The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-05-28
STORY |S TOLD OF FALL OF DOUAUMONT
Germans Penetrated Fort
 ress at Verdun by Ruse
A SUPREME SACRIFICE
French Soldiers Died Where They Stood After Staying Huge Num- bers of 1nvaders-S00 Dead
 Before One Trench

l Paris, May 20.-(Special Correspondence : of the Associated Press.)-T occupa tion of Fort Douaumont by the Germans In i March, which has been one of the most important successes of the enemy during
 the long battle of Verdun, is described
 to the Associated Press by French in-
 fantry officer in the following words: l We had to combat detachments of the enemy that had slipped inside the fort 1 with machine guns and revolving can non At the same time we had to watch 1 over winding ravine opening near the church of Douaumont through which the Germans might get through. We thus had to look two ways while we were nearly blinded with smoke and with dust raised by shells that furrowed the ground all about. Orders could be heard only a step away in the deafening crashes that were almost continuous. The ground quaked under the concussons All our defense works were obliterated between 2 o'clock in the morning and 1 o'clock in the afternoon, when the Germans in creased the range of their artillery fire and their infantry attacked the village. We were cut off from all communication front and rear, for every man sent out with information was a dead man.
 WORE FRENCH HELMETS "The Germans came cut of the fort and from conceal ed positions we had not been able to reconnoitre, and advanced through the ravine simultaneously. The men de- bouching from the fort were seen first. We hesitated because they wore the new Lelmets of our infantry. Our command ant ordered Don't fire! They are Frenchn Then he fell with a bullet in his throat fired by the men wearing the French helmets Fire! Firer ordered the adjutant of the battalion. They are Germans
 The loss of our commandant through this ruse excited the fury of our men, already decided to make the supreme sac- rlhce.
 ''The battalion had had the mission of defending the village at no matter what cost They were doubly bent upon it now as the Germans learned when with sev- eral of it's machine guns out of action, the tn company fell upon masses which were menacing the left side of Douau- mont. With bayonet and rifle butt, our boys opened breaches in the thick ranks before them and strewed the round with German dead. Resisting to the last man, the French stabbed and clubbed until overwhelmed by the weight of numbers
 "A hundred Germans advanced in the direction of a farm on the summit of a hill 800 yards south of the village. Eighty of them fell on the field under the fire of q single machine gun. The rest fled. That gun continued firing until dark at the western skirts of the viI- lage, decima ting numerous groups.
 During the night we re-esta blished our position facing east. and the Germans fortified themselves in the village. Every attempt they made to debouch during the morning of March ended in more slaughter. At o'clock in the afternoon our own heavy artillery took Douaumont for target, and the execution it worke ed there, plainly visible to our men, com pensated our reverse of the preceding day. At nightfall two battalions of neigh boring regiments lined up for the counter attack and opened a violent fusillade Cheers rang through the air from all sides in answer to the order: Forward with fixed bayonetsv More cheers and choruses of the Marsaillaise greeted the news that soon came back that the two battalions had thrown the Germans out of the will lage and carried our line somewhat be- yond the town.
 Again and again the Germans came back in dense masses, but the line held good beyond the town. In the morning 800 German dead lay in front of our trench
 "The next morning, after the usual ar tillery preparation, accompanied by pow erful aerial torpedoes, the Germans at tackled the village again. There was a heroic house-to-house struggle of two hours before our thinned ranks were or dered to retire 200 yards in the rear'
 The French officer who gave this de- scrption narrated also some of the incl dents of heroism which he mad observed as follows
 Quoting unconsciously the historic words of the commander of the guard, Sergeant H. walked up and down the lines of his company during the most critical moments crying, Men of the -th company are ready to die. but never to surrender His men fought to the last man.
 Private S., face to face with five ad- versaries in a trench, killed two with his bayonet and brought down the three re- maining with bullets as they fled
 Lieutenant L., unable to make him self heard above the din of the battle, circulated among his men smoking a cigarette and with smile on his lips to encourage them"
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