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Show THE O- SALT LAKE CITY UTAH, SUNDAY, MAY 7, 1916 HERALD-REPUBLICA- N, -r ox GREAT GERMAN OFFENSIVE ESSENTIALLY FOR PURPOSES OF DEFENSE Success in Terrific Struggle Would Invaders Place No Nearer Paris Than They Have Been for Eighteen Months, la c6tc , VAUGHi but Would Destroy Threat on Metz. 339 M 2A3 TDAKIS, May 0. What motives the German general staff in sending the crown prince's army in the present tremendous onslaught directly against Verdun itself, instead of as in the previous attacks, against the northern flank of the fortress, in the Argtmne west of the Meuse, in the hope of isolating it, are not yet ao-tuat- ed tkT At A v9 syi viS Mb. iA-ns- ,y v 272. y 1 dear. k ; J J, Verdun lies in the extreme point of a great salient angle of the French lines, If it were lost the French could fall back, at most, to the line of the Aire and have a etraighter line than before and the Germans would have to embark n further attacks. Even if they reached Aire the Germans really would be no nearer Paris than they have been for a year and a half past along; the Aisne and they also would have many miles to go before threatening the gTeat trunk railways from Paris to Xancy, Toul, Epinal and Belfort and the Vosges front. Would Strengthen Germans. would have Tfi" w firman, w j however, f immensely strengthened their own po-j sition from the defensive point- - Ver- Idun is of more importance to the French as a threat to the German position on one side and the Bt. Mibiel salient on the other, and las a start fog point for a future at tack on Metz, than it is as a defense point. The battle that has been raging around Verdun is by far the greatest German attack in the west since the frrsfc battle of Ypres in November, 1014. The front attacked by the Germans is nearly as long as the front (in Champagne on which the French advanced last September, the attacking forces employed must be nearly as large and the amount of ground gained compares favorably with, the taken by the j amount of ground French on that occasion. If only as showing that the Germans still Have men enough, to take the offensive on a large scale in the west the attack possesses great significance. Whole Salient a Fortification. The whole area within the threatened salient, however, if accounts are true, is one rast fortification. American correspondents have been taken over part of the Verdun lines and have reported that they form a labyrinth, line within line, with immense subterranean passages in the rock hundreds of feet below the earth's surface and with hundreds of guns of all caliber mounted on tracks ready to be rushed from point to point, hundreds of steel turrets and thousands of machine gun. Verdun at the outset of the war was a splendid example of all that art of fortiTvas then known of the fication and since the war for nearly two rears the French have been buy lessons they improving it by all the, have since learned. GerOn the map the arrows on the man side of the line show the various German attacks on this portion of the front in recent month, of which the attacks n:it ambitious were the two and Ocin the Argoime last August tober. The arrows near Somme-Popposite Reims nnu opposite Soissons, how three of the German local attacks in the past two weeks, leading drive. tip to the' present creat At Fort Douaumont. The occupation of Fort Douaumont by the Germans in March, which ha been one of the most important successes of the enemy during the long battle of Verdun, is described to the Associated Pres by a French infantry officer in the following words: "We had to combat detachments of the enemy that had slipped inside the fort with machine guns and a revolving cannon. At the same time we had to watch over a winding ravine opening near the church of Douaumont through which the Germans might get. We thus had to look two days while we were nearly blindrd with smoke and with dut Scenes attendant on the world's greatest and most sanguinary battle at Verdun. Left to right, upper, a ' TI p . V.'V-.- - -- road in the vicinity of Verdun part in the defense of the trenches; Douaumont, center bloodiest of the Verdun &s. "jyih y, to take French of the battles, where, since February 22, terrific fighting has been in progress and where thousands of Germans have fallen in an effort "to wrest Verdun Second row, a from the French. trench scene showing flooded condition of trenches in the early spring; Ar-gon- ne -- French infantry column stretching as far as the eye can see marching cn a V... y l-- -ji view of the city of Verdun on the banks of the Meuse; one of the big French mortars used in the defense of Verdun, together with one of the giant shells it fires; a Verdun battle i scene, showing French infantry resisting attack in a newly dug trench and a brigade resting on its way to reinforce the first line defenders. IT"". 