"A Hole of Death."

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 156, 27 November 1914, Page 5

"A Hole of Death."

GERMANS SLAUGHTERED BY FRENCH INFANTRY. THE ENEMY TWICE TRICKED. Times and Sydney Sun Services. Received' 26, 5.45 p.m. London, November 25. French infantry held a village near Nancy against twelve thousand Germans, who sowed the village with four thousand shells in three days. The French batteries allowed the Germans to waste their ammunition without returning the lire. The German commander, deceived by the silence, ordered an attack. The French battery pounded the closely formed ranks, but did not arrest the advance. The French infantry was directed to let their assailants get within three hundred yards. Then the officers shouted, "Charge bayonets!" The infantry, who had been warned, instead of obeying the command, stayed in the trenches. The Germans, hearing the order, rose from their crouching position, and hurriedly fixed bayonets to repel the attack. Volleys from the trendies caught them just as they reached the entrenchment, and they fell in dense masses, ihe men behind seated the entanglements over the bodies, but got no further. Four separate assaults were repelled, and four thousand dead left m front of the tranches. At nightfall, the Germans retreated. Some lost their way in the darkness, and fell into the nver Loisy. The survivors christened the town "the Hole of Death."