St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1918-06-29
cHApTER ".

The Of the slaughter could
now be surveyed at leisure. Dead and
wounded yer strewn all around, and
over them clouds of smoke and flames
made the air thick. But we were al
ready too hardened to feel much pity.
Humanity was thrown to the winds
and the cries and begging Of the
wounded left everybody cold.
Some Catholic sisters lay dead Ia
front OF their convent. The only build
ing that was spared In Donchery was
the armory of the Twenty-thlrd French
dragons.
There was not much time In which
to do anything. for at seven o'clock
the French began to hurl shells into
the village. We fortified ourselves be-
hind q thick garden wall directly In
front Of the Meuse. The river bank
at this point was fiat, but ON the oppo-
site side 1t was steep. Here the French
infantry had dug itself in and estab-
lished three lines, one above the other.
The artillery firing was too far. We
did not come within Its range, so that
we were able to observe the effect OF
the Smelling of our W artillery on the
enemy infantry positions before as.
The 21-centfmeter shells raced By
above u heads and burst with a fear
full noise in the enemy's trenches.
The French could not resist this hail
of shot very long. They soon aban-
doned all the heights on the river
bank. They abandoned Soudan with
out a fight and it was left intact, which
had d been the case with Donchery.
Hardly a house had suffered.
When the hIg.es sounded In Dom
cherry, it was discovered that our COM
pany had lost IS men Iii battle. A POI
sitfon was taken behind the Dragon
armory and our company, which now
was reduced to so men. was ordered
to attempt the building OF a pontoon
bridge over the Meuse. After we had
been REINFORCED by so men, we
marched In small detaehments in or
der not to draw the enemy's attention
stopped In a small forest about 200
meters from the Meuse 20 rest until
darkness set in. At twilight a division
bridge train was driven up close TO
our hiding place. This was o fol-
lowed by a corps bridge train as a re-
serve. After all preparations We're
made and the main advance work.
such as setting UP the bridge stays and
landing platforms, were ready, the
single pontoon wagons drove up. They
were speedily but silently unloaded.
We completed four pontoons. that Is,
20 meters of bridge, without the enemy
discovering anything.
Then suddenly the searchlight OF
the enemy was set In action and
scanned the river. We dropped to the
ground at once, The enemy must have
seen as, for the searchlights played
here and there and kept our bridge
position under continuous glare. We
were discovered hardly before We
knew what had happened, and a rain
of fre fell In the water In front Of
us. We continued to lie fat on the
ground as four more shots struck the
water, this time a little nearer to the
bridge and one shot hit the bank. At
once a third rain of shot followed and
u struck the bridge. Two men fell
In the water and two lay dead on the
bridge. Those in the water swan
ashore and escaped none the worse for
their experience e>cept for a bath.
In spite OF the continued volume Of
artillery fire, we brought the two dead
men to land. The bridge was low
greatly damaged and there was no
choice except TO replace the damaged
CONTINUED Next Week.
49, ~re@ -