LATE NEWS

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2709, 2 March 1916, Page 5

LATE NEWS

FIGHT NEAR DOUAUMONT

GRAPHIC ACCOUNT

A SOLDIER'S STORY"

By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Rec. March 2, 1.25 a.m.) " Paris, J[arcli 1. An infantryman in a sap before Douaumont says lie saw the Germans advancing at the .double. Suddenly from the heights and slopes on either side heavy French artillery at shortening / range ploughed the foremost ranks with six-inch and eight-inch shells, and then dozens of. batteries of seventy-fives came into the open, and began a rapid fire on the advancing battalions, and these melted away. We were eventually confronted by tenfold numbers, and withdrew two thousand yards behind the fort in good order, our artillery snd rearguard maintaining a ourtain of nre to prevent the enemy coming too near. Before the enemy had time to establish himself on the crest of the plateau we were ordered 1 to retake it. •It was like a battle of olden times. There was little shelter 'end no trenches. The French advanced amid an inferno of shot- and shell, carrying everything before them. An officer participating in the charge had to climb a wall of German corpses. The machine gun sections wero more numerous than in any previous battle; they kept pace with the infantry, and took up positions in the open regardless of the cost. When the moon rose the machine guns were'stiUfiring 200 rounds a minute, enfilading the enemy. The ravines where the enemy was trying to approach were filled up with German dead. "" Seven regiments were thrown upon the hill "pre-, paratory to advancing. The General, addressing them, urged them to fight without pity, saying: "Remember, tho French shoot all prisoners." The seven regiments were shattered and broken by the French artillery, and still fresh troops swarmed over the dead until it seemed as if the German reserves were inexhaustible. Describing the French counter-attack, a wounded French colonel says he hard- . ly had to command. "En avant" was no sooner uttered than our men threw themselves forward with a terrific dash.