The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-08-29
FRENCH CORPORAL, HIS OWN UNIFORM SHOT AWAY, TAKES ENEMY'S CLOTHES
 AND JOINS CHARGE BACK TO TRENCH

Paris, Aug. 29-One of the most by Corporal Marcel B. of the 1913 class, belonging to French Regi- ment d'elite, who in the space of twenty-four hours took part with his comrades in a successful charge and later with Silesian battalion in a less successful counterattack. He ex- perienced two furious bombardments, first from the Germans and then from his own guns and finally was wound ed by a French bomb while trying to approach an outlying French trench along a German communication trench.
 Corporal B., who is now in a hospital near Paris, lived with his pa- rents in Munich for five years before the war. He only left there to under take military service in the Autumn of 1913. Badly wounded in the bat tie of the Marne, he rejoined his reg iment in time for last years Cham pagne offensive. He passed three months at Verdun and has been on the Somme front since the beginning of July.
 Hast Thursday evening"" he said, "my battalion was moved up to a point just beyond the road from Mau- repas to Clery with orders to assault the line of four German trenches op- posite at dawn. Throughout the night it was impossible to sleep owing to the terrific din of French shells ex- ploding over the enemys position in a continuous roar.
 'The first streaks of daylight showed a regular wall of black and yellow smoke stretching along before us lit up at rapid intervals by bright stabs of flame. Then the cannonade ceas- ed with extraordinary suddenness, but the singing in my ears was so loud that I guessed rather than heard the order the Lieutenant was shouting.
 ''I followed the rush forward, now stumbling in shell holes, now ripping through what was left of the wire en- tanglements. The enemy's artillery was feeble. At times came the swish of shrapnel, exploding close above us, but everything was drowned by the roar of the French curtain fire like a long barrier of flame shutting off our objective from endorsements.
 
 The few enemy survivors offered little resistance and half an hour after the charge began we of the leading com panies were already building barri- cades to block the communication trenches leading to the enemy's fourth line, now become out first.
 "All through Friday we worked un- der fire steadily growing heavier. The enemy had the range to an inch and the air, despite the masks, was almost unbreathable through the fumes of picric acid, coiling everywhere in red wisps and covering everything with a fine brick dust powder
 About o'clock I decided to crawl forward for shelter to little hollow about twenty yards in front of the line, where shells did not seem to be falling, and ordered four of my squad to follow, thinking that i've might also little scouting. Hardly had we reached the depression when there came the roaring rattle that announ- ces the heaviest shells. We threw ourselves flat, but it was too near.
 For an instant I felt myself in the midst of an earthquake, then lost con- sciousness. The next thing I remem- Der was finding myself in a shell hole five yards further up the slope, naked save for my shirt but beyond numer- ous bruises. and the loss of two front teeth marvelously uninjured.
 Over to German Trench
 There was no sign of my men,