Mountain Home Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1915-1946, 1916-02-19
FIGHTING TENTH
ADDS GLORY TO I
THE IRISH ARMS
Makes Most Remarkable Stand
Against Overwhelming Force
Of Bulgars.
DIDN'T KNOW THEY HAD LOST
Allied Division Slowly Pushed Back
but Exacts Awful Toll In SIaugh-
ter for Every Yard-Machine
Guns Fire Is Murderous.

LOnuOn.-Altn0ugn the gOVernmeI
has repeatedly been pressed to Civ
the country the story of the stand Q
the Tenth Irish division agains
overwhelming forces of the Bulgars il
Macedonia before the retreat of tn
allies to Saloniki, the United Kingdom
and Ireland In particular, is still wait
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
their ground against wave upon wave
OF Bulgars, moving them down with
rifle and machine guns to the accom-
paniment of shouts of "Stick it, jolly
boys; give 'em hell, Connaughts!
The account fills more than a page of
that newspaper, and the following are
the main points of the story
Officers Were Warned.
ION December 8, which was a 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 big attack
against our line was impending, that
1t had been arranged to take place that
day, but that the severe snowstorm
had caused them to put it off. 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
o fairly dense fog prevailed, and un-
der its cover the Bulgars were able
TO get within 800 yards of parts of our
line without being observed, The In
niskillings were the first to be at
tackled; about 5 a. m. their outposts
were driven in and then a great mass
of the enemy swooped down on the
trenches, bat 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 a long, inter-
stretch of men-a mass of
shadowy figures revealed half dis
tinctly In the mist AS they reached
the end Of the deflle they spread out
as from 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 target since the first bat
lie of Ypres, when the guns literally
moved down the half-trained German
.roops who attacked on the User
1.-THE slaughter of the guns was mag
,ified by the slaughter of the rapid
fire at short range Wave
after wave of the enemy came on, each
broken as it swept out of the deflle,
tut the Bulgars were not to be denied.
Though their comrades fell thick and
asst they came on, and by sheer inn
,etus of numbers reached our
renches, where awful work was
wrought 1t was hand to hand fight
ng then-terrible to witness, terrible
o think of. The short bayonet of the
3ulgar, however, was of little use in
hese trench combats, and man for
nan the British won, but the Bulgars
lad the numbers and temporarily the
irst line of the Twelfth division was
,verborne. The British were driven
,ut.
Wonderful Bayonet Charge.
THE British artillery had been do |
ng splendid work, but now the enemy |
artillery was in full blast, and they |
poured devastating and whitening
lail of fire on our positions, which |
through faulty ranging put out of ac-
ion more of the Bulgars than it did |
IF US. The MINISTER'S and the Con
laughts and the Dublins quickly raj |
led, and with wonderful bayonet
charge drove the enemy out of their
again. The enemy, massed
n 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
hem as fast as they could load their
rifies. They poured into the oncom-
ing masses as much as IT'S rounds at
point blank range.
But 1t was, for all our grim resist.