DIY History | Transcribe | World War I Diaries and Letters | Conger Reynolds newspaper clippings, 1916-1919 | 1918-07-03 Des Moines Capital Clipping: ""Mowrer Gives Thrilling Description of Battle Seen from French Side"" Page 1

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Conger Reynolds newspaper clippings, 1916-1919

1918-07-03 Des Moines Capital Clipping: ""Mowrer Gives Thrilling Description of Battle Seen from French Side"" Page 1

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Mowrer Gives Thrilling Description of Battle Seen from French Side

BY PAUL SCOTT MOWRER
Des Moines Capital - Chicago News Cable
WITH THE FRENCH ARMY, 
July 3- In a recent dispatch 1 explained the so-called Von Hutier method of attack. I would not try to tell how the attack actually looks to men on the defense. 
A modern battle is confused, violent and obscure. While in progress and even for several days afterwards, all that can be known about it is the general outline where there was an advance and where a retreat but by bidding one's time and taking the first opportunity to talk to the surveyor and collect and colate their stories a fair ideas of what really happened can be obtained. 
The episode which I have chosen thus to examine through a magnifying glass is the defense of Plemort against the German offensive on July 9 by a regiment of foot cutrasslers and dismounted French cavalry. 
HOW STORY WILL BE TOLD
I will give first a description of the ground; second a summary of the action on the first day; third the story of defense of the second line trenches; fourth a dramatic series of pigeon bulletins which are practically all that is known concerning what happened in Plemont itself; fifth the story of a sergeant and eight men who alone succeeded in retreating from the first lines. 
1. The ground. The Plemont is a steep hill, the lower slopes of which are bare and the upper wooded. It dominates Lassingy to the south. East of the hill sprawls the village of Thiescourt, the hamlet of Chatteau and the Park of Plessler De Roye. Behind the hill in the valley are the two hamlets of Belstel toward the west and Boucades toward the east. The Lassingy road passes around the foot of the hill to the west and through Belval. The Thiescourt is at the foot of the hill to the east and passes thru Boucades. Still further southward the ground rises into a densly weeded plateau and then falls to the valley of Mats. 
I may mention in passing that the old romantic chateay of Bellingilse celebrated from one of Alan Seeger's poems stands in the valley of Mats just at the edge of the woods. 
HILLY AND WOODY
Generally speaking, the entire region is hilly and wooded and favorable to the infantry tactics known as infiltration. The German lines ran through the valley between Lassingny and Plemont. The French lines were half way down the northern slopes of the Plemont. The French second line was in the valley behind Plemont through Belval and Boucades. The whole neighborhood was seamed with old 1915 trenches. The French second line, the so-called "Trenche Des Alpins" was the French first line in 1915 when the Germans held the Plemont.
THE ACTION ITSELF
2. Summary of the action. The sector was defended against two and a half German divisions namely, the 3rd Barvarian, the 1st chasseurs and part of a division of the imperial guard. It was the chasseurs who assaulted the Plemont. 
Against this division the French had merely a regiment of foot cuirassers. Part of this regiment was in the line on the Plemont and part in reserve in Belval and Becaudes. The German bombardment began at midnight and continued with extreme violence. It was a mixture of gas and high explosive shells. 
The infantry attacked at 2:30 a.m. trying to turn the Plemont on both flanks by Thiescourt on the east and Plessier De Roye on the west. By 4:30 they had reached the French second line before Boucades and Belval. The Plemont was cut off. Pigeon messengers nevertheless testified that the heroes on the Plemont continued to hold out until past noon. 
The enemy attacked Belval and Boucades repeatedly without success but by 7:30 the Belval position was turned on the east thru the park off Plessier De Roye.
FRENCH SURROUNDED
A platoon of reserves was thrown in behind Belval on the north and south of the line to keep the enemy from cutting off the entire second division but the re-enforcements were insufficient and by 1 o'clock the Germans were beginning to fire on the French from the rear. The sixth assault on Boucades in the meantime had been repulsed, but the position was no longer tenable. 
