The Bridgeport times and evening farmer. (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1918-1924, 1918-01-15
Delivered FROM
Their MASTERS
after 8 YEARS
Masnieres and His People
in German Hands Are
Rescued.

Il dIIS, jail. 10-GeOTS0S LdS6I1n,
who, since Aug. 26. 1914, has been
acting as mayor of Masnieres one
of the villages recently taken by the
British troops in their surprise drive
toward Cambria, has related the ex-
periences of himself and the small
population of his village under Ger
man domination.
The rescue of these French citizens
was doubly fortunate for NJ. Lasselin,
for he was, to have appeared before
German courtmartial on Dec. 5 for
refusing to give to the German au-
thorities so young village girls.
All the rescued inhabitants of the
villages retaken from the enemy are
now in the south of France, where
the various municipal authorities are
doing their utmost to make them for
get the cruelties and hardships they
have undergone and make them feel
that once again life is worth living
Though we were less than two
miles from the actual firing line"
said NJ. Lasse1in, "our sector for some
time had been comparatively quiet.
But how monotonous life was! The
days, weeks and months passed by
and we could see no hope of getting
away from the iron rule of the Ger
mans.
"Once, on Sept. 81, 1914. during the
battle for Bonavis farm, we caught
sight of French soldiers and signaled
to them our plight and our desire to
risk crossing the lines. But we were
motioned to remain, that the French
would soon be in Cambria. We never
saw them again.
But at o'clock in the morning of
Nov. 20 of this year we could hear
the roar of the guns getting louder
and louder, and 1 thought to myself
at the time the hour Of our deliver
ance had perhaps struck. I thereupon
ran from house door to house door
warning the inhabitants to remain in
their cellars.
cat o'clock in the afternoon the
British entered the village and had
to face the murderous fire of German
machine guns. In the evening the
firing slackened on account of the
Germans running short of munitions.
1.-THE upper part of the bridge over
the ST., Quentin Canal was blown up,
DuI Tic OSIHldi1S 1l1d 1lOI LAI1S "
destroy the pillars. The same hap
pened to the footbridges over the
canal. 1t was over these footbridges
the British came, and advanced into
the village during the night of Nov.
20.
| eat about a. m. the English ad-
vance guards fired their first shots in
| the village streets. At o'clock the
village was completely in their pos
session. A little later I saw the first
British tank, attempt to cross the
canal and fall in.
"I then realized that the right mo-
ment had come for us to act as
quickly as possible, and, encouraged
by a courageous population, crossed
the canal and went to report to the
British authorities, who Immediately
took steps for our safety and evacua-
ton.
Carrying white flag, to warn
British gunners of our presence, and
running the gauntlet of German bull
lets and shells, 1 got together some
1900 persons from neighboring vii
lage.
Some were old, enfeebled men,
women and children, two of the lat
ter being two months old. There
were also two blind persons.
mo thought could be given to car
rying much away with us. The Ger
mans had often warned US and told
US to be ready to evacuate the village
at 80 minutes notice. Consequently
everyone had prepared his little bun
die of linen and family souvenirs in
the event of the Germans taking us
with them, where we should have
been treated as hostages.
The two blind persons, woman
and her baby, were placed in wait
ing motor car, the only one the Brit
ish could detail at the moment, and
were driven away. The rest of us
had to walk to Gouzeaucourt, a dis
lance of 10 miles.
During this march we had to cross
the whole battlefield, then swept by
machine gun fire and still strewr
with barbed wire. Many women tore
| their clothes and lost their hats. and
some of the younger girls tore theil
skin so badly that many of them are
still under treatment.
"Yet, with all their troubles, every
one was happy in the thought of once
again belonging to the mother coun,
try.
No description of mine can con.
vey to you what our first step toward
freedom was like. Doubled up, some
times on our knees, other times lying
down fat, we had to cross the shell
swept area We got into commune
cation trenches where, in places, sol
diers were still fighting desperately