The evening leader. (Tarpon Springs, Fla.) 191?-19??, 1917-08-27
Over Their Own Dead
Germans Charged To
Win Back Lost Lines
But Few Lived to Reach French Tren-
ches-- Verdun Now Freed
From Huns

Paris, Aug. luxurious counter
attacks in which the German crown
prince has brought all his best re-
/ serves into action have thus far failed
to shake General Petain's iron grip
on the strongholds which he has won
north of Verdun.
The battle is still at its height.
Tons upon tons of steel and explosives
are still striking positions from which
the Germans seek to stay the French
advance.
Last Hill is Hard Beset.
Every point of strategic Importance
in the defense of Verdun has been
recovered with the exception of Hill
304 on the west bank of the Meuse,
and the value of that has been prac-
tically nullifed by the predominating
hold on Dead Mans hill acquired by
the French.
Already powerful array of light
batteries has been assembled on that
height to add to their terrible quota
of destruction to the drumfre relent--
lessly beating a tattoo of death upon
Hill 304.
There was no lack Of courage or
energy in the onslaught delivered by
the crown princes picked infantry.
stumbling over their own dead and
wounded, sliding, slipping in the
blood-soaked mud of No Mans Land,
the Germans came on under a fright
full blanket of barrage from the most
accurate gunners in the world.
It was seldom that as much as one
battalion out of regiment got as far
as the linked-up shell holes which
comprise the French trenches. When
Trey did get as far as That. they were
in most cases torn to bits by hand
grenades and machine gun fire.
AT End Met Bayonets.
Now and again, notably among the
tree stumps Of Avocourt wood and in
the undulating ground north of eau
rieres they managed to enter the
French lines, but. weary from their
long charge and dazed by the din of
the artillery, they fell easy victims to
French bayonets. In no csse did they
regain control of so much as an adj
yanced listening post.
With 400 batteries at their backs
for that is the estimated strength of
of the crown princes artillery-they
lost in ten hours fighting on Monday
and Tuesday ground that it took them
three months to win. They now hold
only comparatively insignificant posi-
lions relinquished by the French dur
ing the first of the crown princes gil
gantic offensives-Feb. 81, 1916.
Verdun is definitely freed from the
enemy's menace, for heneforth it can
be used as a base and perhaps as a
railhead, whereas hitherto it has been
within range of the long-distance
German batteries on Dead Mans Hill.
Pershing Saw Blow Given.
Gen. Pershing, as well as Gen. Pc
tain, Minister of War Painleve and
Albert Thomas, minister of munitions,
witnessed the initial attacks by the
French, and the American commander
saw some of the German counter at
tacks.
There has never been a grimmer,
ghastlier kind of fighting than that
on Monday night. On both sides,
owing to the abundance of asphyxiat-
ing shells used, the infantry wore gas
masks, which, added to the glare of
the searchlights and the lurid rays of
the red, green and yellow rocket
flares, served to give the conflict the
air Of struggle between uncouth
monsters instead of human beings.
The terrible aspect of the battle
field was increased by occasional
clouds of poison gas which, however,
seldom interfered with the progress
of the fighting. Cannon of a size
never before used in open combat,
splitting forth shells designed to wreck
a town, battered to fragments the
massive concrete Notifications which
had been constructed underground by
German engineers. The wind currents
alone sent forth by the explosion of
the projectiles from such shells will
plaster a man aginst q wall.
Bombed Captured Comrades.
What the French flying corps &C
complished is best shown BY the fact
that twenty-one German airplanes
were put out Of business in the first
few hours Of Mondays fighting. Not
a single observation balloon remained
alcft to guide the German batteries.