At 2 o'clock retreat was ordered but the French on reaching the next line of defense found it occupied by the Germans who had worked their way through Plessier Park and in to the woods on the plateau. 
The French fought their way thru the enemy's lines and continued their retreat to the trenches before Bellingisle where the German attack was repulsed at 6 o'clock in the evening. At nightfall the French occupied the south bank of the Metz. This stubborn resistance against superior numbers under exceedingly difficult conditions was one of the causes of the failure of the German offensive. 
STORY OF THE DEFENSE
3. Story of the defense of the Tranche des Alpins the French second line between Belval  and Boucades. I will tell first of what happened at Boucades. The offensive was expected and throughout the day preceding the attack the men worked preparing individual niches which are the best defense against a bombardment in a trench. These niches were completed in the evening. Each man knew his place. 
At the same time a barricade was thrown across Thiescourt road before Boucades. It was only completed at 11:30p.m. and the tired men were going back to sleep in the village cellar when at a quarter of midnightthe calm which had witherto prevailed was broken by the roar of a great bombardment. 
A captain who happened to be standing in a village street at the time said that the whole northern sky was illuminated as if a row of footlights had been turned on by the simultaneous flash of the German guns. 
SHELLS FALL RAPIDLY
Shells began to fall everywhere around Boucades in great density, about four falling on the same spot every thirty seconds. 
The men promptly put on their masks and began hurrying back thru the darkness and bursting shell to their places in the trench. One officer, one sergeant and several men were killed or wounded on the way. 
As a lieutenant fell mortally wounded he called through the darkness to a comrade, "You will hold all right, won't you old fellow?"
One man had put on his mask carelessly and some kind of gas got through it. The gas causes vomiting, nose bleed and great irritation to the nose and eyes. The man's desire to appease the itching by rubbing caused him finally to tear off his mask. 
This lack of self-control cost him his life for immediately he breathed a whiff of asphyxiating gas and he fell in death agony. The moral of this incident is that whatever happens keep your mask on. 
The bombardment continued without interruption. The men waiting in the Trenche des Alpins could see nothing and had no way of knowing what was taking place before them on the Plemont. 
Even when dawn came they were unable to see for they discovered that a large percentage of smoke shells was mixed with the German bombardment and that the valley was filled with a dense, clinging brownish smoke like that of straw. 
GERMANS LENGTHEN FIRE
About 4:30 a.m.,the shells instead of bursting among them passed over their heads. The Germans were lengthening their fire. The French re-doubled their vigilance and expecting to be attacked at any moment began a desultory machine gun and machine rifle fire through the smoke. Fifteen minutes later the men guarding the barricade on the Thiescourt road were surprised by detachments of Germans. A brief fight with grenades ensued while in the intervals of the firing the creaking of wheels on the road behind the enemy could be heard. 
The Teutons were driven off and the creaking of the mysterious vehicles receded. They were probably trench mortars which the Germans not expecting to find the road barricaded were bringing up to aid them in the attack. 
HUN OFFICIALS CAPTURED
Some moments later a French stretcher bearer returning from a dressing station to the Trenche des Alpins stumbled upon a tall feldwebel (sergeant-major who lay hidden in the grass. Each summoned the other to surrender. But the Frenchman succeeded in explaining to the German that they were inside the French lines and so the latter had to give in. He lost his sense of direction in the smoke and excitement of the battle and retreated the wrong way.
About the same time the men in a trench a short distance west of Boucases suddenly saw three Germans with a light machine gun approaching through an old beyau and fired their rifles. The Germans taken by surprise dropped the machine gun and ran. 
They were just in time for presently the Teutons returned in force to try to retake it. A hot fire with rifles and grenades ensued. Three times the Germans tried to charge and as often they were driven back. They had had enough. For a moment they did not renew their assaults but patrols were seen moving through the smoke evidently trying to discover the whereabouts of the French lines. 
