ments, against our positions between the road of Binarville-Vienne-le-Château and the Houyette Ravine.

In the centre of this sector the Germans succeeded in penetrating our positions, from which, however, they were driven out by our counterattack during the day. Only a portion of our first-line trenches remained in their hands. The prisoners captured by us belong to the Württemberg Corps.

The reports given out in Paris and Berlin on Aug. 12 said that trenches in the Argonne had been won and lost by the Germans in heavy fighting. The Paris report claimed the recapture of only a part of the ground lost, while Berlin contended that the French suffered heavily trying to hold the positions.

IN THE VOSGES.

The Paris official report of Aug. 7 said:

In the Vosges the enemy several times shelled our positions at Linge and Schratzmannele. Toward 2 P. M. they made an

attack on the Pass of Schratzmannele, on the road from Honneck, which was stopped by our sweeping fire. At the end of the afternoon a new German attack was repulsed by means of a bayonet charge and grenades.

On Aug. 8 the following account of operations in the Vosges was published. in Paris:

In the Vosges an attack delivered by the Germans at the end of the afternoon attained a character of extreme violence. It was directed against Our positions at the Lingekopf and Schratzmannele and neck of land which separates these two heights. Our assailants were repulsed completely and suffered heavy losses. Before the portion of the front held by only one of our companies the corpses of more than one hundred Germans remained in the network of our entanglements.

In this district, as in the others, the engagements have been far from decisive, and apparently intended to prevent the defensive forces on both sides from being diverted to other fields of action rather than to assume an offensive in formidable degree.

height dominating Ban-de-Sapt. It has been the centre of the fighting since then on this front.

The French continually strengthened their works on the top of the mountain and made a regular fortress of it. From it they were enabled to keep the country to a distance far behind our lines continually under infantry and machine gun fire, so that we could reach our forward lines only through approach trenches or at night. We lay half way up the slope of the mountain determined not to go back one step, but rather as soon as our forces were sufficient to seize the top. Thus there was begun an obstinate struggle which, since the end

of the year 1914, brought one piece after another of the French position into our possession.

Every means of fighting at close range was utilized. Day and night the struggle went on above and below the earth. Frequently the trenches ran within twenty meters and less of each other.

Uncommonly strong wire obstacles, to the height of one and a half meters, surrounded the bulwarks of the French and thus divided friend from foe. Only through a maze of ditches formed by the slowly advancing infantry positions could one get to our forward lines. In accordance with their characteristic custom, the

tireless Bavarians had here given to practically every trench and every little piece of woods the name of one of their leaders of whom they had grown fond. A French point of support, in which, well built in and concealed behind sandbags, French sharpshooters lay in wait to bag any one who might carelessly ex

pose himself, they had dubbed " Sepp." Opposite to it stood the Bavarian "AntiSepp" with its well-aimed rifles lying also in wait.

Finally, the preparations for the attack had advanced to such an extent that the height could definitely be snatched from the enemy. Long and thorough

preparations had been required for this result. Co-operation of artillery and infantry were prerequisite for a successful consummation of the plan. It was a brilliant success. On June 22, at 3 P. M. sharp, in accordance with watches exactly set right beforehand, the height of Ban-de-Sapt and the village of Fontenelle, lying behind it, in which French reserves were suspected to be stationed, were systematically taken under fire. In unison the "ultima ratio regis," from light field piece to heavy mortar, raised their iron voices, sending into the positions of the enemy their destructionbringing missiles.

A

Prussian, Bavarian, Saxon, and Badensian artillery worked side by side. terribly beautiful scene was here revealed to the observer. At times one could see a black column of smoke ascending house high; then again the shells as they struck sent up whirling through the air brown clouds of earth, mixed with boards and timbers; at other times the whole mountain was wrapped in smoke and dust. Not a living being was to be recognized.

To the French the attack had come so much as a surprise that it had been under way for more than half an hour before their artillery opened fire. According to reports made later by prisoners, everybody had fled to the dugouts at the beginning of the fire. All giving and transmission of orders had ceased. The surprise of the enemy artillery was such that it scattered its fire without plan over the country and in vain felt about for our fire-spouting guns, thundering from all directions. Thus a violent artillery fire was maintained for three and one-half hours. Sharply for 6:30 P. M. the storm was ordered. In an irresistible "forward" the brave Bavarian reserve troops, supported by Prussian infantry and chasseurs, stormed ahead. Prussian and Bavarian engineer troops and a few guns brought up to the immediate vicinity cleared the way for them where necessary. As soon as the enemy had recovered from the effects of our artillery fire he offered stubborn resistance with hand grenades, rifle and machine-gun fire. It availed him nothing.

