France v. Germany German Warfare.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXX, Issue 6, 25 August 1914, Page 5

France v. Germany German Warfare.

FRENCH LIEUTENANT’S NARROW ESCAPE.

SHOT IN COLD BLOOD.

Times and Sydney Sun Services. (Received 8 a.m.) Paris, August 24

A Lieutenant in the French dragoons, who was wounded at Meuse, says: “My horse fell dead and I was dragged down and fainted. When I recovered I called for help and a German came. Seeing that I was an officer he called the commander, and the latter took my revolver and fired.. The .bullet travelled the wall of my stomach and again I became unconscious. My orderly arrived and rescued me.” GHASTLY BAYONET WORK AT MULHAUSEN.

GERMANS’ SUPERIOR WEIGHT OF NUMBERS.

London, August 24

Bara details of the fighting at Mulhausen on the Bth and 9th August are becoming public. The Germans on Sunday, shelled the town, the population taking refuge in cellars. The German infantry stormed the French entrenchments at the bayonet point in close formation. The French began to give way. Those to the east and ..north of the town retreated, tlxe Germans following on the run. At the street corners, knots of breathless Frenchmen wheeled and faced the enemy, and formed double and triple lines. A fusilade followed, but ended always the same way, with a rush of charging Germans, the clash of steel, and shrieks ajs the bayonet was driven home. Then the French would run again. The ghastly work continued until nightfall.

The German tactics involved terrible loss of life, but practically assured victory to their superior weignt of numbers. When the Germans gained possession of the town there were dead and wounded at every street corner and beneath every archway. The French and German dead were buried in comomn graves dug in the surrounding fields. Many* of the wounded crawled into the cornfields to escape being trodden upon by the fighters. For days afterwards the Germans searched the corn for possible dead.

Schools, churches and many cottages were filled with wounded, who were left for 10 or 12 hours on the fields and on the roads while the rival forces surged backwards and forwards.