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Show GEORGE MEUNIER of Salt Lake, who is now on French firing line and who tells of havoc wrought by new machine guns. i J " , . vf-i j " SALT LAKE RECRUIT TELL5JDFF1 GHT1HG George Meunler, on the French Firing Line, Describes De-scribes Battles. Writing' to his brother, Gabriel Meunler, chef at the Hotel Utah, George Meunler, formely of Salt Lake, now in the Fifth corps of the French army, tells of the battle along the Meuse river September 6, in which the German forces suffered heavy loss. The letter was written September Sep-tember 7, while the victorious allies were resting after several days' hard fighting. The letter in part follows: At last we have stopped the advance ad-vance of the Germans. We are resting rest-ing tonight after many days' hard fighting. The Germans, however, do not rest. They are in full flight. A large force of our mounted troops Is encouraging them to hasten. But with all the losa they have suffered. In spite of the fear which our new rapid-fire guns have inspired, they are retiring in good order. The discipline of the Germans Is wonderful. The entire army movea as one man. In an advance, the dull gray mass comes before us like a great tractor. It rolls across the open space, slowly but surely rearing rear-ing our lines. There is no breaking, no scattering for shelter. The men move as In a trance. Thousands fall. Thousands of others take their places, and the mass moves nearer. At last the gray lines are almost upon us. The Germans cut the wire entanglements in front of our trenches. Our machine guna mow them down. Our rifie fire is deadly. There is no volley fire. Each soldier picks a man. But at last the Germans are through the entanglements. We are ordered out to meet them. It Is then the bayonet and every man for himself. And we have found the weakness of an organization far superior to our own. With us it Is always every soldier sol-dier for himself. lie takes a personal interest. In the trenches, as we wait tho German advance, each man feels he has a personal foe in the line. He longs to face him with cold steel in hand. But when hand-to-hand fighting begins the German organization is at an end. There ia no officer to say thrust or parry or use the butt. The ' great machine- which has come down upon our lines is si m ply a mass of scattered, useless cos. But when it turns in (light the officers deftly assemble as-semble the parts. And as it rolls away even in retreat It is still a mighty machine, almost as formidable as when it moved against our lines. But we no longer fear the machine. It is almost bullet proof. But those who constructed it so skillfully never dreamed it would be called upon to resist ha yonets. As I write, detachments are busy burying the dead. The mortality on both sides is terrible. More than 40 per cent of my own company was killed or wounded. The German hell fire is deadly. I may, perhaps, write to you no more, for tomorrow we ko to finally crush the army of the crown prince. Our losses are not so heavy as those of tho Germans, however. how-ever. They faced the lire of our ma-cliino ma-cliino guns at close ranee. Kntlre rows fell. Their comrades climbed over them, sometimes falling as they stepped. After the fight you could not see the bare earth within iw) yards of our position. Dead and dying dy-ing hid it from sight. In some places the men lay two and three deep. One on mint look upon the many dead without sorrow for those foes (Continued on Page Nine.) SALT LIE RECRUIT TELLS OF FICHT13 (Continued from Page One.) who died so bravely. But then ve think of the burned villages through which we passed and hate for the men who were so barbarous fills our hearts. The Germans sacked every house as tliey advanced through Belgium Bel-gium and France. What they needed they took. The rest they destroyed. Old men. and women and children were killed without cause, and the. soldiers of Franco thiret for vengeance. ven-geance. Those of us in the ranks aak why we do not push into Germany. Ger-many. But our officers order us to wait. Sometimes even after we win they tell us to retreat a short distance. dis-tance. Then the Germans come on again. But we always drive them back. But now I begin to see more clear-' h. "We In the ranks ask no questions, ques-tions, but I have- heard the Russians are marching on Berlin. I can now see why we have not advanced. Our general intends to crush the Germans Ger-mans between our lines and those of the Russians. Then the war will be soon ended. Our soldiers are nearly worn out. "We suffer .srrally from fatigue. Often we sleep 011 t lie damp ground. Sometimes Some-times we arc in places so soft that as we sleep our bodies sink into the mud. "When we awaken, wo are lying ly-ing in a pool of water. The hardships hard-ships are great. Food is at times scarce. These tiling's are more trying- than the light ing-. But the soldiers of France do net mind. We shall win. The Germans can never take Furis. |
