The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1915-05-03
Capital Man Saw Victory
FOUGHT IT At NE e.; CH "A!
Counter Charges Failed

| servation post were taking the range o
| the German positions and telephoning tn
result to the little group Of unexcited
looking men who stood Just behind tn
gunners issuing the orders. Perhaps tn
order would be: -Four degrees to tn
risht. $50 yards" Swiftly the gunne
twists his huge engine of destruction int,
| position. Fire." Back goes the lever
! and with roar the barrel of the gun
recoils. then glides swiftly forward ant
crashes into position. They have tn
I range. and each gun is discharged a!
rapidly as 1t can be handled.
suddenly there was a weird sound IL
| the air. swiftly falling body. and &
great section Of the cabbage field behint
the battery rose in a dense column Of
dust. stones and thick black smoke. Their
followed a terrific report. For a moment
the battery was obliterated from view
Then the cloud was blown away by the
freeze. and the little group of officer
were still In the same position as be-
fore. big hole in the cabbage garden
smoked sullenly 1t was evident that the
enemy had got their range also.
Another COiEn Of Vantage.
1t was decided to select another coigr
or vantage. and forged ahead. row Of
STUDY evergreen trees soon shut the bat
terry from my view. West of the hill
the road dipped down and made a curve
TO the left, exposing to view a part OF
the valley and the right hand slope OF
The village. Just around the jutting curve
OF the hill pandemonium was raging.
In order to reach the point around
the bend | knew I must come directly
under the flight of shells from the British
battery behind the hill and the answering
bombsrdment from the German guns. 1t
was safe enough. as the shells from both
sides passed far overhead. but 1t was
rather nerve-racking to stand d few
yards underneath a continuous fight of
shrieking shells.
What I saw beyond the bend in the
road made me forget all sense of danger.
Practically the entire northern side of
Neuve Chapelle and the engagement that
was going on in that section were before
my eyes.
In the foreground were the twisted,
interlacing lines of the British trenches.
from which a swarm of khaki-cIad fig
-ures was just emerging. They moved
quickly forward in masses of thousands
toward the German trenches in the near
distance. Almost instantly the British
battery 1 had seen ceased firing in or
der not to drop shrapnel on their own
troops.
Battle In the Valley.
As the roar of the big guns died away,
the tumult Of the battle in the valley
was clearly heard. The firing was al
most entirely from beyond the long,
narrow strip Of land over which :the
masses of brown figures were fiinging
themselves. The crashing clatter of the
rifle fire was punctuated with stacQeto
roll of the machine guns.
There was no smoke or flame to tell
from whence the rain of steel came,
but its effects were very evident. Here
and there whole groups and lines of
men tottered and collapsed all along the
lines under the whitening fire of the
German guns. On the right the forward
line of charging men were rapidly being
decimated. The survivors dashed on
dropping every few spaces to fire a vol
ley. rising again and rushing on in ever
decreasing numbers.