Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1915-10-21
look Everything to the Edge
of the Horizon on First Day
Of Battle Before Tidal Rush
Was Stopped,
TRANSPORT LINE IS
TAKEN FROM TEUT0NS
Vivid Description Of Results of
Fierce Struggle Given by
Man Who Was IN the Thick
of the Fray

tsy nosiUHa JOURNAL SPECIAL lrAsEn wisEl
Paris oct. 90 We took every
thing 20 tho edge of the horizon the
first day. said an officer standing
on the first line French trench whence
Il wave of men fifteen miles long rose
ON the morning of september 90 and
dashed ON from one to five miles be
fore the tidal rush of soldiery
stopped
The correspondent i'm his first view
of the field of the great battle i'm the
Champagne looked across "a rolling
land whose thin soil was studded with
graves and thiCkly spruklcd with
dwarf pines which stood out against
the almost snow white system of
chalklike redoubts, trenches. traverses,
communication bitches and other de-
fensiye constructions by which Ger
man military science had I'm vain
sought impregnabiiN
Walking over the course of the
French advance the correspondent
Witnessed the results of the most pow
euful defense AGAINST the most pow
eifuI attack of the war. The famous
him, the Butte Of Tahure, the oCcupa-
ton OF which clinched the French
success, resembled a small wooded hill
in am eastern American state. Shells
were seen bursting at distance over
the railroad at Sommeby
This important German transport
line has been cut or destroyed by
French gun fire, rendering the rail-
road useless.
The prodigious labor done by the
French before the attack is indicated
by the transport road ten miles long,
aud winding communication ditch
six feet deep. six feet broad 1d five
mues long which they had cut
through chalk of the consistency OF
soft stone to enable them to move
rapidly under the cover Of their shell
fire for the assault Though this is
three weeks and more after the battle
the ground was still streWn with Ger
man shells and hand grcnades that
had not exploded. and French soldiers
We're vet gathering and sorting piles
OF German acoutrements.
Dead Buried in Shell Holes.
Here and there. some times in d
shell hole, some times in a dugou
the German dead had been buried
AT one place thirty-four and at an
other sixteen, as a cross over the com
mon grave revealed unidentified
French dead had also been laid I,
rest Close to the cemeteries there
We're buried Germans the graves be
ing marked by wooden crosses bear
ing the names of the fallen. Nedrh
every cross seen bore the inscription
KILLED on the field Of heroism
Concerning the immensely of tn
operation, at least one million mel
We're engaged on both sides along tn
narrow fiont--it was amazing nov
apparently small had been the mum
Der Of French casualties. officer
who had participated i'm the charg
said the German losses had beer
heavier than the first official est
mate and must have reached 10000
Twenty-Five thousand German pris
oners. they said, was "a small pro
portion to the number of German
killed by the high explosive shell
ana i'm hand to-hand fighting, in tn
trenches
The barbed wire front Of the firs
line trenches had been cut to bits an
it was impossible to live or to max
resistance during the preparation
bombardment soldiers agreed tina
the rushing Of the first line was
Walk-in, there being neither rifle no
machine gun fire to stop them, s
excellent had been the work of tn
enormous concentration Of French al
tllery. Serious resistance develope
at the second line. BY the state {
the ugly messes Of wires, the CORE
spondent was able to tell where IN
tide had advanced halted and flowe
through the opening made befoi
rolling on
The labor that had been eXpende
iu constructing the German trench'
and fertilization was enormous.
Casualties Enormous.
The most formidable point sec
was the redoubt Trou Bricot, whlo
had ON all sides mitrailleuses, q Ian.
rinth of dungeonlike cellars, san'
bag galleries, which had been poun'
ed into heaps Of earth by the high e.
plosives. French infantry on su
rounding the position marvelled
find a few men still alive. What ie
were left had had their sens
numbed.
IF We can take that with our guns
said a soldier, I'VE ought 10 be an
to take anything the Germans G;
build.
In the midst of what remains
this result of colossal labor and q
use Of probably five hundred thousai
sandbags was a mine crater 100 te
deep and 200 feet across, which q
French created by a mine eXploslo
The guns had finished their Wo
just before the infantry char
Many such mine craters were seen
Roads ana light railways which {
Germans had built TO supply th'
trenches with food and material q
now used by the French. 'iefm
trenches are being reversed IN
French defenses An undergrou
habitaton, fitted with lace curtan
tables and chairs which German OF
GERS had used, Is now occupied
French officers.
An officer pointed out the spot ne
clump Of trees where General M