SIGHTS AS SMOKE LIFTS 
Towards 10 o'clock in the morning the smoke began to lift. Several German corpses lay on the barbed wire before the Trenche des Alpins and others in the road before the barricade. One or two isolated Germans were seen moving at the edge of the woods on the south slope off the Plemont. 
About 11:30 the platoon at the barricade, having been firing constantly all the morning and having sustained some losses, were obliged to demand ammunition and re-enforcements which were accorded. The same platoon asked the artillery for a barrage at the edge of the woods where the Germans seemed to be bringing up machine guns and trench mortars preparatory to a fresh attack. 
At 1:30 p.m. after a brief preparation the trench mortar and machine guns of the enemy attacked along the Thiescourt road and thru the old beyau as before, but in far great force, At the barricade on the road, thanks to re-enforcements and fresh supplies of ammunition they were peremptorily repulsed but at the beyau they succeeded in entering the Trenche des Alpins. 
FRENCH QUICKLY RECOVER
The French, however, quickly recovered themselves, counter-attacked along the trench on both sides and drove the Germans out. The latter therefore contented themselves with trying to work their way through the woods before the trench. A trench sergeant, careless of danger, kept eager watch through the shadowy tree trunks. Pointing with his hand he would cry to the machine riflemen beside him, "There's one, quick. There's another."
The machine rifle fired so much and got so hot that the copper mounting began to melt and burned the riflemen's hands. Then occurred one of the most heroic incidents of the battle. 
COOL GUN WITH WINE
Everyone knows how the French trooper adores his wine. When the men saw the machine rifle overheated they volunteered to pour wine from their canteens to cool it. Perhaps only those who have suffered the agonies of thirst can realize the full magnitude of this sacrifice. BY 2 o'clock, just as the last Germans were driven from the proximity of the trench, an order came to retreat. 
The French slipped swiftly away just as two columns of Germans carrying flame throwers were seen coming down the south slope of the Plemont through a clearing. There were already Germans in the weeds on the plateau behind the trench. 
They had filtered in from the flanks but the officers happened to be familiar with this weed from 1915 and succeeded in leading their men safely back to the positions designated. 
The experience of the company defending the Trenche des Alpins at Belval was similar in many respects. 
STORY OF PIGEON BULLETINS
4. The story of the Plemont as told by pigeon bulletins. The bombardment had no sooner begun than the telephone wires were cut by shells and the only sure means of communication remaining was the ground telegraph. The first message received from the Plemont was five minutes after midnight. It was "Plemont asks for a barrage." To him who knows how to read between the lines the succeeding messages which I give chronologically offer a thrilling drama; "Twelve forty five Plemont asks a special barrage"
"One. Plemont says the bombardment is redoubling but no infantry action."
"One. fifty. Bombardment continuing."
"Two six Plemont says bombardment is increasing on the right."
"Two forty six. Plemont says the Germans are firing a barrage on their own first lines and the bombardment is redoubling."
"Three fifteen. Plemont asks a barrage."
"Three fifty. Bombardment more violent. Plemont reports infantry action."
"Four thirty-three. Plemont reports that the right seems to be retiring."
"Four thirty-seven. Plemont says the right is giving ground."
"Four forty Enemy column repulsed at Boucades."
"Four forty-six. Enemy progressing to the right of Plemont."
"Four fifty. Plemont says am flanked on right."
"Four fifty-five Plemont says the Germans are entering Plessier."
"Five thirty-seven No news from the right for fifteen minutes."
"Five forty-three. Plemont answers the colonel that it believes it is not completely surrounded."
"Six five. Plemont says my right is turned; am retiring on support trenches."
"Six ten. Plemont says am completely surrounded. Shall I retire? to which the colonel replied simply that the orders were to hold to the last."
"Six twenty. Plemont says it is surrounded but still holding."
