Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1914-12-02
WHERE HEROES FELL
Mad TumuIt of Death in Man-t0-
Man Battle.
Writer Gives Graphic Picture of Bayo
net Charge-Germans, Scots and
Britons Fall Side by Side in
Bloody Charge.

In the North of France.-The initial
effort Of the massed German strength
to tear their way through the allies
lines at Ypres and thus drive in the
opening wedge by which their sweep
of the French coast was to be made
possible was broken by one of the
most superb and self-sacrificing dis
plays of heroism ever attempted by
body of soldiers.
The attack opened with terrific
cannonade against the British posi-
lions. Shells tore in, shrieking and
bursting in a mad tumult of death,
soaring the British trenches, blasting
through bomb-proofs and making an
inferno of the allies position.
Under cover of the furious artillery
fire the German columns started to
advance at the double. Rank upon
rank, regiment upon regiment, they
doomed through the smoke held low
as a screen by the dense fog that pre-
vailed. The word passed along the
British trenches that this was the SUI
preme effort of the German advance.
While the first line was setting it.
self firm to withstand the shock of
the fierce impact they knew was COM
ing, a great wave of Britons boiled
up and over the edge of the British
bitches. They rolled pell NELL down
the approach to the trenches and when
they scrambled to their feet there
were two regiments of them - one
Scottish and a regiment of the guards.
They formed quickly, with bayonets
fixed, and went down into the center OF
the gray line of advancing Germans,
yelling battle cry that was blood
stirring. They charged like demons.
The artillery of the allies opened
fire behind them to give them cover,
but soon they had advanced past the
range of safety at which the French
gunners might fire without hitting the
charging line of Britons.
The Germans came on at steady
tread, in numbers that it seemed must
engulf the two lines charging down
upon them.
Then came the clash. 1t was cold
steel from the moment they struck.
Thrnsting, recoiling, parrying, coun-
tering and thrusting again, the Scots
and the guards fought their men hand
to-hand, giving back before the steady
press of Teutons, but fighting all the
way.
They fell side by side, the Germans,
the Scots and the gallant Britons,
those behind trampling them, but still
they rose and fought again until the
dressed" German line resembled a
mob Confusion spread through the
German ranks. Panic seemed to have
seized them, and they "milled," losing
all sense of direction, knowing only
that a horde of demons had been
turned loose in their midst and had
made it a man-to-man fight.
The German charge was broken, for
no front could extricate itself from
such a turmoil in the face of the
trenches, and the Germans were forced
to retire to reform.
regiments.
Reserves were brought up to fill the
gap where the brave Scots and the
gallant Britons had gone out to their
mission of death, and the line again
was in position to hold.
In scattered twos and threes SHAT
tered twos and threes-the Guards
and the Scots found their lines. But
the two regiments were done. If they
had broken the German advance they
had given their lives to do it. Not a
small company was left of the two