Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1914-10-20
GERMAN ATTACKS
NEAR 81. DIE COST
THEM many men
Two Violent Assaults Northeast of
City Are Repulsed by the
* 3D.: Allied Armies. -,
COMMUNICATIONS ARE CUT OUT
French Alpine Regiments Sever
Railroad Lines Between Calmar
and Muelhausen.
COMMUNICATIONS ARE CUT OUT

From the Battle Front (via Par
isl, Oct. 10, 1906 a. m.-What in
previous wars would have been call
ed great battles were fought yester-
day on the eastern wing of the fight
ing line stretching from the Bel
gian coast of Switzerland.
In this great battle of nations,
however, these fights are regarded
merely as incidents. The fighting
always has been of the most fierce
nature in this district, owing to the
strenuous efforts of the Germans to
obtain possession Of the strong fort
resses of Verdun, Toul and Epinal in
order to open a way from Metz into
France.
St. Die, on the Meurthe, thirty
two miles northeast of Epinal, was
the center of yesterdays attacks,
which resulted in a repulse of two
violent German assaults with heavy
casualties. The borders of both AL
SAGE and Lorraine also felt the shock
of battle and in the Vosges, the IA
nous French Alpine regiments were
in contact with German columns.
These mountaineers continually
keep the Germans busy by utilizing
their remarkable mountain guns and
battling their efforts to drive them
out.
Their greatest achievement in the
recent operations was the cutting of
railroad communication between
Colmar, capital of upper Alsace, and
Muelhausen, Prussia, thereby in
creasing the difficulties of the Ger
mans in sending their wounded to
the rear and bringing up supplies.
The Germans have brought up,
ten-inch mortars in this district,
supposedly for an intended eventual
siege of Belfort. In view of this pos
sibility the French have renewed
their attacks from the south and
again advanced beyond Altkirche. A
great part of the theater of opera
lions in southern Alsace is illumin-
ated at night by forest fires along
the Swiss frontier caused by shells
falling across the border.
Along the entrenched line where
the armies have been face to face
for six weeks nothing beyond des-
ultory bombardment occurred yes
terday; but farther north, on the
western wing, where the German eff
forts to break the allies lines have
been unsuccessful, the fighting still
continues.
Daring a dense fog which over
hung the battle line, hindering OPP
erasions on both sides, a section of
French infantry, under cover of the
fog, recently made dash on the
Germans on the Somme river, sur
prising the men in the trenches, and
annihilated their first line with the
baYonet.
The Frenchmen pursued their adj
vantage but fell into the hands of
reserve battalion of German infan-
try, who captured all of them. The
fog thickened and prevented the
Germans from moving, and they
formed hollow square around the
prisoners and stacked their arms to
await the clearing of the atmos-
phere.
The Germans then bivouacked,
and absolute silence reigned for
some time. Then a voice rang out !
from among the prisoners, "To the ]
guns, comrades!" Every Frenchman
thereupon rose and rushed to the Z
stack of guns, the butts of which {
could be seen beneath the fog. il
The German commander and a &
dozen men who were standing guard I
tried to resist the French, but fell L
under their own bayonets, and the s
entire German battalion, dazed by t
the onslaught, surrendered. The I
French took them back to the a
French lines after the fog lifted.
On another part of the line, where q
500 Germans were well burrowed in v
luarries, the French general called X
'or 300 Turco volunteers. During n
he night the Algerians, discarding S
heir rifles, crept in with bayonets | t
between their teeth and surprised b
he Germans, of whom only eight t
escaped. "a
The number of spies in the war I