Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1914-11-11
FACES DEATH IN
TRENCH To GET
STORY OF BATTLE
Daredevil Newspaper Core
SpOndent Describes Night of
Terror as Shells Rain.
STENCIL OF DEATH HORRIBLE
Heaps of Unburied Dead Between the
Trenches-Men Worn From Con-
slant Exposure to Fire Be-
come NerveIess-"Ducks"
ShrapneI.

London.-There has just reached
London a story sent from the front by
the first man in the present war who &C
tually has been with the British ex-
peditionary forces during the fight
| ing.
In order that his story may be per-
mitted to reach America, and in con-
formity with the rules carefully ex-
planned to correspondents by Sir Stan
ley Buckmaster, great care has been
exercised to leave out all names OF
villages, towns, generals, army units
and movements.
The correspondent writes:
81 have Just spent the night in an
English trench on the River Aisne and
| have seen 80 men turn the attack OF
a thousand Germans into rout. AS
the Germans turned and fed for cover
from which they had advanced, Eng
lIsh machine guns also turned loose
on them from one side and made the
| German casualties not less than hun
Gred as could be seen next morning.
There were over fifty more bodies
between the trenches than there had
been the night before, and many of the
less seriously wounded had undoubted-
| ly got away.
Stencil of Dead Horrible.
ct was a night of horror, made al
most unbearable by the stencil of dead
men between the trenches that had
not been buried.
I'm the morning a hayStack to
which many had crawled for shelter
caught fire from a shell and their
bodies were burnt.
Zone man who had been wounded in
the stomach and had fallen into a
swoon from weakness was reused by
the heat and walked back to his own
trenches. He was almost starved, but
nearly we'll Going without food and
water had saved his life and his wound
had healed. Not a shot was fired at
him as he returned to his lines.
Heavy Cost in Lives.
"This is merely one of dozens Of
similar attacks which took place al
most nightly at many points along the
whole English line of 20 miles. On
the Aisne they have continued for
month and during that time the Eng
lish lost very little ground, though the
cost in lives was over ten thousand.
AS the Germans were usually the ag-
gressors their losses must have been
forty and fifty thousand and may have
been more.
lic1o fOCcJ in oh q f.
tack witnessed was one dead and five
wounded. The five were wounded by
rife fire and one man killed was al
most blown to pieces by the explosion
of shell, what the English soldiers
call coal box on account of the
black smoke it sends up.
Scene Laid Near scissors.
"The trench l was in is about four
miles north of the Aisne, east of SOis-
sons. 1t had been gained month pre-
viously at a great cost and was being
held only by splendid and continuous
acts of courage.
'The Germans were intrenched less
than hundred yards away and had
plenty of cover behind them, while the
English had only saved themselves
from humiliation by digging them
selves in. They were holding a steep
upward slope with their rifle trenches
near the top of the steepest part The
ground that lay between them and the
Germans sloped more gradually, but
gave the Germans the advantage of
impetus in charging the trenches.
Though they had made six previous
night charges they never got more
than half way before the steady fire Of
the British became too much for them.
Finally Gets Into Trenches.
ct was only by a series of accidental
circumstances that / was able to get
so close. For two weeks had been
trying to get into the firing line with
out getting closer than within four or
five miles of it.
During this period / had frequently
been under cannon fire and watched
both French and English gunners at
work, but had not been able to slip
I'D close enough to see the men in the
trenches. This time l tried a part of
the line not previously attempted. The
H6dISI L gu " luC the
less difficulty l seemed to encounter.
Finally, turning off a narrow lane, I
was allowed to cut across an open field
to what looked in the distance like a
rabbit warren. 1t proved to be one of
the dugout shelters with which the
English soldiers have protected them
selves.
There was something almost quaint
about the spectacle as approached. 1t
was late afternoon and quite still
Even the cannonading had ceased. L
walked across the field without even
drawing rifle shot If had known
was within two hundred yards OF the
German outpOsts l would not have ven
tured there, of course, but the Cor
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