5 T "-- 1 lift"! II 1 1 Tt i? J ' s A , . ' s vXWiV1 TlLi r raised by shells that furrowed the the village. Every attempt they ground all about. Orders could be made to debouch during tho morning heard only' a step away in the deafof March 3 ended in more slaughter. concrashes were almost ening" At 4 o'clock in the afternoon our own that tinuous. The ground quaked under heavy artillery took Douaumont for the concussions. All our defense target and the execution it worked works were obliterated between 2 there, plainly visible to our men, como'clock in the morning- and 1 o'clock pensated our reverse of the preceding in the afternoon, when the Germans day. At nightfall two battalions of increased the range of their artillery neighboring regiments lined up for fire and their infantry attacked the the counterattack and opened a viovillage. Wo were cut off from all lent fusillade. Cheers rang through communication front and rear, for the air, from all sides in answer to every man sent out with information the order: Forward with fixed bayowas a dead man. nets!' More cheers and choruses of the Marseillaise greeted the news that Helmets Are Deceptive. soon back that the two bat"The Germans eamc out of the fort talionscame had thrown the Germans out and from concealed positions we had of the village and carried our line not been able to reconnoitre and adsomewhat beyond the town. vanced through the ravine simultaneAttacks Are Eenewed. ously. The men debouching from the AVe fort were seen first. hesitated "Again and again the Germans because they wore the new helmets came hack in dense masses, but the of our infantry. Our commandant line held good beyond the town. In ordered 'Don't fire I They are the morning 800 German dead lay in French!' Then he fell with a bullet front of our trench, in his throat fired by the men wear"Tho nest morning, after the ing the French helmets. 'Fire! preparation accompanied by Fire!' ordered the adjutant of the powerful aerial torpedoes, the Gerbattalion. 'They are Germans.' mans attacked the village again. "The loss of our commandaut There was a heroic through this ruse excited the fury of struggle of two hours before our our men, already decided to make the thinned ranks were ordered to retire 200 yards in the rear." supreme sacrifice. . "The battalion had had the mission The French officer who gave this of defending the village at no matdescription narrated also some of the ter what cost. They were doubly bent incidents of heroism which he had observed as follows upon it now, as. the Germans learned when with several of its machine puns Examples of Heroism. out of action, the th company "Quoting unconsciously the historic fell ujwn masses which were menacing words of the commander of tho the left side of Douaumont. With walked up and Sergeant H bayonet and rifle butt our hoys guard, his company during of lines down the opened breaches in the thick ranks most critical moments crying before them and strewed the ground the Men of the . . .th company are ready with German dead. Resisting", to tho die, but never to surrender.' His. last man, the French stabbed and to men fought to the last man. clubbed until overwhelmed by the S , face to face with "Private weight of numbers. five adversaries in a trench, killed Machine Gun's Execution. two with his bayonet and brought Germans hundred "A advanced in down the three remaining with bula direction the of farm on the sumlets as they fled. mit of a hill 800 yards south of .the " Lieutenant L , unable to make village. Eighty of them fell on the himself heard above the din of the field under the fire of a single mabattle, circulated among his men chine gun. The rest fled. That gun smoking a cigaret and with a smile continued firing until dark at the on his lips, to encourage them." western skirts of the village, decimat-ins- r "These," concluded the officer, numerous groups. "are only examples of a thousand cases of the heroism that character"During the night we our position facing east and ized the defense of our lines around the Germans furtificd themselves in Douaumont. ' - usual-artille- house-to-hou- &&. '4lthij'tU lvlfH5 4;Mtxy i-- -i tlf vw r v"V'N fc ry se - ' . .... - vs"S'tW?vN |