Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1916-11-29
HOW FRENCH behave
ON EVE OF BATTLE
Tense Excitement, But No
FURRY Marks Hour Preced-
ing an Assault.

fore an assault is to be delivered. The
men stand to arms cOolly as though
they were going IN to the parade
ground. They look to the breaches OF
their rifles, load their magazines, loosen
their bayonetS in their scabbardS, fix
the straps of their steel helmets or
tighten their belts. Some of them sit
down with their backs supported by the
side OF tho trench writing what may be
their last message to their relatives
while waiting for the word to ego over"
There is no hesitation when this comes.
The men, with every confidence in
their leaders, all their nerves and
muscles taut, Chamber out and spring
and in the recent offensive
have always achieved the objective set
then; by their commanders.
The Associated Press correspondent
had an opportunity to be in the midst
of one of these movements of prcpara-
ton at Il certain point of the French
line somewhere south of the Somme at
a time when the allied offensive was
pushing forward with great vigor.
In the sector visited by the Associ
ated Press representatives the French
and German first line trenches are sep
arated by n distance OF from 200 to 800
yards. In between are wide barbed wire
entans!ements, erected at nighttime
after the French had driven the Ger
mans from a village and il wood by
s'Os kA aoS. ulOUcTl aTIlS Iue Cow
ering of such a distance across open
ground by attacking infantry would
mean a terrible casualty list. The
french. however. were determined to
To do so they %excavated with
great rapidity approach trenches zig
tagging forward some so to 80 yards,
where they were joined up by a paral-
lei trench known as the taking off
parallel" From this running still fur
ther out saps were cut leading toward
the German lines and these were oc-
cupied by listening patrols and armored
III U emplacements. From the
bottom of the taking off parallel steps
cut in the earth led up to the level
ground. Up these the companies chos-
en- Tor the assault were to spring on
the signal for the departure and spread
out in open formation, dashing forward
IN sections towards the Germany
works. previously almost battered out
of existence by the French artillery.
The sector was not at all "healthy"
Wnen the correspondents visited it.
German areOplanes cruised about over
head evidently seeming that some
thing was about to take place. Their
activities were not to the liking of the
infantrymen below, who. while not i'm
pressed by the dangers of artillery and
machine gun fire, object strongly to the
appearance On the scene of these aerial
intruders.
Artillery curtain fire had been
started by the Germans, to prevent the
arrival of French reinforcements, but
it's effect on the French troops was al
most nil.
The French general commanding the
division. who had been promoted only
recently for brilliant service on the
Somme. had spoken with the cores
pOndents before their departure for the
front line. They had invaded his post
OF on a particularly lively
sector of the French line for the time.
The general occupies a dugout exca-
waited for a German battalion COM
mander. who had remained in possess
1t was dug deep down beneath the
earth. nearly six solid yards of which
guarded 1t from shell of ordinary cali
Der. and 1T was fitted up in a style
which assured a considerable degree of
comfort to it's inmates. This caused the
genera to excuse himself to the COR
respondents who. he thought, might
draw comparisons with his quarters
and those of the soldiers. He said: "If
1 had had this mad for myself it
would in all probability have meant my
DelnS put on the retired list
Az the correspondents left the gen
erai remarked: you may go wherever
from shells or t%orpedoes. I
come back here n have tea with ,oo a
shells ranging from two-inch POM
q howitzers feii ;nterm;ttant eisn ~,
around at the ttme A we'll rant -.
deem omr,,,nscotin Ton We" tna,f Mp. Waae
nf earth in most riacns VIII .
hard by thousands of feet led towards
10 on thrn,,oh ;t. r,Uvo yarus away
ana fwininrs maan ,wlstinss
mites. The oricer anno,n%te aic III Oh ,,a ~