Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-10-20
DASH OF FRENCH TROOPS
WINS MILES OF TRENCHES
Results of Most Powerful Defense Against
Most Powerful Attack of the.
European War.

PARIS. October Cove took every
thing to the edge Of the horizon the
first day." said an officer, standing on
the frst-line French trench, whence a
wave OF men fifteen miles long rose the
morning of September Is and dashed
on from one to five miles before the
tidal rush of soldiery was stopped
Inc correspondent in his first view
OF the field of the great battle in the
Champagne looked across a rolling
land whose thin soil was studded with
graves and thickly sprinkled with
dwarf pines. which stood out against
the almost snow-white system of
chalklike redoubts. trenches. traverses.
communication bitches and other de-
fensfve constructions by which German
military science had in vain sought i'm
pregnability.
The population was meager in this
camp of Chalons, where the French
army had fought to regain the old re-
view ground, which for year has been
the theater OF relentless sap warfare.
Only the village of Perthes, whose
slight cluster of houses have become
typical ruins through shell fire, was in
sight from the spot
Walking over the course Of the
French advance the correspondent wit
messed the results of the most power
full defense against the most powerful
attack of the war. The famous hill,
the butte of Tahure, the occupation of
which clinched the French success, re-
sembled small wooded hill in an
eastern American state. Shells were
seen bursting at distance over the
railroad at Somme-By. Thus this i'm
N
cut or destroyed by French guntire.
rendering the railroad useless.
Guarding Against Shellfire.
The prodigious labor done by the
French before the attack Is indicated
by the transport road ten miles long
and a communication ditch six feet
deep, six feet broad and five miles long
which they had cut through chalk of
the consistency of soft stone to en-
able them to move rapidly under the
cover of their shellfire for the assault.
Though this is the third week and
more after the battle. the ground was
still strewn with German shells and
hand grenades that had not explode ed,
and French soldiers were yet gather
ing and sorting piles of German &C
Here and there. sometimes in shell
hole, sometimes in a dugout, the Ger
man dead had, been buried. At one
place thirty-four and at another six
teen, as a cross over the common
grave revealed, unidentified French
dead had also been laid to rest. Close
to the cemeteries where were buried
Germans who had fallen during pre-
ceding battles are newer cemeteries
for the French, the graves in both be-
ing marked by wooden crosses bearing
the names Of the fallen. Thus are
one time enemies now sleeping close
to one another.
The cross over the grave of one French
soldier was surmounted by huge wreaths.
such as are seen in the cemeteries of
Paris, which relatives had sent. In cases
where there had not yet been time for
the placing of crosses bottles containing
pieces OF paper bearing the names of the
fallen had been thrust neck downward
in the fresh earth of the graves. so that
the rains might not render the writing
undecipherable. Nearly every cross seen
bore the inscription KILLED on the Field
of Honor" In one case priest had built