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Show Barrier Fire Cuts Verdun Casualties Sixty Per Cent More Than 4,800,000 Shells Used in French Attack; At-tack; Steam Sirens Now Shriek Signals Above Roar of Big Guns. By C. F. BERTELLI, Staff Correspondent of the International News Service. PARIS, Oct. 27. I have obtained a first-hand account of the Verdun victory, directed partly toward explaining the amazing disproportion of the French and German losses, which is abso- s lutely without precedent In this war, considering t hat the Frencli were the attacking side. The French casualties casual-ties were only a little more than 2000, including a large proportion of slightly wounded, hit by the machine-gun machine-gun bullets. It was an accepted axiom previous previ-ous to this year that the assailants . necessarily surfer move heavily than the defenders when storming strongly fort f fled positions, but the results are completely reversed now that the artillery ar-tillery has developed unbelievable power. Losses Cut Down Sixty Per Cent A general leading the French attack at-tack south of the Somme assured me the other day that tlte French losses J had been cut down 60 per cent owing to the scientific projection of shell barriers In front of the infantry after all the enemy ( cover is pulverized, i The French .casualty list this wtsok at i A'erdun shows that the diminution 1 has been increased to 00 per cent. Last year this invaluable ground on the Meuse would have been considered consid-ered lightly won if the casualties had been 20,000. Bombard Germans for Five Days. A staff officer today pointed out to me that the hellish ultra-modern gun flre Increases tho losses of the other side nearly in the same ratio as It re duces your own. Therefore, It is not surprising that General Joffre swept up practically the whole German force south of Douaumont and Damloup battery. For 350 hours General XI-velle's XI-velle's heaviest guns had blasted the Meuse forts, trenches and redoubts. More than 4,800,000 shells, weighing about 10.000 tons, not only wiped out every obstacle In the way of the infantry, in-fantry, but wrought slaughter aB efficiently, effi-ciently, as a death scythe sweeping along the Teuton positions. For once no villages were removed from the face of the earth, because all were razed in the titanic conflict of the past summer, but such of the pitiable ruins of once pleasant Meuse homesteads as the Germans were able to fortify and man with machiue-gun teams were quickly blown to atoms. Dugouts Choked With Slain. The ordinary earth entrenchments ' which the French Infantry occupied 1 practically without loss, seemed almost al-most devoid of defenders at first sight, but as the advance continued, cleanup clean-up parties brought to light hundreds of buried bodies. Numerous dugouts were found choked with dead. The battle decided definitely that dugouts, j unless of the deepest and strongest j variety, become worse death traps during the heaviest cannonades than I open trenches. On Tuesday the occupants occu-pants were either buried alive or ! killed by the poisonous fumes of j shells. i An officer wounded at the outskirts cf Vaux village today described to me the phases of the battle. J Teutonic Officers Give Up in Daze. "Our column began moving at 11:45 ; o'clock," he said. "Already the, Wo- : roccan division was out of its trenches and nishing up the ravine towards Douaumont ridge. "We couldn't see much, the rain and mist excluding visibility above about 300 yards ahead. We dashed in the direction of Vaux pond. Our onrush was so sudden and unexpected that the enemy's first three defensive lines, flung out for a length of about 1000 yards, fell into our hands, without with-out serious resistance, the Germans flying before us, abandoning their j arms and equipment, or surrendering In groups ajid praying for mercy. For tlte first time In my experience a German captain and two lieutenants threw up their arms as soon as we approached. Two hundred troops followed fol-lowed their example. In fact, the enemy en-emy surrendered by the wholesale. A Pomeranian battalion, including all Its officers, laid down its arms at the (Co-ntinrjed on Page Two.) BARRIER FI CUTS ' VERDUN C11LTIES (Continued, from Page One.) western end of Fitmin wood. They were all dazed. By the time t hey regained their self-possession it was loo late to check our onslaughts, which had gained tremendous momentum. Near the edge of Yaux ; pond one French company fought a broody hand-to-hand engagement with 500 Germans w ho had been thrown into stem t!;e tide. Within fifteen minutes we almost wiped them out. The survivors sur-vivors fled, leaving 200 dead. ''When1! was hit by a machine-gun bullet our line ran to the outskirts of what was once Vaux village." Other combatants say that large sectors of the German line eons is t of huue shell holes where machine guns are posted ami in which troops have j to stand watch for days without relief re-lief or food in knee-high water, while " shells and bombs cascade around j them. Genera! Xivelle has revived the ' worst horrors of t he Verdun battle, only this time it is the gray-clad German Ger-man legions that stand the worse strain. A new terror has been added to war on 'tills front in the shape of powerful steam sirens which are able lo scream their piercing siganls above the appalling din of the artillery. Further continuation that General .1 off re sprang a complete surprise at Verdun came to light today in t he revejation that the kaiser only a week before the attack had decorated Gen-, Gen-, era Is von Kinem and von Mudra with the Oak Leaves and then addressed one of the divisions of the Brandenburg Branden-burg corps, expressing confidence that they would retain their Verdun . guards. General von TAi'mw replied : "Your majesty has reaffirmed with infectious vigor the necessity for holding hold-ing on and accepting our duty to the fatherland until our adversaries are totally crushed. "These words find a joyous echo in our hearts which will resound among the other brave divisions righting, elsewhere (on the Somme). . "We are impatient to renew the , attack as soon as your nia.jestv decides de-cides the moment has arrived to make our enemies pay for all their crimes and evils committed against the majesty of the German people." |