Ceredo advance. [volume] (Ceredo, W. Va.) 1885-1939, 1914-11-25
ON THE HERO BODIES FILL CANAL
Correspondent Describes Mid
night Battle on the User.
Savage and Desperate Fighting, Men
Struggling Hand to Hand in the
Water-Oixmude a Cemetery

London.-The correspondent of the
Daily Mail in Northern France, tele-
graphing regarding the fighting on
the River User, says:
There are $500 German bodies in
the User canal this morning after the
lighting in the night. Many of them
were drowned and others were bay
oneted. The 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
hghting, the desperation OF the Ger
man attacks and the stubbornness of
the allies resistance
The night was 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
lance, 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.
An officer of theirs, who was cap.
tured. said that the delay of more
than a week in crossing this water
way has incensed the military mind in
Germany.
Probably 5000 of them gave their
lives last night. They could not give
more, yet they failed, but not because
the Germans did not literally obey
their orders. They crossed the water
way, but once through they could not
make good They were moved down
with rife shot. torn into human frag-
ments by shells and bayoneted 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 fercely
that there was hardly a trench or
bridge guard in the whole line that
did not imagine that he had been sin.
gled out for special attack
Those who crossed the river to
the north and northeast of Dixmude.
probably 1000 were met by a fine
rally of the Belgian infantry and OF
the cavalry, who had tethered their
horses, and were driven by main
force at the bayonet's point TO the
canal and into It,
About three thousand German in
fantrymen got into Dixmude. They
held 1t for time but with shell fire
and rifle the place was riddled through
and through. The Germans dashed
out OF the crumbling houses only to
be wiped out by shrapnel
When Sunday morning broke the
dead and wounded were everywhere
DiXmude was a cemetery but I'm the
woods not fa~ away the Germans lin.
gered. They held a position under
desperate fire and eventually we're re.
enforced The allies could not Gust
them and the Germans are stl across
the User"
The Daily Mails correspondent near
the User river. under date Of Sunday
dilating on the ferocity OF the German
attempts to get across the river. saws
In one night. Friday. between mid
night and dawn. seven different on.
slaughts were repuIsed Swarms OF
Germans rushed up with newIymade
bridges Of wood They we're dropped
across the canal, and. notwithstand.
ing the deadly fire from rifles and
mitrailleuses the Germans burst
across. There was no stopping them.
This sort of thing he's happened
day after day but in the daylight
that followed each night these ma.
raiders we're hunted and moved
down. Great patches we're killed,
crowds were taken prisoners. but that
mattered nothing, the nest night
was sure to bring along t,oro attacks
OF the same kind