Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1917-04-27
MOUNTAINS OF THE DEAD
Teutons and French Face Each 9th
er on Blood Soaked Hills of North
ern France.

London, April 27.--Capture of the
uuarries on the eastern outskirts OF
Hargicourt, the Germans fleeing and
hurriedly abandoning guns and equip
ment. was reported by Field Marshal
Haig today.
The major infantry operations on
the British front were of huge bod
| les of men on both sides gripped IN
hand-tb-hand conflict. The most
modern of all weapons-the perfected
artillery pieces-still gave barrages
of fire, but the actual movement OF
the British forces forward was al
most always by use of the most an
cient of all fighting weapons-the
steel blade.
In contrast to his previous methods
of concentrating his attack on par
ticular spots in the German line,
front dispatches today indicated
Field Marshal Haig was keeping his
whole front steadily pushing in a
great concerted movement.
The enemy's losses have been CO.
lossal, due mainly to the dogged
manner in which the Germans are
held in closed rank formations, liter
ally choking the way and offering
unmissable targets for the British
guns. 1t is the British pressure to-
ward Doaui which the Germans ap-
parentlv fear most. East of Gavrelle
the battle reached it's greatest fury
today.
Information from the French front
indicated almost ceaseless counter at
tacks by the Germans. Everywhere
the French withstood the attacks
and inflicted tremendous losses on
the enemy.
London, April 27.-Eight times in
the last ~ hours Hindenburg
has hurled hecatombs of human flesh
into the teeth of British fire-belch-
ing, death-dealers on the battlefield
northeast of Arras.
Eight times these battle hungry
Teuton youths, the "Hindenburg Re-
rvcs"-10,000 to mile came on
in dense masses. Thin lines floated
back behind them like a nightmare,
the thousand-fold roar Of the cannon
that had battered their breast wall
to bits.
The same thing happened again and
again on the front far to the south
where Teutons and French face each
other in the supreme struggle on the
blood hills of Chemin des
Danes, a stretch of about six and a
half miles.
Not an inch did these human Sat-
terng rams chip off the British line
that menaces their northern pivot,
Douai. Not the tiniest dent did they
hammer into the French circle Of steel
that is threatening their southern
stronghold, Laon.
But this they accomplished on both
fronts. They checked their foes ad-
vance, temporarily at least, checked
it by heaping up in front of the Wo-
tan and the Siegfried lines mountains
of corpses. And still tonight they
were surging forward in dense mass
es, stalking in a sea Of blood, charg-
ing over the breast works of dead, at
tacking, attacking and attacking
again.
To win the greatest battle in the
worlds history the sheer weight OF a
multitude of men-or, more correct
ly of mems bodies-is depended
upon by the Kaiser's high command
to stifle the death-dealing fire gusts
of man-made machines.
When the toll of life of these last
seventy-two hours is counted it will
stagger the world. There is no time
now to bury, the dead. The task of the
hour is to heap up new mountains OF
dead.
Both sides claimed "victory" today.
I d