The star-independent. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1904-1917, 1914-10-27
$500 German Bodies
in the Canal Sunday
Morning After a
Night Battle
WAS-HELL FROM
4 DARK TO DAWN
Face to Face Men Wrestled and Died
by Drowning Each Other in Ca
nails Waters, Says London Daily
Mall Correspondent

London, Oct. 81, S.53 A. M.-The
correspondent of the ''Daily Mail'' in
Northern France, telegraphing under
date of Sunday night regarding the
fighting on the river User says:
"There were $500 German bodies
in the User canal this morning after
the fighting in the night. Many of
them were drowned and others were
bloody while Dixmude's streets were
strewn thick with the dead.
"These ghoulish facts alone give
some idea of the savageness of the
fighting desperation of the German at
tacks and the stubborness of the allies ,
resistance.
Crossing of User Sacrifice
"The night was hell from dark to
dawn. At almost every point of the
line man was opposed by man, some
times at few hundred yards distance
but more often in close grips. Face to
face men even wrestled and died by
drowning each other in the canals wa
tiers. The Germans had had orders to
get through that night, cost what it
might.
can officer of theirs, who was cap
tured, said that the delay of more than
week in crossing this waterway, had
incensed the autocratie military mind
in Germany 1t must be crossed to-
night if it costs thousands of men.
That in effect was the order given and
the German soldiers all credit to them,
did their best.
0nA perieh in Fight
Probably FIVE thousand gave their
lives last night They could not give
more yet they failed but not because
the Germans did not literally obey their
orders. They crossed the waterway all
right as they were bid but once through
they could not make good. They were
moved down with rifles and shot, torn
into fragments by shells and bayonet-
ted back yard by yard over their own
dead into the waters of the canal. Into
the very gray of the morning this
bloody work went on so fercely that
there was hardly a trench or bridge
guard in the whole line that did not
imagine that he had been singled out
for special attack.
Frantic Scenes in the Water
SIT is believed that some five thou
sand Germans crossed the river User,
but hardly one of them got back. Those
to the north and northeast of Dix
nude, probably two thousand, were
met by fine rally of Belgian infantry
and of the cavalry who had tethered
their horses and were driven by main
force, at the bayonet' s point, to the
int 81
have been frantic scenes and the bod
les seen in the water on the next day
gave grim testimony of this.
"About three thousand German in
fantrymen got in Dixmude. They held
it for a time but with shell fire and
rife fire the place was riddled through
and through. The Germans dashed out
of the crumbling houses only to be
wiped out by a sirocco of shrapnel and
shot in the streets.
Dixmude Resembles a Cemetery
when Sunday morning broke the
dead and wounded were everywhere.
Dixmude was cemetery, but in the
woods not far away the Germans still
fingered. They held position under
a desperate fire and eventually were re-
inforced The allies could not oust them
and the Germans are still across the
User.
Their presence may not be perma-
nent and they may suffer the same fate
AS has overcome hundreds of their fel.
lows during the week, who got over
only to meet their death. but the Bel
gian and French lines, for the time be-
ing at least have heen drawn hact,
about this point. -