The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1916-07-12
rial Torpedoes
! and 16-Inch Guns
: Used Against Foe
bUNDED GERMAN, NOW IN
BERLIN, TELLS OF NEW
FRENCH lair MINES"

Berlin, July .7-(Via London,
July 9.)-An eyewitness account OF
the Anglo-French offensive is given
efn dispatches from Lieutenant Dam
bitsch, one of the editors of the lei
dng Am Mittag, whose company was
6tationed in the trenches near the
fSomme river.
The lieutenant was wounded dur
ing the preparatory bombardment,
but was there long enough to witness
the almost indescribable destruction
wrought in the front-line trenches by
the artillery. He says that the
massively-built positions had been re-
garded as virtually indestructible
and impregnable, but the event prov
ed that the progress In the develop
ment of offensive tactics since the
September offensive had not been
realized.
Fright at the beginning of the ar
tillery preparation" says the heuten-
ant, "the enemy showed the Germans
q new thing in the destruction of OBJ
servation balloons. An aviator
swooped down on one of these and
shot fire balls from above, burst OF
flame marking the end of the balloon.
y "The second days bombardment,
June 26, wrought another surprise in
the shape of aerial mines of unheard
of calibres, which were thrown in in
credible numbers. The explosion of
the first air torpedo shattered by its
tremendous detonation the windows
of the bomb proofs and threw up a
massive pillar of black earth perhaps
a hundred yards. This showered the
whole neighborhood with roofs,
bricks and earth. This was regular
Vesuvius eruption.
"The destructive efforts of this un-
interrupted throwing of the heaviest
mines were almost Immediately visi-
BILE. The entrances to two bomb
proofs were buried and the inmates
had to be removed"
A few minutes later an orderly
sent with a message to the left OF q
company, returned, reporting that
the trench had been completely lev
eled. Lieutenant Dambitsch, going
to observe. saw as far as the eye
could reach. crater after crater six
feet deep, the earth being torn up in
a wild, high chaos of trench timbers
and wire entanglements.
"The work of day and night for
nine months" says the chronicler,
twas destroyed in a few minutes.
Report after report arrived of bomb
proofs demolished by aerial torpe-
does, burying the inmates. The
trenches became rapidly leveled, and
communication between the sections
was extremely difficult. The third
lines were so heavily shelled that il
was impossible to traverse them. An
orderly sent to a captain was hours
under way. On the left flank. the
company trench was so obliterated
that it was difficult to trace it. The
only means of progress was dash
from crater to crater fully exposed
to the enemy fire while crossing the
intervening ridges. Finally he arriv'
ed after a period of intense danger
and found the left platoon of the
company in the same condition as the
right platoon. A number of men
were still buried in the demolished
bomb proofs. Their comrades work
ed for hours extricating them.
During this work an intrepid
battalion surgeon arrived with ar
oxygen apparatus and stood fol
hours under heavy artillery fire
ministering to the half buried and
attempting to revive those asphyxi
ated.
"The bombardment continued with
out cessation, aerial torpedoes being
hurled from ranges such as was
never before known for mine throw
ers,, and the French artillery pound
ed every yard of ground with an in
tense fire of big shells"
The lieutenant describes how vel
come (reinforcements were sent that
night "quite as much to assist in dig
ging out those buried as to contri
butte to the defense" He was lead
ing them to positions among the de-
moralized trenches when he and his
orderly were wounded by an explod
ing torpedo. They were sent to the
hospital. thus missing the infantry
attacks"