VERDUN.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 May 1916, Page 2

VERDUN.

GRAPHIC PEN-PICTURE. douaumont an inferno. AT DEATH GRIPS WITH ENEMY. Bristling with stories of deeds of valor, of charge and counter-charge, of Teuton and Frank at death grips in the inferno of slaughter that was Fort Douaumont, the following letter gives a graphic glimpse of the sidelights of the Titanic struggle about Verdun. The letter, written by a Frenchman who was wounded at Douaumont in the height of the struggle, was published in a recent issue of the Figaro. It is as follows:

"We came up as reinforcements. Arriving on February 20, we were sent at first to Chatillon, on the east of Verdun, and waited there in relative quiet. The next day we were sent toward Thiauwont. The German artillery was raging, its projectiles screaming over our heads, falling in Verdun. Near us the guns of Fort Douaumont and the supporting batteries scattered about in the countryside thundered incessantly. The German artillery was not yet paying much attention to tlie fort, devoting their energies to the city. Beginning on Tuesday, however, they began to shell the fort and the country about it. The troops from Samogneux, Haumont, Ornes and Maucourt joined us, and we waited, silent, filled with rage and auguish, for the time for action.

Only our artillery replied. The supply of munitions went on with perfect order, despite a feverish haste. Ammunition and guns, more guns and ammunition, passing us.

GERMAN ADVANCE BEGINS. "The nights of the 25th and 20th we are able to rest, sheltered in spacious saps, almost comfortable. Suddenly the Boches are signalled! It is three o'clock in the morning; one can see as plainly as in the day. The shells are crossing and recrossing in a diapson of hellish noises, while light bombs illuminate plainly the, serried ranks of the enemy, advancing to us. From them comes a gutteral chant—|Es donnert ein Ruf wie Donnerkrall!' It is their 'Watch am Rhein!' Silent wc wait them, watching the spectacle offered to our eyes. The guns of the fort are. roaring, the others have ceased their fire;" at 200 meters they open with shrapnel and the Boches fall in great chimps. Braving the storm of steel and lend, they keep coming on, until to our stupefaction we hear the cry, 'They are in the fort!'

A MAGNIFICENT CHARGE. "Someone barks an order—down go onr knapsacks—and with fixed bayonets we hurl ourselves as the bugle blares—shouting, cursing, stabbing, into the mids.t of the storming party! It seems an infinity, but it is really only a few minutes that we struggle. Our men are falling fast, but they are falling faster. And still they come, surging up, line after line! Their artillery has stopoed, for "fear of killing their own men, but ours is spraying a curtain of fire beyond at their supports. And now otir supports come shouldering their way into the mass, and they give ground. At last we rid the place of them and stop, exhausted, our clothing soaked and stained. "I find myself wounded, much to my surprise. My legs fail me and I fall. I lie there in the welter until the hospital corps men come up and try to carry me away. With a sudden rush of strength I plead to them to let me stay. "No, no. Let .ne stay. I can walk— I'm only knocked out for a bit. Let me stay and watch,' And they listen to my pleadings, bandage me a bit and turn to others who are in worse ease.

"For hours I lie there, and now, when I close my eyes the whole terrible scene comes up before mo. The -runs are thundering almost on top of us, md the shrapnel is bursting, spraying and splashing on the redoubts.

MORE GERMANS MOWN DOWN.

"Our men are firing, loading, firing—the field musicians are scattering new boxes of ammunition—our machine-guns are barking so fast that their shots seem like the loud fluttering of the wings of the Angel of Death. All in one mad, vibrating scene of horror. And still they keep coming, those gray coated stormers, to fall in heaps before the waves of fire from our defenders. One hates them, but good God! they are brave! "It would seem that the Kaiser in dedaring this war had sworn to annihilate his race. Now their cannon are speaking a little slower. Ours are bellowing fastt.T than ever.

J "The storm of. fire continues. Everything is burning—the neighbouring woods, the village of Douaumont, Verdun, Bezonville in front and Thiaumont behind. Flames everywhere. "The struggle continues. Yes, they are brave, but one of ours is worth two of them, especially in the bayonet work. They are wavering! They Dreak and stream back and only here and there can groups still be found fighting arid chanting 'Heil dir im Siegerkanz!'

BERLIN EXPECTANT.

ALL EYES"ON VERDUN. "EVERYTHING SACRIFICED." A Hungarian journalist living in Berlin describes the German state of mind under the strain of the Verdun battle. They seem, he says, to have stopped doing anything, and are silently and expectantly awaiting events. "They walk about the streets like men in dreams," he writes, "and cannot think or talk of anything else but Verdun. I have seen them depressed, I have seen them overjoyed, but never have I seen anything like- their present mood. Every German, in the cafes and in the streets, in the trams or in the underground, seems to be wrapped in thought; they are as immersed in the battle as the l generals around Verdun, and they take as keen an interest in the fighting as if their own lives depended on the outcome." The whole article is intended to be a homily to Hungarians and Austrians as to how they ought to behave when great events are going on in the battlefields, and is a glorification of German seriousness. As a matter of fact, the seriousness is based on th& instinctive knowledge that the Verdun battle is one of those which will decide the war, for the Germans know that if tliey lose the loss will have far-reaching strategic results. It will cost from 200,000 to 300,000 men at a time when such men are invaluable, and may end in a loss of prestige, a weakening of moral, and in the antagonism of neutrals who are awaiting for the supreme moment when the star of the Central Empires begins to fade. Just because this is the case no stone is being left unturned. Everything Is being sacrificed to Verdut,,