The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1914-12-02
TRENCHES ALMOST MEET
800 FEET SEPARATE FOES RE.
TWEEN OIsE AND SONDfE.
Paris Sends Out Vivid Story Of Des-
perate Cannonading Along French
Valleys.

perate Cannonading Along French
Valleys.
The trenches of the opposing ar
mics between the Disc and Somme
are at some point only 800 feet apart,
according to a Havas dispatch from
the front. The correspondent says
French officer, acting as a guide for
fifteen newspaper men, told them
when they approached the firing line
they must be silent, for "the enemy
can hear u.s."
"The crashing voice of the three
inch guns which we had left behind
US as we advanced" continued the
dispatch, now was almost obiiterat-
ed by the nearer and quicker stuccato
reports of the machine guns and the
Mausers. At a distance Of one hun
dred yards was a gray winding ridge
Of earth, the advance line of the
enemy's trenches.
Here, face to face lad within
range of each others forces men
were shooting each other down point
l!ank, while frcln every ridge and
every mound, covered with four
inches Of snow, unseen batteries COM
pleted the turmoil Of war.
Here and there head rises eau
tiously above white-crested trench.
There are six quick shots and then
the head disappears, as though swal-
lowed by sea Of snow. This is all
spectators see Of the hundreds of
thousands of men in the burrows,
vic were ready 10 issue forth Ut tie
slightest alarm.
"The vast chambers, rooted over
| with the branches of trees and with
stout wooden pillars in front support
| ing sacks Of earth, protect the men
inside alike from shells and the tenn
pests. These are underground forts
for modern warfare, with sanitary
| bitches, kitchens for the mess and
hunks for the rife men awaiting their
| turn on the bring line.
''In front rises an ancient wind
mill, neutralized without the form OF
an armistice, when provisions are
brought to the trenches of both the
| combatants. Further on the trenches
are so near each other than the Ger.
mans and French exchange newspa.
pers.
"Complicated barbed wire defences
protect the trenches here from sur
prices. At a converging point on
one spot stands building, at the
walls of which the enemies arrived
at the same time, and German
rifieman, breaking g hole through G
wall, thrust a bavnnet under the moss
of French sentinel.
"This is the spot where the s,tua
| ton was critical for the French ter
| days ago and where brigadier gen
eral saved the day and gained the
stripes of general commanding al
army.
"To the right and left black cloud.
from bursting shells are interspersee
by chimney stacks from which the
smoke Of industry curls up as is day!
Of peace.
Further down appear the crumb
ling ruins of Arras, where the wal
has been more pitiless and where NJ
industry remains standing.
cat nightfall the humble village
of Quesnoy, with it's ruins stand:ns
out like phantoms, marks the seen.
of formidable clash which vii
make the place historic. The tow.
nwo is nothing but heap Of stone:
and smoking ruins, In the midst o.
| which are seen the narrow trenche:
from which the Germans resisted tht
onslaught and which now contain thi
heroic dead.
twenty-five batteries played upo1
these trenches, while fifteen bat
talions charged with bayonet to {
mighty chorus Of 'Vive la France.
A formidable fusillade and machine
gun fire stopped the on-rush but hal
the ground had been gained. This
next day the batteries reopened an(
the infantry line charged again, this
time carrying trenches and chasin:
the Germans from the position
Quesnoy had cost the French 200.
men to take and the Germans los
$4,000.
From Arras, where German shell:
still rage, though little remains to b
destroyed, to the Ia Bassee canal,
tug of war continues across the sam
deadline as during the last three
months. Over this line bullets whis
tie and shells screech increasingly
Dark clouds that mark the targets g.
the German heavy artillery stand ou
n gruesome relief against back
ground of snow"