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Show Wearing Down Germans. Paris. Nov 17, 7 a m. The Germans, Ger-mans, in the opinion of officers at the front, are beginning to show signs of the terrific strain they have undergone un-dergone for a month in Flanders, and these oflicers expect that General Joffre's Jof-fre's plan of holding the line and permitting the Germans to wear themselves out in vain, but costly assaults, as-saults, will soon bear fruit A staff officer, writing from the battle line, even goes BO far as to predict that within another month the allies will bo in a position to drive the enemv from French soil. The writer, however, admits that he Is by nature, an optimist Germans Holding Dixmude. Some details o! the taking ot dk-inude, dk-inude, which the Germans still hold, but which thus far has brought them no advantage, have reached here. The capture of the town, (t appears .was due to a mistake on the part of the French detac hmenl "When the fighting started, the Belgians were entrenched north of the city, protecting the Keyen road To their right, turned toward the west In the direction of Fsson. were the 9enegales riflemen. To the south the French bluejackets occupied the most exposed position in the Slerken road. The enemy opened a terrific bombardment bom-bardment at 5 a. m. on Tuesday last, during which the admiral, who was in command of the sailors and who was making a reconnaisance just missed being hit by a fragment of shell. Senegalcs Make Miotake. The men waited patiently in the trenches. Toward 1 p. rn the cannonading can-nonading slackened and three dense columns of German infantry opened fire on the trenches One column threatened to turn the Belgians who. overpowered bv numbers, retired on the outskirts of the city They were followed bv the Senegales who thought that an order for a general retreat had been given. This movement move-ment uncovered the bluejackets who, however, continued to hold their ground. , , While part of the enemy ndvanced on Dixmude by the Essen and Keyen roads left open to them, the rest came at the double quick for the sailors. Faced by the Prussian guard they I. In danger of being surrounded. Undaunted, however, thev dashed with the bayonet upon the Germans but were overwhelmed by numbers and b aten back to the trenches Asked to surrender, they replied in the wi.rds credited to General Cambronne at Waterloo when, in similar circumstances, circum-stances, he said: Refuse to Surrender. "The guard dies but never surren dors," For several hours they held off the Germans who were four times as numerous, nu-merous, charging their ranks every time they came too near. Towards evening they were obliged to retire since their onlv means of retreat, tho bridge connecting the city with the country, was about destroyed. They crossed the bridge under an avalanche of bullets with such magnificent heroism he-roism that the Prussian officers afterwards af-terwards freely expressed their ad miration Tho fighting was resumed with terrific ter-rific violence In the streets, the blue jackeLs defending each heap of rubbish rub-bish that had been a house, but finally fi-nally retreating across the Yser. |
