The Nevada County picayune., 1918-09-19

1 If d 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 re-enforcements bad been taken from all different arms and late arrivals had been taken from 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 us. 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 tremendous fire from guns of all cali bers. The shells fell among the 30 teams comprising the column. Confu- sion reigned. 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 mals 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 oecu- pied. For us it was only question of advance or retreat. Retreat? No The order came to retakc the positions inc nf the battle and which the Frenchmen presumably had made ready to with stand new attack. By this time We had been re-enforced with more can non fodder and the insane fight could begin anew.
 We advanced over wild field GOV cred by thousands upon thousands of torn human bodies. No shot fell; the only firing was the hostile artillery continuing to shell our battery posi- tions. Neither the enemy's artillery nor infantry was turned upon us. This made us suspicious and our apprehen- sion regarding what was to come in- creased as we were permitted to ad- vance unmolested.
 1 Suddenly there was turned loose upon us the fire from multitude of machine guns. We threw ourselves on the ground and hunted cover. An in- stant 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- l 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 our force. The left wing was completely cut or and we saw our men throw up their hands and surrender. We who were i1 the center were un- able to come to their assistance; our ranks were being dccimated from min utc-to minute.
 "Revonge for Sommepy." sounded in my ears.
 The right wing broke and carried us with it in q wild flight. Direct retreat had been cut off for us, so we ran backward across an open field, each man for himself, with heart bursting with horror and fear as the result of the enemy'S murderous fire.
 After running long time We reached n hamlet northwest of Nitry-le-Fran- cois. Without guns, helmets or knap- sacks, the few who had been able to save themselves gathered here.
 As result of this battle the French acquired 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 Invincible war machine by the French people. who, before the struggle we had brand cd as cowardly and degenerate!