Imperial Valley press., 1915-03-04

resistance. Dec. Il, ten shells. Dec.
Is. twenty-one Shells The first killed
three men who were in M. MS barn,
and the second completely destroyed
the stables of M. X. without killing
any of the animals. The third killed
sergeant.
"Another destroyed the upper floor
of the house of NJ. p, and his sister,
who was just laying the table, was
not injured, but fork which she
was holding in her hand was broken
in twain. At NJ. G.'s house two men
were killed. Several shells fell into
the river and threw up a big spray
of water. Dec IA, eight shells about
9 a. m. and six others about p. m.
One traversed a wall nearly a yard
thick and killed a man at a table. A
German aeroplane flew over the sta
tion at 1880 and dropped a bomb, kill
ing one man and wounding another.
Dec. 10. twelve shells; one man killed
and nine mules injured"
For six weeks the fighting near this
little village, where the gendarme so
placidly wrote down his notes after
counting each shell, went on unin-
terruptedly and suddenly became
very intense. He notes, in fact, on
Dec. II, thirty-seven shells. On the
two following days. no shells reached
the place. The French guns set up
at various points had, by that time,
begun to lombard the German posi-
tions, and silenced some of the Ger
man guns. He writes on Dec. 20:
"The Germans are getting it thick;
our batteries of rs, 80, 120 and 155-
centimenter guns are making devil
of a racket. 1t is like the continu-
Gus roll of thunder"
The gendarme is delighted at last
to note that the Germans are "getting
it." One of their positions at GER
tain village has been taken. Dec. %
the Germans retake the position. Dec.
% the French again drive them out.
Their 75-mm. guns are spreading
havoc among the enemy.
Dec. "a, writes the gendarme, the
cannonade is furious. The ground is
shaking everywhere Our battery near
the church has fired on a German
aeroplane without hitting it. 1t is 3
O'Clock. The aeroplane continues its
flight beyond the village of d. There
it is bombarded by battery of our
rs guns, and hit by the third shell.
The aeroplane drops like a stricken
bird, all in flames, and the two Ger
man officers in it are burnt to death.
The machine is completely destroyed.
Dec. 25 the French fired on a Ger
man aeroplane, and the Germans fired
on two of the French, both without
any result. No more German shells
have reached the village The French
had been bombarded by two guns hid
den in cellar, and since those two
guns were discovered and silenced by
the French batteries the Germans
have not been able to reach the
French in the village any more. But
still the fighting goes on within hear
ing of the village and the German and
French batteries are firing away dav
and night.
As | left the Vosges the tops of
the hills were covered with white, and
if the wounded suffer in fair wealth
er we may well imagine what they
endure in the snow. In Alsace. I
was told, there had been some par
ticularly severe fighting last week
around Lower and Upper Aspach and
Michebach, where the French and
German trenches are within only a
few hundred yards of each other. Be-
tween the trenches there are numer-
Gus barbed wire fences, erected bv
both sides. The French received or
ders to clear the German wires, which
they did in spite of a furious rifle
IRE. They moved on further to the
edge OF the German trenches, but fin
ally had to fall back owing to su-
perlor numbers. In their retreat thew
were unable to take with them all the
wounded, owing to the barbed wire.
AT dusk the Red Cross stretcher
bearers approached with the Red
Cross emblems and attempted to reach
the wounded. Three times thew tried
to do so, and each time they were
driven back by furious rifle dis
charge from the German lines. Twice
again during the night thev tried TO
get near the wounded, raising high
their mantles to show that thev car
ried no flag. But still the Germans
would not let them approach. It was
not till the next day that some of the
wounded were brought back. Durinp
the night several of their comrades
had dled from exposure in the snow.
herman aeroplanes had been max
ing repeated attempts recently to
reach bei1ort, and one morning, at 9
o CLOCK, three of them were seen COM
ing up the Rhine over Pitterhausen.
one OF them was brought down i'm
medlately by the shells from the guns
OF one of the forts, and the other two
were given chase by two French aero
planes.