"Seven twenty-five Plemont says enemy is closing in."
"Seven twenty-seven. Plemont says our ammunition is giving out."
"Eight five. Plemont says we are holding. Give us a barrage before the line redoubts."
"Nine twenty five. Plemont says the enemy is closing on the front to the east."
"Ten. Plemont says it is still holding."
"Eleven forty-seven. Plemont reports an enemy mass of all arms marching on Gury."
"HEROES" WE SALUTE YOU
The last word received from the men of PLemont was at 12:05 It was a coarse word but under these circumstances was full of grandeur and the colonel replied: "Heroes we salute you" Such is the drama of Plemont as unfurled minute by minute to the colonel commanding the regiment from his dugout thruout those hours of anguish. 
STORY OF A SURVIVOR
5. The story of nine survivors of the Plemont. This bried and simple story was told me by Sergt. Rambreaud himself who was holding a sector of the first line trench and commanding a machine gun platoon when the attack began. The day preceeding the attack was marked by unusual activities of aeroplanes. Prisoners captured declared that great masses of shells had been gathered for the batteries. 
The evening was ominously calm until 11:45 when like one gigantic explosion the bombardment began. He says at least one shell fell on every square yard. The German infantry attacked at 4 o'clock screening their advance behind a barrage of smoke grenades. The French fired steadily into the smoke. 
At 5 o'clock a rummer came to tell Rabreaud that the Battalion commanding the trench had been taken and that the Germans were already behind them. Not caring to be made a prisoner Rabreaud with eight men and two machine guns began to retreat. They fought their way successfully through the German lines and by 7 o'clock had reached the Tranche des Alpins where they again put the guns into position and helped to repel the subsequent attack. 
SMALL BUT HEROIC
Rabreaud is small, taciturn, energetic man with yellow mustache, high cheek bones and steady blue eyes. He has distinguished himself in several previous actions, what his superiors thought of his initiative in this case is shown by  the following citation: 
"A platoon leader of the highest worth and rarest courage. On the 9th of June commanding a platoon a machine guns on the Plemont, he resisted the enemy and stopped his progress. After burning all his positions he succeeded in cutting his way through the enemy lines with hand grenades. He brought back all his equipment and putting himself at the disposition of the neighboring unit continued to fight with magnificent ardor throughout the day."
(Copyright , 1918 by The Chicago Daily News Co.)

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EXCLUSIVE CABLES ADD T Mowrer Gives Thrilling Description of Battle Seen from French Side BY PAUL SCOTT MOWRER Des Moines Capital - Chicago News Cable WITH THE FRENCH ARMY, July 3- In a recent dispatch 1 explained the so-called Von Hutier method of attack. I would not try to tell how the attack actually looks to men on the defense. A modern battle is confused, violent and obscure. While in progress and even for several days afterwards, all that can be known about it is the general outline where there was an advance and where a retreat but by bidding one's time and taking the first opportunity to talk to the surveyor and collect and colate their stories a fair ideas of what really happened can be obtained. The episode which I have chosen thus to examine through a magnifying glass is the defense of Plemort against the German offensive on July 9 by a regiment of foot cutrasslers and dismounted French cavalry. HOW STORY WILL BE TOLD I will give first a description of the ground; second a summary of the action on the first day; third the story of defense of the second line trenches; fourth a dramatic series of pigeon bulletins which are practically all that is known concerning what happened in Plemont itself; fifth the story of a sergeant and eight men who alone succeeded in retreating from the first lines. 