Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-06-07
By C.. H. PERRIS
SpecidI Gable to Erening Public Ledger

Special Cable to ErenIng PubHc Ledger
Copyright, 1918. bv Nerc York Tunes Co.
With the French Armies, June I.
Some time must yet elapse ere we
can know fully and exactly what oc.
Cured on the Chemin.des-D Danes at
and after a m. on May 27. Many of
the combatants have died a martyrs
death and been buried by alien hands
where they fell. Many more will long
languish in prisoners camps, but the
remnants of some regiments have now
come down from the front to rest. and
by piecing together the narratives Of
these weary men, it is possible to
make the first outline of the story that
will one day be told in all its pitiful-
ness and terror.
One of them is the French infantry
regiment which had long held the CEN
tral sector of this front. For this last
trial it had been prepared by months
of trench raiding and strengthening
it's defenses. Submerged by a storm
of fire and poison gas and by wave
upon wave of assault it went down in
single morning, fighting the hopeless
fight to the bitter end. A small num-
Der lived to cross the A!sne in the
afternoon. and these had to continue
the struggle for four days and nights,
virtually without respite. Few are
those, even in this war. who have sur
vived such agony.
TIL
their local means allowed, were pre-
pared for the attack. Gas masks,
machine guns, grenade stores-every-
thing was ready. The order was to
hold ground between the second and
third positions or to die in the effort,
and il was carried out. It was to be eX-
pected that the telephone wires would
be cut. There remained carrier
pigeons. A rolling barrage two miles
deep and of indescribable violence ex-
tinguished the poor efforts of the local
batteries in reply.
Smoke Hid Their Signals
Thick clouds of artificial smoke, gas
and dust shrouded the assault, so that
rocket signals were not seen at the
rear. and the enemy was invisible till
he reached the parapets.
The line was almost Immediately
broken and the battle became struggle
of isolated groups, heavily outnumbered,
without the possibility of re-enforce-
ment, defending scraps of broken trench
dugouts or quarries and still resisting
| long after the main tide of the conflict
| had passed south.
A copy lies before me of messages
dated from $3.50 to $3.50 a. m. and sent
| back from these isolated groups by
! pigeon. No words could be SO eloquent
| as their laconic brevity, When perrnis-
sion to retreat was given some officers
refused TO avail themselves of it,
! The colonel, with his staff papers
crossed the Aisne at 10 a m. and or
ganized the defense of the passage. The
survivors of the regiment We're re.
formed on the south bank and on tn.
following day received q re-enforce-
nent of men. bringing it up to a quarter
of its original strength. This handful
had to meet the heavy attack southwest
of soissons on May 20 and a series OF
attacks on the following two days. Nc
more was humanity possible; and they
| were withdrawn. They say that not &
bman had uttered a complaint
Rosner's Different Picture
Karl Rosner, war correspondent of thu
Berliner Lokal Anzeiger, has just beer
entertaining his readers with a differen
picture of these tragic days. The Kaisel
is standing on the afternoon of the at
tack upon the highest point of the cas-
end of the Chemin-des- Danes, gazing a
his advance cohorts, and In the distance