The bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1916-02-18
FIGHTING TENTH
. ADDS GLORY TO
!. THE IRISH ARMS
Makes Most Remarkable Stand
Against Overwhelming Force
of BuIgars.
DIDN'T KNOW THEY HAD LOST

Allied Division Slowly Pushed Back
N but Exacts Awful Toll In sIaueh.
# ter for Every Yard-Machine
Guns Fire Is Murderous.
IN London.-Although the government
has repeatedly been pressed to give
the country the story of the stand of
the Tenth Qrish) division against
overwhelming forces of the Bulgars in
IS Macedonia before the retreat of the
! allies to Saloniki, the United Kingdom,
I and Ireland in particular, Is still wait
q Ing for the official account of the &C.
ton, which. though it ended adversely,
will rank among the finest exploits of
British arms
The Weekly Dispatch publishes the
story of how the Irish regiments stood
heir ground against wave upon wave
Z Of Bulgars. moving them down with
rife and machine guns to the accom-.
paniment of shouts of stick it, jolly
boys: give 'em hell, Connaughts!
Z The account fills more than a page of
that newspaper, and the following are
the main points of the story.
!. Officers Were Warned.
On December 3, which was . Fri.
day, the British outposts brought in
six Bulgar deserters, who had much
Of interest to tell. They said that the
Bulgars not only had suffered very
heavily in their engagements with the
Serbians. but were losing men rapidly
owing to sickness and frostbite.
What is more to the point. they
warned the officers that a big attack
against our line was impending. that
It had been arranged to take place that
day. but that the severe snowstorm
had caused them to put It OF to an
other day. which would not be long
delayed.
These opportune tidings, which, as
events proved. were thoroughly reli-
able. were communicated to headquar-
tiers and the necessary precautions for
battle taken. The outposts were drawn
In and finishing touches given to the
trenches.
Dawn had scarcely broken when
the enemy made his expected attack.
The conditions wholly favored him, for
a fairly dense fog prevailed. and un.
der it's cover the Bulgars we're able
to get within 300 yards Of parts Of our
line without being observed. The In
niskillings were the first to be at
tackled; about 5 a. m. their 2cutposts
were driven in and then great mass
OF the enemy swooped down on the
trenches, but were driven back by the
fire Of our Maxim guns and by the
steady magazine fire that came from
the trenches.
Mad Rush to Slaughter.
Scarcely had the attack on the ex.
IRENE right of our line had time to de-
velop when the main body of Bulga-
rians were seen running down a defile
leading to the center of our front.
They were perceived as long, inter-
minable stretch OF men-a mass OF
shadowy figures revealed half dis
tinctly in the mist. AS they reached
the end of the defile they spread out
as from a bottle neck. and with wild
cheers flung themselves on our line.
But before they had got so far our
guns smashed and battered the thick
procession Of men leaping out OF the
narrow gorge. 1t was impossible to
miss them. British artillery had never
had such q target since the first bat
tie Of Ypres. when the guns literally
moved down the half-trained German
troops who attacked on the User.
The slaughter of the guns was mag
nifed by the Slaughter of the rapid
magazine fire at short range. Wave
after wave Of the enemy came on. each
broken as It swept out of the defile,
but the Bulgars were not to be denied.
Though their comrades fell thick and
fast they came on, and by sheer i'm
petus of numbers reached our
trenches, where awful work was
wrought. 1t was hand to hand fight
ing then-terrible to, witness, terrible
to think of. The short bayonet OF the
Bulgar, however. was Of little use IN
these trench combats, and man for
man the British won, but the Bulgars
had the numbers and temporarily the
first line Of the Twelfth division was
overcome. The British were driven
out. X
Wonderful sayonet Charge.
The British artillery had been do
Ing splendid work, but now the enems
artillery was in full blast, and. they
poured q devastating and whitening
hail Of fire on our positions, which
through faulty ranging put out of &C.
ton more of the Bulgars than It did
Of US. The MINISTERS and the Con-
naughts and the Dublins quickly raj
lied, and with wonderful bayonet
charge drove the enemy out OF their
trenches again. The enemy, massed
In close formation. swarmed in once
more, but against the deadly fire
poured into them they could make no
Roadway for some time. The brave
Irish regiments were pouring lead into
them az fast as they could load their
rifles. They poured into the oncom-
Ing masses as much as IT'S rounds at
point blank range. IN
But 1t was. for all our grim resist
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