and their daughter "
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Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2382, 11 February 1915, Page 8
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753"HOW WE STORMED THE CHATEAU" Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2382, 11 February 1915, Page 8
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