OCR Text |
Show RANKS ARE FILLED UP AS ENEMIES ARE MOWED DOWN j By R. M. TOMLINSON. Gournay, Near Rouen. I talked with a noncommissioned officer belonging be-longing to a regiment named after an eastern county of England which has been in the front of the fighting almost al-most continuously night and day. And very hard fighting, too. "Our only rest was when we were on the march retiring," he said. "This German attack is certainly extraordinary. extraor-dinary. You can throw them down and mow them down, but still they come on, and directly the gaps are made in their ranks fresh men fill them up. There seems to be an inexhaustible inex-haustible supply of fresh troops. It Is impossible to oppose successfully such a mass of men." Allies in Good Spirits. Still, from my observation and my talks with men and officers, there need be no concern in England about the enthusiasm and confidence and good spirits of both the British and French forces. They do not minimize in any way the power of the enemy, but it is strange that the rapid and irresistible rush of the Germans, which in England Eng-land may appear intensely alarming, does not worry the French or the British Brit-ish soldier. They believe themselves well placed and are surprisingly quiet and confident, confi-dent, and are patiently working away and watching and waiting for their day, which is to come. Nothing that has yet happened in the campaign has made any of them in the least despondent. despond-ent. Success for General Pau. Let us see what seems to have happened hap-pened since my dispatch from Amiens last Monday. On that day the staff of the famous general commanding the extreme left wing of the allies (Sir John French) was at . From the north the Germans seemed to be advancing in great force. On tie other wing General Pau had had a fine success near Guise, where he handled severely the Tenth Prussian army corps and the Imperial guard in a fight lasting throughout Saturday and Sunday last. I was informed that he circled them, and smashed them into the Oise. On Monday the Germans were forced to retreat , with heavy losses, but in the center and left center of the allied forces the British were not so successful. The concentration of Germans was against these points and there was great fighting last Sunday. Regardless of Human Life. But knowing this and more than this, I am not any more alarmed than are the French and British officers and men I spoke with in the course of my unpleasant journey close to the fighting fight-ing line. They know they are only beginning, but they are still intact and the men who. have been working hard and skillfully to stem the German Ger-man torrent are quite confident that success will ultimately be theirs. Huge masses of obedient men are flung by the German commanders, regardless re-gardless of the loss of life, in a fierce and desperate effort to burst through to Paris quickly, and though such enormous masses must necessarily force back all opposition, the allies' opposition meets them resolutely and talmly and with intelligence and military mili-tary science. When the history of this war is written writ-ten it will be seen that, wonderful as the German advance has been, the retirement re-tirement of -the allied forces has been equally magnificent. It is hardly possible pos-sible to understand why such reckless masses of men and guns (and it is believed be-lieved that nearly all the German army is in France), continually pushing push-ing along, should not overwhelm everything human, however well armed and skillfully handled, which stands before it. Still it has not overwhelmed the allies. It is almost incredible, but it is true. Town Is Deserted Suddenly. When I arrived at this little railroad rail-road junction at noon, after a trip io Paris and back, I was told that, on Monday, the French cavalry were seen on the hills to the south and southwest, and that fighting had been going on to the east, 12 miles away. From what I had heard of the progress prog-ress of the German advance tfp till last Saturday, I judged it would be useful to visit the little town of , down the road. I found as peaceful a countryside as If it had never heard of war. The sight of a strangely beautiful cathedral cathe-dral standing apart from the town was restful enough, but there was something some-thing uncanny about the shut and silent si-lent houses. Not an inhabitant was to be seen, and then the cold truth struck us that the town had been evacuated. Crossing a bridge by the railway station, a French dragoon laughed when he saw our startled looks at what rested below and against the bridge supports. They were waiting for the Germans. ; The streets were slrewn with broken glass bottles and barbed wire was coiled everywhere. The little place is in a hollow and one needed but slight imagination to see the flaming hell it could become at any moment. It was growing dark, and I suppose sup-pose I have never before felt such an urgent desire to leave a town. The railway was still intact, but two officials differed widely as to our prospects of getting away. While they argued we heard a mine blow up and then the sound of guns. A friendly friend-ly engine driver, who merely "thought he could get through," at length got us away about eighteen miles southeast south-east of the railway junction, which is about thirty miles to the north of Paris, and w;e got into Paris by train after midnight. We passed Creil, which was then alive with English soldiers. Defense of Amiens Useless. The Paris correspondent of the London Lon-don Mail says: The capture of Amiens, which is the capital of the department of the Somme, 70 miles directly north of Paris, was made possible by the success suc-cess of the Germans at Mereuil. The entry was not contested. The mayor, after receiving a German envoy, announced an-nounced the surrender of the city and urged the citizens to make no disturbance. disturb-ance. "The Germans went to the town hall, where they hauled down the French flag and hoisted the German colors. The German troops began entering the city about midday Monday, Mon-day, singing as they came: 'Die Wacht am Rhine' and 'Deutschland TJber Alles.' "No time was wasted, however, as the orders yere to move swiftly out on the high road to Paris. Only a few men were left to guard the city. '"When the Germans entered Amiens the French retired to PIo-quigny PIo-quigny (eight miles northwest ot Amiens). They are reported to have blown up the railway tunnel and to have destroyed a large -space along the highway to the south with dyna. mite." Praise for British Charge. The Daily Mail's correspondent behind be-hind the British lines describes the charge of the ' Ninth lancers, which occurred at an unnamed spot during the recent series of tactical retreats, as a second Balaklava. He says:. "Terrible havoc" has been caused in our ranks by shells from a battery of 11 German guns posted inside a fortress near the Belgian frontier. "It seemed, impossible to silence their fire until the Ninth lancers made their attempt," riding straight at the guns after debouching into the open and charging under a hail of melinite and lyddite. "I have not been able to get reliable re-liable figures as to the distance they rode, but they reached their goal. Nothing could stop them. They reached the guns, killed the gunners, and put the guns out of action. Then, like their prototypes of Balaklava, they rode back. Many Slain on Return. "On the return they fell in greater numbers still from the attack of other German batteries posted at vantage points around the valley. "Notable bayonet charges were made at (name deleted) on Wednesday Wednes-day last. Several British infantry regiments regi-ments occupied an exposed position around which the Germans gradually circled, drawing the noose closer and closer. ' ' ' - "The Britishers decided to cut their way through the cordon. So the men went at it, yelling and shouting, and got through, although the German artillery ar-tillery mowed them down frightfully. "The German machine guns have been tremendously effective in all engagements, en-gagements, thus far. Men who saw the South African war say the hottest hot-test firing there was childish compared com-pared with what the British troops have undergone since their arrival in France. So far as I can learn thus far the Germans have lost 26 of these guns." Tells of Bapaume Figrrt. The Paris correspondent of the Mail sends the following dispatch: "I have just returned from Com-piegne. Com-piegne. The English have left the town. The bridges over the Oise were blown up this (Monday) morning. morn-ing. The Germans were expected hourly. "One important section of tile bat tie which drove back the allies' left was fought at Hapaume Thursday ani Friday. On Friday morning the Germans Ger-mans brought up many machine guns in a dense fog, and in a six hours' engagement en-gagement the French suffered severly. "A British force unexpectedly arrived ar-rived and occupied the French position posi-tion and allowed the weary French to retire. Then, though hard pressed, the British continued to fiyht a mag. nificent rear guard action." |