The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1914-10-16
FORMER OLYMPIC ATHLETE GIVES
A VIVID DESCRIPTION OF BATTLE
SCENES WITH THE GERMAN TROOPS

BERLIN, Oct. 15.-Carl Diem,
general secretary 1or the Olympic
games, who, as earlier cabled, was
wounded in the fighting before Paris,
has sent to the Lokal Anzeiger from
the hospital the following letter des-
cribing night attack by troops of
the Guard corps:
"After the battles near the village
of Voulpaix August 20 and 80 our
regiment had rest day, then marched
it's 80 miles September / and the same
distance September 2. The third day
we seemed to have caught the enemy
and were necessarily on the move I'M
til late at night deploying and taking
up various positions. We failed to
catch him, however, and made camp
disappointed and utterly exhausted.
The long desired field kitchens, our
"goulash cannons," as the soldiers
name them, had just appeared, steam
ing deliciously, when we got word
that the enemy had occupied the vii
age of Marsaux, a few miles away,
and entrenched. Several companies of
our regiment were told off for the
assault, some against the village, the
others for a fanking attack. Daylight
had long vanished when we marched
out.
"'Unload rif1es!' was the first COM
:nand. Not a pleasant command for
the infantryman-to take the cart
ridges from his beloved rifle, now
IF no more use to him than a feather
until he gets breast to breast with the
enemy. But what is the use-orders
are orders and in night fighting this
order is particularly called for if COM
~ade is not to shoot comrade, and the
cartridges rattle from the magazine.
awe marched out through the still
September night, the moon lighting
cur way but lighting US as we'll.
eve leap couple of bitches, burst
through the hedges and fences and
labor up the steep slope of plowed
field, the companies moving forward
in complete silence. Suddenly when
we are about hundred yards from
he brow of the hill, it rains bullets,
most Of them luckily going high. The
field fairly seems to spew rifle balls.
The tension is slackened. No COM
n1and is needed; there is the enemy.
Bayonets are fixed and the platoons
deployed in an instant and with a
'l1urrah' the men charge forward
against the enemy. These disappear,
however, falling back on the real
position, the village itself. It is 400
yards away, the charge takes from
our overtaxed lungs every last atom
Of breath.
"The silhouette of the village stands
out dark before US and it's walls spray
out lead and fire. The church spire
pits out sparks like fireworks dis
clay piece. Long streams of fire play
:ng from every aperture, and around
our ears whistles and whizzes the hail
Of steel. We trip over an unsupported
wire, splash headlong into ditch full
Of water, climb the churchyard wall.
House after house is taken with the
5ayonet, house after house bursts into
flame, then pursuit continues through
the village and for several miles be-
yond. 1t is almost dawn before the
exhausted troops come to rest and
fling themselves down to sleep, rifle
in hand and without troubling them
selves to unsling their heavy packs
from their backs. Such charge with
empty rifle, such a German hurrah
the enemy cannot stand against, can
not themselves reproduce.
How often have laughed to myself
at the youngest of our officers when
he delivered his naive lectures to the
men and wondered what respect his
platoon of reservists, grown men five
or seven years his senior, would have
in real battle for this twenty ire
sponsible years. In the battle OF the
Marine, the bloodiest Of the war to
date, l lay wounded among comrades
whose voices were already still and
watched his platoon go into action on
the left flank. A line of French
trenches spit fire from machine guns,
rifles and artillery and against it our
men charged forward to certain
death. At their head our younger lieu
tenant, laughing as usual, led the way
in a whirlwind advance by rushes, his
dwindling squad following him devot-
edly until the bullets took him.
"Our next youngest lieutenant was
unpopular; owing to his biting, scath-
ing tongue, always rasping the SEN
sibilities of the men. And yet we all
came to love him. Once when we
seemed to be sitting in gigantic
cornpopper of artillery hail against
which no umbrella could protect, this
tongue of his, usually so scathing,
kept up in roars of laughter while
old Brother Break-Bones swung his
iron fail over our heads. / saw him
too that day on the Marine lying still
and white beneath the pines.