The Washington herald., 1917-02-18

dencs! At the appointed time, high hearts
and forward fos our dear France!'
Gen. Passaga, addressing his veteraas,
now famous in France as was the Old
Guard of Napoleon, recalled their feats
of October Your courage brought tears
of pride from the eyes of the women of
France!" he said. Comrades, new ex-
ploit is asked of you. From the heights
of Hardaumont the Boche still sees q
corner OF the glorious field where he
thought to decide the destinies Of our
country and those OF the civilized world!
To you has come the honor of taking that
height. and you will use your bayonets
well, up there! You will add to the glory
of your flags and your standards the
luster Of a second unforgettable day. the
magnificent crown of the work of the
army Of Verdunr'
Preliminaries, these details: but they
help to explain the spirit with which
those four French divisions went into
action. The assault was fixed for 10
o'clock, the morning of December Is. For
DAYS the French guns had battered the
trenches. the redoubts, the villages, the
woods to be attacked, and in the work
OF the artillery, improved many hum
areas or per cent in a few months, lies
much OF the secret of the new tactics
which are to redeem France, and because
these things are secret they cannot he
discussed. wall of death days before
mad descended behind the German posi-
tlon' and 1t remained there, a pillar of
nre ny night and a cloud by day, SO that
.or tne hrst time in battle in the West
the Germans were unable to Withdraw
the scores of cannon in the zona ~ a.
tack, and all of them were cantured
Brayerv Of
toucning incident will show the tenn
per OF tne French troops crouching in the
overfiowing trenches and under wbatsvsr
cover was to be found outside waJtir,
the hour. On the left. in tbs untrIeS
shock division of Mouteau. were a bri-
gaze OF olues, reservists over 30 never
Ueiore In action. A shell fell upon a
sheter where several reservists were
crouching, unable to find room in the
trench. 1t killed two of them. and the
heaEy timoers crashed down upon the
10 crawl free would expose the
SURVIVORS to watching German ewes. If
would reveal the fact that the trenches
were manned for the assault. for other
wise SO many men would not be hiding
OUTSIDE, and would give away the an
proximate hour of the attack. So crusbsd
and moaning. some Of them wounded
all lying beneath timbers, they remained
no[ hours uhtil the signal for the ad-
vance was given.
When the moment came the troops
i ,noreu forward single line five miles
long, made up not Of a wall Of ba vonats
as in the old warfare, but of "specialists'.
carrying bombs. rife grenades, machine
guns were blinded" and could not cause
ana blowout OF existence nests OF ma
chine guns when they Should he on
countered. The French airmen had driven
German aeroplanes away, the enemy
guns were "bblinded" and could not cause
reaEy ,,, loss 10 the advancing Frenchmen.
Inc hrst line was followed by the met
toyeurs," carrying bombs, whose lob ia To
nlow up dugouts and shelters in the first
Lne where Germans may be lurking The
hrst line does nQt stop for this work but
continues as fast as possible until its
stated objective is reached. and there
no matter how easy the going looks be-
yond, it remains.
Germans Are HeIpIess.
While the amazing attack along the
nVe-mlle front was simultaneous n can
only be considered in sections and m.
work of each French division frop, lert
10 right will be summarized On the
lett 1t will be remembered was Mouteau's
comparatively green division. GEN
Woillemont's brigade, on the extreme left
NAAS NfASlOl dlldGhtQ the V1llaQa of
Vacherauville, fortified by the German
with more care and skill than soucb.s
or Ablain. whose capture took weeks
and thousands of lives There was no at
tempt to rush into the village. Three
separate columns moved along the river,
the Meuse Canal and the road, and
closed around the town, protected by
smoke walls and barrage fire bursting
always few yards in front OF them.
the Germans were helpless. Their
trenches turned. the survivors surrendered
quickly. In twelve minutes after the
attack began, Lieut.. Onofroi, an actor.
with one company, had enter Vacherau-
vile from the rear. and Col Calls bat
TALON had reformed its line and was
marching along the road on the other
side of the village toward the crest of
Pepper Hill.
Part of the same brigade reached the
top OF Pepper Hill at seven minutes past
10. and after some fighting the whole
crest with a double line of trenches
block-houses, old French and new Ger
man redoubts, had been carried and 1,50C
prisoners. the survivors of the garrison,
taken. At one point, where unbrokeE
wire was found, the advance was held
up and heavy losses suffered by troops
which. because they were new and
untried. would not retire and signal for
artillery, but tried unaided to force their
way through the wire. But that nigh.
this small pocket in the lie was straight
ened out. One of the most formidable
positions on the western front, a steep
height the Germans had been fortifying
for eleven months. was thus taken In
half an hour by raw division.
To the right, Gen. De Salins' heroes of
Douaumont outdid all former feats. The
Morocco brigade of cOlonials. under