1. The ground. The Plemont is a steep hill, the lower slopes of which are bare and the upper wooded. It dominates Lassingy to the south. East of the hill sprawls the village of Thiescourt, the hamlet of Chatteau and the Park of Plessler De Roye. Behind the hill in the valley are the two hamlets of Belstel toward the west and Boucades toward the east. The Lassingy road passes around the foot of the hill to the west and through Belval. The Thiescourt is at the foot of the hill to the east and passes thru Boucades. Still further southward the ground rises into a densly weeded plateau and then falls to the valley of Mats. I may mention in passing that the old romantic chateay of Bellingilse celebrated from one of Alan Seeger's poems stands in the valley of Mats just at the edge of the woods. HILLY AND WOODY Generally speaking, the entire region is hilly and wooded and favorable to the infantry tactics known as infiltration. The German lines ran through the valley between Lassingny and Plemont. The French lines were half way down the northern slopes of the Plemont. The French second line was in the valley behind Plemont through Belval and Boucades. The whole neighborhood was seamed with old 1915 trenches. The French second line, the so-called "Trenche Des Alpins" was the French first line in 1915 when the Germans held the Plemont. THE ACTION ITSELF 2. Summary of the action. The sector was defended against two and a half German divisions namely, the 3rd Barvarian, the 1st chasseurs and part of a division of the imperial guard. It was the chasseurs who assaulted the Plemont. Against this division the French had merely a regiment of foot cuirassers. Part of this regiment was in the line on the Plemont and part in reserve in Belval and Becaudes. The German bombardment began at midnight and continued with extreme violence. It was a mixture of gas and high explosive shells. The infantry attacked at 2:30 a.m. trying to turn the Plemont on both flanks by Thiescourt on the east and Plessier De Roye on the west. By 4:30 they had reached the French second line before Boucades and Belval. The Plemont was cut off. Pigeon messengers nevertheless testified that the heroes on the Plemont continued to hold out until past noon. The enemy attacked Belval and Boucades repeatedly without success but by 7:30 the Belval position was turned on the east thru the park off Plessier De Roye. FRENCH SURROUNDED A platoon of reserves was thrown in behind Belval on the north and south of the line to keep the enemy from cutting off the entire second division but the re-enforcements were insufficient and by 1 o'clock the Germans were beginning to fire on the French from the rear. The sixth assault on Boucades in the meantime had been repulsed, but the position was no longer tenable. At 2 o'clock retreat was ordered but the French on reaching the next line of defense found it occupied by the Germans who had worked their way through Plessier Park and in to the woods on the plateau. The French fought their way thru the enemy's lines and continued their retreat to the trenches before Bellingisle where the German attack was repulsed at 6 o'clock in the evening. At nightfall the French occupied the south bank of the Metz. This stubborn resistance against superior numbers under exceedingly difficult conditions was one of the causes of the failure of the German offensive. STORY OF THE DEFENSE 3. Story of the defense of the Tranche des Alpins the French second line between Belval and Boucades. I will tell first of what happened at Boucades. The offensive was expected and throughout the day preceding the attack the men worked preparing individual niches which are the best defense against a bombardment in a trench. These niches were completed in the evening. Each man knew his place. At the same time a barricade was thrown across Thiescourt road before Boucades. It was only completed at 11:30p.m. and the tired men were going back to sleep in the village cellar when at a quarter of midnightthe calm which had witherto prevailed was broken by the roar of a great bombardment. A captain who happened to be standing in a village street at the time said that the whole northern sky was illuminated as if a row of footlights had been turned on by the simultaneous flash of the German guns. SHELLS FALL RAPIDLY Shells began to fall everywhere around Boucades in great density, about four falling on the same spot every thirty seconds. The men promptly put on their masks and began hurrying back thru the darkness and bursting shell to their places in the trench. One officer, one sergeant and several men were killed or wounded on the way. As a lieutenant fell mortally wounded he called through the darkness to a comrade, "You will hold all right, won't you old fellow?" One man had put on his mask carelessly and some kind of gas got through it. The gas causes vomiting, nose bleed and great irritation to the nose and eyes. The man's desire to appease the itching by rubbing caused him finally to tear off his mask. This lack of self-control cost him his life for immediately he breathed a whiff of asphyxiating gas and he fell in death agony. The moral of this incident is that whatever happens keep your mask on. The bombardment