St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1918-07-13

After an hours fight. all the guns
wer once more In our possession. We
were now able to approximate the ter
rible casualties. In the battle for this
battery. Dead and wounded by hun
dreds, infantry. cavalry, artillery and
pioneers. covered the narrow strip of
ground.
Once more we received REINFORCE
ments. This time four regular compa-
MES of infantry had been taken
away from another detachment. Even
IL a soldier takes part in everything, he
can get only a very restricted view of
what is going on and has absolutely no
way of determining how the battle is
going.
These requirements had been
taken from all different arms and late
arrivals had been taken from a division
which had been threatened exactly like
ours was. This led us to conclude that
we could only resist further attacks
provided fresh troops reached as. If
only we could get something to eat.
But there seemed no way to relieve the
hunger and thirst which tortured us.
Now. horses galloped up to remove
the guns we had left, and at the same
Instant the French artillery opened a
tremendous fire from guns of all cal
bers. The shells fell among the 80
teams comprising the column. Confu-
sion refgned. Groups Of six horses
comprising each team sprang into the
air, then ran in all directions, pulling
their carriages with the wheels up be-
hind them. Some of the terrified anil
mails ran directly into the heaviest fire,
only to be torn to shreds with their
drivers.
The enemy now transferred his fire
to the battery position which we occu-
pied. For US it was only a question of
advance or retreat. Retreat? No! The
order came to retake the positions
which we had lost at the opening of
the battle and which the Frenchmen
presumably had made ready to with
stand a new attack. By this time we
had been REINFORCED with more can
non fodder and the insane fight could
begin anew.
We advanced over a wild field, coy
cred by thousands upon thousands of
forn human bodies. No shot fell the
only firing was the hostile artillery
continuing to shell our battery posi-
tons. Neither the enemy's artillery
nor infantry vas turned upon us. This
made US suspicious and our a%pprehen-
sion regarding what was to come in
creased as we Wee permitted to adj
vance unmoiested.
Suddenly there was turned loose
upon us the fire. from a multitude of
machine guns. We threw ourselves on
the ground and hunted cover. An in
slant later we. again sprang up and
continued our march. Once more we
encountered destruction. BY this time
we had lost almost a third of our men
and, exhausted, we halted.
Scarcely had we taken a position be-
fore we were attacked from the front
and flank. We no longer had an ade-
quate force to successfully resist this
double blow. as the enemy, in greatly
superior numbers. had practically
crushed Il force. The left wing vas
completely cut off and we saw our men
throw up their hands and surrender.
We who were in the center were nn-
able to come to their assistance; our
ranks were being decimated from min
ute to minute.
Revenge for Sommepy." sounded in
my ears.
The right wing broke and carried us
with 1t in a wild fight. Direct retreat
had been cut off for us, so we ran
backward across an open field, each
man for himself, with a heart bursting
with horror and fear as the result of
the enemy's murderous fire.
After running a long time we reached
a hamlet northwest of Vitry-le~Fran.
co.'s. Without guns, helmets, or KNAPP.
sacks. the few who had been able to
a Y themselves gathered here.
AS a result of this battle the French
acquired a large amount of booty. All
the guns which had been the center OF
so much bitter fighting were lost. OF
the hundreds upon hundreds of sol
diers who participated in the battle,
scarcely 100 were left. The others
were all dead. wounded or missing
This is what was done to the inyincible
war machine by the French people.
who, before the struggle, we had brand
ed as eowardlg and degenerate!