Iowa state bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1894-1916, 1915-07-16
DIED LIKE HEROES.
Two Companies Hold Position
Five Days Without Relief.
Only Handful of Wrecks Left OF As
saultine Party With Mission to
Capture chapel-They Cap
tured Il.

How two companies of French in
fantry took a chapel defended by Ger.
man trenches and held their narrow
strip of captured ground for five days
under O continual fire from German
artillery is related in letter pub
lished in the Figaro Of recent date
The letter was written by the officer
commanding the party, who was one
OF the handful who remained when
they were at last relieved. The ap-
palling gruesomeness of modern war
fare is told in thrilling phrases in this
recital Of a heroic act. Parts Of the
story have been elided by the French
censor, but enough is left to give a
graphic description. 1t is as follows:
There was much agitation upon the
plateau. The order had been given to
my major to take the chapel at all
costs. My company had the honor OF
being designated as the attacking
company. and ! am sent to reconnoi'
ter the point Of departure
THE chasseurs who man the
trenches from which we are to leave
look at us with interest, because we
are going to give the final blow, and
because everyone is sure that the
chapel has been mined and that the
storming company will be blown up
with It
Il give my last orders, then the
whistle signal and we start off on the
run For two hundred yards, a great
distance in an attack Of this kind.
we run through shell holes at points
deep as a mans height. We take
three trenches that are not heavily
defended. But by the time we arrive
at the chapel half the company is
down behind US, for we made the trip
In the cross fire of three machine
guns.
p my sub lieutenant, cashier of the
Bank of France in times of peace, but
a lion on the battlefield, at the head OF
ten men, jumps into the little trench
that surrounds the chapel and drives
out the German sections. We have
taken the chapel, but it has been a
hard task; then my lieutenant signals
to Captain KS company. Without an
instant's hesitation he leads his com.
pany behind mine. through the. cap
tured trenches. He joins me and is
killed just as he shakes my hand. l
take command OF his company as well
as mine, and throughout the night a
savage struggle takes place.
THE positions we occupy are in the
form Of spoon, the captured trenches
: form the handle and the chapel the
large end Through the trenches am.
munition and food are sent to US, as
we are being attacked on three sides.
THE next day, seeing that they
could not drive us out by assaults and
not having been able to blow US up.
for the precaution had been taken to
cut all electric wires which the shell
explosions revealed, the Germans be.
gan bombarding All their artillery
in that neighborhood was concentrated
upon the small space we held, and !
humbly pray to God that may never
again find myself in the midst Of such
a hell.
Huge shells burst among the liv.
ing and the deadouninterruptedly: we
breathed only a thick and nauseous
vapor. Everything was burning, every.
thing was whistling all about US. The
achievements that were sent In to
me melted away and l was obliged
to send again and again for more men
to add to the handful Of heroes whom
have the honor to command
I'VE could no longer get supplies,
and for more than twenty.four hours
we had to go without food or drink.
What sight! When, both day
and night, hands and feet slip cease.
lessly upon unnamable things which
once were human bodies; when OF
these things one has before one the
thickness OF four men, one realizes
how small one really is In the scheme
Of things, and It restores religious
Ideas to the most skeptical. For five
days that continued, and tor five DAYS
my. colonel, who was watching the
bombardment Of the chapel. kept say.
Ing to his staff officers: How can
you expect company to hold out in
that hell? It is not possible!'
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