continued without interruption. The men waiting in the Trenche des Alpins could see nothing and had no way of knowing what was taking place before them on the Plemont. Even when dawn came they were unable to see for they discovered that a large percentage of smoke shells was mixed with the German bombardment and that the valley was filled with a dense, clinging brownish smoke like that of straw. GERMANS LENGTHEN FIRE About 4:30 a.m.,the shells instead of bursting among them passed over their heads. The Germans were lengthening their fire. The French re-doubled their vigilance and expecting to be attacked at any moment began a desultory machine gun and machine rifle fire through the smoke. Fifteen minutes later the men guarding the barricade on the Thiescourt road were surprised by detachments of Germans. A brief fight with grenades ensued while in the intervals of the firing the creaking of wheels on the road behind the enemy could be heard. The Teutons were driven off and the creaking of the mysterious vehicles receded. They were probably trench mortars which the Germans not expecting to find the road barricaded were bringing up to aid them in the attack. HUN OFFICIALS CAPTURED Some moments later a French stretcher bearer returning from a dressing station to the Trenche des Alpins stumbled upon a tall feldwebel (sergeant-major who lay hidden in the grass. Each summoned the other to surrender. But the Frenchman succeeded in explaining to the German that they were inside the French lines and so the latter had to give in. He lost his sense of direction in the smoke and excitement of the battle and retreated the wrong way. About the same time the men in a trench a short distance west of Boucases suddenly saw three Germans with a light machine gun approaching through an old beyau and fired their rifles. The Germans taken by surprise dropped the machine gun and ran. They were just in time for presently the Teutons returned in force to try to retake it. A hot fire with rifles and grenades ensued. Three times the Germans tried to charge and as often they were driven back. They had had enough. For a moment they did not renew their assaults but patrols were seen moving through the smoke evidently trying to discover the whereabouts of the French lines. SIGHTS AS SMOKE LIFTS Towards 10 o'clock in the morning the smoke began to lift. Several German corpses lay on the barbed wire before the Trenche des Alpins and others in the road before the barricade. One or two isolated Germans were seen moving at the edge of the woods on the south slope off the Plemont. About 11:30 the platoon at the barricade, having been firing constantly all the morning and having sustained some losses, were obliged to demand ammunition and re-enforcements which were accorded. The same platoon asked the artillery for a barrage at the edge of the woods where the Germans seemed to be bringing up machine guns and trench mortars preparatory to a fresh attack. At 1:30 p.m. after a brief preparation the trench mortar and machine guns of the enemy attacked along the Thiescourt road and thru the old beyau as before, but in far great force, At the barricade on the road, thanks to re-enforcements and fresh supplies of ammunition they were peremptorily repulsed but at the beyau they succeeded in entering the Trenche des Alpins. FRENCH QUICKLY RECOVER The French, however, quickly recovered themselves, counter-attacked along the trench on both sides and drove the Germans out. The latter therefore contented themselves with trying to work their way through the woods before the trench. A trench sergeant, careless of danger, kept eager watch through the shadowy tree trunks. Pointing with his hand he would cry to the machine riflemen beside him, "There's one, quick. There's another." The machine rifle fired so much and got so hot that the copper mounting began to melt and burned the riflemen's hands. Then occurred one of the most heroic incidents of the battle. COOL GUN WITH WINE Everyone knows how the French trooper adores his wine. When the men saw the machine rifle overheated they volunteered to pour wine from their canteens to cool it. Perhaps only those who have suffered the agonies of thirst can realize the full magnitude of this sacrifice. BY 2 o'clock, just as the last Germans were driven from the proximity of the trench, an order came to retreat. The French slipped swiftly away just as two columns of Germans carrying flame throwers were seen coming down the south slope of the Plemont through a clearing. There were already Germans in the weeds on the plateau behind the trench. They had filtered in from the flanks but the officers