Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1914-09-03
STREETS FILLED
WITH BODIES
OF THE SLAIN
Chartered Is Taken and Retaken
Five Times in Three
Days.
FEROCIOUS STREET FIGHTING
Roads So TANNED With Dead That
Those Killed Remained Standing
Up Where Shot, Resting on
Dead Brothers.


London.-The Times correspondent,
describing the fighting in and about
Charleroi, says:
Already Charleroi has been cap
tured and recaptured five times and
its streets are filed with slain.
French infantrymen, in describing
the ferocious street fighting, declared
the roads so damned with dead that
those killed remained standing up
where they were shot, resting on their
dead brothers.
The first shell that crashed through
the railway station roof on Saturday
was the beginning of a well-nourished
commandment
The French troops made what
amounted to medieval sortie, but
finding the enemy in much greater
force than was expected were com
PEELED to withdraw, and the lombard
ment continued relentlessly.
When the Turcos (French-African
troops, with legendary bravery, de-
bouched from the town with gallantry,
which must surely live in history they
actually charged a German battery,
bayoneting the gunners. Their losses,
it is feared, exceeded those of the
light brigade at Balaklava, for out of
a battalion of 500 Africans only 100
returned unscathed.
Germans Keep on Advance.
Their bravery was, however, pow
erless against the German advance,
which crept foot by foot through the
outskirts of the town to the heart of
Charleroi.
There, in the narrow streets of
the town, the carnage was almost in
describable. Before the railway sta
ton, in front of which passes the
canal, for two hours the Germans
fought for the bridge.
''Once they had captured it, after a
heavy loss, the Germans gained
ground all along the line, mastering
successfully the villages of March
iennes, Landelis and Montignies, and
the country nearly as far as Walcourt.
French Fire on City.
Later in the day the French artil-
lery in it's turn opened fire upon the
stricken town of Charleroi. The Ger
mans in the earlier stages of the en-
gagement had poured their shells upon
the upper town. The French artillery
now turned its hail of shells upon the
lower portion of the city.
Under the supporting fire of their
artillery the French infantry advanced
slowly in the face of stubborn resist
ance upon the town they had just
evacuated. They retook several vii
lagos and became once again masters.
"The last stand of the French was
along the line between Thuin and
Mettet Both sides we're completely
worn out. The next morning Mon
day. before dawn the French artillery
again bombarded Charleroi. Once
more the indefatigable troops of
France swarmed down the slope to-
ward the lower town, recapturing the
villages Of Chatiet, Chatlet-Inou, Bout
froix, Marchiennes and Couillet.'
Praises English at Mons.
One of the railway station staff at
Feignies, on the frontier between
France and Belgium, who saw some
of the battle until he was ordered
away, told of the scenes near Mons.
1--WE at Feignies," he said, began
to hear the artillery fire Saturday eve
ming All night we listened to the
guns, and Sunday morning the wound
ed began to pass toward Maubeuge
thirteen miles south of Mons. Shells
commenced to fall near the railroad
station near noon and we began to see
the English artillery taking positions
and serving their pieces with great
precision.
GAS our train was about to leave
the station seven uhlans clattered into
the town. The people, thinking them
began to welcome them, when
a patrol of French chasseurs galloped
up and captured the Prussians."