The Morgan City daily review. (Morgan City, La.) 1916-1920, 1918-05-04

IL
T The Fighting Became MoTe Lively.
wild confusion It'll tried at the Same
I time tn reach the brij ses beyond
which lay safety.
At this instant ihe cavalry which
! had taken cover along the river bank
! @alnped to the bridge position. III Il
moment the bliG-e WAS covered with
/ human bodies, al, racing for the op-
| posite bank We could see this tenn
porary structure trembling under this
enormous burden.
| Our officer saw the situation and he
nervously pressed the telephone re-
ceiyer to his left ear. His right hand
was on the switch. BreathlesSly he
stared at the fleeing masses. IF only
the telephone connections had not been
| broken" he muttered to himself. He
knew as we'll as all the rest Of US that
| he was to act on the instant that the
curt order CAFE over the We.
| It was not much that he had to do.
Merely make a movement OF his hands.
| Masses Of troops continued to rush
| across the bridge until more than hall
| were safely over. The bridge further
above was not in such great demand.
and with the lessened congestion al
most all who crossed here were
| already safe. We could see how tie
! first of the French units had crossed.
| but the bridge continued to stand.
The sergeant who manned the appa-
/ ratus ut this bridge became restless
waiting for orders. and finally on his
| own initiative blew 1t up. Some
Frenchmen and hundreds Of Germans
| upon the bridge found their graves in
the Marine.
At the same moment the officer
standing next to me received the order
to blow up the last bridge He hest
tated to obey, for he could still see
maiiy Germans on the ether side. He
, could see the race fof the road leading
10 the bridgehead rs all sought safety
at the same instant. There q terrible
panic reigned Many soldiers jumped
The pressure became greater as the
thousands still. on the other side tried
to get back.
+: The message over the wire became
more and more insistent. Finally the
officer sprang up, rushed by the pio-
! neer standing at the apparatus and
second later there was q terrible deto-
natiOn-bridge and men were thrown
into the air hundreds Of meters. Just
as river at high tide races along,
taking with it all manner Of debris so
the surface Of the Marine was covered
| with wood, men, torn uniforms and
horses. Efforts to swim were futile.
yet soldiers continued to jump into the
river.
On the other side the French began
| to disarm such German soldiers as
stood there with raised hands. Thou
sands Of prisoners. innumerable horses
and machine guns fell into the hands
Of the enemy. Several of our company
were Just about to retire with the
electric apparatus when something de-
veloped which certain Of our number
had suspected. An error had been
made and it was too late to TS.''-:::ss; =.
The upper bridge. which had not
been used to any great extent by the
Germans, should have been left stand
ing!
It had been the purpose Of the stan
In command to leave this bridge so
! that the enemy might continue It's pur-
suit Of our troops until certain num-
Der Of Frenchmen had crossed the
river. The Plan was t" permit enough
Frenchmen to pass so that they could
be taken prisoner. yet. no. too large
a force, lest 1t might prove menace
to the German arms.
| After these hostile troops had
crossed, the plan was to destroy the
bridge to prevent their being re-
enforced. That was why the sergeant
manning this switch had been kept
waiting for the order to blow up tho
bridge. But the sergeant In the ex.
element and confusion thought that
the cable to which hls phone vas con-
nected had been disconnected and blew
M the bridge on his own initiative
while Il Vas crowded By Frenchmen
and long before the enemy eould have
had an opportunity to cut that cable.
Az the aame time The olaeos 1t he