The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-01-21
SO|SSONS VICTORY IS CELEBRATED. BY THE GERMANS Battle Compared With That of Bull Run by Von
 Kluck-CeremOnies
 Are Simple

Before Soissons. January 1s-(By Cour- fer to Berlin. January 20. Via London, January 21, 3'45 a. m)-At the headquar- ters of certain German army yester. day evening General von Kluck and his staff celebrated the battle and their suc- cesss at Soissons in typical German mill itary fashion, with simple soldiers meal, bowl of punch brewed by the expert hands of von Kluck himself, a grace ful little speech by the general. and a silent toast to the dead-French and Ger man.
 The earth was still dropping on the graves of the fallen. So many men per- 'shed during the eight days of the bit- river from Soissons that today. the fourth after the close of the battle, the plateau and gorses are still strewn thichly with dead. although 400 members of the land- sturm have been engaged without 8 pause in clearing up the battlefield.
 Most of the German dead have been given to the earth, but French infantry. men in their far-tosbe-seen red and blue uniforms, swarthy-faced Turcos, Colo nials Alpine rifemen and bearded terri torials still are sprawling in attitudes along the heights, in the deep cut gorges of the plateau and across the flat val ley bed on the north shore of the Aisne.
 Big Battle at Soissons
 The battle of Soissons-so-called in de- fault of a better name, although it really was fought across the river from that city-in the number of men engaged and the extent of the losses, would rank with Bull Run or Antietam of the American Civil war, or with Woerth in the Franco Prussian war; but in this war it passes as an incident worthy only of passing mention in the official report
 No newspaper description of the battle has been written from the German side. The Associated Press representative was the first, and up to the present, the only, newspaper man to inspect the battlefield and have opportunity to supplement the brief official reports with descriptive de- tails gathered on the spot.
 The results of the German successes are regarded here as highly import. ant. The French were expelled from the heights north of the Aisne--vant- age ground from which they had hoped to launch a successful attack against the big elbow in the German line and driven across the river, which now runs brimful1 and at many places is overflowing it's banks between the two armies
 The French retain a foothold north of the river only at one point--St. Paul where the bridge from Soissons sufferance, since the bridge head is completely commanded by German ar tillery on the heights.
 River Proves Barrier
 The river at this time forms an ef fective barrier to any repetition of an attempted French offensive on this part Of the line. The battlefield covers front of approximately seven miles. On the western side is a deep valley running northward which is bounded on either side by turnpikes from Sois- sons to La Fere and Laon.
 E high, level plateau rises steeply a couple of hundred feet from the val ley of the Aisne and from this side of the valley forms the center and eastern flank of the battlefield. The plateau is deeply notched by three steep-sided ravines running down to the Aisne and through which the French brought up supports unnoticed.
 The battle began January With a French attack up the valley to the west between the two turnpikes. The att tack had been prepared for by ter rible artillery bombardment.s Field guns and heavy artillery concentrated their fire on this section of the German trenches and there was such rain Of shell and shrapnel on the defenders that they were unable to make an eff fective defense against the Bremen in- fantrv attack, The French with great dash carried part of the German po- sitions but by their success they damped the vigor of their artillery bomhardment. hk a