New Britain herald., 1916-03-07
A Heavy Gun Hero.

Paris, March 6, 6:25 D. m.-De> i scrlb1ng his experiences and observa-
 tons Tn the Battle of Verdun an ar | tlllery officer has been authorized to make the following statement:
 A battery of 90-millim metre guns esta blished at Haumont valiantly carried out all instructions given to l it. Shells of 3O5 millimetre calibre
 from the German heavy guns literal ly ra1ned around this battery. Tn less than minute thirteen of them fell around our guns and the battery of 90's, after having wiped out a large number of the enemy, was obliged to cease firing. At this moment a ser
 geant-major of a battery of field ar tillery named Pierrard, approached the commander of the group of bat teries and said: Commander, my bat. tery of 5S's no longer exists. Please employ me elsewhere. Very we'll re- piled the commander, put yourself at the disposal of the battery of sos.
 "Pierrard collected the men who had been working with him and brought them to the battery of sos and operated the fire again and with
 admirable vigor. He served the pieces. for forty-eight hours and kept constantly in communication with the commander, demanding ammunition for his duel, a veritably epic duel with the German guns. Unfortunately it was impossible at last to send him supplies. Use up what you have in the way of ammunition,' ordered the commander, and then blow up your guns
 The enemy was approaching. Their |. first ranks came so near the guns that
 jnT>a 3,6 I, ,iS Y,in T t<> defend themselves with their car, pines. Then they began to fire again with the 90's until the moment when their position became absolutely un- tenable, and they blew up the guns and withdrew. Proba bly, during this movement of falling back Pierrard, brave among a multitude of brave men, was killed. He disappeared from that moment.
 Death Does Not Halt Gunners.
 Another instance of the cool bray cry which animated out artillery men was given by a battery which was under a frightful bombardmenr. One 305-millimetre German shell killed the captain, the sergean- major, a sergeant and five. gunners. Do you imagine that that interrupted tho
 work of the others? Not for a mom-
 ent As if with one impulse they
 pulled off their coats to work better
 and in their shirt sleeves they re. doubled their efforts to intensity their l curtain of fire and to urge on their comrades.
 ''In the course of the day of Feb- 1 ruary 22, we received an incalculable
 number of 3O5- -millimetre shells from l the Germans on the farm of Mormont l and neiph borhOoS O,,r cit11otjon
 was very difficult, as it was almost inn l possible to get munitions The roao | to Vacherauville was swept by an in ! fernal hail. The gun which was de- | tached to service at SamOgneux un-
 derWent bombardment by shells Of i all sizes but carried out without ceas- 1 ing it's work of destruction against the l enemy. Four times the gunners, to | prevent it from overheating, washed it
 from their water bottles When hard
 pressed finally by the enemy, they re l moved the breach keys and fell back. Tn despair, however, at not having 1 been able to drag their gun with them l they returned during the night to try | to pull it off with their hands The | chief gunner was wounded in his en-
 terprise, which failed. The artillery men decided not to allow their gun tc 1 fall into the hands of the enemy, ana | returned once more to blow it up 1 They found it had already been de- | stroyed, as 8, 210-millimetre shell had l in the meantime struck it. Similar in l cidents occurred everywhere.
 l "On February 23 our men vied with each other in courage and devoted
 ness. In the evening, after bonn bard l ments from both sides of extraordin- l ary violence, our batteries received tho | order to move to the Cot Du Poivre 1 where they arrived almost miracul-