South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1915-09-24
GREAT DAMAGE
/. DONE BY NAMES
German Writer Describes At
tack Made by Part of Crown
Princes Army.

BERLIN. Sept p The Bruins
wick ~Landeszeitung publishes a de-
tailed description Of one of the last
battles in the Argonne forest. where
the army OF the German crown
prince ~ a new sudden drive tried to
break the French line west OF verdun.
contained in letter from Capt. Carl
simon Of the Sixty-frst Reserve in
tantry. he SAYS:
After ] left the hospital at Bruins
wick 1 returned to the front at once
Three weeks have elapsed since nv
arrival here. but the time seemed like
one day, because we were lighting in
Cessantly. During the last few DAYS
we have won a new great victory. The
French positions are penetrated on e
front Of more than three kilometres
and we have made over $500 pris-
Oners- This means more than the
capture OF $4,000 Russians Our
booty consists OF 30 machine guns.
eight revolver cannOns 46 mine
thrOwers. several thousand rifles and
an enormous quantity OF ammunition
and other war material.
our frontal attack on the French
positions was prepared by fearful ar
tillery fire that lasted four hours. We
had seven large mortars. "A heavy
and three lighter howitzers and six
heavy mine thrOwers. The machine
gun company commanded by me was
IN the center Of our front.
Starts at O'clock.
The bOmbardment began at 3
o'clock in the morning and cannot be
described. For two hours the battle
field was veritable inferno and the
END Of the world seemed to have
come.
shortly before O'Clock the firing
stopped for a few minutes and we
found time to light cigar. After a
quarter of an hour the cannonade
was taken up again and il became
more violent every minute
Five minutes before 9 O'Clock our
infantry received the order TO attack
BY the aid of ladders our brave SOL
diers climbed out of their trenches in
a murderous fire of French artillery
The attack Of our right wing and the
Wuerttemberg regiments was a mag
nificent spectacle. Three trenches
were stormed in Is minutes The
Wuerttembergers pushed ahead so
quickly that we had difficulty in fol-
lowing them with our machine guns
which were to cover the infantry.
Through "a dense forest we pene-
trated into small valley but there
our attack was stopped before the
WIZ tAlAdiN ttIutulS anu DlOfknOQSeS
of an exceptionally strong position of
the enemy. We did not retreat. but
were forced TO dig ourselves in
mighty quickly. Three of the ma
chine guns of my company were de-
strOyed by French Shells and we
could bring up reserve guns only with
the greatest difficulty.
Dead and Wounded.
Everywhere there were heaps OF
dead and wounded, smashed machine
guns and mine throwers. war mater
ial OF every description and hundreds
Of rifles. our mines had played aw-
full havoc and tore immense holes
into the ground, which were filled
with dead and frightfully mangled
soldiers.
we knew that we did not have to
fear a counter attack OF the enemy
at once. because the Eighth French
Chasseurs regiment had been COM
pletely destroyed by us. A captain
WHOM we took prisoner cried like a
child and told us that he was the sole
survivor of his company.
ION the following day we found
ourselves in a pretty tight pinch. The
wire acknowledgements prevented our
further advance and the French ar
tillery threw hundreds of shells of the
largest calibre into our quickly dug
trenches with deadly accuracy.
THE situation became desperate
hut on the third day our heavy
mine throwers and large guns sue
ceeded in digging themselves in fur
Their ahead and the bombardment be-
gan anew. The bIockhouses of the
enemy were quickly demolished and