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Show FRENCH CHASSEUR TELLSJF CHARGE Advance on the German Trenches Attended With Heavy Loss. BAYONET USED FREELY Soldiers Make Desperate Effort to Cut Barbed Wire Entanglements. Special Cable to The Tribune. PARIS, Feb. 20. A French Alpine chasseur tells in a letter how the Alsatian Alsa-tian summit known as the Tete de Faux was taken by assault. ''At 10 in the morning," he writes, "a cannon shot gave the signal to attack. at-tack. The fight began all along the line. One by one the 75-mm. guns, the 90-mm., the 105-nim., and the 65-nim., began to belch forth. The noise was terrific. We kept ou advancing. All at once shell burst on our right; firs dropped with a crackling of branches and amidst a whirlwind of snow. We reached our point. Then again there was silence, the guns ceasing fire one after the other. "The roll was called by squads, the men taking up their place as called. Quickly and without disorder each man took a roll of barbed wire, which a mule had just dropped by the roadside. The pioneers went ahead, some with shields, others with bas of earth, making mak-ing for the trenches m order to cut the barbed wire defenses under the terrible ter-rible fire which was about to be poured into them. We looked at them and turned heads away. "Suddenly the' crackling of the rifles begins. There was a'shout of 'A moil' (help) and a wounded man with a shattered shat-tered arm goes by. Ho had been picked up by an enemy's patrol. My squad formed into skirmishing: order and fixed bayonets. With a rush we reached the outskirt, and dropped behind an 18-inch stone wall. The Bavarian patrols and main guard fell back rapidly. In front of us, enow and stunted firs. We waitecL "Forward," Is Order. "Up above, amid the rattle of machine ma-chine guns, rifles, bombs, we heard the bugles wildly sounding the immortal notes. We heard the roar of the 'hairy men,' i. e., the chasseurs, as they climbed up the crest. "The captain sends the word 'Forward.1 'For-ward.1 With a bound we are out of the forest, lying down, almost buried in the snow, behind the little firs, trying try-ing to see ahead. Bullets whistle over our heads. One plows through the : snow four inches from my cap. At that ! moment, as I was awaiting the order' to make a fresh rush, I moved a couple of yards in order to get under a little fir tree where there was hardly any , snow. S joined me, and quietly observed: ob-served: 'It's destiny. Only those will pass who are fated to pass!' "Our position became terrible. There was a gasp it was X, shot through the heart, who turned, tried to say something to Sergeant G , and fell, to rise again no more. The hail or bullets grew thicker from the trench. "Above the din I heard Sergeant P , on my left, cry: 'Pass word along to the captain that we are caught in the rear, and cannot advance any fur-'ther. fur-'ther. ' And this from Sergeant G : 'Pass the word; are we to advance or retire?' "Above us the bugles were silent. The roar of voices had diminished. The 'hairy men' had reached the trench on the summit and were at work with the bayonet. "A heartrending cry. It's D , who is lying by the side of F , 'A moi!' Don't leave me, G .' And then G -a voice: Ordered to Cover. " 'Pass word to the captain: I) is killed, B is wounded; we can't see anything ahead. We can't hold our ground any longer. Let us advance or retreat. Is there a trench to be carried ahead of us?' "The reply cams: 'Take cover behind be-hind the wall.' G repeated the order. With a bound some rose, S and myself my-self among them. Avoiding the holes full of snow and the branches and roots, we got back to 'the edge of the forest, with the bullets whistling faster than ever. "Others of onr fellows, like hunted hares, ran in zig-zags; others again crawled along, and every time thev . shook a fir as they passed a fresh hall of bullets was rained on them. "Then another cry, 'Sergeant G is wounded.' A few seconds later they seemed like ages I saw him coming com-ing along, crawling like a snake. 'What's the matter? Where are you. hurt?' But ho picked himself up and got over the wall. He had waited a momeut, just then all rose to retreat, crawling along. Then D , livid in the face, came and dropped dead two yards from me. With a last effort he had freed himself from his knapsack and equipment. "It was all over. Each company, each squad, was in possession of the position it had been ordered to carry, and, putting down their rifles, the men seized their knives and other tools and began to unroll the mile of wire thev had brought with them, waiting until the trench had been deepened sufficiently sufficient-ly to make it possible to set to work with picks and Bhovels. The tricolor flag which, a ' hairv man' b:id brought along at the end of his rifle was flying from the summit.' ' |