Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1917-09-23
DESPERATE FIGHT:
GR|MLY PICTURED
Zurich Newspaper Correspondent
Gives Graphic Description of
Hand-to-Hand Battle.
CHAOTIC MASS OF WARRIORS
British Attacking Waves Meet
Defending Germans Amid
Dense Grenade Smoke.

ZURICH. September GA CORE
spondent of the Neue Zuericher
Zeitung on the German front In Elan
ders sends the following thrilling ac-
count of one OF the terrible battles
which are raging there day after day
since the British started their new Of
fensive between Yprcs and the coast:
I'VE were out In the most advanced
lines. The British 'heavies' had been
hammering US more than twenty-four
hours. Hundreds of shells exploded in
the village through which the Ger
man trenches ran. The houses that
had long been the restful quarters Of
the soldiers were thrown high into the
air with enormous clouds Of red, brown
and black smoke and the streets and
the gardens with their innumerable
shell craters looked like a map of the
moon.
EARLY in the morning the COM
mander OF the company received a tele-
phone message. Turning to his man
nc shouted: We are going to have an
honest fight again. The trench war is
over and we will be soldiers once more.
Get ready" The rest OF his words were
drowned by the Internal roar of the
German batteries. British storm.nE
waves approached and pressed forward
In spite Of the terrible havoc wrought
In their lines by our artillery and ma
chine-Eun fire which greeted them
Suddenly the fire on our side stop
PED. a few orders were shouted. The
men lighted their last cigarettes and
picked UP their hand grenades. The
nve minutes that elapsed seemed an
eternity. Then came the command to
countcrattack. With shout the COM
pany and the reserves which had come
UP hastily advanced. but II seemed i'm
possible to break through the indie
scribable British barrage IRE. In a
Few moments the ground was covered
with dead and dying. It looked as IL
not single man would pass through
the hail OF shells alive but what
seemed impossible was accomplished.
About 500 yards from our village
held gray and khaki clashed and the
oloodiest hand-to-hnnd fight witnessed
Dy me began. Hundreds Of hand gre
naoes exploded. cold steel flashed in
clouds OF smoke and dust. and the
SHOUTS or the lighting soldiers and
groans OF the dying filled the air. The
nsnuns troops quickly became mixed.
man battled against man. and in the
only be distinguished by their leEgins
and the Germans by their boots.
The wild struggle lasted nearly
halt an hour. Then the British. who
fought like lions. began to fall back
because more German reserves came
UP. The feld-gray Teuton soldiera
reached the next village and stormed
the houses In the outskirts One of
the buildings was hardly damaged. but
when the German soldiers entered
they found Whole room filled with
English warriors who had been killed
by poisonous gases from bombs. A
canary bird which miraculously had
escaped death was singing Justify in
its cage.
Two minutes after the Germans
left the house 1t was struck by a
she'll and torn to pieces. Over the
hundred Of corpses in the streets the
battle ragged on. from house to house,
man against man. until the night came
and the exhausted soldiers dropped al
most where they stood to snatch a
few hours of sleep"