The foremost storming sections overran four rows of the enemy's trenches, one after the other, and to hold the ground, which was drenched with the blood of their comrades, established themselves on the conquered space with rapid spade work. The sections which followed pulled out of the dugouts whatever was still alive. Most of the prisoners had been stunned and deafened by the bombardment. Many Frenchmen lay buried beneath the ruins of the wrecked dugouts. By 8 o'clock in the evening the dominating height of Ban-de-Sapt was in our possession. Soon thereafter the enemy took our new positions under a lively artillery fire which continued throughout the entire night and toward morning rose to the greatest intensity. In fact, the French succeeded in surprising those of our brave riflemen who had penetrated into a section of trench covered by their overwhelming artillery fire, but the dominant height itself in its full extent remained in our hands.

We had to count upon a counterattack. It was not to be expected that the enemy would leave to us without a considerable exertion of his strength a height which he had held for months at the cost of heavy sacrifices. On the 23d of June toward 9 o'clock in the forenoon, an extraordinarily heavy fire from numerous heavy guns set in against the newly won position. The bringing up of hostile reinforcements was reported. The intended counterattack was imminent. Whence it was to come was plain-the guns stood ready to receive the hostile lines. At 10 o'clock dense swarms of infantry attempted to rush forward from the village of Fontenelle and from the woods westward of the height toward our position, but were so showered with artillery fire even at the very start that the attack suffered a sanguinary collapse. Those that did not fall dead or wounded fled back into the woods or into the village of Fontenelle. The reserves visible there were scattered by our shells falling in their midst.

After this attempt, checked with heavy losses, the enemy ceased from further attacks. The capture of four machine guns alleged in the French official report is

a flat invention. Not a single one of our machine guns was lost.

BATTLES AT LES EPARGES. The following report is made from the German Great Headquarters concerning the battles at Les Eparges, as printed in the Hamburger Nachrichten of June 30:

When at the end of April and in the early days of May we had succeeded in pushing forward for a considerable distance our positions on the Meuse heights between the village Les Eparges and the Grande Tranchée de Calonne leading from the ancient Summer residence of the Bishops of Verdun, Hattonchatel, to Verdun, we had to count on the fact that the French would endeavor to the best of their abilities to gain back the ground taken from them at this important point. However, at first things remained fairly quiet there. When, though, the Second French Army Corps, which some weeks before in its vain attacks on our brave troops between the Orne and Combres, especially at Maizeray and Marcheville, had suffered sanguinary reverses was again capable of giving battle, this army corps was placed in readiness for the recapture of our new positions on the Grande Tranchée. Since the middle of June the increasingly heavy French fire from guns of all calibres indicated an intended enterprise at this point. We had not deceived ourselves. When the enemy considered the effect of his artillery sufficient, on Sunday, June 20th, he set his fresh, well-rested troops in motion for the attack on our positions on both sides of the Tranchée.

The French here followed the method, which as a rule they prefer, of sending strong forces in succession against single selected points, often from several different directions. They succeeded finally in forcing their way into a section of our foremost trench, into some connecting trenches leading toward the rear, and even into a small part of our second line. During the same night, from Sunday to Monday, the regiment which had been struck by this forward thrust undertook a counterattack in which every one down to the last man took part. We succeeded, too, in taking

back from the French the portion of the second line they had seized and the connecting trenches, and in doing so captured a number of prisoners. But the enemy did not let up. About noon of the 21st day of June he renewed his attack with fresh forces along the whole line. To the west of Tranchée he was continually, on the following days also, thrown back with heavy losses. To the east of the Tranchée, on the other hand, where the breach he had made still remained in his possession, he succeeded, pushing forward through this, in again winning ground inside our lines. Here, therefore, he had to be thrown out again.

For this task dawn of the 22d of June was fixed upon. The enemy, seemingly, was surprised. He vacated the trenches, leaving behind a considerable number of prisoners. Now, the French took our entire positions under heavy fire, lasting for whole days. For this purpose they had strengthened the numerous heavy artillery which they already had at this point by other batteries of heaviest calibre taken from other parts of the front. They used also in great quantities shells which, upon exploding, developed asphyxiating. gases. The effect of such missiles is a double one. They act not only by means of the exploded fragments but also, by means of their gases, render men within a larger radius unfit for battle, at least for some time. To protect themselves against this action where shells of this sort have struck near their own infantry the French in the battles here described all wore smoke masks, [respirators.] * * * With such an enemy we had to contend in embittered hand-to-hand combats during the following days and nights.

The new means of close fighting with their terrible moral side-effects, here, too, again played an important rôle. Here belong especially the mine-throwers and hand grenades of varied construction, these, too, like the artillery shells, in the case of the French developing asphyxiating gases. Yet already on the 22d of June was shown the indisputable superiority of our infantry over the French. Whenever we undertook to attack we could overthrow even much stronger enemy