The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1915-07-07
BATTLE FOR LILLE

FRENCH AND GERMAN GUNS END
FIGHT WITH DRAW
Shells FROM 1000 GUNS
German General Explains Conflict to
Correspondent Who Sees Fight
From High Tower-Projectilesa are
Rained on Every Village Back Of
the German Lines.
A correspondent to the German
Division Headquarters Before Sou
chez" writes by courier to Berlin
via The Hague to this country under
the date of Tuesday, June %. His
letter has Just been received:
am an eyewitness of part Of
the stubborn battle for Lille from the
top of a towerlike structure more
than two hundred feet above the
ground. I am precariously perched
on an improvised pine board bench
flankei by my fellow-guest, the
young Prince Luitpold, Duke of Ba-
varia, the brother-in-law of the King
of the Belgians, and my host, the
Lieutenant General who is command
er of the "Blood and Iron" division,
in which he takes pride because it
has been hurled at the danger point
of every French offensive to date,
and the German generals all know
that this might have been the decis-
i've battle of the world war if the
French had succeeded in breaking
through on broad front.
The Germans, outnumbered, are
stu fighting with their backs to the
wall-a wall OF heavy mortars and
howitzers that continually roar their
Defiance at tho thousand French
guns maSsed between Neuv;lle and
Lorette.
This is an artillery duel that stag
gers the imaginations4 and almost
makes nervous neutral correspond
ent forget the sensation at the pit Of
his stomach caused by the fact that in
the long upward climb he misgiving-
ly noticed that the town had been
riddled by French shrapnel, while
the general cheerfully remarked that
one b;s shell striking squarely would
bring the whole structure down.
Crouching low, so that the French
artillery observers may not spot US,
the prince, the general and I scan
the fascinating panorama of the I'm
ish fight for the fate of a continent.
That long, naked shoulder Of a range
of hills, treeless and apparently with
out a single sheltering bush, says the
general, is the famous Lorette
Heights, whose every square foot is
drenched with French and German
blood
The German line has been forced
from the crest and down the barren
slope by sheer pressure Of irresistible
masses, and the general speaks with
unstinted admiration of the death
defying bravery Of the French in the
desperate charges that swept over the
heights, wave after wave. But the
5 Germans have gained a firm footing
at the bottom, and are holding their
line with equal desperation and cour-
! age.
Apparently the French can not
gain an inch here any more, their at
tacks bs:ag repulsed with cruel
losses. They are forced to remain
intrenched on the heights when not
1 charging, because on the slope they
would be exposed to the murderous
fire OF the German heavy artillery;
consequently the lines here are about
four or Eve hundred yards apart.
Between the lines / see dark
specks. They are the unburied
French dead; here are big. dark
blctehes where the harvest Of death
has been most bosntiful. On that
fre-swept slope ! also. see a mass OF
ruined masonry that was once the
Chapel Of Notre Dame de Lorette, on
whose altar hundreds Of brave
French and Germans have sacrificed
their lives
10 the left, where the naked
shoulder Of the heights ends and the
thickly wooded slopes begin, says the
general, the English forces join the
French, and the English lines run in
an almost straight line close to La
Bassee.
My attention is next called to a
! whitish, square, boxlike structure
close to the top Of the Lorette
Z Heights. That is the Souchez sugar
factory, so often mentioned in dis
patches and casualty lists. 1t has
been stormed by the French and Ger
mans, turn and turn about, and has
changed hands a dozen times.
The war has seen no bloodier
fighting per square yard than there
It was man to man with bayonet,
knife, and rifle butt. Continuous
Rfghting ragged for days in the up
per stories of the factory, but the
most awful feature of it, the general
staff said, was the death grapple in
5 the dark cellars.
The opposing batteries alternately
poured shells into it until, as my
) friends the general put it, the fac
tory rather last its tactical value and
the ruins were left in the hands of
the French.
Further to the left, between TWO
woods, + see the village Of Souchez.
where the battle is raging most
6erceIy. The Germans had made a
successful counter-attack south OF
Souchez in the early morning hours.
En- route here / had passed con-
+ tinuous procession of blue-gray-coat-
ed French prisoners, the unwounded
afoot, the wounded with blood-stain-
ed, bandaged heads, arms in sings,
riding in motor trucks, the severely
wounded lying very still in motor
ambulances-and wounded Germans
in a picturesque, pathetic pro-
cession from the ultimate front.
& Buc these French prisoners were
not towards; on the contrary, the
general had explained to me that
only the few bravest Of the brave
were caught alive. When not killed,
they are those who rush ahead in
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