The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-10-07

difficult task to accomplish before
 Liege. It was certainly an extraordi
 narily bold plan to penetrate the girdle of forts right into the heart of a mod
 ern fortress. The troops felt nervous:
 from conversations with the officers,
 cess of this undertaking was only
 slight.
 In the night of the 5-6th August the
 advance on Liege through its fortifi
 cations began. The action in all it's de-
 tails has already been described by the
 general staff in pamphlet published
 by Stalling of Oldenburg. II is not my
 intention to go over this ground again,
 for I wish to set down my personal ex-
 periences only.
 Toward midnight of the 5th-6th, Gen
 era1 Won Emmich left Nerve. We rode
 to Micheroux, about two or three kilo-
 metres (about two miles) from Fort
 Fleron. where the Fourteenth infantry
 brigade, under major general Won Wus
 SOW, were assembling.
 Under cover of the darkness the troops, taking with them the unfa- miliar but invaluable field kitchens, were collecting in very unsoldieriy manner on a road which could easily
 have been swept by the guns of the fort. As it was, they were shot at from n house to the south of the road. Il | itself did not open fire. which was n miracle. FORCED TO LEAD THE ATTACK ! About 1 o'clock the advance began. 1 It was to take us north of Fort Fleron via Retinne through the line of forts, and then on to the heights of La Char treuse, on the outskirts of the town. We were due there early in the morn ing. The other brigades which were to break through the girdle of forts at other points were to reach the town
 at the same hour.
 General von Emmich's staff was aI-
 most at the end of the column. Sud-
 denly it came to n standstili. I pushed
 my way to the front. There was no
 apparent reason for the halt, which
 proved to have been due to a most re-
 grettnbIe misunderstanding of the sit-
 uation. I myself was really only a spectator and had no authority to give orders. I was only there to report on the operations at Liege to my army command, which was to arrive later. and also to coordinate General Von Emmichs plans with General Von Bu- lows anticipated scheme.
 I put the column in motion again and remained at it's head. In the mean i time, we had lost touch with the troops in front. We had considerable trouble 1 in finding our way In the pltch uarK- ness, but at length reached Retinne. l We were still out of touch with the l others.
 | started out from the village at the head of the column, and took the l wrong road. We were immediately y
 fired mt, and men fell right and left.
 shall never forget hearing the thud of
 bullets striking human bodies. We made a few attacks on the invisible 1 enemy but the firing became more in- I tense It was not easy to take our ! bearings in the dark, but there was no doubt that we had taken the wrong i turning.
 | The essential thing was to get out of range, and this was unfortunate, be- cause the men could only think that l was afraid. But there was nothing else | to be done-higher things were at stake. I crept back and gave my men l the order to follow me to the out l skirts of the village.
 RUNS INTO MACHINE GUN NEST 1 Once back at Retinne, found the right road Here I saw General Von Wussow's orderly with his horses He thought that the general had fallen. With a handful of men I took the right 1 road a metalled road leading 10 queue 1 du Bois Suddenly there was firing i ahead Machine- gun bullets swept the road. but did not harm us.
 A little further on we came across l a heap of dead and wounded German | soldiers who proved to be some of he