New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-12-09
GERMANS lombard
RUINS OF ARRAS
Shells Fall on Almost De-
serted City as Allies
Fight in Suburbs.
BRAVE BISHOP
STICKS TO POST
Builds Shelter In Roofless Ca
thedral and Conducts Service
for a Little Band.

Especial Correspondence to The Trioune.l
Paris, Nov. ga newspaper CORE
spondent at the front sends the fol-
lowing dispatch:
81 have just left Arras. For the
fourth time within week the city is
being bombarded at the rate OF thirty
shells a minute-that is exactly what
counted this morning-and each bonn
bardment lasts generally one or two
hours.
1.-THE effect on the town, which is OF
the size of Jersey City, may be i'm
agined. After Charleroi, Maubeuge,
Rheims and Roye. it was thought the
limit Of destructiveness had been
reached, but at Arras, still unsoiled by
the presence of the enemy, the Ger
mans surpassed themselves. One would
wonder at this waste of ammunition on
charred heap of ruins were it not
for the fact that important railroad
lines centre there and command the
entire region west to the seacoast. The
battle-or rather battles-of Arras will
90 into history as the most gigantic
and boodiest of the entire war.
"On both sides the troops have shown
unprecedented courage and such ami
mostly that never since the beginning
Of hostilities have the wounded reached
the field hospitals in such a condition.
German prisoners were brought in with
FIVE and six wounds and one man had
thirteen. The men had refused to leave
the battlefield for the ambulances and
had continued TO fight after bandaging
themselves. On the French side, the
surgeons, several Of whom have gone
through colonial wars, stated that never
had they seen such severe and CHASTITY
wounds as those made in the course Of
the three weeks fghting around Arras.
One-ffth of Troops Lost.
1.-THE forces on both sides were esti-
mated at the beginning as $4,000 Ger
mans. 10000 Franch and 10000 British.
The dead and wounded were placed at
one-fifth of the total. Such q percent
age is almost unknown in the annals
of European warfare. The Germans
have made at Arras one of their
strongest efforts, the strongest after
tn series of fg'ts around the User
River in Belgium, and always with the
some objective in view, the French
coast.
"A victory at Arrss would have
brought the Germans to Boulogne,
while one on the User would have
brought them to Dunkirk and Calais.
The Arras attempt was pushed strongly
only after the impossibility Of reaching
the coast further north became evident.
To take the city the Germans brought
north and east Of Arras all the heavy
artillery which could be spared from
Belgium. Their 165-millimetre (about
6-inch) shells destroyed first the town
hall and belfry. One wall Of the town
hall and two pillars Of the belfry alone
are now standing.
"The town has been bombarded four
times in spite Of the fact that not a
British or French soldier is there. The
battles are fought in the suburbs and
in the nearby cemeteries. in which the
Germans have intrenched themselves.
In these cemeteries the hghting was
intense. Each trench, dug behind lines
Of tombstones, was taken by the Allies
only after bayonet charges and hand
to-hand fighting. At certain times the
Germans were driven baclha mile or so,
A 4 n