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Show NOT A "TRENCH" OF BAYONETS True Story of Famous Incident at Verdun, Which French Bravery Has Made Immortal. The scaffolding has now been taken down from the monument over the famous fa-mous "Trench of the Bayonets" at Verdun which President Millerand has inaugurated. But the term "trench" is a misnomer. The true story Is this: Fifty-seven survivors of two Breton battalions were holding the line there, not In a trench, bur in a series of shellholes, nearly regularly spaced and aligned. The men were so packed that when any were wounded they were unable un-able to fall down, while for security they held their rifles, with fixed bayonets bay-onets in the air. During the whole of June 11, 12 and 13, 191G, a terrible artillery duel raged round them. Caught between the French and German barrage fires, one by one the men died, while the bursting burst-ing shells buried them under waves of torn-up ground. When the scene could be visited all that remained was a line of bayonets protruding from the , ground. Continental Edition of the London Mail. |