Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-11-04
GERMANS RIDICULE
THE FRENCH FORTS
Many Said to Have Been Anti
quated, with Out : of Date
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. Paid to
Commandment of One Fort,
Who Perished in Its Defense

ASSOCIATED Press Correspondence
The Hague, Oct. 13.-According to
recent reports in the German press
not all the French Notifications are so
strong as has been believed. Several
of those which have been taken by the
Germans are said to have been anti
quated, little effort to modernize them
having been spent on them. A note
worthy example of this, and one. which
is rather typical of what the Germans
assert they have found is the case of
Fort Lee Ayvelles, which, located al
most due south of Mezieres- Charlie
vile, guarded the bridges and fords
of the Meuse in that locality
Describing what he saw in the fort
after it had been occupied by the Ger
mans. Henry Binder. war correspon-
dent of the Berliner Tageblatt, says
in the issue of that paper of October
9 among other Things:
'tAll French forts along the Belgian
border have been constructed with
such carelessness that one can easily
determine the degree to which the
French depended upon their Belgian
nesghbor, Generally the forts were
left in the state they had when built
and since the plan of their construc-
ton dates back to so years ago the
strategical weakness of several or most
of them is plain enough.
"A typical example of this is Fort
Lee Ayvelles which guarded the bridg-
es and fords Of the Meuse south of
Mezieres- Charleville, and which was
shot out of the ground with 300 shots
from our 21-centimeter mortars. The
fort was built in 1878 and was armed
with 40 pieces. Its main armament
were two batteries of six guns each of
9-centimeter calibre, dating from the
years 1878 and 1880 and which had a
range of only four kilometers mote:
the range of even the smallest German
siege pieces is never less than eight
kilometers.)
In addition there were found in the
fort several 12-centimeter bronze guns
which had been cast in 1884, while in
the classmates We found several nit
railleuses and five-barrelled revolver
guns which had been intended to
found several old mortars from the
year 1S42-old muzzleloaders with the
typical pyramids of round canonballs
beside them-guns of a type we use
in our villages to fire salutes.
1.-The fort showed neglect everywhere.
Not alone was it's armament antiquat-
ed and primitive, but the management
before and during the attack must
have been defective. The road to the
fort had been blocked merely by felled
trees and an occasional barbed wire
ENHANCEMENT, and trees before one
of the batteries Of the forts made it
necessary to replace it after our troops
had arrived. To do this winch had
to be used. But they succeeded only
in getting one of the pieces into posi-
ton. This gun was intended to serve
against aircraft above the fort, and an
effort had been made to give it the
necessary high angle elevation by dig
ging trench around it in which the
timber rested. Even at that the ele-
walton secured was insufficient
"Our artillery bombarded the fort
from northwesterly direction and
worked with precision that would be
hard to equal One of the batteries in
the fort had been put out of action by
bulrs-eye shot for each piece, and
in other cases the barrel Of the gun
had been torn from the carriage, leav-
ing a scrap heap of barrel. wheels.
timber parts and masonry. One Of the
barrels had dents four centimeters
deep where fragments of our bursting
shells had hit it.
I'm this helpless cage garrison
of about 900 men had been stationed.
1t is understood that the men fed as
soon as fire was opened by our artil-
lery. Instead of placing this force in
trenches they depended upon this poor
position with the result that their de-
feat was complete morally and ply
sically.
There is the grave of the poor
commandment who witnessed the futile
struggle and then saw his men utterly
routed by a numerically superior en-
envy. The poor man ended his life.
Simple German soldiers have honored
this deed by a massive cross Of wood
upon which they painted In good let
tering the words:
Here rests the brave commandment.
He found it impossible to survive the
fall OF the fort in his charge. r. I. p.
With this simple cross Of Tood the
German soldier honors in YOU the hero
who did his duty.