The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-05-05
FARM battlefield
Within Hearing of Cannons'
Roar Women Plant Crops.
French Soldiers Between Bat
ties Assist Peasants.
TERRIFIC BATTLE FOR CREST
Barrage Fire ISOIates German
Trench With Hail of Steel.
Night Battle Spectacular; Aero.
planes Like Fighting Hawks.
TERRIFIC BATTLE FOR CREST
BY HENRY MOOD


With the French Armies in Cham
payne, MAJ 5.-France is waging her
greatest artillery battle of the war to
blast loose the German hold on the
crest of nvilliers-Gibraltar of
the Champagne plains And within
hearing of the continuous thunder of
her cannon-almost in sight of them
French soldiers are working alongside
peasant women, young girls and lit
tie children in blowing, sowing and
Frances economic battle as their
brothers IN the trenches just ahead
fight the military combat
This greatest battle of the guns be-
gan Sunday. 1t extended over more
than eight miles. No Sabbath calm
reigned here. 1t was an inferno of
roise and smoke and flame. For
twenty-four hours 1 watched its prog
ress, standing on a height north of the
Vesle valley.
Shell Rimmed Furnace.
When daylight failed and French
observers could no longer make minute
observation of the enemy's position Ii
rectinS the fury of their artillery fire,
the French offset lack of eyes by in
creasing the intensity of the lombard
ment. They added two barrages of
fire. One was 4 wall of project1leS
dropped IN front of the German front
line trenches. 1t was to stop all pos
slbility of enemy attacks as well as
10 blast away German barb wire de-
lenses and clear entanglements away,
preparatory to II French advance
The second barrage was at the rear
Of the German lines. Its purpose was
to cut off all supplies and cUmmunica-
lion.
Together the barrages served to
ISOLATE the German trench defenders
from all human aid. The French car
ried out this plan over more than eight
mills of front. in a spot long previously
chosen for their attack They MADE
this eight miles of German trench
work shell-rimmed furnace. AS
night continued it seemed as tho new
maximum of intensity of fire was at
tanned every minute
Not for second did the terrible
barrage fire relax, nor the methodical
long range shells cease pounding.
Turn Night Into Day.
All thru the night of steel hail the
isolated Germans sent up mulu-color-
ed distress signals. seeking assistance
from the rear, v lille in front of their
trenches. over No Mans Land, their
Illuminating shells momentarily turn
ed night into day
AS the night advanced. the bonn
bardment increased in fury. Smoke
and dust turned the clear moonlight
air into an impenetrable mist, thru
which giant gun flashes appeared as
mere sparks Yet the French artillery
struments. observed details invisible to
the naked eye, even including giant
explosions ten, fifteen miles behind the
enemy's lines. where well placed shots
from great range cannon exploded
German munitions depots.
AeropIanes Battle at Night
simultaneously with this all-night
earth combat, an equally fierce
aerial battle ragged in the star-lighted
heavens. Both French and German
army commanders sent behind the
others line big bombarding squadrons
of aeroplanes.
From where I stood these aerial
craft were invisible, but the rumbling
of their motors and the sharp crash
of their bombs were audible above the
artillery's roar.
Back to the rear great searchlights
fingered the sky, locating the enemy
raiders, while anti-aircraft guns
shelled the skies and fighting planes
swept aloft to play machine gun fire
against them. Meantime other French
planes circled above the artillery fire,
fighting back German machines and
dropping bombs or occasionally sweep
ing down and flooding the trenches
below with machine gun fire. But for
the most part these fighting planes
flew far aloft. out of range of pro-
jectiles from the enemy.
All night long these aerial battles
were fought, repeated and re-fought
Then at daybreak these night hawks
left the air They were replaced nv
French observation planes soaring over
that part of the front where the at
tack was impending, seeking out the
places where the nights lombard
ment had not yet completed its de-
struction- Following their report and
the fixing of new ranges, the French
artillery went methodically to work
repairing its omissions
Infantry Charge Summit.
At 1910 in the afternoon, the
French infantry leaped from their
trenches and went Looping up the slopes
of Mounts Haul and Cornillet.
Altho in the first onward rush the
French were victorius everywhere, the
Germans gradually put up the resist
ance of desperation. Hindenburg
threw into the struggle another of his
''strategical reserveT divisions-the
thirty-third out of his total of forty
three reserve divisions on the western
front which he has already sacrificed
in seeking to check the Franco Eng
fish offensive.
CNote: The German division for
-merly contained 10000 men, but re-
cent advices have detailed a new or
ganizauon plan, whereby such units
now only include from 5000 to H.
900 men,
At Grip With Bayonets.
With the advent of this fresh divis-
ion, fierce bayonet and hand grenade
fighting eusued. Forces were occa-
sionally driven back, but every time
they doggedly re-attacked. Night fall
found them ever-tighter grasping Mo-
ronvillier'S crest and one of Germany's
firmest grips still left on French soil
That grip is all but broken. Ger
many's fingers only hold tiny bit of
it now.