Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1914-09-29


1t is a story of a deadly duel of
big guns. of furious attacks, of terrific
counter-attacks, of hand-to-hand
clashes and bayonet charges and of
frightful carnage.
1t is a story of a succession of
battles, wticn have been fought now
on one part of the line and now on the
other, hour after hour for every hour
Of the twenty-four, day after day and
night after night, for six long days.
and still with no result at the time OF
writing.
The story starts with the day Of the
fourteenth. From the twelfth to the
morning of the fourteenth, the rival
armies had been fighting rear-guard
action, precipitated when the retreat
ing Germans turned at bay to give
battle to their allied pursuers.
The real fighting started on the
morning of the fourteenth, when the
battle became general along the range
of heights to the north of Aisne.
The fighting was sustained with
deadly earnestness during all of the
next day, the Germans contesting
every foot of the way in a supreme
endeavor to hold their positions until
re-enforcements could arrive.
On the night of the fifteenth they
appeared to have been strengthened,
and commenced their formidable
movement against the French and
British all along their front. A furi-
Gus attack on the Allies extreme left,
with the big guns of the rival artil-
lerists lighting the line of the oppos-
ing fronts in fierce silhouette, was re-
pulsed with great courage by the al
lies. Again and again the Germans
returned to the attack with the tenac-
ity that was the marvel Of French
troops, but each time they were re-
pulsed. No fewer than ten times did
they drive their dense masses of
troops at the allied infantry, but never
were they able to break through.
All night long the ngnrlng tasted.
the allies bracing themselves, after
each successive counter.attack to
meet the furious onslaught OF charg-
ing Teutons, until toward dawn the
men of both sides were ready to drop
from sheer exhaustion.
Just before daybreak the Germans
threw all their remaining strength and
energy into one final charge, that was
conducted with all the vim and cour-
age that could be expected of fresh
troops.
They charged like madmen-like IA
natics who knew nothing of the fear
of death.
But they were rolled back again,
night was added another long roll OF
dead and wounded. 1t was as II this
was their one chance of salvation, and
all the desperation and all the reso-
luton at their command was thrown
into it.
Hardly had they recovered from this
final grand sortie when the allies fol-
lowed with vigorous counter-attack
in an effort to catch the Germans off
their balance. In this the allies were
partly successful, for they gained
ground slightly.
On, the morning of the seventeenth
fighting again was resumed with the
desperation that rivaled that OF the
big night attack.
At the end of the day it appeared
that the Germans had been forced to
retire about seven miles.
During the fighting, which lasted all
day and into the night. the Germans
lost 500 prisoners, aside from the
dead and wounded, which could not
be computed, and a number Of rapid
fire guns.
Darkness made the operations ex-
tremely difficult, as the use of search
lights by the rival commanders was
refrained from, owing to the danger
of exposing their positions.
Hand-to-hand fighting, in which the
bayonet was used extensively, result
ing in terrible losses, marked the COM
bat as one of the most furious ever
fought
The progress of the battle indicated
that the rival supreme commanders
are going 10 leave a decision of the
gigantic conflict to the big guns The
struggle is so titanic that mere nu-
merical strength, even when that
strength is counted in the millions, has