The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1916-07-14
HAVOC WROUGHT
BY AIR TORPEDOES
EYEWITNESS, A GERMAN, TELLS
OF TRENCH DAMAGE IN AL
LIES DRIVE.
BOMB PROOFS BURIED
Digging Buried Comrades From
Ruins Great Difficulty To
Teutons.

! Berlin, July (Delayed) An eye
witness account of the Anglo-French
offensive is given in dispatches from
Lieut.. Dambitsch, one of the editors
of the Zeitung am Mittag, whose
company was stationed in the trench
es near the Somme River
The Lieutenant was wounded dur
ing the preparatory bombardment,
but there long enough to witness the
almost Undesirable destruction
wrought in the front-line trenches by
/ the artillery. He says that the mas
sively-built positions had been re-
garded as virtually indestructible and
impregnable, but the event proved
that the progress in the development
of offensive tactics since the Septem-
Der offensive had not been realized.
"At the beginning of artillery OPP
erations.'' says the Lieutenant, "the
enemy showed the Germans a new
thing in the way of attacking obser-
walton balloons. An aviator swoop-
! ed down on one of these and shot
rife balls from above. a burst of
flame marking the end Of the bal
loon.
! Aerial Mines Play Havoc.
1.-THE second days bombardment,
June 26, brought another surprise
in the shape of aerial mines of I'M
heard-of calibres, which were thrown
in incredible numbers. The explo-
sion of the first air torpedo shatter-
ed by it's tremendous defamation the
windows of the bomb-proofs and
threw up a massive pillar of black
earth perhaps hundred yards. This
showered the whole neighborhood
with roofs, bricks and earth. This
was a regular Vesuvius eruption. The
destructive effects of this uninter-
rupted throwing of the heaviest
mines were almost Immediately visit
BILE. The entrances to two bomb
proofs were buried and the inmates
had to be removed"
A few minutes later an orderly
sent with a message to the left of a
company, returned, reporting that
the trench had been completely lev
eled. Lieut.. Dambitch. going to OBJ
serve, saw as far as the eye could
reach crater after crater six feet deep,
the earth between being torn up in
a wild, high chaos of trench timbers
and wire entanglements. 1.-THE
work of day and night for nine
months" says the chronicler, was
destroyed in a few minutes. Re-
port after report arrived of bomb
proofs demolished by aerial torpe-
does, burying the inmates. The
trenches became rapidly leveled;
communication between the sections
was extremely difficult.
1.-The third lines were so heavily
shelled that it was impossible to ira
verse them. An orderly sent to a
Captain was hours under way. On
the left flank the company trench
was so obliterated that ii was diff
cult to trace it. The only means Of
progress was to dase from crater to
crater fully exposed to the enemy fire
while crossing the intervening ridg-
es. Finally he arrived, after per-
iod of intense danger, and found the
left platoon of the company in the
same condition as the right platoon.
A number of men were still buried in
the demolished boom-proofs. Their
comrades worked for hours extricat-
ing them.
Surgeon Works Under Fire.
During this work, an intrepid
battalion surgeon arrived with an
oxygen apparatus and stood for hours
under heavy artillery fire, minister
ing to the half-buried and attempting
to revive those asphyxiated.
1.-THE bombardment continued with
out cessation, aerial torpedoes being
hurled from ranges such as was new
err before known for mine-throwers,
and the French artillery pounded ev-
cry yard of ground with an intense
fire of big shells"
The Lieutenant describes how well
come reinforcements were sent that
night, lutte as much to assist in dig
ging out those buried rs TO contrib
ute 70 the defense" He was leading