The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-09-30
More Than Half Million Sol
diers Killed i'm Seven Days.
Weeks Record Shows so Men
Fell Every Minute.
HORRORS ARE UNDERSTANDABLE
Scenes on BattlefieldS Worthy
of Dante'S Inferno.
Terrible Sights Drove German
Gunners HOwling Mad.

GunnorS HOWIlng MdO.
Paris, Sept. 3O.-The past seven
DAYS of the war have taken heavier
toll of human life than any previous
period Careful calculations show
that not less than half million sol
ofers have fallen ON Europe's Loo
Switzerland, from Trent to Trieste,
along the Danube. on the Galllpoh
peninsula along the Cauca sian noun
tains from Bukowina to the Baltic.
So frightful has been the carnage
that fifty men have fallen every min
ute of the past week, at least 20 per
cent never to arise again.
OF the two battles wased in france
that in Champagne was by Tar the
fiercest and biggest. General Joffre
himself conducted the advance, not as
a picturesque general on a white
charger, but sitting attentively at a
kitchen table in a wine shop behind
the lines while his aides, with tele-
phone receivers attached to their ears
shouted the latest Developments from
the various attacking columns A
staff officer states that he sat i'm
passively with his eyes glued to
huge map, making no comments but
giving concise orders in a quite un-
emotional voice.
For twenty-four hours Joffre did
not interrupt his close study of the sit
uation, even fer a sandwich. 1t was
only when he was satisfied no more
could be achieved that he snIilingly
rema rked:
well that's done: now for
snack
After a perfunctory meal he slept
four hours
A Grim Spectacle.
Meanwhile a few miles distant
scene worthy of Dante's Inferno was
being enacted on the battlefield. In
the dead of night scores CT thousands
of blue clad French infantry leaped
cut of the trenches at the word Of
command and dashed across the
ground upturned like a plowed field
by shells. What the German saw from
his shell battered trench when rock
cts and starlights illuminated the grim
spectacle was the cleaning point OF q
fixed bayoret, handled Ky an infuri
ated soldier wearing a mask which
gave him the appearance of howl
ing demon
From a distance the battlefield
formed a phantasmagOric spectacle.
Lit by greenish lights, the rays of
which pierced dense clouds of smoke
and poison gases, the troops were seen
swaying in titanic struggle wherein
no quarter Was given or asked. All
round flames leaped from concealed
batteries belching high explosives
and Shrapnel.
The victory which pr duced the
lies have yet gained at a single blow
was won in true Hindenburg manner
The attacking forces were divided into
three columns. While the right and
left wings swept forward, the central
body remained QuieScent until the ad-
vance on the TANKS began to converge
and act powerful pinchers- Then
the center came on and delivered the
last blow, netting regiment after reg1-
ment
Drove Germans Mad.
One of the most terrible features of
the battle was the number of German
artillerymen driven mad by the ter,
rifle cannonade. French wounded
brougt to Paris say that during
the advance they came upon groups
huddled around guns which they
made no effort to serve. Some We're
dumb, the teeth of others chartered
while still others moaned wildly.
Those poor wretches," said one sol
der, were quite harmless. They had
gone stark mad
The advance might have gone still
further but for the fact that the Ger
mans had constructed one huge series
of polygonal Notifications as second
line of defense which the French guns
had not played upon. A study of the
map, however, shows that it was dis
tinctly an artillery victory for the
French. They literally blasted four
and second lines So utter was the
destruction that even positions pro-
tected by covering gun fire were car
ried without extraordinary effort.
Therefore, however strong the sec
ond network of German defenses may
be the French are prepared to hatten
that out as they did the first line. This
is in fact what is now going on in
Champagne but it is expected that
several days must elapse before the
positions are again stormed.
Crown Prince Failed.
A few miles further east the crown
prince failed in what is described here
as dynastic offensive designed to i'm
press the German empire with the mill
itary qualities of the HohenzollernS."
He threw one hundred thousand men
against strongly defended trenches
along the wild Argonne hills and al
though for time his densely formed
battalions rushed some advance posts,
the French artillery which had been
battering his new lines gained the
upper hand and infantry were able 20
drive the German legions back.
This action is held to confirm the
impression derived from the battles of
Champagne and Arras that the great
rnunition efforts of the allies during the
past summer has finally given them
the superiority necessary to conduct q
general offensive