The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1914-10-02
|COLLAPsEs LITERALLY
LIKE A HOUSE OF CARDS
Eyewitness Describes Destruction OF
Town OF Albert by German
Artillery.
SCENE OF PROLONGED BArrHs
People Forced to Flee Before Flames,
Old Men and Women, Too Feeble
to Walk, Being Wheeled in Bar
rows to Safety.


LONDON. October ] (3:l3 A. MI
days date. the Daily Mail corrcspon-
dent describes the complete destruc-
,ion by the heavy German artillery Of
,he open and unfortified town of Al
bert. eighteen miles from Amiens.
winch has been the scene during the
past few days of 4 prolonged and muir
derous artillery battle. He says:
me struggle on the part of the
Gerinans to prevent their right wing
being turned. compelled them contin-
ually To push their front further north
and to the west, while the allies con-
ltinually replied by extending their front
TO overlap the enemy. both sides bring
ing up large rcinforcements. This ne
cessitated long marches Of twenty to
twenty miles Il day. and the Ger
mans were repeatedly called upon to
make Il desperate effort In order to
avoid being outfankcd, whereby they
suffered very heavy losses
''On Saturday they began to realize
that their efforts were In vain. They
therefore. changed their tactics and
tried to drive I, wedge into the allies
front The point OF that wedge was
the town of Albert.
THE attempt almost succeeded.
They brought up and massed their
artillery. and the French Infantry suf-
fered considerably. They kept up a fire so
rapid in character that at night the
whole sky vas lit UP By bursting shells.
on sunday they gained perccptibly.
and on Monday they still pressed on,
brought up "A large number of their
famous quick-firing batteries, and their
deadly fire checked the German adj
vance.
ACCOUNT OF SCENE
FROM EYEWITNESS
"YcsterQly the cnpny kapt IN HE
efforts gamely. but By late afternoon
1t had clearly failed OF its aim. There
were French batteries Al various points
around Albert, but none within a mile
OF the town. At ten minutes past live
German shells from their heavy guns
began 70 fall Here IS an account of
the scene from an eyewitness, who
was on Hill overlooking Albert:
We were warned along the road
TO be careful, and saw vast column OF
people coming away from the town,
but nothing happened until at ten min
utes past five We heard a deep boom
quite unlike the noise made by an
ordinary ttcld gun. and shell. evil
IDENTIFY OF much greater force and size.
fell in the town. We thought 1t must
then. to our Indignation, the shells
began to fall RAPIDLY. They came in
lunches. There were several batteries
at work. and their aim was excellent.
j only SAW tNTct SneIlS OURS. OOtSlne
the town. The place collapsed literally
like a house OF cards
1T reminded one OF a scene in a
Drury Lano melodrana. one could
not believe without an effort that one
was seeing real town snelled. 1t
was just a. II some inventor had made
a new kind of explosive. and had in
vited his friends to see 1t deInolish n
model Of a town. I stayed there an
hour fascinated
That brings the story up 10 6:15
when the witness left with some
wounded who had been brought out OF
the town. The road toward Amiens
al that time was packed with refugees
of all ages. and old, men and women
too feeble TO walk. were being wheeled
In barrows. :.
"At half past six a number OF fires
lighting up the whole countryside. were
visible. Looking toward Albert they
appeared to be hay racks which had
been setalight by shells. The largest
OF these red glares. however. was Al
bert on fire. Against the :iaming back
ground the tall spire of a church stood
out un!njured UP 10 O'Clock. but ii
was impossible TO enter the town"