The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1916-06-24
RUSS. Correspondent
WRITES OF THE THRILLS
splendid Rcraration Made by French
for the Country's Defence. Fills
Him With Admiration and
Enthusiasm.
THEY LIVE BUT FOR FRANCE
Capacity for Resistance shown by In
comparable Allied Armies Demon
strated I'm Many Remarkable Ways.
Groit Losses are Inflicted.
4By International News Service


Petrograd, June 24.-Vasili Nemi-
rovitch- Danchenko. veteran Russian
newspaper man, SENDS the following
description of the battle for Verdun
to his paper here:
Commencing from Barbecue the
country lis a continuous military camp.
The entire country lives only for the
war. Military supplies stretch for
dozens of yersts, Wagons with NUM-
tons wend their way without end;
there are shells on the platforms,
shells on the ground. French gem
eral said to me- To every shell of
the Boches we must reply with four
The splendid roads are kept up
by battalions formed of diggers.
Equipment could not be better even
in peace time. An abundance of spe-
cialists of every kind is evident every
where in the French army. Every
thing is foreseen. Scouting is ideal
Il am writing you separately about
aviation. Here it UNNECESSARILY sur
passes German aviation. The sky in all
directions Is intersected by these hunt
ing birds.
AT Barbecue all habitations are
occupied. The population of Verdun
has sought refuge here. The COM
mandant said to me, My population
mas Increased HNe llIlSS.
"Verdun Is empty Part OF this
beautiful old town is in ruins The
yawning corners of the houses look
just as though they had been knawed
by gigantic laws. Every day 500
shells fall into the martyr town. In
the Cathedray, the magnificent stained
glass windows. the work of the great
masters OF the Middle Ages are smash
ed. Not a single window remains in
tact. priest in military uniform
and a helmet. with grief and despair
showed us his ruined treasures
''Verdun is honeycombed with sub
terranean galleries, and no Boche gun
can destroy them. In the galleries
electricity burns and incessant work
proceeds. Hundreds of workmen are
here engaged The subterranean
bakeries daily produce thousands of
loaves.
The entire town rumbles like a
thunder cloud. and like a thunder
cloud is sending north. south and east
innumerable lightnings. Its batteries
roar without intermission. The entire
heavenly vault is peck marked with
shrapnel explosions.
Thanks to their incompara BILE
reconnaissance and their special ap-
paratus the construction OF which
have not the right to describe, the
French know every movement of the
Boches The incessant French artil-
lery fire scatters death and destruction
in the German trenches. Yesterday a
clever shot brought down five Ger
man Albatrosses, which fell in the
French lines; this morning there were
two more.
From height which I must not
name we looked at the positions
drowned in the fire of sunset. The OBJ
servation captive balloons appeared
black The black lids of the German
batteries began to open and threw
their fiery glances on us yellow
clouds from shrapn covered the sky.
The artillery of Verdun accepted the
challenge. The expiring day went out
in a chaos of thunder and the roar
of fires from both sides.
Near us n shell fell on tie dead
city and ere OF Its, best sarcophagi
which rose from the shattered stones
with coat-of- arms.
I'VE pass through the town ceme-
terry. No sign OF life Is observable in
the silence of the dead streets, The
sentries. like apparitions, emerge from
the ruins and approach US.
That night we had proof of the as
tonishing capacity for resistance OF
the Incompatible army of our allies
Unexpectedly. from the direction OF
Malancourt, was heard all the frenzied
howl OF guns and the ceaseless crack
ing of rifles. The Germans took the
village, insignificant on the whole,
with ten regiments. 1t was defended
only by battalion with orders to
hold out as long as possible and then
retreat. The battalion fought bravely
and surrounded its position with heaps
OF German corpses.
General Petain's plan consisted In
compelling the foe to pay with. enor-
| nous losses for position of small i'm
portance. Malancourt was taken, but
a hecatomb of Germans was formed.
They came on like waves of the ocean,
which broke against the iron walls of
the French soldiers and their line of
wire entanglements. In places these
wire entanglements were covered with
| mounds of bodies, and over these
bodies passed fresh waves OF the enc
mus O Ck