Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1914-10-30
CROSSING OF THE USER.
II Was ono of the Bloodiest Battles oi
the War Up to this Time,


tho War Up to this Time.
The correspondent of the London
Daily Mail in northern France, tele-
graphing under date of Saturday
night. regarding the fighting on the
river User, says: There were $500
German bodies in the User canal this
morning after the fighting in the
night. Many of them were drowned
and others were bayoneted. The
very water itself was bloody while
Dixmude's streets were strewn thick
with the dead.
These ghoulish facts alone give
some idea of the savageness Of the
fighting, the desperation Of the Ger
man attacks and the stubbornness of
the allies resistance.
THE night was a hell from dark to
dawn. At almost every point Of the
line man was opposed by man, some
times at a few hundred yards dis
tance, but more often in close grips.
Face to face men even wrestled and
died by drowning each other in the
canals waters. The Germans had
had orders to get through that night,
cost what it might.
IAN officer Of theirs, who was cap
tured, said the delay Of more than a
week in crossing this waterway had
incensed the autocratic military mind
in Germany. 1t must be crossed to-
night If 1t costs thousands Of men.
That in effect was the order given and
the German soldiers, all credit to
them. did their best.
Probably 5000 of them gave their
lives last night. They could not give
more. They failed but not because
the Germans did not literally obey
their orders. They crossed the wa
terway as they were bid, but once
through they could not make good.
They were moved down with rifle
shot, torn into human fragments by
shells and bayonets back yard by
yard over their own dead into the
waters of the canal. Into the very
gray Of the morning this bloody work
went on so fiercely that there was
hardly a trench or bridge guard in
the whole line that did not imagine
that he had been singled out for
special attack.
1T is believed that some 5000 Ger
mans crossed the river User but hard
ly one of them got back. Those to
the north and northwest of Dixmude.
probably 1000, were met by fine
rally of the Belgian infantry and of
the cavalry, who had tethered their
horses, and were driven by main
force, at the bayonets point, to the
river canal and into it. There must
have been frantic scenes and the
bodies seen in the water the next
day gave grim testimony Of this.
About 5000 German infantrymen
got into Dixmude. They held it for
a time, but with shell fire and rifle
fire the place was riddled. The Ger
mans rushed out of the crumbling
houses only to be wiped out by shrap-
mel and shot in the streets.
when Sunday morning broke the
dead and wounded were everywhere.
Dixmude was a cemetery but in the
cemetery not far away the Germans
still fingered. They held a position
under a desperate fire and eventually
were reinforced. The allies could not
oust them and the Germans are still
across the User.
Their presence may not be per-
manent and they may suffer the same
fate Of hundreds Of their fellows dur
ing the week, who got over only to
meet their death. but the Belgian and
French lines, for the time being at
least have been drawn back about
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