The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1915-03-19
By Special Correspondent Of The Wash
isEton Herald AID London Daily
TelegPaph,

GeicGraph.
Behind the Lines in France. March is
The following vivid story OF the battle
of Neuve Chapell. Is told by an officer
who was wounded In the fighting
Modern warfare Ia such an inferaai
business that any man who Is not killed
ought to be cheerful. II all seems like
i wild dream TO me. never heard
such row in all my !.fe. And the
bullets and the shells-.t was like passing
through the most awful haiIstorm My
| battalion had been IN their rest billets
round saying We were to attack the enc
| my's lines at dawn and that a great ef-
fort vas going to be made to break
through. which u was hoped would lead
To- decisive results
How did feel about ~ don't
know. but the mere idea OF attacking
sent cold shivers down M spine-snd
I don't think any other spines wer.
| much fiImer than mine
However. there IL was, and we started
10 make all our preparations.
I'VE were moved down 10 little VI,
iHee close to our front Here We were
placed IN trenches. and were told that a
division would attack Neuve Chapelle,
and that our division was TO Cooperate
and advance on Aubers as soon az
Neuve Chapelle was captured We we're
4
at o'clock most Internal din com
menCed. one such a. 7 have never heard
before and hope never TO hear aga.n
Big Noise started.
More than 400 Of our guns suddenly
opened up without any preliminary no
tic~ in most awful homba rdment OF
Neuve Chspeile. There were all sorts Of
! big guns. not to mention fold guns and
horse srtiilery-anythlng in fact. that
could b. discharged
"Y"u never saw such SIGH: yon
| never heard such n noise ! heara one
| Of my men say 'B!lI. this Is the "ud %
the world and ! didn't blame him .Or
! thinking
Nv. could see IN the distance great
masses or flame. earth and brick IN great
clouds Of smoke. all ascending together.
a. enormous shells screamed over our
heads and burst among tin. German en-
! trenchments and the houses of the vii
! LACE At the end Of an hours lombard
uIenI the fire ceased suddenly 4
| HAD begun.
toward N"uve ChapclIe. There w-r.
rapid bursts Of fire from machine guns
and much indiscriminate rifle fire. \
To- of our men foil. but in a short time
the division disappeared amid the
smoke and ruins of the village.
All this tim" We were awaiting or
ders TO advance toward Aubsrs. Ey
this time the German artillery. al
though greatly outnumbercd by our
guns. began to get busy. Smelling all
our front. Our two battaliOns jumped
from the Entertainments and rushed
forward in long waves. speedily dis
appearing amid the smoke. 1t seemed
very pleasant to lie covered in trenches
after what We saw taking place in
front of us.
Get Order to Move.
"A little later We also got an ordcr
to move forward. IL was stirrirss
moment don't know how we al
really felt at heart. but we all pre-
tended To enjoy 1t. The men are splen-
did. They will go anywhere, as long
as they have an officer TO lead them.
Well. we jumped out into the open
had TO get along as best could
4 as ! was in charge OF the machine
guns To me the air seemed alive
with bullets and shells. There was 4
buzziug noise. such as you hear in q
tropical forest on a hot summer day
This fire was not directed particularly
at us: we were simply catching what
was aimed at those In front.
On We moved. until We came 10 ar
open stretch which was being swept
by an ln1erndl smell lre. We 'roSSeo
this in Tushes TO gain the shelter oil
a few houses We .ost some forty OF
fifty men.
There we remained for some time
re forming the battanon. and rafting
orders when these came we moved
forward over rough open ground
coming upon lots OF our poor fel
lows lying dead. They were from tht
other battalion which had preceded us
"Theu we entered some German
trenches. which had been captured