happened to be familiar with this weed from 1915 and succeeded in leading their men safely back to the positions designated. The experience of the company defending the Trenche des Alpins at Belval was similar in many respects. STORY OF PIGEON BULLETINS 4. The story of the Plemont as told by pigeon bulletins. The bombardment had no sooner begun than the telephone wires were cut by shells and the only sure means of communication remaining was the ground telegraph. The first message received from the Plemont was five minutes after midnight. It was "Plemont asks for a barrage." To him who knows how to read between the lines the succeeding messages which I give chronologically offer a thrilling drama; "Twelve forty five Plemont asks a special barrage" "One. Plemont says the bombardment is redoubling but no infantry action." "One. fifty. Bombardment continuing." "Two six Plemont says bombardment is increasing on the right." "Two forty six. Plemont says the Germans are firing a barrage on their own first lines and the bombardment is redoubling." "Three fifteen. Plemont asks a barrage." "Three fifty. Bombardment more violent. Plemont reports infantry action." "Four thirty-three. Plemont reports that the right seems to be retiring." "Four thirty-seven. Plemont says the right is giving ground." "Four forty Enemy column repulsed at Boucades." "Four forty-six. Enemy progressing to the right of Plemont." "Four fifty. Plemont says am flanked on right." "Four fifty-five Plemont says the Germans are entering Plessier." "Five thirty-seven No news from the right for fifteen minutes." "Five forty-three. Plemont answers the colonel that it believes it is not completely surrounded." "Six five. Plemont says my right is turned; am retiring on support trenches." "Six ten. Plemont says am completely surrounded. Shall I retire? to which the colonel replied simply that the orders were to hold to the last." "Six twenty. Plemont says it is surrounded but still holding." "Seven twenty-five Plemont says enemy is closing in." "Seven twenty-seven. Plemont says our ammunition is giving out." "Eight five. Plemont says we are holding. Give us a barrage before the line redoubts." "Nine twenty five. Plemont says the enemy is closing on the front to the east." "Ten. Plemont says it is still holding." "Eleven forty-seven. Plemont reports an enemy mass of all arms marching on Gury." "HEROES" WE SALUTE YOU The last word received from the men of PLemont was at 12:05 It was a coarse word but under these circumstances was full of grandeur and the colonel replied: "Heroes we salute you" Such is the drama of Plemont as unfurled minute by minute to the colonel commanding the regiment from his dugout thruout those hours of anguish. STORY OF A SURVIVOR 5. The story of nine survivors of the Plemont. This bried and simple story was told me by Sergt. Rambreaud himself who was holding a sector of the first line trench and commanding a machine gun platoon when the attack began. The day preceeding the attack was marked by unusual activities of aeroplanes. Prisoners captured declared that great masses of shells had been gathered for the batteries. The evening was ominously calm until 11:45 when like one gigantic explosion the bombardment began. He says at least one shell fell on every square yard. The German infantry attacked at 4 o'clock screening their advance behind a barrage of smoke grenades. The French fired steadily into the smoke. At 5 o'clock a rummer came to tell Rabreaud that the Battalion commanding the trench had been taken and that the Germans were already behind them. Not caring to be made a prisoner Rabreaud with eight men and two machine guns began to retreat. They fought their way successfully through the German lines and by 7 o'clock had reached the Tranche des Alpins where they again put the guns into position and helped to repel the subsequent attack. SMALL BUT HEROIC Rabreaud is small, taciturn, energetic man with yellow mustache, high cheek bones and steady blue eyes. He has distinguished himself in several previous actions, what his superiors thought of his initiative in this case is shown by the following citation: "A platoon leader of the highest worth and rarest courage. On the 9th of June commanding a platoon a machine guns on the Plemont, he resisted the enemy and stopped his progress. After burning all his positions he succeeded in cutting his way through the enemy lines with hand grenades. He brought back all his equipment and putting himself at the disposition of the neighboring unit continued to fight with magnificent ardor throughout the day." (Copyright , 1918 by The Chicago Daily News Co.)