The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-07-25
VILLAGE RAzED IN DESPERATE FIGHT Details of HOuse-tO-HOuse
 Battles Near Arras N OTHIN C IS u F T Only Heaps of Ruins Mark Site of
N OTHIN c IS LE F T
Only Heaps of Ruins Mark Site of Village of Carency-Taking Wine by Wheelbarrow Load Too
 Much for the French

Abbeville, France. July 1o.-(Corre- spundence of the Associated Press) The character of the town to town, house to house struggle that has been going on north of Arras Is shown in nearly all its details by the experience of Carency. An insignificant hamlet of about 475 inhabitants before the war, this village will have the honors of history. It first came into the zone of operations when the German movement toward the sea was finally checked there.
 The Bavarians, leaving Beaumont Oc- tober l, secured a footing on the hills Of Vimy and Lievin the 4th they were at Carency, Givancy- Gohelle, Notre Dame de Lorette, Souchez and Ablain- Saint-Nazaire, all of which have since had the honors of frequent mention in the official communicate. The French cavalry with the Moroccan mounted riflemen met them there and opposed further prolongation of the enemy s front by the valleys of the Anthie and the Canche, forcing them to fortify themselves on the hills of Artois and in the coal fields around Lens, thus saving Boulogne, Calais and Dunkirk.
 The French took about half of the village of Carency on the night of Oc- to5er B. but were stopped at the most considerable building of the town, the Carency brewery, where the Germans made their final stand and where they maintained themselves all winter. Its fall was the prelude to the conquest of the surrounding hills In the mean time the physiognomy, not only of the hamlet itself, but of the surrounding country, had been so changed that 1t r.. " n knew 1t before the war to recognize it now.
 The owner of the brewery, an off, ficer in the French artillery, was al- ready at the front His wife and chill dren, driven from their residence by the approaching German fire, took refuge there but had scarcely estab- 1ished themselves when the place be- came the center of a violent conflict While hand to hand fighting was go- 1ng on in the gardens all round, at o'clock in the morning, French sol- diers hitched horses to a conveyance sent the family back of the lines and then with fixed bayonets returned to the assault of the brewery. They were unable to carry it, but succeeded In or. ganizing the position with loopholeA through the walls so as to hold the enemy in check.
 From that day the brewery and the other buildings on the French lines be- came the target for the German S-inch and s-inch guns. As fast, however, as the shells reduced building, the French dug down and maintained themselves. Un- til the end of November the French re- Inained in the garret of the brewery, then were obliged to climb down to the second floor. In December the roof and garret fell into the cellar and New Years Day saw nothing but two jagged walls re- i,,ip which French continued their fire. At Easter there remained but a fragment about two feet above ground and the French for tress was now entirely dug into the earth. The part of the village held by the Ger mans had undergone the same transform ation and whein the day came Tor the final assault, scarcely anything remained on either side of the lines but heaps Of stone and plaster.
 Trees Only Stumps
 Partly moved down, partly dug up at the roots the hawthorne hedges around the houses and fields had lost their orgi- nal lines. The shade trees, stripped, splin- tered and cut down by the constant fire are nothing but .stumps resembling bat tered and nibbled hitching posts. From October to May a soldiers cap or sap pers shovel appearing above the surface of the earth or around the corner of a ruin became instantly target for a volley of musketry or for machine gun fire.
 The soldiers who had endured the ten sion of this situation for seven months are said to have danced for pleasure on May when the word went round that the moment for the attack had arrived; they were going to meet the Germans face to face, with no earthen Actresses or ruined walls between them and fight it out in the open. Men whose ears had been hard of ri q before stopped them with their fingers when the preparatory artillery fire opened. for no less than six lines of batteries in the rear played upon the German trenches. The attack has been officially described, but many details of individual heroism and many anecdotes of the siege and the assault remain to be told
 When the French and Germans held each about half of Carency two houses in the center formed a sort of neutral zone because neither side could occupy them. One of them-a big farm house had the best wine cellar of the region. Several nights running the Bavarians crept out of their lines into the cellar and regaled themselves. The French learned this and also visited the place neither side fired until the Bavarians went so far as to come one night with a wheelbarrow. This was too much for the French and the rifles went off almost automatically. The WncelDarfOW re- mained there and 6-inch shell soon after caved the walls in and the balance of the wine soaked into the earth.
 Another story is told of a subaltern of ficer who in the early days of the siege got lost in the mase of trenches ap- preaching the lines and ran into the Ger mans He told the Bavarians he had come on behalf of six comrades who wanted to surrender, just to learn the way and find out if they would be well treat ed. The Bavarians told him to go back and fetch his six comrades who would be treated well. Of course the officer went back and forgot to return to the lipp