The Canon City record with which is consolidated the Canon City cannon., 1918-06-27
Ihese poor people dragged themselves

Wrecked houses and farms, dead sol
diers, German and Belgian, and among
them many civilians, who had been
shot by military order.
Toward midnight we reached the
German lines. The Germans had
tried TO take village which lay with
IN the fortified belt of Liege and was
defended tenaciously by the Belgians.
Here all forces had to be used in or
der to drive the enemy out. house by
house and street by street. II WAS not
very dark yet, SO that we had to wit
ness with all Of our senses the terrible
fights which developed here 1t was a
man-to-man fight With the butts of
our guns, knives, fists, teeth we went
against the enemy
One of my best friends fought with
a giant Belgian. The guns of both had
fallen 10 the ground. They hammered
one another with fists. / had just
closed an account with q twenty-five
year-old Belgian and was going to as
sist my friend because his antagonist
was of superior strength. Ny friend
succeeded suddenly in biting the Bel
gfan on the chin SO deeply that he tore
a piece OF flesh out with his teeth. The
Belgian's pain must have been terri
BILE. He released my comrade and ran
away with an insane cry of pain.
Everything developed by seconds.
The blood of the Belgian ran out of
my friends mouth terrible nausea
and indescribabie loathing seized him.
The ssste of warm human blood
brought him almost to the verge of in
sanity. In the course of this night
battle ! came in contact for the first
time with the butt of Belgian gun.
During hand-to-hand fight with a
Belgian. 8 second enemy soldier
struck me on the back of the head
with the butt of his gun so hard that
my helmet was forced down over my
ears. The pain was fearful and 1
tainted.
When l revived, / was lying in a
barn. with my head bandaged. among
other wounded men. Ny wound was
not severe. / only had feeling as IL
my head was twice its normal size.
The other wounded soldiers and the
ambulance men said the Belgians had
been forced back within the forts and
that hard fighting was still in prog
ress.
Wounded men were brought in con-
tinuously and they told us that the
Germans had already stormed several
forts and hsd taken a number of main
and auxiliary defenses. but could not
hold them because they had not been
sufficiently supported by artillery. The
defenses inside the forts and their gar
risons were still intact. The situation
was NOT ripe for storming attack. SO
the Germans had to retire with enor-
nous. losses The reports we received
were contradictory. II was impossible
10 get clear picture In the mean
time the artillery bombardment had
become so intense that il Mortified
even the German soldiers. The heayi-
est artillery was brought into action
against the steel and concrete de-
fenses.
No soldier so far knew anything of
the existence OF the 42-eentimeter NOR
;ars. Long after Liege was in Ger
man hands these soldiers could not
understand how IL was possible that
the defenses, which consisted of dou-
BILE six-meter walls of steel and con-
crete. We're reduced after only a few
hours bombardment.
myself could not take part in these
operations. being wounded. but my
comrades told me later how the cap
ture of the several forts came about
Artillery Of all caiiber was trained on
the forts. but 1t was the 21-centimeter
mortars and the 42s which performed
the real work.
Prom a distance the 42-centimeter
projectiles were heard to arrive. to the
accompaniment OF n fearful kissing
that sounded like long drawn-out
screech which filed the whole at
mosphere. Wherever ii fell. every
thing was destroyed within n radius
Of several hundred meters. The air
pressure which the bursting of the pro-
jectile produced was so terrible that IL
made breathing difficult for those OF
US who were holding the advanced po-
sitions.
To make this witches holiday COM
plete, the Zeppelins appeared during
the night to participate in the work OF
destruction The soldiers suddenly
heard above their heads the whirling
OF propeliers and the noise of the mo-
tors The zeppelins came nearer.
They We're not discovered by the enc
my until they were close TO the forts,
which Immediately played all the
searchlishts at their disposal on them.
hunting the firinament for the flying
Zoe. The whiriing of the propellers
OF the airships stopped suddenly. In
stead, high In the air q brilliant light